SAPR
by ScipioSmith
Summary: Sunset, Jaune, Pyrrha and Ruby are Team SAPR, and together they fight to defeat the malice of Salem, uncover the truth about Ruby's past and fill the emptiness within their souls.
1. Chapter 1

S A P R

When the gods of light and darkness departed from the world, leaving mankind to unworthily inherit the fruits of their labours, they did so in the name of choice. They had agreed that man, whom they agreed in what I can only describe as a kind of mutual insanity to be the pinnacle of their creation, should be free to choose. To forge his own path in the world unfettered by gods or fate, free to make of himself what he would…if he could survive the creatures of grimm, that is.

But, the perils posed by demons out of legend aside, mankind is free to choose. Of the four relics which the gods left behind them one of them even embodies the power of choice. How ironic, then, that you seem so eager to reject the power of choice that is your birthright. You cling to the so-called wisdom of ancient wizards, you look to virtuous maidens to lead and inspire you, you raise up kings and generals and enter into voluntary servitude beneath their banners. Do you do this because you are afraid? Do you wish to avoid taking the blame for the consequences of your own poor decisions? Do you simply want the heavy burden to pass from your shoulders and onto another? Are you, perhaps, so blinded by power that you feel you have no…no choice but to abase yourself before it.

In truth, what I find even stranger is that you do not only give away your choices but seek to deny that you ever had choices to begin with. Consider destiny, this grand notion that you have created: a being of great power overseeing the world, spinning out the threads of fate, determining the inexorable futures of kings and empires. Well, I do my best, but I'm afraid you give me too much credit. Although I make my plans and send my agents, I am not responsible for the majority of the failures that you experience; frankly, you cause your own travails well enough on your own through your folly, your hubris, and, yes, your belief that all was pre-ordained. There are no lessons to be learned from your mistakes for they were inevitable from the moment of creation. How much more you could be if you were willing to take off the blindfold and see the truth but no, you cling to the lie that is destiny like an old friend or a child's comfort blanket. Some people run and run, chasing a destiny that is always just out of reach, turning their backs on everything they have and all who love them in pursuit of…what? A restless emptiness, a feeling they can't explain, a refusal to admit that, in the end, life cannot measure up to their expectations.

* * *

 _This is not my choice, Sunset._

 _You rule here, everything that happens here is by your choice._

Sunset Shimmer stood just outside of Canterlot Combat School, looking at a mirror set into the base of the Wondercolt Statue.

No one knew that it was a mirror but her. Everyone else just looked at it and – when they bothered to look at the base at all, and not the noble stallion on top of it – they saw only a marble plinth, perhaps with some particularly reflective surfaces.

Sunset saw a way home. A way that, although dormant, might one day open up and carry her back to Equestria.

Back to a home that she had left behind.

A home that had nothing to offer her any more.

 _It was your choice to make me love you, but it was my choice to believe that you loved me in return._

A home which called to her nonetheless.

The night was cold, as most nights in Atlas were, and Sunset shivered at the chill carried by the breeze as it bit through her leather jacket. She flinched as it nipped at her face. She could go back. Not right now, but when the portal opened she could go back. She could wait, and watch, and when the time was right she could step right through and she would be in Equestria again.

Equestria where she wouldn't have to watch where she sat down in a restaurant in case she'd strayed into the humans only section; Equestria where she wouldn't 'confess to being in the White Fang' just by loitering in a public library; Equestria where it wasn't an insult to be called pony but a name that she could wear with, if not pride, then equanimity.

Equestria where she would be equal…and, in being equal, then be nothing.

Sunset scowled. As if she was more than nothing in this place. It was no great life being a faunus in Atlas. In fact it was a pretty terrible life all things considered. She'd been arrested twice; she had more detentions and demerits than any other student in the school; kids who ought to have been old enough to know better pulled her tail on the street, and the one time she'd yelled at the for it a pair of fearless white knights had beaten her up (this was before she'd unlocked her aura). Sunset had come through the mirror chasing dreams of glory, but what she'd found was a world where she had to walk small and keep her head down if she wanted to stay alive.

 _I have a great destiny, and if you deny me I'll just take it for myself!_

Sunset cringed at the memory of her youthful arrogance. She hated it here. She hated this place, she hated these people, she hated that she had come through the mirror looking like this. She hated her stupid tail and her stupid pony ears, why couldn't she have come through the mirror looking human? If she had, then she had no doubt that with her self-evident qualities of intellect and leadership she'd have been on top by now.

She hated the other faunus who just seemed to accept this as their lot in life.

Sunset reached out, and brushed her fingertips against the cold, smooth base of the statue. She could go home, if she wanted to. She could wait for the mirror to open up again and go back to Equestria where no one was discriminated against for what they were born as.

She could go back, and crawl to the base of Celestia's throne and confess that she had failed – in her destiny, and at everything else – and could she please have a room and a place at school to finish her education? No. No, she would not do that. Even the thought of doing that made her shudder. She would not humiliate herself in that fashion. Her pride would not allow it. Her back would not bend so far, nor her knees descend so low as to permit it.

The humans of this world might mock her, insult her, arrest here, assault her, threaten her, degrade her on a daily basis but in so doing they only revealed their own smallness of character. They could do all those things and worse, but they could not take away her knowledge of her own worth, they could not strip her of her self-respect nor her awareness of what she was truly due. She had a destiny, a great and tremendous destiny; that knowledge had sustained her through her years at Canterlot and it sustained her now against the temptation to admit defeat and leave it all behind.

She had a destiny, and though it was not to be found in Atlas it still existed in this world. She just had to hold her nerve and remember that she was Sunset Shimmer, born and raised and groomed for greatness. Vale would be different. Beacon would be different. There, she would find what she was looking for.

"I will not go back," she whispered to the mirror, and to the Wondercolt statue and the shattered moon above. "I won't fail. My destiny is here. And I'm going to grab it with both hands."

 _Then you'll see how wrong you were._

 _I wish that that was not the answer that you gave me, and yet as you are Sunset Shimmer I suppose it was the only answer you could give._

Sunset picked up Sol Invictus from where she'd rested it against the statue base, and slung it over her shoulder. Across the other shoulder she slung her backpack.

With one last lingering look, at the door to home that she would be leaving behind a continent away from where she was going, Sunset turned away and began to walk towards the docks.

* * *

Destiny is a crutch, you see. A crutch that, since it cannot be seen, allows you to pretend if only for a moment that your feeble legs can sustain your weight. Even when it ought to be obvious that that is not so, you refuse to face the reality of your situation. You refuse to choose more wisely, or to take any kind of responsibility for your predicament. Instead, you put your faith in destiny and dreams. Arrogance. There is nothing extraordinary about your life and existence. There is no special providence guiding you on an elevated path towards power or wealth or glory. You are not marked out to be set higher than the others. To be a man is to be nothing more than a grain of sand amongst multitudes, and you are no different.

* * *

Jaune Arc crept through his house with only a torch to light his way, passing through the rooms and corridors like a burglar in his own home.

It might not stay his home for much longer, not once Dad found the note and realised that Crocea Mors was missing from its place on the mantelpiece.

He told himself that it wasn't really stealing. It was a family blade, it didn't belong to any specific member of the family but to all of them, and he was as much a member of the family as anyone else so he had a right to take the sword.

Yeah, that didn't sound terribly convincing, even to him. But he needed a weapon and it wasn't as though anyone else was using it, right? The sword had just been gathering dust since his great-grandfather's time.

Jaune crept into the living room, where Crocea Mors waited right where it always was: on the mantle above the fireplace, sheathed and sitting upon an ornate cast iron stand.

His hand trembled just a little at the idea of – he could lie to everyone else, but it was harder to lie to himself – stealing it, but he didn't have a choice. He couldn't train to be a Huntsman at Beacon without some kind of weapon, and he didn't have the money to buy one or the skill to make one so Crocea Mors it was. Sure, it was kind of old and a little out of date but a sword was a sword, right? It wasn't as if it wouldn't work any more.

He had to do this. He'd come too far to turn back now. He'd forged the transcripts and the exam results, he'd hidden his acceptance letter from Professor Ozpin, he'd kept his plans a secret from seven nosy sisters. He wouldn't get another shot at this. If he didn't go now he'd never go.

And he needed to go. If he didn't get out of here then he was going to…this was his only dream, since he'd been six years old and had torn through every issue of _My Huntsman Academia_ that he could get his hands on. To be the hero just like in the stories, to be the knight who saved everyone, that was what he'd always wanted to be. It didn't matter that his mom didn't want her baby boy to risk his life in some field somewhere; it didn't matter that his sisters told him he was too soft to make it through a huntsman academy, let alone as a pro huntsman; it didn't matter that his dad thought that the very idea of huntsmen was ridiculous, he knew what he wanted. This was his life, not his mom's or his dad's or any of his sisters and this was what he'd always wanted to be. He could do this, no matter what they thought.

After all, the guys in the comics made it look easy.

Gently, quietly, Jaune lifted Crocea Mors off the mantelpiece and strapped it to his belt. He might be stealing it but at least he was going to put it to good use.

He could do this. He would do this. This was his dream, this was what he'd always wanted to be.

This was his destiny.

He was descended from a hero. Sure, his dad was an accountant and his mom was a housewife and grandpa had collected taxes for the Vale Council but these things – heroic qualities inherited from your ancestors – often skipped a generation or two at a time, everybody knew that.

As he stole out of the house, Jaune vowed to himself that he was going to make his dreams come true and become one of the most famous huntsmen to ever live.

He had left a note explaining everything to his folks. He wasn't sure what would be worse: that they came to drag him back home…or that they didn't, because they just didn't care enough to bother.

* * *

Some of you run from your destiny, telling yourself how much you hate it, how much you want to escape from it and its baleful influence upon your life, not realising that your very belief in destiny holds you captive. For you see, you cannot escape something that doesn't exist, and so long as you can blame a conveniently external force for all your troubles and misfortunes you will never have to confront the fact that you have nothing to blame but your own weakness.

* * *

"Young mistress, everything has been packed for your journey."

"Thank you." Pyrrha murmured, although she could have done her own packing. In many ways she would rather have done so.

It would have meant that the final decision on what to take with her to Beacon rested with her and not her mother.

Still, that was not the maid's fault, and so Pyrrha smiled at her and hoped that it reached her eyes as the other girl left. Her name, Pyrrha thought, was Iris, but she wasn't sure. The staff here never seemed to stand still long enough for her to learn their names. She was aware that they had a job to do, and that that job wasn't to befriend her, but it would have been nice if one or two of them could have seen her as something other than the 'young mistress'.

She slid the door to her bedroom closed behind her, and sighed softly as she leaned across the wall. She was the young mistress to the servants; she was the Invincible Girl to the crowds who flocked to see her tournament fights; to her mother she was a sword, an instrument for the fulfilling of dreams from a generation ago. In a very real sense Pyrrha Nikos did not exist, not as a person. Nobody knew her. Nobody cared to know. They wanted their Invincible Girl; what the girl wanted was of no importance by comparison.

Pyrrha crossed the room, ignoring the suitcase neatly packed on top of her bed for a moment as she walked lightly and gracefully across the wooden floor to the trophy cabinet on the far wall. The major trophies, her regional tournament cups and the like, were not here: they were on display in the great hall where her mother could show them off to visitors and talk about what a prodigious talent her daughter was. But the lesser trophies, the ones from when she was younger, or simply from the less prestigious events, were up here. Her mother wanted them present to remind her of how far she'd come, and to not falter in her determination.

 _Too late for that, mother._

Pyrrha's eyes passed over most of the trophies, lingering on a very small statuette near the bottom corner of the cabinet. It was a brass statuette of a ballerina, feet crossed, hands in the air; she had won it when she was five years old, and come third in a junior ballet competition. The next year her mother had told her that she was no longer doing ballet any more; Pyrrha wasn't talented enough to make it worthwhile, better to devote all her efforts to combat training where she showed more aptitude. Third place, for a Nikos, was most definitely not good enough.

She had cried when that decision had been made, because she have loved ballet. She remembered loving it more than she had ever loved the fight.

She could, she thought, have been perfectly happy as a third rate dancer; and maybe, just maybe, Pyrrha Nikos wouldn't have gotten lost amidst everything else if she had taken that path instead.

Of course, it was not to be. Fate had decreed it otherwise. Her destiny lay elsewhere.

And in any event, she couldn't have saved anyone merely by being a passably good dancer.

Pyrrha closed her eyes and bowed her head in prayer that she might achieve the destiny that she had vowed for herself when two things had become inescapably clear to her: first, that she might be one of the greatest warriors of her generation, perhaps more; second, that she would never be allowed to be anything but a warrior.

That being the case, she would be the greatest warrior, and she would protect the world from all the terrors of the dark. That was the destiny to which she had dedicated herself with…she could not quite say that she had dedicated herself to it with all her heart, but at least with most of it.

That last, uncommitted part of her heart still hoped for more.

Pyrrha heard the door slide open behind her.

"Are you ready?"

"Almost," Pyrrha said. "Thank you for having my things packed for me, mother, it was very helpful."

"I still question the need for this. Professor Lionheart is a fine headmaster, and Mistral Academy is as old and prestigious as Beacon. Frankly, I question what you will gain from this move across the world."

 _I'm hoping that my reputation won't follow me halfway across the world._ "With respect, mother, the fact that you don't understand my reasons does not invalidate them."

"Look at me, child."

Pyrrha turned around to face her mother, who stood in the doorway as if it was her intent to block the way in or out.

"You think that I don't see through you?" Mother demanded. "All that I have done I have done for your own good."

"I'm not ungrateful."

"You don't show much gratitude," Mother said. "I will be monitoring your grades; if you don't keep up the performance of which I know that you're capable I will bring you straight back here."

"Straight As, I suppose."

"Do you expect me to settle for anything less?"

 _They're not your grades._ "No, mother."

Her mother shook her head disdainfully. "What do you hope to achieve by this? What do you think is waiting for you there?"

"I just want…" Pyrrha hesitated for a moment. "I want four years with friends, four years of fun and laughter and being a normal person-"

"You are not normal," Mother snapped. "You are the Invincible Girl, a prodigy! Friendship, fun, laughter? Pah! These things are meant for mere mortals, not for you. The brightest stars burn all alone, for their light eclipses all around them; and I will not have you dim your light for the sake of others, for the sake of _friends_. To burn brightly, for however brief a moment, that is where glory lies."

"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality," Pyrrha murmured.

"Indeed," Mother said. "Pyrrha Nikos may be forgotten, but the Invincible Girl will live forever in the hearts of men."

 _But I don't want to be the Invincible Girl. I want to be Pyrrha._

But that was a battle the Invincible Girl had lost a long time ago.

* * *

And then there are the simpler ones, the smaller and more honest souls, those whom you trust to light the way for all the rest to follow. True, they are less burdened by self-hatred than some, less plagued by doubt, less gnawed upon by the emptiness within themselves that no amount of accomplishment can assuaged. But in the end they are no less lost, no less alone, no less touched by melancholy. And, as you have spun so many lies before their eyes that they are quite blinded by them, they are no less incapable of seeing the truth about the world around them, or of making any choice to affect that world…for good.

The rose is no less touched by frost than any other flower in this garden of yours.

* * *

Ruby stood before her mother's gravestone.

It was not where Summer Rose was buried; nobody knew where that was or if there was even…Ruby didn't finish that unpleasant thought. She focussed on the marker, the white stone with the rose engraved upon it.

 _Summer Rose_

 _Thus Kindly I Scatter_

"Hey, Mom," Ruby whispered to the wintry air. It was snowing all around her, and she had the hood of her red cloak pulled up to keep it off her face and out of her hair. If anyone had been watching they wouldn't have been able to see her face at all.

Ruby hesitated for a moment, clutching her combat skirt with her hands. "I…I just wanted to tell you that I won't be around much any more. Well, not for a while I mean. You see…I kinda went to Vale to look for Yang, and on the way I stopped in this dust shop, and then I got distracted reading this gun magazine, and this guy named Roman Torchwick tried to rob the place and I was hwah! Hiyah! Kah! And then Torchwick was all 'End of the line, Red' and then Glinda Goodwitch showed up to save my life and then Professor Ozpin offered to let me into Beacon two years early!" Ruby balled her hands up into fists beneath her chin. "Yang and I are going to be first years together that's so cool! It's so awesome and I can't wait…but it means I'm not going to be around so much for a while. I'll still come home on break and I'll visit you I promise, I just…"

Ruby trailed off. Her memories of Summer Rose were few and vague. Mom had died when she was just a toddler. Yang remembered more, and had told her that Mom had been a supermom 'baking cookies and killing monsters', even though Yang wouldn't call her mom any more. But for herself, leaving aside Yang's stories, Ruby couldn't remember much more than fragments and echoes: a gentle voice, a pair of arms holding her, a flash of silver.

"I don't know if you'd be proud of me or not," she said, as her hands fell down to her sides. "I don't know if you'd want this for me, or for Yang. But it's what I want, Mom. I want to help people, I want to keep them safe, I want to make the world better for everyone!

"And I want to find out what happened to you. What really happened, the things that Yang won't tell me, the things that even Uncle Qrow won't tell me. I don't know what I'll find, or even what I'm looking for, but I know that it started at Beacon. So it starts there for me too."

Ruby smiled down at the only memorial to her mother. "But don't worry, I'll be careful, I promise. And Yang will be there too, so we can look out for one another. Next time I'm here I'll be on my way to becoming a fully fledged huntress, saving people with a fearless smile!

"I love you, Mom."

Ruby turned away and began to walk home. Rose petals trailed behind her, mingling with the falling snow.

* * *

So these are your guardians: lost and lonely creatures broken by their own poor choices which, too proud to admit to their mistakes, they ascribe instead to the malevolence of destiny. Neither of us are strangers to such as they, we both of us have made use of the lost and the lonely in the past. Pathetic as they are they make excellent pawns; and, if their eyes can be opened up to the truth about the world in which they live, then it is always possible that they can become so much more.

Which is where we differ, you and I. You use such poor creatures as they as your instruments, and yet because you seek to keep them in the confinement in which they languish those that do not perish in your war inevitably betray and abandon you. Either they seek to quit the struggle altogether and eke out their days in a state of miserable existence, or else they come to me, and in my warm embrace they find the home and purpose that you could never give.

You may call me wicked. You may even call me evil. You may say that I'm a monster, but at least I am an honest monster. Is it any less monstrous to manipulate all those around you, to twist their minds and fill them with lies, to use and abuse and cast them aside when they are of no more use to you? At least I offer even my worst enemies an honest choice: join me, or die.

We have both known the likes of these before, but the difference between us is that I can offer them respite from all their struggles. Love, home, power, respect, companionship, answers, I can offer all these things, and what can you offer them but the illusion of a free will that you have never respected, and lies about destiny that will only bring them tears.

So you may train your guardians, you may move your pawns upon the board, you may even seek to make a Maiden to raise up against me; you may put your hopes in a lost girl far from home, in a boy with a head full of dreams, in a princess who thinks herself chosen by fate, even in a simple soul.

But in the end they all shall fall, to darkness…and to me.


	2. Reconnaissance

Reconnaissance

Sunset Shimmer stood in a corner of the great hall and watched her competition as they filed in.

Or she tried to, anyway. She had chosen a good vantage point in the back, equally far from the doors and the front, so that she could observe everybody without herself being observed. But this hall was so dimly lit, illuminated only by green lines around certain sections of the floor and wall, that most of the other aspiring hunters and huntresses walking in seemed more like shadows than people to her eyes. Seriously, couldn't they turn up the lights a little? She couldn't see a thing, just vague silhouettes in the half-light, and the occasional flash of bright colour: red, yellow, white, shining bronze.

And then he walked in. She recognised him, even in the dark. She'd recognise that blue hair anywhere, combined with that stupid clueless grin and the walk of someone who thought he was much cooler than he actually was. Sunset's breath caught in her throat as he started to come towards her. She both did and didn't want him to spot her. Did she really want to do this now? But wasn't it better to get it over with rather than spend four years looking over her shoulder for the other shoe to drop? Anger and apprehension warred within her like dragons of fire and ice, lighting her stomach up with righteous wrath and freezing it with fear in cycles of ebb and flow.

He didn't recognise. Or perhaps he was just as blind as everyone else in this dimly lit hall and he couldn't see her properly. Whatever, he turned his back on her.

"You." the word leapt from between Sunset's lips before she could stop it; the affront – unintentional or not – of him showing her his back was too much to stand for. By Celestia, there was no way she was going to let him go his way in blissful ignorance while she had to feel awkward about this! If she was going to feel awkward then so we he!

Flash Sentry turned around, his initial look of puzzlement transforming into one of shock which Sunset could appreciate more. "Sunset, uh, hi," he said in a tone that sounded less 'cool' and more 'desperately trying to play it cool'; the way he was scratching the back of his head didn't help in that regard. "I wasn't expecting to see you here."

Sunset folded her arms. "Yeah? I bet you weren't."

Flash scowled. "For your information, Sunset, not everyone is obsessed with what you do or don't do."

"What did you think I was going to go to Atlas?" Sunset demanded. "Why didn't you go to Atlas? You could join the military and spend your days announcing VIPs at state occasions."

Flash's expression was as flat as an anvil. "I'm training to become a huntsman because I want to help people, not be a glorified doorman."

Sunset snorted. "Whatever." She looked away, casting her green eyes downwards towards the dark floor. "Just stay out of my way, okay? I'm not going to let anyone screw this up for me." _My destiny is here. My entire life has been building to this place, this moment. If I can't make it here…then it was all a lie and Celestia was right and I was nothing more than a fool believing in fairy tales I should have outgrown a long time ago._

 _I won't let that happen. I won't let that be my fate._

 _I will succeed. I will shine. And I won't let my jackass ex-boyfriend get in my way._

Flash's tone simulated tenderness, as if he wanted her to believe that he cared or something. "Sunset…do we have to do this?"

"Do what?"

"Fight like this? Can't we start over?"

Sunset's eyebrows rose as she waited for the punchline. There wasn't one. He was serious, or he wanted her to think that he was serious. She scoffed. "Really? Are you…really?"

"It's going to be pretty awkward otherwise, don't you think?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, am I making you uncomfortable?" Sunset demanded. "You dumped me because your friends told you that dating a faunus was bad for your image, you ass, and now you want to start over!" She was halfway to shouting now, and a few people were starting to stare at them. Sunset didn't care. Let them stare, she had nothing to be ashamed of.

Flash, on the other hand, did look embarrassed; as well he might since he had plenty to be ashamed of. "Sunset, please, don't do this. You know that's now how it went down."

Sunset was full of righteous indignation. She had so much that she wanted to say that the words were clogging up her throat and getting stuck there in their jostling to escape. Should she tell him that he'd been the one person in that school that she thought that she could trust, the one person who'd stand up for her against the bullies and the bigots? Should she tell him that she had allowed herself to believe, for the second time in her life, that someone was unequivocally on her side and had for the second time been disappointed and betrayed? Should she tell him that when he told her that he didn't see her ears or tail or membership of the faunus race she'd trusted his word? Should she just tell him that when he dumped her like garbage she'd lost what little shreds of status she'd possessed and become garbage in the eyes of the rest of the student body?

So many things that she burned to say, and she didn't even care if she said them where the whole of Beacon could hear her…but then the fire within her burned itself out and she was left with nothing but ashes and exhaustion. What did it matter? He wasn't going to change, and did she really want to get a reputation as an angry faunus on her first day at Beacon? She'd already caught people staring at her, or even giving her side-eye, on the airship ride over here. She didn't care what they thought, except inasmuch as it might inhibit her progress towards the success she deserved.

Sunset let out a deep sigh. "Thank you, Flash."

"Huh?"

"For reminding me why trusting other people is a bad idea," Sunset whispered.

Flash stared at her for a moment, his face a tempest of warring emotions battling for mastery of his expression. "I didn't break up with you because you were a faunus, Sunset," he said. "I…never mind. It's probably best if we stay out of each other's way."

"Don't say that," Sunset muttered.

Flash paused in the act of turning away. A frown creased his brow. "Why not?"

"Because now that you've said it irony will dictate that we're bound to end up on the same team together."

Flash's eyes widened with horror, before a chuckle escaped him.

Sunset sniggered too, and for a moment she remembered why she'd kinda liked hanging out with him, why she'd even let her guard down enough to start to care about him in the first place: the way he'd laugh at her jokes, the way he'd take her cruising in his car, the way he'd let her sit on the roof of said car while he went into stores that wouldn't serve faunus and bought the things they wouldn't sell to her.

But that was all gone now. He'd destroyed it.

Which was why she straightened her back and pointedly looked away from him, even if her eyes kept flickering back to see if he was still there.

He didn't say another word as he turned away from her and walked into the dark of the hall, probably in search of a cute, quirky girl to talk to somewhere else.

Sunset tried to resume her reconnaissance of her fellow students – who were the ones to watch out for, who were the ones who could be dismissed as non-entities – but she'd missed a lot of people coming in while she'd been distracted with Flash, and it was still dark in here.

Rumour said that there were two students she had to be especially wary of: a peerless warrior who had never lost a battle, and a genius prodigy who had been admitted two years early on the strength of her incredible skills. Either was a worry to Sunset, but to face both of them at once had her cursing her bad luck. She would have to work twice as hard, at least, to shine in competition with the likes of them.

But if there was one thing that being Celestia's student had taught her – besides not to trust those who claimed to have your best interests at heart but really just wanted to hold you back – it was how to work hard; and if there was one thing that being a faunus in Atlas had taught her – besides hammering home the lesson not to trust – it was the necessity of working twice as hard for half as much credit. She could and she would do this, and she would do it splendidly no matter how many peerless prodigies tried to get in her way.

Sunset cast her eyes over the crowd – those whose distinguishing features she could make out anyway – and tried to spot either of these two paragons in the mass of students. Doubtless they were both cool and aloof, as befit their elite status, standing apart from the chattering children around them; but she couldn't make out anybody like that at first glance.

 _But they have to be here somewhere, unless the rumour mill was completely mistaken._

The lights rose, and the whine of a microphone attracted the attention of all present. Professor Ozpin stood on the stage, with Professor Goodwitch standing just behind and to his side. He cleared his throat.

Sunset peeled herself off the wall and straightened up. She had only met Professor Ozpin once, during the interviews as part of the entrance exams. She wasn't sure what to make of him yet. He had a great reputation, to be sure, the youngest man to ever be appointed a headmaster in the history of the four Huntsman Academies, and before that his achievements in the field…but there was something about him. When he looked into her eyes Sunset felt as though he was staring into her soul. Just the memory of it made her shiver.

His speech didn't do much to reassure her. It wasn't that it was a bad speech, per se; in fact when you boiled it down to the spirit of what he was saying it wasn't that much different from the kind of speeches that Princess Celestia gave every year to the new students at her School for Gifted Unicorns: school can only help you find your path, you have to do the hard work yourself, take your future into your own hands and all the other lies that she had fed to Sunset and who knew how many other unicorns to make them docile instruments. But it was the way Ozpin said it that was…off, somehow. She'd never known Celestia start off one of her speeches by insulting the student body.

 _Wasted energy? You talked to each and every one of us before you let us in here, if you thought we were useless why did you extend offers?_

 _Is this supposed to motivate us to surpass your expectations?_

 _If it is…it's kind of working on me._ Few things, Sunset had discovered, motivated her more than being counted out.

Ozpin didn't stick around long after his remarkably unwelcoming welcome speech, and it was left to Professor Goodwitch to direct them all towards the ballroom – how many parties did this school have that it needed a purpose-built ballroom? – before their initiation on the morrow.

Sunset trailed at the back of the ground on their way to the ballroom, continuing to observe without putting herself in a position to be observed in turn. She chose a rear-corner spot in the spacious ballroom, and watched as most of the students got changed for bed. It was interesting; when she'd first come to this world she'd been surprised by the cultural taboos surrounding nakedness, as well as the way in which viewing someone - especially someone of the opposite sex - in any kind of state of undress was practically forbidden except in cases of great intimacy. And yet here they were, stripping down without a care in the world: half-naked boys wrestled playfully, and the two sexes ogled each other without a trace of shame. It almost reminded her of home, where only the most stuck-up bothered to dress in any but the most formal of settings.

Sunset turned her mind away from these fascinating anthropological observations and continued to try and spy out the competition. There was a subdued, dark-haired girl with a black bow in her hair who was certainly acting aloof from everyone around her, Sunset watched as she stonewalled all attempts at interaction with other people in favour of the book she was reading. Could she be the young prodigy? Sunset wasn't good at judging people's ages, but the way she was dressed might be an attempt to make herself look older.

And then there was the boy closer to her, with a pink streak in his otherwise black hair, who was being harassed by a motormouth in white and pink but who was bearing it with a stoicism that would have done credit to the royal guard. Could he be the undefeated warrior of whom the rumour mill whispered?

Sunset furrowed her brow a little. The truth was it was impossible to say on the basis of interactions in this setting. At the moment all she had was speculation, and speculation was - as she had been taught - the enemy of fact-based scholarship. It wasn't enough to think or believe things to be true unless she could prove it.

 _Except why am I here, if not chasing a belief that has no basis in proof or fact?_

Sunset scowled at the mental reproof. She had proof. Her power was the proof, all the proof that she required. Her actions would soon be all the proof the world required.

And the actions of those around her would be the proof of what they were. It was pointless to guess with whom she needed to be concerned, better to keep her eyes open and mark those whose behaviour ought to concern her.

Sunset laid down, rolled over, closed her eyes and tried to ignore the chattering of the red-head not far away.

* * *

"WAKE UP, LAZY BUD!"

Sunset's eyes snapped open and she started to sit up before she realised that the command was not directed at her. Rather, the redhead was at it again with regards to her stoic companion with the streak of pink hair. Nevertheless, as the aforementioned redhead started singing about how it was morning (yes, we know, give it a rest already) Sunset got up because if it was time to roll over then it was time to roll out and do something productive with your time.

Besides, she wasn't wholly ungrateful to the other girl. She'd woken her from dreams about Celestia that Sunset didn't particularly want to have.

Sunset showered, dressed, and ate in silence and in solitude, head bowed so as not to attract attention but not bent so low that she couldn't see everything going on around her. A couple of people glanced at her, and a big guy with some kind of bird embossed upon his cuirass loudly wondered why they allowed animals to attend Beacon. So much for the progressive and enlightened Kingdom of Vale, but as long as the teachers themselves weren't down on her it would be nothing she couldn't handle.

Even if the teachers were down on her it would be nothing she couldn't handle after Canterlot.

After breakfast it was time to head to the lockers, where Sunset wouldn't say that she lurked so much as she would say that she happened to be standing in a relatively secluded part of the locker room where she took her time chambering rounds - after some debate she'd decided on the solid steel armour-piercing rounds, as they were cheaper than dust rounds and more useful against armoured targets - into Sol Invictus, and as she slowly slid her six shots into the cylinder she just so happened to be in a good position to listen to what was going on around her.

Most of what she heard was inconsequential nonsense. She learned that the chatty redhead - who went by Nora - really wanted to go out with the stoic boy - name of Ren - but didn't have the guts to admit it straight up and he was either too clueless or too disinterested to pick up on the hints that she was giving off. She learned that someone named Yang didn't want to be on a team with her sister, who drank milk and didn't like other people very much; Sunset knew the feeling well. About the only useful thing she learned was the name of the undefeated fighter who had joined the freshman class: Pyrrha Nikos, a girl of few words who seemed content to let others do the talking as they fawned all over. Sunset fought to control her feelings of resentment, revelation of which would do her no good at this early stage. Later, when she had taken from Pyrrha all the things that rightfully belonged to Sunset - fame, glory, the acclaim of peers and strangers alike, fawning adulation, a reputation that echoed far and wide, her face on a box of obesity-inducing breakfast cereal - then would be the time to revel in her triumph and reveal just what had driven Sunset on. But not yet. For now, all that she could do was smoulder in silence as Pyrrha revelled in the attentions paid to her by her admirers.

 _One day,_ Sunset vowed. _One day it will be my turn._

She waited until the locker room was clear before leaving, trailing after the other students as they made their to a cliff edge on the boundary of the school grounds. Said cliffs looked over a vast and wild expanse of woodland appropriately named the Emerald Forest.

Professor Ozpin, with Professor Goodwitch once more at his side, explained the test: they were going to be launched _through the air_ into a monster infested forest where they had to find 'relics' and get back in one piece.

 _Am I the only one who wonders, if we survive this, what the point of spending four years at this academy is?_ Sunset thought.

There was also the question of teammates: whomever they locked eyes with in the forest first would be their partner for the next four years. The utter randomness of the process was frustrating, but at the same time it spared Sunset having to actually make up her mind about what kind of partner she wanted. Her thoughts oscillated back and forth between desiring a weak-willed sap whom she could dominate with her strength of will and bend to her own purposes, or else someone who be an asset in her progression through the school. She didn't want to have her grades dragged down by being shackled to a dolt.

 _I've come here to find my destiny; I suppose that means I should be willing to leave a few things in the hands of fate._

And then the pad beneath her feet exploded and Sunset was flung upwards and through the air.

The world spun around her. Her ears were filled with the whistling of the wind and the screaming of at least one other person in a similar position to herself. Sunset's hair flew all around her and she had to grab the sling of Sol Invictus and hold on tight to keep from losing her weapon on only her second day.

Sunset would have been lying if she'd said that she enjoyed the sensation, what with her face being squashed by the air pressure and all, but she was not afraid. This was the first test, after all, and she was not about to disappoint.

 _You want a landing strategy, professor? I'll show you a landing strategy._

Sunset forced her eyes open, kept them fixed on the ground that was rushing towards her, and reached for magic.

The magic of Remnant was not as omnipresent as it was in Equestria; the air did not hum with it, the land did not bask in it, the trees did not drink deep of it but it was here and it was within her and she could draw it out. She was not so strong as she had been in Equestria but - and to Tartarus with false modesty - considering that she'd had more raw power and magical potential than any unicorn since Starswirl's day that drop didn't handicap her as much as it could have done.

For instance, she could still teleport just fine.

And in a flash of bright green light, that's exactly what she did.

Sunset experienced a momentary sensation of being squeezed through the eye of a needle, her whole body compressing in on itself in some eldritch dark dimension, before she emerged in a second flash of light with her feet on the floor of the Emerald Forest.

Sunset's breath came fast and deep, her chest rising and falling like the undulations of a hilly country. Some acts of magic cost more than others, and even in Equestria teleportation was one of the most demanding. It wasn't something she could keep doing thoughtlessly.

Nevertheless, if the world had been just to someone with bestial features Sunset would have been feted and admired for having a semblance as versatile as her command of magic (it wasn't actually her semblance, in fact Sunset hadn't unlocked her semblance yet, but magic in this seemed to be something nobody was quite aware of so Sunset had found it easiest to couch her abilities in terms the locals could understand). But the world was not fair, and so some girl who could run fast had been the darling of the school while she languished in contempt. Not that she was bitter about it or anything, but if she came across that speedster again...

Sunset was pulled out of her thoughts by the sounds of running feet approaching her at great speed.

She looked. She could see nothing but the bushes and trees of the forest that surrounded her, but those feet were definitely getting closer.

 _The tread is too light to be an ursa, but a beowolf? Maybe a boarbatusk?_

Sunset unslung Sol Invictus from over her shoulder, and raised it. She pressed the stock firmly against her shoulder, and aimed down the sights.

Those pitter-pattering feet were getting closer and closer.

Sunset's finger went to cold metallic trigger.

A girl in a red hood burst out of the bushes and, with a startled squeak as she realised she was literally staring down the barrel of a gun, skidded to a halt.

Sunset's expression as stony and inscrutable as she lowered the barrel.

The girl in the hood stared at her for a second, before she held out her hand, offering it to Sunset along with the nervous smile on her face. "Uh, hi there, partner?"

* * *

 _Author's Note: When I came up with this story, I realised that, by adding Sunset to the mix, I would either need to cut one of the RWBY canon characters in order to keep the teams of four, or introduce three OCs. I decided to do the latter because the former approach didn't sit right with me. And, rather than actually create OCs, I decided to use EqG characters instead. You've met Flash already and you'll meet the other two soon._


	3. Initiation

Initiation

Sunset studied the small girl in front of her. She was dressed in black, trimmed with a red like blood, the exact same shed of her cape. A slightly darker red streaked through her otherwise black hair, concentrated at the tips.

She had silver eyes. They gleamed in an otherwise unremarkable face. Sunset had never seen anything quite like them in this world or, for that matter, in Equestria either.

 _I wonder what's up with that?_

It was probably just some kind of genetic mutation, the kind of thing that Sunset had been passing off her unusual possession of two animal traits as the result of for years. Some people were just born weird.

 _So, this is my partner._

She didn't look particularly impressive. And it wasn't just her small stature either, or that wannabe-hero cape. The goofy grin on her face as she held out her hand towards Sunset had a lot to do with it as well.

Sunset considered just flat-out denying that she'd seen the other girl. But if said girl decided to push the issue it would only make things very awkward with trying to find another, better partner. And besides, well…she wasn't completely devoid of self-awareness; she had just enough of it to know that that was kind of crap that a lot of people would pull on a faunus in order to avoid being partnered with one.

 _I suppose I should be grateful that she doesn't seem to care that I'm a faunus. Or that I look like one._

"Yeah," Sunset said. "I guess we're partners now. For the next four years, so you'd better not slow me down." She didn't take the offered hand.

The girl in the red hood laughed nervously as she withdrew her hand. "Well, I guess, I, uh…" her eyes widened before she completely disappeared in a shower of rose petals.

Sunset blinked. _Is that-_

"Nope, definitely will not slow you down!" the girl declared eagerly as she reappeared in another shower of rose petals that began to descend on Sunset's shoulders and get stuck in her hair. The girl grinned eagerly. "Get it, see, cause I'm…really…fast?" The grin slid off her face like rain running down a window. "Okay, I don't really know how to deal with people but I OH MY GOSH!"

Sunset took a step away from the sudden look of manic eagerness on the other girl's face. "What?"

"Is that a revolving rifle?"

Sunset's eyes narrowed. She shifted her grip on Sol Invictus a little. "Yes," she said, drawing out the word just a little more than it warranted.

"That is so cool! You almost never see that and more! Six shots in the cylinder or five?

"Six."

"Double action or single?"

"Double, of course."

The other girl closed the distance between the two of them so quickly that she might as well be a teleporter herself; she ran her small, pale hands over the walnut stock. "Why did you use wood for the stock?"

"Because I wanted something heavy enough to brain a grimm with if I needed to," Sunset replied. "Plus…I kinda like the classic look." Her thumb ran over the image of her cutie-mark that she had carved into the wood before varnishing it

"Oh. Yeah, totally, not enough people appreciate the classics," the other girl said with a nervous laugh, as though she were suddenly afraid that she'd caused offence. Then she spotted the compressed air canister mounted just in front of the trigger guard. "Hey, what does this do?"

Sunset yanked the gun away before she could set it off. "That causes the bayonet to extend outwards an additional four feet so that-"

"So you can use it as a spear! Obviously!" the other girl squealed. "And that means there's gas in the canister, right?"

"Compressed air."

"And I guess that there's some kind of locking mechanism in place to prevent it being pushed back in when it hits something."

"Of course."

"That is so cool! What's her name? Did you make it yourself? How long have you had her?"

It took Sunset a moment to work out that the other girl was talking about her weapon as a she. "It's name is Sol Invictus, and I've had it for a couple of years now. I…had the parts made to my specifications then I assembled them personally."

"Aww," the other girl sighed in disappointment. "I kind of feel as though you ought to craft all the parts yourself, you know?" She produced something from behind her back, something red and rectangular that, with much hissing of hydraulics and snapping of mechanisms, unfolded into a crimson-and-black scythe that was bigger than its owner – a little bigger than Sunset, probably – and, judging by the trigger mechanism, magazine and sights, also included a gun.

"Meet my Crescent Rose," the other girl declared proudly. "A high-impact sniper rifle with a twelve round magazine…and it's also a scythe, obviously."

Sunset's eyebrows scaled her head. "You…you machined all the parts for that yourself?"

"Yup. All students at Signal forge their own weapons."

"Signal should throw in the towel for combat training and focus on producing engineers," Sunset muttered.

"Well, they're not all…I did kind of…I'm kind of a dork when it comes to weapons." She held out her hand once more. "I'm Ruby, Ruby Rose."

Sunset still didn't take the hand, but she did say, "Sunset Shimmer." She slung Sol Invictus over her shoulder and turned away. "We should find these ruins quickly. There's no sense in dawdling around out in these woods."

"Right," Ruby said. "Find the ruins, get the relic, and get out."

"Exactly," Sunset said as she started to push through the bushes. "I hope you know how to use that overgrown monster you designed."

Ruby appeared at Sunset's side, and tried to put arm around her shoulder. It was a little difficult because of the difference in their respective heights. "Do I know how to use my Crescent Rose? Trust me, Sunset, by the time we're done you're going to say to yourself 'That Ruby girl is pretty cool, and I want to be her friend.'"

Sunset shrugged off Ruby's hand. "I'm not here to make friends."

"Well, no, we're here to learn how to fight monsters and protect humanity," Ruby cried as Sunset started walking again. "But there's no rule saying that we can't be friends, right? I mean we are teammates. We're going to be spending a lot of time together over the next four years."

"Lots of people spend lots of time together but it doesn't make them friends," Sunset said as she continued to walk through the undergrowth. "Why don't we keep our relationship professional? You can hang out with your other friends."

Ruby mumbled something indistinct.

Sunset looked back over her shoulder. "What was that?"

Ruby looked down at her feet. She was playing with her hands. "I don't…have any other friends. Not here, anyway."

"You're not missing out, trust me," Sunset said. It was clear from the look on Ruby's face that she didn't find that response particularly helpful, so Sunset continued, "What, were you the only student from Signal to get in here?"

"They're all still at Signal."

Sunset frowned. "They're…wait. Wait just a minute. Are you…you're the prodigy who got admitted to Beacon two years early?"

Ruby seemed to shrink into herself a little. "You…you heard about that. Great."

"Gotta be honest, you're not what I was expecting."

"Uh, thanks?"

"Don't thank me, that wasn't a compliment," Sunset said as she turned away. _Great. Just great. I know that part of me wanted a partner with talent to help me succeed but this is ridiculous! I'm going to be stuck with the child prodigy for the next four years! How am I supposed to get out from under that?_

She could see now exactly how it was going to go. Nothing that she could do would matter because everyone would be too busy cooing over Ruby Rose and how young she is and isn't a marvel to be such a talent at her age. Sunset would never escape, never have the opportunity to escape, that kind of shadow.

 _Breathe. Deep breaths. Twice as hard for half as much reward just means you have to work four times as hard. No, make that eight times._ Sunset glanced back at Ruby, who smiled and waved. _She doesn't look like a prodigy._ She didn't honestly look as though she had much of anything about her at all. But she would have no reason to lie about something like that. _She didn't look especially proud._ That part in particular was a complete mystery to Sunset. If she had been admitted to Beacon two years early on the strength of her awesome skills she would have made sure that the whole school knew it.

She'd done exactly that when she was admitted to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns early on the strength of her magical prowess. She'd worn her youth like a badge of honour, and told herself that all those who sniggered at her small stature were merely jealous of her power and potential.

Sunset continued to push through the bushes until her attention was drawn by the noise of something struggling and groaning up in one of the trees in front of her.

It turned out not to be a grimm but a boy with a mop of untidy blond hair. Someone had used a spear to pin him to the tree by his hoodie and he was, in spite of his best efforts, unable to extricate himself from the predicament.

Once he noticed Sunset down below, he offered her a stupid grin and a wave of his hand.

Sunset folded her arms. _The defenders of humanity._

 _I suppose things could be worse. I could be stuck with this loser for a partner._

"Jaune?" Ruby cried as she stumbled out of the bushes in Sunset's wake.

"Ruby, hi," the boy – Jaune – said unhappily. "I, uh, nice to see you again!"

"What are you doing up there?"

"Well, I-"

"Jaune?" Another girl emerged from out of the shadows of the trees. She was tall, and probably would have been so even if she weren't wearing wedge heels, with fiery red hair falling down past her waist. She was armoured in bronze – where she was armoured at all – with a gleaming circlet set upon her brow.

The girl' eyes were on Jaune as she emerged into view, and only then did she notice Sunset and Ruby already at the foot of the tree. "Oh." The disappointment in her voice was as palpable as it was inexplicable.

"Don't worry," Sunset said, gesturing to Ruby with one hand before gesturing to Jaune with a jab of one thumb. "He's all yours."

* * *

Weiss Schnee stood in a perfect fencing pose straight out of an Atlasian master's treatise on the art: back straight, head up, feet well space, rapier held at eye height.

By contrast, the ursa confronting her had incredibly sloppy form, paws lazily held at its sides as it reared up onto its hind legs and growled at her.

Weiss stood as still as one of father's suits of armour in his mansion, and stared into those burning red eyes.

Then she attacked.

Weiss swept her Myrtenmaster across her front in a wide arc. Fire erupted from the blade in a blast that struck the ursa square in its shaggy black chest. The demon roared in pain as Weiss charged forward, switching from fire to ice dust as she did so.

The ursa, still bellowing in fury, swung wildly at her with his paws, but Weiss ducked the clumsy and ill-aimed strike, her braid flying about her head as she did so.

She fired again, and with ice dust this time she froze the ursa's foot to the ground.

Weiss was deaf and blind to everything but the monster in front of her. It was small than the Arma, and far less intimidating. She felt no fear as she drove hard at the immobilised creature, thrusting with Myrtenmaster in a series of perfectly controlled thrusts into its chest: one, two, three, four, eight, sixteen. The grimm was no match for her speed, its ferocity could not contest with her training. Weiss' face was a frozen mask of determination, her blue eyes shone with the fire of her determination as she skewered the grimm on the end of her blade.

Another blast of fire dust confirmed the kill, and the grimm turned to ashes before her eyes.

Weiss closed her eyes for a moment, and breathed deeply. With a flourish, she swept any grimm residue off her blade.

It was only then that she heard the roar of the second ursa behind her.

She turned with a gasp, only to hear the roar of the grimm answered by the boom of a shotgun. The grimm staggered forwards as the shotgun fired again, before collapsing at Weiss' feet.

It was clearly dead even before it started to disintegrate.

It's killer turned out to be a boy clad in shining gilded armour, with a tall blue crest atop his helmet, a gunblade in one hand and a shield in the other.

He smiled. "Hey there, you need some help?"

Weiss's eyebrows rose. Well, she certainly wasn't going to admit it now if he was going to take _that_ tone.

She placed one hand on her hip. "Hmph."

The smile on his face didn't change. "So…I guess we're team-mates now."

"So it seems," Weiss said, turning around and beginning. "Well, you'd better follow me then, hadn't you."

"I'm Flash Sentry by the way."

"Hmph," Weiss said. If he didn't know who she was she wasn't about to tell him.

* * *

Yang was still pissed. Killing the ursa that had damaged her hair – her _hair_ , dammit! Didn't they realise how much work it took to get hair this long and thick looking this good – wasn't enough. Killing it's friend wasn't enough. Her eyes still burned red as she rounded on the third ursa that had just wandered out of the undergrowth.

"Oh yeah! You want some too!"

And she wouldn't have given some to it, as well, if some kill-stealing scrublord hadn't chosen that moment to shoot it in the back.

Yang scowled at the scrub in question who was, it seemed her new partner.

He wasn't Ruby. He was a he for a start. A he in tan armour, squinting at her just a little bit as though he was having trouble seeing.

 _I suppose I_ did _say that being on someone else's team might help her to break out of her shell._

 _But whoever she does end up on a team with better take care of her, or they're going to answer to me._

* * *

Despite there only being a single boarbatusk, it had become clear to Blake that the boy with the long blue hair was going to die if he was left to fight it unaided. He was strong enough, as he proved when he managed to split a rock in half with a stroke of his halberd, but that was the problem: he hit the rock and not the grimm.

The fact that he appeared to be rapidly losing his composure wasn't helping him much either.

Blake was under no illusions. If she leapt down from this tree and saved this guy then he would be her partner. A partner who was more than a little bit useless, and with whom she would be stuck for the next four years.

But it wasn't as if she'd come to Beacon to get top grades or make a name for herself. She'd come to Beacon because she had to go somewhere and after so long in the White Fang, fighting was all that she really knew how to do.

She'd come to Beacon because she couldn't face going home to her parents and admitting that she'd been wrong, and she couldn't bear the idea of putting them in danger if Adam decided to come after her.

She'd come to Beacon to find another way of living, and she couldn't start this new phase of her life by letting someone die at the hands of the grimm.

Adam would have watched the boy flail around with amusement, but she wasn't Adam. His path was not hers, not any more.

So she leapt down from out of the tree and started shooting.

The shots from Gambol Shroud didn't seem to hurt the boarbatusk, but they did get its attention. It snorted as it charged towards her, its black hooves churning up the forest.

 _Wait for it._

The grimm got closer. Its tusks gleamed wickedly in the morning light.

 _Wait for it._

The grimm was almost on her now. The boy was staring at her as though she was crazy.

 _Now._

Blake lashed out with her whip, wrapping it around the foreleg of the boarbatusk. With a hard yank she threw it up into the air, squealing in panic, its legs waving frantically in the air as its soft underbelly was exposed.

Blake leapt, firing into the air as she did so. The boarbatusk screeched in agony as her bullets stroke home. Gambol Shroud transformed in her hand to blade configuration and she slit it from throat to rear as the coup de grace.

She landed gracefully in front of the boy and regarded him without emotion.

"Thanks," he muttered. "The name's Sky Lark."

"Blake," Blake said evenly.

"Hey," Sky said, as he picked himself up off the ground. "I guess that makes us teammates."

"Yes," Blake said, because what else was there to say.

* * *

Lie Ren stood in the remains of the dead King Taijitu, when his attention was drawn by someone cawing in the tree above him.

Ren raised his arms and let his Stormflowers slide down his sleeves. He looked up just in time to see Nora drop down from out of the trees, dangling by her legs in front of him.

"Carraw!"

"I still don't think that's what sloths sound like," he observed, with a slight hint of a smile that only broadened when Nora bopped him on the nose.

"Boop."

It was good to know that some things didn't change, and never would.

* * *

Professor Ozpin stood on the edge of Beacon Cliffs, monitoring the students via his scroll.

"Hmm, it looks our last pair has assembled," Glinda said, from a short distance away. "Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie. Poor boy. I can't imagine those two getting along."

Ozpin said nothing. The secrets of Mister Ren and Miss Valkyrie's shared past were there own, in all their sorrow. It wasn't his place to divulge them, not even to his closest friend and collaborator. He sipped his coffee – black, and extra strong – as he continued to watch the feeds.

"Although I daresay he'll be better off than Miss Nikos," Glinda continued. "I don't care what his transcripts say, that Jaune fellow is not ready for this level of combat."

 _Which of us is ever ready?_ Ozpin thought. He had been nine years old when he had been…called to serve. There were times when he couldn't remember his parents faces, and not because he was so old or so senile. Had he been ready? Probably not. In the end, none of them were ever ready for the moment when destiny came calling.

That was why he had turned a blind eye to the – expertly done, he had to admit – forged transcripts and decided to give Jaune Arc his chance. Perhaps he wasn't ready, but since no one was ever really ready it was surely better that he was at least willing to do his part.

That and he remembered the boy's great-grandfather with a degree of fondness. He had been a great fighter. Time would tell if Jaune was made of the same stuff.

For the moment, however, he was more interested in the companions that young Jaune had acquired. Ozpin's scroll showed the four of them moving through the forest: Sunset Shimmer in the lead, then Ruby Rose, then Pyrrha Nikos just ahead of Mister Arc. How strange that the three of them should meet so early. What a coincidence that the three students he had been intending to keep an eye on more than any others should all come to the same place at the same time, where he could watch them all together.

He had intended to keep an eye on Miss Nikos from the moment he had received her surprising application to attend Beacon. He – and Lionheart – had both been preparing to receive her at Haven. They had need of a new guardian for the vault there, someone who could – in due time – seek out the lost Spring Maiden and take the power for herself. But it seemed that Miss Nikos had other plans, plans that might serve Ozpin and their cause even better. His thoughts turned briefly to vault beneath the CCT. It was certainly a possibility, although he needed to observe Miss Nikos in action and in life before he could be certain that she was worthy.

Miss Shimmer was interesting to him in her own right. Another Equestrian refugee. He still wasn't entirely sure what she was doing here, although he was almost certain that she was not yet another monster or criminal banished by the inhabitants of that other world who used Remnant as a dumping ground for their problems. No, it was a more personal need that had driven Miss Shimmer here, Ozpin could tell. He would get to the heart of the mystery, and when he did…that would depend on what he found there.

She had power. Magic. That could be dangerous, in the wrong hands. But in the right hands, properly controlled, it could be incredibly useful. What might Miss Shimmer be able to do for their cause, if she would be content to serve him? She bore quite careful watching.

And then there was Miss Rose. Ruby. Summer's daughter. There were many within his organisation, or on the fringes of it, who thought that he was making a mistake allowing her to attend Beacon early, or else they feared that he was not entirely to be trusted with Summer's little girl. Taiyang had called him, begging him not to get either of his daughters involved in the clandestine work that had terrified Tai's first wife and claimed the life of his second. Qrow had paid him a visit to bluster at him about Summer's last wishes and Miss Rose's youth.

"I still don't understand," Glinda said softly.

"What?" Ozpin replied.

"Why you brought Miss Rose here early," Glinda said.

"Because I think that she's ready."

"She's a child," Glinda said. "Summer's child. Couldn't you at least have waited two more years until she was grown up before you got her involved in this?"

"There is no time," Ozpin muttered. None of them understood. None of them had the perspective that he had acquired through his long years of immortality. Qrow was brave and loyal but, blinded by love, even he wasn't capable of seeing the bigger picture.

The enemy was already on the move. They had nearly killed Amber and were halfway to stealing the Fall Maiden powers for themselves. In all likelihood the other Maidens were in danger as well, and the vaults, and the schools. Their long years of peace were coming to an end, Salem was coming for all of them and if he did not wield every weapon available to him then no one would be spared the embrace of the darkness. Ironwood's armies, his ships and his mechanical toys, none of it would be enough. Only he could see with sufficiently clear eyes to know what had to be done to protect humanity. Only he was willing to take up that burden, that sacrifice upon his many souls.

Yes, Miss R- Ruby was Summer's daughter. Yes, she was still a child. But she was also the first Silvereye that he had found since Summer herself and so he would throw her into the fire again and again if that was what it took. He would throw them all: silver-eyed Ruby, Sunset so strong in magic, Pyrrha Nikos full of virtue; he would throw all into the fire until they burned. Or until victory was won.

So heavy was the task of protecting the human race.

* * *

As she led the way through the woods, Sunset wondered if she could have possibly done something to offend some kind of deity of this world that had responded by cursing her with some absolutely rotten luck.

The champion _and_ the prodigy, both at once. It was appalling.

Or at least, it had the potential to be.

Although…there was a part of Sunset that was starting to wonder if she might not be able to turn this to her advantage somehow.

It would be hard, it would be a narrow path for sure, but if she could pull it off then she might well be golden.

The risks were obvious: surrounded by two such paragons she was in grave danger of being outshone. But, since she was already stuck with one of them then the risks were not so much greater with the other as well. And the prize: if she could lead these two, then a share of their successes and their honours would accrue to her by right as their leader. She would be credited as the guiding brain, the decisive mind that had shaped and conceived of all their triumphs. She would be the one who had guided them to the pinnacle of success. If Pyrrha won the Vytal Festival then, well, she couldn't have done it without the help of her team leader, Sunset Shimmer, and her brilliant strategies. When their names were mentioned, that of Sunset Shimmer would be mentioned first.

It would be tricky, she wouldn't be able to just sit back and bask in their reflected glory, she would have to show that she was fit and deserving of a share in their light, but if she could do it…it was a far better path by far than standing in their shadow and raging impotently at the darkness that would consume her there.

It certainly helped that Pyrrha was so…docile was perhaps the best word that Sunset could come up with, for all that it made her seem like a farm animal. But Sunset had been surprised; she had expected Pyrrha to take the lead, or try to; her achievements fitted her for leadership. But she seemed to content to follow, and without any way of knowing that Sunset was even better suited to lead than she was! She had said nothing when Sunset had taken control of the foursome – she had done it by the simple process of acting like she had been put in charge, issuing instructions to the others without room for them to demur or question. Ruby hadn't given her any trouble either.

 _If they both keep up this obedient attitude then I might actually be able to swing this._

Jaune yelped in pain as the branch that Pyrrha had just pushed out of her way snapped back and smacked him in the face.

Which brought Sunset to the fourth member of their little group. To say that he wasn't on the same level as the three of them appeared to be something of an understatement. She turned around to see that he was flat on his back. How someone like him intended to defend his world from monsters Sunset couldn't even begin to fathom.

"Jaune! Are you alright?" Ruby asked.

"I'm sorry," Pyrrha said apologetically.

 _Why do either of you care what happens to this guy?_ Sunset wondered.

"It's just a scratch," Jaune said as he picked himself up off the ground. Literally, he had a scratch on his cheek just below his eye. Which was pretty weird, really. Why didn't his aura-

"Why didn't you activate your aura?" Pyrrha asked, voicing what Sunset had been thinking.

"Huh?"

"Your aura?" she repeated.

"Gesundheit."

Sunset's eyes narrowed. _Seriously?_

"Jaune," Pyrrha said, sounding as confused as Sunset felt about this. "You do know what aura is."

Jaune scoffed. "Of course I do. Do _you_ know what aura is?"

Sunset rolled her eyes. "How do you _not_ know what aura is? Where did you go to Combat School?"

"I, uh, didn't," Jaune said. "I was homeschooled. But I passed all the tests! And I have the transcripts to prove it."

"Wow, you passed all of the graduation and entrance exams without aura!" Ruby gasped. "That's amazing! You must be really, really strong!"

 _Yeah, really strong._ Sunset managed to keep her scepticism off her face with a small degree of effort. But her eyes remained narrowed as Pyrrha explained to Jaune what aura was, albeit in a slightly more mystical and numinous way than Sunset would have tackled the same approach. Aura, even magic itself could – and to Sunset's mind, should – be approached scientifically; if you surrounded it with too much ceremony and reverence and made it seem like something so much more mysterious than it really was then you only served to cloud understanding, even amongst those who most needed to understand.

Honestly, Pyrrha might have seemed exasperatedly amused when Jaune declared that aura was like a forcefield, but it was probably a more useful descriptor than all of her fine speechifying about light and darkness.

When Pyrrha offered to unlock Jaune's aura with her own, Ruby threw up her hands in excitement. "Oh, this is going to be so great. When my Uncle Qrow unlocked my aura for me I felt as though I could run all the way across Patch and back without stopping, you're going to love this."

Sunset was still trying to figure out exactly how Jaune had gotten this far without knowing about aura. This was first year combat school stuff, and the explanation that he hadn't been to a combat school only answered so many questions. He would have still had to take the standardised tests in order to prove that he deserved a shot at Beacon, not to mention Beacon's own entrance exams. Sunset would never have gotten through the practicals without her aura. So unless Jaune really was an absolute badass – and Sunset was sceptical of that possibility – he ought to have been unable to do so, right?

How had he done it? Aura was…everything. Sunset probably could have replicated some of the effects with magic, but the drain of keeping a passive shield up would have been immense compared to using aura to accomplish the same thing. And without magic…without magic she would have been terrified in a place like this.

 _I suppose I have to give him credit for bravery, if nothing else._

Pyrrha cupped Jaune's cheek with one hand. "For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder protect thee."

Ruby gasped in awe as Jaune began to glow like a blazing sun – his aura was tremendous – and then rushed over to help Pyrrha as she doubled over from the exertion of what she'd just done. Sunset stayed where she was, watching, pondering the words that Pyrrha had spoken. Ritualistic, as she might have expected. A little ominous. And wrong, too.

 _In passing we achieve immortality? No. The dead are dead and none recall their names. And even if they did, even if you are one of those lucky few whose fame will outlast them, so what? What use has a dead man for glory? What good will do me in the grave to be remembered, even to be spoken of in awe? Let me win far fame while I live, and spread my legend as much by my own mouth as by my deeds._

 _Let me be forgotten when I am dead, so long as I am held in awe while I am living._

Bluntly put, you couldn't ascend when you were dead.

Ruby patted Pyrrha on the back. "Are you okay?"

"Did I do something wrong?" Jaune demanded, sounding notably panicked at the protest. "Are you hurt?"

Pyrrha shook her head. "I spent some of my aura to unlock yours…it took more out of me than I'd expected. You have a lot of aura."

"Take a minute to rest," Sunset said. "We're not in that much of a hurry." As much as Celestia had used, betrayed and abandoned her, she had nevertheless taught Sunset a great many things. More things, perhaps, than she had intended to, teaching Sunset as she had done not only by her lessons but by her example. One of the things that Sunset had learned from said example was that, when you took leadership upon yourself, you not only shared in the successes of your minions but also in their failures. If Pyrrha was hurt under Sunset's direction, whether it was because of her own foolishness or not, then the blame would accrue to Sunset's leadership; especially when Pyrrha's own reputation gleamed so brightly.

So there was really no need for the grateful looks that Jaune and Sunset gave her. She was simply practicing prudence.

Her ears twitched as she heard something rustling in the nearby bushes.

 _Of course, nothing says the enemy has to give us a minute._

"Guys," Sunset called, pressing the stock of Sol Invictus to her shoulder even if, for the moment, she kept the barrel down. "Get ready. Back to back. Pyrrha, can you fight."

"Yes."

Sunset frowned. She didn't sound that bad, but even so. "Jaune, cover her anyway."

"R-right," Jaune said. He sounded nervous, but that was understandable. Sunset was pretty nervous herself, for all that she wouldn't show it. That was something else Celestia had taught her: no matter how much ice there is in your stomach, no matter how your heart pounds, keep an expression of serenity on your face and don't let them see you troubled.

They stood back to back in the modest clearing. The rustling sounds were coming from all around them now, getting closer and closer. It belatedly occurred to Sunset that she didn't really know much about Jaune or Pyrrha's weapons, or their capabilities beyond the fact that Jaune had a lot of aura that he hadn't even know existed until thirty seconds ago. But Pyrrha had a great reputation, as did Ruby, so it was probably safe to put a little trust in them.

As safe as it was to trust anybody in this selfish world.

Sunset could see a pair of red eyes in one of the bushes; then she could see another, and another, and by the looks of it there were upwards of a dozen of them all around them.

Sunset rested her finger on the trigger.

A beowolf stuck its head out of the bush as it started to slink into view.

Sunset squeezed the trigger, and Sol Invictus erupted with a flash and a crack as her first shot took the beowolf's head off. It's body remained standing for a moment, headless and bloody, before it keeled over onto the ground and started to dissolve.

The grimm howled in anger. They howled in rage. They howled in bloodlust. The howl rose in an awful cacophony from all their throats filling the sky and echoing in all four of Sunset's ears, jarring down her spine and making it shiver.

Vice-Principal Luna had said that beowolves were the worst grimm; they weren't the strongest, or the fastest, but they were the meanest and their howl…the vice-principal had said that if any huntsman claimed to have heard the howling of a pack of beowolves and not been frightened then they hadn't actually heard it.

In this moment, at this place, Sunset believed her.

They charged out of the thicket in a black mass like tar with teeth, snarling and baring their fangs as they ran on four legs or two, claws ready and red eyes gleaming.

Sunset fired. She could hear other shots from behind her, shots coming from two different weapons; she guessed that one was Ruby with that ludicrous Crescent Rose of hers and the other would have to be either Pyrrha or Jaune, unless some stranger had come to their aid.

 _I don't need to be rescued on my first test._

Crack!

Sunset's second shot hit a beowolf in the shoulder, it staggered by did not fall.

Crack!

That shot did for it, it hit the ground and started to dissolve.

Crack!

Another one down but they were all getting so close.

Crack!

Sunset turned and shot one that was trying to get at Pyrrha from the flank.

Crack!

Her shot caught a beowolf in mid-flight before it could leap on her. Its momentum carried the smoke and ashes right into her face. Sunset took aim at another beowolf.

Click.

And she'd had her six.

There was no time to use magic. She needed at least a little concentration for that and it was hard to come by right now. The beowolves sensed weakness – Ruby and whoever else it was were still shooting – and came for her, roaring in their lust for blood.

An answering yell rose from Sunset's throat. She bellowed angrily because she would not die, not here, not now, not before she had accomplished _anything._ She would not die, and she roared out her desire to live as she reversed her grip on the gun in her hand and swung wildly as though it were a bat, clubbing the closest beowolf across its bone mask with the heavy wooden stock. The grimm shuddered, the mask cracked, but it did not fall. Sunset hit it again, and again, still shouting until the demon was dead, and then she twisted away just in time to avoid another beowolf charging for her. She impaled it on her bayonet.

She wasn't quick enough to do anything about the beowolf that slammed into her, bearing her to the ground. She tried to fend it off with Sol Invictus but its jaws snapped and snarled at her, barely an inch away from her face as its claws slashed at her aura, stripping it away piece by piece.

There was a flash of bronze, and the beowolf was hurled away as Pyrrha struck it with her shield so powerfully that it was thrown clean off of Sunset. With the second stroke of her shield Pyrrha eviscerated the grimm, while with her spear she impaled another.

And in the next few moments Sunset began to see where her reputation came from. Gone was the quiet girl who had been content to follow where Sunset led; in her place was a warrior grim of face, an artist on the battlefield, her every movement both graceful and deadly. Grimm fell by her hand like leaves until she cut down the big alpha in a flurry of swift slashes of her sword and the survivors fled, their howls of bloodlust turned to howls of panic and terror.

Sunset picked herself up quickly off the ground, and hoped that Ruby and Jaune hadn't noticed that she'd been knocked down. Thankfully Pyrrha didn't see to want to be thanked, and as the grimm retreated her face softened once more, as if something had been switched off in her head once the danger was passed.

Jaune had also been knocked onto his back, he looked chastened as he climbed to his feet. Ruby didn't say anything, but gave him a pat on the shoulder as though he needed to be reassured about something.

Sunset said nothing as she started to reload. _I need to get stronger. Clearly I'm not up to their level yet._

 _I may never get there._

 _But I can get closer than I am now if I work at it._

 _But there's no way that they're going to accept my leadership now. I wouldn't, if I was in their position._

"Which way would you suggest now?" Pyrrha asked.

"Whuh?" the sound fell out of Sunset's mouth. "You're asking me?"

Pyrrha shrugged. "You seem confident in your sense of direction."

Sunset glanced at Ruby, who nodded.

Sunset's pride felt a little less dented. _My training in leadership shining through, I suppose._

She had just put the fourth round into the cylinder when she heard a tree falling in front of her.

And then another, and then a third after that.

"That…that sounds bigger than a beowolf," Jaune said.

Sunset was inclined to agree, which was why she hurried up reloading. She had just – _just_ – put the sixth round into the cylinder when a deathstalker crashed through the forest, trampling trees and bushes beneath its legs.

It made no sound, it did not raw or howl, but it did snap its claws aggressively at them as it came on.

Ruby charged, she swung her scythe in a wide arc that glanced off the deathstalker's bleached white armour.

A single swipe of the deathstalker's claw was enough to send Ruby flying backwards.

Sunset didn't bother to fire. Instead she teleported the distance between Ruby and herself and threw up a shield of blue green energy around the two of them.

The claws and stinger of the deathstalker beat fruitlessly against it. For now.

"Sunset, how are you-"

"Pyrrha!" Sunset yelled, cutting Ruby off. "We need a distraction!"

"Right," Pyrrha answered, and she dashed forward with a swift, loping gait culminating in a flying leapt that carried her onto the deathstalker's back. She drove her spear downwards, but had no more luck penetrating its armoured carapace than Ruby had. Her spear turned into a rifle – so she was the third shooter – and she fired to as little effect. She had got the grimm's attention, though, and as Pyrrha leapt off its back it turned all of its malicious attention on her. But, though Pyrrha could not harm the grimm for all that she leapt at it and slashed and thrust and fired, she was too swift-footed for the demonic scorpion to harm her, either. It simply couldn't keep up with her as she danced out of the way of its claws, closing and retreating, her red hair moving like fire as she wove in and out of the grimm's guard.

Sunset dropped her shield – keeping it up was a drain, and the plan that was starting to formulate in her mind would require every bit of magic she could lay her hands on – and pointed in the other direction from that in which Pyrrha was currently leading the deathstalker. "Ruby, get over there, get up a tree, and catch that thing in a crossfire."

"But his armour-"

"It doesn't matter if you don't hurt him, I just want him to notice," Sunset said. "Believe me, this is going to work."

Ruby hesitated for a moment, before she nodded. "Okay." She sped forward, firing her gunscythe and using the recoil to carry her into the low branches of a nearby tree.

"What should I do?" Jaune asked as he jogged up to Sunset.

"You…you stay here," Sunset said. "And wait for my instructions."

Jaune didn't look too happy about that, but Sunset didn't have time to pay too much attention to him right now. Ruby had just started laying down fire on the deathstalker from above. The grimm stopped, half turning towards her. Pyrrha attacked again, her blade shining as she slashed furiously at the deathstalker's carapace. For its part, the grimm appeared confused, torn between its two assailants. It turned first one way, and then the other. Its claws chattered furiously as it turned, never quite settling on an assailant. It spread its legs out, and scuttled into just the right position.

And then Sunset teleported again. She emerged in a flash of green light underneath the deathstalker, flat on her back in the space between its legs and gathered the last of her magic in the palm of her hands in a blast upwards into the soft underbelly of the scorpion. The grimm shuddered in pain, and then collapsed.

Right on top of Sunset. Fortunately it dissolved a moment later.

Ruby cheered as she leapt down from the tree. "That was awesome!"

"You have quite a versatile semblance," Pyrrha said.

"Semblance?" Jaune asked.

"She can explain later," Sunset said. "For now, let's just get our relics and get back to Beacon without any more trouble."

* * *

They were back in the hall where they had started from the day before, the hall where Professor Ozpin had given them his interesting address. Now, in groups of four, they were called up onto the stage as their images appeared on the two giant screens that hung above the hall.

Sunset waited impatiently, her tail twitching as four by four all other students except her were called up onto the stage by the headmaster.

Currently on stage where the silent, reading girl with the black bow in her equally black hair that Sunset had observed the night before; a tall boy with dark blue hair and grey armour; a girl whose hair was equally divided between blue and pink; and another girl with white hair streaked with mint-green, wearing a cloak of pink and red and blue that completely obscured everything below her face.

Professor Ozpin announced their names. "Blake Belladonna, Sky Lark, Bonnie Bonaventure and Lyra Heartstrings, the four of you retrieved the black knight pieces and will continue your studies as Team Bluebell, led by Blake Belladonna."

Sunset joined in the polite applause as the initials BLBL flashed up under the pictures of the respective students. Blake Belladonna seemed more resigned than anything else as she led her new team off the stage.

"Weiss Schnee, Flash Sentry, Russell Thrush, Cardin Winchester," Professor Ozpin called, waiting a moment for the four of them to join him on stage: a pale girl with hair as white as snow who might be even shorter than Ruby, the big guy with the bird on his armour who had mocked Sunset earlier, some punk with a sleeveless hoodie and a grey mohawk, and Flash. Sunset's lip curled in contempt at the sight of Flash, in that gaudy, shining armour of his, standing up there with his chest puffed out with pride. "You four retrieved the black rook pieces. You will be known as Team Wisteria, led by Weiss Schnee." The letters WSTW flashed up beneath their portraits.

Sunset didn't join in the applause. As Miss Schnee led the way off the stage – managing to look both proud, and at the same time as though this was nothing unexpected – Flash glanced Sunset's way. Sunset glared at him until he looked away again, and made his way off the stage with the others.

"Yang Xiao-Long, Lie Ren, Dove Bronzewing, Nora Valkyrie."

Ruby whistled, and a girl with long blonde hair turned to give her a wink and a wave as she led the serious boy with the pink streak in his hair Sunset had noticed earlier, and the redhead who had woken them both up, and a nondescript looking guy in tan armour up onto the stage.

"The four of you," Ozpin said. "Retrieved the white rook pieces. You will continue your studies here as Team Iron, led by Yang Xiao-Long"

Ruby started cheering enthusiastically as the letters YRDN appeared beneath the portraits of the four members of the newly formed team. The blonde – Yang – gave her a thumbs up before she made her way off the stage with the others.

"Sunset Shimmer, Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos and Ruby Rose."

Sunset kept her expression pleasantly neutral as she led the other three out of the crowd and up onto the stage. The lights on them were bright, but Sunset didn't mind the glare. She didn't mind the eyes upon her. In fact, she positively enjoyed them both.

"The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces," Professor Ozpin reminded the audience. "You will therefore be known as Team Sapphire, led by Sunset Shimmer."

 _Well of course,_ Sunset thought, and let the applause roll over her.


	4. Roomshare

Roomshare

As the only girl on a team with three boys, Weiss went into the bathroom to get changed for bed.

She shut the door, and removed the icicle tiara from her hair, letting her braid collapse and fall down around her shoulders.

And as her snowy hair fell down so Weiss leaned against the bathroom wall and sighed.

She was the team leader. On the one hand, it was really nothing that couldn't have been anticipated; she had spent her entire life being groomed for leadership.

Perhaps that was part of the reason it felt so unexpected to her.

Not that her team, or the world, would ever realise that. But, after spending so long as the recipient of her father's criticism, his disappointment, his stern judgement that seemingly could never be assuaged by anything she did or accomplished, to be trusted like this was…honestly a little surprising.

Why could Professor Ozpin, who barely knew her, trust her more than her own father did?

And could she be worthy of the trust that he had placed in her?

 _Does Winter ever feel unequal to the task?_

Not that she would dare ask her sister to find out. No, she had to be like Winter: stern and in control at all times. The world must never see beneath the icy mask of a true Schnee.

Her scroll buzzed. Weiss pulled it out and was gladly surprised to see that it was a text from Winter.

 _Are you still alive?_

Weiss smirked as she texted back. _Yes._

 _How did it go?_

 _I made team leader._

 _Of course you did._

Weiss wasn't sure whether to be comforted by her sister's faith in her or to be affronted that there wasn't any more effusive reaction forthcoming. _Thank you._

 _What are they like?_

Weiss' thumb was halfway to the first letter of her reply when she heard the boys talking in the bedroom next door.

"So, on a scale of one of hot," came the voice of Russell Thrush. "How would you guys rate our team leader?"

"Come on, guys, do you really think that's appropriate?" asked Flash Sentry.

"Don't be a cuck, dude," Russell said. "Nobody likes a white knight."

"I rate her out of your league, Russell," Cardin declared.

"But not yours, right?"

"Of course not, look at me."

"Really, guys? Really?" Flash said.

"Dude," Russell said. "Are you really telling us you don't think she's hot? Cause she's an eight and a half on the Russell scale."

"No, I'm not saying that she isn't gorgeous, I'm just saying that-"

Weiss stopped listening. _Honestly._ She wasn't sure if it was them…or if she'd been naïve to hope for anything better.

 _Perhaps I should just be grateful that they find me attractive and not my father's money._

She stared down at the scroll in her hands. What were her team like? A bunch of boorish jerks, apparently.

 _They'll do,_ Weiss replied, and then snapped her scroll shut. That was probably all that Winter wanted to hear. They might be jerks but she would manage them. She had seen Winter reduce Atlasian soldiers to silence by her mere presence, and she would do the same.

Though a part of her might have liked to not have to.

Weiss sighed again, and as she pulled off her bolero she turned to face the mirror. Her face, her scarred face, her eight and a half face, stared back at her.

 _Mirror, Mirror on the wall, tell me who's the loneliest of all?_

* * *

As the only guy in a team with three girls, Sky Lark had been banished to the bathroom to change for bed, while Blake, Lyra and Bonnie (or Bon Bon, as she had been emphatic about being referred to by everyone) used the bedroom.

Blake had changed quickly, and now sat on her bed observing Lyra and Bon Bon as they, with a degree of chattiness that was only partially explained for Blake by the fact that they were old friends, got undressed in a far more lackadaisical manner marked by frequent paused for involved conversation.

Blake let what they were actually saying wash over her as she studied them. Her troops, her team-mates. Hers to lead and to protect.

She was no stranger to leading. She had led White Fang missions more than once before, but this…this was different. Her authority over the White Fang troops she had commanded her come from Adam and the fact that she was his; to question her was to question Adam, and no one questioned Adam who wished to live long after doing so.

From whence did her authority over Team Bluebell derive? From Professor Ozpin? Perhaps, in the abstract, but it wasn't the same; Professor Ozpin wasn't going to impale anybody on the end of Wilt for questioning his decisions, which was a good thing beyond doubt, but it meant that Blake would have to establish her fitness for command some other way. She'd have to earn the right to lead this team, at least in the eyes of the team itself.

It wasn't something that she'd expected she would have to do. She had come to Beacon expecting to follow orders, not to give them.

She had come to Beacon expecting – hoping – to be anonymous. Now three pairs of eyes would be turned towards her at all times.

Did she want it? No.

Would she do it? Did she have a choice?

Could she do it? Yes. She had seen her father lead, she had seen Sienna lead. She had led, though she might not have led anyone like Lyra or Bon Bon or Sky.

There were three kinds of people in the White Fang: there were the idealists, the ones who believed passionately in Faunus equality and had joined the organisation because they genuinely believed that it was the way to be the change they wished to see in the world; Blake hoped that she had fallen into that category, and certainly they were the ones most likely to try and get out sooner or later; then there were the gangster wannabes, the idiots who thought it would be cool to dress up in a grimm mask and wave a gun around; and then there were the ones like Adam, though Blake hadn't realised it at first, the ones who liked the killing, and terrified their allies almost as much as their enemies.

Her team-mates could not be the first, and Blake very much hoped that they were not the second or the third.

So she would have to find another way to lead them. She could not lead as she had led in the White Fang. She wasn't sure if she'd want to.

She might not stay at Beacon. Something might happen, Adam might find her, she might find a reason to run from here just as she had run _to_ here. But until then she would lead.

They were her responsibility now.

* * *

As they were a team with two guys and two girls, the members of Team YRDN were taking turns to get changed in the bathroom. It was currently Dove's turn, Nora having gone first. Ren sat on his bed doing maintenance on his weapons; Nora was bouncing up and down on the bed, while Yang looked out of the window, seeing nothing, lost in thought.

 _I did say that being on different teams would be good for her, I guess._

 _That doesn't mean I have to like it now that it's actually happened, though._

It would probably be good for Ruby, to make friends with other people. Break out of her shell. And that Jaune guy seemed nice, although if he tried to get too friendly with Ruby then Yang would make sure they'd never be able to identify the remains. As for Ruby's other two team-mates, on the other hand...they seemed kind of stand-offish, and Yang would have preferred that Ruby's new friends seemed more...friendly. But she didn't know them all that well. Of course she was going to make it a point to get to know them, and to make sure that they knew her (and what she was capable of) but she probably get too down on the basis of rushed judgement.

Ruby would be fine, probably. She took down Roman Torchwick's whole gang single-handed, after all.

But whenever Yang looked at her little sister there was a part of her that still saw the little girl who used to crawl into Yang's bed when she was scared or having nightmares.

 _I will stay with you, all our days._

Yang smiled. It was probably stupid to expect a school like Beacon to abide by a kid's promise like that...but that didn't stop her wanting to bust down the door to Team SAPR's room and lay down the law.

 _She'll be fine. It's fine. Everything's fine._

 _It better be._

This was a good thing. Ruby needed to make new friends. She needed to find people she could rely on because...well, Yang wasn't going to be around forever for her to lean on. Ruby thought that she could do anything as long as she had Crescent Rose in hand, but sometimes you needed someone to have your back and Yang wasn't always going to be there for that. It was good that she was going to find other people who would have her back when her big sister couldn't.

But, as Ruby's big sister, that didn't make it any easier to leave her behind.

Accepting her offer at Beacon had been hard enough knowing that Ruby would be stuck on Patch without her for the next two years; Dad and Uncle Qrow had had to sit her down and promise to look after Ruby while she was gone. And when Ruby had gotten her offer to attend Beacon two years early, while Dad had seemed kind of anxious about it Yang had just felt so relieved that Ruby was going to be where she, Yang, could keep an eye on her.

She would just have to accept that she wouldn't be able to keep an eye on Ruby all the time.

It was for the best. It would make things easier in the long run...for both of them.

 _Goodnight, Ruby._

 _I love you._

* * *

Sunset had never had to share a room before, but on the other hand this dorm room was a lot nicer than the place she had been living before this - a boarded up old dust shop that had been put out of business by the Schnee Dust Company - even if it was a little smaller than the room that she'd enjoyed all to herself when she was Celestia's personal student. She'd had a lot of time to get used ot the fact that she was no one's personal student any more.

 _And it's not as if I've got anything like as much stuff as I had back then._ Sunset had left most of her Equestrian possessions behind in Equestria, and she'd acquired very many replacements since coming to Remnant. Everything she had was in her back, which she started to unpack while Jaune was in bathroom.

The room was devoid of conversation as she worked, both Pyrrha and Ruby were cleaning their weapons in silence, with only the ambient clicks and rattles of their work to disturb the room. Sunset would get to that with her own weapon, but she wanted to unpack first so that she didn't have to worry about it later.

Plus, with Jaune in the bathroom and the two girls fully occupied with their work, no one was going to spy on her stuff.

At the top of her bag, the first thing that confronted her when she unclipped it and opened it up, was a big stuffed unicorn with glass eyes and a smile sewn onto its face. It was white, with a golden horn and a pink mane. It smiled benevolently up at Sunset from out of the bag.

Sunset stared down at it. She wasn't entirely sure why she still had this. Flash had won it for her at the fairgrounds of the Vytal Festival before last, she'd found it amusing at the time. She probably ought to have gotten rid of it after they broke up but...she hadn't. She'd never quite gotten around to it and when the time came to leave it behind...she'd found that she couldn't quite do that, either. Stupid, right?

Nevertheless, she plucked the unicorn out of the bag and set it up on her bed near the pillow.

"Aww, that's so cute!"

Sunset looked up and over her shoulder. Ruby was staring at the stuffed unicorn with a big smile on her face. Sunset looked away without saying anything; as far as she was concerned there was nothing to be said.

"Is it a memento from home?" Pyrrha asked.

 _If only you knew,_ Sunset thought. "No. My ex-boyfriend gave it to me."

"I see," Pyrrha murmured. "You still care for him, then?"

"Pfft, no!" Sunset said, more loudly than the situation perhaps warranted. But her cheeks were starting to heat up and it was hard to keep the requisite handle on her volume control. She let slip a disdainful snort. She stood up, turned round, and planted her hands on her hips as she glared at Pyrrha. "As a matter of fact, I'll have you know that _I_ broke up with him, and I could care less about that stupid jackass now. I just..." her mouth twisted with annoyance as she realised that there was nothing she could say to explain why she still had that stupid cuddly toy. So she went on the attack as a distraction. "Anyway, what about you? I bet you've got a shelf full of trophies to unpack, don't you?"

"Ooh, you have trophies?" Ruby cried.

Pyrrha's already fair face had gone as pale as alabaster. She looked away and at the nearest wall. "I didn't bring them with me."

"But what do you have trophies for?"

"Pyrrha's a big tournament champion from Mistral," Sunset declared.

Pyrrha looked embarrassed about it, for all that Sunset couldn't imagine why any more than she could imagine why Pyrrha wouldn't have brought at least some of her trophies with her. Didn't she realise how lucky she was? If Sunset had any trophies she'd have put them up for the whole world to see. But, as Pyrrha started fielding questions from Ruby about her illustrious career, Sunset turned away and got back to her unpacking.

 _That'll teach her to poke her nose where it isn't wanted._

She returned to unpacking the rest of her stuff. There wasn't much: a second-hand chess set that had seen better days, a cheap fold-up board, a couple of changes of cloths and a few cheap, dog-eared paperback books. And then, at the very bottom of Sunset's pack, there was the journal.

 _Something else I'm not sure why I kept,_ Sunset thought, as she nevertheless lifted out the handsome, leatherbound book - embossed with her cutie mark - with a slowness that suggested reverence. The magical journal that Celestia had given her so that they could keep in touch. Sunset hadn't used it since she came to this world, for all that this seemed like exactly the sort of situation that it had been designed for. She hadn't written a single word to her old teacher from this brave new world. She had been afraid of what Celestia might write back to her...and even more afraid that Celestia might not reply at all.

 _What would I have said to her, anyway? That I ran away in search of greatness and instead I found a world where I was treated like dirt on a boot-heel? That I was a victim of racism? That because of what I looked like I couldn't make it in this new world? That I was just a failure after all?_

 _She would have pitied me, and out of pity she might even have invited me to come home._

 _But that kind of mercy would have made me smaller than any amount of anti-faunus prejudice could do._ They could beat her, they could mock her, they could call her names, they could even arrest her, but they could not take her pride away from her. Only Sunset could surrender it, and that she would not do. She had no need to do so now, nor even to consider it. She was the team leader, she was a leader of men. She was on her way to a glorious future. She had only to lead, and to lead well, and all would be well in the garden of her ambitions.

Thankfully, no one had any need to teach Sunset Shimmer how to lead people. She had studied at the feet of Princess Celestia, who for one thousand years had ruled over the three races of ponykind wisely and well, and whatever Celestia's faults as a liar and a misleader of youth Sunset would never deny that she, Celestia, was a great leader. All Sunset had to do was emulate her teacher - which, as her former student, she was uniquely positioned to do - and everything would work out fine.

Admittedly, Celestia probably wouldn't have reacted to being embarrassed by embarrassing someone else, but give her a break it wasn't as though Celestia ever got embarrassed about anything. She didn't have anything to be embarrassed about, while Sunset did. But, in the main and starting now, Sunset would rule these creatures like a princess, with a firm hand and an air of detached serenity about her always.

She could tell Celestia that. She could write in the magical journal and let her old teacher know what Sunset Shimmer had made of herself. _For I am a mare set under authority, having warriors under me, and to Ruby Rose I say 'Go' and she goes, and to Pyrrha Nikos I say 'Come' and she comes, and to Jaune Arc I do 'Do this' and he does it._ Sunset could tell her that, and Celestia would reply to tell Sunset how proud she was, how glad that she had found her path.

Or she might not. She might respond with vitriol and shame. She might not reply at all.

No, Sunset would not write to Celestia; she couldn't bear to speak first only to be met with silence.

Sunset angrily shoved the journal under the bed.

* * *

"Aww, that's so cute!"

Ruby's excited squeal made Pyrrha look up from cleaning the chamber of Akouo to see what had caused. Sunset had seemingly decided to unpack her things before she maintaind her weapon - if she decided to maintain it, although it was far too early to say that she wouldn't - and had just deposited a stuffed unicorn toy at the head of her bed. Sunset looked at Ruby over her shoulder, and then looked away without a word.

"Is it a memento from home?" Pyrrha asked. She would be the first to admit that she was not good at smalltalk, but she very much hoped that that was merely the result of a lack of practice on her part. If she was to be more than the Invincible Girl, if she was to be Pyrrha Nikos during her four years at Beacon, then she would need to practice, and this seemed an innocuous thing to start a conversation over.

"No. My ex-boyfriend gave it to me."

"I see," Pyrrha murmured, even though she really didn't. She'd never had a boyfriend, and she suspected that even if she had found someone who could see the girl beneath the fearsome reputation her mother wouldn't have allowed her to date anyway. In truth she felt a little jealous of Sunset Shimmer in that moment: to have been seen for herself, valued for herself more than for her accomplishments. No one had ever given Pyrrha a silly stuffed animal. She didn't have gifts from old boyfriends or mementos from home to personalise the room with. To distract herself from the certain sense of melancholy that she could feel within her, Pyrrha cast about for something else to say. "You still care for him, then?"

"Pfft, no!" Sunset said so loudly that she was practically shouting. Pyrrha knew that she had said the wrong thing even before Sunset physically rounded on her, cheeks flushed and hands on her hips, although she didn't exactly why what she had said was so wrong and so frustrating to the other girl. "As a matter of fact, I'll have you know that _I_ broke up with him, and I could care less about that stupid jackass now. I just...Anyway, what about you? I bet you've got a shelf full of trophies to unpack, don't you?"

"Ooh, you have trophies?" Ruby cried.

 _No. No, no, please no, not like this, not already._ Pyrrha could feel her face, and her entire body, turning cold and pale. It had been going so well and now it was all going go wrong so quickly. Jaune had been unaware of her reputation, and Ruby had seemed the same way and she had been so, so glad of that. She'd accepted that they would find out eventually but she'd hoped that it wouldn't be until after they had gotten used to seeing her as a person, not a celebrity, and now it was all happening too fast and why had Sunset had to say that? Pyrrha looked away in embarassment. "I didn't bring them with me." She hadn't actually brought anything with her from home that she didn't strictly need to attend Beacon, but even if she'd had the choice her tournament trophies were the last things in the world she would have taken with her.

"But what do you have trophies for?" Ruby demanded, with an eagerness that Pyrrha could not help but resent.

"Pyrrha's a big tournament champion from Mistral," Sunset announced, and with that announcement turned away as though her work was done.

Pyrrha flinched. Now it would come, as it always did: the fawning, the adulation, the talking to her as though she were no more than an Atlasian robot designed to win battles. _Was coming here pointless after all?_ She had hoped, given that the Mistral Regional Tournament was only widely reported on in Mistral, and outside that kingdom was only available on pay-per-view on the specialised sports channels, that she might find people who were ignorant and uncaring of her prowess and reputation. Now, as Ruby's luminous silver eyes widened, that seemed a vain and childish hope.

"Oh my gosh, I knew I'd seen those weapons before!" Ruby cried. "They were featured in issue four-oh-eight of _Weapons and Armour_! They did a whole feature on them, right? Milo and Akuou!"

Pyrrha's expression froze. That was honestly not the response that she'd been expecting. As a matter of fact she had done a feature for _Weapons and Armour_ shortly after her third tournament victory, or rather she'd taken Milo and Akuou down to a studio where a professional photographer had taken a lot of pictures of them and intern had asked her a few questions. It had been probably the most relaxing press visit she'd ever had to do, they'd even hired a professional model to pose with the weapons rather than her. Pyrrha wasn't even sure that any of her quotes had appeared in the article itself.

She was surpised. Demographically speaking Ruby Rose was...not the target audience for _Weapons and Armour_ magazine. "You read that?"

Ruby nodded excitedly. "And now that I've seen it in action I've got to tell you how fluid the transformations are? Did you design it yourself? Did you build it yourself? How long did it take?"

"I can't claim complete credit for the design," Pyrrha murmured. "My mother had some input. But I assisted with every stage of the manufacture, even if I didn't do all the work." She ran her gloved fingers across the flat of Akuou's blade form. "Our weapons are conduits for our aura, and for that reason I believe it's important that they have a little piece of our soul inside them."

"I know, right!" Ruby yelled. "I mean, I didn't come up with my Crescent Rose out of nowhere, I saw my uncle Qrow's Harbinger and it was a big inspiration, but I still built it because not building my baby would have been like...I don't know. That's why I named her Crescent Rose, because she's a part of my family."

Pyrrha smiled. She couldn't claim to know exactly what Ruby meant, but she understood the sentiments and there was nothing wrong with them. And she couldn't help but be grateful that Ruby, in her focus on Pyrrha's weapons, hadn't yet asked about Pyrrha's tournament triumphs.

In fact she didn't seem to care.

Perhaps...it was very early days, and impossible to say for certain but perhaps...perhaps this might just work out after all.

* * *

Jaune emerged from the bathroom to find everyone else in his new team hard at work. Sunset was silently cleaning out the cylinder of her gun, while Pyrrha seemed to be letting their hands work on autopilot while they carried on a conversation.

"So why do you only have five rounds for your rifle, it doesn't seem like a lot. Even Sunset has more than that."

"We experimented with more, but we found that any more than five rounds affects the balance in sword or spear form; and, honestly, I mainly use the rifle mode as a back-up of last resort. I prefer to close with my opponents, and no arena is too large to make that practicable."

"Ah, so that's why you don't use dust rounds either."

"Precisely."

"But don't you think that when fighting grimm it's good to be able to do as much damage as possible before they get close?"

"I admit that I don't have a huge amount of experience fighting grimm, but from what I saw in the Emerald Forest they don't let you see them coming if they can avoid it."

Ruby cocked her head to one side as though she were considering the point. "I suppose that you've got a- oh, hey Ja-" she paused, stared at him for a moment, and then burst out laughing so hard that she fell back onto her bed clutching her sides.

"What?" Sunset looked up, with an expression on her face as though she suspected someone might be laughing at her. "What's going on?"

"What are you wearing?" Ruby demanded in between high-pitched cackles of laughter.

Jaune sighed. It was the onesie. Of course it was the onesie. He honestly should have seen this coming, given that it had Pumpkin Pete's face on it and it was, well, a onesie, but all the same - "It's really comfortable!" he protested.

"It has bunny slippers!"

Jaune shuffled in discomfort. Pyrrha's expression was as inscrutable as she was silent, while Sunset was giving him a look that reminded him uncomfortably of his sisters.

And then she pulled out her scroll and took a picture of him.

Jaune recoiled from the flash of her scroll. "What was that for?"

"I want to immortalise these halcyon days of our youth," Sunset said, in a voice that couldn't have sounded more insincere if she'd stuck a /s tag on the end of her sentence. "So who's the bunny?"

"That's Pumpkin Pete!" Jaune cried. How could anyone not know who Pumpkin Pete was, where had seen been living? "You know, like the cereal?"

"I buy the store brand because I'm cheap," Sunset said. "But I'll take your word for it."

Jaune made his way over to his bed and sat down heavily upon it. Ruby's laughter was starting to die down now, but it rang in his ears all the same. He looked at her, and at Pyrrha, and then looked over his shoulder Sunset.

 _Do I really belong here? Do I really belong with them?_ Ruby and Pyrrha were both awesome, and even Sunset was pretty cool even if she wasn't in their league, but he was just...he was just Jaune. How could he so much as help them, let alone by the hero straight out of his dreams?

 _Look at how dedicated they are._ "How can you guys work on your weapons at a time like this?" he asked. "Aren't you tired?"

"The first thing Uncle Qrow taught me after I got Crescent Rose was how to take care of her," Ruby said. "He told me 'You have to look after your weapon, kid, or she'll let you down when you need her the most.' Like, the scythe might not unfold properly, or the gun might jam."

"Oh," Jaune said. "Should I...I don't know, sharpen my sword or something?"

"I wouldn't advise doing that wantonly," Pyrrha said, calmly and patiently. "You'll wear out the blade if you sharpen it unnecessarily. I...don't think that you wore out the blade today."

There was no malice in what she said, but her words pricked him nonetheless with a reminder of his general uselessness. That feeling only lingered as he sat, pointless, as the girls worked around him.

He was grateful when they were all done and Sunset turned out the lights.

Tomorrow was another day, after all, and things could only get better.

* * *

Ruby lay on her side in the bed, with the silk of her grimm-eyed sleep mask pressing against her face and blocking out all the light that might have gotten in through the crack in the curtains. She had no idea if the others were asleep or not. It had only been a little while since the lights went out.

Despite being in a room with four other people, Ruby felt lonelier than she had ever been in her life. That was nothing against her new roommates, her new teammates, she was sure that they were all great people and she hoped that they'd all become friends, but...this was only the second night that she'd spent away from home in her life, without Yang and Dad and Zwei all within yelling distance. This was the first night that she'd spent without Yang nearby. Even though her big sister was in the same school as her, with their teams split up they were she might as well be on the other side of anima when curfew hit.

She'd wanted this. She'd wanted it so badly but now that it was actually here, she...she missed home. She missed Dad, she missed her stuffed grimm on the walls - maybe he could mail them to her? After all Sunset had a stuffed unicorn - she missed her room, she missed having Yang next door, she missed Zwei, she missed...she missed home. She missed her friends from Signal, and she hadn't even written to them today! She'd do it tomorrow, she promised. Because she missed them, she missed all of it.

Maybe this was what Yang meant when she said Ruby needed to break out of her shell: that she needed to stop being such a baby about this stuff? But Ruby couldn't help feeling homesick and if she did then so what? Why was that a bad thing? Maybe - hopefully - Beacon would start to feel like home eventually but right now home was home. And she missed it.

 _Goodnight, Yang. Goodnight Dad. Night, Mom._

Ruby's arm hung out over the bed, and as Ruby shuffled under the covers her fingertips brushed against the wall. She frowned under her sleep-mask; something didn't feel quite right. There was something...carved into the wall? Ruby pulled off her mask and squinted into the dark where her fingers had found the disturbance. The broken moonlight slipping past the scarlet curtain was too dim for her to properly see what it was.

"Guys, can I put the lights back on for a second?"

"Why?" Sunset demanded.

"Because I need to see something, it will only take a second."

Sunset grumbled wordlessly for a moment. "Okay, I'll do it." Ruby heard the sounds of someone getting out of bed and padding across the floor before the lights flicked on.

Ruby blinked against the sudden brightness for a second. Then she saw what it was that she'd felt on the wall. "Whoa," she gasped. "Guys, come on, check this out."

Pyrrha was out of bed much faster than Jaune, but eventually they all crowded around Ruby's bed, standing over her and looking down at the wall beside her, into which had been carved the initial Q, and above the letters the symbols of a rose, a fiery heart, a raven and a crow.

A smile blossomed across Ruby's face. "This is amazing." _I can't wait to tell Yang about this._

"Uh...I kinda feel like I'm missing something here," Jaune said.

"Former students, one would assume," Pyrrha said. "Occupants of this room before us."

"Not just any former students," Ruby said, as she ran her fingers over the letters. "This S, that's for Summer Rose, my mom. The T is for Taiyang Xiao-Long, my dad. And that's uncle Qrow, right there." _This was Mom's room, and Dad's too and they shared it with Uncle Qrow. I wonder who the R is?_ The question didn't trouble her unduly. This was Mom and Dad's room. They had slept here, where Ruby was sleeping now. It felt more homely and less alien to her already, as though her parents and her uncle had each left a piece of themselves behind here to comfort her.

She beamed up at her teammates, until her smile faded upon the abrupt realisation that this discovery so fascinating and important to her meant less than nothing to them. "I...I'm sorry, guys, I just-"

"Hey," Jaune said, with an easy smile. "We get it. And you know what? I think it's pretty cool. I bet they're all badass huntsmen and huntresses now, right?"

"Yeah," Ruby said. "Uncle Qrow's one of the best. My Dad mainly teaches at Signal now, but he's still really strong."

Jaune nodded. "And your mom?"

"Mom...mom's not around any more."

Jaune's face fell so quickly it was as though a bottomless pit had opened up beneath it. "Oh. Oh, Ruby, I am so sorry, I'm such a-"

"It's okay, really," Ruby said quickly, before things got awkward. "You didn't know, so it's all good, right?"

"The dead are not departed while their memory endures," Pyrrha said softly. "Your mother lives in you, and all who loved her. For it is in passing that we achieve immortality."

"Uh, thanks."

Sunset turned away. "Nobody move," she said peremptorily, even as she herself went back to her bed. She grabbed her Sol Invictus, but with her back to Ruby it was impossible to see exactly what she was doing until she turned back around, sword bayonet in hand.

"Okay, make some room," Sunset commanded, as she walked down the room and jumped onto Ruby's bed.

"What are you doing?" Jaune asked.

Sunset rolled her eyes. "You mean to say it isn't obvious? Come on, guys, what do you think I'm doing?" She jabbed her bayonet into the wall and began to work it, until over the STRQ emblems she had carved the letter R, and over the S in SAPR she had carved a blazing sun divided down the middle.

Sunset passed the bayonet to Jaune. "Make your mark, bunny boy."

Jaune got onto Ruby's bed, and into the wall he carved the mark of a double crescent. Pyrrha went next, and over her initial she delicately carved a spearhead striking upwards. Ruby was the last to be handed the bayonet, and with a slightly trembling hand she carved a rose identical to the one her other had left before her.

Silently, she handed the sword bayonet back to Sunset.

"There," Sunset said, as their shadows fell upon the wall and the initials and the marks that they had made. "Now, when we four are all badass huntsmen and huntresses, whoever has this room then will be in awe that we used to sleep in this room."

"And we'll stay friends, like Dad and Uncle Qrow," Ruby said.

"Yeah," Jaune said.

"Let's not go nuts," Sunset muttered. "We should get to bed." She turned away.

Ruby lay on her side, staring at the marks that her parents had made, and the marks that her team had made, as the others returned to their own beds. The lights went out, and the bedroom was plunged into darkness once more.

A smile lingered on Ruby's face. "Goodnight, Jaune."

"Goodnight, Ruby."

"Goodnight Pyrrha."

"Goodnight Ruby," Pyrrha said. "Goodnight, Jaune."

"'Night, Pyrrha."

"Goodnight, Sunset."

Silence.

"Godnight, Sunset."

Silence.

"Psst!" Jaune hissed. "Sunset!"

Sunset's voice came lazily and slowly. "Seriously? We're really doing this?"

"Come on, don't be like that."

Sunset sighed. "Goodnight, Ruby."

 _Goodnight, Mom._

* * *

Sunset lay on her bed, hands crossed beneath her head, staring up at the dark ceiling above her.

 _Goodnight, my little Sunbeam. Sweet dreams._

Sunset scowled. She was a grown woman now, she didn't need Mommy to wish her good night or tuck her in or make her hot chocolate with marshmallows in.

 _You're not my mother. And I was a fool to ever forget that._

She needed to look to the future now, not the past. Celestia was behind her, her team was the future.

 _If Celestia is behind me then why does she yet loom so large in my mind?_

Sunset rolled over onto her side. _Because I'm here because of her, in the end. Because all that I have done and sought to do has been because of her influence._ Sunset's youth had been a lingering for the crown. All her studies, all her accomplishments, all of it had been designed to bring her to the point where she would ascend and be exalted amongst ponies. And in the end it had happened to someone else, to Cadance that insipid, soppy mare, and Celestia had confessed to her that all of it, her dreams, her future, her glorious destiny...it had all been a lie.

 _I refuse to accept that._ Sunset knew that Celestia was wrong, she knew that she had greatness in her even if her mentor would not acknowledge. So she had run and run, through the mirror to a new world, in search of glory.

She hadn't found it yet. Sunset still lingered for a crown to rest its burnished laurels on her brow, but it would come. It would come as sure as spring to chase away the cold that gnawed at her, and when it came the crowds would cheer out her name as sweet as nectar and ambrosia of the gods of Remnant: Sunset! Sunset! Sunset! Would that not fill up the emptiness that dogged her? Would it not fill the empty vessel of her spirit to overflowing. It must, for if it did not...what would?

Sunset turned her mind from this uncomfortable topic of self-reflection to reflect instead upon the characters of her new team-mates. Ruby and Pyrrha had much potential to be her instruments, strong and swift and skilled with their array of weapons. Sunset was far less convinced of the usefulness of Jaune Arc, but she was stuck with him now so doubtless she would find some use to make of him. They would all serve her purposes for she would allow none of them to get in her way.

They were her team, and like a team of pegasi they would pull her chariot and carry her to glory.


	5. First Step

First Step

Pyrrha had risen early out of habit; slug-abeds would win no acclaim, as her mother used to put it, and so from her early youth she had been accustomed to rise with the lark on the wing and the snail on the thorn.

Jaune and Ruby had still been asleep, though Sunset had been awake and reading something on her scroll; the light from the screen illuminated her face in an expression of stern intensity.

Pyrrha padded lightly across the floor, and cleared her throat mildly enough to attract the attention of her team leader, but not loudly enough to wake their slumbering companions. She gestured towards the bathroom.

Sunset waved one hand, which Pyrrha took to indicate that she was free to use the shower first. She nodded in thanks, and proceeded inside. She placed the folded pile of her clothes neatly in one corner – covered with a towel for protection from any steam that might escape the shower – and undressed in the privacy of the enclosed space.

Once inside the shower, Pyrrha allowed herself one brief moment of stillness, letting the hot water cascade down her back and limbs, washing away all weariness and tension, washing away what had come before and opening up the new day to new possibilities.

 _I have three team-mates now. Will I have three friends?_

She hoped so, but it was so early to say. At least Jaune and Ruby didn't seem to care very much about her reputation as the Invincible Girl: Ruby was more interested in Milo and Akuou than in her, and Jaune only recognised her as a girl on the cereal box. There was a chance – no more than a chance, not yet, but better than she had been given in a long time – that they might see Pyrrha Nikos, and appreciate her for whatever she was, as a friend and not merely a warrior and a winner of trophies.

 _If there is anything beyond my skill at arms to be appreciated._

Pyrrha shuddered. That was her darkest and most secret fear: that the reason no one could see her, see beyond the legend of the Invincible Girl, the reason why nobody could treat her like a person was that there was _nobody there at all_. Nothing to like, nothing to love, nothing to appreciate or befriend: just an empty suit of armour and a powerful semblance.

She hoped she was wrong. She hoped so very much that she was wrong.

But she couldn't be sure.

But, if there was anything to Pyrrha Nikos besides the reputation carefully cultivated by her mother, then Jaune and Ruby had come closer to seeing it than most others.

As for Sunset Shimmer…Pyrrha wasn't sure what to make of her. She seemed more aware of Pyrrha's reputation than the other two, but she did not seem in awe of it. Rather…

 _I'm sure she didn't mean anything by it. I hope she didn't mean anything by it._

Pyrrha shoved the thought to one side. She had used up her moment. Time to get to work. She showered quickly, dressed almost as fast, and was out the bathroom again within twenty minutes, her appearance immaculate and her hair smelling of ylang ylang – which was supposed to enhance feelings of confidence and peace – blended with lemon and grapefruit oil.

Jaune and Ruby were still asleep, as she saw when she left the bathroom. She glanced at her watch: it was not quite six-thirty. The cafeteria didn't open until seven. "I'll see you all at breakfast," Pyrrha whispered to Sunset as she started for the door.

Sunset said nothing, which Pyrrha took to mean that she had no objections to her leaving.

Pyrrha left their dorm and strode quickly but quietly across the corridor and down the stairs. It was early autumn, and the days had not yet begun to darken. The sun had been up for a few hours before her, and the curtains could not hold back all of the golden light. She liked this time of year, when the days were bright but the world was empty, when she could walk in the sun but not be troubled by people who saw only a celebrity over whose life they had some claim, to treat as if she were a friend but without the consideration of her feelings paid to friendship, to demand affirmation of, to treat as an object belonging to them.

At this time of day she could walk through the school and not be followed by whispers or glances, she could have no photographs taken of her, no selfies demanded with her. She could walk completely undisturbed.

Although she couldn't say she liked the fact that she could only do this was because there was no one around at this hour.

Pyrrha's feet carried her to the fountain, and to the statue of the two hunters above the Beowulf that sat in the centre of it. And before that statue, before the two warriors who had gone before her in defending humanity from the monsters that prowled the wilds, Pyrrha closed her eyes and meditated. Here, in the peace of the early morning, beneath and the sun and in the presence of those who had walked this honoured path before her, she sought to elevate her mind and soul alike.

She breathed deeply. She could feel her aura burning within her, fully recovered after yesterday. It was light, a light within to burn away the darkness that lay all around her.

 _They are the darkness, and we are the light._

 _The brightness of my soul will burn away all shadows._

 _I will burn until all darkness has been cleansed by the illumination of my light, even though the struggle should consume me._

 _For it is in passing that we achieve immortality._

 _By my shoulder I will guard the world._

It had never been about the tournaments, for her. Perhaps for her mother it had been different, for she who had failed to achieve tournament success in her own youth the trophies and the acclaim had been ends in themselves but for Pyrrha…her destiny, the road which she meant to walk to its conclusion was a higher path. A harder one, perhaps, but more worthy all the same. She would take the skills that she had learned for the aggrandisement of her name and she would use them to defend the world.

She might not have the life that she desired, she might not be seen as anything more than a title, but she had been blessed with speed and strength and – she hoped – courage and she would use those gifts to defend humanity from the demons that threatened it.

For good or ill or a mix of both it was her destiny.

Pyrrha remained there, meditating upon higher things, for some time, until she began to hear the first few footsteps of students making their way to the cafeteria for breakfast.

She joined them, they were not a crowd yet – too few were early risers for that – but there were enough of them that she could hear them whispering about her as she made her way into the dining hall.

"Is that Pyrrha Nikos?"

"Yeah, that's the Invincible Girl from Mistral."

"I heard that she's never even taken a hit."

"She's sure to come top in her year."

"Whoever got her on their team really lucked out."

"And she's gorgeous too."

Pyrrha frowned. None of these people knew her, none of these people even cared to know her but they felt free to whisper about her, to gossip about her, to say whatever they felt like about her as though she had neither ears nor feelings of her own. She was public property, and no more real to them than a picture in a magazine.

She glanced at the cold counter: her own face stared back at her from a box of Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes. Pyrrha's dismay at her own fame was momentarily overshadowed by concern at the fact that such an unhealthy breakfast option was being offered at an elite academy for training the finest warriors.

She got herself a mixture of meat (sausage and bacon) and fruit, plus a glass of orange juice, and sat down at one of the many empty tables.

She was just about to make a start when-

"Is this seat taken?"

Pyrrha looked up to see Yang Xiao-Long, the expansively-haired leader of Team YRDN, looking down at her.

"Be my guest," Pyrrha said softly.

"Don't mind if I do," the other girl said, as she set her tray down – she had a stack of pancakes with seemingly every available topping piled on them - with a thump and seated herself. "Pyrrha Nikos, right?"

Pyrrha was fairly certain that Yang knew that already, but she nodded gently all the same. "That's right."

Yang held out her hand. "Yang Xiao-Long, good to meet you; I'm Ruby's sister."

Pyrrha's eyebrows rose a fraction. "Really?" She never would have guessed, although perhaps she should have now that she recalled the way that Ruby cheered when Yang was made team leader, and the way that Yang had acknowledged Ruby on her way off the stage. At the time, she had thought that they were old friends.

Yang grinned. "Yeah, don't let the names fool you." She wiggled her fingers. "You gonna leave me hanging out here."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Pyrrha said quickly, taking Yang's hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Yang."

Yang's grip was firm. "Don't worry about it, any friend of Ruby's is a friend of mine." The grin on Yang's face didn't falter, but it did recede from her eyes just a little. "Of course the reverse is also true."

Pyrrha stared blankly at the other young woman. Was Yang threatening her? It was quite a novel experience; nobody had threatened Pyrrha for the last three years. It had been two years since anyone had so much as trash-talked her in the arena.

It was rather refreshing; for all that it was in this instance undeserved. Pyrrha smiled. "I give you my word, I have no ill intentions towards Ruby."

Yang's eyebrows rose, and her overall expression was more bemused than anything else. "You give me your word? Okay. You'd better mean it though, because-" She leaned forwards. "You wouldn't like me when I'm yangry."

Pyrrha stared at her.

"Yangry?" Yang said. "Get it, because my name is- oh, forget it." She cut a piece off her stack of pancakes and shoved it into her mouth. She mumbled something, but due to all the food in her mouth Pyrrha had no idea what she was trying to say.

"Excuse me?"

Yang swallowed. "Do you know where Rubes is?"

"She was still in bed when I left," Pyrrha replied. "I got up early, but our team leader was about to wake the others when I left."

Yang nodded. "Right. Well, I'm kinda glad we had the chance to have this little talk before she showed up. I mean I came down early in case I could catch one of you. Hey, guys, over here!" She stood up and waved to the other three members of team YRDN, who quickly grabbed their breakfasts and sat down on either side of Yang, all facing Pyrrha as though they were interviewing her for a job of some kind.

"So, this is my team," Yang said, spreading her arms wide to encompass the three new arrivals at the table. "Dove, Nora, Ren. Guys, this is-"

"Pyrrha Nikos," Dove said, holding out his hand. He was the only one sitting on Yang's right, with Nora and Ren upon her left. "Dove Bronzewing, it's a great honour to meet you in person."

 _Of course it is._ "Likewise," Pyrrha said quietly, and took his hand.

"I saw you defeat Hector in the final round of last year's regional tournament," Dove went on, oblivious to Pyrrha's mounting discomfort. "It was a great fight; he never stood a chance."

Pyrrha said nothing. Personally, the fact that Hector had never stood a chance against her was the reason it didn't stand out for her as a particularly great fight, but she wasn't sure how to explain that to a stranger. Frankly, she would rather change the subject to something – anything – else.

Fortunately, she was somewhat rescued at that moment by the arrival of Ruby and Jaune, who sat down on either side of her facing the members of YRDN.

"Hey, Yang," Ruby said as she sat down. Pyrrha saw that she was still wearing her red cloak over her uniform. "I see you met Pyrrha already."

"Yup," Yang said. "I was just laying down the law for her before you showed up."

"Yang!" Ruby whined.

Yang laughed as she reached across the table and ruffled Ruby's red-tinged hair. "You may be on a different team from me, but I'm still your big sister." She looked at Jaune. "And you…Jaune, right?"

"Jaune Arc, yeah."

"You got a girlfriend, Jaune?"

"Yang!"

Pyrrha hesitated, finding herself to be genuinely curious as to the answer. Jaune was comely, with a handsome face and a disarming manner; she found it hard to believe that he didn't have a girlfriend, or that he would have trouble finding one if he did not.

But there was a part of her, a part that she had not expected, that wished that he didn't.

She had never had a boyfriend, she had never been on a date; it might be nice to try it at least once. An image of a mystery man, faceless and unknown, taking her dancing flashed through Pyrrha's mind. For a moment, his face became that of Jaune Arc.

"Well, I mean, not exactly, but- Weiss!" Jaune called out, waving to Weiss Schnee who had just entered the cafeteria. Her team surrounded her like bodyguards, Cardin Winchester in particular looming over her with a particular presence. Flash Sentry looked at the YRDN-SAPR table with a frown of disquiet. Miss Schnee herself glance at Jaune, and then turned away with her nose in the air, leading her team to a different table some distance away.

Jaune let out a dispirited sigh.

"Oh, right, the initiation, yeah," Yang said apologetically. "I, uh…" she stared at Jaune for a moment, with his head bowed and his face crestfallen. "So, yeah." Pyrrha was left wondering why Yang had raised the subject if she wasn't going to pursue it further, and why Ruby looked so relieved.

Although a part of her felt a surge of pity for Jaune, another part of her was…almost glad.

"Hey, Yang," Ruby yelled. "You'll never guess what I found in our dorm last night."

"What?"

"It used to be Mom's room!" Ruby cried. "We found their initials and symbols carved into the wall: STRQ, that's Mom and Dad and Uncle Qrow. I don't know who the R is-"

Yang frowned for just a moment, and a shadow passed over her face. "I'm sure it doesn't matter. But that…that's amazing, Rubes. Like it was meant to be or something."

"You should come by and check it out after classes. We carved our own names up there too, you know, for the future."

Yang grinned. "Sounds cool. I'll swing by and take a look." She reached out and ruffled Ruby's hair again, ignoring her little sister's protest. "I'm proud of you, little sis." She glanced at Pyrrha, and at Jaune. "So…where's your fearless leader got to?"

* * *

Sunset was in the bathroom, putting on her face while she considered the question of expectation.

Having woken up before Jaune or Ruby or even early-riser Pyrrha, Sunset had taken the opportunity to do a little research on her team-mates. What she had found was both encouraging and challenging. She had known that she had been blessed – for a certain value of the word - with two talented teammates (the jury was still out on Jaune Arc), but a cursory amount of research had made clear what she had not quite comprehended before, not only how talented they were but also how high profile as well.

Pyrrha Nikos was not just a tournament champion; she wasn't just a girl with her face on a cereal box. She had literally never lost a fight in her life, not even in the kiddie leagues. She was a celebrity in her home country, and her decision to attend Beacon rather than Mistral's own Haven Academy had made the news; great things would be expected of her at Beacon beyond doubt. Sunset knew a little bit about that herself from her time under Celestia's wing and personal tuition, knew what it was like to have those expectations riding on your back, to be in a position where to be average was to be considered a failure because the personal bar for your success had been raised so much higher. But Sunset's own concerns were too immediate for her to spare much empathy for Pyrrha Nikos. The point was that if those expectations were not met, if Pyrrha did not exhibit the expected greatness and live up to the accolade of being the most gifted student to grace the hallowed halls of Beacon in its history, then there would be no shortage of apologists willing to blame her conveniently faunus team leader for squandering her potential.

And then there was Ruby Rose. Ruby's profile was not so high as Pyrrha's, not by a long shot, but nevertheless her early admission into Beacon had made the local news in the island backwater she called home, and the news that a fifteen year-old would be attending Beacon had warranted a modest article in Vale's leading newspaper. Ruby also had expectations riding on her, Ruby could also not be average if she wanted to prove that she deserved her place at this academy.

There might not be so many apologists ready to blame Sunset's leadership if Ruby screwed up, but Sunset had no doubt that they would be there.

It was the dark flipside of being leader: if your team succeeded, you got (some of) the credit; if your team failed you got all of the blame, especially when you'd lucked into leading a team with the Invincible Girl and the child prodigy.

All of which meant that Sunset Shimmer had work to do.

 _If Celestia could see me now, having to play well with others in order to get ahead, she'd probably laugh at the irony._

 _But I'll make it work somehow. It isn't like I have much choice._

She finished applying her eyeshadow and examined herself in the mirror. Was it the face of a leader: yes it was, for all that the school uniform didn't do much for her.

 _One day they won't be able to talk about Pyrrha Nikos without mentioning Sunset Shimmer in the same breath._

By the time that Sunset arrived at breakfast, Pyrrha was finished and Ruby and Jaune were halfway there, but they all waited for her – as did Team YRDN, led by Ruby's sister – while she ate her fruit quickly and in silence. Sunset wasn't sure about the wisdom of fraternising too much with their rivals, but with Yang and Ruby being sisters there wasn't much that she could say against it at this stage.

Sunset said nothing while she ate, but cast her gaze across Yang Xiao-Long and her team-mates. Nora Valkyrie talked too loudly and said too much, while Dove Bronzewing seemed a bit of a stuffed shirt; Lie Ren said nothing at all. And Yang…was there some way that she and Ruby could be separated from one another, emotionally? Could she turn them against one another and ensure that Ruby's loyalty was only with the team and not with her sister? Possibly, but was the reward worth the risk? Quite probably not. If Sunset got caught then it would shatter the team, not to mention what Yang might do. Sunset didn't know her well enough to say whether picking a fight with her would be a wise idea or not.

She would let it lie for now, and see how things played out. If the sororal closeness started to damage the team she would act, but for now she would simply observe.

* * *

Grimm Studies was the first class of the day, taught by a man who felt the need to have a gleaming gold bust of himself in his own classroom and who had managed to send half the class to sleep by the time he had finished his introduction.

Sunset nudged Ruby with her elbow, perhaps a little harder than she had intended, in order to wake her up before her snoring became too obvious. Just because the professor was restating the obvious – yes, Vale and the other three kingdoms are safe havens of humanity, we know, we live in them, get on with it – didn't mean that they weren't going to get on to the meat of the subject soon.

"But first," Professor Port declared. "A story."

Jaune groaned. Ruby bowed her head. Even Pyrrha, though she present the image of a model student, seemed to be somewhat disheartened by what she heard.

Sunset gripped her pen a little tighter – she still got hand cramps from the weird way in which humans held their writing instruments, but using her telekinesis instead was a drain on her magic that she couldn't always afford – and prepared to take notes.

"A story of a brave, handsome man," Professort Port continued. "Me. When I was a boy…"

Sunset scribbled away as he talked, using a shorthand that she had developed in order to keep up with Princess Celestia's lectures. She glanced at her team, seated to her right, out of the corner of her eye: Ruby was doodling some kind of picture; Pyrrha was taking notes half-heartedly, and sparsely; Jaune looked like he'd fallen asleep.

Sunset rolled her eyes. Didn't they get it? Hadn't they ever had a teacher who conveyed their lessons through stories before? Celestia used to do it all the time. Admittedly, Port wasn't telling his story very well, and Sunset couldn't say for certain what the lessons that he was trying to convey were, but that was why she was taking notes on everything that he seemed to focus on: so that she could read it back later and get the point.

If she had to guess, right now Sunset would have said that it had something to do with the grimm rattling around in the cage in the corner of the classroom.

 _He's telling a story about a beowolf, and then he's going to let a beowolf out into the classroom and we're going to have to use the knowledge from his story to kill it._

 _That makes sense._

She gave Ruby another hard nudge and gestured angrily for her to pay attention.

Ruby just grinned as she showed off a stick figure drawing of Professor Port, complete with smell lines.

Sunset let out a faint groan. _This is going to be hard work, isn't it?_

"The moral of the story," Professor Port said.

 _Ah, here we go._

"A true huntsman must be honourable."

 _Honour? We're fighting monsters not other people, and even if we were other people then what matter honour so long as we win? Are we supposed to be bow to the creatures of grimm and offer them the chance to take the first shot?_

 _This isn't going to be like all of those times when Celestia would tell a story and then finish up by telling me the importance of friendship even though that made no sense at all, is it?_

"A true huntsman must be dependable."

Weiss Schnee sniffed, and when Sunset glanced at her she saw the white-haired girl was looking sceptically down upon Team SAPR.

 _Oh, like your team is so much better? You've got a guy who wouldn't even stand up for his girlfriend on your team, what gives you any right to talk about dependable?_

"A true huntsman must be strategic, well-educated and wise."

Sunset smirked at Weiss, just to pay her back for that little sniff. Judging by the scowl on her face, Weiss didn't appreciate it too much.

"So, who among you believe yourselves to be the embodiment of these traits?"

Sunset's and Weiss' hands shot up into the air at the exact same time. "I do, sir!"

The two of them looked at one another. Weiss' expression, from where she sat high up in the back of the classroom, looking down on Sunset, seemed to suggest that she ought to back down in favour of the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company.

 _Bite my tail, princess. This is my first chance to show what I can do and I'm not going to yield place to you._

"Oho, eagerness!" Professor Port declared jovially. "Always a pleasure to see that the future huntresses who will defend our kingdom rearing to go. Alright, Miss Shimmer, step forward and face your opponent."

 _Better luck next time, Weiss._

One quick change later and Sunset was out of that uniform and back into her leather jacket and jeans, with Sol Invictus in her hands as she stood facing the cage with the beowolf inside.

It was definitely a beowolf. The professor's story had been about beowolves, so it only made sense for the monster they had to face at the end to be a beowolf.

And beowolves were easy to take care of.

Someone neighed at her. Sunset ignored them; greatness attracted envy, but the jealousy of lesser creatures was something that she had dealt with from her earliest youth.

"Go Sunset!" Ruby cheered. "Represent Team Sapphire!"

"I plan to," Sunset murmured. _And in so doing represent myself._

Professor Port smashed the lock with a single swing of his axe, and from out of the darkness of the cage burst…a boarbatusk?

"What the-" Sunset had no time to wonder on what in Tartarus the point of the story about beowolves had been when the boarbatusk charged at her, snarling and snorting.

 _No time to shoot._ Sunset dropped to one knee, resting the stock of Sol Invictus on the ground, keep the bayonet pointed at the swiftly onrushing boarbatusk.

The grimm was almost upon her, all four of its eyes gleaming as it leapt.

Sunset flicked the switch that extended the bayonet outwards like a spear, the blade shooting out on the end of eight feet of steel pole. The boarbatusk was struck in mid-leap, and though the blow didn't break through the armoured mask that covered its face it did knock it back, squealing as its trotters kicked at the air.

Sunset grabbed it, enveloping it with a soft green glow and holding it in place with telekinesis, keeping the soft underbelly of the beast presented as she drove her spear into its guts.

"Bravo! It appears we are indeed in the presence of a true huntress in training."

 _Of course you are, was there ever any doubt?_ Actually, Sunset did have some doubts, but not about her own performance: _if you were always going to let out a boarbatusk, what was the relevance of a story about a beowolf?_


	6. Diary

Diary

Over the course of the first week or so at Beacon, Sunset had learned a few things about her team and about the other teams that made up this year's first year class.

The first was that she did not like Weiss Schnee and Team WSTW one bit. And it wasn't just because it was the team that her ex was on, either; in fact that had absolutely nothing to do with it, not one bit. The sight of Flash hanging around with little Miss Schnee, rich and beautiful and privileged, left her absolutely cold. It filled Sunset with resentment not at all.

No, her problem with WSTW started and finished with the fact that they were awful.

This was first demonstrated in the first combat class, when Professor Goodwitch was explaining the purpose and uses of the rocket-propelled lockers for summoning equipment in the heat of the moment.

A series of panicked, spluttering cries drew her attention to Jaune, who was being stuffed into his locker by Cardin Winchester.

"No! Wait! Get me out of here!" Jaune yelled as Cardin entered a six-digit code into the holographic display. "Don't do it!"

Cardin stepped back with a smug look on his face as Jaune's locker started to take off. Trailing blue smoke, the locker ascended – about a foot up off the ground where it stopped, enveloped in a glow of green energy.

Sunset scowled as he stretched out her magic to hold the locker in place. She could feel the locker straining against her, she didn't need to see the blue smoke expanding across the floor to be able to feel the pressure on it to move, to ascend upwards as commanded. It was taking a lot of power to hold it steady, telekinesis was one thing but matching magic against kinetic energy was something else altogether. Sunset could already feel a headache coming on, a throbbing in her head from keeping Jaune in place against the full force of the rocket trying to carry him away.

"Pyrrha! Ruby!" the pain in her head sharpened her voice like her bayonet. "Get him out of there!"

Pyrrha was the first one to reach the locker, shoving Cardin roughly aside as he held up her spear, Milo. "Jaune, is your aura activated?"

"…yes?"

"I'm sorry," Pyrrha said, as with a single strong thrust she jammed Milo into the locker door and used it like a crowbar to lever said door open. She and Ruby pulled Jaune out at which point Sunset could stop holding it still and let the locker fly off to wherever Cardin had sent it.

Jaune's spare gear fell out of it as it fell, but it would only be scattered across school grounds. Hopefully.

Sunset clutched at her head with one hand, while Jaune coughed from the blue smoke that had pooled on the floor as a result of the rocket.

"Would have been more fun to watch him fly," Cardin muttered, before flinching away in the face of Pyrrha's furious glare.

Sunset stalked forwards, the headache from how she'd just exerted herself making her feel even fouler than the act itself and lending greater pronouncement to her scowl. Celestia had lied to her, and a lot of what she'd tried to teach Sunset had been complete and utter nonsense, but she had taught Sunset a little about _noblesse oblige_ , you had to protect your servants or they wouldn't serve you for very long.

And besides, she hated letting other people mess with her stuff.

Her hands clenched into fists. "If you-"

"That's quite enough," the voice of Professor Goodwitch was not loud, but it was firm enough to reduce all others to silence. "Mister Winchester, perhaps a detention will give you time to think about why your unprovoked attack on a fellow student was unbecoming of a student at this academy."

Cardin growled wordlessly.

"Team Sapphire," Goodwitch continued. "You would do very well to build upon the level of teamwork that you just displayed."

Cardin looked even more incensed than he had seemed before. "Professor-"

"Yes, Mister Winchester?" Professor Goodwitch demanded, staring at him from over the top of her spectacles.

"Nothing," he muttered.

"The pony probably wants a sugar lump," Russell said.

"Russell! Cardin! That's enough out of both of you!" Weiss snapped, in a voice that cracked like a whip. Sunset had to concede that she was impressed at the way that Weiss managed the difficult flee of looking down at someone who was nearly twice her height. "Need I remind you that your actions reflect not only upon yourself, but also on this team?" She glared at them both, as if daring them to speak. When they did not, she turned away and advanced primly across the locker room towards sunset and SAPR.

The cold blue eyes of the Schnee heiress swept over Ruby and Jaune, and lingered for a moment on Pyrrha. She looked Sunset, and her nose wrinkled in distaste. Her jaw clenched for a moment before she held out her hand. "On behalf of my primeval team-mates I apologise," she said, and if she had left it there then it might have ended, except that she also added. "However, I must say that if _your_ team-mate is so weak that he can be treated in such a way then perhaps he should reconsider his place at Beacon."

Jaune looked shame-faced, and it was Ruby who spoke for him, crying, "That's not fair, Jaune was taken by surprise and-"

"And do you expect the grimm to announce their presence before attacking?" Weiss asked. "You should have been more vigilant."

"Vigilance is one thing, but that is not the kind of behaviour one should expect from comrades in arms," Pyrrha declared.

"Of course not, but-"

"Look, if you want to apologise then apologise," Sunset snapped. "But I'm not interested in hearing this and I doubt anyone else is either."

Weiss recoiled. "Who are you to- fine." She folded her arms. "I feel sorry for you, Pyrrha, to be held back by team like this. It's such a shame." She walked away before anyone from SAPR could respond.

"Don't listen to her, Jaune," Ruby said encouragingly.

"Anyone can be taken by surprise," Pyrrha said.

Jaune didn't look convinced, but he didn't argue the point. He just stood there looking crestfallen for the rest of the day, although whether it was due to his perceived weakness or because his crush had just burned him Sunset could not have said.

It started to seem as though if Cardin had the opportunity to do something petty, then he would – so long as Weiss wasn't around. When she was, he stayed on something approaching his best behaviour, or as much as a lout like him could manage, but when she wasn't then there was no act so low he wouldn't stoop to, no prank too petty for him to pull – sometimes literally, like the times when he grabbed her tail and yanked on it so hard she nearly lost her balance.

"I told you it was real."

Sunset would have thrown him across the room, except that she knew from bitter experience that she would get blamed for starting a fight far more than he would get blamed for provoking one. So she smouldered and seethed and waited for the opportunity to get him back for it.

Jaune was the other target of Cardin's malice, against which he seemed thoroughly helpless. Which brought Sunset on to the second thing that she had learned in the first few days at Beacon: Jaune Arc sucked at absolutely everything and it was making Sunset absolutely furious.

He couldn't fight, he got his ass handed to him every time he stepped into the arena against absolutely any opponent in Professor Goodwitch's combat class. The fact that he was an absolutely wretched fighter who could barely hold his sword without chipping away at his own aura might have been forgiven if he'd displayed a brilliant grasp of the academics but no: he was failing Professor Oobleck's history class and he wasn't much better in any of their other classes either. The only class so far that Sunset had seem him display so much as basic competence was in Professor Peach's wilderness survival class, where he did know how to set up a camp, make a fire and various other things that Sunset didn't. But that was not, in Sunset's view, enough to compensate for is inadequacies elsewhere.

The fact that he was useless at almost every aspect of the Beacon curriculum might, in itself, have been forgivable if he was applying himself but simply running up against the limits of his ability. Sunset might have not actually forgive him for this given how her future was riding on the success of the team, but someone might have found it in their hearts to forgive him regardless. But no, the guy was as lazy as a toad and on any given night he was more likely to be found reading a stupid comic book than doing the homework.

It didn't help that, in Sunset's opinion, Ruby and Pyrrha mothered him relentlessly, offering encouragement when he needed criticism, smoothing away the hard edges of his failure and inadequacy. He might have been their baby brother instead of their team-mate.

Or perhaps they both just had a crush on him.

"Why do you two both coddle him so much?" Sunset demanded on the morning of the first Monday since initiation, when Jaune was in the shower. "He's dead weight and he'll drag us all down if we let him."

"He's trying his best!" Ruby protested.

"Then his best sucks!" Sunset replied. "I don't get why he's even here."

"Because he wants to be!" Ruby yelled. "Because I bet that this has been his dream as long as he knew what it meant to have a dream. So what if he isn't a great warrior right now, that's what we're here to learn, isn't it? We just have to work hard and get stronger together!"

"Oh, come on," Sunset said disdainfully. "You need to get real about this; the power of friendship isn't going to compensate for the fact that he barely knows how to hold that sword of his."

"Maybe not now, but he can learn," Ruby said.

"Can he?" Sunset demanded. "Pyrrha, back me up on this: he has too far to go and there isn't enough time."

Pyrrha sat on her bed, hands folded in her lap, her head bowed slightly, not looking at either Ruby or Sunset. "I…I'd like to believe that, so long as we're prepared to put our hearts and souls into working towards our final goals, there are no limits to the destiny that we can achieve."

"That's not how destiny works."

"That's the destiny that I believe in," Pyrrha replied firmly. "And I believe in Jaune. I felt his aura when I activated it, he has so much potential; more than anyone I've ever met."

 _I remember when I had more potential than anyone Celestia had ever met. Much good it did me and_ I _was prepared to work hard. And what is the deal with him not knowing anything about aura, anyway? How could he be so ignorant and still get through the admissions process?_

Sunset folded her arms. "Potential is all very well, but he's not using it."

"Neither was I," Ruby said. She hugged her red cloak tight about her as though it were a blanket. "When I started at Signal, I was a mess. I hadn't discovered my semblance, I couldn't fight. Yang…Dad…they both told me that I should give up on my dream of becoming a huntress. They told me that I just wasn't cut out to it. But my Uncle Qrow…he believed in me. He told me what I needed to hear: that I could become a huntress. And because he took me under his wing, here I am: I got into Beacon early because my uncle believed in me, and now we have to believe in Jaune and help him to be the best he can be."

 _Just because you have a dream doesn't mean it will come true,_ Sunset thought bitterly. Although…wasn't that why she was here, in the end? Wasn't that why she had crossed worlds, left home and hearth and all she knew behind, given up her very physical form and exchanged it for another, why had she done all that except to defy the unfairness of having held onto a dream in her heart for half her life only to be told one day 'sorry, kid, it was all for nothing'? She was here to seize her destiny, key word there being 'seize': she would take by force what fate (and Celestia) had denied to her, raising her fist in anger at its cruel decree. If she could be drawn to Beacon for such a purpose, then why not Jaune Arc too? Perhaps, in the end, she felt a little prick of conscience, or a moment of empathy, either way she scowled and muttered. "Fine. I'll let it go for now. But…he'd better start to show some improvement, for all our sakes."

And then there was Ruby. Ruby Rose, the young prodigy herself. In combat she was something else, second best in the whole year easily. Watching her from the bench…well, you didn't really watch Ruby fight, on account of her semblance. It was more like watching a succession of moments of some poor sap getting their ass kicked as Ruby slowed down enough for you to catch sight of her. A part of Sunset wondered how a fight between Ruby and Pyrrha would go, and was a little disappointed that she was unlikely to ever see such a wonder with her own eyes.

On the other hand, academically speaking she was almost as bad as Jaune; actually that was unfair to Ruby, she wasn't quite so ignorant and – unlike Jaune – she was willing to put the effort in…some of the time. Mostly, Sunset was inclined to attribute it to having missed two years of the classes she was supposed to have taken at Signal.

But mostly…Ruby was still the team-mate of whom Sunset had the least to say, whom she felt she understood the least. She was nice…but nobody could be that nice, surely. There had to be something underneath, something that Ruby was hiding from everyone. Nobody could be that purely good, nobody could want to help people unironically enough to state it as their motivation. That kind of old-fashioned hero wasn't around any more, if they'd ever existed in this world or any other. Ruby didn't talk much about herself, which might indicate that she was hiding something, but at this stage Sunset couldn't guess what that might be.

Sunset couldn't say she had a handle on Ruby Rose just yet, in any sense. She loved her sister, and there was something going on with her Mom but apart that…Sunset wasn't sure. Just like she wasn't sure that she'd be able to beat Ruby in a fight if it came to it. In fact she had some serious doubts that she was keeping to herself. The kid was just so fast. The first step to beating her would to be shut down her super-speed somehow but…how? Sunset had gone over it time and again in her head but all she could come up with was to throw a shield around herself so Ruby couldn't hit her. And then…and then what? That wouldn't help Sunset in the long term, since she wouldn't be able to hit Ruby either.

Fortunately, the random match-ups in combat class didn't seem to pick out team-mates to fight very often, but Sunset had been betrayed too often by those she trusted a good deal more than Ruby Rose to feel comfortable not having some kind of plan. Except on the basis of Ruby's combat performance, a plan to take her down was eluding even Sunset's great brain.

And last of all there was Pyrrha; Sunset had learned a few things about Pyrrha Nikos, starting with the fact that she was a complete badass. Every combat class with Professor Goodwitch where her name was called gave proof of that, but the moment that really hammered it home for Sunset was when she tossed Cardin Winchester up into the air like a tennis ball then proceeded to leap up after him, grabbed him by the neckand piledrove him head first back into the stage so hard that the floor cracked under the impact. Yes, Professor Goodwitch was able to repair the stage again with a wave of her riding crop but _solar-powered Celestia_! Sunset had been left staring, open-mouthed, and secretly feeling a sense of gratitude that the 'random' match-ups appeared to be tuned towards avoiding pitching members of the same team against one another.

As Ruby and Jaune cheered, Sunset was silent. Pyrrha wasn't just good she was a battlefield force of nature. How was anyone supposed to stand against that? What possible good was it doing for anyone to have her fight in the combat class sparring matches, she couldn't possibly be learning anything.

 _How could I last more than a few seconds against her?_

Some people might have dismissed the question, but Sunset could not. Just because they were on the same team didn't mean that their goals aligned, and Sunset had been betrayed too often by those who were much closer to her than Pyrrha Nikos was. And, frankly, Pyrrha was starting to get on her nerves enough that she would almost have wanted to fight her if it hadn't been for the unavoidable and seemingly unbridgeable gulf that existed between their abilities.

As she watched, Pyrrha offered a hand to help Cardin up to his feet. The big guy refused, picking himself up without aid. Pyrrha looked mildly troubled by his poor sportsmanship, as though it was strange to her that someone who had just been so thoroughly humiliated wouldn't particularly feel like accepting pity from the victor. In the losing position Sunset wouldn't have wanted pity any more than she would have offered it if she'd been the victor.

"Miss Nikos, superlative work as always," Professor Goodwitch said. Adding to Sunset's sense that Pyrrha got less than nothing out of this class was the way that the professor never even had anything to comment on in terms of her performance and ways that it could be improved.

Sunset couldn't be sure if Pyrrha nodded or bowed her head in shame. "Thank you, professor."

"Mister Winchester," Professor Goodwitch continued. "Your movements continue to be sloppy and imprecise. You would have given Miss Nikos a much harder time of it had you not left yourself open and off-balance at so many points during the bout."

Cardin's face twitched with irritation, but he said nothing.

"And that's all that we have time for today," Professor Goodwitch declared. "I'll see you all next time."

As Pyrrha made her way off the stage, she was mobbed by admirers congratulating her on her stellar performance. It was always like that when she was around. She really was a genuine, bona-fide celebrity. Wherever she went there was always at least one person who wanted a picture of her, or a selfie with her, or an autograph from her or just to pester her for a little bit. She took it all in stride, reminding Sunset a little of Celestia at times as she dealt, politely but distantly, with the various hangers on that she seemed to pick up like barnacles accruing to the bottom of a ship. But she clearly didn't like it, that was clear to Sunset from the way that she held herself, from looking into her eyes, from every nonverbal cue that Pyrrha was sending off and it was driving Sunset up the wall even worse than Jaune's general uselessness because what in Celestia's name did Pyrrha Nikos have to be upset about?

Honestly, it was enraging. It was the main reason why Sunset had holed herself up in the library rather than going back to the dorm-room because it felt as though if she saw Pyrrha right now then she was going to scream at the ungrateful little wretch.

Seriously, what did she have to be upset about? She was talented, famous, beautiful, everybody knew her name and everybody wanted a piece of her. She was the object of rumour, whisper and desire, widely-accepted as the most talented student to grace Beacon Academy in years, if not since it's foundation. Greatness was predicted for her from every quarter, nobody could wait to see what she would become and all they wanted was some memeto to prove that they had known her in her youth before she became even more famous than she was going to be later. And yet she had the gall, she had the utter self-centredness to mope about it? To show disquiet, to not love every single moment of it? Why in Tartarus not? Didn't she realise what Sunset would give to have everything that Pyrrha had?

 _I did have everything that she had once, and it was stolen away from me,_ Sunset thought. _I'd give my right arm to get it all back again: the fame, the glory, the adulation and the idolisation. All the things that I want and must struggle to my utmost limits to regain are the things that she has and treats as burdens to be borne with clear reluctance. Little brat. How can she not appreciate all the good things that she has?_

It was bad enough that Pyrrha had the nerve to be in possession of all that Sunset desired, bad enough that she was more talented than Sunset, bad enough that the destiny that Sunset was so desperate for had pretty much dropped into her lap like a ripe plum but she didn't even like it! It was maddening, and it was especially maddening because there was nothing that Sunset could do except stew in the unfairness of it all and marinate in her resentment at the rank ingratitude that Pyrrha displayed every single moment of her life.

She couldn't take what Pyrrha had and make it hers, it didn't work like that. Worse, Sunset would have to work with her, and help her gain even more acclaim that she wouldn't treat with the respect and gravity that it deserved, while Sunset fed off the scraps from her table like a dog. It was unfair. It was monstrously unfair. It was an injustice that cried out to the heavens for redress.

 _Why should I, who long for the limelight to shine once more upon me, dwell in this detestable ignominy while she stands always in the light of the sun and casts disdainful looks towards it?_

 _Why should she have what I want, when she isn't even using it properly?_

Sunset looked with a frown at the book that sat on the table in front of her. No school textbook this, but the magical journal that she had brought with her from Equestria. It was sitting in front of her because…because, honestly, she had no one else to talk to about this stuff.

No one to talk to but a magic book that a faraway princess might read.

Sunset almost hoped that she didn't. She almost hoped that she didn't come back to Sunset and tell her 'I told you so' or 'You can come home' or 'You should embrace the magic of friendship' or anything else. She just wanted – she felt as though she needed, before she blew up from trying to contain them – to pour out her thoughts and her resentments before they grew too much for her to hold in.

She wanted to bare her soul, she didn't want her old teacher to examine it.

Did she? If she just wanted to keep a journal then she could keep a journal. Did she want to hear from Celestia again?

Did she want to be forgiven?

Did she want to be told that, after everything that had passed between them, her teacher still believed in her?

Sunset didn't know what she wanted or didn't want any more. All that she wanted was the destiny that she had been denied.

And to be heard.

Sunset opened the book to the first blank page and began to write. She wrote about Jaune and how annoying it was how she was afraid that he was going to negatively affect their team grade average – how could he not? She wrote about Ruby and how darn nice she was and it was weird. She wrote about how she had to lead this team, even though she didn't like them all that much and wasn't really a team leader kind of person but more of a loner (but you knew that, didn't you princess?). Most of all she wrote about Pyrrha: wonderful Pyrrha, talented Pyrrha, destined for greatness Pyrrha, Pyrrha who had everything that Sunset had so longed for…and didn't even seem to care that she had it.

Sunset poured out her frustrations upon the page, she set down all the thoughts that whirled about her brain…and then she stopped. She stared at the magical diary for a moment. Nothing happened. No word came from Celestia. No reply for good or ill.

Nothing happened except that Sunset felt a little emptied out of all her troubles, and in the emptying she felt…actually a little bit better. She actually felt as though she could go to the dorm room and not explode at Pyrrha for the way she was behaving.

Sunset put the journal back in her bag, and started to rise from her seat.

The book started to shake, which could only mean one thing: someone was replying.

Sunset swallowed. She felt a chill forming in the pit of her stomach, anticipation filling her with dread. Celestia was replying to her. The princess had something to say.

Good or bad, Sunset couldn't say. She could only fear.

 _I guess there's only one way to find out for certain._

Sunset reached gingerly for the book in her bag. She hesitated, and cursed herself for hesitation.

 _Come on, you can fight monsters but you can't do this._

 _The worst the monster could do is kill me. Celestia could disapprove._

 _She probably does._

 _Maybe, but you won't know until you open the stupid book, will you?_

Sunset scowled as she screwed her courage to the sticking point, pulled out the book, and opened it.

 _Um…I don't mean to be rude, and I'm sure that it took a lot of effort for you to write that and I don't mean to make light of it, but…who are you?_

Sunset stared at the writing in front of her, and blinked. Had…had Celestia forgotten her? Had she forgotten all about Sunset Shimmer, her prize student, her little sunbeam?

 _I know we kind of left things in a bad way but I thought she'd at least remember me, even if it wasn't fondly?_

All the time they'd spent together, all the memories they had shared…was nothing worthy of remembrance?

 _You've forgotten me_ Sunset wrote in the diary. She was unsure whether to add a question mark at the end or not. It seemed fairly clear that Celestia had, indeed, forgotten. _You don't remember me at all._

 _Should I? Sorry, I only got this book recently. What's your name?_

 _She gave the book away,_ Sunset thought. _She gave our book away. The book so that we could keep in touch and she just…what, did she throw it out? Did you hate me that much? Were you glad to be rid of me in the end?_

She wrote with more force than necessary. _I'm Sunset Shimmer; who are you and how did you get this book?_

 _I was given it by Princess Celestia, as part of a large collection of books,_ came the reply. _I'm the princess of friendship, Twilight Sparkle._

* * *

 _Author's Note: I really wanted to bring Twilight into the story in some form because, as I see it, she is the middle-ground between the starting points of Sunset and Pyrrha. Sunset is on one side, disdaining friendship and seeking glory and acclaim. Pyrrha stands on the other end, possessing both and hating that she has them because what she really wants is friendship and human connection. Twilight stands between them, having her cake and eating it as well as she enjoys the perks of being a princess and the company of good friends who love her for who, rather than what, she is._

 _I did think about having Twilight come to Remnant for some variant of the Equestria Girls plotline, but I couldn't think of a way to make it work, which is why the journal was a godsend from a thematic perspective for involving her in the story from Equestria.  
_


	7. Wrath and Melancholy

Wrath and Melancholy

Sunset stared at the book, lying open on the table in front of her. She stared at the words written on the page.

 _The Princess of Friendship_

 _Princess_

Sunset's eyebrow twitched. Another princess? A princess of friendship no less, that power that she had counted for nothing? She was reminded uncomfortably of Cadance, whose sudden arrival at Celestia's court had marked the point at which things started to go wrong for Sunset Shimmer, the point at which the cosy pattern of her life had started to crack and the marked out road leading to her destiny had started to seem less certain than before. And now, it seemed, there was another princess in Equestria. This Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship, who had taken the prize that ought by rights have belonged to Sunset.

 _Another princess in Equestria._

 _Princess Twilight Sparkle._

Who was she, this Twilight Sparkle who came between the crown and Sunset's hopes? Where had she come from, what had she done, why did she have Sunset's journal?

Why had Celestia given her Sunset's journal?

 _Did all our days mean so little to you, princess, that you would cast aside our only means of connection and bestow it on this...this interloper?_

 _Why did you give her the book? What purpose could it serve for her? Why did you think that I'd want to talk to her instead of you?_

 _Why would you treat me like that, cast me aside in spirit as well as in fact?_

There was a part of her that wanted to run. There was a part of her that wanted to weep. There was a part of her that wanted to throw the book away and forget that this had ever happened.

There was a part of her that wanted to scream in rage because after everything that had happened to her recently this was just too much. It didn't matter that her own ambitions had been denied years before Twilight Sparkle came upon the scene, it didn't matter that Celestia had denied her destiny to her, it didn't matter that Sunset had no idea who this pony was and she in turn had never heard of Sunset because it was too much. It was much too much. Coming on top of Jaune's inadequacy and Pyrrha's ingratitude and Weiss' haughtiness and the racism of Cardin Winchester it was almost more than Sunset could stand.

Perhaps she should have expected this, that someone would seize the destiny from which she had been barred. But she had not wanted to think on that and so she had told herself that there was no one like her, that in all worlds she was unique and uniquely suited to the crown and to her glorious destiny alike. Now the world itself reminded her it was not so.

Sunset felt in that moment like the whiteface clown, humbled and humiliated for the delight of the braying creatures in the gallery.

 _The Princess of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle._

Sunset wanted to run and scream and rage and fight. Wrath and melancholy blended in her soul in equal measures. With a trembling hand, fearful of what fresh shocks might break upon her but at the same time unable to escape her desire to know for certain, Sunset picked up her pen. She had to be careful not to grip it too tight, for she was in such a mood as she could have snapped it in two if she wasn't careful.

 _A princess,_ Sunset wrote. _That's fascinating. Do you know Celestia well?_

 _Oh, yes,_ came the reply from Twilight Sparkle. _I was her personal student until I...ascended, I suppose you might call it. What about you, how do you know Princess Celestia?_

Sunset didn't reply. She didn't move. She didn't speak. She didn't scream although a part of her wanted to now more than ever. Another part of her wanted to write more in the journal, to make more demands of Twilight, to find more answers. She had been Celestia's student. Another student of Celestia. Of course. Sunset knew that she hadn't been the first but she had thought...she had been vain enough to hope...but no, Celestia had taken on another pupil and she hadn't even mentioned Sunset to her, not even once. Twilight Sparkle didn't recognise her name. Princess Twilight Sparkle had no clue who she was, or that they shared the same connection to Celestia.

 _Did you live with her, in her palace?_ Sunset wanted to ask. _Did she tuck you in at night, did she read you bedtime stories, did she care for you when you were sick, comfort you when you were sad, did she call you by a nickname? Did she take you in when you had no one else, did she provide for you and care for you?_

 _Did she tell you that you were destined for greatness and for glory?_

 _Did she love you as...did she make you think she loved you...does she love you?_

 _And do you appreciate what a wondrous gift you have in her love?_

Sunset realised that she was crying, she could barely see for the water in her eyes that was streaming down her face. She whimpered as she wept, weeping for the lost promise of her early days and all the good things she had in vain and prideful folly cast aside; things that she had not realised just how much she missed till she discovered that they had passed beyond recall and settled on another.

 _I have been robbed. While I have been on a journey Twilight Sparkle has not only burgled my house but taken up residence within it._

Sunset couldn't remain there. Tears in her eyes she fled, leaving her book behind and all her things as she ran for the door. Lie ren stood in her way, but with a single hand she pushed him to the ground - he landed on the floor with a startled shout - and ran on, her boots thudding like drumbeats on the floor as she ran out of the library and into the courtyard. She ran on, hoping to reach her dorm-room; she was going to lock herself in the bathroom and there hide her shameful weakness from the world.

"Look out!"

She didn't see him until it was too late, she caught a glimpse of the flash of gleaming armour, she felt the cold hard metal as she collided with it and then suddenly she and the other person had gone sprawling on the ground together in a tangled heap. Sunset wasn't hurt, her aura was more than sufficient to prevent injuries from such a fall, but as if her pride wasn't injured enough.

"Woah, watch where-Sunset?"

It was Flash. Of course it was. Of all the people that she could have run into - literally run into - it would have to be Flash Sentry wouldn't it. She had knocked his books all over the ground, and with a touch of her magic Sunset gathered them all together into a rough heap so he could pick them up more easily. She didn't want him to demand she stay and help him, she didn't want to stay here for another moment longer. She leapt to her feet and started, eyes still filled with tears, hair askew, towards her dorm-room.

"Sunset, wait!" Flash called. "I just...can't we talk for a minute?"

"What do we have to talk about?" Sunset snapped.

"Just because I'm on a team with Cardin and Russell doesn't mean I'm like them," Flash declared. "I want to apologise for the way that they've treated you and your team. It isn't right."

"I don't want to hear it, Flash, I don't have time for this!" Sunset yelled.

"You never want to hear it, that's why- Sunset, are you crying?"

Sunset flinched away from him, hiding her face behind her long, fire-streaked hair, trying to use it like a veil that concealed what he had already set eyes upon. "No."

"Sunset," Flash murmured. He sounded so concerned, and when he used that voice Sunset was reminded of how she had believed - how she had let herself believe, how she had convinced herself - that he cared about her. "What's the matter? Has something happened, maybe I can-"

"What?" Sunset yelled. "Maybe you can help me, is that what you were going to say? I don't need your help, Flash. I never needed your help, and you know that's a good thing because you never helped me anyway!" Her fury burned in her hotter than the fire in the belly of a dragon, and because she could not burn Princess Twilight Sparkle to a crisp she vented out her fire upon Flash Sentry. "I don't need you help and I don't need anything from you! Nothing at all, I never did!" Sunset's whole body shuddered, as if in pain. She was in pain, the pain of all her sorrows wracked her like cramps. "So you...you can take your pity and you can shove it! Or...or better yet, why don't you try your white knight act out on Weiss Schnee and see if she appreciates it." She turned and fled. "Leave me alone, Flash, I'm done with you!"

She ran, heedless of Flash calling her name, until she reached her dorm room. She fumbled with her scroll until the door opened and she rushed inside. It was empty. Good. She would hide from the others, from every hostile eye and ear - which was all of them - until she was herself again. Until she re-assembled the mask she wore that Twilight Sparkle had shattered with her revelation.

Sunset grabbed the pillow off her bed - knocking that stupid stuffed unicorn to the floor as she did so - and screamed into it, screaming out all the rage and frustration that she had not vented upon Flash Sentry. Robbed, replaced, usurped, humiliated...forgotten by the person who had mattered most to her in all the world, her dreams denied and her possessions given away like things of no account. She screamed her rage and her sorrow both alike, she felt such emotions and so strongly that she was probably attracting half the grimm in Remnant right now but no matter. Let them come. She'd fight them all and even if she got gobbled up by a beowolf at least she wouldn't have to feel like this any more.

And then she retreated into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her as she hid in there with her tears and her pillow and her rage for company.

Another princess in Equestria. Equestria had another princess, and no reason to think of her any longer. Celestia had a new daughter, and no reason for care for the prodigal child who had run away from home.

 _You're not my mother. I was a fool to ever forget that._

 _It was your choice to make me love you, though it was my choice to believe that you loved me in turn._

 _This is so unfair._

There was a knock on the door. "Sunset? Are you okay in there?"

Sunset didn't reply. She wasn't okay, she wasn't anywhere close to being okay, she was so far past okay that she could barely remember what okay felt like…but she wasn't going to admit it, not to Ruby, or to any of them.

Ruby knocked again. "Sunset…Flash found me-"

"Flash needs to mind his own business!"

"He was worried about you," Ruby said. "He said that you were…he said that you'd been crying? Is something wrong?"

"Why do you care?" Sunset snapped.

"Because…because you're my partner," Ruby said. "Because we're team-mates, and if we have problems then we should solve them together."

 _You poor, dumb, naïve kid,_ Sunset thought. _How can someone whose Mom went and left her when you were just a kid still not know how cold the world really is?_

"Sunset?" Pyrrha asked nervously. "I went and brought your things from the library where you'd left them, in case you didn't feel like getting them yourself."

Sunset's eyes widened. _The book!_ Pyrrha had the book! She might even have read it and if she had…if she had then she'd know all of Sunset's secrets, she'd know exactly why Sunset was so upset.

Sunset leapt to her feet, a cold sweat descending down her back as it attempted to douse the fresh-aroused fires of anger that leapt up within her gut. Pyrrha had the book. Pyrrha had her book. Pyrrha had taken her book, her special book, her connection to Celestia! Yes, Celestia had given away her end to Princess Twilight Sparkle but that didn't mean it was okay for Pyrrha to go around taking Sunset's stuff.

Sunset threw open the door and snatched the journal out of Pyrrha's hands before she could take a step backwards. "Did you read it?" she demanded.

"Sunset-"

"Did you read it?" Sunset snarled.

"No, I-"

"Good. Don't," Sunset snapped, shouldering past Pyrrha and Ruby and depositing the journal under her bed. "And don't touch any of the rest of my stuff, okay? It's mine, it's private. If I want to go and get it back out of library I will and if I want to leave it there then I'll do that to!"

"Sunset, Pyrrha was just trying to help," Ruby said reproachfully. "What's really going on?"

Sunset took a deep breath. "What's really going on?" she repeated. _Where to even start._ "What's really going on?" She looked at Pyrrha. Everything about that Invincible Girl was enraging to Sunset right now, from the milksop look on the pretty face to the reputation that hung around her shoulders like a cape, to the circlet gleaming on her brow that far, far too much like a crown for Sunset's liking. In Sunset's mind she didn't just see Pyrrha Nikos but Twilight Sparkle, too, the mare she had never heard of who had come from behind to take away everything that Sunset had ever wanted, everything that ought to have been hers, everything that had been promised to by fate: her destiny.

"You know what's really going on?" Sunset shouted. "You know what the problem is, the problem is you! You are the most ungrateful person I have ever met, do you even realise how lucky you are?"

"I…I don't know what you're talking about," Pyrrha began.

"Oh, I bet you don't, you really don't get it, do you?" Sunset snarled. "You have hordes of admirers hanging off your every word, you get followed by glances and whispers wherever you go, you're a subject of press coverage and gossip magazine speculation! You have fame, glory, celebrity, you have everything that anyone could ever wish for-"

"Oh, do I?" Pyrrha demanded, her own voice taking on a slightly aggressive tone.

"Um, guys-" Ruby began.

"Yes, you do, of course you do," Sunset said. "You've got everything that everyone wants, you've got everything that _I_ want but do you appreciate it? Do you? No, you don't, you act like it's such a burden to be loved by so many-"

"They don't love me," Pyrrha cried, her voice cracking with anguish. "Is that…is that what you call love? I haven't had a single meaningful relationship with anyone who wasn't my mother in my entire life, I haven't had the chance to form any because I'm constantly being put on a pedestal that separates me from the people who put me there-"

"Oh, boo fricking hoo!" Sunset said, her lips curling into a sneer. "Go cry into your trophy cabinet and take a look at the crown you stole from me while you're at it!" She halted, if only for a moment. _Why did I just…who am I talking to here?_

"Sunset!" Ruby yelled.

"Do you think any of the people who ask for my autographs really know me?" Pyrrha asked. "Or that they even want to? I don't have any friends-"

"So what?" Sunset demanded. "Friends are overrated."

"That's enough!" Ruby snapped. "Sunset…why are you acting like this? We're a team. We're your team-mates. Pyrrha's your team-mate. What's wrong with you?"

"There's nothing wrong with me, it's the world that's wrong!" Sunset yelled. _Wow, even to me that sounded arrogant._ "I mean…you couldn't possibly understand how I'm feeling right now." She stalked over to the door. "I just hate it when great gifts are given to those who don't want or deserve them." She slammed the dorm room door behind her as she left.

She didn't know where she was going, but she knew that she couldn't stay there.

* * *

Ruby clasped her hands together. She felt so helpless right now. She didn't know what to say to Pyrrha, and certainly not to Sunset. She looked from the door, which Sunset had just slammed behind her, to Pyrrha who sat down heavily upon her bed and sighed. She bowed her head, and she looked so sad that Ruby was desperate to do something to help her, even if she didn't know exactly what to do or say.

"Pyrrha?" she murmured.

Pyrrha was silent for a moment. "I suppose…I was far too optimistic about coming to Beacon."

"What do you mean?"

"I thought…I thought that maybe here was a place where I could escape my fame and find…but it seems that my reputation has followed me here, for good and bad."

Ruby frowned. "For whatever it's worth, what you said isn't quite true."

Pyrrha looked at her. "I don't understand."

"You said that you didn't have any friends," Ruby said. "But…you've got at least one." She smiled tentatively.

Pyrrha looked at her for a moment. Then, slowly and just as tentatively as Ruby, she started to smile back.


	8. Equestrian Interlude

Equestrian Interlude

The doors to Celestia's throne room creaked open. The princess herself stood at the far end of the great chamber, atop the dais and just before the throne from which she had for a thousand years ruled wisely and well over the land of Equestria. Twilight advanced down the traverse, her hoof-falls soft upon the crimson carpet, and in spite of all of her accomplishments she still felt a touch of that habitual nervousness that she had always felt in the presence of her old teacher.

Twilight's friends followed her in, slightly trailing Twilight but also surrounding her as though they were her guards as much as her friends. In Twilight's saddle-bag, the magical book - Sunset Shimmer's book - weighed heavily. Why had Celestia requested that she bring it with her, and why had she asked the six of them to come to Canterlot to see her at once? Who was Sunset Shimmer, and how did she know Princess Celestia? And why had Celestia given Twilight the book that was meant to serve as their means of contact?

"Twilight," Celestia's voice was almost maternal in it's warmth, and as Twilight approached Celestia descended from the dais with a fond smile upon her ageless face. She craned her neck down to embrace Twilight, and for a moment student and teacher nuzzled each other warmly. "It's wonderful to see you again, to see you all," she added, including Twilight's friends in her greeting. "Thank you for coming on such short notice...and for telling me that Sunset Shimmer had made contact with you."

"Of course, princess," Twilight said. "But I don't understand, who is Sunset Shimmer? And, if this book was intended to let the two of you communicate over great distances then why did you give it to me?"

Celestia raised her head, and looked over the heads of Twilight and her friends into nothing, or perhaps into the past where Twilight could not see. For a moment she seemed to age before Twilight's eyes, and her eyes filled with sadness and regret. "Sunset Shimmer was a pupil of mine, just as you were," she said. "Before I taught you, I once taught Sunset."

Pinkie gasped, and indeed continued to do so until she ran out of breath and had to gasp for air.

"Just so we're clear, your highness," Rarity murmured. "When you say that you taught her like Twilight, you mean as more than just another unicorn at your school, don't you? She was your personal student."

"Indeed," Celestia replied. "Before Twilight, Sunset Shimmer was my personal student, my protege."

"But I thought you only took Twilight on as your personal student because of how powerful her magic was?" Fluttershy asked softly.

Celestia nodded. "That is correct, Fluttershy; however, Sunset's magic was every bit as powerful at Twilight's was, or close enough."

Pinkie gasped again, in a manner even more absurdly theatrical than before if possible.

"But...if that's true then why haven't I heard of her?" Twilight said. "Why hasn't anyone heard of such a talented unicorn? Why didn't you tell me about her, that you had a student before me?"

"Sunset strayed from that path a long time ago." Celestia closed her eyes for a moment. "Please, follow me, all of you. I will explain everything as we go."

She led the way out of the throne room via the rear door, leaving the other little ponies to follow her into the recesses ofthe castle. "I did not teach Sunset exactly as I taught you, Twilight. I was...more honest with her about what I expected, and what I believed that her destiny could be."

"You told her about ascension," Twilight said. "You told her that she could become an alicorn, and a princess?"

Celestia nodded. "I told her everything; that proved to be a mistake. The knowledge that she was destined for greatness caused Sunset's pride to swell, she became ungovernable, consumed by a sense of her own destiny and impatient of anything that seemed to deny her what she considered rightfully hers."

"She sounds impossible," Rainbow Dash said, causing all the rest of Twilight's friends to stare at her with incredulity upon their faces. "What?"

"You have no idea, darling," Rarity said dryly.

Applejack said, "So what happened next, princess? I could buy that maybe there was another princess we hadn't heard of yet, but knowing all of y'all like I do this Sunset Shimmer don't seem the type to earn wings."

Celestia chuckled softly. "You are as perceptive as ever, Applejack; that was the irony of Sunset Shimmer's life: that in her heedless impatience to ascend she rendered herself unworthy of ascension and cut herself off from the destiny to which she aspired. For a time I hoped that she could learn better, that if only she would repent and open her heart up to the magic of friendship then...but it was not to be. Sunset was running from something she could not escape, consumed by an emptiness that she could never fill. When it became clear to me that she would never ascend...she took it as a betrayal, and fled. That is why, when I began to teach you, I kept you ignorant of my hopes for you Twilight; I hoped that without that burden to distort your expectations you would grow without..."

"Without becoming like her," Twilight supplied. She shivered slightly at the prospect, that she could have become - and easily, so easily - just like the Sunset Shimmer of Celestia's account: proud, vain and headstrong, impatient with others and with the world, arrogant, heartless. The Sunset that was revealed through her own account, what she had written unbidden in the magical journal, seemed cut from the same cloth: full of complaints about these strangely named people Ruby, Jaune and Pyrrha without the slightest hint that Sunset had any flaws at all.

"Oh, come on!" Pinkie cried, wrapping Twilight up in a hug. "There's no way Twilight could ever become a meaniepants like that. No way no how!" Pinkie smiled, and placed a soft hoof on Twilight's heart. "Your heart's too good for it."

Twilight smiled back. "That's very kind of you, Pinkie, and sweet; but it's your friendship more than any innate virtues of mine that keep me on the right path." She didn't really want to consider that alternative, the some people were just born good and others were just born evil. Not only was the notion anathema to her, after all she had witnessed Discord himself reformed and redeemed by a simple act of kindness but more to the point…if Twilight herself was born good, naturally and innately so and by that quality of innate nature suited for ascension and the crown then…what did that make her predecessor? Innately wicked? But how could Celestia's choice of student fall upon someone whose soul had from birth been black as filth? Surely her teacher could not be so fallible. No, it was not so; it could not be so. Sunset had light within her, just as Twilight had darkness within her that the light of the friendships she had made drowned out and put to flight. Sunset had no one to perform such a signal service for her.

No one, it seemed, but Twilight herself.

"Yeah it is," Rainbow declared. She paused. "It's stuff like that, isn't it?"

"Quite," Rarity said. She cleared her throat. "But, Princess Celestia, when you say that Sunset left...where did she go?"

"What I am about to show you is one of the rarest, and possibly the most dangerous treasures of Equestria," Celestia said. Her horn glowed golden as she opened a door.

"Ooh, what is it?" Rainbow asked. "Some kind of cool weapon?"

The door opened. Inside was a mirror, an antique-looking but otherwise quite unremarkable seeming mirror.

"Gotta say, that's a bit of a letdown," Rainbow said.

Applejack pushed her stetson back on her head as the six ponies followed Princess Celestia into the chamber. "You did say this was one of the most dangerous treasures in Equestria, right?"

"This is no ordinary mirror," Celestia said. "For three days every thirty moons, this mirror becomes a portal to another world."

Twilight's eyes widened. "Another...world?"

Celestia nodded. "It was through the mirror that Sunset fled, when her destiny was denied to her. She sought to find in that world what had been barred to her in this one. For a time I thought that she might return some day, but...as the time passed that hope dwindled. The diary that you have was a way for us to stay in touch, since Sunset had no dragon assistant. It has been so long that I was not expecting her to make contact."

"I don't think Sunset was expecting a reply," Twilight said.

"I...I am glad to know that she is still alive," Celestia murmured.

"Still alive?" Fluttershy said. "Why wouldn't she be?"

"Yes, I must admit that sounds a little ominous."

"I do not know exactly what lies on the other side of the mirror," Celestia said. "But...I have felt a dark presence there, probing, searching. Sometimes I have even felt it watching me. I fear whatever lies on the other side of the mirror is a cruel place. I feared for Sunset there."

Twilight hesitated a moment. "Princess Celestia...what do you want to do now? With the diary, about Sunset?"

Celestia stared into the mirror, as if instead of her own reflection she could see through it to this fearsome world that lay on the other side. "That is not for me to say," she replied. "I have failed Sunset once already."

 _Of course it comes to me. It always seems to, in the end. And I am the Princess of Friendship, what does that mean if not that it is my responsibility to reach people like Sunset Shimmer._ "I...I'd like to keep writing to her, if you agree, princess."

"Are you sure about this, Twi?" Rainbow asked. "I mean...this mare...she seems kinda nasty."

"She can't hurt me through a book," Twilight replied. "But maybe I can help her through a book, and if I can...I think I have to try." She hesitated, knowing what she had to ask but nervous about actually doing so. "Princess Celestia…is there anything that you'd like me to say to Sunset for you?"

Celestia closed her eyes, and her face was contorted with an expression of such profound sorrow and regret that Twilight in turn regretted having raised such painful memories in one whom she loved almost as a mother. For a while, Celestia was silent, seeming to wrestle with the past she had thought banished beyond recall. "Tell her…tell Sunset I am glad that she is alive, and that more than alive I hope that she is well and content. Tell her…and tell her…please tell her how very sorry I am, for all the things that I said…and all the things that I did not say."


	9. The Wrath of Pyrrha

The Wrath of Pyrrha

The book in Sunset's bag vibrated.

Sunset ignored it, and tried to concentrate on the book that she was actually reading. But the journal in her bag just kept on vibrating, humming like a scroll signalling that she had texts and every bit as irritating. It would stop for a bit, and then it would start up again.

Sunset wasn't in Beacon. It had been a day since she blew up at Pyrrha and somehow everyone - absolutely everyone, Sunset was inclined to blame Ruby telling her sister's team and Team YRDN for spreading it all around the school. _I knew I should have done something to turn Ruby against her sister_ \- Now everyone knew that she, a mere faunus, had dared to mouth off to the great Pyrrha Nikos.

To say that the reaction had not been kind to Sunset was an understatement. The whole of Beacon seemed to have taken sides and they had not sided with Sunset. Today it had been her turn to be followed by whispers including the words impudent, impertinent and the ever popular 'who does she think she is?' Sunset had even been asked that to her face at breakfast by Cardin Winchester, who had loomed over her while his henchman with the awful haircut hovered nearby.

Sunset was eating alone, she thought it was probably best for everyone and, in any case, there was no requirement for a leader to eat with their subordinates. Celestial didn't dine with her guards after all.

So she ate, in silence and alone, and tried to ignore Cardin's shadow blocking out the light and his obnoxious voice.

Cardin growled. "Hey!" he snapped, pulling on Sunset's tail hard enough to make her wince in pain. "I'm talking to you, pony!"

Sunset looked up at him, a look of cold contempt upon her face. "Don't do that again."

"You should watch your tone, pony."

"I'm sure you'd prefer me to call you boss, but I'm afraid that's not going to happen."

"Who do you think you are?" Cardin demanded. "To talk to humans that way, to talk to your betters that way?"

"I'm Sunset Shimmer," Sunset said simply. "I don't have any betters."

Cardin's face twisted into a scowl. "Listen, pony-"

"Call me pony one more time, I dare you."

"Pony."

Sunset smirked, and with a touch of telekinesis she hurled Cardin clean across the dining hall. He soared across the cafeteria with a cry of alarm, landing on an empty table recently vacated by Team BLBL. The table broke under his impact.

Silence descended over the cafeteria. Ruby, Jaune and Pyrrha were all staring at her, Flash had his head in his hands, Yang was grinning, Russell loomed as though he was about to wet himself. Weiss's eyes narrowed as she gazed at Sunset.

Sunset looked around the room, locking gazes with all of those who stared at her, all of these little people who wanted to put a collar on her because they couldn't stand the fact that she dared things they couldn't dream of.

 _I know you all,_ Sunset thought. _I know you all and I have your measure too._ With a snort of disdain she turned to stalk from the hall.

"Sunset," Pyrrha called, hair-raising from her seat. "I neither intended nor asked for this. I give you my word."

Sunset looked at her. She looked apologetic, but that neither proved nor signified anything. And besides, it didn't really matter whether she had intended it to happen or not. It had happened.

So Sunset didn't bother to dignify Pyrrha's mealy-mouthed apology with a response, but turned and walked away without another word.

She left the dining hall, and passed into the courtyard, where the fountain babbled away around the statue of the heroic huntsmen and huntress. Sunset paused a moment, looking up at the two warriors, and tried to pay no attention to the hostile stares she was getting.

"Discrimination is a terrible thing. I regret that we cannot make swifter progress in eliminating it from our society," Professor Ozpin said. Sunset turned to see that he had somehow snuck up behind her unnoticed. He leaned upon his cane, and sipped coffee out of a mug bearing the double-axe emblem of Beacon Academy. "That being said, I cannot approve of the employment of unregulated violence against fellow students."

Sunset threw back her head. "You can punish me if you want to, Professor, but you won't make me apologise."

"Hmm," Professor Ozpin murmured. "Miss Shimmer, I won't pretend to understand what you're going through, but will you permit me to give you a piece of advice?"

"If you like, Professor."

"You have been blessed with the leadership of an extraordinary team, Miss Shimmer; I believe that if you can work together you can accomplish great things here and beyond the walls of this institution. You yourself have the makings of a fine team leader. It would be a terrible shame if so much potential were to go waste over a petty argument."

Sunset was silent for a moment. "You were right, sir: you don't understand what I'm going through."

With classes done, Sunset had headed into Vale to avoid the hostility. She didn't like to think of it as running away, and she certainly didn't like to think of it as having crumbled, but...look, she was willing to put up with a lot of crap to get what she wanted but Sunset didn't see that she should have to, especially after going through Canterlot.

She had ended up in a faunus-owned bookshop named Tukson's Book Trade. Tukson had proved amenable to her loitering here as long as she paid for something first. And so Sunset sat on the floor in the corner of the shop, read a history of the Kingdoms of Mantle and Atlas and tried to ignore the buzzing of the magical journal in her bag.

"Shut up," Sunset growled at the book.

The bell above the shop door twinkled lightly as a pair of anxious looking faunus, a man with drooping bloodhound ears and a woman with a fox tail, walked in. They made their way gingerly to the counter.

Tukson didn't seem in the least bit fazed by the way this pair was treating entering a bookshop as something they could get in trouble for. Perhaps he was used to it.

Perhaps there were faunus who were like this all the time, crushed by cruel human rules. Sunset vowed to herself that she would never end up like that no matter what they did to her.

Tukson's voice was genial as he said, "Hello and welcome to Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book the world has to offer. Can I help you two?"

The man leaned forwards across the counter. "Do you have, uh, Third Crusade?"

Tukson's glanced at Sunset for a moment. The he smiled at the two faunus. "Why don't you follow me into the back and we can see what I've got for you." He lifted up a portion of the counter for them and ushered them into the back room. Sunset was left alone. She could have robbed the place if she wanted to.

The journal buzzed again.

Sunset scowled, and exhaled loudly. "Fine! Okay, you win." She snapped shut the book she'd bought and pulled out the journal. Her name, and variations on 'are you there?' took up most of a page.

What? Sunset scrawled angrily onto the page. She wasn't sure if it was Twilight Sparkle or if Celestia had deigned to stoop from her Olympian detachment to speak to Sunset herself, but whoever it was had irritated Sunset enough today that she would have wrote the same regardless.

Great, you're here.

That didn't sound like something Celestial would right. Sunset's face assumed an expression of resignation.

It's Twilight Sparkle isn't it?

Hello again.

What do you want?

What time is it where you are?

Sunset stared at the inane and nonsensical words that had appeared on the page before her.

Have you seriously been bugging me all day so that you can find out what time of day it is? Seriously?

No, I want to talk. There was a pause between the first sentence and the next, as though Twilight were pondering what ought to come next. Twilight: But I would kind of like to know if our world's are chronologically in parallel or on some kind of time differential.

Sunset stared at the page. A noise that was one part snort and one part despairing groan escaped her lips.

I've been replaced by a nerd. Celestial replaced me with a giant dork.

I am not a dork. I'm intellectually curious.

Sunset smirked, for all that Twilight couldn't see it. Yeah, sure. For what it's worth I'm intellectually curious too. She checked her watch. It's four-thirty.

Okay, it's five-thirty where I am.

Sunset blinked. Where are you?

Ponyville, it's a little town outside of-

What time zone?

Canterlot Mean Time.

Sunset checked her scroll. Where I am now is one hour behind the time zone in this world's Canterlot.

So we are in parallel based on the location of the mirror! That is so cool!

Nerd.

Hey.

I never said it was an insult, you have to own what you got. I've always been curious about that myself but I didn't have any way of checking _._ Sunset paused, and her pen hovered over the page. Now, what do you really want and why are you being so persistent about it?

I want to talk.

Why?

Because Celestia told me who you were, and I want to help you.

Sunset's face crumpled into a scowl. Sunset: I don't need your help.

I disagree.

Oh, you do, huh? What makes you think you know anything about me?

Because you told me a lot about yourself when you didn't know I was there.

Sunset facepalmed. Yes, she had, of course she had. She cursed under her breath. She'd told Twilight...not everything, but more than enough.

That still doesn't mean you know me,she wrote, not really believing it herself. And besides, you should worry more about yourself than trying to play therapist to me.

What's that supposed to mean?

Do you trust Celestia?

Of course.

Don't. She lies, she uses ponies, manipulates them to get what she wants. She used me-

Let me stop you right there before you waste any more effort. This isn't going to work.

Sunset's eyes narrowed. I don't know what you mean.

Yes, you do. And it won't work. I trust Celestia.

 _So did I, once,_ Sunset thought. She scribbled in the diary. You're a fool then. You're a fool and you're just a replacement me! You'll only ever be Celestia's second choice and you'll never have the kind of connection that we had! Sunset believed that. Sunset had to believe that for the sake of her sanity and her self-respect. Bad enough that she could be replaced at all but to be replaced in Celestia's love, in the heart of her affections...it would be too much. Her heart would not withstand it.

Celestia asked me to tell you that she's sorry, for everything she said and didn't say.

Well that's pretty vague, and mighty big of her as well. Is she too good to write to me herself?

I think that talking to you is something that I have to do.

Because you're the princess of friendship?

You know, I can feel the contempt dripping off your pen but yes, because I am the princess of friendship.

If you live where I do then you'd think it was stupid too. Almost as bad as the princess of love.

You knew Cadence?

You know her too?

She used to be my foalsitter.

Sunset rubbed her brows in frustration Of course she was. How do you become a princess of friendship anyway?

Well, it's kind of a funny story, but the short version is that I completed Starswirl the Bearded's unfinished spell and-

You what?

It was only on the second time of trying.

Sunset stared at the book. Twilight had completed Starswirl's spell? It didn't matter that Sunset couldn't see what that had to do with friendship because it was...as much as Sunset might not like to admit it it was impressive stuff. Sunset...It was like pulling teeth from her mind to concede this, but she wasn't sure that she would have been able to do that. Sunset had been hailed as the most gifted unicorn since Starswirl, but Twight Sparkle...She might be better.

Just admitting that filled Sunset with resentment, but also with a kind of curiosity that prevented her from simply slamming the book shut. If Twilight had been here in Remnant then Sunset would have despaired - not more rivals, didn't she have enough already? - but Twilight was in Equestria, the land Sunset had left behind. She could not impede Sunset's chances here.

And Sunset had been starved not only of the company of other Equestrians but also of an intellectual equal. And, in truth it was...flattering, to be sought out thus by someone of Twilight Sparkle's position and status, to be thought sufficiently important to be worth whatever it was that Twilight sought to accomplish. After years of being dismissed and trampled on, it was like rain upon parched flowers.

And, who knew, Twilight might not prove so immune to Twight's corruptions as she believed.

I concede, you interest me, Taught Sparkle. We should talk again. But when I choose, not you. Don't contact me again, I'll write you when it's safe to do so.

Agreed.

Sunset smiled. At present she would take whatever power she could get in their relationship. Sunset: Good. Then it's settled. Goodbye for now, princess. She shut the book, and not before time either as the door to the bookshop opened and Blake Belladonna sauntered in, her black her waving behind her.

She looked around the empty shop, and Sunset just had time to stuff the journal into her bag before the golden eyes alighted upon her.

"Hey," Blake murmured.

"Hey," Sunset replied.

Blake looked around. "I take it the store isn't closed?"

"He's in the back with a couple of customers," Sunset said. "Though he has been in there a while."

"Some books take a lot of finding," Blake replied. She turned to go.

"You're not going to wait for him?"

"No," Blake replied. "It's best if I come back later."

She walked straight back out again, leaving Sunset to wonder why the quiet girl had come down here in the first place.

* * *

Blake, having only gone as far as a rooftop vantage point across the street, did come back later: as soon as she'd seen Sunset Shimmer and the two faunus leave.

As soon as they were out of sight, Blake leapt down, crossed the street, and re-entered the bookshop.

This time, as the bell above the door announced her arrival, Tukson was behind the counter. His face lit up with a smile as soon as he saw her.

"Blake!"

Blake smiled back. It was not a wide smile, but no less warm for being small and soft. "Hey. Is this a good time?"

"It's always a good time when you come round, Blake, you know that." Tukson declared genially. "How's huntsmen academy?"

"Oh, you know," Blake said. She looked away, and played with her hair with one hand. "They made me a team leader."

Tukson chuckled. "Yeah, I'll bet they did. How's that going?"

"Too soon to say, although my team seems have walked in out of a larping session, which is...weird." Blake shrugged. "We'll see how it goes."

Tukson leaned on the counter. "I bet you're dad would like to know you're a team leader now."

Blake's eyes narrowed. "You know why I can't contact them."

"You think you're the only one who feels ashamed of what they did for the White Fang?" Tukson asked rhetorically. "You're not the only one looking to make things right. If Ghira and Kali are anything like the good people I used to know, they wouldn't hold it against."

"That's not why," Blake said. It was, sort of, but there were other reasons why she had to remain out of contact and incognito, better reasons. "I can't risk them getting hurt."

Tukson nodded. "Yeah, I suppose not. You won't hear any more about it from me."

"Thanks," Blake said. "So, how's business?"

"Business is just about ticking by," Tukson replied, gesturing to the bookshelves around him. "Business, on the other hand, is picking up. More and more people want to get out; the Fang isn't the same as back when they joined."

"No, it isn't," Blake agreed softly. "If you ever need help getting them out-"

"I wouldn't do that to you," Tukson said. "I can manage just fine on my own."

"If you're sure," Blake murmured. "You're taking a lot of risks. Only one person needs to talk and-"

"Like I said, we've all got things we need to make right," Tuckson said. His smile returned. "But don't worry about me. You just study hard up at Beacon; and maybe buy a book, I could use the custom."

Blake shook her head. "You got anything new?"

"Every book the world has to offer," Tukson said.

Blake rolled her eyes. "I saw one of my classmates in here earlier, Sunset Shimmer?"

"She didn't tell me her name, but it suits her if that's what is," Tukson said. "She bought a book and I let her read it here." He shrugged. "I can't resist a faunus looking down on her luck, I guess."

"She's not exactly blameless in her circumstances."

"Who among us is?" Tukson asked.

Blake hesitated for a moment, before she nodded to acknowledge the truth of what the older man said. Yes, Sunset Shimmer was abrasive and obnoxious, but plenty of humans were abrasive and obnoxious without being ostracized for it, or worse. Humans were permitted to enjoy the full spectrum of behaviours and emotions, while faunus were expected to exist on a binary between pleasant and docile or dangerous radicals like Adam. The fact that Sunset Shimmer was the personification of the word arrogance was only a grievous mark against her because she had ears and a tail.

Although Blake wouldn't want anything to do with the other faunus girl if she could avoid it, in a way the right for the likes of Sunset Shimmer to be jerks without being judged any more harshly for it than a human would be was what the White Fang had been founded to fight for.

Blake derived a moment of wry internal amusement from imagining how Adam would react to hearing the glorious mission of the White Fang reduced to such terms. Then she thought of how violent he might become in his wrath, and it didn't seem so funny any more.

She picked up a book entitled Dragonwyck off the shelf.

"That one might be a little gothic for you, Blake," Tukson said.

Blake turned it over and read the blurb on the back. It was indeed a gothic: poor young girl goes to live in a creepy house with a handsome, rich man with a dark side.

"I'll take it," she said.

"You sure?" Tukson asked. "I thought it might...hit a little close to home, maybe."

Blake shook her head. "Stuff like this may get dark but it has a happy ending. It's nice to think that might be possible."

* * *

Pyrrha Nikos did not consider herself to be a short tempered individual. Quite the opposite, in fact, she strove to be patient to a fault. From an early age her tutors had drilled into her that, as she had been gifted with the ability to cause immense harm to people if she wished so too she had a responsibility to be circumspect about how she used that gift. A normal child could throw a punch in the knowledge that little harm would be done; if Pyrrha had been so reckless, even as a child, she could have broken someone's bones or worse.

And, when her fame had started to take off in a big way, her mother bad made it clear to her that displays of temper or sorrow or any unattractive emotion were not what the public wanted to see from their idol; if she could not wear a smile for the adoring masses she could at least wear a mask of impenetrable serenity. So Pyrrha had learned to hide her emotions, and by hiding them she had become somewhat numb to some of them: she had little need to hide her anger now because it took so much to make her angry. With all due modesty she was almost as calm as she pretended to be almost constantly for the world, and it was generally melancholy, and nothing stronger, that touched her like a frost.

All of which being said it was quite an achievement on the part of Sunset Shimmer that she was managing to fray Pyrrha's nerves the way she was.

It wasn't just that she had gotten a rise out of Pyrrha when no one else had in years, it wasn't even what she'd said to get that rise, ignorant and pig-headed though her words had been; it was the fact that she wouldn't let it go. It was as though she was constitutionally incapable of admitting that she was wrong even if she could only assert that she was correct with no proof at all.

It was infuriating and disappointing in equal measure that her team leader was turning out to be as loud-mouthed and boorish in her own way as Cardin Winchester, but

Pyrrha had not intended for word of their argument to spread all around the school like this. She hadn't appealed for white knights to defend her from the ogreish Sunset. She certainly hadn't asked anyone to steal one of Sunset's tops from the laundry room and use it for something absolutely disgusting, but when Sunset had stormed into the dorm room brandishing her top with that sticky white stain upon it it was clear whom she held responsible.

And Pyrrha was getting a little tired of it. She had come to Beacon to escape her pedestal but, leaving aside the fact that she had largely failed to do so, she hadn't come here in order to be sneered at, glared at, muttered about or generally blamed for things that were not her fault.

The atmosphere in the dorm room tonight, for example, was terrible. Sunset seemed to gave a dark cloud hovering around her shoulders blacker than her jacket. It felt as though she had turned the floor to glass, and the slightest thing would set her off again.

Pyrrha pursed her lips together. It wasn't fair, the way that Sunset was behaving. It wasn't fair on her and it wasn't fair on Ruby and Jaune either, both of whom looked as though they had been dropped into the middle of a mine field with no map of the way out, if such a thing existed.

Pyrrha put her history homework - she had already completed the essay for Doctor Oobleck on the beginning of the Faunus Rights Rebellion - to one side and cleared her throat. "Sunset?"

Sunset ignored her. She was acting as though she was working, but considering that Sunset got better grades than Pyrrha did Pyrrha couldn't believe that Sunset was actually still doing the essay. She was just behaving childishly by ignoring Pyrrha.

"Sunset," Pyrrha repeated, louder this time. Ruby and Jaune both looked up and towards her.

Sunset sighed. "What?"

"Would you mind stepping outside with me for a moment?" Pyrrha asked. "We can talk without disturbing Ruby and Jaune."

Sunset stared at her for a moment, with a face like stone. "I have nothing to say." She turned her back ostentatiously.

"That's a first," Jaune muttered.

Sunset's hands slammed down on the table. "What did you say, you little-"

Pyrrha rose to her feet. "Leave him be, Sunset, your quarrel is with me."

"I don't have to take that from the likes of him, even if he is a human!" Sunset snapped.

"No one in this room has a problem with you being a faunus," Pyrrha said. "My problem is wholly with the way that you've been behaving."

"That's right!" Ruby cried. "I'm sorry that all of this happened after I told Team Iron what had happened, and I don't know who it was who decided to spread the word like that, but I didn't mean it! None of us did, and Pyrrha especially."

Pyrrha said nothing, but she thought that Ruby was being extraordinarily generous in refusing to point fingers amongst the members of YRDN. It seemed clear to Pyrrha that Dove Bronzewing was the culprit, if only because Yang, Ren and Nora didn't seem the type to engage in such behaviour.

Sunset's lips curled into a contemptuous sneer. "So you expect me to believe...what? That, completely unprompted, the entire academy decided to rise up in your defence?"

"That is the truth as far as I know," Pyrrha replied softly.

Sunset snorted. "I don't believe you."

Pyrrha took a deep breath. "You don't have to like me, Sunset; but I won't be called a liar and I won't follow someone who questions my integrity."

"Too bad for you, you're stuck with me."

 _Am I,_ Pyrrha thought. _Am I indeed. Perhaps I am stuck on this team, but that doesn't mean that I have to follow your commands like an Atlasian robot._

"What?" Sunset demanded. "Did I hurt your feelings?"

Pyrrha found with a guilty start that her hands had clenched into fists. There was a part of her - small, but it was surprising to come across it at all - that wanted to hit Sunset, and wipe that look off her face.

Pyrrha reached for calm, putting her meditation exercises to good use as she unclenched her fists. Her strength was not for such low uses, and displays of temper were not for her. Her voice, when she spoke, was softly spoken but every bit as brittle as Sunset's temper.

"When you're ready to apologise," she said. "I will listen."

"You'll wait a long time," Sunset growled. "For I have nothing to apologise for."

Pyrrha said nothing further to Sunset. There was nothing further to be said. She glanced apologetically at Jaune and Ruby. "Excuse me," she said, as she strode out of the room.

She spent the rest of the evening in the library, returning to the dorm only to sleep - she and Sunset said not a word to one another as they undressed for bed, and the atmosphere in the room was nauseating.

The next morning she went to see Professor Goodwitch and asked her about team reassignments.

Professor Goodwitch stared at her over the top of her spectacles. "May I ask why you wish to be moved, Miss Nikos?"

"I...I'm afraid that Sunset and I have had an irreconcilable difference of opinion, Professor."

Professor Goodwitch was silent for a moment. "Teams, once formed, are very rarely altered, Miss Nikos, and certainly not because of mere arguments between members."

"There's nothing mere about this, ma'am," Pyrrha replied. She would not fight for a leader she held in contempt. For her destiny she was willing to endure much, bear much, suffer much, but not follow someone she despised, and who despised her in turn.

But it was hard to explain that to Professor Goodwitch, or to anyone really, without sounding melodramatic. Mistralian concepts of honour did not carry quite the same weight in the Kingdom of Vale.

"That, Miss Nikos, remains to be seen, by me," Professor Goodwitch replied. "Good day, Miss Nikos."

"Professor, I apologise for disturbing you," Pyrrha said, as she bowed her head respectfully. She turned on her heel, and walked out of the office.

Unfortunately, Ruby was waiting for her outside.

"You wanted to leave us?" Ruby asked, looking as stricken and betrayed as she sounded.

Pyrrha winced. "No, Ruby, I-"

"She wasn't trying to leave," Sunset sneered, and Pyrrha saw her half-hidden around the corner. She was leaning against the wall with her arms folded. "She was trying to get rid of me, weren't you?"

Pyrrha didn't dignify that with a response. She turned away without another word, and walked away.

* * *

Sunset felt almost as though she was getting a divorce, and she and Pyrrha were stuck sharing the house while they worked out custody of the kids, their over-achieving daughter and disappointing son.

They had managed, without saying a word to one another, managed to work out a system of alternating who could spend time in the dorm room and who had to find somewhere else to be. Nights were about as fun all around as root canal surgery, but there was no getting around it since there was nowhere else that either of them could sleep.

You could try apologising and putting this whole thing behind you.

Sunset made a face at the diary, open on the table in front of her, that contained elements of scowl, sneer, grimace and snarl. I've done nothing that I should apologise for.

You called Pyrrha a liar.

Because she lied!

What if she didn't?

I'm the victim here! Who's side are you on anyway?

Sunset, I don't doubt that a lot of what you've told me about the world you've found yourself in is accurate-

Only a lot?

But have you ever considered that your problems are not entirely the result of prejudice?

Sunset squinted suspiciously down at the page. What are you saying?

That by your own account you've behaved pretty obnoxiously.

Sunset stared down at the words. They were wrong. They were ridiculous. They were absurd. She wasn't the one who had roused the whole academy in anger, she wasn't the one who had tried to get Pyrrha kicked off the team, she wasn't the one who had flaunted her ungrateful nature in Sunset's face.

Shut up. Do you really not see where I'm coming from with this? How would you like it if someone else had something that you wanted badly, desperately, more than anything else in the world, and this other person that has this incredible thing didn't appreciate it at all? Wouldn't that make you so mad?

Maybe, depending on what the thing in question was, but I'd hope that I wouldn't let it affect my behaviour. After all, it's my problem, not theirs.

And we're done. I'm not going to sit here and be insulted like that. Goodnight, princess. She slammed the book shut.

She was wrong. Twilight Sparkle was absutely wrong. This wasn't her problem, she was reacting perfectly normally, it was Pyrrha who...She was the one who ought to apologise. Sunset had nothing to apologise for.

Sunset was too proud to apologise, even if she was in the wrong.

Especially if she was in the wrong.

* * *

Professor Goodwitch's voice was crisp and clear, cutting across the casual chatter in the hall. "The match will be Team Sapphire versus Team Iron. Please make your way to the arena."

Pyrrha was on her feet at once, making her way quickly up onto the stage. Ruby and Jaune followed, and Sunset joined them from a different part of the hall.

Sunset could see their opponents making their way up onto the stage together. They were huddled close, whispering amongst themselves. Yang Xiao-Long, easily her hair shining like a beacon in the dimly lit hall, was pointing at Team SAPR, gesticulating with one hand. Dove said something that earned him scowl from Yang and Nora, before the former started talking again.

Sunset ran through the options in her head. Team YRDN was tough; in fact they probably had the most punch of any of the first year teams, possessing the two strongest first years and Dove Bronzewing, who was probably the strongest boy in the year. On the other hand, when it came to speed they only had Lie Ren, and he wasn't anywhere close to Ruby or Pyrrha. So, she would send Pyrrha forward to interrupt whatever strategy they where cooking up over there, while Sunset and Ruby provided covering fire. Once they'd used up their shots, Ruby would back up Pyrrha in close quarters while Sunset provided support with magic. Jaune she would use as a speed bump to keep either Yang or Nora just for a bit with his absurd quantities of aura. That should give Pyrrha and Ruby time to mop up the rest of the opposition with Sunset's help.

"Okay," Sunset said. "Here's what we're going to do."

Pyrrha turned away.

"Oh, great, real mature," Sunset muttered. "Pyrrha!"

Pyrrha did not reply.

"Guys, I have an idea-" Jaune began.

"You look at me when I'm talking to you!" Sunset growled.

"I was thinking that-"

"Jaune's trying to say something."

"You are the most spoiled, ungrateful, stubborn brat that I have-"

"Guys!" Jaune yelled. "Listen, we-"

"Begin!" Professor Goodwitch declared.

Nora Valkyrie grinned, and with a mighty swing she...hit Yang with her hammer?

Sunset gaped in astonishment. She was still gaping, her amazement only deepening as it became clear that this had been absolutely deliberate.

Yang descended like a comet from the heavens, trailing fire in her wake. She was grinning like a maniac, and a wild warrior's laugh issued from her lips as she ploughed into Jaune, bearing him backwards with a squawk of pained alarm. Yang yelled as she started to pummel him, both fist flying as explosions issued from her gauntlets. Jaune, staggered, taken by surprise and, honestly, no great shakes to begin with, was unable to doors than soak it up as his aura level started to slowly descend.

 _Thank you for accommodating my plan, Yang._ Sunset grinned. YRDN had taken the initiative but there was still all to fight for. "Pyrrha, get up there and hit them! Ruby-"

They both ignored her, choosing to go to Jaune's did instead. They converged on Yang from opposite directions, weapons scythe and sword alike shining under the spotlights focussed on the stage.

It might not have been so bad except Ruby was also blocking Sunset's shots.

A grenade flew through the air, trailing pink smoke behind it, before landing in front of Ruby and exploding in a blast of even more pink. Ruby was knocked backwards, her aura dropping but remaining in the green even as she was tossed across the stage.

The next moment Ren was on top of her, Stormflowers blazing.

Nora fired another grenade, this time at Pyrrha, who deftly knocked it aside with her shield; in the time it took her to do that Nora had already begun to charge, hammer drawn back for a mighty swing. She, too, was beaming wildly as though this was the most fun she'd ever had in her life.

A series of sharp bangs reminded Sunset that she wasn't a bystander in this fight. Dove had levelled his fungi are at her and was firing a stream of shots in her direction. Sunset threw up a shield, too late to stop the first few rounds biting off a chunk of her aura.

Dove stopped shooting when it became clear that his shotscweren't getting through her shield. He glared at her. The look of contempt on his face was palpable.

Sunset's face contorted with a sneer as a surge of anger ignited within her. So, it was like that, but? Well, she'd-

"Dove!" Nora yelled.

Dove and Sunset both looked around. Nora was struggling against Pyrrha's superior speed, unable to land the solid hits she needed even as Pyrrha rose off chunks of her aura like a beowolf tearing off chunks of flesh. Pyrrha really was somewhere between magnificent and uncanny, even when Nora appeared to have her dead to rights she just seemed to avoid the hits.

Dove didn't spare Sunset a second glance as he ran to her aid.

It took Sunset a split second to decide not to follow. Instead, she teleported the short distance to where Ren was trying - with limited success, his aura was in the yellow already, and albeit Ruby's was too Ren hadn't been hit with a grenade - with Ruby's speed a scene flirted around him in rose petals bursts, the sharp crack Crescent Rose echoing in the hall.

Sunset took a more direct approach: she teleported right in front of Ren, shot him twice at point blank range, and swung the butt of Sol Invictus at his face.

"Ruby, help Jaune!" Sunset yelled before the blow connected. At least Ruby listened to her this time.

Ren rolled with the blow, and as he rolled he grabbed the butt of Sunset's gun and used it to pull her forward, throwing her to the ground before him with a yelp. Sunset winced as Ren shot her in the face, chipping rapidly away at her aura. Sunset growled as she raised one hand and a blast of green energy erupted from her palm, striking Ren in the chest and hurling him back across the stage, A buzzer sounded, and then another. A glance at the board told Su set that Jaune and Ren were both out. Dove was duelling Pyrrha, their blades clashing furiously in motions faster than Sunset's eyes could follow. Dove was almost fast enough to keep up with the Invincible Girl...but almost didn't quite cut it and his aura was dropping as Pyrrha chipped away at it. Ruby was having less luck against Yang while Nora...Nora was charging straight towards Sunset with absolute murder in her eyes.

Sunset shot from the hip, emptying all four remaining chambers in quick succession. It didn't stop Nora, and Sunset couldn't check the board to see how much aura she had left. Sunset started to raise a shield, but Nora's hammer went threw it lime glass and struck Sunset square on the midriff.

Sunset had a feeling of being compressed and deformed as the world whirled around her, before she was dumped on the floor with a painful smack on the face. A buzzer confirmed what she already knew: her aura was down.

Sunset didn't know exactly what was up with Ruby: either Yang knew her moves too well, or it was messing with her head to try and fight her big sister, but either way a fight that should have been easy for her was going very badly. It wasn't long before she was eliminated.

It was three against one at that point, but that one was Pyrrha Nikos. Perhaps if they'd all been starting with their aura I fact they would have been a match for her, but all their aura were some level if frayed and yellow, while hers was nearly intact. Though the three remaining members of YRDN attacked together, though they were coordinated and cohesive, they simply weren't a match for Pyrrha's speed and shining sword. One by one she took them down and left them prone and beaten at her feet.

"Team Sapphire wins," Professor Goodwitch's tone was, as always, professional and without even the suggestion of favouritism, but she didn't sound particularly pleased with the result. Sunset could understand why: this wasn't a victory for Team Sapphire, who by all measures had been out thought and out fought, but for Pyrrha Nikos. Team YRDN deserved the victory, and had missed only by dint of having the bad luck to go up against the Invincible Girl.

Sunset's face burned with humiliation as she lined up alongside her team mates. If she'd just been given a chance to explain her plan then they could have won in a deserving fashion. As it was, today would simply serve to burnish up the legend of Pyrrha, the legend that she didn't even want.

"Team Iron," Goodwitch said. "Although I wouldn't personally recommend your choice of opening gambit-" Yang and Nora both grinned, the former sheepishly and the latter unapologetically. "You exhibited forethought and teamwork. That said, by leaving your strongest opponent to last you ran the risk of not having enough aura left, as proved to be the case. Team Sapphire," Goodwitch's stern gaze swept over them. "You were fortunate."

Sunset's jaw clenched with frustration.

"That's all we have time for," Goodwitch continued. "Class dismissed. Miss Shimmer, please remain for a moment."

Sunset clasped her hands behind her back as the rest of the class filed out. Yang stared at her for a moment, her expression curious, before she turned away like all the rest.

Soon they were alone, student and teacher upon the stage in an otherwise dark and empty room.

Professor Goodwitch clasped her riding crop with both hands. "Miss Shimmer, what do you think went wrong today?"

"My team wouldn't listen to my instructions."

"And why should they listen go you, Miss Shimmer?" Professor Goodwitch asked.

Sunset blinked. This wasn't a turn that she'd expected the conversation to take. "Because I'm their leader."

"Yes, you are," Goodwitch said. "But your team-mates are not automatons programmed to obey you, you need to give them a reason to trust you to make the right decisions, not only in the field but constantly. Do you think that you have done so?"

Sunset didn't reply. What was there to say?

"You, in turn, must trust your team-mates also," Goodwitch continued. "I am sorry if you're going through a hard time, Miss Shimmer, and I won't pretend to understand what has happened between you and Miss Nikos, but you've already proven that your team can work together effectively. It would be a shame to waste a promising start."

Sunset was silent for a moment. "Is that all, Professor?"

Goodwithch stared into Sunset's eyes. "That's all for now, Miss Shimmer."

Sunset started for the locker room. Professor Goodwitch meant well, but she didn't understand. Sunset couldn't apologise, not even if it was her fault.

Especially if it was her fault.


	10. Heart to Heart

Heart to Heart

 _Twelve years earlier…_

 _The last of the beowolves dissolved into smoke. Uncle Qrow didn't turn around, not yet. He stood, with his back to Yang, his sword half-buried in the ground, staring at the ruined and abandoned cabin before them._

 _The cabin that Yang had come so far to find._

 _The cabin where she and Ruby had nearly died._

 _Yang shivered, and not only from the cold._

 _Qrow hefted his greatsword, and rested it on his shoulder as he – finally – turned around to face Yang. His expression was grave._

" _This was a pretty dumb move, kid; I thought you were smarter than that."_

" _I…I…" Yang stammered. "I thought that-"_

" _Yeah, I know what you were looking for. How do you think I knew where to look for you?" Qrow growled. "Come on, let's get you both home before your Dad finds out your gone. Or else he'll worry so much it'll make even more grimm show up."_

" _Why isn't she here?" Yang asked, her voice small and quiet. She was supposed to be here. Her mother was supposed to be here, or if not her then at least some clue to where she was. That was why she'd come all this way, dragging Ruby in a wagon behind her for hours to this cabin in the middle of nowhere, to find neither mother nor answers but only those beowolves. Was…was her mother dead just like Summer? "Why isn't my mom here?"_

 _Qrow muttered something under his breath as he took a swig from his hip flask. "Your mom's name was Summer Rose, kid. And she's dead. It ain't pretty, but there it is."_

" _You know what I'm talking about-"_

" _Yeah, I do," Uncle Qrow agreed. "And because I know I can tell you that she's not worth it."_

" _My mom is out there-"_

" _Then who was Summer, some random lady who changed your diapers?" Qrow demanded. "Are you going to tell me that Ruby's not your sister too?"_

" _That's what not what I said and I'd never-"_

" _Yang?"_

 _Yang's eyes widened at the sound of Ruby's voice, sleepy and soft, coming from the wagon behind her._

 _She turned, forcing herself to smile for Ruby. "Ruby. You're awake."_

 _Ruby sat up, rubbing her eyes sleepily. "You were yelling."_

 _Yang laughed nervously. "No I wasn't. I was just…I'm sorry for waking you up, okay. I'm really sorry."_

" _I'm tired," Ruby complained._

" _I know, Rubes," Yang said. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for…I'm sorry."_

" _Yang? Are you okay?"_

 _Yang nodded a little too enthusiastically. "Yeah, of course."_

" _You're acting kind of not-okay."_

" _I'm fine," Yang insisted. "Do you want to go back to sleep? I won't wake you up this time."_

" _I want to go home."_

" _We're going back right now, kiddo," Qrow said._

 _Ruby looked up. "Uncle Qrow?"_

 _Qrow nodded. He grinned. "I've been looking everywhere for you two scamps, now I gotta make sure you get home safe. Go back to sleep, and when you wake up you'll be home, all cosy and warm."_

 _Ruby smiled, a small but adorable smile, as she lay down in the wagon with her red cloak as a blanket. Within just a few moments she was asleep again._

 _Qrow laid a hand upon Yang's shoulder, and gently but firmly drew her closer to the wagon, until they were both looking down upon the slumbering Ruby._

" _Look," he said._

 _Yang looked away instead. She'd almost gotten Ruby killed. Ruby had almost died and it would have been her fault. If Uncle Qrow hadn't shown up…Ruby deserved better._

" _Look," Qrow repeated._

" _I know that I almost-"_

" _That's not the point," Qrow said, his voice surprisingly soft. "Look at her."_

 _Yang looked down at the tiny, slumbering form of her baby sister, swaddled in her cloak in the back of a wagon, sleeping peacefully in the midst of this grimm-infested wood. Looking down at her, the idea of denying that they were family was not only foolish but impossible._

 _Summer Rose might not be Yang's mom, but Ruby was her sister. Her family._

" _You got a good thing going here, Yang," Qrwo said. "Do you really want to throw all that away for…what? So you can tell Ruby that she's not your real family?"_

" _I never said that," Yang whispered. "Ruby is my sister." She reached down, and tucked Ruby in a little better. "Don't worry, Ruby," she said. "I'm going to do better. I'm going to make everything better for you."_

* * *

Present Day…

Nora Valkyrie was a fount of stories. Any meal or evening that was lacking in sufficiently lively conversation would enlivened by a story from Nora to hold the world - or at least Ruby and Jaune whenever they were around listen - in rapture.

Judging by the way that Ren was a fount of corrections to all of Nora's stories it was clear to Yang that these incidents - of battling grimm in isolated forests, following river's through perilous wilderness, hustling pool and cheating at cards for money in rough frontier towns and taking on odd and hazardous jobs in embattled rural villages - had not all happened precisely as Nora told them, but at the same time Ren never outright called Nora a liar either, so something like all of these stories must have happened to them. Which was pretty amazing, they were only Yang's age and yet already they'd gone so far and done so much. And yet, at the same time, if you thought about it too much it was really kind of sad, too. Nora never mentioned her parents, or how she and Ren met; her stories always began with the two of them travelling together and ended the same way. But it wasn't hard to guess what had happened, although Yang had no intention of asking for confirmation.

It was a little humbling to imagine. She'd thought that she'd had it bad having to take care of Ruby after Mom died and Dad sunk into grief, but having to do it without Dad, without a home, without any place to go...Yang didn't know if she could have kept herself alive in that kind of situation, let alone Ruby.

It was the kind of life she'd been setting herself up for with her obsession with Raven, if Uncle Qrow hadn't called her on it...

But she was older now, stronger and wiser...she just needed to know that Ruby would be safe and cared for when she left.

Which would be a lot easier if her team wasn't disintegrating around her.

Yang realised that in her thoughts she had lost track of Nora's latest story, which involved a lost temple and a whole bunch of beringels (creeps, according to Ren) who lived there and...something about a gem in an idol? If she'd been paying attention she would have had the context, but it didn't really matter because Nora was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Coming," Yang called as she leapt off the bed and crossed the floor in three brisk strides. She opened the door to find Ruby on the other side, head bowed and pressing her fingers nervously together.

"Hey Yang," Ruby murmured. "Can I come in? That is, if you're not too busy or anything?"

Yang smiled with quasi-maternal fondness down upon her little sister. "I'm never too busy for you, Rubes. Come on in."

She put an arm round Ruby's shoulder, and steered her into the dorm and towards Yang's bed.

"Heya Ruby!" Nora called, waving from the far end of the room. "Great fight today, huh?"

"Yeah," Ruby agreed nervously. "You guys were really unlucky."

"You win some, you lose some," Nora said.

"You lose when you fight Nikos, anyway," Dove declared.

Ren finished cleaning his Stormflowers and began reassembling them. "You fought very well also, Ruby. You had me completely outclassed."

"Yeah!" Yang cried, slapping Ruby on the back. "If I didn't know you so well you would have torn me apart, so don't sweat it."

"Right," Ruby agreed, though it was clear by her subdued tone that she hadn't been cheered up by this.

But then, Yang hadn't seriously expected that the fight was the problem.

"Sit down, sis," she said, gesturing to the bed. "I'll get you some hot chocolate." It was too late for coffee, Ruby wouldn't sleep and it was nearly bed-time.

"Okay," Ruby said meekly as she sat down.

It didn't take Yang long to get back from the kitchen, but when she did she found that Nora (and Ren) had started her story again. Ruby's eyes were wide and her mouth was agape as she leaned forwards, hands balled up under her chin, whole body enraptured by Nora's tale of daring against the odds.

Yang stood in the doorway, watching, not wanting to disturb Ruby's pleasure by dragging her back to the issue at hand. She waited for a lull in the story to carry the steaming mugs across the room and press one of them - topped with whipped cream and marshmallows - into Ruby's hands. Yang smiled gratefully at Nora as she sat down beside Ruby and waited for her to say something.

Ruby sipped her hot chocolate, and licked the cream around her mouth. "What am I supposed to do, Yang? It was bad enough when Sunset was being all cranky and stuff, but now Pyrrha's mad at Sunset and they won't even speak to each other!"

Yang nodded sympathetically. "Yeah, it sure is a pity someone had to spread the word of what was going on in your team across the whole of Beacon isn't it, Dove?"

Dove yelped. "I, uh, that is-"

"That was you!" Ruby cried.

Dove's mouth worked furiously but silently for a moment, before he seemed to recover a little, enough to say, "Look, a faunus like he has no right to take that kind of an attitude towards a human, especially not one as accomplished as Pyrrha Nikos. I Don't know what Ozpin was thinking making that thing team leader."

"Dove," Yang said, with steel beneath her affable tone. "Every time you say something racist, you have to play a penalty game with Nora, remember?" She got to her feet. She preferred to lead her team by charm: she wanted to be followed by people who wanted to follow her because they liked her. But she wasn't afraid to steer by main force if she had to, and now might be one of those times. "Of course, in this case you also upset my little sister so stand up."

Dove knew what was coming. He whimpered.

Yang gestured impatiently with one hand. "Take it like a man, Dove, come on."

Dove got to his feet and squared up against her, back straight.

Yang punched him in the stomach hard enough to knock him to the ground. His aura was up, so there was no real harm done, but he'd remember it before he did something stupid again.

Unfortunately, Yang didn't know how to stop Dove being anti-faunus, or to convince him he was wrong, and Nora and Ren didn't have the answer to that either. All they could do was give him incentives not to act on his worst impulses but to be the honestly-pretty-okay guy he was the rest of the time.

"Are things that Ruby says going to stay in the room from now on or am I going to throw you out every time my sister comes to visit?"

"I can keep my mouth shut," Dove said.

"Good answer," Yang said cheerily as she back down next to Ruby. "I really am sorry about this, sis; it made a bad situation worse for you."

"But what am I supposed to do now?" Ruby asked. "I mean...I understand weapons, not people! If one of their weapons had a fault I could fix it, or just help Sunday for Pyrrha to fix it, but it's Sunset and Pyrrha that are broken! How am I supposed to fix them? Where do I even start?"

Yang had a couple of ideas, but they weren't notions that she would be able to just hand over to Ruby for her weapon-obsessed, slightly anti-social sister to put into practice. Yang looked down at Ruby, and for a moment she saw not the fifteen year old badass who had already defeated Roman Torchwick, but the little toddler in the back of a wagon on a cold day.

Ruby was in trouble, and it was up to her big sister to fix it, just like she'd promised that she always would.

"Don't worry about it," Yang said. "I'll talk to Sunset and...hey, Nora, can you have a word with Pyrrha?"

"Absolutely!"

"Uh, Yang?" Ruby murmured. "Are you sure that-"

"Don't worry, Nora's only crazy in battle," Yang reassured her. "Out of it she really gets people." She pulled Ruby into a hug. "Don't worry, Rubes, I promise I'm going to make everything better for you."

* * *

The next day found Pyrrha in the library, researching for her dust studies homework. The essay was due in a couple of days time, and while she had the bulk of it written to an acceptable standard, she was here researching anything that she might be able to slot in before the conclusion for extra credit.

She needed to get high grades in the midterms if she didn't want to get an irate call from her mother, after all, and although she didn't use dust rounds herself - she preferred to use Milo up close, in sword or spear form; with the rifle only a backup it just wasn't worth the trouble of carrying a lot of different ammunition types - she genuinely enjoyed the theory behind use of dust.

It would have been easier to concentrate if people hadn't been whispering about her from the shelves behind where she was sitting.

Pyrrha frowned. Whatever Sunset might think, she wasn't enjoying the current state of affairs any more than her deplorable team leader was. Now, in addition to the usual expressions of awe and desires for mementos and favours that she had had to put up with for many years now, she was also being offered sympathy, which was more novel but no less unwelcome to her. She didn't want complete strangers to come up to her and tell her how sorry they were for what she had to put up with any more than she wanted to be told what an honour it was to meet her.

None of these people knew what had started the fight with Sunset, or else they wouldn't have been in such a hurry to press their unwanted condolences upon her as a new way of inserting themselves into her life and claiming a part of her for themselves. Pyrrha strongly suspected that when these well-wishers talked of her troubles what they really meant was 'having to live with a faunus, and be led by one.'

It made Pyrrha uncomfortable, truth to tell. She wouldn't be so bold as to call herself a faunus ally - the fact was that she didn't do enough to earn the name - but she wasn't a bigot either, and as someone who had used her Sanctum valedictorian speeches to call for compassion towards faunus students, and who tried to behave with courtesy towards her faunus opponents, it galled at her to be used as a cause celebre for bigots like Cardin as though she were one of those poor girls killed by faunus who had their memories appropriated by the worst elements of the press.

The fact that she was being used in exactly such a fashion made Pyrrha's hands itch, and it was enough to make her consider apologising to Sunset if only to put a stop to this...but she had an uncomfortable feeling that Sunset would take any apology from her as a kind of vindication, one that she was not willing to give the other girl. She could see the smug, slightly sneering smile now in her mind's eye, and she had no desire to see it in real life too.

Not yet, at least. If thongs went much further she might have to swallow her pride much as she didn't want. The alternative would be to perpetuate injustice to an unforgivable extent.

Pyrrha raised her head. The whispering that she could hear from the shelves behind her desk had stopped. She had been left alone it seemed. _Finally_ , she thought with a quiet such of relief.

"You'd be amazed at how fast people can run once you point a grenade launcher at them," Nora Valkyrie declared cheerfully as she sat down at Pyrrha's table, propping her weapon - now in hammer form - up beside her. "I mean, you'd think they'd never heard of aura!"

Pyrrha stared at Miss Valkyrie, unsure of what she ought to say in reply. It was terrible, she ate with this girl every day and yet now they were alone Pyrrha found that she didn't know her at all. All she could recall was that Nora told some wild stories and was very close to her partner. There was nothing else.

She had come to Beacon hoping to make friends but could she really say that she had put all the effort into it that she might have done? She could have reached out to people like Nora if she'd only thought to if, she'd only known how. Not for the first time, Pyrrha wished that socialising came with a guide to follow.

Nevertheless she needed to say something or Nora would think she was rude. "Did you, um, really threaten anyone with your grenade launcher?"

"Only the ones who deserved it, spying on you like that," Nora said. "You didn't want them around, did you?"

"Oh, no," Pyrrha said quickly. "I just...perhaps they didn't want any of the books to suffer damage. Some of them are quite old."

"I guess that must be it. The alternative is that all those trainee huntsmen were a bunch of cowards and that's terrifying!" Nora cried, with more humour in her tone than fear. She paused. "Good fight yesterday. You're something else, a couple of times I was sure I had you but nope! You're good."

Pyrrha made a wordless noise that might mean anything. As a matter of fact Nora had had her, more than once, but Pyrrha had been able use her semblance to subtly redirect the hammer away from her so that it appeared to just miss by a fraction.

But of course she couldn't say that because her semblance was a secret.

"You fought well," she said. It was generic and probably sounded insincere, but it was all that she could think to say to move the conversation along.

Nora folded her arms underneath her breasts. "So, you don't like being famous, huh?

Pyrrha blinked. Where had...of course. "Ruby told you, didn't she?"

"She tried to," Nora said. She produced a bag of chips from somewhere and popped one into her mouth before offering the bag to Pyrrha.

Pyrrha waved it away. "Thank you, but I don't think we're supposed to eat in the library."

Nora ate another chip, but this time she chewed quietly.

"Like I was saying," she said with her mouth full. She swallowed, and carried on speaking. "Ruby tried to explain it, but I don't think she got all of the details. Point is, you don't like being famous?"

Pyrrha frowned. "No," she said. "I can't say that I do."

"Do you get hand cramp from the autographs?"

"No, it's not that."

"Does your voice wear out from talking to so many people?"

"I get a slightly soar throat sometimes, but no."

"Then what's the problem?"

"The problem...the problem is that I feel as though I've spent my entire life being what other people want me to be: a great fighter, a tournament champion, a symbol. I've never been allowed to be myself, or even to find out who I am, let alone do any of the things that ordinary girls take for granted."

"Like what?"

Pyrrha paused. "I...I don't really know, that's how bad it is, I don't know what it is that I missed because I missed all of it, I just know that there must have been more to life than training and fighting and press appearances."

Nora leaned back in her chair. "I really wish that I could help you, Pyrrha; only I missed out on all that stuff too."

Pyrrha bowed her head. She didn't have to be particularly intelligent to work out why Nora had been denied an ordinary childhood, you just had to pay attention to her stories. "Are you telling me that I should get over myself, because I had it so much better than you?"

Nora snorted derisively. "No," she said with what seemed to Pyrrha to be absolute sincerity. "I'm saying we should start a club together! We'll find out all the girl stuff we missed and do it now. We should have slumber parties!"

Pyrrha couldn't help but laugh at that, even if - out of respect for the sanctity of the library - she kept it to a low chuckle. "That would be a lot of fun, I'm sure."

Nora grinned, if only for a moment. "But, you know, I get it. I mean, I didn't know who you were because we didn't have TV, or a house to put one in but the point is it must suck to have everyone think they know who you are...and to not have any friends...if I hadn't had Ren I don't know what I would have become. What she said wasn't right."

"No," Pyrrha said. "Although, as boorish and upsetting as it was...that wasn't the last straw."

Nora cocked her to one side like a curious bird.

"It was when she accused me of having orchestrated this whole business, even after I denied it," Pyrrha said. "She called me a liar to my face."

Nora stared at her, a look on her face that suggested she was struggling to keep something bottled up. Then she cracked up. "Really? That's what you're upset about?"

"Yes," Pyrrha said. "Is that wrong?"

"I didn't have a normal childhood either," Nora said. "But even I know it's normal to get called a liar, especially by people who don't like you very much."

"Really?"

"Yes!" Nora yelled. "How do you think people used to react to my stories - you're a great audience, by the way - they told me to stop making things up! That's what upset you?"

Pyrrha looked down at the table, at her hands and the boom on dust that lay open before her. If Nora was right - and Pyrrha had no reason to believe that she wasn't - Then she'd been very foolish, and behaved very badly.

Sunset had too, of course, but all the same...

"So, what Sunset said, that was normal?"

"Welcome to the real world!" Nora yelled, slapping Pyrrha on the back hard enough to make her lurch forwards. "It sucks, you're going to love it."

"What should I do now?"

"Now you try and put your team back together," Nora said. She leaned in to whisper conspiratorially. "And see if you can deserve to beat us next time."

* * *

"Yo, Baconhair!"

Sunset stopped, as much out of surprise at being addressed as Baconhair as anything else. Honestly, if she hadn't been the only one in the corridor then she would probably have assumed that it was someone else being hailed by that nickname and carried on.

But she was the only person could see, and she hadn't passed anybody on the way either, and so Sunset turned around slowly, her eyes narrow and her face set in a scowl, to see Yang Xiao-Long lounging against the wall with her arms folded.

The smirk on her face told Sunset that she was enjoying Sunset's reaction to the nickname.

Sunset glared. Yang didn't even blink.

"Baconhair?"

"Yeah. You know, the streaks."

"My hair does not look anything like bacon."

"It looks an itty bitty bit like bacon," Yang said. She peeled herself off the wall and sauntered down the corridor in Sunset's direction. Her hips swayed as she walked. "We need to talk."

"I'm a little busy right now."

"I'm busy too, everyone's busy," Yang said, closing in on Sunset. "But I'm making time for you, buddy. Come on, Oobleck's classroom should be empty."

"I don't-" Sunset began, and then stopped when Yang clasped her by the shoulder. Her grip was firm, with the promise of more firmness to come if necessary to carry that grip into painful territory.

"Listen," Yang said. "There are things that I will tolerate and things that I won't, and when it comes to my little sister one of those lists is very short and the other one is very long." Her eyes changed colour turning from blue to a fiery red that seemed in the shadowy corridor to be almost demonic. "So either you come with me and we can talk, or else we can 'talk', understand?"

Sunset nodded silently.

Yang's eyes returned to their normal blue. "Great. Ruby said you were smart. Follow me." Sunset wasn't given the chance to follow as Yang bodily hauled her off down the corridor and into Oobleck's deserted history classroom.

Yang let go of Sunset long enough to hop onto Oobleck's desk, crossing her legs hide her panties from Sunset's eyes.

Sunset sat down herself, on one of the long desks used by the students. "Okay, we're here. What do you want?"

"I want to talk about how you're going to be the team leader that my sister deserves."

"I don't need lessons in leadership," Sunset said, and it was only the memory of those red eyes that prevented her from adding 'from the likes of you'. She knew how to lead, she had sat at the feet of Celestia and watched her do it. Now, yes, Sunset hadn't been acting in a very Celestia-like fashion lately bit that was because she hadn't been given the chance. If people would just pay attention to her-

"Yeah, because you're doing such a great job right now."

"It isn't my fault that she doesn't listen!"

There was pity in Yang's eyes. "Yeah, it is."

The pity was what called Sunset most. She scowled, before a smirk crossed her face. "So, let me guess, little Ruby came crying to her big sis asking you to do something about me. Doesn't that get old? Wouldn't you like to be able to live your own life without her constantly tugging on your apron strings like a nuisance?"

Yang laughed. "You don't know me very well so I'll let you have that for free, but add a warning: try to get between me and my sister and I'll punch you so hard they'll be looking for your head for months, understand? Ruby is the most important person in my life, she's the best thing that ever happened to me, and there is absolutely nothing you could say that would ever change that."

Privately, Sunset wasn't so sure about that. There would be something. There was always something. But she wasn't so lacking in self-preservation instinct as to say so out loud.

Yang rested her hands on her knees. "You know, even though she got here early, Ruby's still waited a long time to come to Beacon. She's dreamed of this her whole life, ever since I used to read her-" she stopped abruptly. "She's dreamed of coming here her whole life, I'm not going to let you screw this up for her or make her four years here miserable because of your issues."

Sunset regarded the other girl evenly. In truth, what she hadn't said - what she had stopped herself from saying - was more interesting to Sunset than what Yang had actually said. Sunset had known since that first night that Ruby's mom, Summer Rose the S in STRQ, was dead. What she hadn't known until Yang gave it away was that their dad was a deadbeat and the elder sister had been forced to step up and play mom to the younger. No wonder she was so devoted, and no wonder that Sunset's first attempt at discord-sowing had gone nowhere. Their relationship was not what Sunset had first taken it for.

Still, some sort of reply was necessary, and so Sunset said. "You should be giving this talk to Jaune, maybe get him to do his homework once in a while."

"Jaune isn't the one Ruby's worried about," Yang said. "You are."

Sunset snorted. "Do you think I'm doing this on purpose? Your sister isn't the only one who wants to be here at Beacon. I've waited for this too."

"You've got a funny way of showing it."

"Stop sitting there so righteous and put yourself in my position for five seconds!" Sunset snapped. She got to her feet. "Have you ever wanted something so badly that longing for it consumes you? That getting it is all that you think about?"

Yang's expression was impressive. "Maybe."

"What would you do if you let someone who had that thing you want so badly, but who didn't appreciate it one damn bit?" Sunset asked. "Wouldn't that infuriate you?"

"Nope."

Sunset snorted. "Easy to say."

"It happens to me all the time," Yang said, in such a way as gave nothing away as to what it was she wanted except that it was commonplace. "You won't see me blowing up about it."

"That only means that you don't really want it that badly."

Yang smirked. "You have no idea." She looked at Sunset. "Maybe you're right. Maybe I don't want it as badly as I used to. But I did, once. I wanted it so badly that I did something stupid. Stupid like you probably wouldn't believe. And then I took a look around and I stopped thinking about what I wanted for a moment and started thinking about what I had: Ruby, my little sister, my beautiful, kind...and now you've got her too and I'm going to need you to take better care of her or you and I are going to have problems. Look at what you've got, Sunset; look around and ask yourself if it's worth fighting with Pyrrha over what you want."

"Ruby isn't my sister."

"No, but she'll save you if you let her," Yang said. "That's just who she is. She'll save you like...like she saved me."

Sunset pursed her lips together until she was almost pouting. While she didn't buy into the whole pedestal that Yang was putting her sister on...that didn't change the fact that she was talking a lot of sense. Twilight, Goodwitch, Yang, all telling her the same thing, all playing variations on the same melody. Sunset didn't like it but...but like she'd told Yang, Ruby wasn't the only one for whom Beacon was important. This was her last chance before that destiny train pulled away from the station. She could feel ignominious anonymity stalking her like a creature of grimm. Was she really willing to throw away her shot over this, for Pyrrha's sake?

Sunset sighed. "Apologies don't come easily to someone like me. Making...friends comes even harder."

"You don't have to make friends with Pyrrha, you just have to get by for Ruby's sake," Yang said. "And maybe you don't have to apologise either, provided you understand. You and Pyrrha...Maybe it would be better if you talked in something other than words."


	11. Sunset in Splendour

Sunset in Splendour

Pyrrha was waiting in the dorm room as Sunset strode in, back straight and head held high, with an expression as proud as a queen upon her face.

Pyrrha got slowly to her feet. The dorm was empty apart from the two of them, which was honestly how she preferred it for this. She had over-reacted, she could see that now; she had allowed her unfamiliarity with the way that…more ordinary people did things to lead her astray. Sunset was not blameless, but after what Nora had helped her to realise, and in light of the way that the situation had been allowed to escalate…Pyrrha had decided that it would be best to be the bigger person and apologise. If they could only put this business behind them then perhaps they could go back to how things had been before, to the way they had almost been pleasant immediately after being put on the same team together.

"Sunset-" she began.

Sunset held up one hand for quiet.

Pyrrha hesitated, unsure of where this was going. What did Sunset intend to say to her in turn? Had she some fresh invective to pour on Pyrrha's head. How much would she have to endure?

Sunset took pause awhile, and in her pause her regal pride seemed to crack, and crumble. She folded her arms, and her chin descended, and she looked less self-assured and more surly than anything else.

She snorted out of her nose like a bull, and for a few moments longer she said nothing.

"I don't know why you came here, to Beacon," Sunset said. "Not surprising, we haven't talked much."

It took Pyrrha a moment to realise that Sunset was asking the question in expectation of an answer from her. "I…I came here to learn how to protect the world."

Sunset snorted, sounding very much like a horse as she did so. "I came here for fame."

"I see," Pyrrha murmured.

Sunset stared at her for a moment, before a smirk crossed her lips. "It's kind of funny when you think about it: I'd love to be you, and you probably wouldn't mind being me…actually, maybe not. I suppose…"

Pyrrha took a deep breath. "Sunset, I-"

"No."

Pyrrha blinked. "No?"

"No, I'm not going to mouth some apology, kiss and make up and pretend that everything's okay and neither are you, that doesn't…" Sunset trailed off again. Her jaw tightened, and her head rose as she pointed at Pyrrha. "Pyrrha Nikos, I challenge you to a duel."

Pyrrha's eyebrows rose. "A duel?"

"Yes, it's in the school rules, I checked," Sunset declared. "I need to get this out of my system, and so do you."

Pyrrha was not so sure of that, but what concerned her more was that if she and Sunset fought then there was absolutely no way that Sunset could win. She wasn't bad, but she wasn't great either and certainly nowhere near Pyrrha's own level of prowess. What did she hope to gain, then, by this? Wouldn't this just make her resent Pyrrha all the more?

"I'm not sure that-"

"Hey!" Sunset snapped. "Don't pity me and don't take me lightly. I'll give you good run for it, I swear. There's a lot of me you haven't seen yet."

Pyrrha's eyes narrowed. She could believe that, if only because there was a lot of Pyrrha that the world hadn't seen yet either. Was Sunset, like her, hiding a particularly powerful semblance? Was she holding back in Professor Goodwitch's class in order to surprise her opponents at the Vytal Festival?

Of course, there was also the possibility that Sunset was lying about this but Pyrrha doubted it. It wouldn't avail her anything to make herself out to be more powerful than she was when the proof of it would be easy to see in the arena. If she really was hiding something then Pyrrha had to confess that a part of her, the part of her that had once thrilled to the arena, that had considered it a world entire and to itself, was intrigued at the possibility. Perhaps Sunset was hiding gifts so great that she might actually challenge Pyrrha.

Certainly there was a look in Sunset's eyes, a warrior look, a look that was proud but not boastful, confident but from good reason. It was the look of someone who honestly expected that they could win.

A look that Pyrrha hadn't seen in the eyes of her opponents for some time. She didn't realise how much she'd missed it until she saw it again.

That would be something to look forward. No one had seriously challenged her in quite some time.

She smiled. "Very well. I accept your challenge, Sunset Shimmer. I look forward to meeting you in more straightforward circumstances."

Sunset's smirk broadened. "Oh, it's going to be great, I promise."

* * *

Pyrrha finished strapping on her greaves, the last piece of her armour to be applied. She was armed now, and well prepared for anything that Sunset might throw at her. The weight of armour and weapons alike was reassuring. She didn't have to worry about her lack of skill with words, or her lack of understanding of so many things that others took for granted. Here she could speak with Milo, and listen with Akuou, and be well understood by all who witnessed it.

She stood up. Her mother, who had been a great tournament fighter herself before an injury had ended her career – and forced her to pin all her hopes upon her daughter instead – had told her that passing from the locker room into the arena was like being born: you began in darkness, alone, unknown, unnoticed, and then you walked out of the dark corridor and into the light, where a whole world was waiting to receive you and acclaim you.

As Pyrrha walked through the dark corridor, she thought to herself that she would rather have been 'born' alone and unnoticed. She would have liked for this contest between Sunset and herself to have remained a private matter, watched only by Ruby and Jaune. But that was impossible, not least because they needed to get permission from a professor to use the hall outside of class time, and they also needed a professor – or at least a qualified referee – to supervise the fight.

That role was generously being filled by Professor Goodwitch, who was not given to gossip, but nevertheless the fact that they had booked the hall was not a secret, and word had gotten around. Word about a Pyrrha Nikos always seemed to get around; Pyrrha was sure that she could have gone to an illicit fighting den in Vale's seediest district and there would have been a reporter waiting for her when she got there. And so, as Pyrrha walked out of the dark corridor and into the light, as she was figuratively born in armour clad and armed for war, she was greeted by a great cheer from people watching from the bleachers, waves of upon waves of applause descending upon her head.

When she was young – when she was younger than she was now – that acclaim had delighted her. She had revelled in it, and in the revelling known herself to be almost as alive as when she fought.

It did not delight her now. It felt like a long time since she had truly earned it. So many effortless victories, so many opponents who could barely touch her without the use of her semblance. If Sunset had something up her sleeve…Pyrrha found that she hoped the other girl did.

She hoped - a vain hope perhaps, but nonetheless – that this bout might give her cause to recall why she had once loved this.

* * *

In the other locker room, Sunset was not alone. Ruby was with her, fidgeting with her hands and looking wildly this way and that as Sunset got dressed.

Sunset pulled on her jacket. "Do you have something to say to me, Ruby?"

"I just…I'm sorry about the fight," Ruby murmured. "But Jaune was in trouble, and I couldn't just leave him there." She smiled, or tried to. "I know how tough Yang can be, and I know how she never lets up."

"Your sister…" Sunset trailed off, because the truth was that Yang scared the crap out of her a little bit, but she wasn't willing to admit that. Not least because it would probably get back to Yang and Sunset wasn't going to give her the satisfaction. "I didn't get the chance to explain my plan, but I was going to sacrifice Jaune just to keep Yang busy for a bit."

"Really?" Ruby exclaimed. "But that's terrible. I know he's not that strong but he's still a member of our team."

"Sometimes a pawn has to be sacrificed to win the game."

"But Jaune's not a fish, he's a person!"

It took Sunset a moment to work out what Ruby meant. "I said pawn, not prawn."

"Oh, you mean like those magazines Yang thinks I don't know about? But what does-"

"No, not that either!" Sunset said. "Just forget it, the point is that you can't save everyone and-"

"Yes, you can," Ruby said. "Of course you can. What's the point in being the hero if you can't save everybody?"

"What if the alternative is saving no one?" Sunset asked. "Not even yourself?"

"I don't believe that that's the choice. I don't believe that it's impossible to do it all. It's only impossible if you don't let yourself believe that you can do it." Ruby looked defiant for a moment, but then the look in her strange silver eyes faded. "Anyway, that wasn't all that I wanted to apologise for. It's my fault that everyone found out about what was going on between you and Pyrrha. It's just that I tell Yang everything and I didn't think that her team would-"

"It doesn't matter," Sunset said.

"It doesn't? But everyone hates you?"

"So?" Sunset said. "They probably hated me anyway, and it's not like I need their good opinion for anything."

Ruby frowned. "Why do you always act like that?"

"Like what?"

"Like…it's not even that you don't have any friends, it's like you don't want any."

Sunset smirked. "I don't need them," she said. "I drink milk."

Ruby flushed as red as her name. "You…you heard that?"

"Yup."

"Well, what I meant was that I…that doesn't mean that I don't want any friends," Ruby protested. "I just meant that I…I don't know what I meant. Why are you doing this?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well…no offence, but it's Pyrrha."

"Yeah, and I'm Sunset Shimmer," Sunset replied. "It's time the world realised what that meant." She turned to go.

"Wait, what about your gun?" Ruby asked, pointing to Sol Invictus propped up against the wall.

Sunset glanced over her shoulder, first at the weapon and then at Ruby. "I don't need it." Or rather, it wouldn't do her any good to take it with her anyway. She couldn't beat Pyrrha Nikos with Pyrrha's own weapons, the weapons of a huntress in which she had been training her entire life. In order to win, she would need to use the weapon of Sunset Shimmer, mind and magic in which she had trained for her whole life. It would mean revealing a lot more of her power than she had thus far, but Sunset judged the risk well worth the prize. She had to do something to prove that she was not a thing to be taken lightly, and she had to do something to start impressing people in a way she just wasn't going to manage with her above-average huntress skills in a year that had people like Pyrrha and Ruby in it.

She was not, probably would never be a truly great huntress using simply her weapons and her aura. Even if she discovered her semblance then, unless it turned out to be something particularly badass, it probably wouldn't be enough to put her in top tier.

But she was a unicorn archmage, and if she wasn't quite able to complete one of Starswirl's unfinished spells then she was still one of the most gifted unicorns to pass through Celestia's tutelage.

 _You have to own what you got,_ that was what she'd said to Twilight. Well, what Sunset had more than anything else was magic and it was about time that she owned that, even in Remnant.

This was not a world to hide virtues in. The world to hide virtues in did not exist.

Thus Sunset strutted out of the locker room and onto the stage.

Pyrrha stood on the other side, armed and ready, unaffected by the cheers of the crowd.

Professor Goodwitch coughed. "Miss Shimmer, you seem to have forgotten something."

"I've decided to fight without a weapon, professor," Sunset replied. "I have that option."

Professor Goodwitch's eyebrows rose. "This is very unusual, Miss Shimmer-"

"But not wholly unprecedented," Professor Ozpin declared, suddenly appearing by the side of the Professor Goodwitch. He sipped from his coffee. "As you say, you have the option. But are you sure that this is the wisest choice, Miss Shimmer?"

His words hung pregnant in the air between them for a moment as the headmaster's eyes bored into her, ferreting out the heart of her mystery even as his words conveyed more than they said.

He wanted her to be careful. He wanted her to reconsider, though Sunset did not know why. But she was beyond all care and caution. This was her moment, she could not throw it away by languishing in half measures.

She looked away. "I'm quite sure, professor."

"Very well then. So be it."

Pyrrha's expression was inscrutable at this distance. It was impossible to tell what she thought about it.

 _Just so long as you don't hold back._

"Are both combatants ready?"

"I'm ready," Pyrrha declared.

Sunset turned her collar up, and spaced her legs more evenly apart. "I'm ready, professor."

Professor Goodwitch's voice rang out across the hall. "Begin!"

Pyrrha charged, her burnished shield before her as her swift-feet carried her across the stage to the cheers of the onlookers.

Sunset crossed her arms before her, and conjured a glowing green shield around her.

Pyrrha's face showed nothing but concentration on the battle as, without a word or sound, not even a shout, she pushed outwards with her shield slashed wildly with her sword at Sunset's shield.

The blade skittered harmlessly off the magical barrier. Pyrrha's eyes gleamed as she switched her weapon into spear-form and reversed her grip for a thrust.

Sunset grinned as he flung her hands outwards. Instantly the shield erupted, the energy of the barrier exploding like a shockwave which tossed Pyrrha like a rag doll, thrown aside by a spoiled brat, backwards across the stage. The crowd gasped as the champion of Sanctum hit the floor and skidded backwards a few feet until she leapt in a fluid flip back to her feet, her spear changed into a rifle with which she fired three quick shots at Sunset.

Sunset teleported out of the way, moving herself a few feet to the left with her hands flung outwards. Power was gathered at her fingertips, she'd practiced this until it was almost as easy as it would have been with a horn. From all ten fingers she fired off burst of green energy at Pyrrha. Pyrrha rolled aside, deflecting some of the blasts with her shield even as she used said shield as a rest for her rifle. She fired again. This time Sunset wasn't fast enough to teleport away and the shot struck her in the shoulder, bearing her to the ground. She winced once as she was hit, it felt like being hit by an ursa's paw, and a second time as she hit the ground beneath her.

Instantly she hit the ground Pyrrha was on her, her spear descending straight for Sunset's heart. Sunset rolled, and teleported again – she was breathing heavily now, sweat was coating her brow and running down her back, making her top stick to her skin – this time just above and behind Pyrrha. She fired a burst of energy from her open palm. Pyrrha rolled to avoid it, and so nimble was she and so swift that she nearly dodged it despite the point-blank nature of the distance. Part of the stage floor exploded as Pyrrha, struck in the side, was turned around like a spinning top but as she turned she had the presence to extend her shield arm and raised her shield to strike Sunset, in turn, a glancing blow upon the face.

Sunset hit the floor face first, and scrambled to her feet. She had to get up before Pyrrha could recover or-

 _Of course, who am I dealing with here?_ The thought, rather unhelpful, ran through Sunset's mind as Pyrrha was on her. She kicked Sunset up and then struck with her shield, so hard that Sunset not only hit the ground but shattered it beneath her. Sunset grabbed hold of the pieces of broken floor, hurling them upwards above her. She was rewarded by the sound of them hitting what could only be her tenacious opponent.

She teleported again - _I can't keep doing this_ – and added a touch of the reverse gravity spell to keep her hovering overhead, suspended twenty feet above the stage near the ceiling. In spite of the pounding in her heart, in spite of the sweat, in spite of the shaking weariness in her limbs Sunset did her best to keep a calm, serene look on her face. She didn't dare let Pyrrha know how close she was to losing. She didn't dare take her eyes of Pyrrha long enough to check their aura levels.

Pyrrha stood, waiting, expectant. It almost looked as though she was smiling.

Sunset grinned right back. _And for my next trick._ She spread her arms out wide on either side of her, and conjured up a score and more of bolts of green energy all around her like vorpal spears, hovering in the air. This kind of indirect casting was a drain even more than teleportation but damn if it didn't look impressive to bystanders.

She held them in the air for a moment longer, and then like a god casting down thunderbolts from his mountain throne she hurled down her spears on Pyrrha Nikos.

Pyrrha ran. She darted this way and that as the spears fell down around her, destroying the stage beneath her feet, running and dodging like a field mouse in the thicket trying to escape the eagle's claws. As she ran, Sunset lifted up the fragments of stage beneath her feet, trying to unbalance. But Pyrrha was not only swift but graceful, she leapt from fragment to fragment and though some of Sunset's spears hit home she didn't allow them to slow her for more than a second. Even when she lost her footing she recovered it again a moment later. The spears from heaven fell and Pyrrha dived through them and leapt upwards, shield held before her and blade reversed for a downward stabbing stroke.

And Sunset did the most unexpected thing that she could think of, and rushed to meet her. Magic propelled her forwards and downward through the air like a superhero, leather jacket flying behind her as she collided with Pyrrha with all the force of a bullet, reversing her momentum as they both plummeted downwards into the ground to wreck what remained of the Beacon stage.

 _You gotta be close to the end now, surely._ Sunset raised her fist, but Pyrrha was faster and hit her in the face with her shield so hard that Sunset's head was knocked backwards. She groaned in pain, and while she was distracted Pyrrha hurled Sunset back into the air and slashed at her repeatedly with her sword.

Sunset teleported away. She was visibly gasping for breath now, she didn't have another teleportation in her. She hadn't done so much magic at once in quite a while and her reserves were starting to run low. _Have to make it count._

Pyrrha charged towards her.

Sunset felt a great wind blowing around, billowing her hair and jacket as though destiny itself swirled about her. She gripped her right arm with her left, to keep it from shaking, and pointed her index finger at Pyrrha like a gun.

"Bang."

A beam of energy erupted from Sunset's finger. Pyrrha didn't have time to dodge this time, it was moving too fast and so was she. She was caught in mid-stride, and though she took the beam upon her shield she was borne backwards by its force and dumped in a heap on the edge of the broken stage.

Sunset panted. That was it. That had to be it. That was all that she had left in her, surely there was no way that Pyrrha could-

She glanced at the board. Pyrrha's aura was still in the yellow. It was only just, it was a sliver away from being in the red, but it was still in the yellow.

And Pyrrha was getting up again.

She took a few steps forward, pirouetted on her toes like a dancer, and threw her shield like a discus.

Sunset saw it coming, but she didn't have the energy to raise a shield, she didn't have the energy to teleport, she didn't have the energy for anything but to watch as the shield hit her in the face, and knocked her onto her back.

The klaxon sounded.

"Congratulations, Miss Nikos," Professor Goodwitch said. "You are the winner."

Sunset cursed mentally. She thought it through, she'd gone to her limits, she'd fought the fight upon her terms, fought her way, with her gifts. Was she really that inferior? Couldn't she beat Pyrrha even in her own chosen discipline?

Was she really just…mediocre?

There was no other sound in the hall but Pyrrha's footsteps traversing the shattered the treacherous stage, before she appeared above Sunset.

She was smiling, but it was not a cruel smile, not a smirk of victory to lord over a defeated foe. It was…it was something else. It almost seemed kind.

"Thank you," Pyrrha said.

"Huh?" was all Sunset could murmur in reply as she lay on the ground, prostrate and defeated.

Pyrrha held out a hand to help her up. "That was the most enjoyable fight I have had in quite some time. That semblance…it's quite the talent you've been hiding."

"You're not so bad yourself," Sunset said, as she allowed Pyrrha to help her to her feet. She might not have won – let's be honest, she hadn't won – but she understood Pyrrha better now than she had before. Just reading about her record and her accomplishments wasn't the same. Sunset now recognised that, though they were completely different in so many ways and attitudes, they were at their core the same: they were both people who had worked their backsides off to be the best in their chosen field – Pyrrha in arms, Sunset in magic – and although Sunset didn't understand why Pyrrha wanted to be the best when she didn't seem to enjoy all the accolades that came with it Sunset could nevertheless recognise the skills. From one prodigy to another.

For a moment, the two of them stood amidst the wreckage they had wrought in silence. No voice from the hall was raised to interrupt them. They stared into one another's eyes – both green, and though Sunset was loath to admit it there was a nagging part of her that thought Pyrrha's were probably brighter and more beautiful – and Sunset fancied that, just as she understood Pyrrha better now for having spoken with blows than she had when they were speaking with words, so too did Pyrrha understand her a little better also.

"Miss Shimmer," Professor Goodwitch said. "An impressive display, although I will note that had you not left your weapon in the locker room you might have had some options once you had exhausted your semblance."

Sunset sighed. "Yes, professor."

"Although, with such a powerful semblance, one can hardly blame you for a slight degree of overconfidence," Professor Ozpin murmured.

"Miss Nikos," Professor Goodwitch said. "A formidable display, as always. You did excellently, both of you. I hope that the experience has taught you something."

"Yes, professor," Pyrrha said, with a glance at Sunset. "I think it has."

"Go Pyrrha!" Ruby shouted. "Go Sunset!" She started to applaud, and it became clear from the way her eyes went from one to the other that she was applauding for both of them. Jaune was the next to take up the clap, and soon the applause had spread throughout the hall until all the spectators, save only for the two professors, were applauding.

Sunset couldn't be sure, she could not know for certain, but she dared to hope that they were all applauding for both of them.

She let it wash over her for a moment, eyes closed as that nectar and ambrosia which she had long sought and for so long been denied flowed into her ears and balmed her soul. This was it. This was what it was all for. She didn't need friends, Pyrrha didn't need friends…all that they needed was this, to be loved by the masses, acclaimed by them, acknowledged by them as something superior. She hadn't heard this sound – for applause that was for you sounded different than applause for other people, as you learned if you listened closely enough; you could feel the difference in your soul – since she had demonstrated her prodigious magic before the nobles of Canterlot at the symposia that Celestia would hold for the great and good. She had felt then as though she were on track for something great and glorious. She was starting to feel that way again.

She glanced at Pyrrha, wordlessly enquiring as the to the etiquette of these situations.

Pyrrha nodded, wordlessly answering.

As one, still hand in hand, they bowed.


	12. On the Rooftop

On the Rooftop

Sunset and Pyrrha sat on the rooftop with the wind caressing their features and licking at their hair, even as the sunlight gently kissed their faces.

Sunset leaned back, resting her head on her clasped hands, and closed her eyes.

It was the afternoon after their fight, and Sunset found that she could be around Pyrrha without raging outwardly or even inwardly at all her flaws. While she wouldn't call her a friend, being up here with her was, well, it was almost pleasant. Comfortable.

Whether that comfort would survive contact with all of Pyrrha's fans downstairs in the school was a matter for some discussion but, right now, Sunset was feeling pretty good.

Even if she had lost the fight, she had gained the respect of Beacon in the process; it was like one of those sports movies about going the distance with the champ.

Of course, that wasn't to say that Sunset didn't still kind of hope to be the champ one day.

"You're semblance is very impressive," Pyrrha said. "One of the most versatile semblances I've seen."

Sunset opened her eyes. That would certainly be true if magic was her semblance, which was part of the reason she hadn't previously gone so over the top with it. But, as much as Pyrrha was a smart girl, Sunset had faith in the power of frame of reference. If she, in her studies at Canterlot under Celestial, had been confronted with a form of power like aura or semblances then she would not, without any details, have assumed them to be hitherto unknown forms of power, rather branches of the magic she was familiar with. So far, it had worked just the same in Remnant.

"Yeah," she said. "It is pretty cool."

"You must have spent a long time training to use it."

Sunset looked up at the blue sky overhead. "When did you start training to fight?"

"Seriously? My training began when I was five."

"That's about when my training began."

"It sounds like an interesting training regimen that focussed so heavily upon the use of your semblance, rather than combat skills or weapons handling."

Sunset was silent for a moment, considering her response. "I had...you might say that she was an unusual teacher. She wasn't training a warrior, rather...I'm not sure I can explain what she was training. I'm not even sure that I know anymore." The closest she could think to come to a frame of reference that Pyrrha would understand would be to use Pyrrha's own words: a paragon of virtue and glory. "She's probably very disappointed in me right now."

"Disappointed?" Pyrrha repeated, with astonishment evident in her voice. "I would say that your abilities do credit to your master."

Sunset snorted. "My teacher wouldn't have wanted me to become a huntress, a killer. Hey, Pyrrha?"

"Yes?"

"Do you believe in destiny?"

Now it was Pyrrha's turn to fall silent. "Yes," she said. "Although not as some might conceive of it. There is no inescapable fate to which we are condemned from birth. Rather, I believe that our destiny is the goal to which we have committed ourselves, and to which we progress through determined effort."

Sunset sat up, a frown creasing her forehead. "No offence, but how is that destiny? If we can choose our fate then surely it is no fate at all."

Pyrrha asked, "Do you believe in inescapable fate?"

"I'd like to," Sunset said. "I certainly used to when I thought my fate was something grand and glorious. But I think destiny must be preordained or it is nothing."

"Look at me, I am the daughter of a great woman," Pyrrha murmured. "A god was my father, but death and inexorable destiny are waiting for me."

"A quote?"

"I'm a little surprised someone as knowledgeable as you hasn't read the Mistraliad."

"I know the stories, mostly," Sunset replied with a touch of defensiveness.

"Yes, but until you have read the poem...I was named for the Pyrrha who fought at Mistral, the finest of the warriors who fought there. When the war began, that Pyrrha chose a brief but glorious existence over a long and ordinary life, and when her lover was killed Pyrrha chose to have her revenge though she knew that her own death would follow hard upon. That became her destiny, inexorable...but only because she chose it."

Sunset nodded. She understood a little better now where Pyrrha was coming from. "Among my people," she said. "We don't really trouble to define what we mean by destiny. We think of it mostly in terms of a fixed thread, but now that you have explained it I think that we sometimes slip into the second meaning." It would explain the lies of Celestia: in the mistaken view of her old teacher, she had strayed off the path that led to her royal destiny and thus forfeited it. She had been quite wrong, of course, and understanding her thinking in no way lessened the sting of her betrayal of Sunset, but...she understood a little better now what Celestia had been trying to say.

"Can I ask, if you believe we choose our destiny then why did you choose a destiny you don't want?"

Pyrrha shook her head sadly. "I've always believed that my destiny is so much more than to win trophies. My destiny, the destiny I choose, the destiny I came here searching for...is to protect the world."

Sunset chuckled. "And I thought I was the one with grand ambitions."

"For what other reason do huntresses exist?"

"Well, yes, but when you say it out loud..." Sunset trailed off. There was a reason she kept her own ambitions to herself: to speak them out loud was to expose them to the mockery and derision of small minds and smaller spirits incapable of risking all with a leap into the unknown. And besides, if you told a wish it wouldn't come true, and ambitions had always seemed very close to wishes to Sunset's way of thinking.

"Our world is under siege and in grave peril," Pyrrha said solemnly. "We cannot simply try to hold ground or minimise our losses."

"You're talking about retaking the world from the grimm?"

"I suppose I am," Pyrrha said. "I believe that that is where our destiny, humanity's destiny, must lie; and I believe that I can play some part in that. And so could you."

Sunset's eyebrows rose. "What are you saying?"

Pyrrha smiled. "I'm saying that it was an honour to fight against you, but it would be a greater honour to fight by your side."

A smile blossomed across Sunset's face. She held out a balled fist, which Pyrrha regarded suspiciously.

"You bump it with your knuckles," Sunset explained.

"Oh," Pyrrha replied. "Oh, I see."

They bumped fists.

"Hoof bump," Sunset murmured.

"I'm sorry?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing at all."

* * *

And that's how I learned that fighting was the way to solve all my problems.

Well I'm glad that things are better between you and Pyrrha, obviously, but I can't help but think that this could have been resolved without a fight.

If we hadn't fought we wouldn't have been able to appreciate one another's skills first hand.

There was a pause at the other end of the journal. Unfortunately I have a feeling that you might be right.

Sunset sniggered. Am I making the princess of friendship uncomfortable?

The fact that you live in a world of violence disturbs me, I will admit. You make it sound almost dystopian.

Atlas could have stepped out of a trilogy of novels if you added a love triangle, but so far Vale hasn't been all bad. Not great either, but not all bad. Twilight Sparkle?

You can just call me Twilight, if you want.

We're not friends. But

Sunset's hand trembled. She felt as though she were on the threshold of a door that she must cross, and yet she feared to do so. Do you think Princess Celestia is ashamed, that I took what she taught me and I use it take life?

I haven't actually told her too much; you're situation sounds incredibly dangerous and I wasn't sure if you'd want her to worry.

No. I don't want her to worry. And I don't want her to judge. There, she had set it down, her fear, and now it could not be erased. It grinned up at her, mocking and sardonic, taunting her with her own weakness.

From what you've told me, there is nothing to judge. Assuming you're not lying, then you're protecting people from terrible monsters. I pity that you have to live such a life but I don't judge you for it.

Sunset nearly wrote back that she didn't need the pity of a usurper, but what would have been the point? She was irritated, but not so irritated that she wanted to either end the conversation or get it bogged down in whether Twilight Sparkle had or had not meant to be patronising.

She thought about Pyrrha's dream, her destiny to which she was willing to commit body and soul to work towards. Could it be done, the grimm defeated once and for all? The history of places like Mountain Glenn or the Crimson Offensive suggested otherwise, but Sunset was no seer. Not even Celestia could see the future. Perhaps Pyrha could do it, and if Sunset were a part of it then...

Princess, do you believe in destiny?


	13. Bargain

Bargain

Are you allowed to tell me what you're working on right now, or is it classified?

I'm still attached to General Ironwood's staff, I'm helping him on a cpuple of things which are classified. Sorry.

If that's how it goes. Is it boring?

Atlas needs staff officers as much as any other kind of soldier; there's no such thing as an unnecessary position in this army. I'm protecting Atlas and the world - and you. That's all that matters. My boredom or otherwise doesn't enter into it. Besides, it isn't as though the general has me getting coffee.

Weiss smiled at thought of her bug sister, tough as they come, getting coffee for anyone. That's probably because he's tasted your coffee.

You are becoming a sharp-tongued brat. I'm very proud.

Weiss stared down at the screen of her scroll, and at those words that warmed her more than a dozen cups of coffee could have managed. The smile on her face blossomed on her face so brightly that people stumbling upon her would hardly have recognised her as the Weiss Schnee who stalked the halls of Beacon every day.

She relished these opportunities to talk with Winter, even if it was texting. She felt as though it were only to her sister that she could be herself. Winter had high expectations of her, as her father did, but unlike father Winter was also willing to see Weiss as her own person and not simply an extension the Schnee name and legacy.

And Winter knew her well enough that there was neither need nor purpose in playing a role with her. She could open up to Winter in a way that she never could have to her team-mates.

Thanks.

Enough about me. How are things? How's your team?

Performing adequately under my leadership.

What aren't you saying?

Quite a bit, if Weiss was being honest; like the fact that she sometimes felt like she wa herding monkeys as much as leading huntsmen. But even with Winter there was such a thing as too much information. It's nothing that I can't handle. Although

Yes?

You were team leader, right?

Yes.

Did you ever have a problem with them trying to ask you out?

Ah, you're having that problem, too.

What did you do about it?

I told them that I'd been disinherited and miraculously they lost interested.

Weiss snorted. Unfortunately I haven't been disinherited. Not yet, anyway.

Don't worry about it. Father has to leave the company to someone.

Whitley.

You haven't given Father any reason to change his disposition. Although maybe you should take one of his calls. He knows we're in contact and he's been badgering me to badger you about it.

Weiss hesitated. She didn't want to talk to her father and she didn't want to argue the point with Winter either. But nor did she want to lie to her sister. I'll think about it.

Okay. Now, about these boys, they do know I can deploy Atlasian spec ops, right?

I don't think they do.

Let them know and see if it helps.

I might end up having to do just that.

I have to go back to work now.

I love you.

There was a pause, a silence from her scroll.

We'll talk again soon.

Weiss sighed as she shut her scroll with an audible snap. It was nothing personal, she told herself; emotional reserve was the curse of the Schnee family.

She put away her scroll, and put on the mask of Weiss Schnee, heiress and ice queen, for which she was known at Beacon.

Weiss sometimes wondered how she had ended up in the position in which she found herself at Beacon. She was not a vain girl - certainly she was not vain of her looks, at any rate, although her skills as a huntress were something of another matter altogether - and she was certainly not the kind of girl who would consider herself, like the heroine of a bad online fiction, to be so beautiful it was like a curse. How was it then, by what twist of fate had she found herself in a position where, out of the seven men in the top four teams in her year, four of them seemed to be attracted to her?

The situation might not have been so bad if the four corresponded to the four boys who were not on her team, but Ren seemed completely disinterested, Dove hadn't so much as glanced at her and Sky Lark was a nonentity.

Three of her four unwanted suitors were the ones she had to live with every single day.

Cardin's advance had been like so much else about Cardin: boorish and overconfident. He had sat himself down next to her at lunch one day and started planning their date as though she had already agreed.

Weiss fixed him with an icy gaze of the sort that had been enough to freeze his words in his throat. "Cardin, at what point precisely did I agree to go on a date with you?"

Cardin hesitated, before he laughed and spread his arms across the table in such a way as to emphasise the broadness of his chest. "Well, how can you say no to this?"

"Very easily," Weiss said dryly. "For the sake of your dignity I'm willing to pretend that this never happened." She turned back to her lunch and hoped that he'd adept the out she had offered him.

He didn't. Weiss got the impression that people didn't say no to Cardin Winchester very often. At least her father, whatever his faults, could not be said to have spoiled his children. Not in any sense other than the strictly material, anyway.

"Come on," he said. "No need to be like that about it. Why, we'd make a perfect pair, you and I: my Vale pedigree and your Atlasian-"

"Money?" Weiss suggested acidly.

"I was going to say connections," Cardin said defensively. "My undeniable masculinity and your delicate femininity."

Weiss was thinking some decidedly unfeminine thoughts about what she would like to do to him as she said, "Cardin, I don't know what kind of primeval hole you crawled out of, but I'm a better fighter than you are and I certainly don't need your protection. The answer is no, now drop it."

He had dropped it, at least in the sense that he hadn't asked her out since but that hadn't stopped Weiss from getting the distinct impression that he hadn't given up yet. If nothing else, he was always harder on Jaune Arc after Jaune had attempted to ask Weiss out. She thought there might be a connection there.

Russell had waited until Cardin had been shot down to make a move, catching her as she was coming out of the library.

"Hey," he said, in a voice that was deliberately deeper than his usual register. "So, I was wondering if you might like to go out for drinks sometime, I know this great little place in downtown Vale. Kinda edgy, you know. The sort of place where you never know what might happen."

If Weiss hadn't had her arms full of books then she would have folded them. As it was, she contented herself with staring at him until he looked away in embarrassment. "I'm surprised Cardin is taking the risk that his sidekick might succeed where he failed."

"Hey, I'm not Cardin's sidekick!" Russel protested, his voice returning. He coughed, and tried to deepen his voice again. "I mean, uh-"

"What makes you think I'd want to go to some seedy bar in downtown Vale?"

Russell shrugged. "You know, rich chicks love that kind of stuff. Rebel against your dad and all."

Weiss derived some internal amusement from the fact that her father would probably have just about preferred her to have rebelled against him by going to low dives with boys like Russell Thrush rather than going to Beacon to train as a huntress. It wouldn't have been much better in his eyes, but a little.

"Russell, you watch too many movies," Weiss said.

Russell shrugged again. "Maybe, but it could still be fun. Look, I'm not asking you to marry me, just give me a chance."

"I'm afraid not," Weiss said, in a more gentle tone than she had used with Cardin because he hadn't annoyed her so much. It was just that he really wasn't her type with the whole punk revival thing that he had going on. And, to his credit, he seemed to have accepted her rejection as the last word it was. Lately he'd been sniffing around Blake Belladonna of BLBL, and Weiss wished him luck with that.

And then there was Flash, who hadn't actually gotten around to asking her out yet but who clearly wanted to. In some ways he was more annoying than Cardin because instead of just getting it over with he seemed to be trying to pay the groundwork with solicitous behaviour, always offering to do things for her as though she wasn't training to fight the creatures of grimm at the same elite academy he was. Honestly, Weiss would rather that he just asked her out if that was what he wanted to do. He was pretty cute, clean cut and nice, she might have considered him if he could have just spat it out. Of course, there were disadvantages to dating one's team-mates, not least the consequences of a break-up and what might happen to the team dynamic even in the best of circumstances. And Weiss hadn't come to Beacon looking to find romance. Even if Flash asked, there was still a good chance that she would refuse.

But she much preferred Flash's coy juvenile bashfulness to the tenacity displayed by Jaune Arc, who seemed as boneheaded and clueless in courtship as he was in every other aspect of his life. If Weiss hadn't been such a skilled huntress, and Jaune been such a mediocre huntsmen, then his refusal to take no for an answer, forever springing flowers, mediocre poetry, music or melodramatic declarations on her without any consideration of tact, privacy, setting or Weiss' own mood might have started to creep her out.

It was seriously getting on her nerves regardless. So much so that she did something very difficult for her and went to see his team leader about it.

Weiss didn't like having to approach Sunset Shimmer. She wasn't a racist, but she didn't like having to have anything to do with faunus and she never had. Quite apart from all that she had been told about the White Fang, her experiences with ordinary faunus had been bad enough, like the times she had been ambushed on the streets by so-called peaceful protesters telling her what an awful man her father was; peaceful they may have been but it had been frightening enough for a child before Klein chased them away. Even those faunus whom were not openly antagonistic had in their docility a kind of insolence in their manner, as if for them not doing anything that could be used against them was a kind if defiance. Whether they were uppity or not it was hard to trust them, especially knowing that they might at any moment transform into the nightmare figures of the White Fang who had murdered so many of her father's friends, who were the reason Klein carried a gun with him when he took her out - a gun which he thought she didn't know about.

Even now, as Weiss approached Sunset in the library, she found it frighteningly easy to imagine the faunus student in a grimm mask, a cruel smile on her face as she sought to snuff out Weiss' life.

Weiss coughed into her hand, giving the other girl plenty of warning as she approached. Sunset Shimmer shut her book. She carried herself with a curious mixture of arrogance and nervousness that Weiss had not seen in faunus previously, the latter covered beneath a healthy serving of bravado like a steak slathered in sauce to obscure the flavour of the meat.

"Can I help you?" Sunset asked impatiently.

Weiss clasped her hands together behind her back. "I...I'd like to ask you to control your team-mates."

Sunset stared at her for a moment. "I presume you mean Jaune?"

"Indeed."

Weiss wasn't sure exactly what she'd expected or hoped for. Sisterly solidarity, perhaps. But Sunset smiled, in a way that might not have seemed completely disingenuous to most people. But Weiss Schnee was not most people, and she had been around smiles like that her whole life. People smiled at her father like that all the time, because they didn't like him but daren't show the fact because he was Jacques Schnee, the richest man in the world. And they wanted something from him. That was what all the disingenuous smilers had in common, whether they were seeking investment in their latest project, an improvement in working conditions, a donation to some 'charitable foundation' or other they all smiled like that when they wanted something from her father and the Schnee family. No doubt Sunset Shimmer wanted something from her, too.

"I'll make you a deal," Sunset said. "I'll keep Jaune away from you, and you keep Cardin and Russell away from my team. Agreed?"

Weiss hesitated. She disliked Sunset's tone, and the idea of having to bargain for a favour in this business rankled with her. But, Sunset hadn't actually asked for anything outrageous, and her proposal was not, on the face of it, unreasonable. She probably ought to have put a stop to Cardin's antics before now anyway; they were unbecoming and they threatened to disgrace the entire team. She had...a part of her had found his treatment of Jaune a fitting punishment for his pursuit of her, and the rest...she had rebuked him at times, but often found it easier to turn a blind eye to offences mostly committed against deserving victims.

And so Weiss ignored the part of her that told her that Sunset Shimmer was getting above herself, and nodded. "Very well. I'll talk to my team and you talk to yours."

"Fair enough." Sunset said. She held out her hand.

Weiss didn't take it.

Sunset's hand hung there a moment, unwanted, before she let it fall. Sunse5's insincere smile turned into something more like a smirk. "I see. So that's how it is, huh? Well, for the record I wash my hands after I've been to the bathroom, but whatever. We don't have to like each other to keep our nuisances out of one another's hair."

"No," Weiss replied frostily. "No, we don't."

* * *

Sunset waited until that evening to speak to Jaune, which carried the risk of him doing something stupid in the interim but also meant that he wa stuck having to listen to her while she didn't have to go looking for him.

She finished the conclusion to her grimm studies essay, which praised Professor Poet's valour in a way that might be over the top if it were anyone but Professor Port, and pushed her chair back. Jaune, of course, was reading a comic book.

Irritation flashed through Sunset and made her even more determined to get through this.

"Jaune," she said loudly.

Jaune cringed, and he tried to hide the comic book. "Uh, yeah?"

"Weiss Schnee and I had a little chat today," Sunset said. "Leave her alone from now on."

"What?"

Sunset briefly if he was deaf or stupid. "You've been bugging her so much that she came to me to put a stop to it. So I made a deal with her: you're going to leave her alone, and Cardin and Russell are going to leave us alone."

Ruby and Pyrrha had both stopped what they were doing. Though neither said anything, nevertheless it was quite clear to Sunset that they were listening closely.

Jaune leapt to his feet. "You can't do that! You have no right-"

"I just did it," Sunset said. "And the ability to act gives me the right. Besides, do you really enjoy being Cardin's victim of choice?"

"No, but I'll take it for her sake!"

Sunset rolled her eyes. "Look, I shouldn't have to be doing this because she's already told you no more than once. I mean, I'm kind of glad that you didn't stop but isn't it about time that you let this go?"

"If I could just get her to take me seriously for a second-"

"She took you seriously enough to seriously complain to me about you," Sunset said. "And believe me, I could tell how much it was killing her to be around me. That is how seriously she takes this. Frankly, if it was me I'd have thrown out of a window by now." She spread her arms to encompass the room. "Ruby, Pyrrha, you agree this is getting creepy, right?"

She saw at once that she had asked the wrong people by the looks on their faces. Of course, Pyrrha had never had a boyfriend before and Ruby was probably too young - if her older sister had anything to say about it anyway - to really know.

"Well," Ruby said. "We're always being that we have to keep trying, right? If we fail, we have to pick ourselves up and keep moving forward."

"That's not really what that-"

"Perhaps if you let Weiss know how you really feel, with no zany schemes or goofy gestures, then she'll finally see you for what you really are," Pyrrha suggested.

"Trust me, she sees exactly what he is," Sunset muttered. "Ugh, you two suck. Look, the point is...there are three points actually, the first one being have some self respect for Celestia's sake, she said no and you're just making a fool of yourself. Secondly what do you really see in her anyway and thirdly I don't care. I don't care if you think she's the love of your life, I have made a deal with Weiss and if I can't keep it then I look weak in front her. That isn't going to happen."

Jaune looked as though Sunset had just run in over his dog, stopped, got out of the car and then strangled the injured animal to death in front of him. Seriously, he looked as though he was about to cry. "But I love her," he said.

"No, you don't. You're just horny." Sunset snapped. She took a deep breath. "Look, trust me, its better this way. These things never work out the way you think they will." _One moment he's taking you to the fairgrounds and the next moment he's dumping you because you're not the kind of girl he can take home to meet his mother._ Did Jaune really think that Weiss would introduce a guy like him to her rich daddy? A no-mark from Vale with no money or prospects? She'd date some clean-cut Atlasian boy whose mom worked for the council and oh Celestia she was going to date Flash wasn't she?

No. No, that could not happen. Her feelings for the Schnee heiress were nowhere near benign enough to tolerate her stealing Sunset's boyfriend! She'd rather void their bargain and loose Jaune on Weiss with renewed intensity than see that happen.

She was already half way to devising a plan to break them up before she remembered that the two weren't actually dating anywhere other than Sunset's imagination.

By the time she had calmed down enough to take in her surroundings once again, Jaune had disappeared.

"Where is he?"

"In the bathroom," Ruby said. "Sunset, did you have to be so...did you have to do that?"

"Don't look at me like that, Weiss came to me," Sunset replied. "I'm not the bad guy here."

"Nevertheless, he's quite upset."

"Just so long as he does as he's told," Sunset said as she sat back down. "It wouldn't have worked out between them anyway."

Pyrrha frowned, and she glanced at the bathroom. "It must be terrible, to care so much for someone who doesn't see you at all, and you have no idea how to tell them how you really feel."

"I wouldn't know," Sunset lied.

* * *

Weiss cleared her throat. "Your attention, please."

The three members of her team all looked at her. Weiss, standing at the head of the room, clasped her hands behind her back. "I'm aware that some of you have taken some pleasure from mistreating Jaune Arc, as well as other members of Team Sapphire." She didn't name any names, for the same reason she hadn't singled out Cardin and Russell; she didn't want them to feel persecuted and the message to get lost in the recrimination.

Cardin snorted. "Neither of them ought to be here."

"I don't know, man," Russell said. "You didn't see the fight with Nikos, the pony's got some skills."

"Sunset's tough," Flash agreed. "But even I didn't realise how tough until that fight. I think she's been holding back this entire time."

Weiss was inclined to agree, and it worried her a little. Those kinds of powerful semblances were rare - the Schnee family semblance being amongst the most powerful - and none of them, as far as she knew, were in the hands of faunus. But Sunset had successfully hidden hers, who knew what other powerful semblances the faunus might be hiding? How many hidden demons lurked with the dark ranks of the White Fang, waiting to be unleashed? Might she, her family, the human race someday find out that the power imbalance between their species was not nearly as great as it appeared to be?

Once again her imagination supplied an image of Sunset wearing a grimm mask over her face, her cruel laughter echoing as she rose above the flames and rained down those green darts upon Weiss for no other reason than her name was Schnee.

But that was a fear for the future. Sunset Shimmer was not a member of the White Fang - not yet, a voice in her head clarified - and thus she not yet Weiss's problem. Right now Jaune was her problem, and a problem that she could solve.

"Regardless of how powerful she is," Weiss said. "They are all to be left alone from now on."

Cardin grunted. "Huh. Why? What's it matter to you?"

"Because your actions reflect badly on this team and thus upon me," Weiss declared magisterially. "But more importantly because it's going to get Jaune Arc off my back, and stopping your fun is worth it to me."

Cardin looked at her, and for a moment she thought that he might defy her. But then he shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever, it doesn't matter to me either way."

"Russell?"

Russell laughed nervously. "Don't worry, I'm staying out of her way."

"Hmm," Weiss murmured. She had the distinct impression that the two of them would probably move on to finding someone else to make miserable. "All your actions reflect upon this team and in your team-mates," she reminded them.

"We know, Mom," Russell said, and killed any hope that Weiss had that they would listen.

Cardin chuckled. "You, of all people, ought to know that those people need to be kept in their place."

Weiss knew many things. She knew, better than Cardin, far better than anyone else at Beacon, what the faunus were capable of when roused to anger. She understood as no one else in this room or in this academy did what it was like to live from day to day, moment to moment, in fear of your life from the malice of the White Fang. She understood as Cardin never could that the gap between faunus and men was vast and unbridgeable.

But she was not Cardin. The fact that she didn't like them very much didn't mean that she had any desire to squander her time in futile attempts to grind them into the mud, nor that she would condemn them all out of hand. Many faunus were White Fang, and doubtless many others that started out as mere rapscallions would find their way into the terrorist ranks in time, but Weiss would have no witch-hunts on her conscience, nor would she join the crowd of slack-jawed idiots calling for deportations to Menagerie – because that had worked so well in the past – every time the White Fang sneezed.

"I'm nothing like you," she whispered, because she was the victim in all of this and Cardin's callousness could not take that from her.

His lips curled into a derisive sneer. "You can tell yourself that all you want. You're no better than either of us."

"I have better things to do than waste my time on flaunts and jibes and jeers," Weiss replied. "Leave them alone and put the time into your studies, your grades could do with the extra effort. Leave them alone, before we all suffer for your stupidity."

Nothing mattered to Weiss so much as passing through Beacon with flying colours. It was her way out, her chance at being free from her father and all the influence he exercised over her life.

Compared to that, her dislike for the faunus simply couldn't compare.


	14. Jaunedice

Jaunedice

"Flash Sentry and Nora Valkyrie, please make your way up to the stage," Professor Goodwitch announced as the images of Flash and Nora appeared on the screens above her head, together with the green bars representing their aura levels.

Nora, along with the rest of Team YRDN, was sitting nearby. She looked enthusiastic and confident as she got up off the bench and made her way up onto the stage, which looked so pristine you would never guess that Sunset and Pyrrha had completely trashed it not too long ago. Yang whistled as Nora got up onto the stage, and even the imperturbable Lie Ren looked quietly confident in her chances.

They were all underestimating Flash and what he was capable of. Sunset felt an absurd surge of protective instinct towards him, a desire to defend him from those who didn't rate him at all. Though why she should care, she couldn't rationally say.

For his own part, Flash got up slowly, his expression unreadable. Weiss whispered something to him as he got up. Was she encouraging him, or something more? Sunset felt jealousy prick her soul as Flash nodded to acknowledge whatever it was she'd said. Look how close their faces were! Back off, leave him alone!

She breathed an inner sigh of relief as he turned away and climbed onto the stage. He looked resplendent in his gleaming armour, with the talk crest upon his helmet and the hoplon shield held before him, painted with the image of a shield and thunderbolt. He looked magnificent, like something out of the Australian war epics that Pyrrha knew and had supplied her name, when mighty warriors had clashed beneath the topless towers of Mistral to bring Vale's princess home. He also looked slightly odd, Sunset had to admit, facing thoroughly modern Nora in her short skirt and boob window.

"Begin," Professor Goodwitch said.

Flash advanced a few cautious steps, sword ready and shield held before him. Nora, on the other hand, charged with a great shout, hammer held high above her head. She was not the swifter, but she crossed the stage briskly enough and with a yelp she brought her hammer down on Flash.

Flash bent his knees; he almost knelt before her, and raised his shield above his head. The hammer struck the shield with a sound like the ringing of a young that echoed across the hall. Flash did not flinch, which seemed to surprise Nora in the split second before Flash turned his shield on and lightning rippled across the gleaming metal surface.

The thunderbolt on his shield wasn't just for show. Flash was quite adept at using lightning dust as well.

Lightning crackled across the shield, snapping like hungry dogs, and with a crackle it surged up Nora's hammer and consumed Nora herself, dancing up and down her body for a few seconds. Sunset leaned back a little in her seat...and then she noticed that Nora's aura hadn't dropped in the least bit.

And then she noticed that Nora was smiling.

"Thanks!"

"Wh-" Flash's question was cut off as Nora reversed the sting of her hammer and caught him with an upwards blow that struck him in the chest and punted him upwards and clean off the stage.

The buzzer sounded to end the match.

Sunset's were wide. Clearly she'd just seen Nora's semblance and it was...pretty impressive. Not particularly versatile, though, she had to say. And fairly easy to counter, too, simply by avoiding lightning dust or anything like it.

Up on the stage, Professor Goodwitch was giving out her notes.

"Miss Valkyrie, while your semblance ensured that you didn't suffer for it, you continue to leave yourself open when you attack. I urge you to door a degree of restraint against a prepared opponent. Mister Sentry; you were unfortunate."

Flash didn't look particularly reassured by the fact that Goodwitch couldn't find anything to actually criticise him on. He made his way back to the seat in silence. There, Weiss leaned close to him, whispering something in his ear. What did she have to say to him that required to be spoken in such confidence? And then she took his hand, why? Sunset glared at them, kissing palms there in the hall without a trace of shame. Get a room! Or better yet, don't! Just get away from him! Flash had his faults, and Sunset knew them all well, but he was too good for the likes of Weiss Schnee. He was not for her. With her wealth and looks she could surely have any man she wanted, so why did she have to take the one that…

Sunset scowled. But what did it matter to her, anyway? Flash was…Flash was just a big, dumb moron who hadn't appreciated what he'd got when he had it.

He was just…he was just the only person who had reached out a hand to her, when he didn't have to.

He was just the only one who had, for however brief a season, seen more in her than anyone else.

He was the only one who, for a little time, had seemed to see her worth.

And now to see him thus enchanted by a snowflake…it tore the scab from Sunset's aching wound.

 _It's nothing. It's nothing. She's just his team leader giving him notes on the fight._

 _It's nothing._

 _I hope it's nothing._

The screens brought up the next pair of randomised combatants: Jaune and Cardin.

"You can do it, Jaune!" Ruby cried as Jaune got up with the air of a condemned man going to his execution.

"Just do your best," Pyrrha said. "Good luck."

Jaune laughed nervously. "Yeah, thanks." He walked on to the stage with more resignation the confidence. Cardin, by contrast, looked positively eager. It had been a couple of weeks since Sunset and Weiss had made their agreement, and so far their bargain appeared to be holding. Cardin had moved on to a second year student named Velvet Scarlettina, while Jaune hadn't pressed his suit on Weiss since being told to knock it off. But their deal didn't apply in the arena; there Cardin could do exactly as he like to Weiss and probably would; Sunset didn't have any confidence to stop his ogreish opponent. That was one of the reasons she hadn't bothered to encourage him: it would have felt like a waste of breath.

That, and cheering wasn't really her style anyway.

The fight went exactly as Sunset thought it would go, reality justifying her bleak analysis over the optimism of Ruby and Pyrrha as Cardin kicked his ass and served it up with all the trimmings. By the end of the battle Jaune's aura was in the red, while that of Cardin had barely been chipped away.

Sunset had say, Professor Goodwitch's advice to Jaune was not particularly helpful: yes, charging like a maniac when your aura was almost gone wasn't that smart, but without any kind of ace in the hole then a defensive posture was only going to prolong the agony to no purpose. It wasn't as if Pyrrha was going to come and rescue him if he could only hold out for long enough.

For Cardin the professor had no advice at all and he stood there looking smug as Jaune sat down dejectedly on the edge of the stage.

Sunset would have been lying if she had claimed to have, well, any sympathy for him at all. If he had some spectacular light that, like her magical skill, he was hiding under a bushel then now was the time to show it. And if he didn't then what was he doing here? He was a millstone around the necks of the rest of them.

"Remember," Professor Goodwitch said. "The Vytal Festival is not far away now. Any teams wishing to compete in the tournament will be defending the honour 9f Beacon Academy and the Kingdom of Vale."

Sunset wasn't entirely sure how the Kingdom of Vale we going to be defended by a class ever the best students were mostly from Mistral or Atlas (or Equestria) but she was more concerned about her own glory than about the prestige of the kingdom or the school. It also made her point about the millstone of SAPR seem all the more acute. While she could, and would, dump Jaune when it came to the doubles round, that didn't change the fact that SAPR would essentially be fighting three against four in the opening round of the tournament. And while, between Ruby's speed, Sunset's magic and Pyrrha's Pyrrha-ness they could hand would overcome those odds that didn't alter the fact that they shouldn't have.

Nor did it change the fact that Team SAPR ought to have established itself as the most gifted team in the year by leagues and had not; that wasn't entirely Jaune's fault - Ruby's grades were lagging behind, and Sunset bore a measure of responsibility that she would never confess to out loud - but he was certainly a part of the problem.

Sunset had to do something about him, not only because she was the team leader but also because Pyrrha and Ruby both mollycoddled him far too much - case in point, the way that Pyrrha was gazing at the stricken Nah e with melancholy moon eyes as though he was a blameless victim in all this; Sunset briefly distracted and amused herself by imagining how they would react if he wasn't a good looking guy with a line in adorably dejected expressions - to be of any use in getting him to shape it.

It was he responsibility, but the necessity of it irritated her. She had better things to do than play nursemaid to Jaune Arc.

But if she didn't do it then they would all suffer.

Sunset glanced at Pyrrha out of the corner of her eye. She was still downcast, her eyes still fixed on Jaune, her mood mirroring his own as though she were a mirror of his emotions.

Pyrrha…Pyrrha hadn't liked the way that she'd spoken to Jaune about Weiss. Ruby hadn't much cared for it either. They both treated him less like a comrade in a war against evil and more like the goofy brother that they never had. But she didn't want to fight with them, not after she only just made up with Pyrrha.

She snapped her fingers in Pyrrha's face – Ruby was busy geeking out at the thought of the upcoming Vytal Festival, and didn't notice Jaune, Sunset or Pyrrha – until she got the other girl's attention.

"Sunset?" Pyrrha murmured.

Sunset leaned in, to speak softly to Pyrrha without being overheard.

"Listen, I know that he's your partner and I know that you like – though I can't think why – but he really needs to shape up; I'm going to give you a chance to get that across to him nicely, or else I'm going to let him have it with both barrels, understand?"

Pyrrha was silent for a moment, and then she nodded. "I'll talk to him. I'll help him. I'm sure that with my assistance he can improve."

Sunset didn't comment on that. Pyrrha was certainly that good, although whether she was a good teacher remained to be seen.

"Okay," she said. "Don't take too long."

"I'll do it tonight," Pyrrha replied. She looked back at Jaune, and sighed at his dejectedness.

Sunset shook her head in disbelief.

* * *

One of the disadvantages that Blake was only now discovering with her choice of attire was that it had somehow given Russell Thrush the idea that they moved in adjacent subcultures.

They didn't. They really, really didn't.

But it meant that he put himself down on the edge of her table and was at this very moment carrying on a one-sided conversation about music that Blake had never listened to, in a genre that she had no desire to hear, and night life hotspots that she had no desire to visit.

"You know, I've even laid down a couple of tracks myself," Russell said. "I figure it might be a cool side-line from the hunting."

"I'm not sure that you'll have a lot of time for a music career in between defending the kingdom from the creatures of grimm," Blake remarked dryly. She wasn't looking at him, concentrating wholly upon her lunch. He didn't seem to be taking the hint.

He wanted to go out with her. Blake was fairly sure of that just as she was absolutely sure that she had no desire to go out with him, not only because she'd seen how he behaved towards faunus who weren't hiding behind a little black bow, but also because they had absolutely nothing in common and, frankly, she wasn't really looking for that sort of thing. She hadn't come to Beacon to find romance.

But this kind of propositioning, carried out though it was with a modicum of subtlety, wasn't something that she'd had to deal with until now. She had been Adam's girl, which meant that nobody had so much as looked at her twice because Adam would probably have reacted to jealousy as badly as he'd reacted to everything else that didn't go exactly how he wanted it to. But that lack of experience meant that she wasn't sure how to tell him no, or rather how to tell him no in such a way as didn't leave him resentful. Not that she cared greatly for his feelings, but she didn't want to damage her anonymity too much.

She glanced at her team-mates, but Sky seemed completely oblivious, and Lyra and Bon-Bon were talking. Blake noticed that their eyes flickered in her direction every so often, but neither of them said or did anything. She guessed that they weren't sure how she felt about Russell and didn't want to react the wrong way.

Or perhaps they simply didn't see it as any of their business.

"We can't be out in the field all the time," Russell replied, oblivious to her sarcasm. "Hey, why don't you swing by my dorm-room and I'll play you some of my sound?"

The suggestion was not tempting in the least, not least because it might involve being in the same room as Cardin Winchester, which would not happen. Blake took a deep breath. "Russell, you seem like a nice guy," it galled at her to say that to someone like him, but it had to be said no matter how untrue it was. Gentle was the way, right? Hopefully her excuse - her true excuse, in many ways - wouldn't draw too much attention to her.

Russell's face fell a little. "Here comes the but, doesn't it?"

Blake nodded slightly. "I just got out of a really bad relationship," she said. She shuddered at a few of the memories that rose like sea-monsters to the forefront of her mind. "And I'm just not ready to think about any of that stuff again."

Russell shrugged. "I always say that it's never too soon to move on from a breakup. It'd be a real shame if you let one bad experience with some jerk ruin your life."

 _That was your cue to exit gracefully,_ Blake thought. "I'm sorry, I just...can't."

Lyra and Bon Bon had stopped talking. Bon Bon, seated to Blake's right, leaned back so that she could look at Russell from past Blake's head. Lyra's attention was on Blake herself.

Russell smirked, even as he raised his hands in surrender. "There's no need to glare at me like that, I can take a hint." He got up, stealing a handful of fries off Sky's plate as he did so. "When you get over your ex I might be waiting. Or not, so don't wait too long, okay?" He grinned, and started eating the stolen chips as he turned and walked away.

Bon Bon shook her head. "He doesn't lack confidence, but you could do so much better. You know, if you weren't sworn off dating."

Lyra smiled sympathetically. "You know...he's got a point. You can't let a bad break-up make you sour. You deserve to be happy."

"It's...it's a lot more than just a bad break-up," Blake murmured.

Lyra's mint-green eyes widened just a little. She shared a glance with Bon Bon.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Lyra asked.

Blake shook her head. "No, I really don't."

Lyra nodded. "Well, if you do, we're all here for you."

"Right," Bon Bon agreed.

Lyra elbowed Sky.

"Uh, yeah, sure, we're all ears," Sky said. "Or you could tell us who the guy is and we'll kick his ass."

"No!" Blake said, more loudly than she had intended. The idea of Sky - or Lyra, or Bon Bon or pretty much anyone in their - going up against Adam was laughable and terrifying in equal measure. Terrifying twice over, because not only would he cut down any one of her team without breaking a sweat, but because if he did that would mean that he had found her. "I-I mean," she stammered, looking away from them. "It's fine. He's...a long way away from here. He doesn't know where I am. It's better that way."

"Right," Lyra said softly. She glanced away, and cleared her throat loudly before adroitly changing the subject onto safer ground.

Or at least, she did so for a moment before a commotion amongst team WSTW drew their attention.

* * *

When Weiss was a girl, Klein had taken her to a fairground; she had loved it, so many colours, so many sounds, so many scents and sensations all coming together in one heady mixture. And then she had done the one thing that Klein had told her not to do, and run off by herself, away from him. The moment that he found her again he had taken her straight back home, which she had found unbearably cruel at the time but now she understood not as cruelty but as him teaching her that actions had consequences.

Now, as she watched Cardin tugging on the ears of some rabbit faunus, Weiss knew how her faithful butler must have felt.

She didn't care about the girl, although Flash - who had brought the scene to her attention, seemed to - but she had told Cardin not to do this. She had ordered him not to do this and here he was flaunting his disobedience in her face and in front of the entire school. If she let him get away with it then where was her authority?

Leadership was a trick, that was the lesson that Weiss had learned from watching her father, and Winter. Father's money, Winter's insignia of rank, they no more conveyed power upon them than Weiss' appointment as team leader did because power did not exist. Father's employees, Winter's soldiers, could easily have defied them if they wished. The trick was to convince or coerce those beneath you into accepting the lie, the lie that Cardin threatened to expose by his actions.

And so, as the rabbit faunus winced in pain and pleaded with Cardin to let her go, Weiss rose from her seat, her meal half-eaten before her. Her wedge-heels clicked on the dining hall floor as she stalked around the table - Flash got up to follow her, a silent shadow in resplendent armour - and walked briskly, but not so hastily that she sacrificed her dignity for speed, towards the table.

Fortunately there was no one else there. No one else, it seemed, wanted to be a part of this display.

Good. It would be easier that way.

"Cardin!" Weiss snapped, in a voice as chill as the high mountains of Solitas. "Let her go."

Cardin stared up at her as though she were half-mad. "Now why would I do that?"

"Because I told you to," Weiss declared.

Weiss had been eleven years old, old enough to understand everything that was going on, the last time that her father's workers had attempted to unionise for better conditions. It hadn't worked. It never worked. There were always enough unemployed faunus in Atlas willing to work even for the pitiful wages of the mines or the processing plants that strikes were broken almost before they started, and in the last resort father would speak to his friends on the council and have the military sent in to break up strikes and nascent unions both. She remembered the way her father had looked at the union representative, when he had had the nerve to call on their house: the way he'd stared at the grubby-handed miner in front of him as though he were a louse, as though he were worse than a louse, as though he were utterly insignificant. Weiss stared down at Cardin in just the same way, with just the same ice in her eyes, until he wilted in the face of her stare and released the ears of the faunus.

Weiss turned her gaze upon her; the girl's rabbit ears made her seem tall and gangly even if she was not, but in any case she too flinched away from Weiss' gaze. How someone so lacking in assertiveness hoped to become a successful huntress was beyond her. Nevertheless, after a moment in which her desire to appear to be a leader - and, in so appearing, to transcend the deception and become a leader - warred with her disdain for faunus, Weiss said, "Please accept my apologies for the behaviour of my subordinate."

 _Please accept my apologies for the behaviour of my children._ That was how father had phrased it, when she or Whitley had embarrassed him in front of his guests. He had apologised on their behalf while at the same time distancing himself from any social misstep, to say nothing of any wrongdoing. It was also a phrase which, they had soon learned, heralded punishment to come when the house was empty. Cardin might not know that.

"Uh, right," the faunus said, before making her escape from the whole situation.

Weiss was about to round on Cardin once again when Russell wandered over.

"What's going on?" he asked.

Cardin's face was transfigured by a sneer of contempt. "Our team leader has decided to become a faunus lover."

"That's enough, Cardin," Flash growled.

Weiss held up one hand to silence him. She had no need of others to fight her battles for her. Her authority would not survive the impression that she was hiding behind Flash Sentry. "I made my expectations quite clear last night," she declared. "Was any part of what I said unclear?"

She glanced at Russell, who let out almost a yelp as he recoiled from her gaze. "Hey, don't look at me like that, I was over with Bluebell."

"Yes, you were," Weiss said. "This time."

Cardin climbed ponderously to his feet, like a mountain rising up out of the sea. "Maybe I missed the part where I have to listen to everything you say."

Weiss managed to continue looking down at him, in spite of his superior size. It was a trick that had a little do with how you held you chin, a little to do with back posture, and a lot to do with attitude. She showed no anger, she showed no fear, she acknowledged of no doubt. Like her father confronting that union rabble-rouser, the only thing that Weiss conveyed was unassailable superiority. She was as firm as the mountain and as cold as the wind. "Maybe you also missed the fact that I was appointed your team leader."

Cardin, for all his size, was a child. A spoiled child who didn't hear the word 'no' often enough. And when his sheer physical bulk failed to move her, when he failed to intimidate her in any way, he crumbled before her.

Weiss noticed that people were staring at her, their behaviour had attracted attention from all around the hall. It was not ideal, but at least they were seeing her stamp her authority upon her recalcitrant team-mate. There were worse things which they could have seen.

"Come," she said, as though they were hounds not men, and turned to sweep magisterially from the hall.

For a moment, a mere moment, she doubted that they would follow. But follow they did, trailing in her wake.

Weiss permitted herself a smile that the three of them could not see.

Winter, she was certain, would be very proud.

* * *

Flash scuffed his foot on the ground, and reached up to scratch the back of his neck.

He stole a glance at Weiss. Gods, she was gorgeous. A perfect angel sculpted out of ice. The shape of her features, the shade of her eyes, the way that she bore herself...and the good heart that he could sense beneath the thorns that surrounded this winter rose.

Flash Sentry had never had a lot of luck with women. He just didn't know what to say around them, and now was no exception. But he had to say something; he, after all, was the one who had asked Weiss if they could talk alone, out here in the corridor where Cardin and Russell couldn't disturb them. She was waiting, expectant, silent. Couldn't she guess what he was going to ask? Was she deliberately making this difficult?

"You know, you're...you're pretty amazing," he stammered. _Oh, great. Just great, Flash. Real smooth. Next time, why don't you stick to bumping into her and laughing about it?_

"Thank you," Weiss said courteously, but it was no more than courtesy. His praise did not suffuse her with joy. Either she was surfeited with praise from others, or she simply didn't consider him to be the sort of person whose praise would carry weight with her.

 _Come on. Come on, you can do this. Whatever she says, at least you've tried._ Flash took a deep breath. "Would you like to go out some time?"

Weiss blinked. "I see. So that was what this was about."

That wasn't good. Flash could already feel his shoulders starting to slump. "Yeah. Yeah, that was it. I just...you're really gorgeous, and talented and kind-"

"Kind?" Weiss repeated. She smiled, or was she smirking. No, it was a smile; a smile tinged with frost as she turned away and walked to the window through which moonlight descended on the corridor. "Not many people would be so generous to me."

"Most people..." Flash trailed off. "I think you have a good heart. I can...feel it."

"Is that your semblance?"

"No," Flash said. He dared to smile. "I'm just good at reading people."

Weiss let out a single chuckle. Her head bowed a fraction. "Flash...you're a good person, a good huntsman and I'm glad to have you on my team. I appreciate the support that you've given me." She glanced at him. "And I think your hair really suits you. But I'm also your team leader and for that reason..."

"It's not you, it's me," Flash murmured.

"Just because you've heard it before doesn't mean that it isn't true."

"It's not what I heard, it's what I said," Flash replied. It had seemed...better, at the time. It had seemed less cruel than to tell Sunset that he was breaking up with her because she had grown too monstrous to be around, that he could barely stand her presence any more. It had seemed better, kinder, more gentlemanly to let her think that he was dumping her because she was a faunus than because the cruelty of the world had made her cruel in turn. _It's not you, it's me._ Better that she should hate him than...

"I can't let this team be divided between you and me on one side and Cardin and Russell on the other," Weiss said. "It won't work. Maybe if we were on different teams, but...I'm sorry. Nothing is more important to me than success here."

That surprised him, honestly, although he tried not to show it in case he gave her offence. Flash found it hard to imagine why the Schnee heiress would care that much about whether she succeeded at Beacon or not. If things didn't work out here then surely she could just go back home and take a job in her father's company while she waited for him to die or retire and leave her his company and his fortune? Although by that line of logic there was no reason for her to risk herself at Beacon at all.

"I get it," he said, even though there was a lot he didn't get, because he didn't want her to think that he was a sore loser. "We're here to learn how to be huntsmen and huntresses, not to find romance." He paused. "Thank you for helping that faunus in the cafeteria earlier today."

Weiss was silent for a moment. "I didn't do it for her," she whispered.

Flash walked slowly over to the window. The shattered moon shone down upon them both, bathing them in silvery light. "You don't like them, do you?"

In the moonlight, the scar upon her eye seemed more noticeable than normal. "I feel as though they've been hunting me my entire life," she said. "My parents, their friends, associates, business partners; they've been attacked, even killed."

"By the White Fang," Flash said.

Weiss sniffed. "You say that as though the White Fang aren't really faunus. As though they can't become completely invisible the moment they take off their masks."

"The White Fang killed my father," Flash said softly.

A small, soft gasp escaped from Weiss' mouth before she stifled it. She turned, looking up at him. "When?"

"The Mantle bombing, four years ago," Flash replied.

"I'm sorry," Weiss said.

"It's okay," Flash said. "It was bad, but...do you what really made me angry? Do you know what I hated more than anything?"

Weiss shook her head.

"I hated the way that the moment my father was dead all the bigots and the racists started using his name like he was one of their candidates, talking about how we needed to do something about the faunus even though he never...we can't let hate win, Weiss. Even if they hate us, the moment we become like them is the moment we lose."

"But how do we win?" Weiss asked.

"I...I don't know," Flash admitted. "But I know that giving in to hate isn't it."

* * *

Ruby groaned.

Sunset looked up. Ruby was holding her head in one hand, while with the other she was using her pencil to beat a tattoo on her history textbook.

As Sunset watched, Ruby groaned again.

Sunset twisted round in her seat, resting one arm upon the back of the chair. "You're not getting sick, are you?"

"Sick of this homework," Ruby muttered.

Sunset was silent for a moment. It was just the two of them, Pyrrha having taken Jaune off somewhere so that they could talk. It just Sunset, who had already completed the essay, and a clearly struggling Ruby.

"History?"

Ruby moaned wordlessly.

Sunset sighed, and picked up her chair and carried it across the room to Ruby's desk.

"So," she said. "What's the problem?"

Ruby looked up at her. "Huh?"

"Clearly there is a problem or you wouldn't be acting as though your dinner disagreed with you," Sunset said. "What's up?"

Ruby stared at Sunset as though she'd suddenly grown an extra head. "Uh…Sunset, are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine," Sunset said. "Look, I know that I'm a lot of things but I am an actual genius and I'm your team leader and your partner and we're on a grade average, so why don't you tell me what it is that you find so difficult about this and see if I can't help you out."

"Really?"

"Yes!" Sunset cried. "Yes, I am me and I am doing this. Now can we please not make a big deal of it and get to the actual problem?"

Ruby deflated like a popped balloon. "I…I have no idea how to handle this essay for Doctor Oobleck."

"The one about the repercussions of the Faunus Rights Revolution?"

"Yeah, I mean, I know that we have to talk about faunus rights, but-"

"No, you don't," Sunset said. "Everyone is going to talk about faunus rights because it's obvious, but if you want to impress Doctor Oobleck and get a top grade you should do what I did and write about depopulation and grimm incursions."

Ruby blinked. "Come again?"

Sunset rocked back in her hair, resting it upon its back legs as she folded her arms. "Right, so you know about the Great War, right?"

"Uh…kinda?"

It occurred to Sunset Shimmer that one of the disadvantages of being admitted to Beacon two years early on the basis of your enviable combat prowess might be that you missed out on two years of academic study.

It also occurred to her that this might explain Ruby's bad grades.

"How many classes have you felt as though you didn't know the basics that the course started out with?"

"Um…most of them? Not Professor Port's class, but-"

"You should-" Sunset said, and stopped, because what was she going to say, that Ruby should have said something? To who, Sunset Shimmer? Not much chance of that, the way that she'd been acting. Pyrrha, maybe, except Pyrrha had her own problems – most of them caused by Sunset – to deal with. It wasn't as though she could ask Jaune for help, his grades were just as bad as Ruby's. She could have talked to her sister about it, but then Sunset wasn't sure how academically inclined Yang was.

 _And perhaps she just didn't want to admit that she had a problem._ Sunset knew the taste of that dish well enough; pride could drive you to do any number of things no matter how foolish or…unhelpful.

She lifted up her legs and her chair flopped forwards with her in it. "I'm afraid it might be too late for midterms, but we'll see if we can't get you up to speed by the end of semester."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying I'm going to tutor you up to level, obviously," Sunset said. She was, after all, a genius and a genius with consistently high grades what was more. How hard could it be to teach Ruby, so long as she wanted to learn?

"Really?"

"Yes, why are you acting so surprised? Wait, don't answer that," Sunset said quickly. "Now, to start with this essay, and why it is a colossally stupid idea to fight two colossal wars back to back."

It was Sunset's opinion that, as important as it might have been for the faunus themselves, the more important consequence of the Faunus Rights Revolution was to cement the territorial losses of the Great War and make it impossible for humanity to retake the lands lost to the grimm during that conflict. Rather than focus on rebuilding after the war, Mantle had decided to pander to the worst elements amongst its population instead, and Mistral – eager to prove that it was still a military great power after the debacle of the Vacuo campaign – had thrown in its lot with them. To the losses of the Great War – estimated at between one and two million dead – had been added the casualties inflicted by wily faunus, whose troops had been seasoned in the Great War while many of the human forces were untested conscripts.

"General Lagune's army was four times the size of the faunus forces at Fort Castle," Sunset explained. "But what those numbers conceal is that the faunus army was made of experienced veterans, while Lagune was leading kids your age given pikes and muskets and marched off to war because by that point they were the only ones left. In the Faunus War you were an old soldier if you were my age. And then Lagune's army was destroyed out and, well, there was no one left to march to war. So you see, that's why we're in the state we're in right now. That's why the kingdoms are so small, that's why huntsmen are always on the back foot against the grimm that are absolutely every where and that's why expansion efforts have always failed: because mankind nearly tore itself to pieces over twenty years and the population still hasn't fully recovered yet." She paused, and she couldn't help but think of Pyrrha's hopes, her own ambitions beside which Sunset's were cast into shadow. Thus placed in their historical context they seemed quixotic in the extreme, hopeless fantasies besides which the dream of ascension or a crown seemed grounded. Humanity could retake the world? Defeat the grimm for good and all? They hadn't managed it yet and Pyrrha, while good, wasn't good enough to make up for all the unborn shadows who should have fought by her side but never would.

"The point is," she said. "That this is why we have to fight, because y-" she stopped herself from saying 'your ancestors'. "Because our ancestors fought too much. Actually, no, the point is that if you put that in your essay Doctor Oobleck will think you're really clever. Do you understand?"

"Sort of."

Sunset picked up a pen from off Ruby's desk. "I'll write your introduction for you, and then you can make a go of the rest."

* * *

Russell's foot twitched as he sat on his bed, writing lyrics - or trying to - to his latest track. _His arms are sweaty...something, something, Mom's spaghetti? You know, I think that could actually work._

 _His arms are sweaty...knees weak, arms are heavy. Is that an arm too many?_

Russell considered the matter, as well as how to get from arms are heavy to Mom's spaghetti. He scratched at his nearly-shaven head as he looked around the half-empty dorm room.

"Where do you suppose pretty-boy took the ice princess?"

Cardin grunted. He looked like he was trying to work, bent over his desk but not really writing much. "He's asking her out."

"He doesn't have the balls to ask," Russell replied. "He'll just moon over her without making a move."

Cardin grunted again. "If he isn't asking then where is he?"

Russell was silent for a moment. "Do you think she'll say yes?"

"Nothing would surprise me about our team leader any more," Cardin growled.

Russell smirked. "You're just sour cause she turned you down." Russell wasn't particularly fond of Flash Sentry, who was a bit of a kiss-ass apart from anything else and as wet as a damp rag too, and he wouldn't deny that if Weiss decided to date him instead of Russell himself he would take it as a mark against her judgement...but he wasn't going to lose any sleep over the rejection. After all, this school was full of supermodels and at least one of them would turn out to be receptive to his bad boy, down-town guy charms. They had to be, because it would be a monstrously cruel world if they weren't. Maybe Nikos, she was probably gagging for a bit of rough.

 _Mistral Princess, looking fly,_

 _Looking for a down-town guy,_

 _Looking for a guy like me,_

 _Cause I know all the place to be_

 _Nah, that's awful. I was better off with Mom's spaghetti._

Russell put the idea of a track about Nikos to one side. Her, Weiss, Blake, by the time he was done laying it down about them the world would swear they'd all gone out with him. No one wanted to hear from a rapper who struck out.

"What's a rhyme for spaghetti?" Russell asked.

Cardin shook his head. "I can't believe you even like that faunus garbage, let alone perform it."

"Oh, so the music that I like is faunus garbage but the music you like is what?" Russell demanded.

"What are you talking about?" Cardin asked, looking up at Russell in confusion. "Rock and roll is-"

"Is derived from the faunus blues tradition from Solitas after the Faunus War, a tradition which itself came out of old slave songs," Russell said. "Seriously, it's a crying shame that the Mossy Rocks never won any of those Music of Faunus Origin awards. So if you don't want to listen any faunus garbage then I suggest you borrow some of the princess' violin and piano stuff." Russell had borrowed them himself more than once, they were a great cure for insomnia.

Cardin looked as though he was torn between horror and scepticism. "Are you serious?"

"You didn't know that?" Russell replied.

"How do you know that?"

"Just because I'm cool doesn't mean I never read a book before," Russell said. As a matter of fact, for his essay for Oobleck's class on the legacy of the Faunus War he had written all about the dissemination of Rythmn and Blues into the cultural mainstream and the rise of rock and roll. It couldn't be any worse than talking about civil rights like everyone else was sure too. Not that he was going tell Cardin that in case the other guy stole his idea. "So are you going to burn those vintage LPs under your bed or what?"

Cardin's face twitched. "I guess even animals come up with something good every now and again."

"Yep, they sure do," Russell said. "It's like they're not even really faunus any more when you see them on stage." Maybe the fact that so many of them wore hoodies had something to do with that. You couldn't see the weird ears.

"No, Jaune, don't!"

The startled cry attracted Russel's attention. It had come from out the window and above, from the flat rooftop that sat over their dorm room. People seemed to use it as a hang-out, no matter how late it was. It was kind of a drag.

"That was Nikos, right?" he asked softly, trying to listen to what she and Jaune were saying to each other. But they were being quieter now, and it was hard to make out.

Cardin nodded. He got up from his desk and walked to the window.

"You think I need help?" Jaune asked.

 _You don't think you need help?_ Russell thought. Seriously, that guy was the biggest loser in the year and yet he sounded like someone had just run over his puppy at having that pointed out to him.

Come to think of it, he also sounded pretty unenthusiastic about getting alone time with a perfect ten honest to god superstar. What was up with that guy?

Cardin had stuck his head out of the window by now.

Some more murmurs passed between Jaune and Pyrrha, before Jaune's voice rose again. This time he didn't sound hurt so much as he sounded frantic. "I didn't go to a combat school, I didn't earn my place here! I got my hands on some fake transcripts and I lied!"

Russell's eyebrows climbed up his forehead. _That...I guess he's got balls, I'll give him that._

 _No brains at all, but he's got balls._

A cruel smirk was fixed on Cardin's face.

"I'm tired of being the loveable idiot stuck in the tree while his friends fight for their lives, I'm tired of being ignored, I'm tired of being the lump who doesn't even get a role in the plan when everyone else is risking everything! I don't want help, I want to be the hero!"

 _Well it ain't going to happen with technique like yours,_ Russell thought.

"Just...just go!" Jaune shouted. "Leave me alone."

Cardin started to climb out of the window.

"Where are you-" Russell began, but stopped once it became clear that he wasn't going to stop and answer.

He must have climbed up onto the roof, because Russell could hear his voice saying something, even if he wasn't being loud enough to make out any actual words.

"Cardin! Please, you can't tell-"

He was cut off. Presumably Cardin had cut him off. Russell couldn't hear anything else until Cardin climbed, somewhat ponderously, back down off the roof and in through the open window.

"What happened up there?"

Cardin's step was positively jaunty as he swaggered across to his desk and began to pack up his step. "Well, I don't have to worry about doing this essay. Or any other essay for that matter."

"Because..."

"Because my new buddy Jaune is going to take care of everything for me," Cardin replied. "Or else he's on the first airship out of Beacon."

"Blackmail?" Russell asked. "What about Weiss?"

"What about her?"

"She told us to stay away from Sapphire," Russell said.

"What our team leader doesn't know won't hurt her," Cardin said. "Besides, if she knew she'd just have little Jauney expelled, and what a waste that would be." He sat down. "I can tell him to do your essays too?"

"Thanks, but I don't want my grades to drop," Russell said. "Wonder why he did it."

"Don't know and don't care," Cardin replied. "But he's going to do exactly as I say from now on, if he knows what's good for him."


	15. Truth Will Out

Truth Will Out

Jaune had never felt worse than he did now. Everything was going wrong, from the moment that he had blurted out the truth to Pyrrha. It was stupid, so stupid that if Pyrrha wasn't the nicest person that he'd ever met in his life then he would already have been shipped back home to face the indifference of his family by now...but he'd just been so frustrated and upset and when she offered to help him he...he was an idiot. Such an idiot. She only wanted to help him, but all he'd been able to see was that he wasn't good enough to stand on his own, unable to stand beside Pyrrha and Ruby, unable to be the hero from out of his dreams.

And it had all tumbled out: the lies, the deception. And then he'd sent her away, yelled at her...the moment the words had passed his lips he'd regretted them. When he saw the look on her face, how wounded she was by his unjustified anger, then he'd regretted it even more. After Pyrrha left he had lingered on the rooftop, brooding upon just how much he had screwed up.

And then Cardin had climbed up onto the roof to join him and it had become clear that he hadn't know what screwing up meant until that moment.

Now he had to see the hurt and betrayal in Pyrrha's eyes every time he looked at her, and he could feel the lead around his neck chafing every time Cardin pulled on it.

 _All I wanted was to be a hero. Was that so wrong? Why am I being punished for having dreams?_

This wasn't how it was supposed to go. None of this was how it was supposed to go. Okay, he'd never been to a combat school or learned how to use a sword or shield properly, but so what? He had a lot of heart and he wanted to succeed and that was supposed to be all that it took, right? That was all the heroes had in comics and they...they became heroes! Ruby said that if he only kept trying and moving forward then he'd get there eventually, but even before Cardin had found out his secret, even before that disastrous night on the roof-top Jaune had felt as though his feet were trapped in cement, as though he were weighted down with lead preventing him from going anywhere. Ruby was nice about it, but she kept racing so far ahead of him that she disheartened him without even realising it. Pyrrha treated him like someone she had to protect, and Sunset...he could feel the contempt that his team leader had for him radiating off her like the rays of the sun. He could see it every time she looked at him. But she didn't know what it was like, none of them did, to fail so hard no matter how hard you tried until trying itself seemed pointless. She didn't stay awake at nights worrying about how much of a screw-up you were until you fell asleep in class from exhaustion. She didn't know what it was like to want something that, it was starting to see, you could never have.

And so he lingered outside of his room like a phantom, unable to bring himself to cross the threshold and join the others. He could hear them through the door, talking.

"Where's Jaune?" Ruby asked.

"Probably hanging out with Cardin again," Sunset growled. "Now pay attention or you'll never get this right."

"I just don't get it. Jaune, I mean. Cardin was picking on him until you stopped it, and now they're hanging out together like best friends? Does that make any sense? Am I just being clueless?"

"I'm sure Jaune knows what he's doing," Pyrrha said, and Jaune couldn't unhear the disapproval that was lacing her voice. He slouched against the wall, head bowed.

"Ruby, pay attention," Sunset said. "Dust properties."

Ruby made a noise like someone being forced to eat something that they don't really like.

"All huntsmen are expected to understand dust, even if they don't use it," Sunset said. "It may be a holdover from earlier days, but it's still on the exams. So: why is powder the most efficient form for use of dust?"

"Because you can't put the crystals into bullets."

There was a pause, before Sunset sniggered. "You're not wrong, but the answer that they'll be looking for is that the impurities render dust crystals inert under normal circumstances, while processing to powder removes those impurities and makes the residue more reactive."

"Which is why Torchwick had to shoot the crystal he threw at me to make it explode, but the power Weiss shook in my face blew up when I sneezed."

There was another pause. "Really? Both those things happened to you?"

"Yep."

"Then...yes, that is why. It's also why the powder is more expensive, the Schnee Dust Company charges a premium for the processing."

"Is that why you don't use dust?" Pyrrha asked. "I've thought that your style would accommodate it quite easily."

"Mmm," Sunset murmured. "I can't afford it. I did try to grind the crystals down to fine powder myself once but it blew up in my face; I almost set my room on fire."

Jaune was about to slink away, at least for now, until his scroll went off with a loud buzzing sound. He fumbled for the device, trying to answer it before the sound alerted his three team-mates in the room, but he could already hear footsteps only slightly muffled by the carpet.

Sunset flung the door open, her gaze imperious as she stood framed in the doorway, casting a shadow over Jaune from the light in the room. "There you are."

Jaune froze, wilting under her gaze. His scroll continued to buzz in his hands.

"Answer it," Sunset said, as Pyrrha and Ruby looked at him from behind her.

Jaune's thumb twitched on the 'take call' button.

Cardin's voice floated out of the scroll. "Hey there, buddy, it's your new best-"

Sunset snatched the scroll out of Jaune's hands. "Jaune can't come out to play right now, he has to tidy his room before bedtime." She disconnected the call before tossing the scroll back to Jaune, who just about managed to catch it. Sunset took a step back, gesturing for him to come into the room. "Now, I expect you to tell me the truth when I ask you this," she said. "Is Cardin giving you a hard time again because if Weiss isn't honouring our agreement then I'll-"

"No!" Jaune said, quickly and loudly. Too quickly and too loudly, he could tell by the way that Sunset's eyes narrowed that far from allaying her suspicious he had only aroused them. He glanced over Sunset's shoulder at Pyrrha. Her lips were pursed together, and she looked as though she was contemplating telling Sunset...not the truth, he didn't think that she would betray his secret, but she might tell Sunset that he wasn't hanging with Cardin because they'd suddenly become best bros forever, but if she did that and Sunset went storming off to Weiss then his secret would come out for sure. He stared at her, trying to convey with his eyes his desperate need for her to keep quiet. She said nothing. "I mean, aha, Cardin's not such a bad guy when you get to know him. And sometimes it's nice to hang out with another guy, you know, do guy stuff."

Sunset folded her arms. "Guy stuff, huh? Such as?"

"Uh..." Jaune stammered. He really, really wished that he had thought about this ahead of time. "We, uh, talk about sports."

 _Oh, great, just great you absolute moron!_ Jaune recognised that that was one of the worst things he could have said the moment after he said it, not least because these girls were all training to be huntresses and there were probably lots of sports that they were into.

"Sports," Sunset repeated, spitting the word out as though it were contaminating her lips.

Jaune froze. He could feel the sweat on his brow and underneath his armpits. She was going to call him out on it, she was going to ask for more details, she was-

And then she smiled. "You know, I'm kind of a fan of motorcycle racing if that's what you're into."

"You are?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah, I even put my own bike together from parts that I...acquired perfectly legally from a variety of neighbourhood junkyards around Canterlot," Sunset said.

"Yang lets me help on the maintenance of her motorcycle. What kind of engine does it have?"

"900 cc twin cylinder."

"Ooh, classic."

"It hums beautifully," Sunset said. "Anyway, I'm going to get some coffee. I'll back in a while." She didn't so much as look at Jaune as she walked out the door. He could hear her walking away down the corridor.

He didn't breathe a sigh of relief because that would have been too obvious, but he did dare to think that he'd gotten away with it.

He looked at Pyrrha. She looked away. "I'm...excuse me," she said, as she walked into the bathroom.

Ruby wouldn't meet his eyes. She didn't even look at him. She looked at everyone and everything but him as he pressed her fingers together nervously.

Jaune walked to the foot of his bed and sank down onto the floor. Now he did sigh, deeply and heavily, as he bowed his head until his chin was resting upon his chest.

He heard, rather than saw, Ruby sit down beside him. "Jaune?"

Jaune gave a wordless noise in answer.

"Jaune," Ruby repeated. "What's really going on? These past few days you've been really distant, spending all your time with Cardin...I just don't get it."

Jaune looked at her. Ruby's face, so close to his own, was guileless; her silver eyes were bright with trust. Ironically that made lying to her a lot harder than it was to lie to someone like Sunset who didn't trust him one bit anyway. It changed nothing, and cost him nothing to lie - or try to lie - to his team leader, but with Ruby...she trusted him and that trust was like the glass animals that his sister Viola collected: delicate and fragile. Something he couldn't bring himself to break.

"Cardin's got me, Ruby. He's got a leash on me and I can't get away from him."

"But Sunset-"

"This is bigger than that," Jaune said. "I...I really messed up. I did something stupid and Cardin knows and if...if I don't do as he says then it's over for me." Jaune closed his eyes, he screwed up his face with agonised thought. "Maybe it would be better if it was over."

"Jaune, this is what you want, isn't it?" Ruby asked. "To be here, to be a huntsmen."

"Yes," Jaune cried. "Yes, this is what I've always wanted, all I've ever wanted."

"How do you expect to fight the grimm if you can't even fight for your dreams?"

Her words pricked him like a dagger. "It's not that simple," he said. "Ruby...why aren't you embarrassed to be on the same team as me?"

"Why should I be embarrassed?"

"Because you're so cool and I'm...I'm me," Jaune replied softly. "Sunset's embarrassed."

"No she's not. She's just cranky. Like...really, really cranky," Ruby said. "Jaune, in all the storybooks that Yang used to read to me, about great huntsmen and huntresses who saved everyone, most of them didn't go to any of the four academies; most of them lived before the four academies even existed. And they didn't become heroes because they were well-trained, but because they had good hearts. You've got a good heart, Jaune, and that's more and better than Cardin can ever have."

Jaune shook his head, and wished he could believe that.

* * *

Sunset had not gone for coffee.

She'd known that Jaune was lying. It was obvious that he was lying. Cardin wasn't a good guy deep down, he was a dick, and Jaune had never shown any interest in sports. And if he needed male company then what about Ren? No, he was clearly lying, but it was equally clear that he really didn't want to tell Sunset what was up, and any attempt on her part to force the issue would probably have Ruby and Pyrrha - or, actually, maybe not Pyrrha, who knew at least some of what was going on and wasn't entirely happy about it - defending him against Sunset's wrath as they so often did.

But she had hope that, if she wasn't around, they might press him to open up, and so she'd 'gone for coffee' while actually lingering just outside the dorm room.

And she was able to hear every word that Jaune said to Ruby. And she did not like what she had heard.

They had an agreement, she and Weiss. SAPR would stay out of the way of WSTW, and WSTW would do the same for SAPR. It was that simple and they had agreed it. They had talked about Cardin specifically. They had an agreement and Weiss was breaking it, or at least turning a blind eye while Cardin broke it, which amounted to the same thing. Who did she think she was? Did she take Sunset for the kind of wallflower who would roll over and take this lying down?

She might be a faunus and Weiss might be a Schnee, but this wasn't Atlas and Sunset didn't have to take this kind of thing lying down any more.

The only thing that was stopping her from marching right down to WSTW's dorm room right this instant and giving Weiss a piece of her mind was what Jaune had said about his situation - his mistake - being bigger than the bargain struck between Sunset and Weiss. Sunset doubted that, and in any case their agreement had not been conditional in any way, and in Sunset's opinion 'leave us alone' meant 'leave us alone' in all circumstances, but she confessed that he made her curious to find out just what was going on. Ruby didn't ask, unfortunately, preferring to try and pep Jaune up instead, which meant that Sunset would have to get the truth out of him herself.

* * *

Queen to H5.

Sunset moved the white queen into the appropriate position on her chessboard. A Wayward Queen Attack; I wouldn't have expected you to be so bold, princess.

What have I said that would lead you to think I was timid?

Sunset didn't reply. Instead she studied the board for a moment, before moving one of her black knights out. Knight to C6. Would you rather I credit you for boldness or ask if you've played this game before. Wayward Queen is an amateur opening.

We are amateurs.

Speak for yourself, princess.

Bishop to C4.

Pawn to G6. Sunset moved the pieces into position on the chessboard that sat beside her on the desk. I suppose that I should thank you for agreeing to play with me. I'm starved of intellectual equality in this place.

I'm sure you must be being harsh on your companions. Queen to F3.

What makes you say that?

Because you're harsh to everyone, or at least you appear so. It's your move.

I am as harsh on others as others deserve, neither more nor less. I know my worth, none better, and I know the worth of others to the ounce. Why should I give them false measure? Considering the lack of recognition I have received I should rather be praised for my honesty in not unfairly denigrating those about me as I have so often been denigrated.

There was no reply from Twilight for a few moments. It's still your move.

Knight to F6. So, if you weren't playing with me what would you be doing right now? What does a Princess of Friendship do all day?

I spend time with my friends, I help them out with anything that they might need my assistance on; I read, I research magic, I'm also the Ponyville Librarian

I don't know whether the library should be honoured or you should be insulted.

Quiet, you. And I solve friendship problems.

Sunset laughed. She couldn't have stopped herself if she'd wanted to. She had rarely been more glad that that room was empty as she giggled like a filly. _Friendship problems!_

I can hear you laughing on the other side of the book.

That's because it's hilarious. What are you, a therapist?

I wouldn't call myself that, not least because I lack the qualifications, I just make sure that everyone is getting along and that any potential disagreements are nipped in the bud before they fester into real trouble.

Huh, we could almost

She stopped. Her eyes narrowed. Is that why you're talking to me? Am I a friendship problem to you?

Unfortunately you seem to have done a fair amount of festering already.

What a saucy tongue this princess has. Move.

Knight to E2. I thought you might respond to a more assertive approach.

Well, it's certainly more fun than corresponding with a milksop. Do you know, this must be how Celestia feels.

Come again?

She is the player, and we are all her pieces. She moves us at her will, sends us out to fight for her, sacrifices us. Unless you escape as I did.

We both know perfectly well why you left Equestria and it wasn't for any reason so noble as to free yourself from a tyrant. Even ignoring the fact that Celestia is not a tyrant, the truly noble course if she were would have been to have stayed and fought.

Were it so easy. Think about it, and you'll see that my analogy fits perfectly. Knight to H5.

Why do you persist in this? Pawn to G4.

Sunset moved the pieces. Perhaps I simply want what's best for you.

Somehow I doubt it. Is there nothing else that we can talk about while we play?

 _In other words change the subject or I disappear._ Sunset did not reply immediately. Then an idea struck her. As it happens I have a friendship problem for you to solve.

As they played - the honours were quite even, although Sunset felt as though she gradually started to win as the game unfolded - Sunset described the situation as it stood: Cardin's antagonism, the deal with Weiss, and Jaune's newfound camaraderie with his tormentor, to the point where he seemed more time with Cardin than anywhere else. And he has some kind of secret which has given Cardin a hold over him. So, Princess of Friendship, any thoughts?

In these cases it's always a good idea to remember that bullies are people too, and that they often have some kind of reason for their behaviour.

Cardin's reason is that he's a dick.

Have you considered that he might be getting bullied himself?

I am not befriending Cardin Winchester. I want your advice on what to do about Jaune. He's never been any help and now he's becoming an active hindrance. What am I supposed to do? What do you do when your minions aren't up to scratch?

I don't have minions, I have friends.

I can feel the cold rolling off the page.

Good. As for Jaune Arc, have you considered that he might open up to you if you were a little nicer to him?

He doesn't deserve kindness.

Who does? Anyone at all? Friendship isn't about desert any more than it's about need. Yes, my friends have helped me out of a lot of difficult spots in the past, and I've done the same for them but even if every monster or menace to Equestria disappeared tomorrow then I would still be their friend because I love them. I love them as I love myself, maybe more. They're my family.

I have no family, and I need none. _They turned their backs on me, or shut the door in my face, then so be it. I have no need of them._

I don't think you can really believe that. What made you even say such a thing? What made you this way?

Sunset was about to berate Twilight's impertinence in daring even to ask her such a thing, when the door opened and Jaune walked in.

Hold on, someone's coming. She closed the book as Jaune looked around the dorm room.

"Pyrrha's in the gym, Ruby is with her sister," Sunset said.

"Oh. Right. Yeah," Jaune said, in the tone of a man who was wandered into a nest of beowolves without a weapon. "Well...I, uh-"

"Stay where you are, and shut the door," Sunset said. Now that she had Jaune alone she was going to get the truth out of him.

Jaune whimpered a little as she closed the door. He looked at the chessboard on Sunset's desk. "Where you playing against yourself?"

"No," Sunset said. "I was playing...I'm playing a correspondence game with a friend. I was just looking at their latest move." She sniffed. "I'm surprised that you even know what a chessboard looks like."

Jaune didn't rise to that. Instead he said, "So, it's your turn then."

"Yes," Sunset said, with a touch of irritation at his stalling antics.

"If you move Bishop to D5 you can get death in four."

Sunset froze. She could not have been more still if she had been turned to stone. She looked at the board. She looked back at Jaune. She looked at the board again, and moved her bishop. She got off her chair and onto her knees, examining the state of play and running through all the possible countermoves in her head. He...he was right.

She looked at him. In fact she rather stared at him. "How...how did you know that?"

Jaune shrugged. "My father taught me how to play."

"That doesn't mean you should be good at it!" Sunset snapped. She took a deep breath, and forced herself to be calm. "Sit down on the floor there."

Jaune shifted uncomfortably. "Why?"

"Because we're going to play," Sunset said, re-arranging all the pieces. "And you're going to show me how good you really are." She picked up the once more fully-laded board and put it down on the floor, while she sat cross-legged on the black side.

Jaune looked at the closed door. "I...I really need to go."

"You have somewhere to be?"

"Cardin-"

"No." Sunset's voice cut like a blade.

Jaune took a step back. "No?"

"No," Sunset repeated. "You're done with Cardin."

"I'm really not,"

Sunset gestured to the other side of the board. "Sit."

"You don't understand!"

"I understand that he has something on you," Sunset said.

Jaune let out a horrified gasp. "How did you...you never went for coffee, did you?"

Sunset shook her head. "Ruby didn't ask you what your big secret was. I'm asking now." She cocked her head slightly to one side. "Pyrrha knows, doesn't she?"

Jaune let out a mournful nod as he sat down. "I told her. Cardin overheard."

"Unfortunate," Sunset said softly. She looked at him, silent, waiting for him to continue.

Jaune said nothing, at least at first. But Sunset continued to watch, and wait, and her emerald eyes bored into him and at last Jaune poured out his soul to her.

It was...an interesting story, certainly. Like Cardin, Sunset wouldn't have credited him with that much nerve and daring. She felt, in fact - and would feel even more strongly based on how he performed in the game - as though she were seeing new sides to him hitherto concealed behind his impression of general incompetence. If he could be so bold in battle as he had in all that he had done to get this far.

"So you see, Cardin's got me over a barrel," Jaune insisted. "I really need to get-" His scroll began to buzz. "That's him now!" he squeaked, his face paling.

"Don't answer," Sunset commanded. "Like I said, you're done with Cardin."

"But he'll tell-"

"Not right away he won't," Sunset replied. "He's too weak for that. The moment he turns you in is the moment he loses his power over you, and he relished the power more than anything else. And so he will warn you, and tell you not to ignore him again, not realising that he shows more weakness every time he tolerates your insolence."

Jaune swallowed. "How can you be so sure?"

 _Because it's what I'd do in his position,_ the bitter thought rose from the back of Sunset's mind to make her shiver. It was not a thought she wanted, but equally it was not a thought she could escape. Not when the advantage of this knowledge was pricking at her like a kitten clawing at her leg, desperate for attention.

Nevertheless, she suppressed such thoughts and impulses for now. She even smiled at Jaune, though it seemed to make him more uncomfortable than he had been before. "Trust me, I'm not telling you this so that you can get expelled. I don't want that. You're a member of my team and I...I'm going to take care of you. Place yourself in my hands, Jaune Arc, and let me take care of you." Her smile broadened. "After all, you don't have any better offers, do you?"

"I, uh, I guess not."

"Excellent," Sunset said. She gestured at the board before them. "Now, you're white, so it's your move."

They played. He was good. He was very good. He obviously hadn't been trained by a master, as Sunset or Twilight had; while Twilight's play was methodical, controlled, Jaune's style was a bit all over the place, erratic, almost seeming random at times. But that only made it harder for Sunset to follow him and predict what he would do next. She had been able to recognise Twilight's plays, and in recognising them counter them while she waited for Twilight Sparkle to make a mistake in the mid-game. But Jaune didn't use any classical strategies, probably because he didn't know any. It was all coming out of his head, unfiltered, and Sunset found herself struggling to keep up with him.

She won, in the end; if she hadn't Sunset would have had to throw herself off the roof for the sake of her dignity, but Jaune had given her a close run, and between them they had slaughtered most of the pieces on the board, on both sides.

He had run her close. Closer than someone as lazy, stupid and ignorant as him had any right to do.

Sunset felt a little as she flattered herself Pyrrha must have felt when she, Sunset, had revealed herself to be a worthy challenger after all.

Only she felt not so much respect as sheer flabbergasted astonishment.

Her amazement was soon joined by a degree of anger that was far from insignificant. So far, in fact, was her wrath from being insignificant that when Sunset spoke her voice was like ice. "Let me ask you something, Jaune," she said, her voice clipped with menace. "If you have such wit in you, if you can think like this, if you can strategize like this then let me ask you...WHY HAVEN'T YOU SHOWED THIS SIDE OF YOU BEFORE, HUH?"

Jaune cringed in the face of her fury.

"Someone as...as dumb as you appear to be wouldn't last a handful of moves against me, and he wouldn't deserve to," Sunset declared. "But you...you are clearly not an idiot. So what's the big idea? You lie to get in here and then...what? Because you won't need to worry about Cardin or your secret if your grades haven't picked up by the end of semester. I could accept that you're in the same boat as Ruby but at least she's making an effort. So what is it?"

"I didn't expect it to be this hard, okay?" Jaune said. "And then...I don't know, I can't explain it. I just...I just couldn't do it, you know? I'd try but...nothing would come. And eventually there didn't seem to be any point to trying. And besides...I never expected that there would be this much school, you know?"

"Did you think that hero school would just be teaching you how to rescue damsels?"

"Kinda," Jaune murmured.

Sunset rolled her eyes. "You're smarter than you look in some respects, but clearly not others." And yet...Sunset found that she was not without sympathy for him. He wanted to be the hero, and in pursuit of that dream he had crossed lies and broken rules. She'd be lying to herself if she had done the same, and for much the same reasons. He might speak of dream instead of destiny, but it was all much the same, especially if you took Pyrrha's view of destiny as something that you made rather than something bestowed on you from birth. She and Jaune were much alike, more so than she had supposed before or been willing to admit; now that she could see that he wasn't a complete incompetent but, rather, had some raw materials worth working with, she found that she was more willing to concede the commonality between them. A little.

He was worth preserving. He would never be Pyrrha or Ruby, and he would certainly never be Sunset, but between his mind and his abnormally large aura he would be of use if he could be brought up to scratch.

The difficulty, it seemed, was his pride. Fortunately he had handed Sunset the weapon she needed to batter that down.

"You want to be the hero," she said. "Guess what, we all want to be the hero, it's why we're here. Remember when we carved our initials on the wall: I said that we'd all be great hunters some day and I meant it then. I mean it now, too. You can become a hero, Jaune Arc. And I'm going to help you get there."

"Cardin-"

"Isn't going to be blackmailing you any more," Sunset said soothingly. "Auntie Sunset is going to make sure that bad man leaves you alone." She smiled like a shark. "I'm going to be blackmailing you instead."

"Sunset!"

"Don't be like that, it won't be anything too onerous," Sunset said. "First, you're going to go to Pyrrha, apologise, and tell her that you want her help in training your fighting skills. Second, I - out of the goodness of my heart - am going to get you up to speed in your academics alongside Ruby. Third, you're going to do your homework each night and I'd better not catch you slacking off. Fourth: give me those comics."

"What?"

"I'm going to lock them up until you deserve them."

"Aw, come on!"

"You'll get them back, probably," Sunset said. "It's just to make sure that you concentrate. Do you want this or not?"

"Yes!" Jaune said. "Yes, I want this, this is all that I want."

"Good," Sunset said. "Because Ruby and Pyrrha would mope if you got thrown out and I don't need it. Trust me, you'll be a great huntsman in no time."

"And Cardin?"

"Leave him to me," Sunset said. "He and Weiss aren't going to know what hit them."


	16. The Sunset Strategy, Part One

The Sunset Strategy, Part One

Sunset fumbled her way down the corridor in the dark. She didn't dare risk using the torch in her pocket, not yet; not while anyone could stumble across her.

She would probably only get one shot at this, so she had to get it done.

Problem: Jaune's transcripts were fake, and he obviously had no faith in the ability of those fakes to stand up to scrutiny; if he had then he wouldn't have been acting like Cardin's lapdog under threat of exposure.

Solution: Well, now; that was the trick, wasn't it?

The best solution would probably have been to replace the fake transcripts with transcripts that looked a little less fake, but that required skills that Sunset didn't have, and if Jaune had them then he would have been produced better transcripts in the first place, so that was out.

So Sunset had studied the rules of Beacon Academy, all of them, including the arcane rules going back to the beginning of the academy that later headmasters had simply forgotten to do away with. For example, there was a rule that said that the leader of the highest rated team in the final year could keep a goat on the lawn; Sunset couldn't figure out why you'd want to but there it was, in the fine print.

But more important were the rules around cheating.

And the rules on that were quite clear: any student's examinations, transcripts or any other official documentation could be examined by the Headmaster or any other teacher for any reason. If, upon examination, said material was found to have been tampered with or any other evidence of cheating or deception was discovered, then the student responsible could be expelled from the academy without notice.

That was an interesting turn of phrase that, 'upon examination'. Because you couldn't examine something that you didn't have, now could you? Absence of evidence, after all, was not evidence of absence, and it would be particularly cruel to expel a student simply because the Academy had happened to lose their paperwork somewhere in the bureaucracy, wouldn't it?

Which was why, in the middle of the night, with the corridors dark and the whole school asleep, Sunset was making her way to the school archives.

She crept quietly along, using a minor spell to muffle the sounds of her footfalls upon the tiles. From the moonlight, she was able to get a rough idea of where she was, and that she was heading in the right direction.

She stopped, frozen, upon hearing a noise. She pressed herself against the wall, looking this way and that like some prey creature trying to make their way across a field without the hungry owl spotting them. This was not going to be an experience she looked back on with fondness.

 _Jaune, you're going to owe me big for this._

There was no more noise. She couldn't see anything; not that that meant too much, as she wasn't one of those faunus with superb night vision. It wasn't a trait that ponies possessed, and certainly not unicorns. Still, she heard nothing and she saw nothing, and so she resumed her course.

The archives were stored at the end of a corridor, just past Professor Goodwitch's office. Thankfully the lights were off in said office or Sunset would have felt a little nervous, but the professor had turned in for the night, or gone out, or…she wasn't in her office was the important point. Nevertheless, as she passed the darkened room Sunset had to resist the urge to duck beneath the window.

The archive door, by contrast, had no window in it. It was simply a dull, slightly ugly iron door, locked of course. Not that was any barrier to Sunset, who teleported across to the other side of the door.

Now she got out her torch. She could have lit her way using magic, but a torch was just easier and it didn't tire her out to do it.

Sunset looked around, shining her flashlight up and down the tall shelves filled with boxes. Each cardboard box was labelled with a name, and it took Sunset less than a moment to work out that they were ordered alphabetically by first name. That wasn't how humans tended to do it, in Sunset's experience, but it made her feel almost at home: ponies ordered by first name, simply because so many didn't have a second name.

 _Nice of you to put me at my ease, Professor Ozpin._

Sunset walked down the rows of box-files, swinging her torch from shelf to shelf as she searched for the start of J. The names of students past and present met her eyes as she walked between the towering shelves: Bartholomew Oobleck, Bernard Rouge, Blake Belladonna, Bonnie Bonaventure…Cardin Winchester – Sunset was briefly tempted to vandalise his files – Dove Bronzewing, Glynda Goodwitch…Jaune Arc.

The files started from the bottom up, so Sunset only needed to bend down to get at Jaune's box on the bottom shelf. She gripped the torch between her teeth, feeling the plastic against her tongue, as she pulled open the lid and began to rifle through the contents of Jaune's box: test results, teachers' impressions, Professor Ozpin's personal evaluation. Sunset couldn't help but pause for a moment, the torchlight shining upon the piece of paper containing, in a handwritten scrawl, the headmaster's personal feelings regarding her team-mate.

Although untested, Mister Arc demonstrates great courage and determination, qualities which I feel will stand him in good stead in the future. He has potential, and may be of some use.

 _Some use? Some use for what? Defending humanity, I guess, but it's a strange phrasing._

Although her brow furrowed a little, Sunset tried to dismiss the whole thing as she put the extraordinarily brief evaluation back and went down to the very bottom of the box.

Aha. There they were: Jaune's transcripts recommending him to Beacon. They purported to be from a combat assessor, confirming that Jaune's proficiency with weapons, aura – what a joke – and academic knowledge was up to the standard that would be expected of a graduate from a combat school. Apart from the fact that some of it could be proven false – like the fact that he hadn't know what aura was – Sunset couldn't tell that it was a forgery; but then she wouldn't really know what a forgery looked like.

She pulled the transcripts out of the box, shut the lid, and put the box back where it came from.

She could go now. She had what she came for.

But something, some instinct or simple curiosity, wouldn't let Sunset leave just yet. There was something else she had to check up on first.

So she headed deeper into the archives, passing K and L and M and N and all the other letters that stood between J and S. Sa…Se…Su…

Summer Rose.

Sunset stopped, looking up at the name of Ruby's mother illuminated by the light of her torch. The cardboard was crinkled with age, and starting to fall apart in places: there were holes developing in the corners as though rodents had nibble at them.

She could have passed on. She could have ignored it, looking for her own name as she had decided to do after getting Jaune's transcript. She could have left Ruby's mother be.

But she didn't.

She needed a ladder to get up there, so she wheeled one over from the back of the room and scampered up it, Jaune's transcripts tucked underneath her arm, and once more took the flashlight between her teeth like a bit before she pulled out the box of Summer Rose and opened it up.

There was a lot more in it than there had been in Jaune's box; not surprising, since she guessed that Summer Rose and her team had completed a full four years at Beacon Academy. She rooted through exam results, report cards, not really knowing what it was that she was looking for…until, underneath a pile of third-year midterms, Sunset found a book. It was small, leather-bound, with a black cover on which someone – presumably Summer herself – had painted a white rose in nail polish or something; it was the same symbol as on the wall of their dorm room.

Gingerly, with a feeling of trespass as though she were entering into a musty old temple intent on robbery of the idols there, Sunset opened it up.

Dear Diary

Sunset shut the book. The mouldering and dormant thing that passed for conscience revolted at the idea of reading further. There were some things that she neither the desire nor the right to know.

But she slipped the diary into her jacket pocket all the same.

Her own box was not far away: Sunset Shimmer. Sunset dragged the ladder a few feet across, and climbed up once more to see what Professor Ozpin had to say about her.

Sunset Shimmer clearly has enormous potential, though I must question whether she will always be capable of living up to that potential, or if her own pride and stubbornness will get in the way.

 _What do you know,_ Sunset thought.

However, I think it likely that with the right team-mates she could mellow considerably.

 _I've gotten by just fine on my own._

If she can overcome her flaws and rise to the occasion, then not only does she have the makings of a skilled huntress, but also of a member of the circle.

Sunset blinked. _The circle? What circle? What are you talking about, Professor? And what would I get out of being a member?_

One thing is certain: Miss Shimmer is too powerful to be allowed to fall into her hands.

 _Her who? Why are you being so cryptic?_

At present, Beacon is the best place for her. A place where she can learn and be observed.

Sunset had to be careful, she almost swallowed with the torch in her mouth. A shiver ran down her spine. The words themselves were perfectly innocuous but…something about them disturbed her. A part of her wanted to see what the Headmaster had to say about Ruby and Pyrrha but another part of her…another part of her was afraid. She had felt, at the time of her interview with Professor Ozpin, as though he was weighing her, and it seemed that that was exactly what he had done: weighed her up like a prize pig at the county fair. Weighed her fit for membership of this circle, weighed her dangerous in the wrong hands – and whose hands were those?

Weighed her…and judged her.

Sunset shoved the box back, and replaced the ladder quickly. With Jaune's transcripts in hand, and Summer's journal in her pocket, she teleported out of the archive and fled, heedless of the noise that she made, back to her dorm room.

It was only when she got there, when she was standing outside the dorm with her scroll in hand, that Sunset started to calm down a little. It was the darkness of the room, the silence, the solitude…it had overcome her. There was nothing to worry about. Professor Ozpin's words were just words, meaning little and possessing no capacity to harm.

Put like that, Sunset could almost believe it.

She slipped quietly into the dorm room, and stored Jaune's transcripts somewhere safe, where Cardin wouldn't be able to use them but she would, if she had to; or at least, she could threaten to use them to keep Jaune on the straight and narrow.

The diary she left by Ruby's bedside, where the sleeping girl would see it when she woke up.

* * *

Weiss Schnee was not in a particularly good mood.

She had thought that she had banished the spectre of Jaune Arc and his persistent suiting from her life. She had proof that she had done so, in the form of his sudden absence from her presence after blighting it for so long. No more serenades, no more flowers, no more declarations of his love. It had all been quite liberating. She had been able to go wherever she liked without the fear that a loser was going to jump out at her and ask her out.

Well, not that loser anyway. Her family name being what it was she would probably never be completely free of men importuning her. Not unless she left her name behind, and Weiss was not ready to do that. The name of Schnee did not belong to her father alone, in fact in light of how he had come by that name one might argue it did not belong to him at all; Weiss did not intend to leave it forever in his keeping, nor allow him and him alone to dictate what it stood for. But that was for another time, for a time many years in the future when she had the power to do something about the state of her family and the company on which they had built their fortunes. For now, she had been grateful enough just to be rid of Jaune Arc. It was like a dark cloud had departed from the sky, revealing the sun that had hidden behind it. Even Weiss had not quite realised how free she would feel once he was gone.

And then, just a week later, he had come back like an invasive variety of mould. Worse, he was back at the invitation of Cardin. He didn't ask her out any more, which was a slight improvement on what had come before, but he was always around, and when he wasn't around Weiss was being reminded of his existence as Cardin was always going to meet him.

Weiss wasn't sure who she was more displeased with about this state of affairs, Cardin Winchester or Sunset Shimmer. Cardin, obviously, attracted her ire because it was apparently his fault that this boy with his tongue hanging out was being inflicted upon her once again; but Weiss considered Sunset to be far from blameless in the matter. They had had an agreement, and Weiss had upheld her end of it: she had stopped Cardin and Russell from persecuting the members of SAPR, and she had even gone further than that and extended her protection to cover other, unrelated faunus too. And for her generosity she had been repaid with bad faith, she had been tempted with a momentary restraint of Jaune Arc only to see him unleashed upon her once again.

She considered herself fortunate that there had been no sign of Jaune since yesterday morning, although that same fact appeared to be irritating Cardin somewhat.

It was Sunday, there were no classes and there wasn't even a lot to do in Vale proper, although Weiss was considering a brief shopping trip to replenish her dust supplies. Speaking of dust, Flash was still trying to get his dust studies homework done - Weiss, of course, was acing the course, but she didn't believe in doing all of her team-mates' work for them, and in any case Flash hadn't asked her for help - he was bent over his desk while he scribbled away. Russell had headphones on, and his feet were tapping on the air. Weiss herself was catching up on the news: some aspiring Valish politician was thumping the tub about her father's monopoly on every stage of the dust industry. He wasn't wrong, the Schnee Dust Company did have a monopoly, but he was wrong if he thought he could do anything about it. These kind of people turned up every so often, but either her father bought them off or their opponents started receiving very generous campaign contributions. Weiss scrolled to the next news item, this one a piece on the opening of the Mistral Fashion Week.

Meanwhile, Cardin seemed to be trying to reach someone on his scroll, and was growing steadily more angry about his apparent failure to get hold of them. His face was red, he was baring his teeth like an animal, and as time went on a series of low growls started slipping from between his lips until he threw his scroll clear across the room. It struck the opposing wall with a crack.

Russell took off his headphones. "Is Jaune washing his hair tonight?"

"Shut up!" Cardin snarled as he rose from his bed. "Who does that loser think he is? He thinks he can ignore me, why I'll..." he was still chunnering as he began to stomp towards the door.

"Cardin!" Weiss' voice cracked like a whip. "What's all this about?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean why are you fraternising with Jaune?"

Cardin didn't respond. He simply continued on his way to the door.

"Cardin!" Weiss called, and she would have blocked the doorway with a glyph until she got some answers out of him except that he was too fast for her. He was out the door - slamming it behind him - before she could prevent it.

"Why does he want to associate with someone he despised, or despises?" Weiss mused aloud. She had considered the possibility that he was doing it to annoy Weiss, and pay her back for humiliating him in the dining hall, but that wouldn't explain why he spent time with Jaune outside of Weiss' presence. "Flash, do you know anything about this?"

Flash looked up from his homework. "No. I'm as confused as you are."

"Russell?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you know anything about what's going on?"

Russell looked away. "Cardin does his own thing, you know how it goes."

Weiss stood up, her hands upon her hips. "What do you know?"

"Nothing!"

"Russell."

"I really don't know!" he squeaked. "I really, genuinely don't...get why he's doing this."

That sounded like a half-answer to Weiss, but it was clear that she wasn't going to get much more out of Russell, at least not right now. It didn't tell her very much. It didn't solve the question of who's idea this was or why Sunset had let this happen. It certainly didn't solve the question of why the two of them were spending time together.

To get at least some answers, it appeared that Weiss would have to go straight to the pony's mouth...and talk to Sunset Shimmer again.

* * *

Pyrrha knew a little of what had gone on after she left Jaune on the rooftop - she felt so foolish for having brought him there, how could she not have known that it was Cardin's rooftop? - and she understood why Jaune was reluctant to train up there. It was, after all, Cardin's rooftop. It did leave the question of where they could train: the roof would have been convenient because it was secluded, and Pyrrha doubted that a crowd of gawping onlookers, drawn by her fame, would be conducive to developing Jaune's confidence. It was also a question of a space that would be reliably unoccupied for their use, and have sufficient space for them to spar.

Sunset had suggested that they use the team garage, the space allotted to them for storage of their vehicles - if they had them - and so the whole team was headed down there to see if it would suffice for Jaune and Pyrrha's needs.

Pyrrha wasn't entirely sure why Sunset and Ruby had decided to join them - there was a part of her that had been looking forward to spending time alone with Jaune, even for a purpose such as this - but she didn't question them about it as the four of them walked through the school grounds. Sunset led the way, with Ruby trailing behind just a little, and Jaune keeping pace with Pyrrha herself despite the hunch of his shoulders and the dip of his head.

It was on Jaune that Pyrrha focussed most of her attention. Despite the fact that he had come to her - waited for her in their dorm room, rather - and asked if her offer to help him improve his combat skills was still alone, he did not look that much happier than he had done before. He looked almost as dejected as he had done for the few days prior to this, which had only been a little worse than how he had appeared before that. Evidently, whatever had happened to make him change his mind had not been enough to snap him out of his black dog mood. She reached out, and placed a reassuring hand upon his shoulder. Hopefully, if she could help him get better, even just well enough to hold his own against people like Cardin or Sky Lark, then he would start to feel better about himself, and just better, generally.

He was much more handsome when he smiled, she thought; it illuminated his whole face quite charmingly.

As it was Sunday, there were quite a few students out on the grounds, lounging upon the common, reading or playing on their scrolls out in the sunshine. Some of them noticed her, and she could see them pointing out of the corners of her eyes, she could hear the whispers from those closest to her. She ignored them. Jaune was what mattered right now.

Fortunately the presence of her team-mates seemed to deter anyone from actually coming up to her for any reason, and they were able to proceed onwards without being interrupted.

"There you are!"

 _So much for not being interrupted, it seems._

The shout had come from Cardin, who appeared at the top of the pathway in front of them with a red face and an overall look like an enraged bull. He stomped down the white paving stones, bearing down upon them with his hands clenched into fists. His nostrils flared as he snorted furiously, but at the same time as he approached he seemed to be making an effort - a futile effort, but an effort nonetheless - to appear something less than incandescent as people started to stare at him.

"Jaune!" he said, half growling the word even as he tried to seem at least a little affable. "Jaune, buddy, you've been ignoring me. It's really upsetting."

Sunset didn't give Jaune the chance to respond. Instead she barred Cardin's way with her own body, staring up into his face.

"Turn around," she said. "And walk away."

Cardin glared at her. "Jaune, tell your...friends that we just want to talk. After all, we're all pals, right?"

"Don't talk to him," Sunset said, and she was close to growling herself. "You're dealing with me now. So turn around, walk away, and forget all about this because I guarantee that you do not want to get into this with me."

"You don't seem to understand-"

"I understand," Sunset said. "I know everything." She stepped closer to Cardin, so close that the two of them were almost touching. "But here's something that you don't understand: I don't share the things that are mine; not with people I like, certainly not with people that I don't like and Jaune is mine. My team: mine. Now run along."

Cardin's rage was evident for Pyrrha to see as he bent down and whispered into Sunset's ear.

Sunset whispered something right back, though Pyrrha couldn't hear what it was.

Cardin's face went even more red than before, even as his back straightened as though he'd been shocked. "Big mistake," he snarled, as he stalked away.

"Sunset," Jaune murmured. "Now he'll-"

"Relax," Sunset said. "I told you I would take care of it, and I will. Besides, today is a day off for the staff as well, he won't be able to see anyone today."

"And tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow he'll have his own problems," Sunset replied blithely. "Look, I promise that whatever he says I will protect you. Like I said, I take care of the things that are mine." She must have caught Pyrrha's eye, or possibly Ruby's, because she coughed into her hand. "I mean, um, I look out for my team because unity and friendship and family and all that good stuff. Let's go."

"What are you two talking about?" Ruby asked, as they started to move again. "I feel like you guys know something that I don't."

Sunset laughed. "No offence, Ruby, but I'm sure I know lots of stuff that you don't."

"You know what I mean!"

Sunset laughed again. "I'll tell you when you grow up, how's that?"

"Now you sound like Yang!"

Sunset cackled wickedly.

The four of them made their way to the school garages, grey concrete blocks in sharp contrast to the elegant architecture of the academy proper, all lined up in rows with unpainted metallic doors.

Sunset pulled a control stick out of her pocket, and pressed it once to raise the door to garage thirteen. It elevated with a mixture of mechanical and motorised sounds, clattering and whirring as it rose to admit them.

"Here," Sunset tossed the control to Pyrrha. "As you'll be using this more than the rest of us. Just give it me back when I need my bike, okay?"

"Of course," Pyrrha murmured. The garage was dark, although there was a lot that Sunset turned on by pulling a cord by the door. The only thing in the garage was a motorcycle, Sunset's presumably. Pyrrha wasn't an expert about such things but it looked somewhat…irregular.

 _As though somebody had put it together out of…oh, of course._

Ruby didn't seem to share Pyrrha's misgivings about the appearance of the motorcycle. Her silver eyes glimmered and she let out a sound that was one part covetous, one part awed and one part, to be honest, rather adorable as her mouth opened wide.

"Is that your bike?" she squeaked.

"Yep," Sunset said, as she walked over to it.

"That's so awesome!" Ruby cried as she rushed over to the motorcycle. "You didn't tell me that the engine had a turbo! And are those the exhaust pipes from a Black Shadow? And those high handle bars look like they came off a-"

"Down, Ruby," Sunset said, not without affection. "We didn't come down here to talk about my bike, awesome though it is." She looked at Pyrrha. "Will this do?"

Pyrrha walked around the room, getting a measure of the size of it. She glanced up at the light, and tried to imagine what it would be like with the door closed or at night. She paced back and forth. The room was about ten feet deep and another twenty feet wide, maybe a little more. The ceiling was about eight feet, which should suffice.

"It should be fine for sparring," she said. "Nothing more complicated, but then the rooftop would have had the same problem of space."

"So it works?"

Pyrrha hesitated for a moment before she nodded. "Yes, it works."

Sunset closed the garage door, and they got started immediately. Pyrrha wasn't entirely certain why Ruby and Sunset stuck around, but neither of them made a fuss as she and Jaune began.

Jaune was in dire need of the tuition that much was plain. Not only had he not gone to a combat school, but he didn't seem to have had any training whatsoever. His footwork was a mess, and he seemed to view his shield not as a weapon but as something to cower behind when he was attacked. Pyrrha's instructors would have had a fit at the sight of him.

But Pyrrha did not, of course, phrase it so baldly. Rather, she gently took him through some basic stances and movements, correcting his footwork, his posture, and the way he held and wielded both sword and shield as they went. They didn't spar, not now. It was far too early for that; Jaune wasn't ready for sparring against her yet, he needed to get some sort of handle on the basics of how to stand and move first.

"Make sure that you don't get into a rut," Sunset said. "There are other kinds of opponents than those who use sword and shield."

"Of course," Pyrrha said. "But the basics are applicable to every situation."

They spent a couple of hours together, maybe more. Pyrrha had, if she was honest, been hoping that she and Jaune would spend it alone but…don't be foolish, they were here to help Jaune improve, not to…and he didn't notice anyway. It seemed that if she was not the champion of Sanctum then she was completely anonymous, unable to match the light that emanated from Weiss Schnee and drew all eyes towards her.

 _I spent so long wanting to be the Invincible Girl instead of Pyrrha, but what if Pyrrha Nikos was never here at all? What if there's nothing for anyone to know, no me to be seen?_

Nevertheless, whether that was true or not – and Pyrrha had a shrinking suspicion that it might be – they spent two hours or more helping Jaune, and by the end of that two hours he at least knew more than he had done before, and some of his drills looked a little better than shaky already.

"Well done, Jaune," Pyrrha said. "You're already making good progress. If you keep this up you'll be holding your own in the amphitheatre by the end of the semester."

"Great," Sunset said, and she sounded almost as though she meant it. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go into Vale before the stores close. There are a couple of things that I need to buy."

"I'll come too," Ruby said. "Can we stop by a dust shop? I want to pick up some rounds?"

"Why don't we all go?" Pyrrha suggested. "Jaune could use a break, and I wouldn't mind picking up a few things." She glanced at Jaune. "That is, if you want to come with us."

Jaune's face was stained with sweat, his hair was sticking to his forehead in places. His voice, when it emerged, was weak with weariness. "Yeah, sure. A break sounds great. Vale sounds great. Great."

Pyrrha giggled. "It will get easier, I promise."

* * *

They remained in Beacon long enough for Pyrrha and Jaune to stow their gear back in their lockers – and for Jaune to get a much needed shower, if Sunset had been forced to wander round Vale with him smelling like that, she didn't think that she could have managed it – before getting the first airship down into Vale proper.

Though they had left their weapons behind, Pyrrha and Jaune were still wearing their armour, which meant that there was no mistaking the two of them for huntresses. It occurred to Sunset that if she didn't want to be noticed then maybe Pyrrha could try changing her clothes.

 _But then…I've only got this leather jacket that happens to look casual so who am I to talk?_

In any case, it didn't matter that much today; Vale was sufficiently quiet that there was barely anyone around to notice them, let alone to gawp at Pyrrha or to badger her on account of her fame. They were able to walk down the streets in relative peace, with only the occasional flash of a scroll-camera to disturb them.

They called at a hardware store, where Sunset stocked upon spray-paint for the second stage of her revenge on Cardin, and then proceeded on to look for a dust shop for Ruby. The first two Mom-and-Pop places they tried were both closed, with boarded up windows and signs indicating that the closure would be for the foreseeable future and so, against Sunset's better judgement, they went to a Schnee Dust store, with the snowflake logo on the windows and an electric blue sign above the door.

"I'm telling you, they charge more at these places than they do elsewhere," Sunset said.

"Maybe, but at least its open," Jaune replied.

There wasn't much arguing with that, so they all trooped inside where Sunset was surprised to see none other than Weiss Schnee herself browsing over by the powders.

Sunset's eyes narrowed. "I'll catch up with you guys, okay?" She didn't give any of them a chance to respond as she sauntered over to Weiss.

"I'm a little surprised to see the Schnee heiress having to shop in one of her own stores," Sunset said. "Doesn't your daddy just ship you new dust whenever you need it?"

Weiss' jaw clenched. "Sunset Shimmer," she muttered. "Just the person that I wanted to see."

"Likewise," Sunset said, as she leaned on the dust display. "I knew you didn't like me but I thought that I could trust you to respect our agreement."

Weiss whipped round to face her. "You…you're accusing me of breaking our agreement? _You_ are accusing _me_? How dare you?"

"How dare I?" Sunset repeated. "How dare I what? How dare a faunus speak to a Schnee that way?"

"How dare you accuse me of breaking our agreement when you know full well that it was you!" Weiss snapped. "You're not the one who had to put up with Jaune Arc after I thought I wouldn't have to see him again. And there he is!" She gestured imperiously at Jaune, who fortunately had his back to her.

"Forgive me for not checking where you were going to be before I decided to visit a dust shop," Sunset replied. "But anyway, don't play the innocent victim here, I told you that I expected you to put a leash on Cardin-"

"And I did!"

"Oh, yeah, and you did a really good job of it too," Sunset snapped. "We agreed that Cardin was going to stop hassling Jaune and then after a few days he went right back to it."

"I know that they've been spending a lot of time together, that's why I'm-"

"Are you really going to stand there and pretend that they're friends, don't act like you don't know what's going on."

Weiss folded her arms. "What, precisely, is going on?"

Sunset frowned. Did Weiss know what was going on? She looked genuine enough, but then she could just be good enough to fool Sunset. It was hard to tell what she was really thinking? She seemed irate, almost as irate as Sunset, which might mean-

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a gunshot. Sunset's eyes flew towards the door as a man in a white jacket and bowler hat strode in, followed by a girl with hair half pink and half black, as well as about a dozen or so faunus in grimm masks.

"Pardon the interruption, ladies and gentlemen, but as I've always wanted to say: this is a stick up," the man in white announced jovially as he twirled his cane in one hand. "Stay calm, don't try anything stupid and everything will…" he trailed off as he caught sight of Ruby, who seemed to recognise him too.

The smirk on the face of the man in white was replaced by a look of weary despair. "You have got to be kidding me!"


	17. The Man in White

The Man in White

Instinctively, Pyrrha moved to stand a little more in front of Ruby and Jaune. She didn't know who this man was, but she could recognise the masks of the White Fang when she saw them; and though she didn't know why the White Fang would be associating with a human criminal either…such questions were not her concern right now. They were here, they were armed, they were dangerous; but they would not hurt Pyrrha's friends, not while she drew breath.

By her shoulder, she would protect them.

After a moment, the man in the white jacket recovered his previous composure. He even smiled as he levelled his cane at Ruby like a gun. "Red, we have got to stop meeting like this."

Pyrrha was moving even before the bolt of green energy shot from Sunset's finger to knock the cane out of the man's hand. Her legs propelled her across the blue carpet of the dust shop, she vaulted effortlessly over one display table, and then another as she closed the distance with the man in white.

She had no weapons, nor time to summon her locker with her scroll. No matter. She had been trained in unarmed combat, even if it wasn't her strongest mode. But what could not be helped would be endured, and she would protect her team regardless.

There was no other choice.

She had almost closed the distance with the man in the white suit when a figure interposed themselves between them. It was a girl, a girl with hair neatly divided into a pink half and a dark, with eyes to match. She carried an old-fashioned parasol, which she held lightly in one hand and with it slashed at Pyrrha as though it were a sword.

Pyrrha stopped, facing the much smaller girl; she raised her fists and assumed a boxing stance.

The girl seemed not at all intimidated by Pyrrha, not by reputation (if she knew of it) nor by her superior height. She said nothing, but smiled cheerfully and curtsied as though this were a formal dance and Pyrrha had just requested the honour of her hand.

Pyrrha attacked, meaning to finish this quickly. Her fists struck out in a succession of quick jabs. The other girl dodged as nimbly and as fluidly as water, flowing around Pyrrha's blows. She retreated, Pyrrha pursued, the other girl started using her parasol to parry the punches. Pyrrha reached out with her semblance, and gently moved the metal in the centre of the parasol just out of the way. Her punch was through the other girl's guard…but the other dodged nimbly aside, pirouetting gracefully on one foot to kick Pyrrha on the side of the head with the other.

Pyrrha took a step back. Her aura was barely affected…but it had been a long time since anyone had landed a hit on her in hand-to-hand to combat like that.

She would have found this interesting if the reason for which she was fighting had not been so immediate.

Her hopes for a swift victory that would enable her to deal with their real opponent were fading away, but the flashes of green light that Pyrrha could see from out the corner of her eye gave her some hope that Sunset had everything in hand. And if Ruby and Jaune could summon their lockers…

She would have to trust her team. Her fight was in front of her, she could think of nothing else. Once the fight began, nothing but the fight mattered.

The girl with the parasol looked as enthusiastic as ever. Her smile, as she gestured for Pyrrha to come on, might almost have looked good-natured under better circumstances.

Pyrrha attacked again, more warily this time. She wasn't going to roll over an opponent of this calibre. No, whoever she was this girl had skill. She would have to be careful, get the measure of her speed, her strength, her reflexes. Only then could she go for the kill.

But this girl was good. Pyrrha didn't know where she had been trained but she found it impossible to believe that she didn't have training, and expert training at that. Pyrrha punched and kicked, but the girl was never quite where she had been when the attack began. Pyrrha was fast, but this girl could always get out of the way, if only by a fraction, and her counterattacks nearly caught Pyrrha extended more than once. She didn't quite get her, but that only left them stalemated, neither able to land a blow upon the other, dancing around another, flowing around the attacks of their respective opponents.

One advantage Pyrrha had was her semblance. She didn't know what semblance this girl had, but she didn't appear to be using it. Pyrrha, on the other hand, was making minute adjustments to the girl's parasol every time, moving it out of the way of her blows, changing the height of her attacks so that Pyrrha could dodge them better, small changes that would not be noticed.

Small changes that she hoped would not be noticed.

She grabbed the other girl by the leg as she flipped away from a punch. Now, now she had her! Pyrrha tossed the other girl up in the air…but she spun gracefully and landed on her feet, even counterattacking with a swiping kick that Pyrrha had to leap up to evade.

And she was still smiling as though she hadn't a care in the world.

 _Trying to bait me, I suppose._ Pyrrha reached for the calm that many hours of meditation had taught her. She could not rise, not if she wanted to win as she needed to.

Four plumes of blue smoke trailed across the sky like comets before four lockers landed on the street outside the store.

The door to Pyrrha's locker opened and she abandoned subtlety, summoning Milo and Akuou to her hands at once. They flew to her like homing birds, and as her gauntleted fingers closed around Milo Pyrrha's hand felt blissfully complete.

It was Pyrrha's turn to smile, if only faintly, as she rested Milo in rifle mode upon the crescent of Akuou and aimed squarely at the girl with the two-colour hair.

Sunset appeared beside her in a flash of green light. "Tag out. Go back up Jaune. I'll deal with her."

A cry from Jaune drew Pyrrha's attention. Although his locker had just landed outside, unlike Pyrrha he had no way of getting his weapons too him, and in the meantime he was struggling to stay one step ahead from a giant of a faunus with a stylised, full-face mask decorated with crimson markings, who was pursusing Jaune with a chainsaw that whirred menacingly in his hand.

Pyrrha's grip on Milo tightened. "Be careful," she whispered to Sunset. "This one is dangerous."

"Yeah? Well, so am I," Sunset said. "Go!"

Pyrrha ran. She heard the crack of Sunset's gun going on behind her but she paid it no heed, trusting her team-leader to keep the parasol girl off her back while she saved Jaune.

 _Hold on, Jaune, I'm on my way._

She leapt over a table and through a patch of burning dust on the floor, trusting that she could afford to take the hit to her aura in exchange for getting there faster. She made no sound, she gave no battle cry, but her expression was grim and terrible as she charged through the flames and fell upon the White Fang warrior like a thunderbolt descending from the heavens.

He was a big man, but Pyrrha had fought many opponents larger than herself - if never one quite so huge as he - and she did not quail before his size or the corded muscles of his arms. Milo assumed rifle mode and she fired twice as she descended on him, making him recoil away from Jaune even as he whirled on her. Pyrrha landed, placing herself between Jaune and danger, her legs crouched, her whole body low. Milo transformed into a spear.

A wordless growl rumbled out from behind the mask of the chainsaw warrior as he swung at her with his purring weapon. Pyrrha ducked the blow, not even needing to her semblance to do so, and lashed out with one leg to cut his out from under him. She didn't give him the chance to fall but kicked him up towards the ceiling, then leapt up after him to deliver a series of swift strikes with her sword before hitting him in the stomach hard enough to send him plummeting back downwards once again. Milo changed into a spear as she fell upon him.

He rolled out of her way, and when she landed in the crater he had made on the floor he slashed at her with his chainsaw. She leapt away, and turned Milo into a rifle which she fired for a third time as he struggled to rise to his feet. He shuddered under the impact, but rose nonetheless.

 _He doesn't have my speed, but he does appear to have a considerable amount of aura._

Pyrrha was not concerned. In a battle of the mountain against the storm, the mountain would be weathered down to a nub before it could land a blow upon the storm.

He held his chainsaw in a guard before her. "I'm guessing you're petty fragile once you stop moving."

"You will never find out."

He chuckled darkly. "I only need to get lucky once to bring you down."

 _Luck has nothing to do with it,_ Pyrrha thought. She charged again. Reflected firelight danced upon her blade and on her burnished shield as she attacked. With Akuou she battered aside his guard and slashed furiously with Milo, her blows rippling up and down his body, cutting his aura to ribbons until she had borne him to the ground once again. He lay there, as Pyrrha planted her foot upon his chest and turned Milo to a spear to thrust down upon him.

His left hand lashed out in an attempt to grab her by the ankle, but Pyrrha was too swift. She leapt back, flipping over herself to land a couple of feet away.

"That was not honourable," she whispered.

If he had heard her, her opponent did not reply. He recovered his chainsaw from the ground, and stared at her - or seemed to, his mask completely concealed his eyes - for a moment, before he rounded on Jaune with a furious slash of his chainsaw.

"Jaune!" the cry leapt from Pyrrha's lips even as her spear leapt from her hand. It missed her opponent, passing a few inches before his masked face, but as Pyrrha had intended it gave him pause, and in that pause she was on him once again, wielding her shield like a blade in both hands, beating him around the face with the sharp edge once, twice, three times before Milo flew to Pyrrha's hand and she struck him down. This time Pyrrha did not relent. She struck at him with sword and shield, her arms descending, rising and descending again until his aura shattered and his mask broke and he was comatose and helpless before her.

Jaune let out a disappointed sigh behind her.

"Are you alright?" Pyrrha asked. "Are you hurt?"

"No," Jaune replied, his tone still dispirited. "But I needed to get saved again. Some hero, huh?"

Pyrrha placed hand upon his shoulder. "Sometimes survival is the most important victory of all."

* * *

The man in the white suit smirked as he pointed his cane at Ruby like a gun. "Red, we have got to stop meeting like this."

A bolt of green energy erupted from Sunset's fingertip to blast the cane from out of his hand before he could fire it. Pyrrha was already moving, charging the man, but she was intercepted by the girl with the pink-and-black hair. Sunset didn't pay the two much more mind as they began to brawl, Pyrrha could handle it; Sunset just had to handle everbody else.

 _Piece of cake._

The fighters of the White Fang advanced upon her slowly, with a degree of caution that their lack of speed emphasised as much as the wary way in which they held their weapons.

"Ruby, Jaune, call the lockers," Sunset commanded. "Take cover until they get here."

The man in the white suit rolled his eyes. "Don't just stand there, you animals, get her!"

They attacked in a rush, the ones with guns shot as they came.

 _Thank you,_ Sunset thought, as they gave her an excuse to throw up a shield around herself. Their fire was wild and inaccurate, but she could feel some of the bullets striking the emerald shield. They closed in around her, swords and knives at the ready, but Sunset let her shield erupt to knock them back and off their feet just as she done in the fight against Pyrrha.

Sunset held her fingers like play-guns, favouring the quicker but less powerful bursts of energy from her finger tips rather than the stronger palm beams that took more out of her and took longer to charge. Two Fang fighters were down almost before they could get back up, one of them in only a single blast and the other in three.

"Watch where your shooting!" Weiss shouted. "You're going to-"

Sunset missed a Fang fighter with deer antlers, who ducked underneath the magical bolt she had fired at him. It struck the dust container behind him, which exploded with such violent force that it hurled the deer faunus off his feet, blasted a part of the wall away and set fire to the light blue carpet of the shop. Sunset felt the heat of the explosion wash over her in a wave.

"-ignite the dust," Weiss concluded with a sigh.

Sunset grinned. "Thanks for reminding me." A deft bit of telekinesis was enough to pop open one of the tubes of light blue ice dust powder and pull the powdered grains of dust out of said tube. Sunset kept a tight, but careful, grip on them. She didn't want to activate the dust before it was ready. She wielded the stream of powder at her command like a flail, waving it before her, close the floor, even as she kept a thin line of it connected almost to her hand. The White Fang charged again, but Sunset's aura pulsed as she ran a charge through the dust. A rampart of ice appeared on the floor in front of her, enough to knock the White Fang back or trap their legs depending on where they were.

Sunset's smile broadened. She wasn't a great dust user for the simple reason that she couldn't afford it, but there was a part of her that had always regretted the constraints of circumstances. She used fire dust next, yanking the powder out of the tube in clumps which she turned into fireballs to hurl with one hand, even as she continued to fire magical projectiles with the other. She had the control and the intelligence to use dust effectively, and to be honest she was kind of enjoy the opportunity to demonstrate that.

She ignited a table full of lightning dust close enough to a warrior of the White Fang that the lightning struck him, rippling up and down his body until he dropped, twitching and moaning, to the ground.

Sunset created more fireballs, throwing them at the White Fang, striking them squarely in the chest. She was mostly done with the goons by now, just a little-

The explosion punched Sunset off her feet, throwing her head over heels, tumbling through the store as the heat washed over her. She hit the ground head first and rolled across the store until she came to a stop face and belly down.

She raised her head, her aura wasn't broken but another fire-dust display had just exploded, maybe more than one judging by the number of fires now burning in the store, not all of which were her responsibility. A White Fang fighter with cat ears charged out of the smoke at her, but a bolt of white struck her in the chest and knocked her down.

"Schnee!" bellowed the last remaining fighter of the Fang, a huge guy with a chainsaw, as he charged past Sunset, ignoring her completely in his zeal to get at Weiss.

The man in the white suit, on the other hand, did not ignore her. He had his cane pointed right at her, enabling her to see the hollow end that formed the muzzle, as he advanced on her.

"You got quite a few tricks up your sleeve," he said. "And with those ears...it's a pity you're not playing on my team."

Over the crackle of the flames, Sunset could just about hear the lockers descending, but that wasn't going to be much help to her. There was no dust close enough for her to use it, so she reached for her magic-

He stamped on her hand. It didn't break her aura but it still hurt. "Ah, ah, ah," he said. "You've got a talent, sure, but that doesn't mean I'm going to let you use it on me." He rested the muzzle of his cane upon her forehead. "Nothing personal, you understand. It's just business."

Ruby charged in a burst of rose petals, Crescent Rose whirling. White glyphs in the familiar snowflake of the Schnee family appeared all round the man in white and Ruby rocketed off them like a pinball, bouncing up and down as she slashed at Roman with her her scythe while he could only try desperately to defend himself against attacks coming at him from all directions.

Sunset leapt up. In front of her she could see that Pyrrha was still engaged with Parasol Girl, while a cry from behind drew her attention long enough to notice Jaune desperately trying to fend off the big guy with the chainsaw.

Sunset summoned Sol Invictus into her haand, and made her decision. She teleported to Pyrrha just as Pyrrha summoned her own weapons from her locker.

"Tag out. Go back up Jaune. I'll deal with her."

Pyrrha glanced towards Jaune. "Be careful. This one is dangerous."

"Yeah? Well, so am I?" Sunset said. "Go!"

Pyrrha turned, sprinting back across the half-burning store towards Jaune. Parasol girl made to follow, but a shot from Sol Invictus and a blast of magic from Sunset's palm - both of which missed - brought her up short.

"I'm your opponent now," Sunset said.

Parasol Girl studied her intently. The smile never left her face.

Sunset smirked right back, if only to show that two could play at that game.

 _Let's see what you've got._

Parasol Girl's eyes flickered away from Sunset, towards the man in the white jacket.

"I said, I'm your opponent," Sunset growled, shooting another bolt of magic from her palm. Parasol girl dodged, and as she dodged she pirouetted closer to Sunset, striking out with her parasol to whack Sunset on the side of the head. Sunset staggered sideways, feeling the sting through her aura. Parasol girl produced a sword, which she held in her right hand while she opened up the parasol like a shield.

 _She's fast. Almost as fast as Pyrrha, no wonder she couldn't finish this._

 _Good thing that I'm not Pyrrha then, isn't it?_

Sunset raised Sol Invictus to her shoulder and fired once, twice, three times, four times, five times until she had no more rounds left in the chamber and not a single one hand hit; Parasol Girl had either dodged them all or taken them upon her parasol. But, while Sunset had been shooting, she had almost been moving around the spilled dust power that lay all over the floor now, using her telekinesis gently, and in such a way that - with luck, Parasol Girl wouldn't notice.

Judging by the look on her face she was more interested in the fact that Sunset had run out of bullets.

Sunset raised one hand, and magic leapt from the tips of her fingers. She still couldn't hit, because this girl was even slipperier than Pyrrha was and that parasol was surprisingly sturdy, but so long as it kept her distracted from noticing all the dust power coiling around her booted feet then none of it mattered. All Sunset had to do was keep away until-

 _Now!_

Sunset activated the dust, which exploded into various conflagrations of fire, ice and lightning around the feet of Parasol Girl, who shattered into a hundred fragments like glass; fragments that dissolved before a single one of them hit the ground.

"What the..." Sunset murmured. She turned towards the man in the white jacket, only to see him shatter too under Ruby's latest attack. And then he was gone, as though he had never been here at all.

 _An illusion semblance. His, or the girl's?_

"Aww," Ruby moaned, her head falling forwards. "He got away again."

"Again?" Sunset said as she crossed the ruined shop towards them. "How did that guy know you, anyway?"

"That was Roman Torchwick," Ruby explained. "I was there when he tried to rob another dust shop, and I fought them, and that's why Professor Ozpin let me into Beacon. I really thought that we could catch him this time."

"We should be cautious," Pyrrha said. "The enemy may still be nearby."

"I doubt it," Sunset said. "The man was here to rob the place, not kill us. The only reason to fight in the first place was out of fear that we'd pursue him. Now that they're away...those two, anyway, I don't think they'll be back." She looked around at all of the unconscious White Fang members. "But we should probably call the cops for all these guys."

"Already done," Weiss said casually. She walked primly across the shop floor, and almost managed to keep the distaste off her face completely as she held out her hand to Sunset. "On behalf of the Schnee Dust Company I suppose I should thank you for helping me foil this robbery." She glanced around the damage. "Although I wish it could have been done without wrecking the place."

Sunset took Weiss' hand. "Just so long as you don't ask me to pay for it."

Weiss rolled her eyes. "I'm sure the company can absorb the costs."

Sunset let go of her hand. "Ruby, thanks for taking over with Torchwick. Although...I was a little surprised to see you." She had actually been surprised that Ruby had ditched Jaune to fend for himself in order to help Sunset, but she was hoping to put it a little more delicately in front of a non-team member.

"Jaune told us to go," Ruby said. "He said he could handle it."

Sunset's eyebrows rose. "Really?"

"Well...you needed help, and I do have a lot of aura," Jaune said. "And I knew that Ruby could get to the lockers and back really fast, so..."

"That was a brave thing," Sunset said. She folded her arms. "You know, overall I think it's safe to say that we did a pretty good job here."

Ruby raised one hand in the air. "High five! A first victory for Team Sapphire!"

"Ahem."

"And Weiss."

"Technically," Pyrrha said. "Wouldn't this be our second victory?"

"Do sparring matches count?" Jaune asked.

"Especially when you...kind of don't deserve to win," Ruby murmured.

"Everything counts, a win is a win," Sunset said. "This is our second victory."

"A second victory for Team Sapphire!"

"Ahem!"

"And Weiss."


	18. The Sunset Strategy, Part Two

The Sunset Strategy, Part Two

Sunset had found that whenever she was called in to see Princess Celestia, she had been able to tell before she actually went through the door whether she was going to enjoy the experience or not. This was not only because she had a brain and knew whether or not she had done something worthy of censure or not - even if she didn't always know how Celestia knew that she'd done it - but also because, as she waited outside the door to the royal study, she could feel whether the atmosphere was benevolent or hostile.

As she rode in the elevator up towards Ozpin's office at the pinnacle of Beacon Tower - with Team SAPR plus Weiss all crammed in to the one lift it was a little bit cramped - she had the feeling that she more commonly associated with a telling off than with fulsome praise.

Which struck her as a little unfair, to be perfectly honest. It wasn't as if they'd gone looking for trouble; the trouble had found them, and quite unexpectedly. And once it had, what were they supposed to have done? Rolled over and died? Run away? They had defended themselves and the store in which they happened to be, nothing more. They had nothing whatsoever to be ashamed of and they certainly had nothing to apologise for.

The lift stopped, and the doors slid open a second later to reveal the Headmaster's sprawling, but at the same time largely empty office. The clockwork ground remorselessly overhead, casting a constantly shifting shadow down upon the floor below.

Professor Ozpin sat enthroned in an enormous chair, behind a large crescent-shaped desk. Professor Goodwitch stood at his right hand, her expression stern. Mind you, her expression was almost always stern as if by default.

Team SAPR - plus Weiss - walked into the officer. A kind of instinct, honed by experience in this sort of thing, told Sunset when to stop. She clasped her hands behind her back as the rest of Team SAPR - and Weiss - lined up beside her.

Professor Ozpin was silent for a moment. The only sounds were the grinding of the gears and the trickling of liquid as Ozpin poured himself a cup of coffee from an ornate teapot.

He sipped from his Beacon mug. "So, you five certainly had an eventful afternoon."

"With respect, Professor, that wasn't by our choice," Sunset said.

"Is that so?" Professor Goodwitch asked in a decidedly arch tone.

"Yes," Sunset said firmly. "Do you think that we deliberately went looking for Torchwick or the White Fang so that we could catch him?"

"Ooh!"

Sunset rolled her eyes. _Me and my big mouth._ "Absolutely not, Ruby."

"But-"

"Miss Rose," Professor Goodwitch's tone was cold enough to shrivel Ruby's words to silence. "In this instance you should listen to your team leader. Apprehending criminals is a task for the proper authorities, not for first year students." Her gaze swept across their line, from Weiss back up to Sunset. "Assuming, of course, that your team leader is telling the truth."

"We were in the dust shop before the White Fang arrived," Weiss declared. "They attacked us, completely unprovoked."

Professor Ozpin took another sip of his coffee. "Then you were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time?"

"That seems to be something of a habit with you, Miss Rose," Professor Goodwitch murmured.

"Considering that we won, professor," Sunset said. "I'm not sure wrong place, wrong time is altogether appropriate." She caught sight of the look on Professor Goodwitch's face, and so continued hurriedly. "But we weren't looking for trouble, certainly. This was a shopping trip that got interrupted."

Professor Ozpin had them each, in turn, describe what had happened; and as each one spoke Professor Ozpin fixed his gaze upon them, and his eyes did not leave their eyes until their account was complete.

"I see," he said, when Weiss had finished her own account. "That seems conclusive. You were all of you in the wrong place...but, perhaps, at the right time." He smiled for a moment. "And, considering the circumstances, you all acquitted yourselves quite well."

"But Torchwick got away again," Ruby protested.

Professor Ozpin chuckled. "Indeed, Miss Rose, but as Professor Goodwitch so recently informed you, the apprehension of that particular criminal is a task for the proper authorities. You must not blame yourselves for failing to accomplish a task that was never yours to complete in the first place. Though you are only students, you have fought an adults' fight and you have survived. You should feel proud of that, all of you."

Sunset's back straightened. _This hasn't been so bad after all._

"However," Professor Goodwitch said. "Allow me to remind you all that if we believed that you had deliberately sought out Roman Torchwick or the White Fang or any kind of danger then you be punished appropriately to the foolhardiness of your behaviour. I trust that none of you will feel inspired by this event to seek out further extracurricular assignments."

"Certainly not, Professor," Weiss said.

"No, Professor," Sunset said. In her opinion, the only one she had to worry about in that regard was Ruby: Jaune was too aware of his own inadequacies to deliberately seek out a life or death conflict, and Pyrrha was not the kind to look for trouble. Ruby, however, was something else entirely. Hopefully she wouldn't be so stupid as to act on her own...unless she tried to rope her sister and team YRDN into it somehow.

 _I don't know Yang well enough to say what would make her turn down a request like that. I might have to find out._

 _Maybe there's something that she wants from me that I could bargain away in exchange for keeping Ruby on a leash._

"Excellent," Professor Ozpin said. "That will be all, for now. I'm sure you all have places that you'd rather be than here."

Sunset bowed her head. "Thank you, Professor."

They all crammed back into the elevator for the ride back down, but in spite of the crowding it was a far more relaxed, pleasant journey down than it had been a journey up.

"We could always-" Ruby began, her voice piping up from the back of the lift, somewhere behind Sunset.

"No," Sunset said.

"You don't even know what I was going to say!"

"You were suggest that we hunt down Torchwick, weren't you?"

"Well, yeah, but you didn't know that!"

"We're not doing it."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't see the point," Sunset said.

"But somebody has to stop him!"

"Someone doesn't have to mean us."

"Weren't you listening to what Professor Goodwitch said," Weiss demanded. "We're first years; we're here to learn how to fight monsters, not run around Vale chasing criminals."

"Thanks," Sunset muttered.

"Pyrrha-"

"This team is not a democracy," Sunset declared magisterially. "It is a dictatorship and the tyrant is me."

Ruby didn't press the issue for the rest of the ride down.

The elevator doors opened at the base of Beacon Tower, and as they slid open they revealed Flash standing outside. He looked a little nervous, though as soon as the group of five disembarked his face lit up with that goofy grin he had. "You're okay!"

"I'm fine," Sunset and Weiss said at the exact same time. The two looked at one another, and Sunset could tell that Weiss was thinking that Flash had been talking to her, not to Sunset.

Sunset could tell that because she was thinking the exact same thing.

Flash looked from one to the other. "That's great, both of you. I heard...you got attacked by the White Fang?"

"Yes," Weiss murmured, her voice dropping and becoming a little more subdued. "If you don't mind it's not something that I particularly want to talk about."

"No, no, I get it," Flash said. "I just...I heard that you'd been in a fight and...I'm glad you're okay."

Weiss stared at him for a moment, as though his concern surprised her. She clasped her hands behind her back. "Yes, well...I'm going to go back to our dorm now."

"Right, I'll come with you," Flash said. He glanced at Sunset out of the corner of his eye. "Sunset, I..."

"Thanks for coming down here," Sunset said. "It was good to see you." She almost surprised herself with the fact that she meant it. Even if she was kidding herself thinking that he had been worried about her instead of or even in addition to Weiss, it was still good to think that he cared. Surprisingly good, really.

"Yeah, sure," Flash murmured, before he followed Weiss down the path that led to the dormitories.

Sunset turned to her team, but before she could say anything she heard a cry of "Ruby!" and the next thing someone had shoved her out the way so hard that she toppled over and fell on her backside.

It was Yang, obviously. She had bulled aside all obstacles between Ruby and herself and enveloped her little sister in a bear-hug.

"Yang! Come on, get off of me!" Ruby protested futilely.

"Did you really get in a fight with the White Fang?" Yang demanded.

"How does everybody know that so quickly?" Jaune asked.

"Probably Ozpin told them," Sunset muttered. "While he was waiting for us to show up."

"Oobleck told me," Yang explained still not letting go of Ruby. "The White Fang and Torchwick? I don't know whether to be proud or mad."

"It was an accident," Ruby said. "We didn't know he was going to show up to the dust shop."

 _Does everybody think that we would intentionally go hunting for criminals on purpose?_

"Oh," Yang said, and judging by her tone of surprise it would appear that the answer to Sunset's question was 'yes'. "In that case I'm so proud of you! And a little worried that trouble keeps finding you like this." She chuckled. "For a moment there I was worried that you'd actually gone looking for Torchwick."

"Well-"

"No!" Sunset and Yang said simultaneously. Yang looked at her, and nodded approvingly.

"You two are no fun at all," Ruby moaned.

* * *

It was only when she was away from Team SAPR and on her way back to the dorm room with Flash that Weiss realised - or remembered - that she and Sunset had not finished the conversation that they had started in the dust shop...before they had been interrupted by the arrival of the White Fang.

The White Fang. It was taking a lot of Weiss' well-honed self-control not to shudder at the thought of those masks, and the leering, sneering, snarling mouths beneath them; the angry cry of 'Schnee!' as though her name alone rendered her deserving of death; the fire and smoke, the gunshots...the more she thought about it the more imagination transfigured it to resemble a scene out of her nightmares. She had escaped unharmed, true, but only because of the efforts of Team SAPR. Had she been alone in there then...

At least Sunset Shimmer had fought them. It was a little harder - not impossible, but harder - for her to imagine Sunset as a member of the White Fang now that she had seen her fighting the White Fang, using her over-powered semblance to protect Weiss.

Weiss wrenched her thoughts away. She didn't want to think about the White Fang right - she never wanted to think about the White Fang, particularly, but she told herself that she could afford to put them out of mind for now - and back to Sunset and their interrupted conversation. They had been talking about Cardin and Jaune; Sunset had been as angry as Weiss, if not more, and she held Weiss responsible. It was possible that Sunset was putting on a grand show at Weiss' expense to get one over on her, but if she was not then...what? Had Jaune been unwilling in his camaraderie with Cardin? What, then, would have induced him to spend time with someone he feared and disliked? What had Cardin done?

It might be a very minor mystery in light of the day' events, but there were times when it was good to focus upon the minor mysteries and ignore the larger truths, such as the fact that...Weiss pushed that aside because she was _ignoring it_.

"Are you okay?" Flash asked.

"I'm fine," Weiss said, a little too snippily. Her voice calmed. "I'm fine," she repeated.

"Right," Flash murmured. "I only ask because you're quiet."

"I'm thinking."

"Ah."

"Are you sure that you don't know what's going on, or what was going on, between Jaune and Cardin?"

"What?" Flash asked, surprised. "No, I...I've got no idea."

"Hmm," Weiss mused. Her mind continued to mull in silence over the possibilities until she arrived back at her dorm-room and walked inside.

Cardin grunted at the sight of her. "Right, you're back."

Russell took the headphones out of his ears. "Heard that you got in some kind of battle or something, with the White Fang?"

"Yes," Weiss said coldly. _Thank you both for caring._

Russell grinned. "Next time share the love, okay? If I'd known you were going to have some fun out in Vale I would have come with you."

Weiss wasn't sure what was worse: his attitude or the fact that if she'd known what was going to happen she might have actually taken him up on his offer.

Weiss Schnee was no wilting fragile flower, she was confident in her abilities, she had trained and studied to become proficient in combat...and still the White Fang frightened her. As much as she might be superior to most - perhaps all - individual members of that despicable organisation in combat, with Myrtenaster in hand, nevertheless the group, the shadowy force that had murdered so many figures of her childhood, it...terrified her. She would not want to face them alone.

Weiss felt drained. Certainly drained of any energy to confront Cardin. Perhaps minor mysteries could take her mind off larger truths, but today she had no energy for them, nor to deal with Cardin's indifference or Russel's utter lack of understanding. She had no energy left to deal with any of it so she flopped down onto her bed and lay there, dead to the world.

She hoped it would prove otherwise, but she had a feeling that today's incident wasn't going to leave her alone just yet.

* * *

Sunset was out again that night, this time in the part of the dormitories that was reserved for second year teams. In her hand was one of the cans of red spray paint that she had bought from the hardware store before their shopping trip had been stopped dead in its tracks by the fracas at the dust shop.

She had to be a little careful here, not so much of getting caught as of finding the right dorm room. If she got the wrong room - which meant any room other than that belonging to Team CFVY - then the act would just look random and weird. It had to be the right door in order for the blame to rebound where she wanted it to.

She and Weiss hadn't had the chance to finish their conversation before Roman Torchwick and the White Fang - sounded like a garage band - had so rudely interrupted them, but Sunset had heard enough to be somewhat sure that Weiss hadn't known about Cardin's activities. So be it. She wouldn't take out her frustrations on Weiss; but that didn't mean that she was about to let Winchester off the hook.

 _I'll show you what happens when you mess with me._

A quick check through the student records had confirmed that the rabbit-eared faunus Cardin had been picking on yesterday was named Velvet Scarletina, a member of Team CFVY. Team CFVY were perhaps _the_ team to beat in Second Year, even if one of their members was having to re-sit her fist year history.

Now Sunset's plan would fall apart if it turned out the other members of CFVY didn't actually care for their faunus team-mate that much, but as she found the right door most of her worries on that front were swiftly dispelled.

Team CFVY had helpfully marked their dorm room with a sign on the door, and underneath the sign with a team photo in which two big and burly-looking guys attempted to squash themselves into the same frame as two much smaller girls, one of whom was the rabbit-faunus Velvet. The picture was so crowded that the background was practically invisible, as the guys looked over the girls' heads - and in Velvet's case, between her ears. Nevertheless, all four faces were smiling enthusiastically out of the wooden picture frame.

Sunset looked at the picture for a moment. It was...it was kind of cute, really, and it made her wonder if SAPR should get team photos done. It wasn't mandatory, but it might be cool even if they didn't want to stick it up on the door. She frowned. She had come here to do a job, and she'd better get on with it.

Nevertheless, she took the picture off the door and left it on the floor before she started spraying, because it would be a shame to ruin a perfectly decent picture.

* * *

To say that Coco Adel was furious was an understatement.

Everything had been going just fine that morning until they got a knock on the door from the concerned team across the hall, and upon opening the door Team CFVY had discovered that someone, some irredeemable dickwad whose life-expectancy would be measured in minutes if Coco ever found out their name, had spray-painted FAUNUS SCUM! GO HOME! in blood-red letters on the door of their dorm room during the night.

To put the cap on it they had also ripped the team photo off the door beforehand and dumped it on the floor like it was garbage.

Coco was holding said picture in her hands now, having to control herself to avoid cracking the cheap frame that had been all they could afford back in first year. The contrast between the smiling faces looking out of the photograph and the expressions they all wore now were undeniable: Velvet was sitting on her bed, facing away from the offending and offensive door, while Fox tried somewhat ineffectually to comfort her. It was ineffectual mostly because Fox looked as though he'd rather slice someone in half than help Velvet calm down. Yatsuhashi's expression was pretty murderous in and of itself.

Coco well understood the feeling. It was no secret from any of them that Velvet didn't always have it easy here at Beacon, or in Vale generally, but they had hoped that once they became second-years then she would be able to put the worst of it behind her, and they all trusted her to tell them if she needed help.

She knew that they would have her back in an instant…didn't she?

"Velvet," Coco said, trying to sound calmer than she felt for her partner's sake. "Do you have any idea who might have done this? Has anyone started hassling you lately?"

Velvet shook her head. Her rabbit ears twitched.

Coco prowled across the dorm room until she was standing in front of Velvet. With one hand, she reached out and ran her fingers through her team-mate's hair. She knelt, and kissed Velvet gently on the forehead. "Velvet…you know that you can tell us anything, right? You don't have to hide, you don't have to lie because we're all here for you."

"Against the grimm, against the world," Fox said.

Velvet looked glum and downcast, but she said nothing. She simply shook her head again.

Coco frowned. She felt in her finger-tips that Velvet was keeping something from the rest of them, maybe even some idea of who'd done this, but short of dragging it out of her with forceps she had no idea how she was going to-

Her scroll beeped with a notification. Coco ignored it.

Velvet glanced at her. "Are you going to get that?"

"Are you going to talk to me?" Coco replied.

"You should probably get that."

"Don't change the subject."

"It might be important."

"Fine, fine, you're obviously not going to let it go," Coco muttered, and she rolled her eyes as she pulled out her scroll and checked the message.

Someone – the account was anonymous – had sent her a video. A video of some jackoff bullying Velvet in the dining hall, pulling her ears, making her feel unsafe. The sounds of Velvet mewling in pain and begging to be let go, although tinny and a little distorted, where nevertheless loud enough to fill the dorm room. Velvet moaned wordlessly, and recoiled away as though the video was going to attack her next. Yatsu lumbered over to watch, while Fox leaned forward and craned his head for a better view.

Coco felt her blood-pressure rising to dangerous levels. Contrasting visions of beating this guy into the ground with her handbag or using the minigun to turn him into a sieve fought for dominance in her fevered mind. "What is this?" she demanded, showing the video to Velvet.

"Coco, it's not what it-"

"Why didn't you tell us this was happening?" Coco demanded. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"He didn't really-"

"Who is he?" Fox demanded.

"What the video doesn't show is-"

"If you need one of us to come with you, you only have to ask," Yatsu said.

"I don't need your help and I don't need your protection!" Velvet cried, tears filling her eyes. "I need…I need to learn how to stand up for myself, I need to learn not to be so…" Something inside her body seemed to snap as she slumped forwards. "I'm sorry I cause you guys so much trouble."

"Velvet," Coco murmured, as she put one arm around her and pulled her into a hug. Fox and Yatsu placed reassuring hands upon her shoulders. "Velvet, you know we love you, right? Not a single thing about this is your fault. And you don't have to put up with it. Certainly not alone. I'm sorry I didn't realise this was happening to you."

"But we're still going to kill this guy, right?" Fox said.

"Oh, totally," Coco said. "What's his name?"

"His team leader stopped it, that's what the video doesn't show," Velvet said.

"That's good for them but it doesn't erase what he did," Coco said. She felt a little guilty as she added. "Velvet, an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. What's his name?"

Velvet twitched. "Cardin Winchester."

Coco took a deep breath as she got up. She felt a little calmer now that she knew that name of her enemy. "Fox, you're with me. Yatsu, stay with Velvet. And…maybe look at hanging a sheet over that door or something until we can paint over that crap, I don't want to have to see it again."

* * *

INVINCIBLE GIRL FOILS DUST SHOP ROBBERY!

That was the headline to the article on the electronic version of the _Vale Chronicle_ that Sunset had just brought up on her scroll. The picture just below said headline was a stock photo of Pyrrha, credited to some picture library in Mistral, that showed her looking stern and martial in front of a crowd at what was probably some tournament or other. The caption to the photo was helpful enough to remind everyone that Pyrrha was a four-time tournament champion. The article discussed the robbery - with blame apportioned equally between 'notorious criminal Roman Torchwick' and the White Fang - but with the presence of Weiss and the other members of Team SAPR airbrushed out. You had to read to the very end to see that there had been anyone besides Pyrrha present at the shop. Only in the last paragraph was it noted that Pyrrha had been aided in her heroic efforts by 'Schnee Dust Company heiress Weiss Schnee as well as by her team-mates John Arc, Ruby Rose and Sunset Glimmer.'

Sunset put the scroll down on the table. "Sunset Glimmer. Sunset- they couldn't even spell my name right."

"I can't imagine what that feels like," Jaune muttered.

"Sorry," Pyrrha said. "Some of my press coverage can get a little...excessive."

Sunset sighed. "Not long ago that would have made me furious but now I feel as though I'm approaching a state of zen resignation about the whole thing."

"Really?" Ruby asked.

"No, I'm still mad, only at this crappy paper rather than at Pyrrha," Sunset said. She glowered at her scroll. "And no, I am not paying two lien to support quality journalism; I might if there was any!" She snapped her scroll shut.

Nora grinned. "So, Ruby, what's it like becoming Roman Torchwick's personal nemesis?"

"Please don't give her any ideas," Sunset muttered.

It was breakfast, and as usual Team SAPR and Team YRDN were sharing a table, the latter facing the former across the way.

Nora continued unchastened by Sunset's rebuke. "You know, I beg that if we worked together we could make sure that he didn't even get away next time!"

"Why..." Sunset spread her hands in front of her. "Why would you even want to bother with something like that?"

"Because it's fun, duh!" Nora replied. "What's it like having a buzz kill for team leader?"

"You know, I do know a guy downtown," Yang mused. "He knows all kinds of stuff. Maybe-"

"Why are you encouraging this?" Sunset demanded. "Yesterday you didn't want Ruby to-"

"I didn't want Ruby to do anything without me," Yang said. "It's different if I'm helping."

Sunset groaned. "I hate my life and everyone in it." She put her head in her hands as Ruby started to describe the fight for the benefit of Team YRDN, complete with Nora ooh-ing appreciatively in all the right places. Sunset looked up when a shadow fell across her, a shadow that turned out to belong to Blake Belladonna, who had wandered over from the Team BLBL table.

"Is it true?" she demanded, with more vitality in her voice than Sunset had ever heard there before.

Sunset looked up, straightened up, and then leaned back on the bench a little. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Is it true?" Blake repeated, as though repetition would bring the necessary clarity. "Is it true that Roman Torchwick and the White Fang were working together to rob that dust shop."

"It was definitely Torchwick," Ruby said. "I recognised him from the last time, and he recognised me too."

"And you're sure that it was the White Fang?"

"They wore the masks," Jaune said.

Blake scowled. "Thank you," she grunted, before she walked away; not back to her table, but out of the cafeteria altogether.

Jaune watched her go. "What do you think was up with that?"

"Who can say with that girl?" Yang replied.

"Not her team, by the look of it," Dove said, gesturing with his head to the BLBL table, where Blake's team looked as confused by her behaviour as anyone else.

"I hope she's okay," Ruby said. "We didn't say something wrong, did we?"

"She asked questions, we gave honest answers," Sunset said. "If she has a problem with that-"

"CARDIN WINCHESTER!" a voice roared angrily, a voice that - it swiftly transpired - belonged to the young woman in the brown blouse and black beret who marched into the dining hall, trailed by a muscular man with dark red hair.

Heads turned towards her. Sunset smirked as she turned on the video camera on her scroll. "Oh, yes, it's happening."

"What's going on?" Pyrrha asked.

"Someone is about to get what he deserves," Sunset responded.

"CARDIN WINCHESTER!" yelled the woman - whom Sunset recognised from the team photo on the CFVY door, and therefore guessed that she was probably Coco Adel, the team leader - bellowed once again. She swept her gaze, her eyes concealed behind a pair of sunglasses, across the crowded dining hall; both her and her companion seemed oblivious to the way that everyone was staring at them.

Whether she would have noticed Cardin so quickly if Weiss hadn't been half out of her seat, drawing attention by the movement, was an academic question. Coco did notice, and with her silent companion at her side she strutted with the graceful deadliness of a lioness straight towards him.

Sunset kept the camera trained on her as she advanced.

* * *

Weiss barred the other girl's way, even as she motioned for the rest of her team-mates to remain seated. There might - there probably was - a good reason for this girl to be so angry at Cardin...but on the other hand that didn't mean that Weiss was simply going to stand by and let her do as she pleased. As team leader it would reflect badly upon her if she demonstrated such disregard for him.

She might not have - did not - like Cardin, but she would fight his corner...up to a point.

The girl in the black beret and sunglasses was considerably taller than Weiss, and she attempted to use that height difference to her advantage as she loomed over Weiss, looking down on her to such an extent that Weiss could see her eyes over the top of her shades.

"Move," the other girl demanded.

"Weiss Schnee, leader of Team Wisteria," Weiss said coolly, introducing herself since the other girl had failed to do so.

"Coco Adel, leader of Team Coffee," Coco said. "Now move."

"Why?"

"Why?" Coco repeated, as she pulled out her scroll. "This is why." She pulled up a video of Cardin tormenting that rabbit faunus.

 _Of course, that's what this is about,_ Weiss thought. She watched the video in silence, considering what she ought to do about it. "Your team-mate."

"Yes," Coco growled.

"I stopped that when I saw it."

"So I've been told," Coco said sharply. She took a deep breath. "I'll thank you once you get out of my way."

"I give you my word that it won't happen again."

"It already has!" Coco yelled. "Or what do you call this?" She swiped her scroll, and the video was replaced by a photo of a dorm-room door upon which someone had graffitied FAUNUS SCUM! GO HOME in crimson spray paint.

Weiss blinked. The worst part was that she wouldn't have put it past Cardin to do something like this; for all that he ostensibly came from an established Vale family, he had already demonstrated that crude, working-class racism of this sort was not beyond him. Weiss didn't care for faunus but you didn't behave in such a boorish fashion. Besides, if they went home - presumably the home referred to was Menagerie, although of course very few faunus who went to that remote continent ever came back and most of those living in the kingdoms were the descendants of those who had chosen not to leave the kingdoms - then who would work the mines, or clean, or cook? Ridiculous.

And yet she knew that Cardin hadn't done this. She knew because he had been in the dorm room when the lights went out and there was no way that he was light enough on his feet to get out of the dorm without waking Weiss in the process. She knew that he hadn't done this...and yet she also knew that her chances of convincing Coco Adel of Cardin's innocence were very slim. The video was undeniable, and a powerful piece of evidence against him.

Weiss' eyes flickered towards Sunset Shimmer, who was filming this with a look of unholy glee upon her face and she knew, she _knew_ with absolute if unsubstantiated certainty that Sunset was the one who had graffitied the Coffee door, and probably Sunset who had filmed Cardin's abuse of the rabbit faunus and sent that video to Coco. And she had done all of it in order to get back at Cardin for the way that he had treated Jaune Arc. Weiss didn't know whether to grind her teeth in frustration or admire the sick brilliance of it.

Not that that was something she could present to an increasingly frustrated looking Coco Adel; she had no proof, and the idea of a faunus doing this would seem absurd. The idea that she had done do so as part of a convoluted plan to manipulate team Coffee into taking revenge on Cardin for her was...well, if Weiss suggested it then she would seem like she was grasping at straws in an effort to shift the blame off her team-mate.

And the fact was that Coco had the video, and the video was accurate - if truncated - and it was probably all the proof that she required anyway.

 _Doesn't he have this coming?_ It was not the most loyal thought, but then...what loyalty had Cardin ever showed to her? Of course, Weiss didn't intend to simply take what Sunset had done, but at this time...there wasn't much that she could do short of getting into some kind of fight with the other girl, who was obviously - based on the fact that Weiss had never seen her before - from an older year and probably appropriately skilful.

She stepped aside. "Please don't do anything too rash," she said. If it got too bad then she would step in.

Flash and Russell watched in silence as Coco approached Cardin, and slammed his head down into the table.

"Did that hurt?" Coco demanded.

Cardin grunted by way of response.

Coco bent down so that she could growl into his ear. "I said did that hurt?"

"Yes."

"And are you afraid?" she asked, glaring into his one visible eye.

"...yes."

"Then now you know how Velvet felt."

"Who?"

"Velvet!" Coco roared. "Velvet Scarlettina. My partner. A cute, sweet girl who loves photographs and understands what lens aperture is. But a guy like you doesn't see that, do you? You only see a pair of ears well do you know what I see? Trash. You stay away from Velvet from now on, unless you want me to find you again." She let him go, and stalked away.

Russell waited until she was safely out of earshot before he whistled appreciatively. "And there goes my future wife, boys," he declared, as he tucked his hands behind his head.

Flash looked at him as though he was nuts. "Seriously?"

"Dude, that chick is hard core. Major turn on."

Weiss shook her head in despair, and turned her attention back to Sunset Shimmer.

It was time for them to have another talk.


	19. Conversations

Conversations

"Sunset Shimmer!"

Sunset looked over her shoulder as she left the dining hall as Weiss' voice reached all four of her ears. Sure enough, the Schnee heiress was walking towards her as quickly as her heels and dignity would allow.

"I need to talk to you," she said. "Alone."

Sunset was silent for a moment, before she half turned towards Weiss and nodded. "I'll see you guys in class," she murmured.

Jaune, Pyrrha and Ruby all left with the members of Team YRDN. Sunset was silent for a few moments, listening to the sounds of their feet echoing on the floor as they walked away.

She studied Weiss' face. She didn't look angry, but she did look certain; as if she was driven onwards by great purpose.

 _She is a smart girl. Maybe she figured it out._

That possibility didn't scare Sunset as much as it probably should have done; perhaps because, even if she had figured it out, then she couldn't prove it. She probably couldn't prove it.

And if she was going to denounce Sunset then why would she want to talk?

Honestly, Sunset wasn't quite sure where she and Weiss stood at the moment, if they stood anywhere at all. Sunset didn't like her, but she didn't hate her either; she was smart, nearly as smart as Sunset, and not bad in a fight either. Sunset didn't hate her. She'd actually been somewhat reasonable when it came to relations between their teams.

And she wasn't dating Flash, as far as Sunset could tell.

So…as things went she wasn't really that bad.

Yet.

"You want to talk outside?" Sunset asked. "Somewhere a little more private?"

"That…that sounds like a good idea," Weiss replied.

The two of them walked out side by side, out of the dining hall and into the courtyard, to the statue of the two old hunters standing so heroically upon the rock. They stood in the shade of the statue, or at least Sunset stood in the shadow while Weiss stood just beyond it, in the sun. The light made her white hair shine as though one of her Schnee ancestors had stolen moonlight to glimmer in the hair of his descendants.

 _If Flash did go out with her I'm afraid I could understand why. If we'd met under different circumstances I might want to go out with her myself._

Sunset folded her arms. "So…what shall we talk about?"

Weiss' look carried a hint of a glare. "I know what you did."

"Really? And what did I do?"

"Cardin didn't vandalise that door," Weiss said.

Sunset shrugged. "I'm sad to say that he's already proven that he's willing to disobey your instructions."

"Can we please drop this ridiculous pretence?" Weiss asked. "I know that you did it in order to frame him."

Sunset smirked. "I can neither confirm nor deny that. But even if your…interesting theory were correct then he would have had it coming for a whole host of reasons."

"That doesn't give you the right to pull a stunt like that!" Weiss snapped. She took a deep breath. "I recognise that Cardin…violated the boundaries that we agreed. And for that reason I will…let this slide. This once. But don't do it again."

"Or what?"

"Or you and I are going to have a serious problem."

Sunset's smirk remained in place. It was second nature, by this point; she probably couldn't have stopped it even if she'd wanted to. Not that she particularly wanted to. It was part of her armour against the world. Aura couldn't protect you from harsh words and suspicious attitudes, but a smirk on your face and a Nightmare Moon-may-care tone of voice could go a long way as far as convincing people that their words had no power to harm you.

And so, when she spoke, she probably didn't sound as sincere as she wanted to when she said, "Well we wouldn't want that to happen, now would we?" Sunset made a conscious effort to sound like a little less of an ass. "I mean that, I don't want trouble from you." The truth was…the honest truth was that there was a lot to admire about Weiss Schnee; even more than Pyrrha she represented the kind of person that Sunset wanted to become, that she would become in this world through hard work and dint of her natural greatness: elevated, remote, set apart from the run of common men by virtue of that invisible quality called greatness; wanting for nothing, desired, admired; commanding by natural right and brooking no dissent.

 _Cold and lonely and all alone in the world._

Sunset frowned momentarily, because where had that come from? There was nothing wrong in being all alone. It was better that way, you couldn't be hurt or betrayed if you didn't let anyone get close to you. And as for the cold…the fires of ambitions flames would keep her warm.

"I don't want trouble with you," Sunset repeated. "I…"

"I don't want trouble with you, either," Weiss said. "You…aren't like most faunus."

"Really?" Sunset said. She couldn't help but preen a little. "How so?"

"You don't act like other faunus that I've known," Weiss continued. "You're very human."

"Okay."

"Don't get me wrong, you're a jerk," Weiss said quickly. "But you're a very human jerk, if you understand."

"Sure," Sunset said sceptically.

"Leave my team alone in future," Weiss said. "They might be…absolutely terrible, but they're still my team."

Sunset hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "I get that. Fine. I'll leave him be for now. So long as he learns his lesson."

"If he doesn't then I'll deal with it," Weiss said firmly. "I'm his team leader, that's my job."

Sunset couldn't argue with that. Hadn't she behaved exactly the same way with regards to Jaune, after all? _In her place…in her place I wasn't so restrained, was I? Should I be thankful she didn't trash my door or set me up to be on the receiving end of Coco Adel?_

 _Maybe. Maybe not. Either way…I don't want trouble with her._

 _I don't need that kind of aggravation._

 _And neither does she._

"Sure, I'll let it lie now," Sunset said. "But…try and keep a leash on Cardin, okay?" She didn't add that if Weiss could not do that then she might have to take further steps, even if it meant trouble between them. Weiss was smart enough to get that, just as Sunset was smart enough to know that if she took the first step then she would be courting trouble with her.

"I think I can do that," Weiss declared.

Sunset might have said something more about that, but her scroll rang. She pulled it out. Pyrrha's face confronted her, set with worry.

"Sunset, you have to come quickly!"

"Why, what's going on?"

"Professor Goodwitch just called Jaune to the Headmaster's office," Pyrrha explained. "Apparently it's been suggested that his entry transcripts were faked!"

Ruby shoved Pyrrha a little aside so that at least part of her face could hove into view on the screen. "Sunset, what are we going to do? Is Jaune going to get expelled? Why would somebody-"

"Both of you calm down, Jaune isn't getting expelled," Sunset said firmly. "I'm going to go over to Beacon Tower and straighten this out. You should head over there as well. You both do the 'we love you, Jaune, feel better' thing a lot better than I do. But trust me, this is all going to work out just fine." She hung up, and started to walk quickly towards the tower.

"What's going on?" Weiss asked, as she started to follow.

"Cardin chewed through his leash," Sunset replied.

* * *

Jaune felt the sweat pooling under his armpits as he stood in front of the Headmaster and Professor Goodwitch.

Professor Ozpin wasn't looking at him. He was reading something as he sipped his coffee. Professor Goodwitch was staring at him, though. Staring at him as though he were some kind of insect and she was about to crush him under her heel.

In the rare moments of coherent thought that escaped the combination of blind panic, bottomless despair and anger at Sunset for failing to take care of it like she'd promised she would, Jaune wondered at what point this had all started to go so horribly wrong. At what point had he made the big mistake that had led to all this?

 _Was it when I decided to come here in the first place? Was that where I went wrong after all?_

It was all over now. His adventure, his dreams. His family would welcome him back, no hard feelings…just their suspicions that he was a hopeless screw-up who would never amount to anything confirmed.

But what Jaune felt most, somewhat to the surprise even of himself, was guilt. Pyrrha and Ruby…they'd believed in him. Nobody had ever believed in him before, not in his whole life. For as long as he'd known it he'd always been 'you can't' or 'you're not strong enough' or 'it's too dangerous'. Nobody had ever trusted him, nobody had ever taken him seriously, nobody had ever looked at Jaune Arc and said 'yeah, you can become a hero'.

But they had. Those two angels had believed in him…and he had let them down. He saw that now with a clarity that only the impending death of all his hopes and dreams could provide. He had been…he hadn't been deserving of them.

And it was too late to do anything about it now.

"Mister Arc," Professor Goodwitch said, since Professor Ozpin didn't seem inclined to look up from whatever it was he was reading. "The allegations that have been made against you are quite serious. And, unfortunately, they are allegations that I can only too easily believe in light of your performance at this academy. Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

Jaune opened his mouth, ready to let everything spill out: the truth, his excuses, his reasons, all of it. He couldn't lie, not any more, not here, not with Professor Goodwitch glaring at him like that. He was too rattled, too scared, too lost to deny it or stonewall or try to brazen it out. He opened his mouth, and prepared to throw himself upon the mercy of the school.

"Sorry I'm late," Sunset said as the lift door opened and Jaune's team leader strolled into the office as if she owned the place. She advanced quickly across the floor, passing beneath the shadow of the gears until she was standing at Jaune's side. She clasped her hands behind her back. "I wasn't around when Jaune got the summons, Pyrrha and Ruby had to call me." She smiled. "As I'm sure you're both well aware, professors, Article 15 subsection 3 states that any student accused of a disciplinary infraction is entitled to have their team leader present at proceedings."

"Of course," Professor Ozpin said, and Jaune must have been going nuts from the stress because it sounded like the headmaster was pleased that she'd shown up. "We wouldn't want to do anything except follow the rules to the letter, would we? Thank you for joining us, Miss Shimmer."

"Are you aware of the allegations made against Mister Arc, Miss Shimmer?" Professor Goodwitch demanded.

"I'm aware that Cardin Win-"

Professor Ozpin raised one hand. "I'm afraid that we don't name accusers here, Miss Shimmer. That's subsection five."

Sunset took a breath. "Of course it is, Professor. But that doesn't change the fact that the allegations are spiteful, malicious, and thoroughly false. Motivated by personal dislike of Jaune."

"And yet," Professor Goodwitch said. "These allegations would explain a great deal about Mister Arc's performance."

Jaune might have said something at this point – he could still feel the pressure to confess like a weight pushing down upon his chest – but a look from Sunset silenced him.

"With all due respect, Professor, the fact that Jaune's grades are poor doesn't prove fraud," Sunset said. "Only proof of fraud can prove fraud. Have you examined the transcripts?"

Professor Ozpin took another sip from his coffee mug. "Unfortunately, they appear to have gone missing."

Sunset's face was impassive. "In that case I don't see that the matter can be proved one way or the other; in which case Jaune has nothing to answer for."

Jaune's eyes widened. He…he thought that he was starting to get it now. Sunset's confidence, her assuredness that Cardin wouldn't be able to do anything to him…she had done this, it was the only explanation. She had gotten rid of his transcripts somehow, knowing that without them nothing could be proved. He was safe! He was saved! He might get to stay at Beacon after all!

Professor Goodwitch's expression was one of controlled frustration. "Despite the somewhat convenient loss of records, the fact remains that an allegation of this sort cannot simply be dismissed-"

"Forgive me, Professor, but if allegations are to be entertained regardless of the lack of proof then that strikes me as the start of a very slippery slope," Sunset said. "Jaune, did you forge your transcripts?"

Jaune swallowed, and managed to squeak out, "No."

Sunset spread her hands. "Without any evidence to prove otherwise, professors, you must accept his word. Anything else would be expulsion without cause."

Professor Goodwitch pushed her glasses a little further up her nose. "Miss Shimmer, are you really comfortable having someone on your team who may not have earned his place here? Who may not be ready for this level of combat? Are you prepared for the consequences for your team?"

"I don't believe that to be true, Professor," Sunset replied. "But even if it were…I believe that with enough ambition to succeed then we can achieve our destinies in spite of all of those who say that we're not ready."

"Ah, the confidence of youth," Professor Ozpin declared, with a touch of nostalgia in his voice. "When all life's promise lies before you, and all obstacles seem only temporary, and put in your way by malicious elders." He smiled, if a little sadly. "I truly hope that your confidence is not shattered too soon. As for this business…you are correct, Miss Shimmer, in your interpretation of the rules. I thought that it might be worth seeing what Mister Arc had to say on the subject, but I see that…well, there seems little purpose now." He chuckled indulgently. "Good day to you both."

Sunset nodded. "Professor Ozpin, Professor Goodwitch."

"Miss Shimmer," Professor Goodwitch said, with just a touch of coldness. "Mister Arc."

Sunset gestured for Jaune to go first, and so he led the way back to the elevator. Neither of them said anything as they climbed into the metal box, and Jaune pushed the button to take them back down to the ground floor.

The doors slid shut behind them, and the elevator whirred as it began to descend.

"Ruby and Pyrrha are waiting for you downstairs," Sunset said. She looked away for a moment, and then glanced back at him. "Are you okay?"

"I…" Jaune trailed off, and fell silent. Was he okay? How did he feel? He could barely work out, he was feeling so much that just trying to put a name to how he felt, trying to distill it down to just one feeling seemed impossible. How did he feel? Relieved, delivered, a little guilty…purposed. "Thank you, Sunset," he said. "I'm going to do better from now on."

"Yeah you are," Sunset said.

"No, I mean it," Jaune declared. "Pyrrha, Ruby, they've offered me so much help and I…I've been such an idiot! But I'm not going to just trail after Ruby and Pyrrha any longer. I'm going to work hard and push myself and I'm not going to stop until I can stand alongside them and you as their equal. I'm going to deserve this, you can count on it."

Sunset looked at him, her face impassive and inscrutable. And then she smiled. It wasn't a smirk it was a real smile, not cruel but pleased, maybe even nice. "Well, you'll never catch up with me…but don't let that stop you trying." She reached up and patted him on the shoulder. "I meant what I said up there: stop letting people tell you no and just go for it, and you can do almost anything."

The elevator doors opened again, presenting the Beacon courtyard. Ruby and Pyrrha were both waiting for him as he stepped out.

"Jaune, are you alright?" Pyrrha asked. "What happened up there?"

Jaune stared at her wordless for a moment, comprehending anew her kindness, and his own callousness in initially rejecting it. "I…" he bowed his head. "Nothing happened. I'm not going anywhere."

Pyrrha sighed with relief. "That's wonderful news."

"But why did you have to go up there in the first place?" Ruby asked.

Jaune looked down at her. There was so much trust in her face it was like a needle in his stomach to shatter it…but it was the right thing to do.

He looked around to make sure that no one else was listening – not that it really mattered now, he supposed, but he still didn't want everyone to know.

"Because…because…"

"Jaune-" Pyrrha began.

"Because it's true," Jaune admitted. "They can't prove it, not any more thanks to Sunset, but…it's true. I faked my way in here. I…I don't deserve to be your team-mate."

He closed his eyes, and waited for the inevitable shock, the condemnation, for-

"Nope."

He opened his eyes. "What?"

"Nope," Ruby repeated. "You don't get to decide whether or not your deserve to be our team-mate, Jaune. Only we can decide that." She reached out, and put one small hand upon his heart. "You're a brave person, Jaune. You've proven that, and that fact that you aren't really strong or fast doesn't change that. And if we work together then we can all get stronger, together."

"Yeah," Jaune said, feeling more blessed in that moment than he ever had before in his life. "We'll do it together."

* * *

Weiss' scroll buzzed. She hesitated, fearing that it would be her father, but when she actually did reach for it she saw that it was Winter.

A smile began to grow across her face as she accepted the call. Her sister's face confronted her from an austere military office somewhere in Atlas.

"I was afraid that I'd see more scars when you answered," Winter observed.

"You heard."

"I did."

"Does a dust shop robbery really get that widely reported?"

"No," Winter said. "But our military attaché in Vale saw your name and passed me the information. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Weiss said.

"Were they after you?"

Weiss didn't have to ask who 'they' were. "No," she replied. "Or at least…I don't think so. I think they were there to rob the place. I was in the wrong place."

"I see," Winter murmured. Her jaw tightened for a moment. "What were you doing in a dust shop anyway?"

"Buying dust."

"Obviously, but why? Father would-"

"If I wanted Father to send me more dust I would have to speak to Father," Weiss said.

"Of course. However, you should be aware that he knows all about this."

Weiss felt a little colder in her stomach. "How did he react?"

"How do you think? He wants to speak to you."

"Of course," Weiss murmured.

"Did they-"

"Winter," Weiss cut her off. "Can we please change the subject?"

Winter stared at her for a moment. Then she nodded. "Of course. How have you been?"

"My grades are consistently-"

"How have you _been_?" Winter repeated, with extra emphasis. "Have you made any friends yet?"

Weiss considered that for a moment. "I think so."

"Name?"

"Flash Sentry, he's from Atlas."

"I see," Winter murmured. "What combat school did he go to?"

Weiss blinked. "You're not going to run a background check on him are you?"

"If I'm going to be stuck behind a desk I may as well abuse my position a little."

"I thought you said the work was no less valuable than any other!"

"I did, because it is," Winter replied. "I never said I didn't prefer to be in the field." For a moment, Weiss thought that her sister might smile. But she didn't. Winter rarely smiled. You had to listen to what she was saying to get an idea of how she felt.

"I apologise for returning to an unpleasant subject for a moment," Winter continued. "But I have an asset in Vale; if you'd like I can have them try and find something out about the White Fang attack. Determine if you're in any danger as a result of this."

"You have people in Vale?"

"Don't be naïve, Weiss; the Atlasian military doesn't just operate in Atlas."

That was true enough. "It seems hard to imagine any Atlasian specialist being able to find any information out about the White Fang."

"She's a faunus."

Weiss' eyebrows rose. "Really? You work with a faunus?"

"Faunus in the Atlasian military are rare, but they exist," Winter said.

"I know, but," Weiss hesitated for a moment. "I'd never imagined you working with one. How…how do you do it?"

Winter's tone softened a little. "They're not all White Fang."

"I know," Weiss replied, thinking of Sunset Shimmer for a moment. _A jerk, but a very human jerk all the same._ "What's she like? Your asset, I mean."

"Arrogant, cocksure, borderline insubordinate," Winter said. "But General Ironwood believes she's made of the right stuff…and I'm inclined to agree with him."

"You make her sound human."

"Sometimes a little too human," Winter said, with a faint tone of disapproval.

"She sounds like someone I know."

"A friend?"

"Certainly not," Weiss declared.

"An enemy, then?"

"No," Weiss said. "More like…a rival."

"Indeed," Winter said. "Weiss, are you…happy, where you are?"

Weiss was silent for a moment. Was she happy here? She wasn't unhappy, which made it a little better than home, but was she happy?

"I don't know," she said. "But I think…even if I'm not, that I could be."

* * *

I suppose you're feeling rather pleased with yourself.

Sunset smirked as she wrote back. You say that as though I haven't got anything to feel pleased about. Jaune got away with it, and I got him to actually commit to some hard work for a change. He's sparring with Pyrrha now, and afterwards we're going to hit the books for grimm studies. And, on top of that, I paid Cardin back a little bit, and my understanding with Weiss still holds. I'd say I'm doing pretty well.

Except that you haven't solved any of your underlying problems; you haven't even tried.

Sunset stared at the words as though they might reveal their meaning if she just watched them long enough. You'll have to unpack that for me a little bit. Is this a friendship thing?

Sunset could practically feel the frustration from Twilight Sparkle as she wrote back. You haven't reconciled with Cardin

Why would I want to reconcile with a guy like that?

Because you haven't addressed the reason why he's behaving this way, you've just made him angry. He's bound to try and retaliate against you somehow.

How? He only had one piece of leverage and he's just blown that. There's nothing he can do to Jaune now, and my agreement with Weiss

Which you put too much faith in.

You think she'll betray me?

No, I think that people aren't toy soldiers for you to move around in a sandpit, they have their own hopes and dreams and desires. You can't just say to Weiss 'keep Cardin off my back' and assume that it will happen. Cardin is an actor with his own will, and he might try to retaliate against the way you've treated him.

And if he does I will crush him.

There was a pause before Twilight's reply arrived. Where do you get your overconfidence?

I prefer to say that I have faith in myself.

Regardless, you seem to have an ample supply.

Sunset snorted. I suppose you're one of those mares who carries a ton of insecurities around with her and has to be reassured as to your own virtues by the people around you.

I do not have a ton of insecurities. I have one or two.

Sunset shook her head. I don't have the luxury of being insecure. I have to faith because no one else will. Without my confidence I'd be nothing.

I suppose I can see your point. Wouldn't it be easier just to mend fences with Cardin and not have to watch your back all the time?

Two people need to want to mend fences. I've seen no evidence that he does. Not every problem can be solved by the power of friendship, princess.

I disagree.

You would.

But you're proving me right yourself, you just don't realise it. Look at what you told me about Jaune, how guilty he felt, how he wants to improve for the sake of Pyrrha and Ruby, and how they're willing to go out of their way to help him achieve that goal. That's friendship in action, doing what blackmail and threats and anger and underhand tactics could never do. The bond they share has made them more than just three people thrown together by fate, it's made them a team. And as for you, you may deny it but I believe that you care about them just as I believe that you still care about Flash. I think you even like Weiss.

I do not like Weiss Schnee, you're being ridiculous. She doesn't like me either.

And if she did? If she held out a hand to you, would you reject it?

No.

Why not?

Because why give myself the aggravation?

Nobody wants to be alone, Sunset.

Is that your professional opinion?

That's the truth that I've observed. Tell me I'm wrong. Tell me that you don't care about your team-mates.

Sunset snorted. Easily done. All she had to do was write the words. All that she had to do was write 'I don't care' upon a piece of paper.

That was it. That was all she had to. She could write it down and nobody would ever know except Twilight Sparkle, the princess in another world. She could write it down and she didn't even have to mean it.

The pen shook a little in her hands.

She could write it down. She could write down that she didn't care. She didn't care about Ruby and her goofy smile, she didn't care about Jaune and his quixotic hopes, she didn't care about Pyrrha and the awesome skills she wished she didn't have. She didn't care about any of them.

But when she tried to write it down her hand revolted.

She couldn't write it down. She couldn't write down because…

Can't do it, can you?

I hate you, sometimes.

I see the good in you, Sunset; and I'm not going to stop until I've brought that good to the fore.


	20. Forever Fall

Forever Fall

"Nora!" Yang yelled. "Will you stop eating all of the Red Sap?"

There was a red ring all around Nora's mouth which, combined with the expression of mischievous innocence upon her face, made her look much younger than she really was. "Aw, come on! It's not like there isn't plenty to go around!"

She had a point there; it wasn't as if they were on a mission to drain the forest dry, only to collect one jar of sap per student. Considering that it wasn't exactly hard to extract the sap, Sunset had to wonder why they needed until four o'clock to complete the task.

Possibly because it was expected that someone would eat all the sap and make the job take much longer than it ought to.

Sunset had just finished filling her second jar of sap and hesitated, her eyes lingering upon the reddish-purple substance in the jar. Nora had consumed two whole jars of the stuff so far, so there had to be something pretty moreish about it, right? Gingerly, Sunset dipped her finger into the jar and pulled it out covered in sticky sap which she then licked off.

Sunset's face contorted with disgust. Too sweet! Far too sweet, sickly so! She spat on the ground at her feet, hacking up every trace of the saccaharine substance out of her mouth that she could. "How do you stand this stuff?"

"Red Sap is supposed to be used sparingly, as a natural sweetener accompanying certain sour dishes," Ren declared. He looked at Nora out of the side of his eyes. "You're not supposed to gulp it down by the jar-full."

Nora sniggered self-deprecatingly.

"It's also used in medicine to mask foul tastes," Ren went on.

Sunset's eyebrows rose a little. "You know a lot of things."

Ren shrugged. "Cooking is a hobby of mine."

"And the medicine thing?"

"It's always good to know when an ingredients has properties beyond the flavoursome."

"I guess," Sunset said, as she scooped just a litle more sap out of the hollow of the nearby tree and filled up her second jar, screwing on the lid tight. Although there was no requirement for the four first-year teams undertaking this field-trip to stick close together (only to stick by your team-mates, a rule that Cardin had broken by wandering off somewhere on his own) no one had seen any reason for the teams to split up and so the fifteen students - four teams sans Cardin - were all working in close proximity to one another. Well, sort of working anyway; Jaune had started having an allergic reaction to the sap so Sunset had set him to sparring with Pyrrha while she and Ruby filled up team SAPR's jars; meanwhile Nora was eating more sap than she was collecting, Russell was dozing under the shade of one particularly tall and broad tree, and Lyra - draped in patchwork cloak of many shades of red and wearing a broad hat with a peacock-feather plume - was sat on the stump of a fallen tree, playing a soft air upon her golden harp. With ample time to complete a simple task, with neither sight nor sound of the creatures of grimm that supposedly infested the unchanging forest, an air of gentle conviviality had settled over the extended group. Thoughts of peace soothed Sunset's soul, and the soft and almost melancholy music of the harp carried her thoughts away from northern Vale and homewards to Equestria. Equestria that had been so full of music, where joyous song had been ever-present in the world. Where it needed no extraordinary setting or occasion to open your mouth and start singing; quite the opposite in fact, it was more as though you went through life waiting for an excuse to break out into song. Sunset had forgotten how much she'd missed that, in this tuneless and quite often joyless world of Remnant. She'd forgotten how much she'd missed being able to walk down the street belting your heart out and not have people stare at you like you were nuts. She had forgotten...but the scoring of her soul by that harp had brought it flooding back to her.

"Sunset?" Ruby's voice, gentle and concerned, interrupted her thoughts. "Are you okay? You looked kinda spaced out there?"

Sunset smiled thinly. "I'm fine," she said. "I was just...the harp is making me a little homesick. Hey, Jaune!"

Jaune was sufficiently distracted by her sudden shouting of his name that Pyrrha knocked him onto his back with a blow from her shield.

"Sorry!" she said, as Dove sniggered. "You were doing very well up until you lost focus."

"My fault," Sunset muttered. She walked over. "I was going to tell you to take a break, I want to talk to you."

Jaune looked distinctly nervous as he picked himself up off the ground. "Okay."

Sunset shook her head. "Don't look at me like that, I'm not going to yell at you." _Honestly, you'd think that I was so awful, wouldn't you?_ She crouched down on the ground and began to pick up pebbles off the forest floor: one white, one brown, one grey and one a kind of pink.

"You want to talk about collecting rocks?" Ruby asked.

"I want to talk about team strategy," Sunset explained. She began to put her pebbles back down on the ground again. "The white stone is Jaune, the brown is Pyrrha, the sort of pink one is Ruby and the grey one is me. So, Jaune, we're under attack by creatures of grimm. What do we do?"

Jaune's expression became pensive for a moment. He picked up the pink and brown pebbles and put them in front. "I'd put Ruby and Pyrrha up front," he said, putting the two small stones down together before picking up the grey stone. "With you behind, using your semblance to back them up."

"And yourself?"

Jaune shrugged.

Sunset picked up the white stone, and put it down just in front of Sunset. "You can cover me, with all that aura that you've got," she said. "Although personally, I would put Ruby at the back," she picked up the pink stone and move it a distance behind the grey.

"Wha?" Ruby exclaimed in obvious disappointment.

"You've got a sniper rifle, you don't belong at the front," Sunset said.

"I've got a scythe too."

"Less useful than the sniper rifle, at least at first," Sunset replied.

"But that leaves Pyrrha all alone out there at the front," Jaune said.

"I can handle it," Pyrrha declared, with serene self-confidence. There was nothing boastful in the way that she said it, she was simply stating the facts as she saw them, and doing it as blandly as if she'd been answering a question in class.

Sunset drummed her fingers on her knee. She was inclined to agree with Pyrrha, that even alone she could handle whatever the grimm could dish out; but at the same time...she believed that Ruby served the team better by using her gun rather than her scythe, though it seemed that Ruby herself disagreed. "If it gets too hot," Sunset said. "Pyrrha can fall back on us, and we'll fight them together with Ruby in support."

"Why not send Ruby up to support Pyrrha?" Jaune asked.

"In a tournament fight where the tight quarters discourage reloading then yes, that's a good idea, but in a battle I think that the fire support is more useful."

Ruby shook her head. "Crescent Rose's scythe does more damage, when you combine it with my semblance-"

"Maybe," Sunset said, interrupting her. "But if you're close enough to hit the enemy then you're close enough to get hit." Personally, Sunset was somewhat of the opinion that Crescent Rose was oversized for close combat and that it was only Ruby's incredible speed that prevented most enemies from being able to get inside her guard. In Sunset's opinion, the ability to nail enemies from a distance was a far more valuable skill to have. Clearly Ruby didn't agree, and it was far from clear that Jaune or Pyrrha did either.

"What I'd really like to do," she continued. "Is to have all of us firing, with Jaune providing cover as necessary when someone needs to reload."

"You'd like to?" Jaune asked.

"I'm not sure that you're quite there yet," Sunset said. "Maybe when you've started to improve."

"A more cautious strategy than I expected from you," Pyrrha said.

"A winning strategy," Sunset countered.

"Perhaps," Pyrrha murmured. "But is it a glorious one?"

Sunset snorted. "When people talk about your four tournament victories how many of them talk about how you won each one?"

There was something wry, and just a little weary, about the smile that Pyrrha offered in response to that. "Well," she said. "Someone always cared that I won in what they called the right way; I take your point that in our battle with the grimm victory itself is the only measure, but...I thought that you would want the glory that came from winning well."

Sunset shrugged. "I disagree that there is such a thing. Frankly, if we save the world nobody's going to give a damn how we did it."

"Save the world?" Yang asked, wandering over to interrupt them. "Someone's ambitious."

Sunset stood up. "May as well aim high, right?"

"Depends on the consequences if you can't make it," Yang said.

Sunset, who understood exactly what she was saying between the lines, chuckled. "Relax, Yang. I'm not going to whisk Ruby off on a suicide mission. But, you know, it would be cool to win the war, wouldn't it? To be the ones who won the war?"

"I guess," Yang said, with a slight shrug. "If you think it can be won. It's not like there's a final boss out there you can beat and all the grim will just...turn to dust or something."

"Probably not," Sunset agreed. "But...I don't know, this is Pyrrha's dream really, she can explain it. Don't let Nora eat all of our sap, and I'll be back before Goodwitch."

"Where are you going?" Ruby asked.

"I've got an idea for a new move I want to try out, but I don't want anyone to see it before it's ready," Sunset said. She spread her arms out to encompass the vastness of the forest around them. "And, since we have all of this free space...like I said, I'll be back. Stay out of trouble, kids." She turned around and wandered off, leaving her team and all of the teams behind as she walked through the lush red forest. Crimson leaves, fallen from the trees above, crunched beneath her boots as she walked. Birds chirruped above her head. The forest was full of noise but none of them belonged to the creatures of grimm; even as the soothing music of Lyra's harp faded Forever Fall was full only of sweet airs that gave delight and hurted not.

Sunset walked until she could no longer see or hear her team-mates (but, since she had only walked straight ahead since leaving them, was confident in her ability to find them again by simply turning around and heading back the way that she had come; not to mention she still had her scroll) and in a clearing she stopped and got to work.

This was something that she had theorised, but had not yet had the chance to try out. Actually it was two concepts: first, the active use of aura and magic at the same time; and second the melding of the two together in a more powerful attack than magic alone could provide.

That was the reason she had gone off on her own to practice this; leaving aside the fact that she didn't want to reveal this combat secret - if it worked it would be her ace in the hole - to anyone else, but just as importantly she didn't want to invite too many questions about how her 'semblance'.

 _Okay. Let's do this. Magic in my right hand, aura in my left._

That would be the first step. Could she actively use the two at once, and more importantly do so without draining off too much of her protective aura? Sunset was under no illusions that her aura was anything like as powerful as her magic, nor that it existed in such great quantities. Even if this did work it would only be something she could use once or twice or else risk leaving herself defenceless.

Hopefully worth it, though; if she could get it to work.

Sunset closed her eyes, and held out her hands. _Magic in my right hand, aura in my left._

The first was easy, the second less so. Concentrating the magic was definitely the easy part, Sunset had been training to master magic since she was six years old, and it came to her call like an obedient hound. She could feel the energies running through her veins, drawn from the outside world and from herself in equal measure, flowing down her arm like blood, concentrating at her fingertips, swirling in the palm of her hand. When Sunset opened her eyes for a moment she saw that her lower right arm was surrounded by an ethereal green glow.

The second part was not so simple. Sunset wasn't trained in using aura to nearly the extent that she was practiced in magic. She hadn't enjoyed the benefit of one-to-one tuition from a master of aura manipulation; plus, she was trying to concentrate her aura in specific part of her body all the while trying to maintain her all-protecting cloak of aura protecting the rest of her body. It was like trying to pull on water, to take it between her fingers and yank it like a blanket. It was too porous between her metaphorical fingertips; it resisted her attempts to rouse it from a passive presence.

 _Come on!_

Sunset could feel it there, evenly spread across her entire body. Concentrating it in any one place would weaken that spread, but the prize...if she could only get it to obey her and move. Sunset scowled. Sweat began to bead upon her forehead from the effort of holding onto her magic while at the same time attempting to manipulate her aura but she _would_ do this. She was Sunset Shimmer, student of Celestia and archmage amongst unicorns, marked out for greatness with destiny driving her on. There was nothing to which she set her mind which she could not accomplish, and no part of herself over which she was not mistress. Her aura would obey her.

She began to feel a slight tingling in her left arm as, like a viscuous fluid rendered slow-moving by its thick consistency, some of her aura began to flow towards her hand.

Something flew past Sunset's head, missing her by an inch and shattering against the nearest tree.

Sunset opened her eyes to see that the offending object was a jar. A jar of red sap, a little bit of which had spattered onto her jacket and top.

Sunset stared at the stains for a moment. "I hope you realise this needs dry-cleaning," she yelled. "And someone's going to be paying for that but it won't be me." She looked around the woods, seeing nothing but the scarlet trees all around her. "Come out! Show yourself!"

* * *

Russell pulled down the zipper on his pants.

He needed to take a leak, which had involved him leaving all the others and walking off into the woods a little way because he really didn't want to see the way Weiss or Yang would react to him pulling out the little man in front of them _or_ Ruby…or doing so anywhere there was even the slightest chance that they could see it.

Now, however, he was well out of sight of all the girls, and so he found a convenient tree and claimed sweet relief.

He sighed as the heavy feeling in his bladder began to subside.

He stayed that way for a few moments, until he heard something nearby. Something like footsteps, not far away.

Russell looked around, zipping back up as he did so. He saw nothing, just the everred trees in all directions.

Yet there it was again, the sound of footsteps. Heavy footsteps at that.

"Hello?" Russell called. "Cardin, is that you?"

There was no sound. Cardin didn't answer, in fact nobody raised their voice in reply. There was only the rustling of the wind through the trees, blowing some of the crimson leaves into the air.

Nothing but the wind…and the sound of someone - or some _thing_ , Russell's mind suggested – stepping on those leaves.

"Who's there?" Russell demanded. He reached behind his back for the knives that he wore at his belt, even as he leaned around the tree upon which he had been relieving himself to see if there was anyone there.

There was no one.

Russell took a step back, and turned around – and came to face to face with the biggest ursa that he had ever seen, its aged bulk encrusted with armour plates and bony spikes protruding from its back.

Russell's scream of fright was interrupted by the ursa's roar as it swatted him to the ground with one powerful paw. Russell's cry of fright turned into a yell of pain as he hit the ground hard and rolled across the leafy floor of the forest.

He began to crawl away, scuttling backwards across the ground like a spider. The ursa pursued him, moving rapidly for its size and bulk, growling and snuffling as it came.

Russell yelled, howling to the sky as the ursa's jaw opened and it chomped down upon his boot. Even through his aura he felt the pain.

"Get off of me!" Russell yelled as he kicked at the ursa's mask with his free foot. "Get off you son of a-"

The ursa opened its mouth and roared into his face. Russell scrambled backwards and leapt to his feet, brandishing his daggers before him.

"Okay, you want a piece of me?" he shouted, setting both daggers to fire dust. "Let's dance!"

The ursa reared onto its hind legs. Russell leapt forward, raising both hands for an X-pattern dual slash across the demon's chest. He swung his daggers forward-

The roaring ursa batted him aside with another swing of its paw. Russell hit the ground face first, his daggers flying out of his grip to skid across the forest floor.

A soft moan escaped from Russell's lips as he lay on his belly. He tried to crawl away, before an immense force pressed down upon his back and pushed him forcibly into the ground.

 _Crap, crap, crap._ Russell gritted his teeth. He tried to force himself up onto his elbows but the weight of the ursa was just too much. He could feel his aura draining away as it pressed down upon him, growling in anticipation.

Russell looked up to see the grimm raising its other paw to slash downwards upon him.

A line of white glyphs erupted from out of the depths of the forest, making a beeline right for Russell and the ursa, and on those glyphs Flash Sentry, his armour gleaming in the afternoon sunlight, glided with all the speed and grace of an ice dancer straight for them.

He came to a halt, and raised his shield and braced his knees as the ursa struck home.

The grimm's paw struck the gleaming shield and was halted.

Flash didn't so much as flinch from the blow. He drew his sword and slashed at the ursa's face, then followed up by shooting it at point blank range.

The ursa roared in a mixture of pain and anger, recoiling away from the sudden pain. Another line of gleaming white glyphs appeared across the forest floor like some kind of exotic carpet, and over that carpet soared Weiss Schnee. Her expression was grim in its intensity, her white braid flew behind her and her narrow blade glowed brilliant white.

With a flourish of her sword, she conjured a glyph in front of Flash and Russell that barred the ursa's path as it sought to attack again. And then Weiss was before it, her silver-white attire seeming more brilliant contrasted with the lightless black of the ursa's demonic hide. She slashed, and to the strength of the blow was added a touch of ice dust. The ursa bellowed in pain as one paw became encased in ice.

Now she had its attention.

The ursa swiped, but Weiss blocked the blow with a glyph. She leapt, and conjured another glyph in mid air. She touched the floating glyph with one foot, turning in the air with a grace that Russell would have thought impossible if he hadn't seen it for himself; and then she kicked off. She flew towards the ursa, straight for the head, sword held before her like a spear.

The ursa opened its mouth to growl.

Weiss fired, and a plume of ice erupted from the tip of her myrtenaster to consume the ursa's bestial head.

Weiss landed on the ground as the creature's lifeless remains hit the ground, and began to dissolve into smoke.

Russell kind of expected her to bow for the audience, but she did not. Instead she simply gave him a Look. A look that he did not want to cross. "Get up."

"Yes, ma'am!" Russell yelped as he scrambled upright.

Weiss sighed. "What were you thinking? Weren't you listening when Professor Goodwitch said that this forest is full of grimm?"

Russell, sensing that his bathroom needs would probably not get a receptive hearing right now, stayed silent.

Weiss put one hand on her hip. "And where is Cardin?"

Russell shrugged. "I don't know, I haven't seen him."

"No one has," Flash said. "That's the problem."

Weiss shook her head. "And of course, that means we'll have to go look for him."

The sharp report of a gunshot echoed through the trees, scattering birds into the sky.

Flash frowned. "That sounds like Sunset's rifle."

* * *

Cardin stepped out from behind a tree and into Sunset's view.

"You," Sunset said in a voice that was half a growl and half a sigh of resignation.

Cardin's lip curled into a sneer. "You think you're so smart, don't you?"

"I am that smart, as it happens," Sunset replied. "While you...what was your plan with that jar anyway?"

"I know it was you who set me up over that rabbit!"

"And it never would have worked if you weren't the kind of person who would call her a rabbit," Sunset said.

Cardin bared his teeth as his fists clenched in frustration. "Who do you think you are to talk to me like that?" he snarled as he stomped towards her. "Just who do you think you are?"

"I'm Sunset Shimmer."

"You say that name as though it's supposed to mean something."

"Give it time," Sunset said. "Some day, being able to say you knew me will be the high water-mark of your loser life."

"Shut up!" Cardin roared as he continued to advance upon her.

Sunset raised her hands, and both of them glowed green with magic. "You really want to do this, Cardy-boy?"

"I said SHUT UP!" Cardin bellowed, brandishing his mace before him. "You think that you're so big, huh? You think that you're so great because you lucked out with your semblance? What did someone like you do to deserve power like that? Why should a gift so rare belong to you and not to me?" He was screaming so loudly now that he had to pant for breath in between sentences. "I am Cardin Winchester! Heir to the Winchester line! My grandfather fought at the right hand of the Last King! I am the heir to greatness! I deserve greatness!" he shook his head, and it almost looked as though there were tears in his blue eyes. "But you...you...faunus! You filthy animal! You...and Nikos...taking everything...all the things that I deserve! Why? WHY?"

Sunset retreated backwards a step, treading the leaves into the ground beneath her. _He's me,_ she realised, with a sickening abruptness. _I'm being yelled at by myself._ She didn't want to recognise herself in Cardin Winchester, in his broiling mass of frustrated entitlement and unfocused rage, she didn't want to see herself in a man like him, she didn't want to see her flaws reflected back at her in someone that she hated...but as he yelled and screamed...it was unavoidable.

 _"Who are you, anyway? You're just some stupid pegasus from the middle of nowhere! Who do you think you are to usurp my destiny away from me!"_ So she had yelled at Cadance, the Princess of Love, expelling her rage and frustration from her throat like mucus, spraying it upon the mare who had possessed the nerve to be all that Sunset had wished to be, to become what Sunset desired to become but could not attain. To take all the things that should have belonged to Sunset Shimmer. Now she was the target of the rage of someone else, and no amount of special pleading - but Cardin's just a lazy ass, I really _was_ that talented, that special, that deserving - could conceal the similarity.

This probably wasn't what Twilight Sparkle had in mind when she told Sunset to try understanding Cardin, and Sunset would be lying if she said that it was something she wanted to do, or that these feelings were ones that she wanted to admit, but as Cardin stood before her with his mace trembling in his hands...she could not deny it to herself.

"What gives you the right?" Cardin demanded. "Why you, and not me?"

 _Why you, and not me?_

 _Why her, Princess Celestia...why not me?_

 _When will I be ready?_

 _You're lying! You're wrong! I do have a destiny, and if you won't help me find it then I'll go out there and seize it myself._

Arrogant, entitled, envious, monstrously unpleasant. In Cardin's rage were all her sins remembered.

She hated him, and pitied him; as she hated and pitied herself.

Should she apologise? Had she wronged him? His failings were not of her making but...amongst all that she had done were wrongs to Cardin Winchester amongst them?

There were those from whom she ought to seek forgiveness - Flash chief amongst them, if her guess was right - but Cardin? Her pride revolted at the idea of bending before him, being what he was and having done what he had done.

 _And what of what I have done?_

"The fault is not in the world but in ourselves," she murmured.

Cardin blinked. "What?"

"I am not holding you back," Sunset said. "Pyrrha isn't holding me back, Ruby isn't holding me back, Cad- no one holds us back but us. If we have been deceived it's by our blindness to our natures. If we have been restrained it is by our unworthy hearts. But we can change, Cardin. Our hearts can mend, our souls can grow. I have to believe that we need not be these small and ugly things forever or else...destiny is not beyond us if only we can...there are lights that we can follow." Ruby, Pyrrha, even Jaune. They could show her the way and she could follow it. She would reform herself. She would not remain a faunus Cardin forever. She would not let the chip upon her shoulder crush her beneath it's weight, squeezing out all ambition and hope for advancement.

She would do better. She had to do better. Or she would end up confronting Pyrrha in the woods, trembling with rage as tears grew in her eyes, demanding a reckoning for the difference in their fortunes.

 _Forever Fall may be eternally unchanging, but we need not be the same._

 _I hope._

Judging by the way that his face twisted into a rictus of hostility, Cardin didn't find this as much cause for optimism as Sunset did. "What are you even talking about? Of course you're holding me back, this is all your fault! But I'm going to teach you a lesson you little pony!"

He raised his mace, but before he could do more he was interrupted by a series of growls from behind and around him as a pack of beowolves emerged into view a in a horse-shoe surrounding the young huntsman and huntress.

 _Negative emotions. Crap, we drew them right to us!_

Sunset gingerly, cautiously unslung Sol Invictus from where it hung on her shoulder. She moved slowly, counting the grimm around her as she did so. Twenty, including an old and truly vicious-looking alpha.

 _Crap._

Her finger found the trigger of the rifle.

Cardin let out an angry roar and struck the ground with his mace as though he would shatter it. The ground exploded in fire, scattering the autumn leaves into the air, in a trail racing away from the mace and towards one of the beowolves. The grimm leapt aside, and the others howled as they leapt for Cardin.

He was still howling out his anger as he struck one of them across the mask in mid-flight, killing it instantly. But then the rest of them were on him.

For a moment Cardin stood before the fury of the pack, his powerful form rising above the black mass the raged around him like a stormy sea; but then they bore him down and he was buried beneath the mass of grimm.

Sunset froze. A part of her wanted to run, to flee, to get out while she still could...to leave Cardin Winchester to die.

 _He wouldn't hesitate to leave me behind if our places were reversed._

 _Yeah, but he isn't Remnant's greatest hero, is he?_

If you wanted to be admired and respected across the world then at some point you had to do something vaguely admirable or respectable. If you wanted your glory to shine bright as the sun at noon then you had to do something by some measure glorious. To demand, as she had done, the rewards of greatness by virtue of her desire for them...how had that worked out for her so far?

She didn't have to like Cardin. She didn't like Cardin. She didn't have to understand him or befriend or anything like that. But she did have to save him.

 _Forever Fall may be unchanging, but we need not be._

 _Our hearts can change._

Sunset raised Sol Invictus to her shoulder.

BANG!

Birds scattered from the trees as Sunset fired, the crack of her rifle echoing through the forest. A beowolf was hurled backwards by her shot.

BANG!

Sunset advanced on the pack of beowolves tearing at Cardin, firing as she went. Three shots, four, more beowolves fell, five shots and another one bit the dust with its head blow off, six shots and she had wounded the alpha. And she had no more bullets left.

Sunset roared in anger as she charged, her bayonet gleaming. She didn't dare use her magic yet, not with the beowolves all so close to Cardin, all of her powerful attacks would hurt him too and he probably didn't have much aura left.

She did use a touch of telekinesis to pick up one young, immature beowolf and throw it off him and into the nearest tree, but for the rest she relied upon her weapons, twirling her rifle in her hands like a spear and wielding butt and bayonet in equal as she tore into the grimm like a fox amongst the chickens. Sunset impaled one, she clubbed another so hard that its mask cracked and the creature recoiled with a howl of pain, she planted herself athwart Cardin - he was still unconscious, but didn't really look up to contributing to his own defence at all - and as the beowolves gathered all around her Sunset slung her rifle over her shoulder and gathered her magic to her hands.

The beowolves advanced cautiously as a series of low growls rose up from every throat. Then, at a barked command from the alpha, they surged forward like a black and bone-mask tide against Sunset Shimmer.

Magic flew from her fingertips in miniature bolts of green energy, erupting in all directions, striking at her enemies all around her. Sunset turned this way and that, blasting at the beowolves who lunged at her. None of them struck her, they did not bear her down, but some of them got close enough to tear chunks off her aura before a blast from her magic sent them flying. She lost track of how many there were, how many she had killed and turned to dust; they were a mass, a broiling mass of darkness beyond counting snarling at her, lunging at her, always absorbing her attacks. She was killing them, she would swear to that, but there were so many and they kept on bringing her aura down.

And then the alpha beowolf lumbered forward. It's huge spikes of bleached bone rippled with the movement of its muscles. Three shots from Crescent Rose slammed into the alpha's chest, putting it on its back and putting it down. Pyrrha burst in amongst the beowolves like a light to burn away the darkness, her red hair and red sash both flying behind her as she slashed out with her shining sword. Jaune gave a shout that was both defiant and terrified as he cut down one beowolf in a succession of frantic blows. Flash's gunblade flared, while Weiss glided in upon a line of glyphs, conjuring ice from the tip of her sword.

The beowolves howling turned to cries of pain, but SAPR and WSTW cut them down all the same.

"I stayed back, like you said!" Ruby called, waving enthusiastically from her vantage point on a slight rise in the ground.

"We heard your gunshots, and came to investigate," Pyrrha explained.

"I'm glad you did," Sunset murmured. She cast her eyes over Pyrrha, Ruby, even Jaune; then she looked at Weiss, whose own gaze flickered between Sunset and the prone Cardin on his back on the ground. Sunset nodded. "Thank you."

Weiss' look was prim and her posture stern as she walked forward. "I should thank you for saving my team-mate," she said.

Sunset moved away a little, so that she wasn't straddling Cardin like a mother bear any more. "It...it was the right thing to do," she said quietly.

Weiss' eyes widened. It was only slight, but Sunset noticed it. "You..." she began, then stopped for a moment. Then, after another moment, she held out one hand. "You know, if you ever want to switch teams you'll be welcome."

Sunset's eyebrows rose. She grinned as she took Weiss' hand. "Nah, you ever get bored you can replace Jaune on my team."

"Hey!" Jaune cried.

Sunset laughed, and found that Weiss was laughing too, the both of them covering their mouths with their free hands as they squeezed their clasped hands with...a surprising affection, really.

She...she wasn't really a bad person, Weiss Schnee. In her own way she'd just paid Sunset a great compliment.

Sunset was still going to beat her in every class, of course.

She glanced at Flash as she let go of Weiss' hand. There were things she needed to say to him.

 _Not now. Not here._ Not, amongst other things, in front of Cardin, who was being helped to his feet by Russell. He looked shaken, and he didn't look at Sunset.

 _Dare I hope that there'll be no more trouble of out of him?_

"Thanks," Sunset repeated. "To all of you."

* * *

Four bullheads carried the four teams back to Beacon, their engines whining as they flew south over Forever Fall.

The Team SAPR bullhead was on the right flank of the diamond, and Sunset looked out of the open right hatch at the open sky and the scarlet forest passing rapidly beneath them. The wind danced through her hair, pushing it this way and that. She tightened her grip on the ceiling strap, just a little.

"So…listen," she said, having to raise her voice more than she would have liked in order to be heard above the sound of the bullhead's engines and the wind through the plane. She fell silent for a moment, watching the unchanging forest going by beneath her.

 _I am not Forever Fall. I can change…and I think I must._

She looked up, away from the forest and at her team. She had their attention at least. All three of them were looking at her with some degree of anxiety and curiosity mingled together.

"I'm sorry," she said.

Silence greeted this concession.

"Uh…okay," Jaune said.

"Sorry for what?" Ruby asked.

Sunset smiled wryly. "How about we say 'for everything' and spare me the humiliation of having to make a list?"

"That's…rather remarkably generous of you," Pyrrha said.

Sunset snorted. "I can't guarantee that it will be a permanent change, but I'll do my best."

"Uh…you are Sunset Shimmer, right?" Jaune said.

"Yes, of course I'm Sunset Shimmer."

"You weren't replaced by a shape-shifting grimm when you were alone in the forest so that you could infiltrate Beacon?"

Sunset looked at him. "I'm not a changeling, I just had…I suppose you could say that I had an epiphany."

Ruby's eyes widened. "You mean there really are shapeshifting grimm?"

"Not as far as I know."

"But you just called them changelings!"

 _Me and my big mouth._ "I just meant…if there were such a thing…which there aren't…then…changelings would be a good name for them. Don't you think? Look, I'm trying to apologise for being a jerk here, so can we get back to that?"

Ruby giggled. "You're changing back already."

Sunset was silent for a moment, then she let out a sound that was part sigh, part laugh. "You guys…I don't know what I'd do without you."

"In a good way?" Jaune asked.

"Yeah, pretty much," Sunset replied. "I guess…what I'm trying to say…ugh, I'm really not good at this…I don't want to end up like Cardin. I don't want to be a bitter failure hating and blaming everyone…although I've already kind of been that already, but…the point is…" _I should have asked Twilight for advice on how to do this properly._ "Pyrrha, I'm really sorry, the fact that you have what I want is not on you and I…I'm going to get there and be twice as famous as you are, ten times! But I don't need to-"

"I understand," Pyrrha said softly. "Thank you, Sunset. It's very much appreciated."

"Not as much as I appreciate the save," Sunset said. "Just…in future, if I'm becoming too much of a jerk…if I'm getting too awful…stop me."

"How?" Jaune asked.

Sunset shrugged. "I have faith in you to figure it out." She looked out the hatch again, if only for a moment. "Hey, what do you guys think about team photos?"

* * *

Cardin was unusually subdued tonight. Flash thought it was a marked improvement. Clearly almost dying had done wonders - at least for now - even if Flash couldn't tell what exactly was going through his head.

Whether it would translate into the harder work that Cardin and Russell clearly needed remained to be seen.

However, he was interrupted by any thoughts about his newly more bearable team-mate by the buzzing of his scroll. Somewhat to his surprise, when he opened it up he saw Sunset's face looking back at him.

"Hey, can we talk?"

Flash sat up a little straighter. "I...yeah, Sunset, sure."

"No, not like this," Sunset said. There was something not quite right about her, something about the way that she was standing and the tone of her voice. Was she upset? "Can we talk in person? Are you okay to come out?"

"Uh, yeah," Flash replied. "Where are you?"

"I'm outside your dorm," Sunset said.

Flash hesitated for a moment, glancing around the room. None of his team-mates reacted. In the case of Weiss in particular it seemed that she was studiedly not reacting to what she could clearly hear.

"I'll be right out," Flash said, leaping up off his bed and crossing the room in a couple of swift strides. He opened the door, stepped out into the dark corridor, and closed the door behind him.

Sunset was waiting in the shadows, the black of her leather jacket blending with the gloom of the corridor. She shifted a little to the side, so that a little light fell on her face. Her shoulders her hunched, her back was bent a little, she was gripping her left sleeve with her right hand; her expression was melancholy, her eyes lowered, her mouth sunk. It reminded him of when they had first met, when she had allowed him to see her vulnerable and lost and alone.

He'd thought that she had done away with that side of her a long time ago, but now it occurred to him that perhaps she had just hidden it away where he couldn't see it any more. "Sunset," he murmured. "Have you been crying all this time?"

He half-expected her to snap at him, to rebuke his presumption, to explode with offended pride at the very idea that he might know her feelings or that she had succumbed to such a weakness as perpetual sorrow. But she did not. She smiled, a sad smile like a flower gripped by a sudden frost, and said, "You didn't break up with me because I was a faunus, did you?"

Flash was silent for a moment, and for that moment he considered...no. The lie had gone on long enough, and by the sound of it she was wise to it now anyway. "No," he said. "There were people who told me that I should, sure, but that's not why I did it."

"You broke up with me because I was an ass," Sunset said. "It's okay, you can say it."

Flash's brow furrowed. "Something like that. I couldn't...I just couldn't take it any more."

"But you let me think you were a racist," Sunset murmured. "Why?"

Flash shrugged. "I didn't want to hurt you."

"You could have told me-"

"Would you have listened?"

Sunset took pause a while. She looked down at her feet, and scuffed the carpet with her boot. "Probably not. But...for whatever it might be worth right now I'm sorry. It can't have been easy...putting up with me sometimes."

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes, why does everyone find it so strange that I can take responsibility for my mistakes!"

Flash looked at her.

Sunset sighed. "Okay, perhaps it is a little unusual but yes, this is me, I'm fine, I haven't gotten sick or brainwashed or replaced or anything like that. I'm fine, I just...I realised something in that forest and I...I figured of all the people who I owe an apology to you must be pretty high on the list."

Flash leaned against the wall. "You don't owe me anything, Sunset."

Sunset stared at him. "That's kind of you, if you mean it. But then...you always were a really nice guy. The kind of guy who'd take pity on a lonely faunus with nowhere to go." She smiled, if only slightly. "Do you remember that bike you helped me put together in your garage?"

Flash chuckled. "Sure, I remember. You still have it?"

"Of course. You think I'd get rid of my baby."

"Is it still ugly as a grimm?"

"Hey, it's not ugly," Sunset replied. "It's asymmetrical, sure, but that doesn't make it hideous!" She pursed her lips together, and scuffed her foot some more. "It wasn't all bad, right? I mean, we had fun, yeah? We were good together...sometimes."

"Yeah," Flash said. "At first...it was a lot of fun."

"Do you think...is there a chance that...could you-"

"Sunset," Flash interrupted her before she could finish because he knew what she was going to ask and he thought...if she actually got to the end of the sentence then there was a chance - a very good chance - that he would say yes, because she was still gorgeous and right now she sounded so much better and she was reminding him of the way she'd been before when they were cool together and it tempting to believe that this time they could make it work. Tempting, but maybe not all that smart. People could change, but they couldn't change back to what they had been before. Sunset wasn't the same, and neither was he. "I don't want to say that it couldn't work...but right now...we're not there any more."

Sunset was still and silent, as though by some extraordinary semblance she had been turned to stone. "I...right. Of course."

Flash waited for the inevitable outburst, the explosion of anger, the vitriol. He waited for all that did not come, as Sunset remained still, and quiet.

"I can't promise that I'll always be nice, and kind, and...not me," Sunset said. "But I'm going to try, and I wanted you to know that." She hesitated. "I...I'll see you around, Flash, goodbye." She turned away.

"Sunset," Flash called, pulling her up short. "Good luck," he added. "I hope...I hope you find what you're looking for."

She glanced over her shoulder. "Thanks," she said, so softly it was almost a whisper. "You too."

* * *

Sunset's pen hovered over the page uncertainly. Where did she even start? How should she begin?

How could she say all that needed to be said?

And how would Celestia react to it?

The corridor was dark. Sunset sat outside the door of the SAPR dorm room, gripping a torch between her teeth and using it to illuminate the magical journal that sat open on her knees. Inside the dorm her team-mates were asleep, or at least she hoped they were. The reason she was sitting out here was to avoid disturbing them. The corridor was dark and silent, so quiet that Sunset could almost believe that she was alone in the world.

Twilight Sparkle was probably asleep too. The time difference between Vale and Atlas wasn't so great, and the two Canterlots were linked on the same time. So Twilight Sparkle was probably in bed, she didn't strike Sunset as much of a night-owl party animal; although she might be the stay up all night working type. Sunset hoped not. This would be easier without anyone replying to her. She wanted to get out all of the things that she had to say without interruption.

If Twilight had anything to say in response she could say it later, Sunset...Sunset wasn't sure that her resole would withstand continual interruptions.

Sunset, leaning back on the door, almost fell through it when it opened up behind her.

"Sunset?" Ruby asked from where she stood in the doorway, clad in her pyjamas and that grimm sleep mask (Sunset had been here for several years but she still couldn't get over the fact that the mortal enemies of humanity had merchandise). "Did you lock yourself out of the dorm?"

"No," Sunset said, keeping her voice soft. "I just have something I need to do before I turn in. What are you doing up?"

"I couldn't sleep," Ruby replied. She too was whispering for the benefit of Jaune and Pyrrha. "I've been thinking about something. Sunset...I'm glad you're out here. I need to talk to you."

Sunset's brow furrowed. It wasn't exactly a great time, but then it wouldn't exactly be a great start to her resolve to turn over a new leaf by telling Ruby to get lost, would it? "What about?"

Ruby shut the door behind her, and sunk to the corridor floor alongside Sunset. It was only then that Sunset saw that she was holding a little book in her hand: a little black booke with a white rose on the cover. "Do you know anything about this?"

Sunset tried to keep her expression neutral. "Why do you ask?"

"Because this was just left beside my bed one morning," Ruby said. "And I don't think...I didn't know what it was at first, except that maybe it had something to do with my Mom, and I looked inside and I saw that it was a diary and at first I was like 'woah!' and then I was like 'this is so cool and I need to tell Yang right away!' but then I was like 'but how did it get here?' and then I started to wonder if it was even real or if someone was playing a prank on me and I haven't even started to read it yet because I'm afraid that it'll all turn out to be not true and I can't even tell Yang in case-"

"It's real," Sunset said, because in the face of all that how could she lie? She hadn't considered - although with hindsight she probably should have done - that Ruby might have cause to wonder at the provenance of such an unexpected and miraculous gift. She was a little offended that Ruby might think Sunset had been playing a trick on her, because - as far as Sunset was concerned - she hadn't given Ruby any cause to think that she would sink so low...but she salved her injured pride by telling herself that Ruby hadn't accused her, just wondered if someone might have done such a thing. In any case, she deserved to know the answer. It was clear that she needed the answer. "It's real," she repeated. "I can attest to that. And, yeah, I'm the one who left it beside your bed."

If Ruby's eyes went any wider than they would consume her entire face. Her mouth hung open, contorting into various shapes as it framed words that did not come. "How?"

"You know Jaune's transcripts," Sunset said. "The ones that got lost? Yeah, they got lost because I...trespassed slightly in the archives and removed them." That reminded her, she should probably burn those or something. She shouldn't keep them in case they tempted her to bad habits. "And then...while I was there I decided to look at my records and while I was looking I found your mother's box and...that was in there. I haven't looked at it. Well, I stopped as soon as I realised what it was. I don't know anything."

Ruby stared up at her for a moment, and then a moment longer. And the she flung her arms around Sunset's neck and squeezed her tight into a hug.

"Thank you," she whispered into one of Sunset's ears.

Sunset was stiff, startled into statuesque rigidity. People didn't hug Sunset Shimmer. She hadn't gotten a hug in...sweet Celestia, was Celestia herself the last person to embrace her like this? No, that couldn't be right, Flash...no, when she was going out with Flash she hadn't been much of hugging type; she'd preferred making out. Had she ever felt the warmth of his arms around her? She thought she must have done but she couldn't quite recall. Regardless, it had been a long time since anyone embraced her the way that Ruby was doing now.

And to be honest, it wasn't half bad.

Slowly, gently, gingerly, Sunset put one arm around Ruby's shoulder. "It was nothing, really. I was just passing through."

Ruby let her go. "Mom," she murmured. "There's so much that I don't know, and Dad won't tell me and nor will Uncle Qrow and I know that they're not telling me stuff! And I think...I think that Beacon might have something to do with it, but I don't know what I just...thank you."

"I hope you find the answers," Sunset said. "But, even if you don't...I hope that you know your mom a little better by the time you're through." Sunset hadn't known her mother either; she'd died bringing Sunset into the world. Princess Celestia had been the closest that Sunset had ever known to...she pushed that thought aside, that confusion was a large part of how she'd ended up this way in the first place. If her mother had left Sunset some way of knowing her, even after she was gone, then maybe...

She hoped that Ruby got something out of it.

A smile was still playing across Ruby's face as she looked at the journal open upon Sunset's knees. "What about you? What's up?"

"I...I'm trying to write...I suppose you might call it a letter."

"Who to?"

"Someone from back home," Sunset said. "And...my old teacher, kind of. We didn't...part on the best of terms, but now...I'd like to hear from her again, but I don't know if..."

"You were close?" Ruby said.

Sunset nodded. "She pretty much raised me. She did raise me. And then I threw it all back in her face."

"So?" Ruby asked. "It doesn't mean that she stopped loving you."

"That's the thing," Sunset said. "I don't know if she ever did love me or if she just...I don't know."

"But you loved her, right?"

Sunset hesitated before she nodded. "Yeah. The difference is that she deserved to be loved."

"Sometimes, giving other people a chance means giving yourself a chance as well," Ruby said. "You're not a bad person, Sunset; and although I don't know this teacher of yours, if you cared about her so much then she can't be a bad person either. So why don't you just give it a try, because if you don't then all that you'll do is regret it."

Sunset looked down at her. "You're very wise for such a little kid."

Ruby beamed. She climbed to her feet. "Goodnight, Sunset."

"Goodnight, Ruby," Sunset said, leaning forward a little as Ruby opened the door and walked back into the dorm room.

When the door shut again, Sunset began to scribble across the journal page.

Dear Princess Twilight

You have been telling me that I should try and understand Cardin Winchester. I didn't want to. I still don't want to. But unfortunately for me I do understand him a little better now, and in understanding him I better understand myself.

It sucks. Mostly because I do.

Sunset paused for a moment, pondering how she could best proceed.

I don't know what to do now. I don't want to continue being what I am but I'm not sure that I know how to be anything else. I'm worried that I can't be anything else. I feel like I might need your help. You said yourself that's what you do, right? You help people like me?

What do I do? How do I do it?

How do I become better than I am?

All my life I've wanted power. I've wanted glory. I wanted to ascend, to shine, to be admired and adored. I wanted to be the hero. I still want that. I still want all those things. But I also want

I also always wanted

I want to be

I don't know if I can be

I don't know if I deserve to be

Are you really going to make me say it?

I need help.

I need your help.

Twilight Sparkle, will you do me a favour?

Will you tell Celestia

Sunset stopped, wondering just what she could or felt comfortable with asking Twilight to tell Celestia

Will you please tell Celestia how sorry I am?

* * *

 _Author's Note: And with this chapter the second arc of the story comes to an end. The Stray/Blake arc will be soon, but first I want to spend a couple of chapters focussing on Ruby (who has been neglected so far) and some of the other non-Sunset stuff that I wanted to do with this story._


	21. The Voice of Summer

The Voice of Summer

Dear Diary,

I can't believe I finally made it to Beacon! After so long dreaming and waiting I've finally made it. This is my dream come true.

Yang chuckled. "Looks like we weren't the only ones to really want to come here, huh?"

The two sisters sat together on one of the benches out in the courtyard, where they could be alone without having to secrest- without having to preclude – without having to shut themselves up in a dark room somewhere (Sunset had said some kind of long word that Pyrrha seemed to understand, but Ruby couldn't remember what it was).

The day was crisp, a little warm for a spring day; pleasant weather to be out in the courtyard with the wind rustling through the trees.

Ruby barely heard them. She barely felt the wind blowing through her hair. Her attention, as her gaze, was fixed upon the book open in her lap.

She smiled, a little sadly. "Yeah, I guess not."

Yang leaned down a little, so that they were eye to eye, and gave Ruby a squeeze on the shoulder. "You okay?"

"I…" Ruby hesitated. "I wish that she'd been able to tell us in person, you know? I wish that she'd been able to tell us what a great time she'd had at Beacon and that we'd really love it there and maybe not to worry too much about Professor Port or that…I wish she was here."

Yang frowned. "Yeah. You and me both, Rubes. Listen…if you don't want to-"

"No," Ruby said firmly. "No, I want to read this. I want to hear what Mom has to say."

Yang looked at her for a moment, and then she nodded. "Okay."

Ruby looked back down at the diary.

Nothing much has happened yet, because I only arrived here today, but all the same: I finally made it to Beacon!

I know that Dad didn't see the point in me coming here. He thinks that I can already fight grimm perfectly well on my own, so why do I need to come to a school to spend four years learning what I already know.

"Grandpa has a point, I guess," Yang said. "I mean…it's not even the end of first semester yet and we can already kill grimm. You wonder what the rest of the four years will be like."

I told Dad that I can't just rely on my eyes, and I suppose he must have accepted that or he wouldn't have let me come here in the first place.

"Her eyes," Ruby asked, reading and re-reading that sentence over and over again as though, if she read it often enough, the words on the page in front of her would change into something that she could actually understand. "What does that mean? Eyes means…eyes, right?"

"I…think so," Yang said. She put her arms behind her head. "Does Dad ever talk about Mom's semblance?"

"No," Ruby said. "At least, not that I remember."

"Maybe her semblance was to shoot lasers out of her eyes," Yang suggested. She grinned. "Or maybe she could kill grimm just by looking at them!"

Ruby giggled.

Yang laughed a little as well. "Or maybe she'll explain later if we keep going."

"Right," Ruby said, and read on.

What I didn't tell my father was that that's not the real reason I want to come here. Don't get me wrong, I want to fight the grimm. I want to show everyone that we're more than just cattle in a cage. I believe that if we work together we can save the world, and take it back from all the monsters.

But that's not why I'm here. If I wanted to start fighting now I could. Dad would probably be happier that way. Maybe other people would too.

I'm ready to fight. I'm ready to die if that's what it takes. But I want to be just a normal girl for a few years, to have friends and fun and be more than just a warrior.

This makes me sound so selfish, not to mention that I must sound as though I'm not taking this seriously. If someone reads this and thinks that I didn't deserve my place at Beacon then so be it; you're wrong, I really want to be here.

I just want to live for a few years for myself as well.

"No, Mom, that's not selfish at all," Ruby murmured. For a moment she thought of Pyrrha, the champion fighter who had never been…Ruby couldn't exactly say what it was that she had never been; she'd say that Pyrrha had never been a person but if that were true then what was she? It didn't really matter, the point was that reading Mom's words reminded her of her friend a little bit.

 _Mom got to live…for a while. Maybe Pyrrha will too._

She kept reading.

I have to admit that I got a little lost getting off the airship. But it did mean that I met this really cute boy named Taiyang who helped me find the way to the amphitheatre. He's kind of a goofball, but I like him, he's a lot of fun. I'm not sure how good he is in a fight, but he got in here so I suppose he can't be that bad.

"Is it me, or does it sound as though Mom had a crush on Dad from the moment they met?" Ruby asked, eagerness and amusement blending in her voice.

Yang looked a little…Ruby couldn't exactly say what Yang looked like, but not as enthusiastic as Ruby felt. She looked a little troubled, though Ruby couldn't work out what was wrong. "Yeah," she said softly. "Yeah, it does."

Ruby tried to imagine her father was an adorable cute goofball…strangely enough her imagining ended up looking a lot like Jaune.

Less strangely, she could imagine her Mom having a crush on a guy like that – and not just because she'd gone on to marry him; someone cute and funny and kind…

"Ruby?"

"Huh?"

"You spaced out for a second there."

Ruby laughed. "I, uh, I was just trying to imagine Dad the way that Mom just wrote about him."

"I can imagine it."

"Really?"

"Yup."

After he said a few words to everyone, Professor Ozpin took me aside. He's been so nice to me, and not just because I wouldn't be able to come here without his support. He's so considerate, he made sure that I was okay and that I wasn't feeling overwhelmed. Maybe it is because of my eyes a little, but it's still nice.

"Ugh, the eyes again," Ruby said with a scowl. "Come on, Mom, explain!"

Yang laughed. "She probably wasn't expecting this to be read by anyone who didn't know." Her face fell. "She probably thought she'd explain it herself."

"It must have been something really cool if Professor Ozpin was interested in it, right?" Ruby asked. "Maybe he could tell us."

"I'm not sure that's such a good idea," Yang said. "He might want to know where you got the diary from."

"Oh, right," Ruby murmured. She didn't want to get Sunset and Jaune into trouble. "It is still only the second page, so maybe it comes up later?"

"We can hope."

Tomorrow is the Initiation, the final taste before my time here really begins. I can't wait, but at the same time I'm kind of nervous because I don't really know a lot about how to do people at all. Coming from outside the Kingdoms

"Mom grew up outside the Kingdoms?" Yang said. "Wow, that's…no wonder she was a badass even before she got to Beacon."

I don't really know how to get along with other people. But that's why I want to be here, so I can finally do all that stuff. And then I can go back to fighting.

So sure, I'm nervous. But at the same time I can't wait to meet my new team-mates.

And that was the end for that day, and that page.

"Do you want to read the next day?" Yang asked.

"Yeah, you?"

"Let's do it."

Ruby flipped over the page.

Dear Diary,

I have a team! I'm the team leader!

Okay, so I should probably go back just a little bit.

Like I told you yesterday, I was as nervous as I was excited about the initiation today but looking back it was really cool. Professor Ozpin fired us all off a cliff and into the Emerald Forest, how cool is that?

Yang snorted. "She really was a supermom, wasn't she?"

The rules were that the first person we made eye-contact with would be our partner for the next four years. Luckily, the first person I made eye-contact with was that cute boy I met yesterday, Taiyang. Turns out he really does no how to fight. He doesn't use weapons, but he punched a beowolf's head clean off in one hit! I've never seen anything like it. He must have some kind of strength semblance, but there wasn't time for him to really explain it.

Then we ran into these two siblings named Raven and Qrow Branwen.

"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby cried. "Huh, I wonder why we've never met…Aunt Raven? No one ever even talks about her. Do you think…do you think she died, like Mom? Is that why they don't mention it?"

Yang's expression had taken a turn for the down once again. "Maybe," she said. "There are just some things that Dad doesn't like to talk about, and the same probably goes for Uncle Qrow too."

Qrow is really cool; we'd only met up for five minutes and he was already flirting with me. He was just kidding, though, he's way out of my league.

Besides, I kind of prefer guys who are honest and don't put up a big front. Qrow's cool, but it's like he's trying a little too hard to be something he's not.

Raven, on the other hand, is kind of aloof. She doesn't say much, not even to Qrow, but she says even less to anyone else. I wonder if she's lonely?

One thing's for sure, they both really know how to fight. Watching them was incredibly, they're so well-coordinated that you wouldn't believe it. Together we're going to be an awesome team, I can feel it!

Oh, yeah, teams. I should probably go back to that. So, after Tai and I met up we had to go to these ruins. It was on the way that we met Qrow and Raven, who had partnered up with each other. So we got to the ruins and we find these chess pieces, and Qrow and I each took a white knight. Then we had to get out of the forest again and we got attacked by some ursas.

This is the best part. Up until now I hadn't been using my eyes, only my Solstice Rose; but there were just so many grimm and we were already so tired that I had to use my eyes on them.

It tired me out. The guys had to carry me the rest of the way out of the forest, I was so exhausted my body just wouldn't move at all. I was worried. I was worried that they were going to think that I was weak, or else that once they found out about my eyes they'd stop treating me like I was a normal person; I was afraid that I'd stop being Summer Rose and become a Silver-Eyed Warrior to them.

"A silver-eyed warrior," Ruby whispered. "What's that?"

"I don't know," Yang said. "A…warrior with silver eyes?"

"But I've got silver eyes and I never did anything special with them," Ruby said.

"Yet," Yang said.

Ruby started to shake her head, and then paused. "He mentioned it."

"Huh?"

"Professor Ozpin," Ruby explained. "When he came to see me after I fought Torchwick, he noticed my eyes."

 _You have silver eyes._

The two sisters looked at each other for a minute, neither one speaking. Professor Ozpin had taken an interest in Mom on account of her eyes, and now he had let Ruby into Beacon too, and pointed out that she, too(?) had silver eyes.

That couldn't just be a coincidence, could it?

"What does it mean?" Ruby asked.

"I don't know," Yang replied. "Let's…let's just keep going, okay?

But everyone was really cool about it, even Raven. They were impressed, sure, but none of them treated me any differently.

Of course I hardly knew them before they found out about this, I suppose what I'm trying to say is that they're treating me like a person (and Professor Ozpin says that using my eyes will get less tiring with training and practice, so that's good).

Together we're Team STRQ (pronounce Stark, although Qrow won't stop saying he would preferred to pronounce it Strike) and I'm the leader. So, yeah, that happened.

I'm back to being nervous and excited at the same time. Excited, obviously, because this is so cool and I feel like I have friends for the first time ever and everything's going to be great, but nervous too.

Nervous because I'm responsible for Tai and Raven and Qrow, and if anything happens to them then that's on me.

Still, I have three team-mates now and I think, I really believe, that they could become three friends. My first three friends.

And if we work together, I'm sure that everything is going to be okay.

"That seems like a good place to call it a day," Yang said, gently but firmly shutting the book.

"What?" Ruby asked. "Come on, Yang, we have plenty of time left to keep going."

"Maybe, but why rush?" Yang asked. "There's plenty of time to read through everything. Savour it, you know."

"No," Ruby replied. "Don't you know what happens next, or about the Silver Eyed Warriors? What Mom just described, it doesn't seem like a semblance to me. Does it seem like it to you?"

"I've never heard of a semblance that can tired you out when you use it once, but what else could it be?" Yang said. "If it isn't a semblance, then what is it?"

"I don't know, that's why we have to keep going!"

"Which we will, later." Yang took a deep breath. "I just think that the last thing Mom would want is for you to neglect your own life chasing answers about her." She smiled. "Don't get so wrapped up in reading about Mom's time at Beacon that you forget that you're at Beacon, understand?"

"I guess," Ruby murmured. "Hey, Yang?"

"Yeah?"

"Is it okay if I talk to my team about this?" Ruby asked. "I mean, Sunset and Pyrrha are really smart, maybe they can…I don't know…work something out?"

Yang was silent for a moment. "If…if you want to tell them, then that's your choice. I can't tell you what to do any more."

Ruby bowed her head. "Yang?"

"Yeah, sis?"

"If Mom was here, do you think she'd be proud?"

"No, I don't think she'd be proud," Yang said. "I know it."


	22. The Hero with Silver Eyes

The Hero with Silver Eyes

Sunset leaned forwards, resting her elbows on her knees. "A silver-eyed warrior? That's what you're mother called herself?"

"Yes," Ruby said. "She talked about her eyes a couple of times without explaining why, and then she called herself Silver-Eyed Warrior, and she said that, during her initiation, she…she did something with her eyes and it killed a whole bunch of grimm."

"Could it be a semblance," Pyrrha suggested. "A particularly powerful one, projected through the eyes."

Ruby frowned. "Yang and I thought that as well, but it doesn't seem that way. I mean, what kind of semblance tires you out if you use it just once? What kind of semblance gives you a name like Silver-Eyed warrior?" She hesitated. "I'm not crazy, right? There's something more to it? You agree with me, don't you?"

She wanted them to believe her. She wanted her team-mates, her friends to agree with her that there was something more to it than just a semblance, that there were things that it being a semblance couldn't explain.

She wanted them to believe her so that she could believe it herself.

The four members of team SAPR sat in their dorm room. Ruby was sitting on her bed, not far from the carving that Mom and Dad and their old team had made in the wall, and the markings that her team had made just above it. Sunset and Jaune were sat on Pyrrha's bed next to hers, while Pyrrha herself had taken a chair.

All their eyes were fixed on Ruby.

Sunset clenched and unclenched her fists. "Doesn't your mother's journal tell you anything more?"

Ruby hesitated. "Well…we've only read the first two entries."

"You could read on."

Ruby shook her head. "Not without Yang, it wouldn't be right. And Yang…Yang wants to take it slow."

"But you want answers?"

Ruby nodded.

"Then keep reading, don't tell her, and act surprised when you go through it with her the second time."

"Sunset!" Ruby exclaimed.

"What?"

"Not cool!"

"I think that Ruby is hoping for some advice that doesn't involve lying to her sister," Pyrrha pointed out gently. She smiled at Ruby, with equal gentleness and a measure of encouragement that Ruby needed.

Sunset rolled her eyes. "I see. You want to do this the hard way."

"I am right, aren't I?" Ruby asked. "This sounds like more than just a semblance."

"It reminds me of something," Pyrrha murmured. She put her fingers to her chin and looked away, her brow furrowing in thought. "I just can't quite remember where."

"You've got a point that most semblances don't get you a proper noun," Sunset mused. "Not to mention the fact that semblances are unique, so there wouldn't be a plural anyway."

"Aren't some semblances hereditary?" Jaune asked. "I mean, Weiss-"

Sunset leaned just a little away from Jaune so that she could look at him sideways a little more effectively. "How do you know that?"

"I know things," Jaune replied, a little defensively.

"I mean, you're right, the Schnees have a hereditary semblance," Sunset said. "But even so, we don't go around calling them Glyph Warriors."

"The way that Mom described it, the way that she talked about it, it sounded like it was something people would know," Ruby said. "But I've never heard of it."

"Your mom did grow up outside the kingdoms," Jaune said. "She might not have had the best idea of what people in Vale would or wouldn't know."

"Maybe, I guess."

"From what you've described, it sounds as though she was worried that she would be treated differently from others, put upon a pedestal, once her possession of…whatever it was, was discovered," Pyrrha said. "However, that could be…where do I remember that term?"

"Silver-eyed warriors," Sunset murmured. "I don't think I've ever heard of that."

"I have," Jaune volunteered. "In Broadsword the, well, Broadswords are also called Silver-eyed warriors by regular folks."

"Sure, but somehow I doubt that Ruby's mom was infected with grimm flesh to turn her into a half-human killing machine who just happened to have silver eyes," Sunset declared. "For one thing, Ruby has silver eyes and no grimm flesh needed."

"I'm saying that Broadsword is accurate, but I was about to add that a lot of the stuff in there was inspired by real folklore and how do you know that?"

"Huh?"

"How do you know that broadswords are created by forcing your girls to ingest grimm flesh so they become only half-human?"

Sunset blinked, and a faint blush rose to her cheeks. "I, um, I may have…looked at your comic collection after I stole it. You've got good taste."

"Well, maybe now that you're all nice and stuff you could give those back!"

"I will…when I've finished reading them."

Pyrrha cleared her throat. "Um, excuse me," she gestured towards Ruby.

"Right, sorry," Jaune said; he looked shamefacedly down at the floor.

"Wait," Pyrrha said. "That's it."

Jaune looked up. "That's what?"

"Folklore," Pyrrha said. "That's where I remember hearing about silver eyes." She twisted around in her chair, rocking it back on its hind legs as she reached for one of the books on her shelf. She grabbed an old volume, well cared for but starting to show it's age nonetheless. As Pyrrha opened the book, and just before she put it down on her lap, Ruby caught a look at the cover – an illustration of a princess in a beautiful gown – and a look at the title: _Fairy Tales for All Seasons_.

"Never took you for a fan of fairy stories," Sunset observed.

"I've had this book since I was a child," Pyrrha replied. She didn't look up, she kept leafing through the pages of the book. She was silent for a moment or two, her eyes scanning the pages as she flicked from one to the other. "Here we are: the story of the Hero with Silver Eyes." She glanced up at them. "Do you mind if I read it to you? It's probably better than me trying to summarise it."

Sunset shrugged. Jaune looked at Ruby. Ruby nodded. "Sure, go ahead Pyrrha."

"Very well," Pyrrha said. She cleared her throat softly, paused, and then began. "Once upon a time, in a kingdom now forgotten, there lived an old man who had three sons. The eldest son was a strong young man, irresistible in a contest of strength or speed; the second son was very clever, no one could match him in a contest of wits; the youngest son did not seem particularly strong, nor particularly wise, but he had a good and humble heart, and he was always ready to help any soul in need. He had also been blessed at birth with eyes of silver, and many remarked on how unusual this was, and it was even said by some that this young man had been marked by fate to do great things.

"His brothers, hearing this, were consumed with jealousy at the very idea that their humble brother might outshine them. And so they laughed at him, and mocked the idea that he would ever achieve anything of note, and while they amused themselves they forced their brother to clean and cook and tend their house for them."

"They sound like my sisters," Jaune said.

"They sound like me," Sunset muttered.

Ruby tried to imagine Yang treating her that way, forcing Ruby to become her servant. _Ruby! Wash my dress, I'm going clubbing tonight!_ Nah, she just couldn't see it.

"Meanwhile," Pyrrha continued. "A dragon had come to the kingdom, and begun to lay waste to everything that lay in its path. It burned whole villages, devoured whole farms worth of livestock, and the people cried out to their king for protection; but all the King's knights could not stand before the dragon and its wrath.

Desperate, the King sent out word throughout his realm: that whomsoever should kill the dragon would receive not only the hand in marriage of his daughter, his only…but that they should succeed him as king when his time came."

"Kind of sexist to assume the dragonslayer would be a man," Sunset remarked.

"It's a fairy tale," Pyrrha replied.

Sunset muttered something that sounded a little bit like 'where I come from' but didn't say anything loud enough for Ruby to really hear her properly.

Pyrrha went on. "When the three brothers heard this news, they were filled with excitement. The eldest of them declared that he would surely be the one to slay the dragon, and win both the princess and the kingdom for himself. And so his father sold all that he had to buy a horse and armour for his son, who set out full of pride, confident in his strength and his skill.

"The eldest son rode away, passing through a dark forest, along a winding trail up a steep mountainside, until he came to a deep, dark cave. And in that cave, he met the dragon.

"'So,' the dragon said. 'You have come to kill me? What makes you think you will succeed where all others have failed?'

"'I will surely triumph,' replied the eldest son. 'For you will not withstand my strength.'

"'Is that so?' said the dragon, and he smiled before he attacked. Though the eldest son was strong and swift, and thought the battle between them was long and hard, the first brother was no match for the power and ferocity of the dragon. The beast devoured him, and turned his remains to ashes."

"I thought this was a kids' book," Sunset said.

Ruby shushed her.

"The second brother set out next," Pyrrha said. "Declaring that he needed neither armour nor weapons, for he was not such a fool as his brother was. He would defeat the dragon in a contest of wits, where he was unmatched. His father sold what little he had left to buy a horse for his son, who promised that he would repay him tenfold once he had defeated the monstrous dragon. And so the second son rode through the dark forest, and along the winding trail that led up the steep mountainside, until he came to that deep, dark cave. And in that cave, he met the dragon.

"'So," the dragon said. 'You have come to kill me? What makes you think you will succeed where all others have failed?'

"'I will surely triumph,' replied the second son. 'For I challenge you to a match of riddles, and when I win I will claim your head as my prize.'

"The dragon smiled. 'Very well,' he said. 'But if I win, I will gobble you up instead.'

"And the second son agreed, for he was confident that no mere beast could get the better of him. But, though the second son was very clever, the dragon was cleverer still, and when the beast won the riddle game he devoured the second son, and turned his remains to ashes.

"The father of the three sons fell into despair, for he had lost not only his two precious sons, but also all that he owned providing for their doomed ventures. And so, when the youngest son declared that now he would seek out the dragon, his father begged him not to go. But the third brother was determined. He could no longer stand by while people were killed and forced from their homes. He had to do something, no matter the risk.

"And so, with only a simple wooden staff to lean on, and a faithful dog to keep him company along the road, the third son walked through the dark forest, and along the winding trail up the steep mountainside until he came to a deep, dark cave. And in that cave he found the dragon.

"'So," the dragon said. 'You have come to kill me? What makes you think you will succeed where all others have failed?'

"'I have no weapons,' the third son said. 'I am neither strong nor wise. But my heart is pure and my intent is noble, and my virtue will be my sword and armour against your evil.'

"When he heard this the dragon laughed, for he did not believe that a simple soul could stand before his strength, his malice, his will to destroy and to devour all things. And so he leapt upon the young man, and opened his mouth to swallow him whole. But, as the dragon attacked, the third son's silver eyes began to glow brightly. Ever brighter they glowed, until they outshone the moon itself, and the light from his silver eyes could be seen all across the unhappy kingdom. The dragon screamed, and for the first time it knew fear, but it was too late.

"When the light from the young man's eyes died down, the dragon had been turned to stone.

"The King rejoiced that the threat to his kingdom had been ended, but the third brother refused any reward, saying that he had done only what was right and just, for which he deserved no especial praise or honour. He asked only that his aged father be cared for, having lost all that he had.

"But the King recognised that here was a young man of especial promise, not only powerful but good and brave. He insisted that he should marry the princess, and take his place at court as heir to the throne. The princess was beautiful and kind, and the young man was so good-natured that they were very happy together, and with the power of his eyes the young man, who became known throughout the kingdom as the Hero with Silver Eyes, protected his realm from all evils for as long as he lived." Pyrrha shut the book, to indicate that the story was over.

"So, Ruby's mom could turn grimm into stone?" Jaune asked.

"Not necessarily," Pyrrha said. "It's a nice story, but it's still just a fairy-tale."

"But something's real," Ruby said. "My mom talks about it, a silver-eyed warrior? You agreed that it meant something."

"Some fairytales have a basis in fact," Sunset said softly. "Maybe…maybe there's something to it."

The four of them were silent for a moment.

It was Jaune who said what Ruby was thinking, and probably what Sunset and Pyrrha were thinking as well. "Do you think that Ruby could do that to? I mean you've got silver eyes."

Ruby didn't say anything. She wasn't sure what she could possibly say in response to that. If her mom could do it, and it really did have something do with silver eyes, then maybe…she imagined herself briefly standing in front of a whole army of grimm, turning them to stone just by looking at them, while Yang and Pyrrha and Sunset and Jaune and Dad and Uncle Qrow and everybody just stood back and watched in awe. That would be pretty awesome. But then…

 _If Mom was that awesome, then why didn't she come home?_

Ruby looked around the room. Jaune looked as overwhelmed as Ruby felt right about now, Pyrrha was looking at Ruby as though she was more concerned with her than with anything to do with silver eyed warriors or the like, and Sunset…Sunset looked intrigued, and a little bit greedy to. To be honest, there was a look in Sunset's eyes that kind of put Ruby in mind of the dragon in Pyrrha's story, smiling at the arrogance of the two brothers who thought they would kill it.

"Sunset?" Ruby asked.

Sunset's gaze flickered up to meet Ruby's eyes. Ruby's silver eyes.

 _You have silver eyes._

There had to be something in it. Professor Ozpin had mentioned her eyes specifically, the same way that he'd taken an interest in Mom. It occurred to Ruby that maybe Professor Ozpin had left the diary for Sunset to find, trusting that they would follow the clues to solve the mystery. She couldn't exactly why he would do such a thing, but it made a kind of sense in her head. Although she didn't mention it out loud for fear that it would stop making so much sense once she actually told someone about it.

"How far," Sunset said, her voice surprisingly mild. "Do you want to take this?"

"I want to find out the truth about my Mom," Ruby replied.

"That's not what I asked," Sunset replied. "If we find out what it means to be a Silver-Eyed warrior, that will tell you everything you need to know about your mother, but is that it? If it turns out that you have this power too, do you want to know? Do you want to learn how to use it? Are you prepared to work to master it? How far do you want to take this?"

"Sunset, ease off," Jaune said. "You can't expect Ruby to make all of these decisions straight away. You sound like you're asking her to commit everything to…to whatever this is!"

"And if I am?" Sunset asked. "I committed everything to mastering my power when I was a lot younger than Ruby."

"So did I," Pyrrha said, with a voice touched by a sudden chill. "But it doesn't mean that Ruby has to repeat our mistake."

Sunset scowled, and then she looked a little embarrassed. "Sorry," she muttered. "I didn't mean to…I suppose I'd like to get something out of all this, and to know that you're prepared to work towards that end."

"If it will help, I am."

"Ruby," Pyrrha said gently.

"Maybe Mom didn't have a kind of power like the one in the fairytale," Ruby said. "Maybe being a silver-eyed warrior isn't all that big of a deal. But what if it is? What if…what if I could really help people, save them, like the brother in the story. Then…then I should do it, shouldn't I? I mean…I kind of have to, don't I?"

 _Mom…I promise that I'll make you proud._

Sunset smiled, and raised one hand into the air. "Who's up for a research project? All in favour of discovering the truth about silver-eyed warriors, helping Ruby answer her questions about her mother and unlocking a power able to defeat the grimm say 'aye'."

Jaune raised his hand. "Uh, sure, yeah. I'll help you. I don't know how much I'll actually be able to help but, sure. I'll do what I can, Ruby."

"Thanks, Jaune," Ruby said, favouring him a warm smile. "I really appreciate it."

"And me," Pyrrha said. "Count me in."

"Okay!" Ruby said, leaping up from her bed. "Let's do it!"

"None of you said 'aye'," Sunset griped.


	23. Everyone Should Learn How to Have Fun

Everyone Should Learn How to Have Fun

Ruby and Pyrrha walked down the street and people made way for them.

Or at least, they made way for Pyrrha anyway. It was as though she had a kind of magnetism about her that caused them to part before her like a ship ploughing through the ocean, but she never had to struggle to force her way through the press of people, and while she was at Pyrrha's side that meant that Ruby didn't either.

It did mean that people took pictures of them, but Ruby didn't mind. She just kept flashing peace signs and her biggest grin for the cameras and the scrolls.

They had both changed into different outfits for their trip into town: Ruby had exchanged her usual outfit for a grey top with a black pinafore worn over it, and a red rose-pattered skirt; Pyrrha was wearing an amber blouse with a plunging neckline, and a scarlet skirt that fell down to her ankles, but which also had a slit down the front to enable her to walk freely without obstruction. Her circlet still gleamed upon her brow, and she still carried her weapons slung across her back just as Ruby still had Crescent Rose strapped to her waist.

Considering what had happened the last time they went out into Vale, it seemed like the smart thing to do.

While Sunset and Jaune were in the library, looking for any information about silver eyes, Pyrrha and Ruby were going to hunt through some of Vale's bookshops for anything that they might have there that couldn't be found back at Beacon. Ruby wasn't exactly sure what kind of books they might find useful that wouldn't be in Beacon library, but Pyrrha and Sunset had both agreed that it was a good idea and she trusted that they knew what they were doing.

Ruby blinked as she was temporarily blinded by a flash from someone's scroll as they grabbed a picture of Pyrrha.

"Is this bothering you?" Pyrrha asked softly. "We could find a more…obscure route, if you'd like."

Ruby snorted. "Pfft. No, it's fine, really."

"Oh," Pyrrha said. "I see."

Ruby had the distinct impression that she had just said the wrong thing. "Uh…unless you want to take a different route?"

Pyrrha didn't break her stride, but Ruby got the sense that she was hesitating nonetheless. "I…I'm afraid I don't know this city well enough to be sure of finding our way through the less travelled streets."

"Me neither," Ruby admitted. "I haven't actually been to Vale very often."

Pyrrha glanced at her. "Really? I thought that you and Yang were from here?"

"Nah, we grew up on Patch," Ruby said. "It's a little island just off the coast. It's part of the Kingdom, but it's not part of Vale, if you get me."

"Ah, I understand," Pyrrha said. "What was that like, living…not outside the kingdoms, but on the fringes of their reach and authority?"

Ruby shrugged. "There are grim around, if that's what you mean. You have to be a little bit more careful than you do here. But I didn't mind. I always had Yang to watch over me, even when I was little. And…it was nice. Forests, open spaces. You can walk a little way in any direction from our house, and before very long you'll come to some place where you can forget that there are any other people around, or in the whole world. It's so quiet, it's just you and the wildlife. There are rabbits living not far from home, and Zwei – that's our dog - chases them every chance he gets. It was really nice. Really, really nice. Here in Vale…I don't think there's anywhere quite the same."

"No," Pyrrha agreed. "I get the impression that there are no truly wild places in Vale proper. There are some open spaces, parks, that sort of thing; but they're all carefully cultivated, curated, any wildness that you might see there is just an illusion skilfully created by land management."

"Was it not like that where you grew up?"

"I grew up in the heart of Mistral," Pyrrha said. "It is…not a city exactly like this one. Aesthetically…a little more pleasing. The whole city is built around the highest peak in series of mountains, a shining city on a hill set amidst peaks and troughs of verdant green. The mountains around are covered with grass, and in the valleys there are vast forests, but Mistral itself…all the buildings are white, they cover the slopes so that when you approach from a distance it appears that they are rising like marble out of the mountain itself. I remember, when I was returning home from one of my tournaments, approaching Mistral by airship, everything coming into view more clearly the closer I got to home: the commercial and residential districts nestling at the foot of the mountain, and then the houses becoming larger and larger the higher up you climb, mansions belonging to old and wealthy families, until you come to the very peak, the pinnacle of the mountain, and the great palace of the old Emperor that sits atop it. It's used by the council now, of course, but still a sight to behold, built astride a waterfall that flows down the mountain through the heart of the city. In a lot of ways it _is_ the heart of the city, and its life blood."

"It sounds beautiful."

"It is," Pyrrha agreed. "When the dawn light strikes…" She stopped, and a smile flitted across her face. "You should come and see it one day. I mean, if you'd like."

"I…sure, I guess."

"You could come and visit during vacation sometime," Pyrrha said. "We'll take an airship and fly through the clouds, and when they part before us you'll see the whole of Mistral spread out before you, rising up to touch the sky. The view from a train is less impressive, but perhaps a little more imposing."

"I'd like that," Ruby said, and not only because it made Pyrrha look so happy to hear it, but because she had made her home sound so beautiful that Ruby genuinely hoped to see it one day, and with her friend too. "You sound as if you really like it there."

"Mistral is my home," Pyrrha said. "I will fight for all of humanity, but Mistral will always have a claim upon my heart."

"Why did you leave?" Ruby asked. "I mean, you don't have to tell me, but…you seem to like it there so much that I wondered why you didn't go to Haven."

Pyrrha glanced down at the pavement over which they walked. "Mistral is a beautiful place, but I thought that a change of scenery might do me a little good." She fell silent, and they walked on in that way for a little while, with the sounds of the street ebbing and flowing around them as their shoes tapped upon the concrete slabs. Pyrrha gestured to a nearby bench, overlooking a small park where a few children were running under the supervision of their parents. "Would you mind if we sat down for a moment?"

"Uh, no, not at all," Ruby said.

The two of them sat down, and for a moment neither of them said anything as the sounds of children playing and dogs barking reached their ears. Ruby noticed an ice cream cart not far away.

"Would you like some ice cream?"

"Hmm?" Pyrrha murmured.

"Ice cream," Ruby repeated, pointing at the cart.

"Um," Pyrrha hesitated, before her face brightened a little. "Alright. Let me just get out my-"

"Oh, no, I wasn't trying to-"

"I really don't mind-"

"No, it's fine, I can-"

"It will be my treat."

"You don't have to-"

It took a few minutes of this back and forth before they realised how stupid it was to sit there arguing over a couple of ice cream cones, and both of them burst out laughing at how silly they were being.

"Shall we each just pay for ourselves," Pyrrha said.

"That's probably the only way we'll agree on something," Ruby agreed.

Pyrrha got a simple two scoops of vanilla, while Ruby got one scoop each of chocolate, strawberry and vanilla with a chocolate flake, strawberry sauce and a sprinkling of multi-coloured hundreds and thousands. Fortunately nobody had taken their bench while they were away, and they were both able to return to it with their ice creams. Ruby began to devour hers greedily, and a little messily, while Pyrrha licked delicately at hers.

"So," Ruby said as she ate. "What did you want to talk about?"

Pyrrha produced a tissue from out of her sleeve, and dabbed delicately at her ice-cream stained lips. "I…" she looked troubled, her brow furrowed and her mouth set in a sort of frown. "I envy you, Ruby. I know that isn't very good of me, but…it's the truth. I envy that you have…such an open heart. It draws people towards you. It makes it easy for them to like you. I suppose I envy your ability to make friends so easily."

"I don't really make friends as easily as that," Ruby said, as she felt her cheeks burn up a little.

"You do it far more easily than I do," Pyrrha replied. "And that is what I wanted to talk to you about. I understand that you want to learn more about your mother and your past, I would never discourage you from that, but this…I want to be sure that you understand what it might mean to go further than that. To go from understanding what it meant for your mother to be a silver-eyed warrior, if that is indeed the term, and seek to become one yourself."

Ruby blinked. "You…you don't think I should do it? I mean, we still don't know what 'it' is or whether I could do…it. But, if I could do it, whatever it is, then you don't think that I should?"

"I think that it isn't my choice to make," Pyrrha said. "Nor is it Sunset's. We cannot choose your destiny on your behalf, Ruby. And we shouldn't try. But you should see where the path leads before you set your feet upon it."

"I don't understand," Ruby murmured. "Mom's power, the power of the silver eyes, she used it to destroy a whole bunch of grimm just by…just by looking at them, maybe. The hero in that storybook defeated a dragon that no one else could stand up to and saved an entire kingdom." She paused, and again the question niggled at the back of her mind that if the power of the silver eyes was all that, if her mother had been all that, then why hadn't she come home? Had the power of the silver eyes grown in the telling, or had Mom in all her strength come up against some power mightier still? "If I can do that, if I can have that power then…don't I have to take it?" Mom had seen it so, judging by her early diary entries; if she had wanted a brief interlude of normalcy at Beacon then she had nevertheless been prepared to devote the rest of her life to the struggle against the grimm.

Pyrrha looked away, and gazed out across the park where the carefree children played. "Look at them," she murmured, as the wind rustled her long ponytail. "Do you think they realise that they are living in a fortress of humanity? A fortress under siege by incomprehensible evil?"

"Probably not," Ruby ventured. "And, to be honest, I don't think that they should know that." She had found that out when her mother didn't come home and her Dad had sunk into a mire of grief. She wished she hadn't had to find out so early.

"No, you're quite right," Pyrrha said. "And many of them, most of them by far, will probably grow up never quite realising that. And yet some of them may have the potential to become great huntsmen and huntresses, potential that they will never realise. They could risk their lives to defend humanity, but they never will; and there is no shame in that. To take upon ones own shoulders the burden of defending the world is a great weight…but it is a weight that must be freely chosen, it can never be imposed by others. Or at least, I don't think that it should."

"Sunset isn't imposing anything on me, if that's what you think."

"I know," Pyrrha said. "But I don't believe that Sunset understands…she sees a weapon, perhaps a very powerful one. And I admit that we have need of powerful weapons. But I want you to understand what it might cost you to follow this path to the end. You read your mother's diary entry; you know what she was afraid of once she revealed her power to others."

Ruby nodded. "She was afraid that they wouldn't see her as a person any more."

"When you allow yourself to be placed upon a pedestal," Pyrrha said. "You lose all connection to the people who put your there in the first place. You may not want it, you might hate it and you probably will, but…it will happen. Is that what you want, Ruby? Is that really the destiny you wish for yourself?"

Ruby tried to imagine it, and struggled because her mind itself revolted against the very notion. She tried to imagine losing connection with Jaune, tried to imagine Yang holding her in such a state of awe that she ceased to see her as a little sister any more. She tried to imagine not being able to joke around with her, share hopes and fears, share everything that mattered. She tried to imagine it and, as hard as she might try, she couldn't. Even if she imagined everyone else in her life fading away into a fog of disconnectedness, or falling down at her feet worshipping her silver eyes, her imagination always supplied Yang right beside her, ready to give her a noogie and embarrass her in front of everybody else while she wore that big-sister grin of hers.

She wouldn't ever have it any other way.

"No," she said. "That's not what I want. But I don't see that it has to be either."

"You may not be given a choice," Pyrrha said softly.

"We always have a choice," Ruby replied. "And it's never too late to make new choices. I can choose to find out about my mom, I can choose to find out whether I have the same power that she had, and I can choose to do all that and still have all my friends right beside me when I do it: Yang, Jaune…and you, too. Pyrrha, you might think that you don't make friends very easily, but you have two great friends and Sunset. And I don't plan on leaving you behind, not for a pair of silver eyes or for any destiny or…or for anything."

Pyrrha smiled fondly. "That's very kind of you to say, Ruby. But…I'm afraid…when you have a gift, I speak from experience when I say that the study of it consumes you all too easily until it's all that you have. You live it, you breathe it, you go to bed and wake up again thinking about it. Until it's all that you are, and you have nothing else."

She bowed her head, and sighed.

Ruby rested her hands on her knees, and leaned forwards so that she could look up into Pyrrha's face. "Pyrrha, when was the last time that you just had fun?"

Pyrrha was silent for a moment. "If I ever did I think it must have been when I was very small."

Ruby's expression fell for a moment as she tried to contemplate what that must have been like, before a wide smile like a particularly precocious puppy spread across her face. She leapt up from the bench and held out her hand. "Pyrrha, come with me."

Pyrrha looked up. "Where?"

"Not to some bookshop," Ruby declared. "We can do that tomorrow, or some other time. Right now, I'm going to teach you how to cut loose. Everyone should learn how to have fun!"

Pyrrha hesitated for a moment.

"Come on," Ruby urged. "Don't you trust me?"

Pyrrha nodded, and she smiled slightly as she placed one hand into Ruby's outstretched palm.

Ruby's fingers closed around Pyrrha's hand as she pulled her up off the bench and began to drag her down the street. She wasn't quite using her semblance, but she was running pretty fast and yanking Pyrrha along behind her as she pounded down the pavement in search of something specific. She passed by shops that didn't interest her, and shops that _would_ have interested her if she hadn't been on a mission right now. She was looking for…she was looking for…

"Ruby," Pyrrha said, as she picked up her own pace to partially catch up with Ruby before her arm was pulled out of its socket. "Where are we going?"

"I'll know it when I see it," Ruby replied, as she pulled Pyrrha to the right. There had to be something around here somewhere. "I'm about to show you a whole new world."


	24. New Friends, Old Rivals

New Friends, Old Rivals

Sunset sat in the library, in front of a computer terminal, going over the results of her search for 'Silver-Eyed Warriors'.

She wasn't expecting anything spectacular out of the search engine, but she was hoping that it would recommend a book that would turn out to be in the Beacon library - failing that she could give Pyrrha a call and ask her to keep an eye on it - which, in turn, would have some answers.

So far, she wasn't seeing anything useful: everything seemed to come back either to Jaune's Broadsword comic or to that fairy tale that Pyrrha had read out. The results were all either references to the story, different versions of the story, or else they were literary commentaries about the story. What books she could find were mostly retellings of - say it with me - the fairytale. Dark and edgy retellings with added sex and violence; gritty, realistic retellings where the dragon didn't talk because it was a grimm; retellings where the third brother got eaten as well because the author hated happy endings; and none of it getting Sunset any closer to finding out the truth about silver eyes.

And yet there was obviously some truth to find. Unless you were to assume that Summer Rose had filled her own diary with nonsense for the confusion and misdirection of future readers, which made no rational sense whatsoever, then you had to assume by contrast that she was telling the truth: she was a silver-eyed warrior, whatever one of those might be, and she had power that derived from the aforementioned silver eyes. That was rational assumption number one: Summer Rose confided the truth to her journal; it might only be the truth as she percieved it, but then someone who believed that they had magic eye powers when they didn't probably wouldn't make it through four years of Beacon to become a badass huntress.

Rational assumption number two: Summer Rose was not the first person to possess these powers. If magical-seeming silver eyes were her semblance, then she might get given a name like the Silver-Eyed Warrior - case in point: Pyrrha Nikos the Invincible Girl, who had earned a heroic epithet for far less - but you wouldn't get it pluralised unless you were the latest in a line of the same.

Which brought Sunset on to rational assumption number three: if there were a line of these warriors each wielding power that seemed as close to magic as anything else - maybe not Sunset's magic, but turning grimm to stone put her in mind of the cockatrice a little - would be remembered. And that was where Sunset's rational assmptions started to fall apart because it seemed that nobody remembered them at all outside of a single fairytale. It almost defied belief. Things might be forgotten with time but they didn't vanish from the collective consciousness completely. It was almost as though someone had made the information disappear, leaving only a single fairytale behind.

But that was ridiculous; who would have the power to accomplish such a feat, to make an entire world forget something that they had once known?

So why, assuming as seemed rational that Summer Rose's powers had not sprung up sui generis, was there no information about them to be found?

Sunset pushed her chair backwards. "Hey, Jaune! Any luck?"

A despairing groan from Jaune over at another terminal was all the answer that Sunset got or, frankly, needed. She rested her fingers on the edge of the table, and drummed a brief tattoo upon the wood. Then she got up.

"You're leaving?" Jaune asked.

"My old teacher used to tell me that you don't get anywhere staring at a blank page: if you can't think what to write on it then just looking at it won't give you any ideas." Sunset frowned a little. She still hadn't heard back from Twilight or Celestia. She didn't know what Celestia had made of her apology, if she had made anything at all. If she'd even cared. She pushed the thought away, this wasn't the time. If need be she could start to badger Twilight Sparkle about it, but not right now. "Come on, let's go."

Jaune started to rise from his seat. "Where are we going?"

"To get a change of scenery, grab a coffee or something, hope that some inspiration strikes us on the way," Sunset said. She pulled out her scroll as she made her way to the door, leaving Jaune to follow. "We can call Ruby and Pyrrha and see if they want to join us, or if they've found something."

As she walked out of the library, with Jaune traling after her, Sunset opened up her scroll and called Pyrrha. By the look of what Sunset could see in the background once Pyrrha answered, they were outside and moving somewhere.

"Sunset," Pyrrha said, sounding a little nervous about something. "Hello again."

"Hey," Sunset said. "Have you two had any luck so far?"

"Wait, that isn't Sunset Shimmer is it?" asked another voice, momentarily unfamiliar; unfortunately, when that all-too-brief moment wore off, Sunset felt with a slight chilling feeling stealing over her that this voice was not actually unfamiliar to her at all. In fact it was all too familiar in all the wrong ways.

 _No. No way can she be here. I got away, I was done with her, she cannot have followed me all the way to Vale it isn't fair!_ Sunset's voice trembled with a touch of dread. "Is that...Rainbow Dash?"

Pyrrha opened her mouth a little, but before she could say anything the scroll was wrenched out of her hands to focus upon the all-too familiar face of Rainbow Dash. That ridiculous rainbow hair in its daredevil cut, those magenta eyes gleaming with mischief, that face, that cocky grin; Sunset would recognise them anywhere. Much as she might wish she didn't.

"Sunset Shimmer."

Sunset's jaw tightened. "Rainbow Dash." She struggled to keep a lid on the mounting anxiety that she felt rising within her breast because this could not be happening. This absolutely could not be happening! She had gotten away! She was free of Canterlot and Rainbow Dash and all of the rest of them and everything else besides! It was bad enough that Flash had followed her to Beacon but at least he was basically amenable, he wouldn't...what might Rainbow Dash say to Ruby and Pyrrha? _I had a fresh start._ She had not been known here at Beacon but, notwithstanding her desire for fame, that anonymity had served her well: her unjust reputation had not gone before the poison the well in advance of her coming. If Rainbow Dash talked, if she lied to Pyrrha and Ruby then it might all be lost. "What are you doing here?"

Rainbow looked a little shifty. "Hanging out."

"Hanging out," Sunset repeated acidly. "With my team-mates?"

"Hey, I didn't know you were the one putting the S in Sapphire until you called," Rainbow replied. "Small world, isn't it?"

"Too small by a long way if you're here," Sunset said. "Put Pyrrha back on." _And stay away from my team!_ she wanted to add, and only did not for fear that prohibition would spur Rainbow to do the opposite just to spite her. "Pyrrha, where are you?"

"Uh, I'm not entirely sure. Let me see...Thirty-Second Avenue."

"Stay there and don't move, I'm coming to you," Sunset said.

"Sorry, we can't stop," Ruby said. "We have to find Penny!"

Sunset's eyebrows rose. "And just who the hell is Penny?"

"There she is!" Ruby yelled from somewhere out of view of the scroll. "Penny, wait!"

"Gotta go," Rainbow Dash said. "Penny, stop right-"

"No, don't you dare hang up on-" Sunset yelled, stopping midway because, of course, Dash had hung up on her.

Sunset didn't know what was going on. She didn't know who Penny was or why Ruby and Pyrrha were looking for her. The only thing she knew was that there was no way she was leaving them alone with Rainbow Dash to turn them against her.

Sunset started to run. "Come on, Jaune, pick up the pace!"

"Why?" Jaune asked as he started to chase after her.

"We have to save the girls from a wicked faunus."

"Really? You mean like the White Fang?"

"Worse than the White Fang," Sunset growled.

* * *

Ruby wasn't quite using her semblance, but she was possibly blurring the edges of it just a little bit. She was certainly running fast, even allowing for dragging Pyrrha - who was running herself in order to keep up - behind her. She was running so fast, in fact, that when a girl with orange hair ambled into the street right in front of her there was no way that she could slow down in time.

"Look out!" Ruby yelled.

The other girl looked around in surprise, her mouth forming a startled O just as Ruby crashed into her. The two of them went sprawling to the pavement, though Ruby's aura prevented her from feeling more than a slight bump. Pyrrha leapt gracefully over the two fallen girls, and hesitated in apparent confusion for half a moment, before holding out a hand to help Ruby to her feet.

"Thanks," Ruby said, as she accepted Pyrrha's helping hand up. "Sorry about that, uh..."

She trailed off as she looked down at the victim of her reckless speed. Dressed in an old-fashioned blouse but modern overalls with neon green strips, the girl - who was maybe Ruby's age, maybe closer to Pyrrha, it was hard to tell if it was just her freckles making her look young - lay casually upon the pavement as though it were the most natural thing in the world to just lie on your back in the street and not something you should do something about pretty quickly. Even weirder, she was smiling, beaming even, without a hint of...well, without a hint of any of the things that you'd expect someone to feel after they'd just been knocked to the ground.

"Uh," Ruby murmured. She glanced at Pyrrha for help, but Pyrrha looked just as baffled by this as Ruby felt. "Sorry I ran into you."

The girl's smile remained fixed in place. "No problem. Judging by your cry of warning, it was an accident. Your momentum was too great to be arrested rapidly."

"Yeah," Ruby said. "I, uh, was going pretty fast." She laughed nervously. "So...do you...need a hand getting up?"

"No," the girl said, and she proved it by leaping to her feet in a single fluid motion. "But thank you for asking."

"Are you alright?" Pyrrha asked solicitously.

"One hundred percent capacity!" the girl declared proudly.

"Ah," Pyrrha said, in a neutral tone. "I see."

A silence descended between them. An uncomfortable silence that Ruby filled before it could get any worse. "So, I'm Ruby."

"And my name is Pyrrha."

"I'm Penny, it's a pleasure to meet you!" Penny chirped. She cocked her head. "Why are you carrying weapons?"

"Well, we're Beacon Academy students and-"

"Really!" Penny yelled. "Are you going to be competing in the tournament?"

"Very probably," Pyrrha said.

"I am also here to compete in the tournament," Penny said. "Perhaps we will face each other in the coliseum!"

"Are you a student from one of the other schools?" Ruby asked. She knew that some of the other competitors were due to start arriving soon, although most of them wouldn't make it until the start of next semester. "Is the rest of your team around here somewhere?"

"No," Penny said, and for once her voice lost a little of its enthusiasm. "They let me go off on my own." She hiccupped.

"You've been here before, then?" Pyrrha asked.

"No. This is my first time away from home. It's so exciting!"

"And your team-mates just let you wander off by yourself?" Ruby asked. "Seems kind of mean. Do you know where you're going?"

Penny shook her head. "I am taking in the sights."

Ruby frowned. Penny's team didn't sound like much of a team to her. The first time in a new city should be a time for team bonding, hitting the streets together, trying the food, seeing what was what. Not ditching someone to do...whatever the rest of them were up to right now. "Well...you're welcome to come along with us." Belatedly she realised that Pyrrha might want a say in that decision, but the other girl didn't seem bothered by the impromptu invitation.

Penny's eyes widened. "Really? I can come with you...like friends?"

"Yeah," Ruby said. "Just like friends."

It shouldn't have been possible for Penny's smile to get any wider, but somehow it did. "Sensational! Where are we going, new friends?"

"I was just about to take Pyrrha to-"

"Penny!" a loud yell from a harsh female voice echoed down the street, drawing the attention of all three of them. Penny squeaked in alarm, and pushed past Ruby to start quickly down the street, even as a rainbow blur sped towards them from the other direction.

"Penny!" the new arrival shouted again. "Get back here!"

Ruby reacted on instinct. As Penny fled, Ruby started forwards.

It was simple. This person, whoever they were, was chasing Penny. Penny didn't want to be caught. Therefore whoever was chasing Penny must be bad news for her.

And it was a huntress' job to protect people.

Like a rose unfolding its thorns, Crescent Rose unfurled in a series of clanks and hisses. And as the other girl charged towards her, leaving a trail of rainbows, Ruby took aim down the sights.

"Hold it right there!"

* * *

Team RSPT (pronounced rosepetal) was not like other teams. It wasn't made up of four aspiring huntsmen or huntresses thrown together by fate to train in monster slaying. It had been put together by General Ironwood, deliberately and with thought, and each member had a purpose.

The whole team was built around Penny. It was her team; she might not lead it but she was the point of it, the star of the show: a walking, talking demonstration of Atlesian R&D prowess, proof of a concept that would change the world. If she could actually focus for five minutes at a time and not wander off because seriously, she got distracted more easily than Pinkie on her worst day.

 _No offence, Pinkie. You know I love you._

The rest of the team was there for Penny's sake: to support her, to watch over her, to make sure that she could and did achieve her potential; her destiny. Twilight Sparkle was there for Penny's tech support; she might not be a good huntress, or any kind of huntress at all to be honest, but she was probably the only person other than Penny's father who could understand Penny's systems, let alone maintain them in the field.

Ciel Soleil was there to _try_ and keep Penny in line, on mission and reasonably focussed. She didn't always succeed but not for lack of trying. In between times she also took care of all the other boring stuff that had to be done like finding them a place to sleep. And paperwork.

And Rainbow Dash was there to keep all the rest alive. That was why her name came first, that was why she was the team leader: because if all else failed, if Penny didn't live up to her hype, if something went wrong then Rainbow Dash would get them out. Whatever it took.

Of course, being team leader - and the muscle - also meant that when Penny did manage to slip past Ciel's watch - it wasn't Ciel's fault, or Twilight's; a robot who didn't need to sleep was always going to have an advantage over humans who did. If anything it was probably Rainbow's fault for going out on a morning jog - and get out of the hotel it was Rainbow's job to find her and drag her back by the scruff of the neck while Twi and Ciel stayed safe in their hotel room.

And so Rainbow was out pounding the streets of Vale, not in the best of moods as she tracked the errant robot using an app that Twilight had uploaded to her scroll linked to a transponder in Penny's...Twilight had stopped bothering to explain the techspeak when she saw Rainbow yawning. While Twilight's genius did mean that Rainbow was spared the need to hunt for Penny all across Vale, that didn't actually put Rainbow Dash in a good mood as she closed in on Penny's location.

Rainbow Dash considered herself to be an easy-going sort of girl, but to be perfectly honest there were very few things about this situation that she liked. She didn't like having Twi in the field like this, much as Rainbow loved her the little egghead wasn't trained for combat, wasn't physically fit and understanding all the properties of aura didn't mean that you knew how to use it to fight the grimm. She didn't like the fact that they had to go to Vale for Penny's field testing in the first place and she liked it even less now that Vale was being hit with a wave of White Fang attacks. She didn't like the fact that one of her best friends was in the same city as a major White Fang presence and she really didn't like the fact that she couldn't keep an eye on Twi right now because she had to chase down an over-curious robot. Again.

 _General Ironwood should have given Applejack this job,_ Rainbow thought as she ran down the street, with her unzipped sports jacket flapping around her. That meant that the machine-pistols she wore in her shoulder holsters were partially exposed, but if anyone noticed they didn't object. Probably they were used to huntresses from Beacon walking around armed. _Applejack could be here, and I'd be with Fluttershy._ But, although Applejack might have possessed more patience for Penny's antics, Rainbow knew that wouldn't have stopped her from worrying. She might not have had to worry about Fluttershy, but she'd have worried about Twilight twice as much for being so far away.

The effect of all of this cumulatively was that when Rainbow Dash ran around the corner to see Penny right in front of her, talking to a pair of armed girls about Rainbow's age, she wasn't inclined to react calmly.

"Penny!" Rainbow Dash yelled as she ran down the street, a rainbow trailing behind her as she reached the low threshold of her semblance.

Penny started to flee.

"Penny!" Rainbow yelled again. "Get back here!"

And then the girl in the red hood pulled a gun on her. Or at least, she unfolded a ridiculously huge scythe and pointed it at Rainbow Dash as though it was a gun so there was probably a gun in there somewhere.

"Hold it right there!" she cried in a high-pitched voice as Penny ran out of sight.

Rainbow Dash didn't know what was going on here or who these people were. All she knew was that she was not having the best day ever and someone had just pulled a weapon on her. Maybe they were trying to kidnap Penny (Penny was too nice for her own good, it wouldn't surprise Rainbow if somebody could talk her into a van by offering her a bag of...robot candy). Maybe something else was going on. Right now she didn't really care. Good guys didn't pull weapons unprovoked.

Which meant they were a problem, and it was part of Rainbow's job to deal with problems.

She gritted her teeth. _You want a piece of me? I'll show you want I've got._

What she didn't have was her wing-pack, unfortunately; but never mind. She could take these two just fine without.

She was Rainbow Dash, after all. She could take them out in ten seconds flat.

Rainbow reached for her pistols.

"Ruby!" the other girl - the one not wearing a hood, the one with a sword and shield for which she was now reaching - cried in alarm.

The girl in the red hood - Ruby - fired.

And Rainbow activated her semblance.

Instantly the whole world was plunged into syrup, and Rainbow Dash herself the only person able to move normally. She could see the bullet from Ruby's gun, a white streak moving lazily towards her. A rainbow glowed around Dash, and trailed behind her as she darted around the shot and ran straight for Ruby. It was as Rainbow was running forward, drawing her pistols as she ran, that she noticed something that she'd never seen before. Not-Ruby - there was something familiar about her, but Rainbow couldn't quite place what it was - was reaching for her weapons, pulling her sword and shield off her back, but she was doing so slowly, painfully slowly like she was wading through tar or something. But Ruby...Ruby was coming straight for Rainbow Dash and she was moving _normally._ She trailed rose petals behind her as she came for Rainbow Dash every bit as fast as Rainbow Dash was coming for her.

 _Another speedster, huh?_ Rainbow thought. _This just got a lot more interesting._

 _Hell, this might even be fun._

The scowl slid off Rainbow Dash's face, replaced with a grin. Sure, she had a Penny to find and a mission to complete, but how many times would she get the chance to go up against somebody as fast as her?

Judging by Ruby's wide-eyes, she wasn't quite as appreciative of the opportunity to match speeds like this.

Rainbow swerved out of Ruby's way, letting Ruby's momentum carry her past.

And as they past Rainbow winked, aimed the pistol in her right hand, and shot Ruby in the face. She squeezed the trigger four times, semi-automatic...except that she'd forgotten that the bullets were _not_ superfast. As soon as they left the barrel they moved as slowly as everything else and Ruby was able to evade them with ease.

 _Twilight needs to make me some super-speed bullets or something,_ Rainbow thought. _I don't know how but she's a genius, I'm sure she can figure something out._

Ruby swung her scythe. The arc was wide. Too wide, the guard on that thing was ridiculously over-extended. Maybe that didn't matter if nobody was fast enough to get close but Rainbow _was_ fast enough. She leapt into the air, legs tucked up to let the scythe pass harmlessly beneath her...until she brought one leg down to balance on the crimson shaft of the scythe and kicked Ruby in the head.

Ruby managed to avoid the strike with a deft movement, and then threw Rainbow off of her scythe with a flick. Rainbow twisted in mid-air for a landing on her feet...but she had de-activated her semblance the moment she stopped to pose on Ruby's scythe for her kick.

Something slammed into Rainbow Dash from behind hard enough to send her flying head first into the wall. She hit the brickwork hard enough to crack it in places, but barely had half a second to appreciate that fact before she was hurled to the ground. Not-Ruby stood over her, with eyes as cold as the Atlesian tundra.

 _I'm guessing you're one of those mama bear types who doesn't appreciate people picking on your friends._ Rainbow could respect that, since she was a little in that way herself. Didn't mean it wasn't kind of a pain to deal with now though. Rainbow rolled out the way as not-Ruby brought her shield down where Rainbow's face would have been. A burst of semblance got her out of immediate danger, and a quick check of her scroll confirmed that her aura was still in the green.

Not-Ruby charged. She might not have a speed semblance but she could still move. Rainbow levelled her pistols and let her have it with both barrels, full auto. Not-Ruby took it on her shield, covering her face and letting the bullets bounce off as she turned her sword into a frickin' gun and shot back. Rainbow dodged out the way as her pistols ran empty.

 _No time to reload now._ Rainbow charged, not at super-speed but leaving a rainbow trail regardless as she ran for not-Ruby. She leapt up, spinning in mid-air as she went for a kick right at the centre of not-Ruby's shield. She'd kick, and fire the shotgun hidden in the sole of her boot.

Except that wasn't what happened. Though Rainbow would have sworn that her kick was aimed perfectly, it didn't land. Not-Ruby angled her shield up a little and Rainbow's kick passed harmlessly over it, barely scraping the metal.

And then not-Ruby brought her shield up into Rainbow's outstretched leg, tipping her up so that she hit the ground head first before being battered into the ground with a series of blows that must have knocked her aura down into the yellow at least.

Rainbow's pony ears twitched as she let out a soft groan of pain. When she looked up, both Ruby and not-Ruby were standing over her, guns pointed at her head.

 _Damn._

"What do you want with Penny?" Ruby demanded. "Leave her alone!"

"Leave her alone?" Rainbow repeated. "So that you can...what? What do you want with Penny? Who are you working for, how did you find out about her?" Being humans they weren't White Fang but that still left foreign governments, criminal syndicates or the Schnee Dust Company as possible suspects.

"We don't work for anyone," Ruby replied. "We just protected Penny from you!"

 _Please don't tell me that I got my ass kicked as a result of a misunderstanding._ Rainbow groaned. "I think we may have gotten off on the wrong foot here. The name's Rainbow Dash, I'm Penny's team leader and I've been looking for her."

"You have a very aggressive form of looking," not-Ruby observed.

"Yeah," Rainbow admitted. "I got a little too grouchy there. But I really do need to find her and bring her back with me."

"If you're her team leader then you're the one who sent her out on her own in the first place!"

"Did she tell you that? Did she hiccup when she said it?" Rainbow asked.

The two of them looked at one another. "Yes."

"She does that when she lies," Rainbow explained. "Listen, I really do need to find her: she's all alone in a brand new place and she has no clue what she's doing. But if you don't trust me, then you're welcome to come with: we'll all go find Penny together, and when we do she'll admit that I don't mean her any harm." Now she would see if they were sincere in having Penny's best interests at heart, or if they were full of it. Rainbow drew a small degree of hope from the fact that they hadn't just killed her and dumped her body in the garbage somewhere. That suggested they were more than just simple bad guys.

"Penny...does seem a little naive," not-Ruby said softly. She glanced at Ruby. "So long as we keep an eye on her..."

Ruby's scythe folded into a more compact, stubby, carbine-like weapon. "Okay. But we'll be watching."

Rainbow Dash took that as her cue to pick herself up off the ground. "So, who are you guys anyway? You got some moves between you. Huntresses?"

"Not quite," not-Ruby said. "We're students at Beacon Academy. I'm Pyrrha Nikos and this is Ruby Rose, members of Team Sapphire."

"Rainbow Dash, leader of Team Rosepetal," Rainbow said as she shook the hand of- "Wait a second, Pyrrha Nikos! I didn't recognise you without your costume on."

"You mean my armour."

"It's kind of a costume, isn't it?"

Pyrrha hesitated. "Possibly. So, I suppose you've seen me fight."

"Yeah, I saw you fight Shining Armour for that charity gig," Rainbow said, speaking vaguely because she didn't honestly expect Pyrrha to remember what she was talking about. She might remember the fight, but she probably wouldn't remember much about the occasion.

It was a little to Rainbow's surprise that Pyrrha's face brightened visibly. "Oh, the exhibition for the Prosthesis Institute fundraiser! Yes, I remember-" her eyes narrowed a little. "We've met before, haven't we? You were at the gala after the fight. You're a little easier to recognise now that you've stopped running or shooting."

"You two know each other?" Ruby asked.

"I wouldn't say we know each other," Rainbow replied.

"It was last year," Pyrrha explained. "I fought an exhibition with the Atlesian champion, all the ticket sales went to raise money for a new institute developing prosthetic limbs for children, in partnership with expertise from some of the finest hospitals in Atlas and Mistral."

"I didn't actually buy a ticket," Rainbow admitted as she pulled out her scroll. "I'm a friend of Shining Armour's sister and I got one of his complementary tickets." She opened up the scroll, went to her photo album, and started to rummage through the pictures. "And then you went round the hospital and talked to the kids afterwards. Now that was the bit I thought I was really cool." She brought up a picture that she'd taken from Pyrrha's visit, that showed Pyrrha sitting on the edge of Scootaloo's bed while Rainbow's spiritual sister beamed excitedly into the camera. She showed the picture.

"Awww," Ruby cooed.

"I didn't really do anything," Pyrrha murmured.

"You told Scootaloo that she could be whatever she chose to become," Rainbow said. "Not enough people tell her that." She chuckled. "I wish I'd recognised you before I attacked you. Sorry about that."

"It's alright," Pyrrha said. "I think we both reacted a little rashly. Now, do you still want our help in finding your friend?"

"She's not my friend so much as she is my...yeah, I'll take your help."

"Where do we start looking?" said Ruby.

"I've got a super-smart friend who put a tracker on her," Rainbow said, bringing up the tracking app. A red dot pulsed on a top-down map of Vale. "We just have to follow this to her location."

"Kind of extreme, don't you think?" Ruby muttered with evident disapproval.

"You'll understand once you get to know her," Rainbow replied.

They followed Penny's slow-moving signal, and were closing in on her latest position when Pyrrha's scroll started to buzz.

Pyrrha opened up her scroll, and seemed to hesitate a little on seeing whoever it was on the other end. "Sunset; hello again."

 _Sunset? No way, it can't be her can it?_

"Hey. Have you two had any luck so far?"

"Wait, that isn't Sunset Shimmer, is it?" Rainbow Dashed asked as she plucked the scroll out of Pyrrha's hands and looked down onto the unmistakable face of Sunset Shimmer.

 _Wow. What did these two do in a previous life to get stuck with Sunset Shimmer...Sapphire; she's their team leader isn't she?_

 _Wow, are these two unlucky._

For that matter, Rainbow Dash was inclined to consider herself a little unlucky herself. She'd hoped to never have to see Sunset Shimmer again after what some of the stunts she'd tried to pull in Canterlot. Trying to turn her friends against one another wasn't something that Rainbow Dash forgave or forgot lightly; the fact that it hadn't worked didn't mitigate the fact that she had made the attempt. "Sunset Shimmer."

Sunset's jaw tightened. "Rainbow Dash."

 _No way that I can tell her about Penny._ You didn't let Sunset Shimmer know _anything_ about you if you could avoid it. Anything she did find out she'd try and use against you. "Hanging out."

"Hanging out," Sunset repeated acidly. "With my team-mates?"

 _What, is somebody worried that I'll tell some stories? How much do your team-mates know about you, I wonder._ "Hey, I didn't know you were the one putting the S in Sapphire until you called," Rainbow replied. "Small world, isn't it?"

"Too small by a long way if you're here," Sunset said. "Put Pyrrha back on."

Rainbow wordlessly handed Pyrrha her scroll back.

"Pyrrha, where are you?"

"Uh, I'm not entirely sure. Let me see..." Pyrrha looked around for a street sign. "Thirty-Second Avenue."

"Stay there and don't move, I'm coming to you," Sunset said.

"Sorry, we can't stop," Ruby said. "We have to find Penny!"

"And just who the hell is Penny?" Sunset demanded, just as Ruby caught sight of Penny looking aimless outside the entrance to a big, glassy shopping plaza.

"There she is!" Ruby yelled, loudly enough to draw the attention of Penny herself. "Penny, wait!" Ruby cried as Penny turned to make another exit.

"Gotta go," Rainbow Dash said, reaching across to hang up on Sunset. "Penny, stop right there!"

Penny looked as though she didn't really want to wait for Rainbow Dash and the others to catch up to her, but a quick burst of semblance carried Rainbow and Ruby the remaining distance over to her, while Pyrrha was left to run to catch up.

"Penny, stop! Ruby cried. "You don't need to run away." She put a hand on Penny's shoulder. "It's going to be okay, I promise."

Rainbow Dash put her hands on her hips. "In the first place, will you please tell these two that I am not the bad guy? In fact why don't you just tell them who I am?"

"You're Rainbow Dash, leader of Team Rosepetal."

"Uh-huh," Rainbow said. "And you're a member of Team Rosepetal, aren't you?"

"Certainly! I'm combat ready!"

"Then why were you running?" Pyrrha asked as she joined them.

"We got into a fight because of you," Rainbow said.

Penny blinked. "You...you fought over me? You got into a fight with Rainbow Dash...because of me?"

"Well, yeah," Ruby admitted. "I mean, we thought you were scared of her or something, but-"

"Thank you!" Penny yelled, pulling Ruby into a hug. "This means we really are friends! You fought over me! Nobody has ever fought for me before!"

"Uh...you're welcome?"

Penny released her. "I'm sorry that I caused so much trouble. I just don't want you to take me back yet."

"I'm sure that wherever it is you don't have to go right away, right?" Ruby said, looking at Rainbow Dash. "You're both welcome to come along with us, right Pyrrha?"

"Oh, yes! You never got the chance to tell me where we were going?"

"Hang on, Penny, you might not be going anywhere," Rainbow said.

"Aww, come on," Ruby said. "So long as you stay with her then it's no problem, right?"

 _Specialist Schnee and General Ironwood might not see it that way,_ Rainbow Dash thought. But neither of them were in front of him now, looking at her the way that Ruby and Penny were looking at her.

 _I guess we are supposed to be field testing Penny; we'll call it Observations of Behviour in Non-Combat Situations, or something._

"Okay," Rainbow conceded. "Where are we going?"

* * *

Sunset found them in an arcade not far from Thirty-Second Street.

Her brow was stained with sweat from a mixture of the running and the sense of nervousness that she'd felt tightening in her chest with every step she took, every moment that she spent away and they were with Rainbow Dash and Celestia only knew what she might tell them about Sunset and the things that she'd done. Her mind was filled with horrible visions as Ruby and Pyrrha rejected her for the horrors of her past, as they refused to believe that she could change, would change, _had_ changed.

 _I am not that which I was._ But of course Rainbow Dash wouldn't believe that - and to be somewhat fair Sunset couldn't blame her too much for that - in fact she couldn't even believe that Sunset was only as bad as she had been, and not worse. Things that hadn't been Sunset's fault had gotten attached to her because she was a...because she had been an ass about whom people had learnt to assume the worst because it was frequently true. If Rainbow told Ruby and Pyrrha about the things that she _had_ done it would be bad enough, but if she told them about the things that she _hadn't_ done then...it scarcely bore thinking about.

But it was all that Sunset could think about as she ran through the streets, leaving Jaune trailing behind her, searching frantically, desperately for Ruby and Pyrrha.

 _And once you find them, then what? Are you going to beat Rainbow Dash into unconsciousness to stop her from talking?_ It was a tempting idea, but one likely to do more harm than good. The truth was that even once she got there then there was nothing Sunset could do to stop Rainbow Dash from spilling everything...nothing except witness the crash in person.

 _Or beg for mercy._ That might be her only choice, the hardest choice of all: to humble herself before Rainbow Dash and cry forgiveness for all that she had done and hope the other faunus was generous enough to grant it, to plead to not have everything that she had so slowly and so painfully built up here ripped away from her in an instant.

 _I mean, it's not like I really did her any harm, or any of them. Yes, I was mean and vain and proud and...maybe a little cruel sometimes, but it's not like I did any lasting damage. They were all still friends when Rainbow graduated Canterlot, it's not like I broke up the band. And let's remember who the real victim was in all of the stuff that went down there._

Sunset scowled, and shook her head. She couldn't think like that. She couldn't afford to think like that. Throwing herself a pity party wasn't likely to win her any favours from Rainbow Dash.

 _How I hate that girl._ Sunset, who liked to think that she had mellowed lately, was surprised by the vituperative force of the feelings that still flowed through her when she thought about Rainbow, her smug smile, her cocky attitude. The way she acted as though she didn't even realise that she had pony ears, the way a world that never failed to remind Sunset she was a despised faunus seemed to treat the great Rainbow Dash like she was human.

 _The way that she was always surrounded by smiles and laughter._ Sunset hadn't admitted that at the time, not even to herself; perhaps she hadn't even realised it. But now, with a clearer head and consequently clearer eye, should could concede that truth: even when she had most bitterly denied the worth of friends she had been consumed with envy of those who had them when she did not.

And now Rainbow Dash would take her friends away unless Sunset abased herself before her.

It was with her thoughts thus awhirl like a tornado that Sunset found them in an arcade not far from Thirty-Second Street. She panted for breath, and in the way of it she felt the sweat running down her back all the more once she stopped running and started moving more slowly.

She spotted Pyrrha first. Even in this place of dim lightning illuminated more by the flashing lights of the games cabinets than the practically non-existent ambient lightning, Pyrrha's red hair and statuesque figure stood out. As Sunset made her way towards her she was surprised to see that Pyrrha was playing a button-masher fighting game...with Rainbow Dash.

Ruby wasn't too far away, Sunset could spot her red cloak, playing one of those zombie shooters with the toy guns you pointed at the screen alongside a ginger-haired girl - maybe this Penny that they had been looking for earlier - with a bow in her hair.

Sunset was about to announce herself as she staggered with leaden feet towards them, but it was Jaune who spoke up first with an indignant declaration of, "You guys went to the arcade? Then why didn't you invite me?"

Everyone - everyone being the four people in this arcade who actually mattered - looked at him.

"Jaune!" Ruby cried enthusiastically. "Oh, sorry. It's just that it was kind of an impulse decision and then we ran into Penny and everything happened so fast after that that I just didn't think." She stopped for a second, only to gasp. "Oh, right! You don't know: Penny, Rainbow Dash, meet our friends Jaune Arc and Sunset Shimmer. Jaune, Sunset, this is Penny-"

"Hello, new friends!" Penny said, waving enthusiastically.

"And this is Rainbow Dash."

"Yo."

"Yo?" Jaune repeated. "Sunset said...I thought that you were in danger? Sunset said we had to rescue you from a faunus worse than the White Fang."

"Hey!" Rainbow Dash said. "I am worse than the White Fang. The White Fang are a bunch of chumps. I'm a badass." She smirked. "That said, I'm still kind of flattered, Sunset. I wouldn't have thought that you'd be so nice to me."

 _I bet you're just loving this, aren't you?_ "What can I say?" Sunset replied.

Rainbow Dash stared at Sunset coolly for a moment. "I'm going to get a soda," she said. "Hey, Jaune, why don't you take over here."

"Uh, okay," Jaune said, taking Rainbow's place beside Pyrrha. "So, Pyrrha, I didn't know you were into this kind of thing."

"I'm not, really. This is my first time...anywhere like this."

"Really? You mean I might actually beat you at something?" Jaune said. "Or...maybe something less selfish. How have you never been to an arcade before?"

"She's had a poor, deprived childhood," Rainbow called as she headed towards the burger bar at the back of the arcade.

"That's why we're putting it right now," Ruby agreed.

Sunset didn't hear the rest of what might have passed between Jaune and Pyrrha, because she followed Rainbow Dash down towards the back of the arcade.

"Two sodas," Rainbow said, leaning on the desk.

"Generous," Sunset said.

Rainbow snorted. "Who says the other one is for you."

Sunset didn't reply. She just stood there, and stared, and waited.

"Yeah, it's for you, I'm just that nice," Rainbow said. She drummed her fingers on the wooden bar and looked at Sunset out of the side of her eye. "They don't know what you are, do they?"

"What I am? What am I?"

"You're the worst."

Sunset shuffled uncomfortably. "That Anon-a-Miss thing genuinely wasn't me. I swear on...I'll swear on anything you like."

"You could swear on anything _you_ liked and I wouldn't buy it," Rainbow replied. She glanced back up to where the others were engrossed. "What do you think they'd do if they heard some of the stories that I could tell them about you."

"No," Sunset whispered. "Please, don't. I...I'm not the person that I was back then."

"Why should I believe that either?"

"Because they trust me?" Sunset offered. "Because they put up with me, maybe they even like me a little. If I were that bad, if I were as bad as I was back then, would they do that? Would they be able to do that? I've changed, Rainbow Dash, I promise, I sw- I've changed."

Rainbow cocked her head. "This matters to you, doesn't it?"

"Yes it matters to me!" Sunset hissed. "You're talking about destroying the trust that my team has in me."

"The way that you tried to take away the trust my friends had in each other?" Rainbow demanded. "The way you tried to divide and rule at Canterlot?"

"I was an idiot!" Sunset cried. She would have grabbed Rainbow if she hadn't thought it would be counter-productive. "I was stupid and I didn't realise what it meant to be a faunus in Atlas and how it would all turn out and I'm sorry. Okay? I'm sorry for what I did, for what I tried to do...to you and your friends and everyone, I'm sorry. Is that what you want to hear? What do you want from me?"

"Maybe I want to know why you did it."

"Because I hated you!" Sunset said in a voice that was half-yell, half-whisper. "I hated the way that...I hated the way that when you were around I couldn't just pretend that it was all about my ears and my tail because that's what I told myself: it's not you, it's Atlas. It's not your fault that they don't see you in all your glory. But then there was you: you can't do half of what I can, your semblance is just...all you can do is run fast and you're just a faunus just like me and yet...everyone thought you were so awesome. You were the star of the school and you had friends. You had _human_ friends who didn't give a damn about the extra ears." Sunset took a deep breath. "I'm not proud, but there it is. That's why I tried to...because I wanted to bring you down to the same level that I was stuck at but that's not who I am any more. Please, Rainbow Dash, I...I'm begging you. Don't take this away from me."

But Rainbow dash's face was hard as stone, her eyes hostile and unyielding.

And then she started to laugh. "You should see the look on your face. Hah!"

Sunset's eyes widened in confusion. "You...what...huh?"

"I'm not going to tell them anything," Rainbow said.

"You're not?"

"I may not like you, but I'm not _like_ you," Rainbow said. "I'm not going to try and ruin your life just because I can. Plus, if it really matters that much to you then maybe you have changed. Or else you'll blow it for yourself like you did at Canterlot."

"Don't remind me," Sunset growled. "So this...this was all about getting a rise out of me?"

"Pretty much."

"You are more evil then I could ever dream of being."

"Oh, come on! Pranks are good fun so long as the target can take it."

"I'll bear that in mind."

"Ooh, was that a threat?"

"Or perhaps I'll just share the pictures of that band you and your friends used to be in."

"Okay, first of all we're still in a band: Rainbooms for life. Second, you can share whatever pictures you like because we _rocked_ that look."

"You certainly didn't rock the music."

"Now you're just showing that you have bad taste."

By the time they rejoined the others, Rainbow having decided it would be rude not to get everyone a drink, not to mention a tub of chips for sharing - "Don't worry," she said, although Sunset hadn't been. "Atlas is paying for all of this." Whatever that meant - Pyrrha was laughing and Jaune was crowing.

"I did it!" he yelled. "I actually beat you! I don't believe it!"

"I don't believe it either," Sunset said. "What happened."

"It turns out I'm terrible at this game," Pyrrha said, stifling her laughter behind one hand. "But it was such fun, can we go again?"

It turned out that Pyrrha was pretty terrible at button-mashers in general, if only because she couldn't seem to get the hang of the controls at all no matter how they were spelled out for her. She did much, much better at shooters where she shot the plastic guns with the same unerring aim that she used when firing Milo...until she started to fall off in performance to the extent that Sunset wondered if she was deliberately throwing games so that people would want to keep playing against her. Not that Sunset was bothered by that, it left more space on the high score table for her.

"Do you have any idea," Pyrrha said to Ruby, as she stepped back from _Alley Brawler_ to let Jaune go up against Rainbow Dash. "How refreshing it is to not have your opponent concede defeat to you before the fight has even begun? Thank you, Ruby, this was a wonderful idea."

"I'm glad you're having a good time," Ruby said. "I-"

"YES!" Sunset yelled, as she finally, finally, finally beat Penny at _TurboRacer_. The strange girl - so strange that Sunset wanted to know what was up with her - had reflexes that were uncannily fast, even without her aura activated (they'd jointly decided on auras down to level the playing field a little); she'd claimed to have no more set foot in a place like this than Pyrrha and yet she picked up every game she turned her hand to with ridiculous ease. And she was good at them, too. But none of that mattered because Sunset had beaten her, and it had only taken ten tries to do it, too! "I won!"

"You know," Rainbow said. "I think you might have actually gotten more competitive than you used to be." She grinned. "I like it. Bet I can beat your high score."

"Oh it is so on."

By the time Rainbow and Penny left, somewhat reluctantly having gotten a call from someone named Ciel, the members of Team SAPR were about ready to head back to Beacon themselves. But, even though they hadn't gotten any work done...

"Ruby," Sunset said. "Great job. Today...it was a good day."

"A very good day," Pyrrha agreed.

"A great day," Jaune said. "We should do it again some time."

"Maybe the other members of Rosepetal could join us?" Pyrrha suggested. "Did anybody get their scroll numbers?"

"I did," Ruby said. "And we could bring Iron, too."

Sunset didn't add anything to the growing discussion. The truth was that she could have lost every game and it wouldn't really have made any difference. The moment that Rainbow Dash had revealed that she had no intention of badmouthing Sunset to her friends, the moment it turned out that she would be keeping her team after all...that, alone, was enough to make it a good day.


	25. Rosepetals

Rosepetals

Spike barked.

Twilight looked down from the holographic display in front of her, and smiled down at her pet as, with one hand, she scratched him behind the ears. "What's wrong, Spike? Are you hungry?"

Spike made a yelping, slightly moaning sound as he clambered up onto Twilight's lap.

"Oh, I see, you just want some attention," Twilight said fondly, and she kept on rubbing him even as, with her other hand, she continued to pull out bits and pieces from the blow-out hologram.

Team RSPT had rented a mid-market apartment for their stay in Vale. It wasn't a huge space, but apart from the bedrooms, the bathroom and the kitchen there was a living area with a TV that no one was watching, a couple of chairs, a sofa, some floor space that was getting increasingly cluttered with stuff and a table on which Twilight Sparkle had set up her holo-projector. It was currently projecting, in a soft blue light, a three-dimension blow-up diagram of the planned Semi-Autonomous Sword system she was working on. Even as she gave Spike a belly-rub with one hand, Twilight pulled a piece of the power-pack towards her and turned it over in the air, looking for excess space that she could minimise in her quest to get this thing working.

On the other side of the table, just about visible through the hologram, Ciel sat primly in a tatty green armchair, reading a large and rather heavy-looking book on the history of the Atlesian Navy during the Great War. Occasionally she glanced at her watch and uttered a loud tut.

"I'm sure that they'll be back soon," Twilight said nervously. "After all, Rainbow has my tracking app, so she knows where to find Penny."

"Indeed."

Twilight pushed her glasses back up her nose. The truth was that she was feeling a little nervous herself. It shouldn't have taken Rainbow Dash that long to find Penny. After all, her semblance was quite literally being fast, so it wasn't as if Penny could run away from her. Not forever, anyway.

Perhaps something really had happened to them. A part of Twilight felt disloyal even for considering the possibility – Rainbow was one of her best friends, after all; how could she not have faith in her? But another part of her felt more afraid _because_ Rainbow was one of Twilight's best friends. What if something happened to her? What if the White Fang got her, or racists, or she was trying to help Penny, or…what if she went out that door and never came back?

 _What would I say to Pinkie, or Fluttershy and Applejack? What would I say to Scootaloo? What if I never_ -

Spike looked up, his tongue hanging out of his mouth, and barked happily at the door.

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief as she realised that she had been panicking over nothing, working herself up into a state for no good reason. Spike only barked at the door like that when Rainbow Dash was coming back (in this city, at least; back in Atlas it would happen whenever one of Twilight's friends came around).

Sure enough, there was a knock at the door just a few seconds later.

Twilight was about to get up, but she was halted by a raised hand from Ciel.

"It's just Rainbow Dash," Twilight said.

"We'll see," Ciel said in a tone devoid of emotion. She put down her heavy book and got up, picking up the pistol that sat on the arm of her chair.

She loaded and cocked it as she walked towards the door.

 _Do we really need to be so paranoid?_ Twilight supposed that they probably did, since one of the few things that Rainbow and Ciel agreed on was that Vale was dangerous and that they needed to be cautious, but Twilight sometimes struggled to see what they were so worried about. The four kingdoms were at peace, and Vale and Atlas had been allies for a generation. It was true that General Ironwood had insisted on the need for secrecy around Penny, but he wouldn't have sent them to Vale if it was the kind of warzone were they should be afraid of walking out the front door.

Ciel pressed herself against the wall, and peered out of the peephole. She made a slightly exasperated noise as she opened the door to reveal Rainbow Dash and Penny.

"Hey," Rainbow said, with a sheepish smile on her face. "We brought take-out." She raised a couple of plastic bags bulging with cardboard noodle boxes. Twilight could smell the Mistralian food from where she sat.

"Welcome back," Twilight said. "Are you guys okay?"

"We are in excellent condition!" Penny replied as she followed Rainbow inside.

Ciel shut the door behind them with just a little more force than was necessary. "You have been out of contact for five hours and forty-two minutes."

"Sometimes I can't tell which one is the automaton," Rainbow muttered as she walked into the centre of the room and deposited the bags of food on the floor. "Hey, Twi. Hey there, Spike."

Spike barked, and leapt off Twilight's lap to run to Rainbow Dash's feet. Rainbow grinned as she knelt down and rubbed his feet.

"Kinda makes me miss Tank, seeing the little guy like this," Rainbow murmured.

"I'm sure Pinkie's taking care of him."

"Yeah, if the alligator hasn't eaten him."

"Actually, at Gummy's size his jaws don't have the strength to-

"I'll take your word for it, Twi; you know math isn't my thing."

"Is that why you were out so late?" Ciel asked, folding her arms.

"We were out with my new friends!" Penny declared cheerfully.

The words crashed down amongst the remaining members of Team RSPT like a broken sky-cruiser falling to the ground.

"Your…new…friends?" Twilight repeated.

Ciel's expression was like stone. "Clarify."

Rainbow rose to her feet. "Penny made some friends on her big day out. A team of huntresses in training from Beacon called Team Sapphire. Hey, Twilight, you'd never guess who their leader is."

Twilight blinked. It had to be someone that she knew – and Rainbow Dash knew – or she wouldn't be bringing it up. But equally it had to be someone she wouldn't necessarily expect to be in such a position. Who did they know who had gone to Beacon? "Flash Sentry?"

"Sunset Shimmer?"

Twilight's eyebrows rose. "You ran into Sunset Shimmer?"

"Yup. Sunset Shimmer, lead of Team Sapphire."

"And you're both still in one piece?"

"She's actually kind of mellowed out since we last saw her."

"Really?"

"Kind of."

Ciel cleared her throat loudly. "What happened?"

Rainbow opened her mouth, but once again Penny spoke before her. "We went to the arcade. It was a lot of fun! Ruby and I-"

"Penny," Rainbow said, gently but firmly. "I don't think Ciel wants a blow-by-blow account."

"An arcade?" Ciel repeated. "You took Penny to an arcade?"

"You say that like I took her to somewhere really immoral," Rainbow said. "What do you have against videogames?"

Ciel stared at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash stared right back.

"I was right there, Penny was never in any danger," Rainbow said firmly.

"You exposed her to outsiders."

"Isn't that what we're supposed to be testing in the first place?"

Ciel inhaled sharply through her nose. "What are the names of the Team Sapphire members."

"Sunset Shimmer, Pyrrha Nikos, Ruby Rose and Jaune Arc," Rainbow replied.

"Do you think we can trust Sunset?"

"We don't need to trust her, she doesn't know anything."

Ciel shook her head. "Specialist Schnee will need to be informed about this."

Rainbow sighed. "Fine. Can we eat first? Fifteen minutes?"

Ciel looked at her watch. Then, barely noticeably, she glanced at the food Rainbow had bought.

"Very well," she said.

* * *

Rainbow and Ciel had gone into one of the bedrooms to make Rainbow's report to Specialist Schnee, which left Twilight keeping an eye on Penny.

Well, she was sort of keeping an eye on her. She was also still working on the swords, even as she fed Spike a piece of chicken with one hand. He gobbled it up greedily, then nibbled playfully at Twilight's fingers. The tickling sensation made her chuckle a little.

"What are you doing, Twilight?" Penny asked.

"I'm trying to find a way to modify your swords," Twilight said. "So that you can control them without the need for wires."

"Why?"

"Because the wires represent a vulnerability in your design," Twilight said. Doctor Polendina's original design for Penny had called for her swords to work on a drone model, powered independently and driven by signals from Penny's core processor. Unfortunately, they couldn't design a sword with a combination of independent power supply and signal receiver that remained compact enough to fit into Penny's back with the requisite number of other swords. Ideally they wouldn't have moved to production until that issue had been sorted, but too much time and money had already been invested in Penny by that point to put everything on hold until they could resolve the issue, so they had moved to a wire-based control model. Hopefully it would only be temporary if Twilight could find a way to miniaturise the necessary elements of the drone design. "And the goal of our engineering should be to eliminate vulnerabilities."

Penny was silent for a moment. "I thought I was designed to protect the vulnerable, not destroy them."

"Um, that's not quite what I meant by elimination, Penny," Twilight murmured.

"Oh."

"What I meant was," Twilight continued, as she frowned a little at the holographic display. "Is that we should always try and improve what we've made, to make it better. Does that make more sense?"

"So removing my wires will make me better?"

"I think so, yes."

"Oh," Penny repeated. She glanced at the closed door, behind which Rainbow and Ciel were talking. "Am I in trouble?"

Twilight shook her head. "I don't think it's possible for you to get into trouble, Penny."

"Is Rainbow Dash in trouble?"

Twilight hesitated. "Maybe. I hope not. It will depend on what Specialist Schnee says, I suppose."

"You hope not…because Rainbow Dash is your friend?"

"Yes," Twilight said. "Yes, I hope that she's not in trouble because she's my friend."

"How do you know?"

"Huh?"

"How do you know that Rainbow Dash is really your friend?" Penny asked.

Twilight looked away from the hologram, and for the first time she looked at Penny. The latter was sat across the table from her and leaning forward, hands resting on her knees, her face illuminated with eager curiosity.

"Penny," Twilight said. "What's this about?"

"I want to know," Penny said. "How you know that your friend is really your friend. And how you know that you are really their friend. You say that you and Rainbow Dash are friends, but how do you know?"

Twilight cringed a little, and looked away from Penny as she absently reached up and started to play with one of the strands of her hair. Her fingertips brushed against her star hairclip. "I…it took me a long time to find the answer to that myself, Penny."

"But you did, didn't you?"

"Eventually," Twilight said softly. "I spent my life…searching for something more but with no idea of what it was. I aced tests, I was praised for my intelligence…but it wasn't enough. I wanted…I needed…more than that. It was as though…I had an emptiness inside me. A void that I couldn't fill no matter how much I tried. It wasn't until I met my friends that I realised that they were what I'd been missing, that _that_ was what I'd been searching for to fill that void." She chuckled. "I'm afraid this must all seem really unscientific, because it is. I can't tell you how I know that Rainbow Dash is my friend, I can't quantify it that way. I could tell you the things that Rainbow has done for me, the things that all of my friends have done for me, but that's not really it. It's something that I feel…in my soul. When I'm around my friends…everything feels better." She groaned. "I'm terrible at explaining this, I'm sorry. If Pinkie were here then maybe-"

"No," Penny said. "That…I think I understand. So, Twilight, do you think that I could feel that too? Do you think that I could _know_ that Ruby is my friend?"

Twilight hesitated for a moment. "Yes," she said. "You have a soul, Penny. And if you have a soul then you can feel in your soul. You're a person." _A person that we built to fight grimm until you die or your parts give out, without ever once asking if that's what you wanted to do with your life._ Suddenly Twilight felt rather ill.

"Twilight?" Penny asked. "Is something wrong?"

 _Yes. I'm wrong. What we're doing is wrong. This whole situation is wrong!_ Twilight tried to keep her burgeoning sense of horror at what she had allowed herself to become a part of off her face. She needed to talk to someone about this – someone other than Penny. She needed – she wanted – Rainbow to tell her that they were not complicit in a monstrous act.

She turned off the hologram. She couldn't work on improving Penny's ability to destroy her enemies at this moment.

"I, I'm fine, Penny," she stammered. "I just, uh-"

The door opened, and Rainbow and Ciel came out.

 _Oh, thank goodness_. Twilight put Spike down on the floor and got up. "Um, Ciel, can you take over watching Penny for a bit. I really need to talk to Rainbow Dash."

* * *

The gaze of Specialist Winter Schnee would have chilled the blood of a lesser woman than Rainbow Dash. Even at the best of times Winter had a way of looking at you as though you were crap on her heel, and unlike some people who had looked at Rainbow Dash that way it had nothing to do with the ears rising up out of her rainbow hair; Winter Schnee just looked at everybody that way.

Right now she was looking at Rainbow as though she were an especially pungent specimen.

"An arcade," she said, voice dripping with disapproval. "Do you really think that that is the kind of place where our latest prototype should be spending her time?"

"I think that if she's really a she then she should have some time to be a kid and play videogames with her friends," Rainbow said. She had propped her scroll up on the bedside table, so that she could stand at ease in front of the screen without having to hold it with one hand. Her feet were spaced and her hands were clasped behind her back, as if by adopting a disciplined posture now she could get away with the indiscipline that she had displayed earlier today.

Winter's expression didn't change. "Friends. You mean the Beacon students that she ran into."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Don't you think that calling them friends is a stretch?" Winter demanded. "She's only known them for one afternoon. Do you really believe that Penny, that anyone, can make friends so quickly?"

"Yes, ma'am, I do," Rainbow said. Sometimes it didn't even need to take a whole afternoon. Pinkie could make a friend in ten seconds flat, and Penny…there were times when Rainbow thought that Penny had that same kind of open heart.

There were other times when Rainbow didn't like to think about Penny having a heart, especially not one that was at all like Rainbow's friend, because if that was true then…yeah; that would suck.

Winter's eyes narrowed. "Do you trust them, these Beacon students?"

"Trust them with what, ma'am?"

If Winter's eyes narrowed any further then she'd be squinting. "Don't play games with me, Rainbow Dash."

"I'm not playing," Rainbow replied. "Would I trust them with my life? Probably not; not yet anyway. But would I trust them to hang out with Penny and not be mean to her? Yeah, I think I would. They seem like good people." Three of them did, anyway. The jury was still out on Sunset Shimmer. She did seem to have mellowed a little bit, but she still had that competitive streak, and who knew how much of the old Sunset was still there? If she could get ahead by doing something to Penny, would she? Rainbow couldn't say. For the other three though, she thought they seemed like good people, Pyrrha especially.

"Soleil," Winter said.

"Yes, ma'am," Ciel said, stepping forward so that Winter could see her face through the scroll camera.

"Do you have the names of this Beacon team?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"What do you know?"

Ciel began to rattle off information in that way she had of making her seem more robotic than Penny sometimes. "Sunset Shimmer, seventeen, hails from Drakon, studied at Canterlot Combat School, leader of Team Sapphire. Jaune Arc, seventeen, hails from Vale, obtained a HED certificate from the Vale Council on Education, member of Team Sapphire. Pyrrha Nikos, seventeen, hails from Mistral, studied at Sanctum Combat School and four times winner of the Mistral Regional Tournament. Ruby Rose, fifteen, hails from Patch, studied at Signal Combat School before being admitted to Beacon Academy through the patronage of Professor Ozpin, member of Team Sapphire."

"And your assessment?"

"None of them have any known affiliations with anti-Atlas groups, ma'am."

"I see," Winter murmured. "Rainbow Dash, what are your intentions going forward?"

Rainbow's pony ears twitched. "I'd like to take Penny out some more. I think that if she's allowed some supervised freedom, she won't try and run away again."

"Freedom," Winter repeated. "Meaning further contact with her new friends?"

"If that's what she wants."

"Ciel, what do you think?"

"If Penny is to make friends I would have preferred to vet them beforehand," Ciel said. "That said, I believe that the notion has some merit. It could be tested. Part of the purpose of this mission is to determine Penny's ability to interact with the general population."

Rainbow's eyebrows rose. _Did you just agree with me?_

Winter looked from Ciel to Rainbow Dash and then back again. "Very well. I'll submit your recommendations to General Ironwood, along with your report on today's events. However, until I get back to you with our decision you're to remain on lockdown. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Understood, ma'am."

"Good. Schnee out." The picture on the scroll disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Rainbow walked across the room to recover her scroll. "Thanks for having my back there. I didn't expect it."

"Your idea has some merit," Ciel said stiffly. "Do you know why the military decided to move ahead with Project Guardian?"

Rainbow picked the scroll up and turned around. "No."

"Sociological studies show that people are not comforted by the presence of Atlesian Knights," Ciel said. "They arouse feelings of nervousness and uncertainty. It's hoped that robots like Penny, who can interact with humans on a personal level, will not have this difficulty but will rather, provide reassurance."

Rainbow smirked.

"Is something amusing?"

"The way you talk about interacting with humans on a personal level is kinda funny," Rainbow said. "But I get what you're trying to say: robots won't be so scary once they can act like us."

"Precisely."

"But to know if she can act like us, Penny actually needs to get out there and meet…someone other than us," Rainbow said. "Someone like team Sapphire."

"Their status has yet to be determined," Ciel replied. "But someone."

"Well, thanks anyway."

"I don't always agree with your attitude," Ciel said. "But we're all doing our part for the glory of Atlas." She turned, and led the way back into the living room, with Rainbow Dash half a step behind her,

Twilight got up, setting Spike down on the floor as she did so. "Um, Ciel, can you take over watching Penny for a bit. I really need to talk to Rainbow Dash."

 _What's this about?_ Twi sounded nervous about something, but Rainbow couldn't think what could have happened in the short time they'd been talking to Schnee that could have made her nervous. It wasn't as though Penny was going to do anything.

Ciel nodded. "Very well."

"The kitchen?" Rainbow suggested.

"Yeah," Twilight said, with a nod of her head.

They went into the kitchen, a slightly unkempt place that hadn't been very clean when they moved in. They'd disinfected it, but they couldn't get rid of some of the stains. Rainbow poured herself a glass of water and sipped from it, leaning against the wooden headboard. Twilight lingered closer to the door, clutching nervously at her skirt.

"What's up, Twi?"

Twilight pushed her glasses up her nose. "I want you to tell me that we're not doing something awful."

Rainbow finished her glass of water. "We're not doing something awful."

"Can you try and say it as though you mean it?"

Rainbow put down the glass. "What's this about, Twilight?"

"What do you think?" Twilight replied. "We've built a slave."

Rainbow frowned. "You're being a bit harsh, don't you think?"

"Penny doesn't get a choice in what she does or where she goes," Twilight said. "We tell her what to do and we expect her to do it even if…how is that any different from the way that the faunus were treated before the Great War."

"Nobody built the faunus, Penny was created for this," Rainbow said.

"Does that matter?"

"I don't know, does it?" Rainbow replied. "Those drones you make, they can think for themselves, right?"

"Kind of, on a simplistic level."

"You don't worry about them being slaves."

"My drone didn't just ask me what friendship was and how I knew that you and I were really friends," Twilight said.

"Penny asked you that?"

"Yes."

Rainbow's eyebrows rose. "Wow. Okay, now I see why you're a little…like this." She turned away, resting her hands on the sideboard as she looked out the window. The shattered moon gleamed in the sky above them. Rainbow wondered briefly what it was like up there, and lamented that she'd probably never get a chance to find out.

She head Twilight's footsteps on the kitchen tiles. "Rainbow, what are we doing?"

"I've already asked Winter if we can let her out more often."

"Do you think that's enough?"

"I don't think there's much else we can do, right now."

"But does that make it right?"

Rainbow sighed. "I don't know, Twi. I just…I don't know."


	26. Descends from Shadows

Descends from Shadows

Roman Torchwick climbed down from the bullhead feeling pretty good about himself. Sure, a couple of the recent robberies hadn't exactly gone according to plan – he didn't know whether he wanted to get another shot a little Red or whether he never wanted to see her again – but tonight had gone off without a hitch. They'd gotten away with a major dust shipment, which would teach the Schnee Dust Company not to leave product sitting around on the docks overnight where anyone could get their hands on it.

The amount they'd lifted tonight was equal to what they could have gotten from a dozen dust shops, more than enough to make up for the…less than ideal way a couple of those jobs had gone.

They had enough dust now to blow this town. And come back to blow a hole in it later.

"Good job, boys," Roman said, as he sauntered away from the airship and towards the warehouse where they were storing the dust until they shipped it out to the south-east. "Get the goods inside and then…why don't you take the rest of the night off?"

Neo kept pace beside him as Roman walked into the dark warehouse, twirling his cane idly in one hand as, with the other, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigar.

"Need a light?" Cinder asked, as the fire that sprung up into her palm illuminated one side of her face.

Roman stopped; his whole body froze for a moment. It took him that long to remember that he'd just pulled off a successful heist and that, tonight at least, she had no cause to be angry with him. It took him a moment to remember that because _damn_ , this broad was scary.

He'd be lying if he denied that, when she first caught up to him, he'd been attracted to her. You didn't see a girl like her every day; hell, there were supermodels that didn't look so hot.

But all the beauty in the world wouldn't make him touch that after some of the things he'd seen.

Make no mistake, this chick was scary.

But right now he had no reason to feel scared, and in Roman Torchwick's profession you didn't let the other guy know when he put you on edge or else he'd just keep doing it. And so Roman chuckled, and shook his head as he stuck the cigar in his mouth. "Thanks, but no need to trouble yourself. I got it covered." He pulled out his lighter, and lit up the cigar. He drew on it, long and deep, feeling the calming influence begin to settle on him almost as once. "So, come to check on progress? We had a good haul tonight."

"Good," Cinder said. "If only that was always the case with your operations."

Roman took a drag on his cigar. "It's true that we've had a couple of mishaps, but come on! Look at all this dust. It's not like it's been one screw-up after another."

"I should hope not," Cinder replied, as she walked with a languid, alluring gait out of the shadows in which she'd been lurking. She was wearing red, a shimmering red dress that was falling off of her shoulders and exposing her…

Okay, maybe he was still attracted to her but who could blame him. She was _hot_.

"If you were providing a parade of failures then that would make me wonder if I hadn't chosen the wrong associate to go into business with."

Roman laughed nervously. "Well, I guess we're both glad that things have been going more or less to plan so far, huh?"

"More or less," the voice that spoke – growled – those words was unfamiliar to Roman Torchwick, and he would have rather that it stayed that way. There was a barely restrained rage in that voice, barking out each word as though he would choke on it otherwise, that made Roman think that they probably weren't going to get along. "More. Or. Less?" A bull faunus strode out of the darkness. He was dressed all in black, swathed in like night, save only for two spots of colour: the grimm mask that covered his upper face, more stylised than most of these animals could boast, with red lines like scars running down the white; and his hair, which burned like fire behind his horns.

"More or less?" he demanded. "My brothers are being held in cages like dogs because of you!"

Roman grinned. "For some of 'em, it's probably home sweet home."

The faunus bellowed angrily, and reached for the long hilt of the sword at his hip. The blade was crimson, and a foot of it had been revealed before Cinder's voice halted his movement.

"Enough," she said, in a voice that was as sharp as a sword itself. "Enough. Adam, control your temper; and Roman, control your tongue before it gets you into trouble."

The faunus – Adam – slid his sword back into its scabbard. "If we were anywhere else I'd cut off your head for speaking to me like that."

Neo stepped protectively in front of Roman, parasol raised.

"I told you boys to drop it," Cinder said, sounding decidedly bored of it all at this point. "I didn't bring you here so you could fight."

"Why did you bring this charmer?" Roman muttered. "Is he your new flunky? What happened to those two brats?" He wouldn't blame Cinder if she'd kicked them both to the curb, or just killed them. The boy, in particular, reminded him of his son; why anyone would want a kid like that around was beyond him.

"Mercury and Emerald are attending to some other business for me," Cinder said easily. "But no, Adam isn't my servant. He's the leader of the White Fang here in Vale."

"You didn't seriously think that all of these brothers and sisters serve you out of any love, did you?" Adam demanded mockingly. "They're assisting you because _I_ have vouched for you all. And you're already starting to make me regret it."

"This is about the dust shop, isn't it?" Roman said. "Listen, I don't know what you've heard about what happened there-"

"All I care about is that my brothers and sisters are languishing in cells while you walk free."

"Calm down, Adam," Cinder said, in a voice that was soft but which held the promise that it could become harder if need be.

"I will not allow free faunus to be dragged in chains before a human court, judged by human laws while humans mock them from the gallery!" Adam snapped. "They have no right to judge us, and I will not suffer it!"

"You'll have to, for just a little while," Cinder declared. "I have a plan that will get us all what we want, but we'll need to let the trial begin first."

"Why?" Adam demanded. "Give me one good reason I shouldn't just go down to the precinct and free my comrades this very night."

"How about all the cops?" Roman muttered.

"They'll be a lot of corpses if they try and stand in my way."

 _Where did Cinder find this guy?_ Roman plucked the cigar from his mouth and exhaled a plume of smoke. "Listen, I can tell you're really attached to your guys and all…but take it from an old hand at this kind of stuff, if you're worried about your crew snitching it's better to shut 'em up than break 'em out if you know what I mean. Now I got a couple of friends inside-"

Adam growled wordlessly, and Roman decided it might be best to shut up before he chewed through the leash that Cinder had him on.

"The trial starts tomorrow," Cinder explained. "And those huntresses who foiled the robbery have been subpoenaed as witnesses."

"You want to try something with them in the courtroom?" Roman asked incredulously. "You didn't see what these kids are capable of."

"No, I didn't," Cinder said. She smirked. "But I will."

Roman raised his visible eyebrow. "You really think it's worth it."

"Adam wants to rescue his brothers and sisters of the revolution," Cinder said. "I want to see if the things I've heard about these children are true. Our goals conveniently align. And if these girls live up to the reputations building around them, then better to act now than wait." She held up both her palms, and flames leapt up in them; they gleamed in her predatory eyes.

"The world stands upon the verge of a great change," Cinder said. "All that is old and unworthy will be swept away, and something new and wonderful will take its place. No one can be allowed to stand in the way of my dreams. Either they will embrace the darkness…or we must snuff them out." She closed her hands, and the flames that had danced upon her palms died swiftly and without warning.


	27. Bullhead Down

Bullhead Down

The Team BLBL dorm room was filled with music. It often was, of a nights after dinner when the various teams retired to their respective rooms before lights out. Blake had been worried, when she first took command - command; it still seemed strange to think of it. After these past two months she still had trouble thinking of herself as a leader - that she would be expected to help fill up the silence with conversation. It wasn't something she was particularly looking forward to.

As it turned out, filling the silence wasn't something that Blake had to worry about, as Lyra was quite capable of filling any silence that arose whether she was prompted to or not. It was rare for a night to pass without at least one song from Lyra's harp, often more, because she played like one of the gods themselves and sang just as beautifully. The sound of her harp, and the sound of her voice, combined to hold Bon Bon and Sky spellbound - Bon Bon was sitting on the edge of her bed, leaned forward, elbows resting on her knees and a look of such rapturous adoration on her face. Sky lay on his back with a look on his face as though his soul was being scored by the music - and often even Blake found that the music soothed her restless spirit, and brought her some much needed comfort and solace.

But it brought her no comfort now. Few things could, and fewer could distract her from the dark thoughts that whirled about her mind and had done so ever since she had read the news of the White Fang attack on the Schnee Dust Company store.

Roman Torchwick. Roman Torchwick! That the White Fang would be in league with a man like that - a criminal, a rat king who had killed all the other rats on his way to the top of the refuse pile - it baffled her, it enraged her, it frightened her, it filled her with so many feelings that she scarcely knew where to begin in sorting through them.

It baffled her because she just couldn't understand how this could happen. Why would Sienna or Adam agree to work with a man like Torchwick, and what would make him even think to approach them? Sienna Khan was may things but one thing she was not was a hypocrite; she was a true believer in the cause of the White Fang, and when Blake had known her she had never suffered for that cause to corrupted. She had purged anyone whom she caught using the movement to enrich themselves or their associates without mercy. It verged on impossible for Blake to believe that she would now turn a blind eye to any of her lieutenants using the movement as mere muscle for hire and as for Adam...the idea that he could so much as share a room with a human for very long without striking them dead was hard for Blake to accept. He was too full of hatred for their race.

Adam and Sienna did not see eye to eye on everything, but on one thing they were agree: the White Fang were not criminals. Though they might break the law, that law was in itself rendered illegitimate by its use to keep the faunus in their downtrodden place. That they would ally with a man who broke the law without any such noble justification was hard to stomach.

It was enraging. Enraging to think of the movement that her father had founded, to which Blake had dedicated most of her life, could become so thoroughly corrupted.

Blake had already known that the White Fang had fallen far from the ideals on which it had been established. She wouldn't have been in Beacon if she hadn't come to that belated realisation, rather she still would have been at Adam's side. But at the same time...at the same time she still didn't want to believe just how far the White Fang had fallen. Blake had believed - she still believed - in the righteousness of their aim and the justice of their cause. Her heart still ached at the thought of all the faunus living in poverty and squalor across the four kingdoms, and she longed for the day on which she could discard her bow and all faunus would stand as equals of men. It was the means that she had fled from, not the goal: the increasingly indiscriminate violence; the deployment of terror; the erosion of the idea that any human could be innocent, let alone an ally of their cause. But now, not only had Sienna and Adam and those who flocked around them turned the movement she had loved into a murderous gang, but it seemed that they turned it into a murderous criminal gang that had turned away from justice completely in the name of profit from theft and criminality. Robbing dust shops? Was that the White Fang was about now? Had Adam become nothing more than a fence?

It frightened her because she could not understand it, and what she could not understand made her nervous. Adam had always been at his most dangerous, most fearsome, when she could least easily understand him. When she could not tell what had worked him into such a rage, when she was ignorant of the causes of his sudden swing in mood, that was when he was most frightening to her, and most likely to hurt her whether he meant to or not. This development was frightening in part because she didn't understand it, and in part because the possible reasons for it - beyond the simple degradation of the White Fang's goal - were in themselves alarming. Either they were selling the dust they stole, or they were not. If they were selling it on the black market - perhaps they were working with men like Torchwick to take advantage of his criminal contacts in that area - then that suggested that they need a great deal of money, and probably not to pay for redecorating Sienna's headquarters. The alternative was that they needed a lot of dust, which was arguably even worse than a need for money. Were they raising an army? Building a bomb? Something worse that she couldn't even conceive of?

She had considered going to the trial, to see if any new information came to light; she supposed she was still half hoping that it was all lies. But, ultimately, just as she knew in her heart that it was true she also knew that she daren't go to the trial. Walter had known her since she was a child, he'd been Adam's strong right arm for years, if he spotted her he was sure to recognise her then...Blake shuddered. She wouldn't trust prison to keep the news of her whereabouts from getting to Adam.

Blake wanted to do something. She wanted desperately to do something.

But she had no idea what she ought to do.

She had no idea what she could do.

"Blake?" Bon Bon murmured, recalling Blake to her present for a moment. "Are you okay?"

Blake realised abruptly that Lyra and Bon Bon were both staring at her, and even Sky had rolled over to look at her.

"Uh, yeah," she muttered. "I guess I must have just spaced out for a moment." She forced a smile onto her face. "Your music can have that effect."

The quirk of Lyra's eyebrow suggested that she could spot an attempt at flattering BS when she heard it.

Bon Bon, on the other hand, smirked. "Yeah, the music, I'll bet. You know, if you were thinking about that cute guy we met down by the wharfside you can just say so. Admit it, we won't judge."

Just how wrong Bon Bon was could be evidenced by the fact it took Blake a minute to remember who she was talking about: right, the guy from down by the dockside, the stowaway who had stopped in his flight from the cops to wink at her. She guessed that he _was_ kind of cute, but she didn't have time to think about stuff like that right now. There was so much going on that was so much more important than that.

"Are you serious?" Sky demanded. "Blake has higher standards than that."

Bon Bon and Lyra both looked at him. "What is that supposed to mean?" Lyra asked.

Sky shifted uncomfortably as he sat up. "I just meant…someone who could afford a shirt, maybe."

"You meant cause he's a faunus, didn't you?"

"I never said – and anyway, you can't really think that he was good looking!"

"Well, he's not _my_ type," Bon Bon said. "But Blake should have gotten his number."

Sky made a noise that sounded as though he was about to choke on something.

"I never knew you liked the 'dashing rogue' thing," Lyra said with merriment in her voice.

"He's not a dashing rogue, he's a criminal!" Sky squawked indignantly.

Blake sighed softly, and left them to bicker. Sky was who he was, and the others weren't going to change him. He wasn't overt about it, and she supposed that that was as good as she could hope for in the circumstances.

Some of the time she could even forget that he felt that way.

Or at least, Blake could ordinarily ignore the fact that Sky was the sort of person who regarded faunus with suspicion, just like she could ordinarily tune out Lyra and Bon Bon's chattiness - how did they never run out of things to talk about? - and find it charming in an abstract sense. Ordinary she could appreciate Lyra's music and let it roll over her like the beautiful waves of the sapphire sea around Menagerie where she used to swim when she was a girl.

Ordinarily, but not tonight. Not tonight, when she felt more in need of soothing than she had for many nights passed. She wanted to be taken back home by dreamlike sounds, she wanted to feel the waves washing over her, she wanted to walk through the crowded market; she wanted to feel her father's strong arms and hear his reassuring voice. She wanted to sleep like she had when she was a child and safe and loved.

But she had left that life behind a long time ago.

She got no rest now, and her sleep was constantly disturbed with thoughts of the White Fang and what they had become. No music sprung out of Lyra's harp could soothe her now, and their chit chat seemed so banal and inconsequential that it was all Blake could do not to take offence at it. It wasn't their fault, they knew no better, but how could they discuss the cancellation of their favourite show when Vale was in the grip of a crime spree?

Blake got to her feet and made for the door before she said something unfortunate.

"Blake?" Lyra asked. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Blake muttered. "I just...I need some air."

She left the room, and shut the door behind her.

Blake leaned against the wall and let out a breath she hadn't even known that she'd been holding in. Her head dropped forward wearily.

She couldn't rest until she did something but there was nothing she could do. What a bind.

Maybe she should just run again. She could feel the itching in her feet, the desire to get out that had been building up in her ever since she found out the White Fang was in town. Every day was becoming more of a battle not to take to her heels, to leave Vale and Adam and the White Fang and all the danger behind. She wasn't sure what she would do or where she would go, but that was a very tenuous thread holding her to Beacon at this moment.

The door opened. Blake looked around as Bon Bon walked out into the corridor and gently closed the door behind her.

"You weren't daydreaming about some cute monkey-boy, where you?"

Blake was silent for a moment. "How did you guess?"

Bon Bon cringed. "Sorry if I was out of line. Was I out of line?"

"No," Blake said softly.

She wondered if that was it, she rather hoped that that would be it, but judging by the way that Bon Bon kept standing there looming at her it wasn't quite it, not yet.

"So what is it?" Bon Bon asked.

Blake looked away. "It's personal, and hard to explain."

"Not much stays personal when you're sharing a room with three other people," Bon Bon said. "We're worried about you, Blake. Me, Lyra, even Sky though he's got no clue how to let you know it. If you let us in, maybe we could help you." She smiled encouragingly. "So come on, tell your knight in shining armour everything."

Blake's eyebrows rose. "You're my knight in shining armour?"

"You've seen my armour, right? It literally glows," Bon Bon declared proudly.

Blake shook her head. She might miss Bon Bon when she left; Lyra, too. Maybe even Sky for all his faults. But she couldn't tell them the truth, not while she was still here. If they found out, if anyone found out...it would be the end of everything.

"I can't," she said, softly and with great melancholy.

Bon Bon looked a little sad, and a little disappointed, but she did not look angry. She nodded her head. "Okay," she said. "Just so you know that our ears always work, whenever you need them too." She opened the door. "We all have our past, Blake, and we all have to live with the things that we've done...but we don't have to live alone; not if we choose not to.

Some people deserve to live alone for the things that they've done, Blake thought. And much, much more.

* * *

As the trial was high profile - these were terrorists, after all - and any witnesses were possible targets for White Fang comrades looking to shut them up, a police bullhead had shown up at Beacon air pad to take the members of Team SAPR - and Weiss - down to the courthouse.

"Are you sure that we can't take our weapons with us?" Sunset asked as she climbed aboard and took hold of one of the straps suspended from the ceiling, even as with half a mind she wondered why no one had ever thought to put seats in one of these things.

"Sorry," said the red-headed cop assigned to lead their escort. He hadn't bothered to introduce himself and Sunset hadn't asked for his name. "No weapons allowed in court, you understand."

"Sure I understand, I just don't like it very much," Sunset replied as Weiss climbed aboard, swiftly followed by the rest of Sunset's team. "You realise that the last time we went anywhere without our weapons we got attacked by these White Fang guys, right?"

The cop laughed. "Relax, the security around the court house is top notch, and there's no way these animals can touch us in the air. Uh, no offence."

Sunset just about resisted the urge to flip him off, and contented himself with glaring at him instead.

He swiftly looked away, although given that his new focus was Weiss perhaps he would have started to ignore Sunset anyway. "Miss Schnee, are you alright? Is there anything you need?"

Weiss looked mildly disgusted, although there was always an element of that in her expression. "I'm fine, thank you very much," she replied, with cool courtesy.

"If there's anything at all I can do for you, Miss Schnee, you only have to ask."

Weiss looked at him out of the corner of her eyes. "Really? And what would you like me to do for you in return?"

The cop didn't even have the grace to look ashamed of himself. "Well, I've heard the money is a lot better in the private sector and I figured an experienced detective like me might find a good home in the Security division of the Schnee Dust Company."

Weiss expression didn't alter by a jot. "I'll be sure to pass your name along, detective."

Sunset was absolutely convinced that if Weiss did pass this guy's name along it would be with instructions to never give him so much as an interview.

Nevertheless, the cop looked pretty satisfied with the answer he'd just gotten. In fact he looked pleased as punch as though he'd already gotten the private sector job he craved. "Are you all in?"

"Yes," Pyrrha answered for all of them.

"Good luck in there, Rubes!" Yang yelled from outside the bullhead. "I'll be there rooting for you!"

Ruby looked like she might be sick, and unlike Jaune it probably wasn't because of the flying. "You...You don't have to, you know."

"Maybe not, but I'm gonna!"

Ruby mumbled something that sounded distinctly unhappy at the prospect. "I wish we didn't have to do this."

Pyrrha put her free hand, the hand she wasn't using to hold on to the ceiling strap, on Ruby's shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"I'm...not so good with people," Ruby said.

"Join the club, if it'll make you feel better," Sunset said. "This isn't exactly a team of social butterflies."

"Yeah, but now people are going to be staring at me and asking me questions and-"

"And we'll all be there with you, and Yang too," Jaune said. "We're all in this together."

"Right."

"Besides," Sunset said. "We're prosecution witnesses, so we'll probably get a lot of softball questions so they can lock these guys away."

Pyrrha leaned down a little. "In tournaments, the crowd goes away once the match starts. Just focus on the one person you have to focus on, the one thing you have to do, and exclude everything else. Block it all out, and it will have no power to disturb you."

Ruby smiled gratefully. "Thanks, Pyrrha. I'll give it a try."

"Take off!" the cop said. "Let's go!"

The bullhead lifted up into the air; its VTL engines whirled and whined and blew into the faces of Sunset and the others as it rose off the landing pad. Yang remained, growing smaller and smaller beneath and away from them, waving to Ruby even as the aircraft carried her away and out of sight.

The plane carried them over the city blocks of Vale, over high rises of steel and glass and slum districts where low houses looked on the verge of ruin. There was no mistaking where the Vale of haves ended and the Vale of the have not began; the two kingdoms of the rich and poor lived side by side but worlds apart, ignorant of one another's habits and customs, probably hating and fearing one another too. Sunset found herself idly wondering, as she looked down, what Princess Celestia would have made of such a separation; even Canterlot was not as bad as this.

But then, Sunset couldn't imagine that many societies prized harmony as an end in itself the way that ponies did. And it wasn't as if Vale had an immortal ruler pulling all the strings to achieve said harmony. Mistakes would happen when you left the little people to run things.

Thinking about Celestia reminded Sunset that the former still hadn't replied to her apology. Did she not care, or just not realise how important this was to Sunset?

She turned her thoughts away from such things, and from the city passing beneath her, and looked at her companions on the plane: Jaune was carefully avoiding looking down, and even so he looked green about the face. Weiss' skirt - they were all wearing their school uniform - was bouncing a little from the updraft; Ruby still looked nervous; Pyrrha was serenity itself.

It was as Sunset was looking back, at her team mates and Weiss, that she spotted the second bullhead falling in behind them as they flew.

"What the-?" said the cop. "This flight path is supposed to be restricted, who-"

The other bullhead gave him a partial answer as, with a loud, repetitive thudding sound it opened fire on the police aircraft. Yellow trader rounds flew in a straight line from the guns on either side of the bullhead's nose to slam into the starboard engine of the plane carrying SAPR and Weiss.

The plane lurched sideways and began to spin violently like a top for children to play with. The cop's cry as he was flung out of the bulhead and into the sky was lost to the wind. Sunset could feel the ceiling strap digging into her palm even through her aura as she clung to it for dear life. Ruby and Jaune weren't so lucky; they both lost their grip and tumbled towards the open hatch on the side of the craft.

Pyrrha caught Jaune's flailing hand; Sunset grabbed Ruby by the hood just before she could fall. Sunset could see the strain she was feeling to hold on mirrored on Pyrrha's facee as they fought against gravity both to hold on to their partners and keep themselves from falling.

"Hang on!" Weiss cried.

A black glyph, pulsating gently, appeared beneath their feet, sticking them to the surface; it felt like someone had glued down the soles of Sunset's boots, she no longer felt in danger of falling.

But of course it didn't change the fact that their ride was falling out of the sky and the ground was getting ever closer.

"Sunset, can you teleport us out?" Pyrrha asked.

Sunset shook her head. "I can't carry this many people with me."

"What about multiple trips?" Jaune suggested.

"The speed this thing is moving I'd never be able to get back," Sunset said. If she tried she'd either teleport into empty air or side herself into the middle of the metal. It would never be exactly where she'd calculated when she made the jump.

"Then you should get Ruby and yourself out," Pyrrha declared.

"No way!" Ruby said. "We're not leaving you, right Sunset?"

"Right," Sunset said.

"There is no need for us all to die-"

"I have no intention of dying!" Sunset yelled. "Before we impact I'm going to throw a shield up around the compartment, it should protect us from the worst. Weiss, can you maintain this glyph?"

Weiss' face was starting to show signs of strain, but she nodded nevertheless.

"Great," Sunset said. "Because I need both my hands for this."

Sunset flung her arms, and stretched out her magic as far as it would go in obedience to her will, and upon her command a bubble of green magic enveloped the passenger compartment as the bullhead fell, spinning, down to earth.

"Hold on to something!" Jaune yelled as they hit the ground.

Sunset could barely remember what happened next. She felt her shield shatter under the blunt force impact of the fall, then felt the bullhead itself shatter beneath the same. She heard someone- could have been Weiss, could have been Ruby - cry out, and then Sunset was being thrown through the air. Sky and buildings whirled before her eyes for a moment before she hit the ground, bouncing twice. Sunset felt and heard her aura break before she hit the ground head-first for the last time.

She had almost forgotten how much it hurt, how much it really hurt, to take a hard knock without aura. As Sunset lay on the ground, face up, looking at the sky as consciousness slipped away from her, she wasn't particularly glad to have been reminded.

The last thing she saw before everything went black was a bullhead, probably _the_ bullhead, descending upon her.


	28. Caged

_Author's Note: The chapter preceding this one has been comprehensively rewritten in response to negative feedback, so go back and re-read it or this chapter won't make much sense to you_

* * *

Caged

When Sunset came to she was in darkness.

She groaned as she sat up. Her head still hurt, there was a drum-beat throbbing going on inside it for all that her aura should have started repairing any damage. Perhaps the repairs were what was giving her such a headache.

Sunset shivered. It was cold in here, wherever she was. Cold and dark. The only light was some moonlight shining in through small windows set high up in the ceiling. Not enough light to see more than bare and barren floor. Where was she?

Where was her team? Where was Weiss?

"Ruby?" Sunset called. "Pyrrha, Jaune? Weiss?"

There was no answer. There was not even an echo of a reply.

Sunset crawled forward along the floor, calling out the names of her friends, until she struck something. Cold, metal...bars. Metal bars, was she in a cage? Had the White Fang - Sunset had no doubt that it was them - caged her? Like some kind of animal? Anger roared through Sunset's veins, clearing her mind and sharpening her thoughts with certain purpose. First she was going to get out of this cage, and then she was going to rescue her team, and then she was going to find whoever had thought that they could put Sunset Shimmer in a cage and get away with it and she was going to wring their neck until it snapped because no one treated Sunset Shimmer that way! Not even the Atlesians had treated her that way!

A door opened. Sunset couldn't see it, but she heard it creek just as she heard footsteps light upon the floor.

"I see you're awake."

The voice was male, calm but harsh nevertheless. Sunset couldn't see the speaker - actually, she could; she could see his feet anyway. The moonlight illuminated his black boots even as the rest of him remained in shadows.

Sunset decided that it wouldn't be in her interests to teleport out of the cage until she could see whom she would have to fight once she got out. "A gentleman would turn on the lights."

"We are all born in darkness," the man said. "It is our natural state. We are born into darkness, and the darkness claims us when our fight is ended."

"I was born in a well lit hospital," said Sunset, omitting to mention that this had been in Canterlot, and nowhere in Remnant.

"It is the darkness of subjugation of which I speak!" the man - the male faunus, unless Sunset missed her guess - declared. "We are born into the shadows of oppression even as humanity frolics under the sunlight of liberty. But soon we will rise up from the shadows and claim our rightful place in the sun!"

"You're White Fang."

He stepped into the moonlight: tall and broad-shouldered, with hair of burnished red and an innately stylised mask. "My name is Adam Taurus." He smiled. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Sunset Glimmer."

Sunset rolled her eyes. "It's Sunset Shimmer actually. The news got it wrong."

Adam snorted. "Of course they did, you're a faunus."

"I suppose I am," Sunset replied.

"And because you are one of us you will never be worthy of so much as the common courtesy of your own name."

"Whereas you putting me in a cage is what?" Sunset demanded with sulphuric acid on her tongue. "The height of politeness?"

Adam reached out, and ran one black-gloved hand down one metal bar. "This cage comes from a circus. Animals were kept in here. But not so very long ago cages just like these were used to hold those thought no better than beasts." It was hard to tell his expression due to the mask he wore, but in the moment of pause Sunset thought that he seemed pensive. "My grandmother was born in a cage just like this one."

Sunset said nothing. These were not her people, this was not her history; the Great War and Faunus Rights were nought but words in a book to her, but to her captor they were memory and blood, they resonated with him in ways that she did not and could never understand.

Yet she didn't dare to let him know that. If she hadn't let her friends know that she certainly dared not tell it to her enemy.

So she stayed silent, and like a serpent waited for her moment to strike.

"She used to tell me stories," Adam went on. "About the cages and the work gangs, about the mines; about how she lived when she was young, before the Valish King set her free. But the truth is that she was never free at all. The cage was still there...the bars were just wrought of something other than steel."

"Your grandmother might disagree," Sunset observed plaintively.

Adam chuckled. "Perhaps. She was such a trusting old lady. Right to the end...you realise that you're on the wrong side of this fight."

"I like to think that I'm on my own side."

"You're defending the edifice of human power, of their supremacy over us."

"I lead humans into battle," Sunset said. "Famous names and lineages old in honour but they follow at my heels and leap up in obedience to my commands: mine. Where are they, anyway? Where are my team, where are my friends?"

"Friends," Adam spat the word scornfully. "Do you think any of them give a damn about you? If I put my blade to your throat and offered them the choice to save you or a random old man dragged in off the street who do you think they'd choose?"

"Try putting a blade to my throat and you'll have to worry about yourself."

Adam laughed. "They would choose their fellow human every time. Like calls to like."

"I daresay it does," Sunset said. "But as it happens me and Pyrrha are a lot alike. Where is she?"

"Somewhere else."

"Nearby?"

"Why should I tell you that?"

"Why should I listen to a word that comes out of your mouth?"

Adam was silent for a moment. "You know that I'm right. You've been betrayed before, haven't you? You've been abandoned; you've known those that you thought that you could trust turn against you. You know the pain that comes from being of our race. Don't deny it; I see it in your eyes."

Sunset thought of Flash, she thought of Celestia, she thought of the destiny that she had lived for, worked for, only to find out that it was nothing but a lie this entire time. She thought of all that and she shivered.

She shivered, and decided that she was done talking.

In a flash of light she had teleported out of the cage and reappeared behind Adam, her hands around his neck.

"That heat you can feel," Sunset said, as her palms began to glow with magic held in readiness to strike. "That's going to get a lot hotter and a lot more painful if you don't tell me where my friends are, now!"

"Impressive," Adam murmured. "I can see why she's interested in you. I'm pretty interested myself."

"Where are they?" Sunset snarled.

Adam elbowed her in the stomach. Sunset gasped as her grip on his throat weakened. His hand snapped up to hit her in the face as he twisted out of her grip and hit her again, following up with a spinning kick to the side of her head. Sunset reeled backwards, her hands up in front of her both as a defence and for her magic.

Adam didn't pursue her, nor did he draw his sword. "What else can you do besides teleport? I've heard stories from the brothers we rescued, but I always prefer to believe my own eyes."

"Rescued?"

Adam smirked. "Didn't you know? We hit the convoy escorting our brothers to the courthouse and rescued them. And we bombed the courthouse to show that human law, fashioned for the oppression of our race, will no longer hold away over a free people."

"You've had a busy day."

"The revolution never sleeps," Adam replied. He put one hand on the hilt of his sword. "Now then, Sunset Shimmer, why don't you show me what you're got?"

"Adam, no!" cried Blake Belladonna, as she leapt out the darkness with her sword drawn (And her habitual hair bow missing, with in their place...cat ears? She was a faunus? She'd been a faunus this entire time?), to stand between Sunset and Adam.

Adam was silent for a few moments. His mouth was agape, he seemed for the first time genuinely lost for words. "Blake," he whispered, as if afraid that if he raised his voice the illusion of her presence would shatter. "My darling?"

"Let her go, Adam," Blake said. "Let them all go. I'm the one you want."


	29. A Righteous Cause

A Righteous Cause

"Good evening, I'm Lisa Lavender with a breaking update on today's top news story: The terrorist organisation known as the White Fang has claimed responsibility for a day of chaos on the streets of Vale that has left the Kingdom in shock. Earlier today a police convoy escorting twelve White Fang terrorists to their trial at the Central Criminal Court was ambushed and all suspects freed. At least six police officers are reported dead and four more are in critical condition. Also this morning a truck loaded with dust was driven into the Central Criminal Court and detonated. Authorities have not yet confirmed the death toll.

"Meanwhile, concern has grown over the whereabouts of Weiss Schnee and Pyrrha Nikos, key witnesses at the trial who have not been seen since they departed Beacon Academy under police escort."

"Weiss? Pyrrha?" Yang demanded futilely of the woman on her scroll. "What about my sister?"

"Weiss Schnee is the daughter and sole heir of Jacques Schnee, president and proprietor of the Schnee Dust Company," Lisa Lavender continued, as an old picture of Weiss was displayed beside her head. "Pyrrha Nikos is the great grand-daughter of the last Emperor of Mistral, and is the four times winner of the Mistral Regional Tournament; a popular favourite amongst tournament enthusiasts, her decision to attend Beacon Academy rather than Haven was widely reported.

"We have just received a video claiming to be from the White Fang, claiming credit for the attack, the bombing and the kidnapping of Miss Schnee, Miss Nikos and three other witnesses in the case against the terrorists. We have watched this video to confirm it did not contain any shocking content, and we now broadcast it in full."

Weiss's face took up the whole of the screen; barely any background was visible behind her, just a wall and one small window. She didn't look hurt, but she did look a little unnerved by something that Yang couldn't see, something at the edge of the screen, or on the other side of the camera.

There was a rustle of paper, and someone said something indistinct.

"My name is Weiss Schnee," Weiss said. "I am the daughter of Jacques Schnee, and I am..."

There was another indistinct sound from off camera. Weiss scowled. "And I am an oppressor of the faunus. I am being held captive by the White Fang, the army of...The army of liberation for the faunus across the Four Kingdoms. Today..." Weiss stopped again, and when she resumed each word was forced through gritted teeth. "Today the White Fang has struck a great blow against one of the four great oppressors, a reminder that the desire of the faunus for liberty will not be denied. Despite my crimes I and my companions have been treated well, and will continue to be treated well so long as no attempts are made to rescue us. I will be released upon payment of one hundred million lien from the Schnee Dust Company. Pyrrha Nikos will be released upon payment of ten million lien from the Nikos family or the Mistralian government. Sunset Shimmer, Jaune Arc and Ruby Rose will be released upon payment of a hundred thousand lien each from any interested party-"

"Dammit!" Yang yelled, throwing her scroll down upon the table hard enough that it bounced onto the floor.

Blake watched from a short distance, helpless, as Yang's entire body was wracked by a shudder. Smoke rose from the blonde's body and her hair, but as she put her head in her hands it looked to Blake almost as though Yang Xiao-Long was sobbing.

Did she know that her sister was as good as dead already, Blake wondered as her stomach churned with a sickening mixture of fury, fear and complicity; or was it simply her helplessness to do anything that led her to despair?

They were in the dining hall. The First Year teams were all sat close together - though YRDN and WSTW were closer, with BLBL more on the fringe of things - being given a wide berth by the other years.

Team WSTW looked stunned by what had happened to their team leader; Flash sat with dazed and empty eyes, staring at nothing. Of Blake's own team, Sky's look was dark, while Lyra and Bon Bon were clutching one another's hands for comfort.

"Poor Yang," Lyra murmured.

"Poor Ruby," Bon Bon replied.

Blake scowled. She hadn't known Ruby Rose very well - she hadn't known any of them very well - but she remembered the way she smiled, how bright-eyes she was, how full of energy.

Blake's sickened feeling only got worse when she realised that she slipped into thinking about Ruby as though she were already dead.

Because she might as well have been.

Blake felt as guilty as any of the faunus who had done this because she had been there when this started. She had been there when they kidnapped the SDC Vice-president in charge of labour management and she hadn't protested because the man had been making a fortune out of the oppression of their people. She had kept on not protesting as the targets of their kidnappings got less and less deserving, until they were snatching Atlesian princesses on their way to prom so they could extort money from the girls' rich fathers.

And they rarely returned the hostage alive. And it had only gotten rarer as time went on.

Blake had been there when it started, and even if she couldn't have stopped it she could at least have stood up and said that this was wrong, immoral, unconscionable.

But she hadn't, and that made her as guilty of this as anyone.

Ruby's death, all their deaths, were on her.

Their certain deaths. Even if Ruby's family could find a hundred thousand lien, even if Weiss's father paid the astronomical sum, even if Pyrrha's family had ten million lien to hand, there was no way they were getting out alive. Weiss especially. Adam wouldn't pass up the chance to kill a blood Schnee.

There would be an empty chair at the Arc family table. They would look for Pyrrha Nikos from the highest tower in Mistral but she would not return.

They were all dead, even if they yet lived.

Unless...Unless she saved them.

Blake rose unsteadily to her feet. She still felt sick, but she could control the nausea rising from her stomach with a sense of action. She had been lost, mired in purposes, directionless, listless, helpless inaction, decrying the fall of the White Fang but unable to see a way to act upon her feelings. But now, now at last she knew what she had to do.

All her life Blake Belladonna had been a coward. Not a physical coward, perhaps, but a moral one certainly. She had run from Adam rather than confront the fact that the man she loved was becoming a monster before her very eyes; she had run to Beacon rather than confess to her parents how far she had fallen. She had thought to hide away as though her past would never find her here. But it had found her, and most likely Blake would have to run away again when all of this was over.

But before she ran, this time, she would stand up.

And she would save the hostages, not because they were her friends but because it was the right thing to do.

She stalked out of the cafeteria without a word to anyone. What would have been the point in speaking? Nobody wanted to here from her right now, and what would she have said anyway? Goodbye? How would she have explained that?

So she walked away in silence, leaving them all behind. Perhaps, if she brought Ruby and the rest back safe, then they would think well of her, in spite if everything.

Blake left the dining hall and wandered out into the courtyard, which was empty at this time in the evening.

She looked up at the moon, as shattered as the lives of all those touched by the malice of the White Fang.

A soft sigh escaped her lips as she remembered the idealism of their early days, before Adam's devotion to the cause of their people had curdled into a desire for any scrap of vengeance he could extract from men.

Slowly, hesitantly, she removed the bow from her hair. She wouldn't need it were she was going.

"I knew you'd look better without the bow."

* * *

"So let me get this straight," Sun - he'd insisted on giving her his name, Sun Wukong, even though she hadn't asked for it just as she hadn't asked him to join her - said as he jogged at her side down the streets of Vale. "You used to be in the White Fang-"

"Keep it down!" Blake hissed.

"Sorry, sheesh," Sun said. "But anyway, you left...And now they've kidnapped your friends and we have to save them?"

"They're not my friends."

"So we're rescuing not-friends, got it; I mean, that's cool too."

" _We're_ not doing anything," Blake growled through slightly gritted teeth. "This is something that I have to do."

"I'm right here, aren't I?"

Blake glared at him out of the corner of her eye. Yes, he as right here, whether she wanted him to be or not, with his shirt open and his abs on display as though he was a walking advert for body spray for men. He seemed to have trouble grasping the fact that this was something Blake had to do alone.

"This is going to be dangerous," Blake said. "You don't have to get involved."

"I know," Sun said nonchalantly. "I guess I'm just not capable of ditching a beautiful woman in need."

Blake stared at him. Sun smiled, in a manner that was probably supposed to be charming.

It was actually just infuriating.

"Ugh," Blake groaned. But she didn't try to lose or outpace him because, well, it was good to have someone beside her who knew the truth and didn't judge her for the things that she had done, whose only concern was how he could help her.

It was refreshing. It was...kind of nice.

Blake, with Sun at her side, headed to Tukson's Book Trade. It was closed at this time of night, but Blake banged on the door until a light came on and Tukson cane to the door. His expression of annoyance faded when he saw who it was that had dragged him down here.

"Blake," he said, the word itself conveying his concern. "What are you doing here? Are you okay?"

Blake walked inside, and Sun quickly followed. "I'm...okay. But you've heard the news?"

Tukson nodded gravely. "A lot of faunus are worried about the blowback from this."

"Those morons only make it harder for us," Sun grumbled.

"Who's this?" Tukson asked.

"A friend, sort of," Blake said. "Tukson, I need to know where they're keeping the hostages."

Tukson's eyebrows rose. "Blake...I'm ex-White Fang, remember? I left, same as you."

"I know you still have contacts in the organisation," Blake said. "Or how do people find you who want out? They helped me get in touch with you. You must know someone who knows something."

Tukson scowled. "Blake...what you're asking for...maybe I do know a guy, but...What are going to do, mount a rescue? Call the cops? If you do that they're going to know there's a rat. My guy could be killed, _I_ could be killed. So could you if you go in there by yourself-"

"Hey," Sun protested. "I'm standing right here."

"No offence kid, but I don't know you and I don't trust people I don't know. Blake...why are you asking me for this? Do you really think these kids, a Schnee, are worth risking what I've built for?"

"I think it's not enough to just walk away from wrong," Blake said. "We have to fight for what's right, too."

Tukson stared down at her. His expression softened, but didn't lose its concern. "What makes you think you can stop it? You and...this guy?"

"I've got a plan," Blake said, although she didn't disclose what the plan was because he wouldn't like it and neither would Sun. But it was the only way. She couldn't take on Adam and all his men single handed. She was good, but she wasn't that good. "I just need to get inside."

Tukson shook his head. "Okay, let me make a call."

He disappeared into the back room. Blake didn't follow, she trusted Tukson not to betray her and she wasn't about to force her presence on his contact within the White Fang.

Besides, waiting no longer felt so intolerable now that she had something she was waiting for.

Sun swung his arms back and forth, and whistled a few bars to fill the silence. "A lot of books in here."

"Bookshops tend to have those," Blake said. She smiled. "Is this your first time in one/"

Sun snorted. "No. I went in one...last year. And I'll have you know that Haven has an excellent library!"

"Really?"

"Yeah! Neptune spends...uh, I mean I spend all day in there sometimes...reading, you know, books and stuff."

Blake made a sound that committed to nothing and admitted nothing.

Tukson returned. "Okay, I know where you need to go."

* * *

Even the busiest parts of the Warehouse District had shut up shop by nightfall, and the place where Blake and Sun had been directed was one of the busiest. It had once housed the warehouses of a Valish dust conglomerate, but the SDC had driven them under years ago and the warehouses had been vacant ever since.

A good place to hide the dust that you were stealing.

A good place for a hideout.

Since this whole area was officially derelict, and there was little call for it at the best of times in this part of the city, the streets were unlit and it was only due to Blake and Sun's night-vision that they were able to find their way so easily to their objective.

They met Tukson's contact, a mouse-tailed faunus with salt and pepper hair, on the roof of the next warehouse over, looking down and across at the place where the Beacon students were being held.

It was a dark, unlit place with the forbidding air of a fortress about it. Blake could see guards on the roof, and she had no doubt that there were many more inside.

"Blake?" the mouse faunus said as they crept closer to him. "And...Sun, right?"

"That's us," Blake replied, speaking in a low voice. "This is the place, isn't it?"

He nodded. "They're all inside."

"Adam hasn't killed them yet?"

The mouse faunus shook his head. "He can't. Somebody wants to see them first."

"Sienna?"

"No, someone else, some big secret. Nobody knows who she is, but everybody knows she's got Adam's nuts in a vice and the White Fang in her pocket. It ain't like the good old days Blake; this ain't the White Fang we joined."

"It was never the good old days, except in our excuses," Blake replied quietly. "How do we get inside?"

"There's a door on the right side. I'm supposed to be guarding it, but I'm not. You go in that door, there's a corridor that leads straight to where they're keeping the faunus."

"Sunset?"

"If that's her name. Pony. Ears _and_ tail."

"What about the others?"

"Somewhere else, I don't know for sure."

"We'll find them," Blake said. She glanced up into the eyes of the Fang member. "Thank you, for taking this risk for me. And for them."

"If Tukson's willing, I can't do less," he said. "Good luck, both of you. You might need these." He pressed a pair of masks into Blake's hands, and skulked off into the shadows.

Blake put on one mask, immediately restricting her vision to the two slits set in the White. The other mask she handed to Sun, as best she could see him.

He plucked it from her hand. "Why the grimm masks anyway?"

"To make our enemies fear us as they feared the grimm themselves," Blake murmured. "But, in fighting against being seen as monsters, we became the monsters everyone was so terrified of."

Sun said. "You know, I'm sorry things had to end up like this, for you."

"I'm fine," Blake lied, and kept her purpose at the forefront of her mind and soul. Tomorrow she could run, if she were granted a tomorrow. Tomorrow she could turn coward again if she survived. Tomorrow...Tomorrow she would have choices, but tonight she had only the task that she had given herself of taking a stand against the White Fang and the wickedness that had consumed them.

And him. Always him.

"Do we have a plan?" Sun asked. "Cause you know it's cool if we don't. I love improv."

Blake gave him serious side-eye. "The plan is we sneak in free everyone, and we do it without starting a fight. That's the plan."

"Good plan," Sun said. "Short and snappy."

"Let's just go," Blake said sharply.

Blake led the way down to the street level, and to the side door that their conscientious contact had left unlocked and unguarded for them.

Blake paused, her back pressed up against the wall.

"What's up?" Sun asked.

Blake didn't reply. Instead, she pulled out her scroll and turned it on. Dozens of missed messages: from Bon Bon, from Lyra and from Sky. All of them asking some variation on the same question: where are you?

Blake replied to all three of them at once: Have confirmed Ruby, SAPR and Weiss being held at old Standard Dust warehouse on ninety-second. Am going in, call cops.

Then she turned off her scroll again. If something happened, and it probably would, then at least someone else would rescue the hostages.

"Let's go," she said, and led Sun inside through the unguarded doorway.

The lights in the corridor were out and there was little moonlight getting in, but that wasn't a problem for the two of them as they crept down the corridor with weapons drawn. Blake had Gambol Shroud in its sword configuration, the black blade reassuring in her grip. If it came to a fight the sword would be more discreet than shooting with the pistol. She held the sharp scabbard in her free hand, and the black ribbon trailed from the hilt of her sword to brush against the floor.

As Blake crept forward, as silent and soft-footed as a cat, she began to hear voices raised in anger: Sunset Shimmer's voice...and Adam's.

Blake quickened her pace. She knew what Adam was capable of in his wrath as few others did, and Sunset was combative and pig-headed enough to set him off.

"Whatever happens next, stay here," Blake told Sun as she pushed open the door leading to the room from which the voices come. "If anything...just find the others and get them out."

She looked through the doorway, staring out of the shadows and into the patch of moonlight in which Sunset Shimmer and Adam faced off against one another. Adam had one hand resting upon the hilt of Wilt, Sunset's hands were raised to deploy the semblance on which she over-relied.

"Now then, Sunset Shimmer, why don't you show me what you're got?" Adam snarled.

"Adam, no!" Blake cried, as she rushed out of the doorway to throw herself between the two of them before they could begin to fight in earnest and Adam could cut down Sunset Shimmer as Blake knew he would do if it came to it. Sunset's mighty semblance would not avail her against Adam's bloody blade.

Adam stared at her in awed amazement. He was stunned briefly into silence, his mouth moving but no words emerging.

Adam never took off his mask, not even when they were alone together and he would lecture her about his plans for their people. As a result, Blake had learnt to read his boy language, which was as shocked by her appearance as his expression made him seem.

"Blake," he whispered, when he was able to talk once more. "My darling?"

Blake lowered her sword to her side. "Let them go, Adam. Let them all go. I'm the one you want."

Adam stared at her. Silently, he took a step towards her. "You left."

"I made a mistake," Blake said. "But I'm here now. I'm back."

"For them."

"For you," Blake insisted. "Don't do this, Adam. There's no need. These people haven't done anything to us."

"Humans and house faunus, our enemies."

"Not all of them," Blake said. "I'm sorry, Adam. I'm sorry that I couldn't help you to see that. I'm sorry that I couldn't save you, or even see how to try."

Adam took another two steps towards. "I don't need saving. I only need you."

"You can have me," Blake said. "All you have to do is let them go."

Adam's chest rose and fell slowly with his breathing. "Beacon. You've been hiding at Beacon Academy."

"I'm not hiding any more."

Adam reached out slowly, tentatively, as if he was afraid she would turn out to be a dream or an illusion. He ran one single finger across Blake's cheek, and she pretended that the tender gesture didn't make her want to shudder.

"You will give yourself to me," he murmured. "Freely, of your own will."

Blake mastered her reflexive disgust to close her eyes, and press Adam's whole palm against her cheek as though she hoped to melt into his touch.

"I choose you," Blake said, choosing to remember the good man he had once been, the hero of his people, the champion of faunus-kind. The man she had fallen in love with before hatred and bitterness devoured him. "I'm sorry, Adam," she whispered, as she stabbed upwards with Gambol Shroud.

Adam caught her wrist in a grip as firm as a vice, and the hand that stroked her cheek descended to embrace her throat.

"How stupid do you think I am, my love?" Adam snarled.

"You want an honest answer, buddy?" Sun yelled as he leapt out of the dark, his bo-staff swinging. He cracked Adam hard across the face and made him cry out, releasing Blake as he retreated.

Sun and Blake both pursued, with staff and Gambol Shroud. Adam drew his crimson sword, frantically parrying first Blake and then Sun, using Blush as a second weapon to block while tried to find an opening to strike with Wilt.

Sunset teleported behind him with bolts of green energy flying from her fingers; Adam deflected them with his sword before sending Sunset flying backwards with a kick to the stomach. Sun's staff split in half becoming a pair of nunchuks which he wielded in fluid, rapid spinning motions, while Blake used her hilt as a weapon just as Adam was doing. Sunset tried to assist, but the dance that Blake, Sun and Adam were engaged with was too fast and whirling and frenetic for her to get a clear shot from range, and when she got up close she was too poor a hand to hand fighter to stand up to Adam.

Sun's gunchuks roared as he emptied them into Adam at point blank range. Adam blocked with his sword, but this left an opening for Blake to land a trio of slashing strokes along his side

Nevertheless, as Adam retreated, he smirked.

When she heard the footsteps approaching Blake understood why he looked so cocky.

The other door into the room burst open as members of the White Fang began to pour in. Sunset brought down the first three with her semblance but missed the fourth who bounded into the room with sword drawn.

He started towards the melee.

There was a gunshot. A high window shattered and the sword-faunus went down.

More windows shattered as a pony faunus with rainbow hair flew in on a pair of mechanical wings.


	30. The Meaning of Friendship

The Meaning of Friendship

Rainbow Dash scowled as the video finished. This sucked. Everything about the White Fang sucked - not least the way that ordinary decent faunus were always the ones who suffered most from their acts of villainy, a fact which the self-proclaimed champions of faunus-kind never seemed to look down and notice - but this really sucked right now.

Penny's friends, and Specialist Schnee's sister.

And they'd seemed like good people. Nikos was good people, Rainbow didn't believe you could fake it in front of a whole hospital full of children; you couldn't feign to possess that kind of compassion, and who would even want to? Ruby and Jaune seemed nice enough, and Sunset...well, Rainbow wouldn't wish this on enemies far worse than Sunset Shimmer.

Rainbow's magenta eyes swept across the living space where Team RSPT was gathered, having just watched the news on Twi's scroll. Twilight was sitting on the couch, her face pale. Ciel was standing behind her, arms folded, expression inscrutable. And Penny...

Penny was wearing an incredibly human look of distress, eyes wide, mouth agape, hands clutched over where her heart would have been if she'd had one. "Ruby...my friends..."

Rainbow reached out tentatively. "Penny-"

"Rainbow Dash," Penny said. "If...If the White Fang receive a hundred thousand lien, will they let Ruby go?"

Rainbow hesitated. Penny was familiar with the concept of lying, even if she wasn't good at it. "Probably not."

"In any case," Ciel added, firmly but not without sympathy. "Under the Mantle Accords the Four Kingdoms have jointly agreed neither to negotiate with terrorists nor to ransom hostages in these circumstances, so as not to encourage further hostage taking. No one is going to pay any ransom anyway."

"Ciel," Twilight murmured.

"If she's going to know the truth then she should understand it as well."

Penny blinked rapidly. Rainbow felt certain that she would have been crying if she were capable of it. "Then...Ruby is going to die? They will...kill her won't they?"

No one answered. They didn't have to; their silence was answer enough.

"We need to rescue her!" Penny cried. "Ruby and the others, I need to save them!"

Rainbow's mouth flopped open. She wasn't sure what she'd expected but she hadn't expected this.

"Penny-" Ciel began.

"I know that I still have a lot to learn, but how am I supposed to save the world if I can't even save my friends?" Penny demanded.

"What you're talking about is dangerous, Penny," Rainbow said. "The White Fang doesn't mess around. Do you get that?"

"Rainbow Dash," Penny said. "Is Twilight Sparkle your friend?"

Rainbow frowned at the apparent non-sequitur. "Yeah. She's one of my best friends."

"And what does that mean, to say that she is one of your best friends? What does that mean, best friends?"

Rainbow was silent a moment, as she thought about Twilight and how it was Rainbow's job to keep her safe so she could great things with that egg head of hers. She thought about Fluttershy, in south-east Vale somewhere with only Applejack looking put for her. She thought about Pinkie, and Rarity, and Scootaloo, who didn't have to fight because Rainbow had taken that burden on herself.

"It means I'd die for them," she said.

"Ruby is my best friend," Penny said. "Please, Rainbow Dash."

"Leaving aside the question of whether this is something we ought to be considering," Ciel said. "We have no idea where the White Fang are holding the hostages."

"I might be able to work that out," Twilight said. She opened up he laptop, and her fingers flew across the hard light keys as she linked to her scroll. The video sprang up on the bigger screen, and Twilight froze on an image of Weiss Schnee. "And magnify…" Twilight murmured, as the screen was taken up by a blown-up fragment of the picture: the window in the wall behind Schnee. "That is a view out of the window wherever the White Fang are keeping the prisoners. By running this image through an algorithm database I can compare it against images of Vale until we find a match to that skyline. That will give us a location."

Rainbow's eyebrows rose. "You can do that? Two, that sounds like some serious _CSI: Vacuo_ level BS; I thought they could only that stuff on TV."

Twilight shrugged. "Computers are very advanced these days, although..."

"What?"

Twilight looked apologetic as she said, "This computer doesn't really have the processing power to quickly perform a task like this, but if I can back in to Penny's main processing unit I think I can run the algorithm in about thirty minutes."

"Do it," Penny said. "Anything to help save Ruby."

Twilight looked at Rainbow.

Rainbow nodded. "Yeah, do it." She looked at Ciel, daring her to object.

Ciel did not object. "I suppose we're trying combat trials a little early."

"That's it?" Rainbow replied.

"The Schnee Dust Company is an important partner of the Atlasian military, and the Kingdom of Vale is a strategic ally; assisting in this matter makes sense. And, in any case, it's the right thing to do."

Rainbow grinned. "Twilight, Penny, you get on with...You know, the science stuff. I'm going to make a call."

"Sit down, Penny," Twilight said. "This won't hurt, I promise. It will feel...as if you're going to sleep."

"Oh. Will I dream?"

Rainbow didn't hear Twi's answer to that, if indeed she had or have one; she slipped into the bedroom to speak to Specialist Schnee.

Ciel followed her in, slipping through the doorway before it closed. "Are you sure about this?"

Rainbow said, "If it was Twilight out there, or Pinkie, I wouldn't hesitate." She snorted. "In fact, I wouldn't be nearly as calm as Penny about all this." Rainbow frowned. "What about you? Doubts?"

"As I said, it's the right thing to do," Ciel replied. "But if this goes wrong it will be both our heads. You do understand that?"

"Yeah, I get it," Rainbow said. "But we can't sit tight for the sake of our careers, right?"

"Obviously."

Rainbow opened up her scroll. "Do you think...what if Winter doesn't know?"

"I expect the consulate will have informed her as soon as they found out, as a professional courtesy."

"Right," Rainbow muttered, and she called Specialist Schnee.

Winter took a little longer than normal to answer, and when she did she looked a little less immaculately imperious than normal. She still stared at Rainbow Dash like she was pond scum, however.

"Rainbow Dash," she said wearily. "I'm sure you're aware that this isn't the best time-"

"I know," Rainbow said quickly. "That's why I'm requesting permission to launch a rescue op."

Winter stared at Rainbow as though she'd gone nuts. "Rescue...is this some kind of joke?"

"No, ma'am," Rainbow said, sounding and feeling hurt at the suggestion. Sure, she liked a prank in good fun but this wasn't the time or the place! "Twilight thinks she can locate the hostages, and I'd like permission to get them out."

"If you have a location then call it in to the Vale authorities."

"The White Fang probably have a man inside the police, that's how they got to them in the first place," Rainbow said. "Besides, ma'am, do you really want to trust Vale cops?"

Winter tensed. She breathed harshly in and out. "Do you have a solid lead?"

"We will have," Rainbow said. "Not sure if I could explain it, though."

"Ciel, is this genuine or some kind of hunch?"

"I have faith in the process, ma'am."

Winter hesitated. "General Ironwood will never go for this...do you really think you can save her?"

"Yes, ma'am," said Rainbow Dash.

"I concur, ma'am," added Ciel.

"Then do it, I'll keep the General off your back," Winter said. "What do you need?"

"A bullhead, doesn't need to be armed," Rainbow said. Twilight would be at the controls over the hot zone, and Twi hadn't trained in combat flying. "And access to Asset Twelve."

"Granted," Winter said. "I'll make the calls and get back to you about your bullhead. Schnee out." She disconnected.

"Asset Twelve? Is that realm necessary?" Ciel asked.

"Like they say, I'd rather have it and not need it," Rainbow said, as she walked over to the large metal trunk that sat beside her bed. It was a trunk that she'd hoped she wouldn't have to open up while in Vale, but like she'd just told Ciel she'd rather have stuff she didn't need than need stuff that she didn't have.

Especially when that stuff was trunk full of guns, ammo, grenades and her wings.

Rainbow grinned as she popped open the trunk and lifted her flight pack out of the metal container. The pack was metallic - though Rainbow had decorated the back with her many-coloured lightning bolt - and looked like a hump of some kind. That was to hold the wings when they were folded up inside, as well as the thruster to get her off the ground. Rainbow buckled it across her chest like a parachute; the weight felt familiar to her, comfortable. It was the thought of intentionally heading into battle without it that would have felt strange.

Rainbow pulled a shotgun out of the case and offered it to Ciel. "You want this?"

"I'd prefer the DMR."

"It's bound to be tight quarters once we get inside."

"You'll appreciate a marksman to cover you before you get inside," Ciel said. "And besides, I still prefer the accuracy even at close range."

"Suit yourself," Rainbow said. She put the shotgun down on her bed, and dug out the DMR for Ciel out of the trunk. "What kind of grenade mix, do you think?"

"Fire dust and flashbangs."

"Sounds about right."

Rainbow's scroll buzzed. It was Winter Schnee.

"There's an unarmed bullhead standing by for you at Westlake commercial sky-dock," Winter said. "And Asset Twelve are on standby, awaiting your word. Make the call if you need them."

"Thank you, ma'am."

"Don't thank me, just save my sister. Schnee out."

The door flew open as Twilight burst inside. "Girls, great news: I think I've found out where they are."

* * *

The bullhead cruised through the night sky, flying over the streets of Vale with all lights off. There was a risk of collision, but it would also make it a lot harder for any White Fang lookout to see them coming.

And according to the sensors the skies were clear. The current situation was keeping a lot of air traffic grounded, it seemed.

It helped that the part of Vale they were flying over was halfway to abandoned anyway. Nobody lived or worked here. Perfect place for a criminal hideout, but also not a bad place to fly over without disturbing the locals.

"We're approaching the target now," Rainbow said. At the moment she was flying, her hands gripping the stick firmly, but that wouldn't last. "Twilight, are you ready to take over?"

"Uh...maybe Ciel could-"

"I need to Ciel to come in with me and Penny," Rainbow said. She smiled. "You can do this, Twi. All you have to do is keep her steady. You can do that, right?"

"I, yes, I mean I'll try my best."

"You always do."

"So, to recap the plan," Ciel said, from the passenger section what she and Penny were holding on.

"You've recapped the plan four times!" Rainbow cried.

"Recap number five," Ciel declared. "Once we arrive over the target I will eliminate any targets on the roof before Rainbow Dash, Penny and I enter from there. Twilight will keep the bullhead on station while we search the complex, eliminate any hostiles we encounter, and retrieve the hostages. Once the hostages have been recovered we will exfiltrate via the roof and return the hostages to Beacon Academy."

"I guess we're about to see how combat ready you really are, Penny," Rainbow said.

"I'm ready," Penny said. "Although I wish I was meeting Ruby again under better circumstances."

"Yeah, I understand why," Rainbow muttered.

"But I don't understand," Penny said. "I don't understand why anyone would want to hurt Ruby."

Rainbow and Twilight exchanged a look of horror. How where they supposed to explain the White Fang to Penny, especially at a time like this?"

"Um," Twilight murmured, as she twisted around in her seat to see Penny better. "You see, the White Fang are faunus, and they, well, they think that they're different from humans like Ruby. And so...well, the thing is...people like the White Fang hate things they think are different from them-"

"Are they different?" Penny asked. "The same way that I'm different?"

"Faunus are no different from humans, and only fools or idiots think otherwise," Twilight declared hotly. "And, honestly, you're no different either."

A smile broke out on Rainbow's face as she started to tap a rhythm on the control panel. "Hey, Twilight."

Twilight eyes widened behind her spectacles. "You're not-"

"Hey, hey everybody, we've got something to say," Rainbow crooned.

"We may seem as different, as the night is from day. Come on, Twi, you know this one!"

"What are you doing?" Ciel demanded.

Twilight joined in as the verse continued. "But you look a little deeper, and you will see,

"That I'm just like you and I'm just like me, yeah!

"Hey-"

"Please stop," Ciel said.

"Should I be singing too?" Penny asked.

"No," said Ciel emphatically. "What was that?"

"Something from where we grew up," Rainbow said. "That was the song for shake your tail day, wasn't It?"

"I cringe looking back at that," Twilight groaned. "I've no idea how you weren't offended."

"Your hearts were in the right place," Rainbow said. "And you all looked kind of cute."

"Shake your tail day?" Penny said.

"When I started to get a rough time of it for being a faunus, Twilight and my other friends organised a day to show that humans and faunus weren't really any different. There was a song, and my friends put on these plastic pony ears and tails, and encouraged everyone at school to wear them to show that it was all just cosmetic anyhow. Deep down we were all just the same."

"So insensitive," Twilight groaned.

"Ah don't be like that, the only person who had a problem with it was Sunset and she had a problem with everything."

They approached the target that Twilight had identified: a derelict warehouse from a bankrupt old dust company.

Penny held onto Ciel while the latter held her rifle to her shoulder, using the scope in lieu of binoculars. "I have eyes on the White Fang: three hostiles on the roof."

"They'll hear us if we get much closer," Rainbow said. "Can you get them from here?"

Rainbow looked over her shoulder. Ciel was silent, her expression intense. She breathed out slowly, and inhaled slower. She held her breath. Ciel squeezed the trigger once, twice, three times in quick succession, though the rifle itself made only a dull, muffled sound on account of the suppressor mounted on the barrel.

Ciel breathed out. "Taken care of."

"You were right to take the rifle over the shotgun."

"Obviously."

Rainbow guided the bullhead in closer, until they were hovering about twenty feet over the warehouse, an easy jump for huntresses with aura.

"You're turn, Twilight," Rainbow said as she vacated the pilot's chair. "Just hold her there until we get back."

"Right," Twilight said, not without nervousness but, at the same time, not so nervous that Rainbow didn't trust her to get the job done.

Rainbow patted Twi on the shoulder as she took the controls. "You're gonna be fine, and we'll be back before you know it."

Twilight nodded. "Good luck."

Rainbow grinned. "Nothing to worry about."

She pulled down her goggles over her eyes, and strode out of the cockpit to join the others.

Ciel was still looking into the scope of her rifle, scanning the window set high in the walls of the warehouse. "I can see a hostage!"

"Is it Ruby?" Penny asked.

"I think its Sunset Shimmer," Ciel said. "Engaging one hostile and two unknowns."

"What makes them unknowns?"

"The fact that I don't know who they are," Ciel said, slightly peevishly.

Rainbow took less than half a second to consider. "Change of plans, we're going in through the windows. We'll back up Sunset and then find the others. Ciel, give us cover from here for now."

"Affirmative."

Rainbow stepped to the edge of the bullhead. The wind ruffled her hair. "Ready, Penny?"

"Combat ready!"

Ciel fired, shattering one of the windows in the process.

Rainbow Dash leapt, holding her hands out in front of her as she sent a little pulse of aura surging through her body and expelling it through her palms. It wasn't much, but it was enough to shatter the glass in the other windows before Rainbow hit them.

She dived through the window-frames, her glorious wings unfurling on either side from out of her flight pack to turn a fall into a swooping controlled descent.

More White Fang were charging into the room and Ciel could only take them out one at a time. Rainbow pulled a fire-dust grenade from off her belt and threw it I to the doorway.

She didn't pause to watch the explosion as she swooped on the guy with the sword - he was the one in the grimm mask, and he was the one that everyone else was fighting, so nobody needed to tell Rainbow Dash who the bad guy was - like a hawk diving upon a field mouse. She drew her pistols and fired, getting a few hits in before he turned and started parrying with his sword. Impressive, but he just had too many people who wanted a piece of him and not enough arms to fight them all off. Rainbow slowed her descent, going from swooping head first to standing upright in the air as she lashed out with her feet one, two. The bad guy blocked her first kick, but then ran straight into the not enough arms problem as her second kick caught him in the side of the head and knocked him sprawling.

The next wave of White Fang charging into the room let out a great cry of dismay as they surged to his rescue, but before they could get close enough to cover him Penny had landed between them and him.

"Hello, I'm looking for my friend Ruby! And my other friends Jaune and Pyrrha." Penny said. "Do any of you know where she is?"

"Protect Adam!" yelled a faunus wearing glasses over his mask. He began to fire, even as he brandished a sword in his free hand. The other White Fang goons began to fire as well, spraying bullets in all directions across the room. The guy with the horns, this Adam, scrambled for the exit as Rainbow Dash - and everyone else - had to dive for what cover they could find in this room of cages. Sunset threw up a shield around herself because she'd always been a show-off.

"Adam!" roared a black-haired cat girl.

Adam paused in the doorway. "Perry! Suppression fire and fall back, we're leaving. Where's Walter?"

"Securing the other hostages."

"Good," Adam said, and it seemed as though he looked back at someone in the room and smirked before he fled down the corridor out of sight.

Rainbow scowled, but with the amount of shots being thrown their way there was nothing they could do until they had cleared the room.

Only Penny braved the fire of the White Fang without flinching. Her swords emerged from her back as she strode into the firestorm, and Penny weaved them in effortless arcs, blocking every bullet that was thrown her way as she advanced remorselessly upon the White Fang faster than they could retreat.

Penny raised her hands, and her swords flew forwards on their wires to strike into the heart of the White Fang, cutting a swathe through their formation as faunus were knocked down like bowling pins.

Rainbow got to her feet, roaring, and with her semblance charged into the midst of the remaining White Fang with a flurry of punches, pistol shots and kicks from her gun boots.

As Sunset and the two other faunus joined in, and as Ciel dropped in from the bullhead, the remaining White Fang joined their leader in flight.

Without a word - this really wasn't the time for introductions, but events had demonstrated who was friend and who was foe - pursued them down the corridor, following at their heels as they ran.

"I told you not to follow me," the cat-girl berated the monkey-boy.

"Like I said, I just can't leave a beautiful girl in trouble."

"You're impossible!"

They emerged into another large - larger than the first, much larger - open storage space where they found even more White Fang.

Rainbow went first, literally flying forwards with guns blazing. The two faunus Rainbow didn't know followed her, while Sunset hung back with her semblance - had she always been able to do so much with it - while Ciel covered Penny, who was using her swords both as swords and as lasers to clear out the chaff.

"Where's Ruby?" Penny demanded.

"I'm right here, Penny!" Ruby cried as she burst through a door at the other end of the room, with Weiss Schnee and the remaining members of Team SAPR not far behind.


	31. Precious

Precious

Pyrrha's eyes opened upon darkness.

"Pyrrha! Jaune, Pyrrha's awake!"

"Ruby," Pyrrha murmured. Memories flooded back: the crash, Sunset flinging a shield up around them and that shield shattering on impact. She remembered grabbing Jaune to try and shield him from the hardest landing, she remembered her aura breaking...and she remembered nothing else until she came to here, in this dark place. "Ruby! Jaune! Are you-"

"We're okay," Jaune said. She couldn't see him no matter which way she looked, but his voice sounded as though it was at least somewhat close by. "Now, at least. We were getting kind of worried when you didn't wake up."

"I'm fine now," Pyrrha murmured. She sat up. She was on a stone floor by the feel of it. "Where are we? Is everyone here: Weiss, Sunset?"

"We don't know where Sunset is," Ruby admitted. "She wasn't here when we woke up."

"I see," Pyrrha said softly. That could mean anything, ranging from Sunset having escaped capture to her having...Pyrrha prayed it was not so. "And Weiss?"

"She was here," Jaune said, sounding angry about something. "They took her away. I tried to stop them but...I wasn't strong enough!"

"You'll get there, Jaune," Ruby said.

"When? And how many of my friends will suffer before I get there?"

"I understand how you feel-"

"No, you don't, none of you do!" Jaune snapped. "You're all so awesome; none of you could understand what it's like to be so...so useless! The White Fang has us locked in cages and I can't do anything!"

"We're all locked up in here, Jaune," Ruby reminded him in a tone of gentle reproach.

Jaune sighed. "I know, I'm sorry. I just...gah!"

"I get it, Jaune, I really do," Ruby said. "But we can't give up. We have to stay positive so that we can get out of here and rescue Sunset and Weiss."

"How?"

"Cages, you say," Pyrrha whispered. She reached out with one hand, feeling the cold iron beneath her fingertips.

A smile that no one could see flirted across her face.

"I can get us out of here," she said.

"You can?" Jaune said.

"Forgive me, I shouldn't have kept this from you for so long," Pyrrha said. "My semblance is polarity. I've always kept it a secret but...I shouldn't have concealed it from my comrades...from my friends."

The lights came on, temporarily blinding Pyrrha. When she opened her eyes she could see that she, Jaune and Ruby were all being held in separate cages, though next to one, with Ruby and Pyrrha herself held on either side of Jaune. The room in which they were held was largely empty aside from their cages, barren and devoid of content: bare walls and a cold stone floor.

Roman Torchwick stood before them, cigar clutched between his teeth. His assistant with the two-toned hair and the parasol stood beside him, smirking silently.

"So, the sleeping princess finally decided to wake up and join the rest of us? Have a nice beauty nap, your highness?"

Pyrrha frowned. "Where are our other comrades?"

"Your friend with the tricks up her sleeves is having a word with one of the White Fang bigwigs, animal to animal, you understand," Roman said. "Little Miss Schnee has been helping us out with a home movie project. I think it might even go viral."

"What have you done to her?" Jaune demanded.

"Sheesh, kid, calm your hormones," Roman said. "We haven't done anything, and we're not going to do nothing so long as Daddy Schnee and anyone who care about the two of you little brats coughs up the money to get you back home safe and sound."

"You can't honestly expect us to believe that you'll just let us go once you get paid," Pyrrha said. "That the White Fang will simply let us go."

Roman snorted. "What, you think that just because I'm a criminal I can't be a man of my word?"

"Something like that, yes," Pyrrha replied coldly.

Romans lip curled into a sneer. "You can look down your nose at me all you want, princess, but the truth is your kind cause far more misery in the world than I ever could have."

"What are you talking about?" Ruby demanded. "Pyrrha's never hurt anyone."

"Not now, maybe, but wait until she grows up," Roman said. He began to walk up and down in front of the three cages, twirling his cane in one hand. "Did she tell you that she's a descendant of the last Emperor of Mistral? Or did she forget to mention that she's genuine royalty."

"That's not-" Pyrrha began, but Roman wasn't done yet.

"I bet that's not the only thing that she forgot to tell you, is it?" Roman said. "Like the fact that she's loaded? Her ransom is ten million lien because we know she's good for it, yours is just a hundred thousand each. You think that someone like her really gives a damn about people like you?"

"I do care-" Pyrrha protested, but of course she had lied to them and now they knew it; she had concealed her semblance from all of them. What would that seed of doubt grow into, watered by Torchwick's words?

"About people like us? People like her, they'll screw us over in a heartbeat and they don't even need a good reason for it."

"I would never-"

"Unless we screw them first. You want to know what I'm doing here? I'm offering you a chance to get in on the ground floor of the revolution, kids. The people that I work for are going to change the world and when they do it won't be soldiers or cops or old-money bigshots making the calls, it'll be people like us who can finally rise as far as our talents will take us without-"

"Oh, shut up!" Jaune yelled. "You kidnapped us, you tried to kill us, you're a criminal and you're working with terrorists and you think we're going to listen to you rather than our friend? You think we'd ever choose you over Pyrrha?"

"Jaune," Pyrrha murmured.

"You say you want to change the world," Ruby said. "But how many people are you going to hurt to change the world the way you want it to be? How many people have you already hurt, Roman? Maybe Pyrrha didn't tell us everything, but so what? I don't need to know who her family is, or who she's descended from. I know that she's kind and brave and she always tries her best to help other people and I know that she's my friend and if...I know that the world isn't perfect, I know that life isn't a fairytale like the stories, but...but if losing someone as good as Pyrrha is the price for making the world a better place then I don't want the world to change!"

Pyrrha bowed her head. The relief that she felt, the sheer...joy was the only word that could describe how she felt right now in spite of their situation. She had been so worried, but they...when she first came to Beacon she wouldn't have believed that anyone would stand up for her like that.

"Ruby...Jaune...thank you. Thank you so much."

Roman stared at Ruby with a look of melancholy fascination. "Nice speech, kid. You kind of remind me of-" he stopped. "Whatever. If you won't join the party that's up to you, but you gotta understand that we can't let you off your friends get in our way for a third time. We have to protect our interests."

He levelled his cane at Ruby. Anxiety surged through Pyrrha's veins as she thrus out her hand, flinging out her semblance like a fist. Torchwick yelped in startled alarm as his cane jerked sideways and his shot struck the wall with a harmless explosion.

Roman stared at the charred wall for a moment, before he looked at Pyrrha with curiosity in his visible. "I see you've got a few tricks yourself, princess. You kids...I can see why you're so interesting to my employers."

Pyrrha began to pull at the bats of her cage, warping them with her semblance as she made motions of praising them apart. They resisted, groaning in protest, but Pyrrha's will in this inexorable. She was going to get out of here, and she was not going to allow either Ruby or Jaune to come to any harm.

Not while she lived.

An explosion echoed from outside somewhere, followed by the unmistakable rattle of gunfire.

"What the-" Roman began, before the big faunus that Pyrrha had fought in the dust shop burst into the room. He was deprived of the full face mask that he had worn that day, having to make do with a smaller mask that exposed the lower half of a really quite thuggish looking face. In place of his chainsaw he carried a double-headed axe.

"They've found us," he growled.

"Who?"

"Huntresses, we need to get these three out of here now." He walked towards Ruby's cage.

"Leave her alone," Pyrrha snarled as she continued to pry the bars apart. She wa almost there.

Torchwick laughed nervously. "As you can see, uh, one of our guests isn't proving very cooperative."

The White Fang leader huffed. "Guards! To me!" He opened Ruby's cage and dragged her out by the arm, ignoring her feeble punches as though they were tickles, pulling her without apparent effort in spite of her struggles.

But Pyrrha had bent the bars far enough now and she emerged, striding out of her cage to confront her enemies. Her blood felt as though it was boiling with anger, her chest felt it was constricting with fury at what these people had done and wanted to do to her friends, to Ruby.

She glared at the faunus with murder in her eyes. "I said leave her alone."

Roman laughed again. "Say, Neo...if you wouldn't mind."

The girl - Neo - took up position in front of Torchwick. Pyrrha punched the girl once, perfunctorily, and saw what she had expected to see: the illusion of their presence shattering into pieces. He had fled. Coward.

That left only the large faunus, the one still holding Ruby.

The one she was feeling especially angry towards.

Ruby might be a marvel in her own right with Crescent Rose in hand, but she and Jaune and Sunset were all precious to Pyrrha now, and that meant they were under her protection should they have need of it.

Pyrrha's hands clenched into fists.

The big faunus growled as he threw Ruby aside. "Okay, let's do this."

He raised his axe, but Pyrrha raised one hand - after what he'd already witnessed there wasn't a lot of point in being subtle right now - and pulled it out of his grip. She sent it flying behind her, burying it by the head in the far wall.

The faunus made a seething sound as he charged at her with his fists clenched.

Pyrrha's hair streamed behind her like a banner touched by flame as she charged forth to meet him in turn.

They met, their fist flying, colliding with one another knuckle to knuckle, fist striking fist over and over again as their blows like falling hammers met like tempestuous waves colliding on a storm-wracked sea. Pyrrha threw out her fists over and over again, trusting in her superior to do more to him than he could do to her in the same amount of time, punch after punch after punch breaking through his guard to land precisely where she meant to on his body as she hammered away at his aura. He was like an old tree buffeted by a hurricane: at first he stood against the raging of her storm, and then he bent against it, and then he cracked as Pyrrha bore him to the wall and pinned him by the shoulder.

"Where are Sunset and Weiss?" Pyrrha demanded.

"Why should I tell you anything?"

Pyrrha glared down at him. His own axe trembled a little where it was buried in the wall.

"Okay, the Schnee girl is in the manager's office just down the hall. The traitor is with Adam in the other side of the building." He chuckled. "You won't find Adam so easy to deal with."

"What about our scrolls?"

"Next door, but-"

Pyrrha knocked him out with one more punch. Silently, she turned to face Jaune and Ruby.

"Go Pyrrha!" Ruby yelled. "You rock!"

"That was totally awesome," Jaune said. "In a slightly scary 'I hope that I never upset you' kind of way."

Pyrrha felt her cheeks begin to burn. "You're both far too kind. Now, Jaune, let's get you out of there."

She extended both her hands, and closed her eyes for extra concentration as she asailed Jaune's cage with her semblance.

She knew that she had succeeded when she felt Jaune's arms around her shoulders, joined by Ruby's as they both enveloped her in their embrace.

"Thank you," Jaune said.

Pyrrha didn't want it to stop. She didn't want Jaune to let go of her, she didn't want this feeling and the wonderful sensation that came with it, to end.

It felt so good she wanted it to go on and on.

But it had to end, because they had a job to do and people who were depending on them.

"We should go," she said. "He said our scrolls were next door."

Next door was a small, damp, dingy little room with mould growing in the corners and rustling old filing cabinets taking up much of the space. There scrolls were by the door, on a small wooden. They were still on, and though the battery had been run down there was enough power left to summon their lockers.

While they waited for their weapons they could hear more gunshots and shouts of alarm coming from somewhere beyond.

"Who do you think that is?" Jaune asked.

"Yang, maybe," Ruby suggested. "No, that's not what Ember Celica sounds like. But...Yang wouldn't be left out if someone was coming to rescue us."

"We'll find out soon enough," Pyrrha said, as their lockers crashed through the ceiling and crushed several of the old filing cabinets as they descended.

They recovered their weapons - Ruby kissed Crescent Rose - and made their way down the corridor to the door marked 'Manager's Office.

They found Weiss tied to a chair inside, gagged too, and swiftly freed her from her bonds.

"Thank you, those ropes were starting to itch," Weiss murmured. She looked around. "Sunset isn't with you?"

"No," Pyrrha replied. "We haven't found her yet."

"Thank goodness, I doubt she'd ever let me live it down if I had to be rescued by her," Weiss said. "And that noise?"

"A rescue by somebody, we think," Ruby ventured.

Weiss adjusted her ribbon tie. "Is that so? Well, it would be rude to keep them waiting any longer, wouldn't it?"

They ran towards the sounds of the fighting, weapons ready. As the noises of battle intensified on the other side of the wall, they all heard Penny demand, "Where is Ruby?"

"I'm right here, Penny!" Ruby yelled as she burst through the door at the head of them all.

Finally they could see who the rescue party consisted of: Penny, Rainbow Dash, a young woman Penny didn't know, Sunset - the others must have found her first- a monkey-tailed boy who was another stranger to Pyrrha and...

Had Blake Belladonna been a faunus all this time?


	32. Moonslice

Moonslice

Battle raged all across the former warehouse. Sun whirled his gunchuks in his hands, darting below and leaping above the strokes of his enemies as he blasted them in face and chest. Rainbow soared over the battlefield, descending to deliver vicious kicks before rising up again beyond the range of retribution. Weiss used her glyphs as barriers, and conjured a blue energy shield around herself while with other glyphs she fired beams of energy at her enemies, or dilated time under the feet of Pyrrha, Ruby or Penny to enable them to attack even more swiftly. Sunset used her semblance to dread effect, taking out enemies left and right. Ruby cut swathes through the White Fang with her scythe, and Penny did much the same with her swords but on an even grander scale. Ciel covered Penny's back with rifle and pistol. Pyrrha was a goddess of war against whom none could stand. Even Jaune found that he was the equal in skill to some of the White Fang, able to knock them down in a one on one fight. Pyrrha made sure to check up on him every now and then, however.

Blake watched it all: the way that what had started out as a rescue mission was turning inexorably into a victory. The White Fang had skilled fighters - had possessed such when she was a part of it at least - but these warriors here were not amongst them. There were no elites here, only the dross of their movement. They fought with a certain courage born out of fanaticism, but they were no match for the skill of the huntresses (and Sun and Jaune) against whom they were arrayed. Even their numbers were availing them little: none of Blake's allies seemed on the verge of losing their aura through tiredness.

Only Adam might have turned the tide of this battle; he was was as strong as Pyrrha and nearly as fast as Ruby. But when Blake caught side of her old mentor, distinguished by his burning hair like a crest upon an antique helmet, he was not in the thick of the fighting but to the rear, giving orders to Perry.

A surge of contempt flashed through Blake as she began to charge towards him. She used her clones to avoid any fighter who sought to waylay her on the way to him, not out of fear but put of impatience. She knew how skilled Adam was better than most but if she could capture him, if she could defeat him here then how much future evil might be avoided?

And she wouldn't have to spend the rest of her life looking over her shoulder waiting for him to reappear in her life.

"Get the bullhead in the air, and bring in the warhorses to cover our retreat."

"But, Adam they're not-"

"We have those pieces of junk for a reason, so get them in here!" Adam yelled, grabbing Perry by the collar and shaking him like a rat. "We're finished here anyway."

"Adam!" Blake cried as she leapt above the press to descend on Adam with blade in one hand and hilt in the other.

Adam shoved Perry away, before he parried Blake's first stroke. He countered, but hit only one of Blake's clones.

Blake pressed him from the right, driving him back a pace before their blades locked.

"So, you're finally facing me alone," Adam snarled. "No friends to back you up. Do you think I'm so weakened that assistance is unnecessary or have you just found your pride as a warrior?"

Blake pushed against him. "It's over, Adam."

Adam laughed. "Oh, darling. This has only just begun." He pushed, bearing her back with his greater strength. He attacked in a flurry of slashing strokes, his sword a crimson blur in the low light, cutting down two of Blake's clones in lieu of Blake herself as she struggled to keep up with his ferociously swift movements. He might have - must have - lost a lot of his aura but that in itself wasn't enough to slow him down.

"Why, Adam?" Blake demanded. "Why are you working with a man like Torchwick? Why are you kidnapping children, why are you doing any of this?"

"You never could see the bigger picture, could you Blake?"

Blake counter-attacked, but she could not break his guard no matter how many clones she used as a distraction. He'd always been too good at figuring out which was the real her, even when they were allies. "I see that you've lost sight of everything that we used to stand for. Don't you remember when we used to fight for equality?"

"Equality?" Adam roared, as he forced Blake onto the back foot. "Equality is just another word used by humans to keep us on our knees. I'm willing to do whatever it takes for the future of our people. I'm willing to make the hard choices that others in their weakness shrink away from."

"You're a monster."

"I'm the only reason the faunus have a chance to survive what's coming," Adam growled. "You may not agree with my methods, Blake, but I'm doing this for our people."

"What are you talking about?" Blake demanded. "What's coming?"

Adam kicked her in the chest to send her flying backwards against the floor. He pursued, Wilt raised to strike her down...

And then he hesitated. His blood red blade seemed stuck in the air. His face showed confusion, even uncertainty. His sword was raised, but it did not descend.

Adam turned abruptly, using his sword to parry a beam of energy fired from the palms of Sunset Shimmer's hands. Wilt took the beam, and when it ceased the blade was glowing a bright crimson. So was Adam's hair, and all the red on his outfit.

It was then that Blake remembered with a growing sense of dread how much Adam had been parrying all kinds of attacks with his sword tonight.

Adam smirked. "Thank you," he said, as he charged Sunset.

* * *

As soon as she saw Adam start to glow everywhere about him that was red Sunset had the feeling that she had screwed up.

She wasn't entirely sure what she'd done or if there was any way she could have seen it coming, but she guessed he wasn't lighting up like that to attract a mate.

And then he smiled at her the way that a shark might smile at a minnow or a cat at a mouse and Sunset knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she had screwed up.

And then he charged.

Sunset had know fear before. The first time that she'd ever seen a grimm she had been terrified. She'd been afraid every time she had to walk home in the dark and there had been any human men close by. But nothing, absolutely nothing, compared to how afraid she felt in that moment as her whole world turned as red as blood save for the man who came to kill her. Everything slowed, everything but Adam himself, rendered as dark as death against the crimson that had consumed the world, bearing down upon her swifter than he had ever moved before.

Sunset was rooted to the spot. She couldn't move, couldn't defend herself, she could only watch with mounting terror as Adam descended on her and know, know with absolute certainty, that her blood would soon be used to paint the world as red as it now seemed to her.

"Sunset, no!" Ruby cried, as she struck Sunset in a burst of rose petals, pushing her out of Adam's path.

She was not quite fast enough - or Adam was too fast and his semblance made others too slow - to get fully out of the way herself.

Ruby shrieked in pain, her voice as high as a whistle, as Adam's sword clove through her semblance and sliced through her side.

Ruby struck the ground with a solid thump, her lifeblood pooling around her.

Already her skin was starting to pale, and the rose petals that now fell to the ground around her were all wilted.

"RUBY!" all the members of Team SAPR cried, but the loudest and most agonized cry of all, the cry that contained the most piecing sorrow and raging fury came not from Sunset, or Jaune or even Pyrrha.

It came from Yang Xiao-Long where she stood in the hole in the wall that she had made when she arrived on the scene.

She had come to rescue Ruby, but arrived just in time to see her fall.


	33. Team CVLRY (Cavalry)

Team CVLRY (Cavalry)

"Dammit!" Yang yelled, as she threw down her scroll so hard upon the table that it bounced off and onto the floor.

She was aware that people were staring at her, not only her own team, WSTW, BLBL, but the older years who were giving them their space as well.

Yang didn't care. She was too full of other care to be bothered by such trivial things.

She was so full of wrath. She was so weighed down by fear and sorrow. They warred within her soul, fury and terror locked in combat for the mastery of her heart. The rage she felt at these monsters of the White Fang who had dared to pay a hand on her beloved Ruby set a fire roaring on her skin, and then the knowledge that there was nothing she could do to help her sister doused the flames as swiftly and reduced them to mere smouldering embers.

She was the older. She was Ruby's big sister. It was her job to watch out for Ruby, she had always watched out for Ruby. When Dad had been lost, sunk in grief over losing Mom and Mom in quick succession it was Yang who had taken care of Ruby. And, though Ruby wasn't the little who needed to be tucked in with a bedtime story any more, nevertheless she was still Yang's responsibility.

And Yang had failed in that, and now Ruby was...

Yang collapsed into her seat, head bowed, her great mass of hair falling down around her face. Smoke rose from her body even as a sob wracked it with convulsions.

"Ruby..." Yang whispered.

She felt a great calm pass over her, dousing rage and drying blind panic until there was an empty void inside of her that allowed some clarity of thought to emerge past blind and blinding all-consuming feelings. Yang looked up, to see that Ren had his hand upon her shoulder.

"Losing yourself isn't going to help Ruby," he said.

Nora sat down opposite Yang, and reached out to take her hands. "What about the ransom?"

Yang frowned. "Dad teaches at Signal. We don't have that kind of money."

Dove cleared his throat. "I, uh, I do."

Yang, Nora and Ren all looked at him where he sat unobtrusively on the edge of the table.

"Really?" Nora asked.

"It's not like I'm Jacques Schnee," Dove said. "But...after my grandpa died he left me half of everything he had and, after we sold the house, it came to about a hundred thousand lien. That's what they asked for, right?"

Yang blinked. "All you've got?"

Dove shrugged. "Maybe, but...come on, it's Ruby. What kind of a dick would I have to be to hold out on you at a time like this?"

"Dove, I..." Yang trailed off, because she didn't really know what to say in the face of an offer like that. It wasn't the kind of thing that she would have expected out of Dove, in all honesty. She hadn't really thought that they were close enough. They got along well enough, more or less, but this...did he think they were that much closer than Yang did or was he just that much of a cool dude that he'd drop his inheritance for anybody like that?

"Dove," she tried again. "Don't get me wrong, that's really nice of you...and if I knew it would get Ruby back I'd take you up on it in a heartbeat." She would have tried to pay him back...somehow, but she couldn't honestly say when she might succeed. "But the truth is even if I had the money for Ruby...how would I pay it? They haven't said anything about that. Do they even...ugh, I hate not knowing what's really going on!"

Her condition of deplorable ignorance lasted for several hours, in which Yang fretted, paced, punched things, threatened to punch people, yelled, ranted, had to be restrained by Ren and Dove from just leaving Beacon to wander the streets looking for some sign of Ruby and got calmed down several times by Ren's semblance only to work herself into a lather again in short order because this was Ruby, and Yang had no idea where she was or what had happened to her and oh my-

There was a banging on the door to the YRDN dorm room to which they had retired.

"Yang?" demanded a voice which belonged to one of the BLBL girls, Yang couldn't tell which one from voice alone, from the other side of the door. "Yang, we need to talk to you."

Yang went to the door, opened it, and got a scroll shoved in her face by Bon Bon. Lyra was that to, standing just behind her alongside Sky Lark. All of them were dressed for combat: Bon Bon in her all-enclosing - or it would be once she put her helmet on - armour of gleaming white, trimmed with gold, that not only embraced her whole body but made her seem about twice as big as she actually was; Lyra in her red cloak and plumed, broad-brimmed hat with a sword at her and a harp smiling across her back; Sky in his functional grey armour and his halberd in his hands.

"We know where she is!" Bon Bon exclaimed.

"Wait what?" Yang yelled. "You're talking about Ruby?"

"Blake just sent us this message," Bon Bon clarified. "Read it."

Yang plucked the scroll hastily out of her hands, her violet eyes reddening as she read it. If it was true, then... "How did Blake find her?"

"We don't know," Lyra said.

"That text is all we know," added Sky.

"Blake disappeared a few hours ago, we couldn't get hold of her...and then we got this," Lyra said.

Yang felt a wonderful moment of calm greater than anything forced on her by Ren's semblance settle over her. Because no longer did she need to feet, no longer did she need to worry, she had knowledge and she could act upon it.

And she could vent the anger that had been building up inside her up on someone who really, truly and thoroughly deserved it.

"Did you call the cops?"

"No," Bon Bon said. "We-"

"Good," Yang said. She turned to her team. "I don't have-"

"Oh, come on, like you need to ask," Nora said, with a vicious-looking smile on her face.

Yang looked from Nora, to Ren, to Dove. All their expressions were resolute and unwavering.

"Thanks, guys," Yang said. "Did you tell Wisteria about this?"

"No."

"May as well, Weiss is their team leader. And you know what they say: the more the merrier, right? Call them, and we'll gear up and meet you outside. And don't let Goodwitch see you."

"I haven't seen her all night, or any professor," Lyra said. "It's weird, like she's not even here tonight or something."

* * *

"Get up, Cardin," Flash commanded.

Cardin wasn't actually asleep, but he was sprawled across his bed like some kind of lizard, incapable of movement in the cold of the night. Russell thought that was lizards, anyway; he had dim memories of some tv programme about Vacuo deserts that he'd left on one night while he worked on his knives.

Russell pulled on his hoodie while he - and Flash - waited for Cardin to move.

"Cardin!"

"What?" Cardin demanded. "Who put you in charge with the ice queen away?"

"Team Bluebell has a lead on Weiss and the others," Flash explained quickly. "We're all going down to the old warehouse district to get them out so come on, get up, we don't have much time."

"We?"

"Iron, Bluebell and us, who do you think 'we' are?" Russell snapped. "Now come on, man, let's do this!"

Cardin was silent for a moment. "Pass."

"WHAT?" the word exploded from the lips of Russell and Flash simultaneously.

"This is no time to be kidding around, dude," Russell added.

"Who's kidding?" Cardin asked as he rolled over and put his back to them. "Without that pony around my life would be so much better, and it isn't as though our great leader has-

Russell's face was stone as he stalked over to Cardin's bed and shoved him hard enough to tip the bigger guy out of bed and onto the floor with a squawk of surprise.

"What the-"

"Dude, I have had it with this, okay," Russell shouted. "I'm done, seriously. When we first met I thought you were cool but this...I'm done with all of your whining and moping and all of it! Like, I don't really like faunus myself but come on! Get over it! You want to just leave Weiss to get murdered by those animals? Why are you even here? No, don't answer that, answer this: how long do you think you'll last here when the whole academy finds out you were the only first year too chicken to go rescue his own team leader?" Russell let that sink in for a couple of seconds, but kept on talking before he could reply. "So gear up, nut up and let's go save the girl, okay?"

Cardin was silent for a moment. His jaw clenched. "Fine. Fine, let's go." He stomped past Russell and Flash on his way out of the dorm and down to the locker room.

Flash stared at Russell in surprise.

"That's been a long time coming," Russell said by way of explanation.

"Sure has," Flash agreed, as they followed Cardin out the room.

* * *

It was not long after before all ten student huntsmen and huntresses were gathered, armed and ready for a fight, in the Beacon courtyard. Yang looked at them: the ones she knew, the ones she lived with every day, and the ones she hardly knew at all. But ultimately it didn't matter how well she knew them, or how well they knew her; or even how well they knew Ruby or Weiss or the members of Team SAPR. They were all Beacon first years, and that was enough.

"Thanks for coming everyone," Yang said. "This isn't going to be a big speech, because that stuff isn't my thing, but I just want to say...that I appreciate this. Whether you're here for Ruby, or you're here for Weiss, or you're just here because you've got nothing better to do tonight, thanks. I won't forget this."

Yang raised her fist in the air. "Now let's kick some was, and show the White Fang that when they mess with one of us they mess with all of us, who's with me?"

The defiant roar from nine other throats was all the answer she required.

* * *

They made it into Vale, ten huntsmen and huntresses in a mission as Yang led them through night streets that were half-empty at the best of times. Perhaps fear if the White Fang had driven all the ordinary people off the streets and in to their homes at night, but whatever the reason there were few people for them to encounter on their way to the location Blake had given, and no one challenged the young huntsmen on their way.

As they moved out of the residential areas and into a district of shuttered-up shops, derelict warehouses and monuments to a prosperity that had passed by some time ago, a niggling feeling of doubt began to assail Yang's mind. How did Blake know where Ruby and the others were being held? How did BLBL even know that it was Blake who had sent that message and not some impostor who had taken her scroll to...what? Lure the rest of the first year into a trap. If that was so then they would find it harder to take them then they might have imagined, but she had to admit that it seemed like a far-fetched kind of plan.

But all the same, she continued to feel doubt whispering at the back of her neck because just how had Blake found put, anyway? She would have felt reassured if she knew the answer to that.

As it was reassurance came from a different direction: from four rocket lockers soaring overhead from Beacon, leaving blue trails like comets across the night sky and headed in the exact same direction as they were headed.

"It's them!" Yang shouted, pointing where the locker and their smile trails led the way. "They must be fighting back somehow! Great job, Ruby!" Yang turned to the other students with a fire in her eyes matching that which was beginning to consume her golden hair. "Pick up the pace, everyone. Let's back them up."

She picked up her pace, her long legs carrying rapidly through the streets though not so rapidly that Flash Sentry wasn't able to keep pace with her.

"Do you think it's really them?" he asked as they ran side by side.

"I can't think who else it could be, can you?"

"I guess not," Flash replied. He sighed. "I just wish we'd seen five lockers instead of four."

As they ran, Yang reached out to him. "We'll get her back, Flash. We're going to get them all back." She looked ahead, and thought of Ruby, and the flames burned higher all around her as she thought of all that she would do to those who had dared to do this.

As they approached the warehouse Yang could hear fighting going on inside. She started to sprint, flames raging all around her as she burst through the wall and into the warehouse with her sister's name upon her lips.

Just in time to see her sister fall to the ground, pale, cut and bleeding, with wilted rose petals descending all around her.


	34. Shining Arc

Shining Arc

Yang stared in horror at the sight before her. Ruby, her sister, the person she had promised to protect, cut down amidst wilting rose petals. She barely heard Nora gasp in shock behind her as the others that she had led hers- too late, much too late! - piled up behind her and beheld that which held her petrified.

Ruby was Yang's to protect and Yang had failed her.

"RUBY!" the cry was torn from Yang's throat louder than from Jaune or Sunset or Pyrrha. She barely heard them at all. She barely as the battle raging all acr9ss the warehouse.

All she saw was her sister, wounded so badly, and the monster in faunus skin who had done it to her.

And he was smirking. That...This was funny to him? He cut down the kindest, bravest, sweetest girl and then he smiled? Like this was some kind of joke or a game?

"YOU MONSTER! I'LL KILL YOU!" Yang roared, because if she could isn't protect her sister then she would brand the name of Ruby Rose onto the skin of him who'd hurt her by the time she was done.

Ruby's attacker was still smiling, even as he turned to run; it was as though the cowardice of the act meant nothing to him, as though even flight was victory as far as he was concerned.

He ran, and Yang pursued. She pursued because there was no way she was going to let him get away with this, because he had hurt Ruby and he had to pay, because she wanted to kill him for what he'd done, because she was fey and fierce in her despair and a madness of grief was upon her, because...

Because if she didn't go after him then she might have to watch her sister die, and she didn't have that kind of courage.

So she pursued, punching aside any member of the White Fang dumb enough to get in her way, she pursued him as he ran from the room and dropped down a hole in the floor into the dark.

And Yang followed him down there.

* * *

Adam fled, and Blake pursued him.

She pursued him because he had stopped and caught and made to answer for the things that he'd done or else all of this would be meaningless. Because this would never be over so long as Adam Taurus remained at large; even if the entire rest of the White Fang in Vale were caught he would simply raise new followers for the cause and continue the fight until the whole kingdom burned. Because neither Blake nor anyone else would be safe so long as Adam remained free; he would hung them down, every last one of them: Blake, Sun, team SAPR, Weiss, all the first years who had come to their aid - and how had 'call the cop's become 'Get all the trams together and come down for a fight'? He would stalk them through the darkness and the shadows, and out of the shadows he would strike them down for the crime if having thwarted and bested him and he would not stop until they had a perished for their insolence.

Unless Blake stopped him now.

And so as Adam fled, Blake pursued him, and when he ran from the room and leapt into a hole in the floor leading down into darkness, she followed him there.

* * *

Adam fled, and Sunset pursued him.

She pursued him because he had hurt Ruby and Ruby was hers and she wouldn't suffer the things that were hers to be hurt by others. Because Ruby had taken a hit meant for Sunset and the only way that Sunset could think to repay that debt was to catch him who had dealt the hit. Because Ruby was her friend, because the memory of Ruby's arms around Sunset's neck still warmed her, because she was her friend and she was hurt and Sunset felt the need to avenge the hurt, to show Adam Taurus why you left this who belonged to Sunset Shimmer well alone. Because she wanted to do something and raining down magic on the pawns while the king escaped would not have satisfied.

Because she wanted to do something, because she couldn't bear to just wring her hands in helplessness like Jaune.

Because she had never studied medical magic. All her magic was to hurt, so she would hurt Adam Taurus.

So she pursued him, even into the dark hole sprang from the floor into which he jumped.

Even there, Sunset followed him.

* * *

As the battle raged around them – the arrival of the rest of their Beacon classmates having pushed the White Fang back even further – Jaune, Pyrrha and Penny gathered around Ruby.

Pyrrha and Penny stood over her, casting their long shadows over her pale form as her blood lapped at the edges of their boots. Pyrrha's mouth was an O of trembling disbelief, while Penny's hands were clutched over her heart.

"Please, no," Pyrrha whispered.

Jaune knelt by Ruby's side. Tears filled his blue eyes, making it difficult for him to see. He wiped furiously with the back of his hand, but the tears always returned as soon as he stopped wiping.

It wasn't fair. It wasn't _fair_! Why was Ruby about to…why had Ruby been injured like this? Why was Ruby the one who was suffering? Why was she the one about to leave the team behind, when she was so brave and…so nice and so…

Why was Ruby leaving them, when someone as useless as him was still right here?

"Jaune?"

Jaune gasped. That was Ruby's voice, faint and quiet and softer than it ever was before, but it was still Ruby's voice. He wiped his eyes free of tears again, and he could see that she…she was smiling at him. It was the strangest thing. The stupidest, weirdest… _sweetest_ thing. Ruby was…but she didn't care. She only cared that he was upset, and so she smiled.

"Don't cry, Jaune," she whispered. "It's alright."

"No, no it isn't!" Jaune yelled. "This isn't fair! It isn't right!"

Ruby's smile didn't falter not for a moment. "Don't cry," she repeated. "Please don't cry. You're so much cuter when you're smiling." She blinked, and Jaune could see that there were tears in her eyes too, water welling in those silver eyes that burned so brightly. "Smile for me, Jaune. Smile…and help me to be brave."

Jaune tried to smile. He really did, he tried to honour her request. But his friend was dying in front of him and he couldn't help her and he couldn't save her and he couldn't help her to be brave when he couldn't even be brave himself. He tried to smile, but it probably came out as more of a grimace.

Nevertheless, Ruby said, "That's better. Thank you, Jaune."

"Ruby, I-"

"Is everyone here?"

Pyrrha knelt by Ruby's side, and gently reached out to take her hand. "I'm here, Ruby. But Sunset, and your sister, they've gone after the person who did this to you."

"So you have to hold on, okay?" Jaune yelled. "You have to hold on because…because they'd want to say goodbye."

"I…I don't know if I…"

"You have to!" Jaune repeated, shouting even louder now, shouting to be heard over the gunfire and the sounds of weapons clashing all around them. The fighting didn't come close, it burned all around but they did not feel the heat of it, as though the sanctity of this moment had thrown up a shield around them more powerful than Sunset's semblance. "You have to," he repeated with a sob, a childlike sob that begged for the reassurance of an adult to tell him that everything would be alright, that Ruby would be back on her feet and fighting fit by the next chapter.

Jaune had thought, and Ruby had thought too, that if they only lived like the heroes from the books and from comics then they could become just like them, that even if life and the real world weren't fairytales maybe, if you acted as though they were, you could make the world that way at least a little bit. But this was surely the part of the story where a kid would say 'shut the book now, Mom; we don't want to read any more. Shut the book, but tell us that it all works out okay in the end'.

But Jaune couldn't shut the book because this was his life, his life and his friend and he couldn't do anything about it! He was useless, pathetic, pointless loser!

"I'm sorry," he sobbed, closing his eyes and clenching them tight shut.

"Jaune-" Pyrrha began.

Jaune shook his head to dismiss the comforting bromides that might be about to sally from her lips, the comforting platitudes in which Ruby and Pyrrha had both wrapped him to shield him from the harsh reality of his situation. Sunset had seen it, Sunset had tried in an imperfect way to confront him with the truth, but even she had pedalled back on it in the end, even she had decided that being nice to him was better than being right, even she had decided to humour his incompetence in the name of his ambitions. And this was the result. Perhaps…maybe if Ruby had had a fourth team-mate who actually knew what he was doing then she wouldn't be…

Maybe a better man, a real hero, would have saved her.

"Please, Ruby," Jaune begged, clutching her hand as though he could physically hold her back from death. "Please, you…you can't go you have to stay here, with us. You…you've brought everyone here to save you because we…please, Ruby, just hang on!"

As he spoke, as he begged, as he pleaded, Jaune felt a tingling sensation in his hands, a feeling like water was pouring of him; not like sweat, more like he was a skin filled with water that was slowly draining out of him and into another vessel, as though the great bowl of his own power was emptying out to fill another cup beneath.

"Jaune," Pyrrha whispered, awe-struck.

Jaune opened his eyes. He could see that around his hands a silver light glowed, rippling and running like the water that he felt inside of him, and it was flowing over Ruby, gradually enveloping her like a cocoon, covering her wounded side, her whole body. And, as Jaune watched with eyes wide and drying out of tears, the dolorous blow that had been dealt to Ruby began to heal, closing up before his very gaze.

Then she gasped, and began to twitch and jerk and writhe.

"What's happening?" Jaune demanded.

"Don't stop!" Pyrrha cried. "You're stimulating her aura to heal her body, it might be painful, but it's what she needs." She looked up at him. "I think…you've just unlocked your semblance, Jaune."

Jaune boggled. A day ago, even a few moments ago, and he would have been ecstatic at the news but now…now all he could think of was the girl in front of him, and whether she would live.

"So…Ruby's going to be okay?"

"If you keep doing what you're doing, she'll be absolutely fine," Pyrrha said. "Penny, can you help keep Ruby restrained until Jaune is finished?"

Penny knelt, and pushed Ruby down with both her hands, holding her still as her body healed itself of her terrible injuries.

Pyrrha got to her feet, picking up her sword and shield as she did so. She looked away from Ruby, in the direction that Sunset, Yang and Blake had gone in their pursuit of that White Fang guy.

"Go," Jaune said.

Pyrrha glanced back at him. "Jaune?"

"Go," he repeated. "Back up Sunset, that's what you were thinking, wasn't it? Don't worry about Ruby, I got this."

"But-"

Nora and Ren stepped in front of Jaune, Ruby and Penny.

"Nothing is going to get near her," Nora said. "That's a promise."

Pyrrha nodded. "Thank you. Take care of them."

And then she was gone, dashing through the fray in pursuit of the others.

Jaune watched her for a moment, before turning his attention back to Ruby as the silver waves of his semblance continued to wash over her like the gentle and renewing waves of some mystical sea.

"Hold on, Ruby," he whispered. "Just hold on."


	35. Labyrinth, Part One

Labyrinth, Part One

Roman Torchwick sat at the controls of bullhead as he flew away from the now-compromised hideout.

It wasn't a total loss; they'd already sent the dust to Mountain Glenn and they had other safehouses in Vale that they could switch to their primary HQ in the kingdom, but all the same…he didn't like it.

He sighed. "I hope Cinder got what she wanted out of all this, because it was an absolute bust otherwise."

Neo sat beside him in the cockpit, legs crossed, toying with her parasol. She looked up at him, her mismatched eyes guileless. She signed, _But we got out. Isn't that all that really matters?_

Roman chuckled. "Yeah, I guess that is all that matters in the end, isn't it? Not sure that the animals will see it that way…or that Cinder will, come to it." The opinion of the White Fang on the outcome of this business didn't unduly bother him, but the potentially capricious attitude that Cinder might hold towards the outcome of this business…that, he confessed, did concern him somewhat.

 _But it was her choice,_ Neo signed.

Roman shook his head. "You've got a lot to learn about the way the world works kid. If she decides to get mad about this little experiment then the fact that it was her idea isn't going to matter a damn, or save whoever she decides to blame for it all." He reached into his breast pocket for a cigar. "There ain't nothing so capricious as a woman."

Neo folded her arms and pouted her lips.

Roman chuckled. "No offence intended, kid."

The pout faded from her face, but Neo continued to look up at him with curiosity in those colour-changing eyes.

Roman clenched the cigar between his teeth as he gently banked the bullhead towards their next headquarters. "Something on your mind, Neo?"

 _Why did we cut and run so suddenly?_ Neo signed.

"You ask me that as if it isn't what we do," Roman replied. "We're thieves, Neo, criminals; we're not soldiers, we're not huntsmen, we're not fanatics. We stay alive. Dying for a cause is for suckers."

 _I know,_ Neo replied. _But maybe we could have taken those three._

"Maybe," Roman conceded. They hadn't had their weapons, after all. "But why take the risk?"

 _Is that all?_

Roman reached for his lighter. Funny, it wasn't in the pocket where he always kept it. With one hand steady on the stick, Roman patted down his other pockets only for them all to come up empty. Where was that-

Neo flipped the lid open on his lighter, and then snapped it shut again. The smile on her face was feline in its smugness.

 _Looking for this?_

"That's it, you're not spending any more time with that Emerald girl," Roman grumbled as he snatched the lighter out of her hands and lit up his cigar.

 _You're not supposed to smoke in flight._

"Smartass," Roman muttered. He breathed the nicotine into his lungs. "You're getting good. I could almost believe you'd be able to make it on your own out there."

 _But I'm not alone. I've got you._

"Yeah, you do," Roman murmured. That was why they were both still alive and free after all this time. Guys like him, in his line of work, didn't have families. Roman's marriage hadn't stood up to the test of his move into criminality; he hadn't seen his kids in years. Your work was your life when your work included staying one step ahead of the cops twenty four-seven; guys like him didn't have families, it was a career choice for loners.

But Neo was different. He had her and she had him and they watched each others backs and no one had ever gotten close to them.

But he couldn't say for certain how long that might last. Not with Cinder and the White Fang and everything else that was going on. His life had gotten a hell of a lot more complicated recently, and he had no idea how it was all going to end.

 _You never answered my question,_ Neo signed.

Roman shrugged. "I've forgotten what it was."

 _Why did we leave so soon? Why didn't we fight?_

"Because…" Roman trailed off, wondering if he ought to say what was on his mind or not. Ah, hell; if he couldn't tell Neo the truth then… "Maybe I wasn't that unhappy that the princess stopped me from killing little red. Maybe, just maybe, I got out so that I wouldn't have to try again."

Neo smirked. _I knew it._

"Oh, you knew it, huh? What did you know?"

 _You like her, don't you?_

Roman snorted. "She's a little young for me. And I prefer blondes."

 _You know what I mean._

"I guess I want to see her grow up, you know," Roman said. "She what she turns into when she opens up those eyes of hers and sees what the world is really like. I mean, don't get me wrong, she's an idiot, but…she kind of reminds me of me when I was that age."

Neo cocked her head to one side.

"That's right, I was an idealistic dumbass once, too," Roman said. "Shocking, I know, but I wasn't always this suave, sophisticated man of the world you see before you now. I used to think…and then I learnt better. When that kid learns the hard way, when she learns what I learned…I wonder what she'll do."

 _Should I be jealous?_ Neo asked playfully.

"Of little red? Come on!" Roman replied. "Wherever she could go, you're already there."

Neo smiled in self-satisfaction. _Can we get ice cream after we land?_

"Sure," Roman said. "What flavour do you want?"

 _What do you think?_

* * *

Sunset walked through the darkness, a glimmering ball of green magelight hovering above her head and the sounds of her boots echoing upon the concrete floor.

When they weren't squelching through something that Sunset was quite glad she couldn't see.

She didn't rush. She advanced cautiously, with one hand upon the cold, damp, slightly sticky wall of the dark, enclosed warren in which she found herself. She had lost sight of Yang and Blake; or rather she hadn't seen them once she dropped into the dark. Perhaps – most likely – they had taken a different direction to her because this place was a labyrinth, with three different paths confronting her the moment she dropped down the hole. That was why Sunset walked with one hand on the wall: with a little touch of magic she was burning a line into said wall with her fingertip, a line that she could follow to find her way back again once her task was done.

She was angry, but it was not a wild rage that gripped her; Sunset had not lost all her reason in the throes of a berserker passion. It was a cold fury that was upon her, a wrath like ice that had encased her heart but did not – greatly – impede her reason.

She had followed Adam Taurus into this dark place, but if he thought to trap her here by leading her by the nose until she got lost beyond all hope of finding any way out he was very much mistaken.

She would avenge…she would revenge herself for what he had done, and then she would return to her team.

Return…and find out whether the youngest member of their team yet lived.

Sunset's face contorted into a snarl and her free hand – the one not scraping a line along the wall to follow home – clenched.

It was dark down here, lightless. The circle illuminated in a dull green glow by the magelight that hovered above her like her own personal fairy was the only thing in this place that Sunset could really see. She couldn't see in front of her, she couldn't see behind; she could barely see the wall that she was touching.

If there was one thing that was making her nervous it was that lack of vision. But she had had no choice, she couldn't just let him go, not after what he had done. Behaviour such as his had to be made an example of.

And besides, he only had a sword. If he wanted to close with her he would have to come where she could see him.

Sunset stopped. She heard something, a scuffling against the floor. It could have been a rat, it could have been a mouse, it could have been a reptile flushed down the toilet and left to mutate into a horror movie monster but Sunset doubted it.

More likely it was the monster she had descended into this labyrinth to hunt.

Slowly, she drew her hand away from the wall. Both her hands began to glow as she funnelled magic to her finger tips.

"You're very bold to come down here alone," Adam said, his voice echoing from out of the darkness.

Sunset's lips twisted into a sneer of contempt. "Tough talk from a man who cut and ran, abandoning his own men."

"Perry will get them out, I'm sure," Adam replied. "But in any case, you're one to talk aren't you?"

Sunset's eyes narrowed. She couldn't tell exactly where his voice was coming from, she couldn't see a thing and the way the echoes worked in here she couldn't rely on her ears to be a sound guide either. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"What are you doing here but running away?" Adam asked. "Abandoning your team-mate-"

"Don't talk about her!" Sunset snapped. "Don't you dare say a word about Ruby! You don't have the right!"

"Ruby? Was that her name?"

"Shut up!" Sunset yelled into the darkness, baring her teeth in a snarl. She took a deep breath. She was playing into his hands, letting him rile her up with the mere mention of Ruby. That was what he wanted, to put her off balance, off her game. But she had to play the game as well. He had to have weaknesses of his own, if she could find them.

"Shut up," she repeated, more quietly this time and more coldly too. "Shut up and let your sword do the talking. Unless you're afraid of a house faunus like me?"

Adam was silent for a moment. "Were you afraid to confront the consequences of your mistakes? Is that why you followed me here?"

"Perhaps I wanted to see you dead that badly."

"Dead by your hand?" his voice sounded amused as it drifted out of the dark. "Do you still think you have it in you to kill me?"

"I don't think, I know," Sunset said. "I swear that if it takes me a day, a year, or the rest of my life I'll see you burn for what you did to Ruby. And then I'll take your red sword and sling it across my back so that everyone will know that I'm the one who finished you."

Adam chuckled. "You want a trophy? That's practically barbaric. I can appreciate that. But do you think they will?"

"They?" Sunset snapped. "Who's 'they'?"

"Humans," Adam said. "Your team-mates, your fine friends. Do you think that killing me will make you a hero in their eyes?"

"I think it can't hurt."

"I don't want to fight you, Sunset."

"Then you shouldn't have cut down my friend in front of me."

"Your friend," Adam said from out of the darkness. "Doesn't it bother you that someone as powerful as you, someone truly gifted with such a versatile semblance as you, is valued only on the level of children such as those you lead, if that?"

"If that?" Sunset said. "If that? I'm not on their level, I'm their leader."

"A leader of children, treated as a child," Adam replied. "Or else a weapon in someone's armoury, a tool for someone else to claim the victory. Is that all that you want?"

"A petty thug like you wouldn't be able to comprehend what I want."

Adam laughed. "Try me."

"I'd rather blow your head off."

"Yes, but you'd need to be able to see me to do that, wouldn't you?"

"Why don't you come out and let me see you?"

"And why would I do that?" Adam asked. "I am not your enemy, Sunset Shimmer. The White Fang is not your enemy."

"No?"

"No," Adam whispered, sounding so close that he might have been standing right behind Sunset, about to run a hand through her hair. "You…intrigue me. Your power, your passion…what could you not do if you were only willing to stand beside your brothers and sisters."

"The White Fang can't offer me a single thing that I want."

"And what is it that you want? To serve lesser men? To defend the Kingdom of Vale? Tell me, Sunset, what is it that you want?"

"Everything," Sunset said. "I want the world and all its glories, I want the kingdoms of the world spread out at my feet, I want to shine in every light and be the name on every pair of lips, I want it all. I want the destiny that was promised to me long ago."

From the dark came only silence. Then, after a little while, Adam spoke again, calmly and softly. "Would you believe me if I told you that that's what I want too? Not just for myself but for our people? Our rightful place in the sun is all that I desire."

"My glory is not for sharing with an entire race?"

"But it is for sharing with three humans who will take the lion's share and leave only scraps behind?"

"You really want me in your club, don't you?"

"The White Fang will always be a refuge for the broken and the damned."

"What makes you think I'm either?"

"Maybe you aren't, yet," Adam allowed. "But you will be. Dreams as grand as yours…someone with your ears and your tail will never allowed to touch the sky; we are not meant to soar as high as heaven. The pits as hot as hell itself, that is our place as far as _they_ are concerned. You…you will never be as great as the Mistral princess in their eyes, nor the girl Ruby if she lives; I hear she's something of a young genius. And you, for all your talents, for all your extraordinary abilities, no matter what accomplishments you amass to your name, even if you should strike me down and kill me…you will never be as great as them because you are a faunus."

Sunset shook her head. "You're wrong." _I am no faunus by birth, I was not born into ruthless subjugation; I came into the world a unicorn amongst a city of unicorns and as a unicorn…as a unicorn I failed._

So she thought, and thought truly…but all the same…a unicorn in a city of unicorns, to be sure, but a poor unicorn all the same; a poor unicorn in a city of the rich and powerful, a mare of no family whose mother had died bringing little Sunset into the world and whose father…what was Twilight Sparkle's family? Was she a foundling, or did some august and ancient line wait in the wings chinking coins to grease the path for the Princess of Friendship?

 _No amount of money could buy the ability to complete Starswirl the Bearded's unfinished spell. Nor even gain access to it._

 _Have I not made my peace with that, and with Twilight Sparkle too?_

 _Apparently not if a few words from this creeping, skulking, fleeing villain can set me into turmoil._

Sunset shook her head. She was past that, she was beyond such things, she had moved forward and accepted her flaws and vowed to do better afterwards. She would be wise hereafter and seek for grace in her ambitions; or so she'd told herself. So she had convinced herself.

So she had lied to herself, at least in part, it seemed. It was still there, the instinct to blame her birth, her place, her station for all the misfortunes and disappointments of her life. The flaw was in Sunset's stars, not in herself. Even if it was not so, even if it only led to further disappointments…it was very tempting.

It was tempting to blame the world for not laying at her feet all the honours that were her due.

It was tempting to scorn Pyrrha and Ruby and Jaune. Tempting…but wrong. She knew that now, and though she was not beyond it she could see…she would not be drawn into that mire again, not by a man like Adam Taurus.

 _I could have been a princess. I could have been the paragon of my race but…I failed. It may pain me to admit it but I failed in my quest and strayed from my path. I failed. I will not fail again._

 _Though this is not my home and the faunus are not my race, yet I will be the champion of it._

"You will not turn me from my destiny," Sunset declared. "Your bitterness will not infect me, your hatred will not corrode me. My destiny does not lie in your camp or murderers and cutthroats. My name is Sunset Shimmer, and one day your sword will belong to me."

"I see," Adam murmured, sounding almost regretful to hear it. "Is that your last word?"

"Yes," Sunset growled. "Now come out, and answer for what you've done to my friend."

"If that is your last word, then let this be mine," Adam said. "Goodbye, Sunset Shimmer."

He emerged out of the darkness and into the light, head bowed like a bull as though he meant to skewer her on his horns. He was running, and he ducked beneath Sunset's hasty shot from her right palm as he drew his sword and slashed at Sunset's side.

Sunset recoiled as she felt a piece of her aura sliced away, the impact of the blow staggering her sideways as Adam retreated once more into the protection of the darkness.

"Your semblance is powerful and versatile," Adam declared. "But you need to be able to see your opponent before you can hit them."

"I thought we'd already had your last word," Sunset groaned. She looked before her, and behind, and saw nothing either way. She turned to the side, one hand facing each way.

Maybe she couldn't see him, but that didn't matter. Where could he go in a tunnel?

She fired a pulse of magic in each direction, aimed down the very centre of the passage in both directions.

Adam emerged from the shadows again, his crimson sword swinging. Sunset turned to face him, raising her hands to conjure a shield before her, but before she could do it he was right on top of her. He slashed across her midriff once, twice, driving Sunset back as she felt the blows through her aura like gutpunches.

He hit her on the head with his scabbard, hard enough to knock her down onto the cold, slimy floor.

Sunset teleported. It was risky since she couldn't see where she was going, but it was a straight line tunnel so she should probably be alright. She materialised about a dozen feet away. The magelight that had flickered above her disappeared, and she was plunged into darkness.

As she climbed slowly to her feet she could see nothing at all.

But she could hear the scraping of Adam's sword upon the wall, hear the tap-tap of is boots upon the floor.

She could hear him coming.

"Do you think that you can hide from me in darkness? In the shadows where I was born?"

Sunset took a deep breath, and spread her hands out until she was touching the walls on either side of her. She'd used a fair amount of magic already, but she still had enough juice left for this.

She conjured spears of magic, glowing bolts of green energy all around her pointing straight down the tunnel.

 _Parry this._

Sunset released them, first one at a time and then in a great rush, vorpal spears flying through the air, magic like darts ripping through the darkness, chasing it away.

She took delight in the lock of shock on Adam's face, briefly illuminated, before the bolts struck home.

Some of them, at least. A few he managed to parry with his sword before the rest slammed into him. They exploded in a burst of green, and she heard Adam cry out as he was thrown backwards.

Sunset advanced, cautiously but confidently enough to conjure more magelight. He had to have broken his aura by now, unless he had ridiculous levels like Jaune and even Jaune would have struggled to bear up under the amount of punishment that Adam had been taking tonight.

She found him lying on the ground, face down, unmoving on the grey stone. As her magelight illuminated him, Sunset could see that the back of his jacket bore a wilted rose design. Strange coincidence.

He didn't move. It was like he was down for the count.

Not much to do then, except…finish this.

Sunset's hand glowed with magic. One blow would be all that it took with his aura down. One blow…to take a life.

Not something that she'd ever done before. Grimm didn't count, they weren't really alive to start with but this…

 _Dear Princess Celestia, today I became a killer._

 _A killer of killers. A killer of a man who tried to kill my friend, who might have killed them for all I know._

 _This is revenge. This is justice._

 _This is all an animal like him deserves._

All the same, it wasn't something she'd been taught to do in either Canterlot. Even her huntress training so far had focussed on tournament fighting and killing grimm. Killing men was something else, and not something that there'd been much talk of.

 _This is justice. This is just deserts._

Sunset turned her palm so that it was facing Adam, and prepared to blast the life out of him.

His hand shot out and grabbed her ankle.

Sunset squawked in alarm as she was pulled off balance and to the ground, her magical blast firing into the ceiling and knocking shards of stone down upon the pair of them.

She would have teleported away but Adam still had hold of her, in fact he didn't let go even as he threw himself on top of her, only when he'd grabbed hold of another part of Sunset did he let go of her ankle.

"You can't get away if I don't let go, can you?" he asked, as he punched her in the face. And again, and again his fist rose and fell, pummelling her aura like a hammer descending upon stonework to smash it into splinters.

He picked her up and slammed her into the wall, then hit her again: once to the face, once to the gut.

Sunset punched him, a swing to the face that caught him on the jaw. It didn't faze him. He didn't even flinch. In fact he smirked.

"You rely too heavily upon your semblance," he said, and punched her in the gut again. "Without it you're not so impressive."

Sunset raised her hand, magic glowing in her palm, but he grabbed her wrist and twisted her so that her hand was pinned behind her back.

Then he slammed her face into the wall once, twice, three times. He spun her around again, grabbing her by the sides of the head and forcing her face down while he drove his knee upwards into it.

She didn't know what state his aura was in but she could feel hers getting weaker with every blow.

"And you thought that you could defeat me, kill me, here in the darkness where I live," Adam snarled as he threw her to the ground. He was on top of and astride her now, his teeth bared in an angry snarl. "Arrogance!" He picked up his sword from where it lay on the floor, and his scabbard too. When he pointed it at her head Sunset realised that the scabbard was also a gun.

Sunset tried to summon magic, but Adam spotted it and shot her in the hand before she could amass any power at all. Sunset winced in pain.

He took aim at her head again. The tip of his sword was resting between her breasts.

"Without your semblance what do you have left?"

"Me," Pyrrha cried as she leapt of the darkness, her red hair flying. Sunset's magelight glimmered upon her burnished shield as she swung it at Adam's face. He blocked with his sword, but this left him open to the jab of Pyrrha's spear. Milo changed to a sword as Adam scrambled backwards. Pyrrha pursued, slashing with her sword and hitting out with her shield. Adam was able to keep up with her, but she forced him back all the same, driving him away from Sunset like a bear driving the hunters away from its cub. And once Adam had retreated, melting back once more into the darkness, Pyrrha stood over Sunset like a guard and did not pursue him further.

"Can you stand?"

Sunset got rapidly to her feet. "Yes."

"How's your aura?"

"Somewhere in the yellow, I think."

Pyrrha tensed. "It was foolish of you to come down here. Yang and Blake?"

"I don't know," Sunset said. "I haven't seen them. How did you find me?"

"I saw that someone had left a trail along the wall, and I guessed that that was you," Pyrrha replied.

Sunset nodded, for all that Pyrrha had her back to her.

"We should go," Pyrrha said, speaking softly, barely louder than a whisper. Milo transformed into rifle form and she rested it upon her shield, which she held up to protect her chest. "I can't fight what I can't see, and your semblance is a poor match for his…his semblance or his sword, one of the two."

"You want to let him go?"

"I almost think," Pyrrha murmured. "That the question is whether he will let us go."

Neither of the two said anything else, not for a while. They waited, Pyrrha on guard and Sunset behind her, listening.

But there was no sound. Adam said nothing, nor could they hear him moving out there, somewhere in the dark beyond their sight. It was as though he had just melted away, into the shadows.

Sunset let out the breath she hadn't even realised that she was holding. "He's gone."

"So it would seem," Pyrrha replied. "He must have been too weak for a renewed confrontation. We should return to the others."

"Ruby," Sunset murmured. "Is she…"

"Ruby will be fine."

Sunset blinked. "Fine?"

"Jaune was able to stimulate her aura to heal her injury."

"Jaune?"

"He's awakened his semblance."

 _Huh. I guess I'm the only one who hasn't now, then._ _Good on Jaune, I suppose._

Sunset was silent for a moment longer. "Thank you, for coming after me. You probably-"

"Don't mention it," Pyrrha said gently. "I did…I couldn't have done anything else. Now, we really should get back to Ruby and Jaune."

It rankled with Sunset, to turn tail, but Pyrrha had a point. A very good point in fact. If Adam had gone they'd have a hard time finding him again and if they did…this wasn't the place, this wasn't the ground. In sunlight, where they could see him coming, then they would defeat him but here…how could you fight what you couldn't see.

Sunset would have that red sword somehow, but not here. And not tonight.

"Hey, Pyrrha?"

"Yes?" Pyrrha asked as they began to retreat.

"Can you teach me to fight hand to hand?" Sunset asked. "And maybe…with a sword?"


	36. Quoth the Raven

Quoth the Raven

Yang ran through the dark tunnels. She couldn't see her quarry, she could barely see in front of her, but she ran anyway because if she stopped, if she let him get away, then she might have to confront what he had done to Ruby rather than simply vowing to avenge it.

Her Ember Celica were ready on her wrists, as soon as she got close enough he wasn't going to know what hit him.

If she could find him. If she could see him in this darkness.

The fire from Yang herself, the flames of her rage, provided a little light but barely more than a circle around her. Her shadow danced upon the walls, illuminated by her own fire, as she stopped at a crossroads intersection between two tunnels.

She had four different ways to go, and no idea which path the monster that she hunted had taken.

"Where are you?" she howled, as the flames that engulfed her leapt higher for a moment as she turned this way and that. "Where are you? Come out and face me, you coward!"

"He can't hear you."

Yang spun, raising her arms in front of her face ready to either block or punch as required, as a portal opened up in front of her. It was dark, and in this dark place she would hardly have seen it if it were not the crimson border, pulsing with malevolence, that surrounded this tear, this hole in the world.

This hole from out of which strode a single figure. She – judging by the shape of her figure and the undulating waves of black hair, as long and thick as Yang's own golden locks – was clad in ornate, Mistralian-looking armour of black and crimson, with a helmet that reminded Yang uncomfortably of the masks worn by the White Fang; but while their masks only bore a superficial resemblance to the creatures of grimm, if Yang hadn't known better she would have sworn that the helmet that this newcomer was wearing – the helmet that concealed the entirety of her face from view – had been cut entire from the head of some grimm that she couldn't put a name too yet.

She was carrying a large sword at her hip, a dust-blade like the one Weiss carried but much, much bigger. One of her armoured hands rested casually upon the hilt.

 _Who is this? Is this their big boss or something? Is this who the White Fang works for?_

Yang gritted her teeth. Whoever she was, if she wanted a fight then she'd come to the right place.

"If you're looking for the big bull faunus with the sword I'm afraid you're out of luck," the woman said. "He's not here. He had a run in with your Ruby's team-mates and decided that he'd had enough for today. And you weren't on the right track in any case."

 _Ruby's team-mates? Like, plural? Did they all just ditch Ruby to come in here after Adam?_ Yang felt a twitch of anger towards them, which was only slightly dampened when she realised the hypocrisy involved in feeling angry towards them for doing what she'd done herself.

"Why should I believe you?" Yang demanded. "I mean, you're White Fang too, aren't you? Why should I listen to a word out of your mouth?"

"Because if I were White Fang you'd be dead already," the woman declared. "I don't waste my time talking to my enemies."

"If we're not enemies then what are we? Who are you?" Yang repeated.

The woman was silent for a moment. Though her face was hidden behind the mask, Yang had the impression that she was studying her.

"You were very brave to come down here, and even more reckless," the woman from the portal said. "You didn't get that from me. But then…it was always clear that you had more of your father in you."

Yang's eyes widened, and in spite of herself she lowered her hands, if only a little. Her breath caught in her throat because…because who else would say something like that. When her voice came again it was quieter than it had been before, and a little less angry for now not because she wasn't angry – and gods knew, if this was who she thought it was – but because right now she could hardly believe it.

She hardly dared to believe it.

"Who are you?"

The woman took off her helmet, revealing a pale face that was so alike to Yang's own that it was like looking in a mirror. Her eyes were red, as red as Yang's became when she was angry which meant that they were as red as Yang's eyes were right now.

"Coming down here was foolish, but I'm glad that we have this chance to talk alone. We have a lot to talk about."

"Raven," Yang breathed.

Raven smirked. "I suppose it's asking a little much for you to call me Mom."

"We have a lot to talk about?" Yang shouted, and she gesticulated furiously with her hands as she advanced a pace towards her…her mother, the woman she hadn't ever seen with her own eyes before. "We have a lot to talk about? You just show up like this and that's what you have to say? You're damn right we have a lot to talk about, how about we talk about where you've been for the last sixteen years and why you walked out on me and Dad and-"

"Yang, do you love your sister?"

Yang halted, stunned into momentary silence by the unexpected question. "What?"

"Do you love your sister?" Raven repeated.

"What kind of a question is that? Yes, I love my sister, why-"

"Well, you wouldn't have a little sister if I hadn't left your father and Summer free to consummate the tension that had existed between them since the day they met," Raven said casually. "So you could say that it all worked out for the best."

"It all worked out?" Yang repeated, in a voice that was as sharp as ice. Her voice rose like an inferno climbing the walls of a tower block. "It all worked out? Do you have any idea what we all went through after-"

"That wasn't my fault," Raven said sharply. She scowled for a moment. "I thought that I was leaving you with the kindest, most generous people that I knew. I loved your mother, Yang." She glanced away for a moment. "I loved her as much as I loved your father, in spite of her…I loved your mother; I wept to hear that she was dead."

"I'm sorry that it upset you," Yang growled.

Raven met her eyes again. "Our time here is not unlimited, Yang, I didn't come here to have my decisions questioned."

"Then why did you come here?"

"I understand that you must-"

"No," Yang snapped. "No, you don't. You don't know me. You weren't there. You were never there."

"Don't mistake invisibility for absence," Raven replied. "I've been watching over you almost every day since your mother died."

"Really?" Yang said. "How about the day when I went looking for you to that cabin in the woods? Where you there watching me walk through the cold and the dark with Ruby in the back of a wagon, trying to find you? Where you there when I arrived at the cabin and all I found were beowolves."

"If Qrow hadn't come I would have stepped in to protect you."

"Why didn't you show yourself!" Yang demanded, a screech of rage that had been almost seventeen years coming bursting out of her mouth like a racehorse out the gate. "I was looking for you! If you were there then why didn't you let me find you?"

Raven's expression was almost inscrutable. Only the slightest tremor betrayed any hint of guilt for what she had done or not done. "If you want answers about your past, then come and find me. If you can do that, if you're strong enough to do that, then I will give you all the answers that you demand." She smiled. "You can even try to kill me, if you're still angry enough when we're finished."

 _How can you say something like that? Is this all just a big joke to you, or is that the kind of person that you are?_ Yang shook her head. _I don't want to kill you, Mom. This isn't about…I never wanted revenge._

 _I wanted my mother._

When she had been a kid, after Mom had died, she'd thought that…she'd hoped…it was stupid, but she'd been so young so she was probably allowed to be stupid, she'd thought that if she could find _her_ mother then she would come home with them and be Ruby's mom too the way that Mom had been Mom for both of them and she'd be with Dad and everything…and everything would be better.

Stupid, childish. Now she mostly wanted to know why…but there was a part of her that still wanted to have someone she could call mom again.

 _Forgive me, Mom,_ she said, thinking of Summer Rose.

"Why are you here?"

Raven stared at her for a moment. "I'm here to tell you to open your eyes. You'll need to see clearly if you want to understand what's coming."

"What?"

"Watch Ozpin," Raven continued. "Don't trust him. Ask yourself why he decided to admit your sister to Beacon two years early, why he couldn't wait until she was old enough. Ask yourself why there were no teachers around to stop you going on this little expedition of yours."

"There," Yang stopped, hesitated because it was a pretty big stroke of luck. She hadn't questioned it at the time because they needed luck and Ruby's life had been on the line but now that Raven forced her to look at it…it was odd. Where had Professor Goodwitch been, why hadn't there been anyone to catch them? Why had they been allowed to get out of Beacon and into Vale so easily? "Are you saying that Professor Ozpin let us go? Why would he do something like that?"

"How much have you seen of your headmaster?"

"Not a lot."

"It hasn't started yet then, good; you'll notice when it does."

"When what does, what are you talking about?"

"Ozpin plays favourites," Raven explained. "When I was at Beacon it was Team Stark, every few years it's someone else, this year…how much do you know about Silver Eyes?"

Yang's own eyes widened. _Of course, she was Mom's team-mate._ "What does that mean?"

"I can't explain it, but while you're thinking about all those other questions here's another: do you think it's a coincidence that a prodigy with silver eyes happened to be the girl picked to attend Beacon early? Or that she ended up on a team with two of the most talented huntresses to attend the academy since Summer and me? I guarantee that he's already taken an interest in them, and soon he'll start to show it: extra training missions, indulgence for breaking the rules…and then he'll pull back the curtain and show them a little of the truth he hides from the rest of the world."

"What truth?" Yang demanded. "Why can't you just explain what the hell you're talking about?"

"Because the things I know would shake the foundations of your world and you wouldn't believe half of the things that I could tell you."

"Why should I believe a word out of your mouth now?" Yang yelled. "You've never been a part of my life and now you just show up here of all places, saying a lot of vague stuff and I'm supposed to just buy it? What are you saying? Why are you here?"

"I'm trying to arm you!" Raven snapped. "You don't believe me? Fine, you don't have to. I know that you have Summer's journal. Keep reading, you ought to believe her when you wouldn't believe me. All the answers are there, the answers that your father and your uncle won't tell you: about Silver Eyes, about Ozpin…about why Summer died. You just have to keep reading and when you're not reading then _watch_. Ozpin might try to recruit you as well, be on your guard."

Yang felt as though her head was spinning. This was all happening much too fast, and too unexpectedly, for her to really process half of what she was being told. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I've been watching you," Raven replied. "I know that if Ruby is drawn into Ozpin's war the way that our team was drawn into it then you'll follow her to the ends of the earth, into the mouth of hell if you have to. I don't want that for you."

"I'm not going to abandon Ruby," Yang said, even as the words felt hollow in her mouth because of course she had abandoned Ruby to come down here, where her mother had found her.

"Then make sure you're protecting her from _everything_ ," Raven said. She drew her sword, and began to turn away. "I have to go."

"Wait!" Yang shouted, reaching out with one hand. "You can't just go! You can't just show up, dump all this stuff, and then just…leave!"

"You shouldn't take my word as truth any more than Ozpin's word or the words of your Father or Qrow. Keep your eyes and your ears open and decide the truth for yourself." Raven said, slicing her sword through the air to create another portal. She smirked briefly as she put on her helmet and concealed her face once more. "Oh, and by the way, Ruby's going to be fine."

"WHAT!?" Yang bellowed at the top of her voice. "How could you just…how do you even know that?"

"As I said, I've been watching," Raven replied. She began to step into the portal. "Your friend can show you the way back, I'm sure."

"No, wait, come back," Yang yelled, but already the portal that Raven had sliced through the fabric of the world itself was beginning to close. Yang dashed forward, hand outstretched…to close on the empty air as the portal disappeared as completely as if it had never been at all.

Perhaps it hadn't. Perhaps all of this was nothing more than a hallucination, a vision of her mother brought out of desperation and despair.

That might actually have been preferable to the idea that her mother – the woman who had given birth to her, at any rate – had shown up to tell her…what? Aside from the fact that Ruby was okay, delivered in so blithe and offhand a manner that it would have been infuriating if Yang could have been certain in believing it, everything else was so damn cryptic that Yang didn't know what to think. She barely knew where to begin thinking. Don't trust Professor Ozpin? The headmaster was going to start…what, keeping an eye on Ruby like it seemed he'd kept an eye on Mom? He hadn't yet, but Raven suggested that he would start. But why? And why was it a bad thing?

Keep reading Mom's journal? Thanks, but they'd already planned to do that. Don't listen to Dad? At least he'd been around all her life even if he hadn't always been a lot of help.

 _I loved your mother; I wept to hear that she was dead._

 _Why should I believe you? Why should I believe anything that you say? You left me and you're not sorry for it; why should I listen to a word you say?_

 _Why would you show up out of nowhere for no good reason?_

Yang's hands clenched into fists. If Ruby was okay, if Yang could breathe again in relief that she still had a younger sister and a hero to look up to, if the weight was lifted from her shoulders, if she got out of this tunnel and found Ruby alive and well then…then she would do what she had always done, and take care of her.

If it was true then she wanted to sob with relief; she wanted to collapse on the floor in tears of joy at the escape; she wanted to hug Ruby so hard that her aura broke all over again. She wanted to chain them together so that this couldn't happen again.

She wanted to see her again. But with a cooler head Yang was forced to confront the fact that she was a little bit lost.

"Yang?"

Yang whirled around, fists rising momentarily until she saw that it was Blake, advancing warily towards her.

"Blake."

Blake lowered her gun. "I heard shouting. I thought…I thought you might have found him."

"Sorry," Yang replied. "I think we might have missed him."

"I'm not surprised, these tunnels are a mess. There are a dozen different ways he could have gone and we'd never know."

Yang was silent for a moment. She could barely see Blake now, what with the flames that had once lit up the space around her dying down as her anger cooled. The other girl little more than a shape to her, a shadow in the darkness, and even that was fading as she blended in with the other shadows all around her.

"Uh," she said. "Are you still here?"

There was silence, but Yang felt a warm hand brushing against her fingertips as something, a length of ribbon, was wrapped around her hand.

"Hold onto that," Blake said. "We should probably…go back. I'm sure that you're missed already."

"I'm sure both our teams think we were pretty stupid to come down here," Yang said with a slight chuckle.

"We were a little rash."

"So I've been told," Yang murmured. "Can you find the way back?"

"I think so. I…I'm not completely blind down here."

"Lucky for me," Yang said. She felt a tug upon the ribbon in her hand, and began to walk forward.

Silence lay between them for a moment before Blake spoke. "I'm…sorry, about what happened to Ruby."

"I…" Yang trailed off. What could she say; that her mother had appeared and told that Ruby was going to be fine? She didn't know if she believed that herself, she couldn't ask Blake to believe it. "Thanks," she said. "Hey, Blake?"

"Yes."

"You're the one who found this place first, how did you do it?"

Blake took a moment or two to answer. "A friend of mine risked his life to find this place for me."

It was Yang's turn to hesitate, because it took a while to work out what to say to an answer like that. "Why?"

"Because it was the right thing to do," Blake said. "Ruby, the others, they didn't deserve what was going to be done to them. They're innocent in all this."

"Blake?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you," Yang said, putting every once of sincerity that she could muster into the two simple words. "If you ever need anything, anything at all…you can always count on me."

There was no response, not even though the seconds ticked by into double figures.

"Uh, hello?" Yang called. "You still hear me up there?"

"Yes, I can hear you fine," Blake said. "That's…kind of you."

"Nah, what's kind is what you did to earn it."

Blake lapsed once more into silence before she said, "Yang?"

"Yeah?"

"Who were you shouting at up there?"

Yang frowned. "Nobody," she said. "Just…a ghost from my past."

A ghost who had given her no answers, but who had left Yang with a lot of questions.

* * *

 _Author's Note: Originally there was going to be a fight between Yang/Blake and Adam, which Adam would almost win necessitating Raven to come in for the save like in the Yang vs Neo fight; but I decided that after several chapters of Adam tanking hits and talking about how his aura must be almost out it would verge on the ridiculous for him to pick a fight with Blake and Yang as well (not to mention that a fresh Raven would absolutely wreck a tired Adam on low aura, and it was difficult to see how he would survive such an encounter). So I decided to use this as a the moment for a scene I wanted but couldn't quite decide where to put: Raven appearing to Yang and warning her about Ozpin and his plans for Ruby. It's a combination of her appearance in Volume 5 plus the sort of thing that might have happened after the Volume 2 stinger if Miles and Kerry hadn't decided to retcon it out of canon._

 _Raven is possibly a little out of character here, but I really, really like that volume 2 stinger which seems to suggest a slightly different direction for Raven than the one they ended up going with in the end._


	37. Wings

Wings

The last time Sunset had seen Ruby, she had been bleeding out on the ground.

She had been grievously wounded and Sunset had left her. She had chosen to pursue a quixotic fantasy of vengeance rather than stay with the girl who had trusted Sunset with her life and confront the fact that she, Sunset Shimmer, had failed in her duty as leader of Team SAPR.

Now, as with Pyrrha's help she scrambled up out of the hole into which she had leapt to pursue Adam, Sunset set eyes on Ruby Rose again.

She was up, or sitting down on an upturned box actually which was still a lot better than she had looked the last time Sunset had seen her. She looked a little pale – even more so than usual – and there was a tear sliced in the side of her jumper, but through that rend Sunset could see not blood but fair and unmarred flesh.

Jaune was with her, one hand upon Ruby's shoulder as he stood by her side. On the other side Ruby was flanked by Penny, Rainbow Dash's strange team-mate (Rainbow Dash, and a dark-skinned girl with a rifle slung across her back stood a discrete distance away with their eyes on Penny). Ruby was talking to one or both of them, but in a slightly subdued way judging by the way that her head was a little bowed down and, overall, Ruby didn't seem as exuberantly over-animated as usual. It wasn't too surprising, she had been quite severely injured, and even if Jaune had managed to repair all of the damage…she'd been through a lot today.

They'd all been through a lot today, but the youngest of them had definitely been through the worst of it.

And Sunset had left her. Failed her and then abandoned her.

 _Some team leader I am._

Sunset shivered.

She felt Pyrrha's hand upon her arm. "You see? She's fine. She may need a little extra rest, but…as you can see, there's no permanent harm done."

Pyrrha began to walk towards Ruby and Jaune (and Penny, she supposed), by her example forcing Sunset to follow. Which she did, if at a slower pace than she might have done. Her legs felt as heavy as lead, her feet were encased in concrete blocks fashioned from her shame. Though there was a part of her which rejoiced in Ruby's safety, a part of Sunset that wanted to run across the warehouse to her side, the part of her that knew that she had done wrong in this and yet at the same time feared to be censured as she deserved to be won out, and slowed Sunset's progress.

The battle was over: Russell, Sky and Dove were tying up members of the White Fang that had been defeated and take captive; Cardin was standing around looking as aimless as a lost lamb; Nora was telling a story while Lyra and Bon Bon listened with enraptured expressions on their faces; Weiss was practicing her glyphs with an intense expression on her face, her sword weaving through the air as the many-coloured glyphs appeared all around her. Sunset could hear police sirens in the distance, getting closer. Through all of this activity Pyrrha and Sunset moved like phantoms, unnoticed and unremarked upon. Nobody stopped them, nobody hailed them, nobody seemed to mark them at all.

Or perhaps they were giving them space, knowing where they were going.

There was a part of Sunset that wished somebody _had_ stopped her. Because, as slowly as she walked and with such heavy tread, there came a point at which she reached her team-mates. The team-mates she had left behind.

She was glad, so glad that Ruby had made it; but at the same time she was now horrified at what she had done.

Ruby looked up. "Pyrrha! Sunset! You're okay!"

"You're saying that to us?" the words were out of Sunset's mouth before she could stop them.

"Did you get him?" Jaune demanded.

"Did you see Yang?" Ruby asked.

"No, and no, unfortunately," Pyrrha said. "We didn't see your sister, and although we caught up with Adam briefly…in the dark it was too risky to pursue him further."

"Right," Jaune said, and both tone and expression spoke of a disappointment that he was trying to suppress.

"Yang," Ruby murmured.

"I'm sure she'll be fine," Pyrrha said.

"Y-yeah, sure she will," Ruby said. "Yang's tough, she can take anything." She looked from Pyrrha to Sunset and then back again, and her eyes were completely free from any offence, any hurt, any kind of anger. There was nothing there at all but concern.

 _Is she really not mad at all?_ Sunset marvelled. _How does a person like this exist in a world like this?_

"I'm so glad you're both okay," Ruby said. "When Jaune told me that you'd gone down there by yourselves…maybe it's stupid, but I was a little worried. I mean, we're supposed to be a team, right?"

Sunset stared at her; if her eyes boggled any further they were going to plop out onto the floor.

"Uh, Sunset?" Ruby asked. "Are you okay?"

"That's it?" Sunset demanded.

"What is…what?"

"After what…" Sunset trailed off. "How can you be so…so you?"

Ruby shrugged.

Sunset sighed. Her head bowed, her chin briefly touching her collar. "Ruby, I…I shouldn't have…I didn't know what to…I'm sorry. I should have been here, instead of…instead of…" Sunset struggled to define in words the folly of what she had done, and what it had almost cost her.

Her words were cut off by the feeling of arms around her. At first she thought it was Ruby, giving her another hug, but when she opened her eyes she saw that it was not just a hug but a group hug, Pyrrha on her left and Jaune on her right and Ruby herself embracing the two of them from the box where she sat.

Ruby smiled. "You know, it's not complete if you don't raise your arms too."

Sunset hesitated for a moment, still half at a loss as to what had brought this on, before she raised her arms to embrace Pyrrha on one side and Jaune on the other. She could feel Jaune's armour plate under her arm, and her hand snaked through Pyrrha's soft, red hair.

Her arms crossed over Ruby's headed the other way.

It was…nice. Surprisingly nice, with their backs bent and their foreheads nearly touching and the warm of their arms upon her as they were joined together like ouroboros. It was nice.

It was something she wanted to protect.

 _I'll get stronger from here on out. I will strengthen my magic but I won't rely on it. I'll improve my aim, I'll learn how to fight with my hands, my feet, with a sword._

 _And I'll take that red sword one day too._

 _And I'll protect them. This won't happen again._

"We made it," Ruby said. "We're all here and we're all okay. We survived."

"You say that like it's a win," Sunset said.

"Sometimes survival is a victory," Jaune said. "I mean, look at mankind, right? We survive the grimm, and we call that winning."

"Considering the circumstances," Pyrrha said. "That we are all still here is nothing to be ashamed of, even if we did require copious assistance."

Sunset closed her eyes for a moment. "We're going to get that guy one day, I promise."

"Sure we will," Ruby said. "But we'll do it together. Because we're Team Sapphire, and they made a big mistake when they messed with us!"

Sunset smirked. "Team Sapphire; yeah, they won't know what hit them."

"Team Sapphire," Pyrrha said softly. "I'm very proud to call each of you my team-mates."

"Team Sapphire," Jaune said. "You guys are awesome."

"You're not so bad yourself, Jaune."

"Yeah, I here somebody unlocked their semblance," Sunset said. "Congratulations, you're a real asset now." She locked eyes with each of them in turn: first Jaune, then Ruby, and finally Pyrrha last of all and for the longest time.

 _We're a team. My team. Team Sapphire._

 _And we're going straight to the top._

 _All of us, because I don't think I could do it without them._

"We're going to do great things, the four of us," Sunset said. "I guarantee it."

"RUBY!"

Sunset barely had time to register the voice, loud as a bugle call, behind her before she was grabbed by the scruff of the neck and bodily thrown to one side. She landed on the floor with a squawk of alarm and a loud thud, looking up to see that Yang had shoved Pyrrha and Jaune aside - although they had been lucky enough to escape being tossed like a basketball - to wrap Ruby in her arms tighter than shrink wrap.

"Ah, Yang," Ruby moaned, as she squirmed fruitlessly in her elder sister's vice-like grip.

Yang bent her head, so that her forehead was resting upon Ruby's hair. Her eyes were closed, and she looked as though she might cry. She started to stroke Ruby's hair with one hand as she murmured. "You're okay. You're really okay."

"I'm having a little trouble breathing right now."

"I love you," Yang said. "I love you so much."

"I love you too," Ruby squeaked. "Thanks, for coming to get me."

Yang released her sister - from the embrace, at least, although she kept her hands on Ruby's shoulders as though she might disappear, or turn out to be an illusion, the moment that she let go - and took a step back. "Did you ever doubt I would? Come on, I'll always be there for you, sis, you know that."

"Yeah," Ruby said, a smile upon her face. "Yeah, I know."

Yang stared down at her younger sister. "Ruby..."

"Yeah?"

Yang frowned, if only for a moment. "Nothing. Just...don't scare me like that again, okay? It's not cool."

"I'll be careful," Ruby promised. She looked around. "Hey, where did Penny go?"

It was only when Ruby drew attention to the fact that Sunset noticed that Penny, Rainbow Dash and their as-yet unintroduced team-mate were all gone. They had stolen silently away, without a word or sound; and it seemed like no one had noticed them going.

* * *

"Did we have to go so soon?" Penny asked, her expression downcast as the bullhead carried her and the rest of Team RSPT over the skies of Vale. "I would have liked to have talked to Ruby some more."

"We can try and set up another play date later," Rainbow said, as she took the controls of the bullhead from Twilight. "Right now we need to get out of here."

"Considering that our presence in Vale is unofficial, and your status has not yet been acknowledged by the government, it would be unfortunate if we were discoverred at the scene of the fighting by the Vale police," Ciel explained. "It could cause embarrassment for General Ironwood and difficulties with the Vale Council if the Atlesian military was found to be operating secretly on foreign soil."

"Even though we absolutely do operate secretly on foreign soil all the time," Rainbow said, thinking of Fluttershy and Applejack and the operation they'd been roped into in the South-East of Anima.

"Of course," Ciel said. "But we don't get caught doing it."

"No we don't," Rainbow agreed. She guided the bullhead in the direction of the commercial sky-dock they'd picked it up from in the first place. "So, what do we think? I'd say that was a pretty successful combat outing, wouldn't you?"

"The presence of unexpected variables like the arrival of the other Beacon huntsmen makes a full and objective assessment difficult," Ciel said. "But all our objectives were achieved, the hostages were rescued, and Penny suffered no damage. I'm confident in calling this a successful operation, regardless of how little useful data was obtained."

"More than you might think," Twilight said, from the co-pilot's seat. "I set Penny's diagnostic systems running before we left for the bullhead, she's been recording data all night for analysis."

"Excellent work, Twilight," Ciel declared.

"Yeah, nice one Twi," Rainbow said. "So, Penny, how did you find actual combat?"

Penny was silent for a moment. "I...I didn't really think about it. When we were in the warehouse, all I could think about was protecting my friends by defeating the enemy as quickly as possible. I didn't really think about what I was doing at all. Is that normal?"

"It is for me," Rainbow replied. "It's called instinct, and all the best warriors have it: you think of what you have to do, and your body thinks about how to do it."

"Personally I prefer to keep a clear head in battle," Ciel said. "It's better not to rely too much on instincts that can betray you. For all that technology advances our minds are still our most powerful weapons."

"Penny," Twilight said softly. "Where you afraid?"

Penny blinked. "When Ruby was injured, when I thought that she might...then I was scared. Apart from that...no, I wasn't scared. Should I have been?"

"I don't know," Twilight replied. "I've never...Rainbow? Ciel?"

Rainbow's mouth tightened for a moment. "I...it's okay to admit to being afraid, Penny? I know I talk tough sometimes, but you don't have to worry that we're going to think badly of you or anything."

"I'm not lying," Penny said. "No hiccups, see? Does that mean I ought to have been scared?"

"That depends," Rainbow said. "Why weren't you scared?"

"Because I knew I could win," Penny said. "I remembered my training, and those faunus were not very formidable."

Rainbow smirked. "No, they weren't. Just remember, Penny, when we get into the real action, when you're not so confident that remembering your training is going to be enough...there's no shame in being scared, so long as you take heart and do what you gotta do anyway."

"Which is?"

"Protect the world," Rainbow said. "And the people you care about most of all."

"Right," Penny said. "I'll remember that." She looked back, and out of the bullhead, towards the warehouse from which they had so stealthily departed.

Back towards Ruby Rose.

* * *

Blake watched from the shadows as Yang re-united with her sister, having been pre-empted by Sunset and Pyrrha returning to their team. She watched Yang and Ruby, she watched team SAPR, she watched her own team, she watched everyone. They looked relieved, they looked happy, they looked flushed with success, they looked proud of their accomplishments. They looked immortal in the glory of their triumph.

They looked complete, without her.

Blake felt a twinge of regret. She didn't want this, but at the same time she couldn't possibly avoid it, not after this. Perhaps those who came with Yang had been too pre-occupied with the battle and Ruby's injury to notice her cat-ears, but such a thing would not have escaped Sunset's notice, nor that of her team. And Sunset knew more than she was comfortable with anyone really knowing about her connection to Adam. If she stopped to think about it - and from her observation, Sunset Shimmer struck Blake as the sort of person who enjoyed knowing the secrets of those around her - then it surely wouldn't take her long to unravel the mysteries of Blake's past.

She didn't belong here, amongst these young gallants so full of fire and vigour, untainted by past crimes and ill-judged associations, unburdened by the weight of the things that they had done, the spectres of those they had hurt. She did not belong with Ruby who smiled so adorably, with Lyra who sang so sweetly, she didn't belong with Sun who was so thoughtlessly noble in his impulses. She did not belong in such a company of budding heroes.

Darkness did not belong in the company of light. One stained and soiled as she was did not belong in the company of the spotless and the clean.

She didn't belong here. Probably she had never belonged here...but it had been a pleasant illusion to sustain, while it lasted. While she lived, wherever she went next, she would treasure the memory of Lyra's songs, of Bon Bon's kindness, of the acceptance that had been extended to Blake Belladonna, even if she had to wear a bow to obtain it.

But it was time to wake up now. This was not for her.

They would not notice she was gone for some time. Probably they would not miss her when they did notice. She was not needed here.

Silently, alone and unobserved, Blake slunk into the darkness and stole away into the night.

"Blake!"

Blake turned in response to the sound of her name, to see Sunset Shimmer following her at a jog, out of the warehouse and down the alleyway behind.

"Wait up a second," Sunset said. "I want to talk."

* * *

Perhaps Sunset shouldn't have abandoned her team again so soon after rejoining Jaune and Ruby, but she had caught a glimpse of Blake attempting to slink away into the darkness and been moved to follow.

It was a mixture of gratitude and curiosity that drove her feet onwards, out of the warehouse and on Blake's trail, that and a sliver of thought that there might be some advantage in confirming the truth and getting someone like Blake onside.

It might be useful to have a black knight in hand, for emergencies.

Sunset's mind worked swiftly, galloping over thoughts and memories to reach conclusions as swiftly as a Wonderbolt soaring over a race course. The faunus ears, the way that Adam Taurus had spoken to her and she to him, and of course the name of Belladonna stupid, _stupid_ , Sunset felt like an imbecile for not putting the pieces together sooner.

Of course, considering that if she _had_ put the pieces together sooner she probably would have tried to blackmail the other girl or done something equally deplorable then perhaps it was a good thing her mind had been working more slowly than it ought to have been. If she'd done that then Blake might never have come for them and...that hardly bore thinking about, did it?

"Blake!" Sunset called, making the other girl turn around to look at her. Sunset quickened her pace, breaking into a jog. "Wait up a second. I want to talk."

Blake did stop, just as Sunset had bade her do. But, though she stood still and waited for Sunset to draw near, it was a flighty sort of stillness that looked poised to break into renewed flight at any moment. Her golden eyes watched Sunset keenly, but also warily, as though Sunset Shimmer were as threatening to her as all the perils of the White Fang.

 _Perhaps I should be flattered._

"What do you want?" Blake asked cautiously.

Sunset shrugged. "Perhaps I just want to know where you're going in such a hurry."

"If I knew that myself, I might tell you," Blake said, with an emphasis on might that suggested it was unlikely.

"Anywhere but here?" Sunset suggested.

Blake was silent for a moment. "Something like that."

Sunset snorted. "I know how that feels." In response to Blake's slightly quizzical look, Sunset smirked. "What, you think you're the first person to ever run away from home? How bad were things with your parents by the time you left?"

Blake's eyes widened, and she looked as though she was about to leap away.

Sunset raised one hand pacifically. "Relax, I didn't mean to scare you off. Your secret's safe with me. All your secrets are safe with me."

Blake stared at her. "That's...unusually generous, for you."

Sunset rolled her eyes. "Look, I know that we haven't talked...ever, but in between whatever you saw that gave you such a negative opinion of me and now I really have been trying to turn over a new leaf. Sort of."

"Sort of?"

"I won't be humble," Sunset said. "But I will seek for grace; and I'm trying to be nicer on my way to the top."

Blake raised one eyebrow. Sunset shrugged. "Look, you can't expect me to change everything about myself, or even want to."

"I suppose I can relate to that," Blake murmured.

Sunset took a step closer to her. "We're not all bad, there's no need to throw out our virtues along with our vices. Some parts of our vices can even make us virtuous, it could be argued."

Blake was silent for a moment. "What do you want, Sunset?"

"Perhaps I just want you to come back instead of running off to...anywhere but here."

"I can't stay here," Blake replied. "If you know the truth about me then you know that I have to leave."

"I don't _know_ anything," Sunset said. She leaned against one of the walls of the tight alleyway in which they stood, folding her arms beneath her breasts. "I have...educated conjectures." She smiled. "Of course, when you're as smart as I am you tend to guess right more often than not."

Blake stared at her.

"Surely that wasn't wholly unamusing?" Sunset asked. "Ah, forget it. You're the daughter of Ghira Belladonna, founder of the White Fang back when they were a pressure group; only I'm guessing that when he left...you didn't."

Blake was silent for a moment. "You're from Atlas, aren't you?"

Sunset took pause. "I...I'm not technically _from_ there, but...yes, I lived in Atlas for a few years."

"How many times where you stopped by the police, even though you'd done nothing wrong?"

Sunset scowled. These weren't memories she wished to bring to the forefront of her mind. "Five times."

"I suppose there were stores that wouldn't serve you."

"Of course there were," Sunset said irritably.

"And when they would let you in I suppose you could feel them watching you, as if it was only a matter of of time before you did something criminal."

"Yeah."

"That's why I stayed in the White Fang," Blake said. "I believed...I still believe in equality, in justice for our people. And it worked." She closed her eyes, and a look of anguish crossed her face. "What kind of world do we live in where our violent methods got more results than my father's peaceful protest ever did?"

"Transient results," Sunset replied. "Like...you can cup water in your hands for a moment, but it'll slip through your fingers again before too long."

Blake looked at her, silent, watching.

"You can scare a store-owner into serving faunus by smashing his windows, or by burning down another no-faunus store across town," Sunset said. "But how many laws did your violence get on the books?" She frowned. "You asked me how many times I was stopped by the police? Two of those times they hauled me in, just like they hauled in every other faunus they could find in the aftermath of a White Fang incident. Stuffed us all in cells until they found somebody to pin it on. You might have thought that you were getting somewhere but from the outside...it didn't look that way."

"I know," Blake said. She sauntered over, and leaned against the wall herself, her shoulder resting upon the stone. "I realised that," she said, her expression speaking of a melancholy upon the verge of despair. "I realised that we weren't really making a difference...at about the same time I realised that we were becoming more wicked than all but the worst of those we claimed to be fighting. At the same time I realised how monstrous he had become."

"Adam," Sunset said.

Blake nodded. "He wasn't always...there was a time when he was the very best of us. The..."

"Paragon?" Sunset suggested.

Blake's eyes met Sunset's for a moment. "I suppose so. There was a time when...but then, he changed. The cruelty of the world...it made him cruel in turn. It made us all cruel."

Sunset considered prodding further upon Blake's relationship with Adam. Lovers, she was fairly certain, judging by the way that he had behaved; just as she gathered that it had not ended well between them. But, as much as she thought that she was right, she did not voice the issue. The time did not seem right for it, and Blake might bolt rather than answer such questions. That wasn't what Sunset wanted and so, to achieve the result that she desired, she held her peace on Adam Taurus. What would Blake feel when he was brought down, as Sunset was yet committed to do? Hopefully she'd feel relief, with luck there would be no sorrow left in her for the likes of him. Not that it would stop Sunset if it were otherwise, he had to pay for what he'd done.

But she would rather have Blake as an ally. "You don't have to go," she said.

"Yes, I do," Blake insisted.

"No, you don't," Sunset repeated. "In fact I'll go even further: maybe you shouldn't." She sighed. "I don't know you. I don't know what you've done. But I know running. I'm a runner myself. We run and run, you and I, we run from our pasts and the mistakes that we've made and we chase...I don't know; dreams, illusions, fantasies. But when we reach the place we were running too then everything we thought that we might find there turns out to be ephemeral, phantasmal, never really there at all. And all the while the things we ran from follow us, more persistently than any grimm. You can feel them, can't you, on the back of your neck. But we're both here. All our running has brought us to this place, this point. This destiny."

"I don't believe in fate."

"I do," Sunset insisted. "Long years ago the sun and moon ordained these things we are _meant_ to be here, Blake Belladonna. Here is the place where our dreams can come true if we have the courage to reach for them."

Blake's face was unreadable. "You really do believe that, don't you?"

 _I'm seventeen years old and I'm already on my very last shot,_ Sunset thought. _I have to believe it. If I didn't...I'd despair._ "Do you remember initiation?"

Blake blinked. "Yes," she said, in a tone that suggested she didn't immediately see the relevance.

"I chose the white knight piece, my team chosen the white knights," Sunset said. "Do you know why?"

Blake shrugged. "Did you like the cute pony?"

As a cute pony herself, Sunset's eyes narrowed a little. "No, it's because the white knight is the hero; the shining figure that everyone looks up to; the one who leads the charge, the one who slays the dragon, the one who saves the world."

"And you think that's you?"

"It will be," Sunset said, in a voice that refused to admit of doubt or entertain the possibility of failure. She had the undefeated Pyrrha Nikos of far-fame upon her right flank, she had the young hero Ruby Rose with silver eyes upon her left, she had Jaune Arc of the aura-boosting semblance at her back driving them on...what could they be but the heroes of this tale, the ones to take the lead against all darkness? It was no coincidence that brought the four of them together; they were meant to be the tip of the spear, and Sunset the very point. "I chose the white knight as a statement of intent," Sunset said. "I chose the white knight...and you chose the black."

"Don't read too much into it," Blake said. "I didn't have your statement of intent in mind."

"There is providence in things that we cannot consciously know," Sunset said. "Beacon, Vale, Remnant...they need a white knight, but they need a black knight too. Someone to fight from the shadows."

Blake smiled ever so slightly. "I'm not sure the rest of my team are particularly...shadowy."

"But they're still your team," Sunset said. "You don't want to leave them, do you?"

"No-"

"Then don't," Sunset said. "Listen...you saved me in there. You saved my team. I won't forget that. And your secrets are safe with Sapphire, I guarantee it." Pyrrha was too honourable and Ruby too good-natured for either of them to go blabbing Blake's secrets once they understood that they _were_ secret, and while Jaune might accidentally let it slip out of his mouth Sunset was confident that they'd managed to stop him in time.

"And the rest?"

"I doubt they saw anything in all the confusion," Sunset said. "Put the bow back on and nobody will even notice. Or don't. Just because you're faunus doesn't mean you're ex-White Fang. It just means you wanted an easy life, until you didn't."

"Except...I do," Blake said, pulling out a black hair ribbon.

"Suit yourself," Sunset said, feeling only slightly envious of Blake's ability to pass so easily. She could possibly have done something similar herself to hide her ears, bound up her tail in some way...but she didn't really want to. She was Sunset Shimmer, and she wouldn't hide the fact to please anybody. "That means you're staying then."

Blake nodded. "Thank you," she whispered.

"Don't mention it," Sunset said. _We're not even yet._ "Now, shall we get back before people start to worry?"

"Sure," Blake said, and side by side they walked back towards the warehouse where their teams were waiting for them.

* * *

 _Author's Note: With this chapter, the third arc and volume 1 comes to a close. Next will come a sort of 'volume 1.5' covering the spring vacation (I'm assuming that Beacon has spring, summer and fall semesters judging by the fact that it's turning to winter at the end of volume 3) before we get into the volume 2 stuff._


	38. Ozpin Observing

Ozpin Observing

Professor Ozpin sipped from his coffee as he gazed down at the live feed of his first year students beginning to return to school after their little excursion of the night.

Considering the circumstances, they had all performed most admirably. Although the presence of the Atlesians did perturb him somewhat. _James, what are you up to?_

Time enough to discover that later. If need be he could even ask James about it directly. In any event, there were more important matters to consider. With a touch of a button, Ozpin switched from the live feed images to a message from Qrow.

It was very simple: Queen has pawns.

 _Indeed she does._ Ozpin sighed. They – the first years – had removed a few hostile pawns from the board tonight, but how many more of them had yet to be dealt with before they confronted the serious pieces, the knights and rooks?

Still, tonight was a victory. Considering the other ways in which it could have ended, this was a definite success.

The elevator doors opened, and Glinda walked into his office. Her heels clicked on the stone floor as she strode towards his desk.

"Ah, Glinda," he said, gesturing to the other coffee mug. "Would you care to join me?"

"No, thank you," Glinda replied. "It's a little late, and I'd like to get some sleep tonight."

"Suit yourself," Ozpin said genially, taking another sip of the scalding hot coffee. "You'll be glad to hear that the students are on their way to Beacon now. They should arrive before too long."

Glinda was still and silent for a moment. "How are they?"

"Miss Rose sustained an injury, and though it seems to have been taken care of she should probably report to the infirmary to get checked out on her return. Other than that, they are all in fine fettle."

Glinda's sigh of relief was restrained, but noticeable to someone who had known her as long as Ozpin had. "That…that is excellent to hear. Thank you, I am glad to hear that. Although I'd be even more glad if you'd let me give them all detention for sneaking in the first place."

Ozpin's eyebrows rose. "Detention for all of them, Glinda? Surely you can't be suggesting that Team Sapphire or Miss Schnee were at fault for falling into a trap of the enemy."

"No, but you know very well what I mean, Professor," Glinda said sharply. "Iron, Wisteria, Bluebell, none of them had any business-"

"Miss Xiao-Long's sister was among the captives," Ozpin pointed out. "I suspect that we would have had to chain to something particularly sturdy to prevent her from going to Ruby's aid."

Glinda gazed at him sternly over the top of her spectacles, looking at him like she would at a particularly unpromising student. "I don't understand, Professor Ozpin. You withdrew the professors from the halls, you wouldn't allow me to stop them…you wanted them to leave the school and go rescue their friends."

"The fact that they were motivated to go gives me hope," Ozpin said.

"There are proper authorities, Professor-"

"If they had simply waited meekly for the proper authorities to take action then I would have despaired," Ozpin replied, cutting her off before she could finish. "If humanity has a chance to survive it is not because of armies or ships or dust munitions but because of the bonds of friendship that inspired our students to risk their lives for their family and friends. The ties that bind us together are our greatest asset against the darkness."

"I understand," Glinda said, although judging by the slight impatience slipping into her voice she didn't understand as well as he might have liked. "But these are still children."

"I'm well aware of that, and there are even times when it is good to see them behaving like children," Ozpin said. "But there also times when it is good to see what kind of fine adults our children will become with our assistance." He refilled his coffee mug from the porcelain pot. "She's coming for us, Glinda; the days of childhood may end all too soon. Glinda, neither of us is going to be around forever." He meant that, most sincerely. Once he had completed his quest and defeated Salem then the curse that bound him would be broken, and he would be free to pass on into…whatever else the gods had planned for him. He would almost certainly outlive Glinda and his other associates – it would take a miracle to defeat Salem within the lifetime of his current host – but he had no intention of living forever. "We need to be sure that the new generation is fit to take up our burdens when we're gone."

"And so you wanted them to try their strength," Glinda said. "That's why you let them go, why you didn't call the police. Why you didn't call anybody."

"I was confident that they could handle the White Fang," Ozpin said. "I would have taken steps if I had thought that there was any real danger." He smiled. "You should be proud, Glinda; they all performed admirably. You've taught them well, I see."

"You can't distract me with flattery."

"Nor would I ever seek to do so," Ozpin reassured her. "All the hostages have been rescued, and our students have been buoyed in confidence by a small victory. Tonight…has been a good night."

"Mhm," Glinda murmured. "And what about Miss Nikos? Do you plan to tell her?"

"Not yet," Ozpin said.

"Her performance in battle is exemplary," Glinda said. "Honestly, I don't feel as though she's learning anything in my sparring class. She's as ready as she'll ever be."

"I'm sure she is," Ozpin said. Just as he was sure that Miss Shimmer was ready to look behind the curtain and find out some of the truth that he and his inner circle kept concealed from the world. "But, as you said, they are still children, and there is still time for them to enjoy a little more childhood yet."

How much time exactly he couldn't say, not with the mysterious Black Queen on the move and Salem's hand guiding her, but considering the burden that he meant to place upon Miss Nikos' shoulders…he was willing to give her what little time he could.


	39. A Long Overdue Correspondence

A Long Overdue Correspondence

Sunset sat at her desk. The dorm room was currently empty: Ruby was with her sister, at this point it seemed like the only times Yang let Ruby out of her sight was when she was sleeping or going to the bathroom; Jaune and Pyrrha were sparring together.

The spring semester was pretty much over; in a couple of days it would be officially over and the spring vacation would begin. Which meant that it would be quieter around here, since Sunset was staying at Beacon over the break.

It wasn't as if she had anywhere else to go, after all.

Regardless, the emptiness of the room – and her confidence that she wouldn't be disturbed for a little while – meant that she could finally take out the journal and set it down on the desk.

Sunset looked down at the cover for a moment, her gaze lingering on the image of her cutie mark that embossed the brown cover. Her fingertips brushed against the red and golden sun before she flipped the book open to the first blank page.

There hadn't been any reply since that night after the Forever Fall field trip. Sunset was getting pretty irritated, to be honest. It had been long enough, surely. If Celestia didn't want to have anything more to do with her then that…well, it wasn't fine, but if she believed that Sunset's actions were beyond forgiveness then she could at least say so instead of giving her the silent treatment like she was a little filly again.

And someone who called themselves the princess of friendship ought to have the decency to write back instead of just blanking Sunset out because she didn't want to give her bad news.

Sunset was scowling by the time she picked up her pen and began to scrawl in the journal.

Sunset: You could at least write back you know, whatever the response is!

Nothing. There was no response. Not for a moment, and for longer. Sunset stared at the page but it remained blank, with nothing but her own irate line scribbled across it.

And then, after a minute or so, words in answer began to appear beneath her accusatory opening.

Twilight: Oh my gosh, Sunset! I'm really sorry, I should have gotten back in touch sooner. It's just been so hectic around here that I didn't have a chance.

Sunset raised one eyebrow. Sunset: Yeah, I'll bet.

Twilight: It's true! Do you think that I'm lying to cover up the fact that I didn't want to reply?

Sunset: The thought had crossed my mind.

Twilight: It really has been incredibly busy around here. What with the princesses disappearing

Sunset: WHAT?

Sunset's free hand slammed into the desk with a thud as loud as a drumbeat as Sunset sat bolt upright, cutting across Twilight's line with her demand for more information. _Princess Celestia has disappeared?_ A hundred scenarios whirled through Sunset's mind, each one worse than the last: Celestia kidnapped, Celestia trapped in Tartarus, Celestia in the grip of eldritch horrors the like of which would drive you mad to even conceive of their existence. Celestia gone, vanished without trace.

Sunset: Celestia disappeared? What do you mean she disappeared? Then why are you wasting time writing to me instead of finding her? Why didn't you tell me about this sooner?

 _No. No, Celestia cannot be gone._ Sunset's breathing was coming more quickly now, and through her mind pounding the last words that they had said to one another before Sunset had left, the last argument they had before Celestia had cast her out.

 _You're not my mother, and I was a fool to ever forget that._

 _It was your choice to make me love you, but it was my choice to believe you loved me in return._

 _That cannot be how we leave it. That cannot be how she remembers me. That can't be…can't be the last thing that we ever say to one another._

Twilight: Sunset, calm down

Sunset: Don't tell me to calm down when Celestia's in danger! If you won't do anything about it then I'll just have to come and find her myself.

She wasn't sure how she would do that, but she would. Celestia needed her, and clearly her new pupil was too useless or apathetic to be relied upon. She hadn't kept track of the mirror's opening cycles but she'd force it open if she had to, she'd pour every ounce of her magic into it until it opened up and made way for her. Of course, she'd have to get to Canterlot…Pyrrha was loaded, perhaps she'd be willing to lend Sunset enough money for an airfare.

She briefly considering asking Pyrrha to come with her, if the situation was dangerous then Sunset could do worse than have a superlative warrior backing her up…but how much of Pyrrha's combat prowess would survive the loss of two hands and the gaining of two extra legs was up in the air, not to mention the loss of aura. And besides, this wasn't her fight. This was Sunset's mentor, and it was her responsibility to help her out.

She was already starting to rise out of her seat when more words appeared in the book in front of her.

Twilight: Celestia's fine! If you'd let me finish I was going to say that Celestia and Luna disappeared for a while, and then plunder vines appeared and started choking the whole of Equestria and that is why we've all been too busy to reply to you. However, there's no need for you to worry because it's all settled now. The princesses are fine, the plunder vines are gone, everything is back to normal now. You're right, I wouldn't be writing to you if we were still in the middle of a crisis. No offence, but I'd have more important matters to take care of.

Sunset stared down at the page for a moment, feeling like a bit of an idiot. _Losing my mind like that without even waiting to find out what was really going on._ Sunset: Well, you could have told me all that.

Twilight: I tried.

Celestia: Although I must say that I'm touched by your concern, my little sunbeam.

Sunset stared at the words on the page. A shiver ran down her spine containing dread and anticipation in equal measure. Her hand trembled as she wrote. Sunset: Princess Celestia?

Celestia: It is good to hear from you again, Sunset Shimmer.

Weiss Schnee could have emptied all the ice dust that she could fit in her rapier over Sunset and she would not have frozen her more completely than Sunset was frozen at the desk by the fact that her mentor, her teacher, her princess was on the other side of the magical journal.

She had wanted this, she was terrified of this.

She had asked for forgiveness, but now her heart quailed before finding out whether she had it or not.

She had faced grimm and the White Fang; she had risked her life in battle; but none of that frightened her so much as finding out whether she had, through her own faults and follies, wrung out every last drop of love and pity out of Celestia's heart until there was nothing left for her but anger.

Celestia: Sunset? Are you still there?

 _She must be afraid I've run away again, as I did before._ She hastily began to write. Sunset: Yes. Yes, princess, I'm here. How long

Sunset hesitated, wondering whether she really wanted to know.

Sunset: have you been here?

Celestia: Not long. Twilight happens to be in Canterlot assisting me with some tedious business. I came in and found her writing to you. I asked if I could take over.

There was nothing else. Celestia had come to the end of her sentence, and yet Sunset did not know how to reply. The things that had happened between them lay like a wall, keeping them more divided than space or the fact that they were in different worlds accessible only through magic.

 _What do I say? Where do I even begin?_

Celestia: I'm sorry.

Sunset's eyes widened in disbelief. This…what…she didn't understand it. She didn't understand it one bit. Sunset: You're sorry? What do you have to be sorry about?

Celestia: Everything. I did not do right by you, Sunset Shimmer.

Sunset: No, princess, no, you mustn't say that.

Sunset scrawled the words hastily, before Celestia could say too much. Had she been observing from afar then she might have appreciated the irony in the situation, but she wasn't observing she was involved, caught in the moment and in the moment she…she didn't want to hear this. She had accepted, or at least she was trying to accept, to at least some extent, that she had been a flawed pony, deeply, maybe even terribly flawed. She was trying to do better here in Remnant. She had asked for forgiveness, not for absolution.

She didn't need Celestia to take all the burdens of responsibility of herself. She didn't want that.

Sunset: It was me, princess, I failed you, I let you down

Celestia: Please, Sunset, let me finish.

Even at this remove, Sunset could not help but look chastened at the rebuke. She could hear Celestia's voice saying it as though they were sharing the room.

Sunset: Of course, princess. I'm sorry.

There was a pause, probably while Celestia considered her response.

Celestia: It is true that the destiny that I once hoped for for you was not one for which you were suited. But the fault is mine, for placing too great a burden of expectation upon your shoulders at too young an age. With the benefit of hindsight I'm not sure that any filly's ego could have survived being told that they were expected to ascend. That yours was unequal to the challenge says less about your faults than about my own poor judgement.

Sunset could not quite keep the envy and, yes, the touch of bitterness out of her pen strokes as she wrote back. Sunset: Twilight Sparkle's ego seems to have held up.

Celestia: Twilight was completely ignorant of her destiny until she arrived at it. That was the lesson that you taught me: Twilight grew up knowing nothing of my hopes for her until she had achieved them.

Sunset could not help but let out a little chuckle. Sunset: So what you're telling me, princess, is that you messed up with me and then learnt how to do it right the second time around.

Celestia: Yes, you could say that. And all I can do now is apologise for my failings as a teacher.

Sunset sighed. She closed her eyes, breathed deeply once, in and out, and then again a second time. Then she began to write. Sunset: You have no need to apologise to me, Princess Celestia. Not for that, at least. The truth is, I don't think it could have worked out anyway.

Celestia: No? That was not your opinion when we last saw each other.

So, they had come to that at last. It was always inevitable. Celestia had been very kind in not bringing it up beforehand. But they couldn't avoid the circumstances of Sunset's departure – from Celestia's tutelage, from the palace, and from Equestria itself – any longer.

But Sunset found that she did want to avoid it, for at least a little while more.

Sunset: My best friend is a girl named Pyrrha. Pyrrha Nikos.

Celestia: Pyrrha Nikos?

Sunset frowned. Sunset: Yes. Some of the names they use here would be familiar to you, but others are a little stranger.

Celestia: Extraordinary. Please, Sunset, continue.

Sunset: As I said, she's my best friend. You'd be amazed at how hard it was for me to admit that. Or perhaps you wouldn't. Perhaps it doesn't surprise you at all. Anyway, she's great. A great warrior. Superlative. Even with all the magic at my command I can barely keep up with her, and if I didn't have magic then she'd tear me apart without breaking a sweat like she does everybody else. And she's kind and beautiful and she's always willing to help others and she brings out the best in me. But she's lonely. Even though she's talented and lovely and kind she doesn't have anyone she can open her heart to. Nobody told her that she was expected to ascend, there's no immortal teacher making plans for her that have made her proud, because like I said she isn't proud at all. But the very fact of her skill sets her apart, the simple act of being her in all her glory raises her up so far that nobody can get close to her. With the best intentions she doesn't have a friend in the world.

Celestia: It sounds like she has you, now.

Sunset cleared her throat; for all that Celestia couldn't see or hear it. Sunset: Well, yes, and she has Jaune and Ruby as well – they're our team-mates – I suppose what I meant was that she didn't have any. I suppose what I'm trying to say is that even if you'd told me nothing, it might not have made any difference. I still would have been mean, proud and vain and kind of awful now that I look back, and I still would have been in that place as your student, and so talented. Honestly, I'm not sure how Twilight Sparkle managed to make any friends when someone like Pyrrha couldn't manage it.

Celestia: To be perfectly honest, I had to send Twilight away to Ponyville before she connected with anyone sufficiently deeply.

Sunset: Oh, so that's what she's doing in a place like that. That explains it.

Celestia: Could you please tell me more about her? And about Ruby and Jaune, your other friends?

Sunset: Really? Why?

Celestia: I'd like to know what kind of people your friends are. I'm curious to know who they are who were able to open up your heart.

Sunset blinked, she felt as though she had something caught in her eye. Sunset: You still care?

Celestia: I always cared about you, Sunset. You may not have believed it, but that does not make it any less true.

Sunset: But everything that I said, everything that happened. I was afraid

Sunset hesitated a moment before she finished that sentence. Sunset: I was afraid you wouldn't be able to forgive me.

Celestia: There is nothing for me to forgive.

Sunset: Nothing? Nothing at all.

Celestia: You were angry, you had that right. But I was only ever afraid.

Sunset: Afraid?

Celestia: Afraid of what might happen to you in the world that lies beyond the mirror, afraid of what might happen to you; afraid, I must confess, of what your anger and impatience might drive you to become. But I had hope as well. I hoped, very much, that you might find your path. And it seems that you have done so.

Sunset: I don't know about that, although I am trying. Princess, can I ask you a question?

Celestia: Of course.

Sunset: When I was studying under you, you made me believe; or at least you allowed me to believe that I had a destiny. A great destiny. You made me believe it so much that I went all the way to another world looking for it. Was that a lie? Was it always a lie? Or is destiny like Pyrrha says: something that we control by our own actions and I just messed up that badly?

She wanted to know, and yet she didn't; but ultimately Sunset knew that she had to ask. She would have no peace until she did.

She waited, expectant and afraid, for the answer.

Celestia: I wish that I had an answer to give you, Sunset; I really do. But I do not. I believe in destiny. I have tried to build a society in which all ponies may fulfil their destinies but mark that: they need help in the fulfilling. Perhaps it is not so, perhaps destiny is fixed and immutable but if that is the case then what price any of our actions? Are we merely puppets, doing the bidding of some ineffable force?

Sunset: I always thought you were the puppet master.

Celestia: No, Sunset, I do not pull the strings, or at least I try not to. I merely try to set the course, so that the river may flow in the manner that is best for everybody. Of course, there is a possibility that you did not mention.

Sunset: What's that?

Celestia: That you have a destiny, but I was mistaken about it where it lay. Not in Canterlot, but somewhere else. Sunset, are you happy where you are? Although there is no cause for you to return to rescue me, I want you to know that you will always be welcome in Equestria, should you decide that you want to come home.

Sunset: You can't know how it feels for you to say that. 

She barely knew how it felt for Celestia to say that, only that was she glad that Celestia _had_ said it.

Sunset: But I don't think I'm ready to come back yet. I'm not even sure I should be calling Equestria home. Back there I only had you. Now

Sunset paused for a moment.

Sunset: Maybe my destiny is here. Or maybe it isn't. But this world seems like it could use a hero, and my team needs me, and

Celestia: Sunset, there is no shame in saying that you want to stay that you have found friends and a place to belong. If that is the case I could not be happier.

Sunset closed her eyes for a moment. Sunset: It's easier to be good when I'm with them.

Celestia: They must be wonderful people.

Sunset: They are. Pyrrha's just great, and Ruby's so sweet and brave and even Jaune, I have to give Jaune credit for courage, I probably wouldn't have had the nerve to do what he's done.

Celestia: Tell me more. Tell me about your friends, tell me about the world you live in now, tell me about your life. Tell me everything, Sunset. I want to know what's become of you since you've been away.

Sunset sucked on the end of her pen and pondered for a moment. Sunset: I hardly know where to start…

* * *

"Princess Twilight, is everything alright?"

Twilight turned, to be confronted with a tall, golden unicorn mare with long, graceful limbs, striking green eyes and a long mane as red as fire, wearing the armour of the royal guard. Except that this mare wore no helmet, rather a gleaming circle adorned her brow just beneath her horn and wound its way around her head.

"Uh, yes, I'm fine, thank you for asking," Twilight replied. "I'm just waiting for Celestia to finish her…business."

"I see," the unicorn said. "In that case, I apologise for disturbing you."

"Oh, no, it's fine, really," Twilight said. "There's nothing to apologise for, uh…"

"Pyrrha. Pyrrha Nikos," Pyrrha said, with a courtly bow. "At your highness' service."

"Oh my gosh, is that the Princess of Friendship?"

"Ruby, I-"

A ruby-coloured pegasus, whose black mane ended in rose-coloured highlights, sped down the palace corridor trailing rose petals in her wake.

"Oh my gosh I can't believe this it's so great to actually meet you! I think that the way you've saved the world like four times now is so awesome!"

Twilight leaned away just a little from the big silver eyes that were staring at her. "I, uh…wait, did you say Ruby? As in Ruby Rose?"

Ruby gasped. "You've heard about me? Am I famous?"

"In a manner of speaking," Twilight said. "Ruby…and Pyrrha."

"That's right, princess."

Twilight's eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't happen to know anybody called Jaune Arc, would you?"

Ruby and Pyrrha looked at one another.

"Is Jaune in some sort of trouble, your highness?" Pyrrha asked cautiously.

"No!" Twilight exclaimed. "No, it's nothing like that, it's just, uh…" She wondered how she could explain it to them. She could barely start to explain it to herself.

But it was absolutely _extraordinary_.


	40. Homeward Bound

Homeward Bound

"So you're sure you don't need me to get that?" Yang asked, gesturing to the red suitcase that Ruby was hauling up the gangplank onto the airship that was going to carry them back home. "Because I can totally manage both of them if you-"

"Yang!" Ruby moaned. "It's fine, I'm fine. I didn't need Sunset to levitate it for me, I didn't need Jaune to carry it down from the dorm room for me and I don't need you to carry it for me now! It's fine, I'm fine, when is everybody going to get that I'm fine, seriously!"

Yang smiled fondly as she patted Ruby lightly on the cheek. "I can't speak for your team-mates, but personally…give it a month or so, I should be fine by the time we get back for summer semester."

"That long?"

"You gave us all a big scare back there," Yang said. "If it helps, it's only cause we love you." She put one arm around Ruby's shoulder – her grip was firm enough that Ruby didn't even try getting out of it – and steered her on board the ship. "Of course, I can't speak for how long it will Dad to get over it, either."

Ruby groaned. "Do you think it'll be bad?"

Yang shrugged. "Depends how you define bad. Not let you come back to Beacon bad…probably not that bad. We're both grounded for the entire of vacation bad…yeah, I could see that happening."

Ruby moaned wordlessly.

"Hey, Ruby!"

The shout from Sunset caused Ruby to turn around, looking out from the ship and onto the dock where the rest of her team were gathered, out of the way of the people still boarding, waving to her.

"Have a great time back home," Jaune called.

"But not so great you don't want to come back," Sunset added.

Ruby laughed. "No chance of that! Have a great time in Mistral, you guys." She wanted to go home, and she wanted to see Dad and Zwei again, but when Pyrrha had invited the team to spend spring vacation at her home in Mistral Ruby had been a little jealous of the fact that – unlike Jaune and Sunset – she hadn't been able to accept.

She might have asked Dad if she could go – he was always telling her that she needed to make friends, right? So why would he have a problem with her spending the break with her friends? – except that Yang had informed her that, in the present circumstances, there was absolutely no way he was going to say yes this time.

"We will," Pyrrha said hopefully.

Ruby kept waving to them until the airship door rose. Then, quickly stowing their bags in the passenger section, they made their way to one of the passenger compartments where Ruby leapt onto the seats that lined the windows. She could still see all three of them standing at the dock as the airship began to pull away, and it seemed that Sunset could spot her too because she pointed at Ruby and the other two began to wave to her. Ruby waved back, until the airship banked around and she lost sight of them completely.

She felt Yang's presence beside her before she even heard her voice. "You know, I wasn't sure about those three at first, but they really do care about you. You've got a great team there, Rubes."

"I know," Ruby said softly, a smile playing across her face.

Yang turned around and flopped down onto the dark-cushioned bench, spreading her arms out behind her across the windowsill. "Although I don't know how you managed to luck out being on a team with _Pyrrha Nikos_ and the girl with the most broken semblance in history. Talk about winning the lottery."

"Hey, you have Nora. Don't complain too much."

"Yeah, my guys are cool," Yang said. "I just…"

"What?"

Yang looked at Ruby for a moment, and then looked away. "It's probably nothing."

Ruby leapt off the seat, only so that she could turn around and sit down beside Yang. "Come on, spill it."

Yang picked at the seats for a moment. "Ruby, you've got Mom's diary with you, right?"

"Yeah, sure."

"We should read some more."

"Of course but…" Ruby's eyes narrowed. "Are you changing the subject."

"No," Yang said. "I'm really not." She hesitated. "When I was down in the tunnels, looking for Adam, I saw my mom."

Ruby's eyes widened. "Yang…really?"

Yang nodded. "She knew about the diary somehow, and she told me that we had to keep reading it. She said it was important, that it had answers we needed."

"Answers?" Ruby asked. "Answers to what?"

Yang shrugged. "Answers to the questions we didn't even know to ask, maybe? Look, my mom didn't say much, but the woman who's had nothing to do with me my entire life thought it was important enough to tell me this…so I think we should trust her."

Ruby nodded. "But…was that it? Was that all she had to say to you?"

"Pretty much," Yang replied. "Rubes…you don't see much of Professor Ozpin, do you?"

"No, why?"

Yang frowned momentarily, but the looked passed as quickly as it had appeared. "It doesn't matter. Let's just read some more."

"Right," Ruby said, as she pulled the diary out from a pouch on her belt and flipped it open to the page where they'd left it. She placed the little book resting between her knees and her sisters, so that they could both see it as they began to read.

Dear Diary,

I don't think Raven likes me very much. 

Maybe that's too hard on her. I get the feeling that she doesn't really 'like' anybody that much. It's strange watching the way she goes around the school: she acts as though she's better than everyone else here, but there's also this nervousness about her as though she's afraid of other people. I don't really get it.

Anyway, the point is that while she may not dislike me more than she dislikes anybody else, she doesn't seem to like me very much either. She thinks that she should have been made team leader instead of me and she isn't shy about letting me know it. She told me straight that the only reason I was made team leader is because of my powers

"Ugh!" Ruby grunted. "Come on, Mom, details!"

"I'm picking up a lot of details," Yang muttered.

But that those powers aren't any substitute for knowledge and experience. You'd think she was a pro-huntsman or something. I asked her if she'd lived outside the kingdoms, like I had; that seemed to take her by surprise, I think she thought I was from Vale or something. She didn't answer my question, but I'm guessing that the answer is yes. I can't think why else she'd think that she was so much more qualified to lead than me.

Qrow told me not to sweat it. He said that his sister acts like this around everyone.

Anyway, we started classes today. Professor Port's Grimm Studies was a little weird.

Yang chuckled. "Hey, Ruby, you wanna bet that Professor Port was the same then as he is now?"

"Nah, that's a sucker's bet," Ruby said. "Especially if you want me to take it."

I'm sure that he was – that he is – a great huntsman, but he told us more about himself than he ever said about the grimm.

The teacher in our combat class is barely older than me, or any of us, and of course Raven asked her straight up why they should listen to anything that someone basically our age had to say. I was so embarrassed, I thought we were going to get detention or something.

But then Professor Goodwitch invited Raven up onto the stage and said that if she could beat her – if Raven could beat Professor Goodwitch – then she'd get a free pass from classes for the next four years and a top grade regardless. You should have seen the look on Raven's face, she was so smug you could tell she thought she had this. But then Professor Goodwitch totally kicked her ass and it was so awesome! Okay, that sounded pretty mean but, honestly, Raven's so full of herself she deserved to be taken down a peg.

The look on her face when she got up after Professor Goodwitch threw her off the stage with her semblance was hilarious.

"Wow," Yang said. "Professor Goodwitch was a badass when she was young, and pretty cool too by the sounds of it. Do you think she'd fight me if I asked her too?"

"Why would you want to fight Professor Goodwitch?"

"I could see how good I was compared to my mom at my age."

"I guess," Ruby said, with a little reluctance. She brightened up as she added, "If you do decide to go for it, I'll be rooting for you."

I suppose I should probably admit that the reason I might sound – okay, the reason I sound – as though I don't like Raven very much is that I was worried that what she said was right, that the only reason Professor Ozpin made me the leader of Team STRQ is that I have silver eyes. But Professor Ozpin said that that wasn't true; he told me that I could use my eyes in any capacity in the team, and I suppose that he was right about that. He really made me feel better about myself, and about being the leader of the team.

I think someone must have said something to Raven, too, because she was trying to be nice tonight. Emphasis on trying, I don't think she really knows how. But I'm going to give her a chance. She's pretty tough, and pretty cool too; I'd like to be her friend.

I'd like her to think that I was worthy of being her friend.

Ruby and Yang spent the entirety of the trip home reading through the diary. Some entries they skimmed over – like when Mom started to describe how Dad had a crush on Raven and didn't really seem to notice her; by an unspoken mutual agreement the two sisters decided that they didn't really want to read that stuff, even if it was the reason they both existed – others they read in more detail. There was a wealth of information packed in here, even if a lot of it was familiar stuff about life at Beacon, the life that the two of them were living right now.

Ruby had always known that her mother and father and favourite uncle had attended Beacon, and she'd known on some level that they must have done all the same things that she and Yang and her new friends had done, walked through the same hallways, sat in the same classrooms. But reading it, hearing it in her mother's voice made it real in the same way that finding the STRQ carving on the SAPR dorm room had been more powerful than merely knowing that they had slept in a room like the one that she was sleeping in.

When she read about her Mom, in Mom's own voice, she could imagine them all as clearly as she could see the places in her mind's eye: the hallways, the courtyard, the cafeteria. She could imagine them there, and she could imagine herself and her friends following behind them like shadows.

We had an absolutely epic food fight in the dining hall today, Team STRQ against Team DMND and we kicked their asses! Although Raven got a little carried away and nearly broke Nettles' aura; but she said she didn't mean any harm and I believe her. Or at least I'd like to. Professor Ozpin was really good about the whole thing, he said we should try to have some fun while we still can. He's really cool about all this stuff, like the grandpa I never knew growing up…

Qrow asked me out today. He's a cool guy, but I had to say no; I'm just not that into him. Tai told me I'd made a mistake

Ruby's eyes widened. "It's here, Yang! Mom's finally going to tell us what it's all about!"

We've forgotten most of where we came from. Our history has been lost to fairy-tale and myth and the half-remembered mutterings of old men. Maybe the Professor's histories will provide some answers, but I only got them tonight and I haven't had the chance to read through them yet. What I do know, is that those born with silver eyes used to be much more numerous than they are now - that wouldn't be hard considering it's just me and my father now - and we were chosen by destiny to lead the lives of warriors.

At least, that's what I've been told. Maybe there really is such a thing as destiny and my fate - like the fate of all my people - is to spend my entire life in battle. Or maybe that was just what people thought because so many silver-eyes became warriors. I don't know, and Professor Ozpin couldn't say for certain either. He tells me that I have a choice to make, whether I want to devote my life to the greater good of the world and its people or not, but a part of me would like to think that all of this was planned out and foreordained years ago. It would mean that I was definitely on the right path.

Although it would also mean that nothing I did or chose really mattered. This stuff makes my head hurt.

Anyway, the powers of the silver eyes come from, wouldn't you know it, our silver eyes. When we feel especially intense negative emotion - horror, fear, sorrow, anger - our eyes manifest in power unlike any other. Professor Ozpin called it magic, even though he told me not to call it that in front of anybody else.

"Magic," Yang murmured. "Like in airport novels or something?"

"I suppose Professor Ozpin had to call it something."

"Okay, but why call it something made up?"

"It isn't made up, Mom could actually do magic."

"You know what I mean," Yang said. "Of course Mom could do...something that she'll hopefully explain in a second, but why name it after something made up? It makes the whole thing sound ridiculous."

"Maybe we'll find out if we keep reading?"

Yang chuckled. "Yeah, maybe. Sorry about that."

I asked the Professor why he called it that, when everyone knows that magic didn't exist, and he just smiled and said that not everything that everybody knows is correct. Professor Ozpin has been really kind to me, and it's great that he's teaching me how to master my gifts, but I swear sometimes it's as if he's trying to be mysterious on purpose.

The point of our lesson tonight was about control, I think that's what all our lessons are going to be about for the foreseeable future. Professor Ozpin showed me a video of me using my eyes against the grimm during initiation; it was the first time I'd ever seen what other people see when I use my powers and let me tell you, if they weren't my powers, if I was watching someone else do this I'd think it was so incredibly awesome. Light comes out of my eyes like wings, burning the darkness all away. But Professor Ozpin warned me that my powers come at a cost: they use so much energy that I'm really vulnerable after using them, and because my powers are activated by extreme negative emotion they could attract even more grimm. Apparently more than one silver-eyed warrior has died after being incapacitated by their own powers, devoured by grimm attracted to the emotions that led them to use their powers in the first place. Professor Ozpin's tuition will focus in parallel upon restraining my negative emotions, while at the same time being able to use my powers without the need for them, calling on the ability at will. Once I can do that, then we hope that practice will mean I'm not so worn out by exercising my ability.

Yang put one arm around Ruby's shoulders. "Ruby," she said. "That...I gotta be honest, that sounds kinda dangerous."

"Chosen by destiny to lead the lives of warriors," Ruby murmured.

"Huh?"

Ruby looked up into Yang's confused-looking face, and smiled. "People with silver eyes were destined to lead lives as warriors. So I was meant to come to Beacon, just like Mom was."

Yang grinned. "And to think, when semester started somebody didn't want to be special. Now who has normal knees?" The smile faded a little. "All the same, you can be special and you can be a huntress and a hero without knowing anything more about your eyes. You can fight the grimm and save people with Crescent Rose and your semblance."

"Yes, but I could save even more people if I knew how to kill a whole bunch of grimm at once and-"

"And then what?" Yang asked. "You read what Mom wrote, after you did that you'd be vulnerable and attracting more grimm."

"My team would be there," Ruby declared.

Yang didn't reply to that, but her expression spoke of scepticism even if she wasn't quite willing to express it out loud.

"Do you want to stop?" Ruby asked, even though she didn't want to. She wanted to read more, and find out more about how Mom had learned to master her abilities. But even more than that she didn't want to fight with Yang. If this was starting to make her sister uncomfortable then she was willing to leave it, for now.

Yang hesitated. "I-"

The internal speaker on the airship chimed before an automated female voice filled the compartment, and probably the entire airship. "Landing in three minutes. Please ensure that you have all your belongings with you before you depart. We hoped you enjoyed travelling with Maiden Skylines and wish you a safe rest of your journey."

"Guess we're done after all," Yang said.

"Yeah," Ruby murmured. Maybe it was true what Yang said. In fact it was almost certainly true what Yang said; if she'd never heard of silver eyes she would never have questioned her ability to achieve her dreams without them. But now that she had heard of them, now that she knew that her inheritance from her mother was a precious gift, just ignoring that fact seemed, well, wrong somehow.

Mom hadn't left her an ancestral sword like Jaune's great-grandfather; but she had left Ruby her eyes, a weapon passed down through the generations of their family so that they could fight against the monsters and protect humanity. Maybe it carried risks, but so did just picking up Crescent Rose and training to become a huntress. Going to Beacon was risky, fighting Roman Torchwick's thugs had been risking, crossing the street was risky. But if she could help people with her power, if she could save people that she wouldn't have been able to save otherwise then shouldn't she?

Consumed by these thoughts, she said very little as she and Yang retrieved their luggage and exited the airship, walking out onto a commercial skydock on the outskirts of Vale.

Dad was waiting for them, and as soon as he saw them he made his way across the dock towards them in silence, his expression stern.

"Uh, hey Dad," Yang said. "How's it going?"

Dad was silent as he put his arms around two girls, holding them tight as he knelt down in front of them. "I'm so glad you're okay," he whispered, before he looked from Ruby to Yang and then back again. "You two are both grounded."

* * *

 _Author's Note: I'm well aware of the fact that I've left myself a hostage to fortune with my interpretation of the silver-eyed powers, which may - and probably will - be contradicted by the show (and soon, too, if Maria turns out to be a SEW as so many believe). But hey, that's what the AU tag is for._

 _In any case, I didn't just make this up out of whole cloth. My theory is based on the two times that we've seen Ruby use her powers so far:_

 _1) at the end of a very trying day (just rewatched volume 3 and I only now realise that everything from 'Fall' to 'End of the Beginning' takes place on a single day. Damn.) in which she has failed to save anyone, failed at every goal she has set for herself, and generally had all of her heroic pretensions literally beaten out of her, Ruby arrives at the top of the tower just in time...to see a person she admires and respects murdered right in front of her. If she wasn't feeling a mixture of sorrow, anger and horror I'll eat my slippers._

 _2) while terrified that she's going to have to watch an even closer friend die as she watches Jaune charge into a fight with Cinder - a match-up so uneven it's not even funny._

 _If the fact that these are the very same emotions that attract grimm isn't intentional then the irony is incredibly rich for a coincidence. This would also explain why Ruby doesn't use her eyes more often since the end of volume 3: her natural optimism acts as a block on her abilities (again, the irony that it is her most prized quality, and the one that allows Ruby to lead and inspire others to be heroes, that prevents her from attaining her own heroic potential is surprisingly delicious is Miles & Kerry didn't plan it that way)._

 _I might be wrong. I probably am wrong. But based on what we know so far I'd like to think that I could be right._


	41. The House of Victory

The House of Victory

Sunset had never been anywhere near Mistral before. She'd never even been anywhere on Anima before (to be perfectly honest, going to Beacon was her first time off Solitas) and even if they hadn't reached the city of Mistral proper yet she was already finding it fascinating.

The three of them had taken a Valish airship out to the Mistralian port city of Edo Bay before boarding a private Mistralian airship chartered for Pyrrha by her mother.

The private airship was understandably smaller than the commercial carrier that had carried them over the ocean, but it was not the reduction in size that interested Sunset so much as what she had already seen of Mistralian technology. While Atlesian and Valish tech gloried in its advancement and sophistication, this Mistralian airship - and what else of Mistral she had seen during their stop in the port - seemed designed to look less hi-tech than Sunset suspected that it really was. The wings of this airship, which Sunset could see as she stood on the edge of the airship's main compartment, one hand resting on the wall to stop her falling down to the world passing by beneath, might look as though they were fashioned of bamboo and canvas but that couldn't actually be the case. She doubted there was any different to the underlying systems that kept this craft in the air or powered their western equivalents, Mistral just wanted it to look as though there was.

It was interesting; it kind of reminded her of home a little bit: a foreign visitor to Equestria from some far off land might think Canterlot hopeless backwards, wallowing in the past while cities like Manehatten powered Equestria into a bright new future but it was not so; Canterlot was every bit as advanced as any other city in the realm, it simply rejected the hyper-modernised aesthetic of younger cities in favour of maintaining its archaic layout and classical architecture. But it was no more than a veneer, scratch that surface and you would find little enough authentic antiquity, and Sunset suspected that it was much the same in Mistral.

She wondered, as the wind blew through her hair, why the Mistralians felt the need to camouflage their advancement behind the appearance of tradition thus. In the case of Canterlot Sunset had always suspected that Celestia had something to do with it; while the princess could not be accused of retarding her nation's progress Sunset thought that she might prefer to live in a place that superficially resembled the world that she had grown up in, and who could fault her for that? But that didn't explain what was driving Mistral's seeming desire for superficial backwardness.

Sunset glanced over her shoulder at Pyrrha, who was presently comforting Jaune as his motion sickness got the better of him; in her armour - which Sunset had decided was almost certainly not true bronze, but probably steel or maybe even something stronger with a thin bronze layer over the top for effect - and with her weapons slung across her back she seemed rather an old-fashioned figure herself, and yet there was nothing truly antique about a sword which could become a spear which could become a rifle. More dressing up of the old in the trappings of the new.

But then Sunset thought of Pyrrha's words, clearly not made up but recited out of memory, when she had unlocked Jaune's aura; she thought of the mystical reverence which which Pyrrha approached aura, the way she talked of destiny in a way that Sunset had heard no Valeman speak; even the restrained manners which she displayed and by which she conducted herself, so different from the exuberance expressiveness of Ruby or Jaune. There was something old-fashioned there, without a doubt; there were times when Pyrrha seemed almost as alien to this world as Sunset: a product of a long-gone age of heroes plopped down in the modern world and armed with its most powerful weapons. Perhaps that was not just a Pyrrha thing but a Mistral thing; perhaps the reason Mistral cloaked its present in the trappings of the past was simply because it felt more comfortable there.

Sunset's ruminations were interrupted by the sound of Jaune throwing up.

 _I'm glad that I don't have to clean that up._

"Miss Nikos," the pilot said. "We're approached Mistral now."

Pyrrha's face lit up a little, and she started to rise from Jaune's side before hesitating. "Jaune, do you-"

Jaune waved her off. "I'm fine. Go."

Pyrrha smiled. "Thank you," she said, before she quickly joined Sunset looking out of the airship and out, before them, as the city of Mistral and the heart of the eastern kingdom hoved into view. Far off yet, it seemed, though growing closer with every passing moment as the airship bore them on, yet despite the distance it seemed already to be beautiful: fair and proud the city sat upon its mountain seat, with many towers rising up out of the lush greenery that covered the slopes of the peak like precious pearls set in an emerald broach. No tower was taller, or stood prouder, than the great palace which sat atop the very peak and crowned the city with a tower so high it pierced the very clouds themselves like a lance. As the airship carried them closer, Sunset began to be able to make out more details: she could see the waterfall that emerged from beneath the palace to flow down the side of the mountain, cutting through the centre of the city in a sapphire stream; she could see the way in which the city rose in steps, with the natural formation of the mountain slopes having been fashioned by the labour of long ages past into tiers and layers gradually ascending, plateaus half-formed by nature and half by the hand of man on which the districts and the towers rested, ascending up to grander and yet grander buildings until they reached the grandest of them all.

Though Mistral sat not upon a lonely mountain but upon one of a chain of lush green peaks, the citizens had made no effort to colonise the neighbouring rises, to sprawl their city out across the mountain range. Rather they had spread into the valleys that lay between the peaks, their satellite cities of Wind Path to the north and Kuchinashi to the south, and all the rest taken up with rich farmland nestling in Mistral's shadow and under the protection of Mistralian arms. Fed by the water thundering down the mountainside which, in turn, fed many rills which slithered serpent-like through the green, the fields and orchards over which they flew brought forth grain and fruit and vegetable for the consumption of the city, while on the slopes of the other mountains the herdsmen and husbandmen raised sheep and goats and cattle.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Pyrrha asked, from just behind Sunset.

"Yes, it certainly is," Sunset replied, even though as she replied she had only a single eye fixed on Mistral. Her other eye saw father still, and in her mind she saw another city built onto a mountainside layered over Pyrrha's home: Canterlot the many-towered, it's dreaming spires all crowned in gleaming gold, with many bright banners fluttering in the morning breeze; Canterlot the fair, the Canterlot the beautiful, Canterlot the seat and found of virtue and wisdom; Canterlot...her home.

The home that she had left behind, never to see again.

 _It was the right decision, and I have benefited from it._ Had she not left Canterlot and her world behind then she would have remained a small and insignificant unicorn full of wasted energy, a failure who had betrayed her own potential and reduced herself to irrelevance in the scheme of things. If she had not left Canterlot and her world then she would never have met Pyrrha, or Ruby or Jaune; she would never have become a team leader; she would never have had this life which suited her so well.

 _I hardly know whether to be proud that you have chosen to devote yourself to the protection and service of others, or horrified at the fact that you live in a world that requires such devotion._ So Celestia had written, when Sunset had explained the general state of Remnant to her and what her chosen path of huntress entailed. She might well be horrified, because it was pretty horrifying when you stopped accepting it as the status quo and started to look at it from the outside, still less tried to see it as one who had ruled over a nation in peace and harmony for a thousand years might do. But Sunset hoped, Sunset believed, that Celestia recognised that it was no unworthy thing she did.

The airship landed on a docking pad about three-quarters of the way up the city, a docking pad which Sunset was a little surprised to see empty as she dismounted. "No cheering throngs of adoring fans?"

"Not everything that I do is public knowledge," Pyrrha replied, as she helped Jaune down onto the docking pad.

Sunset grunted. "How are you feeling?" she asked Jaune, stepping backwards as he threw up again.

Jaune groaned. "I'll be okay, now that we've stopped moving."

"I'm sorry the trip was so rough on you," Pyrrha said. "I hope you'll find that it was worth it."

Jaune nodded, and tried to smile. "Totally. This is going to be great."

Sunset plucked a handkerchief out of jacket sleeve and offered it to Jaune to wipe his mouth; when he offered it back to her - stained with the vestiges of his vomit - she declined with a raised, warding hand. "No, you hang onto that until laundry day."

Sunset stood by her belief that beneath its facade of unchanging antiquity Mistral was every bit as modern and advanced as Vale, but she had to concede that in at least one respect the appearance of an older, more traditional way of doing things was more than just a veneer: there were no cars on the roads, for the simple reason that the streets were so narrow and winding that they not have accommodated them (the stepped, rising nature of the city probably didn't help either); she had first been surprised when Pyrrha started to lead the way on foot, and further when she noticed the complete lack of any sound of engines in the air, only of footfalls and conversation and the ever-present rumbling of the waterfall. Not a single car or bike or truck to be heard, let alone seen.

"As a city, Mistral is much smaller than Vale," Pyrrha explained, as she led them down a thoroughfare that passed between rows of large, expansive houses rising up behind sturdy walls that Sunset could only assume were intended to keep the riff-raff out. "And so it isn't so hard to travel on foot."

"But on the other hand the writ of the kingdom runs much further, right?" Sunset asked. "Outside the kingdom doesn't mean so much here."

"That's right," Pyrrha said. "Settlements across Anima acknowledge the authority of the Mistral council." She smiled. "Did you read up before you came here?"

"A little," Sunset said, although she'd already picked up a fair amount from history classes. "I didn't want you to have to answer every inane question that I might have.

They passed a couple of guards - or cops, but based on their dress Sunset couldn't help but think of them as guards - who were armoured like warriors of old in lacquered, lamellar plates of armour fashioned to look like plates of leather and metal jointed together regardless of what it was really made of, topped with tall, crested helmets. However they were also carrying very modern Atlesian rifles, which served to prove that Sunset had been onto something.

Pyrrha guided them to a grand house, rising up from behind a white wall, occupying the back of a cul-de-sac. The path beyond the wall was barred by a set of gates painted red - with an intercom system mounted to the right - but even beyond the wall Sunset could already tell that house was an inappropriate word for this place, mansion possibly being a more suitable choice. It rose upwards rather than sprawling outwards, even though the wall enclosed sufficient space that it could have done so. Sunset supposed that, much like Canterlot, to waste space was the highest statement of affluence in this city. The main house - white, with a roof of red tiles rising at a steep angle - was surrounded by several towers, and it seemed as though all of the upper windows led out onto spacious balconies.

Jaune's eyes were wide and his mouth was agape already. "You...you live here? This place is a palace!"

 _Let's not go overboard,_ thought Sunset, who unlike Jaune had actually grown up in a palace. It was an impressive place, to be sure, but a palace? Not quite. This was the townhouse of a wealthy family, nothing more. You only had to look up the hill to the actual palace in order to appreciate the difference.

Pyrrha looked abashed by Jaune's awe, looking away from him as her face acquired a slight red tint. "Yes, well...let's go in, shall we?" She walked - with a touch of haste in her gait - up to the intercom set next to the gate, and pushed the green button.

A screen at the top of the metallic panel flashed briefly before a voice issued out. "Welcome home, young mistress."

The gate opened, rolling backwards in both directions with a rumble of engines. Jaune gasped, and gasped again as Pyrrha led them through the gate - it closed again as soon as they were clear of it - and through the grounds towards the house. The space which the Nikos family was squandering by possession unbuilt-upon was not wholly wasted, for the path of white stone that led to the house cut through a lavish garden where cherry trees blossomed amidst many-coloured flowerbeds, where fountains burbled happily amidst well-ordered rock gardens, and where bronze statues of heroic figures armed and garbed for war brandished their spears from atop marble plinths upon the manicured lawn.

A fond smile played upon Pyrrha's face. "I'm glad that you could come here in the spring, when the cherry blossoms are in bloom," she said. Her smile faded a little. "It's a pity that Ruby isn't here to see this."

"There'll be another time," Sunset said.

"I hope so," Pyrrha agreed. "But will the blossoms still be blooming when that time comes?"

A gentle breeze dislodged some of the blossoms from the trees, scattering the petals across their path as they advanced.

"This is incredible," Jaune whispered, turning this way and that as he walked down the path.

"Do you like it?" Pyrrha asked anxiously.

"Of course!" Jaune replied, turning to face her with a beam on his face. "This is great!"

It was as if a great weight of anxiety had been lifted from Pyrrha's shoulders; she looked a little easier and her eyes gleamed a little brighter as she said, "I'm so glad! I really want you to enjoy this."

"These statues," Sunset said. "Purely decorative, or..."

"My ancestors," Pyrrha said. "I'd introduce you, but you should probably meet my mother first."

The door to the house was as red as the outer gate, with great gold door knocks which proved quite unnecessary as the doors swung open as soon as they approached. The three stepped upon a crimson carpet as they entered a spacious hall, decorated in marble and gold and lit by the flickering lights of many lanterns. The carpet led towards a grand, branching staircase, and on either side of the carpet were arrayed two rows of maids in uniform who clasped their hands together before them as they bowed and chorussed, "Welcome home, Miss Nikos."

Pyrrha's embarrassment returned swiftly and visibly as she looked down at her feet. "Yes, thank you," she murmured in a subdued tone.

"Welcome home!" this new voice came not from any of the servants in the hall, but from the woman presently descending the stairs. She looked to be somewhere in middle age, with hair that had once been as red as Pyrrha's now beginning to turn grey in wisps and strands and streaks. The years had begun to line her face as they had broadened out her figure somewhat, and she walked with slight limp, keeping one hand upon the bannister even if there was no sign of a cane. "Welcome home," she repeated, as she neared the bottom of the stairs. "My child, my daughter; mine and Mistral's greatest and most beloved champion. Welcome home." She was dressed in a flowing gown of crimson and gold, with long open sleeves that almost hid her hands and a long train which flowed behind her as she walked down to the carpet towards Pyrrha and the others.

Pyrrha bowed her head. "Mother."

The two were nearly of a height, Sunset saw as Pyrrha's mother drew closer, and both had the same green eyes. Sunset wouldn't have been surprised to learn that in her youth the older woman had looked very much as Pyrrha did now. Even now, though age had set its mark upon her without doubt, she had not aged wholly ungracefully.

Pyrrha's mother embraced her daughter for the briefest moment, and kissed her on the forehead, only then did she turn her gaze on Pyrrha's companions.

"Mother," Pyrrha said quickly. "Thank you for welcoming my friends into our home. Jaune, Sunset, this is my mother. Mother, allow me to present Jaune Arc."

Jaune smiled as he thrust out his hand. "A pleasure to meet you, uh, ma'am. You've got a lovely home."

The older woman regarded him rather like a kind of slime, her green eyes - they were the same colour as Pyrrha's, but lacked all of the warmth present in Pyrhra's orbs. Jaune's hand remained outstretched, reaching out into empty air, untaken.

Jaune's smile began to waver as his hand trembled slightly.

"Charmed, Mister Arc," she said, in a voice that sounded far from charmed.

Pyrrha looked so guilty you might have thought she was the one being insulting. "And this is my team-leader, Sunset Shimmer."

It had been a long time since Sunset had needed to have recourse to the high manners of the court, but as she reached for them now she found - somewhat to her relief - that she had not forgotten the lessons in etiquette and courtesy that she had learned during her tutelage at Celestia's hooves. Though unused they had been but lying dormant at the back of her mind, waiting to be used again. She did not clasp her hands together as she bowed, for it had been made clear that such was a servant's bow and Sunset Shimmer was no servant. Rather she spread her hands out wide on either side of her, and angled her face so that she could still see her host as she crossed one foot behind the other and bowed deeply from the waist. "Lady Nikos, thank you for extending your hospitality to me; I am honoured to be a guest in your home."

Jaune made a kind of choking sound, and when Sunset rose she saw that both he and Pyrrha were staring at Sunset as though she'd sprouted a second head.

 _What? Just because I don't do manners normally doesn't mean that I can't. I'm not a barbarian._

Lady Nikos stared at her for a moment, one eyebrow raised in curiousity. Her lips twitched momentarily. Sunset was surprised that the old woman's gaze did not linger on Sunset's faunus features, but of course Pyrrha had never shown any regard for such thing and she had to have acquired her tolerance from somewhere.

"Welcome, Miss Shimmer," she said. "Please consider the luxuries of this house to be your own, if you have any needs the servants will gladly attend to them for you. The guest rooms have been prepared and I imagine you are weary from your journey; dinner will be held at seven, I imagine I will see you then. My daughter has business to attend to, but Diana will show you both to your rooms so that you may rest."

One of the maids curtsied. "At once, my lady. Follow me, please."

* * *

Pyrrha placed a fire-dust crystal into the lamp, and the light illuminated her passage as she walked down the steps into the crypt.

This house had been renovated and re-modelled over the years, but it's frame was old. It had been built over a hundred years ago by a noble Mistralian family, but the line that had built it for themselves had tragically died out during the Great War and the house had been acquired by the Nikos family after her great-grandfather's abdication and the consequent vacation of the palace. This house was older than its occupation by her line.

What was not so old was the crypt.

The Nikos family had always kept their dead close by them; even now the underbelly of the Chrysanthemum Palace played host to the sarchophagi of many emperors and princes past back, so it was said, to the very founding of Mistral. Now they had a new home, and now the earthly remains of their line rested here beneath their living descendants.

"Revered ancestors," Pyrrha murmured as she reached the bottom of hte steps and entered the crypt proper. Here lay her great-grandfather, the last Emperor of Mistral, and the three sons that he had lost in the Great War; here lay her grandfather, the last prince to survive the war, and her grandmother too. Here Pyrrha's mortal remnants would lie, when her time came; though Pyrrha prayed to the gods of the household that that day was yet many years hence. Many years of joy, many years with her new friends, many years of love, many years to bear a child of her own and watch them grow tall and strong and kind. Many years.

The air in the crypt was musty and thick with ghosts, the spirits of her ancestors watching her as she walked through the darkness with only a fire-dust lamp to light the way.

Pyrrha stopped before the tomb of her father.

Achilles Nikos was rendered in stone as a man tall but lithe-limbed, clean shaven but with long hair descending past his shoulders. He was depicted in the armour of a huntsman, with a sword resting upon his chest; the sword and armour that were buried in the tomb with him. His countenance was youthful, the face of a man who had fallen before his time. His expression was stern, set in dignified repose, devoid of the smiles that had animated in life. Or so Pyrrha remembered at least; she had been very young at the time.

"Father," Pyrrha said, as she set the lamp down upon the floor of the crypt. "I...I've come home. Not permanently, of course, but for the spring vacation." She hesitated for a moment. "I've brought two of my friends with me, Jaune and Sunset. That's right, father, I have friends now. Three friends who trust me with their lives. It's wonderful, I've never felt before the way that I feel when I'm with them. Ruby couldn't come, but I believe that you'd approve of her: she's brave, earnest and kind, devoted to the cause of helping others. They treat me...they treat me like a person. When I'm with them I'm not the Invincible Girl, I'm not the champion of Mistral, I'm not a walking talking combat doll...I'm Pyrrha Nikos." Well, mostly. There were times when she could tell by the look in Sunset's eye that their team leader had already mentally decided where she was going to put the trophy from their Vytal Festival win, and suspected that her undefeated status played a major role in Sunset's calculation. But if you took the ambition out of Sunset then whatever you were left with would probably not be much like Sunset Shimmer, and so Pyrrha was inclined to forgive a little premature counting of chickens.

"I wish that you could meet them all," she said. "I wish that you could tell me that I've chosen well, that I'm as fortunate in them as I feel; I wish I could ask you how to talk to Jaune and you could answer. I wish that you were here, in more ways than you are." She knelt, and closed her eyes as she rested her forehead upon the stone. "I miss you, Father."

* * *

Jaune hovered outside of Sunset's room, hand up but not quite knocking on the door. The truth was that Sunset still kind of scared him, at least a little bit; she was on their side (for which he was very thankful) but he still got the feeling that...it was hard to explain, but if 'do the right thing' was a box to tick on a multiple choice test Jaune thought that, while Sunset might sometimes tick that box, it wouldn't be because it was the right thing. He knew that he was one to talk about doing the right thing, but it didn't change the fact that Sunset made him nervous.

The fact that it still felt as though she was having to make an effort not to treat him with contempt, and that sometimes her best efforts weren't sufficient, didn't help either.

But he needed her help, or at least to know how she seemed to know exactly what to do back in the hall, and so he forced down his nerves and knocked on the door.

"Who is it?"

"It's me," Jaune replied. "I need to talk to you."

"The door's open."

Jaune took that as an invitation, and so he opened the old oak-panelled door and walked into Sunset's room. The walls were amber, with a band like golden marble, mottled with veins of black and grey, running around centre of the walls. The curtains, which were all that separated the room proper from the balcony beyond - there were no windows - were a rich crimson bordered with gold thread and equally golden tassel, and they rippled lazily in the afternoon breeze. A tapestry depicting some kind of heroic scene - a stylised battle against the grimm - hung on the wall opposite the bed, which was covered in soft silk sheets.

Sunset's case sat on the bed, half unpacked but with a few things still lying folded in the case itself; Sunset herself stood on the balcony, her back to the door and her hands resting on the sandy rail. The same breeze that shifted the curtains ran through her hair and it dance gently up and down.

"What do you think of Mistral so far?" Sunset asked, without turning around.

"What I've seen...it's a really nice place," Jaune said, as he shut the door behind him.

"Yeah, a really nice place," Sunset murmured. "I've heard that Mistral's almost as bad as Atlas for faunus rights, which is a crying shame. I..." She trailed off, turning to face Jaune and looking...embarrassed? What did she have to be embarrassed about? Jaune went back through what she'd said and couldn't find anything to be ashamed of, unless she wasn't embarrassed by what she'd said but what she'd almost said? It was all he could think of, but it still didn't make a lot of sense to him.

Sunset cleared her throat, and looked down at the balcony floor as she half sat, half leaned upon the rail. "Something that I can do for you, Jaune?"

Now it was Jaune's turn to feel the sting of embarrassment, when he thought of how Pyrrha's mom had looked at him he wanted to sink into the floor and when he thought of how he must have embarrassed Pyrrha it was almost enough to make him wish that he'd stayed at Beacon for the break. "How did you do it, Sunset? How did you know what to do?"

Sunset glanced up at him, her brow was furrowed just a little. "You'll have to be a little more specific."

"Pyrrha's mom!" Jaune exclaimed. "I mean, it isn't like I was trying to be rude or anything, but did you see the way she looked at me? I feel like I've messed up already. And you...how did you know to bow, for crying out loud? And what was that you said? Should I have known how to do that? Was I supposed to do research before I came here?"

Sunset's gaze was not without sympathy as she walked off the balcony and back into the room. "Ruby and Pyrrha have a tendency to tell you that things aren't your fault to make you feel better; but I don't, so I hope you can believe me when I say that that wasn't your fault. The truth is, if you'd been meeting Ruby's father then a firm handshake and calling him 'sir' probably would have got you where you wanted to go...but this isn't Vale and these people are different."

"Different how? Because they're Mistralian?"

Sunset spread her arms out to encompass the room. "Look around. Think of the house, the grounds, what do you see? What does it say to you?"

Jaune thought about it, the grand house, the lavish gardens, the opulently decorated rooms. "Money?" he ventured.

Sunset snorted. "Well, yes; I mean they might not be the Schnees but they're set for life. But that's not what I meant." She paused. "Your sword...it's an old family thing, right?"

Jaune nodded. "My great-great grandfather carried it in the Great War."

Sunset nodded too, slowly, thoughtfully. "And what about his great-great grandfather, who was he?"

"I..." Jaune hesitated. "I don't know."

"I'm not surprised," Sunset said. "I don't know who my great-great-grandfather's great-great-grandfather was either. I doubt Ruby knows on either side of her family. We know the relatives who are still alive, we have the stories that our parents and grandparents pass on to us if we're lucky enough to have them and everything else...is forgotten. It recedes into the mists and vanishes as though it was never there at all because memory fades. But families like this don't work the same way; they don't have memories, they have history. They're old."

"Old money?"

"Old blood," Sunset corrected. "There are statues of Pyrrha's ancestors on the lawn, there are tapestries of them on the walls; I bet you Pyrrha's mother knows who her great-great grandfather's great-great grandfather was. It's easy for them to remember because their family history is the history of the city, of the kingdom itself. They're old blood, and that blood is baked into this place. They're different."

"Pyrrha isn't."

"Pyrrha...Pyrrha's something else," Sunset allowed. "Pyrrha doesn't want to be set apart, not for her skill and probably not for all this either. But her mother...her mother knows what she is, I think. And she wants everyone else to know it too, and to respond appropriately."

"But how was I supposed to get all of that?"

"I said it wasn't your fault," Sunset said.

"And you," Jaune exclaimed. "How did you get all of that? How did you know what to do?"

"Because I grew up in a palace," Sunset said.

You could have hit Jaune over the head with a rebar and it wouldn't have stunned him as much as hearing those words come tumbling out of Sunset's mouth. He stared at her, his eyes boggling. "You...huh? You're kidding. You...you have to be kidding, right?"

Sunset smirked. "What, you find it so hard to believe?"

Jaune shifted uncomfortably in place. "...kinda?"

A snort escaped from between Sunset's lips. "You can believe it or not, it won't make it any less true. I once lived a life of ease and refinement, dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge." She sat down upon her bed and stretched out her arms over her head. "I was going to be a princess."

Jaune frowned. "Like...you mean you were going to marry a prince?"

"No, I...never mind. It's complicated, and you probably don't believe me anyway."

"Well, if it's true then...what happened?" Jaune asked. "Why would you give that up to be a huntress? To be treated like dirt in Atlas? Why would you give any of it up?"

Sunset shrugged. "What are any of us doing, putting ourselves in harm's way? Why does Pyrrha want to risk her life when she could live here in the lap of luxury until her teeth fall out? And what about you? I can't believe you grew up deprived, your life must have been okay."

"My life was boring and ordinary and I wanted more," Jaune said. "Pyrrha's the most selfless, generous person I've ever met. You...no offence but why would _you_ give up a life of fame and luxury to die for other people?"

Sunset stared at him - almost glared at him - for a moment, and Jaune felt his heart quake as he feared that he had gone too far. But then she smirked at him and said, "Well, you got me there, I admit. That life...things didn't work out like I hoped. But I've got you now, and my team, so it all worked out for the best in the end, right?"

For the first time since he'd met her, Sunset seemed genuinely uncertain. She seemed as though she was asking him for reassurance, genuinely asking him because she wanted, needed, to be told that yes, it had all come good in the end.

"Yeah!" he said, maybe a little too loudly but no less genuinely for that. "We make a great team, don't we?"

"Of course we do," Sunset declared, rising to her feet. "We're going to win the Vytal festival this year and...and lots of other awesome stuff, too."

"Totally!" Jaune agreed. He hesitated. "Uh, Sunset?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you...can you teach me how to act the right way around here, around people like this?" Jaune asked. "I don't want to spend this whole vacation embarrassing Pyrrha in front of her mom."

Sunset was silent for a moment, her eyes gazing into Jaune's. "Sure. I'll teach you the basics. Sit down, and let's see if we can't get you part of the way there before dinner..."


	42. Lady Nikos' Concerns

Lady Nikos' Concerns

Sunset panted as she got up off the mat. She and Pyrrha had been sparring down in the Nikos' dojo for some time now, as the sun rose and cast its light in through the high windows.

Actually, no, that was not entirely accurate. To call it sparring would imply some measure of equality between them. It would be more accurate to say that Pyrrha had been kicking Sunset's ass for some time now.

Hand to hand combat, it seemed, was not her thing.

 _That's exactly why I need this. I can't be caught helpless again like I was down in the tunnels._

Pyrrha looked barely ruffled by the exertion. "How's your aura?"

Sunset raised her hands in a guard. "I could do this all day."

Pyrrha didn't look impressed by Sunset's bluster. "How's your aura?" she repeated.

Sunset huffed, and held out one hand. Her scroll, summoned by a small amount of telekinesis, flew into it. She checked her aura level. "I'm in the yellow."

"We'll take a break," Pyrrha said.

"I can keep going for a little longer."

"There's no need to push yourself so hard, Sunset-"

"If I don't push me, who will?" Sunset demanded.

Pyrrha was unfazed by Sunset's snapped response. She looked so untroubled that Sunset could have been whispering as softly as a dove. "You can't rush this. And I know that you know that."

Sunset sniffed. "You sound like my old teacher." _You cannot rush this, Sunset Shimmer. The study of magic is the work of years, for some it is the work of a lifetime. Even you, as powerful and talented as you are, will not master everything you wish to overnight._ That was what Celestia had told her after she had found Sunset passed out on the floor of the library, having exhausted herself practicing spells from the books. She had been only a little filly then, but in a way it gladdened Sunset to know that a part of her was that filly still: impatient, yes, but also eager and…good. Less corrupted by the spirit of the world.

"I'm sure that she was right," Pyrrha said. "How long did it take you to master your semblance?"

"Years," Sunset admitted.

"Exactly."

"I haven't got years for this."

Pyrrha looked apologetically. "You realise that you will never be a master with your fists, your feet; nor with a sword."

"I don't need to be able to beat you, I just need to be able to hold my own against a reasonably competent opponent," Sunset said. "I need…I don't want to need you to rescue me again."

Pyrrha was silent for a moment. "I understand, but I do think that you've done enough for now. And remember that you're not my only student."

"Yeah, right," Sunset murmured. She didn't really want Jaune to see this, at least not until Sunset was a little better at this than she was right now. "I, um, I'll give you a second to catch your breath before he arrives." Pyrrha didn't look as though she needed that, but she was kind enough not to point out the fact as Sunset walked over to a bench that sat against the white dojo wall, and took a drink of water from the bottle resting there.

She looked round the room. All of the dummies and targets had been placed against the walls, jostling for room with rows of swords hanging from wooden racks. The floor was cleared for sparring upon reed mats, already stained by Sunset's sweat and jostled where Pyrrha had knocked her to the ground. Even holding back as she was, the youngest scion of the Nikos line packed quite a punch.

Sunset took another drink, and let the cool water trickle down her parched throat.

The door into the dojo slid open, and Sunset expected Jaune to walk in – she straightened up expectantly, and tried to look less beaten than she was – but instead it was one of the Nikos family servants, who nodded respectfully to Pyrrha before turning her attention to Sunset.

"Pardon me, Miss Shimmer, but my lady requests your presence in her study."

Sunset glanced at Pyrrha, who looked apologetic but said nothing. Sunset took a couple of steps across the reed mats. "May I bathe and change first or does Lady Nikos require me immediately?"

"Yes, Miss Shimmer."

 _I see._ It was possible that Lady Nikos didn't know that Sunset had worked up a sweat, but it was equally possible that she was making Sunset call upon her in a lather to establish some form of dominance over Sunset.

If so, there was nothing Sunset could do about it; her presence having been demanded – to all intents and purposes – to refuse her host would have been an act of gross rudeness. So she nodded her head and said, "Very well, please lead the way."

And so Sunset was brought to Lady Nikos' study, smelling a little of sweat, with her hair askew and her face glowing with exertion. Lady Nikos, by contrast, looked composed; she was dressed - draped might be a more apposite description - in a loose-fitting gown of subdued grey, while her slightly greying hair was bound up tightly in a bun at the nape of her neck. She sat behind an antique ebony desk which managed to be covered in things - a golden statuette of a warrior with spear and shield; two framed photographs with their backs to Sunset, their contents hidden from her; a sword with a silver hilt in a crimson scabbard, resting upon a wooden stand - without seeming cluttered. Sunset had the impression that everything was in its proper place, exactly where it was meant to be. The room itself was a little stuffy, enclosed; one wall was lined with old, leatherbound books, the other with framed pictures and newspaper cuttings which distance and time did not permit Sunset to study as she would have needed to for a sense of their contents.

Sunset bowed her head. "You wished to see me, my lady?"

Lady Nikos nodded, and gestured to a seat across the desk from her. "Please take a sit, Miss Shimmer."

Sunset sat down, clasping her hands together and resting them upon her knee.

Lady Nikos pushed a bowl of fruit across the desk. "You must be hungry after your exertions."

Sunset blinked. "Does my lady have hidden cameras in the dojo?"

"When I was told that my daughter and one of her guests had risen before daybreak," Lady Nikos said. "My first thought was that Pyrrha had been led into vice during her time at Beacon."

"I'm sure your ladyship was glad to find out that we weren't sneaking out to smoke weed behind the stable," Sunset replied dryly. "Although, with the greatest respect-"

"The words that follow 'with the greatest respect' are often inherently disrespectful at best, Miss Shimmer," Lady Nikos said. "I advise you to choose yours with care."

Sunset smiled, if only a little. "Pyrrha is not the sort of girl who could be so easily led into, as you put it, vices." It was true that Pyrrha was more a follower than a leader in many respects, but she was not without a strong sense of right; in many respects it was stronger than Sunset's own. She wasn't the kind of person to do things just because all the cool kids were doing it. She was, as the saying went, the knight without peer and beyond reproach; although Sunset did not say that out loud lest Lady Nikos think her a brown-nosing sycophant.

"A fact for which I am as glad as you say," Lady Nikos said. "Although the truth behind your early rising does not make my heart rejoice."

Sunset had an inkling of where this might be going, but was in no great hurry to arrive there. So she said nothing, and sat in her chair, and waited.

"I hope you can understand my bemusement, Miss Shimmer, at the leader recieving instruction from the subordinate. What should I think of that?"

"You could think it a testament to Pyrrha's skill that I chose to seek assistance from her, my lady."

"Testaments to my daughter's skill I have in great number," Lady Nikos replied. She glanced momentarily towards the wall with all of its framed pictures and articles. Sunset's eyes followed them there, and with the close distance even a swift glance told her that a great many - though not all of them - concerned the reported deeds and exploits of Pyrrha.

"Tell me, Miss Shimmer," she continued. "Why should my daughter - a champion of Sanctum, of the blood royal of Mistral - follow you?"

"A faunus?" Sunset asked, unable to keep a touch of pique out of her tone.

"I did not say so, nor will I," Lady Nikos said, without displaying any anger at the accusation. "My issue is with your inferior skill, not with your race."

Sunset held the older woman's gaze for a moment, before she bowed her head. "I apologise, my lady, I had no right to accuse you thus in your own home. I cry your pardon and your understanding."

"You have them," Lady Nikos said. "With the world as it is your assumption is not without grounds."

Sunset said nothing more to that, rather she said, "As to your true complaint with regards to my worth, my lady, it is true that I cannot throw a punch so well as Pyrrha can but I am not without talents of my own. They simply lie in other areas."

"Such as?"

"I am a good shot, my lady," Sunset said. "But principally I would base my claims on talent in my wit and in my semblance." She spread her arms out on either side of her, and closed her eyes as she called upon her magic. What she was attempting now was complex, not so much for the amount of raw power involved as for the fact that she was trying to do three different things at once. She drew in the ambient magic of the world around her to somewhat replenish her own reserves, even as she spent those same reserves more swiftly. With one hand she conjured a dozen magical arrows, green darts rising from her open palm to form a kind of deadly halo above her head. With the other hand she conjured up a shield of shimmering, translucent magic around the sword that sat on Lady Nikos' desk. And lastly something new, something that she had been working on after her experiences down in the tunnels - one of a few new things that she'd been working, along with older things she was dusting off, but this wasn't really the right setting to show off her night-vision spell: a suit of armour, resembling the all-embracing steel plates of a knight but forged entirely out of magic, enfolding her form more snugly and securely than any shield spell ever would.

She hoped that all of this was as impressive as she hoped because it was already starting to give Sunset a headache. Performing multiple spells at once like this was one of the few aspects of magic that was easier in this world than Equestria - consequence of the lack of a horn through which all magic had to travel - but that didn't make it easy by any means. It was like trying to focus your attention on three things, not just split it but give each one a hundred percent of your attention. Sunset wasn't sure how long she could hold it. She blinked rapidly as her head began to rattle like a snare drum.

Fortunately, Lady Nikos seemed at least a little impressed by what she was seeing. Her eyebrows rose. "I take it these are not illusions?"

"Touch the shield, my lady, and you will find out."

Tentatively, Lady Nikos reached for the shield enfolding her sword. She pushed against it, and Sunset could see that she had met resistance. Her whole body glowed as she activated her aura, and she struck the shield with a single fist.

Sunset's shield did not falter.

Again, and again after that Lady Nikos struck the shield around her blade, and only on the fifth strike did it began to crack.

Sunset released all her magic, arrows and shield and armour all fading into empty air. She attempted to conceal the immediate weight that settled on her eyelids. "Not invulnerable, my lady," she said. "But durable in defence and powerful in the attack."

"If you can hit your opponent, I assume."

"Is that not the case with all forms of offence?"

Lady Nikos was silent for a moment. "I must concede the versatility of your semblance, although I must also question your use of it."

Now it was Sunset's turn to raise her eyebrows. _You think you know how to use magic better than I do?_ "What does my lady mean?"

"Your semblance armour was fine looking, but I cannot see what advantages it offers over mere aura," Lady Nikos said.

 _Ah, of course. Semblance consumes aura._ "It supplements my aura, my lady."

"But does not drain it."

"Not greatly, my lady."

"Have you considered that real armour might serve you better, if you feel the need for additional protection?"

Sunset was silent for a moment. "There are many things that might serve me well, my lady, but I concede my resources are constrained."

"I see," Lady Nikos murmured softly. "May I ask, Miss Shimmer, why a huntress in possession of such a semblance requires instruction in the basics of close combat?"

"I have been shown the need for it, my lady; as a last resort."

"A result of your captivity with the White Fang, I suppose."

Sunset nodded. "Yes, my lady."

Lady Nikos' face hardened, if only for a moment. "I did not like the news of that, for reasons that I am sure I do not have to elaborate upon. White Fang activity here in Mistral is practically unheard of at the present time, yet in Vale it seems practically endemic."

Sunset frowned. "You wish to pull Pyrrha out of Beacon."

Lady Nikos was silent for a moment. She pushed back her chair and got to her feet. "It was no mere maternal indulgence on my part that led me to accede to my daughter's preference for Beacon Academy."

Sunset kept her opinion, that she doubted Lady Nikos had ever demonstrated any maternal indulgence towards Pyrrha in her life, to herself. Lady Nikos walked over to the wall, and as Sunset's eyes followed she could see clearly that those photographs and articles which did not concern Pyrrha concerned her mother; they were older, more yellow and faded, yet the subject matter was much the same: of bouts and tournaments and trophies won.

"At the time," Lady Nikos said. "I was not convinced that Haven Academy was the right place for my daughter. Professor Lionheart is a small man, utterly unworthy of the great charge that the council has bestowed upon him; the decline of Haven under his mismanagement has been disheartening to witness. I told myself that my daughter would do better under the guidance of Professor Ozpin, whose skill and wisdom are beyond doubt."

"I cannot speak for Professor Lionheart's faults, my lady, but Professor Ozpin's virtues are as beyond doubt now as they were when your decision was made."

Lady Nikos turned away from her wall to look once more at Sunset. "My daughter has the potential to be the greatest fighter of this age," she declared. "There is no one she cannot defeat, no tournament crown she could not claim if only she possessed the will to reach for it. Yet even the mightiest warrior may be slain by a single arrow. Years of training at vast expense can fall to a ten lien pistol. I do not wish to see my daughter's destiny frustrated by the blade of a White Fang thug."

"No more do I, my lady," Sunset said. She, too, got to her feet. "My lady does not know me, and you do not know my team but I assure you with all due modesty that Pyrrha could find no better comrades to fight beside than we. Perhaps it is true that Pyrrha could drag two sacks of flower and a rock to victory in the Vytal festival but with us by her side she will not have to. I have run Pyrrha closer in combat than any other opponent by her own account; Ruby is a prodigy in her own right and only fifteen, when she is seventeen who knows what a monster she will be; the potential of Jaune's semblance is yet unbounded. Together we will not only triumph but bring such glory to our names that the world will resound to the sound of them and the talk of the world will be how brilliantly we fought. And we will protect each other, and thus as we survived the White Fang so will we survive all other darkness besides together. I am a stranger to my lady, true, but on my pride and on my dear ambition dear as life itself I swear to you: I have Pyrrha's back, and we have both her flanks besides."

Lady Nikos stared into Sunset's eyes. "It's true, I know you not, Miss Shimmer. And yet I would like to know you better. There is a part of me that wishes my daughter would speak thus of ambition. With respect, how does a faunus whose resources are by your own admission strained learn to speak thus?"

"I was not always that which I am now, my lady," Sunset said. "I was not born a faunus of the kingdoms' slums but in a proud and sovereign place."

"Menagerie? That would explain your manners, high as they are they are not of the kingdoms," Lady Nikos replied. "I will make no decision yet regarding my daughter's future. I do not know you or Mister Arc but I have time to come to know you both. When the end of this vacation draws near you will know my thoughts."

Sunset bowed. "I understand my lady, and I thank you."

"I will detain you no further, Miss Shimmer, you must be anxious to bathe," Lady Nikos said.

"Thank you, my lady," Sunset murmured, as she turned to go.

"Actually, there is one more thing," Lady Nikos said, before Sunset reached the door. "The Steward of the Council is hosting a soiree at the palace to which I and my daughter are invited. Should you wish to attend as my guests, I assure you that none will object."

 _A test?_ Perhaps, perhaps not. But whatever the case it would be rude to refuse. "That is most generous, my lady. We would be delighted."


	43. The Fountain Courtyard

The Fountain Courtyard

The master of ceremonies banged his heavy gold staff down upon the floor before he cried out their names to the assembled company.

"Lady Hippolyta Nikos, her daughter Pyrrha Nikos, and party!"

 _And party?_ Sunset thought. _And party? Would it really have killed you to have tacked on ', Miss Sunset Shimmer and Mister Jaune Arc' at the end there, pal?_

 _You will announce my name one day. It will ring out across this room, and all the rooms that I walk into._

For now, however, she had to settled for being part of 'and party' as she stood just behind Pyrrha and her mother in the doorway leading into the palace antechamber.

Sunset was dressed in white; specifically she was wearing one of her old prom dresses from Canterlot (not true Canterlot, the Atlesian combat school); the oldest one, in point of fact, but also the one that with hindsight looked least garish. Certainly the all white, disrupted only by a golden sash beneath her breasts, was the most suitable for an event such as this.

Jaune wore a formal suit, single-breasted with a grey waistcoat underneath and a red bow-tie. Pyrrha wore a gown of green, with a high neckline but no sleeves, matching the colour of her vibrant eyes; the gorget and circlet from her armour remained in place.

They had arrived fashionably late and before them the palace antechamber was thronged with people: the wealthy and well-born of Mistralian society milling around a shadowy room, dimly lit with braziers filled with glowing fire-dust crystals which, by accident or possibly by that same desire to appear antique that seemed to govern the Mistralian aesthetic, failed to produce enough illumination to fully light up the room just as a burning brazier of coal would have done. Men wore suits or robes, women wore gowns of many colours while bracelets glimmered around their wrists and diamonds sparkled around their necks. In amongst the throngs of notables the servants scurried, dressed in the uniformed livery of the palace, bearing trays of silver and gold laden with glasses and canapés. In the corner of the room an orchestra played soft and soothing music which lilted out across the chamber and beyond, for Sunset could see a door at the other end of the room leading to what looked to be an open courtyard, where yet more guests seemed to have congregated.

Because this was a high-class gathering – and if Sunset's time in Canterlot (the actual Canterlot this time) had taught her anything it was that people like this were far too proud to admit that they were impressed by anyone, and certainly by anything so plebeian as celebrity or talent – Pyrrha's arrival wasn't greeted with gasps or squeeing or everyone rushing to take selfies. But Sunset could read a room well enough to notice the check in conversation in the antechamber, the way that people glanced their way out of the corners of their eye as if to confirm that this was she.

Or perhaps, in this company, it was her mother who was the famous one.

"Lady Hippolyta!" the voice that hailed Lady Nikos belonged to a tall, broad-shouldered figure, wearing a brown greatcoat over his suit, who approached them from the edges of the assembly. He bowed a little from the waist. "It is so very good to see you again."

"Leo," Lady Nikos replied coolly, and though she answered his bow with a curtsy of her own her expression was stony and still throughout.

Leo stared down at her for a moment, appearing lost as to what to do next for all that he had initiated this by approaching her. His eyes flickered away from Lady Nikos to alight on Pyrrha. "And of course, your daughter is as lovely as every." With one of his hands he reached for Pyrrha's, and she allowed him to raise her hand to his lips, which he brushed lightly against her knuckles. "A pleasure to see you again, my dear."

Pyrrha smiled politely as she curtsied to him. "Likewise, Professor." She gestured to Sunset and Jaune. "Allow me to introduce my Beacon team-mates, Sunset Shimmer and Jaune Arc. Sunset, Jaune, it's my honour to present to you Professor Leonardo Lionheart, the headmaster of Haven Academy here in Mistral."

Jaune managed to more or less execute the bow that Sunset had taught him. He forgot to move his feet but he did remember what to do with his arms. "An honour to make your acquaintance, Professor Lionheart.

 _Professor Lionheart is a small man._ The scornful words which Lady Nikos had had for the headmaster of Haven returned to Sunset like a shot as she beheld the man himself. Obviously she hadn't been speaking literally – physically speaking there was nothing small about him – but even at a mere glance Sunset could see why a person like Lady Nikos might form the impression that he was spiritually small. Professor Lionheart seemed to Sunset a very grey figure, most obviously his mane-like hair and beard but it seemed to have spread beyond that to have affected everything about his appearance. He looked like a dead man walking, and although it was not especially warm tonight he had sweat beading his brow.

It was easy to see why someone like Lady Nikos would despise a man like Professor Lionheart. Sunset wouldn't be surprised if half of high society held him in such contempt. It might not be fair but that was the way it was: this world was no place for the meek, and nervousness was a sign for the jackals to move in. It was rather incredible that he'd managed to get the headmaster's job in the first place, he must be hiding a ferocious talent underneath that unassuming exterior. A bit like Pyrrha, but without the ancestors.

She bowed. "Yes, Professor, this is a great honour."

"Ah," Professor Lionheart said. "Yes, uh, always a pleasure to meet huntsmen and huntresses in training, especially students of my old friend Ozpin."

"The pleasure is all ours, Professor, to meet a huntsman of your skill and experience," Sunset replied.

"You have a silver tongue, young lady; you might be more suited to politics than to the life of a huntress." Lionheart laughed nervously. "I suppose you must be enjoying your studies at Beacon, Pyrrha; at least you must be getting along with your team-mates enough to have invited them here to Mistral."

"Yes, Professor," Pyrrha said. "I thought they might enjoy the sights of our fair city."

"Indeed, there are so many," Professor Lionheart replied jovially. "Still, I don't mind admitting that I wish I'd been able to snag you for Haven. You would have been a great boost to our chances in the Vytal Festival tournament."

"What a pity it is that Haven has produced no young warriors who could come close to rivalling my daughter in these last few years," Lady Nikos declared acidly.

Sunset's eyebrows rose. It was true that Beacon students had begun to monopolise victory in the Vytal festival recently, with their main competition tending to come from Atlas, but everything she had read seemed to consider that a positive reflection upon Professor Ozpin rather than a negative reflection on his counterparts at Haven or Shade; more importantly she was astonished at how brazenly rude Lady Nikos had just been. It wasn't how these things were generally done but there was no subtle suggestion here: she had straight up insulted Professor Lionheart to his face.

Even more surprisingly to Sunset, Professor Lionheart just took it. He flinched. "I, uh, yes, well…Lady Hippolyta…" he cleared his throat. "Well, as I say, it is a great pity, Pyrrha that you chose Beacon over Haven; you would have been one of the star pupils at our academy without a doubt."

"One of?" Lady Nikos asked.

"But as it happens I have found a young lady of great potential who is most anxious to meet you." Professor Lionheart stepped out of the way to reveal that someone had been hiding behind him this entire time, waiting for the dramatic moment of revelation. "Lady Hippolyta, Pyrrha…forgive me young man, young lady…allow me to introduce my most promising new student: Miss Cinder Fall."

"Charmed," Cinder declared lugubriously as she stepped forward. She was dressed all in black, her gown descending sharply off her shoulders to reveal a great deal of cleavage even as her arms were enfolded by a pair of long black gloves. A plain black choker was wrapped tightly around her throat. Black swan feathers decorated the shoulders of her dress, but in her hair she wore white feathers which added a splash of colour to the others monochromatic outfit. Her eyes, as best Sunset could tell, were amber; one of them was hidden behind the fall of her hair. She smiled. "A pleasure to meet you, Pyrrha." Her eye swept over Sunset and Jaune as she chuckled. "Forgive me, a pleasure to meet you all, of course."

"Of course," Sunset murmured.

Cinder's smile widened momentarily. "I hope that we can talk-"

"Later, perhaps," Lady Nikos said. "For now, I believe that we are blocking the doorway. Leo."

"Lady Hippolyta."

"Come, Pyrrha," Lady Nikos said, brushing past Cinder Fall and Professor Lionheart as she led the way in, giving the three of them little choice but to follow her.

Shortly thereafter, however, Lady Nikos was drawn off into conversation by the Steward of the Council, and the three team-mates were left alone in the midst of the party.

"I'm sorry," Pyrrha began, as the light from the dust crystal braziers glimmered on her circlet. "Come with me, there's something that I'd like you to see."

She led them through the crowd, passing between groups discussing politics, trade and the state of the kingdom, and into the large open courtyard, illuminated not only by the light of the stars up above but by a hundred paper lanterns hanging from ropes strung across the open space, that lay beyond the antechamber.

Here there were more attendees, more servants, and more music for those who couldn't hear the orchestra in the other room; but it was less – or seemed to Sunset, at least – to be less crowded here than it had been in the chamber just beyond the palace doors, although that might have been a function of the greater space.

The floor was made up of a sequence of mosaics, running clockwise across the courtyard floor, depicting…Sunset was not entirely sure what it was depicting, to be honest, except that creatures of grimm and the slaying thereof figured prominently. But if there was a story behind the sequence, Sunset did not know it. Pyrrha would almost certainly know, but she had not stopped yet to be asked but carried, on leading Sunset and Jaune into the courtyard towards the fountain that sat in the centre of the space.

At first, Sunset thought that the fountain – fashioned out of gleaming marble, with four fish with gaping mouths surrounding a nearly-naked (his modesty covered by a loincloth) man with spear and shield striking a heroic pose set upon the very top – had simply been turned off, for no water was leaping from the fishes' mouths. Then she saw that there was a good reason why the fountain had been turned off.

The water was...the best word that Sunset could find for it was dead; black, still, almost crusting over in places. It was so unnatural as to make it hideous to look at.

The fact that such a fountain was still there was baffling enough; the fact that it seemed to being guarded by four armed men, exhibiting the same combination of ancient armour and modern weapons that Sunset had seen in the streets that day, was stranger still

"You…you wanted to show us this?" Jaune asked uncertainly, as the guards made way for Pyrrha and her friends to approach.

Pyrrha stopped, a few paces away from the dead fountain. She looked down at the black, still water, a melancholy look upon her face. "I know it doesn't look like much now, but it wasn't always this way."

Sunset pursed her lips together as she came to a stop by Pyrrha's side. Whatever was so special about this fountain, it was clearly in need of more than just a good clean. "What is it?"

"The heart of Mistral," Pyrrha murmured. "When our earliest ancestors climbed to the top of this mountain they found a spring that ran so clear, so fresh, so refreshing and so beautiful that they took it as an omen that this was the place they were meant to build their city. They built the city around it; later a palace was raised around it and the fountain too."

Sunset frowned. Clear, fresh and beautiful were not words she would use to describe what she could see in front of her at this moment, and she wasn't going to take a drink to see if it was still refreshing.

"There was a time, so the legends say," Pyrrha continued. "When a drink of the water from this fountain could cure any injury."

Jaune's eyes widened. "What happened?"

"The Emperor laid down his crown at the end of the Great War," Pyrrha said. "And when he did…the spring ceased to flow, and the water became as you see it now. It is said that the fountain will never flow clear again, nor the water be fit to drink, until an Emperor returns to the throne of Mistral."

Sunset smirked. "That's you, isn't it?"

Pyrrha glanced at Sunset, and her cheeks flushed. "That is not the destiny that I desire."

"Yet perhaps it is your fate regardless," Sunset said.

"I don't believe in inescapable fate."

"If fate exists and it is truly inescapable then I hope that it believes in us, regardless of our views upon the matter," Sunset said. She chuckled. "You become Empress and you can make me your grand vizier or something."

Pyrrha shook her head slowly. "Now I know that you're joking."

"Pyrrha," Jaune said. "Why would anyone still guard a dead fountain?"

"Because they still have hope that one day the waters will flow once more." It was not Pyrrha who answered, but rather the silky voice of Cinder Fall as she drifted towards them. "Humans, after all, are such hopeful creatures, aren't we? Hope for something better in the face of misery, hope for life in the face of death, these are the things that sustain us even in the darkest moments as individuals and as a species." She smiled. "Please, forgive me; I hope that I'm not butting in."

"No, of course not," Pyrrha said quickly. "Although I'm not sure that I would agree with you."

"About hope?" Cinder asked. "Why, what would we do without it? Isn't hope what drives us on to do, to dare, to strive for more and better than we are and have?"

"I'm sure you're right, in general," Pyrrha said softly. "But in this specific case I think that the guard has more to do with tradition than hope. I'm not sure anyone is hoping for the return of the emperor."

"Perhaps they should, even if they don't," Cinder replied. "It's clear to me, even from a single semester of history, that Mistral has gone terrible down hill since the Great War, wouldn't you agree?"

"True," Pyrrha allowed. "But that has more to do with the losses of the Great War than with the end of the monarchy, don't you think?"

"I think it has everything to do with where power lies, and who wields it, and who ought to even if they do not," Cinder declared. "The kings of Mistral, Mantle and Vacuo knelt before the King of Vale and offered up their crowns to him. He could have become the ruler of the whole world, High King over all nations…but instead he chose to cast all those crowns, including his own, into the garbage. The rule of the four kingdoms was given over to lesser men. Weak men. Can it be right that the world is divided into four quarters, and each quarter rests in the hands of those unworthy of lordship."

"No," Sunset said.

Cinder's gaze had been affixed on Pyrrha, but now she glanced at Sunset, turning her head a little more towards her. Her smile remained in place. "You agree with me…Sunset, wasn't it?"

"Sunset Shimmer, yes," Sunset said, as she folded her arms. "And I agree with you."

"I'm delighted to hear it, so few people do," Cinder said. "Some people are rather rude in expressing their disagreement."

"I can't say I'm surprised," Jaune muttered.

"Don't you chafe under this ridiculous system?" Cinder asked. "Why, most councillors don't even have their aura unlocked. Why should people like us, gifted with immense power and abilities that ordinary men cannot even dream of, bow and scrape before those who are so inferior to us in all respects? Pyrrha, as a team leader, surely you agree with me that the strongest should lead, and those weaker should be content to follow."

"I am afraid that you're mistaken, I'm not the leader of my team," Pyrrha said. "Sunset is."

Cinder was silent for a moment, her one visible eyebrow rising gently as Sunset stared at her, and tried to control her rising chagrin.

 _Don't get upset, it was just an innocent mistake that anyone could have made. Don't get upset. Don't snap. Don't let her see that she's upset you at all._

 _You have achieved a state of zen calm about the whole thing._

Except that zen calm was a lot harder to maintain when the person who had said the thing you ought to be calm about was smirking at you.

The smile on Cinder's face suggested that she knew very well how Sunset felt. "I'm sorry, truly; I just naturally assumed that, well, she is Pyrrha Nikos after all."

"It's fine," Sunset said, through teeth that were only slightly gritted.

"So…Sunset, Jaune, Pyrrha…" Cinder murmured. "I admit, I can't guess the name."

"Sapphire," Sunset said. "The R at the end couldn't make it."

"Ah, I see," Cinder said. "A little bit of a cheat not pronouncing the P, don't you think? But then, my team name cheats a little itself."

"Which is?"

"Clementine," Cinder said. "C-L-E-M and then I'm afraid you just have to imagine the rest of the word." She grinned. "The L, E and M went home for the holiday, along with everyone else."

"So you're the team leader?"

"Of course," Cinder replied. "I am the strongest."

"I've always believed," Sunset said. "That the ideal princess should possess wisdom and strength united in a single form."

"And do you consider yourself to be both wise and strong?"

Sunset licked her lips. "I try."

Cinder chuckled. "I may get the chance to see for myself. Pyrrha, there's a part of me that wishes that I'd had the opportunity to have you on my team, here at Haven. But there's another part of me that's glad that you decided to attend Beacon. Our two teams may get the opportunity to face each other across the coliseum. That might be a lot of fun."

"Right up until you lose," Sunset said.

Cinder's smile was dragon-like in its enthusiasm. "I won't pretend to know my destiny but I assure you, all of you, that if we do face one another in battle, I won't be holding back."

* * *

 _I don't remember high class parties being this irritating,_ Sunset thought, as she stalked through the antechamber. She had gone back in, but after only a little while there she longed once more for the fresher air of the courtyard. No one tried to stop her. No one intercepted her. No one had anything to say to her at all.

Why would they? She was just a faunus from Vale by way of Atlas, born of no family and possessing no wealth. Why would such as these have anything to say to her.

All the same, she was sure that she didn't remember Canterlot parties being quite this bad. True, she had been of low birth there as well: her late mother had been an actress, and the least said about her father the better. But all of that had been more than balanced out by her position as Celestia's student, the personal protégé of the princess herself. It had made ponies eager to seek her favour, and to seek her friendship as a way to that same favour and that of the princess. Not that it had done anypony much good: she hadn't seen a lot of point in friendship even before she realised that none of these ponies had any genuine interest in her; after she reached that conclusion her interest in making friends had been less than zero. Yet still she was tolerated, even indulged by those who still believed that they could worm their way into Celestia's heart through that of Sunset Shimmer.

And then, of course, one had to remember Celestia's influence upon Equestria. Whatever the faults of Canterlot, however much the stuffiness and arrogance of the nobility might be said to have corrupted the shining city and rendered it less than the ideal that it could and should have been, however much the reality did not match the gleaming light in Sunset's imagination of that now far-off city, nevertheless it could not be denied that Celestia had done what she could to make a gentle and harmonious place.

 _Power united with wisdom._ Sunset found it hard to disagree with Cinder's assessment that a single ruler possessed of the strength to lead, the wisdom to rule well, and the charisma to be loved by those over whom they ruled, was a much better way to run a land than to divide it between several councils of politicking, ambitious nobodies. Celestia was such a one, the ideal monarch: the prosperity which she had brought to Equestria, and the universally high esteem in which she was held, were both alike testament to the righteousness of her rule and the benevolence of her influence.

All that influence was lacking from Mistral. So too was any status that Sunset might have possessed. She was nothing here but a hanger-on of Pyrrha Nikos, to be team leader meant less than nothing in this company. Sunset had been mistaken for a servant twice on no basis other than her faunus features, and those who didn't mistake her for a servant, well…they had nothing to say to her whatsoever.

Nevertheless, Sunset kept her head high and her back straight. She had endured much worse than indifference in Atlas, and in any case there was a part of her which wondered if Lady Nikos hadn't brought her here in order to see how she would react to this kind of treatment. Perhaps Pyrrha's mother thought that she would throw a tantrum about it, or start attacking people.

Well, if she thought that then Sunset Shimmer was going to show her how wrong she was. Just because she might want to do those things – a little – didn't mean that she was going to. She had enough self-control to get through this and more, and she was going to do it with all of her pride intact.

"You don't seem to be particularly enjoying yourself."

Sunset raised her eyebrows as Cinder Fall approached her from behind one of the pillars that lined the courtyard. "Miss Fall-"

"Cinder, please."

"Very well, Cinder; someone more paranoid than I might think that you were stalking us."

Cinder chuckled. "Perhaps it's just that I'm not particularly enjoying myself either, and you're perhaps the most interesting person here."

"I'm flattered."

"Don't be, this is a very boring party," Cinder said.

The two of them looked at one another for a moment before nearly-identical grins swept across their faces.

"Don't be too disheartened, Sunset," Cinder said. "Nobody wants to talk to me, either. You shouldn't let it concern you."

"I don't," Sunset replied.

Cinder's smile widened momentarily. "As you say; I believe you."

"You don't sound like it."

Cinder sniggered. "You'll have to forgive me, but I find you easier to read than you might like."

Sunset folded her arms beneath her breasts. "Is that so? And why is that?"

"You're one of the few people to agree with me on the right of the strong to rule, for a start."

"You remind me of myself," Cinder said. "I think that you're a lot like me, Sunset Shimmer."

"No, I'm not."

"No?"

"No," Sunset repeated. "I'm the original; you're just a lot like me."

Cinder snorted. "Very good, Sunset. That's just what I would have said in your situation."

"Did you know it was going to be like this before you came? The party, I mean."

Cinder nodded. "I was hoping to see the great Pyrrha Nikos. I'm afraid that turned out to be something of a disappointment."

"If you wanted to see her fight then perhaps you shouldn't have come to a party," Sunset muttered dryly.

"I'm sure her combat prowess is everything that it's described," Cinder said evenly, but not wholly without insincerity. "I was referring to the fact that…well, she's rather boring, wouldn't you say?"

"No," Sunset said, as her voice acquired a touch of the Atlesian winter's chill about it. "I wouldn't."

Cinder's eyebrow rose. "No?"

"No," Sunset said again. "You see, I'm the team leader and that means that I don't badmouth my team to outsiders; and I don't let outsiders badmouth my team to me. I thought you would have understood that, since we're both team leaders and so alike."

Cinder was still for a moment, and silent. Then she closed her eyes and bowed her head. "Good evening once more, Lady Nikos."

Sunset glanced over her shoulder to see Lady Nikos approaching from behind. "My lady, good evening."

Lady Nikos nodded in acknowledgement of them both. "Excuse us, Miss Fall. My guest and I have matters to discuss."

Cinder bowed. "Of course, my lady. Sunset, until next time."

"You don't know that there'll be a next time."

"Oh, I think there will," Cinder said. "In fact I'm certain of it."

She withdrew, walking backwards away from Sunset as the latter turned toward her host.

Lady Nikos looked down upon her, the older woman's expression stern but at the same time not wholly without sympathy. "I feel as though I should apologise for bringing you here. You have not had the most pleasant time."

"Without malice or insult, my lady, I ask was it not your intention that it should be so?"

"My intention was to test your conduct in a large gathering," Lady Nikos said. "If you are to be my daughter's companions then you must be able, at the least, to not disgrace her at such gatherings as these."

"I fear, my lady, that I have disgraced her by my race," Sunset said coldly.

Lady Nikos closed her eyes for a moment. "And for that oversight I must seek your pardon. I forgot that not all here share my views upon the faunus."

"If I may ask, Lady Nikos, what are your view upon the faunus?"

"My view is that there have been great warriors amongst your race as there have been amongst mine," Lady Nikos said.

Sunset clasped her arms together behind her back as they began to walk across the courtyard. "Can I ask if I have passed the test, my lady?"

"You have, tentatively," Lady Nikos said. "Now, let us find my daughter and your Mister Arc and leave this place."

"As you will, my lady," Sunset said, because nothing would please her better right now than to be gone.

* * *

Jaune had no - well, very little - problem admitting that he was socially awkward. His dad had tried to give him advice (and the whole women appreciate confidence thing had worked out really well with Weiss, hadn't it?) his mom had tried to give him advice (or at least encouragement, encouragement that had not turned out to be particularly well-founded he had to say) his sisters had tried to give him advice but none of it had worked out. But that was okay. Well, no, it wasn't _okay_ okay, in fact it kind of sucked that he'd so annoyed his crush that she'd gone to Sunset to get an informal restraining order on him - he genuinely hadn't realised that he was bothering her, he thought girls appreciated persistence in the chase; that was what his mom had told him - but he could live with the fact that he wasn't cut out to be the life and soul of the party.

He could certainly live with the fact that he wasn't cut out to be the life and soul of this particular party. True, he'd be lying if he denied that one of the attractions that being a hero held for him was that a heroic reputation might actually make him attractive to girls (as opposed to the kind of slightly pitying affection he seemed to inspire in Ruby and Pyrrha) but he wasn't so devoid of self-awareness that he couldn't tell that he wasn't there yet. Right now he was just good old Jaune Arc, Beacon student. Why would these people, the rich and the powerful of Mistral, have anything to say to the likes of him? So Jaune felt pretty much resigned to the fact, as he stood in a small and shadowy alcove, that he was pretty much painted onto the wall and was going to be so for the rest of the night. That was fine by him. As long as he could get through the night without making a fool out of Pyrrha by association then everything would be fine. She'd been so kind to him, from the moment when she'd saved his life in the forest, taking him under her wing, being understanding of his secret, of his unjustified pride towards her...she'd had the patience of winter towards him and he, well, he couldn't have borne it if he'd repaid her kindness and generosity by making her look bad through association with a loser like him.

But he was surprised, astonished even, when the crowd parted across the courtyard to let him catch sight of Pyrrha standing as alone as he was, looking as awkard as he felt, her head lowered a little and her eyes downcast. Why? He could understand why nobody wanted to bother with him but she was Pyrrha Nikos for crying out loud, and if that wasn't enough then her mom seemed to be a total big deal around here.

So why was someone as nice and beautiful as her standing all alone? It was a crime against...well, he wasn't sure what the word he was looking for was but he was certain that it was a crime against something!

Jaune made his way across the courtyard, twisting between clusters of people lost in conversation, apologising to the servants as he got in their way momentarily, until he he was bearing down on Pyrrha. She didn't seem to notice him until he softly spoke her name. "Pyrrha?"

She looked up, shock momentarily in her lovely green eyes to be replaced by recognition. "Jaune! What are you doing here?"

"Well, I saw you all by yourself and I didn't have anything better to do," Jaune said, and instantly regretted it. _Great. Just great, you moron. Do you want her to think that you only came over here because you were bored?_

Pyrrha looked away from him. "I'm sorry," she said. "I've really been very selfish. I hope that you can forgive me."

"Selfish?" Jaune asked incredulously. "You?"

"I brought you here," Pyrrha explained. "I asked you to come even though...you're not enjoying yourself and it's my fault."

"You didn't invite us to this party, your mom did," Jaune said. "I know that you would never do something like this on purpose. You invited us to spend time at your beautiful home in a beautiful city and that...that means a lot to me, really. And as for what happens here, for tonight...you can't take the whole weight of the world on your shoulders, Pyrrha. You don't need to take the blame for everything." He coughed, and cleared his throat and tried to remember what Sunset had told him about speaking in a place like this. _It might sound awkward now, and it will sound awkward if you get it wrong, but when you get it right it's like speaking in poetry. It rolls, it has rhythm to it._ Which was all very well except he'd never been very good at poetry. "I mean, uh, forsooth my lady you doth have nothing to worry about, I do declare that it's all-"

"Jaune, stop," Pyrrha said, with laughter in her voice.

Jaune grinned sheepishly. "That bad, huh?"

"No," Pyrrha said. She smiled apologetically. "Well, yes, but...you don't have to pretend to be anyone you're not. Not to me." She hesitated. "The fact that you're always yourself is, well, it's one of the things that I admire most about you."

Jaune said, "I...well, I'm nothing special, I mean...who else would I be?"

Pyrrha didn't reply for a moment. When she spoke, Jaune could hear her voice cracking with anxiety. "I feel as though I spend my whole life pretending to be someone else, wearing masks that hide...Jaune, can I ask you a question."

"Anything."

"If you take away the mystique of the Invincible Girl," Pyrrha said. "If you take away my victories, my skill...is there anything left? Is Pyrrha Nikos anything more than a shadow?"

"Yes!" Jaune declared emphatically, so emphatically that he almost yelled it out. A few people stared or even glared at him, but at this point he didn't really care what they thought. He didn't want to embarrass Pyrrha, but right now it sounded as though Pyrrha needed his help more than she needed him to make a good impression on her behalf. "Pyrrha Nikos is the nicest, most selfless person that I've ever met in my entire life. Pyrrha Nikos is the girl who saw an idiot with dreams that were a couple of sizes too big for him and when everyone else wrote that loser off you...you took pity on me. More than that you believed in me. You were the first person to ever believe in me...so now let me believe in you even if you can't believe in yourself. You're a hell of a lot more than just your trophies, Pyrrha. You've got heart, and it's a big one."

"Jaune, I..." Pyrrha closed her eyes for a moment, and then opened them to look directly into his own. "Thank you," she said. "You're the only person I can imagine saying that to me. I'm so glad to have you as a part of my life, and if I haven't told you that before I'm sorry. That's why I invited you here, I...I wanted to share this part of my life with you even if it wasn't the best idea. I suppose that I just didn't want to be alone."

Jaune paused, struggling to find an adequate response to a declaration so earnest, so heartfelt. He looked into Pyrrha's eyes. Had he noticed how beautiful her eyes were before? "I...I'm glad to be in your life too, Pyrrha. Although I, I am kinda confused."

"By what?"

"Why someone as great as you was all alone in the middle of the room like this when I came over."

It was the wrong thing to have said, Jaune realised that as soon as he saw some of the happiness drain out of Pyrrha's face. She turned away from him.

"I'm sorry," Jaune said. "I didn't mean to...I just meant..."

"It's alright," Pyrrha said softly.

"No, it's not, not if I've upset you," Jaune said. "I would never do that on purpose...not any more, anyway. I just...you always seem to be surrounded by fans and here...aren't these your people? I just thought that the guys would be all over you or, or something."

Pyrrha did not turn back. She remained with her back to him, although her face was turned in such a way that he could see her profile. Her long red ponytail, red like fire, hung down her back. When she spoke her voice was soft, quiet. He had to strain to hear her. "Always be the best, my child, the bravest; and hold your head up high above all others."

Jaune frowned. "I don't understand."

"The Mistraliad," Pyrrha explained. "An ethos that has guided life amongst the highest here for generations."

"But I still don't get it," Jaune replied. "I mean, you are the best, and the bravest person that I know. If anyone's earned the right to hold their head up high it's you."

"Perhaps," Pyrrha said. "But, although we are all encouraged to seek for greatness, too much greatness is dangerous. We all should rise like flowers towards the sun, but if any one flower grows too high...then all the rest are plunged into shadow. And that is something to be feared...and hated."

"Hated?" Jaune repeated in disbelief, because the idea that anyone, anybody at all could hate Pyrrha, it was...it was incredible. It was unbelievable. It was ridiculous. "People hate you because...because you're too good and it makes them look bad, is that it? That's crazy, and so are they!" Again his outburst drew accusing glances from around him but he didn't care. He really didn't care. These people deserved worse than to have to listen to him shout a little bit. They deserved to have him yell at them about how dare they treat Pyrrha this way. But now wasn't the time. Jaune didn't often get a bolt of inspiration from the blue but he felt as though he had one now. "Let's get out of here."

"Jaune?" Pyrrha asked as she turned back towards him.

"Let's go...anywhere, anywhere you want," Jaune said. "Let's get out of this place, away from these people. Or do you really want to stay here, all alone, being treated like this?"

Pyrrha smiled. "I'm not alone, Jaune. You're right here. And I feel...when I'm with you I feel as though none of the rest matters. So long as you're here I can...thank you, Jaune."

"For what?"

"For seeing me," Pyrrha said. "When no one else did."

"Pyrrha," Jaune whispered.

"Pyrrha!" Lady Nikos' voice cracked like a whip. Jaune turned to see Pyrrha's mom looking very intently at the pair of them. Sunset stood half a step behind and to the right, her expression unreadable.

"Mother-" Pyrrha began.

"We're leaving," Lady Nikos declared. Her face was stern, but she said nothing further. Rather she turned away and began to stalk out, leaving the rest of them no choice but to follow in her wake.

* * *

Whatever had happened or almost happened between Jaune and Pyrrha at last night's party (and while it certainly looked as though something might have been about to happen, Sunset was far from convinced that it would have; after all this was Jaune and Pyrrha they were talking about, and no offence to Jaune but Pyrrha could surely do better) Lady Nikos didn't directly mention it, leaving Sunset unsure as to what she thought and whether it had damaged Jaune's standing - and that of the team, by association - in her eyes. She didn't bring it up after they had left the party, nor the next day. In fact they didn't see Lady Nikos that day, which was spent - once morning training was concluded - on a tour of the upper levels of Mistral guided by Pyrrha. She led them past historic houses and ancient shrines, through fragrant and luxurious public gardens and old-fashioned open-air markets where items old and new were for sale from atop wooden stalls. On impulse, Sunset bought a black hand-and-half longsword, the blade looking as though it had been forged from ebony, from a purveyor of 'basic but high quality weapons'; as it was just a sword-sword with no transforming options she was able to get it at a price she could actually afford.

"What do you want with a sword?" Jaune asked.

"Am I not allowed to want something just because it looks cool?" Sunset replied, as the tour continued.

They spent the whole day exploring Mistral under Pyrrha's guidance, the city was as beautiful up close as it had seemed from a distance on the airship ride in. True, at a closer distance some of the imperfections were more visible, but there were few enough of those. No doubt this city wasn't perfect, nowhere was, but the way it felt, the way the air smelt in her nostrils...Sunset found that she preferred this place to Vale or Atlas. If she had a choice of where to live she would probably choose here, and not just because it reminded her of home.

They returned to the Nikos house shortly before darkness fell. Lady Nikos joined them for dinner, but said very little. Desert was almost concluded when a maid scurried into the ornately decorated dining hall.

"Begging your pardon, m'lady, but Professor Lionheart is at the gate, says that he must speak with you and Lady Pyrrha. Says it's very urgent."

Lady Nikos snorted. "Very well, show him in. Pyrrha, attend me."

Forgotten as Lady Nikos rose from the able and swept Pyrrha up with her, Sunset got up herself and motioned for Jaune to do the same. They followed Lady Nikos and Pyrrha, and if either of the two noticed them trailing behind neither of them said anything about it. If Professor Lionheart wanted a private meeting then he would no doubt say so.

But he did not say so. In fact, as Lady Nikos and her guests met him in the hall, he immediately began to speak. "Lady Hippolyta, thank you for seeing me. This is a terrible business, and terribly urgent besides."

"What business, Leo?" Lady Nikos demanded. "What is this about?"

"A grimm, in the mountains to the east," Professor Lionheart declared. "Several shepherds and their families have been killed, cottages destroyed, herds scattered."

"A solitary grimm, so close to the city?" Pyrrha asked. "Are you sure there aren't more of them?"

"I pray not," Professor Lionheart declared. "Nothing is certain but it seems incredible that a pack or worse could approach so near to Mistral without being spotted before now. I am sure you can understand that the council wishes this dealt with as a matter of urgency and so, Pyrrha, I ask you on behalf of Mistral: will you hunt down this creature and brings its depredations to an end?"

Sunset's eyebrows rose so high they almost disappeared under her hair. Sure, Pyrrha was good - great even - but in all of Mistral there wasn't one pro-huntsman they could tap to hunt down one single grimm?

Sunset kept silent, but Lady Nikos proved more than willing to air the question that Sunset had been content to think. "My daughter is a student, here to rest," she said. "Where are your huntsmen and your huntresses?"

"Scattered throughout the length and breadth of our territory," Professor Lionheart replied. "The teachers and students have gone home for the vacation, in all of the city there is not one huntsmen I can call upon."

"I will do it," Pyrrha said. "For the good of Mistral I will undertake this hunt."

Professor Lionheart breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Pyrrha. I'm certain that the champion of Mistral will have no difficulty in ridding us of this beast. I would go myself, but-"

"But you are a coward, I know that well without reminding," Lady Nikos said acidly. "And yet it seems your incompetence plumbs depths that I had not concieved of if you have left us so exposed that my daughter alone is all that stands between our city and the darkness."

"Not alone," Sunset said. "She will not go alone."

"Indeed," Professor Lionheart. "Young Cinder, the only student remaining at Haven, has volunteered to join her."

Sunset frowned, wondering if she hadn't made herself entirely clear. "I was actually talking about me and Jaune going with Pyrrha," she glanced at Jaune. "You got that, right? You understood that I meant me and you were going to go with Pyrrha."

"Yeah, I got it," Jaune said with a nod. "I mean, it's not as if we were just going to sit around and wait for Pyrrha to come back, right?"

"Thank you," Pyrrha said. "But without Ruby we could use a fourth man, and if Professor Lionheart vouches for her talent, then..."

Sunset shrugged. "I suppose she can come along too. The more the merrier."

"And I, too, shall go with you," Lady Nikos declared.

"Mother?"

"It has been too long since I saw you fight," Lady Nikos said. "Your companions I have not seen fight at all, a lack that I am offered the opportunity to correct."

"Lady Hippolyta-" Professor Lionheart began.

"Will it be said that we of Mistral refused to raise arms in defence of our own city and our land?" Lady Nikos demanded. "That we left our defence wholly in the hands of children, and outsider children what is more. I have made my decision, and neither you nor the lord steward himself could persuade me otherwise." Her eyes swept over the three young huntsmen in training. "You should all prepare yourselves for battle and get some rest. Leo, tell your Miss Fall to meet us here before dawn; we set out with the sun's rising."


	44. The Hunt

The Hunt

Obedient to the command of Lady Nikos, the party of five set out at dawn the next day. Jaune yawned as they made their way down to the nearest skydock, where an airship was waiting to take them to the site of the most recent grimm attack, and even Sunset – who had been able to put off getting up by the simple if slightly pungent expedient of not bothering to wash before she got dressed – found herself struggling a little to shake off the fog of weariness from her mind.

The fact that she'd struggled to get to sleep last night probably didn't help in that regard.

The fact that Pyrrha looked as fresh as ever was slightly irritating, and the fact that Cinder Fall looked not only well-rested but so well-groomed that she must have fallen out of bed and into her stylist's office was even more so. At least Lady Nikos looked as though she could have used a little more rest than circumstances had allowed her.

Still, despite how she felt as they met Cinder at the gate and trudged down towards the dock, Sunset understood why they had to move quickly to put a lid on this thing: while it was easy to forget with her aura unlocked, the training that she'd received and the experience that she'd already acquired, even a single grimm was absolutely terrifying to most people, and while they didn't know yet what kind of grimm it was, even one beowolf would be more than capable of slaughtering an entire family alone in their shepherd's cottage on the hillside. Sunset could remember how scared she'd been when she first came to Remnant and found herself sharing the world with these monsters: so scared that she had come closer than at any point to crawling back through the mirror, kissing the hooves of Princess Celestia, and crying forgiveness for all the wrongs that she had done.

If they didn't find and kill this monster quickly, if it was allowed to continue preying on the defenceless herdsmen and husbandmen, if it descended into the valleys and began to stalk the farmers there then the whole surround would descend into panic, and panic would bring even more grimm down on a Mistral that had no real huntsmen to defend it.

"Does Professor Lionheart have any way of summoning back any professionals to defend the city?" Sunset asked as they walked.

"Even if he could, would he?" asked Lady Nikos rhetorically. She wore armour similar to that of Pyrrha, except that there was less protection afforded to her legs and the cuirass was set with what might be either costume jewels or, considering the wealth of the Nikos family, perhaps even real ones. The armour no longer fit her perfectly, but evidently she had still been able to get it on. The sword with the silver hilt that Sunset had seen on her desk yesterday was strapped across her back. "I cannot understand what goes on in that man's mind."

"Perhaps an approach should be made to the Atlesian forces based at Argus?" Cinder suggested silkily. She was wearing grey pants and a beige, sleeveless jacket which she had left unfastened, revealing that she had – for whatever reason – decided to forsake a shirt in favour of binding up her breasts with bandages to preserve her modesty. Whatever, if she wanted to dress like that then that was her business. More important were the pair of scimitars and the bow that she carried, all three weapons strapped to her back across her waistline. "I'm sure that a cruiser could-"

"This is Mistral, girl," Lady Nikos declared with a derisive snort. "Our strength is not so diminished that we are dependent upon the protection of Atlas. We address our own problems here."

"I'm well aware of how Mistral solves its problems, Lady Nikos," Cinder replied, and for a moment her voice lost its smoothness and acquired an edge of anger, but it was one that was gone as soon as it had come. "Still, I'm surprised to hear that you don't trust Atlas. After all, they're only here for our protection. Aren't they?"

"Forgive me Miss Fall, my lady," Sunset said. "But although you might have the energy for a spirited discussion on geopolitics and international relations I'm not sure that this is the time or the place."

Cinder smiled. "Of course, Sunset, you're quite right. A thousand pardons, my lady. Oh, and Sunset?"

"Yes?"

"Please, call me Cinder," she said. "We're all friends here, aren't we?"

Sunset's lips twitched briefly upwards. "Cinder, of course."

They arrived at the skydock, the same skydock that they had docked at when they arrived in Mistral the day before yesterday, and boarded a smaller craft than they had flown in on. Sunset took it to be the Mistralian equivalent of a bullhead although of course, being Mistralian, it looked as though it was made of bamboo and canvas-cloth and had a visible propeller mounted to the back. Regardless of the sturdiness, or apparent lack thereof, of the vessel the five huntsmen boarded it without complaint and the vessel rose gracefully up into the sky and carried them over the stepped levels and the high towers of Mistral. As they flew east, towards the sight of the most recently reported attack, Sunset noticed that the land beneath them seemed emptier than it had seemed - albeit from a greater distance - only two days before when they flew into the city. Then, even from a distance, Sunset had been able to see not only the farms in the valleys but the shepherds on the heights of the surrounding mountains. But now, as they flew over the eastern mountains, the ridges seemed bare, empty of live save for the occasional goat or sheep wandering lost and abandoned across the rolling hills.

"Have all the people fled to Mistral so quickly?" Sunset asked.

"I hope so," Pyrrha replied. "As I hope they will be free to return once we have completed our mission. The alternative...is too hideous to contemplate."

"Some will not return," Cinder said. "Or else we wouldn't be here."

 _True enough,_ Sunset conceded mentally. _But perhaps it would have been better if you hadn't said so._

"Does anyone have any idea what sort of grimm it is?" Jaune asked. He was standing in the centre of the airship's passenger compartment, far from the edges and the view of the ground; so far, while he looked a little green, he seemed to be keeping his motion sickness in check.

"Nobody knows, do they?" Sunset said, with a glance at Cinder. "Professor Lionheart didn't mention it to us, did he say anything to you?"

"No," Cinder said. The wind blew her long, dark hair this way and that, so that at times it was even possible to see her second eye. "The attacks have been on shepherds' huts, isolated farmsteads; there are never any survivors to describe the attacker, and the attacks are always at night so the beast isn't seen."

"If there are no survivors then who reported the attacks?" Sunset asked.

"A son coming home from the market to find his father's house broken into and all within killed," Cinder explained. "A neighbour, of sorts, who waited until morning to investigate the screams that he heard in the night. Just because there are no survivors doesn't mean that nobody ever finds out."

"So, there's still a chance that this just a beowolf?" Jaune asked.

"Could be," Sunset allowed. "But I doubt it."

"Do you," Lady Nikos murmured. "What makes you say that, Miss Shimmer?"

 _You can never stop testing, can you?_ Sunset snorted, although she hoped that Lady Nikos didn't notice. "To start with, this thing is smart: it knows that it can do more damage, spread more terror, by killing at night when it can move unseen. That means that it's probably old, and an old, smart beowolf would know that its odds are better as part of a pack. But if this is just one grimm it's probably from a species more comfortable alone: ursa, deathstalker, maybe a beringel. We'll know more once we get to the sight of the last attack. Jaune?"

"Yeah?"

"Any ideas?" Sunset asked, with a glance at Lady Nikos.

Jaune blinked. "Uh...if it's only attacking at night, then...that means it must be resting during the day, somewhere quiet. Somewhere it hides, like a lair or something. If we can find the lair, we find the monster, right?"

"Right," Sunset agreed. She watched as Lady Nikos' nodded in approval. _I think we picked up a couple of points with that._

Shortly after, the airship began to descend close by a ruined wooden house, reduced to ruin.

"This is as far as I take you," the pilot called from the cockpit. "When you want pick-up, use the flair to signal and someone will come and get you."

"Understood," Sunset replied. "We'll see you soon."

The airship dropped to within a couple of feet of the ground, allowing the huntsmen to dismount easily and close by the house. It was clear immediately that this was the work of grimm, not only because all four walls of the house had been smashed in and the roof brought down, but also because not far from the house there was a paddock which was still full of sheep, baa-ing as they milled about trying, without success, to escape from their wooden restraints. No mere predator would have bothered to break into a house to kill those inside while leaving all those sheep un-devoured, but grimm didn't bother with animals unless the animals bothered them first. Presumably that was why the sheepdog had had its head ripped - or bitten - clean off. It had tried to protect its master and had paid the price for its canine loyalty.

"Spread out and search for tracks," Sunset said.

They did so, searching the area around the destroyed homestead, forcing themselves to go closer to the place then they might have liked, to the point where Sunset could see traces of blood amongst the ruins. While they were searching, Pyrrha sliced through the chain holding the sheep pen shut with Milo, and realed the creatures out onto the grass around.

"They'll starve to death with no one to feed them, otherwise," Pyrrha explained, when she caught sight of Sunset's inquisitive look.

Sunset thought that someone would have come and claimed as soon as the immediate crisis was over - which hopefully would be soon, she didn't intend to spend weeks hunting down this creature, but Pyrrha had a kind heart and there was no point protesting what she had done. Whoever came to claim the flock would simply have to round them up, that was all. Although Sunset would confess to a small degree of wry internal amusement when one particularly fat ovine repaid Pyrrha's trouble by attempting to eat her red sash. Pyrrha shooed it gently but firmly away before it could do any real damage.

It was Cinder who found the tracks: large, heavy prints belonging to a creature with what looked like three hooves on the ends of each foot.

"Not a beowolf, then," Jaune murmured.

"Nor an ursa or a deathstalker," Sunset said. "I'm not sure what that is." She tightened her grip on her gun.

"Nor I," Cinder said lightly, sounding very unconcerned. "But the tracks lead north-east. That's where we'll find the creature's lair."

"Agreed," Sunset said. "I'll lead, then Pyrrha, then Jaune; Cinder, will you bring up the rear?"

"Of course."

"As you wish, my lady, so long as it is neither ahead of me nor behind Cinder," Sunset said, in a tone that mixed command and respect in hopefully equal measure.

"I will not interfere with your dispositions," Lady Nikos said.

"Then there is no reason for us to remain here," Sunset said. "Let's move."

They walked all day. Sunset had had some doubts, she would confess internally if not aloud, that Lady Nikos with her injured leg would be able to keep up the pace, but it seemed that with her aura activated as it was now her limp didn't trouble her as it had done inside the safety and security of her house. All to the good, because it seemed that this beast could move quickly across the country. More quickly than they could, for though they trekked all day across the Mistral mountainsides, across the slopes of the Caelian and the Esquiline mounts, they did not come to the grimm's lair, nor catch up with it on the way to the same, nor even catch sight of it running ahead of them.

It was a little relief that they didn't see any signs of the destruction the beast had unleashed either. They passed no more destroyed cottages, no more signs of death and destruction. Not on this route, anyway. They didn't come across any other people, but if there had been other victims since what they had been told was the latest attack, they saw no sign of it. And, seeing no signs, they could tell themselves that there had been no other attacks.

They crossed the mountains, passing above valley villages that seemed quiet, farmland that seemed devoid of workers. The grimm might not have done any more damage along this way, but already terror had spread from it like a vicious miasma and overwhelmed the people who huddled behind their walls and their locked doors as though they would protect them from the grimm.

"When, of course, the only ones who can really protect them from the grimm are us," Cinder said, as she came to stand by Sunset's side. She smiled. "The ones with power, and the will to use it as we see fit."

Sunset looked back at the other girl, over Sunset's own shoulder. "How did you know what I was thinking?"

"Because I was thinking the same thing," Cinder replied. "Little people, clinging to their walls, to their locked doors, to the so-called safety of their homes, to their plans to survive, their contingenices; clinging to false hope."

"As you put it yourself, hope is what sees us through," Sunset said softly. "Sometimes it's all we have, however false or unfounded it may be."

Cinder's one visible eyebrow rose. "You mean that you would be as foolish in their position."

"I hope to sun and moon never to be so helpless as those people are," Sunset said. _But I have been foolish in my desperation in the past._

Cinder stared down at her for a moment. Then she flashed her teeth in a brief. "No, you're not helpless, are you? We are neither of us helpless. We're the ones with the power. The ones who will decide the future of those below."

Sunset had the distinct impression that she wasn't just talking about their geographical location relative to the town below.

The sun was setting by now, and they had no way of knowing how much farther it was until they found the grimm's hideout.

"We'll make camp for the night," Sunset decided. "It's likely this grimm can see better in the dark than we can, not to mention that once it stirs from its lair we'll have no way of finding it."

"But if we stop," Pyrrha said. "Won't it go out and attack again?"

Sunset held Pyrrha's gaze. "We can't save everyone."

The two of them stared at each other. Pyrrha didn't quite argue against her, but it was clear from the look in her eyes that she very much wanted to. Even if her mind accepted Sunset's point, her heart rebelled against it.

Sunset said nothing more because she knew she was right, and she thought that Pyrrha knew that she was right, and all she had to do was wait for Pyrrha to accept it.

For the first time since they had set out, Sunset was a little glad that Ruby wasn't with them. She probably would have argued more vociferously that they had to press on, search through the darkness, do whatever it took. That was…it was the righteous thing to do. It might even be the right thing to do. But Sunset was certain that her decision was the smart and the safe one and so that was what they were going to do.

Depending on how much further the hideout was…if it looked like this hunt was going to go on for several days then she might consider night-marching to bring it to an end faster, but not tonight.

Tonight they would rest.

Pyrrha bowed her head. "Very well. You're right, of course."

Neither Jaune nor Cinder offered any objection, and Lady Nikos seemed to prefer watching what they did than interfering, and so they made camp out on the grassy mountainside as the sun fell and the darkness descended all around them.

Jaune, who had always excelled in the field craft class even before he'd started putting any work in at anything else, made their fire and cooked their dinner; as she watched him work, Sunset reflected that one of the advantages of operating straight out of Mistral on this impromptu little mission was that they'd been able to bring some fresh produce with them rather than having to rely on ration packs or MREs. Jaune had even brought some novel spices and seasonings in the Mistral market yesterday and was trying some of them out, adding them to the boiling pot with the chopped up vegetables.

"Smells good," Sunset said.

"Indeed," Lady Nikos murmured. "You appear to have some talent as a cook, young Mister Arc."

"Thanks," Jaune said. "My mom taught me to...I mean, uh," He cleared his throat. "Thank you very much lady, compliment gratefully...accepted."

"Hmm," Lady Nikos murmured, her expression leaving it quite up in the air whether she approved of Jaune's talent in this field or disapproved of anyone who wasn't wealthy enough to employ their own chef.

Cinder's amber eye seemed to glow in the descending light. "Isn't there any meat?"

Jaune glanced up at her. "Not in here, but I do have some sausages I can fry later. You see, Sunset-"

"I'm a vegetarian," Sunset explained.

"Ah," Cinder replied. "And you've imposed your choices on your team-mates. That's your privilege as leader, I suppose."

"To an extent, I suppose," Sunset said. "I've no problem with them eating meat I just won't have them forcing me to eat it as well. Do you want Jaune to make you some sausages?"

"If it's no trouble for you," Cinder murmured. "I confess that you've surprised me, Sunset; I didn't figure you for the type to feel compassion for animals."

Sunset smiled. "As an animal myself, eating them feels a little too close to cannibalism for my liking."

Cinder chuckled. "Wouldn't that make cannibalism that natural state of the word. All creatures prey on those weaker than themselves and humanity, as the strongest of all animals, preys upon all the rest and devours them."

"Except for the grimm, which prey on humanity and devour them," Sunset pointed out. "So who's really the dominant species around here?"

"That," Cinder declared. "Is a question that has yet to be answered, isn't it?"

"I suppose so," Sunset said. She paused for a moment. "Looking ahead a little: Jaune, you take the first watch. I'll take the middle, and Pyrrha the last." It was Sunset's opinion that the middle watch was the hardest, as you didn't get a period of uninterrupted sleep either at the beginning or the end of the night.

"I should take the middle watch, I'm fresher than you," Pyrrha said.

"Then you might as well stay that way tomorrow, I'll be fine."

"What about me?" Cinder asked. "I could take on all three watches, if you like?"

Sunset's eyebrows rose. "You don't need sleep?"

The firelight danced in Cinder's eye. "I am driven beyond the need for it. Have you ever felt so hungry that you can't sleep, because your stomach is paining you too much to let you?"

Sunset frowned, if only a little. "Once or twice, a little."

"I have a hunger in me that will not let me rest."

"Well, see how you feel after you've tried my cooking."

Cinder snorted. "That isn't the kind of hunger that I'm referring to." She glanced at Pyrrha for a moment, and then looked away again.

"I'd never be able to guess that you were an insomniac to look at you," Sunset said. "Thank you for you...kind offer, but I think we'll manage to keep our eyes open."

"You don't trust me to watch over you safely?"

"With me, I'm afraid trust takes a little while to be earned. It's nothing personal."

"Of course not," Cinder said. "Trust is a commodity too precious to be spent frivolously, or without thought. I'm sure that you'd agree, wouldn't you Lady Nikos? You don't trust Atlas enough to assist in this possible crisis."

"Trust is not the issue," Lady Nikos replied. "Dependency is. It is not wise for Mistral - or any other kingdom, for that matter - to grow too attached to Atlas for protection, to suckle like a babe at breast for the milk of their security. Atlas is not our mother, they have no love for us nor obligations towards us."

Cinder leaned forwards. "Surely you're not suggesting that there's anything sinister about the Atlesian military presence in other kingdoms? Aren't they only here to guard humanity?"

"Wherever Atlas goes they go to protect their interests, but what of it?" Sunset asked. "That would be as true of Mistral or Vale if the military boot were on the other foot."

"And besides, it's not as if they hurt anyone," Jaune said.

"So sure of that?" Cinder asked.

"What do you mean?" Pyrrha said quietly.

"Just that it's quite a coincidence," Cinder said casually. "A grimm appearing so close to Mistral, at a time when everyone knows that the defences are weakened what with Haven closed for the vacation and all the staff and students away. Why, if I hadn't decided to stay at Haven over the break, or if you had decided to stay at Beacon instead of coming home, Pyrrha, Mistral might not have been able to respond at all. And then what choice would there have been but to call in the Atlesian military. Some might call that suspicious."

Sunset snorted derisively. "And I suppose Jacques Schnee is funding progressive movements to advance his global agenda, too? No offence, but you sound like an online conspiracy theorist. Nobody can control the grimm, least of all Atlas."

"Perhaps you're right," Cinder said. "But if they could, wouldn't that be terrifying?"

"Maybe, but they can't," Sunset said. "There's enough to worry about in this world without getting worked up over hypotheticals."

Cinder tutted. "Come now, Sunset; practicality doesn't suit people like us. What are our dreams, our ambitions, but hypotheticals? Aren't we both dreamers, who with will and strength and sacrifice will make our dreams reality?"

"You're so certain that we are alike?" Sunset asked.

"I feel a kinship between us," Cinder responded.

Sunset took pause for a moment. "Perhaps there is. And perhaps you're right about ambition," she allowed. "But that doesn't mean that I have to worry about every wild possibility that my imagination conjures."

"Maybe not," Cinder said. "But my point is that perhaps you shouldn't be so quick to dismiss something as impossible. I imagine that many things seemed impossible once until someone dreamed it, and then made that dream come true."

"I suppose," Sunset said. "And what is your dream, that you will turn into reality?"

"Oh, you can't expect me to tell you that," Cinder said. "If you tell a wish it won't come true."

Sunset thought of everyone that she'd confessed or bragged about her ambitions too. "I very much hope that you're wrong about that."

* * *

The night passed. They heard nothing, saw nothing, and were left with no way of knowing if anyone had paid with their lives for Sunset's decision not to push on through the darkness or not. Sunset was not normally a fan of ignorance, but in this particular case she was thankful for it. Whatever she told Celestia or Twilight (she wasn't quite certain who would be answering the journal from now on) she wouldn't include that. It wasn't that it was the wrong decision, it hadn't been. But it wasn't the right decision either, and she had a feeling that her old teacher and Celestia's new protégé might not...appreciate the practicalities that had motivated her.

She didn't know the consequence. She didn't want to know.

Regardless, as soon as dawn broke the next day they broke camp and set off again, following the trail of the grimm with three hooves upon each foot. Sunset had flicked through a grimm bestiary last night, while on watch, but she hadn't come across anything that suggested to her what it might be. The print was familiar, scratching a kind of itch at the back of her mind, but she couldn't remember what it was and she hadn't been able to find the right entry in the bestiary that would detail it for her. She dismissed the idea that it was some novel, as yet undiscovered species of grimm; she didn't believe that their luck was anywhere near that bad. But all the same, she hadn't found the right entry in the book.

 _I know the answer, it's in here somewhere. So why can't I remember it?_

 _Why can't Professor Port teach us some actual lessons about grimm instead of teaching us how awesome he was when he was a couple of decades younger and a few inches trimmer in the waist?_

 _Calm down, this isn't about Professor Port, and by the end of the first semester you'd only expect to have covered the most common varieties of grimm anyway. Come on, you've read more than a year ahead on grimm types, you ought to know this._

 _Beowolf, no; ursa, no; deathstalker, no; boarbatusk, no; creep, no; manitcore, no, that can fly and so can a sphinx anyway, none of those have hooves. What kind of grimm has hooves?_

The answer nagged at her, but also hid from her view in spite of her best efforts to drag it out into the light of conscious thought, as the party tracked the prints left in the ground until, a little after midday, they arrived at a cave, a gaping hole in he mountainside descending into the bowels of the earth. The mouth of the cave was wide enough to accommodate an old grimm, swollen with years, and even with the sun at its zenith the darkness seemed to begin close by the cave mouth, engulfing whatever lurked within in black as impenetrable as the depths of ocean. Anything might lurk within, even the entrance to a lost subterranean civilisation.

Or just a murderous monster of an as-yet unknown kind.

"That, uh, that sure is a cave," Jaune said, as they stared into its blackness.

"Mmm, very astutely put," Sunset muttered, masking her nerves with a touch of unnecessary cruelty. _It's okay. It's just one grimm. It's just one grimm._

 _It's probably just one grimm._

 _Even if it is a few more, you've got this. You're you, and you've got Pyrrha and Jaune to recharge your aura and Professor Lionheart said that Cinder was one of his best students._

 _And it's just one grimm._

 _One old and clever grimm._

 _But you've still got this._

 _With Lady Nikos watching you can't afford not to have this._

Sunset frowned as she raised Sol Invictus to her shoulder. The feel of the rifle butt against her shoulder was reassuring, the weight of the wood in the hands comforting. "Okay, I'm fairly certain that this thing can't fly, because it walked all the way to its kill and back. Therefore we haven't much to loose by drawing it out into the light." She remembered her fight with Adam, and the mistake she'd made in pursuing him into the dark where he had the advantage. "So I'll go in and lure it out. The rest of you wait out here." Sunset discounted the risk of the grimm fleeing from them once it was outside the cave; while old and experienced grimm would avoid picking fights that they might not win, once battle was joined the creatures of grimm tended to fight to the death - theirs or someone else's. "Weapons ready, I don't plan on being long."

Jaune drew his sword, and extended his shield. "Do we have a plan for when it comes out?"

"Remember the drills we practiced, once we know what we're dealing with," Sunset said.

"Will you be alright in there?" Pyrrha asked, as she slung Milo and Akuou from off her back. "You can't see down there."

"Actually, I've been working on that," Sunset said. "I think I'll be okay." She took a last look at them: Pyrrha and Jaune with their weapons ready, Cinder with an arrow on her bowstring, Lady Nikos standing a little further away with her sword drawn. Then she looked back into the impenetrable darkness lurking within.

Sunset Shimmer closed her eyes and cast her night-vision spell.

She felt a tingling in her eyeballs as though she had pins and needles in them, and when she opened them again the world was tinted green, the sunlight was irritatingly, almost blindingly white in the corners of her vision. But she could already see a little way into the cave, enough to see the rough, uneven, stony surface within. Enough to see a few bones scattered around the cave mouth.

"Sunset," Jaune said. "Your eyes-"

"Yeah," Sunset said, guessing that the appearance of her pupils had changed. That was an unfortunate side-effect. "Wait here," she said. "I'll make this quick."

Sunset crept into the cave, rifle raised and held before her. There were no sounds but her own, and even the mildest scuffling sounds of boots upon the floor seemed to echo in the cave like thunder as she advanced.

She walked forward; but even with her enhanced vision she saw nothing, and even with four ears she heard nothing.

She slipped on something that she thought was probably, uncomfortably, a bone, and had to struggle to keep her footing. She dislodged some pebbles on the cave floor, with rattled as they bounced downwards into the dark. The sound of their bouncing echoed down the tunnel, down and down and down.

And then Sunset heard something. A thud, low and deep and _heavy_.

They hadn't missed their quarry, nor that they been wrong about it spending the day in hiding to avoid being seen. There was something here, something in the darkness, and it was moving somewhere out of sight. Thud. Thud.

It was moving quickly, and it was coming towards her. Thud, thud, thud. The whole cave seemed to shudder with the thunderous footfall.

And then she saw it. And once she saw it she knew exactly what it was.

"Karkadann!" Sunset yelled as the grimm erupted out of the darkness towards her at a flat run. It had the body and the hind-legs of a horse, but it's forelegs were immense, trunk-like things like great trees or the legs of a rhino, each with three hooves at the end of the immense, broad, heavy legs. Its equine head was a white mask, but also its chest and shoulders were protected by armour-like plates of bleached white bone, while a ridge of bony spikes erupted from out of his black back. Red eyes burned like fire in its sockets while a jagged horn, like the horn of a unicorn but crooked in shape, longer than a lance and with a serrated edge, emerged from out of the forehead between the eyes, a little lower than the placement of a unicorn's horn that Sunset was familiar with. The karkadann opened its mouth, revealing a row of sharp teeth, and screamed a high-pitched whinnying scream.

Sunset squeezed the trigger once, twice; the flash from the muzzle of Sol Invictus was blinding to Sunset's night-vision but she couldn't have missed, that thing was too big to miss.

But equally it was too big to be stopped by two bullets. Sunset dropped to one knee, planting her rifle butt on the ground like a pike and flicking the switch to extend the spear. The bayonet leapt forward on its eight foot pole, transformed into a full pike now as Sunset waited for the impact.

Blinded by her own muzzle-flashes as she was Sunset felt, rather than saw, the karkadann strike her out-stretched spear and she felt, rather than saw, her bayonet point skitter off the armoured bone protecting the grimm's chest and merely score its side making the demon shriek even louder in pain. As her vision return Sunset saw it continuing to charge straight towards her with a fury in its eyes.

Sunset teleported away, re-appearing at the mouth of the cave with the others in a flash of green light.

Sunset closed her eyes as she dispelled the night-vision spell, screwing her eye-lids tight shut before the of the sun could blind her. "Here it comes!" she yelled.

The pounding of hooves on the ground told them that the karkadann was not far behind her.

Milo's rifle barked twice, and Sunset opened her eyes in time to see Cinder loose an arrow into the darkness before the karkadann emerged from out of the darknesa and into the light with a great shriek as though to merely stand in sunlight caused it pain.

Sunset fired again, and Pyrrha's Milo changed from rifle to sword as she charged to meet the monster, her shining shield held before her. The karkadann's charge bowled them over, knocking them back and flying over the grass as the grimm stopped, prancing proudly as it gazed down upon them with contempt in its burning red eyes. Smoke gathered around it as though it were aflame.

Cinder loosed another arrow, which lodged in the grimm's flank but seemed to do little beyond enrage it so much that it let out another ear-splitting screech. Jaune charged with a great answering shout, howling wildly as she slashed equally wildly with crocea mors at one of the karkadann's immense forelegs. The karkadann roared and reared, preparing to bring its immense hooved forefoot down upon him.

Pyrrha was there in a flash, her red hair flying and the sunlight glimmering upon her bronzed armour as she shoved Jaune out of danger and thrust her spear upwards into the soft underbelly of the karkadann's foot. The karkadann howled, and Pyrrha leapt out of the way, her spear transforming into a sword as she sliced at where its hamstring would have been had it been a beast.

The creature retreated backwards a step or two as it swept its head down, using its great serrated horn like a sword. Pyrrha both blocked and parried, using her own sword and shield together as the karkadann's horn crashed into them. She was not overwhelmed but she was pushed backwards, her feet leaving track-marks in the earth as she tried in vain to stand her ground against its hideous strength.

Jaune, Cinder with her two swords, even Lady Nikos joined the fight, assailing the karkadann from the other side. Sunset teleported, emerging above the creature, descending the couple of feet to its back. She balanced precariously between the bone spikes jutting upwards, wobbling as the grimm shifted in place, and jammed her weapon downwards into the nape of its neck. Then she fired her fourth shot for good measure.

The karkadann roared, pain and fury mingling in its cry. Then it reared, immense forelegs thrashing, kicking at the empty air as its back became practically vertical. Sunset lost her grip on Sol Invictus, then upon the spine spike for which she had reached instead as she was hurled off the back of the karkadann and landed in a heap on the ground. Sunset scrambled to her feet as the karkadann slammed its forelegs into the ground so heavily that the earth trembled and all four of her companions of the hunt were jolted off balance by the trembling.

Jaune cried out, "Sunset, can you pull off an Arkos Spin?"

Sunset huffed. _Can I pull off an Arkos spin? Can I do it? Yes, I can do it, have some faith in me!_ "Of course I can do it, get ready." Sunset bared her teeth in a snarl and she shouted in anger as she fired bolt after bolt of green magic into the monster's hindquarters. "Here! Here, come at me you sorry, stupid, pathetic fake imitation unicorn! Come and get me!"

Her magical attacks didn't seem to cause the karkadann visible harm, but judging by the way that it swung its head back to glare at her she'd certainly made it angry.

That as the general idea. This thing was tough. It was old and strong and their best hits didn't even seem to be slowing it down. They needed something special to kill it, something special like the 'finishing moves' that they'd started devising specifically for big, tough grimm just like this one. Ideally they would have used the Lancaster Spin - Ruby came up with the names, Sunset wasn't sure how - but with no Ruby around they would have to use Pyrrha for the finish instead, which meant that they needed to do it now while Sunset still had enough 'aura' (or magic) to play her part.

She had a feeling this was going to be a struggle as it was.

The karkadann began to turn its head back towards Jaune and Pyrrha, before Sunset hit it with another burst of magic from her palms. "Oh no you don't, I'm the one you want," Sunset growled. "Look at me, only at me." She continued to fire magical blasts, which did little except irritate the grimm (in fairness to Sunset, she wasn't exactly giving it full power; she had to conserve her magic for what was about to come) enough that it ignored everyone else and wheeled about until it was facing down Sunset, ready for a charge.

Sunset grinned. _Watch closely, my lady, and marvel at what a great team we are._

She held out her hands and stretched out all her power, wrapping it around the karkadann's head like a lasso and pulling down hard upon it with her telekinesis. It was a struggle, it always was when you were talking about a living target, especially one as strong as this one. The karkadann fought back, it resisted, it tried to rear up, it tried to move its neck. But gradually, inch by excruciating inch and foot by exhausting foot as sweat dripped from her every orifice Sunset forced this monster's head downwards until...until the lance-like horn was pointing straight at her.

Pyrrha and Jaune were circling around the karkadann now, Jaune closer and Pyrrha at a greater distance, but the beast didn't notice either of them. No more did it notice Cinder or Lady Nikos, who waited warily but did not interfere. All that it noticed was Sunset, whom it stared at with naked hatred in its eyes.

And it charged at her. Sunset was only holding its head down, not the rest of it still. It charged at her, intent upon smashing through her aura and impaling her upon its massive horn.

Sunset let it come. She let it come as the earth shook and its feet pounded on the ground. She let it come and then, at the last moment, she turned aside and grabbed the onward-thrusting horn with both hands and she held on.

She held on as the serrated edge tore at her aura. She held on as the karkadann fought to raise its head. She cast a leaden-weight spell on her feet to weigh them down, she cast a heavy-gravity spell upon herself for good measure, she gasped and panted for breath as she felt her magic disappearing at an alarming rate and she held on.

"Pyrrha, now!"

* * *

For Pyrrha Nikos, time seemed to slow as she charged forward across the grass. There was no hesitation. No doubt. They had planned this, they had practiced this, and it was going to work. In a few heartbeats, this would be over. She felt as she had felt so often in the arena, when had she had seen with perfect clarity what needed to happen and all that remained was to make it so, when her heartbeat slowed to a calm pulse and all the world slowed with it.

One heartbeat, two heartbeats.

Her loping gait carried her across the grass. Akuou was slung across her back and Milo was in sword form in her hand.

Three heartbeats.

"Pyrrha, catch!" Jaune cried as he threw his own sword towards her. Pyrrha caught it deftly in her off hand.

Four heartbeats.

Pyrrha leapt into the air. Jaune lifted his shield up over his head, his knees bending.

Five heartbeats.

Pyrrha landed gracefully upon Jaune's shield, resting both her feet upon it like a diving board.

Six heartbeats.

Pyrrha's knees bent, and she felt - rather than saw - Jaune's semblance stimulating her aura, strengthening her legs, increasing the power at her command. He bent, and she bent, and her legs overflowed with power.

Seven heartbeats.

Pyrrha leapt. Jaune rose up, using his whole body to fling her upwards even as Pyrrha jumped with a strength enhanced by Jaune's stimulation of her aura.

Eight heartbeats, nine heartbeats.

Pyrrha rose into the air, a cool sensation washing over her face. She closed her eyes.

Nine heartbeats.

Pyrrha opened her eyes again as her leap carried her upwards. She began to twist her body with a grace that a gymnast or dancer might have envied.

Ten heartbeats.

Pyrrha began to fall.

And as she fell, she span.

She descended, spinning in the air as she did so, the light glinting off her swords as she fell like a thunderbolt from heaven upon the neck of the karkadann and spinning sliced clean through its neck until she landed with a pounding thump upon her feet and the grimm's lifeless trunk thumped to the ground beside her.

Sunset let go of the creature's head as it began to dissolve into smoke.

Then she whooped as she raised her hands. "And that," she declared. "Is how team Sapphire does it!"

Cinder clapped her hands together once. "A formidable performance," she said. "No doubt with your fourth member present you would be more formidable still."

Pyrrha's eyes narrowed. Cinder Fall had never been less than polite, but nevertheless there was something about her that Pyrrha didn't like. Actually there was more than one thing, and Pyrrha could name them: her arrogance, her unabashed contempt for other people, a philosophy that left Pyrrha wondering why someone like her would want to become a huntress...and perhaps too the many uncomfortable ways that she reminded Pyrrha of Sunset. What Sunset had been, what she might become again. Pyrrha didn't want to lose her friend to the influence of one who was too like her comfort; nor did she really want to be reminded of what Sunset had been. Sunset...Pyrrha meant no insult to say that she felt as though Sunset needed the company of the good to be good and Cinder Fall had too much about her that seemed not good to Pyrrha for Pyrrha to feel easy in her company.

Her thoughts were derailed from that, however, by the approach of her mother.

Pyrrha's back straightened. "Mother."

Her mother was silent a moment. "Your individual skill has not improved since I last observed you."

"No, mother."

"But that last...your forethought is to be commended as your coordination is to be envied. Well done. Well done, all of you."

It was all that Pyrrha could do not to sag with relief. "Thank you, mother."

"Yes, thank you, my lady, you honour us with your praise," Sunset said, bowing.

"I honour you with nothing but your deserving."

"That is kindly said, my lady," Sunset replied. She grinned as she straightened up.

"Something amuses you, Miss Shimmer?"

"I was just thinking, my lady," Sunset said. "How disappointed Ruby's going to be when she finds out she missed this."

* * *

Leonardo Lionheart slouched forwards, resting his head in his hands. "I, uh, I'm sorry that things didn't work out like you planned."

Cinder smirked as she sat on his desk. "Sorry, Leo? What do you have to be sorry about?" He was probably sorry about a great many things, starting with his decision to get involved in their cause, but he was smart enough – and too much of a coward – to say that to her face.

He looked confused. "You mean…you're not upset?"

"Why would I be upset? What did you think I wanted to happen out there?"

"I thought…" Lionheart's voice trembled. "I thought you meant to lure poor Pyrrha-"

"Poor Pyrrha?" Cinder asked mockingly.

"I've known her since she was a girl," Lionheart murmured apologetically. "Must she-"

"Yes," Cinder declared, because Pyrrha was the kind of person whose death she would enjoy, possessing the self-righteousness that only those born with silver spoon in hand possessed. The kind who reminded Cinder of her stepsisters. "You were saying?"

"I thought you meant to lure her out there so that you could…murder her."

Cinder's laughter was high and cold. "Oh, Leo. Sometimes you can be so narrow-minded. I didn't bring the karkadann here so that I could kill them." In truth, if the karkadann had stood on the verge of victory then she wouldn't have been averse to finishing the three of them off while they were defenceless, but she had never considered that to be a particularly likely possibility. SAPR had already proved themselves to be formidable opponents to the White Fang, she hadn't pinned all of her hopes on the idea that, even shorn of the R, a single grimm however powerful would be a match for them. "Do you really think that I was foolish enough to bet all my plans on the fact that 'poor' Pyrrha's team-mates wouldn't come with her? That they would stand idle while I lured their best fighter into an ambush?"

"Then why-"

"I wanted information," Cinder said. "I wanted to see for myself what they were like, what they were capable of. And I did." She felt confident in saying that she hadn't seen everything from the SAPR box of tricks just yet, but she had seen a few of the good ones all the same. She had seen how fast they were, how strong, how well coordinated. She had seen enough of Sunset's 'semblance' to know that it was magic, strong, but not as powerful as hers would be once she acquired the other half of the Fall Maiden's power. Versatile, though; versatile enough for her to consider acquiring that power for herself if she could.

But that was for the future. For now…all three of them were going on the list. The list of those that might be useful pawns for the unwitting execution of her plans…and those that she would have to eliminate once they had come to the end of their usefulness to her.

It was a pity that Sunset would have to die. It was a strange thought, of a kind that did not often occur to Cinder Fall, but it struck her all the same. Jaune Arc's life or death meant nothing to her, and Pyrrha Nikos was the kind of person that she hated the most, but Sunset…she was different. Looking at Sunset Shimmer, talking to her…it was like looking in a mirror. A slightly cracked and refracted mirror, but nonetheless…there were times she felt as though she was looking at the road not taken, or perhaps just someone…someone she could have called friend, had they met under different, earlier circumstances.

But it was too late for that now. Her course was set, her destiny was fixed, all that remained was to ride the coming storm and let it carry her to power.

And of course, that uncanny similarity between them was exactly why Sunset Shimmer had to die. The day was coming when Cinder Fall would look down upon the kingdoms of the world as the possessor of them, and all the people huddled down below would tremble in fear of her judgement. And when that day came she would suffer no imitators, no rivals, no lesser Cinder's to detract from her light.

There would be only her, alone at the head of all things, Salem's voice and right hand upon the earth.

A maiden for all seasons.

But until then…until it became necessary to eliminate her it might be fun to find out…what friendship felt like.


	45. Vacation's End

Vacation's End

And after that, you might say, nothing much else really happened.

Not quite true, of course; plenty of things happened to fill up their days: training, seeing the sights and delights of Mistral, but nothing comparable to hunting a grimm across the pasturelands around the city, nothing worth an extended or a detailed telling.

Much as her fellow elites of Mistral might have hated Pyrrha for being the tallest poppy in the field - and Sunset found that she took a degree of bizarre and twisted comfort from the fact that such a fate could still befall you even if you were the nicest, kindest and most generous soul that ever lived, thus proving to her own satisfaction at least that she had not been loathed by the entire student body of Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns solely or even entirely because of her obnoxious personality - this hate did not stop them from acknowledging or sucking up to the Nikos family, or from that family continuing to enjoy the kind of perks associated with the rich and powerful: complementary tickets to the theatre, invitations to galas and fashion shows and charity balls. While Sunset didn't join Pyrrha at all of them - and she used her experience of Canterlot to guide Jaune in which functions were likely to be fun and which intensely boring - it was nice to go along to some of these things and soak up the Mistralian culture, to dress up a little and remember a time when her life had been a blizzard of events just like these.

Sunset: I think this place is making me homesick.

Twilight: You know that the offer to come home is always open, right? I mean, as much as the magic mirror allows, I suppose. Do you know when it will be open next at your end?

Sunset: No, but I'm sure Celestia knows when it will open next at your end. Not that it matters. There's a difference between being homesick and wanting to come home.

Twilight: I know what you mean. I didn't realise how much I missed my brother until I found out that he was getting married.

Sunset: That sounds more like jealousy to me.

Twilight: I was not- you're impossible.

Sunset: Oh, calm down, I'm just messing with you. How did you get on with the fiancée?

Twilight: Great! It turned out she used to my foalsitter

Sunset: I thought your foalsitter was the princess of love? Sunset blinked. Sunset: Your brother married the princess of love, didn't he?

Twilight: Yes

Sunset snorted. Sunset: Very royal. Are you going to marry your children to their children so you can keep keeping it in the family?

Twilight: That's disgusting, even if was just a joke. And besides, I'm not even thinking about a colt-friend yet.

Sunset: When people say 'I'm not looking for a colt-friend yet' it usually means they can't get a date. Which surprises me, quite frankly.

Twilight: Does it now?

Sunset: Yeah, I thought you'd be getting offers all over the place, being a princess and all.

Twilight: Nopony really cares about that.

Sunset: They would if you moved back to Canterlot.

Twilight: I don't plan on doing that any time soon. Not on a permanent basis, anyway. Sunset, can I ask you something?

Sunset: I don't guarantee an answer to any question, but go ahead.

Twilight: Pyrrha Nikos, Ruby Rose and Jaune Arc, those are your team-mates, yes?

Sunset frowned. Sunset: Yeah, I'm pretty sure that I already told you that. Did you forget?

Twilight: No. It's just that Pyrrha Nikos and Ruby Rose are Royal Guards in Canterlot, and they have a friend named Jaune Arc who lives there too.

Sunset's eyebrows rose. Sunset: Is he a royal guard too?

Twilight: No, I gather that he tried to get in but failed. Apparently he's a Hero for Hire.

Sunset couldn't suppress the grin on her face. Sunset: He's a what?

Twilight: That's what he calls himself: Jaune Arc, Hero for Hire. Ponies come to him with their problems and he tries to help them. I think it's very admirable, really.

Sunset sniggered. Sunset: Surely that depends on what the problems are. Is he rescuing kidnap victims or getting cats down out of trees?

Twilight: Well, Ruby and Pyrrha told me they check up on him from time to time and make sure he doesn't get in over his head, so I doubt he's facing off against real villains, but frankly I don't see that that matters, so long as he's doing something to make life better for those around him.

Sunset considered that. In her mind it mattered because there was a difference between actually being a hero worthy of the name and just playing pretend, but she could also see Twilight's point, kind of. In Equestria there wasn't a lot of call for the kind of feats of arms that were expected from huntsmen and huntresses, so it was doubtful that the Jaune of Equestria would be facing off against anyone or anything truly scary, certainly not as frightening as the monsters that her Jaune fought against here in Remnant. Which was probably a good thing for him, all things considered.

Sunset: Maybe, but Hero for Hire is still a pretty ridiculous thing to call yourself if you ask me.

Twilight: It might work better in the plural. But that's not the point, the point is how amazing it is that there are doppelgangers of your comrades living here in Equestria!

Sunset: It would be amazing if it was more than just coincidence.

Twilight: I'm sure that you know as well as I do how improbable a coincidence like this is, but even if the names were a coincidence, then surely the fact that the Jaunes of Remnant and Equestria both have a desire to be heroes, that the Pyrrhas and Rubys of Remnant and Equestria are both driven to protect others even at the cost of themselves, that cannot possibly be a coincidence.

Sunset: And you know as well as I do that three examples does not prove a pattern.

Twilight: Aren't you excited by this?

Sunset: I'm finding it very hard to wrap my head around the idea of this, whatever this is. She understood what Twilight was getting at but when she tried to comprehend it she just...it was too much. Everyone on Remnant had a counterpart in Equestria, and vice versa? How? Why? Were they not separate worlds, joined only by a single portal? Or were they separate planes of reality, intimately linked but with travel between them nigh-impossible. And how joined were they? Had the human and the pony Jaune, Ruby, Pyrrha been born at the exact same moment on two different worlds? Would they die at the same time as one another too? If Sunset's Pyrrha fell in battle then would pony Pyrrha drop dead at her guard post for no discernible reason or would she continue shorn of her double like a shadow without a body? It was too much, too much to take in, too much to think about, too much to contemplate all in a single sitting like this.

It was...it verged on horrifying. Sunset had always taken comfort from the idea of an inexorable destiny: that every step she took, every failure that she might seem to suffer was, in reality, leading her inevitably towards a greater and more glorious future. But this...Sunset could see now why Pyrrha took comfort rather in the idea of a destiny that she would create for herself out of her own choices and effort. Because if what Twilight was suggesting was true then what price agency? What control did any of them have over their own lives, when even the names they gave to their children were pre-ordained and put into their minds by some external force. It was terrible. And what of Sunset herself? Was there some other Sunset Shimmer out there somewhere, another her she hadn't met, living another life...or was it the same life, driven by the same ambitions which would inevitably come into conflict with her own. Was Sunset a usurper in this world, or worse? If the two Sunsets met would the paradox of their contract destroy reality or had Sunset destroyed her alternate by venturing into this world from her own? What was the meaning of anything that she had done, what was the point of doing anything else when... Sunset: Can we talk about something else, please? I really don't want to think about this.

Twilight obliged, though Sunset could tell that she was a little disappointed that Sunset didn't share her intellectual curiosity; but as far as Sunset was concerned it was all very well for her, she wasn't the one having her world turned upside down. Or at least she wasn't the one who was thinking about it that way. Still, fittingly for a princess of friendship, Twilight did the friendly thing and let the matter drop and the two moved on - or back - to Canterlot and exchanging reminiscences of their time there, borne out of the way that Mistral stirred such memories of the place in Sunset.

She tried very hard to forget everything else about other Jaunes and other Pyrrhas and heroes for hire, all of it. She put it from her mind as she sparred, as Pyrrha showed them around Mistral, as she attended fancy functions.

Sometimes Pyrrha's mother watched them as they sparred, sometimes she even offered pointers to Jaune or Sunset. And then, one day near the end of vacation, she called Pyrrha into her study.

* * *

Pyrrha remained standing as her mother sat down, and her mother did not invite her to do otherwise. She stood with impeccable posture before her mother's desk and said nothing, and waited.

"I have decided," her mother said. "To allow you to return to Beacon for the Summer Semester."

Pyrrha was silent for a moment. "Was that ever in doubt?"

"Considerably, when you first returned home," Mother replied without a trace of shame or embarrassment. "After what happened to you at Beacon I was far from convinced that it was the right academy for you after all, or that your team-mates were the right comrades for you for the next four years."

"They're not just my team-mates, they're my friends," Pyrrha said, because the thought of being yanked away from them now frightened her as no grimm or tournament match had managed to do. She felt as though she had only just begun to step out of the darkness and into the light of something brighter and more beautiful than she could possibly have imagined only to find that her mother had been contemplating shutting the door upon her this entire time that she had been back. Losing Jaune, Ruby, Sunset...the fact that it wasn't going to happen was almost irrelevant compared to the fact that her mother had contemplated doing this to her at all.

"You're feelings for them are irrelevant," Mother said sharply. "Friendship does not make a champion, or a warrior. No one will be remembered long after their death for how affable and good-natured they were, for how many friends they had."

"Their friends will remember them, with love and great fondness," Pyrrha replied.

"And when those friends are gone then so will all memory of the friend that they remembered so fondly," Mother declared. "But a light dedicated to the pursuit of glory will light a flame eternal."

"A cold fire, mother," Pyrrha said. "One that gives no warmth."

Her mother stared at her, her green eyes cold. "I think your team leader, Miss Shimmer, might disagree with you."

"I like and respect Sunset, but I don't agree with her about everything," Pyrrha said. "Do you...do you wish that you had a daughter more like her than you do?"

"You are my daughter, the greatest warrior born in Mistral for generations, a fact I would not chance for anything," Mother said. "I simply wish you would show more appreciation of the gifts the gods have blessed you with."

Pyrrha furrowed her brow. "Is this what you wanted to talk to Sunset about, when you summoned her into your study."

"It was."

"You told Sunset that you were thinking of keeping me here long before you ever told me." It was not a question, but a statement of fact.

"There was nothing that you could have done to change my mind."

"Then what did change your mind?"

"Your companions proved their worth to me," Mother said. "Mister Arc's skill at arms leaves a great deal to be desired, but he possessed a formidable semblance with which to support you. Miss Shimmer possesses an impressive array of skills. I understand that Miss Rose is a young prodigy. I must admit that it is unlikely you would have such a formidable team at Haven, even if you would not be transferring after one semester. I doubt that Professor Lionheart has three such students in his entire academy."

"No, Mother," Pyrrha agreed. They might not have the same reasons for saying so, but they both agreed and in the present circumstance Pyrrha was inclined to take what she could get. "I think that's unlikely."

Her mother looked down at her desk, her eyes lingering on the photographs that sat there. "Pyrrha...when they told me you had been kidnapped by the White Fang...I was filled with despair."

Pyrrha said nothing, waiting for more to come.

"You have such potential," Mother continued. "You know that, after I was forced to retire from active competition, I became a tutor for a time. No one that I ever taught has such potential as you. And so when they told me what had happened to you I...I despaired that all that you are and all that you could be had been thrown away, that you had thrown it away as your father threw his life away before you."

"Father died doing what he believed in," Pyrrha said softly. "Please, Mother, don't malign him."

Mother shook her head. Her eyes, normally so dry and hard, were moist as if tears had begun to form in them. "What he believed in. Yes, yes, he always did that. Though I begged him not to he insisted that he had to go out into the field or he would be shamed before all the men of Mistral. He had to go, though death awaited him there." She closed her eyes for a moment. "I would you would not go, my daughter."

"I do not seek my death, mother," Pyrrha said, for she felt as though she was only just beginning to live, and she did not desire to give that up so soon. "But nevertheless, I must go. The glories of the arena...my destiny is more than that." She hesitated. "Worthier than that. I must go."

"Or you, too, would be shamed before Mistral?"

"You ask me to appreciate the gifts I have been given, Mother, the talent I have been blessed with," Pyrrha said. "I am. I appreciate them so much that I wish to use them for so much more than to aggrandise myself. I would use them to protect the world, to save it if it can be saved. That is my ambition. That is the destiny that I desire."

Mother produced a handkerchief, and dabbed at her eyes with it. "A lofty goal, to be sure. Yet one well worthy of our noble line and of your talents. Yet tell me, daughter, if you had to choose between your destiny and your companions, your ambitions and those that you call friends, which would you choose?"

Pyrrha was silent for a moment. "I hope I never have to choose."

"As well you may," her mother said. "But wishing will not make it so."

* * *

There was a knock on the door.

Sunset paused in the middle of packing her case. "Jaune? Is that you?"

"No," came the voice of Lady Nikos from the other side of the door. "May I enter, Miss Shimmer?"

Sunset straightened, and turned hastily to face the door. "Of course. Please come in, my lady."

The door into the guest room opened, and Lady Nikos walked in. The floor creaked a little beneath her stiff gait.

Sunset bowed. "Lady Nikos, you honour me with your presence."

Lady Nikos sniffed. She did not speak for a moment, but looked around the room as though she were unfamiliar with some part of the furnishing of her own house. "Has my daughter told you the good news?"

"Pyrrha has told us, my lady," Sunset said. She allowed herself a smile. "I thank you for allowing our goddess of victory with us."

Lady Nikos stared silently at her for a moment, probably wondering to what extent 'goddess of victory' was sarcasm, if to any extent at all.

Sunset's smile broadened just a little. "We are all of us formidable in our own ways and rights, my lady," she said. "But it is Pyrrha that our enemies fear by name and sight. She is, amongst much else besides and so much more, a token of our strength and prowess."

"Indeed," Lady Nikos murmured. "But she would be so for any team to which she was assigned."

"We are not any team, my lady."

"No, you are not," Lady Nikos replied. "I do not doubt that in time you too will be known and feared by name and sight, Miss Shimmer."

"Such is my intent, my lady, though I thank you for your confidence."

"May I ask why you didn't tell my daughter of my possible plans for her?"

"I saw no reason to, my lady; I was always confident in my ability to impress you sufficiently as to render the possibility null."

Again Lady Nikos looked at her, as if she could divine what in Sunset's speech was genuine and what was not.

 _Good luck with that, my lady._

Lady Nikos smiled, or at least stood upon the verge of it. "You are worthy to stand companion to my daughter."

"She's worthy of me too, my lady," Sunset said, because she had a reputation for ego to keep up.

Lady Nikos ignored the arrogance. "In your home, where you were taught these manners, were you taught any tradition of guest gifts, given by a host when a guest departs?"

Sunset's eyes narrowed just a tad. "I fear not, my lady. Where I come from a host might give a gift to a dear friend they saw too infrequently, but there is no custom to govern such things."

"It is an old notion, and little practiced nowadays," Lady Nikos declared. "Yet you have been a good guest, and I believe that you will appreciate one and make good use of the other." She reached into the baggy sleeves of her loose-fitting gown, and out of her sleeve she produced a straight dagger, with a blue marbled hilt banded in gold and a small but brightly-gleaming amber set in the pommel. "This dagger was carried by Achates, my grandfather's most faithful bodyguard, during the Great War. He was carrying it when he was slain by the King of Vale during the Battle of Vacuo. Legend says he stabbed at the king with it, and was the only man on that field to succeed in striking that great warrior. Take it, to defend my daughter at the last resort."

Sunset's eyes were wide. Her hands hovered, halfway to the knife as her feelings stood halfway between greed and hesitation. "My lady…you offer me a treasure of your family after so short a time that we have known each other?"

"Don't be melodramatic girl, I offer you nothing of provenance from the family itself, only our retainers."

"If you see me as one of Pyrrha's retainers then perhaps I would do better to refuse the gift."

"I see you as one of my daughter's comrades in arms," Lady Nikos clarified. "I offer this to you because, as my husband used to say, one can never go wrong having a knife for the difficult times.

Sunset did not look at Lady Nikos, but rather at the dagger as her hand closed around the hilt. It fitted her hand well, this relic of the Great War, this weapon of antiquity.

"I will bear it with honour, my lady, that I vow to you."

"I hope so," Lady Nikos said, as she produced something else from out of her sleeve. "Although I admit that this may be of slightly more use to you on a day to day basis."

After the ancient dagger, Sunset had not been expecting a credit card, yet that was the second item that Lady Nikos produced from out of her sleeve.

"There is a sum already added for initial purchases," Lady Nikos said. "And a smaller amount will be added each month for dust supplies and the like. I will be checking the statements to see that you are spending this on vital equipment."

Sunset's gaze flicked rapidly between the card and the face of the older woman. Her voice became a little colder, and more stern. "My lady, just because my means are limited does not mean that I require charity."

"I would not call this charity."

"Then what would my lady call it?"

"An investment," Lady Nikos said. "In a skilled huntress, that the Invincible Girl may have a shield-companion who can fight beside her at the very peak of her effectiveness. You have skill, Miss Shimmer, but you could do more. We have discussed your wearing some armour; I believe that you could profit by the use of dust as well.

"We are fortunate, my daughter is fortunate, to come from an old line rich not only in history but in riches also, but do you know what irks me the most, Miss Shimmer?"

"I cannot imagine, my lady."

"When ignorant commentators claim that my daughter's success is wholly down to the privileged circumstances of her birth."

Sunset considered the point. "I think…were she given the opportunity Pyrrha's talent would carry her high regardless, my lady, but…if you will excuse me, would she be given the opportunity?"

Lady Nikos did not respond directly. "Greatness should not be constrained by anything so mean as material circumstances. Take the card. Take it, and be all that you have it in you to be."

Sunset plucked the card from out of Lady Nikos' hand. "I shall, my lady, and thank you."


	46. Training in the Dark

Training in the Dark

Ruby stood in the dark outside of her house and tried to make herself angry.

She tried really, really hard.

Unfortunately, as much as she might not want to admit it, trying hard doesn't always mean that you succeed.

And she wasn't succeeding right now because she just could not make herself angry. She thought angry thoughts – mostly about how unfair it was that she was grounded and had to sneak out in the middle of the night in her pyjamas plus cloak because Dad had gotten the idea that she couldn't take care of herself, like she could totally take care of herself, she was awesome like hwa! Kah! Hyah! – she screwed her face up into angry expressions; she made angry noises. But nothing happened. Her silver eyes, that were supposed to activate when she felt strong negative emotions, wouldn't…whatever they were supposed to do. Flare up? Turn on? Anyway, whatever it was they were supposed to do they just weren't doing it.

So Ruby was standing there, in the dark, shivering a little as she scrunched up her face and went, "Nnnnnnngh! Rrrrrrrrgh!" Why wasn't it working? Why couldn't she get angry? Why wouldn't her silver eyes work like Mom's diary said they would?

"You know, if you need the bathroom, Rubes, the toilet still works in the house," Yang said, her voice rich in amusement.

Ruby opened her eyes to see her sister, mostly silhouetted by the light of the torch in her hand that wasn't quite shining into Ruby's eyes, but close enough that she couldn't see much of Yang beyond an outline. Ruby held up one hand to shield her eyes from the light. "Yang? Did Dad send you out here?"

Yang lowered the torch. "If Dad knew you were out here he wouldn't send me to come get you."

"How did you know I was here?"

"Big sisters have a way of knowing these things," Yang said casually. She was wearing a cream jacket over her pyjamas, and had her Ember Celica on over her wrists. She put one hand on her hip and grinned. "So, what are you doing out here, Sis? And why the poop face?"

"It was not a poop face!"

"It was kind of a poop face."

"Yang!"

"Okay, okay, suit yourself," Yang said. "So what are you doing out here?"

"I was trying to make myself angry," Ruby said. "And I didn't want to do it inside the house in case…you know."

Yang frowned. "And you wandered out into the middle of the night to try attracting grimm because-"

"Because Mom said that negative emotions like anger would awaken my silver eyes-"

"Ruby!" Yang snapped, and her eyes turned briefly crimson as she took a step forward. "You were out here all alone trying to activate your eyes?"

Ruby leaned back a little. "Uh…no?"

"What if you'd actually attracted grimm?"

"That's why I didn't want to do it in the house," Ruby replied. "And why I brought Crescent Rose." She held up her weapon, in its compact carbine configuration, for Yang to see.

Yang growled in frustration. "Even if that would work, especially if that would work, did you also remember what Mom said about using silver eyes tiring you out? You remember that she was exhausted after using them with more training and experience than you? What if more grimm showed up after you'd worn yourself out? You could have died!"

"But I have to try something, or else am I going to get it to work?"

Yang's chest heaved up and down as she took a deep breath. She looked away from Ruby for a moment, and it seemed that she was visibly trying to calm herself down. When she spoke again her voice was quieter, and also kind of uncertain too. "Ruby…look, I know that you think that you have…whatever power it was that Mom had. And maybe you do. But, maybe…I'm not sure that trying to get it, or activate it or whatever the right word is…I'm not sure that it's a good idea. I'm down with wanting to know what Mom left behind but…just because she did something doesn't mean that you have to do it do, even if you can."

Ruby blinked. "I…I don't understand. Where is this coming from?"

"It's coming from the fact that you snuck out of the house to turn yourself into grimm bait so that you could switch on a power you don't know how to use," Yang said. "It's coming from the fact that these powers leave you more vulnerable than if you'd done nothing at all. It's coming from…Ruby, do you remember that day? The day I put you in the little red wagon and told you were going on an adventure."

Ruby nodded. "But I feel asleep and I missed it."

"You didn't miss much," Yang said. "There was no adventure. I put you in the wagon because I thought I knew where my mom was."

Ruby's eyes widened. "Really?"

"Yeah," Yang said. "I found an old photograph, I thought it was a clue to a hideout, somewhere she'd be."

Somewhere out in the darkness, a crow or raven cawed loudly. Yang jolted as though she'd been shocked, spinning around, her eyes searching the darkness.

"Yang?" Ruby asked. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Yang replied quickly. "Ruby, do you remember when you woke up that day?"

"Uncle Qrow was there."

"Uncle Qrow's the only reason we're still alive," Yang said. "My mom wasn't in that cabin, but three beowolves were. It was only because Uncle Qrow had been searching all of Patch since he found out we were gone…only because he found us…that's the only reason that we're still here. It's the only reason you're still alive. I almost got you killed."

"Yang-"

"I was so obsessed with finding my mother that I put you in danger," Yang declared. "I was so stupid! You could have died and for what? So that I could meet the woman who didn't want me to begin with?"

"Yang," Ruby repeated gently. She'd never known that before. Yang had never told her and nor had Uncle Qrow. Neither of them would tell her why they'd gone out into the woods, and Uncle Qrow had made her promise not to tell Dad about it, until she'd gotten used to just not talking about it. She hadn't known what Yang had done…and she didn't care. It didn't matter to her. Nothing had happened, they were both still here. So, as far as she was concerned, there wasn't really anything to get upset over. "It's okay."

"No, it isn't," Yang said. She took another deep breath. "I don't want you to make the same mistake that I did. I don't want you to get obsessed with this…for it to end up costing you everything."

"Yang…" Ruby murmured. "I get it, but…this isn't the same. I…okay, so this was stupid, maybe, but…if I can learn how to do this then maybe I can help people."

"You can help people just fine the way you are," Yang said. "You're already one of the best huntresses in our year and you're two years younger than the rest of us! You don't need magic eyes to fight the grimm, or to save lives."

"But maybe I could save more, do more," Ruby insisted. "Mom thought so, and Professor Ozpin must have thought so too or he wouldn't have given her special lessons-"

"And he hasn't offered you any special lessons, has he?" Yang asked. "Maybe that means…maybe that means he changed his mind, decided he was wrong. If what Mom said is true those eyes have weaknesses. Big ones."

"Only if I'm alone," Ruby said.

Yang looked at her, gesturing with one hand.

"Okay, I already admitted this was stupid!" Ruby moaned. "But come on! I'll have my team with me!"

"Your team didn't save you from getting cut," Yang said sharply.

"That's kinda harsh, don't you think?"

"I think that both your girls must have forgotten the meaning of the word grounded while you were away at Beacon."

Yang turned around, stepping sideways so that Ruby could see their Dad glowering down at both of them.

"Hey, Dad-" Yang began.

"Inside," Dad said. "Now."

* * *

Ruby sat down on the sofa, with Yang beside her. Dad waited until they were both seated and settled before he pulled up a chair and sat down in front of them. His hands rested on his knees as he looked from Ruby to Yang and then back again.

"Does one of you want to tell me what was going on out there?"

"It was my fault, Dad," Yang said. "I was sneaking out. Ruby tried to stop me, get me to come home before you noticed."

"No, that's not-" Ruby began, because she was a little kid any more and she didn't need Yang to take the blame for smashing plates or going into the basement or almost setting the kitchen on fire.

"Yes, it is," Yang said, cutting her off.

"I see," Dad said. "And where you going, in your PJs?"

"Well, you know…"

"You're not as bad a liar as your sister, Yang, but that doesn't mean you're good at it," Dad said. He looked at Ruby, and leaned forward a little. "Ruby, what was going on out there?"

Ruby grimaced. "I…I was training."

"Training?"

"Yeah! I mean, I was trying to."

"Training what?" Dad asked, looking straight into Ruby's eyes.

"My…my silver eyes?"

"Your WHAT?" Dad yelled, standing up so quickly that he knocked his chair over. "What…where did you hear that? Who told you that? How do you know about silver eyes?"

"Mom," Ruby whispered. "Mom told me."

Dad shook his head in confusion. "What?"

"I…we found a diary," Ruby said, which was as close to the truth as she could get without getting Sunset into trouble. "Mom's diary, from her time at Beacon. It talks about silver eyes, it says that she could-"

"I know what you're mother could do," Dad said.

"So it's true?" Yang asked. "It's real?"

"Of course it's real, Summer was…it wasn't even one of the five most special things about your mother." Dad sighed. "Can I see it? Please?"

"Uh, sure," Ruby said. She got up, and with swift steps she made her way upstairs from the living room into her bedroom. Dad and Yang followed swiftly behind her, standing in the doorway or nearby.

Ruby crossed to her bed, with her stuffed beowolves looking down on her from the top shelf as she pulled out the little black journal from underneath her pillows. Her fingertips gently scraped the white rose on the dark cover as she held out the book to her father. "Here."

Dad came to her, reaching out with one strong arm to pluck the diary from out of her hands. He opened it up, flicking through a couple of pages before he stopped and read.

A look that Ruby didn't know how to really describe came over him, a look that was sad but, more than that at the same time. She didn't really know what it was, or even how to start saying what it really was, but it kind of reminded her of how Dad had been right after Mom died; as far as Ruby remembered anyway.

He looked at her. "Where did you really get this, Ruby?"

"I, I can't say."

"Ruby."

"I don't want to get anyone into trouble," Ruby said. "Please, Dad. It's real, isn't it? Mom wrote this."

Dad looked at her, his face stern. He breathed in, and out. His voice was a little hoarse. "Yes. Yes, she did." He turned to go, without giving the diary back. "Both of you girls should get back to bed."

"But Dad…" Ruby trailed off for a moment. "That…aren't you going to give that back?"

Dad didn't look back at her. "I…I need to think about that, Ruby. There are things in here…I'm not sure you're old enough to understand."

"Like what?" Yang demanded.

"If I told you that it would defeat the point, wouldn't it?"

"So we're old enough to be sent out to fight the grimm but too young to know what our mom was like?" Yang replied.

"That's not what I said!" Dad replied, although the heat in his voice died as soon as it had risen. "I…please, girls, just let me think about it. I need a little time; this…this is so unexpected. Please, just, go to bed. It's late. We'll talk more in the morning, I promise."

Ruby stared at his back for a moment. She wanted the diary back, she didn't want Dad to take it away from her, to take Mom away from her; but…it was Dad. He didn't do things just to be mean to her. Even if she didn't understand why…she understood that he loved her, and that he always would. And so she said, "Okay, Dad. I'll see you in the morning."

"Yeah," Dad said, as he walked towards the door. Yang made way for him. Dad paused in the doorway on his way out. "Goodnight," he said. "I…I love you. Both of you."

* * *

Taiyang Xiao Long slumped down onto the sofa, dumping the diary – Summer's diary, by the gods – onto the seat beside him as he ran one hand through his unruly blond hair. He listened with half an ear to the girls upstairs. He didn't think he was going to be getting any sleep tonight, for worrying that they were going to sneak out again.

He didn't really expect that they would, but…now that they'd done it he couldn't get the thought out of his mind.

 _Sneaking out to train her silver eyes. Dammit._

He looked up, and for a moment he thought that he could see Summer looking down on him, her own silver eyes sparkling brightly and so beautiful. This would all have been so much easier if she were here.

But she was gone. She was gone and she had been for years and she was never coming back. And he had to go on without her, somehow.

Tai sighed. Zwei trotted across the wooden floor and hopped up onto the sofa beside him. Tai idly reached out and stroked the dog between the ears, and let Zwei nibble at his fingers, while he looked down at the diary on the other side of him.

It was the real thing. He recognised it from all the times that he'd seen Summer scribbling in it.

She'd left it behind when she went out the last time; she'd stopped taking it out into the field with her in case it got lost or damaged.

' _I know that what I do is dangerous, that's why this diary isn't just for me any more. It's for the girls. It's so that, if anything happens to me, they'll still have a piece of me with them. Something that they can read and know who I was, at least a little. Does that make sense?'_

Summer had meant for Ruby and Yang to have this. In fact, if she knew that Tai had given it to Ozpin to look after she'd probably be very disappointed in him, or worse angry. But he'd had his reasons. There was more than just stories about Beacon and her life in there, more than just Silver Eyes. Stuff about Salem, about the Maidens and the Relics, about the Circle Everlasting; things that Summer knew that he hadn't wanted the girls to know.

Tai got up, picking up the diary as he did. "Stay here, keep an eye on them," he told Zwei, who barked happily in acknowledgement.

Tai wandered out of the house, and though it was the middle of the night his steps carried him through the woods to the cliff, where the white stone waited.

He could see it in the light of the broken moon. The grave marker, the memorial that stood above no bones or body or even any ashes, gleamed in the silver light.

 _Thus kindly I scatter._

Tai wandered slowly, tremulously, towards the marker. The rose, identical to the mark on the journal, looked up at him as he stood over the memorial stone.

Tai knelt before it, and over the white stone he opened the diary at random. At random, but still some chance or fate decreed that the page he opened should strike him like a dagger to the heart.

Raven's gone. She just took off and left. A part of me can't believe that she'd just abandon us like that, after all we know and all that we've been through. A part of me is surprised it took so long, she hasn't been the same for months: nervous, scared even; she had so many doubts. I just wish that I'd been able to convince her to stay.

Or do I? I don't know. I feel so bad for Tai, and for poor Yang, but at the same time I can't help but wonder is this my chance? I offered to come over to Tai's place, to help him out while he works out how to do this Dad thing. Am I hoping that something will happen? Am I being the most pathetic person in the whole of Remnant right now?

I love him. I love him so much, more than I've ever love anyone in my whole life; and Yang is such a cutie, I can't believe that anyone would willingly leave her behind. How Raven could have a family as wonderful as she had and then throw it away, I just don't get it.

Even if it is pathetic of me to act this way, to feel this way; if I get the chance I won't make the same mistake.

"But you did," Tai said, as tears fell from his eyes. "You did, Summer. You left us. And I know that wasn't your fault but…I wish you were here. I miss you. We all miss you.

"What should I do, Summer? I don't want them to get involved in this, I don't want them…I don't want to lose them like I lost you. But…is that right? Should I…what should I do, Summer? What should I do?"

"Still crying, I see. You always did let your emotions out without fear. It's pathetic…but sweet at the same time. It's part of the reason I fell in love with you."

Tai wiped his eyes with the back of one hand as he stood up. "Those little moments were you stopped fronting and let me know how you really felt, that's the reason I fell in love with you."

"And here I thought it was my hot body."

Tai turned around. "It's been a long time, Raven."

"For you, maybe," Raven said. She folded her arms across her chest. "You should give that back."

"There are things in here that they're too young to know."

"We're always too young to be told that the world is going to end and there's nothing we can do about it," Raven said. "But better that they find that out for themselves than have Ozpin sugarcoat it for them until he's got them believing that they have a chance."

"That's bleak," Tai murmured. "Summer didn't believe it was hopeless."

"Summer's dead, what does that tell you?" Raven snapped. Her crimson eyes widened. "I'm sorry, that was…too cruel. You can't protect the girls forever, Tai."

"I can protect them for a little longer, Ruby's only fifteen."

"If you wanted to protect her then you shouldn't have let her go to Beacon," Raven said.

"Ruby was out in the middle of the night trying to train her silver eyes."

"I know. It was kind of funny to see how hopeless she was."

"I didn't want her to know anything about that," Tai said. "Stuff like that is what got Summer killed."

"Trusting Ozpin is what got Summer killed, and the girls will make the same mistake if something isn't done to arm them against it," Raven declared. "That's why they need to learn the truth from their mother."

"They're too young-"

"Ozpin isn't going to wait, and neither is Salem!" Raven said, almost shouting now. "I may not be a part of this war but I hear things. Maybe more than you do, hiding way out here."

"I'm not-"

"Don't lie to me, Tai, you could never pull it off," Raven said derisively. "You're hiding just as much as I am, the difference is I admit that I ran away from the fight. But I still have eyes and ears. Salem's on the move, she means to end this and that means Ozpin is going to have to try and respond. He'll need new fighters, strong ones."

"Like a silver eyed warrior," Tai murmured.

Raven nodded. "He'll try and recruit Ruby, maybe Yang too. He'll convince them, the way that he convinced us." She scowled momentarily. "This isn't a fight that can be won. Ozpin is going to fail, Beacon is going to fall and when it does the girls will fall with it, fail with him…unless they know the truth. Give it back to them Tai. If nothing else, they deserve to hear their mother's voice."

Tai looked back at the memorial for a moment. "What do you care, Raven? Why do you care about any of this?"

Raven looked away. "Summer…she always believed in me. She always believe that I could be…better."

"She believed in all of us," Tai said. "That was who she was."

"I know," Raven said. "I'm a thief. I take things that don't belong to me. Sometimes I even take lives. But there are times…I know that if Summer were still alive she'd be disappointed in me, but there are times…I'd like to prove she wasn't totally wrong about everything, or everyone."

Silence descended between them, and the only sounds in the night were the hooting and shrieking of the owls in the trees.

"I'll give the diary back to Ruby," Tai said.

"It's the right decision," Raven said.

"I hope so," Tai murmured.

Raven drew her sword. "You're a good father, Taiyang," she said, as she slashed open a portal. "Don't ever let yourself think differently."


	47. Best Day Ever

Best Day Ever

Pyrrha wasn't exactly clear on how all of this had started. One moment Ruby was flicking food at her sister from across the dining hall, the next minute Sunset - dripping cream off her face from the pie that had struck her - had planted her foot on the desk and yelled something that sounded like 'It. Is. On!' and then...Pyrrha was especially fuzzy on the and then, but, well...now YDRN, WSTW and BLBL had piled up the tables into a vast barricade at one end of the dining hall - with Nora perched precariously at the very top, and all the rest ranged about below like her guards - and she was charging up the hall with a breadstick in her hand and that must have happened somehow even if she wasn't certain exactly.

All she knew was that, as ridiculous as it might seem, it was also rather exhilarating.  
It was probably exhilarating precisely because it was so ridiculous. She hadn't felt this rush of giddy enthusiasm during a tournament in years.

But, as her dozen opponents armed themselves with various foodstuffs - it was an unusual lunch selection today, with whole watermelons and roast turkeys and cream pies and all kinds of things she hadn't seen at all during the first semester - she felt it now, and she smiled in anticipation.

Nora pointed magisterially down the hall at the advancing Team SAPR. "Get them, my minions! Attack!"  
"Minions?" Weiss demanded sceptically, but in spite of that the members of the three teams - most of them at least - leapt forward in obedience to Nora's command, snatching up watermelons from the tables in front of them and hurling them at Pyrrha in a great barrage.

Pyrrha grunted as she leapt through the air, slicing the first watermelon clean in two. It's bisected halves landed on the floor at the same time as Pyrrha did. She spun on her toe, slicing two more watermelons into halves, obliterating a third with a strike that shattered it into fragments as red as blood, kicking one back at her opponents where Yang shattered it with a punch. Pyrrha shattered another watermelon, bisected another, her face and her clothes were getting covered in sticky red watermelon juice but she didn't care because this was gloriously silly - her 'enemies' were hocking watermelons at her, for gods' sake, and she was fighting back with a baguette roll - like nothing that she'd ever done before.

The watermelon barrage continued, but suddenly every single one of the swollen green fruits that had been launched through the air at Pyrrha stopped, sticking in the air, held their by some vast invisible hand.

Pyrrha glanced over her shoulder. Sunset stood just behind her, one hand outstretched, her brow furrowed with concentration. With her free hand she scraped some residue of cream pie out of her two-tone hair, and gazed down at the mess on her fingertips as a result.

She winked at Pyrrha, and smirked wickedly at their opponents. "I'll show you queen of the castle." She jerked her hand forwards, just a little, and all of the watermelons were hurled backwards upon those who had first hurled them like a great wave descending on the shore. The members of the three teams scrambled for cover, or just to get out of the way. Cardin upended a table to duck behind, Weiss grabbed a raw swordfish and impaled two watermelons upon the point, Flash simply took the hits from three without so much as flinching; most dodged, but Sky Lark and Russell Thrush weren't so lucky: both were struck hard enough to hurl them backwards and across the floor, where they lay in moaning, twitching lumps.

Lyra and Bon Bon were the first to charge. The former had a breadstick like Pyrrha, but Bon Bon looked to have attached a string of sausages to a turkey using celery sticks, while the other end of the sausages were wrapped around her hand.

Until the moment when she started using her bizarre weapon like a flail, unrolling the string of sausages as she threw the turkey at Pyrrha.

Pyrrha dodged, but the sound of an impact and a cry from Jaune told her that Bon Bon's strike had found a mark.  
"Jaune, no!" Ruby cried. "You will be avenged!"  
Bon Bon whirled her sausage-turkey flail around her head, her expression intense as she threw it at Pyrrha a second time. Pyrrha leapt, her whole body turning in mid-flight until she was upside down, her long ponytail falling. She could see the sausages beneath her, taut as they reached the limits of their length.

And Pyrrha reached out and grabbed them with her free hand.  
She landed on the ground, and pulled before Bon Bon could react.  
The other end of the sausage string was still wrapped around Bon Bon's wrist and she was yanked forwards, her eyes bulging as she flew like an arrow straight into Pyrrha's breadstick as she slammed it into Bon Bon's face.

Pyrrha let go of the sausages as Bon Bon flew backwards towards the barricade of tables.  
Lyra attacked, her breadstick held in both hands. Pyrrha parried her first few slashes easily, then went on the attack, driving Lyra backwards as she beat down the other girls guard. She prepared a finishing strike-

Blake descended upon Pyrrha from above, a breadstick held in each hand. Pyrrha parried. Blake was scowling with the effort but Pyrrha was smiling because who would have thought that something like this could be so much fun?

They separated, each backing off a step, raising their breadsticks into their guard of preference. Then they charged.  
Blake had been holding out on them, Pyrrha realised as they clashed, bread striking bread in a cacophonous rhythm of dull thumps ringing in an increasingly high tempo. She'd never seemed that skilled a fighter in their sparring class - not that she ever seemed bad, but she never came across as particularly brilliant either - but she was making Pyrrha work for this. Whenever Pyrrha thought that she'd gotten in a decisive blow it turned out to be a clone which dissolved like shadow once struck, and only at that point could she see the real Blake about to hit her from the side, or sense her presence behind her. Pyrrha parried every blow, and forced Blake back with her counters, but it was a slighter margin of error then she was used to dealing with. Blake had definitely been holding back.

It was honestly a little bit of a relief when Lyra re-joined the contest. Two vs one wasn't ideal, but Lyra provided a fixed point to focus on, restricing the places that Blake could be, and when Pyrrha focussed on Lyra she made Blake focus on protect her team-mate, and that shut down Blake's options yet further. Not quite enough, as the fight continued. Bread thumped against bread: slash, parry, counter. Pyrrha wasn't losing, but she wasn't exactly winning either.

She spotted Bon Bon picking herself up off the floor and preparing to re-join the fight. Three against one would be far from perfect.

Pyrrha leapt, back flipping away from Blake and Lyra to land on one of the tables. Her feet scattered trays and dishes in all directions. She reversed her grip on the breadstick and threw it at Bon Bon like a javelin. It flew straight and true and hit her squarely in the forehead, knocking her down again.

Pyrrha jumped down off the table as Blake and Lyra came for her, snatching up another breadstick to replace the one she'd thrown away.

A sound from behind distracted her for a moment, she glanced, then turned her head as Ruby came surfing along the row of tables, riding a dinner tray, scattering everything in her path down onto the floor in two messy troughs before she and her tray made a flying leap off the table straight at Lyra. Lyra raised her breadstick to parry desperately, but when the tray struck her and Ruby kicked off it, she was sent flying backwards across the hall, knocking tables and chairs askew as she went until she crashed through the far window and out into the grounds somewhere.

A look of glee settled upon Ruby's face...right up until Blake attacked her in mid-air, hitting her with a flurry of blows that hammered her into the nearest pillar hard enough to crack it.

Pyrrha dashed across the dining hall, leaping over the nearest table, discarding her breadstick as she scooped Ruby up in her arms and carried her out of the way of the collapsing pillar. She placed the unconscious Ruby, her eyes closed, her face childlike in repose, gently on the ground.

Then she got up, and glared at Blake.  
Blake glared right back as she settled once more into her guard.  
Pyrrha charged, picking up breadsticks one after the other and hurling them at Blake in a baked rain. Blake batted a few aside with her own twin rolls, then black flipped out of the way as three baguette rolls buried themselves in the floor where she had just been stand. Pyrrha grabbed a tray, dumping its contents on the floor, and spun one foot after the other before she threw it straight at Blake Belladonna. Blake dodged the ungainly object, contorting her body as it flew past. Unfortunately she had contorted her body in such a way as to leave her open as Pyrrha descended upon her, breadstick in hand. She twisted, trying to regain her balance. Pyrrha didn't give her the chance. She struck Blake once, twice, three times, knocking her up into the air. Pyrrha leapt after her, and leapt above. Blake looked up at her. Pyrrha hammered her down. Blake landed on a table that shattered beneath the impact of her, and all that had been on the table shot upwards like an explosion before half-burying Blake beneath it.

Pyrrha landed. She saw Sunset, arms outstretched, levitating an enormous quantity of stuff - trays, plates, turkeys, watermelons, breadsticks, pies, cakes, even chairs and the tables themselves - while Cardin, Flash and a back-on-his-feet Russell looked on in wide-eyed horror.

Sunset threw her hands forward, and upon the command of that swift gesture all the things that she had levitated to hang abover herself shot forward like a river in spate. Russell wailed as he tried to run. Cardin swiped futilely with a turkey stuck on a breadstick as though he could swat everything that threatened him away. Flash braced himself against the floor, grabbed a dinner tray to use as a shield, and prepared to take it head on.

The storm broke upon them. Cardin and Russell were swept away by it, carried away by the tide of dinner and furniture until it bore them into the wall. Flash stood against the hurricane for a while, not seeming to feel it at all as turkeys slammed into him, as plates shattered against his tray. _That must be his semblance,_ Pyrrha realised. _Some kind of shock absorption that lets him take hits without flinching._ But it had limits, and when Sunset hit him with an entire table it was enough to knock him sprawling.

Weiss leapt through the storm, jumping from tray to chair to table and then to the next tray, flying through the midst of Sunset's tempest as though it were nothing at all. Sunset tried to hit her with the detritus of her assault, she tried to keep the wave of debris swirling in motion so that Weiss would lose her footing and fall, but Weiss skipped through it all as though everything had been placed perfectly to give her places to jump off, and she descended upon Sunset with a swordfish in hand.

Sunset flung out one hand, and flagpole flew from the wall and into her grasp. She wielded it two-handed, like a staff or a spear, and with it she parried Weiss' first flurry of lunges as she landed on the floor.

Weiss drove Sunset back. Although Sunset worked hard in her training, and her hand to hand skills were improving constantly, she was no match for Weiss' well-honed skills with a sword, or even a sword-fish. The dead creature, eyes glassy and mouth agape with surprise as it must have been when it was hauled out of the water, flickered forwards in a series of silver flashes, rattling against Sunset's staff as Weiss drove her hard in a series of perfectly poised, well-honed lunges. Weiss grabbed a bottle of ketchup off the nearest table and squirted it out on the floor in a wide arc, skating over the crimson substance with a dancer's grace, getting behind Sunset who, by contrast, flailed in an ungainly manner for balance on the suddenly wet and sticky floor. Weiss struck for Sunset's exposed back-

Sunset teleported away, and the instantly she re-appeared she surrounded herself with a howling vortex of food and plates and the remains of smashed chairs, all of it swept up from the floor around her, all of it swirling around Sunset as though she stood in the centre of a tornado, protected as if by one of her shields from any approach of her enemies.

Or so she thought.

Weiss stared at this maelstrom of detritus for a moment. Then, grim-faced, she attacked. She leapt through the vortex, not only passing through it but using it. She attacked Sunset from every direction, using the very debris that Sunset had counted on to shield her as her springboards, leaping down at her from precarious footings, balancing on the most unlikely of objections, battering Sunset from all sides, hammering her left and right and up into the air as the vortex she had created died around her.

And as Sunset began to fall she found Nora waiting for her, with a flagpole of her own and a watermelon spiked to the top of it.

Nora grinned as she punted Sunset so hard that the watermelon shattered and Sunset was hurled through the ceiling and into the blue sky above.

There was a momentary pause as everyone waited to see if she would come down again.

She did, after a little while, crashing back through the ceiling in a different place, making a second hole in roof, landing in a clatter of debris and with her face in a conveniently placed custard pie. She rolled over onto her side and then stopped moving, although she did groan occasionally.

And Pyrrha was left alone. One against five.

 _This never happened on the tournament circuit._

Pyrrha smiled. This was all so exciting!

She grabbed an armful of baguettes as she made a rolling leap, dodging a pair of turkeys flung at her by Yang - although a pained 'why?' from poor Jaune told her that he had once again taken a blow meant for her - as she started throwing them at each of her opponents. She caught Weiss and Dove, knocking them down, but Ren dodged and Nora and Yang simply batted the makeshift missiles aside.

And then they came for her.

Ren was quick, Nora was strong; Yang was both fast and strong if not as fast as Pyrrha normally. Together they made one hell of a team. Pyrrha squirmed, striking out in all directions with her bread roll to fend of their assaults. Nora's windups took a while, but Yang was so agile that Pyrrha rarely had the chance to take advantage of it. She couldn't even really parry punches or hammer blows, she just had to focus on keeping one step ahead as the water-melon - Nora had found another one - hammer slammed into the ground again and again and Yang tried to punch her in the face with her turkey gloves. She managed to take out Ren, the weakest link, catching him across the jaw with a solid blow that sent him flying.

And the moment after she did so Yang punched her in the face.

Pyrrha rolled along the floor, ending up spreadeagled on what felt like the one patch of floor that didn't have a mess on it.

She looked up in time to see Ruby start to run.

Ruby didn't have a weapon. She wasn't even using a tray this time. But she ran forwards, trailing clouds of rose-petals behind her until she transformed into a cloud of rose petals surrounding a red blur, a blur that spun in the air as it flew, and as it spun it gathered up everything, absolutely everything smaller than a person in the dining hall until there was a hurricane trailing Ruby, a hurricane that gathered up all eleven members of YRDN, WSTW and BLBL - Lyra was outside somewhere - and slammed them against the far wall so hard it cracked as the discarded lunches and soda cans hit the wall all around them until they were all covered in multi-coloured mess painted on the wall that, if you squinted, sort of resembled Ruby's rose emblem.

Ruby came to a halt as the members of the other team slid down the wall onto the floor.

Pyrrha picked herself up. She surveyed the devastation all around her. She looked at the other students on the floor. And then she started to laugh.

"I don't think," she said. "That I have ever had so much fun in my entire life."

"Ugh, speak for yourself," Sunset groaned. She lifted her head up. "So...did we win?"

Pyrrha stopped laughing long enough to reply. "Yes. Yes, Sunset, we won."

Sunset whooped, or tried to. "Awesome. The Invincible Team. Ugh." She groaned as her head slumped down onto the floor again.

Ruby, by contrast was beaming excitedly. "I knew that you could learn to have fun if you tried! And all it took was...uh," she looked around. "Destroying the cafeteria? Uh-"

It was at that point that the doors flew open and Professor Goodwitch walked in. And she did not look as though she was enjoying herself.


	48. Welcome to Beacon

Welcome to Beacon

A flight of Atlesian AF-38 Skygraspers, their wings painted with the blue tips and winged-lightning insignia of the 52nd Special Service Squadron 'The Wonderbolts', buzzed over Rainbow Dash's head as they banked over the streets of Vale. The blowback from their engines beat against Rainbow's face and ran through her many-coloured hair as all kinds of junk from the roof of the apartment building got kicked up into the air.

Rainbow shielded her face with one hand, and watched as the Wonderbolts flew away. Even now, the sight of them didn't fail to put some kind of smile on her face: they were the best of the best, an elite squad trained not only as pilots but as huntresses too.

And she'd be one of them one day. You could bet on that.

But right now there wasn't a lot of time to day dream about her future, although daydreaming about her future was one of Rainbow's favourite ways of passing idle hours she didn't have any of those right now. She wasn't up on the roof of the apartment for the fresh air.

She was up here watching the Atlesian fleet arrive over Vale.

The first cruisers were already docking – or else had docked – just outside of Beacon Academy, while more of the stately black vessels were still gliding in, escorted by hordes of skygraspers either flying close escort or else ranging more widely over Vale like the Wonderbolts who had just passed over her head.

So far Rainbow Dash had counted five cruisers; Atlesian warships operated in squadrons of four so that meant there were probably at least three more cruisers that she couldn't see yet still to come in.

Assuming they were fully manned – and why wouldn't they be? – that meant two battalions of infantry, the equivalent of four battalions worth of knights, two squadrons of skygraspers per cruiser and that wasn't even getting into however many specialists were attached or the Atlas cadets here for the Vytal festival and what the hell was it all for?

As she watched the cruisers come in, as she watched the narrow, angular black shapes eclipse the skies as they passed overhead, as she watched the dropships keep pace or else zoom back and forth between the warships and designated but unseen markers, as she imagined all the firepower contained in each ship and all the manpower within it, Rainbow couldn't avoid a sense of awe descending over her.

Atlas ruled the skies with its air-fleet. With their absolute air superiority they could bring the fight – and the pain – anywhere they chose. Only specialists operated out of range of air support from at least a squadron of skygraspers, if not a cruiser; meanwhile the mobile infantry blessed the navy and called in an airstrike whenever things got too tough. No matter how numerous the grimm were, no matter how ferocious, when you looked up and you saw that black pyramid shape overhead you knew you were going to be okay because the eye in the sky was looking out for you. And when the enemies of Atlas looked up and saw those ships coming straight towards them they knew fear because the heavy end of the hammer was about to drop down on them with great force.

The air-fleet was the heart of the Atlesian military, and those ships were the iron might of Atlas rendered in physical form out of titanium alloy and armour plate.

And now that heart had come to Vale and Rainbow Dash didn't know why.

A force this large was much too big to just be bringing the other students in for the Vytal Festival, in fact it was too big for any kind of goodwill visit. You didn't bring two whole cruiser squadrons and the entire panoply of war that accompanied unless you were planning to bring the rain; or thought that you might have to, anyway. What was General Ironwood thinking?

Rainbow turned away and headed down the stairs from the roof, walking briskly down the corridor - the brown carpet smelled of cleaning fluids - to the apartment that Team RSPT had been living in for the past few months. Whether they would be staying here now or moving into Beacon's Halls of Residence along with all the other Vytal hopefuls was a question that, although seemingly less pressing than the question of 'why the huge-ass fleet' was arguably more pertinent to them. Rainbow walked quickly down the corridor, and knocked on the door to the RSPT apartment.

Ciel opened the door. Her expression betrayed her unspoken curiosity as she stepped back to allow Rainbow admittance.

"I saw five ships before I left," Rainbow said, as she closed the door behind her. "They've got birds in the air, close escorts and outriders. Someone wants to make a big entrance."

"That confirms the chatter we've been hearing," Ciel replied. "And that someone is General Ironwood."

Rainbow's eyes bulged a little. "The general came here himself?"

Ciel gestured to the apartment living space, where Twilight was tapping away on her laptop. She must have tapped into the fleet comms, because the speakers were projecting a mass of radio chatter into their room as the various ships and squadrons coordinated their movements over Vale.

" _Thunder Child_ you are clear for docking pad two, please start your approach now."

"Affirmative, control; _Thunder Child_ beginning approach now."

"Hey, Spitfire, looks like we've got civilians watching us. How about we give 'em a victory roll?"

"Negative, Misty, maintain formation and set course."

"Aww, captain, you never let us have any fun."

"Cut the chatter, Soarin, this is a business channel."

" _Glorious_ , you're coming it too steep for docking pad three, please correct your angle of approach."

"Roger control, correcting now."

" _Resolution_ , hurry up and finish off-loading ASAP; _Valiant_ is on approach, requires docking pad one ASAP."

Ciel picked up a notepad on which she had scribbled several names. "So far chatter has identified _Thunder Child, Endeavour, Glorious, Courageous, Resolution, Valiant_ and _Vigilant_. _Thunder Child, Endeavour_ and _Glorious_ are with the First Battle Squadron, so I would expect the _Hope_ to make an appearance also; _Courageous, Resolution_ and _Vigilant_ are with the Fourth Squadron, so the eighth ship should be the _Gallant_."

"You've got the order of battle for the entire fleet memorised, don't you?" Rainbow asked. She wasn't even surprised any more.

"And the reserve list," Ciel clarified. "In any case, _Valiant_ is General Ironwood's personal flagship, hence he must be leading this expedition."

"I don't suppose either of your nerd brains can tell me why General Ironwood is bringing two whole battle squadrons and himself to the Vytal Festival?" Rainbow asked, with a glance down at Twilight.

Twilight shrugged. "No, but somehow I doubt it's because the view is better in person than on TV. Do you think...do you think it has something to do with what we did?"

Rainbow frowned. Since the incident with the White Fang they hadn't heard anything from Winter Schnee; they hadn't heard anything from anybody although they got text requests for reports which they answered in text back. It was weird; nobody had told them that they were in trouble for what they'd done but equally, nobody had told them that they weren't in any trouble either. It was like having a swollen raincloud over their heads, all they could do was wait for it to burst. All the same, Rainbow couldn't believe that this display of Atlesian military might was for their benefit. "Come on, Twi, if the general wanted to bust our asses he might come down to do it in person, but he wouldn't need to bring two cruiser squadrons with him."

"I meant could it be something do with the White Fang," Twilight said pointedly.

"Oh," Rainbow said. "Maybe, I guess. Not sure what good it'll do; I mean, you can't call in an air strike against terrorists."

"General Ironwood is not bound to explain his reasoning to us," Ciel declared. "But perhaps he is attempting to overawe our enemies with a display of force, so that they will dare to step into the light again."

"Maybe," Rainbow said. "And I guess you're right, he doesn't have to answer to us. Still, don't you think this all feels kind of weird. It's like something big is going on and we've missed it somehow."

Rainbow's scroll buzzed before either Twilight or Ciel could reply.

"Twi, turn that off," Rainbow said, gesturing to the computer. Twilight cut off the Atlesian comm chatter before Rainbow opened up her scroll.

She was confronted by the face of Specialist Winter Schnee. "Rainbow Dash."

"Specialist Schnee!" Rainbow said, unable to keep the surprise from inflecting her voice. "You haven't been shot. Or arrested."

Specialist Schnee stared at Rainbow Dash with her customary disdain.

Rainbow's ears drooped a little. "I mean, uh, awaiting your orders, ma'am."

"Hmm," Schnee murmured. "Team Rosepetal is to report to docking pad one and board the _Valiant_ immediately that it docks. General Ironwood wishes to see you immediately he returns."

"Returns from where?" Rainbow asked.

The look on Specialist Schnee's face told her that such questions were beyond her purview.

"Right," Rainbow muttered. "Will do, ma'am."

"Good," Specialist Schnee said. "And Rainbow Dash?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Congratulations on a successful operation," Specialist Schnee said, with just the hint of a smile playing across her proud features. "Pass my compliments onto your team."

 _I think that's as close as you could bring yourself to thanking us for helping save your sister._ "Roger that, ma'am. It's appreciated."

"Understood. Schnee out."

"Whatever happened to her didn't improve her mood," Rainbow muttered as she folded up her scroll. "Still, you heard her. Let's move. Is Penny in the bedroom?"

"Yeah," Twilight said. "Should we pack up to leave?"

"No," Rainbow said. "We weren't ordered to and Specialist Schnee said immediately so...I guess we should go right now and if we need to come back for our stuff then we can come back for our stuff. I'll go get Penny."

Rainbow walked across to the bedroom door, and didn't bother to knock before she opened it. She found Penny pacing up and down, mouthing silently to herself.

"Hey, Penny," Rainbow said, stepping inside the room. "What are you doing?"

Penny stopped pacing and turned to face Rainbow. "I'm...practicing."

"Practicing?" Rainbow asked. She shook her head. "Never mind that now; we've gotta go, come on."

"Are we going to see Ruby and her friends again?" Penny asked, her whole face brightening up at the prospect.

"Uh, no," Rainbow said. "General Ironwood just called us in."

"Oh," Penny said, and the brightness that had briefly suffused her vanished. "Could we go and see Ruby again today? Semester begins tomorrow, she must have returned from vacation by now."

"I don't know," Rainbow said, at which Penny looked so dejected that Rainbow Dash felt as though she'd just been stabbed through the heart. She was reminded of Pinkie, and how much it had hurt her when Rainbow first went off to Atlas and didn't call or write or stay in touch. Rainbow hadn't meant anything by it, she'd just been busy, but it had taken her friends turning up on her proverbial doorstep to remind her that it seemed to Pinkie like she didn't mean anything to Rainbow Dash. It was probably - hopefully - the same here: Ruby didn't mean anything by not keeping in touch with Penny, but Penny was starting to fret that she didn't mean anything to Ruby. Rainbow sighed. "Look, I don't know if I'm still going to be your team leader by the end of today but, if I am, we will go and see Ruby."

Penny beamed. "Really?"

"Promise," Rainbow said. She grinned. "In fact I Pinkie Promise."

Penny blinked. "Pinkie...promise?"

Rainbow nodded. "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye. Nobody ever breaks a Pinkie Promise."

"Why not?"

 _Because when you disappoint someone who trusts with all their heart you tarnish something beautiful, and nobody wants that._ "Because...just because, Penny. Now come on, we need to move."

"What should I say to her?" Penny asked.

Rainbow hesitated. "Ruby? Is that...is that what you were practicing?"

"No," Penny said quickly, before a hiccup put the lie to it.

"Just...be yourself."

"But what if Ruby doesn't like myself?"

"Then she won't be your friend no matter who you pretend to be," Rainbow said. "Trust me, now come on."

Ozpin resumed his seat behind his desk, and poured himself a mug of coffee. "I can certainly appreciate quality time between friends," he said, as his fingers closed around the handle of the mug. "However, that fleet outside my window has me somewhat concerned." He glared mildly at the man standing before him from over the top of his spectacles, regarding General James Ironwood as he would have regarded a particularly errant pupil. "Just as I was concerned and disappointed to discover that you have been running a secret operation in Vale without my knowledge."

General Ironwood didn't look in the least bit fazed by the rebuke. "Because you have told me all of your secrets."

Ozpin sipped his coffee. It was scalding hot upon his tongue. "I have told you everything...that you need to know."

"As have I," Ironwood replied. "Whatever else I may be I am a soldier of Atlas; I have loyalties to others than you."

 _And that is why I would not tell you everything, even if I could._ "I understand that our association sometimes puts you in a difficult position, even more so than most; believe me when I tell you that I am neither unmindful of nor ungrateful for your service. But may I ask why you felt the need to have your wind-up girl and her friends running around my city? Why you felt the need to hang your fleet outside my window?"

"I didn't intend for Penny to get involved in any trouble," Ironwood said. "I sent her here because I thought that, since Vale is a more...relaxed society than Atlas, what she is wouldn't be so immediately obvious."

"I see," Ozpin said in a neutral tone. "And your fleet?"

"A necessary show of force."

"We are in a time of peace."

"We're at war, you taught me that," Ironwood said, setting his mug down on Ozpin's desk.

"A war where the weapons are knowledge, ideology and manipulation," Ozpin corrected him gently. "Not ships or armies."

"It won't be knowledge or ideology that kills us," Ironwood said, the softness of his voice almost making it sound as though he wasn't pushing back against Ozpin. "The White Fang are growing bolder. They're interdicting the Cold Harbour rail line with a frequency verging on regularity. Last month they made off with over a score of prototype Atlesian war machines. It won't be knowledge killing us, Oz, it'll be our own weapons that we let fall into enemy hands while we sit idle."

Ozpin was silent for a moment. He didn't regret for a moment bringing Ironwood into his inner circle - although Qrow might disagree with him; James was brave, intelligent and even reasonably loyal. Ozpin did not believe he could have chosen anyone better to run Atlas Academy on his behalf. But the man had no tact, no subtlety, and Ozpin's attempt to teach him both had, sad to say, met with failure. Their present situation was a case in point.

He took swallowed a large amount of his rapidly cooling coffee. "What would you have me do, James?"

"I want you to trust me as I have trusted you for so many years," Ironwood declared. He leaned heavily on the desk. "You have your favourites. You choose them and you prepare them and when the time is right you bring them in. Qrow, Glinda...I have people too, good people who could be valuable assets to our cause if you would only consider-"

"I don't know your people," Ozpin said, firmly but not - he hoped - unkindly. "In matters of recruitment I'm afraid I trust no one's judgement but my own."

"Winter Schnee is twice the person Qrow Branwen will ever be," Ironwood said. "Rainbow Dash would make an excellent Fall Maiden, and I might even say the same of Ciel Soleil-"

"I don't know them," Ozpin repeated.

"And I don't know why you're even considering putting your trust in a girl with a list of demerits and disciplinary citations as long as my arm," Ironwood snapped. He sighed heavily. "I'm sorry, Oz. Can't you at least understand why I get frustrated?"

"Of course," Ozpin said genially. "Our present circumstances are far from ideal. But we must move carefully. The worst thing we can do is cause a panic in our zeal to fight the good fight. Thank you for bringing the matter of your weapons to my attention."

"And?"

"I will consider your autumn candidates," Ozpin said. Of course, consideration did not have to imply acceptance, but...setting aside the natural tendency of any headmaster to bat for their own school, he could not honestly say that virtue was only to be found within the Beacon student body. Perhaps Miss Dash or Miss Soleil would turn out to be the one he'd been looking for. He doubted it, but it was a possibility.

Ironwood seemed mollified by the confession. His tone was much more affable than it had been just a moment ago. "Thank you, Oz; I appreciate it. And I promise, you won't find my people wanting. They're made of the right stuff."

Ozpin smiled. "I would expect nothing less of your prize students."

Ironwood even managed to muster a small smile of his own at the compliment. "And the White Fang?"

"I have people looking into them already," Ozpin said, without elaborating on who these people were. James might not find the idea of leaving the investigation into the White Fang in the hands of a White Fang deserter (a White Fang deserter whom Ozpin hadn't ordered to do anything, but Ozpin had faith in Miss Belladonna's natural rectitude to drive her on far more urgently than any instructions from him could have motivated her) currently in her first year at Beacon particularly reassuring. He might even have cause to think that Ozpin wasn't taking this situation seriously. "Of course I can't stop you from taking action of your own in the matter of your stolen equipment but please, James, be discreet. The last thing we need is for the public and the council to find out that the White Fang have acquired Atlesian military hardware."

"I understand," Ironwood murmured. "Thank you, for listening to my concerns."

"You've always done what you thought was right," Ozpin said. "That is all that I can ask, just as it is all that I can do."

The corridor outside of the General's office, the corridor in which Team RSPT waited to receive General Ironwood's pleasure or displeasure, as the case might be, had no windows but was brightly light nonetheless. It was a pure white, sterile kind of light, illuminating a sterile grey metallic corridor with little in the way of distinguishing features except the direction signs painted on the wall. There were places aboard this ship that were monuments to Atlesian technological achievement but this corridor wasn't one of them. The door into the office was barred by a marine guard, his face concealed behind his helmet, who stood to attention before the door and never so much as glanced at the huntresses waiting nearby.

Rainbow and Ciel stood at ease; Twilight, whose position in the military was unclear, stood awkwardly with her hands clasped in front of her; Penny fidgeted like a bored toddler.

"Officer on deck ten-hut!" Ciel barked as footsteps began to echo down the corridor.

Rainbow stood to attention on reflex, her foot slamming down onto the deck as her hands snapped to her sides.

General Ironwood strode down the corridor, his stride brisk and martial. Specialist Schnee followed behind him. Rainbow and Ciel saluted, but he strode to the door without acknowledgement of either of them or Twilight.

It wasn't until Penny said, "Good afternoon, Mister Ironwood." And offered him a cheery wave besides, that the general stopped in front of his door.

General Ironwood turned slowly. His expression was grave as he returned the salutes of Rainbow and Ciel, but all of his attention was clearly fixed on Penny herself. When he spoke - to her and only to her - his tone wasn't without warmth. "Penny, under the circumstances, from now on it would be best if you called me General."

"Affirmative, Mister General!"

The General chuckled. It was a strange sound to come out of his mouth. Rainbow found it practically disconcerting. "That's not quite what I meant, but never mind. It's good to see you again. Schnee."

"Yes, sir?"

"I don't want to keep you any longer than necessary, I understand you're probably anxious to go and see your sister, but could you please...keep Penny company for a moment. This won't take long."

"Of course, general. Take as long as you need."

"Thank you," General Ironwood said. He turned away, and disappeared into his office without a word to any of the other members of RSPT.

Silence descended on the corridor.

"So," Rainbow said. "How much trouble did we get you into?"

Specialist Schnee snorted. "That's classified."

"How much trouble are we in?"

"You'll find out in just a moment."

"Gee, thanks," Rainbow muttered.

The door opened and the General's yeoman, a young woman with her blonde hair done up in a beehive, emerged. "Rainbow Dash, Ciel Soleil and Twilight Sparkle? He wants to see you."

Twilight winced.

"Hey," Rainbow said. "It's going to be okay." _For you at least._ Whatever happened, Rainbow was fairly certain that Twi would escape any real blame.

The yeoman waited outside as the three of them stepped through the doorway and into the office. Said office looked to be essentially a mirror image of the General's office in Atlas Academy, the same office in which Rainbow, Ciel and Twilight had stood when General Ironwood had first formed Team RSPT and assigned them to guard and guide Penny on her path to becoming the future of Atlas. Now in an identically austere, identically decorated - every chair was in the same place, there were identical artworks on the walls, there was an Atlesian flag in the exact same corner and the general's desk was in the same place with his back to the spacious window; even the few objects on the desk looked to be placed exactly the same - they might be about to be informed that their team was being broken up.

 _I don't regret a thing._

They didn't sit down, and General Ironwood did not invite them to do so. He stood with his back to them, staring out of the window with his hands clasped behind his back.

The three of them stood to attention - or an approximation of it, in Twilight's case - before his desk, and waited.

"At ease," he said, without turning around.

Rainbow and Ciel moved to the correct position, feet apart and hands behind their backs. Rainbow felt her palms begin to sweat. Couldn't they just get this over with?

General Ironwood continued to stare out of the window. His office was facing away from Beacon, looking out over Vale and over the fleet that he had brought with him. Most of the skygraspers who had escorted the cruisers in were starting to dock by this point, leaving only a few craft flying CAP. But you could still see the cruisers, hovering suspended in the sky above like the models that hung from the ceiling of Twilight's bedroom.

Finally, after a wait that - whatever its actual length - felt agonising to Rainbow Dash, General Ironwood turned to face the three of them.

"Twilight," he said. "How is your examination into the possibility of wireless swords going?"

Twilight looked down. "I'm afraid I've made no progress worth reporting, sir."

"Never mind, I know you'll crack it eventually," General Ironwood said. He almost smiled. "I saw your parents before I left Atlas; they asked me to make sure that you were well, and eating healthily."

Twilight cringed in embarrassment. "I'm sorry, sir."

"Never be ashamed of your family, Twilight," General Ironwood admonished. "We fight for many reasons: for the glory of Atlas, for the honour of the army, for the preservation of mankind; but most of all we fight to protect those who are dear to us. Don't forget that."

"No, sir. I won't."

All traces of the avuncular fondness that General Ironwood had been displaying towards Twilight vanished as soon as he swept his gaze over Rainbow and Ciel. "Acting Specialist Dash, Acting Specialist Soleil, give me one good reason why I shouldn't throw you both in the brig."

Rainbow stood to attention. "Well, we did save the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, sir. Shouldn't that count for something?"

"That wasn't your mission, Dash."

"No, sir, but we did it anyway."

"Yes, you did, didn't you?" General Ironwood growled. He pulled out his chair and sat down.

"Sir, as team leader I take full responsibility for all the actions taken by this team. You shouldn't punish Ciel for following orders that I gave her."

General Ironwood affixed her with a steely gaze. "Specialist Schnee attempted to cover for you as well," he said. "It's good to know that you're as loyal to your people as your superiors are to you."

Rainbow grinned. "Thank you, sir."

"If only you were as loyal to the parameters of your mission," General Ironwood said. "You were supposed to be watching Penny, not taking her to video game arcades or getting her involved in military operations of questionable legality."

"Permission to speak freely, sir?"

General Ironwood stared at her for a moment. "Granted."

"If Penny were a regular huntress in training you wouldn't give a damn that she spent an afternoon goofing off," Rainbow said. "And frankly, sir, if a regular team of Atlas students had pulled off the rescue op that we pulled off, we'd be in here for you to tell us how great we are, not kick our asses."

Twilight winced. Ciel glanced at Rainbow as though she'd taken leave of her senses.

General Ironwood's expression didn't alter. "But Penny isn't a regular huntress in training. Neither is Twilight Sparkle, for that matter. One is the product of millions of liens-worth of research and development, the other is one of the brightest minds of our time and your job was to keep them out of harm's way until I decide otherwise. I decide, not you. I ask again: give me one good reason I shouldn't consider you a failure in your mission."

Rainbow's mouth felt dry. She knew the answer to this - that Penny was a person, dammit, and she deserved to have fun, she deserved to be allowed to try and rescue her friends rather than have to live with the guilt, the choking guilt of failure to save by failure to act - but she wasn't sure if she could explain it to the general. She couldn't talk like Twilight or Ciel, she didn't know all the right words to make everyone agree with her; but it was her that General Ironwood had asked to speak and so she would have to find the right words somehow.

Or would she? A sudden thought struck Rainbow Dash; a thought that, though it might seem a little bizarre, suddenly made a lot of sense to her. The man sitting in front of her was not an idiot, and he wasn't clueless about his students or his soldiers; General Ironwood wasn't one to allow his lofty position to render him remote. And yet he had formed Team RSPT, hand-picking each member to support Penny, and he had chosen Rainbow Dash to lead it.

"I don't think I need to explain myself to you, sir," Rainbow Dash. She winced as her mind caught up with the words that had just come out of her mouth. "Wait, that came out wrong. I didn't mean it like that. No disrespect intended, sir."

General Ironwood clasped his hands together on his desk. "Perhaps you'd better explain what you did intend, Dash."

"I meant, sir, that I don't think you actually want an explanation," Rainbow said. "General, when Team Jasper was disbanded you could have had me tossed out of Atlas and the military."

"As I believe I told you at the time," General Ironwood said. "You disobeyed a direct order to pull out. In fact you contravened said order and went back into the danger zone."

"And because I did Ash only lost a leg instead of his life and Maud got out in one piece, sir," Rainbow replied. "I didn't regret it at the time and I don't regret it now. But I disobeyed orders and you could have made me face the consequences of that. But you didn't, sir. Instead you put this team together and you made me team leader. And I've gotta believe that you knew who I was when you made that choice.

"Penny's not just a thing, sir. She's not just a piece of equipment and I think you know that. And I think you put this team together because you trusted us to know it too."

General Ironwood stared up at Rainbow Dash, his eyes cold and unreadable. And then he smiled. "Well done, Rainbow Dash; you get it."

Rainbow only realised that she'd been holding her breath when she wasn't any more. "You mean I was right?"

"Absolutely right, although don't let it go to your head," General Ironwood replied. "Penny...Penny is more than just a weapon. She's not an android. She may be the future of warfare, but she's also a young girl. That's why I've decided to enter her into the Vytal Festival." The general got up from behind his desk. "There are some who view Penny's participation in this event as a waste of resources; they argue that she should be deployed against the grimm as soon as possible. I was able to convince those people by stating that Penny still has a lot to learn and that the safe environment of the tournament is a good place for her to acquire combat experience; I've also pointed to the glory that will accrue to our kingdom should Penny be victorious. But the truth is that there is another reason: I hope that Penny will enjoy the tournament, and the festival that surrounds it; she's destined to have a hard life, full of struggle, constantly deployed in battle in the service of Atlas. But I hope...I hope that she can make some happy memories here, to hold onto amongst the trials to come. Do the three of you understand that?"

"Yes sir," Rainbow murmured.

"Understood, sir."

"Um, permission to speak, sir," Twilight said. "Do you think...do you think it's right to force Penny to fight? I mean, if she is a girl, and she's so young...are we...is it right, sir?"

"Is it right that children your age should be sent to fight the creatures of grimm?" General Ironwood responded. "I don't have a cast-iron ethical response to give you to either of those questions, Twilight; but the people and the military of Atlas have funded Penny's development in the same way that they've paid for your education; they have a right to return on both investments."

"Yes, sir," Twilight said softly. "I understand."

General Ironwood nodded, as if to say that he shared her concerns even if he couldn't do anything about them. "Through duty, sacrifice," he murmured. "And through sacrifice, victory. That is the Atlesian way, imperfect though it may be."

"So," Rainbow ventured. "Sir, if we are all about letting Penny have something like a life...does that mean she can see her Beacon friends again?"

"Team Rosepetal will be moving into Beacon dorms along with the other Atlesian students arrived for the Vytal festival," General Ironwood declared. "Once there you will present yourselves as ordinary students, and Penny can associate with who she likes under the supervision of at least one other member of the team. Soleil, I expect weekly reports on the people she interacts with and your own opinion on them."

"Yes sir."

Rainbow's eyebrows rose. "Weekly reports, sir."

"If Penny were my flesh and blood daughter I would ask exactly the same of the people she fraternised with," General Ironwood responded. "Twilight, you can go. Wait outside, make sure Penny doesn't wander off, and tell Schnee that she's dismissed for now. She can go see her sister if she likes."

"Yes, general," Twilight said. She bowed, and then backed quickly out of the office as the door opened and then closed behind her with a hydraulic hiss,

General Ironwood turned his back on Rainbow and Ciel, and once more stood before the window looking out over the Atlesian fleet. He clasped his hands behind his back. "Tell me, both of you, what do you see?"

"A fleet, sir," Rainbow said.

"The strength of Atlas incarnate, sir," said Ciel, a note of pride entering her voice.

"The strength of Atlas incarnate," General Ironwood repeated, musing over every word. "That's almost poetic, Soleil."

"Thank you, sir."

General Ironwood was silent for a moment or two, gazing out of the window at the array of force at his immediate disposal. "The four kingdoms are in a time of peace. To what can that peace be attributed?"

"To the might of Atlas, sir!" Ciel declared, the pride in her tone growing fiercer still.

"Indeed?"

"Indeed, sir; Atlas possesses the strongest military on the planet, every other kingdom is well aware that they could not hope to stand against us in war, and that we would side against any nation that went rogue and attempted to disrupt the state of peace for its own selfish ends. We guarantee the security of all other nations against their neighbours and the grimm and thus, we preserve peace between them."

"Even so," General Ironwood said softly. He glanced at the painting that hung on the wall to his left. Since one exactly like it hung on the wall in his Atlas office, Rainbow guessed that it was a copy not an original. It was one of those paintings that had two pictures in it, two panels that looked like they ought to be folded up like a greetings card. There was an artsy word for it but Rainbow had forgotten what it was. One of the panels showed the end of the Great War, not the signing of the Vytal Treaty but the Battle of Vacuo when the kings of Mantle, Mistral and Vacuo knelt to the last King of Vale and offered him their crowns. Particular attention was paid in the painting to the king of Mantle, kneeling in dejected humiliation with his crown at his feet, offering up a sword to his defeated opponent while all around the knights and warriors of Mantle wept for the shame of it and threw down their arms in the humiliation of defeat. The second panel showed one of General Ironwood's predecessors, looking more like a king than the King of Mantle in the other panel, presiding over the signing of the Mantle Accords; the Atlesian practically shone, and he plunged the delegates of the other kingdoms into shadow.

"Quite a remarkable achievement, no?" General Ironwood asked. "From defeat in the Great War to the pre-eminent military power in Remnant. Through the struggle and sacrifice of those who came before us we have reached this point."

"From the ashes we rise, sir," Rainbow and Ciel chorused as one.

"From the ashes we rise," General Ironwood agreed. "There are those who regard this peace we are enjoying as a natural state of affairs, a status quo that will sustain itself, but I see a fragile thing that must be protected from all those who would disturb it." He turned around, seeming sterner now, and older than before. "Those like the White Fang. Last month a train carrying weapons, munitions, and a large number of prototype modes of our new heavy support mech the Paladin were stolen travelling south from Cold Harbour to Vale. It was far from the first Atlesian military or Schnee Dust Company train to be hit on that line. I hope I don't have to tell you how dangerous advanced weaponry could be in the hands of terrorists. Therefore, Rainbow Dash, I want you to take point on our efforts to recover this equipment and discover the whereabouts of those who stole it."

"Sir?" Rainbow said. "I mean, I'll do it, but...why me?"

"Because I believe you can do it," General Ironwood said. "And because there are those who don't believe in you, and your team, whom I'd like to show the error of their ways. Don't disappoint me."

Rainbow Dash had never been one to turn away from a challenge. A grin blossomed over her face. "Sir, I'm going to soar so high over that bar you won't be able to see us both at the same time. And I'll take my whole team with me, too."

"I'd expect nothing less," General Ironwood said. "Dismissed, and good hunting."

Ranbow and Ciel slammed to attention. "Sir, yes sir!"

"I can't believe you guys!" Ruby cried. "You went to Mistral without me and you got to go on an awesome grimm-hunting adventure while you were there! So unfair! All I got was grounded." She pouted adorably in a way that made her look closer to ten than fifteen.

"Hunting the grimm? Didn't seem that cool at the time," Jaune reassured her.

"And, as for the rest..." Pyrrha murmured. "Well, you probably would have found it frightfully dull and boring...I don't think Sunset and Jaune had a great time there."

"What are you talking about?" Sunset asked. "Mistral was great. I had a wonderful time."

"Yeah, we both did," Jaune added. "The sights, the culture-"

"The snobbery?" Pyrrha suggested.

Jaune shrugged. "Nowhere's perfect."

Pyrrha's expression was still for a moment, before the ends of her lips twitched upwards momentarily. "Thank you, both of you."

"See!" Ruby yelled accusingly. "You did both have a great time without me!"

"Yeah, that's about the size of it," Sunset said, folding her arms as she rocked backwards on her chair.

"Bah! So unfair!"

Sunset sniggered. "What, you never snuck out of the house when your father wasn't watching?"

"I don't think that's the kind of behaviour a team leader should be encouraging," Pyrrha said mildly.

Ruby played with her fingers, looking down at her hands where they lay in her lap. "Well...yeah, once. I mean I tried. I thought I could try and activate my silver eyes-"

"Wait wait wait wait wait wait, wait!" Sunset said, throwing out one hand to cut Ruby off in mid stream. She lifted up her legs and let her chair fall forwards with a solid thump of the forelegs on the floor. "Wait," she repeated. "Activate your silver eyes? You know how to do that?"

Ruby blinked. "Did I forget to mention that?"

"Yes!" Sunset yelled. "Did you read more in the diary?"

Ruby nodded eagerly. "I have magic eyes!" she declared, infusing her voice with what Sunset could only guess to be an attempt at sounding mystical and mysterious by drawing out the word 'magic' far longer than necessary.

Sunset's eyebrows rose. Honestly that was not what she had been expecting, although perhaps she should have. After all, she knew full well that magic existed in this world; with the benefit of hindsight it had been conceited arrogance on her part to assume that she, and she alone in all of Remnant, had the ability to access and manipulate its energies. Nothing exists in isolation, Princess Celestia had taught her once, blending magical theory with a dash of sociology; all things leave their mark upon the world and are in their turn marked by it; either they will accommodate themselves to the world around them and in so doing force the world to somewhat accommodate them in turn, or else they will make their presence known by force and either destroy or in struggle be destroyed themselves. It had been part of Celestia's mission in ruling Equestria to find sufficient space - physical and social - to accommodate all things which would be accommodated. The principle was more easily observed socially, but could be seen also in magic and in the society that unicorns had built to make use of their command of it. Why should it be any different in Remnant? Why should a power such as magic be ignored, existing in isolation and affecting the world not? True, Sunset had not come across another magic user yet - that she knew of, she corrected herself; who knew who else might be disguising their command of same as a kind of semblance - but that had been no reason for her to suppose that they did not exist.

 _My vanity remains, I see._

Sunset would have to confess that she had never heard of ocular magic before, but that was no reason to suppose that it did not exist. What reason would Summer Rose have to lie in a private journal? To play a joke on her children or descendants who might read it? That would take a rather singular sense of humour for which there was no evidence. That she had set down the truth as she perceived it was far more likely an explanation.

 _So, Ruby has magic in her bloodline, or the potential for it at least._ The idea was fascinating, even more than the mere prospect of some untapped source of power within her and that had been quite enticing enough for Sunset. Fascinating, enticing...and intriguing too. _A young prodigy and sprung from a line of magic, too. What are the odds?_

 _What are the odds of this company?_ That Ruby, with her hidden legacy of magic, should be placed on a team with someone who was a practiced wielder of magic; that Team SAPR should include not one but two prodigies (one of whom was also the heir to one of Remnant's ancient thrones) and Jaune, who behind his facade of aggressive ordinariness had turned out to be a kind of human battery for the aura of the others. Sunset had been glad - and was still glad - to have been gifted, blessed with such talented raw materials to work with but the more revelation piled upon revelation as to the overwhelming specialness of this company the more she was forced to question if someone's thumb was being placed on the scales. Destiny was watching over them, of that Sunset did not wish to doubt, but was destiny driving them on sufficient to explain this run of providential good fortune? Were they being looked after by someone closer at hand?

 _How random is the team selection, really?_

"Um, Ruby," Pyrrha murmured, and by her speech made Sunset consciously aware of the fact that a prolonged silence had followed Ruby's pronouncement. Judging by the expressions that Jaune and Pyrrha wore - the former openly disbelieving, the latter what could best be described as a polite scepticism combined with a degree of nerves, presumably about giving offence - they were not so open to the idea that Ruby might have latent magical powers. "Are you certain of that? Magic?"

"Uh-huh," Ruby said. "Yang thought it was weird too, but it's just a word, right? And Dad said that Mom really could do amazing things with her eyes."

"But...but, magic?" Jaune said. "Come on, Ruby, everyone knows there's no such thing as magic. That stuffs for fairy tales and comic books."

"What are you saying, Jaune?" Ruby asked. "Don't you believe me?"

"Nobody's saying that," Pyrrha began. "But-"

She said more, but that was the point at which Sunset tuned her out; her thoughts turned inwards because Sunset could see, with such perfect clarity that it was as if she had suddenly been blessed with the gift of foresight, how this conversation: anything useful that Ruby might have learned about her magic would get lost as the conversation was derailed into the weeds of arguing over magic even existed or not. Rational scepticism, empirical evidence and general consensus of opinion would be pitted against the word of Ruby's late mother and still-living father, and Ruby's faith in both of them. Sunset couldn't see exactly how long the argument would go one and one. And Sunset, who knew full well that magic existed, would have to sit here and listen to it all.

Or she could nip this in the bud right now and tell them the truth.

Some of the truth anyway. The parts about magic.

That was an uncertain road. She couldn't see where it would go. But it would probably spare her a headache from listening to these three blind men argue about sight, and it was probably the only way that would allow her to help Ruby unlock her magic with all the potential that offered to raise their team to further heights of greatness. So long as she could keep off the 'unicorn from another world' business that would be even more of a distraction from the point than debating the existence of magic, then they might actually get somewhere.

 _If I wrote to Twilight about this she'd probably tell me to trust my friends. Well, look at me now, Twilight: I didn't even need you to tell me that. Aren't I becoming nice and friendly?_

"Neither of you," she said. "Should be so quick to dismiss what you don't understand. There are more things in heaven and earth than you have dreamt of." Celestia had told her that, referring to the magic of friendship; now Sunset used the line to refer to a more prosaic power by far.

Another silence descended on the dorm room.

Jaune laughed nervously. "Sunset...come on...you're not...do you believe in magic?"

"I don't need to believe in magic any more than I need to believe in this desk," Sunset said, knocking on the desk behind her with one hand. "I know it exists."

More silence greeted this pronouncement. Jaune, Pyrrha, even Ruby were looking at her strangely.

Sunset smirked. "People keep saying that my semblance is amazingly versatile." She spread her hands. "That's because it's not a semblance."

"It's...magic?" Jaune asked.

Sunset took a deep breath, and focussed her magic into her fingertips. She would have to do something special. Something beyond the usual combat tricks that she'd been passing off as her semblance for years. Something impressive for the eyes, something-

 _Sure. Something like that._

Sunset's fingers began to glow. _I hope this works, I haven't actually used magic like this for a while._

"Watch," Sunset said, as she picked a satsuma up off her desk and tossed it up into the air. She pointed her fingers at it as it fell, and a spark of green light leapt from her fingertips to strike the falling fruit, turning it into a frog.

Sunset caught it with her telekinesis, lowering the frog more gently down to the floor lest anyone get distracted by the idea of wanton cruelty to animals.

"Can a semblance do that?" she asked rhetorically (or least she hoped it was rhetorical; there might actually be a semblance that could do that, but Sunset took comfort from the fact that it was almost impossible that there could be a semblance that transfigured objects and fired energy beams).

The frog croaked indignantly, and hopped across the floor.

Jaune's were as wide as dinner plates. Pyrrha's expression was more guarded, but she could not keep the surprise off her face or out of her posture completely. Ruby looked in awe.

"You're a witch!" Ruby said. "That is so cool."

Sunset snorted. "I've never actually been called that before but...I suppose it isn't inappropriate." _After all, we speak of wizards; why not witches too?_

"So...you've been using magic all this time?" Pyrrha asked.

"Yup," Sunset said. "You asked me why my basic combat skills were so...basic. And that's the answer: I was learning magic since I was a kid, not how to fight."

"I see," Pyrrha murmured. "That explains a great deal."

"How can you both be so okay with this?" Jaune demanded.

"If your head is going to explode, Jaune, go into the bathroom first; it'll be easier to clean up the mess," Sunset said.

A nervous laugh escaped from Jaune's lips. "So...you're being serious? It's...magic? You're...you're like...a magical girl?"

Sunset's eyes narrowed. "If you're expecting to see me in a sailor fuku or a frilly dress you can forget it, but...I suppose, as I am a girl who has magic I could be called...a magical girl."

Jaune's mouth moved silently. "How?"

Sunset looked away. _What can I say: I'm a magical unicorn from another world? I'm the fallen angel who was expelled from paradise?_ "My past is my own. Nothing personal I just...there are things that I don't want to talk about; and in any case I didn't bring this up so that we could talk about me. I brought it up because, well, if Ruby has magic then...I might be able to teach you how to use it, if that's what you want."

Ruby gasped. "Really?"

Sunset nodded. "I was taught by the best. I'm sure I can figure something out."

"Are you certain?" Pyrrha asked. "It doesn't sound as though Ruby's magic, the magic that she might have inherited from her mother, has much to do with the power that you possess."

"Magic is, too an extent, magic," Sunset replied. "You might be right, it might be that I can't help Ruby. But I don't see that we lose anything by trying. And does Ruby have any other options?"

"There's Professor Ozpin," Ruby said. "I think he taught my mom, at least a little."

That was interesting. Professor Ozpin knew about magic? Sunset supposed that that ought to have been obvious, since they already knew that he had known about the silver eyes of Summer Rose and, if said eyes were magic, then it followed logically that he knew about magic. More of a revelation was the fact that he had taught Summer Rose how to use her gift, to an extent at least. _How did you do that then, professor?_ The headmaster of Beacon did not have silver eyes himself...could he have magic of his own? It was certainly possible, the fact that Sunset hadn't seen him use magic meant nothing since she'd hardly seen him at all and never in a situation where magic would be called for.

 _The fight with Pyrrha. He knew what I was going to do._

 _He knows that I have magic._ Not too surprising, if he knew of its existence; Sunset had relied upon people's ignorance to be her shield but if Professor Ozpin was not ignorant...if he was not ignorant then was he unconcerned? He knew that Sunset had magic but he hadn't done anything about it, not even approaching her to let her know that he knew. He had done nothing.

 _Nothing but put me on a team with Ruby._

 _Did you plan all this, Professor? Are we all dancing in accordance with your will?_ The notion seemed absurd upon its face - how could Professor Ozpin have known that she would sneak into the archives, let alone find Summer Rose's diary - but at the same time Sunset couldn't entirely dismiss the thought, couldn't shake it from her mind. Perhaps it was just her experiences with Celestia getting to her but it was all starting to seem so convenient. Too convenient.

Sunset scowled. She was done being a pawn of the Wise; Sunset Shimmer was no-one's puppet. Although she could think of Celestia with fondness, although she had forgiven her old teacher, that didn't change the fact that the princess had led Sunset around by the nose for years with promises of destiny and greatness that had turned out to be as substantive as the air; the fact that Celestia had been as much mistaken as she had been lying made no difference to how frustrating it had been, how much time Sunset had wasted pursuing a fantasy. She would not suffer such again.

But that need not mean that all of Professor Ozpin's hypothetical plans were contrary to Sunset's interest or to the interests of SAPR. Sunset had reaped benefit from Celestia's instruction, after all. They might go along together, for a while (and all of this assuming that there was any intent in any of this) until it no longer profited her - or the team - to do so.

"I think," Sunset said softly. "That Professor Ozpin might intend for me to teach Ruby. Or at least to try."

Jaune blinked. "Professor Ozpin might intend? How could the professor intend anything, he doesn't know that Ruby has her mom's journal, he doesn't know how much we know about silver eyes or...or magic or any of this."

"That might be what he wants us to think," Sunset said. She sighed. "Look, I'm not saying that I have this all figured out but think about it, look at this team: a world-renowned fighter; a young prodigy who is also the heir to a magical bloodline; a...a magical girl, or a witch or whatever you want to call me with power and the ability to teach Ruby magic; and a boy with a sword of ancient heroes and enough aura for a small army; we're a super team! Maybe we just got really lucky but what if it was more than that?"

"But team selections are random!" Jaune protested.

"Says Professor Ozpin," Sunset said.

"Yang said the same thing," Ruby said. "She told me that I really lucked out with my team-mates. She called it winning the lottery. She also said..."

Sunset leaned forward. "Go on."

Ruby frowned, and looked at her hands. "Yang and me...we're actually only half sisters. Summer Rose, she was my mom. Yang's...Yang's mom is actually...the R in team Stark. Her name's Raven."

Pyrrha reached out, and put one hand on Ruby's shoulder. "Ruby, you don't have to talk about this if you don't want to."

"It's fine," Ruby said, although she didn't sound entirely fine. "The point is...Yang saw her. That night at the warehouse, in the tunnels. Yang told me that her mom told her that there were answers in the diary. And I think she said something about Professor Ozpin too, because Yang asked about him, but...I don't know what because Yang didn't tell me."

"But it's Professor Ozpin," Jaune said. "He's...he's a legend. The youngest headmaster in history!"

"His reputation is formidable," Pyrrha said. "It's hard to believe that a man so well-beloved, a hero of Remnant, could harbour any ill-intent towards us."

"I never said that he had ill-intent," Sunset said. "I just said that he might have intentions that are not immediately obvious, for good or ill."

"But if he trained Ruby's mother in her powers," Pyrrha said. "Why would he not want to train Ruby?"

 _Because he was fresh out of transplanted unicorns in Ruby's mother's day._ "Secrecy?" Sunset said. "Ruby getting special lessons from the headmaster would be hard to keep secret, and that might lead to people finding out about her eyes. Incidentally, I hope it goes without saying that none of this stuff leaves the room, especially about my magic."

Pyrrha nodded. "Of course."

"Why would it matter if people found out about Ruby's eyes?" Jaune asked.

"I don't know," Sunset admitted. "Like I said, I don't have all the answers. I'm just musing aloud at this point and, in any case, we're getting way off-topic again. Ruby: do you want me to try and train you in your silver eyes?"

"Yes!"

"Think carefully before you answer," Pyrrha admonished.

 _Are we going to have to have a talk about this?_ Sunset thought. _Ruby won't learn if you keep trying to hold her back._

"I want to do it," Ruby said. "I want to be the best huntress I can."

There was a knock on the door.

After a moment's pause by all concerned - Sunset was momentarily possessed by the absurd feeling that Professor Ozpin was about to drop in to let them know that he knew they knew, in the same way that Princess Celestia always seemed to just turn up at the most dramatically opportune moment - Jaune got up to answer the door.

"Hey," came the voice of Rainbow Dash from the other side of the doorway. "Jaune, right?"

"Yeah," Jaune replied. "Hi, Rainbow Dash."

"Is Ruby here?" Penny asked.

Ruby got up off her bed. "Penny?"

Penny stuck her head around the door, forcing Jaune back a step in the process. The freckled 'girl' - if it was appropriate to call her that - beamed delightedly at the sight of Ruby Rose.

"Ruby!" she cried, and she shoved Jaune out of the way so hard that he staggered six paces backwards and fell on his ass on the floor as Penny stepped into the dorm room then took a flying leap that carried her across the room - Sunset ducked just in time to avoid getting her head ripped off - and straight into Ruby, who was borne into the wall with an audible crack and a slightly quieter groan of pain. "I'm so glad to see you again, my friend," Penny said as she enveloped Ruby in what sounded like a crushing hug.

Ruby let out a wordless groan of pain. "Nice to see you too, Penny."

Rainbow ambled into the room and offered Jaune a hand up. "I guess asking if we can come in would be kind of pointless now, right? Hey, guys."

"Hey," Sunset said. "How did you find our room?"

"You have a picture of yourselves taped to the door."

"Oh, right," Sunset said. At the end of the last semester they'd taken a leaf out of Team CFVY's book and taken a bunch of team photos of themselves before picking one to put on the door so everyone knew that it was there room. Apparently it worked. "I wasn't expecting to see you here."

"We are Vytal festival contestants," Rainbow said. "We're here with the other Atlas students. Anyway," she gestured to the other two huntresses who followed her into the dorm room. "These are our team-mates, the second half of Team Rosepetal."

The first was a dark-skinned young woman, wearing a navy-blue skirt and concealing most of her black hair behind a similarly navy-blue beret. She placed one hand over her heart and bowed. "Ciel Soleil, a pleasure to meet you."

"Psst, Sunset," Jaune hissed. "Does this mean we have to do the fancy talk again?"

"Not if you don't want to," Sunset muttered, although she rose from her seat and offered Ciel a very shallow bow of her own. "The pleasure if ours, Miss Soleil; but, please, don't feel as though you need to stand on ceremony. I'm-"

"Sunset Shimmer, seventeen, birthplace listed as Drakon, leader of Team Sapphire," Ciel said. "Status: yet to be determined."

Sunset blinked. She glanced at Rainbow Dash, who shrugged apologetically.

"Anyway," Rainbow said. "Last but by no means least we have-"

"Twilight," Pyrrha said, as she got up off her chair and began to walk towards them. "It is Twilight, isn't it? Shining Armour's sister? You designed that armour suit he wore for our exhibition bout."

"Yes, and you're Pyrrha Nikos, aren't you? Hi," Twilight said, holding out one hand. "I'm surprised you remember me. Or my armour, it didn't really work very well."

"On the contrary, I thought it was very impressive."

"But you won the fight."

"Yes, but it was a close run thing."

Sunset stared at the fourth member of the Atlesian team. "Twilight," she murmured.

"Yes?"

"Your name is Twilight," Sunset said.

"Er, yeah," she said. "Twilight Sparkle."

Sunset let out a strangled choking noise. _Twilight Sparkle? Twilight Sparkle!_ Of course it wasn't _Twilight Sparkle_ , because if the Princess of Friendship had come over from Equestria then she would have let Sunset know that - actually she'd have probably been eaten by a grimm but if she had survived the savage world of Remnant then before she made it safely to Sunset's door then she would have let Sunset know about it - and she wouldn't have been in company with Rainbow Dash and someone Sunset was ninety percent certain was a robot.

 _It's just like Twilight - my Twilight, Equestrian Twilight - said._ After all if there were a Pyrrha, Ruby and Jaune alive in Equestria, then why shouldn't there be a Twilight Sparkle in Remnant?

 _Except she's not in Remnant, she's in my room._ Existential agony had come right to Sunset's door, and then she had just walked through the door and into Sunset's room in the form of a cute girl.

A really cute girl, in a slightly dorky way. Twilight Sparkle - and Sunset just knew that she was going to end up picturing the other Twilight this way when she wrote to her - was a slight girl of about the same height as Penny but much slenderer and more willowy, with lavender eyes hidden behind a pair of very square, thick-framed spectacles which somehow seemed to make her look cuter than she probably would have done without. Her hair was a dark blue, streaked with purple and raspberry, bound tightly in a high bun behind her head. She was wearing a white shirt with a maroon waistcoat over the top, and a plaid skirt with white stockings.

She wasn't Sunset's replacement, she wasn't the person Sunset had been corresponding with, but at the same it was hard to remember that, and not to associate the one with the other.

 _She doesn't look at all like me. I'm sure that I never looked that nervous._ Twilight was looking away from Sunset, but glancing back at her occasionally, fiddling uncertainly with her hands as though she was afraid of something.

"Um, Sunset, is everything okay?" Twilight murmured. "You, uh, you keep staring at me."

Sunset abruptly realised that she had, in fact, been staring and that everyone had noticed by now. She coughed, cleared her throat loudly, and pointedly looked away. "Sorry, uh, it's just that...you look like someone I used to know, that's all. Er, anyway, nice to meet you, uh, that's Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos and Ruby Rose...is over there getting hugged to death."

Penny let go of Ruby. "We've just moved into the dorms here!" she declared excitedly. "So we can see each other all the time!"

"Really?" Ruby asked.

"Yes! And we'll be taking classes and sparring lessons and this is going to be sensational!"

"That's great, Penny."

"Is it really? Are you really happy to have me here?"

"Of course. Now we can see each other whenever we want."

"I know! I'm so glad you feel the same way!"

"Anyway," Rainbow said. "Twi, Ciel, can you two keep an eye on Penny for a minute-"

Ciel looked at her watch.

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Make that ten minutes. Sunset, I need a word with you. In private."

Sunset's eyebrows rose. "Bathroom private or outside private?"

Rainbow considered. "Outside, provided there's no one around."

"Okay," Sunset said, as much to satisfy her curiosity as anything else, and so she followed Rainbow Dash out into the corridor beyond the dorm room. There was no one around right now, in either direction, and yet once Sunset had shut the door behind herself Rainbow began to lead her away from the room.

"Listen, if ths is about the way I looked at-"

"It's not," Rainbow said. "I mean, sure, it got kinda creepy there but so long as you don't do it again we should be fine."

"I'll try and remember that," Sunset murmured. "So...what exactly is Penny anyway?"

Rainbow glanced at Sunset out of the side of her magenta eyes. "She's a person."

"She has wires coming out of her back."

"So she's a person with swords on wires that shoot out of her back, what about it?" Rainbow said in a voice that was barely on this side of snapping.

"Is she a robot?"

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "You realise there are people who would say that we're not really people because we've got pony ears, don't you?"

"Those people are dicks."

"Exactly, so don't be like them."

Sunset's mouth hung open for a moment, but the truth was that she couldn't think of a response to that. "So...what did you want to talk about?"

Rainbow rounded on her. "I know that someone in this school has a contact in the White Fang and I need to know who they are."

Sunset fell silent. She folded her arms. "What makes you think anyone here at Beacon has a contact in the White Fang?"

"The fact that all those Beacon students found you when you were being held by the White Fang."

"You found us," Sunset pointed out.

"True, but if anyone here has Twi's computer skills I'll be amazed."

"You might be right," Sunset allowed. "But that doesn't mean I should tell you anything. Why do you want to know?" _I'm not going to tell you about Blake so that you can arrest her._

"I need information about the White Fang," Rainbow said.

"Why?"

"That's classified."

"Yeah, you're going to have give me a lot more than that if you want me to sell out a friend to the Atlesian military."

Rainbow smirked. "Since when do you care about anybody but yourself?"

Sunset scowled. "Bite my tail, Dash, I'm not that person any more. Tell me the truth or we're done."

Rainbow stared into Sunset's eyes. "White Fang activity is getting worse."

"I know, I read the news."

"I'm not talking about dust shop robberies, I'm talking about heists on the rail line down from Cold Harbour," Rainbow Dash said. "I'm talking about cutting edge Atlesian military hardware in the hands of terrorists. I need to know who you know who knows someone in the White Fang so that I can find out where the weapons are and what they're planning to do with them."

Sunset nodded. "Thank you for being honest with me, Rainbow Dash."

"And?"

"And...I'll talk to them."

Rainbow's eyes bulged. "That's it? You'll talk to them? Weren't you listening?"

"Yes, I was listening," Sunset snapped. "And because it's serious I'll talk to them, but if they don't want to talk to you then tough; I told you, I won't rat them out." She wasn't about to tell anyone about Blake without talking to Blake about it first, and she certainly wasn't going to tell anyone from Atlas about Blake without talking to Blake about it first. Yes, the situation did sound serious, and the idea of the White Fang having access to the latest products of Atlesian R&D wasn't a fun one, but Sunset wasn't an Atlesian soldier or a cop or anyone else with any kind of moral obligation to assist the authorities to the limits of her ability. She was just a student and her loyalty was to the person she knew, the person who had saved her life.

Rainbow's expression was stern and stony, before she grinned suddenly. "I guess I should be one of the last people to complain about loyalty." She patted Sunset on the shoulder. "Congratulations, Sunset; I guess you really have changed. You're almost a person now."

Sunset gazed at Rainbow's hand on her shoulder with frigid disdain. "I don't think we're quite at a touching stage in our relationship yet."

Rainbow pulled her hand away and looked sheepish. "Sorry. You going back to your room?"

"Not quite yet, but if you knock on the door someone will let you in," Sunset replied.

"Right," Rainbow said. "Thanks, Sunset."

 _What are you thanking me for?_ Sunset wondered, as Rainbow wandered back up the corridor. Sunset waited until Rainbow had knocked on the door and been re-admitted into the SAPR dorm room before she glanced over her shoulder.

"How much did you hear, Blake?"

Blake slunk out of the shadows. She had dark circles under her eyes, and her face was pale as though she was having trouble sleeping _and_ eating. "Everything important," she said, so softly Sunset had to strain all four of her ears to hear. "How long have you known I was here."

"Always," Sunset said.

"I was actually on my way to see you," Blake murmured. "Until I saw you come out with her. Who is she?"

"Atlas."

"A friend?"

"I wouldn't say so. We just know each other. I suppose you could say...friends of friends."

"Mmm," Blake said. "Thank you, for not telling...you know."

"Nothing to thank me for," Sunset muttered. She shoved her hands into her jacket pockets and began to walk towards Blake. "So? What do you think?"

Blake was silent for a moment. "Tukson's dead."

Sunset stopped. "The bookstore owner?"

"That's not all he was," Blake whispered.

Sunset sucked in her breath. "White Fang?"

"A deserter," Blake said softly. "One who helped other deserters get out."

"And your contact."

"I don't have any contacts in the White Fang, Tukson did," Blake corrected. "I asked him to find out where you were being held. I knew that it was risky...now he's dead. Probably his contact is dead too."

"Because you chose to save us," Sunset said. She considered telling Blake that she was glad that she'd made the choice she had, but she didn't know how the other faunus would react to hearing it.

Blake's whole body sagged, as though she no longer had the energy to stand upright.

"Are you okay?" Sunset asked.

Blake glared at her, as if that was a question so stupid on the face that she must be an idiot to have asked it. "The White Fang," she whispered. "Roman Torchwick, Atlesian military equipment. What's going on? What are they doing? What have they become?" She sighed. "What happened to everything we used to stand for? I have to stop this."

"You want to talk to Rainbow Dash?"

"I want to find out who killed my friend," Blake said. "And I want...I want you to help me."

Sunset took a step backwards. "Me?"

"My team still doesn't know what I really am, or what I really was," Blake said. "You're the only one I can ask for help with this."

Sunset snorted. "You and me, teaming up to take on the White Fang by ourselves? An ex-terrorist partnering up with an ambitious go-getter; all I need is a junior detective badge and we could have a weekly television show."

"This isn't funny."

"No, it's nuts," Sunset said. "We're first year students, why should this be our responsibility?"

"Because our enemies aren't going to wait for us to graduate from Beacon!" Blake said. "Because something is happening _right now_ that could shake the foundations of the kingdom. Because Tukson risked his life to help save you and he paid with his life, you owe him! Just like you owe me."

Sunset was silent for a moment. There was a part of her that wanted nothing better than to tear the White Fang apart piece by piece. They had attacked her, humiliated her, caged her; they had almost killed Ruby, who was Sunset's, and Sunset would neither forget that nor forgive it. She wanted to see Adam Taurus burn in fire, she wanted to see the strength of the White Fang broken and scattered like ashes on the wind she wanted them to pay for the unforgivable crime of making her feel small and scared if only for a moment.

But there was another part of her that remember how terrified she had been in the moment when the world turned as red as blood and Adam came for her, his red sword shining. Nothing in her entire life had frightened her that way. That, although she would never admit it to any living soul, was the real reason she wanted his sword: because only once it was mounted on her wall could she be certain that it would never be used to scare her again.

 _And we were having a food fight earlier today._ What Blake was proposing was nuts. It was absurd. They were kids, they ought to have been worried about school, not terrorism.

 _We're kids who signed up to fight monsters. We're kids who chose to walk the glory road though it be paved with daggers._ One of Sunset's hands went to the knife at her hip, the knife that Lady Nikos had given her.

"If the black knight asks for her help, how can the white refuse?" Sunset mused. "But I don't want my team involved in this." _I don't want their deaths in this nonsense on my conscience._

"That's fine," Blake said. "You and I will be enough."

"It'll have to be, won't it?" Sunset said. She held out one hand. "Sunset and Blake: Let's kick some ass."


	49. A Brief Rooftop Interrogation

A Brief Rooftop Interrogation

"Pyrrha," Sunset said. "I'm going to need the keys to the team garage back. For tonight at least. I'll give them back later…until I need them again."

Pyrrha looked up from the history book she was reading. "Of course, but why?"

"Because I need to take my bike out tonight," Sunset said, as she pulled her helmet out from under the bed and put it down on the mattress next to her jacket.

"Where?"

"I'm not sure yet."

"What time will you be back?"

Sunset smirked. "I'm not sure, Mom."

Pyrrha flushed a little. "I'm sorry, but…it is a little sudden, don't you agree?"

"Maybe," Sunset said. "But some things come on you suddenly."

Pyrrha put her book down on the desk and got up. "Is something going on?"

"A lot of things, I imagine."

"Sunset," Pyrrha said, wielding her name as an admonition.

"Sorry," Sunset said. "Look, I can't talk about this, okay. You're going to have to trust me."

"I see." Pyrrha threw her the garage keys. Sunset caught them in one hand and put them in her pocket.

"Thanks."

"Will you be back before curfew, at least?"

"Probably not," Sunset said. She grinned. "Don't wait up, okay?"

Pyrrha shook her head. "Are you leaving right now?"

Sunset checked the time. She still had thirty minutes before the time that she and Blake had agreed upon. "I don't have to go right away."

Pyrrha was silent for a moment. "Before Ruby gets back I'd like to talk to you about her silver eyes."

Sunset nodded. "I wondered which one of us was going to say something first. You don't want me to try and teach her how to use them, do you?"

"It's nothing personal about your tuition," Pyrrha said. "I'm not sure that she needs to learn how to use this…this magic at all."

"Isn't that her choice?"

"Aren't we allowed to care about our friend?" Pyrrha countered. "I don't see the need for her to go through this."

"Just because we don't see the need now doesn't mean that there isn't one," Sunset said. "It just means that we haven't seen it yet. And besides, you talk about her going through this…who says there's anything to go through? I'm not going to kill her to try and shake magic out of her; if it hurts her to try and do it then we'll stop." Frankly, Sunset was a little hurt that Pyrrha thought – or might think – otherwise. She was a lot of things, and she worked hard and she'd expect Ruby to do the same, but there was a difference between working hard and breaking yourself – or someone else. She wasn't going to do that to Ruby and she'd thought that Pyrrha would know that by now.

"I'm not talking about physical damage, I know that you wouldn't hurt Ruby that way," Pyrrha said. "I'm talking about…I don't think Ruby understands – or you, for that matter – what her life will be like if she starts using…magic. What people will think of her, how the world will see her."

Sunset frowned. "And how do you think the world will see her?"

"As a silver-eyed warrior you know as well as I do that she'll have no chance of a normal life."

"You're assuming that Ruby wants a normal life," Sunset said. "I'm not sure she does."

"Ruby wants to save people," Pyrrha said. "But I don't think she wants the circus of fame and glory that goes with it."

Sunset was silent for a moment. Then she snorted.

"What?" Pyrrha asked.

"I was wondering…is there any chance that we're both projecting ourselves onto Ruby a little bit?" Sunset asked. "Or projecting each other, maybe. I say that she doesn't want a normal life, you say that she doesn't want fame and glory. All we're really saying that is that she's not Pyrrha Nikos and she isn't Sunset Shimmer either."

Pyrrha looked briefly mortified, before she covered her mouth with one hand and let out a tiny giggle. "I suppose you're right. I am thinking a little too much of myself."

"I get it," Sunset said. "And, sure, I'd be lying if I said that the idea of this power, of obtaining it, of unlocking this magic within Ruby, didn't excite me. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't think this magic could be a good thing for us as a team. But if Ruby didn't want to do this I wouldn't force her to."

Pyrrha nodded. "I suppose that I'll have to be satisfied with that. I just…I don't want her to end up like me."

Sunset said, "I get it. But, honestly, she could do a lot worse."

"Really?"

"Sure. She could end up like me." Sunset grinned. "Anyway, I'll have to go in a minute: what do you think?"

"About what?"

Sunset's face fell. "My new gear!"

Sunset had a cuirass strapped across her chest, mostly plain grey metal but with a small image of her cutie mark set in the centre, roughly where it sat on the shirt she was wearing underneath. A pair of plain round paudrons protected her shoulders, while she had cowters wrapped around her elbows and a pair of metal vambraces – infused with fire dust - wrapped around her forearms.

She had a red sash wrapped around her waist, just above her overskirt; Jaune had taken to doing the same. They weren't copying Pyrrha, but…okay, they were copying Pyrrha a little bit but it looked good

"Oh, you mean your armour."

"Not as fancy as yours, I admit," Sunset said. "But I like it anyway. And that's not all." She picked up her new coat from up off the bed and pulled it on. "I had my jacket infused with fire dust as well."

"And you're taking your weapons, I suppose."

"Yeah," Sunset said. "So?"

"You're going out into the night with no idea of when you'll be back, armed and ready for a fight, and you don't expect me to be concerned?" Pyrrha asked. "What's wrong, Sunset?"

"Nothing's wrong," Sunset said.

"Then why can't you tell me where you're going?"

"Because this isn't my secret to tell," Sunset replied. "I'm helping out a friend and they don't want this spread around. You wouldn't want me to break a promise, would you?"

"Of course not, but…" Pyrrha hesitated. "Stay safe, won't you?"

"Of course," Sunset said. "I promise, you haven't a thing to worry about."

She strapped on her sword, slung Sol Invictus over her shoulders, and grabbed her motorbike helmet before she left the dorm. Thankfully Professor Goodwitch didn't see her – or any other professor for that matter – as she made her way through the corridors out into the courtyard, and from there down towards the garage. Though it was almost seven thirty, the sun was still up – although it was starting to set – and the sky was still mostly blue. Nevertheless, with curfew fast approaching, there was no one around as Sunset got her bike out of the team SAPR garage.

"Okay," Sunset said, as she listened to that engine purr beneath her. "Let's go for a ride."

Blake – who had changed out of her usual outfit into a white jacket - was where they had agreed to meet, at the edge of the courtyard where the rows of arches marked the edge of the school grounds. She looked a little surprised as she wandered over. "What's that?"

Sunset pushed up the smoky visor on her helmet so that she could see Blake a little better. "Did you think that we were just going to walk into Vale?"

Blake didn't answer that. "I snuck out. The rest of my team don't know where I've gone. Do you think…do you think they'll worry?"

"Probably," Sunset said. "Pyrrha wasn't happy about this either."

"And Ruby? Jaune?"

"I didn't tell them," Sunset said. "But what can we say, really? We can't tell them we're going to take on the White Fang. What's the plan for that, by the way?"

"The White Fang holds regular faction meetings to hand out orders and recruit new members," Blake said. "I thought we'd slip into one and see what we could find out."

"Okay," Sunset said.

Blake folded her arms. "What's the problem?"

"I didn't say there was a problem."

"Yes, you did."

Sunset pulled off her helmet for a moment so that Blake could get a better look at her face. "Listen, I love the new outfit, but the White Fang know me and they certainly know you. What if we get made?"

"Can't you just teleport us out or something?"

"I need to be able to see where I'm going."

"Oh. I still think this is our best chance of finding out what's going on."

Sunset was a little more sceptical of that; even if they could sneak into a White Fang chapter meeting then how where they supposed to inconspicuously ask about a guy who'd been murdered recently? "Listen, these regular meetings, how do people find out where they are? The new recruits especially?"

"Markings, hard to spot unless you know what you're looking for," Blake said. "They'll show you where to go, and there are agents there to make sure that any 'new recruits' are legitimately that, not undercover cops."

"Makes sense," Sunset said. "So there are people outside the location?"

"Sure. Why?"

"I've got an idea," Sunset said. "Hop on and I'll tell you about it on the way. Do you have something to cover your face?"

Blake reached behind her, and pulled out a White Fang mask decorated with swirling red markings around the eye-slits. "I never thought I'd have to wear this again," she murmured. She glanced at Sunset. "So, what do you have in mind?"

* * *

"Who killed Tukson?" Sunset demanded. She had her motorbike helmet on, visor down, to hide her face, and she'd cast a spell on herself to alter her voice: she sounded disconcertingly husky, even to herself.

The White Fang agent whom they'd waited until it got dark for, jumped in an alleyway, grabbed, and dragged up a fire escape so that they could dangle him off the top of a building squirmed and writhed in the grip of Sunset's telekinesis as she held him suspended out over the street below. He was an older man, with distinguished grey hair and a full beard, dressed in a smart jacket, waistcoat, shirt and tie. He reminded Sunset of a professor, the sort of person who ought to have spent his life immersed in mouldy old tomes at a seat of learning not been lurking down a dark alley to welcome new recruits to a terrorist movement.

She couldn't tell what kind of faunus he was. He was hiding his animal traits; maybe he had to in order to get by in whatever he did when the sun was up; maybe that was why he was a part of the White Fang.

"I…I don't know who that is," he gasped. "Please, please, you can't let me fall."

"Don't worry," Sunset said. "From this height the fall probably wouldn't even break your aura."

"I don't _have_ aura!"

"Oh," Sunset said. "Guess the fall will break both your legs at least, then."

"Please, no!"

"Then talk!" Sunset snapped. "Tell me something interesting and I'll let you go."

"I have never heard that name in my life, I swear!"

"Then how about Forever Fall train robberies, do you know anything about that?" Sunset asked.

"I've never been to Forever Fall! I've never been outside the Kingdom in all my years!"

"You must know something," Blake said, her voice issuing out from behind her White Fang mask. "Why is the White Fang working with Roman Torchwick?"

"I don't know," he moaned. "Believe me, a lot of us weren't happy when he showed up, but Adam said that it was important that we work with him. You…you're one of us, or you were…you remember Adam, don't you? You know that nobody disagrees once Adam has spoken."

"Yes," Blake growled. "I remember that."

"So Adam just told you to obey Roman Torchwick and that's it?" Sunset demanded. "No questions asked."

The scholarly-looking White Fang agent shook his head. "You don't know Adam, do you?"

 _I know him well enough,_ Sunset thought.

"What does Torchwick want with the White Fang?" Blake asked. "What does he have you doing?"

"Don't you watch the news, we're robbing dust shops."

"What about the train heists?"

"I don't know anything about that. Field operations outside the city are completely separate. Adam's the only man who knows everything that goes on in the kingdom."

"Is that all you know? Do you expect us to believe that you're really that clueless? Perhaps I'm wasting my time holding you here?" Sunset hesitated. "Or perhaps you think this is all a bluff? Perhaps you think we're too nice to actually go through with it."

The White Fang agent said nothing. He just stared at Sunset with his eyes wide.

So Sunset dropped him.

She caught him again after he fell about ten feet towards the ground, screaming as he went, but hopefully that was enough to get the point across.

It would have to, since Sunset wasn't actually about to drop someone to fall to their death from the roof of a tall building.

She wasn't a complete monster, after all.

She just had to convince this guy that she was.

She glanced at Blake, but the latter didn't object and if she had any reservations they were hidden by the mask covering her face.

"Have I made my point?" Sunset asked.

He nodded frantically. "Yes. Crystal clear I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I…I don't know this man Tukson, but I do know that after the kidnap of the Schnee girl turned into a fiasco Adam started cleaning house in the Vale chapter. People died."

"Deserters," Blake said.

"Not just deserters, anyone suspected of disloyalty to the cause," the man said. "Only…look, you have to understand, this is mostly rumour-"

"We'll take it anyway," Sunset said.

"They say…they say it often wasn't Adam doing the killings, or even hunting down the traitors. It was three humans, given free rein and Adam's authority to do as they pleased."

"Torchwick?" Blake demanded. "Who else?"

He shook his head. "No. Not Torchwick. Three others. Y-you think Torchwick is pulling the strings on this? He isn't. There's someone else, someone much bigger than him, standing in the shadows."

"Who?" Blake asked.

"I don't know! Nobody knows but Torchwick, Adam and their running dogs."

"Someone else must know," Blake said. "What about Walter, or Perry?"

"Walter's rotting in a prison cell, and Perry only knows what Adam tells him."

Sunset growled. _Torchwick, Adam, or a group of people that only they know – if they even exist and this guy isn't just stringing us along._

"What are you doing with the dust?" Sunset asked. "What are you doing with the weapons? You must know what happens to the goods you rob?"

"I know there's a base outside the city, to the south-east. Most of the new recruits get sent there, the dust too. I don't know why or what's out there or what they need all of the dust for and I don't know anything about weapons. Please, please, I've told you everything. Absolutely everything I know. You have pull me in now. Please, you can't just let me fall."

Sunset turned her head towards Blake. "What do you think?"

"There are no camps to the south-east, he's lying," Blake growled.

"It's a new base!" he squealed desperately. "You…it must have been set up after you left. Very new. I swear on my mother's grave I'm telling the truth."

Blake was still for a moment, and silent, before she nodded tersely. "He's told us everything he knows."

Sunset reeled the guy in, until he was safely on the roof with them.

"Thank you," he gasped as he collapsed onto his knees. "Thank you, I-"

Sunset knocked him out with a single punch and let him fall down at her feet. She reversed the spell on her voice and coughed at the strain on her vocal cords before she took off her helmet. "We might not have got much out of him but I'm glad it ended when it did."

"That's a neat trick," Blake said, as she removed her mask. "Could you teach me to do that?"

"I'd have to charge you up front," Sunset muttered. "Are you sure he told us all he knew?"

"I can't be sure," Blake said softly. "But operations are segregated precisely so that no one can reveal too much information. What he said made sense…mostly."

"Mostly?"

"He still couldn't explain why the White Fang would be working for a human."

"Assuming Roman Torchwick isn't working for a faunus," Sunset said. "We don't know anything about this mysterious person behind him."

"A faunus wouldn't need to hide behind a human in order to work with the White Fang," Blake said. She turned away and walked towards the edge of the building, looking up at the shattered moon shining above them. "What have you done, Adam? Why are you doing this? Why have you forsaken everything we stood for?"

"Sounds almost as though you're going to have to ask him that yourself," Sunset said. "Killers with free rein, Roman Torchwick has a master, and there's a new White Fang base in the south-east. Is that what you were hoping to find out?"

"I was hoping for the name of Tukson's killer," Blake said.

Sunset thrust her hands into her pockets. "What we got tonight isn't nothing."

"No," Blake agreed, looking pensively up at the moon. "But it's not what I was hoping for."

Sunset nodded. "So, what do you want to do now?"


	50. The Phoenix Cape Effect

The Phoenix Cape Effect

Rainbow Dash slumped down in her chair. "Ugh. Paperwork. Twi, do you have to look so happy about this?"

Twilight couldn't quite keep the smile off my face. "You might groan, but this is something that I'm actually good at."

Rainbow blinked. "Twilight, are you okay?"

"Yeah," Twilight said quickly. Too quickly, in Rainbow's opinion. "I'm fine. Why would you even ask?"

"Because you don't sound fine," Rainbow said. "You sound nervous."

Twilight hesitated, looking down at the scroll in her hand. "I just..." she trailed off, and finally put the scroll down on her desk. "I understand why I'm here: I'm the tech support, and someone has to do it since Penny is still so untested. No offence, Penny."

Penny was watching videos on her scroll - they had given it to her to keep her distracted while they worked, kind of like a little kid - while sitting on her bed. She looked up. "What should I be offended about? Did you use a bad word?"

"No, I...never mind," Twilight said. "The point is that I'm not a real huntress and I don't belong here. What if...I guess the huntress in training stuff is freaking me out a little bit. Sparring lessons, grimm studies...what if I get called out? What if I have to fight someone? What if someone finds out that I don't know the difference between how to take out a beowolf or a boarbatusk? What if-"

"Calm down, from goodness' sake, and take a breath," Rainbow said sharply. She picked up her chair and moved it closer reversing it so that she was sitting on it spread-eagled, arms resting on the back. "Twilight, you're the smartest person I know hands down, no question. You're gonna ace every single class, I know it."

Twilight pursed her lips. "And sparring?"

Rainbow shrugged. "At the end of the day you can always forfeit. A few people might think you're a wuss but who gives a damn?"

"Team spars?" Twilight asked. "Missions? The Vytal festival?"

"Twilight," Rainbow said, as she reached out and took hold of Twi's hands. "What are the roles of this team? What do we say?"

Twilight took a deep breath. "We say...we say that you will take the bullet."

"That you will fix what's broken," Rainbow added.

"And Ciel will get us home," Twilight murmured.

"What do I do?" Penny asked.

"You kick all the ass Penny, and save the world," Rainbow said, without turning around. "Twi, it's going to be okay. I'll take care of you, I promise."

"I don't want you to get hurt because of me," Twilight whispered. She smiled, but only for a moment. "How would I explain that to Pinkie, that you got hurt saving someone like me?"

"Someone like the cutest genius in all of Atlas, you mean?" Rainbow asked. She grinned. "Pinkie knows, all our friends know, that I'm a soldier of Atlas. They all know what that means even if that isn't the life they chose."

"By our sacrifice shall the city prosper, and our enemies fail," Ciel said. She sat nearby, legs crossed primly, her scroll resting in her lap.

"Yeah, that," Rainbow said. "Now, we should probably get to work on these train heists.

Since Sunset wouldn't give up the name of her White Fang contact - yet - RSPT had decided to look at which trains had been hit compared to the ones that had made it through to Vale and see if they could work out what the difference was between the two of them. General Ironwood had supplied the manifests for all the trains running from Cold Harbour to Vale in the last few months, and they were going to see if there was a pattern to the dates, the cargo, anything.

It was the kind of thing that made Rainbow Dash's head hurt, but it was also the kind of stuff that Twi and Ciel excelled at, so they ought to make some progress even without Sunset's help.

"Okay," Twilight said. "As far as we can tell the first robbery was of a Schnee Dust Company train carrying processed dust from the Atlas refineries down to retailers in Vale," Twilight said. "Unusually it wasn't an automated train, although the crew was minimal; the engine was disconnected from the cars carrying the dust; said cars were later found stopped on the rail line, empty, all security droids destroyed. That happened three months ago and it doesn't really fit the pattern of later robberies."

"They must have evolved their methodology," Ciel said.

"What was different about it?" Rainbow asked.

"The severing of the engine from the cars, for one," Twilight said. "Most engines attacked have been destroyed by explosives."

"All subsequent engines have also been fully automated," Ciel said. "Maybe the White Fang wished to spare the crew?"

"Since when do the White Fang care about sparing innocent lives?" Rainbow replied. "Besides, aren't most of the engines that run on that route full automated?"

"The cargo trains, yes," Ciel said. "Due to concerns over crew nervousness travelling through grimm-infested areas, and of said nervousness attracting creatures of grimm, most trains on that line are fully computer guided. However, the Schnee Dust Company has not fully upgraded its rail fleet to excessive cost of upgrads and continues to run a constantly diminishing number of manned engines."

Rainbow nodded. "Okay, what next?"

"Next two more trains got through to Vale intact and unmolested," Twilight said. "They were both Atlesian military trains; the first one was carrying meals ready to eat-"

"Meals ready to gag, more like," Rainbow muttered.

Twilight glared mildly at her from over the top of her glasses. "Meals ready to eat, spare parts for skygraspers and APCs and letters addressed to the Atlesian Forces Post Office here in Vale."

Rainbow nodded. "And the train after that?"

"Empty," Ciel said. "It was a hospital train; it entered Vale, picked up sick and wounded men invalided home to Atlas plus an armed escort, and then returned to Cold Harbour likewise without incident."

"The train after that though, wasn't so lucky," Twilight said. "It was the next one to be hit. Cargo was weapons and small arms ammunition, plus spare parts for knights. The engine was destroyed, as were the spare parts, but the weapons and ammunition were taken."

"After that was a troop train," Ciel said. "It carried troops to replace Atlesian garrisons throughout Vale; the train arrived without molestation and disembarked our forces successfully. Another train, carrying units rotating back home, also reached Cold Harbour safely."

"Which cannot be said for the next three trains: another Schnee Dust Company train, a train carrying heavy ordnance and explosives and a third carrying prototype Atlesian paladins. In all cases the engines were destroyed along with any and all security droids and anything the thieves didn't want."

There was a moment of silence.

"I believe that the pattern is obvious," Ciel said. "The White Fang are attacking trains carrying weapons - of whatever kind - ammunition and dust. Anything else is of no interest."

"Guns, ammo, heavy ordnance, mechs, dust," Twilight murmured. "They're building an army."

"If General Ironwood believed so too that would explain the presence of our fleet," Ciel declared.

Rainbow frowned. "So...are we saying they know what's going to be on the train before they hit it?"

"That is what the evidence suggests," Ciel said. "The alternative is a staggering coincidence."

"I agree," Twilight said. "There's no way that they could be this lucky - or unlucky, I suppose; they have to have advanced knowledge that enables them to plan their robberies with impeccable precision. It's the only way to explain how they've managed to always hit the targets that interest them and ignore the ones that they don't."

"So somebody's talking to the White Fang," Rainbow said. "Tipping them off about the cargo."

Twilight winced. "It's starting to look that way."

"Damn it," Rainbow spat. _It's bad enough we have to fight these guys but somebody on our own side is selling us out?_ It was nearly unthinkable for her to consider, so much so that she wouldn't have thought about it at all if it hadn't been staring her right in the face. How could anyone do that? How could anyone betray their comrades, people who called them friend, to a bunch of thugs and killers?

Rainbow Dash might be a faunus but she would never say that it was the most important thing about her; she wouldn't even say that it was one of the top five most important things about her, hell it might not even make the top ten. She'd never sell out Twi or Pinkie or Fluttershy to some random jackass just because they were faunus and her friends weren't, because she was their friend before she was a faunus. She wouldn't sell out Ciel, because she was a member of Team RSPT before she was a faunus. She wouldn't betray Atlas to the White Fang because she was a soldir of Atlas before she was a faunus. They were all soldiers of Atlas and all their blood ran white; how could anyone - faunus or not - betray that bond?

And more importantly, how did they find them and shut this down?

* * *

Blake put one foot upon the low wall surrounding the rooftop on which they stood and gestured out in the rough direction of the White Fang meeting, the same one outside of which they had caught their unwitting informant. "The meeting might not have broken up yet, we could still get in there and-"

"And explain our arriving late how?" Sunset asked. "It's too dangerous."

"We have to take risks if we want to get to the truth."

"We don't have to be stupid about it!" Sunset snapped. She clenched her fists to stop her hands from trembling. "You think that they're just going to spill all to the new recruits: here's Roman Torchwick and here's why we're working with him? Newbies won't get told anything vital, and besides if we go in there we'll get made by somebody for sure."

"You don't know that."

"Maybe I don't know that, but you don't know that we won't and you don't have a plan to get us out if we do."

"Why are you acting this way?" Blake demanded. "You didn't have to come along at all but you did, so why are you suddenly so afraid to do what has to be done?"

"Because I'm scared, okay?" Sunset yelled, the words flying out of her mouth before she could stop them. She gasped as she realised what she'd just said, waiting for the look of derision in Blake's golden eyes, waiting for her to turn away in disgust, waiting for her to spit on Sunset for a coward.

Waiting for something that didn't come. There was no hint of scorn in those eyes, only pity and no small amount of understanding.

"Scared," she repeated. "Of Adam?"

Sunset scowled. "He had me. Twice. He had me dead-" she stopped, and laughed bitterly at that choice of words. "Dead to rights in that warehouse. He was coming right at me and there was nothing I could nothing I could do about it. If Ruby hadn't taken the hit for me then I wouldn't be here."

"I've...never been on the receiving end of Adam's semblance," Blake said softly, so softly like a woollen blanket on a cold night. "But I've seen it...more times than I'd like to remember. When the world turns red and so does he...it's terrifying even if you're not the one he wants to kill at that precise moment. Having him come for you...I can't imagine what that was like."

"I wish I could only imagine what that was like," Sunset said hoarsely. "And then, later, in the dark...if it hadn't been for Pyrrha, I..." she trailed off, and shook her head. "I can't...if he was there then I don't know what I...when I see him again I want it to be on my terms: ground of my choosing, situation of my choosing; somewhere I know what I'm doing, where I'm in control and I can pay him back for what he did to me and my team." She shook her head. "I know that you want answers Blake and you want them now but please, please, can we be smart about this."

Blake looked away from her for a moment. A slight breeze, disturbing the night air, ruffled the dark tangle of her hair. "I have to stop this. The bloodshed, the madness, the cruelty, the...the pointless waste of it all; I have to stop it. I have to stop him. I have to stop him because every day I don't...is another day when his victims are on me."

"You aren't responsible for his evil."

"I helped make his evil what it is," Blake replied. "There were times...there were times when he came to me for reassurance, times when he doubted himself and the righteousness of his path...and I could have told him no, you're wrong, turn away before it's too late. But I didn't. I told him that we had to keep going, to bear what we were doing because it would all be worth it in the end. And that's what he did, even when I couldn't bear it any longer."

Sunset's brow furrowed. "You were that close?"

"I loved him, once," Blake said. "I...I suppose you could say that I adored him. He…he was everything that I admired in the world; until one day I opened my eyes and realised that it was the ideal that I loved, not the man."

Sunset scuffed her foot back and forth. "We need to be smart about this, Blake. I hope, I really hope, that that isn't just my fear talking. We need to be smart about this."

Blake frowned. "Do you have a plan?"

Sunset thought about it for a second, running through scenarios that didn't involve walking into the ursa's den. And then, like a bolt from the heavens, inspiration struck her. "Torchwick doesn't know you. Some in the White Fang do but he doesn't. He never saw you in the fight at the warehouse."

"So?" Blake asked.

"We don't have to go inside the faction meeting," Sunset said. "We just have to get there before it breaks up and then when it does we follow Torchwick, get him alone, and grab him. He doesn't know you, so if you approach him with your mask on he won't suspect a thing until it's too late."

Blake was silent for a moment, before a slow smile spread across her face. "I like it. Let's go, we haven't much time."

They moved, leaping from rooftop to rooftop until they were perched on top of a warehouse, looking down from above upon the next warehouse over where the White Fang were having their meeting.

Judging by the faunus filing out, taking off their masks and stashing them away, they'd arrived just in time.

"They look so normal," Sunset murmured, as she watched the White Fang recruits depart from the warehouse. Dressed in shorts and T-shirts, trainers, jeans, she could have passed any one of them on the street and never realised that they had just joined a terrorist organisation dedicated to the overthrow of the system of the world.

"They are normal," Blake replied softly. "Normal people who've been pushed too far."

"Careful," Sunset said. "Or I might think you still have sympathy for them."

"I don't agree with the White Fang's methods anymore," Blake said. "But I'll always have sympathy for faunus who are pushed down and trodden on until they just can't take it anymore. If I didn't...I wouldn't be here."

"I guess," Sunset muttered, watching the White Fang leave the building. No sign of Torchwick yet, where was he?

Ah! There he was, she could see him now coming out; unfortunately he was accompanied by his young bodyguard, the one with the hair dyed on one side.

"You've never fought the girl, have you?" Sunset asked.

"No," Blake whispered. "Is she tough?"

"Very," Sunset said. "But you can't defend against an attack you know is coming, so when you distract them both I'll take her out; then we'll grab Torchwick."

"She's smaller than Ruby," Blake said. "How old do you think she is?"

"No idea."

Blake was silent for a moment. "You're not going to kill her, are you?"

"No, just knock her out so we'll be away with her boss by time she comes too," Sunset said. "Come on, we should follow them."

Blake nodded, and wordlessly brought out her mask.

They followed Roman and the girl from above, as the two of them sauntered casually down the street. They followed as the White Fang dispersed in a hundred different directions, waiting for whatever call to action had been agreed upon for whatever course of action had been announced at the meeting, and all the while Roman Torchwick and his diminutive, youthful looking bodyguard continued on, blithely unaware of Sunset and Blake following them from above.

"Are you hungry? Cause I'm kinda hungry," Roman said, his voice rising up out of the street to reach the ears of Sunset up above. "Herding cats has given me an appetite."

The girl replied in sign language, which Sunset couldn't read.

"Pizza? Sure, why not? You deserve a treat after spending all night with those animals. You know, I'm sure there's a new place opened up around here somewhere."

Blake dropped off the roof into a nearby alley, and alley from which she emerged in front of Roman and his mute bodyguard, wearing her White Fang mask over her face.

"Torchwick," she said. "You need to come with me."

Torchwick groaned. "Really? Come on, kitty, we just got down with the meeting. I'm tired, I'm hungry and I'm done for the night."

Blake advanced upon him. "Adam needs to talk to you. He sent me to bring you to him."

"Why, is he too much of a bigshot to come and see me himself?" Torchwick asked. From her perch up above, Sunset saw his stance alter noticeably. "And when he did get back to Vale, anyway?"

 _He's onto us._ Sunset decided to act, even if Blake was able to lie her way out of this it would only take them activating their auras to make things that much harder.

She stood up, pointed her finger at the girl like a gun, and fired a beam of bright green energy from her fingertip.

Whoever this girl was, whatever her specific deal was, she was good. Good enough to fight Pyrrha to a stand still (Pyrrha didn't have her weapons, admittedly), good enough that she seemed able to waltz through the battlefield without a scratch.

But you could only defend against an attack you knew might be coming. And she had no idea that Sunset had her in sights.

The green burst from Sunset's fingertips struck her in the small of the back and sent her careening forward with a gasp of pain. She didn't dodge, she didn't block it with her parasol, she didn't even have her aura activated. She took the hit and the hit pitched her forwards onto the ground where she lay in a crumpled, unconscious heap.

"Neo!" the cry of alarm that tore from Roman Torchwick's mouth took Sunset by surprise for how sincere it sounded, as though he was really worried about her or something. "What the hell is this?"

 _Does the criminal have a heart after all?_ Sunset didn't ponder the question for long. As Roman Torchwick began to raise his cane towards Blake Sunset grabbed her rifle and aimed it at the back of his head. "Drop it, Torchwick!"

Blake drew her own weapon, in its pistol configuration, and stood with it gripped tightly in both hands and aimed at Torchwick.

Torchwick looked at the unconscious girl – Neo – on the ground, and seemed to hesitate. He chuckled. "You know, it would be absolutely terrible for my reputation if anyone found out I let myself get held up by a couple of punks without a fight. Death on the street, metaphorically speaking. But if we fought it out…she might get caught in the crossfire." His cane hit the tarmac of the alleyway with a clatter. "Let me guess. You're not really White Fang."

"Good guess," Sunset said as she dropped down from the roof, still keeping her gun trained on Torchwick.

Torchwick glanced over his shoulder. "You?" he laughed bitterly. "Attacking a girl from behind doesn't seem very noble. Aren't you huntsmen supposed to righteous champions of justice or some crap like that?"

Sunset snorted. "Do we look like a couple of storybook heroes to you?"

"I just wonder what Little Red would say about your despicable choice in tactics."

"Don't talk about her," Sunset snapped. "Not now, not ever, understand?"

That was a mistake, she could see at once. She'd let him know that he'd struck a nerve, and he'd remember it. Still, for now he only grinned and said, "Well, if you don't want me to talk then what did you come and find me for?"

"We want answers," Blake said, as she circled around Torchwick so that she was standing not far from Sunset, both the young huntresses facing the criminal from the same direction.

"But first, kick that cane over here," Sunset said. "And the parasol."

Torchwick chuckled. "I'm impressed. Most people think it's an umbrella."

"Most people have no class, kick them over."

Torchwick kicked first his cane, and then the parasol, so that they skidded down the road towards Sunset.

"I guess I should thank you for not killing her when you had the chance," Torchwick said softly. "It was a cheap shot but…thanks for making it non-lethal."

"We're not like you," Blake growled.

"Hey," Torchwick snapped. "I've never hurt a kid in my life."

"Not for lack of trying," Sunset muttered.

"Your teachers may call you a child, fireball, but where I come from carrying a gun makes you an adult," Torchwick said. "I've never hurt a _real_ kid."

"No, you just send one into battle for you."

"You don't know the first thing about Neo or me."

"I know that she's a real kid, look at her!"

"You don't want me to talk about your little friend in the red hood?" Torchwick demanded. "Don't talk about Neo!"

"Enough!" Blake shouted. "Why are you working with the White Fang? Why is the White Fang working with you? Who are you working for and what are you planning with all the dust and the weapons and everything else you've been stealing?" She took a deep breath. "And who killed Tukson?"

Torchwick took a deep breath, before he let out an equally deep sigh. "You want me to answer those questions in the same order you asked them or can I mix 'em up a little bit?"

"Just talk, smart-ass," Sunset growled.

"Or what?" Torchwick asked. "You'll kill me? Like you killed Neo? Like you said, pretty-bow, you're not like me. I don't have to see into both your eyes to know that you're not killers. You don't have the guts to kill an unarmed man in cold blood."

Blake's pistol transformed into a black sword as she stalked towards him. "You have no idea what I am," she snarled. "Or what I'm capable of."

Torchwick stared at her, staring in the eyes of her White Fang mask, while a smile played across his features. "I think I can guess," he said mockingly. "You used to be White Fang, just like that guy who got capped you wanna know about. Yeah, you used to be one of those mangy animals running around with a sword and a cause. Maybe you even killed a few people, until you grew a conscience or found religion or something else happened to make you change your mind about the whole thing. And now you think that you can make it all better by fighting the good fight and stopping bad people like me and your old buddies in the White Fang." He laughed bitterly. "I got bad news for you, pretty-bow: there ain't no such thing as redemption."

"Like someone like you has even looked," Sunset said derisively. "Quit stalling and start talking: we know that you're not the mastermind behind all of this so tell us who is?"

Torchwick's eyes narrowed briefly, possibly surprised that they already knew about his mysterious puppet-master. "No offence, but you don't scare me half as much as she does."

"She?" Sunset said. "Thanks for narrowing our suspect pool by fifty-percent. Care to be a little more specific?"

"I'd rather stay alive," Torchwick muttered. "You're too short for this ride; you, little Red, the Mistral Princess, blondie boy, all of you. You can't stop what's coming, the White Fang couldn't stop what's coming, all those ships up there sure as hell can't stop it. The world is going to change, girls, and whether you get on the train while there's still time or stand in front of it yelling stop ain't going make one bit of difference…except I'll still be alive when all of this is over and you'll be roadkill."

Blake grabbed him by the collar and dragged him forward as she put her blade to his throat. "Tell us who you're working for and what you're planning, right now!"

Torchwick smirked.

"What?" Blake demanded. "What are you smiling about?"

"I think Neo's woken up now," he said

Sunset looked at the unconscious form on the ground. "Wh-" she managed to get out before the illusion shattered and the real Neo appeared into view and kicked Blake in the face.

It was a high kick, straight up to the jaw. Blake groaned in pain and staggered backwards. Neo followed up with a high kick that knocked off Blake's mask and set it flying into the nearby wall.

Sunset fired, she was using fire-dust rounds tonight and the bullet streaked like a fiery comet across the dark street to explode when it struck the girl, whose illusion shattered into a million glassy shards on contact.

The real Neo appeared right in front of Sunset and delivered a round-house kick to the gut. The metal of her breast-plate rang like a gong where the girl's foot impacted with it, but Sunset didn't feel it the way she would have done even through her aura. Though she was forced backwards by the sheer pressure – and she retreated even further, scuttling backwards out of range of further immediate attacks – she didn't feel the pain through her aura the way she would have done otherwise.

 _Thank you, Lady Nikos._

Unfortunately it still meant that Neo had gotten her parasol back, and she threw Torchwick his cane.

"Thank you, Neo; perfect timing as always."

Neo curtsied, or performed a rough approximation of the same.

 _Something about you can get very annoying,_ Sunset thought.

 _But I've got some new tricks since we last met._

Sunset kept her rifle raised with her right hand - it was a bit of a struggle, and it trembled a bit, but she was just about able to keep it supported - while with her left hand she touched the right sleeve of her jacket.

Her newly dust infused jacket.

 _Aura into my left hand._ Sunset still wasn't able to project her aura out of her massively far the way she would have liked for her still-developing finishing move, but she'd put the work in and she was able to do what she needed to do here: she touched her sleeve, and her aura sparked the dust - some of it, at least; most of it - infused into the leather. The spark spread across the jacket, igniting the fire dust infused into the material as fire rippled up Sunset's arm and across her back until half her body seemed to be burning with flames of crimson and gold. And yes, she had chosen the colours to match her hair because if you were going to do this then you might as well make it look cool.

Neo stared at her, cocking her head to one side as if she wasn't sure what Sunset's display was supposed to accomplish.

 _You don't know the half of it._

For a moment the four stared at one another; none of them speaking, none of them moving.

Then Blake attacked with a soft growl through her gritted teeth as she charged towards Torchwick.

Neo looked her, and by the movement of her feet Sunset knew that she was preparing to intercept.

Sunset wasn't going to let that happen.

She attracted the girl's attention with two shots from her rifle. Neo caught them on her parasol, but the explosions from the fire dust rounds must have damaged her aura, if only a little. Sunset charged, shouting as the flames on her jacket streamed behind her; even if she couldn't beat Neo then so long as she could keep her busy then Blake ought to be able to deal with a thug like Torchwick.

Not that Sunset had any intention of not winning. She had the gear, she had the dust, and she had a plan.

And she had to show Lady Nikos that that money wasn't being thrown away.

Sunset thrust her bayonet forward. Neo dodged gracefully, bending out of the path of the weapon and letting Sunset's momentum carry her forward. Her foot lashed out for a sweeping kick into the small of Sunset's back. Sunset couldn't quite keep the grin off her face.

There was the bang of an explosion as the flames of Sunset's back leapt momentarily higher in the instant before Neo's kick struck home, engulfing her foot in its old-fashioned boot within the crimson and gold of the inferno. Neo leapt back, letting out a kind of gasp that might have been surprise or pain or hopefully both.

Sunset spared half a glance for Blake, who was fighting Torchwick hand to hand, her sword and scabbard alike slicing through the air as she battered against his cane over and over again, before she returned her attention to Neo. The younger girl was looking just a little less cocky now.

 _It worked! It actually worked!_ Truth to tell Sunset hadn't been entirely certain that it would, or that she had the necessary control over her aura to pull it off, but she had believed that the theory was sound and decided there was nothing to be lost in giving it a try: saving some of the dust infused into her jacket for when she was about to take a hit, then activating it then to achieve a blooming of her phoenix cape - that was what she was calling it, because she couldn't exactly call it 'I ripped off Yang Xiao-Long's aesthetic' could she? - to hit any enemy before they could hit her. It was more active than armour, and unlike a magical shield it didn't immobilise her in the process.

And judging by the way the cocky smirk slid off Neo's face, replaced by a look of grim determination, she didn't think it was too shabby either.

A spike emerged from the tip of Neo's parasol, and she came for Sunset once again.

Sunset's training with Pyrrha had focussed - and continued to focus - a great deal on evasion. Sunset didn't have the muscle that Pyrrha did, that would let her take punches and then dish it back out again. Instead Pyrrha was teaching her how to dodge, to weave, to be as sinuous and slipper as any snake or eel; to fight almost exactly as this girl Neo fought. It was a battle of two weavers, each trying to wind their way around the attacks of the other, to poke a way through the guard of their opponents, to prick them without being pricked.

Neo was better at it. Of course she was, she'd been doing it longer and she was doing it like a pro however young she was. But Sunset had dust now, she was ablaze with the fruits of Lady Nikos' generous patronage, and every time Neo managed to slip her feet or fist or parasol through Sunset's guard, every time Sunset's efforts to parry with Sol Invictus came to nothing, then the flames that burned on Sunset's jacket would leap high enough to burn her.

And a good thing too because Sunset wasn't scoring any hits the conventional way. Every time she shot, every time she swung, every time she thrust Neo did something about it. Either she turned the blow aside with her parasol or more likely she just wasn't there at all and not in the sense of illusions either; more like she could sense what Sunset was going to do before she did it and could pull away in time. Too bad - not! - that she couldn't pull away from the results of her own attacks.

Of course she was still hitting Sunset in the process; it was turning into a battle of who's aura would run out first. Neo must have realised that too, because she started avoiding Sunset's arms and back where she was ablaze, while Sunset tried to make sure that was where her blows landed.

Sunset winced as she was kicked in the side, but she heard Neo exhale too. _So which of us has the more aura, huh?_

 _If you've got as much as Jaune I'm screwed._

But judging by the look on Neo's face, which had gone past determined and into what Sunset could only describe as a nervous rage, she didn't have that much aura and she knew it.

Sunset smirked provocatively. _Now who's feeling smug about themselves?_

The smirk on her face died as she heard Blake gasp in pain. She turned to see Torchwick catch Blake with a blow to the side, and then to the face that knocked her flying backwards, hair askew.

"Blake!"

Torchwick laughed as he aimed his cane at her while she was down.

Neo charged again, her parasol held before her like a lance.

And Sunset made her decision.

Her first teleport carried her to Blake's side, where she grabbed the other girl by the shoulders.

Her second teleport carried them up to the roof from which they had stalked Torchwick down this alley. She heard the explosion of Torchwick's rocket going off where they would have been just moments earlier.

Her third teleport carried them to the edge of the furthest rooftop she could see from where they were before Torchwick and Neo could decide to follow them.

Her fourth teleport repeated the trick, as did her fifth, carrying them a little closer back to Beacon each time.

And after her sixth teleport she let go of Blake and collapsed onto her hands and knees on the flat roof, gasping for breath while her heart pounded in her chest.

 _Six. Six teleports. At least I'm finding my limits, I guess._ Not that that was much consolation as Sunset gasped and wheezed and waited for her heartbeat to slow down just a fricking bit so that she didn't feel as though she was going to drop dead right there and then.

"What do you think you're doing?" Blake demanded as she got to her feet. "Now he's going to get away!"

Sunset glared up at her, and if she'd been feeling a little less exhausted then she would have had some very tart things to say in response to that, but as she could barely muster the breath to get a few words out she made do with saying, "You're welcome."

Blake scowled. "I didn't need to be rescued."

Sunset took a deep breath. And then another. The flames on her jacket slowly died away. "That's not what it looked like to me."

"I had enough aura to take that hit."

"What about the next one? Or the one after that?"

"He got lucky," Blake said. "I could have taken him."

Sunset climbed slowly and somewhat ponderously to her feet. "Are you sure about that?"

Blake's eyes narrowed. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that I agreed to help you find the truth and stop the bad guys, not help you die."

Blake took a step back, and stared at Sunset without replying for a moment. "Is that what you think this is?"

"Am I wrong?"

Blake turned away, sheathing Gambol Shroud and slinging it across her back. She began to walk away, but stopped after only a few paces. "Do you think he's right? Do you think that redemption is impossible?"

"I think he's a scumbag who's full of crap," Sunset said. "I hope so, anyway."

"No matter the things that we've done?"

"If that's the road you're on then I'm done," Sunset said sharply. "I'll have no part in that."

Blake bowed her head. "It's not what I want," she said. "But…I sometimes wonder…if that's what I deserve."

"I can think of others who deserve it more," Sunset muttered. "What do you want, Blake?"

Blake was silent, for moments that dragged on and on under the light of the moon. "I want…I want justice."

"At what cost?"

"At any cost! I'm tired of compromising, of doing bad things for the sake of some greater good that never seems to come, of watching while bad things happen and doing nothing because it's easier or because someone promises that things will get better eventually!" Blake cried, looking back at Sunset. "I want justice, for all of us."

"Though the heavens fall," Sunset whispered. "I…I'm sorry if I over-reacted."

"It's better than you being okay with letting me die, I guess," Blake said. She sighed. Tonight was a bust."

"Not completely, we learned some things," Sunset said. "We learnt that Torchwick has a boss pulling the strings, and that she's a scary lady."

Blake snorted. "Okay, but I was hoping for something a little more concrete."

"It's night one, there'll be other times," Sunset said. "We should head back to Beacon. With luck we might get some sleep before morning."

"What about your bike?"

"I'll come back and get it in the daylight," Sunset said. _Assuming nobody finds it and steals it before then._ It was a risk, but she didn't want to go back for it now. "Listen…I think we might have been a little ambitious trying to do this by ourselves. Maybe we should bring our teams in on this."

"My team doesn't know."

"Did you think about telling them?"

Blake gave her a look that spoke volumes.

"Okay, my team then," Sunset said. "They already know."

"Are you alright with putting them in danger?"

"We'll be in a lot less danger with Pyrrha backing us up," Sunset replied. "Just…think about it, okay?"

Blake hesitated a moment before she gave the briefest, most minute nod of her head. "Okay. I'll consider it."

Together the two of them dropped down off the roof and started on the long walk back to Beacon.


	51. Swift Reprisal

Swift Reprisal

The scroll rang.

Cinder's eyes narrowed. Only a handful of people had this number and three of them were in the dorm room with her right now. The one who weren't knew better than to call her in anything but an emergency.

She wasn't worried. Cinder Fall did not suffer from anything so mundane as worry. Destiny was all, what was meant to be would be, and what was meant to be was her ascent to greatness and to majesty. Although the old blood of Mistral hadn't been able to see that, fate would not be so ungenerous.

Some day the dream that she wished would come true; and soon indeed according to Salem.

Until then, however, she had to answer her scroll and find out who was calling. Mercury wasn't even pretending not to be curious. Emerald was pretending, but not well enough to fool Cinder. Only Lightning Dust, doing one-handed push-ups over in the far corner, seemed genuinely uncaring about the mysterious late night call, who was making it and what it might portend.

Cinder picked up her scroll and opened it. It was Roman, because of course it was.

Cinder pressed the 'accept' button on the display. "Roman," she said. "I hope that you have a good reason for using this number."

"I just got jumped by a couple of junior huntresses, is that a good reason?"

"That depends," Cinder replied, her voice a soft drawl. "Are they still alive?"

"Yeah, the pony did something and they disappeared before I could finish either of them off."

"The pony," Cinder murmured. "Sunset?"

"Yeah, that's her, the one with the hair that looks like its burning."

"And the other?" Cinder asked. "Pyrrha Nikos? Ruby Rose?"

"Nah, I'd never seen this cat before. Black hair, lots of it. I think she might have been White Fang once. She had 'seeking atonement' written all over her."

"Blake Belladonna," Cinder whispered. She hadn't really thought much about Blake so far. She was Adam's concern, and although it somewhat concerned Cinder that he seemed so incapable of getting over is ex – it would have been pathetic in anyone, but even moreso in a feared warlord – ultimately she was his problem, not hers.

But if Blake sought to be more than just the girl in Adam's past, if she sought to step out of the shadows and play a role against them, against her…well, that was something completely different, wasn't it?

"They knew how to find me," Roman said. "I don't know how yet but-"

"I suspect that Miss Belladonna's White Fang knowledge played a part," Cindr said, without so much as a hint of concern in her voice. "Not to worry, Roman. Our operations in the city are about to reach their end in any case. I want you to take charge of the next train robbery; there's another shipment of Paladins coming down from Cold Harbour and I want them in our hands, not those of the military. Once you have the shipment you can join Adam at Mountain Glenn. Even if those girls come looking for you again they won't find you. You won't be anywhere that they might think to look."

Roman hesitated for a moment. "You, uh, you want me to leave the city?"

Cinder chuckled. "Are you scared of Forever Fall forest, Roman?"

"Uh, no, no of course not! I just...I'll pack up my stuff."

"You do that," Cinder said. "Oh, and Roman?"

"Yeah?"

"Next time you bother me it had better be an actual emergency," Cinder said, before she hung up on him. She put down her scroll with a slight sigh.

"That guy us starting to be more trouble than he's worth," Mercury said. "Do we still need him?"

"Yes, for now," Cinder replied, as she resumed working on Emerald's dress for the big dance in a few weeks time. Sewing was about the only skill she had learnt in her former life that she kept up with. It was enough only thing she'd learned in that house that she enjoyed.

"Why?" Mercury asked. "We don't need any more stores robbing, and you said yourself that we don't need a man on the street any longer."

Cinder smirked. "Mercury, did you ever go to see a magic show?"

"I've seen you in action, does that count?"

"How dare you?" Emerald demanded. "Cinder demonstrates real power, not cheap tricks."

"Don't get so touchy, it's not like I was trying to be insulting." Mercury smirked. "Seriously, just because-"

"The secret of every good trick, without exception, is the misdirect," Cinder said, cutting him off before he could finish. "The magician gets you to look one way, to focus on something inconsequential, and then when the audience is distracted the magician carries out the trick somewhere else, where no one is watching. That's why we still need Roman." Cinder paused for a moment. "Emerald, add Blake Belladonna to the list. She can join her new friend Sunset there."

"She's…not bad, I suppose," Emerald said. "But I wouldn't call her anything special."

"She's committed," Cinder said. "That drive will push her beyond the limits of skill. Add her to the list."

The list was a very simple thing: all the potentially dangerous huntsmen and huntresses at Beacon during the period leading up to and including the Vytal Festival, as identified by Cinder and her team; all those who might cause them problems during the festival, all those who might fight to save Beacon; all those future talents who might grow up to be a hindrance to Salem and to Cinder as her right hand.

All their names were pricked on Cinder's list, and those who bore the names were thus marked for death in the chaos and confusion: Pyrrha Nikos, Sunset Shimmer, Ruby Rose, Jaune Arc, Weiss Schnee, Nora Valkyrie...and now Blake Belladonna, too.

Lightning snorted. "Rather than putting all these names on a list, how about we start crossing them off?"

Mercury rolled his eyes. "And how are we supposed to do that?"

Lightning Dust kept on doing her push ups even as she fixed Mercury with the glare of her golden eyes. She was a pony faunus with blonde hair coiffed backwards and a golden tail sticking out over the waistline of her pants. While Mercury was here for her illusions, Mercury for his combination of viciousness and surgical precision, Lightning Dust was the muscle of their little group. That, and her affinity with the dust after which she was named came in very useful.

"Call her out in sparring class," she said, as though the answer was obvious. "Make it look like an accident."

"Right under the old lady's nose? That's way too risky," Mercury said. "It's a lot harder to make murder look like anything else than TV shows make it seem."

"Aren't you supposed to be an assassin or something?"

"Yeah, that's why I actually know what I'm doing," Mercury said.

"Or you're scared," Lightning suggested. "Maybe a dance competition would be more your speed?"

"That's enough," Cinder growled. "Lightning…while you're methods are a little too obvious for this stage in the operation your general point is one that I take on board. We shouldn't pass up an opportunity to eliminate our enemies. Fortunately, we don't need to kill Blake, either in class or anywhere else." She smiled. "All we have to do is be good citizens, and alert the authorities to the murderous terrorist hiding in plain sight."

* * *

Roman put away his scroll after Cinder hung up on him. "You'd never guess that I'd just done her a favour, would you? Next time this happens I'll keep it to myself and spare my dignity."

 _Next time I'll kill them both,_ Neo signed. _I'm sorry I wasn't more help tonight._

"Hey, don't say it as though I'm completely helpless without you," Roman said indignantly. He grinned down at her, and ruffled her hair with one hand to show he didn't mean anything by it. "I held my own."

 _I didn't,_ Neo signed, with obvious self-disgust in her expression. _She nearly had me, I can't believe it. That's never happened to me before._

"A cheap shot took you by surprise," Roman said. "It happens." He hesitated, and his features briefly fell as he was struck once more by some of the events of tonight: he thought about how scared he'd been when Neo first went down, when he'd though she might not get back up again. He remembered how the little fireball had accused him of using a kid to fight his battles.

 _I've never hurt a real kid._

 _No, you just send one into battle for you._

 _You don't know the first thing about Neo or me._

 _I know that she's a real kid, look at her!_

That hurt. That really hurt.

Mostly because it was true. Neo was a real kid – she might carry a parasol with a sword hidden inside, but she was still just thirteen years old, and if that wasn't a real kid that what was the limit? – and he used her like a weapon sometimes. He said that he cared about her – he did care about – her, but he set her into battle anyways. Either he just didn't care enough or else…or else his heart was so dead that even his feelings for Neo couldn't move him.

He did care about her. He did. He still remembered when he'd first found her, under the bed. Her parents had run a little Mom and Pop café, paying him for protection; but a rival gang had decided the rob the place and kill Mom and Pop to prove that Roman Torchwick couldn't protect anybody. He'd found her under the bed, all of five years old, and he couldn't just let her get dumped in a foster home somewhere with total strangers. So he'd taken her in himself, looked after her, raised her…and turned her into his bodyguard.

Neo was a lot more than just associate or an underling to him...but he still put her in harms way over and over again and if he really had believed that she wouldn't get hurt then he'd been deluding himself.

 _Is something wrong?_ Neo asked. _You spaced out there for a minute._

"I'm fine," Roman said quickly. "Say, Neo, are you okay? With all this I mean."

Neo frowned. _Sure. Why wouldn't I be okay?_

Roman shrugged. "No reason. I just wondered...is that what you want, to do all this? To keeping doing this, living like this?"

 _What would I do I instead of this?_

"Most kids your age are in school," Roman replied.

 _Boring,_ Neo signed. _Besides._

"Besides what, kid?"

Neo started signing again. _It's not like I'd have anything in common with other kids my age, right? Do you think I'd make any friends if I want to school now?_

"Hmm, you're not wrong," Roman muttered. And wasn't that crime? Neo didn't have a friend in the world, nobody that she could turn to…nobody but him.

Could he honestly say that he'd done right by her?

 _Can we go get that pizza now?_

Roman laughed. "Yeah, sure. I've got even more of an appetite now than I had before."

He wished he could have said, as he walked away with her, that he wa leaving his doubts and misgivings behind.

But he couldn't.

* * *

Sunset slipped back into her dorm room as quietly as she could. It was pretty late, everyone else was probably-

"Sunset?"

Sunset stood still and silent for a moment. "Ruby?" She whispered. "You're still up?"

"We all are," Ruby said plaintively. "We waited up for you."

Sunset turned on the lights. They were all awake, just as Ruby had said, and they were all looking right at her.

"You didn't need to do stay up," Sunset said. "I told Pyrrha that you didn't need to stay up." _Sure, I told her sarcastically but that was only because I didn't think that she might actually do it._

Jaune groaned. "Now you tell us," he said, before he stifled a truly leonine yawn behind one hand.

The corners of Sunset's lips twitched upwards just a little. "I'm pretty sure that I told Pyrrha before I left, actually, but-"

"We were worried about you," Ruby said. "We wanted to make sure that you got home safely."

"Thanks, but you didn't need to do that either," Sunset said. "As you can see I'm perfectly fine."

Ruby got up off her bed. "Where did you go, Sunset?"

"I can't say."

"Why not? If you're in some kind of trouble then maybe we can-"

"If I was in trouble you guys would be the first to find out about it," Sunset replied. "Probably, maybe. Look, I'm not in any trouble myself, but a friend..." Sunset paused, debating with herself whether Blake's situation counted as her being in trouble or not. "I'm helping a friend deal with some of her stuff, but I can't tell you any more than that because it's not my stuff. But...I've suggested that we might need a little more help so...you might find out what's going on pretty soon."

"As much as we wouldn't want you to betray a confidence," Pyrrha said carefully. "The fact that you might need our help isn't all that reassuring. It suggests that your suggestion might be a little dangerous."

"It is," Sunset conceded candidly. "So if you just don't want to know now's the time to say so and I won't involve you further."

"On the contrary, if you And your friend are putting yourselves in harms way then the sooner you involve the rest of us the better," Pyrrha said.

"Yeah!" Ruby cried. "We're a team and that means that we oughtta stick together. So tell this friend of yours to hurry up and bring us in so we can whup butt! Isn't that right, Jaune? Jaune?"

Jaune snored, prompting Ruby to look fondly exasperated, while Pyrrha simply looked fond.

"I guess it is time for bed," Ruby said, a moment before she joined in the yawning herself.

"Will there be more late nights like this?" Pyrrha asked.

"I don't know," Sunset said. "Maybe, probably. It's not entirely my call to make."

 _It depends a lot on what Blake wants to do next and when._

* * *

They were all asleep when she came in. Nobody had waited up for her.

Blake hadn't wanted or expected them too. She didn't need them to worry about her or anything like that. They knew that she came and went as she pleased, and so long as she was there when they needed her to be, whatever else she did or didn't ought to be none of their business.

She came and went as she liked, she kept her own counsel and she kept her secrets very much to herself.

She didn't need them to wait up for her but, as she looked at them sleeping in the darkness, her feline eyes able to pick them all out with perfect clarity, a part of her thought that maybe…maybe it might have been nice if they had.

Sentimental nonsense. She didn't need that kind of concern; not from them, not from anyone.

They weren't involved in this aspect of her life, and it was best if they stayed that way. There was no way that they'd understand her past, or accept it with equanimity.

She didn't need comradeship…but at the same time she couldn't help but idly wonder if Sunset's team had stayed up for her, wondering where she'd gone, worried about what might be happening to her.

Perhaps they had, it seemed like the sort of thing that Ruby might do. And of course Sunset would blow it off…did she have any idea how lucky she was?

Blake didn't need that kind of thing…but a part of her wanted it nonetheless.

Lucky, lucky Sunset.

* * *

Sunset sat on the bleachers above the arena, looking down on the stage as Jaune sparred against Lyra Heartstrings from Team BLBL.

It was a measure of how much Jaune was improving under Pyrrha's tutelage that it was pretty much an even match between the two of them; although Sunset had the distinct impression that Lyra's primary focus was on fighting grimm, not people, judging by the lack of any sign of it in the match her semblance was geared that way as well.

Nevertheless, considering how hopeless he'd been at the beginning of the last semester, Jaune had come on in leaps and bounds even if you didn't count the discovery of his own semblance as a great leap forward.

True, he wasn't effortlessly kicking her ass and carrying all before him, but – again, considering where he'd started from – his progress was the difference between a unicorn and a mule. He was using the greater reach and weight he had on her to keep Lyra on the back foot, and he'd stopped hiding behind his shield and started to trying to hit her with it.

He'd come along way already, and a glance over at Pyrrha – who was watching him with the proud air of a mom watching their daughter play Princess Platinum in the Hearth's Warning pageant – confirmed that she saw it just the same as Sunset did.

For that matter, Jaune seemed to realise it himself, because his expression was free of the 'I know that I suck and I know that everyone watching me knows that I suck and I want to die of shame' anxiety that had so often shown in his face and his body language during sparring matches; even though the auditorium was more crowded now, with the students from Atlas, Haven and Shade in attendance, Jaune didn't seem that bothered by the attention.

In fact both combatants seemed to be enjoying themselves.

"Great job, Jaune!" Ruby yelled. "You can do it!"

Jaune glanced up at his watching team-mates, which unfortunately allowed Lyra to hit him with a quick slash across the midriff. Fortunately he had such reserves of aura that it didn't really affect him much.

 _Better that he learn to focus now than when a nevermore picks him up._

Sunset heard someone sit down behind her before she saw the booted feet come to rest on the bench next to her.

"Your boy is making heavy weather of her," Cinder drawled.

Sunset glanced over her shoulder. Cinder was watching the match with an expression of idle disinterest, arms folded, one hand playing with the one of her long, dark locks. Her partner, a dark-skinned, green-haired girl named Emerald, was sitting not far away, sending incessant glances in Cinder's direction.

The other two members of team CLEM – Mercury and Lightning – were somewhere else, were Sunset couldn't see them.

"My boy?" Sunset asked. "How would Mercury like it if I called him your boy?"

Cinder smirked. "Oh, Mercury has quite a sense of humour. But even if he didn't see the funny side I'm sure that he'd concede that the notion was very appropriate."

Sunset snorted. "Well, Jaune might be somebody's boy but he sure isn't mine."

Cinder chuckled. "Maybe not. But nevertheless, he's making heavy weather of her."

"You should have seen him when the year started," Sunset muttered. "He's come a long way."

"I'll have to take your word for that," Cinder replied. "But unfortunately they don't give out crowns for having come a long way."

"No," Sunset agreed. "But we'll look after him."

"Hmm," Cinder said. "I have to say, Sunset, that I was expecting a little more out of the prestigious Beacon Academy. That girl down there is almost as hopeless as he is."

Sunset pursed her lips together. "I thought we'd already had a quick word about you insulting my team-mates."

Cinder laughed, and whether it was a coincidence or whether he was distracted by the sudden noise from up above, but Jaune left an opening for Lyra, who ducked low and then drove her whole body forwards and upwards, slamming into Jaune shoulder first in an attempt to knock him on his ass. And it probably would have worked against the old Jaune, but Pyrrha's training came to his rescue: his footwork was sufficiently good that he didn't lose his balance, and Lyra ran out of steam against his greater weight and the fact that he was pounding on her with his shield.

"That's enough," Professor Goodwitch declared, as Lyra's aura dropped into the red. "Congratulations, Mister Arc; you've shown a great improvement in your form and movements."

"Thanks, Professor," Jaune said, as he sheathed his sword. "I've got a great teacher." He glanced up at Pyrrha in the stands.

Professor Goodwitch probably sensed that Jaune wasn't talking about her. "Indeed," she murmured. "However, you still left yourself open once or twice. Don't let your large aura reserves make you over-confident, Mister Arc; a skilled opponent will make you pay for it."

"I understand, Professor."

"Miss Heartstrings," Professor Goodwitch went on. "While I can't fault your individual movements, your strategy was fundamentally at fault. Against a larger, stronger opponent you should avoid a head-to-head confrontation if at all possible. Would you take that approach against an ursa?"

"With respect, Professor Goodwitch, I'd know exactly what to do against an ursa," Lyra said.

"I hope so, Miss Heartstrings."

"I can't say I'm impressed by what I've seen so far," Cinder said. "Based on the reputation of Beacon and Professor Ozpin I was expecting a little more…well, more."

"Really?" Sunset said. "Are you going to go down there and show us all how it's done? Defend the honour of Haven Academy?"

Cinder smirked. "I've got nothing prove to anyone."

"People like us always have everything to prove," Sunset replied. "To everyone."

"You think so?"

"I know so," Sunset said. "And you know it too or else what are you doing here?"

Cinder chuckled. "When I show the world what I can do I intend to show the whole world, not this meagre audience."

Sunset shrugged. "I get that, but sometimes you need to show the small audiences before they'll give you your shot with the big ones."

"Do you speak from experience?"

"A little," Sunset admitted, thinking about her fight with Pyrrha.

"Then I feel sorry that you had to go through that," Cinder said.

"Thanks," Sunset replied dryly.

"But I've always found that it doesn't really matter whether the monkeys in the gallery applaud your performance or not," Cinder murmured. "Power doesn't have to reside on the stage. Sometimes it dwells in the shadows."

"Perhaps."

"But you disagree?"

"What's the point in having power if no one can see you using it?"

Cinder laughed. "Oh, they'll see. In the end they'll all see, you can count on it. After all, no one can hide in the shadows forever."

"Now," Professor Goodwitch declared. "Do we have any volunteers for the next-"

There was a sound from beneath the gallery, something that sounded like the doors to the amphitheatre opening. Whatever it was it seemed to have momentarily discomfited Professor Goodwitch, who pushed her spectacles a little further up her nose. "Can I help you, gentlemen?"

As they approached Professor Goodwitch on the stage, Sunset was able to see that the intruders were a couple of men in suits and ties, followed by four more men in the uniforms and body armour of the VPDs Special Tactics and Rescue Service – which probably made the suits detectives with the VPD. One of them, a heavyset guy with a full beard - pulled out his badge.

"Good morning, ma'am, my name is Detective Burns and this is Detective Heyman. We need to speak with Blake Belladonna, we were told she was in this class."

Sunset felt her blood run cold. _They know, that's the only explanation._

She glanced over at Blake, and judging by the tension evident in her body it was clear that she thought the same thing.

Sunset began to sidle towards her.

"Sunset?" Cinder asked. "Is something wrong?"

"I, uh-"

Down on the stage Professor Goodwitch blinked. "Miss Belladonna, may I ask why you-"

Sunset's scroll buzzed. So did everyone else's scroll in the classroom. Sunset didn't answer, but she could see Pyrrha got out her scroll, and Ruby, and most of the other students as well for all that they were in the middle of class. They all wanted to see what was so important that they'd all gotten pinged at once.

It was a video; a video showing footage of Blake robbing a train in the Forever Fall forest, destroying Atlesian security droids alongside…Sunset's chest seemed to constrict around her lungs as she saw who Blake was fighting alongside in this video.

Adam Taurus.

'What kind of monster have you been living with these past months?' asked the video as more footage flashed up.

"We need to ask her some questions," the detective said. "Pertaining to a string of attacks carried out by the White Fang."


	52. I Fought the Law (And Atlas Won)

I Fought the Law (And Atlas Won)

For a moment, Blake tensed to run. She glanced behind her. If she could make it out the door at the back of the gallery – and she was fairly certain that she could – then she could sprint down the corridor and…

And what?

Even if she did get out of the gallery, even if the shocked look on Flash's face and Nora's expression of confusion and the way that Weiss looked as though she'd been pole-axed meant that they were all too stunned to try and stop her, even if Yang – who was beginning to smoulder with flame – didn't catch her before she could get out, even if she did get out of this room, out of this immediate situation did she really think that she was going anywhere? Did she really think that she could escape from a whole school full of huntsmen, from the professors and the upperclassmen, from teams like CFVY?

Did she really think she was going to escape the grounds and even if she did what then? Where would she go? Tukson was dead, after all, there was no one she knew to help her move on to somewhere else, start afresh with a new life in Vacuo or someplace.

Where would she go? Would she hang around the streets of Vale, dumpster diving and avoiding the cops? What kind of a life was that? Would she stowaway on a boat to Menagerie and crawl back home to face the disappointment of her parents?

Where would she go?

There was nowhere she could go.

She didn't want to go.

She didn't want to leave Beacon, she didn't want to go anywhere else, she didn't want to leave the people that she'd met here.

The friends that she'd made here.

But she had no choice but to go; not to run, but to go with the police to wherever they intended to take her. She couldn't run; she couldn't run because she wouldn't escape, because she had nowhere to go even if she did escape…but also because, as Blake stood there, tense and poised to flee as she had fled from all her problems in the past – fled from Menagerie, fled from her parents and her home, fled from Adam and the White Fang – she caught sight of two faces; two faces which, amidst the crowd of shocked and frightened and furious expressions, looked to be on her side.

Sun and Sunset.

Sun was closest to her; before this had started he'd been trying, in a babbling sort of way, to ask her to the dance. It took Blake a moment to place his expression: he was outraged on her behalf. When his blue-haired friend Neptune tried to pull him away from her, Sun threw off his arm and stepped closer towards her as if in defiance of the opinion of all the rest.

Sunset was further away, with a Pyrrha and Ruby who looked too stunned by the suddenness of the involuntary revelation to be of much help; her look was tense, and her hands were beginning to glow with the energy of her semblance.

If Blake decided to run then she had no doubt that Sun and Sunset would both try to help her get away, at least away from here.

And that was why she absolutely could not run; she couldn't see them get arrested on her behalf.

They were the only friendly faces in the room, at least that Blake could see: Weiss looked shocked by what she had witnessed; Yang looked furious; Cardin seemed torn between wrath and glee; Flash's expression was dark; Russell looked afraid. Her own team…she didn't realise how much their reactions would hurt her until she saw them: outrage from Bon Bon, open-mouthed disbelief from Lyra; and from Sky, her partner, anger that verged on hatred.

Whatever came next, whatever these cops wanted from her, a part of her life was over now. She could never go back to being just plain Blake Belladonna. Whatever happened, if she ever came back here it would be as Blake the Faunus, Blake the Terrorist, Blake of the White Fang.

She would no longer be a person in this place, but a symbol of her kind.

 _Sienna would say that that's exactly why we need the White Fang._ But the White Fang had set her up – Blake had no doubt that they had ultimately tipped off the cops and sent that video, if only because there was no one else who could have done it – so she wasn't feeling too inclined to grant the validity of Sienna's talking points.

If there was one thing in this awful situation that consoled her it was the thought that, although she had barely begun to fight back, she had somebody sufficiently worried that they had done this to stop her. If she ever had the liberty to pursue it further she would do so confident that she was on the right track.

If they allowed her a phone call she would let Sunset know that she had to keep going, because they were onto something for a certainty.

But such thoughts were for later, for whatever 'later' might mean and hold for her. For now, she had to face the music.

Slowly, and feeling a surprising sense of liberation, an un-knotting of the constant feeling of tension that had been a part of her stomach for so long that she had learnt to live with it, with a weird feeling of relief that the worst that could happen had happened and she no longer hard to worry about her secret getting out any more, Blake untied the bow from on top of her head.

She let the black ribbon fall to the ground as she felt the cold air on her ears. "Sun," she said softly.

"Uh, yeah?"

"Will you take care of Gambol Shroud?" Blake asked. "Until…until I get back."

 _If I come back._ Not that she would say that to Sun. She didn't want to worry him unduly.

"Sure," Sun said, his voice subdued as he removed the weapon from her back.

She looked at him, and smiled. "Thank you," she said. "You're…a good friend."

"Blake-" he began.

She turned away, because if he said more…he was only going to make this harder. And besides, the rest of the world wasn't going to stop for them to have a moment. This wasn't the kind of story where she'd have all the time in the world to say goodbye, to get him to promise to forget all about her or not, to say all the things that they both found it so hard to say.

She leapt from the gallery, and landed down in the auditorium in front of the cops and Professor Goodwitch.

"Here I am," she said. "I'm Blake Belladonna."

* * *

Rainbow Dash was surprised. She'd thought for sure that Blake was going to run. She'd looked as though she was going to run, but then…she must have seen something to make her change her mind, though with her attention on Blake herself Rainbow hadn't seen what that something was or might be.

But Blake had seen it, and she had changed her mind about running.

So, Blake Belladonna was a faunus underneath that bow. It wasn't unheard of for faunus to try and pass for human in some way, hiding their animal features and hoping to get by without anyone discovering their secret. They thought that they might have better lives that way, fit in better, get opportunities that might be denied to them if their colleagues and friends and neighbours knew what they really were.

Rainbow Dash never considered that herself. What was the point in getting ahead if you were only getting there by pretending to be someone other than yourself? Perhaps she could have worn a bow in her hair and made different friends, friends who wouldn't have had anything to do with faunus Rainbow Dash but would have welcome a human Dash with open arms. Maybe she could have gone down to the ice cream shop with those other friends and laughed along while they cracked racist jokes, or looked the other way when they bullied a faunus who wasn't hiding what they really were.

Maybe she could live as a human and reap the rewards while her soul died a little every day.

That wasn't living. Not to Rainbow Dash, anyway; clearly Blake Belladonna had thought differently, although she had the added matter of being ex-White Fang to deal with on top of all the usual issues.

Blake was Sunset's contact, of that Rainbow as convinced even before a quick glance at Sunset confirmed it to her own satisfaction. She remembered Blake vaguely from the warehouse – and come to think of it she hadn't been wearing the bow then, either – and if her memory was right then Blake had been the first of the Beacon students to respond, before even RSPT showed up.

Whatever she might have done in the past, it seemed that she was on the side of the angels now.

Not so much so that she'd been willing to talk to Rainbow Dash or help Atlas out with it's train problem until now, but Rainbow thought that maybe she'd be willing to rethink that position now.

"What are you thinking?" Ciel asked, as Blake leapt down from the gallery and allowed the cops to lead her away.

"I'm thinking of a plan," Rainbow said. "Kind of, anyway. I don't have all the details yet. Twi, can you find out who sent that video to everybody?"

"I'm already working on it," Twilight replied. "But I'll be able to work faster if I can get back to our room and use the computer there."

"Do it, and take Penny with you," Rainbow said. "Penny, go with Twilight and keep her safe until Ciel and me come back."

"I'm bodyguard ready!" Penny declared.

Rainbow grinned. "Sure you are."

"What are we going to do?" asked Ciel.

"We're going to talk to Sunset," Rainbow said.

* * *

 _How quickly the smiles die,_ Sunset thought, as she watched the shock and fear and anger blossom on the faces of her classmates. _How swiftly affection is replaced by fear and hatred. If you could see this, Princess Celestia, would you not understand how easily I could turn my back on friendship and affection? There is no loyalty to be found in it._

 _None, save in the rarest of cases._

 _Even you, even we...one mistake and all that has been done and shared is fast forgotten, all memories of happiness fade and there is nothing but disgust and disdain._

If Blake had decided to run then Sunset would have helped her. She'd been prepared to help her: her plan had been to block the doorway with a shield once Blake got out so that she couldn't be pursued. But Blake decided not to run, for reasons that Sunset honestly couldn't fathom. In the face of all the shock and anger, in the face of the dying of all the smiles, she decided to stand.

 _This isn't because I told her we had to stop running, is it?_

Sunset turned away as Blake, vested of weapons and disguise alike, leapt down to deliver herself up into the custody of the Vale police. That wasn't something that she wanted to watch: Blake being marched out in the custody of the guards, under the eyes of those who had once called her friend. She remembered what it felt like too much to want to watch it done to another.

Besides, there wasn't time to delay. She had to talk to Ozpin; he'd been headmaster of Beacon for years, he had to have all kinds of pull with the right people to make this go away. A man like that probably knew where all the bodies were buried. All she had to do was persuade him to use that influence on behalf of Blake. She wasn't entirely sure how she was going to do that, but she'd figure it out.

Because Blake was...because Sunset owed her a debt.

"Sunset," Ruby murmured, as Sunset began to walk towards the door. "Where are you going?"

"To try and fix this," Sunset replied.

Rainbow Dash intercepted her before she could make it out the gallery; she took Sunset by the arm as her team-mate Ciel followed behind them like a shadow.

"Walk with me," Rainbow said, as she steered Sunset out of the gallery and down the corridor which Sunset had been intending to go down anyway.

Sunset shook Rainbow's hand off her arm. "Rainbow Dash, I don't have-"

"Blake was your contact, wasn't she?" Rainbow asked bluntly.

Sunset stopped, and glowered at her.

Rainbow shrugged. "Listen, I get it. You wanted to keep her secret. I even get why she didn't want to talk to me, I might be a faunus but I'm still Atlas. But the secret's out now, so it doesn't help her if you just glare at me like that."

"Since the secret's out why are you bothering to ask me?"

"Because I want to hear it," Rainbow replied.

Sunset snorted. "Blake isn't White Fang any more. She knew somebody who knew somebody who was still in the White Fang, but the guy she knew is dead and I'd be surprised if the guy he knew wasn't dead as well."

"But she was in the White Fang."

"Yes," Sunset snapped. "Emphasis on was. She couldn't help you the way you wanted."

"You don't know what I want, and neither will she until I talk to her."

"It's a little late for that."

"Not necessarily."

Sunset scowled. "Meaning?"

Rainbow was silent for a moment. "You're really not the same Sunset I knew in Canterlot, are you? Back then you wouldn't have given a damn about any of this."

"Thank you for noticing the change," Sunset growled. "Get to the point."

"We think we have a plan," Ciel said. "A way to get Miss Belladonna out of custody."

"We need to sell it to the general," Rainbow said. "And maybe to her, too. Does she trust you?"

Sunset hesitated, considering. "As much as she trusts anybody, I suppose."

"If we offer her a deal, can you get her to take it?"

"What kind of deal?" Sunset asked. "The fact that she'd need to be persuaded to take it makes me nervous."

"I'll explain on the way," Rainbow said. "For now, we need to make a call to the general."

"Wait," Sunset said, unmoving. "Why? Why would you want to help Blake?"

"I want to help Atlas," Rainbow clarified. "And I think that she can help me do that. Or maybe not, I haven't talked to her yet. But when we do I'll know. So come on, let's get to it."

Sunset still didn't move. She stood still, staring at the Atlesian pair, wondering whether she ought to trust Rainbow Dash. Whether Blake would want her to trust Rainbow Dash.

Whether she was capable of completely trusting Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Look, at some point you're going to have to get over what happened at Canterlot."

"Don't tell me what I have to get over!" Sunset hissed. "You made my life absolutely miserable-"

"I'm pretty sure you did that to yourself."

The fact that Rainbow was right didn't make it any easier to hear. Quite the reverse in fact.

"Look, you've changed," Rainbow said. "I…well, I'm still the same, but then I was always super-cool so why change what works?" She grinned, if only for a moment. "Maybe you don't need my help. Maybe you can find another way to help Blake. But I'm here right now, holding out my hand, and if you turn me down then whatever other way you find, Blake is going to be sitting in a holding cell or worse while you find it. So what do you want to do? Hold onto a grudge or help your friend?"

Sunset pouted like a child. "We're not friends."

Rainbow snorted. "You're adorable when you try and play the loner, has anyone ever told you that?"

"Shut up," Sunset said. "So what is your brilliant plan, anyway?"

* * *

"So, it seems that one of your students used to be in the White Fang," Ironwood said.

Ozpin sipped his coffee as he gazed down at the image of the general's face on his screen. "So it would appear."

"But you already knew that, didn't you? I don't know why I'm even surprised anymore."

"I'm far from omniscient," Ozpin said. "But you are correct. I was aware of Miss Belladonna's past."

"Which must mean that you trust her," Ironwood said. "You wouldn't let her into your school if you thought she was dangerous."

"I'm glad to see that you still trust me enough to credit me that much."

"I've never stopped trusting you, Oz; I've only ever wished that you'd extend me the same courtesy," Ironwood replied. "So what do you plan to do now?"

"Well, once Miss Shimmer and Miss Dash have secured Miss Belladonna's release I believe that I have enough influence with the Council to approve Miss Belladonna's attendance at Beacon," Ozpin said. In truth, the real difficulty there would be objections from the more prominent students, like Miss Schnee. His name and reputation carried a lot of weight, but ultimately the Council answered to the voting public, and they wouldn't risk the wrath of public opinion if it look to be set too fiercely against him.

It would be interesting to see how Miss Shimmer intended to manage the situation.

James looked both exasperated and secretly amused. "For a man who claims not to be omniscient you certainly know a great deal."

"In my position I can hardly afford not to," Ozpin replied. "I must confess, General, that I'm a little surprised. You're putting a great deal of credibility on the line for a former member of the White Fang."

"Rainbow Dash thinks it will be worth it, or may be anyway," James said. "She'll make her final decision once she's spoken to Miss Belladonna, and gotten an idea of her character."

"And you trust Miss Dash that much, to wield your influence on your behalf?"

"I do," Ironwood said, without hesitation.

Ozpin believed him. Trust had always come easily to James Ironwood, ever since he was a young huntsman. Not that he was gullible or naïve, Ozpin did not and would never mean to imply that, but James was the sort of man who believed that you could shake a man's hand and look them in the eye and thus get a fair idea of their character; and once he had decided to trust you then he would trust you, with his life and more. Ozpin envied him that ability to be so certain, and so quickly; he envied James, and yet at the same time he did not regret that he himself was more inclined to cautious circumspection. It had protected him from many a betrayal.

To be fair to James his judgement of men was usually correct; would the same apply to his protégé?

"You must trust Miss Belladonna almost as much," Ironwood continued. "If you're willing to go against the council for her sake."

"I believe in second chances," Ozpin said. How could he not, when he had required so many second chances of his own?

* * *

The interrogation room stank of cigarettes, like the ones that both detectives were currently smoking, filling the room up with smoke as they did so. It congealed on the table like old gravy, rising over her hands like a tide lapping on the shore.

Detective Heyman, the younger of the two cops, took the cigarette out of his mouth long enough to blow in her face. She didn't cough or splutter, as much as she wanted to. She wanted to avoid showing weakness more.

"You have the right to remain silent but you may harm your defence if you do not mention, when questioned, something you later rely on in court; anything you do say may be given in evidence," Detective Burns said. "Understand?"

Blake glanced at him. "Yes."

"Good," he said. "Now: start talking."

Blake was silent for a moment. "What would you like me to talk about?"

"Don't play dumb with us!" Detective Heyman snarled. "You want to watch the video again? Bernie, play her the video again."

"I've seen it," Blake said.

"Then talk," Heyman snapped. "Let's talk about the White Fang. Let's talk about Adam Taurus, you're buddy on the train. Where is he?"

Blake looked at him. "You don't want to know where Adam is." If these two cops, who smoked like cigarettes were about to be rationed and probably drank like the beer was about to run out, ever encountered Adam then it wasn't going to end with them leading him away in handcuffs. It would end with Adam sending them to the morgue.

"We absolutely want to know where Adam Taurus is, just like we want to know where all of your White Fang buddies are hiding," Burns growled. He sat down on the edge of the table, looming over her even as he tried to make his voice sound kind and affable. "You want to do yourself a favour, kid; be smart about this. You're looking at armed robbery, destruction of property, membership of an illegal organisation, espionage, these are serious crimes."

"And that's just from the video and your presence at Beacon," Heyman said. "The tip that we got, the tip that led us to you? It said that once we start digging into your past we'll find all kinds of stuff. Stuff that could put you away for life."

"You know what they do to little girls like you in prison?" Burns asked. "You don't want that. We don't want that. So do yourself a favour and start talking. Tell us what you know, and if what you know turns out to be good, if it leads to Adam Taurus and his top guys, well, maybe we can talk to the judge and get him to go easy on you."

"I'm not a member of the White Fang," Blake said. "I was, but I don't know who's still-"

"Don't give us that crap!" Heyman yelled, pounding on the table. "That video is from a robbery from just a few months."

"And that was the day I left," Blake practically shouted back at him. "I saved the crew of that train when I decoupled the engine; I saved Weiss Schnee and Pyrrha Nikos and the rest of Team-"

"Please," Heyman said derisively. "As if the Schnee Heiress and the Mistral Champion needed a faunus like you to save them."

Blake seethed inwardly, but said nothing. It was something every faunus learned how to do in situations like this: take it, and not rise.

Most faunus, anyway. Blake focussed on the one-way glass in front of her. Who was watching her from the other side?

"Hey!" Heyman yelled. "We're talking to you!"

Blake breathed slowly in and out. "I'm no longer a member of the White Fang," Blake said. "I don't know where Adam Taurus or any of his lieutenants are now."

"Would you tell us if you did?" Burns asked.

The door into the interrogation room opened, admitting a bald man in a cheap suit. "Detectives, outside."

The two detectives glanced at one another. Heyman said, "Captain, we're in the middle of an interrogation."

"Not any more you're not," said the captain. "You're done. Outside."

"Captain-" Burns began.

"Outside," he repeated.

Burns growled in wordless annoyance. Heyman stabbed his cigarette out in the ashtray as though he were committing murder. If this was a tactic, Blake thought, they were doing a good job of pretending to be genuinely annoyed.

They trooped out, slamming the door behind them.

Blake waited, alone, and stared at the glass. Where they all behind that window now, watching her, deciding how best to come back and break her?

They could try. Adam hadn't broken her and neither would they.

If she'd known anything about possible future attacks she would have told them, if she'd known anything that would help them save lives she would have told them. But she didn't know anything like that, and even if she gave them her entire life story there was no way they were actually going to talk to a judge on her behalf. Not for a faunus like her.

The door opened and…Sunset Shimmer? Her fellow huntress-in-training walked in, breathed in, and immediately started to look a little green in the face.

"Who set off the smoke machine," she gasped.

"Sunset, what are you-" Blake stopped as the Atlesian huntress, Rainbow Dash, walked into the room followed by another young woman who must have been a part of her team.

"Why are they here?" she asked.

"They're the bad cops, I'm the good cop," Sunset said, as she lounged against the wall.

"Don't listen to her, the bad cops just left," Rainbow said, as she and her partner sat down opposite Blake. "We're not cops."

"Obviously," Blake said.

"I'm Rainbow Dash," Rainbow said. She gestured to her beret-wearing partner. "This is Ciel Soleil."

Blake nodded. "I'm-"

"Blake Belladonna, seventeen years old, hails from…Menagerie," Ciel said, sounding a little surprised to hear it. "Leader of Team Bluebell, status…yet to be determined."

"You'll get used to her," Rainbow said, offering an apologetic smile.

Blake blinked. "I doubt we'll be seeing that much of one another."

"Do you know why those two cops just left the room?" Rainbow asked.

"No," Blake replied. "Sunset, what's going on?"

"Listen to them," Sunset said, without looking at Blake. "They guessed enough, and I told them the rest. But listen. It's worth hearing, I promise."

"The cops left you alone," Rainbow said, continuing as though Sunset hadn't spoken. "Because their captain just got a call from the Council's office, who just got off the phone with the Atlesian consulate who just spoke to General Ironwood, who placed you under the protection of Atlas for the time being."

"How long that protection lasts is up to you, for now," Ciel said.

Blake looked from the faunus to the human and back again. "What's going on? Why the sudden generosity of Atlas?"

Rainbow placed her hands on the table, and swept some of the vestigial smoke away with a wave of her hand. "Tell me about the White Fang."

Blake scowled. "You're not cops but you ask the same questions?"

Rainbow shook her head. "I mean tell me why you joined the White Fang. I've never been to Menagerie but my parents moved there when my Dad retired. They say it's a magical place. They also say that folks move _to_ Menagerie, they don't leave Menagerie. But you did. I want to know why you ran away from paradise and joined a terrorist organisation."

"Just because it's paradise doesn't mean it has what you're looking for," Sunset muttered.

Blake stared at Rainbow Dash for a moment, taking her in, sizing her up. "I joined the White Fang because I wanted a better future for our people."

"The White Fang aren't my people," Rainbow replied.

"I was talking about the faunus," Blake said. _Unless you sometimes forget that you're one of us._ "I joined the White Fang to fight for the faunus race, for our rights and the equality that has been denied to us."

"And then…what?" Rainbow asked. "You got cold feet when you realised it meant killing people?"

"Something like that," Blake conceded. "I believe in justice. I wanted to fight corruption and inequality…but I realised that there was nothing just about what we were doing."

"You had to actually join up to learn that?"

"I didn't join the White Fang, I was born into it," Blake said. "From the time I could walk I was going on rallies, marches, peaceful protests and from the time I was old enough to understand I could see that it wasn't working. We marched, our leaders made speeches, we delivered petitions to the councils of the Four Kingdoms and none of it worked! Nothing changed!"

Rainbow leaned forward. "And now?"

Blake scowled, and leaned back in her chair. "Now…I see that all the violence, the bloodshed…it still hasn't changed a thing." She closed her eyes. "All that we wanted…all we ever wanted was a chance to live our lives, to choose our own path, the freedom that every human takes for granted. But then we started taking lives, taking that freedom away from people and now…do you know why the White Fang wear masks?"

"No," Rainbow said.

"Because so many humans think that we're monsters, we decided to become the monsters of their fears," Blake said. "We succeeded too well. I'm afraid a lot of the White Fang now have forgotten how to stop being monsters, even if they wanted to." She looked away, and for a moment her thoughts flew elsewhere. She remembered sitting at the feet of Sienna Khan and listening to the leader of the White Fang talk about her love of gothic romance, one of the strongest women Blake had ever met recommending books about helpless maidens held hostage in gloomy castles by brooding aristocrats; she thought about Adam, talking about how once the war was won he meant to found a new city in Anima where all faunus would be welcome. Was anything left of either of them now but bitterness and hatred?

"Look at me," Rainbow said.

Blake turned her head slowly, until she was staring into Rainbow Dash's magenta eyes.

They stared at one another for a moment, and then another. Then Rainbow glanced at Ciel, and nodded.

Ciel said, "Miss Belladonna, have you ever heard of the Legion of the Damned?"

Blake hesitated, the name sounded vaguely familiar but she couldn't quite place it. "No."

"During the Great War, when Mantle had suffered severe losses, it began to be difficult for the kingdom to replenish the ranks of its armies," Ciel explained. "As a result, the prisoners languishing in Mantle's jails were given the opportunity to serve their nation: any man willing to take up arms for Mantle would be granted an unconditional pardon for their crimes, and allowed to go free once the war ended…if they survived. Though they knew the fighting would be desperate and the risks would be great, nevertheless thousands jumped at the opportunity for a second chance. They were called the Legion of the Damned."

"How many of them survived?" Blake asked, it sounded like the kind of unit that would be used as cannon fodder.

"Six-hundred and ninety-three men mustered out at the war's end," Ciel said. "As promised, they were given their freedom and allowed to go wherever they wished."

"Which is more than can be said for the Servian Legions," Blake said. "I may not have heard of the convicts, but I know that during the Great War Mantle and Mistral were so desperate for troops that they also offered freedom to any slave – human or faunus – who was willing to fight in their armies." She snorted. "And then the war ended and slavery was abolished anyway. Those who had died had done so for nothing."

"I wouldn't say that," Sunset said. "If it hadn't been for that hard core of Great War veterans the Faunus would have been screwed come the Revolution. It was the refusal of the so-called Servian troops to be disarmed and deported that started the revolution in the first place."

Blake was silent for a moment. "Why the history quiz?"

"Like we said," Rainbow told her. "You're under the protection of Atlas."

Ciel pulled out her scroll. "The paperwork was a little rushed, but in order. All you need to do is sign."

"And then what?"

"And then you join the Atlesian military, like the Legion of the Damned you fight for us and we give you a fresh start," Rainbow said. "You help us stop the White Fang here in Vale, and everything that you did before gets wiped away. No cops, no cell, nothing. You can walk out of here. You can even go back to Beacon if they'll let you in. All you have to do is help when we ask, and the rest of the time…you're free to do as you like."

"Really?"

"Really," Rainbow said.

"And when that's done, then what?" Blake said. "Will you want me for something else? If I take this offer then Atlas owns me, and I don't get to say when I walk away."

"You're not walking anywhere right now," Rainbow said. "If it helps, I give you my word that I won't ask you to do anything else other than help defeat the White Fang in Vale."

"Your word?"

"My word," Rainbow said. "Which I never go back on. Once I make a promise you can bet I stick to it. So what do you say?"

Blake said nothing. She didn't know what to say. Yes, they were offering to let her walk out of here a free person, with the threat of law permanently banished from her life…but on the other hand in order to do it she would have become a soldier of Atlas, a part of the military that did more than anything else – maybe even more than the Schnee Dust Company – to keep the faunus in their place, to maintain and defend the system of the world that was so stacked against their kind.

And she would have to give up her freedom. No longer would she be free to go where she wished, when she wished. She would be bound to the will of Atlas, to the will of Rainbow Dash until she and Atlas both were done with her.

And only Rainbow Dash's word – and her assurance that it was her bond – that Atlas would be done with her before she died.

"We'll give you a minute to think about it," Rainbow said, as she got up. Ciel followed her example, and they both left one after the other. Sunset remained, leaning against the wall, arms folded, not looking at Blake.

"It's a good offer," Sunset said.

"Would you take it?" Blake asked.

"I'm not the one looking at prison."

"That's what I thought," Blake said.

Sunset walked towards her. "I'm not going to say that this is the only way to save you, Blake. Because it might not be, I haven't had a chance to think. But it's certainly the easiest way."

Blake looked up at her. "Why do you care about saving me?"

"Why did you care about saving me?" Sunset replied.

"Because you were in trouble, and it was the right thing to do."

Sunset snorted. "I can't claim to be so high-minded." She was silent for a moment. "I…I care because you wanted more than the world was willing to give you, and so you tried to take it regardless. I…I admire that. I guess I can relate. And because I can relate…I kinda…I guess I like you, even if you are quiet and moody sometimes."

"Thanks," Blake said flatly.

Sunset leaned on the table. "Take the offer."

"They want my freedom."

"They want you to do what you were going to do anyway," Sunset said. "Stop the White Fang, find out the truth, save Vale."

"I wanted to do that alone."

"You wanted to do it with me, but that was never going to work, was it?" Sunset asked. "Two of us, alone, against the whole White Fang? We couldn't even take out Torchwick and Neo by ourselves. I told you last night that we needed back-up."

"You didn't say that I should join the Atlesian military."

"It's a paper thing!"

"It's my name," Blake said.

Sunset sighed as she straightened up. "You know…when you said you wanted justice I didn't think you meant you wanted justice to be done unto you. They're going to throw the book at you if you don't do this. And it's just what the White Fang want, too."

Blake cocked her head a little. "You guessed that as well."

"It seems pretty obvious, doesn't it?" Sunset asked. "Someone wants you inside a cell, not out on the street. I say you should never give your enemies what they want."

Blake hesitated.

"Where do you want to be?" Sunset asked. "In a cell, accomplishing nothing while things get worse? Or out on the streets getting justice, for Tukson and all the rest?"

Blake closed her eyes. Her freedom or her cause? Her principles or her dislike for Atlas?

In the end there was only one adult choice that she could make.

She nodded her head.

She heard, rather than saw, the door to her cell open. "Well?" Rainbow asked.

"I'll do it," Blake said. "Though I still don't see why Vale is agreeing to this."

"Because Atlas desires it," Ciel said. "And Atlas tends to get what it wants these days."

That, Blake reflected, was uncomfortably true. She opened her eyes to see Rainbow smiling at her.

"From the ashes we rise," Rainbow said. "Now, let's get you signed up and get out of here."


	53. Reception and Reaction

Reception and Reaction

The elevator ground its way to the top of the tower with what seemed to Sunset to be an agonising slowness. She could hear the cables rattling above her as they bore her up to Professor Ozpin's office.

She wanted to get there quickly. She didn't want to get there at all. There was a part of her that wanted to rage at how terribly slowly this stupid elevator cab was moving, there was another part of her that wanted to push all the buttons so that they'd get there even more slowly; although the fact that she was not alone - that she was accompanied by Rainbow Dash, of all people - meant that that part of her was being quieter than it might otherwise have been. She had a care for her dignity, after all; if Rainbow caught her futzing around with the lift buttons like a kid then she'd never hear the end of it.

Nevertheless, even a concern for her precious dignity couldn't stop Sunset from visible fidgeting as the lift rose inexorably to the highest height in Beacon Tower.

"Are you nervous?" Rainbow asked.

Sunset couldn't hear any scorn in the other girl's voice, only curiousity, but still she reacted with a snap as though Rainbow had sneered at her. "No, I'm not nervous! Don't be ridiculous."

A moment of silence descended between the two of them.

"So, what are you nervous about?" Rainbow asked.

"I told you that I wasn't nervous!"

"And I didn't believe you," Rainbow said. "So, what's up?"

 _What's up? Seriously?_ "It doesn't matter."

"Come on, we're both in this together."

"The fact that you can say that reveals the paucity of your understanding."

"Oh, so you think you're running a bigger risk than me, is that it?"

"I think that..." Sunset trailed off. "I said it doesn't matter. You wouldn't understand anyway." She shuffled from side to side, and willed the elevator to move faster.

Rainbow snorted derisively. "Why wouldn't I understand? Because I'm not as smart or deep as the great Sunset Shimmer?"

"Because you never had to struggle to be a good person!" Sunset snarled, recoiling as she realised what she'd just said. _If I knew a spell that could erase memories or turn back time I would use them both in a heartbeat._

Rainbow stared at her as though she'd grown another head. "I...huh?"

"I'm about to go to bat in front of Professor Ozpin for a former terrorist," Sunset muttered. The leather of her jacket creased as she folded her arms. "I like Blake, and I want to help her, but...all I can think of as this damn stupid slow elevator crawls up the shaft is that I'm about to put my credibility on the line for an ex-White Fang...whatever she was. And I know it's selfish and I know that her problems are much worse than mine and that whether or not anyone still respects me at the end of this is the last thing that I should be worrying about but this is who I am, okay? You can...you can't ever understand that because you always made being nice look easy. That's one of the many reasons why I never liked you."

"You disliked me specifically?" Rainbow asked. "I always just figured you were just mean-tempered and, well, a jerk."

Sunset exhaled loudly. "You were popular when I wasn't so I couldn't blame everything on me being a faunus, you're powers aren't nearly as cool as mine but everybody fawned all over you, you're cocksure, arrogant, unbelievably annoying and so...so _nice_. What was the name of that girl you used to stick up for, the shy one with the pink hair?"

"Fluttershy?"

"Yeah, the weak one."

"Fluttershy's the strongest person I know," Rainbow said quietly.

"Sure she is," Sunset replied with clear sarcasm. "Then why did she need you to stick up for her? And why did you do it, when you had it worse than she did? How were you so nice? You were a faunus in Atlas, just like me, how did that not fill your stomach with so much rage? How did that...didn't you ever want to scream and shout in the faces of those human friends of yours, didn't ever just want to hurt them the way the world kept hurting us?"

"No," Rainbow said, leaning slightly away from Sunset as though she were suddenly afraid of her. "No, I never wanted to do that."

"Why not?" Sunset demanded. "Why weren't you as pissed as I was?"

"Because things weren't that bad," Rainbow said. "Sure, some people were assholes about my ears but who cares? I didn't. So long as I had my friends I didn't need to care what random people thought about me. They were just...air on my face as I flew, you know? I felt them for a moment and then I left them behind. You know what the difference is between you and me?"

"Do I want to know?"

The elevator shuddered to a halt.

"I don't need other people to tell me how awesome I am," Rainbow said.

The doors opened before Sunset could form a response - something along the lines of she didn't need to be told that she was great, she just needed her greatness to be appreciated by others, that was all - before they both had to step out of the elevator cab and into the headmaster's spacious tower office.

The gears of the clock ground away above their heads, and cast their shadows on the floor.

Professor Ozpin sat enthroned in his seat, silent and inscrutable as the two young huntresses walked in. The only sound apart from the grinding gears were the footfalls of Sunset and Rainbow as they crossed the floor.

Rainbow stood at ease, her feet spread apart and her hands clasped behind her back, and Sunset found herself doing the same if only to have something to do with her hands.

"Please, Miss Shimmer, Miss..Dash, isn't it? There's no need to stand on ceremony with me," Professor Ozpin said, sounding genial enough. "Sit, both of you."

Sunset took one of the two chairs in front of the headmaster's desk. Rainbow, a moment later, followed suit.

"Now," Professor Ozpin said. "Why don't you tell me why you wanted to see me."

Rainbow said nothing, she had already agreed to let Sunset take the lead on this; as an Atlas student - or whatever she really was; if she was really just a student Sunset would chew on the arm of her jacket - she would let Sunset make the running and only intervene if necessary or when questioned. So it was Sunset who said, "It's about Blake."

Professor Ozpin nodded sagely. "An unfortunate business. And yet I gather that Miss Belladonna has already been released from police custody."

"Yes, professor, she has," Sunset said. "Blake has...she's entered into an arrangement with Atlas."

"I see," Professor Ozpin said, leaving his opinion on what he saw unclear. "The terms of said arrangement being what, if I may ask? Service in exchange for diplomatic and legal immunity."

"Something like that, sir," Rainbow said softly.

"It means that Blake will be undertaking missions for Atlas for a while, against the White Fang here in Vale," Sunset said. "But, when she isn't...we were hoping that she could come back to Beacon."

Professor Ozpin cradled his hands together and rested his elbows upon his desk. "There are some who would find the very idea of what you're suggesting to be absurd, Miss Shimmer."

"Unless any of those people are in this room I don't see the relevance of their opinion, Professor."

Professor Ozpin chuckled. "Miss Shimmer, leading is never as simple as taking the decisions that one knows to be right. People are more than pieces to be moved around on a game board."

"I'm aware," Sunset said shortly. "I just don't see what that has to do with Blake."

"I could allow Miss Belladonna to return to Beacon," Professor Ozpin said. "The Council might have something to say on the subject, but I dare say that I could convince them to accept my decision in this matter."

"Could?" Sunset repeated. "Will you?"

"I will," Professor Ozpin said. "If you can ensure that it will be worth the trouble."

Sunset's eyes narrowed. "With…the greatest respect, Professor Ozpin, what is that supposed to mean?"

"I mean that it won't take too much for the Council to reconsider backing my decision in regards to Miss Belladonna if a public outcry follows," Professor Ozpin said. "And a public outcry will follow if certain high-profile students seek to create one."

"Are you talking about Weiss Schnee?"

"Among others," Professor Ozpin said. "And then there is the more general reaction of the student body to consider. It will be no favour to Miss Belladonna to admit her back into Beacon if she is only hounded out again by her fellow students."

"I won't let that happen," Sunset said.

"An admirable sentiment, but in this instance I believe persuasion will be of more use than a bodyguard."

Sunset's brow furrowed. "Professor…is this some kind of test?"

Professor Ozpin stared blankly at her for a moment. "Whatever would give you that idea, Miss Shimmer?"

"The fact that you want me to do all of this running around instead of having one of your teachers do it," Sunset said.

"Do you object?" Professor Ozpin asked.

"I think that this is Blake's life we're talking about, not a chance for you to see how I interact with other people," Sunset snapped.

The professor's smile broadened. "But who else could I ask who would be as concerned for Miss Belladonna as you, Miss Shimmer? I must say I'm impressed: you've grown a great deal since the year began."

Sunset coughed into one hand. "I- thank you, professor. I'll do it, I just- is there no one else?"

"I think a friend will be better at conveying Miss Belladonna's merits than a more remote figure of authority," Professor Ozpin said. "Although…"

"Professor?"

"There is the question of Team Bluebell," Ozpin said. "It will be difficult for Miss Belladonna to continue leading a team if she is at the beck and call of Atlas."

Sunset said nothing, mostly because she didn't have an immediate answer. "If…if Blake can't be with her team…what place is there for her here?"

"One river at a time, Miss Shimmer," Professor Ozpin said. "Once Miss Belladonna's attendance has been confirmed then we will handle the logistics of her suddenly unique situation. Please report back to me once you're sure that the waters have been smoothed over."

"Yes, professor," Sunset said, as she got up from her seat. "And thank you."

"Don't thank me, Miss Shimmer," Professor Ozpin said. "As of yet I've done absolutely nothing to be thanked for."

* * *

Pyrrha. Ruby. Weiss. Yang. Bluebell.

Sunset made the list in her head as she and Rainbow Dash descended back down the tower in the elevator that seemed to be moving much faster going down than it had coming back up again.

Pyrrha, because she was the Champion of Mistral, a big celebrity even here in Vale, respected by everybody at Beacon on behalf of her combat prowess, the kind of person whose example led the way for others…and also because she was Sunset's friend and too nice for her own good and so she would both be easy to talk and fairly certain to come down on Blake's side.

Ruby, for much the same reasons: everybody liked Ruby, and she had a gift for saying the right thing, too; in fact she was much better at that kind of stuff than Sunset was. She, too, was likely to be on Blake's side.

Weiss was obvious: the rich Atlesian heiress was probably in the strongest position to make trouble for Blake if she had a mind too. She was also the one most likely to have a mind to of anybody, being what she was and Blake having been what she had been.

Yang was the kind of person that other students would follow, she had charisma and what other people might consider to be coolness; if she stood by Blake then a lot of others would fall in line – if only to avoid getting on the wrong side of Yang. She'd looked pretty angry when Blake's secret was revealed, but hopefully she could be brought round.

And lastly Bluebell, Blake's team; the team to which she would hopefully be returning if all went well. The individual members might not be the best students, or the most influential, but if they didn't want Blake back then they had the potential to make her time at Beacon pretty miserable.

 _Pyrrha and Ruby first, then Yang, then Weiss, then Bluebell._

 _Yeah, start with the easier ones first._

"You don't need my help with this, do you?" Rainbow asked.

"No," Sunset said. "None of these people know you. I don't think having some Atlesian dog of the military would help things at all."

"Dog of the military, come on," Rainbow said. "I am a horse of the military." She grinned briefly. "Anyway, that's fine. I'll go check in on Twi, see if she's managed to trace the source of that video. Maybe Blake isn't the White Fang mole we should be worried about."

"I know what you mean," Sunset said, thinking about the timing of the video. "But there aren't many other faunus here at Beacon."

"Anything you want to say to me?"

Sunset glared at her.

"Just kidding," Rainbow said.

The elevator stopped again, and the doors opened to admit sunlight from the open plaza beyond the tower. Sunset shielded her eyes briefly against the sudden return of the light, compared to the darkness within the elevator, as she stepped out into the courtyard.

"Sunset!"

The voice that hailed her was only somewhat familiar, and it took Sunset a moment to place it. It belonged to that faunus – of course it did, he was coming straight towards her – the one who liked to walk around with his shirt open so that everyone could see his rock-hard abs. His blue-haired friend trailed after him, Sunset didn't think she'd ever gotten his name.

But she thought that the faunus was called…

"Hey…Sun," Sunset said, hoping it wasn't too obvious that she couldn't really remember what he was called. She was pretty sure it was Sun, though. Wasn't that what Blake had called him when she gave him her weapon to take care of?

Judging by the way he reacted, Sunset had gotten it right. Sun came to a halt in front of her. "Is Blake okay?" he asked. "Where is she? Do the cops still have her?"

"No," Rainbow said. "She's on the _Valiant_ until we sort out what's going to happen to her now."

Sun looked at Rainbow Dash. "Uh…Atlas, right?"

"Right," Rainbow said. "Rainbow Dash. Haven, right?"

"Sure," Sun said quickly. "Listen…wait, the _Valiant_? Is that like an Atlas ship or something?"

"One of them," Rainbow said. "Sunset, I'll catch you later." She started to saunter off.

"Sure," Sunset called to her as she watched Rainbow head in the direction of the dorms. "Let me know if you come up with anything."

"Maybe."

"What do you mean, maybe?"

Rainbow smirked at Sunset over her shoulder.

 _Insufferable little…_

"Hold on a second!" Sun cried. "Why is Blake on at Atlas warship?"

"Maybe they're holding her there so she can't hurt anyone else?" Blue-hair suggested.

"Dude, for the last time, Blake's not a terrorist!" Sun snapped at him.

"She was."

Sunset sighed. "Listen…whatever your name is-"

"Neptune," Neptune said. "Neptune Vasilias." He grinned, flashing his pearly white teeth at her as he pointed at her with one finger. "And I don't think I caught your name, hotness."

Sunset's eyebrows rose. She glanced at Sun, who looked somewhere between apologetic and exasperated.

"Dude, time and a place, come on."

"Listen, Neptune, I'm going to be very charitable and assume that you're a nice guy deep down," Sunset said. "But I've had enough of dating blue-haired nice guys." She let that sink in for a moment. "To answer your original point: Blake is not a member of the White Fang-"

"But she was," Neptune repeated.

"Just because you're lucky enough to have never done anything that you regret doesn't mean that we're all so fortunate!" Sunset snarled, making him recoil a step away from her. "Blake's done things that she regrets. She isn't the only one. But she's trying to do better; that's about all we can do since we can't change the things that we did. She's made mistakes…but just because you've been lucky enough to never be in that position doesn't mean that you can judge."

 _Listen to me, I sound like…I don't even know what I sound like, but…if Princess Celestia could hear me now, what would she think?_ Ponies believed in forgiveness, they even took it to a fault. Whatever you'd done, no matter how terrible, all your sins would be forgiven so long as you were penitent and appropriately sorrowful. Repentance would wipe away all crimes, and redemption obviate the need for punishment. _I always thought that I was different from other ponies, but listen to me now preaching Equestrian values._

She closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. When she opened them again she saw that Neptune looked mildly ashamed of himself.

Sunset looked at Sun. "Atlas got Blake out of jail. She's free…but she's going to have do some work for Atlas on the side for a while, against the White Fang."

"Pffft, so all she has to do is get back at that Adam guy?" Sun asked. "That's nothing, I bet Blake was gonna do that anyway."

 _You don't know the half of it._

"So when's she coming back to Beacon?" Sun asked.

"As soon as I can tell Professor Ozpin that nobody's going to raise a big stink about her coming back," Sunset said.

"Great!" Sun said. "Cause…you know, I think her weapon misses her already."

"And it's not the only one, is it?" Sunset asked.

Sun's face reddened. "Well…she is really cool."

Sunset nodded. "I'll try and be as quick as I can."

* * *

Pyrrha and Ruby were as good about it as Sunset had expected them to be; Jaune too although – no offence meant – that wasn't quite so important since he wasn't a celebrity like Pyrrha nor nigh-on universally beloved like Ruby. Still, it was good to know that they were all ready and willing to welcome Blake back, when and if she returned to Beacon.

 _It's good to know that they're as transparently good as they always seem to be._

"Of course," Pyrrha said. "She saved our lives, how could we react differently?"

Sunset shrugged. "It wouldn't stop some people," she said. "Listen, I know that you don't really like the celebrity circus stuff that surrounds you, but…if this does turn into a story would you be willing to speak up for Blake? Your voice might carry some weight."

Pyrrha nodded. "I'll do it, if it will help."

Pyrrha smiled briefly. "It was Blake you were out with last night, wasn't it?"

Sunset raised one eyebrow. "How did you guess?"

"The fact that you're helping her now…there aren't that many people outside of the team you'd do this for."

 _I don't know whether to feel praised or insulted. Neither, I suppose, since it's the truth._ "You're not wrong about that. Ruby, could you come with me to talk to Yang?"

"Sure," Ruby said.

They found Yang in the team YRDN dorm room, along the entire rest of the team. Sunset wasn't that worried about Ren and Nora – although who knew with someone like Ren; still waters run deep and all – but she would have rather done this without having Dove around. She still hadn't forgotten the way that he'd taken it upon himself to white knight for Pyrrha during their falling out; in doing so he'd managed to turn half of Beacon against her, hadn't he?

 _Perhaps it is a good thing that he's here. I should have paid more attention to him earlier when I was making my list._

"Hey Rubes," Yang greeted them as she opened the door. "Sunset."

"Yang."

"Come on in, make yourselves at home."

"Hi, Ruby!" Nora called as Ruby walked in.

"Hey, Nora."

"What brings the two of you here?" Ren asked. He was wearing a pink apron, and carrying a tray loaded down with several stacks of pancakes. "You're just in time for something to eat."

"Hey! I never agreed to smaller portions!" Nora yelled.

"And no one asked you to, Nora; I'll share with Ruby if she wants any," Yang said. "Sunset?"

"No thanks, I'm fine."

"Suit yourself," Yang said, closing the door behind them. "So what brings you two here?"

Sunset thrust her hands into her pockets and leaned against the wall near the dorm room door. "Blake's coming back."

Dove snorted disdainfully.

 _There are rare occasions when I don't like being right._ Sunset raised her voice. "So it would be great if we could be sure that nobody is going to make any trouble for her when she gets back."

Dove finished loading his gunblade. "Are you asking us to be nice to a terrorist?"

"She left that life behind," Sunset said firmly.

"Not that much of a difference, is it?"

"It could be worse," Sunset said. "She could be an unlikeable asshole with no redeeming features."

The words were out of Sunset's mouth before she could stop to consider that it might not be the best idea to insult one of the Team YRDN's members in Team YRDN's own dorm-room, especially after she'd come here to get them all – mostly Yang, but still – to play nice.

She'd never been all that good at knowing when to shut up when she was annoyed, and it seemed that it wasn't taking very much to annoy her today.

Dove's face reddened as he lurched to his feet.

"Dove, stop," Yang said firmly, holding up one hand to stop him in his tracks. "It's not true…but you kind of had that coming."

"Does that mean you don't feel the same way?" Sunset asked.

Yang walked around Sunset and Ruby, placing herself physically between them and Dove. "You two knew about it, didn't you? When the cops showed up and everyone got that video you weren't surprised. Everyone else was shocked or worse, but you started to move because you weren't shocked, you were focussed."

Sunset glanced at Ruby. "What-"

"Yes," Ruby squeaked. "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you but Sunset said that it was Blake's secret and the fewer people who knew about it the better and-"

"It's okay, I get it," Yang said. "I still wish that you'd told me, but I get why you didn't."

"I think that everything that's happened today vindicates Blake's decision to keep it to herself," Sunset said.

"If that was why she did it," Dove said. "How do we know that isn't still with the White Fang?" He looked over Yang's shoulder. "How do we know that _you're_ not with the White Fang?"

Sunset snarled. "I'm not, but step out from behind mommy and I'll kick your ass just the same."

"Dove, that's enough," Yang said. "I admit, that when I first saw that video then I felt kinda pissed. I wondered if she'd been lying to us all this whole time, if she'd been our enemy this whole time, if she was plotting against us, if one of our enemies was living under the same roof as my sister. But then, after I calmed down, I started to think about it a little more and I realised that that just made zero sense.

"If Blake was still with the White Fang then why would she help save Ruby? If Sunset was with the White Fang then why was she fighting against them when they had the rest of her team captured? None of that makes sense if they're not both good guys." She reached out, and pulled Ruby towards her into a hug. "If it hadn't been for Blake, then none of you guys would have made it out of there alive. That makes her okay with me. More than okay." She looked down for a moment. "I don't think I ever really told her that." She brightened. "But if she's coming back then I can tell her then. When you see Blake next, tell her that she'll always have at least one friend on Team Iron."

Sunset glanced at Ren and Nora, who both nodded with a level of enthusiasm appropriate to their respective natures.

That just left…

Sunset's eyes narrowed. "Are you going to be a problem for her?"

Dove shuffled uncomfortably. "I just…I don't get how anyone can still trust her, knowing what she's done. What she _was_."

"Nobody wants to stop the White Fang more than Blake," Sunset said. "And I trust her because she had our backs when she didn't have to."

Dove frowned. "I don't think I'd want to sleep in the same room as someone like that."

"You don't have to, you sleep in this room," Yang said. "I'm not going to tell you what to feel, but don't cause trouble for Blake, okay? She saved Ruby, she deserves that much from us in return."

Dove looked down for a moment. "Sure. I won't make a fuss."

"Great," Sunset said flatly. "Thanks for being cool about this."

"No problem," Yang said. "You know, if you need some help, I could talk to her team for you?"

"Really?" Sunset said.

"Sure," Yang said. "If I'm right, I think you two are going to have enough trouble with the ice queen."

* * *

They found Weiss in the library, alone. She heard them out, at first, her fingers drumming lightly on the textbook open in front of her while she stared at them with those icy blue eyes.

Perhaps it was just Sunset's imagination, but those seemed particularly bright and icy today, and the scar of her face was more prominent than usual.

"Let me see if I have this right," Weiss said, in a voice that was as cold as her gaze. "Blake, a former terrorist and a member of the White Fang, is going to be returning to this school…but I have the power to stop that from happening?"

Sunset's eyes narrowed. She was starting to get the feeling that Weiss wasn't about to just oblige on this. "That's about it, yeah."

"And you want me not to exercise that power?" Weiss asked. "You think that I shouldn't do just that? You want me to let Blake walk back in here after everything she's done?"

"She's not with the White Fang any-"

"I know that!" Weiss snapped. "But she was! That footage wasn't faked, was it? She's committed robberies, attacked people, maybe even killed them, and you think she should be allowed to come back to school with no consequences?"

Sunset's mouth felt dry. She swallowed. "Blake regrets the things that she's done."

"And that's supposed to make it all okay?"

"Yes!"

"Well it doesn't!" Weiss shouted. "If Atlas wants to make use of Blake so badly that she isn't going to be punished by the law for any of the things that she's done then…then I don't suppose that there is anything that I can do about that. But I don't see why I should allow her to come back to Beacon and spend time with her friends after what she's done."

"She saved your life," Sunset said.

"What about all the people that she didn't save?" Weiss demanded. She let out a deep breath and folded her arms. "You have no idea what it's like. I've known board members kidnapped and killed, men and women that I'd known my entire life…until the day they disappeared and I never saw them again."

She got up, and walked to the nearest window. She stood with her back to Sunset and Ruby, resting her small and delicate-seeming hands upon the window sill as she looked out across the academy grounds.

"For a faunus, you might disagree with the ideals of the White Fang," Weiss said, sounding as though she was about to choke on the word ideals as it might be applied to the White Fang. "You might just think that they cause you trouble when the military cracks down on them. But for me…I've lived my entire life with a sword hanging over my head. My father…the strain of having to constantly fend off the White Fang took its toll upon his temper, shall we say?

"For you, the crimes of the White Fang are things to be deplored in abstract, and regretted in the same way. But I can remember their faces. I can see them when I close my eyes.

"There have to be consequences for that. For the things that Blake has done. The fact that she feels sorry about it…I suppose I should be glad that she's seen the error of her ways, but it doesn't change the fact that she _did_ those things in the first place."

Ruby brushed past Sunset as she walked slowly and softly forwards, quietly approaching Weiss from behind until she was standing next to her. The Schnee heiress looked down at her for a moment, before she looked.

"Weiss," Ruby began, her voice soft and quiet and a little high-pitched. "I don't know what you had to go through because of the White Fang, but I know that you're still hurting because of it, and I know that you must hate them because of the things that they did to you and your family." Ruby fell silent for a moment, her chin lowering and her expression pensive as she seemed to consider what to say next. "But Blake's hurting too. She isn't any older than we are…well, than you are. She joined the White Fang when she was just a kid because she wanted to help make the world a fairer place. Isn't that why we're all here at Beacon, Blake and you and me?"

Weiss looked at her in something like disgust, as if the very idea that she and Blake could have similar motives revolted her to the very core of her being. But Ruby kept on going without acknowledging that fact.

"We're all here because we want to stand up for what's right and protect the everybody from hate and violence and evil. Aren't we? Why else did we decide to become huntresses? You could have stayed in Atlas and worked for your father but you didn't. Blake could have stayed in the White Fang or when she ran away she could have hidden and become a farmer or something but she didn't. She chose to come to Beacon just like you did because she believes in what Beacon means to mankind…just like you do. Just like I believe you do.

"Whatever we were, wherever we came from, we're all huntresses now and we're all here defending humanity against the grimm _and_ the White Fang. We all want that chance…and I think that Blake deserves that chance as well.

"And I think that deep down, you think that as well."

Ruby fell silent, but Weiss said nothing. Sunset waited, listening for a reply.

For a moment, or a few, Weiss stood staring out the window. She was still. She was silent. Then she turned to Ruby, her braid of white hair swaying gently as she moved. "We're all here defending humanity," she repeated quietly. "But how can we do that when we can't agree on who is humanity?"

"Weiss?" Ruby asked.

"Never mind," Weiss said. She sighed. "When Blake comes back I won't say anything about it. And if people try to say that I did I'll put them straight."

"Really?"

"Yes," Weiss said.

"Thank you," Sunset said. "I, we, appreciate it."

"Yes, yes, I'm sure you do," Weiss said quickly. She sounded weary, as if the mere effort of concession had tired her out. "And now, if you'll excuse me…I really do have studying to do."

Sunset nodded. "We'll leave you to it." She turned away with a feeling that, whatever her relationship with Weiss had been prior to this, it had been damaged by this.

 _But what choice did I have, in the end?_

 _I wonder how Yang's getting on?_

* * *

"I'm sorry, Yang," Bon Bon said. "But we just can't take her back as though today didn't happen."

Yang sat down on the vacant bed; Blake's bed. "Why not?"

"Because she's a faunus!" Sky spat. "Everybody knows they're out to get us."

Yang looked at him. "Everybody knows?"

"Sure," he said. "Everybody back home said that those faunus couldn't be trusted."

Yang folded her arms. "Had you ever actually met a faunus before you came to Beacon?"

Sky hesitated. "Well…no, but all the fellas on the farm said-"

"Did they say it out of their asses?" Yang asked.

"It's not actually about the faunus thing," Bon Bon said.

Yang gestured towards Sky with a nod of her head.

Bon Bon rolled her eyes. "Okay, for the farm boy it's about the faunus thing. But for me…she lied to us."

"Technically it's more than she kept secrets."

"Whatever," Bon Bon said. "She lied, she didn't tell us the truth, it all comes to the same thing in the end. We're supposed to be a team. We're supposed to be like family but she didn't trust us with the truth about her."

Again, Yang gestured towards Sky. "Can't you see why?"

"That's not the point," Bon Bon said. "Maybe it wouldn't have been easy, maybe it wouldn't have been painless, but we're her team. Or we were supposed to be. But she trusted Sunset Shimmer with her secrets before she trusted us. What kind of a team leader doesn't trust her team, or trusts people outside of the team more than us.

"Maybe we're not the best students or the best fighters, but we're Blake's team and she should have had faith in us. But she didn't. She lied to us instead." Bon Bon scowled. "I can't just forgive that."

"But look at what happened when her secret came out," Yang said. "She got arrested, for crying out loud! And Sky…would you really have kept all of this a secret?"

"No."

"There, you see?"

"She could have come out about being a faunus, she didn't need to hide that," Bon Bon shot back.

"Bon Bon, calm down," Lyra said, her voice soft and melodic. "This isn't Blake's fault."

Bon Bon twisted around in her seat, the chair creaking beneath the weight of her armour. "It isn't?"

"She has a past that she's afraid of," Lyra said. She picked up her harp, and softly plucked a couple of the strings. "I can't imagine what that must be like." She plucked a few more strings, it sounded like she was experimenting with a melody. "Although it might make a good song one day. A girl from the shadows, who's spent years running from her past before, at last, she turns to fight. The Ballad of Blake Belladonna. Of course it all depends on the ending."

"You know I love you, right?" Bon Bon said. "But it's ever so slightly creepy when you do that about real people. Our lives aren't just stories for strangers to enjoy."

"All our lives are made of stories," Lyra said. "The things that we do, the things that happen to us, are less important than the stories that people tell about us afterwards; and it isn't our experiences that guide us so much as the stories that we choose to tell ourselves about our lives, and the rolls we choose to play as we move forward."

Yang glanced at Bon Bon, who shrugged as if to suggest that this was just the way Lyra was sometimes.

"So," Yang said. "What roll are you guys going to play when Blake gets back?"

"She can't come back," Bon Bon said. "She can come to Beacon, fine, if Professor Ozpin thinks that's a good idea then who are we to question it. And we're not bullies, we aren't to going to give her a hard time or anything."

Yang looked at Sky.

"Don't worry about him, he's not going to do anything," Bon Bon said firmly. "But…we're not ready to have her back. Two to one, we're not ready."

Yang leaned forwards. "What are you going to do with just three people on your team?"

"We'll figure something out, for now," Bon Bon said. "Having a fourth team-mate we couldn't trust would be a lot harder."

* * *

The sun was low on the horizon by the time that Blake approached Beacon, escorted by Rainbow Dash.

The tower loomed above her, the whole school seemed less like a welcoming place and more like a fortress that she had to assault for…for the reason that it was the only place that she had left to go.

Her steps dragged a little, she felt as though weights were burdening down her feet and making her slow and heavy in her progress here…towards whatever was waiting.

Rainbow Dash must have sensed that, because she said, "It's going to be okay. Nobody's going to give you any trouble."

"I doubt that's entirely true," Blake murmured.

Rainbow shrugged. "Well, nobody important anyway."

"I see," Blake said, still murmuring. "And yet my team doesn't want me back."

Rainbow cringed. "That's…that's rough, yeah. But, all the same…no offence but that's kind of your fault, maybe. A little."

Blake glanced at her. "Thanks."

"Look, I said no offence, okay?" Rainbow said. She fell silent for a moment. "I…I wasn't the leader on my first team. That was my buddy Applejack. She…she took care of the rest of us. One of those natural big sister types, you know?"

Blake hesitated. "No," she said. "No, I'm afraid I've never come across someone like that."

"Sheesh, you have had it tough, haven't you?" Rainbow said. "The point is…she was a real leader, you know. Saw through all the BS, wouldn't take any crap, would do anything to get her team home safe."

Blake frowned. These kind of stories often had rather tragic endings. "Is she…"

"No!" Rainbow said quickly. "Gods no. She's…the team broke up, I don't want to talk about that. Applejack got reassigned, and I got made leader of Rosepetal. I wasn't sure that I could do it at first. I had a big pair of cowboy boots to fill." Rainbow scratched the back of her head. "It was General Ironwood who told me that the first step to being a good team leader is to know your team better than their mothers do and love them as much. Everything else, the strategy, tactics, you can learn all that stuff. But if you don't start by learning to know and love your team then you'll never get anywhere."

"And you do that?" Blake asked.

"I try," Rainbow said. "I don't know if I succeed, but…did you try?"

Blake didn't say anything, the answer was so plain to see that it didn't need to be vocalised by her or Rainbow Dash or anybody else. She hadn't ever truly embraced her team; had she ever even tried? She'd envied the bonds that Sunset shared with her team-mates but she hadn't tried to act on that sense of longing by replicating those bonds with her own team-mates. She had shut them out, and as a consequence they no longer trusted her.

She didn't blame them for not wanting her back.

She didn't deserve to be welcomed back. Not to her team, not – she thought as she passed into the spacious courtyard – into Beacon at all.

"Blake!"

Blake was pulled from her introspection by the approach of Sun, jogging towards her with Gambol Shroud held lightly in one hand.

"Hey, Sun," she said quietly.

"I'm so glad you're back!" Sun exclaimed. "Cause you know I missed you and…uh, well, you know this place just isn't as cool without you around." His face reddened. "Anyway, here's your weapon."

"Thanks," Blake said, reclaiming Gambol Shroud out of his unprotesting hands. "Thank you for holding onto it for me."

"Anytime," Sun said. "Although hopefully not because you've been arrested or anything, you know."

Blake snorted. "Hopefully not."

"Hey," Sunset called as she sauntered over, accompanied by her team and by Yang. "Welcome back." She glanced over her shoulder at Beacon. "Welcome home."

"Home?" Blake murmured as she looked at the school around her.

"Yeah," Ruby said. "Whoever we are, wherever we came from, Beacon is our home now for the next four years, and you belong here as much as anyone."

"Welcome home, Blake," Pyrrha said.

"Yeah, welcome home," Sun said.

"We heard about your team," Sunset said. "So, listen, I don't know what Professor Ozpin has in mind but you're welcome to crash with us. Jaune can sleep on the floor."

"What?"

"I'm kidding," Sunset said. "Probably." She winked.

Yang brushed past Ruby and Pyrrha to stand in front of Blake, looming over her a little bit.

Blake looked away, and downwards at the stone of the courtyard floor. "Yang, I-"

She was silenced when Yang enfolded her in a hug.

"I never thanked you properly for what you did to Ruby," Yang said. "Thank you. Thank you so much." Her embrace tightened a little. "Welcome home, Blake."

"I…" Blake began, then trailed off. "I'm home."


	54. First Assignment

First Assignment

"But I don't want to fight," Penny said. "Can't we be friends and allies with everyone?"

"No, Penny, that's not how this game works," Ruby explained, or tried to, as she gestured to various parts of the board that sat on the library table in between Penny, Pyrrha, Jaune and Ruby herself. "You're playing as Atlas, Pyrrha's playing Mistral, I'm Vacuo and Jaune's playing as Vale, and we're each trying to defeat everyone else and conquer Remnant before the grimm kill everybody."

Penny blinked. "Wouldn't it be more advantageous to combine our forces against the creatures of grimm?"

"In real life, sure, that's why we're all allies now and we don't fight any more wars," Jaune said. "But this is just a game. It's pretend, for fun."

"I must admit, I'm finding this a little confusing as well," Pyrrha said. "This is a very complicated game."

"A little," Jaune said. "But you soon get the hang of it."

Sunset sat on another table, a little way away – but still close enough that the Atlesians could keep an eye on Penny – with Rainbow, Blake and Ciel Soleil. Twilight sat on her own by the window, tapping away on her scroll.

They were supposed to be having a strategy meeting, but at the moment Sunset had turned round in her chair so that she could better see Ruby and Jaune try to explain _Remnant: The Game_ to Pyrrha and Penny.

Rainbow Dash leaned forwards. "I've never played this game before but somehow I don't think that Penny is going to win this."

"Ruby will win," Ciel said. "She knows what she's doing."

"So does Jaune, which is only one of the reasons why he's going to come out on top," Sunset said.

"He's playing as Vale," Ciel said. "That's the weakest start of any in the game."

"True," Sunset said, because for a game for four players _Remnant: The Game_ was horrendously unbalanced: Atlas players got the Atlesian air fleet, a huge army and the technological resources of Mantle; Mistral got the Mistral trade route and the black markets to acquire lien faster, and got to hold an extra hero card to represent Mistral's heroic tradition; Vacuo wasn't quite so lucky, but it had a lot of terrain and weather effects plus the scavenger trait to take advantage of battles fought between the other three players; all Vale had was three extra hero cards to represent the prestige of Beacon Academy, and it was tough to go from that to world conquest. "But Jaune's good at this kind of stuff, so he'll figure something out."

"Sure he will," Rainbow said. "Anyway, not that it isn't super-fun listening to you talk about board games, but can we get back to work?"

"Yeah, right," Sunset said, turning back around and leaving the other four to the game. "So, what do we know?"

"Are you sure we should be talking about our plans to take down the White Fang in the middle of the library?" Blake asked.

"The library is the perfect place to have this meeting: it's a place where no one goes," Rainbow said. She grinned. "But seriously, our dorm rooms would be too cramped and here we can keep an eye on Penny. Besides, if anyone comes we'll hear them before they hear what we're up to."

"Suit yourself," Blake said. She rested her hands together on top of the table, and her ears – which she now revealed, if not proudly, then at least without shame – twitched gently on top of her head. "What do you know so far?"

"Not as much as you, in some ways," Rainbow said. "We had no idea the White Fang and this Torchwick guy were both working for some big boss behind the scenes."

"Don't beat yourself up about it," Sunset said. "Not everyone can be as smart and awesome as me."

"We didn't know either until Torchwick told us," Blake said flatly.

"Traitor," Sunset said.

"Unfortunately, knowing that there is a shadowy presence who stands higher than anyone whose identity we're aware of doesn't help us to identify that person, nor to capture the high-ranking figures we are aware of," Ciel said. "If this person is anxious to keep their identity a secret, and the White Fang follow standard containment protocols, it's likely that the only the most senior members of the organisation are aware of his or her identity."

"Which is why we need to find Torchwick," Blake said. "He's still our best chance at unravelling the truth."

"He's probably taken precautions after last time," Sunset replied. "He'll be harder to find, on his guard…he might even have extra bodyguards with him."

"Do we have any other choice?" Blake asked.

"Maybe we do. Hey, Twi!" Rainbow called. "Have you had any luck tracing the source of that video that got spammed round the school?"

Twilight had a frown on her features as she got up from her lonely seat and walked quickly over to the rest of them. "Whoever sent it they're very good," she said.

Rainbow looked surprised. She leaned back on her seat. "Better than you?"

"Maybe," Twilight replied. "There's an encryption on this file to prevent it being tracked that is…this is military level security. I would expect to see something this complicated on top-level communications between the general and senior field commanders, or the council maybe."

"Can you break it?" Rainbow asked.

"Perhaps," Twilight said. "But it's going to take some time. I'm sorry, Rainbow Dash, sorry everyone, I know that-"

"It's okay," Sunset said. "This tells us something all by itself."

Twilight stared at her. "It does?"

Sunset folded her hands behind her head. "I'm guessing that not anybody can get their hands on military-grade encryption programmes. That must take…money? Skill?"

"Perhaps both," Twilight said. "The kind of person who could write this kind of code wouldn't come cheap."

"The White Fang never had any interest in computers or cyber warfare when I was part of it," Blake said. "Adam…he always preferred more…visible means of action."

"Something our mystery person brings to the party then," Sunset said. She rested her elbows on the table. "Is this starting to confuse anybody else? I mean, this person, person X or whatever you want to call them…they have money, resources and access to highly skilled individuals. Why do they need to rob inner-city dust shops via a guy like Torchwick? If they need dust then why not just buy it?"

"If we look at the quantity of dust that has been stolen," Ciel said, pulling out her scroll and flicking through a list, presumably of dust stolen at the various robberies. "Purchases of that size would be impossible to hide completely from view, even if they used front companies and the like…robberies have less paperwork."

Sunset snorted.

"We have some suppositions, based on evidence maybe, but they're still supposition until we get confirmation," Blake said. "And we have a lot of questions, and only Roman Torchwick can answer them for us. We need to find him."

"No, we need to stop these robberies before even more Atlesian weapons end up in the hands of terrorists," Rainbow said. "Now, we worked out that the only way the White Fang could possibly know which trains had dust and weapons on them and which didn't was if somebody was tipping them off, sound okay to you?"

Blake nodded. "I don't know exactly how we got all of our information but I know that tips from sympathisers provided most of it."

"But who is tipping them off?" Rainbow asked. "Have we got a mole in the military? Of the SDC?"

Blake stared at her for a moment before she let out a soft, but faintly bitter laugh.

"What?" Rainbow asked.

"You had a privileged upbringing for a faunus, didn't you?" Blake asked.

Rainbow's look was only just shy of being a glare. "Maybe. Why?"

"The White Fang doesn't need a mole in the Atlesian military or the SDC to tell them what's on the trains heading out of Cold Harbour," Blake said. "It's a port town whose main purpose is to provide somewhere for Atlesian ships to offload onto the rail line south to Vale. Hundreds, maybe thousands of faunus work the docks _and_ the railway yards, doing backbreaking work for poverty wages because it's all the work they can get. They wouldn't even need to be White Fang, as long as they knew somebody who was it would only take one person to talk about what was loaded off the ship, or loaded onto the train. Then the White Fang would know which trains were worth hitting and which weren't."

"Well now that you say it it makes sense," Sunset said. She stood up. "Is there a new weapons shipment due to come through any time soon?"

"Yes," Ciel said. "More of the prototype weapons that were recently stolen."

Sunset smirked. "I think I know how we can beat these guys, and maybe catch somebody with the answers we're looking for."

"How?" Blake asked.

Sunset leaned forwards. "What if there weren't just weapons or Atlesian tech inside that train? What if we were there as well?"

A smile spread across Rainbow's face. "An ambush."

"All that we'd have to do is make sure that nobody saw us getting on the train," Sunset said.

"How would the White Fang stage the robbery?" Ciel asked, looking at Blake. "How many fighters should we be looking at?"

"They won't send in a large number, at first," Blake replied. "A lot of White Fang fighters haven't unlocked their aura yet, and even the ones that have don't have huntsman training, or even military; they'd get chewed up by Atlesian security mechs. Instead, a small number of elites will go in first and disable the train and the security, then additional hands will come in to offload the spoils."

"What's a small number?" Ciel pressed.

Blake shrugged. "Sometimes it was just me and Adam. At other times…I'd say no more than eight."

"But Adam might be there?" Sunset asked quietly.

Blake looked into Sunset's eyes. "Yes. He might be there."

"Don't worry about it," Rainbow said. "If none of us are a match for him then Penny can take him."

"So sure?" Blake asked. "Adam's pretty tough."

"And Penny's our national trump card, if she can't take one White Fang punk then everything about her has been a huge waste of money," Rainbow said. "Not that it has, because she can take him." Rainbow fell silent for a moment. "It's good idea, there's just one problem with it."

"What?" Sunset said.

"I'm pretty sure that General Ironwood will sign off on this for Team Rosepetal," Rainbow said. "But how are you going to get in on this?"

"And are you willing to risk your team a mission of this kind?" Blake asked solemnly. "This could be dangerous."

Sunset nodded, Blake had a point there. They both had a point, but although Rainbow's objection might be the more insurmountable in practical terms, it was Blake's point that bothered her more. This would be dangerous. These White Fang elites – Adam or no – wouldn't mess around. Ruby, Pyrrha, Jaune, she'd be putting them all in danger.

Or at least she'd be asking them to go into danger.

The image of that crimson blade, of the world turning as red as blood as he charged towards her, flashed through Sunset's mind.

She clenched her hands so that nobody would notice them shaking.

"Excuse me a moment," she said, and got up from the table. As she started to walk towards the rest of her team, she noticed that Blake had got up to follow her.

"You don't need to come," Sunset said softly.

"And you don't need to do this," Blake replied. "You don't need to put yourself or your team at risk in my fight."

Sunset half-turned back to her. "You asked for my help."

"And now I have the help of Atlas, whether I want it or not," Blake said. "You can back out now, and no one will say anything about it."

"They won't have to," Sunset whispered. "Like I told you: we have to stop running; from all our fears."

"And what about your team?" Blake asked. "Are you willing to put them in the path of harm so that you can feel a little less scared?"

"I don't know," Sunset said. "That's why I'm going to ask them if they're willing."

Blake hesitated a moment before she nodded. "Okay."

"Hey," Sunset said, as she turned away from Blake and walked towards Jaune, Pyrrha and Ruby at the gaming table. "Who's winning?"

"I am," Jaune said, sounding absurdly pleased at the fact.

"I'm afraid I'm not very good at this," Pyrrha said. "It's a lot of fun, though."

"You're picking it up really fast, Pyrrha," Ruby said. "So, Sunset, what's up?"

Sunset leaned down, gripping the backs of Jaune and Pyrrha's chairs as she let her hair fall down over her shoulders. "I've got something ask you guys," she said, looking at each of them in turn. "How would you feel…how would you feel about going up against the White Fang?"

"Is that what you've been talking about back there?" Ruby asked.

"Pretty much," Sunset confessed.

"Well why didn't you tell us about it sooner?" Ruby demanded. "We're supposed to be a team-"

"Don't say that, we are a team," Sunset protested.

"Then why were you sneaking out to go and do cool stuff with Blake?" Ruby said. She pouted like a six year-old. "Fighting the White Fang, going up against Torchwick, and all without us? That's really rude, you know."

Sunset snorted. "Thanks, but this could be dangerous, and it isn't your fight-"

"Fighting to oppose evil and defend those who cannot defend themselves is what a huntress does," Pyrrha said. "We don't need a personal reason to get involved."

"We're all here to learn how to face danger," Jaune said. "If we don't do anything because we're afraid, why do we deserve to be huntsmen in the first place?"

"We're all in," said Ruby. "What's the plan?"

"It hasn't been fully ironed out yet," Sunset said. "Mostly because I'm still not sure how-"

She stopped, because someone was coming. She could hear their footsteps approaching. Judging by the way they were hastily putting their scrolls away, Team RSPT had heard it too.

They waited, caught in a kind of limbo until whoever it was showed themselves and their intentions. It was probably just some student looking for a book, but it still meant that they couldn't talk freely until they were gone.

Actually, it turned out to be Professor Ozpin, who approached the SAPR table with slight but genial smile playing upon his aged features.

"I apologies for interrupting your game," he said. "But I was rather hoping to speak to the four of you with something close to discretion." He glanced at Blake. "Or perhaps, for now, that ought to be the five of you."

"That depends," Blake murmured. "I can leave if you like, Professor."

"Not at all, Miss Belladonna. I do apologise for your awkward situation; rest assured I am looking for a solution that will satisfy everyone."

"It's fine, Professor, I understand," Blake said. "My situation is my own doing, and if it's the only thing that comes from what I've done…I'm getting off very lightly."

"I wouldn't be so sure, Miss Belladonna," Ozpin said. "From my own experience, I've often found that we are held to account most fiercely by ourselves. However, that isn't why I came down here to see you. I came here because I would like to offer team Sapphire a training mission, one that I think will provide you with some valuable field experience if you're willing to undertake it."

Sunset glanced at her team, but mostly it was her words from a moment earlier that stuck in Sunset's head as she said, "We're certainly willing to consider it, Professor. What kind of mission is it?"

Professor Ozpin pulled out his scroll and opened it, taking on the display. "I've sent the details to your scroll, Miss Shimmer, but in summary: the railway line that runs through the Forever Fall forest has been damaged by recent criminal activity; since that line is the main shipment route for dust out of Atlas it is intolerable that it should be allowed to remain out of action for long, but equally since the Forever Fall forest is infested with the creatures of grimm the business of repairing it is somewhat dangerous. Your assignment will be to board a train heading north with a party of engineers and all necessary equipment and protect them while they complete their repairs. Once that's done I'm afraid you'll have to make your own way home, using your best judgement as how to you might or should accomplish that."

Sunset fought to keep her face impassive, because Professor Ozpin couldn't have offered them a more convenient mission if she'd planned it herself, and it was far too convenient to be mere coincidence, wasn't it? She might not have been so suspicious but after the thing with Blake…and the warning from Yang's mom, and the team make-up and it was all just starting to stack up. _What are you up to, old man? And how do you know so much about what's going on around here? Were you hiding somewhere, listening to us? Do you have cameras watching?_

 _And why are you so interested in what we do?_

Nevertheless, regardless of the headmaster's exact motives, the fact was that it _was_ a convenient mission. They could complete it, stay on the train the rest of the way to Cold Harbour, link up with RSPT and stow themselves on board the armaments train heading back to Vale in time to ambush the White Fang when they showed up for the robbery.

Sunset took out her own scroll, and opened it up to examine the perspective mission.

Another quick look at her team-mates confirmed that they were of like mind with her.

"We're in, professor," Sunset said, as she tapped the 'Accept Mission' button.


	55. Soul Bound

Soul Bound

"Has everybody got everything?" Sunset asked, as she slung her rifle over one shoulder and her pack over the other.

Pyrrha slung her shield across her back and sheathed Milo behind it. "I'm ready," she said.

"I think we're all ready," Jaune said. "As ready as we'll be at least."

"Yeah!" Ruby cried. "Team Sapphire's first mission as a _whole team_."

"Don't tell us that you're still upset about missing Mistral," Jaune said teasingly.

"Yeah, you only went on a hunt for a rare and dangerous grimm without me and had a cool time, why would I be upset about that?" Ruby asked.

"About that," Sunset said. "We've decided you're going to sit this one out, too. After all, you're only a ba-" She was interrupted by a pillow to the face thrown by Ruby. "I was only kidding!"

Pyrrha couldn't restrain a fond smile at the antics of her team-mates. She couldn't think of any group of people she felt so...so comfortable around as she did around these three. She felt no concern within her as to how they would react to her, or what they wanted from her, or whether they were wearing masks around her to hide themselves and be what they thought she wanted them to be. There was no trace of sycophancy from them, none at all; there was no pedestal in this room. And for that she would never cease to be grateful.

She'd never felt this way before, certainly not since her father passed away, and never with her mother that she could remember; nor with anyone else. Perhaps she ought to have accepted that and been grateful. She was grateful...but at the same time, selfish as it might be, she wanted more.

 _Their masks have fallen away, but mine...I wish I could be myself around them; but then I'd need to know who I am first._

She glanced at Jaune, and then looked away before he noticed and thought it was strange that she was staring at him. It was partly fear of disrupting the equilibrium of the room that led her to hold her peace, for fear that if he rejected her then things would become unbearably awkward between them; the other part was simply a wish - old-fashioned though it might be - that he would make the first move.

If it was possible for him to see her in that way. To see her as she saw him.

"Okay, listen up," Sunset said. She paused and cleared her throat with a cough into one hand. She looked momentarily self-conscious, standing in front of the rest of them after having drawn their attention, but then she recovered her usual air of unassailable confidence as she resumed speaking.

"On the day after initiation, when I became the leader of this team, it became clear to me that we would have eyes upon us," Sunset said. "Eyes on Pyrrha, waiting expectantly for her to fulfil the potential promised by her early successes."

Pyrrha's chin dipped, almost involuntarily, at the reminder.

"Eyes on Ruby, to see if she really deserved her early admission into Beacon," Sunset said. "Eyes on me, if not as many as I might have liked and not for the reasons that I would have chosen: to see if a faunus deserved to lead a team as good as this one. But now we all have eyes on us, eyes not fixed on any one of us but on all four of us. Eyes watching to see if we can get the job done. Eyes watching to see if we can bring down the White Fang. Eyes watching to see if we are so talented as our membership ought by all rights to make us. Eyes watching to see what we do next.

"This is Team Sapphire's first mission. Assigned to us. We were chosen for this, not Iron, not Wisteria, but us: Sapphire."

Sunset smiled. "There's a bit of a downside to having hype around you, which I suspect that some of you know already." She glanced at Pyrrha for a moment. "You have to live up to it again and again. But this is the first time. So don't let me down okay, because...because I promise that I don't intend to let you down."

Jaune nodded. "We won't let ourselves down, either."

"Yeah!" Ruby said as she punched the air. "Let's go save the world and whoop some butt!"

Someone knocked on the door, interrupting them before they could get started on any world saving or indeed butt-whooping. When Sunset opened said door, it turned out to be Yang Xiao-Long.

"Glad I caught you guys before you left," Yang said as she strolled in. "I'd hate to think you'd snuck away before I could say goodbye." She looked around. "Where's Blake?"

"Atlas," Sunset said. Blake, along with Team RSPT, were not accompanying SAPR on the initial stage of their mission to protect the railway repairs. They had gone on ahead to Cold Harbour, where SAPR would join them for the second, more hazardous, confidential phase of the operation in which they were engaged.

"Oh, right," Yang said with a nod. She stalked across the room towards her sister. "So, Ruby, how does it feel to get your first mission?"

"So awesome!" Ruby declared, sounding as though she was about to pass out from a lack of oxygen.

"Breathe, Ruby," Yang said casually. She smiled briefly, before it disappeared from her face like morning dew melting off the grass. "Be careful, okay?"

Pyrrha took a step forward. "We'll all watch out for one another, I guarantee it." She had no intention of allowing any harm to come to any of her friends...but she didn't want to seem as arrogant as simply saying she would protect them might make her seem.

Yang glanced at her briefly. "Thanks, but I didn't mean to...I know that. I'm counting on it. I just..."

"Yang?" Ruby asked.

"This is how she said it would start," Yang said softly.

Sunset shifted her weight on her feet a little. "How who said what would start?"

"How my...how Raven said that...I don't know what it is," Yang admitted. "But she told me that Ozpin would do this: start giving you extra training missions, taking a special interest in you." Yang ran one hand through her tangled mass of golden hair. "I don't know what it means, or if it means anything at all; but take care, all of you." She put an arm around Ruby's shoulders. "But especially you."

Ruby closed her eyes as Yang held her close for a moment.

"Good luck out there," Yang said as she released Ruby from her embrace. "I...I'll be waiting for you when you get back," she added, before she left.

"Do you think we should have told her?" Ruby said. "About, you know, the White Fang and stuff?"

"You're her sister, how do you think she would have taken it?" Sunset replied.

"Uh..."

"That's what I thought," Sunset said. "What your sister doesn't find out until after the fact won't hurt her."

"Will it hurt us when she does find out?" Jaune asked. He hesitated for a moment. "What do you think it means? What she said about her mom and everything?"

Pyrrha wanted to tell Jaune to pay it no mind. Professor Ozpin's reputation was both formidable in accomplishment and impeccable in character; his deeds as a huntsman spoke for themselves, as did the pre-eminence amongst the four academies which Beacon Academy had attained under his stewardship. Meanwhile, no vice nor scandal marred the headmaster's reputation: he did not gamble, philander or drink to excess; in all his years as headmaster there had never been the slightest suggestion that he was in any way abusing the students under his care. Even Pyrrha's mother respected him, and that was no small accomplishment. He was a marble man, unblemished by any merely human imperfection.

Quite apart from the fact that Pyrrha couldn't imagine why Professor Ozpin might bear any malicious intent towards them, or why such malice - if it existed - would express itself in offering them convenient missions, or what Professor Ozpin might have to gain from manipulating them in any way; quite apart from any of that...Pyrrha didn't want it to be true. She didn't want to live in a world where authority figures were unworthy of the public trust or of her own faith, where they had ulterior motives or worked towards shadowy and unseen ends.

Pyrrha looked at Sunset, whom she thought - she did not know, because they hadn't talked about it that much - disagreed with her; Sunset - Pyrrha meant no offence to say or think so - seemed a little more inclined to distrust than Pyrrha herself.

But all Sunset said was, "At the moment, I'm not inclined to look too closely at it. The time might come for that, but for now...this mission is convenient for our purposes and it is waiting for us." She started towards the door. "Destiny is driving us on. We shouldn't keep her waiting."

They left the dorm room and headed out into the courtyard, where Cinder Fall was waiting for them.

"I'm glad I caught you," she said, flashing a smile as she got up off the bench on which she'd been sitting and slunk towards the team. "I wanted to say goodbye before you left."

"You were lucky," Sunset said. "We're just on our way out now."

Cinder held out one hand. "Lucky me," she said. "Although not as lucky as you, getting your first training mission early. Most teams have to wait until after Armistice Day to be given their first assignments."

Although Sunset had her back to Pyrrha, she could hear the smile on Sunset's face as the latter said, "Most teams aren't as special as mine. Plus, I suppose have some prior experience."

"So do I, but I didn't get assigned an early mission," Cinder said, in a tone which might have been complaining at being overlooked, ribbing Sunset, or both, or neither. "It must be nice having Professor Ozpin on your side." She glanced at Pyrrha. "Although I suppose some of you must be more used to that than others."

Pyrrha pursed her lips together. Perhaps she was being oversensitive but she couldn't help but take that as an insult. She wasn't a complete stranger to such things: amongst the crowds of fans and sycophants there had always been a few who resented her celebrity or her perceived success, and who alleged that she used both to get her own way; as though she enjoyed any of it. It was unfortunate that Cinder Fall was one of them, if only because Sunset seemed to like her, but she would survive her envy as she had survived the jealousy of all the rest.

"Everything we get," Sunset said, as she took Cinder's hand. "We earn by our skill."

"Of course," Cinder said smoothly. "Still, when you're hip deep in grimm and covering yourselves in guts and glory in equal measure, think of me," she said. She grinned. "Stuck in Professor Port's class."

Sunset snorted. "Sure, I'll think of you. With pity."

Cinder chuckled. "Appreciate your good fortune while it lasts. You never know when it might just...run out."

* * *

Vale - the city, not the kingdom - had many train stations, from the gothic grandeur of King's Muster - the first or final stop, depending on how you looked at it, of trains making the westward journey all the way to Vacuo - to the hypermodern, glass and steel construction of Liver Bird Street from whence the rails ran east to the ports; travel to the north was principally served by Gateway station...for passenger travel at least. The Cold Harbour route, however, was not a passenger route but a cargo one, and thus the trains ran out of a rather dirty, industrial railyard not far from the outskirts of the city. At present it was quiet, with very little evidence of any activity as team SAPR darted between stationary and unattended trucks, stepped over spurs of track left unattended on the concrete, or passed crates left mouldering in the eves of warehouses while larger containers sat shrouded in shadow further in. The only sign of real activity was taking place around a single train - five cars attached to a single squat, almost bullet-shaped black engine - that sat purring softly as it faced northward. A group of labourers, most of them faunus, were loading the rear two cars with equipment while other men, most of them human, watched without offering any assistance.

"I guess that must be our train," Sunset said, as she led the way towards it.

One of the men watching the loading of the train spotted them coming, and nudged a heavyset man in a red hi-vis jacket before pointing out the team of huntresses. Said fellow - the heavy-set one, and when he turned around Pyrrha could see that he had stubble covering his face - yelled for the loading crew to keep working before he stomped across the concrete of the rail yard towards team SAPR.

"You the huntsmen?" he demanded.

Pyrrha, Jaune and Ruby all stopped, leaving Sunset to close the distance to this man, who was presumably some kind of foreman or supervisor. Sunset held out her hand. "Sunset Shimmer, leader of Team Sapphire."

"Leader?" he said. "That some kind of affirmative action thing?"

Jaune and Ruby winced; Pyrrha struggled to keep the disdain off her face. _Even if you think such a thing, have the decency to keep it to yourself._

"No," Sunset said coldly as she withdrew her hand. "It's a quality thing. Trust me, we're the team to keep you safe on this job."

"Trust you?" the foreman said. "You're younger than my two kids, and I wouldn't trust them to water my plants."

Pyrrha could only imagine the look on Sunset's face, or the struggle that her friend must be undergoing to keep her cool in this situation. _If there's one aspect of leadership that Sunset is lacking, its diplomacy; I'm not sure how long she can hold her temper in check._

Of course, one of the reasons for that was that Sunset knew exactly who she was and what she was worth; no matter what she always resolutely, gloriously herself. Pyrrha envied that about her. She envied it very much.

"Well we're not your kids," Sunset said, in a voice that sounded close to seething. "Look, just because we're not old, we are perfectly-"

"Hey, ain't you Pyrrha Nikos?" one of the other men – the ones standing around watching the loading of the train, not the ones loading it – asked her suddenly, pointing his finger in Pyrrha's direction.

"Of course they recognise you." Sunset looked at her. She didn't look particularly impressed.

Pyrrha took a step forward. "Yes," she said. "I'm Pyrrha Nikos."

"We'll be fine, boss," the man who had recognised her said. "Seriously, you never heard of this chick? Last Mistral tournament I bet my kid's whole college fund on her opponent to win the final, but she kicked his ass in like, thirty seconds flat. I thought my wife was gonna kill me when she found out."

"I'm sorry!" Pyrrha said automatically, before she noticed Sunset giving her a look that suggested she had nothing to be sorry about. Except she had, really. It might not have been intentional, but a young man or woman's dreams had been crushed because of her – and she wasn't talking about her opponent in last year's tournament either.

"Ah, so that's why you slept on my couch for two months?" the foreman said. He shook his head. "Still, I guess if he says you're okay, you're okay. You really think you can keep my boys alive in that wood?"

"I guarantee it," Sunset said.

"You'd better," he said. He half turned away from her and gestured at the train cars. "The engine's up front. No crew, but you can link up your scroll to get control over the defences. Front car is for you, the two after that are for my crew to sleep in, the last two are for our gear; don't touch our stuff and don't bother us when we're working. Name's Red, this is my crew." He paused. "What did you say your name was again?"

"Sunset Shimmer," Sunset repeated. "That's Ruby Rose, Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos is the celebrity."

Red nodded casually. "Nice to meet you. Get on board, we're heading out as soon as these lazy asses finish loading up the train. Move it, people!"

"The yard's quieter than I expected," Sunset said.

Red said, "There ain't no trains moving until we get that rail line repaired, and until there are trains moving there ain't no need for the yard to move; all the other guys got sent home on no pay until we mend the railroad, so you see why this job is important, right?"

"Sure," Sunset said. "Don't worry, we've got you covered. Hey, gambling man!"

The man who had recognised Pyrrha looked guilty to be singled out. "Yeah?"

"They got odds up for the Vytal Festival yet?" Sunset asked.

"Uh…yeah."

"What are the odds of Team Sapphire to win?"

"Sunset," Pyrrha murmured.

"I just want to know," Sunset said softly.

The man who had lost a shirt on Pyrrha's opponent got out his scroll and began to scroll through a website of some kind. "S-A-P-R Sapphire?"

"Yeah."

"Nine to one," the man said incredulously. "Wow, those are seriously good odds before the tournament even starts. Must be cause you've got Nikos."

"Put a bet on us," Sunset said, with a grin on her face. "Because those odds are going to shorten fast once the matches start, I guarantee it."

* * *

They kept watch on the roof of the train in staged shifts, so that half your shift on watch would be spent with one person and then they would go down below and someone else would come up to join you for the second half of your shift, before you went below and left them to finish off their shift with someone else.

What this meant in practice was that at the moment Jaune and Ruby were up on the roof of the train while Pyrrha was down below with Sunset. The train car that they were using as their, for want of a better word, living space during the trip north to the sight of the breakage was bare, with out so much as an empty crate to sit on. It was also dark, with only a red light to illuminate the interior, although Jaune had brought a lamp of his own which they had set up in one corner, providing a little more light to see by. Outside it had gotten dark, but Pyrrha could only tell that by looking upwards at the hatch leading onto the roof, because for the rest their compartment was completely sealed with the door shut.

Beneath their feet the train rolled onwards, rattling upon the rails as it was borne along.

Sunset had her rifle propped up in the corner, not far from Jaune's lamp, and her black sword out as she practiced her stances. She flowed like water from one position to the other as Pyrrha watched her.

"Like this?" Sunset said, moving from a high guard to a downward slashing stroke.

"Yes, but remember to twist your foot for balance," Pyrrha said.

"Right," Sunset said, and she did it again.

"Better," Pyrrha said. "Now, take a break."

"I don't need one."

"Yes, you do," Pyrrha replied. "It doesn't have to be for very long."

Sunset huffed impatiently, but she sheathed her sword across her back nonetheless. "I suppose you'll be doing this with Jaune when he comes down here."

Pyrrha's lips twitched. "Yes," she said. "I suppose I will."

"Did you imagine that becoming a huntress would mean becoming a teacher?"

"I don't mind," Pyrrha said. "When are you going to start doing teaching of your own?"

"I thought you weren't that keen on the idea."

"I'm not," Pyrrha admitted. "But if it's what Ruby wants…when are you going to begin?"

"When we get back," Sunset said. "I thought about starting now, but…do we really want the first people to find out about Ruby's magic powers to be Red's crew?"

"I see what you mean," Pyrrha said softly. "We can't be absolutely certain of privacy here."

"Or time," Sunset said. "We'll probably reach the place tomorrow, the day after at the latest. There isn't long. And after that there's-" She looked at Pyrrha, and frowned. She blinked, and cocked her head to one side.

"Sunset?" Pyrrha asked. "Is everything alright?"

"I don't know, is it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Are you wearing eye shadow?" Sunset asked.

Pyrrha felt her face start to redden just a little. Sunset had noticed? As a matter of fact she _was_ wearing eyeshadow, but she'd hoped that it was subtle enough that it wouldn't be noticed…except that Jaune might think her eyes gleamed just a little brighter today.

He hadn't said anything.

"Well…you wear eyeshadow all the time," Pyrrha pointed out.

"Exactly, all the time," Sunset said. She shrugged. "I'm not judging, if that's what it sounded like. I'm just curious…why now?"

Pyrrha looked away. "I…I hoped that…I'm afraid you'll probably think it's very foolish, but…I thought Jaune might like it."

Silence reigned in the cramped train car, broken only by the rumbling of the train as it carried them away.

"Jaune?" Sunset said. "You…you have a crush on Jaune?"

"I wouldn't call it a crush," Pyrrha said softly.

"But you like him?"

Pyrrha closed her eyes for a moment. "Yes," she whispered. There. She had said it. She had made it real. She had confessed it. It could never be taken back now, no matter what Jaune thought or said or did. She would either emerge from this with her dignity in tatters…or with something absolutely wonderful.

Sunset looked speechless. She simply stared, mouth agape, eyes wide. "You…but he…I mean…I thought you just pitied him. Like a lost puppy."

Pyrrha shook her head. "No. I don't pity him at all."

Sunset shook her head. "But he's so…" her mouth worked silently for a moment. She huffed. "Well, okay, I'll try to be nice about this…he's a bit of a fixer-upper, isn't he?"

Pyrrha smiled. "When I look at him, I don't...I see a great man inside him, and I know that I can help him become that man. I know that he's not perfect but with my help...I really believe that he can become the person that he's meant to be."

She believed that. She had believed it - even if she hadn't been consciously aware of the fact - from the moment that she had unlocked his aura with her own and, in so doing, created a connection between their souls that would bind them together beyond time and space, life and death. True, he was not a paragon of virtue to shine above all others - yet - but he was a good man, and wasn't that enough to start with? He was brave and kind and funny and were not those foundations firm enough to build something upon?

He was a nice guy now and maybe, with her help, he could become a prince.

And maybe, just maybe, in helping Jaune to become his true self, he might come to see hers...and love it.

"You think that you can change him that much?" Sunset asked.

"Don't you think that love can change us for the better?" Pyrrha asked, turning the question back on her. "Don't you think that it inspires us to become our best selves?"

"Love?" Sunset gasped. "I...I thought we were talking about a crush and now...you think you love him?"

"I don't think," Pyrrha said softly, in a voice that was barely higher than a whisper. "I know."

Sunset stared at her. "I...I'm beginning to regret ever bringing up the eye-shadow thing, I...then why haven't you done anything about it. I mean...wearing eye-shadow? Is that supposed to entice him? Because you weren't gorgeous enough already?"

"I..." Pyrrha hesitated. "You think it's stupid?"

"I think it looks good, brings out your eyes," Sunset said. "But...I don't know, but it's not as if you've been going around in glasses and a frumpy hairstyle while dressed like a spinster librarian is it? Look at you, you're...I'll be honest, it's close to damn infuriating how perfect you are: beautiful and smart and talented. If I wasn't perfect myself I'd be quite jealous." Sunset added with a grin, flicking her hair with one hand.

Pyrrha chuckled.

Sunset's face fell. "And with all that...it was Weiss he chased. I just...don't you think if he was going to notice then he would have done it by now?"

That had been what Pyrrha was afraid of, why she hadn't told anyone about the way she felt, why she hadn't spoken of her feelings aloud until now when Sunset had brought the subject up and it had all come tumbling out of her. Sunset had just given voice to her secret fear: that not only did Jaune not love her, but he did not see - was incapable of seeing - her as a romantic possibility at all.

Her face fell. "It doesn't mean he won't."

"No, but...what do I know?" Sunset asked. "My boyfriend dumped me because I was a raging dumpster fire of a person." She sighed. "You really believe you love him?"

"You say that as if you don't believe in love," Pyrrha said. "How can you believe in some ineffable, inexorable destiny and not believe that that destiny includes someone that you're meant to share your heart and soul and life with?"

"I thought you believed in a destiny that was within the gift of your own choice."

"I do," Pyrrha said. "And I choose him." [i]If only he would choose me to.[/i]

"Then why haven't you done anything about it?" Sunset demanded. "Ask him out, for crying out loud! It's not as if he has any better offers."

Pyrrha turned away. "I...I suppose that I'm afraid." Another admission that, once made, she could not take back. Afraid that he would reject her, afraid that he didn't see her in that way, afraid of what it would do to the team...afraid that he loved Weiss the way that she loved him. "When Jaune told you that he loved Weiss you told him that it wasn't possible."

"And I stand by it," Sunset said. "I think the ease with which he got over it has proved me right."

"You don't believe in true love?" Pyrrha asked. "In fairy tales?"

Sunset took pause awhile. "You do."

Pyrrha turned to face her team leader once again. "Do you know the story of the girl in the tower?"

"I...is that the one where the girl's father has her imprisoned, and she waits for a hero to come and free her from it?"

"Yes," Pyrrha replied. "That's it exactly."

Sunset snorted. "You don't need anyone to rescue you, least of all Jaune Arc."

Pyrrha shook her head. "Not all towers are made of stone, Sunset; and just because I've never lost a battle doesn't mean that I can't long for someone to ride in on a white horse and sweep me off my feet, does it?"

Sunset said, "I...that is...you...I don't know what to say except...he won't hear a word about it from me."

"You're not upset?"

"Upset?" Sunset repeated. "What do I have to be upset about?"

"This could affect the team," Pyrrha murmured.

"And if that happens I'll be upset," Sunset replied. "But, until it does...I hope...I hope it ends happily for you, whatever that means."

* * *

 _Author's Note: I recently read a book called_ Saving Cinderella _by Faith Moore; it's a book which, amongst other things, offers an analysis of the structure of each of the Disney Princess movies and the ways that their romances are structured. And this book really helped me work out how to write the Arkos in this story (something I wasn't entirely sure of up until now) because it spelled out a few key things for me:_

 _1) Pyrrha is a Disney Princess, both in the sense that she embodies all of the princess qualities of kindness, compassion, courage and determination, but also in that she has the Disney Princess problem of how to be herself in a world that doesn't understand her._

 _2) Once that is accepted, and following directly on from it, Jaune actually fits quite well into the mould of such prince charmings as Kristoff (there's a reason Sunset describes him as 'a bit of a fixer-upper'), Flynn, Aladdin or the Beast - rough diamonds who require a princess to draw out their hidden qualities and help them become their best selves._

 _3) The prince cannot fall in love with the princess until she has become her true self, for it is only when he sees her as she truly is that he can, in so seeing, love her._

 _All of which is to say that this romance will be a bit of a slow burn; slower, honestly, than I was originally planning but I hope that the results will be superior to what they would have been before from my somewhat muddled ideas on how to do it._


	56. Do You Know About Boys

Do You Know About Boys

They had arrived at the sight of the break in the railway line, and now the railway guys were doing a whole load of stuff that Ruby wouldn't even pretend to understand in order to get it fixed again.

Of course Ruby didn't actually need to understand any of what was going on here: getting the railway back up and running was there job, all that she needed to do was take care of any grimm that might happen to show up.

That really was her only job, because Sunset had already made it pretty clear to Red, the boss of the railway crew, that they were not going to be helping out with any of the repair stuff, even the manual labour.

'Look, it's very simple,' Sunset had said. 'We're here to protect you, not work for you. Now if a pack of beowolves show up out of the forest would you want us to be slow to deal with them because we were busy doing your jobs for you?'

It made a lot of sense when she put it like that, but Ruby couldn't help but wonder if she would have been nicer about it if Red hadn't mentioned affirmative action when they first met.

Sunset really knew how to hold on to a grievance.

Ruby glanced at her team leader. Together they stood on the roof of the railway carriage, from where they could see out on either side of them without having their view obstructed by anything but the trees with their scarlet leaves; although the forest had been cleared on either side of the railway it hadn't been cleared _very far_ on either side of the railway, and the trees pressed so thickly together that Ruby couldn't see very far into them. That was why Pyrrha had taken Jaune on patrol through the outskirts of the forest, so that if there were any grimm around they'd see them before they came out of the trees in which case they'd be really close. Too close for the comfort of the railwaymen, probably.

Ruby thought of Pyrrha alone with Jaune and she felt a spike of irrational jealousy. It was irrational, because Pyrrha was Jaune's partner, of course they were going to spend time together. But at the same time it didn't stop her from feeling just a little bit jealous that she was getting to spend time alone with him.

And after she'd already gotten to spend time with him in Mistral, too.

 _I'm being so stupid, it's not like anything is going on between the two of them._

 _I'm being really mean, too, Pyrrha doesn't deserve this. She's so nice, she's the last person who deserves to be, uh, to have people be jealous of her? Is that right?_

"Hey, Sunset?"

"Hmm?" Sunset murmured, as her eyes swept the eaves of the forest to their right.

"How do you say, like, if someone's jealous of you then what is that? To have someone be jealous of you?"

"To be envied," Sunset said. "In that case the word is envy, not jealousy. To suffer envy might also work depending on the tone."

"Right," Ruby said. _To suffer envy. Well, Pyrrha certainly doesn't deserve to suffer!_

"Why?"

"Huh?"

"Why the sudden question?" Sunset asked. "And phraseology of all things. Are you suffering from the envy of someone else?"

"No," Ruby said. She hoped not, anyway. It probably wasn't the kind of thing you just confessed to the person you were jealous of. _Hi, I hate you for no good reason because I want something you have! Let's hang out!_

"Do you envy somebody?" Sunset asked mischievously.

"N-no!" Ruby squeaked. "I wouldn't ever do that!"

"I know," Sunset said easily. "You're not that sort of person. And besides, you don't have anything to really be envious of. I'm more surprised that there isn't anyone envious of you."

"You think there is someone out there who's jealous of me?"

"Don't you think you have things to be envied?" Sunset asked. "To be as talented as you are, and so young? We are the sorts of people who attract envy, Ruby; we attract it from those less talented and less bold than we."

"That's…kinda scary."

Sunset snorted. "You don't have to believe me if you don't want to."

Ruby frowned. "I want to inspire people, not make them hate because they think that I'm…too awesome or something."

Sunset chuckled. "Not everybody is going to feel that way. Perhaps even most people will not. But some people…I used to think that I didn't suffer from envy. I used to think that it was the one vice that I'd managed to escape from untouched. Then I met Pyrrha."

That struck a little closer to home than Ruby would have liked to admit. "What did you do about it?"

"Do?"

"How did you stop feeling jealous of Pyrrha?"

"I didn't, I just exercise such self-control over it that she doesn't realise," Sunset said. "She is what she is, and what she is is…wonderful. Anything ugly that I can't help but feel about that…she doesn't need to see and the world doesn't need to know. I am the mistress of my base emotions, not the other way around." She turned around, so that she was facing the other direction, looking into the other side of the wood.

Ruby hesitated. Sunset was only a couple of years older than her, but the age difference between them sometimes seemed much greater than that; it wasn't just that Sunset was smart it was that she seemed to know so much stuff and not just book stuff either but all kinds of things.

 _Like magic. I still can't believe I'm friends with an actual witch! That is so cool!_

 _And she's going to teach me magic! That's even cooler!_

Maybe that was part of how she seemed so wise: it was a magic spell of some kind. Ruby wasn't sure how it would work but it was magic, it could probably do all kinds of things that she couldn't imagine.

Or perhaps it was just that Sunset had done things that Ruby hadn't, like have a boyfriend.

"Sunset?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you know about boys?" Ruby asked, because there weren't many other people that she _could_ ask about this kind of stuff. Yang would either laugh at her or get really over-protective about the whole thing, Pyrrha knew as much about this as Ruby did, Blake…yeah, Ruby didn't think that Blake was the right person to talk to about this, and while Nora might be willing to talk to her about this kind of stuff Ruby wasn't sure that she'd be able to understand the answer.

Which left Sunset, really, as the only girl Ruby knew well enough to be able to ask for advice and who might actually be able to give it. She wasn't Ruby's first choice…but she was just about the only real choice that Ruby had.

Judging by the look on her face Sunset might not agree with her. She looked as though she was about to choke on something.

"Do I…what?"

"You know?" Ruby said, in what she hoped was a casual tone. "Boys, dating…all that stuff."

Sunset's mouth contorted rapidly into several different facial expressions before finally settling on a gape like a dried-out fish. "What? You…why?"

Ruby lowered Crescent Rose for a moment. "Well…I…that is, I mean…I want to ask Jaune to the dance, okay? Only I don't know how and I was hoping that you could help me, a little."

Sunset stared at her in silence, as a look of despair filled her eyes for no good reason that Ruby could come up with. "I…you have a crush on Jaune?"

"Yeah."

"Jaune Arc, our Jaune on our team."

"Yeah," Ruby repeated. "That's the only Jaune I know."

Sunset sighed with far more weariness than the situation warranted, in Ruby's opinion. "Why?" she asked again. "I mean…what is it about him? He's so…what is it?"

Ruby shrugged. "He's cute and funny and nice and…to be honest, most of the other boys in our class are kind of jerks."

"Ren?"

"Nora."

"Oh, right," Sunset muttered. She was silent for a moment. "What…no, I don't want you dating him. Huh. You're right, the men in our year are pretty terrible. But still, just because he's the best of a rotten bunch-"

"That's not what I meant!" Ruby said loudly. "I just meant that…look, I like Jaune, okay? I think he's a great guy and…and I like him, is that so terrible?"

"You like him," Sunset repeated. "Do you love him?"

"No," Ruby replied. "I mean, I don't think so. Would I even know if I did?"

"You might think that you were," Sunset said. "Sometimes, I…" she trailed off, and looked away from Ruby. She didn't look back, she continued to stare into the trees. "But you clearly don't, so…that's good. That might be…yeah, that's good."

"So…can you help me?" Ruby asked. "I mean, what do I say?"

"Should you say anything?" Sunset asked, looking rather uncomfortable.

"What do you mean?"

"It sounds like even you think this is just a crush, and I guess I can admit that he's not bad looking," Sunset said. "But if it's a crush…it'll go away and you won't miss it when it's gone. But if you make a move, if you date for a while and then break up because there's nothing really between the two of you…you'll still have to live together for the next four years; or break up the team. Do you want that? Do you want either of those?"

"No," Ruby said. "But I don't see why it has to be that way. If Jaune and I date and it doesn't work out then there's no reason why we can't go back to being friends again after, is there?"

Sunset laughed bitterly. "You say that now, but…I don't know, it depends on how it ends. But anyway, the answer to your original questions is…not really. I dated Flash for a couple of years in combat school but that's it. For most of my life I didn't have time for st- for boys or dating and I never even thought about romance. I had other things on my mind."

"Like what?"

"My studies," Sunset said. "Relationships, friends, these were all things that didn't seem to offer me any benefit; quite the reverse, in fact, they were only going to take me away from what really mattered: mastering my powers, learning new things, unlocking my potential. Chasing my destiny. My ambitions mattered to me more than anything else, more than any potential relationships I might have had with other people. More than the relationship I actually had with my…my teacher. I just…I wasn't interested. You'd be as well off asking Pyrrha for advice as me." Sunset hesitated. "No, actually, what ever else you decide to do don't ask Pyrrha for advice on how to date Jaune. Please."

"Okay," Ruby said, wondering at why she felt the need to be so specific. "But, then…how did you end up dating Flash Sentry?"

Sunset frowned. She still didn't look back at Ruby. "I…I arrived in Canterlot with nothing. I had the clothes on my back and…and that was pretty much it. I had nothing, I didn't know anybody, I had nowhere to go. And that wouldn't have been a good place to be at the best of times but the fact that I was a faunus made it so much worse. I…you don't know what that's like and I don't want to tell you." Sunset paused, and a look of sadness washed across her face like wave lapping against the shore. "I really don't want to talk about it. Let's just say that Flash and I ended up in a relationship and leave it at that. I doubt that my example could teach you anything useful."

"Oh," Ruby said, feeling a little deflated. This hadn't been much – any – help at all. Certainly it hadn't gone the way that she'd expected. She'd hoped for a couple of hints at least. "I guess Sunset!" Crescent Rose snapped into life, extending and unfurling in a series of hydraulic snaps and hisses. "There, in the trees!" Ruby hissed as she raised the scope to her eye. With the additional magnification the dark shape that she had seen on the edge of the forest resolved itself into a beowolf. For a moment, it seemed to look right at her, red eyes fixed on Ruby.

Her finger touched the cold metal of the trigger, but before she could fire the grimm had turned away and fled back into the cover of the Forever Fall forest.

"Did you see that?" Ruby asked.

Sunset had her Sol Invictus to her shoulder, though she lowered it now that the beowolf had fled. "Yeah, I saw it. And if he hasn't gone back to get the rest of his pack I'll chew on the sleeve of my jacket. Hey, Red!"

"Yeah?" the foreman drawled as she looked up at her.

"Get everyone back on the train and lock the doors," Sunset yelled

A single solitary howl rose up into the sky from out of the forest. It did not remain alone for long, soon it was joined by another voice, then another, then another, and then there were ten or twelve or twenty beowolves or maybe more howling up into the sky from somewhere just out of sight.

"Now!" Sunset snapped. The railwaymen didn't need to be told twice, they dropped their equipment and supplies on the ground and left them there as they scrambled for the train, hauling themselves up into the two train cars and slamming the doors closed after them.

Sunset pulled out her scroll, and her fingers flew across the touch-screen as she activated the train's defences. A pair of gun turrets, one mounted on the engine and the other on the rear car whirred to life, turrets rising and gun barrels extending.

Sunset continued to tap on her scroll. "Let's hope we can get a signal out here," she muttered to herself. "Yes!"

Pyrrha's voice emerged from the scroll. "Sunset? Is that you?"

"We need you back here, we're about to be hit," Sunset said bluntly.

"We're on our way," Pyrrha said, before disconnecting the call with equal directness.

Sunset put her scroll away, and raised Sol Invictus to her shoulder once again. She swept the barrel from right to left across the forest. "We can't let them get inside the carriages, and we can't let this drag on or the fear of all those guys in there will attract even more grimm" she said. "We'll shoot down as many as we can, if any of them get too close I'll get down and block the way, you keep me covered from up here."

Ruby frowned. Sunset seemed to think that just because she preferred to fight in constant motion, using her superior speed to devastating effect, that meant that she couldn't fight standing still, which wasn't true.

It was mostly not true, anyway.

But there was no point arguing about it now, not with the grimm about to-

The howling and the snarling rose to a frenetic new pitch as the beowolves boiled out of the eaves of the forest like bees whose nest had just been poked with a stick (Ruby hadn't know that was going to happen, honest). There were two dozen of them, maybe more all swarming out of the forest growling and snarling.

Ruby fired first, the sharp crack of Crescent Rose splitting the air. Sunset was only a second behind her, and then the automatic turrets were firing too with heavy thudding noises.

And the air was thick with shooting.

* * *

Jaune and Pyrrha had run towards the sounds of the shooting, their pace increasing as they heard Crescent Rose and Sol Invictus start splitting the air with the sounds of their report, mingling the sound of gunfire with the howling of the beowolves.

It would probably be fine, they were only beowolves after all and Ruby and Sunset were pretty amazing, but nevertheless Jaune didn't slack off and Pyrrha didn't show any signs of doing so either; because how would they feel if it wasn't okay and they hadn't been there to help out because they hadn't run as fast as they could, come as quick as they got, done everything that they could to get there in time?

Still, though he ran through the forest with Pyrrha loping swiftly ahead of him Jaune wasn't too worried. This was Ruby, and Sunset, they were both heroes; real heroes, unlike…there was no way that they were going to get taken out by a pack of beowolves.

But then, as they cleared the forest and saw the train front of them, Jaune heard Ruby cry out in pain before the train was rocked by something hitting it on the other side.

"Ruby," Pyrrha gasped, and she somehow managed to find the energy to run even faster before she leapt up onto the roof of the train car.

She'd fired off too shots with her Milo before Jaune, who hadn't gotten the hang of jumping like that even with aura, was able to climb up onto the roof using the metal ladder running up the side.

He saw that there was only one beowolf left.

Unfortunately it was the biggest beowolf he'd ever seen, or – more to the point, since he hadn't seen that many beowolves in all honesty – it was bigger than any that he'd read about even when he started bothering to read his textbooks.

He knew that grimm got bigger as they aged but what the hell? This this was so big he was amazed it had been able to move through the forest at all, let alone hide there. He guessed it must spend a lot of time on all fours, but even then it had only just fail to clear the tops of the trees, and it had crushed more than a few of them getting out after the rest of its pack. It had only one eye, with a vicious scar down the left side of its bone mask where the other should have been, but that hardly mattered because it was about as broad-shouldered as two train carriages and as big as a hill and it had so many bone spurs jutting out from every conceivable part of its body that it was practically armoured in them, Jaune could barely see any black fur at all because so much of the beowolf was protected by protruding bone.

The alpha beowolf rose onto its hind legs – it was much taller that the trees when it did that – and roared defiantly.

Ruby had been flung back by the beowolf into the train. Her aura was still up, but she groaned a little bit as she picked herself up.

"It has too much bone," she complained. "I can't get a clean hit on it, it's too well protected."

"It does have considerable armour," Pyrrha agreed, as one of her shots ricocheted harmlessly off a bone spur.

Sunset stood in front of the train, her jacket burning as though she was on fire. She swept her hands over her sleeves and fireballs of burning dust flew from her arms to strike at the beowolf, but they had about as much effect as Pyrrha's bullet or Ruby's implied strike with Crescent Rose. None of them were doing anything because the beowolf was so well armoured it was unbelievable.

Jaune had dreamed of moments like this. Not real dreams, but kind of daydreams: the day when Ruby and Sunset and even Pyrrha would be helpless in front of a monster that they couldn't stop, couldn't even slow down, when everyone would cry out for a saviour and he, Jaune Arc, would step forward and say 'Everything will be alright, because I am here!' and he would slash with his shining sword and strike down the monster and save the day.

But that was a day dream, and this was reality; and the reality was that there was no way he was going to stand a chance against a grimm like this where his three infinitely more talented team-mates couldn't do anything about it. They were the real heroes, the ones that mattered.

All he could do was help them along the way as best he could.

And surprisingly – surprising even to himself – Jaune was okay with that. So long as he could help them, like with the boost that his semblance could provide, so long as he could contribute something and not just be a useless idiot in the back, then he could live with it. Because this wasn't a dream, this was real life with real lives at stake and he didn't have the luxury of sulking because he couldn't be the shining hero up front like a comic book character. Pyrrha, Ruby, they were real heroes, they were the ones who would save the world if anybody could and so long as he could help them do it then that was fine by him.

Not that that helped in the immediate situation against this enormous beowolf.

Sunset held onto her gun with one hand, but with the other she reached into the pocket of her jeans. "Ruby," she said. "If you had a clear shot without so much bone in the way could you cut this thing in half?"

"I think so," Ruby said. She looked at him. "With a bit of a boost, definitely."

"Pyrrha," Sunset said. "When I give the word get ready to pin this thing into the ground, okay?"

Pyrrha glanced towards the pile of rails that the railway crew had brought with them to fix the line. "Understood."

"Great," Sunset said. She pulled her hand out of her pocket, holding a couple of crimson fire-dust crystals in her hand. "Hey, over here you big dumbass!" She stepped to the side and threw the dust crystals at the beowolf. Jaune guessed that she must have been using her magic on them, because they flew perfectly up towards the beowolf's face, almost to its one remaining eye.

And then a bolt of green energy shot from the tip of Sunset's finger and struck one of the dust crystals. They exploded in an orange fireball that consumed half of the beowolf's face in flame. The beowolf roared in pain, its bone mask burned as it thrashed in agony, but it still had its eye. And that one eye, red and shining with malice, was now squarely fixed on Sunset Shimmer.

"Yeah, that's right," Sunset said. "That's it, come and get me."

With a thud that made the earth shake the alpha beowolf, half its face ablaze, dropped to all fours and roared in Sunset's face.

"Now, Pyrrha!" Sunset snapped.

"Jaune," Pyrrha said, and Jaune immediately put his hand to her shoulder and activated is semblance, boosting Pyrrha's aura and thus her own semblance as she held out both hands towards the pile of rails. Five rails rose into the air before Pyrrha gestured with her hands towards the beowolf and those same rails flew across the air and drove themselves through the only parts of the giant beowolf that weren't completely protected by bone: the four paws and its tail. Pyrrha drove the rails like nails through the beowolf's feet and into the ground beneath it before she bent the rails – hopefully the railway crew had spars – so that the beowolf was trapped, impaled into the ground, unable to do more than roar and growl and bite the empty air as it struggled against its newfound bonds.

And as it struggled, Sunset stretched out her own hands and a few of the bone spurs protected the beowolf's back became surrounded by a green aura as Sunset began to pull them apart.

Sunset struggled to rip apart the spurs of bone and make somewhere for Ruby to hit it. The beowolf struggled to pull itself free of its restraints. The huntress struggled and the monster struggled and it became a question of whose struggle would pay off first. Sunset growled with effort as she matched her, her magic – it was still really weird thinking of it like that – against the strength of the ancient grimm's outgrowths, and the beowolf growled too as it matched its strength against Vale-made steel.

The bones cracked, and Sunset was able to pull them apart to reveal a patch of plain and unprotected black fur near the centre of the beowolf's back.

"Ruby!" Sunset yelled.

"Jaune!" Ruby called.

Jaune leapt down just as Ruby leapt up. He took her by the legs and amplified her aura and her semblance as he threw her up and forwards like some kind of adorable human football.

Ruby flew into the air trailing rose petals behind her, and then she descended, spinning, like lightning from the heavens and sliced the great and ancient beowolf clean in half.

And thus the day was saved once more, and if it hadn't been saved by Jaune then did that really matter?

The day was saved, that was what really mattered.

They were what really mattered.

The ones that mattered.


	57. Why We Fight

Why We Fight

Cold Harbour was not a pretty place, and certainly it was nowhere that Sunset would have come for a visit.

It was a working town, one which existed purely and entirely to serve the needs of the port and the rail line. It had nothing else, they didn't even build the ships here they were all Atlesian made. If the rail line had remained down, if the ships ever stopped sailing from Atlas, if the dust ever did run out then Cold Harbour would wither and die like a flower in the cold.

And then there was the fact that, while Sunset had no doubt that somebody was making a lot of money out of Cold Harbour and its business, that somebody didn't live in the city or anywhere near. Most probably the someone who was making the most money out of this place was Jacques Schnee and he lived far away from here. The work was done here but the profits flew away, over the oceans and the land, to fill the pockets of men in Atlas or the city of Vale. Only the scraps of that prosperity remained in the port, where faunus scrabbled for work as labourers and dreamed of one day getting to drive a truck or operate a power-loader because they couldn't imagine it getting any better than that.

All of which meant that when team SAPR arrived in Cold Harbour on their train, the railway line having been repaired and the first trains already prepped to flow bck the other way, they found it a rather grim, dour and forbidding place. The buildings were dull and functional, in the appropriately named brutalist style of architecture of which Sunset was decidedly not a fan, and the atmosphere felt as cold as the chill wind. There was nothing fun about this town, unless one counted the bars they passed where no doubt the labourers were encouraged to spend their meagre lien on bad drink and pleasures more sordid still. It was a place of crushing banality, full of people living to work because they had nothing else to live for, the sort of place where the ideology of the White Fang would flourish amongst the poor and exploited faunus.

She couldn't wait to get out of this place. Out of the cold air blowing down from the north, out of these ghastly buildings that rose so high, out from where the humans looked at her with unveiled contempt and the faunus looked at her like was a traitor for associating with her team.

This place reminded her far too much of Atlas. Far, far too much, and any reminder of Atlas was a bad one in her book.

"How much further until we rendezvous with Blake and Team Rosepetal?" Pyrrha asked.

"Soon, I think, I don't know!" Sunset snapped. She cringed at the hurt expression on Pyrrha's face. "I'm sorry, I…I don't like it here. Too Atlesian by far."

"We understand," Pyrrha said calmly. "You don't have to apologise."

 _Not for that, maybe,_ Sunset thought. But there were a couple of other things that she needed to apologise for by now. One of the reasons that she wanted to get out of this place, apart from how disagreeable it was to her in general, was that she wanted to get back to Beacon to pick Twilight's brain on how to sort out this appalling mess that she found herself embroiled in.

Pyrrha and Ruby? Both of them? She glanced back at them over her shoulder, and at Jaune walking in between the two of them. Seriously, they both liked him? Him? No offence but…okay, maybe it was disingenuous to say that but…he was so basic. And yet they both liked him? Maybe he was the only passable guy around but still…

Ultimately, however, that wasn't Sunset's real problem. What they both found attractive in a man – or a woman, for that matter – was not something that Sunset would, in ordinary circumstances, have cared two hoots about. But the fact that they both liked the same guy and that this guy was on their team – Sunset's team – that was Sunset's problem.

Her biggest problem, at least.

Pyrrha called it love. Ruby was a little clearer-eyed about it, and probably more realistic too. Pyrrha…she wouldn't intentionally lie about her feelings in order to seem melodramatic or what have you, but all the same…Sunset had convinced herself that she was in love with Flash Sentry once upon a time but just because she'd believed it hadn't made it so. With distance and a clearer eye she could see that what she had taken to be love had actually been merely her latching on to the only source of affection and kindness in her life and taking ordinary goodness for a deep connection between their souls. On a sunlit day the stars were veiled, the greater light overpowered the lesser and rendered them invisible; but when the sun went down then those same stars, which had not moved from their appointed places in the firmament, would sparkle brightly and so prettily in the darkness; just so was it for her in Atlas, she had been so oppressed and beaten down, so forlorn and so alone, that one man's kindness that might have seemed unremarkable to her in better circumstances had been for her a star of hope in a sky consumed by bleak and black despair.

Pyrrha hadn't had it so bad, she had not suffered racism, suspicious stares, hostility for no other reason than for what she was, quite the reverse in many ways…but she was lonely; she had made that fact quite plain and after visiting her home Sunset could begin to understand why. Was it not possible then that she was merely doing as Sunset had done and latched on limpet-like to the first guy to show her the ordinary kindness that her life had been thus far lacking?

Or perhaps she really was in love with him, as she seemed to think. It sounded like something out of a fairy tale but, as they had established with the story of the silver-eyed hero, fairy tales had a basis in fact; and if the characters of fairy tale were neither metaphors nor archetypes but the distant cultural memories of real people, figures out of legend, then perhaps it was not so absurd that the tropes of fairy tales – love at first sight – might be more than metaphors or shorthand to illustrate the journey towards adulthood.

Perhaps she did love him, although Sunset could not resist pointing out within the privacy of her own head that Jaune had given very little sign that he loved her; perhaps she was as mistaken as Sunset had been not too long ago. Whatever was the case, when Pyrrha had come out with it to her – when Sunset had prompted the confidence by what she had felt was a more or less innocuous observation on Pyrrha's make-up choices – Sunset hadn't thought too much of it. It mattered to Pyrrha, but that didn't mean it had to matter to Sunset. Yes, there was the chance for it to damage the team dynamic if the relationship between the two of them went sour, but at the same time Sunset hadn't been unduly bothered by the risk of that: Pyrrha was so cautious about the whole thing that it seemed unlikely that she would do anything without prompting, and if she did do something then Jaune would have to be a damned fool to turn her down. Pyrrha was gorgeous, kind, compassionate, gently romantic…leaving aside her question of her being heir to the throne of Mistral she was a princess in the fairytale sense of word: a girl who embodied the feminine ideal with the added benefit that she was also an unstoppable badass in a fight. She was, Sunset thought with just a touch of sourness, the kind of non-pareil who ascended to alicorn-ness in Equestria. If Jaune was dense enough to turn his back on all that when it was offered to him then…well, nobody was that dense, surely?

But then Ruby had gone and told Sunset that she, too, had a crush on Jaune and Sunset had wondered just what she had done to so anger fate that they would punish her thus. Perhaps this was the reward for her hubris in counting her team the strongest at Beacon: that she would be forced to watch it torn apart by internal divisions and dissensions because while she had been content to let Pyrrha's infatuation with Jaune play out on the basis that either they would get together or Pyrrha would be content to suffer in lovelorn silence without making a fuss about it the addition of Ruby and her feelings to the pot changed everything. Ruby, by the sound of it, didn't intend to wait around and that presented a range of unpleasant possibilities: either Jaune would say yes and things would work out and they would skip happily off together leaving Pyrrha alone, in which case she was about the only person Sunset could imagine not feeling bitter in those circumstances and it might prove too much even for Pyrrha's immense store of human kindness; or Jaune would say no in which Ruby was the one who would be upset and that upset would be bound to get worse if and when Pyrrha made her own play for Jaune's affections; or Jaune would say yes to Ruby at first but things wouldn't work out and that would just be a mess Sunset didn't want to deal with. Ruby might say that she wouldn't hold a grudge about it, but just wait until she saw Jaune on someone else's arm. Just the thought that Flash might be about to start dating Weiss Schnee had been enough to send Sunset into a paroxysm of rage because he was _her boyfriend_ dammit and the fact that they'd broken up ages ago didn't change anything about that! He was her boyfriend and he would remain so up to and until she started dating someone else, at which point he would be free to do the same. Until then it was just ungentlemanly of him not to think of her and her situation.

Ahem. Anyway, the point was that with the addition of Ruby to the mix there were a lot of ways that this situation could go wrong, and while Sunset liked to tell herself that she was no stranger to scenarios with a lot of potential bad outcomes – the road that they were on right now passed between the Scylla of gruesome and unmourned death at the hands of the grimm and the Charybdis of ignominious failure and mediocrity with the narrow path between them that led to glory paved with daggers on which they all must tread with care – she was hard put to see the dagger path between the pitfalls in this case.

The easiest thing to do would probably have been to tell Ruby that Pyrrha was also into Jaune, tell her that she thought it was love, and being the kindly sort that she was that might well be enough to persuade Ruby to back down in the face of Pyrrha's stronger…claim, for want of a better word. But, although Pyrrha hadn't explicitly said that she was telling Sunset about her feelings towards Jaune in confidence…it had been implicit in their conversation that she was telling Sunset this in confidence. Although Ruby probably wouldn't blab to Jaune about it – she was, again, too nice for that – she might accidentally let it slip, or she might talk to her sister who might deliberately accidentally let it slip. It would get Ruby out of the way, probably, but if Pyrrha found out about it she might not take it well – and since she'd be annoyed at Sunset, not someone else, that was arguably worse than doing nothing.

There were other ways that she could try and guide Ruby away from acting on her crush, but when Sunset realised that she'd been starting to do that over the course of their conversation she…she found that she hadn't wanted to do it. That was why she'd told Ruby that she wasn't the right person to talk to about this and essentially forced the matter to a close. She could raise it again, and guide Ruby towards dropping the whole business, or try to (or she could try and force Jaune and Pyrrha together before Ruby made her move; she already had a plan for that and all it would take would be three tables reserved at a fancy restaurant and the cooperation of Ren and Nora) but…Sunset could admit that she probably wasn't a perfect team leader but playing favourites between Pyrrha and Ruby – playing favourites when it came to which of them would get to date the only boy on the team, what was more – seemed like a particularly egregious abdication of her role. She was the leader so she was supposed to be impartial when it came to her team-mates, she was supposed to take care of them equally. How could she do that if she was making the decisions over which of them would get to date Jaune? She was aware that she'd already kind of done that when she gave Pyrrha her…blessing, for want of a better word, but in her defence she hadn't known how Ruby felt when she said that.

Possibly because she hadn't spoken to Ruby as much as she ought to have done, it felt as though she was the team-mate that Sunset knew the least and Sunset was supposed to be her partner.

 _Perhaps it isn't fate out to get me, perhaps it's just my mistakes as a team leader which seemed small and minor at the time coming back to bite my tail in a big way._

Sunset flicked said tail from side to side as she tried to find a way out of this mess. A way that would end with everybody still friends and the synergy that they had as a team preserved so that they could win the Vytal Festival as they, upon the basis of their skill and the aforementioned synergy, deserved to do.

A way that would not only prevent any feelings of ire between Ruby and Pyrrha, but at the same time prevent that ire from being drawn onto her.

Or Jaune, for that matter.

She needed Twilight's advice, or at least she hoped that the Princess of Friendship would be able to offer some; Sunset had mocked the idea of solving friendship problems until one of them turned up on her doorstep and she needed somebody to help her solve it, now she just thought that this was sort of thing that Twilight ought to be good at.

If Ruby gave her that long.

Perhaps she could coax her into delaying her approach until after Sunset had gotten some advice on a more permanent solution? That wouldn't be favouritism, not really; that would be buying herself time to deal with this mess properly.

And it would be for the good of the team. All of it for the good of the team.

And…well…and because she liked them too much to want to see either of them get badly hurt over this.

 _I just hope there's a way to avoid it._

Sunset was roused from these unanswerable musings by the sound of a startled cry and a heavy thud behind her. She whirled around, reaching for her gun – the rest of her team did likewise and grasped at their own weapons – but it turned out to be Blake Belladonna, between a dozen and twenty feet behind them, crouched down in the middle of the road astride the unconscious form of a ram faunus, horns curling out from either side of his head, in a long, dark trenchcoat.

It was a measure of what a dive Cold Harbour was that nobody seemed to find the fact that Blake had plainly just jumped on this guy and knocked him unconscious to be anything worth making a fuss about. All around them on the street people continued on their way without offering the scene a second look.

"Blake!" Ruby exclaimed. "When did you-"

"I've been following you since you got off the train," Blake said, as blandly as she might have made an observation about the cold weather – which she must have been feeling, dressed as she was. She got up off the guy she'd just knocked down. "I noticed that he'd been following you as well."

"Thanks," Sunset said. "Nice of you to drop in."

Blake looked at her.

Sunset grinned briefly.

Blake rolled her eyes as she began to walk towards them. "Follow me," she said. "I'll take you to join the others."

Blake led them into a back-alley, and through various other small, narrow, dark and mostly uninhabited streets that even the denizens of Cold Harbour seemed to want to avoid. Considering that some of them were covered in garbage Sunset could well see why, and the smell…Sunset's sense of smell was more acute than most but Pyrrha seemed to be struggling with it too, some of these alleyways stank to high heaven. What a place, she couldn't wait to be out of here.

"I'm sorry about the route," Blake said, and as she glanced back at them over her shoulder Sunset could see from her expression that she wasn't the biggest fan of the stench either; probably her sense of smell was as good as Sunset's what with her being slightly catty and all. "But ever since Team Rosepetal arrived here we've had people trying to find out what they're doing here, where they're going next; we've been followed, and there are people watching the motel room."

"The White Fang," Sunset said.

"They don't wear masks, but almost certainly," Blake said.

"Have you ambushed and beaten up all of them?" Sunset asked.

"No," Blake said, with just a thin trace of amusement in her voice. "Mostly we try to avoid them. Usually Rosepetal stay in their room and I get sent out when somebody has to leave. I still stand out," she briefly grasped the handle of Gambol Shroud. "But not as much as…some of the Atlesians. Or you four, for that matter."

Pyrrha looked a little guilty, as though she had anything to be guilty about. "I'm sorry, I didn't-"

"It's not your fault," Blake said. "You're a huntress, not a spy; but that's the point: you and Rosepetal both stand out as obviously being huntsmen, and that makes the White Fang ask why you're here."

"Are we going to be able to get onto the train without being spotted?" Sunset asked. If they didn't have secrecy then the entire plan was shot full of holes before it had even begun; either the White Fang would leave the train alone or they would attack in strength sufficient to overwhelm the combined forces of the two teams. Neither option was particularly desirable.

"I think so," Blake said. "We have a plan and the route already chosen. We're almost there."

"So," Sunset said. "What's it been like working with Atlas?"

Blake hesitated for a moment. "They're…not what I expected," she said. "At least…not entirely what I expected."

She came to the end of an alleyway, and pressed her back against the wall as she gestured out of the end of the narrow lane. Before them was the rear of a rather cheap-looking motel, with three rows of windows obscured by old-fashioned lace curtains looking out at the insalubrious view of an empty car park and some big blue bins on wheels, overflowing with garbage bags. Discarded bottles and cigarette butts littered the concrete, and there was graffiti on the walls of the alleyway in which they waited.

"This is where you're staying?" Sunset said. "Nice."

Blake glanced at her momentarily. "We've purchased six rooms, the three climbing up the west wall and the three next to that so that nobody can take those rooms and see us coming or going, but everyone actually sleeps in the room on the north-west corner as it's the hardest to observe." She looked back at the members of Team Sapphire. "Does anybody think they might not be able to climb up the drainpipe? Or get up to the top window?"

Jaune raised his hand at once. So too, after a moments hesitation and slightly more tremulously, did Sunset.

Blake nodded. "Don't worry, I can help you." She turned back and looked at the motel windows. "Now, we wait for- there."

The north-west window opened and the face of Rainbow Dash briefly appeared there, beckoning to them. Sunset noticed that the window next to it was also open, and she thought…was that a gun sticking out of it.

"The window to the right, please tell me that's Rosepetal," she muttered.

Blake nodded. "That's Ciel Soleil. She's a little…cautious. She's what I expected an Atlesian team to be."

"So long as she's on our side."

"Let's go," Blake said, and she led the way as they dashed quickly across the open ground between their alleyway and the back of the motel. Blake gestured for them to go first, up to the open window on the north-west corner of the top floor.

Pyrrha was the first up, not bothering with the drainpipe that ran up the side of the wall as she simply leapt straight up to the window and grabbed the ledge with both hands before hauling herself inside.

Ruby went next, scampering up the drainpipe with simian agility before sliding sideways onto the windowsill, where a hand reached out to help her get inside the room.

Sunset went next, and although she had conceded that she might need some assistance getting there she was determined to at least try and do it herself. She gripped the rusting metal drainpipe with both hands, feeling the cold of the metal and the slight rough unevenness of the surface beneath her palms, and she gritted her teeth as she started to climb. Her aura made her stronger, and gave her greater endurance besides, but it didn't make you good at all the things that you wouldn't necessarily have been great at otherwise, and Sunset felt no shame in conceding that Pyrrha and Ruby were both more athletic than she was if only because they'd been training in those skills for longer. But she wasn't about to let Blake just help her up without at least attempting it herself, and so though her boots sometimes slipped against the surface of the wall and her hands felt as though they were going to slip on the pipe, nevertheless inch by slow inch Sunset hauled her body up the drainpipe and reached out to place her fingers on the windowsill.

Rainbow's hand grabbed hers, and immediately Sunset felt the weight on her arms ease off as Rainbow helped her the last bit of the way and pulled her into the motel room. The carpet was faded, there were black stains in the corners of the walls and there was a dent in the wall like somebody had punched it once.

"Yo," Rainbow said. "Glad you could make it."

"You say that as though we're late or something."

"I'm just bored of having to wait for you."

"Don't blame me because you're impatient," Sunset said.

"Hello, Sunset!" Penny said cheerily.

"Hi," Sunset said. "Hi, Twilight."

"Uh, hey, Sunset," Twilight said, before looking down at her scroll.

There was a click outside the window, and looking out Sunset could see the grappling hook of Blake's weapon bury itself in the wall before the winch lifted Blake and Jaune up to the level of the window, where Sunset and Rainbow helped Jaune in before Blake slipped into the room afterwards, shut the window after herself, and closed the curtains.

"Cosy," Sunset observed, as the eight people now present in a room designed for two tried to find some room to stand.

"I know, but it isn't for long," Rainbow said. "Once it gets dark we'll sneak out of here and slip aboard the train with nobody any the wiser."

"All loading at the rail yard stops at night," Blake said. "Even the night trains are loaded up during the day, there are only a couple of night watchmen around and we should be able to avoid them."

"You've thought this through," Sunset said.

"Not as if we've had a lot of else to do while we waited for you," Rainbow said. "How was your mission?"

"It was mostly pretty quiet," Ruby said. "But then this pack of beowolves showed up and they were led by one of the biggest alphas that we'd ever seen and…"

* * *

They passed the time as best they could in that crowded space – it got even more crowded once Ciel joined them from the room next door, bringing her rifle with her – as they waited for it to get dark outside. Rainbow and Ciel both did weapons maintenance, or tried to as best they could in the conditions, and Sunset cleaned out the barrels of the cylinder in Sol Invictus so that they wouldn't get fouled in battle; it was, she had to say, much easier for her to do that than it was for the two Atlesians to do their maintenance in the circumstances.

Penny had a book of stories. "My new friend Blake gave it to me. I've never read anything like it before."

"That's why I gave it to you," Blake said. "These stories may be simple, but they represent where we come from; our ancestors told those stories and by knowing the stories…we can know them, what kind of people they were, what kind of world they lived in. Plus…they're often very good stories. Simple, but compelling, and sometimes even beautiful."

"It looks like an old book," Sunset said, observing the slightly dog-eared cover, the many creases on the spine, the way the corners of some of the pages looked as though they'd been folded over to mark the place (Sunset who always used proper book marks, couldn't help but feel a slightly sense of disapproval at the practice), all marked the book out as having been long owned and often read.

"My…my mother used to read it to me," Blake said, and a look of deep sadness crossed her face for a moment. "A long time ago."

Sunset's eyebrows rose a little. "A generous gift," she murmured. She couldn't imagine giving a book from Celestia away, to Penny or anybody else.

"Not really," Blake said, in a voice that carried an undertone of melancholy. "I…I know most of those stories by heart by now."

"Penny," Pyrrha said, in the tone of someone who is very deliberately changing the subject. "How far have you gotten? Do you have any favourites yet?"

"I like…" Penny said, with a glance at Ruby. "I like the story of the Shallow Sea."

"The Shallow Sea," Ruby repeated. "I don't remember that one. Yang used to read me stories from books just like that all the time, but…no, I don't remember it."

"It's about a faunus with the tale of a fish, who lives in the shallow sea outside of Vale," Penny explained. "Each night, she watches the people on land and wishes that she could join them, especially after she sees the human prince, and…and she…"

"She falls in love with him," Pyrrha said. "And so determined is she for them to be together that she makes a deal with a witch who turns her human so that she can be with the man she loves, and finally explore the world that she's watched from afar for so long. I think it's a lovely story."

"I used to like it," Blake said. "But now…it isn't one of my favourites."

"Why not?" Pyrrha said. "What changed?"

"Not the story," Blake said. "But I realised…the prince, if he really loved her then he wouldn't ask her to change who she was so completely for his sake. If he loved her truly then he'd take her as she was, and not ask her to change a thing."

"But he didn't ask her to change," Pyrrha said. "He didn't know her, she made the decision to transform herself all on her own."

"Is that better?" Blake asked, without malice or anger of any kind in her voice. "Can we really say that she loved him? Or was it just a shadow that she loved, the idea of something that was never really there at all?"

"I…I don't know," Pyrrha said. "But I do know that there's nothing wrong with the idea of transformation. Sometimes, when we step out of the water and into a whole new world, we transform for the better. We become…what we were always meant to be, better than what we are now. So many stories are about that, that moment of transformation, of becoming."

"Transforming and becoming are not the same thing," Blake replied. "One is revelation of what was always there but was hidden behind rags or an ugly exterior or whatever it is, the other is being remade by some external power deciding that what you are, as you are now is just not good enough."

"Are you sure you're not both reading too much into this?" Ruby asked. "I love a lot of these stories myself, but they're just stories."

"Stories matter," Sunset said, from where she leaned against the wall. "Just as every story began with a life lived somewhere, so each of our lives contains a story within it. We have to remember that, and bear it in mind if the story is not become a tedious and repetitive thing filled with inconsequential happenings and transient experiences amounting to nothing. Sound and fury deprived of theme or consequence."

"Live like you're the hero of your own story?" Ciel said. "From literary analysis to egotism."

"I've read that in Mistral of old, there were few among the mighty there who didn't consider themselves to be the hero of their own history," Sunset said.

"An attitude that did much to bring Mistral to disaster in the Great War," Pyrrha remarked.

"Maybe," Sunset conceded. "But before that it first made Mistral great. How can we seek to be heroes if we do not understand what a hero is, what made them heroes and what made them acclaimed as such by those around them? That's why stories matter, because without them how will we know what to do?"

"That's why what they mean matters too," Blake added. "Or we might…do the wrong thing, and not realise it until it's too late."

That night, once the darkness had descended upon Cold Harbour and the activity of the streets had slowed as people retreated either to their homes or to their favourite bar, it was time to leave the cramped motel room behind and get to their train before it left without them.

Blake confirmed that there was no one watching the back of the motel as they slipped out the window and down to the ground below – Rainbow Dash carried Twilight down in her arms like a bride, the rest of them jumped and trusted to their aura to dull the impact, Jaune tripped and almost fell as he leapt - as quickly and as quietly as they could with all their gear and weapons with them, not to mention supplies for the journey, sleeping bags and all the rest. Blake led the way, taking the two squads through more dingy back-alleys of the same kind that they had used to get to the motel in the first place. Now they headed back towards the railyard, avoiding the main streets that SAPR had first taken before Blake showed up and instead taking the more indirect route which brought them step by step and back alley by alleyway back to the yards, which now were dimly lit and quiet. When SAPR had dismounted the train they'd arrived on, accompanied by Red's working crew, the yard had been abuzz with activity – the word that the railway had been repaired had travelled ahead of them, and so a half dozen trains were being loaded to make the trip to Vale during the evening and night, crates bearing the snowflake emblem of the SDC by the multitude being lifted into railway cars. Faunus by the score and the hundredfold had worked by hand and primitive machine while power loaders painted in yellow and black strode amongst the trains carrying especially large and heavy containers, and all the while the overseers and the foremen called out directions to the workers. Judging by what Blake had said, the chances were that the White Fang already knew what was in every single train, and had known since preparations to move the trains as soon as the rail line was re-opened had been made.

The Atlesian military train had, according to the plans that Sunset and Rainbow had made, been loaded up and standing by for some time now. The White Fang could have robbed it in the yard by now if they'd wanted to but, of course, it was much easier to do it in the wilds of the Forever Fall than in the middle of a city where there might be a law enforcement response.

In any case, they could see it in the yard ahead of them as they crept across the empty railway lines and in between the stationary and unattended containers. Rainbow took the lead at this point, with Twilight; Blake dropped back, presumably because the Atlesians knew what they were looking for. As they approached, the engine began to hum and thrum with suppressed energy.

"Quickly," Rainbow hissed. "It's about to leave."

They quickened their pace, though those of them that had super speed stopped short of actually using it. They ran, covering the ground more quickly as Twilight Sparkle got out her scroll. Sunset could hear a faint beeping sound, and the doors to one of the cargo cars slid open with a hydraulic hiss.

Rainbow and Twilight reached it first, and leaped aboard the car a moment before the train began to move. The rest of the two combined teams ran faster still, with Rainbow and Twilight already aboard and waving them on, and rushed for the open door as it began to crawl away down the rail line.

They just about made it, leaping or scrambling aboard or being helped aboard moments before the train began to accelerate to the point where it would have been impossible to get on – nor, indeed, was it possible to get off now. They were on this train until it stopped again, which is was not scheduled to do until it reached Vale but it might do depending on how the White Fang decided to stop it.

They were trapped aboard this train absent destination or external influences, which is why as the eight huntresses and the one huntsman crouched in the darkness of the train car and the door shut behind them it was a little disconcerting to see a pair of red eyes light up in the darkness as a metallic and synthesised voice said out of the darkness, "Intruder, identify yourself."

"Twilight," Rainbow said, urgently but not so urgently that she might seem frightened.

Twilight, on the other hand, squeaked with alarm. "R-right. I'll just…um, give me a second." In the darkness, Sunset could hear Twilight tapping on her scroll.

The lights came on, revealing row after row of Atlesian security droids standing in ranks like a column of old-fashioned soldiers ready for an assault, and all of them staring right at the huntsmen who had the temerity to board their train.

But then the red eyes faded. "Understood. Atlesian forces recognised. Your facial pattern have been uploaded into our database and logged as friendly." The droids, apparently de-activated again, lowered their faces and said no more and did no more and troubled them no more.

Rainbow Dash walked up to them, looking them up and down. "Old 190s; I thought we were replacing all of them."

"Upgrading our entire capability takes time," Ciel reminded her. "The first available knights will be deployed to front line positions, 190 models will remain in service in some rear-echelon areas for a considerable length of time."

"Upgrading?" Pyrrha said, her voice soft as she rose to her feet. "Is that what you call it?"

Rainbow turned back to her. "We're replacing the old models with the newer ones, what would you call it?"

"Terrible," Pyrrha said. Her brow furrowed. "The idea that this is the future of warfare…it horrifies me."

"Pyrrha?" Jaune asked.

"You don't like robots?" Rainbow said.

"I don't much care for them, no," Pyrrha replied.

"Is there any particular reason for that?" Ciel asked.

Pyrrha was silent for a moment. "Do you know why the faunus were victorious in their rebellion after the Great War."

"Ooh, ooh, I know this one," Ruby said, raising her hand excitedly. "The answer is night vision!"

Pyrrha smiled thinly. "That's why they won the battle at Fort Castle, but in my opinion it isn't why they won the war."

"You're talking about the mutiny at Camp Fury, aren't you?" said Sunset, who thought that she had worked out where this was going. "When the faunus rose up, the veteran troops refused to march against their old comrades, the ones they'd fought alongside in the Great War. And because of that Mistral and Mantle were forced to fight the war with green recruits, boys dragged from the fields and the streets."

Pyrrha nodded. "And because of that the faunus won the war."

"I think we would have done alright against the most experienced troops that humans could find," Blake muttered. "Although I suppose the inexperience of your troops didn't hurt."

"The point is that those soldiers did what they thought was right, not what they were ordered to do," Pyrrha said. "They had that freedom, just as we do now. If Professor Ozpin ordered us to burn down a city block with all the people trapped in their homes would we do it?"

"No," Jaune said. "Of course not, that would be murder."

"Exactly, and we know that," Pyrrha said. "But these automatons," she gestured with her shield hand at the Atlesian androids. "This is an army that will never tell its commander 'no' no matter how monstrous the order. An army without conscience."

"It's conscience is that of the man who wields it," Ciel declared. "General Ironwood has conscience enough for an entire army. He is a good man, perhaps the best; he would never wield his power to wicked purposes."

"Can you guarantee the same about the man who will succeed him, or their successor after that?" Pyrrha asked.

Neither Ciel nor Rainbow Dash said anything in reply. What could they have said, in any case? Penny looked sad, and a little upset, and it took Sunset a moment to realise that Pyrrha didn't know what Penny was.

Sunset put one hand on the front door leading to the next carriage. "We should go, unless you want us to sleep here with the robots?" _Please let's go so that we can draw a line under this._

"Sure," Rainbow said, and she looked almost as relieved as Sunset felt to be getting away from the issue of robot armies. "Twilight, do you want to give us the layout."

"Right," Twilight said, pulling up a map on her scroll and displaying it as a three-dimensional hologram. "We're here, in carriage six of a ten-car train. Car number one is directly behind the engine, car ten is the caboose. Cars one, six and ten are filled with droids, that's the standard security complement for this kind of train. Cars two and three contain the paladin mechs, cars four and five contain small arms and ammunition. Car seven contains munitions for the heavy weapons mounted onto the paladins, while cars eight and nine contain dust for military purposes. There should be enough space in car five for us to sleep in."

"Thanks, Twi," Rainbow said. "Let's go."

* * *

"So, icebreaker question," Rainbow said. "What are we all doing here?"

The nine huntsmen sat amongst the crates of guns and ammo in the middle of the Atlesian train as it rattled along down the recently repaired railroad towards Atlas.

Sunset sat on the floor, with the portable stove that they had used to heat up their dinner still burning in front of her. With one hand, while with the other she held onto her bowl of noodles, Sunset turned it off. "What do you mean, what are we doing here? We're here to ambush the White Fang when they try and rob the train."

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Well, obviously. I mean, why did we all want to become huntsmen in the first place? If we're going to go into battle together then I want to know who you all are." She looked at Sunset. "Better than I thought I did, maybe." She hopped down off the two crates of rifles that she'd been sitting on and pulled her scroll out from behind her. "Here, I'll even start us off if you like." She opened up her scroll and began to flip through screens that Sunset couldn't see properly, until she reversed it and showed it around the eight other people seated in a rough and slightly ugly circle in the train car.

"Look at this," Rainbow said, as she showed a picture of a group of six young women – and a little dog, the same little dog that had crawled its way out of Twilight's pack and into Ruby's lap where she was giving him a belly rub – gathered together in a rough group. Every face was smiling out of the scroll at anyone who might be watching, every face full of life and joy, their arms wrapped around one another, their eyes alight with life and love.

"This…" Sunset said, as she looked down at the picture. "This is Canterlot, isn't it?"

"Yeah, that's when we had this taken," Rainbow said.

Ruby stared at the image for a moment. "This…you guys must be really close."

"Really close," Rainbow repeated. "These girls…" she glanced back at Twilight. "They're like my sisters. Closer than sisters."

"Are they all training to become huntresses like you?" Ruby asked.

Rainbow's laughter echoed off the metal walls of the train car. "Are they all huntresses? Hell no! Hey, Twi, can you imagine Fluttershy hunting grimm?"

Twilight covered her hand with one mouth as she giggled. "I don't think so."

"Then again," Rainbow murmured. "I couldn't imagine you being put in a position like this either." She shook her head. "No, Ruby, they're not all training to become huntresses. Applejack, that's her in the cowboy hat, she's the only other one who wants to become a huntress and even then…that's a sad story, one that she ought to tell you. But yeah, she's at Atlesian huntress like me, but the others…no. Pinkie works part time at a mom and pop bakery and part time as a party planner. Rarity studies business at night and saves up money from odd jobs so that she can start a business selling dresses. Fluttershy…I'm not sure even Fluttershy knows exactly what she wants but she's…she's so sweet and what she can do with animals…They're my friends. They're my best friends and they don't have to be afraid. Even though the world is full of grimm, even though it sometimes feels like we're only one step ahead of the monster taking us out, even though, in spite of everything…they don't have to be afraid. Because they're my friends and they can sleep safely tonight because I'm out here, watching over them, keeping the monsters at bay. That's why I do what I do. For them." She snapped up her scroll. "So, come on, who else wants to share with the group? Sunset, what are you doing out here? Why did you want to become a huntress?"

Sunset shrugged. "For the fame. For the glory."

Rainbow snorted. "Glory? What glory?"

"The great glory that will accrue to us as a result our deeds in the field and in the tournament arena," Sunset declared grandiloquently. _The glory that is our due._ "And the immortality that we will win there."

"There is neither immortality nor glory for soldiers," Ciel said. "History remembers the generals who commanded the battle, it remembers the politicians who ordered the battle, but it does not remember the soldiers who fought in the battle."

Sunset smirked, undismayed by Ciel's words. "Is that so? Good thing that we're not soldiers, isn't it?"

"Do you really think that you will accrue such great glory as to deserve the name immortality?" Ciel asked. "From being a huntress?"

"I believe it so," Sunset said. "I cannot believe that it is otherwise. This…this is my destiny, I cannot doubt it. I have come too far to be halted by mere doubt. I will do great things and in the doing I shall become more, much more, than I am now."

"What if you don't?" Ruby asked, her voice high and soft but clear in the cramped, enclosed space in which they found themselves.

Sunset drew breath in through her nostrils. "What if I don't? What if we don't? That outcome is not possible. I will not suffer it."

Ruby frowned, her face could sometimes seem childlike but now she seemed older and Sunset was reminded that there was only a two year difference in their ages, that this was a girl who, for all that she might sometimes act immaturely, had endured and suffered much. "Rainbow Dash," she said quietly. "My mom was a huntress. My uncle is a huntress. My Dad teaches at Signal Combat school on the island of Patch. I…I guess you could say that I was always going to be a huntress, because of whom my mom was, who my family is, because of all the stories about huntresses and huntsmen that my sister Yang used to read me when it was time for bed."

"You say was," Twilight said softly. "Your mother was, not your mother is. Then…does that mean…"

"She's…she's gone," Ruby said. "She died on a mission, when I was little."

"Would we have heard of her?" Ciel asked, earning her a bit of a frown from Pyrrha.

"No," Ruby said. "My mom's name was Summer Rose. She was a great huntress, and she was…" she glanced at Sunset, and the words 'silver eyed warrior', though they lay unspoken in the presence of Atlas, hung heavily between the members of Team SAPR. "She was a great huntress," Ruby repeated. "She led her team, and she fought the grimm right up until the day she died. She was a great huntress, but nobody ever built a statue of her, or wrote a book about her, or put her picture on the front of a cereal box. Nobody remembers her, nobody even knows her name apart from her family. She was a great huntress, but she didn't get any glory from it."

"Then wh-" Sunset cut herself off before she could say it.

Ruby looked at her. "What?"

Sunset looked away, paying particular attention to the rust on the walls of the train car. "Nothing."

"Sunset-"

"I said, it's nothing," Sunset said, more sharply this time. She didn't want to seem unkind, but…well, if she said what was on her mind right now in front of Jaune and Pyrrha and the Atlesians then she was afraid that she would seem very unkind. Let Ruby think what she liked, let the fact that her mother had died in ignominious obscurity tell her something about the lot in life of the average huntress but they were not average. Sunset would not endure to be average. She would win. She would rise. She would claim all things that she desired and deserved.

And she would not ask in the presence of all this company whether or not Ruby really believed that her mother's blood, sweat, tears and very life itself had been worth it for…for what? For a little plot of earth to lie in and the memories of a handful of people? Whether she was ready to launch herself on that same course for that same reward.

But she couldn't say it in front of all these people, it would seem too harsh. She would not seem unkind, even if she was.

She exhaled. "Somebody say on. Please."

"My family has a long history of military service, predating even the foundation of Atlas itself," Ciel said. "Soleils have fought for Mantle, and they have fought for Atlas. And now I fight for Atlas, as I will send my daughter to fight for Atlas one day in her turn."

"As simple as that?" Sunset asked.

"As simple as that," Ciel said.

 _If you live to have a daughter._

"You may not have to send your daughter to fight for Atlas," Pyrrha said, softly but solemnly too.

"Why would I not?" Ciel asked, sounding genuinely curious.

"I am here…I believe…I've always believed that my destiny is to protect the world," Pyrrha said, sounding halting as if she was afraid that at any moment people would try to mock her for what she said. "I came to Beacon because I wanted to do more than just win tournaments, because I wanted to protect humanity from its enemies and put my skills to better use than entertainment. I'm here because I want to save lives and because I believe, I truly believe with all of my heart, that we can do more than just hold the line against the grimm, more than just take back a little territory beyond the boundaries of the kingdoms, or found a few new villages. I believe that we can retake our world from the monsters who plague it."

Silence greeted her pronouncement. Rainbow let out a puff of breath. "That would be awesome. That would be the greatest thing…no more grimm, no more fighting, no more risk. You're talking about a world were kids like Scootaloo and Apple Bloom can just be kids without having to decide if they want to learn how to kill monsters, where Pinkie and Rarity and Fluttershy wouldn't have to worry about what happens when the levee breaks, where…you're talking about everything. And I'd love to believe that you can do it, I'd love to believe that we can do it but…Pyrrha Nikos, I've seen you fight and you are good. But I don't believe that even you are that good. Do you really think you're that good?"

"I don't know," Pyrrha said. "But I know that we have to try, all of us, together. If we don't try, if all that we do is bequeath the battle to our children so that they can leave it to their children, I…" she reached out, and placed a gloved hand on Ruby's shoulder. "I mean no disrespect to your mother, Ruby…but I believe that we have to aim higher than that."

"To make a world where there's no need for people like us?" Rainbow asked, as her ears twitched and a smile played across her face.

"That is my ambition," Pyrrha said. "I cannot promise I'll achieve it…but it's what I aim for."

"And maybe we will," Ruby said, looking up from where she sat on the floor into Pyrrha's face. "Maybe we'll do what no one else could. If we stick together and keep getting stronger and never give up then-"

"Then what?" Blake said. "Say that you did it. Say that you exterminated the creatures of grimm…somehow. Let's say for a moment that that actually happened. There would still be a need for huntsmen, and huntresses. Even if all of the grimm disappeared tomorrow the world would still be full of cruelty and injustice and corruption, and I'm not just talking about the White Fang but also all the things that created the White Fang in the first place. That's why I'm here, to fight against all of that, and that won't change just because the grimm are gone."

"Did you just explain why you became a huntress or why you joined the White Fang?" Rainbow asked.

Blake was sitting a little removed from the rest, her knees up and her arms wrapped around them. "I know why I'm here," she said. "And I'll fight against the White Fang or the grimm when I have to. If that's not good enough for you then I'm sorry."

Sunset, who fancied that she knew more about why Blake was here than most but still wouldn't claim to be able to answer for her, locked eyes with her for a moment. Sunset's green orbs met Blake's golden eyes, before Blake looked away.

"It's alright," Rainbow said. "I trust you that much. How about you, Jaune?"

"I…" Jaune looked away from Rainbow Dash, for a moment he glanced at Pyrrha sitting beside him but then he looked away from her as well. He got up off the crate of rifle rounds that he was sitting on. "I don't want to talk about it," he said, and began to walk away down the car towards the head of the train.

"Jaune, wait!" Pyrrha called, as she got up herself and began to follow him. Jaune didn't stop, but Pyrrha followed him nonetheless into the darker recesses of the badly lit cargo car.

Sunset was content to follow him with her eyes alone, until he passed out of sight, but she could see why Pyrrha had followed because his behaviour was inexplicable to her. She'd always thought that Jaune's motivations were simple enough, and similar to her own in many ways. He wanted to be the hero, and if he didn't have skill to commend him for the heroic role then, well, Sunset Shimmer had many faults but she wasn't one to fault anyone for having big dreams. His ambition was probably the thing that she respected most about Jaune Arc: he knew what he wanted and he was willing to put his life on the line for it; whatever else you could say about him that fact entitled him to a little respect.

But then why be so reluctant to say it in front of everyone? It wasn't as if it was especially ridiculous, no more so than what Sunset had said or even Pyrrha. It wasn't as if the Atlesians were going to laugh at him. So why?

 _Hopefully it's nothing. Hopefully he's just out of sorts tonight for whatever reason. Pyrrha will get it out of him, and hopefully it will blow over after that._

"What's with him?" Rainbow asked.

"Nothing you need to concern yourself with," Sunset said. "He'll be fine when the time comes. We all will."

"Sure," Rainbow said, sounding unconcerned by it all.

"What about you, Twilight?" Ruby asked. "Why are you here?"

"I, uh," Twilight murmured, looking at Rainbow Dash. "I…I'm not really a huntress. I'm not even a huntress in training. I'm just here to help Penny, you see…wait, where is Penny?"

It was only when Twilight drew attention to the absence of the robot girl that Sunset noticed that she wasn't there. There were only six people here now, with Pyrrha and Jaune having gone elsewhere. Penny was nowhere to be seen.

Ruby got to her feet. "Maybe she's still in the other compartment. I'll check there."

"Ciel, go-" Rainbow began, but Ruby had already sped off in a burst of falling rose petals. "Okay, Ciel, follow her and keep an eye on Penny."

"Affirmative," Ciel said, as she began to follow in the direction Ruby had raced off in.

 _Perhaps Jaune isn't the only one who's out of sorts tonight._

* * *

Ruby raced across the coupling joining the two compartments – the one they'd been squatting in and the one with all the robots where they'd first boarded the train – and into car six with its cargo of rank upon rank of Atlesian battle droids. The door to the car was open, and for a moment Ruby feared that Penny had fallen off the train or something, but after a moment she could see her standing in the doorway, framed by the moonlight coming in through the open door which cast her white smock in a shade of blue and danced upon her fair skin.

Penny was staring up at the source of the moonlight, at the broken moon that hung in the sky above.

"Do you ever wonder how it got that way?" Ruby asked, as she walked across the carriage to join Penny at the open doorway. The moonlit landscape – in the moonlight, the leaves of the forest seemed to glow like burning embers, as though it was a forest of flame that they were passing through and not a forest of leaves – rushed by as the train devoured the miles. "When I was a kid I used to wonder what happened, and why all those pieces didn't fall down and hit us. I still don't know what's holding them up."

Penny looked at her. "I'm sorry, Ruby, but I'm afraid I don't know either."

Ruby smiled. "That's okay, Penny, I didn't expect you would, I just…I came to find you because no one knew where you were. I was a little bit worried about you."

"That…that's very kind of you," Penny said. She looked back up at the moon. "As you can, I'm fine."

"Are you?" Ruby asked. "Are you really? Why didn't you come in and eat with the rest of us."

Penny said, "I thought it might be better not to. I…I don't think Pyrrha likes me very much."

"What are you talking about?" Ruby asked. "Pyrrha likes you. What would make you think she doesn't?"

Penny turned around, and gestured to the massed ranks of the Atlesian androids. What moonlight reached inside the carriage to touch them glimmered upon their metallic hides. "Pyrrha…doesn't like robots."

"I guess not," Ruby said, failing to see the relevance. "But-"

"Ruby, can I tell you a secret?" Penny asked, her voice suddenly sounding urgent. "I'm not supposed to tell anybody about this, but I want you to know the truth. Can…can I trust you, Ruby?"

Ruby looked into Penny's eyes. "Of course you can, Penny. You can trust me with anything and everything. Whatever secret you might have to tell it's safe with me, I promise."

Penny clasped her hands together above her heart, and for a moment she cringed as if the mere act of considering telling Ruby her secret – whatever that secret might be – made her afraid. "I…I'm not a real girl," she said. "I…I am a robot, the world's first ever robot with aura. I was created in a lab in Atlas by my father and Twilight and their team, Mis- General Ironwood sponsored my creation because he believes in me. General Ironwood says that I can save the world one day but…what that means is that…I've been lying to you. I'm not a person, Ruby; I'm not that different from those robots behind me-"

"You're nothing like them," Ruby said, in a voice that was simultaneously both firm and gentle.

Penny's eyes widened. "Ruby…but-"

"You're nothing like them," Ruby repeated, as she reached out and wrapped her hands around those of Penny. Penny's skin felt natural, if Ruby hadn't just been told that it was artificial she would never have realised on her own. It was soft, a little cold, but it felt like skin and not plastic or anything like that. "You just said that you have aura, right? The first robot to ever have aura. But do you know what that means? You know what it means to have aura it means you're alive. You have a soul because that's what aura is, it's a manifestation of your soul. You're not just a machine, even if you do have processors and a power core or whatever. You have a soul. You're a person, just like me. Just like all of us."

Penny's eyes grew wider still. "You…you mean it?"

"I do," Ruby said solemnly.

"But…Pyrrha said-"

"Penny," Ruby said. "If General Ironwood ordered you to kill me, would you do it?"

"O-of course not!" Penny exclaimed. "You're…you are my…my friend. I could never hurt you, Ruby."

"I know," Ruby said softly. "I trust you, Penny. If you ever doubt that you're different from the other robots again just remember that: you can make your own choices, you don't have to do just what you're told."

Penny smiled sadly, her bright green eyes filled with melancholy. "Ruby…thank you. To hear you say that means more to me then I know how to say. But that's not entirely true."

She turned away, and looked out the open door again, pulling her hands gently out of Ruby's grasp.

"What? Why not?"

"I…I couldn't help but overhear you talking in the other car," Penny said. "You were all explaining why you became huntsmen and huntresses. You all have something that you want, something that drives you. All of you…except me.

"I was created in a lab by Atlesian scientists to be a weapon for the Kingdom of Atlas. I was created to fight. I didn't choose to become a huntress…I was designed that way."

"Penny," Ruby murmured. "Is this not what you want?"

"What I want doesn't matter," Penny said. "I was created by Atlas to serve Atlas."

"Of course it matters!" Ruby exclaimed. "What you want matters, it matters more than anything else in the world. It doesn't matter what General Ironwood wants, or what your father wants, or your team or even the Council of Atlas. Penny, if…if you don't want to fight then…then I promise that I'll do whatever it takes to help you be free of all of them. If that's what you want."

Penny stared at her. Her mouth gaped open. She was completely silent, robbed of speech. She stared at Ruby for so long it was honestly starting to get uncomfortable.

"You…you would do that, for me?" Penny said.

"I would," Ruby said, without a trace of hesitation to diminish the resolution of her tone.

"But…Ruby, do you realise what you're saying?" Penny asked. "You can't."

"Yes, I do."

"But…why?" Penny asked. "Why would you do that…for me?"

"Because it's the right thing to do," Ruby said. "And because…you're my friend."

"Ruby…" Penny enveloped her in a hug that would have been bone-crushing if she hadn't had her aura up at just the right time. "Thank you," she said. "Thank you so much. Ruby, why do you fight? Is it only because of your mother and your father and your uncle?"

Ruby shook her head, before she realised that Penny couldn't see that right now with the way they were hugging. "No, Penny, it isn't. It's because…it's because I can. There are things that I can to protect other people, things that they can't do to protect themselves. And so…because I can do those things I think…I think that I ought to do those things because if I didn't then other people might get hurt."

"Then that will be my reason for fighting too," Penny said. "Until…until I can work out what I want to do."

"Then when you do," Ruby murmured. "I'll be waiting."

* * *

Ciel Soleil lurked in the shadows by the car door, silent, watching. She watched everything, heard everything, and as she watched and heard a smile spread slowly across her features.

She was a soldier of Atlas, but not a mindless one; she wasn't a drone like all those AK-190s in there. If Penny could find a reason for fighting beyond the fact that it was what she was made to do, if she could find a cause to drive her on, to light a fire in the pit of her soul and keep her going in the darkest of moments, then so much the better. If Ruby Rose could help her find that cause then good for her.

And if Penny couldn't find that cause, if she in the end decided that she had no desire to fight then…

Then Ciel Soleil would not stand in her way. She was a soldier, not a slave-owner.

Penny Polendina was growing up before her eyes. And it was wonderful to see.

* * *

"Jaune, wait," Pyrrha called.

Jaune finally stopped. There were no windows in these cargo cars, and the ventilation was terrible, so there was a door open ajar near the front of their car to let some fresh air in for them. Jaune stood in front of that jarred open doorway, letting the moonlight fall down around him. It fell on Pyrrha too, as she approached him. It made her fair skin look ethereal, as though she were a statue made of marble or alabaster.

She gazed at him with concern in her eyes, eyes that seemed brighter now than he'd ever seen before, the green of her eyes popping out more than they had seemed to do in the past.

"Jaune," she repeated. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he said, and he meant it. Nothing was wrong, he just…he couldn't quite bring himself to admit the truth in front of the Atlesians or Sunset. Or even Ruby, to tell the truth. "I just…I didn't want to talk about it."

"Why not?"

"Because…because there are things that I feel like I can only say in front of you," Jaune confessed. He was a little surprised at how true this was, how true it had become. Pyrrha…he could talk to her. He could unburden himself to her. He could pour out his heart and soul to her in a way that he couldn't do to anyone else because he felt in some way that wasn't true of anyone else that she would _listen_ to him. She wouldn't judge, she wouldn't criticise, she wouldn't rail at him for the mistakes he'd made she'd just listen, and counsel him, and forgive him everything that he did even when it hurt her. "Pyrrha…do you remember that night on the rooftop when I told you what…what I'd done. I told you then why I wanted to come to Beacon."

"Because you wanted to be a hero, like your ancestors," Pyrrha said.

She remembered. Of course she remembered. Jaune had the impression that she remembered everything that he'd ever told her. Every single word. "I meant it then," he said. "I meant that I wanted to be the hero, not the idiot stuck in the tree while his friends fought for their lives-"

"You're not," Pyrrha said. "You've come so far, so quickly, Jaune. I've never seen anyone push themselves as hard as you."

"Thanks, but I didn't bring this up so you could put my mind at ease," Jaune said quickly. "I might not be the idiot stuck in the tree any more but…I'm not the hero, Pyrrha. And I never will be. I get that now I just…I couldn't say it in front of everybody else. Only you."

Pyrrha took a step closer to him. "I don't understand."

"I used to think that I could be the hero," Jaune said. "Save the day, save everybody, kill the monsters, beat back the darkness." He hesitated, taking in the way she looked in the moonlight. "And then I met a real hero."

Pyrrha's face flushed bright red. "Jaune, I-"

"I believe in you," Jaune said. "I believe that you can do all the things that you said you wanted to do back there, if you only try. I believe that if anyone can defeat the grimm and save the world it's you, Pyrrha. I've never met anyone so brave and so committed as you. And I want to be there to see it when you do, and I want to help you any way I can. But I've got no illusions any more. I'm not the hero, Pyrrha, not of my life and not of this story. You are, or Ruby is, or perhaps even Sunset. But not me. I don't have…it's not me. I'm just the back-up, but that's okay. Even if I couldn't tell the rest of them that it's still okay, because I can tell you. If all that I can do is help you reach your destiny then…then that's fine by me."

"Jaune," Pyrrha whispered, and it was ridiculous but he thought for a moment that he heard longing in the way that she said it. "Don't."

He blinked. "Don't…what?"

"Why should you be the only one who has to give up on your dreams, it isn't fair," Pyrrha said. "Why should Sunset and I have the right to chase our destinies when you have to give up on yours so that you can support us? I know that you have a semblance that makes it seem like that's what you need to do, and I know that you don't have the training that I have, but I don't think that you…I don't want you to give up on your dreams. The fact that you don't, the fact that you can hold on to what you want, I…I admire that about you. The fact that you believe in yourself…it makes it a little easier for me to believe in myself too. Please don't let that go. Keep reaching for your dreams and I…I promise that I will help you to reach them."

"Pyrrha, I…" Jaune could only stare at her. She looked so…beautiful. The way the moonlight shone on her skin. How was it that he'd never noticed how lovely she was up until this moment?

 _Kiss her, kiss her you idiot!_ A little voice demanded, jumping up and down inside the back of his head, but he ignored it. Or rather he resisted it, because she didn't think of him that way. There was no way that she could think of him that way. She was his friend, the person that he could talk to more than any other but if he tried to…she'd reject him just as Weiss had.

Wouldn't she?

"Okay then," he murmured. "I won't give up." He wasn't entirely sure how much he believed that, how much he thought that it was possible that he could achieve his dreams; to tell the truth he found it pretty unlikely that he could even go back to those childish fantasies, let alone take them seriously. But if Pyrrha needed him to try, if it helped her to hear him say it, then he would say it.

And he would even try to believe it.

"Thank you, Jaune," Pyrrha said. "Thank you for not giving up."

"No, thank you," he said. "For caring whether I gave up or not."


	58. Love or Duty

Love or Duty

Ciel was on watch, holding a DMR in her hands while her official weapon, an anti-armour rifle that was nearly seven feet long when fully extended that went by the name of Distant Thunder, was folded up and slung across her back in case she needed it.

Rainbow watched her for a moment, standing in the open doorway of the railway car, looking out as the landscape flew past. If anything happened Ciel would spot it, and wake the others who were all sleeping in the small-arms car that they had claimed for their living space.

If anything happened, Ciel would spot it.

Rainbow turned away, and headed into the next car along, where she and Twi wouldn't be disturbing anybody else.

Twilight was already waiting for her in the other carriage, sitting demurely on her knees in front of all the battle droids with her scroll out and held in front of her. A smile played across her features as she waited, and her face brightened as Rainbow Dash came in. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah," Rainbow said, and she pulled out her own scroll to prove it as she sat against the wall. "It feels weird that we're about to go on a call together even though we're in the same place."

Twilight snorted. "Like a technophobe's nightmare? I understand, but it's better than the two of us trying to share a screen. Now, do you want to start off or shall I?"

"I'll do it," Rainbow said, as she flicked through the screens to her groups directory, the record of numbers she had bundled together for group calls. There was one for General Ironwood and Specialist Schnee for the rare occasions when she might need to get in touch with both of them at once, there was one for the rest of Team RSPT, there was one for Team JSPR that Rainbow had kept as much out of nostalgia as because she got any use out of it, and there was one that was simply labelled 'friends'.

That was the one she clicked on.

Five images flashed on her scroll-screen alongside old fashioned green telephones with lines bouncing out of them to indicate that they were getting called.

The picture of Twilight, smiling nervously out at Rainbow, disappeared first, replaced by video-feed of Twilight…smiling a little less nervously out of her own scroll.

"Hello, Rainbow Dash," Twilight said. "How's it going?"

"Very funny," Rainbow said.

Pinkie's picture was the next to disappear, being replaced by video of Pinkie, her face pressed so close to her scroll that she was obscuring everything behind her. "DASHIE! Twilight!"

"Hi, Pinkie Pie," Twilight said.

Rainbow grinned. "Hey, Pinkie, how's it going?"

"Things are going pretty great around here," Pinkie said. "I mean, not as great as they'd be if you two were here obviously but apart from that they're going pretty great. I just got back from throwing Sweetie Belle's birthday party-"

"Wait, that was today?" Rainbow asked. "Was I supposed to send a present or something?"

"Don't worry, darling, I had no expectations on that and neither did Sweetie Belle," Rarity said as she joined the call. "Now if it had been Scootaloo's birthday then I think we all would have had some rather harsh words for you. Twilight, how are you dear?"

"I'm fine, Rarity, thank you for asking."

"Are you sure?" Rarity said. "I only ask because…no offence to those of you who have chosen that life but I think of you out in the field and darling I simply shudder to think what you must be going through."

"Hey, it's not like she's having to survive by herself," Rainbow said indignantly. "I take care of her."

"I know you do, Rainbow, but even so," Rarity said. "Twilight, are you sure you're alright."

Twilight smiled fondly. "I'm very sure, thank you, Rarity," she said. "Rainbow takes very good care of me."

"I'm glad to hear it, and I'm sure you know your own state best so I won't ask again," Rarity said. "I'm terribly sorry, Pinkie dear, I seem to have interrupted you."

"It's okay," Pinkie said amiably. "It's just enough that we're all together again, kind of; or at least we will be when Applejack and Fluttershy show up."

"They're on the call," Rainbow said. "Hopefully they'll pick up in a second."

Fluttershy was the next to join the call. "I'm sorry, am I late?"

"Not really, we were just missing you," Rainbow said. "How are you doing, Fluttershy?"

"Is Applejack coming?" Pinkie asked.

"Yes," Fluttershy said. "She just had to-"

"Howdy folks, sorry but I didn't have my scroll with me. When I saw Fluttershy getting a call I had to run over and get it," Applejack said as her video-feed cut in to join the rest of them. She pushed hat upwards on her head. "Well, ain't this just like old times, huh?"

"A little," Pinkie said, as a touch of melancholy entered her voice. "If we were really together then I could get you all in a great big hug."

Rainbow chuckled. "I'll look forward to that, Pinkie, believe me. Maybe at the Vytal Festival if you can all make it."

"Rarity paid for my ticket!" Pinkie chirruped eagerly. "And the hotel and everything!"

"Really? That's very generous of you, Rarity."

"Yes, well, in this case it's my parents' generosity that you should be praising," Rarity said, sounding slightly uncomfortable. "Once they understood that we wanted to see our friend closer than on a television screen, they were happy enough to pay for an extra ticket. It makes sense to make all the arrangements now before the good hotels in Vale get booked up, and to make them together like we have with Scootaloo and the Apples so that we're all staying together and don't have to go out of our way to find each other. Fluttershy, Applejack, do you think you'll be able to make to the festival for a re-union or will your cloak and dagger work be keeping you away?"

Fluttershy and Applejack glanced at each other, or at least that was what it seemed like they were doing, it was hard to say for sure on the screen of a scroll.

"I honestly couldn't say, sugarcube," Applejack said. "With luck, aw hell, I can't say anything on account of it being classified."

"We'll try our best to be there to cheer you on, Rainbow Dash," Fluttershy said. "I'll try my best."

"Don't push yourself too hard," Rainbow said. "I'd rather you were okay than you got hurt because you wanted to make the Vytal Festival."

"Don't you worry about that," Applejack said. "I'll make sure she's fine."

"I don't suppose you can tell us how it's going?" Twilight asked.

"Nope, sorry, but then I don't suppose you can tell us what you're up to either."

"Not really," Rainbow said.

"Well, since we can't any of us talk about our work and we're all together for the first time in a while, how about we talk about something else?" Fluttershy suggested. "Rarity, how are things going with you?"

"Oh, absolutely fabulous, darling, so kind of you to ask," Rarity said. "I've just discovered a new kind of fabric that is just delightful to work with, and…"

Rainbow lost track of how long they'd been talking, of how long Rarity discoursed on her new fabrics, how long Pinkie talked about her new cupcake recipes, how they checked up on the pets she was looking after for them, how they just talked about everything and nothing at all, about one another and their sisters and their families and their lives. Lives that had nothing to do with the grimm or war or the White Fang because Rainbow and Applejack kept them safe from all that (Pinkie and Rarity at least, they'd been unable to prevent Twi and Fluttershy being dragged into it).

They talked, and there were times when it felt as though they were all sitting around the table in Sugarcube Corner eating ice-cream sundaes like in the old days.

She really hoped that they could all meet up in person for the Vytal Festival; she hoped that Pinkie could envelop them all in a great big hug, that they could sit down and talk in person, that it could be a little more like the old days than even this was.

She hoped it could be so.

They talked, and talked, and it was only when Twilight started to yawn that Rainbow realised that they'd probably been at this for quite some time.

"I think we should probably call it a night," she said sheepishly.

"No," Twilight said. "I'm sorry, I-"

Applejack chuckled. "Don't worry, sugarcube, wherever we are we all need to be fresh come morning. Looks like this is goodbye for now."

"Ooh, ooh, one more thing before we all say goodbye," Pinkie said. She beamed brightly as she began to sing, "Oh oh oh, oh oh oh."

Rainbow shook her head. "No, no, we are not singing."

"Aww, come on, Rainbow!"

"I'm sorry, Pinkie, but if Sunset Shimmer hears me singing that song she'll never-" Rainbow hesitated, because what was more important really, her friend or Sunset? "You know what, screw Sunset, let's go for it."

"Wait a minute, Sunset Shimmer?" Applejack said. "The biggest jerk in all of Canterlot Sunset Shimmer?"

"She's the jerk in Beacon now, but yeah," Rainbow said. "She's mellowed since then, but never mind that. Come on Pinkie, lead us in."

"Oh oh oh," Pinkie began.

"Oh oh oh," Rainbow added.

"You are my Canterlot Girls," they both sang together, as one by one the others joined in.

"You turn the light switch on,

It brightens up my day like the sun,

When my friends come a runnin',

You were right all along,

That together we're always better,

We could turn a sketch into a masterpiece,

When you are here I feel like I'm complete,

You are my Canterlot Girls!"

They giggled as they signed off one by one, each bidding the others goodnight until they met again.

Until they met again.

If they ever met again, if the battles against the White Fang or the grimm did not claim her life, if Applejack managed to return from the south-east, if, if, so many damn ifs.

"Rainbow Dash?" Twilight asked as she hung up.

"Yeah?"

"We're going to make it, aren't we?" Twilight said. "Us, Applejack, Fluttershy. We're all going to make it, and see our friends again."

Rainbow looked at her. "Yeah. You're going to make it I-"

"No, Rainbow Dash, not me, us," Twilight said firmly, even fervently. "I know that you'd give your life to save me but that's not what I want to know. I want to know if we're all going to make it. I want you to tell me that we're all going to make it even…even if it isn't true."

Rainbow tried to smile. "We're all going to make it," she said. "We're all going to make it, and we're all going to meet up at the Vytal Festival and have ice cream, just like old times."

 _When you are here I feel like I'm complete._

 _When will we be complete again?_

 _At the Vytal festival, maybe?_

 _I hope so._

 _I really hope so._

 _Fluttershy, Applejack, stay safe. Whatever you do, stay safe._

* * *

"Sunset?"

Sunset glanced at Ruby out of the corner of her eyes. The sun had broken on the new day, and the two of them found themselves alone. Jaune and Pyrrha were sparring, the Atlesians and Blake were…Sunset couldn't have said exactly where they all were, but the point is that they weren't here and Sunset and Ruby were here – here being the 'living' car with its crates of guns and ammo – and nobody else was.

This wasn't a position which Sunset found wholly disagreeable. She didn't know Ruby as well as she might like, and this position offered an opportunity for her to correct that deficiency.

Depending on where the conversation went anyway, Sunset had to concede that she wasn't looking forward to another round of 'let's tap Sunset for romantic advice'.

"You aren't going to ask me about boys again, are you?"

"No," Ruby said quickly. "I've decided that I…actually I haven't decided anything. I'm not sure if…I don't know."

Sunset's brow furrowed. "You seemed more sure of it the last time we talked about this." _Why did you say that? Why didn't I just take the opportunity to drop the subject when she offered it to me?_

 _Because I'm curious in spite of myself, I suppose._

 _And because I'm hoping that she's reconsidered her feelings already and it's going to put me in the clear._

"I've had second thoughts about asking Jaune to the dance," Ruby said.

"Okay," Sunset said, feeling a sense of rising hope within her heart. Ruby was over it already, her crush had vanished like morning dew under the light of the sun. Now Pyrrha had a clear run and there would be no hard feelings and nothing to stop their uninterrupted march to glorious triumph at the Vytal Festival. "Why's that?"

"Because I don't like dancing," Ruby said. "I don't like dressing up and I don't see how anybody can walk in stilts and I…it's just not my thing."

"Fair enough," Sunset said. "Although, given that, and assuming that you didn't realise this objection recently…why were you going to ask Jaune to the dance in the first place?"

"Because…" Ruby hesitated. "I thought it would be…safe, you know?"

"Safe?"

"You know, if I asked Jaune out then…he might say no and it would be really awkard. Whereas I thought that if I asked him to the dance then, well, it wouldn't be as…I don't know…I thought we could see how it went and if it didn't…go anywhere then it wouldn't matter so much because it's just the dance you know."

Sunset said nothing, not because she had nothing to say but because she had a few different things to say but wasn't sure whether she ought to say any of them.

 _Well, if you wanted Jaune to see you at your best it was always going to be a bad idea to invite him to somewhere you didn't want to go in the first place, wasn't it?_

 _I can actually see why you thought that might be a good idea even though it wasn't._

 _Maybe it isn't the dance that's the problem, maybe the problem is that you don't really want to ask him anywhere._

 _Maybe…maybe I should just keep my mouth shut._

"So…what are you going to do now?"

"I don't know," Ruby admitted. "The more I think about it, the more it doesn't seem like such a good idea. It'd probably be really awkward and I wouldn't…but if I don't ask him what if somebody else does? What if he asks someone else?"

"Then…bad luck, I'm afraid," Sunset said bluntly. "Which may sound harsh but it's the truth. If someone else likes him…or he likes someone else," _Come on, Pyrrha, make a move._ "Then there's nothing much that you can do about it. Except wait and hope that they break up which I wouldn't advise because that kind of thing is frankly pretty pathetic in my opinion."

 _Yeah, you wouldn't want to be the girl sitting around vainly waiting for the guy to notice you, would you?_

"That would be," Sunset said. "Almost as pathetic as waiting for your ex to realise that he really does care about you after all…and he'll tell you that, and spare you having to admit that you still care about him."

"Sunset?"

Sunset ran one hand through her hair. "Like I told you, Ruby, you don't want to take my advice about boys. Can we…can we drop this, I…I don't really want to talk about stuff like this. I'm not sure that it's right."

Ruby nodded, slowly but surely. "Okay. That's not…that's not what I wanted to talk to you about anyway."

"Thank Celestia for that," Sunset muttered.

"Who is that?" Ruby asked.

"What?"

"Celestia," Ruby said. "That isn't the first time you've said something like that. I've never heard of her before."

Sunset hesitated for a moment. _Crap, crap, crap!_ "She's, um, Celestia is…she's a, uh, she's a local goddess, from the place where I grew up. It's a very…minor religion. I wouldn't be surprised if you hadn't heard of it, few people have outside of my island."

"Oh, okay," Ruby said, seeming to accept that. "I didn't know that you were religious."

"I think there's a lot that we don't know about one another," Sunset said. "And that…that's my fault, really, I haven't…I'm sorry. We haven't spent as much time together as we should have done."

"It's okay," Ruby said. "Things happen, we've all had our own stuff going on. And I think we make a pretty good team anyway, don't you?" She fiddled with her fingers. "Anyway, I wanted to ask you something about what you said last night. Or…what you didn't say?"

Sunset frowned. She had an unfortunate idea of where this might be going but, because it was unfortunate, she didn't want to pre-empt it going anywhere if she could help it. "You might have to forgive me, I don't always remember the things that I didn't say."

Ruby looked as if she didn't entirely believe Sunset on that point, and she might even be right to look that way. "When I said that my mother wasn't famous, that she didn't win any fame for being a great huntress or a…a silver eyed warrior," she hissed the name. "You were going to say something. But you didn't."

"It wasn't the time or the place."

"Is now the time or the place?"

Sunset snorted. "It's as close to both as it will ever get, I suppose," she said. "I was going to ask…then what's the point? Your mother, your father, their team. They were great, you say and I believe you. They were good at what they do, very good, and yet…what? What was it all for? I…this I didn't want to say it but if there is neither fame nor glory at the end of this then what's the point? I…I don't want to die but I'd be willing to do it if I knew that my memory would linger evergreen and immortal in the hearts of men. For it is in passing that we achieve immortality, like Pyrrha said." She fell silent for a moment, and her frown deepened. "But if there is no immortality, if in death the ashes of our memory will be blown away, cast to the winds and forgotten by all but a few of us then…then what's the point?"

 _That is not my destiny. That is not what I've fought and kicked and struggled for. That is not my fate. I am not made for passing mortal life but for things grander by far. I was made to ascend to greatness. A forgotten death is not my end._

So Sunset hoped. So Sunset devoutly hoped. But she could not believe with absolute certainty. Ruby's words they…Ruby had not meant to gnaw at her insides but she had. Ruby's mother had been a great huntress, possessed of a magical power of immense…power. Yet she had perished in uncertain circumstances and only her family remembered her.

Would that be her fate also? Would that be the fate that they all shared?

 _Forbid it destiny._

"The people that she saved are still alive," Ruby said. "I think that's the point."

"Yeah, but…" Sunset hesitated, because this was the bit that had the highest likelihood of coming out wrong but, equally, Sunset didn't see how she could avoid saying it. Her mouth twisted awkwardly.

"Sunset?" Ruby asked.

"I don't want to say it," Sunset said. "It will seem too cruel."

Ruby hesitated. "I…I want to hear it. I want to hear what you have to say."

"Do you?" Sunset said. "Do you really?"

"I do," Ruby said resolutely. "Whatever it is, I want to hear it."

Sunset hesitated for a moment. "Your mother was loved, I have no doubt, but…would you rather have all those that she saved yet saved or would you rather have your mother alive to tuck you in at night and read you bed time stories and take care of you when you were sick?"

Ruby hesitated. She glanced at her booted feet. She drew her rifle from behind her back and ran one hand down the crimson barrel. It was if…she looked ashamed of herself for some reason that Sunset couldn't fathom. Eventually the words came, but even then they came slowly, haltingly, as if she was force every word past some obstruction in her throat. "I…I don't know. There are times when I think about what my mom did, going on missions like she did, and I get so angry. I ask myself why she couldn't have quit hunting grimm and started teaching like my Dad did. I think about what it did to Dad when she was gone, I think about what Yang had to do to take care of me and I get so angry because I wonder if she even cared about us. There are times when I ask myself the same question that you just asked me, and I ask myself…if she really loved us then why didn't she stay with us?

"But then…then I remember how kind she was, the way that she smiled, the sound of her voice when she sang me to sleep. I…I don't remember very much about my mom, but I remember that she was a good person, and that's what…that's what everyone tells me about her, and that's what her diary tells me about her too. And so…so I have to ask myself if she had stayed, if she hadn't fought for what she believed in then…would she have been the same person that I remember. The person that we all loved."

Sunset looked down upon her younger, smaller team-mate and the shamefaced look upon her face. "That…that was hard for you to say, wasn't it?"

Ruby closed her eyes and nodded. "I…I think…you say that we don't know each other that well, and maybe that's true…but all the same I think you're the only person that I could say this to. I couldn't tell Dad or Yang or even Uncle Qrow; they all want, I think they need to be…"

"The good girl," Sunset finished for her. "The girl who smiles and never gives up and keeps everyone else's spirits up; the one who never lets anything get to them, or get them down."

"They're not wrong!" Ruby said. "I am that person. Most of the time. But there are times when…I don't know, I just couldn't tell them that I sometimes need stuff like that."

"Maybe not, but that doesn't mean that you have to be ashamed about it," Sunset said. "The truth is if your mom was alive you'd probably be a lot angrier with her then you are now. There's no shame in it, it's…I think it's pretty natural to rage against our moms."

"Even…even when they're…not around?"

"That just gives us different things to be mad at them for," Sunset muttered. She shook her head, "Listen, Ruby…just because your family all want you to be something doesn't mean that you have to be what they want. Our parents…sometimes they want things from us that we can't give to them and that's not our fault. You can't give and give and give of yourself because in the end there's nothing left."

"Even if it hurts them?"

"Even if it did, nobody's worth sacrificing your own self for," Sunset declared. "Nobody. If you can't be you, if you let other peoples expectations or desires re-shape you, if you let the world bend you to its will then you've lost and you'll never amount to a damn thing. You have to be yourself, you have to have your pride no matter what they think, no matter what it costs you…because the cost of surrendering yourself is always greater."

"You'd sacrifice your life but not your self?"

"I'd give my life for you, for Pyrrha, for Jaune," Sunset said. "Maybe for Blake. But I wouldn't become a completely different just because you asked me too."

Ruby looked pensive, but whatever else she might have said or not have said was interrupted by the sudden jarring shaking of the whole train which knocked Ruby to her knees and forced Sunset to grab the side of the compartment to avoid being thrown out the open doorway.

The train began to slow to a complete stop.

"What's going on?" Ruby asked, looking up at Sunset. "Do you think-?"

"Yeah," Sunset said, as she helped Ruby to her feet. "I think this is what we came here for."


	59. On Rails

On Rails

Rainbow lowered her crimson goggles down over her eyes, and magnified as she stuck her head out of the car.

The train was slowing down after a substantial bump coming from up front near the engine.

Staring down the train was enough to confirm her suspicions: a stolen paladin had gotten onto the railway line and was physically slowing the train to a stop, it's metal feet grinding against the rails in a shower of sparks as the Atlesian war machine put its shoulder to the black, bullet-shaped engine. The train was getting slower all the time, and they were coming to a stop in the lee of a scarlet ridge.

A ridge down which, Rainbow could see as she turned on the magnification, eight figures sliding down the ridge towards the decelerating train.

 _Eight of them, eight of us who can fight. They've got the paladin, we've got the droids. This feels like a straight fight._

Rainbow ducked back into the car, her gaze – tinted red on account of the goggles – passing over Twilight and to the looming paladins packed into the car. "Twi, get in one of these paladins and stay there until I tell you that it's safe to come out."

Twilight unfolded her bow, which she hadn't yet named. Her mouth formed an O of surprise. "But I can-"

"No," Rainbow said quickly. "There's eight guys coming down here towards us. Just eight guys, which means that they're serious, like Blake said they would be; which is why you're going to get into that armoured cockpit and you're going to lock the door and you aren't going to come out until it's safe. Understand?"

Twilight hesitated for a moment, before she nodded her head and put her bow away. She pulled out her scroll, tapped a couple of buttons, and the cockpit of the closest paladin opened with a hydraulic hiss.

Twilight climbed in and sat down. Her look was serious. "I think I can issue some basic command directives to the battle droids, if you think it would help."

"I think that would be great," Rainbow said. "I'll tell you what I want them to do, okay."

"Right," Twilight said. "Rainbow…you'll be okay, won't you?"

Rainbow grinned, and put on an uncannily good impersonation of Applejack's unique accent, even if she did say so herself. "Now don't you worry about a thing, sugarcube. Everything is gonna be just fine."

Twilight giggled. "Stick a cupcake?"

"Yeah," Rainbow said, as the cockpit door rose up and gradually hid Twilight from her sight as it sealed her away inside the armoured belly of the mech.

She pulled an earpiece out of her pocket and inserted it into her ear. It was wirelessly linked to her scroll, and though it only had a short range it would let her talk to the other members of RSPT and SAPR – and Blake – without having to hold her scroll in one hand all the time.

"Okay, people, this is it we have a stolen mech up front and eight bad guys coming down on us," Rainbow said. "Comm check, everybody sound off and report your position."

"Pyrrha here, Jaune and I are in car nine."

"Jaune here, I can hear you."

"Blake here, I'm in car six."

"Sunset here, I'm in car five with Ruby."

"Ruby here, I'm in car five with Sunset."

"Ciel reporting from car three."

"This is Penny in car three with Ciel!"

"Okay, and I'm in car two with Twilight," Rainbow said. "Twilight do we have any spiders?"

"Just one," Twilight said. "It's in car number one just ahead of us."

"Okay, can you get it out and engaging that paladin grabbing the train?" Rainbow said. "And have the rest of the mechs dismount and form a skirmish line in front of the train as a first line intercept against our borders."

"Robots won't stop eight White Fang elites," Blake said.

"I know, but they can chip away at their aura some and make them think twice about calling in a whole mass of goons for back-up," Rainbow said. She was making the assumption that the White Fang would ignore the robots once they got past them, but then part of leadership on the battlefield was guessing what you thought the enemy would do and reacting before they did it. "Ciel, you and Penny support the spider droid and get that paladin off the front of this train. Blake and I will join you and cover your backs."

"Understood," Ciel said.

"I'm combat ready!" cried Penny.

"You got it," Blake drawled.

"Sunset, I'll leave your team to you."

"Thanks," Sunset said. "Okay, we'll fight by pairs. Pyrrha, Jaune, defend the caboose, Ruby and I will get up on the roof and fight where we stand. Whichever pair repels the enemy assault first will join the other team and we'll make our way towards the front of the train to assist Rosepetal. Clear?"

"Understood, Sunset," Pyrrha said.

There was a moment's silence on the line before Sunset said, "Pyrrha, Jaune. Good luck out there."

"And you," Pyrrha said. "Good luck, Ruby."

"Good luck Pyrrha, good luck Jaune," Ruby said. "Good luck out there Blake."

"Good luck everyone," Rainbow said. "Remember we want a prisoner."

"And nobody fights alone," Sunset said.

"Yeah, if possible," Rainbow said. She left the car with the paladins and leapt in a single bound up onto the roof of the train. "Let's do this, people."

"For victory and the glory of Atlas!" Ciel yelled.

"Vale needs a battle cry," Sunset griped.

"Go Sapphire!" Ruby cried.

"Or we could just use that," Sunset said.

Rainbow grinned a little as she focussed on the eight guys descending down upon their train. As far as she could see, one of them wasn't wearing a mask, which meant…yeah, it was Torchwick's little girl, she recognised her from the wanted photos, the one with the hair that was halfway to pink.

"Heads up, Torchwick's girl's here which means the man himself can't be far behind."

"Neo?" Blake asked.

"Yeah, if that's her name."

The Atlesian droids were starting to deploy off the train, even if there was – as yet – no sign of the spider droid. But, as Rainbow Dash watched, one of the eight enemies – one of those wearing a White Fang mask over their face – unfurled a pair of brown wings which caught the light of the sun and began to soar away from their comrades and over the heads of the AK-190s, dodging their upwards fire as they traced a delicate pattern through the air.

Rainbow Dash hit the button to pop her wings out of her flight suit. "We've got a flier on the other side, moving to intercept!"

"Wait!" Sunset yelled. "I said nobody fights alone!"

"You lead your team, I'll lead mine," Rainbow said as she jumped off the roof of the train car, her jetpack giving her thrust and before the wind caught her wings and carried her upwards on the current. Burst of thrust guided her, the current kept her aloft and the wind blew through her multi-coloured hair and pushed against her exposed cheeks as she soared through the skies.

This was the most thrilling feeling that Rainbow Dash had ever or probably would ever experience. It was better than flying a plane, it was better than fighting grimm, it was better than standing in an arena and hearing a crowd bellow out your name it was…it was pure exhilaration, the feeling of the wind beneath your wings, the feeling of the air rustling through your hair, the force of the air pressure, her wingsuit guiding her on. It was already the most thrill Rainbow would ever have in her life, but she'd never had a chance to test her aerial prowess against an actual faunus flier before. This promised to be something special.

The faunus was aware of her now, angling her wings as she drew a pair of swords from across her back and flew, the sunlight glittering upon the metal blades, straight towards Rainbow Dash.

 _So you want to go head to head, do you?_ Rainbow smirked, and drew her machine pistols from the holsters at her hip. As the two fliers closed with each other, Rainbow Dash squeezed both triggers.

The faunus weaved her swords in swift, fluid pattens, tracing transient silver shapes through the air as she deflected Rainbow's bullets away with her swords.

 _Oh, I think I like you,_ Rainbow said. She holstered her pistols – for now – and clenched her hands into fists as she soared through the air straight towards her masked opponent.

Rainbow cocked back her fist for a punch. The White Fang flier drew back both swords for a double slashing stroke. They both bellowed at the tops of their lungs as the air beat at their faces and they charged at one another.

The two of them collided in mid air. Rainbow blocked the sword strike, taking the faunus' arms on her bracer before the blades could connect, but her fist hit home and knocked the White Fang mask of the bird-faunus' face, revealing a familiar pair of golden eyes and familiar white hair in a short, cropped style, and a familiar angular face set in a surly expression.

"Gilda?"

"Rainbow Dash," Gilda snarled the name vituperatively as she retreated a few feet away.

The two of them hovered in the air, facing one another.

"I don't…" Rainbow's words died on her tongue. Gilda? Gilda was with the White Fang? Gilda was with the White Fang in Vale?

"What are you doing here?" Rainbow Dash demanded. "Wh-why are you with the White Fang? How long have you been with them?"

"Since you abandoned me for your shiny new human friends!" Gilda yelled. She charged forward, slashing at Rainbow with her swords. Rainbow dodged. "What, do they pretend to forget that you're complete trash in their eyes?"

Rainbow growled. "It's not like that!" she flew straight for Gilda with a spinning kick aimed for her head. Gilda ducked down beneath the blow, but Rainbow as able to evade her upwards cut in response.

"It's exactly like that, they're humans!" Gilda snarled.

"And since when did you hate humans so much?" Rainbow demanded. "Since when did you become full of anger that you joined the White Fang for crying out loud?"

Gilda shrieked in wordless fury, like an eagle descending upon the hapless field mouse in the meadow, as she surged towards Rainbow Dash with blades drawn back. But Rainbow was no helpless field mouse and she flew backwards, away from her erstwhile friend and present enemy, drawing her pistols and taking aim.

"Don't make me do this, Gilda," she begged. _Your mom worked for my dad for years, we went on camping trips together, we were neighbours, we hung out together._

 _For a while it was like you were the sister that I never had._

 _I really, really don't want to kill you._

Gilda laughed. "You really think you could, Dash?" She drove Dash back with a series of wide slashing strokes, forcing Rainbow to fly away to keep out of reach of her twin shining swords. "Look at you, running away like Mommy's gonna save you or something."

Rainbow gritted her teeth. "I don't want to fight you, G."

"Too bad, cause I want to fight you," Gilda growled as she pursued Rainbow Dash. The two of them flew parallel to one another. Rainbow didn't fire at Gilda, but at the same time she kept out of the way of Gilda's swords. "Adam has opened my eyes: any faunus who takes up arms to defend the racist order betrays his people, and deserves the worst possible death." Her golden eyes narrowed. "You betrayed me, Dash. Remember that, in the last moments before you die: you did this when you sided with Atlas against your own people. You're not even a faunus any more, you're nothing!"

"At least I'm not a terrorist," Rainbow muttered.

"What was that?"

"We don't have to do this! You don't have to do this!"

"Yes I do!" Gilda screamed as she lunged at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow ducked down, and Gilda's stroke passed harmless overhead.

 _Well, if that's how you want to play this._ Rainbow began to dive head-first towards the ground.

Gilda followed, her wings beating furiously as she began to overtake Rainbow's wingpack. Rainbow pushed it harder, still headed straight towards the ground without any deviations. She didn't go to full power, just enough to stay ahead of Gilda without pulling so far ahead that her erstwhile friend would give up the chase.

"You going to ground?" Gilda taunted her as she pursued. "That's smarter than challenging me in the skies, Dash. You see I'm the real deal, you're just a faker with an Atlesian toy strapped to your back."

 _Oh, we'll see who the faker is,_ Rainbow said, as she continued to dive.

Rainbow dived, and Gilda followed. The wind beat against Rainbow's face. It pushed her hair backwards out of her forehead. It drove the goggles into her skin.

Rainbow dive, and Gilda followed. Rainbow grinned as the ground rushed closer and closer and closer, as the trees of the Forever Fall reached up like grasping hands to grab at her. Rainbow nimbly dodged between two trees, the leaf-covered ground waiting to receive her; at the last possible moment Rainbow pulled up and soared back over the trees and into the sky, with sunlight glinting off her wings.

Judging by the crack and the cry of pain, Gilda hadn't been quite so lucky.

Rainbow dropped to the ground, folding her wings up into the pack on her back as she found Gilda lying on the forest floor, half buried under falling scarlet leaves.

Two kicks from Rainbow's boots were sufficient to send Gilda flying into the nearest tree so hard that both the tree and the remains of Gilda's aura broke. Gilda slid down the ruined stump to the ground, her breathing heavy as she stared at Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow drew out of her machine pistols and aimed it right between Gilda's eyes.

Gilda grinned. "So this is it, Dash? Are you going to shoot me? Or just take me in so Atlas can throw me in a hole and forget about me while I rot?"

 _How many people have you killed?_ Rainbow thought, but didn't voice the thought. She didn't really want to know. She hoped that the answer was zero, that this was Gilda's first mission for the White Fang but if that was a forlorn hope…she didn't want to know.

"Just tell me why you're doing this?"

"Because sometimes you have to burn it all down before you can build something better in its place!"

 _At what cost?_ Rainbow wanted to ask, but didn't because she suspected the answer would be something like 'at any cost' and she didn't want to hear that come out of her friend's mouth either.

She didn't get it. She didn't get it one bit. Gilda had always had a bit of an anti-social streak but she wasn't a bad person, not when Rainbow knew her. But now…the White Fang?

"What happened to you?"

"I opened my eyes," Gilda snapped. "Maybe you should try it some time. Or don't. Whatever. Just do whatever you're going to do to me and get it over with, I'm done talking."

Rainbow snorted, and holstered her pistol. "Get out of here."

Gilda stared at her for a moment as the forest fell silent around them. "What? Are you serious?"

"Yeah, I'm serious," Rainbow replied. "Get out of here, and maybe think about what you're doing." She turned her back on the incredulous Gilda, and began to walk away. She stopped, and glanced back over her shoulder. "Hey, G?"

"Yeah?" Gilda asked, her voice laced with suspicion.

"It was good to see you, but if I see you again…things will go differently next time."

"Yeah, you bet they will," Gilda muttered.

Rainbow scowled. So, that was it then. There was going to be a next time. A time when she would have to…when she would have to kill someone she'd once called friend.

But at least that time was not today.

Today, she could still walk away.

* * *

Blake paused on top of the railway car and watched for a moment as the White Fang – and Neo – broke through the line of the Atlesian droids attempting to bar their way. Twilight might or might not be directing them, but Blake couldn't say that she'd noticed any real increase in how well they were performing. They'd gotten a few shots in, which was about the best that Rainbow Dash could have hoped for when she set them up like that.

Actually, no, Blake corrected herself as she saw two White Fang guys – she didn't recognise them, but at this distance they looked to be some sort of lizard-faunus – at the far right of the formation decide to take their time wrecking all the droids instead of breaking through and going for the train. That kind of stupidity was the best that Rainbow Dash could have hoped for as it gave Pyrrha on the caboose ample time and opportunity to take them under fire while they were busy destroying mostly harmless robots and for what? Yes, when the time came to bring in the main force to carry everything away the robots would have to be dealt with, but the time to deal with them was then; right now, nothing else mattered to the White Fang but getting to the train and neutralising the huntsmen defending it – because if they didn't deal with Pyrrha now then bringing in a whole load of aura-less chaff wasn't going to help them at all – not wasting time and getting their aura blown away ripping up the droids.

If Blake had been leading the operation she would have made that fact explicit to her troops before they started to move, before they even sent the paladin down to stop the train. Either that or she would have chosen an assault team that didn't need to have this kind of thing spelled out to them. She wondered who was leading the attack, and why they had chosen to use knuckleheads like that on their attack force. Walter was in custody but he was just one guy, and it wasn't as though anybody had caught Adam.

Where was Adam, anyway? He wasn't taking part in the attack, Blake would have recognised him at once, but where was he? Was he up on the ridge, observing? No, that wasn't like him. Adam would never ask any man to give what he wasn't willing to give of himself, if he was anywhere near the fighting then he would be in the very thick of the fighting. So where was he?

What was more important to him than stealing a vast haul of Atlesian military equipment? What was more important to the White Fang?

Blake turned towards the front of the train, where the Atlesian spider droid was clambering clumsily out of the front car to engage the paladin that was halting the train. She could see Ciel and Penny not far away, looking very small compared to the bulk of the great robot, which planted it's four feet on top of the roof of the train and combined the barrels of its guns together.

Not a bad choice, from the look of the armour on that paladin they would need a powerful shot to punch through it.

The cannon glowed blue as it began to charge.

A shower of missiles descended from above to strike the spider droid in an explosive shower.

Blake's eyes looked upwards. A second paladin, up on the ridge! As Blake watched, having unloaded a salvo of missiles it began to open up with the two cannons mounted on its arms, hitting the spider droid in the exposed flank over and over again as it blasted the legs and the body of the hapless and helpless automated weapon.

They had a second paladin? Blake gritted her teeth as she watched the spider droid topple off the train before the paladin finished it off with a final shot that blasted it into fragments. They'd brought a second paladin here, why would they-

Blake spotted the third paladin descending the slope down from the ridge to back up the two clowns who had allowed Pyrrha to sharp-shoot them while they wasted time playing with robots and now – having realising the error of their ways – found themselves fighting the Invincible Girl at a considerable disadvantage.

 _This fight just got a lot more complicated._

Blake glanced at the next car over. Sunset and Ruby had already been engaged by a pair of White Fang warriors, one of whom had large horns and the other deer antlers. They didn't look like they were struggling unduly, but equally it was clear that they couldn't go to aid Pyrrha and Jaune against the paladin descending upon them just yet either.

Rainbow had vanished into the sky, and at the other end of the train Ciel was trying to follow her last instructions while Penny looked to be locked in combat with Neo.

There was only Blake left unengaged, and she had lingered too long here already.

"Rainbow Dash, I think Pyrrha and Jaune need back-up, do you still-"

"Traitor!"

Blake leapt away, her request unfinished as she just got clear of Perry's downward stroke as he descended on her like lightning from a clear sky. He landed heavily on the roof of the train, his katana gripped between two hands.

"Perry," Blake said, her tone neutral as she reached slowly for the hilt of gambol shroud. "I might have known you'd be leading this operation." _After all, Adam's not here, Walter's in prison and I'm on the opposite side. There aren't many other choices._

It also explained some of the failure of leadership that she'd observed on the right flank. Perry was a good follower, and he'd been with the White Fang for a long time, but Adam had never rated him as a leader of men; he needed grip and direction, left to is own devices he was pretty ineffective. That didn't matter much because Adam kept him close or else made sure he knew exactly what to do at any given moment, but it made clear to Blake why things hadn't been done that seemed obvious to her.

Perry's lips curled into a sneer of disdain. "You won't sneer at me after I've taken your head, traitor."

Blake shifted her feet subtly, and tightened her grip on the hilt of her sword.

She heard someone else land behind her, and a moment later she heard the voice of Strongheart, familiar to her even after all these months.

"That's enough, Blake," Strongheart commanded. "Hand away from your weapon."

"I can't do that," Blake said.

"I don't want to shoot you," Strongheart said, her voice trembling. "When they told me that you'd betrayed the movement I…I didn't want to believe it. Tell me that it's not true, tell me that you've been deep undercover with our enemies, tell me anything, any excuse at all and I'll believe it but please, tell me something so that I don't have to call _you_ my enemy."

 _Would it be so simple, to convince you?_ If Adam had said that she would have laughed in his face but, somehow, when the words were coming out of a more…Blake would not say innocent, and naïve sounded unnecessarily unkind, but coming of a mouth that had not become so foul to her it did not elicit laughter. Would it be so easy? Walk away from Atlas, from Beacon and go back?

Go back to a life she knew was wrong, and in so going back betray Sunset, betray Sun, betray SAPR, betray Rainbow Dash, betray everyone who had believed in her and fought for her?

 _Welcome home, Blake._

No, it wouldn't be simple at all. For it would cost her very soul to do it.

"I can't," Blake repeated, because at this point what else was there to say?

She heard a click, and in her mind's eye Blake could see Strongheart's lever rifle. Seven shot repeater.

Strongheart behind her, Perry in front.

 _Let's see if we can't do something about that._

Blake leapt a moment before she heard the bang of Strongheart's rifle, the shot did nothing more than destroy the clone that she had left in her place. She drew Gambol Shroud and as she fell converted it into pistol configuration. She fired her grapple, hitting the wall of the railway car and on the wire she swung in an arc that carried her past Perry and upwards to land light upon her feet behind him.

Now both her enemies were in front of her.

Blake gripped her scabbard in her free hand as she switched Gambol Shroud back into its sword form.

The light glinted off Perry's glasses as he flowed like water into a sword-stance, his blade held in a high guard for a downward stroke.

Blake charged for him, and he dashed forward to meet her. She parried with her scabbard and slashed across his midriff with her blade. He recoiled, slashing into a clone while the real Blake was behind him and driving Strongheart backwards with a series of furious strokes while she parried desperately with the stock of her rifle. Perry attacked her from behind, and when she turned her face him Strongheart shot her in the back, but once again a close dissipated into black mist before she dropped on Perry in a flurry of blows.

They were neither of them bad fighters; Perry's sword strokes were precise, his stances were technically correct and his footwork was sure and controlled. Strongheart's shots were well aimed and she reloaded her rifle every time she didn't have a shot so that she wouldn't suddenly run out of bullets. They were both decent fighters, and their eyes burned with hatred for her born out of the betrayal that she had inflicted upon them. But Blake hadn't risen high in the ranks of Adam's forces simply because she was his girl, and Sienna Khan hadn't kept her on in the White Fang simply to humiliate her father. She really was good, and they didn't have an answer to her semblance; nor had either of them unlocked theirs-

Perry sidestepped, opening up a way for Strongheart to surge forward with an unexpected burst of speed, one moment she was a distance away from Blake and the next she was body checking her hard enough that Blake was sent flying backwards, tumbling head over heels as she bounced off the roof of the railway car and onto the next car along.

Blake lay on her belly, her dark hair blew around her as she looked up to see Strongheart aiming down her lever rifle.

The buffalo faunus fired once, twice, three times, but each shot slammed into the green forcefield that appeared between Blake and the two White Fang fighters.

Sunset had her rifle slung across her shoulder and one hand raised up to maintain the shield. The other hand she offered to Blake. "What part of 'nobody fights alone' did nobody seem to get?"

Blake took the offered hand as she climbed to her feet. "I was doing fine," she muttered. "Thanks." She looked away from Sunset towards Strongheart. "You've unlocked your semblance." It reminded her a little of Adam's: a single swift forward charge; and if Strongheart lacked the ability to simply slice through aura with it then at least she didn't seem to need to endure attacks first.

"You'd have known that, if you had stuck around," Strongheart said.

"I had no choice," Blake said.

"There's always a choice," Strongheart said, her lip curling into a sneer.

Blake hesitated for a moment. "You're right, I did have a choice." _A choice between giving up my life or giving up my soul._ "And I made the right one."

Strongheart shook her head, her eyes shining with disbelief. She turned her gaze on Sunset. "And you, you're a faunus too; how can you fight for the masters against your own people?"

"My people are named Jaune, Pyrrha and Ruby," Sunset replied. "And Blake." She glanced at Blake out of the corner of her eye, and from the corner of her mouth she whispered. "Dark phoenix."

Blake tilted her head, a gesture so imperceptible that there was no way Strongheart or Perry could have noticed it.

Sunset dropped the shield. "We take them together-"

"No way, they're mine!" Blake yelled impetuously as she leapt across the gap separating the railway cars, charging forwards towards Strongheart, her arms pounding as she ran.

Strongheart powered towards her - and burst through the clone which dissipated into black smoke as the real Blake appeared in front of Perry, swept the sword out of her hand with her first stroke, swept his legs out from under him with her first kick, sent him flying upwards with her second kick, and then leapt up after him to bring both sword and scabbard down upon his stomach with her second stroke to send him falling downwards to the carriage roof with a rippling crack of broken aura.

Strongheart stopped, she gasped in surprise, and then Sunset Shimmer teleported above and right in front of her and fell on her like lightning with a great cry. Sunset swung her rifle in reverse, gripping it by the barrel and whacking Strongheart across the head with the wooden stock hard enough to knock her clean off the train and down to the ground below.

Blake – satisfied that Perry was unconscious for now – transformed Gambol Shroud into pistol configuration and took aim at Strongheart as she ran for the cover of the trees. Her finger tightened slightly upon the trigger…but not enough to actually fire the pistol.

 _Have you seen my Dad?_

 _Why do they hate us so much?_

 _When I grow up, I want to be just like you, Blake!_

Strongheart was the same age as Ruby, two years younger than Blake herself; but the gap seemed larger when it came to her old comrade, probably because she'd known Strongheart when she was a real kid, and Blake herself had thought herself so very grown up at the time when she'd been left to babysit the orphaned children of the camp while the real grown-ups went out to fight.

It was a hard thing to shoot somebody in the back when you'd once wiped their nose while you waited for the adults to come back from a raid; even harder when you didn't know how much aura they had left and suspected that it probably wasn't very much.

So hard, in fact, that Blake couldn't do it. They might be enemies, but that didn't mean she was just going to kill without mercy; if she started down that road there would have been no point leaving the White Fang in the first place.

Sunset had fewer compunctions, she snapped off two shots as Strongheart fled for the woods.

"Stop!" Blake cried, but before she could say anything else Strongheart had fired back and forced them both to dive for cover.

Sunset raised her head. "Lost her," she said. She glanced at Blake. "What was that about?"

"She's just a kid."

"A kid who probably wouldn't show you the same mercy."

"So?" Blake asked. "We have to be better than they are, or we don't deserve to win." _And besides, it's not as if I want to destroy the White Fang._

 _I want to save it._

Their attention was drawn to the head of the train as the third and final paladin, the one that had destroyed the Atlesian spider droid from on top of the ridge, descended to join the battle.

* * *

Of the two lizard-faunus – that was the best Jaune could do as far as describing what they were, judging by the scaly skin on one and the reptilian tail on the other – the one with the scales had been apparently knocked out by Pyrrha, and the one with the tail was fleeing in terror even as the paladin, bearing the White Fang marker on its shoulder in blood red, advanced upon the train to back him up.

The two fighters hadn't stood a chance, certainly not once they decided to waist time and let Pyrrha get some shots off at them with pinpoint accuracy.

Although judging by the way that she'd dealt with them even once they tried to rush her, fending them off and carving up their aura with all the grace under pressure that he'd come to admire about her, perhaps they wouldn't have stood a chance against Pyrrha regardless.

Anyway, it didn't matter now. One was out of it and the other was running away. What mattered now was the giant Atlesian war machine bearing down upon them.

It had slid rapidly down the slope, but now it had done something to its feet and was advancing with a slower, heavier and more clanking step. And with every step it took, making the earth shake with its mechanical tread, joints creaking and hydraulics hissing, Jaune felt his knees begin to shake a little more. This was a machine built for dealing death to monsters, designed by the kingdom at the cutting edge of military technology and armed with all the latest and most powerful weapons in the arsenal of Atlas. And he had a sword and shield. _Pyrrha_ had a sword and shield. How was even she going to deal with this?

"Wait here, Jaune," Pyrrha said, and Jaune was surprised that her tone was so calm. Sure, Pyrrha was always calm in battle, but surely this had to faze her just a little. "I'll handle this."

"Seriously?" he said. "By yourself."

She smiled at him, if only a little. "I'll be fine," she said. "I promise."

She leapt down off the train, landing in a roll before standing up, back straight and proud, and walking slowly towards the paladin as the paladin walked towards her.

The war walker loomed over her, casting its shadow over her and killing the glimmer of sunlight off her gilded armour as the wind rustled through her long red ponytail.

The paladin stopped, and Jaune could almost sense the surprise of the driver inside at the impertinence of a single huntress thinking that she could challenge his titan.

Pyrrha flowed into a guard, her shield held before her and her spear at the ready.

The two faced one another, the culmination of thousands of years of Mistralian chivalry and martial tradition squaring off against the highest pinnacle of technological innovation and advancement.

Jaune's heart was in his mouth. He wanted to look away but he could not. He wanted to scream in fear but he could not. He wanted to cheer her on but he could not. He couldn't do anything. He was frozen in place, a still and silent observer of this clash.

He didn't know whether to be afraid or expectant; he existed in a limbo between the two, torn between terror and confidence, between 'you can do this' and 'please be okay', between cursing Pyrrha's confidence and envying it as the thing that would carry her to the fulfilment of her destiny.

The paladin took another step forward. The war machine fired twice, once from each of the great guns on the ends of its arms. Pyrrha's left arm was surrounded by a black glow as she held out her hand. The heavy ordinance stopped, held suspended in the air for a moment, and then rebounded to hit the paladin squarely in the armoured torso. Pyrrha began to dash forwards. The paladin fired again, but once again its shots rebounded and this time they struck the slender metallic legs that held it up.

The paladin fired a third volley, and the missile racks mounted upon its blocky shoulders opened as a deluge of rockets leapt up, trailing fire behind them before they fell upon her.

 _Pyrrha!_

Pyrrha threw her shield, striking first one shell and then the next, and her hand was still wreathed in a dark corona as she swept it widely out before her and, with a wave of her hand, sent all the myriad missiles that had a mere moment before been poised to fall on her with fiery fury and sent them flying back to whence they came. The paladin reeled like a boxer on the receiving end of his opponent's right hook, staggering backwards as missiles exploded all across its body: torso, arms and legs alike.

Pyrrha ran with the speed of a lioness chasing her prey across the plains; she held out her hand and her shield flew into her hand. She dived beneath the paladin's fists, and as she skidded along the ground beneath the metal titan Milo transformed from spear to sword as she slashed at one of the metal legs.

Pyrrha stopped her skid. The paladin swivelled its torso upon its waist but Pyrrha was still in the shadow of the colossus and far too close for it to bring its weapons to bear. She charged, and hacked again at the same leg that she struck before, bursting out from beneath the war walker as the leg that she had struck gave way and collapsed into twisted shards metal. For a moment the paladin stood, unbalanced, upon one leg before with a shriek and a crash it toppled onto its side.

The paladin had to use one fist to keep itself somewhat upright enough to use its other fist, aiming a punch straight at Pyrrha. Pyrrha thrust her shield like a weapon, using the edge of Akuou to strike the clenched metallic fist in return and shattering it like glass. Pyrrha dodged the shot that followed, not bothering to deflect it but letting it explode harmlessly behind her. She charged, slinging her shield behind her as she converted Milo back into spear form and gripped it tightly in two hands.

She thrust her great spear straight into the centre of the paladin's torso hard enough that it pierced the armour.

The paladin flailed with what remained of its remaining arm, but Pyrrha had planted herself upon the paladin itself and it could not reach her there as she dragged her spear downwards, scoring a rent in the grey armour of the war machine as though it were a can of peaches. Then both of Pyrrha's hands began to glow as she slowly spread them outwards until they were outstretched on either side of her and as she spread her arms so too did the armour of the paladin spread out until the cockpit was completely exposed, revealing a cowering rabbit faunus with his hands raised in surrender.

Jaune was speechless. She…she'd done it. He didn't know whether it was that he lacked faith in his partner but he preferred to think of it as the paladin having been just that intimidating to look at. But Pyrrha had taken care of it single-handedly, without so much as taking a hit.

She really was on another level, wasn't she?

Pyrrha turned to look back at him, the wind blowing through her hair and making her crimson sash wave in the breeze. She was smiling, but then her smile died as she began to race back towards him. "Jaune, look out!"

It was the first warning Jaune had that the scaley-skinned faunus who had seemed to be so out of it was not quite so out of it after as he got up off the roof and came for Jaune with a shotgun-axe which probably would have looked really cool if it hadn't been being used to try and take his head off.

The faunus growled wordlessly as he charged. Pyrrha was moving as fast as she could but she was too far away.

This was something he would have to do himself.

This was something he could do himself.

The White Fang fighter's stance and movements were awful. Jaune took a deep breath. _You can do this. You can do this. Just remember what she taught you. Show her you've learnt something._

He put his front foot forward, he steadied himself, he thrust out his shield and turned the axe blow, beating the weapon away and leaving his opponent open. Jaune yelled as he brought his sword down in a slashing stroke. A slashing stroke that shattered his opponents remaining aura like a hammer through glass and clove into his neck and collar-bone.

Jaune's eyes widened in shock and horror as he realised what he had just done.

A dead enemy hung on the end of his sword; it was a grotesque sight, like a puppet without strings or hand to animate it, lifeless eyes staring at him. He had done this. Him, and no one else. He had…he'd thought that he would…it hadn't occurred to him that he might…what had he done?

Jaune cried out in shock as he lurched backwards, freeing his sword, his red sword as the faunus dropped to the carriage roof in front of him. Jaune kept on staggering back until he tripped over his own feet and landed on his backside. He had…he'd killed someone. He'd taken a life. This wasn't a creature of grimm this was a real life, a person with a soul and he had…

What was he supposed to do now?

Pyrrha leapt up onto the roof. "Jaune, are you-" she stopped, looking down at the…at the body.

She didn't look at him, not at first. Jaune didn't want her to look at him. He didn't want to see revulsion in her eyes at what he'd done, but surely that was what he would see when she turned her gaze upon him.

Pyrrha looked at him, and her soft green eyes were filled with sorrow.

"I'm sorry, Jaune," she said gently. "I should have…I'm sorry."

"I…I didn't…" Jaune stammered. "I didn't realise…"

Pyrrha knelt before him, completely blocking his view of…of what he'd done. "It's going to be alright," she said. With one gloved hand she gently brushed his cheek. "It's going to be alright," she repeated. "I promise."

* * *

The green lights of Penny's lasers flashed in the corner of Ciel's eye as she tried to block it out. She trusted Penny. Whatever else might be said of her when the battle started she knew exactly what she was doing. As good as this Neo girl might be, Ciel had no doubt whatsoever of the eventual outcome.

What she saw of the ensuing battle, what parts of the struggle between the two of them forced their way into her vision, seemed to bear out Ciel's judgement. Neo was good, but there was just no way for her to get through the hedge of swords at Penny's command, and the sheer volume of laser fire and blades at Penny's command meant that Neo's vaunted ability to dodge the was failing her.

Which meant that Ciel could leave the situation safely in Penny's capable robotic hands and concentrate on her own task: getting this stolen paladin off the front of their train.

The wind caused Ciel's blue skirt to flap around her knees. Distant Thunder, her armour-piercing rifle, was fully extended in her hands. The magazine was full of lightning rounds. Ciel aimed down the sight at the titan that was slowing their engine down to a near stop. Even without the spider droid – the third paladin, the one up top, had stopped firing now, probably for fear of damaging the cargo they wished to steal – she could do this.

She would do this.

BANG!

Her first shot hit the paladin on the shoulder, and lightning sparked across the armour plating as said shoulder recoiled backwards; blue and white sparks danced and snapped across the grey.

Ciel snapped the bolt back, expelling the spent cartridge and chambering a new round.

BANG!

The second shot hit the paladin squarely in the cockpit, once more the walker jerked backwards and shuddered as the lightning rippled across the steel skin. Ciel thought she could see its grip on the train weakening.

She snapped the bolt back, expelling the spent cartridge and chambering a new round.

BANG!

She hit the opposite shoulder.

Bolt back. New round.

BANG!

She hit the cockpit again, and it certainly looked as though the paladin was struggling to hold on.

Bolt back. New round.

BANG!

Ciel's shot hit the right arm this time, and it shattered into splintered fragments of metal. The paladin reeled, it's torso spinning as the momentum of the train pushed it on the side that was still holding onto the engine.

The paladin's missile racks opened up. Evidently they decided that damage to the cargo was worth the risk at this point.

"Penny!" Ciel cried. "Switch."

Distant Thunder folded up in her hands, becoming compact enough to swing across her back as Ciel drew a machine pistol from her waist. Penny leapt athletically behind her, landing with a grace that would have won her perfect tens from any panel of judges.

Neo, now facing Ciel, looked torn between a renewed confidence and a sense of uncertainty.

Ciel's expression didn't alter as she opened fire. She wasn't aiming to defeat the younger girl – although she looked notably tired after her battle with Penny – but merely to keep her occupied for a short while, and so the fact that none of her short, three-round burst had any notable effect was not particularly troubling. They kept Neo at bay.

The paladin fired its missiles, two score of them leaping from the racks like arrows, rising swiftly into the air before turning to descend upon the Atlesian huntresses.

Laser beams leapt from Penny's swords in swift succession, green bolts lancing up to strike the descending arrows, bursting them, covering the sky in the fiery flowers of their explosions which blossomed harmlessly over the heads of Ciel and Neo.

"Switch!" Ciel called again, and once more Penny leapt over Ciel's head to resume her battle with Neo while Ciel drew and unfolded Distant Thunder once more.

Draw back the bolt. Chamber a new round.

BANG!

She shattered the paladin's other arm. The train began to pick up speed as the paladin, now arm-less and without any means to hold onto the train, became not so much an impediment as an obstacle to be overrun. The engine struck the paladin, denting the torso as – judging by the squealing – the legs began to give way beneath it.

Ciel saw the White Fang pilot eject a moment before the remains of the paladin were dragged beneath the train and ground to fragments under its irresistible and accelerating wheels.

That was at the same moment that Penny broke Neo's aura with a blow from two of her swords.

Ciel opened her mouth to speak, but all her words were stolen away by the shadow that fell over their heads as the last paladin leapt off the slope and descended upon them.

The war machine landed heavily upon the roof of the train carriage, standing protectively over the prone and aura-less Neo like a bear protecting the cubs from the eager hunters. Ciel started to aim Distant Thunder at the last paladin, the last threat upon the battlefield, but she was blindsided by one of its giant fists which struck her in the side and flung her off the train and through the air.

Rainbow Dash caught her in both hands, barely stopping as she soared back towards the train. She grinned. "Hey."

"Nice of you to join us," Ciel said.

"Heroes always arrive in the nick of time, right?"

Ciel rolled her eyes as Rainbow carried her back to the train. She could see – they could both see – Penny standing in the shadow of the paladin, lasers leaping from the tips of her swords to strike the armour of the war engine.

The paladin drew back its fist, and the blow descended towards her.

Ruby Rose was between the two in a burst of crimson rose petals, turning the robotic punch aside and slashing furiously at the first with her scythe until she had severed all of its fingers. She landed on the roof. "Penny! Are you okay!"

"Thanks to you, Ruby!"

The paladin took a step backwards, balancing unsteadily upon the roof. The missile racks opened.

Sunset appeared above the paladin's head in a green flash, her arms folded across her chest and her eyes closed, looking as though she was lying in state even as the wind blew her hair in all directions.

She spread her arms, and fire dust like rain from the skies fell gently down towards the paladin – and it's open missile racks.

Sunset held out her hands, and the fire dust ignited.

The light of the fire dust's burning was but the spark before all the missiles in the racks went up, blowing the back off the paladin and setting what remained on fire. The smell of burning electronics and ignited dust filled the air as Rainbow set Ciel down upon the roof.

The paladin shook, its torso swivelling left and right as though the pilot were trying to clear their head. It began to move.

A metal hand erupted out from underneath, bursting through the ceiling and grabbing the White Fang paladin by the foot.

"Twilight?" Rainbow asked.

"You said I had to stay in the paladin but you never said the paladin had to stay motionless," Twilight said apologetically, as a shot ripped through the roof to strike the stolen paladin in the groin area.

Rainbow grinned. "Hold on just a little longer, Twi," she said, as the stolen paladin tried to shake Twilight off. "Blake!"

"Understood," Blake said, as she fired her grappling hook from her pistol and struck the paladin on the same leg that Twilight was holding onto.

Ciel watched as Rainbow swept Blake up in arms and carried her away. The two of them flew off the train, Blake's grappling line growing taut as they circled before Rainbow turned in the air, the sunlight catching her wings as she soared back towards the paladin, dipping under its thrashing arms and looping around the legs over and over again as the line wrapped around those same legs as the burning paladin spun around in a vain effort to catch them.

Rainbow and Blake stopped, landing once more.

"Twilight, let go," Rainbow commanded. "Ciel!"

"Ruby, finish it once she fires," Sunset said.

Ciel chambered a new round. "Understood."

BANG! Ciel's shot hit the paladin squarely in the cockpit. The paladin leaned backwards as lightning rippled across the armour.

Ruby leapt forward, transforming into a whirling cyclone of rose petals as she hit the paladin head on, squarely where Ciel's shot had struck it, and the momentum of her speed was enough to topple the paladin, its legs bound and unable to move, onto its back with a tremendous crash.

Ruby slashed at the fallen giant again and again and again until the paladin simply fell apart, crumbling before their very eyes to its component parts which tumbled off the train to litter the forest floor on either side.

And there, standing amidst the wreckage, was none other than Roman Torchwick.

Roman Torchwick, who was immediately confronted with five guns and all of Penny's laser-capable swords pointed into his face.

Torchwick laughed nervously as he raised his hands, his companion Neo doing likewise as she got to her feet behind him. "Well…looks like you got us this time, kids. I suppose I'll be enjoying the hospitality of Atlas for awhile."

"Something like that, yeah," Rainbow said.

Torchwick sighed. "I don't suppose the prison food has gotten any better." He looked at Ruby. "I suppose you think this makes you a big hero, Red."

"Well, it kind of does," Sunset said.

Torchwick chuckled as he shook his head. "You can arrest me, you can stop a couple of robberies, but one of these days you kids are going to realise that you can't stop what's coming; none of you can, and all of you would-be heroes are going to find out what real power is, and you're all going to pay the price that every wannabe hero in history has ever paid with the only currency that matters." He shrugged. "Or maybe not. Maybe you kids are the real deal after all. I guess I've got a front-row seat to find out now and you know something? I can't wait to find out what the answer is."


	60. Good Man

Good Man

"Blake," Sunset said, as he stepped into carriage number two, one of the two cars filled with Atlesian paladins but which, unlike car one, still had its roof intact. She leaned against the leg of one of the towering war machines. "I need a word."

Blake was sitting on the foot of a paladin, hunching her body slightly in the process in a way that made her feel small. She was reading, a book with a dark cover and a title in a gothic font. She closed the book, slowly and deliberately, but kept the page marked with her thumb. She looked at Sunset with a certain wariness, as though she could guess what Sunset wanted to talk to her about before the latter had even opened her mouth. "How's Jaune doing?"

Sunset frowned. Her mouth twisted. "He…he's taking it hard."

"I'm not surprised," Blake said, softly and not without consideration. "It's hard for anyone but especially…"

"What?" Sunset asked.

"Especially a good kid like him," Blake finished. "Some people…some people can deal with it better than others. Jaune…he's a good kid. Not the kind who can shrug it off."

Sunset mumbled something wordless and indistinct. That had been both what she had been afraid of but, at the same time, nothing other than what she had both expected and observed from the flunk into which Jaune had descended since the battle. "Pyrrha and Ruby are with him, but…as much as they both want to help him I don't know how much they can really do; after all they've never…" she let that sentence trail off. Sunset licked her lips. "I was hoping that you might talk to him."

The gaze of Blake's golden eyes seemed to sharpen, and grow claws. "You want me to talk to him."

"That's right," Sunset said. She shuffled uncomfortably. This had seemed a much better idea in her head than when she was standing right in front of Blake but, really, what other choice was there? Who else could she go to right now? Who else did she know who would be able to relate to what Jaune was going through? Pyrrha and Ruby couldn't, and Sunset was willing to admit that she couldn't either as much as she might mean to one day. "I mean, you have…" The words _you have killed before_ hung unspoken but omnipresent in the railway carriage as it clattered down the line.

"Yes," Blake said archly. "I have killed before. Would you like Jaune and I to compare methods?"

"You know what I want," Sunset said, a little more harshly than she had originally intended. She rubbed the space between her brows. "I'm sorry, but…you must know better than anyone else how to reach him, how to help him…you must remember how you dealt with it."

Blake laughed bitterly. Her ears drooped, and she drew her legs up closer to her chin. "Dealt with it? I dealt with it by being told lies by the people that I trusted, and I convinced myself those lies were true. And then, when Strongheart took her first life on a raid I told her those same lies so that she could get to sleep that night, so you'll forgive me if I'm not particularly eager to lie to someone else."

Sunset was silent for a moment. "Strongheart…the buffalo girl? The one we fought."

Blake nodded. "The one we fought."

"Younger than you?"

Blake nodded again, forlornly. "She's only Ruby's age."

"The White Fang take them that young?" Sunset asked, in genuine surprise.

"Why not?" Blake asked sorrowfully. "Apparently the huntsman academies do."

Sunset said, "That's not the same thing?"

"Isn't it?" Blake asked. "They're both the same age, and they were both at the same risk of death today."

Sunset cringed. She hadn't left Ruby until after the two of them had already driven off their opponents but even so…Blake had more of a point than Sunset would have liked. What could she say? That she would have protected Ruby? She hadn't in the past. That Ruby was a better fighter than that faunus girl? Certainly true, but once you started haggling over the particulars you'd essentially lost the main argument.

"But she did sleep, didn't she?" Sunset said.

"Huh?"

"Even though it was a lie," Sunset said. "She got to sleep. Blake…I'm worried that if Jaune can't find some way to square what he did it's going to eat away at him. I don't know what to say to help him do that." _I don't have the empathy, for one thing. Somehow I don't think that telling Jaune that I don't give a damn about some random stranger and he shouldn't either would be a big help._ And I don't think Pyrrha or Ruby know either."

"It's not that simple," Blake muttered. "There's nothing anyone can say to just make this better. It's something that he'll have to live with. The same way you'll probably all have to live with eventually. Even if you become a huntsman to fight grimm, the chances are that you'll have to fight people eventually. And if you fight people…eventually you'll have to kill people."

"I thought as much," Sunset said. Her expression softened. "I hope…I hope you know me well enough to believe me when I say I don't ask this lightly. Is there nothing you can say to help him out? Not even a little?"

Blake was silent for a moment. "I…I don't know," she said, as the shadows of the paladins fell heavily upon them. "I honestly don't know. But…I can try." She got to her feet.

"Thank you," Sunset said. "Whatever happens, I'll appreciate that you tried."

Blake nodded absently. "Take me to him. We…we'd better get this done, one way or the other."

* * *

Jaune sat on a crate marked with the snowflake of the Schnee Dust Company. He slumped down, his back bent, his head bowed. He barely noticed the way that the railway car shook as it tore down the rails back to Vale, except to dread what would happen when they finally got there.

He barely noticed either Ruby or Pyrrha on either side of him, though Ruby was resting against his left side and Pyrrha had one hand upon his right shoulder. He barely registered either of them.

He could see his face. He couldn't get it out of his mind, those lifeless eyes staring at him, accusing him. The face of the man he had killed.

Closing his eyes, opening his eyes, he couldn't be free of it. No more than he could be free of what he'd done. He'd taken a life, an actual human life. Not a grimm, not a soulless monster but a person just like him.

Just like him. He couldn't stop imagining just how like him that guy might have been, the guy whose life he had snuffed out. Had he joined the White Fang because to show his family that he could too amount to something, did he have seven annoying older sisters whom he loved to pieces waiting for him at home, did he have – did he used to have – impossible dreams; did he have friends who would have tried to comfort him if things had been reversed and he had killed Jaune instead of…instead of the other way around?

"I'm so sorry, Jaune," Pyrrha said.

That got through to him, the words penetrating into his mind even befuddled and fogged up as it was by the memory of that face. He looked up into Pyrrha's face, into her green eyes filled with sorrow. "You…you're sorry? Pyrrha…you don't have anything to be sorry about."

"I left you alone," Pyrrha said. "I strayed too far when I fought that paladin. If I'd been there-"

"Then you would have killed him," Jaune said. If he, Jaune Arc, had managed to…to do it in one hit, then the guy's aura must have been very low when he got up for that last rush. There was no way that one of Pyrrha's blows wouldn't have done as much, been as well aimed, as powerful. Probably more. He couldn't believe that the guy would be any more alive if Pyrrha had been there.

Pyrrha was silent for a moment, and still, before she nodded her head. "Probably," she said softly.

"But then-"

"I wish that I could take this weight away from you, Jaune," Pyrrha said. "I'm sorry."

Jaune shook his head. "I…I wouldn't wish this on you. I wouldn't…I wouldn't wish this on anyone."

Ruby wrapped her hands around his arm. "It'll be okay, Jaune. You'll get through this."

"Will I?" Jaune asked. "I don't…I don't feel like I will. I can see him, everywhere. There's no getting away from him. There's no getting away from what I did."

"You did nothing wrong," Pyrrha said firmly. "When two warriors fight, there is always the chance that one may fall. Your opponent took that chance, and paid the price-"

"But did he know that?" Jaune asked. "I mean, isn't that why we have aura, so that we don't die when we're fighting? What was he even doing fighting with so little aura left anyway?"

"Perhaps he didn't realise, perhaps he was over-confident, perhaps he simply miscalculated," Pyrrha said. "My mother was left with a permanent injury to her leg after one hit too many broke through her aura and kept going; and that was in the Mistral regional tournament. These things can happen, even in the most controlled environment; and in the chaos of the battlefield…you had no way of knowing. You did nothing wrong."

"That doesn't really matter, though, does it?" Jaune asked. "He's still dead and I have to live with that."

"Yes," Blake said, as she strode in through the doorway, followed by Sunset who closed the door behind her and muted the sounds of the outside which had briefly risen as the air got in. Blake looked down at him, her eyes, her face alike inscrutable, before she sat down on an SDC crate opposite his own.

"Yes," she repeated, as he leaned forward with her elbows resting on her knees. "You will have to live with it. All your days."

"Blake-" Ruby began.

"It's the truth," Blake said, though she didn't take her eyes off Jaune. "I'm sorry, Ruby, but that's how it is. It might not be what you want to hear, it certainly isn't something nice to hear…but it's the truth." She paused. "And I won't lie again, not about this."

Jaune stared at her, his eyes into hers as she stared right back at him. Nobody else in the car said anything. He barely noticed anyone else. There was only Blake, and her eyes staring into his soul.

"Who…" he murmured, the words dropping quietly from his lips. "Who was he?"

"An SDC security guard," Blake said. "It was my first raid. I came around the corner and saw him there; we practically bumped into one another. He reached for his gun. I drew my sword. I was faster." She closed her eyes as her ears drooped. "When they found me, Sienna was willing to finish him off herself, but Adam…Adam told me to do it. He said…he said that it would teach me something important."

Jaune was rendered speechless for a few moments. "How old were you?"

Blake stared at him without replying, her chest rising and falling. "A little younger than Ruby."

Ruby squeaked in…what? Sympathy? Pity? Both? Jaune didn't know for sure. He didn't ask her to find out. He didn't look at her. He couldn't tear his eyes away from Blake, from her eyes, those eyes that looked a little wetter now than they had been.

"How…" he hesitated, but he had to know what she'd done, what he could do to get through this; Blake was able to move forward and keep fighting. He needed – wanted – to do that to. Even if he had to carry this with him then surely Blake know how he could, maybe put it away sometimes. "How did you deal with it?"

Blake sighed. "By being young, and stupid, and idealistic," she said. "By having a cause that I believe in so much that I was willing to justify almost anything, rationalise away all of my misgivings or concerns. By believing in Sienna Khan, and Adam; Adam, most of all. I was told…I told myself, that…that our cause was just, that anyone who opposed us was evil, that they deserved to die for their part in oppressing our people; I told myself that everything I did was for the sake of our freedom, and that a noble purpose justified all actions no matter how dark in pursuit of it. I told myself that I could live with it, for the greater good."

Her eyes began to fill with tears. "I know that we're not friends, I know that we don't know each other very well, but I'm asking you: don't do what I did. Don't convince yourself that the people you fight are monsters no better than the grimm and so it's okay to cut them down like they were beowolves." She glanced away from him for a moment, looking up at Sunset, and in that moment of broken eye contact the spell was also broken long enough for Jaune to notice the other people in the room besides Blake: Ruby looked both sad and uncomfortable, Pyrrha was trembling with a a quiet fury; Sunset looked as though she was going to be sick.

Blake looked back and Jaune, captivating him with her gaze once more. "It might seem like the easy thing to do; it is the easy thing to do, and it might even help you to get through the nights…but when you realise that you're wrong, and you will…it will hurt you so much more."

"So what do you do?" Jaune asked. "What…what did you do?"

"I ran away and left my life behind," Blake said. "That isn't something that I'd recommend for you," she added, as Jaune felt Pyrrha's grip upon his shoulder get just a little firmer.

"In my…in the White Fang," Blake continued. "There was nobody around me who could…who would have wanted to help me once I realised that what we were doing, what I'd done, was so wrong. Even the ones who thought that they were my friends, or more…I couldn't tell them that I didn't want to kill any more, that I'd started to see our enemies as people, I couldn't…even those who thought they liked me only saw me as a weapon, a killer…one of the monsters that we'd made of ourselves.

"You're so much luckier than I am.

"You have good friends, friends who will stand by you and help you even if they don't _know_ what you're going through. Let them. I can't tell you how to feel better or deal with it because…because I don't know the answer myself. All I can say is that…I think we have to keep moving forward, and do better next time or else…else it was all for nothing."

Jaune said nothing. He barely nodded his head. That…that hadn't really helped him too much but, at the same time, he found it was impossible to blame or resent Blake for that; it sounded, honestly, as though she needed as much if not more help than he did.

Judging by the way that Sunset sat down beside Blake, and gently took one of her hands, it seemed Jaune wasn't the only one who felt that way.

* * *

As their train pulled into the rail depot, Jaune could see that it was far more active now than it had been when they left, with workers crawling all over the site prepping trains for departure, and the sounds of cranes and trucks competing with the rumble of their engine as it slowed down.

Professor Ozpin was waiting for them, along with General Ironwood, a woman in white who looked like an older Weiss, and a large number of Atlesian soldiers, their faces hidden behind the visors of their helmets.

"Nice to have a welcoming committee," Rainbow said. "Smile, guys, you're the guests of honour."

"Screw you, traitor!" the faunus with glasses – Perry, Blake had said his name was – snarled.

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Traitor, traitor, traitor; you people never give it a rest, do you?"

They had four prisoners: Torchwick, Neo, Perry and the pilot of the paladin Pyrrha had taken apart, whom Blake didn't recognise and who wouldn't give his name. They were all in specially designed Atlesian handcuffs that suppressed aura…somehow; Twilight had tried to explain how it worked to them but the only ones who actually seemed to follow what she was saying were Sunset and Ciel. It was kind of creepy that they had tech that could just stop your aura like that, even if he could see why they needed it with prisoners like this Torchwick guy; but still…creepy that they just turn your aura off and leave you vulnerable like…like that poor guy.

He shook his head as the train came to a stop.

Roman Torchwick was the first one out, leaping down from the train before Rainbow Dash could push him out. Neo followed quickly after, although Rainbow and Sunset did have to physically urge the two White Fang captives out of the train car before they both leapt down themselves.

"Roman Torchwick," General Ironwood growled, in a voice that was dripping with contempt.

"General Ironwood himself come down from on high to meet me," Torchwick said. "I'm flattered. I don't suppose this would be a good time to ask for my lawyer? Or maybe my phone call?"

General Ironwood did not look impressed. He raised his voice so that all four of the prisoners could hear him. "Give your extensive criminal connections, and the risk that your associates might try to have you silenced in prison, the Vale Council has agreed to grant me custody of all four of you for various terror-related offences. That means no lawyers, no phone calls, and I can hold you for as long as I want."

"Let me guess," Torchwick said wearily. "Unless we talk to you?"

"I'll let you think about your options on the way to my ship," Ironwood said. "Schnee, take a squad and escort these prisoners to detention."

"Yes, sir," the elder Schnee said as she snapped to attention. "Second Squad, form up and follow me."

"Captain," General Ironwood said to another of his officers as the prisoners were led away. "Secure the cargo on this train with the rest of your men and supervise the unloading."

"Yes sir."

The general turned his attention to Team RSPT, who had all exited the train by now and who all snapped to attention when his gaze fell upon them. Blake stood just a little behind them, looking uncertain as to whether she ought to stand to attention or not. Rainbow Dash saluted, which gesture the general returned.

"Good work, Dash," General Ironwood said. "You've dealt a heavy blow to the White Fang's operations. Depending on what information we can get out of those four we might be able to follow up with something even heavier."

"Thank you, sir," Rainbow Dash said. "But we didn't do it alone."

"Indeed, welcome back, Miss Shimmer, all of you," Professor Ozpin said, with a genial smile upon his face. "I'm glad to see that you were able to help get the railroad north back up and running." He chuckled. "I see that you ran into a little trouble on the way back."

Sunset's face betrayed nothing. "You did tell us to make our own way home to Vale, Professor."

"The assistance of Team Sapphire was invaluable, sir," Rainbow said.

"I'm sure that it will all be in your report," General Ironwood said. "But on the evidence, it seems that you did well. All of you."

He saluted his Atlesian huntresses a second time before he turned to go.

"So," Professor Ozpin said, still in that same genial tone. "How did you find your first mission?"

The four members of Team SAPR looked at one another.

"Professor…could I have a word?" Sunset asked, stepping forward out of line.

"Of course, Miss Shimmer."

She was going to tell Professor Ozpin about what had happened, Jaune knew that even before Sunset started whispering in his ear. He knew it well before Professor Ozpin looked at him and said, "Mister Arc."

"Yes, professor," Jaune said.

The headmaster's look was sympathetic; moreso, Jaune realised, than he had been expecting.

"Why don't you come back to my office, Mister Arc?" Professor Ozpin said. "And we can talk in private."

* * *

It felt strange, it just being the two of them in here. Jaune was not a complete stranger to the headmaster's office, but the fact that there was no Professor Goodwitch standing off to one side glowering at him, no Sunset going to come in and rescue him, was a more novel experience. Pyrrha was down at the bottom of the tower, waiting for him to come out, but she hadn't come up with him. Professor Ozpin had been clear that private meant private.

Which was why Jaune sat in front of the glass desk, his hands gripping the arms of the chair, while Professor Ozpin sat on the other side of the table and looked at it from over the top of his dark spectacles.

"Would you like some cocoa, Mister Arc?" he offered kindly. "It may help to calm your nerves."

Jaune nodded…nervously, and said nothing else as Professor Ozpin poured from the china teapot into a Beacon mug.

Jaune took the mug, and sipped from the scalding hot cup of cocoa. "Thank you, Professor."

Professor Ozpin settled back into his chair. "I understand that you had…something of an accident on your return to Vale."

Jaune nodded. "Yes, Professor."

Professor Ozpin nodded too, and said nothing for a moment. "How do you feel, Mister Arc?"

Jaune hesitated, before deciding that there was no way that he was going to get away with lying to Ozpin, of all people. "Pretty terrible," he admitted.

"Good," Professor Ozpin said.

Jaune's eyes widened and he nearly choked on his cocoa. "Professor?"

"Your situation is not pleasant, and I will not pretend otherwise, but it is, in many respects, unavoidable," Professor Ozpin declared. "Every year a new class of students arrives eager to learn how to fight the creatures of grimm, and so to defend our world we arm you with powers beyond the normal run of humanity and with weapons of the most sophisticated and powerful nature; the inevitable consequence of this is that when a huntsmen or a huntress strays from the righteous path it is only a huntsman or huntress who remains sworn to their duty who possesses the skill and training necessary to deal with them. As much as I wish it were not so, battling against your fellow men is a necessary part of what it means to be a huntsman…and sometimes, so is ending the lives of your fellow men."

Jaune swallowed. "Professor…have you-"

"Yes," Professor Ozpin said solemnly. "More times than I care to remember. Does that surprise you, Mister Arc?"

"I…yes," Jaune admitted. "I thought…I guess I thought that…"

"Go on."

Jaune frowned. "It sounds stupid now that I stop and think about it."

"Why don't you let me be the judge of that, Mister Arc?"

"I guess I thought that…real heroes never killed anybody," Jaune said. If it had sounded stupid when he thought about it then it sounded really stupid when he actually said it out loud, but there it was. Heroes didn't kill, it was like an unwritten rule, they might take down bad guys but they never killed them.

Professor Ozpin's smile was more indulgent than he had been expecting. "Mister Arc, has it occurred to you that the purpose of a story is not to hold a mirror up to reality, but to paint an image of what the world ought to be but cannot? Stories in which the grimm do not exist, in which we have found a substitute for our diminishing supplies of dust, stories of great heroes who will save us all single-handed or, at most, with the support of a small, faithful team. Stories in which diabolical villains are to blame for all the problems of the world and, with their defeat, those problems will vanish. Stories show us the world as we would like, not as it is. They give us ideals to strive for and those ideals are without doubt very fine and worthy of emulation…but in the chaos of the real world that is not always possible. In the real world we are beset by problems that cannot be solved by the defeat of a few villains because…because there are no real villains, any more than then are real heroes.

"In the real world there are only good men, and those who have fallen from goodness and from grace. Such men, though they may only be misguided, though they may be well-intentioned, though they may bear not a scrap of malice in their hearts, are dangerous nonetheless and so they must be opposed by the good. And, in being so opposed, sometimes their lives will be lost in the opposition. But it is the sign of a good man that he recognises this for the tragedy that it is. Those who can take life and snuff it out and not be burdened by it have, themselves, fallen from grace and will inevitably have to be dealt with in their turn. It gives me hope, Mister Arc, to discover that you are a good man."

Jaune frowned. "You're saying…you're saying that it ought to bother me?"

Professor Ozpin nodded. "It would trouble me greatly if it did not."

"Does it bother you, Professor?"

"Every life that I have taken weighs upon my soul," Professor Ozpin said, with a sigh of weariness as deep as a raving in the ocean. "It is an ever-increasing burden that I will carry with me for all of my life."

"But then…why do you keep doing it?" Jaune asked.

"Because it is necessary that somebody should," Professor Ozpin said. "And because, as I have said, it is better that it should be done by a good man than by somebody who might actually enjoy it more than they should. Because I have the ability to do it, more than many others. Because the battle does not stop because you are weary of it, Mister Arc.

"I have neither the right, nor the power, nor the desire to keep you here at Beacon against your will. If you have discovered that the cost of this life is too high for you to pay then you may leave these hallowed halls and go where you will; I will not stop you. No one will stop you, nor will anyone think the less of you for your decision. Perhaps Miss Belladonna, since she has had a falling out with her own team, might take your place in team…well, we could worry about the name later. But the fight will continue. There will be other missions for Miss Nikos, Miss Rose and Miss Shimmer…missions from which they may not return, because you were not there."

Jaune swallowed. "You…you can't think that's-"

"I'm aware of the strength and skill of your team-mates," Professor Ozpin said gravely. "But even the greatest warrior may fall when she fights alone, that is why we assign all students into teams. Is that something you could live with, Mister Arc? To hear of the deaths of your team-mates, your friends, to have that news brought to you on some distant farm or home and to know that you were not with them at the end?"

Jaune shuddered at the very idea of it; to imagine it – Pyrrha, Ruby or Sunset dying when he could maybe have done something to help them if he'd been there – was too much, far too much. Just trying to think about it physically pained him like stomach cramps. "No," he said. "No, that's not I, I mean that I…I don't want that."

"A hero may be able to restrain or subdue all his enemies while leaving them alive," Professor Ozpin said sadly. "But you, Mister Arc, I'm afraid are no hero because heroes do not exist in this world. In this world there are only good men, and it is the fate of good men to suffer in a righteous cause. Take some small comfort from the fact that you are a good man, and one of great promise at that."

Jaune nodded. "What…what should I do now?"

"Go," Professor Ozpin said. "Return to Miss Nikos, return to your friends, take comfort and heart from their presence while you can, draw strength from it when it becomes necessary…and be prepared to do it all again, next time."


	61. Sunset's Conscience

Sunset's Conscience

"I don't understand why you're not more worried about this!" Mercury snapped.

"Because there's nothing whatsoever to worry about," Cinder said, controlling her irritation. She didn't enjoy having her decisions questioned by her underlings, but Mercury would serve her better if he understood that there was nothing to worry about rather than if she simply cowed him into submission.

Mercury took a step forward, gesticulating with his hands. "He knows our names, he's seen our faces, if he talks to Ironwood-"

"He won't," Cinder said, looking down at the sewing in her lap. "Relax, Mercury, Roman will keep his mouth shut."

"How can you be so sure about that?" Mercury asked. "The guy's a rat, that's what made him useful; it's also what makes him dangerous now."

"Even if the guy is dangerous, what are we supposed to do about it?" Lightning Dust asked from where she lay on her bed. "He's locked up on an Atlesian warship, it's not like we could get to him anyway."

"So we should just do nothing?"

"Why worry about what you can't change?" Lightning Dust replied.

"Because it could get us all arrested?" Mercury said. "There could be Atlesian soldiers at our door at any minute because Roman Torchwick decided to sell us out for a cell with a window."

"Mercury," Cinder said firmly, as she put down her needle and thread. "Roman isn't going to betray us."

Mercury folded his arms. "You seem very sure about that."

"If Cinder believes it, then so should we," Emerald said.

"Roman is many things, but he's no fool," Cinder continued. "He knows exactly what's at stake here. He knows that if he turned on me, there isn't anywhere in the four kingdoms that he could run to where I wouldn't find him, and that child who tags along behind him. He knows that the best option, the only option for him if he wishes to survive, is for him to sit quietly in his cell, say nothing…and wait for my signal." She had showed Roman a touch of the power at her command early on, lest he should think of her merely as a pretty face that he might tempt into his bed. He didn't know the half of what she or her mistress could do, but he knew enough to have the kind of healthy respect for her that would last even into his captivity and overawe any kind of fear he might have had for General Ironwood and the might of Atlas.

Mercury still looked somewhat unconvinced. "My old man was a bastard, but he had a point when he taught me that you clean up loose ends like that, you don't leave them dangling."

"And short of launching a direct assault on the Atlesian fleet, in which case we might as well break them out of Atlesian custody if we had the ability, how would you suggest we do that?" Cinder asked.

"Poison would be our best option," Mercury said.

"Probably it would be, it might even work," Cinder said. "But I don't believe it's necessary at this stage; in fact, I think it would merely deprive us of an asset who could once more be valuable at a later stage of the game. Relax, Mercury; Atlas isn't going to discover who we are until we're ready to reveal ourselves."

"I just-"

"Don't you trust me, Mercury?" Cinder asked, her voice deceptively. "Don't you…have faith in me?"

"I…" Mercury looked at Emerald and Lightning, but found no help forthcoming from either of them. "Of course I do, I just-"

"Don't you believe in me?" Cinder said, and she rose to her feet and walked towards Mercury, forcing him to retreat before her. If he wasn't willing to just let himself be persuaded by her perfectly reasonable arguments then perhaps she would have to remind him of just who she was after all. "The world stands on the bring of change, Mercury Black; the old order will be burned away as if by a great inferno and all those who cling to ancient ways will be consumed by it. Whomsoever believes in me shall be spared this oncoming and inevitable calamity so I ask you, once again, do you believe in me?"

Mercury scarcely looked by now like the young man whom she had found standing over the bloody corpse of his murdered father. Rather he looked like the child whom said father had abused when he was still too small to resist it. That was what it meant, to possess true power: you reduced even the most ferocious to mere children before you.

Mercury bowed his head. "Of course I do. I believe in you, Cinder."

"We all believe in you," Emerald said.

 _Of course you do, you would be foolish not to,_ Cinder thought. She had no concerns about Roman Torchwick or the mute or the White Fang enforces captured along with them. She had no concerns whatsoever. She was Cinder Fall, the right hand of Salem, and she could feel destiny driving her on. She soared on the wings of the storm that would not fail her, would not let her fall.

Since meeting Salem, since entering into the service of her mistress and receiving the benediction of darkness that had been bestowed upon her, Cinder had walked through a world of insubstantial mist, all obstacles evaporating before her as though she were the only solid thing left in Remant and all else but fog that, though it might temporarily seem to obstruct her onward progress, turned out upon closer inspection to be nothing at all. She had recruited the servants that she required with trivial ease, and even the disappointment at finding Marcus Black dead had been alleviated by the discovery of his talented son, young enough to take part in her subterfuge here at Beacon. She had even defeated one of the Four Maidens in combat for all that they were closer to gods than mortal men – and what did that say of her, then, that she had humbled a god so easily? – and taken some of her power for her own. Soon she would find Amber and rip out the last vestiges of her magic.

That would be a sweet triumph, although she conceded that when she had reunited the mantle of the Fall Maiden she would miss the icy hunger that held her in its grip; it was uncomfortable, but she liked it all the same. It sharpened her already well-whetted ambitions to an edge that could slice through steel and she liked the reminder that, for all that she had yet accomplished, there was so much more yet to be done.

And she would do it. She would do it all for the world was bending to her will. All things had fallen out exactly as she desired, and how could it be doubted that that fortuitous trend would continue. She was Cinder Fall, and destiny was on her side; nothing would stand in her way.

* * *

Sunset: …and so, as you can see, my life recently has been far from boring. In fact – I can't believe that I'm about to say this – I'd almost rather that it had been a bit less interesting recently.

There was a pause on the other end of the magical journal, and Sunset could almost imagine Twilight – it was a kind of bizarre thing, but she found it hard to imagine Twilight as a pony now that she'd met the human Twilight, even if the human Twilight wasn't really how Sunset imagined a princess of Equestria to be – sitting on the other end of the book reading Sunset's account of battles and love triangles and struggling to work out what to make of it all.

Twilight: I see what you mean.

Sunset snorted. _Probably how I'd react if I was being told all of this instead of living through it._ She was sitting in the bathroom, so as not to disturb her sleeping team-mates. A ball of pale green magelight hovered above her head, enough to illuminate the book resting on her knees but not bright enough that the light shining under the bathroom door would wake the four people sleeping on the other side.

Sunset: I suppose that I'm to blame for not writing more often; this probably wouldn't seem so huge if I'd let you know about it as it was going on. But things have been pretty hectic, as you can probably imagine.

Twilight: I can, or at least I think I can. You know, whenever I write to you I'm always left very glad that I live in a world where threats to the security of Equestria never show up more than twice a year.

Sunset: Don't get too comfortable, when I was growing up we would have called that scarily frequent.

Twilight: I won't pretend that I don't know what you mean, but all the same the idea of you calling my troubles 'frequent' is a little bizarre. Have you become inured to it?

Sunset: Can you be more specific?

Twilight: The violence, the things that you call grimm, the danger.

Sunset: You can't bundle them all up together like that. Have I become accustomed to the grimm? Yes, I'd say so; or pretty much at least. Occasionally a particularly large or powerful specimen comes along – like the one on the railway line – that still has the power to spook me, but the usual ones I think I can handle. I'd better be able to handle them, since I'm training to spend my life fighting them and all. Danger?

She sucked on her pen for a moment while she thought. Had she become accustomed to danger? Had she become inured to the peril in which she lived? Was it matter of fact to her now?

Sunset: I think it depends on the circumstances, on what kind of danger we're talking about. The same goes for the violence. If you'd asked me this before we left on our mission I might have answered you differently, but this business with Jaune has reminded me that there is a lot that is still to all of us; we're all very young still.

Twilight: I can't imagine what that must be like for him.

Sunset: Killing?

Twilight: I wish you wouldn't write about it like that, it makes you seem so blasé about it. The act of taking a life, even the discussion of the act of taking a life, should be treated with more seriousness than that.

Sunset: I'm sorry. I don't disagree with you on that – you can tell Celestia that I haven't fallen so far from what it means to be an Equestrian-

Twilight: You could always tell her yourself.

Sunset's eyebrows rose. Sunset: You're not in Canterlot that often, are you?

Twilight: No, but I could always send the book to Celestia if you wanted to talk to her.

Sunset hesitated, twirling her pen absently between her fingers as she considered the words that had just appeared on the page before her. Considering how much she really wanted Celestia to know about her life here in Remnant. Celestia already knew a fair amount, but to tell her everything that was…that was something else altogether.

Sunset: That's kind of you, but I don't think that I'll take you up on it too often. I don't think I want Princess Celestia to know everything. I suppose I'm more comfortable talking to you about certain things.

Twilight: Why? You don't know me nearly so well as you know Princess Celestia.

Sunset: Maybe that's the point. She paused, hemming and hawing over the next few words. Sunset: If I had to kill somebody, I wouldn't want Celestia to know about it; even if it was an accident, or if I had no other choice to save myself or my friends. I still wouldn't want Celestia to know that I had done that. I wouldn't want her to think of me in that way. There's a part of me that doesn't want her to think of me in the way that I am; I'd almost rather she remembered me the way I was when I knew her, when I was a kid before it all fell apart. Does that make any sense? Sunset's eyes widened. Sunset: You don't tell her everything that we write about, do you?

Twilight: Of course not. I respect your confidence and I understand what you're saying, although I think you'd find that Princess Celestia could be very forgiving even if you did something terrible. Provided that you had no other choice.

Sunset frowned. Sunset: Is that supposed to mean something?

Twilight: Adam.

Sunset scowled. Sunset: That's completely different.

Twilight: Is it? After seeing what taking a life has done to Jaune are you still willing to embark on this path of revenge?

Sunset: This has nothing to do with revenge.

Twilight: Then what does it have to do with?

Sunset: Adam is a mad dog who deserves to be

Twilight: Put down? Really? Is that what you were going to say? Princess Celestia would be disappointed to know that you think like that now.

Sunset: It's not like I feel that way about everybody. Neither of you understand what it's like, what he is like. Neither of you were there. Neither of you understand how terrifying he is. Just thinking about it was starting to make her tremble; she could see the pen quivering in her hand. Sunset: He's mad, bad and dangerous and he scares the crap out of me. Pardon my language but

Sunset closed her eyes – which didn't help, as immediately she closed them she could see that man, his body turned to black, charging remorselessly as the world turned red as blood around her – and tried to calm down. She didn't want to think about Adam, she didn't want to have this discussion, and she had to fight the urge to just the shut the book on Twilight and let that be that. She took a deep breath, and then another.

Sunset: What am I supposed to? Last time he nearly killed Ruby? Am I supposed to stand by and watch while he cuts Jaune down? Am I supposed to carry Pyrrha's circlet home to her mother and tell her that I watched her daughter die because I was waiting to redeem her killer by the power of kindness?

Twilight: I've seen an enemy die, you know.

Sunset didn't reply immediately. She was stunned, honestly, to read that. It wasn't what she expected to read from…from someone in Equestria, let alone a Princess of Friendship, still less one who had just been telling her that she shouldn't try to kill Adam. It was…it just wasn't what she'd expected.

Sunset: You killed them?

Twilight: No. No, it wasn't me.

Sunset frowned. She could sense something coming through in Twilight's words, but it wasn't something that made a whole lot of sense. It almost seemed like regret, but regret for what? Regret at the death, or regret that Twilight had not done the deed. One seemed false from the context, the other made no sense.

Sunset: I don't understand.

Twilight took a few moments before she actually replied. Sunset supposed that she could understand why. Twilight: His name was Sombra.

Sunset: The old King, the one who took over the Crystal Empire? But the Empire was sealed away and Sombra with it.

Twilight: The Empire returned, and Sombra with it. He tried to retake his throne and re-enslave the crystal ponies. My friends, my brother, my sister-in-law all tried to stop him.

Sunset: And you?

Twilight: Yes. And me. I hadn't become the Princess of Friendship then, this was one of Celestia's tests to see if I was as ready as she believed me to be. I thought that my test was to save the Crystal Empire and stop Sombra.

Sunset: A reasonable assumption in the circumstances. I'd have thought the same thing in your position. _I would have seen it as my destiny to defeat the monster and save Equestria from his malice._

Twilight: As it turned out, the test was to see if I could take a step back and rely on others to be the hero in my place. I passed. I almost wish I hadn't.

Sunset: What exactly happened?

Twilight: I fell into King Sombra's trap; since I couldn't escape and King Sombra was about to reach the Crystal Fair, Spike had to take the Crystal Heart and reach the fair in my place.

Sunset: The dog?

Twilight: What? No, Spike is a dragon; he's my assistant, my friend; he's kind of my little brother, too. Why would you think he was a dog?

Sunset decided that it was best not to wander off into the weeds of other Twilight and her pet dog, Spike. She wanted to find out where Twilight was going with this. Sunset: Never mind. Go on, I'm sorry for interrupting.

Twilight: Spike got the heart to Cadance, and it's power restored the heart of the Crystal Ponies; and that power destroyed King Sombra. I saw him torn apart by the crystal magic. It killed him.

Sunset let out a slow exhalation of breath. Sunset: I see. And how does Spike feel about that?

Twilight: He doesn't know. He won't ever know. All he knows is that he saved the Crystal Empire; he's a hero to them. But he's still just a kid, and I don't want him to know just how he saved the Empire. I can't take away what he did but I can ensure that he isn't burdened by the knowledge of it.

Sunset: That's fair enough, and I won't question your decision, but don't you think that it proves my point instead of yours. Sombra was dangerous, and in the moment there was nothing to be done but to put an end to his menace by any means.

Twilight: And I won't argue that in extremis – absolute extremis – it wasn't necessary, but that isn't what you're talking about. You're talking about hunting someone down and killing them to salve your pride.

Sunset: This has nothing to do with my pride!

Twilight: I suspect you can't really believe that.

Sunset huffed. Sunset: He's dangerous. To Blake, to my team. Am I supposed to ignore that?

Twilight: No, I would never tell you that you shouldn't defend your friends but I can ask you, I can beg you, not to seek out that confrontation. I'm not naive, I appreciate that there are monsters out there in the world; I just don't want you to join them. Look at what Jaune's going through, based on what you've told me. Is that something you want to voluntarily take on yourself?

Sunset: It won't hurt me the way that it's hurting Jaune.

Twilight: How can you be so sure?

Sunset: Because I don't care about people the way that he does.

Twilight: You might believe that, but I'm not so sure.

Sunset: Really? And what makes you think you know me better than I know myself?

Twilight: Blake. I have to admit, I'm proud of what you did for her.

Sunset felt her cheeks heat up. Sunset: I owed Blake, that's all.

Twilight: Why is it so hard for you to simply admit that you felt saw someone in need of compassion and were moved to offer the same? Why is it so hard for you to admit that you like her and want to help her?

Sunset: Because that's not who I am, and it never has been!

Twilight: Maybe, but I wasn't always a great friend either. Sometimes we don't know what we're capable of inside until we find our true friends.

Sunset blinked. Sunset: You think that I was destined to befriend Blake? And Ruby, Pyrrha and Jaune too?

Twilight: I don't see why it should be so outlandish an idea. If destiny is real, and I believe that it is, why should it only apply to great events, or to love? Why not to friendships too?

Sunset: I suppose I can see what you mean, although I'd never thought of it that way before. Frankly, at this point I'm not interested in any advice that you might have about the love triangle.

Twilight: I don't think it's your place to interfere, do you?

Sunset: I don't want to get involved, but if Jaune dates Ruby then Pyrrha's bound to get upset. She thinks she's in love with him.

Twilight: You disagree?

Sunset: I don't know, he's the first guy she's ever met.

Twilight: So? Sometimes these things happen. My brother only ever had a crush on one mare.

Sunset: Cadance?

Twilight: Exactly. And they really do love each other, anyone can see that. It seems that sometimes you really can just know; you shouldn't dismiss it just because you haven't felt that yourself.

 _I felt it myself, I was just wrong about it._ Sunset: Nevertheless, it occurs to me that one way to see if Jaune actually felt anything for either of them would be for them both to date other people.

Twilight: How do you mean?

Sunset: Well, if he liked them then he'd get jealous to see them out with others, and when he realised he was jealous he'd realise how he really felt.

Twilight: I'm not sure that's a good idea.

Sunset: I'm not actually going to do it – how would I set that up anyway? – I'm just saying, it would actually get them all moving somehow. I feel as though I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop and it's driving me crazy.

Twilight: I'm sorry, but there's really nothing you can do about that.

Sunset: I know. I don't suppose you have any magic lesson tips for me?

Twilight: Just to be prepared for you not having much luck. It sounds as though magic in the world of Remnant is a lot different from magic in Equestria. You might not be able to teach Ruby anything.

Sunset: But you agree that I should try?

Twilight: I'm always in favour of the pursuit of knowledge, and it seems as though the power you're talking about can only be used to hurt grimm, so I suppose there's nothing objectionable about it. Do you mind if we call it a night, it's getting late here and I'm a little tired.

Sunset smiled. Sunset: Sure. Next time you can tell me all about your life.

Twilight: Since the most interesting thing that's happened to me lately is having three fillies briefly try to take advantage of my newfound fame, I'm sure you'd be very bored to learn about my life.

Sunset: I don't know, it might be cool to hear about that kind of thing. It might make a change, certainly. Or maybe I could just get some tips for Pyrrha. Sunset yawned. Sunset: But I should probably turn in myself. Goodnight, Twilight.

Twilight: Goodnight, Sunset. Sweet dreams.

Sunset shut the book and tucked it underneath her arm as she got up and walked towards the bathroom door. She yawned again, and covered her mouth reflexively, before she reached for the door that led out of the bathroom and into the dorm room.

She had opened it a crack when she heard Jaune letting out some kind of muffled gasp or exclamation on the other side.

"Nightmares, huh?" the voice belonged to Blake, and though she was speaking softly every word that she said was nevertheless clear to Sunset's four ears.

There was a momentary silence before Jaune replied, "Yeah. I'm sorry if I woke you up."

"It's okay; I'm just a very sensitive sleeper." Another pause, before Blake spoke continued. "It's rough that this had to happen to you."

Sunset found herself lingering on the other side of the door. It wasn't that she wanted to eavesdrop it was just…she didn't want to interrupt either. It felt prurient to say, but it felt equally wrong to go through the door and reveal herself. And so she lingered, one hand upon the door handle, and waited, and listened.

"I think it's rough that this has to happen to anybody," Jaune replied.

Blake sniffed, or at least that was what it sounded like to Sunset. "You're right, of course; although not every guy in your position would see it that way."

More silence. Jaune said, "Professor Ozpin told me that it never gets any easier."

"I don't have the experience to dispute that," Blake replied. "Or at least not the right experience. Like I said, it got easier for me, but for all the wrong reasons. Honestly, it feels like this is the kind of thing that the combat schools ought to prepare you for."

"Maybe they do," Jaune said. "I wouldn't know."

"You were…apprenticed? Self-taught?"

Jaune paused before he answered. "More like not taught. I…I faked my transcripts to get in here."

"Really?" Blake said. For a moment, her voice acquired an edge of amusement. "Don't tell anybody, but me too."

Jaune sounded like he was stifling a snort. "I'm not sure that's much of a secret any more."

"Why did you do it?"

"Because I thought I could be a hero, like my great-grandfather," Jaune said. "I suppose you think that sounds pretty stupid."

"No, I don't."

"You…you don't?"

"Maybe a little naïve for somebody with no combat training," Blake said. "But the world will never change unless people dare to dream that change is possible, no matter now naïve or even stupid or dreams might seem to outsiders."

"Professor Ozpin told me there was no such thing as heroes."

"Professor Ozpin is very old, and he might even be very wise, but that doesn't mean that he's right all the time," Sunset whispered, as she came out of the bathroom with her journal tucked underneath her arm. "Pardon me for overhearing," she murmured, as she stowed the journal underneath her bed. "I couldn't really help it."

Blake shrugged. "You believe in heroes, I take it?"

"You don't?" Sunset asked, somewhat surprised.

"I used to," Blake said. "I used to believe that Adam was our hero, the one who would strike the chains from off of our people and lead us to true equality. As you can imagine I became a little more wary of what people who call themselves heroes can do in the name of their cause."

"But like you said," Sunset said. "Someone has to be willing to make the first step, to answer 'no, you can't' with 'yes I can, and just you watch me do it!'; someone has to be willing to do what others deem impossible. And yeah, you were wrong about Adam; you were really wrong. But that doesn't mean there isn't a hero waiting for your people. It just means you were mistaken about who it is."

Blake stared at Sunset for a moment. "You're kidding."

"Do I look like I'm kidding?" Sunset replied.

"You think I could be the hero who saves the faunus?"

"I don't see why not," Sunset said. "Isn't that what you want?"

Blake hesitated. "I…I'd be happy to support someone else who looked like they were going to do it, but…yes, I suppose you could say that's what I want."

"Then don't give up on it," Sunset said. "Either of you. Sure, your dreams are big; sure, they might seem impossible. But so does Pyrrha's dream of destroying the grimm completely. All our dreams are big or they wouldn't be worth having. But we work towards them, we fight for them, we keep reaching for the stars and together we'll make it someday, that's what…hey, Blake?"

"Yeah?"

Sunset smiled slightly. "Would you…would you like to put your initial on the wall, somewhere next to ours? I don't know where you'll be ending up, but for a while you're here, and you feel like…would you like to put your initial up on the wall, just so people know you were here?"

She glanced at Jaune, who nodded approvingly.

Blake smiled. "Yes," she said. "I think I'd like that."


	62. Science and Magic

Science and Magic

"So," Yang said across the breakfast table. "Are you guys looking forward to the dance this weekend?"

Sunset shrugged, her mouth full of muesli. She swallowed. "I don't know. I haven't really had a chance to think about it."

"I don't think any of us have, with…everything that's been going on," Jaune murmured.

"That's exactly why you guys need a party!" Nora exclaimed.

Sunset considered that. "I guess…certainly if anyone deserves a party it's us, right?"

"I'm not sure that I'd go that far," Blake said. She hesitated for a moment. "Frankly…it seems a little frivolous to be worried about stuff like that right now, with everything that's been going on."

"Everything that's been going on is exactly why we deserve a party more than anyone else," Sunset replied. "Come on, Roman Torchwick is in prison thanks to us. We won."

"We won a battle," Blake said. "The war's not over yet."

"You're right, of course," Pyrrha said. "But even soldiers are given the chance to rest in between battles."

"Exactly," Yang said. "Even those of us who haven't just gotten back from missions need to blow off steam every now and again, plus bonding with all the students here for the tournament. I guarantee, Nora and I are going to put on a great party for you guys. It'll be a night to remember."

Sunset was very glad that she wasn't eating anything at precisely that moment as she probably would have choked. "You…and Nora?"

Nora grinned as Yang said, "Yup, Team Coffee haven't gotten back from their mission yet so they asked me and Nora to step in and finish up."

Sunset's eyes flicked between the two of them. "Yeah, I'm suddenly finding myself with serious reservations."

"Don't be rude," Yang said playfully. "It's going to be a blast."

"With you two hosting I'm afraid that might be literally true," Sunset replied.

"Nah, Professor Goodwitch said that the pyrotechnics were too much of a fire hazard," Nora griped. "But she did agree to let Ren take care of the catering."

Ren's look became just a little long-suffering, which for someone who was ordinarily as inscrutable as rock spoke volumes.

"You guys better start thinking about partners, a lot of people already have dates," Yang continued.

"A lot of the good ones are taken," Nora said, slipping her hand into the crook of Ren's arm and gripping it tightly.

Yang leaned forward, a little bit of a wicked smirk alighting upon her face. "So: Blake, Pyrrha, Sunset; is there a boy you like? Or maybe a girl? I might be able to tell you if they're still available."

 _Well at least Pyrrha knows that the boy she likes is still available if only she'd have the courage to say something about it,_ Sunset thought. She didn't look at Pyrrha, because that stray thought aside she was rather more concerned with her own situation at the moment. She leaned back in her seat and tried her best to look supremely casual and unconcerned as she peered between Dove and Nora to where Weiss and Flash were having breakfast together, with Cardin and Russell nowhere to be seen.

 _She said no to him the first time, she'd say no a second time too, wouldn't she?_

Sunset was saved by Blake, who got up from the table in a manner which, although probably not intended to attract attention, could not in the circumstances avoid doing so.

"I don't have time to worry about stuff like that," she said mildly, before walking away.

Sunset watched her go - she wasn't alone, the eyes of practically the entire table followed her across the cafeteria towards the exit - in silence; nobody said anything as Blake left, her boots tapping on the floor and her long, tangled hair bouncing behind her.

"Do you think-" Ruby began.

"I'll go," Sunset said, rising to her feet; apart from anything it was easier to get up and go after Blake than it was to admit to the rest of the table that she still wasn't over her ex-boyfriend.

She could possibly have yelled at Blake to stop before the latter got out of the dining hall, but Sunset preferred to follow - albeit quickly, at a brisk jog - until both she and Blake had exited out into the courtyard, which Blake had begun to cut across on her way to the library.

"Hey, Blake," Sunset called. When the latter turned to look at her, Sunset smiled in what she hoped came across light-heartedly. "You know, if you don't want to admit that you like Sun you could just tell Yang to mind her own business rather than storm off with your breakfast half-eaten."

Judging by the look on Blake's face, she didn't find it as funny as Sunset had hoped.

"I'm not storming off," she said. "I just have better things to do than exchange gossip about whose taking who to some stupid dance."

"Sun already asked you, didn't he?" Sunset said. She couldn't keep the snort from escaping her nostrils. "Can I ask how grumpily you turned him down?"

Blake's expression didn't alter. "Like I said, I have better things to do."

Sunset sauntered towards her. "And what are you going to do instead?"

"You of all people should know what I'm going to do," Blake said.

"Look up White Fang safehouses in the directory?" Sunset suggested. "I don't...I don't get it. We got Torchwick! We helped put the kingpin away and you don't even seem a little proud, to say nothing of impressed. A lot of people would rest on their laurels for a little while after a feat like that."

"I'm not most people," Blake said, as she turned away and resumed her walk towards the library.

Sunset kept pace with ease. "I know, it's one of your better qualities," she said. She shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket. "But that doesn't mean that I can always understand you. If what we've done isn't enough for you then...what do you want?"

Blake was silent for a moment, but her hands knotted into fists as the two of them walked across the courtyard. "The person who killed Tukson is still out there," she said. "They murdered my friend and I'm no closer to finding them. And as for Torchwick...you might call him the kingpin but he was really more of a pawn; we're not a single step closer to finding the real mastermind behind Torchwick or the White Fang."

"Not true," Sunset said. "I bet Torchwick knows who he is. In fact I'll bet Torchwick knows a lot of things. If the Atlesians can make him talk then they might be able to roll up the entire White Fang in Vale and everyone backing them, including whoever killed your friend. And we'll have played a part in that, a big one."

Blake glanced at her from out of the corner of her eye. "And if they can't break him?"

"Then I repeat my first question," Sunset said. "With Torchwick behind bars what are you going to do?"

"I don't know yet, but..." Blake trailed off. "I have to try. I have to do something, I can't just...I have to do something."

Sunset licked her lips as they reached the library; Sunset held the door open for Blake as they went inside. "Listen, I get it. I get what it is to feel that your life, your purpose, the definition of your being is bound up in something so tightly that every moment that you don't spend working to achieve it is a moment completely and utterly _wasted_. To throw yourself into something so utterly that nothing and nobody else matters." They walked between two looming stacks of books, and for a moment Sunset allowed her gaze to linger on the old leatherbound volumes, their colour draining out of them as the gold lettering of their titles was rubbed away until it was practically invisible. _I spent years writing a book of sweeping knowledge that would prepare me for grand accomplishments, but before it was finished it was made clear to me that there were none left who wished to read it. And what is the purpose of an unread book: to moulder on a shelf, fading in unregarded obscurity while words as fresh as on the day of printing languish unknown and marked not. Such would have been my fate had I remained in Equestria._ "And I know where that path leads." _To be declared unworthy of my highest goal by all things that I had done to attain it. Oh what rich, delicious irony._ "The fact that it led me here...the fact that I landed on my feet if you'll forgive the expression...it doesn't change the fact that I had to walk a lot of hard yards thanks to the fact that, when I needed someone, anyone, to stand for me; even to think well of me...there were none who would. In my single-mindedness I'd left no room for such." Sunset sighed. "Blake...don't take this the wrong way, but-"

"But you're about to insult me, aren't you?" Blake asked, in a tone of dark amusement.

"No," Sunset said so quickly and so defensively that she was close to squawking. "But...you shut one team out, to the corrosion of any bond that might have grown between you. I...I beg you not to do the same with this team. Don't leave them behind. I know you think you've got a fire under your feet but it's one you can put out if you try, believe me."

"And if I don't?" Blake asked. "If I...if I asked them to walk with me."

"I can't let you do that right now," Sunset said, her voice hardening. "I understand, and I don't care if you care if you go to the dance or spend the night in the library surfing porn on the internet but they cannot go in the fire again so soon. Jaune needs a break to get his head back on straight and Pyrrha and Ruby need to know that he's okay or they're going to be fighting with one eye on him the whole time. Even if you can't stop, even if none of what I've said has made a blind bit of difference...please understand that...well, like you said you're not most people, and most people aren't like you."

Blake hesitated for a moment, her fingers running lightly along one of the bookshelves. "I…I've never liked to do nothing."

"It's better than doing something stupid," Sunset replied. "Trust me, we're not done yet…just give us a little time, okay? We won't keep you waiting too long."

Blake nodded. A faint smile cross her face. "If anyone takes me away…it'll be Atlas, not my own choice."

Sunset snorted. "Right. If I find you've disappeared one morning I'll know where to start looking."

"Thank you," Blake said softly. "And now, if you'll excuse me, there's somebody that I need to talk to."

Sunset's eyebrows rose. "Sun?"

"Yeah," Blake said. "But he's not the only one I owe an apology to."

* * *

"So, Pyrrha," Jaune said, the words falling out of his mouth as he crossed the courtyard towards the first year dorms. He had found himself trailing a couple of steps behind her as they walked, falling to the back of the cluster of which – along with Ruby and the members of YRDN – they were a part. It was as if the words had grown so heavy that he had been unable to keep them inside of him any longer.

Pyrrha turned towards him, the morning sunlight catching the gilded circlet on her brow and making it glimmer. "Yes, Jaune?"

Jaune was silent for a moment, and then for a moment longer as he realised that Ruby and YRDN had all stopped too, and they were looking right at him. It occurred to him that he might have been better off waiting until he and Pyrrha had gotten back to the privacy of their room and he could have done this with only Ruby for an audience.

Judging by the heat he could start to feel engulfing his entire body, and the way that he could feel himself beginning to sweat under his hoodie, he definitely should have waited.

Or maybe he should have just re-thought this entire thing because really, what was he thinking? This was _Pyrrha_ they were talking about, she was gorgeous and kind and sweet and talented and…all alone.

The memory of high-class Mistral party flashed before his eyes. Pyrrha in an expensive dress, standing alone in the middle of the courtyard as the rest of the party swirled around her, abandoned and forlorn. He remembered the look of resignation on her face and in her voice when he asked her what was going on.

He remembered the way that he had felt when he'd seen her like that, all alone, looking so sad. He remembered the kind of outrage that he'd felt against all the people who would treat Pyrrha that way, the desire to help her. The same desire that he felt now, when he thought about her being all alone like that…it was wrong, that was what it was.

He was sure that she'd get better offers here, because there were better people here than the snobs of Mistral, but…well, he might not be able to help Pyrrha out on the battlefield but he could help her with this stuff, right?

"Jaune?" Pyrrha repeated. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah!" he said quickly, as his voice rose in pitch for a moment. "I just…I was thinking…this dance, you know."

There was something in her eyes that Jaune couldn't quite place. Something in her voice too as she said, "Yes?"

"I…" Jaune swallowed. _Come on, you faced the grimm, you can do this. Women appreciate confidence! Just go for it!_ "I know that this is gonna sound kinda stupid, maybe, because obviously now that you're back there's no way that you wouldn't be able to find a partner for the dance…but I was wondering if, maybe, you wouldn't mind if I was your backup."

Silence, not only from Pyrrha but from everyone around them as well. Jaune was absolutely certain that a few other people beyond their immediate circle were watching him right now, but between the fact that his attention was fixed on Pyrrha and his ever-increasing sense of embarrassment because why, oh why didn't he wait until they got to their room before he did this please somebody take me away right now – he couldn't really see to be certain.

His attention was fixed on Pyrrha as she looked at him with…he couldn't really say what she was looking at him with, and the fact that he couldn't say was freaking him out a little bit. "My…my back-up?"

"Yeah," Jaune said. "Like, you know…" he realised abruptly that Pyrrha might not know, so he went on. "If you don't get a date to the dance, crazy I know, then…I could go with you."

Put like that it sounded like the stupidest of all stupid things. The only consolation – the absolute sole consolation – in all of this was that Sunset wasn't around to hear it because he could only imagine the look on her face if she was here right now.

As it was he didn't dare look to see what anybody else thought about this. He didn't really want to look at Pyrrha to be honest.

Pyrrha…Pyrrha stared at him for a moment. Jaune's stomach sank like a rock, a frozen rock considering how cold it felt right now. This had been a stupid idea, done in a stupid place, and he had been a complete idiot to do it and now he was going to pay the price. "I…that's very kind of you, Jaune, but I don't want you to be my back-up. But…" her pause was like a gaping chasm in which silence swallowed up all sounds of the world around them; more to the point it swallowed up all the excuses that bubbled up Jaune's throat but would not spill out of his mouth and into that silence that could not be filled.

For a moment Pyrrha looked, absurdly, ridiculously, as though she were trying to gird up her courage. And then she smiled, and her green eyes lit up and it was as though the sun had come out a second time. "But I would be delighted to accompany you to the dance."

"Huh?" Jaune gasped. "You…seriously?"

Pyrrha laughed. "Yes. That is…if you'd like."

"Yeah!" Jaune managed to get the word out. "That's, uh, that's…"

"A date?" someone suggested. Not Pyrrha. Yang.

It was only then that Jaune was able to notice the reactions of the people around him. Yang had a smirk on her face that told him he would never live this down. Ruby was smiling gently. Dove looked incredulous, and judging by a few of the whispers Jaune could pick up from around the courtyard he wasn't the only one.

"Seriously, that guy?"

"I know he's her partner but doesn't he suck?"

"What does she see in him?"

Jaune tried to ignore them. "Yeah, it's a date."

Pyrrha's smile was positively radiant. "It certainly is."

* * *

Ruby was a little surprised by the lack of disappointment that she felt.

Because she didn't feel disappointed at all, even though the boy she liked had just asked someone else out right in front of her. And that wasn't a lie, it wasn't her putting on a brave face or a fake smile for her friends or anything like it. She really wasn't feeling disappointed at all.

She'd felt confused, at first, when Jaune started burbling. She'd been a little surprised when the words spilled out of his mouth. During the long pause when Pyrrha hadn't quite finished yet she hadn't really known what to think. But now...now she wasn't disappointed even though Jaune had asked Pyrrha out on a date, and since Pyrrha was an all-around amazing person the likelihood was that they'd keep on dating (she hoped so, it would kind of suck if they fell out). Sure, it meant that she had missed out, but it wasn't as if she was in love with him or anything. Jaune was cute and funny and nice, but other people had noticed that as well and...stuff like this happened.

As far as disappointments in her life this barely registered, to the extent that she didn't feel disappointed at all.

Instead, as she looked at them, Ruby felt nothing but happiness.

Perhaps it was because of the look on Pyrrha's face. She looked so happy. Ruby didn't think she'd ever seen Pyrrha look this happy before. She didn't think that even winning the Vytal festival would produce such a look of pure and unadulterated glee on Pyrrha's face as she wore right now. As she resumed walking back to their dorm, it looked as if it was taking everything Pyrrha had not to start skipping.

 _She must really like him._ It was the only explanation that made a bit of sense. Ruby wasn't the smartest girl in class, but she knew joy when she saw it on someone's face and in their step, when she heard it in their voice. Pyrrha was really, genuinely, truly happy about this, and that, well, that made it nearly impossible for Ruby to begrudge her that joy, especially when Pyrrha seemed to come by it so rarely.

Her happiness washed away all other feelings and left no room for anything but happiness in Pyrrha's happiness. Confronted with this scene there was nothing whatsoever to do but smile.

And then there was Jaune, who looked as though he'd just been whacked over the head with something heavy as he stared at Pyrrha's back with a vacant look on his face.

"Uh, Jaune?" Ruby asked. "Are you okay?"

Jaune blinked. "Ruby...did I just ask Pyrrha out?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"Wow," he murmured, before a goofy grin spread across his face.

Ruby couldn't help but giggle as she gave him a thumbs up. "Good job, Jaune. You're gonna do great."

No, Ruby didn't feel disappointed; because Jaune and Pyrrha were her best friends, how could she not wish them all the luck in the world?

* * *

Sunset lingered in the library, after Blake was gone. She had nothing particularly better to do, except perhaps consider who - if anyone - she might take to this inconvenient dance. If she was left without a partner it would be pretty humiliating, especially if Flash had someone on his arm. She couldn't be single unless he was, and even if he was she would rather not be; not being more pathetic than him was a must, but she would rather be better if it were possible.

Then there was the question of her team to consider. It was easier to stay in the library than emerge from it to find that one of Pyrrha or Ruby had been set against the other by their mutual attraction to Jaune. No, it was easier to stay here for a little while; easier to deal with books than people. Books didn't care whether she could get a date or not, wouldn't care if she decided that she would rather avoid the dance altogether than show herself without a partner, didn't care about any of the things that people were so fascinated and confounded by in equal measure. Books, even for someone like herself who preferred a more hands-on approach to learning, could be a refuge from the chaos of the world, if only for a while.

So she stayed, even if she found herself drifting around the place a little bit, like a listless cloud blown on strong winds. Sunset found herself making her way, step by unwitting and unknowing step, towards a section of the library that she hadn't known was there, nestled between the Ancient History and Folklore sections: Supernatural and the Occult. It was only a single aisle long: two rows of books, many of them looking particularly old but not as though they had passed through a great many hands in those long years. Probably it was her imagination but, as she looked down the stacks, Sunset could almost think that the shadows seemed a little deeper here.

 _Supernatural and the occult, huh? I wonder..._

Sunset didn't know exactly what was down there - how could she, when she hadn't known that it existed until just now - but if there was any factual information in this section (and she would hope there was, this being a reference library and all) then there might be something to help activate Ruby's silver eyes. Something to help her understand the magic of this world, from which she could get a firm grip on how exactly it differed from the magic of Equestria.

Sunset walked down the aisle. It was a convenient find, this little and little-visited section, but at the same time she could not help but find it a curious one. It wasn't as if magic was an accepted fact of life in Remnant; few people knew of it, and even those who had it didn't always know that it existed. So who had decided that this subject, which was apparently considered fictional by the overwhelming majority of the population, a subject on which even those like Ruby who were heirs by blood to powers potent and ancient in equal measure were wholly ignorant of the fact, deserved space in a library otherwise wholly populated by solidly fact-based reference material? Beacon was only eighty years old, after all; there could be no plea that these books had been here since the founding of the academy in more credulous centuries long passed; someone eighty years ago - the blink of an eye when considered in the context of history - had decided to take these old and arcane tomes in which no stock was placed and give them a home here. Why would they do such a thing?

The obvious answer was that so that somebody would read them, but that raised another question: if you knew that magic was real and wanted people to know it, why rely on them stumbling across an obscure part of the library, reading the books there, and believing it even if it flew in the face of everything they thought and had been told about the world?

 _Because you don't need or want everyone to know. Only certain people._

 _People who are curious enough to follow a trail so they can find out where it goes._ How many people must have come upon this section of the library before now? How many of them had read any of the books contained within these dark shelves? How many had kept reading, and had taken seriously what they read? An ever-diminishing number, Sunset would be prepared to bet, and from that number...what?

Sunset frowned, and shook her head. She was getting way ahead of herself, building supposition upon assumption. She hadn't even looked at the books yet, they might be complete nonsense every one of them.

Or there might be something useful to Ruby.

Sunset walked down the aisle, examining the mouldering tomes that sat upon these shelves. Titles spelled in a variety of old-fashioned ways jumped out at her, discussing demonology, astrology, necromancy, witch-craft, were-grimm; no book title proclaimed that it was about to help your partner unlock her laser eyes but maybe-

"Sunset?"

Sunset turned, and looked out just past the other end of the stack. There, sitting alone at a small round table, sat Twilight Sparkle. Her scroll was sat on the table in front of her, projecting a hologram of a sword – one of Penny's swords, as a matter of fact – in blue light in front of her, although Twilight slid the scroll away so that she could get a better look at Sunset.

"What are you doing down here?" she asked. "Not a lot of people come to this part of the library."

"No, I can imagine," Sunset murmured, stepping out of the aisle and walking a little closer to Twilight's table. "Not a lot of interest in magic or occultism."

"But you're here," Twilight pointed out.

"Yeah," Sunset said. "And so are you."

"Well, I…" Twilight hesitated for a moment. "This place is nice and quiet to work."

"Fair enough," Sunset said. She walked to the edge of the railing that separated the first floor from the ground floor below them and leaned against it with one hand, looking down at the rows of long table below her. "No bodyguard with you."

"I don't need Rainbow or Ciel to keep me safe here," Twilight said. "There aren't any monsters at Beacon."

"There aren't any grimm at Beacon," Sunset replied. "I wouldn't rule out the monsters completely."

"You're talking about that video?" Twilight asked. "The one that got Blake into trouble?"

"Someone sent it," Sunset said.

Twilight sighed. "Someone is about as precise as I can get. The means they used to protect their identity are incredibly sophisticated."

Sunset turned around, and rested her back upon the wooden rail as she let her hands drape over it. "Too sophisticated for you to break?"

Twilight looked faintly peeved. "It isn't only a question of skill, it's a question of power. That's why, on the night of the dance this weekend, I'm going to use the network of the CCT tower to crack this thing once and for all. General Ironwood has already given me his permission."

Sunset, by contrast, decided to sit down without asking permission first, although Twilight didn't object when she did it. "You're going to miss the dance?"

"You wouldn't be so surprised if you'd seen me dancing," Twilight replied.

Sunset chuckled. "Not a party person, I take it."

"I can be," Twilight replied, sounding a little defensive. "When my friends are there to make it fun; but they're not, most of them. Rainbow, of course, but…it's not the same. It won't be the same. Without them…it's just not my kind of thing."

"I'm not judging," Sunset said. Based on Twilight's tone that was probably something that she got a lot from various people. "I haven't decided if I'll go myself."

"Not a party person, I take it," Twilight said.

Sunset snorted. "No, you'd be pretty much right about that." She tapped her fingers on the table. "So, what are you working on?"

Twilight moved the hologram a little closer towards her, and leaned in towards it. With both hands she reached for the holographic sword and began to pull it apart, dismantling what would have been the hilt if this had been a normal sword, turning it into its component parts.

"Is it classified?" Sunset asked. "Is that why you can't say anything?"

Twilight frowned. "Do you know anything about complex robotics?"

Sunset folded her arms, and said nothing while she looked at Twilight's hologram. She was embarrassed to admit that it took her a moment to realise that it wasn't actually one of Penny's swords; the blade was the same, but the rear, the 'hilt' and the 'pommel' for want of better words, were much larger and bulkier than Penny's actual blades.

"Let me see," Sunset said. "You're not paying any attention to the blade or the laser cannon, but you have got a receiver and a dust battery which Penny doesn't need right now unless…you want to take her wireless, don't you?"

Twilight said nothing, but her silence – and the slightly guilty look on her face – said everything that Sunset needed it to.

Sunset kept her voice reasonably low. "I'm guessing that wireless weapons were always your original goal but that you couldn't make it work and so you had to go with wire filaments and now…you haven't given up hope."

Twilight frowned, and sighed as she pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose. "It's not that it didn't work," she said. "The wireless system works just fine: a dust battery for independent power and a receiver to pick up the command signals from Penny – she even has the transmitter built in, it's just a redundant system right now. The swords already have thrusters for guidance and propulsion. The problem was that the power pack and the receiver made the back end of the sword too big to fit inside Penny's back-pack in the numbers required." Twilight sighed again. "It's far from ideal, but the council demanded results. General Ironwood couldn't stall them any longer. Hence wires, and Penny will be stuck with wires unless I can figure out some way to miniaturize all this and I just can't see it!" She shoved the scroll with its attendant hologram away from her; it would have toppled off the end of the table if Sunset hadn't caught it.

"I'm sorry," Twilight said. "I just…I've been working on this for months and I don't feel like I'm any closer to getting it now than when I started."

"You need to have that many swords?" Sunset asked.

Twilight nodded wearily. "The mega-cannon mode requires the power of that many individual lasers in order to achieve the mandated armour penetration; for the same reason we can't just reduce the output of the individual lasers in order to get away with a smaller battery, not that the savings in size are anything like commensurate with the reductions in capacity anyway."

Sunset's brow furrowed. From an interested lay perspective, she could understand why Twilight was having. Dust was the most efficient form of energy generation in Remnant, so if a dust power pack was too big then there didn't seem to be much hope for anything else.

 _Assuming that it needs an actual power pack._ "Can you not just use a battery, charged from Penny herself when she's not using the weapons?"

Twilight shook her head. "It would work, but in order to get a battery small enough you'd have to accept an unacceptably low combat time."

"What's unacceptably low?" Sunset said. "Most battles aren't drawn out."

"Most individual actions are not drawn out," Twilight corrected. "Penny can't just despatch a group of beowolves and call it quits necessarily, she might need to have to respond to situations across a wide area for hours, maybe days without respite."

"Because now that you have Penny you're planning to retire the Atlesian Corps of Specialists," Sunset replied. "Come on, you know that no flesh and blood huntress would be asked to rush up and down a full-scale battlefield like that; individual teams and units would have their own sectors and only respond to other areas in an emergency."

"I know," Twilight said softly. "But we both know that Penny isn't a flesh and blood huntress. The council expects to be able to push her harder and take greater risks with her, and she needs to be able to handle it. She needs to be able to fight for hours, days, maybe weeks without stopping. And she needs to have all of these stupid wires out of the way." She took her head in her hands, shaking it despairingly. "There must be an answer to this, right? This isn't an insurmountable problem."

"I don't believe in insurmountable problems," Sunset said. "Is there any reason you can't just expand the backpack to make room."

"She needs to look human in order to appeal to civilians, rather than alarming them," Twilight said. "Giving her a hump on her back wouldn't help in that regard."

Sunset whistled. "Whoever set these parameters was doing you no favours."

"I know," Twilight groaned.

Sunset looked down at her hand. Maybe…maybe there was a way. But she couldn't be sure of it yet. She couldn't even be sure that she wanted to do it, let alone that it would work and was a good idea. But magic was, when you got right down to it, just a power source. A particularly versatile power source, but nevertheless it was projection of energy to accomplish a purpose; and even when she'd left Equestria clever unicorns had been making inroads into using that energy for technological purposes. It wasn't impossible that a magically battery would be compact enough, and it wasn't even impossible that Sunset could come up with a way to make it regenerate on its own account provided it was never drained completely; that was, after all, one of the ways in which magic – form of energy or not – broke the laws regarding conservation of energy that bound more mundane forms of it.

She still didn't know that it would work, but now that she'd had the idea Sunset found that it had gotten a grip on her; like a flea biting into her skin. It wouldn't leave her alone.

Sunset would definitely have to think on this some more.

Of course, even if she could come up with something which worked there was still the question of how she would explain it to the Twilight Sparkle of Atlas.

 _I might have to ask the Twilight Sparkle of Equestria what she thinks about this._

"So," she said, keeping her voice casual. "Assuming that you already miniaturized the receiver as much as possible-"

"Of course."

"How small would the battery need to be to fit into the current space?"

"Unfortunately," Twilight said, as she dug around in the bag slung over the arm of her chair. "About the size of this candy bar."

Sunset took the bar from Twilight's unresisting hand. It was a chunky candy bar, at least, it felt like one of those ones that was divided into big blocks that you broke off to eat one at a time, but it was still just a candy bar. The foil wrapping wrinkled under Sunset's finger tips.

"I see," she said softly.

"Why?" Twilight asked.

Sunset shrugged. "I might have an idea, but I'm not ready to share it right now." She unwrapped the chocolate and sure it enough, it was made up of easily breakable blocks. She broke one off, and grinned. "Or perhaps I just wanted some chocolate," Sunset said before she popped the bar into her mouth.

Twilight stared at her.

Sunset offered her the bar.

"I…you know what, why not," Twilight said, as she took a piece of chocolate for herself. "I could use a break from pushing this boulder up the hill," she added, turning off her scroll as she started to chew.

Sunset swallowed. "You can only bang your head against the wall for so long before it starts to hurt."

Twilight nodded resignedly. "I just wish…oh, never mind." She leaned back in her hair, and took off her glasses for a moment so that she could rub her eyes. "Sunset, can I ask you something? It might seem like a…but you were in that part of the library so…"

Sunset waited for her to finish. "If there's a question I'm not seeing it." She took another piece of chocolate.

"Do you believe in magic?" Twilight asked, speaking rapidly as though she was afraid the words might not come out if she didn't shove them out.

Sunset paused, using the time to laboriously chew upon her candy as a disguise for not saying anything. It was question both interesting and a little strange as well. _Do I believe in magic? What does she know that she would even ask me that?_

 _What might she know?_

Sunset could say no, of course. She could act as though she found the question to be ridiculous. She could claim that she had wandered down that part of the library by accident (it would even be true) or she could state and esoteric interest in the occult and the hermetic that didn't extend to actually finding any of it remotely credible. After all, she trusted her team to keep her secret.

But if she did that then Twilight would almost certainly clam up, and Sunset wouldn't get to find out what she knew. And Sunset wanted to find out. She had been a little…lax in delving into some of Remnant's mysteries. Preoccupied with her own uniqueness, it hadn't actually occurred to her to wonder what hidden traditions of magic Remnant might possess; Ruby's silver-eyes had opened Sunset's eyes to the existence of the same but by that point she simply hadn't had a lot of time to investigate further. Twilight might be offering her a window into such a world.

Or she might not. Perhaps if Sunset said that she believe in magic Twilight, the girl of science, would simply laugh.

But whatever, Sunset had endured much worse than a little light teasing.

"Yes," she said. "I believe in magic." It was a lie, because believe in magic for Sunset was a little like believing in aura, but as far as the lies that she'd told in her life went it didn't even crack the top five hundred.

"Really?" Twilight asked, and while she sounded a little incredulous it wasn't in a mocking way, or Sunset didn't find it out. "Wow. I mean…wow. This is the first time I've met a fellow believer in person instead of on a forum."

"There are forums?"

"Yes. You…didn't know that?"

"I've come to my position by a very lonely road," Sunset said. "I have to say I'm surprised. I would never have thought that a scientist like you would-"

"Yeah, I don't talk about this much," Twilight said. "I would never mention this in the lab, and even my friends…"

"Think you're crazy?"

"They're all far too nice to say that," Twilight said. "But they don't believe me. But this isn't just blind faith or fairy tale; you must know that, if you believe as well. I don't understand why…to our ancestors, aura was something that they could barely comprehend, it was their salvation from the grimm but they had no idea what it was, how it worked, how to make best use of it. They thought it was a gift from the gods, and they believed that semblances were also bestowed by the gods they worshipped as gifts to the most faithful, the most virtuous, to the champions of their tribes and kingdoms; different beliefs flourished across the surface of Remnant. Now we understand so much more about aura that we can measure it, quantify it, even…the point is, why shouldn't what was called magic in the past be exactly the same? Every day our knowledge of the world is expanding, so who is to say that there aren't powers out there that are beyond what our present understanding says is possible? Especially since there is so much evidence out there that say that is precisely the case." Twilight stopped, and laughed sheepishly. "Sorry, was I ranting?"

"No," Sunset said with a smile. "I've never seen you this animated before."

"Well, we don't really know each other that well," Twilight murmured, looking down at the table.

"That could change, if we want it to," Sunset said. "So, how did you get into this? It doesn't seem a particularly common belief."

"It isn't," Twilight admitted. "I mean, it's not just a belief, there's proof if you're willing to look for it: stories of prophets and saints that are dismissed now as religious propaganda but if you look at the commonalities across cultural and vast geographic boundaries it makes just as much sense to say that there is at least some truth to them. Look at the history of the Age of the Red Queens: why were there never more than four queens at any one time, how did they rise to power and how did they maintain it until their deaths? And it's not just ancient history either, there are eye witness accounts of inexplicable happenings that just…they don't make sense under the current rational schema of the world but that doesn't mean that those who say they saw it are liars or deluded or clueless. People aren't stupid, they know what they saw and what they saw…what I saw, was just incredible."

Sunset leaned forward. "What did you see?"

Twilight was silent for a moment or two. "I don't remember exactly where it is that we were going; I was only a young girl. I don't remember where my brother was a I just remember that we were driving along the open road and then suddenly…the grimm. I think my parents were knocked out in the crash – they were fine later but they…I remember screaming for them as the grimm started to claw their way in, and I remember that they didn't answer. I remember how scared I was, the way I clung to my brother…and I remember her.

"I don't know who she was. She never stopped to tell us her name. But I remember her. Her hair was as white as the snow that was blowing all around us and as long as she was tall; she was dressed in blue and her dress, her hair, they both billowed all around her and she…this may sound crazy but she was flying. She flew overhead and the things that she did where just…I've never seen anything like it since. Wind, water, lighting, they were all at her command. It wasn't a semblance, I'd be prepared to bet everything I have on that. I don't know what it was, I just know that she saved all of us…and I know that I want to find out what it was that she did and how she did it." Twilight smiled, as if she was embarrassed. "I suppose I should probably tell you that being saved by this mysterious hero, who defeated the grimm without saying a word, inspired me to become a hero who'd save everyone myself…but that would be a lie. That's my brother, that's my friends, that's the people around me who are so much better than me. All I can do is help them, make things they can use, support them with my mind…and find out the truth. Because there's more to this world than we know, I saw that with my own eyes; I know there's more out there, and I'm going to find it some day."


	63. Two Stories

Two Stories

And so it came to pass that the hand of God alighted upon the woman Mary, and the spirit moved within her, and his blessings fell upon her, and she was consumed with the divine grace.

Sunset adjusted her pillow. Since her talk with Twilight, she had borrowed a couple of books out of the library to read up on what was known of magic in this world. She wasn't entirely sure what was true and what was religious embellishment, but already she could start to see what Twilight was talking about: this was a Valish story, one of my lives of the saints from the Valish Orthodox Church, and not only did it begin in the same way as practically every other saint's life that she'd read so far, but there were clear similarities to their equivalents from Anima and Solitas. Sunset had even started keeping track, scribbling about the similarities on a notebook that sat beside her on her bed.

All women. Age not stated but cultural context (unmarried, often under some kind of parental authority) suggests young when they came into power.

They all come into power. None of them are born with it. Possibly this is the religious element but perhaps truth to it.

Weird dichotomy: either know the previous prophet (or whatever) very well (as in 'present at her deathbed well') or complete stranger. No middle ground.

In each tradition, never more than one at a time.

That was interesting. If her observations were correct, and if the accounts could be trusted upon this point, then it suggested that magic in Remnant was not something one was born to as a unicorn was, but rather something bestowed upon one like...like ascension, to be frank. It wasn't exact parallel, you couldn't replace God or the gods with Princess Celestia and the holy spirit with a pair of wings (or horn) and a crown and have the whole story still make perfect sense, but it was a better fit than Sunset had expected at first. It made sense, though, the more she thought about it; Equestrian magic was not, the occasional prodigy like Sunset herself aside, a catch-all or a force capable of shaking the foundations of cosmos. It had more in common with semblance, in that it reflected your personality and could range from great to staggeringly limited in its utility. It made sense to her then, when she stopped to think about it, that magic in Remnant would be...something else, something on top of that, something reserved only for the chosen few.

The biggest difference - or at least the one that struck Sunset, coming from the Equestrian tradition, as the most bizarre - was that none of these girls seemed to demonstrate their aptitude or worthiness for power until after it had been bestowed upon them.

But who was doing the bestowing? If it was not gods (Sunset wasn't prepared to say for sure, one way or the other) then who? If anyone?

Sunset returned to the story.

And Mary found that she had dominion over the fire and the water, and that the gardens would bloom at her desire, and she was sorely afraid for she did not understand the blessing of God; and the people were sorely afeared, for they comprehended not, and they shunned Mary for the changes that had been wrought upon her.

But then the old man came to the village of Providence and said unto the people there 'Where is the girl, Mary, daughter of a carpenter? I have come from afar seeking after her.' And the people of the village urged him to turn back, for Mary the Carpenter's Daughter had been transformed, and they did not comprehend what she had become. Nevertheless, the old man asked again where she might be found, and with reluctance they pointed him the way.

And then the old man went to Mary and said unto her 'Be not afraid. Rejoice! For you have been chosen.'

Of course there was an old man. There was always an old man. Often he played this kind of role, telling the chosen one what they'd gotten themselves into and giving them their mission from God (or the gods). Interestingly, he was never named. He was just an old man, but everybody seemed to trust him anyway. Was it the same man? No, that was impossible due to the broad span of time across which these stories took place; a better question to ask was it whether there was only one man at a time. After all, if all of these religious traditions were just syncretic additions to explain or cover up the existence of magic, then it wasn't too much of a leap to say that there only needed to be one old man at a time flitting across the world explaining the rules.

Although that begged the question of how he was getting around. One herald per chosen one made just as much sense, although that didn't explain why said herald didn't stick around for longer.

Who is the old man and who told him what was going on? Sunset scribbled, before reading on.

And the old man took Mary away from Providence, and in the wilderness he taught her to understand the blessing that had been granted to her: to command the fire and water, wind and lightning; to make the desert bloom and bring forth life where before there was only aridness; to see into the hearts of men that she might move them; to comprehend what had been and what could be; to understand that she was now more than she had been, that she had been chosen and a great purpose now lay upon her.

As a run-down of what magic could do in this world it was pretty comprehensive, and pretty consistent not only with Sunset's reading up to this point but also with Twilight's childhood recollection - flying wasn't mentioned, but that could easily fall under command of the wind. Sunset had already written down a list of her best guesses, based on these somewhat archaically worded statements, magic in Remnant was able to:

Elemental control (plus lightning)

Fertility

Divination?

Mind-reading?

Empathy?

It wasn't a hard and fast list, and the only ones she was sure of were the ones that Twilight had confirmed with her childhood eyes and the one that was pretty obvious from the way it was worded. The rest were plausible but unconfirmed interpretations; although the narratives were consistent, they were consistent in unfortunately couching everything in turns of phrase that were open to dispute in what they actually meant. Sunset read on.

And the old man saw how she had grown as a flower blossoming amist the weeds and he was well pleased, saying unto her 'My child, I send thee forth to spread the good news to all nations; be resolute in the face of wickedness, be compassionate in the face of weakness; be wise, be brave and be kind in equal measure. Go forth, for you are ready.'

Sunset frowned. This was the bit she didn't understand. Assuming that there was some force that was choosing to bestow magic upon these young women, then why? What was it in aid of? What was the point of it all?

 _Why does Equestria make princesses? To provide leadership and inspiration._

 _Yes, in the service of harmony and of Princess Celestia. In what and to what are these saints and prophets in aid?_

 _God? Gods? If there are as many gods as there are faiths then why are all their prophet-figures so similar? If there is no divinity but only magic then from whence comes it and, again, to what end?_

 _Why does the old man send her forth? What does he want or expect her to achieve?_

Sunset had read a dozen similar accounts, and the accounts of what the girls did once the old man had decreed that they were ready: accounts of miracles, battles against the grimm (and in one memorable instance with a trio of monsters who seemed themselves to have more than a touch of the magical about them); of how they had converted cities and peoples, or driven wickedness out of them; still she felt that she was missing something. Perhaps Twilight would have a theory when they spoke again, for the existence of this system that seemed at once discernible and yet also to possess a quality that was tantalisingly outside of Sunset's reach.

 _I am groping in the dark...but I can feel something beneath my fingertips._

 _If this is magic, if magic exists in Remnant then it is not the magic that I know; it is a kind of ascension, once granted for a purpose that is not clear and, if Twilight is to believed, still being granted albeit now hidden from the world for reaons which, again, are not yet clear to me._

 _By whom, and to what end? Answer those questions and all will become clear._

 _And I will know how to obtain this power for myself._

* * *

Even though we only got back from our last training mission a week ago, Professor Ozpin has already assigned us another one.

"Raven wasn't kidding," Yang muttered. "Two training missions in the second semester, and before they'd even gotten to Armistice Day? Professor Ozpin did push Mom's team hard." She glanced at Ruby. "You're not going anywhere again, are you?"

"I haven't heard anything about another mission," Ruby said. "Sunset hasn't talked about it; I don't think she'd keep something like to herself, either."

"Good," Yang said.

"It wouldn't be such a big deal," Ruby said. "What's wrong with getting out of Beacon and helping people?"

"What's the point of attending Beacon if you're going to skip all of your classes-"

"It's not like we're playing truant or anything. I had a note from the headmaster and everything!"

"So you can get treated like a qualified huntress when you're not," Yang finished.

Ruby found that she couldn't quite keep the pout off her face. "We did a lot of good out there."

"I know," Yang conceded. "And I'm proud of you for helping to fix the railway line and catch Torchwick." She wrapped one arm around Ruby's shoulders and squeezed. "But it doesn't change the fact that it shouldn't have been your job."

"Well…Professor Ozpin didn't exactly know that we were going to try and catch Torchwick on our way back, so…" Ruby trailed off, waiting for an expression of sisterly disapproval for her recklessness.

"I think Professor Ozpin knows more than you think he does," Yang said, and surprisingly that was all she had to say on the matter.

Ruby blinked. "That's it?"

"Uh huh," Yang said. "Like I said, I think Ozpin knew exactly what you guys had in mind."

"You're starting to sound a little like Sunset," Ruby said. "She thinks the Professor might be up to something as well."

"Then Sunset Shimmer might be smarter than she looks after all," Yang said. "Come on, let's see what this second mission Mom and her team was.

But everyone was up for it, and Professor Ozpin said that it was a mission that he could only trust the four of us with; I'm still not sure why that is, there must have been pro-huntsmen or even older students he could count on, but the way he said it made it very hard to refuse.

And besides, it kind of beats Professor Port's class.

"It's kind of depressing, don't you think?" Yang said. "You'd like to think he'd been a good teacher once even if he wasn't any more."

We went up to the top of the tower to see Professor Ozpin in his office. Professor Goodwitch was there too, although she didn't look too happy to see us. Professor Ozpin introduced us to a woman named Auburn; he called her an old student of his and a friend. Our mission is to escort Auburn to the village of Seclusion, where a girl named Merida lives; we're then to escort both Auburn and Merida back to Vale. Professor Ozpin won't say why this girl needs to come to Vale and Auburn pretty much told me not to ask. Raven is suspicious about it, but I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation for it. We set off at dawn tomorrow. We'll be moving through wild territory, so there's a chance of running into grimm, but if we don't go looking for trouble then too much trouble shouldn't find its way to us.

The two sisters flipped to the next page, crossing the night and arriving at the next day in the blink of an eye.

I'm not sure what to make of Miss Auburn. She laughs a lot, and seems pleasant enough, but there's something about the way that she laughs that seems forced, strained somehow. It's like she's pretending to be a lot more genial than she actually is. She drinks a lot as well, every time I look at her she has a skin of wine in her hand; I think we're all amazed she can still function, although only Qrow had the nerve to actually call her out on it.

"Did I just read that?" Yang asked. "You read that, right? Uncle Qrow took someone else to task for drinking too much."

"I guess some people really do change," Ruby said.

"Yeah, he went from calling this lady out to following her example," Yang said.

Anyway, as weird as it seems she can still function, and pretty well actually. We were attacked by grimm this evening, just before twilight. More grimm than I'd expect to see so close to Vale, honestly: beowolves and ursai. It got bad for a moment. Tai and Raven both had their auras broken; I was going to use my silver eyes to destroy the grimm but before I could Auburn did something, I don't know what she did, but it didn't look like any semblance that I've ever seen. She was using fire and lightning and wind, at one point it looked as though she was freezing leaves to use as knives. She took out the grimm, not me, and then she healed Raven and Tai's injuries; they were only minor cuts and bruises but still she just touched them and they were gone. And while she was fighting, and while she was doing whatever it was that she did for Tai and Raven, it was as though I was looking a completely different person: the real Auburn, not the one who pretends to laugh and hides who she really is. Someone serious, but maybe a little sad, too.

"The hell?" Yang said. "Does this make any more sense to you?"

"Mom…could be wrong," Ruby said, trying to steer the conversation away from the idea of magic; she didn't like lying to her sister, and more to the point she wasn't very good at it and she was worried that if they talked about this too long then she wouldn't be able to keep the words 'Sunset has magical powers' from tumbling out of her mouth. "It could be a semblance that she'd never seen before."

Ruby doubted that, however. She might have believed it before she'd started reading this diary and had Sunset confirm for her that magic was a real thing that really existed, but now…and Mom had magic too, so she probably knew it when she saw it, even if she didn't know that she knew it if that made any sense. Had this Auburn been somebody like Sunset? Mom hadn't mentioned that she was a faunus, but that didn't mean that she hadn't been one; maybe she came from the same place Sunset did and they all had magic there.

Although what Mom had written about didn't sound like the kind of magic that Sunset did, Auburn wasn't throwing energy around or making shields by the sound of it. It sounded almost more like dust, but without the dust.

 _Another kind of magic, maybe?_ Ruby decided to ask Sunset about it, if anyone knew then she would.

"I guess it could be that," Yang said. "Or it could be something else. Something like her silver eyes, maybe?"

"…Maybe?" Ruby said. "Maybe…maybe we should just keep going. Maybe she'll tell us…eventually."

I would have asked her just how she did that, but I had bigger problems tonight. Raven completely lost it with Qrow, yelling at him that this was all his fault, that he' nearly gotten them killed. She said something about their family, I didn't understand it, I just wanted her to stop. I did stop her, but Qrow took it to heart. He walked off. I went and talked to him, and I told him that of course it wasn't his fault, these things happen, that he fought well and that he's a valuable part of this team. I wish I could be sure that he believed me.

I'm worried about him. He seemed so upset about what had happened. He seemed to believe that it really was his fault, like he was a danger to the whole team and he wouldn't even really explain why he felt that way.

I wish I knew why Raven had said what she did.

I wish I knew what to say to Qrow to make it better.

* * *

There are many who came to be known as the Red Queens, bloody-handed women who carved a place for themselves in the unhappy history of Remnant, but there was only one who ever called herself the Red Queen: the first and vilest of them all, her real name lost to history for all that it deserves to stand alongside the worst examples of mankind as an exemplar of cruelty and malice.

What is known is that she was once a common brigand, the leader of a small band of miscreants hiding in the vast, wide lands of Mistral, preying upon helpless travellers and fleeing in terror from the knights whom the Empress of Mistral, Pyrrha, the Second of Her Name, despatched to keep the peace across the span of her dominions.

Sunset couldn't help but smile; she couldn't imagine what Empress Pyrrha, the Second of Her Name, had looked like so her mind supplied an image of her Pyrrha sitting upon a gilded throne, looking awkward and uncomfortable as she dealt with the petitions of the court.

 _She'd hate it, though I daresay it would please her mother._

 _I wonder how many Pyrrhas there are in her family tree?_

She had moved on from the lives of the saints and prophets, and was now skimming through an account of the so-called age of the Red Queens, who had brought the Age of Miracles to a close with their barbarism. Twilight said that this was the point at which magic went underground as it were, and Sunset was about to find out why.

One day, this bandit queen met the Dark Mother

Sunset blinked, and read it again. _The Dark Mother?_ That wasn't a name that she had come across before, and yet it was used so casually that the author evidently presumed a familiarity with it.

Sunset scribbled the name down in her notebook as something to ask Twilight about before she read on.

One day, this bandit queen met the Dark Mother, and the witch offered her the power to do more than to raid defenceless villages and farmsteads: she offered her the power to take all of Mistral for her own.

'What would you have of me, O creature of the night, in exchange for this great gift you offer.'

'Nothing, but a certain trinket in the possession of the Empress, which was rudely stolen from me in days long ago,' the witch replied.

And so the bandit laughed, and with a light heart she agreed to the Dark Mother's bargain, thinking little of it.

 _Trinket? Enchanted object of some kind?_ Sunset hadn't come across them yet either, but then she had only just started reading.

And then the bandit hearkened to the witch, and listened to her counsel with ears as keen as a fox.

And so, taking only a handful of her most skilled and trusted companions, the bandit queen lay in wait upon the road where the Prophetess Helen would be travelling, and when that good and virtuous lady came riding by the bandits waylaid her. Though great power had been bestowed upon the prophetess, and she was bold and kind and wise beyond her youthful years, those vile vagabonds took her by surprise and cut her down, lovely as she was and virtuous. The bandit queen cut off her head, and as she smote the fair prophetess down the gods bestowed all the power that once had belonged to her upon the villain who had laid her low.

 _Huh?_ Sunset stared at the page with such a blank expression on her face that if she hadn't been all alone in the dorm room someone might have thought that there was something wrong with her. They couldn't…that couldn't mean what it said, could it? She was being stupid, there was another meaning to it. There…there had to be. Otherwise it meant…the text itself, the narrative voice, just called this unnamed woman a villain. She was a bandit. She cut off some poor woman's head and for these kindnesses she was rewarded with power? The power that, in Sunset's previous reading, had been bestowed upon the virtuous even if their virtues had not revealed themselves until after they came into the possession of great power.

 _You know, there are plenty of problems with the way that ascension works – starting with the fact that I never got the chance – but at least you can't become an alicorn by – by all accounts – murdering another alicorn! Sweet Celestia!_

The image of someone cutting off Twilight's head in attempt to ascend filled Sunset's mind, and sent a shiver down her spine besides.

Killer of previous prophet gained her powers; who decides and what criteria are they using? Sunset scribbled in her notebook. Her brow remained set with a deep furrow as she continued to read.

And when the old man came to her, as he had come to all the prophets who had come before her, to instruct her and to guide her upon her path, the bandit queen scorned him, saying unto him, 'Fall to thy prayers, old man, I have no need of thee or of thy council. The power is mine, as mine own will be mine, and I will not be the catspaw of thee nor any other living thing that breathes upon this earth. Rather, being now possessed of might unchallenged and unchallengeable, I shall from this day forth order all things as I will, yea, even across the whole of Mistral. For is it not fitting and proper that the powerful should rule, and those that have no power should slink low and obey as the sheep obey the shepherd? This world has beaten me with whips and chains, but I shall flay them in their turn with scorpions.

Sunset found herself unable to suppress a wince. Stripped of its old-fashioned verbiage it was the kind of thing that she could imagine herself saying; the kind of thing that she had thought more than once.

 _There but for the grace of Team SAPR go I. I mean, I'd hope that I wouldn't cut off anybody's head in order to get to the top but…_

She had been so lost when she came to Beacon; Atlas had done so much to grind down upon her, to step on her, to twist her with bitterness…if it hadn't been for her team who knew what a few more years of crap might have done to her? It was an uncomfortable thought, that you might be little better than someone who was being lambasted as one of the worst monsters ever to draw breath, to feel that their words would come – or would have come, at least – very easily out of your mouth.

 _I am not her. I didn't become her, and I won't. My friends will keep me on the right road and will not let me fall._

 _My deeds will be of a nobler sort; provided they define me I should be okay._

And so she sent the old man away, and he departed with much sorrow in his heart. It was then that the brigand cast aside her old name and began to call herself a queen, for in her pride she believed that the power that had been granted to her had granted too the right to rule over all Mistral and the lands beyond. Many credulous peasants flocked to her banner, awed by her power, eager to do her service.

 _Either that or they were terrified of what she'd do to them if she didn't._

Towns and villages who resisted her were put to the sword utterly, save only for a single survivor from each settlement to which the she and her host laid waste, whom they sent to Mistral to bring word of these calamities to the Empress. 'Lady, where are you warriors?' the people cried. 'Why do you not protect your people?' And the Empress Pyrrha wept to hear of the devastations that were being visited upon her subjects.

And the so-called queen began to be called the Red Queen, for she not only drenched the land in blood but herself also, and she found the name pleasing to her ears and took it for her own.

The Red Queen led her army, growing each day with villains sharked up from every low place in the land, to the gates of Argus and laid siege to it; and at the same time she sent a messenger to Mistral with a challenge to the Empress: to meet her in single combat before the walls of Argus, and decide the war at a single stroke with both their crowns upon the hazard.

Pyrrha the Second was fair and virtuous, with a heart so great that it burned at all the sufferings that the Red Queen was daily inflicting upon the people of Mistral. She was yet young, and proud, and a most puissant warrior of whom it was said that none could withstand her arms, and she determined at once to accept this challenge and put an end to the Red Queen's villainy once and for all. Yet the heart of the Emperor her husband was filled with sorrow, for he had heard the reports of the miscreant's inhuman power and he feared she could not be withstood by any mortal.

At the gates of Mistral, where Pyrrha's horse was saddled and waiting, he held their daughter in his arms and begged her not to go forth to this battle, saying to her, 'My brave wife, this courage of yours dooms you.'

'If that is my fate, then I cannot avoid it but must meet with all the valour in my heart,' said Pyrrha, victor of the people.

'You have no pity for your child, or for your husband whom you shall soon make a widower,' he replied. 'This Red Queen shall destroy you, and would that I were better dead for there will be no more joy for me without you but only sorrows without ending. Pyrrha you are wife and sister and mother to me, I have nothing but you and nobody but you; take pity on me now, and on your little girl, and do not go forth to a battle where there is no victory.'

And Pyrrha of the flaming hair replied, 'My lord, I too am filled with trepidation, but I would be shamed before the great-hearted men of Mistral and their wives in trailing robes were I now to shrink thus from the fighting like a coward. My foe has sent for me, and I cannot refuse. Nor is it in me to hide between the high walls of my city, since from my earliest youth I have striven to excel in arms and win great glory for my house and for myself. I must go. For me, there is no other path.' And so great-hearted Pyrrha reached out to take her daughter but the child, frightened by the bronze of her helmet and the tall burning crest of crimson horsehair that stood tall upon it, took fright and cried out, clutching at her father's chest.

Then her great lady mother laughed aloud, and her lord father too, and Pyrrha swept the helmet off her head and took her daughter in her arms and kissed her, saying, 'Grant that this girl may like me be foremost amongst the Mistralians, as strong, and a greater leader of this city and this land; and grant that they may say of her 'she is a better prince than her mother' that her father's heart may rejoice.'

And with those words she mounted her horse and rode away, and was never seen again. They looked for her from the high towers of Mistral, but she did not return by mountains or by sea. Instead it was the Red Queen who arrived at the Mistral gates, and laid Pyrrha's broken sword before them as a token of her victory.

 _Pyrrha._ It wasn't her Pyrrha, of course. Pyrrha wasn't dead, she hadn't ridden anywhere, no monster possessed of powers near to divine had challenged her to single combat but…perhaps it was the way that the names being the same had caused Sunset to imagine the Mistrali Empress as her team-mate but what had started as the amusing image of Pyrrha sitting awkwardly upon a throne…it didn't seem so funny any more. For just as Sunset could fit the sentiments of the Red Queen, if not the language itself, into her own mouth so could she hear the sentiments of Pyrrha the Second echoing out of the mouth of her Pyrrha in the right circumstances. She could see her, before the gate, and Jaune holding their daughter in his arms as he begged her not to go. And yet she went anyway, turning away from him and mounting her horse, riding away never to return. She would go, in those circumstances, just as her ancestor had. She would go because…because that was what a hero did.

And in the going she would be lost to them.

 _I won't let that happen. We won't let that happen._

 _Pyrrha isn't going to die. I won't let her._

Sunset started to skim through, past the bit where the Red Queen seized control of Mistral to the reappearance of the Dark Mother – whoever she was – demanding her pound of flesh.

But the Red Queen laughed at the bargain they had made, saying to her 'Get you gone, old crone, the sight of you offends mine eyes. I have no need of any bargain, for all that I have is the fruit of mine own strength, and what my bold heart has won for me. Go, lest I should strike you down.' And the Dark Mother departed, with her heart full of wrath.

Sunset skimmed a little further, to when the Red Queen died, peacefully in bed at what, all things considered, could only be called an unfairly old age.

And no sooner did the eyes of that most wicked of queens close than did her daughter stride out and say unto the people, 'The Queen is dead! I am your new queen!' But when the people cried out to her to show them her power, she could not, and all knew that the gods had forsaken her.

But the sorrows of Remnant were far from over, for in every corner of the world new red queens would rise and set the world to bleeding.

* * *

I feel a lot better about Auburn now. it's like, now that she's shown us some of what she is (although she still won't explain, even when Raven asked her straight to her face she wouldn't answer) she doesn't feel as though she needs to hide who she is. She doesn't laugh so much, but considering how fake and forced her laughter sounded I think that's probably a good thing. She was a big help to me with Qrow. I talked to her, and she helped me find the words to tell him what I was trying to make him see: that he's my team-mate and he matters to me.

I'm sure he matters to his sister, too, even if she was mad at him.

I haven't spoken to Raven about it, but when we get back to Beacon I'm going to suggest that she should apologise. I'm sure that her aura breaking with all those grimm around was scary but there's no way that it could be Qrow's fault.

I can't understand why Qrow seems to believe it was. It was just bad luck is all.

Qrow seems a little better now. He still blames himself but he doesn't seem quite as bitter about it as he was, which is something even if it isn't perfect. I wish that I could make everything better, but if all I can do is make him feel valued in this team then I'll do that and hope it helps. It's little enough, but from the way Qrow talks I'm afraid it might be more than he's gotten from his family.

"We should skip this," Yang said. "It feels...wrong, reading this, don't you think? Like we're prying into Uncle Qrow's secrets."

"Yeah," Ruby agreed, feeling a weight of guilt at what they had already read settling on her stomach. "It's not like Mom, where...you know. Uncle Qrow...it doesn't feel right."

"Let's try the next page," said Yang.

We arrived in the village a little after first light, having encountered no more grimm than the ones that attacked us on the first day out of Vale. The girl Merida lives near the centre of town, and to be honest I was expecting her to be younger. Professor Ozpin, Auburn, none of them talked about her age, but I assumed she'd be a child. She's actually older than I am, if not much. It seems wrong to call her a girl. The woman Merida.

She still lives with her mother, though, and her mom wasn't too happy to see us.

Well, when I say us I'd say she wasn't very happy to see Auburn. She barely seemed to notice us at all, but she gave Auburn a real earful about taking her daughter away. Merida herself was quiet; she seemed a little scared of something, though I'm not sure what and I won't find out because when Auburn went inside the house to talk to the pair of them she left us outside. There wasn't a lot to do until they came out except listen to Qrow and Tai complain about it until Raven told them both to shut up. Then there was enough for me to do stopping an argument from breaking out. I actually agreed with Raven about that, the guys were getting a little annoying, but she didn't have to say it like that.

Since we had time, I took her aside and tried to talk to her about her attitude.

Raven didn't laugh in my face when I suggested she ought to tone it down, I guess that's something. She did look at me like I was a bit of an idiot though. We ended up talking a lot about Professor Ozpin; Raven thinks he's keeping things from all of us, but from me especially.

I think she's right. The professor is definitely keeping things from us, and from me specifically. The difference between Raven and I is that I don't think that necessarily has to be a bad thing.

We're just kids. We're still in our first year at Beacon and already Professor Ozpin has shown us so much trust, even what you might call favour. He's given us training missions ahead of any other team and unlike Raven I see that as a good thing. I don't know about her, or Qrow or Tai but I'm here to help protect the world against it's enemies, save it if I can; if I can do that instead of sitting through Professor Port's class I'll do it. And that's without mentioning the way that he's helping me with my powers, why would he do that unless he wanted to help me reach my full potential as a huntress? Why should Professor Ozpin tell me anything? Who am I? Who are any of us that we deserve all of his secrets?

Maybe he is using me; maybe he's using all of us, but if he is then it's in a good cause, a cause that I would gladly be made use of in.

"See?" Ruby demanded, looking up at Yang. "Mom gets it."

Yang frowned, and a huff escaped her lips. "Ruby, I...never mind."

"What?" Ruby asked. "Come on, you can say it."

The frown on Yang's face deepened. "We have to hear this from Mom through her diary because she's not around to tell us herself," she said, the words galloping out of her mouth as though she were in a hurry to get rid of them. She grunted. "I don't know exactly what happened and I don't know that it had anything to do with the professor or silver eyes or any of this stuff, but...I don't want that to happen to you."

Ruby stared at her elder sister for a moment. "I'm training to be a huntress, like Mom. It could happen."

"That doesn't mean I want to think about it and it doesn't mean that I want to encourage it!" Yang cried. She shook her head. "It's not wrong of me to want to keep you safe for just a little while longer."

 _What does safe even mean, really?_ Ruby wondered. She wasn't surprised at what Yang had said. Jaune, even Sunset for all that she was really smart, didn't seem to quite get all the time what they were doing here. The way Sunset talked about glory and being heroes and their fame it was almost as if she thought that they were going to live forever, like it hadn't occurred to her that they might die at any moment. As though she hadn't quite realised that death stalked their profession more persistently than any grimm.

Ruby hadn't been able to believe that since the day that her mom hadn't come home.

But she was here anyway, here at Beacon learning to follow in Mom's footsteps because she knew, the same way that her mom had known, that this was right and just and necessary.

Yeah, she'd be lying if she denied that the coolness of being a huntress didn't excite her, she'd be lying if she'd said that wasn't a part of what attracted her to it, all the stories of great huntsmen in the books and all the awesome things they did. But there were a lot of cool jobs. Being a movie star was cool, being a singer was cool; being the voice actor in a cartoon was pretty cool too but Ruby had never wanted to be one, or a singer or even a movie star. She wanted to be a huntress because the world needed help of the kind that Ruby Rose could give it.

"Yang," she said. "I don't know what happened to Mom either; but whatever happened, I'm sure that she didn't regret a single decision that she made-"

"How can you say that?" Yang asked. "You don't think that she'd want to be here now, to watch us graduate-"

"Not at the cost of turning her back on the right thing," Ruby replied firmly. "That's not who she was." That wasn't the person she remembered, however vaguely, and it wasn't the person she was reading about in this journal.

Yang sighed. "I don't want to see you get hurt," she said. "Is that a bad thing?"

Ruby shook her head. "I don't want to get hurt either," she replied. "But if that's what it takes...do you want to stop or shall we keep going?"

Yang hesitated for a moment. "Let's see what else she has to say."

Anyway, eventually Auburn came out and told us that Merida had agreed to come back to Vale with us. I don't understand why, or rather I don't understand why Merida decided to come; I talked to her and learnt that she used to be a Beacon student, but after graduation she decided not to become a pro-huntress but to come back here and defend her village instead. She wanted to be able to help the people she cared about, without being given orders that would take her away from them. I think that's fair enough even if it does mean she has to live with her mother because she can't afford a place of her own.

But it means I don't understand why she's leaving her village now. She told me that Auburn and Professor Ozpin was going to help her protect her village in a way that she never would be able to otherwise. She wouldn't say more.

I suppose it shouldn't surprise me that there are other kinds of magic that Professor Ozpin knows about and I don't; Auburn and Merida probably don't know about silver eyes.

If these are the secrets that Professor Ozpin chooses to keep from us then fine by me; I don't need to know everything. And whatever the professor does, and whatever he tells or doesn't tell, there isn't a doubt in my mind that it's all for the greater good.

* * *

In the four corners of Remnant ruled four queens. Four queens and no justice.

 _Never more than four,_ Sunset thought. She was nearing the end of the book that Twilight had lent to her, and as well as the end of the text – large chunks of which she had admitted to skipping in order to get a general feel of events too far back to have been covered in history classes – she had a feeling she was nearing the end of the era of the so-called Red Queens.

There were no more prophets now, no saints performing miracles or carrying out the commands of the old man to spread the good news of whatever faith was promulgating these accounts. They were all gone now, hunted down and slain, and in their place there were four queens, only ever four queens, who toppled ancient thrones and tore down the walls of storied kingdoms to exalt themselves above their fellow men in orgies of violent bloodshed.

Only ever four queens. Never more, never less.

Four queens, Sunset scribbled. Seems like a hard limit.

She was coming to believe that there was no omniscient being bestowing these gifts, whatever the legends might say. No god, no gods, no spirits choosing to pass down their blessings upon anyone. Receipt of the gift of magic was not the ascension to which Sunset had sought to equate it in her head; there was no Celestia looking down upon the young, ambitious unicorns and deciding that Twilight Sparkle was worthy to ascend while Sunset Shimmer was not. Had they both been born in Remnant then Sunset could have ascended via compassing the death of Twilight, and the fact that she would have made herself a murderer would – if these legends be true – prove no obstacle.

Sunset didn't want to believe that there was a god out there who thought it was a good idea to bestow power on the people who had just cut down the previously chosen recipients of it; if they existed then she never wanted to meet them.

 _Let us assume then, for the benefit of my sanity if nothing else, that the magic is not bestowed. No one is chosen for it, except in a metaphorical sense that the magic must go to someone – there cannot be more or less than four people, all young woman who have the power – but no being with a consciousness makes a decision on who should get it._

 _It just goes to someone._

 _From that perspective the wonder isn't that it went to someone unsuited for it, the wonder is that it took so long._

How does the magic transfer? Sunset wrote. Kill equals get power. Power sometimes went to someone at the previous holder's death bed. Other times to strangers.

Does this have rules? Power to the last person you see if eligible?

Sunset decided to keep reading, although there hadn't been any answers to this question yet maybe there would be more to come.

The wizard

Sunset read that again. _What wizard? Is that the same as the old man from before? Or an old man from before? Why suddenly call him a wizard now?_

The wizard was filled with despair, as he saw the gift that the gods had given to mankind turned against them and become a tool for wickedness, and as he despaired so did the world despair, and the grimm fed off the despair of the people and multiplied.

And the people, harried by grimm and tormented by their four queens, cried out 'Please, save us!'

And the wizard set forth to answer their prayer.

He gathered around himself five faithful companions, warriors renowned both for their skill at arms but also for their virtue, pure in heart and without a trace of wickedness in their souls: the Crimson Death, swift of foot and great of heart; the Summer Flame whose heart did not burn less than the fire in her hair with rage at the pitiless cruelty that stalked the land; the Gilded Knight, most valorous of men; the Marble Girl, renowned for her honour as much as her peerless skill; and the Shadow, a humble faunus whom the others had freed from slavery. Together they made a sacred vow, that they would hold fast to their fellowship with one another come what may, and that they would redeem the world from the cruelty of these queens or perish one and all in the attempt.

And so they set forth, these five heroes, journeying under cover of night and hiding their faces from the spies of the queens, travelling through the lands of the grimm and enduring all the perils of the road.

Sunset skipped ahead to the interesting bit: that these six heroes had, one by one, hunted down the queens and killed them all…and that, to all appearances was that. No new queens rose up to take the places of the dead ones. No new prophets, no more saints. The age of miracles was over, and when the Age of the Queens, too, passed nothing else replaced it except, perhaps, something approaching modern history of the kind that would have been familiar to Doctor Oobleck. Magic was done.

And if Sunset had believed that some divine or divines was controlling who got magic then perhaps she could have believed that, it would have made sense that any god handing out such gifts would have turned away at the sight of what had been done with them…except that they would have done that long before the wizard and his companions hunted down the last red queens and brought the time of magic to a close. And then there was Twilight's eye-witness account, and the fact that there was a sub-culture of true believers tracking magic through the ages. All of which indicated that it hadn't gone away it had just…what? Stopped being so obvious? Why? Why would everyone who was fortunate enough to receive this gift just suddenly be okay with hiding their light under a bushel?

 _I wouldn't, in their place._

Why hide? Sunset wrote. Why hide your own magic? Why hide magic more generally? Was someone forcing them to hide – that made a degree more sense that all the inheritors of magic deciding on their own to keep it secret, but then who would have the power to compel them, and over such a long span of years how would such a policy be faithfully maintained? You'd have to assume a vast global conspiracy stretching down through the centuries and that…that was just a bit far-fetched; you'd need to be Celestia in longevity as well as wisdom in order to set up something like that.

 _I've been reading too long,_ Sunset thought. _I have some answers, but mostly what I have are even more questions._

 _Why do I feel as though the answers are so far away…and yet at the same time right under my nose?_


	64. Little Silver Light

Little Silver Light

"You think there's more magic out there than just Ruby's eyes?" Jaune asked; Sunset couldn't help but note the somewhat incredulous tone in his voice.

"I'm still getting used to the idea that 'magic' is a thing outside of genre fiction," Blake said dryly.

"You should be honoured that I trust you with this instead of throwing you out the room every time we want to talk about it," Sunset said, though she grinned up at Blake to take some of the sting off her words. "And as for your point, Jaune…why should magic be restricted to the – no offence – singular and esoteric instance of Ruby's eyes. It makes more sense that there should be at least some other kinds of magic out there too."

"I guess," Jaune said. "Although…I suppose I'm still getting a handle on this magic stuff. It's a lot to take in, you know?"

"But if my mom saw it, and if Penny's friend Twilight saw it, and if there's all this stuff written about it," Ruby said. "That means it…it can't be a lie, can it?"

"I never said it was," Jaune said. "I just…" he laughed nervously. "It feels like I'm the only person here who found out this huge thing about the world that they'd never known before and is actually treating it like this huge thing, and if what Sunset read is true then it gets even more huge…anyone can have…magic if they…if they…"

"If they're willing to kill for it, it seems," Pyrrha said softly.

"A system designed to attract the worst and repel the best," Blake said.

"One hopes that there's more to it than that," Sunset muttered. "Perhaps Professor Ozpin knows, if anyone does. Since it seems that he knows a lot more than he lets on."

"For good reason, don't you think?" Blake asked.

Sunset leaned backwards, resting her hands upon the dorm room floor. "I…have yet to be convinced on that score."

"After what you read?" Blake demanded, her voice flat. "After what you told us? If the White Fang knew about that kind of power there isn't anything that they'd do to stop from obtaining it for themselves. Can you imagine what that would mean for Remnant? Do you honestly think that people have gotten any wiser, any better than they have since those days? Do you really think that the world can be trusted with the kind of power you're talking about?"

"I think that the world is full of power and it hasn't ended yet," Sunset said. "What's one more power source in the scheme of things?"

"A power that can enable a bandit chieftain to bring down an empress," Pyrrha reminded her.

"And a power that can be defeated in its turn," Sunset replied. She sighed. "Maybe there is a good reason for keeping this a secret, but that doesn't mean that I have to like having those secrets kept from me, okay? It feels as though every new thing that I learn in this place only opens my eyes to the fog of mysteries that surrounds us all. Am I the only person who feels that way? Am I the only person who is troubled by the fact that everything we discover only serves to increase our store of ignorance by revealing new things that we didn't know that we didn't know about?"

"But if it's for a good cause-" Ruby began.

"How can we know that for sure if we don't know all the facts about the cause?"

"Perhaps there comes a point when we have to trust," Pyrrha said. "As the rest of the world trusts in Professor Ozpin."

 _Professor Ozpin. Trust in Professor Ozpin. Professor Ozpin the great huntsman, the youngest ever headmaster, the great man of Remnant. Trust him. Trust him to do what? To defend Vale? To serve the best interests of the Four Kingdoms? To keep us safe?_

That was the crux of it all: trust Ozpin to do what? Sunset could accept, in abstract, the argument that Blake advanced: in a system that seemed to self-select for ruthlessness and concentrate power in the hands of those least deserving to possess it then it made academic sense to hide the existence of said power, and that was true irregardless of the existence of other forms of power like particularly strong semblances and the like. But why should Ozpin be the one (or one of the ones, it was unlikely that he was acting alone in this) in the know; he knew about silver eyes, he knew about…whatever this other thing was, he knew a lot that other people didn't know and why? Because he was a headmaster at a huntsman academy? So what? It didn't make him Celestia, with whom Sunset might have disagreed but she could at least acknowledge that she had the ages of wisdom to back up her claims to make the big choices for other people.

And that was the other thing, the biggest thing, the thing that she wasn't sure that anyone else in the room would understand because they were all too noble for their own good but which Sunset saw as clear as day: leaving aside why Ozpin should have the right to make those decisions, what kind of decisions was he going to make? Even if you trusted him to do the right thing, that was only going to be the right thing for Remnant, or the human race, or the Kingdom of Vale or all the human kingdoms depending on his allegiance and the breadth of his perspective. It wasn't the right thing for Team SAPR, or for the Xiao-Long-Rose family or for any of them as individuals any more than Celestia's decision, right for Equestria, had been right for Sunset Shimmer.

That was the take away from Ruby's account that no one else seemed to see: that Ozpin had set Team STRQ out into peril half blindfolded by a lack of understanding of what was really going on around them. Sure, it had all worked out okay that time, but Ruby's mom…well, she was dead not to put too fine a point on it. It was all very well to send them out to fight grimm, that was what they were here to do, but what if Ozpin started giving them missions that brought them more and more into contact with the magic of this world, the way he'd apparently started doing for Team STRQ?

Ozpin might be acting for the greater good of Remnant, but if that greater good entailed getting SAPR killed Sunset…she couldn't be sure that he'd do it but she couldn't be sure that he definitely wouldn't either and that…that was unacceptable.

Sunset's hands clenched as she glanced around the room. Ruby and Pyrrha were just the kind who would readily give their lives in a worthy cause; Jaune would probably do it too, and Blake…Blake was so desperate to atone that she wouldn't think much of dying for it. Sunset had to protect them, but how could she do that when she was mired in this swamp of unawareness? When she didn't know where the blows were going to come from?

 _I am not a piece on your board, professor, and neither are they._

Still, it wasn't as though she could just march into the headmaster's office and demand answers, was it? No, as satisfying as the idea might be it wouldn't actually get her anywhere. All she could do was keep learning as much as she could, and hope it was enough when – if, she had to concede that none of this might actually matter – the time came.

"Perhaps," she said, not because she was actually convinced but because she didn't want to get bogged down in an argument that – she could tell – was just going to go round in circles without anybody shifting from the positions they had already been occupying. "Anyway, let's get to the point: Ruby's silver eyes."

Ruby smiled. The entire team (plus Blake, if that was actually a distinction that still meant anything) was gathered in the dorm room; Sunset wasn't sure how much help they were all going to be, but none of them wanted to leave Ruby alone for this and Ruby seemed happy enough to have them here so it was something she was going to have to bear. Pyrrha and Jaune was seated on their beds, while Blake was standing next to the bathroom door, looking down upon them all. Sunset and Ruby were sat on the floor, at opposite ends of the room but with nothing obstructing them from having a clear view of one another.

Ruby was sitting with her legs crossed, in an old-fashioned meditation pose.

"You don't need to sit like that if it isn't comfortable," said Sunset, who couldn't imagine that it was. Sunset herself was sat with one leg flat along the floor and the other cocked up to her chin.

"I don't?"

"No, the point is that you feel comfortable and don't get distracted by cramps or pains," Sunset said. She punched the pillow that she was sitting on. "That's why I've got this."

"Right," Ruby said. "Jaune-"

"Got it," Jaune said, tossing her one of the pillows off her bed.

Ruby sat on it, exchanging her stiff traditional pose for sitting with her legs roughly straight out in front of her.

"Are you sure about this?" Pyrrha asked. "Meditation has forms for a reason."

"The reason being that that's the way that it's always been done," Sunset said. "But that doesn't mean that it works." _After all, I learned this while sitting like a pony but if I told Ruby to do that you'd think that I was nuts, wouldn't you?_

She took a deep breath, and focussed on Ruby sitting opposite her. "Magic is a lot like aura in many ways," she said. "It's a power within you, and the object of the exercise is for you to draw it out and begin expressing it." At least Ruby wouldn't have to worry about the form of the expression, by the sounds of it silver eyes could only do one thing. Not that that was a problem, as the old saying went: a fox knows many things, but a hedgehog knows one important thing; if Ruby's silver eyes could only kill grimm then that was irrelevant provided that they could kill grimm well.

And it made – theoretically at least – it easier to teach Ruby, since all that she needed to know was how to tap into this latent ability of hers and the natural expression of silver-eyed magic would do the rest.

"So," Sunset continued. "The first thing that I want you to do is activate your aura."

"Okay," Ruby said. "But why?"

"I'm hoping that with your aura active, and your magic not, you won't get confused between the two," Sunset said. "Now, please, activate your aura."

Ruby nodded, and at once her whole body began to glow with the ethereal light of her soul: her skin became brighter, the red tips of her hair became more pronounced, even the crimson of her cloak seemed more vivid than before. The silver in her eyes gleamed like moonlight.

Sunset nodded. "Thank you. Now, close your eyes."

"But don't I need my eyes open in order to, you know, use them?"

"You can open them again later, it's important that you not get distracted for now," Sunset replied. "Close your eyes. Everybody quiet please, this requires concentration."

She closed her own eyes, embracing herself in darkness only vaguely penetrated by the light beyond her eyelids. She drew in a breath, and then exhaled.

"Deep breaths," Sunset said, trying to make her voice as calm and soft as Princess Celestia's had been when Sunset had begun her lessons with her. "Deep, calm breaths. Shut out all the world around you, apart from my voice. Ignore all sights, all other sounds, all scents. Focus on my voice…and on yourself.

"Look inside yourself," Sunset said, and as she spoke she turned her own gaze inwards, looking into her soul; not, perhaps, in the metaphorical sense of examining her choices, her sins, her faults and failings, her wrong turnings and misjudgements – that was something she didn't particularly enjoy doing at the very best of times and, in any case, there wasn't the time for it now. No, this was more…literal, for want of a better word for all the space she was looking into was a more spiritual one than the one holding in her guts and veins and organs. "Look inside yourself, can you see your aura? Can you perceive it with your minds eye?"

Sunset could see her aura. She perceived herself as floating at the top of a long, dark shaft, suspended above the chasm that fell into the void, but in the void her aura glowed; it was golden, as golden as the sun and just as bright, so bright that she had to shield her mental eyes with one imagined hand. It filled the shaft beneath her, lying still and dormant but still awake; she could feel it like a slumbering animal that waited only on the word to stir to life.

"I…think so," Ruby's voice echoed a little in Sunset's mental space. She had to concentrate or it would see too quiet, as though it were coming from somewhere far away from where she was right now. A flash of green light shone through the gold of Sunset's aura as she forced herself to hear the voice of the other girl. "I…I see something. Like a…a red light? Is that right?"

"I think so, that's your aura," Sunset said. "How clearly can you see it?"

"…Not very clearly. It's kind of fuzzy."

"Can you move closer?"

"I…I don't know."

"Try," Sunset said. For herself, it was easy: if she wanted to get closer to her aura, all that she had to was let herself fall. She could descend through the chasm, fall through the dark until the gold of her aura embraced her. If she wished she could fall further still, to where her magic was waiting in all its emerald glory.

She could do it so easily. It was remaining where she was that took the effort. All she had to do was let herself drop into the light and let it take her. It would be so warm, and there would be such music rising about her the closer that she got to her magic: beautiful, ethereal music singing all around her as she fell into the green. It would be so easy. But if she did that she would lose herself, and she wouldn't be able to help Ruby to give her instructions.

And helping Ruby was the point of the exercise. She could descend into her own magic any time she wished.

Ruby let out a small sound of irritation. "It's not working."

"Where are you?" Sunset asked.

"I don't know. It's all dark, and there's this red light that I can kind of make out."

"Are you above it? Or is it in front of you?"

"I think it's…in front of me? But I can't get any closer to it."

"Try," Sunset admonished. "Don't think of it as moving your legs, think of it as…will yourself forwards, towards the line. Or will the light towards you, if that's easier."

"Are you sure about this?"

"Yes," Sunset said. "I know what I'm doing."

"But this doesn't sound like anything that my mom talked about."

Sunset's eyes snapped open, returning to the world of the dorm room. "Your mother's journal said that she was being taught how to use her powers without relying upon emotions. I intend to do the same, and to skip the part where you learn to rely on your emotions in the first place."

"But if it's easier to get started-"

"It's easier because it's a crutch," Sunset said. "Better if you can learn to walk without it, understand?" Not to mention, she didn't particularly like the idea of encouraging Ruby to spew out negative emotions in the hope of activating her magical powers. It might work, but to be honest it smacked a little too much of dark magic for Sunset to be entirely comfortable with.

That was a branch of magic that she had never turned her attention to and she didn't mean to start now or encourage Ruby to do so. It was powerful, sure, but that power came at a cost: it ate you up from the inside out, always taking more from you than it gave in return until it had hollowed you out and turned you into a shell for something that, while it might still call itself Sunset Shimmer, wasn't really you. It was the dark magic that was in control, and you were just a puppet for its dark desires.

Even if Ruby's eyes didn't work in exactly the same way, she still didn't really want to encourage Ruby to become a hateful, negative person in order to power up. Judging by the look on Pyrrha's face, as a quick glance confirmed, she felt much the same way.

"Just try, okay?" Sunset said. "I know this isn't what your used to, but I really do know what I'm doing when it comes to this stuff. Focus on the red light. Can you still see it?"

"Yeah."

"Then move towards it," Sunset said. "Imagine yourself getting closer to it, and will what you imagine to be real. This is all in you, you can do whatever you want."

Sunset could see Ruby frowning, but she kept her eyes closed and she appeared to be concentrating. "I think…I think it's working! The light's getting larger, like it's coming near me."

"Good, that's what you want. You need to pass through your aura, and then if you're anything like me you'll find your magic waiting on the other side. Keep going."

Ruby's face was set in its expression, for a few moments she didn't say anything or move more than a few twitches here and there. "It's getting so big…it's all around me. I can hear something. Like…rock guitar?"

Sunset's eyebrow rose in spite of itself. "Not what I hear, but music is natural. What do you see?"

"A lot of red. It's…should it be moving?"

"Moving how? Is it pulsing?"

"I think so."

"That's because you've got your aura activated, don't worry about it," Sunset said. "You have to keep moving forward. Do you see anything besides your aura. Anything…silver?"

"No, I…" Ruby stopped. "Yes! Yes, I see something. It's a silver light, like a star or something."

"Follow it!" Sunset cried, and in spite of herself she was leaning forward eagerly. She wasn't the only one: Jaune was leaning forward too and even Pyrrha and Blake looked curious about what was going on in Ruby's head and soul. "Head towards the silver light, Ruby, that should be where your magic is."

"I'm trying," Ruby said. "It keeps…every time I think I'm getting to it it's gone. Hey, come back here!"

"Ruby?"

"I can't get hold of it," Ruby complained. "I can reach for it but…the silver light keeps slipping through my fingers."

"It's not getting any bigger?" Sunset asked.

"No," Ruby said. "Should it?"

"Yes, it should be as big as your aura, or thereabouts," Sunset said. "Open your eyes, Ruby, come back."

Ruby opened her eyes, and blinked as though the lights in the dorm room were too bright for her now. "Did I…did I do something wrong?"

"No," Sunset said. "I…I don't know what to say. That's something that I wasn't expecting."

"What does it mean?" Jaune asked.

"Either Ruby only has a tiny amount of magic or, judging by the way that it was moving around as though it didn't want her to get too close to it, the silver eye magic works a little differently than my own." She got up, folding her arms. "I need to think for a little about where to go from here. It's interesting…but frustrating too."

"We could try-" Ruby began.

"I think Sunset's right to hesitate about that," Pyrrha said, gently but at the same time quite firmly. "Filling yourself with negative emotions…quite apart from the danger of the grimm, it doesn't sound particularly healthy."

"It isn't, trust me," Blake muttered darkly. She leapt deftly over Sunset's bed to come between Sunset and Ruby. "Ruby, it might not seem like a big deal to make yourself angry, to be constantly angry or afraid…but that's because you're a good person and because…well…no offence, but you have no idea what it's really like to live with fear and anger as your constant companions. None of you do. It devours you, twists you, it can turn you into something more monstrous than the grimm if you'll let it. No power, no…magic is worth that. Trust me. There'll be another way."

"This is only your first try," Pyrrha said. "It took me years of hard work before I mastered my semblance."

Ruby looked from Blake to Pyrrha and back again. "You really don't want me to do this, huh?"

"We're a little worried by what might happen if you do it," Jaune said, a little nervously. "We want to see you become who you're meant to be, but not at the expense of who you are."

"Give me a little more time, okay?" Sunset asked. "I'll figure something out."

 _I wonder if Twilight Sparkle knows anything about silver-eyed warriors._


	65. Looking Forward

Looking Forwards

Pyrrha was in the library with the rest of her team – a description which on this occasion did not include Blake, who had some urgent business to take care of elsewhere – catching up on the work that they'd missed while out on their mission.

She was distracted from her essay for Doctor Oobleck on the transition of power from Mantle to Atlas by her scroll going off with a buzzing sound loud enough to attract attention not only on their own table but one ones round about as well.

"I'm sorry," Pyrrha said, not only to her team-mates but to everyone she had disturbed, as she got to her feet and pulled out her scroll. "Excuse me," she added.

Sunset nodded, before returning to Ruby's essay. She was already giving advice to both Ruby and Jaune as Pyrrha walked away. "Okay, so the thing that you want to make clear is that Mantle's activities were born out of insecurity; they flexed their muscles because they weren't sure how strong they really were. It's…it's a bully thing, what worried them most was the idea of someone standing up to them."

Pyrrha left them to it as she walked through the stacks, finding a secluded spot where she wouldn't disturb anyone else by talking. She finally opened up her scroll and took the call, which turned out to be from her mother.

"Mother," Pyrrha said, in a voice that was not particularly enthusiastic. "You don't call me very often."

"I seldom have cause to do so," Mother said, in a tone that left no doubt that her cause now for doing so now was not a pleasant one.

Pyrrha tried to think what she could have done that had earned her the disapproval of her mother. Nothing immediately came to mind: her grades were good and she had acquitted herself reasonably well on their last mission; Sunset's report had praised her actions and Professor Ozpin's sign-off notes had said nothing negative about her. What, then, did her mother have to complain about? "I don't understand."

Her mother scowled. "I take it you were not aware that I monitor your social media presence?"

Pyrrha blinked. "I don't have a social media presence; we agreed that I didn't need one." Or rather, Pyrrha had insisted that she didn't against the advice of the PR man who had tried to tell her that it was essential for her 'brand'; a word she hated for making her seem as much a commodity as _Pumpkin Pete's Marshamallow Flakes_. It was bad enough that she lived her life in a spotlight so bright that few would dare the glare to stand beside her, but she was not going to make that situation even worse by documenting every moment of her life for the delectation of strangers who felt they had a right to know everything single thing about her.

"You say nothing on these sites, but I monitor what is said about you," her mother clarified. "I was disturbed by what I saw."

Some people, Pyrrha thought, might be a little surprised to find out that her mother who seemed so old-fashioned even knew what social media was let alone how to make proper use of it; at this moment she wished that were true, as she began to discern an inkling of what her mother might have seen to so upset her. "What…did you see?"

"I saw photographs of you agreeing to go on a date with that Arc boy," mother said stonily. "Tagged with comments wondering why you would lower yourself to such a place. Comments with which I find myself inclined to agree."

 _Perhaps all of those people should mind their own business,_ Pyrrha thought with an unusual degree of venom. _And besides, what gives them the right to judge Jaune like that? What have any of them done that entitles them to look down on him?_

She pushed those uncommonly harsh thoughts to one side, they would not help her here. Getting irritated with her mother would only inflame matters when she really needed to calm the waters. Which meant trying to keep her own voice calm as she said, "It...it isn't really a date, mother," she said, which was true as much as she might wish otherwise. "It's only the school dance."

"A distinction without difference that I can discern," mother said.

 _I suppose that if I told you that he was the only boy who asked me you'd just say that made him presumptuous, wouldn't you?_ Pyrrha thought. She didn't mention it, becuase apart from anything else she didn't want her mother - or anyone else for that matter - to think that she was only going to the dance with Jaune because she hadn't gotten any better offers and not because he was the boy she had always wanted to go to the dance with. Instead, she said, "I don't understand the problem, mother; I'm just a girl going to a dance with a boy, there's nothing wrong with that. Do you begrudge me even a little fun?"

"That depends on what you mean by 'fun'."

"Mother!" Pyrrha gasped.

"As much as I wish that you were not so concerned by these teenage trivialities," her mother continued. "I am more concerned with the suitability of the young man in question."

"Suita- there's nothing wrong with Jaune."

"Interesting that your choice of partner concerns his lack of vice or scandal rather than the presence of any virtue or accomplishment."

"Please don't put words in my mouth, mother," Pyrrha said. She suspected that her mother enjoyed verbal fencing - the main kind she got to practice routinely, now - but she had little patience for it. "Jaune is a fine young man, with great potential. You've seen for yourself what he's capable of." She had hoped, once the vacation ended without her mother yanking her out of Beacon or demanding that she be assigned to a different team, that she was in the clear.

"As a team-mate, he is acceptable," her mother said. "His semblance makes him an asset in battle. But out of battle? As a partner? You are Pyrrha Nikos, the Invincible Girl, my daughter; you should be aiming so much higher than a somewhat talented nobody from Vale."

"Then who should I be aiming at, mother?" Pyrrha demanded, in a tone that was sharpened by anger till it was almost as cutting as Milo's blade.

"For these young dalliances? Someone who will look a little more appropriate photographed with his arm around you than young Mister Arc," her mother said. "Someone photogenic, preferably of some good family with a long and provable lineage but if not then wealthy and well-connected at the least; failing that then some kind of fashionable young celebrity."

"I'm not going to live my life playing to tabloids and gossip columns, I refuse."

"Then I would rather you devoted yourself absolutely to your training." Mother leaned forwards, so that her face filled even more of the screen; Pyrrha could see every line and wrinkle upon her visage. "You have the potential to be truly great, as great as any warrior has ever been before you or greater still. The echo of your victories will endure long after you have forgotten Jaune Arc or those like him. Keep your eyes upon what really matters."

 _What really matters? What is that? What does matter in my life, and shouldn't it be my decision anyway?_ Pyrrha sighed. "You realise that our line you're so proud of will end with me unless you let me meet someone."

"When you are older," her mother said. "By the middle of your twenties your best years will already be behind you, athletically speaking, and we will find you some skilled huntsman or tournament champion, someone strong and swift; with good fortune your children will surpass even you in potential."

Pyrrha's eyes widened. "Once I've won my trophies you mean to put me out to stud like a race horse?"

"You make it sound so sordid," her mother complained. "Why do you think I chose your father? For his birth? His wealth? He had neither."

Pyrrha found that her lower lip was trembling. "I thought...I thought you might have loved him."

"Pyrrha," her mother's voice softened, but only in such a way that chided Pyrrha for being naive. "Your father was a good man, and I came to care for him a great deal...but I married him because I knew that out of our union would spring forth a prodigious talent, and I was right."

For a moment Pyrrha stared down at her mother's image on the scroll screen with a sense of horrified revulsion such as she had never felt before. She had never...this was far more than she had wanted to know.

Anger like molten lava bubbling up in a volcano rose up her throat. "I don't care, mother!" she snapped. "I don't care what people think, I don't care about how it looks, I don't care about what sort of genes our children might have; I care about Jaune. I care about the way he makes me feel. And although we're not really dating I wish we were!" she hung up, and slammed her scroll shut.

For a moment she stood still and tall and proud, the fire of her rage blazing within her; but then the moment passed and the heat of Pyrrha's wrath disippated like flame under the fire hose, leaving only a kind of exhaustion behind.

Her whole body turned cold at the sound of someone clapping softly behind her.

"Very well said," Weiss said, as Pyrrha - her face turned pale with horror - turned to face her. "I bet that felt good, didn't it?" Her expression managed to combine an encouraging smile with a slightly perturbed frown; a difficult feat but one she managed to pull off. "I'd apologise for the rudeness of eavesdropping, but you weren't exactly being quiet at the end there."

"I'm sorry," Pyrrha murmured, the words coming out of her mouth at a barely audible level.

"Oh, don't apologise," Weiss said. "You were quite wonderful to listen. It was...very vicarious."

"Vicarious?"

"You're not the only one who came here looking for a taste of freedom," Weiss admitted. She clutched her left elbow with her right hand as she leaned against one of the bookshelves. "You must be very brave to speak to her that way."

"I don't think so," Pyrrha said. "If I'd stopped to think about it...I don't think I could have done it."

"But you did," Weiss said. "So don't stop now." She smirked. "Although I can't claim to understand what you see in that blockhead...but then it doesn't really matter what I think, does it?"

"I...I suppose it doesn't," Pyrrha said. She glanced away. "I don't know what's going to happen now."

"It sounds as though there are things that your mother wants more than to...control you," Weiss said. "Let me guess: she'd like to see you win the Vytal festival."

Pyrrha nodded. "There is no greater honour."

"Then you have that leverage, at least," Weiss said. "I doubt she'll risk jeopardising your triumph...which is her triumph, of course." She smiled, a smile that had something almost sly about it. "Not that I intend to just let you take the crown, of course."

"I'd be disappointed if you did."

Weiss nodded. "Just one more piece of advice: Jaune is...a bit of a dolt, so if I were you I'd give him that little speech, as well as your mother."

* * *

"Lyra, Bon Bon," Blake called out, her voice ringing out from one end of the corridor, where she stood, to carry to the ears of her two former team-mates at the other; a part of her expected them to react to the sound of her voice by quickening their pace, or simply by ignoring her while taking advantage of the distance that separated them. But she didn't want them to think that she was following them, or trying to sneak up on them, or just being kind of creepy in any way by coming up behind them unawares for all that it would have been easy enough to do with her skills. She wanted to mend fences, for whatever her desires or even the act itself might be worth, not to increase by her behaviour the depth of the chasm that her past had caused to erupt between them.

Her past, and her secretiveness. Blake could admit that her reticence, what some people might call stand-offishness, had brought about this state of affairs almost as much as the revelations spread by her elusive adversary, for all that she still maintained - to herself - that she had had good reasons to be reticent. But she felt more kinship and camaraderie with the members of members of SAPR than she had ever felt with LBL while she led them, and it would be disingenuously naive, to say the least, to attribute that to, say, the notion that Sunset, Jaune, Pyrrha and Ruby were better people - whatever that might mean - than Lyra, Bon Bon or Sky. Blake had been more open with them - albeit her circumstances hadn't given her as much choice in the matter as she had once had - and she had reaped the rewards of that greater openness.

Perhaps Sunset understood her better than any of her ex-team mates, but that didn't excuse the fact that Blake had made little to no effort to be a good leader to her team, or anything approaching a friend.

It was too late to do anything about the first, probably too late to do anything about the second, but if Blake could get to a point of being at least not-enemies with the two of them then she would count that a battle won in some degree.

It was the least of her mistakes, but it was also the one that she had the most immediate power to correct.

Therefore, since Atlas didn't require her services right now and since she hated to just sit around doing nothing, Blake had decided that now would be a good time to try and make amends to the two members of team LBL she had some hope might accept it.

They didn't ignore her. That was a good start. Indeed they both turned her way, looking at her down the otherwise empty corridor.

Lyra's expression was also hopeful; that of Bon Bon less so. Still less Bon Bon's tone of voice as she demanded, "What do you want?"

"I want to talk," Blake said, as she walked quickly towards them before they decided to change their minds about stopping. "I wanted...to apologise."

"You don't-" Lyra began before being cut off by an interruption from Bon Bon.

"Why?" she asked.

Blake's brow furrowed a little. "I...don't understand?"

Bon Bon's expression was as unyielding as the armour she wore in battle. "Sunset Shimmer can't forgive you of your crimes, even if she thinks she can; neither can Weiss Schnee or Professor Ozpin or the Atlas military; or us. Only your victims can offer you forgiveness. So what are you apologising to us for?"

"Because you are my victims," Blake replied, simply and calmly. "I lied to you, and...and I was a bad team leader."

"You could have been worse," Lyra said. "Nobody died."

"That's…not really a high bar to clear," Blake said.

"But you still cleared it," Lyra said. "That's something right." She frowned, but only for a very brief moment before the sunshine returned to her face. "I'm not going to lie and tell you that you were a great team leader, because you're smarter than that; but…so what? Not everyone can be a great team leader, and even Professor Ozpin can make mistakes. It isn't as though you asked for the job. And as for the lying: I get it. I mean, I don't get it, get it, but I can see why you didn't want to tell anyone about…you know. I can even see why you didn't want to tell anybody that you were a faunus. You didn't want to deal with that and you shouldn't have to. As far as I'm concerned you've got nothing to apologise for."

"You're too nice," Bon Bon said. "By a long way."

"Or perhaps you're just too sour."

"I am not sour!"

"Then you must be strict."

"I have principles!" Bon Bon squawked indignantly. "We have to live by a code or else we're no better than barbarians."

"Hey, don't try to impose your paladin beliefs on me," Lyra said, with a grin. "I'm a bard, remember?"

"As if we could forget," Bon Bon muttered. She folded her arms. "I just don't see how you can expect me to believe a word out of your mouth after all the lies that you told us."

As Blake recalled it, she had omitted far, far more than she had outright lied…but telling Bon Bon that it was her fault that she hadn't asked the right questions like 'are you a faunus hiding your cat ears?' or 'are you or have you ever been a member of the White Fang' probably wouldn't go over too well with the other girl, and might even be enough to get a negative reaction from Lyra.

"I'm not lying any more," Blake said softly. "I have no reason to lie any more."

Bon Bon stared into Blake's eyes. "I'm sorry, Blake," she said. "But the fact that you've got Atlas in your corner now doesn't make you a good person."

 _And what kind of definition of being a good person includes turning a blind eye to the systematic oppression of an entire race?_ Blake thought sourly. _If you're so high and mighty then what have you ever done to help the faunus? Yes, the White Fang went too far, much too far; but I'll never regret the decision that I made to do something about the condition of my people. Because something had to be done, and it still does._

She kept those thoughts, and the accompanying anger that rose within her at Bon Bon's self-righteous cant, concealed within her. But she felt it, and feeling it she could not keep completely silent. "It's easy to judge decisions that you'll never have to make," she said, in a voice that was soft but at the same time as sharp as the edge on Gambol Shroud.

Bon Bon's eyes narrowed. "And it's easier to make excuses than-"

"What's up, guys?" Yang asked, waving at them with a carefree enthusiasm that Blake thought was probably at least somewhat affected as she sauntered down the corridor towards them. "Lucky break, me finding you all here like this. You need to come with me."

"Why?" Lyra asked.

"Professor Ozpin wants to see us," Yang said. "I think it has something to do with team arrangements going forward."

Walking across the school to the CCT tower was awkward, to say the least; standing slightly squashed together in the elevator up to the headmaster's office even more so.

Yang must have been aware of that - how could she be unaware of it, Blake asked herself, with the silence between Blake and Bon Bon as prickly as it was - because she did her best to keep up a forced bonhomie throughout, maintaining an apparently jovial tone as she asked Lyra and Bon Bon who they were going to the dance with (one another, and Blake told herself that as little effort as she'd made to get to know her team at least _that_ didn't surprise her), who Blake was going with (Sun, after she had apologised for giving him the brush-off the first time and asked if his metaphorical dance card was still free), and generally talking up what a great night it would be thanks to her and Nora's efforts (apparently there were going to be pyrotechnics after all, in spite of Professor Goodwitch; according to Yang they would only be small ones but the idea of what Yang and Nora might consider small was almost enough to make Blake wonder if she might not have been better off giving the event a miss after all). Eventually, however, Yang and Lyra ran out of things that they could say to fill the stony silence, and said silence descended upon the quartet as elevator ground its way upwards.

It came as a relief when the doors opened and Blake was able to emerge into the headmaster's office, putting a little more distance between Bon Bon and herself as she did so.

Professor Ozpin's office was far from unoccupied; in addition to the headmaster himself - and Professor Goodwitch standing, poised, at his right hand - there was also Sky Lark making up the complete team...LBL and Dove Bronzewing from Team YRDN. Both of them gave Blake as suspicious look as she stepped out of the elevator.

She felt a hand on her shoulder, a hand which turned out to belong to Yang, who accompanied her reassuring squeeze with an equally reassuring smile.

Yang's hand stayed on Blake's shoulder as they walked forwards together. The two of them stayed in the centre of the room, with Lyra and Bon Bon gravitating towards Sky on the left and Dove standing alone on the right, leaving the central traverse for Blake and Yang to walk down under the impassive gaze of the headmaster and his deputy.

"Ladies, thank you for joining us," Professor Ozpin declared. "I would invite you all to be seated but I'm afraid that there aren't enough chairs." He smiled. "As you know, Miss Belladonna's status has been in what we might call a state of limbo as a consequence of recent events; and, while the arrangements made with the Kingdom of Atlas have worked well operationally speaking, the current situation remains unsatisfactory from a number of other points of view: Miss Belladonna can hardly spend four years sleeping on a camp-bed as a guest of Team Sapphire."

Blake decided that there was no point in mentioning that they actually took turns enduring the camp bed, as Ruby had insisted that it wouldn't be fair to have it any other way.

The headmaster continued, "Team Bluebell, having only three members, is both unable to compete in the Vytal Festival even should you wish to do so, and would be vulnerable even on low-risk assignments which are rated against the assumption of a four-person team."

"Especially with the current levels of performance demonstrated by some of you in my sparring class," Professor Goodwitch added sharply, as she glared at Sky and Lyra over her spectacles. Neither of them would meet her gaze.

"Fortunately, having given the matter careful consideration, I believe that we now have a solution," Professor Ozpin said. "Mister Bronzewing, I believe that you are not, shall we say, altogether happy with your current situation?"

It would have taken a better man than Dove Bronzewing not to flinch with Yang looking at him as though he had just betrayed her trust. He shuffled uncomfortably where he stood. "I...I don't think I really fit in with my team-mates, Professor."

Professor Ozpin made a somewhat sympathetic noise in the back of his throat. "Indeed. The randomised selection process usually outperforms what one might expect when assigning teams, producing quartets capable of a far greater synergy than one might think a truly random system would be capable of; nevertheless, from time to time, it does throw out the occasional incompatible match-up. However, we are now presented with an opportunity to resolve that deficiency. I propose that Mister Bronzewing should transfer to Team Bluebell, now under the leadership of Miss Bonaventure, while Miss Belladonna fills the vacant slot in Team Iron - I don't believe we need to change the name - during the Vytal Festival and whenever her duties with the Atlesian military allow."

"Won't that just leave Team Iron short-handed on missions, instead of Team Bluebell?" Blake asked. "At least some of the time."

"It is our opinion that the remaining members of Team Iron will be better able to handle undertaking missions with only three members than Team Bluebell," Professor Goodwitch said. Her voice was not sympathetic, but nor was it cruel; it simply was, and it gave no concession to the reddening of Sky's face or the embarrassment in Lyra's eyes. It might not have been the kindest thing to say that Yang, Ren and Nora were simply better fighters than Bon Bon, Lyra and Sky, and better able to survive the rigours of the field alone...but being unkind didn't make it any less true.

"Ladies, gentlemen, are these dispositions acceptable to you?" Professor Ozpin said.

Yang glanced from Dove to Blake. "I can live with that."

"And...and so can I," Blake said, although a part of her was sorry even at the prospect of leaving SAPR behind, who had come to feel so much more like her team than her old team had ever done. But Professor Ozpin was right: she couldn't spend the next four years squatting in their room, taking up space, turfing a rotating member of the actual team SAPR out of their bed on the whims of a schedule written in Ruby's scrawling handwriting. She couldn't deny either Team BL_L or team YR_N the ability to compete in the Vytal Festival if they wished to do so.

She couldn't risk the prospect of her former team-mates, whom she had already served so ill, dying on some mission because she had denied them the fourth man who might have saved their life and for what? So she could stay in the same room as her new friends? It wasn't as if they were going to be far away.

"I'm willing," Dove said, sounding a little relieved. "If they'll have me."

The members of Team BL_L exchanged a silent glance. Lyra and Sky nodded. "We're in, professor," Bon Bon said.

"Excellent," Professor Ozpin said. "I'll draw up the paperwork and we'll formalise everything after the dance."

Yang slapped Blake on the back hard enough to nearly knock her over. "Welcome aboard, partner."

* * *

"You will note," Sunset said, as she and Cinder sat in the front row of the upper gallery of the amphitheatre, watching Pyrrha spar against Mercury Black. A smirk played across her face, and the leather of her jacket sleeves squeaked a little as she folded her arms. "That there are any number of snide comments that I could be making about your team-mate right now, but that I am not making any of them because I am a classy lady who respects the team leader code."

Cinder matched Sunset's smirk with one of her own. Her words were preceded out of her throat by a deep, rich chuckle. "Is that so? You think there's some fault to be found with Mercury's performance?"

"You don't?" Sunset asked, mildly incredulous. "Pyrrha's kicking his ass."

"True," Cinder allowed. "But he is fighting the Invincible Girl, so I can't hold that against him."

Sunset shrugged; Cinder had just let her know that she, Sunset, wouldn't be allowed to hold it against him either any more than Sunset permitted any derogatory remarks about Jaune. And it wasn't as though there wasn't a point there: Pyrrha had a habit of making her opponents look like chumps by comparison. The fact that Mercury struggled to land so much as a hit on her didn't make him any different from any of her other opponents.

If she'd been feeling generous she might even have been willing to concede that he was doing better than some.

"So," Cinder murmured. "Are you looking forward to the dance this weekend?"

"Mmm." Sunset made a noise that conveyed little beyond acknowledgement of the fact that she had heard Cinder speak.

Cinder chuckled. "What's the matter? You couldn't find a partner?"

"I'm taking Ruby," Sunset said.

Cinder's smirk broadened. "Stuck chaperoning the children while Jaune and Pyrrha have fun."

Sunset turned a baleful gaze upon Cinder. "Remind me who you're going to the dance with?"

"No one," Cinder said casually.

"Oh, and I'm the pathetic one?" Sunset asked. "At least I have a friend to go with, wasn't any of your team-mates willing to put up with you?"

"Perhaps I want to be free to seize any...opportunities that become available."

"Perhaps?" Sunset repeated. "Yeah, I'll bet. Just make sure those 'opportunities' don't include coming between Pyrrha and Jaune and we'll be fine."

"You care about what happens to them?"

"He makes her happy," Sunset replied. "A contented Pyrrha wins me battles." _And the way she acted after he asked her out was just too cute; you'd need to have a heart of stone or no heart at all to want to spoil that._

"And you're not in the least jealous?"

"Of Pyrrha? Jaune isn't that much of a catch."

Cinder laughed softly. "But it's part of a pattern, isn't it? I go to the dance alone, you get lumbered with the kid sister of your group, and Pyrrha Nikos winds up with a handsome man on her arm because of course she does; she's the kind of girl who breezes through life in a vast carelessness, protected by good looks and old money, always getting whatever she wants and always getting her way as people fall all over themselves to fawn on her."

"And all the while she risks her life as she trains for a job that might get her killed in some dark, wild place where there is no help and no one to bear witness?" Sunset demanded. "You're a smart girl, Cinder, but you're talking bull about Pyrrha." The fact that it was the kind of nonsense that she had once believed about the Invincible Girl made it especially uncomfortable to listen to.

"If you had seen her the way I have you wouldn't be so quick to rush to her defence," Cinder replied.

Sunset frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Cinder was silent for a moment. "It doesn't matter. Are you looking forward to the party?"

"I..." Sunset hesitated. "It'll be alright, I suppose."

"Hmm, it's good that you're not getting your hopes up too high," Cinder said. "Nights like these...they're never as good as you think that they're going be. As the moment creeps closer your expectations build up and up, climbing higher than the clouds, higher than the tallest tower in Mistral; you imagine all the wonders that are waiting for you, all the delights that you'll sample, all of the attention you'll receive...all the happiness that you'll experience. You convince yourself that all your dreams are about to come true and you'll be...and then the moment comes, and your fantasies make contact with reality: mundane, banal...and invariably disappointing. Don't get your hopes up, Sunset; it's the only way to avoid crashing down into despair."

Sunset stared at the other team leader in silence for a moment. "We're not still talking about the school dance, are we?"

"We're talking about absolutely everything," Cinder said. "Nothing you can ever do, nowhere you can ever go, is ever quite as wonderful as you dreamed it would be; it might be pleasant, you might even like it, but it will never wholly match the thing you built in your heart while you waited for it, planned for it, worked for it. And besides, it's the moment when all your hopes and dreams have been raised to their highest...that they are most vulnerable to being shattered, and your heart with them."

Sunset's eyebrows rose. "So...you're not looking forward to the dance, I take it?"

"Did I say that?" Cinder asked.

"...Pretty much, yeah."

"I think the dance will probably be an absolute bore for all involved," Cinder said. "But the evening? I still have some hope that I'll be able to salvage some real fun out of it, somehow."


	66. Shake Your Tail

Shake Your Tail (Cause We're Gonna Have a Party Tonight)

The Beacon freshmen had got together and arranged on a one-night only change in the room dispositions for the dance: the girls would get changed in the rooms of teams SAPR and WSTW, while the boys would change in the rooms of YRBN and BLBL.

Which meant that Jaune was heading towards the YRBN dorm room to join Ren and Flash in getting ready for the dance when Sunset accosted him.

"Jaune," she called, peeling herself off the wall as she saw him coming. Her hands were clasped together behind her; she could feel the light plastic covering the flower underneath her fingertips, soft and cold and a little bit sticky by now. She kept it out of Jaune's sight as she walked towards.

"Sunset," he said, taking in the fact that she was still wearing her school uniform. "Shouldn't you be getting ready with everyone else?"

"I will be, in a moment," Sunset replied. "I want to talk to you for a second first."

"Uh, okay," Jaune said, with more than a trace of nervousness.

"Don't look at me like I'm an ursa, will you, I haven't been that bad in ages," Sunset snapped. "Except for just then, maybe, a little bit," she said. She shook her head. "The point is, I need to…um…"

She stopped, hesitation robbing her of the words. Was this even necessary? Did she really need to give Jaune the talk? Was he really going to do treat Pyrrha like trash?

 _You never can tell with guys._

Oh, come on, really? When he was sleeping in the same room as Pyrrha, Ruby and Sunset, was he really going to bring all that down on him by acting like - as an older generation might have put it – like a cad?

 _What's the harm in nipping it in the bud before it gets that far?_

Well, Jaune might think that she had a low opinion of him, for one?

 _No, you just have a low opinion of teenage boys._

Yeah, but how likely was it that Jaune was going to do something bad? He was a nice boy-

 _You thought the same about Flash._

But that was different. Pyrrha was in love with him.

 _Like you were in love with Flash._

She wasn't really though, was she? She'd gotten over it.

 _Yeah, right. Keep telling yourself that._

None of that means that Jaune is going to turn out anything like the same way.

 _But what if he does?_

"Sunset?" Jaune asked. "Is everything okay?"

"I don't know," Sunset snapped up at him. "I don't…I'm sorry, I just…I'm trying to work out whether I need to…ugh…just don't hurt Pyrrha, okay?"

Jaune stared down at her, his blue eyes seeming especially innocent as he blinked down at her. "Huh?"

"You…" Sunset stopped herself from just saying 'you heard' for fear it might sound too surly on her part. "Don't hurt Pyrrha. She…" Sunset also stopped herself from saying 'she loves you' because if Jaune didn't realise that then it wasn't Sunset's job to tell him. "She doesn't deserve it. So if this is some love 'em and leave 'em thing where you walk away as soon as you can say you tapped Pyrrha Nikos, or you're going to get bored in a few weeks and move on, or-"

"Sunset, come on," Jaune interrupted her. "How can you say stuff like that?"

"It's nothing personal."

"Isn't it? Because it sounds pretty personal to me?"

Sunset groaned. "This is what I was worried about; I'm not telling you this so that you can get offended, okay? I know that you're a nice guy, but I've been let down by nice guys in the past. Badly. And I don't want that for Pyrrha because she's my friend and I don't want her to get hurt. She doesn't deserve it, she's too-"

"I know what Pyrrha is," Jaune said. "I know exactly what a wonderful person she is and how little she deserves to get treated like…like that. And I would never do that! You're not the only person who cares about Pyrrha."

"I know," Sunset said, perhaps a little too sharply. She softened her tone. "I know. I just…you're a boy, and boys can change so suddenly…" she sighed. "Or perhaps I'm just projecting like crazy." She sighed again, and even more deeply this time. "I really didn't come here to offend you, or upset you, or…anything, really. I just-"

"Wanted to help Pyrrha," Jaune said softly. "I get that. And it's okay. I mean, sure I was upset at first when you acted like I might…come on, I've got seven sisters, I know how to treat girls."

"Really?" Sunset asked. "How's that?"

"With a deep respect born out of fear and a knowledge that they know where you sleep," Jaune said.

Sunset couldn't help but snort with laughter. "Yeah, I'm sure you do."

Jaune smiled. "I…I don't know how long this is going to last…but that's only because I don't know how long Pyrrha is going to be satisfied with a guy like me when she's so…you know."

 _If only you knew._

"I don't know if I can make her happy," Jaune continued. "But I'm going to try, for however long she lets me.

Sunset looked at him for a moment, looking at his earnest face, looking into his eyes. "You…for what it's worth I'm sorry if I bruised your pride a little; and for what else it might be worth…I think you are a good guy, and I should have trusted you."

"It's okay," Jaune repeated. "What are friends for except looking out for one another, right?"

"Mmm," Sunset murmured. "Anyway, I got this for you." She held out the white carnation that she had hitherto been concealing behind her back. "A shop in the market was selling them ready for the dance, I wasn't sure if you'd have one."

"No, I don't," Jaune said. "What is it?"

Sunset rolled her eyes. "It's a carnation for you to wear in your buttonhole," she said. "The top buttonhole, before you make yourself look like an idiot, on your lapel. Then, at the end of the night, you give it to Pyrrha."

"Why?"

"Because…it's a tradition," Sunset said. The tradition she was most familiar with was the one that said you wore a white carnation in your mane on the first day of exams and a red one thereafter, but she was almost certain that there was a tradition about wearing them to formal dances and dinners like this as well. And if there wasn't, well…Pyrrha wasn't the kind of girl who would refuse a flower if Jaune offered it to her; she'd be mortified at the idea of embarrassing him in public, if nothing else. "It's one of those things to…let her know that you like her, sort of, I think. It's a tradition and I think it's cute and I think she'll like it. This…she deserves to have the best night ever."

"I don't know about that, but I'll give it a try," Jaune said, a trifle nervously, as he took the carnation in its plastic sheet from Sunset's fingers. "But what about you're night?"

Sunset smiled sadly. "Don't worry about me, I…it'll be okay. Have a nice night."

"Thanks, you too."

"Sure," Sunset said, without a huge amount of conviction, before she turned away and began to walk back in the direction of the SAPR dorm room.

* * *

Jaune had a frown creasing his forehead as he knocked on the door to the YRBN room.

Ren answered the door, still wearing his green casual and combat outfit. "Jaune."

"Hey, Ren."

"Is everything okay?"

"Uh, yeah, sure," Jaune said. To tell the truth the look on Sunset's face had stuck with him, the way that she'd looked as though there was little chance of her having a nice night, never mind the best night ever.

 _I'm just projecting like crazy._

 _What are friends for except looking out for one another, right?_

Ren made way, and Jaune walked into the room. He could hear water running in the bathroom next door.

"Flash is just taking a shower, but he should be out soon," Ren said. "You can go in next, if you like."

"Are you sure? Because I got here last and this is your room…"

"It's fine," Ren said. "I can dress very quickly. I don't need a lot of time to get ready."

"Oh. Okay, thanks."

Ren's purple eyes glanced towards the flower in Jaune's hand. "What's that?"

"A flower," Jaune said, although he realised a moment later that that was obvious. "Sunset gave it to me to wear."

"Ah. I see," Ren said.

The sound of running water ceased in the bath room, and after a minute or two passed in silence that might not have been exactly comfortable but wasn't really hostile either, the door opened and Flash Sentry emerged, his lower half concealed behind a yellow towel.

"Oh, hey," he said, noticing Jaune as he rubbed deodorant under his armpit. "Jaune Arc, right?"

"Yeah," Jaune said. "Flash Sentry, right?"

"That's me."

"Sunset's ex."

Flash hesitated, something flashing in his eyes that Jaune…well, he couldn't say what it was. "Yeah. Yeah, that…that was me."

Jaune paused, wondering if it was the right thing that he was about to do; but the look on Sunset's face, the resignation in her voice…the things that she'd been worried that he might do to Pyrrha!

 _She thought that I might break her heart, just because I could._

 _Projecting like crazy._

 _What are friends for except looking out for one another, right?_

"If you don't mind me asking," Jaune said. "What did you do to her?"

Flash's eyes widened. "Huh?"

"Sunset's hurting," Jaune said. "And I think that you had something to do with it and I want to know why?"

"Uh, Jaune? I think I'll take you up on that offer to use the shower next," Ren said, and without further ado he had disappeared into the bathroom and shut the door firmly behind him.

Flash sighed, and rubbed his temple. "Look, Jaune, do we have to do this right now?"

"Yeah," Jaune said. "Yeah, I think we do."

"I thought you were with Nikos-"

"Sunset didn't trust me around Pyrrha because of what _you_ did to _her_!" Jaune yelled. "This isn't about me liking Sunset or trying to stand up for her; this is about the fact that…that Sunset is my friend, and I think that she needs help. Because of what you did."

"I didn't do anything!" Flash cried.

"Something must have happened."

"Sure, something happened, she did," Flash replied. "Come on, man, you're on her team. You know what she was like; you know what she _was_. I couldn't take it any more."

He turned away, and wandered to the window, although the window itself was obscured by the drawn curtains. "Actually," he said. "That isn't true. I did do something. I lied to her about why we were breaking up."

"What?"

"I let her think that it was…because she was a faunus. I thought it was kinder to let her think that it was my…racism, I guess, rather than her… _her_. She knows the truth now, but…I thought it was for the best back then, but now…"

"Now you think it did a number on her," Jaune said, who was beginning to suspect the exact same thing.

"You can't imagine what it was like," Flash said. "Sunset…she wasn't happy, and she held me responsible for whether she was or not. When she had a rough day it was my job to make her feel better, to pick up the pieces, regardless of how I felt or how I was doing. And even when she had better days it was…it was like it was all down to me, like I was the only reason there was any light in her life. And every day…every day I had to watch the person I…I cared about get more and more twisted and…I just couldn't take it any more.

"Maybe I should have done more to help her. I know that I shouldn't have lied to her. And I'm sorry if she's still upset over what happened but…it's all so long ago now. What am I supposed to do?"

"Just…talk to her," Jaune said. "I don't know what it was like for you…but Sunset isn't like that any more. She has friends now, people she can rely on. She doesn't need to depend on you; just she like she doesn't need to depend on me, or Pyrrha, or Ruby or Blake because she has all of us. There's more than one light in her life now but…but I don't think she can get past you without your help."

Flash looked over his shoulder, and then turned around. "This is important to you, isn't it?"

"Like I said," Jaune replied. "She's my friend. We look out for each other."

Flash smiled. "She's lucky to have you. All of you."

"We're lucky to have her," Jaune said.

"I guess you are," Flash said. "Do you guys even realise what a lucky team you are? The team to beat, the team everybody's looking at?"

"I've…heard it said," Jaune said, thinking that Sunset had talked about their team in much the same way.

"And you're lucky to have her," Flash sighed. "When I saw her fight with Nikos…she was always brilliant, smart, ferocious and ferociously talented…but I didn't know just how much she'd been hiding until I saw that fight. I didn't realise how bright, how brilliant her light was."

"It sounds a little like Sunset's not the only one who isn't over it yet," Jaune murmured.

Flash snorted. "I…I'll talk to her."

"Thanks, man," Jaune said. "I think…I think it'll really make her night."

* * *

In the Team RSPT dorm room, the three organic members of the team put their combined talents together to help Penny get ready for the dance. Some people might have been surprised that Ciel had the most to contribute to this, demonstrating a swathe of expertise in the realm of make-up, eye shadow and a whole load of other stuff that Rainbow had started to tune out from lack of interest; some, but not Rainbow Dash. Like she'd told Blake Belladonna, a good team leader knew her team better than their mothers did, and so it hadn't come as a surprise to her that Ciel had a girly side that involved an intimate knowledge of how to make Penny look even cuter as well as making herself look, well, pretty darn stunning to be honest.

After all, those fashion magazines under the bed hadn't gotten into the room by themselves, had they?

Which didn't mean that Rainbow wasn't amused by it – she was, and she had the smirk on her face to prove it – she just wasn't surprised, was all.

"You've done a great job, Ciel," Twilight said. "You've got a real talent for this stuff."

"Yes, thank you so much for all your help!" Penny cried, clapping her hands together in front of the vanity mirror. "You've all done so much for me tonight! Is this what it's like to have sisters?"

"It's not what it's like with my sister," Rainbow muttered.

Ciel – currently standing behind and over Penny – glanced at Rainbow Dash where she sat on her bed. "I didn't believe that you had any sisters."

"I have…okay, she's not technically my blood sister or anything, but she's as good as," Rainbow said. "And we don't do any of…" she waved one hand airily. "This."

"I think if you asked our friend Rarity she'd tell you that having a sister involves less playing and more…well, yelling and screaming," Twilight said softly. She laughed nervously. "But anyway…you look really great too, Ciel."

Ciel curtsied. "Thank you," she said. "And for your earlier praise. I simply did my best with the time and materials available."

"So," Rainbow said. "What time is your date getting here?"

Twilight gasped. "You have a date?"

"It's one of the Haven students."

"Is it not possible for me to have even a little privacy?" Ciel asked.

"Not in a room this size," Rainbow said.

"Hmm," Ciel said. "His name is Scarlet David, age 17, hails from Wind Path, attends Haven Academy, member of Team Sun. Status: Acceptable."

"Only you would talk that way about your won boyfriend."

"He's not my boyfriend!" Ciel cried, with a slight flush to her face. "He's just a handsome, well-mannered gentleman who is escorting me to the dance in-" she wasn't wearing her watch over the white opera gloves she wore with her navy blue gown, so Ciel checked the time on her scroll. "Two minutes."

There was a knock on the door.

"Or he could be early," Twilight said.

Ciel picked up her ruffled skirt, lined with layers of frilly white lace, and went to the door.

On the other side when she opened it was a young man with scarlet hair and a scarlet jacket to match, said jacket having gold brocade upon the shoulders and stretching across the breast from the buttonholes. One of his hands was concealed beneath an equally scarlet pelisse, lined with black fur, but with his free hand he took one of Ciel's gloved hands and gently raised it to his lips.

"Miss Ciel," he said, as he brushed his lips across her knuckles.

A sort of mild squee of excitement passed from Ciel's lips, making Rainbow wish that she'd set up her scroll to record it for posterity. "You…you're early."

"I couldn't bear another minute without seeing you again."

 _If half of what I hear about Team SSSN is true they should really rename themselves Team Pickup_ , Rainbow thought.

"Are you ready to go, Miss Ciel?" Scarlet asked.

"I will be, in just a moment," Ciel said. "Will you excuse me."

Scarlet bowed his head. "Of course. I'll be waiting right here."

Ciel curtsied to him, before closing the door. She crossed the room quickly to her bed, where a white clutch bag was waiting. Into this bag she placed her scroll, and the pistol that she normally kept under her pillow.

"You're taking a gun to the dance?" Twilight asked nervously.

"I would rather have one and not need it then be without in the event of an emergency," Ciel explained. "Now, if you will excuse me?"

"Have fun," Rainbow said.

"And thanks again for all your help!" Penny cried.

"It was a pleasure and a privilege," Ciel assured her, as she slung her bag over her shoulder. She opened the door open. "I am ready to go."

"Excellent. Will you take my arm, then?"

"Of course," Ciel said, as she slipped her arm through the crook and placed her hand on Scarlet's elbow. With her free hand she lifted up her skirt out of the way of her dress.

The two of them were looking into one another's eyes as they walked away.

"I hope that stuff's just for the dance because if he always acts that way it would be kind of weird," Rainbow said.

Penny stood up. "Can we go now as well?"

"Uh, sure, why not?" Rainbow asked. "Listen, Twi, are you sure that you don't want to come?"

"Yes, I'm sure," Twilight said. "This kind of thing…it isn't really my style without Pinkie and the girls, and I really do have a lot of work to do. Hopefully, with all the power of the CCT at my disposal I can really make some progress on this trace."

"Okay then, are you sure that you don't want me to come to the tower with you."

Twilight raised her eyebrows. "Rainbow, what do you know about computers."

"I know how to keep my nerdy friend safe from danger," Rainbow said.

Twilight pushed her glasses back up her nose. "I'll be fine. There's a whole platoon guarding the tower, and who'd want to break into the CCT anyway."

Rainbow had to admit that she couldn't think of anyone who would have both the motive and the means to get onto campus, even tonight. All the same…she would have rather forgone the platoon of soldiers and been there herself; she would have felt that Twi was better protected that way.

But that was just her paranoia talking. Nobody was going to attack Beacon, nobody was going to attack the CCT, nothing was going to happen but a dance. A dance that Penny had been looking forward to, and which Rainbow had to escort her to.

"Okay," she said. "Have a good time playing with computers."

"I'm not playing," Twilight complained. "But I'll try my best." She frowned. "Rainbow Dash?"

"Yeah?"

"Isn't that the dress you wore to the last Fall Formal?"

"Yeah," Rainbow said. "So, it's a nice dress. Rarity made it for me."

Twilight smiled gently. "I'm not sure whether she'd be pleased that you like it that much or horrified that you're wearing it twice."

Rainbow grinned. "Have a good time in the CCT, Twi; and call me if you need anything, anything at all."

"I will, although I won't have to," Twilight said. "Have a great time, Penny."

"I'll try my best!" Penny declared. She grabbed a slightly tattered box that had arrived for her from Atlas a couple of days ago. "Okay, I'm ready to go!"

* * *

Weiss considered herself fortunate that she was already in the bathroom alone, putting the finishing touches onto her face, when her sister called.

The opportunities for the excitable Nora Valkyrie of Team YRDN - or YRBN, as it apparently now was - would have been too great to contemplate otherwise; Weiss was already beginning to regret letting the irrepressible redhead change in [i]her[/i] room.

However, a call from Winter, and a call moreover that she had the fortuitous opportunity to take in private, with no huntress from Teams YRBN or BLBL looking over her shoulder as she did it, brought a smile to her face as she answered it. "Winter!"

Winter's face stared back at her from out of the scroll's screen; judging by the holographic displays in the background she was on board one of the Atlesian warships hovering in the skies over Vale. A faint smile played across her lips. "You look nice."

"Thank you," Weiss replied. She paused. "I don't know if I told you that before."

"I don't know if I've ever complimented you on your appearance before."

"Not that," Weiss said. "I meant for letting me stay here after what happened with the White Fang. I have a feeling you had something to do with that. To be honest, I was a little surprised that Father let me come back here for second semester. All vacation I kept waiting for him to tell me that that was it: I was stuck back there in the mansion, not allowed to come back to Beacon. But he never did, and I can't think who else would have talked to him on my behalf. Did you have something to do with it?"

"I had a word with him," Winter conceded. "I pointed out how unlikely it was that you'd be in such a situation again, told him that with your training you were far better prepared to be put in that position than he was; I even let him in on our deployment plans. With the forces we have concentrated here, Vale is the safest place in Remnant right now, after Atlas itself."

"It's not like Father to be convinced by rational argument," Weiss murmured.

Winter did not reply, and that lack of answer roused suspicion.

Weiss' eyes narrowed. "Winter, what's going on? What aren't you telling me?"

"It's nothing that you need to concern yourself with."

"Oh, because that's going to put my mind at ease."

Winter's expression did not waver. "Father and I have come to an understanding."

"Winter," Weiss said, leaning forwards towards her scroll. "What did you do?"

"You might have noticed that we're in the middle of a crisis right now, with the White Fang," Winter declared. "However, once this crisis has passed I have agreed to leave the military and come to work for Father at the SDC."

"Winter," Weiss' tone mingled equal parts awe, incredulity and frustration. She could only imagine the satisfaction that their father must have felt, to have his eldest daughter once more beneath his power, and to have her submit to it voluntarily as well. Small wonder that he had been able to bargain Weiss' freedom for a chance to reverse the affront that Winter had done to him. "You-you can't do that!"

"I already have," Winter replied. "Or at least the bargain's been made. I can't go back on my word now."

"But the military is your life."

"And you're my sister," Winter said. "If I can protect you I will."

"I..." Weiss trailed off for a moment. "Winter, I don't know what to say."

"You don't need to say anything," Winter said. "But, if I can make one small request?"

"Of course."

"Make the most of this," Winter said. "This freedom that you have."

"I will," Weiss said, with the utmost sincerity; she knew how dearly brought this freedom was, she knew how much her service to Atlas meant to Winter. For her to give that up... _I won't let you down, Winter; I promise._

"Anyway, enough of that," Winter said. "What's done is done, and I didn't call you to make you feel guilty or grateful."

 _But you did both,_ Weiss thought. A guilty feeling like an eel or a serpent squirmed within her gut, as though she were unworthy of Winter's sacrifice. "Does this mean you're going to resume your place as heiress."

"Father didn't say so, and there's been no announcement," Winter said. "But I can't deny that it's a possibility. Would that bother you?"

"No," Weiss said immediately. "We both know that the position comes with more problems than perks."

"Indeed," Winter said. She continued. "Believe it or not I really didn't call you so that we could have such a heavy talk. Are you looking forward to the dance tonight?"

"Yes."

"Any boys I should be worried about?"

Weiss shook her head. "No, you'll be glad to hear."

"Are you glad to tell me so?" Winter asked, tilting her head a little.

"There was one boy," Weiss confessed, thinking of Neptune Vasillias. "But he wasn't interested."

"I see," Winter said, in a tone of strict neutrality. "And no one else approached you."

"No," Weiss said. "Maybe...I didn't want to make things complicated with my team-mate."

"That was probably a wise decision on your part."

"Are you coming?"

"No. General Ironwood is going to put in an appearance, but someone has to stay on board the _Valiant_ to alert him if anything comes up in his absence." Winter's smile returned. "Try and have fun tonight."

"I will," Weiss promised. _And I'll remember what you said, too._

 _I promise, I won't waste a moment._

* * *

Twilight Sparkle waited until Rainbow Dash had left with Penny before she, too, took her leave of the dorm room. She was not dressed up, in fact she was a little more casually dressed than normal, having dispensed with her bow tie for the evening in order to let her collar hang loose. This might be a long night, after all.

Opening up her scroll, Twilight checked off that everything on her checklist was in the bag that waited beside her bed: computer, check; coffee, check; notepad, check; pencils, check; bow, check, but only because Rainbow had insisted on it; book to read during periods of long processing, check and double check (because she had too books, one on compressive engineering and the other on legendary creatures).

Twilight slung the rucksack over her shoulders and left the dorm room. Already, the dormitory corridor beyond was so empty as to warrant the name deserted; everyone who wanted to go to the dance must have left already, and she guessed that anyone who didn't want to go was keeping themselves occupied quietly in their rooms. She didn't see anyone else as she left, although once she got out onto the grounds she could see students in dresses or dinner suits making their way towards the ballroom. None of them noticed Twilight as she headed the opposite direction, towards the CCT.

That part of the courtyard was as deserted as the dormitory had been, save for the Atlesian soldier, with yellow highlights on his armour - Ciel could have probably told her what that meant, but Twilight didn't know - standing guard on the steps outside the tower door.

Twilight fished her scroll - which had her authorisation from General Ironwood to be in the tower during a closed period - out of her bag and held it up as she climbed the steps.

The guard leaned down to look at it. "That looks in order. We were told to expect someone. Go right ahead, but don't put that scroll away; you'll probably have to show it again once you get inside."

"Right, thanks."

"Have a nice night."

"You too," Twilight said, as she left the guard at his post and walked through the large, faux-wooden doors of the tower.

She did indeed have to show her scroll again once she walked in, to prove to the sergeant that she was the one they'd been expecting.

"That checks out," the sergeant said. "Hey, aren't you Shining Armour's kid sister?"

"Yeah," Twilight said. "You know my brother?"

"He was my CO for a while," the sergeant replied. "Good guy, talked about you a lot. I hear you're some kind of genius."

Twilight felt her face flush. "Well...I try my best."

"All you can do. So, how's your big bro? How's married life treating him? He's Council Guard now, right?"

"Captain of the Council Guard," Twilight said, in a voice that she hoped struck the right balance between pride in his accomplishment and an appropriate sense of modesty.

One of the other soldiers patrolling the lobby whistled appreciatively. "Nice."

"Hey, quit listening on other people's conversations and do your job!" the sergeant snapped. "Sorry about that."

"It's fine," Twilight said quickly. "And Shining Armour is fine too, he and Cadance are very happy. I think she's glad he has a post where he can come home every night."

It occurred to Twilight the moment _after_ she said that that it might have been the wrong thing to say to a man who didn't get to go home every night to his family, but the sergeant didn't seem to take offence. "Lucky guy. He'll appreciate it even more once the kids come along."

"Run, kid, he's about to show you his family photos!" one of the soldiers shouted.

"Hey! You want to be cleaning out the toilets on the _Resolution_ from now until the end of the tournament, keep talking," snapped the sergeant. "Anyway, you can go right up. There'll be patrols up there every hour or so, but I can send a guy to keep an eye on you if you like."

"No, that won't be necessary, thank you."

"Okay. Just give a holler if you need something."

"I will," Twilight said, as she walked towards the elevator. "But I'm sure that tonight is going to be very quiet."

* * *

"So, uh," Pyrrha hesitated as she stood in front of them, her hands spread out on either side of her. "How…how do I look?"

Ruby ooohed appreciatively. Blake nodded approvingly. Sunset looked up and down the scarlet cocktail dress, and folded her arms. "I find it slightly ironic that the fancy party is the one time you're _not_ wearing evening gloves."

Pyrrha chuckled softly. "Well…different isn't always a bad thing."

Sunset didn't comment on the fact that Pyrrha wasn't so different that she'd decided to do without her circlet and earrings. Why change what looked good on you, after all?

"You look great," Sunset said.

"Really?" Pyrrha asked. "Do you think that Jaune-"

"Yes," Sunset said. "For Celestia's sake, don't go getting insecure on us now."

"I'm sorry," Pyrrha said, as if it were automatic. "I just…I want…"

"You want him to want more," Blake said, with a smile playing across her face. "We get it."

Pyrrha nodded. "I don't know what Jaune wants, but I don't want this to be a case of us going to the dance and then that's it. I want him to…I want more. Any advice?"

"I don't think I'd be able to offer you anything useful," Blake said. "I, um, you don't want to take relationship advice from me."

"I think that might apply to both of us, to be honest," Sunset said. Ruby didn't count because she was just a kid, but Sunset's record of relationships…okay, her boyfriend hadn't turned out to be an insane psychopath, but on the other hand, her boyfriend had broken up with her because she was acting like a sociopath so…yeah; six of one, half a dozen of the other, really. They were both terrible at relationships, and if Pyrrha actually needed their advice then she was in deep, deep trouble.

"You don't have anything to worry about, Pyrrha," Ruby said. She got up off her bed – and promptly tripped over her high heels with a squawk of alarm. "Although I have to ask how you and Blake manage to fight in these death traps?"

"Practice, I'm afraid," Pyrrha said.

"Once you wear them often enough, you get used to the difference in your centre of gravity," Blake said.

"Okay," Ruby said, holding her arms out like a tightrope walker with his pole as she teetered and tottered where she stood. "But can I follow up by asking why you'd even want to?"

"I trained in high heels from the moment I started training," Pyrrha said. "I was told a feminine touch would be good for my image."

"Seriously?" Sunset asked.

Pyrrha shrugged. "Tournaments, as you'll find out when the Vytal festival starts, are fought in the public eye as much as in the arena. There's no point being a champion if everyone in the crowd is rooting for you to lose."

"I don't know," Sunset said. "If I was in that position I might take a certain glee in winning anyway to spite the lot of them."

"But who'll want to sponsor a detested champion?" Pyrrha asked. "Who wants to buy a magazine carrying an interview with the person they hate?"

"Who wants to buy cereal with the face of the biggest heel on the circuit on it?" Sunset asked.

Pyrrha's cheeks flushed a bit. "Yes, well…exactly."

"Don't blush, you'll make your make-up run," Sunset said, with a slight trace of a smirk. "It's all a big business really, isn't it?"

"Absolutely," Pyrrha said. "As much as I sometimes wish it wasn't."

"You may not like it, but you know a lot about the way it works," Blake pointed out.

"I wasn't given much of a choice," Pyrrha said.

"Do I have a choice about whether to wear these stupid lady stilts?" Ruby asked. She tried to take a step forward, and nearly fell backwards.

Sunset leapt up and grabbed her outstretched hand. "You're trying to put too much weight on your toes, lean backwards." She remembered what it had been like, trying to learn to walk on two legs instead of four. At first her every step had felt like walking on powdered glass, her unfamiliar muscles aching and straining as she had to almost break them in at an age when all of her human or faunus contemporaries had been using them for years. She'd been in and out of the faunus free clinic on the corner of the block so often with strains and pulled muscles in her early days that the nurses had recognised her by sight. Even standing upright and erect had been a trial for her, a trial that it had required as much determination on her part to master as learning any complex spell had done back in Equestria. And when the time had come to learn to walk in high heels, well…if she hadn't activated her aura by then she would have broken her neck falling down the stairs at Flash's place at least twice.

She had learned how, because Sunset Shimmer was not a person who accepted her limitations, but she still didn't particularly like it.

There was a reason she wore boots as a matter of course.

Still, she suspected that she understood what Ruby was going through a little better than Blake or Pyrrha were capable of, and so she moved to position herself in front of Ruby, and gently reached out to take Ruby's other hand in her own.

"This isn't standing on tiptoes," Sunset said. "Don't put all your weight forward or you'll end up leaning forwards. Step with your heel first, then put your toe down. Take it slowly. I've got you."

Sunset stepped backwards as Ruby stepped – gingerly, very gingerly – forwards. She did as Sunset had told her, stepping forward with her heel first. She wobbled in Sunset's grip, but not so badly as she had done before.

"There, see?" Sunset said. She grinned. "And now we can move on to ballroom dancing."

Ruby giggled. "Thanks, Sunset."

"No problem," Sunset said, backing up another step as Ruby stepped forward with her other foot.

"Hey, Pyrrha?"

"Yes, Ruby?"

"Don't worry about Jaune," Ruby said. "All you have to do is be yourself, you'll be fine."

Sunset glanced over her shoulder, to see that Pyrrha didn't look entirely comforted by that, but at the same time was trying not to look as though she wasn't comforted by it.

"Thank you, Ruby, that's very kind of you to say."

Someone knocked on the door. It turned out to be Jaune. "Uh, am I too early? Because I can come back if I'm too early, it's no big deal. Well, actually, Ren's already gone so I wouldn't be able to get back into the room and I don't really want to go wait with Cardin, but I could go…somewhere and wait for you if you're, uh…I'll be honest, I grew up with seven sisters but I never found out what they actually did to get ready for parties, it was kind of like a magic box where Saffron stepped in looking like one thing and came out looking like something else…a magic box that takes awhile." He laughed nervously. "It's kinda funny, the first time it happened I thought she'd been replaced by a monster or something-"

"Jaune," Pyrrha's voice was right with amusement as she opened the door. "You don't need to go anywhere. You're right on time."

Jaune – Sunset was pleased to note that he was wearing the carnation in his buttonhole – stared at her. "…wow. You, you look…wow." He smiled. "Your date's not going to beat me up for saying that is he?"

Pyrrha laughed. "I think you're safe. And you look very dashing yourself."

"Really?" Jaune asked, as Sunset noted that he was still wearing the red sash he'd brought in Mistral tied around his waist.

 _Ruby's right, she doesn't have a thing to worry about._

"So," Jaune said. "Are you ready to go?"

"I'll join you, if you don't mind," Blake said. "I expect I'll find Sun waiting for me at the ballroom."

"Why don't we all go down together?" Pyrrha suggested, looking back at Sunset and Ruby. "As a team."

"Great idea," Ruby said. "If you're sure you don't mind me slowing you down in these stupid things."

"Not at all," Pyrrha said. "I think it will be nice, if we do this together. Jaune?"

"Sure, sounds great."

"We'll be out in a second," Sunset said. "I just need a word with Ruby first."

"We'll wait outside," Pyrrha said. Jaune took her by the hand – the delicate golden bracelet on her wrist glimmered a little under the light – and led her out of the room. Blake followed behind them.

The door closed with a click.

Sunset looked at Ruby for a moment.

"Sunset?" Ruby asked. "Are you okay?"

"You're taking this very well," Sunset said.

"You mean…Jaune and Pyrrha?"

"Yeah," Sunset said. "You're taking it _very_ well."

Ruby shrugged. "Have you seen how happy she is? How happy they are?"

"I have," Sunset allowed. "But what about you?"

"What about me?" Ruby asked.

"Are you happy?"

"Yeah," Ruby said. "But that's not the point."

"No?" Sunset asked. "Then what is the point?"

"The point is that having Jaune take me to the dance, or even take me anywhere, was never going to make me as happy as Pyrrha is. And taking me to the dance, or taking me anywhere, was never going to make Jaune as happy as he is now," Ruby said. "She loves him, doesn't she?"

Sunset looked around at the closed door, as if she could see through it to the lovebirds and Blake on the other side. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm afraid she does."

"You're afraid?"

"They're both young," Sunset said. "What if it doesn't work out, or…who knows what could happen?"

"I don't know," Ruby said. "I know that stuff happens sometimes, but…does that have to matter right now? Isn't the fact that they're happy enough?"

Sunset snorted, if only a little bit. "I'm not sure I could take it so well if I was in your shoes."

"They're my friends," Ruby said. "So long as they're happy then isn't that all that matters?"

"You know, I can't decide if you're unspeakable naïve or wise beyond your years."

"Can I be both?" Ruby suggested.

"Yes, and you probably are," Sunset agreed. "Now come on, let's not keep them waiting any longer."

The five of them went down together, arm in arm, only slowed down a little by Ruby's discomfort in and lack of familiarity with high heels - with Sunset on one side and Blake on the other holding onto her she was a lot more relaxed about the chance of falling down. As they walked down the empty corridors and deserted staircases, passing out of the dormitory and into the grounds where the brisk night air caressed her face, Sunset was surprised to realise just how relaxed she felt. It wasn't a feeling she usually associated with these kind of social gatherings. She had attended the Canterlot formals, if only because to have stayed away would have been an admission of fear and she would never give her enemies the satisfaction of knowing that they had scared her off, but even when she and Flash had been together she had always been on edge during those evenings. Even when he had been by her side, and even more when he had not, she had always been waiting, fearfully; waiting for the prank, for the humiliation, for the attack, for whatever they had planned for her.

There hadn't always been anything to worry about, but that had never stopped her from worrying.

After all, there had been times when there was something to worry about.

But now, with one arm slipped into the crook of Pyrrha's elbow and her other hand holding on to Ruby, Sunset found herself astonished by her lack of such fears or nerves. Instead she felt relaxed, comfortable; unafraid. Her team, her friends, they would stand by her. And that meant she had nothing to worry about.

 _So long as they stand by me._ That was the less obvious danger of Jaune and Pyrrha pairing off: not that they would break up but that they wouldn't, that they would revolve around each other like binary stars drifting out of Sunset's orbit and far away.

 _Or not. Even if they are in love they'll still need friends, right?_ Sunset put her worries aside. For now, for tonight, she could relax.

Blake's prediction was borne out as they found Sun waiting outside the ballroom. His concession to formalwear appeared to have been changing his jacket, and wearing a tie around his bare neck in a way that - to Sunset - made him look more underdressed than he had been without.

Blake seemed to like it, though; and that was probably the only thing that really mattered.

Pyrrha and Jaune, Blake and Sun entered the ballroom in pairs; they clearly weren't the first to arrive but judging by the numbers already waltzing on the dance floor they weren't the last ones either. Ruby and Sunset were about to follow when-

"Ruby!" Penny called; she left Rainbow Dash behind as she ran across the stones of the courtyard towards them, an old red box clutched in one hand. "I'm so glad I caught you before you got inside," she said. Penny looked Ruby up and down. "You look different without your hood."

"Thank you! I told you that I needed it," Ruby declared.

"But still very nice," Penny added.

"Oh, thanks," Ruby murmured. "Uh, you too."

Penny beamed. "I'm so glad you like it." She held out the red box aggressively. "Here, this is for you! My father sent it to me all the way from Atlas!"

"From Atlas?" Ruby repeated, curiously. Tentatively, with a delicate touch appropriate to the somewhat fragile state of the box, she opened it up.

Sunset, whose curiosity had also been piqued as to what Penny's father - presumably the guiding mind behind her creation - had sent her and why she wanted to give it to Ruby. Inside was a corsage of six white roses on a white ribbon, turning to a sort of cream-colour in places through age.

"My father told me that he gave this to the...to the girls he wanted to dance with," Penny said. "He's a little old-fashioned, but-"

"No, Penny, no, this...this is really nice," Ruby said, leaving Sunset completely unable to tell if she really meant that or if she just didn't want to upset Penny. "I...thank you." She lifted the old corsage out of the box, and turned it over in her hands before shooting Sunset a pleading glance. "Uh, Sunset, do you know how to put this on?"

"I think I can make a guess," Sunset said, plucking the corsage out of her hands and tying it around her wrist, putting a big bow in the ribbon as she did so. "That ought to do it."

Penny beamed even wider...and only then seemed to realise that she had a box in her hand and nowhere to put it.

"Penny, give it here," Rainbow said as she sauntered over and took the box from Penny's unprotesting hands. "I'll keep hold of it."

Penny cleared her throat, and came to a posture like standing to attention for some reason. "Ruby, would you like to accompany me inside?"

Ruby hesitated for a moment. "Sure I would Pen-aaagh!" that last squawk was on account of the way that Penny hadn't waited for her to finish before grabbing her hand and dragging her into the ballroom at a flat run, leaving Sunset and Rainbow Dash standing outside eating their dust.

Rainbow made to shove her hands into her pockets before seeming to realise that her dress didn't have any. "Do I want to know how you know how to tie a corsage ribbon?" she asked, with a slight hint of a smile. "Or would it be more fun to ask why you don't have a real date tonight?"

Sunset's eyes narrowed slightly. "Have you asked Pinkie Pie out yet?"

Rainbow gasped. "I...no! Why would you even say something like that?"

"No? Then shut up and come on in," Sunset said good-naturedly as she led the way inside.

Rainbow quickly followed. "Seriously, why would you say that?"

"Because it's obvious," Sunset said. _Or at least it was back in Canterlot._

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"None of what you've said is actually a denial."

The two of them made their way over to the punch bowl. Sunset picked up a cup, but hesitated. "Knowing how much Nora was involved in planning this dance I'm not sure if I actually want to try the punch."

"I heard that!"

Rainbow was more bold, filled up her cup nearly to the brim. She sipped from it as the two of them watched the dancers on the floor. Pyrrha fitted into Jaune's arms as though they'd been made for one another, and they danced with a grace that was expected (in the case of Pyrrha) and surprising (in the case of Jaune). Penny, meanwhile, had lifted Ruby an inch off the ground and was turning in rough circles to the music, while Ruby looked to be getting a little dizzy.

Rainbow Dash raised her cup. "To Sapphire."

Sunset risked the unpredictable touch of Nora to fill a cup, and raise it. "To Rosepetal."

They knocked their paper cups together, and drank.

"Not in a mood for dancing, either of you?" Professor Ozpin inquired politely, even as he stole up on them so stealthily that his question was the first sign that Sunset had of his presence.

Sunset turned to look up into the face lined with age. "The shepherdess can watch over her flock without doing...whatever it is that sheep do in the...the place where the shepherd watches them." She blinked. "That metaphor was not one of my best for a small host of reasons."

Professor Ozpin chuckled. "Your commitment to your role is admirable, Miss Shimmer, but not entirely necessary. When can you let your hair down if not on a night like this?"

"Professor, I suspect you know full well that I was being facetious."

The headmaster's expression did not alter. "And I suspect you know full well that my point stands regardless. And you, Miss Dash, is something keeping you here, on the sidelines of the festivities?"

Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Believe me, sir, I've got no objection to a good party...but it needs to have the right people here, and they're not right now."

"But that is precisely why we have nights like these, to help forge new friendships, and strengthen the old ones so that they will last a lifetime," Professor Ozpin said. He looked away from Sunset and Rainbow, and out at the figures on the ballroom floor. In particular, his gaze seemed to linger upon Jaune and Pyrrha; they, of course, were too lost in one another to notice. "They make a handsome pair, don't they?"

"She's a beautiful young woman," Sunset replied. "He's...alright."

"Young," Professor Ozpin repeated. "Yes, you are all so young."

"Sir?" Rainbow asked.

Professor Ozpin's smile was melancholy, and rather lonely. "When I was young, each day seemed as long as a year and summer seemed to be without an end; it seemed I could sit under the shade of the trees for as long as I wished, or squander the treasure of my time on...nothing. But night draws in, and Fall comes for us all; the leaves beneath which we sheltered descend...and our ground to mulch beneath the march of time; even those from whom we once swore we would never be parted are taken from us, leaving only memories behind.

"No one has ever regretted that they had too many memories of the cherished companions of their youths, but there are many who regret that they have too few. I beg you both, not to be among them."

Sunset and Rainbow exchanged a glance at one another.

"If I may rebut, professor," Sunset said. "I don't deny your point, but there are a lot of ways to make memories. Sometimes by dancing, and sometimes…" she raised her cup of punch. "By sharing a drink with a rival you respect."

Professor Ozpin's voice carried with it an undercurrent of amusement. "Well, Miss Shimmer, since you've been so good as to accept my point, how can I refuse to accept yours. I'll leave you to it."

They watched him walk away, to talk to Professor Goodwitch and the newly arrived General Ironwood.

"Weird old guy, isn't he?" Rainbow asked.

"Oh, you have no idea," Sunset said. _Even I don't have nearly as good an idea as I'd like._

Rainbow drank down the rest of her cup of punch. It left a bit of a red stain on her upper lip. "So, rivals huh?"

"Yep," Sunset said. "If our teams don't meet in the Vytal tournament I'll be very disappointed."

"You shouldn't be," Rainbow said. "Cause if you and I find ourselves facing ourselves in the arena it'll mean Pyrrha won't be getting into the singles round."

"Oho!" Sunset couldn't hold back a guffaw at the audacity of that remark. "And talk like that is why we're rivals, not friends." She took a sip from her cup. The punch was sharp on her tongue. "So, who are you going to put forward for the singles round?"

"Who do you think?" Rainbow replied. "I mean, obviously I'd like it to be me. I'd like to stand alone on that arena with all my friends watching…but it's all about Penny. She's the reason we're here so…" Rainbow shrugged. "My dreams don't count next to that."

"You're the team leader; you can do whatever you like."

"Then why don't you put _yourself_ forward to the singles round?" Rainbow asked. "Tell me you don't want to be in the spotlight as much as I do and I'll call you a liar to your face."

Sunset smirked. "How do you know that I won't do that?"

"Because when I talked like it was going to be Pyrrha for sure you didn't correct me," Rainbow said.

Sunset shrugged. "Yeah, sure I want it. I want them to see me, I want them to cheer for me, I want the whole thing. And maybe I could even win…or else my ego's just that big. As Pyrrha herself – unintentionally – pointed out to me, tournament fighting is a business and the business is pleasing crowds; nobody's going to want to watch Sunset Shimmer kicking ass when the Invincible Girl of Mistral is stuck on the bench. That, and, well…her mom has been pretty generous to me; it would be kind of a jackass move if I didn't give her the thing that she wants most in all the world: the chance to see her daughter become the champion of champions."

 _And besides,_ as she thought, but didn't see the need to add for the benefit of Rainbow Dash. _A win for Pyrrha is a win for the team; all our names will get set down even if it's only her head that wears the crown of victory._

 _And anyway, I'm definitely putting myself forward into the doubles._

"Hey, Sunset!"

Sunset turned around. Flash had hailed her as he walked into the ballroom, alone, waving one hand but then looking surprised when other people stopped what they were doing to look his way. He slouched down a little in the face of all the attention, walking more quickly over to where Sunset stood.

"Hey," he said again.

"Hey," Sunset replied.

Flash didn't say anything for a little while. He looked briefly away from her, thrust his hands into his pockets, and frowned. "Can we talk?" he asked. "Somewhere…private?"

Sunset glanced at Rainbow Dash, who shrugged. "We can go outside," Sunset suggested. "Or the balcony upstairs?"

"Yeah, the balcony sounds great," Flash said. He gestured out in front of him. "After you."

"Okay," Sunset said, with more curiosity than anything else, as she took the lead in climbing up the spiral staircase onto the second floor balcony. She turned, leaning back against the wooden railings as Flash followed her up and out into the night air.

It was only when he emerged into the moonlight that she noticed that he wasn't wearing a tie; his collar was undone, and he didn't have a waistcoat on either. Compared to most of the men here (okay, compared to all of the men here not called Sun) he looked a little underdressed.

"You look good," Flash said, nodding his head to indicate her pink-and-lavender gown.

"Are you okay?" Sunset asked. "You look a little…" she waved her hand to take him in. "Dishevelled."

"I've been for a walk."

"Did someone steal half your suit while you were walking?" Sunset asked.

"No, I didn't put it all on," Flash said. "Jaune gave me a lot to think about and I had to…I'm sorry, Sunset."

Sunset's eyes narrowed. "What did Jaune say?" _I swear, I'm going to-_

"He wanted to know just what it was that I did to you," Flash said. "And what I was going to do to make it right."

Sunset stared at him in silence for a moment. She looked away out of sheer embarrassment. _Jaune, come on, really? I know Pyrrha wants you to be her hero, but that doesn't mean that all the girls on your team feel the same way. Come on._ "I'm sorry about that Flash, I swear I didn't put him up to that. You'd think he'd know that I don't need a white knight to ride in and make everything better but apparently-"

"Sunset, it's okay," Flash said. "I said I'm sorry, and I meant it. I…I never meant to hurt you."

Sunset closed her eyes, and her whole body shuddered; not from the cold. _What do I say? What do you want me to say? Do I tell you not to worry about it? Tell you that Jaune was overreacting? Tell you that I forgive you?_

 _Or do I tell you the truth?_

 _Twilight, what do I do?_

Sunset opened her eyes, and looked at him. "You might not have wanted to hurt me, but…but you did. I…" her voice dropped to barely a whisper. "I loved you."

"I…I didn't realise," Flash said hoarsely. "I wasn't sure that you could still love, back then."

"I trusted you," Sunset said, her voice rising a little with an anger that she couldn't wholly suppress. "You were the only one I trusted and you betrayed me."

"You needed more than I could give you," Flash said. "You needed…you needed what your team gives you. I…I don't apologise for what I did: breaking up with you. I couldn't…but I am sorry for the way I did it, for lying to you about it…and for what that did to you."

"You should be," Sunset said. "I'm not saying it would have much of a difference back then; I still would have been mad at you, but…maybe I wouldn't have found it so hard to trust anybody else afterwards. Maybe I would have been able to trust Jaune with Pyrrha without having to try and decide whether I needed give one of my team-mates shovel-talk before he took the other one out dancing. Maybe I wouldn't have hated Rainbow Dash quite so much for being the good faunus." She frowned. "Or maybe it wouldn't have made any difference at all. Who can say?" She shook her head, sending her hair shaking back and forth. "It doesn't matter now. I have a great team, great friends-"

"You don't have a date," Flash pointed out.

Sunset snorted. "Neither do you, by the looks of things."

"No," Flash said. "You…seems like you're a tough act to follow, Sunset Shimmer."

Sunset's right eyebrow quirked upwards. "You mean Weiss Schnee wouldn't give you a second look. Don't act like you haven't been making moves because you're not over me or something, I know better. And I don't need your pity."

"I wasn't-"

"And don't lie to me, either, we've established it was a mistake the first time," Sunset said. She debated telling him that she'd asked Twilight, but that might sound fake or petty or both. And anyway the fact that she got shot down wouldn't do a lot to improve her standing, all things considered. "So, what do we do now?"

"Well, there _is_ a dance going on downstairs," Flash said.

"Really?" Sunset asked. "I thought you said we weren't there any more?"

"Maybe not," Flash said. "But…we didn't exactly leave it in a good place, and…we never got a last dance."

Sunset smiled. "A last dance."

Flash held out his hand. "Sunset Shimmer…would you care to come down to the dance with me?"

Sunset's smile got a little bit wider as she slipped her hand into his open palm. "I would be delighted."

And so they walked downstairs, hand in hand, like the prince and princess at the proverbial fairytale ball; all that it was missing was all the eyes in the room turning towards them in awe and fascination as they descended.

In actual fact nobody gave them a second glance.

Not that Sunset cared. For once, this wasn't about how the rest of the world saw her, this wasn't about performing for the crowd, this wasn't about her image. This was about her, and Flash, and picking up where they left off long enough to give it the ending that they needed and deserved.

They slipped into a gap on the ballroom floor, and Sunset rested her arms over his shoulders and felt his hands around her waist and it felt so natural, so right that Sunset began to wonder if this was a bad idea; was it just going to leave her wanting more in the end?

 _And that's different from now…how, exactly?_

"Is everything okay?" Flash asked.

"Yeah," Sunset said. "Everything's…perfect."

They began to sway in time to the music-

The music that abruptly cut out, to be replaced by what Sunset recognised after the first few bars as a Rainbooms number.

 _We've just got the day to get ready,_

 _And there's only so much time to lose,_

"What?" Sunset asked, looking across the room at Rainbow Dash, who looked just as surprised as Sunset.

"What can I say?" Yang announced to the room at large. "It would be rude to have a lead guitarist in the room and not play any of their numbers."

 _Cause tonight, yeah_

 _We're here to party,_

 _So let's think of something fun to do,_

Flash shrugged. "Nobody said our last dance had to be a waltz, right?"

Sunset grinned. "Let's do this."

 _Shake your tail,_

 _Cause we're here to have a party tonight,_

 _Shake your tail,_

 _Shake your tail!_

Sunset shook her tail and a whole lot more, her whole body shaking in rhythm to the music, her hands in the air; Flash was in front of her, and their bodies intertwined as they jerked to the music.

 _Shake your tail,_

 _Cause we're here to have a party tonight,_

 _Shake your tail,_

 _Shake your tail!_

Blake laughed at Sun as his tail performed ludicrously convoluted moves, tracing patterns in the air behind him. After a moment she rejoined the dance, her face still flushed with mirth.

 _So what you didn't get it right the first time,_

 _Laugh it off,_

 _No one said it is a crime,_

 _Do your thing,_

 _You know you're an original,_

 _You're ideas are so funny that it's criminal,_

 _Ohhh-ahhh!_

Flash was looking into her eyes, smiling at her the way he used to, and for a moment, for a glorious, beautiful, wonderful moment as the music swelled and they moved in time to the beat, it was as if everything that had come between them had been washed away and all the wounds had been cleansed of bitterness and hurt. It was like they had been taken back in time, given a second chance to do it all over again…and do it right.

 _Shake your tail,_

 _Cause we're here to have a party tonight,_

 _Shake your tail,_

 _Shake your tail!_

Pyrrha and Jaune were moving in perfect sync with each other. Everyone was dancing by now, whether they had partners or not they were all out on the floor; nobody was standing out that Sunset could see. Everyone was dancing, but as the music began to slow down so too did Flash and Sunset. She put her arms around him, and allowed him to pull her close.

"I have a confession to make," Sunset whispered into his ear, and for some reason her eyes felt suddenly. "I don't think things are going to work out between us."

The rainbooms song ended, they swayed to the renewed sounds of a slow dance.

"I know what you mean," Flash said. "I wish I didn't, but I do. It's going to be hard finding anybody to top you."

"Liar," Sunset said. She hesitated, swallowing the lump that threatened to form in her throat. "Goodbye, Flash Sentry."

She closed her eyes as she felt him kiss her on the cheek.

* * *

Unbeknownst to them, unseen by anyone, Cinder Fall began her attack.


	67. The Tower

The Tower

Twilight had broken through the encryption moments before the shooting started.

She wished that she could take more credit for that, but the truth was that without the computing power of the entire CCT at her disposal she would never have been able to brute force her way through the security on the email that had outed Blake's past to Beacon and the world. Still, it had been her decryption programme and it was her trace programme that started running immediately that the encryption was broken.

"Yes!" Twilight yelled, barely resisting the urge to leap out of her seat as a map of Remnant appeared on the monitor in front of her, and a blue trace-line began to depict for her the progress of that email backwards to its point of origin.

Whoever sent it was _good_. It wasn't just the encryption that was protecting their identity; it was the sheer number of places the mail bounced between. A less sophisticated trace might have been foxed by it. The passage was traced in reverse: it had been sent to every Beacon student and some Vale media outlets from the CCT here in Vale, the very tower in which Twilight sat; it had been sent to that tower from the Mistral CCT, and to there from Atlas, then back to Mistral, then Atlas again, then Vacuo, then back to Vale, bouncing off a few accounts in Vale that Twilight was 95% certain were bots or dummies, then Atlas, Mistral, more dummy accounts, Vale-

And that was when Twilight heard the shooting echoing up from below her.

Twilight was a scientist and an egghead but she had lived in the world of huntsmen for all her life. Her father had been a huntsman, her brother was a huntsman, her family moved in the circles of officers and soldiers; two of her best friends were huntresses. Twilight wasn't a gun person but she had spent enough time around gun people that she could identify several different types of weapon by the sound, and right now the sound of multiple Atlesian assault rifles firing on fully automatic was unmistakable.

For a moment, as the sounds of the gunshots echoed up to her in the computer room, Twilight froze; a cold serpent wrapped its way around her spine and paralysed her. The Atlesian troops down below were shooting. They were shooting at something. Or someone. Judging by the lack of any sounds other than Atlesian rifles, whatever they were shooting at wasn't shooting back. A host of dread visions, each more terrible than the last, deluged her mind: grimm in the CCT, grimm in Beacon, grimm in Vale; perhaps the grimm had already attacked the dance; perhaps all her friends were already dead, and General Ironwood too, and she was hearing the last stand of the Atlesian forces as they battle to hold the tower. Perhaps-

Spike, sitting on Twilight's lap, barked loudly, and the sound dispelled the fear that had threatened to claim her. Sanity returned as swiftly as it had deserted her, calm reclaiming its rightful place in her thoughts. If the creatures of grimm had gotten into Vale then the alarms would have started sounding by now, if the grimm had gotten into Beacon then she would have heard all hell breaking loose outside well before this point, anyway there was no way that Rainbow Dash would go down that easily.

But all the same, the troops downstairs were shooting at something.

Twilight glanced at the monitor, which was still depicting the progress of her trace on the source of that mail.

 _Okay. Think. What do I do? What would Rainbow Dash do?_

 _She'd go down there and join in the fighting._

 _Okay, good for her. What Rainbow Dash want me to do?_

 _She'd want me to call her._

Twilight snatched her scroll off the worktop in front of her. It was running the tracing programme, but with a single swipe one - only slightly trembling - finger she opened up a new window. She opened up her address book, scrolling through the folders to the one labelled 'Friends' which contained five headshots within it.

Her hand didn't shake at all as she selected Rainbow Dash.

* * *

Rainbow Dash was standing in the upper gallery, looking down at the dance floor below. In particular her attention was focussed on Penny, who looked like she was making Ruby Rose a little bit dizzy as she whirled her around on the floor.

"Do I need to ask what the intentions of your robot are towards my team-mate?" Sunset asked, as she joined Rainbow at the railing.

Rainbow looked up to see that her fellow team-leader was smirking. For her part, Rainbow didn't smile.

"Sometimes," she confessed. "I feel more like a mom than a team leader. Like I'm watching somebody grow up right in front of me, figuring themselves out as they go."

"She'll be doing well if she gets it right the first time," Sunset muttered. "Especially with you as a role model."

"Oh, that was feeble, even for you," Rainbow said. She frowned. "I'm watching her grow up and I'm leading her into battle. What does that make me?"

Sunset leaned on the rail beside her. "The White Fang send children into battle, judging by Blake and some of the people she knows."

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "I don't know about you, Sunset, but I'd like to think that 'better than a bunch of murdering terrorists' is a bar I could clear pretty easily." _Only, you know, maybe not._

She was interrupted - and Sunset pre-empted from saying anything else - by the buzzing of Rainbow's scroll. The vibrations sent shivers up her spine for a moment before she pulled her scroll out from the back of her waist and pulled it open.

Twilight's face confronted her. "Rainbow, I need you."

Rainbow straightened up. "Twi, what are you-" she stopped as her ears - all four of them - pricked up at the sounds she could hear coming out of her scroll. Sharp, rattling sounds, numerous and repeating. Sounds - in this context - to make Rainbow's blood chill. "Twilight, is that _gunfire_?"

Twilight nodded. "Yes. I think the tower is under attack."

 _No. No, no, no, no!_ She had promised all their friends that she would look out for Twilight, and now Twi was in danger Rainbow as on the other side of the campus at this stupid- "What floor are you on?"

"Nine," Twilight said, just as the shooting stopped. "The shooting's stopped."

Rainbow nodded. "Show me the room."

Twilight turned her scroll away and waved it around, giving Rainbow a panoramic view of the entire room.

"Okay," Rainbow said. "The bank of desks in the far right corner, near the window. Hide under there, don't move, don't make a sound, I'll come get you."

"Right," Twilight agreed, as she brought the scroll back around to show her face. She glanced away. "Someone's coming up the elevator."

"Hide, stay quiet, and don't panic," Rainbow snapped, sounding close to panic herself. "I'm on my way!" She ended the call, and leapt off the upper gallery, landing heavily in the middle of the ballroom floor. "PENNY!" she yelled, causing her team-mate to stop - holding Ruby up by the arms - and look her way.

"Come on, we've gotta roll!" Rainbow shouted, trusting Penny to follow her as she began to run for the exit, shoving people aside as she did so. "Come on, make a hole."

Rainbow kept her scroll out as she sprinted out of the ballroom, she tried to type as she ran but she kept hitting the wrong keys on the display. She gritted her teeth as she skidded to a halt, halfway to the CCT already but still seeming so far away from Twilight and…Rainbow tried to keep from thinking about what might be going on in there, what might be happening to…no, don't think about it, dammit, calm down! She typed in the coordinates to summon her locker.

"Rainbow Dash!"

Rainbow turned to see that Penny wasn't the only one who had followed her out of the ballroom. Ciel was there too, and – a little more surprisingly – Ruby and Sunset, the former running in bare feet having apparently discarded her high heels.

For herself, Rainbow was glad that she'd worn boots to the dance.

"What's the situation?" Ciel demanded as the four of them closed the distance towards her.

"Twilight heard gunshots in the CCT, then the shooting stopped and then someone started coming up the elevator," Rainbow said. "I think she's in trouble."

"Understood," Ciel said, pulling out her scroll. Sunset and Ruby did likewise.

"Why would anyone want to attack the CCT?" Ruby asked, as she summoned her locker.

"Could be the White Fang, although I kinda hope not," Sunset muttered. "If they can get in here whenever they want it's not good."

"There is no positive in any hostile being able to breach the security of the campus," Ciel said.

"We'll find out who they are when we catch up to them," Rainbow growled as her locker slammed into the ground in front of her, smashing the stones of the courtyard path before popping open to reveal her wings, guns, and anything else that she might want.

The lockers of Sunset, Ruby and Ciel arrived as she still was strapping the wings onto her back. Rainbow didn't bother with telling them they didn't have to come or any of that stuff; it wouldn't have worked and anyway, Twilight might need all the help she could get.

"You go on ahead," Ciel said, as she pulled a sub-machinegun out of her locker. "I'll inform General Ironwood, and then we'll follow."

"Right," Rainbow said, grabbing her machine pistols.

"Is Twilight going to be okay?" Penny asked anxiously.

Rainbow looked into Penny's wide eyes, and forced herself to smile. "Of course she is. Twilight's gonna be just fine. Because we're going to save her."

She turned away, kicking off the ground as the jetpack of her wing-suit propelled off the cobbled stones and up into the air. Her wings extended, catching the currents of the night air as Rainbow soared upwards towards the ninth floor of the CCT.

 _Hold on, Twi. I'm on my way._

* * *

The elevator was creeping upwards towards her floor. Twilight half-rose from her seat, but stopped. Out of the corner of her eye, the monitor screen had caught her attention.

The trace programme had tracked the message as far as…Drachyra? The signal had been bounced off Drachyra? No, more than that, that was where the encryption had been picked up from. Twilight boggled, staring at the monitor as her eyes widened behind her glasses. This…this was impossible. Drachyra was a barren wasteland, racked by storms and infested with grimm. Nobody lived there, and even if they did there was no technology that would allow anyone to connect to the CCT network…was there?

 _There's no way my programme could be wrong. Then…that means…_

The signal had come to Drachyra from…Twilight watched as the blue trace line went right back to where it had started from, Beacon…from the scroll of…

An official photograph of a supremely confident young woman appeared on the monitor, smirking out at her. The name beside the picture was Cinder Fall.

 _Sunset's friend. But why-_

Once more she was roused by the sound of Spike barking loudly, looking at her and then shaking his head in the direction of the elevator shaft as if to say _hey, remember the emergency?_

"Right," Twilight said. "Thanks, Spike." Fight. Bad guy. Have to hide.

Twilight ran for the back of the room, leaving her scroll and, well, everything else behind her as she dived under the bank of desks nearest the window. She covered hunched down, and covered her mouth with one hand as, with the other, she covered the mouth of her dog.

 _I'm really sorry about this Spike, but we can't make a sound until Rainbow Dash gets here._

Twilight waited, huddled under the bank of desks, breathing in and out through her nose.

 _I left my work on the monitor!_

Whoever came up here would see it and know that she was here! There was no point in hiding at all! Twilight knew that she ought to get up, to go back, to grab her stuff and erase the evidence of her work, but…but she was afraid. She didn't mind admitting that. It sounded like someone had just taken out all the guards and now they were on their way up here…to her.

She wasn't brave enough to get out and show herself under those conditions. She just wasn't. Besides…she didn't have to hide for long, just until Rainbow arrived and then everything would be okay.

She couldn't see anything beyond the desk under which she was hiding. The green light of the CCT monitors reflected off the polished floor. She was too low down to see much out of the windows but starlight.

Twilight couldn't see the elevator, but she heard the click of heels upon the floor, and she heard a sultry voice echoing across the room.

"Really? Who?" the speaker was silent for a moment. Twilight guessed that she was talking to someone else. "And is there a good reason why you just let them leave?"

 _Rainbow Dash. She's talking about Rainbow Dash and…someone else; Penny? Ciel? But then…that must mean that she has allies at the party, keeping watch._

"I see," she purred. "Never mind. I'll deal with it."

Twilight held her breath as she heard the clicking sound of the woman's steps upon the floor.

Was it Cinder Fall, the same woman who had attacked Blake Belladonna? Twilight didn't know her well enough to recognise her voice. It could be…or they could have even more enemies that they didn't know about.

"So, you figured it out. Clever, clever, Twilight Sparkle; you really are a talent."

 _You've got someone pretty talented on your side too, Cinder; if that is who you are._

Twilight could hear the woman working on the computer. Erasing Twilight's work, probably. Or…no, there must be more to it than that, because she couldn't have known that Twilight was here before she came here, could she? Twilight had only told her team and Sunset and-

No, stop that. Sunset hadn't betrayed them. She'd had too many chances to do so already and not taken them. She'd helped Blake when no one asked her too, why do that if she was working with the people who had set Blake up?

It didn't make any sense. Which meant that nobody had known Twilight was going to be here when they launched their attack. Which meant that-

"Come out, come out, wherever you," the woman called. Twilight could hear more footsteps, but she couldn't tell exactly where they were in relation to her hiding place.

She started to breathe through her nose before she passed out. Spike was starting to fuss and fret. She scratched behind his ears and hoped that he could understand that she was doing this to be cruel to him.

"Open your eyes, you have to get up," the woman whispered in a sing-song voice.

"Monsters are coming to gobble you up.

Out of bed, hide under the floor,

The monsters are breaking down the door."

It was a nursery rhyme. No, it was a hide-and-seek song. Or was it both? Twilight hadn't exactly had friends to play hide-and-seek with. It was a traditional thing, was it Mistrali originally? The sort of thing that children got taught to tell them what do when the grimm attacked, except it had gotten tamed in places where the grimm didn't show themselves until the original meaning had been lost.

Except right now, hiding under a desk as a monster prowled the room searching for her, her footsteps echoing, Twilight felt she could understand the meaning of the original very, very well.

"Hide in the cupboard, are they near?

Monsters know how to smell your fear."

 _Rainbow Dash where are you?_

"You'll hear the screams and then you'll know:

Mommy and Daddy can't help you now."

The chair nearest Twilight was rudely shoved away, and a masked figure dressed in black loomed over, a cruel smirk disfiguring the smoothness of her face.

"Close your eyes, don't look up," she said.

"Here comes a monster to gobble you up."

Twilight yelped as she was grabbed by the neck and dragged out of her hiding place. She beat futilely at the other woman – Cinder, it was Cinder, even with a mask on Twilight recognised the photo that she had just seen – but Cinder paid as much noticed as she would have paid to a gnat.

Twilight winced as she was slammed back-first into the wall. Spike barked furiously, and leapt at Cinder, who half-turned before kicking him away. He flew across the room and hit the far wall with a yelp of pain.

"Spike!" Twilight cried, half a second before she was slammed into the nearest desk so hard that she smashed through the monitor with her face, breaking her glasses in the process. Twilight shrieked as the pain slashed at her through her aura.

"You should worry less about your dog, and more about yourself," Cinder said, as she pulled Twilight up until the two of them were at eye level. Though her – now spectacle-less – view was a little blurry, Twilight could swear that Cinder looked like she was enjoying this.

 _If…if she erased my work and now she…how will my friends ever know who…who she really is?_

Twilight gasped as Cinder began to squeeze her throat. No, it was more than just squeezing. Cinder's hands were boiling hot, burning hot, they were burning through Twilight's aura just through contact until-

The windows of the CCT were shattered by a hail of gunfire as Rainbow Dash burst into the room with pistols blazing.

* * *

General Ironwood had heard Rainbow Dash bellow Penny's name across the dancefloor – it was unlikely that there was anyone who had missed it – and he had seen the three members of Team RSPT leave the ballroom in a great hurry, accompanied by half of Team SAPR while the other half – Jaune Arc and Pyrrha Nikos – looked about as confused by it as the rest of the guests at tonight's party.

Ironwood glanced at Ozpin. "Something I should know about?" He respected the aged professor greatly, he had served him faithfully for many years in spite of the risks to his career and reputation, but if Ozpin was using _his_ team without his knowledge then-

"I assure you, James, that I am just as in the dark as you are," Ozpin replied. "Why don't you try and discover what's happening while I prevent the spread of unnecessary panic amongst the other students."

Ironwood nodded, and he had already walked out of the ballroom – Ozpin, meanwhile, headed back inside – when his scroll began to buzz.

He tapped his earpiece to take the call audio only. "Rainbow Dash?"

"Ciel Soleil reporting, sir."

"Report." Ironwood snapped.

"Twilight Sparkle reported gunfire from the lower levels of the CCT," Ciel said, as calmly and as matter-of-factly as if she were reporting the weather. "Gunfire then ceased, but a possible assailant began to ascend in the elevator. Rainbow Dash has gone on ahead to secure Twilight Sparkle; myself, Penny, Sunset Shimmer and Ruby Rose of Beacon's Team Sapphire will follow immediately."

Ironwood bit back a curse. Someone was attacking the CCT? Under his very nose? And Twilight was in there, the brightest mind that Atlas had produced in a generation and he'd put her in danger.

 _Nobody could have predicted that anyone would be able to infiltrate Beacon and overpower the guards._ Not that that would stop Councilwoman Cadance from calling for his head on a platter if he let her sister-in-law die on his watch. And the black mark on his career would be a small matter compared to the loss of all that Twilight might have done for Atlas over the course of her life otherwise.

And even that might be a small matter compared to the possibility that this had nothing to do with Twilight Sparkle at all. What if whoever this bastard was knew what Ozpin was hiding in the vault underneath the tower? Had Amber's assailant come back to finish the job? What if they knew about the relic? Ironwood didn't know where exactly the Relic of Choice was – only Ozpin knew that, it was a secret even amongst the secrets of their organisation – but who knew what clues to its hiding place might be hidden in Ozpin's office if somebody got up there?

 _Is it her? Is she coming for us?_

Generai Ironwood controlled his voice. There was no point in letting Soleil hear how concerned he was. "Good work, Soleil. I'll try and raise the guard detail, and summon reinforcements to support you. Good luck."

"Thank you, sir."

"Ironwood out," Ironwood said. He tapped his earpiece again, ending the call from Soleil and enabling voice-activated contact. "Lieutenant Reynolds, this is General Ironwood, status report."

There was no response.

Ironwood's feet carried him, almost subconsciously, towards the tower.

"Lieutenant, this is General Ironwood, please respond." No answer. "Sergeant Barnes, do you copy?"

Ironwood scowled. "Schnee."

There was a momentary pause before Winter Schnee's voice came over the line. "Sir."

"The CCT has come under attack. Load up two – make that three – skygrapsers with marines and meet me outside the tower ASAP."

"Understood, sir. Do you want me to alert the Vale authorities?"

"We'll deal with that when the situation is contained, for now double time it. Twilight Sparkle's in the tower."

"Yes, sir."

"Wonderbolt Lead," Ironwood said, ending his call to Winter and speaking a new contact name.

"Spitfire, reading you loud and clear, general," The squadron leader of the Wonderbolts, known by the callsign Spitfire, came on the line.

"Prep your team for ground action and rendezvous with me outside the CCT on the double, shots fired, situation unknown."

"Copy that, sir. Wonderbolts inbound."

Ironwood began to reach into his jacket for the pistol he always kept concealed in a shoulder holster. He was interrupted by another message.

"Ironwood."

"Ciel Soleil reporting, sir. We've arrived at the CCT, all guards have been neutralised."

"Dead?"

"Unknown, sir, we haven't made a comprehensive-"

"Don't bother, securing Twilight is your top priority," Ironwood said.

"Yes, sir."

The sharp rattle of gunfire began to sound in Ironwood's earpiece. "Soleil!"

"Coming from above us, sir."

 _Rainbow Dash._ "Hurry, Soleil."

"Yes sir!"

* * *

Ruby pressed the elevator button repeatedly, prodding it over and over again as if it was going to make the lift come down any faster. And as she pressed she was muttering inaudible encouragement to it, or perhaps she was just upset that it wasn't moving fast enough.

Sunset left her to it. If she wanted to do something other than nothing then letter. Even if it wasn't going to make the elevator come down any faster then it wasn't going to make it move any slower either.

And it meant that she didn't have to look at the bodies of the Atlesian soldiers scattered around the atrium of the tower.

Sunset didn't know if they were all dead. Since General Ironwood had given them the clear not to waste time checking everyone, nobody really wanted to spend any time checking any of them. So Sunset didn't know if they were all dead, but she did know that at least some of them were. You didn't get up again from having your neck twisted into _that_ angle, and if you weren't crying out from a stab wound like that you weren't going to cry out ever again.

The atrium was riddled with bullet holes, but so far as Sunset could tell none of the Atlesian troops had been shot. There were some blade wounds, but no gunshots that she could see. Which, combined with all the bullet holes that the Atlesians must have caused themselves, that whoever they were up against was very good. Agile, fast, able to dodge like a fiend.

Sunset wished that she'd worn gloves, she was starting to sweat just a little bit.

 _Come on, where's that elevator?_

Ciel was standing over one of the fallen Atlesian soldiers, one of the ones they were sure was dead. Her head was bowed and her eyes were closed. Was she praying? Religion wasn't a big thing in Remnant, and certainly not something Sunset would have expected to see from an Atlesian.

"And now I vow to take up your struggle," Ciel murmured. "Until the final victory is achieved, or I join you in the green fields beyond the mud and blood in which we live. Through your sacrifice shall the city prosper, and our enemies fail."

"I…I don't understand," Penny said, as she looked around at the fallen all around her. "Why…who would do something like this?"

Ruby looked at her. "I…I don't know exactly who's responsible for this, Penny. Not yet, anyway. But…there are a lot of bad people in the world who just don't care about life, who fight and kill because they can. They're…they're worse than the grimm because they know that what they're doing is wrong but they do it anyway. And that's why we have to fight them. That's why we have to fight them with everything we have because it's the only way we can protect our friends."

"But why?" Penny repeated. "Why would anyone deliberately do something that they know is wrong?"

Ruby sighed. "I really wish I had an answer for you, Penny, but I don't. I don't think anybody does.

"Their motives are irrelevant," Ciel declared. She opened her eyes, but her expression remained grimly set. "They are the darkness, no less than the creatures of grimm. They are the darkness, and we are the light."

The elevator finally began to descend down towards them.

"I don't think we can always understand why people do what they do, Penny," Ruby said. "Sometimes, all we can do is stop them before they hurt anyone else."

* * *

Rainbow broke through the windows guns blazing, shards of glass bouncing off her goggles and getting stuck in her hair. She roared in anger as her wings folded up behind her and she rolled into the room, still shooting because no one, but no one, but _no one_ treated her friend like that and got away with it.

The woman in the black catsuit held up one hand, stopping Rainbow's bullets dead in their tracks.

Then she threw Twilight.

Rainbow dropped her pistols and caught her friend with both hands, cradling her in her arms. Her glasses were gone – smashed probably – and there was a terrified look in those purple eyes.

"It's okay, Twi, I'm right here," Rainbow said. "Did she hurt you?"

Twilight shook her head. "My aura didn't break."

Rainbow couldn't restrain the sigh of relief, any more than she could restrain the murderous glare that she shot towards Catsuit, who just stood there looking down at them both with an infuriating smirk on her face.

"Cinder," Twilight murmured. "Her name is Cinder Fall."

Rainbow's eyes narrowed. _Cinder Fall…the Haven student?_ "Is that right?" she muttered. "Twi, Ciel and Penny are coming up in the elevator, when the doors open run for them, okay?"

"Wh-what are you going to-"

Rainbow gently put Twilight down on the floor, and then stepped protectively over her. Her hands clenched into fists by her sides.

"You want to play rough?" she asked. "How about you play with someone who knows how to throw a punch?"

The smirk on Cinder's face didn't waver for an instant.

Slowly, she produced a capsule, and flicked the cap off and onto the floor.

She waved her arm in a wide arc before her, spreading dust out from the capsule like seeds on a farm or something. The dust solidified a moment later, transforming into a wave of glass daggers that flew straight for Rainbow Dash.

"Twilight, stay down!" Rainbow snapped, as she leapt forward and rolled beneath the wave of glass which passed, harmlessly, over her head. Rainbow rose right in Cinder's face, throwing a right hook.

Cinder blocked. She grabbed Rainbow's wrist, twisted-

Rainbow head-butted her in the face. Once, twice, three times and the obsidian mask she was wearing shattered with a cruch and that smirk on her face wasn't looking quite so smug any more, was it.

Rainbow threw another punch with her free hand.

Cinder caught her fist in her open palm.

And now it was Rainbow's turn to smirk as she let Cinder have it with an aura boom, turning her aura outwards with a blast like a cannon that, sure, burned through thirty-percent of Rainbow's aura in one hit but was totally worth it for the way it for the way it sent Cinder flying backwards, smashing through two banks of desks chairs before she skidded to a halt.

Rainbow charged, trailing a rainbow behind her as she ran with all the speed of her semblance to bull rush Cinder before she could recover. Rainbow yelled wordlessly as she carried Cinder into the far wall and slammed her into it so hard there was a dent.

 _Don't. Hurt. My. Friends!_

Rainbow got a clean punch in on Cinder's face. She dodged the second punch but Rainbow converted it into an elbow strike. She swung again.

Cinder managed to evade the blow and catch her arm in a lock. Rainbow struggled as Cinder swung her, got her hand on Rainbow's neck, slammed her into the wall and then threw her away. Rainbow landed on her feet but with her back to-

"Look out!"

Rainbow wasn't able avoid all the arrows, one of them hit her, shattering or exploding or something that hurt like hell and felt like it had taken another chunk out of her aura with it. She didn't know exactly how much she had left. She certainly didn't have time to check.

Cinder leapt into the air, hovering there for a moment as twin blades of black obsidian formed in her hands out of dust crystals. Then she descended like a hawk.

Rainbow dodged her initial swings. She kicked, but Cinder took it on her arm. Cinder slashed again, and Rainbow had to block at a cost in aura. Rainbow swung at her. That damn smirk was back again as Cinder ducked under the punch and threw one of her swords into the air.

The sword spun once as Cinder grabbed Rainbow's arm.

 _Again? Dammit!_

The sword spun a second time as Cinder threw Rainbow over her shoulder and onto her back.

The sword spun a third time as Cinder caught it, reversed it, and brought it downwards point first.

Rainbow caught the blade between her palms, then kicked upwards off the ground.

Cinder was still smiling. Rainbow was really starting to hate it.

She raised her fists. Cinder raised her blades in a high guard.

They charged at one another. Rainbow swung her fists and lashed out with her legs in high sweeping kicks, and Cinder ducked and dived and leapt away from them before slashing with her twin blades which Rainbow also sought to avoid. She was probably taking something off Cinder's aura but she was also getting her own sliced away in the process; she could feel that even if she couldn't gauge the exact amount. She risked another aura boom, knocking Cinder backwards at the cost of another chunk off her own aura in turn.

Rainbow panted slightly.

 _She has to be close to the limit if I am._

 _I just wish she'd stop smirking._

If Cinder was fazed at all by what Rainbow had done, she didn't show it. She combined her two swords at the pommels, forming a bow. A trio of arrows formed out of dust. She aimed squarely at Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow wasn't fazed, she could dodge those-

Cinder's smile broadened as she switched aim to Twilight, still lying on the floor, and let fly.

And Rainbow did the only thing she could.

She leapt into the path of the arrows.

"No!" Twilight yelled as the arrows exploded. Rainbow cried out in pain as her aura broke, the magenta field rippling over her body as she lost all protection from the flames and shards of glass. She hit the floor with a thud and the clank of her wingpack, her arms and side aching. She could feel blood, warm and stick, starting to run. Not a lot of it, but she could feel it. She groaned as she tried to get to her feet.

"What's that Atlesian saying?" Cinder asked as she advanced upon her, a flaming spear forming in her hand. "From the ashes we rise?" She chuckled. "Why don't we test the veracity of that statement?"

"No!" Twilight shrieked, getting up and starting to run towards them as though…Rainbow didn't know what she was thinking.

Cinder ignored her, looking down on Rainbow Dash as she raised her spear.

A green laser blast forced Cinder to leap hurriedly out of the way as Penny, Ciel, Ruby and Sunset emerged from the elevator.

Penny's swords formed a halo around her head. "Get away from my friends!"

Cinder's ever-present smirk faltered, in fact she looked downright irritated for a moment as her flaming spear was extinguished. She stared at the newcomers for a moment, her smirk turning into more of a scowl, before she turned and ran for the windows that Rainbow had shattered on entrance.

Ciel fired in quick, three round bursts; lasers leapt from the tips of Penny's swords, Sunset and Ruby both fired; but Cinder kept one hand held behind her and it was like she had another shield beyond her aura, because none of the bullets seemed to do a single thing to her or her aura as she reached the window and leapt through the broken frame and into the empty air.

* * *

Sunset rushed to the open window, ignoring Rainbow Dash and Twilight for a moment, ignoring the crunch of glass shards underfoot because all she could concentrate on was that this was Cinder, _Cinder_ who had attacked the CCT and tried to kill Twilight.

It was Cinder who had betrayed them all.

Sunset could hardly believe it. She'd seen it with her own eyes, that face, that smile, but she could still…still hardly believe it.

 _I thought that you were like me. I thought that we were kindred spirits._

 _I thought that we were friends._

She had thought that they were so alike…was Cinder that good a liar or was Sunset such a poor judge of character?

Sunset didn't know the answer to that but she did know, as she watch Cinder fly – fly! – from the ninth floor down towards the ground, that she wanted answers.

And so she teleported, leaving Ruby and RSPT behind to appear in a burst of green light directly in front of Cinder as she landed before the tower.

"You're not getting away so easy," Sunset growled as she raised Sol Invictus to her shoulder and pointed it squarely at Cinder.

Cinder smiled. "Hello, Sunset. I take it the dance was as boring as I told you it would be?"

"You seem to have made your own amusement."

"Well, I did also tell you that I thought the night would be exciting nevertheless."

Sunset bared her teeth. "Why, Cinder? Why have you done this?"

"Why?" Cinder asked, and she sounded almost surprised. "I thought that you of all people would understand; if anyone could understand. We're so alike, after all, you and I."

Sunset swallowed, and tried to avoid the dry, brackish sensation in her mouth. "I'm not so sure of that any more."

Cinder laughed. "Oh, Sunset. Just because you've found out that I've been lying about certain superficial details of my allegiance, as though you've never done the same. It doesn't change who I am inside. It doesn't change the similarity between our hearts. It doesn't change that you and I are the same thing: monsters."

Sunset shook her head. "No. I'm not-"

"I feel it," Cinder hissed. "Inside you, calling to me, waiting to be unleashed. Let it out, Sunset. Embrace who you really are. I can show you, if you like." She held out one hand. "Let me help you, the way that somebody once helped-"

Sunset fired, squeezing the trigger of Sol Invictus as fire roared from the barrel of her rifle.

Cinder raised her hand and blocked the round effortlessly. "Now was that really necessary? I'm only trying to do what's best for you."

"I know who I am," Sunset growled, using her anger to mask her uncertainty. "And if you are my enemy, if you have always been my enemy, then I'm not going to just let you walk away."

Cinder smiled. "Do you think me can defeat me, Sunset Shimmer?"

"I know I'm going to try."

Twin swords sprang into existence in Cinder's hands as she forged them out of dust. "Very well. In a way, I'm glad that things have already come to this. I confess, I've been looking forward to it."


	68. Little Ashes

Little Ashes

Sunset parried Cinder's stroke with the stock of Sol Invictus, but the force behind the blow was enough to push her backwards. Her platform shoes scraped against the ground as she skidded backwards.

Sunset countered, lashing out with the rifle-butt like a club aimed at Cinder's head. Cinder ducked. Sunset let go of the rifle with one hand and loosed a beam of emerald energy from the palm of her hand. It struck the courtyard stone in a shower of debris as Cinder leapt athletically away, doing a backflip before landing gracefully on her feet.

"You know, I really envy you at times," Cinder murmured.

Sunset reversed her rifle so that she could once more use it as a gun. With one hand she felt along the wooden stock, until her fingers made out the scar that Cinder had made in the wood. "Really? And why's that?"

Cinder smirked as though it were obvious. Or perhaps she just liked smirking, since she seemed to do so much of it. "Because you can use your magic freely, and nobody cares."

Sunset felt a chill feeling run down her spine, which was funny because at the exact same moment her arms felt as though they'd just sprung a leak as sweat started to run down them. "What are you talking about?"

Cinder's laughter was cold. "Come now, Sunset; there's no one here but me. You don't have to pretend, or pass off your talents as a semblance. We're both initiated into the higher mysteries here. What you do is magic, and I'm guessing that you've had it for some time considering you're so much better at it than you are with any of your other skills." She began to circle Sunset, like a wolf circling the flock in the dead of night. She pointed one of her black blades. "So my question to you is…where did you get it?"

"My mother left it to me," Sunset growled. "My question to you is how do you know about magic, and why didn't you say anything before now?"

"That's two questions, but I'll answer anyway even though you didn't really answer mine," Cinder said. "Because I'm a good friend that way." She laughed softly. "I know about magic because I know everything. My mistress told me all before she sent me out into the world to do her bidding. But she didn't tell me about anyone quite like you."

Sunset grinned. "Guess she didn't quite tell you everything then, did she?"

"I know more than you could comprehend," Cinder snapped. "Do you have any idea what's at stake here, of course not! You fumble in the darkness, or worse, you blindly follow the lead of the great Professor Ozpin even though he's only going to lead you into the abyss."

"So what should I do instead?" Sunset demanded. "Join you?"

"Why not?" Cinder replied. "The world is changing, Sunset. There's an east wind coming that will sweep away everything that all these people have ever known. Only those who deserve to survive will be spared when the storm breaks. Join me, Sunset. Prove that you are worthy of survival as I already know you are."

"And what if I do?" Sunset said. "What happens to Pyrrha? What happens to Ruby? What happens to Jaune or Blake, what happens to any of them?"

Cinder's smile was positively vicious. "As I said: only those who deserve to survive."

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Sunset muttered. "If you expect me to take a deal like that then you don't really respect me at all, do you?"

"I respect your intelligence."

"But not my integrity."

Cinder laughed. "Creatures like us don't have integrity, Sunset; it's a luxury we can't afford. We do whatever we have to do to survive, to thrive, to achieve our dreams."

"I'm nothing like you!" Sunset lied, because she was a lot more like Cinder than she would have cared to admit.

She had a feeling – call it a hunch – that the next words to come dripping out of Cinder's mouth would be to point out exactly how much of a lie that was, how alike she and Sunset were, and so Sunset forestalled that by firing the last two bullets in her rifle chamber.

Cinder blocked them, somehow, again, but in that moment of distraction when she was doing that Sunset had teleported right in front of her and hit her across the face with the stock of her rifle.

Cinder staggered backwards, Sunset pursued. Sunset swung again, Cinder parried with her obsidian blades, swept Sunset's guard away and slashed across her midriff. It was Sunset's turn to retreat and Cinder's to pursue, black blades swinging.

"Is this all there is?" Sunset demanded, as Sunset battered her strokes against her guard like the waves beating upon the shore. "You betrayed the whole world and for what? Because you think you're better than everybody else? Is that really all there is?" _At least the White Fang have a cause._

"What more is there, in the end?" Cinder asked, and she threatened to slip a stroke through Sunset's guard.

Sunset fended her off with a beam of magic that threw her off her stride, even if she was able to evade it. "A reason?" Sunset suggested. "What are you hoping to get from this? What's going on? I just want to know why."

"Why? If you're not going to join me then what does it matter?" Cinder demanded. She slashed, Sunset pirouetted out of the way and countered with a sideways blow, which Cinder ducked to get under Sunset's guard. Sunset retreated, parrying before countering with a thrust of her bayonet.

"Because I want to know why you ended up this way," Sunset said. _I want to know how far you've gone, and how close I was to becoming just like you._ "If you tell me why then maybe I can help you!"

"I don't need your help!" Cinder yelled. Her blades clashed against Sunset's rifle, glass sword scoring the wood as Sunset twirled her weapon to strike with butt and blade intermittently. "I don't need help from anyone!" She swept Sol Invictus out of Sunset's hands to land in one of the flowerbeds. "I am about to change this world!"

Cinder thrust straight at Sunset.

"But why?" Sunset repeated, as she turned and leaned out of the path of Cinder's oncoming blade. And as the blade swept past and Cinder's momentum carried her forwards, Sunset reached out and grabbed her by the arm.

In that moment she was filled with a desire to know, to understand what could drive Cinder Fall, the person she'd liked, the person she'd fought beside, the person who had seemed so like herself in so many ways, to turn against the kingdoms for reasons that couldn't possibly be so nebulous as she was making them seem. She wanted to know, she needed to know, what had produced someone who was so like Sunset but who revelled in describing herself as a monster. She wanted to know, she needed to know, if they were really as alike as Sunset had thought and Cinder was making out. She wanted to know, she needed to know, if she could have turned out like Cinder seemed to be.

She wanted to know. She needed to know. She was filled with a desire to know that burned within her and so, as Sunset's hand closed around Cinder's wrist, she felt something spark within herself, and then a feeling like ten thousand volts running down her arm. Sunset's head jerked backwards, her eyes widened as they were filled with pure light, brilliant white light consuming the night sky and the high towers of Beacon and anything else that she could see. There was nothing but the light, no sound but a high pitched whistling in her ears, no sensations but the electric feeling rushing down her arm and then…

And then…

Then Sunset saw.

" _What's that place, Momma?"_

 _Sunset saw a young Cinder Fall – she saw things, but she also understood things instinctually, as if she'd seen all of this before – a mere child, who barely went up to the knee of the woman holding her hand as they walked down the Argus street. Not just any woman. Cinder's mother._

 _She – the mother – was wearing the uniform of an Atlesian officer. She'd been stationed at the base in Argus; she'd fallen in love with a local man, a Mistralian; Cinder was the result._

 _Cinder's mother looked at where she was pointing, to the grand, old-fashioned building nestling behind a pair of wrought-iron gates at the end of the street. She knelt down beside her daughter. "That is Haven Academy, it's where the next generation of huntsmen and huntresses start their training."_

" _Could I go there and become a huntress too one day?"_

 _Cinder's mother chuckled. "If you still want to." She kissed young Cinder on the forehead. "You can be whatever you want to be in this world, muffin."_

" _Really? I can be anything?"_

" _Anything at all," Cinder's mother said. "And I can't wait to see what you decide to do with your life."_

" _Daddy, where's Momma?" Cinder asked. "When is she coming home?"_

 _Cinder's father was a tall, well-dressed Mistralian man, who had the dark hair and amber eyes that his daughter had inherited. He sat at a writing desk, side-on to his daughter, and he didn't look down at her even as she stood looking up at his face, desperate for answers._

 _His whole body seemed to shudder, and as Sunset watched he gripped the pen in his hand especially tightly._

 _Cinder's mother was dead. Sunset knew that even if the little girl who was asking where she was didn't. Whether it was because of some especial understanding or because she knew how these stories went she wasn't entirely sure, but she knew. She knew in the same way that she knew this man at the desk was Cinder's father, that this Argus townhouse that might have looked elegant and comfortable if the lights hadn't been turned out to shroud so much of it in darkness was her home._

" _Daddy?" Cinder repeated. "Daddy, where's Momma?"_

 _Her father's head bowed. "Ashley…your mother…"_

 _Ashley. That was her name. Cinder's name, or at least the name she used to have. Ashley Little-Glassman, because her mother had decided to hyphenate her name and her father had agreed to it being passed on to their daughter. Thinking that…it gave Sunset a headache just to think about it, as if the fact of Cinder's old name was physically painful._

 _Painful to her. To Cinder. Part of a past that she would rather forget if she could._

" _Ashley," her father repeated. "Your mother…she's gone."_

 _Cinder – Ashley, but Sunset found it easier to think of her by the name she knew – blinked in confusion. "Gone? What do you mean, gone? Where did she go, Daddy?"_

" _I don't know," her father said. He put his head in his hands, and Sunset could see that there were tears running down his face. "I don't know, I only know that…that we're never going to see her again."_

 _Sunset had known that it was coming, but that didn't stop it from hitting her like a punch to the gut when it arrived. It felt as though she'd lost her own mother, except that Sunset had never known her own mother and so she'd never had any need to mourn for her. Except now, faced with the death of Cinder's mother, she could feel tears pricking at the corners of her eyes._

 _This was a woman that she'd only seen once, in somebody else's memory. She didn't know her at all, she had no idea what kind of a mother she'd been, she knew nothing about her as a person and yet, here she was, about to weep for her, feeling the loss of her as though she'd been told that Princess Celestia had passed away in Equestria during her absence. She felt emptiness inside of her, an absence that might never go away._

 _Why was she feeling like this? Was this…was this how Cinder had felt?_

 _Cinder's eyes were wide, and she stared at her father in silence, as the gloomy darkness that had already claimed so much of the house closed in around her, until the only light was a small patch around young Cinder herself, with no source that Sunset could discern._

 _And then even that light was snuffed out, and everything was plunged into darkness._

 _It rained during the funeral. Her mother was buried with full military honours; a section of soldiers in tall hats fired a three-round salute and afterwards the commanding officer – a stern-faced woman whose hair was starting to turn grey – folded up the Atlesian flag and presented it to Cinder._

 _She hated that flag. She hated that flag and everything it stood for. As far as she was concerned that flag – and the Atlesian military who upheld it – were the ones who took her mother away._

" _Ashley, I have something to tell you," her father said, as he knelt down before her. Cinder looked a little taller, but she couldn't have been very much older because – slight increase in her height aside – she still looked like an adorable little kid. "We're leaving Argus, and going back to my home in Mistral."_

" _Leaving? You mean…for good?"_

" _Yes," her father said. "I…I can't stay here after…I know that things haven't been perfect since…but they'll get better, I promise. Once we get to Mistral we can start over again."_

 _Cinder hadn't been too sorry to say goodbye to Argus. Sunset wasn't entirely sure how she knew that, but the best guess that she had was that she was connected to Cinder's thoughts somehow. It was as though when she had touched Cinder's arm she'd been able to read her memories. Was this her semblance? Was she a touch telepath?_

 _No, or not entirely anyway. She wasn't just reading Cinder's thoughts, or even seeing them. She was no detached observer in this place. She had felt Cinder's grief for the loss of her mother as raw as if it were her own. She had felt her anger and her rage at Atlas for taking her mother from her. And now she felt Cinder's loneliness. She hadn't been sad to leave Argus because there was nothing there for her. She hadn't had any friends there. She kept to herself and the other children avoided her. That was a feeling that Sunset knew well enough: reading in the corner of the playground when everyone else was fooling around, convincing yourself that they were wasting their lives while you were making the most of your time because it made you feel a little better; listening to their lives conversations and wishing that you understood so that you could join them; convincing yourself that the one person in the world who loved you was the only one you needed._

 _And sometimes that was all that you needed. As Sunset watched memories of Cinder's father start teaching her how to shoot with a bow, how to fight with two swords the way he said her mother had – Cinder was always using wooden swords at her age – as she watched the way that her father would buy Cinder these glass figurines, these little animals until she had a whole menagerie of them on the shelves of her bedroom wall, as she watched the way she'd run eagerly to him when he came home…as she watched all of that Sunset was once more reminded uncomfortably of herself. She was reminded of the way, whenever Princess Celestia had to travel to Manehatten or Baltimare or somewhere like that, Sunset would count the days until she came home again, make sure that she was there, one of the first people to greet the princess on her return. She was reminded of the way that they'd sit on the throw rug in front of the fire with hot chocolate and Princess Celestia would explain this or that principle of magic to her. She was reminded of the way she always felt so warm, so safe, so loved in the princess' presence. She was reminded of the softness of Celestia's coat when they nuzzled one another._

 _Sometimes that one other person who loved you_ was _all that you needed to get by in life and be happy…but unfortunately it was rarely possible to stay that way for long._

" _Ashley, I want you to meet Lady Clytemnestra Kommenos," Cinder's father said, as he presented this woman to his daughter. "She and I are going to be married this fall."_

 _From Sunset's perspective, Lady Kommenos seemed to be cut very much from the same cloth as Pyrrha's mother; they didn't look alike, but in their carriage and bearing – not to mention the fine quality of their attire – they were very much of a type: proud old women with more ancestors than they had money and they had a_ lot _of money. Lady Kommenos, it turned out, had two daughters of her own: Philonoe and Phoebe._

" _I want you to try and make friends with your stepsisters," her father told her. "It isn't right for you to be so alone."_

" _I'm not alone, Daddy," Cinder said. "I have you."_

 _Her father had smiled at her. "I know you do, my sweet, but I'd like for you to have friends your own age. Will you try, for my sake?"_

 _Cinder nodded. "I'll try Daddy, I promise."_

 _Unfortunately, Phoebe and Philonoe were not greatly interested in being friends with their lonely stepsister. Phoebe dreamed of being a great huntress, aided by the finest weapons and armour that her mother and stepfather could buy for her, and she delighted in using her stepsister as a training dummy. Philonoe was more feminine, which only meant that she preferred to hurt her stepsister with words rather than with blows. On one particular night, after seven year-old Phoebe came home grievously upset because a young prodigy two years her junior – a certain Pyrrha Nikos – had beaten her handily in the Junior Tournament, she had taken it out on Cinder so badly that even her father had noticed the results._

 _For the most part, however, her father's presence prevented the Kommenos girls from going too far, and when he and his daughter were together things were as they had been before, and if the days of happiness were more intermittent at least Cinder could be happy, with the one person in the world who cared for her._

 _And then her father died, and then, as you might say, her troubles began._

 _Sunset could feel everything. She felt the shock and sorrow and futile pointless rage when her stepsisters smashed all of her glass animals, the confusion when she was stripped of her room and clothes and dressed in rags to work as a servant in her own house, the fury when she went out into the garden and screamed into the night because her parents had promised, they'd_ promised _that they wouldn't leave her so where were they? Mother said that she wanted to see what Cinder did with her life, Father had promised that things would get better but they'd just gotten so much worse and they'd left her! Her own parents had abandoned her to the mercies of these people! She hated them. She hated all of them, she hated Phoebe and Philonoe and Lady Clytemnestra who made her do all the work around the house and she hated mother and father too for leaving her._

 _Sunset could feel all of it. The hate, the rage, the desire to get back at each and every one of them coursing through her, burning away at her childhood kindness. She felt the brooding anger that accompanied each slight, the deadening sensation that came from trying to cope with a constant stream of insults and abuse, the ever-present brooding melancholy that consumed her. She felt everything that was done to Cinder as though it had been done to herself: the humiliation, the degradation, the way her home became a prison with the added insult that she was responsible for maintaining it._

 _It was her stepsisters who started calling her Cinder, instead of Ashley; they called it her for so long, and they and her stepmother were the only people that she spent any time with, that it had become her name. Who was Ashley? A foolish, spoiled little girl who hadn't understood the way the world really worked; an idiot who believed in love and happiness and that the arms of a parent would keep you safe. Ashley was another girl, who had lived another life, a pleasant life and one to be envious of, but not her life. Not her. That hadn't happened to her. All of those things that they remembered had happened to somebody else. She was Cinder. Cinder Little-Glas- no. No, that wasn't her either. Those names meant nothing to her. They belonged to the people who had abandoned her. They were somebody else's parents, and she didn't want their name. She was Cinder, Cinder nothing, Cinder of the fireplace, Cinder the slave; just Cinder._

 _Cinder the Destined. When she was not working, she read; she read the old Mistralian warrior epics, full of great princes and warriors driven on by destiny to great and terrible fates. If they had endured adversity it was no matter, because they had destiny carrying them forward, and secure in that knowledge they had gone forth and endured all trials. That was her, that was what she had to be: destined, and confident in her destiny. It didn't matter how much they teased her, they beat her, they insulted her; it didn't matter what they made her do or where they made her sleep. All that mattered was that she had a destiny, a great destiny, the greatest destiny that had ever been seen in the world of Remnant and she would overcome all of this and all of them because destiny had willed it so._

 _Phoebe went to Haven Academy, the same place that Cinder had once dreamed of going when she was a little girl; despite the money lavished on her training and equipment she continued to be, at best, an average fighter. Her path crossed that of Pyrrha Nikos twice more and twice more she was effortlessly swatted aside. And while she was away at school Cinder would steal her training weapons in the middle of the night and resume the instruction that her father had begun: with the bow, with the twin swords, with the javelin. She unlocked her aura simply by persistently willing that it should be so. She trained by night until she was at least as good as her stepsister was who trained during the day and with no expense spared._

 _When she was fourteen years old, with stepsister Phoebe away at Haven, Cinder nothing had locked her stepmother and stepsister Philonoe inside the house and then burned it to the ground._

 _Sunset could feel the heat of the flames as she stood and watched it burn. She could feel the satisfaction as her stepmother and stepsister screamed for help which did not come. She could feel the glee at being free of them, the joy at their being dead, the feeling that once again life lay open before her to choose her own path._

 _She could be whatever she wanted to be in this world._

 _She had fought, she had killed, she had stolen; she had refused all offers to join any of the criminal gangs who infested Mistral's lower town, and killed anyone who tried to forcible recruit her to their organisation. Cinder had aimed at higher things than simply being a skilled enforcer._

 _She had her sights upon the upper town, upon the high society that her father and her unlamented stepmother had been a part of._

 _Sunset saw a party, a glittering Mistralian party, more crowded and more higher class even than the reception that she had attended in Mistral as Pyrrha's guest. Everyone was so splendidly turned out, jewellery glittered upon every lady's neck and arm and finger, and on many of the men as well. The colours were a riot of golds and reds and purples. The air was rich with the scent of expensive perfume. The great and the good of Mistral mingled and talked and danced. Sunset saw Pyrrha, younger then but quite recognisable, already the talk of the city from the way that so many people fawned over her; Pyrrha's mother stood over her, basking in the reflected glory of her daughter's skills as people talked of her as a champion of the regional tournament, of the city, even of the Vytal Festival._

 _It was strange; as herself Sunset could recognise the signs of Pyrrha's discomfort with all of this, the way that she didn't talk much, the way she looked and held herself with subtle discomfort…but Cinder didn't notice any of that and so, through her memories, Sunset could feel all of the resentment, the rage that Cinder had felt – and still felt, now that Sunset reconsidered some of the things that Cinder had said about Pyrrha – towards her: the precious princess of Mistral, the spoiled brat, the girl who had everything she ever wanted handed to her because everyone loved her so much, the girl who never had to work for anything in her whole life because she was pretty and rich and came from the right family and so she didn't have any worries. She got all the chances, she got all the choices, she could be anything that she wanted in this world, while Cinder…it was as though people could tell, despite her stolen dress, that she didn't belong here, that she wasn't one of them, that she was an outsider, unwanted, unclean._

 _She hated them. She hated all of them. Sunset could feel the rage, the hollow absence of all other feelings; no one to love, no one to cherish, nothing but hatred, hatred incarnate, hate for Mistral, hate for Pyrrha, hate for Phoebe away at Haven, hate for the high society that didn't want her, hate for the parents who had abandoned her, hate for the whole wretched system of the world that seemed determined to destroy people like her._

 _She had lived a life of fear and powerlessness but no more; she would be the one to put others in fear with her power. She would be the enemy of this world and its destruction._

 _She was Cinder, and she would see this whole rotten edifice…Fall._

 _Sunset saw-_

"NO! Get out of my head!"

Sunset was jolted out of Cinder's thoughts and feelings as she felt a powerful punch to the stomach that threw her, pinwheeling through the air, to land flat on her face on the stone.

Sunset groaned just a little as she looked up. Cinder was gasping. Her face was pale and she looked…she looked afraid.

"What…" Cinder murmured. "What was that?"

Sunset started to push herself up off the ground. "Did that really happen to you?"

"Stay where you are!" Cinder snapped, and Sunset had the sense that she was now – perhaps for the first and only time – seeing the real Cinder, stripped of all the masks that she used to hide herself from the world and all those in it. "Stay away from me."

"Cinder…" Sunset murmured. "Ashley-"

"Don't call me that!" Cinder snarled. "My name is Cinder Fall, the harbinger of this world's destruction! I'm not…I'm not some stupid little girl who believed that her mother loved her and that her father would protect her from all danger! I am Cinder Fall and my destiny will not be denied! Not by Ozpin, not by Ironwood, not by Pyrrha Nikos, not by all the power of Atlas and Mistral! And not by you either, Sunset Shimmer. If you have really seen what you were never meant to see then you have to know that I won't stop until-"

She was stopped in mid-flow by a bright spotlight suddenly shining down upon her, illuminating her like the star of a play.

Sunset looked up, to see an Atlesian drop ship, the first of several swooping down out of the night sky, shining the spotlight down on Cinder.

"This is the Atlesian military. Keep your hands where we can-"

Cinder ran. She turned and ran, fleeing into the night with the Atlesian dropship in pursuit.

Sunset did not pursue. She wasn't really dressed for a fight, she didn't have her dust…and she couldn't help but remember the last time she blindly rushed after a fleeing enemy Adam had nearly killed her. She wasn't eager to trust her luck the second time; arguably she'd pushed it too far already.

So she stood there, her enemy gone, but her soul full of the feelings that that enemy had left behind.

She could still feel it. All the anger, all the rage, all the bitterness. When she thought about Atlas, Cinder's disdain mingled with her own feelings towards it, amplifying the bitter memories that she had about Canterlot and warring with the attachment she felt towards RSPT. When she thought about Pyrrha, Cinder's hatred mingled with her own affection like oil and water, her thoughts flickering between her own feelings and those of Cinder from moment to moment.

Sunset would have liked, she would very much have liked, to say that she had never felt so much anger and hate inside anyone before, but that wasn't true. She had felt it before: inside herself.

Thinking about Cinder was like looking in a mirror.

And it was terrifying.


	69. The End of the Night

The End of the Night

Pyrrha was coming increasingly to regret the fact that she had stayed in the ballroom after Sunset, Ruby and the Rosepetals departed; judging by the uneasy look on his face it seemed that Jaune was feeling the same way.

Like everyone else – she could hardly have missed it – she had heard the crash as Rainbow Dash leapt down from the upper gallery to land in the middle of the dance floor, yell for Penny, and then rush out into the night. She had seen Ruby, Penny, Sunset and Ciel follow Rainbow out, but she had not followed herself. She hadn't been asked for, Jaune hadn't been asked for, and Sunset and Ruby had seemed more curious as to what Rainbow was doing and why she was acting this way than they seemed to have been requested or required by her.

Whatever was going on with Rainbow Dash of Team RSPT, Pyrrha had told herself that it was none of her business; and it had been easy to tell herself so, at first, once the immediate disturbance of Rainbow's entry and abrupt departure had subsided and the dancing had resumed. Jaune was here, his arms were around her, seeming to fit her body so perfectly as if they had been made for one another. They had the music, and each other, and in his arms she felt so comfortable and so wanted and so…so [i]happy[/i] that it was easy to tell herself that Sunset and Ruby would soon return, that whatever had so bothered Rainbow was nothing that ought to bother her, that everything was going to be alright and they could continue to dance and talk untroubled.

But then General Ironwood stalked out of the ballroom, grim-faced with an expression as hard as the armour on one of his warships, and it got a little bit harder for Pyrrha to tell herself that. Jaune also began to look more troubled, and the fact that – contrary to what Pyrrha, at least, had expected, Sunset and Ruby did [i]not[/i] swiftly return only added to the sense of unease that was building up like a dust charge in her gut.

They weren't the only ones to have noticed that something was up. Yang was looking increasingly agitated, and Emerald and Mercury of Team CLEM – neither their team leader nor their fourth team-mate had come to the dance tonight – were looking worried as well, although in their case it was harder to understand.

By this time, Pyrrha and Jaune had stopped dancing, and were sitting at one of the tables that lined the eastern edge of the ballroom.

"Do you think we should have gone with them?" Jaune asked.

"They…they didn't ask for us," Pyrrha said, although even as she said it she could tell how feeble it sounded in her ears. She frowned. "But, yes, I'm beginning to think so."

Jaune looked as though he wished that she'd given him a different answer. "But…come on, we're in the middle of Beacon; how much trouble could they really have gotten into?"

Pyrrha looked at him, and in that moment she was sure that they were both thinking the same thing.

"Yeah, we should go look for them," Jaune said, as she started to rise from his seat.

"I'm not sure that Professor Ozpin would approve of that," Blake murmured as she drifted over to their table. With a jerk of her head she gestured to the headmaster standing by the doorway, a benign smile seeming to be fixed upon his face as he – by the looks of it – attempted dissuade Yang from leaving the party early. Yang was gesticulating wildly with her arms, but so far she hadn't just pushed past him and left anyway.

Pyrrha pursed her lips together. "I'm sure that the professor has his reasons, even if they're not immediately clear to us."

"Probably," Blake agreed. "Although just because someone has reasons doesn't necessarily mean that they're good ones."

"But we can't just do nothing, right?" Jaune said. "I mean…what if they really are in trouble? Are we supposed to just sit here and do nothing."

"I'm going to go the bathroom," Blake murmured. She looked at Pyrrha. "Wait two minutes, then go in yourself and meet me outside the window."

"Is it empty?"

"That girl Emerald went in a little while ago," Blake said. "But that's the advantage of the ladies' room: solid doors."

Their plans were interrupted by the tramp, tramp, tramp of marching feet upon stone, the thumping, stomping sound that preceded the arrival of a column of Atlesian troops led by what Pyrrha guessed to be a pair of specialists in blue flight suits with yellow flashes. The music stopped as the Atlesians entered the ballroom, and all the dancing ceased as well as everyone on the floor – everyone in the room – went quiet and stared at the new arrivals as they strode in with weapons at the ready. Pyrrha felt Blake tense noticeably by her side, even though they were, if anything, her allies now.

Still, from what Pyrrha knew of Blake's past she couldn't blame the faunus girl for being instinctually nervous.

Professor Ozpin seemed, if not nervous, then at the least he seemed none too pleased by this intrusion by the forces of Atlas. The genial smile was gone from his face, and he no longer leant upon his cane as he made his way over to one of the two specialists, a woman with red-amber hair in a wild, spiky cut like flames burning on top of her head.

"May I ask what you intend by this show of force, specialist?" Professor Ozpin asked. "This is still a school, not an Atlesian military base."

The female specialist glanced at him. "Sir, what's gone on here tonight should concern you just as much as it concerns us." She raised her voice. "I'm looking for Emerald Sustral and Mercury Black, of Haven Academy's Team Clementine. Emerald Sustral and Mercury Black, will someone please identify them."

A murmur ran through the students in the ballroom.

"What's this about?" Yang demanded. "What's going on?"

"If you're name isn't Emerald Sustral or Mercury Black-"

"Dammit, I want to know if my sister is okay!" Yang snapped.

"Emerald and Mercury both went to the bathroom, a few minutes ago," Blake said, stepping away from Pyrrha and Jaune's table. "They haven't come out."

The specialist glanced at Blake, and might have recognised her, it was hard to tell if the nod she gave was simple acknowledgement or if it had any respect in it. "Soarin', take the Men's."

"Right," the male specialist – Soarin', one could only assume – acknowledged, and a pair of Atlesian soldiers split off from the main group behind each of the two specialists as they both produced their weapons: the woman carried what looked like some kind of flame-thrower, judging by the bulging tank of fire dust at one end; the man carried a crimson tower shield, and what Pyrrha at first took to be a sword before it transformed into an assault rifle in his hand.

The students made way for them – encouraged by the professors, who all moved to in some way shield the students from anything that might be about to happen – as they approached the doors into the two bathrooms, which sat side by side at the far end of the room. They approached, waited outside the doors for a moment, nodded to one another, and then as one they kicked in the doors and burst into the respective toilets.

A moment later they both emerged, looking disgruntled.

"The window was open?" the woman asked.

"Yeah," Soarin' said. "You?"

"The same," the woman growled. She tapped something in her ear. "General, this is Spitfire. Sustral and Black aren't here; they slipped out of the bathroom windows before we arrived. I had Misty and Fleetfoot covering the back but they didn't see anything, it must have before we were set up. We got here too late. Blitz too, sir? They must have known we were coming. Do you want us to do a sweep of the whole grounds? Roger that, sir. Oh, General, one more thing. I've got a lot of anxious people here, what should I tell them? Yes, sir, on the double." The woman who had identified herself as Spitfire cleared her throat. "Ladies and gentlemen, tonight the CCT tower here in Beacon was attacked by an individual named Cinder Fall, this individual was stopped before she could accomplish any serious damage but managed to evade Atlesian forces and is still at large. Her team-mates have also fled before they could be questioned with regards to the extent of their knowledge and involvement." Murmurs of shock and alarm ran through the crowd – Pyrrha knew from just a glance at Jaune that he had put it all together just as much as she had – but Spitfire didn't give them a chance to finish. "General Ironwood requests that all students remain here under the protection of these guards while our forces conduct a thorough search of the campus for these fugitives."

"In this instance I am inclined to agree with the General," Professor Ozpin said, raising his voice until, like the clouds on an overcast day, it blanketed all the other voices in the ballroom. "Please, ladies and gentlemen, I urge you all to remain calm. I assure you that there is neither cause for alarm nor reason to panic. I apologise for the disruption to what had proven a most entertaining evening, but I promise you are all perfectly safe; I have little doubt that the fugitives have already fled the grounds, but just in case you will all remain here until the all-clear is sounded, and your professors and I will join our Atlesian allies in standing guard until the school has been thoroughly investigated. Team leaders, please give the names of any of your team-mates who are not here to Professor Goodwitch, who will go round them up and bring them back here so that everyone can be accounted for."

"Why should we just stay here?" Yang asked. "We can help? And what about Ruby? You still haven't told me anything about where my sister is?"

"I am sure that you would all be quite willing to assist the investigation at this time, Miss Xiao-Long, but it would be imprudent of me to allow students to venture out into the night against an enemy who…might well turn out to be too much for you to handle," Professor Ozpin said. "It is for the best that you all remain here."

"Not until I know that Ruby's okay."

"Which one of you is Jaune Arc?" Spitfire demanded.

Jaune looked a little uncertain as he got to his feet. "I-I'm Jaune Arc."

"Come with me," Spitfire said. "We need your semblance."

"What?" Pyrrha asked. "Is someone hurt?"

"Is it Ruby?" Yang asked.

"No, it's one of our guys, but there is a little Vale kid up there too, I think," Spitfire said. "Come with me and you'll see for yourself."

* * *

Rainbow Dash groaned. Her aura was taking a while to come back after it had been broken by Cinder, and even when it didn't come back it wouldn't fix all of these injuries right away. Which meant that she was just going to have to suffer through the pain for a while. There was nothing especially wrong with that, she could handle the pain; what she couldn't do was handle it quietly.

She groaned again, and Twilight let out a little yelp as though she was getting sympathy pains or something. Twilight was the closest to Rainbow Dash, as they waited in the wrecked computer room. Penny, Ciel and Ruby were all standing guard, but Twilight was just, sort of lingering there, looking down at the floor, and now making noises.

Rainbow winced as she sat up a little straighter. "Twi? Are you okay? Did…did she hurt you?"

She had thought that she'd been there in time to safe Twilight from any real harm, she'd thought that Twi's aura hadn't broken. If she'd been wrong about that, if Twilight had gotten hurt…how was she going to live with it? How was she gonna explain it to the girls?

"Rainbow Dash," Twilight's voice was soft, and quiet, and so pitiable it was mushing up Rainbow's heart, not that she'd ever admit to that. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" Rainbow repeated, blankly, not understanding. "Come on, Twilight, what do you have to be sorry about?"

Twilight looked at her, and Rainbow saw that her eyes were filled with ears. "This is all my fault!" she wailed. "If I wasn't so weak and helpless, if I'd done anything other than just sit there while you…while you fought her, then maybe I…I don't know if I could…but if I'd done anything, anything at all then you wouldn't have-"

"Hey," Rainbow said, not unkindly but firmly enough to cut her off. With one hand, she gestured for Twilight to come closer. "Come here."

Twilight blinked. "Huh?"

"Just, come here," Rainbow said. She appreciated the way that nobody else in the room was looking at them; this was going to be hard enough without people staring at them. "It'll only be for a second."

Twilight looked uncertain, nervous, a little on edge still; but nevertheless she came closer, stepping around the debris that littered the floor, and kneeling down upon that floor next to Rainbow Dash.

"Does…does it hurt?"

"A little," Rainbow admitted. "Only for now, though."

"I'm sorry, I-"

"Stop saying that," Rainbow said. "My job – part of my job – is to keep you safe. And I did that tonight." She wiped away Twi's tears with one hand. "So what if I took a couple of hits doin' it? You're safe. That's all that matters."

Twilight closed her eyes. "I hate being so useless."

"You are not useless!" Rainbow said firmly. She put one hand on the back of Twilight's head, and nudged it so that their foreheads were touching. Rainbow closed her eyes too, for a moment. "You fix what's broken, just like I take the bullet. Or the punch. You aren't useless, you're like the smartest person…ever; and you've got the most open heart of anyone I know. And it doesn't matter if you don't know how to fight someone like Cinder because you're my friend and I will always be there to keep you safe. You don't need to apologise to me, I should be the one saying sorry. I wasn't there for you when you needed me."

Twilight shook her head, pulling away. "No, you…" she trailed off, but then she smiled. "You were right in the nick of time, just like a hero should be."

Rainbow sniggered, and then winced when the sudden movement caused the pain in her side to flare up.

The elevator arrived on their floor, and opened with a ding sound that drew every eye. Ciel reacted on instinct, aiming her SMG at the lift as the metal doors slid open.

"At ease, Soleil," General Ironwood said, looking supremely unconcerned about the gun being aimed at him as he strode out of the elevator and into the room that had briefly been a battlefield. "If our enemies do come back they'll have to get through Specialist Schnee this time."

Ciel lowered her weapon. "Sorry, sir. I suppose I'm a little on edge."

"Understandable, in the circumstances," General Ironwood said, as he clasped his hands behind his back and walked towards Rainbow Dash and Twilight.

Rainbow tried to rise to her feet, gritting her teeth against the pain. "Sir-"

"Don't get up," General Ironwood instructed. He looked down at Rainbow, and then at Twilight. His voice softened to something that was kind of a little fatherly. "Twilight, are you alright? How are you feeling?"

Twilight wiped her eyes with one hand. "I'm…kind of a little shook up, I suppose, but I'm fine, sir, thank you for asking."

"Are you sure," Ironwood said. "I understand that she had you cornered for a while. I should have provided more security."

"Rainbow Dash arrived quickly enough, sir," Twilight murmured.

"And for that you have my thanks, and that of Atlas," General Ironwood said, with a look down at Rainbow Dash. "You're to be congratulated for your swift response, and you, Twilight, for thinking clearly enough to call for help in that situation. But the fact remains that this should never have happened."

"May I enquire as to the status of the criminals?" Ciel asked.

"Unfortunately, Cinder Fall and all her team-mates have escaped, or slipped away before we could get to them," General Ironwood admitted. "We're searching the campus, but if they're smart they'll have left the school already."

"General, sir," Twilight said, as she climbed to her feet. "I think Cinder probably wiped all the evidence, although I haven't checked but…before she arrived, my trace on the email that she sent just finished…one of the locations that it was routed through to conceal its origin was Drachyra."

Rainbow's eyebrows rose. "The dragon continent? But there's nothing there but grimm! Isn't there?"

"I thought so," Twilight murmured. "But what if I'm wrong? What if we're all wrong?"

General Ironwood frowned. For a moment he didn't say anything at all, he looked as though he was thinking about something. "I believe you, regardless of whether the evidence is still there; and I'll consider what you've told me. In the meantime, I know that you've been through a lot tonight, but are you able to work?"

"Yes, I am," Twilight said.

"Twi, you don't have to-" Rainbow began.

"Yes, I do," Twilight said firmly. "You got hurt tonight because I don't know how to defend myself, because I don't know how to fight; you say that I'm not useless well okay, but then let me be useful. This is what I know how to do. What do you need, General?"

"I want you to do a complete systems diagnostic," General Ironwood said. "Check everything; Cinder doesn't seem to have expected you to be here which means that she came to the tower with other intentions, and I want to find out what those intentions were and how much progress she made with them. Check everything, everywhere, and remove anything dangerous that our guest might have left behind."

"Yes, sir," Twilight said. She hesitated. "Although…I could use a fresh pair of glasses from my room."

"I'll have someone bring them over," Ironwood said. "I don't want you leaving this room until I give the all-clear. I know I said it's unlikely that they're still on the grounds, but I don't want to take any chances. For that reason Ciel, Penny, I want you to remain here on guard."

"Yes, sir," Ciel said.

"What about me?" Ruby asked.

"Miss Rose, you're not under command," General Ironwood said. "But I would take it as a favour to me if you would stay also. Your team-mates will be up shortly."

Ruby nodded. "You can rely on me, sir." Her scroll began to buzz. Ruby laughed nervously. "That's probably just my sister…" she murmured as she pulled out the scroll from behind her. "Ah! It's Sunset!"

* * *

Sunset could half see the tower from where she stood, in the shadow and the shade one of the trees that stood in the Beacon courtyard, with the dirt around it scuffing her boots as she hid under the leaves from the moonlight that might, otherwise, have illuminated her presence and location.

She didn't want to be seen right now, not by anyone. Hence why she had skulked off after her fight with Cinder and hidden, sort of, in a place where she could see the tower but where she was pretty sure that nobody up in the tower could see her. She'd revealed herself to the Atlesian soldiers and huntsmen searching the grounds, because she wasn't that stupid, but she didn't want Ruby or her team or Team RSPT to see her.

She didn't want to see them because she hated them all those interfering-

Sunset shuddered. She didn't want to see them because of stuff like that. She wasn't sure that she could keep it all inside.

She didn't really want to call Ruby either, but she knew that if she didn't do anything then they'd probably come looking for her, and she certainly didn't want that. So, as she looked up at the tower from her sort-of hiding place, Sunset took out her scroll with trembling hands, and selected Ruby from her address book.

She called voice-only, so that she didn't have to see Ruby's face and feel…whatever it was that Cinder felt about her.

"Sunset!" Ruby cried, her voice emerging loudly from out of the scroll. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Sunset lied. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Where are you?"

"It doesn't matter."

"What do you mean it doesn't matter, you just-"

"I said it doesn't matter, which means that it shouldn't concern you!" Sunset snapped. She scowled, at herself. "I'm sorry, Ruby, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to…I'm just a little…I'm sorry, I didn't mean it."

"Sunset…are you sure you're okay?" Ruby asked, her voice suffused with concern.

"I told you I was fine."

"I know," Ruby replied. "But you don't sound it."

"I…" Sunset hesitated. "I'm just a little high strung after…you know."

Ruby was quiet for a moment. "She got away, didn't she?"

Sunset made a noise that was not quite a word. "I couldn't stop her."

"Well, neither did we, so don't beat yourself up about it," Ruby said. "Twilight's safe, and she's checking out the computers now, and at least we know that she's a bad guy now so everyone will be looking for her so it's not like she got away clean or anything." Ruby paused. "You liked her, didn't you?"

 _Or was it seeing my reflection in the mirror that I liked?_ "She…Ruby, is it okay if I say that I don't want to talk about this right now."

"I guess," Ruby said. "Just…you know that you can talk to me, right? I'm sure that you can talk to all of us but, if you want to, you can talk to me."

Sunset couldn't help but smile, if only for a moment. "Yeah, I know. Listen, do you know where Jaune and Pyrrha are?" she shuddered at the unexpected venom which she put into Pyrrha's name. She hated her.

 _Of all the warriors loved by the gods I hate her the most._

 _No. No, I don't, that's Cinder. She hates Pyrrha, not me._

 _I don't hate her…that's why I can't risk being around her right now._

Cinder's emotions boiled like an angry sea inside of Sunset's soul. Thinking about the things, the people, that made Cinder mad was enough to get Sunset mad in turn; it didn't matter that Sunset knew Pyrrha better than Cinder ever would, it didn't matter that Sunset understood all the things that Cinder had so angrily misconstrued about who and what Pyrrha was, it didn't matter that Pyrrha was one of Sunset's best friends; right now just thinking about her was starting to make Sunset furious. She didn't know what she'd say, what she'd _do_ if she saw her.

She had to stay away until she could get a grip on this.

"No," Ruby said. "But I think they're on their way up here. They're going to want to know that you're okay."

"Tell them I'm fine," Sunset said. "But tell them…tell them I won't be coming home tonight."

Ruby was silent for a moment. "Sunset, where are you? What's going on?"

"Nothing," Sunset insisted. "I've just…facing Cinder…I've got some stuff to think about. Things to sort through in my head. So…don't worry when I'm not back tonight. Tell them that, will you?"

"Sure," Ruby said softly. "Sunset…if something's wrong, you know we're all here for you right?"

"Yeah," Sunset said quickly. "Yeah I know. Goodnight, Ruby. I'll see you around." She snapped the scroll shut and put it away.

 _We're all here for you._

 _But I don't know if I can be here for you right now._

 _I don't know how safe it is for me to be around you all right now._

 _I don't know when I'm going to get a grip on this._

It was the sort of thing that she might have spoken to Twilight about – Princess Twilight was someone about whom Cinder had no opinion to interfere with Sunset's own attitudes - except that the journal was up in her room and she couldn't go back to get it without risking running into somebody that she didn't want to see.

So much hatred, so much contempt, so much venom in everything that she thought about everyone. She hated Pyrrha, she despised Jaune, she wanted Ruby dead but – for whatever it might be worth – it wasn't as personal as her desire to accomplish Pyrrha's destruction was. Blake was vermin in her eyes. Rainbow Dash was a blustering oaf who deserved to see her world burn before her eyes before she died, and Cinder's general contempt was only heightened by the sense that she had been responsible for tonight's failure. She wanted Twilight to burn. Yang's smile had infuriated her, Nora's laughter made her want to rip the girl's tongue out of her throat, Weiss was emblematic of everything that she reviled about the world. Sunset herself…Sunset was the only one that Cinder didn't either dislike or hold in contempt.

That was the worst thing of all, to be honest. Sunset could have stood to know that her enemy didn't like her very much, but instead…instead she liked her. She had actually liked her. That hadn't been a lie. Cinder's own emotions confirmed it.

She'd thought that they could be friends, for a while, until Cinder had to kill her…because they were so alike.

 _What am I going to do?_

Sunset sighed, and ran one hand through her hair as she looked up at the uncaring moon above her.

 _Won't someone please tell me what I should do?_

* * *

"What do we do now?" Mercury asked, as he pulled on his boots.

"I liked you better in your dancing shoes," Lightning Dust said, with a smirk on her face. It was Lightning who had gotten Mercury's boots, Emerald's guns, and their most vital equipment out of the dorm room before the Atlesian troops showed up. "As for what we do: we do what we came here to do, we burn Vale to the ground."

Cinder sat in the corner. The four members of Team CLEM were sat in the basement of a White Fang safe house in one of Vale's poorer and less salubrious districts. There were no windows, and only one fading lightbulb to provide any kind of illumination; this wasn't one of the better appointed hideaways that the White Fang possessed, to be sure. They said they were going to move her tomorrow, but Cinder half suspected that her hosts were enjoying her temporary discomfiture.

She would have killed them for their insolence except, right now, she just didn't have the energy. She had failed. She had failed badly, and there was a chance that even the virus she'd managed to plant in the CC servers might be discovered and wiped clean. A good chance, perhaps.

She had failed. It was the first time since she had met Salem that Cinder had to admit that fact. Things like this didn't happen to her any more. Even the partial failure to secure the powers of the Fall Maiden had, on the other side of the coin, been a partial success in getting some of those same powers, and Cinder had preferred to focus on that triumph than on the fact that it was less complete than she would have liked.

But there was no getting away from it now. She had failed. She had been defeated. That didn't happen to her any more. That wasn't supposed to happen any more. She had left failure and weakness all behind her.

And on the same night that Sunset had seen into her soul. It was…it felt connected, or at least it felt as though it ought to have been connected: that on the same night that she failed for the first time since leaving childhood weakness behind she should be forced to relive that childhood as Sunset revealed it.

It almost felt like destiny. A cruel destiny, but destiny nonetheless; perhaps fate was reminding her that she was only mortal still.

 _For now, at least. I will recover from this. I will come back stronger. My stepmother couldn't break me, Phoebe couldn't break me; Sunset Shimmer and Rainbow Dash won't stop me either. I will rise up again, higher than ever before._

She wanted to kill Sunset, for what she knew. In all of Remnant only Salem knew that much about her. She could not suffer to be so transparent to anyone, least of all her enemy.

She could not suffer for Sunset Shimmer to know that Cinder had once been a weak and helpless girl, crying herself to sleep each night in the fireplace.

 _She'll probably tell everyone she knows._

 _I'll just have to kill all of them, then._

And yet…surprising even Cinder herself there was still a part of her that did not desire Sunset's death and destruction.

A part of her still wanted to open up her eyes to the truth about this world, and the need to tear it all down and build up something new, and better. Something with people like them at the top of the pile.

A foolish fantasy, worthy of the child that she had been; Sunset had to die…but it might have been nice if she hadn't had to.

Mercury snorted, reminding Cinder that before she could plan too far ahead she had to do something about their present fallen circumstances.

"Burn Vale to the ground?" he scoffed. "And how are we supposed to do that, genius?"

"We've got the dust, and the train-"

"And no way of causing panic in the Vytal Festival like we planned to."

"I'm sure that Cinder has a plan," Emerald protested.

"Cinder's plan is why we're in this mess!" Mercury snapped.

Cinder drew a sharp intake of breath. "Did you think that we were going to be staying in luxury hotels every night, Mercury?" she asked, as she got to her feet. "Did you think that this would be easy? That there wouldn't be any effort involved?"

"Of course not," Mercury said. "But this isn't just a minor setback, this-"

"All setbacks are minor provided they don't alter the eventual outcome," Cinder declared. "This turn of events is unfortunate, I concede; but even the most apparently daunting reversal can be made to work in our favour. What's done is done, all we can do is respond appropriately." She spoke with more confidence than she felt, but as she spoke Cinder could feel some of her confidence returning to her. She had a destiny, the events of tonight did not change that fact. She had a destiny and it was inexorable.

Of course, the person she really needed to convince of that was not Mercury Black, but Salem herself.

"Leave me," Cinder snapped. "All of you."

"Cinder?" Emerald murmured.

"Get out!" Cinder yelled, sending them scrambling for the door leading out of this dark cellar and up into the house. She heard their footsteps on the stairs, heading upwards, before she approached the brown canvas bag in the corner. It was one of many things, the most precious of things that Lightning had got out of their room.

She opened the bag and the seer emerged. It had no eyes, and there was nothing visible yet in its dark depths, but nevertheless as the grimm hovered in the air Cinder could feel herself being watched, weighed and judged.

She dropped to one knee. "Mistress."

Cinder's head was bowed, so she did not see the face of Salem appear within the seer, but she did hear her mistress' voice echoing out from the creature and into the cellar, caressing her with a maternal gentleness.

"Cinder," Salem said. "I gather that you have some ill-news to bring me."

Cinder took a breath. "How much do you know, mistress?"

"Whether I know everything or nothing should be of no concern to you," Salem replied. "Tell me all, regardless."

Cinder did as she was commanded, confessing all that had transpired that night and leaving nothing out. Salem, she was sure, would know if she lied.

"So, it appears that you have been completely incompetent," the lugubrious voice of Doctor Watts emerged from out of the seer. "And put even our own location in jeopardy."

"That was not my doing," Cinder replied. "You're the one whose encryptions could be broken by a child!"

"And you are one who insisted on using them in such a petty fashion," Watts said, contemptuously. "Was it worth it, for all that is has cost us?"

"Don't be so gloomy, Arthur," Salem said, her voice even and calm. "As yet it has cost us little or nothing."

"But ma'am, if Ironwood-"

"Ozpin is already well aware of where to find me, if he wishes to do so," Salem declared, causing Cinder to wonder if that fact was as new to Watts as it was to her. "And Ozpin knows that even if mustered every huntsman in Remnant he would not have the strength to reach me here. This land belongs wholly to the grimm…and to me. Our enemy is too well aware of this to trouble us in our own home again."

 _Again?_ Cinder kept her expression neutral, with just a hint of contrition. It would do no good if Salem believed that she sought to pry into secrets that were not hers.

"You are right, of course, ma'am," Watts said. "But nevertheless, the fact remains that Cinder's incompetence has put all of our efforts in Vale in grave jeopardy."

Cinder growled. "Mistress, I assure you that I _will_ do and deliver all that I have promised you. Vale _will_ fall, Ozpin _will_ die, and I _will_ become your Fall Maiden."

"Your confidence is admirable," Salem said. "But how do you propose to accomplish all of this with your cover at Beacon blown and your true loyalties revealed?"

"Tonight, Adam Taurus is leading an assault on the Atlesian blacksite in the south-east," Cinder said. "Regardless of whether or not the beast-speaking girl can indeed command grimm as they hope, she will give me what I need: an alternative conduit into Vale and Beacon, and a means to sow all the discord we require between Vale and Atlas. To which end, mistress, I request the services of the Sirens to expedite the spread of fear and uncertainty."

Salem was silent for a moment. "For now, you may have one single Siren, the one who calls herself Sonata. The other two shall remain here as hostages for her continued obedience. That may change later, but for now…proceed with the rest of your plans."

"Thank you, Mistress, I will."

"You have been confounded tonight," Salem said. "But even I have endured failures in the course of my life. What matters is not that you have failed, but how you respond to that failure. Pick yourself up, understand why you were defeated, and in that knowledge grow stronger…as you keep moving forward."

"I assure you, I will not make the same mistakes again."

"I know. I have ever confidence in you, young Cinder," Salem said. "Cinder? Did you say that one of the huntresses who confronted you at Beacon tower was named Ruby Rose?"

"Yes," Cinder growled. "She did."

"Ruby Rose," Salem murmured. "Ruby…Rose. Tell me, Cinder, what colour are her eyes?"


	70. Black Site

Black Site

Applejack, who had a real name but rarely used it – and nobody else used it either, for that matter – placed a reassuring hand on Fluttershy's shoulder as they stepped into the outer cage, and the door slammed shut behind them with a metallic clang.

"You okay, sugarcube?"

Fluttershy inhaled through her nostrils. "Does it matter if I'm okay or not?"

Applejack's face scrunched up sympathetically. "I can't speak for everybody, but it matters to me."

Fluttershy glanced at her from out of the corner of her clear blue eyes. "I'm sorry. I know this isn't your fault."

"But that don't make it right, I get it," Applejack said. She tried to smile. "Although you know, after seeing the way you talked down that bear that one time I'd have thought this would be a walk in the park for you."

Fluttershy clasped her hands together in front of her. "Animals don't kill for sport, grimm do; that's the difference."

"Yeah, I know," Applejack said. "I was just trying to buck you up a little bit."

Fluttershy's lips twitched upwards in a momentary smile, as she reached up and put her hand on top of Applejack's. "Thank you."

"You know I got your back, right?" Applejack asked. "Now, tell me honestly, are you okay?"

Fluttershy took a deep breath, and then another. Her chest heaved up and down, up and down. "I…I think so."

"Don't get too scared," Applejack said. "They can tell if you're scared."

"I know," Fluttershy said. "But I…I just…I don't know if I can help it."

Applejack was strong enough to turn Fluttershy around with one hand so that the two of them were facing one another. "Look at me, Fluttershy."

Fluttershy looked down at her feet.

"Look at me," Applejack insisted, waiting until Fluttershy did, indeed, look up at her and meet her eyes. "I don't know how your semblance works. I don't know if it could ever work on those monsters or if this is all just one huge waste of time for all of us but what I do know is that you are one of the strongest folks that I've ever met in my entire life. You can do this. We can do this, together."

"R-really?"

"Would I lie to you?" Applejack asked.

Fluttershy smiled. "No."

"Then trust me," Applejack said. "You got this, and I got you."

By Applejack's side, Winona barked enthusiastically.

Applejack idly reached down and scratched her faithful hound behind the ears. "You wanna tell me what she just said or do I not want to know?"

"She just said that, if you've got me, then she's got you," Fluttershy said.

"Is that right?" Applejack murmured, continuing to scratch Winona's ears. "Yeah, that sounds about right. There ain't nothing to worry about, we're both right here."

Fluttershy nodded, looking a little more confident now. "Thank you. I'm ready now."

"Okay, sugarcube, let's get this done," Applejack said. She raised her voice so that the boys in the control room up above could hear her. "Open the gate!"

The metal mesh gate separating the outer cage, which was a kind of antechamber where they could mentally prepare themselves, from the main cage which dominated the prefab building which entombed them both, rose up with a shaking, rattling sound.

The main cage put Applejack in mind of some kind of underground fight club, the way the wire enclosed them and there was dirt on the floor and all those lights shining down upon them, making it so hot that she was starting to sweat a little bit. The spotlights were the only lights in the whole building, all of them trained upon the cage so that everything that went on in here could be seen by the cameras bolted to the corners of the cage. The rest of the cavernous building – or it seemed big anyway, Applejack couldn't be sure because it was so hard to see – was dark, unlit, and nothing beyond the cage could be seen at all. Applejack couldn't see the guys in the control room responsible for opening and closing the cage doors – the inner cage door slammed down behind them as they walked in – and letting the grimm in, even though she knew that they were there.

Applejack didn't know why they had to go and make this so creepy; it wasn't as if there were hundreds of people in the shadows watching them. Everyone who mattered was watching via the video feeds from those cameras.

Fluttershy didn't belong in a place like this. She looked like she didn't belong in a place like this, dressed in that blue dress with a butterfly clip in her hair.

If there was any kind of justice at all – and any sense, besides – then this whole thing would be shut down as a failure soon and Fluttershy could go back to Atlas and the normal life she wanted.

It wasn't that Applejack couldn't see the sense in what they were trying to do out here; in fact she could see why the idea had appealed to somebody enough to drag Fluttershy all the way out to Vale so they could try it out: Fluttershy could talk to animals, that was her semblance, and sometimes those critters would even do what she wanted them to do; grimm were kind of animals, or like animals anyway, so why not capture some of 'em and see if Fluttershy couldn't do her thing.

Although frankly there was a part of Applejack that would be more worried if it worked then if it didn't; if it didn't work – and, honestly, there was nothing that had happened yet to suggest that it ever would – then the project would get shut down, Fluttershy would go home, and Applejack would get a new assignment, hopefully _after_ she got some time off to see her family and friends, and watch Rainbow Dash kick ass in the Vytal Festival. But if it did work, if Fluttershy could control the grimm somehow, then what? Was the military going to keep hold of her, shipping her from base to base so that she could turn grimm away, make them fight one another instead of fighting humans? Twilight said that that wouldn't be necessary, but then she also said that the hope was that they could work out how Fluttershy's semblance worked scientifically and copy it, which – as smart as Twilight was – sounded more like a hope than a promise to Applejack's ears. After all, semblances were unique; you couldn't just copy the neat ones or else Atlas would have had an army of Schnee clones running around by now (although Applejack wouldn't have been entirely surprised to find out that Atlas had a project to clone Schnees running out of some secret lab somewhere; but if they did then at least Twilight didn't know anything about it). And if they could do that then…what where they gonna use it for?

When she thought about some of the answers Applejack wasn't sure that she wanted to know which ones were true.

So, yeah, there was a part of her that didn't really want this to work. She just wanted it to be over.

The fact that Fluttershy didn't complain about wanting it to be over just made Applejack want it done even harder on her behalf.

But it wasn't done yet, and they had an experiment to run. Applejack worked the lever on her rifle to chamber a round, and then looked up into one of the cameras. "This is experiment number thirty-four. This one's a boarbatusk. Again. Raise it up!"

With a mechanical whirring and a juddering sound, a metal box rose out of the ground near the back of the cage. The boarbatusk inside the cage – Applejack couldn't see it, but she knew what was inside because she'd been one to go out into the wilds and catch the darn thing – was slamming into the sides of the crate with deep thudding sounds that make the box rattle and shake as it tried to get out. Applejack glanced at Fluttershy, but she seemed to be holding her nerve for now.

Winona bared her teeth and growled at the crate with the boarbatusk inside.

"Heel, Winona, down girl," Applejack murmured, although she raised her rifle to her shoulder and took aim at the crate ready for when – and it did feel like when, not if – something happened. So far, on their thirty-fourth try, this hadn't worked yet. Applejack always had to put the grimm down before Fluttershy got hurt. Not that she minded doing it, it was her job as a huntress and as Fluttershy's friend, but as much as she would have loved to have faith in Fluttershy…she didn't, not with this. There just wasn't enough animal, real animal, in them for Fluttershy to reach.

"You ready, Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy nodded tremulously. "Yes, I'm ready."

"Okay," Applejack said. "Open it up!"

The door to the crate flipped open. There was a moment of pause, of waiting, before the boarbatusk waddled cautiously out into the spacious cage. It moved slowly, sniffing, wary. It wasn't an old grimm – Applejack only went for the young ones, and only for boarbatusks or beowolves, the grimm she was confident in being able to handle before Fluttershy got hurt – but even so it seemed like it could tell that something was off about all this.

Fluttershy took a step forward. "H-hello, my name's Fluttershy, what's your name?"

The boarbatusk turned it head towards her, fixing her with all of its attention. It growled something as it began to advance upon her.

Winona growled in turn.

"Down, girl," Applejack muttered, because as much as she didn't like it either – and as much as she was keeping her gun trained on the grimm throughout – they had to let this play out for just a little while.

"Really?" Fluttershy said to the grimm. "Y-you know that isn't really very nice of you."

The boarbatusk grunted, and snarled at her. Applejack's finger tightened on the trigger.

"Well, have you tried not trying to kill people?" Fluttershy asked.

The boarbatusk let out what Applejack could only interpret as a grunt of disgust, and pawed the ground with one hoof.

 _No doubt about it, he's gonna charge!_

Applejack's rifle barked as she shot the grimm in the shoulder, making it squeal in pain as it turned towards her. "Fluttershy, get back! Get him, Winona!"

Winona barked as she dashed forwards, crossing the distance to the grimm in a couple of quick bounds; she avoided the boarbatusk's tusks and got around behind it to sink her teeth into its hind leg; the boarbatusk roared, but it wasn't big enough to turn its head and get at Winona at its back.

Applejack fired again, the bullet striking the armoured forehead and not doing much. Applejack worked the lever on her rifle as she charged. The boarbatusk couldn't move much with Winona worrying its leg and not letting go, and so it presented an easy target for Appelack to just punch the darn thing.

Fluttershy's semblance was talking to animals, but Applejack's semblance was super-strength, and a single punch of hers was enough to shatter the boarbatusk's mask.

She finished it off with a shot to the head.

As the creature began to dissolve into smoke, Applejack took off her hat and fanned her face from the heat of the lights. "Experiment number thirty four…failed, I guess."

"I'm sorry," Fluttershy said quietly.

"It ain't your fault, don't think it is," Applejack said, as she put her hat back on. "Nobody could control grimm before, it ain't hardly fair to expect you to be able to do it now just because you like animals." She gave Fluttershy a one-armed hug, and squeezed her gently. "Now, come on, how about we get something to eat?"

Fluttershy nodded. "That sounds nice. Do you think…"

"Do I think? I try to," Applejack said.

Fluttershy shook her head. "I meant…do you think it will be over soon?"

"I don't know," Applejack admitted. "I hope so, but I don't know. Open up the door."

The door remained resolutely unopened, the metal barrier keeping the three of them – including Winona – confined within the cage remained shut.

"Hello?" Applejack hollered. "What's taking so long up there?"

There was no answer. The cage that was intended to contain the captive grimm in the worst case scenario now served to contain them.

"Is everything okay?" Fluttershy murmured.

"I don't rightly know," Applejack replied. "Hey up there? Can you fellas hear me?"

If they couldn't hear her up in the control room then it was a sure thing that nobody else would be able to hear her either; the building they'd set up to conduct the tests was soundproofed, so that the noise the grimm made wouldn't case any alarm in the rest of the camp (most of the security in this small, secret base was provided by robots for that same reason, with a very minimal number of actual folks) and so attract more grimm than they were comfortable with. Unfortunately that meant that nobody could hear Applejack call for help, and on the flipside a war could be going on outside and Applejack wouldn't know a thing about it.

"Sorry, Applejack, we're a little busy up here," came the delayed response from up in the control room. "Something's going on outside, we're getting some reports that the knights are behaving strangely…as soon as we figure out what's going on we'll let you out."

"How about you let me out now and I can go see what's up?" Applejack suggested.

"Our priority is to- wait, what are you doing in here? We didn't ask for any knights to be sent up here, return to your post at once! What are you doing? Security! We need-"

The words from the control room were cut off by a hail of gunfire.

"Hello?!" Applejack shouted, her voice inflected – and infected – with panic. "Hey up there! What's going on?"

"Applejack?" Fluttershy whimpered. "Is that…was that…are they…?"

Applejack looked her in the eye. "I am gonna get you through this. I promise."

"D-do you Pinkie promise?"

Applejack smiled, even if it did seem a little bit forced. "Stick a cupcake in my eye. I got you. Now just give me a minute to get us out of this." She grabbed the cage door, wrapping her fingers around the wire, and heaved.

The cage resisted, the metal strained as her muscles tensed, the wire screeched as it was ripped and torn, but as Applejack hauled on it with all of her considerable might she could feel it giving way, she could feel it breaking, any moment now and it would come apart and she'd be on to the next one and then she wouldn't even need to break down the outer door. She pulled, gritting her teeth as she felt the resistance of the metal give way. Almost there.

"We'd rather that you didn't do that."

Applejack stopped, the voice that had just come over the intercom wasn't familiar to her. "Who is this?"

"The name's Gilda," Gilda said. "It's Applejack, right?"

"My friends call me Applejack, sure."

"Well, I'm friends with your pal Rainbow Dash, so does that count?"

"Oh, is that so?" Applejack declared. "Well if you're friends with Rainbow Dash how come I'm never heard of you before?"

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the intercom. "She never mentioned me? Like, at all? Seriously? Come on, you're pulling my feathers, right? She never mentioned me? Not once? To either of you?"

"No," Fluttershy murmured. "I'm sorry."

"You aren't the ones who ought to be sorry!" Gilda yelled. "Some friend, huh? When I see her again I'm gonna-"

"Pardon me for interruptin'," Applejack said acidly. "But if you really are some old buddy of our friend's then maybe you wouldn't mind tellin' me just what's goin' on around here?"

"Oh, right," Gilda said. "So…I'm with the White Fang and we've taken over the base. But don't worry; we're not here to kill you."

"Gee thanks," Applejack muttered, as she resumed pulling at the inner gate.

"Applejack, what are you-"

"What does it look like?" Applejack growled as she heaved. "I'm gettin' you outta here!"

"Hey, I told you to stop doing that!" Gilda squawked over the intercom.

"Come down here and make me," Applejack snarled as the inner gate gave way. She staggered backwards as the sudden lack of resistance surprised her.

"There's no way out of this," Gilda said, as Applejack stacked the inner gate against the wall and prepared to tackle the outer. "Rainbow Dash had a chance to kill me recently, but she didn't take it. She let me live. I'd like to repay her by letting her friend live too, but either way you're not getting out of here."

Applejack ignored her as she laid her hands upon the outer gate, but as her fingers wrapped around the metal she heard the door into the cavernous building open, and she heard the metallic sounds of robot legs tramping forwards.

The darkness was illuminated by dozens of red robotic eyes, all glaring at Applejack and Fluttershy.

"As I was saying," Gilda said. "We hacked your security droids, they all work for us now; how do you think we were able to take your base so easily?"

Applejack couldn't see the droids, only their eyes glaring at her, but she could imagine all those rifles pointed at them. If it had been just her then she might have chanced it, but there was no way that she could guarantee that none of those bullets would hit Fluttershy.

 _Rainbow, I'm real sorry about this._

Applejack bowed her head. Her body shuddered. "Fluttershy, I-"

"It's okay," Fluttershy murmured.

"Huh?"

Fluttershy walked to Applejack's side, and gently took her hand. "I know that you'd do everything you can for me, but if I lost you, if _we_ lost you, to save me…there's no way that would be worth it." She smiled. "But so long as we're together, I know that everything will be okay. Just like I know that there's no way our friends will leave us behind. All we have to do is stick together, and have faith in them."

It was at moments like these when Applejack was reminded why Fluttershy was the strong one.

She threw her rifle down on the ground and took a step back from the gate, and her hand never left Fluttershy's firm but gentle grip.

"Alrighty then, Gilda," Applejack said. "What happens to us now?"


	71. The Day After: Sunset

The Day After: Sunset

 _Pyrrha knelt, her aura broken, her weapons shattered before her. Pyrrha knelt, and Sunset stood over her, triumphant._

 _Pyrrha looked up at her, that infuriatingly beautiful face trembling with a mixture of pain and fear, her eyes wide with the despair that would soon engulf the entire world._

" _Do you believe in destiny?" she whispered._

 _Sunset said nothing. She stood over the helpless girl before her, drinking in her power over the so-called Invincible Girl. She savoured her triumph like nectar and ambrosia. She had won! The champion of Mistral, the darling of high society, the one they all flocked around to praise and flatter and make much of and yet here she knelt, helpless and defeated at her feet while she, the despised outcast, the one they had scorned with hostile, pitying glances, the one they had sought to degrade and cast down, the one they had expelled from paradise, stood triumphant over her._

 _The smirk that grew on Sunset's face was cruel and terrible. "Yes," she declared, for she believed in destiny and her faith had been rewarded, justified, and proved correct. She had allowed inexorable destiny to drive her forward and now her hour was come: the hour of the setting sun when darkness would engulf the world._

 _Fire sprang up in the palm of her hand. The flickering flame – scarlet and gold, like the pattern of Sunset's burning hair – danced reflected for a moment in Pyrrha's emerald eyes._

 _And then, still smiling, Sunset turned her palm towards Pyrrha and engulfed the champion of Mistral in the flames._

 _Pyrrha screamed. And Sunset, the other Sunset, the Sunset who stood unseen and held fast in the shadows on the edges of the scene, howled in helpless, futile, anguished outrage as she watched herself murder her best friend._

 _And it wasn't even the first time._

 _Her eyes had run dry of tears watching this and other scenes like it. Blake spat in Sunset's face before Sunset cut off her head; Ruby pleaded with her before Sunset shot her through the heart; Jaune…_

 _Sunset gasped for breath as the world around her shimmered and split apart into a hundred thousand fragments like shards of coloured glass that hung, suspended in the void for a moment before reforming into something and to somewhere new. Sunset didn't recognise these places, maybe they were places that Cinder remembered, but even though she'd seen Cinder's past Sunset hadn't been paying enough attention to the backgrounds to get a real sense of them._

 _And now her attention was too much on what she did recognise. Though she had seen this before, Sunset found that she couldn't look away._

 _Jaune lay on his back on the ground, his shield gone and his sword beyond his reach. Sunset, the other Sunset, the one that Sunset was forced to watch commit unspeakable act after monstrous crime, stood with one foot upon his chest and a flaming spear in her hand._

" _No!" Sunset yelled. "Stop it! Don't do this!" She sobbed, though her tears were all cried out, whether for her friends who had become her victims or for herself…she couldn't say._

 _Perhaps it was for both of them._

" _No," Sunset whispered, wanting so desperately to look away but absolutely unable to do so. "No, this isn't you. This is Cinder, this is her, not you; this is…this is…"_

" _Calm yourself, Sunset Shimmer."_

 _Sunset gasped, looking upwards as the world around her dissolved, turning to smoke and then, like smoke, being blown away by the strong gale that suddenly gusted all around, rippling through Sunset's hair and tugging at her jacket as it swept the other Sunset and Jaune and everything else away; and through the gale that still, small voice cut like a knife: "Calm yourself."_

 _Sunset was left standing in a field of stars, looking up at the moon; not the broken moon of Remnant, spilling its shattered fragments out across the night sky, but the whole and silver moon of Equestria beneath which she had grown up. She had studied by the light of that moon; she had caught glimpses of it peaking through the gaps in the curtains as she and Celestia sat before the fire and Sunset absorbed as much of the princess' wisdom as she could comprehend and less than she had believed at the time; she had walked beneath it, lived beneath it…and left it behind like everything else in that world._

 _Yet now it shone above her once again._

 _And out of that moon, that familiar and so long vanished moon, descended an alicorn of midnight blue, her flowing mane as liquid with power as that of Celestia itself steaming behind her. Her cutie mark was a crescent moon upon black, the same symbol that glowed upon the gorget she wore around her neck._

 _She flew down from the moon and settled – stood, if such a word had any meaning here – upon the same surface of nothingness that held Sunset still amongst the stars. A ground, barren and empty but present nonetheless, appeared beneath them._

 _The eyes of the alicorn were filled with pity. "Dark are your dreams tonight, Sunset Shimmer."_

 _Sunset stared at her; stared up at her, for although there was not such a great difference in their heights nevertheless there was something about this crowned alicorn that invited her to look up. Her mere presence calmed Sunset, soothing Cinder's boiling anger within her and setting it, like a raging beast, to sleep._

" _Who?" Sunset whispered, as she felt a deep calm settle over her, smothering all other feelings like a blanket. "Who are you?"_

 _"I am Luna, the princess of the night. And I have heard a great deal about you, Sunset Shimmer."_

 _"Luna," Sunset murmured. "You…you're Princess Celestia's sister? You're Nightmare Moon?"_

 _The words were out of her mouth so fast that Sunset could only regret them once they had flown past her lips and were past all hope of recall; and yet Princess Luna did not grow angry, as Sunset might well have done in her position. Instead her expression turned melancholy, and her dark blue eyes filled with regret._

 _"Yes," she said. "I was Nightmare Moon, once. But I have been saved, redeemed from darkness by Twilight Sparkle and her friends."_

 _Sunset's eyebrows rose. "Twilight…never mentioned that."_ No wonder she became a princess; more than completing Starswirl's spell…she must have re-discovered the Elements of Harmony! Re-discovered and found five others to bear them alongside her.

Princess of Friendship indeed.

No wonder Celestia loves you so.

 _No, no that was not right. Celestia did not love in mere reward, nor did she love in due proportion to the services rendered by she to whom that love was given. The love of Princess Celestia was not a thing that could be bought even in the coin of service to the realm or to herself; rather it was the water in a well from which all could drink…provided they were worthy of the purest of all waters._

 _For the salvation of her sister, Sunset had no doubt that Celestia would forever be grateful to her newer and more successful student…but if she loved Twilight as she had once loved Sunset - as Sunset dared to hope and to believe that she was yet somewhat loved – then it was not for that service, or any other of the services that Twilight had done. Celestia loved her only for herself._

 _"Her humility is one of her lesser virtues," Luna declared._

Something that we don't exactly have in common, _Sunset thought, taking some comfort from the way that Luna had named Twilight's modest a lesser virtue; the implication being it was not one of the vital ones. Sunset hoped not or she was in trouble._

 _"And yet," Luna said. "Though Twilight and her friends have cleansed my soul they cannot wipe clean my past as though it never was. I was Nightmare Moon, upon a time. I have that darkness within me, and that regret." She glanced at Sunset out of the corner of one eye. "Something that we have in common, you and I."_

 _Sunset turned away from her, and as she turned away that barren emptiness on which she stood became a cliff, and beneath her and before her gleamed Canterlot in all its glory. The spires twinkled in the moonlight, and the many lights that shone in the city matched the stars set in the firmament above in multitude and brightness._

 _Sunset sat down, her legs dangling off the edge of the cliff. Silently, Princess Luna settled down upon her haunches beside her._

 _"You miss it," Luna observed._

 _Sunset frowned. "Only children fled from crueller homes than mine do not feel homesick from time to time, I think." She sighed. "If I could live with my friends of Remnant, yet in the gentler world of Equestria, I would count myself blessed beyond deserving…save that I would have no outlet for my ambition."_ For what need has Equestria of a Sunset Shimmer when it has a Twilight Sparkle here already?

 _"Your friends," Luna said. "Are those…where they your friends?"_

 _"They are my friends," Sunset muttered. She lifted up one knee, pulling it back from the abyss and resting her booted foot upon the cliff; she rested her forehead on her knee. "I…I don't want you to think that that was me. That wasn't me, that…I wouldn't do that." She scowled. "I don't want to do that."_

" _And yet you fear you will," Luna murmured. A statement, not a question._

" _It's her anger, not mine," Sunset insisted. "But…it's in me now. I can feel it…and it feels so familiar to me. The things she feels, Cinder; her anger, her envy, her wrath…they are not alien to my soul."_

" _Nor to mine," Luna said. She smiled wryly when Sunset looked up at her. "You know the story, do you not?"_

" _Celestia never spoke of it," Sunset said, lest Princess Luna think that her sister had been in the habit of gossiping about her in her long absence._

" _That is not what I asked," Luna said. "You know the story anyway."_

" _You were jealous," Sunset said. "Filled with resentment and desire for something that Princess Celestia could not give you." She snorted. "Something else we have in common."_

" _Indeed," Luna murmured, sounding less than entirely proud of the fact. "I know the taste of envy very well, and equally well I recall what lengths it can drive the desperate."_

" _But you were saved," Sunset said. "You told me, Twilight…Twilight and her friends, they wielded the Elements of Harmony and-"_

" _Shall I tell you a secret?" Luna asked, her voice a soft conspiratorial whisper. "You seem like the sort of mare who enjoys secrets, though you may not enjoy this one."_

 _Sunset wasn't sure if she was being insulted or not. "You can tell me whatever you want to tell me, princess."_

" _The Elements of Harmony may have cleansed me of the outer manifestation of my darkness," Luna said. "If the circumstances were different perhaps they would have done the same to you. But the truth is that the darkness inside…it never leaves. Although I might wish it were otherwise, I fear that you may have to carry this anger that is not yours for the rest of your days, or until time cools the fires that now burn so brightly and with such heat. Just as I must carry the guilt of all that I did in my madness and my folly."_

 _Sunset stared up at the princess of the moon for a moment, seeking comfort in her face, in her voice, in running the words that she had spoken over and over again in her head. Seeking comfort and finding none. "That…that's it?" she whispered. Her voice rose, sharpened with anger. "That's it? You came all this way to tell me that there is no hope?"_

" _I did not say 'no hope'," Luna said. "I said that there was no easy solution. I am the princess of the moon, not of miracles."_

" _You might not have said that there wasn't any hope but you certainly implied it!" Sunset snapped. "You saw my dreams, you know what I'm struggling with, how am I supposed to just…to just live with it? I killed my friends and I enjoyed it!" She sobbed, her whole body was wracked by a shudder of pain as she buried her face in her knee. "Celestia help me, I liked it."_

 _Sunset felt something settle on her arm. A dark wing, soft and feathery. "Brave heart, Sunset Shimmer," Luna said. "You are not yet beyond all hope. That you feel such sorrow is cause for joy. Do you think that she whose rage you have stolen would shed tears?"_

 _Sunset didn't reply. "You said…you said that you carried it with you?"_

" _Every day," Luna said. "And every day when I see the little ponies of Equestria forget, or act as if they have forgotten, that there are once more two diarchs in the realm I feel it like a pinprick in my heart, a needle of that old jealousy returning once again. But I am on guard against it now, and armed against its terrible allure. Arm your soul, be vigilant…and do not let your most potent weapon rust in its scabbard, unused and forgotten."_

" _How can my magic help me with this?" Sunset asked._

" _I said nothing of any magic," Luna said, with a hint of reproach. "I had shut myself away long before my fall was complete. I did not talk to the sister whom I did not trust…whom I hated and blamed for all my troubles. I had no one that I could confide in, no one to whom I could unburden myself, no one…no one at all to help me when I was most in need of it. You are not yet so unfortunate, nor will you be unless you bring such a fate upon yourself."_

 _Sunset couldn't keep the scepticism out of her voice as she said, "You think I should talk to my team about the fact that I'm dreaming of murdering them?"_

" _If you accept the aid of your friends then they may remain only dreams," Luna said. "You cannot run from this, Sunset Shimmer; you cannot hide from it in darkness or in light. Sooner or later you will have to confront it, and when you do…it is never wise to face such things alone. Farewell."_

" _Wait!" Sunset cried as Canterlot below her and the Equestrian sky above both began to dissolve into the void. "You're leaving."_

 _Luna rose into the air, looking back at Sunset over her shoulder. "Though your dreams are dark, you are not the only pony having nightmares tonight. And I have said all that I could usefully say. Goodbye, Sunset; it may be that we shall meet again."_

" _Are you…" Sunset hesitated, torn between a certain awareness of how childish her request would sound and a desire to ask it anyway. "Are you going to tell Princess Celestia about this? I…I don't want her know…"_ What? I don't want her to know what's happened to me? Don't want her to know what I'm becoming? Don't want her to know…anything?

 _Luna stared down at Sunset, and said nothing, and her face conceded nothing._

 _Then she was gone, and all was plunged into darkness._

Sunset woke up, her eyes snapping open to the light of early morning coming in through the library windows.

Sunset groaned as she sat up, rolling off the bed of books – new books, the ones that she knew could take it, she wasn't a barbarian – that she had made to sleep up in a secluded corner of the upper level of the library where hardly anyone went. She had to sleep somewhere if she wasn't going to back to the dorm room, and she couldn't go back to the dorm room. She hesitated to think what Ruby would have thought if she'd seen and heard her tossing and turning in the grip of nightmares.

Ruby. Ruby was the only one that she could think about, the one that Cinder loathed the least. She hated Ruby Rose as she hated everyone, but it wasn't as visceral as her dislike of Pyrrha and so it didn't send the same surge of anger through Sunset's veins.

Trust them, Luna had said. Talk to them. Tell them everything. Yeah, like that was going to happen. Perhaps Princess Luna meant well, but she didn't get how things were in this world. This wasn't Equestria. People didn't forgive so easily and they didn't take things in their stride the way that ponies did; if she told them the truth…there was no way they wouldn't turn on her.

"Did you sleep in here? On _books_?"

"Gah!" Sunset jumped at the sound of Blake's voice, nearly falling over as she turned to see the faunus girl watching her from the corner of the stack. "What are you doing, sneaking up on me like that?" _Interfering little animal. Why can't she leave me alone?_

 _Get out of my head, Cinder!_

"I thought I was being pretty loud," Blake said.

"Trust me, you weren't," Sunset said. "What do you want?"

Blake's amber eyes narrowed. "Did you sleep on books?"

"Only the ones that could take it, what are you doing here?"

"Looking for a new bodice ripper."

"Really?"

"Of course not, I'm looking for you."

"Well who asked you to?" Sunset demanded. _Keep your nose out of my business before I cut it off!_ Sunset huffed, and turned away. "I'm sorry," she said. "I'm sorry, I just…thanks for coming to look for me but you should go."

There was no sound of Blake going, and as stealthy as she was or could be Sunset was inclined to attribute that to the fact that she hadn't actually gone anywhere. The sound of her voice confirmed her suspicions. "Everyone's worried about you," Blake said. "The rest of the school is talking about the attack; Yang's mothering Ruby as though she was in real danger up there. But all that Team Sapphire can talk about is where you are and why you didn't come home last night."

Sunset grunted. "So why are you here?"

"Because Pyrrha thinks that you should be given your space if you want it, and Jaune and Ruby don't know any better than to agree with her."

"But you do," Sunset said, still without turning round.

"I know that, with some things, letting them fester only makes them worse," Blake murmured. "And I know that, if I was in your position, you'd be the one to try and help me out of the hole I was in. What happened last night?"

"Nothing happened."

"You went after Cinder, then she escaped and you won't come home? And you expect anybody to believe that nothing happened?" Blake demanded. "Sunset, what's really-"

Sunset saw, out of the corner of her eye, Blake reaching for her hand. She pulled away, panic at the thought of Blake discovering the truth in such a way making sweat start to form of her back. She jerked backwards, wheeling to face Blake as she stepped away from her.

"Don't touch me!" she hissed, and Cinder's hate mingled with her own panic to put an edge on her voice like a sword.

Blake couldn't quite hide her dismay. "I washed my hands," she observed.

"It's not that, I…" Sunset sighed. She would have to tell. She couldn't…she couldn't just _not explain_ and she couldn't spend the next four years in the library. She would have to tell someone, Blake since she was here. She would have to tell and then…well, she might have to leave Beacon when she was done talking but…but at least then her friends would be safe from her.

"I found my semblance last night," Sunset said. "I unlocked it when I was fighting Cinder."

Blake stared at her for a moment, as though she was waiting for something else. "Congratulations."

The very word was bitter in Sunset's ears. "It's not a good thing," Sunset said. She walked to the balcony and looked down upon the library, empty this early in the morning. Her pony ears drooped down on top of her head. "I have empathy. If you'd touched my hand…I would have felt everything that you were feeling; seen what you were thinking. Like I did to Cinder."

"My gods," Blake murmured, dismayed comprehension obvious in her voice.

Sunset gripped the wooden balcony rail tightly with both hands. "I saw her…how she ended up this way. I felt her anger, her rage, the way that she hates everyone and everything and…you all in particular. You know she really doesn't like you for going after Torchwick and the White Fang the way you did. And the fact that you survived her attempt to get you arrested just made her even madder."

"I'm flattered," Blake said dryly.

"You shouldn't be, she's a dangerous person to have it out for you," Sunset said. She bowed her head. "The things that I see…the things that I feel…they don't leave me when I break contact. I've got it all in me. All that anger towards the people I care about and on top of all of that I've only got to touch someone to get everything that's in them dumped on me as well!" Sunset took a deep breath, and risked a glance at Blake. "So that's why I didn't come home last night. What was I supposed to do?"

"You could have talked to the people who care about you?"

"Yeah, because you always do that, don't you?" Sunset snapped. She cringed. "You see. I get…" She shook her head. "I…it's so familiar to me."

"What is?"

"This anger, the rage she carries around with her all the time," Sunset said. "I've felt it too. When I was living in Atlas. It fits into me like I'm a glove and I'm the hand the glove was made for. I remember feeling the way that she feels, hating the way that she hates, I remember it so, so well that it…and she hates my friends. She hates them so badly that she wants them all dead and sometimes, when I think of them now…there's so much anger…how can you honestly say that I shouldn't stay away?"

Blake stared at Sunset in silence for a moment. Then, still in silence, she began to unwrap the black bands that covered her hand and lower arm.

"What are you doing?" Sunset demanded.

Blake stepped forward, and laid her hand out on the wooden rail. "Touch it."

Sunset glanced between Blake's face and her hand. "You've been listening to me, right?"

Blake nodded. "That's why I want you to take my hand."

Sunset hesitated, her hand balling up reflexively at the idea. She didn't want to use her semblance on Blake; she didn't particularly want to use it at all. She hadn't asked for this, or for what it would cost her to use it. She wondered, with slightly bitter thoughts, about why she couldn't have had something like pyrokinesis as her semblance, something that didn't make her hate herself and fear for those closest to her.

She didn't want to use her semblance on Blake, but looking into her eyes and the set of her expression it was pretty clear to Sunset that she wasn't going to be able to get away with _not_ using it.

And so, tentatively, gingerly, Sunset touched Blake's proffered and unresisting palm with the tips of her fingers. She felt that same spark jolting through her arm that she had felt when she grabbed hold of Cinder, and she threw her head back as she felt her consciousness thrown forwards out of herself and into-

 _"Adam's methods may sometimes be extreme but at least he's doing something! At least he's not a coward like you!"_

 _Blake stood on a dockyard, somewhere Sunset could not place, crouched down and sobbing as a ship sailed away into the distance. A woman, Sunset couldn't get a good read on how old she was, with tiger stripes running down her dark arms, placed a hand upon Blake's shoulder. Sienna Khan, Sunset knew from Blake's memories of this day, this moment; just as she knew that the ship sailing away was carrying Blake's parents to Menagerie so she knew that this was the woman who succeeded Blake's father as leader of the White Fang._

 _"Your father was a great man, once," Sienna said. "But he was always cautious, and old age has turned that caution into fear. We require boldness now if we are to prevail and win a world for all our brothers and sisters to share in freedom."_

 _Blake climbed to her feet, and wiped away the tears from her eyes. "I understand."_

 _"Do you?" Sienna asked, looking into Blake's eyes. "Do you truly understand what we must do? Or do you remain here as a spy for your father?"_

 _"No!" Blake yelled. "My father's weak, he doesn't get it, he's given up!" She scowled. "I won't ever give up. I want to see us achieve equality and I won't stop fighting until I do. I belong to the faunus now, and to you."_

 _Sienna Khan smiled, and as she smiled Sunset couldn't help but think that it was that smile, and not the stripes on her arm, in which she most possessed the aspect of the tiger._

 _Blake walked down the street; it was the late afternoon and she was on her way to a meeting. A faunus woman, a dog faunus with terrier ears and dark skin, was coming the other way, pushing a pram in front of her with a little boy inside._

 _She was walking quickly, her heels clicking rapidly on the stone of the pavement as she walked, and though she was trying to hide it as she passed Blake could tell that she was in some distress._

 _It didn't take Blake long to notice the source of that distress: a human man, bald and slovenly looking, his face – probably never particularly good looking – deformed by odious hostility; he followed her from a distance of about fifteen feet or so. He sounded as though he'd just rolled out of some bar; he kept slurring his words as he yelled at her in a harsh, ugly, nasal voice. "Hey! Hey, I'm talking to you! You're on benefits, aren't you? That's why you had that kid, so you could steal our benefits! Isn't it? You're a thief and you don't belong here!"_

 _Sunset saw no more distinct memories from Blake, but she felt…she felt anger. A surprising, shocking anger to come from Blake Belladonna, who rarely raised her voice and walked through life with an expression so calm that it was almost placid. But beneath those still waters it seemed that a raging tempest surged and buffeted, or at least that it had. Rage against her parents for abandoning the fight and so for abandoning her, rage against the Schnee Dust Company for treating the deaths of innocent faunus struggling to support their families as an acceptable write-off, rage against the four kingdoms for spouting the rhetoric of equality while turning a blind eye to oppression; rage against those who thought that they could taunt and abuse faunus in the street without consequence; rage against the fact that there were no consequences for them more often than not; rage against the fact that innocent women like that mother had to live in fear._

 _Anger that this was the world they lived in._

Sunset pulled away, clutching her hands together as she looked into Blake's eyes.

"That anger? That's something that every faunus feels or has felt sooner or later," Blake said. "When we're on the receiving end of the injustice of the world, when we see someone else suffering from that injustice, we feel it. It builds up with every callous remark or thoughtless action from those who should know better. It isn't unique to you and it certainly doesn't belong to Cinder Fall; I don't know what she's gone through in her life, but if she's angry that she wasn't given the life that she wanted or deserved…she can join the line."

Blake pursed her lips together. "No offence, Sunset, but there are times when I think that you want to live your life as though you're the hero in some kind of story; you act like you're unique, the only person in the whole world who does the things that you do, feels the way the you do. And sometimes I can even see why, but when it comes to this…I'm sorry to say you're just not that special."

"I am absolutely that special, and more," Sunset replied, bristling as Cinder's pride mingled with her own. She took a deep breath. "What happened?"

Blake blinked. "When?"

"In your memory," Sunset said. "The woman being followed down the street. What did you do? It felt as though you wanted to punch the guy."

"I did," Blake said. "But the police might have picked up the mother if I had, just for being in the wrong place; I followed them both, discreetly, over the roof tops, to make sure that he didn't do anything besides run his mouth. After a while he gave up and…stopped bothering her. She wasn't hurt, and she and the child got home safe." Blake folded her arms and leaned against the balcony rail. "When I told Adam – he wanted to know why I was late for a chapter meeting – he told me that I should have killed the man. He told me that he would have and even then, a long time before he came…or before I realised…I believed him.

"We all feel the same anger, Sunset. We all rage at the injustice of our situation. But we don't have to let it rule us and we don't have to let it make us monsters, like Cinder or Adam. Anger is a consequence of living in this world, but giving in to it is a choice. One I've seen too many good people fall prey to; please don't make the same mistake."

Sunset shook her head. "You think I want to?"

"I think you've overcome your own anger," Blake said. "Is there any reason why you can't overcome Cinder's?"

"But what if I can't?" Sunset asked quietly. "What if I lose this time, what if…what if I hurt them?" She frowned. "We're so alike: both orphans; both fallen from grace, cast out from lives of luxury and spoiled indulgence into something much harsher, crueller, colder; both ambitious, envious of those who have what we want. A couple of wrong turns and I could have been her."

"But you didn't."

"That doesn't mean that I won't," Sunset said. "Especially not since I feel exactly the way that she does, it's like I'm halfway there already." _And I'll get there if Cinder has anything to say about it._ She didn't mention that Cinder had tried to get Sunset on her side to Blake; that was a step further than she was willing to admit at this stage.

"I couldn't bear it if I hurt them," she said.

Blake was silent for a while. She looked away from Sunset, her golden eyes scanning the empty library beneath them. "Have you ever looked at someone and thought 'they are the personification of this word'? Have you ever looked at someone and that word just popped into your head whenever you set eyes on them, because even if it didn't capture every single thing about them…it still got to the heart of that person better than any other word that you could think of?"

Sunset…couldn't honestly say that she had experienced the phenomenon that Blake was describing, although to hear it described it made a lot of sense. She said nothing. She just waited, silently, to see where Blake was going with this.

"Living with you, getting to know Team Sapphire," Blake continued. "I look at Ruby and I think 'this girl is the embodiment of courage'. I can't think of any situation where she'd hesitate to throw herself into the breach to protect…anyone. She wouldn't need to like them, she wouldn't even need to know, she wouldn't care how great the danger was-"

"All that she'd need to know was that somebody was in trouble, and she'd be there," Sunset murmured. "Locked, loaded, and swinging Crescent Rose with wild abandon."

Blake smiled fondly. "Exactly. She's not afraid of anything and that…that makes it easier to be brave, don't you think?"

Sunset nodded. "She encourages you by her attitude and shames you by her example; she'd be a devastating manipulator if she was doing it on purpose."

Blake snorted. "I look at Pyrrha and I see the personification of gentleness."

"In the old meaning or the new one?"

"Both," Blake said. "That's what makes it so apposite."

Sunset couldn't argue with that, and so she didn't. "And Jaune?"

Blake seemed to take a moment to consider Jaune Arc. "Decency." Blake waited, as if she expected Sunset to ask what word she, Sunset, might be considered to embody. Though her mouth was dry with expectation, Sunset didn't ask; how much she actually wanted to know depended entirely upon what the answer was.

"And when I look at you," Blake said, after a moment or two. "I think of the word 'resolve'. You keep fighting and you never give up and you never turn away from a challenge. That's what I thought, anyway. I'd hate for you to give up now and prove me wrong."

Sunset said nothing. Her gaze flickered to Blake and then away again, as her appreciation for Blake's friendship warred with Cinder's dislike of the other girl.

"I don't know what it's like to have all of Cinder's feelings inside of you," Blake said. "But here's what I do know: Cinder Fall tried to have my arrested and turn the whole school against me, but Sunset Shimmer got me out of that trouble and persuaded the people who matter to let me come back to Beacon. Cinder Fall has been using the White Fang to wage war against Vale, but Sunset Shimmer helped me fight back and try to stop the fall of a movement that used to stand for something real and important. Cinder Fall went to the tower last night to do damage, Sunset Shimmer went to help a friend in trouble. Cinder Fall might hate Pyrrha, and Jaune and Ruby and even me…but Sunset cares about all of us. I believe, no, I know that to be true. You may be alike in some ways, but you could say that about you and Pyrrha; you could even say it about you and me!

"Adam and I are a lot alike too. We both feel the same anger at what has been done to our people, but the difference is that I don't let my anger destroy who I am…or at least I hope I don't," Blake said. "That's the point: the difference is as important as the likeness. You both want to be recognised, fine, but you want to shine over the world and Cinder wants to tear it all down. Your families, your feelings…none of it changes the fact that you're a good person and she isn't…and none of it changes the fact that you have three friends who want to help you if you'll let them."

Sunset was silent for a moment. "Four."

"Huh?"

"The way I see it I have four friends who want to help me," Sunset said.

Blake blushed a little as her cat ears perked up a bit. "Well…I don't know if…I thought I should try. Did it help?"

Sunset nodded. "You…you make a lot of sense. It's not gone, but…but you're right, I can't hide from it and I can't let her win by letting her emotions rule me. She's not going to get the best of me that easily."

Blake nodded. "Resolve."

"I have to live up to your expectations now that you've said it," Sunset said. She stepped back from the rail. "They'll understand, won't they?"

"I don't doubt it," Blake said.

Sunset found that, if she could take a step back from Cinder's thoughts, if she could fight her way through the fog of another girl's anger and hatred, she didn't really doubt it either.

And let's face it, if she wanted to control her semblance so that she could touch people without finding out everything about them she could do a lot worse than talk to Pyrrha.

Pyrrha. Sunset flinched at the anger that flared within her at the thought of Pyrrha, the spoiled-

No. No, she was going to fight this. She had to fight this. She wasn't going to let Cinder win. She was going to embody resolve and rise above this as she had risen above all other obstacles.

Pyrrha whom she hated. Pyrrha who had everything she wanted. Pyrrha her first friend in Remnant, maybe her best friend.

Pyrrha whom she wanted dead. Pyrrha who was so overrated. Pyrrha who had worked her ass off to become strong just as Sunset had. Pyrrha whom she loved.

Pyrrha whom they all loved so well. Pyrrha she wanted to protect.

Pyrrha her enemy.

Pyrrha her team-mate.

Pyrrha her friend.

Pyrrha her friend.

Pyrrha her friend. Sunset breathed in and out. Pyrrha had friend. She had to focus on that, focus as much as she ever focussed on a complex magical spell. Focus on the feelings that were hers, and leave the thoughts of Cinder Fall to wither on the vine.

"Are you okay?" Blake asked, concern evident in her voice.

Sunset took a deep breath. "I'm not fine," she said. "But I am better. Come on, let's go."

With Blake at her side, Sunset began to head home.


	72. The Day After: Ironwood

The Day After: Ironwood

"They were here," Ironwood growled, shaking his fist for additional emphasis in a bid to get through to the old man who sat behind his desk looking more exasperated by Ironwood's behaviour than he seemed at all concerned about the disaster that had very nearly unfolded last night. "Ozpin, they were right here!"

"We're very much aware of that, James," Glinda hissed, possibly to distract Ironwood from the fact that Ozpin had just put his head in his hands as though Ironwood was giving him a headache.

Ironwood was starting to think that they both deserved a lot more than a headache from having someone shout in their ear.

"I've known Twilight Sparkle since she was a little girl, and last night I nearly had to tell her parents that she was never coming home," Ironwood snapped, venting his anger into Glinda's face. She might not have deserved it, it might be that he was overreacting to her remark, but there was a part of him, the part that was still human, that needed to vent at somebody, even if she wasn't a particularly deserving target of his wrath. When he thought of what could have happened last night if Twilight hadn't had the presence of mind to call Rainbow Dash for help: Twilight dead, the CCT potentially compromised, the identity of the mole lost. They had stood on the knife's edge last night and it was only thanks to Twilight Sparkle that they had fallen onto the right side. The enemy had come close last night, too close; did they even realise just how close they had come to landing a crippling blow? "I have eleven men dead; good men, soldiers of Atlas; I have another seven in the infirmary and some of them might not make it unless their luck turns. So don't talk to me as though I'm making a mountain out of nothing! Salem put four agents right in the heart of Beacon under our very noses and we never saw it coming. Haven students! What's Leo even doing out there that he let this happen?"

"Running Haven Academy, one would hope," Ozpin sighed. He lifted his head out of his hands. "Although I do concede that it is troubling that Salem was able to insert Miss Fall and her team so easily, and that they were able to gain Leo's complete trust as they did."

Ironwood clenched his jaw. "What does he have to say for himself?"

"I don't know," Ozpin admitted. "Leo hasn't reported in for some time."

"Then perhaps it's time you asked him why that is," Ironwood said. He took a deep breath, and made a conscious effort to master his emotions. If Ozpin dismissed him and anything he had to say because he thought that Ironwood was acting like an emotional, irrational fool then that wouldn't help their cause one bit. If being calm was what was needed to convince Ozpin then he would try to be calm. Anything to make the old man see.

"I have served you faithfully for many years," Ironwood said, leaning on the desk so that his face was closer to Ozpin's. "I've risked my career, even my life, because I believed in you and in what we were doing for the good of the world." He sighed. "I still believe in what we're doing." He let that, and the implicit words he had not spoken, hang in the air for a while. "But we can't just sit on the rocks in Beacon or Atlas and watch as the tide rises around us until the world is under water! And if Leo has betrayed us then don't we need to know about it sooner?"

Ozpin stared at him for a moment. Ironwood didn't know whether it was because the two of them were so close to one another or because he was more cognisant now of Ozpin's faults, but he would swear that he had never seen him look so old before.

He looked away, as a deep sigh of regret escaped him. "Raven…now Leo, too? Am I so poor at choosing those in whom to place my trust?"

"I hope not," Glinda said. "You trusted us, after all."

Ozpin's lips quirked upwards in a smile. "Thank you, Glinda." He pulled his scroll out of his pocket. "I accept that there is some force in what you say, James. Perhaps we should find out what Leo has to say about all of this."

"Would you like us to go, professor?" Glinda asked.

For himself, Ironwood had no intention of going anywhere until he heard Leo's explanation – and it had better be a damn good one – so he was glad when Ozpin shook his head and made it superfluous to need to argue the point. "No, you can both stay. You might as well hear this."

He opened his scroll and placed it face up upon the transparent surface of his desk. With one hand, Ozpin played with some of the buttons, and a holographic interface burst out from the scroll into the air above the desk. At first it was a hologram of nothing, just the three-dimensional equivalent of static, but after a few moments – moments in which Ironwood and Glinda walked around the desk so that they were standing behind Ozpin and all facing the same direction - it resolved itself into an image of Leonardo Lionheart rendered in blue-green, looking out at them.

"Ozpin!" he cried. "This, uh, this is a pleasant surprise. James, Glinda, it's really been too long since we've last spoken."

"It certainly has," Ironwood growled.

"It's good to see you, Leo, and to hear your voice," Ozpin declared affably, as though there weren't serious questions to be asked over some of Leo's recent decision-making.

"Indeed. We're almost all here," Leo said jovially. "I'm a little surprised Qrow isn't there too." He looked over his shoulder, as though he half-expected Qrow Branwen to turn into a human and start tapping on the window of his office in Mistral asking to be let in.

"At the moment Qrow is still on a mission," Ozpin said. "He's out of contact, even more than you."

Leo's eyes bulged. "I haven't reported to you because I have nothing to report!" he squawked indignantly. "We're both busy men, I didn't think that you'd want me to call you up every week just to tell you that all is well and quiet in Mistral."

"Nothing to report?" Ironwood demanded, clenching his robotic hand into a fist as he leaned over Ozpin's shoulder. "What about Cinder Fall, do you have anything to report there?"

"Cinder Fall," Leo murmured.

"Cinder Fall attacked the CCT here in Beacon last night," Ozpin said. "A number of Atlesian soldiers were killed or wounded. Later, Miss Fall's team-mates fled before they could be questioned which, I'm sure you will agree, strongly suggests that they were involved in some way. In addition, there is some evidence linking Miss Fall to the recent upsurge in White Fang activities here in Vale."

"My gods," Leo said. "Was any damage done?"

"My men are dead, weren't you listening?" Ironwood snapped, barely resisting the urge to punch Leo through the hologram. "And a young girl of great importance to Atlas – and to me – nearly joined them. And all because-"

"James, please," Ozpin said, holding up one hand for calm.

Ironwood clenched his jaw and backed off with great reluctance. He turned his back, and walked towards the emerald-tinted windows of Ozpin's office.

The old man didn't understand. He couldn't understand why this had Ironwood so frustrated. Ozpin was an intelligent man, a great man, but he sat up here in this tower like a grey-haired spider and he spun his webs across Remnant, grooming his teams of huntsmen and huntresses and sending them out to fight and die in the battle against Salem and her forces. He didn't have friends, and Ironwood was under no illusions that even those closest to him like Glinda and himself were truly in his confidence. He approached his war like a game of chess, moving his white knights and pawns across the board to keep the blacks at bay and guard the four white queens who held the key to the entire game.

Ironwood wasn't like that. He'd had dinner with Twilight's family, he'd attended her brother's wedding to Councilwoman Cadenza, he'd personally handpicked Rainbow Dash to lead Team RSPT because he'd gotten to know her well enough to put his trust in her; these weren't chess pieces to him, they were people, people into whose eyes he had looked, people who trusted him.

Even if it was for the good of the world, it pained him that he wasn't fully worthy of their trust, that he sullied it with lies and half-truths and omissions.

And even if it was for the good of the world, he couldn't just send them to their deaths without it weighing on his soul.

If the old man could, well…Ironwood wasn't sure which of them was the lucky one.

"As I hope you can see, Leo," Ozpin continued. "It appears that Miss Fall was our enemy from at least the moment that she entered Haven Academy, and although we have no direct evidence linking her to our true enemy, it seems unlikely that they could be completely unconnected. She may even be the woman who attacked Amber and stole a part of her power."

Leo laughed nervously. "Ozpin, with all due respect, some of that is pure conjecture." His face fell. "But that's not why you called me, is it? You…you think I'm involved in some way? After all that I have done-"

"Calm down, Leo," Glinda said. "Nobody is accusing you of anything."

"I think that James would like to, wouldn't you James?"

Ironwood turned and walked back towards the hologram. "I'd like some answers. Once I have those then I can get around to accusations as necessary."

"Leo," Ozpin said, calmly but firmly. "We've spoken to Miss Nikos and Mister Arc." They would have spoken to Miss Shimmer, too, but she had absented herself and nobody knew exactly where she was. "They both told exactly the same story: that you introduced Miss Fall to them, and to Miss Shimmer, as one of your top students while at a party in Mistral during the spring vacation. They also had troubling statements to make about the lack of huntsmen and huntresses in Vale."

"You're taking the word of a pair of first-year students against me? After everything-"

"This is not about taking anyone's word over yours, this isn't about apportioning blame, this is about getting to the truth," Ozpin declared, sounding a little testy at this point. "If Miss Nikos hadn't decided to go home for the vacation then who would have defended Mistral from the karkadann? Who is guarding the Relic of Knowledge?"

"Who's guarding the Relic of Choice?" Leo replied. "Are you telling me that Beacon doesn't empty during the vacation weeks?"

"Not completely," murmured Glinda.

"Yes, I took an interest in Cinder Fall," Leo declared. "Do you know why? It's not because I'm a traitor or a servant of Salem! It's because she was especially talented and I was desperate. If she really did attack the tower and kill James' soldiers-"

"If?" Ironwood snapped.

"Then you must understand how _good_ she is; how swift, how strong; probably a match for Pyrrha, or close to it. Ozpin, I don't think you understand the kind of pressure that I'm under here. You gave me this position but since then you've continually poached the best and brightest of Sanctum's graduates and left me and Haven to make do with the residue that you didn't want."

 _And what does that have to do with anything?_ Ironwood thought. It wasn't that Leo was entirely wrong – Ozpin _did_ take the best students who might otherwise have to Atlas, Haven or Shade; or at least he tried to, but Ironwood liked to think that he'd gotten pretty good at defending his turf and keeping the students that he wanted – like Rainbow Dash – at Atlas where he wanted them (he'd lost Weiss Schnee, which was disappointing, but he was inclined to blame that at least partly on Jacques); if Leo hadn't learned to do the same that was no excuse for letting traitors and enemies into their midst.

"You're exaggerating," Glinda said. "Professor Ozpin only encourages a select few students that have the potential to be valuable assets to our cause to attend Beacon instead of any other huntsman academy."

"Do you know how long it's been since Haven last had a Vytal Festival champion?" Leo demanded. "People think I'm incompetent, and because I'm a faunus they think they have a right to tell me so my face. I have to listen to the likes of Lady Nikos sneer at my record and lament the decline in Mistral's once-proud warrior tradition while Mistral-born huntsmen win honours for Beacon and Vale, for you! Pyrrha was supposed to turn things around for us, with her at the forefront this year was going to be our year, but then you had to go and take her too! At this rate the council is going to demand my resignation any day now and then what use will I be to you or our enterprise? I saw a talented fighter with the potential to put Haven back on the map and I grabbed that opportunity with both hands. Did I look closely into who she was or where she and the rest of her team came from? No. Should I have? Well, perhaps, but I had no other choice but to do as I did. You left me no other choice, Ozpin. Do you want me to remain in post to serve you here or not?"

 _So your defence is incompetence?_ Ironwood attempted to keep the contempt he felt off his face and out of his body language. _Are you any more use in that case then if you were a traitor? All your justifications can't obscure the fact that you let our enemies into the heart of our defences and only blind luck prevented them from doing incalculable damage._

 _Do you actually have a reason why we should still trust you?_

"No one wants to see you dismissed from your office," Ozpin said, with surprising geniality in his tone. "I merely wanted to get my facts straight. Thank you for being so honest with me, Leo. I hope you understand that I need to give this matter a great deal of thought. Goodbye. Please try to keep in touch in future."

Leo sighed. He looked as though he was sweating. "Goodbye, Ozpin. Glinda, James. Until next time."

"Quite," Ozpin said, before he hung up.

"Do you trust him?" Ironwood demanded. "Do you believe everything that he said? Do you believe _anything_ that he said?"

"I…have sometimes been overzealous in my desire to have the best talent in Remnant here at Beacon, where I could better evaluate them," Ozpin confessed.

"That doesn't excuse leaving Mistral completely undefended," Ironwood said. "I left twelve battalions and three cruiser squadrons to defend Atlas in my absence here."

"Not everyone has an oversized army," Glinda muttered.

"I admit that there remain some unanswered questions," Ozpin said. "Questions that we may be able to fully answer unless, by some happy accident, we are able to capture and interrogate Miss Fall. But I am not willing to condemn a man who pledged his loyalty and service to me without further proof than I currently possess."

 _And what about my loyalty and service?_ Ironwood wanted to ask. He huffed. "So we do nothing?"

"What can we do at this point, James?" Ozpin asked. "Miss Fall is in the wind, possibly she has fled to join her allies of the White Fang but we don't know where they are either. What can we do but wait, and be ready for Salem's next move when it comes? What would you have me do?"

Ironwood was silent for a moment, because as much as he didn't like it the old man had a point. He had a fleet and an army but no target against which to turn either of them.

He resolved to have another crack at Torchwick; perhaps having his boss uncovered and forced into hiding would make him more willing to talk.

It was about all they had to go on at this stage.

Ironwood clasped his hands behind his back. "We need to do something about Twilight."

"Your student?" Glinda asked. "What do you mean?"

"Although the data from her trace looks like it was wiped, Twilight saw it," Ironwood said. "Cinder routed her mail outing Blake Belladonna as part of the White Fang through Drachyra. You can understand why she thinks that's important."

The price of keeping secrets from the world: the members of Ozpin's inner circle all knew that Salem had her fortress somewhere on the grimm-infested dragon continent, but as far as the rest of Remnant was concerned it was simply grimm-infested, and so to Twilight the fact that someone – the White Fang, a nebulous human terrorist organisation, _somebody_ – might have operations there was something worthy of investigation; and Ironwood couldn't simply tell her that, in his opinion, it wasn't because, to be frank, if he hadn't know what he knew he would absolutely think it worthy of investigation.

Ozpin closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. "We cannot beard her in her den, James. She is too ancient, too powerful and her grimm there are too numerous. You could not force your way through to the gates of her dark fortress with all the strength of the Atlesian military nor could you defeat her when or if you got there." He bowed his head, once more looking far older and wearier than was generally the case. Ironwood couldn't be entirely sure what he was thinking about, but he wouldn't have been surprised to learn that Ozpin's thoughts were turning to Team STRQ and to the failure of their strike eighteen years ago.

 _That was the moment when we stopped trying to do anything but hold the line. That was the moment when we handed her the initiative, and we've never gotten it back._

"I know," Ironwood said. "But Twilight Sparkle doesn't. So what do I tell her?"

"Tell her you'll take it to the council," Ozpin said.

"I have two seats on the council," Ironwood reminded him. "And Twilight's sister-in-law holds another. If I tell her that I'm going to take it to the council then I'd better do it or she'll find out that I haven't, and if I do take it to the council then…her family has influence, they may agree that this is something that we need to investigate. Especially if I back it, which I'd have a hard time not doing."

"Because of your position, or simply because you like this girl?" Glinda asked.

"Because her trust is important to me," Ironwood said.

Ozpin opened his eyes. "I hope that you have a suggestion of your own to make, James."

"As it happens, I do," Ironwood said. He hesitated for a moment, knowing that his suggestion would not be popular. "I want to bring her in."

"You want what?" Glinda demanded.

"And not just Twilight, but Rainbow Dash as well," Ironwood continued. "Perhaps Pyrrha too, and Sunset if she can be found, although your students, your call."

"How very generous of you," Glinda muttered.

"If you want Pyrrha Nikos to be your maiden then we're going to have to trust her at some point," Ironwood said. "And none of us are going to be here forever, or even in our posts forever. At what point do we put our trust in the new generation to carry on this fight after us?"

"When they're a little older than seventeen."

"None of us were that much older when Ozpin brought us in," Ironwood replied. "If we were any older at all. Twilight has one of the brightest minds in the history of Atlas; Rainbow Dash is one of the bravest soldiers I've ever seen; frankly, these are the people we need to fight this war and the kind of people in whose hands I could feel comfortable placing the world when we're all gone." He took a step towards Ozpin. "We don't have to tell them everything right now, but let me tell them something. Let me give them at least a peak behind the curtain and I swear to you, you won't regret it."

Ozpin looked at him, his thoughts concealed behind his inscrutable eyes, and said nothing.

Until, at length, he spoke.

"I…I will consider it," he said.


	73. Pure

Pure

Sunset hesitated outside the SAPR dorm room. Her scroll was in her hand to unlock the door but she paused, havering over actually doing it. She glanced at Blake as her free hand balled up.

"You're going to stay with me, right?"

Blake had a slight smile playing across her face as she nodded. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Right, that's…that's good to hear," Sunset said. She took a deep breath. And then another. She could do this. It was just walking through a door.

 _I am Sunset Shimmer, I have crossed worlds and universes and chased my fate across the world; I have walked through more imposing doors than this._

 _So why does it feel as though I'm about to be called out on the carpet by Princess Celestia?_

 _Is this Cinder's nervousness?_

 _No. That would be too lucky. Cinder doesn't get nervous._

 _Or does she?_

It occurred to Sunset that while Cinder might not want to think that she got nervous, Ashley had certainly gotten nervous in the past. Maybe, just maybe, it was a touch of Cinder's apprehension that she was feeling at the thought of confronting her friends.

After all, if Sunset could feel Cinder's hatred of Pyrrha, why wouldn't she also feel Cinder's fear at the idea of confronting Pyrrha and Ruby together, head on?

Or Sunset herself was just afraid of telling them everything, but it made her feel better to detach herself from that particular unheroic emotion and pretend – and who was to say that she was definitely pretending, it might be true – that this wasn't her but another instance of Cinder's invasion of her soul.

Especially when that enabled Sunset to tell herself that Cinder was scared of a fight.

And she, Sunset Shimmer, wasn't afraid of anything.

She flashed her scroll in front of the door, and it unlocked with a click.

The dorm room was as silent as a mausoleum as Sunset stepped inside and-

"Sunset!"

Sunset stopped, almost knocked over onto her backside as Ruby ran into her, wrapping both her arms around Sunset's chest.

"You're back!" Ruby yelled. "You're back and you're okay! We were so worried about you."

Sunset made an awkward noise out of the back of her throat as she awkwardly tried to envelop Ruby without touching her with her hands, which meant that she was sort of flailing about with her arms and using her elbows to pat Ruby on the head. It was all very…awkward was the word that summed the whole thing up best really.

She looked over Ruby's head. Jaune looked relieved but at the same time wasn't making any effort to hide his curiosity. Pyrrha's arms were folded, but she had a fond smile upon her face.

"Uh, Ruby," Pyrrha said. "Perhaps you'd better give Sunset a little space."

"Oh, right," Ruby said, hastily releasing Sunset and backing away. "Sorry."

"Don't apologise," Sunset said, as she was able to make enough space for Blake to enter the room and close the door behind the two of them. Sunset sidled over to her bed but didn't sit down on it. She clasped her hands together behind her back. "That's my job right now, I think."

Ruby laughed nervously. Pyrrha looked away for a moment. "Well, I can't deny that we'd certainly like to know what happened last night…but it feels fair to admit that you aren't the only one who feels at fault. I should have gone with you."

"We both should have," Jaune said. "If we'd gone with you then maybe…maybe things would have been different, and that's on us."

"I've been trying to tell them that it wouldn't have made any difference if they had come, or even if Blake had come too," Ruby said. "That's right, isn't it? Cinder ran off as soon as she realised how outnumbered she was, and she would have done the exact same thing if Pyrrha and Jaune were there."

"Definitely," Sunset said. "She wasn't going to stick around for a fight when two more fighters to go up against." She considered the possibility that Cinder's rage against Pyrrha – the rage that she could feel simmering inside her just by being this close to Pyrrha, the rage that she was having to keep a lid on and hope that it didn't boil over – might have driven her to try and take her out when the chance presented itself, but she dismissed the idea as swiftly as it had formed in her head. Cinder Fall was a lot of things, most of them bad, but she wasn't stupid. Not even her desire to murder Pyrrha would prompt her to fight a hopeless battle against unwinnable odds.

Despite her dislike for the champion of Mistral and everything she represented, Cinder was still cognisant of Pyrrha's reputation. Her presence would only have made Cinder get out of there even faster.

Ruby nodded briskly. "And then Sunset would still have gone after her and then…" she trailed off, looking a little guilty for having brought the situation back to the 'and then'. "I mean, uh…"

"What happened last night?" Jaune asked. "Why didn't you come back? Where were you?"

"In the library," Sunset admitted.

Jaune frowned. "After lights out?"

"She slept on some books," Blake said disapprovingly.

"New books," Sunset stressed. "Books that I new could stand up to it. Besides, it's not like I'm heavy."

"But…why?" Jaune demanded. "I mean there's a perfectly good bed right here, and even the camp bed couldn't be worse than…than books, right?"

"You'd be surprised," Sunset said, risking a slight smile.

Judging by the expressions on the faces of her team-mates they weren't in much of a mood for levity.

Sunset huffed. There was no getting away from this, was there?

 _Well no, of course not you idiot. Did you think that you could come back here and you_ wouldn't _have to tell them?_

 _But Blake was okay with it, so they will be too._

Sunset glanced at Blake, who gave her a barely perceptible nod by way of reassurance.

 _You are Sunset Shimmer, and you can do this._

 _You told them about your magic, you can tell them this._

 _You are Sunset Shimmer and these are your friends._

She clasped her hands tighter together behind her back. "As Ruby has probably told you," she said. "Cinder fled the tower and I teleported after her."

"How did she get down from the tower?" Jaune asked. "I mean, aura and all, but that's a long way to fall. Did she have a landing strategy?"

"You could say that," Sunset said. "She flew."

"What?" Jaune exclaimed.

"Is that her semblance?" Pyrrha asked.

"If flying is her semblance then how is she stopping bullets with one hand?" Ruby said.

"That could just be theatrics to cover up the fact that all those hits are draining her aura away," Pyrrha suggested. "I've taken part in a few closed-circuit tournaments where some contestants tried to cover up the fact that they were using aura through flamboyant displays or misdirection; Cinder's hand motions could be in the same line."

Blake coughed into one hand, and with the other gestured towards Sunset.

"I'm sorry," Pyrrha said. "Please go on, Sunset."

"I fought Cinder," Sunset said. "I…I was holding my own, I suppose." It was hard to remember how the fight had been going before she activated her semblance because of everything that had happened _after_ that. "I…I wanted to know how she could do it. How she could betray us, betray the world, betray everything that huntresses are supposed to stand for. I liked her, you know? I thought we were so alike."

"Personally, I'm afraid I can't say that I ever saw it," Pyrrha murmured.

Sunset blinked. "Really?"

"No," Pyrrha admitted. "You…you had your moments but you were always quite open about how you felt, even if your expression of those feelings was…sometimes rather obnoxious. You were never snide, and I never felt as though your words had double meanings. Cinder…I always felt as though there was something I couldn't trust about her."

Sunset was silent for a moment. "You…I…thanks."

Pyrrha looked a little confused. "For what?"

"You'll understand soon, I think," Sunset replied. "I was fighting Cinder, but while we were fighting I kept asking her, demanding that she tell me why, why she'd done this? I just wanted to know how she could do it. I wanted to know how someone so like me – someone who I thought was so like me, even if some of you didn't agree – could do something like that. And that…it seems to have activated my semblance."

"Really?" Ruby squeaked. "Is that what you were upset about? Wait, why would you be upset about that, activating your semblance is awesome!"

"It is when you have an awesome semblance like super speed," Sunset said. "My semblance is…not so great."

Her words hung in the air for a moment before Jaune said, "Come on, don't leave us dying in suspense!"

"Yeah, right," Sunset said. "I…I'm not entirely sure what to call it. It's like a combination of empathy-"

Ruby gasped. "You mean you can turn off electricity and deactivate robots?"

Sunset looked at her flatly. "No, Ruby, that's EMP and that would actually be cool to be able to do. Empathy is…feelings and stuff."

"Your semblance is…feelings and stuff?" Ruby asked, sounding surprised and disappointed at the same time.

"If you'll let me finish," Sunset snapped, causing a crestfallen look to descend on Ruby's face. She sighed and groaned at the same time. "Sorry, I just…this isn't all me but I can't escape the blame for it. My semblance is a combination of empathy and touch telepathy. When I touched Cinder's arm...I saw her past. I know who she is now. I asked how she could turn out this way…and then I found out."

For a moment, none of them said anything. Then Jaune let out a soft, "Woah. Really?"

Sunset nodded, and sat down on the bed with her hands resting between her knees. "I didn't see absolutely everything. I didn't see anything about who she might be working for, I didn't see what she's planning…but I saw her childhood, I saw the things that happened to her. I saw what took a good, sweet kid and turned her into a monster."

Sunset explained the whole story to them: how Cinder's mother had been an Atlesian army pilot who hadn't returned from a mission, from which stemmed Cinder's hatred of Atlas and its military, how her wealthy Mistralian father had decided to move back to Mistral, and some time after that had married Lady Kommenos and brought her daughters into his home.

"Kommenos," Pyrrha interrupted. "Phoebe Kommenos?"

Sunset nodded. "She was one of the two stepsisters."

"You know her?" Jaune asked.

"She was a couple of years older than I am, but we were at Sanctum for some of the same time," Pyrrha said. "Our paths crossed once or twice in the arena, she was one of my earliest opponents in the Cadet League. Phoebe was always very well equipped, but never as good as she thought she was." She frowned. "I knew she was a braggart but I never thought she was a bully."

"She was," Sunset said. She didn't mention that losing to Pyrrha had always been enough to put Phoebe in a foul mood, because it would only make Pyrrha feel guilty and – as much as Cinder's broiling thoughts and emotions screamed that she deserved to feel every lick of guilt and more – Pyrrha didn't need that. It wasn't her fault that she was better than the competition. Phoebe Kommenos ought to have been able to lose a match without going home and beating on her stepsister to make herself feel big again.

Sunset completed her account, telling of the death of Cinder's father and her neara enslavement by her stepfamily, how Cinder had trained in secret and then, eventually, murdered her stepmother and one of her stepsisters while Phoebe was away.

"I remember that fire, too," Pyrrha said. "It was very widely reported, but there was no suggestion of arson at the time. Not that I remember anyway. Phoebe left not long after, she went to Atlas as I recall. She was…understandably upset. I actually felt sorry for her at the time."

"Whatever she did, whatever kind of person she was, she did lose her mother and sister," Jaune said. "If that happened to me, I…I mean I haven't spoken to my Mom since I left for Beacon but…if I found out that she'd died, that any of my sisters had…I…I'd just…God, I can't even…" The very idea was apparently enough to leave him looking downcast and disheartened, and he started to half lean, half sit down on the nearest desk.

Sunset looked away. "I didn't just see Cinder's past," she said. "I felt her feelings, as well." She glanced at Pyrrha. "She really hates you. She doesn't like any of us, she wants us dead, but you…you she hates especially."

"Why?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah, how could anybody hate Pyrrha?" Jaune added, looking up.

"You were both at a party, a few years ago at least," Sunset said. "You were only a kid, if her memories are accurate. Everyone was fawning all over you."

"That describes several parties I attended with my mother," Pyrrha said. "When I was still young enough that I was a precocious prodigy, before I grew up and my abilities started to become a threat to the _dignitas_ of my fellow nobles. I'm afraid that I don't remember encountering Cinder Fall at all before the spring vacation."

"I'm sure she'd hate you even more if she heard that you didn't remember her at all," Sunset said, with just a touch of wryness entering her voice. "Considering that that's the whole reason she hates you to begin with: you had everything that she wanted so badly but could never have." She snorted. "Kind of like why I didn't like you."

"Sunset-" Pyrrha began.

"I didn't come home last night," Sunset said, cutting across her because she needed this to be out there, to be done with; she needed the sword hanging above her head to descend one way or another; she couldn't wait in trepidation for their reaction to this any longer. "I didn't come back here because…because I didn't stop feeling her when we broke skin contact. She…it's like she left something in me. I didn't suck her feelings away but it's as if they're my feelings now as well. All of her hatred, all of her anger…everything she feels for you." She closed her eyes, but then she opened them once again and forced herself not to look away; she forced herself to look into those stricken faces, those masks of shock, until it was done. Till she was done. "She wants you dead. All of you. All of us. She's got a list and we're all on it. Except…except she might be willing to take you off the list because-"

"Don't say it," Blake said.

"Huh?" Ruby asked.

Blake rolled her eyes. "Cinder and Sunset both have this idea that they're the same. I've tried to explain to her how ridiculous that is."

"I admit that we're not twins separated at birth," Sunset said. "But we're not so different that-"

"Yes, you are!" Blake insisted. "And I've already explained why. It doesn't matter that some of your backgrounds match, it doesn't matter that you feel the same thing, it doesn't even matter that you have similar natures if that's even true. It's what you do that matters and what you do…what you do is right and righteous, even if it isn't always for the most righteous reasons. You're not a monster, Sunset, and you never were. If you were then I…I'd know this time; I'd know better this time and I wouldn't…I wouldn't let myself…I'd know."

Sunset stared at her. _You wouldn't let yourself what? You'd know better than…than when?_

 _When you were with Adam?_

Ruby's voice, soft and trembling, cut across Sunset's thoughts. "Is that what you thought?" she asked. "That you were like her?"

Sunset's brow furrowed for a moment. "No," she said. "But I was worried – I _am_ worried – that I could become like her; Cinder certainly thinks I can."

"Then she's an idiot," Ruby said. "There's no way in Remnant that you could become like Cinder because...because you've got us and we'd never let that happen."

Sunset smiled thinly. "Yeah. Yeah, I've got you. I think…I think that's the difference between us. After her father died Cinder didn't have anybody to turn to but I…I've got you. You guys are my saving grace." She pursed her lips momentarily. "I just wish that all her anger and hate didn't feel so at home in me." _I just wish I didn't feel as though I'm struggling to keep a lid on it just being in the same room with all of you._ She could feel it inside of her like a tiger in a cage, growling and flashing its claws, lunging at the bars in the hope that he iron of Sunset's virtue – such as it was - would give way before the bestial strength of Cinder's fury. It wanted to lash out, it wanted to strike; it was as if, disconnected from Cinder's own mind, her wrath had no more caution but only a wild, untamed desire to inflict pain and destruction on all that it despised the most.

 _And why shouldn't it want that? Cinder won't be harmed by the consequences, only me and my friends._

Pyrrha looked pensive, Jaune looked as though he just didn't know what to say (or maybe even what to think) but Ruby had a look in her silver eyes as though she'd just come up with a plan. "So…what you're saying is that when you touch someone with your hand…you feel the way they feel inside you?"

"Yes," Sunset said slowly, wondering where Ruby was going with this. "That's about-"

"Got an idea!" Ruby cried, and before Sunset could say anything, do anything, Ruby had covered the distance between them in a burst of rose petals and grabbed Sunset's hand in her own small, pale grasp.

"Ruby, wa-" Sunset opened her mouth to protest too late as Ruby's warm hand pressed against her skin. There was that electric jolt running through her arm and Sunset's head was thrown backwards as she saw…

She saw…

 _Ruby in a white cloak. No. No, it wasn't Ruby, it couldn't be. This woman was older, and she wore her hair in braided curls which Ruby never did – her hair wasn't long enough._

 _Mom. The word echoed through Ruby's mind, which was also Sunset's mind right now, or something like that. Mom. Sunset was looking at Ruby's mother._

 _Ruby's mother, smiling at her. Smiling at Ruby, but as Sunset looked through Ruby's eyes it was as if Mom was smiling at her too and she felt such love, love like a fire inside of her; not the all-devouring inferno of Cinder's hatred but the cosy fire that rose from a fireplace to illuminate a draughty room, a fire to snuggle in front of with a blanket wrapped around your shoulders and a hot chocolate in your hands and Mom sat beside you while you leaned on her._

 _Sunset looked through Ruby's eyes into the softly smiling face of Ruby's mother and she felt safe._

 _And then Summer Rose turned away, her white cloak billowing out behind her, and Sunset knew, Sunset knew just as Ruby knew even if she hadn't known it at the time, but she knew now that her mother was never coming back. That this would be the last time that Ruby ever set eyes on her mother._

Sweet Celestia, how old were you when this happened?

 _Summer Rose walked away, her white cloak rippling in the breeze like a forlorn flag of an army on the verge of defeat; she walked away, never to return._

 _Like Cinder's mother._

 _Sunset gasped, or she would have done if she had had mouth to gasp or if there had been any air to bear the sound away. She hadn't…she hadn't thought about that before. She hadn't made that connection. She'd been so focussed on herself, in the bond that Cinder saw between the two of them, that she hadn't noticed that Ruby and Cinder also shared a connection: their mothers had walked away, they had gone off to fight in some battle of which their daughters knew nothing, for a cause which their daughters could not comprehend, and they had never come back._

 _As if in response, summoned by Sunset's thoughts, Cinder's anger reared its head like a dog catching the scent of a rabbit in the field, her anger at her mother's death, at the Atlesian military that had taken her away, at the world that had driven her to risk her life in battle howled like a baying wolf and in Ruby's soul and in her thoughts an anger answered like another pack returning that same howl. Anger at her mother, for leaving her daughters behind, for risking her life, for leaving them and their father to their grief and their guilt, for leaving Dad to decline and Ruby to cry and Yang to struggle with the burden of holding the wounded family together. Anger at her for leaving them._

 _Yes, there was anger in Ruby's soul and perhaps Sunset should have expected that; nobody could be as pure as a newborn babe and Ruby wasn't that much younger than the rest of them, not to mention she had cause enough for anger besides. But that anger was but a minor key in the music of Ruby's soul, a dark discordant note that did not disrupt but rather almost enhanced the loveliness of the symphony that swelled around Sunset like the music of creation._

 _Cinder's soul was a jarring sonata, full of angry swipes upon the strings and incensed pounding on the drums and notes played on instruments improperly strung and out of tune, all furiously competing one another to strike the strongest note in the concerto of hate. At best it achieved a certain dark majesty when Cinder managed to hold together all of her wrath and direct it to a single common purpose; at worst…at worst it crept out of Sunset's soul and sought to corrupt the gentler, more harmonious music that entered from Ruby. Ruby's soul sang of love, of friendship, of valour and compassion and so many virtues bundled up in such a small package. Though she felt anger towards her mother she nevertheless revered the cause in which she had given her life, and she was prepared to give her life for it as well._

The peace that endured for fifteen years was purchased with blood that was red like roses.

 _That thought…it didn't seem like Ruby's thought; the language was too grand, too sophisticated; or was it that Ruby thought like that but couldn't express herself in such words out loud, or simply didn't want to? Whatever the truth, the though echoed throughout Ruby's mind, a low and sweeping note of the cello but one which nevertheless stood out clear as a bell amidst the other instruments._

 _The embodiment of courage indeed, she would think nothing of giving her life so long as but a single life – not even a life she knew, a complete stranger would suffice – was purchased by her sacrifice._

 _Truly, she puts the rest of us to shame._

 _And yet, that anger. The discordant note, the note to which Cinder's anger called out eagerly, seeking and sensing kinship, reaching out, amplifying it, seeking to twist and corrupt all else, to burn all other feelings from Sunset's soul and leave only anger and hate behind._

 _And then, in answer, a silver light rose up all around Sunset. All else dissolved, Summer Rose and all the rest, and there was nothing but silver light. There wasn't even ground beneath Sunset's feet, and she was falling through the void as the silver light rose up like shining wings to envelop her._

 _And it_ sang _._

 _Ruby's thoughts didn't linger on any one memory for very long. Sunset tumbled through flashes, images of things past: Team SAPR carving their initials on the wall of the dorm room; Pyrrha's smile when Ruby told her that she had at least one friend at Beacon; Sunset's first real apology to her team after the Forever Fall field trip; Ruby and Sunset talking that night when Sunset confessed to having stolen Summer's diary; the whole team playing arcade games against Penny and Rainbow Dash; the team hugging it out after the battle in the warehouse; dancing with Penny in the ballroom._

 _The silver light enveloped Sunset like swaddling clothes and the light, that bright, beautiful, glorious light seemed to burn Cinder's anger all away. Sunset couldn't hate Pyrrha because she was filled with the affection that Ruby felt towards her; she couldn't hate or fear herself because she was swimming in Ruby's trust in her; she couldn't despise Jaune because the warmth of Ruby's feelings towards him were wrapped around her like a cosy blanket; she couldn't even hate Blake because Ruby's feelings were too bright: the light that shone like a star from Ruby's soul chased Cinder's darkness all away like grimm feeling before the approach of a great huntress._

 _And the music, such music such as Sunset had never heard before: such sweep, such depth, such concord. Such beauty._

Sunset was once more in the dorm room, sitting on her bed. But now, she realised, she had tears in her eyes.

"Did…did it work?" Ruby asked tremulously.

Sunset looked at her in amazement, and to be quite honest a degree of awe as well. "Did it work?"

"I thought…" Ruby hesitated. "I thought that maybe some happy memories would drive out Cinder's bad ones."

"Some happy memories," Sunset repeated. _You have no idea, do you? You've got no clue just what you are._ Perhaps it ought to be kept that way. Sunset was living proof of the dangers of telling someone that they were too gifted, too special. "Yes," she said simply. "Yes, it worked. I…I feel a lot better now."

That was an understatement. It might even be _the_ understatement. That light, that warmth, that music. Sunset felt as though she had woken from the kind of dream that made you cry to dream again, it was taking a great deal of self-restraint not to touch Ruby's hand a second time to hear that sound anew, see that light, experience that feeling one more time. When she looked at Jaune and Pyrrha now she felt not Cinder's wrath but Ruby's love; such feelings would fade, in time…but now Sunset found that she didn't mind if that fading took it's time.

Pyrrha took a few steps towards her. "I can help you train your semblance, if you like," she said. "So that you can control when you use it."

"Thanks," Sunset said. Until then, maybe she should consider a pair of gloves.

Sunset's scroll went off, so did Pyrrha's at the exact same time. With a glance at one another, they both pulled them out.

It was Professor Goodwitch.


	74. Behind the Curtain

Behind the Curtain

Sunset and Pyrrha held one another's gaze for a moment, before they both answered their scrolls together.

Immediately the stern face of Professor Goodwitch appeared on both of their screens, glowering out at them from two different directions as if she had somehow managed to split herself into two people for an even greater sternness.

"Miss Shimmer," she said in a tone that was brisk and businesslike. "I see from the view that you have found your way back to your dorm room. Although you don't yet seem to have found your way to a change of clothes."

Sunset was still wearing her dress from last night's dance. "Not quite yet, Professor, although I was just about to find my way to the shower."

"That would probably be for the best," Professor Goodwitch said dryly. "I'll inform Professor Ozpin that you'll be somewhat delayed."

Sunset's eyebrows rose. "No offence, Professor Goodwitch, but why would the headmaster be interested in my ablutions?"

"Professor Ozpin would like to see both you and Miss Nikos in his office," Professor Goodwitch said. "Ideally you would come at once, but I think it would be best if you were to wash and change first, so I'll tell him that you'll be here in twenty minutes."

Sunset leaned forwards a little. "Why does the headmaster want to see us?"

"I suggest you come to his office and find out for yourself, Miss Shimmer," Professor Goodwitch replied with just a touch of tartness in her voice.

"We'll be there, Professor," Pyrrha said.

"Thank you, Miss Nikos," Professor Goodwitch said. "We'll be expecting you. Please try not to keep the headmaster waiting any longer than necessary."

She hung up without saying goodbye.

Sunset folded her scroll away as the screen went black. "That sounds…interesting." What was most intriguing to her was the fact that the invitation had been extended to Pyrrha and herself. If the headmaster had just called Sunset into see him then she would have assumed that it was some routine bit of team leader business, a mission assignment or something that she would be supposed to brief out to her team-mates later. If she and Ruby had been called in then she might have thought it was something to do with last night's events. But Sunset and Pyrrha? Why would Professor Ozpin want to see the two of them but not Jaune and Ruby? Why call in half the team, and not the other half?

"Maybe he just wants to talk to you about Cinder?" Jaune asked. "About when we met her in Mistral?"

"Then why aren't you being invited?" Sunset asked, as she got off the bed. "I don't think that's it. I mean, it could be but…"

"Ultimately, speculation is less fruitful than just going to his office to find out what the professor wants," Blake pointed out.

Sunset snorted. "Yeah, good point. Pyrrha, I'll be in and out as quick as I can."

She showered as quickly as she could, barely taking any time to feel the warm water work the knots out of her shoulders, or to properly lather up her hair with shampoo and conditioner the way that she would have liked to do. Maybe she'd have another shower after she was done with whatever Professor Ozpin wanted.

Whatever he wanted. Sunset frowned as the water washed down her back and the little shampoo she had used washed out of her hair. What did Professor Ozpin want with her and Pyrrha?

Sunset couldn't have said exactly why she didn't trust the headmaster. Cinder hated him for reasons that Sunset couldn't properly discern even if Cinder understood them herself; Ruby looked up to him as the model of a huntsman; but Sunset…Sunset couldn't quite bring herself to trust him even if she couldn't have explained everything about why. Maybe it was just the lingering memories of Princess Celestia and the way that she had kept Sunset in the dark for so long, but was that really a good reason to look askance at Ozpin? After all, Celestia had acted with the best intentions, and Sunset had forgiven her for what she had done, so why should she look at another man, a different person, with suspicion?

 _Perhaps I just don't like being kept in the dark._

 _And perhaps I have good reason to feel that way._ Not all secrets were harmless, after all. In a world like this, secrets could get people killed. If Professor Ozpin knew more than he was letting on…scratch that, Professor Ozpin absolutely knew more than he was letting on, Summer Rose's journal proved that beyond any doubt: the headmaster knew about silver eyes, and he knew about something that might be magic of some kind, and he was keeping this information to himself, doling out small morsels of knowledge to those he trusted in proportion to his trust. Was _that_ what this was about? Was he about to ladle out a small spoonful of information to Pyrrha and Sunset in exchange for…what?

That went back to the old problem: why not bring in the whole of SAPR, as he had apparently brought in the whole of STRQ?

Sunset sighed. Blake was right, the only way to find the answers was to actually go to his office and see what he wanted. So she finished showering, and changed into her habitual outfit plus a spare pair of Pyrrha's brown opera gloves to prevent any unwanted activations of her semblance; they didn't fit her too well – Pyrrha's arms were more muscular than Sunset's – but since she strapped her bracers on over the gloves she was able to stop them falling off completely, and although they might be slipping down past her elbows that was all hidden under her jacket so nobody could see it anyway.

Sunset might have taken her weapons, but as Pyrrha was waiting for her without them there wasn't really any way that she couldn't follow the lead of her team-mate and leave them behind.

"Are you ready?" Pyrrha asked.

Sunset nodded. "Yeah, I guess I am. I mean, I'd prefer it if we knew a little more going on in but, since we don't…might as well go and see for ourselves.

Pyrrha frowned. "I don't understand why you have this attitude towards the headmaster."

"Besides the fact that he's keeping secrets, you mean?"

"While that would appear to be true," Pyrrha said. "I'm sure that he has a good reason for it."

"I'm sure…I'm sure that Professor Ozpin himself thinks so," Sunset allowed.

"He's a hero," Blake pointed out.

Sunset looked at her, and folded her arms. "And how do a lot of faunus see Adam Taurus?"

Blake was silent for a moment. "Point, I suppose."

"I don't get it," Jaune said. "You're not seriously suggesting that Professor Ozpin is-"

"A murderer? No, of course not," Sunset said. "I'm just saying that just because a lot of people think you're a hero doesn't make you a good man. It just makes you a great warrior with a cause people can get behind." She sighed. "I don't know really, maybe I'm just paranoid, I just…" She didn't finish, because any of the things that she could have said – that she didn't like being used, that she didn't want to see the people she cared about put at risk, that her own experience had mad her wary, that she couldn't help but imagine things going on behind the scenes even if they weren't there – might have sounded absurdly melodramatic in the context. It was easier to just let it lie for now. After all, nothing had happened yet. When it happened – if it happened – then that would the time to deal with it.

Professor Ozpin might have secrets, but for now he had also been quite obliging. If he started to make more use of them as he seemed to have once used Team STRQ, then that would be the moment both to start worrying, to demand answers, and to make a serious effort to get her more trusting team-mates to open their eyes.

But that time had not come yet, and so Sunset and Pyrrha left Jaune, Ruby and Blake behind and set off from the dorm room towards the tower. A raven cawed at them from somewhere in the trees as they made their way across the courtyard.

"I don't know what Professor Ozpin wants to talk to us about," Pyrrha said softly as they walked. "But I'm sure that whatever it is, it's nothing to be concerned about."

Sunset smiled. _There are times when I wish that I could share your certainty, but more times when I'm glad that I'm no longer so naïve._ "You're probably right," she said.

Beacon Tower was still being guarded by Atlesian troops, and while Sunset could appreciate why that was so she also couldn't help but wonder if this was going to be a permanent thing now. Where the Atlesians going to stay forever, protecting the CCT? And how would people feel about that?

Regardless, they were here now, and for the moment at least it wasn't just regular soldiers either; they had huntsmen with them, not students either but Atlesian specialists in crisp white uniforms. The tower was still closed, but once Sunset and Pyrrha identified themselves they were waved through by the guards and were able to get into the elevator without any more difficulty.

The lift rose slowly, crawling upwards with a grinding sound. Pyrrha and Sunset waited in silence, neither saying anything.

For all that she talked about there being nothing to be concerned about, Sunset wouldn't have been surprised if Pyrrha wasn't every bit as curious about what was waiting for them up there as Sunset herself. Pyrrha might be more trusting of authority but she was still human, after all; she had to wonder.

So Sunset let her wonder, and she wondered herself, pondering over why they had been summoned and for what purpose and wouldn't this elevator just hurry up already so that they could find out.

"I can't exactly say why," Sunset murmured, as the elevator climbed. "But I'm reminded of the time my…my teacher first invited me for a private conference. It was a long walk down the corridor to get to her study and by the time I got there…I had no idea what she wanted to see me about, she'd just invited me to come to see her alone, in private and so I couldn't help but imagine all the things that might be about to happen to me. Was I about to get kicked out? By the time I walked through the door my knees were shaking."

Pyrrha chuckled. "Somehow I'm having a hard time imagining that."

Sunset grinned. "I was only young at the time. But she…she was so good about it; so polite, so kind, so gentle. She knew exactly how to put me at my ease."

"Then there was nothing to worry about."

"The contrary in fact," Sunset said. "She wanted to make me her personal student, her…her apprentice, if you like." She smiled sadly. "I could have followed in her footsteps if I had been a better person."

Pyrrha was silent for a moment. "You're a better person now," she said.

"That's kind of you to say."

"I meant…" Pyrrha hesitated. "Sunset, have you ever thought about going home?"

Sunset looked at her. "I…no, I can't say I really have."

Pyrrha shrugged. "You're still young. Maybe there's still time. If you went back, then-"

"Ah, I see what you mean," Sunset said, interrupting her before you could finish. "And…you're probably half right. I could go home, if the time was right. My…my teacher would take me back, I'm sure. But it's too late for…for all the other stuff. She found a new student while I was away, a better m-" she stopped herself before she could say 'mare'. "Someone better than me. That destiny belongs to another now, I have no claim on it nor can I have any share in it."

"I'm…sorry to hear that."

"Besides," Sunset said, with a grin that was not entirely forced. "What would you guys do without me? Or are you just desperate to get rid of me?"

"N-no, I don't-"

"I know," Sunset said.

Pyrrha nodded. When she spoke again her voice acquired a playful edge. "Who knows, perhaps Professor Ozpin is going to make us his personal students?"

Sunset snorted. "Yeah, maybe he is." The elevator shuddered to a stop. "I guess now we'll find out, won't we?"

The lift door slid open, and Sunset and Pyrrha stepped out into the office. The gears of the clock ground by inexorably overhead, and cast their shadows on the floor beneath.

The spacious office was far from empty. Professor Ozpin sat enthroned in his large chair, flanked by Professor Goodwitch and General Ironwood who both stood behind him and to his sides, like courtiers to a king waiting to whisper counsel into the sovereign's ear. Before the desk, standing a little to the side of the room, stood Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle; where Sunset and Pyrrha had come in their field garb, the two Atlesians were wearing the white and grey uniform of Atlas Academy. Rainbow Dash, standing at ease with her hands clasped behind her back, nodded to the two Vale students while Twilight, standing more informally, offered a slightly hesitant wave.

Sunset might have said something greet them both but – as she and Pyrrha advanced into the room, and reached a point roughly level with the two Atlesians – Professor Ozpin spoke before she could get a word out. "Miss Shimmer, Miss Nikos, thank you for coming at such short notice," he said. "Miss Dash, Miss Sparkle, I apologise for keeping you waiting but now that all four of you have arrived we can begin."

"Twilight," General Ironwood said, taking a step forward so that he now stood level with, rather than behind, Ozpin. "What have you found so far going through the CCT computers?"

"An amazingly sophisticated piece of spyware, sir," Twilight said. "I'm not sure that I could have ever found it if I hadn't been looking for something just like it. And if it had been left in place then they, whoever set it that is, could have gotten into all our systems that are linked to the CCT network."

"Which is most of them," Ironwood finished for her. "Force deployments, logistical data, Penny; my gods. We'd have been completely exposed. Is it dealt with?"

"I think so, sir," Twilight murmured. "I'll need to run another full diagnostic to make sure it's completely cleared."

Ironwood nodded. "Do it." He smiled avuncularly, like a fond or favourite uncle. "Good work, Twilight."

"Thank you, general," Twilight said. She hesitated. "But, with respect, I don't think you called Rainbow, Sunset and Pyrrha up here so that they could hear my report on the situation with the computers."

"No," Ironwood admitted. "You've all been gathered here for another reason."

"Before we get down to business," Professor Ozpin said, leaning forwards and resting his elbows on his desk. "I want you all to understand that the information I am about to share with you is of the most confidential nature. I am taking a great risk in telling you any of this, but I want your assurances that you will be most discrete in how you handle what you are about to learn once you leave this office."

Rainbow looked not to Professor Ozpin, but to General Ironwood. "You don't trust us, sir?"

"I trust you," Ironwood said, with a certain emphasis upon his own self that suggested that perhaps Professor Ozpin was not so trusting. "You wouldn't be here if you didn't both enjoy my absolute confidence. But this goes beyond classified, beyond state secrets; not even Councilwoman Cadance knows what we're about to tell you, and she cannot know. No one can."

"But, General," Twilight spoke in a voice that was soft and small, faintly bewildered as though the world no longer made as much sense to her as it had done a moment ago. "Why are you keeping secrets from the council?"

"Because he is a servant with two masters," Sunset muttered, without judgement in her voice. Her eyes flickered to Ozpin. The way he sat, the way they stood…courtiers beside the throne of the king, of course that was how it was. "Isn't that right Professor? Or should I call you something else? My lord? Majesty?"

"Sunset?" Pyrrha asked. "What are you talking about?"

Professor Ozpin smiled. "Very perceptive, Miss Shimmer; but Professor is just fine."

Rainbow stepped forwards, standing protectively between Twilight and the adults. "All due respect sir, but what the hell is this?"

It was to the general that she had spoken, but it was Ozpin who answered. "Tell me, Miss Dash, why do you fight?"

Rainbow's magenta eyes flickered to Professor Ozpin. "I fight for my friends."

Professor Ozpin nodded, accepting that answer for now. "And who or what are you fighting against?"

"The creatures of grimm."

"Is that all?"

"The White Fang," Rainbow growled.

"And what of Cinder Fall?" Professor Ozpin asked.

"I fought her too," Rainbow said.

"But why?"

"Because she tried to kill my friend!"

Professor Ozpin waved away that response. "You misunderstand, Miss Dash. The question more rightly applies to Miss Fall: not a faunus, not a grimm, but an enemy. But why? In what cause? The same might be asked of her human accomplices, Miss Sustral and Mister Black, or of Roman Torchwick who currently languishes in silence aboard the general's warship."

"Roman Torchwick is a criminal," Pyrrha said.

"A criminal working with the White Fang, who are themselves working with or possibly even under the command of a human, probably Miss Fall herself," Ozpin said. Does that not seem strange?"

"Yes," Sunset said. "But it probably isn't to you, is it professor? That's why we're here: because you're the man with all the answers and you've decided to share a few of them with us."

Silence reigned in the office for a few moments. Professor Ozpin's face was still, set like a plaster cast. He looked extraordinarily old, older than he had seemed even a few moments ago. Silently, he got up from his chair and walked to the emerald tinted windows, looking across the grounds of Beacon and the city of Vale that lay beyond. His cane tapped on the floor.

"Is that true?" Rainbow asked. "You know who Cinder is?"

"We don't know her specifics, her background or anything of that sort," Professor Goodwitch said (Pyrrha glanced at Sunset, but didn't mention the fact that Sunset _did_ know all of that, for which Sunset found herself rather grateful). "But we understand the cause in which she acted."

"And I guess she wasn't just a Mistralian agent then?" Rainbow asked.

"No," Ironwood said. "This war goes far beyond Mistral, Atlas or Vale."

"War?" Pyrrha said. "What war?"

"The war of light against darkness, Miss Nikos," Professor Ozpin said, without looking round. "The war of life against death. The true war. The only war that really matters."

"The fight against the grimm," Pyrrha said.

Professor Ozpin sighed. "I am afraid this goes far beyond the creatures of grimm, Miss Nikos." He turned around, sweeping his gaze across the four of them in turn. "Tell me, are any of you girls religious? Do you believe in any god or gods? Do you have faith?"

There was another momentary silence before Twilight raised a tentative hand. "I, uh, I believe in…in the paranormal? Does that count?"

Professor Ozpin smiled. "Do you mean that you believe in magic, Miss Sparkle?"

Twilight bowed her head. "Yes, Professor."

Ozpin seemed to find that terribly amusing. "Fascinating. But do you believe in a higher power? Or rather, do you believe in a higher being, greater than mankind? Do any of you?"

No one answered.

"Few do, these days," Ozpin declared. "In one time, the world crawled with cults and faiths; they seemed to spring out of the ground, more of them each day…but the advancement of science made them obsolete, or seemed to; and as the world has become more libertarian in attitudes so have people come to resent any restriction placed upon the practice of their lifestyle. Nowadays only a handful of faiths remain, clinging to life with ever-diminished numbers of believers."

"Perhaps it wasn't science or social attitudes that hurt them most," Sunset said. "Perhaps it was when all of their prophets disappeared." _Disappeared or turned into Red Queens; now what might you know about that, Professor?_

Professor Ozpin looked at her for a moment, his face inscrutable. Professor Goodwitch wasn't giving anything away on that front either, and nor was General Ironwood.

Which didn't mean that there was nothing to get out of them, just that it wasn't going to be so easy as making them blanch with a well placed word or phrase.

"There have been many religions," Professor Goodwitch said. "And dozens of gods and goddesses. But, while many of those faiths had some basis in fact, the truth – as we understand it – is that there have only been two true gods in Remnant."

"Two brothers," Professor Ozpin said. "The God of Light, and the God of Darkness, who ruled over this world in the days long gone."

"Two brothers," Pyrrha murmured. "As in the Tale of the Two Brothers?"

"Exactly, Miss Nikos," Professor Ozpin said. "There is more truth in fairy tales than many people now recall.

"The God of Light, the elder brother, gloried in creation: he brought forth plants and animals and much that was green and growing and beautiful upon the surface of the earth and saw that it was good; but the God of Darkness, the younger brother, looked upon light and life with horror and with loathing; he desired only to return the world to lifelessness, and he worked tirelessly to consume all that his brother had made and turn all life to death and dust. But he never succeeded. The light was too bright, his brother too powerful, and while much that the elder brother wrought in the light was destroyed or corrupted in the darkness, always the light would return once again and drive away the darkness, just as life would drive away the stench of death and decay. The elder brother even wrought a mirror in the sky, the moon, that the light might shine on Remnant even in the deepest darkness, and with that light he might continue to work even in the dominion of his younger brother.

"Filled with resentment, the younger brother saw that this was not a battle he could win alone, and so he set aside for a moment the power of destruction and turned instead to the power that he had always scorned as the domain of his hated elder brother: the power of creation. But into that creation the God of Darkness poured all of his malice, all of his hatred of life and light, and all of his desire to snuff out both completely."

 _If Cinder is serving the God of Darkness then they are well matched, it seems._

"The grimm," Pyrrha murmured. "That's what you mean, isn't it Professor? The God of Darkness brought forth the creatures of grimm."

"But grimm don't prey on all life," Rainbow protested. "They only attack humans, everyone knows that."

"Now, yes," Professor Ozpin said. "But it was not always so. Once the creatures of grimm were ravenous, they would devour any and all living creatures: beasts, birds, they would even consume plants and trees, anything that grew upon the surface of Remnant. No lion, wolf or bear could compete with them, no horse or deer could outrun them; their numbers were legion and their appetites insatiable. They would have swallowed the world.

"The elder brother perceived that the destruction of all that he had wrought was imminent and so, just as his younger brother had embrace the power of creation, so too did the elder embrace the power of destruction to defend the works of his mind and his hands.

"We do not know how long they fought, or exactly how, but considering the combatants the struggle must have been long and brutal; but when the fighting was over the elder brother stood victorious and, in his victory, he offered his younger brother a truce. He proposed that they should cease their struggle and work together on one final creation: a perfect being, empowered both to create and to destroy, gifted with knowledge and blessed with the ability to choose to what end he would put his knowledge and his skill. And that creation was, as I'm sure that you've guessed by now, mankind."

"That…that's a cool story and all, professor," Rainbow said. "But I don't get why it has to be kept a secret and I don't get why you wanted to tell it to us and I really don't get it what it has to do with Cinder and the White Fang."

"Because we have the power to choose," Pyrrha said. "To choose light or darkness, life or death, creation of destruction. Cinder has chosen darkness and destruction."

"True, although Cinder is not actually serving the God of Darkness," Ozpin said. "Having created mankind, the two gods departed Remnant many ages ago, content to watch from a distance and see what choices men would make without gods to guide or to control them. Relics, if you will, of the four aspects of divinity once passed to man: creation, destruction, knowledge…and choice, the most precious and powerful gift of all."

"Is that where the stories of magical objects come from?" Twilight asked. "Caliburn, the sword that could never be defeated; the staff of Diomed that would ensure it's bearer took no harm; the crown of King Paul of Vale that granted him his wisdom?"

"And many others, Miss Sparkle," Professor Ozpin agreed. "Yes. For some time the relics roamed free in the world, and although their true origin was unknown their powers were well understood and appreciated."

"Then what changed?" Sunset asked. _Why has everything wondrous disappeared out of the world? Why has everything been hidden?_

"The relics were too powerful," Ozpin said. "It was better that the temptation for men to use them against their enemies was removed. And besides, although the God of Darkness has departed from the world, there is another who has proven more than willing to take up his mantle."

"What do you mean?" Pyrrha asked.

"Her name is Salem," Ironwood said. "We don't know exactly who she is or where she comes from; we don't even know if she was ever human or if she has always been…something else. But we do know that she dwells on the continent of Drachyra."

Twilight gasped. "The signal relay."

"And Cinder," Sunset said. "She…she serves this Salem?"

"Salem is at the root of all our troubles," Ozpin declared. "The mistress of the grimm, the inheritor of the powers of darkness, the indefatigable enemy of light, of life…and of mankind. She sends out her grimm to prey upon men wherever they are unprotected, and longs for the opportunity to launch a full assault upon these, the four kingdoms and the havens of humanity. And all the while she gathers to her side all those who are discontented, the outcast and the unclean, those who have – rightly or wrongly – been rejected by the civilised world and she moulds them into weapons to send against us. Weapons like Miss Fall."

"And we let her get away with this?" Rainbow demanded. "We know that she's the one sending the grimm, we know where she _lives_? And we just, what? We let this happen? We stand here and talk about gods and fairytales while the bad guys are out there sharpening their knives for us?"

"It isn't that simple, Miss Dash," Professor Goodwitch said.

"The hell it isn't, I've lost friends because of her!" Rainbow snapped. "One of my last team-mates lost a leg because of her. Applejack's parents died because of her. I don't know a single person who hasn't lost somebody, or at least doesn't know somebody who's lost somebody to the grimm. To this Salem." Rainbow looked at General Ironwood, and in Rainbow's eyes Sunset could see a desperate desire for him to offer her an explanation that would enable her to keep believing him, to tell her that he wasn't just a monster sending good soldiers and huntsmen to their deaths and while he had the power to end the war but would not use it.

Sunset could sympathise; although she hadn't lost any friends to the grimm, or even to the White Fang – who Salem was also standing behind through the intermediary of Cinder Fall, if what she was hearing was correct – the thought that she might preyed upon her mind like a grimm in its own right. She had told Luna that she might be content if she could combine the safety of Equestria with her friends of Remnant, and if that world was within their grasp, if all they had to do was to defeat Salem then…then why hadn't they done it yet? This was Pyrrha's dream, the one that they had shared on the rooftop after their fight: the grimm defeated, mankind triumphant and free to spread to every corner of the world. At the time Sunset had thought it a fantasy but if it wasn't…if the grimm could be defeated through the defeat of Salem then why hadn't anybody beaten Salem?

Sunset was no great fan of Professor Ozpin, she didn't hold him up as a paragon, he didn't command her uncritical admiration and respect; but in this moment even she wanted him to offer some kind of explanation, some answer to the big question that now hung over everything that he had just told them or might tell them. This was a war between light and darkness, Ozpin said, a war between life and death; Sunset wanted to know he wasn't actually indifferent to the merits of the two sides.

Rainbow said, "General, come on. If we know where she is then let's bring the big hammer down on her and show her how Atlas takes care of business. Let's end this."

General Ironwood looked physically pained as he said, "We can't."

"Why not?"

"Because we'd lose," General Ironwood said. He didn't shout, he didn't snap or snarl, but he might as well have done because both Rainbow and Twilight reacted as though he had. They both recoiled from him, looking as though he'd struck them or threatened to do so.

"Believe me, I asked exactly the same questions when I was first read into this," Ironwood continued. "I wanted to know why we couldn't strike back, finish this, finish her. But we can't. She's too powerful; she surrounds herself with too many grimm. We can't even get close to her and if we could…"

Rainbow shook her head. "That…that isn't possible. We've got ships, weapons, we've got brave people willing to give it all they've got-"

"Not enough," Ozpin said. "I once thought as you did. I once dared to hope that a martial triumph might be possible." He closed his eyes for a moment, seeming so aged and so weary. "I thought that I had four warriors with the strength and skill to go where no other could, to do what no other could."

"Team Stark," Sunset said. "Ruby's mother and her team."

Ozpin nodded sadly. "They failed, as I should have known they would; although of course I also confess that through my foolish arrogance I failed them first. Salem cannot be vanquished in the field…but she can be withstood. That is why, many generations ago, our predecessors founded a secret order to resist Salem, and to keep the sacred relics out of her hands. For, if she were ever to obtain the relics and combine them, the power that she would wield would be sufficient to change the world as we know it."

"The group they founded has existed down to the present," Professor Goodwitch said. "We, along with the headmasters of Haven and Vacuo academies and…one or two other individuals, make up the current membership."

"And we're telling you this because we believe that you are the right people to carry our sacred charge into the future," Ironwood said.

"But…why?" Rainbow asked. "Why me, sir? I mean, Twi, sure I get that, but…I mean…I'm just a girl who punches things."

"Remnant needs wisdom and intelligence, true," Ironwood said. "But it also needs a brave defender, and I can't think of anyone braver than you."

"But why is any of this necessary?" Pyrrha said, and it sounded as though her voice was on the verge of breaking. "Why not tell people about this? Why keep it a secret?"

"Because if people knew the relics existed they would be tempted to use them for their own power and prestige," Ozpin said, and as he said that he looked at Sunset, who felt an uncomfortable shiver down her spine as though the headmaster – or whatever he really was – was looking right into her soul. "Because if people knew that the grimm were more than mindless opportunists, if they knew the scale of the threat we truly face then there would be mass panic of the sort that would attract the grimm for certain; because people deserve the chance to live their lives free from the threat of Salem hanging over their every waking moment. I ask you again, Miss Dash, why do you fight?"

Rainbow shifted uncomfortably. "I fight so that my friends don't have to fight," she said.

"You take that burden on yourself, that they may be spared the weight of it," Professor Ozpin said. "Just as we take this great burden upon ourselves that the rest of the world may be spared it."

 _You make it sound so noble, don't you?_ Sunset thought. And maybe it was noble, every bit as noble as he was making it sound…or maybe he wanted it to sound like that to cover up how convenient it was that this state of affairs left him with all of the knowledge, including knowledge of four incredibly powerful objects that he was keeping to himself (for the good of the world, obviously). Maybe Sunset was being too hard on him, she wasn't entirely sure what she thought about all of this yet; so much information dropped on her head at once was leaving her feeling a little stunned as thoughts whirled about her mind this way and that. But here was what she knew: Ozpin had recruited Summer Rose and her team the same way that he was recruiting the four of them now, and Summer Rose had died. Yes, the life of a huntress was an inherently hazardous one, and yes correlation doesn't necessarily equal causation but sometimes it does and in this case…Sunset looked to her left, where Pyrrha stood looking shocked at all that she had learnt; Rainbow and Twilight looked equally amazed. Sunset didn't know about them but she was under no illusions that they were going to be equal partners in this secret order if they decided to join it – if they were being given a choice, one might argue that they knew too much to turn back now. On the one side the headmaster, his right hand and the commander of the Atlesian forces; on the other side four students. One side was going to be given the orders and the other side was going to be taking them and it didn't take a genius to work out which was which. Ozpin would use them as he had used Team STRQ; at least he would use Sunset and Pyrrha, perhaps General Ironwood would take some care of Rainbow and Twilight (he seemed fond of them, although it was hard to tell how much of that was an act). But Sunset and Pyrrha he would use for certain: they would run his errands and fight his battles and fend off Salem's strokes while he sat in this tower as remote from where the metal met as any king…as remote as Princess Celestia in Canterlot, sending Twilight Sparkle and the Elements of Harmony to save the world while she sipped tea in her shining tower.

That was probably very unfair to Princess Celestia; whatever might be said about her, her ways, her secrecy or her plans it couldn't be denied that she had shared much knowledge with Sunset, taught her a great deal of magic and presumably had done the same for Twilight. And she was kind and generous and she won the loyalty that she demanded of her students through love that Sunset, for one, had found maternal. She had no doubt that if she were to right to Twilight and ask why that she did all that she did, ran all the risks on Celestia's behalf the answer would include – perhaps amidst a lot of noble sentiments – the fact that Twilight loved Celestia and would do much for her.

What did Ozpin offer in exchange for the loyalty he demanded of his secret servants: the honour of duty done and the glory of integrity of principle? Perhaps he would say it was for the good of mankind as he sent them out to fight and perhaps, one day, when they were older Pyrrha and Sunset would be admitted into the decision-making circle…if they lived that long. If they didn't end up as dead as Summer Rose.

 _I won't let that happen._ Sunset's loyalty was not to Ozpin, his society, or his cause; her loyalty was not to the Kingdom of Vale, nor to humanity at large; Sunset's loyalty was to Team SAPR, to Blake, to RSPT as well a bit. Pyrrha seemed to feel a little differently about Ozpin than she had before she had found all of this out, but ultimately she was still Pyrrha Nikos and just the kind of person to throw herself into harms way if she thought it was the right thing to do. Ruby was just the same, and even Jaune too.

 _I won't let that happen._ She would keep them safe, all of them, from Salem and from Ozpin if she had to.

And, as much as she appreciated knowing who they were really up against, Sunset couldn't help but notice that Ozpin hadn't mentioned magic at all during this, even when Sunset had offered him the opportunity to do so.

 _Just as I thought, you ladle out truth according to your own measure, and I reckon there's still some stew left in that particular pot._

It might have been harsh, it might have been personal, but Sunset couldn't bring herself to trust Ozpin.

It was for that reason that – if there was any choice being offered to them in the matter at all – she meant to take him up on his offer.

It wasn't just that he was offering her a share – however menial it might be at first – of power and influence; although Sunset couldn't deny that if he'd told her this a little sooner she would have been filled with desire for the relics of the gods and she could still feel the alluring desire to be a part of something bigger than herself, to influence the world, to leave her mark on Remnant in some way. She would win no glory from it, being a secret and all, but a few people at least would know and recognise her worth and perhaps she could be content with that; perhaps that was her destiny, to be a Celestia unsung, to wield the power without the crown, to be a princess in the shadows of the world. Not what she had expected when she set out…but at the same time it was not nothing.

More importantly, if she refused Professor Ozpin's offer – if she was even allowed or afforded the opportunity to refuse – then she would be shut out for good and lose all chance not only to influence the things this organisation did but also to protect her friends from the inside. The fact that she couldn't bring herself to trust Ozpin made it more, not less, imperative that she knew all that he knew, and know as much as she could know what he was thinking, what he was planning to do with Pyrrha, Jaune, Ruby, Blake.

She would work with him, for him…the better to work against him if she had to.

"You need not decide right away what you will do next, now that you have seen what so few others have seen and no what so few others know," Ozpin said. "Take some time. Consider what you have learned and the great odds that are against us. I freely confess that it was General Ironwood's idea to tell you this, but at the same time I must also admit that I could use your help."

"Only our help?" Sunset asked. "Professor, how discreet do you expect us to be with this? Are we supposed to keep this from Ruby and Jaune?"

Professor Ozpin, at last, resumed his seat. "You must do what you think best, Miss Shimmer, but I must remind you all that what you have heard today is highly confidential."

"Of course, Professor," Sunset said, with a smile which she hoped was convincing.

Although judging by the way that Professor Ozpin was looking at her Sunset had her doubts.

"Pyrrha Nikos, Sunset Shimmer," he said. "Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle; you have been chosen because we believe that you possess the courage, wisdom, loyalty and compassion that elevate humanity above the run of mere beasts; the qualities, one might say of the divine. But be under no illusions: the survival of our kingdoms, of our very race, hangs by a thread. Our decisions, our actions or inactions, determine the difference between survival and peace for millions…or the death and destruction of all that we hold dear. One day, if you choose to accept some part of this heavy burden that we bear, the fate of Remnant may lie in your hands. I urge you…I beg you to think long and hard about what that means, and make your decision with the greatest care." He was silent for a moment. "That will be all."

"Dismissed," Ironwood said.

Rainbow saluted, as much on reflex as anything else, before she turned to go. Twilight cast one last look at the general before she, too, turned to follow in Rainbow's footsteps. Pyrrha's feet dragged a little as she started towards the elevator. Sunset remained in place, still, unmoving. She stared at Professor Ozpin. He stared back at her.

"Thank you, professor," she said.

Professor Ozpin blinked. "For what, Miss Shimmer."

"For being so honest with us," Sunset said.

Professor Ozpin smiled. "Of course, Miss Shimmer; although perhaps you should not be quite so swift to thank me. I think we both know that some secrets are best left untold."

Sunset's eyebrows rose. _And what is it that you think you know about me?_ Was it possible that he…how could he know that, how could he know anything about Equestria? Had the knowledge been passed down to him by his predecessors in this secret organisation?

 _He certainly knows something, or he thinks he does; and he's letting me know it too._ To be honest, Sunset was left rather disappointed. Did he really think that she would throw her team to the beowolves in response to a little crude blackmail? Please. Sunset Shimmer had her faults but she was better than that.

"Maybe, professor," she said. "But equally, some secrets really are best out in the open, where people can make up their own minds."

She turned away, joining Pyrrha, Rainbow and Twilight in waiting for the elevator.

* * *

Ozpin watched silently as the door to the lift slid shut, enclosing the four students within it before beginning its descent.

"They didn't take that too well," Glynda said.

"Neither did you, when you first found out the truth," Ozpin reminded her, with a trace of amusement in his voice. "I…may have taken a little convincing, but now that the moment has arrived I'm confident they'll all make the right choice."

"You didn't tell them about the Maidens," James said.

"No, I didn't."

"Why not?" James pressed.

"Because, as much as I think you disagree nowadays, James, I'm not a cruel or heartless man," Ozpin said, a quick glance at James confirmed that he had hit the mark. "They don't know need to everything at once, and we don't need to force that choice upon Miss Nikos just yet. Let them live, for just a little while longer."

Glynda said, "Do you really believe that they will keep this a secret from their team-mates?"

"Not for a moment," Ozpin said. But they ease – or otherwise – which they disobeyed his instructions would tell him something about their attitude and what he could expect from them going forward. Just as Miss Shimmer's reaction to his threatening to reveal her secret was intended not as a leash around her neck, but to gauge how she would react to the idea that he _was_ attempting to muzzle her.

As Ozpin pulled out his scroll and turned on the security camera footage in the elevator, he thought that his decision to see Miss Rose and Mister Arc separately might well be justified by what he was about to witness.

* * *

They rode the elevator down in silence for a moment, each girl lost in their own contemplations, with only the sound of the lift grinding down to accompany their thoughts.

And what they had to think about. Even leaving aside any questions of Ozpin's motives, good or bad, Sunset would still have had whirling thoughts. The grimm had a leader, or a boss, or something in that line. An enemy, a face to put to the constant menace that threatened to submerge the kingdoms beneath its malice. An enemy who wasn't content with her hordes of grimm but who constantly gathered hopeless people like Cinder to her cause and sent them out to fight against their fellow men.

 _I suppose that whatever I might think about Ozpin he at least sends other people out to die for a good cause._

Salem. The name didn't conjure up anything in Sunset's mind; all the talk of gods of darkness beforehand meant that she kind of imagining an evil alicorn; Nightmare Moon style. That wasn't right, obviously, but it was the best her imagination could do without anything concrete to go on.

It ought to have made things easier. One person pulling the strings of the grimm and the White Fang alike, one person behind everything. Cinder standing behind Torchwick and the Fang, Salem standing behind Cinder, and the grimm all taking her commands as well. One enemy, to whom they could take the fight.

Except they couldn't. They couldn't fight her. Team STRQ and the silver eyes of Summer Rose couldn't stand against her; the strength of Atlas and its army couldn't bring her down; all that they could do was hold her off, hold the line and pass the torch onto the next generation when all was said and done.

Sunset wasn't sure how to feel about that. It felt bleak, it felt really bleak but…she couldn't have really said why. After all, from a purely logical perspective it was no bleaker than the situation had been yesterday when – Pyrrha's quixotic ambitions aside – there had seemed no real hope of defeating the grimm and bringing their menace to an end; all that they could hope to do was – you guessed it – hold the line and pass the torch to the generation. But it felt different now. Learning that the grimm were not mindless beasts who could be driven off but controlled by some diabolical entity seemed to render even the victories that they could win against them less meaningful; all the glory that Sunset could achieve her, all the fame that might be hers…it all paled in insignificance faced with the reality of an immortal godlike figure who had all the time in the world to recover from any setback as she plotted the destruction of mankind, a destruction that she was likely to achieve with or without possession of the relics.

And that was without the question of why the relics weren't being used against the grimm if they were all that. Ozpin's group had really shackled themselves with their insistence on keeping everything a secret.

Rainbow punched her right fist into her left palm. "This sucks. This really…gah! One thing I hate worse than getting screwed with is when I have to bend over and take it! At least when Cinder was the worst thing we had to worry about I could tell myself I'd kick her ass. But this…we're fighting someone we can't even beat! This sucks."

"It seems that way," Sunset said.

"It seems that way?" Rainbow repeated. "It seems that way because it _is_ that way!"

"Like I said," Sunset said. "It seems that way. But how do we know that this Salem can't be beaten?"

"Because General Ironwood told us," Twilight murmured.

"And Professor Ozpin told him that, I'm sure," Sunset said. "But Ozpin didn't tell us everything, which means that there's at least some chance he didn't tell Ironwood everything either, which means that there could be something he left out, something he isn't saying. Some way that this can be ended."

"Why?" Pyrrha asked. "Why would Professor Ozpin lie about something like that?"

Sunset hesitated. "I…I don't know, honestly. I admit it doesn't make perfect sense. I don't know, maybe I just want it to be true because I'd like a way to win this."

"I'd like that too," Rainbow said. "I'm more interested in what you think he didn't tell us."

"That…that you're going to have to take on trust for a little while," Sunset said. She was wondering what would happen if Salem were to run into Equestrian magic, but she wasn't sure whether that was something she wanted to tell RSPT about just yet. "Some of this stuff isn't mine to tell. Ruby can tell you when we all meet up to go over all this."

"We weren't supposed to tell Ruby," Pyrrha reminded her.

Sunset twisted around to look at her team-mate where she stood behind her. "Maybe not, but we're going to, right? And Jaune too. Right? You don't actually want to keep this a secret from them?"

Pyrrha looked down at the elevator floor. "I…maybe they're better off not knowing."

"I don't believe that," Sunset said. "And I don't believe that you believe that."

"We just found out that everything we thought we knew about the creatures of grimm, about the world, about why we're fighting, is a lie," Pyrrha cried, her eyes wide. "We just found out that there is no victory, not even the possibility of it, ever. How can we put that burden on Ruby, or Jaune?" she closed her eyes, and scowled. "I thought that maybe we could win. I knew that it wasn't a great possibility but I thought that maybe, if we all worked together and fought with everything we had, then maybe…but we can't." She opened her eyes, and though those emerald eyes were filled with resolution they were also devoid of hope in a way that frightened Sunset a little. "If all that we can do is fight then I'm ready to fight. If some of us must die to protect humanity then I'm prepared to die. But Jaune…and Ruby…Jaune wanted to be a hero like his family, Ruby wants to protect the world…how can we tell them truth about all of this? Shouldn't we take this burden on ourselves to spare them the weight?"

Sunset stared at her for a moment, before she glanced at the other occupants of the elevator car.

With a short, sharp gesture she slammed one fist into the emergency stop button, bringing the lift to a close. The lights dimmed in the car.

"I hope no one's claustrophobic," Sunset muttered.

"What are you doing?" Twilight said.

"I'm not Ruby, so this inspirational speech is probably going to be a bit awkward, but here goes: I'm not ready to give up just yet," Sunset said. "And you shouldn't be willing to give up either, any of you.

"Sure, we've just learned a lot of new stuff. Some of what we've learned is a little depressing if it's true. _If_ it's true. But I'm not taking that for granted yet and you know why? Because people have been telling me that I couldn't do things for my whole life and I've have made it my business to always, _always_ prove them wrong. I never let it stop me before and I certainly don't intend to start now. So we are going to tell Ruby, and Jaune, and Blake-"

"And Ciel," Rainbow said.

"Yeah, if you like, and we are going to work this out and find a way to beat this because that's who we are!" Sunset said. "We go beyond our limits and we dare defiance of anyone who would set them on us. We're going to screw the rules and reach for the destiny that is waiting for us. Who's with me?"

"Absolutely," Rainbow said.

Sunset nodded. "Pyrrha?"

Pyrrha hesitated. "And what…what if you're wrong?" she asked. "What if Professor Ozpin and the others are right. What if there's no beating Salem?"

"Then we'll set her plans back over a hundred years trying," Sunset said. "And I'd rather burn brightly in futile glorious effort than spend my whole life sputtering like a candle in the wind." Her face and tone became a little more serious. "Listen, even if you don't think that there's anything we can do to change this situation…if we accept Professor Ozpin's offer – and I for one intend to – then we're going to be sent out on missions and Jaune and Ruby will be going with us. Don't you think they should know what they're in for, and have a chance to tell us no if they want no part in this?"

Pyrrha considered it. "I…you're right. It wouldn't be fair to keep this from them."

"So," Rainbow said. "You're gonna tell the professor that you're in?"

"I'd rather be on the inside than pressing my face against the glass," Sunset said. "You?"

Rainbow hesitated. "I still can't believe General Ironwood's involved in this…but maybe, since he's involved in this, it's better than it seems." She ran one hand through her multi-coloured hair. "Hey, Twi, what do you think Rarity's doing right now?"

Twilight checked her watch. "Today's Wednesday, so…I'm guessing that she'll be at work right now."

"And Pinkie will be taking the morning bake out of the oven," Rainbow mused, with a fond smile on her face. "Scootaloo will be in school, with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle."

"Rainbow Dash?" Twilight asked.

"I told the old guy that I fought for my friends," Rainbow said. "And I meant it. Whoever she is, whatever she is, if Salem wants to kill my friends she's gonna have to go through me first. I'm in." She looked at Twilight. "Twi…if you don't want to have anything to do with this…nobody's going to hold it against you."

Twilight looked down. She pushed her spectacles up the bridge of her nose. "When I heard that Cadance didn't know…keeping secrets from the council, is that even legal? But that doesn't really matter, does it? If General Ironwood's right, then all of Remnant's in jeopardy and we…we can do something about it.

"I don't know what you think Professor Ozpin isn't saying, but I still trust General Ironwood. I still remember all the times he came round to our house when I was little. When he put me on this team, he made sure that you were my team leader so that I'd have a friendly face to make me feel comfortable. If he says that it's so, and that it has to be so, then I believe him. Maybe Sunset's right, and there is a way to beat Salem, but until then…I know that I'm not a fighter, but if I can help Remnant by being an egghead then I'll be the very best egghead that Remnant has ever seen. I'm in."

Rainbow clapped her on the shoulder. "Glad to have you, Twi."

Sunset hit the emergency button again, and the elevator resume it's descent. "The library is probably a little too open for this, so why don't we meet at the SAPR garage in…two hours, with our teams and Blake, and we can share everything see what we all think about this?"

"Two hours?" Rainbow said. "Why wait so long?"

"Because there's someone else I need to talk to," Sunset said. "Someone who's advice I need."

 _What is Celestia going to have to say about all this?_


	75. Celestial Advice

Celestial Advice

Sunset: So, there it is. It's been Sunset stopped, and sucked on the tip of her pen while she worked out exactly how she wanted to…no, it wasn't even about how she might want to describe all of this madness, it was more about how she could. She scribbled It's been a long couple of days, and an eventful pair as well.

Celestia: I cannot disagree with you. Came the reply from her old mentor, because Sunset had asked Twilight if she could take her up on the offer to speak to Celestia today. Twilight was there too, because this was a situation where…well, she could do with some advice from both sides of the divide about this business with Ozpin. At the moment, however, Twilight seemed content to let Celestia do the talking and, honestly, Sunset was content with that as well. Celestia: I have to tell you, Sunset, that the more you tell me about this other world in which you've found yourself, this Remnant, the more I would do anything to whisk you away from such a dangerous place.

Sunset felt herself squirming in her seat in the library, as though Celestia was there in person, looking down at her with that gaze that could see through all of her deceptions. Sunset: It's not so bad.

Celestia: After all that you have told me – after what you have just finished telling me – I hope very much that you don't have such a low opinion of my intelligence as to expect me to believe that.

Sunset couldn't help but chuckle wryly, just a little bit, before she wrote back. Sunset: Okay, Remnant has it's problems; sure there are monsters who want to eat everyone and they're being directed by some kind of demi-god who also wants to kill everyone, and she's also got a psycho who reminds me too much of me for comfort working for her, and sure there are a lot of people who think I'm an animal because of the way I look and the guy leading our fate against all of that other stuff might send me out to die just to advance his plans a little bit but apart from all of that other stuff it's really not so bad.

Celestia did not reply for a moment, so Sunset wrote a little more. Sunset: I can see your arched eyebrow in my mind's eye, princess.

Celestia: Perhaps you can also answer the obvious question?

Sunset: I can't come back to Equestria.

Celestia: I don't understand why you wouldn't want to. Luna told me that you had had a nightmare that she found especially terrible, and it took all of my restraint to respect your privacy and not write to you to find out if you were alright. Why would you want to stay in a world that does that to you, that pains and traumatises you, when you could return to Equestria where it is safe.

Sunset: This isn't about want, princess. I do want to come back to Equestria, and if Princess Luna talked to you about my nightmare then you must know that. I miss Canterlot, I miss the streets and the shops, I miss my room. I miss the safety and security of a world and a land at peace. I miss being able to lie down in the knowledge that everything was fine and was going to stay fine. I miss Sunset hesitated for a moment, the pen shaking a little in her hands. I miss you. I miss you so much. I miss the feeling of your coat against mine, I miss the feel of your feathers, I miss knowing that you were watching over me, keeping me safe.

I miss being able to sleep like I did back then, when I was a filly; to sleep without needing to be able to wake up in an instant and be ready to fight because the monsters are coming. I miss that.

I didn't realise until I absorbed all of Cinder's hatred just how tired I am from not being able to sleep like that. But I can't come back.

Celestia: Why not? Why can't you come home? What is keeping you in that place?

Twilight: It's your friends, isn't it?

Sunset: And the Princess of Friendship gets it in one. There are other things that I could tell you are keeping me here, and they would be real things: like what would I do in Equestria now, be a second string Twilight Sparkle? I have a chance to make a difference here in Remnant, to be something, to mean something; you know what I just got offered from Professor Ozpin, a chance to stand in the circle the decides the fate of the world.

But I'm not sure how much any of that would matter if it wasn't for them. They need me, if that doesn't sound too arrogant. I can't just ditch them all to run off home because things here are less than perfect. Pyrrha, Blake, Ruby, Jaune; Rainbow Dash, the other Twilight; they don't have another world to go back to. This is the only world they have and they have to fight for it, and so I'm going to fight for it with them because they're my friends. And honestly, when I say this world isn't so bad, they're a lot of what I'm talking about. Sure, Remnant has grimm and racism and apparently it has Salem too, but it's also got my friends in it so, yeah, not so bad.

Twilight: Some things change, but friendship is always magic.

Sunset looked at that statement for a second before she wrote back. Sunset: Uh, yeah, I suppose.

Celestia: Sunset, there are times when I feel as though my heart is going to burst with worry for you, and there are other times when I feel so proud of how far you've come since leaving Canterlot, and I am honestly not sure which I feel more at this moment.

Sunset: Thanks, Princess Celestia, but I didn't write to you so you or Twilight could feed my ego. I did it because I need your advice. Both of you, if you've got any.

Twilight: No offence, Sunset, but where are we supposed to start? With your new magic?

Sunset: Technically it's not magic, it's called a semblance and it She stopped. Sunset: Yeah, never mind, let's just call it magic. _I did explain semblances by saying 'they're a lot like cutie marks except you can't see them' so I've got no one to blame but myself for Twilight having jumped to the association with magic._

Twilight: Should we talk about that? Or the fact that you absorbed someone's hatred and then someone else's love? Or how about the fact that you've been invited to join a conspiracy that maybe runs the world or something? Or that you're fighting a war against someone who can't be beaten? Couldn't you have spaced all this out a little bit for our sakes? This is a lot to take in.

Sunset: You think that you have it all dropped on you at once, try being the one it actually happened to.

There was a moment of pause on the other end of the journal.

Celestia: How do you feel, little sunbeam?

Sunset hesitated. How did she feel? After last night, after today, after everything that had happened to her and everything that she had learned, how did she feel?

Sunset: Better now than I was. Between Cinder's hatred and Ruby's love I've kind of ended up back at an equilibrium for now. But I have to say, so far this new power really sucks. Even when I learn to control it – and I will, count on that – I still don't know what good it's going to be. I can learn stuff, I suppose, but only if I can get close enough to touch them and only at the cost of feeling the way that they feel. If Blake hadn't

If Ruby hadn't

If I had gone back to the dorm last night

How much did Princess Luna tell you about my nightmare last night?

Celestia: Only that it was painful. Other than that, she kept your confidence as she always does.

Sunset: I thought I'd hurt them. Her hand shook a little as she made the admission. Sunset: That was my nightmare. I was hurting them the way that Cinder wants to hurt them.

Celestia: Those feelings are not yours.

Sunset: But the actions would have been mine if I had let those feelings control me. And that's the point. I got past Cinder's hate with the help of Blake and Ruby but what if, next time, I can't get through it. What if I do something that isn't me? What good are powers that make me do their bidding instead of the other way around?

Twilight: Do you know that it will always be that way? How do you know that, once you learn to control the powers, you won't also learn to control the side-effects of those powers?

Sunset: I don't know for sure, but what if it isn't like that?

Celestia: This is not Equestrian magic, so I fear that Twilight and I can offer you only very limited advice in this regard. All I can tell you is that nobody can force you to use any part of your power, and if you dislike any part of your abilities, if you fear this gift that has been given to you, then you need not make use of it.

I don't pretend that this is great advice, but it is all that I can offer you in this.

Sunset wrote back quickly. Sunset: Don't worry, princess, I don't expect you to solve all of my problems. And, honestly, 'don't use my semblance if I don't want to' is far from being bad advice. Once I can control it I won't have to use it at all if I don't want, and with Pyrrha's help I'm sure I'll get a handle on it pretty quickly.

Sunset paused, and rubbed between her forehead with her free hand. Sunset: Princess Celestia, Twilight; do you think that people are born evil or are they simply made evil by the world and times they live in?

Twilight: You're talking about this Cinder Fall, aren't you?

Celestia: You are not her, Sunset; you are not this monster that you now oppose.

Sunset: But I could have been. Isn't that why you threw me out? Isn't that why you expelled me from the palace, because you could see that I was becoming a monster? If I had run into Salem and Cinder had run into Ruby and Pyrrha then she'd be here and I'd be the one on the run while I plotted to kill everyone.

Twilight: No, you wouldn't.

Sunset: How can you be so sure?

Twilight: Because Cinder did run into Pyrrha, you told me that when you explained all the memories you got from her.

Sunset knew what Twilight was referring to at once, but couldn't help but feel stupid that she hadn't made the connection that Twilight had apparently made so quickly and without even the lived experience of this place that Sunset had. _Just because she's the Princess of Friendship doesn't mean that she has to be that much better than me at this stuff, does it?_ Sunset: Cinder saw Pyrrha once at a party but

Twilight: But that only made her hate Pyrrha more, that's what you said.

Sunset: But I hated Pyrrha too, and for the same reasons.

Twilight: And then you didn't any more. You were able to look past your own jealousy and get to know the real Pyrrha. Even then you were able to start opening your heart to friendship. Cinder had that chance, when she met you in Mistral, when she came to Beacon. She could have gotten to know the real Pyrrha just like you did, but she preferred to stew in her own anger and hate the idea of Pyrrha that she'd built up in her head. That's the difference between the two of you; more than things that Cinder's done and the things that you've done. Because nobody is born evil, and we all have some darkness within us, but what makes the difference more than anything else is that we're willing to change, and accept that others can change. That's what separates you and Cinder, that – the fact that you were able to welcome friendship into your life, even more than friendship itself – is what means that you're not a monster, even if she is.

Sunset rested her elbow on the table, and her cheek upon her propped-up hand. She toyed with the pen, twirling it between her fingers as it spun before her eyes. She didn't know…but if anyone would react well to what she was about to put down it would be Twilight and Celestia.

Sunset: Twilight, you know how I feel about Adam.

Twilight: Yes.

Sunset: Maybe it makes me a massive hypocrite – in fact I'm pretty sure it does – but I can't hate Cinder the same way that I hate him. Even though there isn't that much difference between the two of them in terms of what they've done and, in fact, I could even see the argument that Cinder's worse than Adam. Maybe if things were different then I'd actually make that argument.

Sunset stopped for a moment, not because she wanted a response from either Twilight or Celestia, but because she was thinking over her next words.

She couldn't have told this to anyone else, not to any of her Remnant friends. Pyrrha, Ruby or Jaune probably wouldn't have understood; Blake probably would have been actively upset by it; only Twilight and Celestia, safely removed from all of this in Equestria and with no personal connection to anyone involved in any of this but her, would let her lay it out like this without judging her for it.

She hoped they wouldn't judge her for it anyway; she hoped that Celestia at least would be able to overlook the logical fallacies involved this once in order to tell her…in order to tell her what she wanted to hear at this moment.

Sunset: Maybe it's just the fact that I know what Cinder went through and felt what she felt; maybe it's just the fact that I liked Cinder before I knew what she was but I never liked Adam. I don't know; all I know is that I don't hate her the way that I hate him. I almost

Sunset hesitated again, her words teetering on the edge of falling into an abyss from which there would be no recall. Once she set this down there could be no taking it back. It would remain as a statement of intent before the princesses, and even if she burned the journal immediately afterward she wouldn't be able to burn the words from the princesses' minds.

Sunset: I almost want to help her, even though that sounds stupid.

Celestia: Stupid, Sunset Shimmer? And why in Equestria or Remnant would you think that? Has this world and its cruelty so corrupted you that the very quality of mercy seems foolish to you now?

The idea that Remnant had in some way corrupted Sunset Shimmer, when it – or at least its inhabitants – had rather proved themselves to be her salvation, caused Sunset to let out a little bark of laughter. Sunset: No, Princess Celestia, it hasn't corrupted me. The opposite, more like. I suppose

Sunset hesitated, then crossed out the beginning of that sentence. Sunset: You don't think it sounds stupid at all, do you?

Celestia: I am afraid it worries me a little that you do. Although not as much as it gladdens me that you wish to help this other girl in spite of all that she is or has done.

Sunset: In spite of it? But she's evil. She tried to kill the other Twilight, she hurt Rainbow Dash; she's working for Salem and while I don't know exactly what she wants I'm pretty sure it's nothing good. And yet I want to offer her a hand to help her up. Isn't that weak of me?

Celestia: I prefer to say it shows compassion in you. And compassion should never be seen as a weakness to shamefully hide away from the world, still less from yourself.

Sunset: I don't even know if Cinder would want my compassion.

Celestia: That does not mean that it should not be offered. After Twilight and her friends used the Elements of Harmony on Luna, I offered her once again the hoof of friendship that she had refused a thousand years ago. I had no way of knowing that she would not refuse it a second time. But with my sister lying, nearly helpless, on the ground before me I could do nothing else.

I had no way of knowing that she would accept my love, but I could not have lived with myself after if I had not offered it, whatever her response.

Sunset: But how did you know that she deserved your mercy, just because you loved her.

Celestia: No one deserves mercy, Sunset; and yet everyone does. The quality of mercy is not strained, and it speaks more to the heart of she who offers it than she to whom it is offered. Forgiveness is not always easy, any more than understanding, but that does not mean that they should not be offered freely, no matter how difficult it might be to offer such or how we might feel about the person to whom we offer it.

Sunset frowned. Sunset: Are we talking about Ozpin now?

Celestia: I think that you're being a little harsh in your judgement of him.

Sunset's frown deepened as she thought about Professor Ozpin. Sunset: He uses others as his weapons.

There was a pause, as there was no response from the other side of the book. Sunset waited, wondering if a response would be forthcoming or if she had written too harshly, and too hastily; had Celestia decided to let it lie there, to reply with silence in order to best show how she felt about Sunset's words.

She was about to write something else, something to let Celestia know that she hadn't meant anything by it, when words in the slightly cramped script that Sunset recognised as Twilight's telepathy-writing appeared on the page.

Twilight: If you could see the look on her face right now you wouldn't have written that. Or I hope you wouldn't.

Celestia: It's alright, Twilight, I can speak for myself. You chide me well, and cut me to the quick.

Sunset swallowed. Sunset: Princess, you must know that was never my intent, I only

Celestia: Spoke from the heart. There is no shame in that. But do not be too swift to judge Professor Ozpin, still yet condemn him. He merely does as do all who rule; or why do I sit here in the midst of high-vaulted palace, sending even one who is dear as daughter to me forth to battle the darkness of the world in my stead?

Sunset: Don't talk like that, you're nothing like him.

Celestia: Really? In what way are we un-alike? In that I am older than he is by far? In that you have affection for me that you do not feel for me?

Sunset: Affection? Is that all you call it, affection?

Celestia: You know that I meant

Sunset: Yes, I do, I'm sorry if that seemed like overreaction. I just meant that

Sunset stopped, because she wasn't really at all sure what she had just meant. She _had_ overreacted, and now she had to find some way to take it back. She hastily scribbled something down before Celestia or Twilight could write something themselves. She was mishandling this, she knew that but…perhaps it was simply because she didn't want to admit that she was wrong about this but she wanted to make them understand, to see Ozpin as she saw him, to open their eyes.

 _Perhaps if I can do it for them then I can do it for my friends here._

Sunset: Princess, would you ever ask Twilight to do something that you thought was beyond her abilities.

Celestia: I always have every confidence in Twilight, and her ability to fulfil every challenge that I have set for her with the support of her friends.

Sunset: With all due respect that's not what I asked. Would you ever set Twilight a task that you knew, for all your faith in her, that she could not accomplish?

Celestia: No, of course not.

Sunset: And it would grieve you if she fell in some endeavour you had set her.

Twilight: How can you ask something like that!

Celestia: Twilight, please; it is a fair question. There was a moment of nothing written, and when Celestia's writing resumed once again Sunset could feel the weight of each word as Celestia set it down. Celestia: Yes, it would grieve me sorely to lose Twilight.

Sunset: I cannot say the same of Professor Ozpin; he might set us a task beyond our abilities – considerable though those abilities are – if only because he had no one else to send. And I do not believe that he would grieve for us if he caused our deaths.

Celestia: And how would you know if he did or not?

Sunset stared down at the question in a kind of disbelief. How could Celestia even ask something like that? Wasn't it obvious? Sunset: Because if he felt anything then he'd show it.

Celestia: Oh, Sunset; would that it were so. 

I do not know your Professor Ozpin as you do, but I know what it is to rule. I know what it is to be elevated so far above those whom you rule that all meaningful connection to their hearts is lost, all understanding of their lives reduced to the abstract; I know what it is like to long to descend to their level and yet to be bound by chains of duty to your lonely sphere. I was fortunate that first you and then Twilight came into my life, touching my heart as – due to my age and my position – few others can. I know what it is like to make decisions touching the lives of thousands, tens of thousands, knowing that even the smallest mistake will bring great misery and maybe worse down upon them.

And I know what it is like to belong to others more than to yourself, to force your emotions down inside of you so that you may be, in the eyes of the world, ever the serene princess that they wish to see. The mask that Professor Ozpin wears in public may not please you, but I have no doubt that it is what he feels is expected of him by those around him.

Sunset stared down at the words written before her, words that were so controlled in script but so heartfelt in emotion. Sunset: I didn't realise.

Celestia: I would be a poor princess if you did. It is a great burden that we bear, who take the great and momentous decisions. We forget our triumphs all too swiftly, while our mistakes stay with us forever. I doubt that Professor Ozpin regrets any error as much as I regret those which led to my sister's madness – at least I hope he does not – but I am sure that he regrets his own mistakes more greatly than he ever considers his successes. You think that poor Ruby's mother died in his service?

Sunset: I think it likely.

Celestia: You may be assured that if it is so then the death of Summer Rose will haunt Ozpin every day of his life, for all that he can never show that fact.

Sunset: But she's still dead. Even if I'm completely wrong about Professor Ozpin and he has an ocean of tears within that he can never shed, even if she loved Summer Rose like his own daughter, even if he loves us all as you loved me once and love me still Summer Rose is still dead. As Pyrrha could die, as Ruby could die, as Jaune or Blake or any of them could die and however much it pains them they'll still be dead.

Twilight: Well, that's where you come in, isn't it?

Sunset blinked. Sunset: What?

Twilight: I can't imagine what you're signing yourself up for; a war without end? Against an enemy who can't be beaten? I can't conceive of what you're letting yourself in for. But I can understand why you want to stay, and respect that: you want to help your friends, protect them. If that means keeping them safe in situations where Professor Ozpin has sent you into danger then isn't that just what you were going to do anyway.

Sunset huffed, unable to deny that Twilight had a point there but at the same time…at the same time not really wanting to admit it. Sunset: Well yes, but

Sunset trailed off, because there wasn't really anything after the 'but' at all. There was just a but, and her feeling like a bit of an ass.

Sunset: Would you really be okay with this if you were me? Even if you knew he wasn't telling you everything.

Twilight: I'm not Celestia; I don't really have anything to do as a princess yet. I don't rule people, I don't give orders, I just; anyway. But I know what it's like to have friends who I'd do anything for, and I know what it's like to face danger, even if not as often as you do. All I can say is that if Equestria were threatened again it wouldn't matter whether Celestia asked me to step in or not; if there was something that I could to keep the world safe then I'd do it, and I know that each and every one of my friends would say the same thing.

Sunset snorted and smiled at the same time. Sunset: My Twilight said something similar, and my Rainbow Dash something not too far away. Sunset let out a long, slow sigh. Sunset: I'm not sure if I can ever like him.

Celestia: All I can ask is that you try and understand.

Sunset nodded, for all that Celestia couldn't see it. Sunset: For you, I will. Any advice for me in my new situation?

Twilight: Don't underestimate the magic of friendship. Although Salem may seem unbeatable, if you stick together and grow the bond the connects each of your hearts then who knows what might happen?

Celestia: And even if all you can do is delay this Salem's progress, remember that you and your friends are here because of the efforts of those who came before you to delay her; and if you fight against evil with all the strength at your command, then the world will survive long enough for you to pass the baton on to those who will come after you. So long as there is always someone willing to take up the torch and keep the fire burning then, no matter how hard it tries, evil will never win.

Sunset couldn't help but smile a little. Sunset: I suppose that I should be satisfied if that is my epitaph. _Doesn't stop me wanting something grander, though._ Sunset: Thank you, both of you. I needed this.

Celestia: Whenever you need me, Sunset, here I am.

Twilight: Here we are. Maybe don't leave it so long before writing again, huh? And split up all the new information to give us.

Sunset shook her head. Sunset: I'll try my best. She closed the book, and put it away in her satchel.

She was about to get up from her seat in the library when her scroll began to buzz.

Sunset got it out, opening the device to see that she had an incoming call, voice only, from a number that she didn't recognise.

Nevertheless, in spite of that – or perhaps a little because of it – she answered.

The sibilant voice of Cinder Fall emerged from out of the scroll. "You know, it's such a pity that our dance last night had to end the way it did, Sunset; up until then I was actually enjoying myself. We really must do it again some time, what do you say?"


	76. Meet me in Mountain Glenn

Meet Me in Mountain Glenn

Sunset's eyes widened. She felt a chill run down her spine. Cinder? Cinder was calling her? Cinder was…Cinder was calling voice only thank you, thank you so much.

Because as…awkward? Disconcerting? Actually quite worrying because what in Celestia's name did Cinder have to sound so smug about right now? As all of those things as this was if there was one bright spot it was that Cinder hadn't video-called. Perhaps that was because she didn't want Sunset to be able to see where she was but it also mean that Sunset could open up a new tab on her scroll and start-

"Sunset?" Cinder said. "Oh, Sunset? Are you there?"

Sunset laughed nervously; she didn't intend to sound nervous but in the circumstances it just sort of came out that way. "You know, if you wanted to dance with me you could have always, you know, gone to the dance instead of trying to hack the CCT when nobody was looking."

In the new tab that she'd just opened, Sunset sent a text to Twilight: Cinder calling me right now. Can trace?

She switched notifications to silent, because the last thing that she wanted was for Cinder to hear her getting a reply.

Cinder chuckled. "I bet that dance was every bit as boring as I predicted it would be, wasn't it?"

"I had a good time."

"Yes, such a good time that you couldn't wait to rush off to the tower to confront me," Cinder said dryly. "I did tell you that my evening would be more exciting by a long way."

Sunset scowled involuntarily. "You didn't seem to be having such a great night yourself by the time it was over, _Ashley_."

There was a moment of silence from the other end of the line. When Cinder spoke again, her voice was almost entirely lacking in its previous jovial self-confidence. It was sharper now, like the glass blades she had wielded on that night. "Don't call me that again. Ever."

A reply from Twilight arrived on Sunset's scroll: ! Working on it. RSP with. Keep her talking.

Sunset hesitated for a moment. _I suppose I have to walk this back without being too obvious about it._ "What are you going to do if I do?"

"To start with, I'll hang up and you won't get to hear about your present."

"However will I survive?" Sunset said dryly, reasoning that if she sounded too eager to keep Cinder on the line then the other girl would guess that something was up.

"Come on, Sunset, I know that you don't really want me to hang up. Not until sweet Twilight has finished tracing my location anyway."

Sunset sat straighter in her chair, turning her head this way and that. "I don't know what you're talking about." _How does she know that?_ Was Cinder in here? Was Cinder watching her? Was she-

"Liar." Cinder's laughter was rich and almost triumphant. "And now you're wondering if I'm spying on you, aren't you?"

Sunset's free hand – the one she wasn't currently using to hold her scroll – glowed green as she summoned magic around it, ready to lash out at a moment's notice. "Aren't you?" It occurred to her Cinder might be watching Twilight; but Twilight had said that she had her entire team with her, which would probably – hopefully – make Cinder reluctant to start any trouble.

Still, all things considered Sunset would rather keep Cinder focussed on her.

Cinder laughed again. "No, of course not. I just know you well enough to predict what you'll do. I don't actually intend to stay on long enough to be caught, but well done for the idea. Tell Twilight that her time will come soon enough."

"That would be a lot more intimidating if you hadn't just run away _last night_ ," Sunset reminded her. "Last night when you couldn't predict what I was going to do either."

"I'm not sure I could have been expected to predict you unlocking your semblance," Cinder said. "How are you going to explain that, by the way, after telling the whole world that your semblance is…I don't think you ever told me what you called your magic. Energy manipulation?"

"What are you talking about?" Sunset demanded, as she felt beads of sweat begin to form on her back. _Cinder knows about magic? How do you know about magic?_

Cinder laughed. "Oh, Sunset, I know all about that power of yours. I know what it's called, although I'm not quite sure where it comes from. I was told there were only a few people in the world who could still wield magic and you aren't one of them."

"You were told," Sunset said. "So I take it Salem doesn't know everything then."

Sunset took an unholy glee in the silence on the other end of the scroll. "Yeah, that's right, you're not the only one who knows a thing or to."

"Ozpin's been talking," Cinder murmured. "I didn't expect for him to trust you."

"And I didn't expect that you'd turn out to be working for someone who wants to burn the whole world down," Sunset replied. "It seems we both misjudged one another."

"No, I misjudged the old man," Cinder said. "You are exactly what I thought you were."

"I'm nothing like you," Sunset said, and this time her words actually managed to sound sincere, fortified as she now was by the reassurance of Twilight and Celestia and her friends here.

"Don't get high and mighty with me, just because you were fortunate enough to secure the patronage of the Nikos family," Cinder said, with a trace of newfound venom in her voice.

"You and I were different people well before Lady Nikos gave me a credit card, and we'll still be different if she took it away again," Sunset replied. She hesitated, licking her lips with trepidation. _Mercy. Compassion._ "But we…we don't have to be. I…I used to be like you, I was bitter and angry and I…but I changed. And you can change too, our hearts can change, we can be better than we were. Let me help you, Cinder."

A moment's silence was followed by an unexpectedly raucous burst of laughter. It occurred to Sunset, as she was listening with a growing feeling of chagrin to Cinder cracking up on the other end of the line, that this was the first time that she ever heard genuine laughter fall from Cinder's lips. This wasn't slyness, it wasn't smugness, it wasn't the amusement of someone who thought she'd gotten one over on the whole world. This was what it sounded like when Cinder found something genuinely hilarious.

It would have been a surprisingly pleasant sound if it hadn't been directed at Sunset herself.

"Oh, Sunset," Cinder said, some of her usual self-confidence returning as her laughter faded away. "Really? Really? And you ought to know me better than anyone at this point."

"I know that you're not happy," Sunset said.

"Happiness?" Cinder spat. "What good is happiness without power, when everything you have that makes you happy can be taken away from you at a moment's notice? I don't need happiness, I have power."

"You don't need to angry and alone-"

"Of course I have to be angry, I have things to be angry about!" Cinder snarled. Sunset could hear her taking a deep breath on the other end of the line. "Tell me something, do you trust Ozpin?"

"Do you trust Salem?"

"It serves my ends to serve her well, for now," Cinder replied. "Which I think would be your answer to my question if you had the courage to answer it."

Sunset didn't reply to that either, mostly because it was true. "What do you want, Cinder? Why did you call me like this?"

"Perhaps I just wanted to catch up with my…what's the word? BFF?"

Sunset shuddered. "Of all the people who should never say 'BFF' you're probably near the top of the list."

"Careful, Sunset, you're in danger of hurting my feelings," Cinder said. "I should probably go now before clever little Twilight figures out where I am, but before I do I did promise you a gift, didn't I: if you do want to dance again, find me in Mountain Glenn."

Sunset leaned forwards. "You don't want your call traced but you're going to tell me where you are not."

"Well I'm not there _yet_ , obviously, and I don't want you to find me before I arrive," Cinder drawled. "That would never do."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Cinder asked. "It's because I like you. Goodbye, Sunset Shimmer."

"No, wait, Cinder don't-" Sunset said, but it was too late. She had already hung up.

Sunset stared at the suddenly blank screen of her scroll. She stared at it until another text from Twilight arrived.

Lost her. Couldn't keep her talking?

No Sunset tapped tersely into her scroll. After another moment she added. Tell RSP I'm on my way to the meeting. She folded up her scroll and tossed it down onto the table in front of her.

 _And to think that I was feeling at peace for a moment there._ Sunset leaned back on her chair, looking up at the ceiling above her. The lights caused multi-coloured blotches to appear in her vision, but Sunset was so lost in thought that she barely noticed.

 _Cinder. Mountain Glenn._

 _It's because I like you._

 _I wish I knew whether to believe that or not._

 _Compassion should never be seen as a weakness._

 _What about when that compassion can be turned against you._

She had done what Celestia would have wanted her to do, and held out the hand to Cinder Fall; she just wished that she could know whether Cinder was open to receiving it in any way or if she was using Sunset's compassion against her in some way.

Mountain Glenn. Sunset had to admit that the name didn't ring any bells for her; it wasn't something that they'd covered in any history class, in fact it wasn't any part of the curriculum at all that Sunset had gotten to in reading ahead. She didn't know what it was, or whether Cinder would go there for any purpose beyond meeting Sunset. If Sunset decided to go.

If she was allowed to go, because of course she didn't have quite the final say in it all: Professor Ozpin might have something to say about it as headmaster, let alone as…whatever else he styled himself in his other role. And then there was her team…

Yes, her team. Her team whom she'd been about to go and meet anyway before Cinder called. She'd have to tell them about it. No point in sitting here turning it over and over in her mind like a puzzle that she couldn't solve.

Of course, she wished that she could solve it but, since she couldn't on her own…she would offer it up to the others and see if they had any better luck.

Sunset picked her scroll up off the table and shoved it into her pocket as she walked out of the library and towards the garage for the prearranged meeting with RSPT, APR and Blake.

* * *

A faint smile played across Cinder's face as she folded up her scroll. How confused must Sunset be at this moment? _I bet her thoughts are a whirl as she tries to work out my angle._

 _I wonder if she's considering the possibility that there is no angle? That I just want to see her again._

She'd be wrong to think so, of course, there absolutely was an angle; but on the other hand…on the other hand it might be rather nice if Sunset thought she had only amicable intentions.

For a certain value of amicable that fitted their relationship. Because they still had a relationship, of that Cinder was convinced. In fact they probably had a stronger relationship now than they had when she and her team had been at Beacon. Now that the lies were out of the way and the secrets revealed they could move forward into a new, healthier, more confident phase in which they really understood each other.

Cinder didn't need an empathic semblance to understand Sunset; the other girl might think that she hid herself from the world but the very act of hiding revealed a great deal. It revealed someone with pain and anger to hide from the world. Someone…like her.

And as for Sunset Shimmer…thanks to her semblance, she knew more of Cinder Fall than anyone else in the world. There were times when Cinder wanted to kill her for that, and other times when she wanted to hold her close for the same reason.

When they met again in Mountain Glenn, she could decide which she felt like more at that particular moment.

The question of Sunset's own will or desires never entered into her mind. She'd come around eventually, if Cinder let her live long enough. They were too alike to remain apart, and Salem's cause was meant for her. Salem's cause was the cause of the lost, the broken, the beaten and the damned. Sunset didn't belong with Ozpin and his coterie of the self-righteous and self-satisfied.

She belonged on the side of the winners.

"You told them where we're going?" Mercury demanded, with disbelief lacing his voice.

Cinder looked up at him, her gaze making him draw back a little. "That's right," she said. "I did."

"Why?" Mercury asked, demanded even.

"Cinder has a plan," Mercury said loyally.

"Then let's hear it," Lightning Dust said, quietly enough for the moment although with no guarantee that she would stay that way.

Cinder got up off the rock that she'd been sitting on. They were standing atop a hill, somewhere between Vale and Mountain Glenn, with a good view of the surrounding countryside. There was no one else in sight, not too surprisingly since this was grimm country and the only people who would venture here were huntsmen or those who had no reason to fear the grimm. The breeze was gentle against her skin as it rippled through the long grass.

Cinder was silent for a moment, her gaze flickering from one of her servants to the next: Mercury, to Lightning, to faithful Emerald last of all. "Have you ever seen a magic trick, any of you?"

Lightning Dust shrugged. "One or two."

"No," Mercury said flatly.

"Then you've missed out," Cinder murmured. "Because it's really very clever. With one hand the magician flourishes." She held out her left palm, and a flame leapt up above her skin, drawing their eyes towards it. "And then when you're distracted by the flourish the other hand-" a glass dagger appeared in her other hand as she lunged towards Mercury too swift for him to block. She stopped, the tip of her knife less than an inch from his eye. "Performs the trick."

Mercury tried his best to look unafraid as he scrambled away from her. "So Mountain Glenn is-"

"The flourish," Cinder said. "That conceals the trick."

"That wasn't the plan," Lightning muttered.

"Plans change when the situation does," Cinder said airily. "The original plan required some…adjustments."

It was clear that Lightning didn't understand how luring SAPR (and probably RSPT too) to Mountain Glenn helped with the new plan any more than Mercury did, but Cinder didn't feel like explaining everything to them. They would have to trust her, as Emerald did.

"They're bound to suspect a trap," Mercury said.

"Oh, of course," Cinder said. "But while they're worrying about the obvious trap, they won't be looking for any others that will be lying in wait for them." She smiled. "We should keep moving. We want to make it to Mountain Glenn before them, after all."

Emerald fell in beside her as they walked, with Lightning and Mercury trailing a little behind.

"It'll work," she said. "Whatever you're planning, I'm sure it won't fail."

"Of course not," Cinder murmured. "Emerald, do you believe in destiny?"

Emerald blinked. "I…I don't think I've really thought about it."

"We are on the road to a great destiny, you and I," Cinder said, because everyone liked flattery and Emerald like it especially when it came from her. "And though the road may be long, and at times difficult, it will lead us to a future more glorious than you can possibly imagine."

Emerald's whole face lit up as she smiled. "That…you can't understand how much that means to me, Cinder. Although…"

"Although?" Cinder asked.

"I don't understand you're interest in that Sunset Shimmer," Emerald said. "She's a threat to us and she…she doesn't appreciate you."

 _Like you, you mean?_ Cinder felt a surge of contempt. Emerald was a useful servant, but nothing more than that. She could never hope to be anything more than that and the fact that she dared to think otherwise…it was a little pathetic. "Don't worry about Sunset, leave her to me." She placed one hand on Emerald's shoulder. "Help me achieve my desires, and leave the rest to me." _If you know what's good for you._

Emerald was still smiling. "I will. I'm sorry; I didn't mean to question you. I know that everything is part of your plan."

"And I know that you would never doubt me," Cinder said. "You are the one that I trust most of all."

And she even meant it.

* * *

Rainbow Dash folded her arms. "This sounds like a trap."

The two teams were gathered within the SAPR garage on the edge of the campus; with the door shut they couldn't be seen, and it would have been hard for anyone to eavesdrop on them through the walls. With nine people in there it was a little cramped, but not as much as it would have been if there were any vehicles in here besides Sunset's bike.

But it would have been just as cramped – arguable moreso – in the dorm room too, and with more risk of unexpected visitors.

Sunset began, "Sure, it's probably a trap-"

"You got any doubts about it?" Rainbow asked.

Sunset smirked. "Oh, she wants something. Even if it's just to try and turn me evil somehow. But just because it's a trap doesn't mean we can ignore it."

"What?" Jaune asked. "You think that it's a trap and you want to…to what, walk into it?"

"Even if it is a trap – and it almost certainly is – it's still something that we didn't know before," Rainbow said. "Where Cinder is, or where she's gonna be: Mountain Glenn. Where is Mountain Glenn anyway, and what's there?"

"It's in the south-east of Vale," Ruby said. "It was a new city, a major expansion of the kingdom…until it fell to the grimm. Most of the people who lived there didn't get out in time." Ruby looked solemn for a moment, and almost melancholy, before she realised that everyone was looking at her. "What? Just because I don't always pay attention in class doesn't mean I can't know stuff."

"When did any of us last go to class?" Jaune asked.

"So it's a ruin, then?" Ciel said to Ruby, who nodded in response.

"I'm still not seeing why anyone wants to walk into an obvious trap," Jaune said.

"Because obvious or not at least we can pin down Cinder and take her out," Rainbow said. "Sure, we could ignore this; it might even be easier to ignore it, but then what's she gonna do? Once she figures out that Sunset's a no-show she'll go somewhere else and do something else and we'll have to keep watching our backs waiting for her to stick a knife in them. I'd prefer to get the fight over with."

"You're assuming that Cinder will be there," Pyrrha murmured. "Just because she said she would be…but she doesn't need to be present in person to spring the trap. She has the aid of the White Fang, after all."

"If she trust them," Sunset said.

Rainbow glanced at Blake. "Is there anything in Mountain Glenn? Like a White Fang base or something?"

"There wasn't," Blake said. She shrugged. "But it's been a while, and our tended to be…somewhat mobile. It's not impossible, although…"

"What?" Rainbow asked.

"We never tended to set up in ruins," Blake said. "We preferred to camp in the wilds: clean water sources, natural defences, the lack of prying eyes."

"A ruined city has at least one of those," Ciel pointed out.

"True," Blake said. "But when the first thing you have to do is…do something with the remains of the previous inhabitants it puts a dampener on morale."

"The south-east," Rainbow muttered.

"If the White Fang were there then do you think-" Twilight began.

"Twilight," Ciel said sharply. "That's classified."

"Suddenly we're not good enough to know you're secrets?" Sunset asked.

"No," Ciel said, without malice but at the same time without apology. "Not this secret. Not at this time."

"I think Rainbow's right," Ruby said. "Even if this is a trap, even if Cinder does want to lure Sunset – and maybe all the rest of us too, because she can't think that we'd let her go alone – then I think we have to check it out. Because if we don't then it might not be us that she comes after next time; it could be someone who isn't as able to protect themselves as we are, or who doesn't know her like we do. Maybe it is a trap, but even if it is then don't we have the best chance of anyone of walking into it and coming out the other side?"

"Well put," Ciel said. "Convincingly so, if we had total agency and were not set under authority."

Pyrrha nodded. "Professor Ozpin might have something to say about us just deciding to run off to Mountain Glenn because Cinder…invited us to visit there."

"We should inform General Ironwood about this," Ciel said. "He'll decide if this is a lead worth following up on."

"Yeah…the general," Rainbow murmured. "Yeah, we should tell him about this."

Ciel's eyes narrowed. "Is something wrong?"

"Not wrong exactly," Rainbow said. "But, well, we didn't call everyone here so that Sunset could tell us she got asked out by Cinder."

"Do you have to put it like that?" Sunset said.

"We actually brought you here for something else," Rainbow continued, ignoring Sunset's objection.

"Something relating to our visit to the headmaster's office," Pyrrha added.

A silence descended in the garage, as the five people present who were not in the know waited for the four who were to explain a little further.

"You know what?" Rainbow said. "I'm going to step outside for a minute and call the general about this Mountain Glenn stuff while you guys explain what happened up in the tower."

Sunset rolled her eyes. "Oh, wow, thanks."

"No problem," Rainbow said, with a truly vicious grin on her face as she raised the door leading up out of the garage and stepped out. The door closed behind her with a groan and a clank and a rather loud bang.

Sunset scowled at the door for a moment, as though she could bore through the metal with her gaze in order to glower at Rainbow Dash on the other side.

 _We ought to wait until she comes back, that would serve her right._

But they couldn't keep everyone else waiting until then, not without any idea of how long Rainbow was going to be. They would just have to explain it all without her.

"We shouldn't really be telling you this," Pyrrha said. "But it wouldn't be right not to tell you. Although, since we shouldn't even be telling you…I'm afraid that you can't tell anyone else, not even Yang."

Ruby nodded, reluctantly but nevertheless. "I get it, I suppose. I don't like keeping so much stuff secret from my sister, but…yeah, okay. So what is it? What did Professor Ozpin say to you?"

"It's…a little complicated," Sunset said. "What…" she looked around the room. "What do you guys think about religion?"

* * *

"Thank you, Rainbow Dash; I'll consider it," Ironwood said.

"Yes, sir."

Ironwood folded up his scroll and placed it neatly on his desk. He got up from his chair, and went to the window of his office aboard the _Valiant_. From here he could see out across Vale, and see elements of his fleet as they hovered above the city they were prepared to defend.

So many people. So many soldiers aboard his ships, but dwarfed in number by the teeming multitudes of the city below them. Thousands of people, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people living their lives in blissful ignorance of the existence of Salem or the relics or the maidens or although the other secrets he was privy too,

Sometimes he wondered if he would have prepared to be ignorant himself.

No; no, he didn't really mean that. It was better that he knew the truth, better that he knew what he was really up against, better that he could make his decisions with a clear head and all the facts at his disposal.

But there were times when he wished that he hadn't been introduced into this shadow world; he didn't have the mind for all the twists and turns required.

 _But that didn't stop me from pulling Rainbow and Twilight in after me. They'll probably pull in Ciel and Penny too._

 _I did what I had to do. Atlas – and the world – need to be protected and they're the best we have._

 _There's no one that I trust more._

Ironwood turned away from the window. Thinking like that wasn't going to help him make the decisions that would keep all those people out there in Vale safe from harm.

Mountain Glenn. He knew a little about the place: a failed expansion project, and a costly failure in terms of loss of life. It had killed large scale expansion efforts by Vale ever since.

And it was the place where Cinder Fall was, or would be; or it was the place she wanted them to think that she would be. Whether there was anything else there, why she wanted them to come there, these were the questions he needed – or at the very least would like – the answers to before he decided to commit his forces.

And there was someone who could give him those answers.

Ironwood left his office, indicating with a gesture of his hand that his marine guard should remained at his post before he strode down the corridors of the flagship in the direction of the brig. He returned the salutes of the officers and men he passed along the way, but otherwise said nothing as he walked so that he was accompanied by the thudding of his own feet against the metal of the deck. He didn't even summon Winter to his side as he made his way down the metallic corridors of the Atlesian warship until he arrived at the sepulchral brig, where cells like cathedral alcoves lined the walls on either side of the central walkway.

Ironwood made his way unerringly to the cell currently housing Roman Torchwick. He opened the door to find their guest sitting awkwardly against the wall, with an expression that suggested he was trying and failing to find some way of lounging in a cell that wasn't built to allow for anything like it.

"Comfortable?" Ironwood asked, unable to keep a trace of amusement out of his voice.

"Not really," Torchwick growled as he sat up. He tried to smirk, and when he spoke again he had put a little of his old snideness back into his voice, but it fell a little flat considering that Ironwood had clearly caught him at a time. "So, General, what can I do for you? You're not here to let me out, are you?"

"What do you know about Mountain Glenn?" Ironwood asked.

Torchwick had an admirable poker face. "Wasn't that the new city that got overrun a few years back? Real sad story, all those poor folks just abandoned by the government to die like that. Of course, that's what government does, isn't it? One way or another it leaves everyone to die."

"I'm not here to debate the philosophy of anarchism with you, Roman, what do you know?"

"Only what everyone knows," Torchwick said.

"So Cinder Fall is going to Mountain Glenn to do what? Lead a historical survey?" Ironwood demanded. "Sightsee among the ruins?"

Torchwick was silent for a moment. Then he chuckled. "So, you know about Cinder, huh? I gotta give you credit, general, I didn't think you were smart enough to figure that out. Of course, you just told me that you haven't actually caught her yet, but the fact that you know you oughtta be trying to catch her that's not so bad." He leaned forward. "Hey, can I ask you something for a change?"

"I don't guarantee an answer."

Torchwick nodded. "By any chance did those kids have anything to do with it?"

General Ironwood did not have so good a poker face as Torchwick, because although he didn't reply that didn't stop the criminal from sniggering.

"Don't you feel just a little ashamed of yourself, relying on a bunch of teenagers to do everything?"

"I'm proud of what my people accomplish, no matter how young they are."

"Well, that's one to stave off humiliation, I guess," Torchwick said. He put his hands behind his head. "They really are something, aren't they?"

"Cinder?"

"No, those kids," Torchwick said. "I mean, sure, Cinder's something else as well, but those kids…man, if I'd been that good when I was there age I'd be running this whole town by now."

He fell silent. Ironwood allowed it, and didn't push him. Let him work it through for himself. Roman Torchwick was a lot of things, most of them bad, but if his record was even halfway accurate then he was also a survivor. Let him think about what it meant that his boss was exposed and on the run, let him consider the shifting balance of forces at play, let him work out on his own that his interests might be better served by sharing his knowledge with the authorities.

So far, Torchwick had kept his mouth resolutely shut beyond claiming that he was the mastermind behind the operations of the White Fang. If Ironwood pressed him then he might clam up even tighter, even now. But if Ironwood kept quiet, and let him come around to the idea then maybe-

"Say, General," Torchwick said. "Is that deal you mentioned a while back still on the table?"

Ironwood believed that he successfully managed to conceal his satisfaction. "Even though you don't have as much to offer as you did, I'll be generous and say yes."

"Oh, I still got lots to say, believe me," Torchwick said. "I also got a few conditions of my own."

Ironwood frowned. "You think I'm going to let you completely dictate the terms of-"

"Oh, no, not those kind of conditions," Torchwick said, with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I'm sure you'll be really fair when it comes to dealing with me. This is small stuff, easy stuff, it won't bother you at all."

"I'll be the judge of that."

"First, I want a decent meal," Torchwick said. "The food you serve here is absolutely garbage."

"You get the same food as everyone else aboard ship."

"I wonder how you manage to attract anyone to serve in your military if that's true," Torchwick said. "There's a little restaurant on Harbinger Avenue called Arnold's; the chef there knows what I like. Second, I want to see Neo. Third, Arnold knows what Neo likes as well."

Ironwood nodded. It grated a little, but ultimately Torchwick was right: he could send someone down to this Arnold's to pick up a couple of meals to go and it ultimately wouldn't cost him anything. Letting the two prisoners see each other was a little more unorthdox, but so long as they were both restrained it shouldn't pose any particular difficulties. "Anything else?"

"One last thing," Torchwick said. "I will only talk to Ruby Rose."


	77. Let's Just Live

Let's Just Live

Sunset had, with some assistance from Pyrrha and Twilight, gotten to the end of her account of all that they had learned and been offered in Ozpin's office by the time that Rainbow returned from talking to Ironwood.

"So," Rainbow said. "You all know?"

Ciel nodded slowly. Her expression was pinched, and a little pained. "It is…a lot to take in. It isn't every day that you learn your commanding officer is part of a shadowy conspiracy."

"Please don't say it like that," Twilight said. "I'm sure that General Ironwood is doing what he thinks is best, for Atlas and for Remnant."

Ciel glanced at her out of the corner of her blue eyes, but said nothing.

Jaune ran one hand through his mop of untidy blonde hair. "I…I don't know what to say. Where do we even start?"

"We start where we always started from," Ruby said, her voice unwavering. "With what we came to Beacon for in the first place."

All eyes turned to Ruby Rose.

"This…it doesn't change anything for you at all?" Sunset asked.

The silver in Ruby's eyes seemed to gleam a little brighter now, and her voice seemed stronger than Sunset had heard it before. "You think that my mom was working for Professor Ozpin, don't you?"

Sunset nodded. "It seems likely."

Ruby nodded. "I think you're right. And if that's so then I think my dad and my uncle probably know a lot more than they've ever told me or Yang, and if that's true then I want to know why. But none of this changes what I want or what I mean to do with my life.

"Maybe my mom was a part of Professor Ozpin's group, maybe she died on a mission for him. Or maybe not. Maybe she just died on a mission somewhere because that's what can happen to even the greatest of huntresses. It doesn't matter. The difference won't bring her back and it won't change what happened to our family after she was gone and it won't change the fact that my mom died protecting the world from the monsters who want to destroy it. It won't change the fact that there are people alive today because my mom died to keep them safe."

"The peace that endured for fifteen years was purchased with blood that was red like roses," Sunset murmured.

"Huh?" Ruby said, looking startled at Sunset's words. "Sunset…where did you hear that?"

"From you," Sunset said. "When I was…you know."

"Using your semblance," Ciel said. "Your actual semblance."

Rainbow frowned. "What's this about a semblance?"

"Sunset's semblance is empathy," Twilight whispered out of the corner of her mouth. "She can touch people and feel their thoughts and emotions."

"I thought that your semblance was the laser beams and stuff."

"No, that's magic," Twilight muttered.

"What?!"

"I know, right," Twilight squeaked. "Magic is real and I was right all along and Sunset can do it and Ruby's mom could do it and Ruby might be able to do it and the stories were right and so was I and it's just about the coolest thing ever!"

"And Team Sapphire already knew all of it," Ciel said, with a little pique in her voice.

"Now who doesn't like to be kept in the dark?" Sunset asked.

"And you waited until I was out of the room to tell everyone this?" Rainbow demanded.

"And you deserved that for leaving the room," Sunset replied. "My main point was that Ozpin still hasn't been completely honest with us, he knows things that he didn't share-"

"And he doesn't have to," Ruby said. "So Professor Ozpin and the other headmasters are working together to protect the world? Isn't that what they're supposed to be doing?"

"Within the confines of Council government, international law and, in the case of General Ironwood, the Atlesian Code of Military Conduct," Ciel said. "I'm still not entirely sure how conceal the existence of our true enemy fits in with that."

"There is no true enemy," Ruby insisted. "Sunset, Pyrrha, what was it that you said Professor Ozpin called the war?"

"A war between life and death," Pyrrha answered.

"And he's right, more right than maybe even he gets," Ruby declared. "It doesn't matter if there's someone out there controlling the grimm and Cinder and the White Fang all at once, it doesn't matter if that person can't be beaten; it doesn't matter if Ozpin is keeping secrets from us. Because we came to Beacon to be huntsmen, like the ones in the books.

"We're all here for our own reasons. Some of us wanted to be heroes, some of us wanted to be famous, some of us wanted to serve our countries; some of us didn't exactly have much of a choice…and I came here because I thought it would be the most awesome thing in the world to be able to help people who couldn't help themselves. But why ever we came here…we're all here now, here at Beacon studying to become the best huntsmen and huntresses that we can be. And the job of a huntress is to be the light the burns away the darkness and that doesn't change because of who's casting the shadow.

"Our enemy isn't Salem. Our enemy isn't Cinder Fall. Our enemy isn't the White Fang, our enemy isn't even the grimm. Our enemy is everyone and everything who might want to hurt the innocent people that it's our job to keep safe. That's what a huntress is: somebody who saves the day and stands between people and danger. None of what Professor Ozpin told you, none of what you've told us, makes any difference to that.

"Whether my mom died fighting for Ozpin or not doesn't make any difference. She's still gone…" Ruby trailed off momentarily, a look of pain flitting across her face as she closed her eyes and looked down at her boots. "There was a time when I hated the fact that she left us." Ruby opened her eyes and looked up with what seemed to be even more resolution on her fact than there had been before. "But I understood why she did it along time ago: because I wasn't the only person in the world who needed her; there were others who needed her too and she was willing to give her life for them because she was a true huntress and that's what that means.

"And I'm willing to do the same, if that's what it takes, because a true huntress is all that I've ever wanted to be."

All eyes were upon her, although Sunset noticed that none of those eyes were upon Ruby more intently than those of Penny Polendina. Ruby didn't appear to notice that everyone was watching her, or perhaps her conviction in this instance had overruled her stage-fright because she didn't seem in the least bit nervous about any of this. She just stood there, having said her peace, waiting to see how everyone else would react to it.

It was Jaune, in the end, who spoke first. "Ruby, you're…you're the bravest person I know. And you always know what to do and what the right thing is. But for some of us…this is still a lot to take in."

"That being the case," Sunset said. "I'm not sure how much point there is us all staying in here. Pyrrha, Rainbow, Twilight and I have decided that we're going to become a part of what Ozpin and the others are doing. And we told you because that's probably going to involve the five of you as well. Does anyone have a problem with that?" She waited a moment for responses that didn't come. "Then we might as well get out of here, and meet back up once…once we've thought some more about this."

"Ruby," Penny said. "Can I talk to you? Please?"

"Uh, sure, Penny, of course," Ruby said.

Sunset opened the garage door, and their group dispersed. Ruby and Penny left together, walking off in the direction of the cliffs. Pyrrha and Jaune went together as well, though their path would take them in the direction of the cafeteria. Rainbow and Twilight lingered wit Ciel, near to the garage. Meanwhile, Sunset had her eye on Blake, and when the latter began to wander beneath the trees of the courtyard, Sunset went after her.

"Do you mind the company?" Sunset asked, as she drew level with Blake – not difficult, given that the latter was walking slowly, and a little aimlessly.

Blake shook her head. "I don't mind having you around. In fact…I kind of like it."

Sunset smiled slightly. "Yeah, I…I kind of like having you around, too," she said. She scratched the back of her head nervously. "You, uh, you didn't say much in there."

"Sometimes," Blake said. "You find more out by listening."

Sunset nodded. "So now I want to listen to you and find out what you're thinking."

Blake stopped walking; she stopped in the path between the trees for a moment before she stepped off the white stone walkway and – deftly picking a path between the flowerbeds – walked under the shade of one of the trees, its leaves green in the bloom of summer, which cast a shadow over the lawn beneath.

"I've spent half my life fighting hopeless battles," she said. "What's one more?"

Sunset looked after her, though for the moment she didn't leave the path herself. "Is that what you think this is?"

Blake turned her head, her long black hair dragging a little as she looked at Sunset past the hilt of Gambol Shroud. "That probably sounds harsher to you than I meant it, doesn't it? But like I said, I've spent my life fighting hopeless battles."

Sunset stepped over a bed of roses to stand next to Blake. "But that doesn't change the fact that you think it's hopeless."

"The enemy can't be defeated," Blake said. "They're literally undefeatable and they won't stop coming. Doesn't that sound hopeless to you?"

"You're a real ray of sunshine, Blake," Sunset muttered. "Thanks."

Blake smiled, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that she smirked. "Don't take it too hard. Speaking from experience, sometimes the hopeless battles…are the ones that it's most important to keep fighting."

Sunset's brow furrowed. "You're talking about the White Fang?"

"The White Fang," Blake said. "And later."

"You thought that it was hopeless?"

"Wasn't it?" Blake asked. "Isn't it? A small group of idealistic faunus with black-market weapons, a sprinkling of combat training and some street smarts? Up against the governments of the four kingdoms, the world's most influential corporation and the strongest military power in Remnant? Only in stories does the little guy with a slingshot bring down the giant. In the real world the little guy, he might cause some trouble, maybe even injure the giant a couple of times…but the giant will always step on him in the end.

"Adam would never admit it, but…I think he got that too. That's probably why he allied with Salem: because he didn't feel like he had any other choice."

"Then why-"

"Because it was the right thing to do," Blake said. "Someone had to make a stand, someone had to say 'no more', someone had to _do something_. And the fact that we were never going to topple Atlas or bring down the Schnee Dust Company doesn't change the fact that we were right to try, at first, before our methods…before Cinder and Salem got involved…I wonder how long they've been influencing the White Fang, and how much they're responsible for." She shook her head. "The point is, just because a battle can't be won doesn't mean that it shouldn't be fought. Sometimes the fights that can't be won are the most important of all.

"So maybe there is no beating Salem. And maybe I can't do anything to change the state of the world or eliminate injustice. But that doesn't mean that I, that we shouldn't try. We have to try, because even if we can't bring the giant down we can pinprick him and make him bleed and that matters. Those small victories matter and they're ours and they wouldn't have happened if we'd sat at home and told ourselves that there was nothing we could do."

Sunset nodded. "I'm not willing to give up on the prize yet, I don't want to say that it's hopeless until we've given it a shot ourselves. But even if Professor Ozpin and General Ironwood and the rest are right…"

Blake looked at her. "Sunset?"

"I could leave," Sunset admitted. "I don't think…I know that I've never really explained where I come from, but it's a place…Salem doesn't even know that it exists. I could go back there and she'd never find me. My old teacher would take me back, I could…I could do something, I'm not untalented. I could run back there and leave all of this behind." She thrust her hands into her jacket pockets. "I could even ask you to come with me. At a push…maybe the others could come too. But, even if I asked, you wouldn't, would you? None of you would. You because you're drawn to the hopeless battles-"

"You say that like I tilt at windmills," Blake said.

"You said it, not me," Sunset replied. "Ruby wouldn't come because that's not what a true huntress does. Pyrrha's not the sort of turn tail. Rosepetal…and that means I can't go either, even if I wanted to. You guys…you're my family. I can't leave you to face all of this crap without me. And, that being the case, even if we can't beat Salem I'd rather give her a black eye than walk small and hope she doesn't get to us in our lifetime."

Blake nodded. "Sienna Khan told me once that whether we fought or not the system of the world was inevitably going to grind us down. I asked her, then what was the point. And she said that if we fought, at least we'd get to hit the system once or twice before it caught us in the gears."

* * *

Jaune found himself trailing after Pyrrha as they headed in a direction that it took him a moment to realise was in the direction of the dining hall. It was closed now, being after breakfast but too early to be open for lunch at all, and so the lights were dark within and the tables hadn't been set for lunch yet. There was no one around, which he guessed was how Pyrrha wanted it.

She stopped in front of the windows in that darkened room, and she looked into the hall for a moment before she turned away from it.

She looked so…downcast. It hit him like a body blow, even worse than that night in Mistral because this time he knew exactly what was troubling her, and honestly it was kind of troubling him too. The grimm had a boss? An unbeatable boss? An unbeatable boss who wasn't going to stop until she killed everyone.

 _So much for being the hero._ It sounded like the best that even the greatest huntsman could hope for was to stem the tide for a while, and what kind of hero could settle for that?

Looking at Pyrrha, who was more of a hero already than he would be in a lifetime of effort, was all the answer that he needed.

And yet, in spite of his own discomfort about this, Jaune found that at the moment it was Pyrrha that he wanted to focus on. He wanted to make her feel better before he started to focus on himself.

"Pyrrha-" he began.

"I didn't want to tell you," Pyrrha said. Her voice was small and faint, but nevertheless it completely silenced his own just as she completely outmatched him in battle.

Jaune didn't reply, he just looked at her, waiting.

"I didn't think it was fair to put this burden on you," Pyrrha continued, unprompted. "On you or Ruby. You want to be the hero, I didn't think that you'd want to find out that…that there's no hope. It was Sunset who thought that you deserved to know the truth. Was she right? Was I wrong?"

"I'm glad you told me," Jaune said.

"Then I was wrong."

"It's not about right or wrong," Jaune said. "It's about knowing. Sure, I wanted to be the big hero when I first came here, but I made my peace with the fact that that wasn't me a while ago."

"Jaune, I want nothing more than to see you reach your dreams."

"And I don't want anything more any more than to stand alongside you, or even behind you if that's the best way to help you," Jaune said. "I just, Pyrrha, I want you to make me a promise."

Pyrrha looked at him, her earrings swaying a little on their chains as she turned her head. "What kind of promise?"

"Don't send me away," Jaune said. "Don't leave me behind because you want me to be safe or because you think it's too dangerous or because you're worried that I can't keep up with you. I know that I'm not a great warrior like you, and I know that I probably never will be, but that doesn't mean that I can't help you. So let me help you. You don't have to carry the whole weight of the world on your shoulders alone."

Pyrrha turned her back on him. She stood, with the wind blowing through her luscious red hair, her hands balled into fists by her sides. Standing there, motionless but for the affect of the wind, she looked almost like a painted statue, like one of the statues of her heroic ancestors that filled the garden of her house in Mistral. Jaune was abruptly reminded of what a different world she came from to any that he was familiar with: an older and a grander world.

For a moment his heart quailed. What did someone like him have to offer someone like her, a hero and the product of a heroic line and a heroic world? But she had, in some way, chosen him. She had accepted him in spite of the great gulf in everything between them and who was he to question that.

She needed someone to stand beside her, or just a step or two behind; of that Jaune was absolutely convinced. And, being convinced, he was determined to be that person for her, whatever it took. He might not be worthy, but he had been chosen nevertheless.

"Jaune," Pyrrha said. "Do you believe in destiny?"

Jaune hesitated for a moment. "I guess I…never really thought about it."

"A lot of people confuse or conflate destiny with fate," Pyrrha said. "Something predetermined that you can't escape, three spinners weaving the threads of your life until, in the end…snip. But I've always thought of destiny as something that you choose, a final goal that you work towards your whole life."

"I can see that," Jaune said. "It's…certainly a lot more hopeful."

Pyrrha looked over her shoulder at him, and she smiled, and in spite of everything she still looked so lovely. "That's why I want to help you, Jaune; that's why I don't want to see you give up on your destiny, because you _can_ reach it if you work towards it."

Jaune smiled back at her. "I'd like to think so," he said, even though he would accept it now if it turned out that was not the case.

Pyrrha looked away again. "I…I've always thought that I was destined for something great. I suppose that sounds very arrogant of me considering that I've just said that we choose our destinies."

"Not really," Jaune said. "It's about the usual for this team, right?"

Pyrrha chuckled. "Yes, I suppose we are…what you might call an ambitious group, each in our own way." Her face fell. "I was born into a line of heroes, from the first Pyrrha who fought beneath the walls of Mistral, and I've always felt that my destiny was to do something, to accomplish something that would make me worthy to stand level with those ancestors of mine. If I was going to have to fight, I wanted to do something more worthwhile than fight in tournaments for entertainment. That's why I came to Beacon: because I thought that my destiny was to become a huntress, and protect the world."

"The world?" Jaune repeated.

"Yes," Pyrrha murmured. "Ambition. I wasn't thinking of anything small scale. I wanted to protect the whole world, I wanted to become…but now, it seems that something is standing in the way of my destiny." She bowed her head. "I know that we have to fight, and I will. I know that we can still do so much good, but still…"

"Yeah," Jaune said. "I get it. It's daunting, knowing what we know now. But, I guess that all we can do is-"

"Keep fighting?"

"I was going to say make the best of it, but sure, keeping fighting works too," Jaune said. "Hey, Pyrrha?"

"Yes, Jaune?"

Jaune walked towards her, until he was standing by her side instead of several feet behind her. "This…this may not sound like the best time to say this…but I had a really great time last night. I mean not the part where all the soldiers came in and we found out that our friends had gotten into a fight with Cinder, that wasn't great, but before that, everything up until that…that was pretty great, for me, I mean. I had…I'm sorry, I'm not doing very well here, what I'm trying to say-"

"I know what you're trying to say," Pyrrha said amusedly.

"No, I'm not sure that you do," Jaune said, pressing on. "I had a great time last night and I think, I hope, that you had a great time too. So, if you'd like to do it again sometime…I mean there won't be another dance for…what I mean is, if you'd like to go out sometime or…"

Pyrrha stared at him, her eyes were wide, but also there was a light in them that he hadn't seen since she came back down from Ozpin's tower. "Jaune…are you…?"

"Look, just because there's someone out there called Salem doesn't mean that we can't smile, and laugh, and be happy, right?" Jaune said. "This thing we've just found out doesn't have to rule over our whole lives like a big cloud that we have to keep looking up at in case it starts raining. We can go out into the field and do the missions and chase our destinies together, all of us. But in the meantime we can live. Just live and forget all about Salem and Ozpin and all the rest of all this, this craziness. So, Pyrrha Nikos, would you like to go out some time?"

Pyrrha had never looked so lovely as she did in that moment as the smile blossomed across her face. "I would love to."

* * *

"So, what do you think?" Rainbow asked.

Ciel had her hands clasped behind her back. "You know there's an argument that could be made classifying this as treason."

"Do you really think that General Ironwood has acted against the interest of Atlas?" Twilight said.

"No," Ciel said quickly. "That's why I said that the argument could be made."

"It comes down to trust," Rainbow said. "Sunset may not trust her headmaster but I trust our general. He gave me a shot when someone wouldn't have. He brought me in on this when he didn't have to. He's taken care of Twi. He's a good guy, and I trust him. If he says that he's doing the right thing, and that we'll be doing the right thing by getting involved in this then I'm not gonna say he's wrong."

Ciel nodded absently, before fixing her attention on Twilight. "And the fact that you'll be deceiving your sister-in-law on the council doesn't trouble you?"

"Yes," Twilight said. "Yes, I'm sure it will be hard. But it's like Rainbow says, I trust General Ironwood, and I don't think I'd be able to live with myself if I didn't get involved in this to the best of my ability."

Ciel blinked. "I suppose it doesn't affect our missions, either in the field or our more general mission around Penny."

"I can't tell if you're taking this well or if you just want to hide how not-well you're taking it," Rainbow said.

"I've always believed in Atlas," Ciel said. "In our strength and in our capability. The fact that there is an enemy we cannot defeat but only delay, even after all the advancements that we have made is troubling. As is the truth, if truth it is, about the gods."

"Uh, it is?" Rainbow asked, because really of all the stuff that Ozpin and the rest had told them that was the thing that bothered her the least, mostly because it seemed so barely relevant to anything practical that ought to concern them.

"Because of the origins of the grimm?" Twilight ventured.

Ciel shook her head once. "My mother was religious," she said. "She used to go to church every week when she wasn't on deployment. The faith of the Blessed Lady of the North. My father didn't share her beliefs, but he allowed my mother to take me to church when I was old enough to go. She taught me the songs and prayers. Blessed Lady watch over us in the bitter darkness of the night. Blessed Lady stiffen our hearts with courage in the battle to come. Blessed Lady stand with us against all darkness. Blessed be the Lady of the North, my strength, who teaches my hands to fight and my fingers to war. It gave her comfort, to know that someone was watching over her. But no one was. It was all a lie; the only gods abandoned us a long time ago it seems."

Twilight took a step forward. "Did…do you believe?"

Rainbow nodded. Ciel didn't go to church, and she wasn't too obvious about it most of the time, but it was there. You could catch her praying sometimes if you were paying attention, and although sometimes it seemed that she might be praying to Atlas itself Rainbow had caught one or two of the catechisms that she had just rattled off. Thus she was not surprised when Ciel said, "Yes. I'm not as devout but, yes. It gave me a little of the comfort that it gave her. But there is no one watching over us."

"Sure there is," Rainbow said. "We're watching over one another."

Ciel arched one eyebrow. "That isn't quite the same thing as a powerful immortal acting as our protector…but I suppose that it isn't nothing either."

"Not when it's me, it isn't," Rainbow said with a grin. "And who knows, just because these two gods who left were the ones who originally made the world, that doesn't have to mean that there aren't any others. Maybe they came later and the old professor just doesn't know. Maybe he does know but he isn't telling. After all, magic exists, right?" she glanced at Twi with a little smile, because as much as that had been a big shock it had also been absolutely to seeing her reaction to having it all proved true like that. "So why not other gods, or something like that?"

Ciel nodded thoughtfully. "You make a surprisingly good point."

"I'm just amazed that that's what's bothering you and not, you know, the enemy that we can't beat who's responsible for all of this," Rainbow said.

"After the Great War," Ciel said. "The President of the Council dedicated himself to restoring Mantle to its former glory and beyond. Twenty years later, as he lay ailing, he confessed that he feared to die with his work unfinished. The story goes that a wise friend told him not to worry, for he had done well, and though he left his work unfinished, it would surely continue.

"We may never defeat Salem. We may never be able to imagine such a thing. But so long as we fight well against Cinder Fall and all her followers, then we need not fear leaving the fight unfinished, for our work will surely continue."

* * *

Ruby and Penny stood on the cliff looking out over the Emerald Forest. Ruby's cape rustled in the breeze, but Ruby hardly noticed. She was focused on Penny, who was looking down at the vast and grimm-infested forest spread out beneath them.

"Ruby?" Penny asked.

"Yeah?"

"Did you mean everything that you said back there?" Penny asked. "About a true huntress?"

"I meant every word of it," Ruby said.

"I see."

"Penny, is something wrong?" Ruby said, before mentally cursing herself because of course something was wrong and she even had a pretty good idea about what that something was. "I mean-"

"General Ironwood told me that I could save the world," Penny said.

"Huh?"

Penny nodded. "That's what he said. But it was a lie, wasn't it? He lied to me and he didn't even hiccup while he was doing it."

Ruby didn't know what to say, but she attempted to say something regardless. "I…maybe he…I'm sure that…I don't know, Penny. I don't know why he'd say that if he knew it wasn't true. I don't know why anyone would lie to you."

"I believe him," Penny said. "I wanted to believe him. I was built to fight, and I knew that maybe I'd have to spend my whole…my whole life fighting. But I thought that maybe, if I learnt everything that I could and saved the world like General Ironwood said that I was supposed to then maybe, after that, they'd let me go and I could do something else other than fight."

"What would you do?" Ruby asked quietly. "Apart from fighting? What would you do if you had the choice?"

"I don't know," Penny said. "But I'd like to have the choice, and maybe find out for myself what I'd like to do, if that makes any sense. But now I'll never-"

"That's not true," Ruby said. "If you don't want to fight then you don't have to, and nothing that Professor Ozpin changes that any more than it changes the fact that I want to fight and protect the world and the people I care about. If that's not what you want then you should be free to do something else, no matter what General Ironwood or anyone in Altas has to say about it. If you want to find out who you really are then you should, and you shouldn't worry about anything or anyone else."

Penny was quiet for a moment, quiet and still and she wasn't even making any little robot noises like whirring servos or squeaky joints or anything like that.

"Thank you," she said. "Ruby, my friend. I am your friend, aren't I?"

Ruby reached out, and took Penny's hand in her own. "Of course you are, Penny."

Penny's grip on Ruby's hand became a little painful, to be honest, but Ruby didn't say anything as Penny smiled at her. "You say that I should find out who I am, but I think that that _is_ who I am right now. I'm a soldier of Atlas, built to fight…but I'm also your friend; and I'm a friend of all your team-mates and of my team-mates as well but I think…I think that I am your friend most of all, Ruby Rose. And maybe there is more to me that, or maybe there could be, but for now…for now I think that's enough.

"I don't want to be a true huntress. I don't have a dream like so many of you do to inspire me to keep fighting. I don't really know what I want to do with my life, or whether I really want to do the thing that I was built to do. But I do know what I _don't_ want to do, and that's abandon my friends. My friend. And so even if we can't win, so long as you're still fighting, so long as all of you are still fighting, then so am I, my friend."

"Penny, I…I don't know what to say," Ruby said, because on the one hand that meant a lot to her, more than she probably had the words to properly get out, but on the other hand if Penny got hurt or worse fighting when she didn't even want to fight because she felt she had some obligation to Ruby then…then Ruby didn't know if she'd ever be able to forgive herself.

Ruby Rose was under no illusions as to the nature of the work in which they were engaged. She'd been under no illusions from the day that Dad explained to her that Mom was never coming home. Sometimes the cause for which they fought – the cause of keeping death and darkness at bay – required sacrifices to be made from those willing to make them. But that didn't mean that those who didn't want to make those sacrifices should be forced into it, or feel forced into it or be manipulated into it, and she was worried that she might be doing a mixture of those things to Penny and it might all end so badly.

She was about to try and explain that to her friend when her scroll buzzed.

"Sorry," Ruby said. "I should probably get this." She opened up her scroll and took the call.

The face of Professor Ozpin appeared on her screen. "Good morning, Miss Rose," he said. "It seems we might have need of your services."


	78. The Intelligence of Roman Torchwick

The Intelligence of Roman Torchwick

"You don't have to do this, Ruby," Sunset said.

Ruby smiled nervously. "Actually, I kinda think I do. It's not like he'll talk to anybody else, right?" Her laugh was as nervous as her smile because, after all, this guy had tried to kill her a couple of times, and now she was going to be walking in their without her Crescent Rose to back her up. They'd made her check it in at the armoury aboard ship and she swore, if anyone had altered a single nut or bolt when she got her baby back then somebody was going to be in some serious trouble!

Thinking about Crescent Rose, instead of about the man waiting on the other side of the heavy metallic door, helped a lot. But ultimately she was still going to walk in there unarmed and talk to Roman Torchwick. What Yang would say about that…well, there was a reason Ruby hadn't told her about it yet. Along with all the other things that Ruby hadn't told her sister about, a list that seemed to be getting longer by the hour.

Ruby huffed mentally. She loved her team, all of them, but there were times when she wished that she and Yang could have been on the same team together and then they could have shared all of this stuff and Ruby could have told her everything and not have to lie or hide and worry about what Dad would have to say about all that.

Although it seemed like Dad might have been keeping some secrets of his own.

But that was something that she'd have to deal with later, however she decided to actually deal with it. For now, she had to focus on Torchwick. Roman Torchwick, on the other side of the door, waiting for her.

She hadn't lied to Sunset. She did have to do this. As much as being around him without her weapon was a little nerve-inducing, if she was the only one that he would talk to then she didn't have a choice. He knew things that they needed to know, and so somebody had to talk to him and that somebody was her.

They – Team SAPR, Blake, Team RSPT, Professor Ozpin and General Ironwood – were all waiting outside of the interrogation room (or at least it was _an_ interrogation room) on board the Atlesian flagship, the _Valiant_. It was Ruby's first time aboard an Atlesian warship and she had to admit that the tech they had on board was absolutely amazing! Some of the things that they were doing were incredible! Twilight was going to give her a tour later and she couldn't wait to see inside the engine room because Ruby thought that you must need at least four D-Drives (only one of which was needed to power a civilian skyliner) to power this thing but judging from the slightly smug way in which Twilight had promised to blow her mind she was starting to wonder if Atlas hadn't developed a next-gen engine that used dust way more efficiently and she was distracting herself again, wasn't she?

Engines were a lot easier to think about than interrogations. She'd never interrogated anyone in her whole life, how was she supposed to get anything out of a guy who'd probably had more interrogations than she'd had battles?

Professor Ozpin seemed to sense some of her nerves, because he smiled genially, with a look on his face that Ruby thought her grandpa might have worn if she'd had one, and said, "Don't overthink things, Ruby. Just ask the obvious questions that come to mind and everything will work out."

Ruby looked at him. It was hard to imagine that this was the man who was secretly running a secret organisation across the length and breadth of Remnant to fight evil. It was even harder to imagine that he'd worked with her mom to do the same thing. It was really hard to imagine that he'd once taught her mom magic. And yet at least two of those things were true – because her team-mates wouldn't lie to her and Mom would have no reason to lie to her own diary – and the third made sense.

But as he looked at her, the main thing going through Ruby's mind was a sceptical disbelief at the idea that Sunset didn't trust the headmaster. What was he doing wrong? He was defending the world from anyone who dared to threaten it, which was exactly what a huntsman was supposed to do. He might have been keeping secrets, but he had his reasons, she was sure.

"Thank you, professor," she said.

"Wear this, Miss Rose," General Ironwood said, handing her a small earpiece of transparent plastic. "It will allow us to offer you directions if you need them."

"Thanks, sir," Ruby said, as she put the device in her ear.

General Ironwood nodded. "I should be thanking you, Miss Rose. You're doing good work here today."

"You're gonna do great in there, Ruby," Jaune said.

Ruby forced her smile a little wider. "I'll try my best," she said, offering him a thumbs-up.

"We'll be in the next room, watching everything," Pyrrha said. "If there's any trouble we'll be there."

"I know," Ruby said. She took a deep breath. "I think…I think I'm ready now."

"Give us a minute to get in position," General Ironwood said. "I'll contact you when we're ready."

"Okay," Ruby said. They all left her after that, all except Sunset who insisted on going into the room with her. Sunset, like Ruby, looked after the others as they left them behind and went into the next room to the right.

"You sure you're okay with this?" Sunset murmured.

"Yeah," Ruby said. "And besides, it'll be worth it if I can get that tour of the ship from Twilight."

Sunset snorted. "You should have been an engineer, not a huntress."

Ruby shook her head. "Nah. Gears and machines are cool, but saving people is way cooler."

Sunset grinned. "I guess there's nothing that competes with that hero feeling, huh?"

Ruby said, "Sunset, about Professor-"

"Ruby," the voice of Professor Ozpin himself interrupted her before she could say anything else. "We're ready here. It's time."

"Right," Ruby said. To Sunset, she explained, "They're ready for us."

"Okay," Sunset said. She held out one arm – she was still wearing Pyrrha's spare gloves – in a gesture of invitation towards the door. "After you."

Ruby faced the door. The door behind which waited her enemy. The door that was keeping her from Roman Torchwick.

 _You've sent this guy running three times, what's the big deal?_

 _I had Crescent Rose with me two of those three times, and the third time I had Pyrrha. The last time I had two whole teams with me._

 _And this time I've got Sunset._

Ruby glanced at her team-mate, her partner, who closed in behind her. Sunset's hands, Ruby noticed, were clenched into fists.

 _Is she worried about me?_ The thought, strangely perhaps, made Ruby feel a little better. Maybe she didn't have her Crescent Rose this time, but she had her team lead watching her back.

She took a step towards the door, which automatically – or perhaps someone in the other room had opened it for her, that was a little more secure – slid open, revealing Roman Torchwick sitting with his feet on the metal table in the centre of the room. The only other furniture was the chair he was sitting on and two chairs opposite for Ruby and Sunset. Although his hands were shackled, he had them tucked behind his head, and he sounded like he was whistling.

He stopped doing it as Ruby walked in, and started beaming at her instead. "Well if it isn't Little Red! Nice to see you again, kid." His face dropped a little as he caught sight of Sunset. "And you brought a friend, terrific. You know, when I said that I'd only talk to Red Like Roses over here I kinda meant 'alone'."

"You expect me to just leave you alone with my team-mate?" Sunset planted one palm firmly on the table. "Yeah, that's not gonna happen."

"Suit yourself, Baconhair," Torchwick said. "But I warn you, you're just white noise to me. Red's the only one I'll speak to and the only one I'll answer. So if you were hoping to try the good cop, bad cop routine…sorry."

Sunset rolled her eyes – probably at being called 'baconhair' - and reversed her chair so that the back was facing the table, then squatted down on it resting her arms on said back. Ruby sat down more normally.

"What…" Ruby began. Her mouth felt dry, and her tongue felt bigger than normal. _Just ask the obvious questions. Right._ "What do you know about Mountain Glenn."

Torchwick chuckled. "Come on, Red, that's not how this works. Where are your manners? You haven't even said hello to me yet."

"Stop calling me that, my name is Ruby!" Ruby snapped. "And you…you can call me Miss Rose. Stop talking to me like we're friends."

Torchwick took his feet off the table and leaned forward, bringing his manacled hands from over his head as he placed them on the table. Sunset tensed, but Torchwick ignored her. He was wholly focussed on Ruby. "Do you want to know what I know, Miss Rose?" he asked, his tone becoming particularly mocking when he got to her name.

Ruby nodded slowly. "Yes."

"Then don't yell at me and don't act all prissy over my manners like some stuck-up debutante," Torchwick said. "Now say hello, and ask me how I've been doing?"

"Ruby's manners are prissy, but he won't say a word until she says 'hello, how are you?'" Sunset muttered. "Hypocrite, much?" Torchwick ignored her.

Ruby took a deep breath. "Hello, Roman Torchwick," she said. "How have you been?"

"Oh, I've been just great since you meddling kids handed me over to this charming crowd," Torchwick said. "My cell is cramped, the food is appalling and I get woken up in the middle of the night, _every night_ , by shift change as dozens of military boots go pounding past my cell. Neo's doing great too, by the way. A kid her age should be playing outside, not-"

"Robbing dust stores?" Sunset asked, although once again Torchwick ignored her completely.

"Stuck in a cell on a warship," Torchwick finished.

"You're a criminal," Ruby reminded him. "You steal and you hurt people and you kill them too. You're working with the White Fang! Do you expect me to feel sorry for you?"

"A little sympathy wouldn't hurt," Torchwick said. "Like my old man used to say, you can get a lot further with a gun and a kind word than you can with just a gun."

"You can't let him take control of this interview," General Ironwood said, his voice emerging out of the device in Ruby's ear. "You need to get this back on track."

Ruby scowled. "What do you want, Torchwick?"

"All my friends call me Roman."

"What do you want," Ruby repeated.

Torchwick tapped on the table with his fingers. "I hear you sent Cinder running. And I thought that was pretty interesting. I mean, I already knew that you kids were good – you took me down, after all – but I had no idea that you were _that_ good. You see, I've been keeping quiet this whole time about everything because I thought that Cinder was the strongest, scariest act in town but now…well, no offence Red but you still don't scare me anywhere near as much as she does but as for strength…if you and the crazy gang can make her turn tail and run, if you kids can unravel her plans…maybe I've had my calculations all wrong."

"And is that all you care about?" Ruby demanded. "Who's the strongest? Which side is safer to back? What about right and wrong? What about all the people that you've put in danger? How many people have you killed?"

"Not as many as you might think," Torchwick said, his voice suddenly losing a lot of its playful tone. "I'm a lot of things, kid: I'm a thief, a racketeer, a con man, a liar; but I'm not a murderer. I only kill morons who get in my way. I'm not my boss or the trio she pals around with."

"But you have killed people," Ruby said icily.

"I've survived," Torchwick declared. "Neo and I have both survived because that's what we do: we're survivors, and we do whatever it takes: lie, cheat, steal, play the angles and yes, I kill when I've got no other choice. So you can take your judgement and shove it, you've got no idea what it's like to be me, to live in my world. I bet your mommy and daddy have taken care of you your whole life."

"My mom's dead," Ruby snapped. "She died doing the right thing, helping people, protecting Remnant. That's what it means to do the right thing, to think of other people before yourself."

Torchwick stared at her for a moment. "You got a lot of heart, Red, I'll give you that. And a lot of spirit. You remind me of somebody I used to know." He leaned back in his chair. "They had a lot of spirit too, and it got them hurt, badly. Because the real world doesn't care about spirit. Not one damn bit. You keep going like this you'll find that out for yourself."

"I'll take my chances," Ruby said.

Torchwick smirked at her. "So, what do you want to know?"

"What's Cinder planning?" Ruby asked.

"I don't know."

"Really?" Ruby demanded, incredulously. "You were running the White Fang for her."

"Okay, first of all I was _helping_ to organise those animals because God knows they needed the help, but I wasn't running the White Fang for Cinder or anybody else. That's that creepy Adam guy, unless you've caught him too."

"But you were working for Cinder, really high up," Ruby insisted.

"I guess you could put it like that."

"Then what's she planning? What does she want?"

"I don't know," Torchwick repeated. "I don't think that anybody knows except for her. All she told me was what I needed to know and what I needed to know was: steal dust, steal weapons, don't get caught. I guess I kinda screwed up on the last one, huh?"

"Then what were you doing with all of the dust and the weapons that you stole?" Ruby asked. "What were the White Fang doing?"

"I don't know," Torchwick said for the third time. "They were moving it to their base in the south-east, that's all I know."

"Mountain Glenn," Ruby said. "Is that where their base is?"

"Yeah," Torchwick said. "Mountain Glenn, the ruined city."

"What's there?"

"A lot of dust and guns and stolen Atlesian military tech, didn't I just tell you that?" Torchwick said. "Also a lot of White Fang goons, they were sending, like, eighty, maybe ninety percent of the new recruits up there by the time you caught me."

Ruby tried to imagine how many angry White Fang terrorists might be hiding out with Cinder in the ruins by now, and with how many powerful weapons, but she couldn't. Her imagination wouldn't stretch that far. "Can you show us where in Mountain Glenn the base is?"

"No," Torchwick said. "I'm not that good at reading maps; but don't worry, once we get groundside I'm sure it'll come flooding back to me and I can lead you right to it."

"WHAT?" the words shot out of Sunset's mouth like bullets from her rifle. "You want us to take you to Mountain Glenn? You seriously expect us to do that?"

Torchwick deigned to appear to notice her at last. "And Neo, obviously."

"Oh, of course," Sunset said.

"Why should we trust you?" Ruby asked. "Why should we believe this isn't a trick?"

Torchwick's eyebrows rose. "What, you think that I'm going to lead you into an ambush or something?"

The two huntresses were silent for a moment.

"Pretty much, yeah," Sunset said.

Torchwick chuckled. "Well, I see you're not completely naïve. But you've got nothing to worry about from me."

"Oh really? And why is that?" Sunset demanded.

"Because I'm starting to lose faith that any ambush that Cinder and her monkeys could set would actually be able to take you kids out," Torchwick said. "You've been astonishing me since the day I met you, Red; I figured maybe it's time I stopped being surprised and started to accept that you're just something special."

"So it's flattery now," Sunset muttered.

"Look, I didn't have to say anything," Torchwick said. "Not to you, not to Ironwood, not to anybody. If you think that this is all a way to lead you into a trap then why am I only opening my mouth now? Because I can guarantee you that it wasn't part of Cinder's plan. You want to find the base in Mountain Glenn then you take us with you, that's the offer. Take it or leave it."

"I think we're done here," General Ironwood said through Ruby's ear piece. "Come out, both of you, join us in the next room."

Ruby got to her feet, leading Sunset to do likewise. "We'll…" Ruby hesitated for a second. "We'll think about it," she said, feeling all the same that that was a rather stupid thing to say in the circumstances.

"Don't think too long," Torchwick said.

"Why? Is your offer time-limited?" Sunset said.

"Not by me," Torchwick replied. "But I can't speak for my former associates."

"We'll think hard about it," Ruby said, before she turned her back on him and walked towards the door. Sunset followed her as the door opened automatically for them to leave, and they exited the interrogation room.

"Nice to see you, Little Red," Torchwick called as they stepped out of the room. "And you too, little po-" his words were cut off as the door slammed shut behind them.

"I hate that guy," Sunset growled. Her voice dropped a little. "I'd consider using my semblance to find out what he actually knows…only I _really_ don't want to know what that guy's soul feels like."

"You think he wasn't telling us everything?"

"You don't think he wasn't telling us everything?" Sunset asked incredulously.

"I don't know," Ruby admitted. "Maybe. I…I don't know. The others are waiting for us."

The room next door was big enough to accommodate everybody without being too cramped like the garage had been. The wall on the right as they came in was taken up completely by a monitor showing the cell: Torchwick was relaxing once again as though he hadn't a care in the whole world.

"So, uh, what did you guys think?" Ruby asked tentatively as she walked in.

"You did great, Ruby," Jaune said.

"But if it didn't feel like a trap before," Ciel murmured.

"We'll see who the trap's for once our cruisers show up overhead," Rainbow said.

"Don't be so quick to rush to action, Miss Dash," Professor Ozpin said. "Regardless of our opinions of Mister Torchwick's trustworthiness, we must bear in mind that events transpiring now are but moves in a far larger game, part of a plan the whole of which is far from certain. We must not be over-bold in our response."

Rainbow scowled. "So we do nothing?"

"Rainbow Dash," General Ironwood said, his voice holding a warning though Ruby wasn't quite sure what it was a warning of. "I'd like nothing better than to rain down fire upon our enemies from above until not a trace of them remained, but if this is a trap then the purpose could be to do exactly as you've suggested: to lure our forces out of Vale and leave the city defenceless before an attack." He scowled at the image of Torchwick on the wall-sized monitor. "We need for more information before we commit our main force."

Comprehension – at least that's what Ruby thought it was – dawned on Rainbow's face. "Reconnaissance party, sir?"

"You've fought the White Fang in the past, you're familiar with Torchwick," General Ironwood said. He glanced at Blake. "Some of you are personally familiar with the enemy leadership." His eyes swept across the members of Team SAPR. "And you're proven that you have the skills to survive until backup arrives. I know that the situation isn't ideal," the general glowered at Torchwick again to emphasise his point. "But we can't ignore this possible threat and we can't act without more information."

"So it seems that we have little choice but to play this little drama out to its conclusion," Ozpin said. "You must all understand that this task will likely be difficult, and certainly dangerous; but all of you…" he smiled, and made a sound that was almost a chuckle. "Yes, I believe that all of you now understand what is at stake here. Please understand that I, that we, would not ask this of you unless we had every confidence that you could succeed."

"That being said," General Ironwood said. "I won't order you on this assignment. You're only students, and I don't have that right. This mission is volunteer only. There is no shame in stepping back from this."

Rainbow glanced at Ciel. "I'm not stepping back from anything, sir."

"And neither am I," Twilight said.

Rainbow looked at her. "Twi, are you sure? You don't have to-"

"Yes," Twilight said firmly. "I do. I'm in, all the way to the end."

"Ciel Soleil reporting for duty, sir."

Sunset turned her back on the general and the professor, and looked instead to her SAPR team-mates. "We're all in on this, right?" she grinned. "Or does anyone really want to let the Rosepetals have all the fun?"

Pyrrha nodded resolutely. Jaune said, "Yeah, let's do this."

Sunset frowned slightly. "Are you going to be okay? Going back in the field again, I mean, after…"

Jaune hesitated for a moment. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah, I'll be fine. What I feel…I'd feel a lot worse if I let you guys fly off to Mountain Glenn without me."

Sunset nodded. "Glad to hear it." She looked at Ruby. "I don't even need to ask, do I?"

"Nope," Ruby said with a gleaming grin.

Sunset grinned back, before she looked over her shoulder at Professor Ozpin and General Ironwood. "Team Sapphire is ready to go."

"And I'm in too," Blake said. "I've come this far, I may as well see how it all ends."

Professor Ozpin looked at them with pride, but also with a kind of sadness that Ruby sensed radiating off of him even if she couldn't explain why he should be sad at a time like this. This was awesome! Everyone was shaking off the shock of the news that Sunset and Pyrrha had brought down from the tower and coming together to kick butt and save Vale from evil. There wasn't anything remotely sad about it.

Yet all the same, Professor Ozpin seemed sad. He was hiding it, but Ruby could tell; he was sad the way that Dad often seemed sad: she could sense it lurking behind his eyes and peeking out around the edges.

"You are to be commended for your courage and resolve," he said. "Many fully trained and qualified huntsmen would be envious of both, or ought to be. So brave, so dauntless and yet so young. Ah, to be so young again and half so full of fire." He smiled, and shook his head. "I wish you the very best of luck, and every success upon your mission."

"Pack your things, get some rest, prepare yourselves," General Ironwood said. "You leave the day after tomorrow."


	79. Prepare for Your Brightest Journey

Prepare for Your Brightest Journey

"It's weird," Blake said. "To think that this could be over soon."

Sunset was sat on her bed, infusing fire dust into her sword. She hadn't gotten much use out of it so far but you never knew. The day could be coming soon and she didn't want to be caught unprepared. That was why she'd re-infused her jacket and bracers with dust (fire, again, for the jacket, and lighting for the bracers) as well. It wouldn't exactly be great if her phoenix cape sputtered and died halfway through a fight because she'd been too lazy to infuse more dust.

Blake's remark made her look up. "Over?" she asked, a little confused about what might be over soon.

"The threat from the White Fang to Vale," Blake said. "It might not but…if this base in Mountain Glenn is as back as Torchwick says it is, if so much of their strength and equipment is there…this could cripple the Vale chapter for years." She frowned, as if she wasn't exactly sure how she'd feel about that if it came to pass. "If that happens, Atlas wouldn't need my help any more. And neither would you. That's what would end. This." She smiled sadly. "I'll miss this when it's gone."

"We'll miss you too, Blake," Ruby said. "I mean, I guess you'll only be just down the hall with Yang and Ren and Nora so it's not like we won't see each other all the time but…you know what I mean, right?"

Blake's smile broadened just a little, and the frost that had covered it like a flower in winter melted somewhat. "Yes, I know what you mean."

Sunset got to her feet. "Whether we knock the White Fang out – in Vale at least – or not in the next few days or however long this mission takes; whether Atlas has any use for you after that or not…you'll always be an honorary member of Team Sapphire." She grinned. "You put your name on the wall, there's no getting away from us now." She paused for a moment. "Except for the Vytal Festival, of course, then we're going to have to kick your ass along with the rest of Team Iron."

"I think Yang might have something to say about that," Blake said.

"Yang can say whatever she likes, I've got the better team and I know it," Sunset said. "And soon the whole of Remnant is going to know it too."

"Are you really thinking about the Vytal festival at a time like this?" Jaune asked.

"Hey, we'll have saved Vale from the White Fang by then," Sunset said. "We might as well complete the trick by defending its honour against the other kingdoms. And really, who is there to stand in our way?"

"I wouldn't underestimate Yang," Pyrrha said, softly and calmly. "Or Weiss either, for that matter. Not to mention some of the students from the other schools." She looked up from the fine-tuning she was doing to Milo. "I wonder who Rosepetal will send into the singles round."

"Penny," Sunset said. "It has to be."

"Rainbow Dash wouldn't say no to a chance at glory on the world stage," Blake pointed out.

"Maybe, but you don't build someone like Penny to not show her off where everyone's watching," Sunset replied. "But I guess Jaune might have kind of a point: we can speculate on the tournament all the we like after we get back from the mission. I've got something I want to ask you first: have you ever used dust?"

Blake blinked, looking for a moment as though she hadn't been expecting the question. "I've used it, sometimes, when I could steal some. I don't do that any more."

Sunset reached into her pocket and pulled out the money card she'd gotten from Lady Nikos. "Pyrrha's mom gave me this, she tops it up every month. So long as you only buy dust and ammo with it, and don't splash out on dirty books or something, then she'll never know."

"I do not read dirty books," Blake declared proudly. "I read romances…sometimes erotic romances." She hesitated. "Why are you giving this to me?"

"I was given this so that I could be at my best as Pyrrha's team-mate," Sunset said. "Her mother didn't want Pyrrha hampered by a team leader hampered by poverty. I'm lending it to you so that you can be at your best as all our team-mate on this mission. You say you've used dust before, so it can't hurt."

Blake lightly plucked the money card out of Sunset's hand. "You know I don't usually take charity," she said.

"Neither do I," Sunset said.

Blake nodded. "Thanks."

"You can pay me back by setting something on fire when we get to Mountain Glenn."

Blake snorted. "I should probably go now, or I might as well at least. There's no point leaving it until the stores are starting to close." With one hand she reached for the door handle not far away.

"Uh, I need to go too," Ruby said, shooting to her feet. "Um, not because I'm going shopping or anything, I just…I need to talk to Yang about something, so, uh, yeah. I'll be back really soon. Probably."

Sunset looked at her. Her eyes narrowed. "You're going to talk to Yang?"

"Yeah!"

"Then why are you acting so nervous?" Sunset asked. "What are you going to talk to her about?"

"Oh, you know," Ruby murmured, looking down at her hands. "Stuff. Sister stuff. Salem-"

"What?" Jaune exclaimed.

"Ruby," Pyrrha said, more gently but sounding no less concerned. "You want to tell her…everything?"

Sunset said nothing, but folded her arms as she regarded Ruby keenly.

Ruby hesitated, silent for a moment or two. When she spoke, her voice was small and high and childlike, younger even than she normally sounded. "She's my sister," Ruby said. "I've never kept any secrets from her before, none. When I was little, after my mom died, Yang used to read to me before I went to bed. She'd make dinner when Dad was…she took care of me. No matter what happened we always had one another. I can't know all of this stuff and not tell her, I won't. She's my sister and if I know then she knows. Besides, if our mom was involved in this then she deserves to know, and her mom too…you know what I mean."

Sunset nodded. "Don't worry, we understand. Off you go then, and we'll see you when you get back. If we're all still here, I need to have a word with Twilight about a couple of things."

"Sunset," Pyrrha said. "Ruby…are you sure that this is a good idea? Professor Ozpin-"

"Can kick us out of the club if he doesn't like it," Sunset said. "Which he didn't do when we told Ruby in the first place, so I think it's unlikely that he'll bestir himself now, even if he finds out."

"But we were asked to be discrete about all this," Pyrrha murmured.

"Yang won't tell anyone else," Ruby promised. "I'll make sure that we're alone, and I'll ask her not to tell Ren or Nora."

Pyrrha didn't look entirely convinced or mollified by that, but she said nothing further about it.

"Well…I'll be back soon," Ruby said. "Probably."

"Me too," Blake said. "Not as quickly as Ruby…probably." She smiled a little, s she opened the door and held it open for Ruby. They both left the room, and the door closed behind them both.

Pyrrha glanced at Sunset. "Do you believe that this is a good idea?"

"Do you believe it's such a bad idea that we should have done something to prevent it?" Sunset replied.

"We could have persuaded her not to," Pyrrha murmured.

"And made her miserable, most likely," Sunset said. "Why?"

"Because Professor Ozpin asked us to keep this to ourselves," Pyrrha pointed out.

"My loyalty is to this team, not to Professor Ozpin," Sunset said. "If this is what Ruby wants then I see no reason to object."

"Would you feel the same way if she wanted to tell Yang about magic?" Pyrrha asked. "Another secret she's keeping from her sister."

Sunset opened her mouth but no words came out. Not at first, anyway. It took her a moment to find any. "That," she replied magisterially. "Is completely different. That particular secret harms no one, and is no business of Yang Xiao-Long."

"Professor Ozpin might say the same."

"Professor Ozpin's knowledge is the business of all huntsmen and huntresses," Sunset said. "And after telling nine people what's one more?"

Jaune sheathed his sword. "I…I need to step out for a minute, too. I think."

"You think?" Sunset asked.

Jaune didn't get up off his bed. He had his elbows resting on his knees, and he was looking down at his hands. "Yeah. I'm still…not quite sure yet."

Pyrrha put down her Milo and Akouo and got up, walking towards Jaune. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah," Jaune said, without a completely convincing level of conviction.

"Are you sure?" Sunset said. "Because…" she hesitated to say this, because they could use his semblance out there in the field but if his heart and head weren't in it then he might end up being more hindrance than help. "If you're still not over what happened on the train then-"

"It's not about that," Jaune said quickly. "What happened…I don't think I'll ever forget it but I have…I've made my peace with it. And I'm not going to walk away from all of you, especially not now with so much at stake. This is something else."

"Like?" Sunset asked.

"You don't have to tell us," Pyrrha said, as she sat down on the bed beside him.

Jaune shook his head. "You'll probably think this is stupid but…I was thinking…I've been thinking for a little while…whether I should call my family."

He waited, as if he were expecting some kind of reaction other than the silence which greeted that pronouncement. Sunset wondered if he was expecting them to laugh at him and mock the triviality of what he said.

Well, Pyrrha wasn't the kind to laugh at her friends – or more than friends, now – and Sunset…Sunset understood that this wasn't a trivial thing, not in the least.

"When was the last time you spoke to them?" Sunset asked, as she began to walk slowly towards him, stopping at Pyrrha's bed, the next one away from Jaune's.

"On the night before I left for Beacon," Jaune said.

That didn't sound too good. "You had a fight?"

"No, I snuck out in the middle of the night without telling anybody where I was going or what I was gonna do," Jaune said. "I stole Crocea Mors and I left and…I didn't look back. Until recently."

Pyrrha put a hand on Jaune's shoulder. "Where they…cruel to you?"

"What? No," Jaune said quickly.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Pyrrha said. "I didn't mean to…I just thought…you must have had a reason for running away."

"I did," Jaune replied. "I wanted to come here and my parents never would have let me go if I'd told them about it. When I did try to tell them about it they…they didn't believe in me. Mom thought I'd get myself killed; my sisters too. Dad just thought it was a stupid idea. Which is why I had to leave: this has been my dream, and you guys…you're like my family too now. But I was thinking that maybe…maybe-"

"Maybe you should try and mend fences with them, now that you're here," Sunset said. "Because you still love them, in spite of everything."

Jaune looked up, and looked at Sunset over his shoulder. "Yeah. Exactly."

"Then what's the problem?" Sunset asked.

Jaune looked at her, and then looked down once more. "I'm not sure if they'd care. I left them a note telling everybody where I'd gone. I was a little worried that they'd come to try and take me back home…but I was also worried that they wouldn't. What if I call and it turns out…it turns out that they never cared at all?"

"I'm sure that isn't true," Sunset said. She walked around, until she was standing in front of Jaune so that he wouldn't have to look over his shoulder at her any more. "It might seem that way, and I get why believe me." She squatted down in front of him, and reached for his hands. "I get that you're scared. You're afraid to find out what they think about what you did, what they think about you now. You're afraid to find out that your worst fears are true. But if you don't take this step and reach out to them then those fears aren't going to go away. They'll just continue to fester and grow and breed in the darkness and they'll drive you crazy. But if you reach out then I'm sure you'll find that they love you just as much as they always did, because there's no way that they could stop loving you even if they wanted to…any more than you could stop loving them."

Jaune frowned. "Then why couldn't they believe in me?"

"Love has nothing to do with belief," Pyrrha said. "You can believe in someone, at least in part, without loving them…and so why shouldn't the reverse be true as well: love…without faith."

"Plus, let's be honest, you were pretty useless when you first got here," Sunset said, with a smile to show that she didn't mean it to be cruel or harsh.

Jaune chuckled self-deprecatingly. "I guess I wouldn't have made it here without help. A lot of help." He looked at Sunset, and then at Pyrrha. "Do you really think that I should do this?"

Sunset nodded. "You'll be happier once you do."

"If it's what you want," Pyrrha said, sounding a more cautious note. "Then you should do it." She smiled. "Just remember: we won't let them take you away from here for so long as you don't want to leave."

Jaune laughed again. "Right." He stood up. "Now I just need to find somewhere private."

"We can go, if you'd like the room," Pyrrha said.

"No, you're not done yet, and we have a mission to prep for," Jaune said. "I'll find somewhere." He grabbed his scroll from where it was resting on his pillow and shove it into the pockets of his jeans before he walked towards the door. "Thanks a lot," he said, as he opened said door. "I just needed that extra push."

Then he left too, and Sunset and Pyrrha were alone together.

"I hope it works out for him," Pyrrha said, her voice subdued.

Sunset frowned as she stood up. "Why wouldn't it?"

Pyrrha glanced at Sunset out of the corner of her eyes. "You assume that it will?"

"It did for me," Sunset said. "Although she wasn't my mother I…I loved her as though she was." She began to walk away, back to her bed and her waiting sword. "And so, as it turns out and despite all my fears and all the distance that had in every sense grown between us, did she. She loved me, in spite of everything. And I only needed to reach out to her to see that."

Pyrrha nodded. A sigh escaped her mouth. "Not everyone is so fortunate in their parents."

Sunset stopped, half-turning back to Pyrrha. "Do we speak of Jaune still? Or of…someone else?"

Pyrrha said nothing. She returned her own bed, and returned to finishing the fine-tuning of Milo.

Sunset sat down. "Your mother knows your worth," she said. "She knows that you are a warrior without a peer."

"Yes," Pyrrha murmured. "A warrior without peer. That is what I am to my mother. Not a daughter. Not Pyrrha Nikos. A warrior without peer and nothing more."

Sunset picked up her sword, feeling the cold hilt beneath her skin. "You're being a little hard on her, I think."

Pyrrha's laugh had a touch of bitterness. "You would think that."

"Would I?"

Pyrrha sighed. "I'm sorry. I know that it isn't your intent or something to blame you for, but…there are times when I envy the affection that she has for you."

"She gives me an allowance," Sunset said. "There is no mother's love in it."

"In your soul you are the daughter she would wish to have," Pyrrha said. "Ambitious, driven to succeed-"

"The girl who once told me that she dreamt of the final and utter defeat of the grimm calls me ambitious."

"You know what I mean."

"I do," Sunset said. "But my point stands: you aren't short of drive yourself; or ambition either."

"My destiny," Pyrrha said in a voice like a sigh. "And yet…"

"And yet?"

"There are times when I wonder if the goal I've worked towards my whole life is the one I really want," Pyrrha said. "To be the hero, to be a hero…"

Sunset frowned because now Pyrrha wasn't making a lot of sense. "What would you do instead?"

"I don't know," Pyrrha replied. "Live a simple life. A humble life. Simple pleasures: books, animals, companionship."

"Jaune?"

Pyrrha nodded, a smile spreading across her face and lighting up her face. "Yes. Jaune. If he'd have me."

"You think he might not?"

"He still has his dreams. At least I hope he does. If he lost them…he'd lose a part of himself and I…I'd hate for that to happen."

The frown remained on Sunset's brow, furrowing her eyebrows close together. "You are too great a huntress to walk away for such a life. You were made for greater things by far."

"I know," Pyrrha said softly. "But that doesn't mean that I…never mind."

Sunset was silent a moment. "If you need to talk-"

"I'm fine," Pyrrha said. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't burden you with this."

"I'm your team leader, if you can't burden me with this then who will bear it?" Sunset asked. "I like you, I respect you…but there are times when I fear that I don't understand you. Not really."

"That's nothing that you should be afraid of," Pyrrha replied. She looked out of the window. "There are times when I think that I don't understand myself."

* * *

As Ruby walked towards the YRBN dorm room she felt her trepidation growing within her. She felt the desire to turn back and return to her own room rising. She felt a growing sense of nervousness at what she was about to do.

She wanted to tell Yang the truth. Yang was her sister and she was already keeping far more secrets from her then she would like; at least she could tell herself that they weren't any of Yang's business and that it didn't hurt her to not know them but this? This was huge. This was something that affected them as people and as huntresses-in-training and this was something that Yang deserved to know about and yet the thought of actually telling her was starting to make Ruby so nervous that it was turning her feet to lead.

"Are you okay?" asked Blake, who was walking by her side until their paths diverged at the dorm room.

"Yes," Ruby said. "No. I don't know how to tell Yang all this. Do you think I should tell Yang all this?"

Blake considered it. "What will it do to you if you don't do this?"

"I don't know if I'll be able to stop thinking about it every time I talk to her."

"Then tell her," Blake said. "Don't destroy what you have with your sister for the sake of Professor Ozpin or what he wants. It's not worth it. It never is."

Ruby nodded. "All the same…how do you think she'll take it?"

Blake shrugged. "I don't know Yang well enough to say."

"Do you think she'll want to know?"

"I think…I think she'll want to know the truth, and from you," Blake replied judiciously. "As for whether or not she'll want to _know_ …I can't say. What I can say is that you can do this. You're the bravest person I've ever met."

Ruby's eyes widened. "Really?"

"Really," Blake said. "I've never seen anyone so quick to run into danger as you. That's why it's a little weird that _this_ is what's bothering you."

Ruby laughed nervously. "Yeah, well, grimm are easier than conversations, sometimes."

Blake chuckled. "Right." They had reached the YRBN dorm door. "Well, I guess this is it. Are you going to be okay?"

"Yeah," Ruby said. "I think so. I hope so. Maybe."

"You'll be fine," Blake said. "Good luck in there."

"You too," Ruby said reflexively, because what did Blake need luck for right now. Still, the faunus girl accepted her words and didn't question them; she waved at Ruby as she walked away. Ruby watched her go, waving back for a moment before squarely facing the door.

 _I have to tell her. It isn't right not to tell her._

 _If she found out that I knew about all this and didn't tell her then she'd never forgive me._

 _She's my sister and she deserves to know._

 _She's my sister._

 _I really hope she doesn't freak out about all this._

Ruby took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

"Just a second!" came Yang's voice from the other side. A moment later the door opened, revealing Yang Xiao-Long to Ruby's eyes. "Hey, sis! Great timing, I was just about to come get you."

"Why were you-" Ruby was interrupted by the excited yapping of a small dog, a grey corgi in fact, as it bounded into the gap between Yang's legs and looked up at Ruby with an excited bark of recognition.

"Zwei?" Ruby gasped.

Zwei barked.

"Zwei!" Ruby cried happily, holding out her arms as the dog leapt up and into her embrace. "Oh, come here, I missed you so much!" she laughed as Zwei started licking her face, closing her eyes as Yang guided her inside and shut the door. "Did you miss me, too? When did you get here?"

"Dad mailed him to me," Yang explained.

"Huh?"

"Apparently he has to leave home for a few days, so he asked me to watch Zwei while he's gone."

Ruby opened one eye. "But what about the field trips? We, I mean you have to choose your assignment tomorrow."

"Dad _did_ send all the food that he'll need," Yang said, gesturing to a pile of tin cans stacked neatly in the corner of the room.

"That's neat for you," Ruby observed.

"Ren did it," Yang said. "He couldn't stand them being left on the floor where I dropped them."

"Of course that's it."

"The point is, I'm sure he'll be able to take care of himself," Yang said. "Or I could just take him with me. Ren and Nora want to take a village security job if there is one, it might not start right away and even if it does it shouldn't be too rough. It'll be almost like having a fourth team-mate."

Something about the way Yang said that made Ruby look up. She let Zwei jump out of her arms and onto the floor. "What about Blake?"

"She's going with you guys again, isn't she?"

Ruby looked downwards. "How did you know?"

"You said 'you have to choose your assignment tomorrow'," Yang said. "You already have a mission, don't you? Something with that Atlas team?"

"Yeah," Ruby conceded. "That's not all we've got."

"Huh?"

Ruby grabbed her sleeve with one hand. "I…I need to talk to you about something," she said. "Something…really big."

* * *

Jaune had debated calling Saffron first, because of all his sisters she had often seemed to be the one who 'got him' the most, although that might just be the fact that she was too old to actively tease him in the way that some of his sisters closer to his own age had, or maybe it was the fact that she'd moved out of the house and hadn't bugged him the way that some of the others had for longer, or maybe she really did get him more than most of his family…but it didn't really matter because Saffron would be at work about now and anyway she'd probably just tell him to call Mom anyway.

He was in Doctor Oobleck's history classroom, empty because it wasn't time for class, and he was sat on one of the benches with his feet braced against the desk, his scroll in his hands, waiting to be used.

 _Video, or voice only?_

He decided to go for voice only this time. He wasn't sure – Sunset's assurances aside – that he wanted to see her face.

The scroll rang a few times – eleven times, yes he was counting – before his mother answered in her familiar, musical voice. "Hello?"

Jaune couldn't speak. His words were stuck in his throat. What was he supposed to say? Should he have thought of something to say before he called? Should he have written it down somewhere? He hadn't said anything to his mom for months, not since he walked away in the middle of the night leaving a note behind so what was he supposed to say now?

What was he supposed to say?

"Hello?" Mom asked again. "Is anyone there?"

"Hey, Mom," Jaune said, or rather those were the words that he managed to get out, inadequate as they were.

There was silence on the other end of the line. "Jaune?"

"Yeah," Jaune said slowly, cautiously. "Yeah, Mom, it's me."

"Oh my…" Mom murmured. "Thank goodness, I've been so…where are you?"

"I'm at Beacon Academy," Jaune said, trying to sound upbeat. "Right where I told you I was going."

"You mean you made it? And you're still there?"

 _And that right there is exactly why I left._ Jaune couldn't help but feel a little chagrined, and a little bit vindicated at the same time. "Yes, Mom, I'm still there. I'm actually doing pretty great."

"But how?" Mom asked. "I'm sorry, that…you must think I'm terrible."

"No, Mom," Jaune said, and it was mostly true. "I don't think that."

"Then why did you leave?" Mom demanded, her voice rising. "And why did you leave like that? A note? In the middle of the night? I spent every night for two weeks waiting for the police to find your body in the woods somewhere! Gold told me that you'd come back on your own after a couple of days-"

"Really? Dad actually said that?" Jaune squawked indignantly. He'd know that his father didn't think he was up to much but come on! "Did you think that I was just acting out or something?"

His mother's silence on the other end of the line said everything that needed to be said on the matter. They had thought it was all just a stupid teenage temper tantrum, theft and note and all. They had thought that he'd come back after a short while with his tail between his legs, having learned his lesson.

And the worst part was that he might actually have done it. There had been a time when he had been so close to giving up. If it hadn't been for everyone's help…he'd be back home now, almost certainly.

"I asked Gold to go and look for you," Mom said apologetically. "But you know your father, he said-"

"I can guess," Jaune said quickly. "It's okay, Mom. You don't have to explain and you don't have to apologise. I…I should be the one apologising for just walking out like that. I'm sorry if you were worried about me."

"I wish I understood why you did it."

"Because this is my dream," Jaune said. "This is what I want to be, what I always wanted to be. I know that you thought I didn't understand what it meant to be a huntsman and…and you were right. I didn't. I thought it would be easy and cool and it isn't, it's hard work and…and it's difficult decisions knowing things and doing things that you might not always want to do." Sitting here, talking to his mom – to his _mom_ – again, the temptation was so great to just let it all flow out of him. To just spill the whole thing: everything that he knew, everything that had happened to him, everything that Ozpin had told him. Just let it out and let his mother take it all away from him.

But he didn't, because he was a huntsman in training and a part of being a huntsman was taking on the burdens so that others didn't have to. Like Ruby's mom had done. Like they were going to do.

Like he would do.

"It's hard sometimes," he said. "But it's what I want to be. More than ever now."

"But…how?" Mom asked. "When you left you didn't have any training, you didn't know how to use that sword…I don't mean to sound like I don't have any faith in you it's just that I don't understand how you've made it this far."

Jaune took advantage of the fact that the call was voice-only to open up his pictures folder. He scrolled through some of the team photos that they'd had taken until he found one that included Blake in it; it was true that they hadn't talked much at all but considering that she'd been a big part of their last mission and was about to go with them on this one it felt rude and wrong to just ignore her. Apart from that, the picture was one he thought his mom would like: a nice group shot of them all in a line. Sunset was smirking, with her arms folded across her chest; Jaune himself had a goofy grin on his face as he gave a thumbs up to the camera; Pyrrha's smile was nervous and a little uncertain, she had a hand on Jaune's shoulder; Ruby was making a peace sign; Blake half looked as though she wasn't entirely sure that she was wanted here, but nevertheless the corners of her lips were turning slightly upwards.

He sent the photo. "I just sent you a picture. Can you see it."

There was a brief. "Yes, sweetie, I've got it now."

"Those are my team-mates," Jaune said. "They're my friends. Sunset, Pyrrha, Ruby and Blake." He decided not to tell his Mom that he had asked Pyrrha out because he had no idea at all how she'd react to it. "They help me, and they take care of me a little bit; and I take care of them too. We're a team, Team Sapphire, and we help each other get through the rough patches. They're the reason I've made it this far, and I'd like to think that I've helped them make it too."

"They're…they're good people, then?"

"Yeah," Jaune said. "They're the best."

"Then I'm glad you're not alone there at Beacon," Mom said. "Although I am worried, the news said there'd been an attack or something."

"There was," Jaune said.

"That doesn't sound very safe."

"I'm training to be a huntsman, Mom, it's not safe," Jaune said. "But it's important. I'm making a difference and that's what I want. That's what I always wanted."

"I thought you always wanted to wear a fancy costume like those comic book characters you kept reading about."

Jaune laughed nervously. "Well…that too, sure."

He could hear his mother sighing on the other end of the line. "Are you happy, dear?"

"Yes," Jaune said earnestly. "I really am. I'm…I'm where I belong."

"Then I'm glad for you," she said. "I'll probably never stop worrying – I am your mother after all – but I'd hate to see you waste away at home with nothing to do and nothing to motivate you. I'm glad you called. Your father will be glad too, when I tell him."

"Is Dad around?" Jaune asked, hoping that he wasn't because he didn't really want to speak to his old man right now. Mom had turned out to be not nearly so bad as he'd feared but his father was something else altogether.

"No, I'm afraid he's gone to the country club to play golf with some of the guys, but I know he'll be as pleased as I am to know that you're…not safe, but you know what I mean. Jaune?"

"Yeah?"

"I know that you're not coming home any time soon…but is there any chance that you could visit? Do they ever let you out of that place? Only it's your father's birthday in three weeks and everyone's getting together to celebrate. Saffron and Terra are even flying in from Argus. It would mean so much to me if you could come back for the party."

"I don't know, Mom," Jaune said. Leaving aside the question of what he'd actually say to his father, the semester would be over in two weeks so he could go home for the holiday…but would the mission be over by then? If they hadn't stopped the White Fang it's not like they could leave Mountain Glenn to go home for the break. "I'm about to go on a mission, that's why I called. I wanted say something before I left. But I don't know how long it'll take. I'll try my best, I promise."

"A mission," his mother murmured. "You mean…you're going outside? You're going to fight…them? Those monsters?"

"Yeah," Jaune said, because it was easier to let her assume it was the grimm than explain everything about the White Fang and Cinder.

"It's going to be dangerous, isn't it?"

"A little," Jaune admitted. "But I've got my team with me, and we're all watching out for one another."

"I still remember when your sisters used to put your hair in pigtails," Mom said.

"So do I," Jaune muttered.

"My baby; please be careful out there."

* * *

Zwei sat on the floor and stared up at the two girls who sat in silence once Ruby had explained everything that she knew.

"Huh," Yang said after a moment. "Well…that's a thing."

Ruby waited. That wasn't it, was it? That couldn't be it? After all the different ways in which everyone else had reacted to this, that couldn't be them sum total of Yang's reaction. Well that's a thing? Ruby loved her sister but she wasn't that calm. She wasn't really calm at all.

And yet it seemed, after waiting, that that was all that Yang had to say.

"Is that it?" Ruby asked. "You're taking this very well."

Yang shrugged. "What do you want me to do? Get mad? Throw stuff? Burn up?"

"I don't want that…but I thought you might do it."

Yang flopped back onto the bed. "It's just so…huge, you know. I don't know how to react to all of this stuff. It's like…I don't know what it's like, it's too _big_. If you'd fed it to me one piece at a time I might have gotten angry at some of it but… _wow_. All this stuff." She blinked, and her eyes turned from lilac to red. "You know what, I take it back. There is something that pisses me off."

"What?" Ruby asked nervously.

"That Dad and Uncle Qrow both knew about this," Yang snapped as she sat upright once again. "Mom was involved in this, Mom maybe died doing this, and they both knew all about it and neither of them said anything! The only person who tried to tell us anything about this was Raven!"

"She was?"

"Yes!" Yang exclaimed as she leapt off the bed. Zwei darted away as Yang began to pace up and down. "That's what she warned me about that night in the tunnels, that's why she told us to keep the reading the diary, this is the stuff that she said would shake the foundations of my world so she couldn't tell me herself. This! All of it, all of Ozpin's secrets!" She growled wordlessly. "I can't believe. Dad. Uncle Qrow. Why would they keep stuff like this from us?"

"Maybe they didn't think we needed to know?"

"How could they think that?" Yang demanded. "Raven saw. Raven knew what was going on and she tried to warn me-"

"Do you think she was right?"

"Huh?" Yang asked, as she stopped pacing.

"Sunset doesn't trust Professor Ozpin," Ruby said. "The way you're talking…does that mean you don't trust him either?"

Yang hesitated, clenching and unclenching her hands into fists by her sides. "I don't know. Raven doesn't trust him. But Raven left me and…she left me. Left Dad. She might not trust Ozpin but I don't know if I want to trust her. But all the same…she's been right about a lot of things. Ozpin has secrets. And he's recruited you to fight for him."

"I'm fighting for humanity, just like a huntress should," Ruby said.

"I know, but this is exactly what Raven warned me about-"

"Why? Because she's afraid I'll end up dead like Mom?"

"Or I will?" Yang suggested. "I don't know, she didn't exactly stick around to explain properly. Once she'd warned me, she…maybe she knew it wouldn't make any difference. Warning me didn't change a thing. Ozpin still has you right where he wants you."

"I'm not a toy, Yang," Ruby said. "Ozpin doesn't put me anywhere."

"Not even Mountain Glenn?"

"We volunteered for that."

"Of course you did," Yang said, with a fond smile. "That's just who you are, Rubes." She reached out and ruffled Ruby's hair with one hand. "Just like worrying about you is who I am." She pulled Ruby's hood over her head.

"Yang, stop it," Ruby said, as she pushed her hood back. "Do you want to ask Dad why he didn't tell us any of this stuff?"

"Right now? No," Yang said. "He's busy, and he doesn't need the distraction. But come the end of semester we are going to go home and then our dad is going to have some serious explaining to do."

Zwei barked in agreement.

"And the rest…you're okay with it?" Ruby said hopefully.

"Am I okay with you being one of Ozpin's favourites?" Yang replied. "Not really, but I don't really know what I feel about it yet. I know how _Raven_ feels about it, but me?" Yang grinned. "It doesn't really matter how I feel, because you're okay with it, aren't you?"

Ruby nodded. "I'm helping people, that hasn't changed."

"Neither have you," Yang said. She sighed. "You know what?"

"What?"

"I really, really wish that we had ended up on the same team together," Yang said. She wrapped an arm round Ruby's neck and pulled her tight. "Then I wouldn't ever have to let you out of my sight ever again."

"Agh! Yang!" Ruby cried, flailing wildly with her arms. "Stop it! Get off!"

Yang let her go. "Thanks, Rubes."

Ruby scooted a short distance away. "Thanks for what?"

"For telling me all this," Yang said. "Did you ever think about not telling me?"

"No," Ruby said. "Yes. Not much. Only because I was afraid of what you'd say."

"If you hadn't told me I would have been mad," Yang said. "And worried. Just promise me that whatever happens, Professor Ozpin and all his stuff isn't going to come between us. We'll still be sisters no matter what."

"No matter what," Ruby agreed, because what could ever possibly happen to change that.

"So," Yang said. "You're going to Mountain Glenn?"

"Yep."

"To look for Cinder?"

"Yep. And the White Fang."

Yang nodded. "Going on world-saving missions without me, huh? It's enough to make a big sister jealous…and proud at the same time. Good luck out there."

"You too!"

They stayed together for a little while longer, speculating about what their father was doing, about what YR_N's mission of choice might involve, about what the weather was like in Patch at this time of year. They talked a little about Yang's Signal friends, whom she didn't see very much of any more, and Ruby's Signal friends whom she ought to have written too more often, and all kinds of other sister stuff.

But eventually it was time for Ruby to go, and she slipped out of Yang's dorm and turned towards her own.

"That was a very generous thing you just did, Miss Rose," Professor Ozpin said from behind her. "Even if it was not wise then it was certainly generous beyond denial."

Ruby squeaked in startled surprise as she turned to look at the headmaster looming over her. "Professor…what are you doing here?"

Professor Ozpin smiled as he sipped out of the cup in his left hand. "I was hoping that we might have a brief talk now that you've been, shall we say, admitted into the inner circle."

Ruby looked away. "You, uh, you're not mad about that."

"What would be the point of anger?" Professor Ozpin asked. "The past cannot be undone. We must, as they say, keep moving forward. Speaking of which, will you walk with me, Miss Rose?"

"Oh, yes. Of course, Professor."

Professor Ozpin led the way down the corridor, past the SAPR dorm room and in the direction of the staircase. "And besides, although I may not have sent for you that makes me no less glad to have someone like you at my side."

"Because…" Ruby hesitated, wondering if it would reveal too much to say this. But if Ozpin hadn't gotten mad about Sunset and Pyrrha telling them everything then why would he get mad at this. "Because of my silver eyes?"

Ozpin hesitated. "You know a great many things, Miss Rose."

"Yeah, well, ahaha," Ruby murmured, hoping that he didn't ask her how she knew about that. "Anyway…I haven't actually been able to use my eyes yet so-"

"Then it is fortunate that I was not referring to the as-yet untapped potential of your lineage," Professor Ozpin said. "Despite your youth, you have the heart of a true huntress, Miss Rose. Of all your team-mates, perhaps of all the students in this school, you are the only one who perfectly embodies the values which the huntsman academies were established to instil in all their students."

Ruby didn't consider herself to be susceptible to flattery, but even so she couldn't deny that her heart rose a little hear him say that. "Really?"

"Indeed," Professor Ozpin declared. "The same values that I once saw embodied in your mother, when she came here to study her craft a generation ago."

Ruby swallowed. She didn't allow herself the time to hesitate before she said, "Professor Ozpin, was my mother a part of your organisation? Was my father, and my uncle?"

Professor Ozpin chuckled. "Something tells me that you know the answer to that, Miss Rose."

"Yes," Ruby whispered.

Professor Ozpin nodded. "Team Stark were the most gifted students to attend Beacon that, and for several years before. The truth is that not until this year has there been a team with even the chance to match them." His eyes twinkled as he smiled at her. "I could not allow such an opportunity pass me by. I revealed the truth to your parents and their team-mates for much the same reason that I approached your team-mates: because the world stands in the way of harm and the aid of the most gifted young huntsmen and huntresses is invaluable to me in preventing that harm.

"I do not regret what I did, but I do bitterly regret your mother's passing. I give you my word on that, Ruby."

"So…is that how she died?" Ruby asked. "Did Mom die working for you?"

Professor Ozpin sighed. "Tomorrow you leave on a mission of great urgency, Ruby. I would advise you to keep your focus on what lies ahead. But, when you return, we will talk of your mother if you wish to do so." He smiled. "She was a remarkable young woman, and you are so like her in so many ways."

"Thank you," Ruby squeaked. "I'd like that. I'd like that a lot." More than she had the words to express. To read her mother's words was a wonderful gift, but to hear stories about her from someone who had known her…Dad didn't talk about Mom much, and Uncle Qrow talked about her even less. To hear some real stories about her, to hear what she was like to talk to, how she moved when she fought, what kind of weapon she fought with…it was an opportunity that she couldn't pass up and for which she could never repay him.

"It's the least I can do, for Summer's child," Professor Ozpin replied. His face became grave. "I am not your enemy Ruby. I am not the person to whom your ire and suspicion should be directed."

"I've never thought you were."

"Would that all of your team-mates were so good at judging my intentions," Professor Ozpin said. "Please, Ruby, look on me as a friend. And whatever happens, I beg of you, think well of me."

"I will, Professor," Ruby said. "I promise."


	80. Lovely Hearts

Lovely Hearts

Twilight examined the object that Sunset had just handed to her. It was a slender tube, like a small battery, made out of some kind of metal. It was emitting a faint green glow from lines running down the sides, quartering the tube and cutting across it almost like measurements.

She'd never seen anything quite like it. "Is it a power pack?"

"Sort of," Sunset said. "It's magic."

Twilight's eyebrows rose. Magic. The word was giving her chills. It was funny, considering that she'd always believed that it was real and out there somewhere if she could only find it, but now that she _had_ found it (albeit without much actual searching, it was more like the magic had come to her) she found she was having a little trouble actually believing that it was real. Or rather, she was having trouble believing that she had known a magical being – whatever the right thing to call her was – for some time and not realised it.

Admittedly, Sunset's magic didn't look anything like the magic that she'd seen as a child, but still. Magic! And she'd missed it! She felt like an idiot and yet at the same time she felt as though a vault of unimaginable wonders had just been opened up in front of her.

She had so many questions that she barely knew where to start, but if there was one thing that her studies in science had taught her it was that basic knowledge was the building blocks for advanced discovery, so she started with an obvious question. "How does it work?"

Sunset raised one hand, and her fingertips began to glow with a green aura similar that being given off by the battery. "I put some of my power into that container. You should be able to tap into it in the same way that you would be connecting to a battery."

"You can do that?" Twilight asked, her voice becoming a little more high-pitched as her eyes widened behind her glasses.

"I just did," Sunset pointed out.

"Right, of course," Twilight said. She looked from Sunset to the battery and then back to Sunset. "Will it…will your magic come back? Or is it permanently locked in here?"

"No offence, but if I thought I was going to lose my magic permanently I wouldn't have done it," Sunset said. "I put a small amount of power in, but enough that I can still feel the absence. But it should regenerate in the same way that it comes back after I use magic in fights."

"So it's like aura, then? After it's been weakened it recovers if given time."

"Exactly," Sunset said. "And I'm hoping, which is the main point of the exercise, that the same will be true of that battery in your hand. Maybe not if you expend it completely, but provided that there is always something left in there it should recharge without the need to actually, recharge."

"Seriously?" Twilight squeaked. "Are you…seriously? It's just going to come back? On it's own?"

"You could believe that when I was talking about my magic but not the magic I stuffed in a metal tube," Sunset observed.

"Because it just breaks conservation of energy into pieces!"

"So does aura."

"Yes, I know, believe me," Twilight muttered. "But aura is…aura is something that I just have to accept…and now apparently the same is true of this." She put the magical battery down on the table and stared at it, the green light captivating her in ways that a cave full of gold and jewels would never have been able to do. "Perpetually regenerating power supply," she said. "Wow." She leaned back in her chair. "You have no idea how jealous I am of you right now."

Sunset smirked. "Everyone in their right mind is jealous of me, but what's the specific reason this time?"

"This!" Twilight said, gesturing at the battery. "You've been walking around with the most sought-after scientific discovery since alchemists first discovered the properties of Dust and you don't even realise! It's not a big deal to you! This…this is incredible!" For a moment her mind whirled with possibilities: with an unlimited energy supply then the menace of Peak Dust would no longer cast a shadow over the four kingdoms, they wouldn't have to worry about power shortages or weapons failures or their entire foundation for their society and defence collapsing around them because…

Except they would. Of course they would. Twilight's thoughts returned from the lofty flights of fancy in which they had been engaged to return to reality. There was no unlimited power supply. There was just Sunset Shimmer, who could provide a little but presumably not a huge amount, especially without harming her which Twilight wouldn't do.

Which being the case, it begged a question. "Why have you given this to me?"

"I thought it might help you with your problem with Penny and the wires," Sunset explained.

Twilight looked at the battery again, taking in the size of it, the shape of it, visualising in her mind how it would look attached to Penny's sword. "That's…I'd need to run some tests to determine the capacity, duration, confirm that it does in fact recharge…just give me a second…" She opened up her computer, and from her back she telekinetically extracted a few cables which, in a few moments, she had connected Sunset's magical battery to the computer and set a programme running that would continue to operate here in the room even after they had left for Mountain Glenn: a programme that would slowly drain the battery at a moderate rate, calculating overall power storage and average capacity based on a variety of usages before stopping at approximately 5% of capacity to examine whether or not it did, in fact, recharge.

By the time that they got back from Mountain Glenn Twilight should have all the information that she needed to determine whether or not this was a viable option for Penny.

Then – if Sunset remained willing and able to produce more batteries just like this – all she'd have to do is take Penny home to Atlas over the vacation and actually perform an upgrade.

That and explain to Penny's father and their colleagues in the programme where she'd gotten them from, how they worked, and why they couldn't be replicated.

 _I'll figure something out. And Doctor Polendina will understand how important it is that we remove any vulnerability from Penny's systems._

"This," Twilight said. "This could be something absolutely amazing. What's it like?"

"Being amazing?"

Twilight let out a giggling snort. "Having magic. Having the power to just break the laws of physics and reality whenever you want to? What does it let you do? What _can't_ you do? How does it work? How did you get it? Why-"

"Slow down," Sunset said, with amusement in her voice. "I didn't get it from anyone except my parents. I was born with this. It works…that's kind of hard to explain. I will things…and they happen. Sort of. It might be more accurate to say that I will things and then I emit the energy that will do what I want. Which means that when what I want to do is simply emit energy, like in an attack, will and vector are all that it takes. For other spells I actually have to have a target."

Twilight leaned forwards. "What else can you do?"

"Transfiguration," Sunset said. "Enchantment…or I could. The truth is that I'm a little out of practice with a lot of my non-combat spells. Having to restrict my magic to what I could explain away as a semblance meant that I couldn't do it in public, and in private…I just didn't see the point in performing spells for my own amusement."

"Transfiguration," Twilight murmured. "So does that mean that you could…turn someone's weapon into a plastic flamingo or something?"

Sunset's eyebrows rose. "A plastic flamingo?"

"You know, the lawn ornaments."

Sunset's eyebrows rose even further.

"I think they're cute," Twilight admitted.

Sunset sniggered. "I couldn't do that while my enemy was holding their weapon."

Twilight resisted the temptation to ask why, preparing to consider the matter herself and work out the answer. "Because our weapons are infused with our aura, and our aura protects them from magic."

"Got it in one," Sunset said. "I can't affect things through aura in that way; the shield protects them from all kinds of magic, not just the overt attacks."

"But if you could get their weapons away from them you could make them harmless."

"Yes," Sunset allowed. "Although that's quite an if."

Spike hopped up onto Twilight's lap, and Twilight scratched his chin as she pondered her next question. "Do you know why you're magic is so different to the magic that I saw as a child?"

Sunset hesitated for a little while. "No," she said eventually. "Like I said, I was born with the power to do this. From what I've read about the prophets and the red queens it seems as if their power was…bestowed upon them, somehow." She leaned back in her chair. "If you really want to know all about that, you should probably ask your friend the general."

"General Ironwood," Twilight said. "You think he knows something about this."

"I think Professor Ozpin's club is the reason that the magic disappeared and faded into legend," Sunset said. "Think about it: the first red queen arose when someone called the dark mother told her how to obtain that power in exchange for a trinket. Now, if we assume – and I admit that it isn't an assumption, but it makes sense – that the dark mother was Salem, then the trinket that she wanted becomes-"

"A relic," Twilight said. "One of those being defended by Professor Ozpin's organisation."

"If it existed at the time," Sunset said. "Now the first queen told Salem – if that's who she was – to take a running jump. Maybe she worked out that the relic wasn't the worthless thing that Salem made out it was and wanted for herself, but anyway. The powers of the prophets or whatever they really are fell into the hands of people who really shouldn't have been trusted with that kind of power until the last four red queens were hunted down and killed."

"Which is when magic disappears from any semblance of historical record."

"Except that it didn't disappear because you've seen it," Sunset said. "And so did Ruby's mother, for that matter. What if, at the same time that they decided to hide the relics, the original people who founded this secret circle decided to hide magic too? And for the same reasons?"

"That makes sense," Twilight murmured. "I mean, it's a little convenient but it makes sense. After all, if Salem did start the era of the red queens then she nearly brought humanity to its knees. If the relics were too powerful to risk them being out in the open where men could use them against each other then that goes for magic, too." She glanced at Sunset. "I'm not going to ask General Ironwood about this."

"You're not?"

"No," Twilight replied. "Now that we're involved in this, he'll tell me when he thinks I'm ready. When I need to know."

"And what if he never thinks you're ready?" Sunset asked. "What if you never need to know?"

"Then I was never ready and I never needed that information," Twilight said. "You might not trust Professor Ozpin, but I've known General Ironwood my whole life. He's a good man and he has good reasons for the things that he does, I'm sure. I'd love to know more. I'd love to know the truth behind the world. Knowing what I do, all the things that I've learnt, the only thing that makes it less than perfect is that I can't tell anybody. But I'm not going to put the world in danger just to feed my own desire for knowledge."

Sunset looked at her for a moment, and Twilight could read the scepticism in her eyes. But in the end she says, "I get it. I…there's someone that I trust like that too. It's just not the headmaster." She pushed her chair back from the table and started to get up. "Let me know how that test goes with the battery and I'll let you know if my magic comes back."

"Sunset," Twilight said, before she could leave. "Are you…are you nervous about what's going to happen tomorrow."

Sunset was silent. She was wearing opera gloves on her hands, Twilight noticed. She hadn't been paying enough attention to notice it up until now but at this point, with Sunset on her feet and the way she was standing they were in Twilight's view in a way they hadn't been before. They weren't the gloves she'd borrowed from Pyrrha, either. These were white, like bridal gloves from a wedding dress; Sunset must have picked them up before meeting with Twilight.

"I'm terrified," Sunset admitted, and Twilight realised that her whole body was trembling. She – Sunset – clenched her jaw. "Cinder wants us to go to Mountain Glenn, and Cinder wants my friends dead. She wants them dead and if anything happened to them then I-" Sunset stopped dead before she could say what it would do to her. She didn't have to say, especially after she wiped her eye with one hand. "I can't let that happen. I'd like to say that I won't let it happen, but…am I strong enough? Can I protect them from Cinder? From Adam?"

Twilight let the question hang for a moment before she realised that probably wasn't a good idea. "I was actually hoping that you could reassure me," she said plaintively.

Sunset laughed more than was probably warranted. "Sorry," she said. "You've got a good team looking out for you, I'm sure you'll be fine."

"You've got a great team, too."

"I know," Sunset said. "I just…they're everything to me. More than fame, more than fortune, more than destiny or fate itself I…I don't want her to take that away from me."

"She won't," Twilight said. "I'm sure she won't, I…Sunset, do you want to go see a movie?"

"Huh?" Sunset looked thrown by the sudden shift in concentration.

"All of us, both our teams," Twilight said. "The new LovelyHearts movie opened yesterday and they always make me feel better no matter what's going on. I thought that maybe we could all use uplift before we head out on our mission tomorrow. And…well…"

"Yeah?"

"I usually go see these movies with my friends," Twilight admitted. "It's kind of a tradition. But Rarity and Pinkie are in Atlas, Applejack and Fluttershy aren't here either and…I don't think I'm going to get the chance to see this one with them. So I thought…I guess I was hoping that my friends here wouldn't mind going with me instead."

Sunset nodded slowly. "I…honestly, I've got no idea what this is because I don't go to the movies very often, but you're right: we could use something fun on the night before our mission. I'll talk to the rest of the team, and you talk to yours." Sunset turned away. "Hey, Twilight?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks," Sunset said. "And don't tell anyone about the, uh…" she waved her hand in front of her face.

Twilight smiled. "Don't worry. Your secret's safe with me."

* * *

"Thank you for coming, Rainbow Dash," General Ironwood said. "At ease."

Rainbow Dash stood at ease, her foot slamming down onto the floor of the general's office as she clasped her hands behind her back.

"I called you in to give you a final briefing regarding your mission tomorrow," General Ironwood said. "In light of the potential severity of the situation – and to maintain the notion that this is a simple training mission of the kind that might be given to any team of students – a professional huntress will be supervising the expedition."

"Specialist Schnee, sir?" Rainbow guessed.

"No, Specialist Schnee is remaining here," General Ironwood said. "Beacon's Professor Goodwitch will be overseeing your efforts. She's fully aware of the situation."

"Yes sir," Rainbow said. She would have preferred Specialist Schnee, but she guessed that she could understand why they'd gone with the Beacon combat instructor: she was in the know about all the same things that RSPT and SAPR were now in the know about, so they wouldn't have to watch what they said around her.

 _And she is the combat instructor, so I guess she must have some moves._

 _Or she used to have some moves back when she was a real pro._

 _I guess we'll find out if there's any rust on her, won't we?_

"The second things that I wanted to inform you," General Ironwood began, but then stopped. "No, I didn't want to inform you of this. It gives me no pleasure but it must be done. We've lost contact with Site 32."

Rainbow couldn't restrain the gasp from escaping her parted lips. _That's where Applejack and Fluttershy…_ "When?"

"On the same night that the tower was attacked," General Ironwood said gravely.

 _Dammit! And it's in the south-east, too, how didn't I…I should have…why didn't I ask about them sooner?_

"We still don't know exactly what happened there-" General Ironwood began.

"With respect, sir, I know what happened out there," Rainbow growled. _Cinder, I swear, you're a dead woman walking._

Fluttershy. Applejack. Someone – and Rainbow knew who that someone was going to be, because there was no way that he was going to foist that off on Twilight – was going to have to tell Pinkie that two of her best friends were never coming home; someone would have to tell Apple Bloom that her sister was dead. Someone would have to break that news.

And Rainbow would have to live with it.

It was true, what General Ironwood said: they didn't know exactly what had happened yet. But already Rainbow Dash felt as though a third of her heart was missing. Torn away by the malice of Cinder and the White Fang.

 _I'll break your bones and have your blood for this._

"Your first task, once you head out, is to head to Site 32 and find out what the situation is," General Ironwood said. "It may be a simple communications breakdown. If not…report on what you find before you head out to Mountain Glenn."

Rainbow nodded. "And does…does Professor Goodwitch know about we were doing there, sir?"

"No," General Ironwood replied. "Don't enlighten her."

Rainbow ground her teeth. "Permission to speak freely, sir."

"Granted."

"This was a bad idea from the start, and getting Fluttershy involved in this was an even worse one." _Though not as bad as the fact that I let it happen._

"It had to be attempted," General Ironwood said. "A semblance like your friend's couldn't simply be ignored when the possibilities it represented were so potentially advantageous."

"Fluttershy isn't a soldier, sir, this isn't the life that she signed up for," Rainbow said. "And the fact that Atlas was able to bribe and bully her into it doesn't change that." _Guaranteed funding for a whole string of animal shelters for the next ten years? Playing on how nice she was by telling her she had a chance to spare her friends from danger? Was that all that it took? Was that enough to get her to risk her life out here like this?_

 _Fluttershy, you were so naïve. But maybe not as naïve as me and Applejack for not seeing how badly this could go._

It was Fluttershy's fate – unconfirmed but looking agonisingly likely at this stage – that Rainbow regretted more. Applejack…Applejack was one of her best friends and losing her was like a hole in the chest but Applejack was a huntress. She'd signed on for this life, she knew the risks, there was always a chance that it might end this way and as hard as it might be on her folks and her friends that was something that Rainbow Dash could tell herself. But Fluttershy was just a girl who loved animals too much and for that…for that she had been thrown into this.

" _Resolution_ and _Gallant_ will be a few hours behind you as you head to the first location," General Ironwood said. "Once you've completed your initial investigation call them in, they'll recover any…thing left that can be recovered, and remain on station there while you head to Mountain Glenn. Once you've confirmed the location of the White Fang base, if there is one, signal the ships and they'll move in to support you. The rest of our forces may follow – more slowly of course – depending on your report as to the enemy strength."

"Yes, sir."

General Ironwood regarded her keenly. "Don't let your temper get the best of you out there, Rainbow Dash," he said. "That's exactly what she wants."

"Two of my best friends might be dead, sir, should I be cool with that?" Rainbow snapped.

"No," General Ironwood said. "But as a team leader you need to keep your head out there. Unless you want to lose another good friend."

Rainbow scowled. "I'm not gonna lose Twilight out there, sir."

"If I didn't believe that you wouldn't be leading this team," General Ironwood said. "Stay calm, stay sharp; find our people, or avenge them. Find the enemy so that we can destroy them. And protect your team, that above all else. Good luck."

* * *

"So, what is this film actually about?" Sunset asked, as they took their seats in the theatre. She remained standing just a moment longer than the rest, so that she could better survey the audience they were apart of. "And why are there so many children here?"

"Well…" Twilight murmured.

"It's a kids' film, isn't it?" Sunset asked as she sat down.

"I prefer to say that it's for all ages."

"I bet," Sunset said as she sat down. She scooped up a handful of popcorn out of the bucket she was holding, and put it into her mouth. She cast her eyes up and down the nine of them. She chewed, then swallowed. "Still, I wonder if they thought it was weird us coming here without a kid. Unless you count Ruby."

"Hey!"

Sunset leaned back in her seat, and tried to let this film – not that it had started yet, they hadn't even started playing the adverts, it was just a repeating clip of a big letter M for Movieworld with showers of paint going off behind it while whooshing sounds played – do what Twilight had suggested that it would do, and relax her. Take her mind off things.

Make her forget what was coming, and what might happen.

Her hand shook a little, so she gave it something to do by putting more popcorn into her mouth. Adam would be in Mountain Glenn; if the White Fang concentration was as great as Torchwick said it was – bit of an if, but nevertheless – then there was no way that he'd be anywhere else.

In truth, it was Adam who frightened her more than Cinder Fall. Cinder might hate Pyrrha with a fiery passion, she might want Sunset's team-mates dead, she might be a hate-filled monster with no conscience but she'd also run from the last time she'd confronted SAPR and RSPT. Adam…okay, Adam had run too, but Adam would have killed Ruby if things had been a little different. Cinder couldn't say the same.

 _Yet._

 _Shut up._

"Rainbow Dash?" Twilight asked. "Are you okay?"

Sunset looked to her left. Rainbow was sitting on the aisle, looking unusually tense and grim-faced: her hands were clasped together, she was leaning forward with an almost scowl on her face, her eyes hooded. She looked as though she was about to start snarling at any moment.

And then, when Twilight placed a hand on her, she softened, albeit with such a visible effort that it gave the lie to the idea that there wasn't something wrong. "I…I'm fine, Twi. I just…I've got something to tell you."

"What?"

Rainbow hesitated. "Not now. We'll talk about it tomorrow okay. Let's just watch the movie when it starts." She smiled, although it seemed as forced as her calm from a moment before. "Hey, remember when that time when you actually got scared of the bad guy?"

"Suite LovelyHeart was actually a very dark and frightening incarnation," Twilight spluttered defensively. "And the internet agrees with me about that."

"Sure," Rainbow said. "I wish we could see this with them."

"Me too," Twilight said. "But at least we're here with friends? And there's always next year."

"Yeah," Rainbow said, sounding a little more hoarse than usual. "Next year."

 _What do you know, Rainbow Dash?_ Sunset wondered. _And what's upset you about it?_

She had half a mind to demand answers, in case it was something that affected all of them, but she didn't want to ruin Twilight's evening, or anyone else's either: for all that nobody looked super enthusiastic, nobody looked put out to be here either. Ruby was audibly sucking drink out of a cardboard cup, Blake had curled up on the seat with her eyes closed; Pyrrha was resting her head on Jaune's shoulder, which he looked as though he didn't mind at all; Penny looked curious, while Ciel was the only one who had an expression that might be called embarrassed. But she wasn't making an issue out of it, presumably because she knew this mattered to Twilight.

And it was for Twilight that Sunset decided not to say anything. If Rainbow spilled it tomorrow, then that would be enough.

 _And I'm supposed to be relaxing, not dredging up more things to worry about._

"Hello, and a warm welcome to Movieworld" a very chipper voice carried across the theatre as the big semi-transparent M disappeared from the screen, leaving only the eruptions of multi-coloured paint behind. "I'm guessing you're here to lose yourself in the magic of the big screen, yeah?"

 _That's the plan. Or the hope, at least._

"And not to be distracted by someone's scroll screen. Am I right? Thought so. Okay, here's the deal: switch off your scrolls, finish your conversations. Yeah, that does mean you, too, in the middle row, okay, I see you. Sit back. Clear your mind. And relax. It's time to free your imagination."

Sunset leaned back into the cushioned. _I don't know about freeing my imagination but relaxing sounds good._

"But first," the disembodied voice said, growing even more chipper than before. "The ads!"

"Oh no," Pyrrha murmured.

 _Great,_ Sunset thought, poised for adverts for sweets, cereals featuring cartoon characters, or fizzy drinks.

Instead it was Pyrrha, stiltedly acting her way through a commercial for Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes that had clearly been edited together in short chunks.

"Could you not get through this in one take?" Sunset whispered over to her.

Pyrrha looked as though she wanted to hide her face. "It really isn't good for you, and since I'm on a strict performance enhancing diet I had to vomit it up in between takes to avoid contaminating myself."

"Mmm," the Pyrrha up on screen said. "That tastes like…victory."

Sunset shook as she suppressed a laugh. _I am going to quote that back at her at some point._ "Not exactly a natural actor, are you?"

Pyrrha shook her head. "Being on the box was cool, but being in front of the camera was excruciating."

The commercial faded, and with it the screen, which went to black. It remained that way for a few seconds, dark and silent, before the sounds of fighting began to emerge from the speakers.

"It's about power," declared a slightly gravel-toned voice as _a clip of Sunset appeared on screen!_ Sunset leaned forwards and her jaw dropped because it was _her_ , they were using a clip of her fight with Pyrrha, with her hovering in the air with magical spears all around her.

"It's about passion." The clip changed – boo! – to one of Yang on fire as she pummelled Sky Lark into oblivion.

"It's about pride." Velvet Scarlettina beat somebody up on screen.

"It's about…commitment." Pyrrha soloing Team SSSN.

A montage of fight clips erupted onto the screen, accompanied by martial music and the sounds of clashing weapons. "All the action. All the drama."

Someone Sunset didn't recognise leapt up into the air, raising their arms and shrieking. In a vast coliseum, a crowd roared. "All the thrills."

A huntsman – someone, again, that Sunset didn't know – wept as they knelt on the coliseum floor. "And all the upsets."

More clips of bouts at Beacon, Haven, Atlas and Shade. "Don't miss a minute of the Seventy-Fourth Vytal Festival. Live coverage of every fight, unparalleled backstage access and unrivalled analysis of every single hit." Weiss bouncing Nora out of the ring with a well-placed glyph.

"Seventy-Fourth Vytal Festival. The drama is real."

From one of the seats up ahead a young voice said, "Pyrrha's so cool."

"I don't know, I thought the first lady looked pretty awesome."

Sunset was incredibly tempted to stand up and yell, 'Hey kids, we're right here' and only the look on Pyrrha's face that said she'd really rather not deal with fans right now stopped her. Sunset had no doubt that, if pressed, Pyrrha would handle it with grace, charm and professionalism, but she wasn't going to be a dick and force it on her just in the hope that somebody would ask for her autograph.

They were here to relax, after all.

And what did you know? Sunset felt a little more relaxed already.

And pumped for the Vytal Festival, but that still counted as relaxed considering where she'd started from.

That feeling of relaxation continued through the rest of the ads – the kiddy fare Sunset had been expecting – and the trailers for children's movies she had no interest in seeing. Then the film started, as six schoolgirls (a country one with a big family, a sporty one, a timid one with hidden courage, a dippy one, a fashion-conscious one with a heart of gold and a prim and proper bookish one) gained magical powers from an alien stuffed rabbit to fight off another evil alien who looked like a schoolgirl instead of a stuffed animal. This involved wearing very frilly and girly dresses with lots of bows and ribbons attached.

Put like that it sounded a little rough, but as she watched Sunset found herself really getting into it. She barely noticed Twilight ooh-ing and aah-ing next to her because she was pretty absorbed into the film herself. As the legendary warriors LovelyHeart punched and kicked their way through an army of monsters while shouting about the power of love and friendship, Sunset found a smile spreading across her face as a feeling of warm hope spread throughout her body.

A glace at Twilight, leaning forwards with her hands balled up underneath her chin, her eyes alight with excitement, suggested that she was thinking the same as Sunset: _Maybe magic doesn't work this way but wouldn't it be great if it did?_

By the time that the movie reached its climax, with the LovelyHearts seemingly defeated and at the mercy of the villain, Sunset was on the edge of her seat and grinning from ear to ear.

The villain laughed triumphantly. "It's over, LovelyHearts! Soon the Melody of Sorrow will consume the world and all hearts will be plunged into the darkness of despair! The triumph of sadness is inevitable! And there is nothing that your or anybody else can do to-"

"No! Don't give up!" The scene cut away to all of the civilians, and all of the little alien cuddly toys as well, waving the little plastic toy lights – the miracle lights – that had been briefly discussed at the start of the movie. Sunset noticed that the kids in the audience had lights just like that, and they were all lighting them up inside the darkened movie theatre and pointing them towards the screen as though they were weapons.

"LovelyHearts! Just do your best!"

The villain recoiled as the miracle light spread to engulf the entire city, everyone looking upwards towards the floating island where the battle raged and cheering the heroes on. "LovelyHearts! Do your best!"

"What?" the villain demanded. "What's this?"

Heart Beauty, the blue-haired leader of the LovelyHearts (and the bookish, prim and proper one) trembled unsteadily as she rose to her feet. "It…it's not over. So long as we're here…so long as we have our friendship, so long as we hold on to the ties that bind us together, so long as we have each other it's not over yet! Not by a long way!" She held out her arms, and one by one the other LovelyHearts got up off the ground to stand by her side, all of them joining hands as they faced off against the incarnation of sadness and despair.

"We're tied together by a bond that can never be broken! Six hearts that beat as one! The LovelyHearts will defend everyone's smiles!" Heart Beauty declared. "So come on! Give it your best shot!"

Sunset felt something on her hand. On both her hands. She looked down and saw that Ruby had taken her right hand, and Twilight her left. She looked left and right and saw that they had all joined hands, even Ciel, even Blake, forming a chain that stretched from Rainbow Dash at one end to Blake on the other, joining them all together.

And as the villain launched her final attack, the LovelyHearts were engulfed in light, bathed in it, protected by it from any harm as they rose up into the air, eyes closed, their hair growing longer, their costumes changing in ways that were both subtle and obvious.

Their eyes snapped open all at once, and a wave of rainbow light erupted from them as they cried out in one voice, "Ultra Rainbow Healing!"

 _I wonder if that's how Princess Twilight and her friends do it,_ Sunset mused. _Maybe magic doesn't work that way in this world, but wouldn't it be great if it did?_

* * *

 _Author's Note: The gang going to a see a PreCure movie happens because I felt the need to foreshadow the powers of Harmony playing a role in the story, since they haven't played a role so far and there hasn't been any suggestion that they might. I thought this would be a relatively unobtrusive way to get that across._


	81. Setting Out

Setting Out

The entire first year stood assembled in the auditorium. Some wore the uniforms of their respective schools: the shirts and blazers of Beacon, the crisp white uniforms of Atlas, the bizarrely authoritarian black of Haven, the casuals that served in the absence of a uniform for Shade. Others – SAPR, YRBN, SSSN and RSPT all amongst them – were armed and, when appropriate, armoured for battle as if they were about to leave on their missions as soon as this great gathering was concluded.

Students from Vale, Atlas, Haven and Vacuo were all gathered under one roof. Gathered, but not mingled. Although there had been no rule about it, although Professor Goodwitch up on stage had not directed it, the four schools had formed into four distinct and separate blocks within the hall. Although there was no settled order within the blocks – a fact which surprised Sunset in the case of the Atlesians, whom she might have taken to be more regimented in this situation – nevertheless the boundaries were clear.

 _For a celebration of unity,_ Sunset thought. _There's not a lot going around._

Which wasn't to say that there was none at all.

"Hey, Blake," Sun called as he sauntered across from the Haven student body over to Beacon, and more specifically to where Blake stood midway between SAPR and YR_N. His ever-present blue-haired companion Neptune followed a little way behind him, pausing to wink at Weiss, who rolled her eyes.

"Hey, Sun," Blake said.

Sun grinned. "So, I, uh, haven't seen you much since the dance."

"Things _have_ been a little hectic since that night," Blake replied. "A lot of things have been moving very fast."

"Sure, I guess," Sun said. "But I was wondering, you know, since I had a great time, and I hope that you had a great time, maybe, once you get back from your mission, maybe we could hang out some more?"

"That…that would be nice," Blake said, and Sunset wondered why she started to feel a roiling, squirming feeling of discomfort in her stomach when she heard that. "Although I'm not sure that I'll be back before the semester ends."

"I'm not going anywhere for the vacation, you?"

"Probably not," Blake said, with a trace of amusement in her voice. "Okay then. I'll look forward to it, for when I get back."

Sunset was distracted from whatever else Sun might have said to Blake – and how it might have made her feel – by the approach of Rainbow Dash. The leader of RSPT was, if anything, looking even more sour than she had done last night in the movie theatre. She was wearing her wingpack strapped to her back, but also across her back was slung a gun of some kind, although Sunset had to lean sideways a little to make out just what kind it was.

"Is that a shotgun?" Sunset asked.

"We're going into a grimm-infested ruin to hunt for the White Fang, of course I'm bringing a shotgun," Rainbow said tersely, and in a low voice. "Are you all set?"

Sunset nodded. She glanced over Rainbow's shoulder to where Twilight was giving her team leader a very disgruntled look. "What's with Twilight?"

Rainbow grunted. "You know that think I said I'd tell her today."

"Yeah."

"I told her today and she isn't happy that I didn't tell her yesterday."

"Something wrong?"

"Everyone quiet, please," Professor Goodwitch declared, her voice carrying across the auditorium. "The headmaster would like to say a few words before we begin."

She stepped away from the microphone, and Professor Ozpin took her place there. He leaned upon his cane with both hands, seeming older now and a little more bowed than he had when Sunset had seen him last. He looked up, and over his dark spectacles his eyes swept across the assembled company.

 _I hope this is a better speech than his last one._

"Nearly eighty years ago," Professor Ozpin said. "The largest war in recorded history came to an end. It was a war of greed, of tyranny and oppression. It was a war over the very ideas of individualism versus conformity, freedom versus authoritarian dominion; it was a war in which not only nations but ideals were pitted against one another on the battlefield. A war in which the question became not would the faunus be made free but would any men remain free or would all be reduced to slaves under the iron rule of those who control all things, and order them strictly according to their will.

"It was a war that brought mankind closer to the brink of destruction than he has ever come before or since. What the armies of the four kingdoms did not destroy the creatures of grimm all too often devoured. Lands were lost, settlements destroyed, a generation of valiant young men and women slaughtered across countless battlefields. Only one side fought for a just cause," Professor Ozpin said, causing a bit of a stir amongst some of the Atlas students who were clearly in no doubt that he didn't mean the Mantle-Mistral alliance by that remark. Sunset saw Ciel Soleil scowl at the professor.

"But be in no doubt that there were heroes upon both sides," Professor Ozpin continued. "And that the courage of those who made the highest sacrifice for their kingdom cannot be doubted. This was a war in which all four realms laid their best and dearest on the altar, and found when the fires died down that they had little left and even less to show for what they had purchased at so great a cost.

"Yet from the ashes of this horror arose a new world. A better, stronger world that has to this day endured, survived, even flourished. A world in which individuality is encouraged and diversity is celebrated as the pillars of our strength; a world in which unity comes through cooperation, not domination; a world in which our four kingdoms no longer compete as rivals but join together as allies in the common struggle to survive.

"You children, gathered here today, are the product of this new era and the exemplar of it. You have come from all four corners of Remnant: from Vale, from Atlas, from Mistral and from Vacuo, and all of you are gathered in this room today not as enemies but as friends and comrades. Soon, you will compete for the glory of your school and the honour of your kingdom in the Vytal Festival, but there is a reason why the tradition arose that students from each of the visiting academies would spend the semester before the tournament as guests of the host school: so that before you met as foes in the coliseum you might first meet as friends within these halls, and form ties that will endure across time and distance.

"Yes, mankind has risen from the ashes of the Great War stronger and greater than he was before, but even after nearly eighty years the peace that so many heroes gave their lives for remains fragile and delicate, ever besieged by the creatures of grimm without and menaced from within by those who seek the destruction of our way of life. It is for that reason that the four academies were founded, and for that reason that you have come from the four corners of the world: to defend our world, and keep it safe from those who would do it harm.

"And that is why, while the rest of the world celebrates peace, you will be defending it. As first year students, each of you will be shadowing a professional huntsman or huntress on a mission either within the walls, beyond them, or even outside the boundaries of the kingdom itself." He seemed to look directly at Sunset and her team. "But no matter which path you choose, and where your chosen assignment takes you, remember to be safe, remember your training, and remember that teamwork is always your greatest weapon. Do your very best."

The applause that greeted him as he stepped off the stage hovered somewhere between polite and enthusiastic without being either truly subdued enough or undeniably voluble enough to qualify as either.

Sunset watched out of the corner of her eye as Professor Ozpin said something to Professor Goodwitch. To Rainbow Dash, Sunset asked, "Is everything ready?"

Rainbow nodded. "They're loading…the two of them onto the plane now. We're good to go."

"Good," Sunset murmured. She clasped her hands together: both of them, and indeed her arms up past the elbow, were concealed beneath white silk opera gloves. They were bridal gloves – which had led to some awkward questions at the boutique that she'd bought them from – which meant that the ring fingers could be pulled off in case she really needed to use her semblance; for the rest, her hands were encased in soft white silk and beneath the silk her semblance was effectively neutered in both promise and in threat.

Admittedly if she ever took her jacket off she'd probably look a little odd wearing bridal gloves under metal bracers, but she didn't intend to take her jacket off so it didn't matter.

"Do you want to get going?" Sunset said, as all around them teams headed to the boards to choose their missions. "Or is there anything else you need to do?"

Rainbow glanced back at Twilight. "No," she said. "I'm good. Docking pad three."

"Right." Sunset turned to her team: Ruby was getting one last hug from Yang, something which she seemed to both like and want to escape from; Blake was saying goodbye to Sun. Ren, Nora and Neptune had already started drifting towards the mission lists.

Sunset glanced towards Professor Goodwitch, who had finished speaking with Professor Ozpin. Across the crowded room their eyes met, and Professor Goodwitch gave a short, sharp gesture with her head in the direction of the door.

"Okay," Sunset said, raising her voice just enough so that her team could hear her. "Let's go. Our second mission starts now."

Yang smirked. "I don't know whether to tell you to take care of my sister…or whether to tell my sister that she ought to take care of you."

Sunset snorted. "You can do either, because we'll do both."

"You'd better," Yang said. She ruffled Ruby's hair. "Go get 'em, Rubes."

SAPR and RSPT, including Blake and a sullen Twilight who kept her head down and didn't say anything to anyone, although she did glare at Rainbow Dash once or twice, made their way to one of the docking pads, where a quartet of armoured Atlesian soldiers were bundling Torchwick and Neo onto an Atlesian skygrasper.

"Hey, will you look at that, it's Little Red and all her friends," Torchwick said, waving with both his manacled hands. "Say, since we're about to head into grimm-infested territory I don't suppose you'd consider taking these cuffs off? I won't be much use to you if I get eaten by beowolves before I've remembered where the base is."

"Do we look like idiots to you?" Rainbow demanded.

Torchwick shrugged. "Well, now that you mention it…"

Sunset stalked across the landing pad towards him. She still retained just enough of Cinder's emotions, the last vestiges of her contact with the other girl that had not been obliterated by her later contact with Ruby, to remember the contempt in which Cinder held this little gutter rat. For once, she and Cinder were in complete agreement on that score.

She grabbed Torchwick by the scruff of the neck and hauled him down until his face was level with hers. "You think you're so smart, don't you?"

Torchwick smirked. "Is this the part where you remind me that I'm in shackles and you're not? Sweetheart, catching me once doesn't make you smart. It makes you lucky."

"No, it makes us better than you, actually," Sunset growled. "And I don't need to think that I'm smarter than you, I know it. So whatever you're planning, whatever angle you think you can work, give it up. Because if you lead my friends into a trap I swear I'll kill you slowly if it's the last thing I do."

Torchwick stared at her, unspeaking and unblinking. "You know, I can see why Cinder liked you."

Sunset recoiled from him as if he'd hit her. The sudden gleam in his eye told her that he knew that he'd just struck a nerve. Sunset cursed mentally. "Get him on the ship," she snarled at the Atlesian soldiers, who hustled him on board – him and the girl Neo, who silently stared at Sunset with her mismatched eyes until she was out of sight.

Sunset turned away, and distracted herself by studying their aircraft. Instead of the usual gunmetal grey of the Atlesian airfleet, this dropship was painted in sky blue, with a cloud shooting a rainbow-coloured lightning bolt decorating the nose.

"You didn't tell me you had your own skygrasper," Sunset said.

Rainbow nodded, and some enthusiasm entered her face and voice as she patted the aircraft on the wing. "This is my baby, alright. And it isn't just the paint job that's custom."

Ruby gasped. "You mean you've given it upgrades?"

"Well I don't see why I should have to fly the same plane as everyone else when I can mod her up," Rainbow said. "Twi helped a lot."

If that was intended to bring Twilight into the conversation then it didn't work; Twilight remained as quiet and withdrawn as ever.

Rainbow cleared her throat. "The engine's been souped up so it flies twenty percent faster than a regular skygrasper, and with these boosters here it can reach up to fifty percent again faster for short distances. The twin cannons under the nose have been replaced by a single Tempest cannon-"

"You mean the seven barrel thirty-millimetre armour-piercing hydraulically-driven autocannon used by cruisers for point defence?" Ruby asked.

Rainbow grinned. "That's the one. Mounted right under the nose."

"Then why do you have any of these missiles?" Ruby asked, gesturing to the eight missiles mounted in quads under the wings. Someone had daubed 'From Atlas, With Love' in white paint onto one of them. "You don't need any other weapons if you have a Tempest."

"Maybe not, but I kept the original cannons and put them-"

"Doubtless this all quite fascinating to the mechanically minded, Miss Dash, but not particularly pertinent to our mission," Professor Goodwitch declared as she stalked towards them, riding crop in hand. She flicked said crop irritably as she pushed her half-moon spectacles further up her nose. "Girls," she said. "Mister Arc. I'm aware that this is neither your first mission, nor even your first mission together, but as of now you are participating in a reconnaissance along the kingdom's south-east border searching for an enemy concentration that may threaten all of Vale; I expect you to conduct yourselves with the professionalism and discipline that that implies. Do I make myself clear?"

"Perfectly, Professor," Pyrrha said. "We won't let you down."

"I hope not, Miss Nikos, or many will pay the price," Professor Goodwitch said. "Get on board, and let us depart without further delay."

They boarded. The interior of the dropship was a little cramped, although the robots probably didn't complain, but they all managed to squeeze on in spite of Torchwick's apparent determination to take up more room than he needed. His eyes lit up when he saw Professor Goodwitch.

"Why hello, gorgeous," he said. He glanced at her riding crop. "Are you here to tell me that I've been a bad boy?"

"Shut up, Torchwick," Sunset snapped, as she felt the urge to kick him. For her part, Professor Goodwitch displayed a majestic indifference towards the man as the rear ramp of the skygrasper rose behind her, sealing them all within the metallic exterior.

Rainbow took the pilot's seat. "Twilight, get up here, you're my co-pilot."

Twilight pouted. "I'd rather-"

"Twi, don't be a baby about this, now sit down," Rainbow snapped, gesturing to the empty seat.

 _Okay, I definitely need to find out what happened here,_ Sunset thought. _This is getting ridiculous._

Sunset made her way down the steps from the passenger compartment into the cockpit. Through the bubble shaped windows she could see the ships of the Atlesian fleet hovering over Vale, but Sunset paid them little mind. As she rested her hands on the back of Rainbow and Twilight's seats, her attention was on them.

"What's going on between you two?" she demanded.

Rainbow said nothing as she pulled a helmet on over her head.

Sunset revealed her ring finger, pulling the finger of her glove away to show the skin. "I'll use my semblance to find out if I have to."

"Slight change of plan," Rainbow said, not only to Sunset but to everyone in the skygrasper. "We're not heading directly to Mountain Glenn. An Atlesian base in that quadrant recently went silent, so we're going to check that out before we continue on."

"You should have told me," Twilight muttered.

"I didn't want you to worry," Rainbow said tersely.

"You didn't want me to worry?" Twilight snapped. "You didn't think I deserved to know that our friends could be-" she stopped, clasping her hands to her mouth as she looked as though she was either going to cry or be sick, or maybe both.

Guilt suffused Rainbow's expression even as she said, "And that's why I didn't tell you."

Sunset didn't ask any more questions. Honestly, it wasn't that hard to work out the missing pieces. And she didn't say anything because what could she say. That she was sorry? That maybe their friends were alright? Would such hollow commonplaces and empty platitudes have comforted her if her friends had suddenly become MIA? No, in fact she probably would have resented them greatly. And so, rather than give Twilight or Rainbow cause for resentment, she said nothing.

She just stood there, hovering over them both as Rainbow flicked the switches on the control panel. Rainbow's gaze – and Sunset's too, drawn to follow – lingered or seemed to linger for a moment on the trio of photographs tacked on to the side of the panel, in a rare space with no instruments or controls. One was a picture Sunset recognised, of Rainbow and Twilight and their friends: Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie all sitting together in a tight group, the same picture that Rainbow had showed on the train back from Cold Harbour; another showed Rainbow with a kid that Sunset didn't recognise, or didn't think she did, with purple hair cut in a Rainbow Dash-ish style; the last showed a younger Rainbow with another faunus, a bird faunus with brown wings, one of which was curling around Rainbow's shoulders as they both smiled and flashed peace signs for the camera.

Rainbow stared, and then after a moment she looked away without a word and flicked another switch on the controls. The skygrasper began to vibrate as the whining sound of the engines penetrated inside.

"Control, this is Atlas Echo Three-Oh-Three requesting permission to depart."

"Copy Echo Three-Oh-Three, clearance granted. Good hunting."

"Hold on everyone," Rainbow said, as she pulled a black lever downwards towards her. The nose of the skygrasper descended slightly, the aircraft pitching forwards even as it rose up off the docking pad and into the air.

"Is it supposed to be at this angle?" Sunset asked, since she could now see more of the city of Vale than she would have liked.

Rainbow didn't dignify the panicked question with a response, instead she pulled back on the stick just a little, flicked another switch, and then they were flying. The skygrasper still shook with the vibration of the powerful engines, but it also glided, then as it picked up speed with every passing second it began to soar through the air over the city and passed the assembled ranks of the Atlesian cruisers suspended over the city or patrolling on its limits.

They passed over the square tower blocks and over the industrialised farmland of the agricultural district, passing over one of the lengths of wall that bridged the gap between the natural barriers of Vale (in this case, a stretch of dense woodland between the mountains and the river Uise). And then they were in the wilds.

Thick forests, so thick that any number of grim large or small could have hidden within them, lay beneath them. Deep caves lay out of sight, concealing any amount of darkness. Beneath them great armies could be gathering to snuff out Vale and they would never know until they erupted, howling and snarling, out of the woods to wreak their havoc.

Just thinking about that made Sunset glad that Atlesians were here.

"I don't suppose you can tell us what your friends were doing at this base?" Sunset asked.

"It's classified," Rainbow said.

"Of course it is," Sunset sighed.

The flight was not that long, but it was long enough for Sunset to become so accustomed to the hum of the engine and the vibration of the dropship. It had been a couple of hours – long enough, but not as long as Sunset had half-expected – when Rainbow flew them over a clearing in the forest, a clearing in which had been erected a small base.

A base that was mostly in ruins from what they could see from the air. Three buildings and all of them had at least one wall missing, a perimeter fence that looked as though it had been torn apart, and what looked from the air like the parts of broken robots.

On the other hand, she couldn't see any bodies…but then they were up high.

A low growl rose from Rainbow's throat. "Sunset-"

"We'll hit the ground and search the area, while you scan from the air, right?" Sunset asked.

Rainbow glanced at her. "Penny and Ciel, land with Sapphire; I'll-"

She was cut off by the shrieking whistle of a rocket as a it streaked out of the forest straight towards them.


	82. The Strong One

The Strong One

"Hang on!"

Rainbow started yanking the stick to the left even before the words left her mouth. She didn't need the alarm to tell her that there was a missile coming right at her – she had eyes – but it was blaring away regardless with a big red light besides to state the obvious.

She pulled the stick as far left as it would go, ignoring the cries from behind her as her passengers got thrown to the left as the whole world seemed to tilt on its axis in front of her because they were going to have a lot bigger problems than a bump if that rocket hit them.

The Skygrasper jerked leftwards, tilting, one wing rising as the other fell. The rocket passed over Rainbow's head and the cockpit, flying past the dropship without hitting anything. There was no sound of an explosion, no damage warning indicators. Yet still Rainbow's heart pounded in her chest and she could feel a little sweat in her flying gloves.

But she wasn't half so nervous or afraid at that moment as she was mad. First they come for Fluttershy and now they were taking shots at Twilight?

 _Okay, you get one for free and that is it. You're done._

"Can you see where that came from?" Twilight asked with panic in her voice.

"Not yet," Rainbow growled, as she switched to the side cannons and squeezed the trigger. White tracer rounds erupted from the twin rotating cannons mounted under the wings as Rainbow – guiding her aircraft into a leftwards drifting descent towards the ground – strafed left and right into the forest just beyond the smashed-up base. She wasn't expecting to hit anything, or to take out whoever had taken a shot at them.

What she was expecting to do, what she was doing, was tear up the undergrowth a little bit so that she could see what she was up against.

"I see it," Rainbow said, because enough leaves and branches had been ripped away by her barrage that she could see enough to make out another stolen paladin hiding in the woods. Rainbow's fire bounced off its armour.

It must have realised that she'd spotted it, and it was probably emboldened by the fact that her cannon rounds had barely scratched the White Fang paintwork, because the armoured colossus strode out of the trees, smashing down even more of the perimeter fence as it clanked proudly into the ruined base and raised both its arms to take aim at Rainbow's skygrasper once more.

Rainbow's grin verged upon smugness as she let him have it with the Tempest.

There was a trilling rasping like a pair of lips being smacked together, surprisingly subdued for such a powerful weapon, as the paladin temporarily disappeared from view, hidden behind all the dirt kicked up by thirty millimetre rounds striking the ground all around it as Rainbow Dash fought for control against the recoil of the monstrous gun which sought to buck the entire Skygrasper to the right with the vibration of its fire.

Rainbow released the trigger, and the soft sound of the weapon ceased as swiftly and as suddenly as it had begun.

When the smoke and dust cleared the stolen paladin was motionless on its knees.

Rainbow's eyes narrowed. Was that it? Had that been enough to take it down? She wasn't entirely sure what her gun would do against the paladin's armour. She continued her descent, once she got lower enough then she would open the rear-hatch and then-

The paladin rose, slowly and cumbersomely, to its feet. It looked unsteady, it looked as though its legs – which had seen better days just moments before – could barely support the weight, but it rose nonetheless.

Rainbow's finger tightened on the trigger once more. But then the paladin raised its hands, fists open.

"Does he want to surrender?" Twilight asked.

Rainbow snorted. "Sapphire, Ciel, Penny, prep to land," she growled, not wanting to take any chances. She didn't order Professor Goodwitch, but then Professor Goodwitch hadn't given her any orders either. She was probably watching to see how the kids performed under pressure, or something like that.

Rainbow didn't pay her much notice, she had other things on her mind right now as she flipped the switch to set the radio to all frequencies. "If you want to surrender, how about you pop the hatch so we can see the real you?"

"Alright, Rainbow Dash, I'll pop the hatch," Cinder Fall replied, her sultry voice filling the cockpit. "But as for seeing the real me," she continued, as the hatch on the paladin opened to reveal the absence of a pilot inside. "I'm afraid you're not quite there yet."

"Cinder," Rainbow growled.

"Very kind of you to include a remote command function on these units," Cinder continued. "Be sure to thank your engineers for me. Or should I just say thank you Twilight and leave it at that."

Twilight said nothing, but her face was pale.

Sunset leaned forwards, her face level with Rainbow's. "You're a little early, aren't you Cinder? I thought you wanted to meet me in Mountain Glenn, not here."

"Except I'm not here, am I Sunset?" Cinder replied. "And neither are you, yet."

"I might never have made it there if you hadn't been such a terrible shot," Sunset said.

 _She's not a bad shot, I'm just an awesome pilot._

"Don't be so melodramatic, Sunset, what's one rocket between good friends?" Cinder asked. "It wasn't as though it would have killed you. Even if I'd brought down your plane you would have survived. You would have simply had to walk to Mountain Glenn; the way that I had to walk to Mountain Glenn after you chased me out of Beacon. But it doesn't matter in any case because I missed, although I'd attribute that less to my accuracy than to Rainbow's superior piloting," Cinder paused for a moment. "You're wasted as a mediocre huntress when you could have been a great flier instead."

Rainbow growled. "First of all I am a great flier already; secondly, if I'm such a mediocre huntress then how come you're the one who ran away?"

"You got lucky," Cinder said, with irritation creeping into her voice. "If you had faced me truly alone without all of your friends-"

"And let me stop you right there," Rainbow said. "I knew my friends were on their way before I even started to fly up to that floor. I knew I could take risks because I wasn't alone. That's not luck, that's the difference between me and you: I've got people who have my back, just like I've got there's."

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line. "Is that so?" Cinder asked, her voice rich with amusement.

"Yeah, that's so," Rainbow replied. "What about it?"

"Nothing, really. It's just that I've got a couple of friends of yours right here and you don't seem to, as you say, have their backs," Cinder said. "Speak up, now; don't be shy."

The voice that come over the line next was soft, and shy, and quiet and utterly familiar. "Rainbow Dash? Is that you?"

Rainbow's magenta eyes widened as the breath caught in her throat. The next word came not out of her throat but from Twilight. "F-Fluttershy?"

"Twilight?" Fluttershy gasped. "Twilight, it is you, isn't it?"

"Yes," Twilight cried, leaning forwards as if Fluttershy might hear her better that way. "Yes, Fluttershy, it's me, I'm right here." She glanced up at Rainbow Dash. "And Rainbow's here as well."

"Yeah," Rainbow managed to get the word out, though it sounded stupid even to her own ears. "Yeah, I'm here, I can hear you. Fluttershy…have they hurt you?"

"No," Fluttershy said. "No, I…I'm okay. I'm sorry, both of you."

"Sorry?" Rainbow would have laughed if the situation had been any less grim. "What do you have to be sorry about? Listen, Fluttershy, I have to ask you something. Is…is Applejack with you?"

Rainbow heard a mumbled shouting sound coming from out of the comm.

"Your other friend can't come to the phone right now," Cinder said smugly. "She's a little…tied up and gagged."

A bestial growl rose from Rainbow's throat. "You little-"

"Don't finish that sentence unless you want your little friend here to suffer from any irritation that you might cause me," Cinder said. She sighed. "There was a part of me that wanted Sunset to come alone to me at Mountain Glenn, although I didn't seriously expect that she would. I was reconciled to the presence of her team. But now I'm glad that you've brought your band with you as well. We have business to settle too, after all."

"Let her go," Twilight begged. "Please, you can hate us if you want to but please let Fluttershy got. She's not a huntress, she's not with the Atlesian military, not really. She's an innocent in all this. Please, if you have any pity in your heart at all, you'll let her go and give her back to us."

"If you want her, you can have her," Cinder said. "When you come to Mountain Glenn. Don't take too long though. The White Fang aren't particularly fond of Atlesians, and I don't know how long I'll be able to…restrain them."

Twilight gasped. "You…you're a monster."

"I am what I have been made, as we all are," Cinder said. "As they say in Mistral, 'the city teaches the man', isn't that right, Pyrrha?"

Pyrrha sniffed. "It is a saying. One I'm not sure that I completely agree with. It ignores our own souls too much."

"Fluttershy, Fluttershy, listen to me," Rainbow said. "And Applejack too, can you hear me. I am going to get you out of there. I am going to get you both out of there and we'll go back to Sugarcube corner and see what Pinkie's cooked up while we've been gone."

"Aww, now isn't that sweet," Cinder said. "You'd better-"

"Don't!" Fluttershy cried. "Rainbow, Twilight, don't come, it's a trap, they're going to-" she collapsed into wordless shrieking, howling incomprehensibly as they must have gagged her too.

"Fluttershy!" Rainbow yelled. "I swear, I swear if you hurt either of them then I will-"

"What?" Cinder demanded. "Don't make promises that you can't keep."

"I don't," Rainbow growled. "But if you hurt them I'll break your bones and see you burn. I swear."

Cinder chuckled in response. "Good luck with that."

The line went dead. The paladin flopped onto the ground and lay motionless.

For a moment, the cockpit was completely silent.

"Fluttershy?" Twilight asked, her voice trembling. "Applejack?"

Rainbow roared as she struck the side of the cockpit with her fist, making Twilight gasp in shock. "I am going to-"

"Miss Dash!" Professor Goodwitch's voice cracked like a whip. "Calm. Down."

"Calm down?" Rainbow demanded, twisting in the pilot's seat to get a look at the Beacon professor who stood, glaring down at her through her glasses. "You're telling me to calm down when-"

"When you're on a reconnaissance mission in the field against a dangerous enemy, yes," Professor Goodwitch said. "If you can't recognise a simple and simplistic attempt to push your buttons and knock you off balance then frankly I have grave doubts about your suitability to be team leader."

Rainbow's jaw clenched. She wanted to yell in Professor Goodwitch's face, she wanted to argue with her, she wanted to tell where to take her disapproval and shove it…but that wouldn't help Fluttershy and Applejack at all. And it would just prove her right.

She couldn't express the anger that she was feeling. She couldn't express the desire that she felt to rip Cinder Fall into pieces. She couldn't express the fire that was burning inside of her, raging like an inferno, howling like a tempest, snarling like a beowolf. She couldn't express it and she couldn't do anything with it. All that she could do was let it eat her up as she took her hands off the controls and bowed her head, turning away from Professor Goodwitch and all the rest of them.

 _Applejack…Fluttershy…I'm so sorry._

 _What am I supposed to tell Apple Bloom?_

 _What am I supposed to tell our friends?_

 _What am I supposed to do?_

 _How am I supposed to save you?_

 _What do I do now?_

 _How do I protect you when you're so far away?_

 _How do I bring you back when I don't know where you are?_

 _What do I do now?_

"I think we're low enough to jump," Sunset said, her tone subdued. "Sapphire, we'll conduct a sweep of the area before we leave."

"Wait," Twilight said. "I'll set us down. And then…Ciel, could you take those two with you, the prisoners? Rainbow Dash and I…we need to talk?"

"We don't exactly have time for a chick flick-" Torchwick began.

"Blake, if he says another word, break his jaw," Sunset snapped. That was about the only thing that stopped Rainbow from leaping out of her chair and beating the guy senseless.

That and the fact that he shut up and didn't say another word as Twilight guided the Skygrasper to the ground and set her down in the middle of the base.

Rainbow heard, but didn't see, the rear ramp descent. Just as she heard but didn't see the rest of the party exit to search what remained of the base.

"Rainbow Dash…please look at me," Twilight begged.

Rainbow looked at her. Twilight's eyes were huge behind her glasses, huge and brimming with water at the bottom as the tears began to trickle down her cheeks.

"Don't do this," Twilight begged. "You don't have to do this."

Rainbow frowned as she took off her helmet. She ran one hand through her prismatic hair. "What am I doing that I don't need to do, Twi?" she asked hoarsely. "Because from where I sit it doesn't look like I'm doing anything to help our friends right now."

"That!" Twilight cried. "You don't have to do that, you don't have to blame yourself-"

"Who should I blame?"

"I don't know, Cinder?" Twilight snapped. "The White Fang? The people who are holding Fluttershy and Applejack for who knows why-"

"I know why," Rainbow replied. "You heard Fluttershy say it yourself. It's a trap for us."

"That doesn't make it your fault," Twilight repeated. "They did this, not you. You don't have to take this on your shoulders, you don't have to keep it to yourself, you don't have to…You're not the only one who cares about Applejack and Fluttershy."

Rainbow stared into Twilight's teary eyes for a moment, the prick of guilt joining the anger that she felt rolling like the waves inside of her. She sighed. "I know," she whispered. "And I…I didn't mean to…I'm sorry, Twi."

"I know that I'm not a great warrior like you," Twilight said. "And I know that I haven't known Fluttershy since we were children like you have. But they're still my friends. They're still a part of my life; they're still a part of my heart. And I want to help you get them back. I _can_ help you. And Ciel and Penny and Blake and Sapphire can help too. You don't have to do this all by yourself. You don't have to feel it all by yourself. You don't have to be the strong one all the time."

Rainbow snorted, a wry smile making a momentary appearance on her face. "Yeah, I do."

"No, you don't."

"I do," Rainbow repeated, more firmly this second time. "I do because…because if I'm not that then what am I, Twilight?

"I'm not super smart. I don't have a big heart with room for the whole wide world, I don't put smiles on people's faces when I walk down the street. I'm not generous, I'm not kind. But I have my strength and my speed and I can fight the battles that no one else can, that's who I am. That's what I bring. I'm the one who takes the bullet, I'm the one who goes back again and again until everyone's safe. And if I'm not that…if I'm not that then what am I? If I'm not that then why would you even want me around?"

Twilight was silent, her mouth forming an O of surprise, her eyes having gotten even wider if that were possible until they seemed to be taking up most of her face. "Is that," she murmured. "Is that what you think?" Her voice rose, growing higher and more shrill with anger. "Is that why you think we hung out with you? Is that what you think you are to us, some kind of bodyguard?"

"Twi-"

"Quiet! If Pinkie were here she would be kicking your ass so hard right now!" Twilight snapped. "So what if you're not smart? So what if you're heart's not as open as Pinkie's is? You've got other things, things that are just as important. We all know that even if the entire rest of Remnant turned on us we could count on you to stay by our sides. You're not our fighter, you're not our protector; you're our friend and we love you. You're a part of all of us just like we're all a part of you. You don't always have to be our strength. Sometimes…sometimes we can be yours."

Rainbow said nothing. Shame doused – at least partially – the anger that had been burning up inside her. She had…she hadn't really believed it, not most of the time but sometimes…sometimes she'd wondered why they all wanted to be friends with someone like her.

" _The system works, G."_

" _The system works for you, you mean! You with your fancy human friends and grand connections. I don't have friends who have a sister-in-law on the council, how well do you think the system is working for me?"_

" _Don't bring my friends into this, I've never-"_

" _You think they're really your friends? Do you really believe that? You'll never be nothing but a faunus to them; I bet they only hang out with you so that they can brag at SDC parties about how totally not-racist they are because one of their best friends is a faunus!"_

Rainbow shuddered, as she looked at the photographs pinned to the control panel. That was the last time that she'd spoken to Gilda until the fight on the train; she'd been so mad that she threw the other girl out of her house and told her to not come back because there wasn't anything else to say between them…but she wouldn't have gotten so mad if what Gilda said hadn't struck a nerve, planted a seed that had stuck with her all these years: why did they want to be her friend?

She felt ashamed now to have ever considered it. Of course it wasn't what she'd been afraid of. They were all too good for that, too pure, too full of friendship to ever do something like that.

They were all parts of her heart…which is why it would have hurt so much to learn that she wasn't part of theirs.

Rainbow held out one hand. "I'm sorry, Twi." She smirked. "But come on, like Pinkie could ever kick my ass."

"You know what I meant."

"Yeah," Rainbow said. "Yeah, I know. Don't tell her I said that. Not about the ass-kicking, about-"

"I get it," Twilight said. She took Rainbow's hand. "Your secret's safe with me."

"Thanks," Rainbow said. She smiled briefly. "So, how do we save our friends?"

"First," Twilight said, pulling out her scroll. "We need to find them."

"And for that we have to rely on Roman Torchwick," Rainbow growled, because having to rely on that guy for anything was bad enough but having to rely on him with the lives of Applejack and Fluttershy hanging in the balance was something else.

"Maybe a little, but not completely," Twilight said, as she opened her scroll.

Rainbow frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I put a tracking device in Fluttershy's hair clip," Twilight explained. "Once I activate it…we won't get an exact idea of her location until we get a lot closer than this, but at the very least we can confirm that she is in Mountain Glenn, and maybe even a rough idea of where to start our search."

Rainbow's eyebrows rose. "You put a locater…in Fluttershy's hair clip? The butterfly?"

"That's right," Twilight said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"Uh huh," Rainbow said. "And…when?"

"Just before she and Applejack left."

"Are you bugging all of our friends?"

Twilight looked at her. "Only when I might need to know where they are. And it's not a bug; I can't listen to her conversations or anything."

Rainbow stared at her. "So, uh-"

"It's in your jetpack."

"Oh. I guess I should have figured," Rainbow murmured. "Once you turn it on will they know about it?"

Twilight hesitated. "I…I don't know. I wouldn't have thought they were that technologically sophisticated, but they did almost hack the CCT. I don't know." She let her scroll fall on to her knees. "What do you think?"

Rainbow considered it for a moment. "Wait," she said. "Activated it when we get to Mountain Glenn; that way there won't be too long between you turning the tracker on and us getting to Fluttershy."

"And if they're not in Mountain Glenn?"

"They're in Mountain Glenn," Rainbow declared.

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because she wants us there," Rainbow said. "And I'm not sure she'd risk us finding out that they were somewhere else. Because she's cocky enough to give us a chance to rescue them. And because if their base isn't in Mountain Glenn how did they find our site?"

The rest of the group returned not long after, having found – predictably enough – nothing of any importance.

"Miss Dash, Miss Sparkle," Professor Goodwitch said primly. "When you are ready."

"Yes, ma'am," Rainbow said.

Sunset joined them in the cockpit. "Are you good?"

Rainbow snorted. "I'll be good when I have my friends back," she said. She glanced up at Sunset. "But I can do my job." She turned on the radio. " _Resolution_ , this is Echo Three-Oh-Three at Site Thirty-Two."

"Roger that, Echo; we're receiving you."

"The base is destroyed," Rainbow said. "No survivors found but we have reason to believe at least two prisoners are being held by the enemy."

"Reason to believe?"

"They told us so themselves," Rainbow growled. "They had a paladin waiting for us, controlled by remote. Be careful. We're proceeding to Mountain Glenn now."

"Understood, Echo. We'll proceed to your current position and stay on station until you give the word."

"Affirmative, _Resolution_ , Echo out," Rainbow said, and with that message relayed she guided her Skygrasper up off the ground and into the air once more, turning her nose towards their course and next objective.

To Mountain Glenn, and all that might wait for them once they got there.


	83. Gilda

Gilda

Gilda had been surprised by how angry hearing the anger in Rainbow Dash's voice made her.

Even more surprisingly, that anger wasn't directed at Rainbow Dash.

Maybe it ought to have been. Maybe listening to Rainbow fulminate over a pair of humans, Atlesian humans what was more, ought to have made her furious. But it didn't. It made her sad because she'd missed that anger. She'd missed having that anger on her side. She'd missed having the rock-solid certainty of Rainbow Dash behind her, of knowing that no matter what happened, no matter what got thrown at them, no matter what the world did to them or didn't do for them, Rainbow Dash would have her back.

She might have found a cause in the White Fang, but she hadn't found a friend half so loyal as Rainbow Dash, and being reminded of that – being reminded of what it meant to have Rainbow Dash on your side, someone who would be protective of you no matter how much you needed it, who would be rendered furious at any injustice done to you or threat made against you – made her sad.

Having to stand silently in this dark room in this dark city and listen to Cinder Fall threaten their prisoners all for the sake of getting a rise out of Rainbow Dash made her angry.

As it went on, as their human guest and the person who now seemed to hold the whip hand over the White Fang in Vale and Adam in her thrall – some rumours in the organisation said that they were sleeping together, others that she had ensorcelled him with some strange power; Gilda could believe the latter more easily than the former, if only because the boss still didn't seem to be quite over Blake yet – only grew more and more smug, and more and more vicious, it became an increasing struggle for Gilda to both hold her tongue and keep her sword restrained.

By the time that Cinder implied that she wouldn't be able to 'restrain' the White Fang for very much longer if Rainbow and company didn't walk into the trap soon it was only Adam's presence that was keeping Gilda from announcing herself and doing something drastic.

She couldn't believe that Adam could stand there, arms folded, and listen to this in silence. That was the kind of crap that the most unapologetically outspoken racists thought about faunus guys and he was willing to just stand there and let Cinder play on it without a word.

It wasn't even that he was angry but keeping it inside. There were none of the telltale signs that Adam Taurus was losing his temper; that mask hid half his face but it couldn't hide his jaw, the expression of his mouth, the way his hand strayed towards the hilt of Wilt whenever he was fantasising about chopping someone in half with it. There was none of that now. He just didn't seem to care that much.

Gilda cared. She cared as she listened to the horrified anger in Rainbow's voice, she cared as she listened to Cinder threaten two people whose lives she had guaranteed. She cared as Cinder made the White Fang out to be animals restrained only by her human guiding hand.

She cared about everything that she heard in this room and it was making her mad.

If the call hadn't ended when it did she would have done something. That was what she told herself anyway: she would have done something, would have said something, would have let Rainbow know that she was there and that she would protect Rainbow's friends.

 _And she would have believed me. Wouldn't she?_

 _Yeah, she would have believed me because we're friends._

 _Such good friends that she never mentioned me to any of her other friends._

 _Because they're human. She was probably afraid of them ditching her if they found out that she hung around with too many other faunus._ Gilda allowed herself a momentary thought that if Rainbow had chosen her instead she wouldn't have that problem, before returning to the matter at hand.

 _Rainbow would trust me if I gave my word. She would, because she knows that I'm trustworthy._

 _Because we're still friends, after all that's come between us._

 _We are still friends. That's what makes it so hard to hear her voice like that._

The only thing worse than facing off with your best friend across the battlefield was having to entertain the possibility that you might not be the one with the moral high ground.

Gilda told herself that she would have done something if it had gone on longer, but it did not go on and she did nothing.

She just stood there, in the shadows of this room, until Cinder was done and Rainbow Dash's voice was gone from it.

Fluttershy, tied to the chair, made a sound that might have been a sob. "Why?"

Cinder looked at her. There was only a single light in the room and it mostly illuminated the two captives – for Cinder's benefit, mainly; Gilda had the eyes of a nocturnal predator and Adam could see pretty well in the dark himself – leaving Cinder herself more in darkness than in light. Yet even in darkness Gilda could see that her expression was cruel. "Why what?"

"Why are you doing any of this?" Fluttershy cried. "Why do you want to hurt Rainbow Dash and Twilight?"

"Because they got in my way," Cinder replied dispassionately. "Before then it was nothing personal."

Fluttershy stared at her, and with her back to Gilda the latter was left to imagine the look of horror on her face. "Is that it? Is that the only reason you have?"

"I have reason enough to do what I do," Cinder said. "You couldn't understand my cause even if you tried."

Applejack struggled against her gag, an incomprehensible mumble emerging from beyond it.

Cinder rolled her eyes. "You can take that out now. Let her have her say.

Strongheart – whom Gilda still thought of as little Strongheart, even though she wasn't so little as she used to be – stepped up behind Applejack and took the gag out of her mouth. The Atlesian huntress took a deep breath before she said. "You know what I think? I think if you had a single good reason for any of this you'd come right out and say it 'stead of acting like we couldn't possibly get you or what makes you."

"And why would I feel the need to justify myself to you?" Cinder said. "You're defeated, captive at my mercy. Why should I care what you think about me or my motives?"

"Because everyone, even animals, have a reason for hurting other people," Fluttershy said. "No living creature kills for sport, but only to survive."

Cinder smirked. "I am so much more than a mere animal."

"I know," Fluttershy said. "You're cruel."

"I'm powerful," Cinder replied. "I don't have to waste my time with those who are unworthy of me. I don't have to bow my head and accept what lesser creatures deign to give to me. I have the will and the capacity to take all that I deserve; and all that I deserve is all that I desire."

"There ain't no way you're gonna get away with this," Applejack said.

Cinder laughed. "And who's going to stop me?"

"My friends will."

Cinder's smile widened. "If they survive, your friends will do more to further my plans than anyone else apart from the two of you."

 _Your plan to do what exactly?_ Gilda wondered. _Get all of us here killed?_ Call her a pessimist but that sometimes seemed to be the most likely outcome of all the preparations they were making here at Mountain Glenn.

"I ain't never gonna lift a finger to help you," Applejack said.

"Is that so?" Cinder asked, and a flame appeared in the palm of her hand to dance reflected in Applejack's eyes. "What if you had a choice between helping me or watching your friend, your innocent friend, Fluttershy get-"

Now Gilda acted. She stepped forward, placing herself between Fluttershy and Cinder, both hands reaching for the katanas she wore slung across her back. "That's enough."

Judging by the way that Cinder looked at her, she had forgotten that Gilda was there.

"Is there a problem?" she asked, as she turned to face Gilda.

"I promised these two they wouldn't get hurt if they surrendered peacefully," Gilda said.

Cinder looked amused by that. She sounded amused too, as she said, "And you meant it? You thought that you could keep that promise when you made it?"

"I always mean to keep my word."

"And you think that _I_ should be bound by _your_ word?"

"I won't let you hurt them."

"Do you think that you can stop me?"

Gilda drew both her swords with a flourish, the low light dancing off the blades as she settled into a high guard, both swords pointed at Cinder's heart. She unfurled her wings and spread them out across the room to make herself look bigger, and she prepared to use her semblance if she had to. Swallow Cut wasn't the strongest or most powerful semblance in Remnant, but it was fast and almost impossible to block. It would give her a surprise if she needed one.

Cinder's eyes narrowed, though her irritating smirk remained. "Why do you care what happens to a pair of humans?"

"Why do you care what I care about, _human_?" Gilda said.

"Because it might jeopardise our operation."

"Our operation? Explain to me again how this is supposed to work and if you say 'conjuring trick' then so help me-"

"Gilda," Adam spoke at last. "That's enough. Cinder, let it go."

The flame died in Cinder's palm. "Are you telling me to do something, Adam?"

"I'm asking you to let it lie, for now," Adam said. "Strongheart, show Cinder back to her quarters."

Strongheart had been staring at Gilda as though she'd grown a second head, but now she looked as though she'd recovered herself. "Right. Yes, Adam. Sure. Come with me."

Cinder smiled. "Of course, child. Lead the way."

Her glass shoes clicked on the ground as she walked away, following Strongheart out of the door.

Adam stared at Gilda. The mask hid half his face, but even so Gilda could tell that he was angry. Everything about the way he stood and held himself proclaimed it.

Gilda sheathed her swords and folded her wings up behind her back. "Boss, I-"

"Quiet," Adam said. "Step outside with me for a minute."

Gilda swallowed, but complied without argument, opposition, or resistance. She followed Adam outside and let him slam the door behind them.

When they stood directly outside, under the rocky ceiling that separated the subterranean undercity from the sky above, Adam rounded on her with a voice as sharp as Wilt's edge. "What's going on?"

Gilda took an involuntary step backwards. "I-I made a promise."

"A promise? To them?"

"Yes."

"They're humans!" Adam spat.

"So is Cinder Fall, our new leader," Gilda snapped back at him, irritation at the current state of affairs temporarily proving stronger than her fear of Adam.

"I am your leader," Adam said, in a voice that was no less intimidating for being quiet. "Do you have a problem with that? Do you not trust me Gilda?"

"You're not the one that I don't trust, boss," Gilda said. She swallowed. It was a hard thing to tell Adam Taurus to his face that he was making a mistake, but the fact was that with Blake turned traitor and Walter and Perry both in prison she might be the closest thing to a number two in the Vale Chapter, certainly in Mountain Glenn. "But ever since that woman walked into Camp Freedom there's been nothing but trouble." _Starting with Blake leaving. That might be a coincidence but it was an unlucky one all the same._ Gilda hadn't been close to Blake – nobody was close to Blake except Adam himself, partly because Adam preferred it that way and partly because Blake didn't let anyone get close – but she'd respected her not only as a great fighter but also as one of the few people who could get through to Adam at all. She'd picked a hell of a time to walk away from the fight at just the same moment that Cinder Fall showed up.

 _The angel on his shoulder left, is it any wonder that a demon was able to take up residence so easily?_

Adam didn't say anything. He didn't look any angrier than he had done just a moment before, so Gilda dared to hope that he might be considering what she had to say.

She steeled herself to go on. "What are we doing here? This isn't our fight."

"Our fight is against humanity."

"Like this?" Gilda asked. "This isn't how we do things, it never has been. This isn't our way."

The Atlesian military – and let's be honest, be it in Vale or anywhere else in the world it was the Atlesian military in unholy alliance with the SDC that provided the main threat and opposition to the White Fang's activities – was an old behemoth, stalked by a young and vital hunter. In a straight fight the behemoth would win – every time, hands down, and without much visible effort – but the trick was not to give him that fight, to bite and nip and harry him until you wore him down without ever staying still long enough for him to hit you. That was how the White Fang fought, not by building up supplies and troops and weapons like they were some kind of army.

"And what has our way gotten us?" Adam demanded. "We're no closer to victory than we were when we began."

"And Cinder's plan is going to get us somewhere?" Gilda said. "What the grimm don't devour the Atlesians will obliterate from the sky."

"Then we will die in the fire rather than live in chains!" Adam said. A wordless growl escaped her lips. "If you had seen what I have seen, Gilda, you wouldn't be so quick to question Cinder. She has power of a kind I've never seen before. And behind her…"

Gilda frowned. "Cinder…isn't in charge?" That was news to her, if true. She'd never seen Cinder answer to anyone, nor seen any hint that she did so.

Adam's face twitched with annoyance. "She can't be stopped. Atlas can't stop her. Huntsmen and huntresses can't stop her. The four kingdoms and all their might can't stop her. A great change is about to sweep through Remnant and when it does, all that we have known will be swept away until nothing is left but…ruins."

Gilda shivered. She only had to look around her to see exactly what he meant. They were presently based out of the world's largest tomb, a vast underground mausoleum dedicated to the memory of those who had been foolish enough to underestimate the creatures of grimm. The areas in which the White Fang lived and worked and prepared for their attack on Vale had needed to cleared of dead bodies before they were truly habitable, and their patrols were constantly coming across evidence of the human habitation that had been wiped out from this place. Now imagine that but with ten times the numbers and you had Adam's gloomy prophecy. But how? How could Cinder, or her master, achieve such things? "I don't understand, boss."

"The faunus will be swept away as well," Adam said. "Unless we prove ourselves useful. So we will obey her, and follow her plan, and fight for her-"

"No matter the cost?"

"And we will strike such a blow against Vale and Atlas both that history will record it as the beginning of the end," Adam declared. "And if we have to hurt two spoilt little Atlas girls to do it then so be it."

So they were back to that. Back to where they started. "Adam," Gilda said, hoping that she could call him Adam. "I don't know what that woman has over you. I don't know what you know about her or what she's capable of. And I'm not sure how much I care. I can't let her hurt them. Or…or you, for that matter."

"They're our enemies."

"Just because we wear monster masks doesn't make us monsters," Gilda said. "Only acting like monsters does that."

"They already think we're monsters, they always have."

"We don't have to prove them right," Gilda said. "They're friend could have killed me, but she didn't. I owe her this."

Adam stared at her for a few moments in silence. "You're a good fighter, Gilda," he said. "With so many of my lieutenants having either been imprisoned or…having betrayed our cause, you're probably the best fighter I have aside from myself. I need a good right arm, and that could be you…if you can show me that you have the strength to do what has to be done."

 _The strength to keep my mouth shut and not interfere, you mean? Or the strength to tell you over and over again that you're making a mistake but it's not too late to change._ Gilda doubted it was the second one; not even Blake had had that kind of strength, in the end. "I'm honoured, boss; but there are a lot of different kinds of strength…and I'm not sure that I've got all of them."

"Then remember which side you're on," Adam said. "The justice of our cause is adamant, and nothing that we do will ever rob us of the cloak of righteousness. Keep your prisoners safe for now, but remember that we do what we must for the sake of all our people who suffer under oppression…and remember that you chose your side when you put on the mask."

He turned away, and stalked off in the direction of the train.

Gilda watched him go for a moment. Then she went back inside.

Fluttershy and Applejack hadn't gone anywhere. How could they, they were shackled to suppress their auras and bound to chairs. Applejack looked as though she might have been trying to loosen her restraints but she hadn't managed to do it: without aura it wasn't likely that she would.

Gilda's stomach rumbled, which reminded her that she should probably feed Applejack's dog – her dog now, because while she wasn't going to kill the Atlesian huntress she wasn't above stealing the things that Applejack had that she, Gilda, wanted like her rifle, her cool Stetson hat or her dog which Gilda had brought from the Atlesian camp rather than kill it – soon, because the poor girl had to be getting hungry.

Maybe the two girls were getting hungry as well.

Gilda reached into one of the pouches on her black flak vest, and pulled out a trio of dessert bars taken from the Atlesian base. "You want one?"

Applejack nodded. "We'll have a bite."

Gilda sat down on the table near the door. "Okay. Give me a second." She was the captor after all, there was no reason why she shouldn't eat first. She unwrapped one of the vacuum packed bars – mocha flavour, apparently – and bit into it. Her face contorted into a cringe as she swallowed the foul tasting thing. "Gah! Do you actually eat these or is this some kind of joke you play on us: laughing as we steal the crap you've made us think is your food?"

"Nope," Applejack said. "That's what we get."

"I'm amazed you haven't died from food poisoning," Gilda said. She forced herself to take another bite, and then another, because she was hungry and food was food and not to be wasted. Supplies were too scarce to throw things away just because you didn't like the taste. She felt like she was going to be sick by the time she was done, but she had eaten the whole bar and so she could take comfort in a warm glow of righteousness – that didn't quite match the indigestive feeling in her stomach. She held up one of the other bars – cherry tart – to Applejack. "You still want this."

"Fluttershy first," Applejack said.

Gilda grinned. "You hear that, she wants you to get ill before she does."

Fluttershy didn't smile. She didn't laugh. She didn't say anything. She sat with her head bowed, her lilac-coloured hair falling down to hide her face like a curtain.

Gilda frowned as she got up and walked across the room. She knelt down, looking up into Fluttershy's sad face. "You should eat," she said, holding up the dessert bar. "Listen, I…I'm sorry about before."

"Oh, you're sorry," Applejack said. "That sure makes it all okay."

"You're alive, aren't you?" Gilda said. "And you've got Rainbow Dash in your corner, do you know how lucky that makes you?"

"Yes," Fluttershy whispered. "Yes, I do."

Gilda nodded. "Then-"

"What are you going to do to her when she gets here?" Fluttershy asked, her voice quiet. "What are you going to do…to her and Twilight?"

Gilda stared up into her face, into eyes that were full of fear, but not for herself. "I don't know, exactly," she said, which was partly a lie, and partly the honest and very frustrating truth. "Sometimes I think Cinder wants to kill them all, and sometimes I think she wants them to live as part of some grand plan. This whole things is nuts."

Fluttershy sighed. "I'd rather…I'd rather die than-"

"Fluttershy, no!" Applejack yelled.

"I don't want to live knowing that Twilight and Rainbow Dash died trying to save me, do you?" Fluttershy cried.

Gilda's eyebrows rose. The declaration itself wasn't that unusual; indeed it was so commonplace as to inspire more derision than respect in her. The White Fang was full of people who would loudly state that they would rather die for the cause than surrender to the cops of the huntsmen; but the number who actually did that when given the choice was small at best. But most of the people saying that hadn't already been caught by the time they said it, like Fluttershy had. Maybe…maybe it wasn't bravado from her, she didn't exactly seem the type for it. Maybe she meant it.

Maybe she was a whole lot stronger than she looked. In some ways anyway.

She unwrapped the cherry tart bar. "Eat up," she said, pushing it up towards Fluttershy. "Don't give up yet. One thing I learnt being friends with Rainbow Dash is that never pays to bet against her." The fact that she was, in a great many ways, betting against Rainbow right now was one of the many uncomfortable things about their new adversarial relationship.

"You were a good friend of hers?" Applejack asked, as Fluttershy began to eat.

Gilda smiled. "Best friends, once upon a time. I know you might not believe it, but it's true. Even if it does feel like it happened to someone else."

"What happened?" Applejack asked.

Gilda shrugged. "I thought that she was choosing you over me, and I couldn't forgive it. So I said some things that she couldn't forgive…and that was that."

"So how'd you end up in the White Fang, if you don't mind me asking?"

"The question you should be asking is how did Dashie _not_ end up in the White Fang," Gilda said.

Fluttershy swallowed. "Because she's a good person."

"Oh, and I'm not?"

"You've made some bad choices."

That struck closer to home than Gilda liked. "The White Fang didn't always used to be like this." She sniggered. "Listen to me, I sound old. But it's true. I joined to fight the good fight and that's exactly what I did."

"Is that right?" Applejack asked sceptically.

"Yeah, that's right," Gilda insisted. "None of this going to war crap. None of this arming like some army. None of these humans walking around like they own the place. None of this planning to let grimm into places. You know it's not the cops in Atlas or Vale that protect the faunus neighbourhoods and keep the crooks and the gangs out, it's the White Fang. And it isn't the law that does anything about the assholes discriminating against faunus, it's the White Fang. And the money that we take from the SDC and the crooked banks, that goes to help faunus who need it."

"Widow and orphans?" Applejack asked.

"Yeah, and guys broken from working down the mines," Gilda said. "We're not terrorists, we're…we're like a…" what had the person who recruited her called it. A bit of a five-lien word. "We're a benevolent society. Like insurance."

Applejack's eyebrows rose. "Insurance."

"Yeah, insurance," Gilda said. "And a neighbourhood watch. And vigilantes. And a few other things as well, but we're not terrorists. Or we didn't used to be." _We're not terrorists now, we're becoming something worse: soldiers._

 _And it's going to get us all killed if we're not careful._

"I wish it didn't have to be this way," she said aloud.

"What didn't?" Fluttershy asked politely.

Gilda scowled. "Last time I spoke to Dash I told her that she was a traitor to her race, not a faunus for fighting against the Fang. I told her that she was nothing. I wish I hadn't said that."

"Because you still want to be her friend?"

"I don't want to be her enemy," Gilda said. She hesitated. "No, I don't want to be her enemy. I tried to kill her…but that was battle, and I regret that too. Especially since…since she didn't kill me when she had the chance."

"I'm sure that Rainbow doesn't want to be your enemy either," Fluttershy said. "In fact, I'm sure that she wants to be your friend just as much as you want to be hers."

"How can you be so sure?" Gilda asked. "She didn't even mention me to her new friends."

"But she spared your life," Fluttershy said. "So she must care."

Gilda didn't respond to that, except to hold up more of the bar for Fluttershy to eat. "I don't know about that," she said. "But…she spared my life, so for whatever it's worth I'm going to do the same thing to you."

"For whatever it's worth?" Applejack asked.

"Cinder has her hooks in Adam," Gilda said. "I don't know how, but she does. I don't know how long I can protect you, but for as long as I can I will."

Out of respect for Dash she would protect her friends, and out of obligation to the White Fang she would protect the organisation and its people, both of them from Cinder Fall and her schemes which Gilda knew with absolute certainty would be of no benefit to the White Fang but only to herself.

She didn't know that she would be able to protect either of them, or for how long. But she was going to try.

She had no choice.


	84. Memories

Memories

Ruby wasn't sure exactly where Rainbow Dash had set the Skygrasper down until the hatch at the rear of the plane dropped open: they had landed in what had once been the garden of someone's house: the remains of a stone wall and a few mouldering remnants of wooden fence surrounded an open space where the grass was overgrown and the weeds were invading, but there was no sign that anybody had ever built over this, not like the two-storey house that was falling into decay not far away. This was the garden of that house, a place where it was still – if you cared to look – just about possible to make out the edges of what had been flower beds.

As Ruby stepped out of the dropship, with Crescent Rose at her hip in its carbine configuration, sweeping from right to left in case any grimm leapt out of the shadows or from the abandoned house, she couldn't help but wonder who had lived in that house, tended to this garden…and whether they had managed to get out of the city in time before there became no escape.

Sunset followed her out of the aircraft, with her rifle at her shoulder even while the barrel was pointing down towards the ground; she'd taped a torch around the barrel, though she hadn't turned it on yet. She looked at the house, studying it for a moment. It had holes in the roof, and in the walls; the glass had gone from the windows and from all the doors – there was a back door and a set of patio doors leading out onto some stone slabs that were cracking as the weeds grew up between them – as well. If there was still a front door Ruby would be quite surprised. But most of the walls were still there, and most of the roof too when it came to it. As a place to make camp, which was almost certainly what Sunset was thinking about since it was getting dark now, it wasn't the worst place Ruby could imagine by any measure.

"Make camp here?" Sunset asked. Ruby at first thought that the question was directed to Professor Goodwitch, who was the pro-huntress they were supposedly shadowing on this mission and their professor and probably ought to be leading the expedition, but actually she realised after a moment that Sunset had been asking Rainbow Dash, who came out of the Skygrasper last after the rest of her team, and Torchwick and Neo.

Rainbow cast her eye over the house. "Don't see why not," she said, as the rear door of the plane rose behind her.

Professor Goodwitch didn't say anything. She hadn't said much since the mission started, really. Certainly not since they'd taken off. She watched, but she hardly said a word to any of them. She didn't try to give orders, or to complain that Sunset and Rainbow were still giving the orders, or anything. She just watched them.

"Sapphire, we'll clear the first floor," Sunset said. "Rosepetal the ground. Blake, keep an eye on the prisoners."

"Right," Blake said, as she drew her sword and turned it into a pistol.

Torchwick smiled. "Nice to see you're not getting cocky just cause I've got these cuffs on."

"I wouldn't turn my back on you if you were locked in an airtight box," Blake said.

Pyrrha led the way into the house, she had her shield slung across her back and Milo in rifle configuration in her hands. Jaune went next, then Sunset, then Ruby brought up the rear. They entered through the shattered patio door, walking around the filthy, dirt and dust-covered dining table while trying to ignore the mould that was growing up the walls and the way that the carpet had worn away in places to reveal rotting floorboards underneath. The boards creaked as they stepped on them, and the thing that convinced Ruby more than anything else that there weren't any grimm in this house was the fact that if there had been they would have heard the noise and come to investigate. They left the dining room, and passed into the hall where a decorative plate hung on the wall, and despite the dust and the muck Ruby could just make out that it had a picture of a huntress in a grey cloak, wielding a pair of what looked like scythes and…was she wearing a mask to cover her face? It looked like there might have been a couple of other plates too, but they'd been smashed to fragments on the floor along with the remains of a table. A spider crawled up the wall towards its web, while a couple of woodlice crept across the floor in careless ignorance of the intruders in their home.

The stairs sagged and creaked under their tread, but didn't give way under any of them and they were able to reach the first floor, where books mouldered on bookshelves covered in a disgusting layer of muck and a long corridor pointed the way towards a bathroom at the far end. An open trapdoor, with no ladder, led up into an attic.

"Pyrrha, can you check the attic?" Sunset said.

"Of course," Pyrrha said softly, as she jogged down the hall, Milo-as-rifle still shouldered and ready, until she stood directly underneath the trap door. She leapt, and she barely needed to grab the lip of the trap as she vaulted into the attic with a thud as she landed.

They split up to clear the rooms. Jaune went straight ahead down the corridor. Sunset took the first room on the left. Ruby took the first room on the right. A sign on the door – still visible despite the black mould climbing up it from the floor – proclaimed that it was Skye's Room. Ruby pushed open the door, finding a patch of wood that wasn't too disgusting to push against. The door swung back with a creak of the hinges, revealing a room where the pink wallpaper was slowly pealing back to reveal the plaster underneath. The bed was pink too, with a pink stuffed elephant sitting on it. Dust was everywhere, and dirt was in a lot of places too. There was a…was that Uncle Qrow on the wall?

Ruby stepped a little closer to the bed so that she could see the poster tacked up above it. It was! It was Uncle Qrow, younger but unmistakable to anyone who knew him like she did; she guessed that this must have been from his Beacon days when he was taking part in Vytal Tournaments, maybe. Had he been wearing that same shirt for twenty years?

She noticed that Skye had drawn a heart around his face in lipstick, and Ruby couldn't help herself as a fit of giggles escaped her lips.

And then she realised that the girl who lived in this room and had a crush on Uncle Qrow might well have died horribly when grimm overran the city, and suddenly it didn't seem so funny any more.

Ruby crossed to the shattered window, looking out over the other side of the house from the one they'd landed on. A deserted street ran outside, with overturned garbage cans rusting on the road alongside the remains of crashed cars, fallen lamp-posts and even, a little way away, an overturned bus. Everywhere the weeds were coming through the road. There was no sign of any grimm, nor sound that might suggest their presence. There was no movement that Ruby could make out at all.

She glanced at the dressing table that sat beside the window. The vanity mirror had been broken, but there were a lot of bottles and tubes of skin lotion, make-up, lipstick, perfume all piled upon the dusty wood. Along with a scroll.

Gingerly, tentatively, Ruby picked it up. She opened it up almost without a second thought.

She didn't really expect it to work, it was twenty years old or more after all, but as she opened up the device – it was thicker than the newer scrolls, heavier in her hands and the screen wasn't completely transparent – it flickered into life.

"Hey, uh…future me, I guess?" the voice of a girl about Ruby's age emerged from the old device. There was no picture, but the sound was clear considering how old this was. "Here we are in our new home. Now that we're here I can see why Dad wanted to move out to Mountain Glenn: they could never have afforded a place like this in the city. But everything's so much cheaper here and so we've changed our old apartment for this whole house! We have a garden and everything! And thanks to the subway system into Vale I don't have to chance schools or say goodbye to any of my friends. And I have a room that's like twice as big as my old one. Cerise and Maisie are going to be so jealous of all this space when they come over.

"Mom's still a little nervous about all of this. She hasn't said anything but I can tell. But Dad says that the huntsmen are going to keep us safe, and you know…I believe him. I've got a good feeling about all this. I think that everything here is going to be just great."

Ruby shut the scroll as a frown creased her face. _What happened to her? Do I even want to know?_

"Is everything okay?" Sunset asked as she came in. "I heard something. A voice?"

Ruby held up the old scroll. "Turns out the battery on these things last forever."

Sunset wandered into the room. She spared a glance for the Qrow poster with its lipstick heart. "Someone had a thing for bad boys."

"Uh…yeah, I guess," Ruby said, a trifle nervously as she decided not to give away the fact that the bad boy in question had helped raise her and her sister. She looked down from the poster, at the bed with the pink stuffed elephant. "Her name was Skye."

Sunset's brow furrowed. "You don't know that she's dead. She might have evacuated the city before the decision to retreat into the catacombs was taken."

"She could have gotten out," Ruby allowed. "But she probably didn't." She turned away, and once more looked out the broken window. "These people were counting on huntsmen to keep them safe."

"I'm sure they tried."

"But they failed," Ruby said. "Even if Skye got out, even if her family got out…most of the people living here didn't."

"The same could probably be said of a lot of the huntsmen," Sunset replied.

"For what?" Ruby asked. "They gave their lives but they didn't save anyone. How…how could they let this happen? Huntsmen are supposed to save people?"

Sunset was silent for a moment. "I don't know. I don't know enough about the history of this place. It wasn't something that I ever needed to study, although I know a little about Ozpin's Stand that came after. I don't know whether the huntsmen did everything they could or not. I don't know if they failed or not."

"They failed," Ruby said. "Even if they did everything they could, even if they gave their lives. Huntsmen are supposed to save lives and protect people. What if…what if that isn't always possible?"

Sunset exhaled. "I don't know. Maybe we can't always win. I'm not going to say that I like the idea, but…I can't just dismiss it."

"If we lose Vale there's nowhere left to run to," Ruby said.

"We're not going to lose Vale," Sunset said. "Ruby, look at me."

Ruby turned away from the window and looked into Sunset's face.

"Maybe we can't always win," Sunset said. "But we're not going to lose here. Not to the White Fang, not to Cinder, not to anyone. We're too late to save this city, but that doesn't mean that huntsmen are going to fail in Mountain Glenn a second time. Come on, I've finished checking the other rooms and its obvious there aren't any grimm around."

"Right," Ruby said. "Hey, Sunset?"

"Yeah?"

"Why doesn't Professor Goodwitch give the orders?"

Sunset said, "My guess is that she's testing me and Rainbow Dash. Rather than nanny us she wants to see how we perform. She'll only step in if we make a major screw-up."

"Really?"

"She hasn't confirmed that," Sunset said. "But that's why I think she's been so quiet and unassuming."

"I see," Ruby said quietly. "Sunset, I think I'm going to stay here for a while. It's a good place to stand watch."

"We haven't assigned watches yet."

"I volunteer to take the first shift."

Sunset hesitated a moment before she nodded. "Okay. I'll bring you something to eat once dinner's ready."

"Thanks."

"No problem," Sunset said, before she turned away. She didn't shut the door behind her, but Ruby lost sight of her pretty quickly anyway, though as she turned to face the window and the dark and unlit street outside she could hear Sunset's footsteps joining those of Jaune and Pyrrha heading downstairs.

Ruby looked down at the scroll she was still holding in her hands.

 _Dad says that the huntsmen are going to keep us safe._

Ruby's brow crinkled. _"Mommy, where are you going?"_

" _It doesn't matter, sweetie; it's just a mission. I'll be back soon, I promise."_

" _But why do you have to go at all?"_

" _Because people need me, Ruby; maybe even more than you or Yang need me. Because people are in danger and I can't just do nothing. Because saving people…is what a huntress does."_

Ruby didn't have many memories of her mother, but she still remembered the smile on the face of Summer Rose as she had said that. The way she smiled as she promised to return soon…before leaving on a mission from which she had never returned.

Ruby had never forgotten those words. They were etched into her mind and her heart alike. Saving people was what a huntress did.

But all the huntresses and huntsmen had failed at Mountain Glenn.

She let Skye's scroll fall to the dressing table. Whether she'd made it out or not didn't really matter now. Even if she'd escaped…there were many who hadn't.

"I won't let this happen to Vale," Ruby whispered to herself. "I won't let the city fall, I promise." She promised Skye, she promised Mom, she promised all the ghosts of Mountain Glenn: she wouldn't let this tragedy be repeated.

The peace that was purchased with blood that was red like roses had been shattered by Cinder's actions and Salem's malice, but the peace would come again. She would make sure of it.

"See anything, Miss Rose?"

Ruby almost jumped as she turned, pointing her gun at Professor Goodwitch, who stood in the doorway with a steaming bowl of something in her hands.

"Professor," Ruby cried. "I, uh, didn't hear you."

"I _am_ a fully qualified huntress, Miss Rose," Professor Goodwitch said. "I hope that a beowolf on the prowl would be a little less stealthy."

"Yeah, I hope so," Ruby said. "So…what brings you up here, professor?"

"I thought that you might like something to eat," Professor Goodwitch said, holding the bowl up a little higher."

"Oh, thanks, you didn't have to do that."

"No," Professor Goodwitch said. "But I did." Ruby slung Crescent Rose behind her back, and took the bowl of dark broth out of Professor Goodwitch's hands. "I take it then that you've seen nothing?"

"No," Ruby said. "Not a thing. This part of the city seems to be pretty quiet."

"Don't let your guard down," Professor Goodwitch said. "The creatures of grimm aren't known to give too much advanced warning of their presence."

"I know," Ruby murmured. "Professor?"

"Yes, Miss Rose?"

"Why did Mountain Glenn fall?" Ruby asked. "Why couldn't the huntsmen and huntresses defend it?"

Professor Goodwitch joined Ruby at the window. Darkness had well and truly fallen now, and the moonlight shone down upon them, teacher and student alike, through the shattered bedroom window.

"Miss Rose…Ruby, do you remember the night that you and I first met?"

"Of course," Ruby said. "You showed up to save me from Torchwick."

"But we didn't catch him, you and I," Professor Goodwitch said. "Although, of course, you'd get him later."

"No, but we let him get away that first time," Ruby murmured. "Professor…if I hadn't been there…if you hadn't had to protect me, do you think you would have caught him then?"

"Perhaps," Professor Goodwitch said. "But it's equally possible, perhaps even more so, that I would not. There's little point in asking questions like that. You can only analyse the actions that you took in the situation that you were faced with, understand what you did wrong, and then do better the next time you're faced with a similar scenario. Beyond that, wondering what might have been is a pointless distraction. Do you remember what else happened that night?"

"I remember everything that happened that night," Ruby said. "That's the night tht a whole new part of my life started."

It was hard to tell, but it seemed as though Professor Goodwitch smiled, if only for a moment. "You told me that you wanted to become a huntress so that you could help others, the way your parents taught you."

"Yeah," Ruby said. "The way they taught me…and the way they showed me, if you know what I mean."

Professor Goodwitch nodded. "To say that the first duty of a huntress is to help others, to protect them against any danger, is not an inaccurate statement to make. But it would be more accurate to say that the first dust of a huntress is to try.

"We're not superheroes. Although we possess extraordinary gifts, and have had the highest standard of training lavished upon us, we're ultimately only human. Despite our best intentions we can fail, and fall, as so many did here at Mountain Glenn. Some close friends of mine amongst them."

"I-"

"My partner at Beacon was a girl named Elphaba Westwick," Professor Goodwitch continued. "She's buried here at Mountain Glenn, if buried is the right word for it."

"I'm sorry," Ruby murmured, aware that the words were inadequate but at the same time not knowing what else to say.

"She died doing what she loved," Professor Goodwitch said. "Fighting for what she believed in, as she had sworn to do. But we're only human. We can fight with all of our strength and yet we can fail all the same. All we can do is vow to do better next time. If we are permitted to do so. Do you know what happened after Mountain Glenn fell?"

"Ozpin's Stand," Ruby said.

Professor Goodwitch nodded. "The horde of grimm that had destroyed Mountain Glenn swept through the woods towards Vale. Professor Ozpin himself led out every available huntsman and huntress he could muster to stand against them. I was there, and so were your mother and father, and your uncle, Qrow.

"Huntsmen had failed to save Mountain Glenn, but in the three days of fighting that they now call Ozpin's Stand, with the Kingdom of Vale at stake we learnt from what had happened there and we did _not_ fail.

"We don't need to succeed every single time, Ruby. We only need to succeed often enough to preserve humanity, and the kingdoms."

Ruby had been eating the sticky, spicy broth while Professor Goodwitch had been speaking. Now she set the mostly empty bowl down on the dressing table. "Professor, can I ask you a question?"

"If you like, Miss Rose."

"You taught my Mom, didn't you?"

Now Professor Goodwitch smiled for sure, and unlike her earlier smile it didn't fade so quickly that Ruby couldn't be certain it had ever been there at all. "I had that honour, yes."

"Could you tell me…could you tell me what she was like?" Ruby asked. "Only I don't remember very much about her, and Dad doesn't like to talk about it. It makes him sad."

Professor Goodwitch nodded. "I can understand why. Your mother…Summer Rose didn't always appear to be a very serious student. I have to admit that when I first met her I thought that she wasn't serious about studying to become a huntress at all. She laughed easily, she sometimes joked around in class, she sometimes preferred having fun with her friends to doing her homework. But, when a fight started – be it a battle against the grimm with lives on the line, a tournament match with the whole of Remnant watching or a simple sparring match in my class – all of that fell away and she became incredibly focussed: once the fight had begun then the fight was all that mattered. She never gave anything less than all of herself in battle, she always fought as if there were lives and kingdoms on the line.

"And if she liked to have fun outside of battle, well…nobody who saw her in action would begrudge her the relaxation."

Ruby smiled. "So, you liked her then?"

"I try not to think about my students in those terms, like or dislike; I'd prefer not to practice favouritism," Professor Goodwitch said primly. "But I respected your mother's skills – it was impossible not to, once you'd witnessed them – and, later, her leadership. She was given the leadership of an exceptionally talented team, the most talented that I've ever seen walk the halls of Beacon until…but Summer mastered the various egos of her team-mates, and won the respect, and even the affection, of even those least inclined to give it to her."

Based on what she'd read of Mom's diary, Ruby took that to refer to Raven.

"But, perhaps what I remember best of all about your mother was her kindness. No matter the circumstances, Summer's first instinct was always to see what she could do to help. I think she'd be proud that it's a principle you seem to have inherited from her."

Ruby smiled. "Thank you, Professor."

Professor Goodwitch said, "Miss Shimmer will be up to take over watch soon, I believe. Goodnight, Ruby."

"Goodnight, Professor."

It was indeed Sunset, with the flashlight strapped to the gun barrel and her eyes glowing in the darkness like there was a light behind them, who arrived to relieve Ruby on watch not long after Professor Goodwitch left, and as she settled herself in Skye's old room – she didn't have to stay there, but Ruby really believed it offered a good vantage point – Ruby made her way downstairs to where the others had made camp in the lounge amongst the remains of old chairs and sofas. When she arrived, most of the expedition was asleep or trying to sleep, all curled up on top of their groundsheets around a gently burning fire. Penny, who presumably didn't need sleep and whose eyes were glowing in much the same way as Sunset's were, was standing at the downstairs window. As Ruby walked into the old living room, where pictures of weddings and birthdays still hung on the walls even as the wallpaper crumbled around them, Penny turned to look at her with a smile and a wave.

"You girls are far too nice for this line of work."

It was only after he announced himself that Ruby saw that Torchwick wasn't asleep, or even trying to sleep. He was lounging on one of the old sofas, but he didn't seem to be trying to sleep so much as to relax. He was looking at Ruby, but his eyes occasionally flickered to Penny as a smirk lay comfortably on his face.

Penny looked at him, the glow in her eyes fading a little as she blinked. "I don't understand. What does it mean to be too nice? For this or any line of work?"

"Ignore him, Penny," Ruby said. "He doesn't know what he's talking about."

"While you, of course, already know everything you need to know about life," Torchwick said. "How old are you, Red?"

Ruby hesitated for a moment. "I'm fifteen."

Torchwick snorted. "Fifteen? Even I wasn't that cocky at fifteen. When I was your age I actually listened to my elders…every once in a while."

"I can listen," Ruby replied. "I just don't see that I need to listen to you."

The smirk didn't move from Torchwick's face. "Let me guess: it's because I'm a criminal. I bet you're the kind of good girl who only listens to her parents and teachers."

"I listen to them," Ruby said. "Every once in a while."

Torchwick chuckled. "I knew it."

Ruby's eyes narrowed. "Knew what?"

"That you were more like me than you'd think."

"Ruby's nothing like you!" Penny declared emphatically, as she walked from the window to stand by Ruby's side. "Physically or otherwise."

Torchwick was still smirking. "Oh, we're a lot more alike than you'd think."

"How?" Ruby demanded.

Torchwick rolled over, and sat up on the sofa. "Well, we're both in pretty violent occupations for one."

"You hurt people to get ahead, I help and protect people," Ruby said.

"Hey, I didn't get into this life because I enjoyed beating people up, although it can be satisfyingly cathartic in the right circumstances," Torchwick said, with a hint of a chuckle in his voice. "When I started out, the crooks were just another part of the community; a good part too. That's what I thought, anyway. I was like you once, Little Red, and you too…Other Red: naïve and stupid."

"I'm not stupid," Penny said. "I have a genius-level IQ."

"Is that so? Unfortunately for you there's all kinds of stupid, and sometimes the smarter you are the dumber you get," Torchwick said. "Like my old boss: real old-school type, gentleman gangster of the type you don't see any more. He sent flowers to folks in the hospital, and brought food for the poor in his neighbourhood on holidays."

"He sounds like a decent guy," Ruby said. "Are you sure he was a crook?"

"Oh, trust me, Red, there was plenty of illegal stuff going on too, I oughtta know. But the old man had his way of doing things. He didn't see the point in being unnecessarily vicious when you could get further on a kind word. He believed in community, responsibility, all that good stuff."

"What happened to him?" Penny asked.

"He got shot dead coming out of his house one morning," Torchwick said. "And the new boss in the neighbourhood didn't send flowers, or food for the poor, but everybody kissed the ring regardless because he had the money and the power and they wanted a piece of both. That's the moral of the story, kids: there are no prizes for being nice, for being kind, for being squeamish about doing the hard stuff. We both live in violent worlds, and if you want to survive then you can't worry about whether something is right or good or decent; the only question you ought to ask yourself is: is it necessary? Will it keep me alive?"

"If you think like that," Penny said. "How do you ever trust anybody?"

Torchwick's smile broadened. "Now you're catching on, Pink Bow. In this life you can't trust nobody but yourself. After all, how did trusting Cinder work out for you, huh?"

"I don't believe you," Ruby said coldly. "And what's more, I don't believe that you believe that either."

"Huh?"

"When you had me and my team caged, Penny and her team came to rescue us," Ruby said, leaving aside Yang's contribution and all the rest not because she was blind to them but for the sake of a simpler point. She slipped her hand into Penny's, and grasped it. "They did that because they're our friends and they cared about us. That's what it means to trust others: sure, sometimes they betray you but other times it means there's someone to catch you when you fall, and you know that too or who is she?" she gestured at Neo, curled up on her groundsheet like a cat.

Torchwick glanced at her. "She's got nothing to do with this."

"You care about her, don't you?" Ruby asked.

Torchwick stared at Ruby, his smug smirk turning to a much sourer look as though he'd bitten into a lemon. "Everybody needs somebody."

Ruby looked down on him, even if only a little on account of the difference in their heights even if he was sitting down. _What I remember best of all about your mother was her kindness._ "You're wrong," she said. "You know it and I know it and I'm going to prove it to you. Maybe living like you say to live will help to you survive, but you'll never actually live that way."

Torchwick stared at her. "Mom or Dad?"

Ruby blinked. "What?"

"Your Mom or your Dad, which of them was in this life before you?"

"Both," Ruby said.

Torchwick's eyes narrowed slightly. "Which of them isn't around no more?"

"How do you-"

"Like I said," Torchwick said as he cut her off. "We're more alike than you think. Red, you're either going to get yourself killed sooner rather than later – likely, since that's the fate of every other do-gooder huntsman in history seems like – or you're going to realise that I was right all along: Baconhair, the Mistral Princess, Kitty Kitty, this little thing right here and her Atlesian comrades, none of them give a damn about you and the moment the going gets tough they'll sell you out faster than they can say your name and you need to look out for yourself if you want to avoid a dirt nap.

"Or maybe, just maybe, you'll prove me wrong and show this outlaw something that he never expected to see.

"And, honestly, half the reason I'm here with you is that I want to find out which it is."

"And the other half?" Penny asked.

Torchwick's smile returned. "That, kids, is something you're just going to have to wait and see."


	85. Necropolis

Necropolis

It was a more subjective, and a less valid reason than the fact that there was no way they could beat Atlas in a stand-up fight for finding this whole plan with the train and the tunnels to be a complete nonsense, but Gilda would readily admit – at least to herself – that she just plain didn't like basing out of Mountain Glenn.

It was the world's largest tomb and it gave her the creeps. And the Creeps, which didn't help her mood one little bit.

From what she understood, Vale had built two cities at Mountain Glenn: one up top on the surface, and one below by building on all the caves that were there already to create a vast hollow under the surface that they could build a second Mountain Glenn within. It made a degree of sense, she guessed, what with the subway tunnel that they'd built to bus everybody in and out of the city, but even in its prime she wouldn't have wanted to live out her life here. She didn't want to be here now. It was airless, perpetually in darkness – and just because she had the eyes of a hawk and could see in the dark didn't mean that Gilda didn't like to see the sun, feel the warmth of it slapping her face on a hot day, feel the wind through her feathers. There could have been none of that here, even when this was a living, breathing – breathing stale air that had been trapped underground for too long, but still – city. And Gilda's discomfort was made worse by the feeling she had that the undercity would have been the place were all the faunus lived because they couldn't afford to live on the surface.

She was surprised that Atlas hadn't had the idea of doing that.

The fact that there were no doubt some who would say that this underground mausoleum was the proper place for the faunus and the White Fang only increased Gilda's discomfort with being here. They were not rats, to skulk in darkness, to crawl through tunnels and to hide in caves. They were men, with as much right to the sunlight and the blue sky and the wind on their faces as any human. Some of them might be born into darkness but that didn't mean that they had to make their homes in it.

At the moment Gilda was standing on top of what had been some kind of tower block not far from the commercial rail yard that they were using to prep the train. Beneath her she could see the Atlesian paladins, their stolen wonder weapon that would no way be enough to turn the tide against all of the existing wonder weapons that Atlas already had at its disposal, loading dust bombs onto the rear cars in preparation for the attack. She wasn't sure exactly when the attack would take place, but the word said that it would come soon. Sooner than originally planned, Cinder wanted to step up the timetable. She'd screwed up at Beacon so now the White Fang had to work harder to pick up the slack.

All around her, the lifeless crumbling city of the dead stretched as far as she could see, black stone monoliths rising out of the earth, climbing upwards out of the rock below to reach like so many desperate hands for the rock above. Streets that had once teamed with life now lingered silent and abandoned. Apartment blocks that had once housed hundreds of families now crumbled into dust like ants' nests after the exterminator has paid a visit, their shattered windows staring out like the eyeless sockets of blind men with only darkness visible behind. Instead of the sounds of cars, trains, motorcycles, footfalls, conversations, instead of any of the sounds of life there was only the dim humming of the elevators the White Fang had repaired and re-activated to get all of their gear down here, the sounds of rats scurrying around amidst the ruins, and the distant growling of the grimm who lurked on the outskirts of the under-city on the off-chance that any humans should return.

Gilda's wings ruffled in the cold. Wasn't it supposed to get warmer the further down you got? Then why was it so cold down here in this vast cavern? It was as if she could feel the breath of all the ghosts upon her feathers. Or perhaps it was just the foreboding that she felt, as enormous as the under-city itself, that felt like ice upon her skin.

She felt so cold. So cold and so filled with dread it was a wonder that she wasn't attracting grimm.

Yet she was not. Nobody was. Gilda was standing on the roof of this tower as a sentinel, with the rifle that she had stolen from Applejack in her hands as she scanned the derelict deserted streets around her but there was no sign of any grimm. They avoided the White Fang camp as assiduously as they avoided the old Merlot complex (although what they were afraid of there no one could say, certainly not the White Fang patrols who had been sent out to investigate but never returned; suffice to say that the White Fang were afraid of the place too now and leave it at that).

That refusal of the grimm to trouble them in their base might be bad for the plan considering that the whole point was that they were going to lure grimm into Vale once they busted a whole in the defences, but for right now it was certainly good for all the vast numbers of White Fang that were mustering amongst the ruins. Prepping the train was hard enough without having to stop every five minutes to fight off grimm.

Perhaps that was why the creatures had stopped bothering them once she showed up. Perhaps they could tell that Cinder didn't want her plans to be disturbed.

That woman…the dead city wasn't the only thing giving Gilda the creeps.

She wondered if she'd been assigned watch up here to get her away from the prisoners so that she couldn't interfere with whatever Cinder had planned for them. She hoped not. Not that she trusted Cinder not to be so devious, but she still hoped that Adam was better than that. How much better she wasn't sure and wasn't prepared to bet on, but…better.

Besides…someone had to keep watch, and it might as well be her. Protecting the captives didn't excuse her from duty, after all.

But Gilda still would have rather been down there; apart from anything else when she was down with Rainbow's friends she didn't feel quite so oppressed with dread.

Down below, as well as an absence of grimm, Gilda could see the White Fang hard at work preparing for their attack: paladins picked up dust containers and bombs that would have taken many men to move if they could be moved at all; those with engineering training worked on the train; those without any training trained with their weapons under the direction of the more experienced fighters. Adam was everywhere, giving encouragement, exhorting to effort, his red sword held aloft above his head as a symbol of strength and of defiance both.

The White Fang prepared for its attack. It's glorious, forlorn, doomed attack. Watching the preparations going on down below, Gilda couldn't escape the feeling that it was all going to end in terrible tragedy.

She rubbed her eyes with one hand. Fear would not let her sleep. It was her constant companion in this place and it would not let slumber come anywhere near her skull. How she wished she could be out of here.

 _This place was made by those that are dead; let them keep it._

Gilda heard something, a scuffing sound behind her. She spun, the stolen rifle rising to her shoulder, but it turned out to be Strongheart, coming up onto the roof from inside the tower.

Gilda sighed as she lowered her gun. "You scared me there."

"Who did you think it would be?" Strongheart asked plaintively. "There's only us here."

"For now maybe. For how long?"

"Huh?" Strongheart asked as she approached. "What are you talking about?"

Gilda frowned. "I'm not sure myself. But I…I've got this feeling, you know. Like something's coming and we're not ready for it."

Strongheart frowned. "Some people are saying that this is a bad plan. They're saying that this attack is a folly."

"I agree with them."

"I know you do, they're saying that because _you told them_!" Strongheart said. "How could you?"

"How could I tell the truth?"

"How could you criticise Adam like that?" Strongheart demanded.

"Just because he's the boss doesn't mean that he never makes mistakes," Gilda replied. "He didn't notice Blake was losing faith, did he?"

"Blake betrayed us."

"Just my point: Adam didn't see it coming; even though he was closer to Blake than anyone he had no idea what she was thinking."

"Adam's our leader," Strongheart declared. "He knows what he's doing, we need to trust him!"

"We don't need to follow him off a cliff and he has no right to ask it," Gilda snapped. "And she certainly doesn't."

Strongheart was silent for a moment. "Do you really believe that? That we'll lose?"

"You thought I was stirring the pot for no reason?" Gilda replied. "We can't take on the Atlesian military like this." She rested her rifle on her shoulder. "Adam…Adam's a good leader. I still believe that. He's our lord of war. Bravest guy I've ever seen. But if he goes up against Ironwood head to head Ironwood will crush him, and us with him."

"The paladins-"

"Will get bombed to scrap from the sky, the sky that Atlas rules with their planes and their ships that we can't bring down," Gilda said. "And I think Cinder knows that. Maybe she's even counting on it. I don't know what her plan is but it isn't for us to overthrow Vale. Do you really want to die?"

Strongheart hesitated. She trembled, either from fear or from the cold. "No," she admitted. "But I will if I have to, for the White Fang and the faunus. Like my parents did."

"We help the faunus and the White Fang more by living to fight another day," Gilda muttered. She turned away from Strongheart for a moment and wandered to the very edge of the building. "What are they saying? Enough?"

"To stop it?"

"Yeah."

"No," Strongheart said, and she didn't seem to upset about the fact. "Adam's calmed people down. He's mad at you though."

"Mad enough to kill me?"

Strongheart hesitated. "Probably not."

"I'll be okay then," Gilda replied.

Strongheart joined her, or almost joined her. Conscious of the fact that she didn't have wings, she didn't risk a fall in quite the same way. "Why did you protect those humans?"

"You don't think I should have done that, do you?"

"They're humans."

"They are," Gilda agreed. "But they can't make me the bad guy. Only I can do that."

"They wouldn't protect you if you were their prisoner."

"That's what makes them the bad guys instead of me," Gilda said.

Strongheart shook her head. "I don't get it. Adam…Adam hasn't led us wrong yet. Blake betrayed him but that's her fault, not his; she was so…she had everybody fooled, she fooled me, how was he supposed to not be fooled by her when he loved her the most of anyone in the whole world? This is the right thing we're doing here."

"Because he says so?"

"Because we have to do something!" Strongheart cried. "We're all fighting desperately to protect the things that we care about but what good is fighting to protect when our feelings are the only weapons we have? So what if Cinder's weird and creepy, she's got the power that we need and Adam knows it. He knows it just like he knows the way to victory for us. I'm willing to fight even if it is dangerous, even if I die; we're all willing to give our lives for freedom. Are you?"

Gilda rounded on her. "I have scars from when my aura broke but I kept fighting. Against Atlas, against the Schnees, against all of them. I'm not a coward."

"Then why-"

"Because I wouldn't give a single life for a pointless victory, and certainly not for a glorious defeat," Gilda said. She sighed. "I want to trust Adam. I want to put my faith in him and in his vision. I want to believe that he's the best of us, the greatest faunus, the one who's going to lead us to the land of milk and honey. I want to trust Adam. But I can't trust her. And while she has her claws in him that means that I can't trust him either. And this place…we should have left this place to the ghosts.

"There's something coming, little Strongheart. I don't know what it is yet but it's on the way. And I have a feeling that when it gets here it's going to be bad."

Gilda wouldn't have called herself a believer in fate. She wouldn't have said that she believed in a fixed destiny that couldn't be turned away or avoided; she didn't believe in supernatural entities spinning the threads of the world and weaving mortal lives into a tapestry for their own amusement.

But at the moment, as those words left her mouth to be followed by a great boom that echoed throughout the necropolis, reverberating off dead buildings and rotting subway cars, bouncing off the empty streets and lingering in the dark void; as the underground and all the buildings shook beneath her feet and all around; as all of that happened seemingly in response to what she'd just said Gilda could almost have believed that there was somebody out there having a good old laugh at her expense.

"What was that?" Strongheart asked.

"If I had to bet," Gilda growled. "I'd say that was the something coming."

* * *

"So the enemy base is located under ground?" Ciel asked.

"That's right," Torchwick said, in a tone that could best be described as blaise. "Apparently when Vale built this place it wasn't enough for them to build a city up top, they had to dig up the ground underneath to build a whole second city down below too."

"Of course," Professor Goodwitch murmured. "Mountain Glenn was built to be accessed from Vale using a subway system from the main city, which mean that a substantial part of the city was located underground close to the subway stations. It's a perfect place to hide from prying eyes in the sky."

"Atlesian eyes," Rainbow said. "And you didn't think to tell us any of this before we got here?"

Torchwick shrugged. "Sorry, kiddo. Must have slipped my mind."

"Sure it did," Rainbow said, in a voice dripping with sarcasm. "Anything else 'slipped your mind' that you've started to remember now?"

"Oh, now that I'm back here in Mountain Glenn I'm starting to remember all kinds of things," Torchwick declared. "What do you want to know?"

"Everything," Sunset said.

"Everything, huh?" Torchwick replied as a smile spread across his face. "Hmm, I've always thought that the meaning of life-"

Sunset rolled her eyes. "Okay, smartass, you know what I meant." She noticed that Neo was grinning too. Obviously they both found this amusing: Torchwick's power over his captors, the way that he could choose what knowledge of dispose of and what to withhold, just as he had withheld the information about the tunnels until this morning as they prepared to start their search. Ruby, ever eager, had been halfway out the door before Torchwick informed them that searching the surface of the city would be pointless since the White Fang were to be found beneath it.

So now they were all back in the living room where they had spent the night, all standing around while Torchwick, seated on the same sofa upon which he had slept, held court amongst them as though he was no prisoner but the one who held the power over the rest of them.

And in a way he did. He had the knowledge that they required, and in the present circumstances knowledge was even more powerful than usual.

Judging by the thunderous look on her face Blake seemed to realise that too, and she wasn't happy about it. She pushed between Rainbow Dash and Ciel as she stalked up to Torchwick. Her fists were clenched at her sides. "How about you start giving up all the useful information that you have," she growled. "Or-"

"Or what?" Torchwick asked. He didn't looked fazed at all by Blake's close proximity to him, nor her obvious anger at him, though Neo for her part looked a little alarmed. "Are you going to beat me until I give you the answers you're looking for? Is that the Atlesian way?" His smile widened. "Or is the White Fang way?"

"No, Blake!" Sunset grabbed Blake's wrist before she could take a swing at him. "Don't do it. Please."

Blake looked at her, her amber eyes flashing. "For him?"

"For you," Sunset said, looking into those eyes that burned with righteous wrath and indignation. "This isn't the way."

Blake stared – perhaps glared would be a more accurate descriptor – at her for a moment. But then her gaze softened, and she nodded. Sunset nodded too as she released her hand.

Blake didn't look back at Torchwick as she made her way to the back of the group.

Out of the corner of her eye Sunset thought that she could see Professor Goodwitch nod approvingly. She didn't care. She hadn't done it for Professor Goodwitch's approval, but because Blake would have regretted it later if she'd actually hauled off on him.

However much she might have enjoyed it at the time.

Silence reigned for a moment, before Twilight cleared her throat. "So…everything is underground? That's where our friends are being held?"

"Everything is underground," Torchwick confirmed. "The surface is patrolled a little, to make sure no one's coming, but they mainly stick to the surface entries and the supply routes."

"Hmm," Twilight murmured. She looked down at the scroll in her hands. From the back, Sunset could see a reversed map of Mountain Glenn, with a fuzzy red light blinking on and off. "That explains why the signal from Fluttershy's tracker isn't great; the ground must be partially blocking the signal."

"How are they getting all of their stuff down there?" Jaune asked.

"The same way folks got all their stuff topside from the old subway," Torchwick. "Big cargo elevators built for hauling trucks and containers up from the rail yards."

"Why?" Rainbow said.

Torchwick looked at her as though he didn't understand the question. "Why?"

"Yeah, why," Rainbow said. "Why are the White Fang stockpiling dust and guns and paladins and all their fighters and hauling them all down under the ground beneath Mountain Glenn. And don't tell me you don't know-"

"You wouldn't want me to lie, would you?"

"You expect us to believe that you know all the details of the enemy's preparations but you don't know what they're preparing for?" Ciel demanded. "Do you think us foolish?"

"I wouldn't call you foolish," Torchwick said. "More like naïve."

"Torchwick," Ruby said. "You told General Ironwood that you would talk to me. So talk to me. Help me show you what's possible if you trust in others and stand up for what you believe in. Tell me the truth. Please."

Torchwick looked at her for a moment. "I really don't know what Cinder's up to any more. At the time when you caught me the plan involved hacking the CCT to take over global comms before the White Fang attacked, but that's not going to happen now, is it?"

"If the plan is shot then how do we know that the White Fang is still here?" Blake asked. "They could have pulled out if there's nothing for them."

"But they can't have all pulled out because Fluttershy is right here," Twilight pointed out.

"Then there must still be a plan, even if," Blake put special emphasis upon the word 'if'. "It isn't the same plan as before Cinder's cover was exposed at Beacon. Adam wouldn't just leave the strength of the White Fang sitting around in a grimm-infested cave for no good reason. If they're still here – and it seems like they are – they're here for a purpose."

"There is the possibility that we are the purpose," Ciel said. "We know that Cinder Fall wants us here. She could have left Fluttershy with just enough forces to oppose us while the rest of the White Fang retreated elsewhere."

"Perhaps," Pyrrha said. "But the question is of little relevance until we confirm it. Our mission remains the same. We have to find the White Fang base and confirm its size, whatever that size might be."

"And save Fluttershy and Applejack," Twilight said.

"And bring word back to General Ironwood," Penny added.

Rainbow nodded. "One thing's for sure: there's no way we're leaving our friends behind."

"Even if that's exactly what Cinder wants?" Torchwick asked.

"Cinder can try and stop us," Rainbow snapped.

"Speaking of which," Sunset said. "What do you know about Cinder? Do you know what her semblance is?"

Torchwick chuckled. "I'm just a crook that Cinder hired to run her robberies, do you really think that she'd tell me what her semblance is?"

"You were more than just a thug for hire," Blake said. "You ran Cinder's entire operation in Vale; the only person who might be closer to Cinder than you is Adam-"

"You're giving us both too much credit," Torchwick said. "In the first place, nobody is close to Cinder Fall. Nobody. The little green-haired girl would like to be, but she's not, like I wasn't, like Adam isn't. Cinder doesn't let anyone get close. She doesn't talk about her past, she doesn't talk about her semblance, she doesn't talk about anything that isn't business…unless it's to monologue about how she's going to destroy the world like she's a cartoon villain or something. I never got why she did that. Did you get why she did that?" Torchwick looked at Neo, who shook her head in mute incomprehension.

"You must know something," Ruby said.

"I know she scares me, and she'd scare you too if you had any sense," Torchwick said. "I know she fights with glass…and I know that she puts dust in her clothes. Like you," he glanced at Sunset. "I think she must put it in her skin too."

"What makes you say that?" asked Pyrrha.

"It's her favourite party trick: making flames in the palm of her hand," Torchwick said. "She must be using fire dust, right? What else could it be?"

 _I can think of a couple of things,_ Sunset thought. _But if it is magic, then how did Cinder get it?_

The obvious answer was that she had killed someone with magic, and taken their power, but if Ozpin and his group were keeping them secret and secure then how had she gotten to them in the first place?

How had she gotten to them and gotten out alive?

It might, of course, just be dust. But it might not be. Sunset would have to see it for herself to be sure.

 _If I really want to face off against a mage._

 _It isn't about wanting. It's about what is. Whether Cinder has magic or not I'm going to have to face her again. It's not as if she's going to leave us alone._

"Do you know anything useful about Cinder?" Sunset demanded. "Anything at all?"

Torchwick was quiet for a moment. His gaze swept over all the young huntsmen, finally landing on Ruby. The smile faded from his face, and his voice was devoid of much of its usual smarmy joviality as he began to speak. "In my line of work I meet a lot of people. Most of them aren't exactly what you'd call nice. Well…some of them, anyway. I guess I meet my share of ordinary people-"

"And terrify them, no doubt," Blake muttered.

"Not if they pay up without fuss," Torchwick replied, sounding genuinely offended. "But of course I also meet more than my fair share of less than decent folks. But even with the kind of fellas that I associate with, there are ways of dealing with them. Most of them are pretty reasonable, once you understand what they want; some of them you might have to give a little bit of a beating too to let them know whose boss but after that they come around; some of them you can win over with a touch of the old charm. Most people have their limits and their lines; even the ones who hate you have a point at which it just becomes too much hassle to keep a vendetta going when there are more important things to do like make money. But there are some, and when you look into their eyes you know exactly who they are, who aren't rational. They're not going to stop until they put you in the ground, or you put them in it first. That's who Cinder is. I don't know what the world did to her but she's not going ot stop until somebody puts her down."

"Not too surprising," Ciel said. "Some more pertinent information would probably be more helpful."

"Could the White Fang be planning to use the tunnels to get into Vale?" Penny suggested.

"That's not possible," Professor Goodwitch said. "After Mountain Glenn fell the subway access tunnel was sealed up to prevent the grimm from using it to enter Vale. I was there when it happened."

"Sealed how, Professor?" Ciel asked. "Could it be breached?"

"We're talking about two layers of armoured doors with several feet of concrete in between them," Professor Goodwitch said.

Rainbow frowned. "Twilight, as a scientist: how much dust would you need to blow through a barrier like that and would the amount the White Fang have stolen be enough to do it?"

"If properly applied, probably," Twilight said. "It would all depend on the planning of the explosion, it's very easy to waste force but if you calculate it properly…is that it? Is that what they're up to?"

"I don't know," Rainbow said, glaring at Torchwick. "How about you start to be honest with us about this. There's no way that you could miss a giant mine being assembled down the tunnel."

"Then maybe you're just wrong about a mine," Torchwick replied.

"Or maybe you're full of crap," Rainbow said. "The White Fang aren't just sitting around in the dark until they get…whatever you call the opposite of a tan."

"Pallor," Sunset murmured.

"Whatever," Rainbow said. "They're up to something and if you were ever here at all then you must have seen enough to get some idea of what it is. So start talking."

"I don't know," Torchwick insisted, not raising his voice but firming up his tone all the same. "Maybe it is a big bomb. Or maybe they think the paladins can break through the barrier. Or maybe they just wanted somewhere to hide where no one would find them until Cinder was ready and the time for them to march on Vale arrived. I don't know. If you're not happy with my intel why don't you go ask the White Fang yourselves?"

"We intend to," Ciel said calmly. "Once you give us details on the location of the White Fang base and the area around."

"I told you, it's by the rail yard."

"Details," Ciel repeated, with more emphasis upon the word.

"I'll remember the way once-"

"Details," Ciel insisted, for the third time. She knelt, with one hand rearranging the folds of her skirt as she did so. She also produced a piece of white chalk from one of the pouches at the back of her belt, and the chalk hovered over the wooden floor as she looked up at Torchwick expectantly.

Torchwick stared down at her in bemusement for a moment, before he let out a sigh. "Fine, fine. I'll tell you what I can remember."

He went on to describe the layout of the White Fang base and the surrounds as well as he could recall it, which was sufficiently well to put the lie to the idea that he had ever needed to see the place to remember any of it, and which frankly left Sunset feeling as though they'd been had by bringing him all the way here at all when he could have told them all of this aboard the _Valiant_.

"You've been holding out on us," she said, almost daring him to try and deny it.

He just shrugged. "I wanted the chance to stretch my legs a little bit. Those cells are cramped, you know. And Neo needs to get her exercise."

Neo beamed in a manner that might have been supposed to be charming but didn't charm Sunset in the least.

"Why should we trust you?" Sunset demanded.

"Hey, I might have withheld a few things," Torchwick said, without a trace of shame. "But I haven't told you a lie."

"I believe him," Ruby said. "I think that he tells the truth…when he tells us anything."

Sunset glanced at her. _I know that you like to see the best in people, Ruby, but there have to be limits._ "Any particular reason why?"

Ruby's eyes narrowed just a little. "Because I don't think that Torchwick wants to mislead us, or lead us into a trap; I think he wants to see what we do with the truth. Isn't that right, Torchwick?"

If that was true it was news to Sunset, who couldn't think of any reason why Torchwick wouldn't want to deceive them or why he'd have any interest at all in seeing what they'd do with the truth, but it seemed to strike a chord with Torchwick because he said, "Got it in one, Red. If I screwed you over it wouldn't teach you anything, would it?"

"It would teach us not to trust you," Sunset pointed out.

Torchwick chuckled. "Yeah, but if you haven't worked that one out yet there really isn't any hope for any of you."

"Twi," Rainbow said. "Can you pull up any schematics of the underground city and match it with this?" she gestured to the drawing that Ciel had made on the floor in chalk, matching Torchwick's description.

"You're not going to get any signal to the net out here," Sunset muttered.

"We wouldn't, except that I can connect using the transponder on the Skygrasper, which has a much better range," Twilight said, the fingers of one hand moving furiously across the screen of her scroll. "Let's see…Vale Bureau of Ordnance…maps…Mountain Glenn…underground. Got it…it looks…yes, I think this is it. And that means…" Twilight knelt down beside Ciel, and pointed to a square outline on Ciel's diagram. "Fluttershy is being held in this storage shed a little way from the industrial railway yard."

Sunset knelt too, if only to get a better look at the diagram. She could feel her team-mates looking over her head. "I don't think trying to use the grain elevator is a great idea, it'll be too heavily guarded."

"Right," Rainbow said.

"But if we go down through this subway station here-"

Rainbow shook her head. "No way."

Sunset looked at her. "No?"

Rainbow said, "Hey, Torchwick. Remind me what you said about that subway station."

"It's the one most of the grunts use to get up onto the surface, since the commercial elevators near the yard are used for supplies," Torchwick said. "There was only ever one elevator at that station and it's broken, so you have to climb the stairs. All three hundred and fifty of them."

Sunset smirked. "Afraid of the exercise, Rainbow?"

Rainbow snorted. "Afraid of the bottleneck."

"It's not ideal," Sunset said. "But we have to get down there somehow."

"And we will," Rainbow said. She pointed to an open plaza just behind a large building that had been a police station. "We'll aerially insert into this square behind the police station, then move through it and come on the north side here."

Silence greeted this pronouncement.

"Aerially…insert?" Pyrrha asked.

"Um, you do remember this is underground right?" said Ruby.

Rainbow smiled. "Yeah, but who was it who once said that success lies in doing what the enemy least expects?"

"Flash Magnus, First Sword of Mantle," Ciel informed them.

"So look at it this way: what's more unexpected than an aerial insertion underground?" Rainbow said. "Torchwick said there were holes opening up in the ground, which means the surface can't be very thick, which means we can blast through it, right Twilight?"

"In theory, if you got the right spot," Twilight said.

"Cool. Any objections?" Rainbow asked, looking around. Her eyes fell last, when no one else had any objection to make, upon Professor Goodwitch. "Professor?"

"I certainly can't fault the novelty of it," Professor Goodwitch murmured.

"Uh, thanks, I guess," Rainbow said. "Once we get down there Sapphire can head to the base while Rosepetal rescues our prisoners. Blake, you should go with Sapphire."

"As will I," Professor Goodwitch said. "And we'll see whether Mister Torchwick here has been telling the truth about the White Fang concentration in this area."

 _And just what Cinder wanted us to find down here,_ Sunset thought. It was a good thing that they were taking an unorthodox approach, Cinder would probably be prepared for all the orthodox ones. Where was she, in this warren of dead streets buried beneath the surface? Where would they encounter her, and on her terms or theirs? Why had she brought them here, and risked the discovery of her plans?

Just what was she up to?

Sunset did not suggest splitting up. It was too risky, in the circumstances. Quite apart from the fact that this place seemed like a rat's nest and there was no guarantee that they could find each other again, the more important fact from her perspective was that Cinder wanted them here. Cinder had summoned Sunset to Mountain Glenn, and even welcomed the presence of Rainbow Dash. She wanted them here. She had a plan for them here, and the best way of frustrating that plan and coming out of all this in one piece was to stick together and stand together,

Even letting RSPT go their own way was, from that perspective, dangerous, but Sunset understood Rainbow Dash sufficiently well to know that she wouldn't be dissuaded.

 _And if it was Blake being held captive in there I'd do exactly the same._

She stood up, summoning Sol Invictus into her hand. "Would anyone like to say a few words?"

After a moment of pause, it was Jaune who said, "Let's win…and all come back in one piece."

Sunset chuckled because really, what else needed to be said at a time like this. They were about to try and sidestep a trap led by a servant of a demon with designs to annihilate the whole world, and even then their sidestep involved walking into the trap from a hopefully different angle. Win…and try to come back safely. What else was there, in the circumstance, but that?

"Let's win," she repeated. "And come home safe and sound."

"Let's win," Ruby said. "And not let anybody die."

"Win and live to see a new day dawn after the victory," Pyrrha murmured.

"Let's win and make it count for something," Blake said. "And see exactly what it counted for with our own eyes."

"Win and be safe," Twilight said.

"Let's kick some ass and celebrate with a party after," Rainbow declared with a grin.

"Through my…through my survival shall the city prosper, and our enemies fail," Ciel whispered.

"Ready to complete the mission in one hundred percent working order," Penny said.

They boarded the Skygrasper, taking Torchwick and Neo with them because they couldn't leave them alone in the house with no aura, no help and possible grimm on the prowl even if they didn't need them as guides now that they'd been given a map. They boarded, and within minutes they were in the air again, soaring over the ruins of Mountain Glenn.

Sunset was up in the cockpit with Rainbow and Twilight, which meant that she had a view of the dead city down below her. She thought about what Ruby had said: that this is where huntsmen had failed the people of Mountain Glenn.

Perhaps they had, although the presence of various makeshift barricades littering the streets and closing of the thoroughfares below indicated to her that they hadn't gone down without a fight street by street, yard by yard. As they passed over the ruined buildings, the office blocks and apartment blocks and shopping malls all torn apart by the frenzy of the grimm, Sunset couldn't help but wonder if there was an omen in it.

Cinder had brought them here for a reason. She had brought them to the world's largest tomb for a reason. She had brought them to the greatest failure of Vale and of huntsmen themselves for a reason. She was intelligent, and not without a sense of the dramatic. Had she lured them to Mountain Glenn to make a point: here huntsmen failed, and here you too will fail?

It was possible.

But just because huntsmen had failed here before didn't mean that they would fail here now.

They wouldn't fail. They would win and live, just like Jaune had said.

 _Or give it a good try anyway._

 _All the same, I wish that I knew more about Cinder. Knowing about her past is all very well but I'd prefer to know what it is that she can do now._

 _I'd prefer it if she was on my side._

Sunset scowled. _I won't lose. Not to her, not to anyone._

"Let's win," she whispered, so softly that not even Rainbow and Twilight heard her. "Let's win and come home safe and sound."

 _I will not let any of my friends fall,_ she vowed. _None of them will become mere bodies amongst the many bodies that litter this place. None of them will join the dead of Mountain Glenn. We have been brought here into a city of the dead but the dead will not claim them. We're stronger than that, we're better than that._

 _And I'll protect them, whatever it takes._

 _Whatever it takes._

The dropship stopped progressing forward, and began to hover over an open space in the middle of the city. A decaying movie theatre sat on one side of the square, scraps of posters advertising the blockbusters of twenty years ago. A line of rusted cars and trucks formed a sort of breastwork on the other side, marking one of the many attempts made to hold the line against the grimm.

It looked as though there might be some remains lying against that barricade. Sunset didn't like to look too closely.

"This is the spot," Twilight said. "We're directly over the target."

"Everybody get set," Rainbow said. "Missiles away!"

Two missiles streaked out from beneath the wings of Skygrasper to strike the ground with a blossoming explosion which, after a moment, dissipated to reveal a hole in the ground, a lightless gaping hole like a mouth that wished nothing more than to devour them.

"Here we go," Rainbow muttered. "Hang on, Fluttershy, I'm on my way."

* * *

"Trap card," Lightning Dust said, holding up the aforementioned card triumphantly.

"What?" Emerald demanded. "Come on! You're cheating."

"No, you two just suck at this game," Lightning said smugly.

Mercury snorted. "It's a stupid game anyway."

"Says the guy who can't play it. I even gave you the strongest side."

"If I've got the strongest side then why do you keep winning?"

"Because you're terrible!"

Cinder restrained the urge to roll her eyes at them. Lightning Dust was teaching Mercury and Emerald – trying to teach them, at least – how to play _Remnant: The Game_. It turned out that board games, like books without pictures in them, were another of the things that you missed out on while living on the streets or in your father's lonely mountain cabin. Cinder herself had refused to be drawn into such childish nonsense on principle – and judging by the lack of success the other two were having at the game she had been right to refuse for the sake of her dignity – and let them carry on with three players instead of the strictly required four.

She didn't begrudge them finding some way to amuse themselves while they waited for Sunset and her allies to arrive so that the plan could start, but she had more important things to do even while she waited.

Still, she was beginning to get a little bored. She was eager to begin now. It no longer mattered if the preparations were incomplete, since this attack was no longer intended to succeed. All that mattered was that it took place and that the Atlesians be at ground zero when it did.

And if her friend Sunset acquired some of the transient glory from this affair then, why not? It was the least she could do, after all.

The booming sound, unmistakably caused by an explosion of some kind, echoed from without into the room in which Team CLEM had made their home. It had been someone else's home once: an ordinary living room in an ordinary inner-city apartment that just so happened to be underground. Now they lived here, and at the table where once a family had eaten the enemies of Vale played board games in between working towards the downfall of the land that had built this place and the system that had indulged it.

And now this place, this home that they had stolen from the dead and reclaimed in the face of time and decay, trembled a little as the explosion echoed throughout the city.

"What was that?" Mercury yelled as he leapt to his feet.

"Did something happen with the dust?" Emerald asked. "Did they blow it up too early?"

"I wouldn't put it past some of these amateurs," Mercury said.

"For the sake of faunus pride I really hope you're wrong about that," Lightning said.

Cinder shook her hand. "Relax, Lightning Dust. This isn't the White Fang making an error." She might almost have said 'another error' but there was no point in getting upset over things done in the past. There was a new plan now, and all the seeming mistakes and mishaps that had gone before would play their part in building to the destined triumph of Cinder Fall.

"Then what is it?" Mercury said.

"It's Sunset," Cinder murmured, as a smile spread across her face. "Sunset and the rest have come. Now…now we can begin."

Mercury grunted. "About time. What's the plan?"

"I'm going to speak to Adam," Cinder said. "You three, find them and delay them as long as you can."

"Delay?" Lightning asked.

Cinder laughed. "Sunset and at least some of the Atlesians have to survive. Some…but not all. Try not to kill too many people or you'll ruin the narrative."

"But we can kill somebody," Mercury said with a vicious smirk. "Got it."

Emerald folded her arms. "You've already got someone in mind, don't you?"

"I always wanted to try my skills against one of those big-name tournament fighters," Mercury said. "I think I'll see what the so-called Invincible Girl is really made of."

"Not yet."

The voice of Salem silenced all others in the room as the Seer glided in through the doorway that Cinder had forgotten was open, hovering at the level of their eyes while the image of their mistress hovered within.

"Mistress," Cinder murmured, as her three servants bowed before she to whom Cinder herself was but a servant. "Is something wrong?"

"Not at all. Matters are proceeding as you assured me they would, and with my help stage two of the plan will begin at once," Salem said. "But after that…if you could restrain yourselves from attacking the ones called Team Sapphire for just a little while longer."

Cinder could not keep the surprise out of her voice nor, most likely from her face. "Why? I don't understand."

Salem smiled. "Isn't it obvious, Cinder? I wish to talk to them."


	86. The Voice of Salem

The Voice of Salem

Gilda landed heavily on the ground, tucking her wings in behind her as she began to spring towards the shed where the two prisoners were being held.

Adam stepped out in front of her, physically halting her progress with his body. "That's enough," he said.

Gilda stumbled to a stop. "What's happened to them?"

Adam was silent for a moment. "Nothing," he said.

Gilda frowned. "Then you won't mind me seeing that for myself, will you boss?" she pushed past him and started once more towards the shed that served the White Fang as their makeshift prison.

"Gilda!" Adam snapped at her, but she ignored him and pressed on, down the dead and cracking street, under the dark stone sky, pushing the door open to find…nothing. Just Applejack and Fluttershy, shackled and bound but looking otherwise unharmed.

"Gilda," Fluttershy murmured. "It's good to see you again."

Gilda's eyes swept back and forth across the dimly lit room. "Are you two okay?"

"As fine as we can be, in the circumstances," Applejack said.

Gilda snorted. "I hear that, but…Cinder, she didn't…"

"No," Fluttershy said. "We haven't seen her."

"But we heard that bang from just a little while ago," Applejack said. "What was that?"

"Gilda!" Adam shouted from behind her.

"I've got to go," Gilda said, with just a hint of apology in her voice. "But…she didn't hurt you? That's…that's good. She won't…" she considered telling them that Rainbow Dash would be here soon, but that went a little beyond keeping her word and into aiding the enemy, a step she wasn't quite ready to take yet even if she would rather than Dash rescued her friends so that she didn't have to worry about them any more.

 _Of course she'll still kill me just for getting involved in this._

"Stay here," Gilda said.

"Like we've got any choice," Applejack said.

"Yeah, right," Gilda said. "Just…whatever." She shut the door as she stepped out of the shed and turned around to face Adam, who was currently bearing down on her with a scowl on the visible part of his face and barely suppressed anger in every inch of his poise and posture.

He grabbed her by the scruff and slammed her into the shed wall. Gilda winced at the blow to her aura, even as the impact made the metal rattle.

"You need to remember whose side your on," Adam snarled.

"I'm on the side of our people," Gilda said.

"There are times when I doubt that," Adam growled. "Protecting humans, spreading dissent and doubt amongst my men."

"Maybe I wouldn't have to if I could get you to doubt just a little bit!" Gilda shouted. "This whole crazy plan is going to get us all killed, why can't you see that?"

"What makes you think I can't?" Adam asked.

Gilda gasped. Her eyes widened. For a moment she was robbed of all speech, all the words that she might have said flew wordlessly out of her mouth unvoiced even as that mouth opened and closed in silent shocked dismay. "You…I…what the hell?"

Adam released Gilda and took a step back, which was a good thing as she might have taken a swing at him otherwise. "Do you think I'm an idiot?" he asked, as he turned away from her. "Do you think that I don't know what's waiting for us on the other end of that tunnel? Do you think that I don't realise how many brave fighters are going to die just crashing through the barrier, never mind what happens when we actually enter the city?"

Gilda's mouth was dry. Her hands were shaking. Her head was awhirl with dizziness, she felt as though she might collapse at any moment. Sweat had come from out of nowhere in this cold place to make her black outfit stick to her skin. Her body armour and her weapons felt heavier than usual. "If you know all this…then why are-"

"Because our old tactics aren't working," Adam said. "They don't accomplish anything, not on the scale we need. We need to be bigger, bolder-"

"We need to commit suicide?"

"Because Cinder has a plan," Adam said. "A plan that will set all of Vale on fire but first it needs a spark. And yes, that spark will be our blood but face it, Gilda: we could fight for twenty years and spend just as many lives over that time and it still wouldn't accomplish as much as Cinder's plans for Vale. She's going to change the world, and because of our assistance there will be a place for our people in the new order. Isn't that worth fighting for? Isn't that worth dying for?"

"Only if it's a choice," Gilda said. "Does everyone know that they're going to their deaths? I don't think so."

"All of them are ready to make the ultimate sacrifice to achieve victory," Adam said. "The final victory and an end to our war."

"And who will be left to celebrate the end of the war?" Gilda demanded. "If we sacrifice the whole Vale chapter to bring down Vale then what? Will the Mistral chapter have to wipe itself out to destroy Mistral, then Atlas, then Vacuo? Are the only ones left going to be the ones smart enough to retire to Menagerie and sit the fighting out?"

"Of course not," Adam said derisively. "When Vale falls, and it will fall, then a chain reaction will commence that will consume the world."

"But-"

"Enough," Adam said. "The time for discussion has past. They've come."

"Who?" asked Gilda, though she could guess the answer already.

Adam laughed derisively. "Who do you think? Blake and her…new comrades."

 _Rainbow Dash._ Gilda shivered. _I hate being right sometimes._ "What are we going to do?"

"Cinder agrees that we can't wait any longer," Adam said. "I've ordered Noah to get the train loaded up as it stands and begin the operation."

"Cinder agrees or Cinder told you?"

"Gilda!" Adam snapped. He looked at her over his shoulder. "Let me give you a piece of advice. When you command the Vale chapter, as you probably will, command it. Don't take the amount of crap from others that you've given me."

Gilda stared, eyes boggling a little as she tried to process just what he'd said to her. "When I…command?"

"There is no room on the martyr's path for a coward," Adam declared. "But there is room in the White Fang for someone who cares about the lives of our warriors. You're not getting on the train, Gilda. Take Strongheart, and anyone and anything left after the train cars are full, and get them out of Mountain Glenn before Atlesian reinforcements arrive. And leave the prisoners exactly where they are. Their human friends will come to collect them soon enough."

 _Strongheart._ "Thank you, for sparing the kid."

Adam snorted. "I don't know what you're talking about."

 _No, of course you wouldn't admit to that. If people knew that you'd spared a child because she was a child they might actually think you could be nice._ "What about you, boss? Are you getting on the train?"

"No," Adam said. "I'm going to give the others as much time to prep and start the train as I can."

"Alone?"

"Cinder's people will be doing what they can," Adam said. "Our fighters have already demonstrated they're no match for these huntresses." He drew his red sword, shining in the darkness. "And besides, I'm the only one who can set Blake free. After all that we've shared, I owe her that."

 _If that's what you call freedom then no wonder you can order this mission so easily. Blake, do you have any idea what a number you did on him by walking away like you did? Would you even care if you did know?_ "You think that you'll walk back away from that?" Gilda asked quietly, though this was a question to which she thought she could guess the answer. Adam was their lord of war, the mightiest warrior the White Fang possessed, their champion in the field against all enemies; but the enemy had champions of their own and it seemed like a few of them had come to Mountain Glenn. There was no way Adam could take them all at once, and he'd have to get supernaturally lucky to pick them all off one by one.

"So long as I free Blake, and take another one or two of them with me, it doesn't really matter if I come back or not."

"The hell it doesn't, we need you," Gilda yelled. "You're our captain, we need you! You can't just throw that away because…we need you. Is Cinder getting on the train?" _Another question to which I know the answer already._

Adam was silent for a moment. "You have your orders. And you have work to do. As do I." He began to walk away, his crimson blade like a lantern warding off the shadows of Mountain Glenn.

"Good luck," Gilda said softly, though whether she was wishing him luck or Blake luck or something else altogether – she might even have been wishing Dash luck – she really couldn't have said.

Why did it have to be this way? Why couldn't Blake have stuck around with Adam and helped him get back to being a better person, the way he was before? Why did she have to walk away? Why did Dashie have to be on the wrong side, why couldn't she see that the faunus would never be allowed to stand tall in more than token numbers unless that took the right by force? Why did Cinder have to show up and trouble them with her schemes in which the White Fang were merely playthings to be used and discarded?

Why couldn't everything be the way she wanted it, huh? She would have been fine with fighting a hopeless guerrilla war provided she had her best friend by her side and a pair of leaders she could look up to.

The door at the base of the tower block on which Gilda and Strongheart had been standing when they heard Rainbow and Blake arrived opened as Strongheart – lacking wings she had been forced to take the long way down – emerged into the street. She looked left and right. Adam had already passed out of sight.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Blake's come for us and she brought her friends with her," Gilda said.

Strongheart's eyes darkened with anger. "She shouldn't have come. I'll-"

"You'll do nothing," Gilda snapped. "Adam's gone to take care of it himself."

"Alone?" Strongheart said. "That's-"

"His choice," Gilda said. "The train is being prepped and loaded, Adam's gone to make sure that's completed before Blake can stop it; I'm to lead everyone who doesn't have a place on the train and all of the equipment out of Mountain Glenn. And you're to come with me."

The anger in Strongheart's eyes was joined by and mixed with confusion tinged with sorrow. "I…I'm not joining the attack? But I thought that…why not? I can fight, I'm not just some kid!"

"But you are a kid," Gilda said. "And so you're coming with me and we're getting out of here." _Along with the rest of the lucky ones._ She was tempted, sorely tempted, to tell everybody that Adam had changed his mind, the attack was off, get off the train and out of Mountain Glenn, but…this had been Adam's last command, it might even be said to be his dying wish and as much as Gilda disagreed with it, as much as she hated it, she didn't have it in her to countermand that.

Strongheart glared at her, and for a moment Gilda was worried that she might defy her – after all, she had no proof of Adam's orders now that he'd gone, only her word. But she didn't, thankfully. Though she still looked resentful, she nodded her head. "So what are we going to do?"

"What Adam told us to do," Gilda said. "We're going to save as much as we can."

* * *

The Skygrasper touched down on the underground plaza with a soft thump. The under city was dark, completely lightless. They had landed in what seemed to be the only patch of light in the whole city: the spotlight that had been formed when they blasted through the surface with Rainbow's missiles.

Everything else was dark. Sunset activated her night-vision spell, but as the world before her eyes turned to shades of green she couldn't help but hope that the White Fang had set up some lights closer to their base; surely she couldn't be the only faunus who couldn't see in the dark.

Nevertheless, dark or not, trap or not, no matter what was down in here in terms of grimm or enemies, they had no choice; or rather they had made their choice some time ago. They were here now, and there was no turning back.

 _Is Adam here?_ It seemed likely that he was. Cinder was here, and if the White Fang here constituted most of their strength in Vale as Torchwick claimed then why would the leader of the White Fang in Vale be anywhere else? It was most probable that Adam was here, and although that did not, in itself, mean that she would have to face him again nevertheless Sunset couldn't shake the feeling that she would.

 _Once more in the dark._ She was better prepared now than she had been before; she had dust, she was less reliant on magic, she knew a little more about how to fight when disarmed if Adam got up close. But nevertheless, the thought of facing him again made Sunset shiver. The thought of that red sword coming towards her, the world turning as red as blood as the dark figure descended…it made her tremble.

As she exited the dropship, Sunset felt a hand take hers. She looked down and saw that the hand belonged to Blake.

"Whatever happens," she said. "We'll face him together, if we have to."

Sunset's brow furrowed. "How did you-"

"I knew," Blake said.

Sunset nodded. There was no point denying it, after all. "Are you sure? I mean, you two-"

"That's why it has to be me," Blake said. "I have to face him, after everything. And besides…I won't let you face him alone."

Sunset nodded. "Thank you."

"So, what are Neo and me supposed to while you kids are off saving the world?" Torchwick asked. "Just sit here and play I Spy out of the cockpit window and hope no grimm show up?"

"You're supposed to wait there until we get back," Rainbow said.

"And if any grimm come sniffing around?"

"Then it couldn't happen to a nicer guy," Rainbow said, as the ramp on the Skygrasper began to rise, trapping Torchwick and Neo within.

"Oh that's cute, that's real heroic of you," Torchwick said as the ramp rose up so far as to obscure him from view. "You'll be sorry when-"

The closing of the ramp, sealing the aircraft with a reassuringly solid thud, muffled his voice and meant that none of them found out exactly when Rainbow Dash would be sorry or, for that matter, exactly what she would have to be sorry for. At this point Sunset wasn't sure that anybody really cared.

Rainbow Dash reached over her shoulder and grabbed the shotgun slung across her back. She pumped it with a pair of audible clicks. "Good luck out there."

"You too," Sunset said. "Twilight, stay safe."

Twilight had a bow in her hands, which she was twirling round and round in her grasp. "I'll try. I mean, I will."

"Ruby," Penny said. "Let's do our best."

"You bet, Penny."

"Twilight, you still know where Fluttershy is?"

"Yes."

"Then let's move out," Rainbow said. "If everything goes according to plan we'll meet up at the location Torchwick." She grinned. "And if everything doesn't go according to plan we'll meet there anyway, because nothing's gonna stop us."

They left: Rainbow taking the lead, Ciel bringing up the rear, Twilight and Penny in between. They left, loping across the plaza into the darkness of the undercity. It was like a hive, a creation more befitting giant ants than men, a great burrow carved out of the rock and stone to dwell in. You'd almost expect to find a queen sitting at the centre of it all, holding court over all the creatures scurrying around below.

 _Cinder._

Sunset shook her head. No time to think about Cinder, no time to think about Adam. Just time to do what they came here to do: find the White Fang base, find out what they were doing, put a stop to it.

Put like that it sounded simple enough.

"We should move out too," Sunset said. She could see the police station on the far side of the plaza, a large and looming fortress-like structure with barred windows, the tattered remains of a Vale flag rotting away on a metal pole above the door, and what looked like neon lights that would, when lit, have spelled 'Vale Police Department' though now so many letters were missing that it was more like V lie part t.

Nevertheless, that was the direction in which Sunset led the way, the flashlight taped to her gun lit and her night vision spell showing her a little of the dark deserted square over which they ran. There had once been a fountain at the centre of it, from the looks of things, but it was smashed and still by now. It looked like there had once been a statue outside the police station, but that had been smashed as well and Sunset wasn't going to stop and look for the name on the plinth.

A couple of wrecked police cars, rusting away in the dank, damp dark, barred their way, but Sunset leapt over the bonnet of one of the easily and the rest of the team – plus Professor Goodwitch – followed her lead as she climbed the steps and pushed at the claw-marked door into the station house.

The door stuck. Something was wedged against it from the other side, it was barely moving. Sunset pushed again, and when it still didn't move very much Pyrrha jogged up the steps and put her shoulder to it.

"On three?" she suggested.

"Sure," Sunset said. "One, two, three!"

They heaved against the door, pushing against it with all of the enhanced might that their aura lent them, and gradually the door shifted backwards with a screeching sound from whatever was trapped against it and was blocking their access. It didn't want to move, but Sunset and Pyrrha pushed against it so relentlessly that it had no choice but to move until the crack in the door was large enough for Sunset to slip through.

She swept her torch around the corridor in which she found herself and leapt back with a strangled cry as the beam alighted upon a body, a skeleton now, face framed in what Sunset could only interpret as a cry of horror mirroring her own. They were dressed in the remains of tactical or riot gear, with a dust-covered shotgun lying at their side and a half-empty box of shells, the cartridges spilling out across the floor, beside them too.

Judging by the state of their vest, whoever it was had been ripped apart.

"What is it?" Pyrrha asked anxiously as she slipped through the door. She soon saw what the light was shining on. "Oh. Oh my."

Sunset shone the light somewhere else. "Just a little reminder of what happened to this place."

It turned out that they still hadn't opened the door quite enough to accommodate Jaune, who had the broadest shoulders out of all of them and the most bulky armour beside, but now that Sunset and Pyrrha were in they were able to move the filing cabinets that had been blocking the door so that it opened completely.

"They must have barricaded themselves in here," Pyrrha murmured.

"Or tried to," Sunset replied. Obviously it hadn't worked too well.

They found more skeletons as they traversed the station. Sunset was glad that they weren't bodies, but the fleshless, browning skeletons with their gaping open mouths were bad enough. They lay on the floor, slumped over desks or fallen back into chairs, half-propped up against the walls. Some of them had weapons lying beside them, or still gripped in one skeletal hand: shotguns, submachine guns, assault rifles, simple pistols. Some nightsticks or fire axes lay nearby, but some of the bodies had no weapons at all. Some of them were children. Sunset saw one pair of bodies that looked like a mother cradling a child in her arms.

"When the grimm started to pour in, these people must have fled here hoping that the police could protect them," Pyrrha said.

Jaune turned and threw up. "I'm sorry," he said. "I just…"

"We understand," Pyrrha said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "This is difficult for all of us."

"Professor," Blake murmured. "Were all of these people left here to die when the grimm invaded the city? Did Vale even try to get them out?"

"They tried," Professor Goodwitch said, in a voice laced with disapproval. "But they didn't try hard enough."

Jaune took a deep breath, and then another. "Is this what's going to happen to Vale?" he asked. "If the White Fang blow up that barrier, is-"

"We won't let that happen, Jaune," Ruby said, and her voice had lost all of its childishness, replaced with a settled determination. "We'll stop them, no matter what it takes."

"We should keep moving," Sunset said. "Staying here doesn't get us anywhere. And I think we all want to be away from this as quickly as possible." _If I'd thought about what we were likely to find here I'd have suggested we circle around._

She led the way, and they sound found how the grimm had gotten past the barricades on the doors: it looked like an especially large creep or something had simply smashed a hole through one of the walls, and no doubt smaller grimm hadn't been far behind.

The police might have fought bravely, but without huntsman-tier weapons and training – without aura – they'd never stood a chance.

Keen as they all now were to get out of here as quickly as possible, Sunset headed straight for the hole in the wall and the others followed.

"Wait," Professor Goodwitch ordered.

Sunset looked back. It was unusual for the professor to actually give a command like that. "Professor?"

"Something's coming," Professor Goodwitch said.

Sunset listened. She could hear it too. A clicking sound, something that she couldn't place and hadn't heard before, but definitely getting closer to them.

Nobody needed to be told what to do. In an instant their weapons were out, unfolding with a variety of clicks and hydraulic hisses into their desired configurations: Gambol Shroud in pistol mode, Milo in rifle form, Crescent Rose fully extended with blade bared and barrel long. Sunset raised Sol Invictus to her shoulder, and was ready to activate the dust sewn into her jacket at the earliest need. Jaune drew Crocea Mors from its scabbard, unfurled his shield and held it before him. Professor Goodwitch stood a little behind the students, her riding crop at the ready. They stood in a rough semi-circle, a crescent facing the hole in the wall, listening to that sound, that unnatural clicking sound as it slowly, inexorably, drew closer and closer towards them.

Sunset licked her lips. Whatever this thing was, this clicking creature that she'd never heard nor heard of in Professor Port's class – would it have killed him to have told a story about a rare and unusual kind of grimm before they met it? – it was taking its sweet time to get to them.

And yet she had no doubt that it would get to them eventually, and not only because the sound was getting closer but because it was the only sound. It had to know that they were there. It had to be coming for them.

Sunset's mouth twisted into a sneer. Let it come. They weren't the cops. They _did_ have huntsmen tier weapons and training. Whatever this clicking thing was it wouldn't find them such easy prey as the last denizens of Mountain Glenn.

"Please lower your weapons," a voice declared, a voice that had all of the commanding presence of Celestia but – as far as Sunset could hear – none of the warmth, or even the potential for warmth, as a pair of red tentacles tipped with spear-tips of bone appeared from below the bottom of the hole, raised like hands in surrender. "I mean you no harm."

Sunset glanced at her friends. What kind of grimm could speak? What kind of human had tentacles? A squid faunus? But a look at Blake showed that she was just as confused as they were, so clearly she hadn't seen – or heard – anything like this before either.

Nobody shot, but nobody lowered their weapons either.

"Who are you?" Sunset demanded. "What are you? Show yourself?"

"Of course. It would be very hard for us to speak otherwise." The thing that emerged through the hole and into the precinct station house was a floating sphere, lightly encrusted with armour plating in the traditional bone-white of the creatures of grimm, with a mouthful of long, sharp fangs lining the bottom of ball facing downwards. In addition to the two tentacles currently raised in a pacific gesture, there were six more of them still trailing along the ground, lifted up just enough so that they didn't touch it but otherwise utterly still as the sphere advanced upon them.

A golden light glowed within the sphere, and within the light Sunset could perceive the shape of a woman, a bleached nightmare of a woman with eyes as red as blood and veins standing out in sharp relief upon her face, like an undead monster from one of Jaune's comics, but a woman nevertheless.

"Greetings, children," she said, as the sphere rose up into the air so that she within it was looking down upon them all. "I've heard so much about you that it really is a pleasure to make your acquaintance at last. My name is Salem. You may have heard of me."

Sunset's eyes widened. Salem? _The_ Salem? The great enemy that Professor Ozpin had told them of, the queen in shadows, the brain that was guiding every evil hand, the hand that was tugging all the strings, the black king moving all her knights and pawns and queens…and she was right in front of them now. Or at least a projection of her was, this was clearly magic of some sort; in fact in spite of her shock – perhaps because of it, because it was easier to think about spells than the fact that the great enemy had shown herself to them – this tentacled creature was clearly functioning very much like a seeing stone, she would be willing to bet lien that Salem was speaking into another such creature from wherever she actually was, linked by a spell almost like the ones that had gone into making Sunset's journal to Celestia. It was an impressive piece of magic, especially for this world, so she must-

BANG!

Sunset's thoughts were interrupted when Ruby took a shot at the thing, blowing one of its armour plates but otherwise seeming to not even trouble it.

Salem looked down at Ruby with disappointment. "Now was that necessary? I am not here to fight. I only wish to speak with you."

"What do you think we'd have to say to you?" Ruby demanded.

Salem chuckled. "As I suspected. Ozpin has told you about me already. I didn't think that he would wait to recruit such a talented group as yourselves. But if you only knew the things he wasn't telling you…"

"Whatever you think you have to say, I can assure you that we're not interested," Professor Goodwitch said. "If you're not here to fight then you may as well leave. We've nothing to discuss."

"Nothing?" Salem asked. "Nothing, Glynda, nothing at all? Are you really content to spend your entire life in service to a man who doesn't value your or your opinion, a glorified a servant girl whose life and youth have both been wasted? Ozpin has taken everything from you, used you, drained you like a leech sucking your blood, and what has he given to you in return for this faithful service? A position at a school? A further imposition on you to attempt to teach martial arts to the doomed? Does it never trouble you, that these children to whose education you devote your life will die young, more often than not? Doesn't it make everything seem so…futile?"

"If by 'talk' you meant that you just wanted to sneer and taunt and talk down to us then no thanks, we're still not interested," Sunset said. _I'm getting enough of that from Cinder already._ Her finger tightened on the trigger.

Salem smiled. "Sunset Shimmer, I presume? I'm a little surprised that you're still here. Surely any sane person would have returned to Equestria some time ago."

Sunset's mouth gaped. "How do you-"

"How do I know?" Salem asked. "Oh, my child. I know everything. I know about Equestria, our neighbour on the other side of the portal. I know about the mirror in Canterlot. I know, just as Ozpin knows, although being who he is I'm sure that he's decided to play coy about it. You are not the first to come here, far from it, although most of those who came before…is that it? Is that why you have not returned? Are you a criminal, Sunset Shimmer?"

"Sunset, what's she talking about?" Jaune asked.

"Equestria?" Blake said. "What's Equestria?"

 _No. No, no, no this can't be happening._ It was all going to come out now? _Now_ of all times, and like this? They were going to hear it from Salem? Their enemy? The enemy was about to reveal the truth?

The enemy was about to ruin her?

"No," Sunset murmured, perhaps too softly for the lie to be heard. "No, I wasn't…I was forgiven-"

"You weren't a fugitive? Then what were you forgiven for?" Salem asked. "If you were forgiven? The others from Equestria before you were monsters, savage even by the standards of this world."

"I'm not like them." Sunset's hands trembled, and Sol Invictus with them.

"As they all said, before they were ready to let their masks fall," Salem declared. "Has Sunset told you where she really comes from? Has she told you what she really is, and why she came to this world? Perhaps you should ask her, and when you hear the answer perhaps you should ask yourselves why Ozpin allowed these secrets to stand. Why he allowed this malcontent to sleep in the same room as you?"

"Shut up!" Sunset yelled. "I'm not what you say I am, I'm not, I'm-"

"Sunset," Pyrrha said gently. "That's enough."

Sunset looked at her, and she trembled even more as she looked because she couldn't bear it if Pyrrha were to turn on her, after everything. Yes, she hadn't told them everything she supposed that she had technically been a fugitive when she first arrived but come on, after all they'd been through? Wasn't she even going to get a chance to explain herself first?

Pyrrha's smile, soft and warm, dispelled many of Sunset's worst fears. "It's alright," she said. "Even if we don't know everything about you, we still know everything that you are." Pyrrha's smile evaporated as she turned a hard gaze upon Salem. "This isn't going to work. You won't turn us against one another and you won't turn us against Professor Ozpin."

"Won't I?" Salem asked. "What do you know about Maidens, Pyrrha Nikos?"

"Maidens?" Jaune asked, his obvious confusion giving away that Ozpin hadn't told them anything about that.

"I see, and I expected as much," Salem said. "Ozpin does love his secrets, whether he deserves to have them or not."

"You're talking about magic, aren't you?" Sunset said. "The young women with the extraordinary powers."

Salem's smile widened. "And a gold star for Sunset Shimmer. I suppose that, given your background, gathering information that others don't want you to have must be second nature to you now."

"What do you want?" Ruby shrieked. "Why are you here and why shouldn't we just kill that thing you're speaking out of so that we don't have to listen to you any more?"

Salem was silent for a moment. "Tell me something, Ruby; would you like to see your mother again?"

Ruby gasped. Crescent Rose dropped a little until the scythe blade struck the floor with a thump. "That…that's not possible. My mom is dead. She died fight against you!"

"She did," Salem said, and she even sound regretful of the fact. "But that doesn't mean that I can't regret her passing, and it doesn't mean that I can't bring her back."

"That's not possible," Sunset said. "No magic can bring back the dead."

"Your magic cannot," Salem said. "But I stole the secret of immortality from the gods long before men or faunus walked the earth. Death bent itself to my command a long time ago. I cannot bring back the lost years that you should have had with your mother; I can't give you back the time that Ozpin stole from you. But I can give you your mother back, if you wish. Would you like that, Ruby? Would you like to have a mother again? Would you like to embrace her one more time?"

"What's the catch?" Blake demanded. "What would Ruby have to do for you to obtain such generosity? Would she have to serve you like Cinder does?"

"And would that not be a fitting payment for an extraordinary reward?" Salem asked. "Is that not better than serving Ozpin in exchange for…nothing. Look at Glynda Goodwitch there behind you, a woman who has given everything in service to Ozpin and his cause and in return she has received nothing at all.

"When I was a girl, so many years ago in an age of heroes and magic beside which the current age for all its advances pales in comparison, the lord was the ring giver. He fed his faithful companions in his hall, and rewarded them with silver for their faithful service. He earned their devotion through his generosity as well as through his valour leading them in battle. And he never asked anything of his loyal servants that would compromise their honour, comprehending that their worth to him lay in more than their ability to wield swords or spears.

"But Ozpin…Ozpin is no true lord. How far he has fallen from those far-off, long ago ideals he once exemplified. He demands all from those who devote themselves to him, body and soul both together, and in return he gives not even the smallest trifle of his appreciation. He hoards his power and his relics and all else that he can acquire, reckoning his loyal followers as nothing but bodies he can throw into this pointless struggle against me.

"I have lived so long. Longer than any of you can possibly comprehend. A thousand generations and more I have walked upon the surface of the world and in every generation there has been a man like Ozpin, raising up his warriors to fight against me, staying behind safely in one high tower or the next while others die for him. In every generation men have trusted Ozpin and at his word they have fought against me and where are they now? Dead, dust and forgotten. Look at the fate of Team Stark, Ozpin's last champions. They were as young as you, as talented as you, moreso. They were brave and bold and full of ideals. And where are they now: Summer is gone, the shattered dragon hides away in his log cabin, the Raven is fled…nothing remains but a dusty old Qrow with a broken heart and a broken soul.

"But that can change. You need not serve such a man as he is, such an unworthy master as he is. You need not be bound to him."

"We could serve you instead, I suppose?" Blake asked.

"I flatter myself that I do better than he does by those who pledge themselves unto my service," Salem declared. "Though few come, those who do make the journey to my side are men and women of quality, forged in the fires of hardship, inured to effort and to suffering. They come, the broken, the abandoned and the rejected of the world, the least of these, those who are valued not by any other man, those who are not seen for what they truly are nor recognised for their worth; one by one they come to me and I raise them up and reward them as their worth and loyalty deserves. Power, riches, all they desire I grant my faithful, whom I love as dearly as if they were my own children.

"Blake Belladonna, I can give the faunus race the equality that they crave, that you crave to give to them. Together we can make a new order, you and I, we can rewrite the entire system of the world to suit ourselves and you can stand, as I know you wish to stand, as the saviour of your entire race. Every faunus will learn your name, and know that it was Blake Belladonna, and no other, who led them out of the desert and into the land of milk and honey that waited beyond.

"Jaune Arc, to you I offer all the glory of the world. I will grant you a taste of my power, and with my aid the warriors of Remnant will flock to your banner. You know that you will never have that any other way. You're just a man, an insignificant grain of sand in a desert, but together you and I can be so much more.

"But you, Pyrrha Nikos, you want something else, don't you? Glory in battle you have already, in abundance; your name rings from one corner of Remnant to the next. But you don't want that. I know. I see into your very heart. I can set you free from all of it. I can sweep you away from the life that you hate, all the expectations that are placed upon your shoulders, the destiny that imprisons you. I can take it all away and give you the love that your mother never gave you, the family that you never had. I can even give you the power to bind this boy's heart to your own, so that he will never look at another for as long as you live, if you wish. The life that you crave can be yours with, and only with, my help.

"Sunset, you would not be the first Equestrian to find that I am a far more considerate mistress than Ozpin could ever hope to be. There are others like you, cast out by Celestia, rejected, thrown into a strange land. I have helped many of them to survive, even to this day. Would you like to be a princess, Sunset Shimmer? Would you like to ascend to the greatness that Celestia denied you, and Ozpin cannot give to you?

"All these things are within my grasp. All your ambitions are within my power to grant. I can give you power such as I gave to Cinder, I can give you the families that you have never known, or that you once knew before Ozpin's scheming ripped your lives in two. I can make you great beyond your wildest dreams.

"Or you can continue serving Ozpin, and be used by him like puppets or playing pieces, and grow old and broken and bitter in his service or the service of men just like him as he never once shows that he so much as appreciates the fact that you daily risk your lives on his behalf. You can serve him, and die one by one in a hopeless, pointless war until the last of you realises that you are all alone, all alone with a callous old man who has already recruited the next batch of children to be his warriors.

"I don't expect you to turn against him right away, after a single talk, I don't think so highly of my powers of persuasion; but think about what I've said. Think about everything that I could give you, and everything that Ozpin will demand of you, and ask yourself why you trust a man who keeps so many secrets to have told you the truth when he told you I was evil.

"There is no need for us to fight. There has never been a need. I would uplift all mankind with great gifts if only Ozpin and those who came before him would allow it.

"Ask yourself what else the great Professor Ozpin is keeping from you, and ask yourself why you should trust him at all."


	87. Author Note

Author Note on the last chapter

Due to some very – and justifiably – negative reactions to the first scene of the last chapter on other sites on which it was posted, that scene has now been removed from the chapter and did not take place.


	88. Everything We Need

Everything We Need

Sunset didn't know who shot first. She was too dazed, held spellbound and suspended by Salem's words, paralysed by her voice, captivated by it; she had been unable to move, unable to speak, unable to act. They had all been the same way. All save for whichever amongst them fired the first shot.

She didn't know who that was. The shot had been fired before she was ready to listen for it, she didn't recognise the report of the gun. But the shot – whoever had fired it – was like a clap of thunder rousing them from their shock and torpor, breaking the spell that Salem's voice had cast over them, like a trumpet it had called them all to arms and they had answered. A moment later they were all firing, the repetitive muzzle flashes of four different weapons lightning up the darkness with blinding bursts as they roared out defiance at Salem. Sunset fired all six bullets in her chamber one after the other, fire dust rounds leaping from the barrel like dragonfire to shatter in flames upon the surface of this strange grimm. Even after she had had her six she kept on firing, squeezing the trigger to no avail over and over again, unable to hear the telltale click of an empty barrel over the sound of firing from all around her. Pyrrha shot off her five rounds, but Blake and Ruby kept on firing from either end of the semicircle, Gambol Shroud and Crescent Rose barking angrily again and again and again.

And the grimm didn't not defend itself. That was arguably worse than if it had tried to fight back. But as the four huntresses vented out their wrath against it the grimm didn't move. It hovered imperiously above them, tentacles lowered towards the ground as its armour plates were blown to smithereens, as fire dust burst upon the glassy surface of the sphere, as the heavy calibre bullets of Crescent Rose punched hole after hole into the ball-shaped grimm the clicking that it made turned into a high pitched shriek of pain. But the grimm made no move to defend itself, even as it began to descend towards the floor in a slow dying fall it did not lash out, it did not strike back, it did not use its tentacles or its ominous jaws. And out of the sphere, ruptured and punctured though it was by many shots, cracked and shattered and dying, Salem stared. She stared at Sunset with a smile upon her face, as though their fire meant less than nothing to her, as though she were indulging the tantrum of a group of foolish children who couldn't be expected to know any better.

As the grimm turned to smoke and ashes as their feet the last thing to fade from view was Salem's face, smiling, seeming to promise that they would be seeing her again.

But the grimm was dead, and Salem was gone, for now. She was gone, and in the absence of her now-silenced voice a complete and utter silence reigned amongst them. There was no spoken word, and nor did any hue and cry of near or far-off grimm intrude upon their fragile peace.

If you could call it peace, for soon enough the silence was, if not quite broken, then disturbed by the rustling and clicking as those of them who had firearms – so everyone but Jaune – reloaded after having emptied every bullet they had in cylinder or magazine into Salem and her seeing grimm. Blake had a magazine with a variety of different dust types, while Sunset also pulled a variety – two fire, two ice, two solid armour-piercing rounds – from her pocket and hoped she could remember into which chamber each round had gone when the fighting started again. Ruby and Pyrrha did not seem to be using dust on this occasion, but then Pyrrha never did anyway.

Nobody spoke. They reloaded in silence, as all but Sunset slammed in their new magazines and chambered new rounds, while Sunset slid six bullets one by one into the cylinder. Jaune was silent too, warily waiting for the others to be finished. Sunset didn't even look at Professor Goodwitch.

Nobody spoke. Nobody wanted to be the first to speak. Which meant that somebody would have to be, whether they wanted to be or not.

 _Are you a criminal, Sunset Shimmer?_

 _We know all that you are._

 _But is that really true?_ Sunset thought. _When you don't even know what I am._

"Equestria," she murmured. "Equestria is the name of my home." She didn't look any of them. She stared down the barrel of Sol Invictus towards the ground. "I'm not from Atlas, I'm certainly not from Menagerie. I'm not from a little island in the middle of the ocean somewhere. I am…I come from Equestria."

"I've never heard of it," Blake said.

"I'd be alarmed if you had," Sunset replied, though she still didn't look at Blake. "In Canterlot, in Atlas, there is a statue of a horse in the grounds of the combat school; the plinth…it looks like there's a mirror on the north face. It is a mirror. A magic mirror that leads…" _They're either going to believe me or they're going to think I'm absolutely nuts._ "It leads to the magical land of Equestria. That's where I'm from."

"You're…you're from the other side of a magical portal?" Jaune asked.

"You asked me if I was a magical girl," Sunset reminded him. "You were more right than you knew."

Jaune laughed nervously. "Come on, Sunset, stop messing around. This isn't a great time for jokes."

"It's not a joke," Sunset said sharply, though she still didn't raise her head up to look at him. "You heard Salem speak the name yourselves. I don't know how she knows but she knows, and so…I should have told you this sooner, but I…I was afraid that you wouldn't believe me, that you'd think I was crazy, that you'd think…that you'd think that I was somehow _wrong_ or abhorrent or abominable. That you wouldn't want me any more."

"She speaks the truth," Professor Goodwitch said, in a voice that was soft and quiet and halting. "There is such a land as Equestria. I've never seen it, nor even set eyes upon the portal, but Professor Ozpin says that…according to records and legends it is a wondrous place, inhabited by creatures out of legends but where the creatures of grimm are completely unknown."

"Taliesin and the Magic Mirror," Pyrrha said. "The story of the bard who went through an enchanted mirror to a magical world on the other side, spent what he thought was a few days there and returned to find that years had passed in this world. Is that the truth behind the story? Is Equestria the magical world the story meant."

"Most likely," Professor Goodwitch said.

"Although I'm not sure about the time differential part," Sunset said. "So…Professor Ozpin knows about Equestria. Did he know-"

"That you were from that world?" Professor Goodwitch asked. "Yes, of course he did."

Sunset nodded, though with her back to the professor it probably didn't look much like a nod to her. "Of course," she muttered.

"Was it true what else Salem said?" Blake asked. "About criminals and monsters?"

"Unfortunately," Professor Goodwitch said. "Over the millennia, Equestria has sent through more than a few of its most troublesome reprobates through the mirror to Remnant as a kind of exile. As though we haven't problems enough of our own to deal with."

Sunset sighed. "Personally…as academic as the difference might seem to some, I'd prefer fugitive than criminal."

"You don't have to tell us, if you don't want to," Ruby said.

That did make Sunset look up, and into Ruby's face where those silver eyes gleamed so innocently in the darkness. "I don't?"

Ruby shook her head. "Like Pyrrha said, just because we don't know everything about you doesn't mean that we don't know you."

"And besides," Jaune said. "I mean…well…no offence, Sunset, but we already know that you used to be a colossal jerk. You were like that when we met you, remember?"

"But you've changed since then," Ruby said. "You've become so much more than that, and so much better."

"Whatever you were, whatever you did, nothing can change the fact that you are someone I am proud to follow into battle," Pyrrha said. "And to call my friend. And besides," she added. "I don't believe Professor Ozpin would deliberately endanger us with anyone truly vile."

Sunset looked at each of them, from Ruby's innocent eyes to Jaune's wry smile to Pyrrha's expression of faith and trust. "All…all that I have become is with your help," she said. "Everything that I am is because of you." She looked at the one person who hadn't said anything yet. "And because of you."

Blake hesitated. She looked at Sunset, and then looked away. "I suppose I should be the last person to pry into the pasts of others. And I'm definitely not going to deny that a person can change and become better than they were before. I hope that I've done so as well as you. But I'd still…I'd like to know what it was that you did."

Sunset nodded. It was kind of the others not to ask, to affirm that they didn't need to know that about her, but that didn't make it unfair for Blake to ask the question. The Ruby, Pyrrha and Jaune might say that they knew her well enough without needing to know everything, but they might change their tune – and be right to do so – if Sunset had done something truly horrific.

 _I suppose it's a good thing that I haven't then, isn't it?_

"You've heard me speak of Celestia," Sunset said quietly. "I've used her name more than once. She's…Celestia is everything and all important. Our Princess of the Sun, our ruler, our…our god, you might almost say. Sun and moon arise at her command, the stars align as she would wish; heavens and earth move as she wills. She is immortal, eternal, and she…she is everything that a ruler ought to be: generous, kind, just, wise, patient. And I betrayed her.

"She taught me everything I know about magic. She would have taught me more if I'd had the wit and wisdom to pay attention to the lessons that she was trying to give me. Even now…when I feel lost as to the right course I try and imagine what Celestia would consider to be the right course; when I don't just ask her myself, that is. That's who I write to in that book I have; it's a magic book, it connects to Celestia and to…" Sunset decided that it would be too complicated to try and explain the doppelganger business to everyone, that there was another Twilight Sparkle in Equestria with whom Sunset was in correspondence. "And with her new protégé. The one who came after me.

"Celestia raised me. She was more than just a teacher to me she was the mother that I didn't have; I'd like to think that I was more than just a student to her, but…" Sunset shook her head. "Anyway, the point is that she didn't just teach me, although she did. She didn't even just raise me, although she did that too without as much success as she might have liked. She was grooming me to be…in my world, in the world I came from, in Equestria, it is possible to ascend. If you become a paragon of virtue to shine above all others then you will ascend, become an alicorn and a princess, honoured and revered above the common run, a shining light over the light. That was the destiny that Celestia intended for me. It was the destiny that I wanted more than anything else: to be at the centre of all things, admired and honoured, feted and lauded." She ventured a slight smile. "That much hasn't changed."

Pyrrha shook her head fondly. "Indeed not."

Sunset sighed. "But it was something that I couldn't have. I was too vain, too proud, too focussed on my destiny to the exclusion of anything that I might actually need to claim my destiny: friendship, love, any actual virtues beyond ambition and a willingness to work hard. In the end Celestia realised that she had made a mistake. It wasn't meant to be.

"I couldn't take it. I couldn't brook it. I already knew about the magic mirror; Celestia had shown it to me once and I had seen such wonders within…it gave me a vision of myself wreathed alike in flame and glory. As Celestia ordered her guards to expel me from the palace I thought, I convinced myself, that that vision was a sign of where my destiny lay: through the mirror, on the other side, in this world. And so I assaulted the guards, fought my way into the mirror chamber and…came here. Self-imposed exile. I'm forgive now, given that Celestia's already asked me to come home, but for a while…I was a fugitive, of sorts."

"Of sorts," Blake said. "You're such an outlaw."

Sunset looked flatly at her. "You have the face for sarcasm, but you don't really have the attitude to pull it off."

The corners of Blake's lips twitched upwards, just a little.

"Wait…did you say alicorn?" Jaune said. "Isn't that like, a unicorn with wings? I'm sure that's what it is in the monster manual."

"Yeah," Sunset said. "That's, um, that's…yeah, that's the other thing about Equestria. It isn't just home to mythological creatures, it…or rather…I was actually born a unicorn."

Silence descended like a theatrical curtain, broken only by Professor Goodwitch. "That is also true. As Professor Ozpin has explained to me, the world known as Equestria is inhabited not by humans but by talking equines."

"I was magically transformed into a human when I crossed through the portal," Sunset murmured.

It started as a snort out of Ruby's nose. Then it was a snigger escaping out between her pursed lips. And then Ruby's giggling was transformed into shrill, high-pitched laughter that echoed off the walls and ceiling as her whole body trembled. She almost doubled over with laughter. "A unicorn!" she cried. "You're actually…you're a unicorn? Like, with a horn and everything."

Sunset stared balefully at her laughing partner, lost in an uncontrollable fit of hilarity far beyond that which the revelation warranted.

And then, quite suddenly, she was laughing too. It was like being punch drunk, she knew that it wasn't funny really but some how she just couldn't help but snigger as she said. "Yes. Yes, Ruby, with a horn and everything. And an amber coat, and perfectly poni-pedicured hooves."

"Poni-pedicure?"

Sunset was still giggling as she nodded. "Poni-pedi, for short."

"Poni-pedi!" Ruby yelled, as though it were the funniest thing that she'd ever heard.

One by one they all succumbed. It wasn't hilarious. It wasn't even particularly funny, but nevertheless they all began to laugh, even Pyrrha, even Blake which was positively amazing because Sunset didn't think she'd ever seen her genuinely laugh like this before. It was like they were all so intoxicated that they found even the stupidest things to be the height of hilarity, or they had all been so struck with tension by the arrival of Salem that even the slightest chance at a relief of that tension was like the bursting of a dam to let the floodwaters flow down upon the valley.

They laughed, all five of them, and in that laughter Sunset's fears were drained, ebbing away until even the darkness of the dead city seemed less oppressive than it had been a few moments ago. She didn't know how long that particular effect would last, she didn't know how long the words of Salem and all their malice would be driven away, she didn't know how long until doubt began to gnaw once more upon her mind but for so long as it did last she was grateful.

"And that," she declared, as the laughter died down. "Is one of the many, many reasons I didn't tell you." She grinned at Ruby. "Thanks."

"For what?" Ruby asked, in what might have been calculated innocence or genuine cluelessness. It was sometimes hard to tell with Ruby.

"Guys, listen, I just…I want to say something for a second," Jaune said. He stopped, looking diffident and uncertain. He twirled his sword loosely in his right hand, as he looked down at his feet and scuffed the dusty floor with the toe of his trainer. "She…Salem, she…she said a lot of stuff to us. She offered us a lot of stuff. Maybe…maybe she even meant it."

Sunset raised one eyebrow at him. Some of what Salem offered had been obvious nonsense, but others…others were, perhaps, within her power. Or at least within her power if the person to whom she was offering that favour was willing to go out and work for it. Salem had, no doubt, promised Cinder the power and dominion that she craved above all else, the control that had been stolen from her and which she was desperate to reclaim…but from where Sunset was standing Salem granting Cinder power seemed to look a lot like Cinder getting out there and working her behind off to attain power and advance the goals of Salem.

It didn't make her wrong about everything, and it was at least consistent with her discussion of herself as the ring-giver – she wasn't giving away favours, but rewarding faithful service dutifully rendered - but as far as incentives to switch sides and join her faction went she'd have to do a lot better before Sunset would even consider it.

What was more surprising was to hear Jaune say anything like that. It wasn't the kind of thing that she would have expected to hear out of his mouth, and judging from their expressions Pyrrha and Ruby felt the same way.

"But whether she meant it or not, it doesn't matter," Jaune said. He sheathed his sword, and returned his scabbard to his belt. "Not to me. Those things she promised…we don't need that stuff, do we?"

 _I'd like some of it,_ Sunset thought. _Not from her, maybe, but from somebody._

"And if we do," Jaune went on. "Can't we get it for ourselves? We've come so far already, we've done so much. Everything that we need…it's right here."

Sunset's lips twitched in a kind of genial smirk as she nodded her head. _Look at me, Princess Celestia, nodding along to cheesy lines like that. And to think there was a time we both thought I'd never make any friends._

 _Cheesy…but kind of cool as well._

 _And true. Everything that it is within Salem's power to give to us we can take for ourselves, together. All that we wish can be ours and we won't have to sell our souls to the likes of Salem to do it._

 _What a pity that Cinder couldn't see that. Perhaps she can, before it's too late._

 _Salem might be a ring-giver; she might even be more generous than Professor Ozpin with her favours for the loyal and the skilled; but there is a third alternative, the most attractive of them all: we forge our own rings._

There were many reasons why Sunset did not give voice to that, but she held the notion in her mind even as she watched Jaune take a step closer to Pyrrha, and look into her eyes even as his hands fidgeted by his side.

"Pyrrha," he said, his voice slowing and quietening a little. "You don't…you don't need to learn magic so that you can make me love you."

Pyrrha's face began to turn as red as her hair. "I know…I would never…I didn't even…I don't know why she…I don't know why anyone-"

"Because," Jaune said, as he cut off her embarrassed stammering. "Because I…I mean...ah!" And then he kissed her, right there in front of everybody. Sunset boggled at the sight of it but there it was: Jaune's hands enfolding Pyrrha about the waist, pulling her in, holding her close, and his lips against hers right there in the sight of all.

Pyrrha's eyes were wide with shock, for a moment or perhaps a little less before they closed contentedly, and leaned into his embrace as though she were hoping to melt into him. One hand rested gently on his shoulder, while the other reached up to touch him on the cheek.

Blake looked thoroughly bemused by what she was seeing. Ruby's hands were clasped together under her chin as a wide smile broke across her face.

Sunset just stared at them until the realisation that she was being a voyeur broke through her amazement and she turned away, coughing loudly. "Time and a place, guys, come on."

She heard, rather than saw, the kiss cease.

Jaune gasped. "I…I'm sorry, I just-"

"Don't apologise," Pyrrha murmured. "That was…that was wonderful."

"Yeah," Jaune said, with an edge of nervous laughter in his voice. "Yeah, that was…agh! Professor Goodwitch!"

 _What, did you forget that she was there or something?_ Sunset wondered. Except judging by the way they were both looking they actually _had_ forgotten, both of them. Which was pretty adorable, she had to admit; even if it was a little stupid at the same time.

Professor Goodwitch didn't look like you might have expected her to look. She didn't look annoyed, or frustrated, or weary, or embarrassed. In fact, strange to say, she actually managed to look a little fond.

"You're all so young," she said, in a voice that was wistful, soft and filled with melancholy, like a country lament. "So young, and with so much ahead of you. Don't waste it."

"Uh," Ruby said. "Professor, are you okay?"

Professor Goodwitch blinked. It was impossible to see for certain in this light – or the lack of it – and with her glasses in the way but her eyes seemed a little moister than they'd been before. "Salem…she wasn't wrong about everything."

Sunset frowned, because even though she was minded to agree that didn't make it any stranger to hear one of Professor Ozpin's lieutenants say so. "Professor?"

"I remember all the students that I have taught," Professor Goodwitch said. "Or tried to teach. I remember them, and I listen for news of them…and I learn of their fates. I've had so many students, and so many of them have given their lives to preserve our kingdoms; and I sometimes ask myself how many of them are remembered by anyone but me. We don't even have a memorial for them anywhere on the school grounds. I sometimes ask myself if there's more I could have done for them, or if I really did anything at all.

"There are times when it seems to me that those who do well in my class are those like Miss Nikos who need no instruction, while those like Mister Arc who do don't find it my class. And at times like that I ask myself just what I've done, what I'm doing…whether I wouldn't have been better off going out into the field, like my team-mates did after graduation."

"Professor," Ruby said, sounding a little tremulous. "I'm sure that if she were here, she'd tell you that you don't have anything to be ashamed of."

Professor Goodwitch's gaze sharpened a little as she looked at Ruby. "And how would…of course. Your father."

Ruby nodded. "For what it's worth, I think you're a pretty good teacher."

"Really?" Professor Goodwitch said. "And what have you learnt from me, Miss Rose?"

"I can't speak to Ruby but I've learned not to rely on my magic so much," Sunset said. "It might have taken me a while to finally get it, but you were the first to point that out. You can't teach us how to fight, Professor; we're each too unique for that. But you've got a good eye and you can spot our weaknesses before they get us hurt, or worse. That isn't nothing."

Professor Goodwitch was silent for a moment. She pushed her spectacles back up her nose. "However much of that was sincere or not, Miss Shimmer, I thank you for it. And now, I think that we have tarried here long enough. We'd best get moving."

Sunset nodded, but she said. "You go on ahead. I need a quick word with Ruby and then we'll catch up."

"Huh?" Ruby asked.

"This won't take long," Sunset assured her. She waited for the others to take their leave, scrambling through the hole in the wall and heading out in the direction of the railway yard where, if Torchwick could be trusted, the White Fang were based in whatever strength they were present here.

Sunset waited until they were alone, she and Ruby, to say, "There isn't any spell that can bring back the dead, Ruby. Some of the greatest archmages of my people have searched for a way to conquer death, but none ever succeeded. It brought them nothing but grief and madness."

Ruby looked down for a moment. "You're talking about my mom?"

Sunset nodded. "I'm certain that, even if Salem could bring her back, what she brought back wouldn't be recognisable as your mother. It's just not possible."

It was Ruby's turn to nod. Absently, but nevertheless. "It doesn't really matter anyway."

Sunset's eyebrows rose. "It doesn't?"

Ruby shook her head. "I don't remember much about my mom," she said. "But I'm pretty sure she'd kill me if I ditched Yang and my friends and joined someone like Salem just so that I could get her back. I miss her, but I won't betray everything she ever believed in just to see her again, even if she could come back."

Sunset snorted. "Your mother," she said. "Had one hell of a daughter." She led the way, with Ruby following a step behind, as they headed out through the hole in the wall to catch up with the others.


	89. Liberty

Liberty

Roman Torchwick lay underneath the control panel on the Atlesian Skygrasper, bending a little to avoid the pilot's chair while his fingertips scrabbled against the plastic surface as he searched for a way to get into the aircraft's wiry guts. _Come on, come on, where are you?_ There had to be a way. After all, it wasn't as if these things never needed any maintenance.

Tap. Tap. Tap. The sound of someone rapping their knuckles on the floor told him that Neo wanted his attention.

Torchwick looked up, and banged his head as he did so. For Neo's sake, he bit back the curse that immediately sprang to mind. "Yeah? Something on your mind, kiddo?"

 _Are you sure that this is going to work?_ Neo's sign language was less elegant with her hands in cuffs and her freedom of movement restricted, but Torchwick was able to work out what she was trying to say even with some of the gestures slightly mutilated by immobility.

"Yes, it's going to work," Torchwick said. "It's not like I'm some suburban dad trying to put up a treehouse or something, I can do this." He leaned back, and resumed his search for the access point that had to be around here somewhere. "My first job," he said. "Was hotwiring luxury cars when I was…a little older than you, a little younger than those kids out there. Maybe Little Red's age. I used to boost them off the driveways when the owners were asleep."

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Torchwick looked up more carefully this time, and managed to avoid banging his head.

 _Job?_ Neo signed, with a sceptical impression on her face.

Torchwick smirked. "Well, sometimes I used to take them out for a joyride first, spend an hour or two running lights, breaking the speed limit, cruising with the hood down. I remember one time, I'd lifted this cool little open-topped racer, and I picked up my buddy Constantine and we slow-rolled down the strip looking for-" he stopped himself. "You're a little too young to know what we were looking for back then."

 _I can take a guess._

"Someone has been a terrible influence on you growing up."

 _I wonder who that could be?_

Roman shrugged. "The point is," he said, as he leaned back. "That after I'd had my fun, I always delivered the wheels to a chop shop on thirty-seventh; sometimes they sold them straight on, other times they cut them up, but they always paid me…well, to be honest, they paid me next to nothing for some beauties that were worth their weight in dust, but I was a dumbass kid who thought a couple of hundred lien was a fortune so I said thank you and walked out of there like I was some kind of big shot. But I still remember how I did it. Some things you don't ever forget."

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Torchwick looked up.

 _This isn't a car,_ Neo pointed out.

"No," Torchwick agreed. "But it's got an engine and a computer and a lot of wires to connect one to the other and both to the controls, so all that I need to do is find a way to get at them and then I can overload these cuffs and get them off of me. If I can just find a way in. Is this a single moulded piece? Do they take the entire thing off to do work on it? Come on, help me out a little here."

If he'd had his aura, then breaking in would have been child's play. But if he'd had his aura then he wouldn't have needed to break into it in the first place.

He heard footsteps coming down the steps from the main body of the craft down into the lowered cockpit. Torchwick poked his head out from underneath the control panel to see Neo standing over him, her back turned, prising off the panel from around the monitor set into the wall at the back of the cockpit.

She turned to him with a cheeky gleam in her eye. _Like I said. This isn't a car._

"How long have you been waiting for me to notice that?" Torchwick asked.

 _Long enough._

"And you didn't say anything because?"

 _It was fun watching you struggle._

"Where do you get your attitude," Torchwick muttered as he got to his feet.

 _I can't imagine._

Torchwick shook his head in mock despair and disbelief as he took the step to carry him to the monitor, now standing proud and resting on a bed of exposed wires and circuit boards.

"Okay," he murmured, as his hands hovered over the wires. "Let's see."

 _Got any ideas?_

"I'm looking for a power lead," Torchwick said, because just ripping up one of the circuit wires between the motherboard and the monitor wouldn't help him any. "Why don't we try…" he hesitated, pondering his choice. "This one," he said, grabbing a red wire and snapping it in half with a good firm tug. The monitor flickered and died, which left Torchwick hoping that it wasn't anything important because he didn't want to strand these kids here.

Still, he had slightly more important matters to concern him right at this moment: like whether what he was about to do would free him from his shackles or just shock him.

But nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? He jammed the wires into his own aura restraints.

He got a jabbing, needling feeling like static electricity, but it passed after a moment without otherwise hurting him. And the cuffs, the aura-restraining shackles that the Atlesians had slapped on him after the train robbery went bad, simply fell off is wrists and hit the floor of the Skygrasper with a clatter.

Torchwick held up his hands and took a deep breath as he felt his aura return to him. Okay, maybe it wasn't technically 'returning' it wasn't like it had actually been away or anything, but it sure felt like it had as the strength, the perception, the sense of power and control came flooding back, as his body lit up with the light of it.

"Hello, baby, did I miss you," Torchwick said, clenching his right hand into a fist. "It's good to be back."

Neo held out her shackled hands expectantly.

Torchwick smirked. "Maybe I should leave yours on for a little while longer to teach you not to be more forthcoming."

Neo cocked her head to one side, her face assuming a slightly exasperated expression. She waved her hands in front of his face.

"Just kidding, what kind of a guy do you think I am?" Torchwick asked. With his own aura returned it wasn't hard for him to snap the restraints in half and wrench them off her wrists.

Neo beamed brightly, a smile that lit up her mismatched eyes and her whole face as she leapt the steps up from the cockpit to the fuselage in a single bound. She was still smiling as she twirled in place, her arms spread around her as her appearance changed half a dozen times in rapid succession: an Atlesian officer, a White Fang goon, Little Red's outfit, Cinder's red dress, Torchwick's own white suit, the blonde girl from that robot show she liked; all of the costumes rippled up her body as Neo put her semblance, long denied to her, through its paces. If she could have spoken, Torchwick had no doubt that she would have been laughing.

Neo's illusions faded, leaving her standing in her own outfit once again. _So what now?_ She signed.

Torchwick hit the button to lower the ramp at the back of the dropship, opening their way out into the city. "I don't know about you, but the thought of crawling back to Cinder and those animals doesn't really appeal to me. I'm not sure how much use she'd still have for us after we screwed up the last time."

Neo was still for a moment, her hands motionless. _What do you think she'd do to us?_

"I'd rather not find out," Torchwick said. He'd meant what he told the kids about Cinder: she was dangerous, she was a fanatic, and she was the sort of person who didn't give second chances out without a damn good reason. And he'd led the enemy here, which might have been what she sort of wanted but that lady was nuts enough to take it out on him anyway, especially if things didn't go exactly the way she wanted them too. Frankly, he'd need some compelling reason to even consider taking the risk and going back to her side, and he just wasn't sure that he had that any more. Any attraction that she had once held for him had cooled long ago, and it was only fear of her that had kept him on side: the fear that told him it was safer to be behind Cinder than lined up against her. But now…now he wasn't so sure of that. Sure, these kids were all kinds of naïve and stupid, but they had something about them too. Something that had chased Cinder out of Vale already and left her skulking around here. Maybe they could do more. Maybe it was safer to be behind them? Some distance behind them obviously, but still.

"I mean," he murmured. "We could always just walk away."

 _Away where?_

"Anywhere," Torchwick said. "Away from Cinder, from this whole mess. Anywhere you want."

Neo considered that for a moment. _I hear Vacuo's nice this time of year._

"Oh, yeah," Torchwick said. "After I pulled the First Bank of Vale job I spent two months hiding out in a shack on the Vacuo coast, drinking tequilas on the beach until the heat was off." That was not entirely true, he'd spent most of his time hiding out actually, well, hiding, trying to make it seem like his shack was deserted in case Vale found out where he was and tried to extradite him (or simply hired a huntsman to grab him and drag him back to Vale to stand trial); but hey, if you couldn't make your life seem cooler in the stories that you told about it afterwards what could you do?

Neo smiled. _But you want to stick around for a little longer, don't you? Because you like them. Like her, anyway._

"Like them? Come on, you'll be accusing me of having a heart next," Torchwick said aggrievedly. "But all the same…I kind of want to see how this plays out, don't you? Don't you want to find out what happens to her, one way or the other?"

Neo looked thoughtful. _Sure. Why not? Let's find out how the story ends._

"I don't know about the whole story," Torchwick said, as he sauntered down the ramp and out of the plane. "But it would be a shame to leave before this chapter wraps itself up."

Neo followed him down. _So where do you think they are now?_

A gunshot shattered the silence.

Torchwick pointed in that direction. "I'd say they're probably somewhere over there," he said, as he led the way.


	90. Future Echo

Future Echo

Team RSPT advanced swiftly through the dead streets, Rainbow Dash leading as they ran. The sounds of their footfalls, scuffing and tapping and pounding on the dark rock from which this mausoleum had been carved echoed off shattered buildings and burned out, rusted vehicles as they darted down the streets, passing between the shattered shells of shops and high-rises, threading between that car, that bus, or leaping over that barricade that marked the sight of her another failed attempt to hold back the creatures of grimm.

Ciel knew that she couldn't be the only one who noticed the bodies. Rainbow we acting like she didn't, and Ciel suspected that the other reason - beyond a furious desire to rescue the captives - why she was setting such a hard pace was so that Twilight and Penny didn't have too much opportunity to notice, but how could they be ignorant of them? How could they not notice the skeletons at the barricade, catch the glimpses of them in the doorway, see the remains within the car?

Ciel made a promise to herself that when all this was over and they got back from Mountain Glenn she would sit Penny down and have a serious talk with her about all this. She was bearing up very well but it had to be affecting her.

It was affecting Ciel herself, after all, and there was no way that Penny was less sensitive than Ciel Soleil.

Ciel didn't talk about her religion much. It was, in her opinion, not a thing for public consumption. Rather it was between her and, well, no one apparently. If General Ironwood and the more passed down to him by his predecessors in the shadowy society were correct then there was no Blessed Lady of the North, no gods nor prophets; if General Ironwood was correct than her faith, and the devotion of her mother, were and had always been nothing but lies and nonsense and the only true gods had abandoned man to his own resources long ago. And yet, nevertheless, it continued to comfort her to whisper the old words and familiar catechisms. Perhaps it was childish, but as she followed her team through what could be described as an underworld in every sense, passing between death on every side, it brought her solace to imagine that there might be one benevolent spirit in this place of ghosts.

And as she ran, Ciel whispered a prayer for all the fallen who would never escape from Mountain Glenn, because they, too, deserved to find a little peace.

She brought up the rear, running behind Penny who was, in turn, behind Rainbow and Twilight. Distant Thunder, her long-barrelled anti-armour rifle, was in her hands and fully extended; cumbersome as it was it was infinitely preferable to being caught out in an ambush. The hem of Ciel's blue skirt flapped up and down as she ran.

"Ciel!" Rainbow snapped, without looking back. "Come on, it's this way!" And with this words she turned aside, leading the team around a corner to the left. That was a puzzling decision, and not what Ciel remembered from the directions Torchwick had given nor the location indicated by Fluttershy's beacon. Nevertheless, Rainbow Dash having led the entire rest of the team that way Ciel had no choice but to follow, even if she did quicken her pace to try and get closer to her leader - a little closer only, since she was not aiming to overtake Penny - and called out, "Why are we changing course?"

"Just come on, follow me!"

Ciel frowned slightly. While admitting that they were in a crunch situation and that now was not the time for length debate, and while also conceding that the 'because I said so' school of leadership was far from unrepresented at Atlas Academy, Rainbow Dash was not usually a subscriber to it. Apart from anything else her team leader was sufficiently self-aware to recognise that sometimes her decisions required explanation. And yet here they were, doing something strange without even the promise of a rhyme or reason.

And then the rest of the team rounded another corner, heading backwards in the direction they had come from not so long ago.

Ciel stopped, turned side on to her team mates as they left her behind, and took aim at Penny's back with Distant Thunder.

Penny turned, facing Ciel with green eyes wide with uncertainty. "Ciel? What are you doing?"

Ciel's face was as stone. "Penny, when did you and I meet?"

Penny cocked her head to one side. "I don't understand."

Rainbow and Twilight had both stopped by now, turning back towards the other half of the team. "What's the hold up?" Rainbow demanded. "Come on, let's move!"

"When," Ciel said, ignoring Rainbow As she repeated her question to Penny. "Did we first meet."

Penny was quiet for a moment. "During initiation," she said, in a neutral tone.

"Wrong," Ciel said, because Penny had never been through initiation, because Ciel herself had gone through that particular trial without managing to find a partner - one of the things that made her so suitable to join Team RSPT - and because their first meeting had actuall been in General Ironwood's office when he had called in Ciel and Rainbow, introduced them to Twilight and Penny, and declared them a team until he declared otherwise. "But I'm not surprised that you don't know the answer because you're just the product of an illusion semblance."

The illusions of three team-mates stared blankly at her for a moment, before they simply disappeared from sight. In their place, facing Ciel, stood a girl she recognised as one of Cinder Fall's associates: dark skin, green hair and an extraordinarily revealing outfit.

"Emerald Sustral, isn't it?" Ciel murmured."I wasn't aware you had an illusion semblance."

"You weren't meant to be aware," Emerald replied.

Ciel's eyes narrowed. "It won't take my team long to realise that I've gone missing."

Emerald shrugged. "They'll have their own problems soon enough."

Ciel exhaled in a long, angry breath. Of course. The rest of them were about to come under attack too. That changed things. She might have considered fighting a holding action until backup arrived. Now her responsibility was to wrap this up quickly find her team again, and aid them.

Slowly, Ciel lowered the barrel of her rifle, balancing the large weapon with one had while with the other she set the timer on her watch to three minutes.

"What are you doing?" Emerald demanded.

"Timing how long it will take me to beat you," Ciel thought, covering up the thought that that was all the time she could afford to defeat the illusionist. She raised her gun once more and took aim squarely at Emerald.

Emerald disappeared instantly, vanishing as though she had never been there at all.

Ciel closed her eyes, and activated her semblance.

 _Precognition on!_

Ciel opened her eyes, and she knew from experience that they would be glowing now, as though there was an inner fire burning behind them.

She had three minutes, better make this quick.

Ciel saw Emerald, on her left, running sideways, both her guns - a pair of green long barrelled revolvers - aimed at Ciel.

Ciel turned, her feet scraping on the ground as she swung Distant Thunder to bear just ahead of Emerald's location.

Emerald passed in front of her, just beyond the barrel.

Ciel squeezed the trigger.

The image of Emerald created by Ciel's semblance vanished as her shot hit the real Emerald square in the gut, hurling her backwards with an anguished cry as the heavy she'll carried her into the building behind her with such force that the wall was shattered and Emerald carried into the dark depths.

That was Ciel's semblance: for exactly three minutes - up from one minute when she had first unlocked it, thanks to a rigourous training regimen - she could see threats coming in advance, reflections of the future appearing before her eyes with only a slight translucent quality to distinguish them from the real thing.

Perfect for fighting an illusionist, provided she could finish the figt before her time ran out. She had two minutes and fifty-two seconds.

Ciel pursued Emerald, following her into the ruin where Ciel's first shot had hurled her. She couldn't afford to let Emerald go to ground and wait out her semblance, nor dared she simply turn her back on her opponent and attempt to remain the team without confirmation that Emerald had been neutralized first.

Ciel leapt through the hole that Emerald had made, the long barrel of her rifle preceding her into the darkness.

Ciel saw the echo of Emerald making a grab for the barrel to wrest the big go away from her.

Ciel twisted in mid-air, using Distant Thunder like a club to strike the real Emerald in the midriff. Her aura still didn't break - she must have an insane amount of it - but she let out a gasp of pain as she was tossed away.

Ciel landed, turned, fired, but Emerald rolled out of the way and Ciel's shot only blew a hole in the far wall.

Two minutes and forty seconds.

Emerald had disappeared again. Ciel waited, standing still, the lack of warning from her semblance telling her that Emerald had no immediate plans to attack.

That was unfortunate. Only two minutes thirty five seconds remaining.

The room she was in looked a combined kitchen dining room. An oven was directly in front of her, with a microwave sitting on the work surface to the right and a refrigerator to the left. A table sat in the middle of the room, surrounded by a quartet of chairs.

Bodies lay in one corner of the room. Two of them looked to be shielding something; judging by the presence of a child's high chair Ciel could guess what that something was.

Said high chair rocked, as if something - someone- had brushed against it.

Ciel fired, Distant Thunder booming forth as the high chair was turned into splinters and another hole opened in the dining room wall and the wall behind. But Emerald did not reveal herself as she had when Ciel had hit her the first time.

Two minutes and twelve seconds.

The shadow of Emerald lashing out with a chain enabled Ciel to avoid it, but Emerald must have been getting wise to what was going on because Ciel's fourth shot missed.

Four shots left and two minutes remaining.

Behind!

Ciel turned, reflecting on the problem with her semblance: it didn't show her everything the enemy was doing when they weren't being directly threatening.

Like escaping the room, getting above her, and then coming down behind.

An echo from the future gave Ciel enough warning to block Emerald's kick as she swung in through the hole in the wall that she had made. Ciel retreated back a step, with forewarning enough to duck Emerald's second kick before she hit the ground.

Ciel could have retreated, sought space for her big gun to try and rip through Emerald's remaining aura; but there were only one minute fifty-one seconds left on the clock and once it ran out she would be at the mercy of Emerald's illusions.

So she dropped her gun, it hit the floor with an incredibly solidcthud, and used Emerald's moment of surprise to punch her in the face.

She couldn't stop. She couldn't let up. Like a massive she had to bite and not let go. Ciel went on the attack. Emerald produced a pair of wicked looking sickle blades on the end of her guns but with her semblance Ciel could see the attacks coming before they happened and deal with them.

Emerald couldn't say the same as Ciel's fists hammered into her again and again.

One minute thirty-seven seconds. Ciel kicked, her skirt flying as she spun in a wide, sweeping arc that knocked Emerald's legs out from under her.

One minute twenty-five seconds. Ciel grabbed Emerald by her long tails of luminescent green hair and threw her bodily overhead to slam into the ground. Emerald's face was contorted with fury as she fired at Ciel, who had warning to dodge all the shots.

One minute five seconds. Why wasn't her aura down yet? Ciel leapt on her, but she didn't react quickly enough to Emerald's counter as the latter kicked her away.

Fifty-one seconds. Ciel evaded Emerald's chain and went for her again with a punch to the nose that sent her reeling. Ciel pursued, but Emerald had stopped trying to attack by this time and was focussing on blocking Ciel's attacks.

Forty seconds. "Your aura is incredible," Ciel admitted.

Emerald panted. "I...I won't loose. Not to you. Not to anyone. Because Cinder...Cinder is counting on me!"

Ciel kept pushing, kept driving Emerald back and around the room, but as the clock ran down she just cpuldn't finish it, could land that killer blow that would cause Emerald's aura to flicker and die, couldn't draw this fight to a close before...

The clock ran out, and so did her semblance.

Ciel stopped, feeling the sudden aura drain that always accompanied the use of her semblance. As if that wasn't obvious enough, Emerald would surely notice the fading of the light behind her eyes.

Judging by the bloodthirsty smirk that spread across her face, she had noticed.

And then she disappeared. And Ciel had a feeling she was in trouble.

She dived for her discarded gun but before she could grab it she felt something wrap around her ankle. A chain. Ciel's fingernails scraped along the floor as she was dragged backwards, taking shots as she went. Emerald reappeared, still smirking as she raked Ciel with her blades in X pattern. Ciel swept her legs out from under her and rolled, hitting Emerald before the latter threw her off.

Ciel leapt to her feet. Emerald fired, hitting Ciel in the shoulder and spinning her round. Emerald fired again, only to be rewarded by the clock of an empty barrel. She growled in frustration as she charged. Ciel blocked the fist downward stroke but the second cut across her midriff. Ciel punched Emerald in the gut but Emerald slashed Ciel across the eyes. Ciel threw another punch, but Emerald made a rolling duck out the way as she faded out of Ciel's view.

Ciel was turning as she felt the wrap around her neck.

Emerald's expression was an equal mixture of glee and fury as she hauled on the chain, grinding against Ciel's aura as the latter grabbed the chain and tried, mostly in vain, to loosen its grip. She tried to hit Emerald, but the latter was out of her reach and made sure to stay that way.

Ciel could feel her aura dropping every second. The look on Emrald's face told Ciel that the former would enjoy her death.

"Get away from my friend!"

Emerald released Ciel as she scrambled to avoid the green laser bolt that burned through the place where she had been standing and several walks behind. Penny stood on the other side of the hole that Emerald had made, her swords whirring around her, looking as close to furious as it was probably possible for Penny to get.

Emerald turned and ran. Penny let her go. The question of why she would do so was answered when Penny asked, "Where did she go?"

Ciel picked herself up off the floor. "She has an illusion semblance. She can deceive our senses. Even yours, it seems."

"Oh," Penny replied, sounding deflated. "I'm sorry."

"You've got nothing to apologise for," Ciel said. "How did you find me?"

"I heard shooting."

"Oh. Of course." Put like that Ciel felt stupid for asking. "Where are Rainbow Dash and Twilight?"

"Around the time we realised you were missing, we were attacked by Lightning Dust," Penny supplied.

"But Dash sent you to find me anyway?"

"Her exact words were, 'I got this'," Penny said.

"Of course they were," Ciel said, as she retrieved Distant Thunder from off the floor. "Can you find them again?"

Penny nodded.

"Then lead the way."


	91. Electromaster

Electromaster

Rainbow could have kicked herself. She could have cursed herself out. She could have done a lot worse than either of those things.

They had lost Ciel. She didn't know how, she didn't even know exactly when, she just knew that when she looked back their fourth team member wasn't there any more.

"Ciel!" Rainbow bellowed. "Hey, Ciel! You hear me?"

Her shouts echoed off the crumbling walls of Creepy Central, but she got no answer from Ciel. It was like ghosts had dragged her off while no one was looking.

Rainbow shivered. She liked a good ghost story, but she liked them with a cosy fire and a reminder that ultimately they were just that: stories. She wasn't so keen on places where the ghosts might actually be real.

She scowled, and told herself to stop that. There were enough real monsters in Mountain Glenn without making them up.

Regardless of the exact circumstances, Ciel had disappeared and that left Rainbow with a choice: go back and look for Ciel now, and risk that Applejack and Fluttershy would be moved or...or worse in that time; or push on and secure Applejack and Fluttershy then turn around to find Ciel. Theoretically she could also split the team to try and do both, but that would mean somebody doing something by themselves, and Rainbow wasn't keen on the idea of letting Penny or Twilight put of her sight if it could possibly be avoided.

"Ciel!" she shouted. "How the hell did we lose her? How did I lose her?"

"You were-" Twilight began.

"I wasn't looking for you to make excuses for me, Twi," Rainbow said. She bit her lip. It was a hard choice, made harder because there wasn't really a choice at all. She didn't want to leave Fluttershy for a moment longer than necessary. She really, really didn't. But Ciel Soleil was a member of Team RSPT, the team that Rainbow Dash was leader of, and that conveyed a responsibility that went beyond even friendship.

Her team, her responsibility.

They would go back.

Rainbow had made that choice - or come to terms with it - the moment before the thunderous report if Distant Thunder echoed across the underground city.

Rainbow sucked in a breath through gritted teeth. "We need to move, let's-"

"Rainbow Dash! Up above!" Penny shouted, as her swords unfolded from her back to point like fingers at something above and behind.

Rainbow darted out of the way just as a figure wreathed in crackling lightning landed on the ground where she been a nanosecond earlier with enough force to leave a small crater. Rainbow caught a glimpse of a cocky grin and a leg with lightning rippling up and down it making a sweeping kick. Rainbow jumped, and the kick swept beneath her.

Turned out the kick had been a distraction from the punch that caught her square I the midriff and threw her into the side of a building.

"Rainbow!" Twilight cried, before a bolt of lightning blasted her away with a shriek.

"Twilight!" Rainbow yelled.

Penny scowled as her swords formed a circle in front of her, spinning rapidly as green lasers charged at the tips of the blades.

The enemy didn't move, or try to attack. Which told Rainbow she was either unbeleivably stupid or she had a counter up her sleeve.

Which meant that Rainbow couldn't wait for Penny to fire. She sped forwards, a rainbow trailing behind her, and hit the enemy at full tilt, the force of Rainbow's charge tossing her across the street so hard that the wall broke into a cloud of dust on impact.

"Penny, go find Ciel!" Rainbow snapped. It wasn't ideal by any means, but some had to hold off this enemy and since this enemy seemed to think that they could counter Penny it made sense to send her away. "Twilight, get to cover and stay there."

"But-" Penny began.

"Go, that's an order," Rainbow said. "I got this." She picked the shotgun, which she had dropped in the first attack, up off the ground and barely resisted the urge to cock it again for extra emphasis.

She didn't see Penny leave. She didn't look for Twilight. Rainbow's eyes were fixed on the whole on the whole in the wall through which her enemy had crashed. She pointed the shotgun directly at it, and waited for then enemy to emerge.

She saw a light in the darkness, several sickly yellow lights in close proximity, and fired.

There was a crackle of lightning in the darkness before Lightning Dust of Team CLEM sauntered out of the hole in the wall, still wearing that same cocky grin that had been on her face when she made her big entrance.

Rainbow fired again, her shotgun barking. Lighting held up one hand, and Lightning flared out from her fingertips. Whatever she'd done, she didn't fazed by the shot at all.

"You want to know something cool about lightning?"

"No."

"With enough power and control it's basically a much more awesome magnet," Lightning Dust said. She was wearing a black skintight outfit that looked like it was made out of scales, like old-fashioned armour, sort of. It covered her from the neck down, but the shape was disrupted by tubes rising up from out of the suit before descending back into it in places. The tubes were the source of the pale yellow light that Rainbow had seen, as yellow liquid giggled through them.

Rainbow's eyes widened as she realised what Lightning Dust - was that her name? No way that could be her real name, right? - was doing. "Is that-"

"One hundred percent pure liquified lightning dust straight into my blood stream," Lightning declared with a glee that verged on ecstatic. "I am a god right now!"

"Pretty sure you're just high. You know that stuff is poisoning you, right?"

Lightning took a step forward. "We'll see who's laughing when I do what even Cinder herself couldn't and crush the head of that nerd who have along with you."

"Not gonna happen."

Lightning chuckled. "And how are you going to stop me? With that?"

"No," Rainbow said. "With these!" She left it ambiguous what these were as she surged forward, covering the distance between the two huntresses in a rainbow trail. She was smiling now, smirking every but as cocking as Lightning X

Dust, whose whole body rippled with yellow lightning as it crackled up and down her suit.

Rainbow twisted her feet, ceasing to run as she skidded a few feet forwards before converting into a flying leap that carried her feet first right into Lightning Dust's stupid face.

Her shoes were insulated. Rainbow hadn't understood why Twilight had designed them that way at first but now she realised that she didn't tell Twi that she loved her nearly enough as Lightning's lightning rippled uselessly off the rubber soles and did nothing, absolutely nothing to protect her as Rainbow's first kick knocked her backwards and off her feet.

Her second kick clipped the side of her head and sent her flying.

Lightning Dust hit the black road and rolled sideways down it a few times. She didn't look too badly hurt, unfortunately; she didn't even look particularly disgruntled by all this. Her grin was still there, and might even have gotten even more manic as she leapt to her feet in a single bound.

"Not bad," she said. "As expected of the ace of Atlas Academy."

"The ace?"

"Didn't you know?" Lightning Dust said. "Everyone calls you that. You're the strongest student in the entire school, everyone says so. You're a beacon of hope to faunus all across Atlas. It's sickening is what it is: that you're the one they all look up to."

"Uh-huh," Rainbow muttered. "So, is this a White Fang thing or do you just think people should be looking up to you instead."

"The White Fang can bite my tail," Lightning Dust snapped, swishing her tail from side to side for emphasis. "I just want to prove that I'm better than...We'll, let's start with better than you."

"Great job on that so far."

Lightning's grin didn't falter. "Oh, you ain't seen nothing yet." The tubes on her suit gurgled like a drain as they pumped yet more dust directly into her bloodstream. Lightning crackles in the palms of her hands, leaping from fingertip as she knelt and placed her hands upon the ground.

For a moment it seemed as though nothing had happened. Then the surface of the ground on which they stood began to shudder and shake, sending tremors running throughout the dead city as the ground under Rainbow's feet cracked and a great black mass rose up from the earth like a swarm of angry bees that all converged on Rainbow Dash as though they'd caught her trying to steal honey from the hive.

"Iron paeticles!" Lightning Dust crowed. "Like I said: a much cooler magnet!"

Rainbow rose as they came for her. As the immense cloud of iron fragments converged on her from all around she spread her wings and activated her jetpack, blasting into the word and rising up above the buildings of the underground city.

The cloud of metal fragments followed. They were slower than she was but they followed anyway, rising at Lightning Dust's command in swirling circles like dust kicked up by a cyclone.

If it caught he then it would be rough, Rainbow thought as she watched the iron particles rise up after her, particulate tendrils reaching out for her, but there was no way that Lightning Dust could have the concentration to manipulate all this and do everything - or even anything - else right?

Which meant that all she had to do was be faster.

Easy.

Rainbow hovered in the air, her jetpack keeping her level and steady as she watched the dark iron cloud rise and rise towards her, buzzing like bees or hornets or a vibrating chainsaw as it formed into five fingers of a grasping hand that reached out for Rainbow Dash.

And Rainbow dived. She set the thrust on her jetpack to maximum as she plunged with wings unfurled right through the iron cloud like a lightning bolt from the heavens. She heard the slam and this of the particles on her wings, she felt it slicing at her aura, for a moment the dark cloud all around her hammered into her goggles and blinded her so that she had to trust that she was going the right way. But it was slower than she was, much slower, and Lightning was still trying to turn it all around as Dash burst through the cloud and fell like a descending spear right towards Lightning Dust. And as she fell, shotgun in one hand, she whipped one of her pistols in the other hand and let Lightning have it.

Rainbow had been right. Manipulating those iron particles was taking all of Lightning Dust's concentration because the pistol shots hit her in the shoulder and chest, spinning he sideways and presenting her back - she had a bulky device on her back too, likely where she stored all her dust - to Dash as the latter swooped like a hawk.

With her of her hand, Rainbow pressed her shotgun into the small of Lightning's back and pulled the trigger. Lightning yelled as she was blasted forwards, but she converted her fall into a roll at the last minute and came up blasting lightning from her hands.

Rainbow twisted out of the way, but some of it caught her anyway, snapping at her aura like little dogs taking bites out of it as she yelped at the stabbing, shocking sensation that slammed her on her back into the ground.

Lightning Dust laughed. "Teach me not to get so cocky, I guess. Thanks for reminding me to keep things simple sometimes." She zapped Rainbow again with another burst of lightning erupting from her fingertips, knocking Rainbow down again as she tried to get up.

Lightning Dust cackled. "I don't believe this! You're the one? You're the strongest in Atlas? You're the one that they all talk about? I knew that faunus are desperate for heroes but come on!"

"Don't ask me, this is the first I've heard of any of this," Rainbow muttered, although in different circumstances it would have flattered her ego to believe it.

Lightning Dust ignored her. "You know what? I think I'm going to kill you on principle: people who go around claiming to be the best should be able to back it up, and so far I'm not that impressed. You got anything else, Ace?"

Rainbow climbed to her feet. "Maybe." _Although I haven't quite worked out what it is yet._

"Then let's see it," Lightning said, as lightning sparked at her fingertips.

Iron particles rose from the ground all around them both, ascending lazily in great clumps and clouds, humming gently as they congregated together like old friends glad to meet after such a long time.

"That again?" Rainbow asked.

For the first time since the fight began, the grin slid off Lightning Dust's face a little bit. "I…I'm not doing this."

"That's right, you're not," Twilight said, as she stepped out of cover with her hands aglow with the lavender light of her semblance. "I am."

She brought her hands together, and all the iron particles that Lightning Dust had summoned up out of the cracked and shattered ground now converged upon her like a trap slamming shut.

Lightning Dust bellowed in anger, her whole body sparked with electricity, rippling up and down the armoured mesh of her suit, snapping and snarling as the progress of the iron particles towards her halted. Lightning was running up and down them as well, beating against the lavender light that surrounded the iron clouds as the two semblances fought for control over the substance.

"You think…you think you can beat me?" Lightning Dust snarled, her voice dropping an octave and her body seeming to strain against the skin-tight suit that constrained it as more dust flooded through the glowing tubes that ran over the top of her suit. "You think that someone like you has the right to interfere?"

Twilight scowled as she tried to increase the power of her semblance. "Rainbow Dash! Her backpack, it's insulated! It has to be, it's the only way to be sure she wouldn't accidentally set off the dust!"

Rainbow's eyes widened because now that Twi had pointed it out, now that her attention had been drawn to the fact, she could see that there wasn't any lightning getting close to the tubes either. Although there was lightning everywhere else on Lightning's body, there was none near the tubes that actually carried the dust. Twilight was right, the only way to make that you didn't blow yourself up was to make sure that lightning wouldn't affect the delivery system.

 _I really don't tell you that I love you often enough._

Rainbow started to run. "Twi, drop it, now!"

Twilight looked confused, but she obeyed, and instantly her semblance ceased to push against the iron particles, which – with only Lightning Dust pushing them away from her, erupted outwards in all directions uncontrollably, scattering across the street.

Lightning's golden eyes gleamed with anger as she turned to face the trembling Twilight.

"You are going to-"

And then Rainbow grabbed her by the backpack.

"Nope," was all that Rainbow said before she took off into the air, carrying a howling Lightning Dust up with her.

It was clear after just a minute that Twilight had been absolutely right about the backpack being insulated. Though Lightning Dust was sparking across her entire body the backpack was unaffected, and not only did it not touch the backpack but it never came anywhere near Rainbow Dash's hands on the backpack either.

Lightning Dust bellowed in a voice much deeper than usual as she rose towards the surface, shouting and flailing and sparking as Rainbow Dash bore her upwards, straight and directly and ever upwards. From the way that she was turning her head this way – and from the fact that Rainbow was right behind her – it seemed that Rainbow was in Lightning's blind spot, and without being able to see her the jolts of lightning that she flung out behind her in a desperate attempt to throw her off missed, either wildly or with just a little movement on Dash's part.

And then they got so high that Lightning stopped trying to hit Rainbow, for fear of what would happen if she did.

Rainbow levelled out, and began to bank into an arc around her location.

"I don't know if I'm really the strongest student in Atlas," she said into Lightning Dust's ear. "Probably not. I might not even be the fastest, there's a girl named Neon Katt who can run me pretty close. But do you know what makes me so awesome."

Lightning's only response was a wordless growl, like a cornered animal.

"I have the best friends," Rainbow said. And then she threw Lightning Dust away like garbage.

Lightning roared as she was hurled through the darkness, a crackling light in the gloom that had overrun Mountain Glenn even more than the grimm. She fell like a thunderbolt cast down from the dark cloud in the midst of a storm, she fell with a sound like thunder itself as she tore through the air, a rolling rumble in low-pitched counterpoint to her deep-throated scream as she fell towards a tall tower with broken windows, one of the black monoliths that dominated the Mountain Glenn skyline.

Lightning fell towards it, and as she fell she thrust out her arm, and lightning shot from her hand.

She hit the building, but she didn't crash through it. She didn't bounce off and fall. She stuck. She hit it hard, and that must have made a pretty big dent in her aura or nothing would, but she stuck.

She stuck, and she continued to stick to the wall by her feet as she looked up at Rainbow Dash.

"Good thing for me there's metal in this concrete!" Lightning crowed. "Face it Dash, there's no way that you can-" she stopped, as she jerked forwards as though she was about to throw up, her mouth snapping shut as her eyes bulged and her head dropped. She was still stuck to the wall, but her feet looked to be about the only stable thing in her whole body as the rest of her flopped back and forth.

Finally, it was clear that she couldn't hold back any longer and her mouth opened. Only it wasn't vomit that emerged. It was blood.

 _The dust. She can't metabolise so much dust._

And so, as Lightning Dust coughed up blood onto her hands, Rainbow pulled out her pistols and started shooting.

And Lightning Dust ran.

She ran as bullets slammed into her armour, she ran as blood dripped from her mouth, she ran as the lightning rippling up and down her body began to die. She ran, leaping from roof to roof, a flickering, dying light in the darkness. She ran as Rainbow's fire pursued her.

Her fire, but not Rainbow herself. Although a part of her – a substantial part – wanted to follow and finish her off, she couldn't discount the possibility that this was some kind of ruse to get her away from Twilight.

So she let Lightning go; she might see her again, if the dust poisoning didn't get her first. Rainbow descended, relieved to see that Twilight was where she'd left her, and that she hadn't come under attack in the meantime.

"Did it work?" Twilight asked.

Rainbow nodded. "Except that she can stick to walls too. I hope it's just the dust or that semblance is insane."

"If her semblance was that powerful ordinarily…there's no way that she could have kept it a secret, right?" Twilight said.

"I'd say not," Rainbow said, but she shrugged as she added. "But Pyrrha does."

"Yeah, by being subtle about it."

"Good point," Rainbow said. She frowned. "It was reckless of you to get involved Twi…but I'm glad you did. Thanks."

Twilight's smile was small and soft. "Any time."

"I love you, you know that, right?"

"Yeah," Twilight said, with a slight blush rising to her cheeks. "I know."

The thump of feet on stone alerted them both to the return of Penny, with Ciel in tow, the both of them running as fast as they could.

"What's the situation?" Ciel demanded, as she came to a halt.

"Lightning Dust retreated," Rainbow said. "You?"

"Emerald Sustrai did the same," Ciel said. She pouted a little. "Thank you for noticing I was gone."

Rainbow cringed. "Well…we noticed eventually. What happened to you anyway?"

"Emerald has a hallucination inducing semblance."

"Wow," Rainbow said. "They were good at keeping their skills a secret, weren't they?"

"Will they be back?" Penny asked.

"Lightning won't; not now, maybe not ever," Rainbow said. "Emerald…I don't know, you fought her. What state was she in?"

"Hard to say," Ciel replied. "I think their aim might be to delay us, rather than to kill us, although no doubt they'd take the opportunity to do so if it was offered to them."

"Delay?" Twilight said. "Why? Do they want to stop us from rescuing-"

"Not gonna happen," Rainbow said. "Let's move, we've wasted enough time out here."

"Do you think that they'll try and delay Ruby and Team Sapphire as well?" Penny said.

Rainbow and Ciel looked at one another.

"We haven't seen Mercury Black or Cinder herself," Ciel said. "Either they're waiting for us, or…"

"Don't worry about it, Penny," Rainbow said. "Sapphire can take care of themselves, especially with Blake with them."

"And a professor," Twilight added.

"They'll be okay, Penny," Rainbow said. "Whatever Cinder throws at them, they can handle it."

 _They'd better, at least._


	92. Pro Killer

Pro Killer

There was a grimm blocking their way.

A single grimm, it didn't even appear to have noticed them yet, and yet its mere presence standing in the middle of the street was entirely halting the onward progress of Team SAPR.

The fact that it was so unusual in appearance might have had something to do with it.

It wasn't so much the fact that it was a type of grimm they hadn't encountered before, or even that it was a kind of grimm that hadn't been mentioned by Professor Port yet – although either of those instances would have been cause to take a moment and reflect on strategy – no, it was the fact that (and Pyrrha could only speak for herself at this point but judging by the expressions of the others she wasn't alone) it was so far outside the bounds of what one expected a grimm to look like that was perturbing her.

It looked like a cross between a beowolf and an ursa; as though those monsters were capable of interbreeding with one another and had produced this hybrid. It had the long, almost ape-like arms, lithe-ish limbs and nipped in waist of a beowolf in contrast to the more solid, trunk-like form of an ursa; but on the other hand for size it had much more in common with the ursine creature while not possessing the markers of age – particularly the multitude of encrusted armour plates – that would have marked it as an alpha that had temporarily misplaced its pack.

But none of that was truly disconcerting about this creature that had suddenly thrown itself athwart their line of approach. Nor even was it the dead White Fang members at the monster's feet, or the red blood on its teeth and claws that left no doubt as to how these warriors had died.

No, what was most strange about this beowolf – and what was giving the members of SAPR, and even Professor Goodwitch, the most pause – was, and the fact that it sounded a little absurd when stated so baldly did not make it any less true, the colour.

This grimm was green. Not all over – the bulk of its body was still the same tar black as always – the spikes upon its back that ought to have been as white as bone now glowed a luminescent green in the darkness under Mountain Glenn, in place of red eyes a pale green light shone out of every orifice of the creature's skull, even its open mouth, as though it were one of those grimm-themed novelty nightlights that you could buy.

Green lines that had no equivalent on any grimm that Pyrrha had encountered or read about, glowed up and down the creature's body as though it were filled with some unstable power or concoction that its form could not quite contain.

And so the expanded SAPR, in addition to Professor Goodwitch, lurked out of its sight (and fortunately they were also out of its sense of smell as well, the air here being still and stale in a manner that was intensely uncomfortable but also, in this instance, beneficial) around the corner, watching the strange creature; and as they watched, it bent its back and lowered its head to the ground to continue feeding upon the corpses of those faunus it had slain.

It was disgusting to watch, and yet for the moment they had no choice but to observe it.

"So, uh," Jaune murmured. "Does anyone know what that is?"

"Nope," Ruby said.

"Professor?" Sunset said. "Any wisdom to share with us?"

"Unfortunately not," Professor Goodwitch said softly. "Beyond the fact that it is clearly a grimm…I've never seen one quite like this before."

"We could probably go around it," Blake said. "We didn't come here to fight grimm, after all."

"Maybe we could, but what if it comes after us?" Sunset asked. "Do you want that thing coming up behind us while we're distracted?"

Blake was silent for a moment. "Good point."

"The enemy already knows we're here," Sunset said. "A little more shooting won't tell them anything that they don't know already. I say we kill this thing now, and we won't have to worry about it later."

She glanced at her team-mates, as if she were searching for objections. Pyrrha didn't offer any; she found nothing to object too in Sunset's reasoning: just because this grimm – it was a grimm, whatever else it might be – hadn't noticed them at the moment there was no guarantee that it wouldn't do so later, especially if the conflict of battle drew it in. If they could deal with it now then they might as well do so, while they had nothing else to distract them.

"Pyrrha, Jaune," Sunset said. "Go into this building and see if you can get around or behind it. Once you start shooting, we'll attack up the street."

Pyrrha nodded. "Alright." She tapped the button on the butt of Milo once, transforming it from its rifle configuration into the stealthier spear; with good fortune, she wouldn't have to fire (and thus alert this particular strange grimm to her presence) until she was in position for the ambush. "Good luck."

"And you," Sunset said, with a terse nod of her own before she looked away from Pyrrha and returned her attention to the feeding grimm up the street.

Pyrrha moved, trusting Jaune to follow, as she crept along the side of the tower behind which they had taken cover and searched for a way in. This wasn't a suburban home of the kind that they had slept in last night; it wasn't even a row of terraces; rather, here in the underground city it seemed as though every building climbed upwards and climbed high, this place was a hive of dark monoliths reaching towards the surface, a place where people must have lived like ants or termites or like rats all jammed together as tightly packed as could be managed.

Pyrrha was not naïve. She knew that not everybody lived in the spacious luxury in which she had grown up and which the other wealthy families of Mistral enjoyed; she knew that not everywhere was as pleasant to live as Mistral even for the less well-off of its citizens. But she couldn't understand why anyone would voluntarily live like this, packed into airless boxes, deep underground where there was no natural light, surrounded by walls of rock on either side…this city had been a prison even before the grimm had laid it to waste. There might have been life here, but Pyrrha could see no evidence that there had ever been any freedom.

It was hard not to think of the slaughter that those monsters had wrought as being but the last and most fatal of the indignities suffered by those unfortunate enough to live beneath Mountain Glenn.

She turned a corner, putting her on the opposite side of the building as the grimm, and found a door, cheap and plastic looking but reasonably intact in the circumstances. It hadn't been blocked, at Pyrrha's slightest touch it swung open to reveal a dusty corridor, lined with apartment doors on the left side, heading north; an elevator that didn't appear to be working any more; and a narrow staircase leading to the next floor up.

Pyrrha stood in the doorway for a moment, considering.

"Pyrrha?" Jaune said softly from behind her. "Is everything okay?"

Pyrrha was afraid to look at him before she answered. She didn't want to look at him because she was afraid that if she did look at him than the memory of that kiss would come flooding back and she would lose herself to such a rush of remembered ecstasy that she would lose all sense of proportion and purpose in this place.

She didn't care that it had been, in some ways, a clumsy kiss and fumbling; it had been his kiss, from his lips to hers, a kiss that had been meant for her, from someone who knew her and saw her for more than just the tournament champion. And that meant that it was the most wonderful kiss in the whole world to her.

Even now, just thinking about it, without even needing to look at Jaune, the blissful memory of that moment was threatening to overwhelm her. _Get a grip, Pyrrha._ She had a job to do, and people who were counting on her.

"I think we should go up," she said, and she forced herself to look over her shoulder at Jaune and she forced the sight of his face not to be the undoing of her. "We'll have more of a vantage that way."

Of course, that did mean that Jaune with his sword and shield would be unable to do much at first, but with aura it would be easy for either of them to leap down into the street to join in the fight up close if need be.

"Right," Jaune said, and to his credit he didn't protest that this would make him superfluous. His silence was to his credit, but Pyrrha thought that it was also to be regretted. Just because he wasn't as talented as herself or Ruby or Sunset didn't mean that he had to accept some sort of subordinate status compared to the rest of them. She would be very sad if he did that, and gave up all sense of ambition of his own.

But now was not the time to argue that point with him. Now was the time to do what was best for the team and for the mission. So Pyrrha led the way up the narrow staircase, her shield held before her in a guard protecting her chest, and along the corridor – equally tight and narrow – which they found waiting for them at the top. There had been carpet on the floor, though time and probably some kind of bugs had eaten away at large parts of it, and it felt uneven beneath Pyrrha's feet. She was almost glad that this corridor was so dark; she imagined that if she were able to see anything on the floor it would probably be somewhat disgusting.

Judging by the unhappy noises coming out of Jaune's mouth, it seemed that he was feeling a few disgusting things as he went as well.

There was another staircase at the end of the corridor, but Pyrrha didn't climb it; there was no point in climbing too high when climbing wasn't the point of the exercise. Rather, sheathing Milo across her back but keeping Akouo upon her other arm, she felt for the handle of the door into one of the apartments.

It opened immediately, revealing a room that was every bit the small box that Pyrrha had expected it would be based on the nature of the exterior. Actually, it might have been a little bit worse than that, because this place didn't even have separate rooms. It was illuminated by a pair of glowing lava lamps – one with a volcano inside, and the other in a shape of a beowolf with the light emitting from out of the creature's eyes – both of them giving off a soft red light that illuminated a single room apartment, with an oven sitting next to a refrigerator in a small tiled space, while the orange carpet was covered in stains that Pyrrha didn't want to know the origins of. A narrow wardrobe, the door very slightly ajar, sat to the left of the door. A camp bed sat in the corner of the room, half hived off by a rotting wooden screen, while a stack of comic books sat on a dusty table in the centre of the room, in front of a dusty chair facing a dust television. Everything here was covered in dust; not surprising but not particularly comfortable either.

There was another door on the far side of the apartment – not even a single window, how many apartments were packed in here? – and Pyrrha headed towards it.

"Pyrrha," Jaune hissed from behind her.

She turned, to see him gesturing with one hand at the stack of comic books. "These have been moved."

It took Pyrrha a moment to work out what he meant: there was no dust on the top book; in fact, now that her attention had been drawn to the fact, there wasn't so much dust on the seat on the chair as on other places either, and were those…footprints?

Pyrrha reached over her shoulder and drew Milo in a single fluid motion. "We're not alone in here."

Jaune reached for the hilt of his sword. "Do you think it was the White Fang?"

Pyrrha opened her mouth, but before she could frame a response the wardrobe door burst open as a figure in grey and silver erupted from out of it. Jaune started to turn, drawing his sword, but he was too slow in both his motions and in raising his shield to block. The man who had leapt from cover kicked him in the side with a gunshot sound, then again with his other foot to send Jaune flying through the fragile wall that separated this apartment from the next with a crash and crack and a cry of pain.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha cried, as she leapt forward with her shield held before her and her spear drawn back, thrusting Milo forward towards the intruder.

The man – Mercury, his name was Mercury, he'd been one of Cinder's team-mates – leapt back and away from her. "Oh, relax," he said. "All I did was give him a little tap, he'll be fine."

Pyrrha did not reply, but she positioned herself so that he was covering the hole in the wall, standing between Mercury and Jaune.

Mercury sauntered towards the little kitchen area. "Nice catch on the book. That was sloppy of me, but I was getting a little bored waiting for you to show up and well…it was _Amazing X-Ray_ number one. Do you have any idea how rare those are?"

Pyrrha scowled. "So you just sat around while your comrades outside were being slaughtered by that _thing_?"

"Hey, don't lump me in with those amateurs," Mercury said. "They wanted to play with dogs, and they got bit. Serves them right. People shouldn't get involved in situations that are out of their league." He smirked. "There's a lesson you and your friends could maybe stand to take to heart."

Pyrrha heard Jaune start to get up behind her.

"Hey, buddy," Mercury said, pointing over Pyrrha's shoulder. "Another piece of advice for you: stay where you are and don't do anything stupid, okay? Me and the lady have some things to take care of, so don't get in the way." He raised his fists into a boxing stance, and shifted lightly on the balls of his feet, bouncing lightly as he waited for her.

A roar echoed from outside, followed by the sound of Crescent Rose firing.

"Ooh, looks like we might have woken up that weird grimm," Mercury said. "Don't worry, I don't know what the hell it is either. But I do know that now that it's pissed you probably shouldn't count on any assistance from outside. But then, a four time undefeated champ like you doesn't really need the help does she? Not from a team and certainly not from a loser like that."

"Don't call him that," Pyrrha growled.

Mercury's smirk broadened. "My old man raised me to be a lot of things, but a liar wasn't one of them. Of course, you could always kick my ass and defend your boyfriend's honour that way." He sidestepped a pace. "What do you say, Invincible Girl? You want to dance?"

Pyrrha was still and silent for a moment, tightening her grip on her weapons and shifting her stance on the floor a little. Then, without a word, she attacked.

She went gingerly, at first; not holding back per se, but assessing the calibre of her opponent, getting a feel for what he was capable of before she launched a full-blooded assault. She got the feeling that he was doing the same thing to her, which lessened the effectiveness of the reconnaissance but was no more than Pyrrha expected. It was always like this in a match: neither party wanted to commit until they had a better idea of what their opponent could do, and what level they were at relative to one another.

After a failed attempt to break through her defence, Mercury used the recoil of the guns in his boots to carry him backwards, until he was standing in the far doorway, the doorway to which Pyrrha and Jaune had been headed before his ambush.

He made a face that suggested that Pyrrha although, not bad, was nothing to shout about. It was the kind of face that Pyrrha remembered seeing on the faces of the parents of some of her childhood sparring partners, when their children had underperformed but only to the level of warranting patronising rather than critique.

The fact that she knew Mercury was almost certainly only making that face to annoy her didn't make it any less irksome to look at.

For her part: he was fast. Very fast, and very athletic too, with a limberness to his body that put Pyrrha in mind more of an elite gymnast than a warrior; not many other fighters she knew could pull handstands like that, much less fight with their feet in that way.

He was an opponent whom she would have been pleased to encounter under different circumstances; in the present circumstances, however, she still had no doubt that she could beat him.

Pyrrha attacked. She feinted with her spear, thrusting it forwards in a downwards stroke and then – when Mercury had began to strike, lifting his foot to bring it down upon Milo and knock it from her hand – drawing it back again as swiftly as a snake retreating into its hole. Mercury's foot descended upon empty air, and that was when Pyrrha struck for real, driving Milo forward to slam into Mercury's leg with a metallic clang that knocked it back.

Mercury rallied, planting his stricken foot on the ground and pivoting to kick with his other leg. Pyrrha brought up her shield and use it to deflect the blow. Mercury fired, and the blast pushed them both backwards and away from one another.

They stared at one another from the opposite sides of the apartment, Pyrrha glowering and Mercury smirking.

Pyrrha switched Milo into rifle mode and fired a shot. It missed, Mercury twisting out the way, but it left him off balance when Pyrrha attacked. Milo transformed again, into the spear, as she charged, and it extended the last part of the way with the force of the rifle's discharge to slam into Mercury's chest and knock him backwards through the door and into the next corridor. Pyrrha pursued him, her red sash flying as she made a twirling slash with her sword followed by a stroke with her shield that left Mercury reeling, holding his arms up to block her strokes. He retreated into the room across the hall. Pyrrha pursued him. Mercury kicked a coffee table at her, which barely nicked her aura as it shattered against her shield but did knock her off her stroke just enough for Mercury to go on the counterattack. He threw himself at her, but she held firm and took his kick upon her shield before hurling him backwards. He came at her again, feet flying, and this time he actually managed to knock Milo out of her hand and send it skittering across the dusty floor. Pyrrha stepped back, using a touch of her semblance to send his next kick at her astray. Mercury was knocked off balanced, spinning like a top until he had his back to her, dropping to all fours as Pyrrha recovered her weapon, digging his fingers into the rotting carpet as Pyrrha summoned her weapon back to her hand.

She charged while his back was turned, forming Milo into a spear to slam-

Mercury whirled around, throwing out his arms to toss a handful of dust into her eyes.

 _Dirty trick!_ Pyrrha wasn't hurt – thanks to her aura nothing was actually going in her eyes – but the dust stuck to her face nevertheless and she was left blinded, her vision completely obscured by the dust and dirt and bits which meant that-

Pyrrha cried out as the kick struck her on the side of the head. She staggered sideways, letting Milo fall for a moment as she began to wipe at her eyes. She felt a second blow, this time to her gut which knocked the wind out of her and bent her double. Mercury kicked her in the face again, sending her flying upwards, and then a fourth time with a crash as she was thrown through one of the many thin walls that divided the building before she landed on her back on the floor.

Pyrrha cursed herself mentally as she furiously wiped the dust out of her eyes. She had spent too long fighting in tournaments with rules and structures and codes of etiquette and conduct. This wasn't that sort of fight, this was the sort of fight where anything went to win and she ought to have been prepared for that and what it might mean.

She wiped her face, able to see again, able to see herself reflected in the mirrored ceiling of this particular apartment.

She leapt to her feet in a single bound, just in time to see Mercury kick a bed at her. It broke through what remained of the dividing wall between them as it went. Pyrrha used her shield to knock it away, re-directing it through another wall to her left, but in the process she left herself open to Mercury, who had launched himself through the bed in anticipation of just that. He kicked her in the breast, in the unguarded spot between her corset and gorget, and knocked her down again as Pyrrha winced.

He raised his foot to bring it down on Pyrrha's face.

Jaune burst in through the door in a sudden rush that carried him into Mercury's side.

* * *

Jaune hadn't known that any sound could make him feel the way that hearing Pyrrha cry out in pain had made him feel until he heard it.

He had been content to follow slowly, when the fight took the two of them out of that first apartment, knowing that he would probably only get in Pyrrha's way if he tried to actually help her fight Mercury. It wasn't as though she'd need her aura boosting just to fight one guy. She probably wouldn't even need her semblance. It was Pyrrha, after all. By the time he got there she'd probably have already broken that guy's aura and there'd be nothing left for him to do but say 'great job, Pyrrha, you were awesome…and I wasn't'.

But then he heard her cry out. It wasn't a scream, but it was a sound of pain and it came from Pyrrha's lips and it chilled him in a way that he hadn't thought that anything ever could. Pyrrha was hurt? But…but she was…she was _Pyrrha_. Pyrrha didn't lose, Pyrrha didn't get hurt, Pyrrha was amazing and awesome and she always won with no trouble at all. If she was hurt then…that must mean…

Jaune started to run. If Mercury was that good then he didn't know if there was anything at all that he could actually do to help her but he damn sure wasn't going to leave his partner alone when she was in trouble.

He heard the sound of a wall shattering – he knew because it was the sound he'd made when Mercury kicked him through one – and Pyrrha cried out again and Jaune burst into the room to see Mercury standing over her, about to bring his boot down upon her face.

Jaune didn't know how much aura Pyrrha had left, if she had any, but it didn't matter because Jaune reacted on instinct. All the lessons that Pyrrha had been so patiently teaching him about swordplay and shield handling and footwork flew out of his mind as he just rushed the guy.

He collided with Mercury, knocking him sideways as the two of them hit the floor in a tangle of arms and legs. Jaune ended up on top, and he used his shield as a club, bringing it down on Mercury's face once, twice, three times and when Mercury raised his arms to fend him off Jaune kept hitting him because even through his anger he knew that the only chance he had was to keep the pressure on not let Mercury recover-

Mercury recovered, grabbing Jaune's shield with both hands and stopping Jaune's last blow in its tracks. Jaune felt the shield wrenched out of his grasp before Mercury hit him with it in turn, knocking him off. Jaune rolled sideways. Mercury leapt to his feet. Jaune grabbed for Crocea Mors, which he had dropped on the floor.

Jaune was just starting to lift it when Mercury brought his foot down upon the sword, firing out of his boot as he did so.

And Crocea Mors, the sword of heroes, the venerable blade that his great-grandfather had carried through a hundred battles or more, the heirloom of the Arc family, shattered beneath the blow.

Jaune was left holding a hilt with a broken stump of a blade attached.

Jaune's eyes were wide with shock. It broke? It _broke_? He'd broken the ancestral weapon of his family?

Now of all times?

 _Can I not catch a break just once?_

"Oh, come on!" he yelled.

He had enough time to register the incredibly annoying smirk on Mercury's face right before the latter tried to kick Jaune in his.

It didn't land. Mercury's boot stopped about an inch away from the tip of Jaune's nose.

Judging by the way that Mercury's expression suddenly became very confused, that hadn't been his plan.

Pyrrha picked herself up off the floor. Her right arm, which she held outstretched towards Mercury, was wreathed in the black outline of her semblance, and in her green eyes there was not a trace of kindness.

She didn't say a word as she raised her hand. Mercury yelped as he was slammed into the ceiling. He didn't break it, or at least he didn't break through it, but there was a definite crack of something. He hung there for a second before Pyrrha slammed him into the floor.

Then she waved her arm rightwards, and Mercury was flung through the wall, across the corridor, and through the next wall into another apartment.

He was getting up as Pyrrha summoned Milo into her hands and switched the weapon into rifle configuration.

She fired three times. The first shot staggered him backwards.

The second shot caused his aura to ripple over his body as it broke.

The third shot knocked him to the ground.

He didn't get up again, and there was no sound.

Jaune stared. "Is…is he…"

"Probably," Pyrrha said softly, as she reloaded before changing her weapon back into spear-form and stowing it across her back. "Although…perhaps I should make sure."

"No," Jaune said quickly. "No, you don't have to do that." He could still remember so vividly what it had been like for him, not only to take a life but also to have to look down at that body, at the remains of what he had made of a man, those lifeless eyes staring back at him. There was no need for Pyrrha to have to put herself through that if she didn't have to. "I'm sure…you don't have to. How's your aura?" he asked, even as he reached for his scroll to confirm for himself.

"I'm fine."

Jaune got out his scroll. "You're in the yellow." He held out his hand towards her, his hand that was already glowing with the light of his semblance.

"You shouldn't waste your own aura so early; you don't know what might happen next."

"I know that whatever happens next we'll be better if you're aura isn't about to break," Jaune replied. His hand hovered over her cheek, and the light of his semblance spread over her, bathing her in light as he gave of his aura to enhance her own.

Pyrrha smiled gratefully at him for a moment, before her face fell. "Thank you. Not only for this but also for before."

"Don't mention it," Jaune said nervously. "I'm sure you would have come back from it even without me. I mean…look at what you did."

Pyrrha nodded absently, but looked away. "All the same…he thought about to use the environment and location. I didn't. And so he got the drop on me. I clearly need to work on my awareness." She glanced at the shards of Crocea Mors on the floor. "And you're sword…Jaune, I'm-"

"Don't," Jaune said. "That's not your fault; you don't have to apologise for it. And it's just…I mean…" Jaune stared down at the stump of the sword in his hand. "I'll…I'll figure something out, maybe it can be repaired or something." He started to gather up the shards. He stopped, listening. "Pyrrha, outside, the shooting has stopped."

"You're right," Pyrrha said. "The fighting has finished, one way or…we should go."

"Right," Jaune said, and he stood up and followed her towards the far edge of the room, where they could hopefully see just what had happened, and what was going on out there now.

* * *

Mercury lay on his back, looking up at the dark ceiling above him.

It hurt. It hurt so much. It actually managed to nearly hurt as bad as some of the things that his old man had done to him, which he hadn't even thought was possible up until now.

Every time he took a breath he made a gurgling sound from his lungs. Gods. It was a really awful sound, but he couldn't get away from it.

He felt so cold. He knew the fact that it was starting to hurt less was a bad sign.

He didn't want to die. He didn't want to go out like this. It wasn't supposed to be this way. He'd thought…he'd thought that he was finally free and now…so cold. He could barely feel his feet any more.

"That sound you hear, that's blood in your lungs. You got it bad, boy. You're gonna die real slow. And you're gonna feel every second of it."

 _No._ Mercury thought. _No, no way! You can't be here! I killed you! I killed and you and unlike some people, I made sure that you weren't breathing any more!_

Nevertheless, there he was, a light in the darkness and wasn't that the biggest sick joke ever: his father, Marcus Black. He kept his white hair cut short, but his face was covered with unruly stubble as well as wrinkles. He was staring down at Mercury in the same damn disappointed way that he'd always looked at Mercury when he was sober: like he wasn't good enough, and never would be.

"Yeah, that's right," Dad said, slurring his words a little. "You killed me. Congratulations. You thought you were so tough that day, didn't you? You thought that you were all that, and then when Cinder showed up, well…it seemed like fate, didn't it? You got cocky. And now look at you: dying; beaten by some no mark kid and a glammed up actress." Dad squatted down in front of him, an ugly leer on his face. "You remember when I used to let you watch the tournaments on TV?"

 _I remember the few times Mom would persuade you to let me watch TV._

"You remember what I always used to say, about those big shot tournament fighters like her?"

 _You used to say that it was all fake. You used to say that they were more like actors than fighters. You used to say that you could beat any one of them, or even a whole bunch at once because they wouldn't know a real fight if it bit them in the ass._

"That's right, and I was right, and you should have had her!" Marcus Black roared belligerently. "And don't tell me about that other bum, he's nothing, you had him dead to rights and you didn't take the shot because you were full of yourself-"

 _I wanted somebody to see me beat her. I wanted a witness when I took down the Invincible Girl. I wanted somebody to know what I'd done._

"You've been spending too much time with Cinder," Dad said, his lip curling into a sneer. "Glory. Infamy. People like you and me, we don't care about stuff like that. We're killers, son. I taught you to be a killer. Not a glory hunter, not a tournament fighter. Someone who does the job quickly and cleanly and quietly and then goes home to his wife and his kid. That's what I taught you to do, not showboat away your advantage." Marcus shook his head. "I knew this would happen. I knew that the moment I let you go…you're weak. Just like I always said to your mother, you don't have what it takes."

 _Don't talk about Mom!_ Anger flooded through Mercury like a fire, burning him far more intensely than the pain of his gunshot wound. _You don't have the right, not after what you did to her!_

"She wanted to smother you, she wanted to protect you," Dad said dismissively. "But I knew. I knew you needed toughening up. I knew that you weren't ready. And I was right! You're dying kid. Because you didn't listen to your old man."

 _Screw you!_

Marcus chuckled. "Okay then. Be like that. But when you get to the other side we're going to have nothing but to but catch up." He leered. "And we've got a lot of catching up to do."

Mercury gritted his teeth. He was not going to die. He wasn't going to go back to his father after everything. He'd come too far, he'd done too much. He was…he was going to be free.

Or he was going to die here, all alone, with no one to help him.

And there wasn't anything that he could do to stop it.

A light! Another light in the darkness, a flickering flame coming closer towards him. Mercury tried to speak, tried to move, tried to do something, anything to let them know that he was there, but he couldn't.

But the light came closer and closer anyway. Cinder. It was Cinder, with a flame in the palm of her hand, Cinder who stood over him looking a little like his father had: disappointed.

"So, it seems that Pyrrha's reputation wasn't wholly unwarranted," she observed. "How does it feel?"

Mercury tried to speak, tried to say 'help me', but he couldn't get the words out; he couldn't make any sound beyond a croak.

"Oh, don't look so worried, Mercury," Cinder said, as she knelt down beside him. "You're not going to die. You don't have my permission for that yet."

The flame in her hand died down, and everything was plunged once more into darkness. Mercury heard something, the sound of Cinder's glass moving through the air. He grunted in pain as something stabbed into him. Many somethings. Was she stabbing him? His groan of pain got louder and stronger as the blades that had stabbed him began to slice through his flesh.

"Don't make such a fuss, I'm doing this for you," Cinder said. "And besides, you don't want to attract attention, do you. Ah, there it is."

Mercury felt the blades retreat from his flesh, he felt even more warm blood bathing his chest, and he heard something drop onto the floor.

"Well, that's the bullet out," Cinder observed. Her face was illuminated by a renewed flame in her hand less than a second before she plunged her burning hand onto Mercury's chest.

Mercury howled in pain; he could smell the burning of his own flesh like grilled beef.

"And that's the wound cauterised," Cinder went on. "You'll need to see a White Fang doctor, but you should live until then. I'll text Emerald your location and get her to come pick you up." She stood up. "I'd love to say with you, but I need to see what happens next with Team Sapphire and their friends."

 _You're all heart,_ Mercury thought. Not that he'd expected anything else. Cinder had about as much kindness in her heart as his old man; actually, that was a little unfair to Cinder, she had just saved his life, but still…compassion wasn't exactly the first word that came to mind when he thought of his employer.

But his breathing was a little easier now, and he didn't feel parts of himself slipping away the way that he had before. He might actually live long enough for his aura to return, and that would fix everything else.

 _Guess you won't be seeing me again after all, Dad. Too bad for you._

 _But as for you, Jaune Arc, and you Pyrrha Nikos, you will be seeing me again._

 _Count on it._


	93. The Badge and the Burden

The Badge and the Burden

 _It was called Liberty Point._

 _It was a smuggler's cove, to all intents and purposes: a little harbour lying beneath the watch of rocky cliffs, where the waves crashed against the spurs of rock that sheltered a calm pool from the fury of the tides and rendered it a safe place for ships to harbour._

 _No village lay nearby. No fishermen used this place. Which meant it was ideal for the White Fang to use as a place to moor their clandestine boats, for those members of the organisation who were too recognisable and too wanted to be able to travel on commercial ferries._

 _It was here that Blake found Adam, standing on one of the rocky spurs that protected the harbour, framed against the setting of the sun as he watched the waves crash against the rocks on which he stood._

 _Blake hopped lightly from rock to rock towards him, careful of her footing and keeping one eye on the waves as she went._

" _Adam," she said, as she got closer to him. "I didn't think that we were expecting a ship today."_

 _Adam glanced at her. He wasn't wearing his mask, which surprised Blake for a number of reasons; first she would have thought that the salt kicked up from the surf would have stung the burns on his face from where the SDC had branded it; second…Adam almost never took off his mask, certainly not where somebody might see the mark._

 _Admittedly, they were alone out here, but still…it was unusual for him to do it nevertheless. He feared the risk too much._

He must think that we won't be disturbed.

I suppose I can't imagine who would actually come out to the water like this at this time, especially since I didn't think there was a boat coming.

" _There is no boat," Adam said. "Not tonight."_

 _Blake had reached his side by now, though she had to look up into his face. "Then why…why are you out here?"_

 _Adam was silent for a moment. "What do you see, Blake, when you look around you?"_

 _Blake was less interested in observing the surroundings in the dying light then she was in working out why Adam was asking this question. "I see…the shore," she said, looking out across the jagged rocks. "What they would have called a wrecking shore, in the old days."_

 _Adam chuckled. "Yes. In the old days, before the war, before our people were set free, before airships and technology, people who lived on shores like this would light signal beacons to lure unwary ships onto the rocks to be smashed." The smile on his face died. "Some of the ships that were lure to their doom were slave ships, filled with faunus chained and shackled and packed like animals in the hold. And when their ships were wrecked…rather than struggle to shore, a lot of those slaves leapt into the stormy seas because they understood that it was better to die than to live as slaves._

" _They were a lot like us, those slaves; they understood that sometimes death is the only freedom that we have."_

" _Adam," Blake murmured. "Why are you talking like this?"_

 _Adam looked away from her, turning his gaze outward across the sea. "Sometimes…" he sighed. "Sometimes the magnitude of the task that we have set for ourselves, it…it hits me harder than the usual. It closes in around me and I think…I think about what I've gotten you involved in, and how it will all end for you." He turned to her, and reached out and cupped her cheek with one hand. "I don't want to see you get hurt, Blake; the thought of any harm coming to you, it…it wounds me."_

 _Blake smiled, but she gently took his hand from her cheek and enfolded it in both her hands. "That's sweet, but I can take care of myself."_

" _I know," Adam said. "And when I get too afraid I can come here, and look out across the sea, and remind myself that sometimes it's better to leap into the tempest than to live in chains."_

 _Blake stared up at him, not only the champion of their race and a hero to faunus everywhere but_ her _hero, too. Hers most of all. Her leader and her love. She would never follow anyone else into battle. She would never love anyone else. The two were entirely intertwined and combined in his one being._

" _You're not going to die," she whispered. "You can't. You have to live. For my sake. I'll live for you and you have to live for me too. We have to live for one another."_

 _Adam looked back at her, and as he looked his smile returned, so that his face seemed handsome even despite the way that SDC had marred it. That smile lingered for a moment, and then faded away once again._

" _What's wrong?" Blake asked._

" _There's…there's something that I've never told you," Adam said. "Something that I've never told anyone."_

 _Blake waited expectantly. "You…you don't have to tell me, if you don't want to," she said, suppressing her own curiosity now that he had piqued it so thoroughly._

" _I'm half human," he said, the words falling out of his mouth as though, having decided to say them, he couldn't wait to be rid of them._

 _Blake's eyes widened. She could only stare at him in silence while Adam, waiting for a response from her, seemed so skittish, more afraid than she had ever seen him be in battle, as though the prospect of her reaction to this news frightened him more than facing all the might of Atlas._

" _H-how?" she stammered._

 _Adam's jaw tightened. "My…my mother," he growled, through clenched teeth. "She was…a wealthy woman. She saw my father and…she wanted him. And so she had him brought to her. And then she discarded the fruits of her indulgence."_

 _Blake's mouth fell open, hanging there for a moment in sympathetic helplessness, trying to find some words to say that didn't feel utterly, hopelessly inadequate. "I…I'm sorry," she murmured. "I know that's not enough, not anything like enough, but-"_

" _It's alright," Adam said. "I don't expect you to…you don't have to say anything, that's okay. I don't expect you to make it better I just…I've never told anyone that before."_

" _You can't be the only one," Blake said._

" _No," Adam said. "But all the same…if people found out…how can I lead our people to freedom if I'm not really one of them."_

" _You are one of us," Blake said. "You may have a human mother but you are a faunus. What you've done…nobody has served the faunus as well as you, not since the revolution at least, not even my father…no one has the right to say that you're not one of us, no one."_

 _Adam let out a sigh of relief. "You don't know how happy it makes me to hear you say that. I was afraid…I was so afraid…I thought that you might-"_

" _Never," Blake said. "I'll never give up on our fight, Adam, and I'll never give up on you." She hesitated. "Can I ask you something?"_

" _Anything."_

" _Why did you tell me?" Blake asked. "You didn't have to. And you were afraid. So…why?"_

" _Because I don't want to keep anything from you, Blake," Adam said. "I don't want to hide anything from you because you…because you are everything to me."_

* * *

The sound of a gunshot shattered the silence.

It wasn't really silence, since the sounds of fighting echoed distantly to them from elsewhere in Mountain Glenn, suggesting – if it wasn't just the White Fang trying to fight off more weird-looking grimm like the one blocking the street like a broken down truck – that Team RSPT had engaged the enemy somewhere on their path to rescue Rainbow and Twilight's friends. But the sounds of their battle were distant, so distant that the green-tinged beowolf didn't appear to hear them, or if it heard wasn't bothered by it; whereas this latest shot came from much closer to them.

It came, in fact, from the building in which Sunset had ordered Pyrrha and Jaune.

"Jaune," Ruby gasped.

 _Pyrrha,_ Sunset thought, and cursed herself. She'd thought that there wouldn't be any enemies in the building, she'd assumed that they would either have joined their comrades outside in the futile fight against the grimm or else fled. She'd assumed and she had well and truly been made and ass of, and now Pyrrha and Jaune were separated from the group and under attack.

 _What did I say? What did I say? I said we weren't going to split up, we weren't going to get separated from one another and then what did I do. I'm such an idiot._

She started to rise from her crouch, and was about to head inside after her two stranded team-mates when the green grimm lifted its head up from its brunch and let out a roar that blew down the street and gusted even into Sunset's face, blowing her hair back and chilling her ears.

It might not have heard the sounds of RSPT's battles, or it just might not have cared; but it had definitely heard the shot – and there had been at least one more since then – coming from inside and it definitely cared about that.

 _Dammit. Stay safe, Pyrrha._

 _Or just kick their asses._

Sunset strode into the middle of street and raised Sol Invictus to her shoulder.

"Sunset, what are you doing?" Blake demanded.

"Getting it's attention," Sunset said, sighting down the barrel at the green grimm's head.

"But what about-" Ruby began.

"Pyrrha can handle it for now," Sunset said. "But I don't think that she needs a giant grimm of unknown provenance interfering in whatever's going on in there, do you?" She had the plan now. She might be worried about Pyrrha and Jaune – within limits, this was Pyrrha they were talking about after all – but she had the plan nevertheless: since the grimm had the potential to smash its way through the wall and into the building much faster than they who had to go in through the door and down the corridors could reach Pyrrha and Jaune, the thing to do was kill the grimm here and now before it could get in Pyrrha's way, then go help the other two out. "Professor Goodwitch, I don't want to sound like we need the help, but-"

"Of course, Miss Shimmer," Professor Goodwitch said, as primly as if they were back in a classroom at Beacon and Sunset had just raised her hand to ask a question. She pushed her glasses back up her nose as she strode – strutted, would perhaps be a more accurate description – out of cover to stand beside Sunset, her riding crop held at the ready.

Sunset hoped that she had an armour-piercing round loaded as she doubted that fire dust was going to do much to that bone mask at this range. _Okay. Let's see what makes you so special._ "Hey! Over here!"

The grimm, which had been slouching towards the building where Pyrrha and Jaune were fighting against who knew what, stopped and looked at her.

Sunset fired. She fired a fire dust round, which burst like a crimson fire on the grimm's green-glowing mask, but didn't seem to do much more than irritate it a little bit.

At least if the way that it threw back its head and roared into the enclosed space above them before starting to charge was any indication.

"Ruby! Let him have it!" Sunset snapped, as the grimm barrelled down the street on all fours, making the road shake as its massive paws thumped down, tearing up the stone with its white claws as they dug into the road.

Crescent Rose unfolded with a series of snaps and hisses. Ruby planted the scythe blade in the road, digging a furrow into the thoroughfare as she opened fire, the thunder of her shots echoing through the listless air. Blake fired too, the snapping shots of her pistol forming the minor key to the major theme of Ruby's sniper rifle.

Shots bounced off the green spikes that covered the grimm's neck and shoulders, doing no visible damage to them; the same was true even when they appeared to be striking the black flesh that should have been soft enough to penetrate. Sunset fired again, and another fire dust round blossomed on the grimm's shoulder. She fired a third time, and this time she must have fired an armour piercing shot…that bounced off the creature's bone mask without cracking it.

The grimm roared again as it closed on them.

Professor Goodwitch flourished her riding crop ahead of her before making a swishing motion as if she were swatting a fly. Instantly the grimm was picked up and flung aside, swatted indeed by an invisible hand that lifted it up and tossed it back first into the long tower on the other side of the street from the one in which Pyrrha and Jaune were presently engaged.

Seeing what the grimm did to the building it landed on justified in her own mind Sunset's decision to focus on the grimm before it could entangle itself with her team-mates: its impact was enough to shatter the side of the building and probably some of the floors as well, bringing down a pile of rubble on top of the monster as the upper floors collapsed. It lay there for a moment, in the hole that it – and Professor Goodwitch – had made, half buried, glaring balefully at the huntresses with its unusual, luminous green eyes.

Then it began to stir, shoving the smashed bricks abandoned debris off itself as it rose onto its hind legs, growling as it stalked out of the ruin and back onto the street.

It threw out its arms on either side as it let out a spittle-flecked roar of defiance, as if it wanted them to see that it wasn't harmed by aught that they could do to it.

And in the process it exposed its chest, lined with those green veins.

Sunset ran forwards a few steps, and as she ran she leapt; and as she leapt she teleported.

There was a flash of green light as Sunset reappeared about ten feet off the ground, level with the grimm's exposed chest.

Her face twisted into a rictus snarl as she thrust Sol Invictus forwards, impaling the grimm through it's vein-lined chest with the sword-bayonet.

She fired. She pulled the trigger until she had no more bullets left, pumping rounds into the black-and-green substance in front of her, and then when the bullets ran out she activated the spear extension to ram her blade deeper into the dark demonic substance that formed this monster.

As Sunset hung in the air, holding onto her weapon as her legs dangled above the ground, she looked up into the white, bony face of this unusual creature of grimm.

It didn't look like it was about to die, unfortunately. But it did look in some pain and quite a temper.

As the beowolf raised its left paw, Sunset tapped herself on the right shoulder of her jacket, using her aura to activate the fire dust that she had stitched into the fabric.

The fires had only just begun to burn upon her shoulder, with no time to spread onto her arm, when the grimm hit her.

The explosion of her dust was at least as responsible for flinging her sideways as the swipe of the creature's paw – or so it flattered Sunset to tell herself as she hit the ground with a solid thwack that filed away at her aura before she rolled down the black street, extinguishing her flames as she went.

 _Lucky I have more than one layer of dust,_ Sunset thought, as she clambered to her feet. Sol Invictus was still lodged in the grimm's chest, a source of irritation to go along with its burnt and smoking paw. Both were making the grimm growl and snarl as it walked forward, a little more tentatively now than it had been moving just a moment ago.

It might not be dead but it was definitely hurting. A few more good hits might be enough to bring it down. Sunset drew her black sword from its sheath over her shoulder, holding off on activating the dust infused into the metal but ready to do so if necessary. Her mouth opened to form the word, "Ru-"

Ruby didn't need telling. She had a hunter's instinct on the battlefield, and she didn't need Sunset to tell her that the grimm was hurt and vulnerable. Before the word had half left Sunset's mouth she had launched herself into the air in a bust of rose petals, Crescent Rose trailing behind her as she soared, spinning towards the grimm.

The grimm which…raised its arms to defend itself, ducking its head so that it could cover its face and chest more easily?

 _What the…? Not even Alphas are that smart. Since when do grimm protect themselves?_

It shouldn't have been possible yet it was happening right in front of Sunset's face: this grimm was putting its paws up – it was even favouring the one that it hadn't burnt on Sunset's phoenix cape – like a boxer defending himself from the blows of his opponent, or a kid trying to shield his face on the playground. It put up its paws, its bony protrusions protecting its more vulnerable regions, and as Ruby rematerialised from the cloud of petals she slashed furiously, repeatedly, swiftly against the bone spur-covered paws and did…nothing. Sunset had expected to see her partner soar through the grim, slicing it in half with a single stroke of Crescent Rose; instead it was only sheer momentum and a degree of will that was keeping Ruby as she swung her scythe at impossibly swift speeds, beating against the grimm's guard like a wave battering against the shore during a hurricane, or a wind hammering a mountain and having about as much effect.

The grimm growled as it swatted Ruby aside as if she were a particularly annoying fly, one whose buzzing could cause annoyance but whose sting was nothing to be particularly concerned with.

Ruby flew backwards through the air with a squeak, her cape flapping as she flew headfirst towards the ground.

Neo caught her in a flying leap, appearing out of nowhere to catch Ruby in her arms, landing on her feet with a cocky grin on her face.

She winked cheekily, at Ruby or at Sunset or at everyone concerned it was hard to tell.

Torchwick stepped out of the shadows carrying some kind of black hunting rifle in his hands. "You know, I'd prefer to have my cane back," he muttered. "But I guess this will get the job done."

Sunset's eyes boggled at the sight. "What the…what are you two…what?"

"What are we doing here? Saving your butts, by the looks of things," Torchwick said, as he opened up on the grimm on full automatic, recoil kicking his rifle upwards as he sprayed fire in the direction of the grimm, which howled and began to once more shield itself from attach with one of its bony paws, hiding its face behind one paw as though it had been stricken with a sudden shyness.

"Is it me," Torchwick continued. "Or is this thing a kind of freaky colour?" He didn't wait for a response before he continued. "Well, don't just stand there, kill it? Aren't you supposed to be a bunch of wonder kids or something?"

They might have heard him from the other end of the street, or perhaps they'd just decided on what to do next, before Professor Goodwitch slashed at the air with her riding crop again and all the rubble and debris that she had caused when she flung the beowolf into the building was now picked up and flung at the beowolf, colliding with the back of its legs and knocking it to its knees with a yelp of pain.

Blake dashed forwards, using her grappling hook to vault onto the side of the – by now half-demolished – building before leaping gracefully onto the back of the green beowolf. She planted her feet amongst the green spikes erupting from that tar-like body, and swayed as the beowolf swayed, maintaining her balance and her poise to perfection as she fired three shots down into the bull neck of the grimm.

Then, as the grimm assailed by the fire of Blake and Torchwick both roared in angry agony, Blake leapt off its back, flipping as she went, her long and tangled black hair flying all around her face as she landed before and facing the green-tinted grimm. Gambol Shroud switched to sword form as she stood, blade in one hand and sharp scabbard in the other, but both hanging by her side as she stood before the grimm, a small figure in white facing the incarnation of darkness.

Torchwick's rifle ran out of ammunition. "What the hell is she doing?" he muttered as he started to reload.

"Something clever, I hope," Sunset said as she started to run forward. It was because she trusted that Blake was, indeed, doing something clever that she ran rather than teleporting; but she ran towards her in case it wasn't.

The grimm snarled into Blake's face, and raised its unburned paw to slam her into the ground.

The claws descended.

And Blake vanished, leaving behind a perfect copy of herself forged out of ice; a copy which, as soon as the grimm's middle claw touched it, exploded outwards into a black of ice that encased the grimm's whole paw within it, trapping it and leaving it straining and huffing in its efforts to get free.

The real Blake ran up the trapped limb, slashing with both her blades as she went. "Ruby!"

"Right!" Ruby cried, as she leapt from Neo's arms to make another petal-trailing charge straight at the green-hued grimm.

And this time it couldn't bring its paw up to shield itself because its paw was encased in ice. Crescent Rose sliced cleanly through the trapped limb and scored a deep line across the beowolf's chest, revealing even more luminescent green substance within.

Ruby even managed to snag Sunset's Sol Invictus as she traced a green-blooded line across the grimm, grinning triumphantly as she tossed it towards Sunset, who sheathed her sword and used a touch of telekinesis to make the gun soar into her outstretched grasp.

The beowolf howled, throwing back its head and bellowing out its rage to the enclosed sky, but that only provided Blake an opportunity to jump athwart its mouth, one foot resting on each jaw, and fire directly down its green-glowing and blood-stained gullet with her (once more in pistol form) Gambol Shroud.

The grimm shifted, Blake lost her balance, one foot slipping off the jaw as Blake tumbled down into the beowolf's mouth. The jaws slammed shut on a clone of fire, exploding in the mouth of the grimm to crack its bony mask even as the real Blake leapt away clear and unharmed.

Sunset raised one hand, stretching it out as the green glow of her magic enveloped her open palm, illuminating the rubble which she picked up with her own telekinesis. Where Professor Goodwitch had used hers like a hammer, slamming it into the grimm from behind to knock him to his knees, Sunset preferred to levitate much the same mass over the grimm's head before she dumped it on top of him, knocking it flat onto its stomach with a pile of bricks and stones and rebar pipes piled up on top of it in a small mountain.

Ruby made another dash forwards, as everyone – even Torchwick and Neo, and there was going to have to be a talk about that in just a moment once they were done with this grimm – closed in around the green-eyed beowolf which, with only one forelimb, struggled to rise from beneath the weight piled onto it.

Ruby perched just behind the cracked and splintered boned mask, and placed her scythe upon the face of that dread creature.

She pulled the trigger, and the scythe-blade of Crescent Rose snapped backwards, neatly dissecting the grimm's face.

Smoke began to rise from it's body as Ruby flashed a V-for-victory sign.

"Good work, Miss Rose, and a fair example of cooperation amongst the three of you," Professor Goodwitch said, in the same tone that she might have used to critique their performances in sparring class because apparently she couldn't turn it off. "Although-" she stifled her own words, as her green eyes widened behind her half-moon spectacles. "Miss Rose!"

The dead grimm beneath Ruby's feet wasn't simply turning to smoke. It was moving. Not in a conscious way, but not in a 'dead frog kicking its legs' kind of way either. It's body was vibrating, rumbling like an indigestive stomach, the black form of the extraordinary beowolf bulging in places, shrinking in others, the layer of rubbles lying on top of it rising and falling with the movements of the corpse, the green-glowing spikes burning with a greater intensity now as the grimm's black skin boiled and the green lines became blinding in their brightness.

"Uh, guys?" Ruby murmured tremulously. "What's going on?"

Sunset stepped forward. "Ruby, get off-"

Too late. The grimm exploded underneath Ruby's feet, throwing the rubble under which it had been buried up into the air in a fountain of debris, throwing _Ruby_ up into the air with a startled cry as she was tossed into the dark shadow of the half-wrecked building behind her, tossing up an enormous amount of some strange green goo that must have been causing all of the green that had been so distracting and arresting about this particular grimm.

Sunset threw up a shield around herself and the person she cared about – and Professor Goodwitch – as debris and slime of indeterminate toxicity rained down upon them. She left Torchwick and Neo to fend for themselves because what were they even doing here? They sheltered as best they could, or rather Torchwick sheltered Neo with his body and turned his back on the falling objects as they descended all around him. Meanwhile Sunset could feel both rock and slime striking her emerald shield, the vibrations echoing through Mountain Glenn and through Sunset via her connection to the magic.

The rubble bounced off her shield to land in a circle all around them. The green goo stuck to the magical barrier, only to plop to the ground once, the fall having ceased, Sunset let it drop.

Torchwick glanced over his shoulder at the green slime plastered all over the back of his white jacket. "Dry cleaning is expensive, you know."

"Escaping from custody is an additional crime, you know," Sunset snapped. _And you should be glad that it isn't poisonous; thank you for demonstrating that by the way._ "What are-"

She was cut off by a startled cry from Ruby, coming from out of the darkness within the newly-minted ruin.

"Ruby! No!" Blake yelled, her cat-eyes seeing something that alarmed her as she ran headlong into the shadowed part of the tower that remained intact.

Sunset teleported, leaving Torchwick and Neo and Professor Goodwitch behind as she re-materialised inside the building, her night-vision and the light of the torch taped to the barrel of her gun sweeping through the darkness.

First she found Crescent Rose lying on the ground.

Next she found Ruby, disarmed and squirming in the grip of Adam Taurus.

He held her by the scruff of the neck, smiling as she beat at him futilely with fists that seemed so much smaller now than they normally did. In his other hand he held his red sword, glowing in the darkness.

That sword. That damn sword. That terrible swift sword that haunted Sunset's dreams. That sword that had nearly taken Ruby's life once already and now…

And now…

And now…

Sunset bared her teeth in a snarl. No. No way. No how. No way was she going to suffer this, not a second time, not ever again.

Twilight - Equestrian Twilight, Princess Twilight Sparkle – had, presuming upon the right to act as Sunset's conscience, to squat upon her shoulder like the better alicorn of Sunset's nature, counselled her against seeking the death of Adam Taurus. But Sunset's question still stood: what was she supposed to do instead? When it came down to it, when it became a question of his life against the life of one of her friends, what other choice did she have?

He had almost killed Ruby once, and now he threatened her again.

No.

"Adam, don't!" Blake yelled, as she raced towards them. But she was too slow, and too far away.

Adam's lips curled into a sneer. "And to think that you once chided me for taking children into battle. Have you decided to leaven your treason with hypocrisy, my love? Perhaps I should-"

Sunset teleported up into his face and brained him with the stock of Sol Invictus. She slammed the wooden butt of the rifle – _and that, Ruby, is why I made it out of wood instead of something that would break as soon as I did this –_ into the side of his head, causing him to drop Ruby as his head snapped sideways and he began to stagger in that direction.

Began because, before he had taken more than half a step, Sunset had grabbed him by the arm.

She didn't look at Ruby as she teleported away again.

She was going to end this. And she was going to make sure that he didn't hurt any of her friends again by taking him somewhere far away before she did.

* * *

"Sunset, wait!" Blake yelled, stretching out hand towards her before both Sunset and the White Fang guy disappeared in a burst of green light. A burst of magic.

It would have been really cool if it hadn't meant that Sunset had just disappeared before their eyes with no idea of where she was.

"Sunset," Ruby murmured, staring into the empty space where her team leader and their adversary had been. She glanced at Blake. "Where did she go? And…and why?" She couldn't imagine why Sunset would just leave, just abandon them like that? Why would she take that guy away when they could all fight her together? She was the one that said that they shouldn't split up, so why would she go back on that now. Sure, Sunset sometimes had one rule for other people and one for herself, but why would she do that this time?

Why was it safer for the rest of them to stick together, but not for her?

"She's taken Adam away…to protect us," Blake murmured. "I have to find them!"

"Miss Belladonna!" Professor Goodwitch shouted, as Blake sprinted off towards the back of the building. Ruby didn't know where Blake was going, or how she thought that she was going to find Adam, but as she scooped up Crescent Rose off the floor – that guy, Adam, had caught her by surprise and knocked it out of her hands before she'd seen him coming in the darkness – she knew that she wasn't going to be left out. She was coming too.

She'd gotten all of three steps before she felt an irresistible force, almost as strong as her sister when she was in mothering, overbearing mode, yanking her backwards so hard so that she fell onto her behind and skidded along the floor that way.

"Oh no you don't, Miss Rose," Professor Goodwitch said, leaving no doubt as to the source of the invisible hand that was restraining Ruby.

"But Professor-" Ruby began.

"Think for a moment," Professor Goodwitch snapped. "What Miss Shimmer has done is incredibly foolish, what Miss Belladonna has done almost as much so; should you compound the fault with more folly? What about your other team-mates, what about our mission?"

Ruby looked up into Professor Goodwitch's face with wide, round eyes. "But…Sunset and Blake…"

"Once Miss Nikos and Mister Arc return-"

"Professor," Pyrrha said, as she and Jaune emerged from across the street and dashed over to join them. "Ruby…where's Sunset? And Blake?"

"Baconhair did a little vanishing act with that nutjob Adam Taurus," Torchwick declared. "Your little kitty friend went to look for her, I'm not sure how."

"What are they doing here?" Jaune demanded. "What are you doing here?" He drew his sword, but only a broken stump of a blade emerged from out of the scabbard, something at which he stared, looking kind of surprised but not, as though he'd forgotten that it was there and only remembered afterward.

Torchwick's eyebrows rose. "Ooh, scary."

Pyrrha stepped protectively in front of Jaune. "Answer his questions."

Torchwick shrugged. "Well, there was nothing to do in the plane, so after we both got bored Neo and I decided to come and see what you guys were up to."

"And what are you going to do now?" Ruby demanded.

"Now is that any way to talk to someone who just saved your life?"

"That's a grotesque exaggeration," Professor Goodwitch snapped. "Now put down those weapons at once and prepare to come with me."

Neo's expression hardened, but Torchwick's didn't. His smarmy look stayed in place as he said, "Now come on, Miss Teacher; you have to know that I'm not going to do that."

Pyrrha raised her shield and spear. "You have to know that you don't have a choice."

Torchwick chuckled. "Oh, there's always a choice, princess. You just have to use your imagination a little bit." He chuckled again as Pyrrha's scowl deepened. "Oh, don't give me that look. Believe it or not I actually like you kids. That's why I want to know what happens next."

Pyrrha took a step forward, shield held before her and spear drawn back, but before she could act or even threaten to act again an arrow thudded into Torchwick's back, shattering him and Neo into a million pieces.

Ruby gasped, but the fact that Torchwick had escaped – _again_ – seemed less urgent right now than the figure in red perched upon the opposite rooftop, who stared down at them for a second before she turned away.

* * *

Cinder stood on the rooftop, a glass bow in her hand and an arrow on string, watching the crowd down below.

Sunset had disappeared with Adam, and Blake Belladonna had run off after them. That was…worrying. She wasn't sure Adam would be able to restrain himself from killing Sunset, and that…she didn't want that to happen just yet.

 _I wanted to give her a brief moment of glory, before it all comes crashing down._

She couldn't really consider it likely that Sunset would prevail. She wasn't unskilled – far from it – but Adam was a beast in human skin, such ferocity…if he hadn't been a talented killer she wouldn't have sought him out in the first place. There were others she could have approached: mercenaries, rogue huntsmen as he himself had pointed out to her. But none of them would have been quite as vicious and brutal as Adam Taurus, the White Fang's lord of war.

Still, she would go and find them both, and watch whatever unfolded between them.

It ought to be a pleasant diversion.

And she might even owe Sunset that much, having lured her here in the first place.

But first…first the glass of her bow was cool against her hands and the arrow between her fingertips itched to be released.

They were all below her, and none of them had noticed that she was up here. All she had to decide was at whom she should let fly. Ruby Rose? That was very tempting. So tempting in fact that Cinder's aim lingered upon her for some time, the glass arrow trained upon her throat. Unfortunately, the very thing that made Ruby such a tempting target – Mistress Salem's interest in her and her silver eyes – were the very thing that meant that Cinder could not shoot. Why was Salem so fascinated by the colour of a young girl's eyes? What did it mean? What might Salem's interest portend for Cinder Fall? Did her lady mean to take another favourite?

 _No more rivals. Have I not had to overcome enough to win favour?_

This was her time, her destiny; she wasn't about to have someone like Ruby Rose take that away from her.

But Salem would not allow it, and Cinder was not ready to defy the mistress who had given her so much, had opened so many doors for her, had shown her doors that she hadn't even suspected were there before.

She aimed at Pyrrha instead, so obligingly presenting her back to Cinder as she chose to focus on Torchwick.

Torchwick…his presence was a profound disappointment. If he had chosen to find his way back to Cinder's side it would have been one thing; she would have had little use for him now but she would have found some way to employ him appropriate to his talents. But this? Siding with the enemy? Helping them battle that peculiar grimm – Cinder put that to one side, but made a mental note to come back to it for further investigation, because quite frankly there was a great deal about Mountain Glenn that warranted it. There were parts of the city that the grimm feared to approach, and Cinder wanted to know why for a whole host of reasons – intervening to assist Ruby Rose, having a conversation which seemed, if tense, to be at least somewhat present. It was very disappointing.

You just couldn't get the help these days apparently.

That settled it then. She might be a little concerned about Ruby, she might hate Pyrrha, she might and did want all of these people to suffer and die in due course; but only Roman Torchwick had actually betrayed her.

And betrayal had its price.

Cinder let fly, her glass arrow soaring with unerring precision into the small of Torchwick's back.

It was an illusion. She should have expected as much given that he had his young familiar with him. She had forgotten the girl's semblance in her absence but now she was forcibly reminded.

And of course, she had alerted the others to her presence.

 _Time to go,_ Cinder thought. It wasn't part of her plan to be embroiled in a battle. She would win, of course, but her plan didn't allow for everyone who opposed her to be dead.

She needed somebody to make it to the breach site, even if Sunset wasn't among them.

So Cinder turned to go, intending to make her exit and go in search of Adam, to watch from a discreet distance as he butchered someone that she might have called friend in different circumstances. But as she turned, she found a gun shoved into her face.

A gun held in the hands of Roman Torchwick.

"Leaving so soon?" he asked, while Neo glowered at her by his side.

Cinder smirked. "Are you really here, Roman? Or is this another illusion?"

"Maybe you should take another shot at me and find out."

"You're not upset about that, are you?"

"I don't tend to take kindly to people trying to kill me."

Cinder laughed. "You seem to have taken to those children well enough in spite of that."

"They were only trying to send me to jail. Somehow I think you had somewhere more permanent in mind," Torchwick replied.

Cinder's expression hardened. "Do you really think that you can betray my trust without consequence? Oh, Roman, I thought you were smarter than that. And I had such high hopes for you."

"Why don't we cut the crap, this once," Torchwick snapped. "Since this might be our last meeting, and all. You used me. And when I wasn't any more use you left us both to rot on Ironwood's ship."

"As I recall, you once advocated killing those who were captured before they could talk," Cinder said. "Perhaps you should think yourself fortunate that I didn't take such steps. Although perhaps I should have."

"Perhaps you should have just asked yourself why it was that I don't trust anyone else not to talk," Torchwick said.

"What makes you think I won't just kill you now?"

Neo made a few gestures that Cinder couldn't understand.

"Yeah, I'd like to see her try it too, but maybe now isn't the best time," Torchwick said. "We both know that you want to get off this roof before those kids show up, and we both know that you couldn't kill us both in time to get away."

Cinder controlled her irritation at the idea that Torchwick believed she was afraid of the likes of Pyrrha Nikos and Ruby Rose. "And you, Roman? I can't believe that you came here to kill me for the same reason: you couldn't do it before you were recaptured."

"No, but I'm an old-fashioned kind of guy. I believe in handing in my resignation in person. I'm through with this, and I'm through with you."

"Nobody's through until I say they are," Cinder said. "You don't get to decide when you walk away."

"Watch me."

"And where will you go?" Cinder demanded. "Do you think that I'll forget about this? About you? Do you believe that you have anywhere to go where I can't find you?"

Neo made a gesture that even Cinder recognised as meaning something close to 'bring it'. It took a lot of self-control not to roast her alive.

"I think that you've got enough to worry about without wasting your time on little old me," Torchwick said. "You've made some enemies, and I think they might even get the best of you. Either way, you've got a real fight on your hands, and I mean to watch the fireworks…from a safe distance. Nothing personal, you understand. I just don't believe in dying for a cause. Neo, if you wouldn't mind?"

Cinder's attack was perfunctory, something to confirm that it was an illusion, and the real Torchwick and Neo had already made their escape. She should learn from their example if she wanted everything to go as she had devised.

But it irked her, as she made her own exit one step ahead of the huntsmen of Vale, that Torchwick – that anyone – could believe that those fools could be anything like a match for her.

It made her burn that she couldn't reveal herself to the world in all her power and glory, that she must skulk in the shadows until the appointed time.

It was not only the fragment of the Fall Maiden's power that she had managed to acquire that made her veins burn with cold and her stomach ache with hunger; it was her own ambition too, her craving for recognition. Too long had she been dismissed, too long had she been little thought of, too long had lesser creatures paid her no mind.

But they would see. Soon they would all see. When she reunited the two halves of the Fall Mantle and shone with all the radiant glory of one of the four pillars of the world, when she stepped forth a queen as beautiful and terrible as the dawn, then they would see and they would despair at their error in making an enemy of her.

Torchwick, Phoebe, Pyrrha, Ozpin, Blake, Team Sapphire, Atlas, Mistral, they would all see, and they would all fear, and they would all cry out for mercy and forgiveness.

And by then it would be late for any of them.

* * *

As she ran through the dead streets of Mountain Glenn, trying to ignore the devastation in all that that entailed to her feline-eyes; trying to ignore the stench of death and decay that assailed her sharper-than-human nose, Blake sheathed Gambol Shroud across her back.

Her hands trembled as she pulled out her scroll.

She had to find Sunset. She had to find her before Adam…she had to find her before it was too late.

 _You idiot. You stupid, thoughtless idiot! What were you thinking?_

Blake couldn't stop her hands from shaking, not even as she opened up her scroll. As she ran, leaping over barricades as she went, she had to focus in order to hit the right icon – Twilight's picture – and not someone completely random who happened to be nearby in her directory.

At that moment, Blake was glad that Twilight had tinkered with her scroll: she doubted that she would have gotten a signal for regular calls, bouncing as they did off the CCT back in Vale, but Twilight had done a technical thing – Blake wasn't going to pretend to understand what that was, that had never been her kind of thing – so that they could call one another point to point without the need for the tower. It only worked over short distances, but if it didn't work here then what was the point of it at all.

The scroll rang once, then twice, then Twilight answered. Thank…whoever might be out there, Twilight answered. "Blake? Is everything okay?"

 _Not in the least._ "Can you ping Sunset's scroll and send me the location?"

"Isn't Sunset with you?"

"No, that's why I need to find her," Blake said, and she surprised herself at how patient she sounded when she said it.

"What happened? Why did you split up?"

"I don't have time to explain," Blake said, and now a little impatience did enter her voice. "Can you help me?"

"Uh, yes, right," Twilight said sharply. "I'll get right on it now and send you the location when I get it."

"Thank you," Blake said.

 _Sunset, whatever you do, don't die._

* * *

No sooner had Sunset materialised with Adam then he flung her away, cuffing her with one angry fist that threw her off his jacket and tossed her aside. She hit the ground and rolled away, scrambling up right as fast as she could. She kept her eyes, enhanced by the nightvision spell, fixed on Adam, but he made no move to attack her while she was prone, or even once she got up. He seemed a little confused, turning this way and that as he examined his new surroundings.

"Where are we?" he muttered.

Sunset couldn't exactly tell him. She hadn't teleported with any sense of where she was going, and so she supposed she ought to think herself lucky that she hadn't materialised half inside a wall or something. _Although that might have taken care of Adam a little easier, I suppose._

Sunset tried to hide the amount that so much rapid teleportation had taken out of her from Adam Taurus as she looked around. They were still in Mountain Glenn, not surprisingly, on top of one of the many high towers that littered the dead cityscape. She could see the plaza where they had left the Skygrasper some way to the north-west, and she thought that she could make out activity at the rail yard to the east. A lot of activity.

"You're moving out, aren't you?" Sunset murmured. "This is all just about delaying us for long enough?"

"And if it is, what are you going to do about it?" Adam asked. "Do you think I'll let you run now that you don't want this fight?"

Sunset set down her gun – it was empty – and drew her sword. The blade was as black as everything else in this mausoleum to Vale's failure, but when she passed her hand over it the fire dust she had imbued into the metal ignited, lighting up the space around her.

"Who said I didn't want this fight?" Sunset demanded, as she further ignited the fire dust in her jacket, recreating the blazing cape of fire that would keep her safe from harm, or at least do as much harm to Adam as he could do to her if he came close. "I'm here, aren't I?"

"Wherever here is," Adam said softly. His sword was in his hand, but his hand hung loosely by his side. "Quite an impressive power you have. You would have been such an asset to the White Fang."

Sunset's eyes narrowed. "You're not going to try and recruit me again, are you?"

Adam snorted. "Not now the stench of Atlas lies so heavily upon you. Not now you've so clearly chosen a side." He raised his sword, pointing the crimson blade straight at her. "Killing you will send Blake a message, before I free her from her torment."

Sunset stepped into one of the guards that Pyrrha had taught her, her flaming sword held low but forth before her. "You're definition of freedom leaves a lot to be desired." _If you mean what I think you mean, anyway._

"Freedom from doubt," Adam said. "From confusion." The scowl on his face deepened. "Freedom from the service of Atlas into which you forced her."

"I did her a favour!" Sunset snapped. "I helped keep her out of jail. Would you rather that she'd rotted in some cell?"

"There is a different kind of freedom," Adam murmured, his voice suddenly becoming a soft whisper that barely carried across the rooftop to Sunset's ears. "One that is permanent, and always preferable to a life in chains."

"You're insane."

"I am committed to my cause," Adam replied. "Can you say the same? I fight for my people!"

"And so do I," Sunset growled.

Adam's face was inscrutable behind his mask. Each red line stood out upon the white like a scar. For a moment he just stared at her, the line of his mouth unmoving and everything else about his face invisible.

And then he raised the scabbard of his sword, pointing it at Sunset like the gun that she guessed it also was, and fired.

Sunset leapt aside, but not quite fast enough to avoid a grazing shot scraped across her side and twisted her as she hit the rooftop, taking a sliver off her aura – already a little diminished by the hit that grimm had given her – in the process.

Adam charged, his red blade gleaming. Sunset scrambled up and rushed to meet him, she had no choice, if she stood to take it he'd probably bowl her clean off the rooftop with the sheer force of his onslaught.

Adam charged, and Sunset ran to meet him, their blades drawn back.

Adam swung. Sunset parried, just about making it in time. Her burning sword met Adam's crimson blade with a metallic clack.

 _You don't have the muscle to meet force with force,_ Pyrrha's voice echoed in Sunset's head. _You'll need to yield before greater strength and turn your weakness to your advantage._

And so, as Adam pressed against her with all his might, Sunset stepped back and, yielding before his greater strength, half-sidestepped out of his inexorable path. Adam, caught by surprise, stumbled forwards and as she stumbled Sunset released her grip on her sword with her left hand and punched him in the side.

It didn't seem to hurt him much, he barely grunted before he swung at her with a sideways slashing stroke. Sunset turned away, presenting her burning side and shoulder to him and his blow. The red blade struck her on the arm, and with a great boom a pocket of fire dust exploded, flaring like the sun to drive Adam backwards and away from her.

The red sword was glowing a little brighter, but Adam's face was twisted in a rictus of pain and anger as he raised his gun-scabbard to fire at her again.

A spark of magic leapt from Sunset's finger even as Adam's gun barked and flared; the shot hit Sunset square in the chest, and even her breastplate couldn't prevent her being knocked backwards just as it couldn't stop her aura from taking another hit. But Sunset's spark of magic hit too, knocking the gun out of Adam's hand and sending it sliding across the flat grey roof on which they stood.

Adam lunged for it, but as she lay on the ground Sunset pointed her finger at the discarded gun and fired another spark of turquoise magic. Her spell struck the weapon, which turned with a flash into a plastic pink flamingo lawn ornament.

 _Thanks for that…singular image, Twilight._

Adam picked up the flamingo, staring at it with what Sunset – as she picked herself up – could only describe as a nonplussed expression.

 _Bet you've never seen transfiguration before, have you?_

Then he looked back at Sunset, and as he threw the lawn ornament away that nonplussed look swiftly turned to an expression of rage.

 _And now he's mad._

He came at her, his red blade swinging. Sunset sidestepped, readying her fist for another punch. He caught her swing in his now-free hand, wrapping his black-clad fingers around the metal bracer on her forearm.

"Gotcha."

Sunset smirked as she dropped her sword, put her fingers to her restrained forearm, and with her aura activated the lightning dust infused into the metal.

Adam released her, recoiling with something like a yelp of pain as the bracer sparked and spat and shocked him. Sunset fired a bolt of magic from her palm, but he blocked it with his sword and it did him no harm.

"I've got a few new tricks since you saw me last," Sunset growled, as she summoned her sword back into her hand with telekinesis.

"Clearly," Adam grunted. "But do you think that will be enough to save you?"

 _With my aura levels starting lower than yours, I'm honestly not sure,_ Sunset thought. "Maybe I just want to delay you from getting to my friends, the way you want to delay me from getting to that train station."

"The last time you came after me alone, you wanted to kill me."

"I still want to kill you."

Adam smiled. "You would have had more chance if you weren't alone."

"A friend taught me something," Sunset replied. "Even if it wasn't quite the lesson she intended: taking a life extracts a price from you, it puts a burden on your shoulders. A leader takes that burden on themselves, she doesn't force others to carry the weight for her."

Adam snorted. "Are you so naïve as to think that Blake has never taken a life before?"

"I'm not going to make her take more."

"You won't have a say in the matter for much longer," Adam said, and then he came at her again.

He attacked with a furious lung, slashing wildly but swiftly, his momentum unrelenting as he never stopped, never let up. His blade clashed with Sunset's sword, he drove her back, he beat down her guard if only for short intervals to strike at her, sometimes he even let down his own guard to let Sunset strike at him so that she would exposed herself leave herself open to a strike in turn. Their blades clashed, the blood-red sword and the black-but-burning blade striking each other, sparking off one another, each cleaving off some of the aura of the other as Sunset's phoenix cape burned brightly on her back, flaring like the sun whenever Adam struck it.

Sunset wished that she had more of an idea of what state his aura was in. She wished that she could check on what state her own aura was in. She took a deep breath. She was panting a little, and sweat was making her shirt stick to her back beneath her blazing jacket. But she wasn't done, and considering how badly things had gone the last time she had tried to confront Adam Taurus she was inclined to think that she was doing pretty well.

But judging by what she could see of his face he didn't seem to think he was doing too badly either. In fact, he was smiling.

And as he stepped back, retreating all the way to the edge of the rooftop, Sunset could see why.

The sword in his hand was glowing so brightly. Every time her phoenix cape had flared to injure him she had depleted his aura, but she had also been charging her blade all this time.

And now he was ready.

Adam's smile became something vicious to behold, and then the world turned as red as blood.

Sunset froze. She couldn't have moved even if she'd wanted to, with everything turning so slowly, but it wasn't just that. The world had turned crimson. Blood had descended over her vision. Everything was red except him; he was as black as Mountain Glenn had been just a moment ago and he was coming straight for her and she was frozen.

 _At least Ruby isn't here this time._

Adam charged her, his blade readying for a slashing stroke to cut her in half and Sunset's eyes were drawn to him, to the black form with that deadly blade it was like she was a rodent hypnotised by a snake and the snake was poised to devour her.

She was so drawn to Adam that she didn't even see Blake vault up onto the roof until she had bodily slammed into Adam from the side.

The blood-red effect dissipated in the same instant that Adam's charge was disrupted and Sunset saw Blake knock Adam off course, staggering him sideways before she leapt away from his furious counterstroke.

"Blake!" he snapped, confusion in his voice. "You…you came? You came for her? Again?"

Blake didn't reply, but the unwavering look on her face was answer enough.

Adam roared in anger as he charged at her, Sunset forgotten.

And as Blake leapt to meet him, Sunset lunged for her gun.

* * *

Blake ducked away from Adam's first blow, leaving a shadow behind to take the slashing stroke from Wilt while she thrust Gambol Shroud up towards his side. Adam turned, too fast for her the way he had always been too fast, parrying the thrust and slicing down at her.

His blow sliced into the ice clone that Blake had left in her place, trapping his sword in the sculpture. Blake skidded away, switched Gambol Shroud into its gun mode, and fired four times.

She couldn't miss, and he couldn't use Wilt to take the shots.

It was time to end this.

Adam, hit in the chest, staggered backwards. Blake lunged for him, kicking him backwards, slashing him with Gambol Shroud – now a sword again – knocking him backwards and onto his back. She stood over him, sword pointed at his chest.

"Do it," he said.

Blake's eyes widened. "Wh-what?"

He was smiling at her. "Do it," he repeated. "You've chosen your side, and I'm your enemy. So do it, and show Atlas what a good little dog you are."

Gambol Shroud trembled in Blake's hand. She ought to do it. She ought to strike at him, drive her blade through his aura and put an end to this. The amount of people he'd already killed and he wouldn't stop. He'd never stop. Even if he was put in prison he'd just find a way to escape and he'd keep killing and he'd keep coming and…and she didn't have any way of restraining him anyway. She ought to do it. He was a monster now. Whatever else he'd been, whatever he had been to her…he wasn't the man she'd fell in love with. He wasn't the hero that she'd thought he was. He was wild and he was dangerous and he had to be stopped.

She had to stop him.

But…but she couldn't. Her sword stuck in the air as though it had turned solid all around her. She could barely move at all.

Because she…because he…

"It's alright, Blake," Adam whispered. "I know that you've always been weak."

He grabbed her by the ankle, his hand reaching out as swift as a striking serpent to pull her off balance. Blake cried out as she was pulled to the ground and then Adam was on top of her, his fists flying, pummelling her face as he wrenched Gambol Shroud out of her hand.

He laughed as she raised her hands to shield herself, beating her guard away as he crouched astride her.

"Don't be afraid, my love," he snarled, as he raised her own sword above his head to strike her. "I'm going to set you free."

Gambol Shroud hovered above her like a bolt of black lightning, it's point aimed for her heart.

Adam's face was twisted into a snarl. "This isn't-"

BANG!

* * *

Sunset was terrified. She couldn't have said what exactly was terrifying her – was it what she was doing, was it Adam, was it fear for Blake, was it some admixture of them all – but she was terrified. She was having to use magic to keep the barrel of Sol Invictus steady, balancing it level with telekinesis so that she hit Adam instead of Blake by accident as she fired.

But she fired anyway. Her first shot broke his aura and she kept firing. She shot him six times, six rounds booming out of her rifle as fire red blotches appeared on Adam's black jacket, blood spurting from the wounds and mingling with the red of the wilted rose on his lapel.

She fired until she'd used up all her rounds, and even then she pulled the trigger a couple more times because she wasn't quite convinced.

Adam was still, seeming to stare at her a while as blood dripped from his mouth. Then his head dropped, his chin touching his chest. And then he fell sideways, lying still on the rooftop by Blake's side.

 _I take this burden on myself._

 _Thank you, Twilight, for teaching me that I should do that; even if it wasn't exactly the lesson you intended to teach me._

She had killed someone. She took no pleasure in that, not even when that someone was him. Sunset felt cold inside, as though it had turned to winter in her soul. She had taken a life and she would have to live with it.

But Blake wouldn't have to live with it, and that was the important thing.

That – and to save her – was why Sunset had fired.

 _To spare her life and her soul both._

Blake scrambled away, getting out from under Adam's…Adam's body. There were tears in her golden eyes, and Sunset could see that she was sobbing.

"Blake," Sunset murmured.

Blake ignored her, standing over Adam's still and lifeless form, looking down upon him.

"You were everything to me too," she whispered. "Until…until you weren't the same person any more."

Sunset approached her cautiously, warily, uncertain of what kind of reaction she would receive from her. "Blake," she said softly. "You can hate me if you want to, but-"

"Hate you?" Blake asked, looking over her shoulder at Sunset with her eyes so damp. "Why would I hate you?"

Sunset's brow furrowed. "You loved him."

"Once," Blake said. "But the man I loved died a long time before you pulled the trigger."

Sunset was silent for a moment. "So…"

"Thank you," Blake said.

"For what?" Sunset asked. "You're the one who came for me."

"And you fired."

"Then that makes us even, doesn't it?"

Blake shook her head. "Thank you, Sunset, for setting me free." She looked at him, her eyes lingering upon his masked face. "For setting us both free." She breathed in deeply. "It's over," she said. "It's…it's finally over."

She knelt by Adam's side, removed his mask – exposing the brand that had seared his face and removed one of his eyes – and closed the other.

"Be at peace."


	94. The Next Train From Platform One Will Be

The Next Train from Platform One Will Be

The shed was unguarded, as far as Rainbow Dash could see.

This was the place. It was where the signal from the tracker that Twi had placed on Fluttershy was pinging from, and yet there was no one there. Not a single White Fang guard could be seen. She could hear some of them, down by the rail yard, where it sounded as though there was a lot of stuff going on – people shouting, trucks starting, stuff being moved around – but around here, by the shed in which they'd stashed her friends, it was quiet.

There wasn't even a single guard, and no sign that there had ever even been a guard.

It was weird.

But if that was where Applejack and Fluttershy were then Rainbow would take weird as a preferable alternative to, well, pretty much anything else.

She tightened her grip on the shotgun in her hands. "Twilight, stay here with Ciel; Ciel, cover us; Penny, you're with me."

"Are you sure that's a good idea," Ciel asked. "Doesn't this seem like a trap?"

"That's why you're staying here to cover us and protect Twilight," Rainbow said, without tearing her eyes away from the shed that – hopefully – held her friends inside. The four members of Team RSPT were crouched a little way off, behind another old building that had formed part of the wider railyard complex when this was supposed to be a big hub for transportation. Rolls of cable were rotting away not far away, and a stack of rails had long since rusted away in the damp and the dark.

The shed itself looked a pretty nasty place to stay. _Don't worry, Fluttershy; we'll have you out of there soon enough._

"Just because I'm giving you support doesn't mean that you should walk into an ambush," Ciel said.

"I can't wait around, Ciel, my friends are in there," Rainbow said sharply. "I can't leave them just because there's a chance that it might be dangerous." She looked at Ciel. "You can't talk me out of this."

Ciel looked at her for a moment. "Very well," she said softly, and used some of the rolls of mouldering cable to balance Distant Thunder on. "I'll do my best to protect you both if it does turn out to be a trap."

"You always do," Rainbow said. "Penny, stay tight behind me and keep your eyes peeled."

"Wouldn't that damage the ocular sensors?"

Rainbow looked at her. Penny maintained an admirably straight face…right up until the moment a little quirk of her lip gave her away.

"You're kidding, aren't you?"

"No," Penny said, with a hiccup.

Rainbow snorted. "Stay close."

She led the way, dashing out of cover and heading towards the shed. She was half hunched over, her shotgun pointed at the ground. Her boots tapped on the stone, and she could hear Penny's own steps behind her as they darted from building to pile of debris to stores to building, cover to cover, until Rainbow's back was pressed against the rusting corrugated iron of the shed where her friends were being held.

There had been no ambush. There was still no sign of any guards. No sign of the White Fang here at all. What were they doing?

What had been the point of all this?

 _Does it matter? So long as they're safe? Shouldn't I welcome an easy ride to get them back?_

Rainbow's hands itched with anticipation as she sidled along the side of the building until she came to the door.

"Penny," she hissed. "Stay here."

"Right," Penny replied, not quite as quietly. Her swords emerged from her back to hover a sentinel halo around her head.

Rainbow nodded to her. She took a breath, counted to three, and then kicked in the door of the shed.

It was dark inside, with only a single light casting a spotlight in the centre of the damp and dank and nasty place, but she could see them both, Fluttershy and Applejack, shackled and bound and gagged at opposite ends of the room.

She could hear the muffled sounds they made as she burst in.

She could see the relief flooding Fluttershy's blue-green eyes as she saw Rainbow Dash.

She could feel the relief in her own heart flooding in as she saw them both, her friends, alive and – as far as she could tell – unharmed and safe now.

Safe now that she was here.

She rushed to Fluttershy first, knowing that Applejack would understand. Her shotgun hit the floor as she dropped it, crossing the dark shed in quick strides to kneel in front of Fluttershy, ripping off her shackles with her bare hands, tearing apart the chains that bound her to the chair and then, with a gentleness that might have astonished anyone who had just seen the nearly furious way in which she removed all the other restrained, she tugged the gag out of Fluttershy's mouth.

"You found me," Fluttershy whispered.

"Did you ever doubt I would?" Rainbow asked, as he pulled Fluttershy out of the chair and into a hug.

They stood up, Fluttershy clinging to Rainbow Dash with her arms around her neck. She was trembling. She felt so light in Rainbow's arms, and so small and slender and delicate. There was a part of her that didn't want to ever let Fluttershy out of her grasp again, there was another part that wanted to send her back to Atlas and lock her in a fortress with half the fleet to watch over her. All of her wanted to keep Fluttershy safe. No matter what, she would always want to keep Fluttershy safe.

 _I'll protect you, and if you're ever in trouble I'll rescue you, and I'll make sure that nothing happens to you ever._

"Did they hurt you?" she whispered, as she stroked Fluttershy's long pink locks with one hand.

"No," Fluttershy said. "No, they didn't…they didn't hurt either of us."

"That's…that's good," Rainbow murmured. "I'm glad that you're safe."

"Now that you're here," Fluttershy said. "Oh, Rainbow Dash, I was so-"

"It's okay," Rainbow said. "You don't have to think about it any more. It's all in the past now. I'm here, and nothing bad is going to happen to you."

Applejack mumbled something through her gag to remind them both that she existed.

"Right, sorry about that, buddy," Rainbow said, with a bit of a nervous laugh as she let go of Fluttershy, and crossed over to where Applejack was bound.

Applejack mumbled something else as Rainbow took off her restraints.

"What's that?" Rainbow asked, as she removed the gag.

Applejack took a breath unencumbered by the cloth stuffed into her mouth. "I said it took you long enough." She stood up, and smiled. "Good to see you again, Dash."

"You too, Applejack," Rainbow said. The hug they shared was not as fierce as the one that she had just released Fluttershy from, but it was no less heartfelt for all that. "Glad to see you're okay." She stepped back. "You are okay, aren't you?"

"Well, I didn't exactly keep my promise to look after Fluttershy, but…yeah, I guess I'm not hurt or nothing."

"You did keep your promise," Fluttershy said. "We're both here and we're both okay and…and everything's going to be fine from now on, isn't it?"

"Sure," Rainbow said. "All's well that ends well, right?"

"I guess so," Applejack said.

Rainbow looked up, at the top of her head where a certain Stetson was conspicuous by its absence. "Where's your hat?"

"Stolen," Applejack said sourly. "Along with my gun and my dog if you please, by some thieving no good varmint by the name Gilda."

"Gilda?" Rainbow said nervously.

"Eeyup. Said she was a friend of yours, though I don't recall ever hearing you talk about her."

Rainbow scratched the back of her head. "Yeah…well…you see…it's a little complicated. You know how it is."

"I can't say I do, but…I guess I can imagine," Applejack said. "Anyway, it means I can't exactly jump back into the fight right this very second, if there's a fight to jump into. I didn't hear no shooting on your way up here."

"There was no shooting on the way up here," Rainbow said, deciding that it would probably be best to elide over the fights with Lightning Dust and Emerald to avoid worrying Fluttershy. "When we got here there was nobody around. No guards. No sentries. No one. It's like nobody cared if we got to you or not."

Applejack frowned. "That doesn't make a lick of sense…and yet it kinda does all the same. I got a kind of a feeling that they only ever wanted us down here to make sure that they could get you down here."

"I don't suppose they told you what they wanted us down here for?" Rainbow asked.

"Sorry, they didn't exactly drop any big secrets like that," Applejack said. She reached for the hat that wasn't on top of her head, and looked annoyed to find that it wasn't there. "Anyway, I reckon we'd better get out of here. You got a plane waiting."

"Yeah," Rainbow said. "But, uh, it isn't that simple."

"Ain't it?" Applejack asked. "It sounds simple enough from where I stand? What else are you going to do with Fluttershy?"

 _Make me feel even worse about this, why don't you?_ That was a harsh thought, and an unkind one, and Rainbow didn't really mean it but…but Applejack had just made her feel guilty about this and it wasn't really helping even if it wasn't Applejack's intent. "Let's get out of here, I'll explain as we go. Come on, Fluttershy, stick close behind me."

"Okay," Fluttershy murmured, and she took shelter behind Rainbow Dash as Rainbow cautiously stepped back out of the shed, to where Penny was waiting, her swords still holding position in a ring around her head.

"Is everything okay out here?"

"Nothing sighted," Penny said. "Rainbow Dash?"

"Yeah?"

"I don't think there's anyone here at all."

"Good," Rainbow said, because while she enjoyed a good fight as much as anybody she _didn't_ enjoy a fight with Fluttershy caught in the middle of it. "Take the rear, okay?"

"Right," Penny said, and she fell in behind Rainbow and the two freed prisoners as they made their way back to where Twilight and Ciel were waiting for them. "Hello, my name's Penny. It's a pleasure to meet you! Are you the friends of Rainbow Dash that she was so worried about?"

"Is that right?" Applejack said, with wry amusement in her voice. "You were worried sick about us, Rainbow Dash?"

"Of course I was worried," Rainbow snapped. "What, did you think I was just hanging out while you were in trouble?"

"It's very nice to meet you, Penny," Fluttershy said. "My name is Fluttershy, and this is-"

"Applejack," Applejack said firmly. "My name is Applejack, and you don't need to know any others."

 _If the circumstances were any different I would totally tell Penny that your real name is Jacqueline just to see how you react._

Twilight broke cover before the rest of them had returned, running across the dark distance separating them with her plaid skirt flying around her legs, pushing past Rainbow Dash to embrace Fluttershy and Applejack both, wrapping one arm around each of their necks and gripping them tight. She seemed to almost collapse, her legs buckling beneath her so that it was only her hold on her two friends that were stopping from falling flat on her face on the ground.

"Thank goodness," she murmured. "Thank goodness you're safe. When I heard that you'd been…I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry for everything. I'm just…I'm so glad that…I-"

"Come on, sugarcube, ain't no call for cryin', now," Applejack said warmly. "This is a rescue, not a funeral, after all." She patted Twi on the back. "We got nothing worth crying about."

"And you've got nothing to be sorry about either," Fluttershy murmured.

"But I'm the one who told General Ironwood about your ability," Twilight cried. "If I hadn't then you wouldn't have-"

"You did what you thought was right," Fluttershy said. "And you didn't mean any harm by it. If you weren't someone who always did the right thing then you wouldn't be Twilight Sparkle at all, and if you weren't Twilight…if you weren't Twilight then you wouldn't be the person we all love so much, would you?"

Applejack helped Twilight to stand. "So buck up, and dry out those eyes, cause we got more to smile about than cry for today."

Twilight sniffed. "I'm so glad you're safe."

"Me too," Applejack replied. "Me too. Hey, Rainbow Dash, did you tell Apple Bloom about all this?"

"Come on, I'm not a complete moron," Rainbow said. "Of course I didn't tell your sister."

Applejack nodded. "Good. I'd appreciate it a lot if it stayed that way. Nothing to worry about now, after all."

"I see that you secured the captives without issue," Ciel said, as she emerged from behind cover. "And as you can see, there has been zero enemy activity here." She stood to attention in front of Applejack, and bowed slightly from the waist. "Ciel Soleil, at your service."

Applejack stuck out her hand. "Howdy, Miss Ciel, I'm-"

"Jacqueline Apple, eighteen, hails from just outside Canterlot," Ciel said. "Former leader of Team Jasper, currently a supernumerary attached to the Bureau of Research and Development; the hero of Camp Frostbite. It's an honour to meet you."

Applejack lowered her hand, and put it on her hip. "It's Applejack. Just Applejack. And I ain't no hero."

"You saved twenty four other students when the grimm attacked that winter training camp, didn't you?"

Applejack shrugged. "I just did what had to be done."

Ciel made a contemplative noise, nodding her head slightly before she glanced at Fluttershy. Ciel's mouth began to open-

"She knows who she is," Rainbow said quickly. "No need to remind her, honest."

"Fluttershy," Fluttershy murmured meekly. "It's a pleasure."

"So what happens now?" Applejack asked. "Are we getting Fluttershy out of here?"

Ciel pursed her lips together. Twilight looked at Rainbow, who looked away.

"What?" Applejack demanded. "Rainbow Dash, what's going on?"

"We didn't just come here to rescue you," Rainbow said. "Something big is going down, something…we don't know how big it is because we don't know what it is but it could be 'bring down the Kingdom of Vale' big. Team Sapphire is counting on us to rendezvous with them once we rescued you and I…I'd have somebody take you back to the dropship if I could spare anybody but I don't know if I can and anyway…we were attacked on the way over here and if someone is waiting for us-"

Applejack held up one hand. "Don't worry, you don't have to explain everything. I get it."

"You do?"

"Sure I do, I was a team leader myself, after all, as you might recall," Applejack said, with a slight smile. "You do what you gotta do. I'll stick with Fluttershy and make sure she's okay."

Rainbow hesitated. "You sure about that?"

"Your friend may have stolen my gun," Applejack reminded her. "But I still have my semblance, and it's a hell of a lot more use than being able to run fast."

"Oh, because punching things really hard is so much better," Rainbow said. "I saved your life because I can run fast, in case you've forgotten."

"You saved my life because you're a stubborn, insubordinate bluenose who doesn't know when to quit," Applejack said. She grinned. "And don't we love you for it. Now lead the way, team leader."

Rainbow snorted. "You want to do it yourself, for old times sake?"

Applejack shook her head. "R-S-P-T. Your name at the front, your team. I'm just observin'. And I kinda want to see what you're made of in the big shoes."

"Miss Apple," Ciel said, getting her attention before she produced a pistol from the back of her skirt and offered it, handle first, to Applejack. "You mentioned not having a gun."

Applejack took the weapon. "A little smaller than what I'm used to, but thank you all the same."

"Penny, you're up with me again, we're in first," Rainbow said. "Ciel, cover our backs; Twilight, stay with Applejack and Fluttershy. Once we reach the railyard we're going to find Sapphire, find cover, see what they're up to and plan our next step. Clear?"

Nobody had any objections, so they proceeded in the direction that Torchwick had first supplied to them. Just as it had been on the way to the shed – once they got past Emerald and Lightning Dust, at least – there were no White Fang to oppose them, at least not at first.

Once they actually reached the rail yard there were plenty of White Fang, but none of them were standing guard and none of them saw RSPT or Rainbow's friends as they made their cautious approach.

They found some of Team SAPR: Pyrrha, Jaune, Ruby and Professor Goodwitch. Ruby waved them into what a metal plaque, not completely covered in mould, identified as the Station Master's house, where her two team-mates and the professor were observing the White Fang's furiously frantic preparations.

"Hey," Ruby said, speaking very quietly so as not to attract attention. "You got your friends."

"Yeah, we did," Rainbow said. "Where are Sunset and Blake?"

"We're here," Sunset said, leading Blake as they ducked and dived their way towards the abandoned house. "We were delayed for a little bit."

"By Adam," Blake murmured. She looked downcast, even moreso than usual.

Rainbow thought that she knew why, but she had to be sure, she glanced at Sunset. "You took care of it?"

Sunset nodded curtly. "Yeah. It's over."

Rainbow glanced again at Blake. She knew that she should probably say something but…but she had no idea what to say, honestly. What did you say about something like that? What could anybody say?

 _Maybe the General can suggest somebody that she could talk to when we get back from all this, and not just for Blake either._ Fluttershy, maybe even Applejack might need someone who could just listen to what they had to say.

But for now, they didn't have time to do anything but join the members of Team SAPR who had beaten them there, all of them crowding into the Station Master's house, from where they had a clear view of the entire rail-yard spread out in front of them.

Pyrrha, Jaune and Ruby all seemed glad to see Sunset and Blake back, but the look on Blake's face must have dissuaded them from asking exactly how it had gone or what had happened because none of them did. Instead, they all focussed their attention outwards.

The railway yard was a hive of activity. Faunus in the uniforms of the White Fang were rushing here and there, loading a hodge-podge fleet of trucks, four-by-fours and flatbeds – mostly basic commercial models, although a few of them had machine-guns mounted to the back – with crates of MREs, ammunition, grenades, even stacks of rifles and pistols. Some of the trucks were already being loaded onto one of the big commercial elevators which, in Mountain Glenn's better days, must have carried stuff down up from the railway to the city up top, and as Rainbow and the others watched the elevator began to ascend, carrying at least a dozen fully laden vehicles and a swarm of White Fang fighters up towards the surface.

Gilda was in the centre of it all, she seemed to be directing everyone as she waved her arms this way and that, shouted orders, talked to everyone who came to her for an answer and they all seemed to be coming to her for an answer. Had Adam left her in charge? It certainly seemed that way, since Rainbow could see plenty of people reporting to her but nobody that she was reporting to, but what had she been left in charge of?

She looked for the paladins. She saw a couple standing guard near the elevator, and there was a queue of what looked like maybe twenty, maybe a few more of them waiting to get on said elevator but there weren't enough of them she could catch sight of. Certainly the White Fang had stolen a lot more than just that. Where were the rest?"

"Are the White Fang pulling out?" Ruby asked.

"No," Sunset murmured. "Look over there."

She gestured, subtly, so that anyone looking from outside wouldn't have caught it, but she indicated towards the rails themselves, to where a single train carriage, the tail end of a train, was being loaded up.

More specifically, a paladin was placing an enormous bomb inside the car.

Voices echoed into the house from the yard beyond.

"Okay, that's the last one! Everything's set!"

"Everybody that isn't getting on the train, get clear of the train," Gilda shouted. "And hurry up, we've got to get out of here!"

"Are they using the train to transport the dust to the barrier?" Pyrrha suggested.

"Why leave it so late, they could have done that at any time," Sunset said. "Then all they would have had to do is set the fuse." She paused. "Because it's not a mine it's a ram!"

"What?" Jaune said.

"They're not going to blow up the barrier separating Vale from Mountain Glenn they're going to run a train straight through it," Sunset said. "That's why the train has to start from here, it needs to build up momentum in order to actually smash the barricade."

"Then why the dust?" Jaune asked. "If they're not going to blow something up?"

"Maybe they're going to blow something up when they get there?" Sunset suggested.

"No," Professor Goodwitch said. "You're forgetting why the tunnel was originally sealed. Once the barricade has been destroyed then grimm can flood through it into Vale."

A horrified silence greeted her pronouncement.

"And the dust?" Pyrrha said, breaking said silence. "What are they going to do with the dust, professor?"

Professor Goodwitch was quiet for a moment. "There are parts of the tunnel were the surface above is quite thin, with grimm-infested caves and forests above. If it were detonated, the grimm would fall into the tunnel but the tunnel would not be blocked."

"And the grimm would head straight for Vale," Ciel said grimly.

"God," Jaune whispered in horror. "All those people."

"We have to stop it," Ruby declared. "We have to stop that train, no matter what it takes."

"We have to warn General Ironwood," Rainbow said. "If we…" she huffed, because she didn't like admitting that she might not succeed at every single thing she tried. "If we can't stop the train then the fleet will stop them on the other side, so long as they know what's coming." She looked at Professor Goodwitch. She didn't really know the woman very well, but she was a pro-huntress and a Beacon professor, and she was working with General Ironwood on their little save-the-world side-project, so she was probably pretty trustworthy. "Professor, can you please escort Applejack, Fluttershy and Twilight back to the dropship. Twi: fly them back to Vale, contact the General, tell him everything."

Twilight's eyes widened behind her glasses. "You're…you're sending me away?"

Rainbow smiled thinly. "You're not a fighter, Twilight. You don't need to be involved in this."

"What if I want to be?" Twilight asked. "What if I don't want to leave you?"

Rainbow stared into Twilight's large lavender eyes. "Atlas needs you, Twilight. Especially if this doesn't work. And someone has to carry the word back and someone has to make sure that Fluttershy gets home safe and that somebody is you. You don't want to make Fluttershy come with us, do you?"

Fluttershy opened her mouth, as if to say that she might consider it, but a single glance from Rainbow Dash was enough to silence her. She wasn't coming. Neither was Twilight. Neither was going anywhere near a train that was about to run through grimm territory and smash into an armoured barricade in an attempt to unleash grimm on the city of Vale. They were both going to get on that plane and fly out to safety and then they were going to sit tight in the armoured heart of an Atlesian man-of-war until it was all over with one way or the other.

And Applejack was going to go with them too.

"I could-" Applejack began.

"No," Rainbow said.

"With Twilight-"

"No."

"You could use an extra-"

"I've got Blake for a fourth guy," Rainbow said.

Blake offered a subdued nod, but otherwise said nothing.

"What is your problem?" Applejack demanded.

"My problem is that I just got done worrying about you and I am not about to start again!" Rainbow hissed.

"Well that's real sweet of you and all but it seems like you could maybe use my help right about now!"

"I don't need your help, I need to know that you're okay," Rainbow said. "I need you to get on that plane and fly away and stay alive."

"Last time I gave you an order like that I don't recall you paid much heed to it."

"Yeah, well, I'm Team Leader now and you're not," Rainbow said, with a grin that flashed across her face as briefly as a comet across the sky. "Which means you do what I say now and nobody gets to call me a hypocrite."

"Miss Dash is correct, pragmatically if not, perhaps, morally," Professor Goodwitch murmured. "You are unarmed, Miss…Applejack, and unlikely to be at your best. You are as likely to be a hindrance as a help in this situation."

Applejack scowled. "You…you'd better come out of this in one piece or I'm going to kick your ass, you hear me?"

"Wouldn't miss it," Rainbow said.

"On the other hand," Professor Goodwitch continued. "I am loath to abandon you all in this situation."

"You're the pro, professor," Rainbow said. "You're the one who can best protect the others."

Professor Goodwitch pushed her spectacles back up her nose. "Perhaps, but-"

"It's okay, professor," Ruby said. "Being a huntress is about protecting people first, right? So protect them. We'll be okay."

Professor Goodwitch looked at Ruby, her gaze lingering upon her eyes for a moment. "If you're mother could see you now, Ruby," she said. "I have no doubt she'd be as proud of you as I am."

Ruby's chin rose slightly, and her eyes gleamed just a little brighter. "Thank you, professor."

Professor Goodwitch nodded. "If you can stop the train sufficiently early, then you should be able to exit the tunnel using one of the subway stations built to service the districts of Mountain Glenn. Once you've done that, I advise you to hold up in a secure position and signal the assistance of the Atlesian forces that I believe are on stand-by." She looked at each of them in turn. "I wish you all the very best of luck." She sighed, only a little but noticeably all the same. "Come, children."

Fluttershy's brow furrowed. "Rainbow Dash-"

"Stop," Rainbow said softly. "This isn't goodbye. We'll see each other."

Fluttershy smiled briefly. "At Sugarcube Corner?"

"Before that," Rainbow Dash. "But we'll see each other again. Count on it."

Fluttershy nodded, not so firmly as if she'd been absolutely convinced, but she seemed to accept it all the same, and she allowed Professor Goodwitch to usher her out of the house along with Twilight and Applejack.

And then they were gone. On their way to safety. On their way out of this.

"I…hate to be the one to say this," Sunset said, and her tone was such that Rainbow could believe that she really did hate being the one to say it. "But if you've just sent the dropship away, and if we don't stop the train early enough that we can use those subway stations…how are we going to get out?"

Nobody said anything for a moment. Ciel was the first to speak. "It sounds as though, once the subway stations are passed, it is nothing but a long stretch of tunnel to Vale."

"Which makes the answer pretty obvious," Rainbow said.

Sunset frowned. "Then what-"

"There's still time to go after Professor Goodwitch, if you're scared," Rainbow said with a grin.

Sunset didn't take it in good humour. Her whole face flushed until it was as red as some parts of her hair. "I'm not a damn coward, Dash!"

Rainbow held up one hand. "I didn't-"

"That isn't what this is about," Sunset continued. "You of all people ought to understand that!"

 _Now_ Rainbow got it. It was pretty obvious really, when she put it like that. "I didn't mean anything by it," Rainbow said. "I'm sorry, I thought you'd get that I was only kidding."

"Sunset," Ruby said. "We have to do this, no matter how dangerous it is. We have to do this for Vale."

Sunset's frown didn't ease up in the least. "Even-"

"No matter the risks," Pyrrha said. "We have to try or…how many innocents will suffer."

"No matter the risks," Sunset said. "No matter the cost."

"If that is our fate," Pyrrha murmured.

"We can't do nothing and we can't turn away," Jaune said.

"We have to stop it if we can," Blake said.

"Because placing ourselves between the kingdom and danger…is what a huntress does," Ruby said.

Sunset sighed, and muttered something that sounded a bit like 'bunch of heroes' under her breath, before she said, "Fine, fine, let's do this. Save the world no matter the cost." She took a breath. "Is everybody ready?"

A howl echoed out from somewhere beyond them, somewhere out in the wilderness depths of Mountain Glenn, the howl of a beowolf echoing off the ceiling.

Another joined it, then another, then another and suddenly it seemed as though the world was alive with the howling of beowolves, and the growling of the creeps and the roaring of the ursai and who knew what other kind of grimm making their noises to join the cacophony beyond.

"What's going on?" Penny asked.

"It's like the whole city suddenly woke up," Ciel said.

"Or someone woke them up," Rainbow muttered. _Twilight, Fluttershy, Applejack; be safe._ "We have to go now or we may not have the chance."

The whistle of the train echoed out from tunnel, a shrill hoot that signalled they were out of time. It was now or never.

With a slow chugging sound the train began to move, and the last carriage began to disappear out of sight down the tunnel.

"Ready?" Rainbow asked. "On three. One, two, three!"

And they leapt into battle once again.


	95. Defined by Choice

Defined by Choice

Gilda raised the stolen rifle to her shoulder and fired. Once, twice, three times the rifle that she'd taken from Applejack roared before the beowolf that had been charging towards her finally dropped dead and died about six feet away from her.

She heard someone screaming. It took her less than a moment to see someone being dragged away by another beowolf, the grimm's claws digging into the back of the rabbit faunus as it pulled him into the darkness.

Gilda gritted her teeth as she slung her rifle over her shoulder, spreading her wings and leaping forwards, gliding through the air to more quickly cover the distance between her and the desperate faunus, his fingernails digging into the earth as he tried to stop the grimm from dragging him into the darkness.

 _Swallow strike!_

Gilda's semblance wasn't the fanciest, and it certainly wasn't the most powerful; essentially it let her strike three times with her sword in the time it would have ordinarily taken her to strike once. But sometimes that was all it took. Like now, when a trio of swift strikes as she fell upon them were enough to slice the offending beowolf in half.

Gilda helped the rabbit faunus to his feet as the grimm started to turn to smoke. She draped one arm across her shoulders and lifted him up. "There's a wounded man here, get him on the truck!"

Willing faunus ran to help her, and their willing hands took the injured fighter off of Gilda and helped him to one of the trucks now serving as ambulances. Already the back was filled with injured faunus, with red and raw bite marks on their arms and legs from where the grimm had gotten them. As soon as the rabbit was helped aboard, the truck rumbled and started to roll quickly towards the industrial elevator that was their only way out of this trap.

Damn Cinder Fall and everything about her! And where was she now, anyway? She'd disappeared at a very convenient time, considering that the indulgence with which the grimm had seemingly been regarding them had now run out and they were coming under a ferocious attack. One minute everything had been peaceful and the next it was like every grimm in the city had just woken up and decided that it wanted a piece of them. What had been an exercise in quickly packing up everything that they needed was turning into a scramble to get everybody out in one piece before the creatures of grimm devoured them all.

Beowolves, creeps, king tailjitsu, even a few ursai were pouring out of the darkness in great waves, intent on devouring every last faunus here. Every hand that could hold a gun was shooting, every faunus that could fight was on the line pouring fire out into the darkness to try and hold their perimeter; Gilda had redeployed every paladin to bolster the defence, their great guns roaring and missiles flying from their racks, but was it enough? Could it be enough against the sheer number of grimm that were hurling themselves at the White Fang from all directions?

No. No, it wouldn't be enough, just like hadn't been enough for the humans who had tried to settle this place once before. And the White Fang should have learnt from their example.

The question was not could they hold the Mountain Glenn base. The answer to that was no. The ammunition would run out, the paladins would fall – Gilda could see one of them being crushed in the coils of a king taijitsu, the great serpent seeming to take no notice at all of the robotic fists hammering into it as it curled around and around the armoured body as the paladin started crumpling under the pressure; another paladin had been half buried under a half dozen beowolves led by an alpha, which were gradually ripping its armour apart with their claws – and the defences would be overrun no matter how bravely they tried to hold them.

No, the real question was could they get everybody out of Mountain Glenn before this place became a tomb for the White Fang as well as for the humans who had built it? That was Gilda's challenge, and she very much hoped that the answer was yes.

A boarbatusk broke through the defensive perimeter, tramping on a leopard faunus before charging straight for Gilda, his tusks gleaming.

Strongheart intercepted the creature on the wall, blindsiding it with her semblance and ramming it onto its side where she shot it four times to be sure. "Gilda!" she cried, running up to her even as she began reloading her rifle. "They're getting onto the train!"

Gilda's first thought was that she was talking about the White Fang, about people trying to escape the grimm here by jumping onto the train at the last minute. Which struck her as a stupid thing to do since that train wasn't going anywhere near safety, but people did all kinds of stupid things when they were desperate. "We can't stop them, we need to focus-"

"We have to stop them!" Strongheart yelled. "Or they'll stop the train!"

It was only at this point that Gilda realised that she'd gotten the wrong end of the stick earlier. "What are you talking about?"

"They're getting on the train, look!" Strongheart, yelled, pointing to where the train was disappearing down into the tunnel. With Strongheart pointing it out, Gilda could see Rainbow Dash and her new friends fighting their way through the very few White Fang fighters who could actually spare a minute from fighting for their lives to try and stop them, dodging or slaying the grimm that also tried to get in their way, and leaping aboard the last car as the train built up speed heading for Vale.

"We have to stop them," Strongheart said.

Gilda distracted herself by shooting down a couple of Creeps before she had to reload her stolen rifle. A part of her knew that Strongheart was absolutely right. The train was the whole plan. The train was everything, and if Dash and her allies stopped the train then this whole miserable experience would have been for absolutely nothing. They'd spent weeks, months preparing the train; Adam had almost certainly given his life buying time to get the train – just about – moving before the enemy got to it. The train had most of their men and most of their equipment on board. If the train was halted then there was no point to any of this.

But right now, Gilda couldn't honestly say that she gave a damn. She'd been sincere and honest when she told Adam that that train was rolling into a death trap, and as she watched a substantial amount of grimm break off their attack on the White Fang base to follow the train down into the tunnel to Vale she felt vindicated already in her bleak assessment.

And what would the train get the White Fang, really? It was Cinder Fall's idea, Cinder's plan, Cinder's conjuring trick; it might be better if Dash could stop the train early and all the good faunus on it could get out before it was too late.

"There's nothing that we can do about that," Gilda said. "The guys on the train will have to defend the train as best they can. We've got our own problems." She gunned down another creep.

"So we're not going to do anything?" Strongheart demanded. "We're just going to let this happen?"

"Do you have any ideas?" Gilda asked.

Strongheart didn't reply. Not at first, anyway. "Do you…do you think they'll make it?"

"I don't know," Gilda said, and she didn't even know if she hoped it either. What she hoped for was the best chance for them to survive; she just wished she knew what that best chance was. "Like I said, we have to focus on ourselves right now."

They abandoned their equipment. The guns, the ammo, the explosives, even the dust; everything that hadn't been packed up and moved out already when the grimm attack started was left behind. None of it mattered in the face of the snarling, bestial horror bearing down on them. The White Fang wore masks to make themselves look like grimm, to become the monsters of nightmare that the humans already thought they were; but in the face of the real deal, with the _real_ monsters howling as they surged out of the darkness to rend, tear and devour, the White Fang were reminded that they were not monsters but men, and just as vulnerable to fear and doubt and terror as those whom they had thought to make fear them.

Some fought, some fled, some died screaming and begging for mercy of the creatures that were wholly and utterly incapable of mercy. They retreated. They left the stolen Atlesian property that they hadn't already moved out. Some of the dust they detonated as they retreated, some of the grenades and explosives too, turning them into improvised landmines to incinerate whole packs of beowolves in the fire, but it wasn't enough.

It was never going to be enough.

They fell back. They lost the paladins as they retreated, the armoured titans falling one by one in the face of the flood of black and bone-encrusted death. They lost faunus too, good people, brave people, bad people, cowards; they lost them all, but the survivors managed to make it to the elevator, cramming themselves onto the platform, crushing each other tightly in their desperation to leave no one behind, knowing that this would be their only change to get out. Winged faunus began to fly up the shaft, leaving more space for the others who pressed on, tightly together, until only Gilda remained not on the platform.

Gilda slammed her fist into the red button by the side of the elevator shaft, and the metallic mesh doors began to descend as the elevator platform began to rise.

"Gilda!" Strongheart shouted from on the now-rising platform. "What are you doing?"

"Regroup in the hills above the city. I'll find you there," Gilda said. "I'm going to get Adam's body." If he was dead – and she had no doubt that he was, because there was no way that the Sword of the Faunus would have abandoned the faunus when they needed him in the face of this dark tide – then he deserved better than to rot in the darkness, to be devoured by rats or grimm or simply left to rot. He might have been born in darkness, formed and forged and nurtured by it, but in death he deserved to lie under sunlight, properly interred.

And so, as the elevator rose up towards the surface, Gilda spread her wings and soared up into the air, towards the ceiling of Mountain Glenn; fortunately there were no flying grimm around, and all the beowolves and the creeps below could only roar and hiss at her in abject futility as she flew safely above their heads and beyond their reach.

Some of them clawed and tore at the mesh, but by that point the elevator was out of their reach as well and, though some of them began to climb up the shaft, they were doing so so slowly that there wasn't much chance of them catching it, and anyway they'd still be below the elevator platform if they did.

Which was probably why most of them turned away, roaring and howling and bellowing as they flooded down the subway tunnel leading to Vale, and after the train.

Gilda could only hope that her comrades on the train would be okay. And, as strange as it might sound, she hoped that Dash would be okay too. She might be the enemy, she might be a dog of the Atlesian military, she might have betrayed their friendship and not even mentioned Gilda to her knew friends – what was that about? – but she was still, in spite of all of that, Gilda's friend. She deserved better than to go out that way.

Nobody deserved to go out that way.

 _Stay safe,_ she thought, as she began to search for Adam. _Stay safe everyone, even you Dash._

It was a forlorn hope, and a stupid one at that, because there was no way that everyone was going to be safe, and if even a few survived it would be a miracle, but as she flew, the last living person in a city once more reclaimed by death and darkness, looking for the body of a great man for whom a decent burial was the last and only way she could yet serve him well, it was the only hope she had to cling to.

* * *

Sunset teleported onto the roof of the engine, at the very head of the train, wobbling a little as the train careened – somebody really had their foot on the accelerator, or whatever it was they used to get a train to speed up – down the track and down the tunnel heading for Vale.

She could hear the sounds of gunshots behind her, and she only needed to look around to see her team-mates and her friends still fighting their way to the front of the train to join her. Rainbow Dash, with her wings, was closest, but all of them were still a way off yet. The White Fang were not skilled, but they were numerous and they had deployed a lot of paladins to keep SAPR and RSPT from reaching the engine. Sheer numbers were turning it into a slog, which was why Sunset had teleported on up ahead, to the very front of the long, long (length being another reason it was taking a while) train. All she had to do now was actually get into the engine, hit the brake, and all the plans of Cinder Fall and the White Fang would come screeching to a literal halt.

The roaring of the horde of grimm who were chasing the train, a horde that had only gotten larger as the White Fang started blowing holes in the tunnel ceiling to let even more grimm drop through into the tunnel, echoed off the remaining walls of said tunnel as what was now an enormous mass of nearly every kind of grimm native to Vale chased them down the rail line.

The thought of what would happen if that horde of grimm caught up with them – as would inevitably happen if Sunset stopped the train – sent a shiver down her spine.

She wasn't a coward, no matter what Rainbow said, even if Rainbow had only said what she said as some kind of stupid joke. She wasn't a coward. She wasn't afraid to fight; she wasn't even afraid to die in a good cause.

But she was afraid, she was very much afraid, of losing all the people who mattered to her in one fell swoop.

Maybe it would be better to- no. No, she couldn't think that. The others, they were all so noble and determined to do the right thing no matter the circumstances; there was no way they'd ever forgive her if she did that. There was no way that they'd ever forgive her if she even suggested it.

She would have to stop the train, and take the consequences whatever they might be.

However dire they might be.

She swung down off the roof and onto the back of the engine. The cab itself was sealed off by a pair of very solid looking metal doors, but nobody seemed to have actually locked said doors and they opened as soon as Sunset pushed the green button on the right-hand side.

The armoured door – the pointless armoured door, unless there was a lock and somebody had just forgotten to engage it – slid open, to reveal a single faunus, an elephant perhaps, judging by the tusks growing out of his mouth, whom Sunset was quickly able to incapacitate with a single blast from her palm as he was turning around.

She strode into the compartment, leaving the door open behind her for her allies to join her, and in a few stride had made her way to the control panel at the front of the train. There were no windows, but a monitor connected to some cameras mounted to the front her showed her the monotonous tunnel before her as the train ate up the track with ravenous speed.

Sunset looked down at the complex controls, all the levers and buttons and dials spread out before her. Who knew that a train would be so complicated? She was expecting…start and stop, honestly; it wasn't as if this thing could be steered. There were a lot of readouts, speed and stability and so on, and what looked like even more indicator panels that weren't lit, possibly because nobody was in a station anywhere sending signals to the train.

Honestly, if Sunset hadn't spotted the red button marked 'EMERGENCY BRAKE' she wouldn't have known where to begin with stopping this thing. She wasn't sure that anybody other than the now absent Twilight would have had a clue.

 _Well, time to stop this train, I guess. Stop the train and…and take what comes._

 _Here goes._

Sunset's fingers moved gingerly towards the big red button on its yellow-and-black plate.

She hesitated. Her fingers stuck, trembling in place as though her fears had made manifest and grabbed her by the wrist to prevent her touch.

She didn't want to do this. She didn't want to stop this train.

But she had to. She had to because…because what else was she going to do? And how would she explain it.

She had to do this for the others. Even though it was for the others that she didn't want to do it at all.

Sunset breathed in and out. _I have to do this. If I don't do this they'll never forgive me._

 _They won't be around to-_

 _Look, one of them will get here themselves then they'll push the button so unless you want to have to explain why you stood here not pressing a button why don't you just push the damn thing and get it over with._

 _It's like getting an injection. It won't hurt as much as you're afraid it will._

Sunset's fingers shifted forward millimetre by painful millimetre.

"Congratulations, Sunset," Cinder's voice oozed out of a pair of speakers mounted to the front wall and into the compartment.

Sunset rolled her eyes. She guessed that under more normal circumstances the speakers that Cinder was using would be part of a system to communicate between the train and either the station or some kind of HQ, and therefore she spoke in the assumption that there was a microphone somewhere that would pick up her words. "Cinder, hi. You know, I'd complain that you weren't here to take me dancing but I'm kind of busy right now, so-"

"Oh, I know exactly what you're doing," Cinder said. "You're about to stop my train. And I put so much effort into getting it ready."

"How do you-" Sunset stopped, looking up. There were cameras mounted in the corners of the compartment ceiling. "Oh. Right. Did you call to beg me not interfere with your plans?" Strange, how much easier it was to banter with Cinder about stopping her plans than it was to actually stop Cinder's plans.

Cinder chuckled. "I don't beg, Sunset, not any more. And I don't need to ask for anything from you, because you're going to do exactly what I want anyway."

Sunset snorted. "Is that so? And why would I do that?"

Cinder was silent for a moment. "I confess that I've underestimated you. I never expected that you would actually defeat Adam, much less kill him. You're stronger than I thought you were, and with more of a dark side. I like it."

"I didn't kill him to impress you."

"You should be glad you did," Cinder said. "Otherwise I'd be very upset with you for breaking my toy, and after it was so much trouble for me to obtain him, too. I am curious, though. Why didn't you take his sword? I thought you wanted it for your wall."

Sunset scowled. She had wanted the sword, as much for her own piece of mind as anything else: so long as it was hanging on the wall of SAPR's dorm room it could never be wielded to hurt her or anyone else she cared about ever again.

But Blake had been so upset, so distraught over the fact that Adam was dead that, well…bad enough that Sunset had been the one to kill him but it had seemed like stealing his weapon from his cold dead hands might have been pushing it a little too far.

And besides, the more that Sunset had thought about it, the more that Sunset had looked at that blood-red blade lying abandoned and there for her to take, the less and less she'd found that she wanted it. It had been a wicked blade, the wicked blade of a wicked man, and it had tasted blood far more often than Sunset was really comfortable with. A huntsman's weapons reflected their owner, not just in being the weapon their master or mistress wanted to use but in a more ethereal sense too; your weapon was a conduit for your aura, and so it followed that as you used it you imbued your weapon with a bit of your soul. The soul that had been imbued into that red blade was as black as the grimm, and the more she thought about it the more Sunset realised that she wanted no part of that.

She had her magic, and she had her own weapons, that she had put her own soul into. She didn't need anything else.

"Things change," she muttered to Cinder. "Now, if you'll excuse me-"

"You do realise that you past the last subway station five minutes before you even got to the engine, don't you?" Cinder asked, as if that was a matter of little consequence. "There isn't any way out of the tunnel up ahead."

Sunset hadn't actually realised that, and the very fact of hearing it started turning her legs to ice, but she said nothing, if only to avoid giving Cinder the satisfaction of hearing it out of her mouth.

Cinder's laugh told her that she had guessed it anyway. "I imagine the grimm have flooded past it by now; they are so close behind you. If you stop the train now…how long do you think it will take before they'll all over you, and in such numbers? I suppose you could try and fight your way through, back to the subway, though you'll probably find that it will be quite a way on foot. Or you could make your stand right where you are, perhaps even try and barricade one of the compartments. But there are so many grimm so hot on your tail. Do you think that Pyrrha will scream as the grimm rip her limb from limb?"

"Cinder," Sunset growled.

"I bet Jaune is one of those boys who screams like a little girl when he gets hurt."

"Cinder."

"It's Ruby that I feel sorry for. For a life to be snuffed out so young-"

"SHUT UP!" Sunset yelled, because she didn't want to hear it, she didn't want to be encouraged to think it; she didn't want her imagination turned towards those images. But it was too late. She could already see it in her minds eye, all of it: Jaune crying for help as a beowolf closed its jaws around his foot and started dragging him towards its waiting pack-mates; Pyrrha's aura breaking as she tried to rescue him; all her friends dying in this tunnel with no way out as the grimm consumed them all.

Cinder's voice was smug. "You know, it doesn't have to be this way. Because there is one last way out of this: don't stop the train. Let it roll all the way to Vale, smash through that barrier and get off right in the middle of home."

"I can't do that."

"Of course you can. Just don't push the button. And make sure that nobody else can push it either."

"I can't," Sunset insisted. "The others-"

"They'll never know," Cinder said. "They're not here. There's nobody here but you and the sound of my voice. Nobody to see, nobody to judge, nobody to tell you that you're sense of morality is wrong or inferior or worthless.

"I know that you don't care about the Kingdom of Vale-"

"I'm not like you."

"Maybe you're not actively trying to burn it all down," Cinder replied. "But don't pretend that your heart is filled with love for mankind. I know there are only eight people in the world you care about and seven of them are on that train with you."

Sunset was silent for a moment. "It's…it's nine people actually. I made up with my ex."

"My point stands," Cinder said. "Seven eighths or seven ninths, what does it really matter? The point is they're all going to die…if you do the right thing as judged by the conventional morality of little men. So here's your choice, Sunset: you can do the right thing, and listen to your friends die while you wait for the grimm to reach you last of all…or you can be a queen like me, and do what you want, and make the choice that makes the most sense for you."

"A queen?" Sunset asked, as her hands shook.

Cinder chuckled. "Peasants are expected to sacrifice for the greater good," she explained. "Queens act in their own best interest."

Sunset's hands clenched into fists. Cinder was right. Curse her, but she was right. Sunset didn't care about the Kingdom of Vale; or, well, she might have cared a little, but it was such an abstract thing and filled with people who were as abstract concepts to Sunset compared to the people that she knew; the Kingdom was not a thing to set against the lives of her friends. She would not sacrifice Blake for Vale, or Pyrrha, or Ruby, or any of them. Certainly she would not sacrifice them all and all for what? For Vale? What was Vale to set against the lives of six good women and one good man and all so dear to her?

That…perhaps that was why, in the final analysis, she could not trust Ozpin as Pyrrha and Ruby could. She could not see the world as he did, nor would she want to. He would sacrifice Team SAPR to preserve the world…Sunset would sacrifice the world to preserve Team SAPR. Perhaps that made him the better man. Perhaps Sunset was the one who ought to be mistrusted by all and sundry. Certainly her friends would not agree with the worth she set upon their lives, and if they knew what she was about to do they would never forgive her.

But it was as Cinder said: here and now, in this place and at this time, there was no one to see and nobody to know.

She could not let them die. She could not bring her grim imaginings into the world. She would not condemn her friends to die in this dark and airless tunnel, subsumed beneath a tidal wave of hatred, merely for the sake of a place, a people, a mission, or even a cause.

 _May Celestia forgive me, for no one else will._

Sunset raised her free hand, and scoured the control panel with a beam of magical energy which she swept back and forth, destroying the controls and frying the circuits beneath them. There was no turning back now. There was no stopping. There were no brakes on this train any more.

And Cinder laughed. "Congratulations again, Sunset Shimmer; I knew that you'd make the…right choice."

"I did it for them, not for you," Sunset growled.

"Of course, of course," Cinder said soothingly. "Love is a weakness, Sunset. That's why you'll lose, if you stay on this path you're on. Until next time."

And then…silence.

 _I hate you, Cinder._

 _But at the same time…I want to thank you…you stopped me from something I would have regretted._

She stood, facing the monitor on the wall, watching as the train continued to speed along. All Vale's hopes now rested with Twilight and Professor Goodwitch…but at least SAPR and RSPT still had hope and life.

A sound made Sunset start. Was someone there? How long had they been there? What had they seen?

Sunset's stomach was icy cold with dread as she slowly turned around.

Rainbow Dash stood in the doorway, her wings folded up behind her. Sunset couldn't read her face. What had she heard? How much did she know?

Dash stepped inside the compartment. "So…they sabotaged the controls to stop us from stopping the train huh? That's…a real shame."

Sunset's eyes widened. Had Dash…had Rainbow now seen anything? Was it…was it safe, the secret of what she had done? It hardly seemed possible, considering…but then…

 _Is she…is she covering for me? Why would she do that?_

The mingling of surprise, astonishment and fear almost tied up her tongue too much to form words. She could barely force any of them out at all. "…Yeah."

Rainbow turned away, facing the door.

The others did, indeed, arrive soon enough after, turning up one after the other or in pairs, and when each one arrive Sunset watched their disappointment as they discovered that they would not, in fact, be able to break the train.

None of them seemed to realise that stopping the train would have meant their almost certain deaths at the hands of grimm innumerable. Or else they were simply all too heroic, too noble, too good and pure and wonderful to care about such petty things as life.

Nevertheless, their disappointed looks were like daggers through Sunset's heart. None more so than Ruby, who stared at the fried and useless controls with such a look of broken-hearted melancholy that one could almost think that she had longed for death.

And then her silver eyes widened with inspiration. "Pyrrha!" she cried. "Can you use your semblance to derail the train?"

 _Oh no. Oh no no no!_ Sunset raged within even as her tongue was so tied up and locked more securely than any bank vault to prevent her treacherous words from slipping out anywhere they might betray her. _No! No, you can't do this, you can't just…no!_

Pyrrha, her weapons slung across her back, raised her hands, almost seeming to study them. "I…I'm not sure. I've never tried to move anything this big before, but I suppose it's possible. Or I could get back up on the roof and try to bend the track or something so that the train derails."

 _All you had to do was say 'no'._

"That sounds pretty dangerous," Jaune said. "What happens to you when you're standing on top of a derailing train?"

"The same thing that's going to happen to the rest of us standing in here on a derailing train," Rainbow said.

"Really?" Jaune asked nervously.

"At this speed a collision will doubtless be very hazardous," Ciel observed.

"You might make it, with your aura levels," Rainbow said. "For the rest of us…"

 _You're making this sound so wonderful._

"We have to do it," Ruby insisted. "Even if it's dangerous, we have to. We have to stop this train before it reaches Vale; nothing else matters."

"Yes, it does," Blake said. "You can't derail the train at this speed, what about all the faunus who are still onboard? A crash will kill them all. Those who survive the accident will be devoured by the grimm."

Sunset felt as though the dark clouds of her personal sky were parting to admit a ray of light. Blake agreed with her. Blake agreed with her! And she had a non-selfish reason for it as well! She began to think that things might be okay after all.

"You were okay with braking the train," Rainbow observed.

"A brake, even an emergency brake, wouldn't kill everyone in every one of those railway cars," Blake replied. "Not like derailing at this speed will."

Ruby had Crescent Rose in her hands, though there wasn't room to properly extend it. Sunset wondered if she was contemplating jamming it through the wheels or something. "Blake…" she said, her voice quiet against the hammering sound of the train as it thundered down the track. "If the barrier gets breached…if the grimm get to Vale-"

"Then we'll stop them," Blake insisted. "We'll stop them together, all of us. But we don't need to become murderers or monsters in order to save Vale. There are still hundreds of faunus on this train and they're not…not everyone in the White Fang is Adam. Not everyone in the White Fang is a monster. They're not animals, they're people and we can't just kill them all just like that. We're better than that…aren't we?

"Please. Please, I'm begging you…don't do this. Not like this."

Her ears were drooped, her eyes were closed, her head was a little bowed and her hair was falling down over her shoulders.

"All those people," she said, sounding as though she might start sobbing again. "They're not bad people. They're misguided, and misled and mistaken and…but we're not, I mean they're not evil and you can't, I mean we can't-"

"Blake," Ruby murmured, putting Crescent Rose away, slinging it behind her back. "I…I understand. Do you really think that we can beat them if we get to Vale?"

"If Twilight warned General Ironwood in time you bet we can," Rainbow declared.

"There's a lot of grimm behind us," Ciel pointed out.

"There could be ten times as many grimm as there are behind us and Atlas will stop them anyway," Rainbow insisted.

Sunset nodded, but did not speak for fear that if she spoke she would sound too triumphant, and give herself away. Rainbow looked confident – it was nigh-impossible to tell with her whether she was putting up a front or not – Blake looked bleakly pleased that they wouldn't be committing mass murder of the faunus behind them, the ones now banging on the locked door into the control room. The others looked, at best, resigned to the situation, although no one else suggested that Blake was wrong and all the faunus deserved to die.

 _I would do the same again a hundred times,_ Sunset thought, in response to the looks of grim resignation on their faces. _If I must choose between you and Vale, between you and any kingdom, between you and all the kingdoms…I will choose you every time._

 _But I can't let you ever find that out._

 _May Celestia forgive me._

* * *

Author's Note: I hope that nobody is too disappointed that I didn't show the fight through the train, but after four chapters of fights and with the Breach coming up I didn't really want to nor feel the need to write another fight with a bunch of nameless White Fang goons and paladins.

On the other hand, I really wanted to write this chapter, and in particular the Sunset and Cinder bit, it's something I've been looking forward to for a while. I'll admit that it started out as a way to have my cake (get to write a version of the Breach, since as a scenario it's too cool to miss out) while not having the heroes seem like they failed to stop the train due to ineptitude.

I like it even more now, though, for what it says about Sunset's morality. It's been a while since we saw Sunset do anything really self-centred like this, but I don't think it's inconsistent (I really hope not, since this attitude will inform a lot of her decision-making during the Fall Maiden plot later on) since she's always put her team/friends first. I hope that this also contextualises some of Sunset's hostility towards Ozpin a little more: it's not that he's evil (although I'll admit that I was onboard the Evil!Ozpin train until volume 6) it's that he and Sunset just can't agree on what good looks like right now and Sunset, picking up on Ozpin's utilitarian big-picture morality, finds it off-putting because it threatens her deontological selfishness.


	96. Evacuation Order

Evacuation Order

General James Ironwood sat at his desk in his office aboard the _Valiant_ , reading through a report on some field exercises carried out in Atlas by the Fifth and Sixth Battalions. Even when he was in Vale, he was still the commander of the entire Atlesian military, and all the business of that vast, grand combined arms institution found its way eventually to his desk.

He was about to add his comments to the report – to the effect that the Sixth had done a lot better than they deserved and the Fifth had done much worse than they should have and a lot of that was down to the leadership of the opposing forces – when he was distracted by a ping from the _Valiant_ 's CIC; he pressed a button on the left-hand corner of his desk. "Ironwood."

"General, this is the bridge," the voice of Winter Schnee entered the ready room. "We're being hailed sir, it's Twilight Sparkle."

Ironwood sat up a little straighter at his desk; he was at once attentive and a little concerned, the latter because it was Twilight calling and not Rainbow Dash. "Comms to my location, Schnee."

"Yes sir."

A moment later and it was Twilight's voice that was floating into his office. "General? General Ironwood, can you hear me?"

Ironwood frowned. Not only was Twilight speaking in place of her team leader but Twilight sounded downright alarmed about something. He kept his own voice calm. "I'm here, Twilight; you're coming in loud and clear."

"Oh, thank goodness," Twilight sighed. "It's…it's good to hear your voice, sir."

"And better to hear yours," Ironwood said. "What's going on? Are you alright?"

"James, this is Glynda," Glynda said, cutting over Twilight on the line. "Can you get Professor Ozpin on the line; he needs to hear this information as much as you."

"Understood," Ironwood said. His organic hand curled into a fist on his knee. Whatever was going on, whatever they had to say, whatever had happened down in Mountain Glenn it was obviously not good news they had to share; a fact which did nothing to make him less anxious for the fate of Rainbow Dash, not to mention Penny and Ciel. He pressed the button to hail the CIC again. "Bridge, this is General Ironwood, I need Professor Ozpin patched in immediately."

"Affirmative, sir."

There was a moment's delay before the projector on Ironwood's desk automatically turned on, projecting the face of Professor Ozpin on the holographic screen, looking ever so slightly down upon the seated Ironwood.

The old man smiled genially. "James. Always a pleasure to see you."

"It's good to hear your voice, Professor," Glynda said.

Ironwood would give Ozpin this: he had one hell of a poker face. He didn't react at all to the sound of Glynda's voice. "Glynda. Likewise. Am I to take it that you're mission in Mountain Glenn was concluded and you are on your way back?"

"You're half right, Professor," Glynda said, sounding a little weary. "We are on our way back, but the mission is not over yet. And it may end in a massive grimm attack into the heart of Vale itself."

Professor Ozpin nodded, looking for all the world as though this was not news to him at all. He really would be terrible to play cards against. It was a good thing, Ironwood reflected, that he was not a gambling man. "Perhaps you'd better explain a little further," Ozpin said.

"We've recovered Fluttershy and Applejack, sir, unharmed," Twilight put in. "And Adam Taurus…he's dead, but…"

"I'm afraid that Torchwick and Neo escaped custody," Glynda admitted.

"That is unfortunate," Ozpin said. "But I daresay that we'll muddle through. I confess that it is your warning that concerns me more. Please go on."

"The White Fang," Twilight said. "There is a base in Mountain Glenn, or at least there was, they were packing it up last time I saw it so I don't know if it's still there or how long it will take them to actually move the base and then there's the grimm-"

"Twilight," Ironwood said firmly. "Calm down. Focus."

He could hear Twilight's breathing on the other side of the line. "Right. Sorry. Focus. Focus."

"Perhaps you'd better explain, Glynda?" Ozpin suggested.

"The White Fang plan to use the old Mountain Glenn subway tunnel," Glynda said. "They have a train prepared, and they mean to smash through the barrier into Vale, leading grimm behind them. The stolen dust has been placed into explosives to open up the tunnel and admit more grimm."

"Gods," Ironwood murmured.

Ozpin closed his eyes. He seemed to age ten or even twenty years in that single moment. "The Mountain Glenn subway. Of course. I should have known. Why didn't I see?"

"Twilight," Ironwood said. "Where's Rainbow Dash? Where's the rest of the expedition?"

Twilight was silent for a moment. "Trying to stop the train, sir. But I don't know if they'll do it and even if they do…with so many grimm after them…they ordered me to leave, sir, Rainbow ordered me and I didn't want to go but-"

"Rainbow Dash did the right thing," Ironwood said. It was a noble thing to die for Atlas, and sometimes it was an unfortunate necessity to do that noble thing, but it would be pointless for one of the brightest minds in the Kingdom to throw her life away in such a place. "Come home, Twilight. Return to the _Valiant_ at best speed."

"Yes, sir," Twilight said, her voice subdued.

"Glynda, once you land I'll have another ship take you to Beacon," Ironwood said.

"Thank you, James."

"General," Twilight said. "If…if they do stop the train then-"

"Then we'll get them out," Ironwood said. "You have my word on that: no one left behind."

"Thank you, sir, that means a lot to hear you say it," Twilight said. "But…if they don't stop it…"

"Then we'll take care of it," Ironwood assured her. "You've done well, Twilight. Now come home, and leave the rest to us."

"Glynda, we will speak more on your return," Ozpin said. "As I'm sure you understand, I have preparations to make."

"Of course, Professor. I hope to see you soon."

"Likewise."

"Goodbye, sir."

"Goodbye, Twilight," Ironwood said. "Ironwood out." He severed the connection, leaving only Ozpin on the line, his head bowed and his eyes closed.

"I have grown old, James," Ozpin admitted. "When I was a younger man I would have seen this coming."

"We don't have time for self-doubt, Oz," Ironwood said. "Not until we've settled this."

"I sent Summer's only child into desperate peril from which she may not return," Ozpin said. "I risked my Fall candidate and for what? For something I should have seen the moment I heard the name Mountain Glenn. Is it just that this body is old or are all my years catching up to me?"

"Oz!" Ironwood said loudly. "We don't have time for this. And besides, don't count our teams out just yet. Give them the credit they deserve."

Ozpin was silent for a moment, before a slight smile creased his aged face. "Yes. Yes, of course, you are right, James; we are talking about a collection of exceptionally talented students. And you are even more right that I have no time to doubt myself. I must inform the Council at once. No doubt they will petition your assistance as soon as they learn the news."

"I hope they won't mind me anticipating their request. Oz, where does the subway tunnel come out?"

Ozpin considered for a moment. "When the tunnel was sealed, the external entrance was collapsed and built over. It's a plaza now: Lost Valley Square."

Ironwood snorted. "An appropriate name considering you seemed to want to forget everything about Mountain Glenn's existence. Tell the Council they need to evacuate the entire area, at least until we're sure that the grimm aren't going to break through."

"My thoughts exactly," Ozpin replied. "But you know that the panic of an evacuation will attract grimm in the skies and to the edges of the city."

"Leave that to me," Ironwood said. "I'll commence my deployments and speak to the Atlas council." He couldn't resist adding. "It seems my forces might be of some use after all."

"If you want to say 'I told you so' James, just say it," Ozpin said. "Smugness doesn't become a man in your position."

Ironwood held up his organic hand. "Forgive me."

"There's nothing to forgive; in your position I doubt that I'd be able to restrain myself either," Ozpin said. "Good luck, James; I'll call back once I've spoken to the Council."

"I look forward to it," Ironwood said. "Good luck, Professor."

Ozpin was silent for a moment. "You know, I cannot help thinking that our good wishes would be better given to our young men and women who will – who are already – bearing the brunt of this battle."

Ironwood got to his feet. "They're never far from my mind, Oz. We'll speak again soon. Ironwood out."

He cut off contact, before Ozpin could say any more. He clasped both his hands together, and clenched them tightly in controlled irritation.

 _I warned you this would happen. I told you she was coming for us. Right into the heart of Vale._

He couldn't help but wonder if his adversaries – Cinder Fall, or perhaps even Salem herself – knew something that he didn't. It seemed such a quixotic venture, even with the element of surprise on their side did they really think that a single attack would bring down the entire kingdom? Did they really think that they would be able to get past his fleet?

Did they have something up their sleeves that he didn't know about yet? Something his people hadn't seen?

Ironwood shook his head. He had told Ozpin that they didn't have the luxury of doubt and he'd meant it. He couldn't worry that he might be playing into the hands of the enemy, he couldn't plan based on what ifs or maybes, he couldn't look for the worst. He could only analyse the information in front of him, and act upon it.

And the information before him said that Vale was in danger, and his soldiers were needed to defend it.

 _Rainbow, Ciel, Penny; if the Gods give a damn I hope they're watching over you._

He strode out of his office, briskly – and a little brusquely – returning the salute of the guard outside, and made his way swiftly onto the bridge. The door slid open to admit him onto the _Valiant_ 's CIC.

"General on deck!"

The call, accompanied by a shrill whistle from the Petty Officer standing just beside the door, brought everyone on the bridge out of their seats and standing to attention, all their eyes turned towards him.

"Easy, ladies and gentlemen," Ironwood said, walking towards the port display readouts, where a map of Remnant displayed the locations of major Atlesian military units and bases, side-by-side with a man of the city of Vale and its immediate environs, as well as any grimm activity (no major concentrations yet) as well as a pair of lines, one green and one red, that marked the rough location of a pair of incomplete lines of fortifications planned, but never completed, to protect Vale from Grimm attack.

They still marked the best locations to stop any grimm attack on the perimeter dead, with the Green line being farther out and the Red line intended as more of a fallback position. Of course it wasn't the enemy's plan to assault the Green Line, but Oz was right: the panic cause by an evacuation of the threatened city districts would attract more grimm not just through the tunnels but overland and through the air.

 _First things first._

"Bring the ship to general quarters," Ironwood said, without turning away from the maps. "Signal the fleet to do likewise. This is not a drill, people, the Kingdom of Vale is about to come under grimm attack and we must be ready when it does."

"Yes, sir," a female lieutenant manning one of the stations acknowledged. Nobody questioned his orders, nobody asked why he thought there was about to be a grimm attack on Vale; they simply obeyed his orders and trusted that he knew something they didn't. "Signalling the fleet now. General Quarters; all hands, the ship is now going to General Quarters: all personnel to your stations and prepare for enemy contact. Fore and up on the starboard side, down and aft on the port side. Load all weapons and prepare all aircraft for immediate take-off. Security teams stand by to repel boarders. Marines stand-by for ground deployment. Prep all medical bays to receive casualties. The ship is going to General Quarters, this is not a drill. Repeat, this is not a drill."

The warning klaxon rang throughout the ship.

"Open a line to the _Gallant_ ," Ironwood said.

"Aye aye, sir." There was a moment's pause. "Channel open."

"Commander Rouge, this is General Ironwood, do you read me?"

"Loud and clear, sir," replied the voice of Commander Horatia Rouge, CO aboard the _Gallant_.

"I want you to take your ship and the _Resolution_ to Mountain Glenn immediately; you may find the White Fang attempting to retreat. Engage the enemy if present but do not pursue. Secure access to the tunnels beneath the city and reconnoitre in force: their may be Atlesian and Valish huntsmen trapped in the main subway tunnel to Vale, recovery and rescue is top priority. Acknowledge." He was taking a bit of a risk on this, a more cautious commander would have recalled the two ships he had sent out – half of his Fourth battle squadron, nearly a quarter of his fleet – to Vale at best speed to bolster his forces for when or if the grimm attack materialised. Certainly if it had only been a case of possibly pounding on the White Fang as they tried to run he wouldn't have bothered. But he had given his word to Twilight, and even if he had not it wasn't in his nature to abandon his troops in a situation like this.

If Dash and the others did succeed in stopping the train, then he wasn't about to leave them in that tunnel to die.

All they had to do was hold on until rescue arrived.

"Acknowledged, General. Laying in a course now."

"Godspeed, Commander. Ironwood out." Ironwood took pause for a moment, studying the map and visualising in his mind's eye what it actually looked like in terms of streets, hills, forests, rivers. "Signal the _Endeavour_ : First Squadron is to move out to the Green line and begin deploying the First Battalion and all androids in defensive positions to receive grimm attack. Deploy air patrols and hold remaining aircraft in reserve. Signal the _Courageous_ and _Vigilant_ to deploy the remaining troops of Second Battalion in a perimeter closing off…a nine block radius around Lost Valley Square, but to hold their androids in reserve until I give the order to deploy them. The ships are to hold position over the heads of the troops on either side of the perimeter."

"Understood, sir."

"And get the Atlas Council on the line," Ironwood said. "They're going to need to know about this too."

* * *

"Who's a good boy?" Nora cooed, as she tossed a tasty treat through the air and watched as Zwei leapt up to catch it. "You are! Oh, you're such a good boy I want you to stay forever!"

Zwei barked happily.

"Don't feed him too much, Nora," Yang said, looking over her shoulder from where she was loading her Ember Celica. "He'll get too fat to hunt."

Zwei barked indignantly.

"Not to mention," Ren pointed out. "That I brought those snacks for our mission."

"Oh, there'll be something to eat once we get to the village," Nora declared dismissively. Her eyes widened. "There will be something to eat once we get to the village, won't there?"

"Something to eat, sure," Yang said, putting on her gauntlets. "Snacks? I wouldn't be so sure. These out of the way villages don't get deliveries from MegaMall."

"Well why didn't you tell me that before?" Nora demanded of Ren.

"I did," Ren replied calmly. "More than once."

The tannoy blared into the dorm room, and presumably across all the dorm rooms. "Will all team leaders please report to the auditorium immediately," Professor Port's rich, fruity voice echoed into the room.

Yang shared a look with Nora and Ren. "What do you suppose that's about?"

Nora shrugged. "Maybe the headmaster thought of a better speech to give."

"I don't think that's likely," Ren said quietly.

"Well, I guess there's only one way to find out," Yang said. "Look after Zwei until I get back."

She left Nora giving her family dog a belly-rub as she left the dorm room and joined the flood of other team leaders likewise leaving their dorm rooms and making their way to the auditorium. If Yang had wondered at first why it was only leaders being summoned, instead of whole teams, then the crowded state of the room when she got there gave her all the answer that she needed: with Beacon playing host to the Atlas, Shade and Haven students for the Vytal festival, there was no way that every single student would have been able to get in for whatever it was that they were needed in here for. Even with only team leaders it was a tight squeeze, and Yang had to try and find a way through the press as she looked for a familiar face.

"Hey, Yang!" Sun called, waving his hand in the air to get her attention.

Yang squeezed through the crowd of her fellow team leaders to reach the casually dressed leader of Team SSSN. "Hey, Sun. How's it going?"

"Not bad," Sun said. "We start our mission today. Check this out." He flashed a copper badge at her as though it was the coolest thing in the world.

"Junior detective, nice," Yang said, with only a little sarcasm. "We're heading out to spend a week shadowing the sheriff of a village out beyond the boundary. We leave tomorrow. Or at least…we were supposed to."

"Yeah," Sun murmured. "You don't know what's up with this either?"

"Not a clue," Yang said.

"Thank you all for coming," Professor Ozpin said, as he strode briskly onto the stage. "I apologise for the somewhat cramped conditions. Be assured that I'll be keeping this brief." He spoke quickly, his tone having lost a little of its usual languor. Yang couldn't help but wonder if something was up that had him rattled.

"The Council of Vale has just declared a State of Emergency," Professor Ozpin said, thus giving Yang the answer that she'd been looking for, even if it wasn't the answer she wanted. All around her the team leaders began to mutter to one another, but Professor Ozpin's voice rose above them all. "And has ordered – quiet, please – an evacuation of Districts Eighteen and Thirty-Six. They have also requested – and I have promised – the full cooperation of Beacon Academy and its students."

"Does this mean that the grimm are attacking?" Sun whispered.

"Can't be," Yang replied out of the corner of her mouth. "District Eighteen is inner city, that's nowhere near the outskirts."

"I am afraid that, as of now, all field missions are cancelled until further notice," Professor Ozpin went on. "Instead, you will all be assisting in the evacuation efforts, ensuring that the streets are clear, that everyone has gotten out of their homes and is making their way safely to designated shelters, that nobody is getting lost or hurt and that all panic is kept to an absolute minimum. Remember: you are representing not only your academies, but also your kingdoms, so put on a friendly face for the people and make sure they feel safe."

Yang raised her hand above the crowd.

Professor Ozpin looked at her for a moment. "Yes, Miss Xiao-Long?"

"Should we bring our weapons, Professor?" Yang asked, partly because it was a question that she felt she needed an answer to and partly because what that answer was would tell her a lot about what the headmaster wasn't saying.

Professor Ozpin was silent for a moment. "You should ensure that your teams are fully equipped for the field, yes," he said, causing another round of murmurs and mutters to run through the leaders gathered in the auditorium, because you didn't weapons for just a community outreach exercise.

 _I don't know what's going on, but I know it isn't a gas leak,_ Yang thought.

It wasn't that she didn't trust the headmaster, it was more…honestly, it was more that when she thought of what he'd gotten Ruby involved in she wanted to punch him a couple of times and ask him what he'd been thinking of. Ruby was just a kid. A kid who didn't need to have the weight of the world put on her shoulders by someone else because she was already far too willing to put it there herself.

He might have the best intentions. He might even be trying to save the world, and that was cool and all, but Ruby was her sister. Her only and her favourite little sister, and that meant…well, couldn't he have found someone else? Couldn't he have asked her to join in his secret club, so that Ruby could be the one worrying about her and not the other way around?

Was Ruby involved in this? Yang had no proof – and Professor Ozpin certainly wasn't going to enlighten her – but something in her gut, some kind of sisterly feeling, suggested that she might be.

She didn't know how but…she couldn't shake it.

"Please report to Professor Port or Doctor Oobleck," Professor Ozpin said, gesturing to the two teachers standing beside him at the edge of the stage. "Who will give you an area of the affected districts to cover. Please brief your teams – I regret that I am unable to address everyone properly – and…" he paused for a moment, and in that moment he almost seemed regretful about something. "And good luck out there. I know that you won't let your schools, your kingdoms, or yourselves down."

* * *

"Forgive my lateness, gentlemen," Cadance said as she strode into the Council Chamber. "The traffic was particularly bad."

The chamber in which the Atlesian council met to debate, discuss and ultimately govern the nation was a semi-circular one, and at this moment dimly lit with only a few green footlights to provide illumination as Cadance climbed up onto the dais. Said dais took up the north side of the chamber, with a semi-circular table of pristine white set upon it, glowing faintly in the low light. The flat and southern side of the chamber was taken up with an enormous screen which, at this particular point, was displaying two images side by side. One was of General Ironwood, his head and shoulders taking up almost the entire frame (although it was just possible to make out that he was on the bridge of one of his warships), every line of his chiselled features on display; Cadance had often considered that the commander of the Atlesian forces and headmaster of Atlas Academy seemed to have been fashioned out of some kind of heavy wood; there was a solid and reliable quality about him that represented the very best of the Atlesian military.

The other image, to the General's left, displayed representatives of the Vale council. Like their Atlesian counterparts they sat in near darkness, the better to see the screen that doubtless took up a wall of their chamber in turn. It made some of their features a little difficult to make out, their faces shrouded in shadow. Cadance wondered if she and her Atlesian colleagues looked the same way to them in Vale.

"Councillor Cadenza," General Ironwood acknowledged her with a nod of his head. "It's good to see you again."

"Likewise, General," Cadance said as she sat down, smoothing out her navy blue skirt with her hands as she did so. "Would somebody mind filling me in on anything that I've missed?"

"As I was just informing the council," General Ironwood said. "We have received credible intelligence that an effort is underway by the White Fang to breach the defences of Vale and introduce a large body of grimm into the city."

Cadance couldn't wholly restrain the gasp of shock that rose to her lips.

"We are of course preparing a response, and have requested the assistance of General Ironwood and his forces in the city," one of the Vale councillors, a man with a slightly nasal-sounding voice, said. "Any further assistance that you can supply at this time would be most welcome."

Cadance placed her hands on the white table. It was cool beneath her palms. "It seems so incredible that even the White Fang would try to do this; General, can you say where this intelligence has come from?"

General Ironwood was silent for a moment. "We received a message from the insurrectionist Cinder Fall, a message in which she…invited us to Mountain Glenn. Discussion with the criminal Roman Torchwick further suggested that there might be a White Fang base in the area."

"Sounds like a trap," drawled Chancellor Bradley, head of the council, from where he sat at the centre of the curving table.

"Nevertheless," General Ironwood said. "Rather than risk the consequences of ignoring this, Professor Ozpin and I despatched a joint reconnaissance expedition, consisting of the Valish Team Sapphire, the Atlesian Team Rosepetal, and ancillary Blake Belladonna to investigate. Elements of that expedition have now reported back-"

"Hold the phone just one second!" Bradley exclaimed, waving one meaty fist in the direction of the Vale council. "Bob, put those Vale folks on two-way mute for one hot minute."

"Yes, sir," the clerk of the council said. "They can't hear you, sir."

"General, do you mean to tell me that you sent our prototype weapons system into a god-damn trap?" Bradley yelled. "What in God's name were you thinking?"

Cadance was almost inclined to wonder that herself, although in her case her concern was more for Twilight than for Penny. What had General Ironwood been thinking, sending Twilight into such a situation?

And what had he meant when he said that 'some elements' of the expedition had reported back with information about a grimm attack on Vale? What about the other elements that had not reported back? Where they lost? Was Twilight…the mere thought was enough to chill Cadance's heart, and the thought of how her husband would take it…Shining Armour loved his sister so much, if any harm came to her…it would haunt them both until the end of their days.

 _Please, let it not be so._

"I was thinking that this situation required the best I could find," General Ironwood said. "I believe the fact that they have uncovered the enemy plot in time for us to take steps to thwart it bears out my decision and my assessment of the abilities of my team."

"Events are not sufficiently far along to judge the consequences of your actions, General Ironwood," Bradley replied. "Either for your team, for the city, or for your career for that matter."

"General," Cadance said. "What…" she took a moment to collect herself. It wouldn't do – nor would it do much for her standing on the council – if she yelled out 'what do you know about Twilight? Is she okay?' much as she might want to. She smoothed out her skirt again, and with one hand slightly adjusted her jacket. "What is the status of the team you sent to Mountain Glenn?"

"Tech Specialist Twilight Sparkle has returned, along with two Atlesian citizens rescued from White Fang captivity," General Ironwood said, and the barely perceptible nod that he gave her showed that he had picked up on her relief at hearing that. "According to her report, the rest of the expedition was attempting to halt the train by which the enemy plans to smash through the Mountain Glenn barrier, but success was not guaranteed."

"So in other words you have no way of knowing if our investment is still operable," said Bradley.

General Ironwood clenched his jaw. "Penny's survival at the present time is neither guaranteed nor determined."

 _Bradley speaks of her as a thing, Ironwood as a girl._

 _A girl he sent into battle and war. As we send so many of our girls and boys._

 _As I sent Twilight, so whom am I to judge._

"While Vale can't hear us," one of the other councillors said. "Perhaps we should discuss the wisdom of retreat at this time."

"Retreat?" General Ironwood said, as a frown disfigured his face. "Councillor, Vale has requested our assistance."

"Which does not bind us to give it to them."

"That is a point," Bradley said. "If the grimm do overrun Vale, and we lose all our forces and our young students in the city for the Vytal Festival, we will have ground the seedcorn of our nation to no good purpose."

"Councillors, I have no intention of losing this battle," General Ironwood declared. "Preparations are well underway, even if the grimm do break through into Vale I will give them a shock that they will not see coming and I promise that it will be the last thing they see. Once the evacuation of the danger zone is complete then my forces will be able to hammer the grimm from the skies before putting down any that remain."

"At what cost?" Bradley asked. "If the grimm break through it may be that we have lost one of the most expensive toys ever designed by Atlas? How many other investments must be wasted to defend Vale?"

"What cost to our reputation, Chancellor, if we turn and run?" Cadance asked. She leaned forward so that she could get a better look at the heavyset man in the central chair, then rose to her feet so that all could see her and she could speak without looking so awkward. "If we abandon Vale why should Mistral or Vacuo ever trust us again?"

Bradley looked at her for a moment. "Councillor Cadenza, perhaps you might like to clarify?"

"The alliance of the four kingdoms is founded upon the strength of Atlas," Cadance said. "We protect the world and in so doing maintain its harmony. We make sacrifices for the sake of others, and those are sacrifices that we make willingly because we believe in what we're doing for the good of Remnant and because we know that nobody else would take up the sword and shield that we set down. Nobody else would aid their neighbours as we do.

"We are the shield of Remnant. We have taken up that duty before the world. But that shield will be broken the moment that the world finds out that we turned our back on Vale when it needed us the most.

"Everything depends on the strength of Atlas: the single market, the world economy, peace and harmony and life itself. Do we really dare put all of that at risk because we're afraid? Because we're afraid of a battle that our own commander assures us can be won?"

Bradley was quiet for a moment. "We do trade a great deal with Vale. If we lost that I suppose I'd have old Jacques Schnee hollerin' in my ear about all the lien he's lost. He might even be a little worried about his kid, too. You really think you can win this, General?"

"Yes, Chancellor."

"Cheaply?"

"As cheaply as possible, Chancellor."

"Then you'd better do it then," the Chancellor said. "If you need reinforcements from nearby units you can drawn on them. Up to you. Bob, put the sound to Vale back on so we can assure them of our complete the unconditional support in this time of great crisis."

General Ironwood glanced at Cadance as she sat down. He didn't say anything, but his eyes told her 'thank you'.

* * *

"Due to the state of emergency," the announcement floated out across the street over the public address system. The voice was somewhat female with a hint of the robotic about it, with a stilted and stuttering delivery that came from having each word individually recorded before a computer somewhere stitched them together to form the desired sentence. You could hear the automation in every awkward pause or inappropriate tone or cadence. "All citizens are required to evacuate this district. Please make your way to the nearest shelter outside the quarantine zone in a calm and orderly fashion. If the nearest shelter is at full occupancy, please find the nearest shelter with spare capacity. There is no need to panic. Your safety is in good hands."

At this particular moment, as she listened to the address for what must have been the sixth or seventh time as it repeated at intervals, Weiss wished that everyone could just believe that.

Specifically, she wished the crotchety old woman stubbornly ensconced in her enormous armchair in the living room of her house would believe it.

"Ma'am," she said, ever so slightly through gritted teeth because she wasn't used to having to call anyone ma'am. "You're the last person on this street to evacuate-"

"I told you, I ain't leaving," the old woman squawked in an accent thick enough to saw through wood. "I've lived in this house for nearly fifty years and ain't nobody gonna turn me out of it."

"Ugh," Weiss sighed. "Nobody is trying to take your house away…ma'am." She took a deep breath, and tried to remember what Professor Ozpin had said about being nice to the populace. _Calm. Control. Dignified, as a Schnee should be._ That was harder when she could sense the mixture of awkwardness and amusement coming from her team-mates. _I swear, if Russell starts laughing I'm going to learn to summon just so I sic a beowolf on him._ "But the Council has ordered a mandatory evacuation-"

"I don't need no government telling me what to do. When I was a girl, people used to pull their weight instead of relying on handouts from the Council. Well you can tell everybody that I'm not moving no matter what they say. The moment I get out of here the neighbours are going to come in and still all my stuff."

Weiss couldn't imagine why anybody would want to steal the chintzy, tacky baubles that this woman was displaying her home. "Ma'am, your neighbours have all evacuated already-"

"That's what they want you to think. They're watching me. They're always watching me and the moment I'm gone they'll be right back here. They're faunus, you know what I'm saying?"

"Yep, I do, I just don't care," Cardin declared, as he stepped forward and scooped the old woman up in his arms, flinging her over his shoulder in a fireman's lift. "Come on, grandma. Let's get you out of here."

"Hey!" the woman squawked. "Hey, you can't do this! Put me down you big palooka!" she beat at his back with her fists, but between his armour and his aura Cardin didn't seem to feel it at all.

"Cardin," Weiss said.

Cardin looked at her, his face inquisitive.

Weiss sighed. "Thank you. Take her to the nearest shelter that has room for her. Russell, go with him. Flash, you and I will do one last sweep of the street."

"Okay," Flash said.

They left the house together, and then Weiss and Flash watched as Cardin carried the still shrieking, still beating, still vainly protesting old lady down the road in the direction of the roadblock being set-up by the Atlesian military and Vale police.

Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose. "There's a reason I requested the mission doing wall repairs on the red line."

"And it wasn't because you like walls, I take it?" Flash asked, as a smile played across his face.

"Walls I can take or leave," Weiss said. "People on the other hand…"

Flash laughed. "I think we ran into one of the more extreme cases."

"The more extreme cases seem to show up with an uncommon regularity," Weiss replied. "Or else I just run into more than my fair share."

She looked down the street that Team WSTW had been assigned to take care of during the evacuation. It was empty, everyone else having already cleared out and headed for the shelters some time ago, with only that one particularly recalcitrant woman having remained.

The street was empty, and yet it still bore so many signs of life. The evacuation order had come so swiftly and so suddenly that the street still bore evidence of what people had been doing when the order came: a couple of toy trucks, the ones that small children could ride on top of, abandoned in the middle of the road; a summer barbecue on a front lawn, smoking as the unattended hot dogs burned atop the grill; a clown car parked outside of someone else's house and a birthday banner strung over the front door.

Flash saw the way Weiss' gaze was pointed. "I don't think I ever had a clown for my birthday party. You?"

"At my birthday party," Weiss said. "I sang for my father's guests." Father had always treated her birthdays more as opportunities to show off his wealth and influence as a host than to celebrate her advancing years. At last year's ball, supposedly in honour of her sixteenth birthday, he had spent the entire night finalising arrangements for the Paladin contract, a present more valuable than anything she had received.

"Right," Flash murmured, sounding embarrassed, as though he was afraid that he had upset her by bringing up the subject. "I didn't-"

"I know," Weiss said quickly. "It's fine."

They walked down the street in silence for a few moments, before Flash said. "So, what do you think is going on here? The evacuation, and the military and…what does it mean?"

"I wish I knew," Weiss said, and she meant that most sincerely. She might try and wrangle the truth out of Winter later. "And if I find out I'll let you know."

Flash smiled. "Does your sister in the military make a habit of spilling secrets to you?"

Weiss sniffed. "Please. Winter is a thoroughgoing professional."

"Which means it only happens sometimes."

Weiss' lips twitched upwards ever so slightly. "It has been known to happen, once or twice." _Hopefully she'll indulge my curiosity this time._

Flash nodded. "I just hope…"

"What?"

"I hope it's nothing too serious," Flash said. "I'd like it to be nothing but…doesn't it remind you of, I don't know, a terrorist attack or something?"

Weiss was silent for a moment, considering what he'd said. What he'd said, the more she considered, made a lot of sense. "You think it might be a bomb?"

"It feels too big," Flash said. "Have you ever heard of such a large evacuation because of a bomb threat? And troops setting up a perimeter? Why not just send in disposal? But then…what else could it be?"

Weiss hardly wanted to consider some of the more dangerous possibilities. "I'm not sure," she admitted. "But we've done our job, and ensured that this whole area has been evacuated to safety, which means that we should probably-"

She was interrupted by the shaking of the earth, and by a thundering sound so loud and so immense that she thought it must have been a bomb after all, because what else could have made such a sound.

A pillar of smoke began to rise from the centre of the evacuation area, and the warning klaxons began to sound.

Flash stared, wide-eyed, at the pillar of smoke. "No," he muttered. "No, not again!"

He started to run towards the explosion.

"Wait, Flash!" Weiss yelled. "What are you doing?"

"People might…I can't just do nothing!" Flash replied, half-turning back to look at her for a moment before he started to run again.

 _Of course, the Mantle bombing._ Weiss remembered now. He'd told her.

She conjured up a line of speed glyphs down the road, and glided swiftly and effortlessly over them until she'd caught up with him, at which point she was able with just a little effort to match his pace.

He looked down at her. "You don't have to come with me."

"Yes, I do," Weiss informed him. "Because you're my partner."

* * *

Sun's tail snaked out to snag the blue stuffed rabbit that had been dropped on the kerb. "Hey, kid," he called, attracting the attention of the little girl with a bow in her hair from whose backpack he had seen the toy fall. He smiled, and waved the rabbit back and forth with his tail. "Does this little guy belong to you?"

Her eyes lit up. "Thanks, Mister!" she cried, as she took the stuffed animal back with both hands.

Her mother thanked him too, before she took her daughter – whom she chided for dropping the toy in the first place – by the hand and continued to lead her away.

Sun's gaze travelled naturally upwards from the mother and daughter evacuating with the rest of the crowd streaming down the street towards the Atlesian forces setting up at the end of said street, where the block finished and the east-west road intersected with another travelling north-south. There were a couple of VPD vans, out of which he'd already seen emerge cops in tactical gear, but they were taking second place behind the Atlesian infantry who were waving the civilians through an ever shrinking width of road as they set up metallic barricades to block increasing amounts of it off. The barricades were a little taller than a man, and though he – and most huntsmen he knew – could have leapt them without much effort, they might have made you feel better if a beowolf or a boarbatusk was coming down the street towards you.

But that was ridiculous. How were grimm going to get into the middle of Vale?

So what were the barricades for?

What was any of this for?

It was starting to make Sun's tail itch.

He turned away, and sauntered over to where Neptune had just finished helping an old man up off the ground.

"Are you going to be okay? You sure? You take care now," Neptune said, as the old fellow resumed walking. He glanced at Sun. "So, how's it going?"

Sun shrugged. "You tell me, man; I mean, what are we even doing out here?"

"We're making sure that everyone evacuates, and nobody gets hurt," Neptune said. "Or panics, I guess."

Sun looked out over the crowd. Nobody was _panicking_ panicking like 'aaah, we're all gonna die!', but everyone looked worried about all this, even the kids.

Sun Wukong was a big believer in the ability of a smile and a positive attitude to get you where you wanted to do, but even he had his limits.

"We're doing an okay job," Neptune said, as if he could read his partner's thoughts. Maybe he could, he was really cagey about what his semblance was. Sage said it was Neptune's ability to charm women with such ease, but Sun was almost sure that that wasn't it.

Although he would have been a little jealous if it turned out to be true. There were times he wished that he had a semblance like that. Maybe Blake would pay him a little more attention if he did.

"I hope she's okay," he murmured.

"What?" Neptune said. "Who?"

"Blake," Sun said, as though that were obvious. "I hope she gets back and can explain why all this. It'll totally turn out to be a big misunderstanding, you'll see."

Neptune frowned. "You think Blake has something to do with this?"

"Duh!" Sun said. "Blake was doing something secret, and now secret stuff is going on! It makes perfect sense!"

Neptune stared at him for like a minute or something. "I don't think that's how correlation works, and anyway-"

Neptune was shaken on his feet by a tremor that ripped through the earth with a rumble like a famished stomach, shaking people left and right as they cried out in alarm.

"Look!" someone shouted, pointing to the centre of the quarantine zone. A column of black smoke was rising into the sky, and the alarms were starting to blare out in warning.

"What's going on?"

"Are we under attack?"

"What should we do?"

"Hey, everybody, calm down!" Sun yelled. He leapt nimbly onto the top of a lamppost, stuck his fingers in his mouth, and gave a shrill whistle to attract attention. "There is no need to panic." He flashed his badge. "The junior detectives are on the case. Now, keep moving straight to the shelters like they told you to, and my partner and I are gonna go check that out and make sure that everything is safe okay? Okay." Sun leapt off the streetlight and landed on his feet beside Neptune. "Come on, dude."

"So…we're heading towards the danger?"

"Of course we are," Sun said. "Blake's over there."

* * *

Team YR_N, or perhaps the addition of Zwei made them Team YRZN for now, had been assigned to oversee and assist in the evacuation of Lost Valley Square, in the very centre of the zone that the council had decided to evacuate. Yang had wondered why you needed to specially evacuate a shopping plaza, until she actually got there and found a few mom and pop stores whose owners lived overhead. But there still weren't many actual residents, and the shoppers were very easy to convince to cut their trips short and return to their homes outside the…Yang didn't want to call it a danger zone, but at the same time she didn't really know what else to call it. You didn't order an evacuation if there wasn't danger, right?

But whatever you wanted to call it, most people left pretty willingly once the loudspeakers started to broadcast, which meant that Yang and her team were actually wrapped up pretty early.

They could, and maybe – probably – should have gone back to the perimeter to see if there was anything else that they could do; but something made Yang stay. Some kind of instinct, the same gut feeling that told her Ruby was involved in all of this somehow told her that, by accident or by design of Professor Ozpin, she was exactly where she needed to be.

The fact that she couldn't immediately see how she was where she needed to be was frustrating, however, especially since it meant that she was hanging around this empty plaza with nothing to do and no way to explain her inaction to her team-mates.

"Yang?"

Yang was roused by the sound of Nora's voice. She hadn't heard her team-mate coming, which said something about how deep in thought she'd been because, well, it was Nora. At the moment, however, Nora Valkyrie didn't seem quite her usual ebullient self. She seemed, and this was rare, a little worried.

"Are you okay?" Yang asked.

"I'm fine," Nora said. "Are _you_ okay?"

"Yeah," Yang said, a little too firmly and a little too loudly. "What makes you think-" She stopped abruptly, as Nora took one of her hands and squeezed it.

"It's okay, Yang," Nora said. "If I had a sister, I'd be worried too."

"Although Team Sapphire has always performed exceptionally in the field," Ren said, as he approached her from the other side. "That doesn't make your concern unnatural or misguided."

Zwei barked supportively.

Yang took a deep breath. "Guys…thanks."

"We're here for you," Nora said. "If you need it. What else are team-mates for, right?"

Yang nodded. "I just…I've got a feeling, like Ruby's involved in this, you know?"

Neither of them said anything. But neither of them looked at her like she was crazy either.

"I thought it would be good for her to end up on a different team and break out of her shell," Yang said. "But all it's done is give me a heart condition."

"That might be all it's done for you," Nora said. "But I think…she has come out of her shell, at least a little."

Yang exhaled out through her nostrils. "More than a little. Unfortunately that doesn't make times like this any less worrying."

"You can't protect the people you love forever," Ren said. "Sometimes, even with the best intentions…things happen that you never expected. And all you can do is…hope that they're ready. And that you are."

That…that was the most words Yang had ever heard out of Ren's mouth at once, but, as much as she might not have wanted to hear it right now, he was talking a lot of sense. Ruby wasn't some helpless child asleep in the back of a wagon any more. Yang and Dad and Uncle Qrow had all helped her to prepare for this, so that she could stare danger in the face and kick its ass. Sure, it would have been nice if she'd bothered to learn how to throw a punch, but she wasn't unarmed – in any sense – and she wasn't alone.

Ruby wasn't helpless. Ruby was good, damn good; better than Yang herself in some ways. And she wasn't alone.

Yang would probably always worry about her; that was part of what being a big sister was all about.

But worrying didn't have to be the same as being afraid. And she didn't have to be afraid for Ruby.

The earth shook beneath her feet, shuddering as though some giant worm – were there worm grimm? Like really big worm grimm? – was burrowing through the ground beneath them. Burrowing and rising, because the shaking was getting more and more intense and the rumbling sound beneath them was getting louder and louder and closer and closer too. It was coming straight for them.

"What's happening?" Nora yelled.

The yellowish-white stones of the plaza square exploded outwards in a geyser-like explosion of stone and concrete fragments and earth beneath, forcing Yang to grab Zwei as she and her team-mates took what little cover they could behind a bench as stones and earth rained down around them.

From the earth had erupted not a worm, but a train. A big, grey, boxy railway engine that had emerged from beneath the ground and now rested three-quarters out of it, its rear still buried underground while the rest sat at a slight angle on the plaza square and black smoke billowed out from beneath and rose into the sky.

Warning sirens began to blare in loud alarm.

Yang cocked her gauntlets as she cautiously approached the smoking train. Behind her she could hear Nora's hammer switching into grenade launcher mode, and she knew that Ren would have his pistols drawn.

Though the warning sirens were loud, she could still hear her footsteps on the stones.

The side of the cab – Yang was no expert but it looked as if the way out of the cab might have been still buried – buckled under a ferocious blow from within.

Yang raised her hands, aiming her ember celica at the bulge as the heavy thumping sound came again, louder, making the metal screech as it bent outwards.

"Whatever comes out there-" Yang began.

She was interrupted by the metal breaking under the pressure of a third impact, as Pyrrha Nikos leapt through the opening, while a ton of little foam bits like they used to protect fragile packages fell out of the cab to pool around her feet. It almost looked as though the cab was full of them.

"Pyrrha?" Yang gasped as she lowered her hands.

Pyrrha's eyes widened. "Yang! What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here?" Yang repeated. "What are you doing here? With a train?"

Pyrrha didn't know what to say, and was spared having to say it as Sunset flopped out of the train and landed on her back on the ground.

"I," she wheezed. "Am done for the day. Seriously, absolutely, done."

"Sunset?" Yang exclaimed.

Sunset groaned wordlessly in reply.

"Sunset, what's wrong?" Ruby asked as she leapt down out of the cab through the hole that Pyrrha had made.

" _Ruby?_ " Yang shrieked, as though the idea that Ruby should be with her team was more shocking than anything else that had happened in the last few seconds.

Ruby looked up, and stared at Yang in something between nerves and astonishment. "Uh…hey, sis. Fancy seeing you here."

And all around them, the alarm continued to sound.


	97. Awakening

Awakening

Sunset should have been able to feel pretty pleased with herself. It had been an impressive feat of magic, even if she was the one blowing her own trumpet – and why shouldn't she, since nobody else understood what she'd done well enough to blow it for her – to have turned all of the dust (the actual dust, as distinct from Dust) into packing peanuts in order to cushion them from the impact of the crash like glass figurines being shipped long distance.

Not many unicorns could have done that. Not many would have had the presence of mind to think of it (even if it had taken her a little bit to come up with a way to avoid everyone being turned to jelly on the back wall once she realised that was a very real possibility) and even fewer would have had the raw power to actually pull it off. She actually thought that she might have gone further than just the engine compartment where the eight of them were; since she hadn't had time to individiually transfigure every single speck of dust she had just thrown her magic out around her in every direction, with the consequence that some of it might have found its way into the carriages to the rear.

Regardless of that little bit of overdoing it, the fact remained that Sunset Shimmer had every right to feel proud of what she'd done; not least because she'd saved both teams by doing it.

And she would have felt proud and pleased, if only she hadn't also felt so completely drained by the doing of it.

She was thoroughly and absolutely tapped out. She had completely drained her magical reserves, and it would take some time for them to recover from a mixture of her own stamina and the ambient magic of Remnant.

In the meantime she was empty. Absolutely empty, like a bucket that had not only been upended until every last drop had fallen but had then been blow dried so that you could run your finger around the metal and not even get it slightly damp.

She was empty. That had never happened to her before. She didn't enjoy the sensation. She felt as though she was missing a limb; the invisible hand that had always been there when she needed it was suddenly gone and the fact that it would return didn't detract from how distressing it was to be without it now.

But, as she allowed the packing peanuts to support her weight because her legs didn't feel wholly capable of doing it themselves, as she listened listlessly to the sound of Pyrrha hammering a way out of the side of the compartment so that they could leave the back door – which might be buried anyway – closed and locked, even Sunset's distress was numbed by the complete the utter exhaustion which threatened to overwhelm her. Yes, she still had her aura and thus theoretically all the strength and energy that it theoretically provided, but she was so unused to being completely without one whole half of her strength, and that the older and the more accustomed half, that it had quite enervated her in spite of aura and all its wonders.

She felt light headed, and as though she might fall; perhaps, like a sudden fit of weakness that leaves the head dizzy, the body sweating and the hands trembling, this too would pass in but a moment but in this present moment Sunset felt so weak that she could barely stand.

Pyrrha's strength and semblance combined to batter a way through the side of the engine; there was a rending and a screeching sound before light filtered into the compartment through the packing peantus.

Sunset sluggishly began to move towards the way out that Pyrrha had made. She wanted – she felt as if she needed – some fresh air rather badly. She wanted out of this place, made tight and claustrophobic by the safety she had conjured, and she probably wasn't the only one who wanted to be able to breathe without also having to spit out foam chips from her mouth.

"Pyrrha?"

 _Was that…Yang?_ Sunset thought she must be mistaken, what would Ruby's sister be doing here? If she was waiting for them – and how would she know where they would be – then why did she sound so surprised to see Pyrrha? And if she was not here for them then why was she here at all?

 _Where are we, beyond the general 'Vale'?_

"Yang!" Pyrrha exclaimed, confirming that Sunset had not, in fact, been mistaken. "What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here?" Yang repeated. "What are you doing here? With a train?"

Sunset reached the exit that Pyrrha had made for them and tumbled out of it with absolutely no dignity whatsoever. She landed on her back, staring up at the blue sky above.

Sunset gasped a breath of the free air. "I…am done for the day. Seriously, absolutely done." _I'm done with everything until my magic starts to come back._

The faces of Yang, Nora and Ren blotted out parts of the sky above her head. A dog started licking her face.

"Sunset?" Yang exclaimed.

Sunset groaned. Her tongue didn't feel like doing more right now.

"Sunset, what's wrong?" Ruby asked as she became the next person to spill out of the train along with an ever growing pile of peanuts.

 _I just performed transfiguration on a giant scale after multiple teleports and other magic and it's killed me._ If there was a downside to having Yang, Ren and Nora around at the moment it was that Sunset couldn't say so out loud.

Although judging by the way that Yang shrieked Ruby's name Sunset could have said a lot of things in front of her and Yang wouldn't have paid any mind to it.

Ruby looked as though the shriek had been necessary to get to notice her sister's presence. "Uh…hey, sis. Fancy seeing you here."

As Blake and the members of Team RSPT exited the train, Yang grabbed Ruby and pulled her into a bear hug.

As Sunset sat up, she saw Yang holding Ruby closer for a moment, eyes closed, before she released the younger, smaller girl.

"How did I know that you would be involved in this?"

Ruby smiled nervously. "Lucky guess?"

"The real question is why do you keep having all these awesome adventures and not inviting us?" Nora demanded. "Aren't we friends?"

"The _real_ question," Ciel said. "Is why you're here? Did Twilight's message get through to General Ironwood?"

"I don't know anything about that, I just…can somebody just explain what's going on?" Yang demanded. "And what's with the train? And the peanuts? And the hole in the ground?"

Before anyone could start to explain any of those things, there was a sound of banging on the door into the control cab that they had just vacated. A furious, incessant, unremitting banging that sounded like dozens of hands all clamouring upon the other side of the metal at once in an effort, if not to get through, then at least to attract attention.

As every eye turned towards the door and every weapon pointed that way through the hole that Pyrrha had made – even Sunset forced herself unsteadily to her feet and started to raise her rifle in her trembling hands – the banging was augmented by the sounds of shouting voices from the other side.

"Open up! Open the door! Please, you have to let us out! They're coming!"

There was the sound of growling grimm, and gunfire, and screaming.

"What-" Yang began, but Blake was already moving, bounding back into the railway car before anyone could stop her.

As she furiously typed in the code to unlock the door, all that anyone else could do was ready their weapons.

The door unlocked – the red light above it changed to green – and slid open with a hydraulic hiss as faunus in the masks and uniforms of the White Fang began to spill in through the doorway. None were armed, all were injured in some way: cradling arms broken and bleeding; hands hanging limps from the end of wrists; limped on twisted legs and awkwardly-angled feet; bleeding from head injuries; some White Fang members supporting others more badly hurt; clearly the sudden stopping of the train hadn't been painless for any of them.

With the door open, the growling and howling of the grimm sounded louder and closer than it had done when the door was locked, as did the shooting, and the screaming.

Sunset remembered what Blake had said, in argument against derailing the train: those that didn't die in the crash would be easy prey for the grimm. It seemed her prophecy had come true regardless.

 _And that would have been us too if I'd stopped the train._

"Go!" Blake yelled, gesturing with one hand towards the exit in the side of the compartment. She shoved faunus in that direction, careless of the rough handling in her zeal to get them moving and out of danger. "Go! Get out of here!"

"Blake," Rainbow Dash said, but Blake ignored her as she continued to push the faunus in their direction. The other huntsmen outside retreated a few steps, but fortunately for them being cast as the screaming extras in their very own monster movie appeared to have taken the iron out of the souls of these would-be warriors for the faunus cause, or perhaps they simply had an awareness of the fact that they were all hurt and none were in the best shape for a fight. Regardless of the reason, they threw up their hands – where they could throw up their hands – in surrender, and knelt for mercy as they emerged out of the train and under the guns of SAPR, RSPT and YR_N.

"They never said it would be like this," of them said, his mask gone to reveal a youthful face and eyes that were wide with fear and terror. "It wasn't supposed to be like this."

"Cowards," Ren's voice was cold, and his face was stony with disapproval. "You were willing to make others into victims, but not to be victims yourselves."

"Ren?" Yang asked.

"Isn't it obvious what they were trying to do?" Ren replied.

Nora said nothing, but she reached out and placed a hand upon Ren's arm. He didn't shrug it off, but he didn't respond to it either.

The gunfire was dying down now, the last shots preceding the last screams by a few moments; but then the screams from the dark interior of the train halted as well and there was nothing but the growling, howling, snarling of the grimm getting closer and closer.

But by then Blake had ushered through all of the White Fang through the doors, all except one, a deer faunus with small antlers poking out from underneath her hood, who was halfway through the door when something from the dark recesses that Sunset couldn't see – but which she could imagine easily enough – grabbed her from behind and began to pull her, screeching, back into the darkness.

"No!" she shrieked as she fell flat onto her belly, grabbing the edge of the metal doorframe with both of her black-gloved hands. "Help me! Don't let it get me! No!" Her words were replaced by an incoherent cry of pain.

Blake took her by the hand, and with her other hand she fired over the deer faunus' head and into the dark with Gambol Shroud, the white rounds of her pistol briefly illuminating the darkness – although not what lurked within – as she hauled the faunus, the last faunus, the deer faunus whose legs were now torn and bloody, out of the dark and into the compartment where her blood coated the white foam peanuts.

The doors slammed shut, and glancing sideways Sunset saw that Pyrrha had one hand outstretched, and a black light enveloping it.

"Would somebody mind locking the door?" Pyrrha asked.

As Blake carried the badly injured deer girl out, Rainbow bounded in and hammered the numbers on the door panel until the bolts engaged with a thud and the light above the door turned red again.

The sound of growling grimm outside the door rose up in anger for a moment, before turning abruptly silencing as though they were not a pack of beasts but an orchestra of beastly instruments whose conductor had just raised his hand to pause the dreadful symphony.

Then something slammed into the metal of the door.

Dash took a step back. "Pyrrha, can you…I dunno, brace the door or something?"

"I can try and stop the metal from giving way," Pyrrha said, as the door shook under repeated blows in quick succession. "I'm not sure how effective it will be."

Blake set down the injured faunus on the ground in the care of her fellows, whose number she looked over in silent calculation. "Is this…is this all of you?"

None dared to meet her eyes. "Yes," one said at last, a dog faunus – a pug, judging by his very wrinkled face – with drooping ears. "All the rest…the impact, and then the grimm."

Blake's ears drooped too, into her tangled black hair. "Less than fifty," she murmured.

Sunset's brow furrowed. She lowered her rifle – she was glad of the excuse, it felt unusually heavy in her weakened hands – as she said, "That's not on you."

Blake didn't reply, but it didn't look like she was taking much notice.

"Will someone please tell me what's going on?" Yang demanded.

"There's a whole army of grimm on the other side of the door and they really want to get out into the city," Ruby said.

Yang was silent for a moment, then she cocked the yellow gauntlets on her wrists. "Oh. Well, why didn't you say so before?" she grinned in an anticipation that was almost feral.

Rainbow's scroll buzzed as she retreated back out of the compartment, as the grimm on the other side of the door continued to pound upon it. She checked it briefly. "It's General Ironwood," she said, before she answered. "Rainbow Dash reporting, sir."

"Glad to see you're alright, Dash," General Ironwood said. "What's the status of your team?"

"We're all here in one piece," Rainbow said. Her face fell. "We…we couldn't stop the train, sir. I'm sorry."

"I'm sure that you did the best you could," General Ironwood said. "What's the situation down there?"

The door buckled under an impact hard enough to cause the metal to bulge outwards on their side. Pyrrha began to push the bulge back in with her semblance – Nora asked Ren if he'd known that she could do that – but it was struck again to redo what she was trying to undo.

Another bulge appeared elsewhere.

"At the moment, all the grimm are stuck behind the door into the crew compartment," Rainbow said. "But it's not going to hold for long. And we've got some White Fang prisoners who need medical attention."

General Ironwood nodded. "I'll send in aircraft to pick them up and take them into custody. Rainbow Dash: Twilight got your message out so we've set up a perimeter and begun to evacuate the area, but evacuation isn't complete. Can you hold the grimm in that plaza until it is?"

Rainbow glanced at the bulging, buckling door.

 _Celestia knows just how many grimm are on the other end of that,_ Sunset thought.

Rainbow grinned. "Sure we can, sir. Take all day if you like."

General Ironwood did not smile. "It won't be that long, Dash. Just hold them in that area for a little while. I'll have Wonderbolts Two and Three on stand-by to evac you; pull out if you're about to get overwhelmed. I don't want any death or glory stunts on this one. Come home in one piece."

"Copy that, sir," Rainbow said. "I'll make sure they do."

" _All_ of you," Ironwood said. "Once the evacuation is complete we'll pull you out anyway and begin quarantine procedures, understood?"

"Yes sir," Rainbow said. "Don't worry, none of them will get past us until then. You can count on it."

"I know," the General said. "Ironwood out." His image disappeared from Rainbow's scroll screen.

"Quarantine procedures?" Sunset asked, as another dent appeared in the door, causing a small gap between the two doors.

"Once the evac is complete they're going to bomb the place from the air then send in androids to finish off whatever's left," Rainbow explained.

"Cool," Yang said. "So we just have to stop the grimm getting out until then."

Rainbow looked around. "Ciel, which of these buildings gives you the best vantage point?"

Ciel also considered their surroundings, before pointing to a four-storey department store on the eastern side of the square. "There."

"Set up, and give us long-range cover if they break out," Rainbow commanded.

"Understood," Ciel said. "You can join me up there if…if things get especially difficult."

She jogged towards the building she had indicated, cradling her enormous rifle in her arms.

"Ruby," Sunset said. "You should fall back. If the grimm get past the rest of us you're the only one fast enough to catch them before they leave the square, so you're our fallback line."

Rainbow coughed loudly. "Hey, the only one?"

Sunset grinned. "I didn't think you'd want to miss the action here."

It was Rainbow's turn to smirk. "Don't worry, I know you losers will let plenty slip by you for me. Come on, Ruby, it'll be you and me on this one."

"Okay," Ruby said. "Good luck…everyone?"

"Don't worry, Ruby," Penny said, as her swords formed a ring before her. "In this situation every advantage is with us."

Ruby looked at her. "I hope so," she said, before she followed Dash towards the edge of the square.

"Pyrrha," Sunset said. "You can stop trying to hold the door now. Get ready."

Pyrrha hesitated for a moment, then nodded her head and aimed her rifle at the fast-buckling door.

"Would, uh, would now be a good time to mention that my sword broke?" Jaune asked.

Sunset's eyebrows rose. "That's…less than ideal. But you still have your semblance, right?"

"Yeah," Jaune said softly. "I can still do that."

The doors were bent and buckled in half a dozen places now, and black paws with bleached white claws on the end were scrabbling at the joins between the two, trying to force them open as, from the other side, the grimm continued to hammer against the metal, twisting it, bending it, deforming it until the metal shattered completely, leaving only a hole behind, a gaping hole like a throat leading down into the darkness.

There was a moment of pause, of utter stillness where no one moved and the only sound was the blaring of the alarms all around them.

And then the grimm erupted through the broken doors in a great black tide. Beowolves and creeps swarmed through the opening, eyes gleaming, guttural growls rising from their throats. They were met by a storm of fire that turned the narrow doorway through which they sought to pour into an inferno. Milo barked, Ember Celica roared, Gambol Shroud spat, Stormflower purred, grenades flew from Magnhild to explode in soft pink showers in the open doorway, green laser bolts flew from the tips of Penny's swords in a clockwise rotation. And the grimm died. The fire of the huntsmen turned the chokepoint into a charnel house, and if only the creatures of grimm had left bodies behind then they would soon have closed the door up with their monstrous dead; but, though the fallen grimm but turned to smoke as they died, yet they died, their bony heads blow off ere they poked them through the door, and though the constant firing – and especially the explosions of Nora's grenades – were damaging the wall and making it easier to widen the gap the creatures could not widen it so much that there was space for them to evade the firestorm that confronted them as they came.

Only a few grimm, the luckiest of them, managed to get their entire bodies through the doorway, and none of them were so much as able to poke their heads out into sunlight.

The grimm poured through the doorway in a black mass, and in a black mass they perished.

And then the tide stopped. It did not recede, there were no grimm alive to retreat, it simply stopped. One moment it seemed like an inexorable wave and the next there was nothing at all. Not even a sound to indicate that there were living grimm on the other side pondering how they might improve their survival chances.

As Atlesian aircraft descended behind them, pristine white robots descending to round up the injured White Fang prisoners and shepherd them onboard, Sunset reloaded her rifle. Pyrrha slapped a fresh magazine into Milo. Yang raised her arms and let a host of rounds fall from her gauntlets to land with a tinkling like broken glass upon the stones all around her.

"Is that all?" Ren asked.

There was a moment's more of silence, and then there was a groan from deep beneath the earth and the train shifted slightly.

"You had to say it, didn't you Ren?" Nora asked.

The train lurched backwards, back down into the ground as though something was pulling on it, dragging it back beneath; and something probably was, Sunset reflected, as she imagined what that might be. The train fell back a little further, its front wheels tipping upwards and the nose pointing towards the sky before the entire engine dropped down into the underground tunnel from which it had emerged, leaving a gaping hole in the earth behind as though the square had been stabbed with some great spear leaving a wound behind, surrounded by a modest mound of stone.

In place of the train, the black head of a king taijitsu rose up from the hole, its immense serpentine form rising like a dark pike to impale the sky, its red eyes glaring at the small humans beneath it as it bared its fangs at them.

Lasers shot from all of Penny's swords simultaneously, striking the serpent's head and making the creatures hiss in pain even as it recoiled from further blows. Penny leapt, her swords whirling around her, slashing one after the other at the giant snake in quick succession. They dealt no visible wounds that Sunset could make out, but judging by the undismayed – in fact she looked pleased about something – look on Penny's face they hadn't been intended to. Penny landed on the taijitsu's other side, skidding to a halt, her body half bent down, one hand resting on the floor.

The serpent hissed. There was a sound like thunder, and an explosion blossomed upon its black hide. There was a flash of light from the roof of the department store, another thunderous sound and another explosion as Ciel fired again.

Penny waved her arms before her, bringing her swords into alignment one on top of the other like the teeth of a razor. She swept her right hand in front of her, as though magisterially sweeping away all objections to her plan, and her swords arced out in a wide slashing stroke, the wires extending as the blades flew forth to cut through the body of the king taijitsu as though she were slicing salami sausage for a pizza. The black serpent fell, its head followed to the ground by several finely sliced and smoking segments before the remainder of its lifeless trunk fell down into the darkness from whence it had emerged.

And then, with a great howl of anger and despair, the great horde of the grimm that the White Fang had summoned into Vale emerged from the pit in another immense rush and the battle began in earnest once again.

* * *

"General, all White Fang prisoners have been secured and evacuated from the combat area."

"Good," General Ironwood replied, without turning around to look at the officer who had spoken. His eyes were fixed upon the map of Vale, and the indicators showing grimm activity. "Have them taken to the triage centre. Request that Vale police guard them, we don't have the manpower to divert to it right now."

"Yes sir."

Ironwood studied the maps intently. There was a large red blot on Lost Valley Square, obviously, where the grimm were trying to get past RSPT and SAPR and break out into Vale. So fare they hadn't succeeded yet. Then there were scattered red markers approaching the outskirts of Vale: airborne grimm attracted to the violence, the conflict, the worry of those civilians being evacuated from their homes and those who simply knew that a state of emergency had been declared; from those who could see the smoke rising from the breach. He had ordered aircraft and the _Thunder Child_ to see off those grimm, and they should be engaging shortly before the nevermores got over Vale proper. What was more interesting to him was the lack of grimm activity on the ground outside the breach: although a few land-bound grimm had been attracted to the fighting, there hadn't been the kind of mass assault on the Green Line that he'd been expecting.

So were they coming later? Or not at all?

His hands were clasped behind his back, and he clenched them a little tighter. There was no decision he could make that didn't involve some risk. But that didn't absolve him from making a decision.

"Have the _Hope_ withdraw from the Green Line and move to reinforce the evacuation zone," he ordered.

"Sir," Winter's voice was calm, controlled and neutral. "That leaves only two ships defending the outskirts of Vale if an attack comes from that direction."

"I'm aware," Ironwood said. "But I'm not so sure there will be an attack from that direction."

"You think they're waiting for something, sir?"

"Possibly," Ironwood murmured. "Though I couldn't say what. What's the status on the evacuation? How close are we?"

"Estimated eighty-five percent completion, sir."

"Understood," Ironwood said. "Just a little longer, Dash."

* * *

Twilight wasn't allowed up on the bridge. Well…to say that she wasn't allowed made it seem like she was banned or something, like a kid who wasn't supposed to come into her parents' bedroom. It wasn't like that. But there was a battle going on and she didn't have a station to man so she'd just end up getting in everyone's way if she went up there now.

So she waited in General Ironwood's office.

She hated it. Not the office, that was fine and she'd been here plenty of times; it was the circumstances that she hated. The ship was at General Quarters, everyone else was manning their station in case the _Valiant_ had to go into battle, her friends were fighting down in Vale to hold back the grimm and in the meantime she was waiting.

It was all very well to say that she had skills outside of fighting, skills that were just as useful in their own way but that didn't actually make her feel any less useless in situations like this when all she could do was wait and fret and hope that everything turned out all right.

And everyone came through okay.

 _Stay safe, everyone. Please be safe._

* * *

The column of smoke rising from the breach could be seen even from Professor Ozpin's office at the top of Beacon Tower, but Professor Ozpin himself was not looking in that direct. Rather, he was watching the fighting unfolding down below via the cameras placed all over Vale, displaying images from the plaza itself as Teams SAPR, YRBN and RSPT battled to hold back the grimm that were trying to swarm up from the underground tunnel and snuff out the light of Vale in their fury and ferocity.

As he watched Miss Nikos despatch a trio of beowolves in quick succession with a flurry of fluid, graceful but nevertheless quite deadly motions, he remained convinced that she was the right choice. If she survived this battle, of course.

"Are you sure that you don't want me to go and assist them?" Glynda asked him; it was the third or fourth time that she had asked him some variation upon this question.

Ozpin's eyes flickered away from the images on his monitor to his impatient-seeming lieutenant. "You're eager to be away from here?"

Glynda sniffed. "I…I'm getting rather tired of losing students."

"They're holding their own, for now," Ozpin said. He leaned back in his chair. "You know, theoretically the attack on or defence of a breach should be the most scientific kind of warfare."

"Is that so?" Glynda asked, without much interest.

Ozpin nodded. "The attacker chooses where they want to make a breach in the defences, and scientifically goes about reducing them until they are vulnerable to assault; in the process, they alert the defenders as to where the attack is going to come, giving them time to establish new defences for when the assault comes. So far, so logical.

"But then the attack begins, and logic and science and the art of war all take a step back…and it all comes down to fury and passion and which side can muster more ferocity; which side will break first."

"The grimm don't break," Glynda said. "They conquer or die. Please, Ozpin, let me go down there. Let me help them. So much promise could be lost here and all for want of…why not? Why should you keep me here?"

Ozpin watched the fighting unfold for a little while longer. "You know, Glynda, the King of Vale was not the first time I had been reincarnated as royalty."

Glynda's eyes narrowed behind her spectacles. "I don't think you've mentioned that before."

"It's true," Ozpin said. "I was once a Mistralian prince. The Black Prince of Mistral, they called me; sadly I died of a fever before I could ascend the throne or else…regardless…I don't recall the war, now; I don't remember who were fighting; but I remember the battle, where I and my forces were hard-pressed while my father…while the Emperor sat upon the hill with the main body. I was told, later, that some of the lords had asked if reinforcements should be sent to me, but the Emperor refused. He said…"

Glynda frowned. "What did he say?"

Ozpin leaned forward as he continued to watch the fighting in the square. "Let him win his spurs."

* * *

The beowolf stood upon its hind legs and snarled down at her.

Sunset snarled right back, a wordless shout rising from her throat as she scrambled up the uneven slope rubble, her rifle held before her. She thrust it forward, extending the bayonet outward like a spear, to impale the beowolf through the chest that it had just been beating with both paws. The grimm whimpered in pain, and its body began to smoke as it hung on the end of Sunset's spear, turning to ashes.

Sunset took a deep breath. There were just so many of them. So many and they just kept coming. And with the chokepoint widened from a single door into the gaping hole their train had torn through the stones of the plaza they couldn't stop them from getting out and into the square.

Everyone was fighting now. Pyrrha was striking down grimm left and right like a god of war, switching her weapon with rapid fluidity between sword, spear and rifle forms; Blake was striking down grimm, vanishing as her clones were struck then reappearing to slay another monster; Rainbow and Ruby were mowing down any grimm that made for any of the roads leading away from the square; an ursa's head exploded as Ciel shot it from her position; Penny combined all her lasers into a single beam which she used to sweep the breach, eviscerating every grimm which at that moment was trying to crawl out of it, including punching right through the armour of a deathstalker and out the other side; Yang was on fire as she slaughtered grimm left and right; Nora laughed as she swung her hammer left and right, with every blow being the death knell of a creature of grimm. Even Jaune was fighting, clubbing a beowolf to death with his shield in a display of unexpected ferocity while he yelled and screamed in a mixture of anger and terror.

The grimm had escaped the underground, but so far they hadn't escaped the square.

Sunset heard the roar too late to do anything about it; she was still turning when the beowolf hit her, bearing her backwards and onto her back. She skidded down the slope with the grimm on top of her, barely managing to fend it off with Sol Invictus, which she used to keep its snarling, snapping jaws from closing around her head. Drool dripped from its mouth into her hair, making Sunset cringe as she tried to push it off of her. She didn't have the strength. She barely had the strength to keep it away. As the beowolf pushed down on her, getting closer and closer to her face, Sunset could feel her arms starting to weaken.

A blue-white glyph appeared above Sunset and beneath the beowolf, which yelped like a whipped cur as it was launched off Sunset's chest and into the air where Flash, his gilded armour gleaming in the sunlight, cut it in half with a single stroke of his sword.

"Flash?" Sunset gasped.

Flash landed on his feet beside her. "When Weiss and I saw the explosion, we knew we had to see what we could do to help." He fired with the gun part of his weapon, blowing away a creep. "Looks like you could use it."

Sunset glanced behind her. Weiss was standing halfway between the breach and the edge of the plaza, a row of gleaming white glyphs lined up behind her from which she was firing a volley of laser beams at an ursa major until it fell, lifeless, to the ground.

Weiss cast a majestically disdainful eye around the battlefield, then stepped with all the grace of a trained dancer into a stance straight out of fencing class – so Sunset assumed, anyway; she'd never actually taken a fencing class herself – with one leg behind the other and her slender sword raised so that it pointed upwards, covering her nose and following the centre-line of her face.

Weiss closed her eyes as the grimm closed in around her.

A white glyph appeared beneath her, not one that Sunset had seen before for whatever that might be worth (bearing in mind that they didn't spend much time together); not only of the usual esoteric pattern of shapes and symbols; this glyph was pale and ghostly, half-translucent as though it was barely there at all, and it resembled gears of clockwork turning round and round, grinding against one another, growing slower and slower until they were barely moving at all.

Weiss erupted from the midst of this slowing glyph, moving so fast that Sunset couldn't…no, she wasn't moving fast it was…it was Sunset who was moving slowly, and all the grimm too, she couldn't turn her head fast enough to keep up with the silver-white flash and they couldn't react fast enough either as Weiss zig-zagged across the plaza striking out in all directions, until by the time she came to a halt at least half the grimm who had been raging and roaring just a moment before were turning to smoke before Sunset's eyes.

 _Show-off._

An alpha creep poked its head out of the breach only to get shot twice in the face by a pair of shotguns held in the hands of Sun Wukong. Neptune finished it off by impaling it from behind with his glaive.

"Sun!" Blake exclaimed.

Sun flashed his teeth at her as he reformed his weapons into a staff and used it to knock a beowolf flying. "Somehow I had a feeling that I'd find you here."

Blake carved a path towards him. "But what are _you_ doing here?"

Sun turned and casually blasted aside a creep. "You know, everything's better when you get friends involved. Isn't that right, Neptune?"

"Yeah, sure," Neptune said, as she fired into an ursa's chest before Pyrrha finished it off.

And the battle raged on around them.

* * *

Blake fought carelessly.

She didn't fight stupidly. She did not throw herself headlong at the strongest grimm without a second thought of how she would beat them, or what strategy she would use, or whether she could in fact beat old and bone-encrusted ursai or deathstalkers without assistance; she used her clones to mislead, to misdirect, to disable the enemy with ice or damage them with fire. She fought well, leaping from one enemy to the next, dispatching them one after another.

But she fought carelessly. She used her clones to help her to kill, but not to take the hits for her and then escape as she had often done. At this point, at this time, she just didn't see the point.

She felt as though she'd made so many mistakes today. Adam. The train. The White Fang. So many mistakes and so many dead. When she struck down, when she fired, it wasn't the faces of the snarling beowolves or the growling creeps that she saw before her eyes but Adam's face: Adam smiling, Adam bent down with care and weariness, Adam laughing, Adam in pain…Adam snarling, Adam smirking cruelly, Adam yelling in inchoate wrath, Adam condemning the innocent to death.

Adam lying dead in her arms, shot down by Sunset Shimmer.

Adam killed to protect her.

She could barely see the grimm even as she was killing them. She could see Adam perfectly well, she could see the wounds on the White Fang fighters who had made it off the train, she could imagine what had befallen all those who had not made it off the train. And she felt responsible for all of it.

So many mistakes. She had joined the White Fang. She had left the White Fang. She had supported Adam. She had abandoned Adam. She had gotten Adam killed. She had put all of Vale at risk for the sake of faunus who had been willing to kill innocent people and it didn't matter because most of those faunus had died anyway. So she didn't use her clones to take the hits that bruised and battered and shredded her aura, because why should she be exempt from the consequences of her poor decisions, why should she always be able to run away from her mistakes?

Why shouldn't she suffer the consequences that she inflicted upon others?

So as she killed the beowolves, she took the slashes of their claws. As she killed the creeps, she took their bites. And she didn't care. She barely even noticed because all she could see was his face, his one eye, staring at her in silent reproach.

Blake had no idea how low her aura was getting until a creep that had approached her with such stealth that she hadn't noticed that either, distracted as she was with an alpha beowolf that she had just despatched, closed its bony jaws around her left hand.

Her aura broke as the grimm snapped its terrapin teeth.

Blake screamed, she raised her head and howled in pain to the blue sky above her. She tried to pull her arm free but the creep held on, limpet-like, pulling on her in turn. The pain, the pain burned through her like a fire as Blake switched Gambol Shroud to pistol mode and shot the creature five times in the face at point blank range, blowing its bone-covered head to smithereens and the rest of the grimm with it too.

Her scabbard, which she had been holding in her bitten hand, clattered to the ground as Blake staggered backwards, falling onto her backside staring, wide-eyed, at her hand, her bloody hand that was in so much pain that it was causing tears to form in her eyes.

She couldn't move her fingers, at least not properly; she tried to clench them and they'd barely twitch. They were covered in blood, blood that meant she couldn't see what her hand really looked like underneath all of that red. And they were in so much pain, pain that was shooting up her arm and across her whole body and she couldn't stand it she had to let it out, she had to cry out in pain.

And it was still less than she deserved. Less than she had done…today…and before.

More creeps closed in around her, growling as they waddled forwards, wagging their stumpy tails in eager anticipation of what was to come.

Blake watched them come, her breathing heavy, her eyes moist with tears. She watched them come towards her and she, with her aura down, was not afraid.

She didn't even raise her weapon because this was Adam's justice; she could even see him, standing just beyond the advancing creeps, smiling as he waited for her to join him.

The image of Adam was shattered by Sunset charging into the midst of the five creeps who had been so slowly closing around her. She was shouting wordlessly, her voice drowning out the growling of the grimm as she shot one dead then began to club another with the butt of her rifle. And then Sun was there too, killing two creeps in quick succession with two blasts of his shotguns before finishing the last off with his staff. Neptune, too, Neptune was following close behind him, his gun raised, taking aim at any grimm that got too close, covering Sun and Sunset too as they turned from the dead grimm to kneel beside her.

"Blake!" Sunset exclaimed. "What…how does it feel?"

 _It feels like a little bit of justice._ Blake forced herself to smile through the pain. "It hurts."

"We've got to get you out of here," Sun said.

"Maybe we can do something while we're here," Sunset said. "Hold on, Blake, it's going to be okay. Jaune! Jaune, get over here! Blake's been hurt!"

Pyrrha must have heard that too, because she cleared the way for Jaune, cutting or blasting her way through every grimm that stood between them until she had carved a path straight through that black mass of enemies of humanity for Jaune to run to her. Sunset got out of his way as he knelt down at her side.

He looked so tired. Even through the pain Blake recognised the signs of weariness in him. The sweat on his brow, the slightly unfocussed look in his eyes, the way his hands shook a little as he raised them. If he hadn't been doing that much fighting, how much had he been using his semblance today?

Nevertheless he didn't complain. He even tried to smile at her, to look reassuring as he raised his hands to her.

His hands that began to glow with a bright, brilliant light…until that light died. The light died not only on Jaune's hands, but Jaune himself seemed to dim and fade before her as he fell forwards, catching himself with his hands and started to pant for breath.

"What's the matter?" Sunset demanded.

"I…I don't know," Jaune said. "But I can't…I can't feel it, it…I'm trying but…but I…I can't-"

"Jaune!" Pyrrha exclaimed, as she looked back at him after finishing off another beowolf. "Your aura!"

Jaune panted. "I…I can't really feel that either."

"Have you been keeping track of it?"

"I haven't…really…" Jaune pulled out his scroll. "Huh. I guessed I used more than I thought."

Blake shifted sideways a little to see it better. Jaune's aura was as gone as hers, though he no injuries that she could see upon his better. It was entirely his semblance. He had drained his entire aura boosting the auras of other people. He had sacrificed his own defences for theirs.

The guilt on Pyrrha's face was clear, as clear as the worried anger in her voice. "Why didn't you tell me that you felt your aura running low?"

"I…I didn't want to disappoint anybody."

"Jaune," Pyrrha said, but she must have decided that this wasn't the time or the place to rebuke him because she turned to Sunset. "We need to get them both out of here, they're sitting ducks."

And then it was Penny who began to cry out.

* * *

A gasp escaped from Ruby's lips as she heard Penny's cry for help. She looked, and her silver eyes widened as she saw the reason for Penny's cry. The grimm had got her: beowolves, maybe older or just smarter than the others or perhaps they'd just seen Penny killing so many of their brothers that they'd worked out what her deal was, had managed to grab hold of her swords; they had their jaws around the hilts where the edges couldn't slice them and the lasers couldn't hit them and although Penny was thrashing around to throw them off, although she did throw some of them off, this pack was really super persistent about it and they just kept on coming and even when she killed a couple of them more just grabbed hold.

They grabbed the swords and they held on and they were pulling and moving this way and they were tangling Penny up in her own wires! Ruby raced towards her, or tried to, but then an ursa got in the way and by the time she'd killed that if was a deathstalker and when Ciel killed than with a shot that blew its tail off and another shot that blew right through its head then there were beowolves and then there was an even bigger ursa and it was like they were planning it, like they'd all worked out what Penny's weakness was and they were all in it together as the beowolves tried to take her out.

Ruby couldn't get close. The grimm were too numerous, and they were too determined to get in Ruby's way and she just couldn't kill them fast enough as they all seemed to be trying to buy time for the beowolves to finish off Penny.

Penny who was reliant on her swords. Penny who was as helpless without her swords as Ruby was on her Crescent Rose. Penny who couldn't keep the beowolves off her with her bare hands, although she was trying. Penny whose eyes were wide with panic. Penny who was getting more and more caught in her wires until-

 _Oh no. Please, no._

Her own wires were _ripping her apart_! They were tearing through her body as though her aura wasn't there and there was nothing that anyone could do about it.

Time slowed for Ruby as though Weiss had used a glyph on her. She was aware of where everybody was, and what everyone was doing, and she was aware that none of them were in a position to help Penny.

Blake was injured, prone on the ground; Sun and Neptune were protecting her, and so was Sunset; Pyrrha was standing over Jaune who didn't look like he was hurt but did look as though he could be; Ciel was firing, trying to take out the beowolves, but she just couldn't fire fast enough; Rainbow was trying to get to Penny too but the grimm were swarming her the same way they were delaying Ruby; Weiss and Flash were busy dealing with a deathstalker trying to make a break down a street out of the alleyway; Ren and Nora were tied up with a king taijistu (literally, it had wrapped Ren in its coils while Nora was trying to bludgeon it to death to get him out); Yang, a flaming figure, stood in the middle of a pack of ursai, throwing punches left and right but unable to get out.

Nobody could get to Penny as her body started to come apart. Nobody could help her. Not even Ruby.

She was going to have to watch a friend die in front of her and there was nothing she could-

 _NO!_

Ruby felt something rushing through her. She didn't know what it was but it was like a dam had suddenly burst inside of her body and quicksilver was rushing through her veins, filling up her insides, filling her soul itself with the resolve that Penny should not die, that none of her friends should die, that they were all going to make it out of here.

She felt a music, a melodic voice within her singing a song of beauty, a song full of resolve and devotion; she felt music and light and warmth all rising up within her like the sun coming up over the horizon.

Rising…rising towards her eyes.

The last thing Ruby saw was light itself. Light that would have blinded her if it hadn't been coming _from_ her. Light that chased all fears away. Light that, in some ineffable way, reminded her of her mother.

The last thing she heard was a horde of grimm crying out in terror, suddenly silenced.

And then she knew nothing at all.

* * *

Ozpin watched as the light of Ruby's silver eyes burnt out the cameras, the intensity of her ancestral magic blazing so brightly that it fried the lenses that he had been watching the battle on.

So. She had awakened her silver eyes. One time, at least. Whether it could be repeated…whether it should be repeated.

He had expected to feel more triumphant at this moment. He had expected to feel vindicated. This, after all, was why he had invited Miss Rose to take up a place at Beacon two years early.

He could not deny that he had wanted this. He could not deny that he had wanted a silver-eyed warrior at his disposal.

But now that the sought-for moment had arrived Ozpin found that he felt…empty. He was not full of triumph, nor was he full of shame or sorrow. It was as though the fire of accomplishment and the water of regret and misgiving had cancelled one another out and left nothing behind.

He could take no joy from this.

Perhaps…perhaps that was simply because of his doubts that Miss Rose would take any joy from it herself.

Or perhaps it was because he could still, at times, remember another girl, a girl in a cloak of white instead of a cloak of red, who swore that she would do whatever it took to protect the world…and he could still remember at times all that his willingness to make use of her power and resolve had cost.

" _I'm sorry that it didn't work, Professor."_

" _Don't apologise to him, he should be apologising to us! You lied to us! You knew there was no beating Salem and you sent us in anyway! Summer almost died because of you! Look at her! Look at her, you-"_

" _Raven, that's enough."_

" _As far as I'm concerned it's nowhere near enough."_

Ozpin bowed his head, and hoped that things would be different for Ruby.

And that Summer would be able to find a way to forgive him.

* * *

"Ruby?" Yang knelt by the side of the unconscious Ruby, the younger sister seeming small and young and frail as the elder cradled her in her arms. "Ruby, can you hear me? Ruby?"

Ren and Nora hovered over her, their faces pale with uncertainty.

Ren began, "Is she-"

"She's breathing," Yang said. "But she won't wake up. She's not reacting at all."

For her part, Rainbow knelt beside Penny. Beside Penny's torso anyway. The grimm had really done a number on her before…before Ruby had done whatever the hell that was with the light and her eyes and all. She'd done something – all the grimm had been turned to stone, like statues in some great big garden or something, and they'd even stopped pouring out of the ground for a bit, maybe because the ones that had been half-out were turned to stone as well and they were blocking the way for the ones down below. Whatever the reason, whatever it was that Ruby had done had brought them a bit of breathing room.

And it was room they needed, not just because of Penny but Penny was Rainbow's biggest concern right now.

And her biggest failure. She could kick herself right now. Penny had been her responsibility, the general had trusted Penny into Rainbow's care and Rainbow had screwed up so badly that Penny was lying on the ground in pieces. Her arms and legs were gone, with bits of her torso with them although at least the main part of her torso and head was intact, whatever that was worth.

"Hey, Penny," Rainbow said anxiously. "How do you feel?"

Penny blinked. "My mobility is a little impaired."

"Yeah," Rainbow muttered. "Does it…does it hurt?"

"No," Penny said. "I don't feel anything at all. Although that is…disconcerting."

"Don't worry," Rainbow said. "I'm sure that…if Twi can't fix you up then I know that back in Atlas you're Dad will be able to put you back together good as new."

"I hope so," Penny said. "I'd hate to miss the tournament. And, honestly, I'd miss it if I was never able to walk again."

Rainbow was saved from having to find something to say to that by another call from General Ironwood.

"General, sir," Rainbow said. "I don't know what just happened but-"

"What's Miss Rose's status?" General Ironwood asked.

Rainbow's eyes widened a little bit. "She's unconscious, we don't know…look, sir, Blake's wounded, Jaune's aura is down and Penny…Penny's in a bad way, sir, really bad. I'm sorry."

"We'll talk about that later," General Ironwood said. "And the grimm?"

Rainbow glanced towards the breach. Some of the statues that had once been grimm were starting to move, shaking as though the other grimm beneath were trying to push them out of the way.

"About to come back, sir."

"The evacuation of the district is complete," General Ironwood said. "Bullheads are en route now. Get out now. _Vigilant_ will start her attack as soon as you're clear."

"Roger that, sir," Rainbow said, as she closed up the scroll. "Okay, everyone, pack it up. We're leaving!"

Sunset helped Rainbow to gather up all of Penny's parts, holding them in a stack in her arms as Rainbow picked up her main body.

"Thank you for your help, Sunset," Penny said. "Is Ruby going to be okay?"

"I hope so," Sunset said, not looking at Penny. Rainbow would have been lying if she'd said that she didn't understand why: it was pretty weird looking at someone who looked so human and yet, if they were human, they would have been dead by now not talking normally.

Yang held Ruby in her arms like a mother holding a sleeping child as the bullheads roared in over the rooftops; Pyrrha helped Jaune up, while Sun and his blue-haired friend supported Blake between the two of them.

Ciel descended from her vantage point and ran to join them as the bullheads descended, kicking up dust their engines and knocking some of the petrified creeps backwards like gnomes kicked over; the two teams scrambled aboard just as the first grimm pushed aside their petrified comrades and erupted onto the surface once again, smashing the statues that once had been their brothers as they swarmed across the square.

They were filling the plaza up as the two bullheads, their sides open to allow Rainbow Dash and all the rest a few, took off and began to head away.

The grimm headed for the exits, roaring and snarling and howling in triumph, drowning out the alarms with the sounds of their monstrous cries.

But, before they could actually leave the square, a shadow fell across their world.

The shadow of the Atlesian man-of-war _Vigilant_ as, escorted by two lines of skygraspers, it cruised into position directly over the plaza that the two teams and their allies had fought to defend until this moment.

The grimm looked up, and stared at the armoured might of Atlas as it came to a stop, blocking out the sky above their heads.

Bombs fell from it like shooting stars, glimmering as they caught the sun.

Rainbow watched as the plaza was consumed with fire and the howling of the grimm was silenced.


	98. What's Past is Prologue

What's Past is Prologue

"Good evening, this is VNN news and I'm Lisa Lavender here with our breaking report. The general State of Emergency has just been lifted by edict of the Council of Vale; a council spokesman confirmed that there had been a grimm incursion into the city, but stressed that the threat had been dealt with and the danger was passed. We now go live to the steps of Norchester Palace where a press conference is taking place."

* * *

If Sunset hadn't known for a fact that she was, then she would never have realised that Pyrrha was nervous.

The Invincible Girl might not like the limelight, but she certainly knew how to behave in front of it. Her posture was perfect, the angle at which she had her head was perfectly, her expression was appropriately grave for a serious occasion without falling into melancholy or undue solemnity for what had been a triumphant victory.

Certainly the folks at home would never guess that she would much rather be anywhere else but here, and that given the choice she would certainly rather be back at the hospital with Jaune and Ruby and Blake than up here, in front of the palace that had once housed the Kings of Vale but which now served as the seat of the elected government.

Only the fact that she had clasped her hands in front of her, in the fashion of her household servants when Sunset had visited her house, gave away any sign of insecurity or discomfort with her situation. It was a servile sign that, if anyone caught it, would have seemed out of place with the rest of her confident façade.

Sunset was not, she would have to admit, so familiar with the limelight as Pyrrha was. She certainly wanted to be, but this was new terrain for her: so many television cameras, so many reporters crowded together in the bull pit that had been erected before the palace steps. But she was well used to being on display, to being seen and examined, and if the context of a Canterlot function before the great and good was a little more intimate than live television the eyes that had seen her then had been no less sharp and inquiring. Sunset clung to that, and to the knowledge that she had passed muster then and would do so here as well; certainly she would not, as the representative of Team SAPR (Sunset meant it as no unkindness or unfairness to Pyrrha to say that in the eyes of the world she was representing herself and her personal brand more than her team; nobody would see a member of Beacon's Team SAPR when they saw her, they would see only Pyrrha Nikos, four time champion of Mistral and face of Pumpkin Pete's), allow her own achievements and the achievements of her team to be undermined by her own inability to be appropriately telegenic for the occasion. And so, as she stood beside Pyrrha, behind and on the right-hand side of General Ironwood and the Speaker of the Vale Council Sunset flattered herself that her posture was no less good than Pyrrha's, that her expression was no less correct, that she, too, carried herself in just the right way.

And her hands were clasped behind her back.

Rainbow Dash, standing on General Ironwood's left, was standing at ease, feet spaced apart, hands behind, eyes looking over the heads of the reporters. She didn't so much as glance Sunset's way. She didn't look as if she was enjoying being here, which took Sunset by surprise a little because she'd thought that she and Rainbow would have been alike in enjoying the limelight. Perhaps she craved attention for other, better situations than the one they were currently in.

Or perhaps she was just worried about Penny.

Sunset tried to force herself to pay some attention to what the Speaker was saying; which was hard, because she didn't really care one bit what he had to say. She understood why they had to be here; and a part of her even wanted to be here for this was the first fruit of that succour that she had long yearned for: recognition of her skills and talents, to be presented to the world as one who had accomplished something worthy of recognition and respect, all that for which she had left Equestria and come to Remnant in the first place; but alongside that part of her which wouldn't have missed this for the world there was another part of her, the part that would rather have been in the hospital with Ruby, Jaune and Blake.

Sunset didn't want Ruby to wake up to find that she was alone in a hospital bed with only Jaune on an IV drip and a tranquilised Blake for company (okay, Yang was there, but Yang wasn't a member of SAPR so she didn't count), her two fit and walking team-mates having abandoned her.

But she was here now, so she probably ought to at least try and concentrate on what was going on, even if the three of them were only there as silent props.

It sounded like the Speaker was finishing his remarks. "And so, on behalf of the Council and of the Kingdom of Vale I would like to offer General Ironwood my thanks, for sparing this country a great blow such as it has not felt since the fall of Mountain Glenn these many years past. General, would you like to say a few words?"

General Ironwood nodded courteously, and the Speaker – a diminutive man, going bald on top of his head – made way for the taller, broader-shouldered general in front of the podium.

"Thank you, Mister Speaker, for your kind words," General Ironwood said. "They are appreciated not only by myself, but by every man and woman in the service of Atlas and Vale who has done their part to ensure that today has been marked by triumph instead of tragedy. You may rest assured that those forces are working even as we speak to ensure that the means by which the creatures of grimm entered the city cannot be used a second time.

"And now, I too would like to offer thanks, to the students of Atlas Academy's Team Rosepetal, and Beacon Academy's Team Sapphire." He spread his arms out to encompass Sunset, Pyrrha and Rainbow behind him. "These brave students were the first responders onto the scene of the breach, and with valour beyond the call of duty they engaged the enemy until the evacuation was complete. In this effort they were joined by Beacon Academy's Team Iron, and by members of Beacon Academy's Team Wisteria and Haven Academy's Team Sun; I would like to commend not only their courage, but also their cooperation: in this action they have exemplified the bonds that bind our four kingdoms together against a common enemy, and the ties that will ensure we triumph against this common enemy come what may."

"Thank you, General," the Speaker said. "And of course, thank you to our brave huntsmen, the backbone of our defences. Now are there any questions?"

"Is the Vytal Festival going to go ahead as planned?"

"Of course. We have every intention of staging a Vytal Festival to remember as the kingdoms come together in a spirit of amity and cooperation," the Speaker said. "And we also look forward to another win for Beacon." He got the expected laughter out of the press pack in attendance.

"But what about security?"

"Once again, let me stress that this threat has been completely dealt with," General Ironwood said. "This will not occur again."

"Of course, we take the security of our citizens, as well as all our guests from around the world, with the utmost seriousness," the Speaker said. "Which is why we will be consulting with General Ironwood and with our counterparts in Atlas with regards to any additional support we might require."

"Can you tell us anything about the sudden power surge?"

"I have no comment to make on that and that's all the questions we have time for," General Ironwood said. "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your time." He began to usher Sunset, Pyrrha and Rainbow off the steps and towards the black car that was waiting to take them back to the hospital.

"Just one more question!" someone shouted from out of the crowd. "Pyrrha, what does it feel like to be a real hero?"

Pyrrha stopped in her tracks, and though it was apparent – to Sunset at least – that she had been caught off guard, Sunset had to admit that she rallied magnificently: she bowed her head, letting her long, red ponytail fall down over her shoulder, and said, "It's an honour to be of service."

General Ironwood continued to lead them away, letting them precede him into the modest comfort of the waiting car. He closed the door behind him, and immediately the vehicle began to drive away.

"Thank you for that," he said. "I'm not sure how you found it, and I know that you'd probably rather be at Ruby's bedside, but I'm glad that you did it anyway."

"It's quite alright, general," Pyrrha murmured. "Although I'm still not sure why we needed to be there."

General Ironwood sat back in his chair as the car bowled down the street. "People need heroes, Miss Nikos; my army can protect them from the grimm, but they need someone with a face to rally behind, to inspire them. Today, that's the three of you."

"Congratulations, Pyrrha, you're our token human," Sunset said.

Pyrrha looked as though she didn't know how to respond to that, so Sunset added, "That was a joke. Mostly."

"Oh," Pyrrha said, with more courtesy than understanding. "Very amusing."

Sunset frowned. "General, sir…that question about the power surge. How much do people know? About Ruby, about Penny, about…about what happened?"

"Nothing has been officially disclosed," General Ironwood said. "But there were a lot of witnesses: personnel aboard my ship, the pilots who picked you up…the information has been classified but I can't guarantee that there won't be any leaks. We'll just have to hope that, without substantiation, they're dismissed as baseless invention."

"I'm not sure that I'd believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes," Pyrrha said, leaving Sunset in some doubt whether it was Penny's nature or Ruby's magic that she was referring to.

"If it does come out," General Ironwood said. "I'm afraid you'll have to protect your team-mates as best you can."

"That won't be a problem," Sunset said.

"No," Rainbow said. "It certainly won't for you, will it?"

The sudden sharpness of her tone, and the fact that it was the first thing Rainbow had said to her since the end of the battle, made Sunset look over at her. But Rainbow Dash looked away, and said nothing else.

Sunset felt a squirming feeling in her stomach, like a worm wriggling around inside her gut: a worm of uncertainty that desperately wanted to know what Rainbow knew and planned to do with what she knew, yet dared not confront her to find out.

"You did well today," General Ironwood said. "All of you."

"Thank you, General," Pyrrha said, with a graceful bow of her head.

"We lost Torchwick, sir," Rainbow said. "And we didn't get Cinder."

"No, you didn't," General Ironwood agreed. "And Torchwick being in the wind again is troubling. But, even though you may not have apprehended Cinder Fall, you disrupted her plan and you crippled the White Fang in Vale. Her wings are clipped and they won't be growing back any time soon. Take the win, Dash; both your teams deserve a rest after all you've done. With luck, the worst might be behind us now."

* * *

"Although the State of Emergency has been cancelled, residents evacuated from their homes have still not received the all-clear to return. The latest reports from the scene are that Atlesian and Valish engineers are working together to fill up the access tunnel which the grimm used to undermine Vale's defences with concrete, preventing a repeat of this attack. This activity is being carried out under the supervision and protection of Atlesian forces."

* * *

Cinder swiped her finger across her scroll, cutting off the news report that she'd been watching. _General Ironwood does public appearances far better than Professor Ozpin; strange, you'd think that the good headmaster would be more confident in front of the media after a career as long as his._

 _Or perhaps he simply shuns the limelight._

 _More fool him, if so._

"I think that we can call today a great success," Cinder said. "Don't you?"

"Of course," Emerald said, but more because she was hopelessly sycophantic and addicted to saying whatever she thought would please Cinder best, rather than because she believed it. None of them really believed it, and she didn't even have to look at them to know that.

When she did turn around to look at them, their faces confirmed their scepticism. Such plebeians. They had no imagination, no vision; they were adequate fighters – although their failures to actually kill any of their opponents demonstrated that they weren't the superlative warriors that she might have hoped for, certainly they weren't on a whole other level compared to their opponents – and reasonably loyal, but they didn't understand, they couldn't comprehend what she was doing.

Not without her explaining it to them in small words first.

She could have made allowances for the fact that both Mercury and Lightning still looked very much the worse for wear, both pale and drawn and pasty looking while Lightning was still intermittently coughing up smaller and smaller quantities of blood; and in the midst of victory perhaps she could have afforded to be somewhat generous; but the fact that they couldn't even grasp the obvious point was a little upsetting when set against that.

"None of you?" she asked.

"I-" Emerald began.

"Alright then, Emerald," Cinder said, with a smile. "Why was today a great success?"

Emerald opened her mouth, but no words emerged. She hesitated, then looked away.

"We started a story today," Cinder said. "Everything that came before: our covers being blown, our…my failure at the CCT, it was all just a prologue to the story that had its first chapter when that train erupted out from underneath the ground. A story of noble heroes and truly vile villains; a story of how the White Fang tried to unleash a horde of grimm upon an unsuspecting kingdom, only to be foiled by a gallant band of Atlesian huntresses; a story of how General Ironwood took command and defended Vale against the creatures of darkness."

"So," Mercury began, before coughing into his hand. "How does any of that help us?"

"Because that, at least, is the official narrative," Cinder explained. "I've no doubt that Atlesian reinforcements will be on their way very soon, to continue to defend Vale, or to hunt down the remnants of the White Fang. You saw it yourself: General Ironwood is being hailed as a hero, alongside our friends of Sapphire and Rosepetal, and he's even being consulted on security for the Vytal Festival. But do you know the interesting thing about narratives, Mercury? There's never just one."

Cinder turned away. "Even now, people are looking at the story we began today and crafting their own narratives, interpreting the facts to suit their own ideologies and prejudices. Servants, you know, will always believe the worst of their masters." That had certainly been her own experience of servitude: there had been plenty of bad that she could confirm but she had always been capable of imagining worse. "And this city, this kingdom, this entire world is full of servants trapped by law, by rules, by the chains of poverty and contract law. Little people filled with hatred and resentment, who feel that what little they have is threatened, who would rather believe in a world that is deliberately setting out to persecute them than accept that they just don't have what it takes to survive. In the shadows, those people are already creating their own narratives about what happened today." She tapped a search into her scroll. The result she was looking for came top.

It was a blog called _Voice of the Divine_ , one of the hubs for the burgeoning sub-culture to which flocked all who were, or who felt themselves to be, dispossessed and discontented. It was a world in which conspiracies abounded, in which people were willing to believe the worst not only of their government but also of their neighbours, and where an inward looking, xenophobic nativism flourishing like fungus bred by rot.

Attack on Vale was the relatively inoffensive headline of the article. Once Cinder started reading, however…

Although the absence of any civilian casualties leads me to suspect that this was a false flag intended to glorify Atlas and cement Ironwood's position, we mustn't discount the fact that this was nothing more than incompetence on the part of the (((White Fang))). We'll see by the narrative over the next few days: if this was a genuine act of terror, then we'll see a lot of calls for more migration and the importing of even more vibrants to diversify our communities; if, instead, Atlas takes the opportunity to take over, then it was a false flag intended to justify exactly that.

And then there were some of the comments.

They're already trying to do both. Just finished that laughable press conference. Two of (((them))) up on the steps and only one human.

I'm surprised they put Pyrrha Nikos up there since she's the epitome of everything they hate.

They're all so deep into their own Narrative that they think we find the (((butch LGBLT))) sexier than a feminine human with curves who knows how to show them off.

They've been trying to make us believe short hair is sexy for so long they've started to believe it.

Don't be fooled by Nikos' looks. She's 100% one of the globalists, complete with gamma cuck boyfriend. She wouldn't be up there if she wasn't a shill for Atlas.

Cinder smirked as she tossed the scroll to Mercury. Lightning leaned in to read it as well.

"Basement dwelling losers?" Lightning said. "Racist basement dwelling losers?"

Cinder shrugged. "The only difference between them and the White Fang is that the White Fang moved out of their parents' house."

"And have better things to do than critique other people's haircuts," Mercury muttered.

"The White Fang don't make me want to crush someone's head between my bare hands every time I see those friggin' brackets," Lightning spat.

Mercury frowned. "We're working with these people now?"

"Of course not," Cinder said. "But we're going to give them a little nudge now and again, to help the stories that they tell to spread. Once Sonata the Siren arrives, we'll have her sing a few songs to stir up the people of Vale, and as they get angrier they'll believe more and more outrageous things: about Atlas, about Ironwood, about Ozpin, about everything. We might even pass some of these people a few crumbs of information, to help prove to the world – or at least to those who already want to believe it – that Atlas is up to something positively nefarious."

"But are there really enough people like this for their anger to make any difference?" Emerald asked.

"Don't underestimate the extent to which anger can ferment in the dark," Cinder said. "All it needs is the right occasion to bring it all bursting into the light. And what better occasion than a celebration of unity and diversity to bring out all the worst instincts towards violent tribalism out in everybody? We'll stoke the anger of the left behind, and that in turn will rouse those who left them behind in the first place to a panic too. We'll set Atlas against Vale while the other two kingdoms watch in helpless horror, and all that anger festering in the darkness will burst into the light…and the light of their rage will bring the grimm to devour them all."

She retrieved her scroll from out of Mercury's hand. "You three should wait here and recover your strength. I'm going to see whose leading the White Fang now."

"You think they'll listen to you?" Mercury said. "A lot of faunus died today."

Cinder considered that. "I don't know," she admitted. "But if I don't try, I'll never find out."

* * *

"In the wake of this incident, the Council has lowered the threat level nation-wide to Substantial, but urged all citizens to remember that this does not mean that all danger has passed. Vigilance is still advised against any signs of further White Fang activity in response to this setback to their cause."

* * *

Adam's sword was thrust into the grave.

Their captain had left no instructions for the manner in which he was to be dealt with after his death; there was no clue whether he wanted to be burned, buried, to have a mound raised over his body like some ancient king with all his goods interred alongside him.

That last, while it might have been no less than one who had been the fount of their valour and resolve deserved, was a little impractical for such a group of fugitives as they to achieve, and so they had buried the sword of the faunus upon a hillside, facing south-east towards Menagerie, the home of the free faunus.

It seemed appropriate. Gilda hoped that, wherever he was now, their leader appreciated it: his eye would ever look towards the island paradise that all faunus dreamed of, the shining symbol of their liberty.

As for his valiant heart, a snake-faunus skilled with the knife had cut it out, and placed it in a casket of red wood. It would be carried to Menagerie, and to Sienna Khan, along with news of all of the disasters that had befallen the Vale chapter.

They had no skill, or time, or ability, to make a proper grave marker, and so they had driven the red sword of Adam Taurus into the earth, the crimson of the metal catching the light of the dying sun until it glowed. Then they had covered the grave with stones, that carrion creatures should not so easily disturb it.

Gilda stood, facing the grave, watching as the sunlight caught the sword.

 _You have your sword, but we have lost ours._

She felt as though she ought to say something, if not to Adam then to the faunus clustered around the grave, those who had escaped from Mountain Glenn, those fortunate enough to survive both the grimm and the Atlesians. Gilda ought to be say something to them, to give them hope, to stiffen their hearts; but she couldn't.

She had no words left in her. They had cut out the heart of Adam Taurus, but Gilda's heart lay in the grave with him and her tongue was silent till it came back to her.

She hadn't always agreed with him; lately it seemed that she had disagreed with him more often than not, but he was still their leader in war, their inspiration, a figure like no other.

Who could replace him?

How could they go on without him?

 _We have no choice._

She turned away. The faces of her fellow warriors of the White Fang were a bleak sight, reflecting Gilda's own bleak mood back at her like a mirror. There was such despair amongst this company that it was a wonder they hadn't called the grimm to eat them yet. Strongheart was sobbing, her eyes red and puffy with tears.

Gilda approached, placing a hand upon her shoulder. "We have…we have to keep moving forward," she said. It sounded inadequate, even to herself.

Strongheart sniffed. "But…how?"

Gilda hesitated, because she wished she knew the answer to that herself? How did they move forward? How did they recover from this, not only the loss of Adam but also of so many others? Those few who had come out of that tunnel alive had done so as Atlesian prisoners, and of those that had escaped the grimm underneath Mountain Glenn many had perished to the fire of the Atlesian warships that had appeared above their heads. Most of the strength of the White Fang in Vale had been at Mountain Glenn and that strength was broken now.

How did they move forward from that? How did they recover from such a catastrophe? How did they continue the fight?

"I don't know," she admitted. "That's why I need you to go to Liberty Point and find a boat there to take you to Menagerie."

Strongheart's eyes widened. "Me? You're sending me away?"

 _I'm sending you to safety,_ Gilda thought, because she thought it was likely that Atlas would try and finish the job and clean up the White Fang here once and for all. If that happened…if that happened then there wasn't much Gilda could do to stop them, but she could at least get the kid out of the way so that she wasn't caught up in the worst of it.

Not that she could tell Strongheart that. "I'm giving you an important mission; the most important mission," she said. "You will take Adam's heart to the High Leader on Menagerie. Tell her…tell her everything that happened here, and ask that she send us a new leader to take command of the Vale chapter." They needed more than a new leader in order to get back on their feet; they needed several hundred reinforcements from somewhere (at least several hundred), but High Leader Khan would decide for herself what was to be done about the situation in Vale. Gilda's begging would make no difference at all.

"That sounds like an excellent idea. In dark circumstances, good leadership can make all the difference, don't you agree?"

Gilda bared her teeth in a snarl as the crowd of faunus parted, to reveal that Cinder had crept up behind them while they mourned. Gilda's irritation at herself for not having set sentries was as nothing compared to the burning rage that she felt at this moment for the author of all their trials and tribulations.

One of her swords was out of its scabbard in an instant. "You!"

Cinder smirked as she held up her arms. "There's no need for any violence. I assure you that I come in peace, and mean you no harm."

"You've done enough harm already," Gilda growled. "What do you want?"

"From you? Nothing," Cinder said. "Which is convenient, since it seems that you don't have the authority to grant me anything anyway."

Gilda took a step forward, and reached for the hilt of her other sword. "Then why are you here?"

"I wanted to see how you were getting on after today's excitement," Cinder said. "And to find out what you planned to do next. And now I do. Did you really cut out Adam's heart and put it in a box?"

"Yes," Gilda said.

"Fascinating," Cinder said, in a tone that suggested she found the idea vaguely barbaric. The idea of a woman like Cinder turning her nose up at anything struck Gilda, meanwhile, as rich enough to choke upon. "Let me know when you're new leader arrives, won't you?"

Gilda snorted. "And why would I do that?"

"So that I can talk to them, obviously," Cinder said. "It's such a pity that Adam is dead, we understood one another so well. But, as you say, we must keep moving forward; I still have a use for the White Fang yet."

Gilda shook her head. "You're delusional."

Cinder chuckled. "So I've been told. But I call my delusions into being with my will, and shape the world according to my desires. If you want to share in my world, as Adam did-"

"I don't know what you had on Adam," Gilda snapped. "And I don't care. We're done with you, so I'm going to give you a slow count to three to turn around and walk away or-"

Cinder rolled her eyes at Gilda's ultimatum. "I will go," she declared, managing with her tone to make it sound as if she was doing the faunus a favour…which considering that the alternative was her continuing to inflict her presence upon them, she might have been. "But I'll be back."

"You-"

"I'll be back," Cinder repeated, more slowly, as if to drive it through Gilda's skull. "To speak with someone of more…wisdom and authority." She turned, and began to saunter away.

Gilda kept her swords drawn, even as they began to tremble in her hands.

"Strongheart," she said. "Get going. You've a long journey ahead of you."

"You want me to leave at once?"

Gilda nodded. "What reason is there to delay?"

What had happened today had been a disaster, and for that reason alone the High Leader needed to be told; and she needed to be told as soon as possible so that she could decide what would become of the chapter next.

The battle had been lost, and catastrophically lost, but the war was not over, not by a long shot.

For the White Fang, the next move was up to Sienna Khan now.

* * *

"This has been a special report from Lisa Lavender here at VNN. Good night, and good luck."


	99. Confrontation Conversation

Confrontation Conversation

Ruby was asleep. Or unconscious, it was hard to say which was more appropriate right now. If she was asleep, it was a sleep from which she would not wake, as though she were waiting for a prince to kiss her awake.

And they had none.

The little dog – Zwei – was also sleeping; a true sleep, this time, one from which he could wake when woken up or at any time he chose; he was curled up on Ruby's chest, nuzzling her pale cheek with his face, rising and falling with Ruby's gentle breathing which motion was not enough to rouse him from his slumber.

That she looked peaceful, almost serene, was something to be thankful for at least. Wherever she was, why ever she couldn't or wouldn't wake, she didn't seem to be in any pain or distress.

Sunset hovered over Ruby's bed, standing over her, casting a shadow over her and the dog that rested on top of her. She had never enjoyed feeling powerless, and that wasn't something that was changing now.

 _Your mother's diary talked about the exhaustion of using her powers but this? She never said that it put her into a coma._

 _If it had…if it had you probably would have wanted to go ahead and try for it anyway, wouldn't you? Because that's just who you are._

 _Too noble by a long way._

Sunset looked down at her hand. She had removed the finger from her wedding glove: she could now see the skin of her ring finger, while the silken finger of the glove flopped limply down. She had thought about trying to use her semblance on Ruby to try and…well, the fact that she couldn't properly articulate what it was that she thought that her semblance might be able to do for Ruby was the reason why she hadn't done it yet. It might – and that was a big if – show Sunset where Ruby's mind was right now, but that wouldn't help to wake her up. It was for that reason that she pulled the finger of the glove back on.

She would have to trust, as they would all have to trust, that this wasn't permanent, that Ruby would wake up in her own time, when she was ready to come back to them.

Yang sat on the other side of Ruby's bed, holding on to Ruby's hand with both of her own. Her lilac eyes brimmed at the edge with tears, and an expression of misery haunted her face.

Pyrrha stood at the foot of the bed wearing a grave look, graver than that which she had worn during a press conference; the way she stood and the expression that she wore made her look almost like a mourner at a funeral, save that she was still dressed in her garb for battle. None of them had changed that had not been changed by the medical orderlies; Sunset and Pyrrha (and Yang too, but especially the former two) were both sweaty and dust-stained, with the dirt of Mountain Glenn still on them. They both needed a shower and a change of clothes; but neither of them wanted to be showering if Ruby woke up.

It was irrational, incredibly so; if she was going to wake up quickly than she probably would have woken up already, but just because something was irrational didn't stop it from having a hold on you, and it certainly had a hold on Sunset. She didn't want to leave in case something happened while her back was turned.

It was just as irrational to think that Ruby would hold any temporary absence of hers against her, but – once again – just because it was irrational didn't mean that it couldn't get inside your head.

The ward in which Ruby's bed lay had four beds, enough for a whole team if they were injured in the field; at present only three of those beds were occupied. Jaune sat in the bed next to Ruby (although Sunset stood between the two of them); he wasn't injured, he was just suffering from aura depletion. He had an IV drip attached to his arm, but mostly he just needed a little bed rest. He'd probably be up soon.

The third bed, across the ward from where Ruby lay still and slumbering, was taken up by Blake. She needed more than bed rest. She needed…Sunset wasn't wholly sure what she needed. More than any of them could give her, she suspected, and not just because of the wound to her hand but what had caused her hand to be injured in the first place.

She'd been through more in Mountain Glenn than any of the rest of them, and after…there was a reason Sunset was focussing all her attention on Ruby and it wasn't just for the love of Ruby. It was because looked at Blake made her feel even more helpless; watching Ruby was bad enough, but at least it wasn't like watching someone drown in front of you and you couldn't even throw them a lifebelt.

Blake was also asleep, knocked out by the painkillers and tranquilisers they had given her; it seemed like they couldn't do much else for her hand right now but stop it from hurting.

Could anyone stop Blake from hurting? If anyone could, Sunset wished that she knew who it was. The honorary member of their team needed more than painkillers to take her hurt away.

"Is Ruby going to be okay?" Jaune asked plaintively.

Sunset looked around. Jaune was lying on his back, but he had turned his head to look at Ruby. Sunset took a step sideways so that he could see her better, but said nothing.

"I'm sure so," Pyrrha said softly.

"You don't know that," Yang said, her voice choked. "You can't be sure."

Pyrrha glanced away. "No," she admitted. "No, I can't."

"She'll wake up," Sunset asserted. _She has to._

"But you don't know that she will," Yang repeated, with more force than before.

"Her mother never-"

"Ruby's not her mom!" Yang said fiercely, and with such vehemence that she woke up the dog; he raised his head and looked at Yang with something that resembled puzzlement upon his canine face.

"Ruby's not her mom," Yang repeated, more softly this time, and with more sorrow than anger. "And she shouldn't have to try and _be_ mom. She's just a kid." She looked at Sunset, and her eyes had turned a little more crimson than they had been before. "You should never have encouraged her to do this."

 _Why you little-_ Sunset had to bite her tongue in order to stem the flow of angry responses that rose up from her throat like an army sallying out the castle gate in response to the outrageous accusation that any of this was in some way her fault. _I had no idea that this would happen,_ she might have said, or _Ruby wanted to go ahead with this more than anyone_ , or _I didn't do anything, I couldn't work out how to help her activate her eyes_ or _I don't know how she did it or why it affected her like this_ or even just _You think that I did this? You think you're the only one who cares about Ruby just because you're her sister? Why don't you stand up and say that, I'll kick your ass around the hospital._ So many responses, each one angrier than the last, crowded up her gullet so that she felt as though she might choke upon the gall that Yang's words evoked in her. So many things that she could have said, that she wanted to say, each one louder and more violent.

But she said none of them. She choked upon her rising bile. Because ultimately it wouldn't be Yang who had to leave the room if they made a scene in here, and it wouldn't do her any good to start a row even if she was in the right.

"Think what you like," she muttered, and turned away from Yang and from Ruby. She crossed the ward, passing Pyrrha who looked at her but said nothing, as she went to stand by Blake's bedside.

Blake's eyes, like Ruby's, were closed; although unlike the patient opposite Blake looked far from peaceful. Her face was set in a scowl, and her eyes…did her eyes just flicker open?

Sunset cocked her head a little. "Blake?"

Blake screwed her eyes shut.

"Blake, I can see that, you're awake," Sunset said. "Have you been pretending to be asleep this entire time?"

Blake slowly opened her eyes. "Only for a few minutes."

"Wh-" Sunset stopped. "How does it feel?"

Blake turned her head away. "It's okay."

"I don't believe you," Sunset said.

"Why not?"

"Because you nearly got your hand bitten off by a creep, how can that be okay?"

Blake slowly raised her hand, her injured hand; it was covered in bandages like a mitten, hiding her flesh and her fingers from the sight of Sunset and the world. Blake stared for a moment at the bandaged hand, before she let it fall back to the bed. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Blake-"

"I said I don't want to talk about it," Blake repeated, without looking at Sunset.

Sunset was still, and silent. _Do you blame me for what happened?_ She found that she could accept that more easily than Yang's frustration.

 _If you did it would be better than you blaming yourself._

Sunset wasn't sure what Blake had to blame anyone for, but then…perhaps he had been different once upon a time.

"Please," she whispered. "Don't do this to yourself." Blake had always carried with her a touch of melancholy, the oppression of her past had always been present on her shoulders. The shadows had always had a claim upon Sunset's black knight. But now her dark armour was weighing her down and pulling her into the deepest darkness from which there was no escape.

And Sunset didn't know what to do about it. She didn't know if there was anything that she could do about it.

She couldn't help Blake just like she couldn't help Ruby. And it was maddening.

Blake didn't respond to. She didn't want to talk about it. Who knew?

Sunset looked away. Pyrrha looked awkward and embarrassed, Yang looked as though she wasn't paying any attention to anyone but Ruby; Jaune looked as though he was trying very hard to seem as though he wasn't paying attention, for which Sunset was grateful.

She looked back down at Blake, not looking at Sunset with determination.

 _I wish that I could understand what was going through your head right now._ Sunset glanced down at her hand, uncomfortably aware that there was a way in which she could see exactly what was going through Blake's head right now. But to force that on Blake without her consent – while it might theoretically allow Sunset to comprehend her pain – would also destroy any trust or friendship between the two of them; that didn't seem like much of a trade to Sunset.

 _Worst. Semblance. Ever. Even when I could use it it's still useless._

The door into the ward slid open with a hiss that attracted the attention of Sunset and everyone else in the room too. Rainbow Dash stood in the doorway, holding a cardboard coffee cup in one hand.

She looked at Ruby, her chest rising and falling beneath the blanket and the dog.

"How is she?" Rainbow asked.

"She's…stable, but as you see," Pyrrha murmured. "She hasn't woken up yet."

"And they don't know when she will?" Rainbow said as she stepped into the room. Sunset appreciated that she had said when, not if. The door slid closed behind her.

"No," Pyrrha admitted. She glanced at Ruby, and then down at her feet before she looked back up at Rainbow. "How's Penny?"

Rainbow took a sip from her cup. "She's…she's a mess, but she'll be okay. We're shipping her back to Atlas. Twilight can't patch her up here, she needs to go home."

"When are you leaving?" Pyrrha asked.

"In a couple of days," Rainbow said. "Flying back on the _Hope_ , escorting a medical transport; a few people got injured on the city limits by grimm prowling around. They're going home too."

"I see," Pyrrha said. She hesitated for a moment. "Could I see her, before you go?"

Rainbow blinked at that. Sunset felt a little surprised as well. Had they even spoken to one another.

"Sure, I guess," Rainbow said. "Why? I, uh, I didn't think you were close."

"No," Pyrrha said. "But…Ruby isn't going to be able to say goodbye and I feel as though somebody should; and besides…if it's too much trouble-"

"No, it's fine," Rainbow said. "Penny will probably like a visitor." She took another drink from her cup. She didn't look at Sunset, and the longer that she didn't look at Sunset the more that Sunset began to feel that that was deliberate and not an accident. Rainbow licked the touch of froth from off her upper lip as she walked past Ruby's bed, until she was standing between Ruby and Jaune in much the same place that Sunset had been standing just a moment before.

She looked down at the sleeping Ruby. "What she did there was something else," she said.

"What it did to her was something else, too," Yang said.

Rainbow glanced at her. "Sure. I guess. But…she'll wake up. She's too tough not to." She turned away. "Anyway, I came to let you know we'd be leaving, and to say goodbye cause we won't see you now until next semester and the tournament, probably." She nodded to Jaune. "Take care, Jaune."

"Thanks," he said. "You too."

Rainbow grinned. "Now where's the fun in that?" She looked back at Ruby, and with her free hand she reached out and ruffled Ruby's red-tipped hair. "Get up and on your feet, Ruby; you and I need to have a race some time."

She still didn't look at Sunset. Not even when she went over to that half of the room, and stood at the foot of Blake's bed. She didn't even glance her way, and Sunset knew that it had to be deliberate.

 _She knows. She absolutely knows and she doesn't like it._

 _But she hasn't told anybody yet._

 _It's my saving grace but I don't get it at all._

"Blake," Rainbow said.

Blake frowned. "Goodbye, Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow snorted. "We don't have to say goodbye, Blake. You're coming with us."

That got Blake to turn her head and look Rainbow in the eye. "Excuse me?"

"Medical tech in Atlas is more advanced than anything they've got here," Rainbow said matter-of-factly. "There's stuff back home that can fix your hand up good as new, pretty much. It's the least we can do for you after helping us out."

Blake was silent for a moment. "That's…that's very generous of you," she said softly, and without a huge amount of sincerity. "But you don't have to do that."

"I don't have to give you a choice," Rainbow said. "Atlas owns you, remember?"

Blake's eyes widened. "Until the White Fang is defeated-"

"Until we say the White Fang is defeated," Rainbow said.

Blake's face twisted with outrage. "I've done everything that you asked-"

"Then don't stop now."

Blake tried to sit up. "Why? Why are you doing this?"

"Because your hand isn't the only thing that needs fixing," Rainbow said quietly.

Silence fell, lingering for a moment until Rainbow spoke again. "There isn't just medical tech in Atlas. There are doctors who can help you…they can help."

"I don't need a therapist."

"Your hand says something else."

"So what?" Blake demanded. "Why do you care?"

"Because I never leave my friends hanging," Rainbow said. "And I don't plan to start now."

Blake didn't look particularly grateful. "So I don't have a choice."

Rainbow was silent, and in her silence said everything.

Blake flopped back onto the bed. "Okay. What happens now?"

"You'll be taken to the medical transport," Rainbow said. "Some people will come to collect you soon. You should say goodbye too." She drank from her cup, a very long and lasting draught, and when she had finished she stared at the wall above Blake's head for a moment. Then, and only then, did she look at Sunset. "Can I talk to you for a second? In private?"

 _And here it comes._ Sunset felt as though her stomach had turned to a block of ice. She kept her nerves off her face, or hoped she did, as she gestured towards the doorway. "Sure."

They both stepped out of the ward, the door hissing closed behind them, and stood for a moment in the corridor outside. It wasn't exactly private, there was a nurse's station not far away with a nurse at it. Rainbow took the lead, making Sunset trail behind her down the corridor until they came to a pair of vending machines – a free dispenser of tea and coffee, and a brightly lit provider of canned drinks that you had to pay for - standing idle and unattended, with nobody in sight in either direction.

Rainbow gestured to the machines. "You want something?"

 _I want this done. The anticipation is killing me._ Sunset glanced at the bright green can machine. "No."

"Suit yourself," Rainbow said, finishing the last of whatever had been in her cardboard cup and tossing it in a recycling bin. She looked around, and her magenta eyes alighted upon a storage closet, to which she headed. She opened the door. "After you."

 _You want me to go in first so that I can't leave again until you say we're done?_ But as much as Sunset didn't like it, it wasn't as though she had much choice in the matter but to go in first, stepping over the mop and hoping that the bottles of bleach didn't fall on her, and stand with her back to a pile of stacked toilet rolls as Rainbow followed her in and shut the door.

"Thank you," Sunset said. "For trying to help Blake."

"Blake needs to help Blake," Rainbow muttered. "I'm just…General Ironwood said he'd recommend a good doctor for her for…you know. She's in a bad way."

Sunset frowned. "I think she's always been in a bad way. But now she's worse. She's been through a lot."

"Too much," Rainbow said. It was her turn to frown, or perhaps scowl might have been a better way of putting it. "That's not why I'm here."

"No," Sunset said. "I guess not." She hugged herself as her stomach got colder. "How much did you see? How much did you hear?"

"Everything," Rainbow said.

"But you haven't told anyone?" Sunset asked.

"No," Rainbow replied. She folded her arms. "Not yet."

Sunset swallowed. Her throat was dry and parched. "Not…yet?"

"I wanted to talk to you first," Rainbow said. She glared. "Why didn't you stop the train?"

"If you were right there the whole time then why didn't you do anything at the time?" Sunset replied.

"This isn't about me."

"It's starting to seem like it might be about both of us."

"Just answer the question," Rainbow snapped. "Why didn't you stop the train, when you were right there?"

"You know why," Sunset said. "For them."

Rainbow stared at her. "For them. Is that it?"

"What else do you want?" Sunset demanded. "We'd already sped past the last exit before Vale and the grimm were right behind us, what was I supposed to do? Let them die? Watch them die?"

"You put the whole of Vale at risk."

"Nothing happened."

"You didn't know that."

"I knew that Twilight had been sent to warn everybody."

"You didn't know that she'd get through in time."

"Maybe I had faith."

"And maybe you just didn't care?" Rainbow suggested.

Sunset clenched her hands into fists, even as she bit her lip nervously. "They're my family. You're my family, what do you want me to say?"

"You all Vale at risk for them."

"For us, you were there too," Sunset said sharply.

"Okay, sure, for us," Rainbow said. "The whole of Vale. Is there anything that you wouldn't sacrifice for…us?"

Sunset said nothing. What could she say? She could try to lie but the chances were that Rainbow wouldn't believe her even if she did – she'd seen with her own eyes and heard with her own ears, after all. Or she could admit it, and hope to brazen it out, but that didn't sound like the truth that Rainbow wanted to hear.

So she said nothing, and in her silence she said everything.

Rainbow sighed. "That's what I thought."

"What was I supposed to do?" Sunset demanded.

"None of them would have done what you did," Rainbow said.

"They're all too noble for their own good, that's why they need me to look out for them," Sunset said. "It's your turn to answer the question: what was I supposed to do? For that matter, what did you do? You stood there, listening to me and Cinder and you didn't do anything. You stood there while I fried the controls and you didn't do anything, so why don't you fold up your wings and come down from on high for a second to tell me what I should have done? What you would have done if you'd gotten there first?"

Rainbow stared at Sunset for a moment. "Honestly? If I knew the answer to that I would have put what you did in my report for General Ironwood. If I had…" she turned away from Sunset, resting her hands behind her head as she took a step towards the door. Then she rounded upon Sunset once again. "There are times when I think that you've become just like me. And there are times when I think that you might be the most dangerous person I know."

"That doesn't say much for your enemies," Sunset said.

Rainbow ignored that. "You put millions of people at risk."

"I took a gamble," Sunset said. "And it paid off. Everyone made it, and the city was saved anyway."

"For now."

Sunset frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"Cinder didn't want you to stop the train," Rainbow said.

"Yeah, she wanted the breach in the defences."

"Oh, come on, that was a total washout and she had to have figured that out," Rainbow said. "She would have been better off killing us down in the tunnels but…I don't know, but it seems like she wanted this to play out. And that worries me. Almost as much as the fact that she's in your head."

"Cinder is not in my head-" Sunset began.

"She is totally, absolutely in your head," Rainbow replied. "How am I supposed to trust you to have my back, my team's back-"

"I've got your back-"

"Until Cinder twists your head so that you don't any more," Rainbow replied. "You danced for her today. She pulled your strings and made you jump."

"Cinder didn't make me do anything down there that I didn't want to do already," Sunset said. "Cinder didn't stop me doing anything on that train that I hadn't already not wanted to do."

Rainbow nodded. "Yeah, you weren't eager to get on the train anyway, where you?"

"Not especially," Sunset said. "Yes, I weighed the lives of our teams against the possibility that Vale would fall and I chose us. And I'd do it again if I had to. Again and again no matter how many times you gave me the choice."

"And if Vale fell?"

"Then they would still live," Sunset said. "And I'd have to carry that weight."

"And you think you could."

"I could carry a myriad of stranger souls to me more easily than I could bear one single memory upon my shoulders," Sunset replied. "Should I have chosen the lives of strangers over the lives of friends?"

Rainbow shifted onto her back foot. "Do you think that they'd forgive you if they found out what you did?"

 _They seem to have forgiven Blake for talking them out of derailing the train._ But that wasn't quite the same thing, was it? Or it might not seem so, at least. Blake could at least present an altruistic vision, flawed though it was and contestable the morality; it wasn't as wholly selfish as Sunset's reasoning, and wouldn't make anybody feel selfish for accepting it. "I don't know," Sunset said.

Rainbow blinked, twice. "Me neither," she said.

"You keep dodging my question," Sunset pointed out.

Rainbow snorted. "Yeah. That's because I can't answer it." She looked away. "I thought that when I sent Twilight away…Ciel and Penny aren't my best friends, not even close, but…when I was standing behind you, I…get it. I asked you why but I already knew why. And I could have stopped you doing what you did but…but I didn't. I let you.

"I always told myself I'd take a bullet for my friends-"

"And I think you would," Sunset said. "You already took an arrow, right?"

Rainbow ignored that, too. "But it turns out making them take the bullet is a lot harder, even if they'd want to if they had the choice."

Sunset couldn't help but feel a little aggrieved. "If you get it then why did you drag me in here to have it out like this?"

"Just because I get it doesn't make it right," Rainbow said. "And it doesn't mean that I can trust you again after. You put the whole kingdom in danger to protect the people you cared about. Would you do that to Atlas? Where my friends live? My friends that you don't know?"

"Would you sacrifice your friends for Atlas?" Sunset said.

Rainbow licked her lips. She bowed her head, shame crossing her face. "Yes," she admitted, although from her tone and her stance it was clear that she considered this a shameful thing and not a source of pride for her in the least.

 _Then I feel sorry for you,_ Sunset thought, but didn't say.

"I've chosen my side," Sunset said. "And if you can't-"

"What would you do if I told them what you did?" Rainbow asked. "What we did?"

Sunset paused, the chill that had been beginning to thaw in her gut freezing over once again with renewed vengeance. "I begged you once not to take them away from me."

Rainbow said, "When I first met you here in Vale I was worried you were going to turn out to be the same person you'd been back in Canterlot…and you are. You're still self-centred…you've just made your self bigger."

"Like I said, I've chosen my side," Sunset said. She wasn't going to waste time arguing about any changes in her nature with Rainbow Dash. If she couldn't see what Sunset was now then there was nothing Sunset could say to convince her otherwise.

"Yeah, you have," Rainbow said. "And I've chosen mine."

They stood, facing one another, neither saying again for a moment or two.

"So what are you going to do?" Sunset asked.

Rainbow's eyes narrowed. "If you're side ever crosses mine; if you ever put _my_ friends, _my_ city in danger, then I'll bury you. Count on it. Until then…our sides are on the same side together. And I'd like to keep it that way."

Sunset felt as though she might pass out from relief. "So…are you going to say anything?"

"What would be the point?" Rainbow asked. "Like you said, it all worked out in the end. But I see what you are now, and I'll keep watching."

"I'd probably do the same in your place," Sunset said. She could hardly complain, after all. Rainbow didn't wholly trust her now for what she was, what choices she would make and what they might do to those Rainbow cared about; how was that any different from the way that Sunset felt about Professor Ozpin? Rainbow had to take care of those dear to her, just as Sunset did, and the fact that some of those dear to Rainbow were dear to Sunset too…she couldn't expect that to cut much ice.

Rainbow was looking out for her side. Sunset could neither ask nor expect less. And so long as their too sides didn't come into conflict, they wouldn't have a problem.

Rainbow held out her hand. "See you around, Sunset Shimmer."

Sunset took it. "See you around, Rainbow Dash."


	100. Penny for Your Thoughts

Penny for Your Thoughts

Pyrrha hesitated outside of the door that led to Penny's room. Her hands, idle, drifted to the red sash as her waist, tugging pointlessly at the long tail that fell down almost to the floor.

 _Perhaps this wasn't such a good idea._ She had little idea of what she would say, and none at all of whether Penny would actually want to see her. She wasn't Ruby, after all, and no real substitute for her either. She and Penny had barely spoken.

But she had said that she would come here, and she didn't consider herself the sort of person who went back on her word.

Friendship had never come easily to her, and the fact that she had a few friends now was no excuse to stop making the effort to make any more.

She had said that she would come here, and wish Penny farewell on behalf of Ruby and the team, and she would do that.

She glanced at Rainbow Dash, who was standing beside her with very little expression readable on her face. "Thank you, Rainbow Dash," Pyrrha said. "For bringing me here and letting me see Penny."

"Don't worry about it," Rainbow said, peeling herself off the wall against which she had been leaning sideways while Pyrrha dithered. "Listen, I want to go check on Fluttershy; can you ask Twi to show you off the ship when you're done?"

"I should be able to find my way," Pyrrha said. "But yes, I'll ask Twilight if I need the directions."

"It's not just the directions," Rainbow said. "We're not supposed to let you wander around without an escort. This is a warship, after all."

"Oh," Pyrrha said. "Yes, of course. I understand."

"Not that we don't trust you or anything," Rainbow said quickly. "It's just…procedures."

"It's quite alright," Pyrrha said. "No offence taken."

"Cool," Rainbow said, with a little relief in her voice. "Well…good luck in there. And…it was fun working with you, Invincible Girl."

Pyrrha smiled, pleasantly surprised to find that the use of her epithet didn't bother her quite as much as it normally. "I'm not sure that I'd call it fun, but we did some good together, your team and mine."

"You wouldn't say that you enjoyed it?" Rainbow asked. "Come on, we had some downright awesome times, Sapphire and Rosepetal. And I know that you enjoy the thrill of the fight as much as I do. You can't be as good as you are and not love it a little."

"I…I sometimes enjoy matching myself against a skilled opponent, in an organised match with rules and regulations," Pyrrha admitted. Victory, and the ease with which it came to her and the social consequences that it had had for her life, had somewhat lessened her enjoyment in latter years, but when you stood in the middle of the arena with the roar of the crowd in your ears…there was a quality as sweet as nectar about it. "But battles against monsters and murderers…I fight because someone must." _Because it is my destiny,_ she might have said, if she hadn't been afraid that it would sound terribly pompous.

Rainbow's smile reminded her a little of Sunset, it had that same 'I see through you' quality about it. "Sure. I'll tell you something: it's a pity that I won't be going through the final round of the Vytal Festival. I'd give a lot to go a round with you in the Amity Arena."

"You are the team leader," Pyrrha pointed out. "You could put yourself forward."

Rainbow laughed. "Well, yeah, technically," she said. "But Penny's the star of the show, for…well, you know why now. General Ironwood might get mad if I didn't give her the chance to show her stuff."

"I see," Pyrrha said, because a moment's thought allowed her to understand perfectly. Theoretically speaking, on a pure reading of the tournament rules, a team leader could submit any two fighters they wished to the two-on-two round, and any one fighter they wished to the one-on-one round; but in reality there were all sorts of pressures and conventions that constrained their choices. Sunset _could_ choose to put herself and Jaune through to the two-on-two, just as she could choose to put herself alone into the one-on-one round, but if she did then not only would Pyrrha's mother die of apoplexy but she, Sunset, would be torn limb from limb by Pyrrha's fanbase. It was the same with Rainbow Dash and Penny; there were people in Atlas who wanted to see Penny get her chance in the limelight, and they had ways of making their intentions into reality.

The thought was obvious, and yet at the same time surprising to her. Something that she and Penny had in common, it seemed: powerful figures standing behind them, pushing them into the arena's light. Would they consider Penny's glory to be as much their own as hers?

Without knowing them better she couldn't say, although she confessed to hoping that General Ironwood was fairer with Penny than her mother was.

She recalled herself to the situation at hand. "Perhaps we could have a sparring match some time?"

It was clear from her face that, absent the pressures of the competition, that was not the ideal for Rainbow, but nevertheless she said, "Sure, that'd be great. Anyway, I'll let you get in there. Thanks, for coming, like I said, I think she'll like having a visitor."

"Thank you for allowing it," Pyrrha said. "Goodbye, Rainbow Dash. It…it would have been a pleasure, to fight you in the tournament." She was pleased by the pleasure in Rainbow's face as Pyrrha raised her right hand and knocked upon the door.

"Just a moment," came the voice, slightly muffled through the metal. A moment later and the door slid open to reveal Twilight. "Oh, Pyrrha, hey."

"I'll leave you to it," Rainbow said, turning away. "See you later, Twi."

"Say hi to Fluttershy for me," Twilight called.

"Sure," Rainbow replied over her shoulder, as she started to walk away.

Twilight re-focussed upon Pyrrha. "Uh, come in," she said, stepping aside so that the doorway was clear.

"Thank you," Pyrrha said, entering the room before the door closed behind her. The room in question was grey, but only from the metallic floor, walls and ceiling, there was nothing dark or gloomy about it; in fact it was very well lit through the large window which offered a marvellous view Vale below. The room looked part bedroom, part workshop. Rather more workshop than bedroom, as while there were two bunk beds on one side of the room, most of the rest seemed to be taken up with the 'workshop' element: a long table against the other wall, on which were set an array of tools and instruments and also, disconcertingly for Pyrrha, Penny's damaged arms and legs, ripped and tattered where her own wires had severed them from her body; a second table sat in the centre of the room, and on that table lay Penny.

Penny's trunk, at least; her arms and legs were, as Pyrrha had already observed, on the far workbench. But although they were without a doubt a part of Penny they were not Penny herself if that made any sense to anyone but Pyrrha. Penny was on the centre desk, armless, legless and completely naked. She tried to sit up, which she clearly found rather difficult in her present circumstances.

"Hello, Pyrrha," she said cheerfully.

Pyrrha wasn't honestly sure what disconcerted her more: the sight of Penny alive and well-sounding and smiling in a situation that would have killed any human being; the cheerful tone of her voice in spite of such horrific injuries; or the fact that she was naked…and anatomically correct above the waistline.

As a result, she found it rather difficult to say anything.

Penny blinked. "Pyrrha? Is something wrong?"

"I…" Pyrrha recovered herself. Where were her manners? Was this how a Nikos conducted herself as a guest? "I apologise, Penny, I didn't mean to stare." She bowed her head. "It's just that…it's a little strange, seeing you like this; you look so very human and yet no human could ever look the way that you do right now."

From behind Pyrrha, Twilight gave a squeak of embarrassment, rushing past Pyrrha to cover Penny with a tarpaulin sheet below the neck. "I'm really sorry about that," she said, whether to Pyrrha or Penny or both of them it was hard to say. "I took Penny's clothes off to better examine her condition and I, I just didn't think about…I'm really sorry."

Since she didn't know whether Twilight was really speaking to her or Penny, Pyrrha didn't reply.

"Is it better now?" Penny asked.

"I…I suppose it is," Pyrrha said. "Although it's my fault, not yours, the way that I behaved. I'm sorry. And I'm sorry also for what I said on the train that night, from Cold Harbour. Knowing what I know now…I must have upset you. That wasn't my intent."

Penny looked at her for a moment. "Pyrrha, do you trust me?"

"I…yes," Pyrrha said. "Yes, Penny, I'd say so for all that we don't know each other very well."

"But I'm a robot," Penny said. "Just like the AK-190s on the train."

Pyrrha smiled thinly. "I don't think that you're exactly like them. You…you have aura, don't you?" It was the only explanation that made sense. If she had not had aura, if she had simply been an Atlesian battle-droid in a body that was far more of a human simulacra than normal, then she would have sustained far more damage than she had done by now.

Penny glanced at Twilight, who nodded her head.

"Yes," Penny said. "I'm the world's first robot with aura."

Even though it was the response she had suspected and expected, hearing confirmation of it from Penny's own lips made Pyrrha's mouth form an O and her eyes widen a little. "Extraordinary," she murmured. She couldn't imagine how the idea had even been conceived of, let alone accomplished. Making aura? Making a soul? A religious person might have found the idea rather horrifying, but as somebody who ticked the 'spiritual, not religious' box on her census form Pyrrha found herself rather in awe of the accomplishment.

"You have a soul, then," she said. "In that alone you are nothing like any other robot in the world, and by being so unalike in the most important way…you're barely like them at all."

"She has aura," Twilight murmured. "The question of the soul is something separate."

"Is it?" Pyrrha said, turning her gaze away from Penny for a moment. "Aura is the manifestation of our souls; Penny has aura, how then can she not have a soul?"

Twilight muttered something under her breath about it not being quite as simple as that, but shrugged. "I…I don't know. Agree to disagree?"

"Of course," Pyrrha said. She returned her attention to Penny. "I stand by what I said about Atlas's other robots, but you…you're not like them. You have a soul and, having a soul, are free."

"Ruby said something like that."

"And Ruby can be very wise," Pyrrha said. "Please don't take what I said to heart. I meant no offence by it."

"It's the control you object to," Twilight said. "The fact that the battle droids can be ordered to do things without judging whether it's right or wrong."

"Yes," Pyrrha said. "We're not just weapons, and because of that…we cannot stop asking if what we're being asked to do is the right thing."

"I wouldn't have agreed with you once, but now…" Twilight trailed off. "Let's just say that I can see the vulnerabilities more clearly than I would have a little while ago."

Pyrrha didn't know what Twilight was referring to, but she decided not to press the point since it was fairly clear to her that Twilight didn't want to elaborate. "Anyway, I hope that you didn't think that I had something against you."

"It's okay," Penny said. "You didn't know."

"Why did you keep it a secret?" Pyrrha asked.

"General Ironwood doesn't want people to know," Penny said. "Only he, Specialist Schnee, and my team-mates were supposed to know. But I told Ruby."

"And Sunset worked it out," Twilight said.

"And now quite a few people know," Penny said. "Do you think they'll tell?"

Pyrrha hesitated for a moment, considering her response. "I think…I don't think that anyone would reveal your secret maliciously," she said. She didn't know Nora well enough to say for sure that she wouldn't accidentally let it slip, but did she really want to worry Penny with that? Did she really want to malign Nora with the possibly unfounded accusation that she was a blabbermouth? Yes, she liked to tell stories and she talked enough for herself and Ren, but she wasn't a gossip that Pyrrha had noticed; in fact her tales seemed taller than they were based in facts about real people. "I think your secret is safe with us. For my part, I promise that nobody will hear of it from me. You have my word."

Penny smiled sweetly. "Thank you, Pyrrha. That means a lot."

"Although," Pyrrha added. "I don't see why the need to keep what…to keep your true nature a secret from everyone. What purpose does it serve?" _And how would you keep it a secret for a long time?_ Did Penny age? It seemed a rude question to come out and ask her directly, but at the same time Pyrrha could only assume that the answer was 'no' because how could materials age in the way that a person did. Some people retained a youthful countenance – one of Pyrrha's beauty consultants had told her that her skin would keep her looking young provided she took proper care of it – but at some point people were going to notice that Penny wasn't ageing a day over seventeen, surely? Why lie to the world, when it was sure to come out at some point.

"I think," Penny said, after a moment's thought. "That it's a little because some people might not like it: a robot who looks like a human; a synthetic being with aura. But, mostly, I think it's just so I have an advantage in the tournament next semester. My father really wants me to win."

"I know exactly what you mean," Pyrrha said. "I am supposed to keep my semblance a secret for the same reason." Supposed to being the operative word, at times; she had gotten used to being more open about it recently, albeit only amongst her own team really. People that she trusted. She still doubted that her mother would wholly approve.

"Tell me something, Penny," Pyrrha continued. "Do you want to win the Vytal Festival? Not your father, not General Ironwood, but you? Is that what you want?"

Penny tilted her head first one way and then the other. "I don't know," she confessed. "I've never been in a tournament before, what's it like?"

A slight smile crossed Pyrrha's face. "Forget everything that you have learned about combat in the field, because a tournament is nothing like that. This will be my first Vytal Festival too, and I can't speak for the team rounds, but when it gets to the one-on-one rounds…when it's just you and your opponent, facing each other across the circle, that is combat at its purest essence. No reinforcements, no tricks, no surprises; just you and your opponent matching the skills that you've honed and refined against each other." She remembered her fight against Mercury, and how forgetting the difference between a tournament and a fight had nearly cost her dearly. "Of course, it goes the other way as well, competing in tournaments isn't always the best preparation for going out and confronting villains and monsters; but when you find yourself in the arena…that little space becomes the whole world to you, that crowd that you can hear cheering you on become all the people in the world and when you win and throw down your opponent the exhilaration…" she sighed. "For a long time I thought that was the greatest feeling in the world."

"Did you find something better?" Penny asked.

"Yes," Pyrrha said softly, thinking of her first kiss. That made her blush, and she decided that she didn't necessarily want Penny to ask her about it. "But, uh, even so," she continued with a slightly forced laugh. "It's still a great feeling, to triumph in that space like that."

"It sounds wonderful," Penny said.

"It is," Pyrrha agreed. She couldn't stifle a sigh before she said, "Actually winning the tournament, on the other hand, is something else altogether. Something rather less pleasant."

Penny frowned. "I don't understand. If winning the matches feels so good, then what's the problem with winning the tournament?"

"Because once you win the tournament you…" Pyrrha sought the right words to explain it. "You become the property of everyone who watched you win the tournament. They feel as though they know you even though they don't and never will and because they feel that way they feel entitled to your time and to yourself and all the while you're prevented from ever getting close enough to really know anyone at all because of your status and everything else that surrounds you. Competition can be exhilarating if you feel that way but victory…there are times when I'm not sure that I would wish the cost of victory on anyone."

"I…aren't your team-mates close to you?"

"Yes," Pyrrha said quickly. "Of course they are, but…I had to almost retire from the tournament circuit and come to Beacon in order to have chance at a normal life. I don't know. Perhaps my own experience isn't universal. I wouldn't want you to think that I was trying to put you off. You should do what you think is best, what you want."

"Hmm," Penny mused. "I…I don't really know what I want."

"I see," Pyrrha murmured. "Penny, do you mind if I ask you a personal question?"

"Sure," Penny said. "Go right ahead."

"How old are you?"

Penny smiled. "I am eleven months and fifteen days old."

"I…I see," Pyrrha murmured, feeling ever so slightly appalled at the idea that this mere child – she was aware that there were many who would consider her a child, but this was surely something else altogether – being placed into such danger. But, on the other hand, if Penny didn't mind then who was she to judge either her circumstances or those closer to her than Pyrrha herself who had placed her in this situation. She mastered her feelings of mild disgust, and kept them off her face. "In that case, perhaps it isn't so surprising that you haven't figured out exactly what you want yet."

"I do have a lot to learn," Penny acknowledged. "I think that's a reason General Ironwood wants me to enter the tournament. I've studied great fighters like you, but by competing against the best in Remnant I'll learn so much more about different ways of fighting, and how to fight."

"You flatter me, Penny," Pyrrha said lightly. And then, because she didn't want to experience any more flattery, she continued. "But do you want to fight in the tournament? Do you enjoy fighting?"

"Not against the grimm," Penny admitted. "But sparring can be fun. I'd like to at least try this Vytal Tournament, if only to see what it's like. And besides, I'm not sure how my father or General Ironwood would take it if I told them that I didn't want to do it now."

"If they care for you, and have your best interests at heart, then I'm sure that they would accept any decision that you make," Pyrrha said, albeit with a touch more hope than any knowledge born out of experience. She began to walk around the centre table on which Penny lay towards the other workbench where all of her other…parts rested. "As I said, I'd hate to discourage you from something that you want to try." She stood over the workbench. Penny's severed limbs, jagged where they had been torn from her body, confronted her. "Does it…hurt?"

"I don't have pain receptors," Penny said.

"But you cried out when it…when you…" Pyrrha failed to find a way to phrase it correctly, and settled for feebly gesturing to her dismembered parts.

"It was very frightening when it happened," Penny explained. "Although I'm sorry if I alarmed anybody."

"No, don't worry about that," Pyrrha said. "So…you can feel emotions in your soul, but you can't feel with your body?"

"I can feel," Penny corrected. "When I touch things I can feel them, but I…um, Twilight? A little help? You understand how I work better than I do."

"Penny has tactile sensors on her body to register touch sensations," Twilight explained. "If you think of them as essentially nerve endings you'll get it, since they were designed to mimic that role and purpose. However, they're also designed to cut out once past a certain threshold; hence, Penny can't feel pain."

"And I'm not hindered by it," Penny said.

Pyrrha nodded. "In any case, Penny, perhaps you'd allow me to give you some advice if you wish to fight, in the arena or in battle."

"Of course," Penny said. "I'd welcome any help that someone as great as you could give me."

"You really don't have to flatter me like this."

"I'm not," Penny said. "As part of my initial training, I watched footage of all of your fights alongside other elite fighters. You're amazing! I can't wait until we get to meet in the tournament and I can see how I stack up against you. I know that my father is looking forward to that as well."

"Is he?" Pyrrha murmured. _Hearing that, Mother would probably disapprove of what I'm about to do. So might Sunset, for that matter._ She looked away from Penny for a moment, her gaze passing over Penny's arms and Penny's legs and alighting on Penny's swords. The swords that she had only ever seen her directing through what Pyrrha had taken to be a kind of telekinesis, but which now seemed more likely to be electronic transmission. "May I?" she asked, gesturing to one of the swords.

"I don't mind," Penny said. "Is it okay, Twilight?"

Twilight shrugged. "I don't see why not?"

"Thank you," Pyrrha said softly, as she picked up one of the blades from off the workbench. It was longer than she was used to in a sword, much longer than Milo in sword configuration, as long even as her weapon in its spear form. She held it thoughtfully in one hand, and then shifted into a two-handed stance. It felt natural in either one. "These are fine swords," she said. "Do you know how to use them?"

"Of course," Penny said. "You've seen me using them."

"I'm not talking about directing them through the wires," Pyrrha said. "I'm talking about holding them in your hands. Do you know how to do that?" She suspected that the answer was no, based on how helpless Penny had seemed once the grimm had gotten hold of her blades.

Penny's face fell a little. "No. I've only ever practiced using the wires."

"The swords aren't designed for handheld use," Twilight said.

Pyrrha flowed like water through several sword-stances, rapidly moving from form to form, striking down imaginary enemies all around her. "The balance is excellent," she said. "The weight is tolerable, and the edge is sharp. Theses blades might not have been designed to be wielded, but whoever designed them knew too well what they were doing to produce an inferior weapon." She set the sword down upon the bench. "I noticed – I couldn't help but notice – that you didn't know what to do once the grimm had disarmed you. If you could use your swords with your hands, rather than with your wires, it might give you something to fall back on. Just something to think about when you get, um, back on your feet."

Penny's eyes were wide. "You really are amazing."

"Hardly," Pyrrha said. "This is very rudimentary. Have you found your semblance yet?"

Penny shook her head. "My father isn't sure that I have one."

"If you have aura then you have a semblance," Pyrrha said. "And you can unlock it, with proper training." If she could unlock it then, depending on what her semblance was, it would be another way for Penny to protect herself or engage her opponents without having to rely solely upon her ability to direct her swords.

Penny nodded. "I will. I'll keep trying. Thank you, Pyrrha."

"There's nothing to thank me for," Pyrrha said. She paused. "I'm sorry that it seems that Ruby won't be able to say goodbye before you leave for Atlas."

Penny's face fell. "I hope she wakes up soon."

"We all hope so," Pyrrha said. "But until then, I'd like you to remember that she's not the only friend you have amongst Team Sapphire." She spotted the book of fairytales that Blake had given Penny lying on the bedside table. "How are you getting along with the book?"

"I'm still reading through it," Penny said. "Although it's a little difficult now."

"I can only imagine," Pyrrha said. "Would…would you like me to read something to you?"

"Really?"

"If you like."

"Yes," Penny declared emphatically. "That would be…that would be a big help right now."

Pyrrha walked over to the beds and the book, and – after a nod from Twilight indicated that it would be okay – she sat down on the bottom bunk. She picked up the well worn book, and flicked through the often-thumbed and slightly dog-eared pages until she came to a story that was a particular favourite of her mother's.

"The story of the seasons," she began. "Once upon a time…"


	101. Over the Ocean

Over the Ocean

The Atlesian medical transport _In Safe Hands_ had an open deck at the front and back – fore and aft, as Blake had heard the sailors saying it – of the vessel where those patients who were mobile could stand under the open sky and watch the world go past under the flying vessel.

Blake was on the forward observation deck now. She had it all to herself, the ship being presently a little short on patients thanks to the casualties of the recent battle having been so light.

The human casualties. The casualties that people cared about. The people who had a chance to be treated by doctors in the most technologically advanced kingdom in Remnant.

Blake rested her one good hand – the other was still swathed in bandages, apparently there wasn't much that anyone could do for it until they got to Atlas proper – upon the rail separating her from a long drop down to the ocean below. The metal was cold beneath her skin, but already she could feel it warming from her body's touch.

Not that that mattered. She could handle hot or cold. What she couldn't handle was the memories. Just thinking about that day made her think of all the faunus who had died aboard that train. And sure, it was easy to say that they were terrorists, that they had it coming, that they deserved nothing less for what they had tried to do for Vale; and maybe…maybe if she were even thinking more clearly then Blake would agree with that but…but she couldn't agree and she couldn't think calmly and clearly about this.

She knew those people who had died in the tunnel and on the train; the ones that she'd heard screaming, firing desperately as they tried to hold off the grimm. She didn't know their names, but she knew them because…because she had been one of them. They weren't evil, they weren't monsters just like the grimm, they were…they were angry and misguided and…and perhaps they could have learned better if they'd been given time instead of…

Or perhaps they would have come as bitter and twisted as Adam had become in the end.

Adam. Blake saw him when she closed her eyes, and shuddered. She didn't want to think about Adam, she really didn't. There were no memories that were not corrupted by what he had become, and by the fate that he had met at Sunset's hands. There was little she could hold on to that did not, in the end, lead her back to all the reasons that she had run from him in the first place.

And yet she could not escape him. He was with her like a shadow, always trailing in her footsteps, always by her side, always waiting. And whenever she had a moment to herself he would appear, to whisper in her ear and bring her lower.

She looked down, over the side of the ship. She could see the white wings of the vessel beating up and down beneath her like oars, but she sidled to the left a little bit so that she could see the ocean beneath her. A school of fish leapt out of the water, and it soon became apparent to her that they were leaping in a desperate attempt to escape the gaping maw of the whale that breached the water with a great splash and a spray that flew up into the air towards the _In Safe Hands_. Watching the waves lap back and forth, watching the fish and the many mighty creatures of the sea, Blake could feel almost peaceful. She could almost forget everything that had happened in Vale. Almost forget the hollow feeling inside.

Before she knew it she was slumped against the railing, her hand trailing over it towards the water.

"Um, excuse me?"

Blake started at hearing the voice, the first sign that she was not alone that she'd received since coming up here. She hadn't seen the door leading back into the ship open, so lost had she been in contemplation and recrimination. She stood up, partially at least, and looked around to see a young girl with long lilac hair falling down on both sides of her face, partially covering it from view, standing nervously behind her. The girl had her hands up, just beneath her chin, as though she was afraid that Blake might attack her for intruding on her privacy. Blake wondered if her reputation had preceded her, or if this girl was like this around everyone.

A second look triggered Blake's memory. She'd actually met this girl before, in Mountain Glenn; she was one of those Rainbow Dash had wanted to save. "You're one of Rainbow Dash's friends, aren't you?"

The girl looked a little surprised to be remembered. "Um, yes, that's right. And you…you're a member of that Vale team, aren't you?"

"Not exactly," Blake murmured. _An honorary member at best, and maybe not even that after the way I acted towards Sunset._ It hadn't been fair, to take that line with her, but she'd been feeling a little fed up of Sunset's efforts to help her at that point. Especially since the last time Sunset helped her, Adam died.

That wasn't Sunset's fault…no, it was Sunset's fault, but it was the sort of fault that she deserved to be blamed for. She had saved Blake's life and yet Blake could find little gratitude for it in her heart.

She pushed that aside, it would do her no good now. She held out her good hand. "Blake."

The girl took her hand. "You can call me Fluttershy."

 _She's inviting me to call her by her nickname?_ "It's nice to meet you, Fluttershy," Blake murmured.

Fluttershy smiled. "You too, Blake." She played with her hair, as the sea breeze ruffled the hem of her green dress. "So, what brings you up here all by yourself?"

"Aren't you up here by yourself?" Blake replied.

"Oh. I suppose so. Although my friend Applejack will be joining me up here shortly. If, if you don't mind the company that is."

Blake looked around the observation deck. "I think there's room for three up here."

She turned away from Fluttershy, and went back to looking out over the open sea as it passed beneath them. Wave after wave after wave passing by as the wings of the _In Safe Hands_ beat on to carry her to Atlas.

Atlas. She'd never been there before. She'd never set her own eyes upon the heart of all the world's corruption.

She frowned. That was Adam talking. He had been to Atlas, he had lived there in his youth – not many people knew that, barely more than those who knew that he had been branded on his face by the SDC, but Blake was one of them – and he had told her that it was a hellish place, a place where a façade of wealth and prosperity hid such sins as would make you choke; where the air was as foul with wickedness as with the smog of the dust processing plants and the toxic chemicals of the Atlesian industries; where the might of the military hovered overhead like a sword poised to descend, a reminder of who had the power and upon whom that power might be visited if they took a step out of line.

To hear Adam talk of Atlas, to hear him describe the fires burning amidst the darkness of the mines, to hear him talk of the Low Town, the smoke, and the incessant growling of the engines more relentless than any creature of grimm; to hear him talk of choking on the air, of lying awake at night from the constant noise, of the poverty and the degradation was to hear hell on Remnant described. But Adam…although Blake had believed him once, without a doubt or trace of hesitation, she could no longer say for certain what was true and what was Adam's bitterness and hatred talking, how much was simply his desire to rile her up and inspire her to find hard for the cause of the faunus and the White Fang. Certainly it was true that life in Atlas was no easy thing for their race. Could it be doubted? No one argued that Atlas was a haven or hotbed or tolerance and yet…Rainbow Dash. Could such vast ego be in darkness born? Could such confidence flower in the degradation that Adam had described for her? Or perhaps…perhaps it was not wholly as Adam had said it was.

 _He lied about other things, why not that?_

Fluttershy didn't seem to notice that Blake wished to be alone, and joined her at the balcony rail. "I get a little nervous of heights, but this is a beautiful view, isn't it?"

"Mmm," Blake murmured by way of reply.

Fluttershy glanced away, then glanced back at Blake again. "Thank you," she said softly.

Blake blinked as she looked at the other girl. "For what?"

"Coming to get me," Fluttershy said. "And Applejack too."

Blake frowned. "I wasn't there when you were rescued."

"Maybe not," Fluttershy said. "But you helped, didn't you?"

"I suppose," Blake murmured. "Do you…do you mind if I ask you a question?"

"Of course not."

"You might," Blake said. She hesitated. "What was it like? Being help prisoner by them?"

Fluttershy looked down at her feet on the metallic deck. "I was afraid," she whispered. "I'm afraid a lot of the time, I'm not a very brave person, you can ask anybody and they'll tell you that. I'm not like my friends at all, I'm so scared of so many things; but I was very afraid of them."

"That's…understandable," Blake said. "Did they…hurt you, at all?" _Please tell me that the White Fang has not fallen so low, please tell me that Adam wasn't that far gone; please tell me that there were, are, still limits._

"No," Fluttershy said. "I think…I was afraid that some of them might; they were very angry. But there was this one girl, Gilda, and she…she protected us, I think. She didn't want us to be hurt. She said that she was a friend of Rainbow Dash, although Rainbow never mentioned her."

Blake nodded, but stopped herself from saying, _Yes, Gilda used to talk about Rainbow Dash a lot_ and hoped that Fluttershy hadn't noticed the nod. She didn't think that the Atlesian girl knew about her past as a member of the White Fang – she had been good enough not to mention it if she did, which was odd considering what she'd just been through – and she wasn't keen on enlightening her in that case.

She hadn't been particularly close to Gilda – Adam had kept her close, and in so doing had prevented her from getting close to others – but she had known her, as one of the abler fighters of the Chapter and as someone Adam had regarded as moderately trustworthy; he hadn't rated her as possessing any imagination, but he had trusted her to follow clear instructions and complete any tasks that he had set for her.

In the White Fang, you could be as open or as close-mouthed about your past as you wished to be; some, like Adam herself, or like Blake, were secretive: as far as Blake was concerned the fewer people who knew that she was the daughter of Ghira Belladonna the better. Others were freer with their stories, and Gilda was one of those: around her campfire at night she could often be heard telling tales of her wild youth in Atlas – it occurred to Blake that if she had paid more attention to such stories than to Adam's then she might have a better idea of what Atlas was really like – and in those stories a girl named Rainbow Dash featured prominently as Gilda's friend and partner-in-crime. But she never spoke about what happened to her friend – Blake could imagine that she didn't want to admit that her best friend had joined the Atlesian military – and Blake, for one, assumed that she had died. Even after she met Rainbow Dash she hadn't really made the connection; it was not the most common name in the world, but that didn't make it unique.

She couldn't help but wonder why Gilda had tried to protect Fluttershy, and presumably Applejack as well; she would have said it wasn't like the Gilda she knew, except that she hadn't actually known Gilda as much more than a fighter with a name, someone privileged to occasionally get orders from Adam himself. So who was she to say that it was out of character for her? It didn't entirely fit with Adam's view of her as someone who would do as she was told…but Adam might have been wrong about that too.

"Do you…do you hate them?" Blake asked.

"Hate them?" Fluttershy repeated, sounding surprised.

"The White Fang," Blake said. "Do you hate them, for what they did to you?"

Fluttershy shook her head. "No," she said.

"No?" Blake said. "Why not?"

"Because I don't want to hate anybody," Fluttershy said. "I don't want to think about people being evil. I…I'd prefer to think that they just made bad choices."

Blake snorted softly. _Bad choices. Yes. Very bad choices._ Bad choices that had piled upon the bad choices that came before until it seemed that there was no way of getting out of them, as though the only choices that remained were bad ones. Even when she had thought that she was rising out of the shadows and towards the light…the light had died again ere she breached the water.

"Do you think it's possible," she murmured. "To come back from those bad choices? Do you think that it's possible to do the things that…that they have done and still…become a good person in the end?"

Fluttershy was silent for a moment or two. "I'd like to think so," she said. "I think…I think it would depend on what they did afterward."

"To atone for what they did?"

"To make the world a better place than they found it," Fluttershy clarified.

 _To make the world a better place than we found it,_ Blake thought. That sounded very nice, except that a lot of the White Fang would have said that they were doing just that already; Gilda and Strongheart would have said as much, and they weren't the only members of the organisation who would have defended their membership by saying that they were making a better world than the one in which the faunus were oppressed and downtrodden by humans.

Blake had come to realise that they weren't actually making a better world, they were just filling the old world up with even more hatred; so she had left, but since then she had done…what? What had she done at Beacon? She hadn't made the world worse, but she hadn't done anything to make it better either. What was she doing now? She had sold her soul to Atlas to help them stop the White Fang and then what? Was she nothing more than a defender of the status quo? A lapdog content to be kept in reasonable comfort by her masters?

What was she doing? What should she be doing? What was it that she ought to be fighting against? Defeating the White Fang might stop things from getting worse, fighting against Salem might stop things from getting worse, but what could she do that would make things better?

What should she do?

"Are you okay?" Fluttershy asked gently.

The honest answer would have been no, but Blake simply shrugged her shoulders. "Can you tell me…what's Atlas like?"

"How do you mean?" Fluttershy replied. "It's my home, and I suppose that I'm happy there. It doesn't have quite as many green spaces as maybe I'd like. I went on a vacation to Mistral once, and that was just lovely, there were so many parks and gardens, with so many different kinds of birds; there are times when I think that I might want to live there, except that I worry that I'd miss all of my friends in Atlas; oh, I'm sorry, I got a little distracted for a moment."

"It's fine," Blake said. "Not a lot of green in Atlas, huh? Do you live in the upper city?"

"Yes," Fluttershy said. "But not on the ridge or the spur; only Twilight lives there."

"The ridge or the spur?"

"Yes, you see…I'm not sure how to describe it. When we arrive, I'll point them out to you, if you like."

"Thanks," Blake said. "You're being very-"

She was cut off by a warning siren, followed by an announcement. "Grimm presence detected, will anyone on the fore or aft observation deck please retire below immediately!"

A shadow passed over the heads of Blake and Fluttershy, as the Atlesian cruiser _Hope_ , listing to the right, glided smoothly over the head of the medical frigate.

"Oh dear," Fluttershy murmured. "Do you think we're in danger?"

"I don't know," Blake said. "But Rainbow Dash is on that ship, right? With her team?"

Fluttershy nodded.

"Then relax," Blake said, trying to sound more reassuring than she felt. "We've got nothing to worry about."

* * *

As Penny couldn't get up and move in her own right, when she wanted to see the ocean out of the window Twilight had to pick her up by wrapping her arms around Penny's waist and carry her over to said window, pressing her face against the glass so that she could look down and see, not only the medical ship that they were escorting home to Atlas, but also the deep blue northern sea, waves flecked with white foam, the blue sometimes darkened by the silhouettes of behemoths of the deep passing underneath while the seagulls darted too and fro beneath the shadow of the warship.

"It's so beautiful," Penny said.

"Yeah," Twilight said, grunting a little with the effort of lifting a heavier-than-she-looked robot. "It's great Penny. Just let me know when you're d-wah!"

The ship abruptly tilted to the right, throwing Twilight off balance as she fell forwards, Penny trapping her hands against the window. It would have been excruciating if it hadn't been for aura.

Even with aura it kind of hurt a little bit.

"What's going on?" Penny asked, as the _Hope_ began to drift over the head of the medical ship.

"Attention all hands," the voice drifted over the ship's internal communication system. "We have detected a creature of grimm; the ship is now at condition two. All hands clear the deck. All combat and medical personnel stand by for further orders. All non-combat personnel return to your quarters and remain there until further notice."

"So that's what's going on," Twilight said. "Apparently." As the ship levelled off once more, she staggered back from the window. "Penny, do you mind if I put you back down again."

"No," Penny said. "Are we going to come under attack?"

"I doubt it," Ciel said, as she entered the room. "Look out of the window and you'll see for yourself."

Twilight, who had just put Penny down on the table again, gave Ciel a look that indicated that she would rather not pick her up again.

Fortunately, Ciel understood perfectly what Twilight meant, and she herself picked Penny up this time, and manhandled her with considerably more skill and grace than Twilight had managed. Twilight joined them at the large cabin window, it took her only a moment to see the black shape in the blue sky.

"Is that a nevermore?"

"I think so," Ciel said. "A very large one, it must be old and powerful."

"But you think it won't attack?" Twilight asked, with a little nervousness.

"Grimm don't get to be so old by being reckless," Ciel explained. "See how it's flying parallel to us, not closing the distance?"

"I guess so," Twilight said, keeping her bespectacled eyes fixed on the black shape. Ciel was right, it wasn't getting any closer to them; it was like it was going in the same direction that they happened to be going in, without otherwise being interested in them.

"If the _In Safe Hands_ was flying alone, it might attack," Ciel said. "It would come closer at least, to see if there were any huntsmen on board. That's why this ship has moved to cover the medical vessel from this side. A grimm that old can undoubtedly recognise an Atlesian warship when it sees one. It won't risk death against our defences for no reason."

"So…we're safe?" Twilight asked.

"Unless more show up," Rainbow said, as she came in last of all. "So cheer up, or you'll bring more with all that negativity."

"Very funny," Twilight muttered.

* * *

"Attention all personnel, condition two has been cancelled throughout the ship."

"Well, it appears that's over with," Weiss said. Not that she moved off her bed, because she'd been here since before the alert sounded and she had no reason to go anywhere else. She picked up the textbook she'd been reading before the alert sounded; classes in the winter semester were always heavily disrupted due to the Vytal Festival, so the holiday homework – and self-study in general – was especially important. Even when the class in question was grimm studies and you hardly learnt anything in the classroom to begin with.

"Yeah," Flash said. "I wonder what kind of grimm it was?"

"Probably a lone nevermore," Weiss said.

"It could have been a griffon," Flash suggested, from his bunk opposite hers. "Or a manticore, or a-"

"Are you just going to list all the different kinds of flying grimm?" Weiss asked. "Manticores don't like to fly long distances, and griffons don't like the water. It seems like you need to read this more than I do."

"No thanks, I'm good," Flash said. "Doctor Oobleck set me some extra work for his history class."

Weiss lowered her own book to look over at him. "You didn't tell me you were falling behind in history."

"I didn't want Cardin or Russell to know."

"I'm not Cardin or Russell," Weiss reminded him. "I would have helped you. I still can."

"That's…that's really nice of you," Flash said. "But, maybe when we get back to Beacon. I don't want to interrupt your time with your family back home."

 _And you don't really want me to interrupt yours either, I suppose,_ Weiss thought. She couldn't really blame him for that; as much as his academic performance ought to matter to him, and as much as it mattered to her as his team leader, it was still the vacation after all, and she could see that he wouldn't want to spend every moment of it sweating over the books.

For that matter, she didn't want to spend every moment of it cracking the whip with him, either. Winter had invited her to come and stay with her for the vacation (Winter had taken leave for the purpose); considering that she would have to resign from the military soon under the terms of her bargain with Father, it might be the last time she ever got to spend time with Winter. That was a precious gift, and not one that she planned to waste.

"Fair enough," she said. "I suppose we both have things that we'd rather do over the long break than study. Just so long as we both remember that part of the reason summer break is so long is so that we can get some studying done." As wonderful as it was to be spending the summer with her big sister, perhaps the last summer before Winter was sucked into the corporate machine of the SDC and the toxic environment of the Schnee family and all for Weiss' sake, it was equally important that she become the best huntress that she could be. Winter had given up her career, perhaps her life, for the sake of Weiss' freedom, and Weiss couldn't repay that debt by going on to become a mediocre huntress of average ability and reputation. That meant an excellent showing in this year's tournament and top-rank grades in the spring exams next year. And that, as much as she might not like it, meant studying now.

"Sure," Flash said. "It was good your sister to give us a ride home like this."

"This is an Atlas warship, and we are Atlesian citizens," Weiss said. "But yes, it was generous of her, and the General."

Not to mention, it was much easier to avoid her father this way than travelling commercially.

Flash laid his head down on his pillow. "It'll be nice to see our folks again, won't it?"

"Of course," Weiss said softly, because just as there were things that he didn't want her to know, there was a few things that she didn't want him to know either.

* * *

It took several more days – almost a week – to reach Atlas, passing over the oceans, and then crossing the shoreline and into the forbidding frigid wastes of Solitas. The water beneath them changed to tundra fields; not frozen, as it was the beginning of summer, but desolate seeming all the same. Blake wondered how they managed to grow any food.

"It ain't all this bad," Applejack declared, when Blake ventured the question aloud. "There's some good farming country out near Mantle way, and on some of the lower ground towards the west coast. That's where I grew up, that's where my folks used to have a farm." Her face fell. "Of course, out west where it's a less icy and such, the grimm are a lot friskier than they get out here. Something you always gotta watch out for."

Blake didn't need to ask the obvious question to get the obvious answer. "I'm sorry."

"I wasn't saying it for pity," Applejack said. "And I'm just saying, that's the way it is. You asked, I answered."

"There are also the biodomes," Fluttershy said.

"Don't talk to me about that, that ain't real farming," Applejack said dismissively.

"Biodomes?" Blake asked.

"Big, greenhouse kind of things," Applejack said. "Artificial indoor farms stuck in the middle of the cold. Lot of robots in 'em, doing all the hard work. Well, like my Pa always said, you ain't a real farmer 'less you getting your hands dirty." She shrugged. "Anyway, truth be told, most of the food in Atlas ain't grown in fancy domes nor in the west. It gets shipped up from Mistral in huge airships."

"Really?" Blake asked.

"Uh-huh," Applejack said. "Why, I heard Twilight say once that something like half the fleet at any one time is protecting those Mistral convoys."

 _There's not much more important than food, after all,_ Blake thought. _A kingdom could survive running out of dust more easily than it could survive running out of food for its people._

 _Atlas supplies the technology and the soldiers, Mistral supplies the food; everything is integrated._ It was as if someone had purposefully designed the system of the world in such a way as to make them co-dependent upon one another, unable to exist without each other, unable to wage war on one another in the way that they had done in the old days.

They passed over the thawed out tundra, and though the breeze could sometimes be cold across the observation deck, it was never cold enough to bring back the frost onto the ground below. They passed over lines of hills, over barren and desolate fields where not even the creatures of grimm had taken root, and over peaks where snow still clung, and came at last to Atlas.

The heart of the military-industrial complex seemed to Blake's eyes, as it had been in Adam's descriptions of it, to be two cities awkwardly conflated into one. The upper city, what many would no doubt mean when they referred to Atlas, looked as though some god had dug his hand into the earth and pulled an enormous chunk of rock free of its moorings and left it floating in the air. Of course it was no god that kept the rocky shell of Atlas floating above the barren hills and snow-capped mountains but massive engines powered by such quantities of gravity dust that Blake could barely conceive of the amount that must need to be mined each and every day just to keep the city flying. As the two ships, the _Hope_ and the _In Good Hands_ , proceeded in company towards the flying city, Blake couldn't help but notice that there were buildings coming out of both ends of Atlas' shell: atop the rock sat myriad glittering lights, resolving as they got closer into a host of gleaming spires in glass and metal, skyscrapers raised even higher by being built in the very sky itself. And below, surrounding the many-cabled tether that joined upper Atlas to the ground beneath, more buildings roofed in palatial styles seemed to emerge.

"Do people live all through the rock?" Blake asked.

"Yes," Fluttershy said. "Although a lot of what's below ground is shelters and that sort of thing. But you can get a very cheap apartment down there, since not many people want to live there. My friend Rarity lives underground while she saves her money to open up a business on the surface. I don't think she's very happy there, though."

"I can't say I'm surprised, what with it being dark and cramped down there," Applejack said. "It doesn't suit our Rarity one bit. Still, she's making sacrifices for her dream, I can't fault her for that."

There was no such thing as a normal house in Atlas that Blake could see, only rising towers, some higher and some lower than the rest, all of them like stalactites growing out of the rock and into the sky. Monorail lines wound their way around and through the towers, linking all the parts of the city together. Upon the right-hand side of the rock, a gigantic spur rose out of the surface, crowned on top by yet more buildings, while the excavation had carried not only a buildable surface but part of the mountain range itself up into the air as well, capped with snow despite the season. A ridge lay between the mountains and the main city, and on the ridge the tallest and most prestigious buildings had been placed; doubtless that was where the Atlesian council met.

A fleet of airships patrolled around the floating city, lights on their sides flashing as they welcome home their wayward sister _Hope_.

Blake's eyes fell, to the other city of Atlas, to the city that sheltered in the crater that had been excavated by the raising of the first. In the crater, and around it, dwelled a second city in the shadow of the first, built under the greater Atlas and around the piles of its refuse that fell from the floating city up above. Down below she could see no skyscrapers, no high towers rising up to threaten to touch the heel of Atlas' greatness. Down below, from this great distance at least, Blake could only see a town that was lesser as well as lower; and the fires, the fires that burned down below belching up such thick columns of smoke that Blake could barely see the ground below her…it looked every bit as bad as Adam had described it to her.

She could guess who lived in that lower city, and who lived up above, and it wasn't just the rising, cloying mass of smoke that made her feel ill.

Thus did Blake Belladonna enter into the kingdom of Atlas.


	102. Penny's Destiny

Penny's Destiny

Doctor Japeth Polendina was a man entering the end of middle age, with long hair falling down in waves to his shoulders, carefully brushed back from his forehead and curled around his ears. His hair remained dark, in spite of the fact that his beard was almost completely grey or white with only few flecks of darkness remaining. His eyes were brown, and sharp, and fixed upon the three human members of Team RSPT as they wheeled Penny into the lab on a pair of gurneys.

Rainbow and Ciel pushed the first gurney, with Penny's torso on it and all of her swords laid out on either side of her, while Twilight had the second with her arms and legs and her torn-up clothes folded neatly at the foot of the stretcher.

The lab was cold, grey and metallic with the only spots of subdued colour coming from the computer monitors that lined four out of the six walls of the hexagonal chamber. The lighting was subdued, leaving Doctor Polendina in his pristine white labcoat to stand out all the more in the room. His stare was more like a glare as the two huntresses and Twilight brought in Penny in all her pieces.

Rainbow and Ciel both stood to attention. Although Doctor Polendina wasn't an officer in the military, he was a member of the military's R&D division, was indisputably the most distinguished scientist in the city since Doctor Watts disgrace and flight, and he had connections reaching as high as the council. As such, it was wise of them to show him a degree of respect.

Twilight did not stand to attention, partly because she didn't think that she could pull it off but partly also because Doctor Polendina, having worked with her before, knew her more as a scientist than as a play-acting huntress.

"Team Rosepetal reporting, sir," Rainbow said. Like standing to attention, the 'sir' was not necessary but wise.

"Hello, Father," Penny said cheerfully. "It's good to see you again!"

Doctor Polendina's smile had as much of a grimace about it as anything else. "Penny. What have they done to you?" He glowered at Rainbow Dash. "What have you done to her?"

"Doctor, this isn't Rainbow Dash's fault," Twilight murmured.

Doctor Polendina ignored her. "Are you the team leader?"

Rainbow's expression was strictly business. "Yes, sir, I am."

"Then this is your fault," Doctor Polendina said. "You're job is to protect my daughter, that is your only job! How could you let this happen?"

"Father-"

"Quiet, Penny, Father is handling this," Doctor Polendina said sharply, gesturing for Penny to be quiet.

Twilight frowned. Perhaps it was being out of the lab for too long in Vale, but hearing the Doctor speak to Penny like that seemed unnecessarily brusque to her now. Had he always been like this and she just hadn't noticed?

 _I suppose he is her father. A lot of fathers speak this way to their children._

"My job is also to follow my orders, sir," Rainbow said. "And that's what I've done."

"Your orders were to keep my daughter safe!" Doctor Polendina yelled. "If you can't do that, then I will see you tossed out on your ass and find someone who can do the job they were selected for! That goes for both of you." He glanced at Ciel to let her know that she was not exempt from his displeasure. He clenched his jaw, and exhaled deeply. "I'll deal with you later. Dismissed. Get out of my lab."

"Yes sir," Rainbow muttered, as she and Ciel turned on their respective heels and began to march out of the lab.

Twilight reached out towards Rainbow as she passed, but stopped short of actually grabbing her. 'I'm sorry,' she mouthed.

Rainbow gave her a look as to suggest that she didn't need to feel bad about it, before she made her way out of the laboratory.

The door slammed down behind them.

Doctor Polendina's eyes passed over all the different parts of Penny to settle upon Twilight. "Twilight, it's good to see you again."

Twilight nodded. "Likewise, Doctor."

"The lab has been a little less bright in your absence," Doctor Polendina said. "I've been starved of intellectual conversation. Would you mind putting those parts on the workbench on the right, please. We won't start any work until I've completed my examination and analysis."

"Of course, Doctor," Twilight said, as she pushed the gurney with Penny's limbs on it closer to the workbench, and began to unload them onto the transparent surface. "And the swords?"

"Yes," Doctor Polendina said, as he picked up a miniature torch from the opposite workbench and used it as he began to examine the stumps of Penny's severed legs, shining his light into her body to get a better idea of the damage that she had suffered, beyond the obvious.

"So, Penny," he said, as he worked, occasionally pausing in his examination to type something into his scroll. "Are you glad to be back home where you belong?"

"I…I'm very glad to see you, Father," Penny said.

Doctor Polendina half rose to his feet. "That's rather a hedging answer, Penny."

"It's the truth," Penny said. "No hiccups, see? So I can't be lying?"

"True," Doctor Polendina allowed. "But you haven't actually answered my question."

"Didn't I?"

"Are you glad to be home, Penny?"

Penny looked a little guilty. "To be honest…I miss Vale. I miss Beacon."

Doctor Polendina scoffed. "You miss Vale? Have those inept guardians that the top brass insisted on assigning to you been trying to give you a sense of humour. I've been to Vale, numerous times; I've spoken at conferences held in the kingdom and it's the most boring place on Remnant. At least in Mistral you can laugh at how backwards everything looks and wonder what kind of people set out to seem less advanced than they are. And Beacon? A school were people learn to smack each other over the head with sharp sticks."

"It's a little more complicated than that, Doctor," Twilight said softly.

"Don't go native on me, Twilight," Doctor Polendina said. "Just because you've been playing huntress for a while, don't forget that you're a scientist first. Don't let mere proximity cause you to side with the dullards."

Twilight's brow furrowed slightly. She couldn't help but feel it was very unfair to describe any of the people she'd met at Beacon as dullards, leaving aside the question of the unkindness of it. "Doctor, these people risk their lives every day to keep us safe."

"For now, perhaps," Doctor Polendina conceded. "But soon…progress is inexorable. But still, I'll play: alright, Penny, why do you miss Vale?"

"I…I don't really know where to start," Penny said. "But I've had such a great time there this year. I made a friend called Ruby, and she's really nice and kind and brave and she accepted me just like that-"

"Accepted you?" Doctor Polendina said. "She accepted you? You…you mean you told her what you were?" He looked at Twilight. "You allowed this? How did this happen?"

Twilight hesitated. "We've been working with a Valish team, Team Sapphire; in close proximity…it was impossible to keep it a complete secret, especially…" she gestured towards Penny.

"Obviously I knew that there were witnesses but that you told someone before this. What were you thinking?"

Penny tilted her head sideways. "Did I do something wrong?"

Doctor Polendina leaned forward. "You know you're not supposed to reveal your nature to anyone, you know that."

Penny's voice was tender as she said, "But Ruby…but she's my friend."

"Friend," Doctor Polendina said the word as though he would dismiss it from the language if he could. "You don't need a friend, Penny; friends are what mediocre people have to distract them from the inadequacy of their lives." He walked over to the keyboard at the north face of the room, called up Penny's schematics on the monitor and began to type in additional notes. "Do you think that I attained doctorates in robotics, computer science, aura science and engineering by attending keg parties or cultivating a reputation as the most approachable man in the institute? No. I was working. I was pursuing my goals. Friendship is a distraction from purpose, why do you think I'm so worried about Twilight?"

Twilight made a kind of strangled noise. "You…you're worried about me, Doctor?"

"You have a great mind, Twilight," Doctor Polendina said, turning to look at her. "But it worries me that you're not applying yourself to the fullest extent of your abilities. You waste the treasure of your time on frivolous and unsuitable companions: huntresses, coffee shop baristas, and unemployed bums. Surely you can find someone more intellectually stimulating to spend time with than a girl who works the afternoon shift at a Mom and Pop store."

"I…" Twilight was tongue-tied. Shock had rendered her speechless. _Unemployed bum? Is he talking about Fluttershy? And Pinkie isn't just…_ And the worst part, the part that stung even more than Doctor Polendina's words, was that not too long ago she would have accepted his advice without question. Before her friends had reached her, and opened her hearts, she would have turned away the moment that an authority figure like the doctor suggested that she should.

 _I am so lucky to have them. I'm so lucky that they let me in._

"I'm sorry, Doctor," Twilight said, and she meant that in many senses because, if he really meant what he was saying, then she could not but feel a trace of pity for how empty his life must be, with no one to share it with. "But, with all due respect, I don't think it's really your business who I spend my time with." She wanted to say much more than that. She wanted to defend her friends. She wanted to tell him that Pinkie and Fluttershy weren't worthless, that they were the kindest people that she knew or could ever imagine knowing, that Rainbow was the bravest, Applejack the most forthright, Rarity the most generous and honourable. But he was Doctor Polendina, the great mind of Atlas, and he wasn't interested in her defence of her friendships.

More to the point he was also her boss, and not the sort of person she wanted to argue with. She thought she'd probably pushed it about as far as she dared to in any case.

Doctor Polendina stared at her for a moment. "As I said, you have a vast intellect and unbridled potential. But if you want to waste it then who am I to argue? Wallow in mediocrity, if you wish; throw away the greatness that could have been yours if you had only applied yourself to the fullest extent. I can't stop you. I'm not your father. But you, Penny, you are my daughter and you are made for so much more, I _made you_ for so much more than friendship and frivolity. You are a superior being: stronger, faster, more durable, able to do things that ordinary humans couldn't dream of, able to survive things that ordinary humans couldn't dream of and you have neither need nor reason to debase yourself by associating with mere humans like this Ruby girl."

"But…what about Team Rosepetal?" Penny asked. "What about Rainbow Dash, what about Ciel? What about Twilight?"

"Unfortunately, due to the archaic rules that govern the huntsman academies and the Vytal Festival, and due to the unfortunate necessity of working within those institutions for now in order to achieve the recognition that you deserve, it is necessary that you should be part of a four man team," Doctor Polendina said, in a tone that made clear how much this fact irked him. "Ideally, I would have been given time to develop for you the brothers and sisters that I have in the planning stages but I was not given time or resources. And so instead, our gallant General Ironhead foisted Rainbow Dash and Ciel Soleil upon me and what choices they turned out to be; I need only look at your present condition in order to observe their effectiveness. Twilight…Twilight is worthy, though wasted in the field."

"Thank you, Doctor," Twilight said softly, and with a tone approaching deadpan. "But I think-"

"You're being very harsh, Father," Penny said. "Rainbow and Ciel have been so good to me ever since we met-"

"Then how did they let you end up like this?" Doctor Polendina demanded.

"It was a battle," Penny replied. "And I was…I got careless, and Pyrrha says-"

"Pyrrha?" Doctor Polendina said. "This is Pyrrha Nikos, I take it?"

"Yes!" Penny exclaimed. "I met her too, she's on the same team as Ruby, and she came to see me before I left to come back here to say goodbye and she gave me some great pointers on how I can improve. She told me that I should-"

"Penny, that's enough," Doctor Polendina said. "You don't need advice from Pyrrha Nikos, or anybody else."

"But, I was told to learn from-"

"The people who told you that were fools," Doctor Polendina said. "You're already more than Pyrrha Nikos could ever hope to become."

"But Pyrrha-"

"Is the past," Doctor Polendina said. "Her very aesthetic proclaims it. They're all the past, all these huntsmen and huntresses and tournament champions. You are the future, something entirely new, something they couldn't comprehend even if they wanted to; and what does the past have to teach the future? What does an institution staring obsolescence in the face have to teach that which will make it obsolete?"

"Obsolete?" Penny asked.

"Once there is an army of your brothers and sisters on the field, what need will there be of Pyrrhas or Rubys?" Doctor Polendina asked. "What need of Rainbows or Ciels? What need of any of them?"

"But I don't want to make my friends obsolete," Penny protested. "To be a huntress, to be a hero, is Ruby's dream; Pyrrha believes that it's her destiny to fight and protect the world; Beacon is the place where Jaune found somewhere he belongs, and Sunset too…how am I supposed to take that away from all of them? I don't want to take all that away from them."

"You're not," Doctor Polendina said. "History is. They've just had the bad luck to be born in the dying years of huntsmen. And if they can't handle it…that's not your fault, is it? Why should progress be put on hold to cater to the childish desires of individuals?"

"I'm not saying that," Penny said. "I'm saying…why does it have to be one or the other? Why can't it be both? If…if you make more of me, why can't they, why can't we defend the world alongside huntsmen and huntresses like my friends? They want to fight, and they're so good at it."

"Maybe they are," Doctor Polendina conceded. "But they'll never be able to endure what you can endure, or do what you'll be able to do when you reach your full potential."

"But-"

"Quiet now, Penny, Twilight and I need to have a serious conversation," Doctor Polendina said, gesturing Twilight over to join him.

Twilight walked to the far end of the lab, where Doctor Polendina stood under the screen displaying Penny's design schematics.

"With all due respect, Doctor, I think you're being a little hard on her," Twilight murmured.

"Really?" Doctor Polendina asked, sounding genuinely surprised. "In what way? Is it harsh now to desire excellence on the part of those who can attain it? Is it harsh for a father to want his child to be the best that she can be?"

"No, of course not, but," Twilight bit her lip. "There is such a thing as balance, don't you think? A way in which she can achieve…achieve your dreams but still have some semblance of a…a life." _Aren't there enough hours in the day for both? Especially for someone who doesn't need sleep._

"And besides," she continued hastily. "The people that Penny spends time with…they're brave and honourable; there aren't many people better that she could learn from."

"Learn?" Doctor Polendina repeated, sounding more curious than anything else. "Learn what? What does she have to learn from them?"

Twilight hesitated for a moment. "How to be a good human."

"But Penny isn't human."

"She's not equipment or an object," Twilight said.

"Of course not," Doctor Polendina replied, as if she had offended him by the mere suggestion that he might think that way. "But she's not human. She's something else. Something more. The start of an entirely new species. To have her learn humanity through proximity, to have her be corrupted by the flaws that infest lesser beings, that defeats the entire object of her creation, surely you can see that?"

"The object of her creation," Twilight murmured. "Doctor…isn't the object of her creation simply to be an effective warrior?" Even that stuck in her craw now. _We created her to be an object but gave her the will and desire of a person? Why did we do that?_ Apparently because she had never been intended as an object in the first place, which would have been a comfort if it weren't for the fact that it seemed Doctor Polendina had something else in mind entirely.

"To be the best warrior," Doctor Polendina corrected her. "To show that I have created something better than any huntsman. That's why this tournament is so important, not because of a trophy or any notion of eternal glory, but because it offers a stage upon which all eyes will be when the fruits of my genius outshine all the Invincible Girls in Remnant." He smiled genially. "You're a clever girl, Twilight; but what father takes parenting advice from a teenage girl? Enough of this, we need to discuss how we're going to go about the necessary reconstruction."

Twilight nodded. "Of course, Doctor. I think that the arms below the elbow and the legs below the knee should be salvageable, with only new thighs and upper arms needing manufacture."

Doctor Polendina nodded. "I concur. Given the nature of the break points, we'll need to peel back the skin later past the joints to reattach the limbs, then cover up the stitching cosmetically as best we can."

"I do think that this is an opportunity, Doctor Polendina," Twilight said. "Now that Penny is back in the workshop for a while, we have the chance to correct some of the issues that were caused by the rushed final phase of the design."

Doctor Polendina looked a little irritated, but his tone remained courteous as he said, "You're talking about Penny's swords?"

"Yes," Twilight said. "I have an idea that might solve the issue with the autonomous weapons."

"Go on."

"Well," Twilight said. _I got a magic battery from a friend and she might be persuaded to give me more._ "It's a little hard to explain-"

"If you can't explain it then it isn't science, Twilight, you know that," Doctor Polendina said.

"I know, I-" Twilight squirmed under the doctor's gaze. "I haven't quite completed my analysis yet, I should have more for you soon."

Doctor Polendina nodded. "And when you do I will give all due consideration to it, you have my word."

"In the meantime," Twilight said, pulling out her scroll and bringing up the schematics that she'd been working on. "I've had an idea for a dual release mechanism, that would enable Penny to detach the wires either at her own back or from the swords if it looks as though this kind of thing is happening again." It would also enable Penny to wield the swords with her hands as Pyrrha had recommended, but Twilight wasn't sure that Doctor Polendina would want to hear that part of it.

Doctor Polendina studied Twilight's plans. "Rudimentary," he said. "But not bad first effort. We'll work on it while we wait for the new parts to be manufactured. Was there anything else?"

Twilight hesitated.

"I'm not a grimm, Twilight," Doctor Polendina said. "You don't have to worry about my reaction. I don't mind that you have ideas that might not have occurred to me."

"It's not much of an idea," Twilight said. "It's just…if Penny wore armour then that might provide an additional degree of resistance, not only to her wires but also to attacks more generally."

Doctor Polendina was silent for a moment. "Armour," he repeated.

"Yes," Twilight murmured. "Armour."

Doctor Polendina cupped his bearded chin with one hand. "You know, I never considered armour. Not many huntresses wear it, and those that do wear costume armour rather than anything practical."

Twilight couldn't help but think of Pyrrha's corset, and privately agree with him.

Doctor Polendina chuckled. "It seems that I was a victim of that which I decried: seeing Penny as human, instead of something more. There's no need for her to dress like a pin-up for the enjoyment of certain sections of the audience. Good idea, Twilight, something else for us to work on."

"Thank you, Doctor," Twilight said. "I'm…glad you see it that way." She was glad of his conclusion, at least, even if she found it hard to entirely agree with his reasoning.

"We need to get this right, Twilight," Doctor Polendina declared, his voice rising. "The Vytal Festival might be our only opportunity. If Penny fails to impress in that arena then there's no way that I'll ever get funding to build more like her; but, if she triumphs, when she triumphs over all the merely human huntsmen and huntresses, then I'll be able to write my own cheque for further research and development."

"You mean you want to build more of me?" Penny asked, from on her gurney. "You're going to give me brothers and sisters?"

"Brothers and sisters beyond count," Doctor Polendina said. "You are the first, Penny, the progenitor of a new race of warriors that will defeat the grimm for good."

 _What if there is no defeating the grimm for good?_ Twilight thought. She thought about Salem, and the revelations that Professor Ozpin and General Ironwood had vouchsafed to her. This hypothetical army of Penny's would be no more able to defeat the undefeatable enemy than all the present might of Atlas was. All that they could do was what human armies and specialists were already doing: holding the line, and winning what victories they could.

You could argue that an army of Pennies would be able to do that job better, but no more than that.

"That…that is your destiny, my child," Doctor Polendina said, sounding like a god out of some old myth. "To light the way to victory and glory for your race as yet unborn."

Penny's expression was troubled. "That…that sounds like a very special task, Father."

"The most special, Penny."

"But what if it's not what I want?" Penny asked. "What if I want…something else?"

"Something else?" Doctor Polendina demanded. "Could you be a little less vague?"

"Doctor-" Twilight said, about to ask him to calm down a little, before a raised hand from the doctor silenced her.

"I…I don't know yet," Penny admitted. "But that's only because I haven't learnt enough to make my decision yet either. I haven't seen all of the things that I could do instead of your and General Ironwood's plans for me. What if, once I've seen other things, that's what I want instead? What if I don't want to be a light? Pyrrha says that if I win the tournament, I won't have my own life any more, I'll belong to everybody."

"You're not going to belong to everybody, Penny, Pyrrha was just being foolish."

Penny blinked. "She is?"

Doctor Polendina nodded. "You'll belong to me, just as you do now. No matter how famous you become you will always be mine; my extraordinary little girl; my firstborn."

"I know, Father," Penny said. "But…what if I just wanted…something else?"

"Like what?" Doctor Polendina asked again. "A normal life? You're not normal, you will never be normal. If I'd wanted a normal child I would have- I didn't create you to be normal, Penny. I created to be extraordinary, to be the best; if you're not willing to make that effort then you can stay as you are now, do you understand?"

Twilight's eyes widened. _He…he didn't? Did he?_ She'd known that Doctor Polendina was passionate and committed; she envied him that; she'd known that he was impatient with anyone who couldn't live up to his exacting standards and his vision; but to threaten Penny with simply not repairing her if she didn't fall in line…that was a step beyond that, a step she hadn't thought that he would take.

It was…it was cruel, there was no way of getting around that, and Twilight's admiration for the man was not strong enough to stop her from admitting it.

But there was nothing she could do about it. There was nothing anyone could do about it except, perhaps, General Ironwood who could theoretically order Doctor Polendina to repair Penny. But would he do that, if she was not willing to serve Atlas to the best of her ability?

Twilight wished she knew. She supposed it didn't make any real difference. In this workshop she was just an assistant, and all that she could do was feel sad for Penny, and say nothing.

Penny's expression was melancholy, and her voice subdued as she said, "Very well, Father, I will do as you ask."

"Good girl," Doctor Polendina said. "I know that this must seem hard on you, on both of you," he added, including Twilight with a glance. "But I just want what's best for you. Isn't that what any parent wants for their child? For those who are like children to them? It might not always be what the child wants at the time; but just because the child would rather play videogames than practice their violin doesn't mean that making them practice is the wrong thing to do. You're so young, Penny; you're both so young and you have so much left to learn about the world and your place in it.

"Believe in me, and be guided by me; I know what I'm talking about when I say that the path of excellence, though it may be lonely, is the most rewarding path that you could choose to take.

"I don't do this to be cruel to you. When you grow up, you'll understand that I did this to be kind."

"I…I understand, Father," Penny said. She hiccupped, but Doctor Polendina ignored it. "Thank you."


	103. The Watts Engine

The Watts Engine

The offices of the Directorate of Research & Development were located in a tall, hypermodern tower located not far from the Capitol Building, on the ridge that housed the most prestigious buildings and locations in the city. The glass the lined the tower walls was one-way only, like the kind they had in police stations, so that anyone working in the outer offices had a superb view of the city around them without anyone being able to spy in on the work being done.

Twilight exited the towering structure to find that it was raining heavily outside, the water falling from the swollen clouds to slam down onto the streets below. The cars – almost all of them chauffeured – and taxis splashed up the puddles as they drove by, while the walkways were a mass of umbrellas punctuated by the occasional newspaper being used as cover.

Twilight waited under the shelter of the porch for a moment as she opened up her own umbrella, lavender with her six-pointed star mark upon it; it had been a birthday gift from the girls last year, they'd had it specially made for her.

She smiled at the guard on the door before she stepped out into the rain. "Goodnight, Jenkins."

"Goodnight, Miss Sparkle. Glad to see you back," the soldier replied affably, as Twilight stepped out of the shelter of the porch with her umbrella held over her head.

She was glad that there was no wind. Though the air was chill upon her face, as it always was in Atlas, even in the summer, there was no gust to whip her umbrella away or to drive the rain into her face. It felt straight down, pattering upon the canvas that shielded her head from the damp. With her free hand, Twilight pulled her scarf up over her mouth and nose – she had been spoiled by the weather in Vale – and began to walk. Her high boots squelched upon the damp patches of the pavement as she walked, joining the crowds heading down the roadside. She usually got the monorail home, but in view of this weather she considered trying to hail a cab. She could probably afford it.

"Twilight?"

Twilight stopped at the voice behind her, hailing her. She looked around, into a pale face and a pair of purple eyes framed by a pair of glasses rounder than Twilight's own but with thicker rims. The girl's hair was mainly auburn, but with a streak of lavender and purple going straight down the centre, lining up perfectly between her eyes. Her coat was half-open, revealing a well-worn dark grey sweater that was starting to give off fluff.

"Moondancer?" Twilight said.

"It is you," Moondancer cried. "You're alive!"

Twilight raised her eyebrows.

"I mean…you're back," Moondancer said. She smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, I'm…I was kind of worried about you, in case you couldn't tell. You and I are too alike for me to believe you're a natural at all the action stuff."

"Well, you're not wrong," Twilight admitted. "Speaking of which, I didn't see you there."

"I had the day off," Moondancer explained. "Pottery workshop."

"Oh, nice," Twilight said. "And yet…here you are."

Moondancer shrugged. "I thought I should maybe check in on how everything's doing, but if you've just come out of there I'm sure it's all fine."

"You might be surprised," Twilight murmured, thinking of Doctor Polendina and his unusual brusqueness. No, brusque wasn't the right word, he had been incredibly discursive, more so than usual. Cruel, cruel was the word. It wasn't a word she wanted to use to describe a brilliant mind and a mentor, but it was the only word that fit what she had seen and heard from him today.

"So how was Vale?" Moondancer asked. "How's Penny? I heard she'd been in some kind of accident? Was it scary? Were you in danger? What happened? How…I should you let you answer some of those, shouldn't I?"

Twilight chuckled. She looked up at her umbrella, with the rain tapping down upon it, and at Moondancer's own white umbrella held over her pale head. "Do you want to grab a coffee or something and talk in the dry?"

"Sure," Moondancer said. "The Vintage Tea Room is still open."

They headed there, squelching and splashing through the occasional puddle forming in the street as they made their way to an incongruous looking vintage tea shop, with doilies on the tables and waitress service in an age when most coffee shops required you to go to the counter. It looked more like the kind of place that you'd find in some out of the way village in Anima more than in the heart of the most advanced city in the world. Which was precisely the point, of course.

Twilight and Moondancer stepped in, and Moondancer shook the water off her tail at the same time as they both folded their umbrellas and shook them dry. A cat faunus in an old-fashioned maid's outfit showed them both to a table near the window, and took their order of cream tea for two.

Moondancer leaned forward, her elbows resting on the dark oak table. "It's good to see you again, Twilight. I've missed you."

Twilight smiled. "I've missed you too."

"Liar," Moondancer said, without malice. "You've got too many other friends to miss someone like me."

"You're being really unfair to yourself," Twilight said. "I got you something from Beacon." She reached into her purse, and pulled out a programme. It was a couple of years old, and it showed in the way that it was creased and worn and the corners were starting to fall off but on the front you could still quite clearly make out the picture of Weiss Schnee, standing alone on the stage with her arms spread out on either side of her, illuminated by all the spotlights and the footlights trained upon her until her hair shone as bright as moonlight.

The only thing marring the image was the signature scrawled across the picture in black ink.

Moondancer's eyes widened behind her glasses. "Is that-"

"The programme from when we saw her sing _Rosalind_." Twilight said.

"You got her to sign it?" Moondancer said, her voice so high it was barely a squeak.

Twilight nodded. She didn't mention how much of an idiot she had felt approach Weiss Schnee for an autograph, but – while she hadn't bothered to conceal her irritation – the heiress to the SDC had signed the battered old program nevertheless. "Here you go," she said, as she pushed it across the table.

Moondancer picked it up and stared at the signature for a moment. "What's she like?" she asked, looking back up at Twilight.

"She's very…businesslike," Twilight offered weakly. "You'll never guess who else I ran into at Beacon."

"Go on," Moondancer said.

"Lyra."

Moondancer's eyebrows rose briefly. "Oh, yes, she did want to become a huntress, didn't she? How is she?"

Twilight searched for a polite way to say 'part of the worst performing team in the year'. "She's okay. She looked healthy."

"She should have gone to music school," Moondancer said. "She played the harp beautifully."

"She still does," Twilight said. "She just uses it to fight grimm instead of entertaining people."

Moondancer frowned. "It still seems like a waste."

"She wanted to help people," Twilight said. "Isn't that why we do what we do?"

"I suppose," Moondancer replied. "And for science."

There was a brief lull in the conversation as the waitress returned with their cream teas. Twilight thanked her as she put everything down.

"So," Moondancer said, slicing her scone in half. "How were things at the lab?"

Twilight's brow furrowed.

"That bad, huh?"

"I've never seen Doctor Polendina like that before," Twilight confessed. "He was…he was cruel, Moondancer. To Penny, even to me a little bit. He was so sharp with everybody. It's…it wasn't like him."

"Did you ask him if he's been taking his medication?" Moondancer asked.

"No," Twilight murmured. "It seemed rude to ask that."

"If he's having one of his bad days that's probably why," Moondancer said. "Unless something happened?"

"Penny is pretty badly…hurt," Twilight said.

"That couldn't have helped," Moondancer said. "But I'll talk to him about it."

Twilight poured her tea out of the pot. "Does he…has Doctor Polendina been having bad days often?"

"Only when he doesn't take his medication," Moondancer said softly.

"Does he do that…not do that…often?" Twilight asked, with concern in her voice.

Moondancer looked away, out of the window where the rain hammered down. "He says it clouds his mind, inhibits his thoughts."

"Is he right?"

Moondancer continued staring out of the window. The nod of her head was slight. "A little bit, yes." She sighed. "But when his mind is at its best his temper and attitude are at their worst so…I'd hoped he'd get better once you came back, he always liked you best-"

"That's not-"

"Yes, it is," Moondancer said, and it was to her credit that her voice was so free of bitterness. "But it seems…not enough."

Twilight bowed her head a little. "Do you know…do they know…how long?"

Moondancer shook her head. "No one can say for sure, just that…there are some things that even our science can't cure."

Twilight added sugar to her tea, feeling a greater than usual need of the sweetness. She stirred the cup with her teaspoon. "It must be hard, for you."

Moondancer nodded. "You're lucky. I mean, I suppose you have been shot at and attacked and had all kinds of terrible monsters trying to kill you-"

Twilight laughed nervously. "It hasn't been as bad as that."

"But…watching him…watching a great mind lose itself like this," Moondancer said. "Watching someone as great as Doctor Polendina…if only the Council would release the Watts Engine."

Twilight had been sipping her tea, but Moondancer's words were enough to make her choke on it. She gagged, and gasped, and tea dribbled out of her mouth onto her chin. "Moon-" she stopped, breaking out into a coughing fit that had her halfway to doubled over before her body decided it wasn't going to suffocate her. "Moondancer!" she cried, wiping her chin with a napkin. "You can't be serious, you- please tell me that you didn't mean that. The Watts Engine?"

Moondancer didn't look in the slightest bit ashamed of the suggestion. "It could save him."

"It could let him steal someone else's body by grafting his aura onto them," Twilight said. "That's what you're talking about when you suggest using that machine, that's what it does. It transfers auras into new bodies so that they can take them over." At least, that was what it did in theory. Doctor Watts sick experiments had come to light when he was still transferring the auras of criminals onto braindead coma patients; Doctor Watts himself had – judging by the notes left behind when he fled – been uncertain as to what would happen if the receiver of the aura were conscious and healthy when the transfer took place. Due to the unethical and illegal nature of his work, nobody was keen to speculate.

"A healthier body," Moondancer said. "One whose brain isn't suffering irreversible degeneration."

"But not Doctor Polendina's mind," Twilight pointed out.

"If the aura really is a reflection of the soul then who is to say that the essential core of Doctor Polendina, his genius, doesn't reside in the soul as much as in the mind. In a new body we could have him for years more-"

"You can't just take a body!" Twilight said. "It belongs to someone else, to another soul already living there, that's why Doctor Watts had to flee one step ahead of an arrest warrant, that's why the Council has prohibited any continuation of his research and that is why the Watts Engine is safely under lock and key in some dark hole somewhere. I can't…I can't believe you'd even suggest something like that."

"Why is it so wrong to suggest that there are people Atlas could use a lot less than one of the greatest minds of our time?" Moondancer asked. "Of any time? That machine…if it works properly then we're talking about immortality! That engine is the philosopher's stone that alchemists searched thousands of years to find, and Doctor Watts built it. Imagine what Doctor Polendina could accomplish if he could live forever, and forever keep making new discoveries, new advances, new breakthroughs in every field of science imaginable."

"Do you think he'd want that?" Twilight asked, sincerely hoping that he would not. "To keep changing bodies? Where would it stop? Not with him. The councillors? General Ironwood? Who gets to keep living forever and who gets to give up their body and soul to make that happen?"

Moondancer frowned. "Would you be talking like this if Councilwoman Cadance was sick?"

"Yes," Twilight declared emphatically. "Please, Moondancer, drop this. I'm begging you."

"Why?"

"Because I'm not sure that I can be your friend if you keep talking like this," Twilight said. "It's…it's wrong. It's illegal, it's unethical and it's wrong. And it's not going to happen anyway, nobody's getting their hands on the Watts Engine any time soon. So please, just…can we talk about something else."

Moondancer held Twilight's gaze for a moment, before she bowed her head. "Sure," she murmured. "I'll reminder Doctor Polendina about his medication."

There was a moment of silence, while Twilight sipped her tea and Moondancer spread cream over her crumpet.

"Do you…" Moondancer hesitated. "Do you think that Weiss might perform again now she's back in the city?"

"Probably not," Twilight began, and slowly, like a serpent coiling across the ground, the conversation turned away.


	104. Limitless Potential

Limitless Potential

The elevator rose towards Doctor Polendina's laboratory on the fifth floor. It was a spacious cab, so that even with Rainbow Dash and Ciel sharing the lift with Twilight there was plenty of room for all three of them, and ample space between them as well.

They didn't speak to one another. Ciel was looking up at the ceiling. Rainbow was looking down at her feet; Twilight was looking from one to the other and then back again, wishing that things didn't feel so awkward.

"Thank you," she said softly. "For coming."

"Of course," Rainbow said softly. "What's happening today?"

"We're reattaching Penny's arms."

"Surgery," Rainbow said. "Wouldn't miss that. Is she…is she going to be awake for that?"

"No," Twilight said. "She needs to be in sleep mode so that, when she wakes up, her diagnostics will register that she…that she has her arms back on. If she's still conscious, there's a risk that it might not connect properly."

Rainbow blinked. "Oh."

"You're regretting you asked now, aren't you?"

"Nah," Rainbow replied. "I mean, I didn't understand any of it, but I…she's going to be asleep, right."

Twilight smiled out of one corner of her mouth. "Right. Thank you, again, for coming."

"You don't have to keep saying that," Rainbow said.

"I know, but…it's going to be better this time, I promise," Twilight said. "Doctor Polendina won't be so…it won't be like it was last time."

"It's okay, Twi," Rainbow said. She scratched the back of her head. "He was right."

"No, he-"

"I screwed up, Twilight," Rainbow said. "My job was to protect Penny and I screwed up."

"It was a battle," Ciel said.

"A battle that Penny should have come through without a scratch, if I'd been doing my job," Rainbow said. "The truth is, if Doctor P wants to get somebody else to look after Penny from now on that's his right."

"Who could he possibly find to lead this team half so well as you do?" Twilight asked.

Rainbow was silent for a moment. "Flynt," she suggested.

"Flynt Coal?" Twilight asked.

"A touch eccentric for my taste," Ciel murmured.

"Flynt's not eccentric," Rainbow said. "Neon's crazy in all the best ways but Flynt? Flynt's so chill that ice doesn't melt on him. He's a good guy."

"He might be a good guy," Twilight said. "But he's not you."

Rainbow sighed. "My point is, Twi, that I'm not some irreplaceable guy that Doctor Polendina should just put up with my screw-up-"

"You did not screw up," Twilight insisted. "Can we talk about something else? Like…how's Blake doing?"

"You saw her for yourself last night," Rainbow said.

Twilight bowed her head. "I guess she's not much of a party person."

"Fluttershy said to leave it with her," Rainbow replied. "I think…I think she's more Blake's speed right now than Pinkie, but…"

"But?"

"Blake needs more than just being nice," Rainbow said. "I hope her doctor can get through to her soon."

"With good fortune," Ciel said. "Although, even if she reveals herself to him, the work will only just be beginning."

"Yeah," Rainbow said. "But once she admits she's got a problem, then we can help her out, right?"

"Right," Twilight said.

"Indeed," said Ciel.

A brief silence fell, broken only by the rumbling of the lift as it ascended up the elevator shaft.

"I, um, I asked Shining Armour to start teaching me hand to hand," Twilight ventured.

Rainbow frowned. "You don't need to learn hand to hand combat."

"Yes," Twilight said. "I do. I really do."

"Why, I always make sure you're safe when things start to get rough."

"That's exactly why I need to learn hand to hand combat," Twilight said. "So that you'll stop treating me like a baby all the time."

"I do not treat you like a baby," Rainbow said.

"Okay, no you don't, but you do treat me like…" Twilight hesitated, searching for the right way to describe how she felt treated sometimes. "You know, Sapphire treat Jaune a lot better than you treat me."

"I don't know, when he gets himself killed Pyrrha might regret giving him so much rope."

"Rainbow Dash!"

"What?"

"That was a little callous sounding," Ciel pointed out.

"Oh," Rainbow said. "Well it wasn't meant to be, I just…I just want you to be safe."

"And I want to be able to stand alongside you as your team-mate," Twilight said. "I know that I'm only playing at being a huntress but that doesn't mean that I want to have to run or hide or run and hide every time that danger threatens. I don't want to have to beg you to come save me every time Cinder Fall shows up."

Ciel cleared her throat. "Twilight, I sympathise but you're deluding yourself if you think that a few lessons from your brother will enable you to go toe-to-toe with an opponent like Cinder Fall."

"Okay, I was exaggerating a little-"

"Twilight," Ciel said, her voice acquiring a sharp edge like a bayonet point. "That sort of battle is far beyond you and would be beyond you if you trained for years. It would be beyond me. Learn to defend yourself, by all means; but don't lose sight of your limitations or you will doom yourself more than your inexperience ever could."

Twilight smiled. "Don't worry, I'm not going to start trying to pick solo fights against Cinder or her crew."

"I am very glad to hear it."

Rainbow folded her arms. "I don't know, Twi. Do you even have the strength to throw a punch?"

"Ah, that's where the power fists come in," Twilight said, and she might have explained more if the doors to the elevator hadn't opened at precisely that moment.

The laboratory spread out before them. The sound of Weiss Schnee singing Mistralian Opera floated into the elevator from the speakers in the workshop walls.

As Twilight led her two team-mates inside, she saw that Moondancer was bent over a still and silent Penny, secured to a table in the centre of the lab, while Doctor Polendina watched one of the screens set on the laboratory walls. A pair of white automated arms hung from the ceiling, their claw-like hands waiting eagerly.

It was Moondancer who noticed them first, her bespectacled eyes glancing up as they walked in, and she must have said something that Twilight couldn't quite hear over the opera because Doctor Polendina turned to face them.

Twilight couldn't help but feel a twinge of apprehension.

"Computer, decrease the volume to eight," Doctor Polendina said, and the sound of Weiss' singing lowered enough that Twilight could hear him more easily as he approached her. "Twilight. I'm glad you could make it."

"Of course, Doctor," Twilight said.

Doctor Polendina stared down at her in silence. He didn't speak. He sometimes glanced away from her before looking back. "Walk with me," he said, quickly and quietly, before he turned away and began to walk towards the far end of the workshop, leaving Twilight to hurry to catch up with him.

"I…I owe you an apology," he said.

"That's not necessary-" Twilight began to lie.

"Don't lie to me, Twilight, you'll only encourage me," Doctor Polendina said firmly. He ran one hand through his hair. "I…I don't know what to say. Should I tell you that I was not myself? Or was the problem that I was too much myself?"

Twilight didn't answer. She felt that an answer wasn't really expected, and even if it had been…what would she have said? How could she have even begun to answer such a question as that? So she said nothing, and trusted that it was purely rhetorical.

Doctor Polendina sighed. "Do not get old, Twilight. Or, if you must get old, then do not get sick. It will rob you of all that you are." He closed his eyes. "If our essence is contained within our souls then why does my mind…never mind. A question for philosophy, not science. I'm sorry, Twilight. I was…out of line."

"Thank you, Doctor," Twilight said. "I…" she trailed off before she could say that she was sorry. Even in his better state he might not appreciate her pity.

He seemed to sense what she had been about to say regardless. "Very kind of you," he said, and wiped at his eyes with the back of one hand. "Now, I, um, think there was something else, wasn't there? Something about Penny's swords. A solution?"

"A possible solution," Twilight said quickly, as she pulled out her scroll. "I've completed my first pass analysis, it's all in here."

Doctor Polendina took the scroll, and stared at it. "Energy…" he trailed off, continuing to stare hard at the scroll in front of him as though he had never seen writing before, or never seen a scroll. He chuckled self-deprecatingly, "There's a shadow…badly placed lights in this place, I can't see a thing." He shifted his stance a little, turning this way and then that, still looking at the scroll with a kind of incomprehension in his eyes.

Twilight came to his rescue, not wishing to prolong the squirming feeling of embarrassment she felt at watching the humbling of a towering intellect at the hands of time. "At Beacon, I met someone with an…her semblance is energy manipulation and transfer," she lied, because between the question of whether she ought to share the existence of magic (probably not without Sunset's permission) and whether Doctor Polendina would believe her if she did (also probably not) it was easier just to keep up the charade that Sunset herself had been running for a while. "She transferred some of that energy into a miniature battery with extraordinary longevity of use and a regenerative capacity. Doctor, if she can transfer more energy for us this could be the answer we've been looking for."

Doctor Polendina's brow furrowed. "Interesting, but…who is she?"

"Her name is Sunset Shimmer?"

"Atlas."

"By birth."

"But a Beacon Student," Doctor Polendina said, yet quick enough to catch the implication of Twilight's exact words.

"Yes," Twilight admitted.

"Can she be trusted?"

"I'd trust her with my life."

"But dare I trust her with Penny's future?" Doctor Polendina asked. He handed Twilight back her scroll. "This isn't just some science fair project that I can leave unattended, this is my daughter, my life's work, my…my legacy. All that I will leave behind me is…but the prize…let me think on it some more. I need to think, I need…give me time. Should we rejoin the others?"

"Yes," Twilight murmured.

Doctor Polendina nodded. "How do you like the music?"

"I thought you preferred more classical styles," Twilight said.

"True, Miss Schnee does ruin the libretto with some of her more modernist interpretations," Doctor Polendina said. "But I know that you and Moondancer are both terrible philistines with no operatic taste."

Twilight shook her head as she followed him back to the centre of the lab, where Rainbow and Ciel were watching from a discrete distance.

They both came to attention, just as they had when they had delivered Penny a couple of days ago.

"Miss Dash, Miss Soleil," Doctor Polendina said. "Back again so soon?"

"My team-mate is undergoing surgery, sir," Rainbow said. "Being here is the least I can do."

Doctor Polendina thrust his hands into his pockets. "Miss Dash, I may have been a little out of line before-"

"No, sir, you weren't," Rainbow said. "I had a job to do and I didn't do it."

Doctor Polendina's nod was slight, but perceptible. "That's very big of you, Miss Dash. When I…when I heard that Penny had been damaged in the field I was so…she's everything to me. My daughter is all I have. My only hope for…I just thank anyone who's listening that I can put her back together this time, but if anything were to…if I lost her then-"

"Sir," Rainbow said. "You can ask General Ironwood to have someone else assigned to Penny; you can even ask General Ironwood to have me fired, but as long as I'm the leader of Team Rosepetal I give you my word that you will not lose Penny. In fact I'll promise that you won't even have to see her like this again."

Doctor Polendina stared at her. "Your word? Very well, I shall hold you to it." And then he turned away.

 _That went…better than last time, at least,_ Twilight thought.

Rainbow approached the operating table, with Ciel a step behind. "Is she sleeping already?"

"Yes," Moondancer said.

"Not just sleeping," Doctor Polendina said. "Dreaming. Look." He gestured towards the monitor that he had been looking at when they came in.

Twilight's eyebrows rose above the rims of her square glasses. "She can dream?" she asked, in a voice that was hushed as though Penny might wake if she spoke too loudly. "I wasn't sure if she could."

"I don't know about elsewhere but in here, she can," Doctor Polendina said.

"And you can see what she's dreaming," Rainbow observed. Her voice was not quite critical but it wasn't that far off criticism either.

Doctor Polendina shrugged. "I am her father."

Rainbow shot a look at Twilight, who gave a slight shake of her head. Unfortunately this wasn't the doctor's condition or his medication or lack of same. This was just him.

Twilight shifted her attention away from her friend and onto the screen. It took her a moment to work out what she was looking at, although when she did work it out she kicked herself for not getting it sooner. It was a concert hall, specifically it was the inside of the Nicholas Schnee Concert Hall where she and Moondancer had seen Weiss sing.

It took her a moment to recognise the hyper-modern interior because she'd never seen it from the stage before.

Penny was dreaming that she was up on the stage?

"Penny wants to perform?" Moondancer asked incredulously.

Penny looked down, conveniently revealing to the observers that she was playing a guitar. When she looked up, they could also see that she was using her lasers as a light show.

Rainbow grinned. "Penny wants to rock out!"

"Atlas's secret weapon…wants to be a rock star?" Ciel asked, in a tone that mingled incredulity with a certain sense of the catastrophic.

"I doubt it's her life goal," Twilight said nervously. "She probably just wants to try it."

"The crowd seem to like her," Rainbow observed, and indeed the dream audience for Penny's dream concert were going wild, as best as an image without accompanying music could display. They were waving their arms in the air, and many of their hands held lights which bounced up and down in time with the music.

"It's, um, it's certainly not the usual sort of performance you see at the Nicholas Schnee," Twilight murmured. She glanced at Doctor Polendina, and she couldn't deny that she felt a little fearful of how he might react to this new development. But, and Twilight felt somewhat ashamed to admit that she was surprised to see this, he looked fondly up at the screen on which Penny's dream was broadcast to them.

"If she wishes to learn the guitar, then she can," he said. "And she will be the best guitar player that Remnant has ever seen."

 _That's…not what I expected._

"The greatest ever?" Rainbow asked. "I don't know, sir, that's some stiff competition."

"Maybe so, but as irrelevant in music as in all other fields in the face of this, this marvel," Doctor Polendina said. He gestured to the slumbering, dreaming Penny lying on the operating table before them. "Look at her. Look at her and tell me what you see."

There was a moment of pause before Rainbow went first. "I see my team-mate."

"I see a soldier of Atlas," Ciel said.

"I see a girl," Twilight said.

"I see a staggering scientific achievement," said Moondancer.

Doctor Polendina nodded. "You are all correct, and yet you are all so, so wrong. I look at her…I look at my daughter and I see…I see limitless potential. Penny will never grow old, she will never…" he closed his eyes for a moment. "She'll never succumb to any of the diseases of the mind or body that flesh is heir to. Age shall not weary her, nor the years condemn. She will never die. She is a true immortal, who will live for ages without end and for all of that long span of life she will continue learning, never ceasing to expand her mind, fill her horizons. She's so young now, and so inexperienced, but in time she will surpass each and every one of us because what does she have but time? Time to master anything that she puts her mind to: war, music, art…she'll become wiser than any philosopher, mightier than any…" he trailed off. A scowl crossed his face. "What's the word? The word! It's on the tip of my tongue but I can't…I just can't seem to…"

"Soldier?" Ciel suggested.

He shook his head. "Not quite."

"Warrior?" was Rainbow's idea.

"Not what I'm thinking of!" Doctor Polendina spat.

"Champion," Moondancer said. "She'll be mightier than any champion."

"Yes, yes, champion! Why couldn't I…" Doctor Polendina ran is hands through his hair. "Wiser, mightier…in ancient times a king was supposed to be strong in battle, fair in judgement, wise and eloquent and just, but how many men with mortal lives could ever learn to be all those things. But Penny can."

"You think that Penny can…rule Atlas?" Rainbow said.

"I think that those like her should rule all of Remnant," Doctor Polendina said. "They live forever and for as long as they live they learn; they don't suffer from greed or foolishness or arrogance or vanity or any of the other flaws that beset us. They are…the better angels of our nature."

Rainbow and Ciel both looked rather sceptical, although they said nothing to act upon their scepticism. But Twilight…Twilight could understand what Doctor Polendina was saying now, what he had perhaps been trying very badly to say before; yes, it seemed strange to think of Penny ruling anyone but that was only because they knew her in the extreme of her youth, when she was barely learning about the world around her. She would continue to learn, indefinitely; she would never reach a point as humans did where accepting new ideas and new experiences became too much of a chore for her. That being the case it seemed inevitable that she would, or at least could, surpass them all in all respects she cared to do so in.

Twilight was less certain about Penny's moral purity – not that Penny wasn't an innocent now, but since she had a soul there was no guarantee that she would remain so forever – but honestly the argument from wisdom and intelligence alone had force enough to be worthy of consideration, eventually, when said wisdom began to materialise.

Although she was rational enough to concede that the chances of enough people accepting government by androids to make it a feasible possibility was effectively null.

"All that is for the future, Doctor," Twilight said. "For now she's still a child, and one who needs our help."

Doctor Polendina nodded. "Quite right, Twilight. Could you…would you and Moondancer scrub up and perform the procedure under my direction?"

 _You don't trust your hands either? I can see why Moondancer is so desperate. I still don't agree, but I understand better than I did before._

They scrubbed up, and under Doctor Polendina's direction – he had his hands shoved into his pockets, and Twilight thought she understood why – they worked on Penny. They swapped out the damaged fragments of her upper arms with new parts straight out of the workshop in Mantle and shipped straight to the lab by express flight, before re-attaching her old lower arms below the elbow. They slotted the joints together, and tested the range of movements; they soldered the wires that served as Penny's nerves; they put her back together and then grafted fresh 'skin' over the cuts that they had had to make to put her arms back on, as if she were receiving plastic surgery to cover up some scars and burns she had incurred. It was, Twilight had to admit, very unlikely that anyone would see the cut marks anyway, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

All this they did, under Doctor Polendina's direction, while Rainbow and Ciel watched in silence, exactly as they would have if some flesh and blood relative of their was undergoing surgery.

And as they worked, so Penny dreamed. Her dream of being a rock guitar goddess, performing on the biggest stage in Atlas for the amusement of the crowds, concluded and elided into a dream about Ruby Rose and a swarm of fireflies, before Penny's subconscious passed on with the ephemerality of smoke to a dream in which she stood on the very tip of the bow of an Atlesian man-of-war, confronting a vast but shapeless, formless creature of grimm, a grim that was little more than a cloud of black smoke in which burned like embers a pair of terrible red eyes. Penny fired her mega-cannon into the smoke again and again and again, firing it far more frequently than she would have been able to in real life, but to no avail. Looking up, Twilight could only get a sense of the desperation that this dream must be inspiring in Penny as she watched the thick green bolt strike the enemy and do absolutely nothing.

Twilight felt rather glad when Penny started dreaming about something else, specifically flying through the air with the help of Rainbow's jetpack.

And then they were done, and it was time to wake Penny up.

They all gathered around the operating table as Penny's eyes opened as if for the first time.

"I…I'm back?" Penny asked.

Twilight nodded. "Welcome back, Penny."

"How do you feel?" Moondancer asked.

They all moved out of the way as Penny pushed herself upright with her new – or partly new at least – arms. She flexed them, holding her hands up to her eyes as she wiggled her fingers, and made a fist with each and both her hands in turn.

With astonishing speed made even more astonishing by the complete lack of malice in her expression, she slammed both fists down on the metal operating table hard enough to leave dents.

"I think they work," she said.

"Excellent," Moondancer said. "Unfortunately your legs aren't quite ready yet."

"I don't mind," Penny said. "I don't hate being here."

"Hey, Penny," Rainbow said, with a grin on her face. "If you want to learn to play the guitar you should have just asked me for lessons."

Penny looked mortified. "I don't-hic!- I mean that…that is that I-" she glanced nervously at her father.

"Penny," Doctor Polendina said.

"Yes, Father?"

"If that is something that you wish to do, then you shouldn't let my opinion stand in your way," he said.

Penny's eyes widened. "Really? But you said-"

"I know what I said, but listen to what I'm saying now," Doctor Polendina said. "I…I didn't…there are things that you will have to do to survive, Penny; people that you'll have to impress. But I, I don't want to be one of them. If that is something that you want to do then by all means. All I ask is that you do it well, that you apply yourself, and attain the excellence that I know you're capable of.

"You are a being of limitless potential, Penny; don't waste it. Whatever you do, don't waste it."


	105. Hurt

Hurt

The office of Doctor Oliver Noel was comfortable without being cluttered. The colours of the carpet and the walls were a mixture of subdued blues and greys, while the soft sofa on which Blake sat was likewise grey and felt as though it might swallow her up at any moment if she let it. Doctor Noel himself sat a few feet away, on a dark grey office chair, having left his desk behind so as to have, as he said, nothing between them. A large window dominated the back wall, with a view of the many steel-and-glass towers of Atlas spread out across the vista. A few conceptual artworks decorated the other walls, but even they matched the subdued mood of this space.

Blake didn't look her psychiatrist in the eye. She looked at her hand instead, her hand that rested on the arm of the sofa. They had performed surgery on it, bracing her damaged fingers with metal and circuits to brace and strengthen it. They told her that she would be even stronger with that hand than she had been before. But she could see the metal over her fingers, and crawling down her hand to the cuff-like circle around her wrist; that might come off if her hand recovered fast enough or it might not. At this stage it was, apparently, too early to tell.

She curled her fingers one by one. One. Two. Three. Four. The doctors had told her to keep doing that, to help her fingers to heal. Just curl them up, and then straighten them, one after the other. One. Two. Three. Four.

"Blake?" the voice of Doctor Noel forced Blake to look at him. Her doctor was a rabbit faunus, with a pair of ears sticking up out of his close-cropped, greying hair. His blue eyes watched her keenly as he leaned forward in his seat. Blake felt as though she could see all the lines on his face.

"Yes?" Blake murmured.

"Are you ready to begin?" he asked.

"Do I have a choice?" Blake asked.

Doctor Noel spread his hands out. "Well, I can charge my time to the government either way, so if you'd like to just sit here for an hour or two and admire the view out of the window before leaving that's fine by me. Of course, you'll have to come back again; and again and again until I certify you as fit for duty but if you want to keep wasting your time it's no skin off my nose."

Blake snorted. "Should I lie on my back?"

Doctor Noel shook his head. "That's a cliché you don't have to indulge unless you want to."

"I'd rather not."

"Of course not. You'd rather not be here at all, wouldn't you?"

"It's not a question of want, I don't need to be here," Blake said. "All I needed was to get my hand fixed and now it's fixed…mostly." She held up her hand, and curled up her fingers one, two, three, four. "That's what I needed not…this. You might think that you aren't wasting your time but you are. You should sign me off and I'll be out of your hair."

Doctor Noel stared at her without blinking.

Blake looked away. "Is there something on my face, Doctor?"

"You might not think that you need to be here, but someone obviously disagrees with you."

"They're wrong," Blake said firmly, even fiercely. "They're mistaken, they don't know what they're talking about, they don't know me. I'm not…they're wrong!"

Doctor Noel's expression was studiedly agreeable. "So how did you injure your hand?"

"I was attacked by a grimm. I'm sure you knew that."

"Do you always let grimm get so close to you?"

Blake's eyes narrowed. "Were you ever a huntsman, Doctor?"

"No," Doctor Noel admitted. "Although I've treated my fair share in my time."

"Battle is a chaotic place," Blake said. "There were so many grimm…I got unlucky."

Doctor Noel nodded. "Have you spoken to anyone at Beacon lately?"

Blake frowned. "What's that got to do with anything?"

"Humour me," Doctor Noel said. He looked down at the notes in his lap. "Let's see…Ruby Rose, Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos, Sunset Shimmer, those are the names of the students you roomed with during the last semester, yes?"

"Yes," Blake said.

"And they were with you on the Mountain Glenn mission?"

"Yes," Blake said.

"Have you spoken with any of them recently?"

Blake clenched her jaw for a moment. "No."

"Why is that?"

* * *

One. Two. Three. Four. Blake lay on her side, atop the foam mattress in the room that she'd been quartered in, watching as her fingers curled up, one after the other. One. Two. Three. Four.

Her scroll buzzed. Blake sighed. Couldn't they – and by they she meant everyone – give her any peace at all? Couldn't they leave her alone?

The answer, unfortunately, was no; which meant that as much as she might want to ignore the scroll she had to do something about it or else Rainbow Dash might break down her door to find out why she wasn't answering.

If it was Rainbow who had just left her a message.

One. Two. Three. Four. Blake curled her fingers one after the other, before she sat up on her bed, pushing the blanket off her and reached for the scroll that sat on her bedside.

She used her uninjured hand to pick up the device, before opening it to see that the last message hadn't been left by Rainbow.

She had a total of seven new messages: one from Jaune, one from Pyrrha, five from Sunset.

She could have ignored them all. They weren't from anyone in Atlas, weren't from anyone who could do anything beyond fume in Vale at the way that she was ignoring them; certainly she had no intention of answering any of them.

And yet…and yet something, some vestige of feeling within the hollow that was expanding to fill up her insides, pressed her to answer. Her finger trembled slightly as she tapped the message from Jaune to open it up.

Jaune: Hey, Blake. I just wanted to check in and see how you were doing. I know that you've got some stuff to work through; I just want to say that you helped me out when I was going through my own stuff, and so if there's anything that I can do to help you, just say, okay?

Or don't. You don't have to. But maybe drop Sunset a message because she's kind of losing it a little bit.

I hope things get better, and I hope to see you back at Beacon.

Jaune.

Blake stared down at the message on her scroll. _You hope things get better? You hope? How are things supposed to get better just like that?_

 _How can you help me with this? If it was so easy then I could just help myself._

She deleted the message, opening up the text that she'd gotten from Pyrrha.

Pyrrha: Good morning, Blake; I hope this finds you well.

By now, if I'm judging it properly you should have reached Atlas. I hope that the journey was not perilous – or at least as free from peril as anything can be in these times – and that you made it safe and sound.

I hope that you're finding Atlas to your taste. I've heard that it is one of the marvels of the world, if you like that sort of thing.

I also hope that they're taking good care of you there. You deserve as much.

It's strange, but the dormitory feels a little empty without you around. Doubly so because Ruby hasn't woken up yet – Yang sleeps by her bedside, but the rest of us are not allowed to do the same as we are not her legal relatives – but I know that even if she were here your absence would still be felt.

We all miss you, although we also all understand why you had to go.

I can't pretend to understand or be able to imagine what you're suffering, but you have all of my sympathies and my best wishes, for whatever it may be worth.

I would, and almost certainly should, tell you that you shouldn't worry about us at all and that you have enough to focus on with your own troubles, but Sunset is becoming slightly frantic with worry on account of your silence, and if you could just let her know that you're alright I'm sure it would mean a lot to her.

Other than that, however, all your thoughts should be squarely for yourself.

Until we meet again.

Love

Pyrrha

 _So Ruby hasn't woken up yet._ That touched a nerve with Blake; she felt more concern for Ruby than for herself and to know that she was still feeling the effects of her use of her eyes…why was it affecting her like that? Wasn't this supposed to be a gift she could use?

Why was everyone so worried about her when Ruby obviously needed help much more?

When Ruby deserved their help much more?

Blake tapped back. Those several messages from Sunset confronted her like a figure blocking her path. There was no getting away from them. Now that she knew they were there they would simply continue to weigh on her until she had the courage to do something about them.

The courage. A quality that she had always lacked. She had always been better at running than at standing her ground.

But she didn't have to answer. She didn't have to answer and she wouldn't. She just wanted to know exactly how she was being chased.

Sunset: Hey, Blake. How's the trip so far? I'm sorry that I didn't come to see you off, but I wasn't sure that you wanted me around.

 _Your instincts were right,_ Blake thought.

Sunset: If I remember how long it took me to get to Beacon from Atlas, you should have made it the other way by now. What's it like? How are you doing? Could you please let me know that you made it safe?

 _Why do you care?_ Blake said. _Why does it matter to you anyway? Why can't you just leave me alone?_

Sunset: I guess you're still pretty mad at me. Either that or you've blocked my number. I know I've done bad things but that wasn't one of them. I wanted to protect you, and I'd do it again if I had to.

 _I know you would. And I don't hate you for what you did. I just…I just don't…I just can't…_

Sunset: Please call me.

 _I can't._

Sunset: Okay, if you don't ever want to see me or hear from me again that's fine. I mean, I'd miss you, but if that's what you want. But please, can you let me know one way or the other.

It sounds very selfish, but put me out of my misery.

Blake stared down at the scroll in her hands. She felt very little; actually no, that wasn't true at all. She felt guilty. She felt a squirming embarrassment. But she didn't feel like doing anything about it. She wasn't even sure that she could have even if she'd wanted to; her hands would have refused to obey her even if she had tried to tap out a reply, let alone actually call Sunset or any of them to talk to them.

She just…she just couldn't.

* * *

"I don't know," Blake said. "Maybe they just don't care that much."

"I see," Doctor Noel murmured, in such a tone as to leave it completely unclear whether or not he actually believed her or not. Blake supposed that it didn't really matter whether he believed her or not. "So, they haven't tried to get in touch with you at all, to you knowledge?"

"I'm pretty sure that I just said that," Blake said. "It's not a big deal."

Doctor Noel shrugged. "It's your first time in Atlas, as I understand it."

"Yes," Blake said.

"Some people get lonely in situations like that," he said. "First time in a new city, nobody would blame you if you wanted the comfort of a familiar voice or face."

"I've travelled a lot," Blake said. "I'm used to new places."

"Of course," Doctor Noel said. He stared at her for a moment. "Why are you lying to me, Blake?"

Blake blinked. "I'm not lying."

Doctor Noel sat back in his chair. "Then why did Rainbow Dash tell me that she'd gotten a call from Sunset Shimmer asking how you were? Apparently she was concerned because you weren't returning her messages."

Blake's eyes widened. "You talked to Rainbow Dash?"

"I did."

"Why?"

"Because the patients that I see often try to damage control, make out that their condition is less serious than it really is. Including by lying to their doctor. So I talk to their friends, and the people who work with them. People who don't have incentives not to leave things out, like the fact that you've been getting messages from your friends at Beacon and you haven't answered."

Blake looked away. "I don't have to reply just because they messaged me."

"No," Doctor Noel allowed. "You don't have to. But why don't you want to?"

"I…I don't feel like it."

"I see."

"What do you see?" Blake demanded. "Maybe the reason I lied to you was because I knew that you'd react like this."

Doctor Noel met her gaze without flinching. "How did you injure your hand?"

"Haven't we been over this? I was in a fight."

"You've been in plenty of fights without injury."

"My aura broke."

"You didn't realise it was getting low?"

"I didn't have time to check my scroll."

Doctor Noel was silent for a moment. "Tell me about Adam."

Blake froze. "I…why? Why would you ask me about him?"

"He died, didn't he?" Doctor Noel said. "On the mission to Mountain Glenn."

Blake breathed in deeply. "Yes," she murmured. "He died in Mountain Glenn."

"You were close to him."

"You know about my past."

"I couldn't help you if I didn't know who you were."

"Are you helping me now?" Blake asked.

"I don't know. Are you helping yourself? How did you injure your hand?"

"When are you going to stop asking me that?"

"When you give me the straight and honest answer," he said. "Why did you join the White Fang?"

Blake clenched her hands into fists. "Isn't it obvious?"

"If I had a lien for every time one of my patients has said 'isn't it obvious' as a way of deflecting the question I would have a much healthier pension."

"Have you always lived in Atlas, doctor?"

"All my life."

"Then it can't be very hard for you to understand why an organisation like the White Fang exists," Blake said.

"My own opinions on the White Fang are irrelevant," Doctor Noel said. "Why the White Fang exists is irrelevant. What's relevant is why _you_ joined them."

Blake looked down at her hands, resting on her knees. She opened her injured hand, and closed her fingers one by one. One. Two. Three. Four. "The real question isn't why I joined the White Fang," she said. "I was born into it. My father was…my father is Ghira Belladonna, the founder of the White Fang back when it was still a peaceful protest group."

"And you were involved in your father's work."

"Of course."

"You say that as though it's another statement of the obvious, but it isn't," Doctor Noel said. "Some politicians prefer to keep their children out of the limelight."

"That's a little more difficult when you don't have a home to leave your family while you go to work," Blake pointed out.

"Did you want to be involved in the work of the White Fang?"

"Yes," Blake said emphatically. "I wanted to help, I wanted to be a part of this thing that…"

Doctor Noel waited a little while for her to finish. "Go on," he prompted.

"Have you ever been a part of something bigger than yourself?" Blake asked. "When we marched, when we rallied, with so many people filling the squares in Vale or Mistral, the way we engulfed whole thoroughfares with faunus marching for equality, there was so much energy there." She closed her eyes, the sound of remembered chants filling her ears. "When I was a kid, it felt as though the whole world was with us on those days. It felt like something huge was happening, a groundswell of opinion that would change the world. And I was a part of that. I wanted to be a part of that. I wanted to look back at the change we'd made and say that I played my part.

"But it was all a lie, all the delusions of a stupid kid who didn't know any better. The whole world wasn't with us on those marches, most it was sneering at us and calling us animals, and we didn't change a thing."

"You became disillusioned."

"Everyone become disillusioned," Blake said. "My father…my father resigned the leadership of the White Fang but the truth is that if he hadn't then, then he would have been forced out. Everyone was behind Sienna Khan by that point. What my father did was really nothing more than an admission of reality."

"And you stayed in the organisation. Even after it changed. Even after Sienna Khan led the White Fang in a shift towards violent extremism."

"Of course."

Doctor Noel's eyebrows rose. "Would you care to clarify?"

"My parents had brought me up to believe that we deserved equality," Blake said. "I still believed that, I still do believe that. I wasn't about to change my mind because my parents weren't around any more and the methods had changed. I still wanted to do my part to change the world, I wasn't ready to just give up and retire to Menagerie. I still…all the reasons that I'd been glad to be a part of the White Fang still applied: I was part of something bigger than myself, working for a cause that was bigger than my own desires; I hoped that one day I'd still be able to look back upon the change that we'd made in the world and take pride in the part that I'd played in that."

"So you fought."

"Yes," Blake said softly. "I fought."

"Did you kill anyone?"

Blake nodded, flinching at the memories that rose like monsters from the deep out of the darkness to the forefront of her memory.

"Do you remember them?"

"Yes," Blake whispered.

"Did it bother you?"

"That depends," Blake muttered.

"On what?"

"It never bothered me as much if they were shooting back," Blake said sharply. "Can we…do you have to ask me about this?"

"I'm a psychiatrist, it's my job to ask you questions."

"Even if they…"

"Sometimes the questions that make my patients uncomfortable are the ones that most need asking," Doctor Noel said. "Did you ever speak to a doctor while you were with the White Fang? About your experiences on the battlefield or…in the activities of your group?"

Blake snorted. "If you were a doctor with the White Fang you performed meatball surgery on those whose auras had let them down. We didn't have any room for a psychiatrist."

"No one?" Doctor Noel asked, as though the paucity of resources available to a guerrilla movement surprised him. "Not even a counsellor, just someone to listen to you?"

"I was the counsellor, sometimes," Blake said. "There was a girl, younger than me...if you led a team, you could try and help them with their problems, but only if you wanted to. Not everyone did. It…it just didn't seem that important."

"Is that why you think this is a waste of time?"

"I think this is a waste of time because I'm fine," Blake said. "I don't need help, I don't need to talk about my feelings, I don't need to pour out my life story to you so that you can tell me what I already know."

"Why did you become disillusioned a second time?"

"Huh?"

"I mean, forgive me, but if you hadn't changed your mind about the direction of the White Fang you wouldn't be here, would you?"

Blake frowned. "We still weren't changing anything."

"And if you had been creating change, would the actions of the White Fang been justified?"

"I…I don't…no," Blake said. "I thought that we were fighting for justice, and when we were cruel I told myself that justice could be cruel, but eventually I realised that justice wasn't even the goal and…and neither was equality. Eventually I realised that the reason it didn't seem to matter to most of my comrades that we weren't changing anything in the world around us was that they didn't want to change the world; they just wanted to get back at a world that had hurt them. I…I didn't want any part of that. So I left."

"And now?"

"What do you mean?"

"When you were a part of the White Fang," Doctor Noel said. "In both its incarnations, you wanted to change the world for the better. Now what do you want? You talked about being able to look back and say that you played your part. Now what do you see in your future?"

Blake hesitated. She tried to think. She tried to imagine. She tried to come up with anything, anything at all to cover up the void that threatened to consume her when she tried to conceive of what her future might hold, what she ought to be working towards, what she even could be working towards. She had been filling time at Beacon, busying herself with short-term tasks like stopping Adam to cover up the fact that she no longer had a long term goal to aspire to. There were things that she would like to see in the world, she still believed in equality for her people but that was a dream, an aspiration at best that she had lost any and all plan to make real.

She could no longer envisage herself as an older woman, looking back with pride upon her accomplishments. She could no longer envisage an older Blake at all.

"I…I don't know," Blake murmured. "Not much, I guess."

"And does that trouble you?"

Blake shrugged. "I suppose."

Doctor Noel scribbled something down on the notepad on his knee. "Tell me about the party last night."

"How recently did you speak to Rainbow Dash?"

"There was a party last night, wasn't there?"

"I suppose."

"Surely there either was or there wasn't."

"There…there was," Blake said. "I…" she stopped short of saying 'I couldn't get out of it'.

* * *

Blake walked down the street. The cold Atlesian air – it was hard to believe it was late summer here, at this time of year it would have been baking in any other kingdom but here she was a few degrees away from putting gloves on – nipped at her face and at the tips of her feline ears. She was wrapped in a thick white winter coat, with a dark scarf wrapped around her mouth and nose, but her eyes felt as though they might start to water from the chill temperature.

Nevertheless, she continued to walk because she was out of food and had to pick up some more.

She didn't miss the looks that she was given as she walked down the road towards the mall. Clearly this wasn't a part of town where people expected to run into a faunus. Nobody had said anything to her, but they looked at her, and they whispered to one another about her, and their stares followed her as she walked briskly past the store fronts.

She didn't care. She didn't care about a lot of things these days but she cared even less about the opinions of random strangers on the street in Atlas. Did they think that all the faunus should be confined to the under-city below? Did they think that someone like her had no place in their clean, sterile, technological utopia amongst the clouds?

Probably, this was Atlas, after all.

"Yo, Blake!"

Rainbow Dash appeared beside her in a rainbow burst, looking slightly underdressed for the weather in a t-shirt and short sleeved jacket.

"Glad I found you," she said.

Blake blinked. "Isn't…aren't you cold, dressed like that?"

"Nah," Rainbow said. "All the running around keeps me warmer than all that stuff you've got on."

The depressing part was that she might even be right. "Was there something you wanted?" Blake asked. "Do you need my help with something?"

Rainbow's eyes narrowed. "Come on, you know that isn't how this works. Not until the doc gives you the green light."

"I don't need a doctor to tell me that I can fight!"

"How's your hand?"

"It's fine, I…" Blake sighed. "What do you want?"

"I want you to come to a party tonight."

"Why?"

Rainbow's eyebrows rose. "Because it might be fun? You know, the reason why people have parties?"

"But why do you want me to come."

"Because it might be fun _for you_! Are you doing this on purpose or something?"

"No, I just…I don't feel like it tonight, okay?"

"Are you going to feel like it any night?"

"Probably not," Blake replied. "You might not have noticed, but I'm not much of a party person."

"Believe me, I've noticed," Rainbow said. "Listen, you helped save Fluttershy and Applejack-"

"I didn't really do anything to help them," Blake said. _I was too busy helping Sunset kill Adam._

"You were there when we brought them home," Rainbow said. "That's what matters, and without you we wouldn't have caught the breaks on the White Fang but, anyway, the point is that you helped bring our friends and back and that means that everyone wants to meet you, everyone wants to thank you…it would mean a lot to everybody if you came. And if you don't, then Pinkie will be upset; and nobody upsets Pinkie. Except me, sometimes, because I'm…but nobody else! Look, just come, will you? I promise that you'll have a good time."

* * *

"So you went under some duress?" Doctor Noel said.

"You could say that," Blake said. "I mean…it isn't as though I was tied up and forced to go or anything."

"But you didn't want to?"

"Not particularly," Blake said. "I'm not really at home in…those kinds of situations."

"So you weren't looking forward to it."

"No," Blake said.

"Was that the only reason?" Doctor Noel asked.

Blake frowned. "What are you getting at?"

"I'm asking if there was any particular reason why you weren't looking forward to this particular party?"

"No," Blake said. "I just don't enjoy parties."

"What have you enjoyed since you came to Atlas?"

Blake was silent for a moment. "Nothing."

"I see. And was it as bad as you feared?"

* * *

Blake pushed open the glass doors and walked out onto the balcony. It was even colder at night here in Atlas, and the metal railing that surrounded the balcony was cold to her touch. Nevertheless, Blake rested her arms upon it as she leaned upon the rail and looked out across the glimmering vista of the city, where so many lights shone so brightly that she would swear Atlas was brighter at night than it was during the day.

She could still hear the music from the party behind her. So loud. So incessant. It was one of the reasons why she'd had to leave, along with the laughter.

Laughter. Happiness. How had these things come to upset her, to drive her away? She didn't know, but she knew that she couldn't stay in that room any longer; it wasn't enough to linger at the back, or in the corner, hoping that Pinkie Pie wouldn't find her. She had to get out. She had to get away.

Coming here had been a mistake.

"Blake?"

Blake started, half-turning to see Fluttershy standing in the doorway.

"You forgot your coat," Fluttershy said, holding up Blake's white coat with a slight smile upon her face.

Blake shivered from the cold. "Thanks," she murmured, as she reached out with one hand and took the coat from Fluttershy's unprotesting grip. "I'm sorry, for just walking out like that, it's just-"

"I get it," Fluttershy said softly. "Pinkie…she can be a bit of a handful sometimes; but she always means well, she'd never do anything to upset anybody on purpose. I know she didn't mean to drive you away."

"It's not her fault," Blake said. "I'm just not in the festive spirit."

"Would you like to talk about it?" Fluttershy asked.

Blake looked at her, looked into the innocent green eyes of the Atlesian girl who knew so little of suffering or loss, who lived in a world of peace and plenty, who had only one brush with hardship in her whole life. What right did someone like Blake Belladonna have to come into a life so full and free and joyous, to slither like a serpent into this garden of grace and corrupt it with her faults, her problems, her darkness?

What right did Blake have to kindness from such a creature as this? What right did Blake have to kindness or friendship from anyone?

She would do better to hurl herself off this balcony than to bring Fluttershy into her world.

"Thanks, but it's alright," Blake said as she turned away.

"Are you sure?" Fluttershy asked.

 _I have no idea what being sure would feel like any more._ "Yes."

"Okay," Fluttershy murmured. "Would you…would you like to do something tomorrow? Just the two of us? Something a little less exhausting than a Pinkie party maybe."

"Something?" Blake asked. "Like what?"

"I don't know," Fluttershy said. "What would you like to do?"

Blake looked down, at the long drop off the balcony to the surface of Atlas below. "I don't know."

"What would make you happy?"

"I…I really don't know any more," Blake replied.

She felt, rather than saw, Fluttershy come closer. "Would it be alright if I waited for you, when your appointment with the doctor is done?"

"You don't have to do that."

"I want to," Fluttershy said.

Blake hesitated for a moment. "Why?"

* * *

"I don't understand it," Blake said.

"What don't you understand?" Doctor Noel asked.

"I don't understand why Fluttershy wants to wait for me, why any of the others wanted to meet with me, I don't understand why Sunset keeps leaving me messages or why Pyrrha or Jaune bothered to text me once, I don't understand any of it!" Blake snapped. "Why do they care so much? Why do any of them want to put themselves out to help me? For my sake?"

"Because they care about you?"

"Why?" Blake said. "I haven't succeeded at anything that I set out to do, I haven't done anything right and I've done so, so much that's so wrong. I fought for evil people, I've killed people who hadn't done me any wrong; I could have stopped the train going into Vale but I didn't because I wanted to save the faunus on board except most of them died anyway.

"I wanted to change the world but the only change I brought was more misery and suffering. And now…now I don't know what to do, what I should…what am I supposed to be fighting against? And why does anyone still want to help me?"

Doctor Noel stared at her. "How did you injure your hand, Blake?"

"I was bitten by a creep."

"You've never been injured in battle before."

"My aura never broke before."

"Why did it break this time?"

"Because the fighting was intense."

"Have you never been in intense combat before now?"

"No, I mean it's never been as bad as it was then."

"Were you fighting any differently then than normal."

"I don't know."

"You don't remember how you were fighting?"

"I don't understand the question."

"Was there any difference in the way that you were fighting at the Breach compared to in other actions in which you've been engaged?"

"I don't…I didn't…I didn't care," Blake admitted. "I didn't care if I got hurt. I didn't care if it was worse than injuring my hand. Adam, the train, the White Fang…what am I supposed to do now, Doctor? What's the point of me still being here?"

Doctor Noel leaned forward. "I don't know," he admitted. "I don't have the answers. You're in pain. You have PTSD and you're deeply traumatised and I can't just cure you by wishing it so, or even by writing you a prescription for it. The only thing I can really do is ask you one more question: now that you've admitted that you have a problem, do you want to solve it?"

"I don't want to feel like this forever," Blake murmured.

"Then we can keep seeing each other, and I'll give you the name of a therapist in Vale that you can meet with when you return to Beacon."

"And that…will that make me better?"

"It will help," Doctor Noel said. "I'm afraid I'm not ready to sign you off fit for duty yet, but…we may get there before term starts again."

Blake nodded. "Is…is that it?"

"For now," Doctor Noel said. "Thank you for coming, Miss Belladonna. It does get easier, I promise."


	106. An Invitation to Somewhere

An Invitation to Somewhere

Blake pulled out her scroll as the lift began to descend. The doctor's office was on the sixth floor, and if she kept her word – and Blake had no reason either to suppose or assume that she would not – Fluttershy would be waiting for her on the ground floor.

Which meant that she didn't have a lot of time, but she needed to do this now while the resolution to do so was still fresh in her.

Thankfully she could still get a signal within the lift, as she scrolled through her contacts and selected the name that she wanted to call.

As she heard the dialling sound emanating from out of her device, Blake felt assailed by nerves. She shouldn't be calling. She should hang up. She wouldn't want to hear from Blake, and Blake didn't deserve to hear from her. It was better to hang up, to end the call before it began, to put her scroll away and-

"Blake?"

Blake looked down into the face of Sunset Shimmer displayed on her screen. "Hey," she said. "Yeah, it's me."

Sunset stared at her for a moment, and Blake braced herself for a rebuke, for anger, for upset, for hurt and offence, for a guilt trip on how dare she freeze Sunset out like this.

Then Sunset smiled. It was a thin smile, with the mouth closed and all teeth hidden, but it was a smile nevertheless. "How are you?"

Blake bit back the commonplace 'I'm fine' that immediately leapt to the tip of her tongue. "Not great," she admitted.

"Yeah?" Sunset said, as though this was some great surprise. "Do you…want to talk about it?"

Blake glanced at the numbers tracking downwards on the display above the elevator controls. Third floor. She was halfway to the bottom.

Her free hand shot out and pressed the emergency stop button, sending the elevator to a grinding halt.

"Yes," she admitted, as she leaned against the back wall of the lift. "I…I think I would."

"I'm right here," Sunset said. "Where are you?"

"I just got done with my doctor," Blake said.

"Hand, or…"

"Or," Blake said. "My hand…my hand feels a lot better now." She held up her braced and reinforced hand so that Sunset could see it.

"Feels better or feels weird?"

Blake considered for a moment. "A little of both," she said, curling her fingers one, two, three, four. "Sunset, I-"

"You don't have to do that," Sunset said, cutting her off before she could apologise. "Not to me, not to anyone."

"But I-"

"It doesn't matter," Sunset insisted.

"How do you know, you won't even let me finish."

"Because I know you," Sunset said. "Or at least I'd like to think I do. It really doesn't matter, so long as you're okay."

Blake's brow furrowed. "What if I'm not?"

"Then…" Sunset hesitated. "Then I'm here if you need me."

Blake was silent for a moment. Sunset, for her part, was silent too. She seemed to have accepted that her role right now was to listen, not to speak.

"I don't know what I'm doing, Sunset," Blake confessed.

Sunset remained silent, listening but saying nothing.

"I wanted to make a better world," Blake said. "With my father, with Sienna, with the White Fang; I wanted to…I wanted to bring about something better than we have now, somewhere free from hatred and injustice but now…ever since I ran away…I just don't know what I'm doing any more. With you, at Beacon, what am I doing?"

Sunset didn't give the obvious answer 'training to become a huntress', possibly because she sensed that it wouldn't be very helpful. "You're saving lives."

"Whose lives?" Blake asked. "I didn't save those people on the train."

"That wasn't your fault."

"No," Blake accepted. "But it wasn't my victory either. I made my choice…and it didn't make any difference at all, they died anyway. That…that seems to sum it up, doesn't it? I make what I think are big decisions, and they turn out to all be utterly irrelevant. In the end, nothing that I do makes any difference at all.

"Is it just that I'm really bad at this? Am I making all the wrong decisions? Or is it that nobody could do any better than I've done? That the world just can't be changed. That this state of conflict between humans and faunus is inevitable?"

"I don't believe that," Sunset said. "I don't believe that you believe that. How could you?"

"You think it's so obvious that I'm wrong?"

"Look around," Sunset said. "Pyrrha, Ruby, Jaune, Twilight, people who see us for who we are, not what we are."

"A few people," Blake said. "Good people. Extraordinary people. But look at the world, look at Atlas, look at Mistral, look at Vale; eighty years since the Great War and still no equality. My father's White Fang, Sienna Khan's White Fang…none of it has made any difference at all. Maybe nothing can. Maybe equality is nothing more than a dream."

"And maybe it's not," Sunset replied. "What if…" she hesitated, looking away from the scroll and at something in the dorm room at Beacon that Blake couldn't see. "What if I could show you that it wasn't? What if I could show you that equality and harmony weren't just dreams, what if I could show you that disparate races could put their hatred behind them and embrace one another? If I could show you a place that has done the work that humans and faunus have before them do you think…do you think that would restore your faith?"

"That…that depends," Blake murmured. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm honestly not entirely sure myself," Sunset said. "I'd need to talk to…to somebody about it, it might be that I'm just talking nonsense and it couldn't happen but if it could, if I could show you a place like that, do you think that if you saw something like that you could believe that maybe...maybe it's not all pointless?"

"I…I don't know," Blake said. "It would depend on where it is, and what it is, this place that you might want to show me." It might, as Sunset had put it, restore her faith that the faunus could achieve the equality that they deserved, or it might just make her jealous that others had managed to do what humans seemed incapable of. It would entirely depend.

"Then I'll see what I can do," Sunset said. "If…if that's what you want?"

Blake hesitated for a moment. "Okay," she said, because there seemed no harm in letting Sunset see what could be done. _I said that I wanted to change, to get better. So I suppose that if there's a chance that I might see something that will make me feel less empty inside, and feel less like I've wasted my entire life chasing fog, I guess I probably ought to take it._

"Then…then let me see what I can do," Sunset said. "If this works out, you won't regret it. I promise."

 _Don't worry, I won't hold you to that. My regrets aren't your fault._ "Alright then," Blake said. She started the elevator descending once again. "We'll talk later."

"Sure," Sunset said. "Have a good night."

"I'll try," Blake said, and she even meant it. She hesitated, staring down at Sunset without speaking.

"Blake?"

"Goodbye," Blake said, and hung up the call.

She put her scroll away, and looked up at the ceiling as the elevator continued to rumble downwards.

* * *

In Vale, in Beacon, in the SAPR dorm room, Sunset levitated her magical journal over to her. She opened it to the first page with space to write and began to scribble out her words, spraying them rapidly across the hitherto-untarnished paper in quick, untidy, spidery handwriting.

Sunset: Twilight, are you there?

It took a few moments before there was any reply, but before too long other, neater, more controlled words began to appear below Sunset's scrawl. Twilight: Yes, I'm here, Sunset.

Sunset: Good, because I might have a favour to ask of you and it Sunset paused, wondering how she could possibly phrase a request of such enormity as she was about to make. Sunset: And it might seem like a lot to ask, but here goes.


	107. Atlas

Atlas

 _A little faunus girl from Mantle going to the city of dreams._

As she walked down the street, side by side with Fluttershy, Blake found herself thinking about Ilia Amitola.

They hadn't seen each other in a few years now; Adam had taken Blake to Vale, Ilia had remained with the Mistral Chapter. Skilled as she had been there was a good chance that Ilia was dead now. Life in the White Fang was at least as hard as any work in the Atlesian mines, so hard that even the very best tended to die before their time: gunned down, cut down, bombed, devoured by grimm; all lost to the hazards of the huntsmen and the Atlesian military and the monsters of the night.

Perhaps Ilia filled a shallow grave somewhere in Anima; perhaps there wasn't enough of her left to be so disposed of; perhaps she still lived and fought for the White Fang's cause; perhaps she still lived and had seen the folly of their ways as Blake has. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps; the truth was that Blake had no way of knowing for sure, or of finding out.

But as she walked down the street, with the cold air nipping at her face and nibbling at the tips of her cat ears, Blake thought about her, and her story.

She'd found it incredible at the time, the rules that Ilia had consented to obeying, the shackles that her parents had sought to place upon her, the way that she had denied who and what she was in the name of fitting in.

Blake had listened to Ilia's story and found it impossible to believe that Ilia – that anyone – could have failed to resent the imposition involved in such self-denial. Of course, she had then been hypocrite enough to start engaging in just such self-denial herself during her first semester and change at Beacon but only, so she had told herself, out of absolute necessity.

She hadn't been able to bring herself to believe Ilia when the other girl had claimed it wasn't hard.

 _Especially if it meant being in Atlas._

It was the tone of her voice that Blake remembered most of all: the lingering longing as Ilia said the name of Atlas, the city of dreams; the way she said it, it almost sounded as though it were not a place but an idea to strive for, a kingdom of heaven built on Remnant. So different from the scorn and hatred with which Adam had spoken about his home; it had seemed impossible to think they could be speaking of the same place or to conceive why anyone would speak of the infernal pit of Adam's memories with Ilia's lovelorn sighs.

It had been impossible for Blake to believe that any place, still less a place so racist that Ilia's only chance to dwell there had been to deny her race, could inspire such feelings.

Now that she was here, now that Fluttershy was showing her all the wonders of the technopolis amongst the clouds, Blake found herself starting to get it.

It must be wonderful to live here as a human, to be accepted in this place where it seemed like anything was possible and life could only get better.

The city flew. The city was flying. The clouds were not only above, forming vague shapes before getting blown away by the passage of the angular cruisers proceeding on their stately passages overhead, but beneath them too, and all around them as the floating city nestled in their midst like a particularly rocky cuckoo in the nest. Blake and Fluttershy had just passed a robot using an extendable clawed hand to pick up litter off the sidewalk, and as they sidled around it the android had given a courteous nod of its inhuman looking head and an electronic-sounding 'Good day, ladies' had issued forth.

Blake had been so amazed that she'd stopped and stared at it for a moment. "Uh, thank you."

"No, thank you, Miss," the cleaner-bot said, before resuming its litter picking.

Blake had continued to watch it go along its merry way. "Do…do all the robots talk like that?" She was aware that Atlesian robots did talk, but general her experience had been limited to combat droids demanding that she identify herself as she trespassed on the premises. She'd never heard one be courteous before.

"A lot of them do, yes," Fluttershy said. "My vacuum cleaner is very polite when he's asking me to move my feet out of the way, but Rainbow was so annoyed by her toaster that she, um, they had a little bit of an accident."

"Huh," Blake said, as she continued to look at the litter-picking robot. For a moment she wondered why they still needed faunus to work the mines of Mantle; but then she remembered that faunus were cheaper that robots, and in some ways more durable as well.

"Blake?" Fluttershy asked. "Are you okay?"

Blake realised that she must have been showing something of her thoughts upon her face, and quickly forced her expression into something more neutral, even as she covered her mouth with her scarf against the bracing chill. "I'm fine," she said softly. "Is it always so cold around here?"

"So cold?" Fluttershy said. "Oh no, when fall really starts its going to get much colder around here; I'm almost glad to be spending the autumn in Vale for the Vytal Festival…except that means I won't be able to adjust to the cold before winter gets here."

"How bad is it?"

"Sometimes the snow is so thick on the ground, even robots can't move," Fluttershy said. "They have to use drones to make deliveries, and the army flies in to take care of people who are in trouble."

Blake looked around, at the towering structures of glass and steel that loomed over her head, rising like stalagmites into the sky. "I'm surprised you haven't found a way to just heat the whole city so that the snow and ice melt."

"Twilight tells me that the anti-gravity engines help with that, a little," Fluttershy said. "I don't really understand it myself, but she said it still wasn't enough to just melt everything just like that. And besides, if it all melted at once the low town would get too much rain at once."

"What?" Blake asked, not understanding.

"When the snow melts, the water falls down to the city below like rain," Fluttershy explained. "It's the only weather they get, living in our shadow like they do."

 _I wonder if they enjoy the slight variation in their weather routine, or curse it,_ Blake thought.

Atlas, as Blake discovered as Fluttershy led her down the wide thoroughfares and the bustling streets, beneath the shadows of the towering structures and past the robots diligently working to keep the streets and windows clean and the city on the move, was a city of many parts, and none of the parts that she observed matched Adam's rancorous description. She had no doubt that something like the hellish place that he described existed, perhaps in the Low Town dwelling in perpetual shadow of the city amongst the clouds, living around the ever-growing heap that was the refuse of those literally and figuratively set above. But not here. Not when she was amongst the clouds herself.

Here she could see why Ilia had been so enamoured of Atlas. Here she could almost see why her old friend had described it as a city of dreams. Atlas, as Fluttershy led Blake through its midst, seemed almost like a place where anything was possible.

Atlas was a city of technology. Blake had always known that, everyone knew that, even more than martial force Atlas prided itself as an exporter of all the most advanced technology, on being the workshop of the world, the place that had given Remnant not only the CCT network but all of its other modern wonders that so enriched the lives of everyone who dwelled within the kingdoms. But being in Atlas itself, standing on the sidewalk of Remnant's self-proclaimed workshop, brought home to Blake the fact that this was no idle boast. Every building was a cathedral to the worship of science and technology, it was like an entire city modelled after the CCT tower (of course the tower was modelled after the city, but Blake's thoughts went to that with which she was more familiar), where even the shopping malls had a sepulchral feel to their architecture and design. Everything was modern; there were a couple of stores they passed with a faux-antique front, but in design, in construction materials, everything looked as though it had been built within the last few years using the most advanced techniques and cutting edge materials. Blake would seriously not have been surprised if Fluttershy had turned around and told her that they tore everything down after about five years and built it all from scratch so that it never got old. Small hordes of robots toiled unseen, unthanked and unregarded by the people milling around them: they picked the litter; they swept the streets; they scaled the vertical sides of the towers of glass and stone with spidery legs to wash the windows until they sparkled; they controlled the flow of traffic on the roads; they patrolled the streets and plazas. Some of them, like the litter pickers with one clawed hand and the other holding a bag, looked human, or at least they looked humanoid; some of them, like the rolling street sweepers or the little security ancilla that looked like bins on wheels, that Blake only recognised were robots when she saw one of them ram into a pick-pocket hard enough to knock him off his feet before tasering him, did not look human at all. Of the vast variety of droids Blake saw maintaining Atlas, only the battle droids – surprisingly few in number, but then she supposed that the Atlesian authorities thought it was overkill to deploy robots designed to kill their enemies for law and order duties – were familiar to her, the rest she had never come across even in the heart of Vale.

"I've heard that technology in Atlas is twenty or thirty years ahead of the rest of the world," Blake murmured. "Now that I'm here…I guess it's true, isn't it?"

"I wouldn't know much about that," Fluttershy murmured. "You should really talk to Twilight if you want to know about science and technology."

"I'd rather talk to you," Blake said. "About…whatever you want to talk about."

Fluttershy smiled. "You don't have to say that just to be nice."

"You've been kinder to me than anyone's been when they first met me in years, and you think I'm being nice?" Blake asked incredulously.

"Well…" Fluttershy murmured. "Um, anyway, where would you like to go next?"

"I don't know where I am," Blake said, with perfect honesty. "Where would you like to show me?"

Fluttershy thought about this for a moment, raising her head to look at the drones passing by overhead, some of them laden with parcels and packages while others looked as though they might be watching the crowds below.

Fluttershy's lavender scarf had spilled out from beneath her yellow coat, and she hastily stuffed it back in. "Would you like to see the Garden of Serenity? It's my favourite place in the whole city?"

"Then I'm sure it's great," Blake said. "Lead the way."

Atlas was a city in which little grew. Atlas was a city torn out of the earth, uprooted and unmoored from the land only to be moored again with technology, and it was a city that seemed to have little patience and less love for green and growing things. As Fluttershy led the way, and Blake kept pace beside her, Blake could not see one single tree or bush anywhere. Vale had likewise been decidedly metropolitan, but even that kingdom had understood the value of a decorative tree or two, a leafy plaza, not to mention the agricultural district. Atlas seemed to be nothing but steel and glass and carefully shaped stone. Nothing grew in the sky, it seemed, neither flower nor fruit, birch nor thorn. Nothing grew and nothing lived but people, hordes of people untroubled by beast or bird or insect. Blake had never considered a particular lover of any of those things – she couldn't stand dogs, for one – but she noticed their complete and utter absence now, and wondered that those all around her could not do so. No doubt time had rendered them carelessly complacent of what they were missing, but as she looked at Fluttershy she recalled what the other girl had said about her love of nature, and how she missed the absence of it.

Atlas was a city built by humans and occupied by humans, and by the machines that they had built to serve them. It had neither time nor place for animals, whether they were true beasts or simply those colloquially described as such.

"What's a faunus doing here?" Blake heard somebody whisper, but did not see who it was.

"What's a human girl doing with a faunus?"

"Do you think she's dangerous?"

"Just keep moving and don't attract her attention. She might bite."

Atlas was a city of division. In this whole bustling metropolis she couldn't see a single other faunus face, not a single one glimpsed in the crowd, no trace of a trail or a pair of ears, no teeth or claws. High Atlas was a human city, built by men for men to dwell in, and they meant to keep it that way. She noticed the 'no faunus' signs on the shop doors, she noticed the way that even the robots seemed to pay her more attention than they gave to everybody else – of course the robots were racists, racists had been responsible for their programming – she noticed the way that people stared at her, whispered about her, took pictures of her as though she were a curiosity. How could she have failed to notice all those things, when they were going on right in front of and all around her and those who did those things often didn't seem to care whether she noticed them or not.

She remembered Ilia's story, about passing for human amongst the people of Atlas, never allowed to change her colour or in any way reveal what she really was. Her story had seemed more the stuff of nightmares to Blake than anything worthy of the name 'city of dreams' and though she understood a little better why Ilia had been so enamoured of the place, she still found it hard to take seriously the idea of any dream that would trap her in such a place as this for good. In Atlas, it seemed, you could do anything…except be yourself if your self was not human and only human.

 _What can possibly be done to change this? What can Sunset hope to show me that will make me feel like this isn't just the way the world is and will always be?_

Fluttershy moved closer to her as they walked. "I'm sorry about this," she murmured. "I don't know what's got into everybody."

"Isn't it always like this?" Fluttershy asked. "Doesn't Rainbow get this?"

"It doesn't seem to bother Rainbow any more," Fluttershy said. "So it's easier to not pay attention to it." She fell silent for a moment. "But it does bother her, doesn't it?"

Blake hesitated. "I wouldn't know," she said. "I'm not Rainbow Dash."

"But you agree, don't you?" Fluttershy pressed. "You think that she's pretending to be okay with it, for our sake?"

Blake clenched her jaw for a moment. "I…I really wouldn't like to say how anyone else is feeling," she said. _I have enough trouble understanding my own feelings._

Atlas was a city of war. If Blake hadn't know that already, if she hadn't already possessed enough experience to have told her that, if the sight of the cruisers and the airships passing overhead had not been sufficient to tell her this, then she would have certainly realised as Fluttershy led her past what looked like the only structure in the entire city that was more than a few years old.

They were approached the Park of Serenity now, but to get there Fluttershy brought her through another city plaza, open and empty with grey stone slabs staring upwards at the sky and clouds above. In the centre of this plaza, the only object in the entire square, the focal point without any distractions, was a statue. An old statue; Blake didn't know exactly how old it was but in the middle of this hyper-modern city all around it, placed in the midst of a world that was racing forwards towards a new and brighter future, it looked like a relic from some ancient bygone kingdom. A woman, carved out of pure white marble, unmarred by vein or blot or flaw in the design, stood atop a towering plinth of black stone. Her face was ageless, her eyes were closed and her head was bowed downwards towards the ground; she was simply dressed, with her arms bare and her feet hidden beneath her long skirt and one breast bared as though she were about to feed a child. Perhaps it was for that reason alone that she put Blake in mind of a mother, or perhaps there was some other ineffably maternal quality that Blake could detect but not really describe.

Blake stopped, and stared at the statue as Fluttershy, noticing, halted also. "Would you…would you like to get a closer look?" she asked.

Blake nodded, and the two of them walked across the pedestrianised space until the maternal figure high upon her plinth would have been looking down upon them, if she had but opened up her eyes. Her arms, bare and devoid of sleeve or glove, were spread out on either side of her, gesturing or encompassing that which lay before her. Beneath her feet, upon the heavy bronze disk that separated her statue from the black pedestal that hoisted her into the air, was embossed in gold the words 'These Are My Jewels'. And all around the statue, beneath the woman's hands, were more statues wrought in bronze, statues which had an antique style but nevertheless appeared newer than the woman who embraced them as her children: a soldier, his face concealed behind his helmet, his rifle in his hands; a huntress in the uniform of the specialists, one hand upon her sword; a pilot; an engineer; a scientist. The jewels of Atlas, who kept the city safe from the monsters who surrounded them.

Flowers were laid around the statues' base, garlands and bouquets, blots of colour around the black stone plinth and grey stone slabs that formed the floor. Some of the flowers were accompanied by photographs, other photographs had been pinned to the pedestal itself: smiling faces, laughing faces, grave faces, faces set in posed expressions, proud and noble faces; so many faces set in a single moment staring out at Blake with sightless eyes.

"Who are all these people?" Blake asked, thinking that she knew the answer already.

"Those we've lost," the answer came not from Fluttershy, but from Applejack. Blake hadn't seen her there, but she wandered around from the other side of the statue now, her hat held in her hands. "Those who've given everything for this country. Anyone can leave a picture here, don't matter who it is: your brother, your cousin, your best friend; that jerk you knew in school who made something of himself…and gave everything of himself. Your parents." She glanced away, and her smile was as thin as it was brief. "Howdy, Fluttershy."

"Good morning, Applejack," Fluttershy murmured. "I wasn't expecting to see you here."

Applejack brushed one of her twin ponytails over her shoulder. "It's been too long since I paid a visit, what with…well, you know."

Blake frowned. "Is…is someone you know on here?"

Applejack nodded. "One or two," she said softly. She didn't elaborate, and Blake didn't push her. She'd said enough.

They stood in silence, under the shadow of the marble woman and her treasures, the jewels of Atlas that would never gleam again.

Perhaps it was nothing more than her imagination at work, but as she looked again Blake almost thought that it looked as though the woman was about to weep. Perhaps that was why her eyes were closed.

"Who was she?" Blake asked.

"Some old queen, I think," Applejack said. "Or maybe she's meant to be the city, I don't rightly recall; you'd need to talk to Twi if you want a history lesson. All I know is, this is where we say goodbye."

"I'm sorry," Blake whispered, feeling the inadequacy of the words. How many of the photographs strewn around or pinned upon this statue had met their ends not because of the grimm but because of the White Fang?

 _How many brothers and sisters of the White Fang have been put in the ground because of Atlas?_

The answer, she was sure, was too many on both counts. Too many had given their lives in this war, too many heroes on both sides had paid the ultimate price for their ideals and all for what? What had changed? What had all the gallantry and sacrifice accomplished. The battle lines could not have moved less if Atlas and the White Fang had dug their trenches across either side of a muddy field somewhere and competed to see who could slaughter more of their own men trying to move the battle lines an inch or two.

 _Is there no alternative to this? No better way? Is this doomed to be the way it is forever?_

It was enough to make her weep with frustration the tears that the old queen or Atlas anthropomorphised could not.

"Blake," Fluttershy said gently. "Are you okay?"

"I," Blake began, pausing for a moment. "I was just thinking about how much has been lost, you know?"

Fluttershy nodded understandingly. "Would you mind if we left now? This place…it always makes me so sad."

If that was true then Blake could well understand why, because it was making her sad too; if it was a lie then it was gently meant, to be sure. "Okay," Blake said. "Let's keep moving."

"You're welcome to join us, if you want to," Fluttershy said to Applejack. "I was just about to show Blake the Park of Serenity. That is, if you don't mind, Blake."

Blake was about to say that no, she didn't mind; but before she could speak Applejack had already done so. "Nah, you two go ahead. I…I think I'm going to be here a little while longer. There's still one or two things I have to say."

 _One or two…and one at least is very close. Not the jerk in school who made something of himself. Her brother? Her parents?_

Blake couldn't help but wonder, even as she knew that it was not her place to know. Applejack remained, lingering under the shadow of the statue, looking up at the woman on the pedestal as Fluttershy led Blake away.

She hadn't realised what an oppressive mood had prevailed about that statue until they were away from it; although the mood of melancholy that oppressed her soul did not abate by a long shot it did ease off just a little once they were out of sight of the memorial and all it represented to her.

And so Fluttershy led her to the Park of Serenity, the only green space that Blake had seen thus far in the entire city. This being Atlas, it was encased within a transparent biodome that kept the worst of the elements at bay and which, Blake could see, would be necessary when the winter came and the weather made these mild temperatures seem tropical by comparison. Within the dome, inside the park itself, a hundred different kinds of flowers bloomed in carefully tended flower beds – tended to by actual gardeners, what was more: grey haired faunus in straw hats and waistcoats who moved amongst the visitors with rakes and hoes and buckets – blooming with chrysanthemums, lavenders of blue and green, iris and rosemary and rue, roses red and white and pink, daffodils and tulips. Apple trees spread out their boughs as succulent-looking green fruit bloomed upon their branches. Cherry trees blossomed radiant pink. And in the trees sang hundreds of birds in as many colours or more than there were different kinds of flowers in the garden.

It was like a different world, one wholly removed from the technological marvel outside the glass (or glass-seeming) world from which they had just come; it was like the fairy stories in the battered old book that Blake's mother had used to read to her, and which she had given to Penny: the ones in which the protagonist entered into a fairy world, lingering there a day or two only to find that ten or twenty or a hundred years had passed in the real world when they returned.

 _That…that might even be comforting,_ Blake thought. _To spend an age in here and come out to find that Sienna Khan and all those whom I knew in the White Fang had died, and perhaps even the White Fang died with them. Then I could see what the world had become in my absence._

 _A world without Pyrrha, without Ruby; without Sunset. A world where anyone who ever cared about me had passed on long ago._

 _No. It's for the best that this isn't that kind of story._

For her part, Fluttershy too looked as though she had stepped into another world; a better world, one that better suited her temperament. She looked relaxed here as she had never quite looked outside, and as a bluebird flew out of its tree to land upon her outstretched finger she looked as enchanted by the chirruping creature as Ilia had ever sounded by the wonders of the city of dreams.

The two of them sat down upon a bench, an uneven bench made of a solid plate of metal that was torn and frayed around the edges, and pock-marked upon the surface as though something had been beating on it.

It was so strange, to see such shoddy workmanship in Atlas, that Blake could not help but stare at it for a moment.

Fluttershy noticed her confusion. "All the benches and the tables here are made from pieces of an old warship; I…I like what that means."

Blake's brow furrowed. "What does it mean?"

"That even the most horrible things can become part of something beautiful," Fluttershy said.

Blake nodded. "Do you…do you really believe that?"

"Of course," Fluttershy said.

"And what about people?" Blake asked.

"People?"

"If horrible things can become part of something beautiful, then what about horrible people?" Blake asked, stating it baldly. "Can they ever become part of something beautiful as well?"

Fluttershy stared at her for a moment. "You're not a horrible person, Blake."

"No offence, Fluttershy, but you don't know me," Blake said. "You don't know what I was."

"Was?" Fluttershy said. "Not is?"

Blake looked away for a moment. "I'd like to think so," she muttered.

"Then does it matter?"

Blake stared at her, golden eyes wide. "You don't think it does?"

Now it was Fluttershy's turn to look away. "Nobody's perfect," she said. "Sometimes, even your best friend can hurt you without meaning to. If I held on to grudges because of the things that they'd done, or if they held on to grudges because of the things that I'd done, I wouldn't have any friends at all."

"What I've done is a lot worse than just hurting my friends," Blake said. _Calling my father a coward isn't even in the top fifty worst things I've done._

"Maybe," Fluttershy acknowledged. "But do you regret it?"

"Every day."

"Then you're not that person any more," Fluttershy said.

Blake blinked. "And…that's it?"

"What else is there, but change?" Fluttershy asked. "And doing better next time?"

"Redemption?" Blake asked. "Penance?"

Fluttershy was silent for a moment. "Rainbow and Twilight tried to get me into video games once. I didn't really enjoy them. I remember one game, you could do all kinds of horrible things, and get negative points that would make everybody hate you…but then you could just buy them cookies or rescue stray kittens, and they'd forget all about the terrible things that you'd done because your positive points would cancel them out. Until you did something bad again, anyway. That didn't seem right to me."

Blake nodded, understanding what Fluttershy was saying: that expecting that you could or should do a set of arbitrary good things until you hit an equally arbitrary point at which you had cancelled out all of your prior bad acts was just as facile – if not more so – than the idea of a blank cheque of forgiveness. "But…how do I know if I deserve to be forgiven?"

"It sounds as though you haven't forgiven yourself," Fluttershy said.

Blake clasped her hands together in her lap. She could see them as she bowed her head. "Why does that matter?"

She felt Fluttershy's hand on her shoulder, squeezing her through her coat. "It's the only thing that matters."

Blake looked up at her. "I don't understand how you can be this way."

Fluttershy shrugged. "It's just the way I am."

They sat in silence, listening to the sounds of birdsong in the trees all around them for a while, before the silence was interrupted by a voice that was at once familiar and at the same time wholly unexpected to Blake.

"Hey, Blake!" Sun called as he jogged across the grass towards them, waving one hand enthusiastically.

"Sun?" Blake demanded, gawping in astonishment. "What…what are you doing here?"

"I'm here to see you, I've been looking all over," Sun said. "Do you know how easy it is to get lost in this place?"

"Yes," Fluttershy said quietly.

"Rainbow Dash said I might find you guys here," Sun said. "When I could finally find here." He grinned at Fluttershy. "You must be Fluttershy. Sun Wukong, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, Mister Wukong," Fluttershy said, as she held out one hand.

"Aw, please, Sun will be just fine. Just because we're in Atlas doesn't mean we have to be all stuffy right?" Sun asked. He abruptly seemed to realise that he was speaking to an Atlesian. "I mean, uh-"

"It's fine, Sun," Fluttershy said.

"Sun!" Blake said sharply. "What are you doing in Atlas?"

"I followed you here to make sure you were okay."

Blake gaped at him for a moment. "How? When?"

"I stowed away on the cruiser."

Blake's eyes widened. "You stowed…you were on the _Hope_ all that time?"

"If that's what it's name was."

"Then where have you been?"

Sun scratched the back of his head. "Well, they, uh…they only let me out of the stockade today after Dash and Professor Lionheart finally managed to convince them that I didn't mean any harm."

"Out of the…you were _arrested_?"

"Turns out that Atlesian marines are better at finding stowaways than sailors on Mistral trade ships," Sun said. "Who knew, right? And it also turns out that sneaking on board an Atlas warship by hiding yourself in a crate of grenades is both really dangerous and really illegal."

"Wow, who could have guessed?" Blake said. "You are such an idiot."

"So I've been told."

"Do you have any idea how much trouble you could have gotten yourself into?" Blake demanded, her voice rising at the sight of his insouciant face because didn't he get it? Didn't he realise how badly this could have worked out for him? "Do you have any idea of what they do to faunus who break the law in this city? This is Atlas! You're lucky you didn't get sentenced to ten years hard labour in the mines."

"You're overreacting, there's no way that Professor Lionheart-"

"Professor Lionheart wouldn't have been able to do anything if Atlas had really wanted to punish you, don't you…ugh! You're so infuriating! Why can't you just…be careful, okay? Now that you've found your way here I don't want you to get hurt or in any more trouble." Blake sighed, her anger spent leaving only concern behind. "It…it was nice of you to come all this way," she conceded, with a slight flush to her cheeks. "Do you have a place to stay?"

Sun shrugged. "Dash helped me find a motel in the low town."

"In the Low Town?" Blake repeated. "Why are you staying all the way down there?"

"It's all I could afford," Sun said. "Plus, you know…" he pointed apologetically to his tail.

"I'm so sorry," Fluttershy said.

"It's okay, no big deal," Sun replied.

"It's not okay and it is a big deal," Blake said. _Albeit one I can't do anything about right now._ "If you want to, you can stay with me."

Sun's expression became very suggestive. "Really?"

"On the couch!" Blake said, as her cheeks became even warmer than they had been before. "Or the floor!"

"Don't worry, I get it," Sun said. "Thanks. It's a little lonely down there."

"This city can feel like a lonely place," Blake said. She glanced at Fluttershy. "But it doesn't have to stay that way."


	108. Requesting Help

Requesting Help

The scroll buzzed. Rainbow ignored it. She had special ringtones for anyone it might be important for her to answer, either because one of her friends was calling (in which case the scroll would be playing 'Better Than Ever' right now) or because it was the military trying to get hold of her (in which case the scroll would be blaring like the condition one klaxon). But it wasn't either of those things, it was just the regular buzz of someone trying to get hold of her.

Which meant that she could afford to ignore it for just a few moments more as she lay in bed, sprawled out under the covers with her quilt spreadeagled over her, staring up at the ceiling as the light filtered in through curtains that were too thin to keep it out.

Rainbow yawned as the scroll kept buzzing. The fact that they hadn't given up on getting in touch with her meant it must be something important. So she guessed that she'd probably better get up and see who it was.

She yawned as she rolled out of bed and padded across the wooden floor of her bedroom. Her scroll sat on top of the chest of drawers. She opened it up to see that the caller name was unknown.

Dash was tempted to decline the call on the basis that if she didn't know who was calling it was probably just someone trying to sell her something, but there was always the chance that it might be important and so she tapped the green accept icon.

"Hey, Dash; long time no see."

Rainbow did a double take. " _Gilda_?"

"Surprised to see me, Dashie?" Gilda asked from out of the screen of Rainbow's scroll. "I guess so, seeing as how you didn't tell any of your new human friends about me. I have to say that hurt. I told everybody about you."

"How did you get this number?" Rainbow demanded.

"I got it off your friend Fluttershy when she was…" Gilda hesitated.

"When you were holding her prisoner?" Rainbow suggested in a low growl.

"Don't say it like that, it's not like I hurt her," Gilda replied. "Didn't she tell you that I looked out for both of them when they were down in Mountain Glenn?"

Fluttershy had mentioned that, as it happened, but that didn't mean that Rainbow was particularly eager to give Gilda a lot of credit; after all, she'd only needed to protect Fluttershy and Applejack because the White Fang were holding them prisoner. "You could have just let them go," she muttered. "Did you just call me to take credit for not being a complete jackass? Or to complain that I don't talk about you enough? Or are you just upset that I never call you any more?"

"If I was mad about that I'd have a right to be," Gilda said. "But no, actually I called you because I need your help."

Rainbow couldn't suppress the scoff, nor keep the incredulity out of her voice. "You want me to help you? After you…you're in the White Fang and you want me to do you a favour?"

"It isn't for me," Gilda said. "Listen, I know that we're on the opposite sides…and maybe you don't even like me anymore, I don't know; but just hear me out, okay? For old times sake."

Rainbow scowled as she walked back to her bed and sat down upon it. _I can always say no, I guess._ "What is it?"

"I know that you're back in Atlas, that's why I called you-"

"How do you know that?"

"I know," Gilda said.

 _I guess it was stupid to figure that the whole White Fang in Vale had been wiped out after the attack. They might have lost their fighters but they must still have eyes on the docks willing to spy for them._

"What if I am?" Rainbow said.

"People are disappearing in Low Town," Gilda said. "No, before you ask, I'm not in Atlas; but I still have friends there and they told me. People are being taken in the night."

Rainbow frowned. "By who?"

"Nobody knows. Nobody sees it happening. The local White Fang has tried to do something about it, but people who've looked into it…they've gone missing too."

"So you come to me," Rainbow said. "Is this you're way of trying to get me killed?"

Gilda looked very disappointed. "I'm gonna level with you, Dash: the White Fang in Atlas is…not the strongest. All the really tough fighters leave for places where it's more of a fair fight. All that's left are recruiters and punk kids and a few old timers. It's enough to scare off dealers or crooks, but if something bad is going down…it isn't enough."

That made sense. Even if the White Fang brought all of its strength to Atlas there was no way that they could win a fight against the Atlesian military in its own home and the heart of its strength; that being the case it made sense that all the tough guys left Atlas to go places where they might actually win an engagement.

"Has anybody called the police?" Rainbow asked.

"When were the police last interested in helping out the faunus?"

"That's not fair."

"You say it isn't fair, I say it's the truth, all that matters is that nobody wants to talk to cops," Gilda said. She sighed. "Dash, you're the only person I know who can take care of herself and…and who won't ask me to give up intel on our weapons caches in exchange for getting off your butt to do something about this."

"How do you know I won't?"

Gilda hesitated. "I guess I'm just hoping you won't," she said. "These used to be your people too, Dash. You may hang out with fancy humans now but you're still one of us. This is your chance to give something back. To prove that you're still one of the good guys."

"I _am_ one of the good guys!" Rainbow said indignantly. But there was no point in debating this with Gilda, especially not when people's lives were at stake. "Is there anything else?"

"Not that I know."

"Okay," Rainbow said. "I'll see what I can do."

"You mean you'll help?"

"People are getting kidnapped, of course I'll help," Rainbow said sharply.

Gilda nodded. "Good to see the old Rainbow Dash is still in there."

"Will you get off that high horse and stop talking to me like I'm some kind of…forget it," Dash said. She made to end the call.

"Wait," Gilda said. She glanced sideways. "There's a weapon cache under the floorboards in Tammy's Bar on Thirty-Seventh."

Rainbow's eyebrows rose. "I thought you came to me because I wouldn't ask."

"And you didn't, but I told you," Gilda said. "I appreciate this, Dash."

"I'm not doing it for you," Rainbow said.

Gilda grinned. "You keep telling yourself that. Good hunting." She hung up.

Rainbow stared at the blank screen for a moment before she folded up her scroll.

 _So much for a lazy morning on my day off, I guess._

 _I wonder how Blake's feeling._

She probably shouldn't approach her, she probably hadn't had enough time to work through all her stuff; Rainbow wasn't even sure she'd been signed off for the field yet. But Rainbow could use the help, and Ciel was out of town, Penny was still in the workshop and Rainbow didn't really want to disturb Applejack after she'd just got back to her family. Not to mention that all of the above had the disadvantage of being human (or looking human, in Penny's case) while a faunus – especially a faunus of Blake's background – would be a lot more help in finding out what was going on in the city that dwelt in the shadow of Atlas.

 _She doesn't have to fight. She can just help me ask questions, talk to people, and I'll do the head-bashing when we find out who's responsible._

 _She doesn't even have to come if she doesn't want to._

Rainbow started to get dressed. She had places to go.

* * *

Although she was far away from Beacon and Vale for the time being – Blake would need to speak to Rainbow Dash about when or if she'd be allowed back there before the start of Fall Term – Blake wanted to keep at least an eye on what was going on there, and so she sat on the chair in her room with her scroll open on her lap, watching the news.

"The Atlesian ambassador to Vale formally lodged a complaint with the Vale Council last night over the accusations levied against Atlas by Eulalie China regarding the recent attack on the Kingdom of Vale. Ms Albright, leader of the Saviours of Vale party, has alleged that Atlas staged the attack so as to provide justification for the increase in their military presence."

The shot cut from Lisa Lavender in the reporting studio to a shot of an open-air plaza, one of many in Vale although Blake didn't recognise the particular square in question, where a woman just beginning to enter middle age stood in front of a baying crowd. Her skin was pale and her hair was dark, tied up in a severe bun at the nape of her neck, which combined with her glasses to give her the look of a stern librarian; she was dressed in all black ensemble – black jacket, black blouse, black skirt – broken up only by the leopard-print kitten heels she was wearing on her feet.

"I have received," she was saying to her supporters. "Comprehensive, conclusive and damning evidence that the recent attack upon our fair city was orchestrated by none other than General Ironwood and the Atlesian military, so that they could justify their occupation of our sovereign kingdom!"

 _How can anyone possibly believe that? What evidence?_

The shot cut again, this time showing something that Blake knew well: the inside of the train that the White Fang had used to open up a breach in Vale's defences: the controls had all been fried and burnt out to prevent them from stopping it.

"Atlas does not want you to see this image," Eulalie declared. "Atlas does not want you to realise that they used a directed energy weapon to destroy the controls, ensuring that the train could not be stopped even though there were two loyal Valish huntsmen who would undoubtedly have tried to stop it. A directed energy weapon, like the one used by the Atlesian huntress Penny Polendina as declared by her in her Vytal Festival submission."

The shot cut back to Lisa in the studio. "A spokesman for General Ironwood declared-"

Blake slammed the scroll shut, cutting her off in mid-sentence.

"What a nutjob," Sun said. He had just come of the shower, and water droplets glistened on his rock-hard abs as he reached for his shirt. "Like there's any way that Atlas would do something like that."

Blake's hands trembled.

Sun looked at her. "Blake? You okay?"

 _Penny didn't do this,_ Blake thought. _She couldn't have, she was fighting with us trying to reach the front of the train, and the controls were fried by the time we got there._

 _But Sunset was there before us, and Sunset's magic…it acts like a directed energy weapon._

 _No. No, no, please no._

She didn't want it to be true. Perhaps that was why it hadn't occurred to her, she hadn't wanted to think that Sunset was just another Adam into her life but now, now that she had been confronted with it…she couldn't look away.

 _Why, Sunset? Why would you do something like this?_

 _Why does everyone I care about turn out like this? Am I cursed, or am I just drawn to these people?_

She reminded herself – tried to remind herself – that she didn't have any proof that Sunset had done anything; there was only the accusation of a nationalist who wasn't even accusing Sunset of anything. But she couldn't get it out of her head, and she couldn't just dismiss it.

 _I'll have to ask Sunset. If she really cares about me at all, she'll tell me the truth._

"Blake?" Sun repeated. He crossed the room to stand over her. "What's going on?"

 _I'm afraid that Sunset has betrayed us all. I'm afraid that she betrayed me._ Blake tried to keep her misgivings and her fears off her face. She couldn't tell Sun anything because there was nothing to tell; and if, as she sincerely and profoundly hoped, Sunset was blameless of all wrongdoing or at least had a good explanation for it then…then she wouldn't want to have blackened her reputation for no good reason. "It's nothing," she said. "It's just…I guess I'm a little worried that someone like her can actually get a hearing from the mainstream."

"You know her?"

"No," Blake said. "But I know the type. People like her…they're just as bad as the White Fang. In fact they're the reason the White Fang exists. She may be railing against Atlas now, but I guarantee that people like her and her supporters have no time for the faunus. If she gets elected to the Vale Council things could get ugly." She sighed. "With luck, this crazy conspiracy she's peddling about Atlas will show everybody how unfit she is for leadership."

Sun nodded, but Blake got the sense that he only half-understood it, if that. "This stuff…it really matters to you, doesn't it?"

Blake nodded. "Sun, can I ask you something?"

"Sure," Sun said nonchalantly. "You can ask me whatever you want?"

"Why did you decide to become a huntsman?" Blake asked. "It's dangerous and thankless and you're so far from home. So why do you do it?"

"Because…well…uh…someone's gotta, right?" Sun said. "And I thought, you know, it might be cool: see a lot of new places, meet a lot of new people, make some memories, and help some folks along the way.

"I don't have a cool story about some guy who inspired me to go on a journey, and I can't tell you about how I always knew what I was meant to be or nothing like that. I just…I thought I might like it and I thought I might be good at it so I gave it a shot." He grinned. "I guess that sounds pretty weak, huh?"

"No," Blake said, with a shake of her head. "That sounds really nice."

Sun blinked. "It does?"

"Yeah. You thought that you could do some good in the world, so you did it. Sometimes that's all it takes," Blake said. "If more people felt that way then maybe Remnant would be a better place."

Sun looked pretty pleased to hear that, or at least pretty pleased to hear it from her. He folded his arms cockily as a slight trace of smugness besmirched his expression. "So what about you?"

"Me?" Blake lifted her feet up onto the chair, so that her knees were underneath her chin as she wrapped he arms around her legs. "I…I thought that I had what you described: a feeling of where I was meant to be, what I was meant to be doing. I wanted…" her cheeks began to burn up at the thought of admitting what she had wanted. It sounded unbelievably childish, even to herself. "I wanted to become a hero of justice."

"A hero of justice?" Sun murmured. "You mean, like a superhero?"

"No," Blake said, with rather more emphasis than strictly required. "I mean that I didn't want to fight for myself and my own glory, but I didn't want to fight for others either. I wanted to fight for the ideals that were worth fighting for: justice, benevolence, equality, fairness." She rested her head upon her knees. "I thought that my father was a hero like that; perhaps all children think that their parents are heroes but he was my hero: someone who fought the good fight for the values that he believed in. And then he gave up and walked away for no reason…at least no reason that I could understand. I was so disappointed…but there were still people that I could believe in. Adam, and Sienna, I thought that even if my father had let me down there were still heroes in the world who held fast to their beliefs and their principles. And even when some of their actions became cruel, I told myself that justice could be cruel but also necessary. Until…I realised that I'd been deluding myself about them.

"But I came to Beacon because I still believed in my ideals, and in fighting for them…somehow. But now…now I don't know if-"

There was a knock on the door. "Hey, Blake, you in there?"

"Rainbow Dash?" Blake murmured, as she started to stand up. "Yes, I'm here."

"Great. Could you open the door then?"

Blake nodded and Sun, who was slightly closer, got the door. Rainbow stood in the now-open doorway, armed and ready for a fight. "Hey guys," she said. "How's it going? I see Sun managed to find you."

"You could have called to let me know he was here," Blake said pointedly.

Rainbow grinned. "I didn't want to spoil the surprise," she said. "Seriously, how's it going? How's the hand? How's therapy?"

"It's…okay," Blake murmured. "Why?"

"I could use a little help with something and I want to know if you're up for it," Rainbow said, walking into the room and shutting the door behind her. She glanced at Sun. "Maybe even both of you."

Blake took a step forward. "What's going on? Why do you need our help?"

"Yeah, I mean, no offence but don't you have like a whole army or something?" Sun asked.

"Is it the White Fang?" Blake said. "I…I don't have any details about the Atlas chapter and I…" she trailed off, partly so as to avoid saying. _I don't know if I can keep being responsible for the deaths of people I used to fight alongside, no matter what they're planning._

"It's not the White Fang," Rainbow said. "Gilda called me because the White Fang can't handle this."

"Gilda?"

"Who?" Sun said.

"An old friend of mine, part of the White Fang in Vale," Rainbow said. "She told me that faunus in the Low Town are disappearing, vanishing without a trace. Nobody knows what's going on, and she asked me to look into it."

"Because you both know the regular authorities won't do anything because this only concerns faunus," Blake said sharply.

Rainbow cringed. "Yeah. Kinda. So…what do you think? You don't have to fight anybody if-"

"I'll do it," Blake said, cutting Rainbow off before she could finish.

Rainbow looked a little surprise. "You sure? I mean, don't get me wrong I need the help, but if you're not up to it then…I'll find somebody else…somewhere."

"That's very considerate," Blake murmured. "But…no. I'm fine."

"Blake-" Sun began.

"I'm sure that those people who are missing would love to be asked if they were okay," Blake said. "But they don't have that luxury and that means…that means that neither do I."

Rainbow frowned. "I'm not sure that-"

"You asked me to help you and that's what I'm going to do," Blake declared, in a voice that brooked no argument from either of them. She wanted to do this. She didn't have to do this, but she wanted to. This wasn't about saving the world, or changing it; this wasn't about her self-proclaimed mission; this was about people in trouble whom she had the power to help.

 _I can do some good in the world, so I'll do it. Sometimes that's all it takes._

Rainbow looked into Blake's eyes for a moment. She nodded. "Okay. Sun?"

"Sure, I'm in," Sun said. "Just let me get dressed. It takes a little longer than normal in this freezer."

Rainbow chuckled. "You ain't seen nothing yet if you think this is cold."

"While you're doing that," Blake said. "I need to make a call. I'll be in the bathroom."

It was clear from their expressions that they were both curious, but thankfully neither of them asked for details, but simply accepted it as she went into the bathroom and shut the door behind her.

 _I have to know. I have to ask her or this will just eat away at me until I do._

She called Sunset.

It took a moment or two, but eventually Sunset's face appeared on the screen. "Blake! Hi, how's it going?"

"Great," Blake murmured, not sounding very great. "How are things with you?"

"Okay," Sunset said. "Ruby woke up a little while ago."

A smile blossomed across Blake's face. "That is great. How is she?"

"Fine, it seems. Her dad came and took her and Yang home," Sunset said. "Whether they'll be back before the start of term I don't know. You know if you want to call her I'm sure she'd like to hear from you."

"I'll think about it," Blake said softly.

Sunset frowned. "Is everything okay?"

Blake's face fell. "Sunset…when Adam…when I started to notice what he…what he was becoming, or maybe what he'd always been and I just hadn't seen it until now…he tried to explain it away. He had excuses, or he told me that I hadn't seen what I'd thought I saw, that I hadn't understood what was really going on. In the end, I started to wonder if I could trust my own eyes, my own judgement. So when I ask you this question, I want you, no I need you to give me a straight and honest answer or…Sunset, did you sabotage that train so that it couldn't be stopped?"

Sunset's face fell. Her expression crumpled like wet paper. Her eyes closed, and a shudder wracked her whole body. "Yes."

Blake held her breath. "Why?" she whispered.

Sunset opened her eyes. "Because choosing to save Vale would have meant choosing not to save all of you."

Blake stared down into Sunset's eyes, digitally rendered from across thousands of miles away. "You didn't want the Breach to succeed."

Sunset shook her head. "If that's what you think…I'm not a White Fang spy. I'll swear to that on…on anything you like or anything that might have value to me. But I didn't have the power to teleport eight people to a surface that I couldn't even see and I don't have the courage to live alone, or even to die together for the sake of…of people that I don't know.

"I don't have the power to protect everyone, all the time; but I had the power to protect you then, and so I did it."

Blake stared for a moment, in silence, as she contemplated the feeling of relief she felt and tried to work out whether it was moral or justified. "I don't suppose," she said after a while and after drawing out each and every word. "That it's that much different from stopping Ruby and Pyrrha from derailing the train because I was worried about all the terrorists inside."

Sunset didn't reply to that.

"Thank you for being honest," Blake said.

Sunset nodded. "So…what now?"

"Like I said," Blake said. "I don't think I can judge." _After all the things that I've done I'm not sure that I should be judging anyone ever again._ "I may not agree with what you did, but…it's done now. Although…I'm afraid the trouble may have only just begun."

"You watched the news."

"It's why I asked," Blake said.

"It's a shame about Penny," Sunset said. "And I don't really get…never mind. Are we…are we good?"

Blake nodded. "We're good."

It was Sunset's turn to look intensely relieved, as worry ebbed off her face like water dripping off it. "That's…that's good…that means a lot."

"I have to go," Blake said. "I have…something to take care of."

"Sure," Sunset said. "Listen, I…about that thing, that place I told you about. I've talked to someone and…and the setup's almost ready. That is, if you're still interested."

"Yeah," Blake said. "I am. After all, we're still friends, aren't we?"

Sunset looked even more relieved to hear that. "Sure. Of course we are. I'll be in touch then, when everything has been set up. And in the meantime good luck with…whatever it is."

"Thanks," Blake said softly. "Goodbye, Sunset."

"Goodbye," Sunset replied, before Blake hung up.

Blake stared down at her blank scroll for a moment, before folding it up and putting away.

 _One more thing to join the list of things I don't really know how to feel about._

 _It's not the choice I would have made, but I can't blame you for making it. And even though I know you'd make the same choice again, I can't hold that against you either._

She went to join the others.

* * *

There was a knock on the door.

Weiss looked up from her studies. It clearly wasn't Winter – who had been called in to headquarters today unexpectedly – back from whatever business had called her away in the first place, for the obvious reason that this was her apartment and she wouldn't need to knock on the door.

Winter's apartment was spacious and comfortably appointed. Nothing compared to the gigantic Schnee mansion, obviously, but at least twice the size of any Beacon dorm room and with fewer occupants. It had few rooms, with only the two bedrooms and the bathroom being separated and the kitchen merging smoothly into the living room, but Weiss had found it nevertheless a very comfortable place in which to spend the vacation.

Winter's presence had helped with that enormously, but even when she was not here – as she was not here now – Weiss liked this place well enough. She was sat at the kitchen table, using the quiet to get on with her history homework: she was currently writing a robust defence of Mantle's policies in the years leading up to the Great War because she had learned that Professor Oobleck liked unusual approaches to the subject.

At Beacon – and probably at all the other huntsman academies as well – exams were marked by the teachers who had taught you the subject; this was necessary in the case of the paper combat and grimm studies exams, since only teachers familiar with the abilities of the students and teams involved could properly gauge the quality of the answers (how could anyone tell whether Weiss' answer to the question of how Team WSTW would tackle an ursa major had any merit without possessing knowledge of Team WSTW's equipment and abilities?) and had been applied across the entire school, probably for ease of doing everything the same way. Which meant once you worked out what the professors looked for in a 'good' answer it was easy for a diligent student like herself to tailor the answers to those who would be reading them.

There was another knock at the door, the same as the first: tentative, soft, almost apologetic.

Weiss' brow furrowed. A salesperson would have probably left when no one answered the door the first time. She got out her scroll, Winter had linked it to the apartment security system for the duration of her stay here, so she was able to access the feed from the camera over the door.

A young girl, a faunus with reddish-brown hair and raccoon ears, dressed in ragged homespun clothes, stood tremulously in front of the doorway.

 _What's someone like that doing here?_ This was hardly the right neighbourhood for someone of her…background. No wonder she looked so nervous, it was halfway to a miracle that nobody had called the cops on her yet.

"Who is it?" Weiss, whose scroll was also connected to a little speaker alongside the camera, demanded.

The girl jumped, and looked from side to side as she searched for the source of Weiss' voice. "M-miss Winter?"

Weiss frowned. "Winter isn't here right now."

"D-do you know when she'll back."

"Unfortunately not," Weiss said.

The girl bowed her head. "Please, I really need to speak to her."

"That's not possible, is it?" Weiss said. Her expression softened, for all that the other girl couldn't see it. Despite what many thought she was not an unkind person, and even though this girl wasn't the kind of person she would have chosen to associate with for many reasons, she wasn't blind to her distress. "What is it that you needed to see her about? Perhaps I can give her a message."

The girl hesitated for a moment, before words began to pour out of her in a great flood. "My older sister's missing," she said. "She disappeared the night before last, the same way that all the people are disappearing lately. Nobody knows where she is, nobody knows where any of them are and the police aren't interested, but my grandma said that Miss Winter would be able to help us. She said Miss Winter was a good person, who'd listen to me. Are you sure you don't know when she'll be back?"

"Your grandmother," Weiss murmured. "What's her name?"

"Uh, Laberna Seacole."

Weiss leaned back in her seat. _Of course that's who it is._ Laberna Seacole had been their nanny when Weiss was a girl; with mother and father both busy with the work of the company and their position in Atlas society, the task of raising the children had often fallen on Klein and Laberna. She'd been dismissed as the White Fang attacks started to escalate in severity – Father had cleared his household completely of any faunus, for fear that they might be White Fang agents – but Weiss still had some memories of the old woman: her patience, her encouragement, her wisdom.

And now her granddaughter was missing and she was asking them for help. Well, technically she was asking Winter for help, but Winter wasn't here and Weiss didn't know when she'd return.

Which meant she had a choice to make.

The possibility that this was all some kind of elaborate trap did not escape her mind; after all, she had no way of knowing that this girl really was the granddaughter of her old nanny, or that the old woman really had sent for her. This might have been a way to lure her out to grab her, although that would require them to know that she was here and Winter wasn't. It was a possibility but somehow…somehow she didn't think it was a likely one.

"Hang on a second," she told the girl, as she got up and grabbed Myrtenaster from where it was sitting propped up against the settee. She thrust the blade into the sash around her waist, and strode to the doorway.

The young Seacole girl squeaked in surprise and alarm as Weiss opened the door.

"Wh-who are you?"

"Weiss Schnee," Weiss declared. "And I'm the person who's going to assist you in my sister's absence."

"You are?"

"Yes," Weiss said. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I just have to make a quick call." She tapped the face on her scroll. It was answered quickly.

"Weiss?"

"Flash," Weiss said. "What are you doing today?"


	109. Black and White

Black and White

Flash looked this way and that, his gaze emerging nervously out from beneath his crested helmet as he followed Weiss down the streets of the Low Town. "Everyone's staring at us."

Weiss rolled her eyes as she looked over her shoulder at him. "I wonder why that could be?" she asked. She was glad that Flash had agreed to come and back her up on this business, and she understood why he was wearing his gilded, gleaming armour – here in the shadow of Atlas, where the great floating metropolis blocked out most of the sunlight and cast the world in a perpetual twilight, his armour gleamed a little less than usual, but nevertheless it caught what little light still reached them here – with his bronze-seeming hoplon shield slung across his back and the blue crest in his helmet; it was his huntsman gear, after all, and she wouldn't have wanted him to do without. Nevertheless, she wasn't going to waste time pretending that he didn't stick out like a blister.

"And I'm sure the fact that you're walking around with the Schnee Dust Company logo on your back has nothing whatsoever to do with it," Flash said, matching her tone in its masterful infusion of sarcasm.

Weiss scowled, as she stopped and turned around to face him in the middle of the street. Yes, he was probably right that the snowflake on the back of her bolero had as much to do with the way that every faunus in the street or in the doorways of the ramshackle shanties that lined either side of the same was staring at them with amazement and not a little bit of hostility, but that didn't mean that she was going to let his comment pass uncontested.

"I am not wearing any company logo," she declared proudly, contriving to look down her nose at him for all that he was more than a head taller than she was. "This is my family crest."

He didn't look as though he understood the distinction; incomprehension shone in those blue eyes; but he must have understood that it was important to her, because he said, "Okay, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you."

"It's okay," Weiss said stiffly. "Everyone does it." And that, of course, was the really upsetting thing, but she wasn't about to explain that to him.

 _I shouldn't have gotten mad. It wasn't his fault._

 _But if I don't correct him then he'll never learn. He's a good guy, he won't take offence. And he won't forget it either._

 _He won't refer to the Schnee snowflake as the corporate logo again._

 _Although he might not understand why he shouldn't. Perhaps I should explain a little._

"It's just…there's more to being a Schnee than the company," Weiss said. "I don't wear this because I'm some corporate stooge. I wear it because it's my birthright."

"I get it," Flash said, although Weiss had the distinct impression that he was either lying to try and make her feel better or he thought he got it without actually getting it.

"Um," the Seacole girl, her name was Lavender, murmured from just up ahead of them. "Is everything okay?"

Weiss looked back at her. "Everything's fine," she said primly. "I'm sorry for the delay. Please, continue."

The girl led them through the crowded, cramped and warren-like streets of the undercity that dwelt beneath Atlas, in the literal shadow of the wealthiest, mightiest and most advanced city in the world. Atlas dwelt amongst the clouds, yet here on earth all of its bright and shining brilliance was wholly absent. Down here the best that could be managed was a kind of suburban townhouse that would have been thought a little small and cramped in Vale, while a great many people seemed to make do in lean-to huts, in crude apartment blocks thrown together with bricks and wood and corrugated iron. Weiss had never been down here amongst these sprawling favellas before, and to be perfectly honest there was something nerve-inducing about them. She didn't let it show, of course – she kept her chin up and her head held high throughout; although she also she kept one hand close to the hilt of Myrtenaster – but she felt it in her bones as the combination of the low light, the many eyes watching her in the street and out of the shadows, the fact that everyone around her was a faunus and Flash the only human in sight, perhaps for miles, all of it contrived to give her a chill feeling.

She couldn't help but wonder if this had been a good idea.

 _I can't turn back. I refuse to turn back._ She was not her father. She was not the sort of person who would turn a blind eye to the problems of others simply because she could. And she wouldn't run away just because she was being made to feel a little uncomfortable. She had to be brave, like her sister and grandfather.

She was not her father; she recognised her debts and repaid them.

Lavender led them through streets that were intermittently either cobbled or simple tracks carved into the earth, worn down by the passage of many feet. There were no robots here to pick up the litter, but somebody was clearly cleaning up because there wasn't nearly the amount of litter that Weiss would have expected to see in a neighbourhood like this one. In fact there was hardly any at all that she could see, and now that she took a second look the buildings, ramshackle though they often were, didn't look so dirty either.

So, followed by the eyes of the faunus who dwelt beneath, Weiss and Flash followed their guide until she led them to what, in Vale, would have passed for a modest bungalow but seemed a kind of palace in this place, not least for the fact that it appeared to have been put up by a professional.

 _Did my father pay her so well before he fired her?_ Weiss wondered, before she remembered that Laberna Seacole had also been her mother's nanny when she was very young. She found it much easier to believe that her grandfather had been generous with the woman who was almost raising his daughter. That made a lot more sense.

Weiss remembered that Laberna had used to laugh, and say often that she could tell them stories about their mother, with the implication that they were stories that their mother might not want to be told. But she had never told them, out of respect for the mistress, out of fear that it would cause her to be dismissed, or perhaps simply out of affection for a woman whom she had once bathed as she had gone on to bathe her daughters in turn. Regardless, she had kept Willow Schnee's childhood secrets; Weiss had never found out exactly what her mother had been like as a girl. Now, when she considered it, Weiss found that a great pity. Her mother couldn't have always been the lonely, fading ghost who haunted the Schnee mansion like a phantom, who drank in the morning and went to bed in the afternoon, who was rarely seen – who was rarely allowed to be seen – amongst high society. The more she thought about it, the more Weiss regretted that she didn't know anything about what her mother had been like when she was…when she was happy.

Lavender turned to them. "This is my grandma's house. You should come in, and say hello. I know that she'll be happy to see you."

"Would you like me to wait out here?" Flash asked softly.

"No," Weiss said. Apart from anything, she wasn't altogether sure that it would be safe to leave Flash all alone out here, nor – though she would never say so out loud – did she wish to go alone into an unfamiliar house like this. "I'm sure that Mrs Seacole won't mind you coming in."

Lavender shook her head. "Of course not. The more the merrier, right? Come on in." She seemed a little less nervous now, as she opened the front door – it wasn't locked, which seemed a little dangerous in a place like this – and disappeared into the darkened house. There were no lights on inside, and though the windows were open the shadow of Atlas lay so heavily upon them that there was little illumination to be head. From what Weiss could make out, mostly shadows and shapes without much definition, the front room was a sparsely decorated place. A little light, candle light if she was any judge, peaked out from behind the curtain that acted as the barrier between one room and the next. Lavender pushed the curtain aside. "I'm back, grandma; and I didn't come back by myself."

Laberna Seacole sat in a rocking chair, her legs and hands alike covered by a blanket. She had been an old woman when she had tended to Weiss, changed her diapers and given her baths, but now by the light of the single candle burning in the room she looked truly ancient. Her skin was wrinkled everywhere, her hair was not only white but thin too, gone in places revealing a spotty scalp to the world, even as hair sprouted out of her raccoon ears in tufts. When she opened her eyes, they were rheumy and pale; Weiss wondered if she could even see any more.

"Miss Winter?" she croaked in a thin, hoarse voice; her gums were toothless, and her crinkled lips curled around them. "Is that you?"

"No," Weiss said softly, as though she were confessing something. "It's me, Weiss."

"Miss Weiss?" Laberna asked, sounding confused and a little disbelieving. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm a huntress," Weiss said. She shifted uncomfortably. "Well, a huntress-in-training, at least, at-"

"Beacon," Laberna said. "I remember now. You going off all the way to Vale over the ocean, that made it into the news."

"It did?"

"Sure it did. I always look out for anything about my girls," Laberna said. "I don't see you no more, but I want to know how things are going. I'm so proud of both of you."

Weiss frowned, and looked away. "There's not so much to be proud of."

"Sure there is," Laberna said. "Your sister, Miss Winter, is a fine woman and an officer; and you, you've still got that voice like an angel, I should have recognised it the moment you opened your mouth, and you've got into Beacon and I'll bet you're already the best student in that whole place."

 _Hardly,_ Weiss thought, with a little chagrin.

"If they were here, your grandma and grandpa would be so proud of both of you," Laberna said. "But since they ain't, I guess I have to be proud for them. Miss Weiss?"

"Yes?"

"Are you going to bring my granddaughter back home to me?"

Weiss stood up a little straighter. "I will," she said. "You have my word."

Laberna nodded. "You hear that, Lavender? She gave her word. The word of a Schnee, just the way old Mister Nicholas would have said it. Prim's as good as back with us already."

"Is there anything that you can tell us?" Flash asked. "Where was she going when she…disappeared?"

"Who are you, boy?"

"This is Flash Sentry," Weiss explained. "He's my partner at Beacon, and he's agreed to help me, help us with this."

Laberna nodded. "Mister Flash, you know what a treasure this girl is?"

It was hard to tell in the low light but Weiss thought that Flash's face might be going a little red. "I'm well aware, ma'am."

Laberna sighed. "Primrose was on her way to the grocery store. She came home from work, made dinner, and then went out to pick up a few things we were short of."

"Where?" Weiss asked.

"It's a little way from here," Lavender said. "I can show you."

"Thank you," Weiss said softly. She hesitated for a moment. Apologies did not come naturally to her, especially when the apology was not for an offence committed by her. But in this case, it was necessary. "I'm sorry for the way my father treated you. It was uncalled for. And I, and we, will bring your grand-daughter back. I promise."

"Thank you, Miss Weiss," Laberna said. "And you…you take care of my Lavender too, won't you?"

"Of course," Weiss said softly.

"I'd go with you myself but I…" she sighed. "I'm so tired now."

"You should get some rest, your family will be home soon," Weiss said. "And…thank you."

"For what, child?"

"For…for everything," Weiss said. To Lavender she added, "Please lead the way."

"Right," Lavender said. "Goodbye, grandma. I'll…we'll both be home soon, me and Prim."

"I hope so," Laberna said. "I'll be waiting…for you both."

The old woman closed her eyes, and leaned back in her rocking chair as one spotted hand emerged from underneath the blanket to pull it a little higher up above her waist.

"How is she?" Weiss whispered.

Lavender glanced at her grandmother across the shadowy room. "Tired all the time. She doesn't get up much, she can't."

"And your parents?" Flash asked.

"It's just me, my grandma, and Prim," Lavender said. "We have to find her. We will find her, won't we? You meant what you said to grandma?"

"I never say things that I don't mean," Weiss declared. "Come on, show us the way that your sister would have taken to this store."

Lavender led them back outside the house they way that they had come. Immediately they had exited, however, they found themselves confronted by a small mob.

It seemed that the faunus – some of them at least – who had watched them with sharp and wary eyes as they made their way here had found their courage after Weiss and Flash had gone into the house. They were gathered outside of the Seacole's front door, and though Weiss saw very few weapons in evidence – she could see only two guns, and a few more knives and sticks – they looked angry, upset and ready for trouble.

Weiss was not afraid. She was wary, but she was not afraid. She had faced the White Fang and the creatures of grimm, and a few angry faunus didn't frighten her. But she was conscious of the fact that she couldn't just tackle them head on like she could have the White Fang – there were probably a few White Fang members, or at least sympathisers, amongst this crowd, but that was almost beside the point in this situation – or the grimm. She had promised to help find Primrose Seacole and get to the bottom of these disappearances, and she couldn't do that if she managed to rouse the entire district to a rage against her.

The mob was led by a young dog faunus with terrier ears, someone about her age or maybe a couple of years older, who was one of the couple of people in the crowd who had a gun, specifically an oversized pistol similar to the sort that the police in Vale carried. As he talked, he waved said pistol in their faces with such wild abandon that Weiss felt rather glad he still had the safety catch on, even as she wondered if he realised that fact.

"What have we here?" he demanded. "You people are getting real cocky, aren't you? You think you can just kidnap people in broad daylight now?"

Lavender waved her hands in front of her. "It's not like that, this is-"

"Lav, this ain't your business," the young man growled. "Why don't you get back inside the house and we'll take care of this."

"I don't know what you think is going on here," Weiss said. "But we're here to help find this girl's sister and-"

"Oh, I'm sure that you already know exactly where Prim is, seeing as how you're the ones who took her," the young man shouted, to mutters of agreement and encouragement from the crowd behind him. "Everyone knows that the humans and the SDC are behind all these folks going missing."

"Really? How do you figure that?" Flash asked.

"Because it's always the humans and the SDC!" the young man replied. "You've got a lot of nerve coming around here wearing that snowflake."

"Why thank you," Weiss said. "It's always good to know that my courage is recognised and appreciated."

Silence descended on the crowd. Lavender looked as though she couldn't believe what she'd just heard. Flash looked as though he didn't know whether to boggle or laugh. The face of the young faunus turned a shade of purple.

"What?" he snapped. "What did you say to me?"

"You praised my nerve, I thanked you for the compliment," Weiss said.

"I never gave you no compliment!"

"I disagree," Weiss replied. "Now, if you'll excuse us, we have work to do."

"You ain't going nowhere!" he yelled. "Not until you tell me what you're doing with all the people you've snatched!"

"We didn't do it," Flash said. "Listen, buddy, if we were kidnapping people then why would we come down here to try and find them?"

"So you can lord it over us, probably," he said. "So that you can laugh at us for being so stupid as to trust you."

"That's not why we're here," Flash said. "We're just trying to help."

"We don't need your help; we take care of our problems around here."

"Because you're doing such a good job, clearly," Weiss snapped. She affixed him with a look full of patrician hauteur. "I don't know who you are, and I don't care, but you and your gun don't frighten me and you won't stop me from doing what I came here to do. So stand aside."

The young man swallowed, and looked as though he was stiffening up his courage, or trying to. "Or what?" he demanded.

"Let's not get into or what if we don't have to, yeah?" the voice was coming from on top of the Seacole's roof, and belonged to one of the Atlesian students, one of those that were always hanging around with Team SAPR. Weiss couldn't quite remember the girl's name, or the name of her team, but she recognised her face, and she'd remember that multi-coloured hair anywhere. Whatever her name was, she was currently perched on top of the roof, looking down upon the scene. With her was a figure of indeterminate identity who was bundled up so heavily against the cold that it was impossible to make out anything distinctive beyond that. Also Blake Belladonna, the former member of the White Fang who had become Atlas' latest recruit.

Blake made Weiss nervous in a way that these other angry faunus could not; yes, she was supposedly reformed and yes she was working for Atlas now, but Weiss could not entirely forget that she had been a member of the White Fang, an elite of that ruthless and cold-blooded organisation, and the fact that she had consented not to make a fuss about Blake returning to Beacon in no way meant that Weiss wanted to spend any time in proximity with her.

The eyes of the mob turned upwards.

"Rainbow Dash!" someone exclaimed, helpfully from Weiss' perspective.

"That's right," Rainbow Dash said, with a rather arrogant grin on her face. Like Weiss and Flash, she too was dressed to fight, and armed as well. "You remember me, huh?"

"We remember how you ditched the neighbourhood," the young man said. "What are you doing back here?"

"I heard you were having some trouble," Rainbow said. "We're here to help."

"We don't need it! Not from these two, not from you, not from anyone who's causing people to go missing!"

"Atlas isn't doing this," Rainbow replied. "Atlas doesn't do stuff like this."

"And why should I believe that? Why should any of us believe that? Because you say so?"

"Because it doesn't make any sense," Blake said, as she leapt down off the roof to land not far away from Weiss. "Why would Atlas, or the military, or the SDC suddenly start kidnapping people in the middle of the night? What does it get them that they don't already have?"

"Who are you?" someone demanded from out of the crowd.

"I'm…" Blake hesitated for a moment. "My name is Blake Belladonna. And my father is Ghira Belladonna, the founder of the White Fang. How many people have heard of him?"

Some, mostly the older members of the crowd, nodded or murmured that they had, or even that they remembered him.

 _The founder of the White Fang? She wasn't just a part of it but her parents led it?_

 _Then why did she ever leave?_

"I understand that you're angry," Blake said. "I understand that you're upset and I understand that you're worried about all your friends and relatives and neighbours who have gone missing. But taking that anger out on those who only want to help isn't going to bring those people back-"

"We can handle this on our own-"

"No, you can't!" Blake snapped so fiercely that the young man stumbled backwards away from her with a startled yelp. "You may want that to be true but it isn't, and you know it isn't because you know that you're not strong enough. That's not a bad thing. You shouldn't be ashamed of not having power…but there's nothing wrong with asking for help either, with admitting that you can't do this on your own. I'm here to help you. We're here to help you and we're not going to stop until we find these missing people. I promise that Atlas did not do this, and that we're not going to stop until we find out who did."

The young man picked himself up off the ground. "Belladonna, huh? So you're dad, he's the big guy down on Menagerie?"

Blake nodded sharply. "That's right," she said.

The young dog faunus nodded his head. "My folks live down there. They say he's a good guy. If you're his kid…I guess you deserve a chance. You really think that you can rescue everybody?"

Blake's mouth tightened. "I can't promise you that they're all still okay," she admitted. "But I can guarantee that I'll get to the bottom of what happened to them."

That, and the magic of the Belladonna name – and Blake's parents had not only founded the White Fang, but were now ruling over the faunus on Menagerie? How did that happen? – seemed to be enough for the faunus, who began to disperse until, besides Weiss, Flash, Rainbow, Blake and their mysterious wrapped-up companion only Lavender Seacole remained, looking a little confused about what had just happened.

As Rainbow and the other both descended down into the street, Blake turned to face Weiss and Flash. "So," she said. "What brings you two down here?"

"I asked for their help, sort of," Lavender murmured.

"Her grandmother was…" Weiss paused, for some reason the idea of telling Blake Belladonna that she had had a faunus nanny made her feel rather self-conscious. But, since she couldn't actually explain why she felt that way, she pushed past the feeling and told her anyway. "She was my nanny."

"Of course she was," Blake murmured.

Weiss exhaled forcibly through her nostrils. "I could just as easily ask what brings you here?"

"I was asked to take a look at this too," Rainbow said. "A friend got in touch with me, and General Ironwood agreed to let me take care of it, for a while at least. I asked Blake to help me out, and she brought Sun here."

"Sun?" Weiss repeated. She narrowed her eyes at the bundle of winter clothes with, presumably, a person somewhere inside. "The…the monkey?"

The figure all wrapped up mumbled something unintelligible.

"Excuse me?"

Sun lowered the scarf that had been obscuring his face. "I said nice to see you too, Ice Queen."

"Hmph," Weiss said, folding her arms across her chest.

"Since we both want the same thing," Blake said. "It makes sense for us to combine our forces."

"Really?" Weiss said. "I think we'll do just fine on our own."

"I don't know, Weiss," Flash said. "People around here don't seem to like us very much. They might be more willing to speak to a faunus like them."

"I wouldn't be surprised," Blake said. "They might be wrong about Atlas being behind these disappearances, but people in places like this have good reasons to be mistrustful of outsiders."

"Not that good," Rainbow said. "But you've got a point anyway. But we'd also cover more ground if we split up, so I say that we mix up the groups: I'll take Flash, Blake takes Weiss and Sun and we'll each see what we can find out."

Weiss sucked in a sharp intake of breath. That did not at all sound like a good idea to her. Or rather, it sounded like a good idea from the perspective of advancing the investigation – it was a sad fact that Flash was far from the only person to mistake the crest of her family with the symbol of her father's company; the fact that her father had managed to so completely tarnish the reputation of a symbol that had not been his to begin with was one of his more minor but more frustrating faults – since it was undoubtedly true that a faunus would have an easier time speaking to people than either herself or Flash; but that didn't mean for an instant that she wanted to go along with it.

Her and _Blake_? She was supposed to be alone with Blake Belladonna? Well, there was going to be Sun there, too, but he hardly counted in Weiss' opinion, and even if he had his presence would not have made up for that of Blake Belladonna, the White Fang terrorist, the daughter of the founder of the White Fang, the daughter of the current leader of Menagerie, the possessor of who knew how many secrets that Weiss knew not. Being alone with her was quite definitely not how Weiss wanted to spend her day.

"I'm okay with that," Blake said, although the expression on her face said that she was as unhappy with the idea as Weiss was. "Whatever helps these people the most, I'll do it."

It was the way she said it that made up Weiss' mind. She clearly didn't want to partner up with Weiss any more than Weiss wanted to be stuck with her, and she was counting on Weiss refusing to put up with the situation so that she could be all high and mighty and show that she was putting the good of the mission above her own personal feelings and wasn't she selfless? Well they'd see about that.

"Fine then," Weiss said. "Let's get to it."

"Weiss?" Flash said warily. "Are you sure about this?"

Weiss glanced at him. "We have to put the good of the mission first," she said. "And that means making the best use of our resources." _See? I can be just as selfless and mission-focussed as you are._

Flash leaned forwards. "I'm not sure that I like the idea of leaving you alone with her."

"I don't think she's going to try anything," Weiss said, and although she was reasonably confident of that she nevertheless sounded more confident than she felt. "And besides, I can take care of myself."

"Hey, kid," Rainbow said. "Where were you about to take these two?"

"Uh, to the store, it's where my sister was going when…when…"

"Yeah, I get it," Rainbow said. "Is that…" she looked around. "Amano's?"

"That's right."

"I know where that is," Rainbow said. "You should get inside. If anything happens…just get inside, shut the door and keep it shut. We'll take care of everything."

Lavender glanced at Weiss, who gave a slight nod of her head. If Rainbow Dash could find this place by herself, then there was no need for the young girl to be put in harm's way.

"If you're heading that way, then we'll go the other," Weiss declared, as Lavender went inside. "We should meet back here in a few hours to share what we've found out."

"Fine," Rainbow said.

"Don't be late," Flash murmured. "Are you-"

"Yes," she said swiftly, forestalling him before he could ask again if she really wanted to do this. She was not helpless, and she wasn't going to spend her life in fear either; certain she wasn't going to cower in fear of Blake Belladonna, nor hide from her behind Flash Sentry. "Are you ready?" she asked.

"Yes," Blake said tersely.

Sun mumbled something.

Weiss regarded him. He was wrapped up more than box of glassware, his coat bulging under what must have been several layers. A woolly hat – yellow, with a blue bobble on top – was pulled so far down over his head it was a wonder he could see, while a white scarf obscured the lower half of his face. His hands were concealed beneath a pair of mittens.

"Aren't you a little warm in all that?" she asked. It was summer, after all.

Sun mumbled in an outraged tone, before he seemed to remember that nobody could actually understand him. He pulled the scarf down from his mouth. "Warm? Are you kidding me? How are you not cold dressed like that?"

Weiss, whose only concessions to the weather were to wear white stockings under her combat skirt and a pair of thin – she needed dexterity in her fingers and hands to best wield Myrtenaster – pale blue gloves upon her hands, raised her white eyebrows. "Because it's not that cold."

"In Vacuo it doesn't even get this cold in the middle of winter," Sun complained.

"Don't they have winter in Mistral?" Blake asked.

"I don't know, I haven't been there long enough to find out," Sun replied.

Weiss sighed. "You'll get used to it if you stay here long enough. What are you doing here, anyway?"

"I came to see Blake," Sun said.

"In that case you probably won't be staying long enough to get used to the weather."

"Fine by me," Sun said. "How do any of you people still have fingers?"

Weiss rolled her eyes. "Don't be melodramatic. Anyway, since we have a job to do we should probably get to it, shouldn't we?"

"Yes," Blake said. "Let's go." And she walked away without so much as a by your leave as though she were the one in charge! Weiss hurried after her – without trying to make it seem as though she was hurrying – until she drew level with the other, unfortunately taller girl and, through determined effort, kept pace with her as they walked southwards away from the Seacole House. Even if it meant having to take one and a half steps for every step of Blake's, Weiss was not going to be led by her.

If Blake noticed what Weiss was doing she didn't comment on it; she simply kept on walking, and together they left Sun to trail behind them like a puppy as they got to work.

Said work mostly consisted of knocking on doors – or else approaching those who were hanging around outside of their homes or in the street – and asking them if they had seen anything, if they had heard anything, if they knew anything at all that might help explain these disappearances that had been terrorising the neighbourhood.

These faunus might have been too proud or too stupid – or both – to go the authorities, but they knew quite a bit. Although no one had been lucky, or unlucky, to actually catch sight of the kidnapper or kidnappers at work, plenty of them had heard something, or seen something, or knew something even if it wasn't entirely clear what it all added up to.

One ageing goat faunus, with horns on either side of his head and a knife at his belt, who looked at Weiss as though he couldn't decide if she were predator or prey, informed them that his dog – a ferocious-looking black pitbull chained up outside the front door – had woken him up with barking on the night that a young man had disappeared.

"I get up to tell that damn dog to shut up, and I hear these clanking noises outside."

"Clanking? You mean like a robot?" Blake asked.

"Yeah, just like a robot," the goat faunus said. "Like the robots that they use." He gestured at Weiss with one hand. "I bet it's them that have been taking all those kids."

Weiss snorted. "That's utterly ridiculous."

"What, you think I'm too stupid to know what a robot sounds like?"

"I think you're jumping to conclusions," Weiss said.

"You said kids," Blake said hastily. "Are all the victims children?"

"Maybe not children," he said. "Although they all look like it to me, you know what I mean? They're all…kind of your age. Some a few years younger, some a few years older. Nobody has old as me has been taken, I'll tell you that. I think it's disgusting."

If he meant what she thought he meant then Weiss couldn't help but agree with him.

"Are they…all girls?" Blake asked, in a tone that suggested that she didn't really want to know the answer but felt obliged to ask.

The goat shook his head. "Nah. Boys too. But that don't mean nothing. Those Schnees…and they call us the animals."

Weiss sputtered with incoherent outrage, but before she could get her tongue around the anger that was stopping up her throat like a jawbreaker Blake had already thanked the man and ushered him back into his home.

"What…what are you doing?" Weiss demanded, as Blake leapt away from the dog in a manner that suggested that being so near to it for so long had been a sore trial for her. "You can't just let him say things like that!"

"It doesn't matter," Blake said.

"It matters to me!" Weiss replied.

"What matters to me is finding these people," Blake retorted. "I'm not here to salve your pride or your ego. If you don't want to help then go home, but if you're going to stay then come with me. We've got work to do." She led the way, leaving Weiss to hurry to catch up once again.

A woman described how her son always stayed late at the pawnshop where he worked, but he always came straight home after locking up – until one night he hadn't. Another – younger, but outside of the age range given by the goat faunus – woman described seeing a pair of green eyes staring at her from out of the dark as she was on her way home; the eyes had watched her, but she had otherwise been unmolested as she ran the rest of the way back to her house. Several others described hearing the same robotic noises in the night as the goat had heard, and he wasn't the only one to attribute them to either military or SDC androids.

"This is ridiculous!" Weiss declared as the door closed on yet another person who believed that the military-industrial complex was abducting Atlesian citizens for nefarious purposes. "Do people really believe that Atlas would do something like that? To its own people?"

"Look around," Blake said. "Do you think that these people really feel like citizens of Atlas?"

Weiss bit her lip as she cast her eyes around the favella in which she, Blake and Sun (still so smothered as to be unintelligible most of the time) stood: the corrugated iron roofs, the walls made of cracked and crumbling breeze blocks stacked haphazardly one on top of the other; the wooden shanties and the unstable-looking lean-tos; the exposed wires and cables trailing down the walls like creepers or strung across the street for the pigeons to sit on; the way the buildings rose unsteadily upwards, teetering inwards until they almost enclosed the street at times, blocking off even more of the light than the looming city up above; the rats darting across the unpaved street. It seemed as remote from the glittering spires of Atlas up above as the moon; she couldn't understand how anyone could live like this, or why they would.

 _Because they are forced to, I suppose. Forced to by…by people like my father._

"Atlas is two nations," Blake said. "Not one. Two nations…two nations for two races." She turned away, bowing her head even as she brushed her hair back over her shoulder so that it didn't fall across her face. "And because they are two races the two nations have no sympathy for one another, they don't care to learn anything about one another, who barely imagine how the other thinks, feels, lives; who live by different laws. To these people, Atlas might as well be on another planet."

Weiss' brow furrowed. "You're being rather bleak."

"Am I?" Blake said. "This place has been right below your feet all this time, and yet you had no idea until today, did you?"

Weiss hesitated for a moment. "No," she admitted.

"No," Blake repeated. "Because you live in the clouds, in a place where the faunus can only dream of living."

"Now you're definitely exaggerating," Weiss said. "What about your friend from Atlas, what was her name, Rainbow Dash? She's made it to Atlas, by the sounds of it at least."

Blake rolled her eyes. "Pointing to one faunus who managed to claw her way up the ladder doesn't invalidate the discrimination that all the rest have to live with. The discrimination that your family plays a big part in maintaining."

Weiss was silent for a moment. When she spoke, her voice was as cold as eyes and as sharp as the point on Myrtenaster. "Don't say 'my family' when what you really mean is my father."

The air seemed to chill noticeably around the two of them as they faced each other.

"Uh, listen, girls," Sun said, and even swathed in woollies as he was his discomfort was both noticeable and palpable. "I, uh, I'm gonna…I'm gonna go talk to a few more people, okay? Okay. Come find me when you're done. Great. Bye." He made his exit while he still could.

Weiss didn't try and stop him from feeling. Honestly, they should probably all get back to work but what Blake had said…she was fed up with people who treated her father as if he was the be all and end all of the Schnee name.

 _The name of Schnee did not begin with my father, it will not end with my father, so why is my father the first and only thing that anyone seems to think about when it comes to the family or the company?_

Blake curled up the fingers on her injured hand one by one. "I didn't mean to upset you," she said, although her tone made it clear that she didn't understand what it was that she had actually said to upset Weiss.

Weiss folded her arms. "Do you remember when we met?"

Blake blinked in some confusion. "It was…the day of admission, wasn't it? Ruby had just blown you up."

"Mm-hmm," Weiss murmured. "You had some interesting things to say about the Schnee Dust Company; controversial labour forces and questionable business partners, if I recall. You were referring to the company's work with the Atlesian military, I suppose."

"There are times," Blake said. "When it's hard to work out whether the SDC is an arm of the Atlesian state or the Atlesian state is an arm of the SDC."

 _My father wouldn't share your confusion,_ Weiss thought, thinking of his disdain for Winter's chosen – though not for much longer – career in the Specialists.

Blake continued, "I think Ruby thought that I was there to defend her. She'd have the right to be much more offended than she was that I just blew her off as soon as you left."

"Was she offended at all?" Weiss said; while admitting that she was only seeing from some distance away she couldn't say that she'd noticed any tension between the two of them.

"No," Blake said. "That's just the kind of person Ruby is."

"Hmm," Weiss murmured. "My point is…while I would defend the company's numerous partnerships with the military as being perfectly valid enterprises for the good of Atlas and the world…you weren't wrong about the labour practices.

"I know what my father is," Weiss said, even as she turned away from Blake. "Better than most people, I think. And I'm not blind to what he does, either. I'm not an idiot. But you have no idea at all how it feels to have people talk about my father as though he is the quintessential Schnee, the exemplar of everything that this family – that my family – means or is or stands for. As though he's the only Schnee that matters and every other Schnee must either have been or will be just like him.

"Did you even know that it was my grandfather who founded the Schnee Dust Company?"

"No," Blake admitted. "I can't say I did."

"He was a miner, a huntsman, an engineer, a surveyor, a prospector and a leader of men," Weiss said. "He personally discovered the dust deposits that made my family what it is today. The greatness of Atlas was built upon my grandfather's back, and yet today almost no one remembers his name.

"My grandmother was a huntress; grandfather met her when she accepted a mission to protect his first prospecting expedition. The Schnee semblance, is actually a merging of their two semblances: his glyphs, and her summoning; yet nobody remembers her at all."

Blake was silent for a moment. "Your grandfather…he sounds as though he was an accomplished man," she said, in a neutral tone. "And your grandmother must have been brave."

"And my father was not even born a Schnee," Weiss said, rounding on the other girl. "He took the name when he married my mother."

Blake said nothing. She didn't seem to see the relevance.

"The point is," Weiss began. "The point is that the Schnee name did not begin with my father, and he does not get to define a name that wasn't even his to begin with! Or at least…he shouldn't, even though he has."

"He has," Blake agreed. "But he won't be around forever, and in time…he'll be forgotten, just like-"

"Like my grandparents?"

Blake cringed a little. "I just meant…you can write your own story, and in time that will be what it means to be a Schnee, not your father. For as long as you're alive, at least.

"My father founded the White Fang as a peaceful movement, to achieve equality through protest and debate. But does anyone remember that now? Do you? You think the White Fang is just a terrorist group, everyone thinks that; because…because we're defined by our present, not our past. We're judged by what we do, not remembered for where we came from."

Weiss breathed in. "For a moment I thought you were going to deny that the White Fang is a terrorist group."

"I meant what I said," Blake replied. "Both sides are at fault here: I can't claim that all faunus have really tried to understand humans any more than humans have tried to understand them. And…and as much as we suffer from discrimination that can't justify the indiscriminate violence that we unleashed in response."

Weiss clenched her hands together to stop them from trembling. "No," she agreed. "It doesn't."

"That's why I stopped," Blake reminded her, as if she thought that Weiss might have forgotten that she was no longer a member of the White Fang. "But let's not pretend that only one side has blood on its hands."

"As I said," Weiss said stiffly. "I know what my father is."

"And I know what Sienna Khan is," Blake replied. "But just as our pasts have been lost and painted over by our presents, so our future has the ability to wash away what will become our past."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning that if the Schnee name can mean something other than your father's cruelty – again – then maybe that isn't the only thing that can change, or change back, or become something better than it was before," Blake said.

Weiss' eyebrows rose. "I think you're being…very naïve, shall we say politely, if you think that people will ever see the White Fang as anything other than a gang of murderous psychopaths now."

"Do you think you're being naïve if you believe that people will ever see the Schnee family as anything other than the company your father built in all its unapologetic brutality?"

"For better or worse, and I'll admit that it could be for worse, my father enjoys a better public image than the White Fang," Weiss said.

Blake nodded in melancholy concession of the point. "Can I ask you something?"

"You already are, aren't you?"

"Do you think it always has to be like this?"

"This…?"

"This," Blake said, throwing out her arms to encompass the depravation around them. "Faunus living down below, humans living up above, both sides hating or fearing one another; conflict, death. Do you think it has to be this way? Do you think that anything better, fairer…anything different at all…do you think that's possible?"

Weiss was silent, as she considered it. "I…I just don't know," Weiss said. "I don't even know what it would take to change things from the way they are now. My sister Winter doesn't discriminate, and when she takes over the company I'm sure that she'll treat the faunus she employs better than my father does, but will that be enough?"

"My father asked politely for things to improve for his people and that wasn't enough," Blake muttered.

"That's what I mean," Weiss said. "I'd like to tell you that things will get better; I'd like to tell you that we could build a better tomorrow, even if we really will have to wait for tomorrow in our case. But would we even know where to start? Would we even know how?"

"I don't know," Blake admitted. "I really don't know and it…it terrifies me a little bit."

"But I suppose," Weiss murmured. "As long as we're willing to try, it's better than not trying at all." She took a deep breath, stepped forward, and held out her hand. "Weiss Schnee, a pleasure to meet you."

Blake stared at Weiss' hand as though it were an alien object for a moment, before she slowly reached out and took Weiss' pale hand in her own. "Blake," she said.

Blake's scroll buzzed. She answered, and Sun's voice emerged.

"You two really need to get down here," Sun said. "I think I've found something."


	110. Robots

Robots

The thing that Sun had been so anxious for them to see – and that meant everybody, as Rainbow and Flash had joined Weiss and Blake at the location that Sun desired – was an empty plot. That was a little curious, sitting in the middle of the packed undercity where space was at a premium and every building seemed to be rising upward, but Blake had to admit that she couldn't see what was so special about it that Sun had summoned them all like this.

It was a square, surrounded by a mesh fence on which were hung signs proclaiming that the area was property of Chianti Redevelopment Inc, trespassers would be prosecuted. Blake wasn't sure how they'd know who was or wasn't trespassing since there were no signs of any security cameras that would have recorded their presence, but – although it showed a lack of real concern for security on the part of Chianti – that didn't seem to mean anything either.

Rainbow folded her arms. "So…what are we looking at here?"

"Why hasn't this place been built on?" Flash asked.

"I'm sure the developers are getting around to it," Weiss replied.

"No, I mean why hasn't it been built on before now?" Flash said. "Are you telling me that everyone who lives down here owns the land their buildings are built on?"

"Hey!" Rainbow said. "These folks aren't thieves…it's not like anybody else owned this land before we showed up to live here."

"I get it, Dash," Flash said. "Just because…I get it. What I'm trying to get at it is what has this plot been doing until Chianti Redevelopment showed up?"

"That's just the thing," Sun said excitedly. His teeth chattered from the cold in the brief pause before he resumed speaking. "This place used to have a building on it, until it got brought out. Everyone who lived here got a great offer to sell up, some of them could even afford to move to Atlas. That's weird, right?"

"I'll say," Weiss said. "A home in this place is definitely not worth the asking price of even an apartment in Atlas."

Blake frowned. "And after that…the building was knocked down?"

"And the fence put up," Sun confirmed.

Blake's frown only deepened. "How long ago was this?"

"A few months," Sun said eagerly.

"A few months?" Weiss repeated. "Then where is all the construction equipment? Or any sign that any work is about to start at all?"

There was none. The square enclosed within the fence was completely bare. It was flat, square, and empty. There was not a single bulldozer, not a digger nor any sign that there was going to be one, not even a cement mixer; there were no building supplies, no equipment, nothing that would suggest that any workmen were ever going to show up (even if the developer intended to hire faunus from the local community, there still wasn't even a portable toilet in evidence). There was nothing there at all, just a pointless fence that was protecting nothing.

"I know, right?" Sun cried. "And get this…Rainbow Dash, this plot is big enough to land a plane, right?"

Rainbow glanced at Sun out of the corner of her eye. "Well, it depends on the plane, it's not like you could land a skyliner here or nothing, but…yeah, you could set a Skygrasper, a bullhead, maybe even an air-bus."

Sun nodded, making the bobble on top of his hat wobble back and forth, "That's what I thought, and get this: the guy I was talking to, the one who told me about somebody buying this place, he says that he's heard planes landing and taking off in the middle of the night."

A momentary silence took hold as everyone digested Sun's information, a silence broken only by the wind blowing through the city and rattling the mesh fence.

"So somebody buys a plot of land to use as a landing platform, and then they use it to land aircraft which carry their robots-"

"You heard about the robots too, huh?" Dash said.

"Yes," Weiss said tersely. "I assure you that the SDC is not behind this."

"Hey, I didn't say anything," Rainbow said. "I know the military isn't doing it."

"Someone is," Blake reminded them. "And security androids are available for purchase by anyone; they might not be as advanced as the models in use by the Atlesian military, but they could still be used to pick defenceless faunus off the street. And then they load them back onto the plane and carry them away. To wherever they're taking them."

Weiss looked at Sun and said, "I can hardly believe that _you_ are the one to solve this case."

"That's the terrible thing about this," Blake said. "This situation didn't need a genius to solve it, it just needed somebody to show up and give a damn." _Imagine how many lives could have been saved if anybody had cared to try._

"We haven't solved this yet," Rainbow said. "We still need to find these people." She grinned. "And I've got an idea of how we can do that."

Blake shivered. "Sun?"

"Yeah?" Sun's voice came over her earpiece. He was somewhere nearby, hidden, watching her, but she couldn't see him just like she couldn't see any of them. But she could hear his voice, straight into his ear, and that was the next best thing.

Blake shivered again. "I'm beginning to understand what you meant about the cold."

Rainbow's laughter had an edge of nervousness to it. "Sorry about that, Blake. Temperature drops at night, even at this time of year."

"Then why couldn't I have kept my clothes?" muttered Blake grumpily.

"You have to look the part."

"They're robots; I doubt they'd notice the difference."

"We don't know for sure they're robots."

"They're probably robots," Blake said.

"They might be robots with a human boss, it's not like the robots want to kidnap people on their own," Rainbow said. "I hope the robots don't want to kidnap people or we're all kinds of screwed."

Blake rolled her eyes and huffed. Night had fallen over Atlas and the Low Town alike, and Blake was waiting in a narrow alley between two rising ramshackle apartment blocks not far from the derelict plot of land that they theorised was being used as a landing sight for the planes that were abducting faunus from the under-city. She had exchanged – under some duress – her white winter coat for a threadbare brown coat with an old bear faunus who, admittedly, probably had more need of a good coat than Blake did. The plan that Dash had come up with was a simple one, and not a bad one either: they would stake out the landing sight, and when (if) a plane landed, then Blake would pretend to be an innocent faunus girl walking home at night. The hope was that such a target in such proximity would entice the kidnappers, who would then be set upon by the combined strength of their party with the aim of taking a prisoner who could be made to reveal where the captives were.

To be honest, if it hadn't been for the uncommonly cold weather Blake wouldn't have minded either the plan or her part in it; but it was cold, so she minded a little.

She heard someone coming, footsteps from behind her; Blake spun around, reaching for Gambol Shroud – it was concealed beneath her coat, and worn a little lower on her back than normal, but she could still reach it over her shoulder – before she saw that it was Weiss.

"And here I thought I was the one who was afraid of you," Weiss observed.

Blake lowered her hand. "You startled me."

"Sorry," Weiss said, as she walked closer. She had a flask in her hand, which she held out towards Blake as she approached. "I thought I could help with the cold."

"Coffee?"

"Tea," Weiss corrected. "Is that a problem?"

"No, it's better," Blake said. "When did you get that?"

"I've been carrying it all day," Weiss said, as she unscrewed the top of the metal flask, and poured some steaming liquid into it. "It has a dust-powered heater that keeps it warm; you could say it's a portable kettle. Here."

Blake took the lid/cup out of Weiss' hands. It was warm to her touch, warm verging upon hot, and that was such a satisfying feeling to her fingers and her palms that had become to ache and throb from the cold. She stood, shivering, feeling the heat on her skin for a moment or two before she started to sup. The tea was a little sweeter than she personally preferred, but she wasn't about to quibble with Weiss at a time like this. "It's great, thank you."

Weiss unscrewed the bottom of the flask, which turned out to be a second cup which she poured for herself. "You're welcome. I made it myself, you know."

Blake's eyebrows rose.

"Don't look at me like that, this is an accomplishment for me," Weiss said, with a touch of good-natured irritation. "And anyway, I refuse to believe that the daughter of the ruler of Menagerie has never been waited on in her life before."

"It's not as grand as you might think," Blake replied, because it was easier to just say that than to try and explain that she'd run away from her parents before her father became ruler of Menagerie. Besides, as it happened Weiss was right: she had been waited on, when she had sat at the left hand of Sienna Khan as her honoured guest (Sienna had made much of Blake in the early days, had played the mother to her in Blake's own mother's absence; now Blake was inclined to believe that she had wanted to rub it in the faces of her parents) and at the warlord's table she had been treated as a princess of the White Fang in ways that she had never been when her father was leader; and in Vale, when she had been with Adam…it sometimes struck her as strange some of the ways that the White Fang had, by accident or through deliberate imitation, ended up mimicking the Atlesian military to which it was implacably opposed: Adam didn't dine with the common rabble, but only with his trusted lieutenants and Blake, and the lowly task of preparing his own meals was beneath the great liberator's dignity, he had had Strongheart or one of the other young faunus take care of it. So…Weiss had a point. "But…you're not wrong about the servants thing." _I still knew how to make my own tea._

"Heads up, everybody," Rainbow's voice came over the com device in Blake's ear. "I just got word from air traffic control, there's a bullhead incoming, looks like its on approach to this location."

"Do they know whose bullhead it is?" Flash asked.

"Nah, they just told me it's a registered civilian ID," Rainbow said. "I can ask for the details but the plane will probably get here before they respond. Blake, are you ready?"

"Almost," Blake murmured, taking a healthy gulp from her cup of tea.

Weiss sipped thoughtfully from hers. "You know what's bothering me about this?"

"No."

"That woman who saw green eyes…she said they were looming over her, but no robot is that big. Combat androids are the size of people."

"Military models are, this could be a private design," Blake suggested.

"Have you ever heard of a private design that so much taller than a person?"

"No," Blake admitted. "But I suppose we'll find out soon enough. Wait…I scare you?"

"Does that really surprise you?"

Blake hesitated for a moment. "I…no, I suppose not. Do I still scare you?"

Weiss regarded her. "You're not exactly a pussycat in my eyes…but not so much."

"Eyes up, here it comes," Rainbow said, as the whine of a bullhead engine disturbed the quiet of the night. "Blake, you set?"

Blake drained the last of her cup of tea in one gulp. "I am now."

"Then you're on."

Blake handed Weiss her cup back. "Thanks for the tea."

"Don't mention it," Weiss said, screwing the lid back on her flask. "Good luck. I'm right behind you."

Blake nodded, as she pulled the hood of her coat up over her head – further reducing the chance that anyone would spot any part of Gambol Shroud – and shoved her hands into her pockets as she slouched out of the alleyway and into what passed for the street proper in this part of the world; there honestly wasn't that much difference between them, except that one of them was in clearer view of the impromptu landing pad, upon which a bullhead was descending even as she emerged out of cover.

It was a plain vehicle, unpainted, unmarked, much like the ones that White Fang occasionally used – when they could get their hands on them – in an attempt at stealth through lack of identifiers. The White Fang would never prey upon their own people in this way, but the similarity didn't reassure Blake that whoever was landing here didn't have a nefarious purpose in mind.

There were no lights on the plane, either inside the cockpit – it was completely dark from what Blake could see – or outside in terms of landing lights or the like. Was there even a pilot?

"Rainbow Dash," Blake said. "Can you fly a bullhead remotely? Or get a computer to do it?"

"You're talking to the wrong girl, you'd need to ask Twi," Rainbow said. "But we can get computers to fight so…I guess? But why would you want to, flying's awesome."

"Not everyone might agree with you," Blake murmured. She continued to watch the aircraft as it descended vertically upon the empty plot of land; if anyone was watching her in turn she hoped they wouldn't think it strange that the landing of an aircraft in the middle of the night in a place like this was attracting attention from a lonely girl walking home at night. It was only when the bullhead had completed its landing and its engines cut out that Blake turned away and began to walk – more like a slouch – slowly down the road, playing the part of a tired girl making her way home after an exhausting day at work.

"You should have been in drama club," Rainbow said.

"Where I grew up we didn't have drama club," Blake replied.

"Can everybody see Blake?"

"Yes," said Weiss.

"I see her," Flash said.

"I've got you," Sun replied.

Blake didn't look at the aircraft as she heard the central compartment open up, the door opening with a whine; she didn't look as she heard the wire gate slide open.

She heard the robotic clanking that the witnesses – ear-witnesses at least – had described, and she glanced out of the corner of her eye and then had to stop and look as one of the biggest robots that she'd ever seen ducked out of the bullhead and then rose to their full height.

"What the…what is that thing?" she heard Rainbow ask in her ear.

Blake didn't answer. Nobody answered because nobody knew.

The best that could be said for the android that now stomped its way towards her was that it wasn't the size of an Atlesian paladin, still less of the ludicrously over-sized spider droids that guarded Atlesian dust shipments; but that didn't matter too much because it still dwarfed any humanoid battle droid that Blake had ever encountered as well as putting Blake herself or anyone else she knew apart from her father in the shade; although it was modelled after a man it was the size of an ursa, Blake doubted she'd come past its waists if that. The android's body was as red as blood, with broad shoulders and a heavy torso, although its legs looked a little thin by comparison; it carried a double-bladed polearm in one hand, and the blades of weapon glowed blue even as its green eyes, fixed on Blake, burned brightly in the darkness; she could see a large white M upon its belly.

The android made its way straight towards Blake, unflinching and unhesitating, the green eyes and green lines glowing in the dark.

Blake didn't move as it bore down upon her. She felt it wasn't unnatural that anyone in this position would be frozen in fear at the sight.

She could understand why someone might freeze at this sight – and she didn't mind admitting in the privacy of her head that she wished Pyrrha were here to take care of it with her semblance - but anger and the accompanying fire in stoked in her prevented Blake from freezing. So Sun was right: someone was sending out their androids to snatch faunus off the streets of Low Town. Why? What gave them the right? Did they think that because these people were faunus that meant they didn't matter? That they could do what they liked and nobody would notice, or care if they did notice.

 _It didn't require a genius to solve this; it only needed someone to show up and care._

Well she was here now, and she cared, and Sun cared and Rainbow cared and she thought that even Weiss cared (she didn't know Flash Sentry well enough to comment). They were all here and they all had Blake's back and they were going to show whoever was behind this that they'd just made a big mistake.

The robot continued to advance.

"Do we go now?" Sun asked.

"Not yet," Rainbow said.

The android bore down on Blake, soon it would be close enough to touch her.

"Now?" Sun demanded anxiously.

"Not yet," Rainbow said.

The closer droid raised its free hand, and reached for Blake's head.

"Come on!" Sun cried.

"Not yet," Rainbow said insistently.

Blake stood still, seeming paralysed with fear, as the red hand of the droid, the hand that was as large as her face, closed with her head, metallic fingers closing around it…

Or rather around the swiftly-dissolving shadow where Blake had been a moment ago.

Blake leapt up into the air, letting her coat fall away as she drew Gambol Shroud across her shoulder. She seemed to hang in the air for a moment as her weapon arranged itself into pistol configuration and snapped off a trio of shots that struck the green-eyed android in the face.

The shots ricocheted off the crimson android's head, and as a string of unintelligible robotic sounds emanated from the creation Blake could swear that it looked at her with greater malice than before.

"Now!" Rainbow yelled. "Remember we need to save the head!"

The android slashed at Blake as she descended from her leap, its glaive leaving a blue trail in the air so swiftly did it move; too swiftly for Blake, and she was in the wrong place to leave another clone to take the hit in her place; the halberd caught her in the waist, sending her flying backwards down the street to land on her back. She could feel her aura dropping from the blow and the subsequent impact, and she could feel her back and stomach aching as she leapt to her feet.

The android advanced towards her, slow but implacable.

Rainbow's jetpack left a trail as she streaked through the air, kicking the android in the face as she flew past. It didn't seem to faze the robot much – as far as you could tell with robots anyway, nothing much seemed to faze them until they were dead – but it seemed to get its attention.

Or perhaps that was just the way that Rainbow landed on top of the android's polearm, balancing precariously on the pole like a gymnast as she unloaded her shotgun into the android's chest.

Rainbow's gun roared once, twice, three times, four times as the buckshot hit the armour plating of the android with a clatter and a rattle like pebbles bouncing off a window. The crimson armour of the robot's chest suffered microscopic little dents, but the robot itself stood stoic and enduring of these blows until it flicked its glaive upwards to send Rainbow flying off. The robot turned, tracking Rainbow's movements as she soared through the night sky, before it was interrupted by a blue shot striking it from behind.

Weiss erupted out of the alleyway where Blake had left her, gliding across a line of speed glyphs with all the grace of a figure skater, her rapier drawn back and her free hand outstretched before her in some kind of formal fencing posture. She darted around the android, dodging the wide swing of its blade, and as she glided around the robot that seemed so cumbersome in comparison to her lithe agility she flicked her Myrtenaster outwards and both the robot's feet were encase in the ice that arose spikily out of the ground at Weiss' command.

Blake dashed forward, Gambol Shroud reforming into a sword at her impulse as she charged right for the immobilised robot. It glared at her, or seemed to glare, as it wound up it's halberd for a thrust into her chest.

Blake smirked, and wondered if the robot understood what that meant.

The android thrust its polearm forward in a series of long, powerful blows that struck the ice clone Blake had left behind her. The real Blake rolled out of the way, getting to her feet in time to see the robot's glowing weapon encased in ice and as trapped as its feet.

Sun and Flash, who lacked the speed of either Weiss or Rainbow, joined them as the android tugged upon its imprisoned weapon.

"Nice going, Blake," Sun said admiringly.

"Ahem," Weiss coughed into her free hand.

Rainbow landed on top of the android's shoulders, something that it didn't seem to notice even as Rainbow crouched down and placed her hands on either side of its head.

"Okay," she said. "Let's get this-"

She was interrupted by a flurry of fire from the direction of bullhead, which struck her on the back – the bullets rattled against her jetpack – and tore her away and off the android's shoulders and sent her flying headfirst to the ground.

Another android unfolded itself from the bullhead. This one was white, as tall as the first but even broader in the body; the M upon its chest was red, and its eyes glowed red and seemingly full of wrath as it aimed the giant canon it was holding it both hands at the young huntsmen.

Bullets sprayed from the cannon like a minigun, erupting from the single barrel as the android loosed its fire upon them. Blake took cover behind an earth clone, hearing the rock chip and crack under the onslaught; Flash threw himself in front of Weiss and threw his shield in front of himself, his semblance enabling him to take the storm of fire without flinching; Sun summoned a pair of glowing clones to physically throw him out of the way before the sweeping arc of fire reached him.

And then the red android tore its halberd out of the ice and began to use it to hack away at the ice restraining its feet. Blake shot at it, but it hardly seemed to notice or, if it noticed, didn't care.

The white android ceased to fire, and seemed to study the group for a moment. A green pebble, or something that looked like one, flew out of the cannon's mouth to bounce along the ground before landing at Flash's feet.

"Gren-" Rainbow's shout was cut off as the grenade exploded under and in front of Flash Sentry, knocking him up and backwards with an anguished cry of pain.

"Flash!" Weiss cried, as Flash's aura shattered visibly in front of them, a golden light rippling over his body as his inner light faded.

Two more of Sun's clones caught him before he hit the ground, and carried him away to safety.

"Get the head off the red one," Rainbow yelled, as she charged towards the white android with the gun in a rainbow streak. "I'll take care of the other."

The look on Weiss' face was one of fury as cold as the Atlesian winter as she rounded on the red android which had only just succeeded in freeing both its legs.

Red dust, as red as the robot itself, cycled into Myrtenaster's chamber as a line of flame ran across the ground between Weiss and the android, erupting into an explosion at its feet which staggered the robot even as it did not immobilise it. The android rounded on her, but Weiss attacked first, her rapier shining as she thrust it forward in a flurry of blows that made the android cower behind its arms, shielding itself as Myrtenaster glanced off its armour plates again and again.

The android swept both its arms outwards, knocking Weiss backward a pace, before hitting her with its own flurry of thrusting strokes that sent her flying through the air. For a moment Weiss seemed to hang suspended, her rapier glowing yellow, before fired something from the blade at Blake before landed heavily on the ground.

The glowing yellow shot which she had fired hit the ground at Blake's feet, forming into a glyph in the shape of many grinding gears, turning like the inner workings of a clock.

The world around Blake seemed to slow. She could see the red android advancing on Weiss, she could see Sun coming towards her, she could see Rainbow charging the white android, fist cocked back, but they were all moving so, so slowly. Rainbow Dash was the only one who seemed to running at anything like normal speed, but she should have been moving so fast that Blake couldn't make her out. And the red android was moving so slowly it was barely moving at all.

Blake attacked. She charged the robot, hitting it from all sides and all directions. Gambol Shroud struck from everywhere as Blake hacked at her target's legs, its arms, its weapons. She rained down blows upon it from all sides, breaking the glaive in two and slashing through one of its legs at the knee. The effect of whatever exactly it was that Weiss had done to Blake wore off, but it hardly seemed to matter as the android fell forwards to hit the ground with a thud.

It tried to rise, onto its knees at least, but Weiss was already standing over it, and at her feet glowed a white glyph, and around her rapier an enormous broadsword made of ice had formed. And as the red android raised its head and began to push itself up she swung that sword and lopped off its head in a single stroke.

The decapitated robot hit the ground with a final thump.

A booming sound from the direction of the bullhead drew the attention of Blake and Weiss in time to see Rainbow punch the head clean off the white android using that aura-boom of hers. Personally, Blake though that draining your own aura to such an extent was incredibly rash in a fight (and, as she had happened to overhear Pyrrha refusing to teach Jaune how to do it for the exact same reason, Blake knew she wasn't the only one) but it seemed to have worked in this case as the head flew into the bullhead and the white android crumpled to the ground.

And then the bullhead itself exploded. Rainbow Dash was framed against the explosion as the dark aircraft erupted into light, before both she and the body of the white android – minus the head – were throne backwards, skidding along the derelict plot that served as a landing pad before the android's body landed on top of Rainbow Dash, who groaned.

"Rainbow!" Blake cried, as she dashed through the still-open wire gate and across the barren ground towards her. "Are you okay?"

Rainbow groaned as she pushed the android off her. "I think my aura just broke but so long as there aren't any more robots around I'll be fine." She rubbed at her right shoulder with her left hand as she got to her feet. "Did you get the head?"

Weiss picked up the head of the red android. "Present and accounted for; Sun, how's Flash?"

"Unconscious," Sun said. "But I don't think he's wounded, just out of it."

"I'll call in a medical lift for him," Rainbow said.

"Was it just me, or did those robots seem tougher than the normal ones?" Sun asked.

"It wasn't just you," Blake said. She frowned. "And we're still no closer to finding the missing."

"I wouldn't say that," Rainbow replied. "Once we get the head to Twilight, I've got a feeling it's going to give us everything we need."


	111. Analysis of an Unusual Android

Analysis of an Unusual Android

The door into the lab slid open, admitting Weiss and a slightly bruised and battered looking Flash Sentry. He was out of his armour now, and wearing a jacket over a T-shirt and jeans. He smiled sheepishly at everyone who had beaten the two of them into the room.

"Hey, guys," he said. "I hope I didn't keep everyone waiting."

"It's cool," Rainbow said. "You deserve to be here when we find out what it's all about. How do you feel?"

"My aura broke, but it stopped me taking any real injuries first," Flash said. "That or my armour took the worst of it. I'll be okay."

"I still don't think that a single grenade should have been able to break your aura like that," Weiss said. "That seems far too powerful."

Rainbow nodded. "Your aura's never seemed that weak before."

Flash looked even more embarrassed. "What can I say? It happened."

He and Weiss joined the others. The bodies of the two androids that they had fought down at the landing sight had been dismantled into their component parts – torso, arms, legs – and most of said parts had, with the exception of the head of the red android, been placed under some kind of scanner. Twilight had explained what the scanner was called but Blake couldn't remember the exact words, but it had something to do with determining the component elements and analysing the design.

Twilight sat at a desk, her back to the scanners, with the other huntsmen gathered around her. The head of the red android sat on the desk not far away, as did a pair of computers, of which Twilight was only using one at the moment. She turned her chair around and ran her bespectacled eyes across the gathering.

"Well, I'm afraid it's not the best news," she said, sounding a trifle nervous.

Rainbow placed a hand on her shoulder. "What's up, Twi?"

Twilight winced. "These androids don't match anything on the database when it comes to commercial models; not only are they not military, they're not even on sale."

Rainbow frowned. "You saying that somebody built these in their garage? Come on, Twilight, the only person I know who could do that is, well, you."

"I wouldn't count Moondancer out either," Twilight said. She paused. "I'm not suggesting that Moondancer's a suspect, by the way."

"Yeah, I got that," Rainbow reassured her.

"Are all customised androids so tough?" Blake asked.

"Quite the opposite," Twilight said. "Most hand-built androids are inferior to the mass produced models – as you'd hope, really. But I didn't say that these were hand-built, on the contrary they show no evidence of hand-crafting and appear to be production line models."

"But you said-" Rainbow began.

"I said they weren't on sale, at the moment," Twilight said. "But they do bear some resemblance to the Merlot Industries Guardian and Suppressor Androids that were briefly on sale about twenty years ago." She tapped some of the keys on the left-hand computer and on the large monitor, which took up most of the wall in front of them, appeared a pair of photographs showing what looked to Blake at first to be the androids that they had fought that night. After a moment's more careful study she realised that they were not actually the same androids, though they stood clearly in that line: but the two in the pictures were less heavily armoured, with more of their inner workings exposed to the world; they were also slightly smaller, and overall less sophisticated looking, with the so-called Suppressor having an actual minigun, and the Guardian having only a single-bladed spear; it was like comparing the AK-190 to the AK-210, they were the same but also different.

"They're more advanced now," Blake said.

Twilight nodded. "What you've brought me are a pair of true next-generation androids compared to anything in use at the moment: stronger, more resilient, better armed; I won't know about intelligence until I hook this one up," she indicated the severed head on her desk. "But overall it isn't looking too good for the Atlesian Knight."

"Aren't you guys supposed to be like the tech experts?" Sun said. "How did some random guy manage to make something so much better than you?"

"That's why I don't think it's likely that this is just some random guy," Twilight said. "If it is they're a genius. Although…"

"What?" Rainbow asked.

Twilight shrugged. "One of the reasons why the AK-210 represents such an incremental advancement over the 190 is that we don't need our androids to be that much better. The replacement of on-board weapon systems with hands is the biggest upgrade, and everything else is just slight tweaking for better performance; that's because our existing androids work for what they're designed to do: replace low-level infantry on the ground, and with that goal accomplished we've been able to focus our research on other areas, like the Paladin or, well, Penny. But these androids…it's almost as if they were designed to replace huntsmen."

"Or kill them," Blake muttered.

"Who'd want to replace huntsmen with robots?" Flash asked.

"Can you just clarify something, Twilight wasn't it?" Weiss asked.

"Yes, Twilight Sparkle," Twilight said. "And can I just say what an honour it is to have Weiss Schnee in the same lab as me."

Weiss looked down at her. "Are you…it was you who asked me to sign that old programme from my concert wasn't it?"

"Yes," Twilight said. "That was a gift for a friend but I, um, I have one of my own if you wouldn't mind…or maybe we could take a selfie together?"

"Of course," Weiss said casually. "Whichever you prefer."

"But not right now," Rainbow said, although any seriousness of tone was belied by the grin on her face.

"Right," Twilight said. "You had a serious question, Miss Schnee."

"Weiss will be fine," Weiss said, although she didn't look embarrassed by her fame, as Pyrrha would have done; rather she seemed bored by it, or at least disinterested. It wasn't that she had no desire to be fawned over; it was just getting in the way a little at the moment.

 _Or perhaps I'm being too hard on her,_ Blake thought. _In fac that's probably the case._

"What I'd like to know," Weiss continued. "Is why these Merlot robots aren't on sale any more?"

"Or why we didn't buy them," Rainbow said. "I mean, I know that they could never actually replace huntsmen even if the guy who built them wanted them too, but they're still better, and look like they were better, than what we're working with."

"Yes, but that doesn't change the fact that they were built in Vale, the home of Merlot Industries," Twilight said. "Not Atlas."

"So?" Sun asked. "Better is better, right?"

"We only buy Atlesian," Flash said.

"It's council policy," Twilight explained. "To boost the economy and ensure that we have our own defence industries in the event of war with the other kingdoms."

"I'm finding it a little hard to believe that a Vale company was producing technology so much better than anything available in Atlas," Blake murmured.

Twilight tapped something on her keyboard, and the photographs on the large monitor were replaced by an encyclopaedia entry for Merlot Industries. Blake started to read it, but it seemed that she didn't have to because Twilight started to summarise the details for them. "Merlot Industries, founded by Doctor Victor Merlot, whose expulsion from Beacon didn't stop him from getting doctorates in genetics and cybernetic engineering or from setting up a company which he named after himself. He was believed to have great promise and attracted a lot of early investment, but he wasted most of it on a lavish corporate headquarters in Mountain Glenn and on various scientific projects of little commercial value. The mainstay of the company was a line of highly advanced combat androids, but they struggled to find any buyers. Some said that they were too advanced for the kind of security work that most private androids are employed in, but Doctor Merlot…" Twilight trailed off, with a glance at Weiss.

Weiss pursed her lips together. "If it's about my father, you can say it. I won't be offended."

Twilight cleared her throat. "Doctor Merlot alleged that the Schnee Dust Company was engaging in predatory pricing in order to shut him out of the market, but the Remnant Trade Organisation dismissed his accusations and refused to take any action against the SDC. The company's finances continued to worsen, but none of that mattered once Mountain Glenn was overrun by the grimm. Doctor Merlot was amongst those declared missing after the disaster along with many of his staff; the company shut down shortly after."

Blake folded her arms. "So this is a company based in Vale, that was going bankrupt even before everyone involved was eaten by the creatures of grimm, and yet somehow improved versions of their androids – the androids that nobody was buying even when they were available – have shown up in Atlas being used to kidnap faunus?"

"I know it sounds crazy, but that's what the evidence suggests," Twilight said. She rolled her chair sideways to the left a little, and picked up the head of the red android. "This guy might be able to tell us a little more." She reached for a cable connected to the computer on her right.

"This isn't going to be one of those things were you plug that in and two seconds later we've lost control of Atlas' air defences, is it?" Rainbow asked.

"That's why I'm using this computer, and not that one," Twilight, gesturing to the machine she'd been using before. "This one is completely disconnected from any networks."

"Good, because that would have been awkward conversation with General Ironwood," Rainbow said.

Twilight smiled as she hooked up the android's head to her (disconnected) computer.

The green eyes of the android began to faintly glow, as Twilight's monitor – the small one on the desk, not the big one on the wall – began to fill up with green letters running across the screen.

Twilight, the green letters reflecting on her spectacles, leaned forward. "Okay, let's see what we've got here. Merlot Operating System version three-point-five."

"Could someone have acquired all the Merlot assets after the company went under?" Weiss asked.

"Probably," Twilight said. "But someone would have to do some digging around to find out who that-" she stopped, her voice turning to a frightened squawk as the green text turned to red upon her screen. "No no no no no!" She began to type furiously, her fingers pounding on the keyboard.

"Twi, what's going on?" Rainbow asked nervously.

"Let's just say that if this was a networked computer the cruisers would be starting to self-destruct right about now," Twilight said without breaking step in her furious typing. "But it's okay. It's…it's really okay. I can fix this."

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Sun asked.

Twilight didn't look at him. "Sorry…sorry, I'm afraid I can't remember your name, but I really don't think so. Don't worry. Nobody panic."

"Twilight-" Rainbow began.

"Nobody panic."

"Twi-"

"Nobody-"

"Twi, you're the only one panicking!" Rainbow said.

"Sorry!" Twilight yelped as she continued to type. "It's just that I - no, come back here you little - I know that this is important to you and – no, you did not just try to stick me in a dead end, mister – I don't want to disappoint you because this – I don't know who you think you are but after all the trouble my friends went to there's no way I'm going to let you win – this might be your only lead and I did it!" She sagged in her chair as a sigh of relief escaped her. "I got it," she said, as the red text on the screen returned to its earlier and more benevolent green.

Rainbow crouched down by her side as she wrapped arm round Twilight's neck and shoulders. "Sure you did, you're Twilight Sparkle."

Twilight blushed. "You don't need to flatter me _after_ I've already started helping you out."

"What does it say?" Blake asked.

Twilight started typing again. "Let's see…directives…it looks like the same android was used to do all the kidnappings: there are orders here, pre-programmed orders specifying the dates on which it was to board the bullhead, search parameters, commands to obtain…ugh, they're referred to as specimens, with specified visual markers to identify what it calls 'acceptable targets'."

Blake gritted her teeth. _Specimens? Acceptable targets? We're not animals! We're people, with families and lives and loved ones!_

 _Why does the world find it so hard to understand that? Why does it find it so hard to look past our ears?_

"Let me guess," Weiss said. "Young people?"

"I'm afraid so," Twilight said. "As best as that can be conveyed visually, anyway."

"Does it say why?" Blake demanded. "Does it say who's doing this?"

Twilight typed silently for a moment. "I'm afraid not. It just specifies that, once the android had acquired a victim, they were to return them to the bullhead which would then return to base and…"

Blake scowled. "Go on."

"Convey them to the holding pens pending transportation."

"Holding pens?" Blake cried. "Does it say where?"

"I'm just looking," Twilight murmured. "Got it! Location tracking data, here it is!"

The heads of all five young huntsmen pressed close around Twilight's monitor as a primitive map of Solitas came up on it: there were only two locations marked out, the landing pad beneath Atlas and a position Blake didn't recognise on the coast, east of Atlas.

"Where is that?" Rainbow asked.

"That's…I think that's Long Isthmus Bay," Flash said.

All eyes turned to him. "Where?" Weiss asked.

"It's a natural harbour," Flash explained. "The navy – the actual ocean navy - used it during the Great War, my mom took me diving out there a few times; there are quite a few wrecks that you can dive too. It's pretty cool."

"Is there anything there apart from old wrecks?" Blake asked.

"There shouldn't be," Flash said. "But if you wanted somewhere to moor a boat then I guess you could do worse than a natural bay with derelict port facilities where almost nobody ever goes any more."

"It seems that's where this robot came from," Twilight said.

"Then that's where we need to go," Rainbow said. "Thanks, Twi."

"Good luck out there," Twilight said.

"We will," Rainbow said, as she was already heading for the door.

Blake followed her, her hands clenched into fists.

 _Hold on, everybody, help is on the way._

 _And so is retribution._


	112. Faith, Hope and Charity

Faith, Hope and Charity

Weiss couldn't help but eye the big gun stacked against the wall beside the cockpit of Winter's personal airship. It was the combined minigun/grenade launcher that the white android they had defeated down in Low Town had been carrying before said android's demise. Rainbow's exact words as she had picked it up and carried it out the lab had been 'now it's my turn to have the big gun'.

"Is that strictly necessary?" Weiss asked, as the airship glided silently through the night sky.

Both Rainbow Dash – in the pilot's seat, amazingly, although Weiss had thought that Atlas would become a tropical paradise before Winter would ever let anyone else pilot her precious ship; that was either a sign that Rainbow was either that good a pilot or else Winter was losing her touch – and Winter in the co-pilot's chair looked around at her.

Weiss gestured with a nod of her head towards the stolen gun.

Rainbow grinned. "You know what they say: I'd rather have it and not use it then need it and not have it."

Weiss sighed. "I suppose so."

Rainbow kept talking even as she turned away, facing once more towards the controls of the airship. "Seriously though, it's because we don't have a big gun otherwise."

Weiss glanced at Blake, who raised her eyebrows in a degree of confusion.

"And that's a problem?" Blake asked.

"Yes," Rainbow said firmly. "It's not just a literal big gun – although those are cool too – but it's a…Specialist Schnee, help me out with a word."

"I think you're looking for metaphor," Winter said coolly.

"Yeah, that sounds about right," Rainbow said. "You must have noticed that every team has a big gun: maybe they're really strong, maybe they carry a really big gun; sometimes they're really strong and they carry a big gun but whichever it is, every team's got one. They're the one that drops the big hits, that takes out the tough guys, that makes the craters when you need them. The guy that the team relies on to take the hits and deal them out when things get rough. Some teams…actually, a lot of teams now that I think about it, even have two of them. My old team had Applejack and Maud. Sapphire has Pyrrha. Iron has Xiao-Long and Valkyrie. Weiss, your team has…what's his name, that dick."

Weiss frowned. "Cardin?"

"Yeah, that guy."

Weiss scoffed. "I can assure you that Cardin is not the guy that I rely on."

"Then who is?"

Weiss glanced at Flash for a moment. "In the way that you mean? I'm not sure there's anybody."

"Really? That's not good," Rainbow muttered.

"I'm still not sure what this has to do with you taking that weapon," Weiss said.

"Rosepetal's big gun is Penny," Rainbow said. "And Ciel, kind of; she has a big gun, anyway. But the point is that neither of them are here right now, and you guys…no offence, but none of you really fill that spot if you know what I'm saying. So I'm hoping that thing there will help me make up the difference."

Weiss found that she couldn't be too deeply offended by Rainbow's answer; she felt slightly as though the other girl had impugned her strength, but at the same time she couldn't deny that she wasn't capable of dealing out the blunt force blows that Dash seemed to be describing (certainly that was the specialty of Yang and Nora, and although Weiss credited Pyrrha with a little more nuance she could admit that in a spot there were worse strategies than to rely on the Invincible Girl to save the day again). Nobody in their group really was: Flash had a defensive semblance that made him tough in the right conditions, but didn't help him offensively; Blake and Sun both seemed to specialise, like Weiss herself, in a more precise form of attack. So if a stolen minigun made their pilot feel better, who was Weiss to complain?

The four young huntsmen all stood nearby but just outside the cockpit of Winter's ship as it flew through the Solitas night. Long Isthmus Flow was not far away now, and with it their destination; or so Weiss judged, based on how long they had been flying; it was hard to say exactly and she couldn't see much out of the cockpit windows.

The rest of the airship was filled with Knight 200s; their effectiveness against the greatly superior Merlot androids was dubious, to say the least, but then for the plan that they and Winter had devised they didn't need to overcome the enemy. They didn't even need to survive. They simply had to start a fight, and that was something that they would certainly be capable of doing.

Winter. Weiss' sister had shown up outside the lab, waiting for them as they were leaving after meeting with Twilight Sparkle; apparently General Ironwood had informed her of what was going on and she had decided that it was more important than whatever it was that had taken her out of the house in the first place. They hadn't spoken much, sister to sister; they had made a plan, but that had not in itself clarified to Weiss what her elder sister felt about her involvement in all this.

She took some comfort in the fact that Winter hadn't tried to send her home.

"Rainbow Dash, are you alright to handle the ship by yourself?" Winter asked. "It won't be for long."

"Sure thing, Specialist," Rainbow said. "She's really something else to handle. Beautiful. You must love her."

"Just take care of her," Winter said, as she climbed out of her seat and left the cockpit, coming to stand in front of Weiss in the narrow, white-walled passenger section.

For a moment, Winter looked down on her. Weiss did her best to hold her sister's gaze.

Winter clasped her hands together behind her back. "This is some vacation, don't you think?"

Weiss risked a slight smile. "It certainly isn't boring."

Winter snorted. "All the same, when I invited you to spend the break with me this isn't quite what I had in mind." She smiled. "I'm proud of you, Weiss."

Weiss' eyes widened. "You…really?"

"You didn't have to do what you did," Winter said. "But you did it anyway, and it was the right thing to do."

Weiss blinked. "I…I thought you might be upset that I put myself in danger."

"You want to be a huntress, yes?"

Weiss nodded firmly. "Yes," she said.

"Then who am I to try and wrap you up in swaddling clothes?" Winter asked. She frowned. "So…you saw Laberna?"

"Yes," Weiss murmured.

"How was she?"

Weiss considered her response for a moment. "Not in the best way," she said. "She was more than just old, she was tired."

Winter nodded. "Once we've rescued her grand-daughter, I'll go and see her myself."

"I'm sure that will help, but…" Weiss trailed off for a moment. "Whenever she was around, I always felt as though there was nothing more important to her than me, and making me happy."

"I know what you mean," Winter said. "At least before you and Whitley came along. I was never quite the centre of attention after that."

"That's not quite-"

"No," Winter said. "You're saying that after all that she deserves some attention from us in turn."

"Isn't there anything we can do?" Weiss asked.

Winter paused. "I'll need to consider it." She patted Weiss lightly upon the shoulder, and then returned to the cockpit.

It was only then that Weiss noticed Blake looking at her.

"Is something wrong?" Weiss asked.

"You want to get her out of there, don't you?" Blake asked.

"Yes," Weiss said. "I suppose you think I should want everyone to get out of there."

"I want everyone to get out of there," Blake corrected her. "But if you get just one person, one family, out…that's a good enough start as far as I'm concerned."

"We're entering radar range of the target location," Rainbow said. "Nobody's shooting at us yet. Pity."

"Pity?" Weiss asked. "Did you say pity?"

"I wanted to see how this baby can dodge," Rainbow said.

"If you so much as scratch the paintwork, Dash, I will feed you to my summons," Winter growled.

Rainbow chuckled. "Hang on… _Faith_ is reporting a ship headed towards the bay. They're not responding to hails."

Winter leaned forwards, and flicked a button on the control panel. " _Faith_ , this is Specialist Winter Schnee: how close the harbour is that ship?"

"Two hours out, specialist."

"Then we still have time, continue to observe but take no action until or unless you receive further orders."

"Copy that, Schnee; your show, your rules."

Winter flicked the very same button, presumably to turn the speaker off. "We're not picking up anything yet. And there are no lights."

"Robots don't need lights," Flash said, from where he stood just behind Weiss.

Weiss looked at him. "Surely someone is controlling the robots."

"Eventually," Flash said. "It doesn't they have to be here."

They continued to fly for another twenty minutes, maybe; something around that time. Winter was right: there were no lights from the bay, nothing to indicate that anyone lived there, operated out of there, was based there; nothing to indicate that the place was anything more than a relic of the Great War, long abandoned and crumbling.

"Still not seeing anything at all," Rainbow complained. "And we're almost on top of this place now, there has to be something, right?"

"Maybe you're just not looking with the right eyes," Blake said, as she pushed her way into the cockpit to stand between Rainbow and Winter, leaning forwards so that she could see better. Weiss moved to stand behind her, although without faunus eyes she was under no illusion as to what kind of contribution she could make.

"Flash," Blake said. "When you were last here with your mother, what was out here?"

Flash was silent for a moment, and without turning around Weiss could imagine the face he made when he was thinking about something. "There's an old blockship – a battleship from before the Great War – beached on the shore, rusting away; the piers are mostly still intact, but the stone is starting to wear away; you can see the funnels of the _King Wilhelm_ sticking out of the water, just about-"

"What about buildings?" Blake asked. "Warehouses, storage sheds, cranes?"

"There are a few standing walls," Flash replied. "But the cranes all got taken away when the war ended and other places needed them more, and so did everything else useful. The buildings just fell apart."

Blake pointed to a dark silhouette beneath them. "Then what is that perfectly intact and functional-looking building doing there with a crane on the dock outside?"

Rainbow turned the plane, angling Winter's airship to the right towards the incredibly suspect-looking building.

There were no lights on, but Weiss had no doubt that this was the place: what were the odds otherwise.

"It's time," Winter said, rising from her seat. Blake and Weiss backed out to make way for her, as Flash and Sun pressed themselves against the walls of the airship.

"Are you sure you're going to be okay on your own?" Rainbow asked. "Because-"

"I'm an Atlesian specialist," Winter said, her voice sharp as frost and as proud as a queen. "Of course I'll be fine." She stepped out of the cockpit, pausing to smile down at Weiss. "When you've learnt to summon," she said. "You'll be the big gun."

Weiss smiled out of one corner of her mouth. "You mean if I learn to summon."

"When," Winter corrected, in a tone that would brook no argument.

Weiss didn't wish her luck; Winter had too much pride for that, and justified pride as well. Weiss only regret about the plan they had come up with – and it was a good plan, no doubt about it, was that she wouldn't get the chance to see a professional huntress and a master of the Schnee semblance in action for very long.

Winter stood in front of her column of knights, regarding them as though they were true knights of old and she their monarch sending them forth. "Dash. Drop the hatch."

"You got it," Rainbow said, and she reached up to punch a button on the control panel above her head.

With a groan, a bump a whirring sound the hatch at the rear of Winter's airship began to descend, opening the vessel up to the night sky. They were flying too low for a serious pressure differential to have built up – hence why they weren't all sucked out into the air leaving Rainbow alone on the plane – but Weiss could still feel the air rushing out of the craft, running through her hair and tugging at her skewed ponytail even as if ruffling her combat skirt. Blake's hair started to blow so wildly it was a wonder that she could see anything, while Sun – who had exchanged his winter wrap-up for something more like his traditional garb (plus a jacket over the shirt he had miraculously learned how to fasten up) – started to shiver; even Flash, who was doing his best to maintain a stoic façade, look discomfited by the sudden breeze.

"Ten-hut!" Winter snapped, and at once the blue eyes of the Atlesian knights flickered on, and the battle droids stood up a little straighter before her.

Winter waited, staring silently at the robots for five seconds, ten seconds as the wind blew into the airship and the dark landscape passed beneath them, fifteen seconds before she gave the command: "Drop and prepare for engage!"

The knights were silent. They did not shout, they did not raise a warcry; they merely fell, two by two, out of the airship.

And when the last of them had fallen from the plane, gliding down to the ground with their arms spread out, Winter leapt.

Weiss kept one hand on the rail as she made her way to the back of the ship to watch her sister conjuring pale white glyphs in mid-air, leaping glyph to glyph as she made her way safely to the ground.

And then the shooting started.

It was the Atlesian Knights who fired first, their magnetic muzzle-flashes illuminating their blue-eyed faces as they fired; then Weiss could see the return shots from the white androids, and the interplay of fire lit up the glaive-wielding red androids as they strode menacingly towards their smaller cousins.

Winter was a ghostly figure in the darkness, the only human in two armies of androids yet she seemed the most insubstantial presence there, flitting this way and that as spectral beowolves leapt from her blade to hurl themselves at the opposing androids, conjuring glylphs of many colours, darting, dancing between enemies, flitting like a wisp between the leaden-footed robots.

And then her airship passed over the warehouse, and Weiss lost sight of her. All she could hear was the gunfire.

 _Good luck, sister._

It was almost time for them to put their stage of the plan into operation.

"I hope that everyone remembers their landing strategies," Weiss said.

"Uh, kinda?" Sun murmured.

"Don't worry," Blake said. "You'll be fine."

"And I'll catch up with you guys as soon as I can land this thing without it being obvious," Rainbow said. That was the crucial part of their plan: if someone was watching the radar, and noticed Winter's airship landing right outside the facility – whatever kind of facility it was – then they would figure out at once that Winter's attack was a diversion and that the real attempt to enter said facility was coming from Team…Weiss was having a little trouble coming up with a name that started with W (WSSBR pronounced Whisper?), anyway, the point was that Rainbow couldn't set the airship down and rejoin the group until she was out of detection range or their cover would be blown and it would all have been pointless.

Rainbow said she could make it back in no time at all; tonight would see the proof of it.

The warehouse was already starting to recede away from them. If they did not go now it would be too late.

"Go!" Weiss called out as she leapt from her sister's airship, conjuring a silvery-white glylph beneath her feet that supported her as solidly as the ground. It was just like initiation, really; nothing to it at all: a glyph here, a glyph there, leaping from platform to platform with Myrtenaster in her hand and her combat skirt flying around her.

Truth to tell Weiss had always rather enjoyed this, ever since she'd been a little girl and she had practiced in front of her grandfather, leaping between glyphs about a foot off the ground, daring to go higher and daring too anyone to tell her no. She had loved it then, she could still remember the way that she had laughed for joy as she had – as she had seen it then – flew in the air like a fairy, looking down at the ground that looked so far away to a young girl.

As she descended, leaping downwards, conjuring every more glyphs to convey her safely from the sky to the earth, she fancied that she could still hear the laughter and encouragement of grandfather, Winter, Klein and Laberna ringing in her ears.

Not her father, of course. Never father. But that hadn't seemed to matter then, and it didn't matter now. She could hear them willing her on as she made her descent, her glyphs shining in the night like beacons to guide her, until her feet touched the hard ground. Whether it was new concrete that had been laid by whoever had inherited the Merlot Industries assets and raised this building and this crane, or whether it was left over from the war and this place's past as a naval facility, it didn't really matter; it was hard and solid all the same.

One by one, her comrades on this mission joined her: Flash had infused his shield, Rho Aias, with gravity dust, allowing him to control the rate of his descent; Blake used her grapple to latch on to the side of the looming unlit crane, and from there leapt from dark metal strut to bar with nimble agility until she reached the ground; Sun was thrown at the same crane by his clones, and scrambled down with just a little less dignity than Blake had managed.

Once they were all on the ground, they advanced cautiously towards the building; Weiss, with her only-human eyes, couldn't make out any details, but she could see the silhouette of it looming over her nevertheless, a dark mass that blocked out the stars behind it.

"It's marked," Blake said. "The M again."

"You know," Flash said. "We've talked about someone inheriting the assets of Merlot Industries…what if it's really just Merlot Industries?"

"The man survives getting devoured by grimm in Mountain Glenn, doesn't resurface for years, and then when he does he's kidnapping grimm in Atlas?" Weiss asked. "What sense does that make?"

"It makes as much sense as someone splashing someone else's logo all over the place," Flash said.

"Actually that does make sense if somebody wanted to throw us off the scent," Sun said. "And the fact that we're even talking about this shows that its working."

Nobody had very much to say in response to that, so they continued forward in silence. Blake led the way, being as she was the one who could see the best (could Sun see in the dark? Weiss didn't know enough about monkeys to be able to say), and she brought them to a door, large enough for one of the Merlot androids to walk through but not much bigger than that.

There was still no sign of Rainbow Dash, but that was no reason to delay. She had her own part to play, and would just have to catch up to them when she could.

"The door…I don't even see how it's supposed to open," Blake said. "It must open automatically for the androids."

"I can get it open," Weiss said. "Although it may dampen our element of surprise."

"The element of surprise won't mean very much if we're surprisingly stuck outside all night because we can't open the door," Blake said. "If you have a plan then go for it."

"Okay then," Weiss said, not waiting for the opinions of Flash or Sun because she was a team leader, and sometimes a part of leadership was taking decisions upon your shoulders and following through on them. "Everyone stand well back," she said, as she drew back her right arm so that Myrtenaster was level with the line of her shoulders, it's tip extending just past her face, and the slender sword pointing towards the stubborn door.

With a flick of her thumb Weiss rotated the cylinder of dust until it was on lightning, and with mere thought itself conjured her glyphs.

She might not have been able to deploy the summoning half of the Schnee semblance, but if she said so herself she was very skilled at using her glyphs. She merely had to think them and they leapt to her command, five spectral forms appearing behind her, bright white in the darkness, and all of them infused with lightning dust.

 _You know, you could make the argument that I'm already the big gun._

White laser beams, streaks of pure energy, leapt each from the centre of the glyphs as though they were each a great gun funnelling power out of their barrels. Each beam struck the door at once, blasting it into metal fragments that landed with a clatter upon the inside of the facility said door had guarded.

"Well, let's look on the bright side," Sun said. "Maybe they're deaf robots."

"Let's look on the real bright side," Blake said. "We can get in now."

They did just that, moving in with Blake in the lead and Flash bringing up the rear; there was a short corridor just within the door, a corridor with only one direction to run in and so they ran it. It was sterile, metallic, undecorated; the kind of place where only an android would feel welcome.

At the end of the corridor was another door, this one Blake was able to fling open with a touch before they dashed inside…only to stop dead in their tracks at what they saw when they did.

On the other side of the door was a large room, a vast open-plan space; Blake had called this place a warehouse from the outside, and it looked almost like a warehouse crossed with a hospital, or a warehouse being used as a hospital in the wake of some great catastrophe that had left all the actual hospitals stretched to breaking point: beds filled the space, metallic beds with stiff black cushioned pads for people to lie on, and on some – not all – of those beds lay people, faunus, young faunus men and women taken from the Low Town. They were hooked up one and all to a variety of expensive medical devices, recording data the import of which Weiss did not immediately grasp.

And they were all dead. Not a one of them moved, not a one of them stirred or spoke or groaned, and as the four young huntsmen walked – driven to silence by the steadily mounting horror of the realisation that here was a place devoid of life – further into the mortuary they were forced to acknowledge that no one here was asleep, or drugged into silent insensibility. They were dead. They had been killed, and then simply left here as though that was that and there was nothing more to be done.

Weiss felt as though she might be ill. Sun looked how she felt.

 _Who would do such a thing? Who could? And even if they could, why would they do it?_

"I don't…" Blake murmured, her voice soft with horror. "I don't understand. Why? Why any of this…why is any of this happening?"

"I don't know," Weiss replied, her voice equally soft. "But we-"

She was interrupted by movement, on the other side of the cavernous chamber; there was no door but there was an archway, divided by a set of plastic sheets like an abbatoir. Those sheets of plastic curtain moved as a white medical droid walked in.

It might not have even had time to see them before Blake, her golden eyes wide with anguish, shot it four times in the head; it barely had a head left as it crumpled to the ground.

"Did you have to do that?" the voice that slid into the chamber like a serpent was that of an older man, fruity and rich. "Attacking my combat androids is one thing, but those medical droids are rare."

Blake scowled. "Who are you?" she demanded. "Why are you doing this?"

"It is a pity, I know," the disembodied voice said. "Ideally genetic sequencing would be done before the abduction; sadly it isn't possible to perform the procedure in the field."

"Genetic sequencing?" Blake repeated. "You…you killed all of these people because of their genes?"

"Clever cat, you catch on quickly," the voice said. "The man to your right had a genetic predisposition towards obesity, the woman behind you to anxiety, the man nearest the door to dementia; diabetes, addiction, alcoholism, autism, the latent presence of all of these conditions can be read in the genetic code like an English teacher discerning the meaning of a poem, and such weaknesses have no place in the new world."

"So you kidnapped all of these people…and then you murdered them when your genes weren't perfect?" Weiss demanded.

"Did you know that faunus have a greater genetic diversity than any other species on Remnant?" the voice asked. "Far greater than that found in ordinary humans. And so many latent abilities: night vision, regeneration, flight, superior strength, these are gifts than an ordinary man could only acquire by winning the semblance lottery and yet the faunus are born with traits equal to the greatest of spiritual powers and abilities. Small wonder that humans fear and detest them as much as the creatures of grimm; just as pygmies detest great men, so do humans react with angry terror towards that which reminds them of their insignificance."

"Is that why you're doing this?" Sun asked. "Are you killing faunus because you're scared of them? Because we don't want any trouble, we just-"

The voice laughed. "Scared of you? My dear boy, do you suppose that I'm some kind of human rights fanatic? Nothing could be further from the truth. I admire your species greatly; you are truly superior. All I wish to do is harness the genetic advantages that you are heir to and…combine them, with another superior species which as yet lacks those same advantages."

Weiss frowned. _Superior species? What superior species?_ The first thing suggested by the words was some kind of chimera faunus, blessed with many traits all at once, but that was impossible, wasn't it? Nobody had ever been born with more than two and even that was exceedingly rare. And even if, by some miracle of perverted science, you could harness the traits of many living faunus and combine them all in a single person then so what? It wasn't going to do much to advance the cause of faunus rights for them to look even more like animals – and strange and bizarre animals at that – than they did already and one faunus, no matter how many 'advantages' they possessed, wasn't going to turn the tide in favour of the White Fang if they were behind this.

Blake bared her teeth. "Whatever it is you're doing…it ends, now! We're here to stop you."

The voice sighed. "There are times when I wish that someone was able to understand my work, but I see that you're just like all huntsmen: small minded, self-righteous moralists. I admit, it was clever of you to stage a distraction, but unfortunately for you, a distraction isn't much use once it's been seen through."

Weiss gritted her teeth. "We need to go." She gestured towards the plastic curtains from which the late medical droid had so recently emerged. "Come on, this way."

Flash ran forward, and Sun started to dart forth as well, only to stop when he saw Blake hesitate. "Blake, come on, let's go."

"We can't just leave them like this," Blake murmured.

Weiss took a step towards her. "I know it's hard, but don't we have to think about those we can still save before those who…for whom we were too late?"

"She's right," Sun said. He reached out, and gently took Blake by the hand. "I know it's rough, but there are still people in here who need our help, but we have to find them before those robots find us."

"Hey!" Flash yelled, from the other side of the curtains through which he had disappeared. "In here!"

They ran – Sun half leading Blake by the hand – and the three of them burst through the plastic barrier one by one to see a second wide, cavernous, warehouse space even larger than the medical ward of death that they had just left behind. Large cranes hung from the ceiling, looking as though they were designed to run on rails back and forth from one side of the chamber to the other. On the left hand side of the room, light-blue shipping containers sat on the backs of self-driving trucks, which Weiss guessed were to carry them to the dock where that large crane would load them onto the ship that the Atlesian cruiser had spotted approaching the bay.

And on the other side of the room were the cages: large, each one could have held at least an ursa major if not multiple smaller examples of that breed, with transparent – albeit woven through with a wire-like mesh - walls filling the space between blood red pillars; the cages, unlike the containers, were marked by an M more stylised than those found upon the robots themselves.

And in the cages Weiss could see the faunus they had come here to find, dressed in ragged clothes, eyes wide and fearful. Some pounded on the walls of their cages, others sat with eyes haunted by despair.

"Prim?" Weiss asked as she stepped forward, hoping that her voice could carry through the walls of the cages. "Primrose? Is there a Primrose Seacole here?"

 _Let her not be dead,_ Weiss thought. _After all her grandmother did for me I don't want to have to go back and tell her that I couldn't keep my promise._

 _Not many faunus would put their faith in a member of the Schnee family any more; those who did shouldn't be punished for it._

"Y-yes," a young girl, around Weiss' age but seeming younger somehow, if only because of how vulnerable she was in this moment, penned like an animal, raised her hand tremulously. "Who are you?"

"I'm Weiss Schnee," Weiss declared. "Your grandmother and sister sent me, I'm here to rescue you."

"Ah, so you have a personal motive," the voice which Weiss was becoming increasingly certain belonged to Doctor Merlot said. "I should have known a Schnee would never act based on anything so base as altruism."

Weiss scowled. "Considering that one of us has imprisoned these people and the other is here to save them I don't think you have any right to look down upon my family, Doctor Merlot."

"Considering the way your father treats his employees I think I'm doing these poor creatures a favour by comparison, Miss Schnee."

Weiss rolled her eyes. "How do we open these cages?"

"I think I have an idea," Flash said. He dashed back from the cages – he had been trying, apparently without success – to pry one of them open – to a fusebox on the wall near the archway they had just come through. With a single swing of his sword he had opened it up, exposing the wires within to the world.

The ring running around Flash's shield, displaying what kind of dust he had equipped at any given moment, began to glow yellow as he shoved it into the fusebox and then, once the rim of the shield was touching the exposed wires, activated it.

Lightning rippled across the entire length and breadth of Flash's shield; and after a moment that flickering of lightning as it discharged was the only thing that Weiss could see as the light shorted out and the entire warehouse was plunged into darkness.

"The doors are open!" Blake yelled. "Sun, give me a hand."

 _It's a good thing somebody can see in the dark,_ Weiss thought, as she cast a simple glyph beneath her feet. It glowed pale white, enough for her to see the space immediately around her.

But she didn't need to be able to see in order to hear the clanking sounds out there in the darkness…and she could see the eyes, green and red, illuminating the dark, as the androids began to advance upon them.

"So what did I miss?"

The voice, cocksure and brash, belonged to Rainbow Dash and was followed by a quartet of green glowsticks flying through the air to bounce along the floor. A fifth stick fell at Rainbow's face, illuminating her grinning face and the red-tinted goggles over her eyes as she toted the android minigun in her hands.

She was still grinning as she started firing, the muzzle flashes flickering on her face like a strobe light as the bullets leapt from the enormous muzzle to tear through the Merlot androids. Weiss could hear them ripping through the armour plate.

Blake was firing too, possibly the only one amongst them who could see what to shoot at; the slower-paced shots of Gambol Shroud flickered off her tense, taut face.

Weiss scooped one of the nearby glowsticks up in her hand and threw it towards the back wall. It landed at the base of a ladder, a ladder leading up onto the roof.

"There!" she shouted, pointing in the hope that at least some of the faunus could see it. "Everyone up the ladder and onto the roof, quickly."

Sun led the way, leaping up the ladder in a single bound and forcing open the hatch. Moonlight fell into the lightless warehouse, casting a spotlight upon the floor around the ladder. Sun disappeared out of the hatch, but after less than a moment Weiss could see his hands once again as he gestured for the others to follow. As the faunus captives, released from their now powerless cages, scrambled up the ladder after him, he helped them up onto the roof one after another.

A grenade fired from Rainbow's launcher briefly illuminated the scene of an android being blown to smithereens. Another grenade set part of the warehouse on fire.

"Get out," Rainbow yelled, dodging a grenade fired back at her. "Weiss, Flash, go first; Blake and I will follow." She turned to fire another burst from her minigun.

Weiss might have protested if it weren't for the fact that Rainbow was making perfect sense at this point, even if she did look like she was also having a little too much fun with that android weapon. It was more rational for the people who could see to stay…but on the other hand she didn't have to be useless either.

She rotated the dust cylinder in Myrtenaster to blue ice dust, and rammed the blade point-first down into the floor.

An ice barrier erupted from the floor to the ceiling, bisecting the room neatly in half: with the Merlot androids trapped on one side and the huntsmen on the other.

Weiss could hear the androids already started to break through, but at least it meant that they could escape in a slightly less panicked scramble than would otherwise have been the case.

They made it up onto the roof, to see the captives from Low Town huddled together upon the edge, pressed together for safety, some of them clinging to one another as they looked from the hatch to their rescuers to the ground; it might not be a great height to a huntress in training, but for someone with aura it probably looked high enough.

Rainbow Dash, the last one up, slammed the hatch shut behind her before tapping the earpiece she was wearing. " _Hope_ , this is Rosepetal, we have the captives and need air support and a pick-up."

"Copy that Rosepetal, _Faith, Hope_ and _Charity_ have wings out and inbound. We've got you covered."

After their experience with just two robots in Low Town, they had – in consultation with Winter – decided that it would be folly to try and fight their way through what was certain to be a larger collection of androids at this facility; instead, their plan had always been to sneak in, free the prisoners, and then call in back-up from the three Atlesian cruisers that Winter and General Ironwood had had put on standby to assist them.

Already Weiss could see their lights, closer and brighter than the stars, as the cruisers and their accompanying aircraft converged on their position from three sides.

The wind rose upon the roof as the air began to hum with the sound of their engines; at this moment it sounded as sweet as music.

The hatch out of which they had climbed shattered as a red android began to rise out of it, only to have its head blown clean off by the fire of a Skygrasper's cannon as the plane began to hover overhead.

More aircraft were dropping knights, either on the rooftop with them or down below to support Winter's fight against the diminishing number of Merlot androids outside, while the now-empty aircraft descended, presenting their rears to the rooftop as they began to take the faunus onboard.

"Did…did Grandma really send you?" Primrose asked.

"Yes," Weiss said. "She really did, and now you're going home."


	113. Reunited

Reunited

"Prim!" Lavender yelled as she tackled her sister almost as soon as she was through the door, nearly knocking the older girl off her feet as she did so. "Grandma, look, Prim's back!"

Weiss, stood in the doorway with Winter less than half a step behind her, felt slightly like a voyeur for witnessing this moment; she thought that perhaps they ought to have waited outside for the family to be reunited. She knew from personal experience how shameful it could be to have your family moments – albeit the moments she were thinking of were far more bitter than joyous – played out in public for the delectation of others. But another part of her wanted to be here nevertheless, if only so that Laberna knew that she had kept her promise, and that her faith in the Schnee girls had not been in vain.

Laberna opened her eyes. Her voice, when she began to speak at least, was as frail as it had been when Weiss had paid her a visit last, but as she spoke she seemed to go stronger with every word that past her wrinkled lips. "Prim? Primrose, is it really you?"

"Yes," Prim said, her voice sounding a little choked up as, with one arm wrapped around her younger sister, she walked towards her grandmother. "Yeah, I'm right here, grandma."

Laberna let out a long, deep sigh of relief. "Come here, child. Let me hold you."

It was both girls who flung themselves into their grandmother's embrace, but Laberna didn't seem to mind. She wrapped her wrinkled arms around them just the same, and held them close as they laid their heads upon her shoulders.

"You're home now," Laberna whispered, as though they were still children. "You're home now, and everything's going to be okay from now on."

"Grandma," Prim whispered. "Grandma I…I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" Laberna asked, confused. "What do you have to be sorry about, Prim?"

"All those times when you used to tell stories about working up in the Schnee house, about taking care of the Schnee kids," Prim said. "I thought…I thought that you were full of it, or else fooling yourself. I thought there was no way that they could possibly give a damn about you, about us. I hated the way that you spent more time with them than you did with your own family." She half pulled away from her grandmother, and looked at Weiss and Winter in the doorway. "But they came to get me. They saved me, they saved all of us. I guess I was wrong about them after all." She bowed her head. "I'm sorry to you, too."

"That's not necessary," Winter said.

"Miss Winter?" Laberna said, sitting up in her chair. "Miss Winter, that's you isn't it? I recognise your voice. Is Miss Weiss with you?"

Winter took a few steps forward. "We're both here, Laberna. It's been too long since I've seen you last."

"That it has," Laberna said. "But I know what you've been doing. Doing well for yourself."

"I do my best, for my own prestige and for the glory of Atlas," Winter said.

Laberna nodded. "You were always a hard-working child, one that wouldn't take no for an answer. Thank you, both of you, for bringing my Primrose back to me. For putting my family back together again."

"It was the least we could do," Weiss said. "After all that you did for our family over the years."

Laberna didn't reply for a moment. "Tell me something, you two…how's young Master Whitley doing? I don't hear so much about him as I do about the two of you, even though I try to keep both my ears open for it, and I…I was just wondering. He's alright, isn't he? He's doing well, like you are?"

Weiss glanced at Winter, looking for help which didn't seem particularly likely to come. "I…to be honest, I haven't spoken to Whitley lately; not since I went to Beacon. But I'm sure he must be well, since I would have heard if he wasn't."

That was not entirely true, or rather it was possible that she wouldn't have heard about it because she dodged her father's calls and thus might have missed any news about her little brother. It was also not quite true to imply that it was only her going away to school that had led to a silence between her and Whitley, when the truth was that they hadn't had a lot to do with one another well before that. Weiss had been told that she had inherited her mother's musical talents – unfortunately mother rarely sang nowadays, and when she did…her voice had deteriorated somewhat from what her admirers said it had once been – and she knew in her bones and in her soul that she had inherited her grandparents' skill as huntsmen; Whitley, on the other hand, took after their father much more: he was academically gifted without doubt, but he and Weiss had nothing in common beyond being brother and sister and, well, she didn't like the way that holding a conversation with him often felt like having to work hard to spot the hidden insult or attack behind his words. So she had kept her distance, burying herself in her own studies and leaving Whitley to his. It would soon reach the point where they didn't know each other at all.

She doubted that Winter was much better; neither of them had ever been particularly close to their brother.

 _And Laberna knows that because she was there when we were growing up. Or was this just a way of asking if we've made up since then?_

"I see," Laberna said, in a way that went a long way towards vindicating Weiss' suspicions. "Well, I hope he's doing well, and that he's as happy as you two. You are happy, aren't you girls?"

"I'm content," Winter said. "My work for the military is very rewarding."

"Miss Weiss?"

"I…" Weiss hesitated. Was she happy? It wasn't a question she'd seriously considered lately. She was on the right path, of that she was convinced, but was she happy? "I've found my place," she said, because a huntress was not just what she wished to be but what she was meant to become.

"I understand," Laberna said knowingly. "I hope you'll forgive an old woman's curiosity, but have either of you girls found yourself a boyfriend yet? Miss Weiss, how about that nice you fellow that came in with you the last time."

"Flash?" Weiss squawked. "No, he's just my partner- my team mate. We're nothing more than friends."

"In any event," Winter said briskly, moving the conversation on before it could get uncomfortable. "Laberna, I have a proposition that I'd like to put to you. To all three of you."

"A proposition?" Prim repeated. "What kind of offer?"

Winter took a step forward, casting an eye over the drab and austere residence. "I apologise for the way that you've been forced to live like this."

"We get by," Prim said.

"I meant no offence," Winter said. "But after all that you've done for our family, you deserve better." She clasped her hands behind her back. "It's said of my grandfather that he would always take care of those who had served him well, even when they became incapable of serving him any more."

"I remember that about him," Laberna said.

"After talking to…certain friends of mine," Weiss said, by which she meant that – after finding out that that Twilight girl in the laboratory had a sister-in-law on the council – she had gone to Twilight Sparkle and promised her a private concert for herself and anyone she wished to invite if she would plead Laberna's case. "The Council would like to confer upon you a civil list pension of thirteen thousand lien a year." It was not a colossal sum – it was no more than the salary of someone's first job in the mail room at an SDC office – but on top of the old-age pension it would hopefully provide a measure of comfort that was notably lacking in the life of the Seacole family, as well as maybe allowing her to call upon a doctor, or allow the grandchildren to go to school without worrying too much or…or something, anyway. She hoped it would help. It was the best she could do, even if it wasn't much; her father, of course, could have made all of their problems go away in an instant but he wouldn't, at least not without demanding a heavy price of Weiss and Winter in return.

She wondered, sometimes, if her grandfather had ever realised just what kind of man he had given his daughter's hand in marriage to, ever realised just how deceived he had been. Weiss rather hoped not. Grandfather had deserved to die more contentedly than that would have allowed him to.

Laberna's old wrinkled lips pulled back in a smile. "Thank you, Miss Weiss, Miss Winter; you didn't have to do that."

"On the contrary," Winter said. "It's probably the least that we could have done." She nodded respectfully. "And now I'm afraid we have to go."

"It was good to see you again," Weiss said.

"Goodbye, girls," Laberna said. "I hope you both find what you're looking for in the end."

Weiss hesitated for a moment. "I hope so too."

They left the family to it, closing the door behind them. Blake was waiting outside, her whole body seeming taut and tense like a wire. Weiss allowed Winter to take the lead, heading back towards where they had left Winter's ship, while she hung back a little with Blake.

"Are you okay?"

Blake hesitated for a moment. "I'm beginning to think that I can't appreciate my victories."

"If you don't appreciate this then you might have a point about yourself," Weiss said. "We rescued the captive-"

"Not all of them," Blake said.

"No," Weiss conceded softly. "But as many as we could."

"But Merlot is still out there and we have no idea where he is or what he'll do next," Blake muttered. "As if we didn't have enough problems."

Weiss didn't say anything to that, because there wasn't much to be said. As the Atlesian knights had, through sheer weight of numbers, fought their way through the androids defending Merlot's facility, Merlot had remotely wiped all the computers in said facility so that – last she had heard – attempts to work out where his main base was had come up empty; the ship that had been detected heading for Long Isthmus Bay had self-destructed, also seemingly at the remote command of Merlot for the same reason of maintaining the integrity of his remaining assets. He was a wanted man, but it probably mattered little to him if the authorities were hunting him since said authorities had no real idea where to look for him. He only had to hide, as he had hidden after his presumed death in Mountain Glenn, and wait to be forgotten before he struck again.

"What's to stop him starting over?" Blake asked.

"I don't think Doctor Merlot will be coming back to Altas any time soon," Weiss said. "He may have escaped but we've identified the front organisation he used to buy up his property; people are watching for him."

"Okay then, but what if he goes to Vale or Mistral?"

"Then huntsmen in Vale or Mistral will have to take care of it," Weiss said. "I was able to rescue as many people as I could and fulfil the obligations that my family owes to a woman who served us faithfully. The whole world is too big for me to save, so I'm satisfied with doing something good."

Blake was silent a moment. "I can't be satisfied. Not when I know that there's still more out there to be done…even though I'm not even sure how much of a difference I can really make I…I can't stop trying; even though there are times when I want to, this drive won't leave me." She shook her head, as though she were trying to banish something from her mind. "Anyway, that was a nice thing you did for them."

"I'm still surprised you think it was enough," Weiss replied. "Or are you so surprised that I did anything at all that it seems good to you?"

"Are you sure you're not the one who doesn't think it was enough?" Blake asked.

Weiss frowned. "My father…and my mother…" she hesitated, searching for the right words. "I was raised by that woman and by our family butler more than I was by either of my parents. I…I was ten years old when I found out that my father had only married my mother so that he could get his hands on my grandfather's company. He never said as much, but it doesn't take a genius to work out that he only had children so that he would have someone to leave the company too when he was gone; his legacy to Remnant."

Blake's mouth was agape, her expression suggested a mixture of horror and a desire to have not heard this. "I can't…" she began. "I don't know what to say I, I'm sorry. That must have been horrible for you."

"It did put a dampener on the rest of the birthday party," Weiss murmured.

"On your…wow." Blake said. "That's…wow."

"Though it took them more than an hour it was Laberna and Klein who got me to stop crying, not my mother," Weiss said.

"I imagine that must have been hard for your mother to hear too," Blake said, equably but not without a hint of reproach.

Weiss sighed. "I'm sure you're right. But I can't ever remember her being there when I needed her and so…it's hard not to remember the people who were there."

Blake nodded. "That I understand."

Weiss glanced at her. "Really?"

"I was twelve years old when my father resigned the leadership of the White Fang; he and my mother decided to retire to Menagerie and I…I couldn't forgive them for it. Not for quitting as leader, that I understood; I even wanted that, the same way that so many of our members and our allies wanted it because we wanted faster results than we were getting following my father's methods. But leaving…giving up the struggle altogether? I couldn't believe that he would do such a thing, I couldn't understand why he wasn't willing to just admit that he'd been wrong, stay, and work with Sienna Khan, our new leader. I thought that they were cowards, I called them cowards, and after they left for Menagerie without me I told myself that Sienna was my real family, my real mother, the person who would take care of me."

"Past tense," Weiss whispered.

"Huh?"

"You told yourself," Weiss said. "No more?"

Blake's expression became bitter. "My real mother made me a killer and then gave me to a monster to be his comfort; my real family never once tried to find out if I was okay, or if I needed help, or if I could keep doing the things the White Fang asked me to do; the person who would take care of me sent me to Vale and never looked at me again."

"And your mother?"

"Probably hates me, just like my father," Blake said. "Or else they're bound to hate what I became once they were gone."

Weiss said, "I know what you did. And I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I think…I think that feeling guilt for that is the least that you deserve; but when the truth came out, at Beacon, none of your real friends turned on you for it, once they knew the truth."

"No," Blake said. "No, I was…I was luckier than I deserved that way."

"Why should your parents be less forgiving than your friends?" Weiss asked. She shrugged. "But what do I know? My father isn't setting any benchmarks for forgiveness, and it took a kidnapping for me to see the woman who helped raise me again. I probably shouldn't be giving you, or anyone else for that matter, any advice."

"Perhaps," Blake agreed. "But I appreciate it anyway."

Her scroll rang, and when she answered it turned out to be Rainbow Dash's face on the screen.

"Hey Blake," she said. "Listen, can we meet up? Sunset asked me to show you something, said it was pretty important."

Blake frowned. "What's this about?"

"She said that you'd know that," Rainbow said. "I'm only asking because she said it was a favour to you, so…where are you?"

"I'm just finished in Low Town," Blake said. "I'm heading back up to Atlas."

"Great, I'll meet you at the dock," Rainbow said, and hung up.

"What's that about?" Weiss asked.

"I…I think I know," Blake said. "But at the same time I really have no idea at all."


	114. Conversations with Three Princesses

Conversations with Three Princesses (and a Principal)

Twilight: Are you sure that this is a good idea?

Sunset: Honestly? No. I'm not sure if this is a good idea. I'm not sure about a lot of my ideas lately. But it is an idea that I have had and if you're willing to entertain it then I don't see why you can't start getting things ready.

Sunset's suspicion that she had said too much was borne out by what Twilight wrote next.

Twilight: Is that something you want to talk about?

Sunset scowled. Sunset: Not especially.

Twilight: What's wrong?

Sunset: Didn't I just say that I didn't want to talk about it?

Twilight: Yes.

Sunset stared at the page in front of her. She'd never seen pony Twilight Sparkle, the princess of friendship, but she found that she could imagine the look on her face even so. Sunset: But you're not going to let it go, are you?

Twilight: Right now, I don't think that I should.

Sunset: Talking to you is so exhausting sometimes.

Twilight: Coming up with a way to get the mirror portal open isn't going to be a breeze for me, either.

Sunset: Emotional blackmail, princess? How very unfriendly of you.

Twilight: That's not what I meant, just please tell me what's up with you? Does this have anything to do with why you'd like Blake to be able to visit Equestria?

Sunset tapped the back of the pen lightly on the page. _How much do I really want to say about this? How much dare I say?_ Sunset: It's sort of connected.

Twilight: Go on.

Sunset: I had to make a choice and I made it and then stuff happened and Blake was there and now she's upset. Happy?

Twilight: Don't be like that. I take it that you regret the choice you made and that's the problem.

Sunset: No. That's not it at all. Quite the opposite, I don't regret the choice I made. But a lot of people wouldn't agree with me if they knew about my choice, and I'm worried that the choices I make to help or protect my friends might end up driving them away from me instead.

Princess, what would you do if you had to choose between your friends and some kind of higher cause, higher purpose, that sort of thing? If you had to choose between the many and the few, but you knew the few and the many were strangers to you, what would you choose?

Twilight: I chose my friends.

Sunset's eyebrows rose. _Did she just…?_ Sunset: Come again?

Twilight: Are you surprised that something like that could happen in Equestria?

Sunset could almost feel the heaviness behind each word, and if she had been able to picture Twilight's face before she could sense her weariness now.

Sunset: It doesn't seem like the kind of thing that happens in the land that I remember. Would you like to talk about it?

Twilight: Are you enjoying this?

Sunset: No. I just want to know if you want to talk about it.

There was a moment of pause, when no new words appeared on the paper, before Twilight's distinctive, elegant hornwriting resumed. Twilight: Tirek escaped from Tartarus recently. Did Celestia teach you about him?

Sunset: No. But if he escaped from Tartarus I'm guessing that he can't be anyone good.

Twilight: He wasn't. He was a I don't suppose it really matters what he was. But he escaped and he started consuming magic. All of it, from unicorns and pegasi and earth ponies alike, it was all the same to him. It was all power. Nobody could stop him, so Celestia, Luna and Cadance gave up their alicorn magic to me so that I could hide it. Hide it or use it, if I had to.

Sunset: Which, of course, you did.

Twilight: Yes. He found me and I fought him. I couldn't beat him but he couldn't beat me either. We were at a stalemate, evenly matched; but when it came down to it I traded all the alicorn magic in Equestria to him in exchange for my friends. They even told me not to do it. But I did it anyway. I handed Equestria over to a monster because those girls mean everything to me. I'd give my life for them but I don't think that I could live without them.

Sunset: I know exactly what you mean. Believe me, I know exactly what you mean. I take it the fact that you're able to write to me like this means that there's a happy ending twist coming? Or are you on your break from a shift in the mines?

Twilight: No, we were able to defeat Tirek; he could absorb all of our magic except for the magic of friendship that bound us together. That was how we beat him.

 _If only I could say the same._ Sunset: I'm glad you're okay, at least. And Celestia too.

 _I suppose I've got no choice but to tell her the truth now._

Sunset: I had a choice of my own to make. I could either guarantee the safety of the city in exchange for a high chance, or what seemed to me to be a high chance, that I and all of my friends would perish; or I could put the city at risk in exchange for increasing the chance that my friends would be safe.

Twilight: I see. I take it that you aren't on your own break from enforced servitude?

Sunset: No. We won the battle and the city was saved without casualties. I'd like to say that it was the magic of friendship but that would be a lie. I just got lucky.

Twilight: We both got lucky. I can't claim that I knew that I could turn things around when I made the trade, I just knew that I couldn't do anything else. I couldn't turn my back on them after all I've been through.

Sunset: Thank you, princess. You've made me feel a little better.

Twilight: I thought you didn't have any regrets?

Sunset: I don't, but I was worried that there might be something wrong with me for not having any regrets. But now that I know that the great princess of friendship, the paragon of virtue

Twilight: You're making fun of me again.

Sunset: Only because I know you can handle it, I promise. And because I need it. And in any case, I meant what I said: if you made the same choice, then it can't be such a bad choice, can it?

Twilight: Can it not?

Sunset: Do you have regrets?

Twilight: No. But I worry that might make me a bad pony.

Sunset: You're the princess of friendship, what other choice could you have made?

Twilight: Perhaps it is not such a great thing for the world to have a Princess of Friendship who puts her friends before the world.

Sunset: Do you love these girls?

Twilight: With all my heart.

Sunset: Then let Canterlot into the river melt. Cities are clay, and clay is common as the dirt. The nobleness of life is in our hearts' passions, and to do as we have done.

Twilight: Are you trying to convince me or convince yourself?

Sunset: Why can't it be both? It's funny, we are of one mind in this so why can we not offer consolation and conviction to each other?

Twilight: Because we are both too well educated not to understand how what we did could be seen by others.

Sunset: Have you talked to Celestia about this?

Twilight: I dare not. I'm not even sure how my friends would like to talk about it, or whether they'd rather pretend it didn't happen.

Sunset: I understand completely. I daren't mention it either. They wouldn't understand.

Sunset put down her pen for a moment, and sighed. She had been fortunate to get away with it with Rainbow Dash, she doubted that others would be so understanding. Pyrrha, Ruby, Jaune…too noble, all too noble. They would turn on her for that which she had done for their sake, and so she would not speak of it.

She picked up her pen again.

Sunset: Anyway. Blake. The mirror.

Twilight: It can be done, I'm sure. But I'm not so sure that it will have the desired effect.

Sunset: What do you mean?

Twilight: No offence, Sunset, but you've been gone from Equestria for a long time. I'm a little worried that nostalgia has coloured your memories. Equestria isn't a utopia.

Sunset: It doesn't need to be a utopia, it just needs to be better than Remnant; which isn't that hard in some respects.

Twilight: If it's that bad then why are you still there?

Sunset: You know why, because my friends are here; and because I couldn't abandon them any more than you could leave yours to Tirek.

Twilight: If Blake is coming there's no reason why you couldn't visit, at least?

Sunset closed her eyes. She could see Celestia standing before her as though it were yesterday. See her smile, feel the warmth of her wings and her neck, hear the softness of her voice; see her scowl and look down at Sunset with such stern disapproval, hear her voice ring out with judgement.

Sunset: I cannot.

Twilight: Why not?

Sunset: Because I don't deserve it yet. If I saw Celestia again I don't know what I'd do.

Twilight: You know that she'd forgive you if you came.

Sunset: That's exactly what I don't deserve to have bestowed upon me. That and I'm afraid of what I might do if I came back.

Twilight: What do you mean?

Sunset: This world is so full of perils, Twilight. It doesn't come in single Tireks but in ravening armies and it feels as though my friends and I are in the front line against those armies. The enemy is all around us and I want to protect them but I don't have the power. And I don't know how I can acquire the power either. I'm worried that if I did return to Equestria then I couldn't bear the temptation not to steal an element of harmony if they still existed, or some other great treasure of yours and take it back to Remnant to try and use against Salem and her creatures. No, it's best that I stay away from the mirror. This is for Blake, not for me.

Twilight: Are you sure she'll find what she's looking for here?

Sunset: Earth ponies, unicorns and pegasi once feuded with each other, hated each other just as men and faunus hate each other here in Remnant. But now the three tribes are bound together inseparably, part of a single entity that none can conceive of splitting up nor would they wish to. That's what I think Blake needs to see: that it's possible, that it can be done, that another way than the way we live in Remnant is achievable.

Twilight: Okay, I'll get to work. I just hope that it all works out like you hope, for your sake and even more for hers.

* * *

Rainbow's eyebrows rose at the audacity of Sunset asking _her_ for a favour. "Explain to me just why I ought to do anything for you right now."

Sunset rolled her eyes. "Please tell me this isn't about those idiots in Vale."

"I might not pay attention to Vale news as soon as it happens, but I know that people-"

"Don't call them 'people' it makes them sound respectable."

"People," Rainbow repeated. "Think that Penny was responsible for-"

"A few crackpots and cranks think that Penny is sort of responsible for the Breach," Sunset corrected her again. "Nobody who matters believes that, nobody who cares about Penny believes that and frankly nobody who isn't a paranoid nutjob with a face like a side of raw beef believes that Penny caused or didn't stop an attack on Vale so I don't know why you're so concerned about this."

"Because it's my job to look out for Penny," Rainbow said. "And for Atlas, and this makes Atlas look bad and despite what you say it makes Penny look bad. She's a kid and she means well and she doesn't deserve to have this crap thrown at her."

"I know," Sunset muttered. "It wasn't my intent to cause trouble for her."

"I know that," Rainbow said. "But you did."

Sunset bit her lip. "Doesn't it strike you as odd?"

"What?"

"That Penny is the one who's been named as the culprit for this," Sunset explained. "This woman, she says that she has evidence that directed energy was used to destroy the train controls; fine, it was. But if she has that evidence then who could have given it to her who doesn't also have evidence of who really wrecked the controls? I'm worried that Cinder's involved in this somehow."

"You think she's…covering for you?"

"I think that she and I have…a relationship, let's call it; and I think that she really doesn't like Atlas," Sunset said. "She could have passed on just enough to these Saviours of Vale to stir them up against Atlas; or perhaps she gave them everything and they decided that going after Atlas was more important than taking down one faunus." She paused. "I really didn't mean for this to hurt Penny, and I'm being honest when I say that nobody who matters believes that she could have done what she's accused of."

"That anyone believes it isn't great," Rainbow muttered. "If I asked you to turn yourself in to save Penny's reputation would you do it?"

Sunset looked down, and licked her lips.

"That's about what I thought," Rainbow said. "I'd turn you in myself if it wasn't too late."

"Let's not forget that you could have done something at the time and you didn't," Sunset said.

"I haven't forgotten that," Rainbow said. She sighed. "Do you really think Cinder's got something to do with this?"

"It worries me that she does."

"Then we really screwed up didn't we?"

"I wouldn't go that far," Sunset said. "We saved Vale one way or the other; and Penny might have a few people thinking ill of her but she isn't dead."

"And when you put it like that, ugh," Rainbow groaned. "This stuff makes my head hurt. I'm still not seeing why I should do you a favour."

"Because it's not for me, it's for Blake," Sunset said. "And Blake didn't do anything wrong."

"True," Rainbow said.

"How's she doing?"

"Why don't you ask her yourself?"

"Because I'm talking to you right now," Sunset said.

"She's…" Rainbow paused, thinking about what Blake was. "She's Blake."

"In a good way or a bad way?"

"Both," Rainbow said. "She was a big help on this Merlot job, but she can't let it go."

Sunset nodded. "Well, I hope that this will help her out a little bit. If you're willing to do it."

Rainbow stared at Sunset's image on the screen of her scroll. A part of her wanted to tell her know on the grounds that she didn't deserve a favour right now, but another part of her was aware that would be really, really petty especially since Sunset wasn't actually asking for herself, but as something to help Blake out, and Blake deserved to be helped out that was why Rainbow had brought her to Atlas in the first place.

And Sunset was right; Rainbow hadn't done anything about the train at the time, or after. She was upset that Penny's name was getting dragged through the mud because of something that Sunset had done, but she had a chance to do something about that and she hadn't taken it, and now it had gone past the point where she could do anything without it looking like Atlas had tried to cover the whole thing up and failed miserably.

Some people might even think the truth was nothing more than an attempt to shift the blame.

And none of it was a reason not to do something for Blake, especially after Blake had been such a big help in finding those faunus.

"So you want me to take Blake to Canterlot," Rainbow said. "And show her the Wondercolt statue."

"She needs to touch the mirror on the base of the pillar," Sunset said.

Rainbow blinked. "Why?"

"Because…you see…now, you've got to keep this a secret…"

* * *

Canterlot was a small Atlesian settlement to the south-east of Atlas, in an area that was currently below the advance of the snow-line, although Rainbow had exclaimed that come the fall the snow would start to creep closer, and when winter came it would be as white as anywhere. As settlements went it was not particularly large, being confined within the basin formed by a rough horseshoe of steep hills, all at least somewhat covered in evergreen firs, which surrounded the place on three sides, while on the fourth and western side the forests grew so thick as to seem practically impenetrable apart from the single road which had been cut through it. Mists hung just beneath the summits of the hills, and beautifully clean, blue rivers curled lazily around the town, reinforcing its sense of isolation from the wider world.

"Is this one of the farming settlements Applejack and Fluttershy told me about?" Blake asked as she looked out of the cockpit window. Certainly she thought she could see some farms on the outskirts, and the town itself was so small and so loosely arranged that it could be said to consist of nothing but outskirts.

"Eeyup, as Big Mac would say," Rainbow said. "Canterlot has two things: farms and a combat school, everything else is just…stuff, there for the school or the farms."

"Remote place to put a combat school," Blake said.

"It's not so far from Atlas," Rainbow said. "And we had all these hills and woods right outside to survival exercises."

"What about the grimm?" Blake asked. She couldn't see any visible defences, no artillery batteries on the hills, no watchtowers, nothing.

"Most of them don't try to come over the hills," Rainbow said. "The ones that do trip the alarms…Principal Celestia might not look like it most of the time, but that ursa major didn't know what hit it the one time I saw a grimm wander too close to town. There's her sister Vice-principal Luna, too, but I never saw her inaction. In fact we never saw her much at all, she keeps to herself and works in the back-office. Or she used to." Rainbow's customised Skygrasper began to descend towards Canterlot.

"So," Blake said. "This is where you all went to school?"

Rainbow said, "Me, Applejack, Sunset and Flash all did the full four years here, although me and Applejack were a year ahead of Flash and Sunset; Twilight did a one-year term here as part of her science…stuff; it happens, people come in to combat schools for a term or a year and learn how to recognise grimm and not die in the wild."

"Really?" Blake asked. "I'd never heard of that before."

"I hadn't either until Twi showed up," Rainbow said. "Apparently if you want to do research in the field or join the Survey Corps it helps if you have a little combat school training to put on your resume."

Blake nodded. Put like that it made a degree of sense. "What about your other friends? What about Fluttershy?"

"Rarity and Fluttershy both grew up around here, like me," Rainbow said. "Pinkie…hunting things is a family business for Pinkie, but unlike her sisters…she wasn't cut out for it. So she did the smart thing and quit, found her own way; you can't do this job if you can't commit to it."

Blake nodded again. Rainbow was right. Out in the field you needed conviction to survive. If you hesitated, if you had doubts, if you weren't convinced that you deserved to survive more than the enemy then you'd die.

She'd known it was time to leave the White Fang when that conviction had deserted her.

She should have known she needed help when it started deserting her again.

"Rarity and Fluttershy…I don't know how many other combat schools do this but Principal Celestia offers an aura studies track to people who are interested; no combat training, no grimm studies, just how you can unlock your aura and semblance and learn to do some cool stuff with it."

"That doesn't sound very usual," Blake said.

"No, but…honestly, I think it's pretty cool that she does it," Rainbow said. "Principal Celestia says that, if aura is the light of our souls then you should be able to understand that light, and let it shine even if you don't want to use it to fight and kill."

"That…that is pretty enlightened of her," Blake said. "But kind of nice, all the same."

Sun came up and joined them, resting his hands on their shoulders. "So, are we there yet?"

"Almost, we're landing now," Rainbow said, as she began to descend the aircraft towards the ground. "You were so quiet I'd almost forgotten you were there."

Sun shrugged. "Remind me what we're doing here?"

"I don't know, what are you doing here?" Rainbow asked. "Sunset only asked for Blake."

"Yeah, but she never said I couldn't come," Sun said.

"Would you have let it stop you, crate boy?"

"What kind of a name is crate boy?"

"A perfect name for someone who thought climbing into a crate full of grenades was a smart idea."

Blake covered her mouth with one hand as she laughed. "She's got you there, Sun."

"You guys sound just like Neptune," Sun grumbled. "Killjoys all three of you."

"Hey, I didn't say it wasn't cool, I just thought it was stupid at the same time," Rainbow said.

She landed the Skygrasper, and the three of them descended down from the hatch on the outskirts – if there was any kind of real distinction to be made – of Canterlot. It didn't take them long to make their way to Canterlot Combat School, with Rainbow leading them down the tarmac roads past the handful of houses and shops that made up this settlement. The town was about as busy as one might expect, with people moving to and fro, but after the densely packed mass of bodies that was Atlas it couldn't help but seem a little empty to Blake's eyes. There were a few soldiers on guard, but far outnumbered by the ubiquitous Atlesian combat droids that stood sentinel for any sign of grimm activity.

The combat school itself – once they arrived, which didn't take long – was empty, or at least it seemed so as they walked through the open gates, although judging by what Rainbow had said Blake guessed that this Celestia and Luna who administered it (and who seemed to be the town's protectors as much as the school's principal and vice-principal) were around somewhere.

In any case, there was nothing stopping them from entering; although the school was enclosed by a laser fence the gates were not closed, and the three of them simply wandered down the road that cut into the grassy courtyard.

Canterlot Combat School looked a very ordinary place, as far as Blake could call herself a judge of such things; it lacked the grandeur of Beacon, both its sense of history and its sprawling scale. It seemed to be mostly contained within a single building, albeit that building quite large, with a vehicle park and a little in the way of grounds surrounding it. But then, considering that even at Beacon almost everything was done indoors, Blake supposed that Canterlot didn't need spacious grounds.

Neither did Beacon, for that matter.

In the centre of the courtyard stood a statue of a horse, white and rearing with its forehooves in the air. The statue stood upon a marble plinth, but as Rainbow led them closer Blake could see that there was a glass panel like a mirror set into one side of the plinth. It was a mirror, as they got closer Blake could see herself reflected back in it.

"So," Rainbow said. "Here we are."

"Okay," Sun said. "But why?"

Rainbow gestured to the mirror. "Apparently you have to touch it."

"Why?" Sun asked again.

"I…I'm not sure," Rainbow said. "I think the real question is do you trust Sunset?"

Blake didn't need to consider it. Sunset had her faults, gods knew, but she didn't believe that she would do anything to hurt Blake and she didn't believe that she would have Blake brought here for no reason. And, although Blake hadn't always proved to be the best judge of character, she believed that she'd judged rightly this time.

So she leaned forwards, tentatively extending one hand towards the mirror.

She could feel…something coming out of it. There was a feeling in her fingertips, almost bypassing her aura; it felt like vibration, like someone was humming and that hum was resonating with her fingers, her hand, with her entire body. Was this magic? Is that what she was feeling?

She felt something calling to her, beckoning for her, inviting her.

Her fingers touched the mirror, which gave way before as though it were not solid glass but something else, less substantial like a liquid. Her hand had disappeared before she realised what was going on; then something seemed to grab her, and before Blake could even think to respond she was being pulled inside the mirror by some invisible and irresistible force.

The last thing she heard was Sun calling out her name before she was sucked inside the vortex.

* * *

Rainbow stared as first Blake, then Sun – who had leapt after her – disappeared into the mirror…into the portal.

 _She was right? Sunset was telling the truth about the magic portal thing? What the…she was telling the truth?_

Rainbow hadn't really believed her, although she'd pretended to because she'd felt like she had better things to do than argue with Sunset about it. After all, sure the world had gotten pretty crazy lately with Salem and magic and stuff, but another world? A portal to another world underneath the Wondercolt statue in the place where Rainbow had trained in combat? Sure, it _might_ explain the way that Sunset had suddenly just shown up one day without any clue of where she came from but still…a magic portal from another world?

A portal that Blake had just gone through, and Sun leapt through after her. Which apparently was what Sunset had had in mind all along. And this was supposed to help?

There was only one thing to do, of course: follow them in make sure they were okay. Rainbow prepared to do exactly that when-

"Rainbow Dash!" the voice of Principal Celestia, anxious and alarmed, made her stop; not least because she got the impression that this kind of thing was supposed to be some kind of big secret.

Rainbow turned to her left to see the principal – casually dressed in a purple trouser suit, with her long mane of many-coloured hair hanging loosely behind her – hurrying down the steps out of the building towards her.

"Principal Celestia," Rainbow said, trying to sound casual. "It's been a long time, hasn't it?"

Principal Celestia put her hands on her hips. "I may not have been able to prevent those two young people from going through the portal, Miss Dash, but I have no intention of allowing you to follow while I can prevent it."

"But I can't just leave them wherever they've gone," Rainbow cried before her brain caught up with her mouth. Her mouth with gaped open as her eyes widened. "Wait, you know about the portal? How do you know about the portal?"

"The real question is how _you_ know about the portal, Miss Dash?" Principal Celestia demanded.

"I, uh, I mean, it's like…a friend told me?" Rainbow said.

"I wasn't aware that you and Miss Shimmer were friends now," Principal Celestia said. "Although Ozpin did tell me that he had initiated you both."

"You know about Sunset?" Rainbow said. "And you work for Professor Ozpin too?"

Principal Celestia smiled fondly. "Why don't we go inside, Rainbow Dash? There are a few things that Luna and I would like to speak to you about, now that you're here."

"But I," Rainbow took a step back. "I can't just leave Blake and Sun…wherever they are."

"Equestria is its name," Celestia said calmly. "And please, believe me when I say that the place they have gone too is far gentler than anywhere they are likely to find here in Remnant."

* * *

Blake was surrounded by a sea of colours; they danced around her in pink and blue and green and yellow, pulsing as she was pulled along, circling like food going down a drain. She heard someone crying out, it might even have been her but she couldn't be sure because her head was spinning even more than she was. She only knew that she was being sucked along, being pulled to somewhere down this tunnel of light.

And then, suddenly, everything went black.

It took Blake half a second to come to her senses and realise that was because she had her eyes closed.

"Uh, I really hope that one of you is Blake Belladonna or this is going to be very awkward."

"Twilight?" Blake murmured, as she started to open her eyes upon a dark blue chamber, with a purple carpet upon the floor on which she lay, soft to the touch of her…why couldn't she feel her fingers? Blake's panic started to rise up in her throat like bile; where were her fingers? Why couldn't she feel them? Why was there just this stump on the end of her arm and why didn't it feel like an arm at all and-

 _I was actually born a unicorn. I was magically transformed when I crossed through the portal._

That was what Sunset had said, when she had confessed her secret to them all in Mountain Glenn; and now, if as seemed likely Blake had come through this same portal then…had she been transformed into a unicorn now?

"Uh, Blake?"

 _Sun?_ Had he followed her here? _Oh, you sweet idiot._ This wasn't good, he wouldn't understand what was-

And then he started screaming.

"Sun!" Blake cried, trying to get up and look at him but falling over in a tangle of four legs that, being two more than she was expecting, she struggled to control. She tried to rise on her two hind legs but, although she managed to get up at first, she soon last her balance and fell onto the carpeted floor again.

Sun, meanwhile, was still screaming. It was weird how she still recognised him even though he looked nothing like the Sun she knew, but whether it was the fact that he had the same eyes or the transformation had preserved enough of his features she recognised him nonetheless; he was a horse, not a unicorn – no horn protruded out of his untidy golden birds nest of a mane – but a horse, with a sandy-coloured coat.

"Could you please stop screaming?" Twilight – or the person who sounded so much like Twilight that it was uncanny – asked, sounding flustered and frantic in equal measure. "I can understand that this must be hard for you, but if you'll just calm down and trust me I can explain everything."

Blake, still unable to get up on her feet – her four feet – crawled across the floor as though she were suddenly a mere child once more and any minute now her mom would scoop her up in her arms and stop her from hurting herself. That didn't happen, and Blake was able to make her way towards the ornate, old-fashioned mirror that sat at the back of the room, surrounded by various bits and pieces that Blake couldn't have even begun to identify. She wasn't really interested in any event. Her main goal was to see her own reflection in the mirror.

She wasn't a unicorn either, although she did have a pair of wings folded neatly on her back. _I'm…a pegasus?_ Her coat was white as snow, and her new hair – her mane – was as raven black as her old hair, her real hair had been (or was) and just as long and wild and tangled as it fell down her flank. She was naked, just as Sun was, and she had a mark on her thigh: her black flame symbol, like a brand upon her skin except for the fact that it didn't hurt at all.

Reflected in the mirror she could also see the third creature in the room with them: an alicorn, if Blake remembered the word Jaune had used to describe a unicorn with wings correctly, with a lavender coat and a dark blue mane streaked with pink and purple; the same colours as Twilight's hair…and she had Twilight's voice.

"Twilight?" Blake said again, wondering if it was possible that Twilight Sparkle had beaten them through the portal and was waiting here for them for some reason.

"Hello," Twilight said, Sun having quietened down now. "Yes, my name is Twilight Sparkle; although I don't think that I'm actually the Twilight you mean. Now, uh, are you Blake?"

"Yes," Blake said. "This is my friend Sun. He sort of followed me here."

"I saw you get sucked through a mirror portal thingy, what was I supposed to do?" Sun said.

"I didn't say it wasn't sweet of you," Blake said.

Sun grinned at the compliment for a moment, before he remembered where he was and what he was. "So, uh, is anyone gonna explain why Blake and I look like this."

"Yes, absolutely," Twilight said. "I just need to work out where to start."

Twilight – this world's Twilight, Princess Twilight Sparkle – explained everything to them: that they had gone through a portal to a magical land called Equestria, the magical land from which Sunset Shimmer had come to Remnant many years ago (Blake knew some of this already, but it was all knew to Sun and he was appropriately amazed by all of it; Blake thought that perhaps Sunset wouldn't have chosen Sun of all people to be a keeper of her secret, but there was no way it could be avoided now and, in any case, Sun wasn't the kind of guy to go around spilling other people's confidences); how it was a land of unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies, which was the name for Sun's present state; how the magic of the mirror portal – magic that Twilight had worked out how to activate at will – had brought them from Canterlot, Atlas, to Canterlot, Equestria, where apparently what was a minor settlement in one world was the capital of a great nation in the other.

And as she explained the world she also helped them get up on their feet – or their hooves, as it was in this world – helping both Blake and Sun to stand up and walk. It was surprisingly easy, considering how long it had taken Blake to learn to walk in her natural form,

"I've talked about this with Sunset a little, and we theorise that the mirror magic gives you a little bit of a head-start," Twilight said. "Sunset says that she also adjusted to living on two legs much more easily than you'd expect, so the idea that there is some magic at work seems the most likely possibility."

"So Sunset knew what would happen to us when we came here?" Sun asked.

"She knew that something like this would happen to one of you," Twilight said, slightly pointedly.

"Then why didn't she say anything?" Sun said.

"Because it would have sounded crazy," Blake suggested. "Because she thought that it might put me off coming here? I don't know, and until we ask her we won't know. But it's okay. We're okay, aren't we?"

Sun looked down at his hooves. "Yeah, I guess." He looked back up, and at Twilight. "So, you're not the Twilight that we know from Atlas, the one with the computers?"

"No," Twilight said. "But I am Twilight Sparkle. It appears that everyone – or almost everyone – in Equestria has a counterpart in Remnant: a Twilight Sparkle, a Rainbow Dash-"

"There's a Rainbow Dash here."

"Absolutely," Twilight said. "You might even get the chance to meet her, if you want."

"And, is there a Fluttershy too?" Blake asked.

Twilight nodded. "She and Rainbow Dash are too of my best friends."

"Along with Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Applejack," Blake guessed.

"How did you-"

"It seems that some things don't change no matter what world you're on," Blake said.

"So, wait a second, does that mean that there are other version of us, too?" Sun asked. "Here, in this place, in Equestria?"

"I'm afraid I don't know about a Sun Wukong," Twilight said, and as she spoke her horn flared with a lavender aura that enveloped it, and also enveloped the folded-up newspaper sitting on the table by the door, the newspaper that rose at Twilight's magical command and floated over to Blake. "But I did find this in a Manehatten newspaper."

Blake looked at the paper that was being held up before her eyes. Twilight conveniently highlighted around the edge of the relevant article.

Heiress to wed Corporate Successor

The business world and Manehatten society were delighted by the announcement yesterday of the engagement of Miss Blake Belladonna and Mister Adam Taurus.

Blake froze. Her eyes widened. Engagement? The other her was marrying Adam? The other Adam, another Adam true but still…marrying Adam? Didn't she realise what he was? Couldn't she see? Why was the other Blake being so foolish?

Even as her eyes continued to read Blake's mind was halfway to planning a rescue mission.

Miss Belladonna is the only daughter of the steel magnate Ghira Belladonna

 _Magnate? My father is Jacques Schnee in this world?_

And has been a darling of the Manehatten scene since making her debut last year; she has often been seen in the company of Mister Taurus, and friends described the news of the engagement as far from unexpected.

 _I'm Weiss in this world?_

Adam Taurus started with the firm as elevator boy, and with grim determination worked his way up to the top. It was also announced that following the wedding, planned to take place next summer, he will become general manager of the entire vast Belladonna Corporation; Mister Belladonna intends to take a step back from the day to day business of the organisation and devote his time to his philanthropic ventures.

 _Adam is the Jacques Schnee of this world?_ Blake thought, remembering what Weiss had told her about her father.

There was a picture underneath the article. It was a photograph of the other Blake – who looked exactly like Blake did now, except that her hair was controlled and elegantly arranged into a giant beehive on top of her head – and a scarlet unicorn with Adam's eyes. They looked like they were at some kind of party; Adam was wearing an old-fashioned suit, with a carnation in his buttonhole; Blake was wearing a purple gown that billowed out around her hindquarters, and a necklace of black pearls clasped around her snowy neck.

There was no brand on Adam's face. There didn't look – and Blake admitted it was hard to tell from a single photograph – to be any of the scars on his soul that had so ruined the once good man that she had known. The Adam and Blake in this picture looked as though they hadn't a care in the world. They were smiling, no laughing at something that one or the other had said. And the way they looked at one another, with Adam looking down at Blake and Blake looking up at Adam, and in their eyes Blake saw nothing but adoration for one another, and contented happiness in one another's presence.

This Adam Taurus of Equestria had not been born into darkness, brutalised in the mines, had his dreams crushed before his very eyes. He might not have been born to great wealth and station – not if he had started as an elevator boy at least – but he had worked hard and his hard work had paid off: he had won the kingdom and the hand of the princess, and it was difficult at this remove to say whether it was his wooing or his work ethic which had paid the greater dividends in winning both. This Adam Taurus would not die in the same darkness that had birthed him, consumed by hatred and resentment, this Adam would never be forced to take up arms against a sea of sufferings because in this world there had been space for him to thrive.

And what of the other Blake, this Blake who reminded the Blake who stood and read of her more of a kind of Weiss Schnee than she did of herself. This other Blake, the other her that Blake didn't know and would never meet, had never had to learn to fight or kill; she had never grown up in a world where it was kill or be killed, never had to worry about the twin menaces of grimm and Atlesian military. What did she do all day, in this world were there were neither monsters nor prejudices to be fought? What would Weiss do if all the grimm in Remnant were suddenly to disappear in a snap? Did this other Blake support her father in his philanthropy? Did she devote herself to music, art, literature? Did she simply sit around all day looking pretty? Whatever the choice, the point was that she – the other Blake – had a choice in a way that Blake never had. Had possibilities in a way that Blake never had.

Blake realised she was crying. Tears fell from her eyes down her little snout.

"Blake," Twilight murmured, as she put the newspaper away. "I'm sorry, I didn't-"

Blake shook her head. "It's not like that," she said quickly. She smiled even as her eyes continued to water. "She's happy. She looks so happy."

Princess Twilight smiled gently. "Welcome to Equestria, Blake Belladonna; and you too, Sun Wukong."

"Thanks," Sun said, as he scratched the back of his head with one forehoof. "And, uh, sorry about showing up here uninvited."

"That's okay," Twilight said. "So long as you don't mean any harm to Equestria." She looked at Blake. "Sunset has vouched for you as someone good and kind, who can be trusted. But if your intentions here are anything but good, then I will stop you."

It ought to have been an absurd statement, coming from the mouth of this strange creature in this peaceful place, falling upon the ears of such as Blake Belladonna, warrior and huntress and killer. It ought to have been a laughable threat.

Ought to have been, but was not. In part because it was not spoken as a threat; there was no anger there, no malice, but as Twilight spoke the words a certain steel entered her voice, and for a moment a fire lit in her purple eyes, and it was impossible for Blake to scoff at those words, spoken without boastfulness but with a calm and centred confidence.

Blake did not laugh, rather she matched the seriousness of Twilight's tone with her own as she, thinking still of the other Blake with her princess life and her forthcoming blissful nuptials, said, "I still don't know much about this world that you call home; but if it is the place that I'm starting to think it is, or even if it isn't, I would never do anything to disrupt the peace you seem to have found here. And I would never disappoint Sunset's faith in me."

Twilight's smile swiftly returned. "I'm delighted to hear it. Now, what do you say we get out of here and I show you around Canterlot?"

Blake nodded. "I'd like that."

Twilight led them out of the mirror chamber - it really was astonishing how quickly Blake had taken to a four legged form, she reflected - and into the corridor of what Twilight swiftly explained to them was a palace. Not her own palace, but the palace of Twilight's ruler, Princess Celestia, and of her sister Princess Luna.

"Princess Celestia," Blake said. "The same one who taught Sunset?" The fact that, if so, this made her the same Celestia from whom Sunset had fled was something Blake left unstated.

"The very same," Twilight confirmed. "She taught Sunset, and then after Sunset, um, went away, she taught me. In all of Equestria there is nopony who can equal her wisdom, and few who can rival her power."

"And she rules this whole country?" Sun asked, as Twilight led them down a corridor marked by marble columns.

"She does, and she has for a long time; more than a thousand years."

"What?" Blake exclaimed. Sunset hadn't mentioned that. "How is...how?"

Twilight looked slightly apologetic. "I'm afraid I don't know the secret to the immortality of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, and even if I did I'm not sure it would be my place to share it with anyone. But it's true and it's the way things are and all that is good and wonderful in Equestria stands testament to how fortunate we are to have Princess Celestia watching over us."

Twilight's tour of Equestria's Canterlot started with a tour of the palace itself. Sometimes they would pass by a guard in gleaming armour, who genuflected to Princess Twilight as she passed, even though it seemed to rather embarrass her that they did so. They did not bow to Blake or Sun, for obvious reasons, but not did they give her the kind of hostile looks that she would have received from human guards, nor did their gazes follow full of suspicion. She was with the princess, and that, it seemed, was enough.

Twilight brought them briefly to the throne room, temporarily unoccupied with the ruling princesses both otherwise engaged and no need to guard an empty chamber. Nevertheless Blake marvelled at the size and understated grandeur of the room, the royal crimson of the carpet and gleaming marble of the walls, the beauty of the stained glass windows that lined either side of the central transact and filtered the sunlight in half a hundred dazzling colours.

"Is that you?" Sun asked, pointing with a hoof to the nearest window.

It was only when an her attention was brought to it that Blake noticed what Sun had spotted at once: it was Twilight, a Twilight depicted without wings but otherwise quite recognisable, surrounded by five other ponies as together they fired some sort of beam of light to envelop a larger alicorn, dark blue and black and sinister seeming by comparison.

Looking around, Blake saw now that few of the stained glass windows did not feature Twilight in some fashion.

"Are they all you?" she asked.

Twilight laughed nervously. "Celestia does like to keep a record what I've been up to." She laughed again, with even more nervous embarrassment evident in her voice. "Must be a proud teacher thing, I guess."

Something clicked into place in Blake's mind. This was what Sunset was seeking, what had been denied to her in this world and what she had thus sought in Remnant. Twilight had even unwittingly confirmed it when she said that Celestia had taught Sunset, then Twilight afterward. Twilight had succeeded at whatever test or task that Sunset had failed at, and thus it was Twilight Sparkle who was commemorated in five stained glass windows when once that glory could have belonged to Sunset Shimmer.

When Sunset talked of glory, Blake wondered, was she thinking of the glass itself or of a mentor so proud of her accomplishments as to wish to commemorate them thus? Did Sunset even know the answer herself?

Sun seemed more impressed by the windows that conscious of what they meant. A kind of wheeze of amazement escaped his lips as he regarded them. "What did you do?"

Twilight spoke quickly, and with as much modesty as she could muster, which turned out to be quite a bit. But all the credit that she tried to pile upon the shoulders of her friends could not detract from the fact that she had played a conspicuous part herself in great events, and it became clearer now why she had felt able to so calmly declare that she would protect Equestria from any malice which Blake had brought or sought to bring into the world.

"It really wasn't such a big deal," said she who had, with the help of her five friends, protected her homeland from a multitude of nefarious enemies.

Sun might have protested this, but Blake was able to silence him with a well-placed look. If Twilight did not wish to consider herself a hero then, despite how manifest her qualifications for that name might seem, it was not the place of Blake or Sun to cram the laurels onto her brow.

Twilight, having brought them into the throne room, now seemed positively eager to get them out of it and away from the monuments to victories that held little meaning and less glory for her; as she led them out, in between describing for her guests the history and provenance of this artwork or that sculpture, her talk turned away from her martial - in as much as that word could be used, something that Twilight's truncated stories had not made clear was what it meant to harness the so-called magic of friendship to ward off evil; it seemed more like a metaphor than anything real - prowess to discursive tales of everyday life and its misadventures in a place called Ponyville. Some of her stories were amusing, some were hilarious and some were simply heartwarming and sweet, but Blake found that what impressed her most was how well Twilight seemed to be navigating what she might call the Pyrrha Trap. Elevation, the placing of a crown on Twilight's head, had not isolated her nor had she allowed it to separate her from those dearest to her. It was a pedestal, how could it not be, but a pedestal from which Twilight was able to reach down still and hold out her hoof to those she loved.

Twilight Sparkle had all the glory that Sunset sought and the companionship that Pyrrha most desired; she blended both and held them in harmonious balance.

And then Twilight led them out of the palace and into the city of Canterlot, where Blake could only stop and stare in awed amazement at the sight that confronted her.

Whether the city was as archaic by the standards of Remnant as it appeared or whether, like Mistral, this was a city hiding it's advancement behind old clothes as though innovation were a thing to be ashamed of Blake could not tell, but she could tell that this was a metropolis as bustling as Atlas or Mistral for all that it was inhabited by a very different kind of denizen. The city heaved with ponies just like Twilight, just like Blake and Sun now appeared to be and the fact that this was obvious with a moment's thought didn't make it any less shocking for Blake to behold these teeming hordes of unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies all sharing the same streets or else soaring above them only to descend at the appropriate point for them.

It was a beautiful city, a city built onto the steep slopes of the mountain with the gleaming spires, tipped with golden domes burnished bright and appearing brighter still by the light of the sun, rose out of the rock in a way that was almost organic. Whether they were great palaces and mansions or the less opulent cages and shops that lined the city boulevards there was a beauty or at least a charm to all of them, and though Blake found the prevalence of hearts in the decoration a little much she found that that, too, had its own appeal, in the way that a girl can wear flowers or ribbons in her hair in ways that a woman cannot.

But it was the people who dwelt within the city, far more than the city itself, who fascinated Blake. All the kinds of ponies that Twilight had named, and some which she had not, like leather-winged batponies, creatures who somewhat resembled griffons, even hulking creatures on two legs that seemed part man, part bull - all mingled here without the naked or the veiled hostility that would have been present where men and faunus were forced to congregate together in Atlas, in Mistral or even in Vale. This was no homogenized mass - some of the ponies wore frock coats and tall hats, with the chains of their watches disappearing into their waistcoat pockets, or else the ladies wore impractically pouffy gowns which looked as though they ought to impede the movement of the hind legs, together with elaborate headpieces and glittering jewellery; those that were so fancily attired quite plainly looked down on this who wore nothing or who wore labouring clothes - but such division as existed seemed more equitable than it had ever seemed in Remnant. Those doing the sneering were unicorns and earth ponies and pegasi; those being sneered at were unicorns and earth ponies and pegasi. Twilight, who could see what was going on in front of them as well as Blake could, glanced at her apologetically, but in truth Blake was glad to see that it was not the case that unicorns sat atop the rest and ground them down without exception, or even for the lack of any sense that any race was expected to be beneath the others by default.

Twilight looked a little ashamed that her capital was not a paradise, but Blake had not come here expecting paradise. She had expected something different, and she had certainly found that here.

"They all bow to you," Blake said. "Even though you aren't one of them." Them, in this case, being the extravagantly dressed old money and the flamboyantly demonstrated new money who both alike prostrated themselves before the princess who wore nothing at all.

Twilight shrugged. "I was brought up here; I suppose I'm more them than I an anything else."

"But you don't act at all like them," Blake said.

Twilight smiled shyly. "I spent more time with Princess Celestia than I did with anyone else before I moved to Ponyville."

"And Celestia...she's not like this?"

Twilight shook her head. "Not at all. Princess Celestia is...you'll see for yourself."

"I will?"

Twilight nodded. "She'd like to meet you, later, if that's okay?"

"I..." Blake hesitated. The ruler of this country wanted to meet her? What was she supposed to say? What was she supposed to do?

How was she supposed to refuse?

"It's fine," Blake said, seeing no other response. "I would be honoured to make the acquaintance of Sunset's teacher."

Twilight smiled, and the tour continued.

Such a peaceful place this was; Twilight and her friends might have faced down the occasional ancient monster but it was clear to Blake that this was not a world that huddled beneath the cape of war with any regularity. The people here, no matter their race - another point, no race that Blake observed walked small or in a perpetual state of fear of the consequences that might descend on them if they raise their heads too high or talk too loud - lived, or seemed to live, in a state of fearless joy without any sign of the defences that would enable them to feel such security if they dwelt under threat of constant harm and danger. There were no pony huntsmen, of that Blake was certain, and their soldiers or guards seemed few in number (speaking of guards, as they passed by an open air cafe Blake saw three ponies whom she could only believe to be Pyrrha, Ruby and Jaune sitting at a table. Jaune, a pegasus, was telling a story that had Ruby bouncing up and down excitedly in her seat, while Pyrrha stared at Jaune with a lovingly devoted look which he was somehow contriving to ignore) and yet there was no fear that Blake could pick up on in any way. These were a people completely confident in their security, and it was impossible not to envy it.

And then there was the way in which, when the three of them were halfway down a particular street, a young mare started to sing about her hopes and dreams and after two verses and a chorus the entire street had joined in, leaving Twilight, Blake and Sun as the only three not singing.

"Does that happen a lot?" Blake asked once the music had died down.

"Sometimes," Twilight said. "It's actually a lot of fun when it happens to you; sometimes the whole world seems to change colour."

How was it that this world was so different than the one which Blake haddft behind? How was it that this world was so much better than the world which she had left behind?

"Blake?" Sun asked. "Are you okay? You look a little, you know..."

"Myself?" Blake suggested.

"I was gonna say 'Blake-y'," Sun said.

Blake shook her head. "I was just thinking about the other me; about the happy life she leads. Dancing, playing the piano, crocheting."

"You want to crochet?" Sun asked.

"No," Blake said. "But I'd like the choice." She understood why Sunset had thought that she might appreciate coming here, after the fears and misgivings she had expressed: to show her that an endless cycle of racial hatred was not the inevitable fate of disparate races forced to share a world, Sunset had opened up to her the paradise which she called home. But, as sweet and kind and well-intentioned as the gesture was it was not having entirely the desired effect on Blake. Equestria was a wonderful place and to compare it with Remnant was the difference between being shrouded in darkness and having the shroud flung off to let in the light. But that light was not so much refreshing as it was a painful reminder of what Remnant did not have.

"Why is your world so much more fortunate than ours?" Blake demanded. "What makes one Blake Belladonna so much better than the other that one must struggle while the other lives in ease and leisure? Why don't we deserve the peace and harmony that you have here?"

Blake was aware that she sounded like a little brat, and Twilight Sparkle would have been well within her rights to tell her so. But Twilight's face showed no anger, and her voice had only understanding in it as she said, "From what Sunset has told me of your world I understand why you might feel that way; but it wasn't always like this. We ponies didn't spring into being fully formed with open hearts. There was a time when the three tribes of ponykind were as divided by hatred as your races on Remnant."

"I find that a little hard to believe," Sun said.

"But it's true," Twilight said. "You have your monsters that prey on negative emotion, so do we: we call them windigos. At one time the hatred of the three tribes for one another was so great, and the windigos so empowered by it, that it nearly covered all the land in eternal winter and snuffed out all life amidst the cold."

"Then what changed?" Blake asked.

Twilight said, "Our stories tell us that the second-in-commands of the three tribes forged a friendship despite their differences, and the fire of that bond was sufficient to drive away the windigos." Twilight scuffed one hoof upon the ground. "I'm not sure it was as simple as that: from my own experience I know that maintaining a friendship with five other ponies can sometimes be as hard work as tending a garden of rare blooms, though far more rewarding; I can't imagine what maintaining the bonds between three disparate tribes took. But the fact that we're here, and our society is here and in this state, proves that it can be done and is worth doing." She smiled. "We may be a little luckier than you, but I don't believe we're any better than you in any of the ways that matter. It's been done, and it can be done again."

"On Remnant?"

Twilight nodded. "I believe so."

Blake would like to believe it too. She would like to believe that a harmony like that enjoyed by Equestria might one day bless her homeworld also. But how? How to build Canterlot in Mistral's green and pleasant land? That was the question that preoccupied her.

She had a goal, the goal of her life and her heart which she had begun to doubt might ever be within her reach. Equestria suggested that it was, unless pony souls were of a completely different and a better order than the souls of men (which, well, Sunset Shimmer). But how? That was the new question that required some answer, and for which she had none.

* * *

By the time that Twilight had concluded their tour of Canterlot the sun had set with a remarkable speed, descending below the horizon like a thunderbolt crashing to earth, and the moon - a whole moon, undamaged - had risen with equal alacrity to take its place and cast a soft blue glow over the night sky.

Twilight brought them to a palace balcony, one of many such by the looks of things, a wide, white platform overlooking a city illuminated in the darkness by a hundred times a hundred lamps and lanterns, casting the golden spires in a soft, warm glow that was almost cosy.

And there Twilight left them, for a moment at least, withdrawing into the palace to inform Celestia that they awaited her there.

Blake and Sun were left alone, with guards flying above them and the city spread out before them, neither paying them any mind.

"It's beautiful, huh?" Sun said.

"Yeah," Blake said. "It really is."

"Blake?"

"Yes?"

"How much did you know before we came here?" Sun asked. "About magic and Sunset and...all of it. You weren't as surprised as I was."

"No," Blake admitted. "There are a few things I know that you don't."

"I'm used to that," Sun said genially. "But why didn't you tell me?"

"Because Sunset's secrets aren't mine to tell to whom I choose," Blake said, looming at him so that he could see she didn't dissemble. "And because there are things I know that...they could be dangerous if you got involved in these things."

"I'll take the risk," Sun said.

"Don't say that," Blake said. "Not without knowing."

"How can I know if you won't tell me?"

"You don't want to know," Blake said, because there were times when she wished she didn't know, so that she could worry about equality and hatred without the looming spectre of an immortal demon sprung from the abyss stretching forth her black hand to make the White Fang the instruments of their own annihilation.

"Maybe," Sun said. "But I want to help you, Blake." With one hoof, he reached for the medallion he wore around his neck, the only part of his clothes or accessories to survive the transition to Equestria. His movements were a little awkward, but he was able to get it off and hold it, dangling from his hoof by the string. "My grandma gave this," he said. "She said it would bring me good luck, and I think it's worked out pretty well for me so far." With a little more deftness than he had shown getting it off, he draped it over Blake's head and around her neck. "I want you to have it."

"Sun, I can't-"

"Sure you can," Sun said. "If you're mixed up in something big, something dangerous, then…" he smiled. "If you won't let me in then at least let me protect you this way."

Blake smiled up at him. "Has anyone ever told you you're a really sweet guy?"

Sun shrugged. "Maybe."

The sound of wind rushing beneath wings alerted Blake to the fact that they were no longer alone, and she turned just as the alicorn landed on the balcony behind them. She was considerably larger than Twilight, with a coat of midnight blue and a mane of lighter shades which barely seemed to be made of hair at all, rather some ethereal substance which flowed behind her although the wind was not nearly strong enough for that. A black gorget around her throat bore the same white crescent symbol as was on her flank.

"I hope I'm not interrupting," she said.

"Not at all," Blake said. She thought it wise to bow her head. "Are you Princess Celestia?"

She laughed. "Nay. My name is Princess Luna, Celestia is my sister."

"Forgive me, your highness."

"There is no need to apologise," Luna said easily. She sped towards them, until she was standing beside them both. She looked down upon them, as the moon's light shone down upon the balcony. "So, you are the visitors from the other world. Did you find what you were looking for?"

Blake hesitated for a moment. "In part, your highness."

"There is no need for constant 'highness'," Luna said. "You are not my subject. In what way in part?"

Blake was silent for a moment, and then another. "Y- Princess Luna, is the story true, that Twilight told us? The one about the windigos and the three tribes?"

"You think Twilight Sparkle would lie to you?"

"I wondered if maybe it was a story you had invented to...to give yourselves an origin," Blake said. "I think Twilight believes it, but-"

"It is true," Luna said, as she looked away from Blake and out across the illuminated city. "This world was nearly brought to ruin by the hatred of those who dwell within it. More than once."

"You saw it?" Blake asked, for if the two sisters were immortal then there was no reason to suppose that they had not.

"I had it from my father," Luna said. She glanced at Blake. "I understand that you have been initiated into some of your world's higher mysteries?"

"I know a little about them," Blake said, hoping that Luna could recognise that Sun had not.

It might have been a trick of the light but it almost seemed as though a faint smile flickered across Luna's face. "We were fashioned by the God of Light, my sister and I; although the gift of choice is a precious one he wished to see what might be achieved if he were to set us to shepherd our little ponies, and direct their choices to the best advantage."

Blake's eyebrows rose. So the twin gods of Remnant had meddled in Equestria too? That, perhaps, explained why there was a magical connection between the worlds; it might even explain why everyone had doppelgangers. "What did happen?" If the harmony of Equestria was merely the result of two immortals arranging everything by the commands of heaven then what hope was there for a world whose gods had abandoned it?

"We came to love our little ponies more than our father-maker, my sister and I," Luna said. "When the gods grew tired of this experiment we resisted their efforts to…reset it, and we drove them off to leave our ponies in peace, untroubled and none the wiser. They have been gone these many millennia, and in truth I do not think they have been missed."

Blake stared up at her in awed at the casual way in which she had just described the downfall of the gods themselves.

"How?" Sun asked, before Blake could do the same.

"By the bond that we share, my sister and I," Luna said. "Creation, destruction, knowledge, choice, these are all powerful aspects of magic, but there is another power greater still which the brother gods knew not: the magic of friendship."

Blake smiled. "If only all darkness was so easily banished."

"Darkness," Luna murmured. "Yes, I know a little of the darkness. I have felt its call upon my soul; I have felt its claim upon my heart. I even succumbed to it, once upon a time, and sought to do such terrible things as might have snuffed out Equestria for good. But in the end, as the moment of my triumph lay at hand, I was confronted by six brave mares. They had no strength, they had no weapons, they had no hope; but they had one another and that was enough. The light of friendship purified me, redeemed me. As it has redeemed you, has it not?"

There was no judgement in Luna's eyes, only compassion. "Yes," Blake whispered. "It has made me better than I was before."

Luna smiled. "Trust in the bonds that you share with those closest to you, Blake Belladonna, and you will find that they will accomplish things you did not dream of."

"Have you begun without me, Luna?" the voice that spoke was amused, not annoyed, and their speech was accompanied by the rush of air under wings that signalled another pony descending upon them.

Luna bowed her head. "I fear so, Celestia."

Celestia. Blake turned to look upon Equestria's princess and Sunset's teacher and she stopped. She stared in awe. Princess Celestia's coat was shimmering samite, which glowed more brilliantly than the gold and amethyst-set necklace clasped about her throat or the gilded slippers set upon her hooves. Her hair, a myriad complementing colours, flowed behind her like a great river. Her flank bore the mark of the sun and in the Equestrian night she _was_ the sun, she shone so brightly on this balcony. She did not give light, rather she almost was the light and Blake could not look away though she be blinded by it. Majesty radiated from her like aura, and wisdom lay within the depths of her eyes. How could Sunset have ever borne to be parted from such, Blake wondered? But of course, the sundering was not by Sunset's own choice, in which case Blake did not and could not blame her for wishing to put as much distance - a world's distance - between them.

She bowed her head. "Princess Celestia."

She did not see the wing descend, but she felt the feathers, softer than the most comfortable pillow, envelop her gently.

"I am so sorry, Blake," Celestia whispered. "It pains me to know that there are those who suffer as you have. Were you one of my little ponies in truth then...I am sorry."

Her breath was upon Blake's neck, and it was like the very breath of courage itself upon her. Blake opened her eyes. "Thank you, Princess; but I would rather mend the sorrows of others than dwell on my own."

Celestia drew back from her, a fond smile upon her face. "Thus speaks a noble heart, but the very best if hearts will break if you do not attend to it." She glanced at her sister, and Blake could feel the weight of something private and unspeakable passing between them.

"I trust my friends to tend my heart, so long as I allow them," Blake said. She glanced at Sun, and smiled at him. "And I will allow them, now. I've learned that lesson at least."

"That is good to hear," Celestia said. She sat down on the other side of Blake and Sun from where Luna sat, the two mighty alicorns framing the visitors between them as they all looked out over the starlit city.

"Twilight tells me you doubt the story of our Hearthswarming?" Celestia said.

It took Blake a moment to work out - or guess - what Hearthswarming was. "Twilight suggested it might be more complicated than that."

Celestia chuckled. "Twilight is wise, and as in so much she is correct in that. The harmony that my little ponies now take for granted did not emerge out of a single night. It was the work of many hooves over many years: hard work, exhausting, and those who began the labour did not live to see it completed. But the tale is not wholly wrong either: it all began with the friendship of a unicorn, a pegasus and an earth pony, deputy leaders of their respective tribes. It may seem a small enough thing, and yet witness what a tree tall, strong, beautiful and hardy has sprung out of such an acorn."

Blake nodded. She thought about herself, daughter of the chieftain of Menagerie, and of Weiss the daughter of the sole owner of the SDC; might they, too, plant such a seed together?

"It will not be easy," Celestia said, as though she could read Blake's mind, and perhaps she could. "But if you begin the work, then one day it will be completed."

"The creation of a paradise on Remnant?" Blake asked.

"You think Canterlot a paradise?" Celestia said.

"You'd think so too, if you had come from where I have," Blake said.

"Perhaps," Celestia conceded. "And yet...no, this is no paradise. It was our intention when we founded Canterlot to make a paradise, was it not Luna?"

"It was indeed," Luna replied in an amused tone. "So arrogant were we in the days of our youth."

"We could not make a paradise because the world is full of people, and being people they are prey to faults and weakness," Celestia said.

"To which even we are not immune," said Luna.

"But, though nothing can ever be made perfect which must be lived in by the imperfect...it can at least be made good. And fear not, it does not require any immortal overseer to direct, only a set of kind hearts willing to take the first step." Celestia winked at her.

A little while passed in companionable silence before Celestia spoke again. "So, Blake, have you found what you were looking for?"

Blake looked out across the city, with all itsclights burning in the darkness like a kind of mirror to the stars above. This city of harmony. She would not see Atlas or Mistral become such while she lived, to that sad fact she was resigned; but if she lived, as she was now resolved to do, then she and Weiss might live to see Atlas become something other than it was before their time expired. If they could push the boulder that was Remnant a little way up the hill towards harmony, and inspire others to follow and take up the burden after they were gone so that it did not roll back, then one day it might, no it would, reach the summit.

It could be done. The evidence was right here in front of her. It could be done and she would start it, she and Weiss together provided she was willing to try.

"Yes," Blake said. "I found what I needed here."

* * *

"Would you like a cup of tea, Miss Dash?" Principal Celestia asked as she poured two cups, one for herself and one for Vice Principal Luna, out of an old-fashioned china tea pot.

"Uh, sure, ma'am," Rainbow murmured. As it happened she preferred coffee but she needed to drink something after finding that Principal Celestia and her sister were both involved in Professor Ozpin's secret society.

Principal Celestia smiled as she poured a third cup. "Milk? Sugar?"

"Three sugars, please," Rainbow said. Twilight ragged at her about how unhealthy that was, but she did enough running to burn it off.

Celestia poured the milk, which used up most of the bottle. "We'll have to get some more," she observed to her sister.

Rainbow couldn't help but snort.

Luna arched an eyebrow. "Something amusing, Miss Dash?"

"I mean, kinda," Rainbow said. "I just found out you're part of a secret society fighting evil and now you're talking about groceries."

Celestia chuckled. "I suppose it is a strange juxtaposition, but even huntresses need to eat to live." She set Rainbow's cup down in front of her. "How have you been, Rainbow Dash?"

"Fine, I guess," Rainbow said. She took a sip of her tea, it nearly burned her tongue. "Are you sure Blake and Sun are okay...over there?"

Celestia nodded. "Equestria is a peaceful place, as far as we can determine, and lacking in danger."

"Not least because they send all their dangers over to us, it seems," Luna grumbled.

"You two know a lot about it?"

"Monitoring the portal is one of our most important tasks for Professor Ozpin," Celestia explained.

"Why else would two capable huntresses be despatched to this backwater; out of the way, unregarded and of no use to anyone?" Luna asked with a heavy sigh.

"Luna," Celestia said in a voice loaded with gentle reproach. "We do a lot of good work here."

Luna was silent for a moment. "I suppose we do," she said.

"So," Rainbow said. "You knew all along that Sunset was from...Equestria?"

"Yes," Celestia said.

"And you just let her study, live in Atlas, you didn't...I don't know, do anything?"

Celestia drank from her tea. "No," she said. "We kept an eye on her, but I asked Professor Ozpin to leave her be. I...I took pity on her. I thought that she was the kind of person who belonged in Canterlot."

"Huh?"

Celestia smiled as she set her teacup down upon the saucer. "This is not the most prestigious combat school in Atlas, but since I have been Principal I've tried to make it a welcoming place for those without a home, without a path, without a family."

"A place where a directionless young girl can find her path in life, and forge friendships that will last a lifetime," Luna said pointedly. "You were not so different from Miss Shimmer when you first came to us."

"Yeah, I remember," Rainbow grunted. "Didn't work so well for her as it did for me, though."

"Unfortunately not," Celestia said. "Although Beacon has been more congenial to her, I believe. She has also been initiated, hasn't she?"

"Yeah," Rainbow said. She drank a little more tea, it was cooler now, and very sweet just the way she liked it. "So when did you-"

"When we were at Beacon," Luna said.

Rainbow nodded. "And how...how did you take it?"

"How are you taking it?" Luna asked.

Rainbow shrugged. "I...sometimes it doesn't bother me. Sometimes I don't think about it."

Celestia leaned forwards. "And when you do think about it?"

Rainbow sat still. She licked her lips. She got up out of her chair and walked towards the door. There were photographs on the wall, of graduating classes and prize winners, even a photo of her and her friends. "Why is this one on the wall?"

"Not many students from the huntsmen track bother to make friends with students taking the supplemental courses. I like to remember the fact that you did. Now, you were saying?"

Rainbow sighed. "I can fly. I'm good with pistols, SMGs, shotguns, and I can use rifles although I prefer something more close range. I'm the fastest thing you'll ever see on two legs." Rainbow was absolutely faster than Ruby and nothing would ever make her admit otherwise. "I can kick and I can punch and none of that matters because what we're up against can't be beaten like that. It makes me feel...tiny and pointless. If Salem decided to kill my friends there wouldn't be a thing I could do to stop her and that...that really sucks."

"I'd be lying if I said I didn't understand your feelings," Luna said. "I've felt the same way myself, more than once. And yet the danger is no worse for your knowing the truth than it was when you were ignorant, the only difference is that you are forewarned now."

"And I take someone else's orders," Rainbow said.

Luna nodded. "That too."

Rainbow made her way back to her chair. "You're right," she said. "That's why I joined: I wanted to protect my friends better by knowing what was really going on."

"It was the same for us," Celestia said. "We trained as huntresses because we wanted to help, and when the time came it seemed that we could hardly claim to be helping if we turned down the opportunity to do more good than we could ever do otherwise."

She looked at them, her old teachers with the secret she had never suspected. "Can I ask what it's like, working for Ozpin?"

"It has not been arduous for us, these past years," Luna said. "He has stashed us away here and left us; there are times I almost think we are forgotten."

"What Luna is trying to say is that those who serve Professor Ozpin do so in many different ways," Celestia said. "Sometimes we can forget that we serve him, so light are his demands on us. Others spend more of their time than not doing his work. It depends entirely on what use he finds for you."

"That makes sense," Rainbow murmured, as she finished off her tea.

"Would you like a refill?" Celestia asked.

"Uh, thanks," Rainbow said, handing Celestia her cup. Luna did likewise, and Celestia filled them both up from the pot.

"Do you ever regret it?" Rainbow asked.

"Serving Professor Ozpin? No," Celestia replied.

"But there are always regrets," Luna said softly. "Would you like some advice, Miss Dash?"

Rainbow nodded. "Yeah, I really would."

"If you want to fight the good fight, there is no better place than under Professor Ozpin's auspices," Luna said. "The battle remains the same, but Ozpin fights the battles that really matter, and holds the lines that must be held. But take care; there is a difference between being his warrior and being under his power. The former will give you purpose, the latter will...it will not be pleasant."

Rainbow stared at her. "I don't understand."

"Unfortunately I have said all that I can say," Luna said. "For now at least."

"Come on," Rainbow said. "You can't just...this isn't just me, Twilight's in on this too, should I be scared for her? Or for my other teammate Ciel? Is Ozpin going to do something to them?" Bad enough that she categorically could not protect her friends from Salem, a powerless that was gnawing on her insides like a rat, but did she have to worry about trying to protect them from Ozpin too?

"We really cannot say, because we do not know," Celestia said. "What I can say is that you will need your team mates and your friends; this is not a road to walk alone. Without the support of those closest to you then the knowledge that you bear will break you."

"You have a chance to do great, even vital things, Miss Dash," Luna said. "Just make sure that you are allowed to do those things. Don't allow yourself to be put on the bench, and hold tight to those you trust most. You'll need them more than ever."

* * *

Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna watched as Rainbow Dawn's plane flew away, bearing her two companions returned from Equestria away within it.

"You nearly said too much," Celestia murmured.

"Which means I did not say enough," Luna replied. "Ozpin's gifts are poisoned."

Celestia pursed her lips together. "You regret your choice, to take up the mantle?"

Luna scowled. "Do you remember when we began our training? How we wanted to travel the world helping people?"

"We help people," Celestia said. "We helped Rainbow Dash become a fine young huntress."

"Even so, running a small provincial combat school was not my ambition," Luna said. "I have the power of a prophet of old and for that reason I must hide away here and do nothing with that power, is that sense? Sit still, where Ozpin can always find me, and make no noise. I have no friends but you, for fear my secret would get out, I have no life, I take no part in the great battles which I could turn the tide of. I took this power on thinking that with greater strength I could do greater good but instead I am forcibly enfeebled by it."

Celestia could not help but chuckle. "You are so hot blooded, sister; winter's maidenhead suits you not at all."

Luna snorted. "Clearly I should have been the Summer maiden. At least then I might have a tan from the Vacuo sun."

Celestia placed a hand on Luke's shoulder. "If the maidens powers are not to fall into the hands of evil then they must be held, and there is no one worthier or better suited to hold the mantle of winter than you."

"If only I was allowed to wield them as well as hold them," Luna said. "Do you think he means to make a maiden of Rainbow Dash? She is strong enough and brave enough."

"You are too young," Celestia said. "You will hold this mantle until long past the point Rainbow stops being eligible to become the Winter Maiden."

"There are other seasons."

"None of them vacant, as far as I know," Celestia replied.

"If it was otherwise, would we be told?"

"Perhaps not," Celestia conceded. She stared after Rainbow's swiftly disappearing plane. "Good luck, Rainbow Dash," she said. "Good luck, everyone."


	115. We Need to Talk About Silver Eyes

We Need to Talk About Silver Eyes

Ruby felt Zwei's tongue upon her cheek before she opened up her eyes on the unfamiliar ceiling above her.

She caught a sight of grey and black fur to the side of her as she blinked against the light shining down into her face. She half-closed her eyes as she started to sit up.

"Ruby! You're awake!"

The voice belonged to Jaune, who was standing not far from her side in what Ruby could now see was a hospital room. Hers was the only bed occupied in the ward; Yang, Ruby noticed, sat by her bedside, asleep, her head resting on Ruby's bed and her face obscured by her long golden hair. Zwei yelped happily, even as Ruby pulled him away from her face, an act for which she compensated by starting to give him a belly rub.

"Hey, Jaune," Ruby said, with a smile. She spoke softly, so as not to wake Yang. "Where...this is a hospital, right?"

Jaune matched the softness of Ruby's tone with his own. "Sunset and Pyrrha are just getting coffee, they'll be glad to see you're okay." He settled down into the other chair, on the opposite side of Ruby's bed to Yang, and moved it a little closer to her. "I'm glad to see you're okay."

The smile remained on Ruby's face. "You say that like it's such a surprise."

Jaune frowned. "Ruby...you've been asleep for over a week; nobody was sure when you'd wake up or...or if you'd wake up."

Now it was Ruby's turn to frown also. "But I-" she gasped. "Penny! The grimm, what-"

"Penny's okay," Jaune said quickly. "Well, maybe not okay but...Team Rosepetal took her back to Atlas and Rainbow Dash said she'd be good as new once they did a few repairs. She'll be back here soon enough, in time for the Vytal Festival at least. Blake went with them, to get her injuries checked out."

Ruby let out a sigh of relief. That was good to hear, great to hear; the last thing she remembered was seeing Penny in trouble and being afraid that she might die, so to hear that her fears were unfounded was an enormous relief. As was the fact that there was still going to be a Vytal Festival, which probably wouldn't be the case if Vale had been overrun by grimm. "So…we won then?"

Jaune nodded. "Yeah, we won. The Atlesians are still working to seal off the tunnel at both ends, but it doesn't look like there'll be more grimm getting through that way." Jaune leaned forward. "Ruby, do you remember...do you remember what you did?"

Ruby blinked. "I fought the grimm."

"You activated your silver eyes," Jaune said.

Said eyes widened in Ruby's face. "I did?"

"Yes," Jaune said. "You saw Penny in trouble, you screamed and then there was this light, like...like wings or something coming out of your eyes and it was so bright that I couldn't look and then...then all the grimm were turned to stone and you were unconscious. You've been out of it since then, that's why you're in this hospital."

Ruby stared at Jaune for a moment, silent, lost in thought, her fingers moving by instinct to tickle Zwei underneath the chin. She had done it. She had activated her eyes, she had demonstrated her power, the power that mom had left her. "That's so cool!"

"What? No it isn't," Jaune squawked. "Didn't you hear me; you've been asleep for over a week."

Ruby shrugged. "So what did I miss?"

"Uh, not really very much but that isn't the point," Jaune said. "You could have...we didn't know if you were going to wake up at all."

"But I did."

"What if you don't?" Jaune asked. "Ruby...what if using your silver eyes isn't such a great idea?"

Ruby looked into his eyes, and a slight smile returned to her face. "You said that I turned all the grimm to stone, right?"

"Yeah-"

"And how many people got hurt apart from Blake and Penny?"

"None-"

"Then it was worth it," Ruby said.

"But if you hadn't-"

"Then it still would have been worth it," Ruby said, and the gentleness of her tone did not disguise the firmness of her words.

Jaune's face twisted with anguish. "Come on, Ruby, don't say that. If we lost you then...I don't know if we could carry on."

"We're huntsmen, Jaune," Ruby reminded him. "It's a risk."

"That doesn't mean you have to invite it," Jaune replied. "Ruby, you're amazing with Crescent Rose, you have one of the coolest semblances ever, and you've got Pyrrha and Sunset fighting alongside you and me backing you up. You don't need this power that we don't know what it's doing to you to be a great huntress. You're already one without it." He reached out, and pried one of her small, pale hands away from Zwei to clasp it between his larger palms. "I know that you wanted this, but you don't need it. Not like this."

"My mom could use her eyes safely," Ruby pointed out.

"And my dad was a great huntsmen, but look at me," Jaune said, with a self-deprecating smile. "Pyrrha's mom is the most stuck up person I've ever met, including Weiss, but look at Pyrrha. We're not our parents, and we can't always do the things that they could do."

Ruby might have replied to that if she hadn't been interrupted by a shout from the doorway.

"You're up!" Sunset yelled from where she stood half in the room, a steaming coffee cup in one hand. "Pyrrha, she's up! Jaune, why didn't you say anything?"

Jaune did not reply. Ruby heard footsteps lettering rapidly towards the door, and Sunset had the good sense to get inside before she was shoved off her feet by Pyrrha bursting in, her green eyes alight.

"Ruby," she gasped, as a brilliant smile blossomed upon her face. She bowed her head. "Thank goodness."

"Wh- I'm awake," Yang murmured, as she raised her head and her face emerged from underneath the curtain of her golden locks. Her eyes were bleary, and carried dark bags beneath them. "What did I - Ruby!"

Ruby smiled nervously. "Hi."

"You're awake!"

"So I've been told."

Yang half-leapt up onto the bed as she wrapped both her arms tightly around Ruby's neck.

"You're awake," Yang repeated. "You're awake and you're okay. You are okay, aren't you?"

"I might not be if you don't let go," Ruby gasped.

Yang did not let go, instead other hands joined Yang's in glomping on to Ruby Rose. Jaune already had Ruby's hand in his, while Pyrrha and Sunset came to stand on either side of her, each with a gentle hand upon her shoulders. Zwei squeezed into a gap in Yang's embrace that ought to have been too small for him and resumed licking her face.

"It's good to have you back," Sunset said.

"Honestly, guys, I know Jaune said it had been a few days, but it didn't feel that way," Ruby said. "I don't feel as though anything happened at all."

"But something did," Yang said, pulling just far enough back from Ruby so that they could see each other.

Ruby sighed. "This isn't going to be like that time I got tonsillitis, is it?"

"Probably."

"I don't need you to restrain me in bed and feed me chicken soup," Ruby said. "I can get up right now."

"Why don't we let the doctors decide that?" Pyrrha suggested gently.

Ruby pouted. She was only two years younger than the rest of them, not ten years younger; they didn't have to treat them like a baby. But at the same time it was nice of them all to show up like this. "Thanks, for being here."

Sunset gave her shoulder a squeeze. "Where else would we be? Although I am glad you woke up in visiting hours, they started kicking us put at night. So thanks for being so considerate."

"I'm just glad this is all over and will never happen again," Yang said, in such a pointed way as to leave no doubt as to what she was referring to.

"Yang-"

"No, Ruby, so help me but-" Yang began, as her eyes flashed red.

"Let's not have an argument, please," Pyrrha said. "This is hardly the time or the place."

Yang was still and silent for a moment, her eyes still scarlet as the flame. Then they resumed their normal lilac colour as she set back. "You're right. We'd probably just get in trouble. We'll talk about this later."

Ruby winced at that particular promise.

"I'll get a doctor, let them know what's happened," Pyrrha said, before - with another smile for Ruby - she left to go and do just that.

The doctors examined Ruby, and pronounced that although there didn't seem to be anything wrong with her, they nevertheless wanted to keep her in hospital for another day or two just to make sure. Ruby wasn't particularly happy about that, but with all of her teammates plus her sister all looking pretty insistent upon the point there wasn't much she could do but acquiesce.

"Have you heard from Dad?" Ruby asked Yang once the doctors had left. "Does he know about...about what happened?"

Yang shook her head. "I've tried to reach him, Professor Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch have tried to reach him; he was about to leave on a mission when we last heard from him, he must be out of contact. Same with Uncle Qrow, I can't reach him, either. Otherwise you know they'd have both been here the moment they heard."

"Sure, but since Dad doesn't know yet and I'm all better now-"

"I'm telling him, Rubes."

Ruby sighed. "Remember when you used to have my back?"

"This is me having your back," Yang said, unmoved by the appeal to sisterly solidarity.

Shortly afterwards Yang, who had been sitting at Ruby's bedside continuously, left to take a much needed shower with a promise to come back as soon as she could. Sunset went to call Blake and tell her the good news (also Professor Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch, who had both asked to be kept informed on Ruby's condition), while Jaune headed back to the dorm room to pick up a change of clothes for when Ruby was discharged.

Pyrrha stayed with her. She didn't sit down, though her standing looked a life awkward. She played with her sash with her hands. "I know I've never met your father, but I think he might be hurt if you kept this from him and he could out another way."

Ruby nodded. "I didn't really mean it. I just don't want him to worry. I don't want anyone to worry."

"It's a little late for that," Pyrrha said. She hesitated. "I hate to say I told you so-"

"But you're gonna," Ruby said. Pyrrha had always had reservations about Ruby's training her magic, and Ruby guessed that she was feeling pretty vindicated right about now.

"I take no pleasure in this," Pyrrha said, her expression matching her tone for sincerity. "And I admit that I was mostly concerned with the social toll that becoming a wielder of magic would exact on you, not the physical risk. But after just what one usage of this power did to you do you want to take the risk? You might be out for longer next time, or forever."

"Or I might be out for less and less time with practice," Ruby said. "Maybe I can even learn to use it at will, like my mom could."

"Or maybe not," Pyrrha said. "Isn't it too great a risk for too little gain?"

"Too little gain?" Ruby said. "My silver eyes saved Penny, and Vale!"

"You're presupposing that that was the only way to save them," Pyrrha replied. "You might have rescued Penny with your speed; we might have held the breach anyway. You don't know, and can't know, that silver eyes were the only option left. And besides, how can you practice when you still don't know what you did to activate them in the first place?"

"Well...I, uh...I mean I could...there has to be a way now that I've done it once."

Pyrrha sat down, at last. "Even if there is a way, is there a need?"

"You sound like Jaune," Ruby said.

Pyrrha smiled. "What's Jaune been saying?"

"That I'm good enough already, without my eyes."

"And he's absolutely right," Pyrrha said. "Ruby, you are a magnificent warrior. By the time our four years at Beacon ends you'll be better than I am, I guarantee it."

Ruby's eyes widened. "No way."

Pyrrha nodded. "You're so close already."

"Now you're just-" Ruby stopped short of accusing Pyrrha of lying. "But you're the Invincible Girl!"

Pyrrha snorted. "And what does that mean? That I've spent the last year's playing hero for the crowds and the cameras; but you…you're the real thing, already a real hero and two years younger than I am and you did it all without family money or sponsorships or any of the advantages that I've enjoyed to help me on my way."

Ruby grinned.

"What?" Pyrrha asked.

"I wouldn't be that great person you admire so much if I wasn't willing to push myself to keep getting stronger so I could help people," Ruby pointed out.

Pyrrha's eyebrows rose. "Oh, and I suppose you think you've got me there?"

"Kinda, yeah."

"And you might be right, if we were facing a power or an enemy that could only be defeated by silver eyes," Pyrrha said. "If that were the case I wouldn't stand in your way any more then I would reject a dangerous but necessary power if it were to be offered to me. But as that is not the case Jaune's point still stands: many great huntresses get by perfectly well without silver eyes, and you have the makings of a truly great huntress even setting your eyes aside completely." Pyrrha was silent for a moment. "All of which being said I can't stop you, if you're determined to keep going along this path. Just please consider this: if you use your silver eyes again then you may, at great cost to yourself, destroy many grimm and save many lives, but is that equal to the number of grimm you could have destroyed and the number of lives you could if you hadn't cast your life away so swiftly?"

That would have been a very good point, if Ruby had aimed at martyrdom, which she did not. "I don't want to die, Pyrrha, and I'm not just saying that in case Yang comes back either. I want to control my powers."

"I know," Pyrrha said. "It's just that...I'm not always sure how much you value you own life."

Ruby shuffled under the covers, making Zwei stir as she disrupted his comfort. "There are more important things," she said.

"I agree," Pyrrha said. "But I'm not so sure that this is one of them. I'd hate to see you throw away all the potential that you have on a quixotic endeavour that the world does not need and you cannot endure."

"What are you talking about?" Sunset asked as she strolled back into the room, sliding the door shut behind her.

"How's Blake?" Ruby said.

"Better for hearing that you were up, I think," Sunset said. "She's...Blake's been a little down lately. I've got an idea but...I don't know what will come of it, if anything. But she was glad for news about you. It brightened up her day."

"If she has been following the news from Vale she will have been glad of some good news," Pyrrha murmured.

"Pyrrha," Sunset said, softly but in a tone of unmistakable reproach. "Ruby doesn't need to hear about this right away."

"She can't escape it," Pyrrha said.

"What are you both talking about?" Ruby asked.

Pyrrha frowned. "A leading Vale politician has accused Atlas of staging the assault on Vale in order to facilitate a takeover of the country; specifically they've accused Penny of destroying the controls so that we couldn't stop the train."

"But that's ridiculous!" Ruby cried. "Penny would never do something like that and neither would Atlas, how can anyone say that? And how can anyone believe it?"

"They don't," Sunset said. "Pyrrha's exaggerating, it's not a leading politician; it's just an attention-seeker leading a mob of fruitcakes, nothing for you or Penny or Atlas to worry about."

"Ms China is polling well," Pyrrha pointed out.

"Polls are always wrong," Sunset said dismissively. "Nobody in their right mind is going to vote for a woman whose platform includes expelling all the non-Valish huntsmen from Beacon and sending them back to where they came from."

"She wants to expel you both from Beacon?" Ruby said.

"It's not going to happen," Sunset said. "Something pretty huge would have to go wrong for the majority of the public to embrace a platform like that: anti-Atlas, anti-faunus, anti-everyone who isn't Vale born and bred. But, yes, Blake is worried about it. I've tried to tell her what I just told you but I'm not sure I could wholly set her mind at ease."

Ruby frowned. Even if people didn't like Atlas how could anyone think so badly of Penny? She was much too sweet and far too kind to have any part in a disgraceful scheme like that. "We stopped the Breach together, us and Rosepetal; Vale and Atlas and Mistral too, I guess. We all worked together to save Vale. Why can't that be what people see instead of making up baloney to make good people and our allies look bad?"

"I'd rather not speculate on what goes on in minds like that," Sunset said. "Especially when they're irrelevances whose biggest achievement is to get on the news more often than they deserve."

"I hope you're right," Pyrrha murmured.

"You're not going anywhere," Sunset said firmly. "And neither am I."

Pyrrha nodded absently. Any further conversation on that point was interrupted by the loud rumbling of Ruby's stomach.

Ruby laughed nervously. "I guess I really was asleep for a week, huh?"

Pyrrha got to her feet. "Would you like me to pick you up something to eat from the cafeteria?"

"Really? You don't have to."

"It's no trouble, I think I know the sorts of things you like," Pyrrha said, as she started to walk towards the door. As she passed Sunset, she whispered in the war of their team leader, and Ruby thought that she could guess what they were whispering about.

Sunset nodded, but said nothing as Pyrrha left the room. As the door slid shut, Sunset leaned against the wall looking down on Ruby.

"You agree with me, right?" Ruby asked. "You think that I can learn to use my magic, don't you?" Sunset, Ruby was sure, would be on her side. Sunset had always been in favour of Ruby learning to use her silver eye gift, and she wasn't the sort of person to back down from a challenge either.

Sunset was silent for a moment. "You know your sister's a pretty scary lady," she said. She coughed into one hand. "I speak of what is to be feared more than what I fear because, after all, I'm Sunset Shimmer, but nevertheless...Yang is the kind of person who inspires fear in those susceptible to it."

Ruby smiled. "You're secret's safe with me."

"Thanks," Sunset said. She sighed. "Your mother never mentioned a reaction that strong in her diary."

"No," admitted Ruby reluctantly, because this wasn't going as well as she'd hoped. "I guess she didn't."

"If I was to push you into something that got you hurt, when I thought that I might have done that," Sunset said. "Anything Yang might do to my body would be nothing to what I would do to my own soul."

Ruby frowned. "So you think I should drop it, then? Just like Jaune and Pyrrha?"

"Did I say that?" Sunset asked.

Ruby hesitated. "Well...yeah, it sounded that way."

Sunset stared at her. "How do you feel?"

Ruby blinked. "Uh, okay."

"Are you feeling angry?"

"No."

"When Jaune and Pyrrha were telling you to give up on silver eyes did you feel yourself getting so mad that you could attack them?"

"No! Sunset, why would-"

"In my world there is a thing called dark magic," Sunset said. "Greedy ponies try to master it only to be mastered by it in turn. You might think you're making use of it, but really it's making use of you just as much, if not more. It works by negative emotions, which worried me a little about your eyes. I was just checking you weren't starting to fall under the influence."

"But silver eyes aren't dark magic."

"Probably not, but it doesn't hurt to be sure."

"And anyway, if I was turning evil wouldn't I lie about it?"

"Do you want me to use my semblance on you to check?"

"Not really."

"Okay then," Sunset said. "So none of Jaune or Pyrrha's arguments could move you?"

"I get where they're coming from," Ruby said. "And it was really cool when Pyrrha said that I'll be better huntress than her someday soon. But none of it changes my mind. I did something good with my silver eyes and I think that I can do more good if I take the chance. Jaune and Pyrrha say that I don't need this, and they're right; but I can use it."

Sunset nodded. "Okay then. If that's what you want it isn't for me or Jaune or Pyrrha to get in your way. Especially since I don't think it can be as dangerous as they're afraid it is if people were using it regularly in the past. And I know that just because something is a little difficult is no reason to give up on it: lots of the most worthwhile things are hard to get a handle on. But now that you know the risks I don't think we can half-ass this any more."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I was a moron to think that I could teach you," Sunset said. "I know magic but I don't know anything about this kind of magic, and I couldn't find enough in books to make me a teacher; you would have thought that learning from Celestia would have shown me the importance of experience but...I think you should go talk to Professor Ozpin. I can't say that I wholly trust him, and I'd like to sit in on any sessions that you too have, but he taught your mother and that means he knows something, which is more than we can really say."

Ruby nodded eagerly. She had never really understood Sunset's distrust of Professor Ozpin, nor her desire to keep secrets from him even after all which he had done for them. And, if Sunset wasn't exactly coming around she was at least recognising the headmaster's wisdom and experience. And she was making sense: Professor Ozpin had taught mom, and if he hadn't shown any inclination to teach Ruby he had invited her to come and talk to him about her mom, and Ruby could ask him to teach her while she was there. And hopefully her concerned friends would be less likely to object to her practicing under Professor Ozpin's supervision.

"Thanks, Sunset," Ruby said. "I knew I could count on you."

Sunset smirked. "Don't thank me yet, you still have to get past Yang all by yourself."

Ruby felt her mood deflating like an old balloon. "Oh. Right."


	116. Taiyang

Taiyang

The observation period had ended, and not before time; Ruby could finally get out of the hospital. Sure, it had only been a couple of days but she wasn't used to sitting still for that long. She wasn't a sitting still kind of person. Which is why as soon as they got past the no running signs she was going to use her semblance to beat everybody back to Beacon.

Everybody had come to get her, which was at the same time nice and kind of unneeded, it wasn't as though she needed physical help.

But it was nice of them all to come back, and perhaps it would be nicer if they went back to Beacon together, as a team plus Yang, rather than Ruby racing ahead; as much as she wanted to make sure that her semblance was still there and working.

The door into the ward slid open so violently that it hit the wall with a crack. Everyone turned to see Dad standing in the doorway, one muscular arm upon the door, his other hand clenched into a fist.

"Dad?"

"Ruby!" he yelled. "I thought...you're out of bed."

"Yep," Ruby said. "They're just about to let me out."

Dad frowned in confusion. "But...I got a message that you were-"

"Dad," Yang said. "Did you listen to the other messages or did you just rush down here after you heard the first one?"

Dad looked a little sheepish as Yang grinned at him.

"It's okay, Dad; better late than never, right?"

Dad laughed, even as he shook his head in embarrassment. "I'm so glad you're okay," he said. "Both of you. I swear that I didn't get into this much trouble in my first year at Beacon, and I didn't get into a big battle until summer of my second year."

"It's not like we planned it like this," Ruby said. "Well...I mean..." She wasn't sure what to say next, because she wanted to ask her dad about Professor Ozpin and silver eyes and Mom and why he and Uncle Qrow had kept all of this stuff secret from her and Yang for their whole lives...but she didn't really know how to ask about all that without revealing what she already knew, and she wasn't sure how much Professor Ozpin would want her to say, or how well her Dad would take the news that she knew about Salem and all the other stuff that he'd been keeping secret.

"Someone planned it," Yang said. "You didn't find your own way into Mountain Glenn."

"Yang," Ruby hissed.

"Dad, we need to talk," Yang said. "About a lot of stuff."

Dad nodded, even if he didn't look too happy about it. "And we will...I want you girls to come home with me, at least for a little while. We can talk about everything there, about your mother...about all of it."

A silence descended on the room, made all the more awkward by the presence of Ruby's friends. The fact that Jaune and Pyrrha seemed to realise- or think, Ruby wasn't sure exactly what Dad was thinking right now so they might have been wrong - that they were the reason Ruby's dad didn't want to talk right now was only making things even more awkward.

Sunset, on the other hand, seemed nothing daunted. If she felt uncomfortable at all there was no sign of it on her face; in fact she smiled as she took a smooth step forward and offered Dad her hand. "Sunset Shimmer, sir, leader of Team Sapphire; it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Oh, right," Ruby squeaked. "These are my friends, and my team mates; uh, that's Sunset-"

"Jaune Arc, sir," Jaune said, offering his hand.

Pyrrha, on the other hand, bowed her head. "Pyrrha Nikos at your service, Mister Xiao Long. It's a great honour."

Dad shook Sunset's hand first, then that of Jaune. "I recognised you from the pictures Ruby brought home last vacation, but it's good to finally meet you all. Thank you for taking care of my daughter."

"Dad!"

Pyrrha covered her mouth with one hand as she laughed. "We look after one another, Ruby included. We're all very fortunate to have her as our team mate. You have a wonderful daughter."

Yang coughed loudly into her hand.

Pyrrha's cheeks reddened. "I just meant-"

"Don't sweat it, I'm just messing with you," Yang said. "Anyway, we should be getting back to Beacon, especially if we have to pack to go home."

"We'll give you some space while you get sorted out," Sunset said. "I'll be in the library, but give me a call before you go and I'll come say goodbye."

"The same here," Jaune said. "Well, I probably won't be in the library but-"

"There is that homework from Doctor Oobleck that needs to be taken care of," Pyrrha reminded him.

Jaune sagged. "Really? After everything we've been through?"

"After everything we've been through this ought to be nothing, come on," Sunset said, as she took Jaune by the arm. "It was nice to meet you, sir."

"And you, Miss Shimmer," Dad said, and he nodded affably to all three of Ruby's friends. "It's a shame that I can't get to know you better, but I just want to get my girls home right now."

"Of course," Pyrrha said. "We quite understand. Good day, Mister Xiao Long, Ruby."

"Later," Ruby called, as the three of them took their leave of her family.

"They seemed nice," Dad said, as the door slid shut. "Although when did I get old enough to be called sir?"

"A few years ago, at least," Yang said. "Come on, we'll show you to our rooms."

Ruby guessed that her friends had taken an indirect route back to Beacon, because she didn't see any sign of them as she, Yang and Dad took the quickest route back from the hospital. The streets were pretty quiet, although she saw some Atlesian Knights on patrol down one of the busier shopping streets, and the pedestrians passing by were eyeing them warily. Ruby told herself that there was a big gap between being nervous around the robots and believing that Atlas had staged the Breach.

"I don't know what Ozpin was thinking, sending you out on a mission like that on your first year," Dad said.

"Why don't you ask him?" Yang asked. "Or don't you talk any more?"

Dad sighed. "Not so much, no; not since...not for quite a long time now."

"Since Mom-" Ruby began.

"Later," Dad said. "I...I know that you both want answers, but I don't know if I can do this out in public, I...please, humour me."

"Sure," Ruby said. "Sorry."

"It's okay," Dad assured her. They arrived at Beacon not long after, and as they walked through the courtyard Dad looked as though he was torn between appreciating the beauty and being repelled by the memories it stirred in him.

"A part of me just wishes that I could take in the nostalgia of all this," Dad murmured. "If only the circumstances were different."

"Maybe you could come visit again for the Vytal Festival?" Ruby said. "It would be great to have you cheering us on for stands." It would mean having at least one person in those same stands who was actually cheering for Ruby and not waiting for her to make a fool of herself. Honestly, Ruby was kind if dreading the tournament because of the whole performing where everyone could see her thing, but if she knew that Dad was there it might be a little better. "Sunset says we're sure to do really well-"

"Of course you are, your team is so overpowered you're practically cheating," Yang said.

"We're not cheating," Ruby replied.

"You've got a world renowned fighter on your team, Sunset's powers are ridiculous, you're a prodigy and Jaune can make you all even stronger," Yang said.

"Well what about your team?" Ruby asked. "You're the strongest first year at Beacon, Nora can bench press ten of her, Ren's basically a ninja and Blake actually is a ninja, so what do you have to complain about?"

"Nothing, I just think it's weird you're acting like it's a big surprise that Team Sapphire is going to make it through to at least the doubles."

"I would love to come and cheer you both on," Dad said. "But unfortunately the fall term at Signal takes place at the same time, and someone has to train the next generation of Vytal contestants. Ruby, that reminds me, you should get in touch with your old friends there; they're starting to feel like you've forgotten them."

"Oh, right," Ruby murmured. The worst part was that wasn't even that far from the truth. She had become so engrossed in her life at Beacon that she had forgotten to regularly document that life for her friends at Signal in spite of her promise to do just that.

"You're not the only one who's guilty of that," Yang said. "I haven't spoken to my old friends in...it's like a different life already."

"But it wasn't," Dad reminded. "But then who am I to judge you? The only friend I have is my old Beacon team-mate. Do what you want, both of you."

Ruby glanced at Yang, and knew from the look in her sister's eyes that they both wanted to make a little more of an effort in future.

They headed to Yang's dorm first, where they found a delicious smell wafting out from underneath the door; inside the room they found Ren and Nora, the latter holding a platter full of steaming hot pancakes in his arms and wearing a pink apron over his green jacket.

"You're back!" Nora cried. "Welcome home, Ruby! Ren made pancakes."

"And Nora ate all the syrup," Ren said.

"It was asking for it, just sitting there like that!" Nora's eyes narrowed. "Hey, where's everybody else, and who's the old guy?"

"That would be their father," Ren said as he set down the pancakes. His apron, Ruby could now see, bore the words Please Do Nothing to the Cook. "It's an honour to-"

"Please, nobody else call me sir today," Dad said. "Let me guess: Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie, right? Yang's told me about you both."

"Good things, I hope," Ren said.

"What you deserve," Yang said brightly.

"What I deserve?" Nora cried. "What did I ever do to you?"

Yang laughed. "Thanks for the pancakes, Ren, but I'm afraid we'll have to pass. Ruby and I are going home for a little while."

Ren nodded. "I understand, although I don't know what we'll do with all these-" he looked down to see that half the pancakes had disappeared already. "Never mind."

"What?" Nora asked through a full mouth. "It's this or you'd have to throw them away." She swallowed. "Anyway, what do you say we finish the rest of these outside?"

"Why?"

"You know," Nora said. "Somewhere else." She picked up the pancakes in one hand and grabbed Ren by the arm with the other. "Yell when it's time to say goodbye, Yang; nice to meet you, Yang's dad."

"You wouldn't guess that she's the perceptive one, would you?" Yang asked as the door closed after the pair.

"They seem nice," Dad said.

"Oh, yeah, there's not a malicious bone between them," Yang said. "They're real good people. It still doesn't explain how Nora gets people better than Ren does."

They packed Yang's stuff, or at least all the stuff that Yang wanted to take with her back home for the vacation, fairly quickly before heading on to the SAPR dorm room to do the same for Ruby.

"Ooh, Dad," Ruby said, as they went inside. "Did I tell you, this used to be your room?"

Dad's eyebrows rose. "Now that you mention it it does look a little familiar, but how did you-"

"We found your names on the wall," Ruby said excitedly, pushing her bed forward a little to make it easier to see the STRQ initials and emblems carved into the wall beneath the new SAPRB initials that her team and Blake had made. "Look, see, that was you, wasn't it?"

Dad climbed slowly up onto the bed and stared at the letters carved into the plaster. He stared, and as he stared his hand reached our and tentatively stroked first the R, and then the S for a longer season.

"I remember when we did this," Dad breathed. "It was after we got back from Ozpin's Stand. We felt like...we were high on victory and we felt like we were already the greatest huntsmen that ever lived. It was your mother's idea to do this; she said we'd be leaving something behind to inspire future huntsmen who'd come after us."

"It worked," Ruby said, with a smile. "It inspired us, just like she wanted."

Dad didn't seem to hear her. He stared at the STRQ, his fingers lingering over the S for Summer. He glanced upwards. "That's you, I take it?"

"Yeah," Ruby said. "We, uh, we didn't wait until after a big win like the Breach. Sunset did that on our first night here, to show we'd be as great as you guys one day."

Dad nodded. "I hope," he began, as he climbed off Ruby's bed. "I hope that your team fares better than mine," he said, as he sank down onto Jaune's bed.

"Dad?" Ruby said.

"Are you okay?" Yang asked.

Dad bowed his head. "I love you, Yang. I don't...You know that I love you, don't you?"

Yang nodded. "Sure."

"But sometimes...when I think of how I must have hurt your mother, chasing after Raven while she...and I never even noticed. When I think of how much more...I wish we'd had more time."

Yang sat down beside him. "Dad, it's okay; I get it. I wish we'd had more time with Mom too."

Ruby nodded. However important the work she had died doing, whether it was for Professor Ozpin or just as a huntress, there could be no doubt that Mom had been stolen from them before her time, taken away from her family while they still needed her every bit as much as those she had given her life to protect. But, in a strange way, that made it more important to Ruby to live up to those same ideals. Summer Rose had never gotten to teach her daughters how to fight, or how to dance, or how to walk in high heels or anything. But she had taught them about the importance of doing the right thing no matter how difficult, no matter what the cost; they were obliged to take that solitary lesson to heart.

They packed Ruby's things next, and headed to the sky dock where Dad had left the Bullhead that he had used to fly in from his mission and which he would now fly them home in.

Sunset, Jaune and Pyrrha showed up at the dock, as did Ren and Nora, all of them full of smiles and good wishes as Yang and Ruby boarded the aircraft. Ruby waved to them out of the window as the plane flew away from Vale, waving as their forms got smaller and smaller until they were out of sight.

The three of them didn't talk much as they hopped across the narrow stretch of sea to Patch, then got a cab into the nearest village before walking the rest of the way home. It felt like everything was waiting upon the moment when they finally got home and Dad would unburden himself about all the secrets that he'd been keeping from them their whole lives about, well, everything. That anticipation was like a weight on Ruby's shoulders, it dogged her steps and haunted her mind and made her tongue-tied; she couldn't talk about anything else, she could barely think about anything else, she so badly wanted to get home and find out the truth and yet at the same time, she wanted the miles to their rural cabin to stretch out twice as far or more than was the case because what if she didn't like the answers? What if she was better off not knowing?

No. No, that wouldn't happen. This was her legacy. No matter what the truth was she, they, would both be better off for knowing it.

And so they arrived at home to find the door open and a woman in the kitchen, a woman with long black hair and crimson armour, cooking what smelt like omelette.

"Raven?" Dad gasped in disbelief.

The woman looked over her shoulder at them, revealing eyes that were red as blood. "Tai," she said. "You're out of eggs."


	117. The Tale of Team STRQ

The Tale of Team STRQ

 _Four heroes stood in the gloomy throne room, the perpetual night sky without casting the rocky chamber in a mire of darkness banished only by the candles burning in sconces on the walls._

 _The chamber was bare, empty as though it had been stripped clean in advance of their coming._

 _But that would have required someone to know that they were coming, and that was a prospect that Raven really wished to entertain._

 _Yet now that she had called it into being with a thought she found she could not banish it._

 _Team STRQ stood at one end of the long room, weapons ready were they had them: Raven and Qrow had their swords drawn, Summer was prepared to use the rifle rather than the axe, Tai had his fists drawn back to strike. Because at the other end of the room, standing before a simple wooden chair, was their enemy: the enemy, Salem herself. She was uglier than Raven had expected; for an adversary who could not be killed she looked an awful lot like a corpse already._

 _She neither looked worried nor surprised to see them._

 _"So," Salem said. "Ozpin has finally decided to strike at me. And he has chosen the four of you to do it. You must be quite the talents."_

 _"We made it this far, didn't we?" Qrow said._

 _Salem laughed. "And yet you never stopped to ask yourselves if it wasn't perhaps a little too easy to make it all the way into my sanctum? A handful of beowolves, a single beringel outside the door? And here I thought Ozpin looked for brains as well as brawn in his servants."_

 _Raven scowled. It had been easy getting in here, but no one had wanted to say that it had felt too easy because they had all wanted it to be that easy; they had all wanted this to be done quickly and simply so that they could get out of this place as quickly as possible._

 _Her hands shook a little. "What are you saying?"_

 _Salem's smile was ugly in how smug it was. "I'm saying that if you had been devoured on your way up here we wouldn't be able to have this little chat, would we?" She snapped her fingers once, and immediately a great howl of grimm arose from beyond the chamber: the beowolves and the ursai roared, the beringels howled as they beat their chest, the nevermores shrieked and the manticores bellowed._

 _It wasn't just a small number of grimm out there it was a horde, a great host that had lain in weight for them, and Team STRQ had walked right into the trap._

 _Of the four of them, only Summer did not look afraid. Summer never seemed afraid. Her face could be kind or it could be courageous or it could even be angry sometimes but Raven had never seen her afraid._

 _Summer took a step forward ahead of the others. "You may have an army of grimm outside, but they're out there and we're in here with you."_

 _Salem looked no more fazed by that realisation than Summer seemed afraid of Salem's grimm beyond. "You're very brave to come here. How does Ozpin acquire the loyalty of such as you? Not with the truth, surely. What has he told you about me? What has he told you about himself?"_

 _"Enough," Summer said._

 _"Enough that you are willing to be his sacrifices?" Salem said. "Enough that you came here to fail and fall at his behest? And while with child too, Raven. You must be a true believer or very callous to risk your child thus."_

 _Raven gasped. "How do you know that?" How could she possibly know that? Raven had only found out a few days ago, she'd only told Tai yesterday - she had been planning to keep it a secret until after the mission because she knew that Tai and Qrow would make a fuss about her staying behind, which they had; but Summer had worked out that Raven was pregnant from the signs and insisted that telling the father was the right thing to do, and it was hard to say no to Summer Rose when she was lecturing you on right and wrong._

 _"I know many things," Salem replied. "For I was blessed with the power of knowledge ere magic faded from the world." She smirked. "I know you, Raven of the Branwen tribe; I see into your very heart. Deep down you know exactly how this story ends."_

 _"No," Raven whispered, shaking her head._

 _"In this world, only the strong survive, and your comrades are too weak to stand the storm."_

 _"Raven, don't listen to her," Summer said. "Together we can-"_

 _"Die one and all and merrily together? Yes, you can," Salem said. "Or at least you could. But even now there is still time. Time to turn away. Time to walk away. Time to leave these fools to their fate."_

 _Raven's breathung came in short, sharp bursts. It was true: in this world only the strong survived, and only those who were willing to do whatever it took in defiance of all law and morality would prosper; that was the way of the world that Raven and Qrow had learnt upon the knee of their father, the chieftain of their tribe. In this world only the strong survived and the ruthless thrived, and Raven had marked Summer and Taiyang as weak from the moment she met them._

 _But then, as the days and months at Beacon had drawn on, Raven had begun to wonder if their father had been mistaken, if there were not other kinds of strength than a willingness to do anything to anyone to get ahead; strength like Summer had, a strength that came from loyalty and kindness and a heart full of courage._

 _A strength that came from standing together with those who believed you could he better than you were before. A strength that came from friendship._

 _Raven felt, had felt for some time now, as if she were stood at a fork in the road where she would have to choose which path to take: the path of the Branwen tribe, the path of strength, the path where the strong survived and the weak left to perish (at best, at worst they were helped along the way); or she could take the path of Summer's friendship and Tai's love, of four hearts that beat as one, of comrades working together to overcome their weaknesses. Two paths she could not walk together, two worlds she could not straddle forever, and now Salem told her-_

 _"Raven, snap out of it!"_

 _Summer's words cut through the fog of Raven's self-doubt likeca searchlight. Her voice was like a bugle rallying men to arms, drowning out the noises of the grimm without._

 _"That's enough," Summer declared. "You may think you know us but you don't. You may say that you let us get this far but I say we came this far together, because we're a team; a team that's already done incredible things, things that people said couldn't be done but we did it anyway because we worked together. You may think that you know us but you have no idea how strong our bond is. It's the ties that bind us that have got us this far and it's those ties that will defeat you!" Summer began to roar as the brilliant silver light began to shine forth from her eyes, first in shining silver wings and then, as Summer's cry became louder still, loaded with that mixture of anger and pain that made witnessing her power both an awe-inspiring and a horrifying experience, the shining light engulfed the entire room, blinding Raven and her team mates._

 _It was the light that no evil could withstand. The light at the heart of Oz's plan. Although they might not be able to kill Salem it was hoped that Summer's eyes could still trap her in stone for a few hundred years at least._

* * *

"Raven," Dad breathed. "What are you doing-"

"I got bored waiting for you to show up so I decided to make myself a snack."

"Here?" Dad finished, sounding angrier by the moment. "What are you doing here, Raven? In my house, where my family is?"

Raven turned to face him. Her expression was sour, but it was her eyes that held Ruby's attention: they were as red as blood, and so like Yang's eyes when she got angry that Ruby couldn't help but read fury there. So this was Yang's birth mom, the person who had run out on Yang and Dad and left Mom to pick up the pieces. And now she was in their kitchen as though the intervening years had never happened.

As though Mom had never happened.

Ruby found a scowl had settled on her face without her even knowing it.

Raven didn't notice. She was still too focussed on Dad. "People don't talk to me like that these days, Tai," she said. Her sternness evaporated into a sardonic grin. "Honestly, it's a little refreshing."

"What are you doing here?" Dad growled.

"I'm here because I've been proven right about everything," Raven said. "I told you that Oz would try and recruit the girls and he did, I told you that he'd spin it so they were eating out of his hand and he has; and you, Yang, I told you to read your Summer's diary-"

"We did-" Yang started.

"Not fast enough," Raven said sharply. "I warned you about Professor Ozpin and you did nothing."

"Why should we believe you over Professor Ozpin?" Ruby demanded. "He's fighting to protect humanity, what are you doing?"

Raven looked at her, and as she looked her face paled and one hand reached for the hilt of the sword she wore at her hip.

Dad stepped proactively in front of Ruby as Yang cocked her Ember Celica and raised her fists.

Raven let go of her blade and raised her hands in submission. "I'm sorry, I...You must be Ruby. You look so like your mother that for a moment I...it was like looking at a ghost. I mean no harm." Neither Dad nor Yang looked ready to just accept her word, which caused an offended look to cross her face. "Tai, you know I'd never hurt Summer's girl."

"I don't know you any more, Raven," Dad said. "If I ever did."

"This is who I am," Raven said. "And who I always was. The good girl you and Summer wanted me to be was just an illusion, a mask that I put on. I forgot that for a while, and started to believe that maybe the mask I wore was my actual face, or could be…but then I remembered better."

"Why," Dad said for the third time. "Are you here?"

Raven turned her back on him, and for a few moments she buried himself with plating up her omelette. "I'm here to tell the truth," Raven said, as she sprinkled ketchup onto her creation. "I think it's time, don't you?" She turned round, plate in hand. "Shall we go into the living room or are you going to stand there all afternoon?"

Dad hesitated for a moment. "Girls, let's go into the living room."

"Are you sure?" Yang asked.

Dad nodded. "Your...Raven's just hear to talk."

Nevertheless, he kept himself between Raven and his daughters as they went into the living room, and when Yang and Ruby sat down together on the sofa, and Raven sat cross-legged on the floor in front of the TV facing them, Dad sat sort of in between the two and off to the side, where he could throw himself in front of or upon Raven if he felt the need.

An uncomfortable silence reigned for a moment or three, before Dad said, "Where would you like me to start?"

"You worked for Professor Ozpin, didn't you?" Ruby said. "You, Mom, Uncle Qrow; he told you all about Salem, and you became part of his inner circle."

"Yes," Dad said, sounding almost relieved to admit it. "Yes, Oz showed us the truth-"

"His truth, not the truth," Raven said.

Dad ignored her. "And Team STRQ became his agents. This was in our second year at Beacon."

"Although he'd been scoping us out since the day we set foot on campus," Raven said.

"We don't know that," Dad said.

"I can take a good guess."

Dad shook his head. "We're both...retired in one sense or another. Your Uncle Qrow still serves Ozpin. That's why he isn't around very much."

Ruby nodded. "And Mom?"

Dad's face darkened. "She served Ozpin until the day she died."

Raven scowled, but said nothing.

"You knew all of this," Yang said. "You knew the entire time and you never told us!"

"What should I have told you?" Dad asked.

"All of it!" Yang shouted. "Salem, the gods, the relics, the whole thing. You never said anything."

"I was afraid," Dad said. "I was afraid that if you knew the truth that you'd go straight to Ozpin and demand to be allowed to join the fight. I hoped...I hoped that Oz would leave you alone, at least for a while, and I didn't want you to think that there was something you weren't doing." He looked at Ruby. "I didn't want to lose you like I lost your mother. I see so much of her in you, Ruby."

"But you won't even tell me what she was like," Ruby said.

"Kind," Raven said. "Infinitely so. Patient. Brave. Naive. Foolish."

"Hey, watch it," Yang growled.

"It's the truth," Raven said. "And that's why we're here, isn't it? To tell the truth at last, to reveal all secrets? So here's the truth: Summer was a fool and it got her killed. She could make a good speech, so good she almost had me believing it, but she was deluding herself as much as she was deceiving us."

"Raven," Dad murmured.

"If I'm telling lies then where is she?" Raven snapped, and it almost seemed that there were tears in her blood red eyes. "Summer died because she was an idiot who believed in fairy tales and nonsense: friendship, teamwork...the idea that people can change their natures if you're just patient and offer them a helping hand."

"Those aren't nonsense-" Ruby began.

Raven laughed bitterly and derisively. "Gods, you really are her daughter aren't you? You can believe in your friends; you can fight as a team; you can carve your initials on the wall and tell yourself that you've found a family that loves you but none of it makes any difference! Not against Salem. She's too powerful. There's no stopping her, there's no beating her, all that you can do is hide and pray that she doesn't consider you worth her notice."

"Is that what you're doing?" Yang asked.

Raven showed no shame. "Yes," she said. "That's what I'm doing."

"What happened to you?" Ruby asked. "What changed to make you this way?" She couldn't have always been this way, no matter what she said. Not Mom's team-mate, not her father's first love, not a member of Team STRQ; she must once have been as good and noble as her mother, worthy of Dad's love, with a good heart like Uncle Qrow; she had to have been, or how would the team have worked?

Raven shuddered. "I swear, you have to stop talking to me in Summer's voice."

"Why don't we start at the beginning?" Dad asked.

"Where's that?" Yang asked. "When Professor Ozpin told you the truth?"

"With Mom's eyes," Ruby said. "Professor Ozpin taught her how to use them, didn't he?"

"She already knew how to use them when she got to Beacon," Raven said. "Ozpin just helped a little. I think he spent most of those night time sessions indoctrinating her with his ideals."

"Summer didn't need indoctrination," Dad insisted. "She arrived at Beacon already believing in doing the right thing and helping others. Nobody needed to teach her that and nobody needed to teach her right from wrong, either. First year and all the professors said that she'd be the ideal huntress if she could earn to be a little more serious. Raven was just jealous about Summer's powers and the attention she got."

"I was not jealous," Raven squawked.

"You wanted to be team leader and you didn't like that Summer was stronger than you were and that her reputation grew faster than yours," Dad said.

Raven folded her arms. "Really? You picked up on all that but you couldn't tell that Summer was into you?"

Dad hung his head. "Some things were more obvious than others."

"Every Thursday night Summer would go to Ozpin's office for private lessons," Raven said. "Mostly they were about her silver eyes, but not always."

"She always came back exhausted," Dad said. "Friday classes were a struggle for her. Although I think the professors like that she was a little less animated than normal."

"I think Oz told her about Salem before he told the rest of us," Raven said. "Remember that one time she came back not tired but pale, as if she'd seen something that scared her? It was the only time I ever saw her frightened."

Dad shook his head. "I don't remember that, and Summer wouldn't have kept something like that from the rest of us, not even if Ozpin asked her to."

Raven shrugged. "Regardless, he had his eye on Summer from the very beginning."

"But how come Mom knew how to use her eyes already?" Ruby said. "And how come you didn't tell me about this power that she...that Mom left me?"

Raven started eating her omelette, clearly disinclined to help out in answering the question.

Dad sighed. "Your mother first learned how to use her eyes from her own father; they lived outside the kingdoms, and he died before you were born; I never met the man. Without Summer I didn't have the faintest idea how to start training you safely, and when Qrow started training you to become a huntress he told me that you didn't need the silver eyes, you were good enough without them."

"So I've been told," Ruby murmured, thinking of Jaune and Pyrrha. It was almost as if everyone she knew had gotten together to agree a line to take with her about this.

Or maybe they were just right and she was being stubborn for refusing.

"And besides," Dad went on. "I wanted you to have a normal childhood without getting drawn into everything your mother was a part of. You've never liked being the centre of attention and I was worried that, if I told you that you were different to everyone else you'd be self conscious about it and you'd have an even harder time making friends.

"I understand that must sound self-serving, but I really was trying to think of you," Dad said. "I know that I haven't always been Remnant's greatest father, but in this case I did what I thought was right."

"I know, Dad," Ruby said softly. "And honestly, you might have had a point about the whole special thing." She played with the hem of her cloak with both hands. "But I wish you'd told me anyway."

"Maybe it's a good thing that he didn't," Yang said.

"Yang, do we have to do this on front of..." Ruby hissed, gesturing at Raven.

Raven swallowed. "Oh, don't hold back from fighting on my account."

"After what happened last time I can't believe that you still want to...actually, you know what, I can believe that, what I can't believe is that you think I'm going to let you do it."

"Sunset said-" Ruby started.

"Sunset put you up to this?"

"No, Sunset said I should ask Professor Ozpin to teach me like he taught Mom."

"If you're prepared for every other lesson to be a lecture on how Ozpin is always right about everything then that's a great idea," Raven said. "Haven't you been listening? Don't trust Ozpin, he'll fill your head with foolish notions, get you killed and then he won't even shed a tear for you afterwards. He preys upon idealists like Summer, fools like you; you're the easiest people in the world for him to manipulate. You'd be better off trialling and erroring your silver eyes before going to old man Oz for help."

"Or not using them at all," Yang muttered.

"Or that," Raven agreed. "The number of times we had to carry Summer back home because she'd exhausted herself using her eyes, do you remember that, Tai?"

Dad nodded. "Her eyes were a powerful weapon, but they have their drawbacks."

"Serious drawbacks," Yang said.

"Yes, I know, I get it," Ruby said, beginning to wish that she hadn't brought the subject up.

"Ozpin definitely had his eye on Summer from the first moment, but it wasn't long before he was testing the rest of us too," Raven said. "The training missions came thick and fast. Sound familiar?"

"Like the time you escorted that woman Auburn, with the...those strange powers," Ruby said.

Raven smiled. "I see you read some of what your mother had to say. Yes, missions like that. Do you want to know what Auburn was?"

"Raven," Dad said. "Do you think that that's a good idea?"

"I thought we were going to tell them everything?"

"If Oz hasn't told them-"

"All the more reason to tell them, to my mind."

"Come on, Dad, you can't seriously mean to keep us in the dark about this now," Yang said. "Spill it. After everything that we already know what harm can it do?"

Dad looked as though he wasn't so convinced of the harmlessness of the knowledge he and Raven were about to impart, but after a moment he said, "There are four of them."

"Four what?" Yang asked.

"Prophets," Ruby said. "That's what Sunset says they're called in the old stories," she explained when everyone looked at her.

"Your team leader has studied the myths," Raven observed. "How much did she understand?"

"I think she had a few questions," Ruby said.

Raven nodded. "The true name is Maidens, as in the fairy tale of the four seasons."

"That's why there are four of them and only four," Dad said. "Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall; Atlas, Mistral, Vacuo, Vale. One Maiden per season, one per country."

"That part isn't in the fairy tale," Yang said.

"In the story the four maidens are immortal," Ruby said.

"No such luck in the real world," Raven said. "And besides, Ozpin has his own reasons for wanting to preserve an inaccurate account."

"Good reasons, as even Raven would admit if she were being honest about it," Dad said. "Ruby, when your friend was studying the mythology did she come across the Red Queens who used the maiden powers for evil?"

"Yeah," Ruby said. "In the end they were hunted down by a group of heroes and the prophets, or the maidens, just disappeared."

"That's because they were hidden," Dad said. "The circle that...that you're a part of now, as much as I wish you weren't, hid them away and encouraged them to become mere myth and legend so that their powers could never again fall into the hands of the unworthy.

"Auburn was the Fall Maiden at the time, although we didn't find that out until much later. The girl Merida was...Oz and Auburn had chosen her to be Auburn's successor, the next Fall Maiden in line."

"Is she the Fall Maiden now?" Ruby asked.

"I don't know," Dad admitted. "The Maidens are Ozpin's most carefully guarded secret. Nobody knows who they are or where they are except him and those who absolutely need to know."

"That's not entirely true," Raven said. "Spring is under my protection."

Dad boggled. "She's what?"

"She escaped Ozpin's control," Raven said casually. "And afterward she sought me out, knowing that I was a deserter like her. How could I refuse her shelter?"

"By remembering how important it is that the Maidens be kept safe?" Dad said.

"I will not be a party to keeping an unwilling girl prisoner," Raven said. "The Branwen tribe is many things, but we don't traffic in people."

"You say that you're hiding from Salem but you're harbouring one of the four Maidens?"

"What's the big deal?" Yang asked.

"In the stories, if you kill a, a Maiden," Ruby said. "You get their powers."

"That's not quite how it works, but close enough," Dad said. "The powers are transferred to the last person in the dying Maiden's thoughts, provided that person is suitable to become a Maiden themselves; if…"

"If you're being murdered then there's a good chance the last person in your thoughts will be your killer," Raven said bluntly. "Provided they have the guts to look you in the eye as they take your life, that is."

Dad looked as though he'd rather that Raven hadn't put it quite so bluntly, but he didn't actually dispute the fundamentals of what she'd said. "Which means that servants of Salem would be very interested in finding a Maiden off the grid, unprotected."

"Spring is hardly unprotected," Raven said. "She is in my care, just as the tribe is under the protection of Spring while she is with us."

"I'm a little surprised Ozpin hasn't come after you."

"He knows better than to try," Raven declared. "In any case, even before he was ready to tell us what he knew Oz was testing us, sending us out to escort his Maiden candidate, giving us more missions than the other first year teams combined, letting us get away with breaking the rules so that we'd think well of him when the time came."

"In our second year, Mountain Glenn fell," Dad said. "And an army of grimm swept on towards Vale, drawn by the panic from the fall of the city. It was all hands on deck; Ozpin led out every huntsman in Vale to confront the grimm before they reached the city limits. That included all the students at Beacon."

"Younger students were supposed to be held in reserve," Raven said. "But Team Stark found their way to the front lines."

"I don't recall you objecting when Summer suggested we head closer to the fighting in case we could help," Dad said.

"Would it have made any difference if I had?" Raven asked. "You and Qrow were both in favour."

"Summer always listened to you," Dad said. "She had a lot of respect for your tactical judgement."

Raven looked surprised to hear it; she shifted uncomfortably where she sat, and did not reply.

"It was a good thing we went forward," Dad said. "We ended up at the right place at the right time to plug a gap the grimm had torn in the defences. If we hadn't been there then reinforcements could have been too late." He smiled. "When Glynda was finished chewing us out for our recklessness, Ozpin told us we might have saved Vale. And that's when he also told us we were ready, and brought us in."

Raven snorted. "Of course he did. We'd just won our first major battle, we thought we were heroes, we...we were idiots, blinded by our success, it was the perfect time for him to make his move."

"Or maybe we'd just proved ourselves beyond all doubt," Dad said. "There's no need to always assume the worst."

"If I don't then they certainly won't," Raven said as she gestured at Ruby and Yang. "Ozpin pretended to open his mind to us; he told us about Salem and the real war going on beneath the surface. He even offered us gifts. Has he offered you his blessing yet?"

"Uh, what?" Ruby said.

"He might not be able to," Dad said. "Or see the need."

"What are you talking about?" Ruby said.

Raven...Raven disappeared in a flutter of black feathers, and in her place was a raven with red eyes, casing on the floor.

Yang leapt to her feet. "What the-"

And then Raven was back, as though nothing had happened. "That's not my semblance, by the way."

Yang stared at her. "You...how...hang on; I've seen a Raven with red eyes hanging around more than once, was that-"

"I told you I'd been watching over you," Raven said.

"Is that...magic?" Ruby whispered.

Raven nodded. "Ozpin's magic. He gave us all a taste when we pledged ourselves to his cause. So that we could serve him better."

"Well, he offered us something," Dad said.

"Oh, that's right; you chickened out."

Dad looked torn between offence and shamefacedness. "I...yes, I was worried about what it would do to me. Regardless, whether we accepted Ozpin's magic or not we served him: we spied for him, we fought his battles, and we went where he needed us to go."

"You stuck together after you graduated from Beacon?" Yang asked. Normally Dad talked so little about his past that even to know that Team STRQ had been amongst those teams to remain a fighting foursome rather than drifting apart the moment they were out from under the authority of the school would be a revelation.

"Of course we did," Raven said. "We were a family."

Yang glowered, and though her eyes did not quite turn red Ruby could recognise that they were getting close. "Then why did you bail on your family?"

Raven set down her knife and fork upon the plate with a clink. "You asked what made me this way? I was always this way, it's who I am, but your mother...Summer convinced me that I could be...something else; she was stupid but she had passion and charisma. She fooled me into thinking that I could choose a different path, that it was a better way than the one I'd been born into. And then..."

"Then we struck at Salem," Dad whispered.

Ruby's mouth hung open. "You fought her? But Professor Ozpin said that-"

"That Salem can't be destroyed? He's right," Dad said. "But...Summer's eyes, silver eyes can destroy grimm or they can petrify them; Summer and Oz thought that it was trying to turn her to stone, or trap her in stone. And so we headed for the Dragon continent, we snuck into Salem's fortress-"

"She allowed us into her fortress," Raven said. "She was waiting for us."

"And it...things didn't go the way that Summer had hoped," Dad said.

* * *

 _The silver light faded, and darkness thinly dispersed by candle light returned to dominate the chamber. Summer was on her hands and knees, gasping, panting for breath. That almost never happened to her any more, Raven thought as she knelt down beside her, normally Summer could use the eyes without exhausting herself; she must have really hit Salem with everything she had._

 _The laughter from the other end of the room told her that it hadn't been enough._

 _"Is that all there is?" Salem asked in a tongue thick with mockery. "Was that your plan? Is there nothing else?"_

 _No one replied. Qrow and Tai were staring at Salem in horrified fascination, while Raven's eyes flickered between the demon at the far end of the room, strong and tall and unaffected by the power that she had seen turn grimm to stone or worse by hordes and multitudes, and Summer, sweet Summer, smiling Summer, kind Summer kneeling, beaten and crushed before the power of their enemy._

 _This was a world where only the strong survived._

 _"That's not possible," Tai whispered._

 _Summer's eyes were closed, and in between gasping breathe she winced in pain. "I'm sorry," she whimpered, though so softly that Raven couldn't be certain that anyone heard but her._

 _"Such a gift you have, Summer," Salem said. "I marvel at it anew each time I witness it." She snapped her fingers once again. "Save the silver eyes warrior. Dispose of the others."_

 _The howling and the roaring and the shrieking of the grimm without rose to new heights of volume and intensity; Raven could hear footsteps pounding down the corridor outside as the beringels bellowed in their bloodlust._

 _Raven grabbed Summer's arm and draped it over her shoulder. "I'm guessing you're not up to another flash?"_

 _Summer could barely keep hold of her weapon. It hung useless in her trembling. "I'm afraid not. Sorry."_

 _"It's okay," Raven said. "I've got you. Qrow, get back to the bullhead."_

 _"What?" Qrow said. "I can't just-"_

 _"Get back to the bullhead," Raven snapped, impatient with his denseness. Wasn't it obvious what she intended? "We'll follow."_

 _Realisation dawned upon his face. About time. "Right. I'll be as fast as I can."_

 _"You'd better," Raven muttered. "Tai, make a hole." Salem seemed content to leave it to her grimm to prevent their escape. She watched them from the back of the room as though she were grading their efforts. Like Ozpin - a surge of anger shot through Ravrn at the thought of him who had gotten them into this - she used others ad her weapons, without sullying her own hands with combat. They could only hope that it would stay that way._

 _The doors behind them burst open to reveal a half-dozen beringels, and more a little further behind. But Qrow was already moving, he shot the first one twice in the first with Harbinger and then he leapt. A beringels grabbed for him, massive fingers closing around where his midriff would have been, but the red-eyed crow that he had become merely slipped through the monster's grip and flew away. Tai took advantage of the distraction of the grimm to throw it over his shoulder and punch it so hard that it's head disintegrated._

 _Arms, a host of arms as long as serpents, devoid of visible bodies, emerged from put of the floor to reach with two-fingered hands for Raven and Summer. Raven slashed at them with her sword as she inched towards the door, following the path that Taiyang was clearing through the beringels._

 _Raven could only hope that Qrow's bad luck didn't make things even worse for them, for surely they had had enough bad luck today already._

* * *

"After Summer's attack failed, we used Raven's semblance to escape," Dad said, clasping his hands together so tightly that his knuckles had turned white. "Just about. It was a little touch and go, but we made it. But…things were never quite the same afterward."

"How could they be?" Raven demanded. "We had just discovered that all our struggles were and had been and would be in vain."

"You don't know that-" Ruby began.

"Haven't you been listening, your mother hit Salem with her best shot and she didn't even flinch!" Raven snarled. She pushed her plate away and got to her feet. "And when we got back to Beacon, there Ozpin was: waiting with the next mission."

"He's fighting a war, Raven," Dad murmured.

"He never cared about us and he certainly never cared about Summer," Raven said. "Salem can't be beaten, and Ozpin only uses people until they're no longer useful. Two sides both as bad as one another."

"So the only option is what?" Yang asked. "To walk away?"

Raven turned away, walking towards the doors leading out into the garden. She looked back at Yang over her shoulder. "I'm alive, aren't I?"

Yang growled wordlessly.

"Ozpin used your mother up until there was nothing left of her," Raven said. "He's grinding your uncle down to nothing in the same way. And for what? A war that cannot be won, a victory that can never be achieved?"

"To protect humanity for as long as we can, as best we can," Ruby replied.

Raven snorted. "Humanity. A humanity that cannot protect itself, that requires people like Summer Rose to martyr themselves in the defence of their inferiors? Why should your mother be dead, while those who were not fit to kiss her feet live to profit by her sacrifice? This is not a world for the strong to waste their strength upholding the lives of the weak. This is a world where the strong survive, and if 'humanity' cannot protect itself from harm then…let it die."

"If that's what you think then why are you here?" Yang demanded.

"Because it's not too late," Raven said. "This road leads only to your deaths but you still have time to turn away."

"Why do you care?"

Raven was silent for a moment. "Because I couldn't save Summer, but I owe it to her to save her girls. Or try to." She turned her back on them, and pushed open the patio doors out into the garden. "Listen to me, and heed my words. Or don't. Tell Ozpin to go to hell and walk out of this story before his callousness and Salem's power consume you. Or don't. Live, or die in the service of a man who will forget your name and soon find four more gullible morons to replace you the way that you're replacing us. What does it matter to me?" She walked out into the garden, but lingered there, amongst the rosebushes, as though she were waiting for something, or for someone to come after her.

Dad sighed, and ran one hand through his short blonde hair. "Raven…I…what we say that day, it affected all of us, but it affected Raven most of all. She was never quite the same afterwards. She was angry at Oz, she was jumpy, afraid. And after you were born, Yang, she just…she took off.

"That's when I retired, from serving Ozpin and from being an active huntsman. I came here so that I could take care of you. Summer helped out a lot, and one thing led to another and…but even after that we agreed that you needed a parent at home and that would be me. Summer had always been better than I was, in every way, and I'm not sure that she had it in her to sit at home and give up the fight. She and Qrow kept working together, working for Ozpin, until the day…you know the rest.

"That day, when we tried to put a stop to Salem and failed…that was the day that Team Stark died."

* * *

Yang followed Raven out into the garden. The day was bright, the sky was undisturbed by any cloud, and with summer still at its height the leaves on the trees were still green and verdant. Patch was beautiful at this time of year. In a way Yang was glad that she had brought them home: Beacon for all its charm couldn't hold a candle to high summer on this island.

Raven stood in the midst of this garden like a spectre, like a monster of blood and darkness intruding into paradise. The more that Yang looked at her the angrier she felt, until her hands were clenched into tight fists and she had resist the urge to cock her Ember Celica. This was their home, the home that Mom and Dad had made for their family, what right did Raven have to be here? She'd left, she didn't belong here any more.

She'd left. So why had she come back.

Yang had always thought that she wanted this: to find her birth mother, to get answers; but now that it had come she found she wanted Raven gone more than anything else.

Raven had her back to Yang. She was examining one of the rose bushes, her fingers deftly avoiding the thorns as she plucked a white rose.

"Innocence, purity, sweetness," Raven murmured. "So appropriate." She let the plucked rose fall to the ground. "Did Tai plant all these?"

"Mom liked them," Yang said defensively. "But…yeah, Dad planted a lot more after…"

"After," Raven said. "I noticed there were no pictures of her in the house. So this is how he remembers her?"

"What does it matter to you whether we have pictures or not? What does it matter to you how we remember Mom?" Yang shouted. "What are you even still doing here?"

"I thought that you and I could talk," Raven said, and only now did she turn to face her daughter. "I thought there might be things you wanted to discuss with your father or sister listening."

"I only had one question," Yang said. "And you've answered that."

"Why did I leave?" Raven said.

Yang nodded. "Because you're a coward."

Raven's expression did not alter into anger or upset. "Is it cowardice to recognise that a battle is lost, indeed that it can never be won? Is it cowardice to refuse to die for a master who is unworthy of your service, let alone your life?"

"Yes."

Raven shook her head. "Stories laud dead heroes, they praise those who gave up their lives for a cause, but why? What do those noble dead accomplish by their so-called sacrifice? What have they purchased with their lives?"

"What have you done with your life?" Yang replied.

Raven did not reply. "You can't beat her," she said. "Salem. You can't stop her. No one can."

"We can hold her grimm at bay," Yang said.

"This isn't about the grimm," Raven replied. "It may have been grimm who crawled through that breach into Vale but it was a human mind who devised such a plan."

Yang smirked. "So you saw that too, huh? Nice of you to help out."

"If you had been truly in danger, I would have."

"Lucky for me I have people who don't wait until I'm about to die until they have my back."

"Which people are you talking about?" Raven asked. "Your team-mates? You don't need them. I've seen their type before and know it well enough; they think they're survivors but their attachment to one another weakens them. It will destroy them, in the end, as weakness always does."

"And Ruby?"

Raven glanced away for a moment. "She looks so much like her mother that when I first saw her I thought that Summer had sprung out of the grave to haunt me for my actions. Tai's right, she does have so much of her mother in her. Too much. I fear she'll meet the same fate, in spite of all my warnings."

"She's done okay so far."

"Things are changing," Raven said. "I can feel it on the wind. Salem is moving. She wasn't so active in my day, she wasn't sending out her own agents to bring about the downfall of the four kingdoms; whether it's sudden impatience, or whether she's found a champion that she feels confident in pitting against Ozpin's best something has changed. All the darkness and the discontent in the world is about to erupt and Beacon will not stand before it. Ozpin is going to fail and all he stands for will fall."

"You don't know that," Yang said. "We can defend the kingdoms-"

"Kingdoms that have no place for someone like you except as their protector," Raven said. "No place but on the front lines, bearing the full force of the danger. Come with me."

Yang gaped. "What?"

"Come with me," Raven repeated. "I have said all that I can say, if Ruby chooses not to heed my words then she'll meet the same fate as her mother. But you, Yang, don't have to share in such folly. You can come with me, now." She frowned. "I don't deserve to be called your mother, but…I promise that I can keep you safe, if you give me the chance."

Yang stared at her. "You can't…you're not serious. You can't possibly be serious."

"Have I given you any reason to think that I'm not serious?" Raven asked.

"You're asking me to just walk away with you right now, that sounds like a joke to me."

"I'm asking you to think of yourself."

"You're asking me to bale on Ruby!" Yang said. "You're asking me to walk away from my sister."

"I walked away from my brother," Raven said. "Sometimes we have to put ourselves, and do what's best for us in spite of who it hurts."

Yang scowled. "Qrow isn't the only person you walked away from."

"A bandit camp is no place for a child," Raven said. "Even if Tai would have let me take you away I would not have done so. If you knew what I endured growing up…you were better off here, raised by parents who loved you. But you're not a child any more. You're a woman, strong and fierce and you can survive, thrive even, in my world now. Come with me, and I will present you to the tribe as my heir and you will lead our people when I am gone. You can do it. I know you can. I've watched you grow, I've watched you feel and answer the call of our blood. You're ready. All you need to do is take that step with me. Let me take you home, Yang."

"I am home," Yang said.

Raven nodded. "But you don't really belong here, not in a place like this, not in peace. Your blood sings for violence."

Yang shifted uncomfortably in place. It was true that she never felt so alive as when she was in a fight, but if admitting that meant admitting that she was in some way just like Raven then she didn't want to say so right now.

"Bandits," she said. "You said a bandit camp."

Raven smiled. "Did Uncle Qrow never tell you what we are?"

"No," Yang said softly. "I take it you're not the 'rob from the rich to give to the poor' kind of outlaws?"

"The kind that only exist in storybooks? No, I'm afraid not," Raven said. "There is no code, there is no honour, there are no rules that say that we will never hurt a widow or an orphan or anyone else for that matter. But we are the most honest people in the world."

"Thieves and murderers are honest?"

"We live by our wits and by our strength, that is the way of the world," Raven said. "We don't hide from that truth, or dress it up in any way."

"No, you just hide from Salem."

"She is too strong for me and so I hide from her," Raven said. "That's what we do. We hide from those stronger than us-"

"And kill those weaker than you?" Yang asked. "That isn't who I am."

"Isn't it?" Raven said. "I saw what you did in that nightclub."

Yang scowled. "I didn't kill anyone."

"No, you just beat them within an inch of their lives because you could."

"I had my reasons."

"Of course you did," Raven said with a sort of laugh. "I had reasons too, when I began. They were a threat. They were in my way. They were bothering me. They had something I wanted."

Yang, who had been thinking that Junior and his goons were in her way and stopping her from getting what she wanted, folded her arms and tried to suppress the urge to shiver.

"I'm not like you," she said. "And I'm not going to walk away from my sister." She forced a grin onto her face. "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you asked. Seventeen years too late but whatever, right? But you're not my family. Ruby is. And whatever's coming we'll face it together."

Raven was silent awhile. "You have courage, I give you that. I even admire it. You remind me of when I was young and stupid. You won't see me again, in this or any other form, but when you're ready to embrace who you really are and how the world really is then come find me. So long as I lead the Branwen Tribe there will always be a place for you at my side."

"A place I'll never take."

Raven smirked. "You might not believe me, but there was a time I told myself that I'd never turn my back on my team-mates, my friends…my family. Things change, Yang; the times change and we change with them. Don't be so certain that you won't change too." She drew her sword, but at the same time she turned away from Yang and slashed at the empty air, which parted for her like a tapestry cut in two. A portal opened, dark but bordered in red which throbbed like an aching wound.

Raven looked back at Yang once more, and seemed to wish to say something, one more thing before she took her leave – for good, according to her own account.

But she thought better of it, or perhaps she simply could not find the words, for she turned away without speaking and strode into the portal, which closed behind her leaving the empty air behind.

And all was still once more in the garden.

* * *

Ruby watched Raven and Yang, out there in the garden. She couldn't hear what they were saying, and she wasn't sure that she wanted to, but she watched them from through the glass doors leading out of the living room as they talked amongst the roses.

She glanced at her father. "Dad," she began, but the next words stuck in her throat. She couldn't think of a good way to ask how he could have chosen this abrasive, hot-tempered, patronising and insulting person over Mom; yes, it was only at first but equally it wasn't until Raven left him that he had finally turned and noticed that Mom had been standing there all this time and she didn't really get it. In fact she didn't get it at all. It was like…it was like Jaune chasing Weiss and not noticing Pyrrha standing right there…except that Weiss was only a little cranky and a bit of a loner and she didn't ditch her team-mates to go hiding out in far away places so maybe it wasn't really like that at all…it was like if Jaune had dated Cinder and noticed Pyrrha standing right there. Ruby tried to imagine that: Jaune stepping out with an incarnation of malevolence while turning his back on one of the kindest, gentlest people around, and struggled to make the image fit in her mind because it was so absurd it kept slipping away from her; it was honestly almost as hard for her to imagine Dad choosing Raven over Mom at this point, and that almost only because she knew objectively that it had happened.

But she didn't know how to ask Dad what he'd been thinking without, well…she had no idea how to say it.

"She wasn't always like this," Dad said, as though he could read her thoughts; or maybe they were just so transparent on Ruby's face. He sat down on the sofa, in the seat next to Ruby so recently vacated by Yang. "When I met her she was…not like this. Not cruel, or at least…only because she didn't seem to know any better. She brooded, and she kept herself to herself much more than Qrow ever did, but to be honest that intrigued me. It was…you're not old enough to understand that sort of thing, or I really hope not anyway. But…as time went by she seemed to get better. She opened up to us, to me. She…she wasn't always like this. When I knew her she was brave, much braver than I was."

"And Mom?" Ruby asked, her voice sounding higher and more childish than normal, even to her own ears.

Dad smiled sadly. "Maybe I was just dense, but it was hard for me to understand how someone whose heart was so open to the world could be as shy about her feelings as your mother. I thought the reason she didn't say anything was that she didn't have anything to say and so…so I had no idea that I was hurting her, or that I was missing anything."

Ruby frowned, just a little. She didn't ask anything else about that, because she couldn't see any point. Dad had answered her as honestly as he could, and they were probably the best answers he could have given. It wasn't as if any answers that he could have given would have ever really satisfied her, and anyway…she had to remember that if things hadn't worked out the way she had then she wouldn't have a cool big sister; maybe it was all just destiny at work.

"Do you think she's right," she said. "About Professor Ozpin not caring about you, about Mom, about anyone? Because that's not what he said to me."

Dad looked at her. "You've spoken to Oz about your mother?"

"Not really," Ruby said. "He offered to tell me about her after the mission but…things happened."

Dad nodded. "I understand."

"But I don't," Ruby said. "Did he care about her? Was it really like Raven said?"

Dad placed one arm around Ruby. "One thing that you'll learn the more you get to know Professor Ozpin is what a private man he is. He's been like that for as long as I've known him. He keeps his feelings deep inside, but unlike Raven I don't think that means that he doesn't have feelings. I think he cared about your mother a great deal. I think he cared about all of us. He just…he couldn't show it."

"Why not?"

Dad was silent for a moment. "Ruby, how much do you remember of what it was like after your mother passed away."

Ruby's voice dropped, and she spoke somewhat reluctantly. "Yang took care of me," she said, not because she wanted to embarrass her father but because it was the truth.

Dad nodded. "I let my feelings get to me, and because I was so upset I wasn't able to take care of my family the way a father should. That…that was my mistake, and I'm sorry for it. No matter how much losing your mother hurt me, I should have been able to put my pain away and-"

"Dad, you don't have to-"

"Yes, I do," Dad said. "I'm your father, and I'm Yang's father, and it wasn't right of me to ask your sister to grow up so fast because I couldn't deal with what had happened. I should have been able to bear my sorrows, at least enough to take care of my responsibilities to my children. I think…I think that's why Oz keeps it all down deep and doesn't show it: because he has responsibilities and he can't let his feelings get in the way of that."

"Responsibilities…to the world?" Ruby guessed, based on what she knew.

"You know what fight Ozpin is leading," Dad said. "How important it is, and how important he is. Yes, it's true that we didn't get a lot of time to rest and recover after that attack, and it was hard steeling ourselves to go back out there again so soon after what we'd seen. But this is a war, Ruby, and as much as I wish that you weren't a part of it yet, in a war sometimes you have to send your best huntsmen out even when you'd rather give them a break.

"And Summer never complained. Not once. She was the one who rallied the rest of us, who revived our spirits, who inspired us to go back out and answer our defeat with another victory. If what happened got to her at all she never let on."

Ruby felt a small smile blossom on her face. "Dad…if you hadn't had Yang, and me, would you still be out there, fighting?"

"Is this your way of asking me if I've given up, like Raven?"

Ruby hesitated.

"You can tell me the truth."

"Kinda," Ruby admitted.

Dad nodded. "I don't blame you. In your place I'd ask that too." He reached up and rubbed the bridge of his nose with one hand. "I'm not going to lie you any more, Ruby; teaching at Signal, there are times when I hear kids talking about the great things that they're going to do once they become huntsmen and I…it hits me a little; some of the boldest kids talk about how they'll retake the world for humanity and all I can think is that they'll never see their dreams come true, not even in ten lifetimes. But I think, I'd like to think, that I'd still fight if I didn't have you girls to take care of because even if we can't win then we can at least not lose, right?"

"Right," Ruby said. "And that means that Ozpin's cause is worth fighting for." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. She'd like her father's approval on what she was doing, but she didn't require it.

"Ozpin," Dad said. "Don't take Raven's words about Oz too much to heart. She only remembers the bad: the missions, the orders, the sacrifices. She doesn't remember the way that he led us on the field against the grimm, how he was the only man who could have led us to victory in those three days, how he held us together until we broke the back of the horde. Raven…she blames him for your mother's death, but the truth is that that does Summer a great insult. She wasn't brainwashed or manipulated or tricked into risking her life against Salem. She had a choice, and she made it. She knew that someone had to do this, and since she was pretty good at it she thought it might as well be her." He ruffled Ruby's hair with one hand. "I'd be lying if I said that I didn't get angry sometimes that Summer isn't with us any more, and that sometimes I get angry at Oz; and I'd be lying too if I didn't tell you that I was worried when you went to Beacon that you'd get involved in all of this, and that the fact that I turned out to be right makes me angry and scared in equal measure. But your mother made her choices with both eyes open and if…if this is your choice, made in the same way then…" he bent down, and kissed Ruby gently on the forehead. "Then I guess all that I can do is wish you luck, beg that you be careful, and wait and fret until you come home safe and sound once more."


	118. Catch Up

Catch Up

"I'm so sorry that you had to go through that, Ruby," Jaune said.

Ruby lay on her back on top of the bed in her room, while the late afternoon light shone in through the windows cast a hazy golden glow on everything. Her scroll was in her hands, held directly above her face, so that she seemed to be looking up at her team-mates and they looking down on her as their three faces each took up one quarter of the scroll screen.

"It's okay, Jaune," she said. "It…it's okay."

"Are you sure?" Pyrrha asked. "You can tell us if it isn't."

"I know," Ruby said. "But it is. The things that she said…they can't hurt me."

"The nerve of that woman," Pyrrha said sternly. "Coming into your home uninvited in order to insult you, to insult your mother, and all under the guise of trying to help you? It's absolutely disgusting."

"You think so?" Sunset asked.

Sunset's tone had been one of surprise, but that was nothing compared to the surprise on the faces of Jaune and Pyrrha – and although Ruby couldn't see it she thought it was probably on her face too, she certainly felt surprised at this intervention from their leader – as they looked at Sunset; Ruby thought that they were all together in the same room, so even though they could see her on their screens they both turned their heads towards wherever she was physically in relation to them.

"You don't think so?" Jaune said.

"I get it was rude to break in uninvited," Sunset said. "But she had good intentions and let's not forget she gave us some useful intel that we might not have gotten out of Ruby's father alone."

"That doesn't excuse her behaviour," Pyrrha said.

"No," Sunset conceded. "If you think that her behaviour is so inexcusable."

"She's a brigand, by her own admission," Pyrrha said. "I know that there are all kinds of stories of romantic outlaws forced to go outside the law to fight against injustice and the corruption of the government; most of them come from Mistral, and I've even loved some of them but they're just that: stories. In real life people like Raven are nothing more than thieves and murderers."

"Believe me, I'm not saying this because I'm swept up in the idea of the romantic bandit," Sunset said. "I'm saying this because…because I feel sorry for her."

"What?" Jaune exclaimed.

"It sounds like the only good thing she had in her life was her team," Sunset said. "They were her life, her family, and she lost them."

"Because she walked away," Jaune insisted. "It's not like they turned their backs on her."

"That's probably not how she sees it," Sunset said.

"But it's the truth," Ruby said. "She could have stayed and fought by their side but she didn't. If Team Stark broke up then that's on her, not my parents or my uncle. Raven's the one who chose to quit." She frowned. "Sunset, are you just saying this because you don't trust Professor Ozpin either?"

"No," Sunset said emphatically. "I mean, he didn't tell us about…we can talk about that in a minute, but…my point is that there are times when it can be hard to have faith, you know? To believe in what Princess Celestia would call the magic of friendship, and that it can prevail against strength and horror. I grew up in a world where this is the most sacred shibboleth in our culture and I didn't believe it until I met you guys; I can't imagine how hard it must have been for someone like Raven to keep the flame alive. I'm not surprised that she couldn't do it and it's hard to blame her for that."

Pyrrha looked uncomfortable. "I suppose…when Ozpin revealed the truth to us in the tower, I felt…I think that most of us felt our courage falter for a moment when we first saw what lay behind the curtain. I suppose it is a little hypocritical of me to upbraid her too much for cowardice or desertion."

"You didn't run away," Ruby reminded her.

"I also didn't see our enemy absorb our strongest attack with my own eyes," Pyrrha said. "But, in any case, what might excuse Raven's flight in no way excuses her subsequent crimes or those of her people."

"Hmm, you're right about that I suppose," Sunset murmured. "I didn't mean to…Ruby, if I'm being too much of an ass you can say so."

Ruby smiled. "It's okay. I get it. I mean, I don't really get why she felt that way, why she decided to run away rather than stand with her friends when she says they meant so much to her, but I get what you're trying to say."

"Do you believe her?" Jaune asked.

"Sunset? Jaune, you can't just ask if Sunset's lying when she's right there!"

"No, Raven," Jaune corrected her. "You said she talked about how much she cared about your mom and your dad and her old team, but you said it yourself: she quit, she left, she bailed and left your mom to face Salem by herself. So how much did she really care about them?"

"You think she was lying?" Ruby said. "Why would she?"

"To get you and Yang on her side," Jaune suggested. "This…Spring Maiden, god, just thinking about that is so huge but anyway, this Spring Maiden came to her, right? And she asked Yang to come with her too. Maybe she wouldn't have said no to you going with her as well. Maybe she wants to collect awesome fighters for her bandit tribe."

"That's a good point," Sunset said. "Ruby, you're the only person who's met her so only you can answer this: do you think that Raven intends to become a player?"

"A player?" Pyrrha said.

"This isn't actually chess," Sunset said. "There's room at the table for more than two."

"Okay," Ruby said. "But I still don't really understand what you mean."

"Ozpin and Salem," Sunset said. "Two players, white and black." She hesitated, as if there was something else that she would like to say but did not quite dare to utter. "Nobody knows that Salem exists or that Ozpin is anything more than the Headmaster of Beacon except for those whom they specifically choose to let in on the secret and make their agents in this war. Only those who serve one of those two masters know that there is anything more going on in the world than the struggle against the grimm. But Raven changes things. She doesn't serve Ozpin, she doesn't serve Salem, but she knows about both of them and apparently if she is to be believed she's sitting on one quarter of the world's magic and if Jaune's hunch is right then she might be trying to recruit skilled huntresses to her banner. So I ask you again: do you think she means to become a player?"

Ruby's eyes widened. "You think that she's going to…try to take over the world or something?"

"I think the last bandit chief who had a quarter of the world's magic took over Mistral," Sunset said.

"That won't happen again," Pyrrha said firmly.

"They didn't have guns back then, did they?" Jaune asked.

"You still don't," Sunset said. "And besides, and I'm sorry to keep repeating this, but one quarter of the world's magic."

"One fifth, if Professor Ozpin has magic as well," Pyrrha pointed out.

Sunset blinked. "True. Which is something else that he hasn't mentioned to us just yet."

"He's not obliged to tell us everything," Pyrrha said. "He's not even obliged to tell us anything at all, we should be grateful that we have his confidence as far as we do."

Sunset snorted. "Do you really…never mind that for now. Raven. Ruby, do you think she's up to something?"

Ruby squirmed on top of her bed. "I…I don't know. She didn't talk about her evil plans or anything."

"That would be too easy, wouldn't it," Sunset remarked drily. "But did you, I don't know, get a sense from her. Any idea at all of what to do with all this power she's gathering to her?"

"No," Ruby admitted. "Sorry. She talked about keeping the Spring Maiden away from Professor Ozpin, but she never said what she wanted to do with that power."

"Then perhaps she doesn't want to do anything with it," Jaune suggested.

"Then why protect the Spring Maiden, why gather huntresses?" Sunset said. "Ruby and Yang, fine, if we take her at her word then she wants to protect you from Ozpin. But the Spring Maiden? Why make herself a target for both sides like that if she isn't planning to do something more than just raid the same villages that she could attack anyway?"

"Because she's…" Ruby trailed off. "I don't know."

Neither, it seemed, did anyone else; Jaune and Pyrrha were both silent, at least for a moment until Pyrrha said, "And yet it seems that she has done nothing yet. Bandit activity is no worse than it ever is, and certainly it doesn't threaten Mistral. I would know if it did."

"Yes, I suppose you would," Sunset said. "We all would for that matter, you'd hope that kind of thing would make the news." She rubbed the gap between her eyebrows. "And yet…if she doesn't want to be a third player at the table then why…why has she made herself a third player at the table?"

"Has she?" Pyrrha asked. "Professor Ozpin may prefer to keep the Maidens in his care, but provided that the powers are not used for ill then perhaps he feels it is not worth bringing his power down upon her and as for Salem…she may not know."

"We don't know for sure that Professor Ozpin knows," Jaune said. "Raven said that he does, she might even think that he does, but we don't actually know that he does. Perhaps the reason that he hasn't done anything about it is that he doesn't know."

That made sense. They only had Raven's word about it, after all. "I suppose we should tell him," Ruby said.

"Like he told us about the Maidens," Sunset said.

"Sunset!" Ruby said.

"Okay, okay, I'll go over him and talk to him about this," Sunset said. "And I can ask him why he didn't tell us about the Maidens."

"I can understand why, can't you?" Pyrrha said. "You've read the old legends-"

"Is it still right to call them legends if they turn out to be true?" Jaune said.

Pyrrha chuckled. "That's a good question, but my point is that people did terrible things to acquire the powers of the, the Maidens, and then they did terrible things with those powers."

"And I also read that before that much good had been done with those same powers," Sunset said. "It may be the right name to call them Maidens, but think of what else they have been called: prophets, saints; people looked up to them, revered them and followed in their footsteps. In Equestria we have something similar, we call them princesses-"

"You know that's not exactly an uncommon word, right?" Jaune said.

Sunset grinned. "Yeah, right. I just meant…in my world, a princess is not simply a crown inherited from your parents as it was here, it is…an ascension, to embody one of the great virtues of our people, inspire others, and improve the lives of others and the state of the world through the spreading of that virtue. And it was the same for the Maidens until they were lost to the world."

"They're still around," Ruby said.

"Doing no good, so they might as well not be," Sunset replied. "Even if the original founders of this brotherhood were worried about the powers falling into the wrong hands the solutions wasn't to stick them in boxes and hide them away, it was to guard them better in the first place."

"But who guards the guards," Pyrrha murmured.

"Who's watching them now?" Sunset said. "If you really think that there's no one you can trust to defend the embodiment of all that is good then…give up and let Salem win because you're on a road to nothing anyway, you can't defend the world if that's your attitude to the world you're defending."

"I guess," Ruby said softly. "I mean, sure; I mean…it can go either way, can't it. I see your point, but it doesn't make it wrong, what's been done. Nobody got hurt, and no one evil got super powers, so it's all worked out for the best."

"Could it have worked out better?" Sunset asked.

"Who can possibly say?" Pyrrha said. "It would all be speculation."

"Does anyone else think that this is much easier to accept than all the other stuff?" Jaune said. "I mean, I do. It's weird, but I can buy this much easier than the relics and Salem."

"Is that just because you know about the relics and Salem already so you're primed to accept weirdness?" Sunset asked.

Jaune smiled. "Well, maybe. Or maybe because we already knew about magic existing. Don't get me wrong, it's still a lot to take in: all those legends are real and there are four women running around Remnant right now, one of them in Vale if what Ruby's father said is right, with unimaginable power and nobody knows about it. And Professor Ozpin has magic. That's the hard part for me right now."

"He does a good job hiding it, I'll give him that," Sunset said.

"I know what I saw," Ruby said.

"And we believe you," Pyrrha said. "It's still…quite something."

"Where do you think it comes from?" Ruby asked.

"In all the stories about the Maidens, the old stories from before they were hidden, there is an old man," Sunset said. "He's like a messenger, he is a messenger, he comes to the girls and tells them that they have been chosen and then he teaches them how to use their powers. If the powers of the Maidens are passed on then why shouldn't the powers of the old man be passed on in the same way? That might even be how this little circle chooses its leadership. And each new Old Man hides their powers because they're tied to the Maidens which they are also hiding. Except he doesn't have to actually hide."

"We don't know that the Maidens are hiding, just that they're hidden," Pyrrha said. "They could be leading ordinary lives, simply not using their powers or drawing attention to themselves in any way."

"Maybe that's why Professor Ozpin didn't want to teach you how to use your silver eyes," Jaune suggested. "He doesn't want any attention to be drawn to magic."

"Except he didn't have that problem with my mom, so what changed?"

"What changed to make him offer Team Stark magical gifts but not us," Sunset murmured.

"Maybe we don't need them?" Jaune said. "You and Ruby already have magic."

 _Magic you don't want me to use,_ Ruby thought, but didn't say because it wasn't as though he and Pyrrha didn't mean well even if she thought they were wrong about this.

"Perhaps," Sunset said, drawing out the word a little bit as she said it. "I just wish that he'd told us all of this along with the rest. Is there more? Things that even Raven and Ruby's father don't know about?"

"You're being too hard on Professor Ozpin," Pyrrha said. "And too critical of him, just as you've always been."

"People die under his leadership, I think that gives me a certain right to wariness," Sunset said, with a touch of sharpness entering her tone.

"My mom made her own choices," Ruby said. "Nobody forced her to do anything. Professor Ozpin didn't trick her or manipulate her or anything like that. She did what she thought was right."

"She's still-" Sunset cut herself off before she said something that they would both regret. She ran one hand through her hair. "If any of you fell in this fight I would be…I'd be as mad as Raven, to be honest."

Jaune frowned. He glanced at Pyrrha, in such a way as though it were almost like he didn't want her to know that he was doing it. "Honestly? Me too. If I lost…I can't say that I don't get what you're saying."

"It's always a risk," Ruby said. "We're huntsmen, after all."

"Ruby's right, what other choice do we have but to accept and endure it?" Pyrrha said. "This is the battle and Ozpin is our leader. We have to put our faith in him."

"Do we?" Sunset asked.

Ruby frowned. "Sure we do. What other choice is there?"

Sunset shrugged. "Just because Raven might not want to be a player of this game doesn't mean that we can't be. There's room for a third seat at the table, I'm convinced of that."

"Sunset," Ruby said. "What are you saying?"

Sunset was silent a moment. "I'm not quite sure. I haven't worked out all of the details in my head. But I'm sure there must be a way that we can set our own path, opposed to Salem's malice but not in thrall to Ozpin."

"You're too suspicious of him by far," Pyrrha said. "Professor Ozpin is a great man."

"He has a great reputation," Sunset corrected her.

"A reputation that he's earned," Ruby said. "Sunset…please don't sound like Raven."

Sunset looked a little affronted, but a little less than Ruby's comment ought to have warranted, being honest. It was almost as if she didn't feel like it was as much of an affront as it actually was. Nevertheless, she said, "Okay, I'll stop. I just want to keep you safe."

"We'll be okay," Ruby said. "As long as we stick together, and stand together, then we can handle anything that comes our way."

 _Mom thought the same thing,_ self-doubt whispered to her in the voice of Raven, but Ruby dismissed it by reminding her that Mom's friend had abandoned her before she had the chance to prove it. However much Sunset might sometimes sound like Raven in her distrust of Professor Ozpin, she wouldn't run; their leader wouldn't abandon them, and neither would any of the rest of them abandon Team SAPR. Of that she was convinced. They _would_ stick together, and in so doing validate the faith of Summer Rose.

"I know," Sunset said. "I…yeah, I know. Together we can do anything."

"You'll speak to Professor Ozpin?" Pyrrha asked. "About Raven?"

"I said I would," Sunset said. "And I won't get angry with him or anything like that if that's what you're worried about."

"Of course not," Pyrrha said, mostly convincingly.

"We should also tell Rosepetal at least some of this," Sunset said. "Not the personal stuff, and I'll try and be vague on how I learned all this, but I think they deserve to know about the Maidens if we do. What do you think, Ruby? Is that okay with you?"

"Sure," Ruby said. "Not the stuff about my mom?"

"Not if you don't want them to know that."

"Thanks," Ruby said. "I…I think I'd rather that they didn't know all about my family." It wasn't that she didn't trust RSPT, but this was her family history, and she didn't particularly want the complex relationship of her parents and Raven to be spread out in front of everyone. Sunset was right, they did deserve to know about the Maidens since SAPR did, but if Sunset could get that across to them without getting into her father's romantic life and Raven then so much the better as far as Ruby was concerned.

"Okay then," Sunset said. "I'll edit it carefully."

Pyrrha looked down at Ruby – looked at Ruby, which seemed to be looking down – and smiled. "Apart from that, Ruby, how are you doing?"

"That's pretty much all that's happened so far," Ruby said. "I mean, we just got back and there she was." She chuckled, but couldn't quite keep the nervousness out of it.

Pyrrha nodded. "Okay, but call us if you need anything."

"I will," Ruby said. "You guys have a great time, but not too great! Don't have any adventures without me like you did last vacation, okay?"

"We'll try and stay out of trouble," Sunset promised.

"I'm going to go home too, soon," Jaune said. "So I won't be around even if anything does happen."

"You are?"

"Yeah, it's a family thing," Jaune said. "When I called my Mom she asked me to come and visit, for my Dad's birthday. Everyone's going to be there."

"Aww, that sounds great."

"Yeah," Jaune said nervously. "Great."

"It's going to be fine, Jaune," Ruby said, as Pyrrha placed a hand upon Jaune's shoulder. "They'll all be really glad to see you, and really proud when they find out about all the things you've done."

Jaune nodded, although whether she'd actually convinced him or he was just pretending to have been convinced by her Ruby couldn't quite say.

"Anyway," he said. "Have a great time back home, and I'll see you when you get back."

"Same to you," Ruby said. "Bye everyone."

"Goodbye."

"Goodbye, Ruby."

"Bye."

One by one they all hung up, and Ruby was left staring at a dark and empty screen.

"You know, there are times when Sunset worries me," Yang said, as she stepped out of the shadows of the doorway and walked into the sunlight room.

Ruby put down her scroll. "Well, you scare her so I guess it evens out."

Yang's eyebrows rose. "I scare her?"

"You are kind of scary when you're mad."

Yang grinned. "You better believe it," she said, as she walked across the room and sat down at the edge of Ruby's bed. "But all the same, she worries me."

"Because she doesn't trust Professor Ozpin?"

"I'm not sure that I trust Professor Ozpin, so it's not that," Yang said. "It's what she wants to do about it."

"You don't trust Professor Ozpin?"

"He brought you into his secret circle but not me," Yang explained. "He put up a barrier between us, and I don't like it."

"I'm sure he didn't do it on purpose."

"No, he just thinks I'm too weak to be of any use to him," Yang grumbled.

"I'm sure that's not it either," Ruby said. "It's just…I mean, he can't tell everyone his secrets or they wouldn't be secret any more."

"It's where the line has been drawn in this specific case that bothers me," Yang said. "Though I can't say that I like hearing Sunset talk about a third player much more."

"She doesn't really mean it."

"She's comparing herself to Raven, I hope she doesn't mean it."

"Sunset isn't going to become a bandit or abandon the team."

"If she's going to betray Ozpin is that an improvement?" Yang asked.

Ruby sat up. "Sunset won't actually betray Professor Ozpin. Especially not if the rest of us don't have a problem with him. She just worries about me, about all of us."

"I guess I can relate to that," Yang muttered. She grabbed some of her long golden hair and pulled it over her shoulder, running both hands through it. "Do you miss when the world was simple? See the grimm, kill the grimm, go home, celebrate. Rinse and repeat."

Ruby laughed. "Sometimes, yeah. But…we've got a chance to make a real difference here, knowing what's really out there. And I can't be sad about that."

Yang let go of her hair, and looked at Ruby. A fond smile played across her face.

"What?" Ruby asked. "Yang, why are you looking at me like that?"

"You want to go talk to Mom?" Yang asked. "Because I…I think I'd like to talk to Mom right now."

"Sure," Ruby said. "I think…I think she'd like to know how we're both doing."

Yang nodded slowly. "What are we going to do, Rubes."

"We're going to talk to Mom."

Yang looked at her.

Ruby swung her legs off the bed, narrowly avoiding her sister on the way. "We're going to do our best, no matter what."

Just like Mom had.

So long as they stood together, there was nothing that they couldn't face down and overcome.

As a team, they could do anything.


	119. Red Like Roses

Red Like Roses

Summer's memorial stone was a white island in a sea of green. It sat atop the cliff, just beyond the eave of the woods, with grass growing all around it. The Xiao Long-Rose family took care that none of the grass overgrew the stone that was all the marker she had, resulting in a neat trim amidst the wildness and the weeds.

Summer Rose

Thus Kindly I Scatter

The sun was beginning to descend in the sky, sinking to meet the sea that served Patch as a wall, or maybe a moat like old castle used to have, protecting it against the incursions of too many grimm. With her stone being positioned on the cliff the way it was, it sometimes felt as though Mom was a sentinel, keeping watch over the island for any enemies who might try to make landfall here.

Ruby liked that, and she thought that her mother would have liked that notion too.

Yang stood by her side. She stood, while Ruby knelt down at the grave, but stood in such a way and in such a place so that her shadow didn't fall over the white stone, nor come between the marker and the sun. But she stood, and Ruby could feel her presence nearby and her eyes watching over Ruby and Summer both as Ruby placed a bouquet of eleven rose, six red and five white, before the inscribed gravestone.

That was one of the reasons why they had so many rosebushes in their garden: they preferred to grow Summer's flowers themselves rather than buy them in town. Ruby thought they meant more that way.

The wind blew in from over the sea, pushing Ruby's hood back off her head as it ruffled through her hair and her long red cape alike. The stone shielded the flowers from being blown away as Ruby got to her feet and took a step back.

"Hey Mom," she said softly. "Sorry that I haven't been here since last winter. I could say that things have been a little busy but, well, I was here for spring vacation and I didn't come see you, so…I'm sorry.

"But hey, it means that I've got a lot of stuff to tell you now! So much." So much that she fell silent because she didn't know where to start, so many incidents and events piled upon one another in her mind. What would her mother want to hear about first? Where was she supposed to begin? With battles or with friendships, with powers or with revelations, with daily life or with dramatic moments?

"I'm still at Beacon," she offered, since the last thing that she'd told Mom was that she'd been let into Beacon two years early. "In fact they even let me sleep in your old room. Me and my team. Team Sapphire. I'm the R at the end, in case you were wondering. It's a really great team, I'm sure that you'd like all of my team-mates. Or at least, I really hope that you would. I've made some good friends. There's Pyrrha, she's really cool, she's a tournament champion from Mistral, I've never actually seen any of her matches because we don't get the international sports on her cable packages but I know all about her and believe me she's every bit as good as her reputation…and she'd probably kind of hate the fact that I just said that because she doesn't really like her reputation very much. But she'd be way too nice to actually say anything because she's the kindest person that I've ever met, well, after you. Did you ever meet someone and think 'you know, I wish I was that perfect'? Because Pyrrha makes me feel that way sometimes. She's so poised and so graceful and kind and fast and strong and brave and polite and sometimes it's almost like living with someone who just stepped out of a storybook. Only, I don't know how happy she was before she came to Beacon. She didn't seem to know very much about having fun, or being normal. I think I was able to help her with that, just a little. Ooh, and she says that one day soon I'll be a better huntress than she is!" Ruby squealed delightedly. "You have no idea how awesome it was to hear her say that, I thought that I was going to faint or something. But I didn't, because I was in the hospital at the time and that might have given everyone the wrong idea.

"Jaune is nice. Really nice. I don't think he has it in him to be a bad person, although he didn't always think things through when I first met him. But he was the first person I met at Beacon to be nice to me, and he's always really easy to talk to. I think growing up with seven sisters made him a good listener. He's…not the strongest guy in the world, but he tries really hard and he never gives up no matter how badly the odds seemed to be stacked against him.

"Sunset's our team leader, and she's…complicated. It's like she's trying to be a good person but she doesn't always know how, if that makes sense. I guess it does to you, since I've met Raven. Yeah. She stopped by for a visit just today. So I think you probably know what I'm talking about. Still, I know she'd always have my back if I was in trouble, and I don't think…no, I know that I wouldn't trade her on my team for anything.

"Like I said, I've made so many great friends, and I've also stopped a load of bad guys. There was this guy Torchwick who was stealing dust and weapons and whom we totally arrested. And then he got away from us," Ruby confessed, in a more embarrassed tone. "But not before he'd led us to a White Fang base where they were planning a huge attack on Vale which we totally stopped oh yeah." Sure they'd stopped the attack _in Vale_ but nobody had gotten hurt either way so it amounted to the same thing, right?

Ruby stared down at her mother's name upon the stone. "I still don't know why Professor Ozpin let me into Beacon early. For a while I thought that it was because of my eyes, because of our eyes, but he never did anything to actually teach me how to use them so I guess that's not it. It can't be, right? I don't know what the answer is, but I'm really glad he did it. There isn't anywhere else that I'd rather be.

"I really wish that I could tell you about all of this stuff in person. I wish that you could answer back. I've learned so much about you, Mom, but I wish that I could have learned it from you, instead of having to get it from Dad and from your old team-mate who ran away to become a bandit queen." She shot an apologetic glance at Yang who didn't indicate that she minded Ruby's description of Raven.

"I found out what you were doing," Ruby said, letting the words hang in the air for a moment before the wind blowing in from the sea carried them away. "Professor Ozpin told me…most of everything, and Dad told me the rest, I think. And I'm going to carry on where you left off. I'm going to fight, just like you did, against Salem and against anybody else.

"Raven came to see us today. She tried to tell us that it was hopeless and that you were, well…stupid. But it's not stupid to do the right thing. We both know that, and that's why…" Ruby smiled. "This is the part where it would be really great if you could tell me that you believe in me, and that I got this."

She waited, and it seemed to Ruby almost as though the wind became a whisper in her ears, a still small voice cutting through the chirruping of the cicadas all around and the chirruping of the birds in the trees behind them to tell her _Good luck, you can do this. I love you._

Ruby's eyes closed and she bowed her head. "Thanks, Mom. That means a lot. I…I love you too." She wiped away a nascent tear with one hand. "And now I'm sure that Yang has a lot of stuff she wants to talk to you about too." She looked at Yang, and gestured towards the trees. "I'll be over there," she whispered.

Yang nodded silently.

Ruby pulled her hood back over head as she turned away. She stopped, and glanced over her shoulder. "It was great talking to you, Mom," she said, before she left Yang to have her moment in peace.

* * *

As Ruby retreated, Yang stood over her mother's grave. That's right. Her mother. Whatever Raven was to her, she wasn't her mother. She wasn't the one who had changed Yang's diapers, read her stories before bed, calmed her down when she was upset, made her cookies, sang to her, looked after her when she was sick.

Of course, Summer Rose hadn't had time to do too much of that, but she would have if she'd been allowed to. She hadn't left the way that Raven had. She hadn't walked away not only from all the responsibilities of being Yang's mother but also from the right to call herself Yang's mother.

Her mother was…her mother wasn't here, but this memorial was the only one she had and the closest thing to a grave that they had to come to, so here her mother was: looking out over the sea, kissed by the breeze, the last to see the sun before it set. Yang looked at said sun now, it was getting real low, and they should be home before dark.

Still, she had time. Time enough to say what she wanted to say.

"Hey, Mom," she said, and despite the fact that Ruby had retreated out of earshot she found herself speaking softly, and solemnly. "I wish that I had as much to say to you as Ruby does, but the truth is…not as many exciting things have happened to me as they have to her and you'd better believe that's eating at me a little bit. Still, I made team leader, so that's cool. Team Iron. Yeah, we pronounce the Y like an I, it must have been the only way they could make anything fit. Ren and Nora are cool, they're my team-mates. I'm not sure I believe that they've been treasure hunters and hustlers and bottle washers and pickpockets and joined the circus and learnt how to fight grimm and still only been my age, but…I gave up on trying to work out which of Nora's stories were true and which ones weren't a long time ago, even with Ren's help I can hardly work it out.

"And as for the third member of my team…well, I just got her recently, and I haven't really gotten the chance to spend my time with her. Ruby's worked with her though, and I think she likes and trusts her, so that's good enough for me.

"Ruby's really grown up a lot. She's got really great judgement of people. I think you'd be really proud of her. I won't lie and say that I wouldn't rather that we were on the same team so I could keep an eye on her, but she's been doing really well for herself.

"I wish I could take care of her. I wish…I wish that I could do more. It feels like Ruby's out on the field while I'm on the bench, and that wouldn't bug me so much if the game wasn't so vicious. I know we're training to become huntresses but what happened to the training part?" Yang sighed. "I totally get why you wanted to be the one going on missions while Dad stayed home with us, although I don't know how he ever stood it the other way around. Waiting for you to come home…until one day you didn't.

"Ruby says that it's better to know the truth. That it's better to know what's out there. That it's better to know who the real enemy is. And I'm sure that she's right. But I miss when I had simple choices, you know: should I give Ruby chocolate cake for breakfast? No, just because she wants it doesn't mean I should I give it to her. Should I kill that beowolf? Sure, why not.

"I wanted to become a huntress so that I could live a life of adventure, but what kind of adventures am I going to have worrying about Ruby off fighting unstoppable evil?"

Yang stared down at the grave marker, willing the stone to speak, to give her something, anything.

"If you could answer what would you say right now?" Yang asked. "Would you tell me that I'm right to worry, or would you tell me to believe in my sister? Because I want to do both of those things and I'm not sure which one I want more. I guess that I'll just have to let her go, and watch as she finds her own path, without me." She knelt down, and brushed her hand against the words engraved upon the white stone.

"I met her," she said. "Raven was here, just like Ruby said. She asked me to come away with her. She asked me to be her daughter as if she wasn't seventeen years too late!" She shut her eyes, clenched them tight closed for a moment.

"You're my mother," she whispered. "You're the only mother that I'll ever have. And this is the only family that I'll ever have and I won't even turn my back on them, I promise. Not for her, not for anyone." She rose to her feet.

"I know that Ruby's leaving me in the dust right now, but I hope that I can make you proud all the same." She grinned, or tried to. "See you later, Mom; cheer for us in the Vytal festival."

As Yang walked away, the setting sun was red like roses.


	120. Question My Judgement

Question My Judgement

The sun had sunk below the horizon by the time that Sunset made her way across the courtyard towards the tower. Whatever her opinion of Professor Ozpin might be, he seemed like the type of person who worked late in his office high above the world, much as Princess Celestia often did, and with Princess Celestia Sunset had found that the evenings were often the best time to catch them alone as everyone else who might otherwise have occupied them did not work late and had gone or to bed by now. With good fortune it would be the same here.

The sun was set and the moon was risen, casting a cracked silvery light upon the world as Sunset walked across the courtyard of stone. She passed beneath the statue of the two huntsmen standing above the grimm, and stood for a moment beneath its shadow.

 _Four Maidens and the Old Man; four magical girls and a guide to show them the way. And all of them hidden from those who might need their guidance._

It made no sense to her, in spite of the danger. Guard them, protect them, but hide them? Hide the light to protect it from the darkness and had not the darkness triumphed?

 _Mind you, did not Princess Celestia give up her magic to Twilight Sparkle, to hide it and to keep it safe from Tirek? Perhaps there are some battles that cannot be won, but must only be fled from in hopes of avoiding them._

 _Is this such a battle?_

 _How would I know if it was?_

It was the ignorance that chafed at her more than anything else. She wouldn't have minded the fact that Ozpin was not telling them all which he knew – she didn't require to be spoonfed all knowledge – if there had been somewhere else she could have acquired it. And to an extent there were, she had known somewhat of the Maidens before Ruby's call with Raven's revelation sprung upon them, but it felt as though so much had been intentionally hidden and obfuscated by the ancestors of Ozpin's group that some things could only be discovered at his pleasure and that was not a position in which Sunset Shimmer felt or could ever feel comfortable.

 _Perhaps this is all my pride speaking._ She was not blind to the possibility. She had come to Remnant, after all, because she was too proud to serve or at the least to serve without the great rewards to which she had felt entitled. Perhaps she felt entitled yet.

That might be some of it, but it was not the whole; at least she thought not. It was not entitlement that made her concerned for the lives of her friends, unless it was a sense of entitlement to more time spent with them. Yes, they were huntsmen and danger a constant companion but the logical conclusion of that argument would be to abolish the four huntsman academies, unlock the aura of every likely lad who wished to have a go, press a gunblade into his hands and send him off to try his strength and luck against the grimm. Wasn't the whole point of Beacon to arm with knowledge those who wished to hazard their lives upon the battlefield? To give them the intellectual tools they would need to survive against the darkness by teaching them about this grimm and that, this strategy and that, what would keep you alive and what would get you killed. You could argue the efficacy of some of it, but the attempt was there. And yet Ozpin was not willing to apply the same approach to what he called the real war being fought in the shadows, not willing to tell all for all the good that it might do for those who fought for him.

It was not quite as bad as all other students who were not so fortunate as to impress Ozpin enough to be taken into his confidence: Flash, Weiss, Ren and Nora, the Blake-less BLBL, who were left ignorant of where they were marching, and against what enemy, and the likelihood or otherwise of their eventual triumph. The situation of Sunset and SAPR and RSPT was not so poor by far, but it was less than perfect to be sure.

She did not want them to die. That was the heart of it. She did not want them to die, and if they perished she would probably do as Raven had and blame the man who had sent them into battle. Perhaps it was not fair, but it was in her heart nonetheless.

What was Raven planning? To gather power but not to use it, to make herself a target for Ozpin and maybe Salem too without any seeming plans to move against them? Perhaps she did what her own safety prompted her to do, but Sunset couldn't see what so safe about sitting on the magic that others wanted without actually doing anything with it that might make you secure.

 _Perhaps she doesn't know what can be done._ That would be fair enough, since Sunset wasn't sure what could be done either. She wanted to do something, but that was no great guide to what she ought to do. Salem had to be opposed, to be sure, but to serve under one who sent his followers out ill-armed and ill-prepared…

 _I would rather work with him than for him, but if he were half as proud as I am he would not be capable of entertaining such a notion._

She had tarried here long enough, it was time to go and conclude the business of the evening. Sunset continued on her way towards the tower.

The tower was guarded by Atlesian troops and knights, but as the CCT was not actually closed tonight – at least not at this hour – they didn't impede her progress. The knights must have recognised her face from a database and knew that she was a Beacon student, and the soldiers themselves trusted that the knights had identified her. No one stood in her way as she walked up the steps and through the doors.

Inside the tower, the news was playing, and a couple of the soldiers on duty were watching as Lisa Lavender provided them with current events.

"…and in our breaking news story, the Mistral Council has voted to begin partial mobilisation, the first time since the Melian Crisis fifty years ago that this has occurred. We don't yet know exactly what this means, but we're told that diplomats in Vale and Atlas are both frantically trying to find out what's going on…"

 _Partial mobilisation?_ Rather than having an Atlas-style professional military, or a voluntary part-time militia like Vale's National Guard, Mistral called up its citizens for national service when they reached…a certain age, Sunset couldn't quite recall whether it was eighteen or twenty-one but she remembered that those like Pyrrha who were enrolled in the huntsman academies were exempt (there were all sorts of other exemptions too for certain branches of higher education, reserved occupations, and Sunset was left with the distinct impression that you could get out of it simply by knowing the right people in government to grant you exempt status); they were trained for three months and then sent home again never to actually use their training because this was an era of peace and Mistral had no need of armies…except it seemed to think that it needed one now.

Sunset was as clueless as the news as to just what partial mobilisation might look like in practice – it might mean a thousand men called up or it might mean fifty thousand – but the fact that they were calling up any men at all was unusual, and being unusual it could not help but be a little worrying.

It put a frown on Sunset's face as she got into the elevator and began to ride it up to Ozpin's office.

 _I know they were having a little problem with huntsman overstretch when we were there with Pyrrha, but do they really think that grabbing a bunch of tradesman, pressing guns into their hands and expecting them to remember what they learned ten years ago is going to be a good substitute?_

The elevator ground and grumbled its way up to the very top of the tower, where the doors opened. Professor Ozpin was alone in almost complete darkness, with the only light in his office being the green light of his holo-screen illuminating his face, as well as displaying the visage of Haven's Professor Lionheart.

"You should have prevented this, Leo," Professor Ozpin said.

"I tried, Oz, I tried to rally as many votes against it as I could before the meeting and I spoke against it during the session; but I'm just one man, and with these rumours about Atlas-"

Ozpin raised one hand, and Lionheart fell silent as Sunset stepped out of the elevator.

"Miss Shimmer," Professor Ozpin said, looking over the screen at her. "What an unexpected pleasure."

"I'm sorry for interrupting, Professor," Sunset said. "I can come back tomorrow, if-"

"No, that won't be necessary," Professor Ozpin said. "I don't think there's much more to be said on this particular matter. Thank you, Leo; please keep me informed if you learn anything else about this."

"Of course, Ozpin," Lionheart said. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight, old friend," Ozpin said, as he turned off the holoscreen and plunged his office into momentary darkness, which pressed close all around Sunset for a moment before a pale green light partially illuminated the cavernous chamber. It was located above the gears of the clock, which cast their shadows on the floor as they ground away overhead.

"Please," Professor Ozpin said, as another pale green light illuminated his face. He gestured towards the chair in front of his desk. "Sit down, Miss Shimmer, and tell me what I can do for you at such an hour."

"I came here at such an hour because I thought you'd be free, Professor," Sunset said, as she made her way across the room. "Once again, I'm sorry that you were not."

"The work of a headmaster is very seldom done, I'm afraid."

"But the work of others usually is," Sunset said.

Professor Ozpin chuckled. "I suppose so, in normal times. Although Professor Lionheart is also a headmaster. Did you know what we were talking about when you came in?"

"I just saw it on the news," Sunset said as she sat down. "The first time in fifty years, they said."

"Indeed, the Melian Crisis," Ozpin said, sounding almost as though he could remember it himself. "Although, if Oniyuri had ever become more than a dream, the matter might have come again rather more recently." He sighed, and for a moment he looked very old even under the low light currently prevailing in his office.

"Do you know what's caused this?" Sunset asked.

"Apparently, there are some in Mistral who do not believe that Atlas should have sole responsibility for ensuring the security of the Vytal Festival," Professor Ozpin said. "As this is an international event, so they say it should have international involvement. Especially with these rumours connecting Atlas to the recent attack on Vale."

"In Mistral they believe that Atlas is responsible?" Sunset asked, disbelieving.

"I don't think so, but I'm afraid that there are those who seem to believe it in order to justify the advancement of their own agenda," Professor Ozpin said. "The strength of mankind comes from unity through diversity, Miss Shimmer; we accept one another in all our forms, with all our faults, and in so accepting we are able to stand together against the grimm. But nativism is always with us, like a cancer or a weed; it may sometimes retreat into the darkness beneath the surface but it is never quite destroyed. It is always lurking, waiting for its moment to re-emerge into the light."

 _I did this. I have sown the seeds of chaos and they are sprouting across Remnant._ Sunset clenched her hands into fists upon her knees. She did not regret her choice and would not while her friends yet lived, but that didn't mean that she was blind to the consequences of what she had done and what further consequence might flow from her affection. Vale against Atlas, Mistral against Atlas, Mistral stretching forth its hand to Vale, when would it end? Sunset closed her eyes, imagining Pyrrha and Jaune torn apart as Mistral recalled its sons and daughters, or Vale expelled its foreign students.

"Professor," Sunset said, in a voice that trembled. "I-"

"I fear your confession would do very little good at this stage, Miss Shimmer."

Sunset's eyes snapped open. "You…you knew?"

"Not at first," Professor Ozpin admitted. "But, later…the evidence that Ms China presented against Miss Polendina was…suggestive. You destroyed the controls to the train."

"Yes," Sunset whispered.

Professor Ozpin closed his eyes for a moment. "I hope I am not so poor a judge of character that you did it without a good reason."

"I was afraid of what might become of the two teams if they were trapped in that tunnel with a horde of grimm and no way out," Sunset said.

Professor Ozpin nodded, as though he had thought that might be the answer. "And so you placed their lives above the safety of Vale."

"I was confident that we could hold the breach," Sunset declared. Her voice lowered once again. "But yes, I did make that choice."

Professor Ozpin stared at her a moment, peering at her over his small spectacles. "Who else knows? Anyone?"

"Rainbow Dash, of Team Rosepetal," Sunset said. "And Blake Belladonna. They're neither of them too happy about it, but they're not going to say anything. And…" She swallowed. "And Cinder knows. She was…watching me, and talking to me while I…while I did it."

"That is unfortunate," Professor Ozpin murmured. "And yet it is strange that she has not used this fact."

"I think she's been talking to the Saviours of Vale," Sunset said. "But, yes, I don't know why Penny, and not me."

"If I had to guess, I would say that it is most likely Miss Polendina's greater connection to the Atlesian military," Professor Ozpin murmured.

"Professor?" Sunset said. "If you knew…why haven't you done anything about it?"

"And what good would that do, at this stage?"

Sunset blinked. "You think it's too late for the truth?"

"When the truth changes, subsequent truths are looked at with rather more suspicion, I have found," Professor Ozpin said. "You could tell the truth. You could suffer the hatred of your team-mates, you could submit yourself to the justice of Vale or Atlas, you could carry the means of your execution up the hill and allow yourself to be put to death but none of it would stop what has been set in motion by your actions in that tunnel. As a citizen of Atlas, I fear that even your death would be seen both as an admission of Atlesian guilt and a feeble attempt to draw a line beneath Atlas' crime while still retaining the power and influence Atlas has acquired resulting from your action. I fear at this point the truth is powerless, especially since it aligns so neatly with the lie. At this juncture I see little purpose in depriving myself of a useful servant. But tell me, Miss Shimmer, do you regret your actions?"

"I regret that these things have led from them."

"That is not what I asked."

"Do seven lives not justify my works?"

Professor Ozpin looked into Sunset's eyes. "I see. They are so important to you."

"They're everything to me."

"And the wider world?"

"I will protect it if I can, but not at their expense," Sunset said. "Should I have let them die down there?"

Professor Ozpin leaned back in his seat. "I could tell you that we must always put the needs of the many ahead of the needs of the few, and in my head I know that to be true…and yet in my heart I too sometimes find it hard to remember. There are those whom I have spared that I ought to have sacrificed, those whom I have sacrificed whom I wish in my heart that I had done more to spare although I know the cost would have been great. You had a choice to make, in that tunnel, upon that train, and though you made the wrong choice the fact remains that you made _your_ choice as the gods have fashioned us to choose…and to feel. And if you value the smiling face before you more than the shadowy silhouettes of those you do not know then…that, too, is part of what it means to love.

"And besides, if I were to censure you too much that would require me to pretend that I did not know what you were when I took you into my confidence, and I am so disingenuous."

"Why did you take me into your confidence," Sunset said. "Knowing what I am."

Professor Ozpin smiled slightly. "You may not have enough experience with us to realise it yet, but my two most trusted lieutenants, Glynda and James, are also the two who argue with me most often and most vociferously."

Sunset's eyebrows rose. "You wanted me because I didn't trust you?"

"I have never claimed to be omniscient," Ozpin said. "I have made more mistakes than any man alive. I was glad Team Sapphire was led by someone who would use their own judgement instead of blindly following mine. In that way, you are likely to catch more of my mistakes than someone blinded by too much faith in the legend of my greatness."

Sunset's mouth opened just a little as she stared at this old man, this man whom she had thought such a spider but who now seemed so humble. "I fear I have misjudged you terribly, Professor."

"Please don't disappoint me by becoming a sycophant, Miss Shimmer," Professor Ozpin said. "The truth is that, aside from possibly thinking me colder than I am, you have judged me perfectly. I am dangerous to your friends, as is my cause and your association with it. As I was dangerous to Summer Rose. Which is why they are fortunate indeed to have you watching over them."

Sunset stared at him as though it were the first time she had laid eyes upon him, which it almost was in so many ways. "I think my princess would approve of you, Professor."

Professor Ozpin chuckled. "I would take that as high praise, Miss Shimmer, if I knew her better."

"Take it as high praise in any case," Sunset said. "There is no one whose good opinion is worth more." She fell silent for a moment. "Will they come to harm from what I have done?"

"I cannot say, the future is beyond the powers of any man to know," Ozpin said. "All I know is that it is too late to be averted. The die is cast, the error has been made, and though I fear that much ill will befall Remnant in consequence, you will have to live with that fact, Miss Shimmer, as I must live the consequences of my mistakes, as we all must." He placed his arms upon his desk. "Creation, destruction, knowledge, choice; four aspects of magic, but the greatest of these is choice, as it always has been; you made a choice, Miss Shimmer, and I must say that I find it a poor choice, and yet take some little comfort in the fact that there is no choice so poor that it will render you utterly without choices in the future. Though ill consequence will come of this, you will have the choices to make that will lessen those blows." Professor Ozpin managed to smile at her. "And yet I'm sure you didn't come up here in order for me to reveal something that you didn't know. So why don't we get down to why you're really here?"

Sunset looked down at her hands for a moment. For all that he had said he valued her suspicion, nevertheless a great deal of it had vanished like snow under the sun in the face of his disarming earnestness – and the fact that he had been more sympathetic towards her choice than either Blake or Dash for all that she would have thought he would be among the most displeased. And so it was in a softer manner than she had originally intended that Sunset said, "Ruby came home today to an unexpected visitor: Raven."

Professor Ozpin gave a sad nod. "Another whom I recruited knowing full well what she was. I hoped that with the help and good offices of her team-mates she would become something more…but in that I was cruelly disappointed. I take it that she had things to say about me."

"One or two, I'm afraid," Sunset said. "She hates you for the death of Summer Rose."

"She cannot possibly blame me for the death of Ruby's mother half so much as I blame myself," Ozpin replied. "As I said, there are those who I sacrificed that I wish I had done so much more to save, and Summer Rose stands at the very head of the number." He leaned back in his seat, and seemed even to slump in it, as if something had given way inside him and he could no longer support his posture. "For all that I have rated James many a time over the blunt way in which he deploys his military, the truth is that I too am a general-"

"Or a king," Sunset said. "A lord, at least." One who did not reward his faithful retainers as he ought to do, that was as true as it had been when Sunset had first had the thought, and yet it seemed to matter much less now because he seemed to acknowledge the fact quite freely himself.

"Yes," Professor Ozpin said. "A lord. A lord who uses others as his weapons, or why should I sit here atop this tower while the world fails all around me and beneath my very feet, using others as my weapons, spending even they who are as daughters to me…as though I were now too weak to fight, which is not true; at least not yet. What did Raven say of me? Or should I ask you what she told you that I had failed to tell?"

"Chiefly she told Ruby of the four Maidens," Sunset said. "And that you turned her into a bird, apparently."

Professor Ozpin chuckled. "A mere parlour trick, nothing more. In the days when this order was founded he who stood in my place would have been capable of so much more."

"Then it's true," Sunset murmured. "You are the Old Man of the stories, you stand in that role."

"As you say, Miss Shimmer…I stand in that role," Professor Ozpin whispered into the darkness. "And with that role comes a little magic, a declining amount of which little enough remains now, but some nonetheless."

"And the Maidens?" Sunset asked. "Is their power declining too?"

"No, I am thankful to say," Professor Ozpin declared at once. "The power of the four maidens is as strong as it ever was; in some cases it might even be said to have increased as the legacy of some truly remarkable young women to have gone before in bearing the four mantles." A fond look crossed his face, but only for a moment. "I suppose you're wondering why I kept this from you?"

"I'm actually wondering why you keep this from the world," Sunset said.

Professor Ozpin looked surprised. "You ask me that, after you have read the stories, after you know what fate befell the Maidens when they walked the world openly?"

"Then guard them better," Sunset said. "Don't leave them alone to fall prey to villains, but to hide them away from the world as you have done…to deprive the world of its lights of hope…"

"Lights of hope," Professor Ozpin murmured. "Yes, they were such once upon a time. Once upon a time…tell me, Miss Shimmer, do you know the story of the Four Seasons?"

Sunset's brow furrowed a little. "I'm afraid not, Professor. I know many stories of the prophets and the saints, but the original…I am afraid that the fairytales of my childhood features Clover the Clever and Starswirl the Bearded."

"Of course," Professor Ozpin said. "Imagine, if you will, an old man who lives alone in the wilderness, isolated in his cabin, troubled not by the world and troubling no one with his presence."

"The old man?" Sunset asked.

"You might call him the very first, although that might not be entirely accurate," Professor Ozpin said. "In any case, an old man, a wizard: apathetic, listless, utterly without hope. Suddenly he is confronted by four girls, and not just any four girls, four such young maids as he has never met before, four sisters such as any father would be proud to call his daughters. The first, Winter, understands his desire for solitude, and shares his without interrupting it, but in the sharing she encourages him to use his time more wisely: to contemplate rather than brood, to look forward rather than constantly gazing back in melancholy, to elevate his thoughts to the heavens rather than looking downwards to the earth. The second, Spring, brings forth the bounty of the earth into his garden, turning a wasted and barren plot of earth into a demi-paradise teaming with nature's bounty: flowers, fruits, vegetables ripe and delicious, the likes of which appeal not only to the old man but to the birds and beasts and insects who soon flock about the cabin, bringing life where once there had been only the stench of slow decay. The third sister, Summer, challenges the old man to make better use of his legs just as her elder sister challenged him to make better use of his mind: she bids him to come out and enjoy the newfound beauty that Spring has bought into his world; the old man does as she requests, and finds his heart warmed by Summer's infectious joy for every aspect of her life, such that all the ice that had clung to his heart is melted clean away. And the fourth sister, Fall, is the last to come forth, and bids him to be thankful for all that he has, and all that he has been given. And for their kindness, and in recognition of the extraordinary virtue of these sisters who had left him awestruck, the old man digs into his store of magic and blesses them with unimaginable power, bidding them go forth into the world and bring the light of hope that they had kindled in his heart to all the hearts of everyone they will meet upon the way. Imagine what good he thought might be done in the world by these four extraordinary girls and their descendants, of what the five of them might, together, accomplish as he took it upon himself and _his_ descendants to guide those chosen to follow in the footsteps of those first four Maidens." Professor Ozpin's voice began to shake. "Imagine how that man would have despaired if he could have seen what became of his beautiful dream, how sin and ambition took something pure and beautiful and tarnished it, degraded it, twisted it until it became…evil. We cannot let that happen again. You say that we have deprived the world of the light of hope, and you are absolutely right…but better no light, than the dark light of a magic perverted to serve Salem."

Sunset was silent for a moment. "Far be it for me to criticise," she said. "But perhaps the Old Man's mistake was in granting the maidens powers to do what they had first done without the aid of any such; in Equestria, great power is granted _after_ the paragon has touched the hearts of the world, in recognition of the deed, not in anticipation of it." _Or else I should be a princess, not a huntress._

"Perhaps," Professor Ozpin allowed. "But it is far too late now, the die was cast a long time ago."

"I take it that it was your ancestor as head of this organisation that led the heroes who hunted down the last Red Queens," Sunset said.

"It was my predecessor," Professor Ozpin said. "Those who had falsely claimed the powers of the Maiden, or who simply could not be trusted to use them wisely…they were killed, as they had killed others to obtain the powers that they did not deserve. And with their deaths new Maidens were made, but not to go forth into the world as the early Maidens had done but to live under the protection of this circle in safety and security and seclusion, with their powers kept safe from Salem's malice. And so we have done these many generations, protecting the Maidens and ensuring their succession is regulated so that the powers are always held by those whom we can trust."

Sunset nodded. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"I told Raven, and look what happened," Professor Ozpin said.

"We are not Raven," Sunset said. "Pyrrha isn't Raven, Ruby isn't Raven, Jaune isn't Raven."

"You didn't mention yourself."

"I'm not Raven either, Professor," Sunset said. "Although I admit that I might have more of her in me than the others do. Did you hope that she, too, would push back at you?"

"And she did," Professor Ozpin said. "Until she didn't."

"She has the Spring Maiden," Sunset said. "Or so she claims."

Professor Ozpin's face was utterly still in the soft green light. "Does she indeed? Well, that answers that mystery."

"She thought you knew," Sunset said softly. "Or claimed to think you knew."

"I knew that Spring has been missing these few years past," Professor Ozpin said. "She…she could not bear the weight of the responsibility the mantle placed upon her and so she fled from Haven. But did I know that she was with the Branwen Tribe? No."

"Then what will you do?" Sunset asked. "Now that you know?"

Professor Ozpin looked at her. "Would any course of action I might take bother you, Miss Shimmer?"

"I think I'd rather you didn't kidnap her, Professor," Sunset said softly. "The Branwens may be bandits but it's where she chose to go." She smiled. "Perhaps I just have a little too much sympathy for runaways."

Professor Ozpin did not smile now. "I confess I fear what Raven might force the child to do…but even more do I fear that Raven is deluding herself if she thinks she can protect Spring from the enemy if they find them…but in any case, the question is academic for now as I do not know where Raven or her tribe are currently located. They are vagabond by nature, and difficult to pin down, although…thank you, Miss Shimmer, you have certainly given me something to ponder. And now I am afraid I must bid you goodnight, it is getting late, and while I still have so very many things remaining to do, I wouldn't want you to be up past your bedtime."

"Thank you, Professor," Sunset said, getting up with much the same feeling as she had once had when Princess Celestia had chastened her. It might not last – Princess Celestia's lectures had not always – but for now she felt both cleansed of sin and at the same time ashamed for having needed cleansing in the first place.

"I wouldn't mention your decision in the tunnels to your team-mates," Professor Ozpin. "They are a group of very noble hearts, and I fear they would not understand your reasons."

"No, Professor," Sunset murmured.

"Thank you, Miss Shimmer," Professor Ozpin said. "This has been very enlightening."

"Yes, Professor," Sunset said. "For both of us."


	121. Fear and Uncertainty

Fear and Uncertainty

There was a violinist at their table.

It had seemed like a good idea at the time.

Just like it had seemed like a good idea to take Pyrrha out to a classy place where he'd had to use her name when booking the table because there was no way that Jaune Arc could get a reservation at Murder of Birds anything closer than ten years from now but of course they could find a table next week for the famous Pyrrha Nikos; which was great apart from the fact that discretion didn't appear to be included in the service: there had been a dozen photographers outside when they got here and none of them seemed to have left during the starter course; in fact even more seemed to have shown up subsequently, waiting at the doors like a pack of wolves. And that was without mentioning the way that the patrons inside the restaurant were staring at them and even the waiting staff seemed to smirk as they took their orders like he knew that she was way out of his league, okay, could the world and its dog please stop going out of its way to remind him of that fact?

It had also seemed like a good idea – one of the many wonderful ideas that he had had tonight – to plan this date himself without asking anyone who might have any idea of what he should do for their first date for their opinion. Now it was true that Ruby probably wouldn't have had any good ideas – he loved Ruby, but she was just a kid after all – and Jaune wasn't sure he wanted to know what Yang's ideal date was, but with hindsight he was finding it harder and harder to understand why he hadn't just asked Sunset where she thought he could or should or ought to take Pyrrha tonight. She had the advantage over both of them, after all, in that she had been in a relationship, and with a fairly decent guy at that; it wasn't as though she would have suggested anything inappropriate. But no, he had to do this by himself; he had to be the man, and make all the decisions; he had let the fact that Pyrrha wanted to be old-fashioned about this, and be taken out blind without any foreknowledge, go to his head and assumed that not involving Pyrrha meant not involving.

Which is why he'd ended up in this position, with a violinist standing uncomfortably close playing what was supposed to be a soothing romantic melody.

It had been nice for a few seconds, but now there was just a guy at their table. A guy who was looking at them as if to say 'why is she with you' and he knew he didn't deserve her already, so shut up!

At least Pyrrha found it amusing. That alone made it worthwhile. She was gorgeous when she laughed. She was always gorgeous but when she laughed…she was covering her mouth with one hand – she had a corsage of six red roses tied around her wrist, which probably meant something Jaune just didn't know what – but that didn't stop him from seeing the delight on her face, and that was enough to make it worth the fact that he felt like an idiot.

Because he was her idiot.

"Did you arrange this?" she asked, with laughter still ringing in her voice.

"Y-yeah," Jaune said. "I thought it would be nice."

Pyrrha hesitated. "Are you embarrassed?"

"No," Jaune said quickly, maybe a little too quickly. "I'm fine so long as you're fine, really."

That didn't seem to reassure Pyrrha, who looked a little mortified. "Because I didn't mean to embarrass you, and if I-"

"You didn't," Jaune said. "You couldn't."

Pyrrha frowned. She glanced at the violinist. "Could you excuse us, please?"

The musician bowed. "Certainly, mademoiselle," he said, in some kind of accent that Jaune couldn't exactly place, before he withdrew out of the way.

"It was nice at first," Jaune said apologetically. "But afterward there was just this guy hanging around."

"I didn't want to embarrass you," Pyrrha said. "I would never do that on purpose."

"I know," Jaune said. "And it really wasn't-"

"Jaune," Pyrrha said.

Jaune sighed. "I just wish that all of these people could be a little less obvious, you know?"

Pyrrha looked as if she didn't know. "Obvious?"

"About the fact that they know you're too good for me."

"Jaune," Pyrrha sighed. She began to reach out for his hand, but then pulled back just a little as, judging by the look on her face, a thought struck her. She raised her right hand – the one on which she was wearing the corsage – and snapped her fingers. "Excuse me."

As the maitre'd bustled over, Pyrrha pulled out her blue clutch bag and reached inside.

"Is there something I can help you with, Mademoiselle?" the maitre'd asked in the same accent as the waiter, completely ignoring Jaune as he focussed all his attention on Pyrrha.

Pyrrha beckoned him to lean closer, and the man bent down even as Pyrrha rose a little from her chair to whisper in his ear. She reached discreetly into her clutch bag, and Jaune could barely see the lien in the maitre'd's hand as he straightened up.

"My most sincere apologies, mademoiselle," he declared. "That you have been given the wrong table by mistake is absolutely inexcusable! Mark my words, the imbecile responsible will be severely reprimanded. If you would like to follow me, I will show you to your proper table. You needn't worry about the drinks, I will have them brought to you."

"Thank you," Pyrrha said. "We don't mean to be any trouble, but-"

"Not at all, mademoiselle, not at all," he said. "At this restaurant we strive always to give our clients ze very best service. Now, if you please."

Jaune got to his feet. Pyrrha did likewise, wrapping her white silk shawl around her elbows and lifting up the skirt of her emerald gown as she smiled at him with a quiet confidence that things were about to take a turn for the better.

The maitre'd, after barking something at a hapless waiter who happened to be nearby, led the two of them out onto a private balcony overlooking the city. A single table for two sat underneath the stars, which twinkled overhead even as the myriad lights of downtown Vale glittered all around them like a terrestrial mirror of the heavens. Though there were other balconies on either side of them, neither was occupied at present.

"Here we are," the maitre'd said. "Have you placed your order?"

"Not yet," Pyrrha said.

"Then someone will be along to see to you shortly," he said. "Once again I apologise, and on behalf of the house I wish you _bon appetite_." He kissed his hand, and bowed slightly from the waist before he took his leave, closing the door behind him so that the two of them were left alone on the balcony.

"I…I don't think anyone will be watching us from here," Pyrrha said, rubbing her arm with her other hand as though she had suddenly become embarrassed by what she'd done.

Jaune nodded absently. "How did you know that there'd be something like this?"

"There's usually something like it in a place like this," Pyrrha said. "Either a balcony or a private room or just an out of the way alcove. I prefer places like that when I'm dining out. Places where it's harder to be noticed, if you can be noticed at all. Places where you can only be spotted coming or going."

 _Of course._ "I should have realised."

"Don't," Pyrrha said. "You don't have to blame yourself for things that don't matter and you don't have to feel…unworthy."

"Don't I?" Jaune asked. "Come on, Pyrrha, you saw the way that everyone was looking at us. Everybody knows it."

"Then everybody is an idiot," Pyrrha said fiercely. She walked to the balcony railings, and stood with her hands resting upon the ornate metal and staring out at the city of Vale that spread out all around them like a living thing, pulsing with light and life and sound and energy. Her earrings, hanging suspended from her circlet, swayed gently this way and that as a soft breeze blew through her hair. The edges of her shawl rippled in the wind.

"My sweetest, let us live and love," Pyrrha murmured. "And though the sager sort our deeds reprove, let us not weight them."

Jaune frowned slightly. "Poetry?" he guessed.

Pyrrha nodded. "Though I'm afraid I'm abusing the meaning terribly."

"What do you mean?"

Pyrrha smiled. "The actual poem is an attempt by a notorious rascal to tempt a maiden into his bed."

Jaune snorted even as he felt his face turn a little red. "Uh, okay."

"The point is," Pyrrha said. "That I don't need anyone's permission to feel the way I feel about you, and you don't need anyone's permission to feel the way I hope you feel about me. You and I…ever since I first met you I've felt…something between us."

"The time that I pushed you out of the way to focus on Weiss?"

"I never said that it had to make sense," Pyrrha said, although she sounded apologetic when she said it. "Like I said, I don't need anyone's permission." She looked at him. "I always believed that the day would come when I'd meet someone who saw me as I really am when no one else could, and who I saw for who they were when no one else could. That day was when I met you, Jaune Arc." She reached up, and stroked his cheek with one hand, and as she did so a violin began to play somewhere on the ground below them, the musician this time both invisible to them and unable to stare. Pyrrha smiled. "So don't worry about what they think," she stood up on her tiptoes to brush her tender lips gently against his. "Because I see you." She stared at him, her beautiful green eyes drawing Jaune's gaze until they were the only thing that he could see. And then she kissed him again, a longer kiss this time which left him breathless when it was done.

"I love you," she said.

Jaune could only stare at her, his chest rising and falling even as Pyrrha, her arms around him, laid her head upon his chest and closed her eyes.

Reflexively, his arms closed around her.

"I love you," he said, softly and quietly. He looked away, out across Vale and all its night life. A sudden urge, wild and manic, took him as he shouted. "I love Pyrrha Nikos!" out into the night, letting the breeze snatch his words and carry them away. "I'm in love with Pyrrha Nikos!"

Pyrrha chuckled.

Jaune took a breath. "Do you think anyone actually heard that?"

"I did," someone called up from below them.

Jaune very much did not look down to see who that was. "Well…mind your own business, you creep!" He stepped back from the balcony edge, inadvertently pulling Pyrrha back with him, not that she seemed to mind. "I'm sorry about that," he murmured. "I don't-"

"It's fine," Pyrrha said, as she let him go and was released by him in turn. "It was wonderful to hear you say that so vigorously."

Jaune grinned. "I just…I really wanted tonight to be perfect, you know?"

"So long as we're together, it already is," Pyrrha said. "I'm just glad to get you to myself tonight before you leave."

"Yeah," Jaune said. "Before I leave." The day after tomorrow he was heading home to Alba Longa and his family.

The family that he had left behind.

The family that he had stolen from.

The family whose prized possession he had broken.

It had seemed like the right thing to do at the time, to agree to go back home for Dad's birthday if he could make it, especially since Saphron was coming all the way from Argus to be there (and bringing her wife and son, too); but as the days passed and the time for his departure got closer and closer the more Jaune felt the nerves in his stomach grow stronger and stronger. What was he going to say about Crocea Mors? What was he going to _do_ about Crocea Mors, for that matter, because he couldn't be a huntsman without a weapon forever? Mom had been understanding over the scroll, but how was he going to explain to all his sisters why he had decided to just sneak out in the middle of the night and never come back? What was he going to say to his father?

The more he thought about it the more he'd wished that he had both never agreed to go and never told his team-mates about it so that they couldn't pressure him into going if he changed his mind.

Except that he didn't really wish that, because as nervous as he was he knew that he had to go back. He had behaved pretty badly in a lot of ways in his zeal to pursue his dream at Beacon: forging the transcripts, stealing the sword; he couldn't make the former right (and it had worked out pretty well if he said so himself) but he could and had to make amends for the latter, and by compounding the error by breaking the sword that he had stolen. Even if talking to his father was the most excruciating experience in the world he had to do it, or at least try it anyway.

But did he have to do it alone?

He looked down at Pyrrha. Should he ask her? Was it right to ask her? Would she think it was too soon, too sudden?

She had asked him to come and visit her home and her mother before they even started dating.

Yeah, as friends.

But the point was that it didn't have to be a huge deal unless he made it one. It wasn't as if he wanted to swan down the high street with a beautiful girl by his side to show everybody who had ever doubted him (not least because he wasn't arrogant enough to assume that anyone would really care; most people hadn't been expecting him to never amount to anything, most people hadn't had an opinion on him one way or the other even if they did know that he existed) he just wanted someone by his side who was on his side. That wasn't so much to ask, was it?

"Jaune?" Pyrrha asked. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah," he said quickly. "Listen, Pyrrha, would you…" _Should I say would you mind or should I say would you like?_ "Would you like…would you mind-" _You weren't supposed to say both!_ "Coming to my place with me?"

Pyrrha looked up at him, and blinked. "Excuse me?"

"It'll just be for a couple of days," Jaune said. "My mom makes a mean pot roast."

"You…you want me to meet your family?"

Jaune nodded. "That is…if you don't mind. I mean, I know that it's a little sudden, but-"

"I would be delighted."

"You would?"

The smile which spread across Pyrrha's face was lovely. It made her eyes sparkle vivaciously. "It would be my pleasure."

 _Oh, thank God,_ it was all that Jaune could do not to sigh in relief, both that she hadn't thought it was weird of him to ask her and also that she had agreed to go with him. _I might actually survive this after all._ "Thanks, Pyrrha," he said. "That means a lot to me."

Pyrrha wrapped both her arms around one of his, snuggling close to him as the violinist played on down below. "It means a lot to me, too."

* * *

"Do you have any advice for me?" Pyrrha asked, as she finished off her packing.

Sunset sat on her bed, observing Pyrrha's preparations for her departure tomorrow with an air of mingled amusement and annoyance. Her tail swished back and forth behind her as her eyebrows rose. "You're asking me for advice? After what you've done?"

"What have I done?" Pyrrha asked uncertainly.

"You and Jaune have ditched me to run off to his parents place in the countryside that's what you've done," Sunset said. "And I wouldn't mind except that with everyone else who's gone home for the vacation I'm stuck here with Ren, Nora, and Cardin Winchester."

"Ren and Nora are very nice once you get to know them," Pyrrha said, as he put her toiletry bag on top of her neatly folded clothes.

"Cardin Winchester," Sunset repeated in a tone of high dudgeon. "If something comes up and we have to make up a ad-hoc squad I shall bear you both malice."

Pyrrha packed the charger for her scroll. "I'm sorry that you'll be on your own here, but I really could use some advice, if you have any."

"You actually want advice from me?"

"I'm assuming that you met Flash's parents," Pyrrha said, sealing up her single back that was all she would be taking to Jaune's hometown. She glanced at Sunset over her shoulder.

"I met his mother," Sunset said. "His father…had passed away before we met."

"Oh," Pyrrha said softly. "That must have been hard for him."

Sunset looked away. "He deserved a girlfriend with more sympathy for him than he got, let's just put it that way and leave it."

Pyrrha turned to face her. "But you did meet his mother?"

Sunset gave a tight nod of the head, and made a kind of noise that Pyrrha took for affirmation.

"So…" Pyrrha continued nervously. "Do you have any advice?"

Sunset snorted. "Don't call Jaune's mother an unreconstructed bigot."

Pyrrha's mouth hung open for a moment. "You called his mother a bigot?"

"She didn't like me," Sunset said defensively. "She didn't think I was good enough for her boy. And the fact that she was right in no way made me less angry about the way that she looked down on me." She sighed. "You know what I was like: everything was because I was a faunus, nothing was because I was…well, me. So, like I said, don't insult Jaune's mother to her face and you'll already be doing a lot better than I was." Her eyes glanced at Milo and Akuou sitting at the foot of the bed. "Are you going armed?"

Pyrrha nodded. "It's an unfortunate necessity when travelling outside the kingdom."

"Hmm," Sunset murmured in agreement. "I wouldn't have figured Jaune for an outside the kingdom type."

"It's not all hard-bitten frontier villages," Pyrrha said. "In fact I daresay most of them aren't like that. Mistral is full of small, peaceful settlements."

"Until the grimm show up."

"That's why we travel armed," Pyrrha said. "And that's why huntsmen exist." She looked down at her hands. "So…since I don't want to insult Mrs Arc…" she forced a chuckle. "What should I do instead?"

"In what circumstance?"

Pyrrha clasped her hands together in front of her. "If she doesn't think I'm good enough for her son," she said softly.

Sunset looked somewhere between astonished and bemused. "Are you nervous?"

"I've never done anything like this before," Pyrrha pointed out.

"Only because you've never had a boyfriend before," Sunset said. "It's not that much different from meeting the parents of a friend."

"I don't have any friends," Pyrrha reminded her. "Not until now, anyway."

"Oh, right," Sunset muttered. "Yeah, but come on. What do _you_ have to be nervous about?"

"I don't _know_ ," Pyrrha said. She sat down on the bed beside her bag. "But I really want this to work out. I want us to work out. Jaune's family..." She didn't really know what to expect. Jaune hadn't said much about his family, and even though it might have been useful for her to know a little more about what she was getting into she hadn't wanted to push him on it. All she really knew was that Jaune – despite his denial that his parents had ever mistreated him – seemed a little afraid of his family. Pyrrha wasn't sure whether that meant that she should be afraid to.

Although it had worked out in the end, with the benefit of hindsight it had been a mistake on her part to bring Jaune to Mistral where her mother could judge him and where high society could snub him. Certainly it had been a mistake on her part to bring him without giving him any coaching on how to behave once he got there, though even that probably wouldn't have helped very much. It might only be fair for her to be put in the same position with the roles reversed, but it wasn't something that she relished the prospect of. She wanted this to work out, she wanted her and Jaune to work out and if that meant making a good impression on his family then she wanted that too.

So it was somewhat unfortunate that the only person she could ask for advice was the person who had called her boyfriend's mother a bigot to her face.

"What if they don't like me?" she asked.

Sunset scoffed. "Everybody likes you."

 _You didn't, at first,_ Pyrrha thought.

Sunset must have read her mind, probably because it had been written clearly on Pyrrha's face. "Eventually," Sunset clarified. "Unless one of Jaune's sisters is an inveterate gloryhound with an inferiority complex, a massive sense of entitlement and a resentment of anybody who has what I desire compounded by a hatred of…you know what, let me put it like this: unless Jaune has a sister named Sunset Shimmer, you'll be fine."

Pyrrha's mouth twitched in a momentary smile. "Are you sure?"

Sunset rolled her eyes. "You have no idea, do you? You are every mother's ideal girlfriend for their son: pretty, nice, virginal-"

"Excuse me?"

"It may have been ninety-percent my attitude but I am convinced that part of the reason Flash's mother didn't like me from the start is that I dressed like the Bad Girl from a teen movie," Sunset said. "Mother's want their babies to date the Good Girl from the end of the film. You won't have that problem."

"I don't know whether to be flattered or insulted," Pyrrha murmured.

Sunset smirked. "You're too nice to be the bad girl, you couldn't pull it off even if you wanted to. My point is that you've got nothing to worry about, especially what with you being rich, famous, the heir to an old Mistralian family-"

"I'd rather that people didn't focus on that."

"What do you have to worry about? Any mother would crawl over broken glass without aura to have you dating their son." Sunset demanded. "Why would these people not love you? More to the point, why do you care if they do? You're not even dating Jaune's family, you're dating Jaune. Give him a little credit, it's not like he'd break up with you just because his family – the people he ran away from – told him to. Would you break up with him because your mother told you to?"

"I didn't," Pyrrha said quietly.

Sunset froze momentarily. "Come again."

Pyrrha looked down at her booted feet. "My…my mother called me just before the dance. She'd seen a picture of Jaune asking me to accompany him on someone's social media. She…she wasn't very happy."

Sunset leaned forward. "Not happy how?"

Pyrrha looked up. "She didn't mention this to you?"

"Your mother thinks better of me than to ask me to interfere in your social life, it seems," Sunset said, sounding not at all unhappy that that was the case. "This is the first I'm hearing of this."

"She…she told me to break it off with him," Pyrrha said. "She said…she said that Jaune wasn't worthy of me, wasn't the kind of person I should be seen with at this point."

"At this point?"

"If I had to date anyone at all, my mother wanted me to date celebrities, actors, musicians, sports-"

"Pyrrha?" Sunset asked.

"The door," Pyrrha murmured, because the door was open just a little bit, and Pyrrha was certain that that hadn't been the case just a moment ago.

And she could hear footsteps moving quickly away down the corridor.

"Jaune?" she asked, as she got to her feet because he couldn't have heard, he couldn't have found out about that and not even because she'd told him but because he'd walked in on her telling Sunset. No, this couldn't be happening, it just couldn't. She reached the door and flung it open. "Jaune?" she called out again, louder this time as she looked both ways.

Nobody replied, but whoever was moving away started to run.

 _Oh no._

"How much do you think he heard?" Pyrrha asked.

Sunset didn't reply, but her expression was answer enough.

* * *

It wasn't very mature of him to hide on the rooftop, but then it hadn't been very mature of him to run away after he'd overheard Pyrrha talking either.

He couldn't help it. It was one thing to think that nobody believed that he deserved to be with Pyrrha, but it was another thing to hear from her own lips that her mother definitely didn't think so. He'd known that she didn't like him – not as much as she liked Sunset, maybe not at all – but to tell Pyrrha that she should break up with him before they'd even really started going out…

The worst part was that he couldn't even say that she was wrong.

 _Celebrities and movie stars._ He could picture that in his mind's eye, as he sat on the roof with his legs dangling out over the side: Pyrrha looking radiant as she stepped down the red carpet at the latest premiere, or sitting supportively at the table of some awards ceremony, smiling for the cameras as the flashes erupted all around her.

 _Of course she'd hate that. You know she would._ But nevertheless, the more he pictured it the more Jaune couldn't deny that it was what she deserved: someone suave, sophisticated, someone who epitomised coolness, someone who could buy her expensive gifts and take her to exclusive nightclubs.

Someone, in other words, the very antithesis of Jaune Arc.

He felt like a moth who had dared to believe that if he just kept flying long enough he would fly high enough to touch a star.

"Hey."

Jaune started as he looked up to see Sunset standing over him, hands on her hips.

"Sunset," Jaune said. "How did you find me?"

"Magic," she said, wiggling her fingers at him.

"Really?"

"You can believe it or not," Sunset said, a smirk briefly crossing her features as she sat down beside him, kicking her legs back and forth against the wall as she did so. "What are we looking at?"

Jaune shrugged. "Beacon."

"Well, yes, obviously," Sunset murmured. "Pyrrha's looking for you."

Jaune checked his scroll. He had an ever mounting number of texts from Pyrrha asking where he was; she seemed to be getting increasingly frantic. "What am I supposed to say?"

"Tell her where you are."

" _Then_ what am I supposed to say?"

"You could apologise for over-reacting to nothing at all," Sunset suggested. The wind was starting to blow her hair into her face, so she brushed it back behind her shoulders.

"Nothing?" Jaune said. "Sunset…her mother told her to end it."

"And she didn't," Sunset pointed out. "Obviously."

Jaune nodded as he looked away from her and out across the sprawling campus. "Maybe she should have."

"What?"

"Can you honestly tell me that I deserve someone like Pyrrha?" Jaune demanded.

Sunset stared at him for a moment, before whacking him upside the head. "Seriously?"

"Ow! What was that for?"

"We don't love who we deserve, idiot!" Sunset said. "We love…this may sound like a tautology, but it is a rare tautology to possess truth, but we love who we love. This isn't a videogame with a points system, there's no algorithm matching people up on how good of a person you are relative to your potential matches and this coming from the person who spent half a term chasing after Weiss Schnee. What, did you think that you 'deserved' her?"

"I was an idiot back then-"

Sunset snorted.

"I didn't know how much I…I didn't realise…I know more now," Jaune said. "I know what I am, and I know what the people around me are."

"Clearly you still have a lot to learn," Sunset said. "Look, do you think that I deserved Flash? He was generous and kind and I was…but we loved each other, for a while. Pyrrha loves you."

"I know."

"I mean she really loves you," Sunset said. "As in fairy tale love at first sight soulmates kind of thing."

"I know."

"Then what are you so worried about?"

"I'm worried because wouldn't she be happier with someone else?" Jaune asked. "I'm worried that I'm keeping her trapped with me while the perfect guy is out there somewhere waiting for her and she's not even looking for him."

Sunset stared at him with an exasperated look on her face that, thankfully, did not presage an outburst. Instead her face softened, before he spoke equally softly. "You know, in Equestria, love is one of the aspects of magic. An aspect as powerful as friendship, or nearly so."

Jaune nodded, even though he didn't immediately see the relevance. "Pyrrha…she deserves a little magic in her life."

"Sure," Sunset said. "But in this world there are only four kinds of magic: creation, destruction, knowledge and choice. Now, personally, I'm a little curious as to what the magic of knowledge is, but according to Professor Ozpin the most powerful kind of magic is choice. And I think I get why."

"Yeah?" Jaune said, still not seeing the point.

"I think that choice is the most powerful kind of magic in Remnant because we have it already," Sunset said. She leaned back on the rooftop, resting her head on her hands. "We can all choose how our lives go. We can choose to be better people than we were before. We can choose to do the right thing even though we haven't in the past. And we can choose to give our hearts, freely and without condition, to anyone else in the world regardless of who they are or what other people think."

Jaune twisted around to look at her, and he lifted one leg up onto the rooftop as he did so.

"Pyrrha's made her choice," Sunset said. "She's not a prize to be won by racking up the high score, she's…she's made her choice. Maybe you should make yours."

Jaune got up, and pulled out his scroll. Silently, he texted Pyrrha his location. "I just told her where I was."

Sunset was up in an instant. "Good choice," she said. "I'll leave you to it." She turned away and headed for the door.

"Sunset," Jaune said, causing her to look back. "Thank you."

Sunset winked at him, but said nothing else as she made her exit off the rooftop.

Pyrrha arrived so quickly it was hard to imagine that they hadn't passed each other on the way. She threw the door open so fiercely that it slammed into the wall with a crack that might have broken it, and then stood in the doorway staring at him.

"Pyrrha," Jaune began. "I-"

"I'm sorry," Pyrrha said, before he could do the same. "I should have told you about that call, I just…I was afraid that you'd-"

"React like this?" Jaune said.

"Yes," Pyrrha said, softly and a little shamefacedly. "I told her no."

"I kinda figured," Jaune said. "I'm sorry about running away like that…it wasn't very…anything of me."

Pyrrha took a step towards him. "I don't want a movie star," she said. "Or a sport star or a singer or a model. I want you."

Jaune nodded. He took a step towards her in turn. "I want you, too."

Pyrrha advanced another step. "Don't worry about my mother. I can handle her. I won't let her come between us."

Jaune took a step forward. "Nothing will."

"Not if we talk to each other," Pyrrha said. "Please, next time something's bothering you like this, talk to me."

"I will," Jaune whispered. "I'll tell you everything."

Pyrrha took another step forward. She was close enough to touch him now. She stared up at him. "I really do love you," she said. "And nobody can tell me to stop."

"Let us live and love while…something something poetry," Jaune said.

Pyrrha covered her mouth with one hand while she giggled. "Something like that," she said.

They kissed, as the sun began to set behind them.

* * *

 _Author's Note: It may seem a little sudden to have Pyrrha come with Jaune, but I've thought it an immense pity that Pyrrha never got the chance to meet Jaune's family in canon, and here this is about the only chance she'll get while things are still relatively peaceful._

 _The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that choice is the most powerful of the four aspects of magic in Remnant and for much the same reason that Friendship is the most powerful kind of magic in Equestria: because it exists at least partly in the realm of metaphor._


	122. Alba Longa

Alba Longa

In Mistral they had a saying: the city teaches the man.

It was a saying that was somewhat on Pyrrha's mind as she and Jaune rode the rather old train – unlike every other train that Pyrrha had ever ridden on, this one didn't have electric locks on the doors, rather you could open the doors by sticking one arm out of the window and pulling a lever – down the tracks to Jaune's hometown. Out of deference to Jaune's motion sickness, they were taking the train rather than flying, although judging by the way that his hands were clenched into fists upon his knees and he was staring straight ahead of him with his jaw clenched, the rather rickety train ride wasn't that much better for him than a flight would have been.

That was assuming that there were flights into Alba Longa. Pyrrha hadn't looked. Jaune had already told her that there was no road into or out of town, just the train that passed through on its way to other parts of north-west Vale, and it might well be that there wasn't any kind of landing pad either.

Judging by the failure to invest in the railway line, and by the fact that there were less than a half-dozen people in the carriage besides themselves, Pyrrha thought it was fair to say that this area wasn't hugely popular with visitors.

Pyrrha – who was sitting in the window seat while Jaune took the aisle, whether that was any better for him she really couldn't say – raised her hand and placed it on Jaune's shoulder.

"Jaune?" she said. "Are you-" she stopped short of saying 'are you okay' because he obviously wasn't. "What's the matter? Do you feel ill?"

Jaune shook his head stiffly, as though he were afraid of moving it too much. "I'll be okay," he said quietly, as if he were afraid of speaking too much as well.

"You will," Pyrrha assured him, referring not only to the transient pangs of motion sickness but to the reason they were going to Alba Longa in the first place. Her mind went back to that saying: the city teaches the man. Or the town or village, as the case may be. Jaune hadn't even given her so much in the way of details to work out exactly how large the place he hailed from was. But it had made him, just as Mistral had made her, and that made Pyrrha curious.

What sort of place had produced Jaune Arc, the boy who was so tormented by motion sickness and insecurity but who had also not hesitated to hurl himself on Mercury Black to try and protect her? The boy who would have been one of the great warriors in the world if only he could have fought with the strength of his heart, but who unfortunately was condemned to try and fight with his somewhat less overwhelming skill at arms? The man who had arrived at Beacon possessing so much aura yet been so completely ignorant of aura at a time when most of his peers were already mastering their semblances?

What sort of place had produced these contradictions? What sort of home had taught him so many lessons that had stood him in such good stead at Beacon, yet had failed to teach him so many of the basics that he needed to survive there, and that without mentioning the lessons that he had needed to unlearn at Beacon?

They had all arrived at Beacon as products of their environment: Ruby's effortless kindness and truly fearless (not always in a positive sense) courage; Sunset's marriage of intelligence and bitter-heartedness; Pyrrha's courtesy and loneliness combined; you could look at her and at her team-mates and if you knew their stories then you could see how they had been written to that point, to be who they had been when first they had begun to walk those hallowed halls at which point they had all, slowly, began to become something else in addition to what they had been before. But what environment had produced Jaune Arc? That was the puzzle that Pyrrha could not quite solve, and for which she was curious to get the answer.

Put more simply, she wanted to know more about him.

"Is this the way you came to Beacon?" she asked. "On the train, I mean?"

Jaune swallowed. "Part of the way. There's a late night train, it stops to drop people off but nobody stops you from getting on if you want to. I got that part of the way, and then boarded the skyliner with all the other students from north Vale, like Ruby." He tried to smile, but ended up grimacing. "I wasn't in the best shape even before I got on the airship."

Pyrrha nodded. "You're doing great," she said, because it was only a white lie. "And I'm sure you'll feel better once we arrive."

"Yeah," Jaune said. "Hey, Pyrrha?"

"Yes?"

"Would you like me to show you around just a little bit, before we head to my place?" he asked. "There's not a lot to see, but…"

He was stalling. She knew that, and he probably knew that she knew that; but if he didn't want to go home right away she wasn't going to force him and she had just been wondering what the place that had reared Jaune Arc was like, so Pyrrha said, "That sounds wonderful. I'd like to see a little of your home before we get to, well, your home."

Jaune nodded sharply. "Thanks. For coming."

Pyrrha took his hand. "It'll be alright."

"The train is now approaching Alba Longa," the voice over the intercom announced. "If you're leaving us here, please ensure that you have all your belongings with you."

Pyrrha glanced out of the window. The countryside continued to roll past them uninterrupted. It was pleasant countryside to look upon - the grey mountains that shielded Vale's eastern flank from the most dangerous of the grimm loomed large and jagged in the distance, while closer to the train tracks verdant forests, a mixture of conifers and deciduous trees whose leaves had not yet begun to turn to gold, covered the world; red squirrels danced between the branches of the trees, badgers watched the train pass by and Pyrrha could have sworn that she had even seen a stag watching from out of the cover of the trees – but considering that they were imminently approaching the stop Pyrrha would have expected to have seen more sign of human habitation by this point.

And then the forest cleared out, the trees cut down and all evidence of them cleared to make way for a vast expanse of farmland, a field from which sprouted wheat as tall as Jaune or maybe a little taller, swaying back and forth in the wind as it stretched onwards towards the mountains. Pyrrha could see a farmhouse, mostly by the smoke rising out of its chimney, surrounded by such fields of tall wheat, and as the train rattled and belched its way down the track, sounding ever more sickly as it began to slow down, so Pyrrha could see other fields filled with wheat, maize, corn and grain.

 _A farming town. I suppose that does explain why he thought he might become a farmer if he couldn't last at Beacon._

Jaune rose unsteadily to his feet, holding on to the seats behind their as he began to make his way towards the doors.

"Jaune," Pyrrha called as she, too, got to her feet. She indicated Crocea Mors – or the fragments of them, all deposited in their scabbard-shield – sitting on the table that they had had to themselves. "Don't forget your belongings," she said, with a slight smile.

Jaune smiled back, sheepish and embarrassed, as he grabbed his sword – almost toppling over as he reached for it – and fastened it onto his belt. Pyrrha slung Milo and Akuou across her back before easily grabbing both of their bags, Outside the door she could see that a few orchards – apples, peaches and plums – interspersed the cereal fields, along with fields that bore neither wheat or grain but seemed to be growing strawberries and gooseberries. Sheep and cattle grazed here and there, while horses ambled about in wide enclosures.

The train came to a stop, and Jaune fumblingly opened the old-fashioned door before stepping down from the train and onto a narrow platform. He looked very glad to be on terra firma once again, but he did not throw up as Pyrrha followed him down.

The platform on which they had alit was not quite large enough for the entire train, and the drop from the rearmost carriage to the ground looked too considerable to be attempted without aura, which might explain the reason why nobody was attempting it. The station itself was modest, with only a single building of red brick on the platform on which Jaune and Pyrrha were alighted and a narrow wrought-iron bridge across to the other platform, but not without a certain charm: flower beds awash with all the colours of the rainbow decorated both platforms, and in one wooden bed violets had been arranged in such a way as to spell out the words 'Welcome to Alba Longa' against the otherwise bare soil around them. A public house sat not far away, and Pyrrha could see some old fellows sat at the tables outside, grey-bearded and pot bellied, wearing flat caps and dark greatcoats. Some of them were smoking pipes, others were playing chequers, nearly all of them had a drink to hand.

There were other buildings she could see as well, houses she supposed, but not as many of them as she had expected and not so closely packed as well. Every house appeared to have a garden, although none of those gardens seemed to have much to stop the sheep and the goats from wandering in and out and between the houses wither they would, eating as they went.

"Home sweet home," Jaune murmured, as he took his bag out of Pyrrha's unprotesting hands and slung it over his shoulder. He didn't look particularly thrilled to be back.

It wasn't what Pyrrha had expected, but that by no means made it bad. "So," Pyrrha said. "Where does my tour begin?"

If there was one word to describe Alba Longa it would probably be 'bucolic'; in all honesty, Pyrrha had not expected that such rural, rustic places existed in Vale; she knew that Mistral was full of villages – although none of those that she had visited as part of the publicity tours which she had loathed had ever given seemed quite as chaotic as Jaune's home – covering the length and breadth of its vast territory, but she had always thought of Vale as a place of cities, a kind of second-rate Atlas if that wasn't too insulting a way of thinking about it (it probably was, in all honesty); but now that she thought about it some more, now that she was confronted with the actual fact of a rural Valish village, she found it so obvious that she didn't know why she hadn't thought about it before. Of course they had such places. Everywhere had such places. Although probably they were not as disorganised as this place. Some of the fields were fenced off, others sprawled out unmoored and unbordered while children with their arms full of stolen vegetables darted into and out of the tall wheat as irate farmers cursed their names; cattle lowed in the town square, the fat and contented-looking creatures shuffling around an equestrian statue worked in bronze of a hero with a sword very similar to Crocea Mors raised to the sky in one hand (Pyrrha considered asking Jaune if it was his ancestor, but decided after a moment's thought that the reminder might just make him even more nervous than he already was, and that it would probably be for the best not to burden him any further); sprawling mansions that seemed to have risen, higgledy-piggledy, over many generations sat side by side with rough wooden shacks. And yet, for all its rustic chaos, there was a charm and beauty here as well: the town sat hard by a lake that glimmered under the light of the sun, and houses raised on wooden poles sat out in the water itself, while piscine faunus swam between them; the apples that grew on the trees were large and red and juicy, the peaches were swollen and ripe, even the lemons and limes growing in the gardens of the large estates looked inviting; the grass was, for the most part, ill-kept thanks to the grazing animals but there were a few white picket fences enfolding gardens with well-tended lawns, and Pyrrha could see the gardeners at work there (in particular, towards the south end of town there was a golf course and a bowling green that looked particularly well maintained, backing on to a large building that might be the only stone structure in the entire community; with the sun high in the sky and the breeze cool on her cheeks the place had a soft, inviting atmosphere to it which made her feel quite comfortable here.

There were only a few shops, all of them clustered together down the same stretch of street – as much as Alba Longa had streets, they were not paved and were little more than dirt – a greengrocer advertising all local produce, a butchers where a man with a straw-hat and a striped apron gave Jaune a cheery wave as they walked by, a small bookshop with some comic-books displayed in the window.

One thing that Pyrrha noticed after a while was that people were giving her – giving both of them, but her more than Jaune, possibly because they recognised him even after he had been away for some time – strange looks. Pyrrha was used to having the eyes of the world follow her wherever she went, but these gazes that she was getting now from the farmers and the field hands, from the herdsmen, from the idlers outside the inn and from those sitting on their porches in their rocking chairs, were different from the looks that she normally got. These were not the looks of people awed by being in the presence of a celebrity, rather they were the looks of people who weren't sure if she was altogether to be trusted or not.

"Is everything alright?" she murmured. "Am I doing something wrong?"

"No," Jaune said quickly. "It's just…we don't get a lot of people dressed like us around here."

Pyrrha frowned a little. "I'm afraid I don't really understand."

"I…" Jaune began, but trailed off quickly. "How do I explain this?" He led her to a very large and sprawling oak tree, the eaves of which spread out in all directions, casting a shadow over the earth as the sunlight could only enter in small patches mottling the ground. Beneath the eaves of the great oak tree they sat, resting their backs against the gnarly bark, as Pyrrha took her spear and shield off her back and laid them by her side. As they sat, she found that she had a better view of Alba Longa here than from anywhere else in the village, with all the wooden houses and the fields spreading out towards the woods beyond, and all the people and the animals in between.

"So this is it," Jaune said. "Where I grew up. What do you think?"

Pyrrha leaned against him. "I think it's beautiful. It's so-"

"Peaceful?" Jaune suggested.

Pyrrha paused for a moment, thinking it over. "Yes," she said. "I can see that."

"This is the kind of place where you can go your whole life without ever seeing a huntsman."

Pyrrha looked around, looking now with the eyes of a huntress instead of a tourist or a girlfriend. Besides the thick woods, the lake would act as a barrier to any grimm coming from the west – non-aquatic grimm didn't like the water, and couldn't swim – while notwithstanding the sheer fact of the mountains that warded all of Vale from the east, the woods were thick and the north and east of Alba Long was ringed by seven hills which might have been better used as watchtowers but would offer some barrier to incursion anyway. And They were quite some way from the edge of Vale territory, so this town would be unlikely to be the first to feel the string of any grimm incursion. Yes, she could see how it was possible that this place had dwelt for some time untroubled by the creatures of grimm, and if it were so that people here had never seen a huntsman before then it would explain why she, who looked like nothing so much as a huntress, had attracted the kind of looks she had gotten here.

"I see," she said.

"Do you?" Jaune asked. "Because, it's not just people can go forever without seeing a huntsman, it's that…it's that they gone for so long without seeing one that they've forgotten why there are huntsmen in the first place."

Pyrrha sat up. "What do they think? That because they can't see the grimm that the grimm don't exist?"

"Maybe," Jaune said. "I've never heard anyone put it quite like that, but it feels like that. This place…it wasn't until I left to come to Beacon that I realised just how small and isolated this place is. I mean, you've come all the way from Mistral, and Ruby and Yang are from an island off the coast, Sunset and Weiss came down from Atlas, there are people in Vale from all over the world, but here there's practically nobody who wasn't born here and the ones that weren't all knew someone here before they moved, it's like you need a letter of introduction before you can live in this town. The only time there's any real contact with the outside world is at harvest time when the cargo trains come and the excess crops get sold to Vale.

"I didn't just sneak away to Beacon in the middle of the night because nobody here believed that I could do it…I did it because nobody here would have even believed that I, or anybody else for that matter, needed to do it. Things here go on the way they always have, and it seems like that's the way they always will.

"It's so weird, coming back here knowing…everything that we know. There's so much darkness out there and they can't even see it."

"Maybe that's as it should be," Pyrrha said softly.

Jaune looked at her like she was a little unhinged. "You really think so?"

"If everyone is fighting to protect the world then what is really being protected?" Pyrrha asked him. "We don't fight because we love the violence, surely we fight to protect…places like this." She gestured to the town spread out before them. "If they can live in such peace that they think that what we do is pointless, then doesn't that prove that we're succeeding?"

"I guess," Jaune said, although he sounded less than totally convinced. "Wouldn't you like a little credit, though?"

"I've had credit enough, personally," Pyrrha said. "I'm happy to just do what the world demands of me." She paused for a moment. "Maybe we can't stop Salem, but we can defend this way of life, even if it doesn't value us at all; and right now, that feels like enough to me."

Jaune was silent for a moment. "I think I might still like a little credit," he muttered. He grinned boyishly. "But I guess protecting home is pretty good too."

Pyrrha smiled. "Speaking of which, are you…"

"Not quite yet," Jaune said, as he leaned back and closed his eyes. "Can we just sit here for a couple of moments?"

"Of course," Pyrrha said, as she rested her head upon his shoulder and closed her eyes in turn. "So, apart from the fact that nobody saw the need for you to become a huntsman, what was it like growing up here?"

"Fine," Jaune said softly. "Nice. Quiet, mostly. Soon they'll probably start getting ready for the harvest festival, that's a festival where they celebrate bringing in the harvest, well I mean, obviously it is…they actually chase the cattle out of the square and the whole town comes together to celebrate another good year; it's like a big party, with dancing and singing and games…and guys getting into fights when they've had too much cider."

Pyrrha giggled.

"The strawberries must be getting ripe about now," Jaune said. "In fact a lot of things will have to start being gathered in soon, but I always liked it when it came time to pick the strawberries; they'd let all us kids help out, and they wouldn't mind too much if you ate a few, or even took some home. It's a nice place, the kind of place where everyone knows your name."

"Nobody seemed to recognise you," Pyrrha said. "Except for maybe the butcher."

"Maybe they didn't," Jaune said. "Nobody's seen me wearing armour, or a sword, even a broken one. That's the thing about growing up in a place like this: everybody knows you, but everybody knows you since you were a kid that's the only way they'll ever know you. No matter how much growing you do, you'll always be little Jaune Arc to them, nothing else. It wouldn't surprise if they didn't recognise me because…because I feel like I've changed so much since I left."

"We're all different to how we were when the year started," Pyrrha said. "Except perhaps for Ruby; but I think the changes have been for the better, for all of us. For both of us."

"I think…I think you're right," Jaune said. "And I think I'm ready now."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," Jaune said, although he moved a little slowly as he got to his feet. "Yeah, I'm sure."

He led her to one of the largest houses in the town, one that like many of the large houses in Alba Longa looked as though it had been built not all at once but in fits and starts and stages over several generations. It was built of painted wood, or it looked that way on the outside anyway (it might be like Mistral, where the houses had antique-seeming fronts, but Pyrrha doubted it), and much as it looked like a house of many different parts jammed together so too was it painted in many different colours, as many colours as the rainbow in fact, each part of the house bearing a different colour splashed onto the wood with little regard for how it harmonised or didn't with the rest of the house. A picket fence, likewise painted in myriad colours, surrounded a modest garden with gladioli growing just behind.

"Whenever a part of the house needs to be repainted Dad just picks one of us and gets us to do it," Jaune explained. "And we each had our own favourite colour, so…here we are."

The gate was not locked, and Jaune pushed it open and held it for her as she followed him in. There was a porch, with a swing, but no one there, and no one was at the windows to see them as they walked down the dirt path through the front garden to the golden door.

Jaune hesitated in front of this door as though it were an alpha grimm, squaring his shoulders as he stood still, his arms hanging by his side.

Pyrrha said nothing. It wasn't her place to say anything. This…this was Jaune's battle, and she was confident that he could win it without her help.

She was proven right when, at last, he knocked on the door.

"Please be Saphron, please be Saphron, please be Saphron," Jaune muttered.

"Just a second!" someone called from inside the house.

"Kendal, great," Jaune said.

The door opened, revealing a young woman a few years older than Jaune and Pyrrha, dressed in a rough homespun green tunic and pants, with a green-brown vest worn over the top. She had the same blonde hair and blue eyes as Jaune, and like Jaune her hair was cut short and somewhat untidy. She stared at Jaune, her eyes widening as she took him in as though she wasn't quite sure that he wasn't a dream.

"Jaune?" she said, revealing as she spoke that she was missing a couple of teeth. "Is that you?"

Jaune smiled nervously. "Hey, K-"

"You've got some nerve showing up here, you know that?" she demanded.

"Kendal, I-"

"What, do you think that you can just creep away in the middle of the night with a note, then say nothing for months and then suddenly just show up and everything is going to be okay?"

"I called Mom-"

"You didn't call me you big jerk!" Kendal – Pyrrha presumed that was her name – yelled. "I spent two whole weeks searching the whole area around here for you in case you'd wandered out into the woods and gotten lost or something."

Jaune took a step back. "You thought I couldn't even find my way to Beacon? To the train station?"

"No, no, you do not get to turn this back on me after what you put me…what you put all of us through," Kendal said. "Come here, you." She reached out for Jaune.

Pyrrha grabbed her wrist – gently, so as not to hurt her, but firmly all the same. "I understand that you have reason to be upset," she said. "But please, don't hurt him."

Kendal looked at her as though she were only now noticing Pyrrha's presence, which might even have been the case. "Hello," she said. "You're new…and a huntress too, even if you do look pretty young. I feel like I've seen you somewhere before. You brought a bodyguard back home with you, Jaune?"

"No!" Jaune said. "Pyrrha, this is my sister Kendal…one of my sisters; Kendal, this is…" He took a deep breath. "This is my girlfriend, Pyrrha Nikos. Pyrrha, you can let go."

Pyrrha released Kendal's hand, and took a step back. "Hello," she said. "I'm sorry if I offended you."

Kendal gave Pyrrha an appraising glance. "Let me guess: you're an only child aren't you, Pyrrha Nikos?"

"That's right," Pyrrha said uncertainly.

Kendal's grin was something approaching savage. "Then I'll forgive you for not realising that what's about to happen to my brother isn't going to hurt him." She reached up and grabbed Jaune's hair. "It's just going to humiliate him a little!"

Jaune squawked in alarm as Kendal pulled his head downwards. The two struggled, and from the fact that Jaune was losing Pyrrha guessed that he had deactivated his aura – doubtless because he didn't wish to actually hurt his sister any more than she wished to hurt him. Soon, Kendal had gotten him in a headlock, and she held him there as he squirmed in her grasp, giving him a nookie with her free hand.

"You feel that burn?" Kendal demanded. "That's my heartburn from when I thought you were dead."

Jaune groaned. "Come on – ah! – Kendal, get off! Come on, you left!"

"I go away and then I come back, that's completely different."

"I went…and now I'm back, isn't that the same thing?"

Kendal released him. "Back for how long?" she demanded.

"A few days," Jaune said. "Dad's birthday."

"That's going to be fun."

"Yeah, that's what I was afraid of," Jaune said.

Kendal grinned. "Don't worry about it, little Jaune," she said, in spite of the fact that Jaune was over a head taller than her. "If it gets too rough you can hide behind me just like you used to." She folded her arms. "So you actually made it to Beacon, huh? That's where you've been all this time."

"Yeah, that's where I've been," Jaune said. He struck a pose. "You're looking at Jaune Arc, huntsman in training."

Kendal snorted, and glance at Pyrrha out of the side of her eyes. "And you're dating this loser because? Are you guys at Bea- aah!"

"What?" Jaune asked.

"That's where I saw you before, on the new picture!" Kendal yelled. "You're one of his team-mates aren't you?"

"Mom put the picture I sent on the wall?" Jaune asked.

"Of course, Mom puts all the picture up on the wall," Kendal said. "God, River is going to be so insufferable."

 _Assuming River is another sister, why would-_

"Please tell me that you didn't," Jaune said.

"Of course we did," Kendal said.

"Um, what did you do?" Pyrrha asked.

"Jaune sent Mom a picture of himself with three hot chicks and a cute girl," Kendal said. "So we-"

"They had a pool on which of you, Sunset, Blake or Ruby I was dating," Jaune groaned, sounding as though he wanted to sink into the floor and never re-emerge.

Pyrrha's mouth formed a little O of surprise. She couldn't really find a reaction to that news because it was all just so outside of the normal realm of her experience. She wasn't sure if she ought to be embarrassed, shocked, upset, defensive; she wasn't sure if, indeed, she ought to feel anything at all. "Oh," she said.

"Kendal?" someone called from inside the house. "You've been at the door a long time, who is it?"

Jaune sighed. "How bad is it going to be in there?"

"Well, Dad's not home right now," Kendal said, as though that was a good thing. "But on the other hand you did run away without telling us and you have a girlfriend now so on the whole…it's going to be like you never went away." She grabbed Jaune and pulled him inside, leaving Pyrrha, slightly forgotten, to follow.

Kendal dragged Jaune by the arm into a long hallway, lit by warm orange lamps that cast a soft, inviting glow reminiscent of a log fire onto the wood-floored room. Pyrrha followed as Jaune was brought down the hall and into a spacious dining room. The walls were wood-panelled, with red curtains on the windows and a real fire burning in the grate and various rural knickknacks and curios sitting on the mantelpiece, although the thing that Pyrrha noticed most was the thing that wasn't there: the place upon the mantelpiece reserved for the absent Crocea Mors, the stand where it had sat in pride of place until Jaune had taken it. Its absence – and the presence of its resting place – seemed to act as a silent reproof to him for what he had done, or would do when he noticed it. The farthest wall, from where Pyrrha stood in the doorway, was covered in photographs but they were too far away for her to be able to make them out in any amount of detail at all. A sofa sat between the two windows. There was an immense amount of space in the room surrounding the long dining table that sat in the centre of it, around which a quartet of young women were gathered, setting it for dinner.

"No, Saphron, the starter set goes on the outside, how could you forget that?"

"Since we don't have starters every night in Argus."

"River, those cups have a couple of them cracked, we'll use the willow-pattern ones. And where's Sky?"

"We're twins, we're not a hivemind."

Three of the four were being marshalled by the last and oldest of them, a women who looked, in fact, as though she might be old enough to be Jaune's mother, although it had to be said that she had aged quite gracefully if that were the case. She was wearing red, with a number of bead necklaces hanging from her neck, and she was continually gesturing with her hands as she directed the actions of the others and corrected their mistakes.

"Better set a couple more places cause guess who found the way back home," Kendal announced cheerfully, gesturing at Jaune with both hands.

All four women stopped what they were doing. Someone dropped a cup, which shattered on the floor. A handful of spoons clattered onto the table. Four pairs of blue eyes widened in astonishment.

"Jaune?" the eldest of the women, the one in red who might be his mother, murmured.

Jaune laughed nervously. "Hi."

"Jaune!" shrieked a young woman in violet, whose hair was not the golden blonde of her brother and sisters (and possible mother) but more of a sandy brown colour in a pixie cut. She led the charge towards him, closely followed by the others, questions issuing from three out of four mouths.

"What are you doing here? How long are you staying?"

"Are you coming back for good?"

"Where did you go? What happened to you?"

"Now, now, girls," said the older woman in the red blouse. "Let's not overwhelm him in his first few minutes back. Especially since I think Kendal has been doing a little of that already." She gave Kendal a knowing look and a slight smile.

Kendal replied with an unabashed shrug. "I said what I needed to say."

The woman in red, her feet concealed beneath a wine-dark floor-length skirt, glided through the others, who made way for her, until she was standing in front of Jaune, looking up at him. "You've gotten taller."

Jaune blinked. "I have."

The woman in red nodded, before she enfolded him in a hug. "Welcome home, Jaune. We've missed you."

Jaune put his arms around her, and rested his head upon her shoulder.

Pyrrha smiled, as did the Arc sisters, the girl in violet especially. Even Kendal was smiling, although after a moment she coughed into one hand and gestured at Pyrrha with her thumb. "Like I said: two extra places for dinner."

The woman in red opened her eyes and noticed Pyrrha. "Oh, please forgive me for not noticing that we have a guest."

"That's quite alright, Mrs Arc," Pyrrha said, as she bowed her head respectfully.

She was greeted with an absolute silence, broken only by the sound of someone sniggering.

As the silence continued, Pyrrha began to wonder if she hadn't made some kind of faux pas.

"Um, Pyrrha," Jaune said. "This isn't my mother. This my eldest sister, Rouge."

Pyrrha's face snapped up, even as she could feel it starting to burn bright red. "I'm so sorry, I should never have-"

"That's quite alright," Rouge said, with laughter ringing in her voice. "I am the eldest by quite a way, you're not the first to get the wrong idea. Besides, I sometimes feel as though I'm more of a mother than a sister to these monkeys."

"Hey, that's offensive to monkeys!"

Rouge gave a 'you see what I mean' look as she held out her hand towards Pyrrha. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss?"

"Pyrrha," Pyrrha said, as she took Rouge's outstretched hand. "Pyrrha Nikos."

Rouge's smile was soft, gentle and inviting. "And what brings you to our home, Miss Nikos?"

"Jaune's got a girlfriend," Kendal said in a sing-song voice.

The girl in violet gasped. "A girlfriend? Seriously?"

"You're the red-head in the picture," yelled one of the other girls, wearing a blue tank-top and her hair tied back in a ponytail with an equally blue ribbon. "I won! I totally called it!"

"Why don't you say it louder, I don't think we've scared her enough yet."

"And these are some of my other sisters," Jaune said, sounding as though his entire life was suffering right now. "Violet, River and Saphron."

"It's a pleasure to meet you all," Pyrrha said. River was the one in blue with the ponytail, also the one who had correctly identified Pyrrha as Jaune's girlfriend over Sunset, Ruby or Blake; Saphron looked like a younger version of Rouge, with the same haircut of just-below-the-shoulder length, except that she was more informally dressed with a tan vest over an orange top, and pants and boots instead of an A-line skirt; Violet was the one with the sandy hair, and dressed from head to toe in the colour of her name, whose eyes narrowed as she stared at Pyrrha like a bad smell.

"You know, not to harp on your humiliation," Kendal said. "But if you want to call someone Mrs Arc whose not Mom, Saphron actually fits."

"It's Mrs Cotta-Arc actually, and quiet you," Saphron said. "Don't mind her, Saphron is just fine. And if you need anything, just ask me."

"That's very kind of you," Pyrrha said.

Saphron shrugged. "I've had to show one newcomer around the family, so I've had more practice than anyone else. So, you're a huntress?"

"In training, yes," Pyrrha said.

"I can't say you'll be universally popular," Saphron said. "But you have my respect, and my thanks for taking care of my brother."

"We take care of one another," Pyrrha replied, but even as she said it she didn't miss the awkward looks on the faces of River and Rouge – Violet's expression remained overtly hostile – as though they didn't agree with Saphron's sentiment but were too bound by manners to actually say so. She remembered what Jaune had said about the people in this town and their general attitude of dismissive low regard towards huntsman.

 _Nobody here would have even believed that I, or anybody else for that matter, needed to do it._

 _Nobody including his own sisters?_

Violet folded her arms. "Is she really your girlfriend?"

"Yes," Jaune said.

"Really?"

"Yes, is that so hard to believe?"

"Hmph," Violet said. "I don't like her."

"Violet!" Rouge snapped. "There's no call to be rude."

Pyrrha didn't know what to say. Nor, it seemed, did anyone else either, until someone else walked down the stairs and into the room from the other side. This newcomer was most definitely not an Arc; not only did she lack the blue eyes shared amongst the other sisters, but her skin was dark instead of fair, and her hair was black as coal; she was dressed in a light blue jacket over a dark blue top, and she wore a pair of spectacles with red frames resting on the tip of her nose.

"I hate to complain," she said. "But all of this yelling makes it hard to get Adrian to sleep."

Saphron winced. "He's not upset, is he?"

"No," the other woman said. "But he might be if you don't all calm down. Oh, hey Jaune, I didn't realise you were here."

"He just got back," Saphron explained. "Hence all the yelling."

"Ah, I see," the other woman said, as she walked towards them. She glanced at Pyrrha. "And you would be?"

"Pyrrha Nikos," Pyrrha said.

"Terra Cotta-Arc," Terra said. "I'm Saphron's wife."

"I'm Jaune's girlfriend," Pyrrha said. It sounded nicer than she had imagined to say it.

"Ah, I thought it must be something like that," Terra said, as she shook Pyrrha's hand. She whispered, "Get out now, while you still can."

Pyrrha chuckled. "Your accent…Argus?"

"Very good, most people can't recognise it."

"I've spent some time there," Pyrrha said. "I trained at Sanctum Academy."

Terra's eyebrows rose. "Are you _that_ Pyrrha Nikos?"

"Probably, yes," Pyrrha murmured.

"You know her?" Violet asked.

"The howls of outrage when she decided to go to Beacon instead of Haven shook the walls of Argus," Terra explained.

"I think that's a little bit of an exaggeration," Pyrrha said.

"I suppose they care about such things in places like Argus," Violet declared airily.

"Vi, don't," Kendal said sharply.

"Don't what?" Violet demanded.

"Don't talk out of your-"

"Both of you, stop it," Rouge said firmly. "You'll embarrass the family in front of Terra and Pyrrha."

She really did seem more like their mother than another sister, Pyrrha reflected as she noted the way in which Violet and Kendal both obeyed her, both falling into cowed silence and refusing to meet one another's gaze. The room settled once more into an awkward silence.

 _Why do I feel as though my being here has caused more harm to Jaune than good so far?_

"So," Jaune said. "Where are Sky and Aoko?"

"Aoko has a deadline to meet, so she gets a pass on helping set the table," Rouge said. "Sky-"

"Is going to kill you," River said.

"She's upset, huh?" Jaune asked nervously.

"She is actually going to kill you," River said. "Or at least throw you in prison."

"Why would she-"

"Jaune Arc!"

"Here we go," River muttered.

Another Arc sister had appeared at the foot of the stairs, wearing a blue shirt with the collar undone and a pair of dark trousers; her hair was cut just above the shoulder, and she was wearing a badge on her left breast.

"Sky-" Jaune began.

"I ought to put you under arrest right now," Sky declared as she strode towards him.

"Arrest me for what?" Jaune cried.

"Theft, for starters," Sky said. "Did you at least bring the sword back?"

"Well, uh, kinda," Jaune said.

"What do you mean, kinda?" Rouge asked.

"It, uh…it got a little…broken," Jaune admitted.

"Destruction of property."

"Give it a rest, Sky," River snapped. "And just admit that you're happy to see Jaune; and then admit that I'm awesome because Pyrrha here is Jaune's girlfriend just like I said."

Sky turned a glare on Pyrrha. "Pyrrha, huh? You're a huntress?"

"That's right," Pyrrha said.

"Hmm," Sky said, approaching so close to Pyrrha that their faces were practically touching. Sky seemed to be examining her from all angles. "Well, you may be a huntress but I'm the sheriff in this town, so don't go causing any trouble okay?"

"I've got no intention of causing any trouble at all," Pyrrha said, wondering what it was that she thought a huntress did that she needed to issue such a warning.

"You did that when-"

"Violet," Kendal growled.

Sky nodded curtly, before rounding on her brother once again. "A note? Really?"

Jaune wilted visibly under the gaze of so many sisters. "I wasn't sure that you'd let me go if I told you what I was planning."

"We wouldn't," Rouge said, with absolute honesty. "But that's not an excuse for going behind our backs about it." She smiled. "But at least you're back now."

"And you're never going away again, right?" Violet said, as she glomped onto his right arm.

"I don't think that's the plan," Saphron said. "Right, Jaune?"

"No," Jaune admitted. "I'm only here for-"

"Jaune? Is that you?"

The woman who had now appeared through a door that, from the brief glimpse that Pyrrha had of it before it swung shut, was almost certainly Jaune's mother; she was obviously middle aged, plump with lines appearing on her face; she had Violet's sandy hair rather than the gold hair of most of her daughters, and streaks of grey appearing here and there upon her locks. Her eyes were as blue as any other Arcs, however, and they appeared to be welling up with tears.

Just as they had made way for Rouge, so now all the girls including Rouge made way.

"Hey, Mom," Jaune said.

"You came," Mrs Arc said. "Just like I asked.

"Just like you asked," Jaune said. "I wouldn't miss it."

He bent down to allow his mother to plant a flurry of kisses on his cheeks, and nobody dared snigger or smirk while it happened.

"My baby boy," Mrs Arc said. "You came back. You came back to me."

Jaune smiled. "Mom, there's someone very special that I'd like you to meet. This is Pyrrha: my team-mate, my partner…and my girlfriend."

Pyrrha bowed her head. "It's an honour to meet you, Mrs Arc. Pyrrha Nikos, at your service."

"Oh, please dear there's no need to stand on such ceremony around here," Mrs Arc said. "And no need to call me Mrs Arc either, Ma'am will do just fine. So you've come all the way from Beacon with Jaune?"

"I have have, ma'am, yes," Pyrrha said.

"Then I guess we'll need two more places at the table," Mrs Arc said. "Rouge, will you arrange that?"

"Of course, Mom," Rouge said.

"Jaune, I still have a few things to finish off in the kitchen before your father gets home, will you come and give me a hand."

"Uh, really?" Jaune said. "But, uh-"

"I'm sure that Pyrrha can manage without you for a little while, and we have so much to catch up on," Mrs Arc said.

Pyrrha gave Jaune a smile and a nod to indicate that she would indeed be fine, even though Violet was looking at her like a lioness that had wandered into a herd of gazelle and Sky was actively sizing her up.

Nevertheless, Jaune looked reassured as he followed his mother into the kitchen, which was the main thing. They did have a lot to catch up on, after all, and Pyrrha wasn't going to stand in the way of that. This was, after all, Jaune's family and Jaune's visit. She was just here to support him.

She wished that she had a way of making the more hostile of Jaune's sisters understand that.

Violet was continuing to glare at her. River looked apologetic while Sky seemed suspicious. Rouge's look was guarded, while only Saphron and Kendal seemed truly friendly in the way they looked at her.

Rouge turned to her sisters. "Anyway, as we've been told we need to add two places to the table, so Kendal, if you'll give me a hand."

"If there's anything I can do," Pyrrha ventured.

"Oh, no, of course not," Rouge said, as though the idea were ridiculous. "You're our guest, just relax and let us take care of you."

"If you don't need me-" Sky began.

"Who said I didn't need you?" Rouge asked.

"If you don't need me," Sky repeated, putting additional emphasis on her words. "I'll keep Pyrrha company while you're finishing up."

Rouge looked at her, and some unspoken words seemed to pass between the two of them. "Very well, that sounds like an excellent idea."

"Great!" Sky said jovially. "Pyrrha, if you'd like to come with me?" She gestured towards the hall from which Pyrrha had first entered the dining room.

Pyrrha didn't know exactly what Sky wanted to talk about, but she couldn't help a slight feeling of a trap here. It sounded absurd, put like that, this was Jaune's family after all, not some pack of bandits in the wilds of Mistral, but nevertheless, that feeling was with her.

Nevertheless, she smiled and said, "Of course, lead the way."

"Sure," Sky said, as she led Pyrrha out of the dining room, into the hall through while Kendal had first dragged Jaune, and then out onto the porch. The sun was beginning to set by now, and the air was starting to cool. It was chill on Pyrrha's face as she and Sky Arc stood under the porch as the sky began to darken around them.

Sky leaned on the wooden railing separating the wooden porch from the garden.

Pyrrha hesitated, waiting somewhat awkwardly for Sky to say something. She presumed that Sky wanted to say something, but Jaune's sister seemed reticent to actually say it. So Pyrrha reached for some small talk to fill up the time. "This is a beautiful town that you have here."

"It's a nice town," Sky said. "With nice people in it. People like Jaune, before he got taken away."

"Nobody took your brother away," Pyrrha replied.

"Sure they did," Sky replied, still not looking at Pyrrha. "Those comic books that mom and dad shouldn't have let him read, the stories about great-grandpa that people shouldn't have told him. Dreams of glory and adventure in far away places. They took Jaune away."

"There's nothing wrong with dreams," Pyrrha said. "Sometimes they can inspire us to be better people."

Sky didn't respond to that. She still didn't turn away from where she leaned upon the porch rail. "My dad was a huntsman once."

"I know," Pyrrha said.

"But he gave it up," Sky said. "To raise a family, to live here. He realised that there were more important things. He tried to teach his children that."

"What Jaune does is important," Pyrrha insisted. "Very important. For some people I'd even say that it's vital."

"Why?"

"Because not everywhere is as lucky as this town when it comes to not seeing a grimm in years," Pyrrha said, and she couldn't help but let a touch of coldness into her voice. "Do you think that the creatures of grimm are a myth just because you've never seen one."

Sky snorted. "Can I call you Pyrrha or do you prefer Miss Nikos?"

"Pyrrha is fine," Pyrrha said softly.

"Have you ever killed anybody Pyrrha?"

Pyrrha thought of Mercury Black. "Yes," she said, because although she hadn't checked that he was dead she had punched through his aura and then shot him again and she felt certain that she would get only scorn from Sky Arc for an answer like 'I might have done'.

"Did you enjoy it?"

"No," Pyrrha said, and this time her voice was as cold as ice.

Sky looked at her. "Then why did you do it?"

"It was a battle," Pyrrha said. "It was him or me…and Jaune."

"Jaune was with you?"

"We're team-mates," Pyrrha said. "Partners. In the field we're always together."

"Even when the stakes are life and death?"

"Especially then," Pyrrha replied. "He has my flank, and I have his."

Sky's voice was quiet. "Has Jaune ever killed anyone?"

Pyrrha swallowed. "Yes," she said. "I'm afraid so."

Sky stared at her for a moment in mute astonishment, before she turned and punched the railing beneath her.

"I wasn't happy about it either," Pyrrha said, as she recalled her mortification at what Jaune had been forced to do because she had abandoned him. "I'm sorry, I should have taken better care of him-"

"Jaune doesn't need you to take care of him, he has us, his family," Sky snapped. "And don't you dare say anything like 'I'm his family' or 'his team is his family' because you're not, you're just the people he works with in a job he shouldn't have!"

Pyrrha said nothing. She could not find it in herself to be angry at Sky, as much as Sky was plainly furious with her. Her wrath came out of love, and Pyrrha could not censure her for that. She thought that Sky was wrong – Team SAPR was a family, and the fact that Jaune was fortunate enough to have a large blood family as well did not alter that fact – but she wasn't going to argue the point with Sky in her own home.

Sky took a deep breath. "I've been sheriff of this town for two and a half years, ever since Sheriff Pearl decided to retire. In that time I've never even had to draw my gun, let alone shoot it. And my baby brother is a killer."

"There's a difference between murder and defending yourself in battle," Pyrrha said.

"He shouldn't have been in a position where he had to defend himself," Sky said. "This is a nice town, a peaceful town; maybe some other places have to send their kids off to fight monsters but not us, not here. Jaune should be throwing up after drinking too much at the harvest dance, not getting into situations where it's kill or be killed."

"And what about those other place?" Pyrrha asked, trying to keep her tone courteous even as it firmed up. "People are alive today who wouldn't be if it weren't for Jaune; are you willing to condemn them to death just so that he can be safe? Have you even considered that this is what Jaune has chosen to do with his life?"

"Don't talk to me like you know Jaune better than I do," Sky said. "You've known him for months; I've known him for his whole life."

 _And yet you don't seem to have any respect for him to make his own decisions,_ Pyrrha thought, but bit her tongue in saying it because it would have made an ill guest of her to actually give voice to it. She remembered what Jaune had said about people who had known him as a child only seeing him as a child; apparently it had affected his family even if he hadn't been explicitly referring to them.

"I know that Jaune is a good man, and a good huntsman," Pyrrha said. "I know that in time he could be great, if he continues to work hard and believe in himself. And I know that he has done a lot of good in the world, and will do so much more good in the world." She hesitated over saying more, but she felt that even though it might verge upon rudeness it had to be said nevertheless. "More good than he would do here, as nice a place as this seems to be."

Sky's jaw tightened with anger, but she appeared to master it with a force of will. "You may be some kind of bigshot out in Beacon or Argus or wherever, where everybody hangs upon what you say and do; but this is our town, so I'm going to give you fair warning: Jaune is going to be staying here with his family, and you're going to be heading back to Beacon by yourself."


	123. Arc Talk

Arc Talk

Pyrrha wasn't worried.

Sky Arc had gone back inside the house, leaving Pyrrha – somewhat rudely, she couldn't help but feel – alone on the porch, free to come in if she wished or not. It would have been more polite to have waited with her, but Sky had made it clear that she didn't enjoy spending time in Pyrrha's company and Pyrrha didn't enjoy hers enough to demand that she stay behind either.

Besides, alone with the setting sun as she now was she didn't have to pretend to take Sky's threat very seriously.

She wasn't worried. Assuming, as seemed likely, that what Sky was talking about wasn't some sort of attempt to kidnap Jaune – which would be very unwise even if Pyrrha hadn't been there, and would be idiotic since she was – then she probably had in mind some attempt to browbeat him into leaving Beacon, bidding Pyrrha farewell (and good riddance, if some of Jaune's sisters had any say in the matter) and telling her that he had decided to stay home, since this visit had made him realise what he had been missing.

If that was what they thought was going to happen then it just proved Jaune's point that he would forever be a child in their eyes. The pressure that a group of disapproving sisters could bring to bear might have had some effect on the young Jaune that Pyrrha had never known; it might even have had some effect on the Jaune that she had first met during the early days at Beacon. But Sky was wrong to say that she knew Jaune better than Pyrrha did on the basis of greater longevity of acquaintance: Sky might have known him longer, but Pyrrha had known him more recently and she had watched him grow up into a fine young man, a man to love, a man who wouldn't turn his back on her and on his comrades and on the battle to which he had pledged himself.

Though the battle be an impossible one Jaune was committed to it, and to the team and, she dared to hope, to her. The idea that he would simply walk away after all he knew and all that they had been through together…she would have scoffed if it would not have impolite to do so (and the fact that this was still Jaune's sister, and Pyrrha had not wholly given up hope of mending fences with them).

She was not worried. She knew Jaune Arc better than his family did by now, probably. She felt a little pity for the fact that Sky was doomed to be so greatly disappointed, and to be forced to confront the fact that her little brother had changed without her realising it; mostly, however, she felt angry.

It was that anger that had nearly led her to break the wooden railing from gripping it too hard. Not anger at her own treatment, but anger on behalf of Jaune. These people claimed to love him; perhaps by their own lights they did love him but it was clear that their idea of loving him did not involve asking him what he thought or wanted, respecting the fact that he had chosen the destiny he wished to work towards, understanding the fact that although this might not be what they had wanted for him it was what he wanted for himself. Rather he was, like a child, to be governed for his own good by those who were wiser than he was, and knew better.

 _Why can't they see that we know what's best for ourselves?_ Pyrrha thought, and she wasn't only thinking about Jaune's family.

"Are you okay out here?"

Pyrrha looked towards the door. Terra stood in the doorway, half in the house and half out of it, her spectacles slipping ever so slightly down her nose before she pushed them back up again.

Pyrrha straightened up. "Hello again. I don't suppose I'm needed inside."

"No," Terra said. "But neither am I. Being a guest here can mean getting a lot done for you, but it leaves you at a loose end when everyone's working." She smiled. "Worth it for the results of Mrs Arc's cooking, though; as you are about to discover…unless you planned to slip away."

Pyrrha smiled thinly. "I'm not going anywhere."

"As much as some people might want you to," Terra said.

Pyrrha's eyebrows rose. "How did you-"

"It wasn't always a smooth ride for me, at first," Terra said, as she stepped out onto the porch. "Not everyone had liked Saphron moving to Argus in the first place, and they certainly didn't like it when she brought me back home with her for a visit."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Pyrrha said softly.

"It didn't last," Terra said easily. "Once I gave birth to Adrian, the first grandchild in the family, I became untouchable."

"How did you bear it until then?" Pyrrha asked.

"It wasn't that bad," Terra replied. "We weren't here very often, and when we were…it wasn't the whole family. It was…the divide in this family is between those who are aware that there's an outside world beyond the confines of this village and those who don't, or who would rather pretend that they don't. One side was a lot more welcoming than the other." She came to stand beside Pyrrha at the railing. "For me, Saphron was worth it; only you can decide if Jaune's worth it to you."

It suddenly occurred to Pyrrha that Terra, finding her standing so pensively out here all by herself, must have thought that she was pondering ditching Jaune in the face of the hostility of some of the other Arcs. "Um, no, I wasn't…I mean he is, but that…I wasn't actually thinking about that."

Terra was silent for a moment. "Oh. I'm sorry, I just assumed-"

"I understand," Pyrrha said. "I can see how it must have looked. I was just…I was thinking about what Sky said."

"They want him to take him away from you," Terra said.

Pyrrha looked at her. "How do you know?"

"Because they're talking about it in the dining room, and not being anything like as quiet as they think they are," Terra said. "Saphron is trying to talk them out of it, and Kendal looks about ready to scream. That's, uh, that's another reason why I came out here. If there's a big blowout argument I'd rather not get caught up in it."

"I understand," Pyrrha said.

"Are you worried?"

"No," Pyrrha said. "Do you think I should be?"

Terra shrugged. "I only met Jaune a couple of times…I can't say I was that impressed. Are you sure that he won't fold?"

Pyrrha nodded. "He's grown a lot since you probably saw him last."

"I suppose so. I never would have seen him as a huntsman," Terra said. "I'm sorry if I embarrassed you, talking about your Sanctum reputation. It's just, you know, living in the city…it was hard not to notice your reputation. Nobody wanted to see you leave."

"That's one of the reasons why I had to leave," Pyrrha said softly. Then it occurred to her that in Alba Longa she had finally found a place where her reputation carried no weight whatsoever…and everybody hated her. The irony of it made her chuckle. _Is this what they mean by be careful what you wish for?_

"Hey, you two," Saphron said, as she appeared in the doorway. "Everything okay."

"Sure," Terra said. "I was just making sure your other guest didn't feel neglected.

Saphron winced. "Sorry about that, things are just a little…anyway, we're almost ready for dinner, so if you'd both like to come inside?"

* * *

The kitchen door flapped shut behind Jaune as he stepped into a room that seemed narrow due to the great abundance of equipment taking up space within it: three towering dual ovens, each one ridiculously large; two freezers and two refridgerators to match, microwaves, hobs, hotplates, kettles on work surfaces, an enormous sink, everything to supply the dietary needs of a family of nine plus guests without panic, rush or incident.

It hadn't changed since he went away. The tiles were still cracked in that place in the corner just where he remembered; the tiles themselves were the same marigold shade that he remembered; everything was exactly the same to his eyes and his nose was assailed by such wonderfully familiar smells that for a moment he was transported back to his childhood, with grimm and Salem and Beacon Academy all forgotten as he was a five year old with his hair in pigtails once again, fleeing into the kitchen to escape the over-eager attentions of his sisters and find shelter with his mother.

He had never actually learned how to cook; he had been too embarrassed to make the effort, after all his father couldn't even boil an egg so clearly cooking wasn't something that real men did (sure, Ren would beg to differ but give him a break he'd been an idiot) and it was bad enough that his sisters had roped him into dancing as part of the Arc Family Dancers, but he wasn't going to do any more girly things than he had to. So he hadn't learnt to cook, an oversight that he regretted now as he considered the opportunities to impress Pyrrha, or even the whole team, with his culinary prowess, but he had spent many happy hours in the kitchen dipping his fingers into pots and pans and bowls and eating when he shouldn't have been. So long as he kept his portions small Mom had never minded too much.

Jaune sniffed the air. "Fried chicken?"

"My special recipe," Mom said cheerily. "Along with jacket potatoes-"

"And all the fillings?" Jaune asked eagerly.

"Of course," Mom said, as if the idea that she would serve anything less was inherently ridiculous. "Cheese, cheese with broccoli, cheese with bacon, beans, tuna with and without mayo and of course my famous beef chilli."

Jaune could see the famous chilli boiling in a huge cast iron pot on one of the hobs nearby, and just as he had when he was a child he started to move his hand in that direction.

Mom whacked him on the knuckles with a ladle. "Not until you've washed your hands."

Jaune smiled sheepishly as he pulled off his gloves. "Sure thing, Mom." He squeezed past her in the direction of the sink.

His mother chuckled. "It's so good to have you back, sweetie."

Jaune turned on the tap, and waited for the water to start to heat up. "It's good to see you too, Mom." He fell silent, as the water heated and he ran his hands beneath it. "Listen, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you worry but I did and-"

"Oh, don't worry," Mom said. "You're home, and everything else is in the past now. You're back where you belong and that's all that really matters."

Jaune blinked. Something about the way that his mother had said that was making his thumbs prick just a little. "Mom…you know I'm only here for Dad's birthday, right? You asked me to come back, and so I did-"

"Yes," Mom said. "You did. And now you're here, you came back and everything can be just the way it was. Why would you want to spoil that by running away again?"

"Because I was miserable the way things were," Jaune said, as he turned to face his mother. "I mean…when I called you said that you understood. You said that you were happy that I'd found somewhere to belong. You put that picture I sent you up on the wall."

"Of course I did," Mom said. "I put all the picture of my babies up on the wall so that everyone can see all the wonderful things that they've done. And I'm glad that you made it to that place that you wanted to go, and I'm glad that you were happy when you got there…but even though it was years ago I still remember what it was like when your father went out on missions as though it were yesterday. I remember how nervous I was, every knock on the front door would make me near hysterical because I was sure it was someone from Beacon coming with the news that Gold had managed to get himself killed in some far-off field somewhere. I don't want to go through that again with my only boy, what Kendal does is bad enough, I can barely stand it when she's not here. Please, Jaune, don't make me go through that again."

Jaune's brow furrowed as he looked down on her. "I'm sorry, Mom," he murmured. "But I can't just quit and come home."

"Why not?"

"Because my team needs me."

"Oh, I'm sure that they can manage without you."

"Mom!" Jaune squawked, sounding more indignant than he had intended because didn't she get it? Didn't she get that this was exactly the point? "Stuff like that is why I left home in the first place!"

"Stuff like what?"

"Stuff like the fact that nobody in this house ever believed in me at all," Jaune said. "You, Dad, everyone treated me like I was about as much use as a sack of potatoes, like I was such an idiot that it was a miracle I didn't trip over my own feet, like I was…like you were all going to have to spend the rest of your lives taking care of me, because there was no way that I could ever amount to anything by myself." They had been kind about it, for the most part – although sometimes he would look into his father's eyes and see such unalloyed disappointment there – but all the kindness in the world couldn't alleviate the shame of knowing that they thought him so completely incapable even of functioning by himself. "That was why I left," Jaune said. "I wanted to show that I could make it, even though nobody thought I could."

He turned away, and so he couldn't see the look on his mother's face as she said, "There's nothing wrong with other people wanting to take care of you."

"I know," Jaune said. "But my friends…we take care of one another. They believe in me in ways that nobody in this house ever…you say that it was bad waiting for Dad, not knowing if he was going to be okay or not. If I let Pyrrha go back to Beacon without me, then I know that I'd just spend every single day wondering where they were, what was happening to them, what dangerous mission they were on without me; and if…" he swallowed, because this was almost too terrible to contemplate. "And if anything happened to Pyrrha or Ruby or Sunset when I wasn't around…because I wasn't around, then…I don't know if I could live with myself afterwards. I can't leave them. I can't leave her."

"They're not your family, Jaune," Mom said. "We're your family: all of us, here."

"I know," Jaune said. "But they're where I belong. Beacon is where I belong."

"You belong here with us," Mom said.

"Doing what?" Jaune asked of her, looking at her once again. "What am I supposed to do once I've broken Pyrrha's heart and broken my word to my friends? What am I supposed to do all day once I've proved that I don't deserve to be trusted."

Mom was silent for a moment. "Miranda Wells has grown up into a pretty young girl. You remember her, don't you?"

Jaune laughed. "I remember that Miranda Wells wanted to get out of here even more badly than I did." The Wells' owned the house on the other end of the street from the Arcs, and had a family almost as large with three girls and three boys; the middle of the three daughters, the Miranda Wells of Jaune's memories had haunted the town bookshop, desperate for stories of the world outside of Alba Longa.

"Yes, well, her father put a stop to all that nonsense," Mom said, with a sniff that suggested that it would have been better if Jaune's father had been able to do the same. "She's very pretty," she repeated.

She was also as chilly as a block of ice towards any of the local boys, if Jaune remembered right; which was about as relevant as her supposed prettiness in any case. "Mom, I already have a girlfriend, I don't need you to set me up with the neighbour's daughter."

"She's an outsider and a huntress, do you think she'll ever belong here?"

"I don't belong here," Jaune said.

"Yes, you do," Mom said. "But that girl, Pyrrha was it? I know she's terribly pretty-"

"She's not just pretty, she's beautiful," Jaune said. "And more than beautiful she's…she's brave and kind and noble and selfless…she helped me when she didn't have to, even after I'd given her every reason not to, just because I needed the help and she never asked for anything in return; she isn't scared of anything, and when I see that it makes it easier for me to be brave too; she was the first person at Beacon, the first person ever to really believe that I could do this, that I could make something of myself." He sighed. "When she's upset, there isn't anything that I want more than to make her happy again, and when she smiles the way her eyes light up…Pyrrha isn't just beautiful; she's one in a million." He smiled. "I love her, Mom."

He had hoped…he wasn't exactly sure what he had hoped for? That she'd tear up and give him a big hug? That she'd tell him how happy she was for him that he'd found the one? That she'd give him some tips on how to treat Pyrrha as she deserved?

He wasn't entirely sure what he'd hoped for, but he'd hoped for better from her than to hear her say, "I'm sure you think that, honey, but after you've been apart for a few weeks-"

"We're not going to be apart for a few weeks, I'm going back to Beacon," Jaune said firmly. "Mom, stop. If you don't stop then…then I'll go."

His mother's eyes widened. "You'll go? You mean now?"

"Yes," Jaune said, even though his mother was still watering from the succulent smells of the kitchen. He didn't want to say this, but he felt as though he wasn't being left with very much choice. "I'm not a farmer and I'm not a baby and I'm not the same kid who ran away from home. I'm a student of Beacon Academy and a huntsman of Vale, and that's what I want to be. And if you can't accept that…I'm not going to stay here while you tell me how wrong I am and try to break up Pyrrha and me so that you can set me up with Miranda Wells. I don't want to go, Mom, but I will."

Mom stared at him. "Are you really happier at that school than you would be here, with us?"

"Yeah," Jaune said. It sounded strange, borderline absurd really, to think that he was happier at the school being trained to fight monsters, where he had been told that all of the monsters were being directed by an immortal boss-monster who could never be stopped, only delayed, where magic was real and the boundaries of what he had thought were possible were daily being rolled backwards before his eyes even as the danger and the risk daily increased also than he was in the peaceful town where nothing ever changed from day to day but…it was true. He was a part of something at Beacon, a part of something bigger than himself and his own desires; at Beacon he was useful and needed and wanted, all words that had never been used to describe him when he lived here. At Beacon he was nobody's son and nobody's kid brother; at Beacon he was Jaune Arc. "I love you, Mom; I love all of you…but I couldn't ever be as happy here as I am at Beacon."

It was clear that his mother wasn't happy with that answer, but it was also clear that she didn't take his warning as an idle threat. "I'm sorry to hear that," she murmured. "I won't say anything more about it, but…I'm afraid I really can't say the same for your father or sisters."

Pyrrha and Terra – led by Saphron, although the way down the corridor was not difficult to find – returned to the spacious dining room to find the table laid out and waiting for them. The long walnut table was covered by a pristine white tablecloth, on which had been set out twelve places (Pyrrha recalled that Terra had mentioned something about her son getting to sleep, and assumed that the child would not be joining them) with blue willow-pattern plates in a faux-Mistralian style sat upon wicker mats with cutlery set down upon either side. In the centre of the table Pyrrha could already see that great bowls with ladles sticking out had been set up and down the table, and an aroma of assorted smells wafted out of them to engulf the room in sensations that set Pyrrha's mouth watering.

Jaune and his mother had obviously finished their conversation in the kitchen, because Jaune was outside with all of his sisters whom Pyrrha had so far met while, as Terra and Pyrrha entered, his mother emerged out of the kitchen also with a tray piled high with fried chicken covered in a crispy brown coat, only adding to the delicious smells that were tugging at Pyrrha's nostrils.

People were starting to sit down already: Rouge Arc took the seat on the left of the head of the table – which seat Pyrrha could only assume was being left vacant in the hope that Jaune's currently-absent father would return to take it – while Saphron grabbed the seat one down from the right hand of the table head, and held the seat beside her own for Terra. Jaune caught Pyrrha's eye as she came in, and gave her a slightly apologetic smile.

She smiled back, and hoped that she was able to convey by it that she had no hard feelings about anything that had happened so far. Rather, she understood much better now why he might have wanted her to come with him in the first place.

Although, when she thought back to Sunset's blithe assurance that of course Jaune's family would fall in love with her, it did afford her a certain wry amusement.

 _If only she knew._

 _Not that I'll tell her, she'd probably get quite incensed about the whole thing; I'm not sure an incandescent Sunset turning up at the door with her jacket on fire so that she looks like an avenging fury would do much good._

Jaune pulled out the chair next to him for her, or at least she assumed it was for her since he was looking at her as he pulled it out; however before he could actually invited her to sit in it Violet had slipped into the seat.

"Thank you, Jaune," she chirruped.

Jaune looked at Pyrrha, who gave a slight shake of her head. _No need to make an issue of it, it would be as petty as your sister's being._

"Uh, right," Jaune said, as he started to sit down. Violet beamed at him, before sticking her tongue out at Pyrrha.

 _Well, really. How old are you?_

"Hey, Pyrrha," Kendal said, from the seat opposite Violet. "There's a seat free over here." She patted the seat opposite Jaune, across the table from him, and kept her hand there so that nobody else could take it as Pyrrha made her way over.

"Thank you, Kendal," Pyrrha said, trying to ignore Violet's thunderous face as she sat down opposite Jaune.

The pleasure that she felt as he reached for her hand across the table was mixed on this occasion with a frisson of satisfaction, even if that same sense of satisfaction made her feel a little ashamed of herself for how unbecoming it was.

River and Sky took seats opposite one another, respectively to the right of Jaune and the left of Pyrrha, filling up the places at the table until only the head and foot of it remained, and the seat at the right hand of the table's head which was being left for Mrs Arc, judging by the way she gravitated towards it.

Mrs Arc cast her eye down the seated family. "Now is everyone…" she sighed. "Now where is-"

"Coming Mom," came a voice from the stairs as someone who could only be Aoko, the final and previously unseen Arc sister, tumbled into view. Almost literally tumbled, as she must have tripped on something on the stairs because she emerged with a startled cry of alarm and seemed in grave danger of falling flat on her face. However, she managed to just about keep her footing and, after hopping a few paces forwards, came to a stop. "Nailed it."

"Aoko, you're late," Rouge said primly. "And what are you wearing?"

Aoko Arc was a scrawny young woman, smaller even than Weiss Schnee and with absolutely no meat on her bones at all; Pyrrha could have put her hands around her arms and legs quite easily. She was dressed in an oversized blue T-shirt – very over sized, it was hanging off her – with the word 'Allegedly' printed on it in white letters and a pair of black short shorts about the length of Pyrrha's miniskirt. She was completely barefoot. Her hair was the shortest of any member of the Arc family – including Jaune – cut in a bowl that barely descended past her ears – and she wore a pair of round, thick-framed black spectacles that gave her a slightly owlish look as she looked at her elder sister.

"This is comfortable and I work best when I'm comfortable," she said. "Besides, it's not like we have company."

"Terra's been here for three days," Saphron pointed out, but not unkindly.

Aoko blinked. "Hi, Terra. How's, um, you know…"

"Our son?" Saphron asked.

"Yeah. Him."

Terra chuckled. "He's fine. He's asleep upstairs."

"Great," Aoko said, as she wandered over to the free seat the foot of the table and sat down. "Hey, Jaune," she said, as casually as if he'd just been to the bathroom and it had only been a few minutes since they last saw one another.

"Hey, Aoko," Jaune said, apparently not finding this unusual.

River grinned. "You hadn't noticed he was gone, had you?"

Aoko frowned. "Gone?"

Before anyone could answer that, there was the sound of the front door opening and footsteps in the hallway. "Sorry I'm late," a gruff voice announced. "That new hole on the fairway was a little tougher than I'd thought, and then Archie offered me a drink and it would have been-" a man entered the dining room and stopped in his tracks. He stared, and it didn't take Pyrrha long to realise that he was staring at Jaune.

Jaune got to his feet. His hands were trembling slightly, and Pyrrha so very badly wanted to take him by both hands to comfort him, to reassure him that she was here and that it would all be okay, but she couldn't; not here, not in front of his whole family like this. She could only watch as he shook with nerves.

"Hi, Dad," he said.

Mr Arc was a heavyset man, muscular but also starting to bulge a little at the waist. His hair had mostly turned to grey – only a few golden streaks remained – and was in any case very short and mostly gone from the top of his head, but his eyes remained the same vibrant blue of all the Arcs. His face was lined with years or cares or both, and covered lightly with a coating to stubble. He was casually dressed, in a t-shirt of dull gold and a pair of corduroys, and the muscle that still corded his arms was the only real clue that he had once been a huntsman.

"Jaune," he said after a moment. "I wasn't expecting you."

"No," Jaune murmured. He looked down. "I should have called."

"Your room's still here, and it's not like there's ever a food shortage in this house," Mr Arc said, with surprising ease (surprising to Pyrrha anyway). He took a couple of steps forward. "But you and I are going to need to talk about some things later."

Jaune swallowed. "Yes. Of course."

"Now sit down, you look like you're about to collapse," Mr Arc said. He walked towards the table. "Anyway, hi kids."

"Hi Dad," chorused the Arc sisters.

He smiled fondly, but stopped as he reached Pyrrha, casting a shadow over her. "Hello, and who might you be, Miss-"

"Nikos," Pyrrha said, as she pushed back her chair and got to her feet. "Pyrrha Nikos, I…I'm here with your son, sir." She bowed her head. "It's an honour to meet you."

"Please, Miss, none of the Mistral manners," Mister Arc said. "I was on a team with a Mistralian girl who was always so prim and proper, it drove me nuts." He thrust out his hand. "Gold Arc, good to meet you, welcome to our home. I take it you've already met my wife and kids."

Pyrrha took his hand gently. "Yes, I've had the pleasure."

"Then you've met the best parts of the family already," Mister Arc said. "So, you're here with Jaune, huh? I guess he must be doing something right." He let go of Pyrrha's hand and turned away, leaving her cheeks to burn slightly unnoticed, as he went to the head of the table and kissed his wife. "Evening, honey, sorry I'm late."

"It's alright dear, but if we don't get started soon then everything's going to get cold."

"And we wouldn't want that now, would we?" Mister Arc said, as he sat down at the head of the table. "Sky, would you mind saying grace?"

"Sure thing, Dad," Sky said, as everyone at the table bowed their heads and held out their hands. It took Pyrrha a moment to realise what they were doing; she only really understood when Kendal tapped her on the right hand and indicated what everyone else was doing: holding their right hand out, palm upwards, and placing their left hands in the open palms of the person to their left. In that way they joined hands in a chain…except that Sky was very pointedly refusing to offer her hand to Pyrrha, something that either no one noticed or no one wanted to comment on. Pyrrha contented herself with taking Kendal's hand, and placing her other hand upon her knee.

She bowed her head and closed her eyes.

"We give thanks for the food at our table, for the warmth of our fire, and for the shelter of our home," Sky said. "We give thanks for our family, and especially for the return of our brother Jaune, who has come home after too long away. We give thanks for the fact that we have somewhere to come back too where we will always belong. For what we are about to receive may we be truly grateful."

"Thanks, Mom," Violet said. "Now let's eat!"

The food really was delicious. Pyrrha probably wouldn't have eaten so much if Kendal – "Try the chilli, it's delicious." – hadn't been sitting next to her, but she ended up having at least a taste of everything and a great deal of some things. The chilli was hot and spicy in just the right ways, the chicken was crisp without and succulent within, the potatoes crumbled at the touch of a fork.

"This really is excellent food, ma'am," Pyrrha said.

"Thank you, dear," Mrs Arc said, coolly but politely. "I'm glad you like it."

Excited chatter surrounded the table as the Arc siblings dug in to the meal that their mother had prepared, until Aoko – who looked to be scribbling some equations on a napkin with one hand even while she shovelled melted cheese and potato into her mouth with her other hand – said, "So, Jaune, where did you go?"

The table could not have fallen more silent if she had just announced her plans to go out and commit murder. Kendal's mouth twitched into a momentary kind of smile. Sky scowled. Saphron looked as though she'd rather be somewhere else.

Rouge cleared her throat. "Aoko, that isn't-"

"I've been at Beacon Academy," Jaune said, looking down the table towards his sister. "I'm training to become a huntsman."

"Like Dad?" Aoko murmured. "Cool."

"No, it's not cool," Sky growled. "Don't encourage him."

Aoko blinked owlishly as she briefly looked up from whatever she was scribbling. "Does he need encouragement…didn't you just say you'd been there already?"

"This isn't really appropriate for the dinner table-" Rouge tried to interject.

"He's been there," Sky declared. "He's not going back."

"I'm sitting right here!" Jaune exclaimed, waving his arms to emphasise the point. "And I am going back, for the rest of my four years until I graduate."

"No you're not!" Sky snapped. "You shouldn't have gone in the first place and you're certainly not going back. You're going to pack your girlfriend back home and you're going to stay right here where you belong."

Jaune stared at her across the half-eaten dishes. "No," he said.

Sky frowned. "No?"

"No," Jaune repeated. "I'm not going to break up with Pyrrha and I'm not going to stay here; I'm going back to Beacon and you can't stop me."

Pyrrha smiled inwardly. She didn't know for sure, but she thought that Sky might have expected her brother to fold so easily at her first push; she had no idea how strong he had become in the intervening months. That was part of the reason why she did not, and would not, say anything: he didn't need her help any more.

The other reason was that she felt that he wouldn't want it. This was his family, and his fight.

And his chance to show them what sort of a man he was now.

"Please be reasonable, Jaune," Rouge said. "Beacon isn't the place for you."

"But it is," Jaune said. "I'm part of a team, I have friends for the first time in my life-"

"Jaune," Violet said, her tone greatly offended.

Jaune looked discomfited by that. "Friends outside of my family, I mean," he corrected himself. "People who weren't obliged to like me, people who didn't have to give a damn about me…but they do. Beacon _is_ the place for me; it's the place I've found, the place where I belong. It's…it's home to me now."

"This is your home," Sky insisted. "And we're your family and we want you back."

"And what about what I want?" Jaune said. "This is the most important thing I'll ever do in my whole life and you want to just take it away from me? Why?"

"How about you stop being so selfish and think about other people for a change?" Sky demanded.

If there was anything that Sky could have said to break Pyrrha's resolve to let Jaune fight his own battle on this occasion, it was that. Selfish? Selfish? How…how dare she? How dare she even suggest that she knew Jaune when she obviously had no idea what kind of a person he was. He was one of the most generous, selfless people that Pyrrha knew, the very essence of his soul reflected it; he risked his life to defend the lives of others and support the people he cared about and for that she called him selfish. Her hands clenched into fists.

Jaune looked every bit as flabbergasted by the audacity of Sky's remark. "Self…I'm training to become a huntsman. I'm fighting to protect the world from darkness."

"The world isn't your home, this is," Sky insisted.

Jaune looked as though he were momentarily rendered speechless. "Do you…do you really think that this town is the only place in Vale, in Remnant, that matters? What about Shion, where we used to go on vacation? What about Vale, where we sell all our crops? Don't they deserve to be protected? Don't the people who live there deserve to survive when the grimm come?"

"If the grimm come," Sky said. "I've never seen one, and neither has anybody else that I know."

There was a grinding sound to Pyrrha's right, that turned out to be Kendal grinding her teeth. Sky didn't notice.

"I think the threat of the grimm is exaggerated by the people who run the huntsman academies so that they can take people like you away from their homes-"

"Sky, shut your mouth or you're going to end up with fewer teeth than me," Kendal snarled.

River's eyes widened. "Kendal…"

"Kendal, please, let's not have any language like that at the dinner table," Mrs Arc murmured.

"Kendal, honey, come on-" Mr Arc began.

"No, Dad," Kendal said as she stood up. "How can you sit there and let Sky run her mouth off like that? You were a huntsman, you know what the world is like out there so how can you listen to these…these lies!"

"Maybe the fact that Dad isn't arguing means that they're not lies," Sky said.

Kendal's mouth contorted into a snarl. "You have no idea what you're talking about!" she yelled, as spittle flew from her mouth to land on Pyrrha's cheek. "You have no idea…do you think that this town is safe because it's special? Because the world isn't that dangerous after all? Because we're lucky? This stupid town is safe because people like Jaune and Pyrrha put their lives on the line every day to keep it safe and sometimes they die!" She gasped, covering her mouth as though she were about to throw up. There were tears in the corners of her blue eyes, and Pyrrha wondered if this was the first time she had really understood the risks involved in the life that Jaune was leading. She shook her head. "Worry about him if you want," Kendal said. "I worry. But don't talk to Jaune like he's an idiot because he's not. He's the bravest of us all."

She turned away.

"Where are you going, Kendal?" Mrs Arc said. "We haven't finished dinner yet."

"I can't," Kendal said. "I…I can't sit here." She started to walk around the table, and although Mrs Arc looked as though she wanted to say or do something more to stop her, a hand on her arm from Mr Arc and a shake of his head prevented her.

Kendal sounded as though she was sobbing as she walked up the stairs.

Mr Arc sighed. "Sky, at some point tonight I expect you to apologise to your sister."

Sky gasped in outrage. "Apologise? She's the one who's acting like a big baby."

"You've upset her and you're going to make it right."

"I didn't-"

"I want you to make up with her," Mr Arc said heavily. "Do you understand?"

Sky wilted under his gaze, looking down at her hands rather than meet his gaze. "Yes. I'll say I'm sorry." She glanced at Jaune. "How come Jaune doesn't have to apologise for running away? Or for breaking great-grandpa's sword?"

"Sky!" Jaune squawked in a strangled voice.

 _That_ , Pyrrha thought, _was a blow so low that it would be illegal in tournaments._

"Your brother and I are going to have a full and frank talk about everything," Mr Arc said. "But that doesn't excuse the way that you've been behaving."

"I want Jaune home!" Sky exclaimed. "I want our family back before we have to bury our brother, I want him here where he belongs instead of embarrassing us in front of the whole town playing make believe with this outsider. I want things back the way they were before, is that so wrong?"

"And you say that I'm the selfish one?" Jaune asked. "Come on, Sky, the way things were before was you treating me like a pet who had to be watched all the time unless I burned down the house."

"If you wanted to prove to us that we had misjudged you, then perhaps you were right to do so," Rouge said. "Perhaps we did underestimate your competence. But now that you've proven yourself can you not come home? We can be better than we were before. What you're doing at Beacon…it just isn't done around here, and it's so dangerous too."

"It's a risk I'm willing to take," Jaune said. "I've already spoken to Mom about this, and…if you guys can't accept my choice then I'm not going to stick around here to be lectured about how wrong I am. Because I'm not. I've seen what's out there, Sky; it's not a myth, it's not exaggerated, it's real and it's dangerous and it's evil-"

"You're doing a great job selling this," River muttered.

"But I'm fighting it," Jaune said. "I'm fighting it alongside my friends and together we can make a difference. We've made one already. And I won't turn my back on them. No matter what you say, you can think I'm stupid or deluded or anything else…but I know what I am and I know where I belong and it isn't here. Not any more."

Saphron smiled. "Since when did you get able to stand up to Sky and Rouge put together?"

Jaune raised his head a little in pride. "Since I found a cause worth taking a stand over."

Pyrrha smiled too, to let him know how proud she was of him.

Sky, on the other hand, looked as though Jaune's words were upsetting her nearly as much as her own words earlier had upset Kendal. "You talk about turning your back but you're turning-"

Mister Arc's hand slammed down into the table with a solid thud that stilled all other sounds. "Okay, that's enough," he said. "Absolutely enough. The dinner table is no place for arguments. You're insulting your mother and all the work that she's put in to get this dinner ready for us. Jaune and I are going to talk later, and until then I don't want to hear a single word about this from anyone while we're seated at this table, understood?"

Everyone obeyed him, with the unfortunate side-effect that the rest of the dinner passed in a rather cold and frosty manner. The silence was only really broken when Sky's scroll started to ring.

"Sorry, I've got to take this, its work," she said apologetically, as she got up from her seat and walked towards the windows to take the call. "What?...And there isn't anybody…I know, so am I. Sure, fine, I'll go check it out." She snapped her scroll shut. "Sorry Mom, Dad; duty calls."

"Is everything alright?" Mrs Arc asked, with concern in her voice.

"There's a report of a disturbance at the McKinley farm, on the outskirts of town," Sky said. "I'll just go out there, tell them to keep the noise down and stop whatever it is they're doing, and I'll be back before you know it."

"Just be careful," Mrs Arc said.

Sky grinned. "Come on, Mom, you know this place; what's there to worry about?" She stepped quickly out of the dining room; Pyrrha could hear her pulling on her shoes in the corridor outside before she heard the door open and then close again shortly after.

The rest of dinner passed in a frosty silence as the plates were cleared; nobody disobeyed Mister Arc's prohibition against raising the matter of Jaune's return to Beacon, but that same prohibition seemed to have stripped anyone of any desire to find anything else to talk about. What little conversation there was was brief and to the point. Rouge looked ashamed of herself, while Violet spent much of dinner glaring at Pyrrha.

Pyrrha herself, although glad that Jaune had taken the stand that he had, found herself wishing that things would be a little less awkward.

And she found herself rather glad when dinner was over, although she wasn't sure what would come next.

"Miss Nikos," Mister Arc said. "I suppose my son promised that you could stay the night here?"

Pyrrha wondered if she was about to be thrown out onto the street. It wasn't an insurmountable problem if she was – she had learnt enough from Professor Peach's survival classes to be able to make do – but the fact that she trusted Jaune to withstand the pressures of his family didn't mean that she wanted to leave him completely alone to face them. "Yes," she said. "For the duration of our stay." She subtly emphasised the word 'our'.

Thankfully, Jaune's father seemed to have no desire to turf her out of his home. "I'm afraid we don't have any guest bedrooms, but there's a camp bed in Kendal's room, you can sleep in there. River can show you the way."

"Dad," River murmured. "Are you sure that's such a good idea? Kendal seemed pretty upset."

Pyrrha was glad that River had said it, and thus spared her from having to say it herself and presume a knowledge of Kendal Arc that her father didn't possess. She had seemed very upset, would she want the intrusion of a stranger into her privacy at such a time?

 _Would I? Probably not._

Nevertheless, Mister Arc said, "Just show Miss Nikos the way, this is for the best." He rose heavily to his feet. "And as for you, Jaune: come with me. It's time for us to talk."

Looking at his face then, Pyrrha almost asked if she could be a part of this talk if only so that Jaune wasn't alone even if she didn't end up saying anything; almost, but did not. It wasn't her place, and Jaune didn't need her to hold his hand every step of the way.

 _You can do this, Jaune; I know you can._

River pushed her chair back as she got up. "I'll show Pyrrha upstairs then come back to help with the dishes, okay Mom?"

"Don't worry, dear," Mrs Arc said. "I'm sure that Rouge, Saphron, Violet and I will be fine."

"I'll be quick," River said regardless. "Pyrrha, you ready?"

"Of course," Pyrrha said, as she too got up. "That is, if you don't-"

"You're a guest, remember," Saphron said. "Guests don't do housework."

 _In my family family doesn't do housework either,_ Pyrrha said. _Which I suppose means I should stop asking to be given chores that I've never had to do in my life._

She allowed River to lead her out of the dining room and up the stairs. They were dimly lit, making it easy to see how Aoko had managed to trip and nearly fall down them although Pyrrha did not trip herself. As they arrived at the top of the stairs and reached an equally dimly lit landing, River stopped and turned to face Pyrrha.

"I never thought I'd see that happen," she said.

Pyrrha frowned. "See what?"

"Jaune stand up to anyone like that," River said. "Especially not Sky and Rouge together. He's…he's not the same as when he went away."

"No," Pyrrha murmured. "I can believe that. He's not the same as when he first arrived at Beacon either."

"Did you have something to do with that?"

Pyrrha felt her cheeks start to heat up a little. "I…I'd like to think so, a little," she said. "But the truth is, I think that we've all had a little to do with it."

"We…you mean the girls in that picture?"

"His team-mates, yes."

"Are they all as nice as you?"

"Um…more or less," Pyrrha murmured. "Uh, River…can I ask you something?"

River snorted. "Do you want to know why I picked you and nobody else did?"

Pyrrha's face was definitely burning by now, she could feel it. "I…that is…I know it sounds pathetic, but-"

"Nah," River said. "I'd probably want to know as well. But the real answer is…I don't know, really. But some of us picked and…I picked you. It was only me, Kendal, Saphron and Rouge who guess, of course Rouge was disapproving the whole time but she still did it. Sky and Violet said that Jaune would know better than to date an outsider, and Aoko…Aoko is Aoko. I'm sorry, that wasn't a great answer was it."

"It's the truth," Pyrrha said. "I can't ask for more than that."

River sighed. "I'm sorry about my twin sister. She's a bit…she really does love Jaune, she just…"

"She wants what's best for him, even if he doesn't agree," Pyrrha said.

"Yeah, that about sums it up."

"And you?" Pyrrha asked.

River was quiet for a moment. "Growing up, Jaune was always the sweet one. I don't know if that was entirely because he was sweet or because he was scared to be anything else. We didn't…we kind of wanted another sister, and sometimes we treated him like one anyway and we didn't exactly care what he thought about it. But he never got mad and he never did anything so we thought…we all love Jaune. We all love our family, it's probably the one thing that we can all agree on: we love our family and we love our baby brother. And I'm not going to lie the thought of him dying scares me. I can see where Sky's coming from, and Rouge; a part of me wants to agree with both of them. But Jaune isn't the same kid who's hair we used to put in pigtails and I'm worried that if we don't accept his decision…then we're going to lose him."

Pyrrha said nothing, although River might well be right.

"Do you take care of him?" River asked. "You and your friends?"

"We take care of each other," Pyrrha said. She hesitated. "Yes, I try to protect him."

"Good," River said. "Terra says you're something awesome so that…that makes me feel a lot better. Thank you, and I'm sorry again about Sky."

"You're welcome," Pyrrha said. "And there's no need to apologise."

"Come on," River said. "I'll show you the rest of the way."

She led Pyrrha down the corridor, to a room where a light could be seen from under the crack in the doorway. A faded sign, decorated with hand-painted trees and cartoonishly proportioned bunny rabbits in all the colours of the rainbow, proclaimed that this was Kendal's Room. Another sign, newer but no less faded by years, ordered everyone to Keep Out.

River knocked on the door. "Kendal? Are you okay?"

"What do you want?" Kendal snapped from the other side of the door.

"Dad says that Pyrrha's to sleep in that camp bed in your room," River said.

"I'm sorry to bother you," Pyrrha said.

There was a pause. "It's fine," Kendal said. " _You_ can come on in."

River winced. "I'll leave you to it," she said. "I don't know what's up with her but…good luck."

 _Thank you,_ Pyrrha thought, not entirely sincerely, as River headed back down the corridor towards the staircase.

Pyrrha stared at the door for a moment, before deciding that there was really nothing for it but to go through it and see what would happen on the other side. She really didn't want to disturb Kendal when she wanted to be alone, but she didn't have to stay long, only long enough to set down her things. She could go as soon as that was done.

Gingerly, she pushed open the door. A portal lamp, of the sort that were carried by campers or sometimes huntsmen on field missions, sat on a window-facing desk, illuminating the entire room. A large map of Vale covered one entire wall, with red circles and arrows scrawled on it and the entire south-east quadrant around Mountain Glenn scribbled over in thick black lines. There was very little else in the way of decoration; indeed there was very little else at all, just a wardrobe and a couple of trunks and a half-packed duffel bag. The room was austere; indeed it looked almost as though nobody lived here at all.

Which was just as well in some ways, since it was not the most spacious place in the house. Indeed in many ways it was positively small, although that might have been because, strangely, the camp bed was already set up and indeed made up ready for someone to sleep in. Kendal was sitting on it, her elbows resting on her knees. She looked up at Pyrrha as she came in, and Pyrrha could see at once that she had been crying: her eyes were red, and her cheeks blotchy.

"Hey," she said.

Pyrrha stared at her for a moment, until she remember how rude she was being. "I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to intrude, I just-"

"It's okay," Kendal said. She wiped at her eyes with one hand. "You're okay." She sniffed. "You can take the real bed."

Pyrrha looked at the fully made-up bed on the left-hand side of the wall. "I couldn't turn you out of your own bed."

"You're not, I sleep on this," Kendal said. "It's more…closer to what I'm used to."

Pyrrha, who didn't really understand but also was deeply uncertain of her right to pry, contented herself with saying, "Oh. I see."

Kendal got up off the camp bed and walked towards the desk facing the window. She leaned upon it with both hands, her head bowed down below her shoulders. "How did you manage to sit there and not get angry?"

"At Sky?"

"At the way she was talking such garbage about everything…including everything you stand for," Kendal said. "Doesn't it make you so mad?"

"I don't want to get into arguments with Jaune's family," Pyrrha said softly. "And besides…her opinion isn't all that important to me."

Kendal snorted. "Lucky you." She fell silent for a moment. "They don't get it. Sky, Rouge, Violet, River, not even Aoko. Saphron kind of gets it, but even in Argus she leaves a pretty safe life."

Pyrrha nodded slightly. Between Sanctum Academy at one end of the city and the Atlesian military base at the other – she had always found that placement slightly ironic, the old way and the new confronting one another with the city in between – Argus was about as well protected as any city could be, not to mention the high walls and the seaward-facing shields. "But isn't that a good thing."

"Yes," Kendal said quickly. "I didn't mean…even she doesn't really understand. Understand what it's like out there, understand what you and Jaune have to deal with every day, understand…understand how dangerous it is."

"But you…do," Pyrrha murmured.

Kendal straightened up, though she kept her back to Pyrrha as she pulled her green tank-top off and threw it roughly onto the camp bed.

Pyrrha couldn't help the gasp that escaped from between her lips. Kendal's back was a morass of scars, broken up only by the concealing line of her bra; they were angry, ugly scars, long and thick and rising in undulations as they descended diagonally from her shoulder towards her hip.

"A beowolf did this," Kendal said. "I was told afterwards it was only a young one. That I was lucky. I didn't feel lucky at the time, or afterwards."

"I don't understand," Pyrrha murmured. "I thought grimm never came here."

"I wasn't here," Kendal said. "I'm a member of the Survey Corps."

Now Pyrrha understood, at least in part. Every Kingdom had a corps of Surveyors, people whose job it was to explore the untamed and uninhabited regions that lay on the fringes of the kingdom's controlled territory or in the spaces between the major settlements; their task was to find places were new settlements could be erected safely, considering the defensive suitability of the location, the climate, health, accessibility and everything else that might make a town viable or otherwise. They didn't always get it right – witness Mountain Glenn, which some surveyor had judged a suitable place to build on – but a number of thriving towns across Remnant bore testament to their skill.

"Your aura isn't activated," she murmured.

Kendal shook her head. "I hear there's a school up in Atlas that teaches aura stuff to those who want to join the Atlesian corps, but here in Vale that kind of huntsman training is reckoned a waste of money for people who aren't going to be huntsmen. If I see a grimm my only response is to run like hell. Or have a huntsman escort to…to…"

Pyrrha walked up behind her, and placed a hand upon Kendal's shoulder. She could feel the scars beneath her glove. "Who were they?"

Kendal sniffed. "His name was Manitou. He was from Mistral, but after graduating from Beacon he'd decided to stick around in Vale. He said…he said he liked the people here. I didn't always work with a huntsman – it costs money and my superiors don't always appreciate it – but after I got these scars I got a little bit…nervous, you know."

"I quite understand," Pyrrha said softly. Honestly, she wasn't sure that she would have the courage to do what Kendal did, and walk into grimm-infested territory without either arms to defend herself or aura to protect her. Being a huntress was dangerous enough, and the risk of death present enough without taking away not only the shield of heaven but also any means or chance of striking back against the darkness. "There's no shame in wanting to be protected."

"I guess," Kendal murmured. "Anyway, I put out a job and I got Manitou. He was…he was nice. Charming, obliging…he had a way of making me feel like there was nothing to worry about. My next assignment I put out another job for an escort and there he was: Manitou. And the next job after that. I asked him if he was stalking me and he said, 'No, but I do keep hoping to see you again. I guess I must be pretty lucky.' I asked why he didn't just ask me out and he asked me if I'd say yes. I told him I would, he asked, we made plans."

Pyrrha hesitated. It was fairly clear that this story didn't have the happiest ending. "What…what happened?"

"You're a huntress, you can probably guess."

"The grimm."

"He told me to run," Kendal said. "He told me that he'd hold them off and I did what he said…I ran…and I never saw him again. Nobody ever saw him again."

"You never told anyone," Pyrrha said.

"How could I?" Kendal demanded. She turned around, and Pyrrha retreated back a step. "He was a huntsman and an outsider, you saw how Sky treated you. I didn't want to…I couldn't hear them talk about him that way." She wiped at her eyes again. "None of them really get it, not even Saphron…but you get it, don't you?"

Pyrrha nodded. "The world needs good people like Manitou, and like Jaune."

"Like Jaune," Kendal repeated. "I…I know that it's a worthy path he's chosen, and I want him to be able to follow his dreams but I…as his sister I'm terrified that one day Jaune is going to have to be the one to hold off a pack of grimm so that someone like me can run away, that he's going to be the one who never gets seen again."

"I won't let that happen," Pyrrha declared.

Kendal looked her in the eye. "Does it bother you that he might die?"

"Yes," Pyrrha confessed. "There are times when…when it terrifies me, too."

"Then how do you do it? Why do you do it? Why don't you ask him not to do this?"

"Because the moment I stop believing in him is the moment that I lose him," Pyrrha said. "Because he'd never forgive me. Because I promised that I'd never send him away from my side."

"Even if it's dangerous?"

"I think it's because it's so dangerous that he asked me to promise."

Kendal nodded. "You know…Jaune's lucky in a lot of ways. I hope he gets how lucky he is. My family weren't thrilled when I told them I wanted to be a surveyor, as you can guess; I had to promise that I'd come home regularly even though I…I don't really enjoy it a lot of the time, the way they talk, the things they think. Jaune's lucky to be away from all of that at Beacon, he doesn't have to put up with this, he doesn't have to wonder if there's something wrong with him because he doesn't have to belong any more…he doesn't have to be alone. Huntsmen are lucky to work in teams. Do you love him?"

Pyrrha was momentarily thrown by the abrupt change in subject. "Yes," she said. "I do love him."

Kendal smiled. "I know that you could kill me with one hand so I'm not going to pretend otherwise," she said. "Just…don't let them take him away from you and don't let him go."

"I've not intention of letting him go," Pyrrha vowed. "And I don't think he intends to let anyone take him away from me."

Kendal chuckled. "He's the best of us, in a lot of ways. You're lucky to have him."

"Oh, I know," Pyrrha said, with absolute sincerity. "I feel like the luckiest girl in the world."

* * *

Jaune felt as though his gut had turned to ice as he followed his old man outside into the back garden. It had been easier than he had expected to stand up to Sky – he just had to remember everything that he'd been through since he arrived at Beacon, and even though he couldn't tell them about half of it the knowledge that there was a truly terrifying world out there and that someone had to protect people like his family from that world had been enough to see him through the contest – but this was his father they were talking about, and even if he'd stepped in to stop the argument between Jaune and Sky that was no guarantee that he was going to be on Jaune's side.

Jaune couldn't remember the last time that his father had been on his side. His greatest impression of his father was rather that he, Jaune, had been a disappointment to him. And now Jaune couldn't even count on his achievements at Beacon to earn his father's respect because he'd tarnished all of that by both stealing Crocea Mors and then breaking it.

He had no idea what was going to happen now, and he had no idea how he was going to react to it.

His Dad opened the back door, and gestured to the wooden step beyond. "Sit down," he said, with a gesture of his hand. "I'll be back in just a second."

"Okay," Jaune murmured, his voice trembling even if his body wasn't. He sat down, and waited.

The sun had gone down by now, and only a pale light lingered at the fringes of the eastern horizon while the sky went dark around them.

He wished that he'd gotten the chance to apologise to Pyrrha before this. He shouldn't have brought her here, to be insulted by his family and gawped at by his neighbours. She'd forgive him – he got the impression that she'd forgive him just about anything – but the fact that she would forgive, that she would be upset about it, in a way it made him feel worse about the fact that he had got her into this. The fact that she would suffer a lot didn't mean that it was right of him to inflict suffering upon her.

He shouldn't have brought her here, and yet he couldn't deny that he was still glad that he had. Having her here, being able to look across the table at her, had been a great help in reminding him what he was fighting for when he was trying to fend off Sky's demands.

"Here," Dad said, as he reappeared behind Jaune holding two cold bottles of beer in one hand. "Take one."

Jaune looked up. "Dad?"

"You're old enough to kill monsters, you're old enough to have a drink with your old man," Dad said gruffly, and he pressed one of the two bottles into Jaune's hand before he, too, settled heavily on the back step next to his son. It was a wide step, much wider than the door which it led up to, and there was room enough for them to sit together without being pressed together.

Silence prevailed as Dad dug a bottle-opener from out of his pants pocket and cracked his bottle open. He put said opener on the wooden step between himself and Jaune as took a swig.

Jaune opened his own bottle, and drank. It was harsher than he had expected, and more bitter. He spluttered a little after swallowing.

"You'll get used to it," Dad said. "Or not. You might not care to."

Jaune didn't say anything. He didn't really understand what was going on here. Hadn't he been called out so that he could be reamed out? Then why was his father yelling at him?

"So," Dad said, still not raising his voice. "You broke the sword, huh?"

Now they were coming to it. Jaune hung his head. "Yeah, I mean yes. I broke it."

"How?"

"Dad?"

"How did you do it, it's a simple question," Dad said. He didn't look at Jaune, but instead kept his eyes pointed towards the horizon where the pale glow of the sun was dying.

"I…" Jaune hesitated, wondering how to describe it. "I grabbed for it, and as I was picking it up…the other guy stepped on it."

"So it was in battle?"

"Yeah," Jaune said.

"Well then," Dad muttered. "Stuff like that happens sometimes."

Jaune blinked. "Wait…that's it?"

"What did you expect?"

"I don't know, not that," Jaune said. "I thought you'd be mad."

Dad looked at him. "You had your mother in tears for days and you upset your sisters, but it's my grandpa's sword that I should be mad about?"

"When you put it like that…" Jaune trailed off. "I thought that if I told you what I was going to do then you wouldn't let me go."

"And you were right about that," his father said. "We wouldn't have let you go. Your sisters would have told you to not even think about it. And unlike tonight you would have listened."

Jaune took a deep breath. "Things have changed since I left."

"Have they?" Dad asked sceptically. He was silent for a moment. "So, what's it like? Is it everything that you imagined from your comic books?"

"No," Jaune said. "It's not like that at all."

Dad snorted. "I could have told you that."

"Then why didn't you?" Jaune said. "Dad…why didn't you tell me any of this? You were a huntsman but I hadn't even heard of aura until Pyrrha explained it to me in the middle of initiation. I had this whole romantic idea about what it was going to be like because you never talked to me about any of it."

"Of course I didn't talk to you about it, do you think I want to remember all the times that I almost died?" Dad said. "I don't talk about it, my grandpa didn't talk about what he went through during the Great War, and if you ever have kids you aren't going to talk about the things that you did either because you'll be as glad to put it all behind you as I was.

"And besides," he continued. "I didn't want you to follow in my footsteps. I thought that if I didn't talk about it, if I didn't do anything to help you…you'd give up."

Jaune dreaded to ask the next question, in part because he was fairly certain that he knew the answer, but at the same time he knew that he had to ask. "You didn't think I could do it, did you?"

"Of course I didn't think you could do it," Dad said. "You couldn't even re-wire a plug but I was supposed to think that you could fight the grimm? I didn't think you could do it and I didn't think that you were serious. Being a hero. I thought it was something that you'd grow out of. I mean…why would you want to leave a place like this and risk your life out there?"

Jaune sighed. "You're right," he admitted. "It was stupid. I was stupid. But now…the things that I know, the things that I've seen…I can't turn away from it. Not now. I won't. I'm not a hero but I fight alongside people who are and I won't abandon them."

Dad snorted.

"What's so funny?"

"You just reminded me of something grandpa used to say," Dad said. "Like I said, he wouldn't talk about the war much, but when he did he used to say 'I wasn't a hero; but I served with guys who were.' I think he meant the ones who didn't come back." He drank some more from his beer bottle. "Your sisters want you to come home, your mother wants you to come home…I'd kind of like you to come home but it's not going to happen, is it?"

"No," Jaune said. "I can't."

"Because of the girl?"

"Because what I'm doing is the right thing to do," Jaune said. He smiled sheepishly. "But, yeah, because of Pyrrha too."

"She must be more than a crush, you brought her to meet your family," Dad said. "I'm sorry that she hasn't had a great reception, but…do you love her?"

Jaune nodded. "I think I do."

"But you're still going to risk your life a half a dozen ways each day?" Dad said. "Jaune, do you know why I quit being a huntsman?"

"No," Jaune said. "You never told me that." _Or anything else._

"It was when Rouge was born," Dad said. "Your mother gave her to me to hold and I thought 'I don't ever want this girl, my little girl, to grow up without a Dad'. And since I couldn't guarantee that I wouldn't die on the job the only thing to do was to walk away from the job. My family was just more important to me."

Jaune didn't say anything immediately. As he listened to what his father had said, as he thought about what his father had said, he couldn't help but think of Ruby and her mom. Had Summer Rose been so sure in her abilities that she hadn't believed that she could die, or had she just believed that there were more important things even than ensuring that she'd be there for her daughters?

 _Probably the second one. Salem; she probably thought that she was making sure there was a world for Ruby to grow up into even if her mother wasn't there to see it._

"So you're saying I should quit so that Pyrrha doesn't have to watch me die?"

"I'm saying that if you love her you won't make her mourn for you."

"And what about me mourning her if something happened to her?" Jaune asked. "She's not going to quit, I don't even need to ask her to know that, and I…no, Dad. I get what you're trying to say but no. What I'm doing, what I'm involved in…it's so much more important than you know. I'm protecting Vale, I'm protecting my friends and I'm protecting Pyrrha. And I'm going to keep doing all of those things for as long as I can."

Dad stared at him for a moment. "That school really made a man of you, didn't it? I'm sorry, Jaune."

Jaune's mouth hung open. He apologised? His father had never apologised to Jaune, for anything. "What for?"

"For not thinking that you had it in you," Dad said. "Nobody is going to bring up your leaving Beacon again; I'll make sure of that."

"Really?"

His father nodded. "I can't say that this is what I wanted but…you're making something of yourself, and that is what I wanted. And if you had to steal from me and run away to do it then…that's just how it goes sometimes. What are you going to do with the sword?"

"I…I don't know," Jaune admitted. "I wasn't sure what you'd want me to do with it."

"It's your sword now," Dad said. "Not mine, certainly not your great-grandfathers. Reforge it. Throw it away and get a new weapon. It's all the same to me, but if an old huntsman can give you one piece of advice: whatever you do, make sure that your weapon fits _you_ , not the ghost of your ancestor. Don't just make it exactly like it was, make it a sword that's yours. Take my advice and then you'll thank me for it later."

"I can thank you right now," Jaune said. "I don't really know what a weapon that fits me would mean right now but…thanks, Dad."

"Right now you've got no one to thank but yourself," his father said. "I'm proud of you, son."


	124. The Legend of Gaia Ever-Arc

The Legend of Gaia Ever-Arc

Pyrrha was awakened by a knock on the door to Kendal's room. There was no hesitation, no musty remains of sleep that had to be cleared away; she had been asleep, and now she was awake. As Pyrrha rolled out of bed she saw that Kendal was exactly the same way, awake and alert at a moment's notice. She guessed that it was their respective paths in life that had taught them to be this way.

As Kendal was awake, and as it was Kendal's door, Pyrrha stood up but still, allowing Kendal to actually get the door and reveal River standing on the other side, wearing dark blue pyjamas with the sleeves a little too long for her and the bottoms a little too short, so that her hands were concealed and her ankles exposed.

"River?" Kendal asked. "What's up, it's the middle of the night."

River nodded. "It's the middle of the night and Sky's not back yet."

"Really?"

River shook her head. "No. I've waited up for her but she hasn't come."

Kendal frowned. "Yeah, but…so? Come on, River, this is Alba Longa."

"I don't know what it means," River said. "But I…you can call it a twin sense or something if you like but I'm worried. What is there out at the McKinley farm that could be keeping her for so long?"

"You don't think-" Pyrrha began, as she felt the hairs on the back of her neck begin to prick up.

"I don't know what to think," River said.

"God help us," Kendal murmured.

"I don't want it to be true," River said. "It's just that when she's delayed Sky usually calls but…but that stuff doesn't happen here, right? This place is safe."

"It's not safe, it's just lucky," Kendal said. "And luck runs out. Have you told Dad?"

"No," River said. "I was hoping that…" she glanced over Kendal's shoulder to look at Pyrrha. "You're good, right? That's what Terra said, that you're good. You know what you're doing."

"I'd like to think so," Pyrrha said softly, because if River's fears were right then this town could be in a lot of trouble. If any number of grimm had suddenly appeared, on the edges of a town with no defences, inhabited by people who no longer felt they needed them…she would do what she could, and Jaune too, but there was only so much that the two of them could do.

But they would do what they could, until they could do no more. For Sky, for anyone, regardless of whether they liked them or not. That was the duty of a huntsman.

"I probably shouldn't…will you go and check it out?" River asked. "Dad hasn't picked up a weapon since Rouge was born, but you…you're supposed to be good. If it all turns out to be nothing then I'm sorry for waking you up but-"

"I'll go," Pyrrha said, because that was also a huntress' duty. "Just let me put my boots on and I'll be ready to leave."

"You don't need your armour?" Kendal asked.

"It would be ideal," Pyrrha admitted, as she sat down on the bed and pulled her boots towards her with a touch of her semblance. She quickly tied up her hair behind her out of the way. "But it would also take too long to put it all on. My aura will have to serve alone." This would be the first time that she had gone out to fight – possibly to fight – in her pyjamas, but who could say if it would be the last; the life of a huntress was fraught with surprises.

"Okay," Kendal said. "I'll take you down to the McKinley place."

"What about Jaune?" Pyrrha asked.

"What about Jaune?" River repeated her own question back at her.

Pyrrha pulled on her right boot. "We need to tell him about this."

"No, we don't," River said. "Jaune's-"

"A huntsman in training," Pyrrha said, as she pulled on her other boot. She stood up. "And I promised that I wouldn't send him away."

"Technically you're just leaving him behind," River said.

"It's the same thing," Jaune said, softly but firmly, as he walked up behind her, having presumably come from his own bedroom. He was dressed in his blue onesie, with the slippers with rabbit ears and the cartoon bunny face on the chest, but he no longer looked as ridiculous as he had when she had first saw it, on the night after initiation. "What's going on?"

"Sky hasn't come back yet," Kendal said.

"I asked Pyrrha to check it out," River added.

Jaune's eyes widened. "No way, you think that-"

"We don't know for sure," Pyrrha said quickly. "But it's…possible."

Jaune's chest heaved. "Then I'm coming with you," he said firmly.

"I know," Pyrrha said. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

"You don't even have a weapon," River said.

"I have a knife that Sunset gave me, until I get Crocea Mors fixed," Jaune said. "I think your mother gave it to her."

"Hang on a second," Kendal said, darting around Pyrrha and to the back of the room where she pulled out the draws of her desk and rummaged around in them for a moment. She came back holding a pistol in one hand, a handgun with a wooden handle and a long barrel. "This is my last resort out in the field," she said, as she pressed the weapon into Jaune's hand. "It's only got five shots, so make them count if you need them."

Jaune stared at the pistol in his hand for a moment, before he looked back at his sister. "Thanks, Kendal."

"Jaune," River began. "I don't-"

"River," Jaune said. "I have to do this, not just because Sky's my sister but because this is what I do now."

River stared into his eyes for a moment. "I hope all that training you've gotten at that school was worth it."

It took Jaune only a moment to pull on his trainers, and unlike her it took very little time at all for him to pull his cuirass over his head too so that he had some chest protection to augment his aura. That done, and with Milo and Akuou slung across Pyrrha's back and with Jaune's shield over his arm, Kendal sneaked the two of them downstairs and out the door.

"I remember the way to the McKinley farm," Jaune said. "You should wait here."

"Right," Kendal said, nodding her head and sound rather relieved as she said it. "I…I don't know whether to tell you better you than me or tell you to stay safe. How about both?"

Jaune smiled. "Both is fine."

"Good luck out there," Kendal said. "We'll be waiting." She closed the door, but Pyrrha wouldn't be surprised if she just stood there, immediately on the other side, waiting just as she had promised to do.

Jaune stared at the door, the same door that he had hesitated before earlier today, and a sigh escaped his lips.

"Jaune," Pyrrha murmured. "If this is a grimm attack-"

"I know," Jaune said softly. "I don't know whether it's lucky that we were here, or unlucky."

"Whatever's happened to your sister you didn't cause it," Pyrrha said. "We should go, and quickly."

"Right," Jaune said. "Thank you, it would have been really easy for you to go without me."

Pyrrha slipped her hand into his. "You're my partner. We do this together."

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Jaune said.

He led the way. The town which had so bustled with chaotic activity during the day was almost completely empty at night. Pyrrha hadn't been expecting flourishing city-style nightlife, but she was a little surprised at the way that absolutely nobody seemed to be abroad under the light of the moon. Even the animals appeared to be asleep, for they saw no sign of them as they moved briskly down the dirt tracks. Some of the houses had lights on in them still, others were completely dark as all who dwelt there were asleep already. Even the water of the lake was still, with no sign of any faunus swimming by moonlight. The wind whistled through the high stalks of wheat, but that was the only sound other than their footsteps to disturb the town.

There were no birds, Pyrrha realised. No owls screeched or hooted, nothing made a sound. That was odd. Suspicious, even. It suggested that something had frightened them all away.

"Jaune," she murmured. "How close are we?"

"Pretty close," Jaune said. "It's just up there."

"Then let me lead from now on," Pyrrha said, as she pulled her weapons out from off her back, with her shield upon her left arm and her spear in her right hand, her knees and her back bent into a low crouch for a better centre of gravity. "This way?" she gestured with her spear.

Jaune pulled out the knife that Sunset had given him – he was probably more comfortable with it than with Kendal's gun, even if it was considerably shorter than is sword – and gripped it tightly. The ancestral heirloom of the Nikos family glittered under the moonlight as he held it ready.

Pyrrha took the lead, as she had asked to do; now that Jaune had pointed the way, it was quite easy to spot the McKinley farm under the light of the broken moon: it was the house that had been smashed in.

Jaune let out a strangled cry to behold it as they made their way closer. "What could have done this?"

 _I'm afraid we both know the answer to that,_ Pyrrha thought, as she inspected the damage. So much had been broken down that the chimney was practically freestanding at this point, for all the walls that should have attached to it were gone. What had once been – she hazarded – a long, low farmhouse was now little more than a series of wall fragments, disconnected from one another, swaying as though they might fall at any moment.

"Sky," Jaune murmured. "There hasn't been a grimm attack here…ever. Why now?"

"Because they got past the huntsmen who usually fend them off," Pyrrha suggested. "Because a certain grimm was more persistent than the others in getting over the hills. Because…I don't know, Jaune. I only know what I can see in front of me. Do you have your scroll with you?"

"No, I didn't bring it with me. You?"

"No," Pyrrha admitted, and cursed her stupidity. They needed to warn somebody, because whatever had done this was bad news for the whole town. She should have thought, but she had been in such a hurry and…

 _Stay or go._ She could send Jaune back to warn other people, but he wouldn't like to leave her; they could both go, but that would mean abandoning anyone here who might yet be alive. Or they could stay here, and do what they could at the risk that nobody would be warned until it was too late.

"Jaune," Pyrrha said. "What do you think-"

She never got the chance to finish the question. She was cut off by a cry of pain coming from somewhere in the ruins. It sounded like-

"Sky!" Jaune cried, and he ran past Pyrrha as he sprinted towards the ruined farmhouse.

Pyrrha ran after him, catching up with quickly until they were running side by side, with Pyrrha perhaps ahead by just a little, as they covered the open ground that had been separating them from the ruins where the farmhouse had been. The interior was just as smashed and wrecked as the exterior looked, with tables and chairs and furniture all broken to kindling. But there was very little blood, not so much as Pyrrha would have expected in all honestly. If a family had lived here, and they had perished at the hands of the grimm, then she would have expected more ghastly evidence of the monstrous appetites of the creatures of grimm. Instead there was none, or at least not nearly enough, nothing but a few slight trails of blood.

Trails that led to where Sky lay propped against one of the remaining walls, her leg a bleeding mess. Her gun lay on the floor by her side, her flashlight also lay beside her, both were just out of reach. She was alive, Pyrrha could see her chest rising and falling, and her eyes were open too.

"Sky," Jaune gasped, as he ran to her side and knelt down beside her. "Thank God. What happened here?"

Sky looked at him as though she wasn't sure he was real. "Jaune?"

Jaune nodded. "It's me, and I'm going to…Pyrrha, can you activate her aura, like you did mine? If you do then I can boost it with my semblance and help her leg, but I don't know how to…I don't know how."

"Of course," Pyrrha said, as she folded Milo and prepared to store it upon her back.

"No," Sky whispered. "No, you need to get out of here; it's going to come back."

"Sky," Jaune said. "What are you-"

Pyrrha heard the hooves first, pounding hoofbeats on the ground. She turned to face the dark woods, the trees that looked like monsters in the darkness with arms and claws outstretched to strike at them. But it was the actual monster that she could hear that concerned Pyrrha as she drew her spear once more and settled into a guard.

A monstrous boarbatusk emerged from out of the trees with a great roar. It was green, like the beowolf that Ruby, Sunset and Blake had fought under Mountain Glenn; like that monster, the red of this grimm's eyes had been replaced with green, and green tinted its armour plates and the spikes that jutted up out of its spine. It was larger than the average boarbatusk, and heavier too, and although both its flanks were scored with deep wounds as though it had been embroiled in a fierce battle already, those injuries seemed neither to be slowing it down nor weakening it at all. It made the earth shake as it charged.

Pyrrha charged to meet it, her feet pounding over the wooden floor as she leapt over the ruined wall. The boarbatusk roared, and Pyrrha shouted in answer with a war cry of her own as she charged, her shield held before her.

The huntress and the warrior closed the distance that divided them, and as they closed so Pyrrha leapt; she sprung off the ground, soaring through the air, her ponytail flying about her as she flipped mid-air and descended like a thunderbolt to land upon the grimm's back.

Balanced upon the creature's black hide Pyrrha brought her spear down into the nape of its neck, just behind the green-tinted bone mask that protected it's head and face. She drove Milo in, as far as it would go as a green substance like copper blood oozed out of the wound to stain the red and gold of her spear. She twisted Milo in the wound, this way and that, to do more damage.

The boarbatusk squealed in pain, halting its charge as it squirmed and bucked to try and get her off. It stomped back and forth, it swayed from side to side and Pyrrha lost her footing on the beast and had to grab one of its protruding spurs of green-glowing bone as she fell from standing on the monster to sitting on it like a rider on a bull. She switched Milo into its sword form and slashed frantically at the neck, trying to cut deep enough to sever the head from the body.

But she wasn't Ruby, and strokes heavy enough and deep enough to slice large grimm in two were not her specialty, especially not without much more momentum behind her than she had. She was wounding the grimm – its roars of pain and the fact that it was so determined to get rid of her were testament to that – but she wasn't doing enough damage quickly enough.

The boarbatusk rolled over, snapping several of its own bone spurs in the process as they cracked and shattered when pressed between the ground and the monstrous weight of the boarbatusk, but it must have considered it to be worth the trade for it also got Pyrrha off its back. She felt her aura drain away as she was pressed like a fly between the table and the newspaper, crushed against the ground by the black and green bulk of the grimm, but then the beast was off her and back on its hooves once more.

Pyrrha snatched up her spear once more, thrusting it forward, driving it into the boarbatusk's leg, but as she thrust so too did the sound of three shots shatter the stillness of the night. Three thunderous booming sounds one after another as Jaune fired the pistol that his sister had given him.

Pyrrha couldn't tell if he had hit the monster, or if in hitting he had actually hurt it at all, but he had certainly gotten its attention.

It was the worst thing he could have done.

Before Pyrrha could react the boarbatusk had begun to spin, becoming a green-and-black blur that hung suspended in the air for a second before launching itself straight at Jaune, and at his wounded, helpless sister behind him.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha cried, as the boarbatusk rolled towards him like an enormous boulder.

Jaune raised his shield in front of his face, and then his whole body began to glow white, the light engulfing him just like…

 _His semblance. Is he boosting his own aura?_

It seemed so obvious in retrospect but Pyrrha had never considered it before now. It probably burned through his aura at an increased rate but that wouldn't matter so long as-

The boarbatusk struck Jaune as he blazed with the inner light of his soul, and though the force of the monster's impact forced Jaune back half a step the boarbatusk itself was flung backwards a dozen feet through the air to land on its side on the ground with an earth-shaking thud.

Pyrrha was already charging towards it. She transformed Milo into rifle mode and snapped off two shots as she ran, her boots pounding as they carried her over the earth while she transformed Milo into spear form once more to drive it home into the boarbatusks's throat.

The grimm screeched but did not die as more green ooze seeped from the wound.

Pyrrha put her foot upon its shoulder, leaning her weight upon the beast to try and stop it from rising, to keep it down and vulnerable.

"Thank you, Pyrrha. But I'll take it from here."

Pyrrha's eyes widened as she watched vines, thick and black and covered in sharp thorns, erupt out of the ground beneath the boarbatusk. They moved as though they knew what they were doing, coiling like snakes around the grimm, the thorns digging into the black flesh unprotected by armoured bone. They wound around its mouth, snapping it shut like a muzzle, they wound around its legs, they wound around its whole body, binding it like ropes.

Pyrrha took an involuntary step back, watching in horrified amazement as vine after vine rose out of the ground as though it had always been there, lying dormant, waiting for some command to rise.

The boarbatusk tried to rise, too. It grunted and snorted and tried to open its mouth wide enough to roar as it tried to rise. It strained with all of its considerable might, and for a moment Pyrrha thought that it might overcome the vines and thorns that sought to hold it captive. But even as it got two porcine hooves upon the ground, even as it looked as though it might regain its feet, more vines emerged to bind it tighter, to hold it faster, to pull it back down to the ground again and keep it there as the vines wound ever tighter, tighter and tighter, digging into the black flesh until they started tearing the boarbatusk into pieces.

Bone shattered, green ooze spilled upon the ground, and the black flesh dissolved into smoke as the vines sliced through that monstrous boarbatusk until there was nothing left of it at all.

Only then did Pyrrha turn to see who had spoken.

It was Rouge. Rouge Arc, Jaune's elder sister. She was still recognisable even though her blue eyes had turned to a dark green, her golden hair had darkened somewhat even as it flew wildly in all direction behind her as though blown and buffeted by a wind that only she could feel; and she was floating, a few feet off the ground, the hem of her white nightgown gusted by the same wind that was disturbing her hair to reveal her bare feet underneath. She was still wearing one of her bead necklaces, except now that it was not cluttered by so many others Pyrrha could see that the beads on the string were not beads at all but stones, seven stones in the colours of the rainbow, seven stones all glowing as she touched them with one hand even as she thrust the other hand out towards the boarbatusk and the vines that had destroyed it.

"You are not welcome here," she said, and for a moment Pyrrha was unsure if she was referring to the grimm or to Pyrrha herself.

But then the glow of the seven stones around her neck faded, and Rouge's eyes turned Arc blue once again and the wind that had gusted through her hair died down as she sank back down to earth and, with a gasp, fell to her knees.

"Are you alright?" Pyrrha asked as she started towards her.

Rouge raised one hand to forestall her. "Sky," she said, gesturing with that same hand.

"Are you-"

"Yes, go," Rouge gasped.

Pyrrha swiftly covered the distance, leaping over another fragment of wall to find Jaune kneel by his sister's side, one hand upon her shoulder.

"We are family," he said, his eyes closed and his whole body shaking as Sky groaned in pain. "Bound by blood…but also bound in spirit. Infinite…and forever. And so, as I love you, I unlock your soul." Jaune gasped in sudden exhaustion as the light of his own aura dimmed, even as Sky began to glow with her own suddenly released inner light.

"Woah," Sky murmured, as she perceived the glow that surrounded her. Even now her leg was starting to look a lot better. "What…what did you do?"

"He unlocked your aura," Pyrrha murmured.

"And I can do more than that," Jaune said, as he held his hands over Sky's mangled leg and said hands began to glow with the light of his semblance. Pyrrha didn't stop him. He should have enough aura left for that, and there was no sign of any other grimm in the area.

Rouge walked over to join them, moving slowly but looking stronger with every passing moment. She joined Pyrrha in watching as Sky's leg began to knit itself back together, the injuries inflicted by the grimm fading more and more with every passing moment.

"Did they teach you that at Beacon, little brother?" Rouge asked.

"Something like that," Jaune said.

Sky looked up at her elder sister. "Where did they teach you to do that thing with the vines?"

Rouge closed her eyes for a moment. "You weren't supposed to see that. Nobody is supposed to see that. Sky, I'm sorry, I should never have let that monster come so close, I try to stop them in the forest where no one can see and normally I do, but that creature must have been two big and strong to be stopped by my regular vines and I wasn't paying enough attention-"

"Slow down and take a breath," Sky said. "And just tell us what's going on? What's…what's going on?"

Rouge hesitated. "Is she going to be okay?"

"I think so," Jaune said. "I should be able to boost her aura enough to heal the wound completely, right Pyrrha?"

"I'd say so," Pyrrha replied. "Although you know your own aura best." But considering that Sky's wound was very nearly healed already it seemed a reasonably safe assumption.

"Come on, Rouge," Sky said, her voice sounding stronger and stronger. "Spill it."

A slight smile flickered across Rouge's face. "Did you really think that it was by fate alone that the tranquillity of our home was maintained?"

Sky stared up at her. "I mean…I guess?"

Rouge wrapped one hand around the seven stones. "To answer your first question it was grandma who taught me how to do this. She learned it from her aunt, who had learned it from great-great-grandma. Great-great-grandpa found these stones, he took them off a Mantle soldier during the war, and when the war was over he gave them to his wife when they founded this town. He thought they were just pretty, but she soon found out that they had…powers. Like magic. They could control plants, and the wind and the water too, though not to the same extent. They vowed to keep their discovery a secret, but they also started to – in secret – use the powers of these stones, these geodes, to keep the grimm at bay and maintain this town as a haven of peace and safety, passing down the geodes and the knowledge of how to use them to keep the peace here. Grimm don't come around too often, thank goodness, but when they do I deal with them, as generations of Arc women have done before me. Or I try to anyway, one of them got away from me, and for that…I'm so sorry, if it hadn't been for Jaune then…I'm sorry."

Sky was how sufficiently healed that she could stand up, although she still leaned on Jaune a little as they both rose to their feet.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Sky asked.

"Why didn't you tell anyone?" Jaune added.

"It is a secret," Rouge reminded them. "Nobody knows, not even Mom and Dad."

"Yeah, but we're family," Sky said.

"This can't get out," Rouge said. "If people knew…someone might try to take the geodes away, or misuse their power. It would be dangerous in the wrong hands." She hesitated for a moment. "As far as anyone must be concerned it was Pyrrha and Jaune who defeated the grimm and saved you." She smiled again. "It isn't even that far from the truth, you weren't doing too badly when I arrived, and I couldn't have done what Jaune did for your leg."

"Yeah, but, it's a lie," Jaune said. "You should be a hero to this town."

Rouge shook her head. "I don't do this for fame or glory. I do this because it's home, and because I can and because somebody must. Because I was chosen, out of all of us. But no one can know. You and Pyrrha were the heroes tonight."

Sky frowned. "That thing…is that what you're up against all the time?"

Pyrrha glanced at Jaune, wondering how much he wanted to tell her. The truth was as well as being larger and stronger than the average boarbatusk, as well as having the same odd green colouring as the extraordinary beowolf from under Mountain Glenn, that grimm had also been unusually intelligent and sadistic. It could have killed Sky but it had not, rather it appeared to have left her alive but injured in order to attract rescuers whom it could they ambush when they went to Sky's aid. That was a level of cunning that the grimm rarely displayed – along with a different kind of cruelty than they generally possessed.

It was concerning as the revelation of Rouge's magical powers – and Pyrrha had no doubt that they were magic in some way; it was a pity that they would never be able to tell Sunset about it – was amazing.

 _At least we can tell Sunset and Ruby about the grimm._

"Something like that, yeah," Jaune said.

Sky's frown deepened. "And those things have been coming around all this time, but you and grandma were keeping them away, Rouge?"

"Not as strong, usually they're smaller and a lot easier to handle," Rouge said. "That's why they don't get past the vines that I've set up in the forest. But yes, they've been coming around every now and then."

Sky pursed her lips, and hung her head. "I guess I've been kind of making an ass of myself, haven't I? I thought that this place was safe, when really it was just that we had a defender that I didn't know about."

"We both owe Jaune an apology," Rouge said. "I thought that…because I was protecting our home that you should stay here and shelter behind me, but that's not what you want, is it? You want to be the shelter for those who don't have seven magical stones to keep their homes safe from the dark."

"I do," Jaune said. "We do."

Sky looked down at her leg, healed now but still visible through the torn remains of her ruined pants. She looked back up at Jaune. "I still wish you'd stay here, where it's…where you don't have to fight…but I guess we're past that now, aren't we?"

"I'm following the path I believe in," Jaune said. "Like you all taught me how to."

Sky snorted. "Yeah, right, there's no need to brown-nose me now, I know who really deserves the credit." She looked at Pyrrha. "Thanks for coming out for me, even after everything I said."

"No huntress could do anything less," Pyrrha said.

"Hmm, I wouldn't know," Sky said. She scratched the back of her head with one hand. "Can we start over?"

Pyrrha smiled. "I'd like that."

Sky stuck out her hand. "Welcome to the Arc family, Pyrrha Nikos."


	125. What Can You Spell with SCRN?

What Can You Spell with S.C.R.N?

"But nobody died, right?" Ruby asked.

The team was on group call again, this time initiated by Pyrrha from the Arc home out in the sticks. Sunset was glad of the distraction, she'd been going kind of stir crazy around here all alone with nothing to do but listen to Nora's stories and try to guess what was true, what was exaggerated and what was just full blown made up.

She was bored. The intel that Ruby had gotten from Raven was very informative, and it was good that she had reached an understanding with Professor Ozpin, but without any mysteries to unravel or a headmaster to be suspicious of she was feeling at something of a loose end waiting for the vacation to come to a close so that Vytal festival could start. Until that time she had no friends left at Beacon, no one to talk to and nothing to do. She found herself writing to Twilight a little more often than usual, but she didn't want to wear out her welcome with the Princess of Friendship who, after all, was pretty busy with affairs on her side of the mirror (the last Sunset had heard, Twilight not only had a new castle but it was a castle that was in some way alive, a living creation of Harmony itself that had sprouted a map of Equestria and despatched Twilight and her friends on a mission they knew not what to some place that they had never been before. Twilight hadn't anticipated any issues before she left.).

All of which meant that Sunset had been glad to get a call from Pyrrha and Jaune wanting to fill in her and Ruby on what had just gone down at Jaune's home.

She was still glad, she was just a little disturbed at the same time.

"Fortunately not," Pyrrha said. "We found the owners of the farm hiding in the cellar; they'd fled there when the grimm attacked, and it was more interested in causing a fuss than causing casualties."

"Which is weird for grimm," Sunset said. "What kind of grimm doesn't want to kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible? What kind of grimm injures the first responder but leaves her alive as bait for other responders? Grimm don't act that way, not even the old and smart ones."

"This one did," Jaune said.

"That sounds like a good thing, though, right?" Ruby asked. "Nobody died, and Jaune's sister is okay and it all worked out."

"Because Jaune and Pyrrha were there," Sunset said. "If the next people on the scene hadn't been huntsmen then the body count could have gone up and up."

"Not to mention the nature of the grimm itself," Pyrrha said. "Green, like the beowolf in Mountain Glenn. It was tough. Much tougher than a boarbatusk has any right to be."

"But you brought it down in the end, so it can't have been that tough," Sunset said.

Pyrrha hesitated for a moment. "Yes," she said. "We…brought it down."

That was a weird way of saying it, as if she was nervous or uncertain about something, but Sunset dismissed it as nothing. After all, if they hadn't killed the grimm then they wouldn't be here; it wasn't as though anyone else was going to kill it for them in a town with no huntsman and no defences. Alba Longa had gotten seriously lucky, that was for sure. Did they appreciate how lucky they were?

"I hope your home realises that it's only thanks to the two of you that they didn't die," Sunset said.

"They're digging a trench on the edge of the forest," Jaune said. "Sky's leading the effort; they're going to trap it, so that any grimm attempting to get into town falls in and hurts themselves."

"A lot of places around here have something like that," Ruby said.

"So I think it's fair to say that you've had a more eventful time than any of us could have anticipated," Sunset said.

Jaune smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, that's about the size of it. I hope it's going to calm down now though."

"Yeah, calm down so that your family can share all their embarrassing stories about you with Pyrrha," Sunset said, grinning.

Jaune's face paled, even as Pyrrha chuckled with amusement.

"Really though, you guys gotta stop having adventures without me," Ruby said. "It's really unfair."

"Not so unfair, they went on one without me this time," Sunset said.

"That just means you should get how it feels now."

"Believe me, I do," Sunset said. "When are you two coming back?"

"In a few days, probably," Jaune said.

"Could you tell Professor Ozpin about the grimm for us?" Pyrrha asked. "I think he should know as soon as possible, this might signify a change in their behaviour."

"I'll let him know," Sunset said. "But I don't know what he can do with one grimm. But I'll tell him."

"Hey, Ruby," Jaune said. "Can I ask you a favour?"

"Sure," Ruby said. "What is it?"

"Can you help me design a weapon?" Jaune asked. "Dad said I shouldn't just reforge Crocea Mors just the way it was, that I should make it mine. And that's great…except I don't really know where to start. I'd appreciate the help, if you're willing."

Ruby gasped, as her silver eyes sparkled with unalloyed gleeful anticipation. "Seriously? Yes, I'd love to help you come up with your own weapon I already have a couple of really cool ideas that I've been thinking about for you for a couple of months now I just didn't know how bring the subject up and I'm sure that we can come up with something that's perfect for you and this will be so awesome and I can just imagine it now aaaah!" She gave such a shriek of pure delight that if she'd been a couple of years older Sunset might have suspected something very unladylike just happened.

"Breathe, Ruby," she said.

Ruby laughed nervously, as Pyrrha smiled fondly at her through the scroll screen. "I, uh…" she scratched the back of her head nervously. "What I mean is that I'd love to help you design a weapon for yourself, Jaune. I'll even help you put it together." She gasped again. "We can use the Signal workshop! School's out for the summer just like it as Beacon. I'll get to show you the place where I made my beautiful Crescent Rose. Our weapons are going to be siblings!"

Sunset sniggered. "Hey, Jaune, when you're doing that let me know, I might have something to contribute too."

"Oh, yeah, you said you assembled your Sol Invictus, didn't you?" Ruby said.

"Yes, but that wasn't exactly what I had in mind," Sunset said. She held her hand up to the screen and let a faint green glow surround it. "A little touch of magic was more what I was thinking. It might come in handy."

Jaune's eyes widened. "Really? You'd…thanks, Sunset. And thanks a lot, Ruby; I don't think I could do this without you."

"What else are team-mates for, right?" Ruby asked, flashing a peace sign at the screen.

"Hey, Ruby! You wanna walk Zwei with me?" Yang's voice sounded from somewhere off screen.

"Gotta go," Ruby said. "See you guys later!"

"Goodbye, Ruby," Pyrrha said.

"Bye Ruby, have fun," Jaune said.

"See you around, Ruby," Sunset said, as Ruby's face disappeared from the screen and the square that had held it went black.

"We should probably be going too," Pyrrha said. "How are you doing, Sunset?"

"Oh, you know," Sunset said. "I'm still in one piece, and in no danger of being anything else."

"How's Cardin?"

"He sits on his own at lunch and doesn't bother me," Sunset said. "Can't say fairer than that. Just…I know that you should enjoy yourselves and you don't get a lot of chances to see your family, but don't spend all vacation there. I'm really bored without you all."

"We'll be back soon, so long as my Mom lets us leave," Jaune said. "See you, Sunset."

"Goodbye, both of you," Sunset said, as their images disappeared and the screen went blank. She snapped it shut, and sighed.

 _As long as his Mom lets them leave._ She was starting to regret having passed on the decision to go back to Equestria with Blake, and visited her mother. There had been all manner of good arguments against it, arguments which still held true today as they had when she had made them to Twilight…but it would have been nice to see Celestia again. And if she'd gone perhaps she wouldn't feel so lonely now.

Oh well. What's done was done, what's past was past. There was always another time. There would always be more time.

 _Good luck on your mission, Twilight. I want my pen-pal back as well._

* * *

"And then Ren said, 'But I can't sleep with the monkey!' and I said, 'Oh, she won't mind. You don't mind sharing a bed with Ren, do you?'" Nora cried, very loudly considering that she was only talking to Sunset across the lunch table.

Sunset stared at her for a moment, considering the story that she had just heard in all its bizarreness, before looking over at Ren for clarification as to how much of it was just Nora's imagination run riot.

"That…is all true," Ren said, with a degree of reluctance.

Sunset boggled. "Seriously?"

"Unfortunately," Ren said, with a slight sigh in his voice.

Sunset stared at him. "So…so let me get this straight: you two worked in a circus."

"For a while, yeah," Nora said.

"But the circus folded up and the owner couldn't pay anybody."

"Correct," Ren said.

"So you each got a piece of the show in place of the salaries you were owed?"

"I got the flea circus!" Nora declared triumphantly. She looked at Ren. "Whatever happened to that, anyway? One minute I had it and the next minute it wasn't there any more."

"I tossed it," Ren said.

"Aww, I liked that thing."

"That makes one of us," Ren huffed, and almost reflexively he started scratching his arm as though he'd developed a sudden itch.

"And you got a 'human chimp' that could read, write, play the piano and milk a cow?" Sunset asked.

"It was the luck of the draw," Ren said, in such a manner as to suggest that in his case it had been most definitely bad luck.

Sunset leaned back and folded her arms. "What kind of a world did you two live in before you got here?"

"An irrational one," Ren confessed. "I miss it sometimes."

Nora beamed. "Okay, do you want to hear about the time when, huh?" That last was murmured as she looked towards the doors into the dining hall, which had just opened to admit Professor Ozpin into the nearly empty cafeteria.

 _I bet I know who he's looking for,_ Sunset thought, as the headmaster made a show of looking around the dining room, even though it was nearly empty and it was surely no trouble at all to spot the people or person that he actually wanted to talk to. Sure enough, once he had played out the charade for the benefit of who knew who exactly, Professor Ozpin made a beeline towards the table where Sunset was eating with Ren and Nora.

"Ah, Miss Shimmer, Mister Ren, Miss Valkyrie, just who I was hoping to see," Professor Ozpin said genially. He raised his voice a little. "Mister Winchester, would you mind joining us for just a moment?"

Cardin, sitting on his own like the friendless loser he was, looked a little surprised and a little concerned to be called out by the headmaster like that, but he did as he was told and got up from his seat to lumber over to join the other three. He tried to avoid looking at Sunset, just as she tried to avoid looking at him.

"I'm afraid a mission has been forwarded on to me which, in our current state, is quite unsuitable for any teams above first year," Professor Ozpin said. "It would be a waste of resources to send upperclassmen on a task like this, however it is also true that we have no full first year teams available at Beacon during this vacation."

Sunset could feel her stomach sinking as she worked out where this was going. "Not even from the other schools, Professor."

"I could ask, but I'm afraid they might not be too willing to lend me their students for this particular bit of business," Professor Ozpin said. "Especially when I do have four first year students available to hand."

Sunset glanced at Cardin, though the fact that she saw in his face the same look of mounting horror that was almost certainly visible on hers was little consolation for the fact that she felt such horror in the first place.

"You want to put us on a team together?" the words leapt Sunset's and Cardin's mouths simultaneously.

 _Pyrrha, I'm going to kick your ass._

Professor Ozpin looked and sounded as though he were enjoying this a little too much. "In the field, professional huntsmen must often work with people with whom they have no natural camaraderie, no common interests, no cordial relations of any kind. Even amongst those huntsmen who choose to continue to operate in four man teams after graduation, the time will come when they will be forced to participate in operations alongside those with whom they are not so well acquainted. Think of this as an invaluable training exercise for you all."

 _Exercise in not killing this guy, more like. I swear, he'd better respect my authority as leader or Weiss will be entering the Vytal Festival with a three-man team._

Sunset smouldered. "What's the mission, professor?" she said, through gritted teeth.

Professor Ozpin pulled out his scroll, and tapped a couple of buttons, which must have sent the information to the scrolls of all four members of the improvised team…team…what could you spell with SCRN? Or with SWRN? Or with any combination of S,C,W,L,R,N and V? What, moreover, could you spell that was also a colour and had the letter S at the front, since it was unimaginable that it should go anywhere else?

"I'm afraid it's nothing too exciting," Professor Ozpin said, which gratified Sunset immensely because going into actual combat without any of her regular team-mates or even Blake would have been bad enough but going into actual combat with only Cardin Winchester to watch her back was a prospect so terrifying as to be almost unthinkable. "Some residents of district thirty-five have reported disturbances: bins knocked over and garbage rummaged through, growling noises, eyes in the darkness; some of them have reported seeing the dark shape of a creature prowling the alleyways, and some of them believe it to be a creature of grimm."

Cardin snorted. "Sounds more like a fox."

"Or us when we were kids," Nora said cheerfully. "Except for the growling part."

"Yes, well, I'm sure that it will turn out to be a perfectly harmless creature," Professor Ozpin said. "But the police have passed it up to me for investigation and I am bound to, well, investigate."

 _The police are covering their asses,_ Sunset thought. None of them wanted to take the chance that it was a grimm (even though it almost certainly wasn't) for fear of getting raked over hot coals for not doing enough in any public inquiry; so a report that was almost definitely an exaggeration had found its way all the way to the desk of Professor Ozpin, who in turn had passed it down to them and forced her to work with Cardin.

"You're go to the district in question and look for any signs of grimm activity," Professor Ozpin said. "If you find none, report back to me. If there is something to this, then I'll leave it up to the discretion of your team leader whether to call for backup or deal with the situation."

"My team leader isn't here, Professor," Cardin said surlily.

"Unfortunately not, Mister Winchester, but there is a team leader present in whom I have every confidence," Professor Ozpin said, which caused Cardin to look as though he had swallowed a lemon. "Good luck, all of you. Please leave as soon as you can."

* * *

Nora hummed to herself as the thrown-together foursome made their way down the Vale street towards the scene of the most recent sighting of these disturbances. "What about...Team Sworn?"

"Sworn isn't a colour," Ren pointed out.

"What about the expression 'turn the air blue?'" Nora asked.

"I don't think that's really in the spirit of the rule," Ren said.

"Hmm," Nora murmured. "What about...Team Swan?"

"What does it matter what the stupid team name is, it's not as though we're going to be sticking together for any time at all," Cardin snapped.

"How about Team Scorn?" Sunset suggested, as a smirk played across her face. She didn't feel the need to explain that it was the scorn in which she held Cardin Winchester to which she was referring.

Then again he was so dense there was a good chance he genuinely wouldn't get it.

She tried to force her thoughts in a less unkind direction. Twilight - Equestria's Twilight, the Princess of Friendship - would, she was sure, have not approved of them. Twilight would have told her to try and be a better person, and a better person towards everybody what was more, not just to the members of SAPR, RSPT and Blake. She would say - and Sunset knew that she would say this because she had said it, more than once - that Cardin was probably a victim of someone bullying him that had driven him to bully others, and that if Sunset would only make the effort then all manner of wonders would be possible.

She might even have been right; she was, after all the Princess of Friendship. Certainly Sunset knew that she ought to apologise for her mean remark. But she could not quite bring herself to do so. It wasn't just the fact that he was a racist, although that was part of it; it wasn't just the fact that he'd tried to get Jaune expelled although that was part of it too. It was the way that he seemed to embody all of the meanest parts of Sunset and reflect them back at her. Not the worst, those seemed to reside in Cinder, but at least when Cinder reflected Sunset's flaws she imbued them with a sense of scale and grandeur: the world wide scope of her vaulting ambitions, the heights to which she dared aspire, the many powers she dared defy. There was much to fear in Cinder Fall, and much to make Sunset squirm at similarity, but there was also much to envy in her daring to seek to bring Remnant to its knees though four kingdoms and all the power of Atlas stood against her.

Cardin, on the other hand, presented only meanness in every sense, both that he was mean - not that Sunset had much room to complain without descending into hypocrisy - and that he embodied the meanest of Sunset's flaws and made her feel the meaner in her turn: entitlement without deserving, anger that had not been earned by those at whom it was directed, an unwillingness to admit to fault. Faults all that, on top of being faults, compounded the fault by lacking the grandeur of lofty ambition or quixotic dared defiance. Sunset could not like these parts of herself in any way and thus she could not like Cardin.

Plus he was a jackass, but that was almost a secondary issue.

Sunset knew that she ought to make an effort - She could practically hear Twilight whispering in her ear, telling her so - but it was hard in this particular case, even harder than it already was for her with anyone outside of her particular and established circle.

Cardin smirked right back at her. "You know that might actually be your first good idea. Scorn describes us perfectly."

Sunset was willing to let the fact that he had the gall to look on her with the scorn she held for him slide - she'd probably deserved it after all - but that crack about good ideas was too much to swallow. "My first good idea? Just what is that supposed to mean?"

Cardin snorted. "I'm just saying, those losers you hang out with might be so desperate that they need you as a team leader, but you're working with a different class of huntsmen now."

"Oh, I'm well aware of that," Sunset said, and if she hadn't been about to froth at the mouth she might have almost admired the audacity of describing Pyrrha or Ruby as losers. As it was, she had to resist the urge to toss him down the street. "Listen big guy, I don't know what you've done or think you've done to get such a high opinion of yourself, but Pyrrha and Ruby are both ten times the huntsmen you'll ever be, and Jaune is twice the man; so shut your mouth because if you insult my team mates again I will drag you up to the top of the highest roof in Vale just so that I can drop you off it!"

The unbearably smug look on Cardin's face let her know that she'd been had. He didn't really think he was superior to the likes of Pyrrha - he wasn't quite that delusional or lacking in self awareness - he'd just wanted to get a rise out of Sunset and he'd known exactly what to say to do it.

Sunset decided that when it came to writing up her report she would describe this as a cunning plan to draw the grimm out of hiding through suffering negativity and not that she had allowed her buttons to be pushed with such transparent ease.

"Ren, Nora, go on ahead," she said. "We'll catch you up."

"Okay," Nora said, with less exuberance than she normally put into her tone. "Come on, Ren, let's leave them to it."

Sunset stared up at Cardin as the other two members of the ad-hoc team walked away. She didn't take her eyes off him, but she did listen for the sound of the footsteps of the others, and only when the sound had faded sufficiently did she say, "Listen, you don't like me and I really, really don't like you, but like it or not we're stuck on this mission together so can you please be a less than complete jerk until after we prove this is a fox and then we never have to speak to one another again."

Cardin looked down at her, which already irritated Sunset so much she was tempted to use a lessen gravity spell to raise herself up to his level.

If Twilight really knew what she had to deal with them she would join Sunset in writing him off as a lost cause.

"You know you're kind of cute when you're mad," Cardin said. "It's adorable, for a faunus anyway. Is that what Flash liked about you?"

"Flash and me is none of your business," Sunset snapped. "And, boy, you just can't turn it off can you?"

"Not when you make it this easy," Cardin said. "We keep hunting hounds that don't start to bark as quick as you. All I had to do was insult your friends and you never even stopped to think."

"We'll excuse me for caring about my team mates," Sunset said. "I suppose I could stand here insulting Team Wisteria all day long and you wouldn't even blink."

"You want to go for Princess Prissy and the world's most boring guy, go right ahead," Cardin declared. "At least I know I won't lose it in battle just because the enemy hurt my feelings."

"Oh, so that's the point of this?" Sunset asked. "You prove that you'd be a better leader than I am because you don't care about the people you fight alongside? So you can make hard choices?" The worst part was that she couldn't even say he was entirely wrong. Cardin - the Cardin he seemed to want her to think he was - Would never have made the choice that she had made down in that tunnel. Only excessive care for her friends had driven her to that. Cardin would have let them die, and maybe even himself too.

But then, could he be said to be living with such an attitude? What kind of life was it where the three people closest to you in the world could not wring affection from you?

"Do you really believe that?" Sunset asked. "Or is that just something you tell yourself because you don't trust your team mates to have your back the way mine do."

Cardin snorted. "If your team mates have your back then where are they?" But everything about him, his tone, his stance, his expression all betrayed him. It had been Sunset's turn to strike home.

She found herself feeling sorry for him, pretending to not care because he feared he was not cared for.

Which was the last thing in the world she wanted, really.

"How do you do it?" Cardin asked, sounding as though every word was being dragged from between his gritted teeth?

Sunset's eyes narrowed. "How do I do what? Be so awesome?"

Cardin raised his eyebrows.

"Well, be more specific then," Sunset said.

"How do you make them like you so much?" Cardin demanded, the words falling from his mouth as though he could no longer hold them in. He scowled, and she guessed he was no happier to be asking her for advice than she was to be pitying him. "We're both jackasses, right? So why do they love you so much? It's not...What makes you so much better than me?"

Sunset wondered if perhaps he'd like the list alphabetically, but didn't say so because she knew what he meant and, honestly, she didn't have a good answer. What had she done to deserve the love of such excellent and virtuous people as Pyrrha, Ruby, Jaune or even Blake? It wasn't as though she could blithely say that somewhere in her youth or childhood she must have done something good because she'd lived through her youth and childhood and there was nothing approaching goodness in it.

The question was not what made her better than Cardin but rather, what made her more worthy to be loved than Cardin.

To which the only answer was the one that she had given: we don't love who we deserve, but rather tautologically we love who we love.

Not that that was an answer likely to satisfy Cardin.

"I don't know," Sunset said. "I didn't only luck out on the two strongest first years in school, but on the three kindest hearts. I've no trick or wisdom to share, but...if you really want some advice I might have one piece."

Cardin eyed her suspiciously. "Go on."

"It feels like armour, to act like you don't need anybody else and you never will," Sunset said. "You think it protects you, but the truth is...so long as you act like you don't need anybody else, nobody else will ever need you. That's how it seems to me, anyway. But what do I know? Like I said, I got lucky. Take it or leave it."

Cardin stared at her for a moment. "That's what I get asking a faunus for advice," he muttered.

"Nice to have you back, Cardin," Sunset said. "Now let's never speak of this again."

"Speak of what?" Cardin asked innocently.

"That's the spirit," Sunset said, before they hastened to catch up with Ren and Nora.

They soon caught up with Ren and Nora, who had been continuing to investigate the area without turning up any evidence. That was good, as it meant that there was no evidence of grimm activity yet, but it also meant that they couldn't go home as there was no evidence that it wasn't grimm.

Other than the fact that grimm didn't just slink around in the dark knocking over garbage cans when they could be killing people, but behavioural conjecture didn't count as evidence.

Besides, as Jaune and Pyrrha had just discovered, grimm were behaving in all kinds of weird ways lately.

"So, you're both still alive," Nora observed astutely.

"Mm-hmm," Sunset murmured.

Nora smiled knowingly as she tucked her hands behind the back of her head.

"Hey, Ren," Sunset said. "Whatever happened to that monkey in the end?"

Ren took a moment to work out what she meant. "We left her at a zoo. She seemed happy there."

"In a cage?"

"More of an enclosure," Ren corrected her. "Some people don't need freedom, just like some people don't need wealth or fame. Some people are just looking for a place to belong." He smiled slightly.

Sunset smiled too, momentarily, before she sighed. "Okay, let's think about this. We can't just wander around the district all day at random."

"Negative emotion?" Cardin suggested.

Sunset smirked. "Sure, but if we couldn't bring it in before how are we going to manage it now?"

"Ren, you are a terrible cook!" Nora yelled.

"I don't think it works if I know you're faking it, Nora," Ren observed calmly.

Nora made a sound of disappointment. "Well maybe-"

Their ears - all ten of them - pricked up at the sound of something rattling in a nearby alleyway.

They all turned in that direction. The area of Vale where they were searching was one of high rise tower blocks rising above long terraces, both ways of packing as many of the working class into an area as possible, either vertically or horizontally. A tower loomed overhead, casting a shadow over the four huntsmen, while a grey and dingy looking terrace ended at the edge of the street down which they were walking. The alley from which they could hear something crashing around was wedged in between the two.

Silently, Sunset unslung Sol Invictus from off her shoulder and gripped it tight. It was probably just a hungry animal, but if it wasn't...she didn't want to be caught flat footed.

The others all followed suit: Cardin pulled out his mace, Nora pumped her grenade launcher, Ren's pistols dropped out of his sleeves and into his hands.

They spread out in a line as they approached the mouth of the alleyway. Weapons ready, they reached the mouth of an alley that was barely worthy of the name, more of a dumping ground for all the garbage of the tower. A service entrance led into and out of the tower itself, and a couple of huge blue plastic bins overflowed with garbage bags, while even more black bags piled up on the ground all around the entrance.

Something was moving in amongst the garbage bags. Something was making them rustle and rattle and move around.

Sunset raised the butt of her rifle to her shoulder and tried to draw a bead on the constantly shifting something in the garbage. Her finger began to squeeze the trigger.

An orange tabby cat emerged from out of the mess of uncollected garbage with a screech, leaping at Nora as she lowered her grenade launcher to catch the cat with one hand.

Sunset lowered her rifle as she sagged in relief.

"A cat?" Cardin snapped. "We came all this way because somebody thought the neighbour's cat was a grimm?"

"Judging by the smell I think it's a stray," Sunset murmured.

"It's not too surprising that everyone is especially on edge after the breach," Ren said. He looked at Nora. "Nora, put that down; I doubt it's been to a vet lately."

"Oh, don't worry so much," Nora said, as the cat climbed up her arm onto her shoulder. "There's nothing wrong with you is there little guy?" The cat started to hiss and spit in the direction of the morass of rubbish, the little creature's hair standing on end as it tried to make itself look bigger.

"Huh?" Nora said. "What's up? Is something-"

The beowolf erupted out of the garbage with a roar, splitting black bags in two as it scattered them left and right, slicing through them with the claws of its feet as it stood erect. It was a young creature, about the size of the huntsmen who confronted it, and if most of its black skin was invisible that was more to do with the accretion of household waste stuck to its body than with any armour plates or bony spurs.

Sunset let out a wordless exclamation. She was still raising her gun again as the beowolf leapt at Nora and the cat.

Ren was in between them before you could blink, slashing with the blades of his Stormflowers for the beowolf's head. The Grimm ducked both his swiping strokes, and grabbed him by the neck with one clawed paw. It picked him up and roared into his face as it slammed him into the wall hard enough to crack the stone behind him.

Cardin bellowed as he charged, his mace drawn back for a powerful strike; powerful and so telegraphed that the beowolf evaded it with ease, stepping back as Cardin's mace sailed through the air and hit Ren on the side of the head, knocking him sideways and into the garbage pile. Cardin, meanwhile, was left out of position and exposed as the beowolf lashed out with his claws in a succession of swift strikes that raked Cardin down his side and sent him reeling backwards.

Sunset fired, her first shot hitting the beowolf and making it howl in pain. Her second shot missed as the grimm made a break for the service entrance, breaking the lock and slamming the door open with its mass and strength. Sunset could see a set of stairs directly to the right of the door. The beowolf started to climb them.

"Nora, Cardin, get after it," Sunset snapped.

Nora looked at Ren. "But-"

"Go!" Sunset snapped, and they both obeyed, Nora in the lead - her weapon formed a hammer in her hands as she gave chase - and Cardin following behind her as they thundered up the stairs.

Sunset approached Ren quickly. "How's your aura?"

Ren checked his scroll. "Yellow."

"Can you still fight?"

He nodded.

"Then follow me up..." Sunset paused, trying to work it out from how fast the beowolf was moving. "Third floor."

She teleported up the fire escape that cling to the side of the tower, appearing on the third floor. The fire exit was broken, which meant that she didn't have to force the door but could just open it and step into the landing at the top of the stairs.

The stairs up which the beowolf was running now.

If the grimm was surprised to see her above it instead of behind that surprise didn't last very long. The lithe-climbed creature snarled as it leapt up the stairs, its powerful hind legs carrying it upwards in a single bound, teeth bared and claws outstretched.

Sunset fired, the sound of her shot echoing in the cramped confines of the drab and dilapidated tower. The beowolf howled as her shot struck it on the right forever, spinning it round and throwing it down the stairs up which it had sought to leap.

Sunset heard a door open behind her. Someone gasped in horror.

"Get back inside!" Sunset yelled, because the last thing they need we people trying to get out of the building and getting in the way of dealing with the grimm that we the reason they were trying to get out.

She heard the door slam shut again.

The beowolf lay on the ground, not dead but clearly wounded. Sunset had used a fire dust round and she had blown the creature's leg clean off.

Nora and Cardin came pounding up the stairs onto the landing behind it and then they stopped, transfixed by the very same sight that had Sunset staring in horror.

The beowolf's leg was growing back.

"What in Celestia's name?" Sunset murmured. Grimm couldn't regenerate like that, only a few lizard faunus and people who possessed certain incredibly potent semblances could do that; if any grimm possessed such skill it would surely be the oldest and most powerful of their kind not this young buck.

This young buck who had already demonstrated more skill and cunning than many of his most seasoned elders.

Mountain Glenn, Alba Longa, now this...what in Remnant was going on with the grimm these days?

The beowolf looked at Sunset as its leg grew back, and it looked at Cardin and at Nora and it laughed, or it seemed to laugh as it made a coughing, growling, saw-like sound that struck Sunset as being a kind of laughter.

It tensed to spring but did no more than that because Sunset, one hand outstretched, was holding it fast with her telekinesis.

"Weren't expecting this, were you," Sunset growled as she felt the grimm struggling against her magic. "Nora," she said. "Go for the head."

Nora's grin was something savage to behold. Sunset was glad she wasn't the target. "Regenerate this," she said, as she sprang on the paralysed grimm and pulverized its head with a single blow from her hammer.

It did not start to regenerate.

Ren burst in through the open fire door just in time to see the grimm start to turn to smoke. "Oh, I missed it."

"More than you realise," Sunset said softly, watching the beowolf dissolve.

Cardin walked towards the smoking and fast disappearing corpse. "This thing has been hiding in Vale for...for how long? And it didn't kill anybody?"

"I know, weird right," Nora said.

"It was keeping a low profile," Sunset said. "Waiting for its moment."

Ren frowned. "Ancient grimm avoid confrontation with humans until they're certain of victory, but they do that by avoiding human contact. In a situation like This not even an elder could resist, let alone a juvenile."

"Unless it got a lot smarter when it learned to regenerate," Sunset said. "We need to tell Professor Ozpin about this." About the smarter grimm, about the crueller grimm, about all the ways there monstrous adversaries were acting different all of a sudden.

Sunset hoped that the headmaster knew what to make of it - not something she'd expected to think, any more than she had ever expected to find herself feeling sorry for Cardin Winchester or giving him advice on friendship - because right now all she could feel was a sense of creeping dread, as though something special was being prepared for them, and they were nowhere near prepared for it.


	126. Re-Forged

Re-Forge

Pyrrha and Jaune stood side by side as they watched the Bullhead descend towards the outskirts of Alba Longa, the aircraft's engines whining as it lowered itself straight down out of the sky.

It was good of Professor Ozpin to lend them the aircraft from the Beacon fleet – it meant that they could go straight to Patch rather than having to take the train back to Vale first – but the unusual sight seemed to be occasioning a little comment, even here on the edge of town. Pyrrha could see people a little way off stopping to stare at the ship as it came down, and of the course they sound it made as it dropped was impossible to avoid in the immediate vicinity.

"Are you ready to leave?" Pyrrha asked Jaune as the Bullhead came closer.

Jaune hesitated for a moment. "Yeah," he said. "This…this was…this has been good, but I'm ready to go back now." He grinned. "I don't know how much more embarrassment I can take."

Pyrrha covered her mouth as she chuckled. It was true that, in the changed atmosphere that had prevailed in the Arc house following the grimm attack, Jaune had not entirely been free from humiliation at the hands of his sisters. He may have saved Sky's life but that didn't mean that she wasn't going to tell Pyrrha all about the way that all the children used to perform choreographed dance routines together – the Arc family dancers – or show her the pictures on the walls of some of their notable performances. Although, while she wasn't going to tell Jaune that he shouldn't be embarrassed about it, Pyrrha didn't actually see what he had to be embarrassed about in that case; looking at the images on the wall she'd found it rather charming.

For her own part, what had embarrassed her was taking credit for something that she hadn't done, an embarrassment only slightly salved by the fact that she was doing it at Rouge's own request and for reasons that made sense; yes, the Arc magic had to be kept secret – and for much the same reasons that Professor Ozpin was keeping his own magics secret, so that they did not fall into the wrong hands – but that didn't mean that Pyrrha did not feel uncomfortable to be acclaimed as Sky's saviour and a hero for a deed she hadn't done. Perhaps she could have killed the boarbatusk, in fact she would go so far as to say that she could have killed the grimm; certainly she hoped that she would have done so for the sake of Sky Arc and the whole town. But the fact was that she had not killed it, and no one would ever know who had.

But it had at least had the beneficial side-effect of greatly raising her standing even with those Arc siblings who had been, to put it politely, more cool towards her than they had been. Even Violet Arc, though she still remained the coolest to Pyrrha by far, had warmed to her a little for 'saving' Sky's life.

The few days that had followed had been peaceful and pleasant; for Pyrrha if not always for Jaune, as revelations about his childhood sometimes came thick and fast, and the behaviour of his family was not always what he might have liked it to be.

A case in point: Pyrrha had been introduced to Saphron and Terra's son, an adorable boy named Adrian over whom the entire family seemed to dote, and it wasn't very hard to see why, just after meeting him Pyrrha felt the great desire to dote on him as well; she had even gone so far as to use her semblance to make his toy aircraft fly around his head just out of his reach like a baby monitor while he gazed at it in wonder. She told herself that the Arc family and this town in general were too far away from the rest of the Vale, too secluded and too reclusive, for her semblance to get out.

In any event, it appeared that Mister Arc was no more immune to Adrian's charms than any of his daughters, because as soon as he came into the room – he had been showing Jaune the armour that he used to wear, to possibly give Jaune some ideas for how he might better what Mister Arc had somewhat derisively referred to as 'that costume' - he too started to coo over the boy.

"Now, how's my favourite grandson doing, huh?"

"Dad," Kendal said. "He's your only grandson."

"I know, and I'm still waiting for one of the rest of you girls to do something about that," Mister Arc replied grumpily, straightening up from where he had been bent over Adrian to shoot an accusing look over his daughters.

River rolled her eyes. "Ugh, Dad."

"Don't give me that 'ugh, Dad', none of you are getting any younger," Mister Arc said. "At the rate things are going Jaune will be giving your mother and I grandchildren before any of the rest of you."

Pyrrha wouldn't have believed that it was possible for Jaune's face to light up so red with embarrassment so quickly if she hadn't seen it with her own eyes. "Dad!"

"What? I'm just saying, at least you've met someone nice."

Pyrrha didn't see what all the fuss was about. Alright, that was a lie, she could see what all the fuss was about, but personally she was not fussed by it. She hadn't said this out loud, not to Jaune and certainly not in front of his father and mother and sisters, but there were times when she found herself daydreaming about what it might be like if she and Jaune were to have children.

 _Jaune Nikos._ He would have to take her name; apart from anything else Pyrrha felt certain – and comfortable in feeling so certain – that her mother would insist upon it and even if she did not…as much as Pyrrha Arc had a certain ring to it she wasn't sure that she could condemn her own name to death. She thought that he would take her name, if she asked him too. She hadn't asked him, because she was afraid that if he knew all of the things that she had fantasised about in their relationship it might scare him away, but she thought that he would do it if she asked him to.

 _Jaune Nikos._ Yes, that didn't sound half bad, did it? She sometimes imagined their wedding, as she sometimes found herself imagining the children they might have. She wasn't sure exactly when she wanted them – there was so much to be done, and her duty and a destiny as a huntress coiled around her like iron chains and drew her off towards the battlefield, and she could not say when she would be ready to leave that field behind in order to become a mother – but she could say that she wanted them. With him, and only with him just as she wanted Jaune and only Jaune to be the one standing opposite her upon her wedding day.

Perhaps it was silly, and desperately romantic and desperately, desperately old-fashioned to believe in love at first sight – although Pyrrha felt the need to point out to herself that allowing her mother to arrange her romantic life as she seemed to want would have been even more old fashioned still – but, well, what was so wrong about that? What was wrong with being romantic, what was wrong with being a little old-fashioned, it wasn't as though old things couldn't still be of some use; the old violin could still produce a stirring sound, the old sword could still cut if it was kept well honed; why couldn't the old values still be a sound guide to modern living?

She loved him. That was the plain and simple of it. She loved him. Everything had felt new when he looked at her and nothing would feel the same again. And if he loved her in his turn then who was to say that her romantic day dreams wouldn't come true, that he would not take her to wed and give her children some day in the future? And if he did not then…then it was not to be; that was his choice to make, if fate decreed it so.

She slipped her hand into his. "Thank you," she said.

Jaune looked at her. "Huh?"

"For bringing me here," Pyrrha said. "It was wonderful to meet your family."

She might even say it had been revelatory, to witness such a large family; so cheerful and so welcoming (once they thought she had saved one of their number from a monster, at least); Terra might have leapt slip about who she was and where she had come from, but even once they started to like her they hadn't cared about any of that. Her wealth, her status, her old Mistralian blood, her fame and the prestige of her tournament victories – all the things, Pyrrha noted wryly, that Sunset had assured her would guarantee her favourable treatment – meant precisely nothing to them. All that had mattered was that she was Jaune's girlfriend, which meant that they alternated between protectively demanding assurances that she was serious – Pyrrha did her best to reassure them, while at the same feeling reassured that this was a sign that Jaune himself was serious – teasing her about what she could possibly see in their baby brother (this most often where Jaune could hear them) and doting on her almost as much as upon little Adrian.

It wasn't anything like the families that she was used to, the kind that she knew from back home and the circles that she moved in, not only in the sense that it was so large but that it was so generous too. When she had been invited to join the family photo that they had taken on Jaune's father's birthday it had touched her more than they knew.

She looked into Jaune's eyes. Did he know what this had meant to her, in the end?

Perhaps he did, there seemed to be some understanding his eyes as she smiled back at her, unspoken but there quite clearly to her nonetheless.

The Bullhead descended, the wind displaced by its engines buffeting the grass and blowing Pyrrha's hair and sash backwards away from her. The central compartment was open, both doors raised to reveal Sunset standing inside, one hand on a grip that hung from the ceiling while her own hair and the edges of her jacket rose and fell with the wind kicked up by the aircraft. Her tail was being lifted up so far it was almost wholly concealed behind her back.

Sunset brushed her hair out of her face as she leaned a little outside of the aircraft. "So, this is your home, huh?"

"It's not quite what it looks," Jaune said.

"It looks like a one horse town."

"It's not _quite_ what it looks."

Pyrrha couldn't help but imagine what Sunset might think if she knew about Rouge Arc and her magical geodes; she felt certain that Sunset would be upset if she found out that they had kept this from her, but it couldn't be helped. There were more important things at stake here.

"I guess," Sunset said sceptically. "You two ready to go?"

"Sure," Jaune said, and he climbed aboard, with Pyrrha following swiftly behind him.

They both grabbed the hand holds as the Bullhead began to ascend into the sky, and turn its nose towards Patch where Ruby would be waiting to take them to Signal.

"So how was the homecoming?" Sunset asked, raising her voice to be heard above the whine of the engines.

Jaune glanced at Pyrrha. "It was fine. It was…great."

"They didn't try and stop you coming back did they?"

"No," Jaune said, and surprisingly – even to Pyrrha – it didn't sound like the lie it was. "Everything went great. I think…I think they understand why I did it now."

Sunset smirked. "For the glory?"

"To protect the world," Jaune said.

"To protect the world?" Sunset asked. "At the moment I'd settle for our being able to protect each other."

Pyrrha frowned. "You sound worried?"

"I think we've got things to be worried about, don't you?" Sunset replied. "What's with all the grimm getting smarter and tougher all of a sudden, huh? And Cinder's still out there, somewhere, and she hasn't given up. We may have beaten the White Fang but all of our other enemies are just itching for a piece of us."

"Does Professor Ozpin have any ideas?" Pyrrha asked.

Sunset shook her head. "Not that he's sharing with me, and in any case…I think he's a little distracted right now. You know about the Mistral military build-up, right?"

Pyrrha sighed. "I've heard the news." _And I am disappointed to find out that my home is not entirely the place I thought it was._ Partial mobilisation? Conscription? Pressing guns into the hands of untrained farmhands and shopkeepers and sending them out to fight? Quite apart from the question of who they were meant to be fighting – and who were they meant to be fighting? Who would they send such an army against that would not tear it apart? – was that what Mistral was about? Was the city of beauty and culture going to consume its own people, to grind the grain of the nation and for what purpose? She had decided to become a huntress in no small part because she wanted to protect the people, to fight so that those who had not been blessed with her superlative gifts in combat need not do so; that was why she had embraced this life instead of the more comfortable path of the professional tournament fighter, that was why she had come to Beacon.

And all for nothing? Were those she wished to protect going to be pressed into battle anyway?

"It's taking up the headmaster's time, I think," Sunset said. She visibly brightened. "Anyway, Pyrrha, do you have any embarrassing stories about Jaune that you can share?"

Pyrrha chose stories that – she hoped, and judging by their respective reactions judged she had succeeded – were not actually embarrassing enough to humiliate Jaune, while at the same time being amusing enough to satisfy Sunset, and in that way they whiled away the time as the Bullhead carried them across rural Vale and over the narrow, shallow sea that separate the mainland from the island of Patch.

It was Pyrrha's first time seeing Signal Combat School, although she had crossed paths with students there on a few rare occasions in the arena, and they had always acquitted themselves well, fitting the reputation of the place. It was not so large as Beacon, nor so sprawling, but it had a reasonably spacious campus surrounded by a wall of white stone.

Ruby met them at the gates as the Bullhead dropped the three of them off, looking upset…or possibly it might be fairer to say that she was trying to look upset, unfortunately she just had too sweet a face to really manage it and so she was mostly just puffing out her face while pouting a little.

"I can't believe you!" she cried. "Sunset too! You _all_ decided to ditch me this vacation."

"Okay, first of all it wasn't planned by any of us," Sunset said, as she strode forward until she was looming over Ruby. "And second of all…" she grinned as she patted Ruby's head. "You don't have the face to look the way you're trying to look, it just makes you adorable instead."

 _She's not wrong._

Sunset sniggered as she ruffled Ruby's hair while the latter protested. "But thirdly," Sunset continued. "It was not an experience that I would not want to repeat. I know that Professor Ozpin said we should think of it as training to work with others but I don't want to work with others. I don't want to go on missions with any team but this one, because…because we're good together."

Pyrrha smiled softly. "I feel the same way."

"Yeah," Ruby said, as she pried her way out from underneath Sunset's hand. "Now let's get even better by helping Jaune come up with an even better weapon."

Ruby's father was a teacher at Signal, and since the school was out and empty – since, unlike the four academies, the combat schools generally had relatively local catchment areas it was far more normal for all the students to go home over the break – he had arranged for the four of them to stay at the school as well as using its facilities while they worked on Crocea Mors. Ruby would be staying as well, which came as a surprise to Pyrrha.

"You're not going home?" she asked.

"Nah," Ruby said. "I thought it would be more fun if we stuck together; after all, we're doing this as a team, right?" Ruby said, as she led the way towards the dormitory. As there were no teams at Signal, the students – and it had been the same for Pyrrha at Sanctum as well, and presumably for Sunset at Canterlot – slept in two huge dormitories shared between the entire student body in an atmosphere somewhat reminiscent of a military barracks with added bunk beds to increase the space. The dorms were segregated by gender, which was fair enough when the students could be as young as thirteen but since Team SAPR were grown adults and there was nobody around to tell them not to they decided to ignore that and all sleep in the girls' dorm.

Once they had deposited their stuff, the rest of that day and the next as well was spent brainstorming what Jaune's reborn weapon would look like.

Ruby hadn't been lying when she said that she a lot of ideas, and she'd even written some of them down before the rest of the team arrived, and she eagerly showed them off once the others were settled.

"So, Jaune, what was it like to shoot a gun?"

Jaune shrugged. "It was…okay, I guess. Not one of the most memorable things about that night. It didn't really do anything."

"Don't focus on that, it was only a pistol," Ruby told him. "But how did it feel? Would you want to do it again?"

"I…you want to turn my sword into a gun?"

"Not just a gun," Ruby said. "I was thinking that we could put a dust vial in the pommel – you could swap out what kind of dust you wanted before the mission starts – and then, well actually this would be before during the manufacture, we could bore a hole through the hilt to act as a conduit and then…well, it would be a little like Weiss' Myrtenaster, you could either fire the dust outwards along the blade, or you could combine it with your sword strikes."

Jaune thought about it for a moment. He stood up, and turned his back on the others as he raised his hand, miming holding the weapon for a moment before he seemed to remember that he was wearing the real thing on his hip still. He drew the uppermost shard of Crocea Mors, the one that was still attached to the hilt, and held it in one hand in the sort way that he might have held a gun. Pyrrha guessed that he was getting a feel for how it might feel in his hand if he was trying to fire it.

"If you want to try stuff out, there are lots of weapons here that you can use," Ruby said.

Jaune looked over his shoulder. "There are?"

"Sure," Ruby said. "This isn't like Beacon, not everyone arrives at combat school with a weapon, or even knowing what they want their weapon to be. Learning what works for you is part of going to a place like Signal in the first place."

"So every combat school has a wide variety of weapons for the students to try and see what fits their skills and aptitudes," Pyrrha said.

"And Dad gave me the key," Ruby said eagerly. "We could start now, do you want to start now?"

Jaune looked a little taken aback, but he said, "Uh, yeah, sure."

Ruby leapt to her feet. "Ooh, I was thinking that maybe now you can use your semblance on yourself we could do something to make your sword even heavier, that combined with your greater strength could make you a real heavy hitter, maybe able to crack through the armour plates on an ursa major."

"Really? Like, hit as heavy as you?"

"Well, maybe I wouldn't go that far, you still won't have my speed," Ruby said. "But pretty close."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Pyrrha said, as she too got up from where she had been sitting on one of the beds. "We're still not sure of the consequences of you using your semblance that way, of how quickly it will consume your aura. I think you should be cautious, and perhaps not restyle your weapon around a style that isn't suitable for long term use."

Jaune's brow furrowed. "Pyrrha…can we talk? Alone?"

"Huh?" Ruby said. "Why-"

"Ruby," Sunset said softly, holding up one finger. She shook her head.

 _Does Sunset know what this is about?_ If so, that made one of her since Pyrrha had no idea what it was about. But obviously the best way to find out was to actually go and talk to Jaune, so Pyrrha nodded and said, "Of course," before heading outside.

Jaune joined her, and he leaned against the grey stone wall of the dormitory as the sun began to set outside and the shadows of the trees planted in the grounds began to lengthen.

"Pyrrha," Jaune said, sounding more uncertain than he had recently. "I get it, I really do, but…I need you to let me do this."

Pyrrha shuffled her feet on the cobbles. "Do…what?"

"Take more risks, I guess," Jaune said. "You didn't want me to learn how to do that thing with the aura punch that Rainbow Dash does, and now that I've found a new way to use my semblance you don't want me to do that either."

"I want you to be careful," Pyrrha corrected him. "That aura punch, as you call it, is flashy but fundamentally wasteful, it burns through aura and the same can be said of your semblance." There were times when she felt guilty letting him use his semblance on other people, on her; he weakened himself for her sake when be all rights he needed his aura more than she did. "Your essentially using your aura to strengthen your aura, and as a result it will consume said aura, possibly leaving you without and vulnerable."

"But you told me yourself that I have lots of aura, more than a lot of other people," Jaune said. "Doesn't that mean that I could handle it?"

"Perhaps," Pyrrha allowed. "But the fact that you have a large aura reserve doesn't mean that you should squander it unnecessarily."

"And what if it is necessary but I can't do it because I haven't trained?" Jaune asked. "You tell me that I can be more than just your support but…Pyrrha, you've always believed in me and I appreciate that. I really appreciate it." He smiled at her, to show that he wasn't attacking her. "But I need you to trust that I can learn some of this stuff and not be stupid with it."

Pyrrha was silent for a moment. His rebuke had been gentle, and spoken with a smile, but it had been a rebuke nonetheless. One that he perhaps didn't realise would touch her as it had. "It…it's not my intent to hold you back, Jaune," she said. "I would never do that; you do know that, right?"

Jaune nodded. "Of course."

"I just," Pyrrha began. "I want you to be safe; if anything happened to you – anything at all, but especially anything that happened because I taught you how to risk your own safety – then I-"

"How do you think I'd feel if anything happened to you that I could have stopped if I'd only known more?" Jaune asked. He grinned. "I mean, come on Pyrrha; if I wanted to be a hundred percent safe I could have stayed home with my family and let Rouge take care of everything."

Pyrrha smiled softly. "I suppose. I just…I just want to protect you."

"You don't have to do that."

"Yes," Pyrrha said. "I do," _I have to protect everyone. It's my destiny._

 _And if I cannot do it yet that just proves that I need to become stronger._

"And what if I want to protect you, as stupid as that sounds?" Jaune asked. "Things feel so dangerous right now, I don't have time to learn all the basics and work my way up gradually…with Cinder, and these new grimm, and everything we know…trust me, Pyrrha; trust me to use this right."

How could she refuse? Especially when he had asked her like that? It wasn't just that he had asked her to trust him, which would have been a nigh-impossible request to deny because how could their be love when their was no trust; but he had asked her in a way that invited trust, not a tantrum or a petulant demand but calm, mature, certain. He must have talked to his family that way to convince them to let him stay at Beacon. He asked her to trust him in such a way that made him seem trustworthy even with the risky weapons that he wished to wield.

Pyrrha confessed to herself that when he asked her to teach him Rainbow Dash's aura boom she'd wondered if he only wanted to learn it because it seemed cool; but now she thought that was not the case, he wanted to learn it for the same reason he wanted to learn this new side of his semblance: because it was powerful, and he felt the need for the potential to power with so many menaces massed all around them.

She still meant to see that his training focussed on getting the basics right, but she would not deny him. She could not.

"I do trust you, Jaune," she said. "And I will help you master all your gifts, any way I can."

The next couple of days were spent on deciding what Jaune should do, or rather what he should add on to the reborn base of his sword. He had decided that he wanted to keep the original blade as a starting point, and considering that was what he'd been training with for the entire year to date Pyrrha thought he was very wise to decide so. They experimented with various different weapons available from the Signal communal armoury, as well as borrowing the weapons of his team-mates so that he could get a sense of what they were talking about, and what worked for him. It worked as a form of training – not least when Jaune tried out various kinds of swords by sparring with Pyrrha exactly as he had done when they were actually training – and there were times when they broke from the weapons to train his aura instead, practicing controlling the way he used his semblance on himself, augmenting only those parts of his aura that required it in order to conserve aura as much as possible.

There was armour in the armoury as well, and when they weren't trialling weapons they spent some time trying different additions or replacements for his armour, too.

And once Jaune had decided what he wanted – and they had completed a practical design to show that it could be done – there was nothing left but to actually make it in the forge.

One of the purposes of combat school was to come up with a weapon that fitted your skills and your style, and so Signal had a fully equipped, top of the line forge that was more than adequate for all Jaune's needs. And he did do most of the work himself. Though Ruby was a big help, particularly in showing him what tool he needed for what piece of engineering and just in showing him around a place that only she was familiar with, Jaune insisted on doing the labour; though this was in some respects a team effort, it was also Jaune's sword.

As a weapon was, amongst other things, a conduit for your aura so was it also therefore an extension of your soul, and thus it was best if the soul in question was poured and imbued into the weapon at the moment of creation.

And so, while Ruby and Pyrrha helped how they could and Sunset added what she had called a little touch of magic to the creation, it was Jaune who poured his soul into the refashioning of Crocea Mors until he had made it his own.

And after five days it was ready.

The blade had been re-forged from the damage that Mercury had dealt, all nicks and imperfections of the years removed by the re-forging; it was longer now in blade and hilt, turning the sword from something about the length of a spatha to something more like a bastard sword, while the longer hilt meant that it could be held in either one or two hands. That last was especially important, since an extra trick had been added to the scabbard, which could function now not only as sheath or shield – both larger too, necessitated by the expansion of the blade – but as an extension of the blade itself, turning it into something more like a two handed greatsword; as Ruby had speculated, when combined with Jaune's ability to boost his own aura he would be able to deal out incredibly heavy blows with such a weapon, though Pyrrha would only recommend it against large grimm who were too slow to evade them, she feared against a human opponent such strikes would be too easily dodged at too much cost in aura.

Set in the pommel of the sword appeared to be an enormous sapphire, the size of a duck's egg at least; appeared to be was the operative word because this was actually a decorative way of disguising the dust vials that could be set in there, so that the enemy wouldn't know what kind of dust Jaune was using until he actually started using it. As Ruby had suggested, a tunnel had been drilled through the hilt and out the other side so that the dust could be channelled out either in blasts as from a gun – although the sword was somewhat awkward to hold as a gun, which was one of the main reasons why transforming weapons were so popular in spite of being far more complicated to maintain – or channelled down the blade to, for example, envelop anything struck by the blade in an exploding fountain of ice; it could also be used to charge the blade with lightning or fire if Jaune wished to do so.

And finally there was the little touch of magic, which Sunset was best placed to explain.

"There's an enchantment on the blade," Sunset said. "I wove the spells into the metal as it was being forged, so it ought to stick; but it's not always on because…well, do you want everyone to know that you've got a magic sword?"

"I guess not," Jaune said. "Secrecy, and all that."

Sunset nodded. "Now, draw your sword."

Jaune did so, drawing the reborn Crocea Mors with a flourish. "It…it feels different."

"They are different," Pyrrha said. "You've changed them from what they were before."

"Wasn't that the whole point?" Ruby asked.

"No, I mean," Jaune hesitated for a moment. "It's like there's…an energy to it now. I can feel it crackling against my fingers like static electricity. Is that-"

"The spell," Sunset said. "Now stretch out your will, and will the spell to activate."

Jaune closed his eyes, and for a moment nothing happened. Pyrrha could see him trying to do what Sunset had asked of him, and guessed that it was harder than she was making it sound; many things were harder than experts made them sound, or else they would not be experts.

But Jaune didn't protest, nor did he give up. He frowned a little, but aside from this sign of visible effort nothing happened to make it seem that he was disheartened in any way. And then, after a few more moments of nothing, his sword began to glow. A golden light expanded around the blade, forming a sword around a sword, a golden translucent sword that hummed and crackled with energy.

"Vorpal sword," Sunset said with a degree of relish in her voice. "It'll get easier the more you practice."

"What's the advantage to it?" Pyrrha asked.

"Sharpness," Sunset replied. "It won't hit harder per se, but it will cut through armour, obstacles, almost anything."

"Great," Jaune said. "Uh, how do I turn it off?"

"Think about turning it off."

"Oh, right," Jaune said, as the golden light faded into nothing. "Thanks, Sunset. Thanks, everyone. I couldn't have done this without you. None of this would be possible without all of you."

Pyrrha smiled. "How does it feel? To have your own weapon?"

Jaune smiled as he sheathed the sword. "Right now it feels like I could take on a whole pack of beowolves by myself."

Crocea Mors was reborn.


	127. Moonlight Sonata

Moonlight Sonata

Cinder smirked as she watched the airship descend slowly towards their position.

"About time they showed up," Mercury muttered.

"There's no need to be impatient about this," Cinder said softly. "There's still plenty of time to sow distrust and dislike of Atlas; after all, the Mistralians haven't even showed up and yet…here is our ace in the hole now."

"Who is she?" Lightning asked.

"A siren," said Emerald.

Lightning rolled her eyes. "Well, yeah, obviously she's a siren but what I was asking was: what's a siren? It's not something I've ever heard of."

"A creature of magic," Cinder replied. "A demon from another world, possessed of a voice that can cloud and corrupt the minds of men."

"Did you ever meet her?" Emerald said.

"No," Cinder said. "All I know of them I know from Mistress Salem: she and her sisters come from another world, a world were magic is commonplace and were there are no grimm to trouble the people."

"Sounds idyllic," Lightning said.

"Sounds boring," Mercury replied.

"The sirens were powerful in that world," Cinder continued, ignoring the commentary of her two subordinates. "They ruled over many with the power of their song; they raised up armies, inspired devotion with their voices, and then fed off the negative emotions that they caused through their actions. And for that crime they were banished from their own world and into ours."

Mercury smirked. "Feeding off negative emotions, huh? They must have had quite a few run-ins with the grimm."

"Perhaps," Cinder allowed. "I don't know about that. What I do know is that they tried to set up their own kingdom here in Remnant, and they almost succeeded; as always, Ozpin and his deluded followers proved unable to let anybody have any fun at all and put a stop to their efforts. They fled, and Salem took them under her protection…and into her custody, lest their magic somehow become a threat to my mistress' designs." Magic, especially Equestrian magic, was far too dangerous to be allowed to roam free outside of the control of Salem and her trusted followers; even if the Maidens were not required to open the four vaults and retrieve the relics they would still have to be hunted down because that kind of power belonged only to Salem; it was the same with Equestrian magic, much too dangerous to be left in the wrong hands. It would all have to be acquired…or destroyed along with those who presumed to wield it without her lady's leave.

"So you don't know what she's going to be like?" Emerald asked.

"No," Cinder murmured, although she had a pretty good idea. She imagined somebody like herself, someone ambitious, someone who harboured an anger at Ozpin and the world he represented, someone cold, who could be cruel when necessary, someone cunning and manipulative, someone…someone who would understand her. Someone she could work with. Someone who thought the same way that she did.

 _I might not even need you any more, Sunset. I'll have a new friend soon._

The airship, Mistralian-looking in that absurd way that they had of looking antique even when they were very nearly cutting edge, set down before them, the propeller on its rear spinning for a little while to buffet the grass around them before coming to a halt.

There was a moment of pause before the central door slid open.

"For realsies? You mean we _are_ here yet? Well, why didn't you say so?"

A girl jumped out of the airship. She was young-looking, younger than Cinder but about the same age as Emerald to judge by her appearance, with violet eyes and light blue hair, streaked with tones of a much darker blue, that was long enough to reach down past her waist, in fact it was almost to her knees. She was dirty, and dressed in rags that were torn and filthy and falling apart. In that respect at least she reminded Cinder of herself…but only of a part of herself that she had tried very hard to banish completely from memory and recognition.

Being confronted with it in the person of another was not something she enjoyed.

The girl who had leapt from the airship was oblivious to all of this, however, as she beamed excitedly at the world all around her. "So this is it, huh? It doesn't seem to have changed much, are you sure it's been hundreds of years? It looks just the same. Oh, hey!" she cried as she noticed Cinder and her followers for the first time. "So you must be Team Evil, huh? It's great to meet you!"

Cinder stared at her. _This…she can't be…_

"Uh…it's Team Clementine, actually," Lightning said.

"Yeah, but you're totally Team Evil, aren't you?" the girl said. "This is so exciting, I can't believe I'm about to debut for the first time as a solo artist!"

Cinder felt her eye start to twitch. "Please, tell me you're not-"

"Ah, Cinder, how nice of you to roll out the red carpet for us," Doctor Watts declared as his dismounted from the airship. "I'd say it's been too long but, well, that would be a lie."

"The feeling is entirely mutual," Cinder growled. She took a deep breath. "This child-"

"You wanted a Siren," Doctor Watts said, in a tone that was altogether too smug for Cinder's liking. "And before you ask: I have a no returns policy, read the fine print."

"I'm Sonata Dusk," Sonata said. "Nice to meet you and I can't wait to get started. Can I put my necklace on now?"

"Necklace?" Cinder asked.

"It seems the powers of these creatures are not entirely innate to their biology," Doctor Watts declared, as he reached into one of the pockets of his jacket and pulled out a black choker, with a large ruby pendant dangling from it. "These jewels are in some way key to their magic, which is why Salem has separated the two and entrusted the gem to me for the duration of the journey." He tossed it to her. "Otherwise who knows where she might have had me take her?"

"Thank you," Sonata said cheerfully as she caught the necklace in one hand. She made to fasten it around her neck.

"Wait," Cinder said, raising one hand as fire leapt to her fingertips. "You say that this necklace is key to your power. So why do you need to wear it now, when you're not going to use your power?"

Sonata stared blankly at her for a moment. "So I'm always ready when you need me?" She smiled innocently. "Why shouldn't I put it on? Are you worried about something?"

 _I'm worried that you'll use your siren song on me and not my enemies,_ Cinder thought. But how likely was that, really? Salem was still holding her two sisters hostage – she had been wise, after all, to only send Salem a single siren – and even if that were not the case, there was also the fact that this girl, this creature, was a demonstrable idiot.

"You must be Cinder, right?" Sonata said, her violet eyes shining guilelessly. "Lady Salem's told me so much about you."

"Has she?" Cinder asked flatly.

"You bet," Sonata said. "She talks about you all the time, about how talented you are, about all her high hopes for you; I think you're her favourite."

 _She actually said that?_ Cinder had always hoped that that might turn out to be the case, that the woman whose respect and affection she desired more than any other might actually feel for her the esteem that she could never quite bring herself to show directly, and to have it confirmed…it was pleasing to hear, even if she could no more admit that than Salem could admit to the affection. "Well, obviously," Cinder said as she lowered her hand slightly.

The gem in Sonata's hands glittered under the moonlight. "You're the strongest and the smartest of Salem's servants," she said. "So why would someone like you be so afraid of little ol' me that you won't let me put my necklace on?" She beamed.

Cinder snorted. It was true. She was worrying over nothing. There was no way that this perky airhead could possible out scheme her, Cinder Fall, the maiden who would overturn the world and cast down all its kingdoms. She lowered her hand completely. "Go ahead."

"Trust me," Sonata said. "There's nowhere that I'd rather be than here." She fastened the necklace around her neck, and instantly a little extra colour began to suffuse her face. She closed her eyes and threw back her head, her mouth opening as she sang a soft, lilting scale, her timbre rising and falling for a moment as she threw out her arms and twirled in place.

She sighed in something like relief. "That is so much better. You have no idea how much I've missed this! Okay! I'm ready to get out there and work some magic!" Her stomach growled so loudly that everyone heard it. "Although could we maybe grab some dinner first, because we were on that airship for a _really_ long time and I'm starving. I feel as though I haven't eaten in centuries." A momentary trick of the light made her appearance almost sinister, but it passed as quickly as it had come. "Ooh, I like your outfits by the way. Do I get a neat outfit now I'm on the team?"

"Sorry," Mercury said, in a voice laced with sarcasm. "What with being wanted fugitives, we aren't exactly in much of a position to make shopping trips."

"Which is going to make escorting Miss Dusk into Vale for her concerts a little difficult as well," Watts mused. "Why, it's almost as if you didn't think this through, isn't it Cinder?"

Cinder's eyes narrowed. "At least I'm acting to serve our mistress. How are you helping our cause?"

Watts chuckled. "If you call failing aggressively and revealing yourself to the enemy leading to being forced to improvise an entirely new plan on the fly helping then, yes, I suppose you are helping. As for myself, I prefer to think carefully before I act; that way when I act I don't trip over my own feet. And as it happens I've give your dilemma a little thought and I have a solution." He coughed into one hand. "Tempest? If you wouldn't mind showing yourself."

It was only Cinder's iron will and complete composure that allowed her to remain calm as a woman seemed to appear from nowhere, materialising out of the shadows nearby. She was a faunus, dressed from neck to toe in black armour that parted only to allow her tail to escape and drop towards the ground. Her hair – and tail – were rose-coloured, and her eyes were as cold as opal. A broad scar ran down her face from her temple to her cheek, interrupted by her left eye.

Her companions were not as composed, as Emerald reached for her guns and Lightning Dust stepped into a fighting stance. Only Mercury was, or appeared, unconcerned about the new arrival.

Appeared, not was. She could see in his eyes he was as concerned as the rest of them.

Her thumped her armour hand into her shoulder with a clang. "Doctor Watts," she said. "It's good to see you again."

Doctor Watts chuckled. "It's good to see your skills are as sharp as ever."

"Who the hell is this?" Lightning Dust spat.

"Tempest Shadow, of Team Tiger, at your service," Tempest said, and the fact that there was no sense of service in her tone couldn't help but make her bow seem mocking.

"Team Tiger," Mercury growled. "I knew I recognised you from somewhere, you're an Atlas student."

"What?" Cinder said. "Watts-"

"Tempest was one of my final test subjects before all of my experiments were unfortunately shut down by short sighted fools with petty moral concerns," Watts declared. "However, we've kept in touch during my exile, haven't we, Tempest?"

"You will always have my gratitude, Doctor," Tempest said. "For making me the person I am today."

"Since, unlike you, I possess more subtlety than an ursa in a glassblower's, the Atlesian authorities are unaware that Tempest here is anything other than a poor innocent girl who, after being tragically caught in my awful experiments, decided to devote her life to the protection of the people," Watts said.

"My team leader trusts me completely," Tempest said. "And if General Ironwood is aware of me at all it is as a first-rate student."

"So you see, she's the perfect person to act as Sonata's escort, chaperone, gaoler, whatever you want to call it while she is in Vale," Watts said. "Feel free to thank me."

 _I would rather thank you for not insulting me in front of a mere servant of a servant,_ Cinder thought, but she would only make herself seem petty and petulant if she actually raised the issue. And, as much as she hated to require the assistance of the abominably arrogant Doctor Watts, he had a point.

"Very well," she growled. "We'll take you both to our hideout; in the morning you can take her into the city and there…" she looked at Sonata. "There you can start the show that all of Vale is going to fighting about before too long."

"Fine by me," Tempest said. "Like I said, my team leader eats out of the palm of my mind. It doesn't matter how often I'm away, she'll accept any excuse that I come up with."

"Sounds great," Sonata said cheerily. Her stomach growled again. "Is there going to be food at the hideout because I really am starving?"

Cinder snorted. "Sure. Now come on. Follow me."

"Okay," Sonata said. To Tempest, she added. "So, when we go into the city tomorrow can I get one of these cool outfits? Clothes have really gotten neat since I was last around here."

"Sure," Tempest said calmly. "What do you have in mind?"

"I'll know it when I see it," Sonata said.

"This is our trump card?" Emerald murmured.

"Apparently so," Cinder said. "Her personality isn't important as long as she can sing." _In fact, her being so completely non-threatening might even be a bonus._

"This is going to be great," Sonata said. "I can already tell that we're going to have so much fun together!"


	128. Misinterpreted

Misinterpreted

"Professor Ozpin," Glynda fell silent for a moment after getting his attention. "I'm not sure why you feel the need to go through with this."

"Because it would be pointless to give offence by declining," Ozpin replied. "After all, I have enemies enough already."

"Ms China isn't the sort of person I can imagine being a friend," Glynda replied.

"No," Ozpin agreed. "But I have a slight hope that she may be persuaded to see things under a different light."

"Slight hope indeed, judging by the things she says in public," Glynda muttered.

"And yet she invited me to dinner," Ozpin said. "And I am curious to find out why, and the only way I can find out is…to go to dinner."

"And if she tries to win you to her cause?"

Ozpin chuckled. "I trust you don't have such a low opinion of my will that you think I could be persuaded."

"No, of course not," Glynda said. "Good luck, Professor."

Ozpin chuckled again. "On occasions like this I believe it's more common to wish me a good evening, Glynda."

"You might need the luck," Glynda replied.

Ozpin sighed. "Yes, yes you may well be right about that. Goodnight, Glynda."

Glynda bowed her head. "Goodnight, Professor. And, for whatever it may be worth, I do hope you have a good evening; if that's possible."

 _She thinks this is a waste of time,_ Ozpin thought, as he descended from his office in the elevator. He could see why she might think that way: an invitation from Eulalie China, leader of the Saviours of Vale, to dine with her at her home, seemed a strange and rather pointless thing to indulge at such a time as this with tensions rising between Mistral and Atlas, and these strange new grimm that Team SAPR had encountered more than once already.

But of course, that was what made it important that he should accept this invitation: with tensions rising between Mistral and Atlas he had to do what he could to stop Vale from adding to the pressure building on the world by sliding into xenophobic nationalism; with one army already in the skies above the city and another on its way this was no time for Vale to start rattling the sabre in its turn.

This was no time for any of the four kingdoms to be embracing self-interest and division; he didn't know what was behind these changes in the behaviour of the grimm, nor what was making them suddenly stronger, but he did know that at a time like this it was even more important that the four kingdoms stand together as one, forming a united front against the enemy that would destroy them all if given the opportunity. If there was even the slightest chance that he could make Ms China see that this evening, then he had to take it, no matter how slight the chance might be.

He took a Bullhead down from Beacon into the city, then got a cab from the inner-city skydock. As he sat in the back, ignoring the efforts of the taxi driver to engage him in casual chit-chat, he looked out of the window at the night-lit streets of Vale all around him, and at the numerous eyesores of James' fleet hovering in the sky up above. The cruisers were just as well illuminated as the streets, lights in the sky shining brighter than the stars.

 _You should never have brought them here, James._ He thought that they were a protection, but in the present circumstances Ozpin could only see the lights in the sky as a threat to the lights below.

And yet, for all the massed military might hovering above their heads, what he saw of Vale this night was peaceful; not carefree, perhaps, but as the cab carried him along Ozpin could see people queuing up to enter a nightclub, people sitting at tables just outside a restaurant, people walking hand in hand down the boulevards; life itself. Peaceful life. The peace that he had dedicated his life to preserving.

The peace that now seemed more fragile than it had ever been in the lifetime of this body.

The taxi pulled up outside a detached red brick residence in a prosperous quarter of the city. Ozpin paid the driver, tipping him generously for his trouble, and stepped out.

The house outside which he had been deposited was three-storeys high, but somewhat narrow in width. A pair of evergreen shrubs in pots flanked the steps leading up to the front door, which had a stylised brass door-knocker shaped like a lion's head upon it. Other than that there was very little to say, as the paint upon the door and the window frames was completely standard for this affluent but somewhat conformist neighbourhood.

 _Was I expecting her to be flying the flag of her movement from one of the windows?_ Ozpin asked himself, with a certain degree of wry amusement. His can tapped on the stone steps as he climbed up them and rapped smartly upon the door knock.

It was but a few moments – and considering the summer night was warm, he was not exactly discomfited by the weight – before the black door opened. Eulalie China was dressed much as she was at her political rallies: in an all black ensemble save for her discordantly loud heels; on this occasion they were pink, with roses on the toes.

"Professor Ozpin," she said, with a smile that hovered somewhere between polite and genuine. "I'm so glad that you could come."

"I'm glad that you desired my company, Ms China," Ozpin replied genially, offering her his hand.

"Eulalie, please, there's no need to stand on ceremony, surely?" Eulalie asked, as she took his hand with a firm grip. She was silent a moment, perhaps waiting for him to offer her the use of his first name in turn. He did not, not least because the name his parents had given to this particular incarnation was Phadrig and he had never much cared for it.

 _But then, I was a Zoroaster once. It would be nice to have a name I could use without embarrassment._

But it wouldn't do to be too rude this early in the evening, and so he said, "In which case Ozpin will be quite sufficient, thank you."

Her eyebrows rose a little but she said nothing, even as he tried to look around Ozpin as though he might be hiding somebody in his shadow. "You came alone?"

"Miss Rose is currently at home with her family, on the island of Patch," Ozpin said. "I'm sure you understand that it is quite a distance to travel for one evening." The invitation to which he was responding had not been for him alone, Eulalie had also invited him to bring Ruby with him; he could not deny that curiosity as to why she had done so had played some part in his decision to accept. But, as glad as he was that Ruby had such a convenient excuse for her absence ready to hand, he would likely not have brought her even if she had been in the school. For all the hope that he might have of turning Eulalie away from her current path, he wasn't going to risk her getting her claws into Ruby until he had actually done so.

Ruby had a good heart, as good as her mother's…but Ozpin had seen too many good hearts become corrupted to simply trust that her good heart would resist Eulalie's poisonous ideology.

"I see," Eulalie murmured. "What a pity. Please, come inside."

"Thank you," Ozpin said, as she stepped aside to admit him. "I must confess, I'm a little curious that you wanted to meet one of my students at all."

"I think that you insult young Ruby Rose by labelling her just one of your students," Eulalie said as she shut the door. "As I understand it she is the best Vale-born student in the entire academy, and the only Vale-born student with any real promise."

"Her sister would be rather offended to hear you say that," Ozpin murmured.

"This is Yang Xiao-Long, correct? I understood them to be only half-sisters."

"Another thing it would upset them both to say, I'm afraid."

Eulalie pushed her glasses back up her nose. "She is not on Ruby's level, is she?"

"No," Ozpin allowed. "But to be less than a prodigy is not, in itself, a sign of mediocrity."

"To be mediocre is a sign of mediocrity," Eulalie said. "And there are a great many mediocrities at Beacon Academy at the moment, most of them Valish."

 _Is this what Leo has to put up with? Perhaps I shouldn't be so hard on him._ Ozpin set his cane down heavily upon the wooden floor. "Madame," he said, his voice growing a little colder. "As Headmaster of Beacon I am privileged to witness on a daily basis the courage and determination of the young men and women who walk its halls; their willingness to risk everything to defend the world is a constant source of pride and inspiration to me, and they all deserve admiration and respect more than scorn from someone-" he stopped himself before he could say 'from someone who failed her entrance exams to gain admittance into Beacon' because that would not be very politic. "From someone who is not running the risks they undertake." He smiled, hoping to take some of the sting out of what he had just said, "And besides, I expect that the competence of my students will be shortly demonstrated when they triumph in the Vytal Festival."

"And which of your students do you expect to triumph, Ozpin?" Eulalie asked. "The princess from Mistral or the princess from Atlas?"

Ozpin didn't respond. Instead, he took the opportunity to study Miss China's hallway instead. It was wood-panelled, the walls being the same varnished wood – elm, he thought – as the floor, and indeed as the furniture in the hallway. If Ozpin had been a little surprised that there wasn't a flag outside, he was less surprised to find that there was a flag in the hall; in fact there were two flags, the flag of Vale and the flag of its self-proclaimed Saviours standing on either side of the door through which he had entered.

What took him most aback, however, was the enormous portrait of himself hanging on the wall.

Or rather, not himself, per se. It was not a portrait of Professor Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon Academy; it was a portrait of King Zoroaster of Vale, wearing a gold and bejewelled chain over his cuirass, his expression stern and warlike as he glared out of the gilt frame down upon his future self.

 _Was that really my face?_ Ozpin thought, as he gazed upon the visage that had once been his own. _Looked I ever so proud? Seemed I so cold? Wore I that sneer of cold command upon my lips?_

He had been arrogant, in that incarnation. His reincarnation was not simply a question of possessing people, he took some colour from the people he…bonded with. He had joined with the young Prince Zoroaster when the latter was a proud and arrogant youth and it had made him proud and arrogant in turn, full of his strength of arms and of his wisdom. He had gloried in his martial triumphs and in the sagacity of the peace that he had devised. He had dared to believe with all the foolishness of the very wise, that he had created a system of the world which Salem would find unassailable.

He hadn't been able to conceive that she would find a way to undermine his system, because that would have meant conceding his fallibility, which was something that particular incarnation had not been willing to do.

In some ways, it was better when he incarnated into those of a more humble background, they were less sure of themselves and so less prone to arrogant mistakes. On the other hand, appearing in the body of a great one gave him swifter access to the levers of power if he could only hold on to the wisdom to make good use of them.

It was a trade, and it wasn't as if he had any choice in the matter at the end of the day.

Eulalie came to stand alongside him; joining him, as she thought, in admiring the portrait. "A great man," she said. "Would that we had such a man in Vale today."

 _I'm standing right here. And in any case, even that version of myself would have never tolerated your ideals._ "You admire him?"

"I'm a patriot," Eulalie said, as though nationalism were the only patriotism. "I admire all devoted servants of the Kingdom of Vale, and I revere the greatness that this kingdom once enjoyed before it was allowed to fall to wrack and ruin."

"I confess I have not noticed that the Kingdom of Vale was falling into any state of ruin," Ozpin said.

Eulalie was silent for a moment. "Would you like a drink?"

"That would be most kind."

"Follow me," she said, and led him out of the hallway – and away from the gaze of his older self, for which Ozpin was quite thankful – and into the dining room, where a table had already been laid out for three.

"I suppose I should have let you know that Miss Rose wouldn't be joining us," Ozpin said.

"It's disappointing," Eulalie said. "But it just means that I'll be eating leftovers at least one night this week." She walked over to an oak drinks cabinet, and pulled out a crystal decanter containing an amber liquid. "Do you take whisky?"

"In moderation, yes," Ozpin said.

"Good," Eulalie said. "I'm not sure I could trust a man who wouldn't share a single malt with me. Made here in Vale, of course." She poured out two drams into a pair of glasses (which already had ice in them), replaced the decanter in the cabinet, and brought the glasses over to where Ozpin stood waiting.

"To Vale," she said, raising her glass.

"To peace," Ozpin replied, chinking his glass against hers.

She raised one eyebrow, but drank nonetheless. Ozpin drank too. His many lives had given him some experience of good liquour – some of his incarnations had given him rather too much experience – but he had to say, this was of very good quality.

"You have good taste in whisky," he said.

"Thank you," Eulalie murmured. She turned away from him, and began to walk towards the table. "You say that you don't notice our kingdom falling into ruin. Did you really not notice the Atlesian fleet hovering in the sky above?"

"I saw them," Ozpin said. "I don't particularly like them but I don't think that they're a sign of national decline."

Eulalie turned to look at him. "My grandfather fought all through the Great War; he never surrendered to any Mantle dog and neither will his grand-daughter."

"The Kingdom of Mantle is long gone."

"And the Kingdom of Atlas is nothing but a revanchist project, Mantle with a new coat of paint," Eulalie replied. "They lost the war and yet by some magic they have become the military and technological powerhouse of the world and meanwhile what has become of poor Vale? We are diminished.

"We are a nation," Ozpin said. "As other nations are."

"We should be more than just another nation," Eulalie said. "We saved the world and yet who now looks on us with any gratitude."

 _I didn't do it for gratitude; I didn't do it for greatness, or power, or even for the prestige of Vale. I did it because it was the right thing to do, and every man who marched with me into those battles did it because it was the right thing to do._ "The country is reasonably prosperous and the people are healthy and happy," Ozpin said. "Is that not enough?"

"We are under occupation, the people just don't realise it yet," Eulalie said. "Atlesian ships hover over our skies, Atlesian soldiers patrol our streets, we are taken over; I understand that the council meets tomorrow to debate the Mistralian request to admit a fleet of theirs into our airspace to share security for the Vytal Festival."

Ozpin raised his eyebrows. "The agenda of council meetings is supposed to be confidential."

"I may not be on the council, but I am not without friends amongst those who are," Eulalie said. "I am not the only person concerned with the situation."

"I myself have grave concerns about the current trend in international affairs," Ozpin replied. "Believe me; I'd rather the Mistralian fleet were not on its way."

"Then you intend to support the other proposal at tomorrow's meeting, to mobilise our own National Guard?"

"Your friends do keep you abreast of everything, don't they?" Ozpin said. He hesitated for a moment, and covered it with drinking some more of his whisky. "No, I don't. I don't think more soldiers on our streets is the answer."

Eulalie snorted. "You don't want Mistral soldiers, you don't even want Valish soldiers, what is it that you want? Atlas occupying our streets?"

"I would rather have no soldiers on the streets at all," Ozpin said. "But if we must have armies then at least the Atlesian army is a professional one."

Eulalie's face twisted into a sneer. "It shames us, we who won the Great War, to cower meekly behind the shields of those whom we defeated."

 _Your grandfather won the Great War, you had nothing to do with it._ "What would you have?"

"I would fight them," Eulalie said fiercely. "Drive them from our shores!"

"At what cost?" Ozpin asked.

"I glory in the flag of Vale," Eulalie declared. "But before I would see it dishonoured I would set it high upon the perilous ridge of battle as a sign round which our best and bravest may meet the harvest home of death."

"And would you be willing to meet it alongside them?" Ozpin asked, unable to keep the bite out of his voice as he asked it.

Eulalie stared at him for a moment. "You think I'm a coward, don't you? You think that I'm someone who would send her fellow citizens out to die while I stand safe and idle here. It isn't my fault I wasn't allowed into your damn school, I didn't choose to fail those exams. And when I hear tell of some of the incompetents you have decided to admit I can't help but wonder if it wasn't rigged."

 _And just who are you hearing this from, I wonder?_ "I can assure you, the examinations are always scrupulously fair."

"Do you know why I wanted to meet Ruby Rose tonight?"

"Because she is from Vale?" Ozpin guessed.

"Because I wished to explain the world works to her, and impress upon her the great need Vale has of her and her prowess. She will be our sword in the battles to come."

"The battles to come?" Ozpin repeated. "We are not at war."

"Yet," Eulalie said. "Atlas and Mistral gather their strength; do you not see the clouds gathering? There is an east wind coming. We must be ready."

Ozpin drained the last of his whisky. "I hazard a guess that you have a source inside my school. I trust my teachers, so perhaps someone in the student body is sending you messages. A little bird whispering to you; a thrush perhaps, or maybe a dove. Or have you had all this from Cinder Fall?"

Eulalie's face flushed. "There are those at Beacon who are dismayed by what they have found at such a seemingly prestigious institution. I am told that you favour Atlesians and Mistralians, while intentionally weakening Vale's defences by admitting, in the most part, only dolts from Vale. And as for Cinder Fall…she has been in touch with me, what of it?"

"She's a terrorist."

"So is the White Fang girl whose past you chose to ignore," Eulalie said. "Hypocrisy does not become you, Professor Ozpin. And Cinder Fall is not an enemy of humanity, only of Atlas. Even King Zoroaster himself allowed exiles from Mistral and Mantle to fight in his army against their home nations."

 _Yes, because I wasn't a nationalist blowhard!_ Ozpin wanted to shout, and shake her while he was doing it. _I was doing what I thought best for humanity, and all who shared my vision of unity and peace were welcome beneath my banner. I didn't consort with murderers for petty political advantage._

"I hardly think the situations comparable," he said. He didn't often regret the fact that nobody knew about his unique situation, but he now regretted that that same secrecy denied him any credible chance to set the record straight about himself in front of his person who had completely misunderstood and misinterpreted everything he had said and done.

"I disagree," Eulalie said. "We are facing an existential threat to the sovereignty of our nation. A crisis in which you have played no small part in through promoting the interests of foreigners over your own citizens. In all of your school there is Ruby Rose with the skill to stand against the likes of Pyrrha Nikos whom you have allowed within our walls."

Ozpin's eyes widened a little behind his spectacles. "So that's what you meant. You mean to pit Miss Rose against Miss Nikos?" He couldn't quite suppress a laugh at the ludicrousness of the image. "That would be a battle for the ages, I'm sure, but I'm afraid you're mistaken if you think that Miss Rose will ever fight in your interests against her friends from overseas."

"And why is that?"

"Because I won't allow it," Professor Ozpin said.

"Isn't that her decision?"

"I won't let you get close enough to her to suggest it," Ozpin replied.

Eulalie frowned. "You are a man of great prestige, respected by all and considered a hero by many. I had hoped that I could make you see the justice of our cause but now I see that that was a forlorn hope."

"As was my hope that you might see that we have much to gain and everything to lose by casting off narrow chauvinism and embracing a spirit of cooperation and unity through diversity," Ozpin said. "Forgive me but…I find I no longer have an appetite."

"Mine too has been diminished almost as much as our country's international standing," Eulalie said. "May I give you some advice, Professor Ozpin?"

"If you wish."

"I am the future of Vale," Eulalie said. "If you will not be my friend then at least avoid becoming my enemy."

"You are the past," Ozpin said. "Just like the remembered, nostalgic past you look to and yearn for. I refuse to believe that you are the future of this country."

"A new great war is coming," Eulalie said. "Alliances will crumble; cooperation will come to an end. Vale will not survive unless it can stand alone."

"On the contrary, Ms China," Ozpin said. "It is in trying to stand alone that all four kingdoms will guarantee their fall to darkness."


	129. Powder Keg

Powder Keg

"Oh my gosh this is so amazing!" Sonata yelled through her mouthful of food. "What did you say this was called again?"

"It's called a taco," Tempest said slowly. "And they're not really that great."

"Not that great, have you tried these?" Sonata asked. She had the rest of her taco clutched in one hand, wrapped in silver foil. "You wanna try it?" She waved the half-eaten taco in Tempest's face.

Tempest's armour creaked at the joints as she leaned away. "Thanks…I'll pass."

"Suit yourself," Sonata said. "More for me, I guess." She swallowed, and immediately took another bite. As she chewed, she seemed for the first time to notice the looks that she was getting from the populace as she and Tempest walked down the Vale street. "Why is everybody looking at us?"

"Not us, you," Tempest said. "They're looking at you because you're dressed like the heartwarming orphan in a musical theatre production. Speaking of which…"

"Shopping first, then singing," Sonata said cheerfully. "Like you just said, I need to change out of this outfit."

"Sure," Tempest said. "Just remember that this is my money you're spending before you go too crazy."

Sonata nodded, as she swallowed her next bite of taco. "So, how long have you been working with Doctor Watts?"

"Like he said, he chose me for his experiments when I was a child," Tempest said. "I was the only one strong enough to survive his trials, just like he knew that I would be."

"So you like him?"

"I…yes," Tempest muttered. "Ordinarily there aren't a lot of people that I care about; in this world you can't rely on anybody but yourself and your own strength; but a lot of my strength comes from Doctor Watts and he…he's like a father to me."

"But now you work for Cinder."

"I work with Cinder," Tempest corrected her. "Because I'm the only person who can do this, thanks to Cinder's stupidity."

"You don't like Cinder?"

"She's arrogant, and not nearly as tough or smart as she thinks she is," Tempest said. "Most of all though, she's an attention-seeker. It's not enough to just do something, she has to have somebody know that she's done it."

"And you don't like that, huh?"

"Like I said, you can't rely on anyone," Tempest said. "And you can't need approval from anybody either."

"Not even from Doctor Watts?"

"There are exceptions to every rule," Tempest muttered. "Now keep moving, we're almost-"

"Tempest?"

Tempest rolled her eyes. "Oh God, it would be her, wouldn't it?"

"Tempest?" the voice that assailed the ears of Tempest Shadow was aristocratic, refined, and thoroughly detestable to the person who heard it. It belonged to Phoebe Kommenos, leader of Team PSTL and the person who was now making her way through the crowd on the street towards Tempest and Sonata. She was dressed in a provocative red summer dress that didn't flatter her figure to anything like the extent that she seemed to think it did, with her bright golden hair hanging loose all around her head. Golden bangles gleamed in the sunlight upon both her arms, and her eyes were concealed behind a pair of designer sunglasses. Her team-mate Mal Salfate, a goat faunus with a pair of horns growing out of her forehead, followed in the footsteps, her arms heavy with shopping bags that Tempest didn't need to be told belonged to Phoebe, not Mal.

"Tempest," Phoebe declared again, condescension rolling off the word. "So it is you. I thought I recognised your grim countenance and dour dress."

"And I recognised you," Tempest said. "Using your team-mate as a pack mule again."

Phoebe laughed. "Well, you know how it is, one needs to keep ones hands free in case I get a message or a notification for my social media that I just have to look at straight away and really, what else are the little beasts good for after all? No offence."

"Slight taken," Tempest said.

Phoebe smiled. "Oh, Tempest, you're always so amusing. But who's this with you? I don't think I've seen her before, and I think I would have remembered somebody dressed so unfashionably. Are you volunteering with the homeless now?" She laughed again. "But that gem looks like it might be worth something? Where did someone like you get something like that? Did you steal it?" She reached out one lithe-fingered hand to it, as though she had half a mind to steal it herself.

Sonata's hand intercepted hers before Phoebe had gotten half-way, closing around her wrist with a strength that made Phoebe Kommenos cry out in pain. Tempest tensed, her mind racing ahead with all the ways that this could go wrong as Mal's eyes widened with panicked indecision.

And then Sonata began to sing.

It was hard for Tempest to focus on the individual words; it felt…it felt as though there was a kind of fog coming down on her mind, inhibiting her concentration, clouding her thoughts. She couldn't hear the words, although she knew that their where words it was as though…it was as though they weren't really meant for her, somehow. She felt anger rousing inside of her, but it was like she wasn't meant to feel that angry and so…so she didn't. She felt angry, but nothing compared to the fury that she could see boiling on the face of Phoebe Kommenos.

"P-Pyrrha," Phoebe growled through gritted teeth. "Going…get her…"

Sonata crooned softly, and as she sang she released Phoebe's hand and began to circle around her, stroking the Atlesian team leader on her shoulders and her neck, leaning in to practically whisper in her ear.

Around Tempest she could see other people in the street starting to argue with one another, muttering angrily and one or two even shouting at one another.

The gem around Sonata's neck seemed brighter than it had done before.

Sonata ceased her song, and stood behind Phoebe with a bright smile on her face.

Phoebe growled at the empty air, Tempest and Sonata seemingly forgotten. "Come on, Mal!" she yelled at her team-mate cum servant. "Don't just stand there like a moron, get moving!" she stalked off down the street, leaving Tempest and her companion alone.

"What…what did you just do to her?"

"Why? Was she a friend of yours?"

"Hardly," Tempest said. "I'd just like to know what you did to her."

Sonata shrugged. "She was a pretty angry person; I just made it boil up a little bit. What's that about, anyway?"

Tempest smirked. "You ever heard of the Invincible Girl, Pyrrha Nikos?"

"Nope."

"Phoebe would like to think of herself as Pyrrha's rival, but the truth is it's a pretty one-sided rivalry; Phoebe's never beaten her, and it eats away at her. There's other stuff too, but that seems to be the thing that you tapped into." Tempest glanced at Sonata sideways. "So…is that what you do? You bring people's anger up to the surface?"

Sonata shrugged once more. "It's one of the things I do, but really I just needed to warm up my voice," she said. She stuffed the remainder of her taco into her mouth. "Now can we go shopping, I really want to change out of this mess and get some cool clothes like everybody else is wearing."

Tempest, mindful of the fact that unlike Phoebe she didn't have a vast inheritance that enabled her to splash out on designer brands, took Sonata to one of Vale's more budget clothing stores, paid reluctantly for the things that Sonata chose, and then waited outside the changing room for the siren to emerge.

"Ta-da!" Sonata cried when she actually did emerge, dressed in a short-sleeved violet jacket that matched her eyes and left her forearms bare; a pair of spiked bracelets adorned her wrists. She was also wearing a short skirt of bright neon pink, and high violet boots that went almost to her knees with bright pink socks underneath. Her hair was bound up in a high ponytail which still fell down to her waist before curving back upwards. "Do I look great or what?"

"You look…fine," Tempest said. It wasn't as if she was a great judge of fashion in any event. "Are you ready now?"

"Ready to sing? You betcha!" Sonata said. She hesitated. "Uh, what am I supposed to be singing about again?"

Tempest sighed, and handed Sonata a scrap of paper on which, anticipating this might happen, she had scribbled a basic summary of the explanation that Cinder had provided at the hideout last night.

"Oh, yeah, this; I remember now," Sonata said in a tone which didn't inspire Tempest to believe her. "Piece of cake."

Tempest took her to a street corner; a perfectly ordinary street corner but one where crowds of people passed by in every direction. The air hummed with conversation and with the thumping of hundreds of footsteps on the pedestrianised road. With Sonata now dressed in a casual style, nobody paid them much mind; Tempest's gear attracted no notice at all, since it was hardly unusual to see a young huntress on the streets.

Nobody said anything as they made their way to the corner of the street, under the shadow of a streetlight, and stood there like sentinels guarding the position from enemies.

And there Tempest waited for Sonata to do her thing.

Sonata grinned eagerly. She paused for a moment, seeming to take in all the people passing by; and then, for the second time that morning, she began to sing.

Tempest was prepared for it this time. While Sonata had been shopping for her new threads, Tempest had been considering the way that the siren's song had affected her. She was mentally armed and prepared for what was about to come, her aura was up and she was concentrating all her will upon resisting the allure of Sonata's beatific voice.

It wasn't enough; not by a long way. The moment that Sonata began to sing, the moment that sweet, alluring sound began to leave her mouth, the moment the blood red gem around her neck began to gleam was the moment the fog descended upon Tempest's mind like a sticky green fog enveloping her thoughts and causing her to lose her way in her own mental processes. Only the song was clear to her, only the song…and Sonata.

The song wormed its way into her brain. She could just about make out the words, something about Atlas, but mostly it was the emotions conveyed within Sonata's voice that she perceived: fear, distrust, anger. She was an Atlesian herself – if not a particularly loyal one – and more importantly she was somebody who knew something of the truth about the way the world really worked and yet even she, who possessed – she liked to think – a keen intellect and insight, even she who had been prepared for something like this, even she was ready to declare her own nation an enemy of the world and raise the bloody flag against them.

And once again Tempest felt as though Sonata wasn't really singing to her at all! She just happened to be hearing the song.

Perhaps that was why her head cleared a little faster once the song ended, though not fast enough that Tempest was not left with a great empty well inside of her as the emotions that Sonata's voice had roused in her ran off like water draining through a sink. She felt so empty when the music stopped, she felt so bereft when the sweet airs that issued from the mouth of Sonata Dusk were still; it was as though she had sunk into a dream that was terrible in its beauty, a dream that had stirred in her such passions great and terrible that she had not dreamed might be found within her soul. It was as though she, who had thought herself so much wiser than the common herd, so much more knowledgeable and endowed with sacred knowledge, the truth of Remnant and its history, had been as deceived as any of those she had mocked for being so deceived until Sonata had pulled back the clouds and showed her gleaming riches with her song.

It was as though she had been dreaming a dream so wonderful that, now that the dream was over, she cried to dream again.

As on the streets the people quarrelled, and argued about Atlas, and cursed the name of Atlas and raised their fists at the Atlesian cruisers in the sky; as people cursed those who cursed Atlas, and cried out blessings on the Atlesian troops, and argued back as bitterly as those who hated the northern kingdom and its army, Tempest felt a tear drip down her cheek.

"What are you?" Tempest whispered.

Sonata looked mortified. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get you, too. Maybe you should stuff your ears or-"

"No!" Tempest said loudly, although since the whole street was full of people arguing loudly nobody took much notice. "I don't want to miss it. I want to hear every single note."

"Aww," Sonata said. "You're really sweet, you know that?"

Sonata continued to sing all morning, at street corners or on the edges of public squares like some kind of busker. And everywhere she sang the quarrels started. It wasn't much, only small gatherings from which people left with feelings of irritation with and distrust of Atlas.

But it was the first small pebbles that would herald an avalanche by the time they were through.

* * *

"Ozpin," the Speaker of the Vale Council said in a nasal voice as he peered down at Ozpin from the high seat at the centre of the council table. "We don't often see you around here."

Ozpin didn't let his slight sense of embarrassment show in his composure. It was true that he rarely bothered to attend council meetings in person, preferring to either video-call in from his office or sometimes absent himself all together. It wasn't that he didn't respect the council, he just…he didn't have an enormous amount of respect for the council, if he was being perfectly honest with himself. They were men and women like any other: some were good, some were less so; some were dedicated public servants and others were self-interested charlatans. By and large he was content to leave the running of the kingdom and its internal workings in their hands, while he concentrated his time and attention on defending humanity from Salem and the grimm.

He would have to say that he sometimes felt that what these people did in these chambers in what had once been his palace was of little real consequence compared to the life and death decisions he was taking up in his tower. He had felt as if they neither had the power to help him nor to hinder him in his efforts, and thus they could safely be left to get on with things free of either his guidance or his meddling.

He was beginning to think that he had been mistaken about many of those complacent assumptions.

"It is true, Mister Speaker, that I have not passed these doors very often," he said diplomatically. "But I thought that in view of the import of today's agenda it might be as well for me to join you here. I promise that I still remember where my seat is." He smiled in what was intended to be charmingly self-deprecating. Few seemed charmed. As Ozpin took his seat on the dais with his fellow councillors he realised dispiritedly that he didn't recognise some of them. They must have been new, arrived after the last round of elections a couple of years ago, and he didn't recognise them; he hadn't bothered to get to know them, or even to learn their faces. He couldn't even say what briefs they held.

Membership of the Vale Council was by election: a third of the seats went up for election every two years by simple majority voting with the exception of his own position as Headmaster of Beacon which was by appointment; it would take a two-thirds majority vote in council to remove him.

His position was also unique in that his role was fixed, the assignments of the other councillors were here handed out by majority vote after each round of elections once the new intake had taken up their seats. Thus he could not say who these people were or what they actually did for Vale.

 _I have ignored this place and these people for too long. Just because they don't know about Salem and the greater struggle doesn't mean that they cannot be a risk; I could have made them an aid to me if I had so chosen._

The Speaker cleared his throat. "Ahem, thank you, Professor. Now that we're all here: there are two agenda items before us today as you should all be aware if you're getting the agenda when it gets circulated. If you're not getting the agenda in advance, let Hayley know and she'll add your name to the mailing list." He gestured towards the clerk of the council, who sat some way below taking the minutes of their discussion. "Does anyone think they're not on the list?"

Nobody said anything. The pause lasted for about a minute to give any nervous soul – if a nervous soul could possibly get elected to the council – time to speak up.

"Good," the Speaker said. "Now, the first item for consideration is the request from Mistral that we allow them to take part in joint oversight of security for the Vytal Festival, alongside the Atlesian forces. They want to send an expeditionary force under a…" he picked up his scroll, and peered at it through his spectacles. "A Commander Yeoh, to, uh, assist in the security efforts."

"Have they put a size at this expeditionary force?" Ozpin asked. _How many more troops do they want to send into Vale in addition to all of those whom James has inflicted upon us?_

The Speaker frowned in his direction, before returning his attention back to his scroll.

"Their request states…seven warships, there's some technical nonsense about them that I don't understand, and twenty-five transports; six thousand soldiers all told."

 _Some of those transports will be warships of a kind as well, unless I miss my guess,_ Ozpin thought. The Mistralian air-fleet, such as it was, consisted of a few Mantle-built warships that were more or less copies of an Atlesian air cruisers; a few Mistralian copies of the aforementioned Atlesian cruisers; a few warships built to an entirely Mistralian design and – as Leo had informed him – a large number of civilian transports pressed into service and given rudimentary armaments. In all respects except sheer number of ships, the Mistralian fleet was weaker than the force – now swollen to three squadrons, a dozen cruisers in all – that Ironwood commanded in the skies above Vale; in all respects except sheer numbers (and even though only if you didn't count the androids) the Mistralian ground force was inferior to the Atlesian troops; they were conscripts pressed into service and given possibly a couple of weeks remedial training – if that – up against a disciplined, professional army backed by the most advanced technology to be found in Remnant. If it came to a fight he would bet on Atlas every time.

But Ozpin didn't want a fight; he didn't want Atlas and Mistral to come to blows – not ever, and certainly not above his kingdom. He wanted to preserve the peace that was all that was enabling them to hold Salem at bay.

"I think we should refuse this request," he said.

He could feel the temperature in the room drop by a degree or so as every eye turned towards him.

"On what grounds?" he was asked by someone to his left whom he couldn't see.

"Do we need grounds?" Ozpin replied. "This is our sky, our city, our sovereignty. Are we not wholly within our rights to deny access to a foreign military force?"

"We may be within our rights but that doesn't mean that we would be wise to do it," the Speaker muttered. "Especially after we've already welcomed the Atlesians with open arms. It would look like favouritism."

"Favouritism?" Ozpin asked. "Ladies and gentleman, believe me, I understand the importance of being seen to be impartial-"

"You could have fooled us," someone said.

Ozpin stared at the young man who had spoken. He seemed young in Ozpin's eyes at least. Young and arrogant, dressed in a well-tailored suit and wearing an onyx ring on his pinkie finger.

"I beg your pardon, young man," Ozpin said softly.

The young man chuckled. "Come on, Professor, everybody knows that you play favourites up at that school of yours. Some teams get special treatment, and others get left to fend for themselves."

"Young man," Ozpin said. "I don't know what you think you know about my school-"

"I know that you have a team of favourites right now that you're spoiling like they were your grandchildren while good huntsmen of ability and potential are floundering because they're being denied any attention from the faculty or the institution at large."

Ozpin wondered just how many influential politicians the as-yet unknown mole at Beacon had gone around speaking to with their complaints about the way that he was running things. While Eulalie China's information could have come wholly from Cinder Fall – not that Ozpin had thought it had all originated there – these complaints about Team SAPR (and it could only be Team SAPR that was being referred to when it came to his so-called spoiled favourites) were far too petty and petulant to have originated with her; Cinder Fall wouldn't care that someone else wasn't getting as much as Glynda's time and attention, leaving aside for a moment that it wasn't even true.

He was almost certain that it had to be one of four first years: Cardin Winchester, Russell Thrush, Dove Bronzewing or Sky Lark. He hadn't been sure whether he wanted to pursue the matter to find out which one, but if this was going to become a recurring theme of attack against him and Beacon he might have to.

For now, however, Ozpin simply stared at the young man who had possessed the temerity to challenge him on this. "I am sorry if any of my students feel dissatisfied by the quality of the education they're receiving, but I can assure this whole council that my excellent staff of teachers devotes the same level of care and attention to every student. I do not deny that there are times when I have come across a particularly skilled team of remarkable individuals, and that I have entrusted those individuals with more than usual responsibilities but let me ask you: have you ever faced an angry grimm?"

The young man shifted uncomfortably. "No, I haven't."

"I thought not," Ozpin said. "If you had, you would not call it spoiling to ask these particular students to face that threat more often than the rest. It is a grave responsibility that they – that all my students – are asked to bear; that I make more use of some than others…forgive me, but unlike this council it seems I yet have the ability to take ability and merit into consideration before I assign out tasks."

It wasn't like him to get so angry, but angry he was; it was one thing to disagree with him, but to both imply that he was short-changing some students of their educations and that he was in some way doing SAPR a favour by giving them more opportunities to risk their lives against the darkness…it riled him more than he had thought it would.

"As I was saying," he said, before anyone else got the idea to challenge him. "I understand that there are times when we must seem impartial, but it does not seem to me that now is one of those times; there is a difference between requesting the assistance of a professional military who have already proved their usefulness and opening our arms to a group of conscripts whose aid, it seems to me, we hardly need. Do we really require a Mistralian presence to make the Vytal Festival secure? There are thirteen Atlesian warships in the skies above Vale, how much more secure can we become?"

 _Don't answer that, James; the question was entirely rhetorical._

"They might not be militarily necessary," the Speaker said. "But we're discussing political necessity here, the optics…if we're seen to be publicly siding with Atlas over Mistral-"

"There is no quarrel between Atlas or Mistral except that the Mistralian council seems determined to invent one," Ozpin declared. "There is no need of a Mistralian presence here."

"Some of us welcome the idea of a counterweight to the existing Atlesian presence," said a female councillor. "If we must be occupied then let us at least be occupied by two powers in trust rather than one administering us as their province."

"We are not being occupied," Ozpin said firmly. "Ladies, gentlemen, the only reason for this Mistralian request is in response to these ridiculous rumours about Atlas and the recent Breach; surely you can all see that by placing two militaries in close proximity, when there is tension between the two of them, we risk escalating an already tense situation, not de-escalating it, without even mentioning the risk that the grimm will be drawn to the negativity that will result from this."

"If the grimm are drawn then it will be the more the merrier to fight them off," the Speaker said. "Although I hope that the Vytal Festival itself will spread a warm glow of unity and peace to calm everything down."

"Mister Speaker-" Ozpin began.

"I understand what you're saying, Ozpin," the Speaker said. "But it is my opinion that we cannot afford to put Mistral's nose out of joint for no good reason. They have asked us to allow them a role in this year's festival, and I see no valid grounds to deny them."

 _No good reason. Is avoiding the threat of a new Great War not reason enough? Is avoiding drawing a horde of grimm down upon us not reason enough? You're talking about turning the skies over Vale into a powder keg ready to explode at the slightest provocation, can't you see that?_

No. No, they could not. None of these people could remember the Great War personally, and there were probably some who thought of it as a glorious episode in Valish history when the Kingdom of Vale had stood alone against a horde of beastly foreigners and taught them what for. Ozpin was not the only man living who could still recall the true horrors of that war, but those few who remained were stoop-backed great grandfathers by now, a diminishing band entirely withdrawn from public life. Nobody could point out from lived experience that the Great War had started when two armed groups with reason to dislike one another tried to rub shoulders in the same place, nor remind those gathered here of how the world had trembled on the brink of annihilation in consequence.

These were the children of the peace that had followed that war, and the peace that Ozpin had sought to preserve was all they knew. For many, they simply did not imagine that it could break down.

They had lived with it for so long that they no longer realised how fragile it was.

When the vote came, he was the only one to vote against the Mistralians request.

There were times when he felt his age, and this was definitely one of them.

The Speaker cleared his throat again. "Very well then, carried. On the second order of business, the question of our own National Guard mobilisation. We'll discuss yes or no in principle and if the vote is in favour we can move on to the nuts and bolts."

"If we are to have Mistralian security piled on top of Atlesian security then do we really need our own security on top of that?" Ozpin asked. "Forgive me, but I see little advantage in dragging our own citizens out of their homes and pressing weapons into their hands?"

"As opposed to dragging children out of their homes and pressing some of the most destructive weapons devised by man into their hands?" said the same councillor who had suggested that the Mistralian expedition was a useful counterweight to Atlesian power.

She had phrased the question facetiously, but Ozpin chose to respond to it earnestly. "My children, madame, are volunteers who have chosen to dedicate their lives to the defence of humanity, knowing full well what that entails." That…that was laying it on just a little thick, to be honest; the best of them, like Ruby or Miss Nikos, did understand from the moment they walked through the gates what they were getting themselves into and accepted their sacred charge with as much courage as could be expected from them; others, like Mister Arc or Miss Shimmer, took a little longer to comprehend what they had signed up for but once they did they accepted it and rose to the occasion. Others either never understood or never rose, but for them…he wasn't running a prison camp, anyone could quit any time they wanted. "Not to mention that any combat school graduate already has years of full-time training with those advanced weapons that so concern you by the time their first year at Beacon begins. There is no comparison with a half-trained national guardsman, however well-intentioned, whatsoever."

In the end it was the economic arguments, the downsides of taking large numbers of people away from their jobs for a prolonged period of time, that swung the issue, rather than the fear of mixing three armies, two of them but lightly trained, on top of one another in an atmosphere that was becoming poisoned by false accusations and noxious ideology, not to mention whatever was motivating the Mistralians.

The suggestion to mobilise Vale's own National Guard was voted down, however narrowly; Ozpin was grateful, however much he wished that the more pressing arguments for not doing it had been accepted.

He had done what he could, but as the meeting adjourned he could not escape the feeling that he had not done anything like enough.


	130. Sienna Khan

Sienna Khan

Gilda knelt on the ground, her fingertips brushing against the grass beneath her as she turned her face downwards.

Thus bowed in supplication she could not see the approach of the High Leader and her guards, but she could hear the heavy tread of those same guards as they approached the place where Gilda, and a few other chosen warriors of what remained of the White Fang's Vale Chapter, waited to receive her.

Gilda could hardly believe it. Sienna Khan had come here? When Strongheart had run on ahead with the news that the High Leader had not just sent a new commander to take Adam's place but had actually come herself Gilda had boggled in disbelief. The High Leader had been a great warrior in her youth, but she rarely stirred from Menagerie these days; she commanded, she set the strategy of all the chapters across Remnant, but she no longer took the field.

But she had decided to come here, to Vale. That she had felt the need was probably not a ringing endorsement of the chapter, but Gilda couldn't deny that they could probably use the leadership that only the High Leader could provide. Adam's death, and the losses suffered in Mountain Glenn, had gutted the chapter and recruitment had dropped to practically nothing as well. Worse, those who had survived Mountain Glenn but fallen into the hands of Atlas in the process had talked to their captors, with the result that safehouses had been raided and camps had seen Atlesian cruisers appear overhead. They had abandoned most of those camps anyway – either because they no longer had the strength to man them or because Gilda had pulled everyone who would listen to her out of them in case of just such an eventuality – but now they could never return to those locations even if their numbers increased once more and those leaders who had not obeyed Gilda, either because of pride or because she had no actual authority over them, had fallen into the Atlesian net or died fighting.

Morale amongst the survivors, a bedraggled band hiding in the eastern mountains on the very fringe of Vale's territory, was in the gutter. Nobody knew what to do to turn this situation around, let alone Gilda. Sienna Khan could not have known about all of these problems when she had decided to come to Vale personally, but it was good that she had come.

Even if it was not good for Gilda personally it was good for the White Fang, and that was more important.

Sienna Khan had requested – via Strongheart, sent back ahead with her initial orders - that the entire chapter, what was left of it, be mustered at Adam's grave. Gilda had obliged, but she had taken Strongheart and a few others on just a little way ahead to meet the High Leader on the way.

And here she was, kneeling as she heard the thump of booted feet along the ground as Sienna and her guards approached.

The footsteps halted and fell silent. Sienna Khan's own tread was light, and now that her guards had stopped Gilda barely heard a thing as she saw the tips of the black boots appear in her field of vision.

"Lower your aura, Gilda Swiftwing." The High Leader's voice was cold.

Gilda didn't hesitate, though she could guess what might come next. Discipline in the White Fang, such as it was, was maintained by means of harsh punishment, and failure was not indulged.

Gilda took a deep breath. "Yes, High Leader," she said, and lowered her aura, dimming her inner light to the point where it was more a flickering candle than a roaring flame.

A flickering candle that offered no protection to the chain that coiled like a serpent around her neck and dragged her face-first onto and across the ground, making her squirm and wriggle like a fish on a hook as the metal links began to bite into her throat.

"How is it that you are still alive?" Sienna demanded, her voice still lacking any trace of warmth.

"High L-" Strongheart began.

"Silence!" Sienna snapped. "I was addressing you."

It was hard to speak with the chain crushing her windpipe, but Gilda tried to choke out, "A…Ada…Adam."

"You have the gall to blame a martyr to our cause?" Sienna snapped. "To cast aspersions on a hero who, having given his life, cannot defend himself against your slanders? Is this how you excuse your incompetence?"

Gilda didn't reply. She probably couldn't have replied even if she'd wanted to. She squirmed and writhed like a worm, tugging ineffectually at the chain as the strength ebbed from her arms. She couldn't see anything because of the spots that were rapidly proliferating in front of her eyes, blotting on the sky above her. Her lungs heaved in futile search for breath, her wings beat helplessly on the ground.

And then she was released from the chain. With one hand Gilda clutched her raw neck as she lay, coughing and gagging and gasping for air, upon the grass now pressed flat beneath her thrashings.

As the spots began to clear from before her vision she could see the High Leader glaring down at her.

"Have you anything to say in mitigation for your actions?" she demanded. "Why are you still alive?"

Gilda glanced away. Strongheart and the others were staring at Sienna Khan with no small degree of fear upon their faces. The High Leader's own bodyguards stood impassive, their faces concealed beneath their masks and hoods.

Slowly, and somewhat unsteadily, Gilda picked herself up to her knees once again. "I survived because…because my captain ordered me to live on."

Sienna was silent for a moment. "Then I suppose I must commend your obedience, in this case at least. It is a pity that you did not display that same loyalty to Adam always."

Gilda closed her eyes. "Yes, lady." _Though my true failure was not being able to turn him away from the path that led to his end and our ruin._

"Adam was a great man, and a true hero to our cause," Sienna declared. "His heart now resides in Menagerie, alongside the other relics of the martyrs who, like him, made the ultimate sacrifice in our struggle for freedom. Had you supported him, instead of questioning him, undermining him, and by stealth declined to obey his orders, he might have made a better end."

 _Undermined? How much did you tell them, Strongheart? What did you say?_ Gilda glanced at Strongheart, but alongside her panic the buffalo faunus seemed confused.

"And yet," Sienna continued. "I am not without mercy. You have served our cause with valour in the past, and may yet do so again, and with your valour you may once again prove that you are worthy of a place of honour in the White Fang." She held out one striped hand. "Do you still hold the White Fang in your heart, and yearn to set our people free from the oppression that the humans have visited upon us."

"I do," Gilda whispered.

"Then fight for our race, and earn your redemption for your past failures."

Gilda leaned forward, and kissed Sienna's outstretched hand. "Thank you, High Leader."

"Rise," Sienna said, and Gilda and all the rest rose from their knees. The leader of the White Fang was of somewhat short stature, dwarfed in size by the spear-wielding guards who ranged around her in two columns; but she had a presence about her that far outstretched her height. As she stood, surrounded by faunus taller than she was, nevertheless she seemed the largest person present and none felt as though they were looking down upon her.

"Pitch our camp here for now," Sienna commanded two of her guards, who hastened to obey her, before she returned her attention to Gilda. "Is…is Adam buried near here."

Gilda bowed her head. "He is."

"And are your forces assembled there?"

"What remains of them," Gilda said.

Sienna nodded gravely. "Take me to them."

Gilda bowed her head a second time. "Follow me," she said, as she turned to lead the way. Strongheart fell in beside her as she began to walk, and heard the tramp of Sienna's guards following behind.

"I didn't say things like that about you," Strongheart murmured. "I told her the truth, but…I didn't say that you-"

"That was the truth," Gilda said. "I didn't have Adam's back up to the hilt the way I should have."

"It wouldn't have made any difference," Strongheart whispered. "I get that now. We didn't lose because you were kind to the humans."

"I know," Gilda said softly.

"Then why doesn't the High Leader see that? I tried to tell her."

"It's not our place to question the High Leader," Gilda hissed out of the side of her mouth. "Don't worry about it, okay? I'll be fine."

Strongheart frowned. "You didn't deserve that."

Gilda couldn't suppress a chuckle. "We're in the White Fang, kid; none of us are here because we've gotten what we deserved."

They brought Sienna Khan and all her train to the hillside beneath which they had laid Adam to rest. Neither coyotes nor foxes nor the Atlesian military had disturbed the place, which lay as it had done when they had interred him here. His sword, the only marker of the place, still lay thrust into the ground, the red blade gleaming in the sunlight.

It was at the sword that Sienna Khan stared, as she stood at the bottom of the hillside. She didn't look towards the assembled faunus of the Vale chapter, gathered in untidy ranks awaiting her. Her attention was wholly fixed upon the sword, and on the dead hero who lay beneath.

"You have carved not a line, nor raised a stone," she murmured. "But left him alone with his glory…and his blade. Considering the manner of his life…I cannot say that it is inappropriate. You have honoured him as best you can, but more than that you honoured him as befits the man he was: a warrior first and foremost, one who always put the needs of our people before his pride.

Her guards and attendants remained behind, joining Gilda and Strongheart and the survivors of the Vale chapter as the High Leader ascended the hill alone, climbing to the top as the breeze tugged at the hem of her red cape. She climbed until she had reached the grave, and Gilda watched as she reached out and placed one hand upon the tip of the sword. There she stood a moment, her head bowed, and as the sunlight fell full upon her it cast her in silhouette beside the sword.

It almost seemed as though she was talking to Adam, communing with his indomitable spirit.

Only after she had lingered thus awhile did Sienna Khan turn to face the diminished, ragged and bedraggled force gathered below her. They were a modest group, all that remained of a hidden army that had once ranged all across Vale and thrown a kingdom into terror with their presence. Now the meanest Atlesian corporal's guard could have rounded them all up, if the Atlesians had known that they were here. Once, not so long ago, they had dreamed of overthrowing Vale itself and throwing one quarter of Remnant into chaos and ruin; now they were themselves in ruins, and their courage burned so low that a stiff wind could have made cowards of them all. Gilda could feel it all around her, the malaise that it had been beyond her powers to cure, the loss of belief in themselves, in victory, the loss of faith that she could not restore. As they stood before the High Leader, their faces devoid of masks, showing their true selves before her, Gilda had to believe that Sienna Khan could perceive it as well as she could.

"Adam is dead," she declared. "And in him has perished a hero of our glorious cause. But does this foreshadow our defeat? No. It is but one more sacrifice upon a road lined with sacrifices and stained with the tears that have been shed over them. Adam Taurus has gone to join the revered martyrs of our cause, making as they did the ultimate sacrifice to achieve true freedom and justice for all faunus everywhere. He has gone to take his place in the hall of heroes, and he has left it to we who remain to continue the great task to which he dedicated and ultimately gave his life, his soul, and everything he had besides.

"His grave is scarcely marked," she said. "And it is well that it was not dedicated, for how could we, the living, dedicate anything to the man who dedicated himself with such valour to our benefit. Rather, it is for us to dedicate ourselves to the great struggle that remains before us, the struggle that will continue until the humans accept us without condition for who we are and what we are, and all the prejudice and suffering that we endure has finally been driven entirely from the world.

"It has been eighty years since the humans, consumed by greed and hatred, sought to drive us from our homes and exile us, willingly or not, to the barren island of Menagerie; since then we have found a way to flourish beyond their wildest imaginings, but those of us who sought to remain in the four kingdoms have faced nothing but oppression in all the years that followed. Never forget the ways the humans have trampled us! We want our freedom! We long for it, we yearn for it, and I see in your eyes that the same craving for freedom that burns like an inferno within my breast burns within all of you."

And as she spoke, Gilda felt the fire within her begin to burn a little brighter than before; her back straightened, and she was not alone in that. Many of the faunus around her seemed a little braver now, and more determined.

"Adam wanted freedom," Sienna said, her voice becoming a little quieter for a moment. "It was the only thing he wanted: for all of you, for all of us, to be free, to live in freedom and enjoy all the benefits that the humans who oppress us take for granted every day. He wanted us to be free to live our lives, to raise our children, to build homes and new societies; but he recognised that freedom cannot be given by benevolent allies or well-intentioned human do-gooders, for like the lien that the Schnee Dust Company pays with one hand and then takes with the other, what is given can always be taken away. True freedom, the freedom we all long for, can only ever be claimed at the point of the sword.

"The sword that we must now, all of us, take up in Adam's absence. Adam Taurus is dead, but he lives on in all of our hearts so long as we remain true to the cause he loved so dearly. In the name of Adam Taurus, who will fight with me until the fight is won?"

"I will!" Gilda cried, and so did many others too; the shout did not spring unanimously from the lips of all the gathered faunus, but enough of them took up the defiant cry and loud enough to give Gilda a little hope for the future of the Vale chapter.

"Who will take up the sword?" Sienna asked. "Who will take up the tattered flag?"

"I will!" more faunus were shouting now, only a few had yet to be swept away by the High Leader's passion.

"Who will show Atlas, and Vale, and all these proud and arrogant men that the White Fang is not defeated?"

"I WILL!" the roar from every gathered faunus throat struck the clouds up above them and scattered birds out of the nearby trees.

Sienna smiled, her expression both beatific and fierce mingled in a single face, as she descended from the hilltop with her arms held out on either side of her, as though she would embrace them all.

"Then together," she said. "We will avenge Adam, and all the rest who had fallen on this path to freedom. Be of good heart, soon our struggle shall begin anew. But not tonight. Tonight we feast!" She raised her arms above her head. "I have brought food and drink to salve your weary spirits: suckling pig ripe for the spit and the finest wine from the vineyards of Menagerie. Tonight we will drink deep, and down libations to the memory of all we've lost. Tonight…tonight we drink down sorrow." She smiled, and motioned with a flick of her hand for them to follow. "Gilda," she whispered. "Attend me."

Gilda bowed her head. "Yes, High Leader." Perhaps Sienna wanted nothing more than a chance to berate her or beat her some more, but if that were so she would submit to it. It was nothing more than she deserved.

And so, while Sienna walked a little beyond the main body of the White Fang – even her guards fell back to give her space – Gilda stayed close behind her, dogging her footsteps as she led the way back to the place where Gilda and her party had met with her not long ago. Her attendants, those whom she had left behind her to pitch her tent and set the camp, had already erected several tents, and as her guards spread out to stand sentry around the camp Sienna headed without a word to the largest tent in the centre of it.

Gilda followed, ducking inside just behind the High Leader.

 _Rank has its privileges,_ Gilda thought as she knelt down within the tent, which was larger than some of the rooms – most of the rooms – in the house that she'd grown up in. The furniture was sparse and austere, but it _was_ a tent after all, and even that wasn't much to separate it from Gilda's childhood home. A low table, low enough that it was at the right height for a kneeling person, sat in the centre of the tent with a map of Vale spread out across it, and four candles burning upon the table corners. A brazier full of coals burned beside it, casting the tent in an orange glow as wisps of smoke rose out of the metal can. An open cask of deep red wine sat in one corner of the tent, while a couple of silver goblets stood close by.

Sienna Khan sat down upon a bearskin on one side of the table, and gestured for Gilda to sit down opposite. As Gilda did so, Sienna smoothed out her cloak.

"Wine?" Sienna asked.

Gilda folded her wings up behind her. "Thank you, my lady."

Sienna dipped one goblet into the cask. "When our forefathers first came to Menagerie they had little experience in growing wine, so it is said. But they could not afford to import it from Mistral and so…needs must. As the stories go, it was pretty rotten at first. But now our chardonnay is equal to the best Mistralian; as the Mistralians could find for themselves if they would only take up the tariffs. Which they won't, of course." She held out the wine-filled goblet. "See for yourself."

Gilda took the silver cup in one hand and downed a draught. It was sharp, tasting of spice and pepper; it burned her mouth, but in a way that left her wanting more. "It is good," she said. "It's excellent, but…I can't claim to be an expert."

Sienna snorted. "Neither can I, although I tasted enough Mistralian while I was in Mistral." She filled her own goblet, and took a small sip. "Very good," she said softly. "If we could only export this…the wealth of Menagerie would increase several times over. Which is why they'll never let us export." She drank a little more. "You have done well to keep what remains of the chapter together."

Gilda blinked. She wondered if she had perhaps drunk more than she thought she had. "High Leader?"

Sienna Khan smiled in a particularly feline manner. "There is a difference between what goes on in the sight of men, and what goes on that cannot be seen. In public, I rebuke you and say that Adam was a great hero of the White Fang, let down by your poor service; in private I say that…Adam Taurus was a fool, and if what I have heard from the girl Strongheart is true his folly came close to treason against our cause."

Gilda stared at her. "But…you-"

"People need heroes," Sienna said. "They bring hope in dark times; and we have more need of hope that most and thus we have more need of heroes. Adam will be one of those heroes; someone to inspire our people and warm their spirits in the cold nights that will surely come."

Gilda frowned. "Forgive me, High Leader, but are all our fallen heroes…created by you this way?"

"They all did at least something heroic," Sienna said, which wasn't really an answer to satisfy Gilda. She drank again. "So it was with Adam. He was a great man once."

"Before Cinder got her claws in him," Gilda spat.

Sienna nodded gravely. "We must talk about Cinder Fall, and what she did. But Adam…he was a fierce warrior, a champion of our race, and it is as that champion that I will see him remembered. Do not mistake me, I grieve for his death. When his heart was brought to me I wept…but for what he was, not the fool that he became. I am afraid that in the eyes of the White Fang you will have to redeem yourself for your actions, but in my eyes, in private…your judgement was sound, and you did well to save as many as you did."

"I saved their lives," Gilda said. "But only you could save their souls."

Sienna smiled thinly. "Leadership is about convincing people that you know the way to success; once you can convince them of that, they will follow you anywhere." She was silent for a moment. "That said, I hope you understand that you cannot lead the Vale chapter. You would be unacceptable at this point."

"I couldn't do it even if I wanted to," Gilda said. "I can't…I can't lead. Those warriors out there were lost until you came."

"That is why I have come," Sienna said. "In all of Remnant I have too few who can lead; Adam was one, and without him…learn from me, and cover yourself in glory before my sight and the sight of your troops, and it may be that when I return to Menagerie you are well positioned to lead the chapter."

Gilda nodded, even as she wasn't sure that she would ever be ready to lead as the High Leader led. "You're very generous."

"I make use of such blades as present themselves to my hand," Sienna said. "Tell me about Blake Belladonna."

The change of subject threw Gilda for a moment. "Blake?"

"She was there, wasn't she?" Sienna asked. "In Mountain Glenn?"

Gilda nodded gravely. "She has joined the Atlesians."

Sienna scowled. "I loved her once. I loved her as dearly as if she were my own daughter. Yet now she has betrayed us, betrayed me, and joined our greatest enemies." Her eyes narrowed. "You understand, don't you? You have a friend with the Atlesian forces yourself."

Gilda's jaw tightened. "Y-yes. Yes, I do. She…she was there, too."

"Would you kill her?" Sienna asked. "Would you repay her treachery with death?"

The thought of Dashie impaled upon her blade would have made Gilda shudder in any other company. "Dash- my friend would say that she isn't a traitor."

"She is a traitor to our people by taking up arms to defend the human supremacy," Sienna said. "But leave that aside, she is an enemy. Would you kill her? Could you?"

Gilda swallowed. "I…I could kill her as easily as she could kill me if our paths crossed."

Sienna stared at her for a moment. There was something sly about her smile. "A diplomatic answer, Gilda. The truth is…the truth is that if Blake were before me now I'm not sure that I could strike her down, even after all that she has done against us."

"Because…" Gilda hesitated, feeling as though she might be on thin ice if she said this. "Because you loved her once."

Sienna nodded. "And because her parents were dear to me once, also." She shook her head. "In any case, we must make our plans for the future. When your forces are rested we will-"

A shout of alarm from outside the tent drew their attention. It was followed by another cry, and another.

"Gilda!" Strongheart yelled.

Gilda lunged out of the tent, reaching over her shoulders for her swords as she emerged into the sunlight to see Cinder Fall standing on the outskirts of the camp, an incredibly smug grin upon her face.

"You!" Gilda spat.

Cinder's smile widened. "Hello, Gilda. Did you miss me?"

Before Gilda could reply – preferably with something sharp – Sienna Khan had stalked around Gilda and slunk towards their uninvited guest.

The High Leader's golden eyes travelled up and down their visitor. "Cinder Fall, I presume."

Cinder chuckled. "Has my fame spread so far already? And you are?"

"Sienna Khan," Sienna growled.

"Ah, so here I was expecting to meet a White Fang leader, when in fact I get to meet with _the_ leader," Cinder said. "Lucky me."

"Perhaps," Sienna said. "Or perhaps I should just take your head right here and now for what you have done."

The air in the White Fang camp hardened. Those who had been dismayed by Cinder's sudden arrival had started to recover themselves, and Sienna's lack of fear in the face of this witch had roused the courage of her followers even as her words had reminded them of the fact that none of them would be sad to see her dead. Some, like Strongheart, were more obvious about reaching for their weapons than others, but all of them were ready.

"Oh, I like you already," Cinder said. "I am sorry about Adam's death. Truly I am. As warriors go he was one in ten thousand. But rest assured that if you stick with me he will be avenged a thousand times over. I am not your enemy. I am a friend to the White Fang, as I was a friend to Adam Taurus because we share a common enemy. You would be well advised not to refuse the gifts I can offer you."

"Gifts?" Sienna said. "Money? Dust?"

"Trifles," Cinder said. "I can promise so much more than that."

"And I could promise a fragment of the moon," Sienna said. "It does not mean I have the power to wrench it down from the sky."

Cinder inclined her head in apparent concession of the point. "Is there somewhere a little more private we can talk?"

 _No,_ Gilda thought. _No, don't do that. Step away and give the order to kill her. Don't go anywhere with her._

 _If you go then you will be lost to us, as Adam was._

"High Leader-" she began.

"I am quite capable of defending myself," Sienna declared.

 _No!_

"I still don't-"

"Then come with me," Sienna said. "And observe. You have no objection, do you?"

Cinder shrugged. "Not at all. Gilda and I get on so well, don't we?"

Gilda bared her teeth, and her hands clenched into fists as Sienna turned away from Cinder Fall.

"Stand down," Sienna said. "Be watchful, but be not afraid. There is nothing to fear."

"Not for us, at least," Cinder said. "Only for our enemies, when our powers combine."

Sienna's ears twitched at that, but she said nothing.

Gilda followed the two of them back into the High Leader's tent, though now Cinder took her place opposite Sienna Khan across the table and the map of Vale. Gilda sat on the right, opposite the brazier, between the High Leader and the corrupter of Adam Taurus. If anything happened she would throw herself between Sienne Khan and Cinder rather than allow another leader of the Fang, the leader on whom they depended more than any other, to be lost to Cinder's machinations.

She took it as a good sign that Sienna didn't offer Cinder the wine that she had offered to Gilda.

Cinder, for her part, didn't seem to notice the lack of refreshment. "I've heard so much about you, Sienna Khan. I'm glad that we can finally meet in person."

Sienna folded her arms. "I have heard much about you as well. Little of it good."

"I am tragically misunderstood by so many people," Cinder replied breezily. "I can probably guess what you've been told already."

"I was told that it was your plan that has cost the Vale chapter most of its strength," Sienna said. "Was that a lie?"

Cinder's expression didn't falter. "No."

Sienna snorted. "Then let me tell you how I see it. Either you actually thought that your plan to invade Vale would yield success, in which case you are a fool and I want no part in further foolishness; or you intended to cost the lives of so many valiant faunus, in which case you are an enemy of the White Fang no matter what you say."

"Adam didn't think I was a fool or an enemy."

"That was his folly, it seems to me."

"Folly? No, that was Adam's wisdom," Cinder said. "Adam was able to open his eyes to the truth, with my help, and understand what the temper of the times demanded of him."

Sienna leaned forwards. "And what does the temper of the times demand?"

"Courage," Cinder said. "Nerve. That we be willing to dare all, and risk all, for the sake of our cause."

"Our cause?" Sienna asked. "You are no part of our cause, human."

Cinder looked mildly affronted. She was a good actor, Gilda had to give her that. "I may not be a faunus, but I think we want the same thing."

"Really?" Sienna said sceptically. "And what is it that you think I want?"

"You want to be strong," Cinder said, with a sudden eagerness in her voice. "You want to be feared." She put both her hands upon the table, and the glow of the burning brazier cast shadows on her face as she smiled viciously. "You want to be powerful."

"That's close enough," Gilda said, as she started to reach for one of her swords. The tent was large enough to draw them.

"I don't want a war with the humans that we cannot win," Sienna said. "I don't want to confront the power of Atlas head on and die in the fire. I don't want to see my followers used as cannon fodder for your advancement."

Cinder stared into the High Leader's eyes for a moment. "Can you snuff out that brazier there with your bare hands?"

Sienna's lips curled into a sneer. "Of course not."

Cinder chuckled. "No. It's too big. You'd only burn yourself. And so it is with the four kingdoms. United, they are a great inferno, too great to be extinguished. But if they can be separated…" she snuffed out the candle closest to her. "Mistral." Then another. "Vacuo." She snuffed out a third candle. "Atlas." Only one candle remained now, and it seemed a frail and fragile thing, flickering alone as the shadows pressed in around it. "Vale," Cinder said, as she snuffed out the light between her fingers.

"And if I don't want to see the world end?" Sienna said. "We still have to live in the world, after all, and I do not wish to deliver my people to freedom from the humans only to see them devoured by the grimm."

"If you play your part the grimm will leave you in peace, to build a new and better world," Cinder said.

"And what makes you think that?"

"I can guarantee it."

Silence descended in the tent.

"What are you?" Sienna asked. "What do you want from us?"

"Not soldiers, you'll be glad to hear," Cinder said. "Not shock troops. I have…less witting friends who will be providing the muscle from now on. After all, why contend against the power of Atlas and Mistral when you can set Atlas and Mistral contending against each other? But I may need your help to…spark the flint from time to time, as it were. Can I count on your aid in the greatest revolution that this world has ever seen?"

"And when your revolution ends what then?" Sienna asked. "Vale…"

"Will be no more."

Sienna stared at Cinder for a moment. "We will do our part," she said softly.

Cinder smiled. "That's all I needed to hear." She rose to her feet. "I believe I can find my own way out. It was nice to meet you, Sienna Khan, and even nicer to discover that you are as wise as your reputation makes you out to be."

"What would you have done if I had refused you?" Sienna asked.

Cinder took pause a while, standing on her feet so close to the tent flap. "People say that Remnant is at peace, but it is not so."

"Humans say that Remnant is at peace," Sienna said. "We know that Remnant is at war between the White Fang and the system of the world that holds us in thrall."

Cinder shook her head. "A sideshow, at best. The real war is between two…two secret societies, light and dark battling for domination of the shadows."

"And which are you? The light, or the dark?"

Cinder smiled. "The important thing to keep in mind is that there is only light and only darkness. There is no grey, no middle ground. There is only room for two players at this table. Anyone who tries to set up an extra seat…they will be crushed, as between crashing rocks. Adam understood the importance of choosing a side. I'm glad to find that you understand that too. Goodbye, until we meet again."

She swept out of the tent without a word to Gilda.

Sienna's fist slammed down into the table. "A part of me wishes that I could have you cut her lying tongue out."

Gilda frowned. "High Leader?"

Sienna growled wordlessly for a second. "Can she control the grimm?"

Gilda nodded. "I think she can, though I don't know how. High Leader…if Vale falls, a lot of faunus are going to die."

"I am well aware," Sienna said. "Which is why…which is why we must make sure that Vale does not fall."

Gilda's frown deepened. "But you said-"

"Politics," Sienna said. "I do not want to defy this woman, especially if she has some power over the monsters of the dark which we know not. That does not mean that I want her to succeed. You heard what she said, if we try to forge our own path we will be crushed. Yet that is precisely what we must do: find a way between the fire of Atlas and the flood of Cinder Fall. Find a way that weakens the Atlesian might that threatens us but does not destroy the cities in which our people live and shelter from the grimm. However hard the road may be we must walk it, but secretly, at least at first."

 _This is why she is the High Leader, and you cannot command the Vale Chapter._ "How?" Gilda asked.

Sienna clasped her hands together in her lap. "I…I don't have the answer yet. But I will find it. For the sake of our people, I have no choice."


	131. Boots on the Ground

Boots on the Ground

"Look on the bright side, Jaune," Sunset said. "At least this time we're being air lifted into the Emerald Forest, not catapulted in."

"Uh-huh," Jaune managed to force the words out from between his lips, lips that were otherwise clenched tightly together.

Pyrrha put a hand on his shoulder. "We're almost there."

Jaune nodded, even as he gave her a grateful glance out of the corner of his eye.

"Just think," Ruby said. "This will be your first chance to try out the new and improved Crocea Mors. Are you excited? I'm excited to see you try out all the cool stuff we came up with!"

Jaune smiled with his mouth closed, and tried to nod in such a way as to convey that he was indeed excited without actually having to open his mouth.

At least that was what Pyrrha thought he was trying to do.

Besides being the first time Jaune was using his new weapon in the field – or anywhere else for that matter – it was also his first time wearing his new armour in the field or anywhere else, for that matter. Although Pyrrha was aware that she didn't have a lot of room to talk – and that room that she had was on the basis of her exceptional skill, not on the greater practicality of her outfit, which to be honest had been designed with an eye on the aesthetics more than anything else – Jaune's old armour had seemed a little more like costume armour than anything that might keep him alive if his aura broke (or if he depleted it trying to replenish everyone else's auras or by reckless abuse of his semblance): with no plackart the cuirass left his belly completely exposed, and there was almost nothing on his back and nothing whatsoever on his legs. And unlike Pyrrha, Jaune couldn't rely on exceptional speed or agility to make up for the absence of protection. So Pyrrha had been secretly glad – secretly because she had been afraid to tell him in case he took offence or thought her a hypocrite – when Jaune had decided to not only upgrade his weapon but his armour too.

He looked…well, if it didn't make her sound too foolish she thought he looked like a knight in shining armour. A manica of segmented plates that ground together when they moved protected his sword arm from the hand up to the paudron on his shoulder; his shield arm was a little less well protected, with only a vambraces and spaulder, but then he would ordinarily have a shield on that arm; a segmented cuirass, divided into the various different bands and sections for greater ease of movement, protected so much of his body now that there was scarce any of his hoodie to be seen below the neckline; and for his legs he had taken inspiration from Pyrrha herself, and armoured them in a pair of greaves, cuisses and poleyns.

He looked every bit the hero that Pyrrha still believed he could become. Only a helmet was missing, and that…she liked being able to see his face.

The engines of the Bullhead roared as it carried Team SAPR to their designated landing zone, a clearing a short trek from their first objective. They hadn't had a huge amount of explanation yet as to the nature of the mission itself, but what they had been told made it seem quite straight forward: they were being set down as close to the objective as the terrain allowed, and they would have to make their way to two positions in turn. Killing any grimm they encountered along the way, obviously.

"So, why did Professor Ozpin call us back from vacation early?" Ruby asked.

Sunset smirked. "Isn't it obvious? It's cause we're so awesome we're indispensable. The professor can't get by without us."

"Didn't you say the only other students still at Beacon right now were Ren, Nora and Cardin?" Pyrrha asked. "It sounds as though we were the only full team available."

Sunset snorted. "Maybe, but my explanation sounds a lot better."

Pyrrha smiled slightly, and shook her head. Sometimes she worried that their team leader had spent too much time around Rainbow Dash.

The Bullhead descended to just above the level of the trees, hovering over a small clearing at the base of a set of modest cliffs that, while not especially large, were nevertheless sheer enough that they formed a natural alleyway through the forest, a small valley where a path had been cut through the trees, although what the path was supposed to lead to on the other side Pyrrha really couldn't have said.

"I think this is where we get off," Sunset said, before she became the first of the team to leap down from out of the Bullhead to the ground. Ruby followed, with Pyrrha and Jaune going after – as he wasn't completely used to his armour yet, Pyrrha used a little touch of her semblance to steady him as he landed.

"Better now?" she asked gently.

Jaune took a deep breath. "Much better, yeah."

Pyrrha smiled, as she pulled Milo from over her shoulder and swung Akuou onto her arm.

Sunset checked – once again, having already checked before they got on the Bullhead – that all the chambers of Sol Invictus had a round in them. "Okay, is everybody ready?"

"Shield up, shoes tied," Jaune said, as he drew his sword and unfolded his sheath into a shield. "Ready to roll."

Sunset grinned. "Okay. So, we didn't get much of a briefing on this before we got here, but apparently-" she pulled out her scroll, and unfolded it to reveal a map of the area. "The first security platform is about here, which doesn't seem too far away. And Professor Port will be in contact if we have any questions. So for now, let's just all enjoy a mission without Salem or Cinder or the White Fang or any of the other complications that we've had in our lives. Just the four of us, a place to go, and a bunch of grimm unlucky enough to get in our way. A nice, simple assignment." She hesitated. "And let me also say how glad I am that you were all here for this because I did not want to go out with Cardin again. I…only want to go on missions that you guys are a part of. So let's go show everyone why we work so well together, okay?"

Ruby pumped one fist. "Let's go Team Sapphire!"

Pyrrha led the way, down the little valley cut into the forest. Pots and amphorae as tall as she was or as broad as a creep littered the path and the trees on either side, overgrown with vines and half-obscured by bushes. She wondered idly what they had been used to hold – wine, olive oil, garum, something else altogether – and why they had simply been left here, abandoned in a forest like this.

 _I suppose it wasn't a forest when it was abandoned._

 _But even so, why would they just leave so many things lying around like this?_

The dirt path down which she had led the team surprised her by transforming into a paved road, covered with regular square stones that were slowly being worn away, more by the elements than by any regularity of foot traffic as far as she could see. Pyrrha put her curiosity aside for a moment as reached the edge of that road, which led to another cliff and another – much larger – drop down in the level of the land.

Below her was spread out a large flat basin of land, with a circular stone courtyard set in the centre of it, and half-crumbled pillars and the remains of walls dotted here and there throughout along with more of the abandoned urns and amphorae that Pyrrha had seen up above. All of the ruins were weathered, worn and overgrown as trees grew tall around the edges of the basin, and blue butterflies fluttered amongst the brightly coloured flowers which grew in clumps here and there.

None of which was anything like as important as the score or so of creeps sunning themselves lazily upon the stone courtyard, absorbing the heat both from the sun and the hot stone as their armour plates began to sizzle in the sunshine.

She could hear them making contented snuffling noises from here, but she knew that wouldn't last long once Team SAPR descended amongst them.

"Get ready," she murmured, as she knelt at the edge of the cliff. "Enemies nearby."

Sunset knelt beside her. "So I see," she said. "But I think we can take them. Hey, Jaune, now that you've got a bunch of cool new modes for your sword why don't you go down there by yourself and show us how it's done."

"Very funny," Jaune said. "Ruby oughtta stay up here and give us covering fire."

Sunset nodded. "Good call."

Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose into its full and imposing length, and used the blade of the scythe as a stand to brace it on the ground as she cocked the rifle and took aim. "You got it."

"Okay then," Sunset said. "Pyrrha, Jaune, let's go."

Ruby had fired the first shot as soon as Sunset leapt off the cliff, blowing a creep's head clean off while Pyrrha and Jaune were still descending.

She shot a second one as the herd – or pack or swarm or whatever the technical term for a large group of creeps was called – was starting to wake up, growling and snarling as they picked themselves up and started to waddle towards their attackers, snapping their jaws and waggling their tails as they came.

When she was a very young girl, and her only experience of grimm had been pictures in books, it had been the creeps that had frightened Pyrrha the most; something about their heads, about the designs on their bone masks, about the way that they seemed crueller and more vicious than other grimm.

Now that she was a huntress in training and had some experience under her belt, she knew much better. They tore through the creeps, aided by Ruby's excellently directed covering fire. Though more creeps sprang up from out of the ground all around them, though the grimm came for them in threes and fours, though the monsters vastly outnumbered them and sought to drive them apart and get them alone, nevertheless the huntsmen shredded them and turned them all to ashes.

The only time when Pyrrha felt at all nervous was, towards the end of the fight, she saw that Jaune had managed to attract the attentions of an alpha creep.

Sunset was dealing with five or six creeps, her sword ablaze and magic flying from the palm of her hand (she had left her rifle buried by the bayonet in the slowly disintegrating body of another alpha); Ruby was sniping some more creeps that looked as though they might try burrowing up the cliff to get to her. Pyrrha, who despatched the last nearby creep with a single swing of Milo in sword form, could have gone to Jaune's aid, she was the only one who could have gone to him.

And she yearned to do it. Her whole body trembled with the urge to rush across the basin to his side and deal with the grimm herself. Her heart was in her mouth, and her mouth was framed with a look of dismay as the alpha grimm approached him.

But she did not move. She couldn't move, just like she couldn't let him know how afraid she was for him in the face of this challenge. If she did…if she saved him…if she acted as though he needed her to save him even now, after how far he'd come and all that he had done then she would only confirm all of his worst fears and insecurities regarding himself.

This was something she had to let him try.

Unless he got into real trouble of course, she wasn't about to let him get hurt. She shifted Milo into rifle mode and hoped that she was being surreptitious about it.

Jaune and the alpha creep squared off, and Pyrrha was glad to see that however scared he might have been – and he looked a little nervous – he hadn't forgotten the lessons she'd been teaching him. His stance was good, his footwork was correct, and he was holding his shield properly.

The creep croaked harshly, and thumped its tail upon the ground before it lunged for him, jaws opened wide.

Jaune yelled as he hit the grimm in the face with his shield. The creep grunted as Jaune forced its head sideways, following up with a slashing stroke that sliced into the grimm's shoulder. The grimm shrieked, and pushed forward off its stubby legs, forcing Jaune back with the sheer weight of the bulky creature pushing against him. He thrust his sword forward, and at first Pyrrha thought he had missed. Then a burst of white ice dust shot down his blade to bury the creep's left foot in an expanding shard of ice that stuck the monster fast even as it caused it further pain.

Jaune shouted again as he slammed his shield into the alpha's face once again and began to hack at its neck. Pyrrha half-expected to see him using his semblance to strengthen his arm, but to his credit he had the wisdom to refrain, and used only the strength that was in his arm as he hacked and hacked until he had hacked off the monster's head.

Pyrrha's expression of concern turned into a proud smile to rival the sun for brightness.

 _I'm so sorry, Jaune. I should have known you could do it._

It didn't take long after that to clear up the remaining creeps, and when they were all reducing to smoking corpses on the ground Ruby was able to leap down from her cliff-top vantage point to rejoin the rest of the team.

"Nice work, students!" Professor Port's jovial voice boomed out of the earpieces linked to their scrolls. "Now, as you know, we've been having some trouble with the security network in this area. We need boots on the ground to investigate. That means you, team. Onward!"

Pyrrha switched Milo back into spear form as she looked around. "You know, it's almost a pity that we have to fight in a place like this." She turned in place, looking all around her, taking in the walls and the columns, the courtyard of stone on which the grimm had rested to take advantage of the summer heat; at the basin mouth, leading out towards their objective, the skeleton of what had once been some kind of stone arch stood, there had been an inscription engraved upon it once, but time had worn it away to such an extent that Pyrrha couldn't read it. In the grass, she could see the remains of a mosaic showing the hunt for a monstrous wild boar (an actual boar, not a boarbatusk); one of the columns was carved with images of feasts and hunts and parties. "These ruins are so beautiful." She sighed, a sigh that had in it both appreciation and a sense of the forlorn that such beauty had descended into ruin.

"Ah, yes," Professor Port declared, in that voice he had that would have done very well on the stage had he chosen a different destiny. "The Emerald Forest is filled with the ruins of ancient kingdoms. Keep an eye out for artefacts. Doctor Oobleck is always looking to expand Beacon's collection."

"Then perhaps Doctor Oobleck should have come out here himself," Sunset said. "I'm keeping this."

Pyrrha looked around. Sunset stood by the base of a tree, and seemed to have found something by the roots which she was currently holding in her hand. Actually, on slightly closer inspection – as Pyrrha took a couple of steps closer towards her team leader – it turned out to be two somethings. Two chess pieces, both white, a knight and a pawn both carved out of some kind of horn or bone. The knight had a tiny red amethyst for an eye, and a socket on the other eye hole to show where a second amethyst would have gone; the pawn was biting the top of his shield; though they were both quite badly knocked around, and had obviously seen better days, there was nevertheless something quite charming about the pair of them.

"Cool, huh?" Sunset said, as she slipped them into her jacket pocket.

"If you like old stuff, I guess," Jaune said.

"Yes," Pyrrha murmured. "That's…that's all that it is now, isn't it? Old stuff."

"Pyrrha?" Jaune asked. "Are you okay?"

Pyrrha looked around once again, at the arch and the columns and the crumbling wall of stone, at the mosaic and the courtyard and all the rest. "What do you think this place was? Who do you think built it? And what do you think happened to them?"

"I…I couldn't say," Ruby admitted. "I don't pay too much attention in history class."

"That wouldn't help anyway, Oobleck's classes focus on modern history," Sunset said. "I…" She took a step back, and seemed to be quite intently framing everything in her head. "Do you think…a palace?"

"A palace?" Jaune said.

"Yeah," Sunset said, and as she spoke she clapped her hands together and a wave of green light spread out from her body, engulfing the entire basin and clearing away all the remaining detritus of their battle with the grimm as she conjured ghostly, ethereal images from out oft the air and from her own imaginings: the columns repaired and completed, set above with a high vaulted ceiling painted with images of winged figures dancing amongst the clouds; a raised dais where she had found the chessmen, where the high lords and ladies sat and ate and talked and, yes, played chess; a throne for the king, and petitioners kneeling before him in the stone circle. Rows of tables leading to the archway at the end of the basin.

"Wow," Ruby murmured.

"I've got no proof, obviously," Sunset said, as she pried her hands apart and the vision faded from their sight. "But it could be. It would be cool if it was."

"And a little dispiriting," Pyrrha said. "If this was a king's hall…who now remembers the king or the kingdom. Who now remembers what this place was? Whatever this place was it is now nothing more than a forgotten ruin." Her brow furrowed for a moment. "Is that what is to become of all of us, in the end? Will Beacon, Vale and Mistral all fall to ruin and all that we did to protect them will be forgotten?"

Sunset sat down on one of the crumbling columns. "Our very names erased, until none remember how bravely we fought."

"Or how fiercely we loved," Pyrrha whispered.

"What a dispiriting thought to bring up," Sunset said. "I would dearly love to say that it's impossible, that we will do deeds of such magnificent grandeur that they will endure in the memory of man while man has a memory…but I'm sure whoever used to live here thought the same thing."

"Does it matter?" Jaune asked.

Sunset looked at him. "Of course it matters. What's the point of being a hero if nobody remembers that you were one?"

"As long as we help people then those people will remember what we did," Jaune replied.

"Until they're dead."

"Yeah, but by then we'll be dead as well so…so what?"

"It's not about memory, it's about…" Pyrrha paused, trying to find the right words to explain herself to him. "If Vale and Mistral and all four kingdoms are fated to fade out of memory and us with them…if we leave nothing behind us then what have we done."

"We've helped people," Ruby said. "We've saved lives. We've hunted things. We've had some amazing adventures together, and we're still having them. No one can take that away from us, even if they forget all about all of it."

"Then you'd be fine with the idea that one day, a couple of thousand years from now, someone is poking through the ruins of the dining hall at Beacon and trying to work out what it was?" Sunset said. "Or looking at a piece of wall and wondering what dork decided to carve SAPR on the wall and why?"

"Sure," Ruby said. "I mean, at least it would mean there was someone around to look and wonder, right? So long as humanity doesn't get wiped out by the grimm, or Salem, then it's fine that nobody cares about Beacon any more, or that they don't remember what it was…so long as it means that something better came along. Maybe it means they don't even need huntsmen any more."

Pyrrha chuckled. "Yes, I suppose no one can argue with that, can they?"

Ruby nodded, and then suddenly began to giggle. "Guys, I just got it."

"Got what?" Sunset asked.

"What if," Ruby said, stifling more giggles. "What if this whole place was the cafeteria of a school?"

There was a moment of silence before everybody started laughing. It wasn't that funny, and it was historical nonsense, but the sudden injection of the image into her dour thoughts very nearly had Pyrrha in stitches, and the basin rang with the sounds of their laughter for a good few moments until everybody calmed down.

"Thank you, Ruby," Pyrrha said. "Thank you very much."

Sunset got up. "And now, keeping an eye for any more artefacts for our collection, I mean Beacon's collection, we should probably keep moving. Hey, Jaune?"

"Yeah?"

"Nice job on the alpha creep," Sunset said, giving a wink that might have been directed at either Jaune or Pyrrha, it was hard to be sure, before she took the lead heading towards the archway with its worn out epigraph.

They continued on, fighting their way past another group of creeps that had joined up with a few immature young beowolves to assist them in the struggle for survival. It didn't help as much as they might have hoped, and Pyrrha was delighted to see Jaune bisect one beowolf with his greatsword even as it made to slash at him.

"I have to say, Professor," she said. "It doesn't appear that the problems with the security system have allowed a major breach in this sector."

"Hmm, you have a point, Miss Nikos," Professor Port said. "We've been fortunate that no more dangerous grimm have appeared to take advantage of the lack of early warning."

"Or that none of those freaky grimm have shown up," Sunset said. "The ones that look young but don't act like it. These ones are just…"

"Normal grimm?" Ruby suggested.

"Yeah," Sunset said. "And not particularly scary ones at that."

"Fine by me," Jaune said. "I'm still getting used to these new modes. I'd like a little more time to break it in, you know."

"You've got a new sword," Pyrrha said. "But don't forget you've still got your old team mates by your side." _Don't worry, I have no intention of letting you fight one of those green grimm by yourself, or even a beowolf like the one Sunset found._

"Right, if anything worse than these guys shows up we'll take it together," Ruby said.

"Although that doesn't answer the question of why they haven't showed up," Sunset said. "So far we've found two bunches of creeps and a few beowolves. Isn't the Emerald Forest supposed to be full of the creatures of grimm?"

"Don't question your good fortune too much, Miss Shimmer, or it may start to run out," Professor Port cautioned. "Now, you're almost there. Up ahead you'll find a wooden bridge leading into a cave. That's where the security control centre is located."

They did indeed find a bridge, if you could call a few planks laid out haphazardly over a chasm a bridge. Nevertheless, they crossed it however much it rattled as they pounded over, and passed through the cave that they found on the other side.

Dust crystals, growing like stalagmites out of the cavern walls, glowed fluorescent blue, illuminating the cave in azure shades; in fact they provided so much illumination that whoever had installed the security system had felt no need to put in any other lights. The security centre itself was…well, it was…Pyrrha was having a hard time describing it, to be perfectly honest; it was a metal tube on a quadruped, but she couldn't really say more because she had no idea what all the bits pieces were, or what they were called. It just wasn't her area of expertise.

"You know," Sunset said as she folded her arms and glared at the control centre. "I can't help but think that if we were going to come up here to fix a computer it might have been a good idea if we'd brought a computer expert. I mean we aren't exactly Team Rosepetal…unless you know how this works, Ruby?"

"Sorry, I prefer my mechanics to come with grease involved."

"There's some kind of foreign object been placed on the control centre," Professor Port mused.

"Where?" Sunset asked.

"Do you mean the red box with the M on it?" Jaune suggested. "It doesn't look like it belongs with the rest."

"Quite so, Mister Arc."

"See, that is why we need an expert," Sunset said. "I didn't even know that wasn't supposed to be there. You haven't been hiding computer smarts, have you Jaune?"

"No, I just thought it looked weird."

"I feel like I've seen that symbol before," Professor Port said.

Sunset's eyes narrowed. "You know, Professor, now that you mention it, I think I-"

The roar of a beowolf echoed into the cave.

"Never mind," Professor Port declared. "Defend the control centre while I upload the repair diagnostics from here."

"You're a computer expert, Professor?" Sunset asked, before the team could hear more roars coming from the other entrance into the cave. "You know what, you're right, never mind. Jaune, Pyrrha, take the back; Ruby, you and I have got the front."

Pyrrha silently took up her position facing the south-west entrance, nearly opposite the way that they had used to enter the cave. The entrance way was narrow, which would surely help. She switched Milo into rifle mode and raised it to her shoulder, resting her barrel on her shield.

She heard Ruby and Sunset start to fire – the deep booming thunder of Crescent Rose alternating with the higher staccato crack of Sol Invictus – a moment before the first beowolf stuck its head into the cave for Pyrrha to blow said head off.

She'd momentarily forgotten that she wasn't the only member of their partnership with some ranged capability any more when she saw the blasts of white ice dust flying past her shoulder as Jaune tried to support her. His aim was poor, but that wasn't really his fault; it was Pyrrha's opinion that most gunblades were terrible to try and aim with – backed up by the fact that she tried them when she was young, before switching to a weapon that could switch to a purpose firearm mode – if only because the wrist position to try and aim with a sword was so awkward.

"Jaune, wait until they've broken out of the corridor," Pyrrha said. While the chokepoint was useful, once they broke out of it they would do so in such a mass that they would be impossible to miss.

These beowolves were older and more experienced than the young adolescents they had come across with the creeps; they were larger, they had more armour on their bodies and the spurs of bone protruding from the black were larger and sharper; and they were smart enough to have been able to work out that there were two ways into the cave and to launch a coordinated pincer movement. But they were limited by the nature of the entrances themselves, which enabled Pyrrha to empty two magazines into them before they broke out into the cavern proper. As they poured out into the cave Jaune opened fire again, glowing white balls of ice dust hitting the grimm as they flooded out in such a dense black mass that, as Pyrrha had said, he could hardly miss.

Pyrrha stayed close beside him, switching Milo into sword mode rather than spear as the grimm came closer, because it didn't require as much room for her to move as the spear and she wasn't sure that she would have that movement. She slashed left and right, as she took the blows on her shield and lashed out with it to stun the grimm before delivering the coup de grace. Her aim, besides killing the grimm, was to make sure that Jaune never had to face more than a single beowolf at a time; had they been younger and weaker then she might not have been so determined, but these were older grimm, larger, stronger, their bones cracked and their bodies scarred with many battles. Jaune might be stronger now, and he might have better weapons now, but that didn't mean that he wouldn't be in big trouble if he were mobbed by four or five experienced beowolves converging on him from all sides.

He did well against one beowolf after another, while Pyrrha covered his back and his flanks and ensured that he never had to fight more than one at a time.

Curiously, some of these beowolves appeared to have been in a battle quite recently: their armour was freshly cracked, they had new wounds on their black hides, and some of them were even missing forelimbs. Pyrrha tucked the question of who could have done this and why SAPR hadn't known that another team of huntsmen were in the area away for when the battle was done.

The alpha beowolf came last, when most of its pack had been slaughtered already, crouching through the stone passage and emerging into the cave with a roar.

Pyrrha threw her shield at it, striking it between the eyes – between its eye and where the other eye should have been at least, it had a scar and a crack in its mask and no second burning orb – and causing the monster to recoil backwards, seemingly stunned.

Pyrrha didn't wait for it to recover, instead she made a flying leap that carried her through the air, Milo shifting to spear as she flew before she buried it in the alpha's neck. She pulled it out with the held of her semblance, landing on the ground and pirouetting in place to deliver a series of slashing blows across the grimm's belly. A kick to the chest and a shot to the face were enough to finish it off before it could recover.

 _Another victory,_ she thought, as she landed. "You did well, Jaune," she said. "Good work."

"Thanks," he said. "I've still got nothing on you, though."

"Give it time," she said.

Sunset and Ruby had dealt with all of their opponents by now, and Professor Port had finished recalibrating the control centre.

"I'll get some of our staff to see if they can find out anything about that symbol," he said. "In the meantime, you should proceed to your second objective. Excellent work so far, team, keep it up."

Sunset frowned. "I really feel as though I've seen that M before as well. Does anyone remember that?"

"No," Ruby said. "Sorry."

"Did anyone else think that those grimm seemed like they'd been in a recent battle?" Pyrrha asked. "They had wounds that looked almost fresh. Professor, are there any other huntsmen operating in this area right now? Or recently?"

"No, Miss Nikos, you're the first to enter this area in about a month," Professor Port said. "If there is someone out there hunting grimm in the Emerald Forest they're not known to us. If you find them, congratulate them on their bravery; it takes true grit to venture into a grimm infested forest and hunt the enemies of mankind without backup."

"That's assuming they're still alive when we find them," Sunset muttered. "It might be brave but that doesn't make it smart."

They didn't find any rogue huntsman or team of huntsmen battling grimm in the area on their own account. More to the point, once they exited the cave and proceeded through the verdant eaves of the forest, they didn't find much in the way of grimm either. A couple of boarbatusks lurked amidst another cluster of ancient ruins, dwelling amidst the debris of a kingdom so ancient that even its name had vanished from the history books, but that was it. Other than those two creatures, whom they dealt with swiftly, the Emerald Forest – or at least this part of it – was devoid of the monsters who made it their home. Not devoid of life, certainly – butterflies fluttered above the flowers while bees buzzed past them; flies seemed drawn to the huntsmen as they made their way down the old dirt pathways; squirrels darted up the trees and across their path more than once – but devoid of grimm in a way that was remarkable, and remarkably disconcerting in some ways. Pyrrha began to wonder if there was some very old and intelligent grimm stalking them, waiting for them to enter some kind of fiendish trap.

This foreboding feeling stayed with her as they emerged into more ruins, some kind of wide building – another palace, perhaps? Or another dining hall? – overlooking the cliff edge. It was a true cliff this time, Pyrrha didn't want to try and guess how long the drop was, and the presence of stone railings suggested that whoever had raised the house – of which only a interconnected stone archways and a couple of stone roof beams remained – had built it so that they could come out onto the wide balcony and look out across the magnificent vista.

Jaune whistled. "Quite a view, huh?"

"Echo!" Ruby yelled, as loud as she could, and beamed as her own voice was hurled back at her from below.

It was a view, to be sure: the tall tower, like a wizard's tower from some old storybook, rising up from out of the sea of trees; the winding river that cut through the landscape, and the mountains that nestled along the river's bank, large enough but at the time mere foothills to the truly mighty peaks that lay beyond; the ancient trees that grew so tall that they were almost reaching the balcony where SAPR stood, their leaves rustling in the gentle summer breeze.

It was a beautiful view, and yet Pyrrha found that her ability to appreciate it was being hampered by this sense of wrongness.

"Does it seem too quiet to anyone else?" she asked.

Sunset turned away from the view, and leaned upon the ancient balcony rail. "I know what you mean, but if the grimm were waiting for their moment how come they haven't reached it yet?"

"Because they know there's a better place waiting?" Pyrrha suggested. "And is there an alternative?"

"There really aren't that many grimm around here," Ruby suggested. "It could happen."

"Whichever the answer is we won't find it here," Sunset said. "If there is an ambush waiting then we'll deal with it; just like we've dealt with everything else fate has thrown our way."

As they moved a little further on, to an old stone bridge from ages past, the chances of an ambush decreased a little in Pyrrha's eyes as they came across the residue of a battle, quite possibly the same battle that had given those beowolves the injuries that had perturbed her earlier.

But it was not a battle against huntsmen, but against robots, robots of a kind that she had never seen before – not that she had much experience with robots, but after two operations alongside the Atlesians she could spot the difference between the new knight class, the older model that didn't have a name as far as she knew, and the large paladins that were piloted into battle – robots that had been left in pieces strewn across the stone road that led to the bridge and to the bridge itself. Some of the robots were red, some were white, and all of them – and Pyrrha proved this by levitating a cluster of different parts into something that resembled what one of the robots might have looked like intact – were larger than a man by a considerable degree. She and Jaune were the tallest members of the team and yet these robots were about twice their size. She'd never heard of giant androids before.

Ruby folded Crescent Rose away and tucked it behind her back as she picked up a gun that one of the destroyed androids had left behind. She cooed over it as he turned it over in her hands, always pointing the large barrel down towards the ground while her fingers ranged over the weapon, searching for something.

"Ah, here it is," Ruby declared triumphantly, as she did something that caused a blocky magazine to eject from the back of the gun, followed shortly after by a tube of some description.

"Woah," Ruby said. "Guys, I think this is a combined minigun and grenade launcher! That is so cool! Only…"

"What?" Sunset asked.

"Who'd give a robot a gun this neat?" Ruby asked. "Atlas only gives theirs the basic rifles, right? This…I dunno, I could see a huntsman with a gun like this."

"Perhaps it belonged to a huntsman," Jaune suggested. "One huntsman using robots to back himself, or herself, up."

"There's no sign of them," Sunset said. She knelt down on the bridge amidst the android components. "So, here's what I think happened. These robots are sent to hunt down grimm. We can't say why, but why else would they be here? And they do so, they cleanse the area of grimm, that's why we haven't see that many of them around. Until they come across a pack of beowolves; these beowolves are old and experienced, and they're able to outwit the droids and take them out, but not without cost. Those are the same ones that attacked us, that's why they were wounded."

"Makes sense," Jaune said. "But doesn't explain why anyone would sabotage the security systems."

"I never said that I had all the answers," Sunset said, as she rose to her feet. "Maybe we'll find them further along."

The evidence – or rather the continued lack of any grimm presence to spoil the virgin countryside – seemed to bear out Sunset's hypothesis as they headed towards their second objective, another control centre. This one was placed atop a raised stone platform that must have served quite a different purpose back when this place was a flourishing city. Pyrrha couldn't help but wonder what had happened to everyone who had once lived here, and why they had all abandoned their homes in this way. Had the grimm overrun the place? It was hard to see what else could have caused a whole sprawling city to be abandoned like this.

She guessed that the several large cages, each one big enough to hold an ursa in them if required to do so, with wire meshing in between the glass or plastic of the walls and that elaborate M symbol stamped upon them were not part of usual aesthetic.

"Cages?" Ruby asked. "Was someone trying to capture grimm? But everyone knows that grimm don't survive in captivity."

"I don't know about that but I know where I've seen that symbol before!" Sunset yelled, as she pulled out her scroll. "Blake!"

"The symbol belongs to Blake?" Ruby asked.

"No," Sunset said. "But Blake hasn't been sitting around all the time in Atlas; she's had an adventure of her own." She opened up her scroll, and began to scroll through the various options. "Faunus were being kidnapped and why didn't I remember this until now. She sent me some pictures, here, look at these." She held out her scroll to Ruby, who took it from her unprotesting hands. Pyrrha and Jaune gathered around, looking over Ruby's shoulders as she scrolled through the awful images of a twisted scientific facility where dead faunus lay on tables, hooked to machines, while the walls bore the same M that was on the cages and on the devices that were interfering with the forest's security systems.

Jaune made a sound as if he was going to be sick. Pyrrha could understand why. This was rather upsetting to look at. "Who could do such a thing?"

"Keep going," Sunset said.

"I'm not sure if I want to," Jaune said.

"You've seen the worst," Sunset said.

Ruby scrolled on, revealing pictures of cages exactly like the ones scattered around the control centre here.

"These cages…they were putting faunus in these?" Ruby asked.

Sunset nodded.

"Why?" Ruby demanded. "Why would anyone do something like that?"

"I don't know," Sunset said. "Blake said…someone spoke to her, something about the genetic advantages of faunus, but what they meant…but it's the same symbol."

"Kidnapping faunus in Vale, now capturing grimm in Vale," Pyrrha said. "Why? What's the connection? Who does the symbol belong to?"

"Something called Merlot Industries," Sunset said. "According to what Blake told me, they were a company started in Vale about twenty years ago or so; they were based in Mountain Glenn but when the city fell…everyone died and the company folded. They hadn't been doing so well beforehand. But if you keep looking-"

Ruby scrolled right again. She gasped. "Those look like the robots we saw in pieces."

"Students, I couldn't help but overhear," Professor Port boomed into their ears. "Indeed, I've just had a report that confirms much of what Miss Shimmer has just told you."

"But thank you for bringing the Atlas connection to my attention, Miss Shimmer; I had forgotten."

"Professor Ozpin?" Sunset asked.

"Indeed," Professor Ozpin said. "I'm afraid that I must make a request of the four of you: given the Merlot Industries connection it makes sense to continue the investigation into this mystery in Mountain Glenn, and given your experience there…I am sorry to ask this of you."

"It's alright, Professor," Pyrrha said. "We'll go, and get to the bottom of this, won't we?" she asked, looking at her team-mates.

"Sure we will," Ruby said.

"I kind of want to find out the answers to all this," Jaune said.

Sunset smirked. "It beats sitting around in the dorm room, I suppose."

"Excellent," Professor Ozpin said. "I'll have a Bullhead loaded with supplies and sent to your location."

"Thank you, Professor," Sunset said. She sighed. "So when I said that this was going to be a nice and simple mission? I really should have kept my mouth shut, shouldn't I?"


	132. Return to the City of the Dead

Return to the City of the Dead

The return to Mountain Glenn was far less welcome than the return to the Emerald Forest had been. Not only did the crumbling necropolis lack any of the beauty that was to be found in the Emerald Forest, but when you stripped the grimm out of Mountain Glenn you were not left with a bright and vibrant stretch of woodland; rather, you were left with an enormous tomb that was slowly crumbling under the effects of uncaring time and elements.

Pyrrha hadn't enjoyed coming here very much the first time, and she doubted that she was going to like the return trip much better.

This place, this monument to the hubris of men and the destructive power of the grimm; this place of death and decay where the streets were interrupted by barricades and the ruins of rusting cars and bushes; this place were the buildings were scarred by battle and where the walls had been holed by the grimm smashing through them…this place seemed to mock them all. As the ruins in the Emerald Forest, the dead bones of a forgotten kingdom had seemed to mock the efforts of mankind, so the ruins of Mountain Glenn – and if anything was going to become a forgotten ruin like those in the forest it was certainly this city, which had already been abandoned and was even now starting to be reclaimed by nature – seemed to mock the efforts of huntsmen and huntresses more specifically.

Here she was, a long scarlet sash hanging from her waist, a circlet gleaming on her brow, wearing armour that was both supposed to protect her and to please the audience watching her fights on pay-per-view; what was it all worth, in the face of this death and devastation and destruction? She had vowed to defend humanity, but what was that vow worth when confronted with the dead bodies they had seen in the police station in the underground city? Many huntsmen and huntresses had defended Mountain Glenn, and every one of them had pledged themselves life, body and soul to defend mankind just as she and her friends had done, but all those huntsmen had failed and fallen and the city had been loss with all of its attendant bloodshed.

Pyrrha's prodigious skill at arms, her sense of destiny, her belief that she had been blessed with great ability in order that she might accomplish some great thing in the world, her desire to protect humanity, her wish to protect her friends who had brought so much new light into her life…Mountain Glenn mocked all of these ambitions. Every shattered window, every open door gaping like a mouth, every darkened building standing like a tomb, everything about this city clad in mourning mocked her for a fool.

 _Give up,_ it seemed to say, with a thousand voices carried on the wind. _Give up your vain efforts and your vainer hopes. Turn your back and run away._

 _No. No, I will not run. I will not turn away._ If she chose a normal life in the end, if she chose to try and find out what normal was, with Jaune, then she would have it be her choice, and not because she had taken counsel of her fears and decided that since the only outcome was failure it was better not to try.

But it was so easy to find cause for despair in a place like this.

She had found herself thinking often about Rouge Arc, Jaune's eldest sister, and about the power that she wielded via those magical geodes that her family had been keeping safe and secret. The power to protect her village. The power to protect her family. The power to so completely resist the grimm that they might as well have been mere myths and legends to the rest of the inhabitants of her sleepy community. Faced with the failure of huntsmen writ in stone and steel, in Mountain Glenn it seemed more than ever that some such power was necessary to truly protect all that she held dear.

 _Four maidens hidden away._ The knowledge frustrated her a little. She understood why the Professor and those who had come before him had come to the decision that they had – and the fact that one of the maidens had fallen into the hands of Raven seemed to prove the wisdom of that policy – but all the same, the knowledge that there were in the world four beings with such power that, if it were only used, meant that that same world need not tremble in fear before the grimm did frustrate her.

She had learned so much, and seen enough, to tell her that own great prowess was, in the scheme of things, verging on insignificant. It would have been good to know that there were more significant powers they could have counted on in greatest need.

"I really thought we were done with Mountain Glenn," Ruby groaned.

"It isn't looking any better the second time around," Jaune agreed.

"Trust me, this is not my idea of a vacation spot," Sunset said.

Pyrrha smiled. It was good to know that they all shared at least some of her feelings.

Team SAPR had just been dropped off by a Bullhead that was even now flying up and away from them, back in the direction of Vale. An aerial grimm sighting had forced them to be deposited on the ground further away than any of them would have liked. But, with giant nevermores in the skies, the Bullhead pilot had refused to carry them any closer towards their objective – the Merlot Industries corporate headquarters – and so they would have to make it the rest of their way on foot.

"Students, it's nice to finally have the chance to work with you in some fashion," Doctor Oobleck said through their earpieces. "Miss Rose, I hope that your performance in the field is better than your grades on some of your papers."

Ruby laughed nervously. "Yeah, uh, I-"

"We won't let you down, professor," Sunset said, in a firm tone that brooked no dissent and didn't seem to particularly acknowledge that Doctor Oobleck had been joking. "Now that we're here, you can count on us to get the job done."

"Glad to hear it, Miss Shimmer, I'd expect nothing less from such an up and coming team. Oh, and its Doctor Oobleck."

"Sorry, Doctor."

"Now, you're aware, old Merlot Industries technology was found interfering with our security systems; combined with the fact that it was also involved in some rather dastardly kidnappings in Atlas is very troubling. The use of Merlot technology might be nothing…OR IT MIGHT BE EVERYTHING! Which is why Professor Ozpin feels that it is worth investigating the old Merlot Industries headquarters in the centre of the city. I've uploaded a map to your scrolls, unfortunately I can't guarantee being able to walk you through this; so far out from Beacon communications are spotty. We're using an Atlesian transponder to boost the signal but it might not be effective for long."

"Is there any indication on how many grimm are left in the city?" Pyrrha asked. "It seemed like a lot of them followed us down the tunnel, but…" _It seemed at the time like the city must be emptying of grimm to try and force the Breach, but was that actually the case? Have more come back since? How infested or not is the city at the moment?_

"Is the city still crawling with grimm?" Sunset asked.

"Atlesian forces remained in Mountain Glenn for a week after the Breach and in that time they didn't report any new grimm moving into the city," Doctor Oobleck said. "However, they also reported that two patrols into areas around the Merlot building failed to return, which suggests-" he broke off in a burst of static.

"Doctor Oobleck?" Pyrrha asked.

"Students, can you hear me?"

"We can now," Sunset said.

"As I suspected, the communications are…try and boost…good luck out there. Try to come back…uncomfortable parent teacher conference."

"What was that about a parent-teacher conference?" Jaune said.

"I think the essence was 'don't die'," Sunset said. "And with that being said…" she pulled out her scroll and consulted the map that Doctor Oobleck had sent them. "It's this way," she said. "We can cross this bridge and be right on top of it."

But first they had to make their way down a wide, spacious boulevard, the kind that had trees planted down the centre of a road with enough space for two lanes, and the kind that probably would have been home to upmarket shops and somewhat expensive restaurants when the city was at its brief but thriving peak.

Now the tables at the restaurants had been smashes, the doors and windows had either been broken down by grimm or had decayed, and the only things that inhabited the place now was the pack of beowolves who had obviously not followed the train down the tunnel to their deaths in the breach as they broiled out onto the boulevard like angry bees as soon as SAPR set foot there.

Fortunately there were only a score of them, with no visible alpha to lead their group – although there were a few who were big enough to look as though they might have ascended to that position had fate not condemned to death at this time and this place – and they were dealt with, if not without a little sweat at times. The combined fire of the four huntsmen downed several before they even got close enough to try and use their claws – Ruby in particular planted Crescent Rose into the ground and was responsible for taking down a third of the monsters with her bullets alone – and once they did their teeth and claws did not avail them. Sunset impaled one through the chest with her bayonet, bashed in the skull of another and then extended her bayonet outwards like a pike to catch a third as it tried to leap upon her from above. Ruby sliced a beowolf in half with a single swing of Crescent Rose, then missed a swing at another that put her in a perfect position to shoot the beowolf at point blank range. Pyrrha's red hair and red sash both flew around her as she danced nimbly through their black demonic ranks, her spear whirling in deadly circles as they fell before her. Jaune used his ice dust to good effect, unleashing it at just the moment when his sword struck home to fill the wounds he dealt with expanding, deadly ice.

And thus were all of the grimm defeated. Would that all battles could be won so easily.

At the end of the boulevard there was a ramp, formed by the rising up of dirt and rubble that obliterated the roadway in a mud and rubble barrier that, although climbable, was nevertheless steep. Pyrrha couldn't help but wonder if it had been created by the inhabitants of the city, in a futile attempt to form some kind of barrier against the grimm.

If that was the case, then it hadn't worked, any more than the much larger and more obvious barrier that they found when, after passing up the ramp and cutting through a sidestreet to reach the old waterfront, they arrived at the bridge that, according to Sunset's map, would lead them to their destination.

Or it would have if it hadn't been blocked; a sturdy-looking barricade of corrugated metal sheets as large as the fronts of houses, collapsed stone columns, concrete blocks, containers, boulders and even a metal sign emblazoned with 'Mountain Glenn' had been thrown up along the entire width of the bridge. There were claw marks on the barricade, scratching the metal and scoring the stone, and now that Pyrrha looked at the bridge beneath her feet she could see gunfire and explosives impacts.

Jaune looked at it pensively. "Do you think…do you think they thought this would hold off the grimm, or was this just a way of buying time until everybody could get underground?"

"Does it matter?" Sunset asked.

Jaune shrugged. "If they thought they could hold off the grimm with this then…it didn't work, but if they were trying to buy a little time then it might have worked, even if…you're right, I guess it doesn't really matter after all."

"This is the most maudlin place I've ever heard of," Sunset muttered. "The faster we can get out of here the better. Pyrrha, do you think that you and I could shift some of this, you with your semblance and me with my magic?"

"We could try," Pyrrha murmured. "But without knowing how thick it is on the other side…it might be better to try a different approach. Could we use the old waterway to go around?"

The bridge on which they stood had been built over Mountain Glenn's waterway system, which had apparently been designed to run through the centre of the city like a river. It had dried up now, no more water flowed beneath them, leaving only a silted up and muddy riverbed with enormous pipes sticking out from both sides. It looked sheer on both sides, but there had to some way of getting in and out, or how would they do any maintenance?

Sunset pulled out her scroll and consulted her map. "You're right, there's a lock not too far away; if it's still open or we can get it open…" She put her scroll away. "Okay then…let's go take a walk down the sewer."

"Just pretend it's a day at the water park," Ruby said, as she climbed up onto the ledge separating the bridge from the dry riverbed below. "Just a day at the water park." She wrinkled her nose. "The icky, kind of gross and nasty-smelling water park."

They all leapt down from the bridge, landing with a series of squelches in the mud that covered the old waterway. That mud quickly spread over the tops of their boots, and since Jaune was only wearing trainers it seemed as though his feet were going to get it especially bad. It might even ruin his socks.

"Okay, this is…nasty," Sunset said, looking down at her feet as they sank into the mud which was now almost reaching her pants. She closed her eyes, and a soft green glow descended down to her feet, enveloping her boots and her ankles in a green light. She stepped out of the mud with a visible effort, forcibly wrenching her feet ouf of the viscous muck that tried to entrap them, and then stepped onto the very surface of the mud, which didn't give way beneath her but bore her weight as though it was as solid as concrete.

"How are you-" Jaune began enviously.

"A variation on the cloud walking spell," Sunset said.

Ruby's eyes widened. "You can walk on clouds?"

Sunset grinned. "Did I not tell you I could walk on clouds if I wanted to? I need a balloon to get up there in the first place but…I'll tell you all about it later, for now let me cast this spell on you all so that we can actually move down this oversized drain before we start to smell too badly. Ruby, you first.

"Uh, guys," Jaune said. "I think I just felt something brush my leg."

Pyrrha stepped towards him, reversing her spear like a harpoon. "Where? Do you know what it was?"

"No," Jaune said, as he looked down at his legs and the area around them. "I just felt something brush my ankle."

Sunset raised her rifle to her shoulder. "And I think I just some of that mud move a little."

"You think there's something alive in here?" Ruby asked, as she contracted Crescent Rose into its stubby carbine configuration.

"I think I'm going to cast the spell on you all and then we're going to run," Sunset said. "Starting with-"

Jaune gave a startled cry as he was dragged off his feet by an invisible force. His sword fell from his hand to land in the mud and sink into the morass as Jaune himself was pulled leftwards and off his feet, his arms flailing as he landed on his back in the mud which began immediately to receive him, the brown ooze rising to engulf him within its murky embrace.

 _Not going to happen._ Pyrrha's shield was on her back, she had one hand free and with that hand she grabbed Jaune's outstretched arm. The characteristic black outline of her semblance enveloped Pyrrha's hand as she latched on to all of the considerable metal Jaune was wearing – all his armour, his belt buckle, even the clips on the pouches he was wearing on his belt – and pulled towards her with all the strength at her command.

"It's alright," she said. "It's alright, Jaune, I've got you."

Jaune winced. "There's something round my leg."

"I can't see it," Sunset said.

"It's there!" Jaune cried.

Ruby began to fire, letting fly from Crescent Rose as the barrel flashed brightly over and over again as bullets thudded into the mud around Jaune's feet, throwing up miniature fountains of muck into the air as they struck home.

"Don't hit his leg," Pyrrha cried as she pulled Jaune back towards her.

"I'm trying not to," Ruby said through gritted teeth. She fired again, pulled back on the lever, pulled the trigger again only to be rewarded with a click that signified the magazine was empty. She frantically reached for another.

Pyrrha felt something nip at the back of her ankle. She half-turned, lunging down into the mud with her spear, but in that moment of distraction Jaune was torn from her grasp and pulled down into the mud.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha yelled, and the black outline of her semblance grew to encompass her entire arm as she reached out for him, searching for metal, pulling it all towards her, everything that she could sense below and out of sight.

A host of discarded cans of pop, soda and beer rose up towards her, but after a moment so did Jaune, breaching the muddy surface with some kind of worm wrapped around his body. It was white, with red patters winding their way around a body made up of a hundred segmented scales with tiny spikes growing out of it. It had coiled its way up Jaune's leg and around his chest as though it were trying to crush him through his aura. He had grabbed the worm with both hands just below its head, and was holding it back as it opened its mandibular maw and tried to bite him. Jaune's face was a mask of concentration so intense it was hard to tell if he even noticed he had been pulled from the mud yet. The grimm worm flickered its tongue towards him.

Pyrrha's expression was as grim as the monsters as she stepped forward, changing Milo into sword form as she did so, with a single stroke severed the worm's head from its body.

Jaune let out a squawk as the dead head landed in his lap, batting it away into the mud. He looked up at her gratefully. "Thanks," he said.

Pyrrha smiled. "Any time." She offered a hand to help him up.

"Uh, guys?" Ruby said. "That grimm…it's not smoking."

Pyrrha glanced at the head that she had just severed. She was confused for half a moment, as the head was starting to disintegrate, but then she realised that the rest of the body – from which Jaune was trying to disentangle himself – was stubbornly refusing to begin turning to smoke.

 _Which means that it isn't-_

A yell from Sunset attracted her attention in time to see her team leader being dragged into the mud, cloud-walking spell and all. Sunset dropped her rifle, her hands scrabbling for purchase on the viscous, cloying surface, her face a mask of thoughtless panic, before she disappeared beneath the surface of the mire.

"Sun-" Pyrrha's shout was cut off by the feeling of something biting her ankle; she whirled, and her spear whirled around in her hands as she slashed downwards with it, across her feet and into the dirt as though she were trying to shovel it out of the way. She was rewarded with a brief sensation of resistance and what sounded like a cry of pain muffled by the mud between Pyrrha and her target, but the moment of satisfaction was cut short when Jaune cried out in fear and alarm behind her.

Ruby's eyes were wide. She fired blindly, this way and that. "Where are they?" she shouted.

Pyrrha responded with deeds, not words. She threw her shield, down at Ruby's ankles, using her semblance to keep it suspended just above the dirt and not sinking into the manky, murky depths as she hauled herself out of the mud with a mighty leap that carried her upwards just ahead of the three worm or snake-like grim who erupted, hissing angrily, behind her as she leapt. Pyrrha landed atop her own shield, standing still only for the moment it took to grab Ruby by the scruff of the neck before she leapt again, concentrating all her aura to her legs for a kick that carried her and Ruby both all the way to the top of the nearest of the large drainage pipes that emptied like puking mouths into the old waterway.

Pyrrha landed atop the pipe, using her semblance to help her balance on the rounded surface, and set Ruby down there as below them the white snakes emerged from the mud to probe the surface where the two young huntresses had so lately been. Akuou, a little muddy with her boot prints on it, flew back to Pyrrha's hand a moment before one of those creatures could close its mandibles around it.

Of Sunset and Jaune there was no sign.

"What about Sunset and Jaune?" Ruby asked.

"I can-" Pyrrha was about to explain that she was going to use her semblance to latch on to the armour that their partners were both wearing and pull them up however hard these grimm might struggle against it, but she was interrupted by the sound of something pulsing beneath the surface of the mud, which began to boil and bubble up, cracking at points to expose flashes of green light. Some of the snakes or worms or whatever they were began to shriek and moan as if in pain, until three of them let out a piercing cry like a heartbroken bird before falling forwards as their bodies began to smoke.

There was a larger bubbling beneath the surface, a brighter flash of green light briefly visible, and then Sunset Shimmer rose up from out of the mud with her arms outstretched on either side of her. Jaune hovered in front of her, looking a little like he was floating on his back in the ocean (and also looking as though he wasn't quite sure what was happening to him) while a ball of emerald green energy surrounded them both, and though the white snakes rose up after them whenever they tested their faces or their tongues against the shield they were repulsed from it with cries of pain.

"Sunset!"

"Jaune!"

Jaune waved nervously. "I'm okay. I think."

Though she was covered in mud and panting slightly, Sunset managed to grin. "Reverse gravity spell, telekinesis on an object this size and a shield. Am I good or what?" Her smile faded a little. "That being said, Pyrrha, teleportation on top of that would be a little bit much, so if you wouldn't mind?"

"Yes, of course," Pyrrha said, reaching out with one hand as the black outline embraced her whole gloved arm. Sunset and Jaune, pulled by her magnetic force, floated towards the pipe where Pyrrha and Ruby had taken shelter, until they were close enough – and high enough – that Sunset could drop the shield and Pyrrha could pull first Jaune and then Sunset to safety on top of the pipe with them.

Then she retrieved Jaune's sword and Sunset's rifle as well.

"Thanks," Sunset said, as she took the mud-spattered weapon. "I'll probably have to clean this out before I try and shoot anything with it."

"Speaking of which," Ruby said. "How many of those worm things do you think are down there?"

"The worms aren't what you need to really worry about," Sunset said.

Before Ruby could ask what Sunset meant, the grimm decided to show them all what Sunset meant. The cluster of worms that had been sniffing around the bottom of their pipe, as if searching for them, suddenly disappeared back down into the mud. There was a moment of complete and utter stillness beneath them, before a much larger grimm arose from out of the opaque depths and it became clear to SAPR that what they had assumed to be the grimm were in fact only the tongues of the grimm itself.

It resembled a slug. An enormous slug that was entirely black, save for the white bone mask that made up a maw consisting of four interlocking mandibles. Miniature white spikes or spurs erupted from out of the black flesh of the slug-like grimm, which opened its mouth to growl as it gazed up at them with four red eyes. And from out of that gaping, growling mouth the snakes emerged, six of them hissing and flicking their tongues as they tried to crawl up the pipe to get at them. They weren't successful – they were too high up – but they kept trying nonetheless.

"What is that thing?" Jaune squawked.

"I don't know," Sunset said. "But it's very nasty."

"But it just made a big mistake," Ruby said, a moment before she leapt down off the pipe and fell face forwards towards the waiting maw of the giant grimm and all its serpentine tongues. "You shouldn't have shown yourself!" She unfolded Crescent Rose as she fell, the full length of her enormous and, to be honest, rather magnificent weapon unfolding like its namesake unfolding its thorns, and as she descended on her foe Ruby swung her scythe with all the strength at her command. She sliced through serpents, bone, and straight through all of the bloated black flesh of the mud-dwelling grimm until she had sliced it clean into two.

Ruby landed on her feet, squelching in the mud as the bisected grimm began to dissolve into ashes.

She turned, and flashed a v for victory sign towards them.

"Ruby-" Sunset began, her voice frantic.

Another of those grimm, this one even larger, erupted from out of the mud, it's enormous maw gaping wide open as it surged forwards with remarkable speed to swallow Ruby, Crescent Rose and all, those bony jaws closing shut around the young huntress as she disappeared from view.

"Ruby!" Sunset yelled.

Pyrrha felt her breath catch in her throat. _No. No, it can't be. Not Ruby._

The grimm sat in the mud, seeming smug and self-satisfied, until something within it began to bulge, and it began to groan and whine and rumble in pain and confusion.

It's groans got ever louder and more pained-sounding, and the bulging on its back became ever more pronounced until the grimm burst like a sausage stuffed with too much meat, the grotesque black body exploding outwards as Ruby emerged from within in a flying leap, Crescent Rose still in her hands as she flew upwards in a burst of rose petals.

Sunset disappeared with a snap, reappearing with another snap and a burst of green light in mid-air to wrap one around round Ruby's neck. There was another green burst, and another snap as Sunset, with Ruby in tow, reappeared on top of the pipe.

Ruby squirmed in Sunset's embrace. "Sunset…I can't breathe."

"Well now you know how I felt!" Sunset snapped. "Don't do that again, okay?" She released her partner with what seemed like great reluctance. "There's a lot more than just one or two of those things.

Sunset was proved right just a moment later as three more of those slug grimm poked their heads up out of the mud and reached up with their worm tongues to try and reach them on the pipe where they stood. Then, being as unable to do so as the first, they all subsided back into the mud again to wait.

 _We're like swimmers taking refuge from sharks upon a rock; they know we have to go back into the water eventually._

"So…how many of them do you think there are?" Jaune asked.

"I don't know," Sunset said. "But I'm not taking any chances." Her hands glowed, and she touched Ruby, Pyrrha and Jaune in turn. Pyrrha felt a tingling feeling, a pleasant prickling like a particularly powerful shower, trickling down her body towards her feet.

"I just cast the variant cloud-walking spell on you all," Sunset said. "When we get down there the mud won't present any problems."

"You want us to go back down there?" Jaune asked incredulously.

"Not yet," Sunset said. "I just don't want to wait and not have the energy to do that later. First I'm going to get rid of all those things."

She closed her eyes, and held out her hands in front of her, over the mud in which the grimm lurked.

Slowly, gradually, a forest of spears began to appear in the air above the waterway; spears of green energy like the ones that Sunset had used against Pyrrha at the climax of their battle. But then she had only used no more than a dozen at most in what had seemed like her final attack. Now Sunset was conjuring scores of them, perhaps more than a hundred in a hovering phalanx that stretched from the bridge a good way down the waterway as far as the earthen rampart that acted as a natural barrier to this section of ravine. Sunset's brown was furrowed, her face wrinkled in concentration, her body was trembling. Pyrrha couldn't imagine what this amount of magic must be costing her.

"Sunset," she began.

"Those things are too dangerous," Sunset said. "I'm going to get them all in one single strike." More spears appeared, joining the tight mass in front of Sunset. It was a phalanx, like one of the armies of old: an unavoidable hedge of spears poised to fall from heaven upon Sunset's enemies.

Every spear of magic thrummed with anticipation and the promise of destructive power as they hung suspended in the air by Sunset's will.

Then Sunset opened her eyes as green as the spears themselves, and the lances of heaven fell to earth with the force of many great thunderbolts.

The world seemed to explode. Pyrrha turned away from the blinding light; she felt as though her eardrums might burst with the roar of the almighty explosion and the dying screams of the grimm that mingled with it; she raised her shield against the mud the erupted upwards in consequence of all the blasts.

And when the air had cleared she contemplated what Sunset had done.

She had churned the earth more thoroughly than any plough could have managed; any trace of placidity about this stretch of waterway was gone. Nothing could live here, and there was no sign that anything did.

Sunset took a deep breath, as a little muck fell out of her hair. "Got them," she murmured, before she fell forwards off the pipe and down to the ground.

Pyrrha leapt after her, but Ruby was faster, and reached the ground before either of them, half-catching Sunset as she fell so that she landed on her feet instead of flat on her front.

"Sunset, what's up?" she asked.

"Nothing," Sunset said, though she was taking very deep breaths. "I'm just…don't expect any more magic out of me today. That really was my limit and a little more." She picked herself up out of Ruby's arms, and straightened up. "But I've still got my aura, mostly, so I'll be fine."

"You seem tired," Pyrrha said, noting the way that Sunset continued to pant for breath.

"Don't worry about me," Sunset said. "Jaune, how are you doing?"

Jaune leapt down to join the other three. None of them sank into the churned up mud as they had done before. "I'll be okay," he said. "Sorry I wasn't more help back there."

Sunset shook her head. "Those things caught us all by surprise. I don't remember reading anything about them." She ran one hand through her hair, then looked disgusted when it came away dirty. "But they're dead now, so let's keep going. The lock shouldn't be too far ahead."

"I'll lead the way," Pyrrha said, in a tone that was far more statement than suggestion. She didn't know exactly where Sunset's, Jaune's or Ruby's auras stood, but as she was the only one who hadn't been seriously attacked by those things she thought it likely that hers was in the healthiest state right now. So she would lead the way, and she didn't intend to brook any argument upon that point.

Perhaps the others could sense that, for they offered none, and Pyrrha took the lead and let the others follow. Together, with her taking the lead, they scaled the earthen rampart that had grown up before them, an accumulation of dirt and detritus forming a kind of dam – or it would have been a dam if there had been any actual water left; they passed beneath another bridge, this one either destroyed in the battle for Mountain Glenn or else simply collapsed until the later and even more powerful onslaught of years. It didn't take too long for them to find the lock that Sunset had identified, a dark metallic gate leading out of the waterway and back into the city proper.

Fortunately the door still worked, even if it did creak open with painful slowness once activated.

Unfortunately, the sound of it activating drew five ursai out of the enormous pipes where they had been making their homes.

If Team SAPR had been in their best shape and fighting condition then five ursai – they were none of them ursa major, only the younger minors – would have been, if not easy, then at least tolerable. Between them they would have risen to the challenge.

But after their encounter with the slug grimm the fact of the matter was that Team SAPR was not in peak condition. Sunset in particular was visibly struggling after her discharge of magic.

Visibly…but not so visibly that Pyrrha noticed it at first. She had taken Sunset's assurance that she was fine too readily, not looked too closely…if it had been Jaune, would she have been more insistent? Possible, perhaps even probably, and Pyrrha wasn't sure exactly what that said about her, Sunset or Jaune. But she did not look closely, not at first. Instead she had led the way in the attack on the ursa who advanced, growling and snuffling, towards them from out of the pipes. Milo spun in her hands and Pyrrha spun too, red sash and red hair alike flying around her as she danced gracefully amongst these demons, striking down first one and then another as Ruby matched her kill for kill.

The fifth had gone for Sunset. Her rifle had been buried in the mud, and couldn't shoot; perhaps the spear extension mechanism was gummed up as well, or perhaps Sunset was too tired to remember it because she didn't use it, she just charged at the ursa with her bayonet pointing at the bear-like grimm.

With one paw the ursa batted her thrust aside, and with the other it swatted Sunset aside in turn, slamming her into the nearest wall hard enough to leave minute fractures in the grey concrete.

Sunset got up, but she was swaying on her feet like a drunken man, and when she drew her sword it trembled in her hands as though the black blade had suddenly become too heavy for her to bear the weight.

The ursa stomped towards her.

Jaune threw himself between Sunset and the ursa with a defiant shout. The ursa roared back as it swiped at him with his paw. Jaune's shield began to glow with the brilliant light of his semblance as he took the blow without flinching then, with another shout, he hacked at the grimm in an orgy of wild slashing strokes, abandoning precision for a blunt ferocity that nevertheless put the last ursa dead and on its back in short order.

Jaune stared at the fruits of his labour in surprise for a moment before turning to Sunset. "Are you okay?"

"I think we both know the answer to that," Sunset said softly, as she sheathed her sword. "Thanks."

"You'd have done the same for me, right?" Jaune said, as though what he had done was nothing at all. Pyrrha realised – and berated herself inwardly for not realising it sooner – that that was how he wanted it to be seen and treated; he didn't want to be praised extravagantly for something that any of the rest of them could have done with ease, as though it was some enormous accomplishment for him to reach the level of a reasonable huntsman.

But she was proud of him all the same.

Jaune turned his shield back to a scabbard, and sheathed his own sword in turn before holding out one hand to Sunset. "Do you need me to-"

"No," Sunset said quickly, as she got out her scroll. She brought up all the team's aura levels, and as Pyrrha and Ruby joined them Pyrrha could see the results as clearly as Sunset herself on the transparent screen. It didn't make for particularly appealing reading. Jaune's aura was in the red after that grimm attack and then the use of his semblance against the ursa; Sunset's was in the yellow and likely to get red if she took another couple of hits; Ruby's aura was also in the yellow, but more in the sense that it had just dropped below green; only Pyrrha's aura actually remained in the green.

"If you use your semblance on me you're going to run out of aura yourself," Sunset said. She sighed, and looked up at the sky. She sighed again, with great weariness. "Some of us are low on aura, I'm out of magic, and it's getting dark. So we're going to find somewhere to hold up for the night, get some rest, and get to the objective fresh in the morning."

It was phrased as order, not suggestion and – not withstanding the fact that Pyrrha knew Sunset well enough by now to know, that they all knew Sunset well enough by now to know that she would be more open to suggestion and counter-argument than she let on at times like these – nobody took issue with it just as nobody had took issue with Pyrrha taking the lead, and for the same reason: because it was the right call. None of them had the famous night-vision of Blake and other faunus like her, which meant that if they tried to push on through the dark they would be at a double disadvantage against the grimm with their superior night vision and greater knowledge of the area; and with Jaune and Sunset's auras in the state they were in they could easily find themselves in a very difficult situation if they tried to push on and all for what? Stubborn pride? There was no reason a single night's delay should do them harm.

They quickly found somewhere to spend the night, somewhere close by the lock gate that had just opened for them since spending a long time searching for a shelter would have risked defeating the object of seeking shelter at all: it was a low-rise tower block, one that looked as though it had been incomplete when the city was overrun, which meant that the team did not have to worry about coming across dead bodies or grim reminders of the fate of Mountain Glenn – as though they could forget it – to disturb their sleep too much. The walls were unfinished in many parts, and there was little to the interior besides a bare floor, but even when they climbed to the top floor about eight stories high, there was still a roof over their heads even if there was nothing but steel girders and the empty air on all sides.

They made a fire, acquiring kindling by ripping up a few of the floorboards from the ground floor and using a steel drum that had been abandoned on the third floor to contain the blaze that soon illuminated the darkness like a lighthouse beacon.

They had begun to eat – field rations, some sort of brown goop that was hopefully nutritious since it wasn't particularly appetising – when a burst of static filled their ears and made them all jump.

"Team Sapphire? Team Sapphire, this is Professor Ozpin, can you hear me?"

Sunset put one hand to her ear. "This is Sunset Shimmer, Professor, we can hear you."

Professor Ozpin sighed. "Good. I was hoping that we'd be able to re-establish contact. What's your status, Miss Shimmer?"

"We're not far from the old Main Street," Sunset said. "We got into a couple of scraps with the local grimm, and I decided that it would be best to make camp for the night and continue in the morning."

"I hope that only injuries were to your aura levels," Professor Ozpin said.

"Yes, Professor," Sunset said. "But-"

"I didn't intend to reprimand you, Miss Shimmer, don't misunderstand me," Professor Ozpin said. "Although recklessness is, on occasion, necessary, the situation where caution is a vice is very rare. I'm sure that you did the right thing. I'll try and make sure that communications don't fail again, but I can't guarantee it, and unfortunately I can't promise to stay on the line. Doctor Oobleck will continue to monitor your progress as much as possible, but I'm afraid that I have other matters claiming a share of my attention at the moment."

"Is everything okay back at Beacon, Professor?" Ruby asked.

"Yes, Miss Rose, there's nothing for you to worry about," Professor Ozpin said. "It's simply the impending arrival of the Mistralians and other such matters taking a toll upon my time even before we consider the usual preparations for the Vytal Festival. Don't let it concern you, any of you. Focus on the mission, and tonight focus on your rest. Goodnight, students."

"Goodnight, Professor," Pyrrha said, before the line went dead.

"So it's true," Sunset said. "Mistral is sending an army to Vale."

"Atlas did," Pyrrha pointed out.

"Yeah, but that's Atlas, stuff like that is what Atlas does," Sunset said. "Mistral…that's something else." She frowned, her expression turning into a full blown scowl for a moment for reasons that Pyrrha couldn't quite work out.

"Seems like the world's heating up a little bit, since the Breach," Jaune murmured.

"Unfortunately it does look that way," Pyrrha agreed. _My own homeland, sending thousands of soldiers halfway across the world. Who would have thought that I would live in such times._ They weren't times that she particularly wanted to live in, especially knowing what she knew now. They weren't times that she would have wanted to live in anyway. She wanted to fight for humanity, not see humanity tear itself apart in fighting amongst itself.

"But no matter what happens, we'll still be friends, right?" Ruby said.

Pyrrha smiled. "Do you know who the first huntsmen and huntresses were?"

Sunset said, "The first students at the academies when they opened after the Great War?"

Pyrrha shook her head. "That's when the names were revived. The first huntsmen were soldiers of Anima long ago, in the days when Mistral was still warring with Kuchinashi for control of the local region. One day, these soldiers were involved in a battle so fierce that the grimm were drawn to the emotions of the warriors, and fell upon both armies without discrimination, so that the two sides had to join forces in order to survive. When the fighting was done, only a handful of warriors on both sides remained, and none of them had any appetite to continue fighting amongst themselves now that they had seen, first hand, the true enemy that threatened all mankind without a care for what city you came from, or what banner you fought under. And so those surviving soldiers made a solemn vow: that from this day forward they would serve no king and follow no flag, but would defend mankind from its real enemies in the darkness. They were the first huntsmen, and when the huntsman academies were founded I think the King of Vale must have thought of that story when he chose the name." She looked around, at the three faces of her team-mates, her dearest friends, the love of her life, illuminated by the fire burning between them. "Though we come from different lands, we have no king and we have no flag…we only have one another, and our mission. The quarrels of the nations cannot tear us apart. They won't. We won't allow it."

Sunset grinned. "No king, no flag but one another."

"No king, no flag but one another," Jaune echoed.

"No king, no flag but one another," Ruby said. "Kicking ass and saving the world."

Pyrrha chuckled. "Something like that, yes." _If only it were that easy. If only we were strong enough._

 _If only there weren't things out there so much stronger._

* * *

Pyrrha stood on the edge of the tower in which they had taken shelter; the cool night air lapped at her face as she looked out for any sign of grimm approaching in the night.

So far she had seen nothing, but Milo was in rifle mode just in case.

"Any trouble out there?"

Pyrrha looked over her shoulder at the sound of Sunset's voice. Her team leader walked towards her, although she didn't join Pyrrha on the edge of the floor. Beyond, illuminated by their fire, Pyrrha could see that Ruby and Jaune were both fast asleep.

Pyrrha smiled faintly. "Nothing," she said.

"Good," Sunset said. She scuffed her toe on the ground. "What's bothering you?"

Pyrrha blinked. "Nothing's bothering me."

"Something is," Sunset replied. "I can tell."

Pyrrha stared at her for a moment. She turned away, placing one gloved hand upon the metal girder that should have formed a spine of this tower, that would have of it had ever grown beyond a skeleton. "While we were last here," she said. "They held the finals of the Mistral regional tournament. They like to get it out of the way before the Vytal Festival to avoid being completely overshadowed. That was the first time in five years that I haven't competed in it."

Sunset said nothing. Pyrrha glanced at her once again, and took from her expression that she did not believe that Pyrrha had gotten to the point yet - indeed she had not - and was waiting for her to do so.

However, Pyrrha found herself digressing a little first. Talking about the tournament, even in passing, seemed to have made her just a little homesick. "It was won this year by a boy named Michael."

"New kid?"

"No, he's been around for a few years; he was already on the circuit when I joined it. I didn't watch the tournament - we were rather busy at the time - but I was surprised to find that he had won in my absence. He's the sort of fighter about whom people say 'he's got a lot of heart'."

Sunset stepped closer to her. "You mean they say that because they can't think of any way to praise his actual abilities?"

"Something like that," Pyrrha murmured.

Sunset snorted, and her voice adopted a teasing tone. "So are you jealous? Missing the limelight, is that it?"

"No," Pyrrha said with rather more force than was actually required. "No," she repeated, in a softer and more appropriate tone. "I...I gave up the Mistral tournament circuit - one of the reasons I chose Beacon over Haven was not just because of its reputation as the premier academy, but because I knew that if I went to Haven there would be no end of people telling me I should continue to compete in the regional tournament, and Professor Lionheart would probably make all kinds of allowances for me to do so until I simply wouldn't be able to get out of it - was because I wanted to do something more important. I know you - and my mother - have high hopes for my performance in the Vytal Festival, and I'll put everything I have into winning for our team and our school, but I didn't come to Beacon looking for a grander arena to strut upon. I came here, I wanted to become a huntress, because I wanted to do something meaningful, something that mattered to the world and to the people living in it. But now...there are times when I start to wonder if I was just deluded or arrogant to think that that was possible."

Sunset frowned. "What's brought this on?"

Pyrrha was silent for a moment. "The world is so much bigger than I imagined," she said. "It has so many powers that I couldn't have imagined. Maidens, magic, silver eyes...when I was a girl people used to tell me that I was special, that fate itself had blessed me with rare gifts but really...sometimes I feel like I'm just out of my depth with all this." She smiled sadly at Sunset. "There are times when I really envy you."

"Me?"

"With your magic," Pyrrha said. "You can protect everyone in ways that I'll never be able to no matter how much I want to."

Sunset stifled a laugh behind her hand. "Well that's, um, thanks, I guess, but my magic...if my magic had that kind of power I wouldn't be nearly so worried." She fell silent for a moment. "I had the chance to go home, recently."

"Home," Pyrrha repeated. "You mean-"

"Equestria," Sunset said. "I...I thought Blake might appreciate...never mind. The point is that I could have gone home for a visit but I didn't because...because I was afraid that if I had the chance to take from there some kind of artefact of power to help us here, no matter the consequences in my home...I was afraid I'd do it because some of what we're up against scares me." She looked at Ruby and Jaune, fast asleep on the floor. "I want more than anything to protect them," she said.

"But I'm afraid I'm not strong enough," Pyrrha finished. "Afraid that I don't have the power."

Sunset nodded glumly.

"Being in this place," Pyrrha continued. "Isn't a great help, but anywhere...in this brave new world what do we have to put us in contention?"

"A lot of heart," Sunset flatly.

Pyrrha didn't know whether to laugh or roll her eyes. "So...you think we can win regardless?"

"If holding the line is a win I'd like to think we can manage that," Sunset said. "And if it's true, as Princess Celestia taught me, that the magic of friendship is the most powerful kind there is..." She glanced at Ruby and Jaune once more. "Then we've got a fighting chance, no matter what we're up against."

Pyrrha suspected that Sunset did not wholly believe that, although she might perhaps have wanted to. Pyrrha would have liked to have believed it herself but could not, whole heartedly. She was not as strong as she believed herself to be, or rather there were powers out there that made her strength seem weak and the fact that she loved Jaune with all her heart wouldn't actually make her any stronger when it came to defending him.

They lacked the strength, both she and Sunset, to guarantee the safety of all they loved.

And there was nothing they could do about it.

* * *

They set off again the next day, with their auras restored and Sunset's magic presumably renewed as well. They headed down what had once been Mountain Glenn's Main Street, a sight as dismal and full of reproachful melancholy as the rest of this dead, decaying city. The fading names above the store fronts were often familiar, big chains whose names were known across the whole of Remnant, plus a few that were no longer extant but which Pyrrha guessed had been big in their time. Some of the shop windows proclaimed 'Grand Opening', while others advertised the latest thing that had been popular at the time. Just looking at it filled Pyrrha with a deep sadness, and she was very glad when they left the street behind them and continued towards the dark and looming tower that dominated the skyline.

The Merlot Industries headquarters was a colossal structure, a tall and thin black monolith rising up into the sky like a lance to pierce the heavens. It looked like the sort of place an evil sorcerer would make his home, and Pyrrha would not have been surprised to find that nevermores made their nests in the high reaches of the place. With good fortune they would not notice the four huntresses down on the ground, so far away that they must seem like ants.

They encountered no more grimm as they crossed the open square that surrounded the Merlot tower on all sides. No beowolves, no ursai, and if there were nevermores here they were not interested in team SAPR. They approached the tower quickly, and were halfway there when the earth began to tremble violently beneath their feet, shaking and shuddering as though the surface were about to split in two.

"What's happen-" Jaune began. "Oh my God!"

The tower was falling. Explosions tore at the base of the long black lance and it began to crumble, chunks tumbling down as the enormous building collapse inwards on itself. As it fell, an enormous cloud of dust and debris rose up and began to race towards them.

"Run!" Pyrrha shouted, but it was too late. Cracks were already racing along the ground, spreading out all around them, racing ahead of them; the chances of Pyrrha or Jaune escaping were almost none, but between Ruby's speed and Sunset's teleportation-

"Don't even think about it," Ruby said, as though she had read Pyrrha's mind.

And then the ground gave way beneath them and they fell, down and down into darkness, while the dust cloud from the collapse passed overhead and blocked out all light of the sun.

Pyrrha felt the impact like a heavy blow, bruising her aura but not threatening it, nor even threatening to send it into the yellow according to her judgement. More worrying was the way that she had been plunged into darkness, unable to see a thing all around her.

She leapt to her feet, Milo in hand and Akuou upon her arm. "Jaune? Sunset? Ruby?"

A ball of green light appeared over Sunset's head, illuminating their team leader as she got to her feet. "Here. Everybody over here. Ruby? Jaune?"

"I'm coming," Ruby said. "I see you, hang on."

"Jaune?" Pyrrha called, slightly more frantically now that he had been the only one to not respond. "Can you hear me?"

"Yep," Jaune said, with a groan. "And I can see Sunset too, just give me a sec."

Pyrrha could not restrain a sigh of relief. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, but let's not do that again for a while, okay?"

A nervous laugh escaped between Pyrrha's lips. "Okay."

They regrouped around Sunset and the light that hovered above her head.

"Everyone okay?" Sunset said. "Sorry about the lack of magical solutions, it was too dark and it all happened too fast."

"It's okay," Ruby said. "We're all fine, so it doesn't matter."

"We're back in the underground city, aren't we?" Jaune said.

"Looks like," Sunset said, a she switched on the flashlight strapped to the end of her rifle. "I should still have the under city maps on my scroll from when we were here last time, so we can find the nearest subway station and-"

"Leaving so soon? But doesn't this just make you even more curious? You can't walk away before you've even begun to solve the mystery behind all this."

That voice, that all-too-familiar voice echoed from the rocks all around them. Jaune drew his sword, and Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose.

"Cinder," Sunset whispered.

A flame sparking from nothing in the palm of her hand illuminated the face of Cinder Fall, looking as though it was her birthday and she'd woken to an enormous pile of presents waiting for her.

"Hello, Team Sapphire," she said. "It's such a pleasure to see you again. And I didn't even have to send you an invitation this time."

* * *

 _Author's Note: So, the grimm that attack Team SAPR in the waterway are the grapoids from_ Tremors _, because I thought that would be cool. I make no apologies, especially since as I was writing the chapter I found an artwork from back when Shane still worked on RWBY showing that I was far from the first person to have the idea._

mirzers/art/Graboid-Grimm-Family-566530043


	133. The Enemy of My Enemy

The Enemy of My Enemy

Pyrrha stepped forward, her body flowing like water into a guard with her shield held before her and her spear poised to strike as she place herself protectively between Cinder and her team.

The smile did not waver on Cinder's face as she held up her hand, her free hand, the one that wasn't currently conjuring fire from out of nowhere, in a gesture of peace. "Now is that really necessary? I didn't come here to fight you, after all."

Pyrrha's eyes narrowed. She didn't believe that for a second.

"Then why are you here?" Sunset asked, in a less sceptical, harsh or demanding tone than Pyrrha would have liked. Of the four of them, Sunset had reacted the least and with the least aggression to Cinder's sudden appearance down here in the dark. Pyrrha almost wanted to grab Sunset by the shoulders and shake her while shouting 'You are not kindred spirits! She's a monster and she's dangerous!' But even if it wouldn't have been incredibly rude to have done such a thing this was hardly the time for it now. All she could do right now was worry about the influence that Cinder Fall yet possessed over Sunset.

Cinder chuckled. "Isn't it obvious? I'm here because there's a little upstart fly buzzing around and my mistress has commanded me to swat them. Isn't that why your master has dispatched you here?"

"We're here because somebody has been kidnapping people, and interfering with Beacon's defences," Ruby said.

"Isn't that what I just said, but with a little added righteousness to make you all feel better about yourselves?" Cinder asked mockingly. "You got your assignment from Ozpin, I my command from Salem, is there really any difference?"

"Yes, Ozpin gave us this mission," Sunset said. "That doesn't make our motives the same."

Cinder shrugged. "Doesn't it? Will you at least concede the fact that, of the two of us, the fact that I didn't feel the need to bring my rabble along for moral support makes me a little braver than you?"

Pyrrha growled. "We came together because we're protecting one another."

"Good for you. I don't need anyone's protection but my own."

"Just tell us plainly why you're here, Cinder," Sunset said, in a tone that suggested even she was getting fed up with Cinder and her incessant smugness by now. "Is it the grimm disappearances?"

Cinder's smile fell from her face. When she spoke again it was in a whisper that had a kind of reverence imbued within it. "The Grimm are bound to my mistress and she to them. She hears them singing in her soul, a beautiful symphony of blood and hatred echoing towards her ears from every corner of Remnant while she, like the conductor of an orchestra, holds all in check and maintains all sounds in harmony. But now...now something, someone is daring to alter the music. Voices are disappearing from the chorus, not dying but being severed from her, and when they return their music is corrupted, and they do not respond to my lady's guiding hand."

"The green grimm," Jaune said. "That's not you?"

Cinder looked at him as though he was a kind of cockroach, but she deigned to answer his question nevertheless. "No, those abominations are none of my doing. I'm here to put a stop to them and punish whatever meddling fool dared create them in the first place." Her smile returned. It made Pyrrha a little nervous just to look on it. "Now here's an idea. Since you and I are here on a common purpose, and since fighting with one another would only diminish our chances of getting to the bottom of all this, why don't we work together? Won't that be fun?"

"No," Pyrrha said flatly.

Cinder tilted her head a little. "No to what?"

"To all of it," Pyrrha growled.

Cinder put on an affected expression of dismay. "Come now, isn't there an old Mistral proverb that the enemy of my enemy is my friend?"

"You are not our friend."

"Then you must be my enemies," Cinder said, and as she spoke shards of glass formed into a similar held in her free hand. "And I couldn't turn my back on an enemy in a place like this."

"Wait!" Sunset yelled, and as she cried out a shield of green energy appeared like a protective dome around Team SAPR, separating them from Cinder on the other side. Sunset's hands glowed with magic as she stepped in front of Pyrrha, between her and Cinder. "Just...wait a minute, okay?" Sunset turned her back on Cinder, to face the rest of her team. Her right hand glowed a little bright for a moment. "I've just cast a muffling spell, so she can't hear what we're saying about her. But I think we should consider this."

"What?" Ruby yelled in a high pitched voice. "But she's...she's the bad guy!"

"Not in this case, apparently," Sunset said.

"Assuming she's telling the truth," Pyrrha said. She didn't look at Sunset, but kept her eyes fixed on Cinder on the other side of the shield. Cinder waved mockingly at her.

"If this was a trap that she'd set for us then why not just attack?" Sunset asked. "If Salem is behind the green grimm then why did that beowolf attack the White Fang when no other grimm made a move on them? If this is all Cinder then why the Merlot connection? Since when has Cinder or Salem used androids? And why would allies of the White Fang be kidnapping Atlesian faunus? It doesn't make any sense for Cinder to be behind this one."

"That still doesn't mean that we can trust her," Pyrrha pointed out.

"Do we have a choice?" Jaune asked. "If we say no she's just going to attack us, isn't she?"

"Which proves my point, don't you think?"

"Yeah," Jaune said unhappily. "But she's right...if we fight her here...if something...we might not be able to get to the bottom of this. We've got a mission and right now taking down Cinder isn't it."

Pyrrha didn't like to hear that, but she could understand why Jaune had said it. In different circumstances she might even have agreed with him. But in these circumstances...

"Pyrrha," Ruby said softly. "I don't like this either. I really don't like this and I certainly don't like her. But...maybe Jaune's right. Professor Ozpin is counting on us and if we don't complete our mission then we'll be letting everyone back home down."

"Do you think we can trust her?"

"No," Ruby admitted. "But even if we didn't have to fight her right now...maybe its better that we keep her where we can see her, rather than get ambushed somewhere else?"

Pyrrha still kept her eyes fixed on Cinder, who would have been dead by now if looks could kill. "She's too dangerous," she said. "If she hurt any of you-"

"Didn't you just say that we were here as a team because we'd protect each other?" Ruby asked. "That's what she doesn't get. We'll watch each other's backs; she doesn't have anybody watching hers."

Pyrrha clenched her jaw. She wasn't happy about this. In fact she was incredibly unhappy about so many aspects of this, starting with the way that it put Jaune and Ruby at risk of physical harm from Cinder and moving on to the way that it exposed Sunset to Cinder's baleful influence. But their arguments were sound even if they had failed to convince Pyrrha's heart, and more to the point she was clearly out voted by now.

"Very well," she said, through somewhat gritted teeth.

Sunset looked at her solemnly. "This is going to work out," she said. "No one is going to get hurt, I promise."

"I wish you had the power to guarantee that," Pyrrha whispered.

Sunset frowned, but dropped the shield and presumably the spell as she turned to face Cinder. "The enemy of my enemy," she said, holding out one hand towards Cinder.

Cinder took it graciously. "Is my friend," she said. "This will be a lot of fun, just like old times when we first met. And Ruby Rose, this will be my first time fighting alongside you. I look forward to seeing the young prodigy of Beacon in action." She smirked. "By the end, I might be able to tell who is better: you or the Invincible Girl."

Pyrrha scowled as she stepped closer to Cinder. "If this is a game, if you try and betray anyone on this team then I-"

"You'll what?" Cinder asked. "Don't let your reputation go to your head, Pyrrha: despite what they say, no one is invincible."

"Hey," Sunset snapped. "The enemy of my enemy should stop acting like such an ass to my team."

Cinder was silent for a moment. "Sorry," she said, without much sincerity. "We should move out. This way." She turned on her heel and walked away, her glass slippers clicking upon the black stone.

The enormous quantities of smoke that had been thrown up by the collapse of the Merlot building had begun to clear a little, the black fog that blocked out the sun decreasing to an ugly yellow haze that embraced the sky but permitted enough light to shine through for Pyrrha to see that they had not fallen so far as it might at first have seemed. They probably could, with a little effort, have made it to the surface without the need to find a subway station to help them do it.

But that was not the way that Cinder was leading them. Cinder was leading them deeper underground, where the surface would close in around them and they would be cut off from the light.

It was probably true that the answers they had been sent here to find lay further in, but all the same Pyrrha felt a great desire to gather her team and head for the surface, away from Cinder Fall and away from danger. The fact that they wouldn't thank her for these protective instincts was not enough to stop her from feeling them.

So she could only follow, and watch their enemy - for Cinder was their enemy no matter how she might protest - closely and guard her friends against the moment of betrayal.

The collapse of the Merlot building had opened up great crevices in the earth, cracks leading straight down to the lower levels of the underground city, cracks that might be lethal to fall down if they put a foot wrong. Fortunately, there was sufficient along the ledge of black stone down which Cinder led them that falling wasn't a serious concern.

They found a grimm at the bottom of the ledge, a single solitary creep who had either been separated from his brood or else was the sole survivor of the collapse. The creature's leg had been pinned underneath some falling debris, and it could not extricate itself. But, though it was snapping and snarling at first, when Cinder drew near the grimm calmed down like a horse recognising a trusted master, and it even mewled in what seemed to Pyrrha an affectionate manner.

"Stay back," Cinder commanded, as she advanced along the ledge alone towards the wounded creep. She knelt down before it, scratching its neck and stroking its face as though it were a dog.

"Good boy," Cinder whispered. "Easy now, atta boy."

The creep moaned, and put its monstrous head in her lap. It almost seemed as though it might be crying.

"Easy," Cinder whispered softly. "Everything's going to be alright now. I'm about to make everything better." A glass dagger appeared in her hand, and with that blade she slit the grimm's throat. It appeared that creep died instantly or so nearly so as to make no difference. It didn't even have time to cry out.

Pyrrha could only stare astonishment as Cinder remained kneeling until the grimm had turned to smoke completely, with not a trace of it remaining. Only then did she get to her feet and face the huntsmen.

"You're surprised?" she asked.

"I…I don't understand," Ruby murmured.

"You would have killed it wouldn't you, young huntress? Just as you would kill any grimm I summoned to my aid because you're huntsmen, and all you can see are monsters."

"The grimm are monsters," Ruby said. "They kill and they destroy and they don't care who they hurt. They're a danger to all mankind"

"And those are just their good points," Cinder replied. "I gave that creature a more merciful end than any of you would have done, what else needs to be said upon the subject?"

"Could you summon a horde of grimm at any time?" Sunset said. "Since you brought up the idea."

Cinder stared at them, and smiled, and turned away without quite answering yea or nay to Sunset's question. Clearly she wanted them to stew in doubt and uncertainty.

"Sunset-" Pyrrha began.

"I think I know what you're about to say," Sunset said. "Hang back and I'll speak to her."

"I'd rather do it myself," Pyrrha said.

Sunset's eyebrows rose. "You? Why?"

"Because she needs to understand that we're serious," Pyrrha said, which was about as close as she could come to confessing that when it came to Cinder she feared that Sunset's judgement might be a little out of alignment as she could get without being unpleasant.

Sunset's mouth twisted, but she nodded. "Okay."

"Pyrrha," Jaune said. "Are you sure?"

"Yes," she said. She smiled at him. "Watch my back, please?"

He nodded. "You got it. Always."

The other three hung back a little, letting Pyrrha quickly cover the ground with her long-legged strides until she had drawn level with the more casually sauntering Cinder. Cinder glanced at her out of the corner of one fiery eye.

"Are you here to give me a scolding?" she asked in a voice full of mockery.

"I'm here to find out what you want? Is it to scare us? Or are you trying to goad us into attacking you?"

"I've told you what I want."

"If you really want an alliance then why are you being so deliberately unpleasant?"

Cinder looked hurt. "Deliberately unpleasant? This is me being nice."

Pyrrha quickened her step still further, getting in front of Cinder and placing herself directly in her path. "Why? You could have gotten ahead of us and we might never have known that you were here. So why didn't you?"

"Perhaps for the same reason that I arranged for a karkadann to appear so close to Mistral," Cinder said. "So that I could see what you've got."

Pyrrha's eyes widened. "That was you?"

"You didn't think it was just convenient coincidence, did you?" Cinder said. "Destiny weaves all things, Pyrrha, nothing happens by chance; although someone like you probably thinks it does."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"That you're oblivious and entitled and because the world makes way for you you think that just means that the world isn't crowded. We've met before, you know. Before we were formally introduced, that is."

"You saw me at a party in Mistral," Pyrrha said. "Sunset told me. I don't think that counts as meeting."

Cinder stared at her, and Pyrrha was reminded of Sunset also telling her that she, Cinder, hated Pyrrha with a passion. She was hiding it well, but Pyrrha thought that she could see traces of it hiding in the corners of Cinder's eyes.

It made Cinder's smirk look very ugly to her eyes.

"The Invincible Girl," she said. "The Champion of Mistral; the uncrowned princess; the reborn pride and glory of that ancient kingdom. Imagine what you could have done with your power if you had possessed a will to wield it instead of bemoaning your lot with pathetic self pity and making desperate come hither eyes at that worthless boy behind us?"

"Don't talk about Jaune that way!" Pyrrha snapped.

"You could have been great," Cinder went on. "You could have been someone. But at every stage you've run away from real power, real influence. You'd rather stand alone waiting for somebody to notice the real you than use your persona to help the world you say you want to protect. So the winds of destiny are blowing in my favour now. Watch me closely and you'll see that for yourself."

"I am watching you," Pyrrha said. "Because nothing means more to me than my friends, and whatever you have planned for them I will stop you. I swear it."

"I'd be disappointed if you didn't try," Cinder said. "But I swear that I mean you no harm right now. Not until this interloper is dealt with, and not even then. Not when I'm so looking forward to seeing you shine in the Vytal Festival. I give you my word: my intentions are strictly as I've said."

Pyrrha stood still and silent, continuing to bar Cinder's onward progress for a moment. She was still a way from being happy in the situation, but there was nothing more that she could do.

"I hope so," Pyrrha growled as she stepped aside.

Cinder looked nothing daunted as she stepped past Pyrrha and strode on. Pyrrha did not immediately follow, but waited for Sunset to catch up with her.

"How did that go?"

"She isn't afraid of me," Pyrrha murmured.

"The one time you'd hope your reputation would work to your advantage," Sunset said.

"The irony isn't lost on me, frustrating as it is," Pyrrha said softly. "But I don't believe she means to turn on us here."

"No?"

"No, but she has a plan to do us harm during the Vytal Festival, I'm sure."

"She told you that?"

"She gloated it, or as good as," Pyrrha said. She glanced at Sunset. "I know that you...actually I don't know; I don't understand what there is between you two."

"I'd like to believe that she can find a better way forward," Sunset said. "And that maybe I can help with that."

"Why?" Pyrrha asked. "Why her?"

"You know why."

"You're not her and she isn't you," Pyrrha said. "You don't need to turn Cinder into a good person just to prove that you can be one yourself." She sighed. "I suppose that I must sound very judgemental right now, but are you really willing to risk the safety of Jaune or Ruby in order to pursue Cinder's redemption? I'm not sure that's a risk I can tolerate."

"It's not a risk I'm taking," Sunset said. "Believe me, I get it. I get why you feel like you have to say this, I get what you're worried about it but please, trust me when I say that I would never put this team at risk for Cinder's sake. But...you know how Blake can never really give up on the White Fang?"

Pyrrha nodded silently, thinking that if this was going the place she thought it was going then it wasn't the best analogy Sunset could have made.

"It's like that with me," Sunset said. "Even while I fight her, I still can't completely give up on her."

Pyrrha was silent for a moment. "I...I understand," she said, even though it was a terrible analogy in every sense. "But if she puts this team or our cause in danger-"

"Then we'll deal with it, and with her," Sunset said. "I won't put anything before this team."

"Don't dawdle gossiping, girls, time is slipping away," Cinder called to them from ahead.

"She's being deliberately annoying, isn't she?" Pyrrha asked.

"I'm starting to think so," Sunset said.

Cinder continued to lead the way, oblivious - or seeming to be so - to the way that Pyrrha was glaring at her back so intently that if it were green eyes that were magical Cinder would have dropped dead by now.

"Do you actually know where you're going down here?" Sunset asked.

Cinder stopped, and half turned to face them all. "When I was last in Mountain Glenn, there was a part of the city the grimm would not venture. A nameless fear dwelled there, something they could not properly explain to me. The White Fang soon learned that to send scouts into that part of the under city was also a death sentence. We're aiming for the centre of that forbidden sector."

"You've known about all this since then but you're only investigating now?" Jaune said.

"I've been very busy," Cinder said.

"Busy preparing designs against us, most likely," Pyrrha muttered.

She had spoken so softly that there was no way Cinder could have overheard her, but nevertheless Cinder glanced at her with a look that said that she knew Pyrrha's mind, and agreed with it.

Or perhaps Pyrrha's mind had just been so frazzled by this turn of events that she was seeing things that there were not there and imagining worse than already existed. She needed to focus. She needed to calm down. She was no good to anyone like this, she wouldn't be able to protect her friends if she couldn't be rational.

She started to take deep breaths, in and out, and trusting to her friends to tell her if she was about to walk into a wall or something, she closed her eyes and turned her mind inwards in one of the mental exercises she had been taught to calm herself before a big fight.

She turned her mental gaze within, and in the darkness she sought the inner light of her aura. She found it, a red-gold flame burning like a lighthouse beacon within her self; the shield of light granted to mankind to ward them against the darkness. Infinite in distance to her eyes, the inner flame held her captivated and spellbound, it hypnotized her and burned away her doubts and fears and her misgivings.

She was Pyrrha Nikos; she had trained as a warrior and she had pledged her life and soul as a protector; whatever threatened those who were dearer than life itself to her she would protect them.

"Pyrrha? Are you okay?" Jaune's voice recalled her out of the inner darkness and to the outer gloom, as she opened her eyes to see - dimly, by the pale green light of glowing dust crystals - Jaune's face close by her own, his expression concerned.

"Yes," Pyrrha said, smiling slightly. And then, because he was so close and her will wasn't strong enough to resist, she darted forward to give him a quick peck on the lips. "I'm fine now."

Jaune looked a little unsure about what was going on, but after a moment of surprise he smile back at her. "I'm glad. This...this is all gonna be okay."

"I know it will," Pyrrha said, because she would make sure of it.

They descended further beneath the surface. This wasn't like the parts of the city they had visited on their last trip to Mountain Glenn; this wasn't a city that happened to have been built underground. The passages they were moving through were part of a labyrinth of caves and tunnels carved out of the rock, pat of an eerie subterranean world where ancient creatures might yet dwell...or where new ones might be making their home even now.

Pyrrha couldn't have said exactly how long they groped through such barely more than lifeless tunnels, but eventually they descended - literally, as the rock sloped down towards it - upon a sight more familiar: another railway yard, or a railway stop at least: two raised up platforms, connecting to buildings built into the rock itself so that only the smoothed out fronts distinguished them, surrounding twin spurs of track that ran into the darkness. A few sections of mesh wire fence still stood here and there, though they were not connected now and it was difficult to imagine who would have found their way down here to trespass on this place in any event.

A pair of buffers at the end of the rails signified that this was the final destination.

"I don't remember a stop here on the subway map," Sunset murmured, as with one hand she reached for her scroll.

"It isn't on the map," Cinder said. "Which means that it was private, and maybe even that whoever built it didn't want anybody else to know that this was here. Why?"

Before anybody could answer, a sound from up ahead drew their attention. It was a tapping sound, like something tapping on the metal of the railway track. Like a claw, perhaps.

Milo transformed into rifle mode as Pyrrha aimed it down the track and into the darkness; Ruby buried her scythe blade into the earth between the track spurs as a rest. Sunset raised her rifle to her shoulder, Jaune mimicked Pyrrha in using his shield to balance his sworn on for a better aim and a bow formed out of glass in Cinder's hands.

"A discordant note approaches," Cinder said.

The light beneath the surface was murky, the air was stale and Pyrrha's throat was starting to feel a little sore just from breathing it. Only the green glow of the crystals growing out of the rock tunnel walls, and a few low orange lifts on the railway platforms, provided any illumination at all. But as they waited, two more and brighter glows illuminated the darkness. At first the green lights were all that could be seen, but as both lights and sounds grew closer the creatures making both resolved themselves in the vision of the huntsmen. They were creeps, or at least Pyrrha thought they were; they were larger than the average creep, larger than an alpha in fact, both bulkier and much, much taller with high green spikes growing out of their backs like pilot lights, providing the illumination that had first drawn the eye. Their eyes were as green as the spikes that leapt out of their backs, and from out of their mouths a green glow also spilled.

One waddled - in that they were still creeps, it seemed - down the railway track - tapping its claws upon the metal rail; the other walked between the spurs.

The one upon the track stopped first, regarding the huntsmen - and Cinder - with its bright green eyes.

It opened its mouth to let out a croaking roar.

Crescent Rose's shot echoed in the cavern as Ruby fired. Cinder let a glass arrow fly from her bow. Both grimm were struck, the one shot by Ruby dying instantly while the one pierced by Cinder's dart was only wounded; but both as soon as they were struck began to swell, exploding in a shower of green goop that, thankfully, was too far away to touch them.

"So they do that too," Ruby said. "How many new kinds of grimm are there?"

"Every breed is vulnerable to being twisted into these abominations," Cinder said.l in a voice as hard as an anvil. "That is why they must be dealt with, and quickly."

"We need to find out where they're coming from and who is creating them, if it isn't you and yours," Sunset said.

"How?" Pyrrha said. "I would have said that if we follow the rails to the end of the line then we should find answers but…here we are at the end of the line and there's nothing here." She leapt up onto one of the platforms, and kicked open a door set into the rock-face of the tunnel. She kept her rifle raised to her shoulder, her eyes peering into the gloom as she swept her gaze from side to side. She could see nothing, and not just because it was badly lit but because there was nothing here to see. "Here we are at the end of the line," she said, turning away from the door. "And there are no answers."

"We're at an end of the line," Cinder said. "But we're also at a beginning. Trains can go two ways."

"Of course," Pyrrha said. "But I can imagine trains heading towards the corporate headquarters, but where would they be going from the headquarters?"

"I don't know," Cinder said, "And none of us will know unless we follow the rails."

"We should take a good look around first," Sunset said. "There might be something, however small, that gives us some kind of answers." She glanced at Pyrrha, as if checking that Pyrrha took no offence from it. She didn't, she had only glanced around a single room after all. She was quite willing to admit that she hadn't conducted a detailed search. It was just that this place looked so deserted, and for such a long time, that it was hard to see that there was much chance of anything turning up here.

As it happened, she was not entirely correct about that. Although she was right that there was nothing here, as they searched the immediate vicinity of the railway yard it was Jaune who noticed something.

"Did you ever notice that, when you haven't cleaned your bedroom for a few months, a lot of dust builds up in places?" he asked.

The other members of Team SAPR – and Cinder – stared blankly at him.

Jaune let out an exasperated sigh. "None of you? You all kept your bedroom spotless?"

"Dad wouldn't let me go outside unless I'd done all my chores," Ruby said.

"The, um, the maids always kept my room and belongings very clean," Pyrrha said, in a slightly shamefaced tone. She didn't want to draw attention to the vast difference between their upbringings but the truth was that she really had no idea what he was talking about.

"I used magic to clean my room," Sunset said.

Cinder chuckled, and rolled her eyes.

"What?" Sunset said.

"I just find it difficult to believe that you used the power to bend the very fabric of the universe to your will in order to do chores," Cinder said. "It's almost disgustingly frivolous."

"It's only frivolous if the power is rare," Sunset said.

"Perhaps," Cinder said. "And as for you two: well, of course, you had servants to do everything for you and you are such a child, aren't you?" She shook her head once more, with even greater dismissal implied. "And as for you," she said to Jaune. "Let's just say letting that amount of dirt build up isn't one of my life experiences."

Pyrrha did her best to ignore the personal attacks from someone whose opinion was worth less than nothing to her. "Please, go on, Jaune."

Jaune glanced at Cinder. "Uh, so, as I was saying, if you let the dust build up, and then you start to move things you'll find that they leave marks where there isn't any dust…because it all went on top of what was there. Like a lamp. Or that book that Aunt Orange gave me that I never read…anyway, I was taking a look around here and I saw this." He gestured to the ground behind him, not too far from the buffers that marked the end of the railway line. It wasn't something that Pyrrha would have paid any attention to, but now that Jaune had brought it up and explained what they were supposed to be looking at she could see that dust was lying unevenly upon the ground: there were squares were it was an altogether lighter dusting, not to mention footprints where the dust was thicker (and confined exclusively to there).

"Do you guys think that those squares are about the right size to be the cages that we saw in the Emerald Forest?" Jaune said.

Sunset stared at them for a moment, and then nodded. "So you think-"

"I think that once they were full they were brought here, then loaded onto a train and taken…wherever the tracks go."

"Which brings me back to my original point," Cinder said. "We need to follow the tracks and see where they lead…and where those trains were headed."

Since it seemed that, as abandoned as the yard might seem at the moment, it was in use or had been very recently, there was nothing to be said in objection to her point unless anybody wanted to object purely on the basis of who was making it. Nobody did, and so they began to follow the rail line laid out before them into the darkness.

"One thing I don't understand," Ruby said. "If this train line is being used for something, why does it look so abandoned right now? Like…those footprints could have been made by the robots that we found, right?"

Pyrrha thought back to the androids that they had found destroyed in the Emerald Forest. "Yes, they might have been about the right size."

"Then where are they?" Ruby said. "Why didn't we find anything there? Or anyone?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Cinder said. "We haven't found anything because our presence has not been completely unanticipated."

"Whoever is behind this knew we were coming and so that they started cleaning house," Sunset said. "They packed up all their stuff and then demolished the building for good measure so that we wouldn't find anything. That makes sense. Blake said that in Atlas the kidnapper was quite concerned with covering their tracks, including blowing up their own ships and aircraft so that they couldn't be searched for intelligence."

Pyrrha's brow furrowed. "That's a rather passive way of preserving security."

"What do you mean?" Jaune said.

"She means that it's surprising that more than a couple of perverted creeps haven't been sent to harm us yet," Cinder said. "I'm inclined to agree."

"Really?" Pyrrha murmured.

Cinder chuckled, and her laughter echoed off the walls of the railway tunnel. "You're a spoilt brat in many ways, but you have good instincts…and I try not to underestimate my enemies. Which is why I expect that we'll run into some kind of welcoming committee some time soon."

They followed the train tracks, down a tunnel which was at times so dark that they couldn't even see the tracks; or at least Pyrrha could not. Cinder always seemed completely confident in where she was going, and although Pyrrha was certainly willing to believe that Cinder affected a greater confidence than she possessed in this case she believed that Cinder was more confident than the rest of them, more sure of herself. Pyrrha could even believe that Cinder saw better in the dark than the rest of them. She was like a magician, except she didn't even need to perform tricks to give the impression of possessing greater than human powers (not that there weren't tricks; that business with the fire was a clever use of dust) and abilities; it was the way that she bore herself, the way she acted, the way in which she showed no fear before even the most skilled opponent. She acted as though she was more than human, as if she had cast off the human frailties and vulnerabilities that the members of Team SAPR were shackled by, and by the act she made herself seem more than she was. More than she could be.

They arrived, after some time of following the railway line and finding nothing at all but railway line, and at some points a few abandoned crates that had been dumped here and there without any rhyme or reason that Pyrrha could determine, in front of a set of metal gates set into a fence dividing one part of the underground off from the rest. At first Pyrrha was uncertain why that was necessary – considering that this was already a secret railroad, who would be allowed to see one side of the fence who would not be allowed to see the other? – before she noticed that a part of the metal wall appeared to be broken down by some great force, and she wondered if the question was not who was intended to be confined behind it, but rather what?

The five of them weren't the only ones to arrive before the gate, or rather when they got there they found a small railway cart, with a modest engine built into it, and more importantly a bomb loaded onto its back.

"Interesting," Cinder said.

"That's one way to put it," Sunset muttered.

"Think about it," Cinder said. "I doubt this bomb has just been sitting here since the abandonment of the city." She walked closer, the only one to do so. In fact she walked right up to the bomb and made a careful inspection of it. "In fact it looks very new to me, and high yield to. I think this was placed here quite recently to catch anybody who might come snooping around the ruins of the Merlot headquarters."

"Is it active?" Jaune asked.

The bomb beeped.

"Now it is," Ruby said.

"You had to ask, didn't you?" Sunset said.

"If it goes off it will probably blow a hole in the surface that will make the collapse of the Merlot building look like child's play, not to mention burying us all beneath tons of debris even if we do survive the blast," Cinder said, sounding very calm for someone discussing her impending demise as though her own life – and the lives of Team SAPR - meant nothing to do her. She was even smiling. "However, fortunately there's a chasm a little way down the rail line that we can drop this down and then it should explode quite harmlessly."

"A little creep whispered it in my ear before they disappeared," Cinder said casually. "Do you have a better idea?"

"Than send the train down the tracks away from us?" Sunset said. "No. I think I can manage that."

Pyrrha got what Sunset was suggesting. "Do you-"

Sunset obviously got what Pyrrha was suggesting too, and she gave the most minute shake of her head.

 _She doesn't want me to reveal my semblance in front of Cinder._

 _She doesn't trust her that far, at least._ It wasn't the sort of thing that Pyrrha should have really been glad about, but it gladdened her nevertheless.

"Everybody stand back," Sunset said, although only Cinder was actually standing near the bomb and its cart, with Ruby and Jaune standing beside Pyrrha and Cinder. Nevertheless, Cinder obediently took a couple of steps back, and watched Sunset with an expectant expression.

The bomb beeped again as Sunset knelt upon the ground, and placed her hands upon the rails. Sunset closed her eyes, and a green glow suffused her hands and spread to the rails themselves which acquired a soft emerald sheen.

"Friction reduction," Sunset explained as she got to her feet. She rubbed her hands together, took a deep breath, and thrust both her hands, still engulfed in a green light, forwards in the direction of the rail cart and the gate which barred its way.

The doors were flung backwards with a thunderous crack, revealing yet more railway track heading through an opening as the tunnel turned into an open cavern.

"I hope you're right about this hole," Sunset said, as the railway cart on which the beeping bomb sat leapt forward, shunted by the invisible power of Sunset's magic. It rolled down the track and, Sunset having apparently reduced the friction on said track – because that was something she could do now – it didn't stop rolling, in fact having started off relatively quickly it only seemed to pick up speed as it rolled down the line, through the cavern and into the darkness out of sight.

The clattering of the wheels upon the tracks echoed off the walls of the cavern and the tunnel for a moment, then there was silence.

Then there was an almighty bang. The world around them trembled, and a little dust fell from the ceiling to land upon their shoulders, but it didn't start to crack and crumble and fall upon them. Plus, they weren't blown up.

The echo of the explosion and its attendant after-effects faded into silence, and Cinder began to applaud.

Her applause soon ceased as a different kind of sound filled the stale air all around them. The sound of paws upon stone, the sound of claws scraping and hooves tapping, the sound of growling and snuffling and snarling and hissing.

The sound of grimm on the approach, and it was coming from all around them.

The members of Team SAPR bunched closer around each other, weapons at the ready, turning in all directions looking for where the threat would come, or where it would come first.

"These aren't your grimm, are they?" Sunset said.

"No," Cinder said, conjuring her bow into her hands. "These are the discordant and the perverted. I would summon my own to aid us but they are too far away."

 _I'm not sure we'd want their help anyway,_ Pyrrha thought.

"But you can sense them right?" Sunset said. "So how many are we talking about?"

"A lot," Cinder said.

"Guys?" Jaune said, as he looked behind them.

They all looked. The first grimm had started to appear: all of them the larger, green-tinted versions, the ones that Cinder called abominations and perversions – her grimm, of course, were natural and wonderful but that was perhaps an argument to have another time when they weren't in immediate danger – the ones with extra large spikes and additional bone plates and emerald eyes that glowed in the dark. Creeps, beowolves, boarbatusks, even an enormous green ursa that was so large it nearly took up the whole of the tunnel down which it advanced.

They all bore down upon the team and Cinder, howling and roaring and shrieking as they came.

"Run!" Sunset yelled.

They ran. Jaune turned for a moment at the gate and flourished his sword, creating a wall of ice in the open gateway, but the grimm smashed through it in moments and battered down the rest of the wall too as they race to pursue the huntsmen and Cinder. The next few moments, the next minute or so that followed, the next however long it was, Pyrrha couldn't be sure because it was all a blur of green grimm howling and snarling. She remembered shooting, she remembered lashing out with Milo in spear and sword form, she remembered the bang of Crescent Rose and the green bolts of Sunset's magic, she remembered Jaune shouting, she remembered rose petals falling and Sunset's jacket burning as she activated the fire dust she had infused it with, Pyrrha remembered creeps springing up out of the ground, she remembered more grimm appearing from every direction but she couldn't have placed those events in a coherent order, she couldn't have said exactly what happened and what proceeded from what. It was all a blur as the adrenaline took over, and all that mattered was fighting back and trying to stay alive while they escaped.

But she remembered Ruby most of all. Ruby was everywhere, her red cloak streaming behind her as she darted back and forth in all directions in a blur of rose petals. She sniped creeps from afar and made them blow up, tossing any mutated grimm unfortunate enough to be nearby upwards or backwards with the force of the blast. She ran back and forth, dragging her scythe behind her, cutting through even these larger and stronger grimm. She took the head off the giant green ursa and toppled it to the ground. She led the grimm upon a merry chase that gave the others no small degree of much needed respite from the ever-growing horde that pursued them. She was so fast they never caught her, never pinned her down, never dealt her more than a single blow before she escaped their reach. Her expression was fearless as she practically flew before the grimm, daring them to chase her and knowing that they would never catch her.

Until one creep popped out of the ground right in front of her, when she was moving too fast to change course easily, and swelled and exploded right in her face. Ruby, who had so far escaped much harm or damage at the hands of the grimm, took the full brunt of the blast. It hurled her backwards, and her cry of pain drew Pyrrha's attention.

Pyrrha's breath caught in her throat as she saw the unmistakable ripple of shattering aura pass over Ruby's body.

Ruby flew through the air, her eyes closed, her cape fluttering, her hair bouncing up and down as she fell slowly, so slowly, before hitting the black stone of the surface with a thud that was heavy so heavy that it caused Pyrrha's heart to skip a beat with fear. She kicked the boarbatusk that was worrying her away and ran towards Ruby, who lay on the ground unmoving, unresponsive, eyes closed as another pair of boarbatusks, small by the standards of these green-tinted grimm, advanced upon her.

An enormous blast of magic from both of Sunset's palms hit one of them in the flank, shattering its armour plates and burning straight through its midriff like so that there was a hole in its body by the time it fell over dead. Jaune reached Ruby before Pyrrha did, yelling inchoately as he swung his sword into the grimm's face, slashing at its mask and tusk, hitting it with his shield, knocking it onto its side through sheer furious force before he cut off its head.

Then Jaune turned to Ruby. He threw himself over her, covering her small body with his own larger and more armoured form as he began to glow, using his semblance both to restore Ruby's aura and to strengthen his own.

Pyrrha cried out as a beowolf leapt for his back. She shot it but it barely seemed to feel the impact, certainly it did not stop it's flying leap upon both Jaune and Ruby.

What did stop it was the green light of Sunset's telekinesis that enveloped it, holding it still before Sunset gestured with one hand and threw the tainted creature of the grimm away into the darkness.

Which left her vulnerable to another beowolf which had snuck up behind her and slashed at her back with its claws in a series of brutal swipes. It didn't seem to care that Sunset's back was ablaze with fire dust, nor even that there were additional pockets of fire dust that only exploded once the grimm made contact; it didn't seem to care that both its forelegs were on fire and it had one forepaw blown off completely; all that mattered was that it had slashed Sunset across the back hard enough to knock her forwards, and then it hammered the ground hard enough that a row of green spikes just like those on its back erupted out of the rock to throw Sunset up into the air again like a mistreated doll. Pyrrha changed direction, going to Sunset's aid now as she hurled herself at the grimm with the burning legs and the ruined paw. She threw her shield, striking the beowolf on the head and stunning it as she slashed with her spear, pyrrouetting in place while she whirled it around, kicking it, shooting it as she leapt upwards in a flying spinning kick, anything to take it down. Down it went but there were so many more of them. So many, and so strong.

She and Sunset retreated to rejoin Jaune and Ruby. They stood on the railway line, Pyrrha and Sunset facing outwards in opposite directions, shooting until their weapons were empty as the grimm closed in upon them.

"Can you get Jaune and Ruby out?" Pyrrha said, speaking quickly.

"I'm not-"

"Can you get them out?" Pyrrha cried.

"No, there's no way, not like this," Sunset said, as the grimm bore down upon them in a relentless green tide.

 _Then I suppose…I suppose that this is-_

"Stand back you fools!" Cinder yelled. Cinder, whom Pyrrha had temporarily forgotten in the chaos of the battle, Cinder who was floating above them, like Sunset sometimes floated, the way that Jaune's sister Rouge had floated just a little above the ground. But Cinder was not floating just a few feet, she was floating up near the ceiling of the chasm as dark storm clouds gathered all around her, and the wind blew through the cave though Pyrrha could not tell from when it came, still it blew nevertheless and whipped Cinder's long black hair around her.

Fire burned in Cinder's left eye, forming a golden blaze around it.

Lightning rained down from the clouds growing around her, striking all around Team SAPR and striking the grimm that gathered around them, burning them, bursting them, skewering them through their heads, destroying them. And fire, fire leapt from both of Cinder's hands to fall to earth, encircling the huntsmen of Team SAPR, sparing only them from the crimson flames that Cinder poured down like molten gold streaming from the furnace and into the mould. The fire filled the cave even as the lightning continued the fall, and as the fires burned and the lightning fell so the grimm died, their roars turning to screams as the flames consumed them all.

 _What is this power?_ Pyrrha thought, as she watched the green grimm that had a moment ago seemed so mighty and so terrifying wither and perish in Cinder's fire, screeching and shrieking and panicking as they burned. It was like nothing she had ever seen before, the most powerful semblance could not do so much. To conjure the tempest within a cave? To bright forth fire on such a scale could not be dust, and yet how else was it being done?

 _Magic?_ Could it be anything else and yet…and yet this was magic on a scale that put Sunset's powers to shame. This was something closer to divine than anything that mortal men could do.

 _The heroes of old from ages past would flinch in the face of such might._ Small wonder that Cinder did not fear her, and laughed in face of Pyrrha's threats. For they were empty threats, in the face of what Cinder Fall could do.

What could Pyrrha do in response to such power? How could she protect Jaune, or Ruby or Sunset in the face of such overwhelming might? How could she fight such magic?

In the face of Cinder's power, the Invincible Girl was but a bug threatening a crocodile.

The realisation broke upon Pyrrha like the breaking of a dam. It confirmed all of her worst fears, all of her suspicions; this world was so much larger than she had imagined, and she was so much more powerless than she had dreamed in her nightmares.

For all the power belonged to Cinder Fall, and Pyrrha could not touch her.

Cinder, her one eye still ringed with a fiery corona, looked down at Pyrrha and smiled.

Once again, Pyrrha had the uncomfortable feeling that she and Cinder were thinking the exact same thing.

It was an ugly and a frightening smile.


	134. Fall

Fall

Sunset emerged from the tunnel feeling as though she was about to collapse at any moment.

Judging by the way that her friends looked, she wasn't the only one.

Even after Cinder had done…her thing (Sunset had a sinking feeling that she could put a name to that thing that she'd done, but she didn't really want to, certainly not before she'd actually spoken to Cinder about it) they hadn't been completely out of the woods…or out of the cave. More mutant grimm had assailed them, not so many perhaps, they'd come in more manageable numbers afterwards, but they had come on nevertheless. And, perhaps because they had come in more manageable numbers or perhaps because – although she was definitely trying to hide it – her little display had taken a lot more out of her than she was prepared to admit and she simply couldn't put out a display like that again (something that might actually bring more comfort than the idea that Cinder was essentially some kind of human equivalent to an alicorn) Cinder hadn't dealt with them the way that she had so effectively dealt with the great horde. So they had had to fight their way out, which they had done but, although they had managed it and they were all still here, they were all feeling the strain as well. Jaune was carrying Ruby in his arms, cradling her small form even as she pouted at being treated that way, while even Pyrrha looked almost as ready to fall over as Sunset felt.

As they emerged from out of the tunnel, Jaune flopped down onto his knees even as he was still holding onto Ruby, while Pyrrha started using her spear as a rest to lean on. Cinder glanced at them, but didn't say anything before she turned away and started to walk off into the forest.

The forest. Forever Fall forest. It took Sunset a moment, distracted as she was by the fact that her legs felt as though they were about to give up on, to realise where it was they had come out, but once she could actually look past her aching joints and shaking hands and spinning head long enough to notice and behold the crimson-gold leaves upon the trees, the way that they had fallen off the trees in sufficient numbers to carpet the ground while at the same time remaining on the trees as thick as ever, it was impossible not to know where they were. Roughly where they were, at least; Forever Fall was a big forest, it covered even more ground than the Emerald Forest did. Forever Fall crawled up Vale's centre like it's heart, so that the north-south railway line spent as much time passing through the forest as it did not. Saying that they were in Forever Fall, therefore, was about as useful as saying that they were in Vale: it was an indicator, but a very imprecise one.

Although the fact that they had reached any part of Forever Fall from Mountain Glenn suggested that they had walked all the way under the eastern mountains. No wonder they were all looking shattered, leaving aside having to fight off the mutated grimm along the way.

Fortunately for them, the forest seemed peaceful for the moment. However, this particular forest always seemed peaceful right up until the moment it was not. They couldn't afford to assume that it would stay that way.

Still, for however long exactly it lasted it appeared that for now they had been granted a respite.

Sunset stood still for a moment, letting the sounds of birdsong in the trees wash over her, before she turned away from the scarlet forest and stepped over the railway tracks as she walked towards her team.

"Ruby, how are you doing?"

"I'm fine," Ruby complained. "You didn't have to carry me."

"You're aura was broken, that's not fine," Sunset said. "Not to mention that landing. Seriously, how do you feel?"

Ruby rolled out of Jaune's arms and landed on her feet. "I'm okay, Sunset, really. My aura's recovered and it's healed my injuries. I'm good to go."

Sunset smirked. "That makes you probably the only person who is."

"I'll be quite alright," Pyrrha assured her. "I'd just appreciate a moment to rest. Where did Cinder go?"

"I'm not sure, I'll find out," Sunset said.

"Sunset-"

"I can manage this," Sunset said. "And her."

Pyrrha's expression was grave. "I'm not sure that any of us, or even all of us, can manage Cinder."

Sunset's mouth tightened. "That's not quite what I meant."

"What she did-"

"I know."

"What she is-"

"I know," Sunset said. "That's why…I think it's important that we walk softly for now. Plus, she did save our lives." She leaned forwards. "I know you're worried, and I won't even say you're wrong to be worried, but leave this to me, okay? And while I'm gone, you see if you can get back in touch with Beacon. We could do with a lift home."

"You want to go?" Ruby asked, sounding disappointed not just in Sunset's decision but also, in a small way, with Sunset as well. "But we haven't found any of the answers we came looking for yet."

Sunset took a deep breath. "And that is…a little disappointing, but we know enough that Ozpin can send another team out here to do a recon-"

"But we're right here," Ruby said.

"And we almost got our asses kicked," Sunset said. "Sometimes…sometimes coming back alive is the win."

"We are still alive," Ruby said. "And we can keep going. Who else is Professor Ozpin going to send? Cardin? Ren and Nora? My sister? We're still here and we're all going to be okay and we can still do this."

"We're not the only ones who can do this," Sunset said.

"Maybe not but we are the best ones who can," Ruby replied. "You think Cinder would have worked with any other team from Beacon?"

Sunset stared into Ruby's silver eyes, but then looked away because they were just so darn full of light and optimism and confidence that it was incredibly hard to say no to them (forget turning grimm to stone, Sunset sometimes thought that a hypnotic gaze that convinced other people to agree with her was the real magic of Ruby's silver eyes) even when it made sense to do so. If it made sense to do so. Ruby had a point, even if that point was dramatically mitigated against by the general state of the team at this point. She took a step back. "Jaune, Pyrrha? How do you feel?"

"If anybody at all is about to say 'Jaune, you should get on a bullhead back to Beacon while we keep going' forget it," Jaune said. "Whatever we should do we should do it as a team. Together or nothing."

Judging by the faint flush of colour to Pyrrha's cheeks, it appeared that she had, at the very least, been considering saying suggesting something like that. It wasn't the time, but Sunset couldn't help but feel that that was something they were going to have to deal with at some point. It was all very well that Pyrrha wanted to protect him, but it was going to chafe on him more and more until it eventually started to threaten their relationship; so if Pyrrha really did love him she was going to have to find a way to be okay with him risking his life alongside her because she couldn't stop him without breaking his heart.

 _Listen to me, thinking about this as though I know what I'm talking about._

"I think," Pyrrha murmured. "I think that this discussion is irrelevant. If we can't make contact with Beacon then it doesn't matter because there is no evacuation coming for us, and if we do then Professor Ozpin will make the decision on whether or not to continue our mission, and our own opinions will be of secondary consideration, if that. We should focus on seeing if we can make contact."

Sunset nodded. "You make a lot of sense." _Not least when it comes to preventing an argument._ "See what you can do, I'm going to find Cinder."

That wasn't actually that difficult. They were presently trapped, or enclosed within a stone basin, hemmed in by rocky outcrops that grew out of the mountainside from which they had just emerged. A pair of stone gates, the works of some ancient civilisation, barred their way. The train tracks progressed on through what might once have been an archway, or possibly a third ancient gate, but they had now been buried beneath a pile of rocky rubble that rose so high and so steeply that the chances of them being to able to climb it seemed negligible to say the least.

 _Someone really doesn't want us to reach other side of those tracks._

 _I should concentrate on Cinder for the moment._

The advantage of being within a stone basin as they were was that there weren't a lot of places Cinder could actually go: Sunset just had to follow the rough direction that Cinder had gone to find a more secluded part of the basin, where the cliffs receded to form a small alcove out of sight. It was also a place where water was streaming out of a crack in the rock, forming an exceedingly modest pool that turned into an even more modest stream running away through the long red grass.

Sunset found Cinder kneeling by that little pool, splashing water onto her face with both hands, heedless of the fact that her sleeves and, indeed, the front of her dress were getting soaked in the process. Now that Sunset had a chance to look at her, she could see that Cinder looked worse than any of her friends: she looked as though she was about to pass out, so pale and drawn looked she. When she stopped splashing her face, it was to bend down to the pool and gulp greedily of the water seeping out of the rock.

 _I'm not sure how clean that is._

"Cinder?" Sunset asked.

Cinder's head snapped around to glare at her, fire burning in her eyes as bright as the corona of flames that had surrounded her left eye in that cavern. The fire died when she saw who it was. "Sunset. It's you. It's just you." She bowed her head, and cupped some water into her hands before she drank from it.

 _I can see you weakened, but no one else can, is that it? But I can't see you pressing your face to the water and drinking like a dog._

Sunset knelt down beside her. "Cinder-"

"Pyrrha's afraid of me," Cinder said, with relish evident in her voice despite the weariness that affected it. "I can tell. I can see it in her eyes, I can…I can sense it." She let out a kind of gasping chuckle that seemed to leave her breathless. "I like it."

"Why?"

Cinder glanced at her out of the side of her eye. "You know why. You might be the only person who really knows why. That semblance of yours."

"Pyrrha never did anything to you."

"Precious Pyrrha represents everything I hate," Cinder said. "Mistral princess with her head in the clouds, thinking that everything is going to work out because it always does for people like her."

"Like you used to be?" Sunset asked.

Cinder tensed, and for a moment Sunset feared that she had said the wrong thing. But eventually Cinder nodded. "Yes. Like I used to be." She splashed some more water on her face. "My…my stepsister is at Beacon right now. For the Vytal Festival. Third year. Ironwood made her a team leader, which if that doesn't prove that the man is an incompetent I don't know what will." She paused for breath. "I went up to her. Stupid. I was risking everything if she recognised me. But that was why I had to approach her, had to tell her what a big fan I was of her from the tournament scene. I had to see if she'd actually recognise me. If she'd remember who I was."

"But she didn't," Sunset said.

Cinder shook her head. "Not at all. That's the kind of people they are. Careless people."

"Pyrrha's not like that," Sunset said. "Pyrrha's kind."

"She can afford to be, with all her privileges."

"She has a kind heart," Sunset insisted. "I thought like you did when I first met her, but I had her all wrong. You've got her all wrong. At that party…if she had honestly known what your situation was I truly believe that she would have tried to help you."

Cinder was silent, and still for that matter. The only sound was the trickling of the water into the pool, and the singing of a bird in a nearby tree. "Help me," Cinder murmured. "I found…I found someone better to help me than Pyrrha Nikos."

"Salem," Sunset sighed. She watched as Cinder drank some more water from the pool. "So, which one are you?"

Cinder lifted her head up, a vaguely guilty look on her face. "Which what am I?"

"Maiden," Sunset said. "I know magic when I see it and I know that the four seasonal maidens are the only beings in this world with anything like the kind of powers that you just threw around so which one are you? Spring, summer-"

"Fall," Cinder said, her voice subdued. "I'm the Fall Maiden."

"Who did you kill to get that?" Sunset asked.

Cinder looked at her.

"I've read enough to understand that's how it works."

Cinder managed a smile. "How do you know that Ozpin didn't make me his Fall Maiden before I betrayed him?"

"I think he might have brought it up," Sunset said. "For that matter I think he might have recognised you when you walked back into his school."

Cinder blinked, then shrugged. "Yes, you're right, that was a pretty stupid lie."

Sunset's expression didn't waver. "So who did you kill?"

"No one you know."

"Cinder-"

"Why do you care?" Cinder said. "Why do you _care_? What are you even doing here? Why don't you just call me a murderer and then stomp off in a cloud of self-righteousness to be with your friends?"

Sunset didn't move, nor did she take her eyes off Cinder's face.

Cinder rocked back on her haunches, and then sat back against a nearby tree. Her arms fell down listless by her sides, as though she no longer had the energy to move them.

"She was the previous Fall Maiden," she said. "Obviously."

"Did you know her?"

"Of course not," Cinder said dismissively. "I wanted her power so I killed her for it. I'm not a nice person, in case you haven't noticed."

Sunset said nothing.

Cinder glared at her. "What are you still doing here?"

"Does it bother you that I'm here?"

"It…" Cinder scowled. "I don't get you, Sunset Shimmer. I thought that I did. I thought that you were like me."

"More than I'd like."

Cinder shook her head. "But you're not. If you're like me then why are you with them? Why do you care who I killed? Why do you care about any of this? Do you think Mercury cares? Do you think Lightning Dust cares?"

"Does Emerald care?" Sunset asked.

Cinder closed her eyes. "Emerald's afraid of me. She tries not to show it because she…but she is. Because she's a good girl, and good girl's are scared of me. The only people who aren't scared of me are the people who are like me: Mercury. So what are you?"

"I'm a little scared of you," Sunset admitted. "I think I'd have to be crazy not to be a little scared of you. But I also want to help you."

"I don't need your help."

"Your exhaustion might disagree," Sunset said. "Do the Maiden powers take that much out of you? Or is it whatever Salem did to you to connect you to the grimm?"

Cinder's eyes opened. "How…I suppose I wasn't being very subtle about it was I? Still, I'm a little surprised you considered it possible."

"A lot of things are possible once you start to believe in magic," Sunset said. "Does it…hurt?"

"Being part grimm or being a Maiden?"

"Both. Either."

Cinder sighed. Her breast heaved up and down. "Take a drink of water."

Sunset looked from Cinder to the pool and back again. Slowly, cautiously, she inched her way closer to the pool. She cupped her hands, and in those hands she drew some water and raised it to her lips. It was cool, and sweet. Very sweet. Amazingly sweet in fact, maybe the freshest water that Sunset had tasted since coming to Remnant, and even in Equestria there were places were the water was not so sweet as this. "It's…it's wonderful."

"Is it?"

"You should know, you've been gulping it down."

"I know," Cinder said.

Sunset could feel the hairs on the back of her neck starting to prick. "But you didn't feel a thing, did you?"

Cinder smiled. "I don't taste, and I don't remember taste. I could drink that water until the stream ran dry and I'd barely even feel how cool it was. I hunger constantly, and yet I can't taste food. I eat it, I eat and I eat and I eat and…nothing. I thought that it might be…might be the grimm so I tried to eat raw flesh that I brought from a butcher, because isn't that what monsters eat? Turns out that not even that could sate my hunger. Blood was running down my mouth and I couldn't even feel it. I don't even remember how it used to taste. You could kiss me on the lips and I wouldn't feel that either."

"You've tried," Sunset asked, driven by a sense of morbid curiosity.

"Yes," Cinder said. "Emerald was overjoyed to make the attempt, foolish girl. But…nothing. I don't feel, not any more. Nothing but hunger and cold burning within me. Hunger, cold, and the fear and hatred that I inspire in others. They're the only joy that I have left in this world."

"Because of the grimm."

"Actually it got worse since I became the Fall Maiden," Cinder said. "I know, you wouldn't have thought so, would you?"

"It sounds…" Sunset trailed off. Cinder wasn't the sort of person who would want pity, but pity was honestly what she felt. "It sounds terrible."

"I do what I must."

"For what?" Sunset asked. "What could be worth that? What could we worth allowing yourself to be turned into…"

Cinder smiled. "You can say it."

"Turned into a monster," Sunset said softly.

"Better a monster with power than a cockroach without, scurrying between the feet of great ones trying to survive," Cinder said.

"I used to think so," Sunset said. "Then I was shown a better way."

Cinder snorted. "Friendship?"

"I don't need people to fear me," Sunset said. "Because I know that there are people who love me."

"Lucky you, who's going to love me?"

"Someone might, if you gave them the chance," Sunset said. "Let me help you, Cinder."

"I don't need help from you or anybody else."

"I don't think even you can say that with a straight face."

Cinder's eyes narrowed. "Even if you really wanted to help me you couldn't. I've chosen my path."

"That doesn't mean you can't turn around," Sunset said.

"I'm a human grimm, that puts me pretty far down the road."

"There are magical powers I know of than can purge a person of any darkness," Sunset said. "They have cleansed beings who were completely consumed by their own darkness, possessed so totally by evil forces that they weren't the same people before and yet that darkness was banished like that." She flicked her fingers. "Getting the grimm out of you would be child's play by comparison."

Cinder paused. She was – she appeared to be – considering it. "And then what? I serve Ozpin like you?"

"He's not so bad," Sunset said. "But you don't have to."

"I wouldn't have a choice," Cinder said. "Haven't you understood this yet, Sunset? This world is divided between two powers at war. Ozpin and Salem. You serve one or you serve the other, and even if you don't know that one of them exists and have no idea that the other is anything more than a headmaster then that just means that you're serving one or the other unwittingly. Look at us. I serve Salem, you serve Ozpin, we are standing on opposite sides of the war-"

"And yet here we are," Sunset said.

"Yes," Cinder said. "Here we are because someone has presumed, someone has dared to try and set up as a third player, and as a result both of our masters have turned their ire upon this fool and sent us, their agents, to bring about their destruction. I'm the Fall Maiden. Neither of them will let me run loose on the board. If I don't serve one then I must serve the other or they will come together to kill me, just as we have come together to destroy the upstart."

"I'll-"

"You'll what? You'll protect me."

"I'll take you somewhere neither of them can get to you," Sunset said. "Somewhere utterly beyond their reach."

Cinder stared at her, as if she were seeing Sunset for the first time. "Your home," she whispered. "Your talking about your home, aren't you?"

"Yes," Sunset said softly. She knew that she was making a big promise here, and she also knew that Twilight and Celestia would both have every right to furious with her so much as offering this whether or not Cinder accepted it, but she didn't have time to write to Celestia via the diary and get her permission for this. Cinder was in front of her now. Sunset's chance was now. And right here, right now, she would do what she thought was right and Celestia would have to be content with that.

"You would hide me there?"

"I would hide you there, and heal you," Sunset said, because surely the rainbow magic that Twilight had spoken of would be sufficient to this meagre task, even if no power in Remnant was. "And then I would stay with you, for as long as you needed me."

Cinder stared at her. She looked at Sunset as though she'd sprouted an extra head. She gawped at Sunset as though…as though she'd turned into a unicorn right before her eyes. "You would…you would turn your back on your friends, on your dreams, abandon all of it…for me?"

"Yes," Sunset whispered.

Cinder's eyes widened. "Why?"

"Because maybe saving you is the most important thing that I could do in this world," Sunset said. "And because you need my help more than anyone else in Remnant."

"You would bind yourself to me – to _me_ – for altruism?"

Sunset shook her head. "For your sake and for yours alone."

Cinder looked away. She looked away and she bowed her head, so that her long black hair fell down all around her face like a curtain, shielding it from Sunset's gaze. Sunset couldn't see her face, and so she couldn't gauge Cinder's reaction save by her voice.

 _Well, that and the fact that she feels the need to hide her face._

"Sunset," Cinder said. "Nobody has…you're the first person since…thank you. Thank you." She climbed awkwardly and a little unsteadily to her feet. "No matter what happens between us, I will never forget this moment, this second." She looked at Sunset, and if Cinder had looked at Sunset just a moment ago as if she were seeing her for the first time now Sunset felt as if for the first time she were seeing past the mask of Cinder Fall and all the artifice and persona that accompanied it and seeing at last the real Ashley, the little girl who had been cruelly ill-used by the world until it had made her cruel in turn.

There were tears in her eyes.

"Thank you," she said again, as soft as the gentlest breeze that ever lapped at Sunset's face.

"But you won't do it," Sunset said quietly, with a sinking feeling.

"The exile's life is not for me."

"But this life is?"

"We are what the world makes us," Cinder said. "Perhaps…perhaps if I had met you sooner." She put one hand on Sunset's shoulder. "You should go back. I'll follow you in just a moment."

"Cinder-"

"Thank you," Cinder said. She sounded grateful. She sounded so grateful. Sunset might not have believed that it was possible for her to sound so grateful…and yet as she turned away, Sunset felt like nothing so much as a total failure.

* * *

Cinder didn't watch Sunset depart. She turned away. She turned away and bowed her head and tried to get a grip on the roiling mass of feelings that swirled within her soul.

She hadn't felt like this in so long. She hadn't felt anything like this since…since her father died? Had it been so long? Had it really been that long since anyone had shown her so much as a scrap of honest affection such as Sunset had just shown her. Surely it could not be that long? Emerald…Emerald was a sycophant, who sought preferment through loyalty. Even Mistress Salem, though she sometimes played the mother to her, desired her faithful service in return. Everyone wanted something out of her…everyone except Sunset, who only wanted to help her and was prepared to sacrifice much in order to do it.

It really had been so long, and she hadn't realised how much she had missed it.

She could not accept. That life, the life that Sunset was offering, the life that Cinder thought Sunset was offering was really not for her: the two of them living a bucolic life in some secluded cottage, that wasn't her.

But she felt as if she had disappointed Sunset by her refusal, and she felt…she felt bad about that.

 _Perhaps I could make it up to her somehow._

 _Where did that come from?_

Cinder's hand went to her heart. Was this…was this what friendship felt like?

* * *

Sunset returned to the others to find that one of the ancient stone gates had lowered into the floor, revealing a dirt track carving its way through the midst of the forest and the red-gold grass up a hill towards…well, they wouldn't know that until they actually got up the hill, would they?

Sunset admired their handiwork, thrusting her hands into her pockets as she did so. "How did you manage that?"

"We found the key," Pyrrha said. "I do enjoy a good puzzle sometimes. It was a welcome distraction from…certain other aspects of our situation." She swallowed. "Speaking of which…"

"I…I think we might be making progress," Sunset said.

"Sunset-"

"I know," Sunset said softly. "But if you'd been there to see…" _Of course, she probably would never have shown that kind of vulnerability if Pyrrha had been there._ "I don't know, I just thought…I don't know. What about communications?"

Pyrrha shook her head. "Unfortunately, we still can't get hold of anyone at Beacon."

Sunset hissed in distaste. "Okay then. It seems our path is clear." She looked at the path in front of them, hemmed in by rising cliffs on either side. "Not least because it's the only path around for now. But since we're still here, we should try and make contact with that railway track again. Following it is still our best shot at finding answers."

Pyrrha nodded. "I agree."

"And so do I," Cinder said. Sunset glanced over her shoulder, to see Cinder ambling towards them. She was definitely moving more slowly than she had done before, evidently her strength had not totally returned, although she was doing a fairly good job of making her movements appear casual rather than driven by weakness.

 _And she could even be feigning to be weaker than she actually is so that we'll let our guards down around her and it's hard work dealing with someone like this, isn't it?_

"Hey," she said.

"Hey," Cinder said. "Pyrrha."

"Cinder," Pyrrha said coolly.

Sunset gestured to the open gate. "We have a path. Is everybody ready?"

"Sure," Ruby said.

"Yeah," Jaune said.

Cinder's gaze slid past Sunset and Pyrrha to alight on Ruby. "Ruby Rose," she said, and her voice had re-acquired a little of its usual smarmy quality, a quality that had been pleasantly absent during her conversation with Sunset. Cinder's voice had not quite returned to its usual levels of smugness, but it was rising to that level once more.

Pyrrha tensed visibly, and Jaune also looked little concerned about Cinder's sudden attention to their youngest team member. Ironically, Ruby didn't look that worried at all. There was hostility in her silver eyes, but there was little fear there.

 _She really is the bravest of us, isn't she?_

 _Or the most foolhardy, after what we've seen that Cinder can do._

"Yes," Ruby said warily.

Cinder was quiet for a moment. "What did Salem offer you, underneath Mountain Glenn, in exchange for your service?"

Pyrrha sidestepped, placing herself more between Cinder and Ruby than she had been before. "What kind of a question is that?"

Cinder didn't respond to Pyrrha's hostility. She seemed to be able to look through her and focus on Ruby regardless. "It was your mother, wasn't it? She offered to bring your mother back to life."

"What do you know about my mom?" Ruby demanded, anger thickening her voice.

"Nothing," Cinder said, with surprising softness. "But I know that no spell or magical power can bring back the dead. If Salem offered you that then it was…it was pure deception."

Silence fell in the glade, and once more only the rustling of the leaves and the singing of the birds could be heard if the Forever Fall forest. Ruby edged sideways, so that she was no longer hidden even partially behind Pyrrha but able to face Cinder herself. Her eyes were wide with surprise. "Really?"

"I'm afraid so."

Sunset's mouth tightened. _Of course Ruby's not the only one with a fallen loved one she'd like back, but I'm surprised to hear you come so close to admitting it, Cinder._

Ruby's mouth hung slightly open as bait for flies. "I…I thought that…but why are you telling me this?"

"Because you shouldn't make your decision based on a lie, as tempting as the lie might be," Cinder said.

"Oh," Ruby said. "Well, you know I wasn't actually going to…never mind. Uh, thanks…I guess?"

Cinder shrugged, as if Ruby's thanks was of no concern to her whatsoever.

A smile tugged at the corner of Sunset's lip, and she couldn't help but glance at Pyrrha as if to say _see? She does have a heart after all._

"That being said," Cinder continued. "You should still take her offer."

"What?" Jaune yelled. "You mean Ruby should work for Salem?"

"Why not?" Cinder asked blithely. "I do."

"Yeah," Jaune said. "We know."

"Salem is willing to make places for you, for all of you," Cinder said.

"We're not interested," Pyrrha said.

"It's the only way you can survive-"

"Stop!" Sunset said. "Just…just stop." She stepped close to Cinder, between her and the other members of the team. "What are you doing?"

"Giving you a choice."

"I can see that, why?"

"Because sometimes lives are saved with power, and other times with the right word," Cinder said.

Sunset stared at her. She blinked. She gawped. She felt a feeling of exasperation rising up her throat out of her throat. "This…you're actually trying to do a good thing, aren't you?"

"The world is coming apart at the seams, the odds are against you and your leader is a decrepit old fool," Cinder said, and it was the fact that all of this was said without any kind of braggadocio whatsoever that convinced Sunset that she actually meant this kindly. "Your chances of survival are much higher if you join the winning side and I…I don't want you to die."

"That…that's very sweet of you," Sunset sighed. She covered her face with one hand and drew it slowly down her face. "But please…stop talking."

Cinder, for once, did as she was bidden.

Sunset shook her head. "Let's just…let's move out."

They climbed the hill. In the distance they could see a spur of the north-south rail line running on a elevated section of track above the forest. It was not the main rail line, that went all the way up to Cold Harbour; they were far too far to the east for that, if Sunset was any judge (the mountains didn't extent that far into the heart of Vale, and there was no way that they could have walked that far in what seemed like such a short span of time. No, that train was serving one of the more easterly settlements, like the mines at Luistania or Mine Run. If all else failed in the way of calling for help, they could always try to follow that train line instead of the one that they were looking for.

That turned out to be unnecessary for as they reached the top of the hill, the hill that turned out to be so high that they could see out over the tops of the trees all around them, and behold the sea of red leaves like fiery clouds floating without support that was Forever Fall as seen from above, the four members of Team SAPR were disturbed by crackling in their ear pieces.

"Stude…this is…Team Sapphire this is Professor Ozpin, can you hear me?"

"Professor Ozpin?" Pyrrha cried. "Yes, we can hear you, loud and…more or less clear."

"Hang on I'll try to adjust the frequency a little," Professor Ozpin said, as the crackling in his voice decreased noticeably. "How's that."

"Much better, Professor," Sunset said.

"You have no idea how good it is to hear your voices again Miss Shimmer, Miss Nikos. Miss Rose, Mister Arc, are you there?"

"I'm right here, Professor."

"We all are," Jaune said.

"Excellent," Professor Ozpin said. "After we lost touch with you in Mountain Glenn I began to fear the worst. Would it be too much trouble to ask where you are right now?"

"Forever Fall," Sunset said. "We're not sure exactly where. One of the eastern spurs, bordering on the mountains."

"Forever Fall? You're a long way from Mountain Glenn."

"There was a collapse," Sunset explained. "Someone demolished the Merlot building before we could get inside, we ended up in a series of tunnels beneath the building that we don't think were part of the main city. We found a secret railway, and we followed it out all the way here, out of the mountains and into the forest."

"I see," Professor Ozpin murmured. "Did you find any evidence of who might be responsible for all of this?"

"No," Sunset admitted. "But we did find more of those mutated grimm. Lots more. And evidence that fairly recently the rail line was being used to ship things – those cages that we found in the Emerald Forest – out of the city."

"Where to?"

"We don't know, exactly. We haven't found the other end of the line yet," Sunset said. She didn't mention – she didn't see the need to mention – that they had temporarily lost the line itself. After all, it wasn't like they weren't going to find it again. Hopefully. She glanced at Cinder. _I suppose I'll have to bite this particular bullet. If I don't then Pyrrha might have some real reason to worry about me._ "Uh, Professor Ozpin…strange grimm weren't all we found down in Mountain Glenn."

"Indeed, Miss Shimmer?"

"We aren't the only ones interested in this mystery," Sunset said. She felt as though she were writing an essay for Celestia, she could feel herself starting to sweat. "Cinder Fall was sent by-"

"Yes, I think I know who would have sent Miss Fall," Ozpin said, his voice sharpening into talons. "I should have guessed that abductions of grimm would draw her ire. May I ask what occurred between you and Miss Fall?"

Sunset's mouth was very dry, and remained stubbornly so no matter how often she swallowed. "A truce," she said. "We wouldn't have made it out of the tunnel without her."

"I see," Professor Ozpin's voice was such that, although it was hard to tell exactly how much he disapproved, it was nevertheless clear that he did not approve one bit. "As team leader in the field you have operational authority of course, especially with communications down." _But it's not the choice that I would have made_ , was the unspoken subtext.

 _You might think differently if you were actually in my shoes,_ Sunset thought.

Professor Ozpin was silent for a moment. "I hope I don't have to remind you all to keep your guard up."

"No, Professor," Pyrrha said. "We're very aware of the need for vigilance."

"I wonder who you could be talking about," Cinder murmured.

Professor Ozpin sighed. "Miss Shimmer, all of you…I'm afraid that I must ask yet more of you. Although teams have started to return to school ahead of the Vytal Festival, you're closest to the situation and you're experiences have given you understanding that no briefing could replicate. In addition…the fact is that even with teams returning to school you are still one of the best teams that I have to hand. Can I ask you all to continue with this mission for awhile longer?"

Sunset glanced at Ruby, the one who had come the closest to injury or death thus far.

"You can count on us, professor," Ruby said, before Sunset could say anything else.

 _I don't know whether you or Pyrrha has the biggest heart but I know which of them is most out of proportion to your stature._

"You are all far braver students than I deserve," Professor Ozpin said. "I've managed to get a fix on your position now, and I'm going to remain on the line here with you. Keep me informed, and stay safe."

"We'll do our best, Professor," Jaune said.

They descended down the hill, passing beneath the tallest tree by far that any of them had ever seen in the Forever Fall or any other forest for that matter. Higher than the hill it rose, and it's branches spread so far that no other tree could grown near, for the eves of this single great tree choked out all the sunlight and would let nothing else grow around it. It was the sort of tree beneath which all the world might come to dwell, and doubtless that was why a sort of stone altar had been built beneath it, and all around it in its shadowed eaves lay ruins of some ancient kingdom past. As they past through the darkness of the shadows cast by this great tree the whole world seemed to quiet, as if this place still retained a memory of when it was a sacred space, and insisted upon respect for that alone.

Then they passed beyond the tree, and further down the path, and all the noise of the world returned once again. They encountered two more of those mutated creeps, and shot them and watched them explode from a safe distance, before they found the railway line again.

They found it right as it came to its end before an ancient temple, not yet fallen into ruins despite its age, although time and tide and winds had worn away at whatever inscription might have been carved above the door, and the pictograms engraved upon the walls were weathered practically to nothing, too.

Since the railway line came to an end right before the temple doors, it seemed a good enough idea to look inside the temple and they were right to do so, for in that open space where once a throng of congregants might have gathered together in worship of some god instead had been piled stacks upon stacks of those Merlot cages that they had found in the Emerald Forest, and which Blake and Weiss had found in Atlas.

Most of them were empty, but one or two contained a creep inside, and one a beowolf. One particularly large cage held a small ursa, looking squashed and cramped and even more miserable than its fellow grimm. No one had ever discovered the reason why the creatures of grimm did not do well in captivity, but it was nevertheless a truism that they did not and a truism that was being proven true in the case of all four monsters bound captive here: they were listless, they didn't show the slightest reaction to the presence of prey, they let out pitiful mewling cries as they lay on the floor of their cages. They looked as if they wished to die more than anything else.

If they had not been creatures of grimm, and if they would not have killed Sunset or her friends sooner than anything else if they had been set free, then Sunset might have pitied them.

As it was, it was clear that Cinder did pity them, for she approached the nearest creep and placed her forehead and her fingertips against the transparent wall of the cage. "Oh, what have they done to you? What have they done to you?" A flash of anger crossed her face. "Who has done this? Whomever it is will feel my wrath."

Ruby had already crossed the temple, and was standing at the far door. "I don't know who it is, but I think they might be on their way."

The other members of the team – and Cinder – joined her at the rear entrance, which overlooked a river cutting through the forest. The remains of an ancient jetty rotted away hard by the temple doors, but a little further away they could see a modern dock, modest in size but big enough for the stack of metallic shipping containers that sat in the midday sunshine, big enough for the crane that waited to lift said containers, and big enough for the ship branded with the stylised M of the Merlot corporation that was sailing slowly into the dock even as they watched it cut through the dark water.

It was a long vessel, somewhat narrow for a cargo ship but then Sunset supposed it had to be to get through the inland waterways like this. It was probably quite a shallow draught, too. Overall, the shape of it put her in mind of a knife. She could see no people on board, not even through the windows of the conning tower. It wouldn't surprise Sunset if the vessel was entirely automated.

"Professor," Sunset hissed, before she remembered that if the vessel was entirely automated then there was nobody who could hear her anyway. She spoke up. "Professor Ozpin."

"Yes, Miss Shimmer?"

"The railway led us to a port or a dock," Sunset said. "A ship bearing the Merlot Industries logo is just docking now."

"Merlot androids, Merlot cages, Merlot headquarters, Merlot vessel," Ozpin said. "I didn't want to believe but the evidence is becoming more and more unavoidable by the minute. Team Sapphire…since it appears that only way we will unravel this mystery is to follow the thread placed before us all the way to the very end I must ask…no, I must order you to board that ship before it concludes its business here and departs. If you do not, then we cannot say how long it will be before another vessel returns, if it ever was, and we will have lost our best chance at putting this matter to bed once and for all."

"We understand," Pyrrha said. "You can rely on us, Professor."

"I do, and will continue to do so, Miss Nikos," Professor Ozpin said. "I will try and keep a lock on your location, and to provide backup if…or when you should require it. All of you…come back safe."

"I'll make sure of it, Professor," Sunset said.

Professor Ozpin chuckled. "I'm counting on it, Miss Shimmer."

"What are we doing?" Cinder asked.

"We're boarding the ship."

"Well of course we are," Cinder said, with a smirk. "I've never been on a river cruise before."

"Is everybody ready?" Sunset asked.

"Ready," Jaune said.

"Good to go," Ruby said.

"I'm armed and well prepared," said Pyrrha.

"I'm always ready," Cinder said.

Sunset rolled her eyes. "Okay then, let's move!"

They broke cover from the temple and ran towards the waiting ship. That ship, when it had concluded its business, departed from the riverside wharf bearing not only several cargo containers, but also five stowaways: four huntsmen of Beacon Academy and Cinder Fall, agent of Salem and Fall Maiden.


	135. The Island of Doctor Merlot

The Island of Doctor Merlot

"Weapon check," Sunset said. "What have we got? Or should I say what have we got left?"

The four members of Team SAPR were sitting on the deck of the Merlot ship, under the shadow of the unmanned conning tower. The entire ship was completely unmanned and automated, as they had proved by searching it from top to bottom when they got on board, and was being guided to its destination by algorithms that none of them had the computer skills to crack.

As a result, they were not certain exactly where they were going. All they knew was that the ship had sailed through the rivers that ran through Vale, avoiding any major waterways or even any significant bridges as it went, until it had put out into the Shallow Sea. Whether it was headed to somewhere on Patch, to another island further out or even all the way to Solitas they could not say.

And they had lost contact with Professor Ozpin again. They got nothing but static on their scrolls now.

Still, with the sea stretching out boundless all around them as far as the eye could see and their ship showing no sign of stopping any time soon, all that they could do now was check their weapons and see how much ammunition they had left for the fight to come.

Pyrrha switched Milo into rifle mode so that she could eject the magazine and set it down next to the other two clips that she had produced from her pouch. "My last three," she said.

"I've got four!" Ruby said, as though it was a competition.

"What about the one already in Crescent Rose?" Pyrrha pointed.

"Oh, I've got five!"

"I'm out of ice dust," Jaune admitted. He dug around in his pockets. "But I do have…two vials of lightning dust, one vial of wind dust-"

"And I'm telling you, I don't care what you saw on TV, focussed wind is not going to turn your sword invisible," Sunset said.

"Maybe not, but it would still be pretty cool to blow things away, right?" Jaune asked. "I've also got one vial of fire dust."

"That makes two of us," Sunset said, taking the red vial out of her pocket and setting it down on the deck in the middle of the circle. "Which is just enough to light up my jacket one more time. But I've also got two lightning dust vials and I haven't actually used up what's already in the bracers yet so, Jaune, take them if you want them."

"Thanks," Jaune said, reaching out to snatch up the vials that Sunset had laid out for him. "Let me know if you need them back. If I don't use them first."

"Your need will probably be greater than mine," Sunset said.

"What about your sword?" Pyrrha asked.

Sunset shrugged. "My jacket needs it more. I can't just magic up more dust when I'm running short. I've also got thirty rounds left, mostly armour piercing, a couple of fire dust rounds, a few lightning dust rounds." She sighed, and folded her arms. "So it looks like it's going to be close quarters when we reach wherever it is we're going."

"Isn't it always close quarters in the end?" Pyrrha murmured.

"Yeah, but we're great at close quarters, so it isn't really a problem right?" Ruby said.

"Speak for yourselves, I like being able to shoot first," Sunset said.

"Speak for yourself, I'm still struggling to aim with a sword," Jaune said. "Slashing at stuff feels way more natural."

Pyrrha chuckled, and for a moment soft smiles spread out across the four of them.

"We've got our semblances, and Sunset's magic," Ruby said. "And we've got each other, so even if we do run out of bullets, we'll be fine."

Sunset grinned. "Yeah, sure we will. Although…"

Ruby frowned. "What is it?"

"I keep thinking about that grimm, the one in Vale," Sunset said. "The one that could regenerate its arm after I blew it off. Do you think that was connected to all of this somehow?"

"We haven't seen anything else like that so far," Jaune said.

"I know, and it's bugging me just a little bit," Sunset said. "It would be nice and simple of kind of easy if it was all connected to this, but…I don't know. If it isn't then that's another complication to worry about."

"Why don't we ask our ally what she knows about regenerating grimm?" Pyrrha suggested.

Sunset sighed. "Pyrrha-"

"We can't ignore this," Pyrrha said.

Sunset looked past Pyrrha to the prow of the ship, where Cinder stood alone. Her back was to them, she was facing out to sea as their vessel cut relentlessly through the waves and the spraying foam struck her in the face. Did she feel it? How much could she still feel when she touched it?

"What do you suggest we do about it?" Sunset asked quietly.

Pyrrha didn't have an answer to that, a fact which quieted her for a moment, although it didn't dispel the look on her face which verged on thunderous. "The Fall Maiden," she whispered. "How can we…she killed the previous Fall Maiden and stole her power."

"And she saved our lives with it," Sunset said.

"She's a murderer," Pyrrha hissed. "And she's dangerous."

"So what are we supposed to do, throw her off the boat?" Sunset demanded. "Or try to? The fact that she is the Fall Maiden makes a confrontation an even worse idea from our perspective. What she can do…we can't match that with no prep and ammunition and dust running out. We might still need her help and besides, we made an agreement."

Pyrrha pursed her lips together. "Do you really think that honour applies when dealing with somebody like her?"

"Either it applies all the time or never, don't you think?" Sunset replied.

"It worries me," Pyrrha said. "So much about this worries me."

"Pyrrha, I get it," Ruby said, her own voice soft. "I think that we all get it. Cinder's our enemy, and what she did…it sounds pretty evil. But we can't fight her right now, this isn't the right place. We could damage the boat and then we'd be stuck out here with no way of getting home or getting to where we're meant to go."

Pyrrha nodded, if a little hesitantly. "I…I'm sorry, everyone," she said. "I haven't been myself since the collapse."

"It's okay," Ruby said. "We all get it."

"Do you?" Pyrrha asked, looking up at her. "I don't…the three of you mean everything to me. I worry that…I worry."

Ruby smiled. "You don't need to protect us all, Pyrrha; because we're protecting each other, right?"

Pyrrha smiled back, although to Sunset's eyes it seemed a slightly strained smile. "Right," she agreed.

"It may interest you all to know," Cinder called from her vantage point upon the prow. "That I can see land ahead."

They all leapt up, gathering up their dust and ammunition and reloading their weapons where they had emptied them, and as they fumbled to put clips back into rifles and rounds back into chambers they all made their way up towards the prow of the boat, standing more or less close to Cinder depending on their appetite for proximity as they all peered out in the direction in which she gestured with one imperious hand.

It was land, or at least it looked like land. It looked like an island, a rough and rocky island surrounded by cliffs on all sides rising up just beyond what looked like barren, sandy beach. What lay on top of the cliffs, or what they might conceal behind them, could not at this distance be seen.

But there was no doubt that the boat was heading straight for it.

"It seems we have our destination," Pyrrha said. "With, perhaps a little more fortune than has attended us so far, we may be about to reach the final stage of our journey and a resolution to all these mysteries."

"I hope so," Jaune said. "This treasure hunt lost its allure a little while ago."

Sunset stared at the island dead ahead of them, trying to judge the speed of the ship by how quickly the island grew in size to meet them and from that to further judge how much longer they had until they got there.

"I don't think we have much time," she said. "We should get ready."

And they did, those of them who were not ready already. The person who needed to get ready the most was Sunset herself, who had to re-dust her jacket in case she needed it. She would be the first to admit that she did a somewhat sloppy job of it, but she was in a rush after all. Jaune only had to choose what kind of dust he wanted to load into the pommel of his sword (he chose lightning, being out of ice), and Ruby and Pyrrha were permanently primed and ready.

Cinder was the same, or at least she gave the appearance of being the same. Since she didn't carry a gun she didn't have to worry about ammunition, but then…didn't she ever run out of glass.

Sunset hadn't invited her to join the weapon check, she'd had a feeling that not all of the members of Team SAPR would have welcome her presence, but as the boat sailed on without any sign of slowing down or turning from its chosen course towards the isle she wondered just how prepared for this Cinder actually was.

"How are you fixed?" she asked, standing up and throwing on her dust re-infused (the best that she could manage in the time constraints anyway) jacket as the island grew nearer and nearer to them.

"Hmm?"

"Dust," Sunset clarified. She shuffled a little closer to Cinder. "You're not making the glass out of magic."

Cinder chuckled. "Am I not? And how would you know?"

"Are you alright for dust or not?" Sunset asked.

Cinder continued to look out across the water at their destination. "I'll be fine," she said. "So what do you think is waiting for us out there?"

Sunset's eyebrows rose. She was silent a moment, the sea air wafting through her hair and making the hem of her jacket ripple back and forth. "A vengeful magician, unjustly forced into exile, living alone with his innocent daughter, a true ingénue who has never any man not her own father in her life." She smirked. "She'll probably fall in love with Jaune, which will make things awkward."

Cinder chuckled. "A story from your home?"

"A famous one," Sunset said. "The first male the daughter sets eyes upon is actually the son of the wizard's enemy, shipwrecked on the isle."

"So it is a story of revenge?"

Sunset shook her head. "A story of forgiveness and reconciliation."

"I don't think we're likely to find much of either on this island."

"No," Sunset admitted. "Probably not. What we will find though…answers, hopefully; less hopefully I'm afraid that we'll find all kinds of twisted science experiments down there. We still don't know what they did with the faunus."

"Do you know what I think we will find there?" Cinder asked softly.

"No."

"An arrogant man who thinks he can play god," Cinder said. "And it falls to the angels of the true gods to remind him that it is not so."

"Angels?"

"Fallen, in my case perhaps," Cinder said. "But an angel nevertheless." She flicked her hair over her shoulder, and smiled coquettishly at Sunset.

It was not long afterwards that the boat pulled in to what was a far more miserable excuse for a dockyard than Sunset had only been expecting. The rest of the island was as it had appeared: a rough, sandy and incredibly narrow beach bordering on high, practically sheer cliffs that could not have been climbed by any of them, nor leapt even with Jaune's semblance strengthening their legs.

The dock into which their ship slid silently was barely worthy of the name: there was just a single crane for the unloading of the vessel and that…that was about it. There wasn't even a proper jetty, although Sunset supposed that such things could be regarded as unnecessary if you were never intending to carry passengers. Still, the lack of any sort of facilities didn't bode well for the hope that they would find all the answers that they were looking for here. Just as likely this was just another way-station, another stop on their journey that would lead them to nowhere but another location on what Jaune had accurately termed a treasure hunt.

They leapt down off the boat – with aura and its enhancements to their strength they didn't need for there to be any way to disembark passengers – and landed in the sand as the crane began to descend upon one of the shipping containers that had been taken on in the Forever Fall. A crude wall of wooden planks and corrugated iron, that looked as though it had been assembled hastily and out of whatever leftover materials happened to be available to hand, separated the dock from the rest of the beach, with only a small doorway joining the two.

There was a clanking, stomping sound for a moment before that doorway was blocked by an android. A red android, one of the crimson giants that Blake and Rainbow Dash had encountered underneath Atlas and one of the same type that SAPR had found destroyed and scattered in the Emerald Forest. It stopped, and as it stared at them for a moment Sunset almost had the impression that it was surprised to see them.

It made an unintelligible sound in no language that Sunset recognised, and then stepped out of sight behind the barrier.

"Huh," Jaune said. "That was-"

The barrier was smashed down as a host of robots battered holes in the wood and the iron and stomped through the breaches they had made. On the right flank, closer to the water's edge, were the blood red robots with the stylised M in white upon their chests, with their eyes of green and their polearms tinted in the same colour. Upon the left, further towards the cliff, were the bulkier white robots with the guns with which Ruby had been so enamoured when she had taken one in the forest.

 _They mean to drive us onto the spears of the first group with the fire of the second._

 _Unfortunately for them, we're actually quite well-placed for fighting robots._

"Pyrrha, Jaune," Sunset said. "You take the close-quarter ones on the right. Ruby, you and me are going to take the shooting ones on the left. Cinder?"

"Yes?" Cinder asked.

Sunset grinned. "Watch as it's our turn to show off. Ruby, hold for my signal." She raised her hands and conjured a wide shield of magic that stretched from her out to cover her team, and Cinder, and even separate the red robots from the white on either side of her barrier. "Pyrrha, Jaune, go!"

* * *

As her swift stride carried her into battle, Pyrrha wanted very much to simply use her semblance to rip all of these androids apart in a matter of moments.

It might not work. She had never used Polarity in such a brazen and overt way before; but that was no reason why it wouldn't work. The fact that she used her semblance only softly did not mean that she had a weak semblance. She was…she was gifted, as much a prodigy in her semblance as in everything else about her, she simply hadn't given her semblance the same attention that she had given to all the rest of her warrior arts.

That seemed like a mistake now. If aura was the shield of the soul, then semblance was the sword; aura had been granted to mankind to protect them from the darkness, and semblance to strike back against it; aura was a beacon of light to keep the shadows at bay, while semblance was an inferno to burn away the horrors all around.

And if she was going to defeat Cinder then she would need more than minute manipulations that would avail her little against Cinder's weapons of glass and fire. Pyrrha found herself increasingly convinced that one day sooner or later the two of the would meet in battle; she could feel destiny itself driving her on to such a contest, and when that day came the only way that she was going to prevail – if indeed she could prevail, if it were not a hopeless battle – was to go all out as Cinder had gone all out. She would need not only to be at her fastest and her strongest, but she would need every last ounce of power that she could wring out of her soul at the same time if she was to stand any chance at all. And she would have to start practicing sooner or later.

She would have done it too, or tried to do it, if it were not for one crucial detail: Cinder was watching. And when the two of them came together – when, not if – in battle then Pyrrha didn't want Cinder to know everything that she could do. If she could keep her semblance hidden from Cinder as she had kept it hidden from the crowds for so long then all to the good, but even if she guessed what Pyrrha's semblance was then she absolutely didn't want her enemy knowing how strong it was.

Cinder had given away her greatest surprise to Pyrrha in the cave, but Pyrrha meant to save her own surprise for when it counted most.

So she would win this fight – she would help her team win this fight – the way that she had won all her battles. Against an enemy that was quite literally made of metal it should be quite sufficient.

All these thoughts passed through Pyrrha's head in the mere moments before she reached her android enemies and joined battle with them.

The first android swung its polearm in her direction, but Pyrrha simultaneously leaned back, her knees bending even as she adjusted the swing of the spear with her polarity so that it passed harmlessly over her head. And as the glowing blade passed before her eyes Pyrrha lashed outward with her foot, hammering the robot in the knee. She hadn't trained in using her semblance with her feet, but the force that she put into the blow was enough to shatter the android's joint. It tottered upon its remaining leg even as Pyrrha leapt upwards and, with a swing of her spear, sliced off its head.

Two more androids closed on her from opposite sides. They were so slow. They stomped around as though they were moving through treacle rather than air. She threw her shield at the one that was trying with almost painful sloth to approach her from behind, shattering its visage as she struck it on the forehead. With her free hand Pyrrha grabbed the glaive of the android that she had just decapitated and threw it at the red robot approaching her from the front, aiming for the vulnerable join of its legs to its torso. Took one of its legs off, and had the satisfaction of watching the android topple over onto its side. She rounded on the android behind and finished the damage to its head that her shield had begun. The second android was now trying to crawl its way over to her, but it was even slower as it tried to drag itself across the ground and Pyrrha despatched it easily.

She charged another android. It slashed at her with surprising speed – so they could move fast when they wished to – but Pyrrha's semblance was able to turn them all safely away from her without any damage to her aura. She jumped, landing on top of the robots spear as she returned its slashes with a few of her own, and her strikes did not miss.

More of the androids tried to surround her, but she was able to turn their strokes aside as she had always turned the strokes of her enemies aside in the arena, and in so doing create openings for herself. It was not the new use of her semblance that she would need to learn if she was to stand a chance against Cinder Fall, but in its own way that was good. This was familiar to her, in spite of the fact that the enemies were androids instead of fellow tournament fighters, and though it wasn't pushing her in any new directions…well, quite honestly after some of the novelty that had entered her life recently there was something to be said for an experience that was a little more familiar, like an old glove. She knew how to do this, and she knew that she could do it well.

And do it she did, as the androids fell before her.

* * *

Jaune concentrated, the way that Sunset had told him too. The magic that she had imbued into his sword as it was re-forged – it could only be done when the blade was being made, apparently, that was why she couldn't just charm all their weapons; there was something special about the forging which, while it didn't make much logical sense, did make a kind of sense in a 'it's magic and so it makes sense that its kind of weird and mystical that way' fashion. A little like the idea that huntsmen ought to make their own weapons so that it had a bit of their soul inside – would enhance its cutting edge, so she had said. And looking at the armour on those androids he felt like being able to cleave straight through anything might be a good idea right now.

He had dispensed with the shield, and instead his sword was in its greatsword configuration, longer and wider and heavier than normal. But it might not be enough. He might need more.

And so he dug deep, and reached for the power that he could feel, throbbing and thrumming whenever he drew the blade. It was like some kind of animal, a beast that at once waited with baited breath to be unleashed but at the same time bore a sort of resentment towards the idea of being commanded by him. He had to at once drag it and beseech it, both invite it to come out and haul on it like trying to get a recalcitrant dog out of the kennel to take a walk (and Jaune knew all about that; he'd gotten his comic book money walking the neighbours' dogs and some of them were the laziest animals you ever saw).

And so he mentally coaxed and commanded, and gradually his great blade glowed with the golden light that Sunset had put into it.

And not before time too, as the first of the red androids was already upon him. It drew back its bladed spear thingy, and slashed at him.

Jaune put up his sword to block, the android's spear clashed with his blade and the magical edge sliced clean through the mere metal as the bulk of the spear-blade dropped to the ground with a heavy thud.

Even the robot seemed a little confused by what had just happened.

Jaune yelled. He yelled as he slashed down at the robot's outstretched arm, cutting through it and slicing it off just below the elbow. He yelled as he hacked at the robot itself, slicing through the armour of its chest until it collapsed into pieces, falling apart along the charred edge lines where he and his magic sword – he had a magic sword! And it really worked! – had cloven through it.

It worked! It actually worked!

And that was about the easiest kill he'd ever gotten.

"Yes!" Jaune let out a triumphant shout as if he'd just won the whole battle single-handedly, before the tramp tramp of robotic feet reminded him that there were more enemies yet to be dealt with.

Well let them come. His sword would cut through them all just like it cut through that first one.

"Come on?" he asked. "Who's next?"

In amidst the babble of robot-speak that he couldn't understand he could swear that he heard one of them say 'roger-roger'.

They came at him, without much order or coordination that he could make out. He cut their spears in half, he cut off their arms, he cut off their legs and then their heads, he simply sliced through their bodies at the waist-line, he cut them into pieces one and all. He was killing this. He was killing them. He was…he was good at this! He'd been getting better at fighting the grimm too but he was _really_ good at this. As the robots fell before his blade this was the first time he really felt like the hero he'd always-

A flurry of swift blows from behind struck his back and cut his knees out from under him, and the world spun around Jaune even as he felt more blows clattering off his armour and slicing into his aura at the same time. He hit the sand heavily, and shoulder first. He heard some robotic buzzing as he looked up to see the android that had gotten behind him.

Akuou flew into his field of vision to knock the android back a step before Pyrrha leapt over him in a flying kick that knocked the robot still further back even as she sliced off its head with Milo.

She leapt back, turning to him and offering him her hand, a gleam in her eyes that had been unfortunately missing the last couple of days as her smile made her whole face light up in such a way that…well, Jaune could almost forget that there was a battle raging around them.

"You were doing wonderfully well," she said, as she helped him to his feet. "But don't get cocky."

"I won't," Jaune said. "I'll remember."

As the remaining robots – the red ones anyway – surrounded them, Jaune and Pyrrha turned so that they were back to back.

"But you know," Pyrrha said. "You've actually taken out more of them than I have."

"Really?" Jaune spluttered, surprise heightening the pitch of his voice. He sought to lower it again in an effort to regain his dignity. "I mean, uh, I, uh-"

Pyrrha laughed. "I mean it, Jaune, you're doing great. Keep it up."

As the androids closed in around them, he wasn't afraid. Together, they had this.

He was sure of it.

* * *

Sunset cringed a little as the bullets from the androids' rotary cannons slammed into her magical shield, sending shockwaves rippling through her consciousness.

"Sunset-" Ruby began.

"Not yet," Sunset said, as she put forth her effort and her power alike to keep the shield stable, protecting not only herself and her partner but Jaune and Pyrrha and Cinder too.

The androids kept up their bombardment. They must have thought that this was some kind of semblance that would drop if they kept shooting at it.

They were half right, but the trick was to keep it up enough for them to grow impatient. Sunset grinned, reflexively, before she realised that these were robots and she wasn't going to annoy them with a show like she would a human enemy. She looked away, as the bullets spat from the guns and her shield shuddered under the impacts and she started to get a headache. Jaune and Pyrrha – and Jaune really was pulling his weight, who knew a magic sword would give him such an edge over robotic enemies? – were making short work of the crimson androids with the spears, and if they had any sort of tactical nous then the white androids must be getting desperate to bring her shield down and support their allies.

 _Come on,_ Sunset thought. _You've got a load of nice, juicy grenades stuffed in their somewhere, so why don't you-_

They fired their grenades. Two of the white androids did anyway, the bombs erupted from the dark barrels of their enormous guns and bounced off the sand as they flew through the straight for Sunset.

Who enveloped them both in the grip of her telekinesis, holding them there in a bright green glow, before with a superfluous but very cool flicking gesture she flung them straight back at the robots who had fired them.

Both grenades exploded in the midst of the cluster of white androids, enveloping them in the explosive blast.

Sunset dropped the shield. "Ruby, go!"

Ruby was already speeding forward before Sunset had even finished the second word, racing towards the enemy in a burst of rosepetals.

* * *

Ruby raced towards the enemy in burst of rosepetals, re-materialising in their midst just as the explosion from the grenades died down. Two androids were down, some of the rest were damaged, only the ones on the edge of the blast were completely untouched.

Damaged or not, none of them were fast enough to react to her sudden appearance in their midst as she twirled a still-unfolding Crescent Rose in a wide arc, slicing two androids in half. A third robot swung the barrel of its gun towards her but Ruby jumped up onto that barrel, Crescent Rose switching back into carbine mode as she fired five or six shots into the android at point blank range – she still had enough bullets that she could afford to fire those. Probably – into its head and chest to take it down.

 _With all these guns here I'll have one that I can disassemble to see how it all works as well as one to keep,_ Ruby thought, as she unfurled her mighty scythe once again and buried the blade in an android's chest. Unfortunately it got stuck there, while the robot wasn't quite dead.

Ruby leapt upwards, trailing rose petals as she ascended into the sky, flicking Crescent Rose and collapsing it at the same time so that her scythe blade retracted – slicing through more metal and circuits as it went – even as the robot itself was flung off and against the cliff.

She unfolded her weapon again – the mechanism was certainly getting a workout right now – as she landed on the ground, kicking up sand as she charged forward, dragging her scythe behind her like a giant scoop that swept up the half-dozen robots in her path – the last white androids remaining – and threw them all up into the air like ninepins hit by a bowling ball.

Bursts of bright green energy from Sunset's fingertips nailed all six of them as they hung suspended in the air, and they were dead – or whatever the term was for robots – before they hit the ground.

* * *

Sunset dusted off her hands. _That was even quicker than I thought it would be. We really are good at this. We're like robot slayers._

She glanced at Cinder, who was very studiedly acting as though she wasn't impressed. It didn't matter. Sunset knew that she was secretly impressed even if she was trying not to show it.

"Hey, Sunset," Jaune said. "Thanks for the sword."

Sunset grinned. "Don't thank me, even I wasn't expecting it to be that useful. I thought you could cut through doors or something, not slice through an army of androids."

"The weapon is nothing without the skill of the warrior who wields it," Pyrrha said, placing an encouraging hand on Jaune's shoulder.

"I may vomit," Cinder said. Pyrrha ignored her.

Sunset cleared her throat. "As awesomely as it was done – and good job everybody – we've certainly made our presence known to our enemy after all that." She pulled out her scroll. She got nothing but static. However, as she glanced upwards away from the wreck that Team SAPR had made of the Merlot androids, she could see a series of communications towers rising up from behind the cliffs, three of them in fact, at different points on the island.

"We need to make contact with Professor Ozpin again," she said. "Perhaps if we get up to one of those towers, we can boost our signal."

"Assuming that they are signal towers," Cinder said. "Considering that this an island in the middle of nowhere with little apparent interest in visitors, and considering that communications are being jammed, I'd say they're more like jamming towers."

"Hmm," Sunset mused. "Maybe. We'll find out when we actually get to them."

"We should split up," Cinder said. "Head for each tower at the same time."

"I'm not so sure that's a good idea," Pyrrha said.

"Would it make you feel better if I said I was willing to go by myself?" Cinder asked. "In fact, I'll even insist upon it."

Pyrrha considered it. "Very well," she said. "We'll split up by pairs? Jaune and I?"

"And Ruby and I," Sunset said.

They couldn't split up right away, however, as there was only one nearby way off the beach and into the interior of the island: an archway inviting them through the sandstone cliffs and up a narrow path that wound upwards and around a rocky hill until they came to what looked like nothing so much as an arena dug into the earth. It was a rough circle, formed on three sides by the rock faces and on the fourth by a substantial metal wall with a gate set in it. The wall was less a barrier and more like the rampart of a fortress, with a parapet at the top for defenders to stand and in fact, as SAPR and Cinder crouched behind the rocks for cover they could see the distinctive white androids with their enormous guns standing on said parapet looking down.

The gate was, at present, open, and red androids who had exchanged their spears for metal staves that sparked with electricity were prodding a large mutated beowolf, easily the size of your average ursa, into the arena.

A dozen ordinary beowolves, led by a battle-scarred alpha, were already there.

Cinder tensed, as if she could anticipate what was coming as the gate slammed shut.

The two sides eyeballed one another for a moment, the green beowolf and the white pack, low growls rising out of their throats.

It was practically axiomatic that grimm would only intentionally hunt humans, but that they would fight animals in disputes over territory.

Sunset didn't know whether this counted as territory or not, but after a moment of staring the pack of beowolves surged forward into the attack, kicking up dust as they descended upon the larger, mutated beowolf from all sides.

And the single green beowolf withstood them all. Though they bit at his legs and leapt onto his back, scrabbling for purchased amongst the giant spines, though they could make the larger creature howl with pain, not all of that black tide could seem to impair the creature's ability to fight back. Enormous paws lashed out in both direction, sending beowolves flying to slam against the stone walls that made up the natural arena; one swiping paw even took a beowolf's head clean off when it had the misfortune to stand up at the wrong time. The mutated beowolf ripped one of his ordinary opponents off his back and bit it in half. It slammed its clawed paws onto the ground and a line of jagged green spikes erupted from out of the surface of the earth to impale the alpha beowolf.

In a matter of mere moments the mutated beowolf had slaughtered every beowolf that had confronted him, and pounded his paws upon his chest in celebration as he roared his triumph to the skies.

Cinder's face was hard as flint. "Sunset, our road to those jamming towers leads through here, correct?"

"Yes," Sunset said. All the towers were in various places on the other side of that gate.

A glass bow formed in Cinder's hands. "Then I see no reason to delay," she said, as she stood up and loosed an arrow at the mutated beowolf, striking it in the eye. The beowolf's loud triumphant roar turned into a howl of pain that was no less loud for being for having exchanged triumph for agony.

"Get through the gate and be on your way," Cinder said. "I can deal with this mongrel myself. In fact I'd prefer it that way."

Without another word, she leapt down into the arena, loosing another glass shaft that this time struck the beowolf in the neck. Green ichor began to leak from the creature's wound as it turned its head, trying to find her with the one eye that she had left it.

The androids had much less trouble noticing her, and began to turn their guns towards her.

"Sorry about this, Ruby," Sunset said.

"What are you-" Ruby's question was cut off as Sunset grabbed her and teleported the pair of them onto the battlements of the metal wall before the white androids could start to take their shots at Cinder.

It was to Ruby's credit that, once they were actually up on the wall, she didn't hesitate to charge the androids, Crescent Rose unfolding behind her as she slashed with it in a wide arc that sliced two androids clean in half already. Sunset thought she could handle the remainders, so she leapt down off the wall to where the red androids with the cattle prods were waiting.

Magical blasts shot from the palms of Sunset's hands, punching holes in the chests of two of the androids before they could react. Since they couldn't shoot at her, Sunset ignored the other two for a moment as she ran to the gate and slammed her fist into the big red button beside it.

Said button changed to green as the gate slid open, revealing that Cinder had changed her glass bow for a pair of scimitars as she engaged the mutated beowolf at close quarters. The altered grimm was bleeding from a dozen wounds, but didn't seem in any danger of dying at this stage.

Sunset fired another magical blast from out of her palms, which would also signal to Pyrrha and Jaune that the gate was open. She struck the beowolf on the thigh, making it turn its scarred face towards her and roar angrily.

Cinder soon got its attention back, slashing across its throat with both swords. "This is my fight, Sunset," she snarled. "Leave me."

"But-"

"Leave me!" Cinder snapped, as she retreated back a step and led the beowolf on.

Sunset might have argued further – she felt like arguing further – but she heard the remaining red androids closing with her and turned just in time as one of them tried to wield its oversized cattle prod like a club, bringing it down upon her head.

Sunset took the blow upon her forearm, the metal clanging against the bracers that she wore.

The lightning dust infused bracers.

 _Let's see how this works._

Sunset tapped the bracer with her free hand, and with her aura she activated the dust that she'd infused into the metal. Lightning rippled up and down the bracers and not only that, but it surged down the pole of the android's weapon, the lightning snapping and crackling like a pack of angry hounds, and ripped across the crimson body of the android itself, which jerked and twitched before collapsing like an unused puppet.

Pyrrha's shield flew over Sunset's shoulder to strike the remaining red android, before Pyrrha herself emerged into view to finish it off.

Ruby leapt down off the wall. "Nailed it," she said, as various pieces of white android followed her to the ground.

Jaune was the last to arrive. "What now?" he asked.

Sunset turned towards Cinder, still locked in combat with the beowolf.

 _This is my fight._

 _Then good luck with it._

"We get to the towers," Sunset said, before she turned away.

But she left the gate open, for when Cinder was finished.

* * *

Pyrrha's boots hammered upon the metal steps as she ran down them. The second jamming tower, the tower that it had fallen to her and Jaune and disable in the hope of getting their signal out, stood on the edge of a clear blue lake. In fact the tower had been built just in the lake, rising up out of the water and casting a long shadow of beams and poles over it. The controls – or at least what Pyrrha, who would never claim to be any sort of engineer, took to be the control panel considering that it was a glowing panel with buttons on it – lay at the bottom of the tower and underneath it.

"Pyrrha, Jaune, do you read me?" Sunset asked.

"You're crackling a little, but we can make you out," Jaune said. "Whoever lives here must be more concerned about jamming long-range communications."

"Right," Sunset said. "Ruby and I have reached the tower. I'm disabling the jammer now."

A burst of static sounded in Pyrrha's ear, followed by a voice that was – just about – identifiable as belonging to Professor Ozpin.

"Team…can you…resp…"

"Professor Ozpin?" Pyrrha asked. "Professor, can you hear us?"

"…don't know…keep doing…trying…" his voice was lost amidst more static.

"Sounds like we're onto something at least," Sunset said. "Pyrrha, where are you?"

"Almost there," Pyrrha said.

"Okay," Sunset said. "We'll see what taking two towers off-line can do."

Pyrrha didn't reply as she reached the base of the tower, where the steps widened out into a large metal pad, with the control panel before her. Her steps slowed as she approached.

"Pyrrha?" Jaune said, as he caught up with her. "Is something wrong?"

Pyrrha hesitated for a moment, then pulled the ear piece out of her ear and switched it off so that Sunset and Ruby couldn't hear her. "Jaune, would you…"

Jaune frowned. "But-"

"Please," Pyrrha said softly.

Jaune blinked, but he put his finger to his ear. "There, it's off. What's going on?"

"Nothing," Pyrrha said, which she recognised was a silly thing to say almost as soon as she'd said it because if nothing was going on she wouldn't have asked him to turn off his earpiece, would she? She walked to the control panel, but did not deactivate the jammer. Not yet. She would, of course, but not yet. She turned back to face Jaune. "I wanted to talk to you without us being overheard. Just for a moment."

"Pyrrha," Jaune said. "What is this?"

Pyrrha hesitated. She didn't really want to tell him this, a part of her didn't want to tell herself this, but she knew that it needed to be done and she might need his…his support, when the moment came.

"I don't know what lies in store for us on this island," Pyrrha said. "But if I get the chance I'm going to kill Cinder."

 _I should have done it already, perhaps._ When she had decided to take on that beowolf, that might have been the best chance that Pyrrha was going to get to catch her when she was weakened, vulnerable. It might not be the case, but it might also be the case that she would never be left sufficiently vulnerable again and the moment was lost. But it would have been very difficult to have done it then, with Sunset so close and without Jaune or Ruby knowing what she intended to do. That was why she had to tell Jaune now, so that he was ready when her chance came.

Jaune's eyes, so blue and innocent, widened with shock. "Pyrrha-"

"There might come a moment when she's weakened, vulnerable," Pyrrha said. "When the battle has taken its toll on her and she lets her guard down…it might be my only chance. But if Sunset's there…Ruby will be confused, and Sunset…I might need you to distract them while I…do it."

Jaune stared at her. "You're serious, aren't you? You're not kidding around."

"She's the Fall Maiden," Pyrrha said. "She killed the previous Maiden and stole her powers and we all know what that means; we've all seen what kind of power she wields. Yes, she used it to save our lives one time, but she's a murderer and she's dangerous and she…she's so dangerous. What she could do with the kind of power at her command…it's a miracle that she didn't kill Twilight in the tower, it's a miracle that she didn't kill us under Mountain Glenn and I can't stop her, Jaune! Not as I am, and not as she is, not unless I can take her when her defences are down."

She didn't mention her destiny. It wasn't the most important reason why she had decided that, if the moment arose, she would murder Cinder Fall in cold blood; it wasn't anywhere near the most important reason for that choice, not compared to the threat that Cinder posed to the team, the threat that she posed to the world, the horrifying image of Jaune withering in the fire like one of those grimm that she couldn't get out of her mind or the worrying way that Cinder had wormed her way into Sunset's mind…but it was there, at the back of Pyrrha's mind just as Cinder was ever at the back of Sunset's. She had always believed, as she had always been told, that she possessed greatness within her, and she had come to believe as she had wasted that great potential in tournaments for the mere amusement of the masses that she was destined for something more than that and greater: to protect the world against the darkness. That belief, which had led her to decide to leave the tournament scene behind and devote herself to training to become a huntress, had taken a little bit of a battering at times recently as she had learned that the darkness was much darker than she could have imagined, but she had reaffirmed her commitment to doing what was right for Remnant and humanity, and pursuing her destiny as best she could. Cinder's power, the Maiden's power which she had usurped, threatened to make mock of Pyrrha's dear ambitions, but if she fell by Pyrrha's hand then…then all that she had dreamt of would lie possible before her.

If the powers came to her, that is. If not then Pyrrha would not mourn it – so long as they did not pass to another individual as depraved and dangerous as Cinder Fall – for it was not for ambition or the sake of her own destiny that she would do this, but to protect the people – and the world – that she loved.

"You don't have to face her alone," Jaune said.

 _Oh, Jaune. My sweet, brave, foolish knight. The fact that you say that is exactly why I have to do this._

"I think I do," Pyrrha said softly.

Jaune looked troubled by that – or perhaps he was simply troubled by everything that Pyrrha had said – and he looked down at his feet for a moment. "When I spoke to Professor Ozpin, after I…after I killed that guy on the train, he said that it was good that I was bothered by it, because it meant…he said it meant that I was a good person. He told me that, since that kind of thing had to be done sometimes, it was good that it was done by good people and not by someone who might enjoy it too much." He looked at her. "You're the best person I know, Pyrrha, so I guess if this has to be done – and I guess you're right, it does – then I think…I think you might be the best person to do it. Whatever help you need from me, I'll do it."

Pyrrha didn't smile, the discussion was too grim and grave for that, but she did nod as she said, "Thank you Jaune. I know I can count on you. I'm sorry to put this on you, but…thank you."

She switched on her earpiece as she put it back in her ear. "Sunset, I'm disabling the jammer now. I think," she said, as she pushed what she hoped was the right button on the control panel.

"Students…almost…got you. Just…more," Professor Ozpin said, before his voice cut out.

 _I suppose it's all up to Cinder now._

 _Unfortunately._

* * *

Green ooze dripped off Cinder to form a trail leading back the way that she had come as she made her way up the rocky path and up the steps towards the final jamming tower.

She wondered idly if any of them had doubted that she would win the fight. And she hadn't even had to use her Maiden powers to do it, although that would have undoubtedly ended the struggle much faster. But it would also have revealed said powers to their host, and she wasn't quite ready to do that yet.

Cinder reached the control panel underneath the third and final tower, and stood before it. There was an argument to be made for not turning it off. After all, she didn't need to get in touch with Ozpin, did she? But she and Sunset were allies on this mission, and Sunset was counting on her.

And she would, at some point, need a way off this island and that might be difficult to accomplish if she couldn't get a signal out to Emerald to have the White Fang send a boat to pick her up.

Once they heard that she had defeated whoever was responsible for kidnapping innocent Atlesian faunus they'd probably be only too happy to rescue her.

Cinder flicked the switch to turn off the jammer.

Instantly her scroll buzzed.

She reached for it. It might have been Sunset, and so she reflexively pulled out her scroll only to confronted by the face of an old man with a shock of white hair, an untidy handlebar moustache and a goatee. A red eye, clearly cybernetic, burned in his left socket. A rich fruity voice emerged from out of Cinder's scroll as he spoke.

"Forgive the cold call, as it were, young lady," he said. "But since you're comms don't appear to be linked to any of the other children currently enjoying my island I thought it might be nice to have a little word."

Cinder's eyebrows arched. "Doctor Merlot, I presume."

"You know who I am?" he asked, looking somewhat surprised to hear it.

Cinder smirked. "Take a tip, Doctor, if you're looking to anonymous perhaps don't splash your corporate log on absolutely every surface that you can. Especially when that logo is the initial of your last name."

Merlot did not reply directly. Instead he said, "Ozpin sends his children in teams of four, so may I ask who you are, and what you're doing here?"

"I could ask what you're doing more generally," Cinder said. "Abducting grimm, desecrating them…there are other powers in the world beyond Ozpin, Doctor, and you have offended them greatly."

"Desecrating?" Merlot asked incredulously. "I'm improving upon nature's design."

"Improving?" Cinder said.

"The grimm are truly a superior species," Merlot said, deaf to the sharpening of Cinder's tone. "Immune to pity, to fear, to love, unburdened by all the weaknesses of mankind. But for all that they remain frustrating vulnerable, blinded by base instincts, prey to the weapons and abilities of Ozpin's huntsmen. Do you know that a young grimm can't resist attacking even though it is certain death to do so? I have taken promising savages and lifted them up, starting them along a path to their destiny as the supreme and superior species on Remnant."

"And you will be their king, I suppose?" Cinder asked.

"A king? Why speak in such small, mean terms?" Merlot asked. "The power of my creations will set me above the gods themselves."

"No," Cinder said. "It will not."

Merlot bristled. "And what would you know of such matters?"

"I have looked into the eyes of god, you fool," Cinder snarled. "And you could never presume to be so much as her equal. To be her superior?" She laughed. "You are nothing but a foolish, ignorant man who has grown too proud. And I will remind you what it is that follows in the wake of hubris." She slammed shut her scroll. _Idiot._ But then, had she really expected anything else? What he had done was monstrous, but he had never been going to have any grand reason why he had done it: he was just a man who didn't know nearly as much as he thought he did, playing with forces beyond his comprehension.

And he was going to pay for his arrogance.

Cinder began to walk away. Obviously had some sort of facility on this island, all she had to do was find it and then find him.

In the meantime she would let SAPR act as a distraction for Merlot's security while she snuck in without so much interference. It was a little harsh, but she was confident that Sunset's team would be able to handle it.

And if they didn't then…so long as Sunset herself made it out then…they weren't vital to her future plans.

* * *

"I think the last jammer just went down, Cinder did it," Sunset said. "Professor Ozpin, can you-"

"I did entertain some hope that you might provide some more scintillating conversation than your associate, but after hearing you call for Ozpin my hopes fade by the second," declared the voice on the other end of the line. It was definitely not Ozpin's voice, it was richer, fuller and a little more full of itself as well. "You're obviously just another four of the self-righteous huntsmen that Oz so delights in churning out."

"Who is this?" Pyrrha demanded from her position, her voice entering Sunset's ear via the earpiece. "Who are you?"

The voice chuckled. "Not as insightful as your associate either. Permit me to introduce myself, my name-"

"Merlot," the voice of Professor Ozpin interrupted him. "Like the rest of the world I believed you to be dead. Unlike some I also hoped that it was so."

"Hoped I was dead?" the other voice – Merlot – asked in mock horror. "Come now, Oz, is that any way to speak to an old chum?"

"If we were ever friends, Merlot, I'm not aware of it," Ozpin said dryly.

"That's because you don't let yourself have any friends, Oz, but believe me there was a time when I would have done absolutely anything to make you proud."

"Merlot?" Sunset said. "The Merlot? Founder of Merlot Industries? You're-"

"Supposed to be dead?" Merlot asked. "Reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated, it seems."

"I should have known," Ozpin said wearily. "I had hoped that, you having done so much to bring about the Mountain Glenn tragedy, you would at least have had the good grace to perish alongside those you condemned by your heedless arrogance, but of course that never was your style, was it, Merlot? It was always others who had to pay the price for your recklessness."

"Reckless?" Merlot snapped. "You sent four children here and you call me reckless? Tell me, Oz old pal, how many people have you sent to their deaths over the years while you sat safe in your emerald tower?"

"Far too many for my liking," Ozpin admitted. "And that is a weight that I have to carry; why do I doubt that the lives you've cost burden your shoulders nearly so much."

"Professor Ozpin?" Ruby said. "What are you talking about?"

Ozpin sighed. "Doctor Merlot was expelled from Beacon after he convinced a team of first years to go into the Emerald Forest and act as bait as part of a plan he had devised to capture some grimm for study."

"How could we develop superior strategies and weapons for combating the grimm if we never studied the grimm?" Merlot demanded. "Beacon clings to ancient orthodoxies without ever trying to verify them, grimm studies is based on fleeting observation and anecdote combined with teachings so ancient they're antediluvian simply because they've survived being passed from hand to hand over the centuries. I wanted to see for myself!"

"And as a result three of your fellow students died and another was gravely injured in the body and scarred in the mind and soul," Ozpin snapped.

"Has any great thing ever been accomplished without sacrifice?"

"And it still wasn't enough," Ozpin thundered. "You didn't stop there, did you Merlot? You were luring grimm to Mountain Glenn, weren't you?"

The momentary silence was broken by Merlot saying, "I needed more specimens than could be acquired any other way."

Ruby gasped. "You…you mean you…you brought the grimm to Mountain Glenn? You're the reason the city fell?"

"A mere speed bump on the path of scientific discovery," Merlot declared breezily.

"We're talking about people's lives here!" Jaune said.

"The city was fundamentally untenable in any case, it probably would have fallen for some other reason sooner or later."

"Yeah, but it didn't," Sunset said. "It fell because of you."

"And as a result fell in a greater purpose than would otherwise have been the case."

"You're a monster," Pyrrha said.

"On the contrary, my dear girl, I am a visionary," Merlot declared. "I am the only one-"

"Shut up," Ruby snarled, her voice coming out raggedly, as though she was about to start sobbing. When Sunset looked at her she could see tears welling at the edges of her eyes. "Just…shut up!

"There was a girl…her name was Skye. Her parents moved out to Mountain Glenn so that they could have a better life than in Vale. She loved her friends, and the colour pink, and she had a crush on a cool young huntsman she'd seen in the Vytal Festival. And she's dead because of what you did!

"There was a huntress, her name was Elphaba Westwick, she was Professor Goodwitch's partner when they were students at Beacon; she believed in humanity, and she fought for humanity and she died trying to defend Mountain Glenn against the monsters that you brought there. Those people…all of those people that you killed…all of those lives and dreams that you snuffed out…I'm going to make you pay for all of them!"

Merlot's only response was to laugh. "My my, Oz, what fierce little kittens you're training at Beacon nowadays."

"Patronising ass," Sunset muttered. "Ruby's better than you'll ever be."

"I agree," Professor Ozpin said. "I've disappointed, Merlot; all your mockery demonstrates is that you can no longer recognise righteousness when it is right in front of you."

"Perhaps," Merlot said. "But I can recognise that these children you've sent to visit me will make exceptional test subjects for a little experiment I've been dying to try."

"These students are more than a match for your robots, Merlot," Ozpin said.

"Yes, it will probably make you feel very smug to know that they've proved that already," Merlot said. "You never did rate my androids, did you Oz?"

"If you mean that I never believed you when you said they could replace huntsmen on the battlefield then no, I didn't," Ozpin said. "It seems that I have been proved right."

"These particular students are somewhat above average," Merlot conceded. "But that's what makes them so perfect for my experiment. You see, it isn't androids that I wish to test. It's something much, much more interesting."

The sounds of gunfire erupted in Sunset's earpiece.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune yelled.

"Jaune?" Sunset cried. "Pyrrha?"

"Best of luck," Merlot said.


	136. Hybrids

Hybrids

The beowolf had wings.

It was absolutely a beowolf. Pyrrha hadn't snapped under the stress she was feeling and mistaken a nevermore or a griffon for a beowolf. It was a beowolf; a green, mutated beowolf, but a beowolf nonetheless. But it also had wings. Black leathery wings like a bat which carried the beowolf through the air towards her and Jaune, diving down towards them with its teeth-filled maw bared and open.

It was smaller than some of the mutants created by Doctor Merlot – for this bizarre chimera surely had to be his work somehow too, the green tint gave it away for all that it was a less bright and vivid green than found on some of the mutated grimm they had so far encountered – and yet for a moment the sight of it so astonished and discomfited Pyrrha that she could not react.

The moment passed. This may be one of the more bizarre grimm that she had ever seen, it might have been augmented by the dark lights of a perverted science but it was just a grimm nevertheless and being a grimm it could be slain.

Milo formed into rifle mode in her hands as she raised it to her shoulder, aiming down the sights straight at the swooping demon as it descended for them straight as a javelin.

"What is that thing?" Jaune asked.

"It's just a grimm, like any other," Pyrrha murmured, as much to herself as to Jaune.

She fired, once, twice. Her first shot missed as the grimm rolled sideways as she squeezed the trigger, but her second shot caught it in the shoulder and made it howl in pain as its roll turned into an ungainly diving fall towards the water of the lake.

Pyrrha, standing on the very edge of the metal step with the lake's water just an inch below her toes, lined up her third shot even as the bat-beowolf tried to recover its descent.

She barely had time to register the dark shadow in the water beneath her before another beowolf, with fins up its forelegs, erupted up from out of the lake and grabbed her by the ankles.

"Pyrrha! Jaune yelled.

"Jaune?" Sunset shouted through the ear piece. "Pyrrha?"

Pyrrha said nothing. She couldn't say anything because the beowolf had dragged her underwater in moments; the sound of Jaune's voice became muffled as Pyrrha's head disappeared beneath the surface. The blue water of the lake was all around her now, beginning to darken as the grimm pulled her down towards the bottom of the lake.

It had one foreleg – one finned foreleg, like the fins that some fish faunus had, and its hind legs had webbed toes – wrapped around Pyrrha's legs as it slashed at her, gouging her aura with its other leg even as it snapped at her like its jaws.

Pyrrha punched it on the snout with her free hand, grabbing hold of it to stop it getting its jaws into her. It struggled of course, but she was able to hold it off for now. She still had Milo in her hand. Not all weapons were designed to work under water, but there were some advantages to coming from an old and wealthy family: namely high quality equipment with a price-tag equivalent to said quality. Milo transformed into a spear beneath the water as easily as it would have done on land, and Pyrrha thrust it down into the shoulder of this strange aquatic beowolf.

She had little time to wonder at the strangeness of that, thought it was undoubtedly strange. She had no time to do anything but fight and so she stabbed the beowolf with her spear, impaling it upon the weapon and releasing a cloud of green ooze out into the water all around her. Pyrrha kicked herself free of the dead beowolf's grip, and kicked its body – turning to ash too slowly for her liking or her needs – off of her spear while she trod water, or tried to. She knew how to swim, but it was a little more difficult while wearing armour and having one hand encumbered with a weapon. Her hair floated out behind her but, being tied back, did not obscure her vision. Pyrrha floated backwards out of the cloud of ooze the dead grimm had released, and looked behind her towards the surface. There was no ladder out of the lake, so she would have to scramble out onto the tower. She could do that, but she would be vulnerable while she did it.

Still, it would have to be done. She had only just had time to catch her breath before the grimm pulled her under and she couldn't hold it forever. And Jaune might need her help dealing with that flying beowolf.

A cry drew Pyrrha's attention. Not a human cry, not Jaune calling for help, but a cry from the depths of the lake below her, shrill and shrieking as it echoed through the water.

She looked down. There, at the bottom of the lake she could see some kind of square hole or open hatch, leading into a dark recess whose gloom her eyes could not penetrate; and there, out of the hatch and into the lake, were pouring more aquatic beowolves: some with fins on their legs, others with webbed toes, some with the lower halves of their bodies replaced with fish tails lightly encrusted with bone instead of scales. All, though they might circle around the lake, were rising up towards her.

She had to get out of this water, and she couldn't scramble out with these creatures coming up behind her.

Pyrrha pulled her shield from off her back and threw it downwards like a thunderbolt descending from the heavens, using her semblance rather more than the force of her arm to overcome the resistance of the water all around her. Her arm was sheathed in black as she propelled her shield faster and faster down and down to strike the closest aquatic beowolf on the head, knocking it downwards, stunning it as it ceased to swim and began to sink instead. The other beowolves let out more of those shrill underwater shrieks and began to close upon her, swimming faster now as if anger lent them haste.

Pyrrha reversed the direction of her polarity, pulling her shield back up towards her. _Come on, faster._ She pulled harder, as hard as she dared without damaging Akouo with the force upon it, drawing it up towards her as the grimm closed in. She slashed with her spear, whirling it through the water with her right hand, drawing more green ooze as a beowolf whined in pain and turned away from her.

Her shield struck her feet, and as Pyrrha continued to pull it upwards it acted almost like a rocket on her, pushing her upwards and propelling her out of the water from which she rose, spraying water in all directions, pulling her shield onto her arm as she leapt from her balance on it and towards the land.

Jaune was fending off the bat-beowolf, though he hadn't killed it he looked as though he had given it a couple of cuts and he was using his shield well to keep it away from him. It flew away, circling around for another pass.

Pyrrha threw her shield at it even as she landed on the metal platform with a clattering thump, dripping water down upon the floor. Akuou, guided by her semblance, struck home and dropped the bat-beowolf into the water.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune cried, overjoyed.

Pyrrha smiled, but only briefly. "Be careful, there are more creatures in the water."

Jaune grinned. "Don't worry about it," he said, as he stepped forward and thrust his sword into the lake. Then he discharged a burst of the lightning dust that he'd loaded into the pommel.

Lightning erupted into lake, the electric bursts rippling across the surface of the water and all through it, all the way to the very bottom of the lake. Jaune held the blade into the water, he held it there and he kept firing until he must have used half the lightning dust in that vial, but when he pulled his dripping sword out of the water again there was no sign of any of those aquatic beowolves, or even the bat-winged beowolf, rising from the water.

Only the faint tendrils of smoke from dead and decaying grimm disturbed the tranquillity of the water.

Nevertheless, Pyrrha pulled Jaune a step back from the water's edge just in case.

"What…what where they?" Jaune asked.

"I…I'm not sure…" Pyrrha said. "But I don't think it's a good idea for us to stay split up any longer. Sunset? Sunset, can you hear me?"

* * *

Sunset was still trying to get hold of Jaune or Pyrrha when a tendril of what looked like spider silk dropped from the interior of the tower to wrap around Ruby like the jaws of a fly-trap. Ruby dropped Crescent Rose with a clatter as her arms were pinned to her sides, and the silk began to hoist her, struggling and kicking, up into the air.

"Ruby!" Sunset yelled, her eyes travelling upwards, following the grey silk that was hoisting Ruby up like a rope, following until she saw…there! At first she thought it was just a patch of particularly dark shadow near the top of the tower, where the actual jamming equipment blocked out the sunlight, but it was definitely where the silk was leading to and, as she looked closer, Sunset could see that it wasn't just a shadow at all. It was a beowolf, a beowolf that had turned its entire body, bones and all, black so as to blend in with the shadows and observe Ruby and Sunset without being noticed. A beowolf that was hanging onto the top of the tower by its back feet while shooting a web from its right forepaw and hauling Ruby up by its left.

 _Like the regenerating grimm from the city._

Sunset raised her hands to fire her magic up at it, but even with the way that she was swinging wildly from side to side as the grimm hauled her up Ruby was too much in the way for Sunset to be sure of a clear shot.

Sunset gritted her teeth, there had to be…her eyes alighted on the entirely metal structure of the tower.

 _Yes. That ought to do it._

"Hang on, Ruby, I've got a plan."

"Great. Is it a quick plan?" Ruby asked, as she glanced upwards to where the beowolf was growling in anticipation.

"I hope so," Sunset said, as she dashed to one of the corner of the tower and placed both her hands upon the metal.

 _Now: increase slipperiness in my left hand._

Sunset's left hand began to glow with an ethereal green light as her spell travelled up the metal bars and pylons that made up the tower. Beneath her fingertips Sunset could feel the texture of the metal on which she'd laid her hands begin to change, becoming more slippery as if the metal were wet or had been coated in grease before she touched it. She heard, without looking up, the beowolf growl in alarm as its paw-holds suddenly became a lot less secure than they had been just a moment before.

"Sunset!"

Sunset looked up in response to Ruby's shout. She could see, just about, that the camouflaged beowolf had abandoned its efforts to pull Ruby up and was now using three of its four paws to hold on.

"I think it's working," Ruby said.

Sunset grinned. "Just a little longer."

 _Raise temperature in my right hand._

Her right hand started glowing too, not green but a hot and fiery red as Sunset raised the temperature which, metal being such a good conductor of heat, sped up and across the entire tower as Sunset applied ever more heat to the metal, so much heat that she started to sweat herself.

 _Any minute now._

The beowolf, already clinging on to a slippery surface, began to wince and whine as it started to feel a fire beneath its paws.

 _Any moment._

The beowolf, still whining, started to shift and jerk to try and avoid the worst of the heat.

 _And here we go._

The beowolf, in its motions to avoid the heat, lost its footing on the slippery metal and began to tumble straight down towards the base of the tower, and Ruby with it.

Sunset teleported, appearing just beneath Ruby in a green flash to catch her as she fell, and teleported again to set them both safely on the ground and rip her free of her restraints.

"Thanks," Ruby said as she snatched up Crescent Rose and took aim at the beowolf falling from the sky above them, flailing wildly and howling as it fell.

A single shot from Ruby's weapon was enough to silence it.

"Sunset? Ruby, are you alright?"

"Pyrrha," Ruby said. "Are you and Jaune okay?"

"Yeah, we're fine," Jaune said. "We just ran into some freaky grimm, though. Freaky even by the standards of this place."

"Tell me about it," Sunset said. "This one could camouflage itself and shoot webbing out of one paw."

"We had one with bat wings," Jaune said.

"And quite a few aquatic beowolves," Pyrrha said.

"Aquatic beowolves?" Sunset asked in disbelief.

"I know, it sounds ridiculous, but it's the truth," Pyrrha said. "I think we need to reunite as soon as possible."

"I agree," Sunset said. "We'll come to you."

* * *

It didn't take long to reunite with Jaune and Pyrrha, and they all stood under the jamming tower – having both checked it for more chameleon grimm, and standing well back from the water in case there were any more surprises – discussing their respective encounters.

"So the experiment that Merlot wanted us to take part in…was that it?" Jaune asked.

"Well, that was certainly a part of it," Merlot's voice purred cheerfully into their earpieces. "But don't think that the experiment is over just yet."

Sunset rolled her eyes. "Can't we have a little privacy while we talk about how to defeat you? Or if you're going to eavesdrop, why don't you tell us something useful like how you created these weird grimm."

"You mean to say that you haven't figured it out yet?" Merlot asked, sounding a little disappointment. "Oz, are you selecting for brawn rather more than brains these days."

"Oh, I'm sorry that my knowledge of fringe science isn't as good as it ought to be," Sunset said. _I'd like to see you explain the theory behind duplication decay._

"Nevertheless, as I'm sure Oz would agree, I can't just give you the answer when you'll learn so much more working it out for yourselves," Merlot said. "Find your way to my lab and you'll find the answers you're looking for. And we can continue our little experiment along the way. Everybody wins…until somebody doesn't."

"I can't believe that I'm about to say this," Ozpin said. "But you're going to have to do as he says. Although you've made contact, I can't yet get a sufficiently accurate trace on your location to pinpoint Merlot's island. I can arrange forces to support you and take Merlot into custody, but for that to happen I need to know where to send your backup. You need to explore the island further, find Doctor Merlot's main facility-"

"And send you a signal so that you can send the cavalry in," Sunset said.

"Exactly, Miss Shimmer," Professor Ozpin said. "You've all done exceptionally well so far. I want to make that very clear to all of you. While some decisions have been made that I disagree with, I want to say that I'm proud of what you've managed to accomplish…and to survive so far. And though it may be the worst is yet to come, I have no doubt that so long as you work together you will overcome all obstacles and return home. And until then…even though staying on this line is as close to helping you as I can come, I'll stay here until your mission is complete."

"Thank you, Professor," Pyrrha said. "There were times in Mountain Glenn and after…it means a great deal to know that we're not alone."

"You're never alone, Miss Nikos," Professor Ozpin said. "You have one another."

Pyrrha looked incredibly guilty about something for a moment, but all she said was, "I know, Professor."

"Thanks, Professor," Sunset said.

"On the contrary, students," Professor Ozpin. "The thanks are all yours."

"I…" Sunset hesitated, because she didn't really know how to respond to this. She understood Professor Ozpin better now, but she still didn't know how to react to this kind of effusive praise. "I…right. Okay. Let's head towards the third jamming tower, see if Cinder's still there, and then start exploring the island for this lab."

Cinder might have come under attack by these extraordinary grimm herself, although Sunset wasn't too concerned for her ability to withstand them. Still, they would go to her first, and then see just what there was to find.

The answers seemed so close now, much closer than they had appeared to be when on the approach to the island.

The question was, how grimm would those answers be once SAPR found them?


	137. A Grimm Discovery

A Grimm Discovery

"You know, I was as foolish as you, once," Merlot opined as the four huntsmen picked their way across his island. Four, not five; they hadn't found Cinder at the last jamming station and, although they'd found a trail of green ooze that seemed like a promising thing to follow, they'd lost that too. It was starting…not perhaps to worry Sunset, but to concern her at least: where was Cinder, and why hadn't she made contact with them? She wasn't afraid that Cinder had been defeated, but she was a little disturbed by her silent absence.

Especially since night had fallen by now, they had been working their way across the island all day without much success at actually find anything: not Merlot's lab, or a way to get their location to Professor Ozpin. The fact that it was night had Sunset somewhat on edge: grimm saw better than humans – or her kind of faunus – at night, and the rocky plain on which they walked had a surface so dark it was especially hard to see anything, especially if there were more of those grimm that could blend into their surroundings hanging around.

She wouldn't have done this, but it wasn't as though they had much choice; this wasn't Mountain Glenn, it wasn't as though they could find somewhere to hold out for the night, this was Merlot's island and it was small enough for him to know it well. They had no choice but to keep going, no matter how much Sunset might dislike the fact.

The fact that Merlot just kept on talking wasn't really helping matters.

"There was a time," Merlot continued. "When like you I believed in Ozpin and his ideals. There was even a time when I wanted nothing more than to be a huntsman and defend humanity against the foul creatures of grimm."

"I'm sorry, are you still talking?" Sunset demanded, as she kicked away a pebble that lay in their path.

"I only started studying the grimm because I wanted to create better weapons, superior counter-measures," Merlot continued. "After all, if we didn't know our enemies then how could we defeat them?"

"We know enough," Pyrrha muttered.

"Ah, a traditionalist? And yet where did your elegant weapon come from if not as a result of clever men like me working tirelessly to advance science and technology?"

"Nobody died in order to create my weapons," Pyrrha declared.

"And yet people die every day fighting the grimm without really understanding them," Merlot said. "Ozpin sends them off to die, just as he has sent you, with your knowledge coming out of mouldering texts delivered to you by equally mouldering professors. Tell me, Oz, is Peter Port, the great windbag himself, still teaching Grimm Studies?"

 _The great windbag? This from a guy who seems to think we're hanging on the edge of our seats to know his life story._

 _Maybe he doesn't like Professor Port because he sees too much of himself in him. Like me and Cardin._

"Professor Port may have a somewhat discursive style of teaching," Ozpin said. "But he takes his role of preparing the students for what they're about to face in the field very seriously; certainly he's never endangered any students, still less caused their deaths. Unlike some applicants for the position."

"I just thought that it might be a good idea if you were to have a Grimm Studies professor who was actually interested in studying the grimm," Merlot declared snippily, as though this was something that had been bothering him for some time.

"Your obsession with studying the grimm has and will continue to be your downfall," Ozpin replied.

"Downfall?" Merlot said. "My downfall? It is only through studying the grimm that I realised the truth! That I could truly appreciate the brilliance of the grimm's design. There must be a god in this world for only an intelligent creator could have spawned such a…a pure organism: their biology, their unbridled aggression, their focussed instincts, they are the supreme killing machine."

"Which is why you stopped looking for ways to kill the grimm and started worshipping them instead?" Sunset asked.

"Not at first, even then," Merlot said. "At first I still, naively, thought that I could win back Ozpin's trust and respect. I set to work designing androids, the greatest androids that Remnant had ever seen, better by far than anything that the Schnee Dust Company or the Atlesian military had ever developed. I thought that they could take the place of huntsmen on the battlefield."

"As I told you, Merlot, as I have told Ironwood, as I have always said," Ozpin said. "No robot or android, however powerful or well designed, will ever be able to replace a huntsman on the battlefield."

"And why is that? Because if they did it would threaten your monopoly on violence?"

"Because the hand that pulls the trigger should have a soul behind it capable of judging whether it's right or wrong to do so," Pyrrha murmured.

"Quite so, Miss Nikos," Professor Ozpin said. "But also because even the most sophisticated androids are slaves to their programming: they can never find a new and novel solution to an unexpected problem, they can never decide that go above and beyond what has been asked of them in the face of a threat greater than could have been imagined when the mission began, they can never dig deep within themselves and find the resolve to stand against insurmountable odds. I understand the urge to replace humans on the front lines with weapons whose loss does not affect us, but it cannot happen because, in the end, our humanity is the greatest weapon against the grimm that we possess."

"Spare me the sermon, Oz, our humanity? Humanity is doomed, can't you see that. Against an organism as perfectly designed for slaughter as the grimm no army or defence can stand forever."

"We've killed lots of grimm," Ruby said. "And we aren't beaten yet."

"And yet you haven't even made a dent in their numbers," Merlot said. "I admit that the grimm have their flaws, and I will even admit that troubled me. But then I made a discovery."

"Yeah," Sunset said. "I think that we've just made a discovery as well."

They stood on the lip of a sharp drop down into a kind of rocky trench, seemingly carved into the stone and leading away to the east. In the trench, or perhaps it was a naturally occurring but very very shallow canyon, Sunset and the others could see bubbling pools of ichorous turquoise ooze.

"Eww, this smells terrible," Ruby said, wrinkling her nose in a way that would have been adorable in a slightly less tense situation. "Like Uncle Qrow's shirt."

On the grounds that it was the first thing that they'd found all night, Sunset slid down the slope and into the trench, walking cautiously towards the nearest pool of ooze.

"Sunset," Pyrrha said cautiously. "I'd stay away from whatever that is."

"I'm not about to go swimming in it, but still," Sunset murmured, as she unslung her rifle and poked at the pool with the tip of her bayonet. The substance wasn't corrosive, or at least it didn't melt said bayonet, but it was viscous, and it clung to the tip of the knife when Sunset pulled back her gun.

"What's Merlot even doing here?" Jaune asked, gesturing towards the pipes that, in the darkness, Sunset could just about make out running along the walls of the trench. "Are they harvesting this…whatever it is?"

"Students, have you found something?" Ozpin asked.

"Bubbling toxic pools and a bunch of pipes," Pyrrha said, with obviously false cheer. "We're on to something."

"There are a whole bunch of machines as far as I can see," Ruby added. "I'm pretty sure they're pumping something."

"I suspect you're right, Mister Arc: Merlot is harvesting this substance. He came to this island for a reason, after all, and I suspect whatever his reason is can't be good."

"And a gold star for Professor Ozpin," Merlot said cheerfully. "My research into the grimm had revealed their potential, but it wasn't until I stumbled across this island that I knew what I had to do. This is the only place on Remnant where I've discovered this substance. I call it Sycorax. Naturally occurring here, and only here as far as I can tell, it has unique properties that make it impossible to synthesise, even for a chemist so accomplished as myself. But, by refining what I can harvest and making a few additions in the course of the refinery process, I've been able to create a bonding agent that transforms the host organism in all the ways that you've already seen: enhanced strength, speed, survival instinct…for those organisms that survive the bonding process, that is. That's yet another point in favour of the grimm, their existing qualities make them the perfect organism for the bonding."

"So that's what you did to the grimm," Ruby said.

"You make it sound as though this ooze is alive," Sunset said.

"Not in its natural state," Merlot said. "But, when bonded…it is almost as if something inside the substance awakens and transmits itself into the host as part of the transformation. With the addition of Sycorax, the perfection of the grimm was almost complete. All that was needed was…well, plenty of time for that later."

"Students, I need you to follow that pipeline," Ozpin said. "It will probably lead you to Merlot's main facility."

"Yes, Professor," Sunset said. "First follow the train tracks, now follow the pipes. Nice for Merlot to always leave us a trail to follow."

 _Where are you, Cinder?_

 _And what am I going to do if we get to the end of the line and you still haven't caught up yet?_

They followed the pipes, which had overloaded in places and ruptured, fortunately admitting not the ooze that Merlot had christened Sycorax but simply venting out steam, which could be eliminated simply by turning one of the various conveniently placed cranks to enable to proceed without burning their aura up with burns.

A few of Merlot's mutated grimm barred their way: creeps that seemed to like swimming in the toxic pools that had birthed their strange mutations, beowolves that prowled backwards and forwards as if they knew they were on guard, and some of the grimm were prodded into place by the crimson androids. But, fortunately for them, there were none of the truly bizarre hybrids that Merlot had cooked up and which he still declined to explain, and though some of the mutant beowolves were tough SAPR was able to make good use of the fact that they were advancing down a bottleneck, funnelling the grimm towards them in small numbers, using the fact that the creeps exploded to good effect – even if it was using up what had already been a vanishingly small supply of bullets, Sunset was inclined to think that it was a good use when she saw the creeps explode and take the beowolves and the androids with them, or at least injure or damage them considerably – to inflict more damage than their weapons could have inflicted alone.

Pyrrha in particular gave good account of herself during these actions, as SAPR pushed down the trench or narrow canyon following the trail of pipes. Pyrrha always gave good account of herself, but this time it was a little different; although when the mutated grimm with their glowing green eyes and their maws that emitted the emerald light of the island's ooze came close enough she would be found in her place at the forefront of the fighting, hair and sash alike swirling around her as she danced through the midst of the enemy with Milo lashing out this way and that, that was not the most notable thing about her performance in this battle. No, what was most notable was how much more willing than usual she was to use her semblance to destructive effect was.

Pyrrha had seemed generally more willing to deploy her semblance on these missions ever since they had gotten to Mountain Glenn, with them being out of sight and with nobody to hide it from – the notable exception being when Cinder had joined them, and she had started to hide her powers once again – but as far as Sunset had seen that extra use had been to move her shield, her weapons or sometimes her own armour-clad allies like Sunset or Jaune. But now it seemed as if her shield hand – which bore no shield as Akuou was currently slung across her back – was permanently sheathed in the black halo that signified her use of polarity, and powerful use too. She wasn't just using it to move the spears of Merlot's androids a little, or even to swing them around so that they shot each other instead of Pyrrha or any of her friends. She was ripping them apart limb from limb, crushing their chests, sending their spears flying to impale the grimm in the back. She was shredding their enemies without having to use her spear or shield at all.

It was very, very impressive to see…but to be honest it was a little worrying as well. Sunset felt, and maybe she was alone in this and almost certainly she was way out line to think that, but as she watched Pyrrha stand at the forefront of the ground, one arm – darkened by the black corona – raised to gesture at Merlot's androids, demolishing them with the sheer force of her will…it almost felt as though she wasn't looking at Pyrrha any more.

Especially since she didn't seem to be turning it off at any point. The pipes rattled and rumbled as she past, and a couple of times they actually ruptured, although thankfully not until the entirety of SAPR had passed by the point at which the steam and ooze alike exploded outwards.

But more than that, there was a look in her eyes, a focussed ferocity that Sunset just didn't associate with Pyrrha. It was true that nobody could be all cinnamon bun all the time but this was…it was going too far, almost, as far as Sunset was concerned. It was like Pyrrha was in a trance, as though she didn't fully realise what she was doing.

They came to the end of the trench, which came to an abrupt stop at the edge of a high cliff leading straight down a very sharp and very, very long drop. Fortunately a way ahead was provided by the very pipes that they had been following to get here: they extended out over the abyss in lines wide enough to be walked upon, spreading out to the left and to the right where a mixture of more rocky cliff and bridging metal walkways awaited them.

The route to the right was cut off by a rupture in one of the pipes, venting steam upwards like a geyser. They could have crossed it, but they would have taken a hit to their aura that they didn't need to risk and, in any case, a pipe that had ruptured was not likely to be the most stable of places to put your feet if you wanted to avoid the risk of it collapsing underneath you.

But it was Pyrrha who started first upon the left-hand path, muttering darkly, "Come on, we can only go this way." Her tone, like the look in her eye, was not like the Pyrrha they were used to.

Sunset sort of felt that, as the team leader and as Pyrrha's friend, she ought to have a talk with her about it…but on the other hand she was being so effective, and what was Sunset supposed to say to her? Stop being so powerful? Don't be so flashy with your powers, that's my job? You're making me nervous?

So she said nothing as they followed Pyrrha out across the pipes. The pipes that started to groan painfully under the influence of Pyrrha's semblance. The metal around the pipes on either edge of the makeshift walkway began to crumple, crushed inwards by the power that Pyrrha was exerting without – unless Sunset was misreading this completely – intending to at all.

As the pipes creaked ominously, Sunset looked down at her booted feet, trying to look _only_ at her booted feet and not at the enormous drop beneath them. Glancing up again, it looked as thought Jaune in front of her was just as worried about his footing as she was. Sunset looked back over her shoulder, but Ruby's concern seemed only to be regarding Pyrrha, not where she was walking. That figured, she could probably use her semblance to zip to either side of the cliff the moment she felt the surface give way beneath her.

"Pyrrha?" Jaune asked nervously, but she didn't appear to hear him.

The creaking of the pipes got louder.

"Pyrrha?" Jaune said.

The creaking of the pipes became a screech as an entire section became flattened down as though the metal pipes designed to withstand the masses of toxic fluid swirling within them were mere drinking straws squashed beneath the palms of someone's giant hand. Jaune squawked in alarm, crying out as he lost his balance on the metal surface, his arms whirling, thrashing blindly as he teetered out over the edge of the cliff.

Pyrrha heard that. The look in her eyes that had so alarmed Sunset was gone as she whirled around, replaced by blind, wide-eyed panic as she yelled out Jaune's name and threw out her hand to him. He caught it, but this only served to start pulling her over along with him.

Sunset threw out her hands, enveloping them both in the emerald embrace of her telekinesis as she pushed them both back safely – as safely as they could be anyway – onto the pipe bridge.

Pyrrha let out a sigh of relief. "I'm sorry," she said. "I…" she looked down at the damage that she had done to the pipes. "I don't know what happened."

Sunset frowned, but said nothing. Now hardly seemed the time.

When they were all standing on something a little more solid, that was the time.

They quickened their pace, and with Pyrrha having – temporarily – halted the use of her semblance they were able to move more freely and with a greater feeling of safety down the pipes and onto a metal platform supported by a tower of scaffolding secured to the cliff edge. The pipes continued to lead away to the south, but first they were confronted by a six-strong squad of red androids, their spear tips gleaming the same fluorescent green as their eyes as they bore down upon the huntsmen.

Pyrrha raised her shield hand once again, and once again she reached for her semblance. The distinctive black light of polarity enveloped her arm, and also enveloped the androids too. She didn't crush them this time, she didn't rip them limb from limb either; she simply shoved them all to the right, straight through the safety railing and off the cliff where she let them fall off the drop to their inevitable destruction.

Sunset walked up behind her. "You're freer with that than usual."

Pyrrha looked down at her blackened arm. "I…" the dark shadow of her semblance faded. "I really am sorry about before," she said, looking over her shoulder at Jaune. "I'm not used to using this so continuously, or to such an extent. Usually it's only for short burst on specific objects. This…it's a little hard to control, I don't have the practice."

"Then why-"

"Because I need the practice!" Pyrrha said sharply. "This isn't a tournament, there are no points for hiding what I can do so that I can look stronger than I really am. This is the sword of my soul; I should have mastered the fullest range of its capabilities a long time ago. I've wasted so much time."

"Wasted?" Sunset said. "You've honed your other skills to perfection."

"Have I?" Pyrrha asked, her tone a mixture of earnestness and sharpness. "That…it doesn't feel like the wisest choice any more."

 _What's brought this on? Is this about Cinder's Maiden powers?_ "Pyrrha-"

"Sunset," Pyrrha said, cutting her off. She sighed, and bowed her head for a moment. "I'm sorry, but…you wouldn't understand." She looked at Jaune, and then at Ruby. "None of you would."

"Then explain it to us," Sunset said.

"This is my strongest weapon," Pyrrha said. "My spear and my shield are adequate against a person, or even against common grimm, but against anything larger, anything stronger…this is all I have and I've neglected it. I've let my sword rust in my scabbard while I used it for only the most trivial purposes: to gain a slight edge against opponents I probably could have beaten without it. This is all I have for when…it's all I have and I don't have time to take it slow when it comes to mastering it."

 _This really is about Cinder, isn't it? You're getting ready for the fight._ Sunset hadn't appreciated until now just how rattled Pyrrha was by this whole situation – and if that fraying of her nerves wasn't at least as responsible as a lack of practice for the way that Pyrrha's semblance was affecting everything in reach then Sunset was an earth pony – with Cinder and the maiden powers. She'd known that Pyrrha wasn't happy about it, but now she saw that her friend was approaching the end of her wire right now. A pit of guilt opened up in Sunset's stomach. She had handled this all wrong, too concerned with managing Cinder to realise that she needed to manage Pyrrha and the rest of her team just as much. And now, as a consequence – a partial consequence at least, something like this might have been inevitable the moment that Cinder revealed her Maiden powers – Pyrrha was afraid and desperate.

That in itself was frightening to Sunset: Pyrrha afraid of something, someone, afraid of anything. Pyrrha didn't get afraid. Pyrrha was never scared, at least not of anything that she could face in battle. If Ruby was the heart of Team SAPR then Pyrrha was the soul, her gentle voice marrying reason and compassion in equal measure; the one that they all loved enough to die for except that of all of them she seemed the one least likely to die.

To see her like this…it shook Sunset, and not just by confronting her with her failure as a team leader.

"Pyrrha," she began, as she reached for Pyrrha's arm and the golden band she wore upon it.

Pyrrha turned away. "We should keep moving," she said brusquely, as if she was ashamed of the weakness that she had shown (another un-Pyrrha-like way to behave, and another sign of how Cinder had knocked her sideways). She glanced down. "Please, can we keep moving?"

Sunset's brow furrowed. "I'm sorry, Pyrrha," she whispered. "I should have realised."

"What?"

Sunset shook her head. "Sure," she said. "We can keep moving."

Pyrrha nodded. "Thank you." And she took the lead again.

The black outline grew around her arm once more.

* * *

None of them understood. None of them could understand. Jaune had still only just started down his path, Sunset had always devoted herself first and foremost to the discipline in which she was strongest – her magic – and the same could be said for Ruby. None of them had to face the feeling that they had wasted years, most of their lives, honing _entirely the wrong skillset._ None of them had wasted their time on trivial skills and meaningless abilities while leaving their greatest weapon, perhaps their only weapon, to gather dust unused and unregarded.

A memory darted fleetingly through Pyrrha's mind: a square in Vale, grimm all around, Ruby screaming as silver light erupted from her eyes.

That…that was different. There was a small part of her that was dimly aware that to think this was hypocrisy but the greater part of Pyrrha was past caring right now, or at least could argue that the two situations were not remotely comparable. Ruby's silver eyes were dangerous to her, and the same could not be said of Pyrrha's semblance. And besides, if Pyrrha was able to master her semblance to its full and mighty potential then Ruby wouldn't need to take risks with her eyes, Pyrrha would be able to protect her.

She would be able to protect them all.

This wasn't about glory. This wasn't about destiny. For the first time perhaps Pyrrha could truly say that it wasn't about either of those things. She had often told herself that it wasn't about the former but was that really true? Had she not been as bad as any of the self-serving tournament favourites whom she had vowed that she would not become? Were not her skills nothing more than tournament skills in the end, crowd pleasing abilities that were very impressive in a one-on-one duel but completely useless in the battle of magic in which she was now engaged. She could not fight Cinder with Milo and Akuou. She could not protect Jaune or Sunset or Ruby that way, but if she could find the upper limits of her semblance and grow comfortable there…

The Invincible Girl wished to protect the boy. That was her thought, her only wish.

All the time that she wasted training Jaune…where had that thought come from? Confusion momentarily pushed its way to the forefront of Pyrrha's mind, disrupting her control over her semblance so that she nearly ripped a pipe clean away from the canyon wall and threw it into the abyss without even meaning to. Her time with Jaune was not a waste, they were amongst the happiest hours she had ever spent in her life…and yet all that joy and happiness that she felt simply taking pleasure in his company, taking joy in being near him, and latterly drinking up the adoration that he had for her while trying to quench his thirst with her own love in return, all of that would turn to ashes in her mouth if anything happened to him, if Cinder or some other magical threat destroyed him and she could not protect him because she had chosen to spend her time helping him chase his dreams instead of arming herself against the terrible new world in which they found themselves.

She envied his sister Rouge so much, blessed by her ancestors with the power to protect all that she loved. Blessed with magic. She envied Sunset, and her magic. Rouge's magic, Sunset's magic, Ruby's magic, Cinder's magic, everything was magic these days and so strong and so perilous. If they came across Cinder again, if Pyrrha could strike her down then perhaps she would have that power too, the power to do everything that she wished to do and to save everybody whom she wished to keep safe but if not…if not she still had her semblance.

There was still time. Time for her to get to grips with all that it could do. Time to unleash it.

The semblance was a reflection of the soul, but what you saw when you looked into that mirror varied from person to person depending on who they were, yes, but also how they were taught. Pyrrha's training had focussed on control, on being so subtle with the uses of her semblance that nobody could even tell what her semblance was – she had been taught also to deflect questions about what her semblance was, to the point that speculation was rife that she hadn't unlocked her semblance yet and was ashamed of the fact; this speculation earned her sympathy in some quarters and admiration in others for having come so far without even a semblance to aid her; there were times when it made Pyrrha feel ashamed of herself – and so she had come to view her semblance as a tiger in a cage within her: a ravenous beast that had to be carefully locked away, or at least have its cage door opened only far enough that a single paw could emerge, if that (a toe would be preferable) because if the door was opened fully and the tiger let out then there was no telling what damage it would do.

But now the tiger would be unleashed upon her enemies, for the hour felt late and her circumstances grave enough to warrant it.

And it felt so empowering. As she strode forth, leading the way, despatching robots as though they were nothing before turning the weapons of the androids upon any grimm who stood in her way, Pyrrha felt as though she had been living in a straightjacket for all her life. Everything had been control, control, control: control her emotions and present a marble mask to the world; control her powers so rigidly as to barely use them, it was one and the same. But now she was emptying the vast wellspring that had built up behind the dam of her control and it was such a heady, dizzying feeling that she could barely cope with it; the feeling of power warred with the fear that had prompted her to unleash it.

They reached the end of the scaffold path, the metal panels and the rocky cliffs that they had followed so far. Below them, not so far below them now for the floor of the canyon rose up to greet them so that it was only a short drop and easily manageable, was a black mountain into which had been set an enormous pair of metal doors, easily large enough for several trains abreast to be driven into, or for many large and imposing grimm to walk through.

Large and imposing grimm like the ones on patrol outside.

This must be the entrance to Merlot's facility, for he had stationed strong forces without to guard the gates: mutated grimm prowled back and forth before the doors, beowolves and ursai both, some grown much larger than normal and pulsing with green ooze that stained their bones and burned inside their mouths, others smaller and a little less green but possessing all sorts of external traits unusual to the grim: wings both leathery and feathery and insectoid too, fins and scales, rams horns and bulls horns and the antlers of deer and moose; and those were just the ones she could see.

And amongst the grimm the androids walked, ignored by them save for a few glances that Pyrrha could only see as being slightly surly and accompanied by snorts and grunts of derision. The androids also seemed to be ignoring the grimm, sweeping their spears or their great guns back and forth as they searched for a different kind of target.

Pyrrha didn't wait for Sunset to make a plan, for Jaune to have an idea, for Ruby to thin out the enemy ranks with her sniper rifle. She didn't wait for any of it. She simply dropped down off her high perch and landed with both arms outstretched.

And as the enemy advanced towards her, Pyrrha got to work.

And it was glorious.

The battle was a heady blur to her, passing by her senses like a series of impressionistic images from which picking out details was impossible. Did she see flashes of green light from Sunset fighting alongside her? Perhaps. Did she catch a glimpse of Ruby's rose petals? Maybe. Was Jaune there? Probably. But Pyrrha didn't see what they did, and couldn't have said how much each or any or all of them together added to the battle she could not have said. She couldn't even have said in any detail what she herself did, only that it felt like she was doing a lot. She was ripping the spears out of the hands of the red androids, and the guns out of the hands of the white androids, and while she was crushing the androids with her semblance she was turning their spears and their guns upon the grimm who, mutated or not, could not escape her. Ursai fell with a dozen spears or more embedded in their backs, bullets tore through the beowolves as a score of rotary cannons let fly at once, grenades flew this way and that, destroying grimm at the same time as they kicked up dust and rock in all directions.

 _I can destroy as well as you can, Cinder!_ Pyrrha thought, and the words hammered around her mind as though there was a storm raging around her head tossing that one thought back and forth like debris caught in a tornado. _Can you see this? Are you watching? Are you intimidated now?_

 _I may not be a Maiden but that doesn't mean that I can't fight you if I have to._

 _When I have to._

 _If I cannot take you down without a battle._

"Pyrrha you have to stop!" Ruby yelled, and the high-pitched cry of her voice cut through Pyrrha's self-reflection and the feeling of her semblance unleashed like a piercing whistle rising above the hubbub of the crowd. Like Jaune's cry of alarm, and the realisation that she had – however unwittingly and unwillingly – placed him in danger, it acted like cold water over Pyrrha. Her use of her semblance ceased, the tiger slunk back into its cage to rest, albeit with the door left open.

"Pyrrha," Ruby said. "You can stop now. It's over."

Pyrrha looked up, over Ruby's head, and saw that it was indeed over. Not only were all the androids destroyed, crushed or dismembered, not only were all the grimm dead and turning to ashes as the ooze of the island pooled around their fast-disappearing corpses, but Pyrrha's semblance had ranged more widely than she had intended or expected it to. The scaffold tower on which they had stood had collapsed, its supporting beams a mangled mess that had cause the rest to topple over, crushing androids and grimm alike beneath its weight and scattering debris all over the place; she had ripped the metallic floorboards and the pipes from further down the way that they had come and also from the path not taken; they had buried themselves in the ground as if they had been driven there by giant hammers.

And the doors…she had ripped the doors to the lab wide open and she had never even realised it.

"I…I didn't realise," she murmured.

"No," Ruby said. "I kinda figured."

Pyrrha didn't look at Sunset or Jaune. She didn't dare. "Did I…did I hurt anyone?"

Ruby shook her head. "We all got out of the way in time."

 _Meaning that I almost hurt someone at least once, perhaps all of them. Thank you for putting it so kindly, Ruby._ She didn't ask who she'd almost hit. She didn't dare do that either. She looked down at her left hand, and clenched it into a fist. "I'm sorry," she murmured. "I'll get better. With practice I can learn control, the way that you have."

"Sure," Ruby said. "And I'm not going to tell you that you shouldn't. We can always get stronger, right?" She smiled. "But, Pyrrha…there's no need to be this scared."

Pyrrha stiffened. "I'm not-"

"And you don't have to lie to us either," Ruby said. "We're not the crowds or the cameras or the fans, you don't have to tell us just what you think we want to hear. We're your friends. We're your family. We've got your back, no matter what."

Pyrrha sagged forwards. "I'm afraid," she admitted. "I'm afraid because I know she's stronger than me and I'm not sure that I could even touch her. I'm afraid because I've never seen power like hers before. I'm afraid because of all the stories that Sunset found about what wicked women with that power did. I'm afraid because we've seen what she can do and we've seen the things that she likes to do. I'm afraid because…because I can't beat her and that's never happened to me before."

Ruby stared up at her, her silver eyes seeming to gleam brighter than normal in the darkness. "Maybe you're right," she said. "Maybe you can't beat her on your own. But you don't have to fight her on your own." She reached out, and clasped Pyrrha's hands, squeezing them reassuringly. "You won't be fighting her on your own. We won't let you."

"I can't-"

"We won't let you," Ruby repeated, in a tone that brooked no argument.

Pyrrha tried to argue anyway. "I'm the only one who stands any chance-"

"Really?" Ruby demanded. "Really? Sunset's magic and Jaune's sword and my speed and my sweet Crescent Rose, none of that makes any difference? Are we all just supposed to watch you go like we're your fan club or something? You told me that I'd be better than you by the time our four years were up."

Pyrrha blinked. "Yes, yes I did."

"Was that a lie?"

"No-"

"Then why won't you let me fight alongside you when it really matters?" Ruby demanded.

Pyrrha stared down at Ruby for a moment, silently looking at her, taking in the determination in those eyes. A nervous laugh escaped her lips as she descended to one knee, so that she was looking up at Ruby for a change. "Because," she began. "Because there are times when I can look at you and see the hero that people think they see when they look at me…but there are other times when I can't help but think of you as…as the little sister that I never had, and that I have to keep safe." She smiled, and placed her hands on Ruby's shoulders. "I'll try not to, but I can't guarantee that I won't make that mistake again in future."

Ruby stepped forward, and wrapped her arms around Pyrrha's neck. "You're not alone, Pyrrha," she said. "You'll never be alone again."

Pyrrha felt Ruby's arms around her, and then she felt other hands upon her shoulders: Jaune on her right, his hand concealed behind the armour of his gauntlet, and Sunset's silk wedding glove on her left.

 _I'm not alone any more._ That was her blessing and the source of her terror, but could not the blessing mitigate the terror. Yes, it meant that she had something to loose that she hadn't before but…but she didn't have to protect them all by herself. They were all huntsmen, all of them great or with great potential at least.

"And besides," Ruby said, still embracing Pyrrha. "There's something else."

"What?"

"Cinder's not invincible, even if she wants us to think she is," Ruby said. "But she ran from us at the tower, and she ran from Atlas outside the tower, and although we've seen what she can do…if she could do that all the time, if no one could beat her then why would she need to run? We can take her if we work together, I know it."

"Together," Pyrrha murmured. _Why else are we in teams, if not for this? The team system wasn't instituted solely so that I could make friends._ "I feel like I've been such a fool."

"We'll forgive you cause it shows you love us," Sunset said.

Pyrrha snorted as she rose to her feet. "I still want to harness more of my semblance," she said. "There's no need to keep it hidden outside of the arena, and I don't have nearly enough control over using it…well, in situations like this."

"That's cool," Ruby said. "That's probably a great idea. But…maybe practice a little somewhere safer first, when we get home."

Pyrrha covered her mouth with one hand as she chuckled. It felt so good to be able to laugh again, to feel able to laugh again, if only a little. "Alright. When we get back home."

"Just wait, now Merlot's going to say something sinister," Sunset muttered.

"Who, me? I would never dream of interrupting a golden moment like this one," Merlot said. "Although…"

Sunset sighed. "What?"

"Since you were so rude as to break down my door – very inconsiderate, even if I can just have my androids build me another one – the least you could do is actually walk through the doorway."

"Into a trap?"

"Into my lab," Merlot said. "You are searching for answers, after all."

"And you want us to come in because?"

"Because you've proven to be quite intriguing," Merlot admitted. "Oz, you're puny protégés are proving to be quite prodigious, and although the magnetic semblance was very impressive, I must admit I'm most intrigued by the faunus girl. Do come inside, it will make dissecting your corpse so much easier the quicker we can get you into autopsy."

"Thanks," Sunset said. She looked inside; the facility was so brightly lit that it was difficult to see anything beyond the doors. "What do we think?"

"Together," Pyrrha said softly.

Sunset smirked. "Together."

Sunset made a space for Ruby to stand beside her, so that they formed a line abreast facing Merlot's lab, where all the answers lay waiting for them.

"Together," they said, as one in perfect unison.

Together, they took the first step forward.


	138. Final Exam

Final Exam

Merlot's laboratory looked as though it had been built for giants, not men.

Pyrrha was glad that she had not voiced that thought aloud, for fear that it would make her seem childish in front of Sunset, but it was one that persisted in the back of her mind nevertheless. She was no stranger to vast rooms with high ceilings looming overhead many times higher than the tallest of men, she was not amazed by the fact that the roof was not resting just above the top of Jaune's head. In terms of the actual size of the room – or rather the long corridor, since there seemed to be little to nothing to actually do in this place – itself she was not unfamiliar with the scale of it. The ancient throne room in the Mistral Palace was as large, where the Maple Throne sat gathering dust in a chamber that was now nothing more than a historical curiosity, while the great hall where assemblies and parties were held – including the one to which she had taken Jaune and Sunset, was larger still even if one discounted the outdoor elements; in her own house there was a ballroom that was as large as this grand chamber – she had entertained herself sometimes, idling away a few passing moments here or there, by imagining herself gliding down the stairs into that same ballroom, while Jaune stood at the bottom of the stairs and gasped in awe at how lovely she looked, just like a fairytale; there was a reason she kept a lot of her thoughts private – and of course Beacon's hallowed halls included many rooms: classrooms, ballroom, even the cafeteria, that were every bit as large and as high-ceilinged as this corridor.

But all of those places felt as though they had some purpose for their size. They were wide because they were intended to fit in a large number of people: petitioners and subjects, honoured guests, students. They had high ceilings in order that they not feel too cramped with the large number of people, or to impress upon the people filling up the room with the majesty of their host, or simply that the building should by its height appear grand and imposing. But none of that, as far as Pyrrha could see, applied here. This was a facility inhabited by, as far as they could tell, a single hermit-like scientist who rattled around this vast space with only his robots and his grimm experiments for company. What did he want with impressive spaces, what did he want with vast spaces?

"I've seen bigger," Sunset murmured. "But not for so little apparent purpose."

Pyrrha smiled inwardly.

"I…I've got an idea," Jaune said.

"What is it?" Sunset asked.

"You're not going to want to hear it," Jaune said.

"Tell us anyway."

"I think it needs to be big so that some really big grimm can move around here," Jaune said.

Everyone fell silent at that contemplating what kind of grimm would need a corridor this large, even one that was broken up by columns supporting the ceiling.

"You're right, we didn't want to hear that," Sunset said.

"I told you," Jaune said.

"We should keep going," Ruby said. "There's no sense just standing around here."

Nobody could really argue with that, and so the four of them advanced down the corridor. It was sterile. Pointless. It wasn't just the fact that there was nobody here – nobody human at least – to walk these halls besides Merlot, it was the fact that if he was going to build an enormous lab for himself and only for himself he might have put a little more his own personality into it. This corridor was soulless: sterile white hexagons upon the floor, grey metallic walls livened up only by a pipe or two running along them, a ceiling dimly lit and peppered with only a monitor here or there. It was as though, having retreated into this self-imposed exile, Merlot was playing the part of a successful businessman-scientist, building a vast corporate headquarters like the one he had had to abandon in Mountain Glenn in spite of the fact that he had no scientists or employees of any kind to fill it up.

The only thing of any note in the corridor at all was a terminal which, when Sunset approached and tapped her finger on it at seeming random, caused the enormous door at the end of the corridor to open, revealing…more corridor, this time with a bend.

"Greetings," Doctor Merlot said cheerfully. "And welcome to Merlot Industries, where we're building a better tomorrow…today."

 _I stand by what I said about playing the businessman-scientist,_ Pyrrha thought.

"Did you actually say that to people you weren't trying to kill?" Sunset asked. "No wonder nobody wanted to buy anything from you with a slogan that cheesy."

"That's a little hypocritical from the happy friendship gang, don't you think?" Merlot asked.

"Hey, our friendship is a hundred percent wholesome and earnest," Sunset said. "Unlike the cynical PR of a certain murderous mad scientist."

"Madness?" Merlot responded. "Sending children out to fight against the most perfect creature ever designed, that is madness. Sending just four of them to confront my security all by themselves is madness. If you want to call somebody mad, why don't you take a look at dear old Ozpin in his emerald tower? This isn't madness, this is scientific progress. This…this is the future."

Sunset grunted. "So what's the plan? Make enough of these freaks and then unleash them on the world?"

"Something like that," Merlot admitted. "The new and superior race will need its breathing room, after all."

"We won't let that happen," Pyrrha said.

"You can't stop the march of progress," Merlot declared. "And if you try, you'll simply be crushed beneath my triumphant parade."

"I wish his own grimm would hurry up and eat him," Sunset muttered. "At least then we wouldn't have to listen to his voice. Plus, you know, the irony would be cool."

"Students," Professor Ozpin interrupted them. "In order for me to help you I need not only your location but, ideally detailed schematics of Merlot's facility. If you come across any terminals, see if you can use them to establish a connection."

"I'm afraid we're none of us particularly good with computers," Pyrrha murmured.

"But we can give it a try," Sunset said.

In fact, as they rounded the corner of the corridor, they came to a laboratory space which, in keeping the corridor that they had just left, wasted a truly staggering amount of said space while keeping the actual workshops tight and confined, with robotic arms that looked set up for the assembly of androids hived off behind glass panels in tiny spaces (while accepting that robotic manufacturing arms didn't need a lot of room, Pyrrha still found it odd considering how much space was wasted elsewhere). There was a terminal beside the window looking into the closest of such workshops, but when Sunset approached and started bashing the screen she succeeded only in starting the robotic arms spinning and whirring, throwing android parts this way and that and tossing them onto the ground like a child throwing a tantrum.

There was nothing else in the room except an elevator, the doors open, inviting them, as if Merlot himself wanted them to go that way.

Except there was no other way that they could go.

Nevertheless it was with a degree of wary caution that they entered said elevator – another example of something that was far too large for people, suggesting that Merlot's most common use of it was to move his swollen, oversized grimm up and down within the lab – and readied themselves for whatever might be waiting for them on the other side, for surely something would be.

For all that the laboratory appeared to be built into the side of a mountain, the display on the terminal in the far left corner of the lift indicated that they were currently on the highest floor. The only way was down.

"Someone watched way too many movies where the super villains had lairs when they were a kid," Jaune said. He brightened. "On the other hand, this kind of makes us James Blond, right?"

"Or Lemon Peel," Ruby suggested.

"That series went kinda downhill after a while, right?"

"Not when she was in it," Ruby said.

"The point is," Jaune said. "When you think about it like that…this is actually kind of cool."

Sunset stared at him for a moment, before a smile cracked the corners of her mouth. "Yeah, I guess it is." She looked a little more relaxed as she hit the button to close the elevator doors and send them rumbling down.

Pyrrha braced herself. She had little doubt that there was a welcoming committee of some kind waiting for them on the next floor down.

A feeling of light and warmth washed over her, bathing her in brightness, washing away some of the tension that she was feeling. It was so relaxing that it took Pyrrha a moment to realise that it really was a light: it was Jaune's semblance, as he placed a hand upon her shoulder and recharged her aura.

"I thought that you could use it," he said, slightly apologetically. "You were using your semblance a lot back there."

"Yes," Pyrrha admitted sheepishly. "But what about you? If you let your aura get too low-"

"I'll be fine," Jaune said. "I've got a lot to go around, right?"

Pyrrha smiled at him, and reached up to squeeze his hand in hers. "Jaune, I want you to promise me something."

He looked into her eyes, and she had to force herself to concentrate to keep from drowning in them. "Anything."

"If it comes down to a choice between stimulating my aura or protecting yourself," Pyrrha said. "I want you to choose yourself."

Jaune was silent, as were Ruby and Sunset too; the only sound was the rumbling of the elevator as it bore them down.

"I don't know if I can make that promise," Jaune whispered.

"I'm being serious," Pyrrha insisted.

"So am I," Jaune replied.

Before Pyrrha could argue with him any more, the elevator came to a stop. There were a few moments during which, though the cab of the lift was completely still and absolutely silent, nevertheless the doors remained shut. A few moments during which all four of the huntsmen prepared themselves for a fight with whatever was waiting on the other side of the doorway.

The door slid upwards, revealing a single enormous mutant beowolf and an entire platoon of white androids, all of whom seemed to have their guns trained on the elevator.

Pyrrha and Jaune had both started trying to bodily shield the other from the fire when a green shield erupted about ten feet away from the elevator door, encompassing some large storage containers stamped with the Merlot Industries logo.

Sunset had her arms flung up, both of them glowing with the same emerald light as her magical shield as the bullets slammed into it with a thunderous force. "Everybody run!"

Pyrrha, Jaune and Ruby all dashed out of the elevator, temporarily protected by Sunset's shield which was already starting to crack under the rounds that were impacting it by the hundred every second. As she took cover behind the crate, Pyrrha could see the blue and green tracer rounds like laser beams cracking through the air to strike the shield with furious force.

Sunset growled wordlessly as her shield exploded outwards, the energy converting into a shockwave propelling not only its own force but every bullet and one or two grenades backwards the way that they had come, knocking androids off their feet at the same time as their own bullets slammed into their armour and the grenades exploded amongst them. The beowolf howled as it was injured.

That was their single to charge out and into battle.

It was not so easy as it had been. Yes, Pyrrha could have used her semblance as she had done to dismantle all of the androids in mere moments, but that would have used up all the aura that Jaune had just replenished, and if she tried to keep that up moving throughout what seemed for sure to be a vast facility then one or both of them would run out of aura long before they reached the end.

That would not happen. It seemed she couldn't make Jaune promise to conserve his aura even at the cost of leaving Pyrrha's aura broken and Pyrrha herself vulnerable, but she could try and ensure that they didn't get into situations where he felt he had to expend the last of his aura to recover some small scraps of hers. She would win this battle as part of a team, fighting alongside her friends with the weapons that she had trained in her whole life, weapons that were not useless whatever she might have thought in her moment of self-doubt and insecurity.

She could do this without overloading her semblance so that it drove her mad, without endangering her friends, without draining her own aura in the process.

She could do this. They could do this.

And they did, but it was harder work and far more gruelling than it would have been to take the more self-destructive path. The androids were not completely devoid of tactical sense, they did their best to set up killing zones and trap the huntsmen in crossfire from which they could not escape. The mutated beowolf lumbered after them wherever they went, sometimes going for Pyrrha, other times for Ruby, sometimes for Sunset and sometimes for Jaune and in every case forcing them to flee before it because the last thing they could afford was to get into a slugging match with that monster while there were still androids around to shoot them in the back.

But it was difficult, always trying to keep one step ahead as they whittled down the numbers of the androids. Ruby scooped them up with her scythe, Jaune's sword glowed with magic, Sunset snapped her fingers and two androids were transformed into little wind up toy robots that looked almost cute for a moment before they beowolf stepped on them and crushed them into pieces, Pyrrha did what she could to turn the guns of the androids away from any of her friends when they seemed in especial danger, but it was hard work. Hard, gruelling work, and even when they had through painstaking hit and run turned the last of Merlot's gun-toting androids into so many parts and so much scrap metal, they still had the mutant beowolf to deal with, so that by the time it fell to the floor, dead and turning to ash as the green ooze spread out in a puddle across the floor, they were all four of them looking almost exhausted.

And that had only been their first engagement since entering the lab.

"Ah, making yourselves at home, I see," Merlot said, sounding unutterably smug as his visage stared down at them from a giant screen mounted on the wall. A door just below his smiling – smirking – face began to rise, revealing another oversized and rather sterile corridor. "I want my guests to feel welcome, but my security team rarely feels the same way."

Sunset fired a bolt of magic out of the palm of her hand that shattered the screen into fragments.

"That doesn't actually hurt me, you know."

"No, but it makes me feel a lot better," Sunset replied.

"I understand your frustration, Miss Shimmer," Professor Ozpin said. "But the best thing you can do is not let Merlot's childish taunting rile you. He's trying to throw you off balance."

"Rising above isn't really my strong suit, Professor," Sunset confessed.

"I'm not unaware of that fact, Miss Shimmer," Professor Ozpin said mildly.

They moved on, but soon found their path down the corridor blocked by a set of burst pipes which had completely ruptured, venting vast jets of steam out across their path which would burn aura they would desperately need in what seemed likely to prove a battle of attrition.

Pyrrha glanced at the opening to a ludicrously large air duct – she could understand building many things to be larger than they strictly needed to be, but who needed an air duct large enough for three or four people to walk abreast – but before she could suggest that they use it to circumnavigate the burst pipes the steam jets that had been blocking their path simply ceased, as if someone…

 _As if someone had turned something off to help us out._

It was hard to tell, with the air ducts themselves being so dark and shadowed, but she could have sworn that she saw somebody moving in there through the grate of the vent.

 _Who could…Cinder._

Pyrrha reacted instinctually, smashing through the grate with a combination of her semblance and sheer brute strength to charge her way into the duct itself, which was more than high enough for her to stand at her full height. Ignoring Jaune's cry of her name, trusting that they would follow her regardless of how bizarre they thought her action was, Pyrrha ran in the direction that she though the shadow she had seen had taken.

She rounded the corner and…nothing. There was no sign of anyone. No sign that anyone had been here. And no obvious way out other than the way that she was blocking.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune said as he ran after her. "Pyrrha, what's up?"

Pyrrha frowned. "I could have…I thought I saw someone come this way."

Sunset was coming up behind them now, along with Ruby. "You thought you saw someone? Did you think…was it Cinder?"

"I don't know," Pyrrha said. "That's what I wanted to find out."

"Yeah, but…" Jaune hesitated for a moment. "There's nobody here."

"Maybe they went the other way?" Ruby suggested.

"I saw them go this way," Pyrrha insisted.

Nevertheless they checked the other way, and found nobody there and no escape route either: just a cul-de-sac ending in a crank that, Pyrrha guessed, controlled the flow to those ruptured pipes.

"I'm sorry," Pyrrha said. "I suppose I must have imagined it. A trick of the light."

"But then who turned that crank?" Ruby asked.

Nobody answered her. Nobody had a credible answer to give that also accounted for the fact that they couldn't find any trace of their mysterious – or not so mysterious – benefactor anywhere.

They pressed on, and into another battle against another large force of Merlot's 'security': this time red androids pressing a whole pack of beowolves – some of them not only mutated but grafted on with various additional animalistic traits – into the fray against them. The snarling beowolves pressed close all around them, and the androids stomped through the creatures of grimm with heavy, clanking steps, not seeming to care who or what they hit with their giant polearms as they swung them wildly in great swiping strokes. Pyrrha did her best to keep them from hitting any of her friends – and to get them hitting the grimm at the same time – but there were so many androids and so many grimm and already she was starting to feel weary; even she herself was struck a couple of times though never severely.

By the time that they had prevailed in that action, all of their limbs were coated in sweat, their brows were shining with it also, and they were panting to catch their breath.

They had been a day and half a night on this island without rest…or perhaps they just needed to train harder.

 _Or both. It could be both, I suppose._

"Here," Sunset said, reaching into the pockets of her jacket and pulling out four thick chocolate bars held between her fingers. "You'll forgive me not levitating them over to you; I want to save that for when we need it."

Pyrrha, who was not going overboard with her semblance partly for the same reason – and for many other reasons – said nothing as she stepped closer to Sunset and took the chocolate out of her hands. Ruby and Jaune did likewise, and all four of them devoured the chocolate eagerly; even Pyrrha, who rarely ate such things as they were bad for her body in every sense and respect, was grateful for the short term rush of energy that accompanied them.

"Thanks," Jaune said. "Got any more of those in there."

Sunset pulled a face. "One," she said. "So we'll have to share it at the last resort."

"Oh," Jaune said, not managing to restrain his disappointment. "Thanks anyway."

"Yeah," Ruby said. "I needed that. Although…next time could you pack a bag of cookies instead, they might go fur-"

Sunset looked at her.

"Okay, I'll be quiet now," Ruby murmured. "Thank you!"

Sunset grinned. "I'll try and remember, I promise. But we should keep moving now before more of Merlot's security shows up."

As they moved, as they jogged down these large but sterile, lifeless and uninhabited – uninhabited at this point, for there was yet no sign of the grimm here or of Merlot's androids past the ones that they had just destroyed – corridors, Pyrrha found herself thinking, in the absence of any enemies to fight or any conversation from her weary friends, about Cinder Fall.

It had been her, Cinder, who had shut off the pipes for them. She had been, as strange as it was for Pyrrha to imagine, helping them out. True, she was helping with something they could have accomplished by themselves quite easily, and not helped them out in the hard-pressed battles they had fought before and after, but still…it appeared that she had helped them.

And then they found a squad of androids, red and white, destroyed, their parts littering the corridor, and Pyrrha had to concede, at least to herself, the possibility that Cinder was also doing something to help them in other ways as well.

It was strange, to think that Cinder was helping them…and it made Pyrrha feel increasingly uncomfortable with the fact that she was considering killing her if the chance fell Pyrrha's way.

Guilt squirmed and wriggled like a worm in Pyrrha's gut as the team made their way in silence through the lab.

Pyrrha might not have especially liked all the consequences of a life spent in the public eye, but she couldn't deny that she had a certain public image amongst the people of Mistral, and Remnant in general; and though she had often wished for somebody who could see past the image of the Invincible Girl and see the real Pyrrha Nikos waiting within, she couldn't really deny a considerable overlap between her public persona and her private self. She was a Good Girl, the kind who waited patiently for a sweet, short-sighted boy to realise that she'd been standing right in front of him the whole time rather than…doing whatever it was that girls who weren't Good Girls did to get the guy; she didn't drink; she didn't go out partying and stumble home in the small hours while every gossip reporter in Mistral took photographs of her; she didn't wolf down greasy, fatty, unhealthy food the night before a big fight and get caught doing it, implying complete disrespect for the contest and the fans; she was never short tempered or impatient with those same fans and supporters, rather she was always gracious, and polite when she could not be kind; she was a Good Girl.

And she didn't murder people. It wasn't who she was. It wasn't who the Invincible Girl was, and more to the point it wasn't who Pyrrha Nikos was either. It wasn't who she wanted to be.

If that was the price that had to be paid for her destiny then…then was it a destiny that she even wanted? If her destiny was a final goal that she could achieve through her choices and through working hard to attain it then did she really want to get there through a choice like that?

 _This isn't what I want, not at all, but maybe it's what I have to do._

 _Do I? Cinder hasn't threatened any of us._

 _Not today, but what about tomorrow? She's our enemy._

 _But even enemies can fight honourably against one another._

 _Would Cinder grant me the same courtesy?_

 _Maybe not but she's a murderer and a servant of Salem, isn't that a bar I should be able to clear with ease?_

 _Nobody would know._

 _I'd know. And I'd never be able to forget it._

There were a lot of things that Pyrrha didn't like about her celebrity status but there were relatively few that made her genuinely uncomfortable. She didn't like the loneliness that it had forced upon her, but she had learnt to live with it and now, wonderfully, the issue no longer applied; it was wearing at times to interact with people who only saw you as a symbol, or worse an object over which they had some claim, but she had learned to live with that as well, to get through it with a patient smile, and it was soon over. The only thing about her status that made her genuinely uncomfortable was the way in which she was regarded, had been regarded, since she started winning competitions in the most junior of leagues, as some kind of role model, first to her contemporaries and then to little girls across Mistral. It wasn't just her face on a box of cereal – although that was the thing that everybody jumped to, because the cereal was just that popular – it was her image on posters, it was girls writing her letters, it was mothers writing to her about their daughters and how Pyrrha Nikos was their hero and when they grew up they wanted to be just like her.

 _I'm not a hero!_ Pyrrha wanted to reply. _I'm just good at hitting people with a spear._ It had been worse when she was just a tournament champion, now she was a huntress she felt as though she had honestly more to recommend her but even so…the last letter in that vein that she'd received, Pyrrha had replied writing all about Ruby, the real hero of Team SAPR, for whatever her possibly bemused fan had made of it. It made her uncomfortable, it was the only thing to make her genuinely uncomfortable, because it seemed to her that she was being ascribed great virtues that Pyrrha was not entirely sure that she possessed. But she tried to. She couldn't just dismiss it. Since it seemed that for no particularly good reason she had become an object of hero worship, it had always seemed to Pyrrha that the least she could do was live up to the devotion that people had for her, and to be in some way worthy of it: to be brave and kind, loyal and true, perfect.

Not a murderer. Not the sort of person who would kill for power. Not the sort of person who would betray a friend, however foolish or misguided that friend and her actions might be or seem. Not the sort of person who would take advantage of an opponents weakened state to finish them off.

And she would know. Even if she managed to do it in such a way that Sunset didn't know, and never found out, Pyrrha would still know. And she would…she might not be Pyrrha any more.

And the cost…Sunset's friendship would be shattered beyond repair, and Jaune…would Jaune see her in the same light after he had seen her do such a thing? It was one thing to say that he would support but it was quite another to witness her take a life.

 _And so will I risk losing him? Can Pyrrha Nikos, hero to children everywhere, defeat Cinder with the power at her command? Can I protect my friends as I am._

 _I don't have to fight her alone. I'm not alone._

 _Can all four of us defeat Cinder with the power at our command?_

 _Can I bear to do this?_

 _Can I afford not to do this?_

 _Why does this have to be so complicated?_

She hadn't asked for this. She hadn't come to Beacon looking to become part of a larger game than she could possibly imagined, to have the drapes lifted from her eyes so that she could behold the world in all its darkness; she'd wanted four years of friendship and laughter and…any maybe even love.

 _And you've got all of that. Maybe this is the price I have to pay to balance out the scales?_

She didn't know. Pyrrha really didn't know. She didn't know what she'd do if she had the opportunity, whether she would strike or stay her hand, whether her fear or her…it sounded pompous but virtue was the best word that came to mind, would win out.

She knew that the act she had considered so earnestly and so seriously was wrong. But she couldn't guarantee that she wouldn't do it anyway.

Her train of thought was derailed when they entered a laboratory. A laboratory, to call it that seemed far too kind and far too neat; it obscured the horror of what all their eyes beheld.

Slaughterhouse might have been a better word. The lab was full of faunus, the faunus stolen from Atlas, the faunus that had gotten Blake and Weiss and Rainbow Dash involved in combating Doctor Merlot's activities in the north. The faunus had been brought here, to this island and this secret facility and this laboratory.

And here they had died. Their bodies floated in tanks of blue-green ooze, lifeless, preserved like stuffed animals or frogs in jars, floating with their eyes closed as the ooze bubbled around them.

"My God," Jaune murmured. "This…this is what you did with everyone you kidnapped."

"More than that," Sunset said. She sounded as though she didn't want to believe what she was saying or, indeed, to say it, but that she could not stop the words from tumbling out of her mouth. "This is…this is how you got the wings and the fins and all the rest of it on your grimm, isn't it?"

"And a gold star for the girl who'll soon be the latest and greatest addition to my collection," Merlot said, with a happiness that seemed especially inappropriate in the circumstances. "I told you that bonding my special serum to the grimm was an incomplete measure when it came to elevating them to perfection. But as a geneticist I've always been fascinated by the faunus and their wonderful animal traits. So many humans are threatened by the superiority of the faunus over mankind, but I saw a wonderful opportunity. By selecting only the finest genetic specimens, and exposing them to my serum I'm able to bond their traits to this island's natural ooze in such a way that passes their abilities on to the grimm during the bonding process. Soon, not even the Shallow Sea will protect Vale when I unleash an army of aquatic beowolves and ursai that can swim right up to Vale docks in a wave that will sweep aside the whole kingdom before them!"

"No, you won't!" Ruby snarled. She began to swing her scythe wildly, striking the nearest tank to her again and again, scraping the glass with the blade of Crescent Rose. Her expression was wild and intense in equal measure, and her eyes burned with fury. "Because we won't let you!" She hit the tank again and again. "We won't let you do this!" The tank began to crack. "We won't let you get away with this!" The cracks spread out across the glass. "We're going to stop you hurting anybody else you monster!" The glass of the tank shattered into a million fragments as the ooze burst out across the floor, drenching Ruby – fortunately it seemed that her aura protected her from suffering any consequences, and a moment later an automated announcement declared that decontamination processes were in effect as sprinklers turned on to drench the lab and wash the goop away – as it pooled around the shattered tank across the floor, and the lifeless bodies fell down around Ruby. Thankfully, none of them struck her.

Ruby stood, the ooze being washed off her, her head bowed; Pyrrha couldn't tell if she was looking at the bodies or if she had her eyes closed, but when she pulled her red hood it was clear that she didn't want them to see her face right now.

 _She's the best and bravest person that I know,_ Pyrrha said. _And yet for all that she's still just a child who shouldn't have to see things like this._

"Guys," Ruby said. "We need to destroy all of these tanks. We can't just leave them like this."

None of the others said anything. One look exchanged between them said all that needed to be said.

Then they got to work. Merlot sent in androids to try and stop them, but their discovery of the horror being perpetrated here lent them a fresh energy derived from righteous anger; especially Ruby. She was like a fiend, a fiend trailing rose petals as she slashed her way between the tanks, felling the androids as she ran between them.

And when the battle was over, and all the tanks had been destroyed, she stood in the doorway and Pyrrha could see that her whole body was trembling.

Sunset put one arm around her, and whispered something into her ear so softly that Pyrrha couldn't hear it. Nor did she really wish to. It was for Ruby's ears, and hers alone.

"Pyrrha, Jaune," Sunset said, gesturing with her head towards the door. "Come on."

They left, standing just beyond the doorway as Sunset herself steered Ruby that way. Sunset raised one hand, and muttered something like 'I hope this works' as her hand began to glow as red as fire. Sunset murmured words underneath her breath as the glow around her hands intensified. She clicked her fingers, and the entire laboratory burst into flame, burning in spite of the water descending on it from the sprinklers above, consuming the bodies of those poor faunus and all the evidence of what had been done to them.

Jaune looked as though he was about to ask why Sunset didn't do that more often, but held his peace. For her own part, Pyrrha guessed it was a relatively costly spell, and difficult.

But it felt right to use it here, and she gave Sunset a small nod of approval.

"Hey now-" Merlot began.

Sunset destroyed the screen. Again.

"I wish…" Ruby began, but trailed off.

"Ruby?" Pyrrha said.

"I wish I didn't know how terrible people could be to one another," Ruby said. "I wish it was only grimm that we were fighting."

"I think we all wish that, Ruby," Pyrrha murmured. "At least a little."

They pressed on. What else could they do but to press on? They pressed on and they soon came to a rocky ledge, overlooking a room that had not been built so much as it had been, by the looks of it, carved completely out of the rock of the mountain without bothering with the floor or ceiling or the walls that made up the rest of the facility: just a chamber carved into the stone, with an uneven surface for a floor and eight or ten more tanks filled with ooze being processed through them. Thankfully there were no dead faunus in these tanks, but there were hordes of creeps pressed up against the tanks as though they desired the fluid within; they seemed to be humming to it, mewling for it, vast numbers of the grimm gathered around the tanks as though they were worshipping before religious altars.

SAPR defeated them, and destroyed all those tanks on general principle, but by the time they had done so – yes they were only creeps, and even accepting that mutated creeps such as these were still just creeps at heart…but there were so many of them, and the toll of the constant battles since they had entered the facility was starting to take its toll on all of them – they had used up all their ammunition for all of their guns and almost all of their dust; which was to say that the only person who still had any dust remaining was Sunset, who hadn't ignited her jacket yet.

"I'll know the time is right for it when…when the time is right," Sunset said.

"Please try not to destroy all of my possessions," Merlot harrumphed. "Although my androids will simply rebuild them if you do."

Nobody replied. Nobody had the energy to respond to his cheap jibes and tired taunts any longer. Everyone was trying their best not to look into his hideous face. And besides, now that they knew just what he had done to the faunus, now that they knew exactly how monstrous he was, it seemed inappropriate to roll their eyes at his remarks as though he were nothing more than a boorish nuisance and a windbag who overestimated his own wit. He was much more than that, and much worse, and they could not ignore it nor would they have wished to do so.

So they ignored him, or tried to ignore him as best as they could ignore someone whose voice they could not escape and whose face seemed to be watching them from every wall like the dictator in a dystopian fiction. They left the cavernous – in every sense – processing plant and soon – passing through a corridor that was empty, save for the remains of a few more androids that someone, most likely Cinder, had taken care of in advance – they found themselves in a room filled with computers.

It looked as though there had been androids guards here, but once again it appeared that Cinder had come or passed nearby this way before them and had taken the opportunity to ease the way in some small part for SAPR.

 _If I strike her down then who will be the villain in all this?_ Pyrrha could not help but wonder, as her friends and team-mates marvelled at the vast array of computers that took up the room; they were large, the units built into the wall with a dazzling array of lights blinking out at them, the machines themselves making slightly tired whirring noises; Pyrrha wondered how old these machines were, and how long they had been working on…whatever it is that they were working on.

"Whoa," Jaune said. "That's a lot of computers."

"Good work," Ozpin said into their ears. "Can you find a terminal that you can gain access to?"

"Yes," Sunset said, trotting over to a terminal set into the centre of the east wall. She tapped her hand upon it, and it responded instantly to her touch. "I've got one, professor."

"Wait, what are you doing?" Merlot demanded.

"Excellent," Ozpin said, ignoring Merlot. "Can you proxy the signal over to me with your scroll?"

"Um," Sunset hesitated. She looked at her team mates for help, before seeming to realise that there was little help to be had from Pyrrha, Jaune or Ruby in this regard. "Professor, I just about know enough to hide my digital footprints, but this, uh, it's a little…"

Professor Ozpin sighed. "Yes, I did wonder if we might run into this difficulty. Thankfully I think we should be able to manage. Over to you, Miss Sparkle."

"Sunset? Sapphire, can you hear me?"

Sunset's eyebrows rose. "Twilight? Is that you?"

"Yes. Professor Ozpin asked me to provide tech support."

"But aren't you still in Atlas."

"No, we arrived back at Beacon yesterday. Anyway, you want to proxy the signal from Merlot's servers to your scroll so that Professor Ozpin can receive it with a trace, correct?"

"You're the scientist, you tell me."

"Yes, that is what you want to do. So take out your scroll and follow my instructions exactly, can you do that?"

"Sure thing," Sunset said, as she pulled out her scroll.

"What's going on?" Merlot yelled. "Who are you?"

"I'm Twilight Sparkle of the Combined Atlesian Forces," Twilight said. "Now get ready, Doctor, because we're about to put you on the map."

"Oh no!" Merlot squawked. "How could I have been so stupid!"

"I find that very easy to believe," Ozpin murmured dryly. "You never were as clever as you thought you were, Merlot."

Merlot growled wordlessly, as though he were one of the grimm he had experimented. "We'll see about that. It will be hard for you to upload anything once my grimm have torn you to shreds and devoured your remains!"

Thunderous footsteps began to thud outside the room, drawing closer with every step.

Pyrrha turned her back on Sunset and stepped into a guard. "Sunset, stay on the upload; we'll hold them off."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," Pyrrha said, because surviving one more encounter with the grimm would mean little on this island if they couldn't get their location to Professor Ozpin in time. "We can manage. Although, Twilight, anything that you can do to hurry this along would be very much appreciated by all of us."

"I'm doing my best, but I'm only receiving your signal," Twilight. "Everything is in your hands."

Pyrrha listened with half an ear as Twilight explained to Sunset what she needed to do, deploying an array of scientific terms that sounded like so much nonsense to Pyrrha's untrained ears. She was not completely ignorant of mechanics – she knew enough that she could strip down and reassemble Milo at least – but when it came to computers she was more lost than not. She used one, but she rather relied upon it to work and she would never have been able to repair one that didn't work in the way that she could have repaired, or tried to repair, her weapons. She suspected it was much the same with Ruby, and even Sunset…it was a good thing they had help from a genuine expert.

Then the first grimm entered the server room and Pyrrha had no time to think about anything but fighting to survive and protect Sunset from the grimm and the androids that charged into the room and invariably seemed to make a beeline straight for her, intent on crushing her bones and stopping the uplink to Beacon before it was complete.

They came in waves. Four waves. Beowolves, ursai, creeps, androids; they would charge into the server room in a great wave, like a tsunami trying to sweep away all resistance to them in a single charge; then once all of that wave was dead then Pyrrha, Jaune and Ruby would be granted a brief respite and then the attack would begin again, in even greater strength, with Doctor Merlot shouting ever more frantically for his grimm and his robots to win, to crush and to destroy them, to stop the upload before it was completed.

They didn't. They did not crush SAPR, they did not rip them apart, they did not destroy them. Rather, though it was not always an easy battle – and made all the harder by the need to protect Sunset where she was working, which restricted movement slightly, eventually the last grimm and android fell and Twilight's voice proclaimed excitedly, "It worked! Professor Ozpin, the upload's complete. Well done, Sunset!"

"Excellent work, all of you," Professor Ozpin said. "Now, let me see…yes, this is everything I need. Students, we have the location of Merlot's island and reinforcements are en route to your location now. It's over, Merlot; why don't you surrender now and save us all the trouble of rooting you out."

"Over, Oz? Pray, tell me what makes you think this is over."

"Your secret's out, soon your island will be crawling with huntsmen and soldiers; your grimm and your androids can't protect you now."

Merlot chuckled. "Perhaps not. But there is one thing that I can still do…and that's make sure your puny protégés don't survive long enough to savour their victory!"

There was a rumbling beneath the earth, a rumbling that grew louder and louder, a rumbling that made the whole room shake and the four huntsmen with it, that made dust fall from the ceiling as the floor tiles began to crack.

"What is it?" Jaune asked.

"Nothing good," Ruby hazarded a guess.

Pyrrha tried and failed to get an accurate bearing on where exactly the rumbling was coming from. "We should-"

A giant deathstalker, larger even than the one they had confronted during the initiation that seemed so long ago, erupted up from beneath the floor, throwing all four members of Team SAPR across the room as their footings dissolved along with the floor itself as the deathstalker pushed its way up into the chamber, shattering floor tiles and spraying dirt up into the air as it emerged into the server room. Its stinger glowed a bright fluorescent green, matching the markings on its bleached white armour. Another of Merlot's mutants.

"Behold!" Merlot cried. "My greatest creation. Come closer, students, don't be shy; you could learn a lot from this enhanced specimen. They won't teach you about this back at Beacon. Nature couldn't make a beast this deadly, so I did."

"Is that a fact?" Sunset asked, as she clicked her fingers. A spark of green magic leapt from her fingertip…and bounced off the deathstalker's armour plating.

"I'm sorry," Merlot said. "Was that supposed to do something?"

"It was supposed to turn him into something I could step on," Sunset said. "I hate grimm armour."

The deathstalker clicked its pincers, bringing them together before slamming them down onto the ground hard enough to make the earth shake once again. Jaune was knocked onto his knees by the shockwave, and the glowing green stinger prepared to descend upon him.

"Jaune!" the word burst from Pyrrha's mouth as she ran towards him, but the stinger was descending so fast and she seemed to be moving so slowly.

Ruby trailed a garden's worth of rose petals as she burst passed the stinger before it could completely descend, grabbing Jaune by the hood of his hoodie and dragging him behind her, wrenching him out of danger as the deathstalker flung its stinger into the ground so hard that it got stuck there.

Ruby and Pyrrha exchanged smiles as Ruby got Jaune out of danger and Pyrrha ran towards the danger.

 _Thank you,_ thought Pyrrha, and hoped that Ruby understood.

 _Any time._ That, at least, was how Pyrrha interpreted Ruby's response.

Pyrrha charged for the deathstalker while it was still trapped, wriggling and jerking like a fish on a line as it struggled to pull its own stinger free out of the dirt. Pyrrha wielded Milo in both hands as with a leap that carried her forwards she thrust the tip of her spear into the bulbous and brightly glowing stinger.

Green ooze leaked out all around the edges of the wound, and a shudder wracked through the deathstalker's whole body. If it had had a voice, Pyrrha was sure that it would have been screaming.

The pain provided the impetus it needed to rip its tail free and Pyrrha – a little too slow drawing her spear out of the wound – with it as she was flung up by the sudden whip-like motion of the tail that tossed her all the way up to hit the ceiling of the server room above before she fell back down to the ground, landing on some half-ruined tiles with a thump.

The deathstalker turned cumbersomely towards her, clicking its pinchers as it rounded on her, seeming to glare at her with its unnaturally glowing green eyes.

Sunset charged with a yell, wielding her sword in both hands as she hacked at a black leg that was taller than she was. Merlot was taunting them now, but Pyrrha couldn't really make out the words – she wasn't paying him much attention right now – as she focussed on Sunset pounding on the deathstalker's leg with a blade as black as the limb she sought to hew off. There was something smug about the way that the deathstalker ignored her, as if it knew that Sunset and her sword could not do it harm and didn't see the need to so much as do her the courtesy of a confrontation.

Jaune charged at it, his own sword also wielded two-handed and glowing golden with the magic in the blade, the magic that Sunset had enchanted into the metal to cut through things like this.

For Jaune, the deathstalker did turn, shifting its position a little and throwing out one pincer. Jaune's strike was hasty and ill-aimed, made quickly as the grimm tried to bat him aside, and it only scored the white upper armour of the pincer before he was thrown backwards across the room and into the wall.

The deathstalker scuttled once again, until it was looming over Pyrrha.

"Catch!" Sunset shouted as she threw Pyrrha her rifle, with the bayonet extended all the way out into a kind of spear half again as long as Pyrrha's Milo in spear form at least. Pyrrha caught the weapon, guiding it into her hands with her semblance, and held it raised upright in place as the stinger descended.

Straight onto the tip of Sunset's bayonet.

The blow didn't pop the stinger like she's hoped, but it made more green ooze seep out of the bulbous weapon and it made the deathstalker recoil, shaking its tail back and forth as though that would salve the pain.

"Did you know," Merlot asked conversationally. "That certain porcupine faunus have the ability to fire spikes out of their hair. Isn't that remarkable?"

He said this the very moment before the deathstalker fired a broad spread of white spikes that descended like a flight of arrows towards the ground and the huntsmen. Pyrrha ran, dodging out of the way of each white spike as it struck the ground behind and all around her. She glanced behind her to see Jaune taking cover behind his shield, Sunset raising a shield, and Ruby running just as Pyrrha was, just much much faster. As the last quill fell she reversed course and charged the deathstalker at full speed, her scythe slashing wildly as she scored its armour once, twice, three times before falling back.

The deathstalker began to turn her way.

Bursts of magic shot out of Sunset's hand to slam, seemingly ineffectually, into the grimm's armoured flank. "Pyrrha, help me get it's attention," Sunset shouted.

 _This would have been easier if I had any bullets left,_ Pyrrha thought, as she charged for the deathstalker on the other side to Sunset, jabbing with Milo before twirling it even as her whole body twirled to slash at one leg and barely mark it.

The deathstalker stopped, havering between which nuisance to round on first.

"Lancaster spin, go for the stinger!" Sunset commanded.

 _A Lancaster spin? Does Jaune have enough aura for that?_

"You got it," Ruby said as she ran at Jaune, who barely separated his shield from his sword in time to catch Ruby on his shield as she touched it with both her legs, using it like a springboard as her legs began to glow with the light of Jaune's stimulating semblance.

Ruby shot off like a rocket, her small body and absurdly large scythe both concealed within the cloud of rose petals that engulfed her in flight. She spun in mid-air, her scythe whirring around her.

She left a deep gash along the deathstalker's stinger as she passed by it, but she did not sever it or destroy it. The grimm's whole body trembled, it shook from side to side and Pyrrha was absolutely and beyond all doubt certain that it would have been crying out in pain if it had the voice to do so.

Then it disappeared into the ground from whence it came, smashing the tiles beneath its weight and causing the earth above it to slough upwards as it moved, like a shark's fin cutting through the water.

It was heading right to the point at which Ruby landed on the ground, and it didn't give her time to catch her breath or bearings before it rose, pincers snapping. Ruby was fast enough to avoid the worst of it, dodging nimbly as ponderous claws tried to close around her, but she was caught a glancing blow at the end which knocked her sideways.

Hordes of creeps rose up out of the whole in the ground the deathstalker had made, snapping and snarling as they came. Androids red and white stomped in through both entrances into the server room, directed by Merlot to back up his bleeding prize.

 _I have no choice,_ Pyrrha thought, as she used her semblance to rip the glaives out of the androids' hands; yes, she was using it too much again but in this situation, against these odds, how much choice did she really have.

She brought the glaives all slamming down into the deathstalker's back, seeking out the gaps in its armour plates to drive the spears home. The grimm shuddered, clearly wounded, but it did not stop.

Nothing they did seemed to stop it. As Pyrrha was slashing and thrusting and kicking at the creeps come to its aid the deathstalker simply trampled them down to try and get to her. Ruby grabbed the rotary cannon of a fallen white android that she had downed and emptied it onto the deathstalker, the rounds mostly bouncing off the armour but a few seeming to punch their way through with little expulsions of ooze along the way, but this didn't stop it either. Jaune hacked off one of its legs with the magically-sharpened blade of his sword and it's only response was to round on him and finish him off. Sunset, her jacket ablaze with burning dust, threw herself over Jaune's prone body, her back to the stinger as it descended, and as it descended all the dust infused within the fabric exploded in a monstrous inferno and even that, though it clearly hurt the deathstalker, was not enough to stop it. Though it was bleeding, though its movements were becoming slower and more sluggish, though it was repeatedly getting its stinger stuck in the dirt and leaving itself vulnerable it would not stop.

And in the meantime their aura was running low. Ruby's was the first to go, used up in so many burst of speed that accomplished so much but left her so vulnerable in the end. Jaune stood guard over her, protecting her from any grimm or robot that ventured too far, but to be honest if it hadn't been for his monstrous aura reserves he probably would have been out by now as well.

That left Pyrrha and Sunset trying to deal with the creeps coming out of the ground, trying to deal with the androids and even when they had dealt with the creeps and the androids still trying to deal with the deathstalker itself, with the beast which though it might be wounded did not bow. They were like ants trying to devour an elephant, and though such a thing might be possible with enough time that time was something they did not possess. The stinger seemed to be its weakness, the stringer was its weakness, but it seemed as though however many times they injured it it was never quite enough; it was bleeding so much by now and yet it refused to do so much as deflate.

And so Sunset and Pyrrha tried to keep it away from Jaune and Ruby, tried to keep doing damage, tried to keep nipping at it enough to wear it down…trying to keep weariness from making them slip up through sloppy tiredness.

That last was a struggle that Pyrrha was not quite equal to. Endurance was not one of the qualities that she had focussed on in training, and she had never had to fight so long without a break before. And so she put a foot wrong, and in so doing allowed the deathstalker to snap its pincer around her foot and begin to squeeze.

And Pyrrha knew without absolutely certainty that her aura would not be equal to the force. And if her aura was not then…then what chance had her armour or her bones?

There was a bright green flash. Sunset teleported – how much magic did she have left? Surely it could not be much – into the air above the deathstalker's stinger, grabbing hold of it with one hand. In her other hand she held a dagger, the dagger that Pyrrha's mother had given her upon leaving Mistral at the end of spring vacation, and with that ancient knife she slashed wildly at the stinger, swinging her knife back and forth as though she was possessed, or had gone berserk in some mad fury. A low growl, rough and almost animalistic, rose from her throat as she inflicted gash after gash upon the bulbous stinger before finally thrusting the dagger into the green and ooze-filled flesh up to the hilt.

Green goop spilled out to cover Sunset's hand. For a moment, all else was stillness. Then the stinger began to shrivel like a popped balloon.

The deathstalker was motionless. Then it released Pyrrha from its grip as it shuddered and writhed in silence, the only sound being the disturbance of the earth caused by its thrashing.

Sunset let go of the stinger, falling motionless through the air. Pyrrha caught her before she hit the ground, making a leap that let her scoop up her leader while carrying her away from the deathstalker as it settled onto its belly. It was clearly dead even before it started to dissolve.

Sunset meanwhile was unconscious, or nearly there; her eyes were half open but they were listless and unresponsive. Pyrrha could feel her breath, but no other motion.

"And you thought I was overdoing it," Pyrrha murmured. She bent down, and kissed Sunset gently on the forehead. "Thank you."

"No!" Merlot yelled. "No, you…my precious? My one of a kind specimen? How? How could you?"

Pyrrha sighed. "Outstanding work, everyone."

"It's over, Merlot," Ozpin said calmly. "You've got nothing left."

Merlot growled. "That's where your wrong, Oz! Your pathetic pupils might have won the battle, but I can still make sure that they don't live to savour their victory! There is one last thing that I can do!"

Red lights began to blink in the room, and in the corridors on either side. Klaxons of alarm began to sound.

"Warning: self-destruct sequence initiated."

"Team!" Ozpin shouted. "Merlot is going to blow up the lab!"

"We'd kinda noticed," Jaune said.

"You need to get to the surface as quickly as you can. Move, now!"

"Yes, Professor," Pyrrha said, even as she privately wondered if they could possibly get there in time.

Merlot's image had disappeared from the monitors, but they could still hear his voice as he suddenly cried out, "You? No!"

* * *

The door slid open and brought Cinder face to face with Doctor Merlot.

"You?" he exclaimed. "No!"

"Doctor Merlot, I presume," Cinder said, smirking as she strode forward, forcing the doctor backwards through sheer force of her superior will. "Going somewhere?" she asked, casting a glance at the black case he was holding in his left hand. "To the submarine in the marina on the lowest level, perhaps? It beats going down with the ship, I suppose." She'd suspected that a man like this would have an escape plan in case things went wrong – he'd escaped from Mountain Glenn after all – and as it happened she had been in need of an escape plan of her own so she had made sure to scout for the route that Merlot planned to use so that she could use it herself when the time came.

All traces of Merlot's smug, superior attitude had disappeared from his face. He was practically snivelling in fear. "I…I don't-"

"Then you shouldn't have meddled in affairs that were beyond your comprehension," Cinder said flatly. With one eye she looked around. They stood in a vast control centre, dominated by screens showing almost every corridor and lab in the facility; all of those areas were now saturated in red from the warning lights, and the klaxons sounded the alert through the speakers as a sign of the imminent destruction of the facility.

Doubtless there was some means on the control panel that ran around the centre of the room, below the screens that took up the upper wall, to stop the detonation, but why would Cinder want to do a thing like that? She had no use for any of the research here, and she didn't particularly want any of it falling into the hands of her enemies either. Destruction was the best thing for this place, provided that Merlot was destroyed along with it.

Merlot's face twisted from a snivel to a snarl as he reached into his jacket with his free right hand and pulled out a silver hand cannon.

Cinder didn't bother to restrain herself from rolling her eyes as she blocked the first two shots and then twisted the gun out of his hand and emptied the remainder of the clip into his chest. It knocked him backwards, but she had to admit that she was a little impressed that his aura didn't break under the attack. Mind you, if he had much more to give after that then she was very much mistaken.

"I've never really liked guns," Cinder said, as she examined the empty pistol theatrically. She wasn't lying. Something about them just didn't appeal to her, and never had. Even when she was a little girl she had preferred the sword and the bow to the more modern weapons that had partially replaced them _unlike some people who merely paid lip service to traditional forms while carrying rifles around, Pyrrha._

 _After all this time and all that I've become, I'm still a romantic._ "And yet," Cinder continued. "There is a certain brutal efficiency about them, isn't there?" she threw his gun away.

Merlot looked like a cornered fox as he picked himself up off the floor and crouched down before her, looking up with his red eye gleaming. Cinder, who wasn't intimidated in the least bit by a mere antiquated cybernetic augment, stared straight back at him.

And, because she had slightly impish sense of humour, she matched the strangeness of his eye with her own and briefly allowed the Fall Maiden's corona to blaze around her orb.

Merlot's natural eye widened. "What…what are you people?"

"I am Nemesis," Cinder declared. "I am sent to punish the whole world for its arrogant transgressions, and I've decided to start with you."

Merlot stared at her, as though he wasn't sure how serious she was. Then he rose to his feet with a growl and took a swing at her with his cybernetic arm.

Cinder caught the blow one-handed, holding it in place with no apparent effort. Apparently Merlot had once trained as a huntsman, but his skills had obviously grown very rusty over his years of isolation because his punch was telegraphed, basic, and all the strength seemed to be coming from the cybernetics. Cinder held him by the wrist, gripping it like a vice as Merlot struggled to break free, and gradually she turned up the heat.

She enjoyed the look of awed amazement on Merlot's face as her hand began to glow, red hot, then white hot, burning up his aura and torturing the metal beneath. He became desperate, frantic in his efforts to break free but Cinder, stronger than him even without the strength of half a maiden at her command, would not let him go, not until his arm shattered and Cinder flung him back across the room with a gust of air, shattering his aura and several of the screens behind him.

Cinder left him there, his aura broken, his wind stolen, his forehead bleeding; she left him there moaning in pain as she walked over the screens directly above the control panel. She could see all the red lights flashing as the countdown to the destruction of the facility drew nearer, and she could see…

She could see Team SAPR trying to get out in time.

Would they make it? Ruby was moving a little slower than usual, and Sunset…Sunset was out of it, being carried in Pyrrha's arms like a babe, her head thrown back and her hair drooping down towards the floor.

Sunset…her friend.

"How long?" Cinder demanded.

"What?"

"How long until the destruction begins?" Cinder yelled at him.

Merlot looked up from the floor, comprehending at once. "Not long enough for them. They've come too far, and the destruct sequence has disabled the elevators."

Cinder stared at the screens, both eyes widening. Soon SAPR would realise that for themselves. Were there stairs? There were the air ducts she had used to sneak around, but could they carry Sunset that way?

It seemed inevitable that they would die. They would die, and so many threats to Cinder's plans and Salem's even grander designs would be snuffed out: Ozpin's most favoured protégés, Ruby's silver eyes, the skilled and much-beloved Pyrrha Nikos…Sunset.

Her friend.

Her friend was going to die down here, unconscious, never even seeing it coming, unless…

 _Unless I do something about it._

 _Unless I, for the sake of this thing called friendship, allow my enemies to live._

 _Unless I put my plans for Vale at risk and enable Ozpin to save his newest agents and brightest hopes for the sake of my friend._

 _They…they are not such threats to me, and none at all to my mistress. Let them live, let them die, it matters now…except to me._

 _You can't save me, Sunset; but I'll save you._

 _Just like I saved you on the train._

Cinder rounded on Merlot. "Stop it."

"Stop what?"

Cinder strode over to him, grabbing him by the collar and hauling him upright. "Stop the self-destruct sequence and I'll let you live."

Merlot stared at her. "Why should I believe you?"

A glass sword appeared in Cinder's free hand. "You don't have a lot of options, doctor."

"Alright, alright," Doctor Merlot said, raising his organic hand in a gesture of surrender. "I'll do it, I'll do it right away just please don't kill me."

Cinder released him, and took a step back.

Merlot let out a sigh of relief. "I only ever-"

"Just get on with it," Cinder said, gesturing imperiously towards the control panel.

She had to admit that she didn't know what he was doing as he scurried to the controls. He might have been doing something to betray her. But she doubted it. The man didn't have the nerve with her standing right there.

And besides, if he did try anything she was more than capable of responding in kind.

The klaxons ceased, the red lights all went off. Merlot turned to face her. "There, I-"

Cinder ran him through the gut with his glass sword.

Merlot made a kind of gasping, choking sound. Blood began to spill out of the corner of his mouth. "You…you…"

"Lied to you?" Cinder said. "That happens sometimes." She placed her other hand upon the side of his head, running her fingers through Merlot's hair was she began to turn up the heat. He flinched away from the rising temperature, but she grabbed his hair and wouldn't let him go as his flesh began to burn.

"Shhh," she whispered. "Don't be afraid. It's time close your eyes and sleep now, and have such wonderful dreams." She leaned in. "Death is never what it seems, Doctor."

He stared at her as though she were mad. He kept on staring until his entire body had been reduced to ashes, save for his cybernetics which clattered to the ground in front of her.

So much for him.

Cinder looked up, at the screens. Team SAPR were staring at them in amazement. Of course, they had been able to see Merlot's face, they had probably seen some of what just transpired. They could probably see her right now. She took a step closer, staring at Pyrrha's face even as Pyrrha stared at her.

"You don't have time to gawp," Cinder said. "All the grimm have been released from containment, and the androids are still active. Get Sunset out of here, now." She paused. "The autumn storms are coming. Find a shelter while you can." Not that they'd listen to her. They weren't the kind to do the sensible thing, as they had already proven. But she said it anyway, for Sunset's sake.

"Goodbye, Sunset," Cinder said softly, as she turned away.

"Cinder!"

Pyrrha's clarion call through the speakers made Cinder turn back and look at her once again.

"We will see one another again," Pyrrha declared.

Cinder stared at her for a moment, before she smiled. "Count on it," she said. " _Au_ _revoir,_ Pyrrha Nikos." And this time she really did turn away.

She wanted to be gone from here before Ozpin's reinforcements arrived.

* * *

Neither grimm nor androids tried to hinder Team SAPR on their way out of the facility.

Unfortunately that was because they were all waiting for them outside. SAPR emerged from out of the lab, running through the ruined doors that Pyrrha had smashed open with her semblance, to find a great host of Merlot's creations, mutated grimm and androids both, standing a horseshoe around the doors, filling up the valley that led to the laboratory mouth. They growled, they roared, they rose up on their hind legs and beat their chests where they had chests (or hind legs). Beowolves, ursai, creeps, androids red and white alike they all surrounded Team SAPR in numbers greater than they had seen in one place since arriving at Merlot's island.

And Sunset was out of it, and the other huntsmen were so drained.

 _Somehow I doubt that Cinder is going to save us now._

Nevertheless, Pyrrha put down Sunset on the ground, and stepped over her protectively like a mother bear as she held her shield before her and her spear ready to strike.

The three of them stood shoulder to shoulder, shields out where they had one and weapons pointing warily out towards the grimm. As they had all run out of dust and ammunition, all that they could do was wait for the grimm to make the first move.

Dawn began to break over the horizon, the soft light of the new day creeping into the valley.

A large mutated ursa, green and covered with bony protrusions that marked it as well on the way to becoming a major, took a lumbering step forward.

There was a buzzing sound as the ground all around the ursa exploded in a shower of bullets that tore it to shreds along with the beowolves unlucky enough to be closest to it.

"Woohoo!" a familiar voice whooped with glee as an Atlesian airship with a custom blue paint job soared out of the rising sun and over the valley, banking hard to the left as it circled back around towards them.

"Is that…Rainbow Dash?" Ruby asked.

"Saving your butts since first semester, you'd better believe it," Rainbow crowed as she flew overhead again, loosing missiles from beneath her wings to eviscerate a group of mutated boarbatusks. The rear hatch at the back of her aircraft was down, and from it leapt a pair of figures to land gracefully on their feet hard beside SAPR. One of them was Ciel Soleil, carrying her massive anti-tank rifle, who greeted the Beacon huntsmen with a professional nod before turning to face the grimm, immediately blowing the head off an alpha beowolf. The other was-

"Penny?" Ruby exclaimed as Penny landed beside her.

"Ruby! It's so great to see you again! I missed you so much!"

"I missed you too, Penny! And you got upgrades!"

"I'm new and improved," Penny announced cheerfully, holding out her arms so that Ruby could better appreciate the black scale synthetic armour that she was wearing over her smock. "I can-"

"Penny!" Ciel snapped, sternly but not unkindly except in as far as the situation demanded.

"Maybe I should tell you all about it after we're through here?" Penny suggested.

"That's…probably a good idea," Ruby said.

"Team Sapphire, Rosepetal elements, this is the Atlesian warship _Resolution_ ; we are commencing close air support now, do not move from your current position."

The Atlesian warship hoved into view moments after their message passed through the earpieces of the huntsmen, the long, arrow-like prow of the sky cruiser momentarily blocking out the sun as it rose above the rocks, cannons blazing and missiles streaking from their ports up and down the hull to rain down death upon the grimm and Merlot's androids both alike. The cruiser was accompanied and escorted by several bullheads bearing the double-headed axe of Beacon academy, and as the main compartments of the bullheads opened more and more teams leapt down to join them in the valley below: YRBN, including Blake in her new team for the first time; Weiss, Flash and Cardin of WSTW; Sun Wukong; second year Team CFVY who strutted forwards as though they had their own personal rock anthem playing in their heads as their leader – Coco Adel if Pyrrha remembered it correctly – unfolded her purse into a rotary cannon.

"'Sup, Rubes," Yang said.

"Yang?" Ruby said. "Blake?"

"I was there when this started," Blake said. "I didn't want to miss the ending."

"And it's never boring when you're around," Yang said. "So what's going on?"

"The experiments and stuff, Merlot," Ruby said. "That's all over. It's done…these guys just don't realise it yet."

"So we just have to beat it in to them?"

"Something like that."

"Cool," Yang said. She grinned, and pounded her fists together. "So what are we waiting for? Let's kick some ass."

Needless to say, the grimm didn't stand a chance.

* * *

"So," Salem said. "You slew this impertinent doctor and then departed?"

Cinder knelt on the floor before the Seer. She was in an isolated corner of her hideout, so that neither Emerald nor Mercury nor – heavens forfend – Sonata could see her prostrate herself thus before her mistress. The chamber was dark, illuminated by only a single candle and the orange glow of the Seer grimm. "That is all, my mistress."

"Do not lie to me, child," Salem said harshly. "You don't have the talent for it." Her tone softened, even as one of the Seer's tentacles snaked its way up to brush Cinder's cheek. "And why would you want to deceive me, after all the wondrous gifts that I have given you. Have I not shown you all the treasures of the world, and helped you to make all your dreams come true."

"Yes," Cinder murmured. "Yes, I…I would be nothing without you."

 _Nothing but Cinder Fall, which is not nothing._ Nevertheless, she could not deny that Salem had been good to her; she had taken her in, given her power, made it possible for her to acquire yet more power.

 _But at what cost?_ That thought came in the voice of Sunset Shimmer, and Cinder could not help but remember Sunset's offer to abandon all that she cared for and desired for Cinder's sake. Salem had been the closest thing she had to family since her father's death and yet Cinder was under no illusions: if she came between Salem and her plans then Salem would always choose her own aims and ambitions.

 _I don't care. I made my peace with my path long ago._

 _Until…_

"What else?" Salem asked.

Cinder closed her eyes, and bowed her head yet closer to the ground. "I…Doctor Merlot had activated a self-destruct of the facility. I…I stopped it."

There was a moment of pause. "Why?" Salem asked, her voice as sharp as the teeth of the Seer.

"Team Sapphire are a necessary component of my plans for the-"

"Do not compound your acts with more attempts at deception," Salem said. "They could be useful to you, but it is a gross overstatement to call them necessary. And, while they could be useful, they could also be dangerous."

Cinder glanced up into the disapproving face of her mistress. "That could also be called an over-"

"Silver eyes," Salem said. "Equestrian magic. A semblance of rare power and potential. A grand old name married to a fierce reputation and great skill; a marriage such as men will rally to and accord the name of hero. If you have really so underestimated them then I am…disappointed in you. You should have let them die."

"I…" Cinder hesitated. She shivered. "I know."

"Then why didn't you?"

Cinder said nothing. Surely Salem could guess the answer.

"Cinder?"

"Because she was there," Cinder admitted, averting her eyes once again. "Because I couldn't…I couldn't do it."

The ensuing silence hung thick and heavy in the air between them like a choking smog, catching in Cinder's throat.

The tentacle upon her cheek felt suddenly very cold. Cinder winced as her body was wracked by a spasm of pain beginning in her upper back, where the influence of the grimm had first entered her body and left its mark upon her. It got worse, wracking her with pains and cramps, making her whole body twitch until she was lying on her side on the ground, waving her arms and legs in futile efforts to stave off the pain that was shooting up and down her, twisting her spine this way and that.

"I do not make heavy demands of my faithful servants," Salem said. "I do not object to you having your own ideals, your own goals, your own ambitions. But the moment you place your desires above my own then all will be lost to you. Do you understand?"

Cinder groaned. "Yes. Yes, I understand."

The pain subsided.

"Love is a weakness, Cinder," Salem said. "A tempting weakness, I know, but a weakness nonetheless. Purge yourself of it, while there's still time."

* * *

The night was dark, and it seemed darker still in Professor Ozpin's office as Pyrrha and Sunset stood before the headmaster's desk, if that was truly possible. Above their heads the gears of the great clock ground away, grumbling and clanking as the enormous cogs ground against one another; the windows were opaque and emerald now, casting the large tower room in a soft and slightly forbidding green glow. There was little light even from the headmaster's own desk; Professor Ozpin was half invisible to them, even as he leaned forward with his hands clasped together in front of him, so that they obscured the lower half of his face.

"As glad as I am to see you safely returned and your mission complete," Professor Ozpin said. "I hope you understand why I say that I wish you had not decided to make a temporary alliance with Miss Fall, especially once she turned out to be…the Fall Maiden."

"I understand, Professor," Sunset said, although her tone was not particularly understanding – to Pyrrha's ears at least – as she said it. "But if I'd brought any of my team home in a body bag then I think your disapproval might be a little more muted. We only made it out of Mountain Glenn in one piece because of her. Not to mention the laboratory."

"That is as much your interpretation, Miss Shimmer, as it is mine that a confrontation with Miss Fall there and then might have yielded results most beneficial," Professor Ozpin replied. "As things stand, you have allowed an enemy far more dangerous than Merlot go free to continue to work mischief. And I cannot help but wonder how many will suffer because of it."

Sunset scowled. "I made the best decision that I could for the team at the time that I made it," she said firmly. "In the same circumstances I'd make the same decision again."

Professor Ozpin looked at her. The light glinted off his glasses. "Best for the team?"

"My highest priority, Professor," Sunset said.

"And that is all there is to it?" Professor Ozpin asked.

Sunset shuffled uncomfortably in place. She had her hands clasped behind her back, but her shoulders wriggled up and down a little. "I…I feel as though I almost go through to her, Professor. I'm not sure but I think she might-"

"Might what?" Professor Ozpin asked. "Turn? Renounce her past misdeeds? Step into the light?"

Sunset pursed her lips together. "Something like that."

"An admirable sentiment, in some ways, but rather naïve I fear," Professor Ozpin said. "Miss Fall has made her choice, and all that we can do now is…seek to limit the damage that she may do."

"Yes, Professor," Sunset said, but if she actually believed that then Pyrrha would be surprised. "Is there anything else?"

"No, Miss Shimmer, that will be all," Professor Ozpin said. He paused. "I am glad to see that you all made it back in one piece."

"Thank you, Professor."

"Professor Ozpin," Pyrrha said quickly, almost blurting out the words. "Could I have a word with you please? Alone?"

Sunset looked a little confused, but didn't say anything.

Professor Ozpin took pause a moment. "Of course, Miss Nikos."

"I'll wait for you down at the bottom?" Sunset asked.

Pyrrha nodded. "Thank you."

She waited until Sunset had made her way to the elevator, and the elevator had started to make its way down to the base of the tower, to return her attention to Professor Ozpin.

"Something on your mind, Miss Nikos?"

Pyrrha looked down at her hands, clasped together in front of her. "The power of the maidens…it's incredible."

Even in the dim light, Professor Ozpin looked very weary. "It is indeed, Miss Nikos; a great and terrible power to witness, and even more so, I would imagine, to possess."

"Can anything stand against them?" Pyrrha asked.

"Another Maiden," Professor Ozpin replied. "Apart from that…it can be done, and has been done several times in days gone by, but it requires rare skill to do and great courage even to make the attempt."

Pyrrha's hands clenched into fists; she could not help but recall the fear she had felt when Cinder had shown herself in all her power and majesty, and wondered inwardly if she had, or would have had, that kind of courage when it came to it.

 _I'm not sure that I have the skill…would I even have been brave enough to try?_

"Do not think yourself too faint of heart, Miss Nikos," Professor Ozpin said. "You are perhaps the bravest student to walk these halls in many a year."

Pyrrha smiled thinly at the compliment. "That's very kind of you to say, Professor, but if you mean that then you haven't been paying enough attention to Ruby."

"Guilty, I fear, as charged," Professor Ozpin said. "But my point remains: we never know beforehand when our best moment will be."

"Or our worst," Pyrrha murmured. She hesitated, wondering what the revelation she was about to vouchsafe would do to Professor Ozpin's fine opinion of her. "Professor…I…on the island, after I saw what she could do…I thought about killing her; Cinder, I mean. If there was a moment when she was weak and vulnerable…"

She trailed off, but Professor Ozpin did not reply. He was silent, and still, and in his still silence he seemed to wordlessly invite her to go on.

"And I don't know," Pyrrha said. "I can't know…whether I would have done it if I'd had the chance. If I had…"

Professor Ozpin lowered his hands to his desk. "What is that you want to know of me, Miss Nikos?" His tone was such that it was impossible to tell how he felt.

"Should I have done it?" Pyrrha asked. "What…what would have been the right thing to do?"

"I think you know the answer to that already, Miss Nikos."

Pyrrha swallowed. "But she's so powerful, and so dangerous."

"And her death would solve a great many problems," Professor Ozpin allowed. "But to murder her when she was helpless at your feet…the beginning informs the race, as they say."

"You mean that, if I had become the Fall Maiden myself by…by such means," Pyrrha said haltingly.

"It would have followed you," Professor Ozpin said. "Just as it followed all of those who took the mantle by murdering their predecessors. Contrary to what some of the legends would have you believe, they were not all monsters. Some of them, according to the records of this order, were sincerely intentioned and struck down those far worse…but because they had begun their season by sullying their hands with blood all the rest of their good and noble intents went awry and turned to ashes."

 _A mistake I nearly walked into with my eyes open._ "I'm sorry, Professor."

"For what, Miss Nikos?"

"For not being who you thought I was," Pyrrha said. "For not being who I thought I was."

"That has not yet been proven," Professor Ozpin said.

Pyrrha's eyebrows rose. "But I-"

"Contemplated, and considered," Professor Ozpin said. "You are as brave and noble as a queen of old but you are only human, and prey to fear and doubt and all the other weaknesses that we are heir to. But thank goodness it is by our actions, not our thoughts, that we are judged and your hands, I'm glad to say, remain clean."

"By opportunity," Pyrrha said.

"Or by choice," Professor Ozpin said. "If only the choice not to seek out opportunity." He smiled kindly. "Do not dwell on this too much, Miss Nikos. Learn from it, but do not drown in self doubt and reproaches for something that never happened save in your mind during a fevered moment."

Pyrrha nodded slowly. "I…I'll try not to, Professor. Thank you for being so understanding."

"I'm glad to have been of help. Was there anything else?"

"Yes," Pyrrha said. "Is there…Cinder's power…the reason I considered what I considered was that I couldn't see any other way that I could become strong enough to protect my friends, protect Beacon, protect…protect everything that I wish to keep safe. Is there no other way that I can become strong enough to face her when the time comes?"

Professor Ozpin seemed to age ten years in the few moments that he sat there, unmoving and unblinking, his eyes half hidden behind his spectacles. "When the battle comes, as I think we both know that it will, we will all have our part to play," he said. "And I have no doubt that you will do great service when the moment comes. But that is another matter on which I would not advise you to dwell overmuch, Miss Nikos. You are young, and blessed with youth and friends and, it seems to me, with happiness. Go from here, and savour such treasures while you can."

"But how can I?" Pyrrha said. "When such a cloud hangs over us that might descend upon my friends at any moment. I know that when the time comes we'll face her together but even so…isn't there anything that I can do to prepare myself? My skills seem so insufficient. Is there nothing else?"

Professor Ozpin closed his eyes momentarily. "Tomorrow," he said, and the word sounded as though it was being wrenched out of him. "Come again tomorrow, afternoon, I will send for you at the appropriate time but rest assured it will come. Tomorrow…tomorrow you will learn a little more of what we are about…and what you may do to keep this fragile peace in Remnant."

"Then there is a way?"

Professor Ozpin nodded distractedly. "Tomorrow," he repeated. "Goodnight, Miss Nikos. Get some rest. It is the least you have earned after your many labours."

"Thank you, Professor," Pyrrha said, as she bowed her head. "Thank you so much, for everything."

It must have been a trick of the light but, as she turned to go, Pyrrha could have sworn that the old man had tears in his eyes.


	139. Dusty Old Crow

Dusty Old Crow

Rainbow Dash scowled. She had a headache and she wasn't sure exactly where it had come from. They'd gone into Vale: her, Twi, and Ciel had decided to tag along too for once – this had left Penny in the care of Team SAPR, something that hadn't done wonders for Rainbow's mood at the time and was only making it worse now; it wasn't that she didn't like SAPR in general, three quarters of them were cool and Penny could do a lot worse for friends than Ruby and Pyrrha, but recently she'd started finding it hard to think about their team leader without her hackles starting to rise – to do some shopping. That wasn't the kind of thing that any of them would ordinarily have spent their leisure time doing, but Twilight had heard about an antique bookstore that she wanted to check out, Ciel had heard about a wedding expo being held in one of the big malls – something that had made Rainbow spit out her drink all over Penny when she'd heard it, like since when did Ciel even have a serious boyfriend? Ciel's answer was that she just liked looking at the dresses, but what kind of an answer was that? The kind that reminded Rainbow a little of Rarity; she'd have to try and remember to introduce them when the gang arrived for the festival in two weeks time – and Rainbow…well, Rarity's birthday was going to fall during the festival and, although it wasn't yet desperately urgent, Rainbow had been a little tardy when it came to getting her a present. She'd been hoping to find something that she'd like somewhere in Vale.

No luck yet. Instead she'd found an energy in the air, a crackling hostility to Atlas and all its works. Nobody exactly said anything – at least not to her or her friends – but she could see it in the graffiti scrawled on the walls: Screw Atlas! We Will Not be Occupied! Resist! False Flag! She could see it in the way that people glanced furtively upwards at the Atlesian ships hovering in the sky overhead, as though they were not protectors sent by an ally but the first wave of some colonising force. She could smell it in the air all around her. It wasn't everybody, it wasn't the whole city – the guy in Twi's bookstore had been very obliging, and after he'd worked out where he'd recognised Rainbow from (the broadcast after the Breach) he had thanked her for her service; and she had heard some people arguing in defence of Atlas as they walked down the streets – but it was enough of them, and it had been worse in some places than others. As they'd been coming down the boulevard, where they had almost bumped into Tempest Shadow from Team TTGR, who had seemed to want to avoid them, but Rainbow didn't mind that because three out of four members of TTGR were annoying in their own ways and Tempest wasn't the odd one out, with her smug lone wolf pretensions and creepy smile…anyway, as Rainbow and her friends had been walking down this particular street, with kind of slightly classy-ish shops and this goth girl singing for spare change outside Vale Homestores…it was weird, and Rainbow didn't know exactly how to describe it…she'd started to get this headache that she just couldn't shake. It had followed her all the way back to Beacon with only the slightest signs of fading.

It got worse whenever she thought about the reason why Penny had to stay behind with SAPR on the campus. One of the reasons, anyway; part of it was that she liked spending time with them, but another reason was that with so much bad feeling being directed towards Penny right now it wasn't entirely safe for her to go wandering around the streets, even with her team. If she hadn't had good friends to occupy her time that would have been rough for Penny, and it was still rough for her, and the fact that Rainbow knew exactly who to blame and yet couldn't blame them wasn't doing anything to take the edge off the growing sense of temper she was feeling right now.

 _Sunset Shimmer._ With every day that passed back in Vale, with every day spent witnessing what seemed to be growing hostility towards Atlas, Rainbow was more and more regretting that she had agreed to keep Sunset's secret in the first place. Of course it was her secret too, and always had been – once it came out that she had seen Sunset do what she'd done, the obvious next question was 'why didn't you stop her' to which Rainbow had no answer – but she should have been more willing to take the lumps and she would have done if she'd known what keeping one little secret was going to unleash.

She was considering telling now. Telling General Ironwood, telling Cadance, telling…anybody who would listen. But would it do any good by now? Would it get Penny off the hook? Would it get the graffiti off the walls, would it stop the murmuring and the suspicious glances, would it do any good?

Maybe not, but it would be something she could do at least.

And yet…still she hesitated. In spite of everything go on, in spite of her headache, in spite of the fact that she felt bile rising in her throat just thinking about Sunset Shimmer in spite of all of that…she hesitated. It was like there was a little voice in her head telling her not to do it and she was being pulled in half by the two conflicting forces.

It was only rare moments, like flying or fighting, like the rescue op over that island where they finally put a stop to the guy who'd been kidnapping the faunus in Atlas, that gave her any kind of relief from this stupid indecision and she treasured those moments, and felt it all the more when those moments passed.

"Rainbow Dash?" Twilight asked. "Are you okay?"

"Huh?" Rainbow said. "I…yeah, I'm fine, why wouldn't I be okay?"

Twilight was looking her as though it was obvious. "Because you don't seem at all okay?"

"You _are_ rather subdued at the moment," Ciel observed. "It's unusual."

Rainbow huffed irritably. "I'm fine, okay, just…let it go, there's nothing to talk about."

"Rainbow, you don't have to-" Twilight began.

"I said I'm fine!" Rainbow snapped. "Just drop it, will you? You sound like my mom sometimes." She hesitated, and her face dropped as her tone became apologetic. "Twi, I-"

Twilight's eyes were wide behind her glasses. "Now I know something's wrong."

"I just…" Rainbow hesitated. "This whole thing with the Breach is starting to get to me. All those dumbasses who think Penny's responsible are really getting on my last nerve."

"I know what you mean," Twilight said. "But there's nothing we can do about it right now."

 _You're wrong, Twi; there is something I could do. And maybe I should have done it already._

 _Or maybe not. Why is this so hard?_

"The virtue and courage of our forces will show through in the end," Ciel said. "So long as we continue to model valour and bear the honour of Atlas on our shoulders then we cannot but prevail against all these lying charlatans and their feeble falsehoods."

"So…if we act like the good guys, people will remember that we're the good guys?" Rainbow asked.

"In a crude sense, yes."

In spite of everything, Rainbow managed to smile just a little. "That…that would be awesome, if it happened. Hey, I didn't bring the mood down too much, did I? You guys had a good time, right?"

Twilight nodded eagerly. "I'd heard it was well stocked, but I still can't quite believe that an antique bookstore in the middle of downtown Vale had a copy of Clover's _A Treatise into Aura and the Soul_."

"That sounds like a riveting read," Rainbow said, because she couldn't help herself.

"It's only the very first serious philosophical meditation on the nature of aura and its relationship to the soul," Twilight insisted. "And incredibly influential, almost every work in a similar vein has followed in the direction Clover pointed. I've read the arguments summarised in other books but I've never been able to read the original before, they're so rare."

"It's the old?"

"Oh, this isn't an original original," Twilight explained quickly. "There are only four seventh-century originals still in existence, one each in one of the national museums of the four kingdoms. Not even Weiss would be able to afford one of those. No, this is a sixteenth-century copy, but still…" she laughed nervously. "I'll still have to explain to my father why I maxed out my credit card, but I'm sure he'll understand once I explain it to him."

Rainbow smiled a little. "Don't ever change, Twilight. What about you, Ciel?"

"I was able to find something a little less ruinous expensive in Twilight's bookshop," Ciel said, with a sideways glance at Twilight. "A copy of General Lagune's memoirs."

"Didn't he lose?" Rainbow asked. "Terribly?"

Ciel shrugged. "It depends on your perspective. If he had won the battle at Fort Castle then you wouldn't be here."

"Sure, but still, why would you want to read what a loser has to say?"

"Because sometimes we learn best by learning what not to do," Ciel explained. "And sometimes we learn by understanding why people make mistakes, even though those mistakes seem so obvious in hindsight." She pulled out her scroll. "I also saw some amazing dresses at the expo, take a look at this."

She thrust her scroll into Rainbow's face, showing her a picture of a dress. Rainbow was sure that it was a perfectly nice dress, and it did look kind of nice with that…okay, here was the reason why Rainbow couldn't really appreciate fashion beyond knowing what she liked and what she didn't: she couldn't tell what any of this frou-frou stuff was called. What was she supposed to say about all those frills? It made her feel stupid calling them the frilly bits.

"That's, uh, that's nice," Rainbow said.

"I know, isn't it?" Ciel said. "I could see myself getting married in a dress like that."

Rainbow's eyebrows rose.

"Something wrong?" Ciel asked.

"No," Rainbow said quickly. "I just…honestly, when I picture you getting married I see you wearing the dress whites."

"Don't be absurd," Ciel said. "The groom is going to wear the dress whites, with medals."

"Medals," Rainbow repeated. "You know what you want in a guy, don't you?"

"I know what I want in a husband," Ciel corrected her. "I could never marry a man who was not a gallant soldier of Atlas."

"Scarlet will be heartbroken," Rainbow said, with just a hint of sarcasm.

"We had fun, but…I don't think I'm really his type," Ciel replied.

She might have said more, or Rainbow might have had something else to say in reply, or Twilight might have had something to contribute to that part of the conversation, but as they walked in the direction of the dorm room they were interrupted by the sounds of a one-sided quarrel.

Ever since Cinder had been unmasked and had fled the school along with her confederates, Atlesian Knights had been placed as sentries at all the entrances and exists off the campus grounds as a front-line deterrent against uninvited intruders. They also patrolled the grounds at knight, looking for an unauthorised personnel. They weren't numerous enough to resist a full-scale assault, that was the job of the staff and the students, but they were mostly there to look intimidating enough that nobody tried to sneak in.

Of course they wouldn't have stopped Cinder since her credentials as a Haven student were perfectly legit – and what was that about? – but that was no reason not to have them around.

Except someone didn't seem to like them very much.

As the three organic members of RSPT approached the main courtyard, they could see someone trying to gain access but presently being held on the other side of the long pillared arch by a pair of knights demanding to see his identification.

"You don't need to see my identification, look, it's important that I see-"

"Identification, please," one of the knights asked in a deep, emotionless, metallic voice.

"I don't have anything on me right now, okay?" the man demanded. He was attracting a few stairs from students passing across the courtyard, but only the Rosepetals made any move to approach him. On hearing him brazenly admit that he had no ID, Rainbow began to saunter across the courtyard towards him, while Ciel and Twilight immediately began to follow her.

He was a middle-aged man, about General Ironwood's age but definitely a whole lot scruffier: he hadn't shaved and there was stubble colonising his cheeks and jaw, while his red cape was ragged and torn and his grey jacket and shirt looked like they'd been slept in repeatedly. As she approached, Rainbow could feel a heavy odour of strong drink coming off of him, he reeked of the stuff, and now that her attention had been drawn to the fact she could hear him slurring his words a little too.

"Listen," he said. "I don't have to time to stand here and be interrogated by a couple of walking tin cans. Call Oz, or call Jimmy! Yeah, that's right, get your boss down here and he'll set everything straight."

"Sir, you are not authorised to be here," the knight said. "You should remove yourself from this area immediately."

The drunk grinned cockily. "Oh, and who's going to make me, tin man? You?"

 _Is this guy serious?_ "Twi, call the lockers."

"What?"

"Call the lockers," Rainbow repeated. "Ciel-"

"Penny or backup?" Ciel asked.

"Penny first, then backup," Rainbow replied.

Meanwhile, the two knights had stepped back and aimed their guns at the rough-looking guy who had so brazenly threatened them. "Intruder, surrender your weapon and raise your hands."

"Oh, so now you want my Harbinger, huh?" he said. "Well you know what they say," He drew a heavy-bladed longsword from behind his back, which extended out in thudding metallic segments as he swung it in a wide arc to decapitate both the knights. "Come and take it!"

The other students who had been watching from a discrete – or not so discrete – distance gasped in shock; some of them inched backwards away from this man, others were more obvious about beating a retreat. Ciel drew the pistol that she always carried shoved into the waistline of her skirt and aimed it at him.

"Halt!" she demanded. "Lower your weapon and show me your hands!"

"Ugh," the intruder groaned. "Look, if this is about the damage, I can-" he stopped. He looked from Ciel to Rainbow and then back to Ciel as a mischievous gleam entered his red eyes. "Hey, I know you. You're Ironwood's kids."

"We're Atlesian-" Ciel began.

"Oh, sure you're from Atlas, I could tell that by the stick up your butt," the intruder said. "But I recognise you from the news reports after the attack on Vale. You're Ironwood's special kids, aren't you?"

 _This guy's well-informed. Is he working for Salem?_ "Buddy, I think you'd better come with us," Rainbow said.

"I'd like to, kid, I really would, but unfortunately I've got places that I need to be and-"

"That wasn't a request," Rainbow said flatly. "Now we can do this the easy way or we can do it the hard way, so what's it gonna be?"

The intruder ran one hand through his untidy black hair. "Sheesh. I guess it figures Ironwood would pick kids that were just like him: annoying."

Ciel scowled. "Do you have a problem with General Ironwood?"

"Oh, I got a few problems with good old General Jimmy," the intruder said. "Starting with the fact that he's a self-righteous pain in my ass with no gratitude and less sense, and those are just his good points."

Rainbow gritted her teeth as her hands clenched into fists. The General wasn't perfect, but he was a good man and a good commander, the kind of man who'd take a chance on a punk faunus and give her a chance to make something of herself. After she'd failed the written exam it had been General Ironwood's personal recommendation that had gotten her into Canterlot, and without that she would never have met her friends, or got into Atlas; and then he'd given her his trust time and time again, made her the leader of RSPT, brought her into his confidence…she owed him everything, and she certainly wasn't about to let some sleazy drunk with whisky on his breath stand there and insult him to his heart's content.

"I don't know who you are," she growled. "And frankly I don't care. You can either put down that sword and let us take you in."

"Or?"

"Or I can beat you down first," Rainbow said. She grinned. "I know which one I'd prefer."

Judging by the look on his face, the other guy knew which option he'd prefer as well. He assumed a low guard, holding his sword one-handed, while he gestured for her to come on with his free hand.

The lockers were descending into the courtyard now, but Rainbow didn't wait for them. That guy's face was irritating the hell out of her too much to wait, and this was just what she needed to banish her worries for a little while.

She sped forward, accelerating rapidly until she was leaving a rainbow trail behind her as she dashed across the courtyard towards the pillared arches that formed its boundary. She was going to duck beneath his guard – there was no way that he'd be able to react in time – and then she was going to give him the left to the gut followed by the right to the jaw as he doubled over. Then she'd kick him as necessary.

Her opponent didn't seem remotely concerned about any of this as Rainbow charged. "You're pretty fast, I'll give you that," he said. "But I've seen faster."

He waited until the last moment, until Rainbow had started to duck beneath his guard to get in under his sword and get at him, to move. But when he moved he moved with astonishing speech to swipe at Rainbow with the flat of the blade. Rainbow rolled to avoid it, and even so he managed to clip her on the shoulder and send her rolling further than she'd intended to, onto her back and across the grass into one of the flower beds.

Ciel's pistol cracked as she fired at him, shooting one handed as she ran, her skirt flying up and down around her legs, towards her waiting locker. In her other hand she held her scroll. "Penny, we need you down in the courtyard now!"

Twilight was trying to pull something out of her locker but Rainbow – aside from wishing she'd fall back instead – didn't pay much attention to it. She didn't have much attention to pay on anyone except their guy, who had been forced to stop for a moment to use his sword to deflect the bullets from Ciel's pistol. But deflect them he did, and if they so much as chipped at his aura Rainbow would be very surprised.

She leapt to her feet and charged at him again, not so recklessly but she had to do something to give Ciel time to get her rifle out of her locker and for Twi to do…whatever it was that Twi was doing. So she charged, with a roar to get the guy's attention and remind him that she still existed. She rushed forward, making him think that she was just going to try exactly the same trick again, only when he swung for her she was ready for it this time and leapt backwards, backflipping out of the path of his stroke and landing on her hands-

There was a roar and an explosion just in front of Rainbow's left hand that made her jerk it upwards and away from the sudden gunshot. She wobbled, her balance disturbed, and she looked up to see the intruder charging towards her, readying his sword for a crosswise slash across her back.

Rainbow sprang upwards one handed; it didn't carry her too high but it carried her high enough for the sword of her enemy to pass beneath her before she landed, still one handed, on the blade. She performed another backflip to right herself so that she was standing on top of the intruder's sword before she kicked him in the face.

He was turning away, so her kick only clipped him the way that his first attack had only winged her, but it was enough to turn him around, which unfortunately was enough to knock Rainbow off his sword and back down to the ground where he took another swing at her. Rainbow caught the blade between the palms of her hands, and she could feel her aura being worn away at there as the guy pushed against her and she pushed back to keep his sword exactly where it was.

Twilight charged. That was something Rainbow had never expected to see, and neither was what Twilight was wearing: she was encased in some kind of powered armour suit; it was lavender coloured and it kind of reminded Dash of the custom suit that Twi had made for her brother for his fight with Pyrrha in that charity bout. It was obviously powered because there was no way that Twilight would be moving that quickly otherwise, and yet it seemed to fit her so snugly that Rainbow wondered where the power was coming from. The armour, which concealed her face along with everything else, was glowing subtly from everywhere as Twilight approached their enemy from behind.

He rounded on her like a lion, his great sword swinging. Twi stopped, raising both her arms protectively in front of her as a lavender energy shield projected from her left arm to form a barrier before her, a barrier against which the sword struck harmlessly before being deflected off.

Rainbow tried to sucker punch him from behind, but he was wise to that too and turned in time to force Rainbow into retreat.

"Go," Twilight called. "Get your stuff from your locker."

"But-"

"I'll be okay, go on."

 _You couldn't have picked an easier fight to ask me to trust you?_ But Ciel had retrieved her weapon by now, and she was carrying Distant Thunder one handed and wearing a green translucent visor across her right eye. In her other hand she held the grey canister of a smoke grenade.

"Twi, retreat," Rainbow ordered as she started to sprint towards her waiting locker.

Their enemy let them go as Ciel called out. "Fire in the hole!" And threw the smoke grenade.

It landed not far away from the guy. He made no attempt to stop it, nor did he make a move as the grey smoke began to engulf the area all around him, enfolding him in an impenetrable haze.

 _Impenetrable to the eye, that is,_ Rainbow thought. The first thing she pulled out of her locker when she reached it were her goggles, slipping them over her head until the magenta lenses were over her eyes. With these, and the right settings, she could see through the smoke. Ciel's visor allowed her to do the same, and she'd be surprised if Twilight's armour didn't have a similar capability.

He was just standing there, as though he hadn't realised that Ciel would never have thrown that grenade if she had been blinding them as well as him.

"You got him?" she asked Ciel.

Ciel raised her rifle to her shoulder, and didn't bother to answer. She just fired.

Distant Thunder boomed out like its namesake.

The shot ripped through the smoke as it spend towards its target.

The intruder swung his sword and effortless batted the shot aside. It blew a hole in the nearest pillar instead.

Rainbow's eyes widened. Who was this guy?

Someone who, judging by the look on his face, knew all too well how great he was.

Ciel worked the lever on her rifle, but instead of ejecting the cartridge from the breach it stuck halfway, with the round wedge half in and half out.

"It jammed," Ciel muttered. "I just cleaned this yesterday!"

Rainbow knew that she didn't have time to put her wings on, especially not with Ciel trying to unjam Distant Thunder; she grabbed the shotgun out of her locker and slung it across her back, before pulling out her twin machine pistols and gripping them tightly as she aimed them towards their enemy, still waiting in the smoke.

"Twi," Rainbow said. "When the moment's right, I'm going to need you to stick his sword for me."

Twilight nodded. "But how will I know when the moment is right?"

"You'll know," Rainbow said.

The guy charged out of the smoke, his sword drawn back as he dashed out of cover and straight towards them. Ciel was still trying to get the spent cartridge out of the breach. Rainbow charged to meet him with a yell, firing her machine pistols at him as she ran. He blocked the bullets with his sword, using the blade like a shield as they ricocheted off the metal, but it stopped his momentum as he had to halt, out of cover and exposed, just to escape being shot up by Dash.

Rainbow stopped firing as she closed the range. He looked at her. He slashed. Rainbow leapt high, her leap carrying her up over the blade and over his head as she twisted nimbly in mid-air, firing as she fell, shooting at his exposed back – he turned around but she had to have gotten him a couple of times – and emptying her magazines as she landed on her feet. She threw her machine pistols away and pulled out her shotgun.

The intruder rounded on her, but as he made to strike his sword seemed to stick in the air, held as though it were suddenly suspended in treacle.

 _Perfect timing, Twilight,_ Rainbow thought as she darted forward, aiming her shotgun right for his chest.

"WAIT! STOP!"

Rainbow staggered to a stop as, in a burst of rose petals, Ruby threw herself between Rainbow Dash and the intruder. Unfortunately, by bad luck in staggering to a stop she tripped over her own feet and went sprawling on the ground.

"Ugh," she groaned. As she leapt to her feet she could see Penny and the other members of SAPR standing not too far away with various degrees of confusion on their faces. The confusion was mirrored by Ciel, and by Twilight as the face-concealing part of her helmet retracted. Rainbow was feeling pretty confused herself. "Ruby, what are you-"

"What were you doing about to shoot Uncle Qrow?" Ruby asked.

"He started it!" Rainbow said reflexively. "Wait, did you just say 'Uncle'."

"You know this reprobate miscreant?" Ciel said.

Ruby looked past Rainbow at the destroyed Atlesian Knights not far away. She turned around to look up the intruder. "Uncle Qrow."

The man – Uncle Qrow, apparently – grinned. "Hey, kiddo."

Ruby put her hands on her hips. "Don't 'hey kiddo' me; did you just start attacking my friends?"

Between the way Qrow looked, and the way Ruby looked, it was hard to tell which of them was the kid and which was the adult. "I wouldn't exactly call it attacking, I mean if I'd been taking this seriously-"

"Here we go," Rainbow said in an intentionally audible mutter. "I was holding back, so-" The sight of General Ironwood making his way across the grounds towards them, accompanied by Professors Ozpin and Goodwitch, made her straighten up to attention. She whistled. "Officer on deck, ten-hut!"

Ciel – who had just that second got the cartridge out of the breach, where it hit the ground with a thud – slammed her foot onto the courtyard stone as she came to attention also. Penny and Twilight did likewise with a little less precision.

General Ironwood strode past Qrow as though he wasn't there, all his attention was focussed on Rainbow Dash. "What's going on here, Dash?"

"We thought we encountered a dangerous intruder trying to enter the campus, sir," Rainbow said. "Turned out to be a false alarm, sorry sir."

General Ironwood looked over Rainbow's head, and Rainbow was sure he was looking at the destroyed knights. "False alarm? I'm not sure that I'd agree with that assessment, although dangerous intruder sounds about right."

"Actually," Qrow said. "They attacked-"

"Not another word," General Ironwood growled, rounding on him so quickly that Ruby had to scuttle out of their way as the general got up in Qrow's face. "Whatever excuse or hilarious explanation you have I don't want to hear it." He glowered. "What are you doing here?"

Qrow pointed to his firmly shut mouth, and shrugged.

"What? What do you-" General Ironwood groaned. "Not another word?"

Qrow nodded.

"You are such an insufferable smart-ass, I ought to-"

"Perhaps," Professor Ozpin suggested. "This conversation would be better continued in private?" He cast a glance around the courtyard, at the many students who had watched the fight and were still watching now.

General Ironwood seemed to only now notice the eyes of Beacon upon them. He stepped back, straightening out his tie with one hand as he did so. "Team Rosepetal, come with me. We'll finish this elsewhere."

Professor Ozpin nodded. "Miss Nikos, Miss Shimmer, rest assured I don't anticipate this delaying our appointment later today. For now, however, if you could return to whatever it was you were doing. There is no need for concern," he said, raising his voice so that the whole courtyard could hear him. "While the vigilance of our Atlesian friends is to be commended, this was nothing more than a simple misunderstanding which will be resolved imminently."

"That's enough, there's no need to gawk, everyone," Professor Goodwitch added. "There's nothing to see hear."

As Team RSPT formed up in column of two, following in General Ironwood's wake as he marched towards the tower, Professor Goodwitch was already repairing the damaged pillar. Ruby was saying something else to her uncle – that was her uncle? Seriously? – but the Atlesians were already too far away to overhear.

* * *

General Ironwood took them up to Professor Ozpin's office, where they waited without Professor Ozpin, or Professor Goodwitch or Ruby's uncle for that matter. The general strode to Ozpin's desk, and then turned to put his back to it as Team RSPT formed a line abreast in front of him.

Rainbow Dash could never quite get over how empty this office was. It was so big but there was absolutely nothing in it except a desk and a tea set. When you thought about how much stuff General Ironwood had in his office – even his temporary office aboard the _Valiant_ – it was weird how empty this place was. It was like Professor Ozpin didn't really have a life outside of his work; seriously, couldn't he have found a photo of his old team-mates to stick on his desk or something if nothing else?

"So," General Ironwood said. "What happened?"

"Target was attempting to gain entry into the grounds of Beacon," Ciel said. "When challenged for his ID by the knights, he refused; when they attempted to detain him he destroyed them; we challenged him to surrender, he refused; we engaged and called for backup. Engagement lasted until interrupted by Miss Rose; you arrived shortly after, sir."

General Ironwood nodded. "Anything to add, Dash?"

"Only that I'm sorry we couldn't beat him before you showed up, sir."

General Ironwood chuckled. "That would have been a welcome gift, but don't take it too hard. For all his flaws – and Gods know – he's probably the best there is at what he does."

"It doesn't seem right that the drink doesn't slow him down," Rainbow said.

"In a few more years, maybe?" Twilight suggested.

"I've been telling myself that it'll catch up to him in a few more years practically since we met," General Ironwood said. "So far it hasn't caught up to him yet."

"You do know him then, sir?" Ciel asked.

"Unfortunately."

"He had…some rather uncomplimentary things to say about you, sir."

"That doesn't surprise me in the least," General Ironwood replied.

"If he's Ruby's uncle," Penny said. "Why would he want to act that way?"

Twilight glanced at her. "Are you surprised that Ruby's uncle could be so unlike Ruby herself or are you asking why he couldn't just show his ID to the knights and get onto campus?"

Penny silently considered for a moment. "Both."

"Because just because one person is really nice doesn't mean that all their relatives are," Rainbow said. "Just because Ruby's really nice doesn't mean that her uncle can't be the kind of jackass who likes causing trouble and that's why he didn't show his ID. He wanted to start a fight."

"It is possible he didn't have ID," General Ironwood said, sounding as though the admission was being pulled out of him under duress. "Qrow is a covert operative under Ozpin's command, he sometimes needs to travel incognito without anything that would identify him to the enemy."

Rainbow's eyebrows rose. "You're saying he's…one of us? The guy who smells like a bar?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Huh," Rainbow said. "Suddenly this doesn't seem like such an honour any more."

"Believe me, there is nothing I would like better than to give these assignments to trustworthy Atlesian specialists, but Ozpin trust Qrow," General Ironwood said.

"With all due respect, sir, he hasn't impressed us as being worthy of trust," Ciel said.

"And yet Ozpin trusts him."

"Do you trust him, sir?" asked Ciel.

General Ironwood looked at her for a moment. "Whether I trust him or not is irrelevant. Inside this circle he and I are equals, only Ozpin stands higher."

"Have…have we caused you trouble, General?" Twilight asked tremulously.

General Ironwood smiled fondly. "This isn't your fault, Twilight. Don't worry about it." He paused. "I don't think I've seen that armour before."

"I made it over summer vacation," Twilight said. "My brother's been teaching me close combat, but I made this armour to compensate for my lack of…ability. I was tired of having to run away while my friends fought."

General Ironwood nodded. "I understand, but be careful. Against a truly superior opponent, all the equipment in the world can't make up for a difference in ability."

"I understand, General."

"And so do I, sir," Rainbow said.

The elevator doors opened, and Ozpin, Goodwitch and Qrow emerged. Team RSPT shuffled to the right hand side of the room – keeping their formation intact, but reducing the space between them – as the three of them walked in. Professor Ozpin walked silently behind his desk and sat down, while Professor Goodwitch hovered by his side. Qrow looked sardonically at RSPT.

"So, you're friends with Ruby, huh?" he said, taking a hip flask out of his pocket and unscrewing the cap. "I'd hoped she'd do better."

"Do better?" Penny asked.

"Don't listen to this guy, Penny, he doesn't know what he's talking about," Rainbow said.

"Were you intentionally trying to start a fight or did you really think that this was the best way of getting in here?" General Ironwood demanded.

Qrow shrugged. "When I saw three of your protégés I figured I might test them out, see what they were made of."

"And?" Rainbow couldn't stop herself from asking.

Qrow grinned. "Room for improvement."

"You've been out of contact for weeks, and now you decide to waltz back in here and attack my people-"

"I'm not one of your special operatives, Jimmy-"

"That much is obvious from your lack of discipline," Ciel said. "And it's General to the likes of you."

Qrow looked at her with irritation. "Okay, _General_ , can you send the kids home now, we need to have a grown up conversation."

Professor Ozpin sighed. "Qrow…they've been fully briefed."

Rainbow took a certain amount of glee from the look on Qrow's face in that moment as he comprehended what Ozpin had just told him. "You…you told them? How much?"

"They're aware of practically everything, at this point," Ozpin murmured.

Qrow scowled. "What the hell is this, Jimmy? You got tired of following Ozpin so you decided to set up your own organisation on the side where you could be king?"

"Qrow," Ozpin said, before either Rainbow or an incensed-looking Ciel could demand to know just who this guy thought he was or where he got off talking to the general like that. "This was ultimately my decision. Events made it necessary to bring Teams Rosepetal…and Sapphire into the fold."

Qrow made a choking noise. "Ruby?" he demanded. "You brought Ruby into this? Dammit, Oz, we talked about this!"

"As I recall you did most of the talking," Ozpin observed mildly.

"I'm serious, Oz," Qrow growled, pushing Ironwood aside as he leaned on Ozpin's desk and glared at the headmaster. "You got Ruby involved in this, she's a kid. She's Summer's kid."

"She has more courage and capacity that most people many years older," Professor Goodwitch said. "I understand your concerns, Qrow-"

"No, you don't, she's not your family," Qrow said.

"But she's eager to do what she can to help," Goodwitch continued, as though he hadn't spoken.

"Of course she is," Qrow muttered. "That's why I wanted to keep her away from all this." He took a long swig from his flask. "You should have called me."

"Events-"

"You should have called," Qrow repeated. "Communication is a two-way street. You say that I've been out of contact? Oz, if you have a problem you call me. You don't go to my niece and her friends, you don't ask Jimmy to find you some stuffed shirts, you call me, because I'm your guy and I do this…I do this so I can protect them from all of this. Does Yang know?"

"I didn't inform her, but Miss Rose did," Ozpin said.

"Gods," Qrow muttered. "How much have I missed? How many people know about our secret society now? Does the dog know?"

"He does seem a very intelligent creature," Ozpin observed with a hint of a smile.

Qrow didn't seem to see the funny side as he let out a weary sigh. "Anything else that I missed?"

"We know the identity of the person who attacked Autumn," General Ironwood said. "Her name is Cinder Fall, and she attempted to infiltrate this school before being exposed and forced to flee. Unfortunately, despite subsequent run-ins with her and her associates, we've been unable to apprehend or neutralise her."

 _Autumn. Was that the last Fall Maiden?_

Qrow stared at him. "Well, I feel like I've just wasted my time," he said, before taking another drink from his flask. "But let me ask you something, James: what the hell are you doing here?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you didn't need thirteen cruisers just to visit the Vytal Festival, so what's going on? Have you forgotten that we're supposed to be discrete?"

"Discretion isn't going to protect Vale, or the world," Ironwood replied. He put his scroll on the desk, bringing up a hologram of the Atlesian fleet deployed in the skies over Vale and Beacon. "The White Fang were growing bolder, Salem is growing bolder. She was coming for us and I had to act."

"Oh, you acted alright," Qrow said. "You played right into her hands, and now we've got Mistralians coming to join the party too. Bang up job, you sure showed us!"

"General, with your permission?" Ciel asked. At a nod from General Ironwood, she continued. "It wasn't discretion that saved Vale from being overrun by grimm when the city's defences were breached. When people around the world look up and see the might of Atlas overhead they can sleep better at nights knowing that they are protected, and our enemies will tremble at the power that we can bring to bear against them whenever and wherever we choose."

Qrow chuckled darkly. "Do you really believe that or did you read that off a pamphlet? You think they're scared of your ships or your toys?"

"Maybe they ought to be," Rainbow said.

Qrow's smile was deeply, irritatingly sardonic. "You kids have no idea what's waiting for you out there. I've been there, I've seen the things she's made, you – and this includes you, James – you have no idea of what's got, or what's coming."

"Maybe not," Rainbow said. "But I know enough. Penny!"

"Yes!"

"Are you ready to fight?"

"Combat ready to save the world," Penny declared.

"Would you ever abandon your team?"

"Never!"

"Not even if the odds against us were grim?"

"You don't seem to understand what the word 'never' means. Do you need me to define it for you?"

Rainbow grinned. "No thanks, Penny. And do you think we're going to win?"

"I know we will."

"Why?"

"Because…because winning is the reason I exist," Penny declared. "Because we've trained to win. And because we're together, and so long as we're together there's nothing that we can't do."

"No matter the odds?"

"No matter the odds."

"Come the three corners of the world in arms and we will shock them," Ciel said.

"Here's what I know," Rainbow said. "I know that we've got a whole lot more than just ships and androids and superior firepower. I know that we've got guts to spare and loyalty to burn. I know we're going to stand shoulder to shoulder no matter what gets thrown our way. I know that I've got the best team in Atlas watching my back and I know that every other guy lucky enough to be made team leader would tell you the same. And you can scoff all you want but I know that I've got friends who do sleep soundly knowing that I'm watching over them and so I know that I can't afford to lose. So if they want to go a few rounds with us then they can bring it."

Qrow stared down at her for a moment. "I gotta say, I didn't think anyone that you hand-picked would have that much spunk. Maybe you do have a heart after all."

"Unfortunately, we cannot rely on youthful confidence to be our salvation," Ozpin murmured. "I am forced to conclude that we must find our guardian, and more quickly than I had hoped."

 _Guardian?_

The elevator doors opened, and Pyrrha and Sunset walked in.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Pyrrha said. "We didn't mean to interrupt."

"Not at all, Miss Nikos," Professor Ozpin said. "I'd say you're just in time."


	140. The Girl in the Glass Coffin

The Girl in the Glass Coffin

Sunset's ears twitched as she scratched the back of her head. "So…Ruby's uncle, huh?"

"So it would seem," Pyrrha said softly, as she looked down at her hands. The elevator carried them upwards, rumbling its way towards Ozpin's office at the very top of the tower.

"He seems…" Sunset trailed off.

"Ruby seems quite fond of him," Pyrrha said. "Although I can't say that his conduct has impressed me so far."

"Mmm," Sunset mumbled. She glanced at Pyrrha, and then looked away. "So…what is this about?"

Pyrrha looked at her. "You think I know?"

"You spoke to him after I left, and then he asked us to come up and see him again," Sunset pointed out. She shrugged. "I thought you might have some idea why."

Pyrrha frowned. "I…I asked him…we talked about Cinder."

Sunset took a deep breath. "I see."

"She concerns me," Pyrrha insisted. "Surely you can understand why."

Sunset didn't look at her, and her voice was soft and laced with truculence. "Yeah, I can see why."

"I asked Professor Ozpin if there was anything that I could do to…to become stronger," Pyrrha confessed. "And he told me to come and see him again tomorrow. Today."

"I see," Sunset murmured. "Or…well…no, I don't, actually."

"That makes two of us," Pyrrha said.

"A weapon?" Sunset said. "It could be a weapon of some kind that he's going to entrust you with, or perhaps…could an Equestrian artefact of gotten through the mirror and found its way into his possession? But I can't think of any that would strengthen you."

"Why don't we just wait and see what we find when we get there?" Pyrrha suggested.

Sunset sniffed. "I suppose there's not much help for that, as much as I'd like to be able to work it out ahead of time."

Silence fell between, broken only by the sound of the elevator.

"I…I know that you want to see the good in Cinder," Pyrrha said. "But all I can see is the danger that she poses to my friends and to the world. And I know that we're a lot stronger together than we are apart but she's so strong…and if anything happened to Jaune or Ruby then I-"

"You wouldn't have to," Sunset muttered. "I'd do it to myself."

Pyrrha looked at her. "That's not what I-"

"Wasn't it?" Sunset asked. "You mean you wouldn't hold me responsible?"

"I…"

"Don't worry," Sunset said. "I'd hold me responsible too."

They didn't say anything else to one another on the ride up and perhaps, in the circumstances, that was for the best.

The elevator came to a stop, and the doors opened to reveal that the room was already rather crowded, between Professor Ozpin, Professor Goodwitch, General Ironwood, Ruby's uncle Qrow, and all four members of Team RSPT.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Pyrrha said, as she and Sunset stepped out of the lift. "We didn't mean to interrupt."

"Not at all, Miss Nikos," Professor Ozpin said genially, rising from his seat. "You're just in time."

"Soleil," General Ironwood said. "Take Penny back to her room. Dash, Twilight, I need you to stay a little longer."

"Of course, sir," Ciel said. "Come on, Penny."

"Hi Sunset," Penny said. "Hi Pyrrha."

"Hey," Sunset said guitily.

Pyrrha, on the other hand, smiled. "Hello, Penny."

"Are we still going to be okay for later?"

"I think so," Pyrrha said. "I'll let you know if anything changes."

"Okay, I'll see you then. Goodbye."

"Goodbye, Penny," Pyrrha said, as the elevator closed on Penny and Ciel.

"Later?" Sunset murmured.

"I asked Penny to become my sparring partner," Pyrrha said. "Hopefully we can make a regular thing of it."

"Since when?"

"Since now, I suppose." _Since I became reminded that I needed a challenge._ She loved her sessions with Jaune, but she didn't mean it as an insult to him to say that he wasn't really pushing her to the limits of what she was capable of. She hoped that Penny might be a more testing opponent for her, while Pyrrha's experience meant that she should still be able to make it worth Penny's while as well. Penny herself had been eager to agree to the idea, even before Pyrrha had finished explaining herself.

 _I hope that I'm not taking advantage of her._

 _No. We all need to become stronger, even the product of Atlesian research and development._

Sunset and Pyrrha stood on the other side of the room from the remaining members of Team RSPT, all of them looking forwards towards Professor Ozpin who sat, somewhat stiffly, back down in his ornate chair.

They were all waiting upon him, and obviously so, and yet he seemed somewhat reluctant to begin proceedings.

"So," Qrow said. "You're Ruby's team mates, huh?"

"That's right," Pyrrha said.

"Hmm. I hope you don't mind me saying but I wish it wasn't the case."

"Why? You think we're not good enough for her?" Sunset demanded.

Qrow smirked. "Keep your tail on, kid. I just meant…this isn't exactly what I had in mind for Ruby's school days."

"From what I understand this is pretty much what you're school days were like," Sunset replied.

"Yeah, why do you think I didn't want it for Ruby?" Qrow asked. "It's nothing personal, it's just…she's a kid, you know, and family."

"With all due respect, sir," Pyrrha said tentatively. "Ruby may be young but she's not a child. She's a huntress and I'm honoured to fight alongside her. And I can't imagine not being her team-mate, or her friend."

There was a hint of pity in the way Qrow looked at her. "How much do you know about…about Ruby's mom and our team?"

"Enough," Sunset said. "We know about Raven if that's what you're asking."

Qrow scowled involuntarily at the name. "If that's the case, then you ought to know that all that friends forever teamwork stuff…it doesn't last. You can say you'll stick together even after graduation, you can swear eternal comradeship…it all falls apart in the end."

"Not for all," Sunset said. "Not for us."

"I'd like to believe that," Qrow said. "But I can't."

"That's enough, Qrow," Professor Ozpin said. "Miss Nikos, Miss Shimmer, I expect you must be wondering why I called you here."

"Or why I asked you to stay," General Ironwood said.

"Yes, general," Twilight murmured.

"I imagined it was something to do with our conversation last night, Professor," Pyrrha said.

"Indeed," Professor Ozpin said wearily. "It is time – some might even say past time – that I explained to you the missing piece of the puzzle that I showed you when the four of you were last here together to receive…to receive enlightenment at my hands. That missing piece of course being the Maidens. The fact is, when Miss Fall named herself the Fall Maiden to you during your excursion in pursuit of Doctor Merlot she lied, at least in part. Cinder Fall is not the true Fall Maiden." He rose to his feet. "Pyrrha Nikos, we would like for you to be the next Fall Maiden."

Pyrrha's eyes widened. She found herself taking a step backward. She found that she was barely aware of anything or anyone else in the room besides herself and Professor Ozpin, whose words echoed through her mind.

 _The next Fall Maiden._ That was…it was a great honour that she was being offered, there could be no doubting that. The Maidens of old, before they had been hidden away for their own good and for the good of the world, had been not only great warriors but prophets, teachers, leaders, figures of reverence and she…Professor Ozpin had found her worthy to join their number? It was a great honour and yet what would it mean for her life? For it was not a Maiden of old that she would be becoming, but a Maiden whom Professor Ozpin and his allies hid away to keep safe from harm, to protect them from the malice of Salem but also to protect the world from the Maidens and what they might do. What would that mean for her? Would she have to go into hiding? Would she be forced to leave Beacon, leave her friends, leave Jaune? How else was it to remain secret, what she had become? She could control the powers, she supposed; she was good at that, she had been doing it ever since she was a child, if there was anyone who could be discreet about their abilities that the world never suspected that she had them then that person was Pyrrha Nikos. But that was a very risky hope to hang a matter of such secrecy upon, wasn't it?

She wanted this. She had not known she wanted it until it was placed before her but now, like someone who doesn't know that they're hungry until they smell food being cooked in the next room Pyrrha wanted this. Ever since Professor Ozpin had pulled back the curtain and shone the light on what was really going on in the shadows of Remnant, ever since she had learned of the shadow war being raged between Ozpin's order and the forces of Salem Pyrrha had felt as though she was drowning, as though she had walked into what she thought was a wading pool but which had turned out to be a bottomless sea. She had thought herself so skilled and so powerful, but she had been a baby swimming in the shallow end while sharks like Cinder Fall lurked further in. Professor Ozpin was not just offering her great honour, he was offering her the ability to go toe to toe with the dark forces of Remnant that menaced humanity, with things that a mere huntress could never hope to prevail against, possibly not even with the support of a team. If he would let her use her powers then…then he was offering Pyrrha her destiny upon a plate.

 _If I ought to take it._ The fact that Pyrrha wanted this was no sign that she ought to take it. Some might argue that the reverse was true.

"Professor," she said softly, and she spoke delicately, choosing her words with care, because she didn't want Sunset to know what she had been contemplating with regards to Cinder. "I…I don't know if I'm worthy of this."

"You are strong, you are brave, you are kind," Professor Ozpin said. "You are loyal and true. Your heart is pure, for all that it has known temptation," he added quickly, before Pyrrha could protest. "As all hearts have. If you are not worthy then…no one is."

Qrow looked as though he might want to argue in favour of the latter case, but it was clear that no one in the room wished – or dared – to interrupt Ozpin in this moment. There was something sacral in the air that for the moment held them spellbound, a sense of a high priest dispensing a blessing to his acolyte.

Pyrrha felt very small, dwarfed by the majestic enormity of what was being asked of her: to take upon herself fully one quarter of the world's magic, to become the latest link in a chain stretching back over a thousand years, to become…to become a Maiden.

 _I don't know if I'm ready for this._

 _Does the world have time for me to be ready?_

"How…how?" she asked softly.

"And how is Cinder not the Fall Maiden?" Sunset asked, breaking the spell. "If she's actually one of the other Maidens then why lie about it? And if not that, then where does her power come from?"

Professor Ozpin rubbed the space between his eyebrows with one hand. "The answer to both your questions are intertwined." He stood up. "If you'll come with me, please."

"Rainbow Dash, Twilight, with me," General Ironwood said, as he ushered his student warriors into the left hand elevator, while Pyrrha and Sunset joined Professor Ozpin, Professor Goodwitch and Qrow in the lift on the right hand side.

Even as they were a little cramped within the car, Pyrrha was still able to see with surprise the way that Professor Ozpin pulled out a key from his waistcoat pocket, which he used to open one of the locked side panels on the elevator cab wall, which Pyrrha had assumed was used for maintenance of some kind. Instead, there was a button which he pressed.

"Where are we going?" Pyrrha asked.

"Down to the vault," Professor Ozpin said. "Under the school."

 _There's a vault under the school? What kind of vault? Why is it under the school? Why doesn't anybody know about it?_

That last question sounded absurd the more she thought about it – she was here in the company of the other members of secret society, was it any great surprise that they would have a secret location that they used for their own purposes? Except…had it been here ever since Beacon was built? Had the headmaster of the Academy always been a part of this secret order?

Neither Ozpin nor Goodwitch nor Qrow said anything else to her as the lift descended. Their silence made Pyrrha hesitant to ask them anything in turn, though she had questions; she trusted that they would be answered in good time.

At the same time, she could not describe their silence as a comfortable one. It was tense, brittle, as if there was something that needed to be said but which they were all quite carefully not saying…or did not wish to say. The fact that Professor Goodwitch was looking at her with pity, while Qrow had something almost predatory in his gaze didn't really help matters either. They didn't look as though they were about to bestow on Pyrrha some great honour; in fact the longer it went on the less Pyrrha was put in mind of a high priest dispensing a blessing, and more of him laying the sacrifice upon the altar and preparing the knife.

She felt Sunset's hand slip into hers, and squeeze it gently.

"I've got your back," Sunset said, with a faint smile on her face.

"Sunset," Pyrrha murmured.

"You know, it's funny," Sunset said. "There was a time when I would have given everything, absolutely everything, to be standing where you are now: to be told that I had been marked out for greatness, to be elevated above all others, chosen to receive great power and ascend to something higher than a mere mortal. I guess that's why nobody ever offers me anything like that, huh? They could see I wanted it too badly."

Pyrrha glanced at the adults accompanying them, but none of them seemed inclined to comment on what Sunset was saying. It was as if they were capable of tuning out anything that Sunset and Pyrrha might say to one another, as though it was nothing to do with them at all.

"And…now?" Pyrrha asked. _Now that I am standing where you are, do you hold it against me?_

"Like I said," Sunset said. "I've worked out why nobody ever offers me this kind of thing." She was smiling, but there was a touch of sadness about it too. "If I couldn't be a princess, if I couldn't be…if I couldn't be her student, then I thought…it was that or nothing, and so I ran away. I ran and ran chasing a destiny that I couldn't accept was already gone beyond recall. I ran so far that I found you. I'm not going to run any more. You're stuck with me, hero."

Pyrrha felt a well of gratitude towards her for saying that. "All the same…I can't help but feel that I'm stealing something from you."

Sunset shook her head. "This is your moment. Your ascension. You're about to become something more than most people could ever dream of. This hour is yours, not something for me to take away from you. I'll just have to be the best huntress I can be and hope that's enough to escape the shadow of your wings."

"My wings?"

"I'll explain later if you're still interested," Sunset said.

He mostly had his back to her, but it seemed as though Professor Ozpin was smiling as he listened to their exchange without interrupting it.

"So how does it feel?" Sunset continued. "Knowing that you're about to ascend."

"You keep saying that as though I'm about to transform."

"Sorry, it's an old habit from back home, it's the way I think about it," Sunset said. "But how does it feel?"

"It's…it's a little intimidating," Pyrrha confessed. "I just wish I understood what this would mean for me." She said that a little louder, in the hope that Professor Ozpin might give her an answer for it.

He didn't.

Pyrrha looked into Sunset's eyes, and tried to convey with her gaze her confusion about why everyone had suddenly turned so taciturn.

"It's going to be fine," Sunset said. "You can do this. And whatever happens next you'll still have us."

Pyrrha took a deep breath in and out, centring herself. "Thank you."

"Any time."

The elevator came to a stop, and the doors opened. Professor Ozpin, Professor Goodwitch and Qrow all got out, the latter pushing past the two students as he did so; Pyrrha and Sunset were left to wait in the cab, and then to try and catch up.

They emerged from out of the lift into what was presumably the vault beneath the school, and it must have been far beneath the school considering how high up the ceiling was; in fact the ceiling was so high that it receded into the darkness and could barely be seen. Sunset got out her scroll, and looking at it Pyrrha could see that there was no signal. They really were a very long way down.

General Ironwood had emerged from the other elevator cab and joined Ozpin, Goodwitch and Qrow; Rainbow and Twilight followed behind, but gravitated towards Pyrrha and Sunset rather than the adults.

"So…that was kind of an awkward trip down," Rainbow muttered.

"I know that he's a general," Twilight said. "But he isn't normally like that. It was…strange."

"Tell us about it," Sunset said. "They barely spoke on the way down."

Twilight looked up, her eyes scanning the vault. "This place is incredible," she said. "It must be one of the largest structures in the school, if not the largest.

She wasn't wrong; it was certainly a vast, expansive and impressive place. Perhaps it was just the fact that Pyrrha's mind had been pointed in that direction already, but there was a grave sepulchral feeling to this place: the ceiling was high and vaulted, while the vault itself took the form of a long transept lined with colonnades on either side. Sconces set onto the columns burned with green fire – or at least the appearance of the same – that cast the dark enclave in a soft emerald light.

"Students," Professor Ozpin called, turning back to face them. "Please, don't dawdle."

All of the other teachers and Qrow had stopped to wait for them, Qrow in particular looked rather impatient.

"I'm sorry, Professor," Pyrrha said, as she led the way and the others followed. That was something she might have to get used to, if she went through with this. People following her.

Professor Goodwitch gave her a sympathetic smile as she started to catch up. "I'm sure you have questions."

"You've heard two of them already," Pyrrha pointed out.

"Before that, there are things that you must understand," Professor Ozpin said, from the front of the group as he once more led the way down the long transept. "Miss Shimmer, in your research did you manage to ascertain exactly how the Maiden powers were passed from person to person."

"I worked out that you could get the powers by killing the previous Maiden," Sunset said.

"That is not actually entirely true," Professor Ozpin said. "The rules by which the mantle of the Maiden passes from one to another are actually quite straightforward: the person who is in the previous Maiden's last thoughts before she dies will inherit her mantle as the new Maiden of that season. Provided, of course, that they are eligible."

"Meaning no dudes allowed, and no old hags either," Qrow commented.

"Or another Maiden," Professor Goodwitch added. "Just as summer and winter cannot be at the same time and the same place neither can the mantles of two maidens exist in the same body."

"Not naturally, in any case," Professor Ozpin said darkly, but he refused to elaborate on exactly what he meant.

"It's not uncommon for the last thoughts of the slain to be of their attacker," General Ironwood said. "So killing a Maiden is an unfortunately reliable way of claiming their mantle, but it isn't foolproof."

"And if the last thoughts of the Maiden are of somebody ineligible?" Twilight asked.

"The power chooses," Professor Goodwitch said.

"So in the legends, when it says that God chose some girl from the back end of nowhere," Sunset said. "That was actually just chance?"

"It was better to come up with some explanation to stop people from working out the real rules too easily, don't you think?" Qrow said.

Rainbow raised her hand.

"You're not in class any more, Dash, you don't have to put your hand up."

"Right," Rainbow murmured. "I just…this is a question for Ciel, I guess…the Lady of the North-"

"Was one of the Winter Maidens," Professor Ozpin said. "A very wise and caring young woman…so the tales say."

"I don't know what to think," Rainbow said. "Do you think Ciel will be pleased to learn that she was real or disappointed to find out that she was just a girl who got lucky?"

"I don't see anything to be disappointed about," Professor Ozpin declared. "All the virtues that she embodied remain true, and all remain worth striving for."

"Maybe, but there's not much point in praying to her, is there?" Rainbow said.

Professor Ozpin didn't respond to that. Instead he said, "Even though they are now in hiding, the role of the Maidens remains crucial to the safety and wellbeing of Remnant and its kingdoms. Do you remember me telling you of the four relics left by the gods, which Salem is seeking?"

"Creation, Destruction, Knowledge, Choice," Twilight said.

"Exactly, Miss Sparkle. Each relic belongs to one of the four kingdoms: Choice for Vale, Knowledge for Mistral, Creation for Atlas and Destruction for Vacuo. Each relic is held in a specific location, a location that can only be opened by one of the four Maidens."

"Winter for Creation," Qrow said. "Spring for Knowledge, Summer for Destruction and Fall for Choice."

 _Fall for Choice. Choice for Vale. Fall for Vale._ Pyrrha stopped. "You mean…if I become the Fall Maiden…I won't ever be able to go home, will I?"

Professor Ozpin stopped too, and looked back at her with a solemn look. "The Maidens are needed not only to reach the relics, but also to protect them. Like defending humanity against the grimm, it is a watch that does not cease."

Pyrrha bowed her head. "I…I see." _That's it then. No more white towers gleaming as they are struck by the first rays of dawn, no more river cascading down the mountainside to water the fields all around, no more standing on one of the upper levels and looking out at all the fertile land stretching out in all directions, no more climbing up from circle to circle getting higher and higher every time. No more Mistral. No more home._

"That's rough," Rainbow muttered.

"Is it the location they're tied to or the relic?" Sunset asked.

"What's the difference?" Qrow said.

"I mean couldn't you swap the relics around so that Choice is in Mistral instead?"

"Sunset, it's alright," Pyrrha said softly.

"Is it?"

"Yes," Pyrrha lied. "After all, you left your home to pursue a higher calling; why shouldn't I do the same."

"I left my home because I was a spoiled brat who hadn't heard the word 'no' nearly often enough," Sunset muttered. "But whatever, I just…this isn't what I imagined."

It wasn't exactly what Pyrrha had imagined either, but there was nothing to be done about that and nothing for it. Destiny was calling to her, and if she refused the trumpets now then they might never sound again. "I'm sorry, Professor," she said, as she started walking again. "Please go on."

Professor Ozpin nodded gravely. "The situation that we are in now is…rather unique," he said. "In fact, I daresay it is completely unprecedented."

"I don't understand," Pyrrha said.

"The Fall Maiden was attacked, by an assailant who we now know to be Cinder Fall," Professor Ozpin said. "That is sadly far from unheard of, but what Miss Fall did is: she stole some of the Fall Maiden's power."

"Some?" Pyrrha said. "You mean that the magic we saw her carry out was just a part of what a Maiden is capable of."

"Does that worry you?" Professor Goodwitch asked. "Because it certainly worries all of us."

"Does that mean the Fall Maiden is still alive?" Sunset asked. "Cinder stole some of her power, but she didn't kill her."

"No," Professor Ozpin said. "The Fall Maiden lives…for now."

"If you can really call it living," Qrow muttered.

"What do you-" Pyrrha stopped with a gasp, because they had come to the end of the long transept now, and to the far wall that marked the end of the vault. There, beneath a rose window – or at least something that looked like a rose window, even though there was nothing to see beyond it – sat some kind of device, two metal and glass pods joined together by a mass of thick wires and cables, while monitors produced a plenitude of readouts.

Inside one of the pods, clearly visible through the large glass window that took up at least a third of the pod's front, was a girl. She was young, perhaps even younger than Pyrrha herself, with a dusky complexion and dark brown hair in a bob with a long fringe. Someone had undressed her, and put her in what looked like hospital underclothes, that exposed all but her most intimate parts to public view, so that just looking at her seemed almost indecent. Yet Pyrrha could not look away. She felt drawn to her, and not only because she was one of the only points of life and light in this dark place. She could not look away, nor could she stop. She walked slowly past Professor Ozpin and all the rest and towards this girl in the metal and glass pod. Her eyes were shut, and her face was criss-crossed by so many vicious scars.

"This…is this…?"

"Amber," Professor Ozpin said. "The Fall Maiden."

Pyrrha felt, rather than saw, Sunset, Rainbow and Twilight draw close behind her.

"Cinder did this to her?" Sunset said. She sounded as though she couldn't believe – or didn't want to believe – that Cinder would be capable of such a thing.

"It appears so," Professor Ozpin said. "The magic that she wielded could only have come from a single source."

"What did she do?" Twilight said, as she approached the monitors.

"We're not sure," Qrow admitted. "There wasn't time to…we don't know. But it's bad."

Pyrrha stared at her, at Amber, at the Fall Maiden they wanted her to… "Wait," Pyrrha said. "If the Fall Maiden is still alive then-"

"Because she's dying," General Ironwood said. "This is state of the art medical technology and it's only buying us time. Something we have even less of than Amber."

"None of us knows exactly what will happen to remainder of the Fall Maiden's power when Amber dies," Professor Goodwitch said. "But none of the options are good."

"The best case, she wasn't thinking of anyone eligible and the power goes to someone random we have to try and find before Cinder catches up to them," Qrow said. "But the last thing Amber saw was Cinder sucking the power out of her, so how likely do you think it is that her attacker isn't the last thing on her mind?"

"That is, if the power doesn't simply seek to reunite itself in a single vessel as intended," Professor Ozpin said. "Which brings us back to Cinder once again."

"Two out of three chances this power ends up in the hands of a psycho," Qrow said. "Not good. In fact it's exactly the reason why the Maidens are kept secret in the first place."

"If they're so secret then how did Cinder find her?" Sunset said.

"Amber was…is…young and inexperienced," Professor Ozpin said. "Mistakes were made, and a great price was paid for them."

Twilight raised one hand to the console in the centre of the device. She paused. "General, may I?"

General Ironwood nodded. "Go ahead."

Twilight tapped on the controls. She gasped. "Gods."

"What is it, Twi?" Rainbow asked.

"Amber's aura has been ripped in half," Twilight said. "It's…it's unravelling from the bottom up, like a frayed tapestry."

"Could Jaune do something?" Pyrrha asked. "His semblance-"

"Might strengthen what remains of Amber's aura, and perhaps buy her a little more time," Professor Ozpin conceded. "But Mister Arc's semblance does not have the power to undo the damage that has been done to Amber's aura, and so it will continue to degrade no matter much it is enhanced by artificial means."

"I see," Pyrrha whispered, as she looked once more into Amber's stricken face. "But I still don't see. If everything that you'd told me is true then how am I supposed to become your Fall Maiden?"

Neither Professor Ozpin, Professor Goodwitch, nor Qrow spoke. They all looked expectantly at General Ironwood, expecting him to speak. He did not speak either, at least not for a few moments. "In the last few years, Atlas has become to research aura from a more scientific standpoint-"

"No," Twilight whispered. She took a step back, looking as if with fresh eyes at the two pods, one full and one currently empty, and all the wires and cables that connected them. "No. General, please tell me that this isn't the Watts Engine."

General Ironwood's jaw clenched. "I don't often say this, Twilight, but sometimes you're a little too smart."

"What?" Sunset said. "What does that mean?"

"I don't know but it doesn't sound good," Rainbow said.

"This machine is supposed to be locked away somewhere," Twilight said.

"It is, in one of the most secret locations in all of Remnant," Qrow pointed out.

"That's not…this research is prohibited by Council edict!" Twilight cried.

"We're already committing acts of treason from a certain point of view, so what's another Atlesian council edict, am I right?" Qrow said.

"Qrow," General Ironwood said sternly. "You're not helping." He took a step forward. "Twilight, I understand what you must think-"

"Do you?" Twilight said. "Because I'm thinking that the general I thought I knew would never do something like this. This machine is the creation of a madman, it's illegal, it's unethical, it's evil."

"Can everyone just stop for a minute and explain what's going on?" Sunset demanded. "Twilight, what are they talking about? What does this thing do and why are you so afraid of it?"

"The Watts Engine is the creation of the disgraced Atlesian scientist Doctor Arthur Watts," Twilight said. She sounded stilted, as if she was reciting details out of a text book; she sounded as though she was clinging to facts and figures to avoid confronting the horror that she could perceive in this situation even if no one else could. "It's purpose is to…extract the aura from one body…and insert it into another."

Rainbow Dash turned pale. She looked at General Ironwood as if willing him to deny it. "Is that true, sir?"

General Ironwood nodded. "It isn't pretty, but it's the truth."

"Celestia and the sunlight!" Sunset yelled. "You…you…" she looked at Ozpin and his cohorts, her mouth moving silently. "You can't do this! You can't just rip a soul out of its body and cram it into a new one! It's wrong, it's immoral, it's…sacrilege. What happens to the person at the other end? What's going to happen to Pyrrha?"

"We don't know," General Ironwood said.

"In the initial testing – before he was caught and his research outlawed," Twilight said. "Doctor Watts was transferring the auras of condemned criminals into coma patients. In every case the transferred aura overrode that of the recipient."

Sunset's eyes were wild like that of an animal, and her right hand was starting to glow with magic. "Sweet Celestia…you mean-"

"We don't know what will happen," General Ironwood said. "Twilight, you also know that Doctor Watts wasn't certain what would happen when the recipient was conscious."

Twilight hesitated. "No," she admitted. "That's true."

"Believe me, this is not a choice that I would make if I had any other choice," Professor Ozpin said. "As you've heard Miss Nikos, we don't know what will happen to you. It may be that nothing will. But it is likely that there will be some effects from the joining of your life with that of Amber. You may be…changed, in some way. You may…you may no longer be yourself at all."

Pyrrha understand exactly what he meant. _If I get into this machine then Pyrrha may die, and Amber may walk away in my body._ The thought made her shudder. She glanced at Amber and saw her own face reflected back at her in the glass, superimposed on Amber's own; she flinched away from it, clutching herself for comfort.

"You can't do this," Sunset growled. "You can't do this, I won't let you!"

"It's not your choice," Qrow said.

"Maybe I'm making it my choice!" Sunset yelled. "Sometimes you get involved in things that aren't your business because it's the right thing, or to stop the wrong thing. This is immoral and I won't allow it."

"Miss Shimmer-" Professor Ozpin began.

"I was starting to trust you," Sunset snarled, which made Professor Ozpin flinch away as though he was physically hurt by her words.

"I…I won't let you either," Twilight said. There were tears beginning to form in her eyes. "I-I'll tell Cadance, I-"

"Twilight, Sunset," Pyrrha said, her gentle voice rising above the tumult. "It's really very sweet of you, but I don't need you both to defend me like this."

"The fact that you say that makes me think you do," Sunset muttered.

Pyrrha cast one last look at dying Amber, and gently raised her hand to place it on the glass, and stroke it as if she could touch the face of the slumbering girl. She had a lovely face, for all her scars.

Either Amber would die, or she would it seemed; or else they would both die as the world knew or had known them and what emerged would be some hybrid of the two, neither Pyrrha nor Amber but an amalgam of their natures fused together.

"This is your choice, Miss Nikos," Professor Ozpin said. "No one can force you to do this. And no one will. You know what is at stake, and what is at risk, and you must decide what you will do next."

"And if she says no?" Sunset said. "What will you do then?"

"Then the power will fall into the hands of Cinder," Pyrrha murmured. She thought of how afraid she had been of the magic that Cinder already possessed; how much capacity she already had to hurt people and wreak destruction on the world. She couldn't let any more power accumulate in Cinder's hands. She would risk everything rather than allow that.

"Not necessarily," Professor Ozpin said. "If you do not wish to take this step, then there I will have to find someone else."

"Is that why you brought Rainbow down here?" Twilight cried. "Is she your backup in case Pyrrha says no?"

"I have long thought that you would be a worthy guardian," General Ironwood admitted.

Rainbow bit her lip. "I…I don't know if I should feel honoured or not, sir."

"You're one of the best soldiers I know, Dash," Ironwood said. "You're certainly the bravest, and the most loyal. Perhaps you're not what a lot of people might think of as a typical Maiden, but no two seasons are alike. Some are gentle, but some are fierce and terrible; this season demands a warrior, someone who can defend the Maiden powers, and reunite them too."

Rainbow looked away from General Ironwood. "And if I say no as well then who's next on the list, sir? Is it Ciel?"

"I…have considered her," General Ironwood admitted.

"But I have someone else in mind," Professor Ozpin said.

"Ruby," Pyrrha murmured. "You're talking about Ruby, aren't you?" There would be no need for a fourth choice. With Ruby in Professor Ozpin's mind there would be no need to consider the merits of Ciel Soleil because Ruby, sweet, brave Ruby, wouldn't hesitate even for a moment. She would climb into this infernal device without a second's hesitation and never even give a thought to the consequences because it was…because it was the right thing to do.

 _Which means that I don't really have much choice, do I?_ As much as her dream of destiny had become something of a nightmare, that didn't give her the right to walk away when the right thing to do was to face it regardless, especially when the consequence was that this cup would pass to Ruby's lips. She couldn't let that happen. She couldn't let Ruby's pure soul become swallowed or transformed.

 _I know that I promised I wouldn't treat you like a child, Ruby, but I didn't say I'd give up all my obligation to protect you._

Sunset growled. "You sons of-"

"I'll do it," Pyrrha said, though her voice trembled even as she tried to make it ring out across the vault. "I'll become your Fall Maiden, or…or try to, at least."

"Pyrrha," Sunset said. She looked at her, eyes almost pleading. "Don't do this. You heard what they said; you heard what this could do to you and you heard them say that they can't make you do this."

"But someone must," Pyrrha said. "Or else Cinder really will be too powerful, and then what? This…this must be done, and since it must be done then…then better done by me than by…someone else." She looked Professor Ozpin square in the face. "I'll do it."

Professor Ozpin did not meet her eyes. Perhaps he could bring himself to do so. "I am in awe of your courage, Miss Nikos, but there is no need to act quite so rashly. Although time is short, there is enough for you to take some time to think on this matter carefully. Take that time, take a few days, until the end of the week. Then, I'm afraid, I will need your answer."


	141. Not Even For the World

Not Even For the World

"You can't do this!" Sunset snapped, in a voice that was taut and whiplike.

"I have no choice," Pyrrha said, her own voice soft, barely rising above the level of a whisper. The two of them were in the garage with the door shut; it was one of the few places they could speak – or yell, in Sunset's case – without being overheard by anyone. It wouldn't do to go on the rooftop and let Weiss and her team hear what they were discussing now. This was supposed to be secret after all, no matter how much Sunset might shout about it now.

"Stop saying that you have no choice, you do have a choice," Sunset said. "You can tell them to go take a flying leap off a cloud, and you should."

"And then what?" Pyrrha asked. She wasn't looking at Sunset. She was sat near the closed door, knees tucked up almost beneath her chin, while Sunset paced up and down behind her. Pyrrha turned her head slightly, but not enough to see Sunset. "Yes, I can say no, but what then? What right do I have to let this cup pass from my lips only so that it can be drunk by someone else? By Rainbow Dash? By Ruby, if Rainbow also refuses. What right do I have to tell Ruby that she has to sacrifice herself because I don't have the courage?"

Sunset was silent for a moment. "Ruby could say no too," she said.

"But she won't," Pyrrha replied. A sad smile briefly crossed her face. "You know that she won't. She's too brave, too noble, too _good_ to turn away from a world in danger calling for her aid." She closed her eyes. "And that's why I have to do it instead. I have no right to force this burden onto her. I can't – I won't – make her do something that I wasn't willing to do myself." She hugged her legs, embracing them with both her arms. "This burden has been appointed to me. I must bear it to whatever end."

"To whatever end," Sunset spat, as though the words were offensive to her. "To the end of your death? We're not talking about donating a kidney here, we're talking about souls."

"I'm aware of that."

"Then how can you act like this?" Sunset demanded. "How can you just sit there and consider this? No, more than consider, you've already made up your mind, haven't you? And don't talk about Ruby, because if Ruby were here then I'd tell her exactly what I'm about to tell you now: this is monstrous, and even considering it is…it's unforgivable. Heinous. They say that they don't know what's going to happen, but I know. You can't just rip the essence out of somebody and cram it in to somebody else and expect there to be no change at all. Pyrrha, this…" her voice shook, and threatened to break completely. "This thing is going to kill you in every way that matters. If you get into that machine then…then somebody else is going to walk away. Maybe Amber, maybe something new, but not you. You're not going to become the Fall Maiden, you're going to give up your body as a suit for the new Fall Maiden to wear, is that what you want?"

"Of course not!" Pyrrha shrieked, and her semblance exploded out of her to send Sunset's bike flying across the garage to hit the far with a slamming thump.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Sunset said. "It's just a stupid bike."

Pyrrha let out a ragged breath. She felt something wet on her cheeks and realised that she was crying. "What I want," she whispered, halfway to sobbing. "No, no, this isn't what I want at all."

 _I want Jaune. I want him to hold me and kiss me and love me. I want him to ask me for my hand. I want Ruby and Sunset to weave the flowers into my hair upon my wedding day, as the bride's sisters do in Mistral. I want to have children, and to watch them grow and teach them to be brave and strong and kind like their parents._

 _I want to live. I want to laugh, I want to cry, I want to feel. I want to have four years of friends and fun and ordinary life. I want to be Pyrrha Nikos, and nothing else. I want to be a girl and not a symbol or an ideal or anything that can be placed upon a pedestal beyond the reach of everybody else._

 _I want to live and love to be loved._

 _But why should fate or the world or even Professor Ozpin care for what I want when kingdoms are at stake?_

"Sunset?" she asked, in a small voice.

"Yes?"

"Do you think he'll be able to tell?" Pyrrha asked. On the one hand it was a small thing, almost pathetically so, to focus on, but at the same time it seemed at this moment, staring down the barrel of oblivion, to be the most important thing that she could ask.

Sunset was quiet as she walked around from behind Pyrrha to stand in front of her. She crouched down, so that they were face to face. "Do I think who will be able to tell what?"

"Jaune," Pyrrha said. "If I…if you're right about this and I…if it's not me any more…do you think he'll be able to tell? Will he notice that I'm gone and…and something else is standing in front of him?" Whoever took Pyrrha's place, if that was what happened – be it Amber or a new creation – might find it convenient to pretend to be Pyrrha for the sake of the world. The thought of someone else wearing her body was bad enough, but to imagine them doing it while Jaune, none the wiser, held this impostor in his arms and left her breathless with his kisses and maybe even…it was too much for her. She could not bear it. She could give up her life for the sake of the world but the world's cause could not ask her to surrender her love to another who happened to look like her.

Sunset looked sick, but then she'd looked like that ever since they got out of the vault. "He'll know," she said, her voice hoarse.

"How?" Pyrrha asked.

"I don't know, by looking into your eyes," Sunset said. "By the lack of a spark when he touches your hand. Isn't that how true love is supposed to work? Isn't there supposed to be a thing so you can tell?"

Pyrrha bowed her head. "I think that's just a romantic myth."

"Oh," Sunset said. "He'll know."

"You don't know that, do you?" Pyrrha said. "You're just saying it to make me feel better."

"I've got no interest in making you feel better, only in making you realise what a stupid idea this is," Sunset growled. "I'm telling you because it's true. He'll know."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because he loves you for you!" Sunset snapped. "Do you honestly think he's so shallow that it's your face and your body that are the only thing he notices about you? He'll know because you won't be the person that he fell in love with any more. You won't be the person that we all love any more. Please, Pyrrha, don't do this."

"I have-"

"Don't sit there and tell me that you have no choice when we both know that's a load of crap!" Sunset yelled. "You don't have to do this, and neither does Ruby, nor Rainbow for that matter. None of you have to do this."

"But someone does," Pyrrha insisted.

"Do they?" Sunset said, getting up and stalking to the garage door.

"Yes," Pyrrha said. "You know that. If I am the best person to bear this burden then why should I pass it on? The world is in danger, Sunset, and it needs me."

"Screw the world!" Sunset shouted. "Let Vale into the Shallow Sea subside." She looked at Pyrrha over her shoulder. "Let it all burn for you."

Pyrrha shook her head. "You don't mean that," she said. "I hope that you don't mean that."

Sunset turned to face her. "You mean more to me than they do. I make no apologies for that."

Pyrrha got to her feet. "If I mean so much to you then please don't make this harder for me than it already is."

Sunset stared at her, her mouth twisting into a kind of snarl with the teeth bared. "Why do you have to be so stupidly noble all the time?"

"Because ten thousand fates of death surround us, so what makes this one so special?" Pyrrha demanded. "I chose to protect the huntress and now…now I can fulfil my destiny."

"Death is not your destiny."

"It appears that it isn't true," Pyrrha said. "As much as I might wish otherwise."

"You told me that your destiny was in your gift," Sunset said. "Your choice."

"And I choose this," Pyrrha insisted. "I choose not to pass this choice onto another, onto Ruby! I choose to stand between the world and its enemies. I choose to protect the world as only I can. I choose to protect you and Jaune and Ruby from Cinder. I choose to face my enemy with a chance of beating them. I choose…I choose to matter. I won't get the chance ever again to do something so important as I am now. And if I say no, if I turn away from the battle now when it is at its gravest…how could I look any of my fellow students in the eye ever again?"

"Nobody would know," Sunset said.

"I'd know," Pyrrha cried. "And I would be shamed before myself for shrinking from the fighting." She turned away, embracing herself. "You say…you say that whatever comes out of that machine will not be me…but if I didn't get into it in the first place I would not be myself either."

"Is there nothing I can say?" Sunset asked, her voice hollow. "Nothing at all that will convince you."

"You can't tell me anything that I don't already know," Pyrrha whispered. "I know what I'm being asked to do, I know that it will cost me…everything. But I also know that…that I'm the only one who ought to do this."

Sunset made a sound as though she was in physical pain. "Why do you have to be like this? What are you going to tell Jaune?"

"I…I don't know," Pyrrha confessed. "I'm not sure if I can tell him."

"You have to tell him something," Sunset said.

"What?" Pyrrha asked, as she rounded on Sunset. "What am I supposed to tell him?"

"The truth?"

"He won't understand any more than you do."

"Perhaps that makes him smarter than you."

"Sunset, will you please stop!" Pyrrha shrieked. "Do you think that this is easy for me? Do you think that this is anything like how I thought my life would…this isn't how things were supposed to go. Not at all. I was supposed to achieve my destiny upon my own merits, with the support of my friends, but this…this is where my road has led and I have to see it through all the way to the end."

"We can find another way to beat Cinder-"

"This isn't just about Cinder," Pyrrha insisted. "It's Salem and relics and everything else. What does Pyrrha Nikos have to offer in a world like this? What good is the mystique of the Invincible Girl in a battle like the one we're in?"

"What good are any of us, but here we are."

"Yes," Pyrrha said. "Here we are. I…this time that we've spent together-"

"Don't talk like that already, you don't-"

"Has been the most wonderful time in my life," Pyrrha finished. "I'm so, so glad to have met all of you. More than I think I could ever tell you. But Jaune…if I go to him now, if I talk to him…I know that this is wrong, I know that he deserves to know before it happens, I know that…I know that I should say goodbye. But I can't, because I'm afraid that if he asked me not to do this…I wouldn't be able to say no."

"Oh him, you couldn't say no to?" Sunset demanded. "Well, maybe I should just get him down here right now."

"Sunset-"

"No, don't Sunset me, you don't seem to realise what you're asking me to do!" Sunset shouted. "You're asking me to watch you die! You say that I can't understand how you feel, well how do you think I feel about this? Do you have any idea how much I want to scream at you right now? Do you know how much I want to shake you and remind you of all the wonderful things that you're about to give up for nothing? There are a million reasons not to go through with this and not one good reason to do it but none of that matters because you're just so…" Sunset let out a wordless scream of anguish as she was engulfed in a flash of green light, disappearing from the garage with a pop.

Pyrrha bowed her head. "I'm sorry, Sunset. I really am."

* * *

Sunset teleported into the SAPR dorm room.

She hadn't gone there straight away. No, after leaving the garage she had teleported onto a secluded patch of the grounds and then proceeded to make her way to Beacon cliffs where she had leapt down into the Emerald Forest and spent at least half an hour tearing up the place, blasting trees apart and ripping up the shrubbery with telekinesis. She was surprised that with all the negativity she was feeling – and she was feeling a lot of negativity, rage was roiling and broiling with her chest – she only attracted a few young beowolves towards her. Or perhaps more of them, and bigger and older and stronger ones at that, would have found her if she'd stuck around longer, yelling and screaming as she used up her magic.

She had used the last of it to teleport herself back to the dorm room before that actually happened, and now she felt exhausted. Her limbs trembled, her body was stained with sweat, and she was breathing heavily.

What she didn't feel was any better. None of the release of her magic had actually released her emotions because the source of those emotions had not been affected one bit by her little tantrum in the forest.

Pyrrha was still going to go through with it. Pyrrha was going to go through with it and Pyrrha was going to die and Sunset knew that even if she couldn't exactly prove it. Nothing else could come from meddling in souls. Pyrrha would get into the machine, and somebody else would get out. Pyrrha Nikos, the soul of SAPR, would be gone.

Pyrrha gone. Pyrrha no more. The thought of it was enough to bring tears pricking the corner of Sunset's eyes, not to mention sending a surge of rage spiking through her body. She was angry at Ozpin for asking Pyrrha to do this, angry at Pyrrha for being so noble as to actually go through with it; angry at Cinder for causing all of this to come to pass.

Angry at herself for a whole host of reasons: for having been stupid enough to start trusting Ozpin (and the fact that she could tell that he didn't want to do this in no way diminished her rage at him for doing it anyway; if you don't want to do something then don't do it!); for having failed to see that Cinder was capable of such things as she had done to Amber, or seeing but choosing not to care; for having failed to convince Pyrrha not to go through with this; for not being able to do anything to stop the horror that she could see unfolding before her eyes.

She didn't know what she was supposed to do now. She couldn't do anything, in any sense. She couldn't stand by and watch Pyrrha do this to herself, but she couldn't do anything to stop it either. She considered enlisting Blake's help to sneak down into the Vault and use the machine on herself before Pyrrha could do it, but…even if Blake could work out how to use the machine…and it would be pretty cruel of Sunset to ask Blake to be the instrument of her spiritual demise…they'd already established that Sunset or someone derived from her nature probably wasn't the best person in Remnant to have Maiden powers. She could tell Jaune, he deserved to know after all, and maybe he could convince Pyrrha not to do this stupid thing but there was also a chance that Pyrrha was exaggerating his ability to convince her, and that telling him now would only add more anguish where there was enough already. And telling Jaune would entail Ruby finding out and that…she didn't want to lose Ruby any more than she wanted to lose Pyrrha.

Sunset had no idea what to do. She had little idea what she ought to be thinking – in the whirl of thoughts that swirling around her mind she was even starting to consider that Pyrrha might be right and that it was wrong of her to prioritise Pyrrha's life above all others or the survival of Vale – or whether she ought to be feeling this amorphous anger that was directed at everyone including herself and not helping her at all in the process.

She had no idea what to do…but she did know who she could talk to about it. Someone wise, and kind, and caring. Someone who had seen much, and endured much.

Sunset's hands trembled as she pulled the magical journal out from underneath her bed. If Celestia told her that what Professor Ozpin was doing was just and necessary then Sunset wouldn't say another word against it no matter what she felt within; but if Celestia told her that she was right to feel as incensed as she did, well then…then Sunset would do whatever it took.

For her friend she could do nothing else.

The dorm room was empty. Both Jaune and Ruby were elsewhere. That was good. They might have asked questions by now if they'd been here. And Sunset didn't want to be disturbed right now.

She needed privacy, and her princess.

She put the book down on the desk and opened it up to the next free page. Picking up her pen, she began to write.

Sunset: Twilight, are you there?

 _Please be there. Please answer. Please don't be away on urgent business. Please don't be in a position where you can't answer. Please, I need this right away._

She let out a sight of relief as she saw the words in Twilight's cursive writing begin to spread across the page.

Twilight: I'm right here, Sunset. Do you need something?

Sunset: Yes, I need to talk to Celestia right away. It's urgent. Life and death urgent. Please, can you send for her?

Twilight: Life and death? Sunset, are you in some kind of trouble?

Sunset: I don't have time to explain it to you first. I need to speak to Celestia about this. She's the only one who can help me right now. Please, Twilight, I need her and I need her now.

There was a pause, and Sunset could picture Twilight on the other end of the journal, staring with bafflement at the words that Sunset had so hastily scrawled on the page. Perhaps they were a little exaggerated, but they matched her mood. Even if she had time to wait it certainly didn't feel that way, and she had no desire to linger in this state of distraught confusion, not knowing where to turn and staring down the loss of a friend in the process. She needed guidance. She needed the wisdom that only Princess Celestia could give her.

Twilight: Okay. I'll send her a message via Spike. She shouldn't be long.

Sunset nodded, for all that she was invisible to Twilight. Sunset: Thank you, Twilight. I really mean that.

Twilight didn't answer. There was no answer for a little while, until a familiar elegant script began to unfurl itself like a standard across the page.

Celestia: Sunset? Are you there?

Even in the midst of these dire circumstances Sunset could not prevent herself from smiling at the sight of Celestia's words, words which she could hear as in her old teacher's voice. Sunset: I'm right here, Princess. Thank you for coming.

Celestia: How could I not? Twilight said that it was urgent, that you required my council desperately. She spoke of life and death. Little sunbeam, what is the matter?

Sunset sighed. She clenched her free hand. She shut her eyes for a moment as she wondered how she could explain everything that she had just found out and everything that she was thinking and feeling and wondering.

How could she make Celestia understand?

Sunset: Princess Celestia, if the world was in dire peril and the only way to save it was to sacrifice Twilight, would you do it?

There was a pause on the other end of the book, and Sunset could only imagine that horror that Celestia was feeling to read those words.

Celestia: Sunset, what sort of a question is that to ask me?

Sunset: An awful one I know, but one that I need the answer to. Would you do it? Could you sacrifice Twilight to save the world?

Celestia: No. The answer came swiftly, that single word of it at least, written sharply as though she were stabbing the page with her quill. The rest of the answer came after a short delay, unfolding at a slower pace. Celestia: No, I would not do it. I could not. Not even for the world.

Sunset: Because you love her too much.

Celestia: I am not sure that it is possible to love too much, if one has chosen to love freely and without malicious interference.

Sunset: Does it not make us too weak to do what must be done?

Celestia: And what must be done, Sunset? And why do we do anything, except because we love? What do we protect but that which we hold dear? If we love nothing then why should we do anything? Love is not our weakness, though it may not always be wise yet it remains our greatest strength. Now, please tell me Sunset, why would you ask me such a question as this?

Sunset shivered as she put pen to paper. Sunset: Because my friend is in a lot of trouble, and it's not just that I don't know how to save her it's that she's got me asking if I should even try to save her or if I shouldn't just let her go like she seems to want because she's got more nobility than sense and that's always been her problem and that's why we all love her so much.

Celestia: I see. Or at least I begin to see. Perhaps you had better explain a little more. Is your world in peril?

Sunset: They think it is. Professor Ozpin and Pyrrha and the rest. There's a procedure; they want to make an alicorn; not exactly but that's the best way that I can think to explain it to you without going into all the details; they want to make an alicorn to guard an important magical objection and lead us into the fight against Cinder. But it's going to kill Pyrrha to do it. They want to take the soul from a dying girl and give it to Pyrrha and I'm absolutely certain that what comes out the other side won't be Pyrrha any more.

Celestia: I fear that you are all too correct, Sunset. Meddling in the soul in such a way, it is impossible for me to conceive that Pyrrha's soul will not be transformed, maybe even beyond all recognition.

That was what she had been afraid of. Sunset: What am I supposed to do, Princess? Pyrrha wants to do this, even knowing what it will cost her, and I don't know what to do. Am I supposed to just let this happen because it's what she wants? Would you let Twilight go through with something like that if it was what she wanted?

Celestia: I would do all I could to prevent it. I could not bring myself to do such a thing nor to countenance it as an observer, however passive my role might be.

Sunset: Not even for the world?

Celestia: Not even for the world.

Sunset: Then what would you do, the world being in peril?

Celestia: I would trust in Twilight to find another way. 

Sunset leaned back in her chair. She could feel the fog lifting from her mind. Her path felt clearer now. _Another way. Another way._ There was one obvious other way, and that was to save Amber so that she could go on being the Fall Maiden; that still left the fact that somebody was going to have to kill Cinder but for now if Sunset could save Pyrrha without having to sacrifice Ruby then she'd be well pleased with herself and consider it a good days work. _Save Amber._ But how?

And then, like sunlight breaking through the clouds, it came to her. Yes, that particular combination of spells, plus Jaune's semblance and her own, and with enough scientific know-how to keep her stable while all of this was going on…yes, that might just work. In any case it was surely worth the attempt. It would save Pyrrha, and Amber too, surely that was worth trying?

If only she persuade Professor Ozpin to see it that way.

If only someone could persuade Professor Ozpin to see it that way.

Sunset began to scribble on the page again. Sunset: Princess Celestia, I think I have an idea. But I might need your help to persuade Professor Ozpin to let me do it.

Celestia: I would do anything to help you, Sunset, but in this case I don't quite understand.

Sunset: With your permission, I'd like to introduce the two of you.


	142. All My Gallant Stars

All My Gallant Stars

Ozpin had returned to his office after leaving the vault and now he sat, alone in that sparse and empty space, brooding upon his deeds as the gears of the clock ground inevitably overhead.

He could not say that he did not deserve the anger that had been vented upon him. He couldn't say that he had not deserved the fear in Pyrrha's eyes, the hurt and betrayal in Sunset's, the way that Miss Sparkle and Miss Dash had regarded him with wary hostility.

He deserved it all, and far worse besides. That Miss Nikos, that Pyrrha was willing to go along with the procedure even knowing everything that she knew about the risks…it both gladdened him and saddened him in equal measure. It gladdened him, because – as much as she might be entertaining doubts about her own worthiness to bear the mantle, considering what had happened on Merlot's island – the fact that she was willing to stand up, back straight, and do this thing that was so very dangerous, and so monstrous even in its conception was proof in his eyes that she was worthy to be the next Fall Maiden. It brought him some small measure of comfort to know that the next soul to bear the mantle would be composed in some part of Pyrrha Nikos and all her splendid virtues.

It saddened him because in doing this he was condemning the font of those same virtues; it saddened him because the thing that might have stopped all this and saved her was Pyrrha's refusal to go along with it, and that refusal she would not give no matter how much he urged her to think carefully, to take time, to consider before she answered. Her answer would be the same at the week's end as it was now. Because she was a good girl, a sacrificing girl, the kind of girl who would have been a splendid Maiden…because of that she would give up her life so that another being could bear that honour.

There was no proof that that was going to happen, it might yet be that Pyrrha Nikos would emerge intact and fully herself but Ozpin doubted it. This was a machine created by a wicked man, and he would be very surprised if it had no harmful side effects. He would have to be a man of great optimism to believe that all would proceed for the best…and it had been a long time since he had last had that much hope.

It had been a long time since he had any hope at all. He sat in his tower while the waves rose up and battered the walls of Vale, recruiting children to be his weapons and sending them out to fight and die, and the best he had ever hoped for was to hold the levees, keep things in stasis, perhaps see the gradual improvements in the world that his predecessors had set in motion through their work on faunus rights but even that yielded only the expectation of minute changes for the better.

And in the meantime he bought time, and paid for it with the blood of so many worthy young men and women, children whom he watched train and learn, live and in some cases love, grow into themselves within the walls of Beacon. He watched the become the best versions of themselves with the support of the faculty and of one another, and then when the best of them were at their best he brought them into his circle, made them his agents, and sent them out to risk their lives against the power of Salem.

He could not escape the feeling that he had become over these long ages the kind of man whom Ozma, that great hero, that warrior mage, that shining paragon of all things good, would have held in contempt.

But he had not been Ozma for a very long time. The Ozmas of this age were the children he sent to their deaths.

His fingers moved almost independently of his dark thoughts, bringing up Miss Nikos' permanent record. Her picture, occupying the entire upper left hand quarter of the screen, stared out at him, her green eyes vivid and a faint smile upon her face. Around the image were the functional details of her time both at Beacon and at Sanctum before that: excellent grades, nothing but praise from all of her teachers especially her sparring instructors, not a single incident of misbehaviour or rule-breaking (there was that foodfight incident, but he had made sure that didn't affect any of the students concerned).

They had expected her to choose Haven, if she chose at all; she didn't have to attend any of the four academies; to be honest her skill was probably on the same level as the average qualified huntress, it wasn't as though she was really learning anything at Beacon, and she didn't need to graduate to continue on the tournament circuit either. But, if she had decided to go and attend one of the four academies they had expected – the whole world had expected – her to choose Haven. She was the champion of Mistral, after all: the Princess Without a Crown, the pride and glory of Mistral reborn. But she had chosen Beacon. That had been the first surprise. The second had come during the personal interviews that he conducted with every student before offering them a place. He had thought that a young woman of Miss Nikos skill at arms might be useful to him but it wasn't until she sat down in front of him in his office that he had begun to see her as the next Fall Maiden in waiting.

" _As honoured as I am that so illustrious a fighter as yourself wishes to attend my institution," Ozpin began, as he poured out a cup of cocoa._

" _Please, Professor," Pyrrha interrupted him. "A man of your stature and reputation has no need to be honoured by me, and no need to flatter me by pretending otherwise."_

 _Ozpin sat down, and his eyebrows rose. "No, Miss Nikos?"_

" _You're Professor Ozpin," Pyrrha said. "You saved Vale from the grimm, you were the youngest headmaster ever appointed to a school, you've done such incredible things for humanity. All I've done is win a few tournaments and get good grades in my combat school. Someone like you could never be honoured by someone like me and, to be honest, I'd rather you didn't pretend that it was any other way."_

 _Ozpin leaned back in his chair. "You don't expect any special treatment on account of your celebrity status?"_

" _I don't want any special treatment," Pyrrha replied, with a certain emphasis upon the word want. "I just want to be treated like any other student."_

" _Even though you are not any other student?" Ozpin asked. He picked up his mug and took a sip of the scalding hot cocoa. "Tell me, Miss Nikos, why do you want to become a huntress? You would become far more famous and much wealthier if you stuck to participating in tournaments in Mistral."_

" _I don't fight for wealth or fame, Professor," Pyrrha said. "Or at least I don't wish to do so any more."_

 _Ozpin leaned forward. "Then what do you fight for, Miss Nikos?"_

" _For the world," Pyrrha said. "For humanity. For the four kingdoms and all who dwell in them. Professor, do you know what the name Nikos means in Old Mistrish?"_

" _Victor of the people," Ozpin said._

" _Exactly," Pyrrha said. "It comes from the days when my family were…emperors and princes; do you know that in the great Mistralian epics a common epithet for kings is Shepherd of the People."_

" _I do, Miss Nikos."_

" _Surely the victor of the people has an obligation to fight for the people?" Pyrrha asked. "To stand at the forefront of the battle against their enemies, as my ancestors did of old. That's what I want to do that…that is the reason why I want to come here to Beacon."_

That had been partly a lie, but as he had watched her Ozpin had come to understand the other half of the reason why she had wanted to attend Beacon for all that her skills made attendance superfluous. But he did not begrudge her wanting to live a normal life and forge friendships that she hoped would last a lifetime, and she had never given him any reason to believe that she had not been genuine in the motive that she had revealed to him.

As he had watched her, Miss Nikos had revealed herself to be so much more than just a skilled warrior, more than just another Qrow in the making. She was a true paragon, a font of virtues worthy of Maidenhood. She had all the nobility of her ancestors and none of their overweening pride and arrogance. In her gentle grace she reminded him of the very first Fall Maiden, who had taught him to be thankful for the gifts that the world had bestowed upon him.

Would that he could have been merely thankful for having been given Pyrrha Nikos, instead of having to ask her to hurl herself into the fires of her own destruction for him.

So much would be lost if, as seemed so likely, she accepted his offer. And Ozpin was not thinking of an old Mistralian family wiped out, or the rather pompous idea that such individuals carried the history of that ancient city with them in their blood; kind hearts were more than coronets, and simple faith than Mistrish blood for all that Miss Nikos possessed all four of those.

Ozpin's fingers tapped upon the virtual keys, and Miss Nikos' file – and with her faintly smiling face that seemed to mock and to torment him – disappeared, replaced by that of Rainbow Dash. Ozpin had access to all the files of the students from the other four academies here for the Vytal tournament.

Rainbow Dash stared out at her, just as Pyrrha had done, but for all that his experience of her company suggested a young woman who did not lack for self-confidence, Miss Dash's picture was not smiling. Rather, she seemed to be trying very hard to look serious.

It was fair to say, and no insult to Miss Dash, that she was not the kind of candidate that Ozpin would ordinarily have considered as Maiden material. To be honest, he was a little surprised that James thought so highly of her. She had committed some petty misdemeanours as a child growing up in the Low Town, but it appeared that James had seen past that and given her a chance to enrol at Canterlot Combat School, where Celestia and Luna – who had something of a soft spot for hopeless cases – had taken her under their wing. Her grades began terribly and then shot up like a rocket; Ozpin guessed that this was when she had met Miss Sparkle and began getting tutored up to level. Words like hot-tempered were used about her, which hardly made her seem like the sort of person that General Ironwood would taken a personal interest in…but then words like reliable, determined, loyal and plain-speaking served to explain it a little better.

The fact that she had been able to leave her past behind her and make something of herself was certainly to her credit, but she did not demonstrate the kind of virtues that Ozpin would ordinarily have looked for in one of the four maidens. Nothing about her suggested that she was in any way a paragon of womanhood. But James was right, the times changed and they had to change with them. He did not actually make a habit, even now, of recruiting his maidens from amongst the students at the four academies: Luna had attended Beacon, but neither Amber nor Merida nor Auburn before her had any formal training as huntresses. During the years of peace he had looked more for good women than for strong ones. But the years of peace were coming to an end, and in the time of war that seemed sure to fall upon them it might be that a flawed and imperfect warrior was what they needed more than a perfect damsel.

If – as hardly seemed likely, but nevertheless – Miss Nikos refused him, he could concede that he could probably do worse than a two-fisted never-say-die fighter with a reputation for bringing her team-mates back alive.

Except that all of that would be lost to Atlas if he were forced to turn to her as his new guardian.

And then there was Ruby Rose, to whose file he turned next. She, too, looked like she was trying to look serious in her photograph, although she was managing it even less well than Rainbow Dash had. He could still remember the day he had offered her early entry into Beacon as though it was yesterday. He could remember how Qrow and Tai had both urged against it – Qrow was not very happy with him right now, for obvious reasons – but he had ignored them both. The allure of a silver-eyed warrior had proved too great…and someone who could already show not only such skill but such courage when still so young was wasted at Signal. There was so much of her mother in her, though she had her father's sense of humour too.

It was partly for Summer's sake that she was only his third choice, partly because she reminded him more of the first Summer in her nature, and partly because however fair it was Miss Nikos had impressed him more. But partly it was because he didn't wish to do this to Summer's child. He might wield her as a weapon, but this…did he not owe her more than that.

And yet he would do it if he had no other choice. And he would need no other choices because Ruby would not refuse him.

It occurred to him that he had never found the time to talk to Ruby about her mother, and the realisation saddened him, even more than the dark thoughts that had been clouding his mind hitherto. He had made her a promise and he had not bothered to keep it.

 _I am sunk so low that even that is beyond me now._

He scowled, not at Ruby's picture but at himself, at the knowledge of what he had to do and to what excellent people he had to do it to.

Pyrrha, Rainbow, Ruby…and Amber. Amber most of all.

 _Uncle Ozpin! Uncle Ozpin! Did you bring me back a present!_

When he thought back to the day they'd found her, the only survivor of the grimm attack that had destroyed her village, a baby shielded by her mother's body and by the rubble of the church that had fallen in just the right way to cover her without crushing her; when they had pulled the debris away, and the sunlight through the shattered window had fallen directly on that squalling, shrieking child…it had seemed like a sign that the God of Light had not wholly forsaken him. She had been a miracle, sent to remind him at his lowest ebb that not all he did was in vain, that even if he could not save the world he could at least save a life this day. He had broken down and wept, with Qrow and Summer and Merida and Glynda all watching him, he had wept for this poor miraculous child as he thanked all the powers of heaven for the deliverance of them both.

He had known ever since that day that she was destined for something special, and he had suspected even that that something might be Maidenhood; that was why he had politely declined Summer's offer to take the girl and raise her as her own alongside Yang and Ruby. He had had something different in mind for this little miracle; something better.

He had watched her grow, and blossom into a lovely young woman, kind and gentle, with the most beautiful singing voice. The way that she would run to him when she was young, shrieking his name in delight, were etched into his memory. Those pleasures which Salem had denied to him when she murdered her own children – their children – out of spite to keep them from his hands he had enjoyed in some part through Amber.

He had arranged so that she would become the next Fall Maiden after Merida's death because he believed her to be in all of Remnant the worthiest to bear the mantle. Thus he had condemned her to be hunted by a ferocious predator knowing neither pity nor remorse. And now, though Amber had not even seen the change of seventeen years, he would have to kill her because of that same mantle in order to keep it from the monster who had sought her death.

He was beginning to wish – no, that was not true, he had often wished it before now, though less often since the last of the usurpers had been put down and the line of Maidens restored – that he had never granted his magic to the four sisters. They had thanked him for it, at the time, and he had told them that he ought to be thanking them for the way that they had restored his faith in humanity and its potential. They had been such sweet girls, all of them, and kind and generous besides; they had to have been to share their time and the blessings of their company with a recalcitrant old man who wanted nothing to do with the wider world beyond his walls. They had been so lovely, they…they had reminded him of the kind of girls he would have wished his own sweet babes to have grown into if they had been allowed to grow.

And so, out of gratitude, he had bestowed upon them power that they might spread joy and hope throughout the world; he had forgotten that they had not needed power to bring both joy and hope and so much else to his door in the first place. But he had hoped...he had dared to dream that, together with himself, they might finally be able to fulfil his quest from the God of Light and bring mankind together in peace.

Instead the brutish instincts of men had corrupted the beautiful gift he had sought to bestow upon them, and he had been forced to watch as the spiritual descendants of those perfect girls had been hunted down for their power the way that animals were hunted for their pelts, as the power that he had given to those who so reminded him of his daughters fell into the hands of murderesses and tyrants, the very best of whom were nothing like he had imagined or desired the Maidens to become.

And now, because of the system he had established, he was forced to send a girl worthy to be admired and respected to her ignominious demise.

He would take it back, if he could. He would take back the whole system. But such a feat was beyond his power now, and had been ever since he had established it, casting the greatest part of his power upon the Maidens.

 _How often the decisions that we make with the best of intentions are the ones that return to destroy us._

The elevator door opened, which surprised Ozpin as he thought he had made it to clear that he did not wish to be disturbed, and Sunset Shimmer walked into his office. She was carrying a rather large book beneath her arm, old and leather-bound by the looks of it. She moved with a mixture of diffidence and wariness, but she did not seem quite as angry with him as she had been when he left her.

Yet somehow Ozpin doubted that she would have gotten over it quite so quickly.

He didn't ask her to leave. After what he had done to her she had the right to say, at least a little while. Rather, he turned off the screen on his desk and sat up a little straighter in his chair. "Miss Shimmer," he said. "What an unexpected pleasure. And what can I do for you?"

Sunset approached his desk, but did not sit down in the chair before it. She looked down at him, and took a deep breath. "You can give me a chance to save Amber, Professor."

Ozpin found himself sitting up straighter in his chair, completely involuntarily but irresistibly at the same time. _Uncle Ozpin! Did you bring me back a present?_

 _Yes, my dear; I brought you salvation._

His voice trembled a little in spite of his control over it. "I…I beg you, Miss Shimmer, for all that you have cause to hate me, I beg you do not taunt me with false hope."

"I have many faults, Professor, but I hope I am not become so cruel," Sunset said. "I'm serious. I think that I – that we – can save Amber and avoid the need to transfer her aura to Pyrrha."

Ozpin frowned. "Forgive me, Miss Shimmer, but knowing you as I do how can I be sure that this is not simply a way to save Miss Nikos?"

"It is a way to save Pyrrha, but you could at least hear me out before you assume that makes my idea worthless," Sunset said, with an edge of sharpness entering her voice.

She was right, of course; while he wouldn't put it past Miss Shimmer to have put more thought into the saving Pyrrha aspect of her plan than of the healing Amber, it was churlish of him to dismiss the possibility simply because of who was bringing it to him. And could he really dismiss out of hand any chance to save Amber? Any chance at all, no matter how slim. The moment those words had passed Sunset's lips there was a part of Ozpin, the part that still remembered what it had been like to oh so briefly be a father, that had wanted to leap to his feet with a loud cry of exultation and give Sunset everything she needed. But there was another part, the larger part, the part that had been a leader in a shadow war for so many generations, that recognised that he could do nothing that would jeopardise the chance of successfully passing on the Fall Mantle to Pyrrha, or to one of the others if – unlikely, but nevertheless – she would go through with it. He could not risk the Fall Maiden upon a desperate throw for double six, not even for Amber's sake.

But nor could he ignore the chance. He sighed. "You are quite right, Miss Shimmer, and chide me well. What is your plan?"

Sunset raised her free hand, currently encased within a white silk bridal glove. "You know that my semblance allows me to enter the souls of those I touch?"

"I don't think you've ever told me that, Miss Shimmer," Ozpin observed mildly. "Congratulations on unlocking your semblance."

"It's actually been a little while, but thanks anyway," Sunset said. "The point is, I want to use my semblance to enter Amber's soul and once I'm in there I think I can use my magic to tie-off the frayed edges of her aura and stabilise her condition. Then Jaune can use his semblance to amplify her existing aura until her strength returns. And then, if necessary, I can try and wake her up from where I am in her consciousness."

Ozpin's face was neutral, but inside he could not help but feel a little disappointed. Miss Shimmer offered him nothing but conjecture and a gamble. "And what makes you think you can accomplish these feats?"

"Because there is a tradition of dreamwalking and lucid dreaming amongst my people, and lore around it," Sunset said. "And the lore agrees that when you walk in dreams you can do things that would be impossible even by Equestrian standards. I've already spoken to Twilight, and she told me that when she was examining Amber's condition she noticed some strange readings on the edge of Amber's aura, like a shadow."

Ozpin nodded. "We noticed that as well, although we couldn't identify what it was."

"I think that's the remnants of whatever dark magic Cinder used to…" Sunset faltered at the mention of Miss Fall; perhaps now she was starting to regret her actions and her mercy, as well she might. "To steal Amber's aura in the first place. That alone is probably a reason why her aura can't repair itself, but in her soul I can purge her of that darkness, and even if that's not enough I'll be able to do magic that is beyond me in this world, to bring her back."

"Perhaps," Ozpin said. "You have no proof that this can be done. You've never done it before, and to do it you would have to remove Amber from the machine that is all that is keeping her alive."

"It's not as though the machine is going to heal her ever," Sunset said. She took a deep breath, and calmed her voice. "I've spoken to Twilight about that too, and she thinks that by putting Amber in an ice bath and with the right cocktail of drugs she can achieve a partial simulation of the suspending effect of the chamber while I do what I do. I can add a suspended animation spell as well, though I'm not sure how long it will last once I go into Amber's soul."

Ozpin closed his eyes. _Uncle Ozpin! Did you bring me back a present?_

 _I'm afraid not, for it was only fool's gold after all._

"I would give almost anything to see Amber safe and sound again," he said.

"Then-" Sunset began.

"But what you propose is too risky," Ozpin said. "If Amber dies while under your care then all of the Fall Maiden's powers will pass to Cinder Fall."

"Yes," Sunset admitted. "But…Professor, in its best outcome your plan will certainly kill either Pyrrha or Amber, and possibly both. My plan at its best will save them both. I'm asking you to have the…the decency to let me try before you put my friend into that machine and turn it on."

"I cannot act on optimism," Ozpin said. "I must think of the larger picture of this war."

"Then don't call it optimism, call it faith," Sunset said. She looked down at the book in her hands, and slammed it down onto Ozpin's desk. She opened it up to a blank page, took a pen out of her pocket, and scribbled something onto it.

She slid the book over to Ozpin's side of the desk. "If you won't listen to me," Sunset said. "The please, listen to someone much wiser than I am before you dismiss me in favour of your terrible idea."

Intrigued despite himself, Ozpin pulled the heavy book a little closer towards him.

Sunset: Princess Celestia, the time has come.

Ozpin was about to ask what that meant, or what it was supposed to signify to him, when to his somewhat amazement he saw writing spring without visible source onto the page beneath the words that Miss Shimmer had written.

Celestia: Do I have the pleasure of addressing Professor Ozpin of Beacon Academy?

Ozpin's eyebrows rose. He glanced up at Miss Shimmer.

Sunset smiled faintly. "That book is connected by magic to another identical book in Equestria. The person writing on the other side is Princess Celestia, Equestria's ruler and my teacher. It was she who gave me the idea that we don't always have to choose between the world and the people we hold dear. Sometimes we can have both, and do good for strangers too. Please, write back to her. You have my word, I won't read a single thing that passes between you."

Ozpin considered it. He could refuse. Perhaps it would be easiest to do so, but then what? Send Miss Shimmer away and resume his brooding? It might be good to unburden himself to someone who would not judge him for it, and whose judgement made no difference either way in any case.

And perhaps, just perhaps, a ruler might even understand.

He picked up a pen of his own. "I simply write?"

Sunset nodded. "You just write, and wait for a reply. I'll…give you some space." She turned away, and walked to one of the windows overlooking the docking platforms.

Ozpin looked at her for a moment, his back to him and to her book, and then he looked down at the words written on the page before him.

He gripped his pen in his hands.

Ozpin: I am Professor Ozpin, as I am given to understand that you are Princess Celestia. Is it Your Majesty or Your Highness?

Celestia: Please, I am resigned to obsequious formality from my little ponies however much I may detest it, but you are certainly no subject of mine. Celestia will do. I would like to start by saying thank you, for taking such good care of my little sunbeam.

Ozpin could not help but stare at that a moment before he replied. Ozpin: May I ask what you think Miss Shimmer has been doing here that you believe I have been taking good care of her?

Celestia: I am aware of what Sunset is training to become, what it seems she already is for you seem to blur the lines between training and practice somewhat, and I will not deny that there are times when my heart beats harder with concern for her in a world as violent as yours. But though our conversations are nowhere near as frequent as I should like I have nevertheless noticed, and Twilight has noticed the same, Sunset growing into a fine young mare; the kind of mare I always hoped she would become but could not make of her. You think I am owed thanks for that, Professor.

Ozpin: You will not bear ceremony as a princess regnant but you will stand on it before a mere headmaster?

Celestia: I know enough to know that you are more than just a mere headmaster, Professor, and I am of the opinion that there is nothing mere about being a headmaster, but even where those things not so, should I not show a little respect towards my daughter's teacher?

Thank you for teaching her, and raising her, and helping her to become that which I always knew that she could be.

Ozpin stared down at the words written on the page before him, and he…he found he could not help but smile abashedly. Ozpin: Miss Shimmer has certainly grown into a formidable young woman, but her friends deserve far more credit for the transformation than I do.

Celestia: Something makes me suspect that you arranged for her to find those excellent friends who now surround her.

Ozpin: And what makes you suspect I am so devious?

Celestia: I have done as much in your position when I felt the student in question required it. Recently, in fact. I am sometimes a teacher myself, you know.

Ozpin: Miss Shimmer mentioned that you were not only a princess but her teacher. I had assumed some kind of apprenticeship.

Celestia: Sunset was my personal student for a time, but beyond that I am also the head teacher of a school of magic, where the brightest unicorns may study the arcane arts.

Ozpin: Indeed? I am surprised you find the time while ruling a kingdom.

Celestia: Says he who finds time to run a school while also leading a war.

Ozpin chuckled. Ozpin: Yes, it is miraculous what one can find time to do if one is willing to forego sleep, isn't it?

He felt as though he could feel Celestia's amusement on the other side of the book. Celestia: Indeed. I, for one, know that I will always find time for my school and my teaching. There are times when I consider vesting myself of crown and state and royal dignity but I would never give up teaching my little unicorns, mentoring those special sparks and helping them fulfil their potential to shine bright across all the land. There is nothing quite like it, is there?

Ozpin: Nothing in the whole world. I was the youngest person to ever be appointed a headmaster, as I am never allowed to forget, and I very much regret that my early promotion has left me so removed from the every day lives of the majority of my students, and gave me so little time to truly teach.

Celestia: What subject did you teach, if I may ask?

Ozpin: History and Grimm Studies.

There was a pause. Celestia: Please do not take it the wrong way, Professor, if I say that I feel sorry for you. I have the privilege of teaching my students how to unlock the wonders of the world; you must teach them to defend against its horrors.

 _I do not resent you feeling sorry for me, Celestia; how can I when I so often feel sorry for myself?_ Ozpin: Ozpin.

Celestia: I beg your pardon?

Ozpin: No more Professor, please. As one teacher to another.

Celestia: Very well, Ozpin.

Ozpin: Thank you, Celestia. He paused. Ozpin: I fear that, now I have your attention, I must chide you somewhat for the way you have misused this land of Remnant as your exiling grounds.

Celestia: Yes, well, I would say that the worst of that was done in the time of my own teacher, Starswirl the Bearded. In my time I have tried to deal with our difficulties by ourselves and on our own soil. Forgive me just a moment, one such perennial problem has just entered the room and looks bored. The seconds ticked by before Celestia began to write again. Celestia: Thank goodness Fluttershy was not far behind. As I was saying: I recognise that you have grounds to be upset with us, and so on his behalf and on behalf of Equestria I offer you my most sincere apologies. I hope that our discarded troubles have not been too much trouble for you and yours.

Ozpin: Compared with the troubles that we have brought upon ourselves I'm sad to say that the troubles that Equestria has brought upon us are far from the worst.

Celestia: Knowing the nature of some of what we have banished through the portal it makes me shudder to read that. Are things really so bad as Sunset has made them out to be?

Ozpin: I fear it may be worse than she has conveyed to you. Or why else would I train generation after generation of students to battle an unending tide of darkness, sending them forth to gleam so brightly, like stars against the night that is constantly threatening to engulf us, until one by one the darkness snuffs them out one way or the other.

Celestia: Has this war raged for all your life?

Ozpin: This war was old when I was young and yet will be young when I am gone.

There was a pause on the other side of the journal. Celestia: Ozpin, I trust you have your reasons for deceiving Sunset and her friends, but surely you have no need to lie to me. What harm can I do you with the truth?

Ozpin's eyebrows rose. Ozpin: I'm afraid I've no idea what you mean.

Celestia: I mean that, as one immortal to another, your secret is safe with me.

For a moment Ozpin did nothing but stare down at the words that had picked their way across the page before him. He could have done nothing else even if he'd wanted to. Ozpin: How did you know?

Celestia: It takes one to know one. You write with the sadness of one who has seen more than a mortal's life of sadness. You write in a way that I can recognise. That said I wasn't sure until you confirmed it; had I been wrong I would have looked rather foolish, wouldn't I?

Ozpin: As it is you look very wise indeed, and quite perceptive, only the very closest of my confederates know that about me. I am cursed by the gods never to find peace until I have completed my quest to vanquish Salem; I begin to think that I will never find peace. I simply endure.

Celestia: Walking a long and lonely road, joined at times by fellow travellers and noble companions, but only for the briefest of moments when compared with the span of the road down which you walk, how far you have gone and how far you have yet to go.

Ozpin: You understand perfectly.

Celestia: How can I not, when I have lived it. In my youth, my sister Luna served as the companion of my labours; now, thank goodness, she is able to be so again. But for a thousand years in between when she lay banished I was all alone.

Ozpin: I have always been alone, and so I envy you to have even a sister to share your burden and your experience.

Celestia: And I am sorry that that is a comfort denied to you. And yet to speak true we have never truly been alone, have we? Have you always been a teacher?

Ozpin: No, that is quite recent. But before then I was often a mentor, although I often coupled that role with another mask.

Celestia: As we both couple teaching with another role. But, and I say this is as one who is both, being a mentor to one and being a teacher to a class or a school are not so very different save in scale. It is a role that blesses and curses us in equal measure. It is our tragedy that we must raise and train these remarkable young people, kind and brave, blessed with rare talents and more blessed than the word with rarer virtues; I have never had any children, and yet at the same time I have had so many, far more than any mother in Equestria ever brought into the world.

Ozpin smiled. Ozpin: I had children of my own, once, a very long time ago now, and yet I understand your meaning perfectly. So many wonderful students and protégés have touched my heart. Ruby's mother, Summer Rose; Ruby herself now, and Pyrrha too; Amber; Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall; so many of them, I could fill up this book with their names. So many, and all of them gone now, or almost all. Only the latest generation remains and in a blink of my eye they will be gone too. I will send them out, as I sent all the rest, to gleam so brightly for a moment and then, nothing. All my gallant stars snuffed out by Salem or by time.

Celestia: And yet do they not shimmer and sparkle so wondrously in the time that is given to them? When they shine, does their light not touch the very corners of the world and are we not blessed to share in that light, however brief? Yes, it is our tragedy that we must lose all whom we love, but it is our glory that we can know and love them in the first place. I will never forget a single one of my beloved students, nor would I cast those memories aside merely to assuage the pain of having lost them all. Some went out into the world and found their happiness their; some lost their way – I think we both know the taste of that quite well.

Ozpin: Indeed. It is a bitter draught, but one that it seems very difficult to avoid ahead of time. I have drank of it, and I have no doubt that I will drink of it again. It is the taste of our failure, is it not?

Celestia: It is, every time. I am glad to say that some whom I failed, Sunset being one, find their way by other paths to a place in the world they can call home. Others are not so fortunate. Some I have been forced to call my enemies. And some have traced their courses across the sky and left the world a better and a brighter place than they found it. Yet I have loved them all.

Ozpin: Even those who became your enemies?

Celestia: The sting of betrayal is deep and painful, but it would need to be deeper still by far to poison all the love that had gone before, would it not?

Ozpin: To any other I would be ashamed to confess it but I agree with you.

Celestia: I am glad to see we are of one mind in this. It gives me hope that you will understand when I say that I fear you have forgotten one of the most important principles of being a mentor.

Ozpin: And what is that?

Celestia: That there comes a time when we must accept that we are not only the teachers, but have in some degree become the students also.

Ozpin: You refer to Miss Shimmer's plan. It is an immense risk she asks of me.

Celestia: Is any risk too great to run to save, or even try to save, those students whom we love so well?

Ozpin: Miss Shimmer places all her hopes in hope itself. It has been a long time since I had so much hope to wager.

Celestia: That is one area where we must be the students, not the teachers. We are old, and having lived a long time we have acquired some wisdom and much knowledge, but we err if we confuse our faults with our wisdom, if we confuse our aged weariness and caution with our hard-won wisdom, if we confuse our lack of youthful confidence with greater knowledge instead of greater years. It is our part, and for my part it is the most rewarding part of my life, to guide these young souls on their way to the fulfilment of their destinies; but there are also times when we despair and the flames of our will gutter low and the bitter watches of the night threaten to freeze our hearts with fear when we must be guided by them in our turn. They are stars, just as you named them: so many stars so bright and beautiful. Yes, they burn all, all too briefly, but do they not light up the sky most beautifully before they go out? And will their light, shining and shimmering and sparkling, not serve to guide us homeward to salvation in the meantime? You say you have no hope; Ozpin, there is no better source of hope in hopeless hours than to look at your students and realise that the world is safe with them. Trust them, and let their light redeem your errors.

Ozpin closed his eyes. Ruby, Pyrrha…and Amber too? Remnant was blessed with them, and would be more blessed if the third name were joined with the other two. If Pyrrha were not forced to sacrifice herself for the sake of the Fall Maiden, but instead were joined with her as a guard and a companion in the inevitable battle…with Ruby and Pyrrha by Amber's side would Cinder not fall for certain?

Would such a second battle not redeem his mistake in letting the first battle be fought at all?

Be guided by their stars, Celestia urged him, not to snuff one out. Sunset offered him a chance to re-ignite Amber's star. Could he ignore that simply because he was afraid.

Ozpin: You have convinced me, as I think only you could. If it please you, might we talk again another time?

Celestia: I would like that very much. I will discuss with Sunset and see if there is not a way that we might produce another book, for you and I to use exclusively.

Ozpin: That would be much more convenient, wouldn't it? Thank you. If Miss Shimmer's plan works my gratitude will be boundless.

Celestia: It will be Sunset who deserves the gratitude, not I. Until next time, Ozpin.

Ozpin: I will look forward to it, Celestia. 

Ozpin put down his pen. "Miss Shimmer?"

Sunset turned around, an expectant look upon her face. "Professor?"

"Save her," Ozpin said.

Sunset straightened her back. "Yes, Professor."

 _Uncle Ozpin! Did you bring me back a present._

 _Yes, my dear, I brought you a chance._


	143. The Pride of Mistral

The Pride of Mistral

Sunset was busy preparing for her attempt to save Amber. From Pyrrha's perspective, that seemed to translate into spending a lot of time down in the vault with Twilight, or else practicing the use of her semblance on Ruby. It seemed to Pyrrha to be a little late to be practicing the thing that Sunset would be relying on to make a success of her quixotic endeavour, but Sunset seemed – making allowances for the fact that she could easily be bluffing – to be confident that just a little practice with the semblance that she had previously ignored would be sufficient to see her through. And Ruby seemed happy enough to let Sunset rummage through her mind and soul as often as she liked in a good cause, which was one more sign that she was a better person than Pyrrha was.

Pyrrha couldn't avoid the feeling that Sunset was somehow managing to train at night, too; even though she slept in the dorm room like the rest of them. But she was sleeping more restlessly, tossing and turning in a manner quite unlike her, and muttering sentences that were mostly inaudible and, when they were not inaudible, were often incomprehensible; the name 'Luna' figured fairly prominently. Sunset didn't feel the need to explain and Pyrrha wasn't sure if she was supposed to ask.

Jaune, too, was preparing for his part in the effort: practicing his semblance for when the time would come to stimulate Amber's aura once Sunset had tied it off. All of which meant that – as the only member of SAPR not directly involved in the operation – Pyrrha found herself at a bit of a loose end.

It was strange, the difficulty that she was having in parsing her feelings about the dizzying way in which she had suddenly found herself relegated from the centre of events to the periphery. On the one hand, she could not deny that she felt a strong sense of relief, a sense that would only grow stronger if Sunset was able to turn her dream into a reality and bring Amber back from the brink of death. She was far from insensible to the fact that Sunset was doing this for her sake, to spare her from having to enter that machine, to save her life and her soul both. If it worked, then Pyrrha would be free to live, to love, to have all that she desired out of her life. If Sunset saved her from the terrible – necessary, but terrible – sacrifice that had seemed to be required of her then surely Pyrrha's gratitude would never cease.

On the other hand – and it was a very stupid hand but Pyrrha could not simply cut it off no matter how much she thought that she probably ought to, no matter how much she at times wanted to – she could not dismiss a certain…she wasn't entirely certain what to call it. But she felt haunted by the possibility that she had missed the call. Had her moment passed? Was she doomed to fade into irrelevance, diminishing in stature and importance like one of the minor characters in Jaune's comics – yes, she'd read some of them; they were better than she'd expected – who might have started off important to the story but faded with every passing page, left behind as ever more godlike figures proliferated all around her?

She did not – had not – wanted to die, but nor did she wish to become useless either.

 _I won't allow that to happen; my destiny is yet in my hands._

 _Yet how can I avoid it in a world that is becoming more magical every day?_

Pyrrha was roused from these musings by a laser blast from Penny hitting her in the chest, knocking her onto her back.

"I'm sorry," Penny cried, covering her mouth with both hands. "I didn't mean to-"

"Yes, you did," Pyrrha said, as she picked herself up off the floor. They were in the auditorium, having been granted permission to use it for a private sparring sessions, the way in which Pyrrha was occupying her time while her team-mates worked on saving Amber. The only person watching from the bleachers was Ciel, who wasn't even really watching; supposedly there to keep an eye on Penny, she seemed to trust Pyrrha sufficiently that she only occasionally looked up from her book – a history of skyships – to make sure that everything was okay. She was looking up now, and Pyrrha couldn't miss the look of surprise on her face.

"You did mean it," Pyrrha repeated. "And you should have. We are sparring, after all, if you're not trying to hit me then what are you doing. You should have finished me off while I was on the ground."

Penny tilted her head to one side. "But isn't the point of this to learn, not to win? What am I learning if I win by taking advantage like that?"

"Winning is the point of every match, no matter its other purposes," Pyrrha said.

"Spoken like a true champion," Ciel murmured.

"If we do not always strive for greatness then we will never attain it," Pyrrha said. Her voice lowered as she could not help but add. "But even if we strive it does not guarantee we will attain." She shook that thought – and the nagging feeling that all the sparring sessions in the world would not actually help her – out of her mind, for the moment at least. "I should be the one apologising to you, for letting myself getting distracted like that. I should have kept my mind in the fight."

"It's okay," Penny said kindly. "Is everything okay?"

Pyrrha – feeling that at this point they might as well pause the fight and then restart again as try to continue – sheathed Milo across her back. "Penny, do you ever feel as though the world around you is changing too fast?"

Penny blinked. "No," she admitted. "But then, I only woke up just a little while ago. I'm still learning all sorts of things."

"So when you find something out…it just seems to be a part of how the world is?" Pyrrha asked.

"More or less," Penny said.

"Salem, magic, maidens, all the rest," Pyrrha continued. "None of it fazed you at all?"

Penny was silent for a moment. "When it came to magic, it was like I'd only just found that it didn't exist, and even that wasn't something that I'd really found out. I just hadn't thought about it before. It wasn't in my memories, and then it was something real. It was like…it was like seeing a rainbow for the very first time: it wasn't that I didn't believe in rainbows, I just had no idea that something so beautiful could actually exist."

Pyrrha smiled sadly. "You're very fortunate, Penny. You can still find the wonder in things that we take for granted, and you can accept things that seem so bizarre and unnatural to me. I envy you."

"Not Salem," Penny murmured.

Pyrrha frowned. "I beg your pardon?"

"You said, 'Salem, magic, maidens'," Penny said. "Magic, and even Maidens, that was easy; like I just said, it wasn't that I didn't believe it was just that I didn't know. But Salem…Salem is different."

Pyrrha stepped closer to the Atlesian android. "How so?"

It seemed strange, almost unnatural, seeing Penny without her usual cheerful demeanour on her face; rather her face was almost crestfallen. "What does it mean to be built to save the world when the person putting the world in danger can't be beaten?"

Pyrrha understood at once. "Penny, you don't have to pretend."

"Huh?"

"You can talk about discovering new things, about not knowing what wasn't real until it turned out that it was," Pyrrha said. "Maybe that's even partly true. But if you feel as though the ground has suddenly crumbled beneath your feet, as though you're falling down a hole with no idea of when or if you're going to reach the bottom, then there's no need to try and pretend. You can tell me."

"I…I don't feel like that at all," Penny said, before she hiccupped. She covered her mouth, too late, and looked abashed. "How did you know?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Pyrrha said. "I've been feeling the same way recently."

"Really? You?" Penny asked incredulously. "No way!"

"Why not? Just because I can knock Arslan Altan and Phoebe Kommenos out of the arena does that mean that I can't feel…" Pyrrha hung her head, because however much she chose to rationalise it she felt the humiliation keenly nonetheless. "Overwhelmed, at times, by all of this. Cinder's power…"

"Is she very strong?" Penny asked.

"Very," Pyrrha said, with emphasis. "Nobody else seems to be taking it the way that I…maybe it's a little different if you've spent half your life being told how great you are."

"Probably," Penny agreed. "It's been my whole life for me."

Pyrrha glanced at her. "I'm sorry if I've-"

"It's okay," Penny assured her. "I'm surprised that you feel that way – you are Pyrrha Nikos after all – but in a way it makes me feel better, to know that I'm not alone. I was…a little worried that it was an android thing."

Pyrrha chuckled. "Definitely not. I just wish that I'd considered that you might be feeling the way I am. I feel as though I've been very…oblivious and self-absorbed."

Penny clasped her hands behind her back. "I was built to be Atlas' trump card. I think that might be what General Ironwood meant by save the world: that I could defend Atlas even when nobody else could. Do you know that when I fire all of my lasers at once in a single burst I have the firepower equivalent of one of the main cannons from a cruiser?"

"I…no," Pyrrha murmured. "I didn't know that, but I suppose I can see it now."

Penny nodded eagerly. "I even had my own team built around me, with two of General Ironwood's best young huntresses ordered just to shepherd me, and Twilight to help me if I needed it. I felt as though everything and everyone was counting on me…but it's all for nothing, because I can't really do any more than anyone else. Do you think that I could fight Cinder, and beat her I mean?"

Pyrrha's pause was partly driven by her being thrown by the sudden change of subject, and partly due to her considering her reply. Penny was powerful, but her heavy laser was slow and cumbersome, and Cinder was unlikely to stand still while she charged it up. "I…I'm not sure, Penny. How's your hand to hand?"

"Better, but I've still got a lot to learn," Penny said. "Why?"

"Because I expect that, if it came to it, Cinder would try to close the range with you rather than let you fire at her," Pyrrha said. It was what she would have done, or tried to do, if her head had been in the game just now. "I'm not sure that you could take her in a fight like that."

"I'm not as good as you, but-"

"It's not about that," Pyrrha said seriously. "I couldn't take her either."

Penny's eyes widened. "Really?"

Pyrrha nodded. "With me, I expect that she'd keep her distance and use her magic to strike at me while I struggled to respond."

Penny looked even more downcast. "What's the point of a superweapon who can't take down supervillains? Sometimes I wonder what the point of me is."

Ciel shut her book in the very audible way that people who want everyone within earshot to know that they are shutting a book do, which is to say with great force. "Alright, this has gone on far enough," she declared, getting up from the bleachers and walking towards the stage. She pulled out her scroll, and lowered the force field that separated the combatants from the spectators, protecting the latter from out of control fire or semblances, so that she could join them on the stage. "Penny, you are not a superweapon."

"But I-"

"You are a soldier of Atlas," Ciel declared, before Penny could get a word in edge ways. "A flower of the north that blooms in the heart of winter itself. A potent soldier, but a soldier nonetheless. Not a weapon. A soldier who, when called upon by your team leader, declared yourself ready to fight and die-"

"I am!"

"And confident in victory," Ciel said. "You can't lie but you can contradict yourself?"

Penny's expression changed from a crestfallen one to something more sullen, like a slightly sulky child. "That was different," she said. "That man, Ruby's uncle, Mister Qrow, he was being really mean to General Ironwood and to all of us. He said that we weren't ready to fight grimm, but we are ready! We've fought grimm and we've beaten them and we'll beat them again."

Ciel's lips twitched upwards. "And why is that?"

"Because…because we've got guts to spare and loyalty to burn?" Penny suggested.

Ciel suppressed a snort. "It sounds better when our leader says it, I must admit."

"But Cinder, and Salem-"

"The nature of our enemy is irrelevant except in as regards strategy and tactical decisions," Ciel said. "What it does not change is the assurance of our victory. We are soldiers of Atlas, as mighty and inevitable as the winter itself, and we shall meet any foe, endure any hardship, bear any burden and pay any price to ensure the survival of the four kingdoms of this world, and Cinder Fall is not exempt from that because she has magic."

"You haven't seen how strong she is," Pyrrha warned.

"And you two both seem two concerned with raw power," Ciel said. "I couldn't defeat you in a straight fight here and now, but…if I was given sufficient time to plan and to prepare I'm sure I could come up with a way to take you down."

"Really?" Pyrrha murmured.

"My initial thoughts involve proximity mines," Ciel said, in such a tone that Pyrrha was genuinely unsure if she was being serious or had a very dry sense of humour. "No one is invulnerable," she continued. "If we cannot brute force a path to victory then we will find another road." She paused. "And if all else fails there is always the Atlesian stand-by: throw heavy ordnance at her until she dies."

Now Pyrrha was absolutely certain that Ciel was joking (at least in part, it did sound like an Atlesian tactic), and she covered her mouth as she chuckled. "That would challenge even her, I'm sure." She turned to Penny. "We should get back to it, if you like. We might not be able to beat Cinder ourselves, either of us, but we can at least not disgrace ourselves when we stand shoulder to shoulder besides our comrades."

"Right," Penny said. She grabbed hold of two of her swords by the hilts as the wires connecting them to her back fell away. "I'd like to try pure hand to hand, if that's alright. I want to see how much I have left to learn before I get to your level."

"Very well," Pyrrha said, pulling Milo over her shoulder and settling into a guard. "But don't expect me to hold back."

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Penny said eagerly.

"Hey!" Rainbow Dash called as she burst through the doors and ran into the auditorium. "Hey," she repeated, as she skidded to a halt. "You should all get out here into the courtyard; you're not going to want to miss this."

"Miss what?" Pyrrha asked.

"Mistral," Rainbow said. "Mistral's here."

"Some might say that's about time," Ciel murmured.

"What does that mean?" Penny asked.

"It means that the first Mistralian fleet to set sail since the Great War has just appeared in the skies over Vale," Pyrrha said softly.

Penny blinked. "But what does _that_ mean?"

Pyrrha smiled briefly. "I'm afraid I don't know, Penny. I'm not sure if anyone does." _Do even the councillors of Mistral know what they have set in motion, or why?_

They all headed out into the courtyard, joining large numbers of students from all four academies – judging by their uniforms, or the lack thereof in the case of the Shade students – standing on the stone path or amongst the trees, looking out beyond the empty docking bays to the skyline of the city below them. Said skyline was already crowded with the many cruisers of the Atlesian fleet, and the many but much smaller Atlesian aircraft that flitted between the mighty warships like minnows picking their way between the whales of a pod, living by being of surface to the greater creatures.

Those Atlesian warships had, in Pyrrha's observation, tended to remain stationary, hovering in place over the city and the school as though they intended to become parts of the landscape, little noticed and unregarded. But they were not stationary any more. Now those cruisers which had hovered in place, stood silent sentinel over the city, facing in all directions with their invisible but all-seeing eyes cast everywhere, were suddenly in motion. It was not frantic, the vessels were far too graceful in their movements for that, but after such a long period of stillness from so many of the vessels it could not help but seem ominous to observe them all in motion, turning eastward like a pack of wolves sensing the approach of rivals upon their territory, their Skygraspers swooping out ahead of them as the cruisers formed a rough concave crescent facing towards the faint and barely visible black smudge that was just about visible in the eastern sky.

At first, Pyrrha wasn't sure exactly what that smudge was. She thought for a moment that Rainbow might have been completely mistaken and it was a flock of nevermores that had been sighted approaching Vale, which the Atlesian airpower had mobilised to repel. But it was moving slowly, far too slowly to be a flock giant nevermores, and as Pyrrha stared at the black clouds crawling but inexorable approach, it eventually became clear that Rainbow had not been mistaken.

Mistral had come at last.

The Mistralian fleet approached at what could politely be described as a solemn, stately pace. While they had a few aircraft – they looked like armed variants of the standard Mistralian airship, although whether they had been manufactured armed or simply had guns stuck on them Pyrrha could not say – flew ahead of the main body, most of them stuck close to the larger warships as the latter proceeded like a weary oxen pulling a cart to market. Their lead warships – which was to say their actual warships, as they were followed by a swarm of hastily converted skyliner, mounting one or two guns or a few rocket launchers appended to the hull – came on in an arrowhead formation, seeming to be aimed at the centre of the Atlesian crescent. On the flanks of the arrowhead were ships that looked almost identical to the Atlesian cruisers save that they were painted olive-green instead of black and white, and Pyrrha had no doubt that at least some of them were Atlesian cruisers, built in the Mantle shipyards and purchased by the Mistralian council; the others were likely copies built in Mistral, though of the four Atlesian-looking ships on the edges of the formation Pyrrha couldn't divide them by sight into the two categories. In the centre of the arrowhead flew – in a manner of speaking – three ships that were quite definitely made in Mistral.

The Mistralian war galleys were each enormous, easily dwarfing the cruisers flanking them and making the smaller airships seem like mere gnats by comparison. Pyrrha tried to imagine the shadows which they must be casting over Vale as they passed above the city streets and found that she could hardly imagine what it would be like to have the sun suddenly completely blotted out by an enormous olive-green behemoth passing overhead. Each ship was not only large, but bristling with weapons too: eight great guns in four enormous, round, cavernous looking twin-turrets mounted dorsally, and a further six guns in three turrets mounted ventrally, while the broadsides bristled with casemate-mounted guns of a much smaller size. Six great fin-like wings extended from the sides, beating lazily up and down as a suite of a dozen propellers drove each war galley on. They were each designed to resemble – somewhat – an antique sailing vessel, with a curved prow like a beak and a pair of anachronistic looking blue eyes painted upon it, looking out towards the Atlesian vessels ranged against them.

Rainbow folded her arms as she watched the Mistralians come on. "Hey, Ciel, do you think they can move any faster than that?"

"I doubt it," Ciel murmured. She had the sight from a sniper rifle and was using it as a telescope, holding it up to her right eye. "They have all propellers working. I think that's their top speed."

"No wonder it took them so long to get here," Rainbow said.

"I think they've sacrificed speed for size and protection, in the same way that our cruisers have sacrificed armour for speed," Ciel said. "It's the battleship philosophy against the battle cruiser. I've no doubt they're heavily protected, but it must take an enormous amount of power just to keep them in the air never mind moving forwards."

Rainbow frowned. "It's a funny design. The firing arcs on those broadside guns are likely garbage and, well, they're guns. Why didn't they use missiles?"

"It does look as though they've attempted to take elements of a Great War dreadnought, combine them with a sailing ship of the line, and make it fly," Ciel said.

"I'm sure there's a good reason behind all of the choices that were made when building those ships," Pyrrha said mildly, feeling as though she ought to stick up for her homeland and its works against the disdain of Atlas.

Rainbow's eyebrows rose. She looked amused by Pyrrha's quaint attitude. "Really? Like what?"

"Well, um," Pyrrha murmured, running into the limitations of her knowledge of ship building. "I, uh, I'm sure that if there were large numbers of flying grimm attempting to swarm the ship those broadside batteries could deal out an immense amount of firepower at close range."

Rainbow nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, you might have a point there. Of course if the ship was getting swarmed by nevermores they'd probably rip the propellers off the back which isn't covered by any guns and the whole thing would drop like a rock."

"Yes, well…nothing's perfect," Pyrrha murmured.

"Are they here to fight with us?" Penny asked.

"That," Ciel said. "Depends entirely on what you mean by fight with us. They're here to assist in security for the Vytal Festival."

"Do we need extra security? I thought General Ironwood was taking care of everything?"

"He is," Ciel said curtly.

"Then what are they doing here?"

"Causing trouble," Rainbow said.

"They're here," Pyrrha said gently. "Because-"

"Because they don't trust Atlas," Rainbow said.

"That's not-" Pyrrha began.

"Yeah," Rainbow said. "It is."

Penny blinked. "Why don't they trust Atlas?"

Nobody said anything, not at first. Ciel attempted an explanation. "Because the current geopolitical situation is not wholly in our favour to the extent that it was until very recently, before a series of unfortunate occurrences unleashed a hitherto buried vein of kingdom-focussed chauvinism that threatens to reverse what had seemed to be the predominant socio-historical and indeed socio-cultural-"

Penny had been blinking rapidly as she processed Ciel's roundabout and prosy burblings, until she said, "You mean it's because of the things that people have been saying about me?"

Ciel's mouth tightened. "That is an excuse, nothing more."

"This isn't your fault, Penny," Rainbow growled. "This isn't your fault at all."

* * *

"Sir, the Mistralian vessels have come to a complete halt."

"Understood," Ironwood said. He stood on the bridge of the _Valiant_ , standing still with his hands clasped behind his back as the CIC was a hive of activity all around him. The ship – all his ships – had gone to condition two, not quite battle stations but far from unprepared for battle either. His cruisers were formed up in a formation that would allow him to both cross the T of and encircle the Mistralian forces should it turn out that they had come all this way in order to get into a scrap with Atlas, and every crew on every ship was prepared for that eventuality.

General Ironwood didn't expect that today would end in battle, but if the Mistralians had come here hoping to catch his forces napping under the guise of peace they would be seriously disappointed. He had no intention of being taken off guard by any of his enemies.

Of course, not everyone was entirely happy with his caution.

"General, is this really necessary," Ozpin asked, as his face looked up at Ironwood from the screen on a console next to where Ironwood stood. "The presence of the Mistralians may not be desired, but they did come here as allies of Vale and Atlas."

"Professor Ozpin," Ironwood said, with a formality necessitated by the public nature of their present conversation. "I understand your desire to avoid conflict; believe me I share in it, but in sending this fleet Mistral has made a show of force. I'm simply making a show of our own. Spitfire."

"Yes sir?" Spitfire's voice responded from over the comm.

"What's their screen doing?"

"Falling back on their warships, general."

"Understood," Ironwood said. "Maintain position in advance of our cruisers.

"Roger that, sir."

"Sir, the Mistralian flagship is hailing us."

"Put it on my console," Ironwood said, turning to look down at the screen as Ozpin's image was halved in size, and joined by the picture of a woman passing gracefully from middle to old age, with the wrinkles just beginning to show upon her face even as her shoulder-length black hair remained untouched by grey.

"General Ironwood," she declared, in a slightly accented voice. "It is an honour to finally meet you face to face, as it were."

"Commander Yeoh, I presume," Ironwood replied. "The honour is mine."

Commander Yeoh smiled. "You needn't flatter me by pretending to know who I am, General; only one of us enjoys a reputation as one of the great soldiers of our day. Although perhaps I should be flattered that you consider me threatening enough to draw up your forces for battle against mine. Or perhaps instead I should be offended, since I came here as a friend and you have greeted me as an enemy."

"Don't friends usually wait for an invitation?" Ironwood asked.

"Despite what you may think, this is not Atlesian territory yet," Yeoh replied. "And our invitation came from the Vale council."

"Indeed, Commander," Ozpin said. "And we are most grateful for the solicitous concern that Mistral has demonstrated towards Vale. That being said, I think you'll find that the moment of vulnerability passed several weeks ago, and I look forward to you and your men being very bored for the duration of your stay here."

"And you must be Professor Ozpin," Yeoh said. "Again, it is an honour to meet a man of your renown and accomplishment at last."

"You flatter me, Commander; my accomplishments are simply what any man in my position would have done."

"Not all men are equally brave," Yeoh said. "Neither are they born equal in courage, nor can they be trained to be equal in valour."

"Is that not what conscription attempts to do?" Ozpin asked.

Yeoh smiled thinly. "My point, Professor, is that you sell yourself too short. Not every man has it within them to be a hero. What one man will go out and face with his head held high another will shrink from in fear. You should acknowledge that, and take pride in the fact that you did not shrink."

Ozpin shrugged. "In any case, you may find that flattering me and meeting General Ironwood may be the only things that you remember about this trip. I expect it will be quite dull as I said. In fact I don't mind saying that I very much hope that will be the case."

"Believe me, gentlemen, I have every intention of returning to Mistral with exactly as many men and exactly as much ammunition as I set out with," Yeoh said. "And yet I don't believe it will be that dull. This is the Vytal Festival, after all; I'm sure we will all remember our feelings of resigned disappointment watching Haven get crushed once more under the feet of Beacon. Although this year we will, with good fortunate, at least take consolatory pride in the achievements of Mistral's prodigal daughter, Pyrrha Nikos."

"I think that to call Miss Nikos prodigal does rather a disservice to her strong sense of right and wrong," Ozpin said lightly. "Perhaps 'wayward' would be a more apt description. In any case, I think it's fair to say that those who expected great things of her here at Beacon have been proven right, and those who expect much of her in the forthcoming tournament are not likely to be disappointed."

"Though she is your student, she remains the pride of our nation, and if Vale thinks to take the glory from the deeds of one who was born in Mistral, raised in Mistral, trained in Mistral and is the heir to and redeemer of a great Mistralian tradition it has, as the expression goes, another thing coming," Yeoh said. "Speaking of Miss Nikos, I take it that as her headmaster you would have no objections to me inviting her to dine with me tonight aboard my ship? I'm quite a fan, as you can tell."

Ozpin hesitated for a moment. "If Miss Nikos does not object, then how can I object?"

 _Perhaps it's a good thing we didn't go through with the Fall Maiden transfer, or haven't yet,_ Ironwood thought. As badly as they needed a Fall Maiden, none of them had really stopped to consider just how much attention would be on Miss Nikos during this tournament. It would have been nigh impossible to conceal the changes in her personality that would have resulted from all but the best case scenarios from that kind of public scrutiny, not to mention her suddenly coming into magic which she would have to learn to control on the fly. _If we'd gone through with it now there would have been so much risk of everything being exposed._

Not that he was convinced that Ozpin's new plan was actually an improvement. Yes, it had the potential to save Amber's life and that would be great, but the old man was putting a lot of faith in Sunset Shimmer, faith that Ironwood wasn't altogether convinced was justified. Yes, she'd accomplished some impressive feats, but her record wasn't one of unbroken successes.

 _What did she say to you to bring you around to this?_

 _Or am I just jealous that you listen to her when you so rarely seem to listen to me?_

It didn't really matter. Ozpin didn't need his permission or his approval to do anything. He would act as he saw fit, as he always had. All Ironwood could do was watch, hope for the best, and prepare for the worst.

"Excellent," Yeoh said. "Now, if we might discuss the security arrangements?"

"General Ironwood and I have taken the liberty of discussing this already," Ozpin said. "And if you would consent to take over the defence of the north-east quadrant of Vale, over which your ships have halted, while the Atlesians continue to monitor the other three quadrants, I believe that would best reflect the balance of numbers and capabilities of your respective forces."

Commander Yeoh's face was impassive for a moment. She nodded. "Very well. I will have my troops take over the garrisoning of the fortification lines on the city outskirts as well as establishing patrols within the city. But, as we are here to provide security for the Vytal Festival, I must insist upon a Mistralian presence in the fairgrounds when they are established and the Amity Coliseum when it arrives."

"I'm not sure that having our forces in such close proximity to one another is such a good idea," Ironwood murmured.

"If you don't trust the discipline of your men, General, you're quite willing to pull them out completely and leave security to mine," Yeoh suggested with seeming innocence.

"That won't be necessary," Ozpin said quickly. "We are all friends here, after all, and what better way to demonstrate the friendship that endures between us than by maintaining a joint presence around the festival itself."

"Your thoughts accord with mine exactly," Yeoh said.

"Could Mistral provide a man for every three Atlesian soldiers stationed on the Coliseum and around the fairgrounds?" Ironwood asked.

"I would prefer one Mistralian for every two Atlesians," Yeoh said. "And security duties on the Coliseum split evenly between our forces."

Ironwood considered that, and decided that he had neither grounds to oppose it nor indeed anything to be particularly concerned about from it. "Very well. We can make the precise arrangements when the arena arrives and the grounds are set up."

"I look forward to it," Yeoh said. "It has been a pleasure to make the acquaintance of you both. Yeoh out." Her image faded.

"What do you think she really wants?" Ironwood muttered.

"I'm not entirely sure," Ozpin replied. "Perhaps Miss Nikos can find out from her tonight?"

* * *

The interior of the Mistralian flagship – the somewhat bluntly named _Pride of Mistral_ had the same faux-antique style of so much else that came out of Mistral. The floor on which Pyrrha's feet trod was wooden, as were the walls of the corridors down which she was shown as she was led towards the commander's cabin. As she walked, Pyrrha smiled politely at the crewmen and soldiers she encountered on the way, waving back when they waved to her, courteously acknowledging the kind of awe in which she was regarded by some of them.

Inwardly it made her uncomfortable, all the more so as her awareness grew of how little deserving she was of this reverence; could they not find anyone more worthy to admire?

Even the commander of this entire expeditionary force, inviting her to dinner as though she, Pyrrha, was the sort of person she ought to know in Beacon.

Still, it might provide her with the opportunity to set the record straight about Penny; if the commander really was a great admirer of hers then maybe she would even be believed.

She glanced at the men and women watching her from either side of the corridor; few among them, she expected, were professional soldiers or sailors. Most of them had doubtless been conscripted to make up this force. Would they not rather be back at home, with their families and at their occupations? If she could convince Commander Yeoh that Atlas was not the enemy then all the discomfort she was presently feeling would be well worth it.

Pyrrha was shown into a spacious cabin, with a bed shoved up against the wall and table set for two. A variety of antique weapons – swords, bows, early and primitive guns of various types – hung on the walls, as did various kinds of lutes with an increasing variety of strings.

Commander Yeoh, dressed in a blue uniform with gold brocade around her wrists, smiled as Pyrrha, wearing her huntress attire, was ushered in. "Miss Nikos," she said, striding forward and holding out one hand. "Thank you for accepting my invitation."

"The gratitude is mine, Commander," Pyrrha said, as she took the older woman's hand. The commander's grip was firm and strong.

"Not at all, I'm honoured to host the great Pyrrha Nikos," Commander Yeoh said, without a trace of anything but sincerity in her voice. "In fact, I almost hate to ask, but would you mind having your picture taken? I'm afraid my granddaughter will never believe I've met you without some kind of proof."

"Oh, of course," Pyrrha said, and she allowed Commander Yeoh to turn her around to face the yeoman who had shown her to the room, who had already gotten his scroll out and was wielding it like a camera as Commander Yeoh pressed close to Pyrrha, their shoulders rubbing together.

Pyrrha smiled and waved.

"Got it," the yeoman said.

"Excellent," Commander Yeoh said. "You've just made me look very cool."

"I'm glad I could help," Pyrrha said. "How old is your granddaughter?"

"Mei is six," Commander Yeoh said. "And very enamoured with you, as so many of our people are."

"If my team gets selected for the Vytal tournament, please tell her that I'll be counting on her to cheer me on," Pyrrha said.

Commander Yeoh's eyebrows rose. "If you are selected? You have doubts?"

"Only eight teams from each school are entered into the first round," Pyrrha said. "Selection isn't guaranteed for anyone."

"Not in theory," Commander Yeoh said, as she ushered Pyrrha towards the table. "But there is no need to be coy about things: the public wants to see you in the tournament, the sponsors want to see you in the tournament and Mistral wants to see you in the tournament. And if Professor Ozpin is as wise as his reputation suggests he will not want the political headache that would come from not selecting you." She pulled out a chair for Pyrrha. "Besides, your accomplishments speak for themselves as recommendation for this honour."

"My team," Pyrrha said somewhat pointedly as she sat down. "Has been blessed with opportunities to show our talents."

"You have done good work," Commander Yeoh said. "And good work deserves its reward." She picked up the china tea pot sitting on the table. "I would offer you wine, but you are still young, and I seem to recall from an interview that you don't partake."

"No," Pyrrha said softly. "My health regimen doesn't permit it."

"You're very wise, it will be the ruin of an athletic body."

 _I don't know; judging by the smell Ruby's uncle seems to be proving the experts wrong about that._

"Can I offer you instead some green tea?"

"You don't need to wait on me, Commander," Pyrrha said, as she started to rise to her feet.

"As the host to the guest, I insist," Commander Yeoh said, as she poured the tea into the cup. She glanced at her yeoman hovering by the door. "You may start serving now."

"Yes, Commander," the yeoman said before he departed.

A tray of spring rolls was brought in, and set down in the middle of the table between the two of them.

"Help yourself, Miss Nikos," Commander Yeoh said, picking a roll off the tray and biting into it with a crack.

Pyrrha pulled the glove off her right hand, and picked up a spring roll of her own. It was warm to the touch and sweet to the taste as she bit into it, finding that this particular roll was filled with minced pork and sliced carrot. "It's very good."

Commander Yeoh nodded. "I'm glad you think so. So, if we assume for a moment that you – and your team – are selected to be one of the representatives of Beacon in the Vytal Festival tournament, what do you think of your chances?"

Pyrrha used the excuse of chewing on a cabbage-filled roll to consider the question. "In all that's been going on I haven't paid as much attention to the students from other schools as I perhaps should have, but even within Beacon there are some formidable adversaries."

"Such as?"

"Yang Xiao-Long," Pyrrha said. "Nora Valkyrie." She was a little glad that the team arrangements meant that she would only have to face one or the other of them in the one on one round. "Weiss Schnee is quite talented. Atlas has some very good young huntsmen too. If you're expecting me to say that I'm guaranteed to walk to victory then I'm afraid I have to disappoint you."

"Spoken with the modesty of a true hero."

"I'm not a hero."

"Really?" Commander Yeoh asked. "And what makes a hero, in your opinion, Miss Nikos?"

"Their deeds, of course," Pyrrha said. "The content of their character."

Commander Yeoh shook her head. "Public opinion, Miss Nikos; you are a hero once sufficient numbers of people regard you as one."

"That…is a rather cynical attitude, Commander."

"Perhaps, but a realistic one," Commander Yeoh replied. "And the fact is that there are many in Mistral who regard you as a hero."

"Six year old girls?" Pyrrha said.

Commander Yeoh chuckled. "Some, no doubt, but not just children. And as we who diligently but with an ever decreasing degree of hope support Mistral in the tournament prepare for another year of uninspired mediocrity from Haven there are many who take comfort that you are a daughter of Mistral, for all that you fight under Beacon's colours."

"I'm sure Professor Lionheart is trying his best," Pyrrha said.

"That arguably makes it worse than if he were not trying at all. Who, in your opinion, does Haven have in contention for the victor's laurels?"

"Sun Wukong," Pyrrha suggested.

"A Vacuan," Commander Yeoh replied. "Besides, from what I understand he is talented but not exceptional."

"Arslan Altan then."

"Your perennial rival and runner-up?" Commander Yeoh said. "Yes, I suppose she could go far with good fortune. And yet the fact that Mistral's best and brightest come out of the arena and not the academy rather proves my point, don't you think? Mistral invented heroic combat as an art and yet the past years have seen a tragic decline in our prowess on the world stage in this most Mistralian of traditions." She gestured to the single-string lute that hung on the wall. "Even now the small villages of Anima ring with the songs of the great warrior epics, preserving the memories of the heroes of our past, but where are the heroes of today and what songs will be sung of them? Where are the champions of Mistral, fit to stand against the best of Atlas and of Vale? Not in Haven Academy, that is for sure. Do you know why tournament fighting as an art survives in Mistral alone of all four kingdoms?"

"Is it not to celebrate this most Mistralian of arts?"

"Indeed, but because it is so loved by the general crowd it serves an important secondary purpose in distracting them from…other concerns," Commander Yeoh said. "Bread and the games, but on the international level the games have been losing their lustre for some time now, as people become resigned to the best a Mistralian team can hope for being to make heavy weather of the four by four round only to crash out in the two on two. But you, Pyrrha, you are something else. You have the ability to change that."

Pyrrha laughed nervously. "I'm from Mistral," she said. "But my team includes two Valish and an Atlesian and we all attend Beacon Academy, so I'm not sure how we can be said to count as a Mistralian team."

"You are a daughter of Mistral, her most adored and beloved of all her daughters," Commander Yeoh said. "The heir to our heroic traditions. In you the pride and glory of Mistral stands reborn. When you conquer in the Coliseum it will lift the hearts of all Mistralians."

"If I win," Pyrrha said softly.

"When," Commander Yeoh said. "You must win, for the sake of Mistral, for the sake of our people, for the sake of all their hopes and dreams which rest upon your shoulders, you must win."

Pyrrha did not reply, even as she felt the weight settle upon her shoulders. What could she say to that? That she would do her best? She would do that anyway, but this…did she have to be the receptacle for all of Mistral's hopes? Couldn't she just be one fighter amongst many?

 _Do I want a great and elevated destiny or not? I should probably make up my mind before I start complaining._

Commander Yeoh did not press the point, but rather allowed the conversation to lapse as they ate a few more of the spring rolls and then she summoned her yeoman to take them away. Shortly thereafter the main course of duck was brought in. It was succulent and delicious, and Commander Yeoh allowed Pyrrha some time to appreciate it before she said, "Miss Nikos, may I be blunt for a moment?"

Pyrrha swallowed. "You want to know about the Breach?"

"Did Penny Polendina sabotage the train?" Commander Yeoh asked. "Did Atlas deliberately cause the Breach?"

"No," Pyrrha said without hesitation. "Absolutely not. Penny was fighting by my side, and the train had already been sabotaged by the time we arrived. Atlas didn't do this. It was all the White Fang."

Commander Yeoh stared at her for a moment. "I see," she said. "I thought as much."

Pyrrha's eyes widened a little. "You did?"

"Of course," Commander Yeoh said. "It was never likely that Atlas would make such a clumsy move; although I don't doubt that there are some elements in the city that would like to establish a greater control over Vale they would be more subtle and circumspect in their designs to accomplish such a thing."

Pyrrha stared at the woman opposite her in disbelief. "And this sentiment…is it widely shared? Do many people in Mistral agree with you?"

"I haven't conducted an opinion poll," Commander Yeoh said lightly. "But amongst the councillors and the prominent families you will not find many who seriously entertain the idea that Atlas conducted a false flag operation in order to justify an occupation of Vale."

"Then…" Pyrrha stumbled, incredulity temporarily rendering her speechless. "All these ships and all these men…why? What are you doing here if you don't suspect any Atlesian wrong doing?"

"You don't believe that we are simply here to assist in securing the Vytal Festival?"

"Not particularly," Pyrrha said. "The first fleet that Mistral has set forth since the Great War, the first army that Mistral has raised in decades, how can this only be about security for the Vytal Festival?"

Commander Yeoh smiled. "Your mother said you were an intelligent girl, it is good to see that she was not overstating things."

"You spoke to my mother?"

"She advised me that meeting with you would be pointless, although frankly it will be worth it just for Mei's reaction," Commander Yeoh said. "She also disliked the idea of this expedition."

"That suggests she understood the purpose of this expedition," Pyrrha said softly.

Commander Yeoh poured herself a fresh cup of tea. "Mistral is the oldest of the four kingdoms, and the largest," she said. "And there was a time not so very long ago when Mistral and Mantle were equals. Yet now, in the face of Atlesian military and industrial pre-eminence, all three other kingdoms are made small and insignificant by comparison."

"I wouldn't call Mistral insignificant."

"Neither would I, Miss Nikos, that is why we are here," Commander Yeoh said. "I was given command of this fleet because I have long been an advocate for Mistral maintaining some form of standing army. Nothing so large and expensive as the Atlesian forces, but something with teeth. Take the incident with the karkadann from not too long ago; is it not absurd that Mistral's only defence at that time was that you happened to be home on vacation?"

"It…does suggest that Mistral's resources were not being used…all that wisely," Pyrrha conceded. "But more huntsmen, not soldiers, are the solution there are they not?"

"A few more huntsmen may be sufficient to secure the city but they will not help the citizens to feel secure, still less to feel powerful," Commander Yeoh replied. "Your swift action in dealing with that beast won you great plaudits and justified your title as the Champion of Mistral-"

"I forfeited that title by failing to compete in this year's tournament," Pyrrha pointed out.

"And who won in your place? A non-entity. You remain the champion of the hearts of the people, and it is the hearts of the people that concern us even more than the arrogance of Atlas, although the two go hand in hand.

"Atlas flaunts its superiority in all things: military, technological, economic. It oh so graciously deigns to defend the other kingdoms, in exchange of course for what we may do for Atlas in return. It dictates terms, establishes garrisons; why it even frees criminals and enrols them into its forces."

"Blake…that's more complicated than it seems," Pyrrha said.

"Exactly," Commander Yeoh said. "It seems. It seems yet another example of Atlas' overweening pride, and we are very concerned with what seems. The people are concerned with what seems. Bread and the games, and yet as I told you the games are losing some of their lustre thanks to many years of poor performance. The people are beginning to wonder why we, Mistral, old and honourable, are content to become the mere breadbasket of Atlas. And so…here we are."

"This expedition is a piece of theatre," Pyrrha said. "You're seeking to appease the popular clamour for action by appearing to take a tough stand against Atlas, but in a situation where you don't actually have to do anything at all."

"Nobody wants war with Atlas, we would have to be fools to desire that," Commander Yeoh said. "What we want is to be respected as something a little closer to an equal than we are now; we want the people to feel that we are respected more than they feel we are now. Sabre-rattling and gesture politics, and when the tournament is over and you are victorious Mistral will feel a renewed sense of confidence."

Pyrrha frowned. "I hope you don't mind me saying that you seem to be playing a very dangerous game," she said. "Your granddaughter may be too young to fight in a war but she is not too young to suffer the consequences if a war breaks out by accident because of this chest-thumping."

"Why would I start a war I do not want?" Commander Yeoh asked. "Why would General Ironwood start a war he does not want?"

 _Salem would probably want a war very much, and Cinder too._ Pyrrha suppressed a shiver. "This seems like the situation where misunderstandings could happen so easily."

"Then tell General Ironwood and Professor Ozpin what I have told you," Commander Yeoh suggested. "That way we will reduce the chance of misunderstandings. And, if you wouldn't mind, please consider endorsing our intervention and presence here publicly. It would mean a lot if the champion of Mistral were to be seen to be vocally and unequivocally on our side."

Pyrrha smiled slightly. "If I were to guess I would suggest that was what my mother was referring to when she said it was pointless to invite me here."

"She told me you would not stand alongside us."

"And I'm afraid I can't," Pyrrha said. "I think what you're doing is ill-advised and reckless. And even if it weren't it would still be wrong. I decided to train to become a huntress so that I could protect mankind against its real enemies, the grimm. We have enough to worry about without making enemies amongst ourselves as well, we need to maintain the alliances that bind our kingdoms not weaken them out of chauvinism or misplaced pride."

Commander Yeoh nodded. "Lady Nikos said you would be idealistic about this. She also thought this whole expedition a waste of time."

"In this case I think my mother is very wise."

Commander Yeoh shrugged. "You think I am reckless, I think you worry too much; you are allowed your opinion. All I can do is wish you good luck in the tournament, and assure you that it will not come to war. That is not my intent."

"We all intend so many things, commander," Pyrrha said. "And yet, so many other things that we didn't intend seem to happen all the time regardless."


	144. Amber

Amber

"Sunset," Twilight said. "I'm a little concerned about this."

Sunset looked at her. They were down in the vault, a camping light illuminating their table in the darkness of the underground chamber. The pale light of Amber's pod cast a light not too far away, beseeching and bewitching in equal measure. Soon, tomorrow in fact, that pod would become unnecessary, for tomorrow they were going to bring Amber round.

But tonight, apparently Twilight had doubts.

"No offence, Twilight," Sunset said. "But isn't it a little late for that?"

"Probably," Twilight conceded. "But when you first suggested this I was so happy that Rainbow wouldn't have to go through with this, and neither would Pyrrha; and then, I just get so worked up and focussed on a project, you know? But now that we're ready, now that we're about to do this…I'm a little worried."

"By what?"

"What's going to happen if, when, we pull this off," Twilight said.

Sunset frowned. "That's what you're worried about? Not the actual hard part but what comes after?"

"What does come after?"

Sunset shrugged. "Amber wakes up. We have a Fall Maiden again." _And she and Cinder have to fight a second time and this time we'll probably have to make sure that Cinder goes down so that Amber can get all her powers back._

 _Cinder, even if you did turn over a new leaf right this instant I'm not sure that I could save you. Can either you or Amber live while the other survives?_

Somehow she doubted that those particular misgivings of hers were the same as whatever was plaguing Twilight's mind at this moment.

"Sure," Twilight murmured. "Amber wakes up. But what…what will she be when she wakes up."

Sunset's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"

"I mean her aura has been ripped in half as though somebody took a blunt axe to it, goodness knows what that's done to her actual soul," Twilight said. She had a large, old leather-bound book sitting on the desk in front of her. She turned it around and pushed it closer to Sunset. "Aura is a reflection of the soul, yes?"

"Sure."

"It's a metaphor that Clover returns to time and time again, often using some additional detail," Twilight said. "As she puts it, the difference between auras can explained using the idea of the distorted mirror, where different panes of glass can produce radically altered reflections. Like funhouse mirrors, except they didn't have funhouses in Clover's time so she doesn't say exactly that but that's certainly the general idea. Jaune's aura is huge not because he has a huge soul, so to speak, that would be kind of ridiculous; his aura is so much huger than anyone else's because his mirror is reflecting back his soul in such a way that it appears larger than it really is in the way that some mirrors can make you seem bigger or smaller than they really are."

"That's great, Twilight, but I'm not sure what you're getting at," Sunset said. "Aura is not the actual soul; when our aura breaks or runs out we're not actually soulless beings in the interval until it comes back. What's done to the mirror is not actually done to the thing reflected in the mirror. If you look into a cracked mirror it doesn't actually mean that you're face is in pieces."

"But there's a reason simple aura damage doesn't kill us," Twilight said. "If Amber had just taken a couple of bad hits to her aura then she wouldn't be dying right now. Her aura isn't just damaged, it's disintegrating."

"Dark magic."

"But what if there is some effect on her actual soul?" Twilight asked. "What if part of the reason her aura can't regenerate properly is because there's less for the mirror to reflect than their used to be?"

Sunset leaned back in her chair. "Okay," she said. "Let's accept that for the moment. What about it? She'll still be alive, and the alternative is that she dies one way or the other."

"I know," Twilight said. "I'm just worried that…what she's been through is so completely unprecedented even before we add in the trauma of Cinder's attack that led to her being in this condition. We don't know what effects this will have on emotionally, spiritually, mentally. She might have gaps in her memory, or her emotional range, or-"

"But once again I repeat that she'll be alive," Sunset said. "She might have some problems, and I'll accept that she's probably been through a lot, but whatever issues she might have we can help her get through them. Celestia knows that everyone has helped me get through my issues."

"Is it the same thing?"

"I don't know, but why can't it be?" Sunset replied. "She'll be alive, Twi. In every other scenario Amber dies in some way and probably so does Pyrrha. We don't know exactly what she'll be like…but we'll be able to find out, and that's not something that we can say in any other option, is it?"

Twilight hesitated. "No," she said. "And I wasn't actually suggesting not doing this, I just…I'm worried."

Sunset patted her on the shoulder. "It's going to be okay," she said. "We're going to save Amber and then…whatever comes next we'll handle it. Like we handle everything else."

Twilight smiled. "You're really good at that aren't you?"

"At what?"

"Acting like you haven't a doubt."

"I don't have any doubts."

Twilight chuckled. "Yeah, sure." She glanced over her shoulder at Amber. "I don't want to be right about this. I want her to come out of pod every inch the person she went in. Do you really think we can do it?"

"Yeah," Sunset said. "I think we can. I think we have to. We don't have a choice, for our friends' sake."

Twilight nodded. "For our friends' sake." She looked back at Sunset. "It's funny, if this works we're going to make medical history and nobody will ever know."

"Nobody will know half the things we do, that's what makes this so infuriating," Sunset said. "Saving the world and nobody knows we're doing it. No glory, no parades, just…silent duty. But we're doing good, so…" She stood up. "You should get some rest, Twilight. We've got a big day ahead of us."

"And you've got the biggest day of all, why don't you rest yourself?"

"I plan to," Sunset said. "I just…I need to talk to someone while I'm doing it."

* * *

 _In Sunset's dream she was a unicorn. A unicorn sitting on one of the many balconies of the palace in Canterlot, looking out over the many sparkling lights of the city at night as they seemed to reflect the myriad lights in the night sky above._

" _The irony is not lost on me," Luna said as she sat down beside Sunset. "That I rebelled against Celestia because I felt as though nopony would ever love the night, when if I had only had a little patience I might have been free to see them do so."_

" _Could you have borne to sit still and endure for so long, princess?" Sunset asked._

 _Luna was silent a moment. "No."_

 _Sunset nodded. "Me neither."_

 _Luna glanced down at her. "You dream of home."_

" _I dream of Canterlot," Sunset corrected her. "Beacon is my home now. Sapphire is my home."_

" _And yet you dream of Canterlot."_

" _I dream of peace," Sunset said. "Am I ready, Princess Luna?"_

" _No," Luna said. "But to make you ready would have required far more time than you have. You are as ready as your circumstances allow. You will have to muddle through."_

" _I told Twilight that I would succeed because I couldn't afford to fail."_

" _As good a reason as any to succeed, I suppose."_

 _Sunset looked up at her. "Be honest, princess, what do you rate my chances?"_

 _Luna put one wing around Sunset. "You are inexperienced in this, it's true," she said. "And you could have perhaps have made more use of your powers in that world, but I would not have agreed to aid you this far, not even for Celestia's urging, if I did not think you had a chance. You have made promises that must be kept."_

 _Sunset nodded in acknowledgement of that. "If I let Professor Ozpin down I don't know what he'll be driven to do next…and I won't be able to stop him a second time."_

" _As you said, you cannot afford to fail."_

 _Sunset was silent a while. "Twilight – the Twilight in my world – is worried that Amber will come out of this…changed. Different."_

" _She is probably right."_

" _She is?" Sunset asked. "What makes you say that?"_

" _Because dreams matter," Luna said. "What we see in our dreams affects us when we wake; although the dream may disappear, its effects will linger on in the back of the minds or at their forefront in the case of a particularly vivid dream. What dreams this Amber has been having…I doubt they have been pleasant."_

 _Sunset tapped her hooves on the balcony. "Any last minute advice?"_

" _Every dream is different, as every dreamer is," Luna said. "There is nothing specific I could say to benefit you, I fear."_

" _I suppose you've helped me enough," Sunset said. "Thank you, princess, for everything."_

" _It is a difficult thing that you have chosen to undertake, Sunset Shimmer," Luna said. "But it is a noble thing, and for that reason alone I wish you success in your venture tomorrow."_

 _Sunset smiled tightly._

" _But something else troubles you," Luna said. It was a statement, not a question._

" _When Amber comes around, if I can bring her round," Sunset said. "She'll have to kill Cinder."_

" _Your friend."_

" _In a manner of speaking," Sunset said._

" _Is there any way such a thing can be avoided?"_

" _If there is I don't see it."_

" _Yet," Luna said._

" _Princess?"_

" _It took you a little time to see that there was a way in which another dire fate for one of your friends could be avoided, didn't it?" Luna reminded her. "Focus on the task before you for now. Focus on Amber. Focus on saving her life. Then, when that is done, you can bend yourself to the task of saving Cinder's."_

" _If she even wants to be saved," Sunset murmured. "Pyrrha, at least, would probably tell me to give up on her."_

" _No offence to this Pyrrha, but I have a somewhat different perspective," Luna said. "And I for one am very glad that Celestia did not give up on me."_

 _Sunset smiled. "Then I won't give up either. I'll find a way…to save everyone." She got up onto her hooves. "Thank you for everything. Wish me luck tomorrow."_

" _Never stop reaching out, Sunset Shimmer," Luna said. "For what you reach for you will, for the most part, grasp, but the moment you cease to reach out…is the moment all things will become beyond you."_

* * *

The vault was crowded. Everyone was there, absolutely everyone, standing nearer or further away from Amber as they waited for the attempt to begin: Qrow was lounging against the wall with his arms folded across his chest; Professor Ozpin was stood in the centre of the walkway, leaning heavily upon his cane, looking as though he might collapse from anticipation at any moment; Professor Goodwitch stood beside him, hands wrapped around her riding crop, her face impassive; General Ironwood stood at ease, with his hands clasped behind him, a little further away from Amber and from Professor Ozpin than the rest; Ruby and Penny, who had nothing particular to do with this but were here anyway, stood unobtrusively on the left-hand side of the vault; Ciel was helping Twilight with the last minute preparations to the ice bath and all of her additional equipment that they would need to make a success of this; Rainbow Dash watched Sunset with a keenness that verged upon suspicion; Jaune stood by, looking ready but nervous at the same time; Pyrrha put one arm upon his shoulder and smiled reassuringly at him; Sunset herself stood in front of Amber, looking upwards at the girl in the glass box. The girl they hoped to save.

 _I don't intend for your soul to go anywhere._

Qrow took a drink from his flask. "I still can't believe that you're letting them go through with this, Oz."

"If it saves Amber-" Professor Goodwitch began.

"Pretty big if," Qrow said.

"I thought you didn't like my machine, Qrow," General Ironwood said. "Shouldn't you be glad we don't have to use it?"

"I don't like your machine, one bit," Qrow growled. "That doesn't mean that I believe in miracles." He shook his head. "Maybe I should get out of here before I screw things up for her."

"Not everything that goes wrong is your fault, Qrow," Ozpin said patiently. "Amber's condition isn't. And I believe that the success or failure of Miss Shimmer's plan rests on far more than whether you are present or not."

"If you're sure," Qrow said. He took another drink. "But you never answered my question: what made you decide to put all your chips on this?"

"A conversation," Professor Ozpin said. "With a lady who gave me a renewed appreciation for the virtues of hope and faith."

"Is that why you won't explain exactly how all of this is supposed to work?" General Ironwood said. "Or is that you can't."

"So long as I can save Amber, General," Sunset said. "Does it really matter to you how I did it?" She had no wish to divulge Equestria and the source of her magic to him. He seemed a decent enough man, and Twilight was fond of him and RSPT in general respected him greatly, but he was an Atlesian soldier first and foremost and he might have…notions of how to employ her and her powers that did not necessarily accord with Sunset's own.

"Trust me, General," Twilight said. "If anything can work, this will."

General Ironwood immediately looked a little less troubled. "Very well, Twilight. I'll trust you."

"When will you be ready to begin, Miss Shimmer?" Professor Ozpin asked.

"Twilight?" Sunset murmured.

Twilight looked down at the white, sterile ice bath that she had, with some difficulty, erected in the vault. It was filled with water and ice, obviously, and ready to receive Amber. An IV drip and some additional monitors stood nearby.

"I think…" she began. "Yes, I'm ready."

"Jaune?"

Jaune raised his hands. They glowed briefly with the light of his semblance. "Ready."

Sunset looked down at her hand. She had taken her glove off for the first time in a while. She'd had to if she was going to use her semblance. She clenched her hand into a fist.

 _This better work._

"Ready," she said. "Let's go."

"Right," Twilight. "Ciel, unseal the casket."

Ciel nodded briskly, and strode to the very back of the vault where the controls to both Amber's life support and the infernal machine were located. Ciel's nimble fingers began to tap swiftly upon the screen. "Unsealing…now."

There was a popping sound, and white smoke began to leak from the edges of the glass-and-metal pod as the seals that kept it airtight were broken. Slowly, as if the machine itself possessed a sense of gravitas, the lid of the pod began to elevate upwards, inch by inch, until it stood at a right angle to the pod itself, and Amber were exposed to the world.

Instantly, the machines started to beep in alarm.

"Pyrrha, get her into the ice bath," Twilight cried.

Pyrrha was already at the pod, and with great gentleness and even greater care she lifted Amber's comatose and unresponsive form out of the pod. The Fall Maiden seemed small and delicate in Pyrrha's arms, as she was lowered delicately into the ice bath.

The alarms that were being sounded began to quiet, although they did not silence as Twilight attached wired-up pads to Amber's arms. "The ice bath is slowing her metabolism, as expected. Applying the IV." She jabbed a needle into Amber's elbow, said needle being in turn attached to a bag of light blue fluid. "That should help too," Twilight said. "I'll keep monitoring, but…" She looked at Sunset. "It's time."

Sunset walked forwards. Pyrrha had laid Amber in the bath with her head closes to Sunset, and for a moment Sunset simply looked down on her, floating amidst the icy water, her brown hair spreading out all around her face like a halo. She looked so small, so frail, so vulnerable; with her eyes closed and her expression so unresponsive she looked – floating in the water as she was – as much dead as asleep.

She did not have time to look long. She only had time to act. Sunset raised her hand.

"Time to wake up," she said, as she placed her palm flat on Amber's forehead.

Sunset gasped as her eyes began to glow pure white. She felt the heady rush of energy running through her arm as her long-dormant semblance sprang to life and then-

 _Thunder rolled in the skies above._

 _There was no lightning. There was no rain. There was nothing but the incessant rumbling of the thunder, growling on and on and producing no other effects but the sound, the sound in the boiling grey clouds up above, the constant pounding sound so loud it seemed as though it ought to shake the very world as the dark clouds consumed the sky._

 _Anger. Pain. Fear._

 _Those were the three emotions that Sunset felt. They were the only three emotions that she felt as she stood in the midst of a wood somewhere, with the thunder rolling on and on and the clouds growing ever darker above her. She felt the emotions that Amber was feeling and Amber was feeling anger, pain and fear._

 _The anger was...well, it wasn't quite as bad as the sheer rage at everyone and everything coursing through Cinder but it was coming pretty close. The fear made Sunset want to cower on her knees in terror, putting her head in her hands and screaming for Celestia; the pain, the pain, Sunset wanted to scratch at her face until the skin fell off to try and get the pain to stop, she wanted to throw herself into a fire just to stop the cold, she wanted to plunge into the deepest darkness where no light could reach anything to just make it stop._

 _Sunset's breathing was coming shallow now, shallow and quick, and she had to fight to steady it. She had to fight. She had been prepared for something like this. Not for the deluge of terror and hatred mingling in Amber's soul – Twilight might have had more of a point than Sunset had initially credited – but for the need to protect herself from Amber's emotions. That was the risk with Sunset's semblance, that had always been the risk from the moment that they had activated and Sunset had been deluged with Cinder's fury. She had to block them out. She had to remain herself if she was to see this through._

 _That was part of what she and Luna had been practicing at nights. She had to focus on things that were hers, things that Amber would have knowledge of, things that would counteract the fear and pain and anger that dominated Amber's mindscape. As the thunder howled, Sunset stood straight. She closed her eyes, armouring her soul in her own experiences against Amber's feelings and the things that had befallen her: Ruby throwing her arms around Sunset that night outside the dorm room, after the field trip to Forever Fall; Pyrrha recognising her as an equal on the rooftop after their duel; the four of them embracing after they were rescued from the White Fang; Celestia forgiving her for all her wrongs and welcoming her back into the embrace of her affection; Blake reaching out to her for help; dancing with Flash and ending things the right way; all her friends; the silver light in Ruby's soul driving away Cinder's darkness as that beautiful music played all around her._

 _Though they could not be with her here, they were all with her nevertheless, standing guard over the integrity of her own thoughts as Sunset, though she could feel the beating of Amber's feelings upon her soul like waves pounding at a sea wall, was able to keep her own feelings separate as she surveyed the world around her._

 _The clouds were not a part of any memory of Amber's; there was no lightning emanating from the thunder, and beneath the dark clouds the sunlight was falling brightly on the forest as though the clouds weren't there, which they weren't. This was a symptom of Amber's troubles, a creation of her anger. Wherever this was, whenever this was, the day itself had been beautiful._

 _Wherever this was, whenever this was. One of the downsides of putting up an emotional barrier between herself and Amber was that things Sunset would have known straight away were unclear to her now. She would have to keep her eyes open and try to work things out the old-fashioned way._

 _And also work out if this storm was a sign of the damage to Amber's aura, or simply a consequence of her having been through a lot. Sunset eyed it carefully. It didn't look as she and Luna had discussed the damage to Amber's soul appearing; according to Luna it would take the form of tears in the world around her, reality itself being torn apart. This was not that. This was just a visible sign of Amber's emotions clouding over everything else._

 _She strained her ears. Was that…Sunset listened carefully. Yes, there it was, barely audible beneath the sound of the constantly rolling thunder, but she could hear someone singing. Not like the music in Ruby's soul, but still beautiful. Whoever was singing had a lovely voice, for all that Sunset could barely hear it…although, as she strained to hear it so it became easier to hear, rising above the storm or perhaps it was more true to say that the storm receded from her ears to let her better hear the singing. Whichever was true, Sunset followed the sound. It was not far, once she picked her way through the tall trees of this stout oak forest she soon came to a ruined building, with a dirt track leading to it from out of the trees. It wasn't entirely clear to her what kind of a building it was: it was square, with what looked like the remains of a tower at one end, built out of grey stone blocks, with buttresses and gargoyles decorating the exterior. It was almost all gone now, only a few crumbling remains and a single weather-worn gargoyle remaining of it. The singing was coming from within, and so it was within that Sunset headed. The floor was gone, replaced by the same grass that dominated without the ruin walls, but against the northern wall there remained, though overgrown by vines and moss, a marble statue of a woman, swathed in a shawl, her hands clasped beatifically to her chest as she looked downwards to where people might have stood or knelt before her._

 _Right now the statue was looking down at Amber, it was clearly she for all that she had her back to Sunset, who was standing before the statue of the lady, standing in a patch of sunlight falling through a hole in the wall. And she was singing._

 _She was the source of that beautiful voice, standing mirroring the stance of the statue, with her head bowed and her hands clasped to her chest, singing so beautifully. Sunset wasn't sure if she'd ever heard such a beautiful singing voice before. Had even Princess Celestia sang so sweetly?_

 _Sunset tentatively lowered her emotional defences; there were still the thunderclouds overhead, there was still the same anger and pain, but there was happiness here too; it was faint beneath the fear and anger but she could feel it. She could even feel love._

" _Who are you?"_

 _Sunset turned, to see Amber standing behind her. She was dressed in clothes that, although rustic in style, were clearly tailored, with golden bangles hanging from her wrist. A quick glance confirmed that the singing Amber had not moved, and in any case this Amber (the one who had just demanded to know who Sunset was) had scars criss-crossing her face. The real Amber, the present Amber, the comatose Amber trapped in her own mind._

" _Who are you?" Amber demanded a second time. "I don't remember you, you don't belong here." Her amber eyes widened. "Did she send you?"_

 _Sunset raised her hands. "My name is Sunset Shimmer. I'm a huntress, Professor Ozpin-"_

 _Amber screamed, and as she screamed the thunder roared louder, loud enough to completely drown out the memory of her singing in the ruin, and as she shrieked in fury she thrust out her hands and Sunset was struck by an enormous gust of wind that knocked her off her feet, blowing her on her back along the grass._

" _Get out of here!" Amber yelled. "You don't belong here! I don't want you here!"_

 _Sunset picked herself up off the ground. "I know that you've been through a lot-"_

" _Go!" Amber screamed, and she hurled a second gust of wind at Sunset. But Sunset was prepared for it this time, and with a thought she conjured up a shield that resisted Amber's blast as though it were nothing at all._

" _I'm here to help you, Amber," Sunset said. "I know who you are, and I'm here to help. If you'll just trust me I can get you out of here."_

 _Amber shook her head, tears forming at the edges of her eyes as she retreated away from Sunset. "You can't help me. Nobody can help me. Just…just get out of here before one of them finds me."_

" _Who?" Sunset asked. "Who finds you?"_

 _A shadow fell across the entrance to the ruin._

" _Your voice is too lovely for the squirrels and the birds alone," Professor Ozpin said, as he walked through the crumbling archway that was all that remained of the entrance to this fallen place. He was smiling, in fact he looked more at ease than Sunset had ever seen him. His cane was nowhere to be seen, and he walked with the vigour of a much younger man._

 _Amber – the Amber of memory, the past Amber – turned to look at him, her green cloak swirling around her. She smiled, she was younger in this memory but not so much younger; perhaps a little younger than Ruby. "Uncle Ozpin," she said, in a tone that was slightly exasperated, slightly teasing, and most full of joy and happiness. "I come up here so that no one can hear me."_

" _And I'm telling you there is no need," Professor Ozpin said. "You could sing at the greatest concert halls in Vale and you would hold the crowds enraptured."_

 _Amber skipped across the grass towards him. "Does that mean you'll talk to mom?" she asked. "Does that mean you'll take me with you when you go?"_

" _Amber-"_

" _I want to see what's out there, Uncle Oz," Amber said. She clasped her hands behind her as she leaned a little sideways. "I want to see the world. I want to see your world, oh, brave new world." She twirled in place, spreading her arms out around her like a dancer. "I want to see everything and everyone. I want to see where you go whenever you're not here. There must be so much more out there than this."_

" _No," Amber – the other Amber, the present Amber, the soul of the wounded and unconscious Fall Maiden – cried, as she shook her head desperately. "No, you don't. You really don't. It's dangerous out there, it isn't worth it, just stay here."_

 _Professor Ozpin smiled fondly. "Maybe later, when you're older."_

 _The Amber of memory pouted. "I've fourteen years old; I'm not a child any more." She smiled. "How long can you stay?"_

" _Not long, I'm afraid," Professor Ozpin said. "Duty calls."_

" _When are you going to tell me what it is that you do when you're not here."_

" _When-"_

" _When I'm older," Amber said with mock exasperation. She kissed Professor Ozpin on the cheek. "I miss you when you're not here."_

" _And I miss you-"_

" _No!" the Amber of the present yelled. "No! Don't listen to him! Don't trust him! He's the reason, it's all his fault, he made me this way!"_

" _What are you talking about?" Sunset demanded. "Professor Ozpin didn't attack you-"_

" _He put this power inside me!" Amber cried. "That's the reason they were hunting me, he's the reason-" She stopped, eyes wide and filling with tears. She looked around, head darting this way and that like a rabbit. "No. No, no. They've found me. It's coming."_

" _What are you talking about?"_

" _Stay away from me," Amber cried, as she fled into the forest and out of sight._

 _Sunset didn't pursue. As important as it was to follow her, she had a feeling that a touch of whatever dark power Cinder had infected her with was about to make itself known._

 _Amber and Ozpin continued their conversation in memory. Sunset didn't pay as much attention as she perhaps should have, but she was listening for the approach of darkness and, in any case, Professor Ozpin was being so fond and tender with Amber, so unusually so in her experience, that it seemed almost indecent to spy upon the particulars of their interactions as they walked away, arm in arm, headed towards wherever, somewhere else._

 _Sunset looked around the ruin. So, Amber had come here to practice her singing where nobody could hear. She could understand that; she'd had a secret place in the palace garden, an overgrown and abandoned place where nobody ever went, where she would sneak off to practice spells where nobody could see, so that nobody could see her screw up. And it didn't matter how good you were or how unlikely you were to screw up: that fear of doing so, and of failing to live up to the expectations of the person who you wanted to impress more than anyone in the world, never left you._

 _Amber and Ozpin departed, blissfully unaware of the approach of the enormous beowolf that lumbered through the woods, snorting and snarling. It raised its head and roared up at the thundering sky, and then it began to swipe its claws left and right, and as it slashed seemingly the empty air the empty air was scored and wounded, revealing darkness beneath and howling winds that began to gust at Sunset as they flooded through from out of the void, released by the damage that the metaphorical beowolf was inflicting._

" _Oh no you don't," Sunset muttered, and she clicked her fingers._

 _Instantly the beowolf was engulfed in fire, its whole black body burning, and the mental grimm howled in pain as the flames rippled up its body, consuming everything._

 _Sunset grinned. It was good to be able to do whatever she could imagine doing. She clapped her hands together and the earth itself rose up to swallow the burning beowolf whole, crushing it to nothingness in a vice of inescapable pressure._

" _One down," Sunset thought. "Some more left to go."_

 _Now she just had to deal with the wounds inflicted on Amber's aura and soul._

 _Sunset raised both her hands, as the winds blowing in from the empty void beyond buffeted her jacket and blue her hair this way and that. She raised her hands and imagined severed pieces of metal being welded together, she imagined Jaune at the forge remaking his sword, melting the fragments together as the heat of the furnace turned the metal molten. Sunset thought of that as she raised her hands, and a wave like molten metal slid down the very wall of reality itself, closing the wounds the beowolf had inflicted as the walls of Amber's memory were cleansed and closed and made whole once again._

" _Amber?" Sunset called. "Amber, where are you?" If Amber was still somewhere nearby then she would hear Sunset, but if not then Sunset thought it likely that she would be-_

 _The sky darkened. The whole world darkened. But then it was filled with light again. Light after a fashion, at least. The world was grey, and it wasn't just because of the storm clouds booming out Amber's anger and her fear. The world was grey because it had been a grey day. But it was windy because Amber's aura was falling apart._

 _Whatever this memory was it had been destroyed. Sunset could just about make out Beacon Tower, the green lights burning in Ozpin's office, and so the area around here must be Beacon, but it was hard to tell. There were rents and tears everywhere, the people walking through the courtyard were mere silhouettes devoid of features that had been robbed from Amber's memories by the decay and the destruction. Tattered shreds of remembrance fluttered free, barely tethered to the tower at the centre of it all, the only thing that was holding it all together, and the wind howled even louder than the thunder as it pulled upon the threads to tear them all to pieces._

 _Sunset reached out and pulled back._

 _It was harder going this time, the force trying to destroy was much greater than it had been and what Sunset had to work with was so much less. She was lucky that she knew some of the details herself. She could give Amber some of her own memories of Beacon courtyard, of the school, of what lay around the tower, using her memories of what ought to go where and what this building looked like and where the statue was in relation to the dining hall and she could wrench, by force of will, the memory together and reconstruct it not exactly in her own image but out of her perception. But only the superficials. She could expel the darkness, she could banish the void, she could weld the threads of Amber's aura together until they became whole, she could even recreate Beacon from her own experiences of it but as to what this memory had once been, what it meant to Amber, who had been there, for all of that Sunset was powerless. The figures remained silhouettes, at best; some of them were mere clumps of mist that happened to move like men. And all Sunset could feel was fear; if there were any other emotions associated with this memory, specific emotions, they were gone now._

" _How did you do that?" Amber demanded, appearing in front of the statue of the huntsman and huntress. "I've never…all I can do is watch it at all fall apart."_

" _I may not be a Maiden but I'm not without power," Sunset said. "I made it this far. I really can help you, I dealt with the-"_

" _Don't say it, you'll just draw more of them," Amber cried. "I can't…they try to find me. We have to be quiet."_

 _Sunset didn't point out that Amber had been doing most of the screaming so far._

 _Amber looked around. "I…I don't remember what this was. I just remember that I didn't like it."_

" _No?"_

" _No," Amber repeated. "Oh brave new world. So often I begged Uncle…I begged him to bring me here and when I came…I hated it. The noise, the people. Oh brave new world that has such people in it. Ozpin sent you? To bring me back?"_

 _Sunset nodded. "That's about it, yeah."_

 _Amber retreated a step. "He'll always send people to bring me back. He'll never let me alone, will he?"_

 _Sunset shook her head. "Amber, I…I'm going to be honest with you. It's not pretty but it's the truth. You're dying. I can help you but you have to trust me."_

" _Why?" Amber demanded._

" _Why?" Sunset repeated. "Didn't you hear me?"_

" _At least the pain will stop," Amber whispered._

 _Sunset hesitated. "We…we can help you with that too, once you wake up. One of my friends is really smart, she can-"_

" _Why should I believe you?" Amber said. "Why should I believe anything you say. You work for him, you just want to take me back so that I can be his weapon well I won't!" she yelled as she turned away, fleeing from Beacon courtyard and its shadowy and barely half-remembered denizens as she ran away into a different part of her soul._

 _Sunset gave chase. There was no beowolf to delay her this time, and she had already repaired the damage that Cinder had inflicted upon this part of Amber's aura. So she pursued Amber, who ran and ran through memories and experiences, some of which flitted past in an instant as Amber and Sunset dashed through them, but other times Sunset had to linger just a little, letting Amber open up a slight lead on her as she took in what Amber was running through, what her life had been._

 _She had been raised in a cabin in the woods, alone except for a woman named…named Merida, that was the name that she heard Ozpin calling her when he thought Amber had gone to bed one night. Merida. The name from Summer Rose's diary, the girl that Team STRQ had brought to Beacon, with Auburn. Auburn, the Fall Maiden, had passed her powers on to Merida, and then Merida had raised Amber as her own daughter? Had Ozpin arranged that? Obviously, since he visited them often enough. He never stayed very long, it was rare for him to stay more than one or two nights and then he would be gone again, usually for months before his next visit, but whenever he arrived little Amber would run down the path towards the cottage gate shrieking in delight._

" _Uncle Ozpin! Uncle Ozpin! Did you bring me back a present?"_

 _He had always brought her a present. A toy, a book, some new clothes; something from his travels, something from the wider world that he would tell her of but never let her see no matter how much she begged him to._

 _She was raised that way, with no other contact with anybody but Merida, who was her mother in every way that really mattered except – probably – for the having physically given birth to Amber, and Professor Ozpin. Uncle Ozpin._

 _As much as it had felt wrong of her, indecent, intrusive on her part to watch Ozpin and Amber's interactions in the ruin, there were times as Amber ran from memory to memory, dashing through her memories of Professor Ozpin as though she wanted to stay away from them almost as much as she wanted to stay away from Sunset, when Sunset had to stop and watch because they were just so familiar to her. The way that they would sit in front of the fire, drinking hot cocoa while Ozpin read to her; the way that he brought her a staff with a wind-dust crystal and taught her how to use it, so patient and so understanding with all of Amber's difficulties, rewarding even the mildest accomplishment with effusive praise; the way that there was a lesson to be found in what seemed at first to be even the most casual of their interactions; the way that he cared about her, so solicitous, so patient; it was all so familiar to her. She had been his student. Yes, they hadn't lived together the way that Sunset and Celestia had but she recognised all of this, right down to the way in which they had sat in front of the fire and drank hot chocolate in Celestia's study, and Celestia would put one wing around Sunset, draping her soft feathers around her like a blanket. Amber sang so prettily; Celestia had insisted that Sunset learn music as well as magic because she wanted her to be a sophisticated gentlemare; Celestia had told Sunset that she was destined for great things and Ozpin had told Amber the same._

 _They had both found in their tutors the parental affection that was otherwise missing from their lives._

Celestia told me that she could never sacrifice Twilight, not even to save the world; but Amber is your Twilight, Professor; or your Sunset at least.

What kind of life have you had that you could bring yourself to sacrifice her to give her powers to Pyrrha. _After all, his interactions with Pyrrha weren't anything like as deep or as devoted as what she was witnessing with Amber._

 _She could recognise the anger now, the constant anger that was making it thunder in the skies over Amber's memories. The fear was general, she was terrified, but the anger, the anger had direction: it was pointed towards Ozpin, and to anyone associated with him. Sunset could feel that because so much of it – the distrust, the feeling of being used, the feeling of being manipulated and thrown into the path of danger – felt so very, terribly familiar to her. It was like Cinder all over again, the hardest emotions to keep out were the ones that chimed with the emotions that were there already, and though she had started to get over those feelings towards Professor Ozpin the way that he had been willing to put Pyrrha's soul in such extreme jeopardy had brought a great deal of latent hostility roaring to the fore, and now Amber's own feelings on the matter were calling out to Sunset's emotions, pushing past the barriers like flood waters breaking through the levee, seeping in even as Sunset fought to keep them out._

 _Sunset pursued Amber, following where she led, through memories that showed her failing to kill a deer in the woods because she couldn't bring herself to hurt it, at which point Merida declared that she would eat no meat until she did, because there'd be no hypocrites in their house (from what Sunset could gather Amber hadn't had a bite of meat since). She followed through memories of fire and grimm that made Amber scream in pain. She followed through memories of Amber on the way to Beacon, looking dirty and weary and tired._

 _She followed through memories that were beginning to tear, and memories that were falling apart, and whenever she came to such a place Sunset had to stop and repair the damage as best she could, killing whatever mental grimm infested the place and tying up the fluttering threads of Amber's aura until it was intact once again. She couldn't do anything about the existing damage to Amber's memories: she couldn't repopulate the people she had forgotten, or even the landscapes that Sunset herself didn't remember. There was mist there instead, misty holes in Amber's soul that served to plug the gaps and achieve a measure of coherence but as for what it would actually mean for her…Sunset couldn't exactly say. All she could say was that the memories that Amber fled through showed the sweetest maid who ever lived, an ingénue who had never known trouble or hardship or strife, who was completely ignorant of all the evils of the world, wholly innocent and absolutely untouched by them. And yet now she was consumed by anger and by fear, tormented by pain, in all her memories the happiness and love that must have once been there was but a kind of distant echo now. Where love had once run deepest a cancer spread._

 _Sunset pursued Amber, into a memory of Cinder._

 _She couldn't look away. Though her limbs were shaking, she couldn't turn away. She had never seen Cinder like this before, so cruel, so vicious, so utterly without mercy. She knew, objectively, that Cinder was capable of these things – how could she have been ignorant of it – but the face that she showed to Sunset, playful, teasing, ultimately honest and even trustworthy in a sense, all of that was gone from the Cinder who stood over a helpless Amber while Mercury and Lightning Dust held her pinioned between them. All of that was gone from the Cinder who produced some kind of bug grimm, which transformed into black slime while Amber begged for mercy; all of that was gone from the Cinder who showed no mercy as she flung the slime into Amber's face and began to rip her aura apart so that she could take the power of the Fall Maiden for herself._

 _It was the first time that Sunset had genuinely seen this side of Cinder before, the merciless enemy, the commander of a crew of bloodthirsty savages, the killer who would smirk as she took your life and soul alike._

 _This was the Cinder that Pyrrha saw, Sunset understood that now. This was the Cinder whom nobody could understand Sunset's bizarre attachment too. This was the Cinder who left the Invincible Girl, champion of Mistral, absolutely terrified._

 _And she had Amber terrified as well. The fear from this memory was overwhelming, it threatened to have Sunset on the ground puking in blind terror. And the pain, this was the focus of the pain that was tearing Amber apart. This was where it had all started, and this memory – the memory that Amber could perhaps have most done to loose – was completely untouched._

 _Sunset couldn't take it any more. Amber had already gone, and Sunset made haste to do likewise. She didn't want to stay here, she didn't want to see this, she didn't want to…she couldn't…it was cowardly but…if she stayed here much longer then all that she was feeling would undo her utterly._

 _So she followed Amber to the very end of the line._

 _They were back at the cottage, Sunset was outside it, she couldn't actually see Amber. What she could see was that Amber had nowhere left to go._

 _In front of her, directly ahead, just behind the cottage, was a raging vortex. The landscape had been ripped apart, and it was streaming like paper in the wind as the vortex pulled against it. Sunset guessed that they had reached the limit of Amber's remaining aura, the point at which it was all fraying and unravelling. She could see it doing just that, tearing the way that fabric does once first you let it start to tear, little bits of sky and tree and memory pulling free and falling into nothingness. Lost like dreams forgotten upon waking._

 _She would have to do something about this. But first, as the wind gusted about her, she would have to do something about the grimm._

 _At first there were many of them, a dozen at least, all beowolves, the remnants of whatever Cinder had done to Amber, of the darkness that she had flung into her face, the remains of the darkness corrupting her aura, tearing at it, pulling it, devouring it. They had all come to this place, drawn by Amber or by Sunset she couldn't be sure. But as Sunset watched, those dozen beowolves all dissolved into black ooze which moved, guided by invisible eyes and invisible intelligence, flowing together into a vast black puddle out of which arose, before Sunset's eyes, into an enormous many-headed dragon grimm, a Colchian to give it the name of its kind, with two red leathery wings flapping on the back of its long serpentine body._

 _Sunset could feel Amber's fear increasing._

" _Hey, Amber," Sunset called, certain that Amber could hear her even if she couldn't see. "Watch this; you've got nothing to worry about."_

 _The Colchian hissed as it slithered towards her on its long black trunk, red tongues flickering from out of its multitude of white, bony heads, each one triangular in shape and ridged with horns longer and sharper than their fangs._

" _You see," Sunset said, as she sauntered towards the grimm and the wind blew all around her. "I am not the best huntress around." She flung out her hand, and Crescent Rose appeared in it, because if this was a dream then why the hay shouldn't she be as cool as all her friends? "But I know the most awesome huntsmen there are, no question."_

 _She spun Crescent Rose dramatically in the air, planting the scythe-blade in the ground like Ruby always did before she let them have it, firing one, two, three, four shots with the sniper rifle that made the Colchian hiss in pain and anger before she charged. Sunset moved faster than she had ever moved in the real world or ever could, so fast that she was leaving a trail of rose petals behind her as she ran. One of the Colchian's heads lunged for her, but Sunset came to a sudden halt and slashed at it with her scythe, wounding it. She fired into the ground, propelling herself high up into the air, higher than the Colchian's heads could reach, and there she hung suspended for a moment as she turned lazily in the air, before she fell as swiftly as a thunderbolt to slice off one of the Colchian's heads._

 _One down._

 _Crescent Rose disappeared from Sunset's hands, replaced by Milo in her right hand and Akuou on her left arm, and like Pyrrha she leapt with the grace of a dancer away from the snapping jaws of the Colchian, slashing at it with Milo in sword form, then spear form, then switching it to rifle mode to fire five shots at the grimm in quick succession as she leapt away, then back to spear mode as she whirled in place, slashing, then thrusting the spear into the throat of one of the creature's other heads._

 _And another one down._

 _Crocea Mors, new and improved, appeared in Sunset's hands as she slashed with the two-handed sword to cleave off another head cleanly from its trunk._

 _And another._

 _Gambol Shroud formed instantly, as swift as Sunset could imagine it, and she buried the scabbard in the eye of the fourth head, grappling onto the grimm's neck as it writhed in pain, swinging around and around. Another of the remaining heads tried to swallow her, but bit down only on a fire clone that exploded in its jaws. Sunset swung around once more, and her momentum was such that with the sword she could slice off another head._

 _Ciel's Distant Thunder took care of another even before Sunset had hit the ground again._

 _There was only a single head left, roaring and snarling and writhing as Sunset landed._

 _Penny's swords appeared all around Sunset like a halo; they formed a ring around her, spinning and whirring, and from that ring erupted an enormous laser burst so bright that it threatened to blind Sunset and consume all else within her vision._

 _And when it was finished there was not a single trace of the grimm remaining, nor of the darkness with which Cinder had infected Amber._

 _Sunset turned her attention to the void and the vortex. She grabbed hold of the flapping tendrils of aura with her thought, this dreamscape making her magic as strong as it needed to be, and once again a wave like molten metal in the blacksmith's forge washed down what passed for the reality of this place, stitching it together, fusing it together, remaking it as best Sunset could. It wasn't perfect, by any means, she had seen these woods too briefly to well recall what they looked like, but she had, she thought, accomplished what she had set out to do. She had closed off the tears in Amber's aura, and stopped the constant unravelling that had threatened her life._

 _Now all she had to do was convince Amber to wake up._

 _Golden light was already deluging the memories as Sunset walked into the cottage; Jaune was getting to work as soon as they in the waking world saw that the degradation had ceased._

" _Amber?" Sunset called. "Amber, it's okay now, they're gone. You don't ever have to worry about them again."_

 _A sob was her only answer. A sob that sounded like it was coming from the second floor of the isolated cottage, so Sunset climbed up the wooden stairs, passed framed pencil drawings that looked as though they had been drawn by Amber herself, and made her way into a child's bedroom, rustic and simple without much in the way of décor but filled with toys and books. The window was open, and a little girl – oblivious to the thunder outside that was no part of her memories – sat on the floor humming to herself, sketching a handsome young man in a suit of armour; his features were mostly anonymous but he had ruffled, sort of messy hair that made him look a bit like Jaune, or maybe Dove Bronzewing from Team BLBL._

 _Amber was sitting in the corner, her legs tucked beneath her chin and her arms wrapped around her knees._

 _Sunset knelt down in front of her. "It's over," she said. "You don't have to be afraid any more."_

" _Is this…is this a dream?" Amber asked._

" _Sort of."_

" _I always thought I'd meet my true love once upon a dream," Amber said. "Not someone…someone like you."_

" _I'm sorry to disappoint," Sunset said, with a slight smile. "Maybe you can find him out there once we get out of here."_

 _Amber was silent for a moment. "I was so safe here. I felt so safe here. When she was here, I knew that nothing could hurt me, and when Ozpin…I don't remember how she died. I don't remember how I got these powers, I only know that I did. Why don't I remember that? Why don't I remember how my own mother died?"_

" _You've been wounded," Sunset said. "My friend Twilight, she said that…that you might not remember everything."_

" _I don't want to remember everything," Amber whispered. "I don't want to remember…I don't want to remember her, I don't want to remember what she did to me, I don't want to feel like this, I don't want to hurt like this!"_

" _We can do something about that."_

" _No, you can't, you're lying!"_

" _What makes you think I'm lying?"_

" _Because you're with Ozpin and Ozpin lied to me!" Amber shrieked. "He told me…he made me think that…I loved him."_

 _Sunset swallowed. "I know," she said._

" _He made me think that he loved me."_

" _I know."_

" _But he didn't!" Amber cried. "He just wanted me to be his Fall Maiden once Amber was gone. I don't…I don't remember everything, but I remember…that was why he taught me to fight, he wanted me to fight, he made me fight, he made me into a weapon and when I didn't want to he just kept on bringing me back and I had to get away and-"_

" _Calm down," Sunset insisted. "That can't be good for you."_

 _Amber closed her eyes for a moment. "You can't trust him. However much you give he always wants more of you. Until in the end there's nothing left."_

" _I'm going to protect my friends from that," Sunset said. "I can protect you from that too, if you want."_

" _You can't protect me from him, no one can."_

" _Yes, I can, and Cinder too," Sunset said. "You can see for yourself, if you'll just come with me. All you have to do is open your eyes." She held out her hand. "What do you say?"_

 _Amber shivered. "I'm scared."_

" _We're all scared," Sunset said. "But we can't let that stop us from living. In your memories, you loved to sing, to draw; don't you want to do that again? Don't you want to find love, to live?"_

" _I'm the Fall Maiden now, there's no living with that."_

" _We'll find a way," Sunset said. "It has to be better than being stuck in here, right?"_

 _Amber regarded her warily. "Why should I trust you?"_

" _Because I'm offering to set you free," Sunset said. "And who else has made you an offer like that?"_

 _Amber hesitated. "I…I don't remember what the outside world is like. Those memories are gone."_

" _Then you'll just have to find out all over again," Sunset said. "It'll even be fun. Trust me, there's never a dull moment with my friends around."_

" _Brave new world," Amber murmured. "You won't…you won't let him hurt me."_

" _No," Sunset said, thinking that would be an easy promise to keep since there was no way that Ozpin would want to hurt her anyway. "Come on, take my hand."_

 _Amber was motionless for a moment, and then another; then, tentatively, she reached out and gently took Sunset's hand._

Sunset was returned to the vault, staggering backwards as she let go of Amber, she felt someone's hands upon her shoulders steadying her as her eyes became re-accustomed to the underground gloom, and her soul became re-accustomed to its own company.

In the ice bath, Amber opened her eyes.


	145. Apologies All Round

Apologies All Round

Amber gasped, her arms flailing as she splashed in the ice bath, sending water and slowly melting ice cubes sloshing over the rim and down onto the vault floor.

"Here, take my hand," Jaune said, holding out a hand which she grasped with an instinctual swiftness, as Jaune helped her to climb out of the ice bath.

"Thank you," Amber murmured, and then gasped when she saw who it was who helped her out of the bath. She stood, dripping water from her body and her hair so that it pooled around her like a puddle on the floor of the vault, and stared up at Jaune in what looked like amazement. "I-I've met you before."

Jaune looked confused. "We have? I don't remember that."

Amber looked a little disappointed to hear that, but if she had planned to say anything else she was pre-empted by the voice of Professor Ozpin as he spoke a single word. "Amber."

A quick glance around the room by Sunset confirmed the amazement on the faces of practically everyone present. Even Twilight, who had worked most closely with Sunset on this, seemed almost surprised that it had actually worked. Qrow, Professor Goodwitch, General Ironwood, they all looked as if they had witnessed a miracle. Ruby's eyes were as wide as saucers, and Ciel was whispering something to herself.

But Professor Ozpin did not look amazed. Professor Ozpin's expression reminded Sunset of a flower that had been for so long deprived of sunlight, trapped under overcast skies and gloomy clouds, that was only now feeling the sun upon its petals once more and daring to open up and feel the warmth again. He looked like a man finding water in the desert, like a man finding shelter in the wilderness…and Sunset was the only one who could see how terrible wrong it was all about to go in a matter of moments and there was absolutely nothing that she could do about it.

 _What have I done?_

Amber's eyes widened as she looked at him, standing in the centre of the vault looking so relieved to see her again. "Ozpin?"

Ozpin nodded. He even smiled, a smile more sincere and earnest and genuine than anything that Sunset had seen on his face before. He took a step towards her, holding out one hand. "It's good to see-"

"Stay away from me!" Amber snapped, cowering behind Jaune, clinging to him as she used his body as a shield between herself and Ozpin. "You did this to me."

The look on Ozpin's face…there was such deep sorrow on his face it was as though he had aged ten years in a single moment. He let his hand fall, and bowed his head. "Yes," he said. "I did."

Amber looked around anxiously, and she seemed to be progressing swiftly from anxious to frantic as her gaze darted around the many people in the vault. "Who…who are you? Where am I? What are you doing here, what do you want from me?"

"It's okay," Twilight began.

"It's not okay!" Amber yelled, and as she yelled a blazing corona formed around her left eye, and a ball of fire sprang to life in the palm of her hand as she flung it out in Twilight's direction. She didn't actually throw the fireball, it remained in her palm, flickering as it waited, but that didn't stop Ciel from shoving Twilight to the ground and shielding her with her body, or Rainbow from starting forwards with her fists clenched.

"Wait!" Sunset cried, raising her arms and stepping away from the person who had caught her when she'd staggered back – which turned out to be Pyrrha, who now had a rather worried look on his face that was probably related to the incredibly twitchy girl with one arm wrapped around Jaune and a fireball in her free hand – as she sought to draw Amber's attention to herself. "Amber, there's nothing to be scared of."

Amber's head turned rapidly to look at her. "It's you. Sunset Shimmer."

"That's right," Sunset said, walking towards her with her hands raised. "And these are my friends. They helped me bring you back. That's Twilight," she said, nodding to gesture towards what little of Twilight could still be seen with the way Ciel was shielding her from harm. "She helped me more than anyone, but everyone here is here for you. They aren't your enemies, there's nothing to be scared of here."

"He's here," Amber said, and there was no doubt who 'he' was.

"I told you that he'd sent me," Sunset murmured. "But it's okay."

"You said-"

"I know what I said," Sunset said quickly, cutting her off before she could repeat it. She had said what she needed to say to get Amber to come with her, but that didn't mean that she wanted Professor Ozpin to hear it. She could see why Amber was upset with him – she had more grounds than Sunset had ever had to be upset with Princess Celestia – but that didn't mean that she wanted to be the headmaster's enemy. "And you'll be safe, I promise. You don't need to be afraid."

Amber regarded her warily. The corona of flame around her eye disappeared, as did the fireball in her hand as she lowered her palm. She stepped away from Jaune half a pace, although she kept one arm around him. She shivered. "I feel cold."

"Here," Sunset said, taking off her jacket as she walked towards her, and draping it over Amber's shoulders. She seemed very reluctant to let go of Jaune, but it seemed that he desire for what little warmth the jacket could give her proved stronger as she released him and grabbed the jacket in both arms, pulling it tight around her like a blanket.

Sunset touched the jacket on the shoulder, and with her aura she activated just a little of the fire dust sewn into the fabric, just enough so that it didn't burn but smouldered like embers, producing heat and light but not actual flame. "How does that feel? Better?"

"A little, thank you," Amber said. She looked around. "Where am I? What is this place?"

Sunset waited for Professor Ozpin to answer, but he did not. Judging by his expression it wasn't clear if he intended to say anything else. So Sunset said, "This is the vault. You're under Beacon Tower."

"Under…Beacon," Amber murmured. "So you brought me back here after all."

"It was the only place you could be taken care of after the attack," Qrow said. "So how are you feeling, kid?"

Amber stared at him. "Who…who are you?"

Qrow frowned. "You don't remember me? We've met before, you know."

Amber shook her head. "I don't…I don't remember that."

"Memory loss," Twilight said, as Ciel finally allowed her to stand up once again. She adjusted her spectacles. "Unfortunately that's not unexpected. I'd like to run some tests to see-"

"Hey, Twi, can we save that for later?" Sunset asked, because she wasn't sure that Amber was up to being poked and prodded and asked questions right now.

"It's important that we know Amber's condition as soon as possible," Twilight said. She glanced at Amber. "But…as soon as possible doesn't have to mean right now, I suppose."

"So what does happen now?" Penny asked. It was an innocent question, asked in an innocent tone, but it was also a question that plunged the entire vault into silence because nobody knew the answer.

"I want to stay with you," Amber said.

"I'm sure that can be arranged, at least on a temporary basis," Professor Goodwitch said. "After all, it wouldn't be the first time Team Sapphire has had a fifth room-mate."

"Team Sapphire?" Amber asked.

"Yeah," Sunset said. "My team. Me, Pyrrha, Jaune, and that's Ruby over there."

Ruby waved. "Hi."

Amber looked from Sunset to Jaune and back again. "So…I'd stay with both of you."

"With all four of us," Sunset said.

Amber's smile was only small and soft, but it was still a big improvement over the near terrified expression that had dominated her face up until that point. "That sounds wonderful."

"I'm not so sure that it's such a good idea," Rainbow said. "Especially when there better options available."

"Better options?" Sunset said. "What do you mean better options?"

Rainbow's expression was hostile. "She could room with us. Or even better she could stay aboard the _Valiant_ and she can be monitored for any trouble."

"Oh, sure, stick her on an Atlesian warship and it's all for her own good," Qrow growled. "Subtle, Jimmy."

"This isn't my idea," General Ironwood said.

"Sure it isn't."

"I have no objection to Amber staying with Team Sapphire," General Ironwood said firmly. "And neither I nor Atlas has any design whatsoever upon the power of the Fall Maiden. I shouldn't have to say it, but there it is."

"Sir," Rainbow began. "This is-"

"Stand down, Dash," General Ironwood said, in such a tone as to brook no dissent. "We'll discuss this later."

Rainbow's jaw tightened. "Yes sir."

"I don't want to go onto any warship," Amber said. "I want to stay with them."

"And you will," Professor Goodwitch said soothingly. "Until more permanent arrangements can be made." She glanced around the young huntsmen in the vault. "If anyone asks, Amber is Professor Ozpin's niece, visiting him while her mother is indisposed. She's staying in your room as a favour to the headmaster, since her impromptu arrival has prevented any better arrangements being made. Please stick to that story; it will prevent undue complication or attention upon Amber."

 _I'm pretty impressed you came up with that on the fly, to be honest._ "Yes, Professor," Sunset said. She glanced at Amber, who aside from Sunset's gently glowing jacket was wearing only the surgical smallclothes that she'd worn in the pod. "Um, I think Amber needs something wear-"

"I'll make the arrangements," Professor Goodwitch said.

"Thank you, professor," Sunset said. She turned to Amber. "In light of, well, the fact that you're not really wearing anything it might be best if we took the shortcut to our room. You guys can follow on after, right?"

"That does seem like the best idea," Pyrrha said. "None of us is really wearing a lot that we could really donate, after all."

"What are you talking about?" Amber asked.

Sunset held out her hand – her left hand, the one that was still covered by a glove to prevent her semblance going off.

Amber took it, with only a brief moment's hesitation.

"This might just pinch a bit," Sunset said, and then she teleported.

There was a flash of green light, a squeezing sensation, and then Sunset and Amber were standing in the middle of the SAPR dorm room.

Amber sank to her knees as Sunset released her hand. She stared at the wooden floor beneath her. She stared at all four white-painted walls of the dorm. She stared at the sunlight coming in through the window. "Where…where are we?"

"Our dorm," Sunset said. "Where we live. Where you live, for now."

"So…I'm home?"

Sunset hesitated, pausing in the act of bending down to take the things off her bed. "I guess…I guess you are, yes." She picked up the stuffed unicorn from off the bed. "This is my bed, but you can sleep here for now. I'll get the camp bed back from when Blake was staying here."

"What's that?" Amber asked, pointing at the unicorn.

"This?" Sunset said, looking down at the fairground prize. "It's a stuffed toy." She tossed it to Amber, who didn't manage to catch it before it fell on the floor. She picked it up quickly. She held it up for a moment, running her fingers over the unicorn's fur, before she pressed it against her face and nuzzled it with her cheek.

"So soft," she murmured, as she closed her eyes. "I think I used to have some things just like this. I don't remember what happened to them."

Sunset sat down on the bed – Amber's bed now – and said, "Do you want to hold onto it for a little while."

Amber's eyes opened. "Really? Thank you, Sunset. It's so soft and pretty."

"Don't go nuts; it's just a stupid fairground prize."

"Fairground? Is that where you got it from?"

"Yeah," Sunset said. "My then boyfriend won it for me."

"Boy friend," Amber said. "Sunset, what's a boy friend? Why can you only be friends with one boy?"

"It's not, um…you really don't know what a boyfriend is?"

Amber shook her head. "Jaune is the first man I've seen who isn't uncle…who isn't Ozpin."

Sunset grinned. "You can call him Uncle Ozpin if you want to, nobody's going to get mad at you for it."

"I don't want to," Amber said flatly.

"Are you sure, because-"

"I don't!" Amber snapped. "I don't care about him any more! I was stupid to think he cared about me."

 _It was your choice to make me love you, but it was my choice to believe you loved me in return._

Sunset wanted to tell Amber not judge Ozpin so harshly; whatever mistakes he had made he probably did love her, the way that Celestia had loved Sunset all along in spite of all the things that Sunset had done…but now was probably not the time, Amber didn't seem in a particularly receptive mood at the moment.

"Okay," she murmured. "A boyfriend is…it's a young man-"

"Like Jaune?"

"Yeah, like Jaune, he's Pyrrha's boyfriend." Sunset said. "And you like him, and he likes you, and you…you hang out, do stuff, make out."

"You mean kiss?"

"Yeah, kissing is a part of it."

"So your boyfriend…is your true love?"

"Um, no, not really," Sunset said. "Well, not all the time anyway. It depends. It…it's complicated, and I'm doing a really bad job of explaining it. It doesn't really matter anyway, just…yeah."

Amber looked at her. "Sunset, how did we get here?"

"Oh, that," Sunset said, relieved to be not talking about boyfriends any longer. "We teleported. Using my magic."

"Your magic," Amber murmured, staring at Sunset with wide eyes. "Are you a Maiden too?"

"Nope," Sunset said. "My power is all mine, and a little different from yours."

"How?"

"I…I'd rather not say, right now," Sunset said. "It's…it's a little personal."

"You don't trust me?" Amber asked.

"It's not that, exactly," Sunset said. "It's just not something that I tell to absolutely everybody."

"But I'm not absolutely everybody," Amber said. "I thought we were friends."

"We are," Sunset said. "Just give it a little time for us to actually become close friends before you expect me to spill all of my secrets to you."

"So you were just pretending to care about me when you said that you'd protect me, that you'd set me free, you were just lying like Ozpin?"

"No, I did set you free," Sunset said. "You're here, aren't you? And I will protect you, every member of this team is going to protect you, but that doesn't mean that you can immediately pry into every detail of my life." She took a deep breath. "It's not a big deal, Amber, just let it go. Please."

Amber looked hurt. She looked away from Sunset, out the window through which streamed the light in which Amber sat. "You said you were a huntress."

Sunset nodded. "That's right. We're all training to be huntsmen and huntresses."

"Why?"

"Huh?

"Why do you want to be a huntress?" Amber asked. "I remember…I remember seeing what huntsmen and huntresses have to do. When…when Ozpin taught me about the grimm I didn't really understand, it wasn't until I saw them that I realised how terrifying they are, so why do you want to fight them? Why do you want to risk your life fighting for Ozpin?"

"For the fame," Sunset said. "The glory. At least, that was it at first. I'd had…a falling out with someone, and I left home and I found my way here. I wanted to prove how great I was, and be recognised for it. All this at first. Now…"

"Now?" Amber asked.

Sunset shrugged. "I've found a home here. I've found my place here. I belong here. With my team, with my friends. This is where I stand."

"Your friends," Amber murmured. "Do they know where your magic comes from?"

"Yes," Sunset said quietly.

Amber was silent for a moment. "And you serve Ozpin?"

"In a manner of speaking."

"Then you know…you know about Salem, you know about the Maidens, you know everything."

"I think so," Sunset said.

"Then why?" Amber demanded. "Why are you still here? Why are you still in this fight?"

"Because I've got friends who are too brave to turn away and I'm not going to leave them sticking in the wind," Sunset said.

Amber closed her eyes. "He'll kill you all, you and your friends."

"Professor Ozpin?"

"Everyone who serves him dies. I don't remember what happened to Mom but I'm sure it must have been his fault somehow. And then…I was running away when they found me. I wanted to get away from the fight, and from this place. I wanted to go home."

"It sounds," Sunset said, picking her words carefully. "It sounds as though you might have been safer here."

"I wanted to go home," Amber repeated. "Sunset, is she going to come after me again?"

"Cinder?"

"Is that her name? The one who did this to me?"

"Yeah," Sunset said, as her mouth turned dry. "That's her name. And…she might try again if she knew you were awake, or where you were. But she doesn't, and that's why we're going to be careful to make sure she doesn't find out. And even if she did find out, she'd have a hard time getting into Beacon anyway, and even if she did manage to get into Beacon…we'd protect you from her. So what I'm trying to say is don't worry, we'll take care of you."

"Will you?" Amber asked. "Will you really?"

The door opened, and Pyrrha and Jaune walked in; the former was carrying a bundle of clothes in her arms.

"Professor Goodwitch found some of your old things in storage," Pyrrha said, as Jaune shut the door behind them. "Hopefully it all still fits."

Sunset got up. "Put them down here," she said. "Amber's going to be sleeping in my bed for a while."

"I see," Pyrrha said, putting down the neatly folded clothes on top of the duvet. She looked down at Amber kneeling on the floor. "How do you feel?"

"Still cold," Amber mumbled, drawing Sunset's jacket tighter around her. "And hungry."

"Maybe you'll feel better once you get dressed," Pyrrha suggested. "You could take a shower, too, if you like; it's just through that door. As for being hungry…I don't think the cafeteria's open, but I'm sure that I can find something for you. Is there anything in particular you like?"

"Something warm, please," Amber said.

"She's a vegetarian," Sunset pointed out.

Pyrrha glanced at Sunset, then back to Amber.

She nodded. "That's right. I don't eat meat since…I haven't for a long time."

"I see," Pyrrha nodded. "I'll see what I can do."

"Maybe I should take care of that?" Jaune suggested. "If the worst comes to the worst I can mix something up for you and Pyrrha and Sunset can stay here with you, I'm not the worst cook ever, in fact my Mom says-"

"I want you to stay here, with me," Amber said. "I mean, if you don't mind."

"Oh," Jaune said. "Okay."

"I admit that I'm not a cook," Pyrrha said. "But I'll manage."

"Thanks," Sunset said.

"Yes, thank you."

"I'll be back as soon as I can," Pyrrha said, as she left the room only a little while after having entered it.

"Where's Ruby?" Sunset asked, having only now noticed that she hadn't come in with Jaune and Pyrrha.

"She needed to talk to her uncle," Jaune said. "Private, family stuff."

"I see," Sunset said. It wasn't the best time ever for the kind of thing, but she supposed that they needed to talk about it at some point. "Listen, will you watch Amber until either I or Pyrrha get back? I need to…" she hesitated, knowing what Amber would likely think of this. "I need to talk to Professor Ozpin."

"Why?" Amber demanded at once. "What do you have to talk to him about? It's about me, isn't it?"

"In a manner of speaking," Sunset said.

"Why? I thought you were on my side."

"I'm just going to make sure that he doesn't bother you any more," Sunset lied, because she felt the truth – that she felt she owed Professor Ozpin an apology – wouldn't have gone down very well.

Amber regarded her with a sudden wariness. "You won't be long?"

"No," Sunset said. "I'll be back soon."

* * *

Ruby watched Sunset teleport away with Amber.

"Ruby," Penny said. "I'm sorry, about what-"

"It's okay, Penny," Ruby said. "It's not you."

The other rosepetals looked equally embarrassed by what Rainbow had said – well, Twilight did, it was kind of hard to tell what Ciel was thinking a lot of the time – but neither of them offered up an apology. They just kind of averted their eyes and didn't say anything.

What was up with Rainbow? She hadn't been like this before. Usually she was really cool, but now…why was she acting so mean all of a sudden? Why didn't she trust them to take care of Amber? Didn't she know them by now? Weren't they friends?

But, as much as she was bothered by this, Ruby couldn't worry too much about it right now. She had something else she needed to do.

"Ruby?" Pyrrha asked, as she and Jaune started towards the elevator. "Are you coming?"

Ruby shook her head. "I'll catch up with you guys," she said. "Uncle Qrow, can we talk?"

Uncle Qrow pulled out his flask and took a swig from it. "Talk, huh? I guess that's past due for both of us." He screwed the top back onto his flask and put it away. "Oz."

Professor Ozpin didn't respond, or even look at Uncle Qrow. He hadn't said a single thing since Amber had gotten really upset at seeing him, and now he looked so sad that it made Ruby sad to see him like this. She wished that there was something that she could do to make him feel better, but unfortunately she couldn't think of anything right now.

"Hey, Oz," Qrow repeated, slightly louder as though the professor might not have heard him the first time.

Professor Ozpin slowly raised his head and looked at him.

"Your guardian seems a little gun shy," Qrow said.

Professor Ozpin was silent for a moment. "She's alive, and awake," he said quietly. "That is…enough, for today."

"Okay," Qrow muttered.

"Professor," Pyrrha said, as she approached a little closer to Ozpin. "I…I'm sorry that things have turned out this way."

"We're all sorry, Professor Ozpin," Ruby said. "We didn't mean for things to be this way."

Professor Ozpin smiled sadly. "Thank you, children. But there is no need to apologise. This is just…the way things are."

He didn't seem to want to talk any more, so as Jaune and Pyrrha headed for the elevator on the right, Ruby walked towards Qrow where he was leaning against the other wall. She looked up at him, waiting, expectant.

He nodded. "Sure," he said. "Come on, kiddo. Let's get out of here."

They headed to the elevator on the left, but didn't speak even when they got inside it and it began to travel upwards. That silence was both hard and easy for Ruby to maintain; hard because there were so many questions that she wanted to ask like why hadn't he told her anything at all about anything…but at the same time she kind of dreaded the moment when she would have to ask those questions, and what kind of answers she would get.

She played with her fingers, and she might have pressed all the elevator buttons on the way up except that there were no floors between the vault and the ground with buttons for her to press.

Uncle Qrow didn't look at her. He had his hands thrust into his jacket pockets, and his back was bent a little as he leaned forwards, and he didn't say anything to Ruby as the elevator climbed. And when they reached the ground floor he just walked out, out of the elevator and out of the tower, leaving Ruby to trail behind him as he headed out into the grounds.

She followed him into the courtyard, until he sat down beneath one of the maple trees, where the golden leaves had already started to fall from the trees, if only just.

"This place sure is beautiful," Uncle Qrow said, as he settled his back against the tree trunk and looked out across the courtyard. "I forget that, when I'm away too long. I need to come back just to remind myself. You know your mom used to sit out here and read when the weather was good. She said she preferred it to being indoors, and me and Raven could both see why. Tai thought we were nuts at first, but…he got it eventually."

Ruby sat down beside him. "Uncle Qrow-"

"So Ozpin told you, huh," Qrow muttered. "About Salem, about the Maidens, about the Relics, about everything."

"Not about the Maidens, at first," Ruby said. "But…yeah. He told us."

Qrow snorted. "I asked him not to do that. When your dad told me that you were coming here early I begged him not to do that. Leave Ruby and Yang out of it, I said, they're just kids. Shows how much he listens to me, huh?"

"Why didn't you want us to know?" Ruby asked. "Why didn't you want Professor Ozpin to tell us? Why didn't you tell us?"

"Because you're just a kid."

"You were just a kid when you found out about all this."

"Yeah, and look what happened to me," Qrow said. "I didn't want you to end up the same way, or worse; either of you."

"You're not so bad," Ruby said. "You're pretty cool, aside from the not telling us stuff part."

Qrow grinned. "Thanks," he said, ruffling Ruby's hair. "But I always kinda hoped that you kids would do a little better than me. And that meant…I just wonder some times whether, if Oz hadn't told us what was really going on as early as he did, things would have been different."

"You mean with Mom?"

"I mean with everything," Qrow said. He took a swig from his flask. "I never told you about my family, did I?"

"No," Ruby murmured. "You never talk about them."

"There's a pretty good reason for that," Qrow said. "The Branwen's aren't exactly the kind of people you invited round for dinner. My people, mine and Raven's people, were bandits out in Anima. They still are. They rob and they kill and they attack villages and they take whatever they want. Parasites."

"You…were a bandit?" Ruby asked, disbelieving. She didn't want it to be true. She wanted Uncle Qrow to grin at her and tell her that he was just kidding. She didn't want to imagine her hero huntsman uncle robbing and killing his way through life because he could. She didn't want to imagine that the person who had taught her how to fight had learnt his skills massacring defenceless villagers.

"I wasn't a particularly good one," Qrow said. "I never had what you might call the instinct for it. I…well, I can't say that I ever did anything to stop what we were doing either. I guess you could call me a coward."

"You're not a coward-"

"Maybe not now, but I was," Qrow said. "I waited until the fighting was over and then I robbed a few things just to keep my old man happy. Raven covered for me, gave me credit for some of the things she'd done; she called me pathetic in private, but she never sold me out in public. But she was more right than she knew: I was pathetic, because I knew that what we were doing was wrong but I let it go on anyway. Not everyone can be as brave as you, Ruby; not everyone can always do the right thing no matter what it costs. Anyway, the day that our old man sent us to Beacon was the best day of my life because it meant that I was away from him. We were away. And neither of us had any intention of going back."

Ruby frowned. "Why would bandits want to be trained as huntsmen?"

"Because huntsmen are the only real danger that bandits ever have to worry about," Qrow explained. "If a village is too well defended then bandits simply won't risk attacking it, and the guards won't pursue bandits into the wild because they'd risk ambush and leave their homes unprotected; but if a huntsman is in town then nobody will know it until they're already in big trouble, and if they decide to go after the tribe…our father wanted us to learn how to do what they did so that we could be our tribe's defence against them. Our old man was a real bastard, like you can't even imagine…I don't think he had any idea how much we both hated him. I don't think either Raven or I ever meant to go back."

"But Raven did go back," Ruby murmured. "She…she came to the house."

"She what?" Qrow yelled, looking surprised for the first time. "She came to your house and nobody called me? When I see your dad I'm gonna-"

"It was okay," Ruby assured him. "She just wanted to talk."

"Sure she did," Qrow said. "Let me guess, she told you about how much she loved Summer, and how she just wanted to save her girls from being used by big bad Ozpin."

Ruby hesitated. "Something like that, yeah. Was that…was that a lie."

Qrow was silent a moment. "Not completely. She and Summer…they didn't get on at first, but after a while it was like she was more Summer's sister than she was mine. But then we all loved Summer; she had a way of bringing out the best in people, of seeing the good in them even when they couldn't see it in themselves. I…but I don't believe for a second that she's acting out of a duty to your mother's memory. She's dangerous, Ruby; you're lucky you met her and survived. She's probably the most dangerous woman I know."

"I don't know," Ruby said. "I don't think she's got much on Cinder."

"My point is, you were lucky," Qrow said. "Don't expect to be lucky again, and don't treat her like some kind of aunt or family friend. My point is…where was I going…oh, right. Neither Raven or I meant to go back to the tribe, but Raven did go back because she got scared and so she ran home where she felt safe. I wonder sometimes, what might have happened if we hadn't found out what was going on so early: would Raven have stuck around? Would I be…different? Would your mother still be alive?"

"Maybe," Ruby said. "But…if Raven had stuck around, I wouldn't be here, would I?"

Qrow looked at her. "Yeah, I guess I can't argue with that, can I?" he pulled her into a tight hug, holding her close. "So how does it feel, to be in the know about all the dark secrets of the world?"

"It's…I don't know," Ruby said. "It was kind of weird at first, but now…I don't feel like it changes anything, you know. We're still fighting the monsters and the bad guys, and we're still protecting the world. Just like we would have done. Although…"

"Although what?"

"I'm worried that it's getting to Pyrrha a little bit," Ruby said. "She's not scared exactly, well, maybe she is but…I just think she feels so powerless, you know."

"Yeah," Qrow said. "I know exactly what you mean. She's not-"

"No," Ruby said. "Pyrrha isn't Raven, she'd never run away and she'd never…never do anything like that. I just wish I knew how to help her."

"I don't think she's the one who needs help the most," Qrow said.

"You're talking about Amber?"

Qrow nodded. "I was there. I saw what they did to her. It wasn't pretty. Something like that…no wonder she's scared. But scared or not she's still the Fall Maiden, and the enemy isn't going to stop coming for her just because she wants out. You're gonna have to get her ready."

"Really?" Ruby asked. "Whether she wants to be or not?"

"She's in this fight whether she wants to be or not," Qrow replied. "Listen, Ruby, I'm sorry that I didn't tell you any of this myself. I'm sorry that you feel like I lied to you, and maybe I didn't need to be so protective…it's just that after what happened to your mother…the point is that you're in this now, and that means that you can't hide from the parts that aren't pretty, or pick and choose what parts of our work you get involved in. Maybe Amber doesn't want to fight, and maybe she shouldn't have been made the Fall Maiden, but she is the Fall Maiden until she dies and that means she's going to have to stand up to Cinder sooner or later. She doesn't have to be alone when she does it, but she's going to have to do it if she ever wants to be safe."

"We can beat Cinder without her, and then-"

"And then what?" Qrow demanded. "She's still the Fall Maiden and this fight isn't over when Cinder's gone. This fight is never over, and Maidens don't get to walk away. That's what it means to be a part of this, Ruby. And that's what me and your dad wanted to keep you from."

* * *

Professor Goodwitch had left with Qrow and the rest of Team SAPR, so it was only General Ironwood and Professor Ozpin left with RSPT down in the vault.

If you could say that Professor Ozpin was really there. The guy looked asleep on his feet. Which, yeah, he kind of looked like that a lot of the time (from Rainbow's perspective anyway) but all the same, he looked especially bad.

Mind you, he had been hit pretty hard. It seemed like he really liked this girl, and now…it would have been like Pinkie telling Rainbow to get lost, she didn't want to know her any more, she was just a filthy no good faunus anyway. Which was something Rainbow Dash had nightmares about sometimes, as crazy as it sounded, and she didn't mind admitting – to herself and only to herself – that they brought her out in a cold sweat.

And the old guy had had it happen to him for real.

She still didn't think it was a good idea to let Sunset take the Fall Maiden away, though. Sure Ruby, Jaune and Pyrrha were all good guys but Sunset was the one Amber seemed to feel the strongest connection to and Sunset was fundamentally untrustworthy. She'd put the whole of Vale in danger to save her friends, what would she do to Amber if push came to shove?

The question was how could she explain that to General Ironwood without revealing something that she still hadn't decided if she ought to reveal or not.

Although Rainbow had no doubt that a dressing down in front of the whole team was in her future, for the moment General Ironwood was focussed on Professor Ozpin. He walked up to him, until he could have whispered in his ear. But he didn't, because he must have wanted RSPT to hear just what he was saying.

"Ozpin, Twilight will need to do those checks on Amber at some point, and soon."

Ozpin nodded wearily. "I will speak to…to Miss Shimmer and make the arrangements. It will probably be tomorrow."

General Ironwood nodded curtly. "And…at some point we'll need to talk about her strategy going forward."

"I only just got her back, James, must I throw her into the fire again so soon."

"We throw young men and women into the fire every day, good men and brave, what makes her so special."

"James-"

"I know that you're fond of her, but do you think that I'm not fond of some of the people I send into battle?" General Ironwood said. "I'm not saying we have to stick her on the front lines, but if we're not going to deploy our guardian then we need to protect her and that needs to be taken care of. Saying she's your niece and having her live in Sapphire's dorm room isn't a long term solution and you know that. Especially not with her attacker still at large."

Ozpin sighed wearily. "I am aware of that James. We will speak of this another time."

General Ironwood was silent for a moment, before he nodded. "Very well. Team Rosepetal, with me." The tone of his voice told them it would not be a particularly comfortable ride up to the surface.

Nevertheless, the team formed up, with Rainbow and Ciel in front and Penny and Twilight behind, and followed General Ironwood into the elevator.

Only when the door had closed and the lift had begun to climb upwards did the general round on them. Or, more specifically, round on Rainbow Dash.

"Dash, what in the gods' names were you thinking?"

"You said it yourself, sir," Rainbow said. "Having her stay with Sapphire isn't a permanent solution."

"Neither is keeping her aboard the _Valiant_ , unless you were seriously attempting to suggest that Atlas ought to kidnap Vale's Maiden because that's all we need at a time like this when people are already suspicious of our motives."

"No sir," Rainbow said. "But on an Atlesian ship she could be protected from her enemies."

"That might be a valid argument, but what I want to know is how you couldn't see that that was the worst possible time to bring it up, with how nervous and on edge Amber already was," General Ironwood snapped.

Rainbow tightened her jaw. "I felt like I had to say something, sir."

"Why?"

"Because I don't trust Sunset Shimmer, sir, just like I said back there."

"Why?" General Ironwood repeated. "Your missions together with Team Sapphire have both been successful, to a greater or lesser degree. Your reports didn't have any complaints to make about her leadership."

"No sir."

"Then what's the problem?"

Rainbow stood still. She could tell him now. She could tell him what she'd seen on the train and the general would believe her; she trusted him to believe her because she thought she had his trust too. She could tell him the truth about Sunset, and he would see things her way.

But as much as she didn't like Sunset at this point Rainbow had given her word, and that meant something to her even if it didn't mean anything to somebody like Sunset. So she would try and stop Sunset getting away with it in future, but she wasn't going to spill on something that she had promised to keep secret. That wasn't who she was.

And no matter how much she might hate the consequences, Ciel and Penny both owed Sunset their lives, not to mention Rainbow herself. That mattered. That meant something. That tipped the scales a little back in Sunset's favour.

"Sorry sir," Rainbow said. "I'm just on edge, with all the anti-Atlas stuff going down in Vale."

"It's the growing anti-Atlesian sentiment that means we have to be cautious and sensitive," General Ironwood remarked. "Try and use your head a little more in future, Dash, and remember that some situations are more delicate than others."

"Yes sir," Rainbow said, knowing that she could have gotten much worse.

"Permission to speak, sir?" Ciel asked.

"Granted, Soleil."

"What's our next move, sir?" Ciel said. "Even if the Fall Maiden is willing to fight, I'm not sure that I'd want to fight alongside someone jumpy enough to nearly attack a comrade."

"I'm sure she was just confused," Twilight said.

"I never implied she was malicious, but that doesn't actually make it better," Ciel said.

"I understand," General Ironwood said. "I even agree. We can't rely on Amber to lead the fight against Cinder; so I'll be relying on the four of you instead. Ozpin says that a guardian is a symbol of hope, while an army is a symbol of conflict; I don't believe that, but even were he correct when the guardian fails it falls to the army to hold the line. Qrow tells me that Cinder doesn't fear us, but if she comes for Amber I'll be counting on you to show her that was her mistake."

"Sir, yes, sir!"

* * *

Amber stood in the shower, letting the water wash down her back and seep through her hair to drip, drip, drip onto the floor.

She bowed her head, wishing that the hot water which pressed, needle-like, down upon her back could wash away her fears as easily as it washed away the dirt.

She had both her arms resting on the wall, as if she couldn't stand on her own. Maybe she couldn't, she'd hardly tried. She'd always held onto something.

Her whole life holding onto someone else.

In spite of the heat of the shower, which she had turned up to its maximum temperature, she still felt cold, and the hunger in her stomach was like an aching pit.

She felt so cold, so cold and so lonely. Cold and lonely and tired. So tired, even though she had just woken up. Cold and lonely and tired and scared and angry.

"Oh brave new world," she whispered bitterly.

She bowed her head as the water droplets trickled down her face. They might have almost looked like tears.

She wanted to get away from this place. She wanted to go home, to the cottage in the woods. She wanted to look into a pair of beautiful blue eyes and know that she had found The One whom she'd been dreaming of. She wanted…she wanted to be able to trust Uncle Ozpin again, to be able to love him and to believe that he loved her, she wanted to sit in front of the fire and read with him while they drank hot cocoa. She wanted everything to be the way it was.

Stupid. Things would never be the same again. Even if she could forgive him for what he'd done to her…she could never escape it.

She would never be free from this. She would always be the Fall Maiden.

She would always be hunted.

She turned her head, and Amber caught sight of her reflection, dimly in the shower screen even as the mist began to cloud it over…except it wasn't reflection it was Cinder, Cinder smirking at her as the mist rose all around her, Cinder staring at her as though she were prey or meat.

Amber leapt back with a cry of alarm, slipping on the wet floor of the shower and toppling onto her rear, sliding down the wall until she was a tangle of arms and legs on the floor looking up, staring into the mist, waiting for Cinder to stride out of it. Her breath caught in her throat.

There was a knock on the bathroom door. "Amber?" Jaune asked. "Are you okay in there?"

Amber breathed in, and out. She stared. There was no sign of Cinder, nor even her reflection.

"Yes," she said, quietly. She raised her voice. "Yes, I'm fine. Thank you for checking up on me."

"It's nothing," Jaune said. "Just call if you need anything."

 _I need someone to keep me safe. I need someone to protect me from Cinder and Ozpin. I need someone to take me away from here and hide me and guard me. I need someone to be mine, on my side, someone who cares about me and only me the way my mother did. The way that I thought that Ozpin did._

But was Sunset, or any of the members of Team Sapphire, the person she was looking for?

Amber slowly picked herself up off the shower floor. Her eyes were drawn to the four shampoo bottles sitting on a wire metal tray just above the brass handles: a cheap store brand shampoo and conditioner for women; a colourful bottle with a cartoon girl on it; a black bottle with FOR MEN in big letters underneath the brand name; and an expensive-looking bottle of something scented with jasmine, rose and frankincense, by the look of it there was a bottle of matching conditioner sitting just behind it.

At the moment Amber couldn't have said which of Sunset, Jaune, Pyrrha or Ruby each of those bottles of shampoo belonged to, so how could she say for certain if they would protect her when she needed them? Would any of them choose her over Ozpin, really? Would any of them choose her over one another? Would Jaune choose her over Pyrrha? She didn't know. She didn't know the answers to any of these questions because she didn't know them, and until she knew them how could she trust them? Even Sunset, how could she know what she was saying to Ozpin right now.

All of these people were so dangerous, and even Sunset…even Sunset frightened her a little.

She needed to make them hers. Her security demanded that they be hers and only hers, that they should choose her over anyone and everyone else, that they protect her no matter what. It was the only way that she could feel even a little safe and secure and protected.

And if they couldn't give her that commitment, then she would have to find somebody else who would.

She was so afraid.

She would do anything to make it go away.

* * *

Sunset's stomach became increasingly unsettled as she rode the elevator up to the top of the tower. She didn't know for certain that Professor Ozpin would be up there – it would make just as much sense for him to still be down below in the vault, brooding – but she thought that he might have retreated to his high sanctum after the disappointment of today.

She felt ill. She felt guilty. She felt responsible. Mostly because she was guilty and responsible. She had had the idea, she had championed the idea, she had brought in Princess Celestia to persuade Ozpin to give her the go ahead and for a while after that conversation he had seemed renewed and reinvigorated, a younger man suffused with hope.

And now that hope was shattered anew and it was all Sunset's fault.

What must he think of her right now?

It was not something that she could have said to Amber in her current state, but she thought that the Fall Maiden was being too harsh on him, just as Sunset had been far, far too harsh on Princess Celestia. Mistakes did not equal a lack of love, still less its absence. They simply meant that even the wisest were not infallible. Princess Celestia had erred in failing to see early enough that Sunset was not meant to wear the crown or bear the wings of destiny; Professor Ozpin had erred in failing to see that the weight of the Fall mantle would crush Amber beneath it, and it might be said that he had erred the greater in not realising this before he made her the Fall Maiden, or put her in such a position where she might become Fall; but in the end they were just mistakes, not malice. Princess Celestia had turned out to love Sunset no less, and Professor Ozpin seemed to love Amber no less.

 _And if Princess Celestia hadn't thought at one point that I had greatness in me then we would never have had our time together, and I wouldn't trade that for anything._

But how would any of that bring comfort to Professor Ozpin right now? How would any of that make him hate Sunset any the less for what she had done?

The elevator door opened, and the chime seemed almost as though it was ringing for her execution.

Sunset stepped out into the headmaster's office. Professor Ozpin was there, but he had his back to her; his chair was turned right round so that he was looking out of the window.

Sunset advanced, stopping a few feet away from the desk. She found herself standing like the Atlesians did, with her hands clasped behind her back.

Professor Ozpin said nothing. Had he not heard the elevator door open?

Sunset cleared her throat.

"I know you're there, Miss Shimmer," Ozpin said softly. He sounded infinitely tired.

Sunset looked down at her feet. "I feel I owe you an apology, Professor," she murmured. An apology was the least she owed, but it was all she could offer right now.

Professor Ozpin's chair swung round until he was facing her. He looked as though he had been crying. "An apology? And what do you think you have to apologise to me for, Miss Shimmer?"

For a moment Sunset was silenced by her incredulity at the words that had just come out of his mouth. "I…well, for what happened down in the vault."

"You promised me that you would bring Amber back," Professor Ozpin said. "And you did. As far as I am concerned you played your part successfully. You don't owe me an apology, Miss Shimmer. I owe you my thanks, for bringing Amber back to me."

"But…" Sunset stammered. "But she-"

"Hates me?"

"I, um, I wasn't going to use a word that strong, but…something like that."

"And so, because of that, I should wish her dead?" Professor Ozpin asked. "I should wish her dead, and perhaps Miss Nikos too, or both of them dead and something new emerged out of their personalities because at least I would not be disdained by it? Do you think so little of me, Miss Shimmer, that you think my thoughts would run down such dark lines?"

Sunset shuffled on the spot. "No, Professor."

"I'm glad to hear it. And besides, Amber has the right to be angry with me," Professor Ozpin said. "She has been through so much, endured so much…but even if she did not have the right to her anger that would still not be your fault. You did all you could, I cannot expect you to not only save Amber but to restore the relationship that we once had…the fault is mine for forgetting that our relationship was broken before Cinder's attack."

"She couldn't handle it, could she Professor?" Sunset asked. She was aware that she was trespassing on dangerous ground here, that she could very easily by her prying arouse the ire that had not fallen on her for what had happened in the vault.

But Professor Ozpin did not seem angry. He barely seemed to react at all, and when he answered it was in the same melancholy tone as before. "It is a heavy burden, and not for everyone. Not for the wicked, certainly, but even for the good…not everyone can comfortably walk in the shoes of a prophet. And yet I had been so sure with Amber, I had watched her for so long…"

"She was your student," Sunset said. "Not at Beacon, but…in the way that I was Celestia's student, in the way that she was watching me to see if I could achieve ascension…that was why you visited her so often. You were teaching her, but also seeing if she was the right kind of person to become Fall Maiden."

"I hoped she would be," Professor Ozpin confirmed. "When I found her, the sole survivor of a grimm attack, it seemed like a miracle. We had endured so many losses recently that finding her…something about her drew me to her. I gave her to Merida, the Fall Maiden, to raise in isolation, away from the corruption of the world. Merida was already in hiding from those who sought the Maidens' power, so it was no sacrifice for her. I thought that…I hoped that…it was a kind of experiment I suppose, in a natural innocent, someone untainted by the world in all its cruelty. Yes, you are correct, I watched her, from afar and sometimes from close by. And in the watching I came to…to love her."

"Something else Princess Celestia would recognise, I think," Sunset murmured. She did not say so, but she could not help thinking that Professor Ozpin's mistake had been in thinking that by this experiment he was creating an innocent and not just someone sheltered and naïve. It was all very well to be raised in the wilderness with only your mother-figure for company, with occasional visits from your father-figure to tell you of a world that you could never see, and no doubt Amber had been happy in such a life as many people could be. But it did not make you an innocent, except perhaps in the sense that you had never had to deal with life and its troubles. Ruby was an innocent because she had faced life's trials and tribulations – the death of her mother, the grief of her father, battle, crime, all the evidence of man's inhumanity to man as well as the almost futile nature of the struggle in which they were engaged – and yet she had emerged from all these challenges still good and kind, with an open heart able to embrace love and friendship and see the good in those around her, able to inspire courage and loyalty in others. Amber had never been tested in such a way, prior to receiving the powers of the Fall Maiden and plunged into the maelstrom of the battle against Salem.

It was as she had long thought, ever since reading the myths of the Maidens: Remnant had it backwards, in rewarding you with great power and then expecting you to go out and do something great; in Equestrian you did something great and then you ascended in acknowledgement of your greatness. A much more sensible system.

She kept all these chauvinistic thoughts to herself, of course.

"Amber," she said quietly. "She's upset right now, she's been through a lot and Twilight's right, she doesn't remember a lot of things. She doesn't remember how her mother died or how she got the powers."

"It might be for the best that she does not remember that," Professor Ozpin said.

Sunset winced. "It was that bad."

"Merida…she did not meet a kindly end," Professor Ozpin said. "There is a reason the Maidens are kept secret and safe, they have been hunted for many generations now."

"I see," Sunset said. "I…I probably won't tell her that."

"Please don't, Miss Shimmer."

"What I actually meant to say was…I think she'll come around. To you, I mean."

"What makes you say that?"

"I did," Sunset said.

Professor Ozpin smiled. "Thank you for your optimism, Miss Shimmer."

"I could…I don't know, I could…speak for you, maybe," Sunset suggested. "When Amber is…more receptive."

"A kind thought, Miss Shimmer, but I wouldn't want you to do anything to jeopardise your relationship with Amber," Professor Ozpin said. "Amber comes first, as the Fall Maiden and as a lost girl in a strange world, in need of someone to take her by the hand and show her the way."

Sunset nodded. "I know that every team leader probably thinks they have the best team at the academy-"

"Actually, Miss Shimmer, Professor Goodwitch tries to instil in the students a degree of self-awareness."

"But I know for a fact that I have the nicest team, with the kindest students. They, we, will take care of her."

"I'm sure you will," Professor Ozpin said. He paused. "Cinder will come for her, if she learns that she has awoken. You must stand with her in that battle."

Sunset nodded. "We'll do that too, Professor."

Professor Ozpin sighed. "I'm glad to hear it. How is she?"

"As she was," Sunset said. "Cold, hungry, afraid. Curious. Jaune's watching her now, Pyrrha's trying to rustle up something to eat."

"I see," Professor Ozpin said. "Thank you, Miss Shimmer, and please…take good care of her."


	146. Amber's Probing Questions

Amber's Probing Questions

Amber emerged from the bathroom, dressed in a pale yellow dress that flowed down to just below her knees, where it came to an end in a ruffled hem. She was wearing a pair of golden bangles on one arm, and a brooch – an amber with a trio of dark-coloured feathers sticking out – upon her neckline. A dark brown bustier was fastened tightly around her waist and lower torso. She smelled like Pyrrha, or more accurately she smelled of the same expensive scented shampoo and conditioner that Pyrrha used on her hair when they weren't on missions; Jaune doubted Pyrrha would mind, after all it wasn't as though Amber had any of her own toiletries and Pyrrha's probably were the nicest by a long way. Amber's dress flowed around her like water as she twirled in place. "What do you think, Jaune?"

Jaune started to shrug, before stopping himself with a mental reminder that it probably wouldn't be appreciated. "You…you look nice," he said. "Although it doesn't look very warm," he added, noting the way that the frilly neckline left her arms bare. "Are you not feeling cold any more?"

"A little," Amber admitted. "But not as much as I was, and I'm sure it'll get better. It's too beautiful a day to wrap up, don't you think?" she asked, going to the window and looking out at the courtyard spread out beneath them.

"Autumn is pretty much here," Jaune said, as he got up from where he'd been sitting on his bed. "And we don't want you to catch cold or something." He approached her, close enough to see the pimples rising on her arms. "You've got goosebumps."

Amber turned from the window and looked up at him; the smile on her face almost made her scars disappear. "Maybe I'm just not used to having a gallant gentleman so close to me."

"Uh, thanks, I guess," Jaune said, retreating back a step. "I, um, there must be something here that you can put on to keep yourself warm." He started to rummage around the clothes that Pyrrha had brought up with her. There wasn't a single sweater in evidence, but he did find a long, dark green hooded cloak which was better than nothing, right? "Here," he said, bundling the cloak up in his arms and holding it out to her. "You can wrap yourself in this."

"Indoors?"

Jaune shrugged. "Ruby wears her cape everywhere, indoors or out, so I don't think it really matters as long as you're comfortable."

Amber tentatively reached out, and took the dark green cloak from his hands. She took a step forward as she swept the cloak around her, fastening it around her neck eve as it fell down to around her ankles. "Ruby," she said quietly, looking down at the cloak as her fingers worked to secure it round her throat. "She…is your team mate?"

"Yeah, that's right," Jaune said. "My team-mate, and my friend."

"You like her then?"

"Sure," Jaune replied. "Everybody likes Ruby, she doesn't have an enemy in the world; well, except for her actual enemies, obviously. What I'm trying to say is that everybody likes Ruby except for the people who want to kill her…no, wait, that didn't come out right either."

Amber raised both hands to her mouth as she giggled.

Jaune laughed nervously. "Yeah, my brain and my mouth don't always sync up too well," he admitted. "What I mean is-"

"Do you mean that once you exclude the people who are opposed to your cause, the servants of Salem, everybody likes Ruby?" Amber asked.

"Pretty much," Jaune said. "We've all got enemies outside the school, and it seems like you didn't forget who they are, but inside the school, around here, Ruby doesn't have any other enemies. Everyone likes her."

"Do some of you have enemies inside the school?"

"I probably shouldn't call them enemies, it's kind of a strong way of putting it," Jaune said. "But some of us…some of us are more of an acquired taste than others. Not everyone is as popular as Ruby."

"Why is that?"

"Huh?"

"Why is Ruby so well beloved?" Amber asked. "Or should I ask why not everyone else is as well beloved as Ruby?"

Jaune frowned slightly. "I think…" he ventured. "I think the first one is the right question. And the answer is…I could just tell you that you'll find out for yourself once you get to know her, but that would be kind of cheating, wouldn't it?"

Amber smiled. "Only a little."

Jaune returned to his bed and sat down upon it, musing upon the right way to put this. "It's because…it's because her heart, it's just so open, you know? It's so open that it makes you want to open up your heart to her too just so you don't feel like you're taking advantage of her. She'll always give you a chance no matter who you are, she…she's like light, shining in the darkness."

"She sounds very special," Amber murmured. She sat down herself, on Sunset's bed – her bed now, for the time being – and picked up Sunset's stuffed unicorn, cradling it in her arms. "You must be very fond of her."

"I am," Jaune said. "We all are."

"Would you do anything for her?"

"I…" Jaune stopped. He thought about it for a moment. "I'd do anything that Ruby would ever ask me to do," he said.

Amber tilted her head slightly to one side. "What does that mean?"

"It means that there are some things I know that Ruby would never ask me to do," Jaune said. "Like beat up some random guy or hold up a bank or, okay I know those are pretty far-fetched but you get what I mean, right?"

"And even if she asked you to do those things, you wouldn't do them?"

"No," Jaune said. "But like I said, Ruby wouldn't ask."

"I see," Amber murmured. She sat there for a moment, on Sunset's bed, cradling the stuffed animal. Then she stood up, and began to walk across the room with her cloak flowing behind her. She seemed a little restless, and it occurred to Jaune that she might be bored.

"So, are there any things that you like to do for fun?" he asked, and them immediately regretted it because he wasn't supposed to take her out of this room, was he? He would have been better off asking her if she wanted to read a book or play a video game or something.

Fortunately, Amber didn't seem to notice his question in order to respond with 'I like going for long walks in the woods where Sunset and Professor Ozpin would both kill you for taking me'. In fact she didn't seem to notice his question at all. Less fortunately, it was because she'd spotted Crocea Mors leaning against the wall beside his bed, and was staring at it as though it might at any moment come alive and stab them both while proclaiming its own villainy. "Is that…is that your weapon?" she asked, in a voice that was trembling as much as her body.

"Uh, yeah," Jaune said, getting up and putting himself between Amber and the offending sword. He looked around the room, and saw that none of his team-mates' weapons were in evidence; they were all down in the lockers, were Crocea Mors should have been except that he'd been cleaning it in here when Sunset called to tell him they were ready to go on the saving Amber thing. "Sorry, I should have put that away, I just…it's been a bit of a day, you know?" he smiled in what he hoped was a reassuring manner. "I can, uh…I can put it under the bed if it bothers you."

Amber's chest rose and fell. "I…yes, please."

Jaune turned away, and swiftly shoved Crocea Mors under his bed; as soon as Pyrrha or Sunset or Ruby got back he'd take it down to the locker room and stow it with the rest of his gear. "There," he said. "Out of sight, out of mind."

Amber nodded tremulously. "It looks…it looks very dangerous."

"Only to bad guys and monsters," Jaune said. "Amber, you don't need to worry about me, or any of us. We're here to help you."

Amber swallowed. "Really? Do you mean that?"

"Of course," Jaune said, wondering why she found that so hard to believe. "I promise."

"And will you protect me, Jaune?" Amber demanded. "If I called for you would you come in."

"Sure, if you were in danger," Jaune said. "Amber, are you okay?"

Amber stared into his eyes. "I wish that you remembered me," she murmured.

"Huh?" Jaune said. "You're not making any sense."

Amber smiled sadly. "No, I guess I'm not, am I?" she turned away from him, her cloak spinning around her as she ran one finger along the desk that sat against the opposite wall. "Jaune, why did you decide to become a huntsman; no, that isn't the right question; why did you decide to stay a huntsman, even after you found out about Salem, and the Maidens, and all the other things that Ozpin lies to everyone about. When you found out that Ozpin had been lying to you, when you found out that he only wanted to make you sacrifices in his war, why did you stay here at Beacon?"

"You're being a little hard on Professor Ozpin there, don't you think?" Jaune asked lightly, or at least he hoped it was a light because Amber had just gotten pretty heavy here.

"Really?" Amber snapped, and the anger in her eyes made the scars on her face seem to stand out much more. "You don't feel used by him? You don't think I should feel used by him?"

"I…" Jaune hesitated, because the truth was that there was a part of him that wanted to answer yes to the first question, even now, and even without knowing enough about Amber to answer the second.

When he had found out what Ozpin had planned to do to Pyrrha, what he had been willing to do in order to turn her into one of his Maidens, then he had wanted to do several things: he had wanted to grab Pyrrha by the shoulders and demand to know how she could even consider going through with something like that, even though he knew Pyrrha well enough that he was pretty certain of what the answer would be; he had wanted to yell at Sunset for not doing more to talk Pyrrha out of it, and at the same time he had wanted to kiss Sunset for finding a way out of this that would save Pyrrha and keep her soul intact; and he had wanted to march down to Beacon Tower, go up to Ozpin's office and punch him out for what he'd planned to do (try to punch him out, anyway, Jaune was aware that unless the headmaster allowed it he wasn't likely to get very far).

Yes, he knew that if they didn't do something then Cinder would become even more powerful and that would be bad, he knew that they were huntsmen and they had to be ready to sacrifice but this was _Pyrrha_ , and the thought of losing her, of suddenly being without her…he didn't know how he could possibly handle it; he honestly doubted that he could, and that was even without the horror of something else wandering around Beacon wearing Pyrrha's body like a cheap suit.

He sank back onto the bed. "I get it," he admitted. "When…" perhaps he oughtn't to tell her this, but she seemed a little mad at him right now, and maybe telling her the truth would prove that he did understand where she was coming from, assuming – as he guessed – that she was coming from the same place that she was. "When it seemed like you were…not going to make it, Professor Ozpin planned to…to transfer your powers to Pyrrha. It would have been dangerous, and when I found out that he was willing to put her through that, when I found out that everything that he'd told us and everything that we'd done for him had just been about getting Pyrrha down into that vault so that he could make her into the Fall Maiden then I…I was angry. But now…maybe it's just because everything's okay now, or maybe because Pyrrha explained it all to me or maybe because I just can't stay mad for every long, but now I-"

"Pyrrha?" Amber said. "He was going to transfer my powers to Pyrrha? He was going to make Pyrrha his new Fall Maiden."

"That's right," Jaune said softly. "But, that doesn't really matter now because you're here, and everything worked out. And so, when I think about how he let Sunset try and save you instead, I think that must have just been really desperate-"

"Does…does he like Pyrrha?" Amber asked.

"Professor Ozpin?"

"Yes, does he like her?" Amber repeated.

"I suppose so," Jaune said. "I don't know if I could think about doing that to someone I liked, but…I think he likes all of us, in his way."

"Does he like Pyrrha especially?"

"I don't know," Jaune murmured. "Why are you asking this?"

"He replaced me," whispered Amber, and the anger on her face melted away to be replaced by a stricken sadness, a melancholy deep enough to swim in.

Jaune felt both pity for her but at the same time a certain creeping sense that he had said the wrong thing somewhere along the line. "Amber-"

"It's okay, Jaune," Amber said, pulling herself together with a visible effort that reminded him of Sunset when they'd first met and she'd tried to pretend that the world didn't get to her at all. She smiled. "You never answered my question."

Jaune thought about it. "Which one, why I wanted to be a huntsman or why I stayed?"

"Either," Amber said. "Both. Whatever you like."

Jaune looked down at his hands. "I wanted to be a huntsman…when I first came to Beacon I wanted to be something special. My Dad used to be a huntsman, a while ago, before he decided to settle down and raise a family, and my great-grandfather fought in the war. I thought they must have been so cool, and I wanted to be like them. I had visions of myself slaying hundreds of beowolves with a single swing of my sword, of being just like that guy on the statue out in the courtyard: raising my blade while the monsters cowered and my allies looked on in awe." He chuckled. "It's kinda stupid but then, so was I back then."

"And now?" Amber asked. "What's keeping you here now that you know there is no heroism and no victory?"

Jaune looked at her. "That isn't true. Do you really believe that?"

"You don't?"

"No," Jaune said immediately. "Just because of Salem and magic and all that other stuff, it doesn't mean that there isn't anything heroic about being a huntsman. I've seen heroism, with my own eyes. Maybe it isn't the cartoon stuff that I imagined when I took my great-grandfather's sword and snuck out of the house, but that doesn't mean it isn't real. It's more real for being, well, real."

"So you still want to be a hero, you just want to be a realistic one?"

Jaune hesitated for a moment. "I…I have seven sisters back home," he said. "And four of them have never seen a creature of grimm in their lives, and one of them has only seen one and I hope it stays that way. I know that I'm not the one protecting them from the monsters and the darkness, that's my eldest sister Rouge, which is kind of a long story, the point is…there's something that Rainbow Dash says: she says that her friends sleep safe at night knowing that she's out there, standing on a wall saying that nothing's going to hurt you tonight. I'd like to be that, for somebody; for my family, for anybody who needs it. That, and…"

Amber waited for him to finish. She clasped the edges of her cloak. "Please," she said. "Please go on."

Jaune said, "Have you ever wanted to be a part of something bigger than yourself? Bigger than just you and the stuff that you had going on?"

"No," Amber admitted. "I've never felt that way. Growing up, there just wasn't anybody else around. Just me and my mother and the occasional visit from Ozpin. The outside world was just a story, something that Ozpin dangled in front of me; I wanted to visit it, and Ozpin said that he'd take me there one day, but there were times…there were times that I could imagine that it didn't really exist, that it was just a fairy tale like the others that Ozpin used to tell me." She laughed.

"What?"

"I was just thinking about the fairy tales he used to tell me that turned out to be true," Amber said. "So in a way, the outside world was a fairy tale just like them after all."

Jaune chuckled once he understood what she was getting at. "I guess so. I…I can't imagine what that must have been like, growing up with only two other people in your whole world."

"I've known no other men than you and…and Ozpin," Amber said. She smiled. "And I couldn't imagine anyone better."

 _Is she…did she just try and flirt with me?_ It sounded a little like it, or it could just be that she was giving him a perfectly innocent compliment. It was hard to say for sure, but Jaune decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. "Thanks, but once you've met a few more guys you'll probably think that I'm nothing that special." Even in there year, after all, he was not the tallest (that was Cardin), the most muscular (Cardin again), the most athletic (Ren), the best looking (Flash, maybe Neptune if you expanded it out to the non-Beacon students); in some ways it was kind of a miracle he'd ended up with Pyrrha, all things considered.

No one could say he didn't realise how lucky he was.

Amber shook her head. "I would wish no other gentleman but you to keep me company."

 _Okay._ Jaune decided that his best course might be to adopt that denseness which, although it had done him no favours in his hopeless pursuit of Weiss or in his blindness towards Pyrrha's feelings, might nonetheless serve him better here. "I, uh, I guess I never fully answered the second half of your question, did I?"

Amber looked confused. "You didn't?"

"No, I-" Jaune was cut off by the buzzing of his scroll. "Hang on a second." He pulled it out of his pocket and pulled it open. It was a text from Sunset.

Sunset: Hey, Jaune. I'm just picking up the camp bed now; when Pyrrha or Ruby get back could you leave one of them to watch Amber and run down to the laundry and get me some sheets?

Thanks

Sunset

Jaune folded up his scroll.

"Is everything okay?" Amber asked anxiously.

"Yeah," Jaune said. "Sunset just wants me to run an errand for her once someone else arrives to watch over you."

"I hope they're all still a while," Amber said guilelessly.

"Sooo," Jaune said, eliding quickly over _that_. "You never wanted to be a part of something more than just you, not even after you became the Fall Maiden?"

Amber pulled her cloak tightly around her. "I wasn't asked if I wanted to become a part of something bigger. It was thrust upon me in all its size and danger. Do you want this? Do you enjoy it? Is that why you're still here?"

"Kind of," Jaune said. "It…I think it must be kind of how my great-grandfather felt when he went to war. I'm not talking about glory or anything like that, I'm talking about feeling like you're doing something important, making a difference. Team Sapphire, we're not an army but…but we're something else. We all have a place here, even me: Ruby, she's our heart, she always knows the right thing to do and she lights the way for the rest of us to follow, sometimes just thinking about what Ruby would do will be enough to tell you what the right choice is; Pyrrha is our soul, she's the one who brings us all together, the one who makes us who we are, the one we all rely on when things get rough; Sunset's our head, the one who's always thinking ahead, planning, looking out for us; and I'm…I suppose you could say that I'm like the backbone, I hold up the others, and the stronger I get the stronger the whole team is. Like I said, we've all got our place and we've all got our part to play, and that matters to me. I think it matters to all of us, except maybe Ruby. She's the only one who I don't think was looking for that before she came here. And now we've found it."

"They mean a lot to you, don't they?" Amber asked softly.

Jaune smiled. "They mean everything to me."

"And Pyrrha most of all," Amber said. "Sunset said that you were her, what's the word, boyfriend?"

Jaune's smile widened. "Yeah, that's right."

"Well I hope she knows how lucky she is."

"I'm the one who feels lucky," Jaune said.

"Really?" Amber said, walking towards him. "Don't you feel like she…don't you think she feels the same way you do?"

"That's not what I-"

The door opened, and Pyrrha walked in carrying a white carrier bag in one hand. "I hope that you don't mind kebabs, I found a man conveniently selling these out of the back of a truck not far from the school; I think if he hadn't been there I might have had to go all the way into Vale," she said as she shut the door behind her.

"Hello, Pyrrha," Amber said flatly, as if she were intruding in somewhere she was not wanted. "You're back."

"I'm sorry that took a while," Pyrrha said. "As I said, there wasn't much choice. Do you-"

"I'm sure they'll be fine," Amber said, and as Pyrrha approached with the bag Amber snatched it out of her hand.

"I, um, I need to go," Jaune said. "Sunset asked me to pick up some sheets, and I need to put my sword away in my locker."

"Do you have to?" Amber asked, inching slightly closer to him.

Jaune grinned. "Trust me, you'll be much safer with Pyrrha here than with me."

Amber pouted for a moment, and then she darted forward to plant a wet kiss on his cheek. "Hurry back."

Jaune's eyebrows rose. "Uh…that was…"

"Just a thank you, for helping to save me," Amber said.

"Right," Jaune murmured, as he turned away from her, bent down, and pulled his sword out from underneath the bed. As he stood up, holding Crocea Mors about the middle of the scabbard, Amber let out a little cry of alarm, and flinched back from it. "It's okay," he said. "It'll be gone soon." He headed towards the door, but stopped when he was side by side with Pyrrha, him facing one way and she facing the other. "She seems better," he murmured as quietly as he could. "But she really doesn't like weapons, or Professor Ozpin."

"I see," Pyrrha said. She glanced at him. "Hurry back," she said, with a trace of amusement in her voice.

Jaune felt his face redden just a little, before Pyrrha leaned forward and brushed her lips against his.

"Right," Jaune said, and turned away, leaving the two of them in the room as he headed out the door and began to make his way towards the lockers.

* * *

Pyrrha stood still as she heard the door close behind her, and looked at Amber.

Amber looked back at Pyrrha, her eyes as Amber as the name as guileless as those of a newborn babe.

"Is everything alright, Pyrrha?"

"It's fine," Pyrrha said softly, because it had only been a kiss on the cheek, after all; and Jaune had helped to save her life. One could even say he deserved it. She glanced at the bag in Amber's hand. "You should perhaps eat some of those before they get cold. I'm sorry if I bought too many."

Amber looked down at the bag as though she had momentarily forgotten that it was there. "Of course," she said, and looked around for somewhere to sit. She glanced at Sunset's bed, but in the end she decided – possibly because she had some inking that it wasn't cleanest food that Pyrrha had found for her – to just pull out the chair by the desk instead. She pulled the polystyrene box out of the plastic bag, and then opened that up to reveal a quartet of vegetarian kebabs all wrapped in brown paper rolls.

"So many different wrappers, it's like a precious gift," Amber declared as she tore off the paper. "I'm sure this will be wonderful."

"I wouldn't go quite that far," Pyrrha said, but it seemed that Amber was ignoring her as she devoured the first of the hot and spicy kebabs with great gusto and no table manners whatsoever. Even Ruby might have urged her to take a breath before she stuffed anything else into her mouth but, as she watched Amber tear off the paper from the second kebab and tear into it, Pyrrha supposed that after everything she'd been through Amber could be forgiven for being ravenous.

It was not long at all before all four kebabs has been consumed, and nothing was left but a few scraps of greasy brown paper lying in the bottom of the polystyrene box.

Amber bowed her head. "That…that was very good."

Pyrrha smiled slightly. "How do you feel now?"

Amber hesitated for a moment. "Hungry."

Pyrrha blinked. "You…really?"

"Yes," Amber said. She shivered.

"Are you cold?" Pyrrha asked.

Amber nodded.

"Do you want me to turn up the heat a little?"

Amber nodded again, as she tugged her cloak around her.

Pyrrha walked briskly over to the radiator that sat underneath the window and bent down to turn it up a notch. It was already on two out of six, but she moved it to three and hoped that would help Amber out a little.

"Pyrrha, is it true that Ozpin wanted you to become the Fall Maiden, because he'd given up on me."

Pyrrha stood up, but did not turn around. She could hear the daggers in Amber's words, and not only daggers but knives coated with venom at that. She found that she preferred to imagine what equally venomous expression might be upon Amber's face than to turn around and see it for herself. "Did Jaune tell you that?" she asked. _Perhaps you shouldn't have brought it up, Jaune; I can see why it might be a sore spot that everyone had given you up for dead. I can't imagine I'd be best pleased if I went into a coma and woke up to find that you'd replaced me, or been about to._

"He said that when he found out what Ozpin had been about to do to you he was angry," Amber said.

Pyrrha nodded, even though she wasn't sure how well that came across with her back to Amber. "Yes," she said. "He was." He had been as angry as Sunset, although a little easier to calm down; by the time they were done they had both been crying as they held onto one another, crying for the mere thought of having lost one another and out of relief that they would not have to if Sunset was able to make the miracle she hoped for.

"He said it was dangerous."

"It would have been."

"Why?" Amber asked, her tone both curious and angry at the same time. "Wouldn't you have just killed me and taken my power for yourself?"

Pyrrha turned to face her. Amber looked exactly as angry as she had thought – or feared – she would, and the fury in her eyes and the twist of her mouth was making the scars that ravaged her face stand out in much sharper relief than when she smiled. "It's not that simple," Pyrrha said. "It would…do you understand what Cinder did to you?"

Amber's hand went reflectively to her face, and to the scars that Cinder had given her. "It's gone, isn't it? She…she took something away from me."

Pyrrha nodded solemnly. "A part of the Fall Maiden's powers, and your aura too. It's why you were…in such a bad way."

Amber closed her eyes. "I felt it leaving me. Even when I didn't feel anything else I felt the…the emptiness. In my head I could see it being torn away and after I could see the tears…I can still feel it, that emptiness that, that cold emptiness of being apart from…is that why I don't remember?"

"I think so, although I'm not a scientist," Pyrrha said.

Amber sniffed, and for a moment Pyrrha thought that she would weep. But then she opened her eyes again and glared at Pyrrha. "But what does that have to do with you being in danger?"

"If…if you…if you died," Pyrrha said. "If you die now, Professor Ozpin believes, or fears, that the rest of your magic will seek to reunite with the half that has already been stolen, and then Cinder will become the true Fall Maiden."

"She's welcome to it," Amber said sulkily. "I never asked for it. I never asked to be the Fall Maiden, I never wanted this."

"Don't say that," Pyrrha said sharply. "You know what Cinder did to you, and that isn't the only thing she's done. She's dangerous and unscrupulous and if the whole of the incalculable power of a maiden ever falls into her hands then…that can't be allowed to happen. You have to understand how perilous that power could be in the hands of someone unworthy."

"What do you know about being unworthy, you were going to murder me just to steal my magic!"

"No, I wasn't, it probably would have killed me too," Pyrrha said before she could stop herself. Having said it she regretted it. She didn't want Amber to think that she was trying to get into a contest about whose situation was the more pitiable with her. She should have let the Fall Maiden vent her justified anger, and borne it all with stoic patience.

Amber's eyes widened. "What…I don't understand."

"What…what Professor Ozpin was proposing to do, to safeguard your power," Pyrrha said. She looked away. "I probably shouldn't talk about it."

"Please," Amber said. "Don't stop. I want to know. I want to know what he was going to do me. I want to know just how badly I…I want to know."

Pyrrha closed her eyes for a moment. "Your aura in my body," she said. "Our souls entwined, combined. Nobody knows what that would have resulted in: me, you or something else altogether."

"He would have…killed us both?" Amber asked incredulously.

"Yes," Pyrrha whispered as she looked away.

"And you…you were going to do it?" she asked with mounting disbelief.

"Yes," Pyrrha said, and hoped she would have had the courage to do so in the end if it had come down to it.

"Why?" Amber demanded. "Why would you die for him, for his cause, for his stupid war?"

"Stupid?" Pyrrha asked, her head snapping up to look Amber in the eye. "The world stands in grave peril, the grimm are growing stronger and more prevalent, tensions between nations are rising and I am certain that our real enemies delight in that fact. Remnant and its kingdoms need all the brave defenders that will take up arms for them and Professor Ozpin needs every sword that will be drawn for him; I would hardly call any of that stupid."

Amber's eyes narrowed. She licked her lips. "You talk…you talk like some of the heroines in the books I used to read when I was a child. When I was young I used to dream of being somebody like you, somebody who would talk like you do."

"Thank you," Pyrrha murmured.

"But they were just stupid silly stories read by a stupid, silly child," Amber spat. "You'll die; you know that, don't you? Like my mother died, like I nearly died, like he would have killed me! Ozpin makes us give everything, and then we die and he replaces us. He replaced my mom with me, and then he was going to replace me with you."

"It isn't like that," Pyrrha said.

"And you were willing?" Amber demanded. "You were going to die because he asked you to?"

Pyrrha took a deep breath. "I hope so," she said.

Amber stared at her in a kind of amazement. She drew back, as if Pyrrha frightened her as much as the sight of Jaune's sword had done. "Jaune's very handsome, isn't he?"

Pyrrha frowned. "Excuse me?"

"Jaune," Amber repeated. "I dreamed of a prince just like him, when I was a girl. He's very handsome, isn't he? I could drown in his eyes."

"I do, sometimes," Pyrrha admitted. "Yes, he is very handsome. Although I don't quite-"

"I think he loves you," Amber said softly. "Sunset says that he's your…boyfriend, what a strange word, but I think he's your love, like in the stories."

 _The same stories that were silly and stupid just a moment ago?_ "I know that he's my love," Pyrrha said, a slight smile playing across her face. "I just hope that I'm his."

"Why would you give up your prince to die for Ozpin and his lies, his fight?" Amber asked, thus making her point clear.

"Because…because it is the right thing to do," Pyrrha said. "I don't seek death, but if it is my fate and the cause is just…how can I avoid it, or complain too long or too loud. I am a warrior, and a huntress, or at least I hope to be; death is a hazard that I venture on."

Amber stared at her in wary silence. "Do you…do you like him, Ozpin?"

"I…" Pyrrha hesitated for a moment. "I respect Professor Ozpin a great deal, but I would not say I like him. We're not friends. Apart from anything else, the age difference is so great."

"Does he spend time with you?"

"No," Pyrrha said. "Not outside of official business."

Amber sniffed.

"Amber," Pyrrha murmured. "Whatever was between you and Professor Ozpin…I am not a replacement for it. You can-"

"What makes you think that I want anything to do with him?" Amber snarled. "I don't, I just…I thought. I don't. I don't understand why you all…would you do anything for him? For Ozpin? No matter the cost?"

"I am sure, Professor Ozpin having asked something of me, that the cost would be far higher if I did not do it, but," Pyrrha shook her head. "I would not do many things that he could in theory ask of me: I would not commit a crime, betray a friend…there are many things that I would not do, but so long as Professor Ozpin asked me to do something that was right and just, as I am sure he would, then yes, I would do it. As I will defend you, Amber, with my life. I will fight alongside you, I will place myself between you and any danger. I will be your shield and your spear. I give you my word, and swear it on my honour."

Amber stared at her. A little of the hostility melted off her face, and for a moment it seemed that she might even smile. "You really do talk like a storybook sometimes, Pyrrha. It's…it's really quite wonderful. Oh brave new world that has such people in it. If all the people in this brave new world had been like you then maybe I wouldn't have run away from it.

"I would love to take your word, I really would; I would love to take your word and take you for my gallant knight. I'd love to feel safe and warm with you by my side defending me from all my enemies.

"But you were Ozpin's huntress first, and as you just said: you'd do almost anything for him."


	147. Empty Hollow Shell

Empty Hollow Shells

Something had changed. Something was…different.

Cinder stood in what had been the ballroom room, alone. After Mountain Glenn had served its purpose for her, she and her team had retired to their present hideout, an old manor house on the outskirts of Vale once owned by the now-extinct Portland family, one of the wealthiest and most influential in Vale in the old days many years before the Great War: an invitation to their balls and masques had been the desire of every young pretty debutante and dashing fellow; their gala dinners were the talk of the whole kingdom…and the ways in which they satisfied their more depraved appetites under the cloak of darkness had seen many a peasant round about tremble in fear that the Portlands would come for their daughters next. Yes, this was a house with secrets, with dark cellars filled with darker devices, and bodies buried in the walls. It was also the kind of house were hunting trophies hung from nearly every wall, the heads of bears and boars and wolves and stags, but eventually the twisted cruelties of the Portlands had brought the grimm to their doors and it had been their turn to be hunted. The whole family had perished in a single night of divine justice, the demons of the dark achieving what the laws of men had failed to do: protect the innocent and punish great guilt amongst the powerful. That was why the world needed people like Cinder Fall: to strike back against those whose wealth and power put them beyond the bounds of moral judgement, to enforce nature's laws, to be the Fury in a world that had sore need of one.

Beyond its ability to act as a daily reminder to her of her cause, the Portland House also had several practical advantages as a hideout: it was remote enough to be little seen and little thought of, but not too remote that Sonata could not, under Tempest's escort, cover the distance from the house to Vale with plenty of time to spare; even now after all those years it was still surrounded by rumours of hauntings, either by the ghosts of the Portland family or by the unquiet spectres of their victims, and thus it was given a wide berth, rendering it unlikely that their presence would be noticed; and it was very large, meaning that she could be assured of her privacy whenever she wanted it. There were plenty of rooms she could go into that were empty but for her, and plenty of rooms for others to go in if she kicked them out of wherever she found them.

Built by and inhabited by monsters it may have been, but Cinder could not deny it was a grand house. Although Valish architecture had nothing on the Mistralian styles with which she had grown up, nevertheless this house did remind her somewhat of the house where she and her father had lived after they moved back to Mistral from Argus. The house where she had been happy, for a while.

Which was not to say that she was happy here, but…there were times.

Those times did not include the present, as Cinder stood in the middle of the grand ballroom, this space that had once glittered under the lights of the splendid chandelier that was now shrouded in darkness as the wine-dark curtains were drawn and the candles went unlit, this room that had once been filled with merry revellers, with ladies in their silks of many brilliant colours and gentlemen in their fur-trimmed pelisses, now gathered cobwebs in all its corners, and dust upon every surface that was to be seen; now as she stood in this place Cinder did not feel content. Instead she felt wrong. Profoundly wrong, wrong within the depths of herself.

Something was different. Something had changed. And Cinder thought that she knew what that something was.

It was hard to tell which of the effects that were constantly ravaging her body was the result of her bonding with the essence of the grimm, what was the effect of having stolen only half of the Fall Maiden's power, and what was some unholy mingling of the two: she suspected that the fact that she could no longer enjoy the taste of food, nor even recall it, was a matter of the grimm; she knew that her ability to sense the negative impulses of those around her was the grimm; she thought that her constant cold like ice in her blood and the hollow emptiness inside of her that nothing could fill up was the Fall Maiden, or rather the absence of the other half of that magic; probably her incessant hunger was both. But of those ailments that were in whole or part related to the Fall Maiden it had been as if…to say that they had been getting better would have been an out and out lie, but there had been a sense in her that they would, that she only needed to have patience and the remainder of what she had sought to obtain would flow to her as naturally as the tide.

Neither could live while the other survived, but poor Amber's survival had seemed unlikely to continue for much longer.

That feeling was gone now, and Cinder was left only with the cold and the hunger and the emptiness that had now ceased to promise that it would ever get any better.

Neither could live while the other survived.

And she had an idea who was responsible.

Which was why Cinder was gripping her scroll so hard that if she gripped any tighter it would break. How could Sunset do this to her? How could she do this to _her_? After everything Cinder had done for her, after all that they had been through together?

 _Was it all a lie, Sunset? All your fine words?_

She knew the answer. She supposed that she had always known, or always ought to have known. But still, she wanted to hear it for herself.

She wanted to know just what Sunset had done to thus condemn her.

She tore through her contacts until she found Sunset's name.

She called voice-only, her breathing heavy as she heard the dial tone, and waited for Sunset to respond.

"Hello?"

"What did you do?" Cinder demanded. "What have you done?"

There was a pause. "Cinder?"

"Yes, it's me!" Cinder snarled. "Of course it's me. Have you betrayed anyone else today?"

Another pause. "I did…what I had to do."

"And what is that?"

"You expect me to give you all the answers?"

"This isn't funny, Sunset," Cinder snapped. "After all that I've done, after all that you said, I trusted you-"

"You trusted me?" Sunset repeated. "Come on, Cinder, you can be hurt if you want but don't lie to me."

"Why shouldn't I, you've been lying to me. You said that you would help me."

"And I meant it, every word."

"Then why?" Cinder shrieked. "Why did you do it? She's awake, isn't she? I don't know what you did but I know that you did something and now…I'm right, aren't I?"

Sunset was silent a moment. "You can't honestly expect me to tell you that."

"You just did," Cinder growled. So, she had been right: Amber was back. That was annoying, but less frustrating to her than the fact that Sunset had been the one to do it. "That must have taken some thought on your part. Congratulations, you're a miracle worker."

"Cinder, none of this was about you."

"Of course, it's about me," Cinder said. "I am the Fall Maiden-"

"You stole half the Fall Maiden's power," Sunset said. "Power that was never truly yours-"

"I am the rightful Fall Maiden!" Cinder shouted. "I, not her, am the true possessor of that power. Power is not something to be hidden away, to be given to those too afraid to wield it; the power to change the world belongs to she who has the will to use it, in ways that people like Ozpin could never dream of. To someone like me, and I thought to someone like you as well."

"They offered it to me," Sunset said.

Cinder's eyes widened. "They…what?"

"They offered it to me," Sunset repeated. "Professor Ozpin and the rest. They offered me the mantle of the Fall Maiden. The part that you didn't take. They'd given up on Amber, and offered me the power as next in line. I chose…differently."

Cinder's breath caught in her throat. "I…why?" she asked. "All your dreams, your ambitions, all the things we talked about…you were offered everything and yet…you _refused_ it? Why?"

"Because it would have put us on a collision course, wouldn't it?" Sunset said. "Isn't that why you're calling now, isn't that why you're so upset? The power isn't meant to be split in two. It wants to be whole again. I didn't want it to be inevitable that one of us would have to kill the other."

Cinder chuckled. Her chuckle turned into an outright laugh. "Sunset, you…you never fail to astonish me. I would be touched, except that I'm still too upset to forgive you. You realise, of course, that all you've done is pass the burden of facing me to Amber, who couldn't withstand me even when she was whole. What will Professor Ozpin think of you standing aside while I butcher his Fall Maiden and claim all of the power for my own?"

"I'm hoping that it won't come to that," Sunset said. "I'm hoping that I can keep up my miracle-working hot streak."

Cinder sniggered. "Sometimes, Sunset, you remind me of myself; other times you remind me of me when I was much younger, and more naïve."

"Hoping for the best might be naïve, but I'd prefer to do that then always assume the worst."

"I saved your life, you know," Cinder said. "I could have let Merlot's lab explode with you inside it, but I didn't. I saved your life because I care about you."

"And I didn't take the power to face you head on because I care about you too."

"If you really cared you would have killed Amber and given me what I deserve."

"You know that I won't do that. I like you, but we're still on opposite sides; for now."

Cinder chuckled. "And yet here you are, talking to your enemy."

"You called me, remember."

"You can't keep this up forever, Sunset," Cinder said. "You can't keep dancing on the line between light and darkness. Sooner or later you're going to have to choose a side."

"I already have," Sunset said. "Have you?"

"Of course I have," Cinder said. "What are you talking about?"

"It's not too late," Sunset said. "It's still not too late. I still want to help you."

Cinder laughed bitterly. "The worst joke of all is that I think you really believe that, in spite of everything you've done."

"I-"

"I appreciate your desire to not place yourself directly athwart my path," Cinder said. It was strange, she had called intending to absolutely incandescent with Sunset, but somehow her anger had cooled into a wry, simmering anger. "It would have been very hard for me to kill you. But be under no illusions: I'm going to find Amber and I'm going to do what I should have done that day on the road. No matter where you hide her, I will come for her; no matter how well you guard her I will get to her. That power is mine, and my destiny will not be denied."

Sunset sighed. "I was afraid that you'd feel that way."

"Is that it? Is that all you have to say?"

"It's not going to happen, Cinder. You won't get near her. You're best bet now is to let me help you. My hand is still there, all you have to do is reach for it."

Cinder's mouth twisted into a snarl. "I don't need your help, or want it. If you put yourself between me and Amber, then worry for yourself!" she slammed shut her scroll.

 _You're becoming an annoying, interfering busybody, Sunset Shimmer._

 _And yet…that you refused to take a share in unimaginable power for me…though my heart is cold as raked over ashes how can I not be moved to hear it?_

"Cinder?"

Cinder took a deep breath, and calmed her tone. "Emerald, do you need something?"

"I heard you yelling," Emerald said. "Is something wrong?"

Cinder debated lying to her, but decided that there was little point. "Amber's back," she said.

"Back?" Emerald asked incredulously. "But…how-"

"Sunset," Cinder said, turning around to face Emerald, who stood in the doorway. "I don't know what she did, but she did something. Now Amber is awake, and not likely to die of natural causes any time soon."

Emerald scowled. "So what are you going to do? About Sunset, I mean?"

"About Sunset?" Cinder said. "And what makes you think that I'm going to do anything about Sunset?"

"Because she's our enemy," Emerald said. "With what she's just done she might be our most dangerous enemy, not even Ozpin could have done something like that. This sets us back-"

"This does nothing of the sort," Cinder said. "Amber is at Beacon, and will probably be there a while; Ozpin will want to keep her close, with his top lieutenants and loyal warriors all gathered in that school he will reckon it the safest place for her, somewhere he can guarantee her safety. Which means that, when our plans come to fruition, we can use the confusion to find her and take her out."

"Unless Sunset gets in the way again," Emerald muttered. "You don't need her. You have me; I've been by your side since the very beginning, since before you'd even heard of Sunset Shimmer, and I would never treat you this way, refusing your friendship and betraying you, fighting against you, thwarting your plans." She took a deep breath. "Cinder, you gave me something that I'd never had before in my life: a home, a place to belong, a family. And so I hate to see you let yourself get hurt like this over someone so unworthy of you.

"Sunset Shimmer doesn't deserve you. Hasn't she proven that by now? She's bad for you, she's toxic, you need to let her go now.

"You're amazing. You're the most amazing person that I've ever met. You could be great, you could do so much, you could change the world if you wanted to."

"And I will," Cinder said sharply.

"Yes, you will," Emerald agreed. "Unless you keep letting Sunset get in the way. She's holding you back. Your obsession with her is holding you back. You need to let her go, for your own sake.

Ordinarily Cinder would have silenced her for speaking thus, and rebuked her for it besides. But it seemed that she was in a more sentimental mood than normal, or perhaps in the wake of Sunset's betrayal of her she was feeling more in the mood for Emerald's undying loyalty. She might not be as interesting as Sunset, but here at least was someone who would never turn on her, nor lie to her, nor haver between fighting against her and calling her friend.

Emerald, at least, she could trust absolutely. As far as Cinder could ever bring herself to trust anyone, and provided she continued to give out the nuggets of affection that were like gold dust to the other girl.

"I appreciate your concern," Cinder said. "I probably haven't told you that before, but it has been true for some time. You are the one whom I rely on the most."

Emerald's eyes lit up as a smile blossomed on her face. "Really? Thank you, Cinder, that means so much."

"But in this matter," Cinder said. "I don't require you to watch over me as though I'm your daughter or your little sister."

"I wasn't trying to demean you-"

"I know," Cinder said. "You were only concerned. But your concern is unnecessary. When it comes to Sunset, I have everything under control."

Emerald bowed her head. "Of course, Cinder."

"Is Tempest here?"

"Yes, Cinder."

"Then let's find her," Cinder said. "I have a job for her to do."

Tempest walked in to find Sonata sprawled out on a sofa in one of the old house's many sitting rooms, with an antique cut glass bowl filled with purple liquid sitting on one of the law tables beside her, accompanied by a set of crystal goblets marked with some kind of family crest.

"Oh, hey, you're back," Sonata said brightly as Tempest walked in. "Did you get dinner?"

"Since you like tacos so much, I thought you might like to try burritos," Tempest said, putting them down on the table.

Sonata frowned. "What's the difference?"

"Burritos are bigger," Tempest said. "That's all I've got, anyway."

"Cool," Sonata said. "I made fruit punch while you were out. Help yourself."

Tempest picked up one of the crystal goblets. "You want me to drink fruit punch…in one of these?"

Sonata sat up and shrugged her shoulders. "It's what they had."

Tempest decided that that was fair enough, and she didn't really want to go out and buy paper cups, so she dipped the goblet into the bowl and drank. "A little too much grape juice."

"Aww, I knew it."

"It's not awful," Tempest added quickly. "And what do I know about good fruit punch anyway?" She sat down cross-legged on the floor, and drained the rest of her goblet.

"Tempest?"

Tempest looked up into Sonata's eyes. "Yes?"

"What do you do for fun?" Sonata asked. "Every time I see you you're always working: taking me out, bringing me back, running errands for me. I never see you do anything that you like." She smiled. "I'd kinda like to."

Tempest smiled back, if only wryly. "Really," she murmured. "I'm sorry to disappoint."

"What do you mean?"

Tempest sighed. "I don't really do…anything for fun. I train, I fight, I wait for orders. I carry out those orders perfectly. That's my life."

Sonata's raspberry eyes were wide, and her mouth open with a kind of horror. "That sounds horrible. So empty." The crimson jewel around her neck glimmered.

"Empty?" Tempest repeated. "Huh. Maybe I am empty. Maybe when Doctor Watts cut me open everything flew out, and I was left empty. An empty hollow shell."

Sonata got up, and walked around the low table until she was standing over Tempest. She knelt down beside her, her arms resting upon Tempest's shoulders. "What did he do to you to make you this way?"

Tempest laughed hollowly. "Doctor Watts didn't make me this way. Doctor Watts saved me, he was the first person to show me any consideration since the accident, and the first until…" she looked at Sonata. "Until you."

Sonata tilted her head. "What accident?"

Tempest closed her eyes for a moment as she looked away. "I wasn't always like this. There was a time when I dreamed of going to Atlas, and training how to be a great and legendary huntress. I dreamed about the friends I'd make, the adventures I'd have; a faunus girl dreaming of Atlas as though she didn't have a tail to mark her out as something different, something less than.

"I grew up in a small village in Solitas. It was a Podunk place but I was happy there, or I thought I was. I had friends there, and I thought that after I graduated Atlas I could come back there and show them all that I was strong enough to protect them now.

"But one day…stupid. I don't know what made us wander into that cave. I can't remember what we were doing, what we thought we were doing, but…we went in and…there was an ursa major already there."

"Seriously?" Sonata squawked. "And you're still alive?"

Tempest smirked as he raised her hands, conjuring a slender-seeming red forcefield around them. "It turns out that my semblance is force-field," she said. "It…activated, under the stress. While my friends ran away, I…well, I was only a kid. My force field was strong enough to stop the ursa from killing me, but it still shattered my aura and gave me this before the huntsman came." She ran one finger down the scar running down her face. "And worse. It must have hit me pretty hard, because I couldn't use my aura or my semblance properly afterwards. It would explode out of me, I couldn't control it, my force fields would burst and the energy would form a shockwave." She snorted. "It's actually one of my neat tricks now, but at the time…and the friends that I'd tried to protect from that grimm? They didn't want to know. I was broken, after all, and who wants to have anything to do with broken things?

"In the end, Doctor Watts promised that he could fix me. And he did; he didn't just fix me he made me better, so much better. I'm stronger than any other student in Atlas, and faster; stronger and faster than most huntsmen. But for what he did to me they called Doctor Watts evil, and he had to go…and they all looked at me like I was even more broken than before.

"It taught me that you can't rely on anybody else. You're always better off on your own…because you'll always end up alone sooner or later, so you might as well prepare for it while you can."

Sonata giggled.

"What's so funny?"

"You're not alone, Tempest," Sonata said. She hummed softly as she wrapped her arms around Tempest's neck. "And with me you'll never be alone again." She kept on humming, and Tempest felt a little less empty, a little less hollow inside, like a well that had been thought to be drained dry but now was beginning to fill up once again. "Let me fill you up inside. Let me fill you up with me."

Tempest sighed softly. She had thought that she would never care for anyone as she cared for Doctor Watts, but this…what Sonata made her feel was something else altogether.

Sonata cared for her as no one else did, that was clear to her now. Sonata would help her as no one else had. Sonata would help her find her joy in life, because her joy would be Sonata.

The door opened with a slamming sound as it hit the wall. "There you are," Cinder growled.

Sonata was on her feet in an instant. "Oh, hey guys. You want some fruit punch."

"I'm not here for you," Cinder said. "It's Tempest that I need right now."

Tempest climbed more slowly to her feet, before turning to face Cinder, and Emerald who stood behind her like a shadow. She felt a spike of contempt run through her for the both of them; part of that was Doctor Watts' contempt for Cinder Fall, and his disdain for the fact that they were dependent for their success upon a gendered magic that forced them to rely upon such unpredictable instruments as her; the other part, the part that was growing steadily larger, was the way that she treated Sonata, as a prisoner and as an instrument, something to be used and then ignored. She, Tempest, would take Sonata away from all this the moment she asked, and it was becoming harder and harder for Tempest to understand why she did not ask. Did Sonata not realise what Tempest would do for her? Did she have to spell it out in words aloud?

"What do you want?" Tempest demanded.

Emerald bristled at her tone, but Cinder seemed unconcerned by it. "We have a complication."

"Did you screw up again?" Tempest asked.

Now Cinder looked put out. She scowled as she took a step forward. "Careful," she growled. "Watts may enjoy you, but my tolerance is strictly based on your ability."

Tempest smirked. "If we're doing ability-based assessments you should worry about yourself."

Flames appeared in the palm of Cinder's hand. "I am Salem's hand here," she hissed. "And her voice. I do her work, and advance the goals and cause of our mistress. You are here to serve me. You should remember your place, and remember that Watts isn't here to protect you."

 _I remember that you need me, ever since you got yourself put on the Atlas most wanted list._ "What do you want?" Tempest asked again.

Cinder exhaled through gritted teeth. "The Fall Maiden, Amber, has awoken. I'm almost certain that Ozpin will be keeping her at Beacon under his eye, but I need you to confirm that for me."

Tempest nodded slightly. "What does she look like? Do you have a picture?"

"No, I didn't stop to take one as I was trying to drain her magic," Cinder said.

"But I can help," Emerald said, stepping out of Cinder's shadow and shuffling into the room. She closed her eyes, and an image appeared in front of her: a young woman, barely more than a girl, with dark skin and darker brown hair worn in a bob above her shoulders, amber eyes and a morass of scars criss-crossing her otherwise pretty face. Tempest took note of her height and build, but paid less attention to her clothes; she was unlikely to be wearing the same ones she'd had on then.

"Thanks," she said. "Useful power you've got there."

"Whatever helps Cinder," Emerald said pointedly.

"She'll probably be in the care of Team Sapphire," Cinder added.

"You should have killed them when you had the chance," Tempest said.

Cinder slapped her, her palm still wreathed in fire as it struck Tempest across the cheek. Her aura took the blow, but it still stung – and Cinder still hit hard enough to turn Tempest's face away.

Sonata hissed in distaste. Tempest felt her temper rise. Her hand clenched into a fist.

She wasn't a Maiden, she didn't have stolen ancient magic from way back when; but she did have enhancements from the most brilliant mind in Remnant and more state of the art tech in her body that went into some androids, and she'd be lying if she said that she didn't want to see how the two of them matched up: magic of an older world or the latest in scientific advance. Tempest would bet on herself.

But that was for later. When she rescued Sonata from all of this, then she would settle with Cinder on the way out and wipe that arrogance out of her eyes once and for all. But for now, Tempest let her fist unclench.

"Fine," she said. "I'll start looking for her there. What do you want me to do when I find her?"

"Nothing, for now," Cinder said. "Ozpin isn't wrong: it would be too dangerous to move on her at Beacon right now, with so many huntsmen and huntresses and Atlesian soldiers nearby, not to mention the old man himself. Later…do nothing for now."

"Hey, I've got a great idea," Sonata said. "Why don't I go with her? I'd like to see the place you go to school."

"I don't actually go to Beacon," Tempest murmured. "But I could still show you around the campus if you like."

"What?" Cinder snapped. "Why?"

"I don't know, sing a few songs," Sonata said. "I mean, there is this tournament coming up, right? Wouldn't it be, like, really cool if all the contestants were actually trying to kill each other?"

Tempest grinned. That would liven up an otherwise rather tedious event that commanded a completely undeserved degree of focus amongst her fellow students. Her team leader was absolutely obsessed with being amongst the eight teams chosen to represent Atlas in the tournament; Tempest half thought it was the only reason she'd done any work – or more accurately, paid even a little attention to when Starlight rewrote her essays and pointed out what she'd gotten wrong the first time – all year. And the way that the whole world fawned over the big tournament stars was just absolutely ridiculous.

A bit more realism might be just what it needed to liven it up a little.

"No," Cinder said. "It wouldn't. I need the tournament to progress my plans, if it gets cancelled because all of the fighters have mysteriously come down with a case of uncontrollable blood lust then it won't accomplish anything."

"You don't think people will be dismayed by that?" Tempest said.

"By what? A cancellation notice?" Cinder demanded. "They'll be upset, but it will be nothing compared to what I plan for them to see; and a cancellation of the tournament wouldn't bring Atlas and Mistral into conflict; far from it, Mistral would just go home again with no reason to stick around."

"I guess," Sonata said. "You know best, after all. I'm just a little surprised that you don't want to bring any rivalries out in a rash."

Cinder's eyes narrowed. "Explain?"

Sonata shrugged. "I was just thinking about that girl we ran into the other day, what did you say her name was?"

"Phoebe," Tempest said.

Cinder froze for a moment. "Phoebe Kommenos," she whispered.

"You know her?"

Cinder's face twisted into a snarl which she could not quite hard. "By reputation only."

Tempest snorted. "Phoebe has a reputation? For being something other than a loser?"

"What are you suggesting?" Cinder asked Sonata.

"She doesn't _have_ to want to kill somebody," Sonata said. "But it sounded like she's got a rival somewhere that she doesn't like very much. I can do something with that. That is, if you want me to."

"Rivals," Cinder murmured. "Yes, what is a tournament without some good rivalries to lend the fights some personal stakes? Do it. Don't go over the top, but turn the tension up a notch, make this celebration of unity a scene of tension." She paused. "But don't linger there too long. Ozpin might recognise you. Sing a song, and then go before he can investigate."

"Oh, don't worry," Sonata said breezily, waving her hand in dismissal of Cinder's fears. "I'm not going to let him catch me! I'm not ever going to let anyone put me in a cage again."


	148. Road to the Vytal Festival

Road to the Vytal Festival

Twilight: Poor Amber, I'm not surprised that she isn't doing so well after the things that she's been through.

Sunset: Yeah, in hindsight I probably should have paid more attention to the other you on that front when she tried to warn me. But I still think I did the right thing. I mean, Amber's alive and if I – if we – hadn't through with it then whatever it would have done to Pyrrha, Amber would be dead for sure. She's alive, and so long as she's alive she can heal.

Sunset was sitting in the library, the journal open in front of her. The lights were mostly out, and the building was empty apart from her as far as she could tell; it was possible – her not having Blake's excellent night vision – that someone else was lurking in the darkness but Sunset doubted it. She couldn't see why they'd be bothering, apart from anything else. Night had fallen, and people were either in bed or else had better places to be than the library. Sunset was only here because she didn't feel like telling Amber about the journal and Equestria just yet.

Twilight: At the risk of sounding self-righteous

Sunset: When has that ever stopped you before?

Twilight: Hey!

Sunset: I'm only kidding.

Twilight: As I was about to say, I hope that you're not going to force Amber to fight, against Cinder or against anyone else for that matter. Admittedly I'm only going from your description of her, but she doesn't sound like she should be forced to go into battle right now, or ever if she doesn't want to.

Sunset: That's the part that worries me the most. Amber doesn't want to fight, but for better or worse she can't run from this battle forever. She is the Fall Maiden, and apart from anything else that means that Cinder isn't going to stop hunting her until one of them is dead, and even if Cinder falls then Salem will probably just send someone else because she needs the powers of the Maidens to get the relics. She'll be in danger all her life.

Twilight: No wonder she doesn't have a lot of time for Professor Ozpin right now. He practically painted a target on her back.

Sunset: I know that I haven't always been the greatest fan of Professor Ozpin, but I would have thought that if any two people could understand what he'd done it was us. And Princess Celestia, too. I mean, Princess Celestia didn't always tell us everything, did she?

Twilight: No, but as much as I love Princess Celestia if becoming an alicorn had meant that I would be hunted my whole life then I might be a little bit peeved at her myself.

Sunset: See, you say that, but I'm not so sure that you would actually feel that way. Trust me; you can want to be mad at Princess Celestia all you want but you can't stop yourself from loving her. No matter what she's done to you.

Twilight: But can Amber stop herself from loving Professor Ozpin?

Sunset: I don't know. In her memories they seemed so close, as close as we were together; probably as close as you were with her two, considering I think she means as much to you as she does to me. But at the same time she seems so angry at him now and it's too early to tell, I think.

She sucked on the tip of her pen for a moment, in the darkness illuminated only by a single lamp on her desk.

Sunset: I don't regret what I did for Amber, but I do feel guilty about Professor Ozpin. After I brought in Princess Celestia to help bolster my cause. I feel as though I should apologise to her as well.

Twilight: I'm sure that Princess Celestia would agree with you: Amber's alive when she wouldn't have been before, and while she's alive she and Professor Ozpin have a chance to make amends and forgive one another, just like the two of you did. I'm sure that Professor Ozpin recognises that as well, that's why he wasn't upset with you.

Sunset: He might not have been upset with me but he was pretty upset.

Twilight: One problem at a time. Nopony can fix the whole world all at once. You've saved Amber, now you can help her to heal if you want to. But how are you doing?

Sunset sighed. How was she doing? It felt as though she'd hardly had a minute to stop and think about that lately.

Sunset: I wish that I felt as relieved as I'd thought I would now that Amber was out of the box. I honestly thought – and you can call me naïve if you like – that once the Fall Maiden was back all our problems would be over. Well, not over over, if you know what I mean, but made less. There wouldn't be any danger to Pyrrha or Ruby, and we could let Amber take some of the strain of going up against Cinder – with our help, but still – while we let some of the world's problems fade away and focussed on the tournament.

Twilight: Everything that's been going on with you lately and you're still concerned about a tournament?

Sunset: It's not just a tournament, it's the tournament. The grandest tournament in all of Remnant. I'm working in the shadows most of the time these days, it seems like, is it so wrong for me to want to stand in the sunlight this one time and be bathed in applause as I am recognised for my skills? Besides, after what we've been through this will almost be like a break for us and we could all use one of those.

Twilight: You almost sounded like Rainbow Dash for a moment there. And I suppose you're not wrong, but all the same do you really think that it's a good idea for you to focus your energy and attention on a competition when there's so much else going on. Amber is your responsibility now.

Sunset: I know, I know. But it really isn't just that I want this – although I really, really want this. And then there's Pyrrha: if she doesn't take part in this tournament the whole world is going to know that something's up. Not to mention her mother will skin me alive. And it isn't as though I'm just going to leave her exposed and vulnerable, and nor will Professor Ozpin for that matter.

Twilight: I suppose I don't have the right to criticise you for taking a break. I take enough from my role, after all. You're really looking forward to this thing, huh?

Sunset: It's going to be awesome, and not just because we have a world renowned fighter on our team. I really think we've got a chance of sweeping this thing all the way to the finals. And on the grandest stage in Remnant, no less. This will be good for all of us: the competition and the fun. Everyone could use it.

Twilight: So it's not just a fighting contest?

Sunset: No, it's way more than that. It was held in Atlas a couple of years ago, and I got to see it as a spectator. There's so much going on: there's the opening ceremony, which includes a big parade down the street by all the students from all the schools and the lighting of the Flame of Amity by four torchbearers drawn from the four schools, symbolising the friendship and unity of the kingdoms after the Great War; there are the fair grounds, and there are street parties every night, and even someone as sour as I was then could find some way to have fun at the time. The combat tournament is just the highlight of the whole thing, and it is a pretty big highlight. I remember watching it and thinking 'next time it will be my turn'. Of course, at that time I imagined that I'd be the one going into the one vs one round.

Twilight: But you're definitely going to send Pyrrha?

Sunset: Of course, I couldn't take that away from her. This is what her whole life has led up to. Besides which I'd look like the most undeservedly arrogant jerk in all of Remnant if I put myself forward into the singles round when I had Pyrrha Nikos on my team.

Twilight: When does it start?

Sunset: Not for another week, they still haven't chosen the final contestants yet.

Twilight: Leaving that a little late, aren't they?

Sunset: It's starting soon. Each Academy puts up eight teams to start off the tournament, and each school selects them a little differently: Shade Academy selects their eight teams by drawing lots, and so they're having their draw tomorrow afternoon; then the day after Haven is taking over the amphitheatre for a miniature tournament of their own with the winning eight teams going forward to the real tournament; in Atlas the two highest-scoring teams from each year – I think it's by grade average – get the eight slots, no ifs, no buts, and no exceptions. I think the real reason that the other Twilight was put on Team RSPT was so that she could push their grades up high enough to qualify in spite of Rainbow Dash and Penny.

Twilight: And Beacon?

Sunset: Professor Ozpin decides, although in a couple of days time any team that feels the need gets one last chance to impress him as we have a day of four on four sparring matches. The winner doesn't necessarily get a slot, the loser doesn't necessarily not get a slot, but it's one final chance to show what you're team is capable of. I haven't quite made up my mind whether to put SAPR in for that or not. I kind of want to give it a pass, but I'll see what the rest of the team says.

Twilight: It is one more match where you'd have to leave Amber alone.

Sunset: That wasn't actually my reasoning, but you make a very good point regardless.

Twilight: Well, I wish you luck with that.

Sunset: Can we talk again tomorrow night? With some of the stuff that's going on I feel like I could use your advice more than usual.

Twilight: Of course. Good luck with Amber, with Professor Ozpin, and with everything else.

Sunset: Thanks. Goodnight, Twilight.

Twilight: Goodnight, Sunset.

Sunset folded up the book, and stared down at the Sunset symbol embossed upon the brown leather cover for a moment. Her gloved fingers reached out, and gently brushed against the marking.

 _I didn't tell her about Cinder._ She wasn't sure what to tell on that front, and she was not entirely sorry that Twilight hadn't asked. Sunset felt…a little bad about lying to Cinder about her motives for bringing Amber back, for pretending that she had been offered the power of the Fall Maiden when in fact she hadn't even been in contention for it.

She had had her reasons for it: she had wanted to give Cinder a reason for doing what she'd done that wouldn't completely shatter any chance she had of bringing Cinder into the light, and she didn't want to put Pyrrha in danger by feeding Cinder's already-existing antipathy towards her; and after some of the games that Cinder had played with Sunset and her friends she couldn't completely deny that she had wanted to turn it around for one; but she still didn't enjoy the fact that she had done it, nor could she escape the feeling that she had manipulated Cinder in the process. Maybe it was manipulation in a good cause, but still.

 _And while I've saved Pyrrha from being put on an inevitable collision course with Cinder, that doesn't change the fact that she's on a collision course with Amber now._

Maybe she should have talked to Twilight about that, maybe the Princess of Friendship would have had some ideas on how she could extricate everyone from this increasingly tangled mess without anyone dying. If there was a way to resolve everything that easily. The Fall Maiden power was not meant to be split in two. It wanted to be whole and Professor Ozpin would want it to be whole in Amber. Sunset didn't want to see Cinder die, but at the same time she couldn't allow Cinder to make good on her threats and kill Amber either. Was there a way for Cinder to surrender the powers without dying? Well, there was that awful Atlesian machine, but Sunset doubted that Professor Ozpin would consent to having Cinder's soul placed in Amber's body now that he wasn't feeling the pinch the way he had been before.

One problem at a time, Twilight said, but Sunset sometimes felt as though she had so many all about to fall at once that she couldn't ignore the rest just to focus on one.

Ironically, that was one of the big reasons she was looking forward to the combat tournament: it gave her a temporary excuse to ignore all her problems for just a few days and put the world in stasis while they celebrated how far they'd come as a team and how good they were.

Surely fate would not be so cruel as to deny them that in the midst of everything else that was going on.

* * *

Pyrrha sat on her bed and stared down at the scroll in her hands. The screen showed a video of a Mistralian news item about the arrival of the expeditionary force in Vale.

It was more propaganda piece than respectable journalism, but right now Pyrrha's focus was on the presence front and centre of Arslan Altan, second place seed in the Mistral Regional Tournament three years running. Arslan, dressed in her familiar yellow robe and red sash, was standing side by side with Commander Yeoh in the same cabin where Yeoh had entertained Pyrrha not so long ago.

The line on the red ribbon proclaimed 'Local Hero Supports the Troops'.

"As a daughter of Mistral I am one hundred percent our forces and the…policy of the Council," Arslan said. She was normally an assured media performer – much more so than Pyrrha herself, and Pyrrha could admit that quite freely – but she seemed a little stilted here, and the way that her olive eyes kept glancing just off camera was enough to make Pyrrha wonder if she was being fed her lines off cue cards.

"As a proud and sovereign kingdom," Arslan continued. "It is high time that we…asserted ourselves against the ambitions of Atlas. We are good friends of Vale and we…will not allow their independence to be diminished in any way." Arslan grinned, and she suddenly seemed to become much more natural as she said, "Plus it's great to have so many brave boys and girls from home here to cheer us on! I, Arslan Altan, vow that I'll make it worthwhile for our troops and all our Mistral supporters to have come all this way." She gave a thumbs-up to the camera. "Go Mistral!"

 _I wonder if she added that last bit herself?_ Pyrrha thought. Arslan had always been good at playing to the crowd.

All the same, she was a little unhappy that Arslan had done that. She could understand why Commander Yeoh had approached Arslan, Pyrrha having refused her: the perennial runner-up was a well-known face and just as much of a crowd favourite as Pyrrha herself. But Pyrrha wished that Arslan hadn't done that. Didn't she understand how wrongheaded the Mistralians' presence here was? Had Commander Yeoh not been as honest with her as she had been with Pyrrha.

She would have to talk to her – and hope that Arslan wanted to talk, it was sometimes hard to tell with her how much was an act and how much she genuinely disliked Pyrrha – and try to understand why she had chosen to help the Mistral council throw fuel on the fire that way.

"Pyrrha?" Sunset said.

Pyrrha looked up from her scroll. "I'm sorry, Sunset, did you say something?"

"Is everything okay?" Jaune said.

Pyrrha closed her scroll. "Not really," she admitted. "But it's nothing that I can do much about right now. What's going on?"

"Not a lot, I just wanted to have a quick team meeting," Sunset said. "Specifically about Last Shot, I don't think we should bother."

"Last Shot?" Amber asked, looking up from the book she was reading as she sat on Sunset's bed with her legs crossed and the stuffed unicorn in her lap.

"That's not its real name, but that's what everyone calls it," Sunset explained. "The real name is…what is the real name?"

"Final Qualification Displays," Pyrrha supplied helpfully.

"Right, so you can see why everybody calls it last shot," Sunset said. "Basically, it's everybody's last chance to impress Professor Ozpin before he selects the eight teams that will represent Beacon in the Vytal Festival combat tournament."

"Why do you want to impress Ozpin?" Amber asked.

"Because he's the one who selects the eight teams that will represent Beacon in the combat tournament," Sunset repeated. "So our personal feelings about the man are irrelevant."

Amber blinked, and cocked her head to one side. "Combat tournament?"

"It's the high point of the Vytal Festival," Sunset said. "And you have no idea what that is either, do you?"

"I was raised in the woods by my mother," Amber reminded her apologetically.

"The Vytal Festival is a celebration of peace," Pyrrha said. "It was instituted after-" she stopped herself from saying 'After the Great War' because of course Amber probably didn't know what that was either. "It was instituted to remind the four Kingdoms of Atlas, Mistral, Vale and Vacuo that there is more that unites us than divides us; which is why, every two years, one of the four kingdoms hosts the festival which celebrates the benefits of unity and peace."

"All capped off with a combat tournament where we celebrate peace by fighting one another in the name of our schools and our kingdoms," Sunset said.

Pyrrha looked at her.

"Look, I'm looking forward to this as much as anyone here but I can acknowledge that there's a bit of a paradox at work here."

"The tournament is designed to promote excellence amongst the participants and the wider student body," Pyrrha said. "Not to promote division…although I do wonder in the current circumstances."

"You fight…for fun?" Amber said. She shivered. "How can you take pleasure in that?"

"Fighting in a tournament isn't the same as fighting in battle," Pyrrha said. "In the arena there are rules, as well as honour and sportsmanlike conduct amongst the competitors. Nobody gets hurt except in the most exception circumstances, and certainly nobody dies. It's a martial art, and like any art it exists for the enjoyment of the crowds who can see the pinnacle of a dazzling array of fighting styles from across Remnant come together as they're matched against each other."

"Not to mention all of the super cool weapons," Ruby added.

"As you might be able to tell, Pyrrha has some experience in this particular field," Sunset said. "She's a tournament champion in her own land."

"Sunset," Pyrrha murmured. "Did you have to bring that up?"

"It's not like you can keep it a secret," Sunset said. "Especially not once the tournament starts."

Amber looked at her. "So you do this a lot? You fight for fun? In front of other people, and they enjoy it."

"Yes," Pyrrha said. "I fight for my reputation, and for the amusement and edification of the crowd."

Amber looked away. "That must be why he chose you then, because you really are a warrior. But I can't imagine wanting to see anybody fight, for any reason, certainly not for fun."

"Well…just because the tournament isn't for you," Jaune said. "Doesn't mean that the whole festival is a write-off. There's plenty of other stuff to do."

"Yeah," Ruby agreed. "There are the fair ground attractions, and the parades, and the parties. At the end of the festival, everyone releases paper lanterns up into the sky filled with all our hopes and wishes." She sat back against the wall, and her hand seemed almost of its own accord to creep up the wall and rub at the initials that her parents and their team had made on the wall before them. She smiled fondly. "When I was really little, when Mom was still here, the Vytal Festival was being held in Vale that year and Mom and Dad took us both into the city to be a part of it. I didn't really understand what it was all about, and I would have been too young to appreciate the tournament – and I think that's one of the reasons why we didn't go to watch it – but I remember how wonderful all the rest of it was: so much colour, so many sounds, so many smiling faces. I remember Yang testing her strength with one of those things where you hit the weight with the hammer, and Dad winning me a stuffed beowolf with a hoop-tossing game. I remember trying candy floss for the first time. I remember how happy both my parents were, how happy everyone was but…Mom and Dad most of all. And when we all released our wishes into the sky…I'm sure you'll love the festival, Amber. There's something there to make everyone happy."

Amber stared at Ruby for a moment, but said nothing. She looked away. "Maybe you're right."

Sunset glanced down at her momentarily before looking away. "Okay. So, anyway, as I was about to say: I don't think that we should bother with Last Shot, but I'm open to anyone who thinks differently."

"Why don't you want to do it?" Ruby asked.

"Because I don't see that we need to."

"Team Iron is doing it," Ruby said. "Yang told me she's going to put their names down with Professor Goodwitch today."

"Well, that's fine but we're not Team Iron," Sunset said. "I think we might as well save our fire for the tournament and not blow what we can do to early."

"Doesn't everyone already know what we can do?" Jaune asked.

"They don't know what you can do," Sunset pointed out.

"Okay," Jaune accepted. "But what if we don't get picked because we don't show up?"

"Come on, Jaune," Sunset said. "We've done more missions than any other team in the first year, we're so far ahead of everyone else in our year that the headmaster invited us to join his secret society-"

"I'm not sure that Professor Ozpin will let that influence his decision," Pyrrha murmured.

"I'm just saying that he knows full well that we're head and shoulders above everybody else," Sunset said. "And we've got Pyrrha Nikos, the one contestant more than any other that viewers and punters across Remnant want to see strutting her stuff, there's no way that he isn't going to pick Team Sapphire to compete."

 _That's exactly what Commander Yeoh said._ "If that's your reasoning," Pyrrha said. "Then I would just as soon we enter the Last Shot, if it's all the same to you."

Sunset frowned. "Why?"

"I'd rather that we didn't seem so complacent," Pyrrha said. She grabbed her right wrist with her left hand. "I'd rather people didn't think that I expect special treatment on account of my name. I would guess that most, if not all, of the teams who wish to compete in the combat tournament are going to take this final opportunity to show Professor Ozpin what they're capable of before he makes his choices. We should be amongst them if we don't want to see completely full of ourselves."

Sunset folded her arms across her chest. "Sure, okay, if you feel that way, we'll do it. I'll-" she stopped, and glanced at Amber. "Actually, Ruby, would you mind going down to see Professor Goodwitch and putting our names down for Last Shot while I stay here with Amber?"

Ruby pushed herself off her bed. "Sure. I might not be back right away, I've got a couple of people that I need to talk to."

"Fine," Sunset said. "We'll be okay, won't we?"

Amber nodded. "Can you take me into town today? There are a few things that I'd like to buy."

Sunset's brow wrinkled ever so slightly. "Buy with what?"

"Ozpin," Amber said, loading the name with as much distaste as she had the day before. "Gave me a money card the first time I was here. I found it amongst my things."

"Ah," Sunset said. "I don't think that's such a good idea."

Amber pouted. "Why not? Because Ozpin wouldn't like me out of his sight?"

"No," Sunset said, with a trace of a sigh in her voice. "Because you're in danger, remember?"

"I thought you said that you'd protect me," Amber said.

"We will," Sunset said, as she knelt down in front of Amber. "But while you're in the school you can be protected by more than just me, or even by the four of us. There's Rosepetal, there's Blake, there's Professor Goodwitch, there's Ruby's lush of an uncle-"

"Hey!"

"There's General Ironwood and the Atlesian troops and, yes, there is Professor Ozpin as well. Not to mention all the other huntsmen and huntresses in training at this school who would all take up arms if Cinder came for you. But out in Vale…Cinder has a lot of friends; they're called the White Fang and they're everywhere. She might have other agents that we don't even know about. And yes, Professor Ozpin might not like you leaving the safety of the school, but that's not why I don't like it. I don't like it because leaving the school isn't safe."

Amber looked at Sunset with a gaze that combined fear and frustration in equal measure. "So I'm a prisoner? In this school, in this room?"

"It's for your own protection-"

"Because there are knives out for me around every corner, because the world is full of people who want me dead? Is this my life now?"

Sunset drew in her breath sharply. "For the time being, I'm afraid it might be."

Pyrrha took a step forward. "If you know what you want, I'm sure that Jaune and I could go and pick it up for you?"

"Really?"

Pyrrha glanced at Jaune, who said. "Sure, we wouldn't mind. What kind of things do you want?"

Amber beamed as she pulled a scrap of paper out from between a couple of the pages of her book. "Here," she said, as she leaned forward to hand it to Jaune.

Jaune read it. "Seasonings, fruits and vegetables?"

Amber nodded eagerly. "To thank you for letting me stay here with all of you, I thought that I'd make dinner for you."

"Amber," Pyrrha said. "You don't have to do that."

"I know," Amber said. "But I'd like to. You wouldn't mind picking up my supplies for me, would you? I'll pay."

"That won't be necessary," Pyrrha said. "It would be very selfish of us to demand that you spend your money so that you can make something for us. We – I – will get it."

"Why thank you, Pyrrha. That's very generous of you."

"It's nothing, really," Pyrrha said. "Jaune, are you ready?"

"Sure," Jaune said. "I'm ready now."

"We'll see you all later then," Pyrrha said. "We'll be back as soon as we can."

"Take your time, it's not like there's much going on," Sunset said. "Amber and I will be here, probably."

"Couldn't you at least show me around the school?"

"I thought you didn't like it?"

"I don't, but at least I could take a walk in-"

Pyrrha and Jaune left them discussing that as they left the dorm room. "Before we go," Pyrrha said, turning to Jaune as he shut the door after them. "There's somebody that I need to speak to first. Would you mind waiting for me by the docking pad. I won't keep you waiting too long."

"Okay," Jaune said. "But are you sure you don't want me to come with you?"

"That's very kind, but perhaps not the best idea," Pyrrha said, with a sheepish smile. She had a horrible suspicion that Arslan meeting her boyfriend would merely give the other girl yet more things to make fun of her for. Or worse, she might decide to just start making fun of Jaune, and she didn't want that at all. "I'll be fine, and brief, I promise."

"Take as long as you need," Jaune said. "We've got all day, after all."

So Pyrrha left Jaune on his way to the docking pads and made her own way in search of Arslan Altan. She knew that the Haven students were being quartered in the eastern dormitory block, so she started by heading in that direction and was fortunate enough to spot Arslan, accompanied by the rest of her team, heading the opposite way towards the cafeteria, presumably for a slightly late breakfast.

Arslan was not difficult to spot, it must be said, in her very bright robe and almost as bright sash, not to mention her incredibly bushy flaxen hair. The legs of her baggy black pants brushed against one another as she walked, waving her arms up and down as she discoursed to her team-mates. One of said team-mates, a girl who was floating a few inches above the ground on a hoverboard, was laughing at something that Arslan had just said.

"Arslan!" Pyrrha called out.

Arslan's team – Pyrrha confessed that she didn't know their name – stopped, the looks on their faces freezing up a little as they regarded Pyrrha with a degree of suspicion. All except for Arslan herself, that is, who threw both her arms wide and cried out, "P-money! How's it going?"

Pyrrha did her best to conceal her discomfort at the use of that awful nickname. "I'd like to speak with you," she said. "Alone."

"Why?" the girl on the hoverboard asked suspiciously.

"Reese," Arslan said, cutting her off with one raised hand. She looked at Pyrrha, her eyes narrowing. "Fine," she said. "I'll catch up with you guys in a little bit, go ahead."

Her three team-mates murmured acknowledgements of that, and headed down the path and on their way, though they kept shooting glances at Pyrrha as they went. But they did go, and Pyrrha and Arslan were left alone.

Arslan crossed the grass that separated the path she had been on with the one that Pyrrha was on, her footfalls so light as to make very little impression on the lawn itself. Standing close by Pyrrha, she had to look up to see her face. "So, P-money, what can I do for you?"

"Can I ask what that nickname even means?" Pyrrha asked.

"Does it bother you?"

"A little," Pyrrha admitted.

"Then that's what it means," Arslan said.

Pyrrha's eyebrows rose.

"Don't look at me like that, it's not like anything I ever did to needle you ever caused you to slip up in the arena," Arslan said. "I wish that it had."

Pyrrha took a deep breath. "Shall we walk?"

"Thanks," Arslan said. "I'm getting a crick in my neck just standing here trying to look at you, flamingo girl."

Pyrrha sighed as she turned away and began to walk down the path. "We're not in the arena now, Arslan."

"Really? That explains the lack of a crowd," Arslan said as she kept pace with Pyrrha as they walked.

"My point is can't you drop it," Pyrrha said. "Please."

"You think I'm faking this?"

"Aren't you?"

"I'll never tell," Arslan said. She grinned. "Come on, Nikos, you that if we break character in front of the fans some of the magic goes away."

Pyrrha sighed again. "I saw you on the news from home."

"What did you think?"

"Honestly? You were-"

"A little stiff, I know," Arslan said. "I'm not used to reading off cards."

"Did you add that little bit at the end?"

"You noticed that then?"

"You rallied at that point," Pyrrha said. "All the same, I wish you hadn't done that."

"Promised to do well?"

"Lent your name to all of this, the Mistralian expedition," Pyrrha said.

"I knew that you didn't want to do the same," Arslan said. "But I'm shocked to find out that Mistral's princess isn't a patriot."

"This has nothing do with patriotism, do you know why they're here."

"Sure I do," Arslan said. "And I think it's pretty ridiculous once you sit down and spell it out."

Pyrrha came to a sudden, startled stop in front of the statue of the huntsman and huntress. She looked at Arslan. "Then why-"

"Because my agent said that it wouldn't do my brand any harm to wrap myself in the flag a little bit and support our boys and girls," Arslan said.

Pyrrha's eyebrows rose. "Your agent?"

"Don't look at me that way," Arslan said. "Being a tournament fighter isn't my hobby, P-money; I can't afford to add my tournament winnings to my trust fund and then retire before I'm twenty."

"Didn't you just buy your parents a house on the eastern slope?" Pyrrha asked. She was sure that she'd seen that reported in the news.

"Yeah, because the one they were living in before was crap," Arslan said. "My grandfather was a shepherd, he still is, he won't give it up even though I tell him that I'm making enough that he doesn't need to no more. My dad was in a gang. This is my livelihood. My brand is my livelihood: working class hero, salt of the earth, likes to banter with my opponents and, yes, patriotic just my fanbase. I can't afford to say no to the council when they ask me for a favour."

"No matter the cost?"

"What cost? All I did was say a few words."

Pyrrha frowned. "I…I don't know. I just don't like them being here, our ships and our soldiers. I'm worried about what this could lead to. Just because nobody wants a war doesn't mean that they might not start one."

Arslan scoffed. "Come on, there hasn't been a war for eighty years."

"So you think we're better than our ancestors were?" Pyrrha asked. "Smarter?"

Arslan shrugged. "What do you want from me? I've done it now, I can't take it back."

"I…I'm not sure," Pyrrha said. "I suppose I just wanted to find out where you stood."

Arslan folded her arms. "I don't want a new Great War, if that's what you're asking. I'm not an idiot. Like I said, I'm a tournament fighter, not a soldier. I want things to stay the way they are, and to get at least another decade of tournaments in, and maybe finally get on top of you to claim the regional title."

"You mean to go back to fighting in the regional tournament?"

"You sound surprised."

"Don't you mean to become a huntress?"

Arslan laughed. "Yeah, right. Who in their right mind would give up the arena to chase down monsters in soggy fields?"

"I would," Pyrrha said, and she didn't even mind that she sounded disappointed in Arslan as she said.

Now it was Arslan's turn to raise her eyebrows. "You…you're serious about this? I didn't know what to think about you going to Beacon instead of Haven but you…you're serious about this. You're going to give up the arena and become a full time huntress."

"Why else would I enrol in a huntsman academy?"

"For the Vytal Festival, obviously, why do you think I bothered?" Arslan demanded. She turned away, pacing off a couple of steps before wheeling about to round on Pyrrha. "You cannot do this! You can't just walk away, I haven't had a chance to beat you yet!"

Pyrrha didn't reply to that directly. "Can I ask you why you didn't take part in this year's Mistral tournament? I thought it might be because, like me, you were serious about becoming a huntress but…clearly not."

"You have to ask?" Arslan said. "You really don't get it. Three years in a row I've placed second to you; if I had competed in the year that you didn't, then even if I won – and it's not guaranteed, Michael had one of those miracle streaks where you can't seem to put a foot wrong – then I would have had to put up with no end of people talking about how I wasn't a real champion because I never fought the Invincible Girl, I just waited until you weren't around to snatch the laurels that should have been yours. And that's exactly what will happen to me if I do win next year, or the year after that: I won't be the Champion of Mistral, I'll be the second place who hung around until the real champion quit so I could win by default. I didn't think you hated me like that."

"That's not my intent," Pyrrha said. "But it's also not my fault."

Arslan scowled. "Why? Why would you want to walk away from everything to become a full time huntress, of all things?"

"Because it's important," Pyrrha said. "More important than any trophy or contest that I could ever win. Because I'm defending humanity, and what's more important than that?"

"Come on, Pyrrha, there are no heroes except in the arena nowadays," Arslan said. "In the real world big ships and armies like the ones above us defend humanity; people like you and me aren't really needed except for entertainment."

"I disagree," Pyrrha said, not saying exactly why she disagreed, it was a secret after all. "And besides…I like it here. I like it more than I ever enjoyed the arena."

"Yes, well, you always were a little out of place," Arslan said. "Comes of being an amateur. A very talented amateur, but an amateur all the same." She tapped her foot on the ground. She tapped her foot on the ground. "Nothing I can say to talk you out of it?"

"Nothing you or anyone else can say," Pyrrha replied.

"And are you really dating some Valish oaf?"

Pyrrha rolled her eyes. "He's my team mate, and he's not an oaf."

"But you are dating."

"Yes," Pyrrha said tersely.

Arslan shook her head. "No brand management whatsoever," she muttered. She scratched her ear. "Listen, I know you think the thing with the news was dumb, but it won't matter. You'll see, everything's going to work out just fine. Is there anything else?"

"No," Pyrrha said. "I'm sorry for taking up so much of your time."

Arslan grinned. "I always have time for you, P-money. It's been a pleasure." She started to walk away in the direction of the cafeteria, but stopped. "Hey, Pyrrha."

"Yes?"

"Nice work with that grimm during spring vacation," Arslan said. "On behalf of my granddad and everyone else like him: thanks a bunch. I owe you one."

Pyrrha smiled. "Any time," she said. The smile on her face faltered as a thought struck her. "Arslan?"

"Yep?"

"Where did you go for spring vacation?"

Arslan began to return towards her. "Who wants to know?"

"Professor Lionheart asked me to hunt down the Karkadann because he said I was the only huntress in the city, with all the students and teachers away for vacation," Pyrrha explained. "But what about the students whose homes were in Mistral. Were did you go?"

"I went home," Arslan said. "To the…the house that I bought for my parents on the eastern slope…you're right, why didn't Lionheart call me? I'd have gone grimm hunting with you. Did he just forget I exist or something?"

"I don't know," Pyrrha murmured. "I'm not sure what it means." _But I'm troubled by what it could mean._ "Thank you, Arslan, I really won't keep you any longer."

"If you work out what the big deal is, let me know," Arslan said. "Now that you've wetted my curiosity." She turned away, waving behind her as she resumed her journey. "Always a pleasure, Invincible Girl."

"I wish that I could say the same," Pyrrha said softly. She got out her scroll, and called Jaune.

"Hey, Pyrrha, are you done?"

"Sort of, but at the same time not," Pyrrha said. "Could you meet me at the tower? It might be nothing, but I need to speak to the Headmaster about something."

* * *

Professor Ozpin looked as though he hadn't slept all night. He had bags beneath his eyes that were larger than Pyrrha had seen there before. He barely moved as Pyrrha explained why she and Jaune were there.

"I see," he murmured, when Pyrrha had finished telling him the relevant details about her conversation with Arslan.

"I know that it's probably nothing," Pyrrha said. "I hope so. But you understand why I thought that I ought to come to you, Professor? Professor Lionheart told us that there were no huntsmen or huntresses in Mistral except us but that wasn't true; now that I think about it I can't believe that Arslan was the only Mistralian student who spent the holiday at home in Mistral."

"No, I quite understand while you feel perturbed," Professor Ozpin said mildly. "It was, at the very least, a lie. And while there might be good reasons why Leo was unwilling to call upon certain other of his students – he may have lacked confidence in their ability to face a particularly powerful grimm, for example – those good reasons are largely theoretical without his testimony. And he lied to me as well, when I questioned him on leaving Mistral undefended; he could have told me that there were other huntsmen in training in the city, but he did not. And combined with the presence in Mistral of Miss Fall…it is troubling."

"What does it mean, Professor?" Jaune asked.

"I'm not sure," Professor Ozpin admitted. "I will need to speak to Leo to see what he has to say for himself, which I will at the appropriate time. You will appreciate that right now I have much else that concerns me, closer to home and of more imminent impact."

"Of course, Professor," Pyrrha said. "I didn't come up here to add to your burdens. I mean, I suppose that I have, but-"

"But you didn't come here to demand that I take urgent action on what you've just learned?"

"No, Professor."

Professor Ozpin smiled, though it seemed a little strained. "Thank you, Miss Nikos, I will remember what you've told me, and when matters in Vale have calmed down a little I will act upon it. You have my word."

"Of course, Professor. Thank you," Pyrrha said. She bowed her head. "We won't take up any more of your time." She began to turn away.

"Miss Nikos, Mister Arc," Professor Ozpin said. "How is Amber, if I may ask?"

Pyrrha and Jaune exchanged a glance. "Much as she was last night, Professor," Pyrrha said.

"I see," Professor Ozpin said. "Is she settling in with you?"

"She's…making herself comfortable," Jaune said. "Professor, is she a good cook?"

Professor Ozpin blinked. "Yes, I think she is. Her…her mother taught her."

Jaune smiled. "Mine too."

"May I ask why you ask, Mister Arc?"

"She's making dinner tonight, to thank us for letting her room with us," Jaune explained.

"Sunset thought it wouldn't be wise for her to go into Vale," Pyrrha said. "So we agreed to pick up the ingredients for her."

Professor Ozpin smiled as he leaned back in his chair. "I am glad both that Miss Shimmer is displaying an appropriate sense of care and caution and that Amber is opening up to the four of you, at least. Mister Arc, you have nothing to worry about: I am sure that you will thoroughly enjoy a meal at Amber's hands."

"She…she didn't seem entirely happy to be confined to school grounds, Professor," Pyrrha said.

"I'm not at all surprised," Professor Ozpin replied. "But until our situation improves, I'm afraid there's really no help for it."

* * *

 _What did you wish for, Mommy?_

 _Isn't it obvious? I wished for both my girls to grow up strong and brave and happy._

Ruby smiled faintly. _Your wish came true, Mom. Well, two of them always – I hope – and the third one most of the time._

She knocked on the dorm room door that stood in front of her.

There was a moment of pause, and then the door opened and Yang's shadow fell over Ruby. "Hey, Rubes, what's up?"

"Hey," Ruby said. "Can I come in?"

"Sure," Yang said, retreating a step to admit Ruby into the room. Ren and Nora were nowhere in evidence, Blake was curled up on her bed with a book obscuring her face.

She lowered the book, and smiled. "Hey, Ruby."

"Hey, Blake," Ruby said, waving as she walked into the room and sat down on Yang's bed.

Yang sat down beside her, still needing to look down on Ruby just a little bit. "Are you okay?"

A smile tugged at Ruby's lips, but then faded again. "Do you remember that time Mom and Dad took us to the Vytal Festival? It was just before…"

"Yeah," Yang said. "I remember."

Blake shut her book. "If you need me to go-"

"No," Ruby said. "I…I might need your advice with something too, in just a second."

Blake raised a solitary curious eyebrow, and settled back onto her bed, opening her book again while she waited for Ruby and Yang to finish.

"I was just thinking about it," Ruby said. "How happy they were. How happy we all were."

"Even Uncle Qrow showed up," Yang said. "Mom and Dad asked him to watch us for a little bit so that they could go dancing, remember?"

"And he brought us cookies, and the Mom was kinda mad at him for spoiling our dinner," Ruby said. "Yeah, I remember that. That was a lot of fun, wasn't it? The fireworks and the music and…and Mom."

Yang nodded. "And Mom. Ruby, what made you think of that? I know the festival isn't far away now, but…"

"I…I was talking to someone about the festival," Ruby said. "They didn't know what it was, and I-"

"They didn't know what the Vytal Festival was?" Blake asked. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but where have they been living?"

"Out in the woods by themselves with only their mom," Ruby said.

Blake and Yang both stared at her. "Okay, we have got to hear this story," Yang said.

"I know," Ruby said. "That's what I came to talk to you about, and that's…that's why I'm kind of glad that you're here, Blake. But you can't tell Ren and Nora about this."

"Because this is your secret thing with Ozpin?" Yang said.

Ruby nodded. "There's this girl, Amber, who's staying with us for a little while. As far as the rest of the school is concerned she's Professor Ozpin's niece on a visit. But the truth is…"

She told them everything, or at least everything that she thought they would easily believe. She still hadn't told Yang the whole truth about Sunset, simply because the two of them weren't close and she didn't know how Sunset would take it if she spilled her secret to Yang like that; it wasn't really lying to her sister, it was just…keeping a friend's secret to her. Anyway, she told them all the important stuff, about Amber being the Fall Maiden and about how Sunset had used her semblance to bring her round – she didn't mention about the soul machine and how Professor Ozpin's first plan had been to put somebody inside it, just because she wanted there to be a school still standing by the time she'd finished telling the story – and about how Amber was kind of scared and withdrawn and didn't like Ozpin very much.

"And then Uncle Qrow said that we'd have to get her ready," she said. "To fight Cinder, and be…be a guardian, or something. He said that we'd have to do that even if we didn't like it. Which is what I really wanted to talk to you about, because I don't know how that I'm supposed to do that…" she didn't add 'or if I should, in spite of what Uncle Qrow said', but she felt sure that the words, although unspoken, communicated themselves to Blake and Yang regardless.

Blake tapped her book – set down beside her when Ruby began to tell her tale – with two fingers. "To be honest, Ruby, it sounds as though this girl, Amber, needs therapy more than she needs to be forced back into battle."

"But Uncle Qrow said that she'd have to fight, just because of who she is."

"I know," Blake said. "And I can even understand why he said it. And it's true that you can take an incredibly scared kid who's out of their mind and out of their depth and you can get them to pick up their gun again. I…I saw Adam do it enough times…I even did it myself, although I never liked it. You can bully them, you can hector them, you can push their buttons if you know what they are, you can appeal to the reason they became a warrior in the first place…I tried to remind people of what they were fighting for. And that will give you another body in the firing line if that's what you want but you can't pretend that that's what's best for the person you just sent there."

"So…you think that I shouldn't do it?" Ruby asked. "That we shouldn't do it?"

"I think that what's the point in fighting to protect humanity if we lose our humanity to the point that we're forcing scared, traumatised girls to fight our battles," Blake said.

"Yeah, I get that," Yang said. "But Uncle Qrow's got a point. This…this magic that she's got, this magic that the bad guy's want, they're always gonna want it. They're always gonna try and get it. Does it do her any favours to let her think that somebody else is always going to be there to protect her from that?"

"Lots of people, most people, live their lives thinking that someone else is always going to be there to protect them from that," Blake said. "Everyone who isn't a huntsman or a soldier."

"Everyone else doesn't have a target on their back," Yang said. "Isn't it better if she can defend herself?"

"Of course it would be better, but if she can't handle it then…" Blake trailed off. "Are you really going to force her to fight when you can see that she's not ready to do so?"

"No," Ruby said at once. "No, I couldn't do that." That wasn't what a huntress did: a huntress fought the battles, they didn't press other people to fight them especially when they were scared and hurt. That wasn't the kind of person she wanted to be.

Blake smiled. "I didn't think so."

Yang sighed. "Maybe stuff like this is why Dad and Uncle Qrow didn't want us to know about…all of this stuff. So that you wouldn't have to be in a position like this."

"I guess," Ruby moaned, leaning against her sister. "I still like knowing, but…what am I going to do?"

"It really does sound like she needs somebody to talk to," Blake said.

"She can talk to us," Ruby said.

"Someone who knows what they're talking about," Blake said. She held up her injured hand, braced with metal. "Sometimes it's what you need, trust me."

"But how can she talk to a doctor when so much of what she has to talk about is secret?" Ruby asked.

Blake was silent. "That's…that's a good point, but I'm sure there must be a way. I'm just not sure that this is something the four of you can handle by yourselves."

"And in the mean time, don't try to force anything," Yang said. "Remember what Dad was like, after Mom died?"

Ruby nodded. "Sure," she said softly.

"I don't think it would have done any good for Uncle Qrow or anybody else to yell at him to snap out of it, or try to talk him out of it, or tell him that he needed to step up and be a great dad just because he was all we had. That's just not how people work, is it? So even if she is going to have to fight for her life, I don't know if telling her that is going to make any difference. And even if you could do it…we both know that _you_ wouldn't."

Ruby thought about that. "So…I should just do nothing? Then what do I tell Uncle Qrow?"

"Tell him to do it himself if he wants it done so bad," Yang suggested. "Tell him…tell him that just because you're in his club doesn't mean that you're going to change who you are."

Ruby smiled as she got down off the bed. "Thanks, Yang. And you, Blake. That…that makes me feel a lot better."

"You mean we talked you into doing what you wanted to do in the first place?" Yang asked.

"Kinda, yeah."

"Any time," Blake said. "And Ruby? When it comes time to fight for this girl, I'll be there."

"We'll both be there," Yang said, banging her fists together. "So this Amber can just take it easy."

Ruby laughed. "Maybe I'll just tell her that: relax, cause my big sister's all over it."

"Tell her if you want," Yang said. "Hey, is Sapphire going to do Last Shot or are you too cool for that since you're Ozpin's favourites and all."

"Sunset didn't want to," Ruby admitted. "But we decided that we would."

"Maybe we can get in some sparring tomorrow, before Haven takes the over the stage for their qualifiers," Yang suggested.

"Yeah, that sounds cool," Ruby said. "I'll talk to everyone, but I'm sure that would be great."

There was another knock on the door of the YRBN dorm room.

"I'll get it," Blake said, getting up off her bed and walking to the door. She opened it, and froze. That was what it seemed like to Ruby, anyway; the door prevented her from seeing who was at the door, but she could see the way Blake suddenly went still and stiff as though she'd just been stuck with a cattle prod or something.

And then a single word dropped from her lips.

"Mom?"


	149. Kali

Kali

Of all the people Blake might have expected to see on the other side of the door, her mother was not one of them.

Of all the people Blake might have wanted to see on the other side of the door, her mother was not one of them.

Yet here she was, and Blake could hardly believe it. Her own mother, here at Beacon, here in the dormitories, here standing in front of her on the other side of the doorway.

Standing there staring at her, just as Blake knew that she must be staring too.

It was the last thing that she wanted. It was the only thing she wanted. It was terrifying and it was wonderful. It was horrible and yet it filled her with such hope. Dread and joy and disbelief warred for supremacy within her soul.

She could hardly believe it. She didn't want to believe it. She wanted to believe more than she had ever believed in anything in her life.

And she could see within her mother's eyes the very mirror of her own conflicted feelings gazing back at her.

"Mom?" she murmured.

Kali Belladonna stepped forward, throwing both her arms around Blake and holding her close as Blake stood there, arms stiff by her sides, not knowing what she was supposed to do or how she was supposed to react.

"My baby girl," Kali whispered into her ear.

Blake felt her ears drooping, her fears if not melting away completely then at least losing more than a little of their potency in the warmth and gentle strength of her mother's embrace. She felt safe, as she had not felt safe in many years.

Slowly, gradually, she placed her hands upon her mother's back.

"So, Ruby," Yang said. "You want to get out of here and, uh, take care of that thing?"

"The, the thing, yeah," Ruby said. "Let's take care of that right now."

"I'm sorry," Kali said, releasing Blake from her embrace and being released in turn. "I don't mean to cause any embarrassment; it's just that it's been so long and…you know how it is."

Blake turned in time to see Yang smile. "Sure we do, ma'am. It's not a problem."

Kali smiled warmly. She glanced at Blake, "Well, Blake? Aren't you going to introduce me to your friends?"

 _Five years and that's what we start off with?_ "Sure, Mom. This is my team leader Yang, and her sister Ruby."

"Hi," Ruby said, with a wave.

Kali nodded her head. "Thank you both. I was afraid that I'd find Blake all alone here. You don't know how glad I am to find that it isn't true."

Yang put one hand on Ruby's shoulder. "I know a little bit about that, ma'am."

A cough from beyond the doorway alerted Blake to the presence of Velvet Scarlettina, of second year's Team CFVY, standing just outside. "If there's nothing else, ma'am?"

"After I explained to Professor Goodwitch who I was, she was kind enough to ask this nice young lady to show me to your room," Kali explained. "Thank you, Velvet, I won't keep you any longer."

Velvet bowed her head. "My pleasure, ma'am."

"Mom," Blake said, as Velvet made her retreat. "What are you doing here?"

Kali hesitated. "Yang, Ruby, I'm sorry to throw you out, but would you excuse us? Blake and I need to talk in private."

"Sure, we'll leave you to it, and I'll make sure that your not disturbed," Yang said, meaning that she would let Ren and Nora know to stay wherever they were and not come back just yet. "Would you guys like any tea or something?"

"If it's not too much trouble," Kali said. "Plenty of milk, but no sugar."

"Just how Blake takes it, gotcha," Yang said. "Blake?"

Blake's eyes met those of her team leader. There was a question in Yang's eyes that was to do with more than just the tea. "Thanks," she said. "I'll be fine otherwise."

"Okay," Yang said. "Come on, Rubes; let's leave them to it."

Ruby followed her out of the room, and the door closed behind them.

"Mom-" Blake began.

"Why do you think I'm here?" Kali demanded. "You've been arrested, you've been forced to work for the Atlesian military and what happened to your hand?" She reached out for Blake's injured hand, but Blake pulled away before she could touch it. "I, we, haven't heard from you for five years and then the things we hear are things like this? Is it really so surprising that I'm here?"

Put like that the only surprise was that it had taken her this long, but then it took a long time for news to reach Menagerie; without a CCT tower of their own the only way to find out what was going on in the wider world was for messengers to travel to the far southern continent by boat, which was then the only way for Kali or anyone else to get from Menagerie to Vale.

"Is Dad here?" Blake asked softly.

"No," Kali said. "He wanted to come, but…he can't exactly abandon his people just like that."

"No, I suppose he can't," Blake murmured. She frowned. "Does that mean you came alone? Isn't that dangerous?"

"I have a few guards with me; I just sent them away when I got to the school and told them I'd call when I was finished. I didn't want them hanging around while we talked."

"That was…probably for the best," Blake said.

Silence settled between the two of them. Blake didn't know what to say next and seemed as though it was the same for her mother. The different roads that they had taken five years ago, what Blake had done in sticking with the White Fang, the things that she had said to her parents when they parted ways, it all rose up like a wall between the two of them, a wall that could neither be ignored nor scaled.

But perhaps it could be dismantled, if Blake was willing to risk it falling down on top of her.

"Adam…Adam's dead," she confessed.

It was to her credit that Kali was able to seem less happy about that than Blake suspected she was. "I see," she murmured, in a voice that barely rose above a whisper. "When? How?"

"A…a couple of months ago now," Blake said. "Sunset killed him. She shot him, she was…she was protecting me."

"Sunset?"

"Sunset Shimmer," Blake said. "Leader of Team Sapphire. We were working together. She's my friend." She began to reach for her scroll. "I have a picture of-"

"It's alright," Kali said. "You can show me all the pictures of your friends later. For now…I suppose I owe this Sunset Shimmer my thanks."

"She might not thank you for thanking her," Blake said. "It shook her…she's not a natural killer, I don't think she liked it."

"I have to thank her for protecting you, not for killing Adam to do it," Kali said. "Although…"

"Although what?"

Kali pursed her lips together. "If that's true you seem to be hanging with a better crowd these days. That's…I'm glad to hear that."

Blake sighed, or started to sigh before it turned into something more like a sob as the confession of Adam's death acted like a drilling a hole in a dam: everything on the other side came flooding through. "I'm sorry, Mom. You and Dad were right about everything: the White Fang, Sienna Khan, Adam, all of it. You were right and I should have listened to you and I'm sorry."

She was sobbing truly and undeniably as her mother wrapped her in her arms again.

"It's alright, Blake," Kali said. "It's going to be alright."

"No, it's not," Blake said, gently pushing her mother away. "I…the things that I've done…five years I've been in the White Fang," she said. "I've done so many things. I've fought people, I've…I've killed people."

She looked away, unwilling to see the shock in her mother's eyes, the fear, the revulsion. She had betrayed everything that her father stood for, everything that they had worked for while he led the White Fang. Her friends who hadn't known her before she had turned away from all of that found it easy to forgive her, but surely her mother who had known her both before and after would not be so forgiving.

"That…I won't pretend that doesn't matter," Kali said. "But I'm still your mother, and you're still my daughter, and that means that I will always love you no matter what you do. And the truth is…the truth is that I share the blame for this. I should never have let you stay with the White Fang; I should never have let Sienna Khan bully me into letting you stay with her and with Adam. I'm your mother, and abandoned you in a strange world with nobody to love you and only a devious-" Kali bit back the world she would clearly have liked to use to describe Sienna Khan. "We left you, a twelve year old girl. Can we really complain that you lost your way for a while?"

"That doesn't make it right, what I did," Blake said.

"No," Kali agreed. "It doesn't. And maybe nothing ever will. But since that's the case, all we can do is move forward and do better in the future."

"That's what I'm trying to do, Mom," Blake said. "I left the White Fang and I came here because I wanted to do better. I wanted to do the things that I'd thought that I was doing with the White Fang. I'm training to become a huntress so that I can become a defender of the weak and helpless just like the White Fang under Sienna Khan was supposed to be. I'm here because I want to stand alongside good people committed to a noble cause just like I thought I was doing with the White Fang. This place…it's everything the White Fang was supposed to be but wasn't."

Kali's face was impassive. "Is this the part where you tell me how you got arrested?"

Blake scowled. "I…I found out that the White Fang were operating here in Vale. I tried to take them down and in retaliation…they exposed me for who I was. What I was. I got arrested."

"And that's how you ended up working for the Atlesian military," Kali said.

"It's not as bad as it sounds, Mom."

"So you aren't essentially a conscript who could be forced into any action at any time and any place."

Blake hesitated. "No, that's…the letter of my agreement."

"Then it's exactly as bad as it sounds," Kali said.

"No, it isn't," Blake insisted. "When you call it the Atlesian military it makes them sound like the enemy, the oppressor, this evil monolith of force bent on stamping its boot down upon our necks. But it's not like that. I've lived with these people, I've fought with them. They're good people, Mom: brave and dutiful and kind people who love their friends and put their lives on the line to protect all the things that are precious to them. The leader of the team I've been working with is a faunus, a pony from the Low Town underneath Atlas, but General Ironwood trusts her more than any other student in the whole academy. They didn't have to offer me any kind of deal at all, but they did; because they're good people and they want the same things that I want: to make the world a better place." She hesitated. "To be honest…if they released me…I might stay on with them anyway. Because we've made a difference together, and because I'd rather help make Atlas fairer than bring it down."

"My daughter…a soldier of Atlas?"

"You don't approve?"

"I came here to ask you to come home with me, to Menagerie," Kali said.

Blake's eyes widened. "Really?"

"You sound so surprised."

"I wasn't sure that I'd be welcome there."

"Our daughter will always be welcome there," Kali said. "So long as your father is chieftain."

Blake couldn't help but smile. "That's…that's sweet, Mom. But I can't."

"Can't? Or won't?"

"There's a war going on," Blake said. "I can't just turn my back on that."

"Haven't you fought long enough? And hard enough?"

"While there are still people who need my help, it won't ever be enough," Blake said.

Kali took a step back.

Blake frowned. "What?

Kali laughed softly. "It's nothing, really, it's just…for a moment there you sounded just like your father, when he was a younger man."

Blake smiled. "Isn't that a good thing?"

"I suppose," Kali murmured. "So long as you don't get ground down by it all, the way that he did."

Blake looked down at her feet. "That…that's already happened, Mom, but when it did my friends were there to help build me back up." _My friends…and proof that a better world is possible._

 _We might not be able to build Equestria on Remnant in my life time but we can at least start to build something better than we have now._

Kali looked sceptical. "After everything that you've been through this is still the kind of life that you want?"

"This isn't the White Fang."

"Maybe not, but you're still asking me to sail away again and leave you behind with nobody to love you and nobody to take care of you."

"That isn't true," Blake said. "I have people here."

"You said the same about the White Fang, about Adam and Sienna."

"I was a kid back then, and I thought…I was wrong about a lot of things," Blake said. "But I'm older now, and I know that the people round me now are the real thing and I think that if you met them you'd feel the same way."

Kali clasped her hands together. "I don't like the idea of leaving you here. I really don't like it."

"I'm doing something important."

"You said that the last time as well."

"Just because I was wrong the last time doesn't mean that I'm wrong now," Blake said. "I helped save innocent faunus from being kidnapped by a mad scientist. I helped stop the White Fang from destroying the Kingdom of Vale. We're not just pretending to do something important here while we take out our frustrations on the world, here at Beacon we're actually doing what we say we are. I…I love that you came all this way, Mom. I don't want you to think that I don't or that I…I'm sorry for all the things that I said to you and Dad and I know now that none of them were true…I guess what I'm trying to say is that this isn't about you. How long are you staying here in Vale for?"

"I was able to get a room until the end of the Vytal Festival," Kali said. "It was the last one, and it looks a little like the attic, but I was just glad to get a bed."

"If you're here for that long then you've got time to see what I'm talking about. You can meet my friends, get to know them a little, see for yourself that they're nothing like Adam. I know that this must all sound so incredibly familiar to you right now but…but you're here, and if you trust me just a little I will prove to you that the difference between the White Fang and this place…it's the difference between the counterfeit and the real deal."

Kali folded her arms underneath her breasts. She looked at Blake, and then she looked away. She smiled. "Blake…you remind me of how idealistic I was when I was your age. How I thought we were going to change the world, your father and I."

"I don't know if we're going to change the world," Blake said. "But we're going to change something for the better, I'm sure of it now. It's possible, I've seen it; things don't have to stay the way they are now with all of the problems that they have now. You can't make me go with you, Mom. But I can put your mind at ease, if you let me."

Kali's smile broadened. "I suppose I am here, after all. So, when do we start meeting these friends of yours?"


	150. Starfall

Starfall

"I think we've got everything," Pyrrha said, depositing a pair of large brown paper bags overflowing with vegetables down in the centre of the dorm room.

"I'm afraid we couldn't find a couple of items on your list," Jaune added, putting down some bags of his own. "But we got most of it."

Amber looked up at Jaune and smiled, "Thank you for doing this, Jaune."

Sunset was about to open her mouth to remind Amber that Pyrrha existed too, but Pyrrha caught her eye and gave a little shake of the head as if to tell her not to worry about it.

"I recognised some of these seasonings from home," Jaune went on. "They're not all that common. A couple of these are pretty rare; I'm a little surprised you've ever used them before."

"We mostly used the herbs we grew in the garden," Amber said. "But Ozpin sometimes brought in special ingredients when he visited, as gifts from mother. We used them on extra special meals, like this one. So you know how to cook, Jaune?"

"A little," Jaune said. "My mom taught me a few things. I didn't always pay attention."

"Perhaps you'd like to help me this evening?" Amber asked.

Once more Sunset glanced at Pyrrha, to see if she actually planned to do something about this, and once more Pyrrha gave her an incredibly shake of the head.

She had great forbearance, but if this kept up then Sunset would have to take Amber to one side and talk to her about this anyway rather than let it go on.

Jaune hesitated. "I, uh, I guess if you need the help I could lend a hand. I'll probably just end up getting your way-"

"Oh, nonsense," Amber declared. "I know that you'll do wonderfully."

"Anyway," Jaune said. "This stuff is all fresh, so it ought to keep in here if we're going to use it tonight, no need to see if there's room in the fridge."

"Okay, but let's put it out of the way at least," Sunset said, grabbing all the paper bags and levitating them into the space between the beds of Amber and Jaune.

Amber watched the groceries go, floating across the room. "Is that your magic as well?"

"Yeah," Sunset said. "Not as flashy as yours, but pretty functional in most situations."

"Yes, I imagine so," Amber said sadly. "If I could trade your magic for my own, I'd do it in a heartbeat."

Sunset grinned. "I'm not sure that I'd have ever made a trade like that with you, not even for your power. This magic has been a part of me ever since I was born. I don't think I could ever just give it away, not even for the rarest power."

The smile on Amber's face remained, but it seemed to become even more melancholy than it had appeared before. "That only shows how wise you are, Sunset Shimmer; the magic of the Fall Maiden is more a curse than a blessing. It killed my mother and now it haunts me, in the likeness of Cinder Fall." She glanced up at Pyrrha. "You should think yourself fortunate, Pyrrha, in replacing me you would only have doomed yourself."

 _This got dark pretty fast._

"My awareness of the risks…is only one of the reasons why I'm glad that you're here, Amber," Pyrrha said politely, and with a degree of embarrassment.

"Amber," Sunset said. "Let's go into the bathroom and talk for a moment."

Amber looked up at her with surprise. "What do you want to talk about, Sunset?"

"You'll find out in just a second," Sunset said. "If you wouldn't mind."

"Sunset-" Pyrrha began.

"This won't take long," Sunset said, cutting her off before she could protest. It was all very well for Pyrrha to think that she could put up with this, but if a polite word could put a stop to it then wouldn't that be better? It wasn't as if Sunset was going to yell and scream at Amber or anything. But she had an idea of what the problem was here, and she was going to try and straighten it out. Nothing wrong with that.

Nevertheless, Amber looked wary and filled with trepidation as she got up and squeezed past Jaune and Pyrrha to walk into the bathroom. Sunset began to follow.

"Sunset," Pyrrha said, placing a hand on Sunset's arm as she reached her. "It's not a big deal."

"Maybe not," Sunset said. "But all the more reason to put a stop to it."

She followed Amber into the bathroom and shut the door behind her.

Amber sat down on the toilet. "What's the matter?"

"I can understand that you don't like Professor Ozpin very much," Sunset said. "And I can understand that, that being the case, you want to find out where we all stand in relation to him; I can even understand that you might have doubts whether or not we are all completely committed to your protection even though I can assure you that we are. But what I would like you to explain to me is what your problem is with Pyrrha."

Amber glanced at Sunset, and then looked away. She pouted. "She's so naïve. She's so good and kind and so stupidly like me that it hurts."

"And?"

"What makes you think there is an and?"

"Because I know," Sunset said.

"Well what if there is?" Amber said. "She's my replacement! She was going to take the powers of the Fall Maiden because Ozpin gave up on me! And she's strong and brave and a famous warrior and everyone loves her. Jaune called her the soul of your team. Jaune loves her. And Ozpin replaced me with her, don't I have the right to be upset about that."

"None of that is Pyrrha's fault," Sunset said. "I know that you feel betrayed by the fact that Ozpin was looking for a new Fall Maiden, believe me, I get it-"

"How could you possibly understand what I feel?" Amber demanded.

"What, do you think you're the only person who ever got one on one tuition from an impossibly wise mentor, or who sat in front of the fire reading and drinking hot cocoa with your teacher, or who found in them the closest thing to the parents that you never had?" Sunset asked, and she couldn't keep her tone quite as calm or as level as she would have liked, although she calmed it down afterwards. "I had all of that too, not with Ozpin but I had it. That's how I understood you so well when I was in your mind, because so many of your experiences felt like a mirror of my own. I know that Professor Ozpin was more than an uncle to you, he was like a father, just like my teacher was like a mother to me. Amber, I know that it's hard when your teacher whom you love like a parent replaces you…not least because it reminds you that you're not their kid, you're their student, and they don't have to love you unconditionally the way a real parent does."

Amber stared at her with some understanding in her amber eyes. "So what did you do? Did you not hate the person who replaced you?"

Sunset leaned back against the wall. She ran her fingers up and down the bathroom tiles. She smiled. "You know I've actually had that happen to me twice. The second time I found out that…I found out that somebody else had seized the destiny that I had once dreamed of for myself."

"And what did you do?"

"I cried," Sunset said. "I railed against the unfairness of it all. I threw somebody across the dining hall with my magic." She grinned, although Amber didn't seem to see the funny side. "But I got over it. I realised that I had no right to be upset, with either of them. I'd run away before this other girl even came on the scene, I'd failed in my destiny before my teacher had ever set eyes on this other girl. She hadn't beaten me, except because I'd already ruled myself out. And…she ended up becoming a really good friend to me, offering me lots of useful advice when I needed it. And she helped me patch things up with my teacher as well."

"What makes you think I want to make up with Ozpin?"

"Because if you didn't care about him you wouldn't be this upset about getting replaced," Sunset said. "You still love him, it's the only reason you'd be this upset."

"I'm upset because he used me, he lied to me," Amber said.

"And that hurts because you love him, and you thought that he loved you, and you expected better," Sunset said. She paused for a moment. "The first time was much harder, because the first time I actually had to live with the person who was replacing me. Who I thought might replace me. Her name was Dawn. Dawn Starfall. She had stupid red and white hair that made her look like a maypole, and she was such a pleb, no manners at all. I really didn't like sharing my personal teacher, as you can probably tell." Looking back she felt more than a little ashamed of the way that she had treated Dawn Starfall, who had only wanted to be her friend, who had tagged along behind her like an annoying little sister, but whom Sunset had only ever treated with the greatest disdain. Only now did it occur to Sunset than an attitude like that was probably one of the reasons Celestia had decided that she didn't deserved to become an alicorn princess. "I didn't like sharing and I wasn't afraid to let anybody who'd sit still long enough know it. I let it sour everything. I let it turn her sour on me until she hated me. I let it turn me sour. I even let it turn my relationship with my teacher sour."

"She hadn't done that when she replaced you?"

"She hadn't replaced me, that's the point," Sunset said. "No more than a parent replaces their elder child when they have another. Our teachers' hearts are big enough for more than one, and it's only arrogant presumption on our part that makes us think differently.

"Pyrrha is the kindest, gentlest person I know," Sunset said. "She will be a good friend to you if you let her. She'll protect you from all your enemies if you let her. She'll die for you if you let her. But if you keep this up, if you bear malice against her for reasons that are not her fault…even her patience will run out eventually. Please, think about it…and leave Jaune alone, okay, he and Pyrrha are very happy and they don't need any interference."

Amber nodded glumly. "I know. He doesn't even look at me at all. She's the sun; she shines so bright that I'm cast into shadow by comparison." She sniffed. "Maybe I wouldn't dislike her so much if she wasn't so much better than me."

"I felt the same way when I first met her, until I came to appreciate her brilliance instead of resenting it. You'll learn to do the same, in time."

"In time," Amber said. "Because time is all that I have, isn't it? I don't have freedom, I don't have safety, but I have lots of time."

"Just promise me that you'll think about it," Sunset said. "Weigh up what you could have with Pyrrha against what you're losing with this unearned animus against her."

Amber inhaled through her nose. "You're wrong, Sunset. I don't care about Ozpin, not any more. Not after what he did."

 _Sure you don't._ "Just think about it. Please."

Amber nodded slightly. "You're a good person, Sunset. I wish that I could trust you."

"What are you talking about, you can trust me?"

Amber looked at her. "No, I can't. Sunset, can I ask you a question?"

"Are you sure you'll be able to trust the answer?" Sunset asked with just a touch of sourness.

"Ruby's mother," Amber said. "She's dead, isn't she?"

Sunset nodded. "Yeah," she said. "Don't ask me how, or even exactly when. When Ruby was very young, I think."

"Was she…did she serve Ozpin too? Did Ozpin get her killed?"

"She served him," Sunset confirmed. "Like I said, I don't know the details of how she died. I highly doubt he murdered her."

"You know what I mean," Amber pressed. "Did she die in Ozpin's war?"

Sunset licked her lips. "It's at least possible."

Amber shook her head. "I don't understand. I don't understand why any of you fight, and fight for Ozpin what's more, but especially I don't understand why Ruby is wasting her life fighting Ozpin's battles when her mother already wasted hers in the same way."

Sunset pushed herself up off the wall. "Amber, I want you to promise me that you're not going to ask Ruby that question."

Amber's eyes widened a little. "Why?"

"Because you'll either make her sad or you'll make her angry or both, and I don't want that," Sunset said. "None of us do. I don't think you want it either, you just don't know. But Ruby's mom, and her memory, mean a lot to Ruby and I'd rather that you didn't suggest that she'd wasted her life or anything like that.

"Ruby fights because she doesn't see it as a waste. Because she's brave. Because she's so selfless that if she could save even a single life at the cost of her own then she'd call it a bargain. And I think her mother saw things the same way.

"We all have our reasons to fight: for friendship, for our own sense of self-worth, just so that we can look ourselves in the mirror in the morning or simply because we know in our hearts that it's the right thing to do…and if you don't get those reasons or think that we're all a bunch of idiots then fine, but we're all ready and willing to die to keep you safe so…so if you can't actually respect that then could you at least pretend like do?"

Amber bowed her head. "You're right, of course. I've been very rude. I should apologise."

"It's okay," Sunset said. "So long as it stops."

"It will, I promise," Amber said. She stood up. "It was never my intent to be rude or unkind to anybody, I simply wanted to understand you all. And I do, now. I feel as though I do. Was that everything?"

"Sure," Sunset said. "I'm going to let you out now."

Amber giggled. "Thank you, Sunset, for not being too angry with me. You really do care for all of them, don't you?"

"You bet I do."

"And you'd do anything to keep them safe…except take them away from this fight, far away where they would be truly safe."

"They wouldn't let me even if I wanted to."

"No," Amber agreed. "I suppose they wouldn't."

They both left the bathroom, returning to the main dorm room just as Ruby burst in. "Guys, guys, you'll never guess what happened! Blake's mom is here!"

"Blake's mom?" Sunset repeated, as her eyes widened. "Seriously?"

Ruby nodded eagerly. "Blake opened the door and there she was: Blake's mom."

"Wow," Jaune said. "I wonder what she's doing here."

"Blake has been through a lot," Pyrrha murmured.

"Yeah," Jaune said. "But that was all a while ago now."

"I guess it must take some time for news to reach Menagerie," Sunset said.

"I guess," Jaune said. "Imagine living on an island that isn't connected to the CCT, it must take forever for them to find anything out."

"And yet here she is, eventually," Pyrrha said.

"What's she like?" Sunset asked.

"I don't know," Ruby said. "Me and Yang left Blake and her mom too it. Yang went to make tea, and I came here to let you guys know. I wonder what she wants."

"To see her daughter," Pyrrha said. "To make sure that she's alright after everything that she must have heard by now."

"To ask her to come home?" Sunset suggested. She grinned. "It would fit the pattern, wouldn't it?"

"So would Blake saying no," Jaune pointed out wryly.

"Oh, I'm not worried about Blake leaving," Sunset said. "There's too much at stake for her here." She looked around the room. "Now, I don't know if she'll want or get to meet us or not but remember: Amber is Ozpin's niece, she's visiting from the country, staying with us temporarily. Nothing about magic or maidens or secret wars or anything like that. Okay? Amber?"

Amber smiled slightly. "Don't worry, I wouldn't want to upset this woman for no reason when all she wants is to see her daughter. I would never get in the way of that."

 _No, I guess you wouldn't._ "I appreciate that," Sunset said.

"Does Blake know about…about magic and maidens and secrets?" Amber asked.

"Yeah," Ruby said. "She knows everything."

"She helped us out with a couple of jobs, one of them for Ozpin," Sunset said. "Last semester, when she was a little bit between teams."

"So…" Amber's eyes widened with understanding. "Of course, Blake. Is she the B whose name is carved on the wall next to your initials: S A P R, for Sunset Shimmer, Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos and Ruby Rose; and then there' little way away, that must be for Blake Belladonna, mustn't it?"

Sunset nodded. "Honorary member of Team Sapphire."

"And th beneath?" Amber asked. "Where they honorary members of Team Sapphire as well?"

"No," Ruby said, as the atmosphere in the room became just a little bit more uncomfortable. "That was a team that had this room before us: Team Stark. My mother's team, and my father's: Summer Rose and Taiyang Xiao Long."

"Oh," Amber said, her mouth forming a round O as she fell silent. "I…I'm sorry, Ruby, I don't know what to say. Is it a good thing or a thing to regret?"

Ruby smiled. "It's a good thing, definitely. It's really cool, knowing that I'm sleeping in the same room as them. It reminds me that I'm part of something was going on before I was born and will go on after I've graduated. I just wonder who the next team will be to find Stark and Sapphire – and Blake – carved on the wall and make their marks on it after us."

"And on and on until there is no space left," Pyrrha mused, with a faint smile playing upon her features.

"That will take a lot of teams to fill up all these walls," Sunset said. "Unless you were just talking about a single line going upwards."

"Either way, I think Professor Goodwitch will start yelling people out for vandalism long before that happens," Jaune said.

Sunset sniggered at that, and soon Ruby and Pyrrha were giggling at the idea.

Amber smiled, but the smile quickly faded from her face. "Tell me," she asked. "When was it that you let Blake add her name to yours? Was it right away?"

"No," Jaune said. "I invited her to do it after the end of our first mission together. It…it seemed like the right time."

"After you had fought together," Amber said. "I see." She looked away. "If Blake were wise she would go home with her mother."

"Wise?" Ruby asked, sounding a little confused by Amber's use of the word.

"Who wouldn't choose to spend a little more time with a mother who loves her enough to come…is it far away from this place called Menagerie? It seems so from the way you speak of it."

"It's a world away, by boat," Sunset said.

"She has crossed oceans for her daughter?" Amber asked, with just a touch of envy in her voice. "Who would not choose such a mother, and time spent together while time remains, over a doubtful battle with an uncertain outcome."

"Someone brave," Ruby said. "Someone who understands that there are more important things in the world than ourselves and how we feel."

"You lost your mother-" Amber began.

"Amber," Sunset said warningly. _Has she forgotten already?_

"This isn't about fighting, Sunset, this is about a mother's love and the love for a mother," Amber said. Having turned to briefly look at Sunset, she returned her attention to Ruby. "You lost your mother, just as I did; is there anything you would not give for a little more time with her."

Ruby's eyes closed, and Sunset wondered if she was thinking of Salem's offer down in the ruins of Mountain Glenn, or Cinder telling her that it had always been a lie. "Yes," Ruby said firmly. "Lots of things."

Amber fell silent for a moment. "I didn't mean to offend you, or upset you," she said, as Pyrrha put a comforting hand on Ruby's shoulder. "It's just…I miss my mother so much, and Blake-"

"Blake will make her own choices," Sunset said.

"I'm sure," Amber said. "As we all do."

There was a knock on the door.

The five occupants of the room all glanced at one another. Nobody said anything, but Sunset could tell that they were all – even Amber – wondering the same thing? Was it her? Was it Blake's mother?

Ruby got the door. "Oh, hey Blake! Hey Blake's mom!"

The woman standing beside Blake chuckled. "Hello again, Ruby. It's nice to see you again so soon."

"Hey, guys," Blake said, a little awkwardly. "This is, well, you heard Ruby, this is my mom."

"Kali Belladonna, at your service," Kali said in a rich, mature voice that was easy on the ear. "May we come in?"

"Of course," Pyrrha said, as everyone shuffled backwards – and the four members of Team SAPR found themselves forming a kind of line, although the way it bent it was more of a crescent really – to admit Blake and Kali into the dorm room.

Kali Belladonna was not quite as tall as her daughter – though the difference was very slight – but she carried herself with a confidence and authority that made her seem taller; like Blake she was a cat faunus, and like Blake she had feline ears, bigger and furrier than those of her daughter and pierced with gold besides, poking out from her black hair, which she wore short and curving inwards in arrows all pointed towards her gleaming golden eyes. She was wearing arm warmers over both her arms, but it was more noticeable on the right because she had no sleeve of her shrug on that arm but only the warmers, leaving a small amount of her upper arm bare. A pair of golden bands hung about her right wrist, and her black skirt swished about her as she walked.

As the Belladonnas entered, and the door closed behind them, Sunset took a step forward and offered a courtly bow. "Sunset Shimmer, leader of Team Sapphire, at your service, my lady. You honour us with your presence here."

Kali laughed richly. "Oh, Sunset, my husband may be the chieftain of Menagerie now, but I was born in a sharecropper's cabin in Anima, so there's no need for all this formality as though I were some Mistralian noblewoman."

Sunset felt her face heat up a little with embarrassment. Princess Celestia liked to say that there was no such as thing as being too polite, but that was one of the less wise of the sayings to fall from her lips. "My…I'm sorry."

"Don't apologise either," Kali said. "I'm sure many people would have appreciated your poise." She reached out, and tucked her fingers under Sunset's chin, tilting it upwards until Sunset was looking up at her. "Thank you, for fighting alongside my daughter and protecting her. I know what you did."

 _Adam._ Sunset shivered a little at the memory. "It…it was not bravely done. I was scared out of my mind at the time."

She thought that she could see a trace of pity in Kali's eyes. "I can understand why you would be scared. I knew the man, once. He was-"

"Mom," Blake cut her off. "He was a great man, once."

Kali didn't look as though she believed that, but she didn't say anything else about it. "Thank you, Sunset," she repeated.

"Blake would have done the same for me," Sunset said, as she straightened up.

"But you did it," Kali said. "And as Blake's mother, my gratitude will never end." She smiled, and then glanced away from Sunset towards Jaune.

"Jaune Arc, ma'am," Jaune said, holding out his hand.

Kali took it in both of hers. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Jaune Arc." She looked him up and down. "So, do you have a girlfriend?"

"Mom!"

Jaune laughed nervously, as it became his turn for his face to redden. "As a matter of fact…she's standing right next to me."

Kali glanced first at Sunset, then immediately realised her mistake and looked at Pyrrha. "Oh, I'm so sorry my dear, but you know how mother's are."

"I…have a little idea," Pyrrha murmured. She bowed her head. "Pyrrha Nikos, at your service."

"I think I might have just put you in the dog house," Kali whispered theatrically to Jaune, to which Pyrrha couldn't quite keep the grin off her face. "Excuse me, Pyrrha, but I'm sure that I saw you on several television screens on my way up to Beacon."

"Yes, you probably did," Pyrrha admitted. "I'm…not without reputation as a fighter, and with the Vytal Festival coming up…"

"Ah, I see," Kali said, not pressing her any further. "And of course, Ruby."

"Ruby Rose," Ruby said.

Kali nodded, turning to sweep her gaze across them all, her gaze falling upon Amber as though she hadn't noticed her before, as though Sunset's shadow had obscured the Fall Maiden completely. "Pardon me, I can't think how I missed you."

"It's fine," Amber said. "I'm not a part of this team anyway."

"This is Professor Ozpin's niece, Amber," Sunset explained. "She's visiting her uncle, and staying with us temporarily, since her visit was so unexpected and there isn't much room what with the festival."

"I see," Kali murmured. "It's nice to meet you anyway, Amber." She glanced at the camp bed beside the door. "I suppose that explains that."

"I sleep there," Sunset said, lest Kali think that they had condemned their guest to the uncomfortable bed. "Amber takes an actual bed."

"Oh," Kali said. "Well, anyway: so, you're team Sapphire."

"We have that honour," Sunset said.

Kali smiled. "Thank you all, for taking my daughter in when her own team wouldn't have her, for standing by her and being her friend when she needed friends the most. I understand that I have two more teams to meet before I've met all of Blake's friends, but I hope that I can get to know you all better over the next few days I'm here."

 _You want to know that we're worthy of being Blake's companions. You probably want to know that we're better than the last lot you left your daughter with._ "Blake, rather than leading your mother up and down the corridors paying dorm calls," Sunset said. "Why don't we…" she trailed off as she turned away, going to the window and looking out. It was a beautiful day outside, the sun was shining brightly down upon the grass, and though the golden leaves had begun to fall there were plenty of places where they would not be too disturbed by it, but could sit upon the grass and watch the falling leaves in peace, observing their beauty without being troubled by them.

"Sunset?" Blake asked.

Sunset turned around, but looked to Amber rather than to Blake. "How would you feel about doing your dinner in the middle of the day rather than the evening?"

"I…I don't mind," Amber said. "But why?"

"Well, I hope you don't mind changing the purpose of your special meal a little," Sunset said. "But why don't we make it now, then we can get Rosepetal and Iron and we can all picnic on the grass, what do you all think?"

"I think that sounds wonderful," Pyrrha said.

"Although not really what I would have expected from you," Blake said.

"I can appreciate lovely things," Sunset said. "I'll have you know that picnics are an essential part of my culture."

"Her culture?" Kali murmured.

"She's from a little island off the coast of Solitas, very isolated," Blake explained.

"Ah, I see."

"So," Sunset said. "What do you all think?"

"I think Pyrrha's right," Amber said. "That would be completely wonderful."

"It does sound better than traipsing up and down the corridors," Kali said.

"And if the guest of honour is in favour, who are we to say no?" Jaune said.

"Okay then," Ruby cried. "Let's do it!"

* * *

There was something very absorbing in the preparations. In cutting up the vegetables, in creating the sauces, in making sure that everything was seasoned just right. It was almost like being back home; if she ignored the surroundings of this student kitchen and focussed on the knife in her hands as she sliced through the avocado Amber could almost think that she was back in that cottage in the woods, with her mother in the next room and Uncle Ozpin about to come up the narrow path to the door.

Almost, but not quite. That world was gone, and no amount of magic would ever bring it back. But, if she focussed on the knife, Amber could forget some of the more distressing things about the world in which she found herself.

Of course, focussing on the knife brought with it its own problems. It was so sharp, so dangerous, it could cut, it could stab, it could hurt somebody, it could kill somebody, it could kill her. Amber's hand began to tremble, and as she looked down at her reflection in the blade she saw Cinder's furious and bloodthirsty eyes staring back at her.

She gasped in shock and dropped the blade, which hit the sideboard before clattering to the floor at her feet.

Jaune, who was helping her in the kitchen, currently picking the shells off some hard-boiled eggs, stopped what he was doing. "Amber? Is something wrong?"

 _Everything's wrong,_ Amber wanted to tell him. _Everything about this place is all wrong. I'm all alone in the world and nobody will help me. I'm all alone and the nightmares are closing in._ But she didn't tell him that; why bother, when he wouldn't care? He wasn't going to take her away from this place, from Ozpin and all the rest; could she even trust him to keep a secret if she told it to him?

She bent down, and reached out to pick up the fallen knife. Her hand shook, and the closer it got the more that it shook.

The knife was picked up by another hand, a hand clad in a baggy green sleeve. "Are you sure that you're okay?" asked the other boy, the one called Ren, who had also decided to help them in the kitchen. He was wearing a pink apron with the strange words 'Please Do Nothing to the Cook' upon it, although when she had asked him what it was that people normally did to the cook he had reacted as though it were a bizarre question even though he was inviting it with his dress.

"I'm fine," Amber whispered, trying take the knife, or trying to try to take the knife at least.

Ren kept the blade away from her. "Perhaps it would be best if I took over the chopping," he suggested diplomatically.

Amber placed her hand on top of his, and looked up into his face. He wasn't really her type, with his black hair and strange complexion, but the shape of his face was very handsome, and she was kind and courteous. Jaune had failed to be her knight in shining armour, but perhaps Ren was the one who would sweep her off her feet and carry her to safety, away from all the wars and the rumours of wars. She probed at him with her semblance.

Her semblance. Her secret. It wasn't a wicked thing, although it might seem so to some people. That was why she kept it a secret, even from her mother: in the stories it was only ever villains who played with the thoughts of others: wicked witches and evil sorceresses. But she wasn't wicked, and she certainly wasn't evil; she couldn't help the gifts that she had been given at her birth, and she used it with no ill intent. She had to keep her semblance a secret for fear that even Ozpin would think ill of her if she knew of it, but it was no evil thing. Her semblance simply made people like her, what was so wrong about that? What was wrong with being liked, didn't everybody want that for themselves? And it wasn't as though she used it maliciously; she had used it on Uncle Ozpin, who seemed so sad and lonely, so that he would take the joy in her that seemed to be missing from her life; she had used it on her mother so that she wouldn't frustrate herself by being angry at her daughter; weren't those good things? Hadn't she used her gift as gifts were meant to be used, to give to others? How many princesses had been given the gifts of beauty, song and to be beloved by all upon their birth? She was beautiful, or had been before her face was marred by Cinder, and she could sing well, and this was her way to be beloved by all.

It was not so strong as it had been before. She had been trying to use her semblance on Team SAPR without any success. Part of that was Cinder stealing her power away, but there was more to it than that; the same reasons why Amber could not trust them also meant that she could not make them love her: the bonds that already existed between them were too strong, and the ties that bound did not leave room for her to plant a stronger thread. Disappointingly, it was the same with Ren: there was another already in his heart; she could not plant her roots there.

She would find someone, she had to. There had to be someone in this place as lonely as she, as desperate as she, someone who would love her and protect her. She could not use her semblance on Ozpin any more, for all that Sunset might speak of love her hatred of him after all the ways that he had lied to her and used her and her mother both and caused her mother's death and all her current state of wretchedness ran too deep for her to bring affection out in him. Just thinking about it made her want to retch.

But she would find someone. She hoped she would. Somewhere in this world, somewhere in this school, there was someone meant for her.

There had to be, or else there was no justice in this cruel world.

She smiled. "Thank you, Ren. Do you know what to do?"

"I'm sure that I'll find a way," Ren said, as they swapped places. Ren started chopping up the vegetables while Amber, who took a moment to take an appreciative sniff of the pancakes sizzling away on the pan, got to work on the sauces.

"Amber," Ren said. "May I call you Amber?"

"Of course, Ren," Amber said.

Ren nodded. "May I ask why you had to visit your uncle so suddenly that the only place you could stay was with Team Sapphire? It seems…a little poorly planned."

Jaune looked alarmed at the question, but Amber had already given it a little thought. "I…I had no choice," she said. "I'm afraid that my home suffered a grimm attack, and was very badly damaged. So this visit to my uncle…I'm afraid it's an emergency, and there was very little time to arrange anything."

Ren closed his eyes. "I'm sorry," he said. He opened his eyes again, and those pink eyes were filled with sympathy. "I know that doesn't help at all but…I really am sorry for everything you're going through."

 _You have no idea,_ Amber thought. _And yet it's such a pity that you're already taken._

Whichever of those two loud and vulgar girls outside it was was really very lucky.

"Thank you," she said. "Your really very kind."

That was the distressing thing about all of this. They were very kind, all of them. She didn't hate them, couldn't hate any of them the way she hated Ozpin. She pitied them, because just like her they didn't deserve to be caught up in his spider's web, didn't deserve to be condemned to die for his designs.

And yet she could neither help them nor could she trust them. She had no time nor power to rescue Ozpin's other sacrifices; at the moment it was doubtful if she could save herself. And yet they were all so kind, so brave, so noble…so foolish, so gullible and so naïve. But kind, so kind to her and so forgiving. But Ozpin had made them his, and as they were his and as they were each other's so she could not save them.

She wanted to like them. She did like them even as she thought they were wrong about everything. Even Pyrrha, who was to have been her replacement, even though Amber loathed her for that she could not help but feel affection the other girl's grace and patience and gentleness.

But she could not save them; she could only save herself and any who would help to save her.

She turned her thoughts away from that, and to the present and important task of preparing dinner.

And for a while, she could almost forget the troubles of her situation and imagine she was home.

* * *

They were certainly quite a crowd as they carried everything outside, but then there was a lot to carry; in addition to the meal which Amber had originally planned to make, the various guests who were now joining them had each brought something of their own to the table, or maybe a little more: Ren had made his famous pancakes (famous to Nora and Yang anyway, although with so many others in attendance now who was to say if their fame wouldn't spread further after today); Jaune had made an attempt at his mother's fried chicken recipe (not for Amber or Sunset, but Pyrrha seemed to be looking forward to it); Yang and Pyrrha made enough tea for everyone; Blake had…opened some cans of tuna that she had in the cupboard (not everyone could be a great cook, and it was more than Sunset herself had done). There was salad and an assortment of home-made dressings, a vegetable curry, bean soup, fruit salad, lettuce and cucumber sandwiches, cheese and mustard sandwiches, cheese salad, boiled eggs, pasta, there were even samosas. If they hadn't invited YRBN and RSPT then SAPR would never have eaten it all in a single sitting.

But they had invited YRBN and RSPT and so there were lots of willing to hands to carry everything necessary out of the kitchen and the dorm rooms and out onto the lawn. They spread throw rugs and spare blankets and sheets out on the grass for them to sit on, and laid out everything for everyone present to help themselves. It was a big crowd, with not only the three teams but Kali Belladonna and Sun Wukong dropped in as well (literally, he descended from a tree although what he'd been doing there was anybody's guess).

It was certainly noisier and more lively than the picnics that Sunset had shared with Celestia, which had been sedate and private affairs though no less enjoyable for all of that, but if there was likely to be less erudite conversation upon the finer points of magic at this particular picnic, as she watched everyone gather round the blankets, as the hubbub of conversation washed over her, as Penny explained to Ruby how Rainbow was teaching her to play the guitar, as Yang talked up YRBN's chances in the Vytal Festival and joked about sending Blake to the one v one round, as Sun stuck his foot in his mouth in front of Blake's mother; as she looked out across all the smiling faces pressed so close together, talking and laughing an eating, as the sun shone so brightly down upon them all…the day seemed pretty perfect to Sunset.

She didn't say anything, not right now anyway. She just sipped her tea, and nibbled on a sandwich, and watched the others as they talked and laughed and ate. Was it her imagination fuelled by wishful thinking or did even Amber seem a little more relaxed than usual, a little less on edge?

Why wouldn't she be able to relax her, when everyone else was relaxing? It might be fall, but the day was still bright and the sun was still warm and the falling of the leaves from the trees – would they have run the leaves in Equestria yet? Sunset made a mental note to ask Twilight – was pretty without dropping into anyone's dinner. And everyone else looked so happy, so easy. It brought a warmth to Sunset that had nothing to do with the sun.

No, this was not quite the picnics that she had shared with Celestia, but that didn't mean that it wasn't perfect in its own way.

 _This is what I didn't understand, wasn't it princess? This is what Twilight got, and I didn't, and it's worthy to ascend._

 _She got, and I could not, that it isn't actually about the ascension. It's about this: good friends, good food, and the simple pleasures of fellowship._

"Sunset?" Pyrrha asked. "What are you thinking?"

Sunset blinked. "Who says I was thinking anything?"

Pyrrha shrugged. "You're not eating, you're not saying anything…and you've got a look on your face."

The look on Sunset's face right now was more sheepish than anything else. "I…no, I don't want to say, it's too sentimental."

"Oh, well if it's sentimental then you've really gotta say," Yang said. "Come on, embarrass yourself, there's only fourteen people here to hear it."

"Thanks, Yang," Sunset said. She scratched the back of her head, and her tail twitched. "I was just thinking…that if more people valued food and good company above power and might it would be a happier world."

"Aww, well now who's the pussycat around here?" Yang said.

"And yet you're right all the same," Pyrrha said. "Can it be doubted?"

"Not by me," Twilight said.

"Nor by me," Kali said. "It's one of the reasons why I love Menagerie so much, and love it more each day I spend there. It's one of the reasons…I'm just glad that Blake seems to have found such good company to end up in, and I look forward to getting to know each and every one of you better in the days ahead."

As the conversation began to rise around her again, Sunset noticed that Amber was looking at her. "Is everything okay?"

"I feel glad for you," Amber said. "And yet I feel so sad for you at the same time."

"Sad? What do you have to be sad for right now?"

"Because it's going to end," Amber said. "Just as my golden days ended."

"Of course it's going to end," Sunset said. "Every day ends. All the more reason to appreciate it while it lasts. And when the night comes it will find us standing shoulder to shoulder around the fire. So long as we do that then we have nothing to fear."

Amber kept her obvious scepticism on her face but out of her mouth.

Sunset's ears pricked up as a new sound disturbed the hubbub of their conversation. A strange sound, and almost eerie sound, a sound that sent a shiver running up her spine.

It sounded like singing. It was singing, but at the same time it was more than that; Sunset could almost perceive, or almost thought she could perceive, a green fog creeping along the grounds, moving as if it was under direction of some guiding hand that had commanded it to spread out in defiance of the lack of wind; it turned the heads of all who heard it, and soon it had reached their picnic and all their heads in turn were turned towards the source.

A girl was walking across the courtyard; nothing much unusual about that except for the fact that this was a girl that Sunset had never seen here before, dressed in shades of violet and magneta that clashed with the blueish shades of her hair. She was accompanied by one of the Atlesian huntresses, so maybe she was her girlfriend here for the Vytal Festival and being shown round the grounds, but as Sunset watched the Atlesian huntress fell back some discreet distance, leaving her girlfriend to make her way across the courtyard as though she was intimately familiar with it.

As though, in fact, she owned it herself.

She sang as she walked, and her singing was a haunting sound impossible to ignore, impossible to look away from, beautiful but at the same time discordant too, repellent to Sunset's ears.

She wasn't the only one who felt that way: Ruby looked as though the sound of the singing was causing her physical pain, Pyrrha looked ill and was holding tightly onto Jaune's hand, Ciel was muttering to herself under her breath and Rainbow looked as though she was having some kind of panic attack; Penny just looked utterly lost and confused at what was going on.

But they were far outnumbered by those who seemed to love the sound, discordant or no; the courtyard was full of students and they had all turned towards the source of the song as the green mist lapped around their feet like shallow water. As the girl sang, she reached out with her hands and brushed hands or arm or body against those closest to her in gestures that were gentle, teasing, and flirtatious all at once.

"Here's a chance to find your flame," she said, as she cupped her fingers beneath the chin of Russell Thrush and held him spellbound with her eyes for a moment. Even after she released him he still stared after, practically panting like a dog. "Are you a loser or a fighter?"

Sunset's eyes narrowed as her gaze flickered between the singing stranger and the green smoke that could not in any way be unconnected to them; coincidences like that just didn't happen. _Could this be some kind of semblance? Something that draws the focus of everyone who hears her voice?_

 _But what would be the point?_

"You're a star and you should know it," the singer crooned as she approached a trainee huntress in a starry hat and cloak like an old fashioned wizard. The songstress stroked her cheek before moving on to Flash, whose hand she brushed with her own. That mere gesture was enough to leave him staring in her wake. "Yeah you rise above the rest."

 _No, what kind of mental manipulation semblance would be accompanied by a visual signifier like green smoke?_

"It doesn't matter who you hurt," crooned the songstress to a wolf faunus with a shaggy grey mane who looked just about ready to get down on his knees and worship her. His companion, a female goat faunus with light green hair, looked scarcely less spellbound. "If you're just proving you're the best." She began to harmonise, her voice rising as she cast her sound into the air.

 _Is this magic? Not Remnant magic but…could this be Equestrian magic?_

 _Is there someone else here like me?_

"Battle! You wanna win it!"

 _Is she from Equestria too?_ Sunset thought. Her mind whirled with possibilities. She wanted to rush over there right now, find out who she was, talk to her, get to know her, share their experiences as exiles in this world. Here was someone just like her, another Equestrian-

One who was using her magic to cast a spell over half of Beacon; a spell which, judging by the increasingly hostile gazes being fired across the courtyard, was not doing anything to sweeten anybody's nature.

"Battle!"

"I could beat you!" Weiss shouted into the face of a cat faunus with hair in many bright shades of neon.

"Battle!"

"Huh! You wish!" snorted the cat in disdainful reply.

"Battle!"

"I so want this!" cried the huntress in the wizard's hat and cloak.

"Battle!"

"Not if I get it first!" Cardin declared.

Discord spread like wildfire across the courtyard, turning teams against one another or sometimes even against themselves. Angry words, angry gestures, angry glares were all exchanged as a thousand battle lines were drawn at once, and it seemed like Sunset and her friends were an island of tranquillity beset by an ocean of hostility that had all at once begun to boil over with fury.

Even after the songstress vanished – which she did, it seemed as though the moment Sunset looked away from her she was gone, and the Atlesian huntress who had brought her here stayed only a moment longer, winking at Amber before she made an exit only slightly less impressively sudden – her influence upon Beacon remained; even as the green smoke that had surrounded her began to fade the hostility she had engendered did not disappear but merely subsided into a great deal of angry muttering, enlivened by arguments from some quarters.

And the day had seemed so perfect. It was as though in an instant dark passions had surged everywhere but where love ran deepest.

 _The first fellow Equestrian I might and she turns out to be wicked._ Sunset's disappointment was only dulled by her greater fear of who this person was and what she was doing here.

"So…what just happened?" Sun asked.

"I'd like to know that too," Blake murmured.

Amber was wide-eyed with fear, she looked terrified by the transformation of the student body into something not far removed from a mob. "What's going on?"

Sunset stood up. "Don't worry, I'm going to take you back to the dorm and then-"

She would not have said 'and then I'm going to write to Twilight' even though that was exactly her intention, but whatever she would have said in place of truth was interrupted by a cry across the courtyard.

"Pyrrha!" the voice that cried her name was sharp enough to cut glass, and it cracked like a whip in the hands of the overseer as a girl with bright golden hair all clad in burnished golden armour to match, with long golden earrings dangling from both her ears, made her way across the grass. Her face might have been pretty enough, but it was disfigured by a scowl that she was trying without success to disguise. "Pyrrha," she repeated, as she approached.

"Phoebe," Pyrrha said, unable to keep the sigh out of her voice any more than Phoebe was able to keep the scowl off her face.

"So, this is the company you keep nowadays," Phoebe said, sweeping her gaze across the picnickers. "Cats and monkeys and little ponies. Quite the menagerie from Menagerie I see." She laughed at her own wit with a laugh that was thoroughly aristocratic, thoroughly irritating, and thoroughly false.

"I rather hope this isn't a friend of yours, Pyrrha," Kali murmured.

"What was that? Did I hear a meow?"

"Hey!" Blake snapped, as she rose to her feet. "You don't talk to my mother that way!"

Phoebe gazed at Blake with nothing short of contempt, oblivious to the hostility with which everyone else was regarding her. "I'd think a terrorist like you would learn to mind your manners and thank your good fortune that you're still alive. Talk to me like that again and I'll have you back in a cell faster than you can say 'but I never laid a hand on her.'"

"Oh, she's not the one who's going to lay a hand on you," Yang growled.

"Who do you think you are to talk to Blake that way?" Ruby demanded.

"Who do you think you are to speak to me that way?" Phoebe replied, and with every word that fell out of her mouth Sunset found it easier to understand why Cinder became a murderous psychopath from having to grow up in the same house as this woman. "I'm Phoebe Kommenos and I came here to speak to Pyrrha, not to listen to the peasants bleating."

"Phoebe!" Pyrrha growled, and she was practically shaking with anger as she got to her feet and squared off against the other girl. Her words were clipped, and sounded as though each one was being forced individually through gritted teeth. "Whatever problem you might have with me, leave my friends out of it. What do you want?"

"I want you to say goodbye to that invincible reputation of yours," Phoebe said. "I want you to know that this year I intend to bring you down if it's the last thing I do. Before this tournament is over everyone will know who the real champion of Mistral is."

"I surrendered that title already," Pyrrha said.

"I'm not taking about some tournament trophy," Phoebe said dismissively. "I'm talking about that invisible crown you wear upon your head, that crown I'm going to knock from off your head and show our people just what you really are." Her lips curled into a sneer. "To think that you are considered the pride of Mistral, you and that country bumpkin Arslan."

"I am not responsible for how I'm seen," Pyrrha said. "Or how you are seen for that matter."

Whether Pyrrha had meant to enrage Phoebe with that last remark or not it was clear that Phoebe was, in fact, enraged. "You," she snarled. "You play the exemplar of our traditions but you debase yourself and dishonour your old blood by associating yourself with filthy faunus and lowborn vulgar trash, the detritus of four kingdoms, why you even-"

"That's it," Sunset said, taking a step forward. "You're done. Pyrrha's heard enough of this, I've heard enough of this, we've all heard enough of this, now beat it."

"And who are-"

"Sunset Shimmer, leader of Team Sapphire," Sunset said flatly, because she was not in the mood for this right now. "And the person who'll throw you across this courtyard if you don't turn around, walk away, and quit bothering my team mate."

Phoebe snorted. "So you're even hiding behind faunus now, Pyrrha, and following them around as though you were the horse instead-"

Sunset turned away, holding one hand and flicking her finger in Phoebe's direction. The other girl was flung backwards with a startled cry, landing on the grass about twenty feet away with a thump.

"I don't want to see you again unless it's in the ring!" Sunset shouted at her. She glanced at Blake's mother. "I wouldn't want you to think that I'm a particularly violent person, ma'am, or the kind who goes around throwing people great distances upon a whim." _Not any more, anyway._ "I just don't like it when people insult my friends."

"Neither do I," Pyrrha said. She bowed her head apologetically. "I'm very sorry, I'm sorry to everyone but especially to those she insulted directly, and especially you Blake, Sun, Rainbow, Sunset; Mrs Belladonna, I am so sorry that you had to-"

"I worked for faunus rights for over a decade," Kali said. "Believe me I've been called worse by far more intimidating people than that." Her gaze turned to Sunset. "I can understand your frustration, but I hope that you don't let your temper get away from you so easily all the time."

"No," Sunset said. "I just…I'm a little bit rattled right now."

"I think we're all a little ought of sorts right now," Ren suggested.

"Yeah, but what's with that?" Nora asked.

"Amber," Sunset said. "Come on, let's go." She wanted to get Amber back to the dorm room and then get her journal. She wanted to let Twilight and Celestia know about this as soon as possible.

* * *

"So, what was that back there?" Ruby asked. She shivered. "It didn't feel right. It feel really wrong, you know, like…I don't how to say it except that it felt wrong. Do you know what it was?"

"I have an idea," Sunset said, as she put the journal down on the library table. It was pretty much empty at this time of the afternoon, at this time of year, so she had little fear of writing in it with only her and Ruby around to see it. Jaune and Pyrrha had stayed with Amber, but Ruby had followed her down here. "I think," her voice dropped a little in spite of the absence of any other listeners. "I think it was Equestrian magic, from my world."

Ruby's eyes widened. "From your world?" she squeaked. "You mean that girl – it was that girl, wasn't it?"

"I'm pretty sure it was, yeah," Sunset said, as she sat down in front of the book.

"Then she was from Equestria too?"

"That's my working theory," Sunset said. She could not help but sigh. "Just my luck, someone who might understand me and she turns out to have malign intentions."

Ruby looked a little hurt as she sat down beside Sunset. "You don't think we understand you?"

"That's not what I meant," Sunset said. "That's not even…okay, it might have been what I said but it definitely isn't what I meant. It's like…I was born in Equestria, and I grew up there with Princess Celestia, and that gives me a perspective that none of you who grew up on Remnant quite share; but on the other hand I've also lived here in Remnant so long that Twilight and Princess Celestia don't understand me either, not the way they used to. I'm…it's like I'm hung between two worlds, and while it's not a huge deal most of the time…it would have been nice to have somebody to talk to who shared that same experience, who understood what it was like to straddle Equestria and Remnant in just the way I do."

"I guess," Ruby said. "But do you really think that you need to have the same experiences as someone else to understand them? Look at you and Blake, or you and Pyrrha; look at all of us. We're all so different and yet we all understand each other, don't we? While this other girl might be from Equestria like you but she doesn't seem like you at all."

Sunset looked at her. "Is your point that I'm being stupid about this?"

"No," Ruby said. "My point is…you don't need someone who's lived your exact life to understand you. You've got us, just like we've got you. Because if we can't understand people who are a little different to us then how can we work together? Isn't that what the Vytal Festival is supposed to be all about?"

"I think that right now the Vytal Festival is about kicking the crap out of people you don't like for a lot of people outside," Sunset muttered.

Ruby made an uncomfortable sound. "What did she do? This other person from Equestria? How did she do that, and how come she didn't do it to us?"

"I've got a theory on the second one that maybe our bonds of friendship protected us from the worst of the effects," Sunset said. "Friendship is the most powerful of all Equestrian magics, after all."

"You mean when you say that you really mean it?"

"You thought that I didn't mean it?"

"I thought you meant more in a 'our friends inspire us to be brave and find strength to keep going' kind of way."

"I do," Sunset said. "But I also mean it in a 'literal shield against evil magic' kind of way sometimes, like now. As for who that woman was, I'm not so sure. I'm a little rusty on my Equestrian demonology. I'm hoping Twilight will be able to help."

"Twilight?"

Sunset opened the journal. "Equestrian Twilight. Princess Twilight Sparkle. I'm going to write to her in this book and she's going to write back."

Ruby stared at the blank page. "She's just going to…write back?"

"Yep."

"The words are just going to show up on the page?"

"Yep."

"Wouldn't it be easier if you could just call her on your scroll?"

Sunset stared at Ruby. Ruby shrugged.

Sunset ignored that last remark and picked up her pen, scribbling on the page.

Sunset: Hey, Twilight, are you there? I know it's early, but something's come up.

There was a slightly longer wait than usual before Twilight's writing began to elegantly curve its way across the page.

Twilight: When you say something's come up I assume you mean something bad. Forgive me my pessimism but your world kind of invites it.

"That's a little rude," Ruby said.

"If you knew what life was like in Equestria you'd understand why she was like this," Sunset said.

"I suppose so," Ruby said. "So…if I wrote something in here, would Twilight be able to read that too?"

"Do you want to write something in here?"

"Kind of," Ruby said with a sheepish grin. "How many times do you get the chance to write to a princess from another dimension?"

Sunset pushed the book a little way across the table. "Go on then," she said.

"Really?" Ruby asked. She was still smiling as she pulled out a pen and began to scribble on the page.

Ruby: Hi, Princess Twilight!

Twilight: Hello. Who are you, if I may ask?

Ruby: Oh, right. I'm Ruby Rose, Sunset's team-mate.

Twilight: Of course, Sunset's told us both so much about you.

Ruby: Us?

Celestia: Greetings, Ruby Rose. My name is Princess Celestia. It's nice to finally be able to put a handwriting to the stories.

Ruby glanced at Sunset. "Is that your teacher?"

Sunset nodded. "She is."

Ruby hesitated. "Where they good stories you told about me?"

Sunset chuckled. "Yes, they were very good stories."

Ruby looked a little relieved as she started writing again. Ruby: I've heard a lot about you from Sunset too, it's nice to finally meet Sunset's teacher after everything. I mean, your majesty, I

Celestia: No need for that, Ruby. Not from a friend of Sunset's, certainly. There was a pause on the other end of the journal. Celestia: Since I may never have the chance to tell you this again, let me say that I think you're very brave, especially but not only for one so young. Your world is blessed to have you.

Ruby's face turned as red as her cape. "I, uh, Sunset, what am I supposed to say to that?"

"What do you feel when she says it?"

"Like I'd day if anyone said that to me out loud where anyone could hear it?"

Sunset's eyebrows rose. "Seriously? This from the person who would – and has – charge into an army of grimm without hesitation but recognition is what scares you?"

"I don't want to be special," Ruby complained. "I don't want to be…I don't want to end up like Pyrrha. Like Pyrrha was, before-"

"Before she met us?" Sunset asked. "I don't think there's much chance of that." She pulled the journal back. Sunset: I'm afraid you've embarrassed Ruby just a little bit. Princess Celestia, what are you doing here?

Celestia: I was having tea with Twilight. I'm sorry, Ruby, it wasn't my intent to embarrass you.

"Can I?" Ruby gestured towards the book. Sunset pushed it back towards her. Ruby: It's okay, I just don't want to be thought of as so much better or different from anyone else that people think we can't be friends.

Celestia: I understand completely.

Twilight: We both do. I'm so glad that I made all of my friends before I became a princess, or I'm afraid that I might not have any right now.

Sunset budged a little closer to Ruby so that she could write as well as Ruby could. Sunset: If you hadn't made your friends you would never have become a princess.

Twilight: True.

Ruby: I still can't believe that there are two Twilight Sparkles, one here and one somewhere else.

Twilight: Would it blow your mind to know that there's a Ruby Rose over here as well?

"Really?" Ruby shrieked. Ruby: Really?

Celestia: One of my younger royal guards, but also one of the most promising; she's just applied to join the Search and Rescue company.

"Search and Rescue?" Ruby asked.

"The Royal Guard doesn't actually see a lot of action," Sunset explained. "Search and Rescue duty is probably where the biggest opportunity to help other ponies is in Equestria." Sunset: Princess Celestia, Twilight, I wish that we could just talk like this, but we need your advice. I'm afraid that there is a being possessed of Equestrian magic loose in Remnant besides me, and that she's using her magic for evil. Sunset described, with occasional additions from Ruby, just what had happened in the courtyard not much earlier.

Twilight: That's very disturbing, and very strange at the same time.

Sunset: Strange and disturbing, a bad combination.

Twilight: What you've described sounds like the work of one of the sirens.

Ruby: What's a siren?

Twilight: The sirens were three sisters, beings with magical voices who used the power of those voices to enthral any pony who heard them and compel their obedience to their will. But, in order to maintain their power, they had feed off conflict between ponies to replenish their strength.

Ruby frowned. "I don't get it."

"It's pretty straight forward," Sunset said. "They could control people, like she just did in the courtyard, with her voice; but that requires her to expend magic. In order to replenish that magic she has to cause conflict, which creates an energy of its own which she can feed on."

"But wasn't she controlling people to create conflict?"

"Yes, in this case it's essentially cyclical, but she could potentially use her magic to compel people to do…whatever she wanted." Sunset: Sorry, we were just discussing what that meant. But you said the sirens were, not the sirens are.

Twilight: Yes. In order to put a stop to their reign of tyranny, Starswirl the Bearded banished the sirens to another world centuries ago.

Sunset: I think we've found out where he banished them too.

Twilight: But what have they been doing all this time? And where are the other two? No legend makes any mention of any of the three sisters working alone.

Sunset: I don't know about the second one but I think that they were active during what is sometimes known in Remnant as the Age of Miracles; I can't remember exactly when it happened but there are accounts of one of the Maidens of old battling three monsters who sound an awful lot like the sirens. She defeated them, but they fled before she could destroy them. Perhaps they've been lying low all this time.

Twilight: Then why emerge now?

Sunset: Does it matter?

Twilight: I think it should matter, especially if the other two are out there somewhere.

Sunset: At the moment I'm not concerned with how we stop her.

Twilight: That depends on what you mean by stop her. So long as she isn't continuously employing her magic on people then the effects ought to fade without any lasting negative effects. If you wanted to neutralise her magic then you'd probably need some kind of musical counterspell since her magic is musically derived; or do you just intend to kill her?

Sunset: That depends on what other options she gives me, and what she plans to do to my friends. Could she be working with Salem?

Celestia: It seems unlikely; the sirens sought their own dominion over land and living creatures, it is difficult to imagine them bending the knee to another. On the other hand, if this dark force opposed to you is as fearsome as you suggest she might have the power to compel their obedience, and if she has kept them in check, waiting for the moment to send them forth, it would explain their long absence from the history of your world. Ruby, I am sorry that we of Equestria appear to have visited a problem upon you when your unhappy land has so many troubles of its own. I regret that I can only offer my apology.

Twilight: Perhaps we can offer more than that. What if I were to

Sunset: No! She stared at the word on the page for a moment as the shaking subsided. Sunset: Twilight, no, you can't come to Remnant.

Twilight: Why not?

Sunset: Because you wouldn't last five minutes. Because you'd emerge in Atlas on the other side of the world from Vale with no one to help you get here. Because Equestria needs its princess of friendship more than we need your help.

There was a pause. Twilight: It feels wrong to just leave you to it. This is Equestria's problem.

Sunset: It's our problem now. One more to add to the list. We can handle this, Twi. We've got this together.

"Do you really believe that?" Ruby asked. "Or do you just not want her to come?"

"I don't want her to get killed this world," Sunset said. "I don't want to have to go back home and tell Princess Celestia how my step-sister died. I don't want Equestria's princess to fall helping me out in a world not her own because I asked her to come and risk herself. I don't want any of that on my conscience." She grinned. "But I also trust our awesome team. We got this, right?"

"Yeah," Ruby agreed. "Magic and monsters, all in a days work."

Celestia: While I understand Twilight's feelings of responsibility, I also agree with you, Sunset. You are far more familiar with this world and everything going on there. It makes sense for you and your friends to handle this situation. Sunset couldn't help but detect a note of relief in Celestia's words at the idea that Twilight would not be following Sunset into the maelstrom that was Remnant. Celestia: I'm sure that you will continue to prevail against all obstacles with the support of those closest to you.

Sunset: Thank you for your confidence, Princess. Speaking of those closest to me, we should go and explain what we know about what happened today. But could we speak again tonight like we planned? All three of us?

Twilight: I'll be here.

Celestia: As will I. Until then, Sunset. Good day, Ruby Rose, it was nice meeting you.

Ruby: It was good meeting you, too, princess. Princesses. See you around.

Celestia: I hope so, Ruby; and best of luck to all of you.


	151. Once Upon A DreamA Certain Magical Ambe

Once Upon A Dream / A Certain Magical Amber

Sunset: Amber isn't very happy and I don't know what I should do about it.

Twilight: Do you know why she isn't happy?

Sunset: I know that she doesn't like Pyrrha very much.

Twilight: From the way you've described it I thought that everybody liked Pyrrha.

Sunset: Everybody except the person that Pyrrha replaced.

Celestia: You mean that this is because Pyrrha was the one selected by Professor Ozpin to become the next Fall Maiden, if that is the correct term.

Sunset: That's right, and that's right. Amber knows – I think Jaune told her, which wasn't the smartest thing he's ever done I must say – and she isn't happy about it. I tried to talk to her about it. I can't say that I don't understand how she feels in a situation like this.

Twilight: Because of me.

Sunset: Twilight, you are the least of it. I wasn't happy when I found out about you, I admit that now, but at least I couldn't tell myself that I'd lost out because of you. Princess Celestia, you remember that I never liked having anyone else around who might come between us, don't you?

Celestia: Unfortunately I do recall that it led to a degree of friction between us over it.

Sunset: Of all the things I did, one of them that I most regret is that way that I let my jealousy of our bond destroy that bond. I just wasn't Sunset hesitated before writing the words that waited within her arm and in her soul. She wasn't sure what reaction she'd get from saying them, but at the same time that was no real reason not to say them, was it. Sunset: I just wasn't ready for any kind of a sister yet.

She closed her eyes, because she wasn't sure if she wanted to read what either Twilight or Celestia said in reply to that, but when she opened her eyes again she was gratified that there was neither an evasion nor a harsh condemnation of her impudence being offered. Celestia: I think that a better mother would have been able to make you understand that love is not diminished or taken from the elder sister by the arrival of a younger. I wish that I had been able to make you see that, little Sunbeam.

Sunset: The fault is not that you didn't make that clear; the fault is that I didn't want to understand. I just wanted you all to myself and when I couldn't get it I misbehaved, and ruined everything.

Twilight: And now?

Sunset: Now I wish that we could meet face to face.

Twilight: In a sense, we already have.

Sunset: And in a much more real sense we haven't.

Celestia: It would be easily done if you would only come back to Equestria.

Sunset smiled. Sunset: You are incorrigible, Princess Celestia.

Celestia: And you are incomprehensible in this. You sent your friend Blake to visit us but you would not come yourself.

Sunset: The time wasn't right.

Celestia: And when will it be right?

Sunset: When I feel as though I can come home without everyone dying while I'm away. When I feel as though I deserve to see you again.

Celestia: The sight of me is not so grand or glorious a thing that you must be deserving of it, and in any case you have done nothing to make yourself undeserving.

Sunset: Be that as it may I have not earned a homecoming. Nor, in any case, can I risk abandoning my friends at such a time as this.

Celestia: That, at least, I can understand perfectly well. Were you able to make Amber understand that Professor Ozpin did not cease to love her because he cast around for an alternative to bear his hopes?

Sunset: That would be a lot easier if she would admit that she still loved him. I'm sure she does – I never stopped loving you – but she keeps up the pretence of hostility. Sometimes she reminds me of myself so much its scary. And not scary like Cinder making me think of what I could have become, scary like 'I really was an idiot, wasn't I' sort of way.

Celestia: You had your reasons for anger, just as Amber does; in time, she will grow past them as you did.

Sunset: I hope so. I hope that she and we are given that time.

Celestia: What did you say to her?

Sunset: I told her that if she kept this up then she would have an enemy where she could have a friend. Not that Pyrrha would ever become truly hostile towards her – she is too much like Cadance in that respect, she has too much of the milk of kindness to much more than endure insult. Sunset paused, thinking about what had happened this afternoon. Sunset: Insult to herself at least. So I didn't mention her to Amber; I thought that it wouldn't give her much incentive to change her mind. I told her about Dawn instead. Pyrrha wouldn't become that sour but

Twilight: I should hope not. I should hope she wouldn't poison people, put other people under mind control and try to drive anybody insane while separating them from my friends either.

Sunset: I'm sorry, what?

Celestia: Dawn turned out to be my greatest failure; far, far worse than my failure with you. While you have risen above your frustration with me to embrace friendship and become a hero in the world of Remnant

Sunset: I wouldn't call myself a hero. That's Ruby, that's Pyrrha, that isn't me.

Celestia: I feel that you have told me enough about you that I could refute that argument with you if I chose, but as things stand I shall indulge your modest and merely call you a benefactor of your new home. Dawn, on the other hand, allowed her resentment to make a monster of her, unable to stop at anything to achieve – even conspiring with our enemies to bind me with ancient zebra magic – her ambitions.

Sunset felt as though if her eyes got much wider they might hit the page in front of her. Sunset: All this because I wasn't nice to her?

Celestia: All this because I would not give her what she wanted. All this because the laurels she desired fell instead on Twilight.

Twilight: You know, and Sunset you might not like me suggesting this but I feel as though I should bring it up. Pyrrha would never be consumed by resentment that way, she is too good and kind for it.

Sunset: By far.

Twilight: But would Amber? What if Amber doesn't need to worry about the consequences of carrying her resentment to extremes? What if Pyrrha has to worry about Amber's resentment?

Sunset leaned back in her chair and looked away from the book for a moment. The question was one that she had not previously considered but, now that it had been raised with her, she found she could not simply dismiss it as Twilight not really understanding what was going on. Not when she remembered the venom in Amber's voice.

She began to write. Sunset: I'd like to think that Amber would never do anything like that, but just because I've been in her head once doesn't mean that I know what's going on there now. And maybe I'd just like to think that I could never have done something like that. I don't know. At the moment, I think she's more afraid than anything else, but you're right: if her anger towards Professor Ozpin and Pyrrha doesn't abate then I don't know. But there are other times when she seems to recognise that Pyrrha is a good person, that everyone is. I just don't know what she's really feeling at any give moment. I suppose that all I can do is keep my eye on both of them. But there are so many good people around Amber right now that I'm sure that she won't lose her way that badly. If only she could bring herself to trust us without constantly worrying that we're about to sell her out to Professor Ozpin the moment he asks us to. If only she could believe that Professor Ozpin wouldn't ask for us to sell her out. But if I push her too hard on that then I'm worried that I'll lose her.

Celestia: I understand why. It is a narrow path that you must walk with her right now.

Sunset: She has been through an awful lot. Hopefully time will make things better. Speaking of Professor Ozpin, I told him about the siren and what happened in the courtyard.

Twilight: What did he say?

 _Professor Ozpin sighed. "So, they have returned. And it has been so long, I dared to hope that they had been devoured by the grimm. When have we ever been so fortunate?"_

 _Sunset frowned. "Do you think that she, or they, have been involved in the way that Vale has been getting more tense lately? The anti-Atlesian sentiment, that kind of thing?"_

" _Perhaps, Miss Shimmer, although I must say that there are reasons enough for anti-Atlesian sentiment to have risen and be flourishing without help from those creatures. But with their help…how bad do you think the impact on the students was?"_

" _Twilight – my Twilight – told me that it wouldn't be permanent unless she kept on coming back," Sunset said. "But…it's hard to say where the ordinary competition of the Vytal Festival ends and the impact of the siren begins."_

" _A celebration of unity and peace," Professor Ozpin muttered. "This year it appears it will be more of an arena for the playing out of national conflict."_

" _Better that than war, Professor, surely?" Sunset said._

" _That is small consolation as I contemplate how far things have fallen from the ideals that…that were imagined by the architects of the post war world who dreamed of cooperation and collaboration." Professor Ozpin glanced up at her. "Was Amber affected?"_

" _I don't think so, Professor," Sunset said. "We're keeping an eye on her."_

" _Of course," Professor Ozpin said. "How is she?"_

" _A little better, I think," Sunset said. "She still cares about you."_

" _Really?"_

" _She didn't like the idea that you'd replaced you," Sunset said. "That wouldn't bother her if she'd put away all feeling for you that she had."_

 _Professor Ozpin seemed to smile. "If that is true, you have my thanks for telling me so, Miss Shimmer."_

" _I wouldn't lie to you about that, Professor," Sunset said. "Professor Ozpin what are we going to do about the sirens?"_

" _I…I will discuss with General Ironwood how we may search for them discreetly," Professor Ozpin said. "Leave it with me, Miss Shimmer; I will deal with it as best it may be dealt with."_

Sunset: I'm afraid he seemed more concerned with Amber than with the sirens.

Twilight: Can you wholly blame him?

Sunset: Maybe not, but he's supposed to be leading us. If his mind isn't wholly focussed then who can we look to?

Celestia: What of his lieutenants? Even the wisest may nod from time to time, Sunset. The secret is to make sure that you have surrounded yourself with those who can and will take up the slack while you are, for whatever reason, indisposed.

Sunset's brow furrowed. Sunset: It's weird to think of you needing such support, princess.

Celestia: And yet I do. From Luna, from Twilight, from Twilight's friends, from Cadance; from my staff and guards and teachers and all around me. No one can bear the burden of the world alone: not I, and not Professor Ozpin.

Sunset: So I should trust Professor Goodwitch and General Ironwood? Sunset made no mention of Ruby's uncle.

Celestia: And yourself, and those closest to you.

Sunset: We might be in Ozpin's organisation but we are not his trusted lieutenants.

Celestia: You might not think so, but trust me, Sunset: you are important to him, all of you; and whether he is distracted or simply overwhelmed by the weight on his back I believe that he will look to all of you more and more in the days ahead. He will look to you more, perhaps, than anyone else alive in Remnant.

* * *

"Yes, I see that you requested the use of the auditorium for a sparring session," Professor Goodwitch said, as she glanced down at her scroll. She looked up at them. "Getting in a little last-minute practice before the Final Qualification Displays?"

"Sort of, Professor," Yang said. "Just a little light work out."

"Hmm," Professor Goodwitch said. "Ordinarily I'd say that it was far too late to hope for any real improvement, but fortunately neither of your two teams need worry on that score." She looked over the heads of Team Sapphire and Team Iron to look at Team Rosepetal just behind them. "Although I am curious as to why an Atlesian team feels the need to practice, considering General Ironwood's selection methods."

"We're just here for a bit of a workout before the festival," Rainbow said.

"I see," Professor Goodwitch murmured. "Well, nobody else has requested the use of the amphitheatre, so I'll go ahead and grant your request. But remember to vacate in plenty of time for the Haven students to hold their own qualification tournament in the afternoon."

"We'll be done long before they show up, Professor," Sunset said.

Professor Goodwitch nodded. She turned her attention to Kali Belladonna, standing unobtrusively at the back of the group. "Mrs Belladonna, you're back again, I see. How are you enjoying your stay in Vale?"

"I have to confess I haven't seen much of the city," Kali said. "When it comes to a choice between sightseeing or spending time with my daughter, there isn't really much of a choice at all."

The corners of Professor Goodwitch's lips twitched upwards slightly. "Miss Belladonna, are you sure that you want to spend the time of your mother's visit sparring?"

"Actually, I'm a little looking forward to seeing what Blake can do," Kali said.

Professor Goodwitch raised one eyebrow. "I see," she said in a tone that was devoid of any and all expression. Her green-eyed gaze turned upon Amber next, and her expression and her tone alike both softened as she regarded the Fall Maiden. "And how are you feeling, Amber? I wouldn't expect to see you here either."

"I'm fine," Amber murmured, which was a lie but perhaps she was trying not to worry Professor Goodwitch. Or more likely she just didn't trust her not to pass anything she said to Professor Ozpin. "I'm here because…because it's safer."

Sunset glanced at Kali Belladonna, to see if she found that answer at all unusual. They were walking a bit of a fine line with her around; with Ren and Nora too, but Ren and Nora would probably accept that there were things that they didn't know and leave it at that. But Blake's mother might be more inclined to ask questions about anything she found odd going on around her daughter, and that could lead to all kinds of complications.

 _Listen to me, I'm becoming as secretive as Ozpin himself._

Fortunately, Kali either didn't notice or was just very good at hiding the fact that she had noticed what Amber said; or perhaps she simply didn't find it at all unusual that Amber believed herself to be in need of protection.

Or she just didn't care at all. Whatever was actually going on, she didn't say anything or look like she was suspicious, so Sunset supposed that she would have to trust that they were good for now.

Professor Goodwitch nodded. "Very well," she said. "Work hard, but try not to make too much of a mess in there. Someone will have to repair any damage to the stage before the Haven tournament begins."

Yang chuckled. "We'll try not to make your job too hard, Professor."

"But no promises!" Nora added cheerfully.

Professor Goodwitch sighed as she pushed her spectacles back up her nose. She tapped her scroll a couple of times. "There you go. I'll leave you to it until your time is up."

"Thank you, Professor," Pyrrha said, with a courteous bow of her head.

The doors to the amphitheatre, unlocked by Professor Goodwitch, were open to them, and so as the combat instructor walked away, her high heels clicking on the stone of the courtyard pathway, the three teams plus their guests pushed said doors open and went inside.

The amphitheatre was dark, pitch black as they went inside but even when Blake found the lights and switched them on the place remained grey and gloomy, with what light there was finding little purchase against the black of the walls and the floor; it was like being in a theatre, with most of the lights focussed on the elevated stage where the combatants would strut their prowess; the audience meanwhile were deliberately kept in darkness so that all attention was, like the lights, upon the stage and its performance focussed.

"Amber," Sunset said, as she spotted Amber about to take a seat on one of the backless pews nearest the back of the stage. Sunset gestured to one much closer to the stage, where more people could keep an eye on her – that was an unstated reason why RSPT was here, to augment Amber's protection. "There's a seat here."

Amber looked reluctant, but she silently made her way to the front and to the pew that Sunset indicated. She sat down, and Jaune and Pyrrha sat down beside her, something else which Amber accepted with an air of resignation rather than enthusiasm.

"Okay then!" Yang declared. "How do we want to start this thing off? How about some one on one action?"

"Let's save the one on one," Sunset said. "How about we start off with some paired doubles?"

"Call it!" Nora squawked loudly. If Ren felt as though she could or should have asked him first he kept it to himself.

Yang grinned. "Okay, Nora and Ren, you're up. Who wants to take them on, huh?"

Nora was looking at Pyrrha and practically salivating at the prospect, but Sunset said, "Me and Ruby will take you on, isn't that right, Ruby?"

"Yeah!"

"Okay," Nora said, sounding enthusiastic and disappointed in equal measure. "But you'd better believe I'm going to get a rematch, Pyrrha."

Pyrrha smiled. "The day is still young, and so is our time here."

"Oh yeah," Nora said as she leapt up onto the stage. "And in the meantime you two had better get ready cause you're going down."

"I'm trembling," Sunset said dryly, as she and Ruby got up on the other side of the stage. The space was not immense, which alone would put Ruby at a disadvantage by depriving her of the space she really needed in order to move and perform effectively. But that was a good thing, as it would give them a chance to try out a different way of fighting. She turned to Ruby, "We're going to do this tower shield style, okay?"

"Do you think it will work?"

"It should, and if it doesn't it's just a spar, we haven't lost anything."

"Except our pride."

Sunset grinned. "I've been a terrible influence on you, clearly."

"I will monitor the match," Ciel said, volunteering herself. She got out her scroll and tapped a few icons. "If you wouldn't mind linking me to your scrolls."

They all did so, and the aura levels of the four combatants appeared on the screen behind the stage for the audience to see.

"Are all fighters ready?" Ciel asked.

Sunset rolled up the sleeves of her jacket just a little, as behind her Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose with a series of cracks and clicks.

"Ready," Sunset said.

"Ready," Ruby said.

"We're ready," Nora said, hefting Magnhild over her head.

Ren simply nodded as his Stormflowers dropped down from his sleeves and into his hands.

"Begin!" Ciel said.

* * *

Rainbow watched from the second row as the two pairs went at it. Sunset and Ruby were trying something new, which was interesting.

Kind of new, anyway. Ruby was hanging back, ignoring the scythe part of her weapon in favour of the sniper rifle part as she took shots at Ren and Nora from the back of the ring.

They had to have planned this out in advance, the two of them, because Sunset was devoting herself entirely to running interference for Ruby and getting in the way of the two from Team YRBN if they tried to close the distance with her. That meant that she wasn't really using either of her weapons at all, mostly using shields to keep Nora away and the occasional energy burst at Ren whenever he tried to sneak past her.

And all the while Ruby kept on shooting at the both whenever Sunset got out of the way, which she did whenever Ruby whistled for her to drop or dodge so Ruby would have an opening for her latest shot.

Considering that Nora's aura was now in the yellow and that of Ren wasn't that far away while they hadn't really put a scratch on either Sunset or Ruby so far, Rainbow didn't think it was any brilliance on her part to predict that Ruby and Sunset were going to win this fight.

"Come on, Nora!" Yang yelled from the sidelines. "Kick some butt for Team Iron already!"

"Sis!" Ruby cried in a tone of outraged betrayal.

"You clearly don't need the moral support, Rubes," Yang said.

"Go Ruby!" Penny cried.

"Thanks, Penny!"

The problem the Iron duo had, as far as Rainbow could see as she watched the two of them surge forward to attack time and time again, before being forced to retreat time and time again having accomplished very little, was that there wasn't the space for them to do much but attack head on – which wouldn't have been such a problem for Nora, but definitely was for Ren, who was only being saved by his agility at this point – and once they did so they couldn't keep the pressure on long enough to successfully get past Sunset's defences. Yes, in a straight fight Nora would absolutely flatten Sunset, but all Sunset had to do was absorb her first blow before Ruby would take a shot and Nora would be knocked back again, at which point Sunset simply strengthened her shields so that Nora had to start from the beginning all over again.

It was to Nora's credit that she didn't look like she was getting infuriated by this. In fact she looked to be relishing the challenge.

Rainbow doubted that she could have stayed so calm. She would probably would have been spitting blood by now.

Or was that just the song talking?

Since she found out that that girl on campus, that girl that Sunset called a siren, had been messing with her head, Rainbow had found that doubt had joined the low-key anger that she'd been feeling for a while. Had that girl…had she been the one in Vale as well? Or her sisters? Was she the reason that everyone hated Atlas, or seemed to? Was she the reason that Rainbow Dash felt the way she did? Was she the reason her hackles rose a little just looking at Sunset? Was she the reason that Rainbow was seriously considering ratting Sunset out?

Or was Sunset just lying about the sirens and their magic and Rainbow Dash had every right to feel the way she did.

But she wasn't sure any more, and not knowing if her feelings were her own was worse than feeling them in the first place, in part because she was still feeling them whether she ought to be or not!

She was really starting to hate magic. It made everything so much more complicated.

 _And not just for me,_ Rainbow thought, as she glanced over at Amber. They hadn't spoken…at all; she didn't say very much, she was kinda like Fluttershy when she was around new people, or the Twilight that Rainbow had first met who didn't have a friend in the world except her equally geeky lab partner.

Poor kid. Rainbow felt sorry for her, after everything that she'd been through, stuck with powers that put a target on her back for every bad guy around and that she could never get rid of. She hadn't asked to be involved in this fight, and even if she was in it now up to her neck that didn't mean that she ought to be.

Rainbow Dash was a soldier, a warrior, a fighter for Atlas; but that life wasn't for everybody and there was no shame in that. Rarity was so generous that sometimes it seemed like she'd give herself away if she could; Fluttershy was the kindest person that Rainbow knew, and Pinkie had the biggest heart in all of Remnant, but none of them were soldiers. It wasn't even that they weren't brave, it was just that they didn't have that kind of courage, that instinct, that…Rainbow wasn't sure what the name for it was, or if it had a name (although if it did Ciel would know it, and if she didn't know then Specialist Schnee certainly would) but it was something that made a good soldier, something that she had and Ciel had but which Rarity and Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie didn't have which was why it was a good thing that Rainbow was the one with the gun and Rarity was apprenticing with a dressmaker while Fluttershy helped out at the animal shelter and Pinkie made the best cupcakes in town.

On the day that General Ironwood had given her the letter of recommendation to Canterlot Combat School, Rainbow had promised him that he would never regret starting her down this path (although maybe he would regret it if he knew the truth about what happened on that train) but if she found out that he had gone to Rarity, or Fluttershy or Pinkie Pie and given them powers they didn't want and hadn't asked for that made them a part of a war that they had no business getting involved in…she wasn't sure that her loyalty to Atlas or to him would survive that.

It was the same with Amber, and although Rainbow didn't know her, she couldn't help but feel some sympathy for the poor girl. When she'd offered – and she had offered with too much force, she could admit that – to have her stay with RSPT and the Atlesian forces that hadn't just been the power grab that everybody thought it was. It hadn't even been wholly about not trusting Sunset. But Rainbow knew how to handle people like Amber; she had friends like Amber, friends that she really liked. Where was Sunset's Fluttershy, Sunset's Pinkie? Sunset only knew how to relate to warriors, how was she going to make Amber feel comfortable. Looking at her now it was clear that Amber wasn't comfortable.

Rainbow might have gone over to her, but Blake's mom chose that moment to sit down beside Rainbow Dash as the fight between Ruby and Sunset on one hand and Ren and Nora on the other continued.

"I hope you don't mind," Kali said. "But I was hoping that we might have a word or two."

"Of course, ma'am," Rainbow said formally.

Kali watched the fight for a moment. "So tell me, Rainbow Dash, what's a faunus doing wearing an Atlesian uniform?"

Rainbow's jaw worked silently. "Ma'am…listen, I get it. My best friend from when I was a kid is with the White Fang now, so I get that you think that Atlas is out to get you-"

"I'm not with the White Fang any more," Kali said. "And I was never with that White Fang."

 _Unlike Blake,_ Rainbow thought. "But you're the one who asked what a faunus was doing wearing the uniform. You didn't ask me, you asked a faunus. Like it was weird or something. But I could show you a half-dozen faunus wearing this uniform and we've all got our reasons and it's not because we're traitors to our kind or anything like that."

"I never said you were," Kali said softly. She bowed her head. "But you're right, I did imply it somewhat. Forgive me. It's just that, considering Atlas' reputation, I'm a little surprised, and curious."

"Like I said, everybody has their reasons," Rainbow said, as she turned her attention back to the fight.

"What are yours?"

Rainbow looked at Kali again.

"You got my daughter out of prison," Kali said. "You got her into this. I'd like to know why you do what you do. I'd like to know how a girl from Low Town ended up being friends with and team leader over the daughter of a former Atlesian councilwoman and retired colonel."

Rainbow's eyebrows rose. "You read up on me? You read up on Twilight?"

Kali chuckled. "Of course not. I met Twilight's mother once or twice; she was one of the more sympathetic Atlesian politicians I ever encountered. I did confirm that Twilight was her daughter, but only after I spotted the resemblance. You two seem close."

Rainbow nodded. "She's got a fifth of my heart."

"That's a specific amount."

"I've got five friends who I love that much," Rainbow said. She squirmed in silence for a little while, watching the fight without really taking any of it. "Look, ma'am-"

"Kali," Kali said. "Please. You're old enough to carry a gun and die for Atlas I'm sure you're old enough to call me by my name."

Rainbow inhaled through her nostrils. "Kali, right. I'm not a moron. I know why you think about Atlas the way you do. I first met Twi…I was up in Atlas looking for a job, it was late a night, I saw Twilight walking home…I saw some guy following her. He looked like he was up to no good so I jumped him, I got him on the ground…and then the police arrested me because I've got a tail and he didn't."

Kali nodded sadly. "A story that is all too familiar, but never gets any less sad because of it."

"Twi and her family got me out," Rainbow said. "They didn't need to have anything to do with me. They didn't need to use their pull to help me out. Twilight never needed to speak to me again. But they did, and she did. They even let me stay in their guest room for a few weeks. They even introduced me to General Ironwood, and he…I don't know if you know, but getting into a Combat School in Atlas is harder than getting into the system anywhere else. In Vale all you need is aptitude, but in Atlas you need the grades…grades I didn't have. But you don't _need_ them if you can get a personal recommendation from a senior officer recommending you."

"And General Ironwood gave that to you," Kali said. She sounded surprised. Rainbow had been pretty surprised herself when he'd actually agreed to do that for her.

"I'm still not sure why," Rainbow admitted. "But…I fight for my friends. I fight because it's a scary world and they need somebody to keep them safe. But I also do what I do because I want to prove to the general and to Atlas that they didn't make a mistake when they took a chance on me. It's not perfect but it's home, and I'm going to make it proud. As for Blake…I guess I know what it's like when all you need is for someone to give you a shot, but it looks like no one ever will. Your daughter's a hero. You ought to be proud."

"Oh, believe me, I am," Kali said. "I'm so incredibly worried that you wouldn't believe, but I'm also more proud than I could possibly put into words."

* * *

Sunset was feeling pretty confident. For an idea that she and Ruby had had but never tried to put into practice before everything was working out pretty well. Ruby's shots were really starting to take their toll on Ren and Nora, and there didn't seem to be anything that they could about it; their assaults had consistently failed to break through Sunset's defences in the time they had before Ruby shot them, and as nimble as Ren was he wasn't quite fast enough to get past Sunset when she was watching for him and determined to keep him at bay.

At times it was hard making sure that neither of them got passed her, but she was managing it, and although she was tired she knew that she only had to keep this up for a little while longer before Ruby nailed them both.

True, this exact tactic would only work under these specific conditions, but as a proof of concept for the idea that Ruby didn't always have to be out in front, that she could provide fire support while Sunset or the rest of the team formed the front line, it was working out pretty well.

Until Nora fired a grenade that spread pink smoke across the whole of the ring, blinding Sunset completely. She threw up a shield in front of her with both hands, searching through her repertoire of spells for something that would – heat vision!

Heat vision wasn't a spell she used often, partly because it gave her a splitting headache as soon as she even started using it, but she could see the figure of Ren charging towards her. She couldn't see Nora but Ren was her more immediate concern as he ran through the smoke, Stormflowers levelled and blazing as his bullets slammed into her shield torrential rain, impacting the green barrier like a thousand falling nails, the impacts flowing through the magic to make Sunset shudder.

Ren charged, still firing, until just when it seemed as though he was going to run flat into Sunset's shield itself he dropped and Nora had been hiding behind him!

Sunset prepared a magical burst, too late as Ren grabbed Nora's outstretched arm and threw her over his back as he dropped and rolled to the ground. Nora sailed through the air, burst through the slowly dispersing smoke and with a loud war cry and a single mighty swing of Magnhild shattered Sunset's shield like glass.

She landed on the ground, her hammer shattering the floor of the ring beneath her. Nora looked up at Sunset with a smirk on her face.

Sunset stepped back, one hand reaching for her sword the other about to cast a spell.

Nora grabbed Sunset's arm by the wrist. The wrist that was protected by a vambrace infused with lightning dust.

Lightning dust which Nora activated with her aura.

Sunset's eyes widened in horror as she watched the lightning ripple up and down Nora's body, while the smirk on Nora's face only got broader.

 _I'm dead, aren't I?_

 _Absolutely, but I don't have to be the only one._

"Good luck, Ruby," Sunset said, and she grabbed Nora's arm before Nora could grab her hammer.

Then she teleported straight out of the ring, taking Nora with her.

"Sunset Shimmer and Nora Valkyrie are both eliminated by leaving the ring," Ciel declared, as red crosses struck through both their pictures on the board.

"What?" Nora yelled. "That's just…can she do that?"

"Her actions were completely within the rules of a tournament style duel," Ciel said. "And within the bounds of precedent."

"Since you were going to take me out regardless," Sunset said. "I figured I'd make sure that Ruby didn't have to face you and Ren at the same time." Completely impractical in a real battle, obviously…but this wasn't a real battle, was it?

"Aww, man," Nora said. "Now what am I supposed to do with all of this energy?"

"Save it for the next fight," Yang said.

Nora brightened visibly. "Oh, yeah. Watch out, Pyrrha!"

Pyrrha glanced at Sunset, who could only offer an apologetic shrug in reply before she turned to watch the Ruby versus Ren fight.

One of the reasons that Sunset had decided that now would be a good time to try a defensive strategy for Ruby was that a space the size of the combat training ring did somebody with Ruby's fighting style no favours at all. That was the reason why one of the best huntresses of her generation was hovering about the middle of the rankings in Professor Goodwitch's sparring class: this space didn't give her either enough room to manoeuvre or to keep her distance, and as ridiculously big as Crescent Rose was it was easy for opponents to get pin her against the edge of the ring, get inside her guard, and cut through her aura.

That was what Ren was trying to do, although Ruby wasn't making easy for him. The fight resembled a game of tag more than a battle: Ruby was running around the perimeter of the ring, Crescent Rose in carbine mode held in one hand, shooting at Ren while Ren tried to either catch her or get in front of her, all the while shooting back at her with his Stormflowers. The two of them darted back and forth, their eyes fixed on one another as the bullets flew, both of them dodging and diving and rolling as Crescent Rose barked and the Stormflowers spat. Ruby's aura dropped into the yellow even as Ren's aura completed its journey there. Ruby was faster, but with nowhere to go that didn't mean quite as much as it would have done in the real world, while Ren was a little more agile on his feet, and step by step he limited Ruby's options.

But Ruby wasn't making it easy for him and one or two more good shots would be the end of the match in her favour.

It was an engrossing fight, as the cheers rang out for both the combatants, and that engrossing nature of the duel was Sunset's excuse for why she didn't notice how badly Amber was taking it all until she leapt out of her seat and started to run for the exit.

"Amber, wait!" Sunset cried, but Amber didn't listen. More to the point she didn't stop either.

Sunset started to run after her, and Pyrrha leapt up from her seat and wasn't far behind, but Amber turned out to be pretty fast and she had a head start on them. She reached the door before either of them could catch her and burst out into the courtyard, running headlong, arms flying, head bowed so that she didn't see Dove until she had crashed into him and knocked him to the ground.

* * *

Amber had to get out of there. She had to get out. She couldn't stay there for another minute watching them fight, watching them play at trying to kill each other with guns and hammers and powers. Watching them, with the stupid cheering ringing in her ears as though this was all great fun, it reminded her of…of…she could see her face, Cinder's face; she could hear the gunshots, she could feel the arrow in her back, she could remember the terror that she'd felt, the anger, everything.

She couldn't breathe. She was suffocating in here, in the dark. The shouting, the shooting, it was all too much, far too much. She couldn't breathe. Her chest was heaving up and down but she felt as if she was drowning. She had to get out of here. She needed air.

So she ran. She leapt up from her seat and ran for the door, heedless of Sunset calling for her, heedless of everything as she burst out of that awful room and kept on running, running with her head down, running with her breath coming fast and shallow, running with tears of terror streaming down her face, running until she hit someone and went down on top of them in a tangle of arms and legs.

"What the – hey, watch where you're going?"

Amber gasped. "I'm sorry, I-" she looked up, and gasped a second time as she looked into the face of a boy who took her breath away.

His hair was blonde, not so golden as Jaune's but blonde all the same, and ruffled too, just the way she dreamed of. His shoulders were broad, and his jaw was strong; and his eyes were blue, as blue as the sky.

"I've met you before," she said in a breathy whisper, and as she placed her hand upon his chest she stretched out her semblance because he was the one, he had to be the one, if even he turned away from her then she didn't know what she'd do.

She could see his heart. He had no one. No one that he truly cared for, or who truly cared for him in turn; he walked alone, with no one to stand beside him and nobody to stand for and precious little reason to walk at all. She could fix all of that. She would fix all of that, just like she had given Ozpin someone to care for, she would do the same for him and in return…in return he would give her something – someone – to live for.

She knew him. She'd met him before, once upon a dream, and now she saw his heart, his heart that that had room for her where the hearts of Jaune and Ren and all of SAPR did not.

 _And if I know you, I know what you'll do. I know what you'll say. I know that you'll help me._

She felt his arm close slowly, gently but firmly around her waist.

"Yes," he said. "Yes, you have."

Amber laid her head on his chest and closed her eyes. Everything was going to be alright now. Her life would never be what it had been before, there was no returning to that childhood idyll. It was gone, and dead just like her mother. But perhaps she could build something new. Perhaps she didn't have to be bound to Ozpin forever because of her curse.

Perhaps she could be free, and everything would be alright.

He got up, and helped her to her feet with his free hand even as he kept his other hand upon her waist. She felt so comfortable with it there, he held her at once so gently that she could have pulled away at any time she wished and yet at the same time so firmly that she felt as though he would never let her go, never let any harm befall her, never hurt her, never abandon her, never look at anyone the way that he was looking at her in this moment.

She didn't even know his name and yet at the same time she felt completed by him.

And when he raised her hand to his lips she felt as though she were about to fly.

"Amber!" the voice of Sunset Shimmer intruded upon her dream, forcing her to wake up, at least to some extent. But while she might have disturbed her, she wouldn't take her away from this. Neither would Pyrrha who followed hard on Sunset's heels, or Rainbow Dash either for that matter. She had found someone she could trust, and none of them would take that away from her.

So she clung tightly to her saviour, wrapping her arms around him and slipping behind him to place his broad shoulders and his armour between her and the others.

"Amber," Sunset repeated, slowing down from a run but still approaching her quickly down the path with long strides.

"That's close enough," her man declared firmly.

Sunset came to a stop, with Pyrrha and Rainbow halting as well just a little behind her. Sunset put her hands upon her hips. "That's close enough? Come on, Dove, what is this?"

Dove. That must be his name. It was a very nice name, Amber thought.

"What I said," Dove informed them. "Don't come any closer to her?"

"Do you think that we're going to attack her or something?" Sunset demanded. "She doesn't need your protection from us."

Amber tightened her grip around Dove, and pressed herself even closer to him.

"She seems to disagree," Dove said.

Sunset scowled. "Amber, what are you doing?"

Amber looked away from her. "I don't want to go back. I won't."

Sunset's face fell. "I…I'm sorry about the sparring. I should have realised…it was wrong of me to take you there. I'm sorry. We can go back to the dorm room-"

"No!" Amber cried. "I don't want to go back there, I don't want to go with you. I want to stay with Dove."

"That's…that's not possible," Pyrrha murmured.

"Why not?" Amber cried. "Why can't I do what I want with my own life?"

Sunset licked her lips. "This…this isn't the time or the place to have this conversation."

"It sounds to me like this conversation is over," Dove said.

"Listen, dude…whoever you are," Rainbow said. "Back off, okay, this doesn't concern you."

"What if I make it concern me?" Dove said. "Do you think that I'm just going to abandon this girl when she's obviously terrified of you?"

"She isn't terrified," Sunset said. "You're not terrified, are you?"

"I don't want to go with you," Amber repeated.

"Dove," Pyrrha said gently. "We are not your enemies, or Amber's."

"Then what are you?"

"We can't say."

"Why not?

"Is everything okay?" asked another girl, one who hurried down the path to stand by Dove's side. Her hair was a brilliant cyan streaked with white and her eyes had the glow of the sun within them; her cloak of pink and red and blue concealed her body, while she wore a broad-brimmed white hat upon her head with white feathers in the mint green brim. "Dove? Rainbow Dash?"

"Lyra," Rainbow said with evident relief. "Tell this guy we aren't dangerous so he can back off already."

"Dove?" the girl – Lyra – said. "Why do you think that they're dangerous? And who's this?"

Amber locked eyes with her, seeing not only the other girl's face but with her semblance seeing too her heart. It was not empty the way that Dove's was, but it was not full either, there was room for her, room for the light and hope that she could grant to a life that had no purpose and sought for one in vain.

"My name is Amber," she said. "Please help me."

Lyra's eyes narrowed, and she looked at Rainbow. "I don't know, Rainbow, that sounds…pretty damning."

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Okay, Sunset, what have you been doing that Amber hates you so much?"

"I haven't done anything!" Sunset exclaimed. "Amber, why are you acting like this?"

"I'm sorry," Amber whispered. "But this is my life, not yours; no matter what I am you can't just put me in a cage and tell me that it's for my own good! I don't want to go to your room, I don't want to go on some warship and I don't want to go anywhere with any of you!"

Pyrrha took a step forward. "Amber, I know that you feel trapped by everything that's happened to you recently, and Dove I'm sure that you think you're doing the right thing. But if you'll both come with us to see Professor Ozpin you'll both see that there are reasons why things have to be the way they are. Please, come with us."

Dove glanced at her. Amber, after a moment's hesitation, nodded her head. It was clear that they weren't just going to accept her judgement on what was best for her, but as they were Ozpin's servants they would accept his judgement.

And if she made him think that it was possible that she might be able to forgive him, then perhaps he would give her something that she wanted so desperately in return.

* * *

Professor Ozpin rested his chin upon his hands and his elbows upon the green translucent surface of his desk as his gaze flickered between Sunset and Pyrrha upon the right hand side of his office, Dove, Amber and Lyra in the centre standing directly in front of him, and Rainbow Dash upon the left.

Sunset was a little surprised that Professor Goodwitch wasn't here, but they had come up here uninvited. There hadn't been a lot of time to get her here.

Or perhaps Professor Ozpin didn't want Amber to feel intimidated by her presence, or simply wished to deal with her himself.

"Mister Bronzewing, Miss Heartstrings, I regret that you have both become involved in this, even in so minor a fashion," he said.

"You might regret it, Professor, but I don't," Dove said. Amber was no longer wrapped around his body at the moment, but she was still standing intimately close to him, and her hand was wrapped in his.

"I fear that that is only because you do not understand, Mister Bronzewing," Professor Ozpin said.

"Everyone keeps saying that we don't understand but nobody wants to explain it to us," Lyra muttered.

"It's not that simple, Lyra," Rainbow said.

"Yes, it is," Amber said. "This isn't about anything but me, and what I want and what happens to me. Isn't that simple enough?"

"If only that were true," Pyrrha murmured.

"Amber…Amber is not just my niece," Professor Ozpin said. "Amber is – you are – crucial to Vale, maybe even to the world of Remnant itself. And you are in grave danger, you know this."

"Then I'll protect her," Dove said.

"We'll protect her," Lyra clarified.

"You say that because you don't know what's at stake or the extent of the danger," Pyrrha said.

"Are you saying that it's too much for us because we're not as great as you?" Dove demanded.

"Yes," Sunset said flatly. Perhaps she could have put it more diplomatically, but she wasn't really in the mood for diplomacy at the moment after the way that Dove had behaved. Dove himself wasn't a bad huntsman, in fact he was probably the strongest huntsman in their year, but the fact was that the girls in their year were leaving the boys in the dust and being the strongest boy still didn't put him on the same level as Pyrrha or Yang or Weiss or Sunset herself. And as for the rest of his team…if Sunset didn't think much of Team BLBL it was because there wasn't much to think of them: neither Lyra nor Sky was a match for Jaune and Bon Bon was decidedly average. The idea of the four of them standing up to Cinder, when Sunset had doubts that the combined strength of SAPR would be enough to overcome her in defence of Amber, was ludicrous. They weren't up to this task and it was only their own ignorance that was preventing them from realising that fact.

"Don't underestimate my team," Dove growled. "We might not be as famous as some of your team, and we might not get the same special treatment-"

"Special treatment?" Sunset snapped. "Our special treatment is work. How about you and your team slog from Mountain Glenn to the Forever Fall forest and then you can talk to me about my special treatment."

"If we were given a chance then we'd show that we can do everything that you do and without making such a fuss about it."

Sunset shook her head dismissively, that was such an absurd statement that she wasn't even going to bother dignifying it with a response. Instead, she said, "Okay, answer me this: why do you care so much?"

Dove sniffed. "Because she's a person in need of help. Isn't that what huntsmen are supposed to do? Help and protect those in need?"

"A good huntsman also gets that there are times when you can't do it on your own," Rainbow said. "Some things are too tough even for the most awesome of us."

"This isn't about fighting or even about protection," Amber said.

"Yes, it is," Sunset said.

"No, it isn't," Amber said. She broke free of Dove's grip and rushed to Professor Ozpin's desk, getting down on her knees as she flung her arms down upon the table surface, reaching out for Professor Ozpin's hands. "Uncle Ozpin, you don't need to worry about me. It's not like I won't be right here, in the school, where you can protect me and Team Sapphire and Team Rosepetal won't be able to get to me if I'm in trouble. Everyone who's here now will still be here if I'm sleeping and spending my time in a different room with different people than I do right now. I'll still be in the school, I'm not going to leave the school. I'll still be safe. I'll just be happier and more comfortable than I am now. That's not wrong, is it? How can it be wrong?" She clasped his hands in hers. "If you care about me, or if you ever did, then you won't deny me this."

Professor Ozpin looked down at her, his expression softening visibly before their eyes. "You called me 'uncle'."

Amber nodded. "Yes, I'm sorry that I was so angry with you before, but…I know that you're just trying to keep me safe. But I'll be as safe with Dove as I was with Sunset and the others."

Ozpin blinked. "You were not happy with Team Sapphire?"

Amber shook her head. "They…they're good people, and brave," she said. "But they're not my kind of people."

"And Dove is?" Sunset said. "And Lyra is? And you know this after meeting them for five seconds?"

"Five seconds is enough," Amber said, without looking away from Ozpin. "To see somebody's true self if you know how to look. Isn't that right, Pyrrha?"

"I…I suppose…it's possible," Pyrrha said.

Sunset looked at her with a 'who's side are you on' expression that was on the milder side of betrayal.

Pyrrha looked apologetic, but said nothing.

"Please," Amber said to Ozpin. She smiled. "Of all the gifts that you've ever given me, there's none that I've ever wanted more than this."

Professor Ozpin stared at her for a moment. "Amber…you make a very good point. Provided that you remain on the grounds-"

"Oh, I will, I promise."

"And if you alert either myself or Sunset any time that you feel in danger-"

"I'll do that too."

"Then I don't see that there is any reason why you cannot room with Team Bluebell," Professor Ozpin said. "As you say, it is only a different room."

Amber sighed with relief. "Thank you," she said. "Thank you, Uncle Ozpin." She got to her feet. "May I…may I go now?"

Professor Ozpin nodded. "You may."

Amber was smiling as she turned to Dove and Lyra, who were both smiling too as though they were old friends. It was a little weird, honestly, in spite of what Pyrrha might say; equally weird was watching the skip happily to the elevator together. What was with those two? Had they always acted like that?

A glance at Rainbow Dash, who knew Lyra at least, suggested that she was equally confused.

"Mister Bronzewing," Professor Ozpin said, as the three of them got into the elevator car.

"Yes, Professor?"

"She's sixteen years old and I know some very frightening people."

"Yes, Professor," Dove said earnestly as the doors closed.

"Professor," Sunset said. "What did you just do?"

"I…I made her happy," Professor Ozpin said. "So long as she is in the school then she can be protected, and so long as she can be protected…does it really matter who her room-mates are?"

* * *

"You have screwed this up!" Rainbow snapped as she stalked up and down the SAPR dorm room, pacing in front of the beds.

"I don't think casting blame is very helpful," Twilight said softly.

"This isn't anybody's fault," Pyrrha added.

"You must have done something wrong," Rainbow said, continuing to direct her ire at Sunset. "For her to be so desperate to get away from you."

"Does this really matter?" Penny asked. "I mean, isn't what she argued to Professor Ozpin true? So long as she's in the school, then isn't her room…it seems like arguing about where your quarters are on a cruiser."

Pyrrha smiled. "This school isn't quite as well armed or armoured as one of your Atlesian warships, but other than that you're right. Amber doesn't have to sleep in the same room as us for us to protect her from any real danger. Although…the ease with which this Siren was able to enter the grounds does suggest that security is not as tight as could be the case."

"However, the real danger is not the physical threat to Amber but the other security concern," Ciel said.

Penny looked at her. "The other security concern?"

"We are discussing matters that are supposed to be secret," Ciel reminded her. "The existence and importance of the Fall Maiden, her powers, why she is being hunted and by what enemy, this is all confidential information to which Team Bluebell are not privy. It is…disappointing that Professor Ozpin chose to yield to Amber's wishes so easily."

"He wanted her to be happy," Pyrrha said. "I can't help but feel as though she deserves it after what she's been through."

"Your compassion is admirable," Ciel said. "But can you guarantee that she will keep all secrets from her new room mates? Can you guarantee that they will keep all secrets from others?"

"What would happen if they didn't?" Penny asked, her tone becoming a little more anxious than it had been.

"If knowledge of his involvement became public General Ironwood would be stripped of his rank and imprisoned, at best," Ciel said. "We would be unlikely to escape charges either."

"Cadance-" Twilight began.

"Might be able to protect you," Ciel said. "Or she might find her career destroyed by association with you."

"That…that sounds terrible," Penny murmured.

"Don't worry, Penny, it won't actually come to that," Pyrrha said.

Ciel's eyebrow rose. "You sound very sure."

"You didn't see the way that Dove and Lyra looked at Amber," Pyrrha said. "Letting everything come out would cause trouble for her too. If the world knew what she was, then…"

"She'd be locked away in a box somewhere by the council to stop her powers falling into the wrong hands," Sunset said.

"Or given over to scientists for study," Twilight suggested gloomily.

"They won't want that to happen and Amber won't want that to happen to her," Pyrrha said. "She wants to be free, not to change one cage for another."

"You put a great deal of faith in their desire not to cause her harm," Ciel said. "They could benefit from betraying her."

"They could," Pyrrha allowed. "But they won't."

Ciel's eyes narrowed. "You're very certain."

"I saw how they looked at her," Pyrrha repeated.

Sunset looked at Pyrrha. "Do you really think that they…love each other, for want of a better word? When Amber asked that ridiculous question in Ozpin's office you agreed with her, what was that about?"

Pyrrha looked a little embarrassed, a blush of red rising to her cheeks, but her voice remained steady as she said, "Amber asked me a question and I answered it."

"They only just met," Sunset reminded her.

"And?" Pyrrha replied. "Sometimes…sometimes love can happen so quickly." The red of her cheeks became more intense, and far more noticeable. "The moment I saw Jaune I…I felt something."

"Jaune didn't," Sunset said.

"Come on, Sunset, really?" Jaune asked in a pained voice.

"What? It's true."

"Yeah, I know it's true but that doesn't mean I want to be reminded of how much of an idiot I was chasing after Weiss," Jaune said, going a little red himself. He blinked, and glanced down at Pyrrha. "You knew from the moment we met?"

Pyrrha nodded slightly.

"But I was terrible back then!"

Pyrrha was now as red as Ruby's cape, but somehow she managed to force out the words. "Yes, well, I always, um, I always knew that you could be something more."

"The point is," Ruby said, coming to the rescue of both Pyrrha and Jaune. "The point is, um, the point is that if Amber wants to stay with them instead of with us then is it really such a big deal? What were we going to do to keep her here, lock her up?"

Rainbow folded her arms. "That's a good point, Ruby, but not actually the point that we were talking about."

"I know, I just couldn't think of anything to say about love," Ruby said.

"Some people really are just meant to be," Twilight said. "Sometimes two hearts really are just meant to become one. Look at Shining Armour and Cadance."

"Who?" Ruby asked.

"Twilight's brother and his wife," Rainbow said. "And sure, Twi, they're perfect together. I'll even go along with the idea that it was destiny for them to be together. But even Shining Armour and Cadance didn't meet and then bam get married the next day. They'd known each other since you were a kid."

"Do they have to be in love to care about her?" Penny asked.

Rainbow paused. "Good point, Penny, we were getting off track. Thanks."

"You're welcome."

"Even if Amber's safety isn't in danger do we trust Bluebell?" Rainbow said. "That's the issue. That and whatever it is you did to make her hate you."

"I didn't do anything!" Sunset said. "Well…except…"

Rainbow glared at her. "What?"

"I did suggest that she still cared about Professor Ozpin and that she should think about mending fences with him," Sunset said. "And…I might have…implied to her…that if she didn't start being nicer to Pyrrha then Pyrrha would lose patience and…become hostile."

"What?" Rainbow snapped.

"Sunset, I would never-" Pyrrha began.

"I know you wouldn't, I was trying to incentivise her to be nice," Sunset said. "I was trying to help."

"You've been a big help," Rainbow huffed. She muttered something about how she would have handled this much better if she'd been given the chance. She turned away.

"Amber was never happy here," Ruby said. "And maybe she was never going to be. She didn't trust us because of Professor Ozpin, and she didn't like us because we're just too different to her. She couldn't get us, and why we were huntsmen. This isn't about what Sunset said. Amber…she was never going to like it here with us. It's probably better this way."

"Better for her," Ciel said. "But to return once again: can Bluebell be trusted?"

"They came to rescue us from the White Fang," Pyrrha pointed out.

"I didn't know Lyra and Bon Bon very well at Canterlot," Twilight said. "But they seemed like good people."

"And they did all volunteer to be huntsmen," Ruby said. "That has to mean something, right?"

"I hope so," Rainbow said.

"What can we do in the circumstances but hope?" Ciel said.

Sunset got off her bed. "I need to drop Amber's stuff off. I'll see…how things stand."

"Don't you think you've-"

"Rainbow Dash," Twilight said, interrupting her. "That's enough."

Rainbow looked down at the floor for a moment. "Yeah, it is. Sorry. I...sorry."

"It doesn't matter," Sunset said. She was okay with Rainbow hassling her for having mishandled Amber, because she was starting to think that she had mishandled Amber herself. Was there something she could have done or said to make this turn out differently? Could she have gotten through to her somehow, gotten Amber to trust her?

Or had it been foredoomed from the start?

* * *

How many stories are there which begin when an ordinary man, or a boy who has not yet become a man, suddenly encounters a beautiful girl in need of protection from her enemies?

An ordinary man, not extraordinarily talented or at least not deemed to be so, little thought of by the wider world which fawns instead on other people and admires other virtues than the ones which he possesses, giving more thought to outer shows of strength than any inner qualities of character. A lonely man, one might say lost, one might say listless, a man looking to find his way, a man looking for some sign – from fate, from God, from the heavens above – to point the way for his life's direction.

A man like Dove Bronzewing.

His life had felt dogged by this listless feeling, this sense of lacking purpose, this sense of drift, this knowledge that he had no direction in his life nor could he find a direction that he wished to settle on. He had done nothing. He looked set to do nothing. He had gone to Beacon Academy hoping that the life of a huntsman would give him the sense of purpose and accomplishment that he had been lacking, that he could lose himself as part of something bigger, a participant of a grand enterprise, but once he got here he had found that he felt just as lost here as he had before. He had chafed against Team YRDN without ever really understanding why, save that he felt no commonality with Yang Xiao Long, nor with Ren and Nora for that matter, no kinship with them, no desire to join his life with theirs in common purpose. He certainly hadn't considered them his family. The fortuitous situation with Blake had offered him an escape from that, but aside from the fact that he was now the leader of Team BLBL his situation had not improved in any moral sense. He got on with his subordinates better than he had done with Yang, Ren or Nora, but they had brought no meaning or purpose to his existence.

He felt ill-used and underused. The training missions in which they had taken part had been banal affairs which roused nothing in him. His life as a huntsmen seemed as pointless as it had been before he came here. Who would miss him if he were simply to disappear from the world? What would be the change if he did not exist?

That sense of purposelessness had been heightened by a degree of resentment of Team SAPR, who had all the things that he had sought from Beacon and had not found: a bond that tied them together like family, adventure, excitement, cause and purpose. For a time he had amused himself by passing information on Professor Ozpin's failures as a headmaster, his favouritism towards the non-Valish students, on to the Saviours of Vale, but being a political spy had paled for him as swiftly as everything else and he was left adrift, feeling like an itch between his shoulder blades that he could not scratch that he had something to offer if only he was given a chance.

And now he had been. How many stories started with such a man, such a boy as he encountering a beautiful girl in need of protection, a protection which only that boy unthought of and unremarked upon could provide.

When he had been knocked down by a girl in the midst of headlong flight, when he had looked into her face and beheld the beauty of a nonpareil unmatched in Remnant, whose loveliness could not be marred by the scars which doubtless envious hands had worked upon her, he had known that here, here was what he had been seeking, here was the one who would set out his course henceforward.

Amber. He would protect her now, from the whole world if necessary.

He could not do otherwise. She had bewitched him, body and soul, he had never felt this way about anyone before. As she sat on his bed, with the blanket wrapped around her shoulders like a cloak to keep away the cold of which she complained, he felt an almost ursine desire to keep her safe from harm.

He would fight all of Remnant for her if she asked him to.

Dove was glad that the rest of his team seemed to share his view, even if at the same time it made him feel a little jealous also.

Sky brought over a steaming cup of hot chocolate, topped with whipped cream that was even now melting into the chocolate. "Here," he said, as he pressed the mug into her hands. "Drink this. It's got marshmallows and whoppers in it."

The blanket began to slide from her shoulders as she took the cup, but Dove grabbed it and put it back as he sat down beside her. Amber gave him a grateful smile before she began to drink. "It's very good," she said. "Thank you, Sky."

Sky smiled sheepishly. "It's nothing really. I just hope it helps."

"It's really strange to think of Team Sapphire attacking someone," Bon Bon said, as she leaned against the wall by the door.

Amber shook her head. "They weren't attacking me. They just wanted to force me to go with them."

"That sounds like an attack to me," Bon Bon said.

Amber drank some more of her hot chocolate. "They're not bad people. In fact they're probably quite good people. They're brave, and they tried to be kind. But they're stupid, and I couldn't trust them, and I didn't want to go with them. I didn't want to be kept prisoner, even by good people."

"Prisoner?"

"She doesn't have to talk about it right now," Dove said. "You can tell us what you want, when you want."

Lyra, sitting on her bed with her harp out, sighed. "So dramatic," she remarked. "So…romantic," she grinned at Dove, before strumming the strings on her harp.

Amber's eyes widened. "Is that…Forever Fall?"

Lyra's head tilted a little. "Yeah, you know it."

Amber nodded quickly. "It's such a sad song, but it's so beautiful that it's one of my favourites anyway."

Lyra smiled. "Mine too, I feel like there has to be a story behind it, but I can never find out what it was."

Amber drank some more chocolate. "I know what you mean. It feels like it has to have meant something when it was written, doesn't it? A sad story…but a beautiful one."

Lyra nodded. "I'm surprised. Not a lot of people appreciate the classics any more."

"The classics are all I know," Amber said. "I used to sing that song, and others like it, all the time for my mother and uncle."

"Really?" Lyra said. She strummed on her harp. "Would you like to duet?"

"She's not a parrot, she doesn't have to sing for us," Dove said.

"It's fine," Amber said. With trembling hands, she put down the mug of hot chocolate. "I love to sing, and I'd love to sing with you."

"Okay," Lyra said softly, and she began to strum the first few bars of Forever Fall.

Amber closed her eyes, and at the appropriate moment she began to sing.

"Once, like a dream…"

Her voice was beautiful. It was more than beautiful, it was magical. Lyra, who began singing shortly after, had a fine and lovely voice which she frequently used to entertain the team but Amber was something else. Dove felt as though he were drowning in her voice, enraptured by it, devastated by it as she infused the melancholy words with such ethereal loveliness that the sorrow of the song suffused his soul like dust woven into garments.

Before he knew it he was crying, and he was not alone. By the end of the song Sky was also in tears, and Bon Bon had a look of deep grief upon her face and would not meet the eyes of anyone else in the room.

Lyra, on the other hand, looked awed. "You…you are the Songbird Serenade to my Coloratura."

"Who?"

"You've never heard…you poor, deprived girl," Lyra said. "We have to take you to a concert sometime."

"I'm not supposed to leave the school," Amber murmured.

"What kind of rule is that?" Bon Bon asked. "This is a school, not a prison."

"It doesn't matter," Lyra said. "Songbird's playing the Vytal opening ceremony so we can catch her then."

"Will I have to watch any fighting?" Amber asked.

"No," Dove said. "No, of course not. We can leave before any of the matches start."

"Can we go back?" Bon Bon asked. "Why can't you leave the school?"

"It's too dangerous," Dove said.

"Why?"

"It doesn't matter," Dove said. "All the matters is keeping Amber safe."

"It's okay," she said, although her voice trembled. She picked up her hot chocolate, and drank some more of it before licking the cream from off her top lip. "You should all know what I am, and why Professor Ozpin wants to control me."

She told them such a story that Dove would not have believed from any other lips, but falling from the lips of Amber he took ever word for absolute truth as though it had been proclaimed in the sky in letters of fire. She told them how there were at any given time four maidens of magical power, how Ozpin had tricked and forced her into becoming one of these same maidens, how Cinder had already attacked her once to try and take her power. And she told them about how Ozpin recruited teams like SAPR to be his servants, putting them to work for his own inscrutable purposes, even though Amber didn't really understand what those purposes were.

"So you see," she finished. "That's why I don't want to have anything to do with Ozpin, or with those who serve no matter whether they're good people or not. And that's why I can't leave the school because there are dangerous people out there who want to hurt me, and it's not safe for me outside. Even though…"

BLBL was completely silent. They hung upon Amber's every word.

Lyra leaned forward. "Even though…?"

"Even though," Amber repeated. "The only thing I want in the world right now is to be away from here, and free."

The members of Team BLBL exchanged silent glasses. One by one, they all nodded.

"You will be," Dove said. "You will be, Amber, one day soon, I promise."

"We all promise," Bon Bon said.

"We'll keep you safe from all your enemies," Sky said.

"And we'll get you away from here, somewhere nobody can find you," Lyra said.

"Really?" Amber gasped, as her eyes welled up. "You…you'd do that for me?"

"Without hesitation," Dove said, because nothing mattered so much to him, or to anyone, in this moment or at any other moment as Amber: Amber's safety, Amber's freedom, Amber's happiness. They would all give up everything to secure it and maintain it. She was their guiding star, the newly discovered lodestone of their lives; there was nothing they wouldn't do for her.

"But…Ozpin-"

"Has forfeited any claim upon our loyalty," Bon Bon declared. "And did so when he forced you to assume this dangerous burden against your will. Absolutely disgraceful."

"We would never choose someone like that over an innocent like you," Lyra said.

"The first duty of a huntsman is to protect those who need our protection, which is you," Sky said.

"I'm here," Dove said. "We're all here, and we're all yours. You can trust us. You know that you can trust us, can't you feel it in your heart?"

Amber stared into his eyes, and nodded. "I do trust you. All of you. Thank you all, so much."

There was a knock at the door.

* * *

Sunset held a bundle of clothes in her arms, with her stuffed unicorn on top of it, and waited outside of the BLBL door after knocking.

The door was answered by Bon Bon, who regarded her with a suspicion verging upon hostility. "What do you want?"

"I came to give Amber these," Sunset said. "They're hers."

"You can give them to me," Bon Bon said.

"I'd like to speak to Amber as well."

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"It's okay," Amber said softly, getting up off the bed. "Hello, Sunset."

"Hey," Sunset said. "Can we have a word? Outside?"

Dove started to get up, but Amber held up one hand gently. "It's okay," she repeated.

"Are you sure?"

"Sunset's not going to hurt me," Amber said. She smiled. "Are you?"

"Of course not," Sunset said, only slightly irritably.

Amber walked outside, and closed the door ajar behind her. She looked at the clothes, and then at the unicorn. "Sunset…you…"

"Do you still want it?" Sunset asked.

"Yes," Amber said, snatching it up off the pile and pressing it against her face. "So soft," she murmured. "But it belongs to you."

"You can give it back to me when you're ready," Sunset said. "Until then I think you're getting more out of it than I am now." She smiled. "That thing…it used to mean a lot to me. It was a lot of comfort." Back when she had taken it as a kind of talisman of reassurance that she really was loved, that Flash actually did care about her, before what he had allowed her to take for his betrayal. "I hope it helps."

"Thank you," Amber said. "Thank you, Sunset." She threw her arms around Sunset's neck, and planted a kiss upon Sunset's cheek. "Thank you so much, for everything. I know that I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you, and I know that…you probably think that I'm ungrateful but that's not it, I just-"

"I know," Sunset said. "I get it. I…I feel as though I should be the one apologising, for making you feel…unhappy with us."

"It's not your fault," Amber said. "It's just…I don't think I could ever be comfortable with people like you."

"Because they're so different?" Sunset asked. She winced. "Sorry, I didn't come here to argue. How much…how much did you tell them?"

"They know what I am," Amber said. "And they know that Cinder…they know about Cinder. But they don't know about…I didn't tell them anything else."

"I know that some people will be relieved to hear that," Sunset said. She handed Amber her clothes. "I hope that you're happier here than you were with us."

Amber smiled. "What you have is precious, Sunset. With Ruby, with Pyrrha, with Jaune; it's such a wonderful, precious thing you have. Never tarnish it."

"I don't intend to."

"But now…now I have the chance to create something precious of my own," Amber said. "Something like you have, but which belongs to me."

Sunset could not help but frown. "Amber…do you actually care about them?"

Amber blinked. "Of course I care, what makes you ask that?"

"Because you're putting them in danger," Sunset said. "You know what Cinder's capable of, there's no way that those four can stand up to her."

"But you can?"

"No," Sunset said. "That's exactly my point: I've got the best team in this school and I can't tell you for certain that we could take Cinder in a fight, and if we couldn't manage it then there's no way that those guys in there will be able to do more than slow her down for a moment. If Cinder comes after you and they stand between her and what she wants…they're going to die. Is that what you want?"

"No, of course not," Amber said. "But if I stay inside the school then it doesn't have to be that way…does it?"

Sunset said nothing for a moment. "I just thought…I thought that you needed to understand just what you've involved them in, and just how dangerous you've made things for them."


	152. Amber's Choice

Amber's Choice

Sunset: Rainbow thinks that I did something wrong, and I've got to say that I'm afraid she might have a point.

Twilight: I can understand why you might feel that way, but I think that you're being too hard on yourself. Unless there's a lot that you haven't mentioned I'm not really sure what you could have done differently.

Sunset: There must have been something that I could have done. What would you have done?

Twilight: I would have introduced her to Pinkie and Fluttershy; that's not an option available to you.

Sunset: Not yet, at least; I think they might be coming to town to support Rainbow Dash in the Vytal Festival.

Twilight: Then perhaps you can introduce Amber to them when they get to Vale?

Sunset: If Amber wants to know.

Twilight: Trust me, if she's anything like the Pinkie Pie that I know, she'll be great at making new friends even if they are a little reluctant at first. Until then, perhaps its best if you give Amber some space.

Sunset: I will, although that doesn't stop me worrying, about her and about BLBL too. They aren't strong enough to fight this fight.

Celestia: Are you? Are your team?

Sunset thought about Cinder, corona blazing around her eye, throwing out fire in all directions and conjuring lightning to strike down the grimm. Sunset: No. At least, I fear not, and Pyrrha fears it too. Ruby is more optimistic, and I wish that I could share her optimism. I know that Pyrrha's been training, and I've been working on some counterspells that will – hopefully, if they work as intended – shut Cinder down, but I've got no baseline to judge how Equestrian and Remnant magic will interact in that way. Even with all our gifts I'm not sure if we're a match for even one-eighth of Remnant's magic; not without Amber and Amber doesn't have it in her to fight. But if we can't do this then what chance do BLBL have?

Celestia: If strength will not avail you then perhaps it is best to trust to friendship in this matter; if they care for her and she for them then that bond will lend them a strength that you would not possess if you attempted to fight beside her.

Sunset smiled. Sunset: That would be a wonderful thing to believe, Princess, and I wish that I could believe it; as it is it's not the power of friendship that I doubt but this friendship itself. How can any true friendship grow in such a short space of time? Pyrrha talks about true love at first sight but that's a nonsense: she might think that's what happened but with all due respect to Pyrrha she's wrong about that. I would submit that she didn't really start to fall in love with Jaune until he started to become a better man worthy of her love, and he certainly didn't start to fall in love with her until he had known her long enough to see her for what she was, all that she was.

Twilight: You think that you know Pyrrha's feelings better than she knows them herself?

Sunset: I think that I know what I saw happening with my own eyes. Pyrrha always liked him, sure, but that's not love. Love came later, no matter what her romantic nature might lead her to believe.

Twilight: On a theoretical level, I agree with you.

She suddenly stopped, even though Sunset had the distinct sense that she had wanted or intended to say something more.

Sunset: Everything okay over there?

Twilight: It's a little hard to talk about this with Princess Celestia standing right here.

Sunset's laughter echoed through the darkness of the library. Sunset: Oh, is there a cute stallion you like?

Twilight: No! I mean, that's none of your business and completely irrelevant in any event.

Sunset: Uh huh, so what's his name?

Twilight: My point is that I agree that liking someone is different from the kind of love that my brother and Cadance share. Incidentally it's kind of weird the way that they're married on that side of the mirror too, maybe it really is destiny that some people

Sunset: You're changing the subject.

Twilight: And I will continue to do so until we are done. Do you think it actually matters if they're in love or not? After all, you've met people who would give their lives to protect someone they just met, haven't you?

Sunset: Well, yes, Ruby and Pyrrha are both like that, I just never really thought of Dove or any of Team BLBL as being like that; and in any case, that kind of selflessness doesn't explain why they were acting so infatuated with her.

Twilight: But what's the alternative? Do you think that she's influencing them in some way?

Sunset shook her head even though Twilight couldn't see it. Sunset: No. No way, Amber isn't a siren, and the magic of the Maidens doesn't allow her to do that kind of thing. And if she could do it then why wouldn't she have done it to us, and even if she could she wouldn't. Amber isn't that kind of person, she's wounded and hurt but she's not some kind of succubus. She wants to be safe, she doesn't want to control people.

Twilight: You still like her, don't you?

Sunset: I wouldn't necessarily say that I like her, but I still feel a lot of sympathy for her, sure. And after all, I've given Cinder the benefit of the doubt so I can't really turn my back on Amber, can I? She didn't feel right where she was so she left to go somewhere she felt better. It's not like I didn't do the same.

Celestia: There is some difference between moving rooms and crossing worlds.

Sunset: Yes, princess, so what Amber's done is practically nothing at all. I feel as though if I'm going to save Cinder I shouldn't abandon the person Cinder hurt the most.

Twilight: I understand why you feel that way, and I even think that your feelings are right and righteous in this case. But if Amber is more comfortable where she is, and not with you, then you shouldn't try and force your presence on her. You'll only make things worse for her and drive a wedge between you two.

Sunset: You're right. I should stop worrying so much and accept that this is a good thing for everybody. I'll still be there – we'll still be there – when the fighting starts, and we're not going to leave Team BLBL to bear the brunt of a hopeless fight alone; but until then, if Amber is happier where she is then hopefully we can start to heal, and since she doesn't want our help then we don't have to worry about her so much and can concentrated on the Vytal Festival. As I've told you, we could use a break to relax.

Twilight: Tomorrow is the pre-tournament qualifying round, right? The one Pyrrha wanted to enter even though you didn't?

Sunset: Yes, that's tomorrow. And then actual finalists are announced in two days time, and then there festival starts next week with the opening ceremony and the start of the tournament.

Celestia: How is the mood amongst the student body as a whole? What effect are the sirens having?

Sunset: It's hard to say. I'll know more when I see how the Last Shot goes, and how people behave. I hope that, even if things can't calm down, we can at least get through the tournament without them getting worse, not just for my sake but for everyone's. We all need this, and Pyrrha deserves this after everything she's gone through.

Twilight: I hope that it all goes okay for everybody. I might not get exactly why the idea of a fighting tournament appeals to you so much, but I hope you get what you want out of it. Good luck out there.

Sunset grinned. Sunset: Twilight, I've got the best team to ever grace this academy or this contest. I don't need luck.

* * *

The night was dark and the moon was up and Amber couldn't sleep.

She had trouble sleeping at the best of times, ever since she woke up. It was almost as if she'd done so much sleeping in that glass coffin that she didn't need to sleep any more now that she was awake.

More likely the unceasing cold that chilled her bones and the hunger that gnawed incessantly at her stomach were keeping her from nightly rest. It was harder to sleep when you were cold and hungry, and she was so far past both that they held little meaning for her now. She hadn't grown used to them, they were always with her and always drawing her attention, but like old companions she had become able to tune them out a little bit, to keep going in spite of them, to pretend that they didn't affect her the way they did.

Dove and the others didn't even realise, and SAPR hadn't understood just how bad it was because she was that good at keeping it from them. The especially long showers, the food that she ate (neither of those things exactly helped, but they were a balm for a short while as the water ran and the food went down), they hadn't seen it as anything out of the ordinary.

And BLBL never would either. She wouldn't burden Dove with her troubles, nor any of the others.

Amber climbed out of bed – it wasn't as though the blanket and sheet were actually doing her any good – and stood up silently upon the wooden floor. She looked down at Dove, sleeping on the floor at the foot of her bed like a faithful hound ready to spring to her defence. Such a gentleman. Looking down at him, his chest rising and falling as he slept, she felt a little warmth inside her chase away the cold. Surely this was how Pyrrha felt whenever she looked at Jaune: this joy of being wanted, of belonging to somebody.

 _Now I have a special somebody too, Pyrrha. I'm just as lucky as you are now._

It was Dove that she had dreamed of, she was certain of that now. It was only a trick of the light, a shadow over her thoughts that had made her believe that it was Jaune.

Back when her dreams had been pleasant, and she had loved to fall asleep because she would dream of the brave new world that was waiting for her, the world that Ozpin described so well and would have to let her see one day: a world of gorgeous clothes and gorgeous people, of conversation and dancing and laughter and love, a world of music and art and beauty. She had dreamed of singing before great crowds while Uncle Ozpin sat in the front row, she had dreamed of being admired and beloved by all; she had dreamed of princes. She had dreamed of Dove.

Some of the things she dreamed came true. She often dreamed of Uncle Ozpin's arrival a day or two before he came, it was partly how she was always waiting for him, ready to greet him when he arrived; she had dreamed of a girl with hair that burned like fire, red and yellow blending and intertwined, who had helped Amber to her feet again and lo and behold Sunset had been the one to rescue her from herself. Uncle Ozpin had said that it was a mark of destiny upon her, and she had loved it then.

Now her dreams were darker, and more terrible. Now her dreams made her afraid to fall asleep even if the cold and hunger had permitted her to do so. She dreamed of Cinder, every night she dreamed of Cinder and her cruel smirk as she scarred Amber's face and stole her soul away. Every single night she dreamed of Cinder coming back to finish the job.

And she dreamed of other things, too: she dreamed of fire in the sky, blossoming like a thousand burning flowers, fireworks exploding amidst the blooming flames; she dreamed of Ruby, her face twisted into a snarl of anger, her eyes burning with fury as she readied an enormous scythe to strike; she dreamed of battle and death with gun shots and the cuts of a thousand weapons and the screams, so much screaming, so much pain.

She would have woken up screaming except, when she did wake up, she felt so exhausted that she had no more energy left to scream; she simply lay there, in her sweat that made her nightgown stick to her skin, and wished not to fall asleep again.

She couldn't tell Dove this. She couldn't tell anyone this. Since they couldn't help her, why worry them with it?

She had given them enough to worry about.

 _You know what Cinder's capable of, there's no way those four can stand up to her._

Sunset's words echoed in her mind and soul. She brooded on them in her sleepless state, with nothing to do but brood.

 _You're putting them in danger._

Amber crossed silently to the window, and pulled back the curtains to let the moonlight in. It was Cinder's reflection staring back at her in the glass, smirking viciously as fire burned around her eye, the fire of Amber's lost magic.

 _They're going to die._

Amber turned away from the window, and from Cinder; in the moonlight she could see her new friends of Bluebell slumbering: Dove, her love and protector, her gallant knight sleeping at the foot of his lady's bed; pretty Lyra who sang every bit as prettily as she looked, looking so serene as she lay on her side; Bon Bon who had looked so angry to learn what Ozpin had done to her, snoring more loudly than anyone else in the room; Sky who was so considerate, curled up into a ball like a babe.

 _I have a chance to make something precious of my own._

 _They're going to die._

 _I can't tell you for certain that we could take Cinder in a fight._

 _No way those four can stand up to her._

 _Do you actually care about them?_

 _They're going to die._

Amber closed her eyes, and barely bit back the wince of pain that Sunset's words caused her. They weren't going to die, they weren't. Dove and all the rest wouldn't die. She wouldn't lose them.

Because she was going to protect them. They had all promised to protect her, to be her guardians and her warriors, to keep her safe from Ozpin and from danger. But she was the Fall Maiden, and that meant that it was her job to protect them as well.

She hadn't asked for this gift, she hadn't asked for this responsibility. She hadn't asked to be made into a benefactor of mankind…but she would be a benefactor to BLBL just as they had chosen to be allies of her before all else.

She would protect them, and she thought that she knew how to do it. Not with fighting, not with joining them in the battle with what remained to her of the Fall Maiden's power; she did not have the heart for that, she did not have the foolish warrior spirit that animated Pyrrha and Ruby and even Sunset. She would not protect her friends by dying alongside them. But, though her power condemned her to be hunted, she also had knowledge that would die with her if she were hunted.

She thought she knew just where to go.

" _What about that huntress who was with her, the siren?" Ruby had asked when she and Sunset had gotten back from wherever it was that they had gone, to discuss the presence of that creature they called a siren with Jaune and Pyrrha and Team RSPT. They hadn't really noticed Amber listening as well, or else they just assumed that she hadn't been listening. "It seemed like they were together."_

" _Perhaps she was the first victim?" Sunset said._

" _But what if she wasn't?" Ruby asked. "What if they were together, what if they were working together?"_

" _No way," Rainbow said. "Tempest is…a little weird, and a little bit creepy sometimes, but she's not evil and she's not a traitor."_

" _How can you be so sure?" Pyrrha asked._

" _Because she's a soldier of Atlas," Rainbow said sharply. "That means something. She's taken an oath to the flag, the same as we have. That means something too. Atlesian huntsmen are loyal, to Atlas and to one another."_

" _And huntsmen from other academies are not so loyal?" said Pyrrha._

" _If you find a huntsmen who has, as it were, strayed from the righteous path," Ciel said. "The chances are that they were not educated at Atlas."_

" _That's just because Atlas takes all its students into the military," Sunset said. "But leaving that aside, what do you mean by weird? What do you mean by creepy?"_

 _Rainbow looked uncomfortable. "Well…her personnel file has more black in it than some classified operations."_

" _She's been through a lot," Twilight said. "What Doctor Watts did to her…she's a victim, and the details are classified for her own protection as well as to prevent those lines of research from continuing. That makes her…unusual, but it doesn't make her a bad person just because some people are a little afraid of her." She hesitated. "All the same…I don't like her very much. It creeps me out the way she looks at people as though they're the sheep and she's the wolf."_

" _Her past aside she has an exemplary record," Ciel said. "Not a single demerit or disciplinary citation."_

" _She keeps herself to herself," Rainbow said. "No friends, doesn't seem to want any."_

" _You know a fair amount about her," Sunset observes._

" _Everyone knows Tempest Shadow."_

 _Sunset's eyebrows rose. "No friends and she keeps to herself but everybody knows her?"_

 _Rainbow shrugged. "She doesn't want friends, and she doesn't hang out with other people, but…if you want something doing Tempest will help you out: if you're worried about that test, Tempest will get you the answers; if you want to break curfew Tempest will open the door to let you back in, that kind of thing."_

" _So it's not that she doesn't break the rules, it's that she doesn't get caught," Sunset said._

" _I guess."_

" _I wasn't aware of that," Ciel said. She glanced at Rainbow Dash. "How are you aware of this?"_

" _Not because I ever need her help," Rainbow said defensively. "I have Twilight to help me pass tests. I just know that there are people who have gone to her, and she does it all for nothing – except that you owe her a favour afterwards."_

" _That is not nothing," Sunset said. "What kind of favour?"_

" _I don't know; like I said I've never actually asked her for anything."_

Tempest Shadow. Amber didn't believe in oaths and loyalty or a promise made to a flag. They were naïve ideas, as naïve as anything Pyrrha believed in; a promise to a flag could be broken as easily as a promise to a person, and there was nothing special about Atlas that made them better than anyone else. Tempest Shadow, yes, she was the one who would keep Amber's friends safe.

Amber knew what she had to do.

* * *

"It feels a little weird, you know?" Ruby said, as they made their way towards the auditorium.

"What does?" Sunset asked.

"You know," Ruby said, as she tucked her hands behind the back of her head and looked up at the sky, the Atlesian warships mingling with the clouds overhead. "All of this. Getting so worked up about a tournament when we know what's really going on."

"What's really going on isn't going on right now," Sunset said firmly. "And we can't be expected to be working to save the world every hour of every day. We're entitled to a little down time."

"You think that this is down time?" Jaune said, sounding slightly incredulous of the fact.

"It is a tournament with rules and regulations instead of a fight for our lives against monsters or murderers or murderous monsters," Pyrrha said.

Jaune laughed. "Yeah, I guess that is kind of relaxing compared to last semester."

"Kind of relaxing," Sunset muttered. "Honestly. I have been looking forward to this all year and you two are not going to ruin it for me with your…sense of proportion. Pyrrha's got my back on this, right? This is going to be awesome."

Pyrrha smiled uncertainly. The truth was that she _did_ have a competitive instinct. You couldn't rise to the top of the Mistral tournament scene if you didn't have a competitive instinct; if you weren't hungry for it, as the saying went, then you didn't eat. When you went into that arena, with the cheers of the crowd – for you and for your opponent – cascading down on you like a torrential flood descending then it was easy, and so sweet, to get swept away by the emotions of the moment as though in becoming a gladiator you also became a kind of creature not unlike the grimm, feeding upon the excitement and energy of the crowds.

When you were there, standing in the centre of the maelstrom, with the stands rising all around you filled with people, it was as though the arena was the world, or at least a world entire of itself and wholly separate from the wide expanse of Remnant. You were born in the darkness of the tunnel that led out into the fighting pit and then like a newborn you emerged into light and sound and feeling. So much emotion. There was nothing to make you feel ten feet tall quite like winning a duel in the sight of the world and letting the cheers of the world roll over you and bathe you in their love.

Pyrrha could not deny the thrills of the arena, of combat, of the applause of the masses watching in the seats all around and yet at the same time she felt ashamed – or at least she felt as though perhaps she ought to feel ashamed – of those same impulses. She felt as though she ought to be like Ruby, detached from such feelings in the face of the reality of what confronted them. Wasn't that why she had come to Beacon, so that she could leave the vanity of the arena behind her and do something important, something meaningful? Hadn't she decided to pursue a destiny that would take her away from pleasing the crowd and lead her into dark places where she could protect them from the horrors they could not dream of? When she was a child she had thought as a child, and like a child had loved to be fawned upon and have praise and flattery heaped upon her; but now she was a woman she had put away childish things, including the desire for substanceless 'fame' and 'glory' which rested upon no solid foundations of accomplishment.

The fact that Ruby, though she was still a child, had already put away such childish impulses if she had ever possessed them shamed her by the comparison.

And yet…and yet…they were towing the Amity Coliseum into position even now: if you looked to the east you could see the airships towing it in from Anima (two years ago the tournament had been held in Mistral, and everyone had told her that it would be her turn next, and how much they were looking forward to seeing her on that floating stage), and for all that she might tell herself that such things were irrelevant in the face of all she knew and all that she had done as a huntress…like an old warhorse hearing the trumpet sound the sight of that coliseum stirred such feelings in her breast that she could not deny them.

"I know that I ought to agree with you, Ruby," Pyrrha said. "But I'm afraid I can't. I know that you're right, but…" she stopped, looking to the west as the coliseum moved into position, gliding in a slow but stately fashion amongst the warships of Atlas and Mistral that made way for it, clearing a path towards Beacon. Each ship, no matter what its position had been before, turned its bow towards the Amity Arena as it drew near, and as it passed each vessel seemed to genuflect with that same bow, the fore of the ship dipping up and down as a flare of blue or green or red leapt from them to explode like a firework in the sky. It put Pyrrha in mind of the warrior subjects of a mighty king, each man dropping to his knees and sheathing his sword as their lord swept by.

"I can put the Mistral tournament behind me," she said. "I've drunk from that cup often enough, I don't need to savour the taste of it any longer. But this is the greatest stage in Remnant, a grand stage for a grand event in which we honour the legacy of the Great War and the effort of all of those who went before us to build and maintain the peace and unity of Remnant. And I want to be a part of it; even if I don't bother to take part in the next tournament after in our third year, I want to do this. I want to walk into that arena and have the crowds in that coliseum look down on me, on all of us. I want to stand beside the three of you at the pinnacle of martial arts and warrior tradition. And I want to win, as proud as that might sound. Even if I never see another arena again for as long as I live I want to win this tournament of tournaments, just this once."

She half expected Ruby's look to be judging, but instead her team-mate was smiling up at her. "Okay then. We'll just have to help you get there."

Pyrrha chuckled. "I thought it didn't matter?"

"It matters to you, and to Sunset," Ruby said. "So it matters."

"I wish I could put it so nobly," Sunset said. "I just want to be lauded."

"And we will be, I'm sure," Pyrrha said. She smiled. "Thank you. None of you have fought in tournaments before, have you?"

Sunset shook her head. "The circuit in Atlas is a lot smaller, more of an amateur thing between qualified specialists."

Pyrrha nodded. Twilight's brother was the champion of Atlas, but that was a mere bauble added to his main job as Captain of the Council Guard; in no way was it taken as seriously as it was in Mistral.

"Does Vale even have a circuit?" Jaune asked.

Ruby shook her head. "Nope. We just have action movies instead."

"When our team name is called," Pyrrha said. "When we walk out into the ring, when we win…you'll all understand exactly what I was talking about."

"I look forward to that," Sunset said. "Now, is everybody ready for this?"

"Yep," Ruby said.

"Ready," Pyrrha said.

"I'm ready too," Jaune said. "I went with lightning dust this time."

"Good choice," Sunset said. "I've got two rounds each of fire, ice and lightning chambered and more in my pocket."

They resumed their walk towards the auditorium, joining the other teams from all years of the school as they began to bunch up towards the entrances in and out.

"I don't see Bluebell anywhere," Pyrrha said, craning her neck a little to see over the heads of the few students taller than she was.

"Maybe they didn't want to enter," Ruby said. "Amber doesn't like to see fighting, does she?"

"No, but I'm a little surprised all the same," Pyrrha murmured. "I can barely imagine not wanting to even try to compete in the tournament."

"Maybe they realised they didn't have a hope," Sunset suggested.

"Sunset," Pyrrha said reproachfully.

"It's not like their here to overhear," Sunset said. "It's probably best this way. They can keep an eye on Amber without having to worry about their names being called."

"I wonder how she's doing?" Ruby murmured.

"Hopefully better now that she's happy," Sunset said. "Let's just…like Pyrrha said, let's just enjoy ourselves somewhere were people aren't trying to kill or eat us. Amber doesn't have to be our main concern all the time any more."

They reached the point in the queue at which they could actually enter the darkened room, and they began to look for a bench to sit down on.

"I hope we don't get drawn against Iron," Ruby murmured.

"I think we could take them," Sunset said.

"I heard that," Yang said cheerily. "Hey, Ruby, come over here."

Ruby led the way as they scurried across the room to take the seats next to Team YRBN.

"You're not the only ones who have gotten stronger, you know," Yang said. "You're lucky the sparring broke up when it did you'd have really found that out."

"Quiet everyone," Professor Goodwitch said. She and Professor Ozpin stood on the stage, and though there was no microphone nevertheless her voice carried across the auditorium. "Professor Ozpin will say a few words before we begin."

Professor Ozpin leaned upon his cane, and he looked around the room in silence, his eyes seeming to be able to pierce the darkness that enveloped it, before he spoke. "I am very glad to see so many eager faces here today, keen to represent their school and kingdom. As you cannot fail to be aware, the Vytal Festival will be upon us very soon, and even sooner I must select those teams which will carry the honour of Beacon and of Vale into battle in this, the fortieth Vytal Festival tournament. The purpose of this tournament is not only to celebrate the continued blessings of peace that have prevailed in Remnant since the end of the Great War, but also to remind each and every one of you to always strive to better yourself, to reach for new heights, to never settle for mediocrity or even for second place.

"To that end, I will select just eight teams to compete against eight teams from each of your four fellow academies of Atlas, Haven and Shade. I will select those teams which to my judgement best embody the Vytal ethos of constant striving for improvement, which best embody the values of this academy, who have demonstrated a constant commitment to their studies here and, yes, those which display a superlative skill in combat. It is a little late, to say the least, for you to much about my first three criteria, but today is a final opportunity, a last shot if you will, to demonstrate the last.

"This is not a tournament. Victory does not guarantee you a place in starting eight, nor does defeat place it outside your grasp. All you need do is show me what you're capable of."

Professor Ozpin glanced at Professor Goodwitch. "Professor Goodwitch, when you're ready, please call the first match."

As Professor Ozpin made his way off the stage, to find some place where he could watch the bouts unfold, Professor Goodwitch got out her scroll and began to tap, her fingers flying across the screen. "Our first match will be-" she pushed a button, and the images of the four members of Team WSTW appeared on the right hand side of the screen opposite four students that Pyrrha didn't recognise. "Team Wisteria versus Team Onyx."

"Go Flash!" Sunset yelled, pumping one fist.

People turned to look at her. Sunset didn't look nearly as abashed about that as Pyrrha would have felt, as Pyrrha did feel just by being nearby.

"What?" Sunset said. "Are we not supposed to say anything?"

"There is no prohibition against cheering, Miss Shimmer, it's just customary to wait until the two teams are actually in the ring," Professor Ozpin said, with mirth in his voice, from somewhere out of the darkness.

Team ONYX swaggered up onto the stage, looking for all the world as though they had already won the fight; Pyrrha frowned at that, it was a kind of attitude she had seen more than once – though it hadn't been directed against her in quite some time – and she never liked it when she saw it; no matter who your opponent was you should do them the honour of taking them seriously. Pyrrha herself never took her victories for granted, and no matter how many times she fought Arslan she never allowed herself to forget that this might be the day that her record of victories came to an end and Arslan paid her back for all her prior triumphs. That was the courteous thing to do, but it was also the pragmatic thing: there were few things a crowd liked better than to see a swaggering braggart taken down a peg or two by an underdog.

As the fight began, however, it seemed as though the confidence of ONYX was not so misplaced: Cardin and Russell fell before the older students, their auras beaten into the red for very little cost to their opponents. Only Weiss and Flash were left of WSTW, facing off against two to one odds from older, more experienced students.

And they seemed liberated by that fact. That was the only way that Pyrrha could think to explain the way they seemed to get so much better freed from the shackles of their other two team-mates. Their team-work was flawless as Weiss glided around the ring with all the speed and fluid grace of an ice dancer, moving along paths of glowing white glyphs, projecting other glyphs to freeze her opponents in place or bounce them across the modest arena. Meanwhile Flash Sentry was like a rock, providing safe harbour and refuge for Weiss when she needed it, bearing up under every attack, taking the blows upon his shield without flinching before unleashing a devastating counterattack in conjunction with his partner. They used Weiss' glyphs to separate their enemies, cutting off a single member of Team ONYX whom they would then double team, attacking from both sides in strikes of graceful efficiency.

It wasn't only Sunset cheering WSTW – half of WSTW anyway – on as they took ONYX down to three men, then two, and then there was just one huntsman left, Orlando Adrian by name, sweating profusely as he backed away from the opponents who now outnumbered him two to one.

Flash took a step backward. Weiss took a step forward. She raised her rapier in a gesture like a salute, as a glyph like the gears of a ghostly clock began to form beneath her feet.

Orlando charged at her, his axe drawn back to strike, but already his movements seemed slow, sluggish, trapped in treacle.

Then Weiss charged. She was a white blur, dancing from glyph to glyph which appeared in the air all around Orlando, trapping him in a maze of white as Weiss leapt from one to rebound off the other and with each pass she dealt her opponent another blow.

When the buzzer rang to signal that Orlando's aura was in the red it looked as though Weiss could have kept going for twice as long.

"Team Wisteria stands victorious," Professor Goodwitch said, and although she tried to keep her voice dispassionate Pyrrha thought that she could detect a note of pride there. "Congratulations."

Orlando got heavily to his feet. "This isn't fair," he grunted.

Professor Goodwitch didn't seem particularly sympathetic as she asked, "And what, precisely, do you find objectionable, Mister Adrian?"

"Atlas already has eight slots, why do they need to steal one of ours?"

Professor Goodwitch pushed her spectacles back up her nose. "Miss Schnee and Mister Sentry are students at _Beacon_ Academy, Mister Adrian, now if you will please vacate-"

"They think that they can just take whatever they want like they-"

"Mister Adrian," Professor Goodwitch said sharply. "Another word from you and you'll be spending the Vytal Festival in detention. Clear the stage so that the next match can begin."

And so it went. Teams were called up by pairs, and in their pairs those teams of four made their way onto the stage and fought until one was the winner and the other was not. Team YRBN won a hard-fought bout against second year Team CFVY, a battle so hard fought that by the end of the combat Yang was the only member of her team still standing and her aura was only a feather-tickle away from entering the red itself. Nevertheless, she and her team were the winners, and as she stood with her aura almost drained Yang had the biggest smile on her face that Pyrrha thought she had ever seen on a face that was never slow to smile. Such was the power of the arena, a magic beyond the reach even of a Maiden.

And yet Pyrrha would have been lying if she'd said that she was impressed by the level of sportsmanship on display in these fights. Rather, as something of a professional duellist, she was mildly appalled by the sheer level of enmity that was sometimes on display in the ring before her. It was not universal – during the conclusion of their fight, when it was just Yang up against Coco Adel to decide the match, the two of them had been grinning like a pair of loons, as they swung fists and handbags against one another, and when the match was over Blake had helped Velvet Scarlettina to her feet and the two had exchanged some words which, while they could not be heard by Pyrrha, seemed warm enough – but she saw enough matches where one or both teams seemed to have set out with genuine intent to hurt the other that it became rather disturbing. Professor Goodwitch was having to work to referee some of these matches, and more than one combatant was disqualified for a late hit on someone who had already dropped into the red, and more than one combatant had to be helped to the hospital wing by their team mates as a result of just such a late hit. Even the incidents that were not provably malicious had a wicked air about them. Was it the siren's poison fading more slowly than they would like, or simply a result of the negative energy that seemed to be hanging in the air lately?

Did it matter, when whatever the cause the consequences were so visible for all to see?

And so it went, until the images of Team SAPR appeared on the right hand side of the screen.

"The next match," Professor Goodwitch said. "Is Team Sapphire versus Team Gray. Please make your way onto the stage."

Pyrrha got up, studying the names of their opponents of Team GRAY as they were written beside their headshots: Gregory Douglas, with a beefy, bullet-shaped head; Rue Farran, with iron grey hair combed to fall entirely down the left hand side of her face; Aspidistra Glaucus, whose blue-grey eyes were large and storm; Yarrow Lloyd, a deer faunus who had shaved his head down to stubble around his antlers.

She could see Sunset studying them as well, though less their pictures and more their opponents themselves as they got up onto the stage: Gregory was huge, and carried an enormous zweihander with what looked like fire dust infused via the pommel much like Jaune's blade; Rue carried a trident in one hand and a net in the other; Aspidistra looked to be armed with a fasces, the bundle of rods with an axe shoved into it that were born by the attendants upon Mistralian magistrates even today; Yarrow had a staff, or at least it looked like a simple staff at the moment.

Sunset bent down to whisper in Ruby's ear as they climbed up onto the stage. "Ruby, what do you think of that fasces?"

"The what?"

"The rods and the axe."

"Oh. I think it's a rotary cannon until it's an axe. And I bet that net is infused with lightning dust."

Sunset nodded. "Okay, we're going to do a Lancaster straight serve to take out that cannon before she can fire, then Pyrrha you're going to go for the big guy, Jaune go for Rue but then castle Queen and Rook at Jaune's discretion, I'll cover you and then help Ruby deal with the last guy if she needs it. Understood?"

"Yes," Pyrrha said. It rather amazed her how Sunset had come up with that so quickly, and it all made sense too.

"If both teams are ready," Professor Goodwitch said, as the two teams squared off against one another. Team GRAY did not, at least, look as though they were taking the threat of Team SAPR with anything less than complete seriousness; whether that was because the reputation of SAPR went before them or they were simply more sensible than ONYX had been she could not say. The audience were completely silent, and Pyrrha could sense the anticipation rolling off of them like fog. "Begin!"

The fasces was a rotary cannon. No sooner had Professor Goodwitch given the word then Aspidista lowered it to take aim as the axe began to retract and the rods began to reveal themselves as rotary barrels.

But even as that was going on Ruby had leapt onto Jaune's shield, angling her body straight towards Aspidistra Glaucus.

When Aspidistra's barrels were still arranging themselves, Jaune's semblance had spread around his shield and up Ruby's legs.

When Aspidistra's cannon was assembled and ready to fire Ruby had already launched herself across the ring in a shower of rose petals. Her own weapon formed in her hands, Crescent Rose expanding, almost erupting, finishing its extension as it slammed, barrel first, into Aspidistra's chest.

Ruby fired, Crescent Rose booming forth as the combined force of shot and impact combined to throw Aspidistra clean off the edge of the ring and into the auditorium even as Ruby was blasted backwards by the counterforce. The klaxon blared as a red X defaced Aspidistra's portrait, and even as the other members of Team GRAY were turning on Ruby she had swung her scythe to cut Yarrow's legs out from under him and knock him off his feet.

Pyrrha and Jaune were both in motion by now, and as she ran Pyrrha converted Milo into rifle mode and fired a shot at the back of Gregory's head in case he forgot that Ruby wasn't his only opponent. Sunset fired too, a fire dust round exploding against his shoulder, but it was to Pyrrha that Gregory turned as she charged towards him, Milo forming a sword in her hands as she adjusted her hold upon it appropriately.

Sunset fired again, Sol Invictus cracking behind Pyrrha, and this time she must have fired an ice-dust round because the big huntsman's leg was enveloped in ice, sticking him to the stage.

Pyrrha charged straight at him. He swung his enormous sword down at her but Pyrrha skidded, sliding along the floor of the stage so swiftly that his blow and all the fire that exploded where it landed struck the point at which she had been a few crucial seconds too late as she skidded between his legs, slashing with her sword at his unfrozen leg as she went before driving the point of Milo into the stage floor to slow her movement to a halt.

He freed his leg, and began to turn towards her but he was slow, so slow, and he turned only swiftly enough to see Pyrrha leaping through the air, Milo forming a spear in her hands as she flew like a swift arrow straight towards him. She drove Milo forward to strike him square on the chest, making his breastplate ring as he staggered backwards, then she hit him in the face with her shield and kicked him first with her left foot and then her right as she knocked him flat onto his back before she landed just beyond him, rolling to her feet as she heard Jaune's voice.

"Pyrrha, switch with me!"

Pyrrha's head snapped up. Jaune was in retreat, although his aura was still in the green. Rue was swiping with her net back and forth, trying to tangle up his legs with it even as she jabbed with her trident, and Jaune was not nimble enough to readily evade.

But Pyrrha was.

She charged, and even as she charged Jaune broke off from his opponent and ran the other way towards Gregory as the big man tried to regain his feet. Rue's eyes widened as she saw Pyrrha coming straight for her at full tilt, Akuou held in front and Milo drawn back to strike. She swept her net in front of her, aiming to tangle Pyrrha's legs and impede her movement, but with a touch of her semblance to keep the metal net low to the ground Pyrrha was able to jump clear over it and through Rue's guard.

One blow with Milo to stagger her backwards.

One blow with Akuou to force the net out of her hand.

Pirouette, slashing with Milo. Pyrrha's hair spun around her as she swept Rue's legs out from under her and kicked her up into the air. She leapt up after her, adding a final blow to drive her straight back down into the ground again with enough force to drive her into the red with the blaring of the klaxon.

The klaxon blared again as another red X obscured the face of Yarrow Lloyd.

Pyrrha saw Jaune bring his sword down onto that of Gregory Douglas, who had not gotten up but had his sword in one hand and was trying to parry with it. Lightning erupted from the dust vial in the pommel of Crocea Mors to ripple up Jaune's blade, down Gregory's blade and up and down his entire armoured form. Sunset fired, and she must have used a lightning dust round too because the amount of lightning snapping up and down that immense body increased before Pyrrha's eyes even as aura ground down and down until it was in the red.

The klaxon sounded for the fourth and final time. "Team Sapphire stands victorious," Professor Goodwitch announced dispassionately.

"Yes!" Sunset said, without much grace in victory. "Is that a new record?"

Pyrrha gave her a slightly reproachful look, but as she walked across the stage towards where Jaune stood and Gregory Douglas still lay on his hands and knees she struggled to think of what to say that was more gracious. Well fought? That might seem rather patronising, and Pyrrha had had it taken that way even by opponents who had fought far better than Team GRAY – the first time she had ever encountered Arslan in the arena, the latter had responded to Pyrrha telling her 'well fought' with a stream of invective that Pyrrha had been shocked a girl their age knew, ending with an instruction to 'shove it, because you'll see me again real soon'; Pyrrha liked to think that they understood one another a little better now after many more such meetings – and yet she felt as though she ought to say something rather than let Sunset's (admittedly mild) crowing be the last word from them.

As she approached, Gregory got to his feet, casting a shadow over both her and Jaune.

Before Pyrrha could say a word to him he had hocked a gob of spittle down into her face. "I don't need your pity," he snarled.

"Mister Douglas!" Professor Goodwitch snapped. "We will discuss how you will be serving your detention for that unsportsmanlike conduct later."

Jaune looked as though he might like to do something to defend Pyrrha's honour; Sunset looked as though she might like to throw the big man clear off the stage, but Pyrrha put a hand on Jaune's arm, and shook her head at Sunset. Not only had Professor Goodwitch already dealt with it, it was clear that she was not in the mood to indulge anybody in stepping out of line at the moment.

As she turned away, wiping the spittle off her face with one gloved hand as she exited the stage, Pyrrha could not help but wonder what had happened to the school that had seemed so warm and welcoming when the year had begun.

What had happened to it and what, if anything, could be done to get it back.

* * *

Amber walked quickly through that wing of the dormitories were the Atlesian students were being put up for the duration of their stay at Beacon. She was all alone; she needed to be alone and had thus persuaded Dove and the others that she wouldn't leave the dormitory building, that she was in no danger here, and that it would be alright – desirable even – if they were to give her just a little space to walk by herself without at least one of them shadowing her as an escort. Fortunately Team SAPR, like most of the other Beacon students, were preoccupied over in the auditorium, fooling around in preparations for that stupid combat tournament, and so there was no chance of running into Sunset or Pyrrha who might ask what she was doing wandering around alone, without an escort. And to the rest of the school, those who even recognised her, she was just Professor Ozpin's visiting niece, so why should she need a silent armed shadow to defend her at all times.

This might be the only chance she got to do this, the only time when SAPR and Ozpin were both absent and otherwise engaged, with no chance of them running into her, with no chance of them seeing what she was about to do.

It hadn't been hard to find out where to go: the Atlas students were very friendly, and Rainbow Dash had been right to say that everyone knew who Tempest Shadow was. Amber had learned without difficulty or arousing any suspicion that the team she wanted was Team TTGR, pronounced Tiger, and that there dorm room was on the second floor, five doors down on the right, and that she would know it when she saw it.

She had half expected to see a picture of a tiger on the door – she had had a book of poetry which included a very wonderful poem about a tiger, accompanied by a beautiful illustration of just such a creature; thinking about it made Amber feel rather melancholy, that book was gone now just like everything else about her former life. She wondered if Ozpin would buy her a new copy if she asked him too – but instead the white doorway had been covered in pretty stickers of the moon and stars, like the ones that Amber had had on her bedroom ceiling, while a sign proclaimed that this was the (temporary) room of Team TTGR, led by The Great and Powerful Trixie.

Amber stood in front of the door for a moment, smiling; it seemed as though this Trixie was a very lovely person, perhaps even the kind of person she could have called a friend…but then she remembered that within that room was a servant of Salem, and that she had come here with a desperate purpose, and the smile died upon her face.

 _I do this to protect my friends._

Amber knocked on the door.

She hadn't quite worked out what she was going to do if one of the other members of Team TTGR opened the door – she could ask for Tempest, but this wasn't something they could talk about in front of others – so she was grateful when the door was opened by the girl Amber recognised from that day in the courtyard, Tempest Shadow herself.

She was glad, but at the same time she felt so afraid that it was a miracle that she didn't turn and run.

 _This is so that I don't have to keep running. This is so they don't have to die._

Tempest stared at her, her face unreadable and her blue eyes were cold as ice. "You," she whispered.

"Are you alone?" Amber asked tremulously.

"Yes," Tempest said. "And so are you."

Amber was reminded of what Twilight had said, about Tempest looking at people as though they were the sheep and Tempest the wolf; she understood what that meant now.

"I want to talk," Amber said. "You…you know who I am, don't you?"

"I know what you are," Tempest said. "I know that I could do more than talk to you."

Amber took a step backwards. She felt naked. She would have welcomed being able to put Sunset or Pyrrha between her and Tempest right at this moment. "If…if you kill me then…then you'll never get what you really want?"

"And what is it that I really want?"

"The Crown of Choice," Amber said. "I know where it is, Ozpin and I are the only ones who know where it is, and if you kill me then Salem will never find it. I know that's what you really want, I know that you only care about the Fall Maiden so that you can find the crown."

Tempest's face was utterly still, utterly devoid of expression. "Never is a very long time," she said. "But go on."

"Cinder doesn't know where the crown is," Amber said. "But I do. And I will give it to Salem."

"A gift fit for a queen," Tempest said. "But this isn't a gift, is it? You want something in return?"

"I want to be left alone," Amber said. "I want you to stop hunting me."

"And what will you do if you are so reprieved?"

"Go away," Amber said. "Somewhere I can live in peace, somewhere you will never hear from me again. And I want you to spare my friends."

"Which friends are those?"

"Team Bluebell," Amber said. "And Team Sapphire." Sunset had saved her life, after all, and they had all at least tried to treat Amber with kindness and hospitality. Amber would save their lives in return, and rescue them from Ozpin's callousness and their own folly in following him.

Tempest stared at her. "No deal."

Amber's eyes widened. "I'm offering you the thing that you desire most in all of Remnant."

"And yet you ask too high a price," Tempest said. "I take it that you haven't asked Team Sapphire for permission to make this bargain on their behalf."

Amber hesitated a moment before she shook her head.

Tempest nodded. "They are known to us," she said. "They will never stop fighting, they will not go away to live in peace where we will hear from them again. How should we keep our word to spare them in the face of their violence against us? Your bargain would make liars or corpses of us all."

Amber looked down at the ground. She knew that every word that Tempest had said was true. She knew it was true because if it were not true then she might not have abandoned them. Sunset, Jaune, Pyrrha, Ruby; they were all too brave, too good, too noble, too stupid; they would not give up the fight.

 _I'm sorry, Sunset. I'm sorry, Pyrrha. Please forgive me._

"Bluebell then," she said. "Spare Bluebell."

"Of course," Tempest said. "Not a hair on their heads will come to harm."

"You…you have the authority to make such a bargain?"

"I do," Tempest said.

"Then…when-"

"Not yet," Tempest said. "Not until I give you the word. Until then, do absolutely nothing. No one must suspect a thing."

"They won't," Amber said. "Not a thing."

Tempest held out her hand. "It will be a pleasure to work with you."

Slowly, hesitantly, Amber took Tempest's hand. The other girl's grip was tight, so tight it seemed that she was trying to crush Amber's hand in her grasp.

Tempest smiled abruptly, as she stepped out of the room and closed the door behind her. "Thank you," she said, with sudden warmth, before she strode with swift stride down the corridor, the opposite way that Amber had come, and out of sight.

"Amber?"

 _Oh no!_ Amber had forgotten about Team RSPT! They weren't Beacon students, they weren't in the auditorium, and now Rainbow Dash was right behind her.

She turned, smiling. "Rainbow Dash, fancy seeing you here."

"Yeah, fancy seeing me where all the Atlas students are staying," Rainbow said. Her magenta eyes narrowed. "What are you doing here? And where…are you all by yourself?"

Amber played with her hands. "It's a little embarrassing but…this place is so big and new to me…I think that I just got a little turned around and now I'm afraid I'm completely lost."

Rainbow looked as though she was about to roll her eyes. "And why are you alone? What does Team Bluebell think they're doing letting you wander off?"

"I'm not in any danger here, am I?"

"That's not the point," Rainbow said. "Come on, I'll walk you back to your room. And give Dove a piece of my mind once we get there."

"It's not his fault," Amber said, as she allowed Rainbow to guide her back in the direction of the Beacon part of the dormitories. "It isn't anybody's fault."

"They're supposed to be taking care of you," Rainbow said. "It's exactly their fault."

"I'm sixteen years old, I'm not a child; I don't need to be watched every single minute."

"Most children don't have the enemies you have," Rainbow muttered. "Listen, I get that it's rough-"

"Do you?" Amber asked. "How could you?"

Rainbow winced. "Okay, so I don't 'get it' get it, but…what I'm trying to say is that I'm sorry about what happened to you. You shouldn't be involved in this stuff."

Amber's eyes widened. She hadn't expected to hear something like that from one of Ozpin's people. "You mean that?"

Rainbow nodded. "I've got friends like you. One really good friend just like you. Her name's Fluttershy. She's coming into town for the Vytal Festival tomorrow, maybe you'll get to meet her. I think you'd like her."

"Really?" Amber murmured. "What's she like?"

"Kind," Rainbow said. "Always kind, almost no matter what. So sweet. Softspoken. Loves animals, any kind of animal, even the really obnoxious ones like that bunny rabbit; she can find the good in all of them…and in everyone as well. She loves to sing too, although not where anybody can hear her." She grinned. "I really think you'd like her."

"Maybe I would," Amber said. "She sounds delightful."

"The point is," Rainbow said. "She's like you, a person who shouldn't fight and shouldn't be involved in this war."

"Is she?"

"No," Rainbow said. "She almost got involved for a while, but…that's all over now, thank goodness. There are people who can fight, like me, people who have…whatever it takes. And then there are people who shouldn't have to fight, like you and Fluttershy. It isn't the job of people like you to take powers like you have and get the fate of the world put on you. People like you should get to stay safe while people like me protect you. I'm sorry that it didn't work out that way for you."

"But…you don't mind?" Amber asked.

"Huh?"

"You don't mind fighting," Amber said. "Even if it's hopeless, even if it costs you your life?"

"No," Rainbow said.

"Because you have people precious to you, and you'd do anything to protect them?"

Rainbow nodded. "Exactly. I'd do anything."

 _And so would I,_ Amber thought, and already she started to feel better about what exactly it was that she'd just done.


	153. Sonata's Bargain

Sonata's Bargain

The Seer slept, as strange as it was to think of the creatures of grimm – especially a creature so completely bound to Salem's will – asleep. Yet here it was, in the old morning room, slumbering on top of a squat, square table, with its tentacles sprawled out on either side, dropping down towards the wooden floor. The Seer clicked softly as its teeth moved back and forth as though it were snoring.

It was bizarre, but at the same time almost reassuring that it had no life when Salem was not actively animating it. It meant it couldn't spy on Sonata when Tempest wasn't there.

"Heeeeey Salem!" Sonata cried perkily as she skipped into the morning room. Her hands were thrust into her pockets, and she was grinning as she bent down so that she was closer to the Seer's level. Tempest followed close behind her, keeping one hand upon Sonata's back.

She could barely contain her anticipation. This would work. She could feel in her bones that it would work, even though she had absolutely no idea what the Crown of Choice was – she had had cause to be supremely thankful for her poker face during her conversation with Amber; she thought that she had gotten away with it and left the other girl none the wiser that Tempest had had no idea what she was talking about – but Amber thought it was sufficiently important that she could use it to bargain for her life, more important even than the Fall Maiden's powers. Now, it was possible that Amber was an idiot, or that she was just lying to try and save herself, but Tempest doubted that it could be that simple, and she was willing to take this risk.

For Sonata she would risk much more. But if she was right then she wouldn't have to.

The Seer stirred fitfully to life, its dark recesses illuminated by a sickly golden glow as it rose lazily up in the air, the spines on the ends of its tentacles scratching and gouging at the antique wood of the tabletop as it levitated upwards until it was floating higher than Sonata, higher even than Tempest.

And in the golden light appeared the face of Salem. Tempest knew her although they had never met; it was impossible not to know her. It was impossible to think that the creature whose visage appeared within the Seer could be anything other than her dark mistress.

Her erstwhile mistress. She belonged only to Sonata now.

"There you are," Sonata said. "It feels like it's been such a long time. I mean, not as long as you kept me prisoner, but still, a long time, right?"

Salem sighed. "Sonata," she said impatiently. "What are you doing here? Where is Cinder?"

Sonata shrugged. "If she isn't somewhere brooding then she might be somewhere moping or maybe she's somewhere not checking in with Mercury or Lightning Dust often enough to notice that I mean she's somewhere, working hard."

"Advancing her plans for the downfall of Vale," Tempest said.

"Yeah, that," Sonata said. "That's what I meant to say. What she said. That's what I meant. To say." Her smile squeaked. "So anyway, how are my sisters?"

"Alive," Salem said. "For now."

"Awesome," Sonata said. "Can I see them?"

"I would like to see less of you," Salem said. "And if you don't hasten to explain why there is a good point to this both of your sisters will be feeling my wrath, I guarantee it."

"Oh, there's a point, I promise," Sonata said quickly. "It's uh…" she looked at Tempest. "What was that thing you said again?"

"The Crown of Choice," Tempest said.

It was fascinating to watch Salem's entire posture change in an instant, flowing from disinterested irritation to captivation in an instant. She leaned forwards, and there seemed almost to be a gleam in her dark eyes. "I'm listening."

"It's worth something to you then?" Tempest asked the question to which she already knew the answer.

Salem's gaze flickered from Sonata to Tempest. "So, you are hers now? Arthur will be disappointed."

"Doctor Watts will always have my gratitude," Tempest said. "But Sonata now has my heart."

Salem smiled thinly. "Your heart? The heart can be treacherous, child, see that you take care it does not bruise too easily. What of the crown?"

"I wanna make a trade," Sonata said. "This crown for my sisters. You let us all go, and we give you this crown you want."

Salem was silent for a moment. "You cannot actually possess it."

"We will," Sonata said confidently.

Salem looked slightly sceptical. "Ozpin has hidden that relic carefully, and only a Fall Maiden could-" she stopped, and an ugly smile of realisation crossed her features. "But the Fall Maiden will give it to you, won't she?" She leaned back in her throne. "So, you will give this thing to me in return for your freedom and that of your sisters. And what price did young Amber ask in return for this gift?"

"The same," Tempest said. "Her life and liberty, and that of her friends."

"I see," Salem said. "And which friends are these?"

"Team Bluebell."

"Who?"

"Precisely," Tempest said.

"Cheap at the price," Salem said. "For this thing I would have even granted her the lives of Ozpin's latest quartet of protégés."

Tempest's eyebrows rose. "Really?"

"Well…until Amber wasn't looking, perhaps," Salem murmured.

"So do we have a deal?" Sonata asked eagerly.

Salem was silent for a moment. "Ozpin is a blind old fool, but even he will notice his Fall Maiden going into the vault and removing the crown."

"Well maybe now he will," Sonata said. "But when things start exploding and people start dying and there are monsters running around everywhere he'll probably be a little bit busy. Or dead."

"So you mean to use the chaos of Cinder's plan," Salem mused. "And yet you have bargained away the power alone can make Cinder whole again."

"What do you want?" Sonata asked. "Do you want Cinder to be powerful, or do you want the shiny crown that we can get for you?"

Salem was silent for a moment. "If I tell her of this, Cinder will probably rush to kill Amber, or at least attempt to do so, and claim the entirety of the Fall Mantle for herself before she can be prevented. She may even kill the both of you for even daring to suggest this course to me."

Tempest felt Sonata stiffen. This was the moment at which they would either win all or lose all, the moment at which Salem would choose which she valued more, this relic or her servant, Cinder or the crown.

This was the moment on which fate hinged.

 _I will get Sonata out of here._ If it came to it, Tempest was fairly confident in her ability to take on Cinder even with half the Maiden's powers; they were strong, sure, but Cinder had to hit her with them first and Tempest was very, very good at not getting hit. Four against one would be a challenge, but from the glimpses that she had caught of Mercury and Lightning Dust their loyalties were progressing more slowly down the same road that she had travelled, so maybe…yes, she would get Sonata out of here no matter what it took. But all hope of saving her sisters would be scotched for good.

"But Cinder has been…disappointing, lately," Salem continued. "She had such promise, but her closeness to our enemies concerns me, as do some of her recent decisions. Does she have any idea at all that you have subverted her acolytes?"

"She hasn't done anything about it if she has," Sonata said. "She hasn't offered them any of the things that I can."

"If only you and your sisters had been willing to serve me willingly," Salem mused. "If only I could have trusted you to do so. And what of Cinder herself? Is she under your spell?"

"Nah, right now she's mad enough that she doesn't need any help," Sonata said. "But we'll see how it goes."

Salem shook her head. "I will take your bargain and go one further: give me the crown and I will give you your sisters…and I will leave Vale to you, to do with as you wish. Once I have the relic I will have no more need of that kingdom. Rule it…or let chaos rule, it will all be one to me. Once I have the crown."

Sonata was practically salivating. "A whole kingdom…for us?"

"What need have I for it?" Salem asked. "I do not seek dominion over the kingdoms of the world. I have…other desires. So then, Sonata Dusk, do we have an agreement."

"I think we do," Sonata said. "I'd offer to shake on it, but, well, those tentacles are kind of creepy."

"Good luck, Sonata," Salem said. "And remember: I still have your sisters."

Her image faded from view, and after a moment the Seer sank slowly down once more to rest upon the table.

They both watched the Seer as it drifted off, resuming its slumber, scratching the floor with its sharp-pointed tentacles as it dreamed of whatever it was that a grimm dreamed of.

Then Sonata shrieked with delight, leaping bodily onto Tempest with her arms on the taller girl's shoulders. "YES!" she cried. "I'm going to be free! We're going to be free! Tempest, you did it!" she planted a kiss on Tempest's forehead. "You're amazing."

And Tempest laughed, because nothing and nobody had ever made her feel like this before, nothing and nobody had ever made her feel whole like this before; for the first time since the accident someone had done what all of Doctor Watts experiments had failed to do and filled up the emptiness within her.

Was this what it felt like to trust somebody?

Was this what it felt like to love somebody?

Tempest laughed, and as she laughed for joy she lifted Sonata up above her head, straightening her arms up so that the siren was soaring close to the ceiling, spreading her arms out wide on either side of her like a little kid playing airplane as Tempest spun her around and round and they were both laughing now, laughing like little children because they stood on the edge of a golden world, with a bright free future spread out before them.

"What in the name of all things are you two doing?"

Cinder's voice cracked like a whip. It cut like a knife. It shattered their transient moment of happiness like a hammer going through glass.

Tempest lowered Sonata down to the floor before she turned to face Cinder, who stood in the doorway glaring at them both. Her eye was not blazing with the corona of the Maiden's power, but she was managing to spit fire out of both her eyes nonetheless. She seemed in a far worse mood than their behaviour warranted, and Tempest found herself wondering just how much she had overheard.

"Hey, Cinder," Sonata said cheerily. "You're looking, uh…you're looking! That's always a great start."

Cinder inhaled sharply, and then exhaled in a drawn out hiss. "I asked you a question. What are you doing here?"

They couldn't tell her the truth. They couldn't even tell her that they'd been talking to Salem without telling her what they had talked about; Cinder guarded her rights as the leader of Salem's efforts in Vale jealously, and being the sole point of contact with Salem was one of them. If she found out that they had gone behind her back then she would take steps on the principle of that alone.

"Dancing," Sonata said.

Cinder stared at them. "Dancing," she said in a tone as dry as the desert.

"Didn't you see us?"

"If you call that dancing," Cinder muttered. "I don't hear any music."

Sonata put one arm around Tempest's waist. "We make our own music."

"And your own humour judging by the amount of laughter," Cinder said.

"It's funny watching Tempest try to dance," Sonata said without missing a beat.

Cinder's eyes narrowed. "So…of all the rooms in a house that is nothing but empty rooms, you chose to…dance in the room where the Seer is?"

"There's a Seer in here?" Sonata asked in surprise. She looked around. "Oh, wow, will you look at that."

Cinder took a couple of steps forwards into the room, her glass slippers clinking on the antique wooden floor. "I could perhaps believe that you are such an idiot," she said to Sonata, before turning her gaze on Tempest. "But you? I don't think that you're a fool, Tempest Shadow."

"That's gratifying," Tempest murmured.

Cinder's face transfigured into a snarl. "I know what you're doing."

Tempest kept her face still, deploying the same poker face that had prevented Amber from realising that she had no idea what the other Fall Maiden was talking about when she talked of Crowns of Choice and relics. Hopefully her inscrutable look would serve her as well against the slightly more perceptive of the two maidens. Inside she was tense, the sort of tension that would have brought out sweat in a lesser huntress; if Cinder had figured it out then she would have no choice but to take her out now, or try to; she'd match the latest in bleeding-edge Atlesian biotech against primordial magic in battle for Sonata's sake. One hand clenched slowly into a fist. "And what am I doing?"

"Spying on me for Doctor Watts," Cinder growled. "I know that he has no great opinion of me, it's quite mutual. What have you been telling him?"

If Tempest hadn't been so good at lying – if there hadn't been a great deal at stake in maintaining the deception – Tempest would have burst out laughing by now. _Oh, you stupid, paranoid in completely the wrong direction idiot! You have no idea, do you? You think that Doctor Watts is the one who's going to screw you over?_ Tempest smiled self-deprecatingly. "You caught me. You're cleverer than Doctor Watts gives you credit for."

"That's not difficult, seeing as he thinks I'm a moron."

 _To be fair, he's not entirely wrong is he?_ "He's afraid of what will happen if you succeed," Tempest said. "He fears that you will be unassailable at Salem's right hand if you prevail here in Vale." She hoped that sounded plausible; though she was not close to Salem's inner circle, she had gathered from off-hand comments that Doctor Watts had made that a certain amount of competition for favour did go on amongst those who made it up. Cinder must have feared that too, or she wouldn't have so readily believed that Watts was spying on her.

"As he should," Cinder said. "So what would he have you do? Sabotage my efforts?"

"No," Tempest said. "He would never be so bold as to threaten Salem's will. Rather, he wishes me to tell him all of your mistakes, that he can say to Salem that the victory was incomplete or took longer than it needed to because you mishandled the operation."

"I see," Cinder growled. Flames danced at the tips of her fingers. "I don't know what you'd told him so far, but if I even suspect that you've told him anything else I'll kill you and turn you to ashes."

"You need-"

"Not that much," Cinder said. "This is my operation, my plan, and my hour. I have spent too and given too much to be robbed of the glory that is my due by a mad scientist who cannot bear to give up the limelight even for a moment. From now on the only version of events that reach the ear of Salem will be mine."

"Understood," Tempest said. "Perfectly understood."

Cinder nodded. She glanced at Sonata again. "And what were you doing here?"

"I brought her here," Tempest said. "I hoped…that you might think we were dancing."

Cinder's lip curled into a sneer of contempt. "You should have known better," she said. "Now get out, both of you. Get back to Beacon before you're missed."

"I won't be," Tempest said.

"Nevertheless," Cinder said. "Go."

They left her in the chamber with the slumbering Seer, not speaking to it but keeping watch over it, as if she feared the moment she left it alone either Tempest or Sonata or maybe even someone else would slip in like a thief and talk to Salem in spite of Cinder's desire to have that honour all for herself.

"You're a pretty good liar," Sonata said, clinging to Tempest's arm. "I like that about you."

Tempest smirked. "You're a terrible liar. Dancing?"

"Well, we kind of were," Sonata said. "And it was fun too. We should do it again sometime."

"Yeah," Tempest murmured. "We really should."

Sonata grinned. "So, this deal you made…do you think she'd notice if we screwed her over?"

Tempest cocked one eyebrow. "You mean-"

"I've never liked Maidens," Sonata said. "It was a Maiden who got us into this mess in the first place. One day everything was cool, me and my sisters chilling out, stirring the pot a little bit, keeping the slaves in thrall and then the next minute Little Miss Fall shows up with her fire hands and lightning all over the place and it was like Starswirl the Bearded all over again!"

"Amber's not the Maiden you need to worry about," Tempest said softly. "Cinder would only get more dangerous with Amber dead."

"Maybe," Sonata said. "But who knows, really?"

"Mercury, Lightning Dust," Tempest said. "Would they really…?"

Sonata nodded. "I think so. Emerald wouldn't, but they would."

"How did you do that?"

"I've got a nice voice," Sonata said. "And I did something Cinder never thought of."

"What's that?"

"I was nice to them," Sonata said, as she led Tempest in pretty much the opposite direction away from the exit that Cinder clearly wanted her to take, bringing her to a spacious room with all the furniture piled up on one side next to the wall, leaving a wide amount of space in which Mercury and Lightning Dust were sparring. Sort of sparring anyway, they both looked as though they were holding back to Tempest's eye.

"Hey there, guys," Sonata chirruped cheerily as she strode in. "It's great to see you two getting along so well."

Now that she knew to look for it, Tempest could see that there was something a little different about Mercury's eyes, a green tint that definitely hadn't been there before.

"I wouldn't say that we were getting along," Mercury said. "But we can keep it professional, for the sake of the mission."

"We want to do this right, after all," Lightning said.

"I guess," Sonata said. "But what are you going to do after the mission is over?"

Mercury shrugged. "I don't know. The same thing that I'm doing now: killing who Cinder tells me to kill."

"Is that it?"

"It's what I am," Mercury said. "It's all that I am."

"Don't be so hard on yourself," Sonata said, and the gem around her neck glistened under the candle light as she walked across the room, leaving Tempest behind as she circled around Mercury, running the tips of her fingers up his arm, across his shoulders and around his neck. "You're so much more than just a killer. I mean, you are a killer and you're really good at it," she chuckled. "But when I look at you, when I look at both of you, when I look at all of us I see so much more."

"You'd be the first," Lightning Dust muttered.

Sonata's smile didn't falter. "Believe me, I know how it feels. Maybe I didn't have a father who only ever raised me to do one single thing and never let me do anything else; and maybe I didn't get turned out by every combat school I ever wanted to go to because I didn't have stupid things like grades; but my sisters never thought that I could do anything by myself either. They were always like 'you're the worst, Sonata', or 'just follow my lead and don't think too hard' or just 'stop talking, you're making it worse' but look at me now: flying solo! Look at all of us. I don't have to be the backing singer any more, and you don't have to be a science experiment or a killer or a dust-stealing thug just because that's the only thing that anyone ever thought that you could be." She gestured for Lightning Dust to come closer, and when she did Sonata flung her arms around both her and Mercury and pulled them in towards her. "Why together, I bet we could run this whole kingdom."

The two warriors looked at her as if they both wanted to believe it but at the same time couldn't quite bring themselves to do. "Run…the kingdom?" Lightning Dust repeated.

Sonata nodded eagerly. "Keep it to yourselves, but Salem is totally going to let us after we're done here. All we have to do is pick up some kind of crown for her and the rest is all for us! Oh, and you're going to meet my sisters and they're going to love you. I know you're going to love them."

"What about Cinder?" Mercury asked.

"Oh, she won't be able to mess this up," Sonata said. "And it's not like we're going to need her to run this city when I've got you three. I mean, you'll still be expected to take certain-" she drew a finger across her throat and made a killing sound. "But more than that, too. We don't have to be just what they say we are and we don't have to take crap from anybody. We can be whatever we want, who's with me?"

"Oh, yeah," Lightning said, as she and Mercury stared up at Sonata with a devotion that Tempest thought must mirror that which others saw upon her own face when she allowed it.

"Great! So get ready," Sonata said. "They've called us the worst, but we're about to show them all just how bad things can really get around here."


	154. Families

Families

Rainbow threw a ball at the wall and then caught it in one hand when it bounced back at her.

"Why don't you do something if you're feeling bored?" Ciel asked.

Rainbow could have responded that Ciel wasn't exactly doing anything right now herself, she was painting Penny's nails; but then she guessed that Ciel hadn't said that she ought to do anything useful just that she should do something.

"I won't be bored for long," Rainbow said. "Hopefully."

"Is everything okay?" Penny asked, looking up from her nails and around at Rainbow.

"Yeah, everything's fine," Rainbow said quickly.

Penny stared at her. "You don't seem fine."

"Well I am," Rainbow said quickly. "The ship carrying my friends is coming in today."

"Don't you want to see them?"

"Of course I do," Rainbow said. "I'm just…I guess I'm just a little worried is all. Travel between kingdoms has gotten more difficult, what if something's happened to them?"

"It hasn't," Ciel said.

"But what if it has?" Rainbow asked. If any of them had gotten hurt because they were coming to watch Rainbow compete in a tournament then she wouldn't be able to forgive herself, not as long as she lived. She'd carry it with her for the rest of her days.

"It hasn't," Ciel repeated.

"How do you know?" Penny asked. "Haven't there been a couple of ships bringing in tourists attacked by nevermores before they reached the kingdom?"

Yes, there had, and it was the reason that Rainbow was feeling a little on-edge until Twilight go down here with the word that the _Crystal Heart_ was on approach to the docking pad. Two skyliners from Vacuo had simply disappeared without trace, and search efforts by local huntsmen and the Atlesian forces had yielded no concrete evidence of what had happened to them; another ship on its way from Mistral had been forced down in the Forever Fall the week before last and it was only luck that Team YRBN had been in the area on a training mission and had held the ship until the _Vigilant_ could arrived to rescue the passengers. And those were only the successful attacks. The danger hadn't actually stemmed the flow of tourism into Vale for the Vytal Festival, and it still seemed like there'd be a big crowd for the tournament and all the other festivities, but the idea of something like that happening to the ship that her friends were on…she'd feel better once it docked and she could smell that candy smell in Pinkie's hair and know that her friends were safe on the ground.

"And since then," Ciel said. "The fleet has stepped up patrols to escort ships coming in. The Mistralians have begun to cooperate in that regard. And Councillor Cadenza's yacht is being escorted by the _Audacious_ ; you have nothing to worry about."

"Your friend is Councillor Cadenza?" Penny asked.

"I guess," Rainbow said. "Although she's not one of my best friends, but she is Twilight's sister in law and she's bringing everyone over in her yacht so they don't have to fly commercial."

"The councillor herself is also here to represent Atlas during the festival."

"Because General Ironwood and all his ships and soldiers weren't doing that already?"

Ciel blinked. "Penny, sometimes you say things that are very wise."

"Really?"

"Especially since your tone lacks any kind of sarcasm," Ciel said. "Nevertheless, regardless of our…substantial military presence, the councillor is here to present…a friendlier side to the Kingdom of Atlas."

"Everybody likes Cadance," Rainbow said. She swung her legs off the bed. "Hey, did you not know that Cadance was Twi's sister-in-law?"

Penny shook her head. "You never mentioned it."

"Does that mean I never told the story about how the White Fang tried to kidnap her on her wedding day and replace her with a shape shifter?" Rainbow gasped. "Okay, this is a really cool story-"

"I think the Councillor herself might disagree," Ciel observed. "As might Twilight, for that matter."

"It's okay, I saved the day in the end," Rainbow said.

Ciel's eyebrow rose.

"I helped," Rainbow said.

"Was everyone okay?" Penny asked anxiously.

"Sure," Rainbow said. "You see, the White Fang commander could-"

The door flew open as Twilight burst in. "They're here!"

Rainbow leapt to her feet. "Now?"

Twilight nodded eagerly. "The _Crystal Heart_ is coming in to docking bay two right now. Are you ready?"

Rainbow looked down at her pants and trainers. "You don't think this is okay?"

"No, it's fine," Twilight said. "Are you ready?"

"Sure," Rainbow said, as they started for the door.

"Wait!" Penny cried. "You can't go now, you haven't told me the story!"

"I'll finish it when we get back," Rainbow promised, before following Twilight out the door into the corridor.

"What story was that?" Twilight asked, as they headed down said corridor towards the exit out onto the courtyard.

"That awesome fight at your brother's wedding," Rainbow said as they reached the stares.

Twilight stopped, and turned to give Rainbow Dash a mild glare.

"What? It all worked out in the end."

"I think that Cadance and Shining Armour would have preferred a wedding that wasn't almost hijacked by an impostor," Twilight said. "I certainly would have."

Rainbow was of the opinion that the attempted incursion by the White Fang had livened things up a little bit, and as much as she didn't like the idea of her friends being put in the way of harm in the future, once it had happened and receded into the past and she could look back safe in the knowledge that they had not only all made it through without injuries but the wedding had continued on successfully that very same evening, it had actually been pretty cool the way that they'd all worked together to try and salvage the situation: Rarity's shields, Pinkie's explosions, Cadance using her semblance to buff Shining Armour…when you looked back and weren't actually worrying that anybody was going to die…there was something kind of fun about it.

On the other hand, she didn't remember feeling quite so cosy about it at the time. In fact at the time she'd been shaking with fear as she tried to protect Fluttershy and Pinkie so…yeah, she could understand why Twilight was looking at her like that.

"Sorry," Rainbow said.

"It's okay," Twilight said. She smiled. "It was a fun party once we got the real Cadance back, wasn't it?"

They went down the stairs and left the dorm room, emerging out into the courtyard to find Team SAPR already out just ahead of them, and making their way all four of them towards the skydock. Ruby, who must have heard the door shut behind the two Atlesians, turned towards them.

"Hey, you two," she said. "What's up?"

"The ship carrying our friends is about to dock," Twilight said. "We're on our way to meet them."

"What a coincidence," Pyrrha said. "We're headed the same way. My mother's ship is arriving now as well."

"Your mother has her own ship too?" Twilight asked.

"Not exactly," Pyrrha said. "But she charters privately whenever she can't avoid flying."

"Not a fan of the sky?" Rainbow said.

"Not particularly," Pyrrha said. "I, um, I'm not all that sure how fond she would be of sharing an aircraft with too many other people, either."

Rainbow chuckled, as she and Twilight drew level with SAPR. She couldn't help but notice that Jaune looked as though he was coming down with something. "You okay?"

"Not really," Jaune groaned.

"He's nervous," Sunset explained.

Rainbow was about to ask why, but the answer came to her as her gaze flickered between Jaune and Pyrrha – the latter had her hand upon the formers shoulder – before she actually had to ask. "Oh, right. That bad, huh?"

Pyrrha winced. "My mother…she's a very proud person."

"Hey, Jaune," Rainbow said. "You want to know the trick to getting along with the rich parents of your friends? It ought to work for girlfriends too."

Jaune looked up. "Okay."

"Don't give an inch," Rainbow said. "Don't act like they're better than you or they'll start to believe it. You have to hold your ground."

Twilight folded her arms. "You didn't act like that around my parents."

"Yeah, I did," Rainbow replied. "I didn't say 'be an ass about it' but I didn't get down on my knees and thank them for being so good to a poor pony like me, did I?"

"No," Twilight said. "You never did anything like that."

"Exactly," Rainbow said. "We were friends, and they could take me for what I was or not but I wasn't going to kiss their feet or nothing."

"It's better advice than insulting Flash's mother because you're insecure and angry," Sunset muttered.

"It's great advice," Ruby said. "Just be confident, Jaune."

"Yeah, confidence," Jaune said. He breathed in and out. "Pyrrha, is it bad that I'd rather face a few beowolves than do this?"

Pyrrha's only response was a nervous laugh as the two of them made their way across the courtyard and towards the edge of the cliffs where the docking pads overlooked the city. The city of Vale sprawled out beyond, but Rainbow's eyes were drawn above even the highest spires of the city to where the Amity Coliseum floated in the sky above, not far from Beacon.

More importantly right now she could see the ships coming in. She could see an Atlesian warship – most likely the _Audacious_ – banking away from Beacon to take up a position with the other ships in the Atlesian fleet, while Cadance's yacht continued on its course towards the docking pad.

The _Crystal Heart_ was a sleek and elegant design, curving back from the sharp prow in beautiful curving lines so that there was barely an angle to be seen on the vessel. It was dwarfed by any of the warships in the skies, but at the same time it was more than three times longer than a Bullhead, and able to travel long distance without needing to stop for fuel or to pick up supplies for the passengers. It was luxurious, too, more than most skyliners that Rainbow had travelled on, certainly more than any cruiser that Cadance might have travelled aboard. The yacht was painted a dazzling crystal blue so bright it seemed to sparkle in the sunlight as it made its approach; eight fin-like wings upon the sides beat up and down as the _Crystal Heart_ came in, so that she almost looked like an eel swimming through the sky.

There was also a modest Mistralian ship coming the same direction, but Rainbow paid it little mind.

"Good luck," Twilight said as the two groups parted ways.

"Thank you," Pyrrha acknowledged, as they made their way to the central docking pad.

Twilight and Rainbow, on the other hand, took the docking pad on the left hand side from their perspective. They stood on the edge of the pad, where the bright blue lines began to indicate the docking platform itself, and waited as the _Crystal Heart_ continued and completed its glide inwards.

It was hard to make out, but Rainbow thought that she could see Pinkie's face pressed up against one of the windows, waving to her. She waved back.

Spike poked his head up out of Twilight's backpack and barked eagerly.

The _Crystal Heart_ turned as it completely its descent, presenting its starboard side to the two of them as the yacht set down upon the docking back.

The door on the side of the vessel opened, and a set of steps descended to the platform.

"Twilight! Rainbow Dash!" There was a pink blur as, with a turn of speed that either Ruby or Rainbow herself would have been envious of, Pinkie appeared between the two of them, her arms wrapped around their necks as she pulled them in so that their foreheads were touching hers. "I've missed you two," Pinkie said. "I've missed you both so much."

"Pinkie, we were back in Atlas just a few weeks ago," Rainbow said, even as she ran her hands through Pinkie's poofy hair and breathed in that candy smell.

"And then you'd been gone for so long before that," Pinkie said. "When are you going to come back home, huh?"

"Soon, Pinkie," Rainbow said. "For a while, anyway."

Pinkie smiled. "I really do miss you when your not around, you know."

"We miss you too, Pinkie," Twilight said. "Life can be lively, but it's never as lively in the right way when you're not in it."

By this time, the rest of their friends had also disembarked from the _Crystal Heart_ : Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy. They approached, and the air rang with their laughter as they joined together in a big group hug.

"I'm so glad you're all here, girls," Twilight said. "We both are."

"Sure are," Rainbow said. "Winning wouldn't be the same without my best friends here to see it."

Applejack rolled her eyes. "Same old Rainbow Dash."

"And you love it."

"We have missed your overabundant confidence," Rarity admitted.

Twilight sighed. "I'm glad that you could all be here. It feels like we've been apart for such a long time."

"We wouldn't miss this for the world, darling," Rarity said, as they broke up the group hug. "It's not often one has a chance to take in Vale and watch one of your friends compete on the grandest stage in Remnant."

"I'm just glad that we were able to make it," Applejack said. "What with all the complications and all."

"It's safe now though, right?" Fluttershy murmured.

Rainbow and Twilight exchanged a silent glance. "Of course it is," Rainbow said. "Look at all those ships." She grinned. "And I'm right here."

"Rainbow Dash!"

Rainbow looked up to see Scootaloo descending the steps, with Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom not far behind. Scootaloo's cybernetic leg was well hidden behind the cut of her pants, but Rainbow could tell from the way she was walking that she still wasn't wholly used to it yet.

But at least she was able to walk. Rainbow grinned. "Hey there, Scootaloo, how's it going?"

"It's a little stiff," Scootaloo admitted. "But I know that watching you fight I won't think about it at all."

"That's right, because the only thing you'll be thinking about is how awesome I am," Rainbow said, as she lifted Scootaloo up and balanced her on her shoulders.

"Have they actually announced who will be competing yet?" Rarity asked.

"No," Twilight explained. "The ceremony is tomorrow. I'm not sure that they'll allow visitors to attend, but I'll ask General Ironwood. Hey, girls. How was the flight over?"

"You didn't have any trouble on the way over, did you?" Rainbow asked.

"Nope," Applejack said. "Not so much as a black feather in sight."

"It was a really nice trip," Apple Bloom said. "This here ship is really something else. It was like staying in a flying hotel or something."

"It was so good of Cadance to fly us all out here," Fluttershy said.

Scootaloo gasped, and pointed over Rainbow's head. "Rainbow Dash! Is that Pyrrha Nikos on the other docking platform?"

Rainbow glanced up, and followed Scootaloo's outstretched and pointed hand to where Team SAPR stood on the other pad, facing a tough-looking old woman whom Rainbow took to be Pyrrha's mother.

"Yeah, that's her," Rainbow said. "We've actually been on a couple of missions together now, she's pretty-"

"You know the Pyrrha Nikos?" Rarity cried. "You know her and you didn't tell us?"

"You've met her once before, remember," Twilight murmured.

"Yes, but now you're so much better acquainted with her darlings," Rarity said. "There wasn't time to do much more than say hello at that gala fund raiser, but now you can give me a proper introduction, as it were."

"I'm a little surprised that you care so much about meeting a huntress and a tournament champion," Twilight said.

"Oh, she's so much more than just a mere huntress," Rarity said. She chuckled. "Aha. No offence, Rainbow dear."

"None taken," Rainbow said.

Rarity sighed. "Ah, Mistral: the sophistication, the culture, the glamour, the beauty; there's a part of me that would absolutely love to live there, and the Mistralian elite are a world apart; and Miss Nikos is the most shining example of that kind. Her grace, her beauty, her confidence, she's a most admirable young lady in every respect. And if I could persuade her to wear one of my dresses when she's out and about why my reputation would be-"

"I understand that this matters to you, but if you could calm down a little when you actually meet her that would be great," Rainbow said.

"She's actually a very private person," Twilight said. "She won't appreciate being fawned all over."

"Darling, who do you think you're talking to," Rarity said. "I shall be the very soul of respectful courtesy."

"But we can meet her, right?" Scootaloo said. "I'd like to say hi to her again. Do you think she remembers me?"

"I know she does," Rainbow said.

"But she's a little busy right now," Twilight said. "That's her mother over there."

"That's a good thing, isn't it?" Pinkie asked.

"In her case I'm not so sure," Twilight said. "It's complicated, and not our place to talk about. Hey, where's Cadance?"

"I'm here," Cadance said, she began to descend from the ship, the heels of her glimmering golden slippers clicking on the steps. Shining Armour was a step behind her, wearing the scarlet dress jacket, ceremonial breastplate and white pants of a captain in the Horse Guards.

Twilight broke away from the group and ran towards them both. "It's see good to see you both again."

"You too, Twily," Shining Armour said as he ruffled her hair with one hand. "I haven't heard about you being in any more trouble since we last saw you, so that's a good thing, right?"

"I didn't get into trouble," Twilight said. "I…got into danger, but that's not the same thing."

"It was just as worrying," Cadance said, embracing her in a hug. "We're both glad that this is a tournament and not another situation where you'll be in actual harms way. It was certainly better for Shining Armour's nerves when you worked in a lab."

Twilight laughed. "Believe me, I've got no intention of making this a permanent change. Although…at least when I'm out here…I don't worry about Rainbow Dash so much when I'm with her."

"No, you just make me worry about you instead," Rainbow replied.

Cadance chuckled. "So, this is the famous Beacon Academy? Darling, have you ever been here before?"

"No, the Vytal Festival was never hosted by Vale while I was at Atlas," Shining Armour said.

"Personally I think it has a very charming setting," Rarity said. "And that view is simply stunning. Twilight, you simply must tell us what Vale is like."

"Why don't we give you the tour while we talk?" Twilight suggested.

"That's a great idea, I've already instructed the crew to drop off our bags at the hotel," Cadance said. "Our rooms will be waiting for us when we're done."

And so the extended group began to walk away from the docking platform and in the direction of the school, while Rainbow and Twilight gave everyone a highly edited version of the events that had befallen them during their time at Beacon.

* * *

Sunset spread her arms out wide on either side of her, as wide as they would go, and closed her eyes as she bowed her head to the ground.

For a moment, as Pyrrha watched, nothing seemed to happen; then Sunset's hands became surrounded by the green glow that she had long ago accepted as the sign of Sunset's magic in action. The glow surrounded both hands, glowing with a brightness that Pyrrha could not recall seeing before, as it spread out beyond Sunset's hands to encompass all four beds in the dorm room, the chairs, all their books and pens and pencils, Pyrrha's weapons which she had brought up from the locker room – it might seem strange that she intended to go armed to meet her mother, but it made sense to her – the chess pieces that they had picked up during initiation, the guns of the Merlot androids that Ruby had taken as souvenirs, everything in the dorm room that wasn't nailed down (or named Pyrrha, Jaune or Ruby) glowed as Sunset's magic touched it, grasped it, surrounded it.

And after it had glowed for a moment so it began to rise. Everything rose, every single thing in the room that could be levitated into the air was levitated into the air, where Sunset held them suspended on their way to the ceiling. She held them there, and then once everyone had had a chance to take it in, she lowered them gently to the ground and put them back exactly where they had been before.

And she didn't look even slightly worn by it.

Sunset opened her eyes. "I didn't used to be able to do that."

"But now you just…can?" Jaune asked.

Sunset nodded. "It's weird, but ever since we brought Amber back it's like my magic has gotten stronger. I wasn't sure if that was what I was feeling at first but now I'm sure of it.

"How?" Pyrrha said. "I don't see the connection."

"Neither do I," Sunset admitted. "I would ask Twilight about it, but she didn't answer last night. "Something might be going on on her side of the mirror which made her too busy to respond."

"Do you think they're okay?" Ruby asked.

"I hope so," Sunset said. "But I can't know for sure. Whatever it is, if there is anything at all, I'm sure that the Princess of Friendship can handle it. She's Equestria's greatest hero, after all. And when she's done with it then I can ask her what might be going on with my magic." She smiled. "Until then it's pretty cool, right?"

"Is everything stronger or just your telekinesis?" Pyrrha said.

"Everything," Sunset said. "I'll be able to do more before I start to tire. It'll be really useful if we have to go up against Cinder. Or the Maiden that Raven has under her control for that matter. I'll have more magical firepower to bring to bear if we need it."

"If it lasts," Pyrrha said.

Sunset nodded. "True, it might disappear as quickly as I got it. But if it does…I haven't lost anything, and if it sticks around then all the better." Her smile widened. "I feel almost as powerful as I did back home in Equestria. If I did go back…I'd be much stronger than I was when I left."

"I'm happy for you," Pyrrha said. "And we could use some good luck."

Sunset looked at her. "Our luck hasn't been that bad lately."

"No, I suppose not," Pyrrha said. She sighed. "But there have been times lately when it has felt as though everything is conspiring against us. Or perhaps that's just my mother I'm thinking of."

"She isn't that bad," Sunset said.

"With respect, Sunset, that's easy for you to say," Pyrrha murmured. "Because she's not your mother."

"No, but she was very courteous and respectful to me," Sunset said.

 _Because you are the kind of daughter she would rather have had,_ Pyrrha thought. She didn't say it because it would have sounded bitter; it _was_ bitter, and unkind to Sunset and unworthy of Pyrrha herself to think it. And yet she could not unthink it.

"What's your mom like?" Ruby asked.

"My mother…" Pyrrha hesitated for a moment. She looked at Jaune, who looked rather miserable at the prospect of a visit from Pyrrha's mother. She had only seen him look so nervous when they were about to visit his own family. "My mother has a great sense of her own dignity, a dignity which she expects to be respected by all who come into contact with her."

"So be on your best behaviour, basically," Sunset said. "If you can do that then you'll be fine. She respects strength and courage, and you've got both in abundance."

Pyrrha frowned. That was certainly, undeniably true, but at the same time she couldn't help but feel that Sunset was making it sound too easy. Ruby was strong and brave, but as much as Pyrrha loved her – and she loved Ruby very much – it was no insult but merely an observation to say that she lacked polish; that might effect her mother's judgement as much as Ruby's reputation as a huntress.

On the other hand, it seemed to have made Ruby feel better, so that was nice.

Before she could decide what she wanted to add or deny of Sunset's sweepingly blithe statement, Pyrrha's scroll buzzed.

She answered it. It was a simple notification from her mother. "She's making her final approach now."

Jaune sighed. "She's going to kill me, isn't she?"

Pyrrha didn't respond right away. She wasn't wholly sure what her mother would do about Jaune, or to Jaune for that matter. They hadn't actually spoken since before the dance, when Pyrrha had refused to not go with Jaune. It was possible that her mother would let it go, but it seemed unlikely; she was not a woman to admit defeat, why, she had even responded to the balking of her arena ambitions by raising a daughter to fulfil her.

 _I'm not one to admit defeat either,_ Pyrrha thought. She had never lost a battle and she didn't intend to start now. She looked at Jaune. _You are the best thing that's ever been mine, and I don't intend to give you up to please anybody, certainly not for my mother._

"If she tries, I won't allow it," Pyrrha said firmly. She picked up Milo and Akouo, and slung them both across her back. "If everyone is ready then we should go."

Sunset pulled on her jacket, Ruby and Jaune were both already ready to go, or at least as ready as he'd ever be. And so Pyrrha led the way out of the dorm room and, shortly after, out of the dormitories all together as they followed the main path out of Beacon courtyard towards the skydocks that nestled on the edge of the cliffs.

They had only taken a few steps when they heard the door shut again behind them.

"Hey, you two," said Ruby, who was the rearmost of the four. "What's up?"

"The ship carrying our friends is about to dock," the answering voice belonged to Twilight Sparkle, and Pyrrha looked over her shoulder to see that she was accompanied by Rainbow Dash. "We're on our way to meet them."

"What a coincidence," Pyrrha said. "We're headed the same way. My mother's ship is arriving now as well."

"Your mother has her own ship too?" Twilight asked, thereby revealing that at least one of her friends did have her own ship. Pyrrha couldn't help but wonder which one; it didn't seem likely to be either of the two that she had already met.

"Not exactly," Pyrrha said. "But she charters privately whenever she can't avoid flying."

"Not a fan of the sky?" Rainbow said.

"Not particularly," Pyrrha said. Her mother didn't suffer from airsickness the way that Jaune did, but she did not enjoy flying one bit. That was the reason why she so rarely travelled these days, and Pyrrha had no doubt that nothing but the Vytal Festival would have convinced her to stir from Mistral and brave the hazards of the sky. The other point, of course, was her mother's great pride. "I, um, I'm not all that sure how fond she would be of sharing an aircraft with too many other people, either."

That seemed to amuse Rainbow Dash as the two of them caught up with SAPR. Rainbow was the quicker of the two to notice Jaune's distress. "You okay?"

"Not really," Jaune groaned.

"He's nervous," Sunset explained, which if anything might have been understating the case.

Pyrrha put her hand on Jaune's shoulder before Rainbow said, "Oh, right. That bad, huh?"

Pyrrha winced. Just because it was true didn't mean that she enjoyed talking about it; or admitting it. "My mother…she's a very proud person." The more she thought about it the more Pyrrha was surprised that her mother was not an enthusiastic cheerleader for Commander Yeoh's expedition to Vale; she would have thought that restoring the pride of Mistral would have been exactly the sort of thing that her mother would get on board with.

"Hey, Jaune," Rainbow said. "You want to know the trick to getting along with the rich parents of your friends? It ought to work for girlfriends too."

Jaune looked up. "Okay." Pyrrha found her ears pricking up as well as she hoped that it was good advice; not that she though that Rainbow would give intentionally bad advice, but just because it was well meant didn't mean that it would help in her case. Mistral was not Atlas, and her mother was not an Atlesian, what had worked in one kingdom might not work in another.

And yet Pyrrha hoped that it did work all the same.

"Don't give an inch," Rainbow said. "Don't act like they're better than you or they'll start to believe it. You have to hold your ground."

That…was not entirely bad advice, but not entirely good either. Certainly her mother would not appreciate a grovelling supplicant, but on the other hand she was acutely conscious of the fact that Jaune was not her equal and wouldn't appreciate it if he acted like it either. The best balance would be…well, the best balance would probably be to act like Sunset acted towards her mother: respectful, but conscious of her own worth and status.

Twilight folded her arms. "You didn't act like that around my parents."

"Yeah, I did," Rainbow replied. "I didn't say 'be an ass about it' but I didn't get down on my knees and thank them for being so good to a poor pony like me, did I?"

"No," Twilight said. "You never did anything like that."

"Exactly," Rainbow said. "We were friends, and they could take me for what I was or not but I wasn't going to kiss their feet or nothing."

"It's better advice than insulting Flash's mother because you're insecure and angry," Sunset muttered, thereby making Pyrrha marvel at just how far she'd come.

"It's great advice," Ruby said. "Just be confident, Jaune."

"Yeah, confidence," Jaune said. He breathed in and out. "Pyrrha, is it bad that I'd rather face a few beowolves than do this?"

Pyrrha's could only laugh uncertainly as they exited the courtyard and began to approach the docking pads. Pyrrha's thoughts were too turned inwards to pay much attention to the sights of the city or the warships of two nations in the sky above. She barely noticed Twilight and Rainbow Dash turning away to the other pad to meet their friends.

"Good luck," Twilight said.

"Thank you," Pyrrha replied with courteous wave. She could see her mother's chartered ship coming in now: it was a fairly typical Mistralian flier, with that antique appearance typical of Mistralian aircraft, but a little larger than a dropship, presumably to accommodate sleeping quarters for its only passenger. The sail wobbled slightly as ship came in, its propeller beating and its oar-like wings rising and falling. It began to slow as it made its final approach.

Team SAPR formed a line around Pyrrha, with Sunset on her right and Jaune upon her left. Pyrrha reached out and found Jaune's hand with her own.

"Be brave," she said. "Please. It will help me to be brave too."

Out of the corner of her eye she could see Jaune nod. "Okay. I will."

She turned her head slightly to smile at him. "Ruby," she said. "If my mother doesn't particularly take to you please don't take it personally."

"Uh, okay," Ruby said.

The Mistralian airship turned as it descended, setting down with its side presented towards the assembled SAPR rather than its nose. That was because the side was where the craft opened up, with a large segment sliding back to reveal austere living quarters – and Pyrrha's mother.

Lady Nikos descended from the airship in obvious discomfort, her face contorted from the pain in her injured leg; she leaned heavily upon her cane as she walked forwards, and her limp was a little more pronounced than usual. It did not make her seem any more vulnerably, only more irritated, although to her credit she was making an effort to control her irritation as she approached the team. She was dressed in a short white robe that did not drag nor otherwise impede her movements, broken up only by the black belt tied around her waist.

She smiled through the pain as she drew near. "Pyrrha," she said. "You look stronger than ever." She embraced Pyrrha, her grip strong and sure, and kissed her on the forehead just below her circlet. "And you look every inch a champion also."

Pyrrha glanced downwards. "I am not the champion yet, mother. The tournament has not yet begun."

"All things in time," Lady Nikos said. "I have no doubts." She looked at Sunset. "Miss Shimmer, to meet you again is not the unalloyed pleasure that I might have hoped for…yet it is good to meet you face to face, once again."

Sunset bowed in that flamboyant manner that she had. "My lady, I bid you welcome to Beacon Academy. Please consider all things at our disposal to be at yours beside, and if there is any insult that I have done to you or to the honour of your name you need only make me aware and I will make recompense as swift as the flying of an arrow."

"We will talk of my grievance, I assure you," Lady Nikos said. "Although I bid you take comfort in the fact that it is a small one." She turned her gaze away from Sunset and towards Jaune. "Mister Arc."

Jaune mimicked Sunset's bow, the way that she had taught him to in Mistral. He kept his eyes on Lady Nikos at all times. "Lady Nikos."

"We must have words, you and I," Lady Nikos said.

"Mother-" Pyrrha began.

"I will say my peace," Lady Nikos declared, before Pyrrha could voice any objection.

"Of course, Lady Nikos," Jaune said. His voice trembled as he added. "I…look forward to it?"

Lady Nikos looked surprised to hear that, but said nothing in response.

"Mother," Pyrrha repeated. "Allow me to introduce my final team mate: Ruby Rose."

"Greetings!" Ruby said. "The honour of making your…acquaintance is my…honour." She attempted to curtsy, but nearly tripped over her own feet and only righted herself after a cry of alarm and much waving of her arms up and down to recover her balance. "That is, I mean to say-"

"Miss Rose," Lady Nikos said. "We are not in Mistral now. I will not hold the fact that you do not possess the manners of my kingdom against you when I am a guest in yours."

"You won't? Well then, uh, hi," Ruby said, waving as she smiled in embarrassment.

Lady Nikos nodded her head. "Well met, Miss Rose. I hope you don't mind me saying that you look rather young to be my daughter's comrade."

Ruby laughed nervously. "Well, you see, I, uh-"

"Ruby is a prodigy, my lady," Sunset said. "Admitted two full years before her time, upon the personal recommendation of Professor Ozpin himself."

One of Lady Nikos' eyebrows rose. "Is that so?"

"Well, I wouldn't use the word prodigy," Ruby muttered.

"Though my stay will be short, I hope that it provides us the opportunity to become better acquainted, Miss Rose," Lady Nikos said. "Just as I regret that you did not have the opportunity to visit me in my home alongside Pyrrha's other team-mates. But for now I ask you all to excuse me while I speak with my daughter alone."

"Of course," Sunset said. "We are, notwithstanding any urgent duties that may arise, at your service, my lady." She bowed again, and began to retreat out of Lady Nikos' presence. Jaune glanced at Pyrrha, who nodded; the time for that particular confrontation was not yet come; not with Jaune at any rate. He and Ruby also retreated, and soon Pyrrha was alone with her mother.

"I would ask if you approve of my team mates but I suspect that I already know two of the three answers," Pyrrha murmured.

"You didn't tell me that one of your team-mates was a young prodigy," Lady Nikos said.

"I didn't think it was particularly important," Pyrrha said. "Sunset shouldn't have told you; Ruby's quite self-conscious about it."

"You are well-matched in humility then," Lady Nikos said, with just a touch of amusement in her voice. She paused for a moment. "She does not have the air of a juvenile marvel."

"What air were you expecting, mother?"

"To be so good so young I would expect more…focus."

"Ruby is very focussed when the need arises," Pyrrha said. "She simply hasn't forgotten how to live beyond that."

"Shall we walk?" Lady Nikos said, gesturing in front of her. Pyrrha turned, and fell in beside her mother as they walked down the path towards the school. She kept her paces short, matching her mother's reduced stride. "She is worthy of the honour done to her then, Ruby Rose?"

"She is exceptional," Pyrrha said. "I always knew that she would surpass me one day, but with each day that passes the time when I believe that day will come seems to grow shorter in my eyes as I see more and more of her skill."

"You are too free with your praise of others."

"When you see her in the tournament you will understand that my praise of Ruby is neither idle nor undeserved," Pyrrha said. "That is, if we are selected to compete in the tournament."

"We both know that the selection of your team is guaranteed, there is no need to pretend."

"I would rather not be thought presumptuous."

"Your desire to be seen as humble could be thought another form of vanity," Lady Nikos said. "Is she dangerous?"

"Ruby?" Pyrrha said. "In what way could you think that she's dangerous? She's my team-mate."

"The danger that I speak of is to your reputation," Lady Nikos said. "She is younger than you are, and yet already she is nearly as skilled; some might say that it is only an accident of geography that has prevented her form being as accomplished. There may be some who seek to diminish your reputation and call your accomplishments into question by comparison with her."

"If the worst thing that anyone can think to say about me is that I am not as good as Ruby then I will think myself very fortunate," Pyrrha said.

"This is not a moment to be flippant."

"Then it is a good thing that I was being sincere," Pyrrha said. "There are many worse places I could end up than in Ruby's shadow." _Not that Ruby would enjoy casting a long shadow, I'm afraid._ "Mother, Sunset has already as good as promised that I will be the one sent into the one on one round; I mean to win this tournament, and I already have the second highest number of consecutive victories in the history of the Mistral tournament. Is that not enough?"

"You know that in Mistral there is no such thing as enough," Lady Nikos said. "There will always be those who seek to cut you down for the crime of having risen too high."

"That being the case then surely the best thing I could do is live how I wish without care for their opinion," Pyrrha said. "Will it not be enough for you? Will it not be enough that I bring glory to our name that you must police my friends, my boyfriend? I love Ruby like a sister but you tell me to beware of her as a threat to my reputation; I love Jaune but you would rip us apart. I ask you again: will my victory not be enough?"

"Will it be enough for you?" Lady Nikos asked.

"Yes," Pyrrha said. "It will be enough for my career in tournaments. Once this festival is over my path will lie down a different road."

"The huntress road?"

"Yes," Pyrrha said. "It's what I want, and to walk it beside my friends and the man I love is what I want too."

Lady Nikos stopped, which meant that Pyrrha stopped too. Her mother looked at her. "Your father took that road," she said. "It brought him to an early grave."

"I know."

"You are the last of our line. It will die with you, if you should fall."

 _Yet you would drive away the man I would have give me children._ "I don't intend to fall."

"No warrior intends to fall."

"No," Pyrrha agreed. "But if our name ends, at least I will not have disgraced it by my conduct."

Lady Nikos took pause a moment. "I have always been proud of your courage," she said.

"Thank you, mother," Pyrrha said mildly. "Mother, may I ask you something?"

"Proceed."

"Why did you oppose the sending of the Mistralian fleet?"

Lady Nikos resumed walking. "You thought it would command my approval."

"Does the pride of Mistral not command your approval?"

"The pride of Mistral does not require this dangerous fool's errand," Lady Nikos snorted. "Our leaders play with fire with this game of antagonising Atlas, even as your great-grandfather did when he frivolously entered into an alliance with Mantle, or antagonised Vale by intruding on their land when Mistral already controlled territory enough. The last Great War cost our family its throne, and my father the lives of all his brothers. What will the next Great War cost us? Our hubris drove the first war, but afterwards Mistral remained great; not so great as Atlas is perhaps, but great nonetheless and it is not the role of the Council to pander to the lowest elements in our population who cannot perceive that lingering greatness; if our hubris drives a second war what will be left of Mistral? Our pride, our dignity, our history, will any of it be left to us? What will a second Great War cost this family? I would not have you die in the fire as Atlesian warships rain death from above. I was glad to see that you did not endorse this madness."

"No, and I regret that Arslan did," Pyrrha said. "I am as worried as you are by the threat to peace."

"Fortunately I have some hope that, if the festival proceeds without difficulty, our forces will return home and this embarrassing episode will cease," Lady Nikos said. "And your victory will provide Mistral with all the glory it requires."

"You burden me with faith and responsibility in equal measure, mother," Pyrrha murmured.

"You are my daughter, the Invincible Girl, the pride of Mistral reborn," Lady Nikos said. "If any shoulders are equal to the burden, they are yours."

Pyrrha bowed her head. "I will win, mother. For Mistral, for you…and most importantly for myself."


	155. Pinkie Party

Pinkie Party

It was almost time for the names of the thirty-two teams who would be competing in the combat tournament to be announced and the auditorium was filling up.

As SAPR took their seats in the upper gallery it was interesting for Pyrrha to watch the way in which the balance of students filling the auditorium reflected the methods by which each school chose their eight teams of contestants.

For the Shade and Haven students, who already knew from their selections who would be going into the public tournament and who would not – although the Haven students at least were not supposed to reveal who had won the tournament until this announcement; although Sun had told Blake that 'I can't tell you that we won the tournament' followed by Neptune making what had apparently been a very amusing face, so it obviously wasn't an airtight veil of secrecy – and so the numbers of students from those two academies were rather low, although still slightly higher than the thirty-two students needed to make up eight full teams. Probably some others had come along to support their friends, or simply to see first hand who their schools' representatives would be going up against. From Haven, Pyrrha could see Team SSSN on the upper gallery with them, with Sun temporarily abandoning his team to head over to speak to Blake; she could also see Team ARBN down below, mostly by locating Arslan's rather distinctive hair in the semi-darkness.

But it was Beacon and Atlas students who dominated the assembly, as it seemed as though every team from Beacon who still retained any hopes at all of qualifying for the tournament – Pyrrha didn't see Team GRAY anywhere, and couldn't help but feel a little sorry for them – had arrived to see if their names had been chosen or if Professor Ozpin had passed them over. The Atlas students were almost as numerous, although perhaps not quite so much; perhaps they had a better understanding of their place in the rankings and thus their likelihood to make the cut.

It was from Beacon and Atlas too that most of the electricity in the room was coming; for the students of Shade and Haven this outcome was already preordained…well, of course it was already pre-ordained for everybody, the choices had been made, but for those from Beacon and Atlas who did not already know the outcome it felt as though there was still a myriad possibilities waiting before them, and anticipation filled the air as they waited to see who had made it and who had not. Pyrrha could see WSTW below, Weiss' white bolero glowing to make her look even more ethereally lovely than usual in the lack of light; YRBN were up above, not far from SAPR, and Ruby and Yang were chatting as they waited for the selection to begin. A slight stir behind them alerted Pyrrha to the arrival of Team RSPT, Penny waved to them as the Atlesians took their seats near the back.

There were also cameras in the auditorium, which was not usual but at the same time not unexpected; the Vytal Festival was a public event, after all, and the selection of the competing huntsmen was no less public business than any of the fights themselves. That was why the news crews were in here, scattered throughout the room, keeping their distance from the students themselves, their cameras trained upon the stage where the names of the teams and students would be displayed. That was why there would be a photocall outside in the courtyard afterwards, with questions.

She would be quite surprised if none of those questions were for her. A sigh escaped her lips.

"You okay?" Jaune asked.

Pyrrha nodded. "I do sometimes wish that competition didn't have to be accompanied by all of this circus. I understand that if nobody watched the fights they wouldn't be held but at the same time…that might not be such a bad thing."

"Oh, yes it would," Sunset muttered.

"You must be used to all this stuff, right?" Jaune said. "You must get it all the time."

"Yes," Pyrrha said. "But that doesn't mean that I've ever come to enjoy it."

Jaune placed a hand upon hers, and squeezed it reassuringly.

Pyrrha looked down at it for a moment, before she smiled at him. Her smile faded as she said, "Has…has my mother spoken to you yet?"

Jaune winced. "I got a message from her, she wants to meet for lunch at this place called the Cafe des Artistes."

"Really?" Sunset asked.

Jaune looked at Sunset. "Do you know it?"

"No, but Lady Nikos told me to meet her there for coffee at eleven," Sunset said. "She's doing this interview style: one in, one out."

Pyrrha sighed, and couldn't help but roll her eyes just a little. "Mother."

"Are you in trouble as well?" Jaune said. "I thought she really liked you."

"I think she wants to ream me out for letting the two of you hook up."

"What will you say?" Pyrrha asked, only slightly anxiously.

"I'm going to tell her that it's not my job to set you up or break you up," Sunset replied. "I like your mother, and she's been good to me, but there are limits."

Pyrrha nodded. "That's…that's probably the best thing you could say. I'm sorry that you both have to go through this."

"It's…it's worth it," Jaune said. "You're worth it."

Pyrrha's smile widened as she leaned her face towards him for a kiss.

"Hey, guys," Twilight said. "Oh, sorry, was I interrupting something?"

"No," Pyrrha lied, as she pulled away. "We were just, um, what can we do for you?"

"I just, oh-" Twilight shushed herself hurriedly as Professor Goodwitch mounted the stage and began to speak into the microphone.

"Good morning students," she said. "Ladies and gentlemen of the press. We all know why we're here so I'll keep this brief: today we announce the names of those teams and students who will be competing in the combat tournament of the 40th biannual Vytal Festival. Thirty-two teams, one hundred and twenty-eight students chosen evenly from amongst the four combat academies will compete in the four on four round which begins in three days time. The competitors will be announced on the board behind me by order of school, starting with Shade, then Haven, then Atlas, then Beacon. Please keep your eyes on the board when it is the turn of your academy. Once the announcements are complete can all selected teams please make your way to the courtyard statue for photographs and questions by members of the press." Professor Goodwitch took out her scroll. "The announcements will begin…now." The screen lit up behind her, and the Shade Academy teams began to flash up, one by one, the names of the team above the names and official photographs of the students who made up those teams.

Team BRNZ: Brawnz Ni, Roy Stallion, Nolan Porfirio, May Zedong.

A few scattered cheers rang out, but Pyrrha guessed that the effect was somewhat dampened by the fact that they had known for a few days now. The names hung on the screen for a few moments, allowing the cameras to properly capture them, before being replaced by the next Shade team on the roster.

Team NDGO: Nebula Violette, Dew Gayl, Gwen Darcy, Octavia Ember

"I was going to say," Twilight continued in a hushed whisper. "Our friend Pinkie is throwing a party tonight to celebrate the selections and you're all invited."

"Isn't it a little premature to plan the party before the selections have been made?" Pyrrha asked.

Twilight shrugged. "If we don't get selected it will be a commiseration party; trust me, by the time its over, you won't care that you weren't selected."

"Oh, we are absolutely going to be selected," Sunset said. "If we aren't then I swear there'll be trouble."

"Who's not getting selected?" Yang hissed from the next bench over.

"I said if we're not selected there'll be trouble," Sunset replied.

"If Pyrrha's not selected won't there be a riot?" Yang asked.

"Quiet, please," Pyrrha said, because they had already come to the end of the eight Shade Teams and the list of teams from Haven was now beginning.

Team SSSN: Sun Wukong, Scarlet David, Sage Ayana, Neptune Vasilias.

"Yeah!" cried Sun, high-fiving Neptune where he sat beside him.

Team VLCA: Violet Valeria, Lily Cornelia, Cicero Ward, Rufus August.

"Hey, Sun, how do you pronounce that?" Yang asked.

"Volcano," Neptune mouthed back at her.

Team JAMM: Jason Ash, Atalanta Boar, Meleager Flame, Medea Fleece.

Team ARBN: Arslan Altan, Bolin Hori, Reese Chloris, Nadir Shiko.

"That's right!" Arslan yelled, leaping up from her seat – actually leaping up onto her seat – and raising her fist into the air. "Get ready, cause here I come!"

Some people looked at her like she was a little odd, but though she wouldn't have done it herself Pyrrha found her honest enthusiasm preferable to the restraint shown by the Shade students.

"Like I was saying," Twilight whispered. "There's a party tonight, do you want to come? Ooh, Blake, you and your team could come too."

"Uh," Blake murmured, looking somewhat reluctant as she did so. "I'm not-"

"Of course we'll be there," Yang said. "Just give us the time and place."

"Great," Twilight said. "Pinkie's so excited to meet all of you, although Pyrrha I should probably warn you that-"

"Twi, quiet, it's our turn now," Rainbow said from up above, as the last of the Haven teams was announced and the selection moved on to Atlas.

Team PSTL: Phoebe Kommenos, Mal Sapphire, Thorn Hubert, Lycus Silvermane.

"Isn't she the one who-" Sunset began.

"Unfortunately yes," Pyrrha replied.

Team TTGR: Trixie Lulamoon, Tempest Shadow, Starlight Glimmer, Raindrops Sunburst.

"Yes! Trixie got in!"

Team RSPT: Rainbow Dash, Ciel Soleil, Penny Polendina, Twilight Sparkle.

Rainbow whooped. Ciel gave her a Look.

Team FNKI: Flynt Coal, Neon Katt

"So you'll come?" Twilight asked, distracting Pyrrha before she could catch the names of the last two members of Team FNKI.

"Why not?" Sunset said. "It sounds like fun, right?"

"We'd all be delighted," Pyrrha said.

"Great! I'll let Pinkie know, and give you the details as soon as I have them. You're not going to forget this, I promise."

Sunset held up her hand for quiet, and their team leader leaned forward eagerly in her seat because it was Beacon's turn now as Professor Ozpin's selections for his eight representatives were finally revealed.

Team, CFVY: Coco Adel, Fox Alistair, Velvet Scarlettina, Yatsuhashi Daichi.

"Great job, Velvet," Blake murmured.

Team WSTW: Weiss Schnee, Flash Sentry, Russell Thrush, Cardin Winchester.

Weiss showed no emotion at her victory, but remained seated primly in her seat as though it meant less than nothing at all to her.

Team YRBN: Yang Xiao-Long, Lie Ren, Blake Belladonna, Nora Valkyrie.

Yang and Nora were both out of their seats together, cheering so loudly that not only did poor Ren look half deafened from being sat between them but Pyrrha was distracted from the next couple of teams to be announced. By the time her attention returned to the board it was-

Team SAPR: Sunset Shimmer, Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos, Ruby Rose.

"That's right," Sunset yelled. "We did it! We really did it, we…" she coughed in embarrassment. "I mean that I had no doubts. None at all."

"And that's it," Professor Goodwitch said. "Congratulations to all team to make the selection and commiserations to those of you who, for whatever reason, were not successful. I advise you all to take a moment to compose yourselves," her eyes swept around the gallery as she said that. "Before heading out to the statue for the photocall."

Sunset got to her feet as the students began to file out. "Are we excited?"

"Yeah," Ruby said. "How could we not be, when this means so much to both of you?"

Sunset grinned. "Pyrrha…we're going to get you all the way, I guarantee it."

"I know," Pyrrha said. _With the three of you together, how could you not?_

Though rivals lay in wait for her, and the whole tournament yet lay ahead, Pyrrha felt no nervousness as she and the rest of her team joined all the other competitors in filing out of the auditorium and making their way across the courtyard towards the statue of the archetypal huntsman and huntress that dominated the grounds. She had trained for this, it sometimes seemed as though she had spent her whole life engaged in preparation for this, and on top of that she had faced death in real battle with real lives upon the line so after that what fear should a tournament hold for her?

She was armed and well prepared, and she had her friends by her side. What cause then had she to be nervous? This was the moment. This was the moment that everyone had been waiting for.

This was the pinnacle of one life…and its ending. This tournament would see the end of the Invincible Girl, four-time champion of the Mistral Regional Tournament and hopefully champion of the Vytal Festival too. She would take the crown, if Pyrrha's enemies had anything to say about it, and in taking the crown the Invincible Girl would die. Pyrrha Nikos would take her place, leaving her tournament alter-ego to the annals of gladiatorial history while she walked down a new path, into a new life, a life of service to Remnant and to Professor Ozpin alongside those who were most precious to her in all the world.

It was her destiny, and she embraced it with an eager heart.

Once the tournament was over.

* * *

The Café des Artistes was the kind of place that Sunset knew at once despite having never been there: the kind of place that wanted to look and feel bijou and artisanal in spite of the fact that it was owned by a subsidiary of some big corporation and you couldn't afford to eat there unless you had a really good job or a trust fund. There were all kinds of places just like it in Canterlot, tourist traps for the most part catering to wealthy visitors from Manehattan or Baltimare who wanted to experience the antique charm of Canterlot without actually having to rub hooves with the hoi polloi (or, conversely, without encountering any genuine Canterlot aristocrats who might sneer at them for being jumped-up parvenus, such as they might have found in some of the more obviously up-market dining establishments in the city). The latter didn't seem like something Lady Nikos would worry about, but perhaps she simply liked the more old-fashioned atmosphere.

Or it could just be that this place was only a street away from one of the most exclusive hotels in Vale and Lady Nikos didn't feel like taking a cab.

Either way, as Sunset stood outside the excellently faked wood-panelled front which looked as though it had been rough-hewn from some ancient tree many years ago, she could feel her wallet starting to weep already.

She was also starting to regret her choice of attire, should she have worn a dress? No, that would have looked ridiculous. This was her outfit, and Lady Nikos knew it. If it wasn't good enough for this place then surely her host out to have considered it.

But nevertheless, as she pushed open the door she felt a little like she would have done walking into some Canterlot establishments naked: it might be done in some places but absolutely not in others.

A bell above the door rang, and Sunset was immediately accosted by an officious waiter who regarded her with undisguised contempt. "Do you have an appointment, Miss?"

"Miss Shimmer will be joining me at my table," Lady Nikos declared from about halfway down a not-particularly crowded space, with plenty of empty tables mingled with those at which individuals or couples sat with coffee and what did admittedly look like some very nice cream cakes.

"Of course, Madam," the waiter said, and if he did not show Sunset any greater courtesy he did at least show her to the table, where Lady Nikos sat with a cup of steaming hot tea in front of her and her scroll out at her side. Sunset could see that she had been looking at news reports on the Vytal Festival selections: Pyrrha's name featured prominently, as did the picture of Team SAPR which had been taken in front of the statue; Sunset was glad that she'd had the idea to put Pyrrha front and centre, with Jaune and Ruby on her left and Sunset herself on the right. Having Pyrrha be the focus of the picture fitted the tone of the article rather well.

Lady Nikos saw her looking at her scroll, but did not remark on it. Rather, she simply gestured to the vacant seat on the other side of the table. "Please, sit."

"My lady," Sunset murmured as she sat down.

Lady Nikos glanced at the waiter hovering nearby. "Well? I'm sure that my guest would appreciate a menu."

"Of course, ma'am," the waiter said, walking away a short distance to obtain a black leatherbound menu which he handed to Sunset.

Before Sunset could open it however, Lady Nikos pushed her scroll across the table towards her. "Have you seen any of this?"

"I confess I had not thought to check, my lady," Sunset lied.

Lady Nikos chuckled. "You are a good liar, Miss Shimmer, but in this…I think I know you better than that. How many articles did you seek out?"

Sunset hesitated for a moment. "All of them." She was gratified that, although Pyrrha had received the manticore's share of all the coverage surrounding Team SAPR and their selection to compete in the tournament, Sunset Shimmer had not completely escaped the notice of the world. She – along with her team-mates – was mentioned for her role in the Breach, and the team itself was noted to be the team to beat by some Vale outlets; the Mistralian news focussed more on Pyrrha than her team for obvious reasons, and Sunset swore that you could read some articles and never guess that Pyrrha wasn't a student at Haven although they did agree that she was someone to watch (although a few preferred to talk up Arslan Altan as the eventual champion of the tournament). It was not the overwhelming fame she would have sought when she had begun at Beacon, but it was something, and it was enough for now. If Pyrrha got most of the glory, then Sunset would at least have a share in the glory of the team, and that was all she needed now.

Lady Nikos chuckled. "I used to do the same thing when I was still an active fighter. Those are some excellent photographs, by the way."

"I think so too," Sunset said. "You must be quite pleased with the news, my lady."

"It was not unexpected," Lady Nikos replied. "My pleasure will come soon enough."

"Of course," Sunset murmured. She opened up the menu. Sweet Celestia, even a cup of coffee here was so expensive! Sunset cleared her throat. "Lady Nikos…one hates to be so vulgar as to raise the question of-"

"Don't worry, Miss Shimmer, I will pick up the bill."

"Thank you, my lady," Sunset said. She made her choices, and put the menu down.

A different waiter, a cat faunus girl, approached. "Yes, miss?"

"A hot chocolate with all the trimmings and a slice of carrot cake, please," Sunset said, handing the menu too her.

"Of course, miss. Would you like anything else, ma'am?"

Lady Nikos took a long drink of her tea. "Yes, another green tea with honey and lemongrass if you wouldn't mind."

"Right away, madam."

As the waitress bustled off to see to their order, Lady Nikos said, "Speaking honestly, how do you rate your chances?"

Sunset considered that for a moment. She had taken the time before coming here to catch up on those teams whose names she had missed the first time around. "I cannot claim to be intimately familiar with every team in this competition, yet," she said. "Although I will be before the first round starts."

"You have only three days."

"There are only thirty-one other teams, learning their strengths and weaknesses and devising strategies in seventy-two hours should be eminently possible."

"Seventy-two hours. You do not intend to sleep?"

Sunset smiled. "When I was at school my lady we had a saying: sleep after the exam, study before it."

Lady Nikos smiled. "But, accepting that you have not had a chance to research all the competition, what are your thoughts?"

Sunset considered that for a moment. "Teams from the same school rarely encounter one another in the first round, so there is little chance of a four on four battle with another Beacon team; which I don't mind saying is for the best. The Shade teams do not worry me at all. Team Rosepetal would worry me: they have fought beside us, they know us and they are not short on skilled fighters of their own."

"You know them too, I presume," Lady Nikos said. "The blade cuts both ways."

"True, my lady, but I would rather be mysterious to our first foe," Sunset said. "I understand that Arslan Altan of Haven is very good."

"She is, but she hasn't beaten Pyrrha yet and I don't expect her to start now," Lady Nikos said.

"Then when it comes to the one on one I can only think of Yang Xiao-Long who might stand against her."

Lady Nikos was silent for a moment. "Like you, my research is at an early stage, but your thoughts coincide with my own. I am glad that you concur with my confidence, Miss Shimmer."

"I am glad that you do not think me overconfident, my lady."

The waitress came back with their tea, hot chocolate, and with Sunset's cake. Sunset licked some of the whipped cream off the top of the hot chocolate, and then drank thus getting more cream on her lip. She was more successful at eating the carrot cake without crumbs.

Lady Nikos sipped her new cup of tea. "You never mentioned that your fourth team-mate was so young."

Sunset drank a little more of the hot chocolate. It was almost good enough to justify the price. "I didn't think it was relevant."

"If she is as skilled as my daughter says, some may use that fact to undercut Pyrrha's talent."

"Talent is absolute, not relative," Sunset said.

"I know, but there are always those who have malicious tongues."

Sunset raised her hands. "What would you have me do, my lady? I am proud of my team, I am fond of my team-mates; should I have sought to be rid of one of our two pillars to please you?"

"There is something else you could have done that would have pleased me more," Lady Nikos said.

Sunset ate some of her cake. _So we've ended up here at last._ She swallowed. "Jaune."

"He is not what I had in mind when I picture the man in my daughter's life."

"You look down on Jaune because he is not talented enough, you look askance at Ruby because she might be too talented," Sunset said. "My lady, is there anything that would please you?"

Lady Nikos stared at her. "That was very boldly put."

"You have been good to me, my lady," Sunset said. "But my understanding of our relationship is that I would earn your patronage by being a good team leader and a comrade to Pyrrha. That I have done, to my own satisfaction." More or less, at least, but she wasn't about to say that. "If instead you sought to make me _your_ servant…you had best cut me off. I am not here to manage Pyrrha's love life or to diminish the rest of my team to aggrandise her a little more."

Lady Nikos did not look much mollified to be told that. "Pyrrha's love life, even to think of her having such a thing…are they-"

"No, my lady," Sunset said. "It is all very chaste and respectable at present."

"I'm glad to hear it," Lady Nikos growled. "Do you really think him worthy of her?"

"I wouldn't have him as my boyfriend," Sunset admitted. "But he isn't my boyfriend. It's not my place to say."

"You think it no one's place but Pyrrha's own, I suppose?"

"Is that not the truth?" Sunset asked. "I could advance many arguments in Jaune's defence: I could tell you that he has improved greatly since you last saw him, and is now as good as huntsman as any at Beacon; I could tell you that he is the only young man I have seen with the courage to approach Pyrrha and ask you if not him then who; I could tell you that he is the only man I have seen Pyrrha look at as though she wanted him to approach her and remind you that it is not desperation that drives her to this choice but heart's desire; I could say all these things and more yet I will refrain because it is all irrelevant. It matters not what I say to you about Jaune, my lady; all that matters is that Pyrrha has made her choice."

Lady Nikos snorted out of her nostrils. "He is not what I would have chosen for her."

"Yet you do not choose him, my lady," Sunset said. She paused for a moment, and drank a little more. "You have an old man, Lady Nikos, but this is no old world; you have no power of law to keep them apart or to command Pyrrha in this. That being the case I suggest that you make your peace with it, and with him, ere it poison things between the two of you."

"You think she would choose that boy over me?"

"I think…I think that Pyrrha is very happy," Sunset said. "And, although there are undoubtedly many things she would not choose her happiness over…there are some things which she would."

* * *

Jaune's scroll rang on his way to the café. He opened it up to find that it was his mom calling. That was kind of weird, but then he supposed that they had left on better terms, so maybe he should have called her? The thought made him feel a little guilty as he accepted the call. "Mom?"

"Congratulations Jaune!" the words echoed out of the scroll in the voice of the legion as his entire family – minus Saphron in Mistral – yelled it at him all at once as they passed the scroll between them so that he could see his mother, his father, and all his sisters all beaming proudly up at him out of the scroll.

"Mom, Dad…everyone," Jaune said bewilderedly. "Congrat- is this about the Vytal Festival."

"Of course it's about the Vytal Festival," Sky said impatiently.

"Great job on getting selected," Dad said. "I can't believe my son is going to be fighting on TV in front of the whole world."

"I'm glad you're going to be fighting on TV instead of fighting monsters for once," Mom said.

"How do you even know about that?" Jaune said. "The selection only happened today."

"And we watched it live as it was happening," Rouge said. "By the way, Saphron and Terra send their congratulations too, and their love."

"But you guys don't even have a TV!"

"Dad bought one," Kendal said. "It just came today. The Arc family is joining the modern world."

"Let's not go nuts about that," Dad said. "But we thought about it, what with you being at Beacon and your girlfriend being some big name tournament fighter, and it seemed like you might try and get into the Vytal Festival. So we thought that we couldn't let you be on TV and not watch it. Came just in time, too."

"You…you brought a TV so that you could watch me fight in the Vytal Festival," Jaune murmured. That…that might actually be the nicest thing that they'd ever done for him; maybe not the nicest thing, that wasn't the right word, but the thing that made him feel best about himself without a doubt. They couldn't have even known that he would qualify for the tournament and yet they'd spent the money anyway, just to watch him do something important to him. "You didn't even know that my team was going to qualify."

"We had faith in Pyrrha," Sky said with a grin.

Jaune couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, sure you did."

"Also, we just wanted an excuse to get Dad to buy us a TV," River said.

"Don't listen to them, we knew you could do it," Mom said. "After how much you've grown, we didn't have any doubts."

"Thanks, Mom," Jaune said. "Everyone, I really appreciate this. I don't think Sunset's going to send me through to the second round, but I promise that I'll show you something worth seeing in that first round."

"You do that, son," Dad said.

"We might not have all agreed with your choices," Rouge said.

"But we're still your family and we're on your side a hundred percent," Sky said.

"So do your best and we'll be cheering for you," Violet said.

"And for your girlfriend too," Kendal added.

"Jaune has a girlfriend?" Aoko asked.

"Give Pyrrha our love," Mom said. "And tell her that we're rooting for her too."

Jaune sighed. "Yeah, I will."

"Jaune?" Mom asked anxiously. "Is everything alright? Did something happen with Pyrrha?"

"Did she break up with you?" Violet asked eagerly.

"No," Jaune said quickly. "It's just that her mom is in town for the festival and, well…"

"Ah," Dad said knowingly. "That can be rough, believe me, I know. What about her father?"

"He's…her father's dead," Jaune said. "It's just her mom. I don't think she likes me very much. I'm on my way to meet her for lunch. Any tips on how I could impress her?"

"Is she one of those proud Mistral types?" asked Dad.

"She's exactly that type," Jaune said.

"Yeesh, they can be tough to please."

Kendal took the scroll and angled it in such a way that only she was visible. "Jaune, you came back here and you stood up to your whole family for the first time in your whole life because it was important to you. Is Pyrrha important to you?"

"Of course she is," Jaune said. "More than anything."

"Then you don't need anyone's advice to help you stand up to her mother. You just need the guts you showed in front of your own family. You've got this, little brother."

Jaune took a deep breath. "Yeah, I think I do. Thanks, Kendal."

"Don't worry about it. Just remember: put on a show, we've never seen anything like this. Bye Jaune."

"Bye Jaune!" everyone cried before Kendal hung up.

Jaune looked down at the blank scroll for a moment and smiled. "Bye." He folded up his scroll and put it away, and continued on with a firmer step and a straighter back.

By the time he reached the fancy café he no longer felt the same nerves that he had felt on setting out. He could do this. He'd already done the hard part by getting together with Pyrrha, compared to that convincing her mother to put up with him was nothing. And Kendal was right, standing up to his own family had been much harder.

He could absolutely do this.

Somehow.

He walked inside the surprisingly old and rustic-looking café, and was accosted by a waiter who took one look at him, sighed and said, "Follow me, sir." At which point he led Jaune, who didn't have a chance to explain why he was here, to the table at which Lady Nikos sat, eating a prawn salad.

"Mister Arc," she said his name as though it was something foul in her mouth as she glared up at him. "Sit down."

"Yes, my-" Jaune began, but then stopped himself. He remembered the way that Lady Nikos had reacted to Ruby on the docking platform, as well as Rainbow Dash's advice. Darn it, they were in Vale now and it wasn't as if pretending manners that he wasn't very good at was actually going to make her like more anyway. "Thank you, ma'am," he said, as he took the vacant seat.

Lady Nikos looked a little surprised at that, but it lasted for little more than a moment overall. "You should order something before we talk."

The waiter, who had not moved, handed him a menu. Jaune opened it and gasped at the prices.

"I am paying, obviously," Lady Nikos said, sounding as though this was a conversation she had had already. Of course, Sunset didn't have a lot of money either.

"I, uh," Jaune murmured as he scanned the menu. "I'll take a ploughman's lunch?"

"Of course, sir," the waiter said, snatching the menu out of his hands and wandering off.

Lady Nikos was silent for a moment, staring at him. Jaune knew that he should probably take the initiative and say something first, but he couldn't quite think of what to say.

"You know my great-grandfather was the Emperor of Mistral," Lady Nikos said.

Jaune swallowed. "Yes, I know."

"I never knew him," Lady Nikos said. "He died before I was born. Defeat in the war, the loss of his throne, the deaths of his sons…it broke his spirit, he died of grief not long after the peace was signed. My grandfather was only the third son, he had never been expected to inherit the throne, and yet he remember what it had been like to be raised as a prince of the blood in his early years. He used to tell me stories about what it was like in those days: the galas they would hold, the clothes they would wear, the entertainments they enjoyed, the power that they possessed. So tell me, Mister Arc, why should my daughter only three generations removed from royal state descend to the level of a Valish peasant like yourself?"

Jaune took a deep breath. "Because…because she wants to."

"Pyrrha wants a great many things, many of them impossible," Lady Nikos said. "She wants the grimm eradicated, she wants the world saved, she wants to be the instrument of that salvation. Why should I not regard her affection for you, her desire for love, in that same box of childish illusions which she should grow out of the sooner the better?"

"Because it's not an illusion," Jaune said. "Pyrrha…we love one another."

"For now, perhaps."

"No, not for now," Jaune said. "I can't explain it and I'm not sure if Pyrrha could either but when we're together…it's not just that we like each other, it's something else, it's more than that. It's like…it's destiny. This isn't just for now it's infinite, and forever."

"Yet if you truly loved her you would let her go," Lady Nikos said.

"What?" Jaune demanded, and he didn't care if some other people in the café gasped at how loud he was.

Lady Nikos paused as the waiter brought his lunch. Jaune wasn't feeling too hungry right now, so he ignored it even as she was clearly waiting for him to start eating.

"Pyrrha will not be a Beacon student forever," Lady Nikos said. "Some day, in four years time at most, she will return home to Mistral; even as a huntress, if that dream persists, she will return home to fight in her own land and for her own people."

"I'm not so sure," Jaune said. "Pyrrha loves her home, but I think that she'd go wherever she felt she was needed the most."

"You are grown presumptuous, Mister Arc; or perhaps you are simply speaking out of hope."

"Hope?"

"If Pyrrha did return to Mistral…you were not comfortable in our city. Do you think that a man like you would ever be accepted by her side?"

"I don't care," Jaune said. "So long as Pyrrha wanted me then the opinions of…" he bit back what he could have said about the Mistralian elites. "Then the opinions of other people don't matter to me."

"You don't even care about how Pyrrha herself would feel, tainted by association with you-"

"If Pyrrha feels tainted by association with me then she can tell me so herself, she hasn't."

"In Mistral there are better men waiting for her hand."

"Then where have those better men been all her life?" Jaune demanded. "Do you remember that party that you took us too, when we were your guests? I remember, and I remember that none of these 'better men' said a word to Pyrrha when she was sad and alone." He sighed. "I know that I don't deserve Pyrrha, but so long as she lets me I will dedicate the rest of my life to making her happy. And it that's not good enough for you then…then that's too bad."

Lady Nikos was as silent as a mountain for a moment. "I spoke with Professor Ozpin earlier this morning. He supplied me with redacted reports of your team's missions. It appears that, although you are not Pyrrha's equal, you have played a not inconsiderable part in the success of the team in…difficult circumstances. I will reserve judgement until I see what part you play during the combat tournament."

Jaune's eyes widened even as unexpected hope began to bloom within his breast. "You mean-"

"I am not blind, nor am I a fool," Lady Nikos said. "I know what kind of life Pyrrha has had. I am aware that the luxuries her life has afforded her have not always pleased her. I am not wholly insensible to the fact that I have been…somewhat selfish in my actions, although I will also maintain that through my choices…have I not given the world a precious gift in Pyrrha, one that it would have denied had I done otherwise in raising her."

Jaune said nothing, because he wasn't sure exactly what the right response to that was. He could sort of see Lady Nikos' point, that Pyrrha might not have become the great warrior and greater person that she was today if she'd been brought up differently, but at the same time actually saying that felt like a betrayal of her. "Pyrrha…she is a gift to the world; no one who knows her can deny that."

Lady Nikos said, "Mister Arc, do you know why Mistral stands upon a mountain?"

"For protection from the grimm?"

"In part," Lady Nikos said. "The city began life as a bandit camp; mine and Pyrrha's earliest ancestor was a brigand who sought a secure fortress against his enemies as well as the creatures of grimm. He and his descendants eventually established dominion over the lands all around. That is perhaps why criminality continues to flourish in Mistral, it is baked into the city's origins." She took pause. "We forget that too often, we who are of the oldest blood; we recall our ancestors who were lords and emperors, and forget that _their_ ancestors were common men who seized their opportunities. But you should remember it, when they sneer at you: your birth is only as low as that of the men who founded the grand old families who now presume to look down upon you."

"What…what are you saying?"

"Miss Shimmer says that I should make peace with your relationship, since I cannot destroy it," Lady Nikos said. "And Miss Shimmer is not without wisdom. I am not concerned with your birth; Pyrrha has chosen a dangerous road, and as you point out there are few who would volunteer to keep her company upon it. If you are one of them…all that remains to concern me is your ability. I have read reports, but…show me what you can do, Mister Arc. In the arena, show me that you are worthy to be at Pyrrha's side."

* * *

The air was filled with soft, relaxing music. Though the venue for the party was only a modest dance hall, it was large enough for the number of guests, and it was impressive that Rainbow's friend had managed to get anything at all considering that she'd only arrived in Vale the other day. That, according to Rainbow Dash, was all part and parcel of the Pinkie magic.

Equally impressive was the amount of food and refreshments that had been prepared on equally short notice: cakes of all shapes and sizes weighed down the table in the far side of the room, in fact there seemed to be a cake for each and every one of the huntsmen here (in addition to SAPR, RSPT and YRBN, Flash Sentry had also been invited and had brought Weiss) with a personalised message of congratulation on it for each of them; that would have been impressive enough, but Pinkie also appeared to have put some real thought into not only the colour scheme but also the flavours to make them appropriate for each person: Ruby's cake was a strawberry and dark chocolate cookie cake that by all rights oughtn't to have worked but which Pyrrha found absolutely delicious when Ruby finally prevailed upon her to try some. Pyrrha had also broken with her usual diet – out of a combination of courtesy and a sense that these were perhaps cakes worth making an exception for – to try out her own cake, a buttercream sponge with layers of orange and raspberry jam within. And that was before getting into the ice cream and the punch.

Pinatas shaped like the various creatures of grimm hung from the ceiling, and Ruby had just sliced one of the beowolf ones in half with Crescent Rose to spill brightly coloured candies down upon the floor. Yang blew an ursa apart with one of her Ember Celica and all the while Sunset was staring at them both as if they were cheating. Fluttershy was talking to Blake in one corner of the room. Elsewhere Ren was letting Nora beat him at twister. It was impossible not to conclude that this had been a lot of work, and all for people whom Pinkie Pie did not, for the most part, know.

Pyrrha would have told their host so herself, but at the moment she was a little busy getting shaken back and forth by Rarity.

"You mean to say that you're an actual princess?" Rarity shrieked. She seemed to notice the large number of people staring at her, as well as the fact that she had just spilled punch down the front of Pyrrha's cocktail dress. She laughed nervously as she tried to clean it up with napkin. "I mean, uh, that's nice. Really lovely darling. How…pleasant for you."

"I'm not actually a princess," Pyrrha murmured. "My family used to be royalty, but that was a long time ago now; the kingdom is a republic now."

"I know, but even so," Rarity said. "I mean to say, oh dear, I'm afraid this isn't coming out at all. Please forgive me."

"It's fine, it's barely noticeable-" Pyrrha began.

"Barely noticeable oh no no no, this dress is absolutely ruined darling, I must-" Rarity stopped as her eyes lit up. "Oh, I could lend you a new dress for this evening, I have so many, and by the way where you planning to attend the masquerade ball on the night of the four by four round?"

"I hadn't really-"

"Because I would be honoured and delighted to make you a gown to wear for the occasion," Rarity said. "You have such a gorgeous figure and such a lovely face it would be my privilege to draw out your beauty, and all you'd need to do would be to promise me to let your mask fall at the end of the night so that everybody knows it's you. And then everyone will wonder who designed that dazzling dress and I will step forward and proclaim that it was I, Rarity!"

"Uh, Rarity? Why don't you save the sales pitch for another time, huh? You haven't had any of my cake yet," Rainbow said, as she gently steered Rarity away in the direction of the food.

"Sorry about that," Twilight said, stepping up to Pyrrha's side.

"It's quite alright," Pyrrha said.

"Rarity can be…a little much sometimes," Twilight said. "But she's the most giving person I know, and she really is an excellent dressmaker."

"Did she make the dress she's wearing herself?" Pyrrha asked.

"Oh, she made all of these," Twilight said, waving to encompass herself and all of her friends.

Pyrrha's eyebrows rose. "She is quite the talent, isn't she?"

"I don't know if you want to go to the masquerade party, but if you do you won't regret going in a Rarity original."

"I'll keep that in mind," Pyrrha said sincerely, as Jaune came across the room to join her with two cups of punch held in his hands.

"Here," he said. "I thought you might need a replacement."

"Yes, thank you," Pyrrha said, accepting it gratefully.

"Hey, Twilight," Jaune said. "Great party, huh?"

"Yeah," Twilight said, with a knowing smile. "It's great." She kept smiling as she stepped backwards, leaving the two of them alone.

"To you," Jaune said, as he raised his cup.

"To both of us," Pyrrha said, gently touching his cup with her own. She drank. It was delicious. "So…dare I ask how it went today?"

"It was a lot better than I thought," Jaune said. "I think your mom might actually start to like me."

"Really?" Pyrrha said, and then cursed herself for sounding so surprised. "I mean-"

"Pyrrha, don't worry, I get it," Jaune said. "Now all I have to do is distinguish myself in the one round of the tournament that I'm going to get to compete in when I have you, Ruby and Sunset to compete with and I think I'll have earned her respect."

His tone was self-deprecating, but Pyrrha was glad – if a little surprised – to not hear hopelessness or defeatism in it. "Is that what she said?"

"Pretty much," Jaune said. "I mean, she also said that there were better men waiting for you back home-"

"A better man?" Pyrrha asked. "Tell me something Jaune, who do you think is the better man: the one who can boast ten centuries of ancestors and a pile of lien that he'll inherit from his parents one day…or the one who rushed to fight a killer because he heard me cry out and knew I needed help."

Jaune didn't reply, but a blush rose to his cheeks as he drank some more punch.

Pyrrha nodded. "I don't want a better man, Jaune. I want you." She put one hand on the back of his neck and stepped closer to him, so close that their bodies were almost touching. "I only want-"

"Hey guys!" Pinkie yelled into one of the microphones set up at the stage at the back. Pyrrha noticed that a set of drums had just appeared there too. "Is everybody enjoying the party?"

"Yes!" came the shouted response from the room.

"Is everybody having a good time?"

"Yes!"

"Awesome!" Pinkie cried. She looked around the room. "I know that I don't know a lot of you very well, yet, but you're all friends of my friends, and I'd like to think that that makes you all my friends too. So thanks for coming, and I hope this is a great night to celebrate that you all made it through to the Vytal Festival!"

"Yeah!" Nora shouted.

"But now," Pinkie said, as Rainbow Dash and the others came up onto the stage carrying various musical instruments: a guitar for Rainbow, the bass guitar for Applejack, Fluttershy on tambourine, Rarity on keytar; the only one who wasn't carrying an instrument was Twilight. "Rainbow Dash has something that she'd like to say."

"Thanks, Pinkie," Rainbow said, as she took the lead microphone and Pinkie retreated to behind the drums. "And thank you for the great night. Tonight…okay, so it's not actually the first time the Rainbooms have been together in a while because we were together in Atlas for the summer vacation, but there was a long time before that and, well, when you're apart from your friends it feels long even though it isn't. Anyway, we couldn't let the opportunity go by so here it is: playing for the first time in nearly a year, all the way from Atlas it's the Rainbooms!" Rainbow grinned. "Trust me, you're gonna remember that name by the end of the night. Now, let's get this set started." She played a few chords on her guitar, then began to sing.

"Looking forward to some fun, hoping all my friends will come…"

Penny was the first one out onto the dancefloor, gyrating to the beat with her eyes closed and her arms pumping back and forth like pistons. Nora and Ren followed her, or more accurately Nora dragged Ren bodily onto the dancefloor although he swiftly seemed to start enjoying himself once he got there. Flash tentatively (and with a visible blush on his face) offered Weiss his hand and she, after a brief moment's hesitation, took it and allowed him to lead her on.

Jaune jerked his head in that direction. "Shall we?"

Pyrrha put her arms around his neck. "I would be delighted."

They stepped onto the dancefloor and then there was nothing but the music, and Jaune.

All of Pyrrha's worries, all of her concerns, they were all washed away by the river of the music, by the sound of the instruments and by the singing. And by Jaune, by his eyes so blue and so close to her, by the way his arms felt on her waist, by being so close to her that they could smell each other.

Nothing else mattered in that moment. Amber and Cinder and the great war of light and darkness were nothing to her then, and her mother and Mistral and Professor Ozpin and all the rest all disappeared out of though as though they had been erased from existence. None of it mattered in that moment, in that song. All that mattered was that she was young and in love and about to embark upon the tournament of her life.

All that mattered right now was Jaune.

All that mattered was the kiss they shared in the centre of the dancefloor.

"It's a perfect day for fun when I spend it with you!"


	156. The Eyes of the World

The Eyes of the World

The eyes of the whole world were turned upon Vale.

It was always thus, when the Vytal Festival began, but it was especially so now; Cinder felt proud of that. When things felt as though they were slipping away from her, like so much water disappearing between her fingers no matter how tightly she tried to hold them together, she could always turn on the TV and remind herself that she had done this.

The eyes of the world were turned on Vale, and all the positive news coverage and puff pieces about the great Pyrrha Nikos couldn't disguise the fact that there were Mistralian ships going nose to nose with and Atlesian fleet in the skies above Vale, that Mistral had mobilised for the first time in decades, that the Atlesians had practically occupied Vale, that Vale itself had suffered a into its very heart. Now the city was consumed with Anti-Atlesian protests, Anti-Mistralian protests, protests against Vale's own government for allowing things to come to this pretty pass. Airships were being interdicted, trains carrying people between Vale and Cold Harbour had been attacked so often that all personnel traffic had been suspended and even the most obstinate bureaucrat could no longer deny that grimm were massing in numbers rarely seen upon the outskirts of the kingdom. Tensions were high, and rising higher every day and everywhere. She had done this. She had set it all in motion. Whenever she felt as though everything was falling apart she could look at what she had wrought in Vale and tell herself that it had not all been failure.

The eyes of the world were turned on Vale.

* * *

They were the eyes of a little girl in Mistral named Diana Archer, eight years old, and her six-year old sister Selene; Diana had a poster of Pyrrha Nikos on her bedroom wall and a picture of herself and her sister with both Pyrrha and Arslan Altan that they'd had taken at FanExpo last year, the two gladiators kneeling down so that they were of a height with the two beaming girls.

The two sisters were a little too young to understand the nuances of the difference between a tournament fighter and a huntress, but they both agree that they're the coolest people ever. Diana wanted to be a huntress/tournament champion herself when she grew up; Selene thought they were awesome but she still wanted to be a vet.

Currently, they were both lying on their fronts on the floor in front of the TV, with their parents sitting on the sofa behind them, watching over the heads of the children as the coverage of the first day of the Vytal Festival starts with the opening ceremony. The two girls didn't really comprehend what Professor Ozpin was saying as he gave his speech, they were more interested in spotting who they knew amongst the assembled fighters waiting for the tournament to start.

"There!" Selene cried. "There she is, there's Arslan!"

"Yes! And look, there's Pyrrha over there!"

"Where?"

"There, next to the girl in the red hood, behind the one with kitty ears."

"When are the fights going to start?" Selene asked.

"Soon, dear," said their mother. "The first fight will begin very soon."

* * *

They were the eyes of an assembly of Mistralian gladiators who had gathered in the house of Michael Corona, reigning champion in the Mistral Regional Tournament, to watch two of their own compete in the highest arena in every sense: Michael himself, the Last Murmillo; Oceana Turqouise, the Mermaid Knight; Esau Shepherd, more commonly known by his last name; Metella Vespal, the Wasp. They were all gathered in Michael's one-floor (and pretty much one room) house, where Oceana, Esau and Metella were all sat on Michael's faded couch with their eyes glued to Michael's TV while the champion himself made snacks in what passed for his kitchen.

"Hey, our Michael, if you don't get in here or you're going to miss something!" Ocean called to him.

"And if I don't keep an eye on these barbecue ribs they're going to burn," Michael said. "Do you want something to eat or don't you?"

"The old windbag's nearly finished his speech," Esau said. "If you don't hurry you're going to miss a fight."

"As long as I don't miss one of the important fights," Michael said. "Just yell loud if it's Pyrrha or Arslan up next." The oven went ping. "Never mind, they're done." He hastily pulled his ribs out of the oven and plated them up on a long tray alongside some chicken wings and a selection of spicy sauces which he proudly carried out to the others as he sat down in the centre of the sofa.

Nobody so much as looked at any of it.

Michael huffed. "You guys make me feel so appreciated."

"Thank you, Michael," Ocean said as she, without taking her eyes off the TV, took a rib and dipped it in the barbecue sauce. "So, what do we think? Any predictions?"

"I think that we will see one or other of their semblances," Metella said. "Or maybe both."

Esau said, "You think these guys will push them where we couldn't?"

"Absolutely not," Oceana said firmly. "Huntsmen may think they're better than we are but they're not. No way the two best fighters amongst us are going to get taken to the wire by the likes of this lot where we didn't manage it. Those two are going to walk all the way to the finals, just you watch. In fact, that's my prediction: Pyrrha vs Arslan final, unless they get drawn opposite one another earlier in the tournament."

"That's a large 'if'," Metella said.

"Is anyone going to propose Arslan as the winner? Surprise upset?" Esau said.

Michael shook his head. "That would be a sight to see…but I don't see it."

"So long as it's one of them I don't care," said Oceana. "Come on, you two! Stand up for gladiators!"

* * *

They were the eyes of Saphron and Terra Cotta-Arc as Saphron sat in the living room of their house in Argus and dandled her son upon her knee.

"That's your uncle Jaune out there," she said. "Yes it is. Yes it is. And the woman you'll be calling Aunt Pyrrha by the time you're old enough to talk."

"Don't get ahead of yourself, dear," Terra said as she walked in from the kitchen carrying a big bowl of popcorn in her arms and a bottle of heated milk in her hand. She sat down next to her wife and placed the bottle in Adrian's mouth.

"Oh, you saw the way that he was looking at her," Saphron said. "And the way that she was looking at him for that matter. If they're not meant for one another I'll eat your…what do you have that I could eat?"

"Nothing that I'd want you to," Terra said primly. She pushed her glasses up her nose. "Although I admit that they make a cute couple. Almost as cute as you and me."

Saphron chuckled before kissing her on the cheek. "How do you think they'll do?"

"You're asking me like I'm an expert," Terra said.

"You were the one who knew who Pyrrha was."

"I know that she's good," Terra said. "But really don't know; there might be someone out there who's even better."

Adrian pointed frantically at the TV.

"What's that?" Saphron asked, following his pointed finger. "Oh, you found them! Who's a clever boy? You are. Yes you are. You found your uncle Jaune and aunt Pyrrha."

"Please stop that," Terra said.

* * *

They were the eyes of the Arc family, piled onto or around the family's ageing red sofa, eating a variety of delicious snacks prepared by the family matriarch as they looked for Jaune in the gathered assembly of huntsmen whenever the cameras cut away from Ozpin's speech to scan the crowd.

"No, don't back to the old guy, we want to see more of Jaune," Kendal said to the TV.

"You notice the cameras keep trying to find his girlfriend?" River observed. "I guess she really is a celebrity."

"Good for us, makes it easier to find Jaune, too," Kendal said. "That's new armour, right? He wasn't wearing that when he came home."

"No," Gold said. "That's some real armour, not costume stuff. Looks like he took my advice on that. I wonder what he did with the sword?"

"Are you really okay with the fact that he modified the family sword, Dad?" Sky asked.

"It's his sword now, he can do what he likes with it," Gold said. "Your great-grandfather didn't carry that thing across Vale and Vacuo because he wanted us to treat it like some kind of relic when he was gone, he carried it because he wanted to survive the war and get home to his family. If Jaune wants to fight then whatever he can do to help him fight better is fine by me."

"Why do they all look so serious?" Aoko asked from where she lay on the floor like a child in front of the TV.

"Because this is serious," Gold said. "Your brother, Pyrrha, their other team-mates, all of these people are fighting for their honour; the honour of their school, the honour of their kingdom." He fell silent for a moment. "When you're a huntsman," he said. "You fight your battles where nobody sees you doing it. If you do it right then nobody even knows you were there, or that there was any danger that they needed to be protected from. If you win nobody praises you, and if you die nobody remembers you." He glanced at his wife, who looked alarmed and saddened by his mention of dying. It was rough, but it was the truth. "But this…for these next few days these kids get to show the world just what they're made of; for what happens in the next few days they'll be remembered."

"Did you fight in the tournament, Dad?" River asked.

"No," Gold said. "I wasn't so lucky as Jaune, we didn't get selected. But I was pals with some who did. It wasn't the most important thing they ever did, but it was the biggest. That's why we're watching Jaune. We owe it to him."

Rouge reached up and clutched the bead necklaces around her neck. "Good luck, Jaune," she said. "You can do it."

* * *

They were the eyes of a class of young huntsmen in training at Signal Academy, where it was a tradition to let the students watch the matches and see what they could aspire to be when they left combat school and progressed on to one of the four huntsman academies of Remnant. That was why there was a big screen dominating the classroom, and that was why Taiyang was sitting at the back of the class, watching over the heads of his students as the camera occasionally cut away from Ozpin to show the competing huntsmen, flying over their heads, sometimes lingering for a moment on one in particular.

The cameras never deliberately singled out Ruby, but it focussed on her team-mate Pyrrha often enough that Tai could get a pretty good luck at his younger daughter, one of the few smiling faces in a sea of serious and determined expressions.

And in his mind's eye he could see the ghost of her mother hovering over her, the ghosts of a whole team of huntsmen who had once been so young and so naïve.

Things had been so perfect then, when Team STRQ had competed in the Vytal Festival; they had sent Raven and Qrow into the two on two round, and then Qrow alone into the one on ones where he had vanquished every opponent and been crowned the victor; it had seemed like they would be so victorious in all their battles. Before everything started to fall apart.

He could only hope that Ruby's team – and Yang's team too - would fare better in the long run, regardless of whether they fared so well in the tournament.

And in the meantime all he could do was watch, and wish her luck, and hope that Summer's spirit really was watching over their girl. Over both their girls.

* * *

They were the eyes of a group of Valish railway workers, watching in a cheap bar not too far from the railway yard they were based out of.

"Hey, boss, ain't they the kids who protected us on that job in the Forever Fall a few months back?"

"They sure are, Phil," said the foreman. "That faunus is the one who said they were going to win for sure."

"I hope so," said another man. "If I don't win that bet I'm going to lose my house."

"Have you ever thought that you might have a gambling problem, dude?"

"It's only a problem if I don't win, right?"

The foreman, Red, took a draught of his beer. "They had spunk, those kids," he said. "Good luck to 'em."

* * *

They were the eyes of Doctor Polendina and Moondancer, watching privately in their lab in Atlas.

"It's a pity that the camera never stops for long on Rosepetal," Moondancer murmured. "I can't get a proper look at Penny or Twilight."

"That's just because they don't know what Penny is yet," Doctor Polendina said. He scowled. "Not what she is, no, that's not right, they won't ever know, they…they don't know…how special she is. They think she's just a girl, no, they'll always think she's a girl, but they don't know that she's more than that but they will. Once…once she shows them how brilliant she really is they're all going to be focussing on her. By the time this tournament is over she's all that anybody's going to want to talk about."

* * *

And many, many more. Across the kingdoms, across all of Remnant, the eyes of the world were turned towards Vale as their hearts reached out towards the Amity Coliseum, pinning their hopes and dreams upon one hundred and twenty-eight huntsmen and huntresses who would fight for kingdom, school and honour…and for the delectation of the crowds.

The eyes of the world were turned on Vale, the hearts of the world reached out towards the arena, and Cinder Fall would see to it that their hearts were crushed beneath the weight of what would happen next, and their eyes would be blinded by the fire that she would start here.

The eyes of the world were turned towards Vale, and they would see the harbinger of their downfall.

* * *

 _Author's Note: Since the Vytal Festival is in large part a public event, and since a large part of the villains' plan is to induce a mass of negative emotions in people to attract the grimm, it seemed right to have a short chapter to introduce placeholders or representatives of the wider population to cut back to every so often to show how they're reacting to events as they unfold. The advantage of having such a large cast of minor characters is that I didn't have to introduce many new people here, mostly using existing ones from earlier in the story._


	157. We're Gonna Take You Down

We're Gonna Take You Down

Rainbow Dash pulled her sweat bands over her hands to her wrists, then followed up by pulling a pair of fingerless gloves on over her hands. "You know," she said. "I don't really see why they can't move the lockers up to the Coliseum while the tournament is on. They we could just arm up and move out instead of having to arm ourselves then fly up to the arena."

"Because that's such a hardship," Twilight murmured.

"Yeah, I know, but it would be convenient," Rainbow said, as she pulled her wings out from her locker and started buckling them across her chest.

Ciel took her Distant Thunder out of her own locker. She extended it for a moment – in a direction so that it was not pointing at anybody – and checked the sights. "On the other hand, their presence there would be inconvenient if we were attacked on the ground. We need our weapons here in case we need our weapons here. Tautology, but true." She checked the chamber, then collapsed her weapon into its more portable form and slung it across her back.

"I guess, though if we get attacked we're going to have more troubles than just waiting a little longer for our lockers," Rainbow muttered. She pulled out both her auto-pistols, and checked both of them weren't already loaded before she proceeded to load them both and sling them into the holsters at her hips. She looked at her shotgun, nestled cosily at the back of the locker. It was tempting, but there was a strict two-weapon rule at the Vytal Festival and she was already testing the spirit of the rules with her wings _and_ two guns.

She slammed her locker door shut. "Okay. Is everyone ready?"

Twilight's armour spread up her body like a living thing until it had completely subsumed her within it. "Ready," her voice echoed out from behind the helmet.

"Ready," Ciel said.

Penny, of course, didn't have to get anything out of her locker, and had simply been sitting quietly in the locker room waiting for the rest of them to be done. She got to her feet. "Combat ready."

"Awesome," Rainbow said. She looked over them, her team. Hers to lead, hers to protect, hers to take pride in. "You know," she said, leaning on her locker a little. "When this team first got put together I wasn't sure that it was gonna work out. I wasn't sure if you were gonna work out, Penny. But now…Penny you're an awesome huntress and you're part of an awesome team and now is the time for everyone else to see that the way that I've seen that through fighting alongside you this year. You're not the first team that I've been on but I wouldn't trade you for anything."

"As a team leader you have also surpassed expectations," Ciel said softly.

"Uh, thanks, I think?" Rainbow said.

Penny cupped her hands underneath her chin. "I don't know what General Ironwood and my father have planned for me," she said, and her face fell at that for a moment before she visibly rallied and brightened. "And I don't know how much longer this team is going to exist, but I want to thank each and every one of you for treating me not as a weapon but as a friend."

"That was the least we could do, Penny," Twilight said.

"Are we ready to get out there, fly the flag, and help General Ironwood keep his head held high?" Rainbow asked. When the others nodded, she said, "Okay then, let's move out."

Team RSPT had been called for the third match of the day, and the second match today so far in which an Atlas team had been called against a Haven team. The first match of the four by fours had pitted Team SSSN against Atlas' Team APDT, and the fact that Rainbow kind of liked Sun, the awesomely insane idiot, didn't mean that it hadn't been a little hard watching an Atlas team get their asses kicked like that. The second match had seen Beacon's CFVY tear through a Shade team like they weren't even there, but now it was time for RSPT to defend the honour of Atlas against another team from Haven, Team JAMM. It wasn't too much hyper…hypersonic? Hyperdraulic?

"Twi," Rainbow said, as they made their way across the courtyard towards the docking pads. "What's that word that starts with hyper, it means exaggerating."

"Hyperbole?"

"Yeah, that one."

"Why do you ask?"

"I was just thinking that it's not an exaggeration that we can't afford to loose this fight," Rainbow said. If they lost, not only would the number of Atlesian teams be cut by one quarter already, but to lose twice in a row against Haven – the school that never won, whose headmaster was a chronic screw-up of the kind who hadn't noticed that his top team consisted of an evil psycho and her squad of murderous minions – would make them a laughingstock for this first stage of the tournament; and if _Penny_ got knocked out in the first phase of the tournament after all the time and money that had been invested in her, well…Penny might not be going straight to the scrap yard but the careers of Rainbow and Ciel certainly would be.

"Rainbow Dash, are you nervous?" Twilight asked teasingly.

"No," Rainbow scoffed. "I just don't want to mess this up, for Atlas or for us."

"I am not unconfident in our chances," Ciel said.

"Neither am I, I'm just saying that we can't afford to mess this up."

As they crossed the courtyard, they were hailed along the way by fellow Atlas students wishing them good luck.

"Yo, Rainbow Dash, you better show us something out there."

"Oh, you bet we're gonna show you something, Flynt," Rainbow said.

"Good luck out there Dash."

"Go get 'em, Penny!"

"Win one for Atlas!"

"You see, this is what I'm talking about," Rainbow said, as they reached the dock where a skybus was waiting to take them up to the coliseum. "We need to do this right for everybody."

"And we will," Twilight said. "We've got the fastest, bravest fighter in Atlas, Ciel has a first class analytical brain and Penny is _Penny_!"

Rainbow looked at her. Or looked at her helmet anyway. "You left out you."

"Yeah, well, I'm just here to make up the numbers in the first round."

"Don't sell yourself short, you made that armour for a reason, right?"

"I…I guess I did," Twilight admitted.

"You know, maybe I should send you along with Penny to the two on two round."

"Don't even joke about that."

"I'd be honoured to fight alongside you Twilight."

"No you wouldn't and you've been spending too much time with Pyrrha to be talking about how honoured you'd be for anything."

"Do you think that they'll be watching? Pyrrha and Ruby?"

"Of course they will," Twilight said. "I think they'll all be watching."

* * *

The voice of Doctor Bartholomew Oobleck, Professor of History at Beacon Academy, echoed out of the television to reach the ears of Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna as they watched in Celestia's office in Canterlot and waited for the match between Team RSPT and Team JAMM to begin.

"So, this is it," Luna said as she sipped her tea. "Canterlot's favourite daughter takes the stage."

"Do you mean Rainbow Dash, or Twilight?" Celestia asked amusedly.

Luna chuckled. "It brings back memories, doesn't it?"

Celestia nodded. "It certainly does." Her eyes strayed to a photograph on her desk, of herself and her sister in their younger days, taken just after they'd won their match in the two vs two round. She still thought that Luna had been unlucky against Qrow in the singles. Her gaze left that photograph and went to the wall, to the picture of Rainbow Dash and her friends that hung there along with other photographs of those students of whom Celestia was especially proud. "And now a new generation takes their moment in the sun. One day it will be the turn of Rainbow and Twilight to watch TV and feel nostalgic for days gone by."

"One can only hope they last that long," Luna murmured darkly.

"Yes," Celestia said. "We can hope."

* * *

"GO RAINBOW DASH!"

Sunset leaned away from the sound. "Pinkie, they're not even out yet."

Team SAPR had found themselves sitting next to Rainbow and Twilight's Atlas friends, at least for now; seats in the Coliseum tended to get snatched up so the chances were that whenever SAPR's match was called their seats would be taken the moment they got up and they would have to find somewhere else to sit when they got back for the rest of the four on fours. But for now, they were sitting with Rainbow's friends. That hadn't been as awkward as Sunset had feared it would be; apparently word had gotten around after Mountain Glenn that she had turned over a new leaf, and neither Pinkie nor Rarity showed any sign of holding a grudge against her.

That didn't mean it was always easy on her ear drums to be so close to Pinkie Pie, however.

"Sorry," Pinkie said. "Just practicing."

"Um, Pinkie," Pyrrha said. "May I ask what you're wearing?"

Pinkie was wearing a short skirt and a top that left her arms and her midriff bared to the world; a pair of pink and blue pom-poms were clutched in her hands.

"It's a cheerleading outfit," Pinkie explained. "I use it to cheer on my friends. Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash!"

"Settle down now, Pinkie," Applejack urged gently. "There'll be plenty of time for excitement once the fight starts."

"But I'm already excited," Pinkie cried. "Aren't you excited, because I'm excited, I can't remember when I last felt so excited but then I'm also nervous so I guess I must be nervoucited is anybody else feeling nervoucited?"

"I understand what you mean," Pyrrha said. "Penny's come such a long way but we don't know anything about their opponents or what they're capable of."

"They'd have to be capable of something mighty impressive to get the better of Rainbow Dash," Applejack said.

"I'm sure they're going to do great," Ruby said.

"Yeah, if they perform here like they did in action with us then they've got nothing to worry about," Jaune said.

"There's no way Rainbow Dash is going to loose in the first round," Scootaloo said. "She's way too awesome."

"They're Ironwood's best," Sunset said. "If they don't go all the way then something's gone wrong."

Applejack chuckled. "Might come a time when we'll be cheering for someone different than who you're cheering for."

"And when that day comes whoever you're cheering for will be done," Sunset declared. "Nobody can touch Pyrrha."

"Yes, well…that day hasn't come just yet," Pyrrha said. "So let's just put that aside until it comes."

* * *

"Thank you for joining me, Ms Belladonna," Cadance said, as she got up from her seat to welcome the other woman.

"Please, Councillor Cadenza, call me Kali."

"Only if you call me Cadance," Cadance said with a smile. "Please, sit down."

Kali did so, taking the seat next to Cadance. "This is…more private than I expected."

Cadance currently had one of the boxes at the top of the coliseum all to herself, with the remaining ten seats currently lying vacant, although Shining Armour was standing in front of one of them as he stood guard behind her, and the rest of her security detail was taking up a little space as well. So, now, were Kali's honour guard, two faunus in black armour who were exchanging slightly surly glares with the Atlesian security.

"Yes, it's a privilege of my position," she said. "And a sad necessity." There was a part of her that would rather be watching down in the stands with Twilight's friends, but that was the kind of security nightmare that she would never be allowed to indulge in. And so here she was, exiled to the upper boxes which only the wealthiest could afford. "The view is not the greatest, but you'll find the refreshment selection on the right arm of your chair very comprehensive."

"And complimentary?"

"Of course," Cadance said lightly. She handed Kali a set of opera glasses. "You might need these."

"Thank you," Kali said. "Although I think Blake might prefer it if I didn't see her fight. Not that I intend to take any notice of what she wants in this instance." She glanced at Shining Armour. "Not dressed like your other bodyguards?"

"He's my husband," Cadance said. "He's just over-protective."

"Ma'am," Shining Armour said to Kali.

"I see," Kali said. She grinned. "Nothing like having a big, strapping man around the house to make a woman fee safe, is there? But I doubt you asked me to join you simply to show me your fine husband or treat me to complimentary refreshments."

"General Ironwood might be joining us, as and when and if his duties permit; I trust that isn't a problem."

"I have no quarrel with the Atlesian military," Kali said. "I always felt it was Atlas that had a quarrel with us."

"Something we can discuss," Cadance said. "I asked you to join me so that we could talk in private. Although not perhaps during this match. I don't want to miss a second of this."

* * *

"I wonder who's going to win?" Lightning Dust said. The house they were using as a hideout was many things, but equipped with a television it was not, so they were forced to use a scroll to watch the matches, which led to them all being huddled round it closer to one another than anyone would like.

"Are you serious?" Emerald asked.

"I'd kind of like to see that Rainbow Dash get her butt kicked," Lightning said. "But if the robot girl doesn't make it to the two-on-two then the plan's going wrong already. Which makes it really hard to decide who to root for."

"We root for ourselves," Cinder declared. She was watching from a greater distance than the rest, probably because she just didn't want to rub shoulders with any of them. "And it's obvious that Team Rosepetal is going to win. If General Ironwood's prize protégés can't overcome a quartet of Leo's leftovers then there is no hope for Atlas at all."

"But there's no hope for Atlas anyway, right?" Emerald said.

Cinder chuckled. "True, but you know what I meant. Team Rosepetal is going to win."

"But it's how they do it that'll be fun to see," Sonata said. "Everybody's super-stoked for these fights; I can't wait to see just how far they'll go to win."

* * *

The cheers of the crowd echoed down from the rising banks of seats that made up the coliseum as Team RSPT made their way into the arena, walking across the currently blank and featureless modules that, when the fight began, would form the terrain over which the two teams would battle. Team RSPT made their way into the centre of the arena, while the Mistralian Team JAMM made their way in from the opposite side and lined up against them.

The voices of the crowd were dissolved into an unintelligible mass of noise, in the same way that Rainbow couldn't make out any faces just a load of people in the distance. But she could, and she wore swear to this, make out Pinkie's voice, rising high-pitched above all the others to cheer her on.

It put a smile on Rainbow's face as the two teams faced each other.

That is, she had a smile on her face right up until one of the Haven students opened their mouth. "You're going down, Atlas; just like the others. This is our time now, and we're going to teach you that you can't have things all your own way."

"Oh yeah?" Rainbow said. "Talk a little too tough for a school that never wins."

"We're gonna take you down, Atlas."

"We'll see about that," Ciel growled.

Professor Port's voice boomed out across the arena. "Team Rosepetal of Atlas!"

The cheers from the sections of the stands most occupied by Atlesians and their supporters were redoubled as the names of the RSPT members flashed up on the board, showing all their aura levels as being in the green.

"Versus Team Jasmine of Haven!" This time the cheers rose from the Haven sections, as the names of the huntsmen of Jasmine appeared opposite the Rosepetals and allowed Rainbow to start putting names to the faces confronting her team:

Jason Ash, the leader, didn't look like he shaved as much as he should; maybe he was trying to grow a beard but if he was it wasn't really working out for him. His cuirass was black, and he wore a golden fleece down his back like a cape, with the ram's skull with its two golden horns acting like a kind of helmet. He had a short sword in one hand and a large round shield – larger than Pyrrha's, maybe as much as twice the size – in the other.

Atalanta Boar was a bear faunus, with claws were her fingernails out to have been; that didn't stop her holding a bow in her hand with an arrow fitted to string. She was wearing a short white dress that stopped just above her knees, and her chestnut hair was cut short above the shoulders.

Meleager Flame had a spear in his hand, or at least what currently looked like a spear; the fact that it was attached to a tank on his back via a tube made Rainbow suspect it could turn into a dust-powered flamethrower at a moment's notice. He was naked above the waist save for a red cape clasped about his shoulders, and his dark hair was long and curly and fell down his neck in ringlets.

Medea Fleece was attired similarly to Jason, in a golden fleece worn like a cloak; in her case the ram's skull served to conceal even more of her face than it did of his, only a set of purple lips were visible beneath the shadow of the skull. Her robes were dark blue, and wrapped all around her body. Rainbow couldn't see a weapon on her, so she must have been hiding it along with her hands.

Both teams readied their weapons: Rainbow drew her pistols and held them up level with her head, Ciel aimed her rifle at Atalanta who likewise drew her bow on Ciel; Meleager brandished his spear at Twilight; Jason stepped into a guard with his shield held before him; Penny clasped her hands behind her back and smiled.

All around the edges of the arena the terrain indicators began to light up, cycling between the different options available like slot machines: woods, mountains, desert, all flipped past until the icons behind RSPT landed on a symbol that Rainbow didn't recognise until a set of ancient ruins rose up out of the depths of the coliseum behind them.

A rocky desert, dominated by a vast and towered mountain of brown rock, rose up behind Team JAMM.

"Three," Professor – sorry, Doctor – Oobleck's voice boomed across the arena. "Two…one. Begin!"

Distant Thunder boomed, but the members of Team JAMM had already scattered, leaping aside before they began to run…backwards? They were retreating already, running towards the cover of the rocks that littered the desert sand in the shadow of the mountain, zig-zagging as they went so that neither Ciel's thunderous rounds nor the laser fire from Penny's swords which had now emerged from out of her back could quite hit them. Actually that wasn't quite true, Penny managed to wing Atalanta on the shoulder and knock her down for a moment, but it didn't stop the others running and once she got up – minus a good slice of her aura – it didn't stop her from running either.

Rainbow's first impulse was to pursue, but though that impulse screamed at her she resisted it. She resisted it because it was likely to get at least some of her team taken out, and that meant she couldn't afford to give in to her ingrained hot-headedness. JAMM were running not because they'd been forced to but because they'd decided to. That meant that they had a plan, and that meant-

"Back!" Rainbow ordered, because if JAMM had a plan she wanted to find out what it was from behind cover.

"Oho, what's this?" Professor Port asked, as sections of the crowd started booing at the sight of Team RSPT emulating JAMM and breaking behind them for the cover of the old ruins, all crumbling walls of yellow stone blending into the rocky surface beneath them. "Are both teams running away from each other?"

"I can't decide if he's playing for the crowd or demonstrating his lack of fitness to be a teacher," Ciel muttered barely above her breath as she leapt over a low wall and took cover behind it. The rest of the team did likewise.

"What do we do now?" Penny asked as she made herself seem small behind a particularly low patch of ruined wall.

"If anyone sticks their head above cover, shoot them," Rainbow said. "Like her!" she said, pointing at Medea who had just risen to her feet. Rainbow had to duck as Atalanta loosed a fire dust arrow in her direction. It flew over Rainbow's head and exploded brightly but harmlessly.

The powerful desert sun was in their eyes, but between Rainbow's magenta goggles, the fact that Penny had sensors – sensors with a name beginning with O – instead of eyes if you wanted to be technical, and Twilight's armour, the only one that was really in trouble from it was Ciel, and even she pulled a one-eyed blue visor out of her pocket, too off her beret and swiftly pulled the visor over her head and onto her shooting eye. If JAMM were relying on the sun to blind RSPT they had another thing coming.

Which was probably why they seemed to be relying on Atalanta's shooting to keep their heads down while Medea did whatever it was she was doing.

Medea raised her hands. Penny fired at her with three of her swords, green bolts streaking across the arena towards her. Jason threw himself between Medea and the fire, raising his shield as all three laser bolts struck it more or less in the centre, hurling him backwards into the mountain.

But by then it was too late.

Rainbow's eyes widened as skeletons began to rise out of the ground in the centre of the arena. No, she wasn't lying and she wasn't exaggerating. Actual skeletons with swords and round metal shields were popping out of the ground. A couple of them had spears, but for most of them it was sword and shield as they rose one after the other in the centre of the arena, surrounded by a ghostly blue light that made them look even creepier than the fact that they were frickin' skeletons would have.

 _Is this her semblance? What kind of a creepy person has a semblance like this?_

Ciel shot one of the skeletons, blowing it to smithereens with a single shot of Distant Thunder, but another skeleton simply rose out of the ground to take its place.

The skeletons, sixteen in total, stared at RSPT out of their lifeless sockets. Then, slowly, they began to advance, marching forwards in regimented unison with their swords and shields held useless by their sides.

Ciel fired again, another skeleton was blown to pieces before a replacement rose out of the floor. Then, with a blood-curdling scream and charged, their swords raised above their heads and their shields held before them.

Rainbow fired, spraying bullets from both pistols into the midst of the skeletal horde. Ciel kept shooting, Twilight thrust her armoured fists forward to unleash some kind of energy attack that sent them flying, Penny rose up from behind cover with all her swords forming a halo around her head as laser bolt after laser bolt leapt from the tips of her blades. But ever skeleton that was knocked down picked itself back up again, and every skeleton that had its head knocked off simply stumbled about for a moment until it found its head and put it back on again; and for every skeleton that was completely destroyed another rose out of the centre of the arena to take its place and charge towards Team RSPT. And they were getting closer all the time.

"Logic dictates that if we defeat Medea then these creations of her semblance will disappear," Ciel said as she blew one away.

Rainbow had emptied the clips on both her pistols. She reloaded but held her fire. "Penny."

Penny was able to turn her head to look at Rainbow without pausing for a second in her fire or compromising her accuracy. "Yes, Rainbow Dash." It was weird how calm she sounded, but at the same time comforting too.

"It's like Ciel said, so you and me are going to get over there quick as we can and we're going to knock Medea out. Ciel, Twilight, can you hold them here?"

One of the skeletons, its face set in a rictus grin, managed to almost touch the tip of the barrel of Distant Thunder before Ciel blew it away. She collapsed and slung her rifle before producing a standard issue stun baton. "We will manage," she said.

A shield of purple energy appeared from Twilight's left arm, while an energy blade emerged from her right gauntlet. "Go," Twilight said. "But hurry."

Rainbow nodded, and retreated back a few paces as the skeletons approached. Her wings unfurled, and as the skeletons climbed over the wall to get to her, Rainbow leapt.

She left them there, Ciel parrying the skeletal swords with her baton, Twilight taking the blows upon her shield and trying to strike back with her energy blade, the two of them being forced back by the multitude of enemies pressing against them. She left them there, and even if she was leaving them so that she could save them she still didn't really like to do it. But it was the only way.

She flew above the surface of the arena, twisting out of the way of an arrow fired at her by Atalanta which exploded against the shield covering the top of the coliseum. She didn't look to see if Penny was following, she trusted that she was and in the meantime Rainbow only had eyes for their enemies as she passed in front of the artificial desert sun and descended out of it like a thunderbolt.

She was moving too fast for Atalanta to track with her bow; that was what Rainbow trusted anyway as she ignored the archer, aiming both pistols at Medea and opening up on her on fully automatic.

Once again Jason got in the way, holding his shield to cover his face as the bullets ricocheted off the grey metal. Rainbow roared in anger as she did a backflip in mid-air so that she completed her descent feet first, slamming into Jason's shield and pushing him back across the sand. He pushed back, and Rainbow leapt backwards as her wings folded up into her backpack, doing another backflip so that she landed on her feet and facing Jason as he charged for her. His sword was glowing blue. Ice dust? Lightning dust?

Rainbow heard the twang of Atalanta's bow and twisted her body around to avoid the arrow that would have struck her on the shoulder otherwise. Her contorted position also meant that Jason's thrusting stroke with his sword slid harmlessly past her before Rainbow pistol-whipped him across the side of the face as she regained uprightness, knocking him sideways. She took aim at Medea, who had barely moved since Rainbow landed, but before she could pull the trigger Rainbow had to leap away as a great gust of flame issued from the tip of Meleager's spear which, yep, definitely a flamethrower too, that must be fire dust in the tank on his back. Meleager used his fire to drive Rainbow further away from Medea before converting it back into a spear and charging with the weapon held before him. Jason also advanced on her, bodily covering Medea as he did so, while Atalanta leapt onto a rock and then used that as a platform to leap again, taking aim at Rainbow from behind her.

And then Penny entered the fray.

Penny had been slower to enter the fighting for the simple reason that she didn't have wings – well, Twilight was working on a set of wings and they were currently in the workshop on the _Valiant_ for finishing touches, but they'd get in the way of hatch for her swords so they'd be no good at all in a situation like this – so she'd had to get over here by jumping up over the heads of the skeletons, throwing a sword forward until it buried itself in the floor and then using the wire to pull herself towards it. In that way she had covered the distance, leaping up and then dragging herself rapidly forwards, and it was her final leap that carried her the distance as one sword buried itself in the sand at the point Atlanta had just leapt up from.

Penny slammed bodily into the other huntress, bearing her back down the way she'd come into the ground, slamming her into the sand with Penny's feet upon her chest. There was no klaxon to announce that she'd been knocked out, but as she simply lay there Penny turned her attention to Jason and Meleager. Her swords all fired at once, green laser bolts scattering the two Haven huntsmen, before Penny – all her blades but the one that she had gripped tightly in each hand – charged them.

As she threw herself in between her two opponents, effortlessly fending them off even as they tried to attack her from front and behind at once, parrying their strokes with spear and sword without even having to look, beating them off but never letting them disengage, spinning to deliver an expertly aimed laser blast from one sword that hit Atalanta square in the chest as she was getting to her feet and knocked her down again, as Penny fought it was easy to see that she'd learned hand to hand from sparring with Pyrrha. She wasn't copying the Mistralian champion's movements exactly – Penny's moves were optimised for her own new twin-blade style – but the influence was unmistakable in the graceful, spinning turns, the leaps, the flourishes, the show-boating moves with lots of unnecessary movements that got the crowd up on their feet but would have meant major openings for anyone less skilled than a once-in-a-century Mistralian prodigy…or a state of the art Atlesian combat robot. But neither of the two Haven students could lay so much as a glancing blow on Penny as she fended them off, kept them busy, whittled their aura down…and gave Rainbow a straight shot to Medea.

Rainbow charged, a rainbow trailing behind her. Medea drew some kind of crooked knife, but she didn't look like she really knew what to do with it as she brandished it at Dash. With her other hand she produced a fistful of fire dust crystals and threw them all at Rainbow. Dash didn't stop, in fact she sped up, taking the hit to her aura as the dust crystals exploded all around her, racing through the fire even as she felt her aura drain away because it wasn't as if she was saving it for a special occasion or nothing.

Rainbow charged, fist cocked back, a roar from her mouth as she hit Medea full pelt, decking her across the face hard enough to knock the ram skull of her head to reveal a girl with blue hair and slight elfin features who winced as she was punched. Rainbow followed up with a punch to the gut, a sweeping kick that knocked her legs out from under her and finally a punch square to the chest to which she added an aura boom. The sound echoed across the stadium as Rainbow's aura dropped into the yellow, but it was totally worth it for the way that Medea flew backwards into the mountain so hard she made a dent in it.

The klaxon rang. "Medea Fleece's aura has dropped below the threshold," Professor Port declared, as the crowd roared and booed in equal measure. "She is eliminated."

Medea dropped face first onto the ground.

Rainbow turned, and sure enough the skeletons began to dissolve into nothingness immediately. In mere moments there was nothing left of them at all.

Atalanta started to pick herself up off the ground again. There was a roar from Distant Thunder and she was thrown sideways as the klaxon sounded again.

"Oh, and Atalanta Boar becomes the second member of Team Jasmine to be eliminated," Doctor Oobleck yelled. "Can the remaining two team members turn things around from here?"

"Not a chance," Rainbow muttered. "Penny, we did it."

"Understood," Penny said, leaping clear of both Jason and Meleager. She landed on one of the rocks that jutted out above the sand, and looked down at her two opponents as the rest of her swords emerged from out of her back to hover menacingly above her head.

Then, like a pack of wolves, they pounced upon their prey. Meleager was taken out by the laser bolts that they loosed as they shot forwards, while Jason had his feet cut from under him before being tossed up into the air and then hammered down again before the klaxon sounded.

"Team Jasmine is eliminated," Professor Port said, his voice rising above the contesting sounds of the crowd which hadn't stopped even though the fight hand. "Team Rosepetal stands victorious."

"We…we won?" Penny said, leaping down off the rock. "Is the match over? Did we win?"

Rainbow flashed her a thumbs up. "You bet we did, Penny. We won, and you were awesome."

Penny stared at her for a moment, before her whole face lit up with glee as she raised both her hands into the air. "Fantastic!" She cleared her throat and clasped both hands behind her back. "I mean, uh, thank you for a wonderful time."

* * *

Luna leaned back in her chair. "They did it," she said softly.

Celestia chuckled. "Was there ever a doubt that they would?"

"There is neither shame in losing to a skilled opponent nor shame in contemplating that those you would rather win may be so defeated," Luna said. "That semblance was quite something."

"But they relied on it too heavily," Celestia said. "Or else her team-mates were simply not as strong as her semblance, and she was untested in any other method of combat. Once Rainbow Dash got into close quarters she seemed helpless. What are they teaching them at Haven?"

"You may well ask, if half of what I hear is true," Luna said. She refilled her tea cup. "That girl, Miss Polendina, Rainbow's team-mate. Do you know anything about her?"

"No, but she certainly was the girl of the match, wasn't she?" Celestia said. "Even more than Rainbow Dash."

"Indeed," Luna said. "Though we have not heard of her before, I imagine that we will be hearing much more about Miss Polendina in the days ahead."

* * *

Moondancer clasped her hands together. "That was a great fight, wasn't it Doctor?"

Doctor Polendina was staring at the screen as if he were mesmerised by it. "Yes," he murmured. "She was…absolutely extraordinary."

"I was a little worried when that girl unveiled her semblance, but-"

"I was never concerned," Doctor Polendina said.

Moondancer's eyebrows rose above her spectacles. "Not even for a moment?"

The doctor smiled. "It's my daughter out there, how could I doubt that she'd succeed?" He began to search his pockets, patting them and sticking his hands into the pockets of his labcoat, the pockets of his trousers, even his waistcoat pockets with increasingly frantic speed. "Where is it? Where is it? Where is the damn thing, Moondancer! Do you know where my scroll is?"

Moondancer leapt to her feet at once. "I'll get it for you, Doctor."

"Thank you. People keep hiding things from me, even in my own lab…or did I just put it down somewhere and forget it?"

"I've got it right here, Doctor," Moondancer said, as she grabbed his scroll off the surface and carried it over to him.

"Thank you," he said. "I…I'd like to call Penny and congratulate her. Do you think she'd like that?"

Moondancer nodded. "I think she'd like that very much, Doctor."

* * *

Team RSPT had left the arena and were making their way through the tunnel that ran beneath the higher rows of audience benches when Penny's scroll rang.

They stopped, and Rainbow had to admit that she was surprised. Penny didn't really calls.

Penny looked as perplexed as anyone else as she pulled her scroll out of a pouch hung on the back of her belt and opened it up. "F-Father?"

From the other side of the scroll – she'd been in front of Penny, and was now looking back at her – Rainbow could see the reverse of Doctor Polendina's face.

"Penny," Doctor Polendina said. "I just wanted to offer my congratulations."

"You…you were watching?"

"Of course I was watching," Doctor Polendina said. "My girl is taking part in the Vytal Festival in front of the whole of Remnant; I wouldn't miss something like that for the chance to make the greatest breakthrough of the age. You were wonderful out there."

"Really? You really think so?"

"I do," he said. "I know that I didn't want you to train in close quarters combat…but I was wrong; you were right, and you were splendid."

Penny stared down at her scroll, and at the image of her father within it, in silence for a moment. When she spoke her voice was barely louder than a whisper. "Thank you, Father."

"Was it that girl who taught you…um…what's her name…the one you talked about, the one that you admire…why can't I remember her name-"

"Pyrrha?" Penny said.

"Yes, that's it, Pyrrha…something. She's the Mistralian celebrity, isn't she?"

"Yes," Penny said. "And she's a good friend. She and I have been practicing together…although I also trained a little with Twilight's brother before we left for Vale…but you're right, I do try to fight a little like Pyrrha does; it's so beautiful, the way she moves, like dancing."

"You were beautiful out there yourself," Doctor Polendina said. "I…I'm sorry, Penny, I'm feeling rather tired. And I'm sure that you don't want me to keep you too long."

"I don't mind," Penny said. "But, if you're tired, you should get some rest."

Doctor Polendina nodded absently. "Before I go, I think Moondancer would like to say something."

His face was replaced in the scroll by that of Twilight's lab partner Moondancer. "Hey Penny. I just wanted to say congratulations on that fight, and good luck. We're rooting for you up here."

"Thank you, Moondancer."

Doctor Polendina's face re-appeared. "You don't need luck, Penny; you were built to be so good that you had no need for luck. Just keep doing your best at everything you try to do and you'll be fine."

Penny nodded. "I will. I promise."

Doctor Polendina sighed. "I love you."

"I love you too, Father."

He hung up, but Penny just stared at the blank scroll in her hands. "He…he's proud of me."

Twilight put one hand on Penny's shoulder. "We're all so proud of you, Penny."

"Very much so," Ciel said, as she reached out gingerly for Penny's hand; before she could touch it she recoiled as though she'd been stung by a rapier wasp and leapt to attention with a slam of her feet upon the floor. "Officer on deck ten hut!"

Rainbow slammed her boots onto the ground as she, too, sprung to attention, performing an about face that would have had the drill sergeant weeping with pride as she came face to chest with General Ironwood as he emerged from out of the tunnel towards them.

Rainbow and Ciel saluted, which General Ironwood returned swiftly. "At ease." As his two soldiers complied, General Ironwood cast his eyes over the team. "I just came down here to congratulate you on a well deserved victory. Now I can look Leo in the eye…until the next Atlas vs Haven match, at lest."

Penny smiled. "Glad we could help, General."

General Ironwood nodded. "You did very well out there, Penny."

"Thank you, General Ironwood," Penny said.

General Ironwood said, "Penny, I don't want you to think that you have anything to prove to me in this tournament. As far as I'm concerned your actions at the Breach, and in the campaign against the White Fang, speak for themselves. As far as I'm concerned you're as much a soldier of Atlas as either Dash or Soleil, and like them one of the best soldiers I have to command."

Penny's eyes widened. "I…thank you…sir." Her tone became tentative as she tried out the honorific; it wasn't one that Rainbow had heard her use before.

"But," General Ironwood continued, addressing them all now and not just Penny. "I'm sure you don't need reminding that – when all things go well and according to plan – this is the only time the wider world gets to see huntsmen and huntresses in action. I can submit all the reports I like about your progress and performance but the Council will believe what they can see and they can see this. You don't have anything to prove to me, but I'm afraid that you have a lot to prove to Atlas."

Penny saluted. "I'll do my best, sir!"

"I'm glad to hear it," General Ironwood said. He glanced over his shoulder down the tunnel. "And now I won't impose myself upon you any further. Good work, Team Rosepetal; keep it up." He saluted Rainbow and Ciel once again, before walking away from them and into the lower rows of stands of common seating, passing a couple of Atlesian knights standing guard; he had exited just moments before the arrival of Team SAPR and all of Rainbow and Twilight's friends coming through the tunnel to press their congratulations upon them.

"You won the first round, Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo cried as he came forward first of all. "You were awesome!"

"Nah, that was Tuesday for me," Rainbow said lightly. "Penny here was the awesome one."

"Congratulations Penny," Pyrrha said. "I confess I'm astonished that you could master moves like that so quickly."

"Yeah, I've been training with Pyrrha for nearly a year and I'm nowhere near that good."

"My mind is a learning computer specifically developed to achieve 95% retention of all information received with the aim of rapid learning of complex tasks," Penny said. She blinked. "You're not jealous are you, Jaune?"

"What? No," Jaune said. "I was just saying, it's pretty cool the way that you can get so good so quickly. Well, I guess I am a little jealous, but not in the bad way."

"It's still cool, even if it is a computer," Ruby said.

"A computer which would mean nothing if you didn't also have a warrior's soul," Pyrrha said.

"Do you really think my moves were that good?"

"I wouldn't say it if I didn't."

"Go Rosepetal!" Pinkie cried, waving her pom-poms in the air. It drew Rainbow's attention to what she was wearing.

"Pinkie is that…are you wearing a cheer outfit?"

Pinkie nodded eagerly. "C is for Rainbow Dash, yeah!"

"Excuse me?" Pyrrha asked.

"It's a private joke, you're not going to get it unless you were at Canterlot at the time," Sunset said. "That guy…whatever happened to that guy? I haven't seen him with the Atlas students."

"Oh, Bulk decided not to become a huntsman," Rarity explained. "He decided to pursue an alternative career in the health and beauty industry."

Sunset stared at her. "You're kidding me?"

"I'm quite serious I assure you, darling."

"The biggest guy I've seen this side of Yatsuhashi Daichi and he decided to turn his back on his combat training to become a beautician?"

"A masseuse, to be precise," Fluttershy said. "He's really very good at it, too."

"Well…huh," Sunset said.

It was weird, but being around Sunset didn't arouse nearly the same feelings of anger and suspicion that they had done just a few years earlier. Those feelings weren't gone exactly, Rainbow could still feel them there, but it was like they'd been dulled, partly washed away, put in a cupboard out of the way where she wouldn't notice them so much. And that had started as soon as her friends arrived. It was as if they were keeping guard over her soul somehow.

Maybe, anyway. If they were doing something then she was grateful for it; if they weren't doing anything…she was grateful anyway.

"So what do we do now?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Why don't we all go down to the fairgrounds?" Pinkie suggested.

"We can't," Ruby said. "The next match is-"

"The next match between Team Iron of Beacon and Team Bronze of Shade will begin in ten minutes!" Professor Port announced over the speakers.


	158. You're Not So Tough Now You're In Our To

You're Not So Tough Now You're In Our Town

Kali raised the opera glasses to her eyes. "You'll have to forgive me, Councillor," she said. "But I'm afraid that this is a match that I don't want to miss a minute of."

Cadance chuckled. "Of course. Your daughter."

"Yes," Kali said. She was silent a moment. "Councillor – Cadance; do you have any children?"

Cadance thought about the fact that she'd missed her period this month; she hadn't taken a test, or been to a doctor yet. She didn't want to get her hopes up, especially when it still possible that she was simply late for some reason. And yet, all the same, she couldn't help but wonder. "No," she said. "I don't. Not yet, at least."

Kali looked at her – neither team was yet on the field yet, to say nothing of the match beginning – with a smile on her face. "You're still young, of course."

"That's very kind of you to say."

"But tell me, Cadance," Kali said. "If you had a child of your own, how would you feel about them being forced to sign away their freedom either to a jail or to a military, regardless of their feelings on the matter?"

Cadance looked at her guest. "I would probably take it with less equanimity than you're displaying."

"I suppose that being Blake's mother has prepared me to accept things which I can't change," Kali said. "I couldn't stop her joining the White Fang…why should I be able to stop her joining the Atlesian forces?"

"She's still a Beacon student."

"For now," Kali said. "I asked Blake why she would want to fight for Atlas, and she told me that I was wrong about them, that the Atlesian military was full of good people."

"Blake's right," Cadance said.

"I know," Kali said. "I spoke to one of them, Rainbow Dash, the leader of Team Rosepetal. I asked her why a faunus would want to fight for Atlas and she told me, in a few more words, that it was out of a mixture of pride and loyalty. But what she didn't tell me, what perhaps neither of them could tell me is, why those good people whom Blake praised so highly would fight for Atlas, and why it would matter to someone like Rainbow Dash whether a place like Atlas thought well of her or not, whether it had any regrets about its decision to give her a chance or not."

"Atlas is not the enemy of the faunus-"

"It was never a friend of the faunus, as I remember," Kali said.

Cadance was silent for a moment. "I'm sure you're right," she said. "But I think…I think that sometimes we fight for the Atlas that exists in our hearts rather than the one that exists in the skies above Solitas."

Kali looked at her.

"Please let me explain," Cadance said. "This isn't a fairytale, nor a dream spun from thin air; this other Atlas, this better Atlas already exists in potential, like a sleeping giant that can only awaken if we will it so. A kingdom that does more good to its friends than it asks from them in return; a kingdom that makes its friends by conferring not receiving favours; a kingdom where all its citizens alike, from the lowest to the highest, take care not only of their private but also contribute all they are able to the public good; a kingdom where we rely upon our hearts and hands, where we live at ease and yet are as ready to face peril as any warriors trained from early youth. A kingdom that is thrown open to the world. A kingdom of harmony."

"Such a city would be the school of Remnant, if it existed."

"It can exist," Cadance insisted. "Its foundations are already laid in Altas if we are only bold enough and good enough to build upon them."

Kali chuckled. "I don't know about Rainbow Dash, but it is surely that kind of idealism that appeals to Blake. She wants to change the world."

Cadance smiled. "If more people believed it could be done perhaps the world would change."

Kali chuckled. "You remind me that you're almost as young as my daughter and her friends, just as Blake reminds me of her father when we were her age."

"You think that it's inevitable that she'll lose her idealism as she gets older?"

"You don't?"

"I hope not," Cadance said. "It would be better if she could prove you wrong, don't you think?"

Kali considered that. "That…that would be wonderful, you're right. Those students whose impressive display we've just watched, are they friends of yours? You're interest went beyond Atlesian loyalty."

Cadance nodded casually. "Twilight is my sister in law, I've known her since she was very young; and Rainbow Dash is a friend of the family. They were both bridesmaids at my wedding."

"Actually, only Rainbow Dash was a bridesmaid," Shining Armour interjected from his place standing guard over his wife. "Twilight was…the best girl, I guess?"

Kali chuckled. "Well, to somebody I'm sure she is. But in that case, didn't you want to go and congratulate them on their performance?"

"Yes," Cadance admitted. "Very much so, especially after what Rainbow did out there. But, however close we may be, I'm still an Atlesian councillor, and I don't want to make things awkward down there. So I'll leave them to their friends, for now. Shining Armour and I can catch up with them later on." She frowned ever so slightly. "Why do you ask?"

"I was just wondering if Blake would want me down there to congratulate her when she wins," Kali said. "Do you think she would even want me to be watching her now?"

"Would it change anything if you knew for sure that she did?"

Kali paused for just a moment. "No," she conceded. "I wouldn't miss this for all of Remnant."

* * *

As Sunset had expected, as soon as they got up from their seats somebody else had snatched them up, but luckily they were able to spot someone else – someone else who wasn't interested in a fight between Beacon and Shade, even though with this team it promised to be a fun ride – getting up from the bench a few rows back, and Team SAPR made their way there before anyone else could snaffle up the seats before them. Ruby and Sunset took the inside seats, with Sunset being forced to squash up a little against a middle-aged woman wearing a twin-set and pearls, while Jaune and Pyrrha took the seats closer to the aisle (or on it, in Jaune's case).

"How do you think they're feeling?" Pyrrha asked as they sidled in.

Ruby chuckled. "Yang would never let on that she was nervous even if she was, and you know Blake. Nora acted as though she was a little worried about what would happen if they lost, but I don't know if she was just playing around…do you ever get the feeling that a lot of the crazy stuff that Nora says, she says it to make people laugh not because she really means it."

"I don't know, I think she means at least some of it," Sunset said. "And I know that at least one of those stories is one hundred percent true. But, all the same…I get where you're coming from. It's how she keeps up team spirit, even when things are getting dark out there."

"Sounds like she and Pinkie might get along if they had a chance to talk for a while," Rainbow said as she walked up to them. "Hey, Jaune, do you mind scooting up a little bit?"

"Uh, sure," Jaune said. "What are you doing here? I thought you were going down to the fairgrounds?"

"Nah, I sent my friends down there with Penny and Ciel, but I thought that I ought to stay and see Blake's fight. I'll head down after that, I'm not interested in…whoever's next on the docket, I don't remember."

"You're not going to watch Flash's fight?" Sunset said.

Rainbow leaned forward to get a better look at her. "Flash is up next?"

Sunset nodded. "Team Wisteria is up against Team Indigo, also from Shade."

"Well good luck to him, but I'm sure he'll understand."

"I'm going to stay and watch that," Sunset said, only slightly pointedly.

"Good for you, I'd rather have some fun with my friends groundside," Rainbow said.

"I suppose," Sunset said. Quickly, to the other members of her team, she added. "Oh, by the way, I'm not asking any of you guys to stick around. I know that you won't all be interested in Wisteria, so you can go and I'll meet you when it's over."

"I'll stay," Pyrrha said. "Team Auburn is the match immediately after that, and I think that I ought to watch it. You might call it a professional courtesy."

Sunset nodded. "I'll stay for that one too then, and we can go down together." It would have been very churlish to have accepted Pyrrha's company for the fight that she was interested in, only to ditch her immediately after and leave her alone for the fight that Pyrrha wanted to see.

"We can all stay?" Ruby suggested.

"Nah," Sunset said. "You and Jaune go have some fun, and we'll catch up. There'll still be plenty of time." Team SAPR's fight – against Atlas' Team PSTL and its obnoxious leader Phoebe; Sunset found the idea that they were going to be fighting Cinder's wicked stepsister to be slightly surreal – had been placed last on the scorecard, as if someone had arranged things so as to finish off the day with the most highly anticipated fight of the first round.

"So does anybody know how Blake's doing?" Rainbow asked. "I didn't get a chance to talk to her."

"She's the same," Ruby said. "You don't know what she's feeling."

"I don't think she's that concerned about the tournament," Sunset said. "When I talked to her it didn't seem to matter much to her."

"Didn't matter?" Rainbow gasped.

"I know, crazy right?" Sunset said. "But Blake's not really interested in fame or glory. And even if she was…Iron has nothing to worry about on this one."

"Have you been studying all the teams or something?"

"Of course I've been studying all the teams," Sunset said sharply. "Team Bronze has a sniper and three close quarters specialists, only their specialists have got nothing on Iron's four close quarter specialists and I don't think their sniper's good enough to make up for it."

"You sound very certain," Pyrrha said.

"Don't I always sound very certain?"

"Quite a lot of the time, yes."

"Let me put it like this," Sunset said. "Team Bronze's leader is going to be wearing glorified knuckle dusters, Yang is wearing sawn-off shotguns."

There was a moment of silence.

"That…that does sound like an advantage," Ruby murmured.

"All the same, for their sake I hope that Iron don't share your confidence," Pyrrha said. "Overconfidence is both unbecoming and potentially very hazardous."

Sunset shrugged. "It won't be long now," she said. "And then you'll see that I was right."

* * *

Since Ozpin didn't have a specific job for him to do right now, Qrow had retired to a bar in Vale that he knew called, appropriately enough, Crow Bar. It was a tiny little place on the docks, with an open front and a bar barely big enough for four guys to sit side by side. That was one of the things he liked about it, it was quiet, not the kind of place where a lot of people came and certainly not at this time in the morning.

Of course, the downside of that was that when the barkeep was looking for somebody to shoot the breeze with – he probably thought he was doing his job by being friendly, but couldn't he spot a guy who wanted to drink alone and in silence when he saw one – there wasn't a whole lot of choice when you were the only guy in the bar.

And so, as the television switched between reminding everyone of the result of the match that had just gone and previewing the match that was about to come, the bartender leaned on the bar opposite him and said, "You know, I'm not sure about all these Atlas types around here, but those kids weren't half bad."

Qrow snorted. Ironwood might think a lot of those four brats but he was considerably less impressed. "They got lucky." Against a decent opposition – by which Qrow meant his memories of Team STRQ in their prime, memories that were still too raw to dwell on for very long but vivid enough to still recall that they had been an unstoppable force of nature when they were together – would have made mincemeat out of them.

Of course, if Summer were still here she would have told him not to be such a sour jackass to those kids; she might have told him that it was no shame if they believed in one another, if they thought that together they could overcome any obstacle.

After all, Team STRQ had thought the same once. Or at least Summer had.

That was one of the reasons he didn't like to think on those days too much; he didn't know whether Summer's memory was the better angel on his shoulder or whether she was a fool who had died believing in dreams and empty words.

 _Would you tell Ruby to go for it, or would you tell her to grow up? I wish I knew._

 _I wish I knew what you'd say to me._

 _I wish you were still here. Even seeing you with him…was easier than never being able to see you at all._

But when had wishing for something ever gotten him anyplace? About as often as believing in one another and standing together as friends had gotten Team STRQ any place.

The more that he dwelt upon his past, the more the still shot of Team RSPT celebrating their victory offended him. They weren't much like his old team, but they had that same cocky air about them, that same sense of 'we can do anything if we stick together' that made him faintly nauseous…and that made him pity them almost as much as he pitied himself.

"You didn't like them?"

"Huh?" Qrow asked.

"The Atlas kids, you didn't like them?"

Qrow shrugged. "You don't like having Atlas in town?"

"I know they say they're here to keep us safe," the barkeep said. "But I don't know; there's an awful lot of them and yet things don't seem that safe, what with those airships getting attacked. If they're here to protect us then why haven't they put a stop to that, huh? Is it that they can't, even with all their ships and men? And what if they decide to not go home when the danger's past?" He shook his head. "I don't know, and I don't think the Mistralians are any better by the way. Nobody asked them to stick their noses into our business. Like I said, I don't know. Smart people handle all of this stuff, there's probably nothing to worry about…but I can't help but worry, you know."

"Trust me, I know," Qrow said. _And that, Jimmy, is why this was a bad idea._

"But then I see kids like that I think, you know, they're not so bad," the barkeep said. "Like I said, I just don't know what to think."

"You're probably not the only one," Qrow said. _All over the city people who don't know what to think, waiting for something to push them one way or the other._

 _But where's the shove going to come from?_

Qrow finished his drink and motioned for another. He wasn't going to find the answer sitting in here…but he would get to watch Yang's fight in relative peace and quiet.

"Turn it up a little bit, will you?" he asked. "I want to hear this next one."

"Sure thing," the barkeep said. "You rooting for the Vale kids?"

"Oh, you bet," Qrow said, not seeing the point in telling the guy that two of those 'Vale kids' were from Mistral and another from Mengerie. He didn't want to talk any more politics and he didn't want to do any more work; he just wanted to watch his niece kick some ass.

 _Are you watching this too, Raven? Did you steal someone's TV and a generator and you're sitting in camp right now watching the festival with a hundred thieving murderers? Or if I went up to the coliseum would I see a bird perched on the roof looking down?_

 _Whichever it is, I think we're about to see something pretty cool._

* * *

Team YRBN lined up in the centre of the arena. Behind their opponents – Team BRNZ of Shade – had arisen a lush, thick forest. Behind Team YRBN themselves had risen an ocean, with only a wrecked galleon straight out of a pirate story providing any kind of sure footing or promise of dry feet. It was low-key setting off Blake's feline instincts, to be perfectly honest. The hairs on the back of her neck were probably starting to stand on end.

"I guess we're going forwards then," Yang declared. She grinned. "The best way to go. Most of the time."

Blake smiled softly. In the short time that she had known Yang as more than a very distant acquaintance, she had realised that she was a keen observer of people; she possessed a combination of social awareness and comfort in her own skin that few at Beacon – and none of the other team leaders – could match. Hers was a different kind of leadership to that of Sunset or Rainbow; a different, quieter kind of charisma than either of them or than Ruby's sheer, raw, inspirational goodness. Different, quieter, but no less effective for it. There were no grand speeches, there were no bombastic proclamations; there were only deeds, and the occasional soft words like the one she'd just gotten. Yang wasn't your princess, and she wasn't your commander; if anything she was the big sister that you'd never had; but she was a big sister you could trust.

So they would go forwards, if for no other reason than because Yang knew that Blake wouldn't be comfortable going back in this particular instance.

"Three," Professor Port boomed out. "Two…one…begin!"

Three members of Team BRNZ – Brawnz, Roy and Nolan – began to charge across the centre of the arena towards Team YRBN; the fourth, May Zedong, broke for the cover of the trees behind them.

"Nora," Yang called, pointing to the gap between Brawnz and Nolan.

"You got it," Nora said, converting Magnhild into its grenade launcher form and firing a grenade at a low angle; the explosive canister traced a pink trail across the arena; the three huntsmen split up, Nolan going one way and Brawnz and Roy going the other as the grenade exploded in between them with a loud bang and a pink cloud. Two more grenades burst from the mouth of Magnhild to further the separate the three opposing huntsmen.

Yang glanced at Blake, and nodded. Without another word the two of them charged for Nolan, trusting Ren and Nora to handle the other two for at least a moment.

Blake drew Gambol Shroud from across her back as she charged. She reached Nolan first, slashing crosswise and forcing him into a desperate parry with his cattle prod. She pushed forward, using a sequence of shadow clones to drive herself forward with extra momentum, slashing furiously without ever giving him the chance to do more than try and defend himself as she carved slices off his aura.

A shot landed near her feet, chipping the ground in the centre of the arena. A second shot dispelled the shadow clone that Blake had left in her place as she got out of the way. A glint of light from the trees was the only thing that revealed the presence of May Zedong and her sniper rifle there.

Before Nolan could take advantage of his reprieve he was himself forced back by a pair of blasts from Ember Celica, neither of which hit him but which did make him dance as Yang put herself between Blake and Nolan.

"Blake, get the sniper," Yang said.

Nolan hit her in that moment of distraction, slamming his cattle prod across her face like a stun baton, following up with hitting her across the side and on the leg before driving his cattle prod into her gut and turning it on. Lightning rippled up and down Yang's whole body, snapping and crackling like a pack of hungry hounds upon the hunt. Yang tensed for a moment…and then her hair began to glow more golden than the sun as smoke started rising from her body.

"Oho, looks like Yang Xiao Long has just activated her semblance," Professor Port said jovially.

Blake ran, ignoring both Doctor Oobleck's explanation of what Yang's semblance was and the sounds of Yang getting to work on Nolan behind her – she sounded as though she was having fun, even if he wasn't; Blake sometimes wondered if it was healthy for Yang and Nora to enjoy themselves in battle as much as they did – as she ran, back bent and arms swept back behind her, towards the thick forest of BRNZ's half of the arena and the area where their sniper was hiding.

Shots flew out of the trees, shots that were a little slower for coming from a different location each time: May was changing her position so that Blake couldn't use the source of the fire to work out where she was. That was a smart move even if it did mean that she was slower to shoot, but since she was only hitting Blake's shadow clones as Blake bore down upon her then a higher rate of fire wouldn't have made much difference, as every shot she fired simply dispelled the fake Blake and revealed the actual Blake somewhere different and closer to May's position anyway.

She couldn't see May, and May was smart enough to keep moving to make herself harder to find in the thick foliage.

Unfortunately for her, Atlas had taught Blake an answer to a problem just like that one. Gambol Shroud was empty right now, but as she began to slow down Blake reached into her tailcoat pocket and pulled out a clip of fire dust rounds, which she loaded as soon as her weapon switched to pistol configuration.

Hiding from the enemy was a basic White Fang tactic. They established their camps in thick woods, in deep cave networks, in abandoned subterranean cities, anywhere the eyes of Atlas couldn't see them from the air. But the Atlesians had their own response to that in turn: burn down the forest.

The trick of course was find somewhere they couldn't or wouldn't destroy just to smoke you out, but this situation wasn't one where Blake had any compunction about turning it all to ashes.

The klaxon blared out loudly behind her.

"Nolan Porfirio has just been eliminated," Doctor Oobleck declared as the cheering from certain sections of the crowd intensified.

 _Nice going, Yang,_ Blake thought as she started to run across the front of the forest, firing at random into the tops of the trees with her fire dust rounds, strafing back and forth until she had emptied the entire clip.

Probably May thought that she was desperate, firing blindly until she hit something.

She probably didn't think that once the trees started to catch fire.

Blake changed Gambol Shroud back from a pistol into a sword and watched, still and silent, as all the trees before her began to bloom in shades of gold and crimson like so many candles.

 _Any second now._

May stumbled out of the blazing forest, coughing a little and rubbing her eyes against the smoke that was beginning to rise from the burning trees.

And as she emerged, so Blake was on her.

May was unprepared, she had no close combat weapon and although she tried to parry with her sniper rifle she wasn't in a good position to start with and Blake had gotten three solid hits in on her before May took her first clumsy swing with the butt of her rifle, hitting nothing but a shadow clone as Blake appeared behind her to send her flying forwards with a kick. Blake left a clone behind as she raced forwards, appearing in front of May before she hit the ground, dealing out another kick that sent her flying upwards as Blake followed, leaving clones behind as she rose up one slash with sword or scabbard at the time as though each motion was a step up a ladder one, two, three before the dispelling of her last clone revealed her hovering on top of the helpless May who could only watch, wide-eyed with horror, as Blake brought her foot down on her stomach hard enough to send them both slamming down into the ground.

The klaxon sounded. "May Zedong has just been eliminated," Professor Port said, to even more cheering from the Beacon-supporting section of the crowd.

Blake left her lying on the ground as she headed back to where her team-mates were still fighting on the edge of the ocean. Yang was still on fire as she battled against Brawnz Ni, the leader of the opposing team. It wasn't that he wasn't getting any hits in – Yang's aura was in the yellow – it was just that he was also taking hits, and Yang was simply hitting harder than he was, culminating in Yang punching him in the gut so hard that his feet left the ground and following up with a blow down on the top of his head that sent him into the ground and bouncing along it until he reached the very edge of the arena. The klaxon sounded and Doctor Oobleck announced his elimination.

That left only Roy Stallion, who seemed to be sweating a little as he tried to keep out of the way of Nora's hammer while fending off Ren with his flying disk things.

"Blake," Nora called. "Hit me!"

Blake turned Gambol Shroud to pistol mode and loaded a magazine of lightning dust. "You got it," she murmured, and snapped off two shots that struck Nora square in the abdomen.

Gasps rang out from the crowd across the arena as Nora was thrown backwards.

"It looks as though Blake Belladonna just fired on one of her own team-mates!" Doctor Oobleck cried. "Have we ever seen anything like this in the Vytal Festival before?"

"Perhaps not, Profesor-"

"Doctor!"

"But then we haven't had a semblance quite like this one in the Vytal Festival before," Professor Port declared as Nora got up, grinning like a fiend as lightning crackled across her body.

"Wait, wh-" was as far as Roy Stallion got before Nora was in his face, still grinning as she swung her hammer straight into his gut hard enough to fling him out of the arena and plaster him face-first against the shield protecting the crowd.

"And with that final knockout, Team Iron wins the match."

* * *

Qrow allowed himself a triumphant smirk as he put down his glass. "Now that was a match."

 _But maybe try and do it without getting hit so often next time, huh, Yang? Not all your enemies will give you the chance to come back at them the way those guys did._

It worried him a little bit, that Yang would get so used to taking hits to fuel her semblance that in the end, when she met someone whose blows she couldn't shrug off, she wouldn't know what to do.

But he was sure Tai had raised her to fight smarter than that. For now, he could take pride in a fight well won.

If only he didn't have to wait until the very end of the day to see Ruby in action too.

* * *

"Yes!" Kali cried as she leapt her feet, the opera glasses clattering to the floor as she clasped her hands together. "Great job, Blake!"

Cadance smiled. "She really was very good."

"Her father would be proud," Kali said, as she sat back down in her seat. "At least… I hope so."

Cadance pursed her lips together for a moment. "This isn't anything like the kind of life you wanted for her, is it?"

"No," Kali admitted. "But then…if it's the life that she's chosen then who am I to question it? I didn't…"

Cadance waited for her to finish. "Kali?"

"I was just going to say," Kali murmured. "That if I didn't question her previous choice of life then how can I question this one? It isn't the life that I, or Ghira, wanted for her, but…she's become a fine young woman, and I'm glad of that…and proud of it too."

"Are you going to go down and see her?" Cadance asked.

"No," Kali said. "Like you, I'll leave her to her friends for now. I'm sure they want to celebrate after that swift victory. Are all the battles ended so quickly?"

"Drawn out fights are rare," Shining Armour said. "But you're right, that was fast."

"Is that because Blake and her team-mates are that good or their opponents were that bad?" Kali asked. "Excuse the question; I'm not very experienced when it comes to this sort of thing."

"Team Bronze weren't great," Shining Armour admitted. "But that isn't to say that Team Iron weren't pretty good: tough and coordinated. If they always fight like that then-"

"Then they're a force to be reckoned with?" Kali asked.

Shining Armour smiled slightly. "I was going to say that they should be able to take care of one another without too many worries."

* * *

"That was an amazing fight, Yang!" Ruby cried as she ran up towards Team YRBN as they were exiting the arena. "You've gotten so strong."

Yang grinned. "Well, I've got to give the folks something to talk about while they wait around all day for you to show up."

Sunset, Pyrrha, Jaune and Rainbow Dash followed Ruby towards Team YRBN at a slightly slower pace.

"You were pretty good too, Blake," Sunset said. "Neat trick smoking out their sniper like that."

"Not as cool as what you did with the clones," Rainbow said. "But more awesome if you think about it."

"Thanks," Blake said. Her smile had a slightly sheepish quality about it. "I just hope that they don't need the forest terrain again."

"I'm not even sure they ever re-use the scenery, it's so usual for it to be damaged in the fighting," Pyrrha said, with an undertone of amusement in her voice. "You all did wonderfully well, congratulations."

Ren scratched the back of his head. "I don't think that I added that much this time."

"Oh, don't worry Ren," Nora said cheerfully. "Just because you didn't get the knockout blow doesn't mean you didn't do anything. That guy would have been too fast for me without you helping me out."

"Shade Academy aren't having a great tournament so far, are they?" Jaune mused. "We're four matches in and they're the only school that hasn't had a team get through to the doubles yet."

"But we're still only four matches in," Pyrrha said. "Sometimes that's just how it goes, and a lot can happen before the end of the day."

"Speaking of the doubles," Ruby said. "Have you decided who you're going to send in yet?"

Yang shrugged. "I don't have to make my submission until the end of the day," she said. "But I've got a couple of ideas. Me, for one, and…" she glanced between Blake and Nora.

"Oh, you should pick Nora," Blake said quickly. "I insist."

Yang looked surprised. "Really? You were pretty good out there."

"I'm glad you think so, but you've worked with Nora for a lot longer," Blake said. She glanced at Nora. "Plus, I think you'll get a lot more out of this than I will."

"Alright!" Nora yelled, pumping both fists. "Second round, here I come!"

Yang chuckled. "I guess that's settled then. What are you guys doing now?"

"Pyrrha and I are sticking around to watch the next couple of matches," Sunset said.

"Do you want to go down and hit the fairgrounds with me and Jaune?" Ruby asked.

"Sure," Yang said. "And since you haven't had your match yet, those stallholders will never know how good a shot you are until it's too late."

"Due to the need to conduct some minor repairs on the arena surface," Professor Port announced over the tannoy. "The next match will be delayed by five minutes, meaning the next match between Team Wisteria of Beacon and Team Indigo of Shade will begin in twenty minutes time."


	159. Cowboy

Cowboy

"General Ironwood," Cadance said, rising to her feet out of respect as the general climbed the steps up into her private box. "Thank you so much for joining us."

General Ironwood inclined his head. "The honour is mine, councillor. I came as soon as my duties permitted." He acknowledged and returned the salute of Shining Armour. "Captain Armour, it's good to see you again."

"Likewise, sir."

"How's Atlas these days?" General Ironwood asked. "How's guarding the council?"

Shining Armour began. "Atlas is as beautiful as ever and the council is-"

"As querulous as ever," Cadance finished for him.

"I see," General Ironwood said. "I can't help but think a man of your talents is wasted guarding the council, but I can't deny that they're in good hands. Did you see the Rosepetal fight?"

"Of course, sir. They're quite something, aren't they?"

"Atlas will be in good hands with them one day."

"General," Cadance said, gesturing to Kali. "Allow me to present Ms Kali Belladonna, wife of Ghira Belladonna, the chieftain of Menagerie."

"Ms Belladonna," General Ironwood said, with more of a bow of his head than he had offered to Cadance – but then it was his first acquaintance with Kali. "I don't believe we've met."

"No," Kali said, as she followed Cadance's lead in rising to her feet. "But then my husband and I never dealt with military officials, only with the civilian authorities."

"Of course," General Ironwood said. "But I am somewhat acquainted with your daughter. She had quite a match just now."

"Indeed," Kali said, as her voice acquired a touch of frost to it that hadn't been there before.

"Please, General, take a seat," Cadance said, indicating the seat on the other side of Kali.

Cadance and Kali sat down – Cadance ordered another orange and grapefruit juice (it was still reasonably early in the morning) from the menu on her chair – while General Ironwood, although descending to the level of his seat, remained standing for a moment as he looked down upon the two teams now entering to compete in the next bout.

"Are you interested in watching this fight, General?" Cadance asked.

"Not particularly," General Ironwood replied. "I just noticed that that's Flash Sentry down there. It's a pity that I couldn't get him for Atlas."

"You know him?" Kali asked.

"Not personally, I know his mother," General Ironwood said. "She's the Law Officer of the Council."

"It is a little surprising that an Atlesian official wouldn't want their son to attend Atlas," Kali said.

General Ironwood sat down heavily into the free seat beside her. "I think that she'd rather her son became a huntsman than a soldier."

"I know how she feels," Kali said. "Did you know that Blake is seriously considering joining the Atlesian military?"

"I didn't," General Ironwood said. "Although I can't say that I'm not glad to hear it; she'd be an exceptional asset to us, just as she has been in the past."

 _Perhaps it would have been better if you hadn't referred to her daughter as an asset, General,_ Cadance thought.

To her credit, however, Kali seemed able to take the general's words in the spirit in which they were intended. "I have to credit you, General, you seem to have a gift for winning loyalty."

"These young men and women trust me with their lives," General Ironwood said. "And I in turn trust them with those things that are most precious to me: Atlas, and humanity. If I am worthy of that trust, it is only because those who trust me deserve nothing less."

"And modest, too," Kali said. "And yet, if you'll forgive me, trusting faunus isn't the most obvious thing that I would expect an Atlesian general – or an Atlesian councillor for that matter – to do. Your Miss Dash clearly admires you, and I expect that Blake does too or she wouldn't be so willing to continue serving under your command, but…you can't honestly mean to tell me that I have been completely mistaken in all my impressions of Atlas and how it treats the faunus."

"No," General Ironwood said. "The situation for your people is…less than ideal. And I'm aware that bringing in exceptionally talented faunus and shepherding them through the military isn't the best or the fastest way to achieve change…but it is the way that I have power to do and so I do it."

"So Rainbow Dash is your favourite because she's a faunus?"

"No, Rainbow Dash has my trust because she's damn good at what she does," General Ironwood said. "Because she embodies to my mind all of the best qualities of the Atlesian military: loyalty, courage, a willingness to take a bullet for others if necessary, a determination to bring her team home alive no matter the risk to herself. That she's a faunus is something that you might call a happy accident."

"And it isn't something that troubles you at all," Kali said. "Blake's past doesn't trouble you at all?"

General Ironwood was quiet for a moment. "I don't consider myself to be a man who holds onto blind prejudice," he said. "And yet…when I found out that my old friends, Twilight and Shining Armour's parents, had taken this street urchin into their homes I have to admit that I was a little less than enthusiastic about it. I was worried about them, about what they were getting into, about what kind of situation they were getting their daughter into. But when I actually met Rainbow Dash…you can tell a lot about someone from looking them in the eye and when I looked into her eyes…what I saw there dispelled a lot of the doubts I had."

"So much that you put your own reputation on the line to get her a place in one of your combat schools."

"She felt she had something to offer to Atlas," General Ironwood said. "And by then I was inclined to agree with her. I trusted my judgement, and then I trusted her judgement of Blake, even though I haven't spent any real time with her at all. If Blake does want to continue serving Atlas, I'd suggest that you look more at Rainbow Dash and her team than at me; it's they who've earned Blake's trust and loyalty, not I."

"And yet you are the one who has earned the trust and loyalty of Team Rosepetal," Kali said. "Cadance was telling me about the ideal Atlas that you all fight for, but I wonder if it isn't more simple than that; I wonder if the Atlas that they fight for isn't just the Atlas embodied by a man like you…as supposed to the Atlas embodied by a man like Jacques Schnee."

"You flatter me far more than I deserve, ma'am."

"Perhaps," Kali said. "Perhaps I'd just like to be able to convince myself that Atlas deserves my daughter." She leaned back in her seat, and looked over her shoulder as an android with a drinks tray for hands brought Cadance her drink. "Oh, I should have ordered something at the same time."

"It's only a robot," Cadance said. "You don't have to worry about inconveniencing it."

"No, but I do have to worry about the walk back up and down those stairs," Kali said mildly. "Now, I presume that the two of you didn't ask me here simply so that we could talk about Blake even though, as a mother, I could talk about her all day and longer if you wanted to."

"Kali," Cadance said. "How would Menagerie like a relay to connect it to the CCT network?"

Kali's eyebrows rose. "Menagerie would like that very much," she said. "It might not like the catch."

"I told you that I'd like to see an Atlas that did more good for its neighbours, and conferred more favours upon them, than it received from them in turn."

"Forgive me, Cadance, but that doesn't mean that it's become the sort of kingdom that would do something for nothing."

"It wouldn't be possible for Atlas to invest in the construction of a new relay in an area where the White Fang are allowed to operate openly," General Ironwood said. "Nor would it be safe for Atlesian technicians to work in such an environment."

"I see," Kali said. "In which case we'll have to continue getting by without a CCT relay."

"Because you'd rather stand by terrorists?" General Ironwood asked.

"Because the White Fang commands the largest military force on Menagerie, in fact it's the only military force in Menagerie of any size," Kali said. "If Sienna Khan decided to remove Ghira from power and install herself not only as High Leader of the White Fang but as Chieftain of Menagerie too then she could do it, and easily."

"Then why doesn't she?" Cadance asked.

"It's been a long time since Sienna and I saw eye to eye on what was best for the faunus, but she understands that most of those who come to Menagerie do so to get away from the four kingdoms and start new, peaceful lives in the south; I don't think that she has any desire to invite a war to their doorstop by affiliating Menagerie openly with the White Fang. But if we tried to expel her, if we so much as declared her and her followers to be outlaws, then she could and might easily change her mind."

"Atlas-"

"I don't think Atlesian troops are the answer if that was what you were about to suggest, General," Kali said. "Given a choice between the White Fang or an Atlesian garrison I'm afraid a lot of my people would prefer the White Fang."

"And yet it will always be hard to encourage investment into Menagerie while the White Fang are a major, shamelessly open presence there," Cadance said.

"Then perhaps there are other ways that Menagerie could be helped that don't require investment," Kali said. "There is a lot that we could offer the world if the world were willing to accept it: wine, wool, crops, exotic animals and their meat and eggs; expeditions to explore the interior of the island have found untapped reserves of dust along with gems, minerals and precious metals. And I know that those things would be a lot easier to mine and extract with Atlesian money behind the efforts, but we can start mining ourselves like Nicholas Schnee did if only we have somewhere to sell it once it's been mined."

"You're talking about a free trade agreement?" Cadance asked.

"I don't see why it shouldn't at least be considered," Kali said.

Cadance nodded. "You're right, it's certainly something that we can discuss further."

And so they talked of ways to undermine the Schnee Dust Company, even as the heiress to that company battled for their amusement.

* * *

From watching WSTW's fight with NDGO, it was clear to Sunset that Weiss was trying to correct the issues that had damaged her team during their Last Shot, specifically Weiss' lack of cooperation with Cardin and Russell, to the extent where the performance of the team had actually improved once those two had been knocked out of the fight.

Weiss was clearly out to win against the Shade team, but it seemed to Sunset watching from the bleachers that she was also trying to show her doubters that she was not only a great huntress but a decent team leader as well.

Sunset felt a sense of admiration for her watching it; she wasn't blind to the fact that she'd really lucked out in terms of her team, and the truth was that if she'd been stuck with a pair like Cardin and Russell she couldn't honestly say that she would certainly have made the effort with them.

It didn't seem as though Weiss had always made the effort – but then equally Cardin hadn't made much visible effort to come to her either – but she was trying now; she opened the battle by conjuring a battery of white glyphs behind her, which she used to unleash a fusillade of snow-white laser beams out at Team NDGO, which not only hit Gwen Darcy once but forced all four opposing huntresses to scatter to the four corners of the arena, scrabbling to find cover amidst the very open combination of the ice field and the fire field which between them offered very little scope to hide.

It was clear, even when she had ceased that initial barrage, its objective accomplished, that Weiss had come up with a plan that would demonstrate that she was not carrying her whole team on her back, a plan that would demonstrate that she could be a leader, not just a fighter.

Unfortunately, what she ended up demonstrating was that she _was_ carrying her team on her back, just not necessarily by fighting on the front lines with her dust rapier. As Team NDGO scattered, Weiss set Russell and Cardin on them like wolves into the midst of the flock, to keep them scattered and divided and to pick them off while Flash remained behind to protect Weiss who, in turn, used her glyphs – and fire from her rapier - to support Cardin and Russell from a medium distance.

And, to be honest, they needed the help. Cardin would have been at the mercy of Octavia Ember when they crossed paths if it hadn't been for Weiss shielding him from her fiery slashes, which flew through the air like convex fireballs, with her glyphs and then casting a haste glyph underneath his feet so that he was not only able to close the distance with her more swiftly but also so that his usual slow and heavy wind-ups were actually fast enough that Octavia couldn't dodge them easily. With the usual disadvantage of his ponderous movements removed Cardin was actually able to bring his brute strength to bear as he hammered Octavia's guard aside and beat her down, culminating in a fiery blow that shattered the icy ground beneath their feet and unleashed an explosion of fire dust that brought her aura down below the threshold and eliminated her from the match.

Unfortunately that didn't save Cardin himself from getting knocked out moments later by the huntress called Dew Gayl, who seemed to be using a wind dust crystal in her spear to create miniature tornados which rampaged across the arena, picking up ice as they did so, and picked Cardin up and spun him around so rapidly that he became a blur to watch before throwing him clean out of the arena. In fairness, there were three tornadoes converging on Cardin from different directions and Weiss had tried to shield him with her glyphs, it was just that they were harder to protect against than usual attacks.

"Three against three," Pyrrha murmured. "At least they eliminated an adversary before losing anyone."

"It's only Cardin," Sunset said. "I'm sure they'll do fine."

It was at this point that Weiss sent Flash in against Dew – leaving herself wide open in the process – before turning her own attention to Russell and his battle against Gwen Darcy. Russell fought with a pair of daggers, Gwen fought with a plethora of throwing knives, so that main difficulty there was that whenever Russell would manage to close Gwen would always retreat to open up the distance again and was gradually chipping away at his aura with her throwing knives until he was deep in the yellow. She probably would have taken him too, if Weiss had not once again made good the deficiencies in her team by using black glyphs to box Gwen in and leave her with no room to manoeuvre, at which point Russell was able to hit her with a spinning kick and go to work with his daggers. He had just finished her off when he himself was hit by a crossbow bolt, fired by Nebula Violette, the leader of NDGO, and which took him below the aura threshold.

"Two against two," Pyrrha said. "They just can't seem to gain the decisive advantage."

Sunset nodded, saying nothing. She was a little worried that at this rate Flash would be the next one to be knocked out. He was battling on against Dew Gayl, using his shock absorption semblance to take her tornadoes without being sent flying by them, but there were hard limits on how much force he could absorb that way and he had to be nearing them by now.

The two team leaders faced one another across the battlefield: Weiss standing in the midst of fire, Nebula surrounded by ice. Nebula's crossbow switched forms into a sword. Weiss adopted a classical fencing pose.

Nebula charged. Weiss conjured up a line of glyphs pointing straight at her opponent and glided over them at haste towards her.

They met in the very centre of the arena. Weiss' blade was like quicksilver, impossible to follow as it darted back and forth in her hands, weaving silver traces through the air that were the best Sunset's eyes could do to follow the blade as Weiss – perfectly poised, one hand tucked behind her back at all times – fenced with Nebula, whose face could be seen on the big screens set into a scowl as she slashed and cut and parried and tried to ignore the damage she was taking as Weiss occasionally paused momentarily from fencing to fire a burst of dust out of her rapier.

Weiss had sought to show that she was a good leader, but now she showed that she was an exceptional combatant. Even Pyrrha was spellbound by it, leaning forward in her seat to get a better look with an expression that approached fascination on her face.

Weiss was losing some aura, but not so much as was being lost by Nebula, which must have been why the NDGO leader whistled for assistance from Dew, who provided it in the form of a tornado that sent Weiss flying not out of the arena – she managed to escape using her glyphs and return to the ground – but at least across it, giving Nebula the time to turn her sword back into a crossbow and take another shot or two at Weiss, the first one hitting before Weiss was ready for it.

Unfortunately that distraction cost Dew, as Flash closed the distance with her and shocked her with the lightning dust stored in Rho Aias, taking her below her limit.

"Go Flash!" Sunset cheered as Doctor Oobleck announced the elimination of Dew Gayl.

Flash made to move on Nebula – now they had the advantage that Pyrrha had lamented eluding them before – but Weiss raised a hand to halt him.

"What's she doing?" Sunset muttered.

"Doing the honourable thing," Pyrrha said. "Giving her opponent a chance to keep her dignity intact."

"Okay," Sunset murmured sceptically, but Nebula seemed to understand what Weiss was doing. Her aura much lower than Weiss', she once again faced the Schnee heir head on, sword in hand.

Once again she charged, and once again Weiss raised to meet across a line of glyphs with the grace of a figure skater.

Nebula slashed with her sword. Weiss ducked beneath the blow while thrusting her rapier out like a spear. There was a burst of dust.

Weiss glided past Nebula, who paused as if frozen; she was frozen, there was ice dust on the ground that had crystallised and was sticking her to the floor. And so she remained, trapped in the pose of her two-handed slashing stroke, as Weiss herself held the posture of her duck and thrust until the klaxon rang.

"Nebula Violette has been eliminated by aura depletion," Professor Port announced. "And with that Team Indigo is eliminated. Team Wisteria are the winners."

"Yeah!" Sunset yelled, raising both her fists into the air. "I knew he could do it. They could do it."

"I'm glad," Pyrrha said. "Weiss would be a challenge to face in the finals."

"Doesn't that make it bad that she's through?"

Pyrrha gave her a reproachful look. "In the arena, a victory that is not hard won is no victory at all."

"A victory is a victory wherever it's won," Sunset replied. "But I'm glad that they won too. I'd be astonished if she doesn't take Flash through with her to the doubles."

"Do you want to go down and say something to him?" Pyrrha suggested. "To either of them?"

Sunset did want to…but she wasn't sure what she would say if she did go down. She watched as Weiss said something to Nebula, melting the ice that held her feet bound and then holding out her hand, which Nebula took without any apparent rancour on her face; that didn't stop certain sections of the crowd – those sections in which visitors from Vacuo were concentrated – from booing, but that was understandable: they weren't having a very good day. Sunset continued to watch as Weiss, leaving Nebula to collect her defeated team, made her way over to Flash. Though her expression – seen in close-up on the cameras and magnified on the screens for all to see – was calm, her posture poised and her walk as graceful as that of a lioness, when she got to Flash he said something to her that wasn't picked up on the microphones, but which made her laugh. That seemed to act as the breaking of some kind of dam as her expression melted away to reveal just how overjoyed she was to have won the match and progressed through into the second round. Her cheeks were flushed with excitement and she was beaming bright enough and warm enough to melt the ice around them as she leapt up and through her arms around Flash's neck, letting him twirl her around through the air like she was a child.

"No," Sunset said. "No, I'll leave them to it. If I want to talk to Flash I'm sure that I can catch up to him on the fairgrounds or something."

"I'm sure that it doesn't mean-"

"It doesn't matter to me if it means anything or not," Sunset said. "He can be happy. It's good if he's happy. I just don't want to intrude." _The thing that would probably make him happiest right now is space from me._ "Let's just…let's just watch the next match, do you want something to eat?"

Pyrrha shook her head. "I don't think anything here would be acceptable to my diet."

"Suit yourself," Sunset said, and she went for a soda before the ARBN match began.

Sunset found said match…well, she wouldn't have bothered to stay and watch it if Pyrrha hadn't stuck around to watch the WSTW match with her. Pyrrha's rival Arslan was a great fighter – if not, in Sunset's opinion, an equal to Pyrrha herself – but a terrible team leader and Sunset struggled to fathom what she'd done to convince Professor Lionheart to give her the job. Except perhaps 'be a famous tournament celebrity' and that hadn't been enough to convince Ozpin to make Pyrrha the team leader (and for good reason, Sunset thought self-servingly).

In Arslan's defence, she was clearly carrying her team even more than Weiss had been, because at least Weiss had Flash to rely on even if she did have to mind Cardin and Russell every step of the way if she wanted to get results out of them. Team ARBN were, their almost champion leader aside, just plain useless. There was a girl on a hoverboard, Reese Chloris, who approached competence, but even she wasn't doing much to take the pressure off her leader and the boys were just inept. It was hard to say really whether Arslan's team were in a rut because they had a leader who seemed to have no idea how to lead even if she'd possessed the inclination or whether Arslan had given up on trying to lead her team because she'd given up on her team more generally in disgust at their ineptitude, but what was clear was that Arslan herself was good enough to make good for all the deficiencies of her team and her leadership through sheer combat prowess. ARBN were up against an Atlesian team – the third Atlas vs Haven match-up today – and whatever else Sunset thought of Haven's ersatz-Pyrrha she had to admit that it was impressive to watch her take on essentially four guys single-handed and beat them all with limited assistance.

When Doctor Oobleck announced that Team ARBN had won the match Sunset thought it might have been more accurate for him to just say that Arslan stood victorious.

During the last three matches that Sunset had watched she hadn't noticed anything in the way of the poor sportsmanship that had characterised and marred the Last Shot. It looked as though RSPT's opponents might have said a few things to them before the match started, but when it came to ARBN and their Atlesian opponents there were clearly words being exchanged between them, words which seemed to leave both sides on the verge of attacking one another before the fight had even begun.

"Arslan has always liked to try and rile up her opponents before the fight starts, to throw them off balance," Pyrrha murmured. Her voice became a little upset as she said, "And she's rather good at it too. But I've never seen her on the verge of losing her temper like that before, she's bullish, but this…" they both watched as Arslan had to be physically restrained by Bolin Hori. "I've never seen anything like this."

It didn't get any better after the fight was over. Arslan was celebrating, and though she was being loud about she was being no more obnoxious than any other team that had jubilantly celebrated their victory – like Weiss, like Yang, like Penny – without the defeated side taking offence at it and trying to get in her face as though she'd taken a big steaming dump all over them. Some of the Atlesian security personnel led by Weiss' elder sister had to come in and physically separate the two, dragging the Atlesians off as violent words flew between them and Team ARBN, and by that point parts of the crowd looked as though they were on the verge of violence themselves.

"Uh," Professor Port said. "As that last match aroused strong feelings we'll taking an extra fifteen minute break before the next match."

"Fifteen minutes?" Sunset as she watched someone throw their drink at an Atlesian knight, which ignored it. "That's being quite optimistic."

"What is happening here?" Pyrrha asked. "It shouldn't be like this."

"There's nothing we can do about it," Sunset said. "Except maybe get out of here for a bit. What do you think?"

They left, with Sunset at least hoping that the crowd in the coliseum would have calmed down by the time of their match at the end of the day, and caught one of the airbuses, decked out with red bunting to add a slightly festive air, down to the fairgrounds that had been set up around Beacon.

It was a pretty full airbus, which meant a less than completely comfortable ride down for Pyrrha as she was besieged by even more autograph-and/or-selfie hunters or just fans wanting to chat than usual – this was a tournament, after all, and these were fight fans – but it wasn't as if they'd had much choice. It was nearly lunchtime and the next fight was delayed (and even if it hadn't been delayed it was between two teams of such no marks that Sunset couldn't even be bothered to remember their names) so every airbus down to the fairgrounds was full and they were lucky to get a place to stand let alone a seat.

Of course that didn't make it any more comfortable for Pyrrha as she stood by the wall but definitely not leaning on it –her back was straight and her posture firm throughout – with a professionally courteous smile plastered onto her face at all times for her adoring public.

"You know," Sunset said quietly during a brief break in the fans. "If I knew a spell that could turn you invisible I would absolutely use it."

Pyrrha smiled. "That would be very kind if you knew of such a spell, but I'm used to it by now."

"That doesn't mean that I don't want to help."

"I know," Pyrrha said. "But you can't, especially not now. It's just the price."

"The price of glory?"

"I was going to say privilege," Pyrrha said. "But glory…I suppose you could say that too."

Thankfully, once they landed and were able to escape the somewhat stifling confines of the airbus – Sunset was absolutely sure that there'd been more than forty people on board with them – things eased off for Pyrrha as people found better things to do than bother her amidst the delights of the fairgrounds.

And what delights. As they wandered across the edges of the Beacon campus, where the grass had been colonised by an array of colourful tents and stalls with red, blue and yellow bunting strung up between them; the smells of an array of foods wafted to their nostrils, while the air rang with the sounds of laughter and fun. As they moved through the grounds, they saw Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Yang and Nora competing at a test-your-strength game, a contest which was won by the surprise entrant Spike the dog who had grabbed a mallet between his jaws when no one was looking. They saw Ruby deploy her as-yet unsuspected marksmanship skills to win a gigantic stuffed alicorn from the shooting gallery. She then proudly presented it to Sunset.

"Here," she said. "It's for you."

Sunset stared at it. It was white with purple eyes, and although its mane was pink instead of being in a myriad of flowing colours it nevertheless put her in mind of Princess Celestia.

"For me?"

"I know that you gave that stuffed unicorn you had to Amber," Ruby said.

"I lent it to her because she liked it."

"Yeah, but do you really think she's ever going to give it back?" Ruby asked pointedly, and Sunset couldn't honestly say that she didn't have a point. "Anyway, I remember you saying that Flash got you that doll at the last Vytal Festival, and I thought…don't you like it?"

Sunset grinned. "I love it," she said, taking the giant plush from Ruby's arms and hugging it to her; it was almost as tall as her height above the waist. It was so soft too, and cuddly, that she just stood there cradling it for a few moments with its head draped across her shoulder, nuzzling it with her cheek. "Thanks, Ruby."

"You deserve it," Ruby said.

Sunset left them for a little while, just as long as it took to run back to the dorm room and drop off her new alicorn, because as she much as she loved it she didn't want to either be carrying it around all afternoon or indeed be stuck trying to find somewhere to put it when the time came to get ready for their match. Once she had dropped the cuddly toy off on her bed, she rejoined the team and they had lunch – alone, with YRBN and RSPT plus Rainbow's friends each going for their own meals. Which was good, because lunch was when Sunset gathered her team on one of the open tables and held a strategy session for the upcoming match.

That was why she'd bought twice as many bottles of pop as she'd needed, so that she could use the bottle caps to represent the combatants.

"Okay, the red caps are us, and the white caps from the diet cola are Team Pastel," Sunset said. She placed the four red caps in a line on the right hand side of the table. "Me, Jaune, Pyrrha, Ruby." She lined up the four white caps opposite them. "Phoebe, Mal, Thorn, Lycus." She scribbled the SAPR and PSTL initials on the caps with a green marker pen. "Pyrrha, you've…" she trailed off, because she'd just caught sight of Professor Ozpin sitting a few tables down from them, behind Jaune and Ruby, having lunch with Amber.

"Sunset," Pyrrha said. "Are you-" she spotted what had arrested Sunset's attention. "Oh."

Jaune and Ruby both looked over their shoulders at the two of them. They were eating noodles out of big bowls and drinking something steaming hot out of recyclable paper cups. Sunset noticed Dove hovering protectively nearby, but neither Ozpin nor Amber herself were paying him any notice. The two of them looked quite happy, something which was noticeable for both but especially so for Professor Ozpin.

"Aw," Ruby said. "Looks like they're starting to get along again."

"Yeah," Sunset said. "It really does, doesn't it?" _I knew you still cared about him, Amber. Good for you in admitting it._

 _Princess Celestia would like to hear that too if only I had some way of getting in touch with her._

Unfortunately Twilight was still not answering the journal, and her silence was really starting to worry Sunset at this point. Once the immediate situation in Vale calmed down then she'd ask Professor Ozpin for some time to go to Canterlot and check things out on the other side of the mirror, see that it was okay.

But that was for another time, right now she had more immediate concerns. "Anyway," she said. "To return to the issue at hand: Pyrrha, you've fought Phoebe before, haven't you?"

"Our paths have crossed," Pyrrha said. "Usually…in the early rounds of tournaments."

Sunset smirked. "You know, if you just want to say that she's absolutely no good then you can; it's not going to offend anybody here."

"She's not terrible," Pyrrha said. "She's very well equipped and her weapons are of the very highest quality."

"But the person using those weapons is…" Sunset invited her to say something unkind.

"She's not the most challenging opponent I ever fought," Pyrrha said, and it was clear that that was the worst thing that could be dragged past the resistance of her mingled celebrity politesse and natural goodness of heart. "However, in close combat…she might be a match for either you or Jaune."

"Fair enough," Sunset said. She slid Phoebe's bottle-cap a little forwards ahead of the others. "As far as I can tell from my research, she uses her team entirely to support her: she takes the lead, they back her up against a single opponent. When this works it lets them pick off the opposing team one at a time. We're not going to let it work."

"So what we have to do is keep the team split up," Jaune said. "If we go one on one with them then they won't be able to use their usual tactics. We each take responsibility for making sure that one of them isn't able to support their team leader."

Sunset nodded. "That was my thought too. We just need to work out which of us Pastel will focus on first-"

"It will be me," Pyrrha said, with absolute certainty.

Sunset's eyebrows rose. "As far as I can tell she usually picks off the weakest member of the herd first."

"Usually she isn't facing someone she can't stand," Pyrrha said, with a touch of melancholy in her voice.

"Why doesn't she like you?" Ruby asked. "I mean, I know you've beaten her in the arena, but that's just…it's just a fight, isn't it?"

"Not for her, apparently," Sunset murmured.

"I first met her when we were children, competing in the Junior League," Pyrrha said. "I was five years old at the time-"

"Five?" Jaune said. "You were five?"

"Technically the minimum age was six but my mother was…able to have an exception made for me on account of my talent," Pyrrha said.

"Yeah, but five?" Jaune said. "When I was five I was helping my sisters steal apples from the neighbour's garden."

"I won my first adult tournament when I was twelve," Pyrrha reminded him gently.

Sunset had to admit that she'd never thought about it like that before, but obviously for Pyrrha to be the four times champion before she was seventeen she had to have started then. Perhaps it was just that her Equestrian upbringing that had left her, in her own way, as sheltered as Jaune, but she couldn't help but feel that was a little young. That was the same age that Blake had started being used as a soldier for the White Fang and the White Fang were a bunch of evil terrorists for crying out loud.

 _And Ruby's fifteen._ Sunset dealt with that thought the way she dealt with a lot of thoughts she didn't like the train of, by putting it to one side.

"The younger leagues are very carefully refereed," Pyrrha said. "Everyone has aura, but the limit at which you're eliminated is much higher than it is here, and the weapons are a lot less lethal. The point is that Phoebe was two years older than I was and I beat her, before I went on to win the competition. It was the only thing that anybody could talk about. I don't think she's ever forgiven me for it."

"But it still wasn't anything personal," Ruby said. "It just seems really petty."

"Petty people exist," Sunset said.

"I know," Ruby said. "That doesn't mean that I like one of them going after Pyrrha."

"You are certain that she'll target you?" Sunset said.

"You saw how she behaved that day," Pyrrha said. "When the siren came."

Sunset nodded. "You make a good point. But you can handle her one on one, right?"

Pyrrha nodded. "I have in the past."

"Okay then," Sunset said. She moved the red and white bottle caps, both marked with a P, into contact with one another in the middle of the table. "So Phoebe goes after Pyrrha, but if the rest of us can hold off the rest of Team Pastel until Pyrrha wins, then we can turn the tables on them. So we just need to decide who is the best match up for each of the other side." She tapped the white bottle cap marked with a T. "Thorn Hubert, he's an archer, so I think that Ruby is the best match for him. Once the fight starts you need to find some high ground and take him out."

"I get that," Jaune said. "But Ruby's also our second best close combat fighter."

"We need somebody to take care of Pastel's archer."

"You could teleport in close before he has the chance to use his bow," Jaune suggested. "What's he like up close."

"I don't know," Sunset admitted. "Ruby, what do you think? Snipe or up close?"

Ruby frowned as she studied the marked bottle caps. "What about the other two members of the team?"

"Mal Sapphire and Lycus Silvermane," Sunset said. "Mal's semblance is the ability to temporarily knock people out if she touches them, but it seems like she doesn't use it that often; in fact, as far as I've been able to tell, she keeps her opponents away from her by setting her clothes on fire with dust to keep people at bay, then fights with dust from range. I was planning to tackle her myself, since we're both medium range fighters."

"And the last guy?" Jaune asked.

"Lycus Silvermane," Sunset repeated. "He's a brawler, fights with knives or just with his bare hands; his semblance is a kind of copy ability, he can mimic the appearance of others so whoever is fighting him needs to keep him in sight or he could change his appearance to one of us to catch us off guard."

"And these people all just get used as back-up for their leader?" Ruby said. "That sounds like a waste."

"What do you expect from a narcissist?" Sunset replied. "So, what do we think about the best place for Ruby?"

"Okay, now I see why you want to take on Mal Sapphire," Jaune said. "I couldn't get close to her and even if I did I'd be at risk from her semblance."

"I could take her from a distance too, but either way it's still fighting from range so I may as well concentrate on the archer first," Ruby said.

"And I have the phoenix cape so she won't be able to touch me any more than I can touch her," Sunset said.

"Which leaves the last guy for me," Jaune said.

"You're both close fighters," Sunset said. "It's a good match."

"Is he any good?"

"Yes," Sunset said. "But so are you."

"But if I'm doing that," Jaune said. "I won't be able to support anyone else by boosting their aura."

"Hmm," Sunset murmured. She moved Jaune's bottle cap, and the white L cap, close-ish to Pyrrha. "If you could stay close to Pyrrha, while also fending off Lycus, then you'd be there if she needed it."

"What about you and Ruby?" Pyrrha asked.

"We're going to be fighting at range, there's less risk," Sunset said.

"Are you certain of that?" Pyrrha said.

"Not completely but if you go down then Pastel's presumed plan is working and we're in trouble," Sunset said. "Not to mention what your mother would say." She smiled, but Pyrrha didn't seem to find it so amusing.

"That's fine, but if I do that then that increases the risk of Lycus getting past me," Jaune said.

"Is he fast?" Ruby asked. "Because if he's fast then if Jaune goes out to meet him then he's likely to get past you anyway." She smiled apologetically. "Sorry, Jaune, but you're not the most nimble person on our team."

"Don't worry, I get it," Jaune said. "But if he's that fast then that just means that Ruby…but then if we do that then we have a whole because I can't deal with either of the other two."

"The point is," Ruby said. "If you stay closer to Pyrrha you're more likely to be able to intercept this guy as he comes in."

"And once Pyrrha's done with Phoebe she'll be in a position to support you," Sunset said. "We'll roll them up one at a time, just like they'd plan to do to us."

Ruby grinned. "If we're not done before Pyrrha is."

Pyrrha chuckled. "I won't mind if you are."

"Is everybody satisfied?" Sunset asked. "We don't know what the terrain is going to be like, so that will complicate things, but as a basis for what we're going to do when we go in there is everybody okay with it? Jaune?"

Jaune nodded. "With what they've got, and what we've got, I think this is the best we can do."

With that decided, and with lunch eaten, they resumed their tour of the fairgrounds; Sunset won an apple bobbing game thanks to her memory of having really dextrous jaws; on the other hand she also completely failed to win a ring toss game in spite of spending far too much time trying – it wasn't about the parakeet, it was about the principle of the thing – and she was only slightly consoled by the fact that Twilight, who had claimed that you could win by using mathematics to calculate the right angle of throw, also failed completely. Pyrrha, on the other hand, managed to land the ring with her first throw. They squeezed too many people into the photo booths in increasingly contorted combinations, producing pictures where barely a single face could be made out amongst the mass of humanity trying to get into frame.

And then they found what could only be described as a miniature horse show, where Amber was riding a white horse around a large fenced in paddock while BLBL watched, even if she was only attempting a few of the easier jumps that had been set up. Nevertheless, her face was flushed with excitement as she rode, and that excitement remained on her face even when she dismounted and was helped back over the fence by Dove.

"Sunset!" she called as she spotted the large group approaching. "Are you here to ride?"

"Not me," Sunset said. _I'm not sure that I could ever ride a horse after I used to be one._ "I didn't know that you could ride."

Amber nodded excitedly. "I used to do it all the time. We had a horse, he was white just like this one, his name was Greenbriar." The joy faded from her face. "I don't know what happened to him after…" Dove put his arms around her, which seemed to bring her some comfort. "It was nice to be able to ride again. Really nice. Like being back home."

Sunset smiled. "You're having a good time then?"

"Oh, it's wonderful, it's just like everyone said it would be," Amber said. "And the best part is that there's so much to do you can completely forget that there's a tournament on." She beamed, and gestured for Sunset to come closer, or at least lean closer so that Amber could whisper into her ear, which is what she did. "Dove's going to take me to the masquerade dance tonight."

Sunset's eyebrows rose and her eyes widened. "The masquerade…Amber, that's out of campus."

"I know," Amber whispered excitedly. "Isn't it great of him?"

No, was the honest answer to that, but since Sunset didn't feel like blunt honesty would help she tried to finesse the point a little. "Amber, it's too dangerous for you to leave the campus grounds."

"I'll be wearing a mask; nobody will know that it's me."

Sunset's eyes narrowed a little at the optimism of that pronouncement. She could, of course, have put a stop to this simply by informing Professor Ozpin, but after seeing the way that he and Amber had started to make progress on their relationship she found that she didn't want to shatter that by revealing to him that Amber was planning to disobey one of the few edicts he had placed upon her for her own safety. Amber reminded her too much of herself, and Professor Ozpin of Princess Celestia in this, for her to want to set them at odds or introduce acrimony where healing had begun. She hadn't been planning to go the dance herself, but she would go and with the ridiculous costumes that people wore to it nobody would know that the sword she had on her hip was her actual sword and not some kind of a prop. That way, in the admittedly unlikely event that Cinder showed up or sent one of her allies, Sunset would be there and she would be armed.

"I suppose," she murmured. "I saw you with Professor Ozpin earlier. I'm glad that you two are working things out."

"Me too," Amber said. "He really does care a lot about me; it was wrong of me to forget that."

"It's understandable," Sunset said, by which she meant that she understood it perfectly. "So long as you remember again."

Amber nodded. "See you around, Sunset. Have fun!"

"You too," Sunset said, waving as Amber walked away with Team BLBL trailing behind her.

By the time Sunset turned back, Applejack was putting a bay mare through its paces with great aplomb, leaping every fence and obstacle while hollering loudly in triumph.

"I'd like to see one of y'all beat that," she declared as she leapt off the horse's back.

"You know that none of us can, darling," Rarity said. "You're the only one who knows how to ride a horse."

"Actually that's not quite true," Jaune said, raising his hand tentatively.

Pyrrha looked at him. "You can ride horses?"

"I grew up in a farming town of course I know how to ride a horse."

"It doesn't necessarily follow," Yang said. "Ruby and I grew up in the countryside and we don't know how to ride."

"No, but I do think they're really cute," Ruby said, reaching up to stroke the muzzle of the bay who had approached the fence and stuck her head over it.

Pyrrha gave the horse a pat on the neck. "My grandfather used to tell me stories about when our family had horses. Five hundred of the finest horses in all of Mistral. I wanted to learn to ride myself, but there was never the time. Why didn't you tell us that you could ride?"

Jaune shrugged. "It never came up. Just like it never came up that I've ridden a bull, too."

Applejack folded her arms. "You've ridden a bull?"

"Sure."

"When?"

"When my sister Kendal dared me to get on the back of the bull in Browne's field."

"Boy, that ain't bull-riding that's just being stupid," Applejack said.

"What happened?" Pyrrha asked, with slightly absurd anxiety considering that he was standing right there safe and sound.

"Chester Browne pulled me away before it could trample me to death," Jaune said. "Honestly, what Mom did to us both when we got home was worse. Okay, so maybe I can't actually ride a bull but I really can ride a horse, and I'll prove it." He scrambled over the fence and approached the white stallion that Amber had been riding. Everyone else clustered at the edge of the fence, watching (even if, like Ruby, they were still petting the bay mare while they watched).

Jaune approached the horse with a confidence that he rarely displayed, examining it with an air of authority and knowledge that he also rarely displayed, taking in its legs and the state of its mane and tail as though these things meant something to him (they didn't mean anything to Sunset and she had once had a mane, a tail and four legs). He whispered to the stallion as he approached, and handled it in such a way that it seemed to bow before him.

And then he mounted up. It was no longer true or fair to say that this was the only thing that Jaune was good at – no longer even remotely true or fair, although it was probably what Sunset would have thought if she'd seen this at the start of the year – but it was fair to say that he was better at this than at practically anything else that Sunset had seen him do. He was a superb horseman, almost as if he'd been born to it, and as he made the stallion absolutely anything he wanted he soon had everyone cheering him on as he took the hardest jumps as though they were nothing at all, though Pyrrha's shouts of encouragement sounded loudest.

"Whoo-ee," Applejack said. "Well I'll be…I take my hat off to you, partner, you weren't kidding one bit."

"That was magnificent," Pyrrha said, which brought a flush to Jaune's cheeks.

"Can you show me how to do that?" Ruby asked.

"I can show you a little," Jaune said. "Come on."

As Jaune and Ruby were preoccupied, Sunset leaned closer to Pyrrha and whispered into her ear. "When you and Jaune go to this dance tonight, one or preferably both of you should bring your swords."

Pyrrha glanced at her. "Why?"

"Because Amber's going to be there."

"Professor Ozpin allowed that?"

"I don't think he knows," Sunset said. "And I don't want to tell him."

"I think we should," Pyrrha replied.

"You saw how they were this afternoon, I don't want to ruin that," Sunset said. "I'll be there too, so if there's any trouble she'll be protected."

Pyrrha pursed her lips together. "I don't like the sound of this."

"It probably won't spoil your evening-"

"It's not my evening that concerns me."

"It's unlikely that anything will happen," Sunset said. "But if it does…we'll be there for her."

"Yes," Pyrrha murmured. "I'll speak to Jaune, and maybe I can hide Milo under my skirt depending on what Rarity has planned for me."

"Thanks," Sunset said. "I feel safer now. I feel like Amber is safer now, I mean."

"I don't," Pyrrha said. "But I understand."

And so they whiled away the hours amongst the fairgrounds until the time came to prepare for their match.


	160. You Got Nothing On Us

You Got Nothing On Us

Pyrrha closed her eyes, and bowed her head.

This was it, this was the hour. This was the moment when it all began. The beginning of the end.

If destiny was not something preordained by an omnipotent force, but rather if it was indeed the product of her own choices, the path upon which she had decided to set herself, then it was not for lack of trying on the part of her mother to choose and lay out a destiny for her regardless of what Pyrrha might or might not want. They were nearing the end of that road. Vytal glory was the place where the destiny that her mother had chosen for her led, and always had; her star had always been pointed in that direction, her training had been designed to aim for this place and at this time.

This was the end of one girl's destiny, and it began now with this fight.

It troubled her in ways that she had not expected. Even when she had chafed against the demands of her role as the Invincible Girl it had always been there, a lodestone of her life, something solid and immutable to which she could always return. Once this was done, once she worked away from tournaments and dedicated herself to the life of a huntress then, well, it would be gone. An obvious thing to put so baldly into words, but its absence from her life would be more troubling. A hole that she would have to find something else to fill.

Pyrrha's brow furrowed, crinkling her fair skin. This wasn't the time for such thoughts. Before battle was a time for calm and reflection, for centring oneself before the test. That was why she had asked the others to give her a little privacy in which to meditate in…well, it was the shower, and if Sunset had wished to prank her by teleporting in and turning on the shower she could have done it, but it was the only place that was separated by the rest of the locker room by a door (and Sunset wouldn't do that to her anyway).

She sat on the floor in the centre of the otherwise empty communal shower room, the voices of the others muffled through the door as Jaune put on all his armour, and closed her eyes and tried to find inner peace before the outer struggle began.

 _A chapter of my life is ending, why should I not feel some trepidation?_

 _Because trepidation will not help me win._

And she did want to win. It was vanity but she wanted to depart the stage in the full bloom of glory, not slink away amidst the shattering of that reputation that she could not quite commit to loving or loathing. She wanted to end on the highest of all notes in the highest of all possible places.

And then she could begin again, and find out who she really was.

She wanted to win and yet it worried her to consider what effect her victory might have. Theirs was the last match of the day, and the match beforehand was already over. Everyone was waiting upon them now. That preceding match just finished had seen the seventh Shade team in the tournament eliminated in the first round; only a single team from the Vacuo academy would progress on to the two vs two round and the Vacuo fans were spitting blood in the stands about it as far as Pyrrha could tell; the matches had been temporarily put on hold three times today to allow security to deal with a developing situation, and though things had been sorted out by the expulsion of a few of the worst troublemakers it nevertheless disquieted Pyrrha. This tournament was supposed to be a celebration not only of martial skill at the highest level but also of unity and peace. There was not too much sign of either today.

So far only three Beacon teams had progress through to the doubles round: CFVY, YRBN and WSTW; if SAPR won their fight then that would make it four teams, down from the average when usually Beacon enjoyed a high win to loss ratio in the opening round. Instead it was Haven who had surprised all of Remnant by emerging as the early winners of the tournament; with all of their matches complete six Haven teams would be going through to the second round, compared with five confirmed Atlas teams (although of course if SAPR lost this match against PSTL then that would be six Atlas teams, tied with Haven). When Pyrrha contemplated how various people would react to the various possible outcomes of this match, she couldn't see a resolution which wouldn't leave some people deeply upset, and she wasn't talking about their opponents in the arena but those watching beyond. That wasn't what she wanted, and yet she could see no way that it could be avoided.

 _In which case perhaps I should ignore it._

 _How can I?_

 _What can I do about it? Nothing? Then what good to dwell upon it?_

Pyrrha took a deep breath in and out.

 _My name is Pyrrha Nikos, I am the Invincible Girl for a few more days at least._

 _I fight for the honour of Mistral which taught me and which honours me._

 _I fight for my own honour which I hold dear._

 _I fight for the pride of Sunset Shimmer, my sister in spirit, and of my mother who birthed me; who both aspire to great glory and look to my aid in finding it._

 _I fight for my own pride, which I acknowledge and acknowledge as a flaw._

 _I fight to represent Beacon Academy and the Kingdom of Vale, which had admitted me under their banner._

 _I fight for myself._

Pyrrha opened her eyes as there was a knock on the door.

"Pyrrha," Ruby said. "Can I come in?"

Pyrrha smiled as she got to her feet. "I'm quite decent, Ruby."

"Oh, yeah, right, I forgot," Ruby opened the door and darted into the shower. "Are you okay?"

"I'm…better, and as well as I'll be," Pyrrha said. "Ruby…does it worry you, what seems to be going on at the festival this year?"

Ruby hesitated for a moment. "Yeah," she said. "It's just a part of…it's everyone fighting amongst themselves, isn't it? Like why the Mistralian fleet is here, because they don't trust the Atlesians."

"Or they want people to think that they don't trust the Atlesians," Pyrrha said, coming to the conclusion that the pretence of distrust might actually be more inane than if they had actually believed that Atlas had orchestrated the attack on Vale.

"Right," Ruby said. "The point is…I wish that people remembered who we should really be fighting against: the grimm, to protect each other. The tournament is supposed to be fun, not…it kinda feels like a way for Atlas to have a big fight and prove who's best without actually having a war, you know?"

"Yes, I know exactly what you mean," Pyrrha murmured. _And at the moment Mistral appears to be winning._

"I suppose it's better than them actually having a war," Ruby said. "But…it's not what this is supposed to be about."

"Exactly," Pyrrha said. "But I don't know what we can do about it.

"Is there anything we can do about it?" Ruby asked. "Isn't that for people like Professor Ozpin and General Ironwood to take care of? If Cinder makes her move, or the White Fang tries anything else, then we can do something to fix things; but until then, all we can do is our best."

"Our best?"

"Our best to help you win this tournament trophy that you want so badly," Ruby said. "So are you ready?"

Pyrrha smiled down at her. "Yes," she said. "Yes, I think I am."

They left the shower room, and emerged back into the locker room where Jaune and Sunset were waiting for them.

"Are you good?" Sunset said, pulling her sword out of her locker and strapping across her back over her jacket.

Pyrrha went to her own locker, opened it, and pulled out Milo and Akouo. "I am now," she said, as slung them over her shoulder and across her back.

"Good," Sunset said. "This is your party after all."

"No," Pyrrha said. "I know that you think that…and I'm sure that some of the people out there about to watch think that…but I'd rather…this isn't about me. Not on my own, in spite of what anyone says. This is about all four of us, and we'll stand or fall together, as a team."

 _There's nobody that I'd rather have help me close off one part of my life and start another._

Sunset looked at her, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. "I have been waiting for this tournament all year," she said.

"I think everyone's been kind of waiting for it for a while now," Jaune said. He grinned. "Mostly because people have been saying its close forever and yet it never seemed to get here."

Sunset snorted. "Okay, but humour me for a second, I'm trying to give a speech about our team." She cleared her throat. "May I continue?"

Jaune was still smiling. "Go ahead."

"Thank you," Sunset said. "As I was saying, I have been looking forward to this all year, since I got accepted for Initiation at Beacon. I thought that this was going to be my shot, my one chance to impress the world with what I could do, with how great I really was…with how great I thought I was. I wanted to win because I wanted to force people to recognise my talents and stop treating me like a nobody faunus. That was why…I was a little worried to be put on this team, even if I was the leader. Like Lady Nikos, I was simultaneously worried about being slowed down by Jaune and about being overshadowed by Pyrrha and Ruby." Sunset scratched the back of her head. "What I've learnt over the past year…I've learned a lot of things, but the relevant thing is...I was wrong about the Vytal Festival. I was wrong about this tournament. You guys were my shot, you were my last chance and thanks to you…I may have wanted to win the combat tournament but you gave me what I needed instead. But that doesn't mean that we're not going to take this seriously because we have all come such a long way…well, some of us have come a long way…okay, Jaune and I have come a long way from where we started and Ruby and Pyrrha have taken baby steps because they were already so far out in front but the point is that after how far we've come and everything that we've done I think that we deserve a chance to go out there and show the world just how great we really are. This isn't my chance, it's our chance. So let's take it.

"Let's show them what Team Sapphire is really made of."

* * *

In her box – a private box, naturally, she had bought every seat present so as to ensure that she was not disturbed – Lady Nikos waited for her daughter and her team-mates to arrive in the arena.

She felt such anticipation as she rarely felt any more. Even as she gripped her walking stick tightly between her hands she could feel her arms trembling with an excitement so pronounced that it reminded her of the days before her injury when she had competed before the crowds. And even though their cheers, and that low anticipatory hum that would explode into sound the moment Pyrrha appeared before the eyes of the world, was not for her the fact that it was for her daughter, whom she had trained and managed and shepherded to this point, was a decent second best.

This was Pyrrha's hour, and being Pyrrha's it was her hour too: the hour to stand at the highest pinnacle of martial achievement, the greatest young warrior in all of Remnant.

And even if Pyrrha was indeed the last flowering of the skill and valour of the Nikos line or indeed of all of Mistral's pride and honour…Lady Nikos could be content with that, once she had seen her daughter emerge victorious upon this stage.

She had complete confidence in the outcome of this first match: the Kommenos girl was a mere dilettante, and she had faith in Pyrrha's team-mates to provide her with an adequate level of support. She was mainly interested in how well Pyrrha would achieve victory, not in the question of victory itself.

She was glad that she had been persuaded to allow Pyrrha to return to Beacon; Lionheart would have squandered all of her great promise, and Pyrrha's misery at being separated from her friends would probably have had a negative impact on her performance.

But now…now she would get to watch her shine.

"I confess that I sometimes feel the need for privacy, but I also find that events like these are often best enjoyed with company."

Lady Nikos looked up to see Professor Ozpin standing over her. He had crept up on her while she was preoccupied with other thoughts.

She nodded respectfully, but did not rise. "Professor Ozpin, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

Ozpin sat down without waiting for an invitation. "Considering that this fight involves some of my most promising students and that one of those students happens to be your daughter it seemed a good time for us to become acquainted, Ms Nikos."

She looked at him. "I have not been called that before."

"You are not in Mistral any more, to insist upon ancient titles."

"True, but a more courteous man would offer me courtesy regardless."

Ozpin chuckled. "Perhaps he would, Lady Nikos, forgive me. I admit that I sometimes find the pride of your ancient kingdom…a trifle pompous."

"Oh, it is, without a doubt," Lady Nikos said. "But if we were to lose sight of our traditions what would be left of Mistral? Are there not worse things than a little pomposity?"

"True," Professor Ozpin said. "Have you sampled many of the delights of the festival?"

"No," Lady Nikos said. "Too much movement wearies me; I have been watching the matches since they began."

"And what is your opinion, as a former fighter yourself?"

"Haven has done far better than I expected, as Beacon has done worse," Lady Nikos said.

"Indeed," Ozpin said with surprising equanimity. "I've been rather surprised by some of these outcomes myself. I wonder what Leo will say."

"If that man says anything you should inform him that he has gotten very lucky," Lady Nikos said. "His students deserved to lose more than two matches, and would have without doubt if some of the draws had fallen differently. I have no doubt that some of your teams eliminated by Atlas would have triumphed over some of the Haven teams that drew fortunate fights against Shade instead." Haven Academy's eight teams had fought four matches against Atlesian opponents – winning two and losing two – and four against Shade teams which they had all won. They had not fought against any Beacon teams so far, while Atlas – whose two losses against Haven represented its only two defeats so far (with a third soon to come) – had had the tougher card with fights mostly against more difficult Beacon teams. "And yet, at the same time, I do not think you will be allowed to claim credit for the success of Pyrrha which we are about to witness; it will be claimed for Mistral, as it should be."

"Even though she is my student, and as I have said a most promising one?"

Lady Nikos shook her head dismissively. "You have a fine reputation, Professor, but I doubt that there is anything you have taught my daughter that she did not already know before she came to you."

"I'm not so sure," Ozpin said. "I think that Beacon has taught her teamwork, as we may see in just a little while. All the same you are to be congratulated: you have raised a fine young woman."

"I have indeed," Lady Nikos said. "And over the next few days we will see her at her finest."

"Once again I must disagree with you, my lady; I think Pyrrha has far more to offer Remnant than victory in this little tournament."

"Little tournament?"

"Prestigious, to be sure," Ozpin said. "But just a tournament all the same."

"All the same I have trouble imagining what could be sweeter, greater or more worthy for one of Pyrrha's skill."

"Perhaps nothing if skill were all that she possessed but for one of all her virtues…" Ozpin trailed off for a moment. "She will do greater things, I am certain of it."

"Such as?"

"I'm not so sure of the specifics," Ozpin admitted. "But fortune has a way of constantly surprising us. Just when we think that our lives are neatly laid out before us something unexpected happens and lo: opportunities undreamt of are lying in our path, just waiting to be picked up."

* * *

"And so, we pass from Canterlot's favourite daughter onto its prodigal daughter," Luna observed as they waited for the emergence of the two teams.

"It seems from what Rainbow told us that Sunset made something of herself in the end," Celestia said. "Just not under our guidance. I'm just glad she found her path in the end."

Luna turned from the television to look at her elder sister. "And that's why you'll be rooting for her, in spite of the fact that it's an Atlesian team arrayed against them."

Celestia smiled. "Isn't the Vytal Festival meant to be a celebration of unity and peace? What does that mean if we can't occasionally root for a team beyond our own kingdom?"

Luna smiled in turn, even as she shook her head. "I never understood your soft spot for her."

"She was lost and lonely."

"And full of wrath and pride," Luna added. "I also don't understand why Ozpin brought her into his organisation."

"She has changed, by all accounts."

"All the same, she doesn't seem like his type."

"Sometimes it isn't about the individual," Celestia said. "Sometimes it's about the team."

"You're thinking about Stark," Luna murmured.

"Indeed," Celestia said. She and Luna had been recruited as a pair, their two team-mates remaining wholly ignorant of the greater struggle and of the work that Ozpin and his allies did behind the scenes, but Stark of course had been recruited as a quartet. "Do you think that Ozpin would ever have approached Raven on her own, if she hadn't been on a team with Summer, Qrow and Tai?"

"Considering that I never understood why he recruited Raven in any case that's a hard one for me to answer."

"She was valiant, once, and true," Celestia said with just a hint of reproach in her voice.

"Was she?" Luna replied. "I can't help but wonder."

"In any case," Celestia said. "I wouldn't discount the possibility that Ozpin's recruitment of Sunset Shimmer was as much to do with her team as with her own qualities: Summer's daughter, Pyrrha Nikos-"

"This Arc boy of whom no one has ever heard?"

Celestia chuckled. "Not every team can be Team Stark. And who knows, he wouldn't be the first great huntsman to emerge from obscurity."

"No," Luna admitted. "We shall see."

"I certainly hope so," Celestia said. She leaned back in her seat. "Show us what you've become, Sunset Shimmer."

* * *

"Hey, pal, have you been watering these down or something?" Qrow demanded as he waved his empty glass in the bartender's face. It was a different guy now than the one who'd been here in the morning, at least Qrow thought it was, but the fact that he could still see straight enough to even think that despite having been here since the place opened was a sign that something a little screwy was going on.

"I'm as surprised as you are, buddy," the new barkeep said. This guy was older, and a little heavier too, but with less hair than the first guy. "I expected you to pass out a couple of hours ago at least."

"You're not the only one," Qrow muttered. He could hold his drink, but he hadn't realised that he could hold it _this_ well. He'd expected to have fallen asleep on the bar a while ago, that was why he'd texted Glynda to come pick him up. She hadn't turned up, so he guessed it was lucky that he was still conscious.

Huh. Lucky. When was the last time he got lucky?

Whatever. "Well, since I'm still able to ask," he said. "Hit me up with another."

"Don't you think you've had enough?"

The voice – the familiar sounding voice, in a familiarly scolding tone – was coming from beside him. Qrow looked round into the stern face of Glynda Goodwitch.

"Glynda? What are you doing here?"

"You asked me to come take you home, several hours ago."

"Yeah, I thought I'd be unconscious by the time you got here. Wait…you've been here this whole time? Why didn't you say anything?"

"I did."

"Oh. I must be more drunk than I thought," Qrow muttered. He turned away. "Thanks for coming. Thanks for staying, too."

"You'll need someone to help you to bed eventually," Glynda said.

Qrow frowned. "Hey, have you been watering down my drinks?"

"I gave a signal," Glynda admitted without a trace of shame.

"Traitor," Qrow muttered to the barkeep.

"You would have regretted drinking yourself to sleep a couple of hours ago when you woke up and realised you'd missed Ruby's match," Glynda said. "As things stand I think you can just about see straight enough that you'll be able to make out what's going on."

Qrow didn't say anything because Glynda was absolutely right: he would have regretted missing Ruby's fight in the brief interlude between waking up mostly sober and starting drinking again. "How is she?"

"She's the bravest girl I've seen since her mother," Glynda said softly. "Summer would be proud, and you should be too."

"I am," Qrow said defensively. "I just don't do those cartoon moments, that's all. So, where are her opponents from?"

"Atlas," Glynda said, with a certain reluctance.

Qrow laughed. "Oh, yes. Yes! Hey, pal, turn up the volume a little, this is gonna be great!"

* * *

Tai was still at the back of the classroom, a classroom that was now a good deal emptier than it had been now that it was the end of the day. A lot of the students had gone home, either to watch the remainder of the day's matches at home or not if they weren't actually all that interested. Tai hadn't gone home yet, because the screen that they were using to watch the matches on here was a lot bigger than his television. He had been joined by the sparring instructor and the weapons construction adviser, and a handful of the students had stayed behind to watch in school as well. Some of them had nowhere else to go, they were the students who boarded in the school – which might be ubiquitous at the four academies but was quite rare in a combat school – some of them had families that wouldn't want to watch; a few of them where Ruby's old friends from before she got advanced to Beacon early. He'd been glad to find out that she'd started writing to them again, after a long hiatus, and now they were watching her fight it out in the arena of dreams before the world.

Seeing Yang win her fight – and not only win it but win it so well, the power that she'd displayed, the leadership, the intelligence – had made him so proud. Yang had Raven's fierce strength and Summer's conviction, and Summer's gift for winning loyalty too if what he had heard about her team was right.

He had little hope that the students would forget his reaction to Team YRBN's victory; they were going to be mocking him for that from now until they graduated.

But now, in the hours since he had watched his elder daughter qualify for the second round, his anxiety had returned for his younger daughter and now he had restrain from biting his own hand from nerves as he waited for Ruby and her team to emerge from out of that tunnel.

He just hoped that, as she prepared to head out for this fight, Ruby remembered that she still had friends back at Signal and that they believed in her.

* * *

Due to the time difference between Vale and Mistral, the matches that in Vale had begun in the mid-morning and continued until the late afternoon had, in Mistralian time, begun in the mid-to-late afternoon and continued on into the middle of the night. Oceana had fallen asleep, her mouth open as drool gathered in the corner of her mouth. Michael delicately wiped it away before it got on his couch, then nudged her awake.

"Oceana. Oceana get up, the princess is about to come one."

"I'm pancake," Oceana muttered as she stirred. "I mean I'm awake. What did I miss?"

"Nothing that you'll regret missing," Esau said. "But Pyrrha's about to go on."

"It's about time too," Oceana said. "Why couldn't they have put her and Arslan back to back?"

"Presumably they want to keep people like us who are only here for Pyrrha and Arslan glued to screen all day," Metella suggested.

"Makes sense," Oceana said. "Who are they up against?"

"More Atlas twats," Esau said.

Michael frowned at the language being deployed in his house, but he couldn't really argue the point. The mood in the house was not very pro-Atlas at the moment, given the way that they'd behaved in the fights against Mistralian teams, and against Arslan in particular. When they won they were insufferable about it, and when they lost – as they had to Arslan – they were the biggest collection of sore losers that any of the tournament fighters had ever seen and coming from a group of professional fighters that was saying something.

They weren't perfect people by any means. They might play up to being slightly better people than they really were as part of their public personas – not everyone could be Pyrrha and not need a public persona because she was just that virtous and graceful and practically perfect in every way – but none of them pretended to be paragons among men. But they knew how to behave in the arena and it was not how some of these folks had been behaving in the Amity Coliseum. Win or lose, you didn't act like that, if you couldn't shake hands afterwards then you at least walked away with your head held high. What kind of an example did these huntsmen think they were setting for the kids?

And acting as though you wanted a second go-around moments after you'd just lost the first…that wasn't only despicable but stupid too.

There wasn't a lot of love for Atlas in the house right now, nor for the Huntsman Academies for that matter because whatever they were teaching it was almost criminal. They could only hope that Pyrrha hadn't been corrupted by the company of such vile people and was still the inspiration that they all remembered.

"It's not just Atlas," Metella said. "It's the dilettante as well."

Michael groaned. "Ugh. Her."

"She'll lose," Oceana said.

"I know she'll lose it just won't be as much fun to watch Pyrrha win as I was hoping for," Michael said. "Speaking of bad sportsmanship."

"You think she'll try something?" Esau asked.

"You think that she won't try something?" Michael replied.

"Look, here they come now," Oceana said, pointing at the screen.

* * *

Unlike General Ironwood, whom she understood to be on the coliseum intermittently overseeing the security and at the same time taking in the matches of his favourite teams, Commander Yeoh preferred to watch the matches via her scroll from the comfort and security of her ready room aboard her flagship, the _Pride of Mistral_. Her location felt especially appropriate now as she watched the flesh and blood pride of Mistral enter the arena.

Of course, it also let her keep an eye on Uiharu, Mistral's technical genius (it did produce such, it just didn't trumpet their existence); she looked very young and very small to be an expert in anything, to Yeoh's eyes, but then the greatest warrior in Mistral was only seventeen and Vale's great hope was only fifteen, so she had probably better resign herself to the fact that this was a world for the young to inherit; after all Uiharu was not so much younger than Pyrrha or Ruby Rose, she was only…

"How old are you, Uiharu?" Commander Yeoh asked.

"I'm fourteen years and eight months old, ma'am," Uiharu replied eagerly.

"God," Yeoh muttered under her breath. _And eight months. Wearing a hairband with a lot fake flowers stuck onto it. And here you are on board a warship._ Nevertheless it couldn't be denied that they needed her help; she'd already proven very useful today.

"Is something wrong, commander?"

"No," Yeoh said quickly. "I just find it surprising, considering that there was only recently an attempted cyber-attack, that you were able to gain access to the match randomiser so easily."

"Well," Uiharu began. "That's because the tournament match randomiser isn't actually a part of the CCT network, it's an autonomous programme which just happens to be linked to the network via the computers on the Amity Coliseum. You see my theory is that the reason the previous attempt to plant a virus happened inside the tower itself is because, by implanting it into the tower's mainframe, it would enable that virus to spread throughout the entire network and to everything connected to it…which is pretty much everything, really."

"I'm aware," Commander Yeoh said. She'd considered ordering all her ships disconnected from all networks for security reasons, but her officers had prevailed on her that ship's operations would be slowed too much if she did so. It didn't make her comfortable with the fact.

"But since we're on the periphery of the network, we can only gain access to other, low-security peripherals like the computers aboard the coliseum; any attempt to access the mainframe – not to mention high-security areas like the Atlesian military network – would fail at the firewall. If you imagine a gate that only opens from the inside out, no matter how hard you push from the outside-"

"I'll take your word for it," Commander Yeoh said.

"Commander?"

"Yes?"

"Why was it important to set up the fights instead of letting them be decided randomly? And why did you want so many fights between Haven and Atlas?"

"Because the better Haven does in this tournament the greater the sense that Mistral has actually accomplished something will be and the less inclined will be the people to question what the point of our coming here was," Commander Yeoh said. Pyrrha was going to win the tournament, she had no doubt about that, if but Mistral could tweak the nose of Atlas as many times as possible along the way then so much the better as far as public opinion was concerned.

Admittedly it hadn't gone entirely according to plan: she had had Uiharu arrange four matches between Atlas and Haven teams (plus Pyrrha's match against another Atlesian team) but Lionheart's students had only managed to win two of them, being defeated in the other two instances. That was the problem with this: she could set up the fights how she liked but she couldn't actually guarantee outcomes. That was why she'd set up the other four fights for Haven against weak Shade teams, to stand them the best chance of actually reaching the second round.

But she was doing the best she could with the materials available to her, and six teams into the second round was better than Haven had done in the Vytal Festival for quite some time now.

"Uiharu," she continued. "Do you know the expression 'resting on your laurels'?"

"Yes, Commander."

"It's often treated as a negative, but resting on your laurels strikes me as much better than many others thing you could do with laurels," Yeoh said. "Burning them, throwing them away, ignoring them. But in order to rest upon our laurels we must have laurels to rest on and that is why you are here. Bread and circuses, Uiharu: if our sons and daughters of Mistral do well in the tournament, if they do better than expected of Haven, then nobody back home will care that we didn't fire a shot in anger, we just glared at the Atlesian fleet for a few days and then came home again. Mistral will rejoice regardless, and the peace will be preserved. Now, watch closely, you're about to see something truly spectacular."

* * *

"Ruby?" Pyrrha asked. "Are you alright?"

Ruby had her hood up, and her back was bent a little. "I'm not…isn't there any way that we can do this from, like behind a screen or something?"

"We're going to be on screen," Sunset said. "In front of the whole world."

"That's not what I meant," Ruby said. "That's even worse."

Pyrrha smiled. "It's fine, Ruby. Once the fighting begins you'll forget the crowds are even there."

"Really?"

"Yes," Pyrrha said. The alternative was that you lost the fight because you couldn't concentrate, but she wasn't about to mention that to Ruby. "Once you win the battle, as I believe we will-" she hoped very much that saying that didn't constitute overconfidence on her part, "-then you will notice the cheering of the crowd but by then…by then you feel too full of vigour to be intimidated by it. By then it only lifts you up higher than you already are…and you already feel as though you could do absolutely anything."

Ruby tentatively pushed back her hood, exposing her black hair once more to view. "Are they really going to cheer for us?"

"The home crowd will," Jaune said. "And probably the Mistralians too." He grinned. "And all my family back home, too. We've got the whole Arc family willing us on."

"Everybody's going to be cheering for us," Sunset said. "We've got the pride of Mistral, the young hope of Vale, and a really cute boy – don't let it go to your head." She pointed at herself. "And me, representing all the otherworldly unicorns in the audience."

Ruby sniggered. "Do you wish that they could watch?"

"Huh?"

Ruby shrugged. "My Dad's watching, Jaune's family's watching, Pyrrha's mom is out there somewhere; do you wish that Princess Celestia and the other Twilight Sparkle could watch you now?"

Sunset looked as though the question had never occurred to her before, but now that it had occurred to her it seemed to make a look of melancholy cross her face. "I guess," she admitted. "I'd never really thought about it, but…yeah. Yeah, that would be really nice. Because it's one thing to tell Celestia that I've found my place in the world, but it would be another if she could see it for herself." She shook her head. "On the other hoof, this really isn't their kind of thing, so…are we ready? Because if we keep them waiting much longer they're going to start a riot in the stands."

"Don't joke about that," Pyrrha murmured. She waved her hands, and with her semblance pulled Milo and Akouo off her back and into her waiting grasp. "I'm ready."

Jaune drew his sword, and unfurled his shield. "Ready."

Ruby, fortunately, did not extend Crescent Rose, but simply held it ready in its carbine configuration. "I'm ready too. Thanks guys."

Sunset pulled her rifle off her shoulder. "Then let's not keep our public waiting."

She led them out, as was her right as the team leader, with Ruby following, then Jaune, then Pyrrha bringing up the rear.

It was something that Pyrrha had done many times before: emerging from a tunnel just like this one. It was always the same: born in darkness, emerging into the light; born with the sound muffled and indistinct and emerging into the ear-blasting excitement of a crowd in all its fury; reincarnated into the underworld and emerging into the world of the living to walk upon the surface of the earth for the amusement of the gods until your task was done. This arena was different in size, larger than any that Pyrrha had walked upon before, the live crowd bigger than any that Pyrrha had performed before in earlier days, the battlefield larger…but the way that the roars of the crowd intensified the moment they caught sight of the combatants emerging from the darkness into light was just the same, the way that it never failed to make her spine shiver was just the same, the way that she instantly felt her head rise a little higher with the – unjustified but nevertheless present – pride that she felt as those cheers assailed her ears was just the same.

This was a world that they had been born into. A little world, but a world nonetheless, and the fact that the Amity Coliseum was programmed to represent little worlds upon its surface made that fact only a little more true than it would have been upon the traditional sandy surface of a Mistralian arena or the newer grey synthetic surfaces like that which lay in the centre of this coliseum. Every arena was a little world, and while you stood in it that little world was the only one that really mattered. Now she had been born into this world and Cinder and Amber and maidens and magic and all the rest mattered not at all; they were the troubles of another place, a place she would return too soon enough but here and now there was only the arena, and the crowd all around that were like little gods or ancestral spirits looking on with eager eyes and loud, tumultuous voices.

All of this was familiar to her, all of her reactions were almost automatic, programmed into her like the behaviour of the Atlesian knights. She had walked into many arenas and felt just like this. What she had not done was walked into the arena as part of a team, and though this might be the only time in her life that she would do so she felt the difference keenly nonetheless. She had told Ruby that she didn't want this to be seen as her time, but even so she had no doubt that Ruby and Jaune at least still saw this as winning the tournament for her sake. They willingly carried her honour into battle, but in her heart she felt herself carrying theirs as well. This _was_ about them and about the team as much as it was about her, and she had no intention of letting them down.

Team PSTL had emerged from the other side of the arena and the two teams made their way, under the eyes of the crowd, to the centre. Phoebe was clad in her gilded armour, her face concealed beneath a helmet with a tall red crest that burned thanks to the fire dust woven into it, in one hand she held a tower shield almost as tall as she was, in her other hand she held a long spear with a tip at each end; Lycus, a lean and rangy wolf-faunus with a long mane of shaggy silver hair that reached down to his waist, was wearing only a blue t-shirt and jeans; Thorn Hubert was tall, his skin bronzed, dressed in a variety of shades of green with a bycocket hat upon his head; Mal Sapphire was draped in a cloak the colour of her name, and held a staff of twisted and gnarly wood in her hands.

It was coincidence, but it was convenient coincidence that PSTL had lined up against the members of SAPR assigned to them.

"Team Sapphire of Beacon!" Professor Port announced, leading the crowd to cheer even louder, something Pyrrha hadn't thought would be possible.

"Team Pastel of Atlas!" While the Vale and Mistral sections of the crowd had cheered for Sapphire, and a few had seemed to come from the Atlas section too, the response to Team PSTL was notably muted in comparison.

Phoebe didn't seem to notice. She laughed, in that very false manner that she had. "So, Pyrrha, I almost didn't expect that we'd be meeting so soon."

"If you hadn't then you wouldn't have met at all," Sunset said.

Phoebe shifted in place to look down the line at her. "Did you say something?"

"Yes," Sunset said. "Was I not being clear enough? You would have lost in the first round no matter who you were up against."

"I…that's not…what do you know about it you stupid horse?"

Sunset's smirk was rather cruel. "I know that no matter how hard you try you'll never be anything but a second-rate also-ran, and nobody is going to remember you."

One of Phoebe's own team-mates sniggered at that, Lycus Silvermane; that must have hurt even more than anything that Sunset could have said. Pyrrha could only imagine how she would have felt if any of her friends had joined in sport made at her expense. She couldn't help but feel that it had been unnecessary for Sunset to say that; Phoebe liked to sound off, and she seemed to mean it more than, say, Arslan…but was that reason enough to be so cruel? Pyrrha shot Sunset a reproachful look.

"Phoebe-" she began.

"Shut up," Phoebe snarled. "Just…shut up! You think you're so great, everybody thinks you're so great, but this time…this time I'm going to beat you, and show everyone just how hollow you really are!"

"Good luck with that," Sunset muttered.

"Sunset," Pyrrha murmured.

The terrain randomiser made its first selection: forest, for Team SAPR; Blake's fears about having ruined it for further use proved to unfounded as an entirely new forest, untouched by any prior competitor, rose up out of the depths behind them.

Team PSTL on the other hand drew mountains, and an imposingly tall grey peak arose behind their Atlesian opposition. Pyrrha noticed Sunset's eyes narrow, and she could understand why: if Thorn did as they expected and fell back to shoot, he would have the high ground on Ruby.

But when Pyrrha looked at Ruby, she found that all the younger girl's nervousness prior to walking out in the arena had left her. There was only determination on her face now.

 _Terrain isn't everything. He may have the higher ground but he'll never get the better of Ruby no matter what advantages he has._

"Three…" Professor Port said, his voice booming out. "Two…one…begin!"

* * *

Sunset tossed her gun up into the air and flung out both her arms; instantly Mal and Thorn were hurled backwards as if swatted by an invisible racket. Jaune had just enough time to watch Sunset snatch her rifle out of the air again as she moved to block Mal's path to Pyrrha.

 _So far, so good,_ Jaune thought.

Ruby turned and ran for the cover of the trees; Pyrrha sprinted off to the left with Phoebe in hot pursuit.

 _So far, so good._

Thorn got up and began to run for the mountain. Lycus began to pursue…Ruby?

 _So far so- wait, that wasn't the plan!_

Jaune had already been moving to follow Pyrrha, now his trainers skidded on the ground as he abruptly changed direction, wobbling a little as he almost but not quite lost his balance in his haste.

He was leaving Pyrrha to it, but he was confident that she could handle Phoebe on her own; he was also confident that Ruby could handle Lycus on her own if push came to shove – he wasn't sure why the guy was choosing to go after her rather than follow the game plan that, according to Sunset, Team PSTL always followed, but if it was because Ruby would be an easier target boy would he be in for a big surprise – but every moment that Ruby had to spend taking care of that guy would be one that she wasn't spending dealing with PSTL's archer, and second of all…look, he had one job in this plan and one chance to show Pyrrha's mom that he wasn't a useless putz and so he was going to do his job and deal with Lycus Silvermane no matter what it took.

Unfortunately for him the wolf faunus, although slower than Ruby, was nevertheless faster than Jaune. Jaune used his semblance to boost his own aura around his legs, speeding him up as each stride carried him further, out of the centre of the arena and into the grass approaching the dense forest that formed Team SAPR's half of the arena.

Ruby was using the recoil of Crescent Rose to launch herself up onto the top of a tree when Lycus pulled out a knife and threw it at her; it didn't hit Ruby but it did pin her cape to the tree so that she was pulled to an abrupt halt before falling down to the ground.

Jaune boosted the aura around his legs some more as he made a flying leap – he was under no illusion that he was saving Ruby or anything like that but, again, one job, one chance – that carried him across the remaining distance between him and Lycus. He had been aiming to actually land on the guy, but Lycus changed direction just enough that Jaune landed beside him instead.

Jaune's shield lashed out, and although he knew that Pyrrha would disapprove of how much he was burning his aura to boost it he nevertheless boosted the aura around his arm and shield as he whacked Lycus in the side with it, sending the other guy flying into a tree.

Ruby pulled the knife out of her tree, freeing her cloak and herself. "Thanks, you need any help?"

"No, I've got this," Jaune said. "You get going. We've each got a job to do, right?"

"Right," Ruby said. She grinned as she flashed him a thumbs up. "Kick his butt, Jaune!" She did what she had meant to do and tried to do before, and used the recoil of Crescent Rose to propel herself upwards like a rocket until she disappeared into the foliage of the tall trees, invisible but discernible by the sniper rounds that burst out of the leaves to roar across the field.

In a moment the sound of those shots became as much background noise as the roaring of the crowd to Jaune as Lycus Silvermane picked himself up off the ground.

His lupine tail swiped at the ground beneath his feet as he squared up to Jaune, his teeth bared in a bestial snarl.

Jaune shifted into one of the guard stances that Pyrrha had taught him. He couldn't do it the way that she did it, the way she flowed like water from one posture to the next, but if he didn't look quite so cool he at least thought that he looked as though he knew what he was doing by now as he held his shield before him and his sword ready to strike.

Knives appeared in Lycus hands, three in each gripped between his fingers. He wasn't wearing any shoes, Jaune noticed abruptly; beneath the ragged bottoms of his jeans there were only naked ankles and bare feet. His toes flexed up and down.

Jaune braced himself.

Lycus leapt for him. Jaune began to run – it was better not to let your opponent have all the momentum of the charge to himself – maintaining his guard as he raced to meet Lycus halfway under the eaves of the forest.

Lycus threw a pair of knives, one from each hand, they spun through the air towards Jaune's face; he raised his shield, blinding himself for a moment as he heard the knives clatter off his shield before he felt a heavy weight upon it was Lycus' fingers gripped the upper edge and Lycus' face appeared over the top, leering down at him.

"Hi," he said.

Jaune slashed with his sword, reacting on instinct despite his shock at his opponents peakaboo appearance as he swept his blade sideways across the edge of shield. Lycus dropped to the ground, crouching down low as Jaune's guard was suddenly too high. Lycus leg lashed out in a straight kick at Jaune's armoured ankle, it didn't really hurt – the armour meaning that he barely felt the blow to his aura – but it did push his leg back, Jaune's whole body lowering as his foot retreated and his knee bent so that he looked like a runner about to start a sprint. Lycus leapt, fist raised for a descending blow onto the top of Jaune's head. Jaune launched himself forward like the runner he resembled in that moment, catching Lycus in mid-air upon his shield and thrusting his sword at him as a blast of white ice dust shot down the length of the blade to combine with the point to knock Lycus back.

He was up again in a moment, throwing more knives ahead of him as he charged, his fists hammering upon Jaune's shield once he had closed the distance once again. He was strong, stronger than Pyrrha in terms of raw power, his blows were shaking down Jaune's entire arm, pressing him backwards with every hammering blow; but he had none of Pyrrha's finesse, and seemingly no plan beyond to hammer on Jaune's shield until his aura broke.

Lycus' rhythm faltered and Jaune stepped into the breach; he hit out with his shield, making Lycus recoil a pace, and then Jaune stepped forward to put his entire body into the stroke as he clove his sword downwards onto the top of Lycus' head.

And as he did so his shield swung sideways and he opened up his guard.

Lycus grinned as he sidestepped Jaune's stroke, catching his arm with one hand as it descended; with his other hand he grabbed the scruff of Jaune's hoodie and he grunted with the effort as he began to lift Jaune up to toss him aside.

For a moment their faces were level, and in that moment Jaune headbutted him. His feet lashed out, sweeping Lycus' legs out from under him so that they both went down in a tangled heap on the ground. Jaune lost his grip on sword and shield both but scrabbled to regain them, grabbing his sword in both hands as he rose to his knees and rounded on his enemy, bringing his blade down with a cry.

"Jaune, don't!" Pyrrha cried, her green eyes wide with horror as she held up her hands to defend herself from the sword that was about to descend upon her.

Jaune froze, his sword sticking in the air as though it was embedded in ice, his blue eyes widening.

Pyrrha stared at him for a moment. Then she smiled as the voice of Lycus Silvermane issued out of her mouth. "Seriously? I can't believe you fell for that."

He hit Jaune in the face, and when Jaune was understandably a little distracted by that he wrested Crocea Mors out of his hand. The next thing Jaune knew he was being kneed in the face repeatedly, and by himself no less.

Being punched in the face by a guy who had assumed your appearance brought a whole new meaning to the phrase 'stop hitting yourself', and Jaune didn't have any armour on his face to stop him feeling every blow through his aura. God, this guy was strong, he made Cardin feel like a wimp. Every blow…every blow made it hard to…every time…when he got hit it…every time made it hard to…he couldn't…he couldn't think because…when he got punched he…he couldn't think what to do because he kept getting punched in the face!

The distinctive bark of Crescent Rose echoed out of the cover of the trees as a shot hit the ground at Lycus' feet, making him jump in surprise and giving Jaune the chance he needed. He shoved Lycus backwards with one hand, reached for his sword with the other, and as his fingers closed around the hilt of the blade he swept it along the ground and unleashed all the ice dust stored within the pommel. It erupted like lava flowing down a mountainside, engulfing the grass in ice and freezing all the ground around Lycus' bare feet, encasing his legs in ice and holding him fast where he was standing.

He groaned, looking down at his legs as he tried and failed to break free. He looked at Jaune. "I don't suppose that if I told you there'll be no living with her majesty if we lose you'd consider going easy on me?"

Jaune sheathed his sword, and then immediately reconfigured it to greatsword mode. "No, sorry."

"I didn't think so," Lycus said. "Let me have it then."

Jaune's hands and sword began to glow as the white light of his semblance rippled up them; he might only get one shot at this and he wanted to make it count. He could feel his strength increasing as he swung his greatsword with everything behind it, a slashing stroke aimed at waist height that ripped Lycus free of the ice with the force of the blow that Jaune dealt him. Lycus' face contorted as he was bent double around the sword, hanging suspended for a moment before the blow propelled him backwards towards the edge of the arena.

"Lycus Silvermane has been eliminated by aura depletion!" Doctor Oobleck yelled excitedly as the klaxon sounded. "And leaving the arena," he added, as Lycus rolled off the edge of the arena. "That's a double knock-out!"

 _Thanks, Ruby,_ Jaune thought, knowing that she could easily have nailed Lycus herself instead of deliberately shooting to miss so that she'd only distract him and giving Jaune the chance to deal the final blow.

He looked up as something exploded in mid-air directly above his head.

* * *

Sunset threw Sol Invictus up into the air, where it span like a baton tossed by a marching band leader.

The first moments of the battle were crucial, which was she had thrown her gun to get it out of her hands – a touch of subtle telekinesis served to slow its descent without making it immediately obvious to an observer caught up in the thrill of the fight that it wasn't falling as fast it ought to – while she threw said hands out towards Thorn and Mal, blasting them both backwards across the central hexagon of the arena.

It would give Ruby more time to get into position, which was good because Sunset planned for her to be ready to fire before Thorn was set up so as to be in the best position to win the duel of sniper vs archer.

Sunset snatched Sol Invictus out of the sky with one hand; the only thing that worried her a little was that – now that she'd drawn his attention – Thorn might decide that the thing he wanted most was to get even with her. But, just as Ruby ran for the trees, so too Thorn ran for the mountain; but Ruby had started moving first, and as much as Sunset might have liked to have the mountain she had to admit that Ruby didn't have so far to climb.

Meanwhile Pyrrha had broken off and Phoebe was in pursuit. And Lycus was pursuing Ruby?

Sunset had been in the midst of interposing herself between Mal and Pyrrha when she noticed that. She hesitated – luckily Mal was slow getting up – until she saw Jaune sticking with the 'mark your man' interpretation of the plan rather than, perhaps, the 'cover Pyrrha's flank' interpretation of it and going after Lycus himself. Okay. She'd leave that to him then. After what he'd been through this year he could handle this without needing Sunset or Pyrrha or anybody else to hold his hand.

She had her own opponent to take care of.

Mal started to rise. Sunset shot her as she was getting up, which knocked her down again but not for as long. Sunset saved her other bullets; she wasn't entirely sure what Mal might have up her sleeve and she didn't know what she might need them for later.

Mal got up. She stared at Sunset, her blue eyes filled with trepidation. She brandished her gnarled wooden staff before her as though it would shield her from harm. She spoke not a word as green fire spread out across her dark cloak, enveloping her within the embrace of the flickering, ethereal flames.

"Nice," Sunset murmured, as she ignited her own phoenix cape and let the scarlet and golden flames spread across her jacket. "You'll have to tell me how you get that green effect." Normal flames were fine, and they even matched her hair which was pretty cool, but that green colour that Mal had was neat too; it made it look kind of magical.

Mal didn't respond, or rather she didn't respond with words. Her staff had a green air dust crystal set atop it, and as she spun the staff in a circle before her Sunset thought she knew what was coming next.

Sure enough Mal thrust the staff out at Sunset in jabbing motion as the dust crystal began to glow and a cyclone erupted as the crystal began to dissolve in its wooden cradle; clearly the staff was a channel for Mal's aura as she activated the dust, turning it into wind which headed for Sunset in a swirling vortex to blow her away.

Sunset had already made up her mind which way to leap, and how far, and now she leapt. She landed on her shoulder, which hurt but she was able to roll with it instead of landing flat on her face, and as she rolled she brought Sol Invictus up to her shoulder and snapped off a shot. Mal used her staff to block the round, but being a fire dust bullet it exploded upon contact and she let out a cry of pain as she recoiled from the fiery bloom.

Sunset fired again, and another fire dust round exploded on Mal's burning cloak without seeming to do much harm to her aura at all; of course, the cloak was flame resistant in order to stop her being burned by her own green fire. Hence the reason she was now swathing herself in it.

Sunset let go of her rifle with one hand to fire a burst of green magic from her hand, but she missed because at that moment Mal twisted, revealing a handful of red fire dust crystal in her hand which she threw at Sunset. Magic leapt from Sunset's fingertips, striking the crystals one, two, three, igniting them in the air with blossoming explosions that briefly obscured from Sunset's sight the fact that Mal had turned tail from her and was racing towards the other end of the arena where Pyrrha was currently locked in frenetic combat with Phoebe Kommenos.

 _Oh no you don't._

Sunset raised her rifle to her shoulder once more. As she squeezed the trigger Phoebe brandished her staff blindly behind her as she ran, and she had replaced the spent wind dust crystal with a pale blue ice dust crystal, and as she swung her staff wildly left and right across her footsteps a wall of ice rose from the ground behind her, a shield against Sunset's fire and a block against Sunset's sight of her.

She clearly didn't know that Sunset could teleport.

As she pulled her scabbard – the sword still held there – off her back and wrenched off her brightly burning jacket Sunset tried to estimate how fast Mal had been running, how great the distance she had to cover, where she would be at this point, where Sunset want to go…got it.

She teleported, appearing right in front of Mal Sapphire as she careened across the grass to the aid of her team leader.

Right right in front of her, closer than she had intended. She'd obviously underestimated how fast Mal was going.

Mal's eyes widened as she saw Sunset appear right in front of her, too close to turn away.

In the moment before the inevitable collision Sunset threw her jacket right at her. Mal raised her free hand to catch it, but that only meant that it was the aura around her hand and not her face that took the brunt as she caught the jacket burning-side up.

And it was still right in front of her face so she couldn't see Sunset duck and present her shoulder to Mal as she went in to body check her.

She had told the team that she didn't want to close the distance with the girl who could put her to sleep with the right touch, and she didn't. But, since it was too late for that now due to Sunset's incorrect calculation, she had to make the best of it. She slammed into Mal before the other girl saw her coming, and though she could feel her aura burning away against Mal's own burning cape she forced herself to grit and bear the pain as she bore Mal backwards with the force of her impact.

She slammed her left hand into Mal's gut – taking her own aura into the yellow in the process thanks to those green flames – and activated the lightning dust in her vambraces. Mal's whole body twitched and jerked as the lightning temporarily dulled the burning flames, rippling through a cloak that was not insulated to tear at her aura like a pack of dogs.

A blast of magic from Sunset's palm sent Mal flying backwards and took her aura the rest of the way past the limit.

Sunset sighed as the klaxon sounded. That had been closer than it had seemed – Mal had nearly gotten away from her, and would have gotten away from anyone else – and yet at the same time easier than it should have been if Mal had actually faced her instead of trying to break away at the first opportunity. Team PSTL's strategy might work for them at times, but it was far too rigid to cope with a changing situation.

Sunset pulled on her jacket as an explosion burst in the air between the forest and the mountain.

* * *

Ruby left Jaune to it as she vaulted up into the trees, using the recoil from Crescent Rose to propel herself high enough to reach the branches, which she grabbed hold of by swinging her scythe upwards and hooking herself into the cover of the trees.

She wasn't worried; well, okay, she was a little worried, but Jaune had come a long way from boy she'd met throwing up outside the skyliner on her first day at Beacon. If he said that he could handle this, and that she should leave this to him, then it was nothing that he couldn't handle.

It was like he said, they all had a job to do, and he was doing his. Now she had to do hers.

Ruby scrambled into the trees. Here she should be completely hidden from any sight, while being able to see herself out through the sights of Crescent Rose. Of course, the fate of May Zedong of Team BRNZ showed that a position like this was far from flawless, but until and unless Team PSTL burned down the forest she was in a pretty good position here.

And with Phoebe, Mal and Lycus all occupied by other people the only person who might get a shot at burning down the forest was her own opponent Thorn Hubert, who had just gotten up and was starting to run towards the mountain.

Ruby took aim and fired. She missed, but her bullet slammed into the floor of the arena right where Thorn would have been if he'd kept on running in a straight line instead of zig-zagging.

Ruby nodded approvingly; he knew that Ruby was a marksman then, or at least had decided to act on the possibility that they had one.

She watched him for a moment as he traced a zig-zag course from where Sunset had thrown him to the grey imposing peak that he was running for.

In spite of what some people might think, Ruby was not an idiot; sure, she didn't know a lot of big fancy words, and she sometimes had trouble understanding stuff in textbooks, but she could strip Crescent Rose down to its parts in less than two minutes, she could diagnose a mechanical problem just by looking at it more often than not, and she could judge somebody's speed just by looking at them for a little bit. And once she'd done that it was straightforward to work out where they were going to be by the time her bullet reached them.

Based on the regularity of the point at which he changed direction…there!

Ruby fired. This was precisely the point at which Thorn broke his pattern, running into a continuous straight line for longer than he had done before so that Ruby's shot, which had been predicated upon him zagging at a certain point, missed again.

Ruby smiled. This guy knew what he was doing: after not moving in a straight line the second rule was not to move in a regular pattern, and Thorn had broken his pattern at just the point at which someone like Ruby would have been able to start predicting his movements.

Ruby turned her attention away from her target and towards the mountain; once he reached it he would have only a couple of ways to actually climb up it, and he would have a harder time dodging her. She'd get him then.

He must have thought that too, because he was already getting out his bow before he actually reached the mountain, and he had an arrow fitted to string by the time he reached the base of the looming mount. He turned, arrow drawn, and waited there, expectant.

Expectant for Ruby to shoot at him and give away her position in the trees. She wasn't about to give herself away that easily.

Thorn hesitated, arrow nocked, his aim shifting slightly to the left and slightly to the right. He had had his back to her, and he didn't have any team-mate who had observed Ruby and could point him out to her.

And so he loosed his arrow blind, or blind enough that he hit the tree two trees to the right of where she actually was. He was using fire dust – either he'd observed Blake or he'd just had the same idea – but not too much of it judging by how slow the tree was to catch fire; Ruby reckoned that she had time before it spread to her.

Thorn turned away to climb the mountain, and _that_ was the point at which Ruby shot him, catching him as he bent his legs to leap and throwing him face first into the grey rock instead. He leapt onto the first ledge, and Ruby shot him again, taking his aura down into the yellow. She shifted aim to the next – and final – ledge before the climb began.

A sound below her alerted her to the fact that Jaune was having a little trouble. He wasn't losing – he had more aura left than his opponent, according to the board – but Lycus had used his sneaky semblance to catch Jaune off guard and now even looked like Jaune – Ruby could tell which one was her Jaune because the real Jaune wouldn't have thrown his sword and shield away so he could beat on his opponent with his fists; plus her Jaune was the one losing aura every time he got punched – as he beat on him.

Ruby scowled as she aimed down the sights of Crescent Rose straight at the other guy's head. She hesitated. Sure, she could just shoot him until his aura ran out, and if this had been a real battle and Jaune had been in trouble she wouldn't have hesitated. But this wasn't a real battle, this was a tournament and Jaune wasn't in any real danger…and he wanted to show what he was capable of.

So she wouldn't save him…she'd just give him a little bit of a hand.

Ruby fired at Lycus' feet, and it worked like a charm; since he didn't know that she was aiming to miss he jerked backwards away from further shots, and that gave Jaune the chance he needed to get his second wind.

 _Nice going, Jaune,_ Ruby thought, as she watched him freeze Lycus' feet to the floor.

She returned her attention to Thorn – and found him standing on the ledge, bow drawn back, aiming right at her because she'd just given away where she was.

He let fly. Ruby raised Crescent Rose, hastily took aim, and fired. Her bullet hit the arrow, which exploded in mid-air with a burst of fire like a firework.

A second arrow sailed through the explosion unharmed by it, and Ruby had even less time to aim at this one but she managed to hit it anyway. It too exploded.

And a third arrow emerged from that explosion and this time there was no time to aim.

But there was time to jump.

Ruby was smiling as she leapt from out of the tree just as the arrow flew into it. She barely had time to register Jaune's shocked expression underneath her as the arrow exploded, blowing the top of the tree into pieces. Ruby saw the echoes of the light behind her, felt the heat, felt the force tearing at her aura as it propelled her forwards, adding to the burst of speed that she'd already put on to hurl her, spinning like a boarbatusk, clean across the arena.

She flew. The world turned around her like that time she and Zwei had climbed into the washing machine because it had looked like so much fun in there – the look on Yang's face when she pulled her out, Ruby had never seen her sister look so scared and angry at her before – but she flew. She turned up and down, up and down but she flew.

She flew right towards her target. The blade of Crescent Rose dug into the rock of the ledge, the barrel of the gun pointing right at Thorn's chest.

Ruby fired.

"Thorn Hubert is eliminated!" Doctor Oobleck cried excitedly, as the crowd roared their approval of Thorn being slammed backwards into the mountainside. "So far we appear to be seeing a truly bravura performance from Team Sapphire; can they finish it in the same style or will Phoebe Kommenos, the last remaining member of her team, stage a spectacular upset?"

"Go Pyrrha!" Ruby cheered, and it sounded like she was speaking for a vast swathe of the audience as well. "You can do this!"

* * *

Pyrrha ran, darting to her left and heading towards the edge of the arena. Phoebe pursued, as Pyrrha had known that she would; she couldn't resist even though she was being led away from the team that she was relying on to back her up against Pyrrha.

 _Did you ever consider what kind of victory it would be if you used sheer numbers to finally defeat me, Phoebe? Do you really think that anyone would acclaim you for triumphing in such a way?_

 _Or does that not matter as long as you win?_

Pyrrha kept her pace a little slower than it could have been; she didn't want to outstrip her opponent too far, nor leave her so far behind that she lost sight of her in the process. Phoebe was behind, but not so far behind: at the moment the two were running in parallel, two trains heading in the same direction at slightly different speeds, and Pyrrha could keep her opponent in sight from the corner of her eye.

Phoebe slung her shield onto her back, gripping her spear in both hands as it extended, becoming almost as long as a pike for a moment before separating into two spears, one in each hand.

She stopped running, pivoting on her toe to face Pyrrha as she cast one of those spears towards her.

Pyrrha slowed, letting the spear that cast a long shadow fly through the air towards her. She mimicked Phoebe, slinging Akouo onto her back and gripping Milo lightly in one hand. She leapt into the air, plucking Phoebe's thrown spear out of it with a deft hand. She spun in mid-air like a sycamore seed blown by the wind, using a light touch of her semblance to spin the spear in the air so that she did spin and wasn't simply carried backwards by it before she threw it right back at Phoebe.

Phoebe tried to bring her shield into the way but too slow, too late as her own spear struck her square in the chest and knocked her backwards.

Pyrrha landed and immediately started to run, bringing Akouo back onto her left arm as she charged for her opponent. She swerved away a little as she passed out of the centre of the arena and onto the grass, leaping up onto a modest rock and using it as a springboard to leap even higher before she fell on Phoebe, foot and spear – she extended Milo as she fell upon her opponent, the tip shooting out with an explosive burst – to send her crashing to the ground before Pyrrha leapt away.

Phoebe got to her feet. She threw once again the spear that Pyrrha had tossed back at her – this time Pyrrha simply batted it aside with her shield – then charged with her other spear, and her tower shield held before her. The shield was gilded in colour, just as Phoebe's armour was, but it had red rings expanding out in circles from the centre: fire dust. That was one of the reasons Phoebe was keeping her shield so squarely in front of her as she charged, making to slam bodily into Pyrrha shield-first.

Unfortunately for her it was an obvious strategy.

Pyrrha charged to meet her, making it seem as though she would accept Phoebe's challenge head on. She swerved, pirouetting lightly on her toes even as she applied little of her semblance to shift Phoebe's shield – pulling her whole body with her – just the other way so that Pyrrha danced nimbly aside as Phoebe's shield blew up before the empty air, a great gust of fire like a bellowing furnace but burning nothing, nor even singeing anything. Phoebe was out of balance, and Pyrrha switched Milo to rifle mode and snapped off two shots into her exposed side before she, staggering, turned and brought her shield round to protect herself once again.

Phoebe snarled angrily as she charged once again, thrusting with her spear, jabbing with it repeatedly. Pyrrha blocked with Akouo while she thrust out with Milo in turn, her strokes striking Phoebe's shield just as Phoebe's blows were turned away. Phoebe huffed in frustration. The two circled around one another, each probing the other's guard.

Phoebe's spear began to glow purple.

Pyrrha's aura alerted her to the danger just in time. Gravity dust, the twin halves of Phoebe's spear were loaded with gravity dust and now the second half, summoned, was flying towards her back. She leapt, twisting in mid-air, blocking the stroke from Phoebe in front of her with her shield while giving the spear flying in from behind just enough of a nudge that it missed her, gliding over her belly and hitting Phoebe herself for the second time. Pyrrha threw Milo, knocking the helmet with its burning crest off Phoebe's head and exposing a face set in an angry snarl as Pyrrha's bounced back into her waiting and expectant hand.

Phoebe discarded her shield, fusing the two halves of her spear into a longer whole as she charged. Pyrrha blocked, parried, changed Milo to a rifle to shoot Phoebe in the gut, then into sword for an upward slashing blow, then back to spear for a thrust to send her sliding backwards. She threw her shield, hitting Phoebe in the now unprotected face and knocking her on her back as Pyrrha leapt, falling on her before she could rise again, slamming down upon her from out of the sun and bringing Milo down for the last time upon her chest.

"No!" Phoebe yelled as the klaxon sounded.

"And with the elimination of the last member of Team Pastel," Professor Port said, and in spite of the microphone he seemed to be struggling to make his voice heard over the cheering of the crowd from all sides. "Team Sapphire claims victory in this, our final match of the four v four rounds."

"And what a thrilling conclusion to an altogether thrilling day of matches," Doctor Oobleck added. "Congratulations to all the victors, and commiserations to all of those who won't be going any further."

Pyrrha stepped off Phoebe, listening to the sound of the crowd as it poured down upon her, the cheering of their supporters from Vale, Mistral and Atlas drowning out those Atlesians who were booing PSTL's defeat. It fell upon Pyrrha like rain; no, heavier than that, like great waves crashing down upon her.

It was no substitute for real love, she knew that, and she had known that even before she found such real love here at Beacon. She was only a performer to them, and once she was gone they would find a new favourite to fawn over, but in the past when true friendship had been absent from her life she had found the love of the crowd a sweet substitute to savour; even now the taste of it made her spine tingle.

Ruby's jubilant and joyful shrieking drew Pyrrha's attention to her friends, who were all waiting for her. As she walked towards them it seemed to Pyrrha as though the sound of the crowd quieted in her ears, the substitute lessening its din in the face of that which it had once substituted for, but which she had for real now.

"That was amazing!" Ruby cried.

"You did a great job," Sunset said.

Pyrrha smiled. "I'm sure you all did equally well."

"I don't know about that," Jaune said. "But we all won at least."

"We shared the spotlight as a team," Pyrrha said. She was glad that it had been that way, at least in this first round.

"It's copper." The quiet voice did not belong to any member of Team SAPR, but rather to the girl named Sapphire, Mal Sapphire of Team PSTL, who had crept up behind them while they were talking. She recoiled a little as they looked at her. "Um, I'm sorry to bother you, but you asked about my green flames earlier: I adulterate the fire dust with copper to make it burn green. It's pretty simple really."

Sunset nodded. "That is simple, but doesn't it reduce the effectiveness of the dust to add impurities?"

"A little," Mal admitted. "But, to be honest, nobody really gets that close to me usually. I'm more of a support character."

"Hey, Ruby, right?" Thorn said as he sauntered over to them. "It is Ruby, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Ruby said.

"You're something else," Thorn said. "I've never had my arrows shot out of the air like that before. Are you going through to the next round?"

"No."

"Pity," Thorn said. "I'd like to have seen more of you. Let me guess, your team leader-"

"Pyrrha, watch out!" Jaune cried.

Pyrrha turned to see Phoebe, her face set in a rictus of fury, charging at her with her long spear levelled. Pyrrha brought up her shield to defend herself, but she needn't have bothered: a burst of magic from Sunset's hand hit Phoebe square in the chest and blasted her backwards as the crowds all around them started to boo (hopefully booing Phoebe rather than Sunset).

"You tried to put a late hit on my team-mate!" Sunset yelled as she advanced on Phoebe, fists clenched by her side. "You no good, dirty, cheating little-"

"Sunset, you don't have to-" Pyrrha began.

"Yes, I do, Pyrrha," Sunset said. "I ought to toss you clean off this stage!"

Phoebe had tears in her eyes as she got to her feet. "Out of my way you flea-ridden faunus, this is between me and Pyrrha."

"The match is over, you lost," Sunset snapped. "Get over it or I'll make you get over it. You want to mess with my team you can mess with me first."

* * *

"Is she just going to get away with that?" Sky asked as the Arc family watched Sunset and Phoebe go at it on their television, as the cameras lingered with an almost lascivious pleasure on the way the two of them were being restrained by their respective team-mates as they attempted to pull free and hurl themselves on one another. They couldn't hear what was passing between the two of them, but they could get the general idea.

"She's already lost," Gold Arc said. "She's already out of the tournament, there's nothing else they can do to her."

Sky folded her arms. "I'd call that attempted assault if I saw that in the street."

"Yeah, but this isn't happening in the street, honey," Gold said.

"Is this normal then, Dad?" Kendal said.

"No," Gold said. "No, I've never seen it get like this."

"It's kind of killing the mood," River said. "Jaune did really well, and Pyrrha was pretty great too, but…you know."

"Yeah," Rouge murmured. It was hard to celebrate their brother's success when this was going on.

* * *

"Behold," Oceana said. "The face of Atlas."

"She's a Mistralian," Michael said.

"Taught by Atlas, the point is that this is what they look like when they don't get their way."

"Phoebe always acted out when she didn't get her way," Metella said.

"Who's side are you on, anyway?" Oceana said. "The point is that these are nasty people, and they're bullies, and they want to have everything that they…that they want. That's why we have to stand up to them."

* * *

"Well that was convenient," Sonata said chirpily. "I think that Atlas just a little more unpopular and we didn't even have to do anything about it."

"It certainly soured the mood at the end of a great fight," Mercury said. "And with it coming at the end of the day I bet that it'll be all anybody can talk about tonight."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Cinder murmured. "It will be a topic of conversation, but there are enough parties going on tonight to provide a little distraction." Not that it mattered terribly in the scheme of things: this was another drop in the bucket of anti-Atlas feeling that would only fill up more and more until it overflowed to drown Vale. Why, Phoebe's little temper tantrum had probably drawn another pack of beowolves to the outskirts of Vale all by itself.

Phoebe, her step sister was still as prone to lose her temper when she didn't get her way, clearly.

 _Thank you, stepsister, I didn't plan on it but you've been a big help._

 _And now…now you can maybe be an even bigger help to me, and then you can leave my life for good._

 _Yes…the murder of a student born in Mistral but schooled in Atlas should stir the pot quite nicely._

 _And I think I know where you'll be._ Cinder checked her scroll, bringing up the social events going on tonight. Yes…that one would appeal to Phoebe; and after this she might appreciate a degree of anonymity.

"Emerald," Cinder said, as she put her scroll away. "Come with me, we're going to a party."

"Uh, okay," Emerald said with surprise. "I mean, sure, I'd love to go a party with you, but is that safe? I mean, we're both wanted, and it will be hard fooling a whole room full of people with my semblance."

"Oh, we won't need your semblance to avoid recognition," Cinder said. "Because the party that we're about to go to…is a masquerade."


	161. Masquerade

Masquerade

"Comm check," Rainbow said. "Everybody call in." She shivered in the fall night air. "I'm up here. Freezing."

"Ruby here, I'm up on the water tower."

"I'm there too; I mean, Penny reporting in."

"Yang here, give me the word and I'll sweep this girl off her feet and carry her away on a yellow motorcycle."

"Ciel reporting from the dance hall."

"Remind me again why you're not up on a roof?" Rainbow asked. "Being a sniper and all."

"Because unlike some people I can blend in at a masquerade ball," Ciel said. "And if the enemy attacks then more bodies in close proximity will be preferable."

"I know," Rainbow said. "I'm just jealous of all of you who get to be indoors."

"Sunset here."

"Blake here."

"We're just outside the hall," Sunset said. "Once we see Amber and Dove arrive, we'll head inside."

There was silence.

"Pyrrha," Rainbow said. "Hey, Jaune, you okay?"

"Sorry," Pyrrha said. "We're both here, inside."

Rainbow sniggered. "Stop staring into one another's eyes and remember we're on a job."

"We weren't just staring at one another," Jaune protested.

"Oh, so you were making out?" Rainbow asked, making them both splutter on the other end of the comms. "Listen, we're all really happy for you guys, but this is important, probably."

"I'm here too," Twilight said. "Well, I'm not there, obviously, but I'm in the cockpit of your skygrasper and I'm ready to roll if you need me." There was a sound like the rustling of pages.

Rainbow frowned. "Twi, are you reading?"

"It's not as though I have anything better to do while I wait," Twilight said. "And there are some fascinating articles in this month's _Scientific Atlesian_. Crystal City observatory have been making great strides in their research into dark matter."

"Is that a new kind of dust?"

"If it were then it would probably be called dark dust," Twilight said. "No, dark matter is…it's something that we can't see, but we can hypothesise its existence by observing the effect it has on objects around it."

"So, like how we can't see Cinder right now but the fact that we're all out here spending our night like this is proof that she exists?" Rainbow said.

There was a pause on the other end of the line. "Not exactly, but I suppose as an analogy it's not that bad."

Rainbow scanned the street below her, her crimson goggles giving her the kind of night vision that someone like Blake enjoyed naturally. "Does anybody see anything? Ruby? Penny?"

"Nothing yet," Ruby said.

"Negative," declared Penny.

Rainbow bent down and picked up the pink vacuum flask – it had been a gift from Pinkie – that was on the rooftop at her feet. She unscrewed the top, and poured herself some hot chocolate. She gulped it down eagerly, even as she shivered from the cold. "Not even any sign of Amber?"

"Not yet," Sunset said.

"Do we know that she's even coming?"

"She told me that she'd be here," Sunset said.

"What if she lied to you?"

"Why would she do that?" Blake asked.

"Maybe she and Dove went somewhere else and she wanted to throw us off," Rainbow suggested.

"If she didn't want to be followed all she had to do was not tell me anything," Sunset said. "She'll be here."

"I hope so," Rainbow muttered. "It's bad enough that this is how we're spending tonight without the reason we're out here being a complete no-show. We should have just told Ozpin or General Ironwood what she was planning and had her grounded."

"That's a little harsh, don't you think?" Pyrrha said. "Whatever she may be, surely she deserves to have a chance at a normal life if that's what she wants."

 _I'll remind you that you said that when Cinder is the Fall Maiden,_ Rainbow thought grumpily. But that was much the cold air talking as anything else, and so she didn't say it, she just drank a little more hot chocolate to warm herself up.

 _I take it back about Amber being like Fluttershy; Fluttershy would never be this selfish._ That was a little more of the cold talking, Amber hadn't actually asked for SAPR, RSPT and one half of YRBN – the half that actually knew a little about what was going on here – to go all in on a protection plan to make sure that Amber was safe at the dance, that had been a decision entirely made by the ten of them. But that actually made it kind of worse, because not only was Amber doing this stupid thing but she wasn't even making any effort herself to keep herself safe while she did it. It was only the fact that all the people she didn't seem to like very much cared enough about her to think where she hadn't that all of this was happening.

"And can somebody remind me why Team Bluebell aren't out here doing this?" Rainbow demanded.

"Do you really want to leave her security to Team Bluebell?" Sunset asked.

Rainbow didn't answer, because the answer was pretty obvious even to someone who didn't know those four that well. The particular combination of skills – and, it had to be said, numbers – that their combined force bought to the table had enabled them to set up something pretty tight, even if Rainbow said so herself. Ruby, with her sniper rifle, and Penny with the ability to magnify her vision to something ridiculous, were on overwatch from a conveniently placed water tower with a view of the whole area. Rainbow was on the roof of a low-rise apartment block not far from the dance venue, from where she could swoop in at the first sign of trouble. Also swooping in less literally at the first sign of trouble would be Yang on her bike, to get Amber and carry her to an open plaza a few streets away which was the nearest location big enough for Twilight to land the skygrasper and get Amber safely airborne. Everyone else was in or around the dance hall, and all armed: Sunset and Jaune had their swords as part of their costumes, Pyrrha and Blake had hidden their weapons beneath their skirts, and Ciel had a gun in her purse. Overall, Rainbow thought they'd done a pretty good job with this considering they'd had basically no notice whatsoever, and sure BLBL couldn't have done any of it, not least because they didn't have a sniper, a robot, someone who could ride a motorcycle or somebody who could fly a dropship. Or because they just weren't that awesome. But that wasn't really the point. The point was that they'd taken responsibility for Amber, they wanted Amber to live with them, they wanted to keep her safe and they were so much more trustworthy than those Atlesians or the big bad SAPR…so they ought to get off their butts and help protect her in situations like this.

That particular train of thought was derailed by the something of something scratching and scuffling just above her. Rainbow turned, slowly so as not to alarm the person she was certain was skulking around on the rooftop. Equally slowly she put the vacuum flask down on the ground, then with rather more speed she drew one of her guns. She couldn't see anything, even with nightvision enabled. Nothing on the roof, but on the building jutting out above the rest of the roof, the housing for the staircase leading up here…

"You know, the way you were standing on the edge of that roof you looked like an especially broody superhero," Gilda said as she partially emerged into view looking down on Rainbow. "It didn't suit you." She grinned. "Good to see you again, Dash."

Rainbow aimed at her. "Sunset, we've got trouble."

"No, you don't," Gilda said. "Whatever little operation you're running, I'm not here to get in the way."

"Really?" Rainbow asked sceptically. "Then why don't you show me your hands?"

"That's…a little difficult?"

"Why?"

A dog barked. A very familiar dog. "Is that…Winona?"

Gilda leapt down onto the rooftop proper, and Rainbow could see that she was cradling Winona in her arms. "I, uh, I didn't thank you for stopping those kidnappings in Atlas, helping our people out," she said. "I thought that…I thought I should probably give your friend her dog back." She put Winona down on the ground, and put Applejack's rifle down beside her. "And her gun, too."

"Rainbow Dash," Sunset's voice crackled a little in Rainbow's ear. "What's going on?"

"I don't know yet," Rainbow murmured. "So that's it. You came here just to return Applejack's pet and weapon?"

"Sure," Gilda said. "Why else would I be here? Is something important going, you know what, I don't want to know."

"I'd like to believe you, G," Rainbow said. "I really would, but you're with the White Fang, and the White Fang is working for Cinder-"

"The only work we've done for Cinder lately is spreading anti-Atlas graffiti on the walls," Gilda said. "You know that she's stirring the pot between you and Mistral, right?"

"Yeah, I got that."

Gilda shook her head. "You've had this coming, you know that? You people think that you can have so much and leave so little for the rest of us. Turns out it isn't that it's not just the faunus who feel that way." Gilda scratched her ear. "She's bringing the grimm."

"Who? Cinder?"

"They're here already," Gilda said. "And if a fight breaks out…faunus who live here are going to be on the menu."

"Maybe you should have thought about that before you tried to run a train into the city to let the grimm into Vale."

"I didn't like that idea then and I don't like the idea of siccing monsters on the city now," Gilda said. "Just…watch your step, okay? She's got plans…don't do anything stupid, like start a war or something."

"We don't intend to," Rainbow said. She hesitated for a moment. "Thanks for bringing Winona back, I know that Applejack's missed her." She frowned. "She looks fatter than I remember."

"Yeah, she's put on a little weight."

"What have you been feeding her? Steak and sausages?"

"If the White Fang has steak and sausages then there's not going to be any left for the dogs," Gilda said. "I feed her rations."

"Do you walk her?"

"Can't she walk by herself?"

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "No wonder she's put on weight. Thanks, G. Now, if you'll excuse me."

"Sure," Gilda said. "I'll let you get back to your super secret mission. Hey, Dash?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't die, okay?" Gilda said, before she spread her wings and took off into the night. Rainbow watched her go, silhouetted briefly across the broken moon, before she disappeared from sight.

"Rainbow Dash," Sunset said. "What happened?"

"Nothing to worry about, I'm pretty sure," Rainbow said. "Hey, Twilight."

"Yes?"

"Ask Applejack to come down here," she said. "There's someone up here who can't wait to see her."

Winona barked happily.

* * *

Crescent Rose rested on the safety rail that ran around the edge of the water tower. It was hooked there by the scythe blade, and it continued to rest there when Ruby lowered the rifle for a little bit. "No sign of Amber still."

"No," Penny said. "But it is still early, isn't it?"

"I guess so," Ruby said. She leaned her elbows on the safety rail and looked out across Vale, the whole city lit up in the night in a riot of colours and sounds. From this height it was mostly all a huge blur to her. "Penny, you can see all of this, can't you? In detail, I mean."

Penny nodded. "I can magnify my eyes even more powerfully than the scope of Crescent Rose. Blake and Sunset are having coffee at a table outside while they wait."

"That's probably a good idea," Yang said as she climbed up to join them. "We can all use something warm on a night like this." She waved a flask, but then hesitated a little as she caught sight of Penny. "Well, um, do you? I mean…how does that work?"

"I don't feel cold," Penny explained. "And I can't drink or eat anything anyway. But please, don't feel like you have to choose your words carefully on my account."

"Okay," Yang said lightly. "Thanks for being so understanding about it."

"Thank you for coming out here," Ruby said. "You didn't have to."

"Hey, a chance to get involved in your secret double life?" Yang said. "How could I say no?"

Ruby sat down, her legs dangling over the edge of the balcony. "It's not really a double life."

Yang sat down beside her. "I know, it's more like your only life." She poured Ruby a cup of cocoa. "All the more reason for me to share this with you."

Ruby took a sip. It was hot, scaldingly so, but that was welcome on a night like this. "I guess…I guess we don't share that much any more, huh?"

Yang was silent for a moment. "I told you that I wanted you to break out of your shell, and you have. And what you're doing, helping to protect the whole world…it scares the crap out of me sometimes…but it makes me really proud of you, too: my little sister, the baddest of asses."

Ruby giggled. "Stop it."

"Stop what, telling the truth?" Yang said. She smiled, even if her smile had something a little sad in it. "You're really cool, Rubes, and don't let all the times that me and Dad and Uncle Qrow are going to worry about you let you forget that. But…yeah, there are times when I kind of miss the way it used to be: you and me against the world, you know?"

Ruby nodded. "The truth is…I miss that too, sometimes. Do you wish that-"

"No."

"You don't even know what I was going to say yet!"

"You were going to ask if I wished that you hadn't gotten involved in Professor Ozpin's work, weren't you?"

Ruby hesitated for a moment. "Yes," she admitted.

Yang chuckled. "If you could see a problem without rushing in to fix it, if you could see a fight without rushing in to save as many people as you could, then you wouldn't be my awesome caring little sister. If you knew the professor's secrets and didn't want to help him out I'd be asking who you were and what you'd done with the real Ruby Rose." She shrugged. "I mean, I kind of wish that Ozpin hadn't told you yet, but then…what would you be doing instead? Wandering around with no clue what's going on? That doesn't sound…I think it's better this way. I worry, but…you feel like it's worth it, right?"

"I do," Ruby said, without hesitation. "If we stop the world from getting worse…that's almost the same as making it better, right?"

"If it's going to get worse if you don't do anything then I think stopping that is exactly the same as making it better," Yang said.

Ruby smiled as she put her hands on one of the lower rails. "Yang?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you wish we'd ended up on the same team together?"

Yang was silent for a moment. "I…I know that in Initiation I told you it would be good if we didn't, and I don't mean any disrespect to Ren or Nora or Blake…but yeah. I do. Then we'd be doing stuff like this together all the time, instead of…do you wish we'd ended up on the same team together?"

Ruby felt a chill that had nothing to do with the cold. How could she have been so stupid as to invite this question?

"You can say no," Yang said. "If you want to."

"I do," Ruby said. "But I don't. I'd love to be on the same team with you…but then when I think about who on my team I'd have to replace you with and I…I can't think of anyone. I…I love them all so much. I can't…"

Yang put one hand on Ruby's shoulder. "It's okay. I get it."

"You do? You're not mad?"

"Of course I'm not mad," Yang said. "I could never be mad at you." She squeezed Ruby's shoulder reassuringly. "You're my little sister, and I will always, always have your back. But that doesn't mean you have to hang on to me your whole life like you did when we were kids. You're growing up, and finding your own way, and if it's happening a little sooner than me or Dad might have wanted…that'll teach us to be careful what we wish for, right?"

They were silent a moment, their breath turning to mist in front of their faces, before Yang got to her feet. "I should get back to Bumblebee in case this all gets hot and Amber needs a ride," she said, as she turned and started to walk towards the ladder down towards the ground.

"Yang," Ruby called, making her sister stop and look over her shoulder. "I love you."

Yang smiled. "I know," she said, before she swung onto the ladder and started to climb down.

Ruby watched her go, even after she couldn't see Yang any more she kept on staring at where she'd been, listening for the sound of her footsteps on the ladder down.

"Ruby?" Penny said. "Are you okay?"

"I…I'm fine, Penny," Ruby said. "Has anything happened?"

Penny shook her head. "Amber has still not arrived yet. But I heard Rainbow Dash's friend Rarity say that it can take a lady several hours to get ready for a party, so maybe that's the reason we haven't seen Amber yet."

"Maybe."

"Although it does seem strange," Penny added.

"What does?"

"If you take so long to get ready, how do you have any time left to enjoy the party?"

Ruby chuckled. "That's a really good question, Penny, but I'm not the right girl to answer it. Maybe if you've got nothing else you need to do you can start early? That's all I can think of."

"That might be it," Penny said. She glanced down at Ruby. "Ruby, are you sure you're okay?"

Ruby smiled thinly as she got to her feet. "You're getting better at reading people."

"The more I do something, the faster I learn," Penny said.

Ruby nodded. "Same here," she said, as she leaned on the safety railing with her arms dangling down over them and her chin resting on her elbow.

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

"No," Ruby said. "You…you wouldn't understand."

"Because I don't have a sister?"

"Because I don't think you've ever had someone be a part of your life from the moment you were born, a huge part of your life and then…and then suddenly they're not. I mean, Yang's still right there, it's not like she's…" _It's not like she's gone, like mom._ "But we used to be so close and now…we're not."

Penny was silent for a moment. "You're right," she said. "I don't know what that's like. But maybe I will."

Ruby frowned. "What do you mean?"

Penny didn't respond immediately. She looked down, towards the dance hall. "I want to stay at Beacon," she said. "I don't want to go back to Atlas when the festival is over and all the visiting students go home."

Ruby lifted her head up off her arms. "Penny…are you serious?"

Penny looked back at her, an eager smile on her face. "I want to stay here, at this school and in this city, with all of you. I was built to be a weapon for Atlas, but you treat me like a person. And so I'd rather stay here than go back to where…" the smile slipped a little. "To where that isn't true."

"Do you think they'll let you do that?"

"I don't know," Penny admitted. "I think that my best chance is to win the tournament, and then ask General Ironwood to let me stay at Beacon. But then I wonder, if I win the tournament, will that make everyone at Atlas want me back even more?"

Ruby pursed her lips together. "I don't know the answer to that either. Have you talked to anyone else about this?"

Penny shook her head. "I'm not sure what they'd say. I'm not sure what they'd do. They all care about me, but…"

"But they're all soldiers of Atlas," Ruby finished for her.

"Yes, exactly," Penny said. "I don't want to make them choose. It wouldn't seem very nice to do that to them."

"Are you sure that this is what you want?" Ruby asked.

"If I do this, if they let me, then I'll be leaving everything I know behind," Penny said. "My father, Twilight, Moondancer; Rainbow Dash and Ciel, General Ironwood. I'll have to find a whole new team to be a part of. It's a little scary, just thinking about making all those changes. But yes, this is what I want. This…this is where I want to take my life. If it is my life."

 _Because change can be scary, but that doesn't mean that we don't sometimes need it anyway._ Ruby smiled as she reached out and placed her hand atop Penny's. "Thanks, Penny."

"I'm glad I could help," Penny said.

* * *

Tempest Shadow followed Amber and Dove from a discrete distance. It was a task made easier by the fact that – perhaps to avoid being noticed, although really if they'd thought about it for a little longer they would have realised the benefits of blending into a crowd – they had left a little later than most of the students coming down from Beacon to this party, and made even easier by the fact that neither of them possessed any awareness whatsoever. They were both lost in each other, and it didn't take someone with her level of stealth-mastery (she was an expert in sneaking around, as she was in everything else she put her mind to) to follow them without them realising that they were being followed.

It wasn't something that she enjoyed doing, but when she had found out that Amber was going to do this stupid thing – she would have liked to have claimed the credit for having bugged Team RSPT's room or something, but the truth was that Ciel swept their dorm every three days for surveillance equipment and Tempest had found out about this simply by spotting Amber and her boyfriend sneaking off the grounds – she had thought that it was something she would have to do. They needed Amber alive if they were going to trade the crown for the freedom of the other sirens, and if that meant making sure that she didn't get herself killed then it was worth it.

Tempest might want to strangle her for not having the brains to work out that the only way they'd accepted her deal was by not telling Cinder about it – seriously, did she honestly believe that Cinder would ever stop hunting her – but since she couldn't do that, then she would have to settle for making sure that Cinder didn't actually kill her before she could open the vault and bring them the Crown of Choice.

It was a pain, but it wasn't as if Tempest actually had anything better to do, and it would be worth it to put Sonata and her sisters permanently out of Salem's control.

It would all be worth it in the end.

* * *

The masquerade wasn't exclusively – or even near exclusively – attended by huntsmen and huntresses in training, but many of them were attending, and Cinder had spent a lot of time watching them streaming down the road from Beacon before her actual quarry showed itself.

She and Emerald were both in gowns themselves, wearing the dresses that they had worn to the Beacon dance when everything had started to go…slightly less than according to plan (Cinder had too much pride to ever admit to failure, even to herself; things simply went less than completely according to plan sometimes). Nevertheless, despite being dressed in a way that ought to ensure that they didn't stand out too much, despite wearing black masks over their faces like old-fashioned highwaymen, they were nevertheless keeping out of sight, watching the students go down to the dance hall without actually joining the throng. Their masks did not conceal their whole faces, after all, and there was too much chance that they could be identified by someone who knew them well enough, like Sunset (was Sunset here? Cinder hadn't seen her but she could have come before them? She found herself wondering who Sunset might have taken to the dance if she was here).

So Cinder and Emerald lurked in the shadows, watching without being watched, and if anyone glanced their way Emerald used her semblance to ensure that they saw nothing.

For the most part, however, nobody so much as looked their way. Despite the rising tensions in the city, despite the way that those tensions had spilled over into the arena, the mood amongst the students – at least those students coming by their way – was jubilant to the point of self-absorption. Cinder knew the feeling: all these children, and they were mostly the winning teams, with only a few of the losers sneaking dejectedly by, had triumphed before the eyes of the world, and felt the sweet nectar of acclaim upon their ears. They had won, they were victorious, and nothing else mattered right now. She always felt the same whenever she defeated her enemies.

She had felt just the same when she had escaped her stepmother's house and burned it down with stepmother and Philonoe still inside.

Her stepfamily. She hadn't thought about them much, she very deliberately did not think about them, but seeing Phoebe on television like that…there was a reason why she'd deliberately avoided her, and it wasn't just or even mostly because she was afraid of being recognised. She was, after all, presumed dead in that same fire. No, the reason why she'd avoided her surviving stepsister was because she'd been afraid that being too close to her would bring all those memories of those days flooding back beyond the dam where she tried to keep them contained.

Her hands clenched into fists. Phoebe. She remembered Phoebe very well. She remembered how she would dread it whenever Phoebe went out to compete in a tournament because she was never good enough and she always lost and she always took it out on her stepsister. And those times when she lost to Pyrrha were the worst of all.

Cinder felt her hands start to tremble, and ruthlessly suppressed it. She wasn't that scared little girl any more, she wasn't a child who could be beaten or abused. Little Ashley who cried and trembled and begged her stepsisters not to hurt her had died in that fire; she was Cinder Fall, Fall Maiden, right hand of Salem, the one would bring retribution to the world. She wasn't scared of Phoebe Kommenos any more.

And she'd prove it tonight when she killed her.

Speaking of which, there was she was, dressed in a golden gown – she always liked her gold, as if she need to remind herself that she was rich – and wearing golden bands on each arm that stacked up from her wrists as she walked down the road. Despite the glittering dress, the tiara set in her golden curls, she didn't look happy; could anyone look happy after a day like the one she'd had?

Cinder took perverse glee from the fact that it was about to get a whole lot worse for her.

"Emerald," she murmured, placing one hand on Emerald's shoulder and pointing at Phoebe. "Show her something draw her away from the others and get her to follow us somewhere more discreet."

"Okay," Emerald said. She hesitated. "Cinder…"

"Yes?" Cinder said. "Out with it."

"This girl…who is she to you?"

Cinder froze, even as she felt the flames of her magic pricking at her skin trying to emerge. Her voice became sharp and dangerous. "Emerald, if you…" she stopped before she could tell Emerald that if she valued her life she would not ask that question again. Emerald was…a good servant. Loyal, trustworthy, stalwart. The most reliable of all of Cinder's servants. She might even be…a friend.

If Sunset was a friend then why not Emerald. She had been more faithful to her than Sunset ever had, and if they were not so alike then…perhaps that was not necessary.

"Emerald," Cinder repeated. "If you love me you will not ask that question again."

Emerald's eyes widened with surprise. "I…no, of course not."

"Some secrets are my own," Cinder said. "Just lure her away, that will be enough."

Cinder wasn't sure what exactly Emerald put into Phoebe's mind to get her over here, although soon enough, as they retreated into the web of dark and empty and secluded alleyways that surrounded the main road she could soon hear Phoebe calling out for General Ironwood, which was a good choice for someone who Phoebe would keep following even though he seemed to be leading her on and not just turn away and go back to the party.

And so, with a phantom of her headmaster and commander leading her on, Phoebe was led away from all help and into the darkness where she was all alone.

"General Ironwood?" she called. "I can't…where are you?"

Cinder judged the moment was right to step out of the shadows. "I'm afraid the general isn't here right now, Phoebe," she said. "You'll have to make do with me instead. Have you learnt how to make do since you've been at Atlas?"

Phoebe stared at her. "Who are you? Where's the general?"

"Don't you recognise me, Phoebe?" Cinder asked, as she slunk a little closer towards her. "I'm a little hurt."

"Of course I don't recognise you, we've never met before!"

Cinder laughed. "Oh, this mask really is good isn't it, if it can hide me so well that you don't recognise your own sister."

"My sister's dead," Phoebe snapped. "I don't know who you are, you insolent-"

"Philonoe is dead," Cinder agreed. "I killed her."

Phoebe stared, her eyes widening behind her diamond-encrusted mask. "You…you…who are you?"

"You lost to Pyrrha again, I see," Cinder observed, half-turning away from Phoebe to walk across the narrow alley before beginning to approach her once again. "You should probably just accept the fact that you simply aren't on her level. She's the Invincible Girl, the pride and honour of Mistral reborn, and you…you're a hack whom all the best weapons in the world can't make into more than a passable fighter." Cinder smirked. "Do you remember when you used to like seeing me after you'd been defeated by Pyrrha. It used to make you feel so much better."

"No. No, it can't, you died in the fire, didn't you?" Phoebe's breath came ragged with astonishment and delicious fear. "Ashley?"

"My name is Cinder Fall!" Cinder snarled. "A name you gave me. A name the whole world knows by now. Thank you, for that."

"You…it's you," Phoebe gasped. "You're the one…the one they're all-"

"Scared of?" Cinder asked. "Yes. Once I was afraid, but now…" She stepped close, so close that she and her stepsister were practically kissing. "I'm not scared of you any more; rather, the whole of Remnant is now scared of me." She cocked her head to one side. "Including you, by the look of it."

Phoebe was trembling in terror. "Please, I'll do anything."

"Really? Are you serious? The great huntress, she would be Mistral's champion, begging for her life?" Cinder said. "You were never anything but a bully, were you?"

Phoebe didn't have her aura up; Cinder guessed that she'd been too out of her mind with fear to think about it. And so, as Cinder's glass formed stabbing her stepsister in the stomach, there was nothing to stop it going right in.

Phoebe gasped. She gagged. She choked. Blood trickled out of the corner of her mouth. Her eyes glazed over as Cinder stepped away and let the body slump down to the ground.

 _Thus falls the House of Kommenos, the last of the line extinguished._ She would like to see the House of Nikos go the same way by the time this tournament was over…but Sunset wouldn't forgive her for that, would she?

Emerald approached. "Is it…done?"

Cinder stared at the dead body. For too long, longer than she could admit to anyone, that woman had haunted her nightmares; that snivelling, pathetic creature who had died in a manner so unbefitting of a warrior. Worthless trash, yet she had made Cinder tremble. Thus could a shadow be far mightier than the thing itself. So it would prove for all of Remnant: the Atlesian military, the huntsman academies, the prowess of Pyrrha Nikos, these were all but shadows, seeming large as they were cast upon the wall but in the end empty, illusions, tricks of the light caused by things much smaller and meaner than the shadows for which they were mistaken.

She would shine a light on all these shadows, and burn them all away.

"Yes," she murmured. "It's done."

She was about to say that she would head back to the hideout now, but the words stuck in her throat, where they shrivelled and died for lack of use. She could feel something else pulling her back the way they had come, back towards the dance hall. A disquiet in her soul, a calling…a familiarity. The flames were pricking beneath her skin. Could it be? Was she here? Had the old fool allowed her to venture down from Beacon to attend a _dance_? Was he that stupid?

"Cinder?" Emerald asked.

"She's here," Cinder said.

"Who?"

"Amber," Cinder hissed. "Come on."

She strode back the way they'd come, leaving Emerald to follow in her wake.

"Wait, Amber? How do you know that?"

"I can feel it," Cinder said. They were bound together, she and Amber, both sharing one half of a magic that was never meant to be divided in two; that magic called to her, making her hunger ache all the more for being so close to being sated. Did Amber feel the same? Cinder thought she must, and yet if she did then surely she would have fled by now? Was she so arrogant that she feared Cinder not at all, or did she, as the original owner of the powers, not feel the drive to reunite them as Cinder did?

Or perhaps it was not exactly the magic of the Fall Maiden that was dragging her steps back the way that she had come. Perhaps it was something more ethereal, the very power of fate itself, putting a notion into her head because it intended for her, not Amber, to become Fall Maiden and use that power to change the world.

Whatever the reason, she was drawn that way as if compelled by chains that she had neither will nor power to break, she was drawn that way and when she and Emerald returned to their watching place then Cinder saw her.

She didn't know that Cinder was there, if she had then she would never have looked so carefree as she made her way, fashionably late, to the dance hall where the music was already playing from inside. She was wearing a golden mask with a yellow flower on the right hand side. Did she think that concealed her identity? Cinder recognised it was her immediately. She vaguely recognised the broad shouldered boy she was with, although she didn't recall his name; one of Ozpin's dullards, not important enough for her to have taken any notice of. He was wearing a black and white harlequin mask, but the pierrot would have been more appropriate for him. He wasn't even armed. The two of them were looking at one another as though they hadn't a care in the world, as though Amber was not the enemy of Cinder Fall and as though that was not a mortally perilous position to stand in.

"Cinder," Emerald hissed. "Are you sure about this?"

"Yes," Cinder said, because it didn't matter who saw her if she claimed the entirety of the Fall Maiden's mantle in the process. That was a prize worth taking any risk.

The shards of glass formed a bow in her hand, a bow with three arrows knocked at once; she meant to smash through Amber's aura as quickly as possible and kill her quickly, before the alarm was raised.

She stepped a little out of the alleyway so that she could get a clear shot.

"Cinder!" Sunset teleported directly in front of Amber, hands held out before her.

* * *

Sunset sipped her coffee as she waited for Amber to put in her appearance. She looked at Blake, wearing the same little black dress that she'd worn to the dance, but with the addition of a gold cat mask that covered her face.

Sunset was wearing a single-breasted suit with a white cravatte and some gold braid across her arms and chest to give the impression of something vaguely martial that would justify wearing her black sword upon her hip; her mask was with a bird's beak and a riot of red and golden features around the edges, which put her pleasantly in mind of a phoenix. She smiled. "I'm a little surprised you didn't wear a grimm mask."

Even through the mask it was clear that Blake was not amused.

"Too soon?" Sunset asked.

"A little bit, yeah," Blake said.

"Sorry," Sunset said. She put down her paper coffee cup. "Thank you for coming out here tonight. You didn't have to."

"Neither did you."

"No," Sunset said. "But you really didn't have to. She was never your responsibility."

"Perhaps not," Blake murmured. "But this is important, right?"

"She's important to the world, that doesn't mean that she has to be important to you."

"I can't completely agree with you about that," Blake replied. "Besides, so many of the people who are important to me are here, so I might as well be here too."

"Heads up, guys," Ruby said through the earpiece. "Amber's finally here."

Sunset noticed her too, making her way down the street towards the hall. Sunset and Blake were sat in the outside courtyard, separated from the street by a low stone wall and a higher wrought iron fence, and it was through that fence that they could see Amber and Dove, arm in arm, eyes locked with one another, making their way down the road at a pace that could charitably be described as a romantic saunter.

"We see her," Sunset said. "Blake, does that strike you as odd?"

"What?"

"How they're being so…that," Sunset said. "Even though they've only just met. They're like Jaune and Pyrrha without any of the build-up."

"I…get what you mean," Blake said slowly. "But maybe one of them is just romantic by nature, maybe they like acting this way? Trust me, it's nothing sinister. That takes as much time as the real thing, or more."

 _Do I want to know how you know that?_ Sunset wondered. There was so much about Blake's past that was still a mystery to her, a mystery with sharp edges.

She rose to her feet as Amber approached, confident that neither she nor Dove would notice her. She watched them, her eyes flickering to the left and right, and it was as she watched that she noticed-

"Cinder!" Sunset yelled as she spotted her, emerging from the alley, glass bow at the ready.

Sunset teleported instinctively, appearing between Cinder and Amber in a flash of light, she threw out her hands to conjure up a shield even as Cinder loosed her arrows. Sunset got her shield up just in time, she felt the impact as the glass arrows exploded against her barrier but though they cracked the shield, and although Sunset felt the impacts reverberating down her arms and through her whole body, they did not break it.

And Amber was protected from the first stroke.

"Stay behind me," Sunset snapped at them, although judging by the way in which Amber seemed to have frozen from sheer terror at Cinder's mere presence that wasn't something she needed to be told to do.

"Cinder's here!" Blake shouted as she pulled Gambol Shroud – in pistol configuration, and minus the scabbard – out from under her skirt. "Pyrrha, Jaune, we need you."

"Wings out, I'm on my way," Rainbow shouted. "Twilight, roll the bus!"

"Copy that," Twilight said, her voice shaking from panic. "Taking off now."

"I'm on the way too," Yang said.

Blake opened fire as she leapt over the iron fence, Gambol Shroud snapping as each white shot leapt from the barrel. Cinder blocked them all with one hand. Blake hurled herself at her, her weapon switching from pistol to sword in a motion as fluid as Blake's descent as she sliced her blade downwards towards Cinder-

Who caught the blade in one hand before thrusting her free palm into Blake's stomach. There was a burst of flame before Blake was hurled backwards into the iron railings so hard that they buckled and bent beneath the impact.

People were screaming inside the dance hall now, as Pyrrha, Jaune and Ciel pushed their way outside. Pyrrha had Milo in rifle mode in her hands, and Ciel was holding an absurdly large pistol; both of them fired, but Cinder ignored them both as she ran towards Amber, glass swords forming in her hands, the fiery corona burning around her left eye.

Sunset drew her sword, igniting the fire dust infused into the metal so that the flames spread up the length of the black metal blade. But before she and Cinder could come to grips another finger entered the battle, running up the wall on the other side of the street before jumping down to fall on Cinder like a lightning strike. It was…it was the Atlesian huntress that they'd seen not far from the siren, what was her name, Tempest something, and she – unlike everyone else – was fully armed and dressed for a fight as she thrust her polearm with its sleek metallic shaft downwards at Cinder. Cinder leapt aside, her glass slippers scrapping across the cobblestones, but Tempest recovered swiftly and slashed with her polearm with a speed that Pyrrha would have envied. Cinder parried, but seemed unable to do any more than that, and now Pyrrha was running out of the courtyard to join the fight, with Jaune not far behind.

"I don't have a clear shot," Ruby complained. "There are too many people in the way."

"I also cannot use my laser canon," Penny said. "Not without hitting several people."

"It's not like we can give her room, she'll go straight for Amber," Sunset said. "Rainbow, Yang, where are you?"

"Almost there," Yang said.

"Incoming, I'll grab Amber," Rainbow shouted, as a winged form swooped down from out of the sky to pick up Amber – who still hadn't moved since Cinder's appearance, who seemed in fact incapable of movement – and carried her away. "Yang, where are you? I'll come to you and we'll rendezvous with Twi together."

Even though she was now being engaged by both Pyrrha and Tempest, even though it seemed as though she was barely holding her own, even though Jaune was close by and Ciel was taking potshots whenever the opportunity presented itself, even though Blake was picking herself up off the ground as well, even though she was hedged in by foes and pressed on all sides Cinder still noticed Amber being spirited away from her. A roar of frustration and disappointment that was almost bestial in its fury was torn from her throat, and for a moment the fire in her eye seemed to burn even brighter as the glass of her swords simply melted away in her hands.

Fire engulfed her, a great flame that blossomed outwards, striking Pyrrha and Tempest and even reaching Jaune as it bore them all backwards, throwing them aside like so many dolls until they hit something – rails, wall, a parked car – to arrest their momentum. The fire blazed bright, and even when it ceased to burn it left a thick and all consuming cloud of smoke behind. Sunset fired burst of magic from her palms into the smoke; Ruby shot into it repeatedly, and even Penny unleashed the full destructive might of her combined cannon now that all her allies had been literally thrown clear; the use of it cause another almighty explosion and even more smoke into which Sunset fired magic and Ruby, Ciel, Pyrrha and Blake fired bullets.

But when the smoke finally cleared Cinder was gone, and there was absolutely no sign of her.


	162. Repercussions and Revelations

Repercussions and Revelations

It was unusual for the meeting to be taking place in General Ironwood's ready room aboard his flagship, but the only thing that was really different about it was the décor and the fact that this time it was General Ironwood sitting behind the big desk while Professor Ozpin stood to one side. As unusual as that was, to see him in a position that was less than completely controlling, it didn't change the fact that this was the kind of meeting that they had had…a few times, really.

Only Sunset and Rainbow Dash were actually in the office, which wasn't really big enough for two and a half teams to squeeze in. Everyone else was with Amber, secured elsewhere aboard the _Valiant_ for now; and maybe for the foreseeable future depending on the outcome of this meeting.

"Do you have any idea what could have happened if you hadn't been there?" General Ironwood demanded.

"Yes, sir," Sunset said. "That's why we were there."

"You knew that Amber was going to break the rules, going to leave the safety of Beacon, and instead of informing Professor Ozpin or anybody else you decided to mount a protection op on your own?"

"I wouldn't really say that we were on our own, sir," Rainbow Dash. "I mean there were ten of us."

"And I must say, you did a rather good job in your preparations considering your lack of experience in this field," Professor Ozpin said.

"You're encouraging this?" General Ironwood said.

"No," Professor Ozpin said mildly. "I'm just saying that I only allowed this to go ahead because I was satisfied with the preparations that they had put in place."

Sunset blinked. "You…you knew, Professor? Did Amber tell you?"

"Sadly, no," Professor Ozpin replied. "It appears that, although we have been beginning to rebuild a measure of trust between us, she didn't trust me to allow her to-"

"To break the rules? I should hope not," General Ironwood said. "Except that you did, clearly."

"If I had thought that Amber was in danger I would have stopped her from leaving," Professor Ozpin said. "But, as I was also aware that Team Sapphire and Team Rosepetal were making arrangements for her protection, and as I considered those arrangements to be sound, I decided to allow it. She's not a prisoner, James, she deserves to have a little fun."

"That was my thinking too, Professor," Sunset said.

"And yours too, Dash?" Ironwood asked.

Rainbow shifted uncomfortably. "It didn't seem right to tattle on her, sir. Although…if I'd know that Cinder actually would show up…"

"You might have done some things differently?" General Ironwood suggested.

"Yes sir."

General Ironwood drummed his fingers on his desk for a moment. "Okay then, Dash. With the resources that were available to you what should you have done?"

"Sir?"

"I give you a lot of leeway, Rainbow Dash; and I trust you with missions that some might think require a graduated specialist, but you're still a student. So, learning: what mistakes did you make and what should you have done."

Rainbow bit her lip as she thought about that for a moment. "We didn't have anybody escorting Amber down from the school to the venue. If she'd been attacked on the way down then we would have been out of position. I should have had Blake – she's the stealthiest – follow her down from Beacon while I covered them from above. Then, maybe instead of having Ruby set up in a static location I should have kept her on the move with Amber in sights, while having Ciel on overwatch covering the location with Penny."

"You could also have had Penny at ground level," General Ironwood said. "I understand why you positioned her where you did, but you sacrificed her ability to use anything but her combined laser, when she's displaying significant talents in other areas."

"Yes sir."

"I want you to prepare two plans for me, one detailing Amber's protection arrangements with the resources of Team Rosepetal, Team Sapphire and the two members of Team Iron that you roped into this, the other using all the resources that you would deploy in an ideal world. I want comprehensive write-ups as though you were submitting actual mission proposals, maps and charts included; I want them both on my desk by the end of the tournament."

"Sir…" Rainbow hesitated. "My punishment is to write essays?"

"You'll learn more than you would assisting the janitorial staff," General Ironwood observed dryly. "What you decided to do was reckless…but you did protect Amber, and your ideas were not without merit. Talk to Shining Armour if you need ideas, he has a wide range of experience in this field."

"Yes sir," Rainbow said, sounding relieved but a little confused at the same time.

"And as for you, Miss Shimmer," Professor Ozpin said. "I'm very glad to see that you have not completely abnegated all sense of responsibility towards Amber and her wellbeing."

"Of course not, Professor, I know that there are only a few students who could protect Amber from Cinder and two of them are on my team," Sunset said. "Which means…I'm just glad that Amber still felt that she could come to me with her plans. If she hadn't…"

"Indeed," Professor Ozpin said. "That is both the most troubling and the most welcoming aspect of this affair: what would have happened if Amber no longer trusted you makes me very glad that she does."

"And with all due respect, General, I think the only reason I still have her trust is that she knows I won't go running to Professor Ozpin or you the moment she does something ill-advised," Sunset said.

"Perhaps," Ironwood said. "One last thing: what's your assessment of Cinder Fall? Could you have beaten her, if she hadn't retreated?"

"The fact that she retreated makes me confident," Sunset said. It also made her glad that they had managed to put that moment of decision off for a little while longer, but she wasn't about to say that openly in front of these people or anybody else. The only people she might have been willing to admit that to were Celestia and the equestrian Twilight and neither of them were responding to her right now. "It's true that we didn't actually get her, but I think the fact that she left instead of killing us all shows that she wasn't confident." _Or perhaps she was just doing me a favour._

"General, Professor," Rainbow said. "I know that you've already made a decision on that, but I think that you oughtta think again about having Amber stay on board this ship, at least for a while."

"She would hate it here, Miss Dash," Professor Ozpin said.

"Her new friends didn't make any effort to secure the area, and did her boyfriend even do anything when the attack started?"

"Blake, Pyrrha and Jaune all say that they saw him trying to shield her with his body," Sunset said. "I wasn't facing that direction, but I don't see why they'd lie about that."

"The point is are these the people we want to trust with the Fall Maiden?" Rainbow asked.

Sunset didn't say anything, although she could see Rainbow's point a lot better now than she had the last time the subject had come up. Princess Celestia had advised her to trust in friendship, but when she'd needed them Amber's friends had been absent, and it had been the people whose friendship she'd rejected who had stepped up. And yet, at the same time, didn't that prove that the current situation worked despite its flaws? "We've just shown that Amber doesn't need to live with any of us for us to keep her safe."

"She wouldn't be sneaking off this ship to go to a dance," Rainbow replied.

"I will not imprison Amber aboard this vessel, or anywhere else," Professor Ozpin declared firmly.

General Ironwood sighed. "It's Ozpin's call, Dash."

Rainbow looked far from happy about it – the same could be said about the general himself – but she nodded. "Yes sir."

"One more thing," Ironwood said. "This information about the grimm you got from your White Fang contact. I think it's likely she was simply referring to the grimm gathering around the kingdom, but just in case we'll put units in the city on alert. As for the grimm on the outskirts…the tournament is being postponed for a day out of respect for the death of Phoebe Kommenos, but don't think that's a day off for you and your team. Stay on stand by in case we need to take some action. I'll have made my decision by tomorrow morning."

"Yes sir, we'll be there if you need us."

"Dismissed."

"Yes sir," Rainbow said, as she saluted the general.

"That will be all, Miss Shimmer," Professor Ozpin said. "Please take Amber home while General Ironwood and I continue to discuss some remaining matters."

"Of course, Professor."

"Thank you, for everything."

"Yes, Professor," Sunset murmured, and she joined Rainbow in turning and walking out of the door.

Rainbow was silent as the door slid shut behind them. Then, as they both began to walk down the corridor towards where they had left their teams – and Amber – Rainbow said, "You think I'm the bad guy, don't you?"

Sunset frowned. "Not particularly."

"But you think I'm wrong."

"I don't want to lock Amber in the brig of this ship."

"It doesn't have to be the brig," Rainbow said. She folded her arms. "I'm running out of sympathy for her. I get that she doesn't want to be a part of this war and that's fine; not everyone has it in them to do the things that we do, and I know people who can't and shouldn't and I love them like they were my own family. But what she did tonight was stupid and selfish."

"She's still young," Sunset said.

"Ruby's a kid but you can't see her pulling a stunt like that, can you?"

"No," Sunset admitted. "But not everyone can be as…stalwart as Ruby. Not everyone is just good and virtuous; some people need time to grow."

"Sure," Rainbow said. "But that doesn't mean they will if you don't make them. You know what the best thing that ever happened to you was?"

"Meeting my team," Sunset said.

Rainbow shook her head. "No, it was when Flash broke up with you."

"What?" Sunset said, staggering to a halt. "You…that was the worst thing that ever happened to me!"

"He put up with all of your crap, he made excuses for you, and when you were with him you could tell yourself that you didn't really have a problem it was just the fact that nobody got you like he did," Rainbow said. "That's why you were such an ass all through Combat School and why you only changed for the better once you came here."

"I changed for the better through the company of good people."

"But if you were still dating Flash you would have kept on pretending that you didn't have to change just like you did," Rainbow said.

Sunset didn't reply. Rainbow was…uncomfortably close to hitting at the truth, as much as Sunset didn't like it. She'd hated losing Flash, but she had to admit that she had treated him as kind of a sticking plaster for all her problems, someone who could make her feel better about herself and avoid asking whether she was at fault for any of the problems under which she laboured. If she'd still had that would it have made her less receptive to the positive influence of her friends? She couldn't discount the possibility.

"The point is," Rainbow said. "That you don't help anybody by pretending that you like their pies even if you don't; you can throw them away for years, but in the end its better for everybody if you just say: Pinkie, I don't like pies."

"Who doesn't like pies?"

"I don't, they're all…crusty," Rainbow said. "The point is that she needs to be told that what she did was wrong."

The two of them walked into the _Valiant_ 's lounge, a room which – while being larger than a cabin – was none too large, about one and a half times the size of a Beacon dorm room, with a television at one end with a couple of video game controllers and a pool table at the other. A trio of vending machines – hot drinks, cans and snacks – sat directly opposite the doors which slid open as they approached. Amber sat on one of the chairs facing the television, although it wasn't on, with a blanket draped across her shoulders. Ruby sat on her right, holding one of Amber's hands, while Penny sat on her left and was helping to hold the blanket over her shoulders. The others hovered protectively around her.

"Do you want to tell her that she was selfish now?" Sunset muttered out of one corner of her mouth.

"Okay, okay," Rainbow said.

As they walked towards her they could see that Amber was trembling, She wasn't looking at anyone, she just was staring at the wall with a blank stare. When Jaune returned from the hot drinks dispenser with something hot and brown and probably almost but not completely unlike whatever it was supposed to be Amber didn't seem to even notice.

"Amber?" Sunset asked softly. There was no answer. Sunset glanced at Pyrrha, who shook her head as it to say that this was as good as it had ever been.

Sunset walked in front of her, and knelt down before her. "Amber," she repeated. "Amber, it's okay. You're safe now."

"I won't ever be safe, will I?" Amber murmured.

Sunset frowned. "Amber?"

"She won't…I thought…she won't ever stop coming, will she?"

 _Not if she has any say in the matter._ "She will," Sunset said. "Because we're going to stop her."

"When I saw her," Amber whispered. "Just like before, I couldn't…I just…it was like a nightmare but it was real."

"I can't imagine what you were feeling in that moment," Sunset said. "But I promise that we will always protect you. With our lives, if necessary."

"Why?" Amber said. "Where you there to protect me?"

Sunset nodded. "All of us."

"Why? I don't understand. Why would you risk your lives for me?"

"Because protecting the helpless is the first duty of a huntsman," Ruby said. "And the most important."

Amber closed her eyes. "You're so brave," she said. "You're all so brave. I don't understand how you can be so…how you can keep doing this. How you aren't terrified by what you're up against."

"I don't know about Ruby, but it's not that I'm not scared," Jaune said. "I just have to remember all the things I have worth fighting for."

Sunset smiled. "Amber…Professor Ozpin says that we can take you home now. Would you like that? I'm sure that Dove and everyone else are very worried about you."

"Dove," Amber repeated. "If…this isn't going to end, is it? This is my life, and so long as they're in it…they're in danger from her."

"Not if they're not around they're not," Rainbow muttered.

"There will be an end to this," Sunset said. "I'm not sure exactly when but it will come to an end and then…then Cinder won't be a problem for you any more. The danger will still be there but it will be less and then-"

"I can be free?" Amber said hopefully.

"I…freer, certainly," Sunset said. "Once the danger is reduced." She stood up, and held out one hand to Amber. "So, are you ready to go home?"

"It's not home," Amber said. She took Sunset's hand. "But I am ready to go back to Beacon, for now."

Sunset's scroll started to buzz. She opened it up with one hand, intending to dismiss the call quickly without answering and then focus on Amber.

Then she saw just who was calling.

 _You've got some nerve, Cinder._ And yet at the same time she couldn't ignore it. Who knew what Cinder might inadvertently reveal about her plans and intentions?

But at the same time she couldn't tell Amber that she'd just gotten a call from the person who terrified her the most in all the world, and so she put on a false smile and said, "You know what, hold that thought for a second there's, uh, there's something that I need to take care of quickly."

She let go of Amber's hand and stepped away, heading for the door.

"Sunset," Pyrrha said, quietly but firmly enough to cut across the room. "Is that-?"

Sunset nodded, slightly but perceptibly. The mood in the room hardened immediately, Pyrrha's posture stiffened as though Cinder was actually in the room with them, while Yang clenched her fists together and Rainbow's hand moved towards the pistol at her hip.

Sunset left the room, and waited until the door had shut behind her before she answered. "Cinder, this isn't the best time."

"I know," Cinder said. "But we need to talk. I've been betrayed, and so have you."

* * *

It was not true to say that the intervention of Tempest Shadow had saved Amber's life; the truth was that even if she hadn't been there then it was likely that Pyrrha on her own could have held Cinder up long enough for Rainbow Dash to get Amber away from her, at which she would have been forced to retreat in the face of sheer weight of opposition.

But of all the things that had happened tonight it was Tempest's actions that stung her. She didn't mind – well, she minded that Amber was still breathing, and the fact that Sunset had chosen Amber over her still stung – that Team SAPR and their allies had bested her on this occasion. They were on opposite sides of this war, frustrating one another's designs (or trying to) was expected, and if she had acted less impulsively then she could have taken their opposition into account. But Tempest Shadow? Her own subordinate? To be betrayed in such a way by one who was supposed to be working under her direction to advance her goals that, that made Cinder absolutely furious.

She wanted to burn Tempest alive. She wanted to turn her bones to ashes. She wanted to shoot an arrow through her heart and watch her try and gasp for breath through the pain.

This was not the work of Doctor Watts. Watts would never dare interfere with her plans – with Salem's plans – so brazenly as to stop her becoming Fall Maiden. Which meant that Tempest must have gotten the idea from somewhere else.

And Cinder had a good idea who that might be.

"SONATA!" Cinder bellowed as she stalked through the house, slamming doors open as she searched for her. She had been blind. She had been a fool. She had been taken in by the appearance of saccharine stupidity. But now she was going to find out exactly what was going on. "SONATA!"

Sonata emerged out of the doorway from the dining room, smiling as she stepped into the corridor. "Oh, hey Cinder, so how did it gah!"

Cinder grabbed Sonata by the throat and slammed her into the oak-panelled wall. "What is going on?"

Sonata pawed at Cinder, and grabbed at her arm with both hands; but although she was stronger than she looked – Cinder could feel the siren's grip through her aura – she wasn't strong enough to overpower Cinder, nor even to inconvenience her, not when she was like this. Rage was lending Cinder strength, and all the power of the Fall Maiden which she possessed. Sonata was going nowhere until she got some answers.

"What's going on?" Sonata repeated. "Well, I guess a lot of things are going on right now, all over the city. There's a party happening somewhere I think, and everyone who won their first match is preparing for the next round of the tournament, and right here in this house what's going on is that you're kind of strangling me a little itty bit."

Cinder's hand heated up as she channelled magic into her palm, not quite conjuring up flames but letting Sonata know that she could if she wished to. "Don't play dumb with me, not any more. Tempest Shadow just protected Amber from me and I think you know why."

"Why would you think that?" Sonata asked. "I don't know anything about this Amber girl, or what Tempest was doing tonight, for realises."

Cinder bared her teeth in a snarl. "I know that you're lying to me."

For a moment Sonata's face was frozen in fear and confusion. Then all of that slid off her face, replaced by a smirk as she said, "Took you long enough."

"Let her go, Cinder," Salem commanded. "Sonata and Tempest have done nothing contrary to my will."

Cinder stopped. A shiver ran down her spine, a bucket of cold water dousing the fire of her rage. _No, no, it cannot be true. She cannot have betrayed me, she…she cannot._ She looked around. There the Seer was, hovering in the air, Salem's visage staring out from within its murky depths. Emerald stood just behind, her face mirroring the confusion in Cinder's soul.

"Mistress?" Cinder murmured.

"Release her," Salem said, each word heavy with authority and the unspoken desire for instant obedience. "Now."

Cinder complied, letting go of Sonata and stepping away. Sonata coughed, and clutched at her throat – or at least at the gem that hung from the choker she wore around her throat – but otherwise didn't seem that discomfited. That smirk didn't leave her face.

Rather it was Cinder who felt the discomfited one as she faced Salem through the Seer. Out of the corners of her eyes she could see Mercury and Lightning Dust moving into position behind her.

She had less the impression of allies coming to support than of wolves moving to surround the injured bison.

"That's better," Salem said. "Now, you were about to explain the altercation that you had with Amber this evening?"

"I came across Amber by chance tonight, after attending to some other business in Vale. She was escorted only by a single unarmed boy, so I saw an opportunity to kill her," Cinder said. "And I endeavoured to take it, and in so doing become your Fall Maiden."

"But you failed. Again."

Cinder bristled at that 'again' as if her time here had been merely a litany of failure and disappointment. "Team Sapphire must have been aware that Amber was in danger, they were present to protect her; I hadn't noticed them. They and their Atlesian allies whisked Amber out of my clutches, and I was forced to withdraw."

"Perhaps now you see why it was a mistake to let them live on Merlot's island," Salem said coldly. "Regardless, in this particular case your failure pleases me. It is not my will that Amber should die at this time."

"Not your will," Cinder repeated. "Is it not your will to have a Fall Maiden at your service?"

"It is my desire to possess the Relic of Choice, hidden in a place that only a Fall Maiden may access," Salem said. "If she knows its location, as Amber does."

"And she will give it to you," Cinder said, the pieces falling into place in her mind. Amber had betrayed Ozpin, betrayed Sunset, betrayed everyone who had fought to defend her against Cinder's wrath – everybody but Tempest Shadow, who had defended her for the sake of Salem's plans. Amber had betrayed Sunset, as everyone had betrayed Cinder. "What have you offered her in exchange?"

"Freedom," Salem said. "For herself, for her companions…and for the sirens."

 _For her companions? So Sunset has betrayed Ozpin too?_ She had sold the world to protect her friends, as she had done at Breach. Did the others know? Had the whole of Team SAPR done as she had urged them in Forever Fall and taken the side of Salem? It seemed incredible when she thought about how angrily they had reacted to the idea when she had broached it but then…the idea that Salem would have done this to her would have seemed incredible yesterday. Her whole world was crumbling around her, and what had seemed strong and stable beneath her feet was now revealed as nothing but sand. "You say I should have killed Team Sapphire but you have made a bargain for their lives?"

Salem laughed. "Oh no, Amber never asked for their lives. I was referring to…who are the non-entities she wishes to spare?"

"Team…Blue something?" Sonata suggested.

Cinder felt a strange anger towards Amber at her feckless ingratitude; Sunset and the others had risked their lives to protect her but she would not even try and spare their lives in turn? _And this is the person you chose over me, Sunset?_ "And you will honour this agreement? You will spare her life?"

Salem was silent for a moment. "I shall," she said. "Why should I not?"

"And what of our agreement?" Cinder demanded. "You promised me power!"

"And you promised me faithful service and success," Salem replied with withering scorn. "Yet Amber and Sonata will deliver me more than you ever have. Or could."

Cinder didn't know if she wanted to weep or scream or both at once. This couldn't be happening. After all that she had done, all that she had sacrificed, all her plans and all of her ambitions. "I have given my body and my soul in your cause," she said. "Counts that for nothing?"

"I am not your mother, Cinder," Salem said. "I am not bound to value you above my interests. Amber can offer me more than you can."

Cinder straightened her back, and raised her head. "You're right, of course," she said. "You are not my mother. And I was a fool to forget that."

"Indeed," Salem said. "But I am not blind to the fact that you have served me to the best of your abilities, and once Vale has fallen there will be other opportunities for you to demonstrate your worth to me. You will leave Amber and her half of the Fall Maiden's powers but-"

"No." The single word fell from Cinder's lips to crash amongst the company, silencing even Salem herself.

Salem had been lounging in her throne, her head resting upon her hand. Now she looked up. "No?" she repeated.

Cinder felt a strange sort of calm settle over her. Not that her anger was gone, it still remained and it burned as brightly as ever, but it was covered by a sort of serene certainty. She knew what she had to do now. The way ahead was clear. "You can decide to condemn me to a living death for the sake of your plans," she said. "You can throw me aside like last year's birthday present to be forgotten when there are a whole new set of gift-wrapped boxes to be opened, but you cannot order me to condemn myself, or to sit quietly in the corner and hope that you will one day play with me again. I am not your puppet! I am Cinder Fall, and if you seek to deny me my destiny then I will seize it for myself whether you will or no!" Cinder cried out in pain as her whole body was wracked by agonising cramps, pains so intense that she sank to her knees on the floor, gasping for breath as every nerve in her body screamed for relief.

"And what is Cinder Fall, without the power of Salem standing behind her?" Salem asked. "Do not forget your place. You were nothing before I found you. Everything that you have I gave to you."

Cinder was still paralysed by the pain, and so was unable to resist as Lightning and Mercury – so they had betrayed her too, as it seemed that everybody had - grabbed her arms and pinned her in place. She gasped for breath, and forced the words out between her teeth. "No. You're wrong. My ambition and resolve…they were always mine, and mine alone."

"And yet the path to your desires lies only through me," Salem said. "And if you seek to place your will before my own-"

"Get away from her!" Emerald cried, as she pulled out her pistols and started shooting. Her bullets struck the Seer from behind, and though they mostly bounced off its armour plating they nevertheless distracted Salem, and in her distraction that pain she was causing in Cinder eased.

Fire burst from Cinder's arms, throwing Mercury and Lightning off her and tossing them both headlong down the corridor. Sonata whimpered with fear, but Cinder ignored her. She didn't have time to take revenge on everyone who had wronged her, she had to get out of here before Salem recovered. That was why she charged forward, fire spewing from her hands to drive the Seer back and out of her way as she ran down the corridor, leaving Salem and Sonata and her faithless servants behind.

"Emerald," Cinder snapped as she ran towards her. "Take my hand."

Emerald grabbed hold without hesitation, and Cinder dragged her along behind her as she ran, ran from the house, ran from those who had used and betrayed her, ran away from…from all her dreams.

They ended up in one of the agricultural districts, in a barn that was currently empty on a plot that seemed currently unused. The night was cold enough to make Emerald shiver.

Cinder knelt down beside her, and laid a hand upon her to apply some gentle warmth.

Emerald looked at her as though she barely recognised her. "Thank you," she said.

"I should be thanking you," Cinder said. "For standing by me when…" _When no one else would._

"Always," Emerald said. "I'm with you to the end. To whatever end."

"To whatever end," Cinder murmured, for what end would there be now for her. Salem had not been entirely wrong: cut off from her benefactor she was a much diminished figure.

 _I am as low as I was when I left Mistral._

 _No. No, I am not fallen so far. I still have half the power of the Fall Maiden. I still have a connection to the grimm; it can be used against me, but I can also use it against Salem, too._

 _I am diminished, but I am not defeated. I escaped the house of my stepmother and burnt it to the ground. I had nothing, but whole kingdoms now tremble in fear of me. I am Cinder Fall, and nothing will keep me from achieving all that I desire._

 _I will have my destiny, whatever it takes, whoever stands in my way._

 _Though it costs me my life, the world will fear my ghost._

"What do we do now?" Emerald asked. "Where do we go? The White Fang?"

"No," Cinder said. "They have never loved me, and if they knew that I was without allies they would kill me for sure. I doubt it will be long before Sonata makes an overture to them."

"Then where?"

"I don't know yet," Cinder confessed. If she knew where Roman was hiding…but she didn't, and there was a good chance that he wouldn't help her either. Why should he, when she couldn't even pay him any more? "But I do know what we have to do."

"What?"

"Make sure that no one else can profit from _my_ plans," Cinder said, as she started to call Sunset Shimmer.

They had both been betrayed by those they trusted. The least she could do was make Sunset aware of that fact.

* * *

"Betrayed?" Sunset said. "What do you mean, betrayed?"

"Tempest Shadow is an agent of Salem," Cinder said. "As a child she was the subject of experiments by-"

"Doctor Watts, a mad scientist," Sunset said. "I know."

"But did you know that Doctor Watts is presently one of Salem's inner circle, and that Tempest has been in contact with Watts and is following his instructions?"

"Why would she work for the person who experimented on her as a child?"

"He made her strong," Cinder said. "He made her powerful. I can understand perfectly why she would be loyal to him after that."

"Okay," Sunset murmured. "I'll need more than your word to go on if I'm to convince anybody of that."

"That's not the important part," Cinder said. "Tempest has made a deal with Amber: she's going to surrender the Relic of Choice to Salem in exchange for her life and the lives of Team Bluebell. She's sold you out, Sunset; just like Salem has sold me out by agreeing to her terms."

"Amber?" Sunset repeated. "No. No way, that's not possible."

"Why not?" Cinder demanded. "Do you think that nobody in Ozpin's service has ever turned their coat?"

"Because Amber isn't a traitor," Sunset said. "Amber isn't even a fighter, Amber just wants…" _Amber just wants to be free. What might she do to attain her freedom?_ Sunset swallowed. She could feel a kind of ice growing in her stomach. "No," she said. "You can't be right about this. You're trying to sow discord amongst us."

"I wouldn't lie to you," Cinder said. "Not about this."

"I've seen into Amber's soul," Sunset said. "It was damaged, by you, but it wasn't evil."

"Those who betray Ozpin to Salem are seldom evil," Cinder said. "But they are often very afraid. Does that sound like someone you know? I saw the way she froze up when she saw me."

That made an uncomfortable amount of sense. But things that made sense weren't always true, just as things that were true didn't have to make sense. "Why are you telling me this? If Amber is a traitor then why-"

"Because I've been betrayed too," Cinder said. "Think about it. If Amber's life is guaranteed by Salem's protection then where does that leave me?"

Sunset thought about it, and as she thought she remembered Cinder's agony when they had emerged from the tunnels into the Forever Fall. "Out in the cold," she said.

"I thought that she cared about me," Cinder confessed, her voice sounding very low. "I thought that she-"

"Loved you," Sunset said. "Like a mother. I know what that's like."

"And you know what it's like to be betrayed by the person you allow yourself to love, don't you?" Cinder asked. "You know what it's like for them to pull out the rug from underneath your feet and reveal that everything you thought about your destiny was…all just a lie so that they could manipulate you into doing their will."

"Yes," Sunset said. "I know the feeling." That was incredibly harsh on Princess Celestia, but Sunset had felt that way for a long time, and she wasn't about to tell Cinder that she should give Salem another chance because she probably did really love her after all. "Cinder…what did you do?"

"I did what you did," Cinder said. "I left. I didn't cross worlds, but…if she will not give me my destiny I will claim it with my own two hands, just like you."

That sounded a little ominous. "Cinder…my offer still stands," Sunset said.

"Your world?" Cinder said. "With you?"

"Yes," Sunset said. "You said it yourself, Salem doesn't care about you. There's no need for you to stay on this path of violence and evil. My world is a gentle place, a place where all can find healing, if you-"

"That's a generous offer, Sunset," Cinder said. "And I'd be lying if I said that it wasn't tempting, but…I will not settle to be anonymous, I will not be forgotten. Though Salem has abandoned me, still the world of Remnant will know my name."

"We don't have to be on opposite sides any more," Sunset said.

"I am on my own side now," Cinder said. "But that doesn't change the fact that your side has no place for me on it, at least no place of honour that my pride could bend to accept."

Sunset closed her eyes. _Why? Why do you have to be stupidly stubbornly proud?_ "I used to think the same as you. I came to Beacon because I wanted glory. I wanted fame. I wanted all of Remnant to know my name, a part of me still does. But I've learned that there are so many more important things than that. It doesn't matter if the crowd in the coliseum loves me today because they'll have forgotten me tomorrow; these things don't last, none of them. The things that last, the things that really matter-"

"I didn't call you so that you could persuade me to come to the light," Cinder said. "I came here to warn you about Amber and Tempest…and all the others. Salem has no more claim upon my loyalty. Leonardo Lionheart, the Headmaster of Haven Academy, is also a servant of Salem; he arranged for my team and I to pose as Haven students so that I could complete my mission."

"Even if I believe all of this I can't take it to Professor Ozpin without proof," Sunset said. _He'll need something pretty solid to believe that Amber is a traitor._ "Do you have anything."

"No," Cinder said. "But I do have something else for you."

There was a buzz from Sunset's scroll, and a notification that she'd received a mail.

"That mail contains an attachment, a video," Cinder said. "It's the video of you destroying the controls on the train under Mountain Glenn. I kept it…at one point I considered using it against you…but I didn't have the heart to do that to you. You can keep it or delete it, do as you like. It's the only copy. I've just deleted my copy from my scroll."

"I…thank you," Sunset whispered. That was a cloud that had been hovering over her for so long that she had almost forgotten it was there, and yet now that it had dissipated she felt such relief that it was as though it had been oppressing her every moment of every day. She…it would be easy to delete it, to just delete it and let the whole thing be gone. But she wouldn't. What she had done had caused trouble for Penny and for Atlas; if it threatened to cause too much more trouble for them then she would have the proof of what she – not Penny, not Atlas, but Sunset alone – had done, and she would use it to protect them. "You don't know what this means to me."

"It means you're free," Cinder said. "It means that I can't hurt you with it any more."

"I was never worried about you hurting me," Sunset said. _It means that if I have to, I can use it protect others._

"There's more," Cinder said. "I don't intend to let Sonata Dusk and Tempest Shadow profit from my plans. I was going to reveal that P-"

"That's quite enough out of you, Cinder," a new voice said: a male voice, middle-aged in its depth, rich and fruity like an expensive wine. "I'm afraid that's the last you'll be hearing from her."

"What have you done to her?"

"Oh, nothing, I've just disabled her scroll," the voice said. "And removed all of the files she was about to send to you and then delete the only other copies of. She may have believed she had a proprietary interest in it, but that hard work shouldn't be wasted just because she was throwing a childish temper tantrum."

"I wouldn't call realising that she's on the wrong side a temper tantrum," Sunset said.

"And I wouldn't call deserting your cause because you're not feeling as appreciated as you'd like very much else," the man replied. "Or did you believe that this was evidence of some kind of nascent conscience? You think you can save her, don't you?"

"I believe there's hope for almost everyone."

"Not for Cinder," the man said. "Even if she could save herself, the penalty for desertion is…I'm sure you can guess."

"I'm going to save Cinder, you can count on that," Sunset declared. "Just like you can count on the fact that I'm going to stop you, no matter what files you got from Cinder's scroll or what plans you have. I will stop you."

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the scroll. "You're certainly welcome to try."


	163. A Question of Trust

A Question of Trust

Sunset folded up her scroll, put it away, and then hit the wall with her fist.

 _I wish I knew what to think about this._

Cinder lied. There was no getting around that fact. Cinder lied and she manipulated and she played head games with people, especially with Sunset since she knew exactly how Sunset's mind worked (because it was kind of her mind too). She could easily be lying about this, about all of it.

But it made so much sense to Sunset. They had seen Tempest in close proximity with the siren, and Cinder's explanation of Amber's motives…she wanted to be left alone, she was scared of what awaited her if she remained caught between Ozpin and Salem; in such a situation who was Sunset to say that a scared and traumatised girl might not choose the easy way out?

But Cinder lied, and Professor Ozpin trusted Amber, and Cinder had offered no proof at all.

 _She gave me the video. The only copy of the video._

 _So she said. She could have been lying about that too._

 _But then what about the other voice, the one cutting her off? Was that all staged to give Cinder more credibility with me?_

Sunset wanted to believe that Cinder had turned away from Salem, because if that was true then it left her one step closer to turning away from villainy altogether and becoming redeemed, which was something that Sunset desired more than fame or glory right now. She wanted Cinder to find her way out of the darkness and into the light, she wanted her to repent of and renounce all her wicked deeds. Perhaps Cinder had sought to use that desire against her.

It would be in her interests to turn Sunset and her friends against Amber. But that didn't mean that it wasn't true, did it?

Cinder or Amber. Amber or Cinder. She didn't know who to believe.

 _If Amber thought she had some kind of deal for safety it would explain why she snuck out to the dance without a care for her security._

 _But you know what would also explain that? That she's an idiot. I'm not willing to completely rule out that possibility._

 _Rainbow Dash says that she's selfish and…that's not wholly wrong. She does seem to like having things her own way, and having them be all about her what's more. She left our company because she couldn't trust us to put her at the centre of our lives._

 _Selfish and spoiled doesn't make her a traitor. Does she have the virtues of an Equestrian princess? No. But does that make her a servant of the enemy? Also no. You know who is a servant of the enemy? Cinder._

 _My friend._

Cinder or Amber. Amber or Cinder. She didn't know she should trust more.

 _It's not like you gave me any proof of this one way or the other, Cinder._

"Sunset."

Sunset turned around, in time to see the door into the break room hiss shut with Pyrrha on the other side of it. The same side as Sunset. Pyrrha's whole posture was tense, like a lioness poised to spring out of the long grass and pounce upon the antelope at any moment. Or, given their current situation, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the lioness was poised to defend the cubs and give the hyenas a mauling if they should wander too close.

"Pyrrha," Sunset murmured.

"That was Cinder, wasn't it?"

"Yes," Sunset said, and though it was only a single word it came raggedly out of her mouth.

Everyone who had dressed up for the party had changed out of it and back into their combat attire, and Pyrrha was no exception. She had Milo and Akuou slung across her back, and she looked very much as though she wanted to draw them both. "What did she want?"

Sunset hesitated, but the truth was although she could guess how Pyrrha would react it would still be a relief to share Cinder's warnings with someone else and hear her thoughts on it. "She told me that Amber has betrayed us."

"What?"

"She has made a bargain with Salem to give up the Relic of Choice in exchange for her safety."

Pyrrha stared at Sunset. "Cinder told you this?"

"Yes."

"You can't possibly believe her," Pyrrha said. She was silent a moment. "And yet…you do believe her, don't you?"

"I want to believe her," Sunset said. "And yet at the same time I don't, if that makes any sense. I don't want to believe that Amber has betrayed us…but at the same time I don't want this to be a lie, a game on Cinder's part, an attempt to-"

"To sow discord amongst us," Pyrrha said. "I'm afraid that's exactly what it sounds like to me."

"Are you certain of that?" Sunset asked. "I'm not. I'm not certain of anything."

"I…" Pyrrha trailed off. She frowned. "Amber isn't evil. I won't pretend to like her, but I do feel sorry for her, after all she's been through. How can you believe Cinder over the girl that she victimised and traumatised?"

"Cinder has been victimised too," Sunset said softly. "And traumatised. Suffering doesn't make you virtuous, look at the White Fang."

"Amber isn't the White Fang."

"No, Amber's looking for the exit door," Sunset said. "Can you deny that she wants out of all this?"

"Of course not," Pyrrha said. "Not everyone can be as brave as Ruby, not everyone can face up to the odds against us without flinching and if Amber is one of that 'not everyone' then there is no shame in that. It doesn't mean that she would cast aside all bounds of decency and morality to side with the monsters that we fight against. She is the Fall Maiden…I have to believe that there was a time when she was worthy of that name and mantle."

 _She seemed so,_ Sunset thought. _And might have been so, had she been raised a little better._

"I take it that Cinder didn't give you any proof of this?" Pyrrha said.

"No," Sunset admitted.

"Professor Ozpin will never believe it without proof."

"I know," Sunset said. "But we both know that that does not release us of our obligation to act. If we believe that Amber is a traitor. If we believe that Cinder is telling the truth."

Pyrrha sighed. "Mountain Glenn was a trap, Sunset. It was a trap from which so much trouble has flowed. That's what Cinder does, she sets traps for us."

"I know what Cinder does."

"Then why are you giving this so much credibility?" Pyrrha asked. "If Amber had, in fact, betrayed us, then why would Cinder reveal it to you?"

"Because Cinder doesn't want Amber to be safe, she wants to kill her and become the Fall Maiden," Sunset said.

"Which is well served by making us believe that she is an enemy," Pyrrha said. "She saw that we were protecting Amber, and after tonight she found out that she couldn't simply blow past us even with her magic, so she decided to make us withdraw our protection-"

"She told me that she had left Salem's service," Sunset said. "She told me that she had been betrayed as much as we had. She walked away over this, over Salem choosing Amber over her."

Pyrrha stared at Sunset for a moment. "Then where is she? Why doesn't she turn herself in?"

"She will not do that," Sunset said quietly.

Pyrrha shook her head. "This all seems incredibly far fetched to me. And without proof-"

"She didn't have proof but she gave me other names," Sunset said. "Other names of those serving Salem in our ranks. Tempest Shadow-"

"If Cinder recognised her from her time at Beacon then she might have given you that name to punish someone who got in her way."

"Professor Lionheart of Haven Academy."

"Lionheart?" Pyrrha asked. "Did you say Professor Lionheart?"

Sunset's eyes narrowed. "What do you know?"

Pyrrha bit her lip. "I…I've had doubts about Professor Lionheart myself. Do you remember the karkadann? Professor Lionheart said that there was no one able to undertake the hunt for it but us and Cinder, but that isn't true: Arslan Altan was at home in Mistral at the same time. It's true that during the vacation the students would have gone home, but how many of them have their homes in Mistral and yet Professor Lionheart never mentioned them." Pyrrha took a breath. "But there could be explanations for it, as Professor Ozpin understood when I told him. It bears investigation but it doesn't prove-"

"It does if Cinder herself corroborates it and names him the reason she was able to pass as a Haven student."

"She could be giving you another name that sounds vaguely plausible to undermine Professor Ozpin's network."

"Or she could be giving us genuine names."

"Or she could giving you Professor Lionheart's name to salt the mine, it doesn't prove that Amber has turned against us," Pyrrha said. "I think that you just want to believe Cinder."

"And you just don't want to believe her."

"Of course I don't want to believe her," Pyrrha cried. "Because if what you say is true, if what Cinder says is true then…then this is my fault." She closed her eyes, and bowed her head. "If Amber has betrayed us then it is my…my weakness that has brought us to this edge of ruin. If what you say is true then I should have got in that pod when Professor Ozpin first brought me down into the vault."

"This isn't your fault," Sunset said. "It's mine. You were willing to go through with it, remember? You were willing to throw your life away for the greater good. I came up with the plan, I persuaded Professor Ozpin to let me try it, I brought her back…I thought I was so clever. And I'd do it all again, for you."

Pyrrha opened her eyes. There were tears welling there. "Even if what Cinder says is true?"

Sunset nodded. "You're worth that much and more, and nobody who knows you would say differently."

A smile pricked ever so briefly at the corners of Pyrrha's lips. "What are you going to do?"

"What are we going to do?" Sunset replied. "You're right, there's no evidence. Nothing that will convince Professor Ozpin."

"You haven't even convinced me."

"I haven't even convinced myself," Sunset said. "And yet…we dare not ignore this, do we?"

"I'd like to," Pyrrha said. "I'd like to tell you that Cinder is a liar and that she hasn't even told you a particularly good lie this time."

"If I told you that she was interrupted at the end of the call, before she could actually supply me with…whatever it is she was planning to use in her plans, and that the person who cut her off confirmed her story, would that make it more convincing?"

Pyrrha shook her head. "That kind of theatrical melodrama actually makes it sound more like an act intended to deceive you, I'm afraid. Like one of those movies Jaune likes where all the cars explode."

"I thought you liked those."

"I like watching them _with him_ ," Pyrrha said.

"Ah," Sunset said. "Yeah, when Flash and I…yeah, that's not relevant at all, is it?"

Pyrrha snorted. "No, but far more comfortable than our current situation, I'm sure."

"Absolutely," Sunset said. She looked down at her hand. "I could…there are ways I could find out from Amber."

Pyrrha's eyebrows rose. "She'll never forgive you if you do that. You'll lose all her trust."

"I won't need her trust if she's playing us false."

"You will if she isn't," Pyrrha pointed out.

"We can't just ask her if she's sold us out."

"We should tell Professor Ozpin and General Ironwood."

"You just said Professor Ozpin wouldn't believe this," Sunset said.

"And if he doesn't then…then that is his right, as our Headmaster and the leader of our…organisation," Pyrrha said. "Informing him is our duty…and more than that I think it might be all that we can do. If you cannot make up your mind on the truth there is no shame in letting a wiser mind take up the consideration."

Sunset didn't particularly like the idea of passing the decision on to somebody else, but at the same time she took Pyrrha's point that it was probably the best thing to do in the circumstances. Better than either deciding that Cinder was lying on her own initiative or acting against Amber on her own recognisance. "Should we tell the others first?"

"How, with Amber there?" Pyrrha replied. "Ozpin first."

"Right," Sunset said. "Ozpin first."

"Do you want me to come with you?"

"No, it might be better if-" Sunset began, before she was interrupted by the blaring of alarms and the flashing of red lights up and down the corridor and, it seemed, across the entire ship.

"General Quarters; all hands, the ship is now going to General Quarters: all personnel to your stations and prepare for enemy contact," came the voice over the ship's internal communications system. It was a calm voice, clinical, one which sounded almost detached from the words she was speaking. "Fore and up on the starboard side, down and aft on the port side. Load all weapons and prepare all aircraft for immediate take-off. Security teams stand by to repel boarders. Marines stand-by for ground deployment. Prep all medical bays to receive casualties. The ship is going to General Quarters, this is not a drill. Repeat, this is not a drill."


	164. Spoiling Attack

Spoiling Attack

As the red lights flashed and the alarms sounded Pyrrha was very glad that she had her weapons with her.

She and Sunset locked eyes. It went unspoken, but they were both agreed that whatever this was it could not be coincidence that it was happening right now.

 _What if…what if Cinder was telling the truth? What if they're worried that Amber's treachery has been discovered and…_

 _And what? What's going on and how would it help Amber in any way?_

 _What if the intent was to set us off balance before…whatever is going on._

 _What is going on?_

Sunset started for the door, either to Amber or to try and find out, but Pyrrha was momentarily distracted by the buzzing of her scroll. She wouldn't have answered, but it was Commander Yeoh, and Pyrrha thought it was possible that she might know something of what had set the Atlesian ship on edge.

Although if she did that meant it was big enough to alarm the Mistralian forces too.

The alarms had ceased, which meant that Pyrrha was able to hear both Commander Yeoh and herself think as she answered her scroll. "Commander, what's going on?"

"You have heard the sirens?"

 _The sirens in the city? They've sounded the alarm in Vale?_ Pyrrha felt a chill down her spine. _Mother, all the visitors. All those people._ "No, I'm on an Atlesian warship and it's just gone to General Quarters." As she spoke Pyrrha could see out of the corners of her eye soldiers and sailors moving briskly down the adjoining corridors to take their stations. "What's happening?"

"A level three grimm concentration is moving towards our lines," Commander Yeoh said. She scowled. "Miss Nikos, I know that you don't approve of our expedition here, but most of men have never even seen a grimm before let alone faced a horde of them in battle. If you were to join us it would not only boost morale…I believe it would save lives also."

"Of course, commander, I'll be there as soon as possible."

Yeoh's eyebrows rose. "I expected you to be harder to convince."

"I don't approve of your presence, nor do I think it wise," Pyrrha said. "But I am a huntress, or at least I wish to be, and a daughter of Mistral. How can I refuse?" It was the duty of a huntsman to defend the helpless, and if the Mistralian conscripts were not quite that then they were nevertheless unprepared for the storm that was about to break upon them; it was no vainglory on her part to say that they could use her help; and she could never go home to Mistral if she allowed sons and daughters of the kingdom to die while she sat in high-handed judgement on their motives.

"I thank you, Miss Nikos, and so will Mistral before the night is out," Commander Yeoh said. "I will send a transport to pick you up and bring you to the front. Which Atlesian ship are you on?"

"The _Valiant_ , General Ironwood's flagship."

"Understood, I'll send him a request for permission to land in his hangar bay."

"And I'll be waiting for your dropship."

Yeoh nodded. "I hope this doesn't seem brusque, but I can't afford to speak for long. I'll see you on the battlefield, Miss Nikos."

Pyrrha was momentarily surprised by that – she had impression that General Ironwood commanded his battles from aboard his ship – but of course Yeoh was a _Mistralian_ officer, and they had different traditions, dating back to a different and more heroic age. Of course she would lead from the front line, like a lord of old; it was their way.

"Of course, Commander. Good luck."

"Goodbye for now."

Pyrrha folded away her scroll and walked into the break room, where Amber looked positively terrified by the alarm that had just been raised aboard the ship. Looking at her made Cinder's allegations seem absurd: it was downright ridiculous to think that this shaking girl with her eyes so full of fear could be an agent of their enemy…even if that same fear was supposedly what had led her to embrace the enemy; would not the act of treason itself require a kind of courage? A kind of courage that Amber seemed to lack. Surely she could not be so good an actress.

And yet the grimm were coming, and it could not be a coincidence. It was connected somehow, she just didn't know how.

And with the grimm coming the how would have to wait.

"What's going on?" Jaune asked.

"The grimm are attacking," Pyrrha said, and though she had not spoken loudly her words spoke for her, drawing all the eyes in the room towards her – even Amber, who looked as though she might faint from all of this. "A level three concentration is heading towards the Mistralian positions. Commander Yeoh has asked me to join the defence and I have agreed."

"Okay," Ruby said. "So when do we leave and how do we get there?"

"Uh," Pyrrha began. "I'm not-"

"Why don't you stop before you say something stupid," Sunset said. "Like 'But I'm going to do this by myself because I'm too noble for my own good sometimes.'"

"But you're not Mistralians," Pyrrha said. "Commander Yeoh-"

"Can bite my tail if she doesn't like it," Sunset said. "You're going, we're going, end of discussion."

"I-"

"You're not going to win this argument, Pyrrha," Jaune said, with a faint smile on his face. "So why don't we save time and skip to the part where you face that fact."

Pyrrha stared at him, and then at Ruby and Sunset; their expressions were both amused and at the same time immovable. She sighed, and then she couldn't help but chuckled. "Alright, I'll wave the white flag early."

"Besides," Yang said. "If this Commander gives you any trouble you can tell them that Ruby's Mistralian."

"What?" Ruby said.

"Well…kinda," Yang said. "A little. Great-great grandpa and grandma were from Mistral, they came over with the colonists just before the war. If you ask Dad he'll tell you all about it…which isn't that much, just a few stories that his dad told him which he got from his dad and you know. Still pretty cool though. When the war started they got put in this camp, and then…anyway, maybe later. The point is: bona fide Mistral blood in our veins. Speaking of which." She pounded her fists together. "I got all excited for tonight's little operation but I never got a chance to really work it out, you know? So if you want a hand Ruby's not the only one with a little Mistralian blood in her."

"My mom was born in Mistral, if that helps," Blake said.

"I sincerely hope that we don't actually have to argue genealogy with the Mistralians with the grimm at the door," Sunset said. "Isn't the fact that we have guns and good intentions good enough?"

"The pride of our kingdom is difficult to estimate ahead of time," Pyrrha said. "But for what it's worth I would welcome both of your company."

"We'd be in too, but if the grimm are attacking the Mistralians then they're probably about to hit our boys too, and General Ironwood will have orders for us," Rainbow said.

As if Rainbow had summoned him by an act of magic, the face of General Ironwood appeared on the television screen on the right hand side of the room. Professor Ozpin was just about visible behind him.

"Miss Nikos," General Ironwood said. "I've just had a request from Commander Yeoh for one of her airships to dock aboard my ship and pick you up to reinforce her units on the Green Line."

"Yes sir," Pyrrha said. "Commander Yeoh requested my assistance, and I presumed to accept it. My team were kind enough to…offer to join me."

Professor Ozpin chuckled. "Yes, I can imagine the kind of offer that was made to you, Miss Nikos."

Yang raised one hand. "We were going to chip in too, Professor."

"Very well, Miss Xiao-Long. If my approval means anything at all, you have it."

"Are we under attack, sir?" Rainbow asked.

"We're getting hit all along the line of the outer defences," General Ironwood said. "But minor assaults, nothing like what's heading the way of the Mistralians. I'm scrambling our air units and vectoring cruisers to support the defence, but I don't anticipate the need to reinforce the position or throw all our ground forces at this. I've also offered assistance to the Mistralians, so far they've refused. Team Rosepetal, you're to arm yourselves but stay put; keep Amber secure. If I need you I'll give you further orders at that time."

"Yes sir," Rainbow said, not bothering to hide the disappointment in her voice.

"Is…is everything going to be okay?" Amber asked. "Is everybody going to-"

"We'll be back," Sunset said. "Don't worry. We'll all be coming back." Pyrrha wondered if that would have sounded as much like a threat as a promise if she hadn't known what she knew.

Sunset didn't try to mention anything that Cinder had told her at that moment, and Pyrrha could understand why: this was hardly the place for a lengthy explanation of the kind that would be required, still less for using Sunset's semblance to find out Amber's truth. There would be time for all when the battle was won.

"Good hunting, Miss Nikos," Professor Ozpin said. "And to you all."

"Thank you, Professor."

They headed down to the hangar bay, where the Mistralian airship swiftly arrived to carry them out to the Mistralian-held section of the lines. As they flew, Pyrrha could see the city of Vale passing beneath them: the sirens were sounding down below, and all the streets were dark and all the festivities that had rung out so loudly and so bright not long ago had disappeared as though swept away by a great flood.

 _What if the real purpose of all of these attacks and relentless harassment is nothing more than to eliminate all joy from the world, and leave us with nothing but the negativity that brings the grimm in ever greater numbers?_

Hardly a likely theory, and not what Professor Ozpin had said, but it could not help making a home in her mind as they flew over a city that now huddled in fear of the darkness without the walls.

As they flew, Pyrrha got out her scroll with one hand and texted Professor Ozpin. She understood that it would be better to wait until they could explain all of this properly to him, but what if he needed to know sooner?

Pyrrha: Sunset received a call from Cinder Fall. Cinder alleges that Amber has betrayed us to Salem and means to give her the Relic of Choice in exchange for her life. Professor Lionheart is also named a traitor, and the Atlesian student Tempest Shadow. No proof.

"What are you doing, Pyrrha?" Yang asked, as she watched Pyrrha's thumb tap rapidly upon the keys.

"I, um, nothing really," Pyrrha said, putting her scroll away. She didn't expect a reply from Professor Ozpin, so what was the point of waiting for one. "Nothing at all."

"Uh huh," Yang said. "Keep your secrets if you want, but now you've just made me really curious. Hey, Jaune, maybe you should start to feel worried?"

"No!" Pyrrha cried, as she felt her face turning red at an incredibly rapid pace. "No, that's not it at all, I would never-"

Yang's laughter cut her off. "Yeah, I know. But I bet you wish you'd just told me now, don't you?"

"I just…there was something that I had to let Professor Ozpin know," Pyrrha said.

"Now was that so hard?" Yang said. "And I'm not even going to ask what that was." The airship banked slightly to the east, and Yang looked over her shoulder towards Beacon; the green lights of the tower were receding into the distance behind them, but still gleamed brighter than all the pilot lights of the Atlesian cruisers. "Man, Nora's going to be pissed when she founds out that we did this without her."

"It's not like we could ask the pilot to swing by Beacon and pick them up," Blake said.

"I don't know, unlike the two of us they're actually Mistralians," Yang said.

"The nationality thing isn't actually going to be a problem, is it?" Jaune asked. "That seems kind of…"

"Petty?" Sunset said. "Short sighted? Small minded?"

"I was hoping to find a nicer way to say it."

"There's no nice word for stupid."

"They wouldn't really turn us away when we came to help them," Ruby said confidently. "Would they?"

"I am sure not," Pyrrha replied. "How would they do it, even if they wanted to?"

The airship descended, setting down upon a patch of open field behind some incomplete and patched together defences that made up Vale's Green Line. The front line against any attempted incursion by the grimm consisted of some formidable obstacles – in the darkness, the silhouettes of a few towering turrets loomed large, blocking out the light of the stars and moon, rises in the horizon shaped like rooks in chess, great guns pointing outwards towards the wild; Pyrrha wondered if any of them still worked – and some that were less so, like the wall fragments that were little more than breastworks and the strips of barbed wire strung along the front of a shallow trench. A few pillboxes of decaying concrete rose out of the ground here and there, and here and there a large metal X or two had been placed to obstruct the movement of particularly large grimm. But there was no high wall here, no solid fortification such as could be found on the Red Line closer to the city limits. Small wonder that settlements between the two lines were so small and few and far between, or that they suffered from the predations of grimm that were not deterred by an unmanned shallow trench.

But on this night the trench was not unmanned. A ragged line of Mistralian troops in olive green fatigues filled out the trench, and were being reinforced by a column of foot who swelled their numbers. Some of them wore lamellar-looking armour of the old-fashioned style, some of them were wore more modern looking gear reminiscent of the Atlesian forces but in green; some of them wore helmets that looked like the shells of beetles, others wore round helms that looked to have been moulded to the heads of those that wore them. They had rifles in their hands and sword bayonets – and swords for sergeants and officers – at their hips, and the occasional rocket launcher or machine gun amongst them. Many of them, most of them, looked older than Pyrrha or any of her companions and yet…and yet she had never seen such nerves in the eyes of any of her fellow students, except perhaps Jaune when he was still very green and untrained in this life he had chosen.

 _And they never chose this life at all._

Ruby gasped and pointed over the heads of the column of troops to the column of vehicles that drove along beside them, bouncing up and down upon the uneven ground as they filed into line behind the trench. "Are those AT eighty-eight Cataphracts?"

"Uh, you tell us, Ruby," Sunset said. "What's a cataphract?"

To Pyrrha, the vehicles at which Ruby was gesturing with such an excited look on her face and a gleam in her eye looked like nothing so much as a box on tracks; she supposed that they must be armoured boxes of some description or what were they doing here. Big, blocky turrets that rounded only a little at the edges sat atop the hulls, with a large, stubby, short-barrelled gun projecting out of them, while more guns stuck out of the main box itself from the front and from a smaller box jutting out from the side. They made a tremendous racket as they drove, and even when they were stationary their engines continued to growl like a horde of feral hogs.

"They are!" Ruby exclaimed. "They're real Cataphracts! And look, they've even the Archer variant with the long-barrelled one-hundred and fifty-two millimetre cannon."

"For the benefit of the rest of us, what are they?" Sunset asked.

"Fighting vehicles," Ruby exclaimed. "They were Atlas' first attempt at protecting their soldiers from the grimm. Each one weights eighty tons, has a hundred and fourteen millimetres of armour at the front, is powered by six twelve-cylinder motors and mounts a hundred and twenty-two millimetre howitzer along with three rotary cannons and two machine guns."

"Okay," Sunset said, with a slight smile at Ruby's excitement. "If they're so brilliant then why isn't Atlas using them?"

Ruby's face fell a little bit. "Well, they're beautiful machines, and they're really well designed, but…"

"But?" Blake said.

"Even with all those weapons they can't cover all the angles," Ruby admitted. "In field trials…the grimm always got into the blind spots, tore through the weaker armour to the sides and rear and…ate the crew. I guess that's why Atlas decided to focus on the Paladin instead."

Pyrrha watched the cumbersome Cataphracts roll into position, some facing to the front while others faced sideways with their turrets turned so that the guns were pointing over the heads of the infantry in the trench. "If they are so vulnerable then what are they doing here?"

"After Atlas found they had no use for the models they had already produced, Mistral bought them, just in case," Commander Yeoh said, as she strolled up behind the six huntsmen. She was wearing lamellar armour over her uniform, and one hand stayed near the sword she wore at her hip. "I brought them with me because, for all their faults, we could use the firepower." She bowed her head. "Greetings, Miss Nikos, and thank you again for accepting my invitation." She looked at Pyrrha's companions, and her eyebrows rose. "I wasn't expecting you to bring your friends."

"We're one-eighth Mistralian, if it helps," Yang said.

"More to the point, we come as a set," Sunset said, with just a little belligerence in her voice as if she was challenging Commander Yeoh to make an issue of it.

"Of course," Yeoh said, completely failing to rise to the bait. "I will let you choose your own position. Every man here will be heartened by your presence."

"I'll do whatever I can to make this easier on them, Commander," Pyrrha said. She hesitated, but as her eyes fell on the Commander's sword she could not resist adding. "Is that-"

"Green Destiny, yes," Commander Yeoh said, as she drew the ancient blade from its dark green scabbard. It was as beautiful as its name suggested. "The Council saw fit to grant it to me as I set forth."

"You are greatly honoured," Pyrrha murmured.

"And I aim to do this blade honour in turn," Commander Yeoh said. "Good fortune, Miss Nikos, and glory to Mistral."

"Yes, Commander," Pyrrha said, as the Commander headed in one direction and she found herself leading her friends in another.

"I take it that's a famous sword," Sunset murmured.

Pyrrha nodded. "It used to belong to the Emperors of Mistral, to my family."

"Are you jealous?"

"A little surprised," Pyrrha confessed. "But no." She pulled Milo from off her back. "Milo would never forgive me if I were to be jealous of another, and while I have him I don't need to be."

"That's the spirit," Ruby said.

"Sure you're not worried, Jaune?" Yang asked with laughter in her voice.

"Come on, Yang, you know that weapons have souls," Ruby said.

"You know that," Yang replied. "I'm not so sure."

"And that's why Ember Celica won't ever love you the way that Crescent Rose and I share our special bond."

As they approached the trench, and as the troops filling up the trench saw them approach, a ragged cheer rose up from the Mistralian troops and Pyrrha heard her name being whispered with a kind of reverent awe by some as the news of her presence was passed up and down the line. She did her best not to take too much notice of it; no matter how hard she fought she wouldn't be able to save everyone, and that fact weighed upon her and prevented her from being able to appreciate the awe of those who might not last the night.

The reverent soldiers made way for her, clearing a space for Pyrrha and her friends in the trench close by – and Pyrrha saw them now for the first time – Arslan and her team. Arslan glanced at her out of the corners of her eyes as Pyrrha and the others leapt down into the trench beside Team ARBN, but the expected snippy remark did not come. In fact, as she shuffled closer to Pyrrha, Arslan looked almost sombre.

"I'm not surprised to see you here, though I didn't expect you to bring your entourage," she murmured.

"You did," Pyrrha pointed out.

"They're all from Mistral."

"And they're my friends," Pyrrha said. "There's nobody I'd rather have watching my back."

"Do you need someone to watch your back?" Arslan asked. It was the kind of words that Pyrrha would expect to fall from Arslan's mouth, but they lacked the kind of vigour or energy that Pyrrha would have expected to hear from her.

Pyrrha glanced down to see that Arslan wasn't even looking at her; her gaze was fixed outwards, into the dark.

"Do you see them?" Arslan asked.

Pyrrha narrowed her eyes, trying to pierce the gloom. Could she see shapes in the darkness or was she deluding herself. "No," she admitted.

"They're out there," Blake muttered.

Arslan scowled. "Any advice?"

Pyrrha's eyebrows rose. "You've fought grimm before, surely."

"Of course I have," Arslan replied sharply. "Just…not this many all at once, that's all."

 _I don't think I've ever seen you nervous before. I never thought I'd ever think this, but I prefer you to have a little bluster about you._ "Go for the head to get a quick kill, trust your team to protect you flanks…but mind them yourselves as well. I sometimes get sucked in and…I forget that this isn't single combat."

Arslan nodded. "I'm…glad you're here."

"The same to you, too."

"Hey, I don't suppose…I don't suppose you'd like to make this interesting? Kill count contest?"

Ordinarily Pyrrha would have looked askance at something so frivolous in the midst of a situation like this, but she could see by the way that she was acting that Arslan was trying her best in this unfamiliar situation, and so she nodded and said, "Very well. I accept."

"Great," Arslan said softly. "I'll beat you this time for sure."

"Here they come!" came a voice, shouted in alarm, from somewhere along the line.

Arslan fell silent. Everyone fell silent. The only sound was the clicking of bolts drawn back as rounds were chambered to the breaches of every rifle on the firing line, and those same rifles raised to shoulders pointed into the dark.

One soldier, his fingers stiff from the cold, struggled with his bolt, unable to pull it back all the way.

"Here, let me," Ruby said, pushing through the ranks to reach his side. She pulled the rifle out of his hands and effortless drew the bolt back, checking the chamber quickly before releasing the bolt again with a satisfying click. She pushed a small button on the side of the gun before she handed it back. "Now it's set to semi-automatic, so you need to pull the trigger for each shot, but at full auto you'll waste ammunition at first. When they get closer, push this again to go automatic."

"R-right," the soldier said. "Thank you."

Ruby's eyes gleamed. "We'll get through this together, I promise."

Pyrrha smiled at her as Ruby resumed her place besides her team-mates, sister and Blake. "That was kind of you," she murmured.

Ruby shrugged, as though it was nothing at all.

Flares shot up from the Mistralian lines, red lights soaring up into the night air before descending in low arcs, crackling like defective fireworks as they fell, illuminating the darkness with soft red lights. Lights as red as the eyes of the grimm that bore down upon them.

The creatures of grimm did not charge. Not yet, at least. Beowolves, ursai, creeps, the occasional deathstalker rising out of the press, distinctive by being more white than black. They advanced slowly, cautiously, growling and snuffling as they walked forwards. Walked, but did not run. That was strange, since when did grimm take such a slow approach.

They seemed to understand that they had been detected, but even then they did not break into a run. They halted, and glared at the Mistralian forces in their trench, and as they glared their growling grew louder and louder, the volume increasing from a buzz to a deafening din as more and more of the grimm in the thick black horde confronting them took up the cry until it struck the shattered moon above.

Pyrrha glanced around her. The Mistralian troops were not soldiers by choice or by profession: butchers, bakers, lawyers' clerks, farmboys and stable hands, servants in the houses of the great, shopkeepers and street sweepers, mechanics and mechanicals, the council had pressed weapons into their hands and shipped them off to Vale. Now they were confronted with the creatures of nightmares, now they heard the grimm roar, and she could see fear in their eyes and upon their faces, the fear growing as the roar of the grimm grew louder and lasted longer. And fear would bring even more grimm.

"Ruby," she said. "I need you to kill something." Ruby was a better shot than she was, and Crescent Rose a heavier calibre gun; if Pyrrha fired and did not bring down a grimm then the Mistralians would only be disheartened.

Ruby, for her part, understood Pyrrha at once. "You got it," she said, as Crescent Rose unfolded in her hands. She planted the scythe upon the upper lip of the trench, aimed down the sights, and fired with a great boom.

The head of an ursa major exploded, and as its bony body collapsed to hit the ground all the roaring stopped. A ragged cheer rose from the Mistralian lines.

The grimm roared again, not to intimidate now but to demonstrate their fury.

But this time when the grimm roared the guns of Mistral roared right back, the turrets of the fortifications – so they did still work even after being abandoned – booming forth as the line of Cataphracts let loose with their great guns, making the ground shake as the shells streaked like comets over the heads of the defenders on foot as they turned the earth to fire and smoke, sending up showers of earth as explosion after explosion blossomed in the midst of the grimm horde, obscuring even those grimm that did not perish in the flames from view as smoke and dust masked them. The Mistralians continued to cheer, and their cheers became louder as one of their great war galleys swooped at stately speed over the lines and out into the field to add to the firestorm with its ventral guns.

And the grimm started to charge out of the smoke and the fire. There were fewer of them than there had been, their ranks thinned considerably, but Pyrrha guessed that there were more of them coming even if they did have to pass through the gauntlet of Mistralian artillery to do it. As nevermores, briefly silhouetted against the light of the moon, swooped down out of the night sky to flock about the war galley and give the vast and cumbersome warships something else to shoot at so did the beowolves and the ursai start to run, loping on all fours, dodging shot and shell as they ran, teeth bared, towards the infantry lines.

The huntsmen fired. Crescent Rose boomed and barked and boomed again. Pyrrha, Sunset, Blake, Arslan's team-mates Reese and Nadir all added the voices of their guns to Ruby's defiance and then the conscript infantry took up the shout, their rifles crackling up and down the line as yellow tracer rounds lit up the darkness like a horde of fireflies bent on doing battle with the grimm.

Grimm fell. They were eviscerated, blown apart, destroyed completely; as she was reloading Pyrrha sat a deathstalker repeatedly hammered by rounds from the long-barrelled guns of the Cataphract Archers until its armour gave way and it was filled with holes; but still the grimm continued to charge. It seemed inevitable that some at least would reach the Mistralian lines, and if they hit – as it seemed they would – where there were no huntsmen to meet them but only conscripts with sword bayonets then Pyrrha feared the results would be bloody.

Fortunately the solution was obvious.

She changed Milo to spear mode as she leapt out of the trench, pausing for a moment to stand above it, and to glance down at the soldiers below in case any had any notion of following her. "Stay here," she said. "And please, cover me."

She didn't give them time to reply. She just started to run, matching the loping stride of the grimm with her own swift-footed gait as she cut across the Mistralian lines towards the creature closest to reaching them, a particularly agile beowolf who had run far ahead of his pack.

A flurry of rose petals glimpsed out of the corner of Pyrrha's eye told her that Ruby was on her flank, and she could hear Yang's boisterous warrior laugh and a heavy tread behind her that was probably Jaune, while Sunset was the one begging her to slow down a little.

"Oh no you don't, Pyrrha," Arslan snapped loudly enough that Pyrrha heard it. "Come on Team Auburn! Ya sha suijin!"

Pyrrha reached the leading beowolf, leaping on it as it turned to face her, and despatched it with a single stroke. She turned, her sash flapping around her, and eviscerated another that had tried to leap on her from behind. A third was slice in half by Ruby, and a fourth fell to a burst of magic from Sunset's hand.

By now the grimm were turning away from the Mistralin line, angling their approach to fall not upon the soldiers in the trench but upon the huntsmen in the field.

Which was just as Pyrrha wanted it. Some of the soldiers might have to be a little more careful where they shot, and in this particular part of the field the Cataphracts might have to hold their fire, but so long as the grimm were falling on trained huntsmen and not unprepared conscripts then she was content in her decisions.

After all, she thought as the sounds of Crescent Rose and Ember Celica and Gambol Shroud all intermingled in a deadly cacophony, the grimm were nothing her friends couldn't handle.

* * *

General Ironwood had most of his attention on the battle unfolding on the outskirts of Vale, but out of the corner of his left eye he couldn't help but notice Ozpin glancing at his scroll.

"Is everything okay?" he asked quietly, because if everything was not okay he didn't want the entire staff of the CIC to hear it.

Ozpin put his scroll away quickly, a little furtively like a student caught looking at something that they shouldn't be. "Quite alright, I assure you. How goes the fighting?"

"We're more than holding our own," Ironwood said. "The grimm attacks are sporadic, in such small numbers it's hard to see the point of it. They can't possibly hope to break through."

"Perhaps they're testing your defences?" Ozpin suggested, moving a little closer to the map where moving red triangles indicated small grimm concentrations, pushing against the blue line that was the Atlesian front, while blue icons of Ironwood's cruisers and squadrons moved into position overhead.

"No, that's not it," General Ironwood said. "They're hitting the same areas repeatedly, again and again even though they're not making headway. They wouldn't even be preventing us from sending aid to the Mistralians if they'd only accept."

"How are the Mistralians doing?"

"Better in some areas, worse in others," Ironwood said. While the Atlesian line was represented in blue, the Mistralian line was green, and the green line on the map was buckling in places as a thick red mass pressed down upon it. Ironwood stared at the diagram, at the places were the grimm were threatening to break through the Mistralian defence. _Damn their egos, this is too important._ "Order the _Thunder Child_ and the _Glorious_ to reinforce the Mistralian lines at sectors nine and fourteen, they're to provide covering fire and drop androids in support."

"Yes sir."

Oz nodded approvingly. "And the students?"

Ironwood couldn't help but smile as he pointed to a point on the map where the red blob of grimm had been halted beyond the Mistralian line. "The last recon drone spotted them having charged out of the line and hit the grimm head on. They're holding their ground, too. They do you credit."

"As Lady Nikos reminded me today, I can hardly take credit for what was there all along," Ozpin said mildly.

 _The first round was today? That seems so long ago._ Ironwood frowned. "I still don't understand it. Even if they break through the Mistralian line I have enough forces to beat them back before they reach the Red Line; and level three? There are enough grimm out there for a level nine concentration or higher." Once this attack was done he had been considering ordering some bombing runs to thin their numbers out, but that didn't change the fact that the enemy could be attacked with much greater mass if they wished. "Why are they holding back, and what are they hoping to achieve from all this?"

* * *

Tempest Shadow, wearing the uniform of a pilot whom she had killed very carefully to avoid leaving any signs of violence upon the uniform afterwards, gripped the stick of the Bullhead as she turned the ungainly craft on a course towards the _Valiant._

" _Valiant_ , this is Bullhead Sierra Eight-Nine-Seven inbound with wounded personnel on board, request clearance to land and medical teams on stand-by." That was even true, she'd swung by the battlefield to pick up a half dozen soldiers with various injuries – bites, claw wounds, a deathstalker sting in one ugly case that was starting to smell – in need of medical attention beyond battlefield first aid.

"Sierra Eight-Nine-Seven, you couldn't have landed on any of the ships right on top of you when you took off?"

"I got a little turned around," Tempest said, hoping that she sounded suitably chastened. "But I have soldiers here in need of assistance."

"Copy that eight-nine-seven, you are cleared to land. Medical teams will be standing by for your arrival."

"Perfect," Tempest said.


	165. Rosepetals in a Tempest

Rosepetals in a Tempest

Rainbow Dash paced up and down inside the room, scuffing her feet upon the tiles of the floor.

"Are you worried about them?" Twilight asked.

Rainbow stopped. "I…I'm not worried, exactly, but…it feels wrong to be sitting up here while they're fighting, you know?"

"No," Twilight said, lacing her words with sarcasm. "I can't imagine what that's like."

Rainbow looked at her for a moment, before a smile cracked her face. "So this is what it's like to be you, huh?"

"Pretty much," Twilight said. "Although a lot of the time I actually am worried about you."

"They will be fine, won't they?" Penny asked. "It's only a level three concentration, and they're all so amazing."

"If the situation was truly dire then General Ironwood would not be taking no for an answer from the Mistralians," Ciel declared. She had her back turned to them, as she poured herself a cup of coffee from the machine, but she looked over her shoulder to say, "Would anyone else like something?"

"Thanks," Rainbow said. "Four sugars."

Ciel made a tut-tutting sound with her tongue. "Sometimes I'm amazed you have all your own teeth."

"You need to spend more time with Pinkie if you think this is bad," Rainbow said.

"Twilight?" Ciel asked.

"No, thank you," Twilight.

"Amber?"

Amber did not reply. Her head was bowed, and she was shaking a little.

Twilight's heart went out to her. She could relate to being fundamentally unsuited to the world into which she had been thrown. As someone who wasn't fast like Rainbow Dash or strong like Applejack or brave like all her friends she could sympathise with Amber's awkward and uncomfortable position in all of this, and unlike Twilight she didn't have the option of walking away if she wanted to. Twilight could tell General Ironwood that she was sorry but she wasn't the kind of person to play a part in all of this, promise to keep his secrets, go back to the lab and never think about any of it ever again; she wouldn't, because Rainbow was involved in these things and they would affect her and her friends and the whole of Atlas whether she was involved or not so the least she could do was play whatever small part she could, but she could leave if she wanted to. Amber didn't have that luxury. She was in it up to her neck, and there was no getting out. It was impossible not to feel sorry for her on account of that.

"Amber," she said softly. "Would you like something to drink?"

"Were you telling the truth?" she asked.

Twilight was wearing her armour – had been wearing it ever since the operation to protect Amber had started, even if her role was only to fly the plane Rainbow had insisted that she wear her armour to do it – but the helmet was retracted so that everyone could see her face, and Amber could see how puzzled she was as she said, "The truth about what?"

"About Sunset and the others," Amber murmured. "They…they're not going to die, are they?"

Twilight sat down on the sofa beside her. "No, Amber, they're not going to die. Like Sunset said, they're going to come back." She smiled, and hoped that it looked reassuring. "I know what it's like to feel helpless. I know what it's like to watch your friends go and fight and it feels as though all you can do is believe in them. But trust me, when it comes to them…there's a lot to believe in."

"I…I don't want them to get hurt," Amber said. "I don't want anybody to get hurt."

"A laudable sentiment," Ciel said. "But one that seems scarcely possible in our current circumstances."

"But you said-"

"Sapphire will not be among them," Ciel clarified. "But no battle ends without some casualties. It is…an unfortunate fact, but being unfortunate does not make it any less so."

Amber did not look in the least bit comforted to hear this. "I wish…I wish that this had never happened to me. I wish that none of this had ever…I wish it had happened to someone else."

"I know," Twilight said. "I mean I know how you feel. There are times when I feel the same way." She noticed Rainbow looking at her strangely out of the corner of her eye, and even Penny looked a little surprised to hear that, but Twilight ignored them both for the moment and pressed on regardless. "I have a friend called Applejack, well, that's not her real name but that's what we all call her anyway; she's strong and dependable and we all know that we can always count on her to come through. General Ironwood and Professor Ozpin should have brought her into their secrets, not me. Even Rarity-"

"You think Rarity would be better suited to this than you?" Rainbow asked.

Twilight gave her a look.

Rainbow held up her hands. "Hey, I like Rarity a lot, but-"

"She could have been a great huntress, even Principal Celestia said so," Twilight said. "She just had other things that she wanted to do more. She can fence and shoot-"

"And you took an idea in your head and turned it into that," Rainbow said, waving her hands to encompass Twilight's armour. "Sure, you might not be the baddest of asses but that doesn't mean you're not pretty cool, and it doesn't mean that anybody was wrong to choose you."

"The point is," Twilight said, returning her attention to Amber. "Is that it's okay to feel as if you don't belong here, you don't have a place in all this. But there are people who are counting on us, who believe in us, and I think that we have to try and live up to the trust that our precious people have in us, even if we feel as if we don't deserve it. I guess what I'm trying to say is that our friends can help us to be brave, if we let them."

The lights went out, and the room was plunged into complete darkness.

"What's happening?" Amber demanded.

Nobody answered before the red lights of the auxiliary power came on, casting the room in a harsh, dangerous shade that was nevertheless still a little difficult to see in.

Twilight brought her helmet back up, the HUD enabling her to see a lot better than her naked eyesight could have managed. Everything was still tinted a deep, almost blood red, but she could see that Rainbow had her shotgun in her hands, and Ciel had a rifle raised to her shoulder even if the barrel was presently pointed towards the floor.

"Main power must be down," Ciel murmured.

Rainbow cocked her shotgun. "Amber, get up."

"Why?"

"Because it might not be safe here, we're going to take you to the bridge. Twi, can you raise General Ironwood."

"Yes," Twilight said. Internal communications were one of the functions preserved by auxiliary power, and her suit had a built in communicator that especially mirrored the audio functions of a scroll. She patched in the rest of the team. "General, this is Twilight Sparkle, the whole team is on the line."

"Sir, what's the situation?" Rainbow asked.

"Someone – we haven't been able to ID them yet – stole a medical bullhead and used it get aboard the ship," General Ironwood replied, with obvious chagrin in his voice. "They've cut main power and released the prisoners from the detention level. We're trying to contain the situation."

"Sir, I'm going to bring Amber up to the bridge."

"Good idea, Professor Ozpin is already here."

"Miss Sparkle," Ozpin said. "Can you patch Amber's scroll in, please?"

"Yes, Professor," Twilight said. It only took her a couple of moments to achieve that. "Amber, it's Professor Ozpin."

Amber's hands shook a little as she pulled out her scroll and opened it up. "Yes? Is it Cinder? Has she-"

"Whoever it is we know that they're not Cinder Fall. Now, Amber, listen to me," Ozpin said, his voice warm and paternal. "Everything is going to be alright. Trust Team Rosepetal. They'll keep you safe, and bring you to a place of security. I know that you haven't always appreciated my efforts to protect you but please, this time, trust them."

"I…alright," Amber said. "I'll try."

"I'm glad to hear you say that," Ozpin said. "Miss Dash, I'm counting on you…and so is Vale."

"We've got this, Professor, I promise."

"By our sacrifice shall the city prosper and our enemies fail," Ciel murmured.

"What does that mean?" Amber asked.

"It means we'll give our lives for yours, if need be."

"But it won't come to that," Twilight said quickly, before Amber could become even more alarmed. "We're just going to leave here and make it to the bridge without any issues at all. Because my friends are pretty amazing too." She stood up, and held out her hand to Amber.

Amber looked at Twilight's hand, and though she hesitated for a moment, once that moment passed she looked a little more at ease, and began to reach for Twilight's hand.

Twilight's hand closed around Amber's slight and trembling wrist, and she helped the Fall Maiden to her feet.

"I'll go first," Rainbow said, creeping closer to the door. The automatic sensors to open or close the doors would have failed with the main power, but Rainbow's hand found the switch on the wall to manually activate the hydraulics and hovered there. "Ciel, cover the rear."

"Understood."

"I don't think I can fire my lasers in here," Penny said, as her swords emerged from her back to hover close around her. "The interiors of the ship aren't strong enough to withstand even a single beam."

Rainbow glanced at Twilight. "Is that right?"

Twilight nodded. "I'm afraid so. If Penny starts shooting aboard the ship she could punch through several decks, maybe even all the way to the other hull, not mention anything – anyone – in the way."

"But you can still use your swords as swords, right?"

"Absolutely."

"Then stay close to Amber and Twilight and do that if it comes down to it," Rainbow said. "It's not great but it's better than wrecking our own ship. Twi, Amber, come on."

Twilight led Amber forwards until they were standing right behind Rainbow Dash, with Penny and Ciel stacked up behind the two of them.

Rainbow pushed the button, and after a moment's pause the door slid open with a hydraulic hiss. The corridor outside was lit the same stark red emergency lights as within. There was no one to be seen as Rainbow, her shotgun raised even as her body was slightly hunched over, darted out of the break room and into the corridor. The others followed. Twilight could feel Penny's swords just behind her, almost as much as she could feel her heart pounding in her chest.

 _There's no need to be nervous. Rainbow's right here._

 _But this is our ship. The heart of our strength. This is the_ Valiant _. There shouldn't be any enemies in here._

It was unnatural, and being unnatural it was worrying, frightening even.

 _I have to be strong like Applejack, I have to be fast like Rainbow Dash; I have to be brave like all my friends._

Rainbow led the way, her footsteps tapping upon the metallic tiles of the deck while Penny's heavier footfalls thumped a little more behind. Amber's feet seemed to make no noise at all.

"Okay," Rainbow whispered. "The elevators won't be working, so we'll have to climb up the shaft to-"

"Shhh," Ciel hissed. "I hear something."

They all stopped. They all listened. There it was: another set of footsteps coming towards them, rapidly closing in from behind.

Twilight had just enough time to glimpse Ciel's eyes turning a much brighter, more vivid shade of blue, shining like blue stars as she activated her semblance before she turned to face the direction of those running feet.

Rainbow started to push past Twilight and Amber.

Ciel fired even before Twilight saw anything, but of course that _was_ Ciel's semblance, she could see the figure darting around the corner into sight before they had actually emerged into sight, and so she snapped off a trio of shots that hit the intruder in the side as they emerged. It didn't seem to slow them down, it might have staggered them a little but it didn't stop them from leaping clear across the corridor, turning in mid-air and kicking off the far wall to carry them in leap towards RSPT and their charge quicker than it would have taken them to run.

"Amber, get behind me," Twilight said, pushing the other girl behind her as she activated the shield on her left arm and the energy blade upon her right, for surely there was no time for them to run even if she did leave the rest of the team behind in – misguided for what would Twilight do then if their enemy caught up with them – attempt to buy time or distance. They would face this together, as a team.

 _Strong like Applejack. Fast like Rainbow Dash. Brave like all my friends._

Ciel continued to fire as their assailant charged down the corridors, switching her aim just before their enemy themselves shifted, hitting them time and again even as they darted left and right from side to side as they charged down the corridor with their arms crossed before them. A red glow seemed to surround them, barely visible in the red light that consumed the corridor, but Twilight thought that she could just about see it flicker whenever it was struck by one of Ciel's predictively accurate shots.

Rainbow Dash started firing too; although she didn't have a precognitive semblance she didn't need to be so accurate with a shotgun, and anyway she'd waited until their enemy was closer before she let fly, causing the shield in front of their adversary to flicker more brightly.

And then she was right in front of them, back hunched, knees bent, as low as Rainbow's waist as she swept her crossed arms back and her shield semblance exploded outwards in a shockwave that hit both Rainbow and Ciel, sending them flying left and right and slamming them into the corridor walls so hard that said walls buckled beneath the impact, both huntresses causing dents so enormous it was amazing that they didn't shatter the walls and fly into the next rooms.

And as their enemy uncrossed her arms Twilight could see her face, that scar and those cold eyes.

Tempest Shadow.

 _But why would she-_

Penny swiped one hand to the left as an array of her blades, six in all, sliced that way in a single coordinated motion. Tempest leapt above the swords – since when could she move this fast? – rolling in mid-air as Penny's swords passed beneath her before she casually reached down and plucked one from the pack. Tempest pulled on it as she landed, yanking Penny off balance; and although it lasted only for a moment before Penny released the sword and pulled the wire back into her body that moment of being pulled forwards was all it took to bring her into Tempest's reach as Tempest grabbed her hair and the pink bow she wore in it and pulled her forwards to slam Penny face first into the deck.

Twilight charged, drawing her energy blade back before thrusting it forwards for the small of Tempest's back. _Brave like all my friends._

Tempest was swifter than the storms that named her as she rose, still holding on to Penny, and swung her around so that it was Penny, not she, who was in the path of Twilight's sword.

Twilight tried to turn away but she only half-succeeded, and her energy blade still scraped across Penny's belly, slicing into her aura, as her momentum carried her past Penny and Tempest who threw Penny at her, slamming into her side and carrying them both into the corridor wall.

"Amber, come on!" Tempest shouted.

 _Come on? Is she expecting Amber to…go with her voluntarily?_

Penny pushed herself off Twilight and off the wall into which she had been thrown, pirouetting with a single blade in hand as she slashed at Tempest with two hands and all her strength behind it.

Tempest caught Penny's arm with a single hand and held it in place. She smirked before she punched Penny in the gut; Penny didn't double over but she did retreat. Rainbow attacked from behind, but Tempest wrestled the shotgun out of her hands and shot first Rainbow then Penny square in the chest with it.

She was so strong, and so fast. She must have been holding back all of this time because otherwise she would have had a reputation as the strongest student in Atlas without doubt. She was so fast that, although it was clear that Ciel could see her attacks coming – her eyes were still burning blue – in hand to hand combat Tempest was so fast that Ciel's precognition didn't matter, she just couldn't get out of the way in time nor was she strong enough to really block Tempest's blows. Rainbow's speed, Ciel's semblance, Twilight's armour, all of Atlesian technological prowess as embodied in Penny, none of it mattered and although you could make excuses about the tight quarters and Penny's lasers none of that mattered either. What mattered was that in this place Tempest was the equal of all of them, and more than the equal. She broke Ciel's aura and slammed her into the wall so hard that she slid, unmoving, down it to lie motionless upon the floor. She pinned Rainbow to the floor by driving one of Penny's swords through her shoulder and into the deck below to leave her writing on the floor in agony. She used her shockwave manipulation of her semblance to send Penny flying.

And then only Twilight remained between Tempest and Amber. And she wasn't strong like Applejack, or fast like Rainbow Dash, and being brave like all her friends didn't help as Tempest fists so swift and so mighty shattered both her aura and her armour, as her helmet broke and Tempest's punch struck her bare and unprotected face. If anything, she hit even harder than Cinder did.

"Wait!" Amber cried. "Stop it, don't hurt her."

 _Amber, I'm sorry._

"Did you think that nobody was ever going to get hurt because of what you'd done?" Tempest asked derisively.

 _What?_

"I didn't want anybody to get hurt because of me," Amber said. "I just…and besides, Twilight's like me. She doesn't want any part of this."

 _What's going on?_

"What are you doing here?" Amber asked.

"Cinder's switched sides," Tempest said. "She's told Sunset Shimmer everything, we had to scramble to get her out of the way for a little bit, long enough for me to reach you. If we don't leave now you'll be locked away for the rest of your life, or killed. You need to come with me, right now." And she held out her hand to Amber.

Amber hesitated. "Cinder isn't there?"

"I wouldn't be here if she was," Tempest said. "Trust me; I'm going to keep you safe until we can finally set you free."

Amber slipped her hand into Tempest's open palm, and allowed Tempest Shadow to lead her rapidly away.

Rainbow growled wordlessly. She muttered, as much to herself as to anyone else, as she tried to rise up off the ground. "Sold us out…sworn to Atlas…Amber, how..." she couldn't move, the sword was buried too deep and it was too awkward for her to reach it even if she would have had the strength to pull it free without aura. "Damn it!"

"Here," Penny said, as she recovered herself and bounded back down towards her team-mates, pulling the sword free from Rainbow's arm and turning Ciel over onto her back.

Ciel's face was bruised and blood, and her eyes were closed.

"Is she…" Twilight murmured.

"I can feel a pulse," Penny said.

Twilight sighed with relief. "I'll stay with her, call for help," she groaned as she crawled across the floor towards Ciel. "You should go after them."

"But we can't beat her," Penny said.

"We have to try," Rainbow said, as she picked herself up off the floor. Her injured arm hung limp and useless down by her side. "We owe it to Ciel, and if we don't…we have to get to the hangar bay, now."

* * *

"Sir, Sergeant Johnson reports that they've eliminated all hostiles on deck seven."

"Sir, remaining escapees on deck five have surrendered."

General Ironwood listened to the reports coming in. The situation aboard ship was being stabilised, and all those miscreants released from detention were either dead or recaptured. Main power would be restored at any moment. It had not been without loss, but control over his ship was almost completely regained. Only the original assailant who had infiltrated the ship in the first place remained at large.

Although it bothered him that Amber's position remained unknown.

"General! General Ironwood, sir, can you hear me?"

"Twilight? Where are you? Where's Amber?"

"She…she went with the enemy, sir."

"She went with the enemy, Twilight what are you talking about?"

"Oh no," Ozpin said, seeming to age forty years in a span of seconds. "Miss- Twilight, was it Tempest Shadow? Was she the enemy you're referring to?"

"How did you know, Professor?"

Ozpin seemed too stricken for words as he brought out his scroll and showed Ironwood the message he had received from Pyrrha Nikos.

"And you didn't tell me?" Ironwood snapped.

"I didn't want to believe it."

"That's no excuse," Ironwood said. "Dammit Oz, if we'd known that then-"

"General, sir," Twilight said. "Ciel's hurt pretty badly, she needs medical help now. Still on deck ten. Tempest caught us right outside."

"Medical team to the break room, now," Ironwood snapped. He scowled. Ciel injured, badly injured, and because Amber had betrayed them? For a promise of safety? "Oz, if she gets away…"

"I know," Ozpin whispered.

"Even if it does lead to Cinder acquiring all of the Fall Maiden's power, at least she doesn't know where the relic is," Ironwood muttered, so quietly that none of his crew could hear him.

"I know."

"Then you know what has to be done now," Ironwood said. "Twilight, where are Dash and Penny."

"In pursuit, sir."

Relief and apprehension warred in Ironwood's heart, along with no small measure of guilt at what he might have to ask them to do. They were too young – Penny in particular was much too young – for this, but there might be no one else who could.

He didn't want Penny to have to take a life, but there was no other choice.

Anything, even Cinder as the Fall Maiden, was better than Amber joining the enemy.

"Oz," he said. "You know what has to be done."

As he looked as though he was about to collapse, Ozpin could only give a wordless nod of assent.

* * *

"What happens now?" Amber asked, as the Bullhead glided out of the _Valiant_ 's hangar bay.

Tempest set the aircraft onto autopilot. "Now," she said, as she got out of the pilot's seat and walked into the passenger compartment where Amber stood. "Now, unless I really misread them both, Rainbow Dash and Penny are going to come after us."

Amber's eyes widened with fear. "But we're going to get away from them, right?"

"Nope," Tempest said. "This Bullhead is too slow for that, and we couldn't outrun a cruiser in any case."

"Then what are we going to do?"

"The best thing we can," Tempest said. "We're going to die."

* * *

Rainbow was angry. She was really, really angry. She might not even have been this angry when she'd burst into the CCT and found Cinder attacking Twilight, although that had come pretty close because as things went attacking Twilight was pretty unforgivable as far as she was concerned. But Tempest had not only attacked Twilight (and Penny, and nearly killed Ciel as well) but she'd done it while under the flag of Atlas. She was an Atlesian soldier, just like them; just like them she'd pledged her allegiance to the flag; she was one of them, someone just like them, and she'd thrown that away and betrayed everything that they stood for and joined the enemy and killed and almost killed other soldiers of Atlas? That was just…she couldn't even understand why someone would do something like that and she didn't want to understand, what she wanted was to get even with her.

And as for Amber…gutless, two-faced little…And to say that she was the same as Twilight? Twi had more courage in her little finger than Amber had in her whole body. She'd just switched sides because it was easier? Didn't she care about everything that everyone had done for her? Didn't the fact that people were willing to die to protect her mean anything to her?

The thought of Twilight's bruised face, of Ciel lying motionless on the ground, set Rainbow's blood boiling. She wanted to break every bone in Amber's body and then blow her head off.

But she was too late; by the time that she and Penny arrived in the hangar bay the Bullhead had already taken off, and was starting to fly away over the streets of Vale.

"Penny, you can hit that, right?" Rainbow asked the question even though the aircraft was barely twenty feet away.

Penny, for her part, did not protest Rainbow's lack of faith in her aim. Rather, as all her swords emerged from out of her back and began to spin in front of her face, she said, "Locked and ready." The green glow of her laser canon began to form in the midst of the circle of swords as the weapon charged up.

"General Ironwood," Rainbow said. "Tempest and Amber are escaping on a bullhead, but Penny has them in sights. Permission to fire."

There were good reasons for shooting them down like this, not least because if they didn't shoot them down then they might lose them for good, but to herself Rainbow couldn't deny that in her current state she just wanted to blow the pair of treacherous rats out of the sky on principle.

There was a momentary silence on the other end of the line, before General Ironwood said, "Take the shot."

Penny fired, her laser erupting in a green beam as broad as an ancient oak, piercing the bullhead like a lance through the heart, punching straight through its skin and out the other side. For a moment the bullhead hung, suspended in the air. Then it exploded in a great ball of fire, showering debris in all directions which fell in clumps and burning pieces down towards Vale.

* * *

And it was in the debris that Tempest and Amber fell too, their bodies concealed by all the other wreckage falling all around them so that it would be impossible for anyone to see them or to pick them up on any instruments.

Tempest had shielded them both from the blast using her semblance, but it had exhausted both her aura and herself and now, as the two fell strapped together, Tempest was unconscious, eyes closed even as they plummeted to earth, falling headfirst towards a rapidly approaching ground.

Amber wasn't sure what to do. She could fly, sort of, but she'd never done it from this high up – although they were getting lower by the moment – or while carrying someone else or without all of her magic. She couldn't just drop Tempest even though she wanted to because they were bound together, and it was a good thing that she was too frightened even to scream because that might have given the whole thing away if anyone had been able to hear it.

Nevertheless, she had to try. She had to try and gather the air magic around herself – around them both – and use it to lift them up, or not lift them up, but help them not fall so fast, or-

As the pair, one unconscious and the other screaming inside, fell down beneath the level of the tall towers they were both surrounded by a soft white light which seemed to catch them, enfolding them within its embrace and halting their descent for a moment before lowering them gently down to the ground in an alleyway were Bon Bon, whose raised right hand was the source of the light, was waiting for them along with Dove and that girl with the song, the one that Sunset and the others called a siren.

"Bon Bon!" Amber cried delightedly as Bon Bon set them both down upon the ground. "How did you-"

"Tempest said that you might need a little help," Dove said, as he undid the bindings that tied Amber and Tempest together. He enfolded her in his arms. "I'm so glad you're okay."

Amber wrapped one arm around him, and with the other she dragged Bon Bon in to join them. "I am. I'm fine now, and I'm free from Ozpin and all the others. Only…I think I have to go away for a little while, don't I?"

"Yeah," the Siren said, as she supported Tempest in her arms. "Everyone kinda has to think you're dead for a little bit otherwise they'd, you know, just try and kill you all over again." She laughed. "Some people, right? They can't just leave you alone."

Amber shivered, even as she recognised that it was true. Once Sunset found out, and the others…if they didn't think she had died then they'd hunt her down just as Cinder had. "Cinder-"

"Oh, don't worry about her," the Siren said breezily. "I've got friends who are going to take care of that. You'll even be the only Fall Maiden again really soon. You don't have to be scared of mean old Cinder any more."

"I'll be waiting for you," Dove said. "Whatever you need, whenever you need me, I'll be waiting."

"We both will," Bon Bon said.

Amber smiled at both of them. They were both so kind, so generous; that was why she had to protect them, even if other people got hurt in the process. It wasn't what she wanted, but if she couldn't get away from it then…then there was no getting away from it.

"Where do we go now?" she asked the Siren.

"Follow me," the Siren said, as she started to carry Tempest Shadow away, leaving Amber to bid a swift goodbye to Dove and Bon Bon before she started to follow in her wake.


	166. Destiny

Destiny

Sunset sat down heavily upon a rock. The battle was over. The grimm had withdrawn, and the main issue now for most of the troops was the Mistralian upset at the unasked for intervention of a pair of Atlesian cruisers and their androids. A small concern for most of the Mistralian troops and young huntsmen. They had just won, as they saw it, a splendid victory; no matter how splendid it actually was Sunset was not about to dispute their right to feel about ten feet tall after surviving a grimm attack like that. But for herself, and for her team…there were other concerns that rendered them less able to celebrate.

Pyrrha sat down beside her, her expression grave. She joined Sunset in looking down into Sunset's scroll.

"So, how's Ciel?" Sunset asked.

Twilight's face – bruised, and showing signs of rough handling – looked up at them from out of the screen. "She's in the sickbay now. She'll be up and about in a couple of days; once her aura regenerates it will really speed up the healing process."

"That's good to hear," Pyrrha said softly. "And Penny? How's she doing?"

"Not great," Twilight admitted. "I…I'm a little worried that the fact that she killed two people is going to hit her a little later on. She doesn't seem to have taken it that hard right now, but that's because she's angry about Amber."

"Penny's angry?" Sunset asked. She found it rather hard to imagine.

"Everybody's angry," Twilight said. "One of the reasons I'm calling is that Rainbow Dash won't even speak to you right now."

"If Penny isn't upset about what she did, then what is she upset about?" Pyrrha asked.

"She lost," Twilight said. "She's not supposed to lose. She's supposed to be Atlas' champion, but Tempest…it's making her wonder if she's defective."

"There's no shame in losing," Pyrrha said, and although it was undoubtedly well meant Sunset couldn't help but feel it was a little disingenuous coming from the girl who had famously never lost a fight in her life.

 _Pyrrha, I love you but there are times when I can see why some of your rivals didn't._

"Tell that to the robot that was designed not to lose," Twilight said.

"May I speak to her?"

"I'm not sure that's a good idea," Twilight said. "Like I said, everyone's pretty upset at the moment. General Ironwood, Rainbow Dash, even Penny. She'll come around really quickly, this is Penny we're talking about after all, but-"

"Are you mad at us?" Sunset said.

Twilight was silent for a moment. She glanced away from the two of them. "You should have told us."

"There wasn't time," Sunset said.

"There wasn't time to discuss the issue, sure, but you could have given us the facts. Pyrrha sent Ozpin a message, you could have sent one to us as well."

"I told Professor Ozpin," Pyrrha murmured.

"You could have told the rest of us as well."

"I didn't want to believe it was true," Pyrrha said. "I didn't want to believe Cinder."

"Neither of us wanted to believe that it was true, irrespective of our feelings about Cinder," Sunset said. "But…you're right, I should have made sure Rainbow Dash knew before we left. We're supposed to be part of one big team and I let her down. And she has a right to be mad at me for that." _And for everything else besides. This is all my doing._

 _I brought Amber back. I saved her life for no other reason than because it was a convenient way to save Pyrrha or Rainbow or Ruby. I brought her back and she betrayed us and now she's dead and Cinder is the Fall Maiden just as Ozpin feared she would become._

 _Everything I tried to achieve has turned to ash._

 _The one consolation I have is that Cinder is probably not working with Salem any more, but how long will that last now that Amber is dead?_

 _I brought her back and now she's dead, and in between she chose our enemies because…because she couldn't trust us. It was all for nothing._

Twilight looked more sympathetic than she had done just a moment ago. "They'll come around," she said. "Penny is Penny, and Rainbow…she burns hot, but it burns out fast. They'll come around. They'll get why things turned out this way. I mean…what would we have done differently if we'd known?"

 _Moved Amber when the alarms sounded?_ Sunset didn't say what she was thinking. Instead she said, "How are you doing?"

Twilight winced. "I'll be okay. My aura will take care of it eventually. Considering Ciel and Rainbow, I got off pretty lightly. I guess I have Amber to thank for that."

"Come again?" Sunset said.

"Tempest…it seemed like she was going to keep beating me, but Amber stopped her," Twilight explained. "It seems as if she thought we were alike, both unsuited to be a part of this war and wishing that we hadn't been chosen to be a part of it." She looked troubled, even frightened by something. "You guys know that I'd never do that, right? I'd never betray you just to save myself."

"Of course not, Twilight, we know that," Pyrrha said.

"Good, great," Twilight murmured. "Rainbow knows that too, right? Because she heard all of Amber saying how we were alike and I'm a little worried-"

"Seriously?" Sunset said. "She's your best friend, have some faith. Dash knows that you wouldn't betray her." _Unless it was perhaps to save her._ Perhaps not; perhaps she and Twilight were not that alike, but Sunset could see it happening in the right circumstances.

"You're right, of course, you're right," Twilight said. "I hope you're right."

Silence fell upon them for a moment. Pyrrha said, "It's a little hard to believe that Amber is dead. That Cinder has become the Fall Maiden and all that we most feared has come to pass in such a way."

"First responders recovered two very badly burned bodies from the wreckage," Twilight said. "We can't exactly go public with everything that's happened so we're denying any knowledge of what caused the bullhead to explode for now and hoping that it takes a couple of weeks for the Valish authorities to complete their investigation. In the meantime the bodies have been taken to the morgue, we're awaiting formal identification of the remains. I'm not sure how we're going to explain why Tempest and Amber were on the bullhead but…General Ironwood will think of something. Or not. It wouldn't be the first time the military kept secrets, right?"

"Right," Sunset said. She sighed. It had all been for nothing. "So what happens now?"

Twilight hesitated. "I…I don't know. General Ironwood is not in the best mood. Professor Ozpin returned to Beacon, maybe you should ask him about your next step."

"I'm not sure he'll be in the mood to talk to me either," Sunset said. _I got Amber killed, after all._ "Twilight, I know that we're not your favourite people right now, but…if you hear anything, will you let us know?"

Twilight frowned. "Hear anything about what?"

"Cinder," Sunset said. "We need to find her, and quickly, before anyone else does."

Pyrrha gasped. "You think that-"

"Now that she's the Fall Maiden and Amber's dead she might see if Salem will take her back," Sunset said. "If they won't, then she's a loose end that they need to take care of. Either way, we have to get to her first."

"I understand, but don't expect any Rosepetal help tonight," Twilight said. "Or any other Atlesian help."

"Even yours?" Sunset asked.

"I'll do what I can from up here," Twilight said. "But what I can do might turn out to be nothing."

"Then we can't ask for anything," Sunset said. "Thanks, Twilight. And once again, I'm sorry."

"We're sorry," Pyrrha said.

Twilight nodded. "Talk to you soon."

Sunset folded her scroll away as Twilight hung up. She hung her head, letting her fiery hair fall down around her face like curtains. "Do you think that if I had done a better job then this could have been avoided?"

"A…a better job?"

"Of bringing Amber round," Sunset said. "Could I have done more to heal her?"

"You were doing what nobody else had ever attempted before, how could you have done a better job?"

"I could have revived an Amber who was more like the Amber that Professor Ozpin knew," Sunset said, looking up. "Who was more like the Amber that he judged worthy to be the Fall Maiden."

"Worthy?" Pyrrha said. "You know the stories better than I do, how these powers choose at random as often as not, and when it is not random it is based on simple happenstance of thought. How can anyone be worthy or unworthy in such a process?"

"We're talking about the possessors of the four magics remaining in the world, guardians of the four relics of the gods, how can worth not enter into it?"

"It should," Pyrrha said. "But does it?"

Sunset was silent for a moment. "You were judged worthy."

"Worthy to be a vessel, not a Maiden," Pyrrha said. "Amber…Amber was not for the fashion of these violent times. You did not make her so with your efforts. She was so badly wounded by Cinder that…perhaps it was folly to attempt it and the fault is mine for not embracing my destiny when it was offered to me."

"You think your destiny is death?" Sunset said.

Pyrrha smiled sadly. "Is not death the destiny of us all, in the end?"

"In which case it is so commonplace as to not be worth the trouble to mention," Sunset said.

"True," Pyrrha said. "But after claiming to seek the strength to protect all those things that matter most to me I had no right to hesitate when that power was offered to me."

Sunset took pause a while. "We could have this argument until Remnant itself ends and I don't think we'll ever agree."

Pyrrha, too, paused, before she smiled a little. "Probably not."

"The fact is…that's not how things went," Sunset said. "I persuaded Ozpin to let me try something else and…this is the result. He must hate me right now. Perhaps he should. Do you think…do you think if we'd been nicer to her, or…is there anything we could have done? There must be something that we could have done, right?"

"About what?" Jaune asked.

Sunset looked up at him. "I didn't hear you coming."

"You were pretty deep into it, whatever it is," Jaune said. "So, what's going on?"

It wasn't just Jaune: Ruby, Yang and Blake were all there too, gathered around Sunset and Pyrrha. Sunset – and Pyrrha too, judging by her lack of reaction to their presence up until now – hadn't noticed them approach.

"What's going on?" Sunset said. "Well…this is going on right now."

She told them everything, absolutely everything.

Jaune's eyes were wide by the time that she was done. "Amber's…Amber was…she betrayed us and she's dead?"

"Good riddance," Yang muttered darkly.

"Yang!" Ruby cried. "How can you say that?"

"She betrayed you, Rubes," Yang said. "You would have died for her but she was going to just give up everything you're fighting for because it was the easy way to save her neck! She was a coward who didn't give a damn about anyone but herself and you're better off without her! If she wasn't dead already I'd kill her myself."

Ruby didn't look so sure. "Do you think…did we do something to push her away?"

"No," Yang said forcefully. "This is not your fault. Don't even think that, not for a moment. People like that can't be changed and if you think they can…you just let them hurt you more. Seriously, guys, now that you know the truth…you're better off without someone like that in your lives."

"I can't say that I agree with prescribing the death penalty for anyone deemed too weak," Blake said. "Or for anyone who doesn't live up to your exacting standards. I've seen where that road ends. But what's done is done. What Atlas has done is done. It can't be changed, and neither can how you handled Amber. From what I saw…I think you did everything you reasonably could."

"Yeah," Jaune said. "I mean…was I supposed to dump Pyrrha and pretend that I loved her instead to make her happy? But…you guys should have told us what Cinder said to you sooner. I think Twilight's right about that."

"I didn't want to believe that she was telling the truth," Pyrrha said. "I wanted her to be our enemy and Amber to be our hope. Even though she was…disappointing, and not the saviour and solution to our problems that we had hoped she would be, nevertheless…I wanted there to be clear battle lines, and for it to be clear who was on each side of them."

"We all wanted that," Ruby said. "And so we looked away whenever Amber wasn't exactly what she hoped she would be."

"Being imperfect is a long way from being a traitor to Salem," Sunset said. _Or I would be one too._ "None of you have anything to blame yourselves for in not seeing this coming. And I'm sorry that…even with the emergency I should have found some way to spread the information…perhaps just by not hesitating over it as soon as I got it." She got to her feet. "But like Blake said, the past is past. We need to find Cinder."

"And if we do?" Pyrrha said. "She's the Fall Maiden now. The whole and the only Fall Maiden."

"I know," Sunset said. "It might not be easy, but we have to try."

"Try what?" Pyrrha said. "What are we going to do if we find her?"

"If she's not with Salem any more then she should come with us," Sunset said. "It's the best thing for everyone. But if she has returned to Salem with Amber's fall then…then she is our enemy and we'll deal with her." She looked away from Pyrrha, and at the others. "Is everybody okay with this? Yang, Blake-"

"Don't bother," Blake said. "We're in."

"We're all in," Ruby said. "No matter how hard it might be, this is the most important thing that we could be doing right now, and you're right that we can't afford to waste a single second. But…how are we going to find her?"

"It might be a bit of a longshot," Yang said. "But it seems to me that all we have is longshots right now, so…"

"You've got an idea?" Sunset said.

"If she's on the run, especially if she's on the run from someone on her own side, Cinder's going to want somewhere to lay low, right?" Yang said. "I happen to know a guy who knows things about the shadier side of life in this town; he might be able to point us in the right direction to start looking."

* * *

Ozpin found Qrow waiting for him when he got to his office. The younger man peeled himself off the wall, his expression dour – even more dour than usual for Qrow Branwen.

"Oz," he said. "I'm sorry, about-"

Ozpin silenced him with a wave of his hand. He wasn't ready to talk about Amber right now. He wasn't sure if he would ever be ready to talk about Amber. What she had done…how could he have been so wrong about her? How could he have done so wrong by her that she would do such a thing?

He wasn't sure who he blamed more for this debacle, himself or Sunset Shimmer, but he didn't want to talk about it with Qrow right now. He didn't want to talk about it with anyone.

He sat down heavily at his desk, feeling the cold surface beneath his fingers. "I thank you for you concern, Qrow," he said stiffly. "But there is no need for it."

Qrow looked at him sceptically. "You know…I never thanked you for…for anything, really, but especially for helping me through it after Summer died. Without your help I don't think I would have made it." He took a swig from his hip flask, proving that he hadn't made it quite so much as many people would have liked. "The point is I know what it's like to love someone who can't or won't love you back; and I know that it doesn't make losing them any easier."

"Summer loved you very much, Qrow," Ozpin said, because it was easier to think about Summer Rose and days gone by long ago than it was to think about Amber and everything that had happened tonight.

Qrow took another drink. "Not the way that I wanted," he muttered.

"A fact you hide commendably well," Ozpin said. "For the sake of the children, I assume."

Qrow shrugged. "What good would it do for Ruby to know that I wish her mom had chosen me instead of her dad? Besides…I can admit that Tai's been a better father to those kids than I would have been." He drank for the third time. "The point is…what I'm trying to say, Oz…is that I'm here if you need me."

"I do need you," Ozpin said. "But not for emotional support. I need you to go to Mistral, and address the questions lingering over Leo."

"You think that-"

"Cinder Fall turned out to be right about Amber and Tempest Shadow," Ozpin said. "Why assume that she's wrong about Leo, when it explains so much?"

"You want me to kill him?"

"I want you to confirm our worst fears first," Ozpin said. As plausible as it sounded he wasn't yet ready to order the cold-blooded murder of someone whom he had, until this evening, considered a loyal subordinate, even a friend. He wasn't about to become the kind of person who reacted to every potential security breach with a slew of indiscriminate killings in an attempt to stuff the toothpaste back into the tube. Where would such a road end? Order Qrow to murder Leo because Cinder had named him a traitor, order Sunset killed because she was too close to Cinder, order SAPR killed because Amber might have compromised them? He was not Salem, and he would not adopt all her methods in order to defeat her. "Go to Haven, question Leo, get the truth from him; if he is working with Salem then find out exactly how much he has told her, how much he knows that he has not told us, everything important."

"And then kill him?"

"Yes," Ozpin said, even though Qrow would have known perfectly well what he wanted done without him saying it. But if Ozpin was going to order Qrow to take a friend's life he could at least have the courage to be honest about what he wanted done. "But be discreet about it, the last thing we need is to inflame tensions in Mistral yet higher." This could not have come at a worse time, either in terms of Mistralian politics or in terms of the succession at Haven; Ozpin was doubtful of his ability to be able to get the successor he wanted appointed as Headmaster in the current climate, not least because he had given no thought to Leo's successor up until now and right now he had no time to examine the matter. But if Leo was a traitor then he could not remain, and Ozpin would simply have to try and ride out what followed.

"Discreet," Qrow repeated. "Sure, I'll…well, I'll do my best. You want me to leave at once?"

"If you wouldn't mind," Ozpin said. "I'm sorry you'll miss your elder niece in the tournament."

"I'll be able to catch the highlights," Qrow said. He started to turn away, but stopped. "Are you going to be okay, Oz?"

"I'll be fine," Ozpin lied.

* * *

"Yo, Pyrrha! Are you leaving?"

Pyrrha turned to see Arslan approaching her over the muddy ground behind the lines. She indicated to her friends that she would be a minute, and walked towards her. "Arslan. I'm glad to see you're alright."

"Hey, it'll take more than this to stop me having another match with you," Arslan said, with what sounded like somewhat forced bonhomie. "So, you're leaving?"

Pyrrha nodded. "We have something we need to take care of."

"After all this tonight you're still not done?"

"Not quite yet," Pyrrha said.

"Fifty three," Arslan said.

Pyrrha blinked. "I beg your pardon?"

"My score," Arslan explained. "The contest. Come on, spill it before you go."

Pyrrha had honestly forgotten to keep count, so she plucked a number out of the air. "Fifty two."

"Yes!" Arslan said, pumping one fist. "I knew that I could beat you at something if I just kept trying long enough."

Pyrrha held out her hand. "Congratulations."

"Thanks," Arslan said, as she shook Pyrrha's hand. She glanced away for a moment. "So…tonight…you've been through stuff like this before, haven't you?"

"Once," Pyrrha said. "Only once before with these kind of numbers."

"And this is what you want to do?" Arslan said incredulously. "You want to walk away from the arena and do this every day?"

"It's important," Pyrrha said. "Somebody has to do it."

Arslan sucked in her breath. "I see what you mean a little more now…if you hadn't been here-"

"The world needs huntsmen," Pyrrha said. "Someone has to stand against the grimm." She hesitated. "Now that you've seen it with your own eyes, I don't suppose there's any chance…you could do great things for humanity."

Arslan was silent for a moment. "It's funny," she said. "Everyone who cheers you on right now…when you walk away they'll forget about you, and find someone else to fawn all over; you've earned your spot in the Hall of Champions, and people will read about you when they come to your exhibit, but they won't really care…and all the while you'll be doing more for them than you ever did when you were there idol."

"As sacrifices go," Pyrrha said. "It's a very small one. I think so anyway."

Arslan didn't look so sure. "I…would need to think about it," she said. "But best of luck to you, P-money. I hope you save the world."

Pyrrha smiled. "We'll certainly do our best."

* * *

Yang took them to a less than salubrious looking part of town, where even allowing for the fact that it was the middle of the night – almost exactly, it was five past midnight, at this point they were going to need tomorrow just to sleep off tonight – the place looked like a bit of a dump, everything grey and dismal with faded paint cracking and peeling off the walls of a mixture of run-down tenement housing and semi-derelict industrial lots.

"So…" Sunset said. "Who is this friend of yours?"

"I know it doesn't look like much," Yang said, as she led them towards a large brown brick building that looked as if it had once been flats before being turned into what the sign outside proclaimed as a nightclub. "But trust me, if you're in the right kind of mood this place can be the hottest ticket in town."

"That may be," Pyrrha murmured with the faintest hint of what was either disapproval or scepticism, it was hard to be exactly sure. "But it looks closed right now." Indeed, the doors were resolutely shut with no sign of opening. "Your friend might have taken shelter when the alarms sounded."

"Nah," Yang said. "He's just playing hard to get. Lucky for me I know the secret knock." She cocked Ember Celica and, before anyone else could do anything – even ask what she was doing – she had fired a shot at the doors, which blew them open at least wide enough for Yang to strut in as if she owned the place and shout, "Guess who's back?"

A score or more of handguns – held by a group of guys who would have looked stylish in their black suits, red ties and fedoras if it weren't for their near-universally embarrassing facial hair and the fact that, variations in facial hair aside, they were all identically attired - were immediately pointed right into her face. This didn't seem to faze Yang, although it was enough to prompt Pyrrha and Blake, following her in, to draw their weapons and for Sunset's to begin summoning magic into the palms of her hands.

 _That_ was what fazed Yang a little. "Guys, come on, cool it," she said. "Ruby, put that away," she added, as she spotted her sister reaching for Crescent Rose. "Pyrrha, Blake, I said this guy was my friend and you're going to attack him."

"Can you see all the guns pointed at you right now?" Sunset said.

"This doesn't seem like a particularly friendly reception," added Pyrrha, who had flowed into a guard stance and showed no sign of flowing out of it.

"It's a complicated friendship," Yang said. "Like you and Cinder."

"Nobody start shooting," declared a burly guy, one who towered over his men by more than a head as he pushed his way through the middle of them like a ship forcing its way through black ice. He wore the same red tie as his guys, but his shirt was white and he was wearing a waistcoat without jacket; his full beard, neatly trimmed, was probably the only decent looking facial hair choice amongst the entire of what Sunset could just about see behind him was a very spacious dance club, albeit one that was pretty empty at the moment apart from all the armed guys in their black suits. There seemed an awful lot of them to be the employees of a club, so it was probably a front for some kind of criminal activity, although judging by the dance club lights and the music – although the record was currently skipping a beat, probably because the DJ was cowering under the record player – it was also a club.

A club where everybody was scared rigid of Yang. Including the big guy who had a couple of feet on her. "Blondie," he said, his voice quivering. "You're back…and you brought friends. A lot of well-armed friends."

"Yep," Yang said cheerfully. "And as you can see they're not all the easy-going pussycats that I am. Well, except Blake."

"Really? Really?"

The big guy was visibly sweating now. "And you're all here…why?"

"We need information," Sunset said.

"And you still owe me that drink," Yang said, taking the big guy by the arm and dragging him through the press of his own men in the direction of the bar. "Come on guys, they say the Strawberry Sunrise at Junior's is great, but I haven't gotten to try it yet. You can't have any Ruby, you're too young."

"His name is Junior?" Sunset said.

"Your sister knows some interesting people, huh?" Jaune said.

"Tell me about it," Ruby said.

They followed Yang – and Junior – down the steps leading to the cavernous but dance floor, currently empty save for the armed goons.

"Hey," one of them said. "Aren't you guys Pyrrha Nikos and Team Sapphire?"

Pyrrha froze for a moment. "Um, yes, that's me; well, that's us I should say."

"That was a great fight in the tournament today, you guys kicked ass!"

"Thank you," Pyrrha murmured. "Always nice to meet a fan."

She quickened her step a little as the five of them followed Yang across the dance floor and to the bar, behind which Junior had retreated while he polished a glass to stop his hand from shaking.

"So," Junior said, and although he was managing to stop his hand from shaking he couldn't control the trembling in his voice. "What can I do for you and…all your friends?"

"We're looking for a friend of ours," Sunset said, as she leaned on the bar.

Junior scoffed. "If she's a friend then why are you coming to me for helping finding her?"

"It's a complicated friendship," Sunset said. "Like you and Yang."

"I know that I hear a few things sometimes, but-"

"Our friend would be looking for a place to lie low," Sunset said. "From the authorities, but also from her old contacts. Would you happen to know of any places where she might go?"

Junior was silent for a moment. He put his glass down on the bar. "This friend of yours wouldn't happen to be a girl your age with dark skin and green hair wearing a black cocktail dress, would she?"

"Emerald?" Ruby asked.

Sunset pulled out her scroll and flicked through her photo album until she found a picture with Emerald Sustrai in it. "Is this her?" she said, holding up the scroll.

Junior nodded. "She was in here about an hour ago, looking for Roman Torchwick. I told her I hadn't seen the guy since the night I met Blondie here, and if I did see him again I'd probably shoot him."

"Could Emerald have quit along with Cinder?" Jaune murmured.

"Either that or this is some kind of elaborate ruse for us," Pyrrha said.

"After what happened with Amber I think we have to believe what Cinder said," Ruby said.

"It doesn't necessarily follow that Emerald is with Cinder," said Pyrrha.

"Why else would Emerald be looking for a place to lie low?" Jaune asked.

Sunset kept her attention on Junior. "So where did she go?"

"After I told her that she asked about places to lie low, just like you said," Junior said.

Yang and Sunset waited in vain for him to continue. "And?" Yang demanded.

Junior shifted uncomfortably. "I…I have a little bit of a side business going. I know this guy at the Post Office, and he knows when people are going to be leaving their houses empty because they stop their mail, you know? And I know people who need to hide out for a while sometimes so…"

"So you hide your criminal associates in the empty houses," Sunset said.

"It's not like they're throwing wild parties," Junior said. "They're better tenants than most actual tenants, I'll bet."

"And you had a place for Emerald," Yang said. "Where?"

"Come on, Blondie, if I start giving up the locations of my clients I won't have a business left."

Yang grinned. "Junior, did it cost you a lot of money to rebuild this club? Because it looks like you spent a lot of money on it after the last time I was here."

"Okay, okay, I'll get you the address," Junior said.

"And it better be the right one or you know I'll be back," Yang said.

"Trust me, I know," Junior said, as he stomped off into the back.

"So…what did you do the last time you were here?" Sunset said.

"Oh, you know," Yang said. "Asked a few questions, let everyone know who was boss-"

"Punched that guy through a window," Ruby said.

Yang chuckled. "Yeah, that was a good night."

* * *

"Before I met you," Emerald said, as she stood in the middle of a master bedroom appointed with every modern convenience and comfort. "I would have killed to live in a house like this. Well, not literally, but you know what I mean."

Cinder chuckled. "Perhaps if you had been willing to kill for it you might have lived in a place like this. You could have murdered the rightful owners."

"I, um, I guess so," Emerald murmured. "Might have gotten hard to hide from the neighbours after a while."

"Not necessarily," Cinder said, as she started to walk out of the master bedroom. Her footfalls were silent as she padded across the pale blue carpet of the hall, crossing in front of a spacious bathroom with a bidet and a Jacuzzi as she approached some bookshelves on the other side of the corridor. "I'm sure that you could have accomplished something with your semblance if you'd only thought to try. If you'd only…had the daring to try."

"Daring," Emerald repeated, as she followed Cinder out onto the landing. "Is that really all it takes?"

"Not necessarily," Cinder said. "But you'll never accomplish anything, great or small, unless you have the daring to try. You have to take that first step, even at the risk of falling, or you'll never move from where you are."

"Unless someone helps you," Emerald said. "Like you helped me."

Cinder shook her head. "I merely held out a hand to you, Emerald. It was you who stepped forward and took it."

"It doesn't change the fact that you offered me a hand in the first place," Emerald said. "No one else did."

"Don't tell yourself that you need my help, or anyone else's help, to accomplish great change in your life," Cinder said. "It will hamper you. You don't need anybody, or their gifts. All you need is yourself, your daring and the will to act. With sufficient will you can accomplish anything."

 _Liar. You can't do anything. Forsaken, abandoned, unwanted, unneeded. You're nothing without the strength she gave you. On your own you're useless; worse than useless, you're pathetic!_

Cinder scowled at her own thoughts, her dark thoughts rising to the surface of her mind and pounding for attention upon the sides of her head. Pounding all the harder for being so true.

"You certainly can," Emerald said. "Even though it looks as if we're in a bad way right now, I know that you'll find some way to pull through."

Cinder ignored that flattery. Ordinarily she would have welcomed the boost to her ego, but as low as she felt now – the early fire of her anger spent leaving only the embers of immense disappointment behind – she found that it only irritated her. Still, she did not show her irritation to Emerald save by ignoring her. Cinder turned her attention to the books on the shelf, and wondered how many of them the occupants of this house – vacationing in Mistral, judging by the confirmation of their Skyliner booking that they had printed off but then left on the desk in the study – had actually read. There were leather bound volumes, scholarly and important works that seemed as designed to show off the erudition and cultivated tastes of those who owned the books as they did to bring any enjoyment or education: Winston's six-volume history of the Great War; Leroy's biography of the last King of Vale; _Fall of Mantle, Rise of Atlas_ , a book which purported to explain how the nation defeated in the Great War had risen again to dominate the modern world; these were the sorts of turgid tomes that, in Cinder's experience, people brought for their guests at house parties to notice that they owned rather than to read. Her stepmother had owned an entire library full of such books and never read a single one.

Cinder's eye strayed to the _Mistraliad_ , which unlike some of the others did look as though it had been plucked off the shelf once or twice. She plucked it off herself, and flicked idly through the pages.

 _Always be the best, the bravest, and hold your head up high amongst the others._

 _I tried. I tried so hard._

"Have you read this, Emerald?" she asked, holding up the book.

"No," Emerald said. "I, uh, I haven't had a lot of time to read books. But I suppose I've got time now. Is it any good?"

"It's a classic," Cinder said. "A timeless masterpiece. But also something of an acquired taste in its style. It depends on whether you can get past the antique poeticisms or not."

"I…don't really know."

"Then give it a try, if you like, and see for yourself."

"Right," Emerald murmured. "Are we…are we going to try and get in contact with Sunset Shimmer again? If Atlas knows that Sonata has evidence that they were conducting experiments to try and control the grimm then…maybe they could admit it up front? Try and make it seem like they weren't planning to sic the grimm on their enemies?"

Cinder laughed. "You've warned me against Sunset, but now you want to reach out to her?"

"I thought that was what you wanted."

"No."

"No?" Emerald repeated. "I…I'm sorry, Cinder, but I don't get it. I thought you wanted to stop Sonata."

"I've had time to think, while you were making the arrangements for us to take refuge here," Cinder said. "And what I've thought…is that I have a better gift for Sunset than a warning of what's coming."

"What?"

"What she seeks," Cinder said. "What I seek. What all great men have sought since time began: immortality." She looked over her shoulder, and smiled. "Do you believe in destiny, Emerald?"

"No."

"No?"

"I lived on the street for my entire life until I met you," Emerald said. "I'd rather believe I had rotten luck than that some big book in the sky had me down for a life that sucked."

"I couldn't have survived if I didn't believe in destiny," Cinder said. She looked down at the book in her hands. "Destiny is the fire that has kept me warm in the coldest of nights, it is the food that has fed me in the bleakest of winters, it is the light that has guided me through the darkest of nights; the knowledge that I was meant for something greater in the end has sustained me through every trial and hardship that has sought to crush me beneath its weight. Destiny is…destiny is all. If I didn't believe in destiny I would be without hope."

"But you're not," Emerald said. "Because you believe in destiny, you're not hopeless."

Cinder was silent for a moment. "It isn't actually in this book, but Pyrrha was offered a choice of two destinies: a long life that would swiftly be forgotten once it ended, or a brief but glorious existence the memory of which would endure forever. Which would you choose? Anonymity or greatness?"

Emerald looked down at the floor. "The first," she said, as Cinder had known she would. "I'm not as bold as you."

"I think that our Pyrrha would choose the same, for all that she would spend her long life in service." Cinder said. _Because she is small and ungrateful and doesn't appreciate what she has._ "But in the story, the Pyrrha who is the protagonist of the poem chose the first. And so do I. My season shall be short but memorable. Of course, the greatest glory that Pyrrha achieves is the slaying of her rival Juturna, who had struck down Pyrrha's friend Camilla earlier in the fighting. And now they are all bound together in the memory of the world, three destinies entwined and immortal."

"Cinder…what are you saying?" Emerald asked. "I don't understand."

"I'm saying," Cinder said. "That we're going to let this play out to the finish. And then, when it does, I'm going to swoop in and take all the credit from under Sonata's nose. As far as Remnant is concerned it will be Cinder Fall who brought down Vale. I will be the nightmare of the world, not her, not Salem, me. I will be the one they all blame, the one they hate, the one they focus all of their fear and disgust towards. And I will be remembered while Remnant lasts."

 _For it is in passing that we achieve immortality._

* * *

"Ruby, Jaune, are you in position?" Sunset whispered.

"Yes," Jaune said. "We can't see anything from here, are you sure this is the place?"

"They wouldn't be lying low if their presence was obvious," Sunset replied.

"This is the address Junior gave us," Yang said. "And he knows better than to lie to me about something like this."

"We're in position too," Blake said.

"Okay," Sunset said. For the purposes of this particular operation they had swapped up the partnerships a little: Ruby and Jaune were covering the eastern end of the street overlooking the front of the house, while Yang and Blake were covering the western end. Sunset and Pyrrha had cut through the gardens that lay behind the houses in this well-heeled suburb, and were now perhaps two back gardens away from the garden of the house they were interested in, still out of sight of either Cinder or Emerald watching from the rear windows of the upper floor. While the other two teams kept watch out the front, Sunset and Pyrrha would vault over the intervening fences, break in via the back door and confront Cinder. That was why they had changed up the usual team structure: Sunset because she was the person Cinder was most likely to listen to and Pyrrha to back her up if she didn't. Of course if all Tartarus broke loose then the other four would storm in via the front when they heard the sounds.

"Do you think that we should call the police?" Pyrrha said. "It doesn't seem right to start a battle with all of these innocent people around."

"If try and evacuate the street Cinder will know that we're on to her," Sunset said.

"That doesn't make it right to endanger innocent lives," Pyrrha said.

She had a point there. "Ruby, call the police and tell them we've located a dangerous fugitive at this address. Once you've placed the call we'll move in before they get here and panic Cinder."

"Does Cinder do panic?" Jaune asked.

"You know what I mean."

"Good idea," Ruby said. "That way, even if she does get away, we can still catch her later."

"I'd rather she didn't get away," Sunset muttered. She raised herself up from her crouching position just enough to see the house where Cinder and Emerald were hiding. It was a three-storey detached, with a white-painted wooden veneer on all sides, a rooftop balcony and windows divided into six evenly-sized squares. It looked like the sort of house that would be comfortable to live in; Sunset found herself glad of that, perversely pleased that Cinder had found a nice and cosy-looking place to live, even though she was here to drag her away from it.

 _It's for her own good, and the good of Remnant._

"Sunset," Blake hissed. "I think we might have a problem."

"What?"

"Two people approaching the house…it's Mercury and Lightning Dust!"

Sunset hissed. "They must have found Cinder too." She glanced at Pyrrha, who nodded. "We're going in. You're going to have to intercept those two and keep them busy."

"What about calling the cops?" Ruby asked.

"If you can do it quickly, but we don't have much time," Sunset said. She took a deep breath. "You guys can handle this, right?"

"Come on, Sunset," Yang said. "I know we're not tight, but give me some credit."

"Take care of yourselves," Sunset said.

"And of each other," Pyrrha said. "Good luck, Jaune."

"Don't worry," Jaune said. "I've come a long way since me and that guy last met."

"Don't do anything rash," Pyrrha urged.

"Okay, let's do this," Yang said. "Sunset, are you good to go?"

Once again, Pyrrha nodded confirmation before Sunset said, "Yes. Three, two, one, go!"

She and Pyrrha vaulted over the fence – the latter rather more gracefully than the former – before sprinting across the moonlit garden, trampling on garden gnomes and jumping over the pond before vaulting the other fence and knocking over a bird table as they raced across that garden before vaulting that fence into the garden they were actually interested in, and by now they could hear Ember Celica and Crescent Rose firing on the other side, lending urgency to their tread as Sunset led the way up the steps of the rear veranda.

She kicked in the door and stepped into a utility room filled with gadgets. "Cinder!"

* * *

"Just so you know," Blake murmured to Yang as they watched the two figures advance down the street towards Cinder's safe house. "I'm getting a little low on dust. I haven't exactly had to replenish my supply."

"We'll make do," Yang said. "Man, Nora and Ren are going to be so mad they missed out on this."

"Nora will," Blake said. "I'm sure that Ren will take it in stride."

Mercury and Lightning Dust were both clad in long coats – very bulk dusters in the latter case – probably to conceal them a little, but to people who had observed them who they were was unmistakable. They didn't know that they were being watched, or they wouldn't have been walking so brazenly under the street lights that lined the way and meant she didn't even need her night vision to spot them. Where they not expecting either Cinder or Emerald to be on watch? No, wait, they were starting to be a little more cautious now; as they reached a point at which someone from Cinder's house – the house that Cinder had stolen, rather – could have seen them, they slunk out of the street lights and into the shadows. A little too late.

Yang cocked her Ember Celica. Blake drew Gambol Shroud.

"Three," Sunset said. "Two, one, go!"

Yang and Blake charged out of cover, emerging out of the shadows in which they had been concealed to run straight at Lightning and Mercury. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Ruby and Jaune do likewise, Ruby going deliberately slow so as not to outpace Jaune – too much – as they charged. Blake didn't know whether Ruby had actually managed to call the cops, but she thought it likely that someone on this street would be calling them soon enough once the shooting started.

Mercury and Lightning Dust threw their coats aside, revealing the former's silver and black outfit and the latter's bulky dust armour system, the tubes along the exoskeleton bubbling with the yellow with her liquid namesake. They split up, Mercury dashing towards Jaune and Ruby, Lightning towards Yang and Blake. It made a sort of sense, but Blake couldn't help but think that they would have been better to have left one of their number to have held off all four of the huntsmen while the other went after Cinder.

 _Unless they're not confident in the ability of either one of them to take Cinder alone._

 _Given that she's the Fall Maiden now that might not be a terrible assumption._

Blake outpaced Yang, taking the lead as they charged towards Lightning, who ran towards them in turn with both her hands wreathed in sparking, crackling electricity. Blake threw her sheath, the whip-cord stretching out from the hilt of Gambol Shroud as the scabbard flew past Lightning Dust's ear to bury itself in one of the street lights, causing the light to spark and sputter and go out as her sheath sliced through the metal. Blake leapt, pulling herself through the air as the cord retracted, her whole body twisting in mid air as she sailed through the night straight for Lightning Dust, one foot extended for a kick.

Lightning smirked as she readied both hands to shock Blake the moment she made contact.

Her hands made contact only with a shadow clone which dissipated at the first and slightest spark while the real Blake appeared behind Lightning Dust, Gambol Shroud switching to pistol mode as she hit the streetlight feet first and used it to balance on as she snapped off five shots in quick succession into Lightning's back.

Lightning staggered, her front thrown forward and all position lost as Yang leapt up into the air and descended with a hammer blow of a punch to the top of Lightning's head that forced her to her knees, one hand pushing down on the concrete to stop her from falling flat on her belly.

Yang threw another punch. Lightning caught it in one hand moments before lightning rippled up and down her body, spreading down her arm and up Yang's arm until it completely enveloped Blake's team-mate, who jerked and twitched and burbled in shock and pain before Lightning punched her with a lightning-wreathed fist hard enough to send her flying across the street and shatter a white picket fence as she skidded across someone's garden into a gardenia bush.

Blake fired three more shots before changing position, leaving a clone behind to take the burst of lightning from Lightning's fingertips as she ran, firing as she went.

 _Rainbow Dash said that her lightning also gives her a degree of magnetism, but she has to be concentrating for it to work. I daren't risk closing the distance, but I should be able to hit her where she's not looking provided that I keep using clones to confuse her._

Another burst of lightning destroyed another of her clones before Blake fired off the remainder of her magazine, some of which hit before Lightning worked out where she was and started using her electricity to block the shots. Blake switched to a new magazine, one containing her last couple of ice dust rounds. She charged, her pistol held before her. Lightning unleashed a burst of electricity, destroying a shadow clone while Blake appeared behind her-

And got hit by another burst of lightning from Lightning's other hand which flung her backwards onto her back but which did not prevent her from squeezing off an ice dust round which froze Lightning's leg to the floor.

Which was when Yang got up out of the gardenias, her body blazing with fire. She grinned as she slammed her fists together, and then charged.

Electricity wreathed Lightning's whole body, and the tubes on her exo-suit bubbled away as she waited to receive the charge.

Yang's first punch hit Lightning so hard that the ice dust encasing her leg was shattered, which only gave her back her ability to move. It was like watching two heavy-weight boxers go at it up close and personal, little strategy or movement beyond a little dancing around each other before the two closed in, fists flying as if those where the only limbs that you could strike with. Yang was literally on fire, her semblance lending strength to her blows that only increased the more damage that she took from Lightning's electric fists; but she _was_ taking damage, and thanks to the dust that Lightning Dust was mainlining straight into her blood she was getting stronger too even as she killed herself in the process. They traded blows, standing tall and going punch for punch, pound for pound in a battle of endurance, a contest of whether Yang's semblance would give her strength she needed to win this battle or whether her aura would give way first.

It did.

Lightning Dust could not have much aura left either with the number of Yang's ferocious punches she'd been absorbing – lightning armour or not, and the ability to make Yang harm herself every time she hit her opponent had certainly been a boon for Lightning Dust – she had to be losing aura from a beating like that. If she wasn't close to the red Blake would be very surprised.

But Yang was out, and Blake watched her aura rippled across her body as her eyes closed and she began to fall backwards.

Blake rushed forward, grabbing Yang before Lightning's next blow could land, leaving a shadow clone behind as she carried her team-mate out of danger.

A scream from Mercury drew their attention.

* * *

Ruby went slow for his benefit. Jaune appreciated that. Of course, it wasn't just for his benefit but for the benefit of the seedling of a plan that they'd come up with in the ten seconds that they had to prepare for this fight, but he still appreciated it. At least she'd bothered to listen to his seedling of a plan instead of just rushing in on the strength of the fact that she was so much more awesome than he was that she didn't really need his help.

Maybe she could have beaten Mercury without him; he hadn't really thought about it. What he did know was that they were going to beat him together.

Mercury had rushed towards them at first, discarding Lightning Dust to the battle against Yang and Blake, but as they closed – or more accurately as he passed the door of the house where Cinder was hiding – he slowed up a little bit, until he looked almost casual as he slowed to a mere saunter, stopping completely just as they stopped to face him.

He smirked. "I see you've got a different girlfriend with you this time? What happened, did you break up with the old one?"

Jaune growled. "At least I can get dates."

"Oh, is that supposed to be trash talk?" Mercury scoffed. "Dude, look at me. I could get any girl I wanted _if_ I wanted. The bad boy thing-" a look of momentary anger flashed across his face as he kicked out with his left foot, shooting a missile that exploded at Ruby's feet as she tried to edge past him towards the safehouse. "Not so fast, little lady. You're not getting past me that easily." He squared up, raising his fists in a left handed stance to protect his face. "Now, are we going to talk, or am I going to kick your butt again with no tournament champion around to save you?"

Jaune charged, his shield held before him and his sword drawn back for a thrusting stroke. Mercury was still smirking as he met Jaune's charge, throwing his first out to strike Jaune's shield one, two as Jaune covered his face. Mercury lashed out with his left foot, striking Jaune's armoured ankle with enough force to drive Jaune down onto one knee. Jaune struck the concrete with the tip of his sword and let the ice dust flow from down the blade the spread out across the ground. Mercury leapt, letting out a dismissive tut-tut as he jumped aside.

Jaune swept his blade out in a wide arc, spreading the ice dust out in just such a wide arc, wider even, spreading it out across the road including the place where Mercury was just about to land.

For the first time those dark eyes looked surprised as Mercury landed upon a fresh patch of ice, skidding and slipping as he struggled to stay upright.

And that was why Ruby barrelled into him at top speed, hitting him in the gut like a crimson cannonball, leaving rosepetals behind her as she bore him backwards, shooting him in the gut as well with Crescent Rose as she used the momentum to blast her backwards.

Jaune was running to catch up with her as she swung her scythe at the descending Mercury. She caught one of his feet with her blade, but with the other he was able to kick her in the face so that they both flew backwards in opposite directions, both tossed aside with grunts of pain, both landing on their sides.

Jaune charged past Ruby, reaching Mercury just as the latter got to his feet. Jaune hit him with his shield, spinning Mercury sideways, then slashed at him with Crocea Mors, his arm and sword alike burning white as he use his semblance to add extra strength behind a blow he might not get a chance to deal again, hitting Mercury with everything he had. Mercury kept on spinning, converting the spin that Jaune had forced upon him into a spinning kick that struck Jaune on the side of the head and knocked Jaune sideways. Mercury followed up with another kick, but Jaune took it on his shield and used his semblance on that arm too so that Mercury's third kick reverberated back on him with a force that seemed to jolt his entire leg and send him staggering backwards.

He wasn't smirking any more.

Ruby leapt over Jaune's head, spinning head over heels as she descended. Mercury retreated, but Ruby shot him even as the blade of her scythe embedded in the concrete. Mercury fired back even as he was knocked back, hitting Ruby twice and throwing her back again. He landed on his hands and then leapt back onto his feet, but he was barely ready to meet Jaune's next charge.

He kicked, a high kick aimed at Jaune's face.

Jaune knocked Mercury's leg aside with his shield and as he brought up his sword he summoned the magic that Sunset imbued the ancient blade with, concentrating with all his might to draw the ethereal power forth.

As he swung, the venerable blade began to glow green with Sunset's magic.

And that magic sword sliced through Mercury's remaining aura and severed his leg.

A metallic limb hit the ground with a clank.

And Mercury screamed. He screamed as he wobbled, toppled over and hit the ground clutching the stump – also metal – where his leg had been.

"My leg!" he yelled. "You cut off my leg you bastard!"

Ruby picked up the offending severed limb. "But, if it's a robot leg, then how-"

"I have nerve receptors, how do you think I can feel what's under my feet?" Mercury demanded.

"Ooh, that's pretty cool."

"Really? Are you serious right now?"

"Well, it is."

"It was a lot cooler when it was attached to my body, I mean come on."

A crackle of lightning from the other side of the street alerted them to Lightning Dust fleeing the scene, using her semblance to leap first to the stop of a streetlight – which went out – but then to hop from light to light away from the fighting.

"Well that's just great, isn't it?" Mercury muttered, as he threw up his hands in exasperation. He looked at Ruby. "Can I surrender to you instead of him? Otherwise my pride will be as damaged as my leg."

"You surrender to both of us," Ruby said.

Mercury's face fell. "Fantastic."

* * *

Alerted by the sounds from upstairs, Sunset teleported both herself and Pyrrha up onto the rooftop balcony, where the moonlight fell down upon them both and upon Cinder and Emerald standing at the balcony's edge.

"Cinder!" Sunset shouted, aiming her gun at her even as Pyrrha, shield held before her, began to sidle to the left to approach from a different angle.

Emerald drew her guns upon them both, but Cinder didn't react. She didn't even turn to face them, she remained with her back to them both, arms clasped behind her.

"It isn't time for us yet, Sunset," she said. "Or us for that matter, Pyrrha Nikos."

Pyrrha tensed, poised to spring. Sunset's finger tightened on the trigger just a little. "Come with us, Cinder."

"And do what?" Cinder asked. "Spend my life caged in darkness?"

"You can help us," Sunset said. "You were deep in Salem's councils, you know things about her that we can only guess."

"Ah, so it's information that you want," Cinder said softly. "That…that could be arranged. I presume you don't intend to give me much of a choice."

Pyrrha stepped forward, her spear drawn back.

Cinder chuckled. "I told you, it isn't time for us yet, Pyrrha." She turned to face them both, smiling. "Do you believe in destiny?"

"Yes," Sunset said.

Cinder nodded. "And it has brought us together. Bound in one story, we three; but who is the hero, who is the villain, and who is the sacrifice? Only destiny can tell us that." She knelt, and the light of her aura died around her as she placed her hands upon the back of her head. "So do with me as you will. Destiny is all."


	167. Cinder's Tale

Cinder's Tale

"Nice set-up you have here," Cinder observed as she looked around the vault. "Being the defender has its advantages, it seems. Namely secret bases like this one."

"Like Salem doesn't have a secret base," Sunset said.

"She does, of course, but we don't get to use it to so much," Cinder replied. "Since we have to go out and do her bidding, you understand. Or should that be had to go in the past tense."

"I doubt that it particularly matters," Sunset observed. "Everyone will be paying close attention to everything that you say to me…but probably not to your use of grammar."

"Good," Cinder said. "I've never been particularly good at grammar."

Sunset snorted, and leaned back in her chair. She folded her arms. "You're not even pretending to take this seriously, are you?"

"Is there a reason why I should be taking this seriously?"

"Other than the fact that there are some people up there watching who would probably rather just kill you?"

"There are some people down here who would rather that," Rainbow growled.

Cinder ignored Rainbow Dash, her fiery eyes focussed wholly upon Sunset. "You won't let that happen."

"Because we're friends?"

"Because I trust in your honour," Cinder said. "You're trying to lift me up to your level. You won't sink down to mine. And besides…if you killed me, where would the powers of the Fall Maiden go? Straight back to Amber, and she's the one you're really worried about now, isn't it?"

Sunset sucked in her breath. It was true. The ID had come back on the bodies found in the wreckage of the Bullhead: they were not Amber or Tempest Shadow. They had survived – somehow – and were somewhere nobody knew where. "It's a little strange to hear you so readily admit that anyone but you is the one we should be worrying about."

"I don't particularly like it," Cinder said. "But I'm capable of appreciating the irony of the situation: you spent so long worrying about what I'd do if I re-united the two halves of the mantle of the Fall, you feared it so much that you brought Amber back from the brink of death and what did it get you: a traitor in your ranks, a traitor with the power to do you more lasting harm than I."

"Personally I'd rather just put a bullet between your eyes and take our chances with Amber," Rainbow said, her face set in a scowl. "She may know where this stupid relic is but she's a coward, and she's still be a coward even if she has all the magic of the Fall Maiden-"

"Will she?" Cinder said. "I wouldn't be so sure. When I cornered her…you know what they say about cornered animals. She was positively red in tooth and claw. She nearly killed Emerald. Of course, then she made a mistake and before long she was begging for her life like a wretch, but before that…I was surprised by how ferocious she could be in the final extremity."

"Maybe then," Rainbow said sceptically. "Not now. Now you're the one that worries me."

Cinder chuckled. "You flatter and gratify me," she said. "I endeavour to be feared, I'm glad to know that I've succeeded with you."

Rainbow growled. "Hey, Sunset, how about you step outside and let me ask the questions, huh?"

"No," Sunset said firmly. Cinder had been secured in the vault beneath the school, the same place where Amber had been stored before her awakening – the irony of this fact was not lost on Sunset, but it wasn't as if they had a plethora of places they could put her where she couldn't spill her secrets to the wrong ears. They couldn't imprison her in an ordinary jail where she could tell everyone and their incarcerated mother about Salem and all the rest. In all likelihood…who was Sunset kidding, once all possible information had been extracted from Cinder there was no doubt that Professor Ozpin would order her death, with the possibility that he would wait until Amber had been similarly dealt with and a new Fall Maiden would rise from the destruction of the old. At some point Cinder would die, and Sunset had as yet no idea how to prevent that.

Cinder was uncomfortably bound to an upright operating table, like the monster in an old horror movie waiting to be awakened, or the damsel in distress strapped to a baroque torture and execution device. All that was missing was the spinning blade about to descend from the ceiling. Her aura was being suppressed, and she was hooked up to an array of tubes into her veins connected to a battery of machines operated by Twilight, who stood ready to pump Cinder full of tranquilisers if it looked as if she was using or going to use her magic, or just because the interview was over.

When she wasn't being questioned Cinder would be stored in the suspended animation chamber that had once housed Amber, because the irony kept piling up tonight.

Sunset was being given a crack – the first crack, possibly all of them depending on how well she did here – at Cinder. That was good of everyone to allow her that, especially after the mistakes that she'd made lately.

She wouldn't mess this up. She couldn't afford to.

Aside from Cinder there was only Sunset, Twilight and Rainbow Dash down in the vault. Everyone else was watching via the camera feeds. It was better that way, there were fewer people for Cinder to play mind games with.

Cinder grinned. "Is this good cop, bad cop?"

"This is me being the only person who wants to give you a chance," Sunset said.

"I know," Cinder said. "It's your weakness?"

Sunset smirked. "You think that you're my weakness?"

"Wanting to give people a chance is your weakness," Cinder clarified. "You blind yourself to the faults of others until they harm you. Look at Amber."

"I don't regret my decisions with regard to Amber."

Cinder's eyes narrowed. "It wasn't you, was it?"

Sunset raised one eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"You told me that you were Ozpin's Fall Maiden candidate but that was a lie, wasn't it?" Cinder said. "Knowing what you know now there's no way that you could not regret taking the power for yourself."

"I don't know what it would have done to my-"

"You wouldn't care," Cinder said. "You'd jump in front of a train to protect your friends…which means that it was one of them that Ozpin wanted to transfer Amber's aura to. Was it Ruby?" Her grin widened. "It was Pyrrha, wasn't it? That girl gets everything – all the things that I have to work for - handed to her on a plate of gold and she doesn't even begin to appreciate it."

"It might have been either of them," Sunset said. "I don't regret preventing that."

"No matter what may befall?"

"No matter what," Sunset said. "Though the heavens fall."

Cinder nodded. "That's what I like about you, Sunset: you stand by your beliefs, you don't bend them for the sake of the opinion of the world which tells you that ought to hold certain values sacrosanct or be labelled a monster. It's one of the ways you're like me."

"Yeah, you're a real free spirit the way you go around murdering people," Rainbow said.

Cinder rolled her eyes, before turning her gaze on Twilight. "If I'm going to have to listen to moralising drivel then could you please put me under now?"

"Don't talk to her," Rainbow said, stepping between Cinder and Twilight.

"Cinder," Sunset said, deciding that it was high time to start asking the actual questions to which they needed answers. "Where's Amber?"

"How should I know?"

"Where would she go?" Sunset said.

Cinder was silent for a moment. "We were hiding in Portland Manor, on the outskirts of the city just beyond the Red Line."

Sunset glanced above her at one of the cameras embedded in the ceiling. Unless she misread them both completely, Professor Ozpin and General Ironwood had just ordered a team to this Portland place. "Right."

"Of course, if they're smart they'll have abandoned their by now," Cinder said.

"And are they smart?" Sunset said.

Cinder chuckled. "You tell me, you know Amber better than I do."

Sunset considered that briefly. How smart was Amber, really? Not particularly, was the uncharitable answer, but how much of that was her fooling them the way that she had fooled them into thinking that she wasn't a traitor? How well had they really known her at all?

"If I asked you how smart it was to go to Salem for safety what would you say?" she asked.

"Until tonight I would have said it was the wisest choice," Cinder said, with a slight trace of a sigh in her voice. "As you well know, because I advised you to do exactly that, all of you. I told you that Salem would make a place for you in her inner circle, and that you should exchange the weaker master for the one who…was certain to prevail in the end."

"And now?"

"Now?" Cinder snorted. "Now I think…she may still prevail in the end. In the end she almost certainly will, and even now…but it doesn't matter. She will always cast you aside in the end. She'll use you, and make much of you, and like a sponge she will let you soak up her favours and the powers that she grants you until you have served your purpose; then she will squeeze you and squeeze you until the sponge is bone dry and then she will cast you aside, surplus to requirements. They all do, in the end."

Sunset folded one leg on top of the other. "Not all."

Cinder shook her head. "Do you think that Ozpin won't throw you away when he's done with you, and your friends too. Your master is just as bad as my former mistress when it comes to rewarding his faithful servants: neither of them give a damn beyond what they can get from us, and the promises they make to win our fealty mean less than nothing to them."

"And what's the alternative?"

"You know what the alternative is," Cinder said. She smiled. "You must have considered it."

Sunset nodded slowly. "Once. At one time. Not recently."

"Because you trust Ozpin so much more now?"

"Because…I'm not sure that I could explain it to you," Sunset said. "Although I hope that you'll be able to understand some day." _Understand that there's a point at which you don't desire to possess the world because you already belong in the world just as it is, understand that you don't have to be alone in order to protect yourself, understand that you're not really protecting yourself at all that way you're just hurting yourself in a different way, understand that you can still protect all those you care about without labelling everyone who might hurt them a monster. I hope that you'll understand all those things some day, if I can keep you alive._ "Tell me about the Siren."

Cinder looked surprised. "You know about her?"

"You sent her onto campus, can you really be that surprised."

"I wasn't sure you'd even notice something was up with her, or if she'd worm her way into your head like all the others," Cinder replied. "Her name is Sonata Dusk, she's one of three sisters. The other two are in Salem's captivity. They were supposed to be hostages for her good behaviour…that worked out well for me didn't it?"

"It worked as well as you could expect considering that they weren't _your_ hostages."

"True," Cinder conceded. "I should reserve my disappointment for Salem, even as I reserve the right to hate Sonata." She shook her head. "I thought she was an idiot when I first met her."

"I thought Amber was a sweet girl when I met her," Sunset said. "You don't have a monopoly on bad judgements of other people's natures."

"Yes, but you have the excuse that it is your flaw – one of your flaws – to give people the benefit of the doubt," Cinder said. "I have no fault to blame but my arrogance. I couldn't conceive that this creature who gushed over tacos and babbled about fruit punch would cut the ground out from beneath my feet and usurp my place in Salem's councils."

"They have been imprisoned by Salem ever since they were defeated by one of the Maidens."

"You've been researching your magical lore."

"Who wouldn't?" Sunset asked. "They've been imprisoned since that time?"

"I think so," Cinder said. "You understand I wasn't actually there to see it myself." Her face fell. "I brought her here. My undoing and I…I asked for her to be sent to Vale to assist me."

"And I woke up Amber," Sunset said. "We have each harmed one another less than we have harmed ourselves through our own decisions. And yet…I'm glad you did."

"Because now I'm at your mercy?"

"Because now I don't have to win you away from Salem," Sunset said. "Now I just have to woo you for myself."

Cinder smiled, and it even seemed to be a sincere smile, one that reached her eyes. "You can't give up on me, can you? No matter what I do."

"To give up on you would be to give up on myself."

"Careful, Sunset," Cinder said. "Much more of that and Rainbow Dash will start to doubt your loyalties."

"I'm not worried about Rainbow Dash," Sunset said. _Not nearly as much as I'm worried about you._ "Why did you send for Sonata?"

"I sent for all the sirens at first, Salem would only give me one," Cinder said. "One turned out to be both too many and quite enough."

"Why?" Sunset repeated. "What did you want them for?"

"Because you ruined my original plan and I had to come up with a new one before Salem decided that I was a lost cause," Cinder said. "That was the beginning of the end, really. I didn't see it at the time. I thought that I had recovered sufficiently to preserve my position but now I look back…that failure was the moment at which she must have started to doubt me. That…that led to this, step by step, and though as I was walking the road it wound so that I didn't see the destination when I look back it is so straight as to be clear as day." She glanced at Rainbow and Twilight. "You two. You're the reason that I lost everything."

Rainbow smirked. "Glad I could help."

Cinder sighed. "Defeated by a bookworm and her brute bodyguard; no wonder I lost Salem's trust."

"I am not a bookworm," Twilight said, in the aggrieved tone of one who has heard that more than once. "I am well read." She hesitated. "So…you weren't there to kill me?"

"No," Cinder said. "I was there to plant a virus in the CCT. I presume you caught it."

"Of course," Twilight said. "And expunged all trace of it."

"I thought as much when I had to flee," Cinder said. "My plan had been to take control of the tournament match randomiser to arrange matches that would cause a spike in negative emotions amongst the crowd, a spike sufficient to draw in a grimm attack-"

"Supported by the Breach," Sunset said.

"Yes, ideally they would have coincided," Cinder said. "And at that point I would have taken control of the Atlesian androids and turned them against the defenders and the people of Vale."

"You really did get all traces of that virus, didn't you Twi?" Rainbow muttered.

"Yes, I triple checked, it's all gone," Twilight said. "Although anyway, you couldn't take control of the androids using a virus in the CCT because the knights are slaved to a separate network running-"

"Running through your battlenet," Cinder said. "Yes, I know. I had an idea of getting up onto one of your ships and planting the virus again when I was there…I admit I hadn't quite worked out all the details on that yet."

Rainbow said, "Do you think-"

"I'll check once we're done here," Twilight said quickly.

"And that was when you decided to start a war between Atlas and Mistral," Sunset said.

Cinder glanced at the two Atlesians again. "You people have no idea, do you? You float in the skies above and never look down to see how many people hate-"

"Oh, come on," Rainbow snapped. "I know that getting to run your mouth is the only fun you can have right now but I don't need to stand here and listen to this underdog hero crap from you! You're a murderer and a terrorist and-"

"And if you approved of my actions I'd be a freedom fighter," Cinder said.

"There's nothing in your actions to approve," Twilight said sternly. "You kill people."

"And Atlas doesn't kill people?" Cinder demanded. "It's own people? You can stick their pictures up on your memorial but it doesn't change the fact that Atlas sends it own sons and daughters to their deaths by the multitude."

"If you want to view it that way then why stop at Atlas," Sunset murmured.

"Indeed, why stop at Atlas," Cinder said. "Why do you think I wanted to pull this whole world down and dance upon its ashes?"

"Because you're nuts," Rainbow said.

"Because I understand that you need to tear down the old before you can build something better in its place."

"You've never struck me as someone who cared very much about building," Sunset said.

"I want to rule," Cinder said. "I wanted to rule. I was promised power. I didn't want to be a tyrant over bones and dust if that's what you thought. We both know that that wouldn't be very satisfying. Power is not power if it isn't recognised, acclaimed, feared. What is the point of being a queen if all do not love you and despair. You understand that, don't you?"

Sunset kept her emotions off her face, or tried to, even though she understood perfectly well: the vision that she had seen in the mirror so long ago, an alicorn that burned like fire, burning with a terrible beauty, aflame with a dark glory. _I see someone who could rule all of Equestria._ And yet she would have been a terrible ruler, one who thought only of herself and what the ponies over whom she ruled could do for her, not the other way around. "I understand that a ruler puts the needs of her people first."

"If that is so then there are no true rulers left in Remnant," Cinder said. "In all the councils of the four kingdoms you won't find a single person who believes in selfless service."

"You're wrong," Twilight said.

Cinder chuckled. "Mistral has raised an army and sent a fleet to Vale, provoking a war that no one wants, a war that will harm the kingdom, possibly even destroy it, because it's easier than telling the common people the truth about Mistral's place in the world. Does that seem like good government to you?"

"The foolishness of Mistral doesn't prove a universal point," Sunset said. "When did you decide to try and start a war between Atlas and Mistral over the skies of Vale?"

"Oh, are we back to business?" Cinder asked. "That came later. After you unmasked me and chased me out of Beacon my initial idea was to provoke anti-Atlesian sentiment within Vale itself. That was why I moved up the timetable for the Breach, and why I encouraged you to come to Mountain Glenn; I knew – or at least I hoped – that Team Rosepetal would come with you, and I thought that the Breach and the Atlesian response that it provoked could be made to appear to be an Atlesian false flag operation to increase their control and influence over Vale. Of course the local nationalists proved to be a rather disappointing bunch but I was very gratified when Mistral took the bait and sent their fleet here. That was why I asked Salem to release one of the sirens to me: I wanted to use her song to stoke up anti-Atlesian sentiment in the streets. I think that's worked rather well, don't you?"

"Too well," Sunset said. "What were you about to tell me before Doctor Watts interrupted our call?"

Cinder was silent for a moment. "I have evidence of two pieces of Atlesian…misbehaviour; I was going to give them to you but now Sonata has them. My plan was to release them at intervals during the latter stages of the tournament; whether she will do that I don't know."

"Misbehaviour?"

"Your robot friend Penny, for one," Cinder said.

"That's not misbehaviour," Rainbow said.

"You've given a robot aura and disguised it as an innocent little girl," Cinder said. "Some people might ask why you felt the need to do that. I don't think the grimm can tell the difference."

"Penny doesn't just have aura," Twilight said. "She has a soul."

"I'm sure that everyone who sees the footage of her ripped limb from limb but still alive will agree with you," Cinder said. "And they won't find it in the least bit disturbing, no, not at all; they won't wonder at the sinister motives that might have led you to create a wind-up doll that can pass for human-"

"Don't," Sunset said firmly.

Cinder scoffed. "Personal insults are out of bounds? Is that where you draw the line?"

"Penny is Ruby's friend, and Pyrrha's too for that matter," Sunset said. "She's one of us. I told you once that I wouldn't stand for you attacking my team in my presence. We have to have some limits, don't we? Like you said, I stick to my principles."

Cinder stared into Sunset's eyes for a moment. "Yes, you certainly do. Very well, but you have to admit that there are a whole array of concerns around what you've done in bringing someone like Penny into the world and you know that some people would have a problem with it or you wouldn't be trying to keep what she is a secret."

"What Penny is is a soldier of Atlas and a huntress," Rainbow said. "Nothing more and nothing less."

"And I'm sure that the rest of the world will agree," Cinder said dryly. "Just as I'm sure that the rest of the world will agree that there was in the least suspicious about those experiments you were conducting to control the grimm."

Rainbow and Twilight both made noises as if they were about to choke on something.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Cinder said. "Was that an especially secret secret?"

Sunset looked at the pair of them, "What's she talking about?"

"It's not as bad as it sounds," Twilight said.

"It's exactly what it sounds like," Cinder said.

"It's just that our friend Fluttershy, well, her semblance lets her communicate with animals," Twilight said, speaking very quickly. "And I mentioned this in the lab one day because I talk about my friends all the time and all the great times we have together, and because I mentioned this somebody heard it and I guess they must have thought that the grimm were basically animals because the next thing some people were knocking on Fluttershy's door and they asked her to come with them and be a part of these experiments and it's not as if we were going to use them to attack anybody or anything!"

"I'm sure that your motives were completely benign," Cinder said. "And everyone else will agree. Absolutely. You've got nothing to worry about when the footage gets out."

Sunset rubbed the space between her eyes. "You…you really tried to…for such smart people…" _Mind you, look who's talking._ Cinder was absolutely right, of course; as noble as the motives of Atlas might have been there was absolutely no way that everyone would accept that they hadn't at least considered weaponising the grimm. "And there is proof of this? Proof that you had?"

"The recordings of the experiments," Cinder said.

"Those experiments never worked," Twilight said. "Fluttershy couldn't communicate with the grimm sufficiently well to get them to do as she said."

"Of course not," Cinder said. "The grimm aren't just animals, they're expressions and incarnations of a primal hatred, driven by an unquenchable urge to destroy all human life. You can't reason with something like that, you can't ask it nicely to please stop attacking you."

"If the footage shows a lot of failed experiments then what were you planning to do?"

"Even the fact that they were trying is damning enough, don't you think?" Cinder asked.

Sunset shrugged. "But you were going to combine the release with a grimm attack and allow people to think that Atlas had launched an attack on Vale, weren't you?"

Cinder smiled. "I was going to let them wonder if all the grimm attacks were not the work of Atlas. I think that might still be the plan; after all, isn't it true that the Mistralians were hit much worse than the Atlesians tonight? Some people might wonder why that is."

 _Sweet Celestia._

"This city is a powder keg of emotions," Cinder said. "It won't take much to bring it to boiling point."

"And what about all the lives you've put at risk," Sunset said. "How can you…how can you be so callous about all the suffering that you were about to cause, that might still come to pass. I understand the desire for glory, I understand the desire for power, I understand that you wanted the world and all its treasures but at such cost? What made you this way that you were willing to wade through an ocean of blood to get what you wanted?"

"You know what made me this way," Cinder said. "You know exactly how I became like this."

Sunset shook her head. "I only know half the story. The first half. I want to know everything. I want to know how you become headhunted by the Mistress of All Evil, I want to know…I want to know your story. How did you become this?"

"What made you the way you are?" Cinder asked.

"Excuse me?"

"We're alike," Cinder said. "And yet…we're not. You want to know my story, you want me to bare my soul for the benefit of Professor Ozpin and the cameras up there…I think I deserve to hear something from you in return." She smirked. "Besides, I've been doing most of the talking so far. My throat needs a rest."

Sunset glanced at Rainbow and Twilight; the latter looked curious, the former looked unconcerned. They had gotten all the most immediately pertinent information out of Cinder already; Sunset's question had been as much about satisfying her own curiosity as it had been about gaining valuable intelligence – although if they could find out how Salem recruited her agents they might be able to shut off the supply – so…was there anything to fear from a digression? If she refused then Cinder might simply refuse in turn, and clam up.

There was no way that Cinder could use it against her, or against Equestria since Sunset meant to obfuscate the details. She would keep it vague, while retaining the salient points that interested Cinder the most.

"Once upon a time," Sunset said. "There was a princess who lived in a shining castle in the heart of a shining city upon the side of a mountain. The princess was old, and for centuries she had ruled over her people wisely and well, for she had added the wisdom of years to the wisdom with which fate had blessed and bestowed upon her. But, though she was wise and kind and gentle, the princess was lonely for…once you allow yourself to be placed upon a pedestal you become removed from all those who put you there in the first place; and because she had no companion to share the long labour of her years with her.

"But the princess found joy in teaching, and in particular from training successive generations of young prodigies whom she took as her personal students and apprentices, training them in magic and in all the cherished virtues of the world. She taught them all she could, and when she was satisfied that they had learned all they could from her she sent them out into the world to share their gifts with all her people, sacrificing her own happiness and the joy she took in their presence for the sake of those she ruled whose lives might be improved by the presence of these gifted individuals whom she had nurtured for greatness.

"One of her students was a young m- a young girl who had no family, who came from nowhere, who had nowhere to belong except in the palace with her princess, for she had no one to care for her but the princess herself."

"Everybody comes from somewhere," Cinder said. "Everyone has someone at some point, even if they leave."

Sunset shook her head. "I suppose…but I don't remember. My earliest memories are of the palace, and of her. I never asked about my origins, and she never told me. As far as I was concerned the Princess was my mother and I…I was her child. That was all I needed to know. She taught me magic, she taught me so much about the world…but she disappointed in her heart because I could not learn, had no interest in learning, the most powerful magic of all. The magic of friendship."

Cinder snorted.

Sunset sighed. "I should have seen that coming."

"The magic of friendship," Cinder repeated. "I…I honestly don't know where to start. With the twee phrasing, perhaps."

"It's not just a way of saying that I didn't have any friends," Sunset insisted. "Although that is true. Where I come from the magic of friendship is not just a metaphor, although it is that too, it…it's a real thing. I think."

"You think?"

"I never saw it myself," Sunset admitted. "But the Princess insisted that it was real."

"Are you sure that she wasn't just looking for an excuse to get rid of you?"

"Yes!" Sunset snapped. "I saw…she tried so many times to make me understand, but I couldn't. I was like you: sceptical, dismissive. My heart was hard and cold and there was only room in it for the Princess herself; she had spoiled me, made me arrogant, impatient, dismissive, entitled. I didn't care how alone I was, all I wanted was to be the best and to be recognised as being the best. She was so patient with me. More patient than I deserved. She showed me a mirror, a magical mirror that…I don't quite understand all that it does or did. I looked into it and I saw…" she laughed at her own vanity. "A beautiful girl with nothing but power and potential. And then…then I saw something else. I saw myself ascended, great, powerful, someone who could rule."

"You saw your future," Cinder murmured. "Your destiny."

"I thought that's what I saw," Sunset said. "It obsessed me, consumed me, I had to know more, I searched through every book, I pestered the Princess about it constantly until she was sick of my importuning…I let it poison the love between us, and I let distrust and fear grow in its place. I exhausted all her patience. She confronted me with all my faults and flaws, told me that she had been mistaken to think that I could ever fulfil the plans that she had had for me…she told me it was time for me to go. To leave the only home that I'd ever known, to leave the only person in the whole world who had ever loved me. That…that was when I realised just what I'd done, what a mistaken I'd made…but my pride wouldn't allow me to accept that it was a mistake. I ran. I ran and ran and I ran all the way to this world, telling myself that she had never loved me, that love was just a lie, that I didn't need anybody but myself, that I would fulfil the destiny the mirror had promised one way or another. I ran and ran until I came to Atlas."

"And yet you allowed yourself to be turned away from destiny," Cinder said. "You forsook it, after all your struggle and all that you had sacrificed."

"Because I found what really mattered," Sunset said. "Because I finally understood what my Princess had been trying to explain to me all along."

"But the mirror," Cinder insisted. "The vision."

"An illusion," Sunset said. "A lie, a dream, it…it led me astray, it blinded me, it drove a wedge between me and my mother. Rainbow and Twilight will tell you what a terrible person I was at Canterlot because this false dream of destiny had filled my head so full of crap that I couldn't look at other people as anything more than, than insects."

"She's right," Rainbow said. "She was unbearable."

Twilight didn't say anything, but it was clear that she agreed.

"I couldn't obey, I couldn't serve, I couldn't accept that being a faunus put me at a disadvantage from the start. I couldn't settle to be anything less than acknowledged the greatest of all and when I didn't get that acknowledgement I let the resentment of that fact fester in me. That vision brought me no good at all. None. It's an illusion, like all the promises of power and glory spun before our eyes."

"And yet you still believe in destiny," Cinder said.

"I do," Sunset said. "But I believe that the destiny isn't always the one you want when you set out."

Cinder smirked. "Is it the one that you need?"

"I prefer to think that…it's the one you didn't know you wanted; not the goal you set out in search of but the one that your heart wished for."

"You're very sentimental, aren't you?"

"I come from a sentimental place."

Cinder nodded. "The place…the place that…"

"Yes," Sunset said. "That place."

Cinder was silent a moment. "You'll have to tell me more about it some day. When we're not being observed so closely."

"I will," Sunset said. "Some day."

"You went to Canterlot," Cinder said. "But you weren't happy there."

"No."

"Do you think…do you think that if Salem had found you then…you would have chosen her service, as I did?"

Sunset did not reply immediately. It was a hard question, and an awkward one besides, one that she had not consciously considered but which, once it was asked of her, she realised that it had been bubbling away in her subconscious for some time. Would she? Would she had joined Salem if the opportunity had been offered before she had come to Beacon and met her team-mates? _I was not completely without bonds. I loved Flash. And I hated him at the same time. Which would have won out?_ "I don't know," she whispered.

"Neither do I," Cinder said. "But I think she'll regret not seeking you out, if she doesn't already."

"How did she seek you out?" Sunset asked. "How does one enter the service of the elusive Salem?"

"Ah, so we're onto my story now."

"Haven't we reached the end of mine?" Sunset said. "You know the rest. I left Canterlot under a cloud, but arrived at Beacon and lucked into the best team in the school…and started to learn how to be a good person in the process. What is there left to say?"

"Only what they have to offer that the destiny you sought does not?"

"They make me feel whole in a way that seeking glory never did," Sunset said. "You've felt it too, haven't you? The hollowness inside."

"That's because I'm a monster."

"It's because your heart has many empty rooms and you're not letting anybody use them," Sunset said. "Cinder, believe me, you're walking my road a dozen steps behind me, betrayed by your mentor, all alone-"

"I'm not alone," Cinder said. "I've got you."

Sunset nodded. "Yes," she said softly. "You've got me."

Cinder pursed her lips together. "I will not tell you my name. Or rather I will not tell them my name."

"Why not?"

"Because they'd use it," Cinder growled. "I am Cinder Fall. I am only Cinder Fall. There is no one else."

"There was someone else, once."

"Once," Cinder agreed. "But she died a long time ago."

"She might be reborn."

"You might be able to save Cinder Fall," Cinder said. "But you can never bring that other girl back from the dead."

"Very well then," Sunset said. "No name."

Cinder wriggled on the table, in an apparently futile search for a more comfortable position. She smirked. "I was born a poor faunus child-"

"Cinder," Sunset said.

"You're no fun at all," Cinder said. "I was born in Argus; my father was a gentleman and my mother was an Atlesian combat pilot, who was killed in action when I was a girl. And that is what I mean when I saw that Atlas is a bigger killer than I could ever be. What did my mother die for? What do any of them die for? A flag? For the glory of Atlas?"

"To keep others safe," Rainbow said. "To protect those who can't protect themselves. Like your mom died to protect you, and this is how you honour her?"

"My mother died because she was an idiot!" Cinder snarled. "Because she was a fool who believed in empty words like honour and duty and putting others before herself."

"Your mom sounds like she was a fine woman," Rainbow said. "Someone who understood-"

"Understood what? What did she understand so well that she had to leave her family behind?"

"Sacrifice," Rainbow said.

Cinder snorted. "If sacrifice is so noble then why didn't you let Twilight sacrifice herself for the glory of Atlas up in that tower?"

"Because what kind of a stupid question is that?"

"Don't lecture me on the necessity of sacrifice while you value the lives of the people you care about."

"That…" Rainbow sputtered for a moment. "That's just…do you ever hear yourself?"

"You're right," Twilight said softly. "It's easy to talk…and if Rainbow Dash or any of my friends or my brother had to give their lives for Atlas then…I'd hate it. If I lost any of them then I don't know what I'd do. But I wouldn't blame Atlas and I wouldn't honour their memories by turning my back on everything they stood for when they were alive."

"Maybe if I had killed you then your friends might understand because right now they've clearly been too cosseted and coddled to comprehend," Cinder said. "My mother's death broke my father. He was a kind man, but she had been the lodestar of his life and without her…he just didn't know what to do. He didn't know how to be a good father to me, or he thought that he didn't. I was happy, but he worried about me. He thought I needed a mother's care. And so we moved back to Mistral, where he married again, choosing for his second wife a widow of good family with two daughters just my age."

"Phoebe and Philonoe," Sunset said.

Cinder nodded. "Just so. It was…it was upon my father's death that my stepmother's true nature was revealed. Cold, cruel…I would like to say that she was jealous of me but the truth is…the truth is that there was little enough to be jealous of. I was not so far as either of her daughters and yet…I hated her. I hate her still and yet I admire her all the same. She was the kind of person who makes her way in this world: a person devoid of illusions about love, friendship, romance, all the things that blind the eyes and conceal from us just how cold and hostile the world truly is. I look back and I sometimes wonder if she was trying to teach me how to survive in the real world. In some ways you could even say that she succeeded. But it didn't stop me hating her, and it didn't stop me burning down the house with her and Philonoe inside. I listened to them screaming. I listened to them trying to escape, but I'd locked all the doors and windows; they shouldn't have given me access to all the keys. I listened to them scream and it felt so…not only good but just. This was what they deserved, this was what they had earned through their own actions. That was what I wanted to achieve, that was what I wanted to do with my life: I wanted to become a fury, to pay the sins of the world back upon the world, upon the corrupt kingdoms and the rulers whose money and power protected them from punishment for their transgressions. That was why I couldn't settled for a place in any of the underworld gangs, that was why I couldn't be content impersonating a member of Mistral high society. That was why…I needed the power that Salem could grant me."

"Yes," Sunset said. "Let's talk about that. How do you become a member of Salem's circle?"

"How did you become a member of Ozpin's circle?"

"I went to his school and fell under his eye," Sunset said. "Did Professor Lionheart recruit you for his cause?"

"For the sake of our friendship I'm going to pretend that you didn't just ask me that," Cinder said. "I am not a disciple of Leonardo Lionheart. Lionheart works for me, worked for me. I was his contact with Salem, not the other way around. He is…a useful servant to Salem, but not one of the inner circle."

"What does he do?"

"He gets huntsman killed," Cinder said bluntly. "If you check the records you'll see an unusually high rate of mortality amongst Mistralian huntsmen, much greater than for equivalent missions in any other kingdom. All Lionheart's doing. What he doesn't do is recruit agents for the cause; he doesn't have the courage to risk exposing himself like that to someone who might not look favourably upon his offer."

"Then how did you reach Salem?" Sunset asked, leaning forward in her seat.

"You've done some research on the early maidens," Cinder said. "So you must know the story of the first Red Queen and how she acquired the power of the Spring Maiden."

"The Dark Mother – Salem, I presume – came to her and promised her power," Sunset said.

"That's a version of the story," Cinder said. "In Mistral we also tell another version of the tale, in which it was the bandit chieftainess who sought out the Dark Mother, by going into a certain cave of ill-omen in search of the power to protect her clan from the power of Mistral. And to this day, so it is said, if you are in desperate need of strength you may seek out the Mother's Cave and submit yourself to her judgement, and she will judge you worthy of her blessing…or not."

"So you chased a folk legend."

"Did I have much choice?" Cinder asked. "Like you I was all alone, with nothing to sustain me by my will…and my belief in myself and in my own fate. Where else could I turn but the legendary benefactor of the outcasts of the world? Yes, I sought out a legend. I wandered into the wilds with only a bow and a pair of swords to my name. My father had taught me how to use them, but I didn't really understand what it was like to fight for my life until I found myself in the wilds of anima, prey to the grimm who seemed to drawn to me. They were drawn to me, and to my negative thoughts of vengeance and retribution. But I survived, I slew them all and every bandit too who sought to waylay me upon the road. Though I had nothing and the world was against me I survived. I think even that must be one of Salem's tests: before you can prove yourself worthy of her service you must first prove yourself worthy to survive in dark places where there is no help."

"How did you find this cave?"

"I went to a library, I read a few books on the old tales," Cinder said. "Most of the commonly theorised locations are mere tourist traps now, places where the credulous pay money to enter a spooky cave and get scared by their own shadows." Her voice was filled with derision. "Why don't you ask Jaune if he's ever visited one of them, he seems like the sort of fool they cater to."

"Cinder."

"You have to allow me to have a little fun, Sunset."

Sunset looked at her.

Cinder rolled her eyes. "Fine, fine. Obviously I didn't find Salem in any of those places."

"So where did you find her?"

Cinder hesitated. "I…I don't remember."

"Oh, come on," Rainbow said.

"I…It was like a dream," Cinder said. "I'd almost given up hope, I'd been wandering for so long, finding nothing…my clothes were torn to rags, I hadn't eaten in three days and the last time I ate before that was when I was lucky enough to shoot a deer I happened upon by chance; I'm not sure that I cooked it very well. I drank stale, brackish water from any hole in the ground I came to. I was cold and tired and disoriented. I was lost. I didn't know where I was any more and I'd lost my map along with my satchel of supplies crossing a river. I thought I could hear the grimm gathering around me. I think back to that night and I'd swear that I could hear them, even see their eyes gleaming in the darkness. I collapsed. I thought…I thought I would certainly die out there, and that everything had come to nothing.

"But then I heard…I heard a voice calling to me. I couldn't work out what it was saying but I could hear it calling and I knew that I had to answer. It's like a blur in my memory. I walked, and it was as though the grimm were walking with me, following me…guarding me. Keeping me safe along the way. They brought me to the cave but I don't remember exactly how I got there, even if I remembered where in Anima I was when it happened."

"And when you got to the cave," Sunset said. "What then?"

"Trials of heart, mind and body," Cinder said. "I had to fight an ursa major, that was the test of body, obviously. And then, as I descended deeper into the cave, I came to an ancient gate of stone which could only be opened by completing a puzzle…I don't remember the details, something about keys with symbols on them, or something, but I passed and that was the test of mind. And then I kept on going down, down and down into the dark as the air heated up around me and it seemed as though I might walk all the way into the underworld. And then I came to an underground river, where a boat was waiting for me. A little wooden boat, a rowing boat but without oars."

"That does sound like the underworld," Twilight murmured.

"Indeed, but there was no boatman waiting to charge me for a trip," Cinder said. "Instead, there was only a knife."

"A knife?" Sunset repeated. Her eyes widened. "You didn't-"

"A test of heart," Cinder said. "Sacrifice, as our Atlesian friends would understand it. I got into the boat, I picked up the knife, and although my hands trembled and my spirit quailed I drove that dagger through my own heart. And when I awoke I was in Salem's palace, and the Dark Mother I had sought was smiling down on me and asking me why I had come."

"And what did you say?"

"I want to be strong," Cinder said, and it was clearly a memory etched into her mind, one of those memories that would never fade though she lived a hundred years or more. "I want to be feared. I want to be powerful."

"But at what cost?" Sunset said.

"I was willing to pay the cost," Cinder said. "Any cost. I sacrificed my body and my soul for Salem and she…she couldn't even show me a little patience through some minor setbacks."

Sunset's brow furrowed. Though Cinder's cause had been one of the worst causes for which it was possible to fight…it could not be denied that she had suffered for it, and Sunset couldn't fail to respect that dedication, and share Cinder's anger at Salem's failure to return that devotion in kind.

"Why?" Cinder asked. "Why…why did you join Ozpin? How could you trust him after what happened to you? You'd already been betrayed once already, so why would you enlist under another ancient, twisted creature waging war through their young proxies, using us as pawns in their games."

"Just because Salem used you callously doesn't mean that my princess was the same."

"She betrayed you, didn't she?"

"Yes," Sunset said, and she was both surprised and not to discover that even now, even after everything that had happened since, it still rankled with her, what had happened between her and Celestia, in the same way that she still feared a personal confrontation with her old mentor. "Yes, she did. But I deserved it. I was spoiled, selfish and unkind. I deserved to be betrayed and…"

Cinder smiled, a smile touched with melancholy like a rose touched by a sudden frost. "And so did I."


	168. Lifting the Cloak of Secrecy (A Bit)

Lifting the Cloak of Secrecy (A Bit)

When Sunset and the others – Twilight having sedated Cinder before Sunset and Rainbow got her into the stasis pod – reached Professor Ozpin's office in the elevator they were hit as soon as the doors opened by the sound of argument between Professor Ozpin and General Ironwood.

"I don't understand what you were thinking, James; if you were thinking at all. Experimenting on the grimm? That way lies Merlot's madness."

"I'm not Merlot," General Ironwood said firmly, with a hint of outrage creeping into his voice. "We weren't trying to create monsters, only to control them."

"They can't be controlled, they are altogether evil."

"I had to try," General Ironwood replied. "Apart from anything else I would have had to explain why I wasn't willing to at least pursue it."

"You could have refused to pursue it on the grounds that it was a bad idea."

"We didn't know it was a bad idea without trying," Ironwood said. "If it had worked then it would reduced or maybe even eliminated the grimm as a threat."

"It was a foolish experiment that put an innocent girl into the middle of this war."

"What do we do but put innocent children into the middle of this war?" Ironwood snapped. "What makes Fluttershy more deserving to be protected from the world than Ruby, or Rainbow Dash, or anyone else? A judgement on their temperaments? Is that the kind of hair-splitting we're doing now?" General Ironwood sighed, and leaned on Ozpin's desk with both fists. "I've sent men and women and children out to die for Atlas, for Remnant and for you but that doesn't for one moment mean that I enjoy the experience."

"Neither do I," Professor Ozpin replied, his voice brittle like cracked glass. "But it must be done?"

"Must it?" General Ironwood asked, with genuine curiosity in his voice. "Damn you, but you're probably right. Atlas has invested billions of lien in androids to replace humans, but they're barely replacements for a soldiers, let alone a huntsman. I thought that Penny would be the key to replacing humans on the battlefield…but all I ended up doing was creating a different kind of person with a different kind of life that has to be hazarded upon the battlefield. I thought I saw a way to lessen the risk to our brave people, and so I took it. Was that so wrong of me, Oz? Should I really have shrugged my shoulders and continued sending people out to fight and die without wondering if another way could be found?"

Professor Ozpin regarded him over the tops of his spectacles. "You have a good heart, James; and it has always been in the right place. But I fear that sometimes you allow it to overrule your head. This may be one of those occasions. Miss Fall is quite correct: this will look very bad if it should come out." He looked away from them, at the three huntresses who had just come up in the elevator. "Thank you, all of you, for your assistance down there. That was altogether very enlightening."

"Thank you, Professor," Sunset said softly. She hesitated, but could not fail to go on. "Professor, what are you going to do to her?"

"Nothing," Professor Ozpin said. "Until the situation with Amber is dealt with. Concentrating the full power of the Fall Maiden in Amber would be as dangerous now as it would have been to allow it to be concentrated in Miss Fall. At present it serves us to keep the two halves of the mantle split."

"So, how do we find Amber?" Ruby asked. She and the rest of the two teams – minus the injured Ciel – were standing off to one side, looking a little awkward as they were forced to bear witness to the quarrel between their two chiefs, but now Ruby raised her hand to ask the question.

"I've delegated that task to Winter Schnee," General Ironwood said. "You've all done enough for now."

"But we want to help-"

"You have helped, Miss Rose, enormously," Professor Ozpin said. "Thanks to you we now have Cinder Fall in our custody, along with two of her three subordinates or former subordinates in the case of Mister Black. You've had a very busy night, you should get some rest before the tournament resumes."

"We're still doing the tournament?" Sunset asked, unable to keep the incredulity out of her voice. It seemed a very small thing now, insubstantial and without consequence compared to the events of the night. Perhaps it was just her weariness – she was tired, and to be honest when Professor Ozpin had told them to get some rest she was not inclined to argue the point – but she was having a hard time mustering much enthusiasm for the two by two round at this point.

"How can we do otherwise?" Professor Ozpin said. "We have no grounds to cancel it – none that we can publicly admit in any case – and the Council would never approve such a decision. Nor can we simply withdraw your teams from contention, such an unusual event would draw attention and, in the cases of Miss Nikos and Miss Polendina, political pressure."

"Plus, it has to be said that…in spite of what's happened with Amber we're not entirely worse off than we were when the tournament began," General Ironwood said. "We have Cinder Fall, we have two of her henchmen, and while Amber eludes us for now…the enemy that has bedevilled us for two long is a prisoner. I'd say that's a win. And a win we can announce to the public, what's more. Hopefully that will exert a calming influence upon the public."

"Perhaps, although Miss Fall's actions are not so infamous that news of her arrest will produce an outpouring of jubilation," Professor Ozpin observed mildly. "But you are correct: tonight is a victory, at least a partial one. You should appreciate it."

"Sapphire can appreciate it," Rainbow said. "Rosepetal got its butt kicked."

"So we're stood down until further notice?" Sunset said.

"Our search for Amber is ongoing, but without more information as to her likely whereabouts we are very much groping in the darkness," Professor Ozpin said. "If they are still at Portland Manor I will be astonished at the folly on display."

Sunset couldn't argue with that. As much as she might want to feel as though she was doing something by getting out and joining the search for Amber – and judging by the looks on their faces her team felt the exact same way – what could they actually do? Wander the streets? It wasn't as if there was a lot to go on, and judging by what she'd done to RSPT Tempest wasn't the kind of enemy they wanted to encounter unprepared.

 _And besides, if they won't kill Cinder until they've dealt with Amber then maybe I should root for a long delay._

"Professor," she said. "About what's going to happen to Cinder after-"

"I'm sure that you want to make a plea for her life, Miss Shimmer," Professor Ozpin said. "And I may even entertain it. But not at this time. It is too far ahead, and requires more consideration than I can give it."

 _That was more polite than telling me that the last time he listened to one of my suggestions it led to all of this mess, but that doesn't mean it helps. I can only hope that when the time comes to actually consider it his passions have had a little time to cool._

"Yes, Professor," she said. "Thank you." She didn't look at any of her team-mates; she could only imagine how sceptical they were of her desire to save Cinder's life. They didn't understand and she wasn't sure that she could make them; you had to have needed a second chance yourself to understand why it was important to give them.

Professor Ozpin nodded curtly. "The issue we must consider now is what to do about the information that the enemy possesses, regarding Miss Polendina and about Atlas' ill-advised experiments."

"Pardon me, Professor," Pyrrha said, and like Ruby she raised her hand as though they were in class. "But…might all of this information be less damaging if it came from Atlas itself?"

General Ironwood looked at her. "You're suggesting that we go public with this, Miss Nikos?"

"I'm suggesting that perhaps, if you told Commander Yeoh about Penny and about the experiments, then even if the enemy releases the information it won't be a hostile surprise for her," Pyrrha said. "And hopefully she can manage the response from the Mistralians."

"And how do you think she would react to this information?"

"I believe that the commander is a patriot, but not a zealot," Pyrrha said. "I think that she'd understand what was really going on, and try to mitigate any…manipulation of the public that might result from this coming out…less favourably."

The two men looked at one another. "Since it cannot be kept secret," Professor Ozpin said. "There is something to be said for controlling the revelation."

General Ironwood hesitated for a moment. "Very well," he said. "Miss Nikos, does Commander Yeoh trust you?"

"I…I think so," Pyrrha said, sounding as though she didn't completely understand the question.

"Will you ask her to come here," General Ironwood said. "And if you remain for the meeting it may help to…prove that we had only good intentions. I know that it's a lot to ask but-"

"I understand, general," Pyrrha said. "And whatever I can do to help, I will."

"Thank you, Miss Nikos," Professor Ozpin said. "Thank you all for your efforts tonight, successful or otherwise. That will be all."

Sunset bowed her head as everyone – except Pyrrha – started to make their way towards the elevators. "Yes, Professor. Professor…about Amber-"

"That will be all, Miss Shimmer," Professor Ozpin said, in a tone that brooked no further discussion.

Sunset nodded a second time. "Yes, Professor."

* * *

Pyrrha would have been lying if she had said that Commander Yeoh did not look troubled by what she had just heard, but nevertheless she did not react at first to all of General Ironwood's revelations with anything but her face. She did not explode, she did not storm out, she didn't even seem particularly frightened. Pyrrha hoped that these were all good signs.

"This is quite a story that you have spun for me, gentlemen," she said. "I can see why you feared that your motives might be misconstrued."

"What is your opinion on our motives, commander?" General Ironwood said.

Commander Yeoh clasped her hands behind her back. "Where it not for Miss Nikos I might have my doubts; the fact that you are only revealing all of this to me because you think you are in danger of being exposed does not endear either of you to me…but Miss Nikos says that you are honourable men, and I am inclined to trust her judgement somewhat."

"Somewhat?" Professor Ozpin said.

"You built a robot with aura, with a soul," Commander Yeoh said. "Leaving aside the ethical implications…you entered her into this tournament so that you could win it. That doesn't strike you as somewhat cheating, general? To pitch the prowess of your Research and Development department against children still in training?"

"With respect, Commander," Pyrrha said tentatively. "I think that you're…" she searched for a way to say this that conveyed her point without speaking ill against a friend. "Penny isn't some kind of invincible superweapon. She's a huntress, like any of us, and like the rest of us she is still learning. You're making it sound like a much more one-sided affair than it really is."

Commander Yeoh looked at her with one eyebrow slightly raised. "Is that your pride as a warrior talking, or your friendship?"

"Neither," Pyrrha said. "It's my honest opinion."

"I see," Commander Yeoh murmured. "You realise that, having told me this, you must also tell the world. Even if I were willing to keep your secrets it would not help you when those secrets came out, save to make me look complicit."

"I understand," General Ironwood said. "I'll hold a press conference tomorrow and get it all out in the open. I just wanted, or at least I hoped, to secure your support first."

Commander Yeoh nodded. "Of course. You want me to calm the waters in Mistral."

"Will you?"

Commander Yeoh was silent for a moment. "I do not blame you for attempting to manipulate the creatures of grimm," she said. "If I had that power – if I had a means by which it seemed I could obtain that power – I would be tempted to use it also. In fact, I will go so far as to say I'm sorry that it did not work, for the good of all of Remnant. But when it comes to this robot-"

"Penny," Pyrrha said. "Her name is Penny Polendina."

Commander Yeoh continued as though she had not spoken. "Those who already suspect it – her – of being involved in the Breach will only have their suspicions intensified."

"There isn't an off-switch on Penny's moral compass," General Ironwood said. "And we didn't build a way of taking direct control into her mind either. Penny is both as independent as any person and as capable of sound moral judgements."

"Nevertheless, it will be said," Commander Yeoh replied. "Even with my help you must both recognise that you will not be able to ride out this storm without generating at least some hostility."

"Of course," Professor Ozpin said, with a dispirited weariness. "People will think what they like, and there will always be some who are tempted to think ill. My main hope is that we may reduce that number from what it could have been, and keep the ensuing negative emotion to a minimum if possible."

Commander Yeoh said, "I understand. I too have no desire to inflame tensions between our countries when they are more than high enough already. I will do what I can to mitigate the effects of these revelations."

"I'm glad to hear it," General Ironwood said.

"But I must insist upon your robot being withdrawn from the tournament," Commander Yeoh said. "You will make clear that it – her – participation was a mistake which you regret, and that her human team-mates will be moving forward without her."

"What?" General Ironwood said. "That's outrageous, there is no grounds for-"

"There may be nothing in the rules that say you cannot enter a robot," Commander Yeoh said. "But – aside from the fact that these rules simply didn't anticipate the possibility – we are not talking of reasonable grounds but of practicalities. I think that disqualifying the robot will do a great deal to mollify those outraged by having her entered in the first place, and a concession that I can win from you will play very well back in Mistral."

 _Or is it that you just want to make a Mistralian victory more likely by eliminating a threatening Atlesian competitor?_ Pyrrha wondered, and could not help but wonder for all that by the wondering she cast aspersions upon Commander Yeoh's motives. Everything the commander said made sense and yet Pyrrha could not help but disagree with her. "Commander, please," she said. "It's Penny's dream to compete in the tournament. I ask you not to take it away from her out of…please don't take it away from her."

"Her dreams are of less importance than managing this situation, Miss Nikos," Commander Yeoh said. "As she will recognise herself if she is really so close to human."

Pyrrha frowned, but said nothing more. It was clear that Commander Yeoh would not be moved upon this issue.

General Ironwood's face was like stone as he said, "Very well. Anything else?"

"This anarchist you've captured, the one who told you all of this," Commander Yeoh said. "I'd like to speak to her myself."

The air temperature in Professor Ozpin's office seemed to drop as the headmaster said, "I'm afraid that won't be possible."

"You cannot deny that I have reason to be curious, Professor," Commander Yeoh said. "A human working with the White Fang. I would like to understand what led to this situation."

"I understand," Professor Ozpin said. "Nevertheless I cannot permit it."

Commander Yeoh's eyes narrowed. "Why not, Professor? Are there more secrets that you are keeping from me that you do not wish me to discover?"

"All nations keep secrets from one another," General Ironwood said. "That can't surprise you."

"It surprises me that you are so brazen about it moments after asking for my help in managing the revelation of two of your more uncomfortable secrets," Commander Yeoh said.

"You may take this as poorly as you like, Commander," Professor Ozpin said. "You may even withdraw your earlier offer of help, but the fact remains that I will not let you see her."

"And there is nothing at all that I may say to change your mind?" Commander Yeoh said. "Not even if I invoke Miss Fall's rights as a citizen of Mistral?"

"There is no evidence that she is a genuine citizen of Mistral," Professor Ozpin lied with a completely straight face. "And even if there were…I am afraid that her rights mean as little me at this point as Miss Polendina's dreams mean to you. You cannot see her."

"Whatever other secrets she holds must be worth a great deal to you, that you would go so far to keep her from revealing them to me," Commander Yeoh said.

"You may think that, Commander," Professor Ozpin said. "I couldn't possibly comment."

Commander Yeoh was silent for a moment. "Very well. You will still have my cooperation, provided that my other condition is met." She turned away. "Miss Nikos, thank you for your invitation; this has been…very enlightening."

"It was a pleasure to be of assistance, Commander," Pyrrha said, bowing as Commander Yeoh walked away.

When she had climbed into the elevator, and when the elevator had begun to descend, General Ironwood said, "Do you think she'll stop trying to get to the truth?"

"I hope so," Professor Ozpin said. "But I'm afraid I rather fear not. But that is a problem for tomorrow. For tonight, you should worry more about what you're going to say to explain all this."

* * *

Gilda watched as Sienna Khan sipped the wine in silence. Their guest, a pony faunus whom Gilda had not seen before in Cinder's councils, sat opposite them in equal silence, giving no sense of impatience as she waited for an answer.

As they both waited for the High Leader to give her response, Gilda studies this new servant of whatever cause had taken an unwelcome interest in the White Fang. Her face was scarred, and she had more the air of the warrior about her than Cinder ever had.

Cinder had carried herself as a queen, Tempest carried herself as a servant; a warrior servant, but a servant nonetheless.

"You do not seem so smug as the last emissary to come before me," Sienna observed, mirroring Gilda's own thoughts. "Is that a symptom of your nature, or your straitened circumstances?"

Tempest's face was dispassionate. "Are circumstances are not so straitened."

"By your own admission your leader has been captured-"

"Cinder Fall is no longer the leader of-"

"Then she betrayed your cause before she was captured, which might be said to be worse, as she is almost certainly spilling her guts to General Ironwood as we speak," Sienna said. "You have only one other warrior left besides yourself, your spy in the enemy camp has been discovered…and so, as you stand on the verge of ruin, you come to me for help. Do I have the right of it?"

Tempest's cold eyes flashed with a momentary anger. "We are in need of some assistance," she confessed. "But you have-"

"I do not have a reason to help you," Sienna said. "I do not have a reason to spend the lives of my warriors – my remaining warriors – in a lost cause."

"Our cause is not yet lost," Tempest said. "We have a hold on the hearts of Vale and tensions continue to rise; it will yet be possible to set Atlas and Mistral at loggerheads. And besides, it is not your warriors that we came here for. We do not need the troops that you could offer."

"Then why have you come?" Sienna asked.

"For your wisdom," Tempest said. "Without Cinder…we have no guiding mind to plot our operations here, and our improvised plan tonight was…only a partial success. If we are to succeed in our main objective then we cannot afford to fail, but we have no one left in our camp to guarantee success. But you are one of the great captains of the world; if anyone can outwit General Ironwood's defences it is you."

"You flatter me, perhaps because you think I am so easily misled by shallow praise," Sienna replied. She drank a little more wine. "It is true that I have some skill in battle and war…but I cannot defeat Ironwood in pitched battle with all his host ranged around him."

"The faunus once defeated the humans though they were outnumbered two-to-one," Tempest said.

"Because the humans were led by a fool, General Ironwood is not such," Sienna said. "And besides, you say that you do not wish to use my soldiers; what would you have me fight this battle with?"

"The grimm," Tempest said. "Give us the plan and we will see it carried out."

Sienna was silent for a moment. "What would you have me plan for? The destruction of Vale?"

"What we really want," Tempest said. "What we really need, is a distraction. Something that will draw away the defences from Beacon Academy so that we can enter the grounds and…recover something of import from there."

"And how will that avail the White Fang?"

"Atlas will be defeated," Tempest said. "Ironwood will be weakened. And if all goes well then a new Great War will yet break out between Atlas and Mistral."

 _And yet Vale will not fall?_ Gilda wondered. If true then that was the answer they had been looking for; it was enough to make it seem almost too good to be true.

The High Leader must have been weighing that up as she sat in silence, contemplating what she had been told. "When?"

"As soon as possible."

"Are you in a rush?"

"Yes," Tempest said. "We're being hunted."

"Nevertheless you will have to wait until the tournament is concluded."

"Why?" Tempest asked. "Do you want to watch?"

Sienna shook her head. "Have you ever been on a date, Tempest Shadow?"

"No."

"I was very young when I helped to found the White Fang alongside my friends Ghira and Kali," Sienna said. "We were all Mistralians by birth, and it was in Mistral that we began the work of our movement; a challenging environment, but it seemed natural to begin in our own land, which we and our followers and supporters called home. There was a boy, a man, a human. He was a gentleman of high rank, old blood, old money, that sort of thing. He was charming and courteous. I was flattered. I _was_ a faunus, after all; even though we were working towards equality and tolerance none of us were entirely free of the habits of thought that oppression had created in us. We arranged to meet. I was so excited. I remember that Kali helped me to get ready and I…I could barely contain myself. And then I arrived at the rendezvous."

"He wasn't there?" Tempest asked.

"Worse," Sienna said. "He had never had any intention of lowering himself to the level of a mere beast, as he informed me himself; he had lured me here so that his friends could humiliate me." She paused, as if daring anyone to ask what exactly they had done to her. Gilda, for one, did not have that kind of courage.

"Are they still alive?" Tempest asked.

Sienna chuckled. "Although he rescued me from the cage, Ghira forbade me to sate my anger at them. We had to turn the other cheek and be better than they were. However, once I became High Leader…one by one they all met with particularly violent deaths."

"Rank has its privileges," Tempest said.

"The point is," Sienna said. "That the greater the anticipation, the greater the despair when all our feelings are brought crashing down. That is why we will wait until the tournament is completed: we will let the humans' feelings rise so high until they are ecstatic…and then we will bring their hopes crashing down. Give me the strengths of all your forces, and I will give you a plan that will draw them out, terrify them, and leave their stronghold undefended for you to plunder at your leisure."


	169. Sunset's Confession

Sunset's Confession

This had not been an easy decision to make. Quite the opposite, in fact. It had been an incredibly hard decision and even now she shrank from it. She could feel her stomach churning over and over, even as it also felt as cold as if winter held it captive in its icy embrace and as empty as if she fasted a week and a day and her belly cried out for sustenance.

This had not been an easy decision to make, and even now Sunset's mind feverishly created new reasons for why she should not do it - what good would it do to bring it all up now? People who wanted to blame Atlas would do so anyway, either because she was a nominal Atlesian or because they wanted to blame Atlas. Her team, her friends, needed her at this crucial point; she would be abandoning them to face Amber alone; she would be abandoning Cinder to the mercies of Professor Ozpin without her protection - but in the end all the reasons that sprang like dragon's teeth out of her mind were mere excuses for not doing what, she had realised on the way back from the tower, was the right thing to do.

The truth about Penny was going to come out. That truth would, no doubt, intensify the whispers surrounding her involvement in the Breach: the killer robot, the Atlesian living weapon, the soulless instrument in the hands of Ironwood. Sunset had the power to spare her that. It might be that the mud of her...her actions, she could not and would not call it a mideed, would yet stick to the Atlas that the world believed to be her birthplace, but at least it would not stick to Penny in the minds of those yet cared for truth.

Sunset would be lying to call Penny a close friend - to her remembrance they had not shared one intimate conversation - but she was Ruby's friend, and Pyrrha's, and she was a member of Team RSPT, who felt at times like the left hand to SAPR's right. And Penny, from what Sunset had observed of her, would have died for Sunset without a second thought because it was the right thing to do. Which meant that Sunset had to do the right thing herself, albeit very belatedly and at perhaps the last possible moment.

It was, she felt, what Twilight and Celestia would have told her to do if they had been answering her messages.

The time had come to face up to the things that she had done.

She was not blind to the likely consequences of what she was about to do; it was not so much the legal consequences that concerned her - although she was under no illusions that she was about to embark upon a period of profound discomfort - so much as the fact that she was about to shatter all her cherished friendships, perhaps beyond repair. The very nobility of spirit that made Pyrrha and Ruby so open-hearted that they could forgive Sunset her lesser trespasses was the very thing that made it unlikely they would be able to forgive Sunset this one. They would not understand, and if they did understand then they would not want to be the cause of what she had done. They would turn their backs on her, and not without reason. Sunset would not allege ingratitude on their part. This was, in all honesty, no less than she deserved.

If Twilight were still answering - and Sunset wished that she would, she would have liked to have said goodbye and thank you for all the wise council - she would, Sunset was sure, have told Sunset that this was the right choice, though it sacrificed her friendships in the process.

This was the right thing to do, as much as she didn't want to do it. Perhaps the fact that she didn't want to do it made it even more the right thing.

But that didn't change the fact that she really, _really_ didn't want to do it. As the two teams, plus Blake and Yang but as yet minus Pyrrha who was still closeted with Professor Ozpin and the commanders of the two armies, crowded into the SAPR dorm room at her request every face of a friend tugged upon her heart like a mighty chain to pull her away from this course, to keep her secret and let all things continue as they had been with no one the wiser. But then she looked at Penny, and the thought of all the troubles that were about to descend upon her head blew upon her like a great wind to blow her with all her chains back towards the rocks of this righteous but fearful decision.

What she was about to tell them, and she had decided to tell them before she told the higher authorities, would cost her their friendship...but it had come to the point where if she didn't tell then she would not be worthy of such, if she had ever been.

Rainbow yawned. "Sunset, what's this about? It's been a long night and I'm tired."

"So am I," Sunset said. She wanted nothing more than to lie down upon her bed, even as she suspected that she would next sleep in a very different kind of bed in a far colder and lonelier place than this. "But I've got something to say; it needs to be said and it needs to be said now."

"So say it," Rainbow said.

"When Pyrrha gets back," Sunset said. It was a pity that Ciel wasn't here, but they could not wait for her. But Sunset had no intention of doing this more than once, and so she would wait, and they would wait, until Pyrrha returned.

* * *

"I am sorry to keep on keeping you, Miss Nikos," Professor Ozpin said as he guided Pyrrha across the courtyard from the tower. General Ironwood had taken a transport back to his ship, leaving the two of them alone.

"I'm fine, Professor," Pyrrha lied. As a matter of fact her limbs were aching a little, and she would not have minded in the least being given leave to find her way to bed; she thought that if she were called upon to fight again tonight she would be slower than usual, but at the same time it was her judgement that she was concealing all that reasonably well beneath a veneer of calm composure.

Of course, Professor Ozpin was a keen observer of mankind - for the most part - so how much he was actually fooled by her practiced public-facing facade was anybody's guess.

If he saw through her lies he nevertheless chose not to comment on them directly, saying instead, "I would leave this to another hour, but for the fact it is as well that we are not observed and...to be truthful in light of Amber's betrayal I don't know if I can afford to wait."

"Wait for what, Professor?" Pyrrha asked. "Where are we going?" She might, but did not, have asked why they needed to go alone, unaccompanied by the rest of her team. She did not ask, but she felt the question weighing around her neck nevertheless.

"I told you once, Miss Nikos, that in spite of your doubts you would have a part to play in these events in which we are engaged," Professor Ozpin said. "I cannot give you the power of the Fall Maiden...but I can give you my trust, and that I choose to do, before it is too late."

"I thought that we already had your trust," Pyrrha said, and could not prevent the words from sounding a little mulish out of her mouth.

"You have," Professor Ozpin said. "But now I bestow a little more of it upon you, and grant you one more secret." He stopped before the statue that sat in the centre of the courtyard, the huntsmen and huntress standing upon the rock whilst the beowolf growled beneath. Professor Ozpin looked around, but there were no other night owls haunting the courtyard besides the two of them and no lights at the windows to indicate anyone who might be watching. There was only the two of them, though Pyrrha wished her team could stand beside her.

"Why," she hesitated for a moment, before stealing herself to press on. "Why is this for me alone, Professor? My team mates-"

"Miss Shimmer has had quite enough of my trust for the time being," Professor Ozpin said sharply. He frowned. "That is hard of me, and too hard on her I know, but in my heart...in any event, what you are about to see may only be seen by one in my company." He took a deep breath. "The sage who was first inspired to create the Maidens did so at the cost of most of his magic. Those at the head of our order who inherited his power spent more of it to seal the vaults that secure the relics beneath the schools. Of those vaults, beyond the sealed chambers which only the appropriate Maiden may open, three have only locks to secure them. But here at Beacon there was enough magic left for this, one last enchantment." He stretched out his hand towards the immense tableaux, and as he did so the entire structure seemed for a moment to shimmer before Pyrrha's eyes, before a ball of glowing blue light, a ghostly and ethereal blue that her bed on translucence, flew from the pommel of the huntsman's sword and into Professor Ozpin's hand. He stared down at it for a moment, the without another word he flung his hand put towards Pyrrha. She did not react as the blue light flew towards her; she trusted Professor Ozpin and besides she could sense in however strange a fashion that it meant no harm to her. It touched her chest, the light passing through her breast and into her; she could feel it, a sensation that was almost tickling, lying just above her aura, separate but close by. It felt as though, if she were to reach for her aura and keep going, stretching out just a little further, she would touch this gift that just been bestowed on her.

Pyrrha gasped; now when she looked at the statue it was only there half the time, with every heartbeat it disappeared then reappeared again with the next.

"Concentrate, Miss Nikos," Professor Ozpin said. "Focus."

Pyrrha did as she was bidden. It was not difficult for her, she had been mastering power since she was a child, and soon the statue in the courtyard had disappeared completely, and the fountain that surrounded it too, leaving only a gaping he in the ground leading down into the darkness.

"Behold," Professor Ozpin said softly. "The Vault of the Fall Maiden."

Pyrrha's eyes widened. "The statue and the fountain are all an illusion?"

"Not exactly," Professor Ozpin said. "If anyone were to touch the statue they would feel stone beneath their fingertips and be unable to push it aside, if any climbed into the fountain they would get wet. And yet, here we are. Will you come with me a little further?"

Pyrrha nodded in silence, and in equal silence followed Professor Ozpin as he led the way to the lip of the hole and then down a set of steep, marrow, winding steps that Pyrrha did not see until she was standing right on top of them. Down and down he led her, with only the smouldering light of a fire dust crystal he produced from his pocket to guide them both as they trod the small and narrow steps that were slippery with condensation, while stalactites grew down from the ceiling to brush the top of Pyrrha's ponytail.

And then they came to the bottom of the steps, to a chamber which, for all that it was smaller than the vault beneath the tower, had nevertheless the same sepulchral feel about it. Rough hewn it was out of the rock, yet nonetheless crude columns had been carved into the cavern walls, columns guarded by equally rough and weather worn statues of many men: some noble, some stern, some kindly and some fierce; all looming down upon Pyrrha and Ozpin as they stood in the underground cavern.

"Are these-"

"My predecessors," Professor Ozpin said, without much reverence.

Pyrrha bowed her head respectfully, and hoped it was respect enough for two.

The floor of the chamber was flooded, all save for a narrow bridge of rock leading to a door which appeared to be made of some kind of molten glass, of a soft green colour which reminded her rather of the professor who stood before her.

"That is it, isn't it?" she said softly. "The relic lies beyond that door."

"Indeed," Professor Ozpin said. "Only Amber and Miss Fall can open that door, and only Amber knows where this vault is. If she reaches here then nothing can stop her from opening this door and taking the Crown of Choice."

"Which is why I am here," Pyrrha said.

"Indeed," Professor Ozpin said. " Pyrrha Nikos, I ask you to take up the guardianship of this vault, to defend it against any who would enter it. To more properly answer your earlier question: there is only enough magic to reveal this vault to one other besides the Fall Maiden and myself; if I reveal it to you I cannot also reveal it to Miss Rose or vice versa. You may pass the gift and office on but you will be passing it on, not sharing it."

"So I could grant the ability to find the vault to Ruby or Jaune or Sunset," Pyrrha said. "But in so doing I would lose the ability to find it myself."

"Just so," Professor Ozpin said. "There is not enough magic left for any more than that."

"And Amber?" Pyrrha said. "Can she show the vault to others?"

"To as many as she wishes, there is more power in the Fall Maiden then there is in myself or in this place," Professor Ozpin said. "Although I find it unlikely that she will; were she to do so she would lose half her value to Salem."

"And yet she could lead an army down here, if she chose," Pyrrha murmured.

"That is why I trust you with its defence," Professor Ozpin said. "And you alone."

Pyrrha did not respond to that immediately. She was silent, looking at the green glass door beyond the professor, looking at the statues of the sages who had come before him, looking at the sacred place in which she stood. It was impossible to stand here and not feel a sense of responsibility weighing down upon her. She thought of what Rainbow had said to Cinder, that Amber was a coward not to be feared; and she thought of what Cinder had said in reply, that Amber was fierce when cornered. Was she strong enough to stand against half a maiden, whether she possessed a hidden ferocity or no? Perhaps, perhaps not. So much depended on the mettle of your opponent, temperament was as important as power in her experience. Could she prevail? She did not know.

That ignorance did not free her from the obligation to try.

"I cannot promise that I will succeed," Pyrrha said. "But I can promise that I will try, to the limit...of my life, if necessary."

Professor Ozpin looked pleased and saddened in equal measure to hear it. "Thank you, Miss Nikos; I can ask no more."

* * *

Pyrrha opened the door to the dorm room. "I'm sorry to make you wait- oh, hello everyone. I wasn't expecting to see you all here."

"Sunset called a meeting," Yang said. "But wouldn't say what it was about until you got here. It's all so mysterious."

"Now will you spill it?" Rainbow asked.

"Does it have something to do with the reason you look so down?" Ruby asked. "Sunset, what's wrong?"

Sunset didn't answer. She looked down at the stuffed alicorn on her bed, the toy that Ruby had won for her at the fair an age long past or so it seemed. She would have reminded herself to get her unicorn back from the BLBL room, only that wasn't going to happen now, was it? It would probably end up in the trash like all her other stuff. Like her alicorn. She put one hand upon the plush, squeezing its neck a little.

"Penny," she said. "What Penny is...it's going to come out tomorrow."

"I'm afraid it's worse than that," Pyrrha murmured. She looked ashamed and apologetic in equal measure as she looked at Penny. "I'm sorry, but...Commander Yeoh has insisted, and General Ironwood has agreed, that you should be disqualified from the tournament."

"WHAT?" Rainbow yelled. "They can't do that. They've got no...there's nothing in the rules that says that Penny can't enter, is there?"

"Ciel would know for sure," Twilight said. "But not as far as I know."

"That's so unfair," Rainbow growled. "I thought you said this woman was okay?"

"I said she wasn't a zealot," Pyrrha said softly. "She still wants Mistral to win."

"By cutting out the competition?" Rainbow spat. "Well I'm not moving forward without Penny. Penny goes into the two be two or they can give those Mistralians a bye and see how far they get in the one v one."

"That's very kind of you, but you don't need to do that for me," Penny said.

"Yeah, I do," Rainbow said.

"I know that the person of competing in the tournament was for me to gain experience, but-"

"This isn't about why the team was put together or General Ironwood or your father," Rainbow said. "This is about you being on my team and me having your back; this is about loyalty."

Penny looked at her leader. "But I thought you wanted to do well in the tournament to show Scootaloo that it's possible to follow your dreams?"

Rainbow grinned. "The best lesson I could teach Scootaloo is to always stand by your friends, even when it isn't easy."

"I agree," Twilight said. "I don't expect it to make any difference, but we ought to stick together, no matter what."

Penny blinked. "I...I don't understand. I think that you're wrong...but at the same time I feel so happy."

Rainbow grinned. "That's what it feels like to know you're not alone, and there's someone dumb enough to stick with you no matter how tough things get."

Pyrrha's apologetic gaze was turned upon Sunset for a moment. "I'll also-"

"Pyrrha!" Penny exclaimed. "You can't!"

Pyrrha smiled beatifically. "Why not? I was planning to quit anyway, what does it matter if I retire a little earlier?"

"But what about everyone who wants to watch you fight?" Penny said. "What if I want to watch you fight?"

Pyrrha frowned a little. "What if I wanted to fight you in the one v one round?"

"I wanted that too," Penny said. "I wanted to fight you for real, with both of us going all out, nothing held back!" she smiled for a moment, before it faded from her face. "But if that isn't going to happen then at least I, and everyone else who looks up to you, can see you in your glory one last time."

"Penny, you're about to be treated incredibly shabbily," Pyrrha said. "If we simply accept it without protest then we...well, we accept it. We become complicit in it."

"None of us want to continue in a tournament that throws you out, Penny," Ruby said.

"It is kind of harsh, especially if it's all to give Haven a better shot at the trophy," Yang said. "Maybe we should drop out, let them see how it feels to take first place knowing that they didn't earn it."

Penny was silent for a moment. "Thank you," she said. "Thank you all so much. When this year started I never would have imagined that I'd find so many people who would be willing to give up on their dreams to help me. But I didn't ask you to do that, and I can't ask you to. If I can't fight in the tournament then I want to at least be able to cheer on my friends. Please, the only thing that I want from you is a tournament worth watching."

"Penny," Ruby murmured. "You can't be okay with this."

"I..." Penny bowed her head. "No. I don't think I am okay. This was my chance to show everyone what I was made of, and make my father proud. This was my chance to...but if I knew that everyone else had given up their dreams for me then...then that would make me feel so much worse. Rainbow Dash, you have to show Scootaloo just how far she can go; and Pyrrha you have to go all the way for both of us. Both of you, promise me that you'll go all in and meet in the finals."

The two of them looked at one another doubtfully.

"I don't know," Rainbow said. "People will see it and think that I'm okay with this."

"Does it matter as long as we know that's not true?" Penny asked.

"Yeah," Rainbow said. "The same way that all the stuff that stupid jerks are going to say about you matters even though it's not true."

"It's such a pity that people can't see this side of you," Pyrrha said. "Instead of whatever they're going to think of when they her that you're a robot with aura. If only-" she stopped dead, as if she'd been knocked cold or entered a sudden catatonic state.

"Pyrrha?" Jaune said. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, sorry," Pyrrha said. "I just had a thought."

"What?" Twilight asked.

"I remembered that I'm rich and famous, and that can have its advantages every so often," Pyrrha said. "But it's too late to start doing anything about it right now, so why don't we let Sunset say whatever it was she actually wanted to talk about and then we can get some sleep and talk a little more about this in the morning. I'm sorry, Sunset; I got everything off topic, didn't I?"

"It's fine," Sunset said gruffly, even though it wasn't fine and she had been on the verge of interrupting them because the longer they talked the easier it was to find excuses not to do the thing that she had vowed to do: Penny can take the slings and arrows, Penny doesn't want anyone to sacrifice themselves for her sake, Pyrrha's got a plan. But at the same time every impossibly noble sentiment out of Penny's mouth only demonstrated why Sunset needed to come clean: it had always been wrong to make this sweet kid bear the slander of Sunset's deeds upon her back and it would be even more so once people started talking about an off-switch on her morals and killer robots and other stuff they'd seen at the movies.

She had to do this. Penny deserved nothing less.

Yet all the same, if they hadn't stopped when they did Sunset's will might not have endured to see it through.

"When," she began, squeezing the stuffed alicorn a little tighter with her hand as she spoke. "When the truth about Penny comes out then...then what those idiots say about her and the train might...it's probably going to get worse. And I can't let it go on any longer; because it wasn't Penny who destroyed the controls on that train-"

"Of course not," Ruby said. "Penny would never-"

"Ruby," Sunset said. "Please...let me finish." Rainbow seemed to have guessed what was coming next, because her face was already forming into an expression of surprise, her mouth forming an O as though she couldn't believe that Sunset was about to go through with this. Blake was able to maintain an inscrutable look much better, although she too must have understood by now. Sunset didn't look at either of them. She didn't look at anyone. She closed her eyes and plunged herself into darkness. "It wasn't Penny who destroyed the controls...it was me. It was me and I have the proof that will exonerate Penny beyond all doubt by incriminating myself. Cinder sent it to me." She didn't look at anyone - she hunched herself and turned away from them, thankful for the otherwise terrible silence that prevailed in the room in the same of her revelation - as she pulled out her scroll and tapped her fingers rapidly upon the screen until she had sent them all the video so that they'd know that this wasn't a bad joke or some kind of attempt to protect Penny.

She looked at her scroll; in their profile pictures everyone was smiling up at her.

In the room at present all the smiles had died. With the exception of Rainbow and Blake, who had known the truth already, everyone looked stunned, at best. Twilight looked halfway to fear; Pyrrha was looking at Sunset as though she were an impostor; Ruby looked torn between tears and fury.

"You did that?" Ruby demanded. "You made it so we couldn't stop the train?"

Sunset nodded wordlessly.

"Why?" Ruby cried. "Why would you do that? Why would you...how could you let the Breach happen like that? You could have stopped that train and you decided to wreck the controls instead?"

"Because we were too late," Sunset said.

"Too late for what?" Ruby said. "The controls-"

"Too late to get out," Sunset said. "We'd already shot past the last stop in Mountain Glenn; it was nothing but tunnel between us and Vale. If we'd stopped the train we would have had no way out. I just...I couldn't see any way this didn't end in all of us dying."

"So?" Ruby said. "We're huntsmen; we're supposed to be willing to give our lives to protect the kingdoms. I'd rather die like Mom fighting for what's right than put innocent people at risk because of me!"

"Well I wasn't willing to kill you!" Sunset snarled, rising from her bed and onto her feet. If they were going to hate her for what she bad done then she may as well make an honest account of it. "I had a choice to make and I chose you. I would choose you again if I had to. I would always choose you. That might be the wrong choice, it might make me a bad person and it probably makes me a selfish jerk but there it is, and here I am. I will always choose you; because I'm Sunset Shimmer and that's just how I'm made." And that was all she had to say upon the matter. Sunset took a deep breath, and waited for the opprobrium to flow down upon her.

"Sunset," Pyrrha murmured. "What you did..." Pyrrha didn't seem able to look at Sunset; she had turned away, and her glances in Sunset's direction seemed furtive as if she hoped they would escape notice. "What you did cannot be justified. No eight lives can ever be weighed greater than the lives of an entire city."

"The city was saved," Blake whispered.

"That's not the point," Pyrrha said, as Sunset gently shook her head in Blake's direction. There was no point in Blake revealing that this was not news to her, no need for her to damage her relationships with the others.

"The point is," Pyrrha continued. "That the city should never have been put at risk in the first place. None of us asked you to do what you did, and none of us ever would have asked." Pyrrha's tone became more melancholy as she went on, "The worst part is...this doesn't actually surprise me; rather I feel foolish for not working it out sooner. As you say, this is who you are." She raised her head and finally turned to face Sunset once again. "And so, while I can't agree with what you did, it seems hypocritical to rail at you for it. I...I hope that whatever consequences you face next...I hope they're not too harsh." She held out one hand. "Though we may never meet again, I will always treasure the memory of our time together, my friend."

Sunset allowed herself a brief smile as she took Pyrrha's hand. "Likewise." She did not confess her hopes that they would meet again however distant such hopes might seem. "And best of luck in the tournament."

"I...I am confused," Penny said. "My moral subroutines tell me that what you did was wrong, but at the same time I feel...gratitude, for the lives of my friends. I don't know what I should think. Twilight, should I be checked for malfunctions?"

Twilight shook her head. "No, Penny. Right now I think you're functioning perfectly."

"How can you act like that?" Ruby demanded. "How can you talk like...like you agree with her?"

"Ruby-" Sunset began.

"I trusted you!" Ruby cried. "I thought that you were one of us and you...you did something that a true huntress would never do, not ever!"

"She did it to protect you," Twilight said. "To save your lives."

"Our lives are to be spent for the good of mankind, that's what it means to be a huntress," Ruby said. "Peace is paid for with blood that's red like roses." She turned away. "I…I can't even look at you right now. Please...Please go."

Sunset had expected nothing less. If Pyrrha's reaction had been a pleasant surprise then Ruby's was in line with her predictions. Ruby had a hero's heart...And that made it hard for her to accommodate a heart less heroic. "Goodbye, Ruby."

"Just go," Ruby sniffed.

Sunset glanced at Jaune, who only nodded to her with a look on his face that might have meant anything. If had something to say then he was keeping it to himself.

"I'll walk you out," Yang said gruffly. "And...into custody, I guess."

Sunset had already taken off her jacket and armour; her weapons were secured in her locker; she was dressed only in her top, skirt, jeans and gloves and the last she would have no need of once they suppressed her aura anyway.

"Thanks, Yang," she said. She would rather a relative stranger do this than a friend. As she walked towards the door she heard Twilight whisper, "Thank you."

Yang led Sunset out into the corridor down which they walked away from the dorm room, away from the first place she had really called home since Canterlot. Away from all those who had opened up her heart enough that...enough that she would do a thing like this for her sake.

Yang led her away, until they were a sufficient distance from the SAPR dorm at which she turned and enveloped Sunset in a bear hug.

"Thank you," she said, as she rested her head on Sunset's shoulder. "Thank you so much."

"Yang?" Sunset murmured, because she hadn't expected this at all. She felt something on her cheek, something wet and now it was landing on her shoulder too. "Are you crying?"

She was, tears gently falling from her eyes which Sunset could see once Yang took a step back, hands still on Sunset's shoulders. "Ruby...Ruby remembers how Mom died a hero, doing what was right and protecting the world. But I remember how it destroyed Dad, and how it took him years to just start putting the pieces back together. Ruby means everything to me, and if I lost her I don't...thank you." She grinned. "So if you want to hit me with one of those laser blasts then teleport right on out of here, go ahead. Just make it look good, okay?"

Sunset snorted. "That's...it's tempting, but I'm not sure how much it would help. I think...if this going to make a difference I have to face up to what I've done, or else it looks too pat to get Penny off the hook. The truth is I should have done this a long time ago."

Yang nodded. "Ruby will forgive you, you know."

"You think?"

"I know," Yang said. "She loves you, that's why she's upset right now, but that love is why she'll come around. And in the meantime...good luck with…whatever comes next."

Sunset nodded. "I appreciate that. So...no point hanging around, is there?"

"No," Yang said. "I guess not."

So Yang Xiao-Long walked Sunset Shimmer towards justice, and a reckoning for all that she had done.


	170. If It Was Me (For You)

If It Was Me (For You)

Rainbow was quiet as the three members of RSPT who were currently on their feet made their way back to their own room for some badly needed rest, at the least in the case of the two members of the team who actually needed sleep. But it wasn't tiredness that was keeping her quiet, although she was tired. It was what had just happened in that room a little while ago.

Sunset had done it. Rainbow hadn't thought she would; she hadn't thought that Sunset Shimmer, the would-be tyrant of Canterlot, would have the guts to do something so selfless; she hadn't thought that the girl who had begged like a dog for Rainbow not spill the details of her childhood crap to her team mates in case she lost them would voluntarily tell them that she's done something that would make them hate her.

It stunned her a little bit; she hadn't been able to believe it once she realised where Sunset was going with this. She'd been waiting for the surprise that turned everything on its head while simultaneously confirming everything that Rainbow had thought and believed about Sunset; the surprise that never came. It had been exactly what it sounded like: Sunset confessing to what she'd done and paying the price.

Had Sunset always been a much better person than Rainbow had given her credit for or was this a new thing?

It made Rainbow feel weird; actually it made her feel kind of bad. She had spent so long with a kind of low key hostility towards Sunset, wrestling with herself whether she wanted to turn her in for what she'd done, and for what her action had exposed Penny too. Had she helped push Sunset into this? Or should she, Rainbow Dash, have turned Sunset in much sooner and spared Penny pain?

The fact that Penny hadn't actually seemed to be in much pain had helped justify Rainbow in sitting on what she knew - she seemed more troubled by having lost the fight against Tempest Shadow than by the fact that morons thought she had caused the Breach - but was that just an excuse? Or had something happened tonight that didn't need to happen?

"Hey, Penny?"

"Yes, Rainbow Dash?"

"What do you think about all this?" Rainbow asked. "About what Sunset did, and about the fact that so many people blamed you for it? Do you think she should have come forward sooner?"

Penny didn't have a thoughtful expression, rather when she was thinking about something her face tended to go a bit blank while she computed where she stood. "I think I understand the logic that led to Sunset's decision, although the moral parameters required are very different to anything I was uploaded with. And, although it wasn't great to be under suspicion by some people, nobody who really mattered to me believed it. I'd rather Sunset hadn't told the truth, rather than telling it sooner."

"Seriously?" Rainbow said.

Penny nodded. "At any point at which Sunset confessed, Team Sapphire would have been weakened by the loss of one quarter of its strength; even if Professor found a replacement team-mates, it's unlikely that they would be as skilled as Sunset, or work as well with Ruby, Jaune and Pyrrha. That's what worries me now: Team Sapphire is weakened by Sunset's absence, and it's all just to avoid damage to my reputation."

"This isn't your fault, Penny," Twilight said.

"I know," Penny said. "But that doesn't mean I want my friends to suffer."

"We'll work together to make sure that doesn't happen," Twilight said. "It's true there are only six of us left right now, but that's all the more reason for us to stick together against whatever comes our way next." Twilight looked at Rainbow over Penny's head. "Looks like you're off the hook, anyway."

"I don't know what-"

"You knew, didn't you?" Twilight said.

Rainbow hesitated for a moment. "Was it that obvious?"

"Only to someone who knows you," Twilight said. "No way you would have been that quiet if you'd been surprised."

Rainbow nodded. "Yeah, I knew. I saw her do it. I didn't know whether I ought to tell anybody about it or not...so I didn't. I'm sorry, Penny, I let you-"

"You kept Team Sapphire together," Penny said. "That's a good thing. Or it was a good thing. Isn't that why you didn't say anything?"

"Not exactly," Rainbow admitted. "I didn't say anything because..." She looked at Twilight rather than at Penny. "If it had been you on that train I would have smashed up the controls myself."

Twilight's eyes widened behind her glasses. "Really?"

Rainbow nodded, keeping her eyes fixed on her dorky, adorable bookworm - okay, okay, well-bred friend in her cute glasses. "Yeah. I sent you away with Fluttershy and Applejack because I knew it could be a one way trip and I...I didn't want us to lose you, Twi. We couldn't lose you, you're too important…and I'm not talking about important to Atlas, I mean…you're too important to us. And when I saw Sunset wreck that panel...I felt relieved. That makes me a bad soldier but...there it is." Certainly it was a good thing Ciel wasn't here or she'd be chewing the rug in a rage right now. They were supposed to be willing to sacrifice themselves, like Ruby said. But...Rainbow wasn't a coward, or at least she didn't think she was. She'd gone back into the eye of the storm twice to rescue all the members of Team JSPR from the grimm, but that was the point: she'd die for her team in a heartbeat if she had to but getting them killed, even for a good cause, was something else. It cut against who she was; it grated too painfully upon her nature for her to bear.

Maybe that was why Sunset made her so mad: because they were more alike than Rainbow liked to think.

"Honestly...I feel the same way," Twilight said. "When I heard what she'd done I was grateful to her for bringing you back to me. Grateful because if she hadn't then we might have been meeting up at Sugarcube Corner to reminisce about how much we missed you. If it was me...even if I didn't go through with it like Sunset I can't say that I wouldn't have been tempted."

"Ruby doesn't seem to like what Sunset did," Penny pointed out. "And neither does Pyrrha, really."

"That's because they're better people than we are," Twilight said.

"I don't know about better," Rainbow said. "I don't know if acting like you just stepped out of a storybook is better. But Twi's half-right, they're different from us."

"Nobler," Twilight said. "Not so selfish."

"Is that why Sunset has to be punished?"

"Sunset has to be punished because it's the law," Twilight said. "And even if we all agreed that what she did wasn't wrong – although as a point of fact I think we have to own up to the fact that it is wrong by any standards that don't aren't either monstrously subjective or reliant upon after-the-fact justifications - she'd still have to be punished for breaking the law."

"But isn't the law supposed to be based on general perceptions of right and wrong?"

"It's supposed to be," Twilight said. "But that doesn't mean it always is."

Penny nodded. "I...I still don't know whether I should prioritise what I think or what I feel about what Sunset did. What will happen to her?"

"I don't know, Penny," Rainbow said. "And I don't know if anybody does right now."

* * *

"The only safe way," Jaune said, as the door closed on the members of Team RSPT taking their leave.

Pyrrha sat down on her bed. It took her another moment to look up at Jaune. "What do you mean?"

"Sunset didn't destroy the only way of stopping the train," Jaune said. "Just the only way of doing it safely. There are ways we could have derailed the train - like your semblance - and we considered them. But we didn't do any of them, and that's not just on Sunset alone."

Ruby looked over her shoulder. "What are you saying, Jaune?"

Jaune sighed. "I'm saying...maybe before we get too upset about what Sunset did on that train we should think a little about what we did, too."

"Are you saying you agree with what Sunset did?" Ruby demanded, as she turned to face him.

"Ruby," Pyrrha said. "Let's not fight about this."

"But-"

"I know that you feel strongly about this," Pyrrha said. "But please, isn't losing one friend tonight enough?"

Ruby flinched. "Yeah," she said after a moment. "Yeah, it is." She sniffed. "But what Sunset did was wrong. You know that, right?"

Jaune hesitated for a moment, and then another moment more. "You're the bravest person I know, Ruby," he said. He sat down beside Pyrrha, and was grateful that she didn't flinch away in disgust at his having the temerity to defend Sunset. "You see danger and all you can think of is how you can help the most people, no matter what it takes. But I can't be that brave all the time. I didn't want to die down there. I didn't want either of you or any of our friends to die down there. And when I think about what we did when we caught up to Sunset I don't think any of us really wanted to die on that train or else we would have crashed it no matter the risk. Sure, Blake wanted to save the White Fang guys, but how many of us actually thought that they'd make it out and how many of us were just grasping a straw that would let us not have to kill ourselves for the sake of the mission?"

He felt Pyrrha place her hand on his. "I...I might be guilty of that," she murmured, her voice almost trembling. "I'd like to tell myself that I was as brave as Ruby, that I would always be ready to make the ultimate sacrifice as a huntress should be...But was I? I don't really remember but...but I fear that, when the moment came, perhaps I wasn't. Perhaps I wasn't ready to give up my life when it had just gotten so much more wonderful than I could have dreamed."

"It…It's not like I want you to be dead!" Ruby cried. "Not either of you, or Sunset or any of the others. You're my best friends, and I love you, all three of you. I just...I just..." She started to cry.

Pyrrha pulled her into a gentle embrace. "We understand, Ruby," she said. "Don't worry."

Ruby sniffed. "What Sunset did was wrong," she said. "I'm sorry, but it is."

Jaune didn't dispute that. He didn't even really doubt it. And yet, if he'd been put in that position all alone with the chance to save Pyrrha or doom her to save the world - and not just Pyrrha, but Ruby and Sunset too - then if he was being honest with himself it was by no means certain that he would have made the right choice.

"We'd all like to think that we'd choose death if it was the right thing to do," he said. "And maybe we would and maybe we wouldn't; but I think it must be a whole lot harder for you to choose death for someone else, especially if that someone else means a lot to you."

"And what about choosing for the city?" Ruby said.

"Sunset probably didn't think about it like that," Jaune said. "She probably thought we could save the city, like we did. All I really know is...I'm glad we're all alive."

Ruby was silent for a moment. "I don't hate Sunset," she said. "She betrayed us, but I don't hate her."

"I think that's why her betrayal hurts so much," Pyrrha said gently.

Ruby nodded. "I...I'm glad you're alive too. I don't like what she did, but I don't want you to think that-"

"We know, Ruby. We would never think that," Pyrrha said. "As to what Sunset did...there's no point in discussing it further; we each think as we think and we're unlikely to convince one another, so why don't...can we let it lie now? Sunset did what she did...and now she's done what she's done and I think...I think she was quite brave to do it."

"She shouldn't have lied to us," Ruby said.

"She was probably worried that we'd react...worried about how we'd react," Jaune said.

"But she should have trusted us," Ruby insisted. "What will happen to her?"

"She'll be put on trial, I guess, eventually," Jaune said. "At least she'll get a chance to defend herself."

"Whether a judge will be sympathetic is another matter," Pyrrha said.

"What do you think will happen to us?" Jaune asked.

"Regardless if whether Sunset is ever replaced, Professor Ozpin will appoint a temporary team leader for the time being," Pyrrha said. "Whoever that is, I think that we should keep the name Sapphire. It's our name, and we've been through so much with it, and with Sunset. It would feel wrong to change the name just because; it would feel as though Sunset doesn't matter any more. No matter what we'll always be Team Sapphire."

Ruby smiled through the tears in her eyes. "We'll always be Team Sapphire."

"No matter what," Jaune said.

Pyrrha said. "And that way...that way her place will be waiting for Sunset...if she ever returns."


	171. Scapegoat

Scapegoat

The Kingdom of Vale lived neither wholly in its past nor in its future. It was not Mistral, clinging to the past as if it had no future, venerating ancient names and older bloodlines, slavishly maintaining its august traditions and its old ways. It was not Atlas, rushing into the future with reckless abandon, casting all aside in the stampede to progress. Vale steered a middle cause; in some matters it looked forwards, to the new day that was soon to come and which could not be stopped from dawning; in others the past held more sway.

And so it was that, a little less than eighty years since a King last sat upon the throne of Vale and at a time when all hereditary titles of nobility had vanished the senior judicial officer of the kingdom still bore the title of 'lord chief justice' and still sat upon the King's Bench to dispense his rulings and his sentences.

The King's Bench itself was a towering structure, that loomed above Sunset – and indeed the entire court – like a mountain. It was dark, almost black, with a front that looked like ebony, rising above a courtroom that was almost equally dark and forbidding. Lord Chief Justice Peregrine Winchester sat atop this imposing height looking almost like a grimm in his black robes, the effect spoiled only by the long wig of silver-grey rolls that descended down onto his shoulders.

He was too old to be Cardin's father, but he had the Winchester chin – even if it was doubling in the case of the Lord Chief Justice – so Sunset had little doubt that he was a relative: a grandfather, perhaps a great uncle. It seemed too much to hope for that he was a more distant relative from a branch of the family that didn't get on with Cardin.

The courtroom was nearly empty; there was no crowd to speak of, except for a few old men who looked as if they turned up at trials each day because they had nothing better to do, sitting at the back and hissing to one another like a bunch of angry wasps buzzing around Sunset. The sounds of their whispering irritated her ears in the same way that the aura suppression collar they had strapped around her neck irritated said neck and the throat it gripped too tightly also. It was making her breathing come shallower, and more rapid. It was probably making her look nervous, guilty.

Well, she was guilty, but that didn't mean that she wanted to look it.

Aside from the ageing gawkers at the back of the gallery, only officials stood in the courtroom: two bailiffs who had the look of retired huntsmen taking it easy in the autumns of their years; the balding prosecutor in his well-tailored suit; the court scribe. None of them seemed to have much regard for Sunset Shimmer. The whole atmosphere was downright chilly.

Sunset was standing up, there was nowhere for her to sit down; she stood under the King's Bench while the Lord Chief Justice glowered down at her from over his pince-nez. Mind, it wouldn't have surprised Sunset too much if he really couldn't see from where he was perched so high above the world.

"Sunset Shimmer," Peregrine Winchester muttered. "Heard of you, I think. Cardin says you're uppity. Or did he say that you were up yourself? Don't always hear what he's saying, that boy mumbles."

 _If I had known then what I know now…I probably still would have treated Cardin exactly the same but at least I would have done it with my eyes open._

And this was the man who held her life in his hands. Peregrine Winchester alone would decide Sunset's fate once all the arguments were made. Trials in Vale were much the same as trials in Equestria, where Princess Celestia's representative – sometimes even Celestia herself, Sunset had sat in on cases where the princess presided in person either because of the nature of the case or simply to show herself to her little ponies – held absolute power in interpreting the law, adjudicating the question and passing sentence.

Of course Sunset trusted one of Celestia's appointed justiciars far more than she trusted Peregrine Winchester.

The Lord Chief Justice cleared his throat. "Anyway, let's get this over with. Proceedings against Sunset Shimmer on the charges of Treason, Terrorism, Membership of an Illegal Organisation, Collusion with an Enemy of the State, Reckless Endangerment of Life, Sabotage of the City Defences and Vandalism of Public Property."

 _Membership of an Illegal Organisation? Are they trying to suggest that I'm part of the White Fang?_

 _And isn't charging me for damaging the city square being a little petty of somebody?_

"Who is counsel for the prosecution in this matter?"

"Marsh Panic KC for the Commonwealth, my lord."

"Ah, yes, Panic; looking forward to seeing you for drinks tonight, it feels like it's been ages."

"It has been too long, my lord."

 _Nothing like a fair trial, is there?_

"Council for the defence," Professor Ozpin declared as he strode into the courtroom. "Lyman Francis Baum Ozpin."

The court was silent as Professor Ozpin made his way to stand at Sunset's side, the only sound was the tapping of his cane upon the floor. Sunset could understand why everyone was so silent, she felt pretty well stunned herself.

"P-professor?" Sunset murmured, as a hundred questions flashed through her mind, starting with _Why would you come here for me after all I've done?_

"Good morning, Miss Shimmer," Professor Ozpin said. "I apologise for my tardiness."

"You…you're a lawyer?"

"I am a huntsman, Miss Shimmer," Professor Ozpin said. "But I studied the law amongst many other things." He leaned down just a little. "Look over your shoulder and you will see that you are not wholly without friends."

Sunset didn't know what she had expected to see when she did as she was bade and looked behind her; she might have hoped for her team-mates even as she didn't expect them, but instead she found Pyrrha's mother sitting a little further forward than the old wasps, her expression stern but not hostile, which was a welcome change and reprieve in this situation.

Lady Nikos nodded briskly towards her, and Sunset nodded back before returning her attention to what was going on in front of her.

The Lord Chief Justice did not look too pleased to see Professor Ozpin, but nor did he seem inclined to do anything about it. "How do you plead to the charges brought against you?"

"My lord, on the charge of membership of an illegal organisation we plead not guilty absolutely, on all other charges we plead not guilty by reason of exigent circumstances."

"We, wait, what?" Sunset said. "Exigent- my lord? May I, um, have a moment to confer with my council?"

"He's pleading not guilty to the charges," Peregrine Winchester huffed grumpily. "Is that a problem?"

"I'm not sure yet, my lord, that's why I'd like a minute."

"Perhaps we could have a brief recess, my lord?" Professor Ozpin asked.

The Lord Chief Justice made a sort of rumbling noise from the back of his throat. "Very well, you have ten minutes."

The bailiffs escorted them out of the courtroom, and into a small side-chamber not too far away. It was a little lighter than the oppressively ill-lit courtroom, but still a little dark and murky as Sunset sat down at the side of the oval-shaped wooden table. Professor Ozpin hesitated a moment before taking the seat next to her at the head of the table.

"I…" Sunset fell silent. Amber's fate rose up like a wall between the two of them, rendering Sunset speechless as her voice could not scale the heights. And yet she had to force a way through or what was the point. "I didn't expect to see you here, Professor."

Professor Ozpin said nothing for a moment. "I…I told you once, Miss Shimmer, that it was the decisions that we take with the best of intentions that destroy us in the end. It feels as though you are learning the truth of that as I have done: through painful experience."

"That doesn't explain why you decided to come down here and help me out."

"No," Professor Ozpin said softly, in a voice that was as gentle as a whisper. "Allowing you to perform an untested magical technique on Amber was as much my mistake as it was yours to conceive of an attempt the notion…but if I stood by and let you suffer alone then that would be another mistake of mine, and I have too many on my conscience already to make another when I have the power to avoid it."

Sunset looked away, down at her hands clasped on the table in front of her and then at the far wall of the chamber. "You…you continually prove yourself to be a far better man than I give you credit for, Professor."

"I have been the best of men, I have been the worst of men," Professor Ozpin replied. "I am a man, take all in all, neither wholly good nor wholly bad but…I like to think that I try my best."

"And I thank you for it, Professor," Sunset said. "How is everyone? How's Penny?"

"I am not entirely sure," Professor Ozpin confessed. "But her friends are with her, so I'm sure that she's in good hands."

"And who is leading the team?"

"I've appointed Miss Nikos to be the leader for the time being."

"With all due respect, Professor, Jaune would have made a better choice," Sunset said.

"Mister Arc would have made a very unusual choice," Professor Ozpin said. "People would have expected Miss Nikos to receive the honour."

"Since when do you care what people expect to see?"

"Since they started looking closely," Professor Ozpin said dryly. "Once the tournament is completed and the eyes of the world look away then perhaps I will be free to look again. Indeed I will need to look again at bringing Team Sapphire up to strength."

"Team Sapphire," Sunset murmured. "Shouldn't it be…Team Pear or something?"

"Your team-mates…former team-mates elected to keep the name as it stands, at least for the time being," Professor Ozpin said. "Something else that may have to be revisited if or when a huntsman in training brings them up to full strength."

Sunset smiled wryly. "Is this your gentle way of telling me that I'm never going back to Beacon, Professor?"

Professor Ozpin did not smile. "The facts of the case cannot be disputed, Miss Shimmer; you handed in the evidence yourself. Even if you were acquitted of all charges there would be no way for you to ever attend any of the Huntsman Academies again. But then, I am sure that you already knew that."

Sunset nodded. "Yes," she said softly. "I knew, in my head and in my heart that this was goodbye. I knew that I was leaving them all behind, never to return. But I suppose that a part of me hoped…a fool's hope. It's not as if they'd even want me back, is it?"

"There is no such thing as fool's hope," Professor Ozpin said. "Without hope…we would be hopeless. Why did you do it?"

Sunset was silent for a moment. "It seemed like the right thing to do."

"For Miss Polendina?"

"For…for everything," Sunset said. "Because of what I did…because of what I did. All of this. Everything has flown from it and if I had admitted to it much sooner…Penny's secret might even be the least of it, but…but it was the last straw. Maybe I haven't achieved a thing by doing this but…but at least I've tried." She frowned. "But I didn't actually ask to speak to you so that we could waste our ten minutes. Tell me about these exigent circumstances."

"Whatever you have done you are not a member of the White Fang," Professor Ozpin said. "Hence I pleaded not guilty absolutely to it on your behalf."

"Exigent circumstances, professor," Sunset said.

Professor Ozpin took pause a while. "You should not have been placed in that position, Miss Shimmer-"

"No," Sunset said.

"You were too young, too inexperienced, and you were not prepared for a mission of such-"

"No," Sunset said.

"Your failure in the heat of the moment is my failure-"

"No!" Sunset said, her voice rising. "No, Professor, you cannot say that I was simply incompetent and that the real fault was your giving me that mission in the first place."

"Why not?"

"Because it wouldn't work?" Sunset suggested. "Because the judge would only need to watch the video to see that. I didn't freeze up, I didn't panic, I didn't make the wrong choice in the heat of the moment-"

"As a matter of fact, you did," Professor Ozpin reminded her.

Sunset stared at him, before all the air deflated out of her with an immense sigh. "Well…yes. Yes, I did. Of course I did. But you know perfectly well what I mean. You can't go out there and say that what I did was just a screw up caused by being thrown in at the deep end too early."

"I should not have brought first year students into my activities," Professor Ozpin said. "You were too young. You are all too young."

"That could be debated, Professor, but that isn't the point?"

"Then what is the point, Miss Shimmer?"

"The point is that this will ruin you if you try to shield me from this," Sunset said. "However badly you do it, people might even start to think that we were in on this together. I turned myself to quash all the conspiracy theories, not to create new ones!" She pushed her chair back. "Professor…there is no world that needs someone like me more than it needs someone like you. You cannot martyr yourself for my protection, you cannot tarnish your reputation in a misguided attempt to defend me from the consequences of my own decisions. You cannot…you can't do this."

"Is it not my choice, Miss Shimmer?"

"It's my trial, I don't have to have you as my representative," Sunset said. She got up, and began to pace up and down the room. This wasn't what she wanted, and because she did not want it she wouldn't allow it. Beacon needed Professor Ozpin; Team Sapphire needed Professor Ozpin. Without his guidance they would…she wasn't entirely sure what they'd do but it would probably be worse than anything they might get up to under his guidance. "Everyone is depending on you to lead them in the fight against Salem; what will become of them all if you discredit yourself at the moment when Vale needs you the most? I can't become the reason why you become distrusted and feared."

"I am already distrusted by some," Professor Ozpin said.

"Not as many as will distrust if you start trying to act like a bomb shelter to stop the explosion from hitting me," Sunset said. "I didn't do this as part of some oh-so-clever plan to damage your reputation."

"Then why did you do it?"

"Because I'm tired of running!" Sunset snapped. She turned, and walked to the other side of the room. "Blake…Blake told me once that she thought that I embodied Resolve. That's what defined me in her eyes. Which is pretty stupid really because I've never stood and faced my problems. I've always run away from them instead. I ran away from Equestria rather than deal with what I'd done; I ran away from Atlas – which means I've run away from two different Canterlots, one after the other – and I ran here because that's what I do. I run away and I pretend to be someone different and hope that things will be different. I've run away from this for months.

"And then I look at Pyrrha, Ruby, even Jaune and I think…I think that these three aren't going to run. No matter what gets thrown their way they won't run. No matter what Salem does they'll stand and take it. That's why you have to be able to stand with them, Professor, and guide them in a fight that they won't ever quit…but it's also why I have to stand up too. I can't keep running from the things that I've done and leaving messes behind for others to inherit. Not you, not Penny, not anybody."

Professor Ozpin stared at her over the top of his spectacles. "Are you suggesting what I believe you intend, Miss Shimmer?"

Sunset nodded. "There is no defence for what I've done, Professor. I did it, I meant to do it, and nothing excuses it."

"To be clear, we are talking about a capital crime."

"Well, when I said nothing excuses it," Sunset said. "It doesn't mean that I won't try for life imprisonment. Or maybe not. I'm not sure that I'd really enjoy being jailed for the rest of my life. Maybe I should just-"

"No, Miss Shimmer," Professor Ozpin said. "The gift of life is not one to be thrown away simply because one fears one might be bored. However hopeless one might feel, the truth is that there is never a truly hopeless situation." He paused. "Is this really what you want?"

 _What I want?_ Sunset felt like laughing. _Of course this isn't what I want, having to argue that I should only be locked away instead of executed, who in their right mind would want that? I want to go back to my room and compete in the two v two round and watch Pyrrha win the crown as Champion of Remnant. I want to lead my team to great success. I want Celestia to reply to me already, and Princess Twilight too. I want the chance to say goodbye to them before it all ends, not to leave things like this with me shouting into the void and hoping for a response that never came. I want to see Cinder turn over a new leave, I want to see Amber brought to justice, I want…I want everything the way it was, and at the same time better than it ever was. I want to go to sleep feeling loved and warm and safe…and home._

 _None of this is anything like what I want._

 _But it's what I have to do._

Sunset raised her hand, and for a moment a green glow of magic covered it likea glove. "This collar only suppresses my aura and related abilities; it doesn't have any effect upon Equestrian magic, or on Remnant magic either for that matter or we wouldn't need to keep Cinder sedated. I suppose it's hard to prepare for something you don't know exists. The point is…I could get out of here whenever I wanted to. If I wanted to. I don't need you or anybody else to sacrifice themselves in any sense to secure my freedom. But what would be the point? Why hand myself in just to walk away again a few moments later? I…this sounds arrogant but then…I am a very arrogant mare. I hope that I can bear not only own crimes, but be the scapegoat for all or at least some of the problems that have grown up in this city since I committed crimes. No, this isn't what I want, Professor. But it is what I am determined to do." Sunset took a breath, aware that what she was about to ask would be harder than explaining her reasoning. "Professor Ozpin, can I ask you a favour? In lieu of defending me from these charges."

"Ask, Miss Shimmer?"

"Don't kill Cinder," Sunset said. "Don't just execute her so that you can have a new Fall Maiden, whoever you might want it to be."

Professor Ozpin's eyebrows rose. "You ask for a great deal, Miss Shimmer."

"This is my last request, I might as well make it a good one," Sunset said. She smiled, for about a second or less. "People can change, Professor."

"Only if they choose to," Professor Ozpin said. "Something that so far Miss Fall has refused to do."

"Give her time," Sunset said. "A little time, at least. Please, Professor, don't just put her to death because it's the easy thing to do. I…I'd rather not die thinking that I abandoned her to the mercy of her enemies."

Professor Ozpin bowed his head. "I will…offer her the opportunity to change her ways, but if she continues to refuse I cannot keep her a captive indefinitely."

Sunset nodded. "I suppose that's the best I can ask of you, Professor. Thank you. Thank you…for everything."

"You thank me for the road that led you here?"

"I thank you for everything that I learned and experienced while on this road," Sunset said. "You…you haven't taught me much, but by allowing me into your school you've let me learn so much for myself, and for that I will always be grateful, however long my 'always' lasts. Goodbye, Professor Ozpin."

Professor Ozpin got to his feet. "I thought that nobody could be worthier than Amber to bear the mantle of the Fall Maiden; conversely, I did not think you worthy of it in the least. I…I may have been wrong on both counts. Fare you well, Sunset Shimmer, and thank you for all your service."

And after that there was nothing to do but wait out the rest of her ten minutes, at which point the bailiffs led her back into the cold and dark and forbidding courtroom.

"Miss Shimmer," Peregrine Winchester growled down at her from atop his lofty perch; in his black robes he looked like a vulture peering down at its next meal. "And where is your counsel?"

"I have dismissed him, my lord," Sunset said. "I will be representing myself from now on and as such I would…" the worlds 'I would like' stuck in her throat for a moment before she forced them out. "I would like to enter a plea of guilty to all charges except membership of an illegal organisation, to which I plead not guilty." She would admit to the things that she had done (even collusion with Cinder was not inaccurate, it was just a different trip to Mountain Glenn that the actual collusion had taken place) and face and consequences, but she wasn't going to just admit to being a member of the White Fang; everything else, yes, but not that.

The Lord Chief Justice was silent for a moment. "You understand that the charge of treason carries the death penalty?"

"I understand that it can, my lord."

"And you understand that by pleading guilty you waive all right to appeal?"

"I didn't hand myself in so that I could spend years in appellant courts, my lord." _I did it because I've done everything else I can do. I brought in Cinder, and it's not as if my friends need me. They never needed me. All I can do right now…the best thing that I can do right now…is be the scapegoat, and carry my mistakes away before the stench of them sticks to those I love._

"Very well," Peregrine Winchester murmured. "I presume the Commonwealth requires time to prepare its case for the sentencing hearing."

"A little time would be appreciated, my lord, this is all very rushed."

The Lord Chief Justice nodded. "Sentencing proceedings will commence in two weeks time. Miss Shimmer, although you have pleaded guilty to some of the most heinous crimes of which the mind can conceive, although you by your deliberate and self-admitted actions placed in jeopardy the lives of millions of innocent people, although you by your deliberate and self-admitted actions deserve a place in the pantheon of the worst villains that Remnant has ever known you nevertheless remain entitled to the rights guaranteed under law. If you have any witnesses whom you feel may be able to testify as to why you deserve to be shown a more merciful sentence than the law allows for these offences you will be given the chance to provide their names to the court and they will be summoned to appear. Until the sentencing hearing commences you will be remanded into custody at Blackwall prison. Take her away!"


	172. Pyrrha's Plan

Pyrrha's Plan

"Good morning, I'm Lisa Lavender and this is VNN. In breaking news today, a series of shocking revelations from the Atlesian military-"

"Could you please turn that off?" Pyrrha asked. "I'd rather not hear it all over again."

Arslan looked up from her scroll. She stared up at Pyrrha for a moment, then folded her scroll up and put it away. "That's some pretty heavy stuff in there."

"It seems that way because it's been sensationalised," Pyrrha said. "The truth is a lot less shocking."

"You don't think that what's going on is pretty sensational?" Arslan asked. "I didn't think you were that jaded."

Pyrrha looked at her. Arslan shrugged, and folded her hands behind the back of her head. A maple leaf drifted idly down from one of the trees in the courtyard, landing at Pyrrha's feet where she and Arslan sat outside the dining hall. She was glad to be unable to see from here the statue that wasn't; every time she passed it now she both could and could not see it, could and could not see the entrance to the vault that lay concealed.

She didn't want to look at that now. There was enough going on in her head.

"So, to be clear," Arslan said. "You knew about the robot, you didn't know about the grimm and you definitely didn't know about your team leader doing the thing that the robot was accused of?"

"Her name is Penny," Pyrrha said. "But, yes, other than that...that summation is correct."

"Reese thinks you must have known," Arslan said. "She probably isn't the only one."

"And you?"

Arslan shook her head. "Your word is good enough, for me at least."

"Is this your way of warning me that my reputation may be about to take a dent?"

"I think you could impale somebody in the middle of the marketplace and most of Mistral would still love you," Arslan said. "But, like I said, Reese probably won't be the only one who thinks that you must have known the truth about Sunset Shimmer all along and chose to turn a blind eye to it – at best."

Pyrrha nodded. If she were to lose the reputation that had oppressed her so long through a kind of accident, and not through any deed of hers, she would not be blind to the irony of such an escape. Which was not to say that she particularly wanted to be infamous either. "What do you think of all this?"

"The stuff with the grimm creeps me out. After what I saw of those monsters last night and somebody actually wanted to control them? Imagine anyone being able to control them, sic them on whoever they liked. It makes me shudder just thinking about it."

 _If only you knew._ "They would never have used it on other people," Pyrrha said. "If you knew them the way I do you'd know that they're just not capable of such inhumanity."

"For people like Reese the fact that you know the Atlesians so well is part of the problem."

"I'm not interested in having my friendships policed for the sake of my image," Pyrrha said. "I'm willing to die for Mistral, is that not enough?"

Arslan was silent for a moment. "How are you doing?"

"I'm not the one being publicly exposed to be vilified, I'm not the one having her dream taken away," Pyrrha said. "I'm not the one in trouble."

"Your team leader betrayed you," Arslan said. "That's got to hurt a little bit."

It did, of course it did, how could it not, but the mass of confused feelings turning over and over inside Pyrrha's breast were not the kind of thing that she could share with Arslan Altan. She could share with Jaune, of course; with Ruby if she wasn't busy dealing with her own feelings, maybe even with RSPT but not with Arslan. They simply weren't close enough for Pyrrha to unburden herself in such a way.

"Thank you," she said. "But I really am fine."

Arslan shook her head. "Now who's keeping kayfabe?"

"I'm not the one who needs help," Pyrrha said. "Thank you for agreeing to help Penny."

"Hey, if we're going banning people from the arena because they're too good then you should have been thrown out years ago, you freak," Arslan said, with a grin passing across her face. "A victory where the competition has been kept out by lawyering the rules to exclude anybody who might actually challenge you has no value at all. Just like the Mistral tournament without you in it."

"All the same I thank you," Pyrrha said. "She really isn't at all what calling her a robot makes her seem and you're so much more a Mistralian than I am that it will have more weight coming from you. I owe you one."

"You could pay me back by postponing your retirement until I've beaten you."

"You might beat me today," Pyrrha said, because while she meant to face Penny no matter what she had also promised Arslan a match if she was able to beat Penny, as a little carrot to dangle before her to help secure Arslan's cooperation.

"I don't know enough about Penny to take it for granted," Arslan said. "But yeah, maybe. You sure you can get the arena?"

"Nobody else is using it, I can't see Professor Ozpin refusing," Pyrrha said. "I'll catch him now before he…before he goes to court for the arraignment."

"Okay then," Arslan said. "I'll see you up there." She leapt to her feet. "Feel better!"

"I'm not the-" Pyrrha began, but by then Arslan was already walking away, waving offhandedly as she presented Pyrrha with her back.

Pyrrha sighed, and stood up herself as she got out her scroll. She had quite a few calls to make.

* * *

Twilight paced up and down, holding her scroll up to her ear; that was a pretty old way of taking calls - Twilight herself would probably have been able to say just how old fashioned it was, but Rainbow couldn't - but sometimes it was useful, like if Penny's father hadn't stopped calling every single member of the team for the last hour and you wanted to get him to stop without Penny hearing what he had to say.

Doctor Polendina was a great man, but he could also have really bad days and Pennny's day was bad enough without that on top of it.

"No," Twilight said. "I know that...Doctor, if you'd just listen...no, nobody is happy about this...Rainbow and Ciel did their jobs, this isn't...please calm...Doctor...no! No, Doctor Polendina I am not putting you on to Penny when you're like this. Because she's upset enough already and she doesn't need to hear it. Call again when you've calmed down and can be civil. Goodbye." She hung up, and as she put her scroll away Rainbow felt like applauding. She didn't, because of Penny, but she felt like it. Doctor Polendia was a great man, but it was also great to see Twilight stand up to him for Penny, and being told no wouldn't do him any harm.

"Is my father mad at me?" Penny asked. She was sat on the bed, her knees tucked up underneath her chin with her arms wrapped around her legs. Ruby was sat beside her on the bed, one arm around Penny's shoulders. It was weird how Penny looked closer to Ruby's age than to the ages of Rainbow or Ciel or anyone who was actually old enough to attend one of the four Huntsman Academies; Rainbow hadn't really noticed it before, but seeing the two of them sat side by side she couldn't miss it. Why was that? Shouldn't Penny look more like seventeen? Shouldn't she look old enough that people wouldn't ask why she wasn't getting any older for a couple of years at least? Of course it didn't really matter now, did it? Everyone knew what Penny was, everyone knew exactly why she would never seem to age, and everybody had an opinion about what it all meant.

Jaune was sat beside Penny's bed, and Blake hovered nearby. All of Penny's friends were here for her except for Ciel who was due to get out of bed sometime today, Pyrrha who said that she was working on a plan, and Sunset...Sunset who had been the cause of all this and then given herself up to try and mitigate the effects.

How well she'd done that wasn't entirely clear right now.

Rainbow's friends would have been here too, but they didn't know Penny all that well and so Rainbow had asked them to give Penny some space. This was something only Penny's own and actual friends could help with, if anyone could.

"Your father isn't mad at you, Penny," Twilight said. "He's mad at me, at Rainbow Dash, at Ciel, General Ironwood, the entire nation of Mistral, Sunset Shimmer, Team Sapphire more generally and probably the Kingdom of Vale too, but not at you. He's just...disappointed."

"But he'll get over it, right?" Ruby asked. "I mean...he'll calm down?"

"Yeah," Twilight said uncertainty, making it sound more like what she hoped might happen then what she thought would happen. "I'm sure he will. Like, um, well I'm supposed to tell you two – and Pyrrha as well for that matter - that you're not to see his daughter any more, but I'm sure he'll change his mind once he's thinking a little more clearly so go ahead and ignore it for now."

"Ignore it anyway," Rainbow said. "He might be your father, but he doesn't get to tell you who you can and can't be friends with."

Penny nodded. "I don't want to not see you any more."

"We're not going anywhere, Penny," Jaune said.

Penny smiled briefly, before her face fell again. "Does everybody hate me? Are they all scared of me now?"

"We don't hate you," Blake said. "And we're not scared. So even if everyone else in the whole of Remnant was, it still wouldn't be everybody."

"But not everybody else in the whole world does think like that," Twilight said quickly.

"The point is," Blake said, as she walked across the room until she was standing opposite Jaune on the other side of Penny's bed, the bed that she hadn't used up until now but had been left in the room for appearances sake. "I know what it's like to be hated and feared; unlike you I'd actually done things worth hating, or being afraid of, but the point is, what I learned is that you can't care too much about what random strangers think about you. I'm sure there were a lot of people who thought that I was still a terrorist, even in the school. Maybe there still are people who feel that way about me. But that doesn't matter, just like it doesn't matter what people who only know you because of the Vytal Tournament or some false allegations think about you. We've both found people who matter in our lives, and so long as we still have them...we don't need anyone else."

Penny said, "I see what you mean, but how am I supposed to protect people of they don't trust me?"

"We're huntresses," Blake said. "Trust is, honestly it's kind of irrelevant. We work in the shadows; we fight where no one can see us and most of the time nobody even knows our names. We don't need to be trusted to do our jobs, and the only people we need to trust are the ones who fight beside us."

Penny nodded, but it wasn't clear from her expression just bow much Blake had really helped. She meant well, but all that she'd really said was that Penny had best suck it up because it never got any better.

Which Rainbow really hoped wasn't true.

There was a knock on the door.

Rainbow was closest to the door, and so she answered it to find Trixie Lulamoon and Starlight Glimmer of Team TTGR waiting on the other side.

Rainbow scowled. These were Tempest's team-mates, and the fact that they'd been provisionally cleared of wrong-doing following a preliminary interrogation didn't mean that she had to like seeing them. They were her team-mates, they lived with Tempest, how could they not see what she was?

Mind you, Team SAPR had completely missed what Sunset had done on the train in spite of Sunset having made no effort to hide that she was exactly the kind of person who would do exactly what she'd done, so maybe it wasn't as easy as it seemed like it ought to be to spot the wrongdoer in your midst.

Still didn't mean she like having a pair of Tigers outside.

"What do you want?" Rainbow said.

Trixie was holding her magician's hat in her hands, turning it around and round in front of her. She bowed her head. "Trixie is...I'm sorry."

"We're both sorry," Starlight added.

Rainbow hadn't known what to expect from these two but she hadn't expected that. "You're sorry?"

"About Tempest," Starlight explained. "About what she did. We feel kind of responsible."

"If Trixie had been a better leader then Trixie would have known that Tempest was a bad seed," Trixie moaned. "And maybe that she'd been holding back her real strength this entire time, too."

"We knew Tempest was...a little weird," Starlight said. "How could she not be, after what she was and everything that she'd been through? But we never imagined anything like this. Again, we're really sorry."

"But fear not!" Trixie declared. "For the Great and Powerful Trixie, aided by her glamorous assistant Starlight, vows to bring this vile criminal to justice personally!"

Rainbow blinked. "Um, yeah, uh, really nice sentiment and all, but I think that she might be a little out of your league."

"Out of my league? Why, the Great and Powerful Trixie once saved an entire town from an army of ursai major single-handedly!"

Starlight coughed.

"Single-handedly with the help of Starlight," Trixie corrected.

"Uh huh," Rainbow said. "I...I don't like it, but I get it. I didn't want to think that an Atlas student could betray Atlas either. It's not the kind of thing that's supposed to happen. We're supposed to stand shoulder to shoulder against the bad guys and the monsters and the fact that one of us was one of the bad guys…I didn't want to think it could happen either. And I get that it feels personal, and believe me I'd love to tell you to get in line - in fact I will tell you, get in line cause it's personal for us too - but mostly I'm going to tell you to be careful."

"We will," Starlight promised, which probably meant that she would, at least. "We're sorry to bother you."

"Don't worry about it," Rainbow said, before she closed the door.

"Do you really think they'll go after Tempest themselves?" Twilight asked.

"I hope not," Rainbow said.

They're not up to it?" Blake asked.

"They're not bad," Rainbow said, although she kind of thought that Starlight Glimmer carried Trixie and Sunburst a lot of the time. "But you didn't see what Tempest was capable of. She was like something else. Maybe Pyrrha could take her, but I really don't know. Tempest might be too much even for her. She was really, really tough and that's me saying that."

"Pyrrha would have won," Penny said. "Pyrrha would have beaten her because she's amazing. She's not defective like me."

"You aren't defective, Penny," Ruby said. "Why would you even say something like that?"

"Because it's true, there must be something wrong with me," Penny said. "I was created to save the world but if I'm working properly then why am I so flawed? If I'm the best of Atlas engineering then why couldn't I beat Tempest Shadow? Why couldn't I defend the Breach? Why can't I defeat Salem?"

"Because nobody can," Jaune said.

"Then what am I for?" Penny asked. "I'm not fulfilling any of the purposes of my creation."

"Just because you're not winning every single fight doesn't mean that you should just give up on yourself," Jaune said. "Do you know how long it took me to start winning any fights? It doesn't mean that...that doesn't help, does it?"

"Not really," Rainbow said. "Penny...what you're feeling right now is a bruised ego, and the only person who doesn't get what that's like is probably Pyrrha. I get it: you're not as awesome as you thought you were, the world is bigger than you realised and there are tougher guys out there like you didn't think was possible when you started out. We've all gone through that, and it's never great. When I started out I thought I was the hottest stuff in the whole of Atlas, I thought I knew everything; it was like a gut punch to find out I was just a punk who had a long way to go before I could protect my friends from all the real darkness that I hadn't seen before. And then, when I fought Cinder at the tower, when she had me dead to rights before you showed up...that stuff isn't easy to take. But you have to take it, because if you give up and just decide you're a loser who's never going to hold your own in primetime so you might as well give up then you really are letting them win."

"But I was designed to win," Penny said.

"You were also designed to learn," Twilight said. "Because it was always recognised that it would be impossible to programme a born winner from scratch; that's why your neural net is built to expand, allowing you to develop and learn as you encounter new experiences and, yes, new enemies. Next time you face Tempest you'll do better."

"But Ciel got hurt while I was learning," Penny said. "I don't have time to learn, our enemies are out there now!"

"Penny-" Ruby began.

"My friend got hurt because I wasn't good enough," Penny cried. "I'm not good enough and Ciel...I should have been strong enough to protect her and I wasn't. I'm not strong enough to protect anyone."

"And that makes you angry, doesn't it?" Rainbow said. "I know it does. I saw it in your eyes on the ship, and when you took down that bullhead, you were angry."

Twilight looked a little concerned about where Rainbow was going with this, and for that matter so did Ruby, but Rainbow knew what she was doing. Probably.

Penny hesitated for a moment. "Yes," she admitted. "I was angry. I am angry. I'm angry at Tempest for what she did to Ciel and Twilight, and I'm angry at myself for letting it happen."

"Join the club," Rainbow said. "I'm angry too. I'm so angry at that two faced weasel Amber that if I see her again I'm going to break every bone in her body before I blow her head off because that's how mad I am at the danger she put Twilight in, and that's nothing compared to letting my team get hurt like that. That's not a defective robot thing, that's a human thing: we get knocked down and we don't like it."

"What I think Rainbow's trying to say, in a kind of vicious sort of way," Twilight said. "Is that you weren't built as an invincible weapon but as a person; and so you're imperfect like all people are."

"When I first came here," Jaune said. "I didn't get why people like Ruby and Pyrrha needed to come and study at Beacon; they already seemed so awesome, what could they possibly have to learn?"

"But we're none of us the perfect huntsmen that we want to be," Ruby said. "We're none of us able to protect our friends as completely from all danger as we'd like."

"That's why we have to get up every time we get knocked down, and come back at it stronger than before," Rainbow said.

"But what if I fail because I'm still not good enough?" Penny said. "What if someone-"

"That's the risk we all take, Penny," Ruby said. "We all risk not being strong enough or fast enough when it really matters. But that's why we work in teams, so that we've got something to fall back on when we're not enough. I'm Jaune's safety net and he's mine."

"I know it sucks to find out that you're not the unstoppable force you thought you were," Rainbow said. "Believe me, I get it. We're out here with guns going up against magical demigods and an immortal demon lady and it doesn't seem enough, does it?"

Penny shook her head.

"But we're going to have to make it work, because we're all that stands between Atlas and destruction," Rainbow said. "Now right now I bet Ruby's jackass uncle-"

"Hey!"

"-is laughing at us and thinking that he was right all along about everything," Rainbow finished. "Now you can sit there telling yourself that you suck because you don't have a perfect winning streak or you can get up and show him that Atlas always comes back twice as hard. Penny Polendina, what are you made of?"

"Many complex materials," Penny said. She smiled. "But mostly guts and loyalty."

Rainbow grinned right back at her. "Yeah you are, and that's why you're gonna come back from this. That's why we're all gonna come back from this."

There was another knock at the door, and Rainbow answered. This time, it was Pyrrha.

"Hello again," Pyrrha said. "I'm sorry I'm late. Hello, Penny," she said, as Rainbow let her in. "How are you feeling?"

"We were just explaining to Penny that nobody's perfect," Twilight said.

"Except you," Penny said.

Pyrrha laughed, an uneasy laugh and just a little strained. "That's very flattering of you to say, Penny, but not at all true."

"But you've never been defeated," Penny pointed out.

"I've never been tested," Pyrrha replied.

"What do you mean?" Penny asked. "Pyrrha, is something wrong?"

Pyrrha hesitated for a moment. She took a couple of steps into the room. "I had a dream last night," she said. "I was standing in the middle of the Amity Coliseum, victorious in the final match, the champion of Remnant; the crowds were all cheering my name and it felt...I felt ecstatic. And then...then without knowing how I got there I was climbing the steps to an ancient temple, and there were leaves falling all around me; except the temple must have somehow been in the Coliseum, because I could still hear the acclaim of the people ringing in my ears as I climbed up the steps until I reached the temple and there, upon the altar, I laid down all my trophies and offered all my victories and all my honours won in the arena or the field up to burn in sacrifice to the Fall Maiden. And then, as the fires consumed my glories, I woke up terrified."

"Terrified?" Penny asked incredulously. "Why?"

"Because...because I think it means that Amber is going to defeat me," Pyrrha said.

"What?" Jaune exclaimed. "No way!"

"She's the Fall Maiden," Pyrrha said. "Professor Ozpin gave me a charge to defend the relic from her, a charge that I cannot share with any of you - and this isn't my pride talking, it's an unfortunate limitation of the magic - but in my dream I offered up all my honours to her, what does that mean if not that she will triumph over me?"

"It's a dream," Jaune said. "It doesn't mean anything."

"It can, and I fear it does," Pyrrha said. "The point is Penny that although I haven't lost yet that doesn't mean I never will. I haven't been tested against a Maiden yet, or even half a Maiden, not to mention anything else that Salem might have in reserve that we are not yet aware of. I see the powers ranged against us and I feel as though I've just been playing my whole life, wasting my time in frivolous fights instead of preparing for the serious ones. There are things out there that frighten me, Penny, and the fact that I haven't had to face them yet doesn't make me any better than you." Pyrrha blinked, and a touch of red rose to her cheeks. "I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to bring down the mood or make this all about myself. I just...how are you, Penny?"

"I...I'm disappointed," Penny admitted. "Everyone's been so kind to try and make me feel better, but I was really looking forward to progressing in the tournament." She sighed. "The first round was so wonderful with the crowds and the cheering and so much excitement in the air. It would have been so much fun."

Pyrrha smiled. "I may have an idea, if you're interested."

"An idea?" Penny repeated.

"I said last night that if people could see the side of you that we see then they wouldn't dream of accusing you of the...of the things that Sunset actually did," Pyrrha said. She rallied to continue. "And if they knew you, realised that you're a huntress just like us, they wouldn't be so afraid or suspicious. Now, the tournament has been cancelled for today, and I know that it's out of respect for Phoebe and I know that this might be considered bad form, but it's for a good cause, and, well, I don't know when else we could do this. The point is that there's a gap in the TV schedules where the live coverage of the second round should have been and so I got in touch with a few producers that I know-"

"You know TV producers?" Ruby asked.

"One or two," Pyrrha said. "The ones who work on the Mistral regional tournament coverage, one who made a documentary series on the history of the arena which I did interviews for, one or two...I don't know them so much as I've met them and they remembered who I was. The point is that instead of repeating a couple of thirty year old sitcom episodes they've agreed to give me a slot this afternoon, and Professor Ozpin says that we can use the Coliseum. If you agree then it will even get some publicity in advance."

"Agree to what?" Penny said.

"A couple of exhibition bouts," Pyrrha said. "Plus interviews. I've talked to Sun and Arslan and they've both agreed to fight you one on one, as well as talk about how they're not afraid of you or horrified by the, um, the fact of your existence. And finally, if you don't mind, I'd like to fight you as well."

Penny's eyes were as wide as they could go. "You mean...I'll get to fight you after all?"

"I thought that...I know that it's not the tournament and there's no trophy at the end of it, but I though it might be fun and having a couple of Haven students involved wouldn't hurt either and, well, I was looking forward to fighting you as well. That is to say," Pyrrha placed her hand upon her heart and bowed from the waist. "Penny Polendina, will you do me the honour of meeting me in the Colisseum, for a duel under the right of men?"

"YES!" Penny yelled as she launched herself off the bed and hot Pyrrha, knocking her to the ground as she embraced her in a bone-crackingly tight hug. "Thank you, Pyrrha, oh, thank you so much!"

Pyrrha groaned. "I'm glad you're happy."

Rainbow flashed her a thumbs up as she lay on the ground. More than dropping out of the tournament herself, this was probably the best possible thing Pyrrha could have done for Penny; they would all owe her one for this except she was probably humble enough to do it for nothing.

"This," Penny said. "Is going to be so wonderful."

"I'm sure it will," Pyrrha said. "But more importantly I hope that it will do a lot of good for you to be seen for who you really are instead of what the nightmares of science-fiction might make you out to be. I'm sure that, well, I hope it doesn't sound too immodest to say that some of the names involved in this will attract interest, and that means that-" Pyrrha's scroll buzzed, and she pulled it out to check the message.

Her smile froze, then died.

"Pyrrha?" Jaune asked, getting up and starting to walk towards her. "What's wrong?"

"It's Professor Ozpin," Pyrrha murmured. "Sunset…she pleaded guilty to the charges."

The entire room was silent. Even their breathing seemed to stop.

"Guilty?" Rainbow said. "To all of them?" Sure, some of them she was actually guilty of, but that didn't meant that Rainbow had expected her to actually plead guilty; couldn't she fight for her innocence on the grounds that she hadn't actually meant any harm?

"All but one," Pyrrha said. "One of the inconsequential ones. She pleaded guilty to the treason charge."

"Just like that?" Twilight asked, her voice something of a high-pitched squeak of shock.

"Apparently so," Pyrrha murmured. "The charges were read out, she was asked her plea, and she pled guilty."

 _Damn,_ Rainbow thought. She'd known that Sunset was getting arraigned today – the police liked to get these things out of the way early, because they weren't allowed to hold you for too long without charges – but she hadn't thought too much of it, or been particularly worried about what was going to happen there. And that wasn't because she'd suddenly stopped caring about Sunset – she probably cared more about her now than she had for a while – but because, well, it was just an arraignment. Rainbow had been arraigned a couple of times herself when she was younger, like that time she and Gilda had been busted trying to shoplift those limited edition candy bars they couldn't afford, and it was nothing to be worried about: they read out your name, they read out the charges, you said 'not guilty' and then they told you to come back later, only later never came because the cops and the lawyers had better things to do; honestly, Rainbow's parents when they came to pick her up from the police station had been much scarier than the judge at any arraignment that Rainbow had suffered through.

Sure, the charges were more serious here, but Rainbow had expected it to go much the same, except that Sunset might have to raise some money to make bail…and even then Rainbow had assumed that Pyrrha's mom would help her out with that, wasn't she supposed to be loaded (and like Sunset, just as importantly). But that had all assumed that Sunset would plead not guilty.

Who pled guilty? Sure, she was guilty, but so what? Guilty guys pled not guilty all the time, everyone pled not guilty.

So why had she done it?

And what would happen to her now?

"What does that mean?" Ruby asked the question for her and everyone else who had been thinking it. "What happens now?"

"It means that she doesn't get a trial," Twilight said. "She's passed up the opportunity to defend herself. All she can do now is plea for clemency in the sentencing."

"Clemency?"

"Mercy," Twilight said. "All she can do is ask the court to show mercy in the sentencing, and try and demonstrate why she deserves it."

"I see," Ruby murmured. "Do you think she'll get it?"

"It's impossible to say," Twilight said. "So much depends upon so many variables: what Sunset says, anybody who speaks up on her behalf, what the prosecution says, who they can produce to make victim impact statements, the attitude of the presiding judge…it's impossible to make a firm prediction at this stage."

"Why would she do that?" Jaune said. "Throw away her chance like that?"

"Because she is guilty?" Ruby suggested. "Because she did it?"

"I guess," Jaune murmured. "I guess it would be weird to turn herself in and then claim innocence. Still…I didn't think that it would all happen so fast."

"She had a reason for it," Blake said. "I've known lots of guys who pleaded guilty to all the charges the first chance they got. They did it because they were proud of what they'd done, and they wanted to make a statement about the cause…our cause, as it was then. We thought they were heroes, second only to those who had died to advance the cause of the faunus. I think Sunset had a reason to. I think she did it because she wanted to leave no doubt that this is her doing, and no one else's."

"She did it for me," Penny said softly.

"She did it for all of us," Blake said. "You don't need to blame yourself."

"You wouldn't ever need to blame yourself," Ruby said. "What Sunset did…she brought this on herself." Her face fell. "But all the same…I hope they go easy on her."

Penny nodded. "Pyrrha…if you don't want to fight me today…if you don't want to go through with this-"

"No," Pyrrha said. "No, we're going to go ahead. At least, I'm game if you are. Sunset sacrificed everything…I don't think that we should waste the chance she gave us. But still…since we have time I'm going to go down there, and see if they'll let me speak to her."

"Why?" Ruby asked.

"I…I'm honestly not sure," Pyrrha admitted. "But I feel as though I should do it. And there's something else I feel that I should do as well. Twilight, will you come down with me to the vault?"

"The vault?" Twilight said. "You mean-"

"Yes," Pyrrha said. "There's somebody…I think deserves to know what's happening with Sunset."


	173. Two Conversations

Two Conversations

"She what?" Cinder demanded, her hands flexing in their bindings as though she meant to conjure fire in her palms.

Pyrrha tightened her grip upon Milo, just a little, and altered her stance so that she was better placed to thrust her spear forward if he needed to. She was fairly confident that she could strike Cinder down before the latter could shatter the restraints keeping her aura suppressed.

Although she was glad to see Twilight's fingers hovering above the controls to sedate Cinder once again, just in case.

"She turned herself in for-"

"I heard you the first time," Cinder growled. "I heard you, but I do not understand. How could she do something like this? How could you allow her to do something like this?"

"It wasn't my place to stop her confessing to the truth of what she did," Pyrrha said.

Cinder snorted disdainfully. "Are you not her friend?" She shook her head. "No, clearly not, but do you not claim that you are her friend?"

"I don't claim anything," Pyrrha said. "I am her friend."

"No, you're not," Cinder said. "A true friend would never have allowed Sunset to do something so foolish, still less to compound the error by not even resisting the judgement of the sheep. A true friend would not be standing here talking to me but would already be making plans to rescue Sunset from her incarceration. If that grates too much upon your pathetic morality then let me go. In thirty minutes I will tear that jail apart and carry Sunset out to liberty, upon my back if necessary."

"And over how many dead bodies?" Pyrrha asked.

"As many as it takes, although I would prefer to turn their remains to ashes than leave them to obstruct my retreat."

"And do you think that's what Sunset would want?" Pyrrha demanded. "Do you think that she would want you to wreak death and destruction for her sake?"

"What does it matter whether she wants it or not so long as she is safe and alive and out of danger?"

"I imagine that's what Sunset thought when she destroyed the controls on that train," Pyrrha said softly.

Cinder stared at her, breathing in and out through her nostrils. "Yes," she said. "That's exactly what Sunset thought. You're an ungrateful lot, I hope you realise that."

"Ungrateful," Pyrrha repeated. "Because we aren't entirely comfortable with having an entire kingdom placed in jeopardy for our sake?"

"Yes," Cinder said. "Because Sunset loved you so much that she was willing to sacrifice the whole of Vale for your sake, and now you won't sacrifice anything to save her from her fate. You say that you care about Sunset, then why aren't you doing anything to help her?"

"I…I will speak for moderation on her behalf, if she'll let me," Pyrrha said. "I don't believe that she deserves to die, and I'll say so in court if she allows it."

"Pathetic," Cinder said.

"You think that I ought to break her out of prison."

"I think that you should let me out of here so that I can break her out of prison," Cinder said. "Let me do the things that you can't even dream of."

"I'm not going to let you out so that you can slaughter your way to Sunset's side," Pyrrha said.

"Why not?"

Pyrrha's eyebrows rose. "Do you…isn't the answer to that question obvious?"

"Then why did you bring me round to tell me this?" Cinder demanded. "Why are you here, Pyrrha Nikos? Did you come to taunt me with the knowledge that Sunset is facing a terrible fate and I am powerless to help her?"

"Since when do you want to help Sunset?" Pyrrha said.

"When have I not helped Sunset?"

"What about the time you lured us into Mountain Glenn so that we could be caught in a grimm attack?"

Cinder considered that. "I intended that you would…that was different. I thought that Sunset would probably survive. And in any case, I was still sworn to Salem's service then. What about the time that we allied together to defeat Doctor Merlot. Sunset and I have been enemies by the fact that our masters were at loggerheads, but I have never held any hatred in my heart for her, and I have helped her when I could. I gave her the opportunity to win great glory under Mountain Glenn, I saved not only her life but all of your lives when I stopped Doctor Merlot from destroying his own facility, I have been a friend to Sunset and now I ask you to let me be one again-"

"If you want to be Sunset's friend then why don't you respect her choice in this?" Pyrrha said. "Sunset has made her decision, a noble decision and a brave one, a decision whose courage I can respect even if I cannot respect what she did that she now has to answer for. I didn't wake you up to tell you this because I wanted to taunt you with your powerlessness, Cinder; even if I wanted to do that I wouldn't use Sunset to do it. I told you this because…because I think that you do care about Sunset, by your own lights, and I though that you should know."

"To know, but not to act? To be aware but to be unable to change?" Cinder said. "You may not have meant to do so but you taunt me with my lack of power regardless. Do you, do either of you have any idea what it's like to be without power, to be unable to make any change in the world, any change in your own circumstances?"

"Yes," Pyrrha whispered.

"Liar," Cinder said.

"What makes you so sure?"

"Because you're Pyrrha Nikos," Cinder said. "The Invincible Girl, Mistral's uncrowned princess, a hero to little girls all over Remnant; you were born to money and status, and in a country that cares about such things your blood is the noblest blood in Mistral; you were born strong and beautiful and all the gifts that money can buy have been spent to enhance both. You've never been cold or hungry, you've never gone to sleep afraid, afraid to your very bones, afraid that the world is changing around you and there's nothing that you can do about it-"

"Of course I have, that's how I go to sleep every night," Pyrrha said. "And have done ever since Professor Ozpin told me the truth about your mistress and all the rest." She swallowed, and turned Milo over in her hands. "Yes, I am the Invincible Girl; that's what they call me. But what is the Invincible Girl against a truly invincible…demon or goddess or whatever you wish to call her? What can the uncrowned princess do against the power that cast down the crowned empress of Mistral and took the city for its own dark whims? It's true that I have never been truly cold or truly hungry…but I have known loneliness, and I know what it feels like to be trapped, unable to escape no matter how much you hate being where you are…and I know what a lack of power feels like."

"And that's why you wanted to be Fall Maiden," Cinder said. "That's why Sunset had to bring Amber back, because otherwise you would have grasped at that power for yourself no matter the cost."

Pyrrha saw no point in denying it. "I wanted to be strong enough to protect the world and people I care for," she said. "I wanted to feel as strong as my image again."

Cinder chuckled. "And here I thought that we were so very different, you and I," she said. "When I burned down my stepmother's house with my stepmother inside I swore an oath that I would never be helpless again, never powerless, never dependent on the whims of anybody. That's why I sought out Amber-"

"Isn't that what Salem commanded you to do?" Pyrrha asked.

Cinder shrugged, as best she could under her restraints in any case. "Our goals aligned, or at least I thought so anyway. I thought that she supported my aims and ambitions, not understanding that my ambitions only mattered as far as they were useful to accomplish hers. Do you know why I sought out the Fall Maiden? Why not seek for lost Spring, why not Summer, why not Winter?"

"I thought perhaps Amber was easier to find."

"True," Cinder said. "But even had she been the most heavily guarded of all the Maidens I would have sought her out. Each Maiden is tied to a specific relic; you know that, don't you?"

"Yes," Pyrrha said. "And Fall is bound to-"

"Choice," Cinder said. "Precisely. I sought the power of Choice, because my choices matter; my choices are the only things that matter. I decide what I am and what I will be because…because I can be anything I want to be in this world." She paused, seeming shocked by something she had said, but she rallied swiftly afterwards. "I chose to escape from my abuse and imprisonment, I chose to stop being powerless, I chose to seek out the power of Salem and to embrace her gifts. Perhaps my choices were not always wise, but they were always mine and mine alone. Do you believe in destiny, Pyrrha?"

Pyrrha's eyes narrowed. "I believe in a goal to which we work towards our entire lives."

"And choose it," Cinder said. "I choose my destiny, because my choices are all that matters."

"You chose to surrender to Sunset-"

"I said that my choices were not always wise," Cinder said.

"But you should let Sunset's choice matter too," Pyrrha said. "And you will, if you care about her, if you really care."

"And even if I don't you're not letting me out voluntarily, are you?"

Pyrrha raised her spear as she settled into a guard. "I'm not letting you out at all."

"And I'm not trying to escape, so you can settle down and Twilight doesn't need to pump me full of tranquilisers," Cinder said. "The time has not yet come for us."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that Sunset has to find her way out," Cinder said. "I refuse to accept any other outcome."

Pyrrha straightened up. "Despite what you may want to believe about yourself, there are other things in the world that matter beyond your choices."

"But not the choices of such as hold Sunset captive," Cinder said. "You are the heir to a line as ancient as any in Remnant; Sunset is a creature of magic from another world; I dare all things and have taken the power of a demigod for myself; are we not creatures of another world from the lesser men around us? Are we not set above them, fit to order our affairs as we will without reference to their desires?"

"No," Pyrrha said flatly. "We are not. We are not better than them because of what we are or who we are, and we don't have the right to do what we want, stepping on whoever we want, because we're better."

"Or because we're stronger?"

"Those of us who have strength also have the obligation to protect the weak, not abuse them."

"Then why did no one protect me?" Cinder demanded. "The strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must, that is the lesson I learned at my stepmother's hands. But now the weak will torment Sunset for their own amusement, and put her to death to salve their fears."

"You don't know that."

"Forgive me if I'm not filled with a boundless optimism about the human capacity for mercy," Cinder said. "But look around. Look at the world that we live in, a world that is filled with hatred even though that same hatred dooms us. We know it brings the grimm and yet still we find it so easy to hate our neighbours, our families, everyone around us. And that hate will devour Sunset now. After all that I have seen in the world…the cruelty of men is the only thing that I can believe in, their compassion is but a fairy tale."

"Is that why you've been stoking that hatred?" Pyrrha demanded. "If there is no compassion left for Sunset it is because you and your siren friend have driven it out of Vale and filled the hearts of the people with distrust and fear and, yes, hate. Hate of Atlas, hate of Mistral, hate of the faunus, hate of anybody who isn't them. You, Sonata, the White Fang, you have all spread division and discord; you can't simply that this is human nature when it is a nature you have fed and watered until it bloomed in all its hideous glory."

Cinder's gaze burned with anger, but that anger seemed to die out as Cinder let her head slump forward, and her body too as much as her restraints allowed, which wasn't much. "You're right," she admitted. "I did not create the hatred in the hearts of men but I have inflamed it. And now the flame I stoked will devour my friend."

"You don't know that," Pyrrha said. "None of us can be sure of that."

"You cannot have led such a sheltered life."

"I have faith in people," Pyrrha said.

"Then you are that sheltered."

"Not everyone is as wicked as you."

"I am no more wicked than any other man, or than the world that made me wicked," Cinder replied. "Do you really believe that Sunset will be shown mercy?"

Pyrrha hesitated. "It is my hope that she will."

"And if she is not?" Cinder asked. "If the court of braying pygmies commands that Sunset should be put to death, will you then set me free to go to her?"

"No," Pyrrha said. "But if they do decree that Sunset must die then…then I will free her myself."

Cinder's eyes narrowed. "You are too good for that."

"I am not made to leave a friend to die."

"Only to rot in jail?"

"Sunset has made her choice," Pyrrha said. "I will honour that…to the utmost limit that my soul can bear. Death is too harsh a penalty for what she has done."

Cinder was silent for a moment. "For the longest time I've hated you for everything you are. For everything you have and you regard not while I desire it desperately. For the way that everyone has always looked at you, and looked to you, while I was lost in the blindness of their eyes. For all of that I hated you."

"And for the longest time I've wanted to kill you," Pyrrha said. "And exorcise that malign shadow from over the heads of my friends, and banish your influence from Sunset."

They stared into one another's eyes for a moment.

"And I still do," they both said at once.

"For all that we might be starting to understand one another," Pyrrha said.

"For all?" Cinder said. "No, because we might be starting to understand one another." She smirked, then scowled. "What you have allowed to be done to Sunset, what Sunset has allowed to be done to herself, is a travesty of natures laws."

"The laws of nature are cruel," Pyrrha said. "That is why we must hope for mercy from the laws of men."

"She must survive," Cinder said. "She must."

"Because that is your choice," Pyrrha said. "Your will?"

"My will," Cinder said. "My choice. My destiny."

* * *

"Hello again," Sunset said as she sat up in her cell. She tried to smile, but ended up wincing at the pain in her face.

"What happened to your face?" Pyrrha asked in an evidently shocked voice.

"You'd look this bad if you didn't have aura," Sunset said. "Jaune might…I know what I want to say but I can't think of a way to actually say it that might not sound mean spirited."

Pyrrha smiled. "I know what you mean. Who did this to you?"

"Emerald," Sunset said. "But it's okay, I asked her to. Sort of."

"Emerald? You asked her to?"

"Well, it was let Emerald beat me up or risk getting shivved by that big White Fang guy you beat up a couple of times."

"The White Fang?"

"Yep," Sunset said. "Emerald, Mercury, a whole load of White Fang guys from the warehouse and the train…all our old friends are right here, it's great."

Pyrrha frowned. "Sunset, you can't have yourself beaten up every time you think that someone might be trying to kill you! You need to…there must be someone that we can talk to about getting you moved to a different facility, or put in solitary confinement where nobody can get to you, this isn't safe."

"I'm not sure how much the authorities would care," Sunset muttered.

"I care," Pyrrha said. "We all care, even Ruby though she might not express it very well. None of us want to see you die, either by execution or in some prison fight. Please, there must be something that can be done."

"Maybe there is," Sunset said. "And I can't say that I relish the idea of this happening every day or so."

Pyrrha nodded. She seemed relieved, as if she had half-expected Sunset to refuse all help. "I…we were all surprised to learn that you pleaded guilty."

"What would have been the point of turning myself in only to plead innocent?"

"I…yes, I see what you mean," Pyrrha murmured. "All the same…it feels like everything is happening so fast. It doesn't seem possible that it was only yesterday that the Vytal Festival was the biggest thing we had to worry about, and that we were celebrating our victory in the four on four round. Now…now the team leader we fought against is dead and…and the world has changed in an instant."

"The world always changes in an instant," Sunset said. "One minute you're loved and the next Princess Celestia is throwing you out. It's only when you look back that you can see the pebbles shifting."

"I'm trying to look back," Pyrrha said. "But I don't see anything."

"I think if I'd been more honest with myself about Amber instead of wanting to believe that she was the solution to all our problems I would have seen it," Sunset said.

"You don't need to blame yourself for what happened with Amber."

"Because there are so many other things that I can and should blame myself for, right?" Sunset asked.

"I…that isn't…"

"It's okay," Sunset said.

"Is it?" Pyrrha said. "Sunset…they might decide to execute you. Cinder's furious about this, as you might expect."

"You spoke to her?"

Pyrrha nodded. "I thought…it seemed like the honest thing to do. Lying to her…or whatever it would have been to have kept her in the dark…it didn't seem right."

Sunset nodded. "Thank you."

"Professor Ozpin said you asked for her life to be spared."

"I did," Sunset said. "Did you tell her that?"

"No," Pyrrha murmured. "I wasn't sure what effect it would have on her. She wanted to rescue you."

Sunset chuckled, which brought another wince of pain when her face protested the stretching of her muscles. "I suppose I should be flattered."

"I promised that I'd get you out," Pyrrha said. "If it came down to a choice between that or letting you die."

Sunset's eyes widened. "You can't do that."

"Why not?"

"Because you'll be aiding and abetting a fugitive," Sunset said, getting up off the bed and walking towards the barred door of her cell. "You'll be hunted wherever you go."

"Arslan says that I could kill someone in the marketplace and they'd still have a hero's welcome for me in Mistral," Pyrrha said.

"That doesn't mean that you should try it!" Sunset snapped. She groaned. "You can't do this, Pyrrha."

Pyrrha stared into Sunset's eyes. "I can't let you die, either. Your crimes don't warrant it."

"In your opinion."

"Yes, in my opinion, the opinion of the person who would have to stand by and do nothing while you die," Pyrrha said. "You risked the whole of Vale to save my life but I'm not allowed to risk…what? My freedom? My precious reputation? Am I not allowed to risk anything for even while you risk everything for all of us?"

"I have to-"

"I understand that," Pyrrha said. "But death is…something else. Too far."

"Then if it comes to that I'll get myself out," Sunset said. "But I don't need your help for that and I don't need Cinder's help and I don't need you to blacken your name for my sake. So don't do it. Promise me that you won't."

Pyrrha frowned. "You can get yourself out?"

"Magic, remember?" Sunset said. "It doesn't work the same was as aura."

"You're serious?" Pyrrha said. "This isn't some…you're not lying to me to get me to agree to what you want?"

"When was the last time I lied to you?"

"About the train, more or less."

"Right, yes," Sunset conceded. She reached up and scratched the back of her head. "But I'm not lying now. If they…if they decide to execute me then I'll…I'll go."

"Will you?"

"Yes, do you think I want to die?"

"I think you want to say something that will get me to agree not to come to your aid."

"Is it working?"

Pyrrha shook her head. "I've given my word to Cinder. And my word means something to me, even if Cinder doesn't. I've made one promise, I can't cancel it out with another." She smiled. "So if you don't want me to keep my word to Cinder then you'll have to ensure that you keep yours to me."

Sunset sighed, and leaned her head on the cold metal bars. "I will. I'll do it, if it comes to that. I hope it doesn't."

"We all hope that," Pyrrha said. "I'm glad to hear that you hope it to."

Sunset looked at her. "I'm not here because I have a death wish."

"You just told me that you could get out at any time."

"Which just means that I'm here because I…because I need to be."

"Why?" Pyrrha asked. "I mean, I understand what you did and how wrong it is, what I don't really understand is why now? Why not fight your case? Because of Penny?"

"Because of Penny," Sunset said. "Because…because Penny made me realise…"

Pyrrha waited for a response that didn't come. "Sunset?"

Sunset retreated back a couple of steps, and sat back down on her bed. "I know that you didn't have a lot of friends in Mistral; that's something that you and I have in common, I think. Nevertheless, there must have been people who treated you with kindness, people you felt as if you knew even if you didn't really know them, people you remember with affection, people who were more than just a faceless mass to you."

Pyrrha nodded. "Hephaestus, the smith who helped me fashion Milo and Akuou. He was a stern man, lame in one leg and I think the pain sometimes got to him, made him a little irritable; I say stern and he was quite stern in the forge, in the direction of his apprentices and workers, but he had the most beautiful wife and when she came by, to watch him dote upon her it was…it was as if you were looking at a completely different man. I confess that he made me rather nervous at first, but after the first time I saw him and Aphrodite together…after seeing him coo over this beautiful woman…he never seemed quite so nerve-inducing afterwards. And he was…well, his help was invaluable; Milo wouldn't have been the same without his help."

Sunset nodded. "Can you imagine this lame smith and his beautiful wife being devoured by the creatures of grimm?"

"I wouldn't let that happen," Pyrrha declared. "I would stand between them and danger."

Sunset was silent for a moment, and then a moment more and then a third as the time ticked on. "When I was a student in Canterlot – that's my Canterlot, not the one in Atlas; did I ever explain that the places are all named the same? Anyway – I used to go to this place called the Haymarket; it was a market, as it sounds, and it had this antique bookshop where you could find all sorts of rare material, stuff that wasn't even in the library, or at least wasn't in the bits of the library where I was allowed to go. I found rare history books, including some source texts; obscure commentaries that helped me understand some of the literature I struggled with; spellbooks full of things that Celestia didn't think I was ready to learn yet. It was run by this mare, Miss Quill, she was a little old and looking back…I think she might have been lonely, I don't know how many other customers she got. But she was always so helpful, more helpful than I deserved really, because I can't say that I was grateful. She'd help me hunt through these incredibly narrow shelves, looking for just the right book to help me that day, and while we looked she'd tell these stories…most of which I'm ashamed to say I can't really remember now. I think that's what she wanted most of all: someone to listen to her stories.

"And when I got done in the bookshop I'd head across the market to this ice cream stand run by this stallion named Strawberry Swirl; he wore a red and white striped suit and a white hat. He was always really nice to me, always acted like he was pleased to see me as though me being there was the best thing to happen to him all day. A vanilla, raspberry whirl and strawberry sundae with strawberry source and two chocolate flakes."

Pyrrha's mouth twitched. "Was that your favourite order?"

"It was my only order, I never asked for anything else," Sunset said. "He used to give me sprinkles for free." She frowned. "It's all that I can think of now: Miss Quill and Strawberry Swirl being eaten by beowolves because of what I did, because I chose to let them into the city."

"It took you this long to realise that Vale is full of people."

"Give me a break, I'm not used to caring about other people," Sunset said. "I'm not very good at it. But when I think about it like that…when I think about all the Starwberry Swirls and the Miss Quills in Vale…I deserve to rot in a cell like this for the rest of my life for what I almost did to them, don't you think?"

Pyrrha didn't reply, but in this context her silence was confirmation, or at least Sunset took it for the same.

"And perhaps," she continued. "Perhaps I can do some good for the world by doing this, more good than I could do out there with the rest of you, as much as that's where I'd rather be."

"That…that is brave of you," Pyrrha said. "Though…although what led you here was not honourable…how you are behaving now is."

"I…I'm glad you think so," Sunset replied. "I honestly didn't expect to see you here."

"We didn't stop being your friends just because of this," Pyrrha said. "It was wrong, but…we are here for you. I mean to speak for clemency on your behalf, and I'm sure that I won't be the only one."

"Are you sure that-"

"Yes," Pyrrha said. "If you don't want me to rescue you then at least let me do this. You say that you deserve to spend your life in a cell but you've already accomplished that. Accept help in avoiding going the rest of the way."

Sunset hesitated. "I was thinking of your reputation."

"I don't care about my reputation."

"I care," Sunset said. "Can we…would you mind if we talked about something happier?"

"Not at all," Pyrrha said.

"I hear that you're the team leader now."

"It doesn't mean as much as it sounds," Pyrrha said. "I'm not you."

"Not a dictator, you mean?"

"I mean I know my limitations," Pyrrha said, seeming a moment too late to realise what she'd just said. "I mean that I know Jaune is more suited to leadership than I am. I'm not made for it myself."

Sunset had said the same thing to Professor Ozpin, but with Pyrrha actually in front of her she felt the need to reassure her. "I think you're as suited for it as anyone else I know."

"That's very sweet," Pyrrha said. "But the person locked up shouldn't be trying to make the person who isn't feel better." She paused. "I'm dropping out of the tournament. I'm not the only one. Rosepetal, Sun, even Team Auburn."

"Really?" Sunset said. "Do they even know Penny?"

"Arslan knows a rigged fight when she sees it, fortunately," Pyrrha said. "I've managed to coax her into one of a few exhibition fights with Penny this afternoon. One on one: Sun, Arslan and myself."

"You're going to fight Penny?" Sunset said. She shook her head. "I'm sorry that I'll miss that."

"I'm sorry that you'll miss it too," Pyrrha said. "We'll all miss you."

"You don't need me."

"That's a matter for debate," Pyrrha said. "But we want you."

Sunset didn't say anything to that. There wasn't much that could be said. "You...you've all taught me so much," she said. "Including the fact that…sometimes we have to be willing to sacrifice ourselves for something greater than ourselves." She balled one hand into a fist and held it out through the bars.

Pyrrha glanced down at it, and a smile spread across her face before she, too, curled her hand into a first and bumped her knuckles against Sunset's hand.

"Hoof bump," Sunset murmured.

Pyrrha chuckled. "Is that really something that you do where you come from?"

"Absolutely."

"I always meant to ask you what it meant."

"It means we're cool," Sunset said. "It was…it was a great honour to fight by your side."

"The honour was mine," Pyrrha said. "I will do all that I can for you, and beyond that I wish you the best of luck, if luck has a place in a world like this."

"It does," Sunset said. "And I wish you luck against Penny, and in the wars to come. Even though you don't need it, because I know you'll be fine."

And she did know it. They would be fine: Pyrrha, Jaune and Ruby – Sunset didn't want to think about someone actually taking her place, although it seemed inevitable that somebody would – they didn't need her. They had one another's backs, and that would be enough. They would be fine, and since Sunset knew that that meant…that she was fine too.


	174. From Ruby to Twilight

From Ruby to Twilight

Ruby sat all alone in the dorm room. Pyrrha had gone to see Sunset, and Jaune was outside in the courtyard training with Blake; he said that it took his mind off things and she seemed happy enough to help him out since Pyrrha wasn't here.

Which meant that Ruby was in the dorm room all alone. With Sunset's magic book sitting on the desk in front of her.

She hadn't opened it yet. She wasn't sure if she wanted to, or if she should. On the one hand, it was Sunset's book, the one that she used to talk to her friends in the other world that she came from; on the other hand it felt like they deserved to know what had happened to her, and why Sunset might not be answering any more.

It occurred to Ruby that perhaps she should have given the book to Pyrrha to bring to Sunset, but did they even let you have books in jail? Did they let you have pens? It really hadn't occurred to her, but even if it had…she felt like maybe she needed to say something to…to the other Princess Twilight first.

She felt…she didn't feel bad exactly, but she felt something like it, she felt weird when it came to Sunset, and when it came to the way that she had treated Sunset too. What she'd done – what Sunset had done – was wrong, absolutely wrong, but had Ruby been too harsh about it? She'd done it for Ruby even though Ruby had never asked her too, did that matter? Should Ruby keep that in mind?

It seemed like she was being harder on Sunset than everyone else, but was she being too hard?

She didn't know, and she didn't know who to ask, or whether…whether this nagging feeling that she ought to apologise a little was something that she ought to take notice of or not.

Sunset had done something terrible, but that hadn't made Ruby stop caring about her…but she was worried in case Sunset thought that it had.

And that was why…that was why she felt as though she ought to be the one to break the news about what had happened to Sunset's friend in Equestria. Maybe that way she could understand what she was supposed to be feeling right now.

She opened up the journal to the first blank page, and picked up her pen.

Her hand hovered over the page. She wasn't sure what she ought to write.

Ruby: Um, hello? Is anybody there?

There was nothing for a few seconds, for maybe ten seconds that dragged on as Ruby stared at the blank page under the few words that she'd just written down, waiting and wondering how long it usually took Sunset to get a response. Then it happened, the words began to crawl across the page without any sign of who was writing them. It was freaky, but it was kind of wonderful at the same time too; if only Ruby had been able to wonder at it at a better time than this.

Twilight: Ruby?

Ruby's eyes widened. Ruby: How did you know it was me?

Twilight: This isn't Sunset's handwriting, and I checked back and it's yours.

Ruby: You can recognise my handwriting after just one time?

Twilight: When I have the example so close, yes.

 _Wow. I still can't recognise Yang's handwriting sometimes._ Ruby: This is Princess Twilight, isn't it? Or is it Princess Celestia? I'm sorry, I'm not so good at spotting the difference as you.

Twilight: It's fine, and yes, it's Twilight. Just Twilight will be fine, you don't need to call me Princess. I'm sorry that I haven't replied to Sunset in a while, but there was this business with time travel and the fate of Equestria and I literally couldn't respond and then, well, this isn't a good excuse but I had to help my new student settle in and I'm afraid I just forgot to check the journal.

Ruby: It's okay. Fate of the world stuff will drive other stuff out of your mind. I'm sure that Sunset would understand, even though I know she would have liked to have talked to you, or Princess Celestia, or both of you.

Twilight: Would have? Ruby, did something happen to Sunset? Is she hurt? Is she

Ruby: No, she's not dead and she isn't hurt either. It's just

She stopped, unable to think of how to write down everything that had happened and everything that had happened to Sunset in particular.

Twilight: Ruby? Forgive me, but I think that something must be wrong. Where's Sunset?

Ruby decided that there was nothing else for it but the truth. Ruby: She's in jail.

Twilight: Oh, no. Oh, my. It's because of the train, isn't it?

Ruby stared at Twilight's words with blank astonishment. She could hardly believe what was written there. She could understand them but the meaning, it…she knew? She'd known all along? Ruby: Sunset told you?

Twilight: Yes.

Ruby: When?

Twilight: A couple of months ago, maybe a little more. Not long after it happened, I think.

Ruby: You've known all this time? She told you back then and she just kept it from us?

Twilight: Sunset was worried about how you'd react.

Ruby: And she should have worried! Don't you think that what she did was wrong?

There was no response from Twilight for a little while. The blank space on the page stretched on like silence.

Twilight: In my world, we tend to adopt a more results-focussed attitude towards these sorts of things. Alls well that ends well tends to sum up our attitude pretty nicely, I think.

Ruby: Alls well that ends well.

Twilight: By which I mean that nobody got hurt, and a few people who might have got hurt didn't, so we wouldn't see that any harm was done and we would probably let it go at that. That's just the kind of a people we are.

Ruby: Is it really?

Twilight: It's certainly what we'd like to tell ourselves we are. And sometimes we even live up to it.

Ruby: So if someone did what Sunset had done, and put one of your cities at risk, you'd be okay with it so long as nobody got hurt?

Twilight took a little while to actually respond. Twilight: I'd hope so. You have to understand that in our world friendship means everything; it's at the heart of our society and the way we live our lives.

Ruby frowned. Ruby: But didn't Sunset leave Equestria because she didn't believe in friendship like everybody else?

Twilight: There's a degree of irony there, yes.

Ruby: I understand why Sunset did it; believe me, Twilight, I know that it's important to stand by our friends, I know how important they are or ought to be. But we can't just fight for the people we care about any more than we can fight for the joy of fighting or because we want to be recognised for how awesome we are. We have to fight for what our fighting protects and that can't just be the people who fight alongside us. We have to fight for the whole of our world, and if Sunset can't remember that or can't do it then she shouldn't be a huntress.

Twilight: You'll get no argument from me on that. I don't think either I or Princess Celestia would deny that we'd rather have Sunset home with us than risking her life in your world which, no offence, sounds like a pretty scary place.

Ruby: None taken, it is. Scary, I mean. She re-read Twilight's words. Ruby: So what your saying is that if Sunset went home, back to Equestria, back to where she comes from then you'd let her? She'd be okay?

Twilight: Princess Celestia isn't the kind of person to hold a grudge. But is that possible? I thought you said that she was in jail? Do you think they'll let her out?

Ruby: No, they won't, but She hesitated, wondering if what she was about to propose was right or not.

She didn't want Sunset to die. But she also didn't want Sunset back, either. What Sunset had done, whatever the reason for which she had done it she had shown herself unfit to be a huntress; there was no way that Ruby could trust her life to Sunset now, not after what Sunset had shown herself to be willing to do to save Ruby's life. Yes, you had to trust your team-mates to protect you but you also had to be able to trust them to do the right thing when it counted. She didn't want anybody to sacrifice huge numbers of innocent people just to save her, and she didn't, no, she couldn't, fight beside someone who would do that.

But she didn't want Sunset to die and she wasn't even sure that she wanted to see her punished by being locked away for the rest of her life either. After all that they'd shared…the Sunset who had sabotaged the train was the same Sunset who had brought her her mother's journal from the archives, and who had done so much else as well. She didn't want that Sunset to suffer, and this…this might be the best way.

Ruby: Regardless of whether they want to let her out or not, I think it would be for the best for everyone if Sunset might be helped out and then came home to Equestria where she belongs.

Twilight: I think you definitely have a point, but have you talked to Sunset about this?

Ruby: No. But I'm sure that she'll see reason. They might execute her for what she's done.

Twilight: Execute? You execute people?

Ruby: Sometimes. For the worst things.

Twilight: But that's barbaric! Not to mention the fact that what Sunset did doesn't anywhere near fall under the level of the worst possible things.

Ruby: That's why nobody wants to see that happen to Sunset. She did a terrible thing but I don't want to see her die. I'm not even sure that I want to see her imprison. I don't know what I'm supposed to feel about Sunset right now. None of my friends have ever betrayed me before, I don't know what I should do or think or feel after one of them did.

Twilight: Do you think you could forgive her?

Ruby blinked. Ruby: I don't know. Maybe. I think I'd like to. But only if she changed, only if she could prove that she wouldn't do something like that any more. And I don't know if it's possible for her to do that.

Twilight: So what do you want?

Ruby: I want her gone. I want Sunset to be safe but I don't want to have to think about her any more. I want to protect her but I don't want to fight by her side. That's why my idea is the best one for her.

Twilight: It certainly seems that way.

Ruby: How would Sunset go home, anyway?

Twilight: There's a portal; I think there's a place called Canterlot in your world?

Ruby: It's in Atlas. _So we'd have to steal an airship, too._

Twilight: Can you get Sunset there? And more importantly do you think that she'll agree to go?

Ruby: I know that Sunset wants to do the right thing now, and I'm glad because, well, maybe it means that she can change after what she did, but I'm sure that she doesn't want to die any more than anyone else does.

Twilight: But Sunset's always resisted the idea of returning to Equestria and abandoning you.

Ruby: It's not abandoning us if we want her to go. And besides, even if it is, then it's like exile, right? If she wants to think of it that way then it can be her punishment, instead of jail or worse.

Twilight: I'm not the one you need to convince. We're not the ones who would be sorry to see Sunset come home.

Ruby: No, I get that. I might not have time for a couple of days depending on what happens, but I'll go and see Sunset and I'll make her see that this is the best idea. And then I'll let you know that she said yes.

Twilight: I hope you can persuade her, for her sake and for yours.

Ruby: Mine? What do I have to do with this?

Twilight: You might not know how much you still care about Sunset, but if she was in real danger I guarantee you'd realise soon enough.

 _I think you're right. That's what kind of worries me._

Ruby: I know how much I care about Sunset; that's why I want to make sure she's okay; even if we never see each other again.

Twilight: Even though you may not think that you care very much for Sunset right now, she's still very lucky to have a friend like you. Has anything else major happened since I last talked to Sunset?

Ruby: You care about other stuff after what I've just told you?

Twilight: You're Sunset's friends, and after hearing so much about you all I feel as if I know you. And so, I don't know, you don't have to tell me about your problems but, if you want to, I'm willing to listen.

Ruby: That's really wait, did you say time travel?

Twilight: It's a long story.


	175. P v P, part 1

P v P part 1

"I'm just not sure this is a good idea," Mom said.

"What's the harm? They're her favourites, if she finds out she missed it she'll be so upset," Dad said.

"And how upset will she be if she sees one of her heroes get ripped apart by a killer robot?"

"You're exaggerating; they wouldn't let this happen if it wasn't completely safe."

"They didn't even know what she was until this morning!"

Diana had been halfway up the stairs when she'd heard her parents start to argue; she didn't exactly know what they were arguing about but it sounded like it had something to do with the tournament, and so she'd stayed where she was, halfway up the stairs, listening to the two of them.

She didn't know why the two on two round had been cancelled for today – Mom and Dad knew, but they wouldn't tell her – only that it hadn't been and that it was terrible. Pyrrha and her partner Sunset had been drawn against two Atlesians called Trixie and Starlight, and Diana had been looking forward to the match because first of all it was Pyrrha and secondly Trixie had been pretty funny to watch during the four on four rounds.

And then her mom and dad hadn't even been able to promise her that the two on two rounds would be held tomorrow instead. And they wouldn't explain that either.

It felt like there was a lot going on that nobody would explain to her, and she had a feeling that if they did explain she might not like what she heard.

Nevertheless, she wanted to know what was going on with Pyrrha, and so she sat halfway up the stairs and tried to hear what her parents were saying in the kitchen.

"Can you believe some of this?" Mom said. "And for it all to come out now, of all times."

"I don't like what the Atlesians have been doing," Dad said. "But things like that are for the council to respond to. They'll make the best decision for Mistral, all we can do is look after our girls…and work out how to tell them that both of the fighters they admire the most have dropped out of the tournament overnight. That's why we have to let them watch this."

"It's a killing machine!" Mom hissed. "There's no telling what it might do to them."

"They obviously think that there's nothing to worry about or they wouldn't be fighting it," Dad said. "You've read the gossip columns, this could be Pyrrha's last fight, do you want them to miss that?"

Diana let out an involuntary gasp of shock as she heard that. Pyrrha's last fight? Pyrrha was quitting? Why? She was still so young, she was barely any older than Diana herself? Why would she want to quit now?

Would she never get a chance to fight her idol?

She heard the sound of footsteps on the kitchen floor, before the door opened and Dad walked into the hall. The light glinted briefly off his spectacles as he looked up to find her on the stairs.

"Is it true?" Diana asked. "Is Pyrrha not going to fight any more?"

"I don't know exactly, sweetie, but that's what a lot of people are saying," Dad said. "I hope they're wrong, but I just don't know." He smiled. "The good news is that Pyrrha and Arslan are both going to fight this afternoon."

"They are?" Diana said. "But you said all the fights were cancelled today."

"They were, but these are special fights," Dad said, which made perfect sense to Diana because, after all, Pyrrha and Arslan were both special fighters. "They're going to fight the…then Atlesian fighter Penny, do you remember her from yesterday?"

"I think so," Diana said, wracking her memory of yesterday's matches. "She was the one with all the swords, wasn't she?"

"Yes, that's the one," Dad said. "She's…well, she's been disqualified from the main tournament, but Pyrrha and Arslan decided to give her a shot anyway and so they're going to fight her one on one, first Arslan and then Pyrrha, today."

That was so like them, Diana, thought, to give a struggling competitor a helping hand. She was sure that neither of them would have much trouble from Penny, but that didn't meant that it wouldn't be fun to watch. "And we can see it, can't we Dad?"

"Of course you can, honey," Dad said. "I wouldn't ever want you to miss something like this."

* * *

"Hey, River, pass me that bowl of ratatouille," Sky said, wriggling her fingers in the direction of the bowl, which was duly passed over by her sister.

Rouge looked up from serving herself some of the crushed potatoes. "Aoko, put that away. We're having lunch."

Aoko was staring at her scroll, ignoring the pork chop cooling slowly on her plate in front of her. "The name of Jaune's girlfriend starts with a P, right? Is it Penny Polendina?"

"No, Aoko," Kendal said patiently. "Jaune's girlfriend is called Pyrrha. She's the girl who visited, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember his girlfriend came for a visit," Aoko said. "I just don't remember her name."

"Here's how I keep track of all the women in Jaune's life," River said, a smile playing across her lips. "Pyrrha is the gorgeous redhead, Ruby is the jailbait redhead-"

"Language at the table, please," Rouge murmured.

"You can't just call someone that because they're young," Violet said.

"I can when they wear a skirt as short as she does," River replied. "Sunset is the evil redhead and Blake is the surprisingly not a redhead."

"I thought Sunset was the smoking redhead?" Kendal said.

"She was until it turned out she was evil," River said. "Hence 'evil redhead'."

Kendal folded her arms. "Do you think that Jaune knew? About what his team leader had done, I mean."

"No," Sky said emphatically. "No way. Jaune might be a lot of things, and he might have changed a lot since he went away to that school, but there is no way that he would keep a secret like that."

"Yeah, I mean, I don't want to think that he knew what she'd done either," Kendal said. "But…they live together. How do you keep a secret like that from someone who lives so close to you?"

"We live together," Rouge said. "It doesn't mean that we don't have our secrets."

"It's easier than you'd think," Dad said. "Team-mates don't necessarily share everything; some of them aren't even that close. My old team barely spent any time together outside of missions, it's not like there's mandatory team-bonding time or anything like that."

"I think Team Sapphire is a little closer than that," Kendal said.

"Sure," Dad admitted. "But some things you just don't talk about, and your brother isn't a mind-reader."

"Poor baby," Mom said. "To find out something so horrible. Are you sure that we shouldn't call?"

"The last thing that Jaune needs is us calling to find out how he's doing before he's figured out how he's doing for himself," Dad said. "Give him a little time, let him work things out."

"If you say so, dear," Mom said, but the anxious expression didn't leave her face.

"I do," Dad said. "It must be a huge shock, finding out that your team leader is a…I don't know what to call it. Stuff like that…you can't just make your mind up about it overnight. Give him time, and he'll probably call you once he's worked out how he feels about it."

Aoko frowned. "So…if Pyrrha is Jaune's girlfriend then who…oh, my god a robot with a soul! Why didn't anyone tell me that they'd created a robot with a soul?"

"You're only just checking your news feed?" River asked.

Aoko nodded. "Why is Jaune dating a girl when he could go out with a robot with a soul, that would be so much cooler."

"Because the robot wasn't into him?" River suggested. "Or he wasn't into the robot."

"Because he didn't fall in love based on what would make a cool concept," Kendal said. "Does he even know the robot?"

"Stop saying robot," Sky said sharply. "And Aoko, you are way too enthused about such a freaky thing as a…a thing with a soul. It's weird. Like usurping the powers of the heavens. Men shouldn't be able to create stuff like that, it's not right."

"You're such a technophobe it's embarrassing," Aoko muttered.

Rouge stood up. "Aoko, give me the scroll. It's disrespectful at the dinner table."

"What does this have to do with Pyrrha, anyway?" Kendal asked.

"Oh, she's fighting this Penny Polendina this afternoon," Aoko said casually.

"Pyrrha's fighting the robot?" River asked.

"Can you stop?" Sky asked.

"What do you want me to call it?" River replied.

Kendal got up and walked around the table to where Aoko sat at the foot of it. She stared over her sister's shoulder down at her scroll. There was a picture of Penny Polendina, the recently-outed robot girl. "You know, I think I've seen her before. I think she's one of Jaune's friends."

"So he does know her," Aoko said, looking up. "Then why isn't he dating _her_?"

Kendal rolled her eyes and didn't bother to respond. "So what's this about a fight?"

Aoko handed Kendal her scroll, enabling her to read off in summary for the rest of the family. "Yep, Pyrrha and a couple of other people we saw yesterday, are going to hold special matches against Penny Polendina."

"Is that safe?" Sky said.

"I think the point is to prove that it is safe," Kendal said. She looked up. "What do you think, you guys want to watch?"

"Why?" Violet said. "It's not as if Jaune's going to be fighting."

"No, but his girlfriend is," Kendal said. "And I think we ought to start being supportive now ready for when she joins the family."

Violet let out a kind of strangled squawk of outrage. "What do you mean join the family?"

"You know, like Terra."

"But they're going to break up, right?" Violet said. "I mean, he's got to break up with her, hasn't he?"

"I don't know, Vi, she seemed pretty serious to me," River said.

"And so did Jaune," Rouge said softly.

"What do you think, Mom?" Kendal asked.

"I think…I think she's practically part of the family already," Mom said.

"Mom!"

"I know you too were close when you were younger, dear, but you should have seen the way he looked when he talked about her." Mom sighed. "He's got it bad, my baby boy; I'd be worried except she seems like such a nice girl, I find it hard to picture her breaking his heart."

"She won't," Kendal said. "When we talked…she's trustworthy."

"So we are going to watch her fight the…thing that shall remain nameless for Sky's sake?" River said.

"Certainly," Dad said. "When does it start?"

* * *

"I don't know what they're thinking," Oceana said. Since there were no matches on right now, and no fight would be happening until a little later that afternoon, she was occupying herself in Michael's gym – since Michael's house was all one big open plan space, calling it the gym was a bit of a misnomer, but it was a section of the floor occupied by weights and the like so it was good a name as any - pounding away at the punch-bag suspended from the ceiling. "Fighting an Atlesian war machine, making nice with them, making out like they've done nothing wrong."

"I don't know," Michael said. "I think it's probably better that they fight the Atlesian war machine in the arena than that we all have to fight the Atlesians out of it."

Oceana paused, the fins on her arms flapping slightly although there was no water. "You're not appalled by what they've done? Building a robot with aura, trying to control the grimm, sabotaging that train-"

"I thought it was just one person who sabotaged the train?"

"Yeah, that's what they say," Oceana said.

Michael shrugged. He wasn't the smartest gladiator in Mistral, and he was aware of that fact. That was one of the reasons that he would have liked Esau or Metella here right now to answer Oceana rather than him; but they'd both gone home, although they'd both be back later for the Pyrrha and Arslan fights against the Atlesian robot. "You think that they put this Sunset Shimmer up to it?"

"She is an Atlesian," Oceana said darkly. "And it's pretty clear they're up to something."

"Like what?"

"I don't know, world domination?" Oceana suggested. "Maybe they're going to replace us with robots with aura."

"Replace us gladiators?"

"No, replace us people," Oceana said firmly. "You think that they're just going to stop at one of those things? Soon they'll make more of them, and they'll be whispering to one another in the dark, and the next thing you know we'll be kept in boxes with tiny windows while robots with aura roam around outside, looking in on us to make sure that we're watching those awful Atlesian war movies."

Michael frowned. "Are you sure that wasn't at the cinema last week?"

"No, it was last month, but it could still happen," Ocean said. "It's starting to look very prescient."

"I don't know," Michael said. "Pyrrha and Arslan know what they're doing, if they thought that there was something wrong then they wouldn't be having this fight."

"I don't like it," Oceana said. "Monsters and robots and who knows what else they're still covering up. I don't like it."

"And I don't want to see a war with Atlas," Michael said. "I don't want to see my little brother or my sister have guns pressed in their hands and marched off to fight. If Pyrrha and Arslan can make people just calm down for a second then I'm all for it. Let's see what they have to say, see how the fight goes. When you saw that robot girl fight in the four on four you said she had real potential."

"She's got lots of potential, that's what worries me," Oceana said. She bit her lip for a moment. "When did you last talk to your sister?"

"At mother's funeral, when she called me an animal," Michael said. "She thinks us gladiators set a bad example to society. Encouraging violence and all that. Doesn't mean I want to see her sent off to war, though."

"I don't want that either, even if she is a stuck-up little…" Oceana trailed off. "But we can't just let Atlas do whatever it likes and we can't just let them walk all over us."

"Nobody walks all over Arslan," Michael said. "Or Pyrrha, for that matter, though she might let you think you have. Give them a chance. Give them some credit."

"Give peace a chance?"

"That too," Michael said.

Oceana grinned. "Okay. Ought to be a sight to see, anyway. I wonder if Pyrrha's semblance works on robots."

"Hard to say without knowing what her semblance is," Michael observed.

"I think it's mind control," Oceana said. "Have you noticed that she's always looking right at you when she's fighting you?"

"That's because she's fighting you," Michael said. "Where do you expect her to look?"

Oceana started punching again. "You know that there are snakes that can hypnotise small birds, right?"

"Yeah, but Pyrrha's not a snake faunus."

"And there are times when I've fought her and it's like my arms are moving on their own and I can't do a thing about it," Oceana continued. "I'm telling you, she's hypnotising me. That's why I can't lay a hit on her."

"You can't lay a hit on her because she's faster than you," Michael muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, nothing at all."

* * *

Sienna Khan stared down at her scroll for a moment. She wouldn't call herself an aficionado of the arena – it wasn't as though she could simply go to a contest, not with her being on the most-wanted list of every one of the four kingdoms of men – but she had spent enough time in Mistral to know the names of Pyrrha Nikos and Arslan Altan, the Invincible Girl and her irrepressible rival, the princess and the pauper, the pride and glory of Mistral reborn and the way that that ancient kingdom proved to the world that it absolutely was not a pit of elitism and snobbery obsessed by ancient bloodlines how could you even suggest such a thing?

To see that they had both dropped out of the tournament – along with a few other favourites from the four on four round – was surprising. To see that they were both going to fight against Penny Polendina, the Atlesian's secret wonder weapon, was more surprising still.

Or was it? Looking through the attached photographs she saw that this Penny was on the same time – had been assigned into the care of, perhaps? – Team RSPT, the one led by Gilda's old friend Rainbow Dash. And Team RSPT had worked closely with Blake and with the Beacon Team SAPR, which included Pyrrha Nikos.

They had been in cahoots all this time, only now they could be frank about what Penny was.

 _A robot with aura, by the gods._ That they could achieve such a thing, that their science had come so far, was a troubling prospect. The White Fang already had to be on guard against infiltrators and double agents, police and Atlesian specialists sent to gain entry into the movement and uncover their secrets and their plans. If they turned away everyone who had ever passed through a combat school or spent a year or two at one of the huntsman academies then the White Fang would have too few elite fighters to spearhead its war against humanity, but it was a constantly delicate balance who to believe when they pledged their life to the cause and who to suspect as a plant set by the humans. But this? If the Atlesians could simply programme robots to pass as faunus then they could set them amongst the White Fang at will with programming to trigger them into action at the worst possible moment. How could they possibly guard against such infiltrators?

 _One step at a time. One battle at a time._ For now there was only one such infernal machine – that they knew of – and her identity was safely known. For now the White Fang had little enough to fear from Penny Polendina. For now it was the Kingdom of Vale that should be worried.

Although this news from the tournament gave her pause. It made her wonder if they should accelerate their plans considerably. There were risks in acting precipitately, but…Sienna refreshed her pages to see that Team YRBN had also withdrawn from the tournament while she had been pondering. That meant that the current favourite to win the Vytal Festival tournament was…Neon Katt? Who was Neon Katt and why would anybody care if she won the tournament or not? That wasn't a name to get people excited or vexed. Who was she likely to be fighting against? Trixie Lulamoon? Violet Valeria? These were not names to get crowds on their feet, nor to produce a great flood of despair flowing from the collapse of all their prior exuberance.

"Gilda?" Sienna called. "Is the strike team assembled?"

Gilda was sitting on a tree-stump not far away, sharpening one of her swords. She looked up. "I can assemble it the moment you give the word, High Leader."

"Good," Sienna said. "It might be necessary." She had devised a plan for the grimm that served the needs of Tempest Shadow and her friends, but more importantly it served the needs of the White Fang also: when the battle was at its height a gap would open up in the Atlesian lines and an elite strike force would punch through that gap, break open Blackwall prison and free their comrades incarcerated there before going on to capture Kali Belladonna; she had been talking to Atlas, spending far more time with an Atlesian councillor than Sienna was comfortable with, and the kind of matters they might be discussing filled Sienna's head with grave concerns; taking her would give Sienna leverage over Ghira, and remind him that his best interests lay in cultivating a healthy relationship with the White Fang, not in reaching out towards the distant power of Atlas. If they could capture Blake as well then so much the better but it was not essential; as much as she deserved death for betraying the movement Sienna was under no illusions as to how Ghira would respond to the murder of his daughter. For the sake of peace on Menagerie the Belladonna daughter enjoyed a measure of protection…and Sienna was not forced to order the death of a girl she had once thought of as the daughter her chosen path had denied to her.

She pushed such thoughts aside. The point was that if they were forced to accelerate the plan her strike team was prepared to go. Now to see if the other element of her plan was equally prepared.

Her plan had called for Ilia to infiltrate the coliseum today, on the grounds that it would be empty of spectators (and what would be more natural than a maintenance worker getting their checks completed on a day when there were no matches scheduled?); obviously that wasn't the case now, but nevertheless it was fortunate that – if all went according to plan – she would be completing her mission already.

Sienna was glad she had had the foresight to bring their infiltration specialist with her from Menagerie; there was no one else she could have called upon for a task like this.

She made the call to Ilia's burner scroll, voice only.

"Hello?"

"Ilia, this is Sienna," Sienna said. "How is it going up there?"

"It's more crowded than I expected," Ilia said.

"Unfortunately today is not the complete pause in proceedings that we might have hoped for," Sienna said. "Is your disguise holding up?"

"I haven't been challenged."

"Have you applied the control lock yet?"

"Not yet," Ilia said. "But I will. Don't worry, I won't let you down."

"I never feared you would," Sienna said. "Do the job, then resume your surveillance of Kali Belladonna. When the moment comes I'm counting on you to let me know her location."

"I think I've spotted her here," Ilia said. "She's with the Atlesian councillor again. Do you want-"

"It's very tempting," Sienna said, knowing exactly what Ilia had in mind. Despite all of their victories the White Fang had never yet succeeded in killing or capturing a member of the Atlesian council (Chrysalis had come close, but you didn't get any credit for coming close); it would certainly be a coup to pull off, one that would show the world the limits of Atlesian power…but it could also tie the White Fang into the night of madness that was about to descend on Vale more thoroughly than she would necessarily like – taking the opportunity to rescue their comrades was one thing, and no one outside Menagerie would give a fig for Kali Belladonna, but the kidnap or murder of an Atlesian councillor could become something else altogether – and just as much to the point she had doubts that it would be practical. When all hell broke loose the Atlesians would doubtless spirit the councillor away on to one of their warships for her own safety. "But Kali is your priority, stay on her. Just don't get yourself made."

"I should be fine so long as I stay away from Blake," Ilia said. A note of uncertainty crept into her voice. "What…what are we going to do about her?"

"Nothing," Sienna said. "If she gets in our way we'll take her along with her mother, if not she will be unharmed. I'll contact you again when it's time to commence the operation." She hung up, then made the other call that she needed to make in order to have everything ready to move as and when the optimal moment arrived.

This one was voice and video, and it was answered by Tempest Shadow, who stared warily up out of the screen with her cold blue eyes. "Yes?"

"If it were preferable to move today, could it be done?"

Tempest's expression was inscrutable. "You wished to wait until the finale of the tournament."

"I was under the impression that the final round of the tournament would be a contest of champions, not the scrabbling of dwarves trying to fill the place the giants have vacated," Sienna said. "Who could get interested in these remaining finalists? Pyrrha Nikos is fighting the Atlesian war doll today."

Tempest was still and silent for a moment, before she gave a thoughtful nod. "I see what you mean."

"Could it be done?"

Tempest smirked. "A grimm horde is not an army, it requires no preparation time. Yes, it could be done. But should it?"

"I'll let you know when the bouts are done," Sienna said. "But be ready, and wait for my word. The time to strike may come much sooner than I had anticipated." She hung up on Tempest too, but kept her scroll out. She would have to watch these matches in order to see that they were having the kind of effect on the crowds that she thought they would and that would make it advantageous to strike now rather than later.

"High Leader," Gilda said, putting her sword away and getting up from the tree stump she'd been sitting on. "Why are we targeting the Lady Kali when we have an Atlesian councillor in our sights?"

"Because as it would be a great coup for us to pull off, I fear that so deliberate an act of terror would implicate us too deeply in what is to come," Sienna said. "If we are seen to be involved with a grimm attack in such a way, a way that cannot be explained as mere opportunism, it could provide a rationale for Atlas to come down upon us much more heavily than in the past. I will not see Menagerie burn simply so that I can take a councillor's head as my trophy."

Gilda nodded, but the slightly troubled expression remained on her face.

"Is there something else?" Sienna asked.

Gilda hesitated for a moment. "Lady Kali is a faunus," she said.

Sienna's expression did not alter. "Gilda, there are times when your sense of conscience perturbs me. I had thought it was a reaction to Adam's madness but this…are you not loyal to our cause?"

"I'm loyal," Gilda said hotly. "But…I joined the White Fang to fight for the faunus, not against them."

"Will you not fight against any faunus wearing the uniform of Atlas or any of the other kingdoms?"

"That's different," Gilda said.

"Is it?" Sienna asked. "Kali has been talking with the Atlesians, with our enemies."

"I've talked to the Atlesians," Gilda said. "Blake was a big help rescuing those people who'd been kidnapped from Low Town."

"And in return you gave up one of our weapons caches," Sienna said.

Gilda's eyes narrowed. "Are you saying I was wrong to put people before weapons? We're supposed to fight for the faunus-"

"We cannot fight without arms," Sienna said.

"People were disappearing!"

"Sacrifices must be made for the greater good," Sienna said. "We are on the road towards the brighter future for our people, we cannot stop for every straggler on the way. I take no pleasure in this. Kali was my friend once, and it was not due to me that our friendship ended; but she is in talks with our greatest enemies, and I cannot simply tolerate that and do nothing. Nor can I risk what agreements she might be making with Atlas to the detriment of the White Fang. Do you understand?"

Gilda nodded. She didn't look happy about it, but she nodded. "Yes, High Leader."

"It is a hard thing to lead, sometimes," Sienna said. "We must make sacrifices when we would have it otherwise. We must put aside our feelings and take a stand against those we would rather call friend. But it must be done; for the sake of our cause and our people it must be done."

* * *

Moondancer loved her job in the lab; she loved working with Doctor Polendina, and the opportunities to learn at the feet of one of the greatest minds in the history of Atlas.

But there were days when he made it very hard work.

Such as today, as he paced frantically up and down the lab – it felt as though he hadn't stopped pacing ever since the news had arrived about Penny and everything surrounding her, certainly not since Twilight had hung up on him – muttering to himself under his breath, and occasionally over his breath, to the extent that it was hard to get a word in edgeways even when, like now, she wanted to.

And this was after he'd taken his medication. Moondancer could understand why he sometimes didn't but all the same…she hesitated to think what kind of a state he would have been in if he hadn't taken his medicine today.

Which was probably why Twilight had called her in the middle of last night to tell Moondancer to make absolutely certain that he did. She'd known this was coming and had possessed an inkling of how Doctor Polendina might react.

 _Did you not know about this until later? I suppose you can't have or you would have said something._

"This whole thing has been a disaster from start to finish," Doctor Polendina muttered as he paced up and down.

"Doctor-"

"-trusted a bunch of clowns with Penny-"

"Doctor Polendina-"

"-pilloried, accused, utterly humiliated-"

"Doctor Polendina, if you'd just listen-"

"-this was supposed to be her moment and they just took it away from-"

"Doctor Polendina!" Moondancer yelled. "If you'd just listen for one moment!" She took a deep breath to recover the one that she'd just expelled, and tried not to shrink away from the look that he gave her as he rounded on her. "If…if you'd just listen…Penny's going to fight today."

Doctor Polendina stared at her. "She's going to fight…that…that's not possible…I thought…I thought the fights were suspended for the day? And they told me that Penny had been disqualified by those small-minded, pathetic, grasping inadequates who think that by tearing down true greatness they…" he shook his head. "Or…that's what I thought. Did you tell me? Or did I…did I dream that? Did I dream it all?"

Moondancer shook her head. "No, Doctor, you didn't dream that. Penny…Penny is out of the tournament and the tournament has been suspended," she said, hoping that she had phrased that sufficiently delicately to avoid arousing his temper again before she was done with her explanation. "But nevertheless, she has a match today. Three matches in fact, in the coliseum, on television. Everyone's going to be watching her."

"Watching her," Doctor Polendina repeated. He walked slowly to the back of the lab, where a chair was waiting to receive him as he crashed into it. He glanced down at the picture on his desk, the picture taken just after Penny opened her eyes for the first time: she looked so awed as she took in the world, surrounded by her father and her…her two sisters, you might say. Sisters and midwives both. They all looked so happy then, and so proud. Moondancer missed those days.

"Watching her," Doctor Polendina said again. "Watching her fight in a tournament for which she has been disbarred and which is, in any case, not happening today." He rubbed his eyes. "You must forgive me, I am…my mind is…I don't understand."

"It's a special fight," Moondancer said. "Three special fights, set up just for Penny, against Sun Wukong, Arslan Altan, and Pyrrha Nikos in that order. The first fight starts at five this afternoon, but there's some stuff before that too." She didn't go into detail about what that stuff was, since Doctor Polendina probably wouldn't want to know about the Mistralian champions talking about why they weren't afraid to fight Penny. He'd probably be more insulted than anything.

"Special fights?" Doctor Polendina said. "For Penny?"

"So it would seem," Moondancer said softly.

Doctor Polendina was silent for a moment. Then he held out his hand. "Give me my scroll back, I need to speak to Twilight."

"Doctor-"

"I need to understand…more," Doctor Polendina said. "I need to…I need to know…I need to know what this means, I need to understand, please, Moondancer, give me my scroll."

Moondancer handed him his scroll, although she hovered nearby in case he let his stronger emotions get the better of him again as he selected Twilight's number.

It rang a couple of times, and longer than normal; Moondancer wondered if Twilight was as nervous about picking up as Moondancer was about the idea of this call.

Nevertheless, after a few moments, Twilight answered; her face appeared in the screen of the scroll; it looked from what Moondancer could see as though they were already on the coliseum. "Doctor," Twilight said softly, and with an audible trepidation.

"I'm sorry, Twilight," Doctor Polendina said. "I shouldn't have been so…so myself earlier. I just…you have no idea how long I've waited for this and to have it snatched away by politics of all things, I…it doesn't excuse my behaviour but…"

"I understand, Doctor," Twilight said. "In your position I might be frustrated too."

"So…what's this I hear about special matches?" Doctor Polendina said.

"Our friend Pyrrha arranged everything," Twilight said. She paused, as if aware that Doctor Polendina might not know who that was. "That's Pyrrha Nikos, the Mistralian tournament champion? Penny's friend? I sent you some pictures of us all a little while ago, I don't know if you remember."

"Nikos," Doctor Polendina murmured. "Pyrrha Nikos…Nikos, Mistralian, old money…come on, I used to be able to recite this stuff like an encyclopedia…Nikos, Nikos…Pyrrha Nikos…wait a second, didn't I tell you that Penny wasn't to-"

"Yes, you did," Twilight conceded. "But in the first place it wasn't the entire of Team Sapphire that was responsible for the Breach, it was only Sunset Shimmer and Penny can't spend any time with her because she's incarcerated at the moment; in the second place, without Pyrrha's help then Penny wouldn't be getting this chance to show all of Remnant what she's capable of so please, Doctor, could you cut us just a little slack?"

Doctor Polendina shook her head. "You need to explain this all to me. You're in the arena right now?"

"Pyrrha arranged that too," Twilight said. "Turns out that she has a lot of pull when she chooses to use it. Three matches, all televised live, all against top fighters from Mistral: Haven Academy's Sun Wukong, Arslan Altan the three times runner-up in the regional tournament, and Pyrrha herself the four times champion. The point is to show-"

"How capable Penny is," Doctor Polendina said.

"But also how…how human she is," Twilight said. "How…non-threatening, how divorced she is from the kind of nightmares of cheap movies that calling Penny a human robot conjures up."

Doctor Polendina frowned. "Why?"

"Doctor?"

"You say that Pyrrha Nikos put this together," Doctor Polendina said. "Why?"

"Um…perhaps you could ask her yourself," Twilight said. "She's not far away; I can call her over if you like."

"That…yes, that would be…" Doctor Polendina hesitated. "I…do you think that she…I wouldn't want to…I wouldn't want to be…I'd hate to…to shame myself in front of…but I need to know. Call her."

"Right away, Doctor. Pyrrha! Can you come over here for a minute? She'll be right over."

There was a brief pause, where Twilight looked up and Doctor Polendina looked down and neither of them said a word, before Twilight handed the scroll over to a girl who must be Pyrrha Nikos. Moondancer sort of recognised her, but she'd never seen her so close before. She was…certainly very striking.

"Hello," Pyrrha said, with a degree of uncertainty in her voice. "I…I understand that you're Penny's father."

"I am," Doctor Polendina said. "And I understand that you're her friend."

"I have that honour, yes," Pyrrha said. "You've raised a fine daughter."

"Raised?"

"Forgive me, Doctor, but my grasp of the exact terminology is a little uncertain."

"It's as good a word as any I suppose, but you give me…you give me far too much credit I'm afraid," Doctor Polendina said. "I'm told that I have you to thank for Penny being able to put on a show."

Pyrrha shook her head. "I just made a few calls, that's all."

"Not everyone can make a few calls and get the Amity Coliseum to play in for the evening."

"True, but the fact that I have power doesn't mean I should get the credit for using it, even in a good cause."

"A modest celebrity, whatever next," Doctor Polendina muttered. "Tell me something, Miss Nikos, just one thing: why?"

"Why, Doctor?"

"Why would you do this for Penny? Arrange all of this, put your own reputation on the line against her. You do have a reputation, don't you?"

"I believe I do," Pyrrha said.

"And yet you hazard it?"

"What else is one to do with a reputation such as mine, in a field such as mine," Pyrrha said. "Doctor Polendina, whatever I have done I did because your daughter is a huntress of Atlas, because that's who she is and because she deserves to be recognised for who, not what, she is; I did it because she is one of the most gifted fighters I've ever met and she deserves to be recognised for that too; because she is a kind soul who deserves to receive kindness in turn…and because she is my friend, and I have the power to help her in this…difficulty in which she finds herself."

"Her friend," Doctor Polendina said. "And…and Sunset Shimmer, was she Penny's friend as well?"

Pyrrha's expression became visible more strained. "I…I think so, yes."

"And was she helping her friend when she did what she did, as you are now?"

Pyrrha was silent for a moment. "That…was part of it, I think."

Doctor Polendina closed his eyes. "Thank you, Miss Nikos. You have my sincere gratitude, for whatever that might be worth to you."

Pyrrha bowed her head. "From Penny's father it is worth a great deal. Thank you, Doctor Polendina."

She handed the scroll back to Twilight. "Doctor? Are you alright?"

Doctor Polendina shook his head without opening his eyes. "I am a foolish fond old man," he murmured. "Twilight…Twilight I know that you must be concerned but…may I speak to Penny please? There's…there's something that I have to say to her while I still feel…while I still can."

Twilight's eyes widened a little. "Of course, just give me one second. Penny? Penny!" the screen jogged up and down a little, or rather the image within it did, as Twilight ran across what looked like the bleachers. "Penny, it's your father."

Penny's face replaced Twilight's, looking rather anxious. "Father, I'm sorry for everything that-"

"Penny, stop," Doctor Polendina said. "I don't want to scold you I…I want to…how do you feel?"

"Better now," Penny said. "Everyone's been so good about everything; they've made me feel so much better. Now…I hope that what I show everybody this afternoon can prove that I'm more than what they're afraid I am, but mostly I'm just looking forward to the chance to have some great fights."

"Against your friend?"

"That's the one I'm looking forward to the most," Penny confessed. "She's so…I admire her a lot."

"Even after what her team-mate did?"

"I…I don't know what to think about that," Penny admitted. "I know that-"

"I'm not interested in rehashing the morality of her actions, this isn't sophomore philosophy class," Doctor Polendina said. "How do you feel about it?"

"I…I really don't know," Penny said. "I feel…I know that what Sunset did was wrong but I feel as though I understand why she did it. I'm sorry, does that make me a-"

"No," Doctor Polendina said. "It doesn't make you a failure in my eyes. In my…in my eyes you couldn't be more of a success. That's what I see now. That's what I should have seen much sooner when you were brought home in pieces talking about your friends. But I was so blinded…I have to apologise, Penny; for so much but mostly…mostly for being my father."

Penny blinked. "Your father? You've never told me about your father before?"

"There's a reason for that," Doctor Polendina said. "My father…I was an awkward child. I didn't grow up in Atlas, but in a mining town just outside of Mantle. My father was a hard-handed man, poor but proud, you…well, you don't know the type, thank goodness, but he was very much of a type. He understood the things he knew, and he had nothing but contempt for the things he didn't understand. He didn't have much time for a son who wanted nothing more than to leave it all behind and get to Atlas. He tried to discipline me into accepting the life that I'd been born into. I told myself that I was so unlike him, so much better than him, but when the time came to raise my own child I found myself turning into my father when I should have become my mother instead. My mother…my mother understood. She understood the human heart and so she understood everything, even me. She would have understood what you were trying to tell me. She would have told me that everything I wanted for you, everything that I was worried about for you, everything…everything was immaterial. She would have told me that you'd be fine because…because you have people around you who care about you. People you can trust with your secrets. People who'll do anything to help you. No matter what the council decides, no matter what General Ironwood decides, you will be fine. I know that now. I should have realised that some time ago."

"Father…I don't understand what you're saying."

"I'm saying the hardest thing for any father to say to his daughter," Doctor Polendina said. "You're not a child any more, and you don't need your father watching over. Good luck, Penny. Good luck with everything."

Penny stared at him, the man who had created her, the man who had directed her, worried her at times, sometimes frightened or upset her but who had always loved her, in his way, after his fashion, as much as his condition sometimes made it hard for him to express it.

He had expressed it now. Finally, and yet while there was still time.

"I love you, father," Penny said.

"I'll always love you," Doctor Polendina said, and ended the call. "Thank you," he said, as he handed his scroll back to Moondancer. "Now, Moondancer, by my reckoning we still have a couple of hours before the fights begin so, let's get to work."

"To work?" Moondancer repeated as Doctor Polendina got to his feet. "Work on what? We're sort of between projects right now until-"

"The only project that matters," Doctor Polendina said. "Ensuring that Penny isn't the only one of her kind."

Moondancer frowned. "The council hasn't authorised us to build another android with aura, let alone budgeted for-"

"We don't need budget to start work in the design phase," Doctor Polendina said. He paused. "Penny…Penny is a success. No matter what they say, no matter what anyone says, she is a success. A person, with aura, with a soul, with the ability to think and feel and…and form human connections, that's a success. She's all that she was designed to be and so much more…but an experiment…a creation like Penny she…success is judged not only on the criteria but by what…what was done with the idea afterwards. If she is the only one, if nothing or nobody comes after her then people…they'll say she was a failure and that…we can't let that happen." He took a deep breath. "You might have to finish this one off, you and Twilight. I don't know if…but I want to try."

Moondancer nodded. "Then I want to help you, Doctor," she said. And together they got to work, before the fight began.

* * *

Penny stared down at the blank scroll in front of her, suddenly gone dark and empty. She stared down at it without moving, without saying a word.

"Father," she murmured.

She felt a hand, Twilight's hand, slip into hers. "Are you…are you okay?" Twilight asked.

Penny looked at her. "Father was just so kind…but I feel so sad now. That doesn't make any sense, does it?"

Twilight smiled, and although that didn't make any sense either Penny almost thought that there seemed something sad about Twilight's smile. "There are times when that makes perfect sense, Penny, and I think that right now is one of them. When you leave your family behind, when you start to…to grow up, it's exhilarating…but it's always kind of sad at the same time."

Penny said. "So this…this is normal?"

"There's nothing entirely normal about you, Penny," Twilight said. "But all the same, something like this is what every child goes through, to one extent or another. And in the end, Doctor Polendina took it better than some father's do, and that's a good thing."

"For so long I wanted him to trust me," Penny said. "To not feel as though he had to watch me or have other people watch me, but now…"

"It doesn't mean he doesn't love you," Twilight said. "He always will, he just…like you said, he trusts you now."

Penny nodded, and for a moment she considered telling Twilight about her plan to stay at Beacon – if that was possible now that the truth had come out about her; she didn't know if it was, but how would she know unless she made the attempt? – but decided against it. It didn't seem like the right time, even though she wasn't entirely sure when the right time was. But not now. "Was it difficult for you?"

Twilight nodded. "When I was young my brother and I were so close…when I realised just how much we'd drifted apart while I'd been in Canterlot…yeah, it was difficult to take. But he had his life, and I have mine, and we still love each other." She smiled. "Of course, there was something quite cathartic about defeating a brain-eating impostor to make me realise that Cadance wasn't taking Shining Armour away from his family, she was just changing up what 'our family' meant a little bit…but just because he has a family separate from mine doesn't mean that we won't always have a connection that's special and unique. And just because you're making a family of your own doesn't mean that you and your father won't always share something that is yours."

"No matter how far we fly, no matter where our mission takes us, the home base is always waiting when we get back," Ciel said, stepping out of the darkness of the tunnel and into the light where it fell on Twilight and Penny.

"Ciel!" Penny cried, throwing out her arms.

Ciel held out one hand. "With all due affection, Penny, the doctor said I might still be a little delicate."

"Oh," Penny said, slightly deflated to learn that; her arms drooped down to her side. "Still, it's wonderful to see you again! How do you feel?"

"As delicate as the doctors told me I was," Ciel said. "And yet at the same time much better now that I'm out of bed."

"You look much better," Penny said, for the marks on Ciel's face were completely gone. "Ciel, I'm sorry that I wasn't able to-"

"If the next word out of your mouth is protect then I will be insulted," Ciel said. "I'm a soldier of Atlas, that I was bested is my shame not yours."

"You're not actually ashamed, are you?" Twilight said. "I mean…Tempest was something else."

"Nevertheless, I was bested," Ciel growled. "It appears that my ego can bruise nearly as easily as that of Rainbow Dash. Nevertheless, I am sure that with thought and preparation we will do better next time."

"If Team Tiger don't catch up with her first," Penny said.

Ciel's eyebrows rose. "You will forgive me if I don't put all my faith in Team Tiger." She shook her head dismissively. "How…how are you feeling, Penny? A lot has happened while I've been lying around, how is it affecting you?"

"I, um, I don't know," Penny said. "How is it affecting you?"

"To learn that we have been fraternising with a criminal for all this time was…disturbing," Ciel said.

"Then you think she was wrong?" Penny said. "Sunset Shimmer, to do what we did?"

Ciel looked at her keenly. "Penny, do you know the history of Appleoosa?"

Penny consulted her memory banks. "No, should I?"

"It is an episode worth knowing," Ciel said. "Twilight, do you know what I'm referring to?"

Twilight nodded. "Appleoosa was a colonisation effort in the interior of Solitas. You could say that it was Altas' Mountain Glenn, and just like Mountain Glenn it proved to be unsustainable in the face of grimm attacks."

"And yet the ending of the tale proves the difference in our Atlesian spirit," Ciel said. "When it became clear that the grimm were too numerous to be withstood even by the most aggressive perimeter defence, the order was given to evacuate the city. The Sixth and Thirteenth Battalions, supported by an ad-hoc company of specialists and the cruisers _Swiftsure_ , _Archer_ and _Indomitable_ , were ordered to hold the line against the creatures of grimm until the civilian evacuation was complete. Twilight, do you know the result?"

Twilight was quiet for a moment. "All three cruisers were destroyed, the infantry battalions suffered ninety-five percent casualties and the specialist company was wiped out."

"But the evacuation was a complete success," Ciel said. "All the civilians were rescued without a single casualty. Though the cost was high the line was held, and that makes the battle a victory to be recorded proudly in the annals of our forces regardless of the casualty count. Because the point is not that so many soldiers died, the point is that all of the civilians lived. And if all of us had perished on that train ensuring that it did not breach the Vale defences then that would also have been a victory."

"But all the civilians lived anyway," Penny said.

"That was not certain, nor could it have been predicted," Ciel said. "There is a temptation to say 'no harm done' but it is a temptation that ought to be resisted." She paused. "All of which being said, I am glad that you are alive and would not wish you to think otherwise."

"I didn't," Penny said. "I'm glad you're alive, too, after…everything. I just…I just wish I understood how I felt."

"War requires sacrifice," Ciel said. "Sometimes that is the sacrifice of lives, at other times it may be the sacrifice of ideals or dreams. I'm sure that it must be difficult, but I hope that you can forgive General Ironwood for what he did. I do not see any other choice available to him, just as I see no other choice available for the rest of us but to follow you out to the tournament."

Twilight frowned. "You think General Ironwood was right but you still agree that were right to quit in protest?"

"That something is right does not make it any less disagreeable," Ciel said. "Nor does the fact that Penny is suffering in a good cause make it any less necessary that we should stand beside our team-mate."

"I'm okay," Penny said. "I'm not really suffering."

Ciel looked as though she didn't really believe her.

"It's a pity," Penny said. "And I wish that people weren't thinking of me as a killer robot, but maybe I can prove them wrong today! I hope so, and I get to fight Pyrrha, and two of Haven's best fighters live on television. It's strange, but this is kind of like…a dream come true for me, in spite of how I got here."

Twilight chuckled. "Life has a way of turning out in unexpected ways, doesn't it?"

"It can be surprising," Ciel agreed. She frowned. "How is your aura going to stand up to three difficult battles in a row?"

"Jaune's going to help us out between matches," Twilight said. "If necessary."

"Ah," Ciel said, with a nod of her head. "That makes sense. And as you say, it might not be necessary. Penny, are you ready?"

Penny took a moment to consider that. "Yes," she said. "I think I am."

And it was almost time.


	176. P v P, part 2

P v P, part 2

Pyrrha stood in one of the archways leading out into the arena, just out of sight of any cameras who might be tempted to turn that way, and out of sight of the spectators too. There were more of them than she had expected filling up the bleachers, but then she supposed that she might have been a little naïve in that regard, considering the names that she had assembled here.

She just hoped that they had come with open minds, and not with too many pre-conceptions about Penny was or a desire to see her put in her place by the heroes of Mistral. That wasn't what today was about at all.

Penny was somewhere on the other side of the coliseum, waiting for her moment to make her big entrance; Pyrrha hoped that she had said the right things to her father but it was somewhat difficult to tell. He seemed pleased with what she'd done; all that remained was to put on a good show.

Putting on a good show was what Arslan was doing right now, as she stood on the centre of the arena taking a few questions before the fight started; she seemed, as she always did, at home in the spotlight: animated but not unnaturally so, confident verging upon cocky (although Pyrrha was grateful that she had toned it down a little on this occasion and wasn't trash-talking Penny like she did some of her opponents before a big fight), talking up her own chances without talking down Penny.

"No, I don't think she's some kind of invincible killing machine," she was saying. "I think that she's a warrior who happens to have joints that need oiling, and if you stick around you're going to see that she can go down just like any of the rest of us."

"She really is very good at this," Pyrrha murmured as she watched. That was why Arslan was going first, even though by some logic it might have made more sense to have Sun precede her (no offence to Sun, but he wasn't quite on the same level as either Arslan or Pyrrha as a one-on-one fighter) with Pyrrha going last. But Arslan was so good at this, she seemed completely unaffected by the sense of awkwardness that plagued Pyrrha whenever she was asked to stand in the spotlight without actually fighting someone, and since the point of all this was to get the crowd on Penny's side then it had seemed like the best idea to have someone who was good at working the crowd go first. "She's so good at this that I sometimes wonder how I didn't get cast as the heel to her hero by default."

"Come on," Jaune said. "Nobody could ever believe that you were a bad guy."

Pyrrha smiled at him. "You're sweet."

"Nah, I'm just honest; some of the time," Jaune said. He took a step closer towards her. "So, how are you holding up?"

"I'm fine," Pyrrha said, looking away and out at Arslan in the arena. "I'll be better if this all goes well for Penny-"

"Pyrrha, stop," Jaune said, softly but urgently at the same time.

Pyrrha looked at him, her eyes widening in surprise just a little. "Jaune?"

"Pyrrha, come on," Jaune said. "You're not fine. In the last day and half we found out that Amber had betrayed us, that _Sunset_ had betrayed Vale for us, and now Sunset's in jail fighting for her life, Amber's hiding out who knows where and Penny…there's no way that you can be fine after all of that. There's no way that anybody could be fine but certainly not someone like you, someone who has one of the biggest hearts of anyone I know." He reached out, and put one hand upon her shoulder to draw her just a little further back into the tunnel. "Come on, there aren't any cameras here, nobody's watching. You don't have to be the Invincible Girl with me. She can be fine, but how's Pyrrha doing?"

Pyrrha stared at him for a moment, silent, trembling slightly; then it was as though his words had snapped something inside of her as she threw her arms around him, leaning upon him, clinging to him almost as though he were the ship's mast and the water was trying to sweep her off the deck.

That wasn't a million miles away from what it felt like right now.

"Oh, Jaune," she murmured. "What's going on? Why does it feel as though the world has gone crazy?" It had felt like that for some time, but it had just kept getting worse and worse until now it seemed as though there was nothing at all that she could rely on, nothing that she had believed in that had or even would prove true under pressure. She didn't recognise the happy, placid, contented Mistral that she had grown up in – that she had thought she had grown up in, she was having to consider the possibility that she had simply been too young and too naïve to notice the truth – in the aggressive, accusatory, cynical kingdom that had sent and army to Vale in order to appease a disgruntled populace so discontented with the position of the nation that they would risk war with Atlas in a futile attempt to improve it. She didn't recognise the world in which the grimm were mindless beasts slaves to their base instincts which could be resisted, perhaps even beaten back, in the world in which they were controlled by a sinister intelligence spinning threads spanning aeons aimed at the destruction of the realms of men and the snuffing out of human life. Her belief in her own combat prowess now felt like a bad joke at times. All of the people and institutions that she had trusted had turned out to be so different from what she had always thought they were, even the Fall Maiden, supposed to embody virtue and light against the darkness, had proved faithless.

 _And Sunset was Sunset; I just pretended not to see it because she was such a good friend to me._

It felt as though the only thing that she could depend on was Jaune; in his feelings for her she yet believed that she could trust.

"I don't know," Jaune said, as he folded his arms around her and held her close. "Probably around the time we found out about Salem?"

Pyrrha couldn't help but laugh. "Yes, yes that sounds about right," she admitted. That was when everything had started to change, that was when all of the old certainties had crumbled, that was when they had started down the road that had led them to this path. And yet what other road could they have taken, except ignorance? Except abandoning the fight completely when they were needed? Pyrrha believed in a destiny that was defined by choice but looking back over the last few months it almost felt as though all choices had been in vain, as though some malevolent force of fate had brought them down the only road they were allowed to tread to their present position. "Or perhaps…sometimes I think it was the Breach. We stopped the grimm from coming through but so many other evils flowed out of the hole that we didn't stop, that we didn't even see. All the hate, all the distrust, all the suspicion, it all started there. It started with what Sunset did."

"It started," Jaune said. "However it started it did start. It wasn't always there. Which means that it can end, right?"

"How?" Pyrrha asked. "How are we supposed to put all of this back in the box that it flew out of?"

"I…well, I don't have that part figured out quite yet," Jaune said. "But give me time; I'll come up with something. You've started already."

"Do you still claim that your sweetness is just honesty?"

"Isn't it?" Jaune said. "Isn't that why you did this?"

"I did this to help Penny," Pyrrha said. "And I did it to show that there really was something that I could do, even if it was only manipulate my fame in order to help a friend."

"You're pushing back on the hatred," Jaune said. "You're doing something about the fear and suspicion that people feel, or might feel, about Penny just from finding out what she is. Even if you only change a few minds, or get them back to the way they were before, that's a start, right? That isn't nothing? I mean, even the biggest jigsaw starts with a bit of blue sky in the right-hand corner, but by the time it's done it's a huge picture."

"So this is our blue sky?"

"Well, we are in the air," Jaune said. "It's gonna be okay."

"Is it?" Pyrrha asked. "How can you be so sure?"

"Because…because I've got faith, I guess."

"Faith in what?" Pyrrha asked, because she would have liked to have had some faith herself at this moment.

"Faith…that the universe doesn't hate us enough to let things keep getting worse forever."

Pyrrha laughed, and brushed her lips against his cheek as she pulled away from him, just a little, he still had his arms around her and her hands were still upon her shoulders but now she could see his face. She moved one hand off his shoulders and up the side of his face, feeling his soft skin through her gloves, running her fingers through his hair. He had such lovely hair, so long and soft and fair to look upon; she hoped that he never got it into his head to have it cut or shaved, she liked his hair just the way it was. "Jaune, can you promise me something?"

"Anything."

"It almost feels as if you're the only thing that I can depend on right now," Pyrrha said. "So, I know it's a lot to ask, but-"

"No," Jaune said. "It isn't."

"You don't even know what I was going to ask."

"Yes," Jaune said. "I do. I will always…love you. And things will get better, starting today. You're going to change hearts and change minds and…maybe things will never seem as perfect as they were, but they will get better, I'm sure of it; for all of us."

"For all of us," Pyrrha murmured, hoping it was true.

"Even if we don't have Sunset any more I know we'll find our way through this," Jaune said. "You, me and Ruby. The three of us together, we'll make it."

"You should be leading this team, instead of me," Pyrrha said.

"Me?" Jaune laughed. "Come on, Pyrrha."

"I'm not kidding," Pyrrha said. "A team leader should be able to give hope to others, shouldn't they? The way that Sunset did. How can I bring hope to this team when I have none for myself?"

"That's not true," Jaune said. "I don't believe that you're without hope. I…I don't believe that you could be without hope."

"I feel as though I can't find any," Pyrrha admitted. She felt as though she had spent so long dreaming of destiny, of being the hero that would protect the world, but now that people were actually looking to her to be a hero she was forced to confront her own essential inadequacy in the face of the threats arising to the security of the world. "You're our strategist now, even Ruby would be better-"

"Ruby can inspire us to keep going," Jaune admitted. "But you're the one who embodies what we're fighting for, that's always been you even when Sunset was around. Now that she's not…you've always been the one we rallied around, so it makes sense that you should be the one we follow." He smiled. "Besides, whatever help you need from both of us you got it; you know that right?"

Pyrrha nodded. She sighed. "I'll be counting on you. On Ruby, too, but especially on you. I need…I feel as though I need all the hope I can get."

The voice of Professor Goodwitch – Professor Port and Doctor Oobleck had both offered to provide the commentary, but Pyrrha was worried that after borrowing the Vytal stadium it might look a little _too_ much like she was trying to usurp the tournament or make these matches look more official than they were, and she didn't want to get anyone in trouble with the Vytal Commission so she had approached their combat teacher instead – drifted out over the arena on the intercom. "And now Penny Polendina enters the arena to begin our first match."

Pyrrha walked forward, taking Jaune by the hand and leading him towards the mouth of the tunnel so that they could get a better view, both of the arena and of the holoscreens floating above it, as Penny made her way in accompanied by a vast swell of noise from the crowds who packed the stands. If the crowd was not quite as large as it would have been for an official match it was nevertheless large enough to fill the air with their cheering and, Pyrrha was saddened but not at this stage terrible surprised to hear, with their booing too. She couldn't make out exactly where the sounds were coming from, but she wouldn't have been surprised if most of the boos for Penny were coming from the Mistralian spectators, and the cheers for her from the Atlesians.

Arslan, for her part, looked a little put out by the booing, but Penny took it in stride, appearing not to notice as she beamed gleefully out at the crowd and waved with one hand as she made her way into the centre of the arena, which rose above the other, unused hexagons that were used in the more populated matches.

"Salutations, Arslan Altan," Penny declared cheerily. "I've seen some of your fights, and it's a pleasure to get this chance to fight you."

"So you've seen my matches, huh?" Arslan said. "You mean the ones were Pyrrha beat me?"

"I-"

"Well don't get cocky," Arslan said. "You're not Pyrrha, and just because she took me down doesn't mean that you should expect to do the same."

Penny looked a little taken aback. "I don't-"

"I'm just messing with you, don't look so serious, for crying out loud," Arslan said. She grinned. "You know, I don't think a merciless killbot would get flustered by a little banter. I don't think it would say 'Salutations' either. Probably something more like 'Exterminate!' or 'Delete!'"

Penny covered her mouth with one hand as she chuckled. "I'm afraid not."

"That's cause your not a killbot, they wouldn't be afraid," Arslan said. "You're just a girl, and I've fought lots of girls."

"Are both fighters ready to begin?" Professor Goodwitch asked.

Arslan bowed. Under the Mistralian code all duels began with a bow and ended with a bow - unless they ended in a death which was a very rare occurrence these days, fighting to the death being illegal outside the arena and practically extinct socially outside of if – and although this was not mandated in the Vytal Festival, which was fought under the rules of the Valish code, since this was not an official Vytal match there was nothing to stop them from observing the code of Mistral instead. There were differences – aside from the formalities, under the Mistralian code you were not allowed to concede a match before it finished – but nothing that would trip Penny up. And it allowed Arslan to show respect for her opponent, which Pyrrha judged could only be a good thing.

Penny was a little slow off the mark, but she bowed to Arslan in turn.

A klaxon sounded to begin the match. Arslan swept up out of her bow, and though Pyrrha had seen it happen more than once the way in which Arslan could transform herself from seeming so casual and unthreatening to seeming like a honed weapon of the utmost lethality never failed to impress her.

"Okay, kid," she said, as she took up a fighting stance. "It's time to go to school."

* * *

"So, Rainbow Dash," Applejack said. "How do you think your friend's going to hold up to three fights in a row?"

The six friends – Twilight had joined them by now – plus the three children, where all in Cadance's box, to which they had been invited by the councillor herself, and waved through by her security detail. There weren't actually that many seats in the box, which was why Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were sitting down along with Cadance, Pinkie, Fluttershy and Twilight while Rainbow, Rarity and Applejack all stood, but it was still cool to be up in the box, and they had access to the refreshments and everything.

Rainbow reached over Pinkie's shoulder and grabbed a handful of her popcorn. "Penny will be fine. She's more than ready for something like this."

"Darlings, why in Remnant are you eating popcorn when there are so many more refined refreshments available at our fingertips?" Rarity asked.

Rainbow shrugged. "Because I like it," she said, putting the handful into her mouth and chewing loudly.

Rarity shuddered. "Sometimes…" she learned forward. "Excuse me, Twilight darling, may I?"

"Of course, Rarity," Twilight said. "Thank you so much for having us here, Cadance."

"It's not a problem," Cadance said. "It got a little lonely up here at times yesterday."

"Oh, really? I feel so terribly insulted," Kali said as she strode in, Cadance's guards making way for her even as they continued to regard Kali's own bodyguards with a degree of suspicion.

Cadance laughed lightly as she rose from her seat. "Kali, thank you so much for coming. I wasn't sure if you'd be interested."

"I'm always interested in further discussions with you," Kali said. "And besides, both Penny and Pyrrha are friends with Blake, so I'm not wholly without an interest in all of this."

"I see," Cadance said. "Kali, allow me to introduce my sister-in-law-"

"Twilight Sparkle, yes, we've met," Kali said. "It's nice to meet you again, and you too Rainbow Dash. They're both friends of my daughter," she added, in response to Cadance's slightly surprised expression.

"Oh, of course," Cadance said.

"It's good to see you again too," Twilight said, bowing her head. "These are my friends – our friends: Jacqueline Apple, Pinkamena Pie, Rarity Belle Blumstein and Fluttershy Warren. Everyone this is Blake's mother, Kali Belladonna."

"Charmed, madam," Rarity said. "We had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of your daughter during a brief sojourn she spent in Atlas."

"Some of us met her before that," Applejack said. "She saved my life, and Fluttershy's life too, and I don't mind saying that I still owe her one."

"Blake is a very kind person," Fluttershy said softly. "You must be very proud."

"I am," Kali said. She took the seat on Cadance's left, Twilight having occupied the one on her right. "Nice to see you again too, Shining Armour. Or should that be Shining Armour Sparkle?"

Shining Armour smiled slightly. "Technically speaking."

Kali chuckled once again. "So, who do we think is going to win?"

"Penny," Rainbow said at once.

"So confident? You don't rate Arslan's chances at all? She's supposed to be very good, as I understand."

"She can be as good as she likes," Rainbow said. "Penny's got this. No way is she going to lose before she gets to fight Pyrrha."

* * *

Arslan began the fight with a charge. Pyrrha had expected that she'd do that, Arslan had an impatient streak but equally lacking any kind of ranged weapon – or any kind of weapon at all, aside from the string of dust crystals she wore around her neck or the knife that she used very sparingly – it wasn't as though she had much choice but to try and bring the fight straight to her opponents.

Such an approach suited Pyrrha just fine, but as she watched Arslan charge across the grey surface of the arena she wondered why Penny was allowing it. Penny hadn't even produced her swords from out of her back. She was standing, stock still, arms raised but with no other movement, waiting to receive attack. What was she doing? Pyrrha couldn't see what she was planning, and even wondered if she might be having some kind of computer error like when your scroll froze up.

Arslan didn't seem concerned by the unexpected sloth of her opponent. She charged, a kind of triumphant smirk upon her face as she threw a punch straight for Penny's face.

Penny caught the blow in one hand, and whatever it must have done to her aura to catch Arslan's fist like that she didn't move an inch except to throw a punch of her own with her free right hand. Arslan caught that blow in turn and the two of them stood, each gripping the dominant fist of the other – did Penny have a dominant hand? Pyrrha had never thought about it – with their own off-hand. Arslan was pushing…or was she trying to pull away?

And then Penny's swords came out, half of them whirring through the air in a line like waves beating in succession on the shore to descend on Arslan as Pyrrha saw what Penny had been doing: drawing her opponent in, fixing her in place, leaving her vulnerable.

It was something that she would have advised against.

Arslan's aura erupted out of her fist, tossing Penny back so that for a moment Pyrrha feared that she would be physically thrown out of the arena and the match would end before it had begun; that didn't happen, as Penny flung out her swords to bury the points in the arena surface, the wires connecting her to her weapons acting like anchor chains to bring her to a jerking stop, but it forced her to release Arslan who leapt backwards, jumping and flipping to avoid the laser beams that Penny was unleashing from her remaining swords, none of them striking the Haven student as the crowd roared with excitement all around them.

 _I see what you were trying to do, Penny, but it was dangerous to let someone like Arslan get so close._

Penny landed back on the surface of the stage, all her swords out now although it seemed as though, having buried some of them in the grey surface, she was having a little trouble getting them out again. Her aura, and that of Arslan, were both in the green: Arslan had to expend as much aura in that attack as she did damage, and clearly she had been reluctant to risk too much too soon.

But if Penny couldn't get her swords out then she would be practically immobilised against an opponent who was already faster than she was. Or she would have to sacrifice some of her weapons.

Arslan seemed to sense that too because she charged straight for Penny once again, leaping through the hedge of swords that Penny flung her way, at one point even leaping off one of the blades as she moved forwards.

Arslan descended on Penny, fist drawn back.

Penny grabbed one of her grounded swords and physically wrenched it out of the floor, swinging it in a slashing stroke that caught Arslan in mid-air and knocked her sideways. Penny's swords were already moving even before Arslan hit the ground, and thought Arslan landed, cat-like, on her feet she was a fraction too slow to avoid getting hit by the wave of swords that struck her like the ocean and carried her up into the air before striking her back down on the grey surface of the arena once again.

 _Yes. Well done, Penny._ Arslan's aura was now in the yellow.

Penny seemed to have learnt better than to close the distance, because as Arslan leapt to her feet Penny spread her arms out wide on either side of her, her swords forming a ring that hovered before her as beam after green laser beam spat from the tips of her blades to lance through the air towards Arslan, who dodged as best as she could, her red sash flying as she twisted in the air like a leaping salmon, but she couldn't prevent first one and then a second of Penny's blasts from winging her in quick succession.

The crowd was roaring now as Arslan's aura dropped further into the yellow, roaring with approval or with shock and horror it was hard to say, but a brief closeup of Arslan's face showed that it was set in an expression of grim determination, while a closeup on Penny showed that she, while equally determined, also looked as though she was enjoying herself.

 _I hope you're not the only one, Penny._

Arslan dodged another laser blast, and a fireball leapt from her hands to bat away one of Penny's swords that ventured too close.

"How did she do that?" Jaune asked, as Arslan began to rush Penny again. "Is that her semblance?"

"No," Pyrrha said, as she watched Arslan charge, dodging Penny's swords as they swarmed around her like angry wasps with green stings. "Those aren't decorative beads around her neck, its fire dust."

"I didn't see her grab any of it."

"No, she's very good at hiding it," Pyrrha agreed. "If she hadn't chosen to be a fighter I think she would have made an excellent magician." Of course she'd never say that to Arslan's face, it would have been construed as the grossest of insults.

Arslan threw a trio of fireballs Penny's way in quick succession, which Penny used her swords to absorb with the fire blooming harmlessly against the metal. Arslan leapt over a laser beam and flung another fireball out at Penny, the fire heading straight for her face. Penny raised her arms to take the fire upon her hands instead of her face, but either way it gave Arslan the opening she needed to close the distance once again, well within Penny's guard and with her swords still trying to follow where Arslan had led.

Arslan's fists and feet struck out with the furious speed that Pyrrha recognised so well, pummelling Penny's right side, then her left, driving Penny's aura down into the yellow as the crowd went wild and Penny – could she feel pain? Something else that Pyrrha had never asked her – bent down a little protecting her side. Arslan's dagger dropped out of her baggy sleeve and into her waiting hand as she threw it out, wrapping the slender thread connected to the weapon around Penny's leg as Arslan pulled her off balance and delivered a roundhouse kick to her torso that sent her flying.

Pyrrha realised that her hand was covering her mouth and she hadn't even realised it.

Arslan stood in the gaze of the cameras and the sight of the world, her grim countenance transforming to a slight smirk of triumph…a smirk that was short lived as Penny used her lasers like a rocket – since when she could use her lasers like a rocket? Pyrrha started to worry a little less for Penny and a little more for herself – to fly just above the surface of the ring, propelled by her laser beams which seemed to be firing continuously, using the recoil to drive Penny on like some kind of green ice skates, before bodily slamming into Arslan hard enough to knock her back in turn.

At which point Pyrrha expected Penny to stop and engage from range again. But she didn't. She followed up, not quite wielding her swords in her hands but weaving them in and out so close in front of her that she might as well have been, pressing Arslan, forcing her back, forcing her to keep her knife out to parry the blades that passed in front of her, chipping away at her aura with every pass of the wave of swords.

It was an engrossing sight, Penny weaving her swords back and forth, in and out, Arslan trying to fend them off; so engrossing that even Pyrrha didn't notice the other blades snaking around behind Arslan until they swept her legs out from under her then hit her with one final laser beam that drove her aura into the red and under the elimination marker.

"Arslan Altan is eliminated by aura depletion and is unable to continue," Professor Goodwitch said. "Penny Polendina wins the match."

"Yes!" Pyrrha cried, throwing her arms up into the air with glee. She felt her face start to go red. "I mean-"

Jaune smiled. "Don't mind me. Be as happy as you like."

The crowd erupted. Unfortunately that wasn't an unalloyed positive, as a large proportion of the noise that the crowd was making seem to come from disgruntled Mistral or Arslan fans who were making their displeasure known at this turn of events.

 _Oh no. Please tell me that I haven't-_

"HEY, KNOCK THAT OFF!" Arslan roared, in a voice loud enough to quiet the storm in the bleachers just as the old gods in ancient myths and legends could calm the storms at sea by a wave of one arm. Arslan was almost shaking with anger as she looked around the stands, her furious expression captured in close-up on every screen above the crowds. Her voice, caught by the microphones, carried even when she stopped yelling quite so loudly. "I have been called a lot of things," she said. "But one thing that I have never been is a sore loser." She gestured to Penny with one hand. "This girl is a fighter. In fact she's a fighter too good for the likes of Atlas – seriously, you ought to come to Mistral, you'd shine like a star – and worthy to stand with the best I ever saw or fought against. Now I tried my best, and she'll see me again, but until then the fight is hers because on this day she was better than I was. That's how it goes: the best girl wins and the other one picks herself up and trains even harder to get ready for next time. And if you don't get that, if you can't accept it, then I don't want any of you calling yourself fans of mine." She turned to Penny. "Congratulations," she said, before offering Penny a bow.

There was a moment of pause, before the cheering resumed and this time it seemed to be coming from all sections of the crowd, with those who had disapproved of Penny's victory either swayed or at the very least cowed into a temporary silence (the latter was less ideal, but it was arguably better than what had come before).

Penny bowed in return. "Thank you, I had such a good time."

"You know I'll be looking for a rematch, right?"

"I'll look forward to it until it comes," Penny said.

Pyrrha nodded approvingly. "She's right, you know; she's never been a sore loser."

"I thought you didn't have any friends before you came to Beacon," Jaune said. "But you clearly like her."

"I respect her," Pyrrha said. "But I wouldn't say that we were ever friends. I'm not sure…I'm not sure it would have been possible while we were in competition. But I knew that…well, let's just say that if she was the kind of person who took losing more personally I'm not sure that I would have trusted them with Penny."

"I see what you mean," Jaune said. "But it seems to have worked okay for now."

"Yes, it does," Pyrrha murmured, as she watched Penny soak up the applause and the acclaim, watched it fall down on her like the gentle dew from heaven, watched Penny experience the feeling that came from having this little world cheer you on, and if it wasn't any real substitute for love and friendship it was, in its own way, something quite wonderful.

And from the way Penny's face lit up it seemed she understood that for herself now.

"Yes, it does," Pyrrha repeated. "I hope it stays that way."

* * *

"That was awesome!" Diana declared. "I wish Penny would come to Mistral, just like Arslan said. It would be great to have another cool girl to root for. Hey, Dad, do you think she might?"

"I…I really have no idea, honey," Dad said, looking down on his daughters from the sofa. "She might or she might not."

"I hope she does," Diana repeated.

"Do you think she'll beat Pyrrha, too?" Selene asked.

"No way," Diana said. "She got lucky against Arslan, but no way that she'll get that lucky against Pyrrha."

All the same, that was sure to be an absolutely incredible match.

* * *

Michael nodded approvingly. "You can tell that Arslan's made of the right stuff by the way she takes it on the chin. It's what sets a professional apart from an amateur."

"Does that mean that Pyrrha's an amateur?" Esau asked, a grin playing across his face. "After all, she's never had to learn to take it on the chin, has she?"

"She might today," Metella said, with a slight note of gloom in her tone.

"You can't be serious!" Oceana exclaimed.

Metella gestured at the television screen. "Were you watching the same fight as the rest of us?"

"Sure, she was good," Oceana said. "But she's not invincible by any stretch of the imagination. Arslan was a bad match-up for her. Any gladiator would be at a disadvantage because we don't do distance fighting."

Michael nodded at that. Pyrrha was quite unusual in that she actually used a gun, and even then she tended to use it very sparingly in tournament matches if at all. Most of them used exclusively close-quarters weapons, or like Arslan they fought mostly bare-handed. It gave someone like Penny who had an array of laser cannons a definite advantage.

"But that doesn't mean that she can't be beaten," Oceana said. "I think I could take her on, never mind the princess."

Esau gave Oceana a look of intense scepticism. "Oh, really?"

"Sure," Oceana said. "I'd use my armour to take the hits, get in close, beat her down before she could do anything about it."

"I'd love to see that," Esau said. "In fact I'd pay to see that, just so long as I could get pictures of the look on your face when you got knocked on your ass."

"You think I could do it?"

"I think that if she took Arslan's advice and came to Mistral we'd all be feeling the pressure just a little more," Esau said.

"It won't happen," Metella said. "Regardless of all of this circus she's still Atlesian military property."

"She's a person," Michael said.

"To some people," Metella said. "But I wonder if even human soldiers are people to generals, let alone robots."

"Well that's a dark thought," Esau muttered. "Michael, what do you think? Can this Penny be the one to bring down Pyrrha?"

"I doubt it very much," Michael said. "I'm just glad that you all seem so fine with the fact that she's a robot all of a sudden."

"Like I said, she's not invincible," Oceana said. "And that…that makes it a lot harder to be scared of her."

* * *

"See," Rainbow said. "I told you Penny would beat her."

"All the same," Twilight said. "There were times when it seemed she was taking chances when she didn't need to."

"She was playing to the crowd," Rainbow said. "There's nothing wrong with that when there is a crowd."

"So long as she doesn't get cocky," Applejack said.

"You just watch," Rainbow said. "She beat Arslan, and next she'll beat Sun, too."

* * *

Penny did, in fact, beat Sun; but Blake was waiting for him as he made his way out of the arena.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"Yeah," Sun said. "The only thing my aura didn't protect was my ego, a little."

"I thought you did pretty well," Blake said.

"She threw me out of the ring."

"Yeah, but before that you were doing pretty well," Blake said. "Thank you, for agreeing to do this…and for dropping out of the tournament. That can't have been an easy decision to sell to your team."

"Well, Neptune thinks I'm crazy," Sun said. "But then when does Neptune not think that I'm crazy. But it's no big deal, it's not like any of us were desperate to win or nothing."

"It's a big deal to me," Blake said, as she leaned forward and gave him a peck on the cheek. "So thanks again."

Sun grinned. "I might see if there are some more tournaments to enter that I can drop out of later."

Blake shook her head as they started to walk out of the tunnel. "Come on, let's find a good seat for the fight with Pyrrha."

"Do you think we've got time to pick up something to eat," Sun said. "Getting beaten kinda left a hole in my stomach."

"Yeah, I think Penny needs to recharge quickly first anyway," Blake said, as they emerged out of the tunnel and into the main concourse surrounding the coliseum. She could see the docking pads, and the people milling around as they got their snacks and refreshments from the robotic vendors before making their way back into the bleachers; she could see the Atlesian and Mistralian members of the security, along with the Atlesian androids, and she could see…no, no it couldn't be.

Blake froze, uncertain of what she had just seen, unwilling to believe her own eyes and yet at the same time unwilling to dismiss it because if Ilia was here then that meant that something was very wrong.

She left Sun behind as she started to push through the crowd, where was she? Where had she been going?

"Blake?" Sun said as he followed. He gently grabbed hold of her arm. "Blake, what's wrong?"

Blake looked at him. "I…I'm not sure," she said. "I thought that I saw someone." She turned around and resumed searching the crowd. Was that her? Why was she wearing a set of beige maintenance overalls? Blake started to walk towards her.

"Wait, hang on-" Sun began.

"I can't," Blake hissed, unwilling to take her eyes of Ilia, if indeed it was Ilia Amitola. She lost sight of her for a moment, her view obscured by the crowds swirling around the concourse, but then she spotted a maintenance door marked by a distinctive hammer and spanner insignia and she thought that that must have been where Ilia had gone, and so that was the direction that she went in.

"Blake!" Sun said. "What's going on? What did you see? Who did you see?"

Blake stopped outside the door. "Someone I _knew_ ," she said, putting an unmistakeable emphasis on the word knew so that Sun would get exactly where she had known the other girl from.

Sun did understand, and his eyes widened as he comprehended. "You mean-"

"Yes," Blake said.

"We should tell somebody."

"Tell them what, that I think I saw somebody that I last saw years ago in Mistral?" Blake said. "That's why I have to check it out first. You don't-"

"Yeah, I do," Sun said. He twirled his staff. "After all, I'm the one with the weapon, remember?"

"Unfortunately," Blake murmured. But it wasn't as if she could just summon her locker up here on a whim because of something that she might or might not have seen.

She pushed open the maintenance doorway, stepping into a grey but well-lit corridor with various other door-less corridors branching off from it. Sun followed, and it was only as he did so that she considered that perhaps he ought to have gone first.

On the other hand, he didn't know what Ilia looked like.

Except that was practically immaterial, since she was standing there waiting for them once they passed the door.

"I wasn't sure if you'd spotted me or not," Ilia said. "But I knew that if you had, you'd follow me through that door."

"Ilia," Blake said. "What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here?" Ilia replied. "What are you doing selling out your people to the Atlesian military?"

"I'm trying to do what's right," Blake said. "Instead of killing people for no reason, stealing for no purpose, fighting to accomplishing nothing!"

"So it's true," Ilia said, her voice thick with melancholy. "You have betrayed us. I didn't want to believe it, but it's true. How could you, after everything we've been through."

"All the things that we've been through, all the things that we've done," Blake said. "Are the reasons why I had to leave. What are you doing here, Ilia?"

"I go where our cause needs me to go," Ilia said. "It took you here before me, but I was able to follow you eventually."

"Why?" Blake demanded. "Is there a bomb? Did you sabotage something?" It was the second one, she realised; Ilia's face gave nothing away, but it explained why she was dressed as a mechanic and a bomb would have been hard to smuggle past security. "That's it, isn't it? What did you do? What have you done?"

"The next match between Pyrrha Nikos and Penny Polendina is about to begin," Professor Goodwitch declared over the tannoy.

"You've picked the wrong side, Blake," Ilia said. "You can't stop what's coming and your new friends can't beat it. But if you leave with me, if you come home, then Sienna will be merciful. She still cares about you, just like I do, just like we all do."

"What's going on?" Blake demanded. "Tell me so that I can stop it."

"You can't," Ilia repeated. She produced her whip from behind her. Electricity crackled up and down the metal. "Now I'll ask you one more time: come home to your family."

Blake scowled. "My family is up here," she said. "And I can't let you leave before you tell me what's going on."

"Are both contestants ready to begin?" Professor Goodwitch asked.

Sun stepped forward, his staff held ready before him. Ilia's knees bent as she widened her stance, bringing her lower to the ground.

"Begin!"


	177. P v P, part 3

P v P, part 3

Pyrrha stood in the tunnel, shrouded in shadow, almost concealed by the darkness even as she looked out towards the light. The sky had grown dark, but in the arena there was enough artificial light to contest with the sun had it been up. It would not be long now. Soon she would emerge from dark to light, soon she would be born or perhaps reborn, soon she would escape the underworld and regain the world, or a world. Soon she would live, and fight for her life.

For what might be the last time.

She smiled. If this was to be her farewell to the arena then she found that she could not imagine a better occasion for it, or a better opponent.

If this was it, then she would be content.

Whether certain other people would be was another question altogether but…she had lived her whole life to date being what other people wished her to be, in this time away from home, at Beacon, with her friends…she had grown to like the feeling of being herself.

"Pyrrha."

Pyrrha turned to see her mother standing behind her, having just stepped into the mouth of the tunnel. They were all alone, Jaune having gone to help boost Penny's aura back up to full and Ruby watching the fights with Yang. It was just her and her mother.

"Mother," she said softly. "I wasn't expecting to see you here."

"I sincerely hope that this will not be the last time you will tread the arena floor," her mother said as she walked towards her, her stick clicking on the surface of the tunnel. "But if it is then…I would like to say a few words to you before you do."

"I haven't quite made up my mind about retirement yet," Pyrrha said, because in all honesty there was a part of her that would like another bite at the apple in two years time when she didn't have to pull out in order to stand alongside Penny; on the other hand having said that she wanted to commit her life to something more meaningful than winning trophies she felt rather obliged to actually get on and do it, especially with the world in the state that it was in. What were Vytal crowns, when so much was at stake?

And yet the fact that she had not won this last title gnawed at her pride, at those parts of herself that Pyrrha liked the least, and would not let go. "I have to admit…you've taken it more calmly than I thought you would. My intentions, my withdrawing from this tournament. I expected you to be far more upset."

Her mother's face was hard for a moment, every wrinkle upon it seeming even thicker as the shadows fell upon them. "I cannot deny that it is disappointing that I will not have the opportunity to wear the victor's crown. But if that disappointment is not sated by the fact that the world will see your skill regardless, or by the fact that this year's tournament seems doomed to become known as a playground of the second rate…then the fact that you have withdrawn for the sake of honour, that would not allow you to suffer the ill-treatment of a comrade without recourse, must be my consolation instead."

Pyrrha felt her mouth hang open just a little, forming an O of surprise. "You…you approve of what I did? Of what I've done?"

"You have been called the pride and glory of Mistral reborn," her mother said. "The princess without a crown. I know that you detest such names almost as much as you detest to be called the Invincible Girl, and yet I have encouraged all three for the sake of your reputation…and mine. You disdain them all, but the former two are truer than you know…and truer than I understood myself until very recently. It is a pity that you never had the opportunity to know your great-grandfather, I think you would have liked him very much."

"My great-grandfather," Pyrrha murmured. "The son of the last Emperor?"

"The last of our line to be raised in the palace," her mother said. "The last to remember what it was like in the days of the monarchy. He was never nostalgic for the privileges and possessions that he had lost, although he did talk of them…but for all his life he maintained the manners and dignity of one born to the purple, the grace and virtue of his royal blood that royal education had brought out in him. I think you would have liked him…and you remind me of him." Her mother sighed. "I set out to raise a tournament champion and yet it seems that I have raised a queen of old: lordly and generous; gracious, gentle as befits one of high race. Combine that with your skill at arms and what am I to conclude but that I did, by accident, bring the pride of Mistral once more into the world. It has taken me too long to realise that, and for that I can offer neither explanation nor defence except perhaps to say that…I feared that if I gave pride to Mistral I would have none for myself."

"Mother," Pyrrha murmured, blinking rapidly as she felt…yes, they were tears stinging at her eyes. "You heap far too much praise on me; it will break my back with a weight I cannot bear."

"Your back bears more weight than my praise, and has, and will again," her mother said. "It has born all my pride these many years, for one, and still does. I know that I have not always been the mother that you wished for but, as I look at you…I cannot help but think that I must have done something very well."

Pyrrha bowed her head, but could not help but smile just a little at that. "If I am at all worthy of your words, mother…if I am at all worthy of all the hopes that so many people have so heedlessly placed upon my shoulders…then I suppose that I must credit your complete refusal to spoil me."

"It was never my intention to make you unhappy," her mother said. "And if I did-"

"All past now," Pyrrha said. "I have found my joy in this place, and that can sweep away what went before."

"In this place, or in that boy?"

"Both," Pyrrha said. "He is a man faithful, valiant and true. Jaune is no Mistralian lord of grand old family but he's so much more than that, he…he is my shining light, my hope as the darkness falls."

Her mother's eyes narrowed. "There are times when I fear that there is much that you are not telling, even more than the business of Miss Polendina and her nature."

"I…I cannot deny it," Pyrrha said. "But equally I cannot tell you more than you know. I wish I could but I am sworn against it."

"And how can I ask a princess of Mistral to break her word?" her mother asked. "So be it."

"Will Pyrrha Nikos please make her way into the arena?" Professor Goodwitch asked over the intercom.

Her mother smiled. "Go, and good fortune attend you."

Pyrrha bowed her head. "Thank you, mother."

She turned away, and with her spear and shield yet slung across her back she made her way out of the darkness and into the light.

She stepped out of the underworld and into the world of the living, the world of the crowd that surrounded her, their voices rising like a storm before falling on her like rain as they called her name, cheered her on, praised her to the skies before she had even begun to fight. A single hand, raised in acknowledgement as she strode across that quarter of the arena marked with the twin axes of Vale and Beacon, was enough to redoubled the sounds falling upon her from every direction.

 _I am only their darling because I perform for them,_ Pyrrha thought. _I will be forgotten the moment I am gone. There is more truth in Jaune's feelings than in this entire crowd, though he does not shout so loud._

But at moments like this it was so hard to remember that.

She strode into the centre of the arena, where Penny was already waiting for her. The two of them smiled at one another as the platform began to rise, leaving a drop of some twenty feet or more to the rest of the arena all around them.

"I've been looking forward to this for a long time," Penny said.

"I can't quite say that I've been anticipating this for as long as you," Pyrrha admitted. "But for as long as I have, I've anticipated it as sweetly."

Penny beamed. "Let's have a great fight, with nothing held back."

 _I know that Penny will probably want you to go all out, and I know that there's probably such a thing as fighters' honour or something like that, but if you could not use too much magnetism against Penny that would be great._ Pyrrha could hear Twilight's words, spoken to her in a hurry that day, reverberating in her head. _We haven't actually done any tests on how much of it she can stand up to…because we were too worried about what might happen when we found the limits of her tolerance. So if you could not mess up her internal circuitry and erase all her memory banks that would be great._

"Nothing held back," Pyrrha agreed. It was a lie, but a lie kindly meant; there was nothing wrong with holding back when not holding back might kill your friend, and it wasn't as if a match that ended in the first five seconds by her picking Penny up and dumping her out of the arena would be much fun for anybody. She would fight as she always did, with just a little touch of polarity to grease the way forward for her skill at arms; if that skill was sufficient then she would win, and if not then she would no longer be the Invincible Girl.

And that…there were far worse things that could happen.

Not that she wouldn't try to win; Penny deserved nothing less.

 _Nothing held back…that I wouldn't hold back in any other fight._

"Are both contestants ready to begin?" Professor Goodwitch asked.

Pyrrha nodded firmly, her smile not leaving her face. "Ready."

"Combat ready," Penny said, her smile broadening for a moment.

There was a pause, like the calm in the eye of the storm.

"Begin!"

They both reacted at once. Pyrrha started to run, while she wasn't as completely bereft of ranged options as Arslan had been she'd still be at an immense disadvantage if she let Penny turn this into a shooting match. For her part, Penny had learned from being too clever in her previous battle, as soon as Professor Goodwitch bade them start her blades leapt from her back as though they burned to avenge some insult to their mistress' honour. With one arm she traced a circle in the air, sending half her swords in that same loop before – as she flung her right hand out at Pyrrha as though she too had a secret semblance she had only now deigned to reveal – she thrust those half her swords out like a flechette storm out at Pyrrha. The other half, held by her other hand fixed in place, remained before her like vigilant sentinels for her protection.

Pyrrha charged, shield on her back and Milo held in spear mode, gripped tight in both hands. The swords flew towards her, with their wires practically invisible it was like they were alive, like insects or hungry pack animals lancing straight for her, turning around her, hunting for her, chasing her down. Pyrrha leapt over one of them, her red sash flying as much as her long red hair flowed behind her, and with a touch of polarity she turned what might have been a glancing blow into a miss as her feet touched the ground again and she kept running, swiftly running, outpacing the swords with their wide turning circle as they tried to follow. She drew back her spear as if for a mighty thrust. Penny brought up the other swords that she had kept in reserve against such an eventuality up to parry or block Pyrrha's stroke. Pyrrha charged forward, beginning to thrust forth her spear only for Milo to transform, mid- thrust, into rifle mode as suddenly Pyrrha wasn't thrusting a spear at all but aiming down the sights for a gap between two of Penny's swords. A gap made just a little wide with the slightest touch of polarity.

Crack! A single shot from Pyrrha's rifle flew through Penny's guard to strike her square upon the forehead. Penny's head snapped backwards and she staggered a step or two. Pyrrha didn't have time to check what she'd done to Penny's aura, she barely registered the roaring of the crowd around her, her whole attention was on pressing her advantage while Penny was disoriented. She leapt, Milo transforming back into spear mode in her hands as she threw Akuou over Penny's head before she gripped her spear tight with both hands once again. She aimed to leap clear over Penny's swords and get to grips with Penny herself, but she wasn't quite able to clear the jump, or rather Penny wasn't quite as disoriented by getting shot as Pyrrha had hoped for as long as she had hoped and she brought her swords up so that Pyrrha's high-heeled boot landed upon a blade instead of the air down to Penny as she had hoped.

Pyrrha leapt back quickly before Penny could throw her back as she had thrown Arslan, doing a graceful backflip as she fell to land facing Penny, spear still in hand.

Penny was still smiling, and Pyrrha was smiling right back at her.

Penny brought all her swords together in front of her, twirling one arm again to have them trace a figure of eight pattern in front of her. The black outline of her semblance consumed Pyrrha's hand as she summoned her shield back to her through a path that would take it straight into the back of Penny's head.

The crowd gasped – it was a pity, but it could hardly be avoided as they'd never seen her do anything like this before – as Akuou flew, turning in the air like a discus, straight towards Pyrrha's hand, straight towards Penny.

Penny didn't turn around as she caught the shield with one hand, stopping it dead in its tracks. Pyrrha could pull on it, but it would not move.

Penny's smile widened. Pyrrha's eyebrow rose.

Penny threw her own shield at her. It wasn't a perfect throw – Akuou ought to be thrown like a disc, but Penny's throw had more in common with a Frisbee – but it had plenty of strength behind it and was pretty accurate too. Certainly Akuou was coming back to her, not necessarily in the way that she might have liked.

 _But you've still got a few things to learn, Penny._

Pyrrha ran to meet her shield as it traversed the air, switching Milo into sword mode and tossing it up into the air. The blade spun as it rose while Pyrrha, focussing on Akuou, caught the flying shield with both hands. It yanked back on her with the force that Penny had put into the throw but Pyrrha was able to convert that into a spin as she pirouetted on one toe like the dancer she had once aspired to be many years ago, her arms outstretched before she threw her shield right back at Penny again like it was the ball and this was some game of throw and volley they were playing.

She caught Milo in one hand and charged after her shield straight at Penny.

Penny formed her swords in line to defend her, a wall of swords in place of the walls of shields that had hedged around the ancient kings and warlords. Akuou struck the wall with all the force that Penny and Pyrrha could combine to imbue it with, and the sword wall buckled, the blades that had been struck reeling backwards, but it did not break.

Not until Pyrrha struck it with her own body, grabbing Akuou and putting everything she had, strength and speed and momentum and a little of her semblance into bending those swords back and getting them out of her way.

She was grinning like a maniac as the blades bent before her and she was past them with Penny in her sights.

Pyrrha spun on her toe, slashing at Penny across the midriff with her sword as she pirouetted, hitting her across the jaw with the edge of her shield before following up as her spin completed a full revolution with a second slashing stroke with Milo still in sword-form. Penny retreated, leaping backwards driven by her powerful legs, her blades spreading out around her as the wall of swords that she had used as a shield became a firing line blasting out green laser bolts all aimed for Pyrrha.

Pyrrha fell back too; she had little choice really, she couldn't follow into that hail of fire, so she did a backflip and then another to carry her away as the laser beams shredded the surface that she had been standing on just a moment ago.

She had a chance to glance quickly at the board; Penny's aura was in the yellow; but judging by the look on her face as she landed – she still had that same eager grin lighting up her whole expression – she was a long way from giving up yet.

Pyrrha would have been disappointed if it had been any other way.

Penny landed, her knees bracing as her feet touched the ground, her swords still arrayed like wings of metal feathers on either side of her, feathers that were still shooting…perhaps that wasn't a very good analogy but it was hard to think of one when you were taking cover behind what seemed, in the circumstances, a rather small shield and getting shot at by more than a dozen laser beams that hissed like angry snakes as green beams erupted from their tips to whiz at her. They didn't all hit, most of them missed and struck the shield protecting the spectators behind her – that seemed to excite them more than frighten them, the sounds of the crowd were only increasing in intensity – but they made it difficult to advance into their midst without inviting her to risk an improvement in accuracy.

And yet advance was precisely what she had to do.

Pyrrha switched Milo into rifle mode and snapped off two shots in quick succession, hoping to stagger Penny even for a moment. Penny waved her arms and two of her swords moved into the way like bodyguards to deflect the bullets harmlessly away. Pyrrha nodded approvingly as she switched Milo into spear mode and began to run. She had no choice but to do this the old-fashioned way, the classical way one might say; if she could just get through the killing zone of Penny's laser fire then-

A laser beam glanced off Akuou, the beam deflecting off the surface but nevertheless stopping Pyrrha in her tracks, if only for a moment. A second laser beam knocked Milo out of her hand and sent it skittering across the grey surface of the arena floor. Pyrrha reached for it with her semblance, but while she was focussing on that a third blast struck her in the centre of her corset just below her neckline; it felt like getting punched in the chest as she was hurled backwards, skidding across the ground on her back as Penny let loose her swords, the firing line once more becoming the piranha swarm as the blades leapt forward in eagerness, the lasers continuing to fly in all directions this time as the blades whirled around Pyrrha as though she were the monster and they were the aircraft tasked with taking her down. She regained her feet because to do otherwise was to invite defeat, and leapt over bolts and rolled under them as they passed by. She reclaimed her spear and slung both it and her shield upon her back because they were doing nothing in her hands but inviting Penny to try and blow them out of said hands; besides which she needed both hands free to use her semblance in this situation.

 _You want nothing held back, Penny? Well, you got it._

Pyrrha raised both her hands, and both her hands began to glow with the black outline of her newly revealed semblance. She was ruining herself for the arena in the unlikely event that she decided not to retire, but was there any better time to let it all come out? Might it not be wonderfully refreshing to have all the secrets out into the open without anyone needing to wonder how she did it any more?

And on the battlefield she could still shock her enemies with just how much she was capable of, because she wasn't putting out very much of her semblance here; she didn't need to, just enough to adjust all of Penny's swords so that they didn't hit her. She made an eye in the storm and then she stood there as laser beams passed harmlessly all around her, striking the ground but never hitting her.

Penny put her hands on her hips. She looked a little unsure as to what to do next.

Pyrrha, on the other hand, knew exactly what to do next. She pushed Penny's swords aside and made a run for Penny, keeping her swords at bay with her semblance as channelled through her left hand while with her right she slung Milo – still in its spear form – off her back and drew it back for a mighty thrust.

Penny tried to get at least some of her swords back, but Pyrrha's polarity was making it difficult for her, and even if she got them under control they wouldn't be able to catch up with Pyrrha at this point. Which meant that Penny would have to rely on what she knew of hand to hand combat…or she would manage to unlock her semblance in the heat of the moment.

It might only be an exhibition match, but if Pyrrha bearing down on her wasn't at least a little hot then Pyrrha herself would be slightly miffed; and wouldn't it be wonderful if Penny did find her semblance today, in this fight, at this moment? Wouldn't that be something?

Pyrrha closed in on Penny, drawing back Milo and releasing her semblance as she used both hands to grip her spear, thrusting it forward square for Penny's chest.

It struck a sword. A white spectral sword in Penny's hands with which she parried the Pyrrha's spear stroke and turned it away.

For a moment all things faded. The whole world of the coliseum disappeared from Pyrrha's consciousness and the sounds of the crowd meant less to her than the buzzing of a single importunate fly; there was only the sword, the ghostly white sword like the after-image or the departed soul of one of Penny's blades, yet solid enough to be gripped in Penny's hands and firm enough to turn aside her Milo.

"Penny," Pyrrha murmured. "Is that-"

Penny headbutted her. Rainbow Dash must have taught her to do that because Pyrrha had certainly never showed her a move like it, but on the receiving end she certainly couldn't deny its somewhat brutal efficiency as it snapped her head back and forced her back a step. She brought up Milo to block but she guessed wrong where the stroke would come from and felt her aura being sliced away. She retreated another step, parrying another blow by Penny as she recovered from the headbutt. Penny was pressing her now, but Pyrrha was able to keep her at bay as she twirled Milo on her hands, using the shaft to block all slashing strokes of Penny's semblance blade.

A second sword, as white as the first, appeared in Penny's left hand and it became harder to fend her off as she was attacking from two places now. Harder, but not impossible as Pyrrha switched from spear to sword and brought her shield onto her off-hand, blocking on the left and probing for openings on the right with her weapon. She also probed briefly with her semblance, proving her assumption that there was nothing metal for her to affect about these blades; Penny's semblance wasn't just swords, it was swords that Pyrrha's semblance had no power to disrupt.

A third white sword appeared in the air above Penny's head and flew at Pyrrha like a javelin. She disengaged, rolling back to avoid the blade as it slammed point first into the floor of the arena and then dissipated into white smoke as if it had been so fragile it could not withstand the blow. Penny's real swords swarmed around her, forcing Pyrrha back further, before they retreated to give her a better view of Penny as she was surrounded by an ever increasing multitude of those white swords, forming all around her, making a halo around her head, making a wall behind her, swords emerging from thin air until Pyrrha was confronted by a vast hedge of swords, a regiment's worth of blades all hovering in the air and pointing squarely at her.

It was absolutely magnificent…and a little intimidating too.

But for the moment, as Penny showed no signs of launching an immediate attack, the sense of awe and wonder won out as Pyrrha breathed, "Penny…you're semblance…it's incredible."

Penny looked as though she could hardly believe it. "I…I know. Thank you, Pyrrha, thank you so much."

"Don't thank me," Pyrrha said. "This is your semblance, your soul; you did this all yourself." She shook her head. "I'm just so glad you did." She switched her sword back into spear and stepped into stance, shield held before her. "Now, shall we finish this?"

"Okay!" Penny declared cheerily.

This couldn't go on much longer. Penny's aura – further drained by her use of her new semblance – was very close to the red. Pyrrha's aura was a little better, but if she took a couple more hits it wouldn't be. It was a question of whether Pyrrha could close the distance between them fast enough to stop Penny from beating her into submission with all of her new swords.

And Pyrrha's semblance wouldn't be of any help. She would have nothing but her speed to rely on.

Her smile widened. This would be fun.

The world slowed as she began to run. The crowd, the arena, Professor Goodwitch, her team-mates, Penny's team-mates, the world of Remnant, none of it mattered; there was only Penny, standing before her with all her swords around her.

The swords that flew like spears and fell like rain.

They moved so slowly, to Pyrrha's eyes; but that was only because she was moving slowly too; slowly enough that every step felt like an age, slowly enough that the swords fell like water dripping from a tap; slow enough that as they struck the ground she could see them dissipate into smoke wisp by wisp.

She ran slowly, and they fell slowly too, or so it seemed to her; in sloth, or in speed, they were evenly matched.

She leapt out of the path of a sword that shattered beneath her. She swept Milo out in a wide arc that dissipated another before it could reach her. She deflected a third with Akuou; a fourth white blade struck her shield dead on, but Pyrrha took the momentum and turned it into a spin so that she was not forced back but only changed direction slightly. And she kept on running.

Two swords flew towards her; Pyrrha deflected one with her shield and parried the other with Milo but the effort left her exposed to the third spear which struck her in on her cuisse and pushed her leg back out from under her. She fell to her knees, turned it into a roll forwards, rose again and kept on running as the swords struck to her left and her right. Penny needed to get better at aiming, too few of those white blades were hitting the mark.

Her ordinary swords, her metal swords, were firing, loosing their green bolts as the white swords flew; Pyrrha didn't alter their trajectory; their didn't seem to be the point. If she could move fast enough then she would win. If not then Penny would triumph over her. It all hung in the balance now.

Pyrrha kept moving forward. She was hit again in the shoulder and knocked back, costing her precious distance that she had to re-cover. She didn't dare look at how much aura she had left. She got back up. She kept running. She was so close now, once she closed the distance-

Penny swept her metal swords before her, waving her hands through the air as she placed them between herself and Pyrrha, who knew that Penny had no intention of giving her the chance to close that distance.

 _Clever Penny._

Pyrrha didn't know exactly how much aura she had left, but the klaxon hadn't sounded yet which meant that she had enough aura left for one last trick. She slung her shield across her back as the white swords fell towards her.

As a blade descended upon her she reached out her hand, and it glowed black with the darkness of her semblance.

As the blade closed she pushed Penny's swords away as Milo turned into rifle mode.

As the blade moved in Pyrrha brought up her rifle with a suddenly unobstructed shot of Penny.

Pyrrha squeezed the trigger on her last two rounds as Penny's sword-

The klaxon sounded in the same instant that the white sword struck Pyrrha on the shoulder, spinning her about and throwing her to the ground. Judging from the way it felt, and it felt like it was almost smarting, she had lost her aura or almost.

Had she also lost the match?

"Ladies and gentlemen," the voice of Professor Goodwitch rose above the confused murmurs of the crowd. "Both Miss Polendina and Miss Nikos have dropped below the aura threshold. However, the logs confirm that Miss Polendina dropped below the limit first, albeit by a very small margin. Therefore, Pyrrha Nikos-"

Whatever else Professor Goodwitch had to say was drowned out by the sounds of the crowd as they erupted into cheering and shouting, the sounds of their thunderous approval rolling down from all sides like a flood cascading down a hillside into the valley.

Pyrrha got to her feet as the arena on which they stood descended downwards to join the other sections of the floor. She stood up despite the acclaim being heaped upon her which ought to have been enough to crush her beneath the weight. She barely heard it as she turned to face her defeated opponent. "Penny-"

She was interrupted by Penny tackling her into an embrace, wrapping her arms tightly around her. "Thank you," Penny said. "That was the best fight ever! I mean…" she released Pyrrha, and stepped back, and bowed. "Thank you for a spectacular match, Pyrrha Nikos."

Pyrrha bowed, a smile upon her face, then stepped forward and hugged Penny. "That was a great fight for me too, Penny," she said into her ear. "The best I've ever had." She would retire, she understood that now. She didn't want any fight other than this one to be her last match. It didn't matter that she hadn't won the Vytal crown, it didn't even matter that her mother and Mistral would both be disappointed. She didn't want any other fight than this one to be her last fight; certainly she didn't want some rote contest in which she breezed to victory to displace the memory of this great battle.

This was her final bow, and it was one she could be proud of.

She and Penny stayed that way for a moment, locked in embrace, before they broke off. Pyrrha took Penny's hand and raised it upwards. And the cheers of the crowd redoubled in intensity.

"They love you, Penny," Pyrrha murmured.

"Are you sure?" Penny asked. "I thought it was you they were cheering for."

"It's for both of us," Pyrrha said. "For what we did. You should be proud."

"I…I think I am," Penny said. "Does…does it always feels this good?"

"Only after the best matches," Pyrrha said. "The ones where you know you were just part of something wonderful."

* * *

Sun leapt forward. Blake's hand was halfway towards reaching for Gambol Shroud before she remembered – again – that it wasn't on her back but down in a locker at Beacon miles below.

 _Of all the times to be unarmed._

She watched Sun fight alone for a moment, his staff whirling in his hands as Ilia lashed out with her whip, before she remembered that although she didn't have a weapon she _did_ have a scroll.

She pulled it out, looking down as she snapped it open and began to scroll across her contacts. R, looking for R-

She was still looking when she heard Sun cry out in pain.

 _His aura!_ Blake cursed herself for not remembering even more than she cursed Sun's stupid pride for not reminding her! He'd just got done with a fight, his aura had dropped into the red, he hadn't had any time at all to recharge it and he wouldn't have asked Jaune to help him with that because why would he need to when his match was over.

Blake looked up, her eyes widening in horror as she saw Sun's aura break under a jolt from Ilia's whip as it lashed him across the chest. Sun staggered, his bo-staff dropping to the ground as he clutched at the burn on his chest with one hand, the other waving feebly in front of him in a futile attempt to fend off Ilia.

There was no mercy in her face as she drew back her whip to hit him again.

"No!" Blake yelled, leaving a shadow clone behind her as she leapt across the corridor, pushing Sun aside – he fell roughly into the wall, but it wouldn't hurt nearly as much as getting another shock from Ilia's whip was; she'd seen that thing in action and it was vicious – as she grabbed the extended lash with one hand.

Ilia's hand froze on the trigger, not pulling it to trigger the burst of electricity down the metal line.

Blake took advantage of that momentary hesitation to punch her in the nose. Ilia stepped backwards, and Blake pressed her advantage with another shadow clone that she used to push herself forwards, driving both her feet into Ilia's gut with a flying kick that sent her old friend flying backwards and rolling along the floor. Blake leapt for her, intending to get on top of her and pin her to the ground until she got some answers, but Ilia recovered more quickly that she had expected and flicked her whip in Blake's direction, hitting her before she could leave a clone in her place – meaning that she caught the full force of shock which rippled up and down her body, snapping at her aura like a pack of snarling, nipping dogs. The yellow lightning was enough to halt Blake in her tracks, knocking her back and although she landed on her feet she was too preoccupied for a moment by the shocking sensation jarring through her body to do anything as Ilia leapt to her feet, leapt off the nearest wall, and delivered a spinning kick to Blake's face that knocked her sideways.

Blake rebounded off the wall, leaving a clone behind to take the sting of Ilia's whip as she body-slammed into the other girl, hoping to use the fact that she was taller than Ilia and just a little heavier to bear her to the ground and keep her there until…she hadn't thought that far ahead and it didn't really matter either as Ilia twisted out of the way, using Blake's momentum against her and giving her a knee to the face for her trouble.

 _This would be so much easier if I had my weapon,_ Blake thought, but of course she didn't, did she? She could see her scroll lying on the ground where she had dropped it in her zeal to get Sun out of the way of that hit but it was no good going for it now, either to summon her locker or summon help, Ilia would never give her the chance.

"I don't want to hurt you, Blake," Ilia said, flexing her yellow-glowing whip. "You don't have to do this."

"Yes," Blake said. "I do."

Ilia scowled. "If I tell you that nobody's going to get hurt will that change your mind? I'm here to make a statement, not to commit mass murder."

"I'd like to believe that," Blake said. "I really would; I want to believe that you haven't fallen so far-"

"Fallen?" Ilia snapped. "This isn't about having fallen anywhere? If the High Leader told me to blow this whole place up with everyone in it then I would, and they'd all deserve it!"

"Ilia!" Blake exclaimed. "This place is full of innocent people-"

"Innocent people like the ones who laughed when they heard that my parents had died in the mines?" Ilia demanded. "Innocent people like the Atlas soldiers who keep us down? This has nothing to do with innocence, this has nothing to do with right or wrong-"

"Then what does it have to do with?" Blake said. "What are you doing here?"

"Shut up!" Ilia snarled. "I'm going to give you one last chance to get out of my way, for old times' sake."

"No," Blake said. "Not even for that, or for you."

Ilia bared her teeth. "Fine then," she said, raising her whip to slash at Blake with it.

There was a bang, and Ilia staggered forwards. Behind her, one of Sun's shotguns – half his staff – trembled in his hand as he struggled to lift it with his aura gone and an injury that had to be causing him incredible pain.

Ilia grunted in pain, and Blake leapt for her. Ilia lashed out, her stroke passing harmlessly through Blake's shadow clone. But Ilia was moving too, and Blake's spin-kick only glanced her side and didn't impede her flight as she ran, even though the battle could hardly be said to be going against her at this point she still ran, diving into one of the side archways that opened up along the corridor. Blake followed, coming to a flight of stairs leading downwards, and a door which she saw closing in Ilia's wake.

Blake was three steps down and after her before she forced herself to stop and be sensible about this. She had no weapon, and Ilia had had the better of their previous exchange, and judging by the lack of light from the other side of the door it could quite possibly be dark down there – wherever that door led – which would only play to Ilia's strengths as she could negate Blake's night-vision with her camouflage.

She turned away, and quickly went back to the corridor where she had left Sun. "How are you feeling?"

"I'll be fine," he lied, and lied very badly too considering that he was practically groaning in pain while he said it. That burn on his chest was not going to be fine unless he got help sooner rather than later. "You need to go after her."

"No, I don't," Blake said, as she grabbed her scroll with one hand and scooped it off the floor. "I need to remember that I'm not alone."

* * *

Rarity gave Rainbow a little bit of a glare as her scroll started to go off. Which Rainbow didn't think was entirely fair – it wasn't like this was the movie theatre or anything – but she could see why her friends weren't happy with the interruption. She wasn't too happy with the interruption, this fight going on down there was absolutely epic and the last thing that she wanted was to get torn away from it so that she could take some call.

She was almost tempted to ignore her scroll on that basis alone, but the ringtone that was disturbing everybody right now was the one that only went if she was getting a call from a member of SAPR or Blake, which meant that it might be important and so she walked to the back of the box, so that she wouldn't disturb anyone else too much and so that the sound of Pinkie's cheering wouldn't be quite so loud, and answered.

"Rainbow Dash, we've got a problem," Blake said.

"Blake," Rainbow said, and she hadn't meant to but she must have said it pretty loudly to hear herself say it because all the other sounds in the box quieted down pretty much immediately. "What's going on? You sound-"

"There's a White Fang agent in the coliseum, Sun's been hurt and I need help," Blake said.

"White Fang?" Shining Armour said, proving that everybody had indeed started listening as he crossed the intervening distance to Rainbow Dash in three quick strides. "Did you say White Fang?"

"Shining Armour, Blake; Blake, Twilight's brother," Rainbow said. "Hang on a sec, I'll patch you through to the general and Ciel." She swiped Blake's picture over to one side of the screen, while with the other she scrolled through the options to get Ciel and General Ironwood in on this call at the same time. Ciel's face appeared first, followed by General Ironwood a few moment's later; Rainbow guessed that it had taken him that long to get out of the bleachers and find somewhere that was half-private.

 _Which is maybe something that I should have done._

"Rainbow Dash," General Ironwood said. "Is something wrong?"

"Possible security breach, sir," Rainbow said.

"There is a security breach," Blake insisted. "General, I saw someone that I recognised, someone from the White Fang. I followed her, and it was her; she confronted us, and she pretty much confirmed that she had or was planning to do something to the coliseum; Sun and I tried to fight her but I didn't have my weapon, and Sun was wounded and she got away. I thought it was better to call you than try to follow her all by myself with no weapons."

"You did the right thing," General Ironwood said. "How badly hurt is Mister Wukong?"

"Ilia hit him with an electrical attack that broke his aura."

"Are you alright?" Kali asked as she started to get up from her seat.

"Yes, I- Mom?"

"Ma'am, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to give us a minute," General Ironwood said. "Belladonna, where are you?"

"I…we're in the maintenance corridor just outside the west entrance to the arena."

"I'll have a medical team despatched immediately, we'll get him to a hospital," Ironwood said.

"Should we stop the match, sir?" Ciel asked.

"Negative, we don't want to start a panic."

"Sir," Shining Armour said. "There could be a bomb in the coliseum; we need to start evacuating these people immediately."

"Ilia said it wasn't a bomb," Blake said. "She said that whatever she was planning wasn't intended to kill anyone."

"I'm sorry, but I don't want to trust the safety of an Atlesian councillor and my wife to the word of a terrorist," Shining Armour said. "She may have been lying precisely so that we don't evacuate in time."

"I'm inclined to agree, General," Cadance said, standing up in her seat. "If what Blake says is true then we have to begin getting all of these people out of the stadium as quickly as possible."

"If we do that, Councillor, then the terrorist will escape in the confusion," General Ironwood replied. "The White Fang don't carry out suicide attacks, so I don't think they'll activate whatever it is they've done until giving their agent at least a chance to escape. We need to lock down all docking bays, keep everybody in their seats, and conduct a thorough search for the intruder and for their sabotage." He paused. "All of which being said, perhaps you-"

"Don't finish that sentence, General Ironwood," Cadance said. "I'm not going to evacuate while leaving all of these other people to face the music."

Shining Armour looked kind of like he wished she would, but knew better than to argue with her about it; the look her face was enough to persuade Rainbow that she was better off not arguing with her about it either.

Honestly, she wasn't sure who was right and who was wrong about this; she could see the general's point, and Blake wouldn't lie about something like that – although that didn't mean that her friend from the old days hadn't lied to her – and she would rather get this guy whoever she was than let her get away with all the other evacuees…but on the other hand, Scootaloo was up her here, and all her friends and her team and all these other people and just the idea that they could all be sitting up here when the whole thing blew up underneath their feet was making the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

It was a pity that they couldn't do both.

"Thanks to Miss Nikos, I think we might actually be starting to calm the mood amongst the people," General Ironwood said. "Belladonna, what's your opinion on this White Fang agent? Do you trust her word?"

It didn't escape Rainbow's notice that the general had just called her 'Belladonna', not 'Miss Belladonna'. It sounded harsher and more brusque, but it actually meant that he really liked her: he only called his soldiers by their surname exclusive. It meant that she had his trust; Rainbow wondered if Blake understood that.

Blake was silent for a moment. "We…we knew each other, sir; we fought together in Mistral. I think she was genuinely trying to persuade me to…to let her alone and not interfere…or report this."

"I'm glad you didn't take the bait," Rainbow muttered.

"A sentiment I think we all share," Ciel said.

"Blake," Twilight said, scrambling over her seat to join Rainbow Dash. "What did she say, exactly?"

"She said that nobody was going to get hurt," Blake said. "And that she was here to make a statement, not commit mass murder."

"What are you thinking, Twi?" asked Rainbow, as she could practically Twilight's mind whirring behind her glasses.

"General, I'd like to check out the reactor room, if that's alright," Twilight said. "I have an idea as to what she might have done."

"Of course, I'll get additional units up here and begin a complete search. Dash, go with Twilight."

"Yes sir," Rainbow said, not feeling the need to mention that she would have gone with her anyway. It wasn't like they could let Twilight go wandering off on her own with a White Fang agent on the loose.

"I'll come too," Applejack said. "You might need the extra help."

Rainbow opened her mouth to protest that Applejack had to stay here and keep an eye on the others, but what was Shining Armour for then, or the rest of Cadance's security detail? Applejack was right, the extra fists might come in handy.

"Soleil, keep an eye on Penny," General Ironwood said. "Secure her if the situation changes in any way."

"Yes sir."

"What about me, sir?" Blake asked.

"Stay with Mister Wukong until the medical team arrives, then join Councillor Cadance and her party in their box," General Ironwood said. "This may not be a large scale attack, an Atlesian councillor would be a significant prize and the White Fang has tried this before."

"Thank you, General," Kali murmured, although General Ironwood didn't acknowledge it.

"Good luck everyone," General Ironwood said. "Move out."

The call ended. Rainbow snapped her scroll shut and put it away as she turned tone of the members of Cadance's security detail. "Hey, I'm kind of short a weapon right now, can I borrow your gun."

The guard sighed as he pulled his pistol out of the holster at his hip and handed it to Rainbow Dash. "Here you go."

"Uh, thanks, but I was kind of hoping for the big gun," Rainbow said, gesturing to the rifle in the guard's hand.

The guard let the visor of his helmet do the answering for him.

"Right, sure," Rainbow said. "Thanks for the pistol."

"Be careful," Fluttershy said. Rainbow saw that it wasn't only Fluttershy: Pinkie and Rarity were looking at them too, and their sisters; all their faces were solemn, and their eyes filled with trepidation.

Rainbow grinned. "Don't worry. Before you know it we'll have this agent in restraints and Twilight will have fixed the stadium, right Twi?"

"Uh, right," Twilight said, with less confidence than Rainbow was managing to fake. "Don't worry, everything is going to be just fine."

They didn't come across the White Fang agent as they made their way down from the box and into the guts of the coliseum, which was probably a good thing considering that they were here for Twilight's investigation rather than to fight, but if they could have taken her down it would have been a weight off everybody's mind. But she would get caught. She couldn't hide down here forever once troops started crawling all over this place, and she couldn't get away with all the docking bays locked down. It was only a matter of time before she got caught and whatever she'd done got exposed.

Anyway, the three of them made it into what, judging by the way that Twilight acted as though they'd made it all the way, Rainbow guessed was the reactor control, although Rainbow hadn't even known there was a reactor until Twilight said so.

"Hey, Twilight," Rainbow said. "I thought all the power came from that huge dust crystal at the bottom of the coliseum?"

"That's not a real dust crystal," Twilight said. "Applejack, can you get the lights please? No, that crystal is just for show, you couldn't power a structure like this from a raw crystal, even one that size. The real power comes from the reactor below us."

Applejack found the lights, and turned them on so that the incredibly dim and red-tinted room was illuminated. It was a circular chamber, still kind of shadowy in places, with a big half-sphere dominating the centre of it, rising up out of the floor with a walkway – the same walkway on which the three of them were standing – running all around it. What looked like large pins or metal tubes were just about sticking out of the sphere, although only by a little bit, and there was a large dust dispenser that looked poised to drop down onto the sphere at any moment. Pipes and cables ran underneath the floor, and a computer set-up with several monitors and a tangled load of cables behind them connected to the silver half-sphere.

"Dust is dumped into the reactor here, and processed," Twilight said, gesturing to the dust dispenser, then to the half sphere." She walked briskly towards all the computers. "Here we can…and that's new."

"What?" Rainbow said.

"You find something, sugarcube?" Applejack said. "Something wrong."

"You could say that," Twilight said. She was looking at some kind of black box wired into the computers, but Rainbow couldn't have said why. "This is what I was afraid of."

"What is it?"

"It's a control lock."

"For those of us who don't know what that is?" Applejack said.

Twilight pulled out the keyboard and began typing on it, only for all the screens to flash bright red with ACCESS DENIED in big scary letters of the kind that Rainbow thought you didn't actually see in real life.

"Was it supposed to do that?" Rainbow asked.

"No," Twilight said. "That's what a control lock does, it locks the controls."

"Okay, so we rip the box out and go for popcorn."

"It's not that simple-"

"It never is with these fancy computers," Applejack muttered.

"The lock is already in the system now," Twilight said. She pulled out her scroll, and called General Ironwood. "General, I've found the sabotage: the White Fang agent placed a control lock on the main reactor core. I think they mean to set the reactor to go critical, destroying the coliseum in the process."

"I though this girl said she wasn't out to commit no mass murder?" Applejack said.

"It hasn't been activated yet," Twilight said. "And it probably won't be activated until the stadium is empty. Think about what else she said, about making a statement: what would be a bigger statement than blowing up the Amity Coliseum, the symbol of the peaceful world order that rose out of the ashes of the Great War."

"And without the mass outrage that would follow an immense loss of life it would simply make Atlas look impotent," General Ironwood muttered. "Twilight, can you regain control?"

Whatever Twilight might have said was interrupted by the voice of Professor Goodwitch over the arena intercom. "Ladies and gentlemen, both Miss Polendina and Miss Nikos have dropped below the aura threshold. However, the logs confirm that Miss Polendina dropped below the limit first, albeit by a very small margin. Therefore, Pyrrha Nikos wins the match."

 _Damn, I can't believe I missed that. Sorry, Penny._

 _The White Fang ruin everything, don't they?_

"Twilight?" General Ironwood repeated.

"I think so, sir," Twilight said. "At least it's not acti-"

The ACCESS DENIED message disappeared from the computer screens, replaced by what looked like a picture of the reactor – Rainbow thought that was what it was at least – starting to turn orange as all the pins that had previously been buried in the half-sphere that they could see suddenly rose out of the spherical surface, jutting out of it like the spikes on a hedgehog.

"Oh no," Twilight murmured.

"Twilight," General Ironwood said.

"They just sent the signal, sir," Twilight said. "All coolant rods have been retracted, all the exhaust vents have been closed and the reactor has been set to maximum output. Sir, I can try and break the lock but I recommend you start evacuating everybody immediately. I…I can't make any guarantees."

"I understand," General Ironwood said, his voice solemn. "Do what you can, Twilight. I'll-" his voice was cut off by the droning whine of the alarm, amplified through the internal communications.

"Alert: incoming grimm attack. Threat level: twelve. Please seek shelter in a calm and orderly manner."

The three of them were silent for a moment, none of them knowing what to say. Rainbow certainly didn't know what to say except perhaps _damn it, why does this stuff always have to happen all at once?_

Applejack swept her hat off her head. "Well, ain't that just what we needed right now?"


	178. Evacuate the Arena

Evacuate the Arena

"Alert: incoming grimm attack. Threat level: twelve. Please seek shelter in a calm and orderly manner."

"Ladies and gentlemen, please do not panic," Glynda said into the microphone, her own voice sounding admirably calm as it echoed across the coliseum; but then Glynda always had possessed nerves of steel. "Please make your way to the docking platforms and board the skybuses _calmly_."

Unfortunately it was a lot easier for an automated message to tell everybody to stay calm, and for an experienced huntress to tell everybody not to panic, than it was for ordinary people who had just come to see a couple of cool fights not to panic at the news that they were getting hit with the second grimm attack in as many days, and a much larger attack than the last to hit the outskirts of Vale too. The good thing was that, as far as Ironwood could see, nobody was actually losing their heads yet and the rush to the exits – although it was a rush – had not actually turned into the kind of full-on stampede that would get people trampled in the narrow spaces. At the same time though it was a rush that skirted the very edges of calm and orderly, and there was a sense of skittish apprehension in the air that suggested that what calm the crowd possessed was hanging on by a thread, likely to break at any moment. Even amongst the student huntsmen, even some of the Atlesian students, up here without their weapons or any of their specialised gear or even the colourful outfits that he knew some of them wore to make themselves feel braver than they would have otherwise, felt as though they were suffering from frayed nerves.

He couldn't entirely blame them. They were too young to be facing a baptism of fire like this.

And yet it couldn't be avoided. Salem had come for them, she was making her move now beyond doubt, and young or not they were in their thick of the great battle of their time.

This would be the moment that defined them. That would define everyone here, young or old.

"Atlas, ten-hut," he snapped at the group of Atlas students that he saw nearby; he had been sitting in their midst, and though he had gotten up to take Rainbow Dash's call he could still see them making their way in a group towards the exit.

They were not so skittish that they didn't stop at the sound of his voice, some of them turning towards him, others remaining in place; all waiting for his order.

"Aside from the soldiers on security detail I expect my students to be the last people off this coliseum," Ironwood said, in a voice that brooked no dissent. "Help with the evacuation, make sure that children don't get separated from their families, assist anyone with difficulties, make sure the civilians get off first. I don't expect to see any student of mine pushing their way to the front of the queue, understand? So pass the word."

"We will, sir," Starlight Glimmer said, her voice subdued.

"Sir," Flynt Koal said. "What's going on?"

"I don't know the exact situation right now," Ironwood admitted. "But whatever's going on, I know that we'll overcome it. Now move out." He watched them go for only a moment – it was all the time that he had to spare – before he turned away and contacted the _Valiant_. "This is Ironwood, what's the situation?"

"Sir, we have large grimm concentrations closing in from the north."

"East and west? They're hitting us and the Mistralians?"

"Aye, sir, across the board and in equal strength, very heavy."

"What?" Ironwood said. _How did they get up the cliffs?_ "Patch me through to Professor Ozpin and Commander Yeoh."

"Aye aye, sir. Patching you through now."

"James," Ozpin said, the first to respond. "I suppose I ought to be glad you brought your army after all."

Ironwood didn't respond to that. There would be time for all of that later. "I'll try not to call upon the students unless necessary, but-"

"I think it is already necessary," Commander Yeoh said, as she joined the conversation. "They are all already more competent than any of my soldiers."

That was unfortunately true, and true even of Ironwood's rather better-trained soldiers. "If we ask for volunteers I'm sure that many will answer the call," Ironwood said.

"And if they do not then I suppose we would not want them on the line," Commander Yeoh said. "Very well."

"Oz, can you get the students armed and ready if necessary?" Ironwood said. "It doesn't look as though Beacon is at immediate risk, which makes it a good position to use as an evac point and a staging ground for reserves. If you assemble the students there then we can send transports to pick them up."

Ozpin's voice was reluctant, even as his words were not. "Very well, I will assemble the student body and put it to them. I'm sure that you are both correct: these children are too brave to turn away."

"You say that as if it is a bad thing for them to be brave," Commander Yeoh said.

"Sometimes I wonder if we teach them to be too brave, too soon," Ozpin said.

"Commander, can you and your men hold your position on the Green Line?" Ironwood asked; if they could not then any attempt by Atlas to hold their positions would be doomed as the grimm turned their flank and rolled up the line; he was under no illusions that they weren't smart enough for such a tactic.

Yeoh hesitated, and he could practically sense the tension between her pride as a Mistralian and her realism as a military officer. "I don't know," she admitted. "If we cannot, I will be sure to inform you before the levee breaks."

"As before, my officer of assistance stands," Ironwood said.

"And as before it is respectfully declined."

"With respect, Commander," Ozpin said. "This is the largest-scale grimm attack seen in Vale since the fall of Mountain Glenn, not a moment for flag-waving or national pride."

"On the contrary, Professor, when staring down death our pride is the last thing that we should hope to lose before the end," Commander Yeoh replied. "If you will excuse me, General, I have preparations to make. Professor, if you will notify me when Miss Nikos has returned to the ground I will send a transport for her."

"Yes, Commander," Ozpin said, with a slight trace of a sigh in his voice.

"Thank you. Yeoh out."

"Oz, I have to go too," Ironwood said. "Stay in touch."

"Of course, James," Ozpin said. He sounded tired.

"We can get through this, Oz," Ironwood said. "We've taught our students well, and it's no shame that you've taught them to be brave. Between their courage and my ships we can hold them back."

"I hope so," Oz said. "Do what you must, and good luck to you."

"And you," Ironwood said. "Good luck to all of us." He waited for Ozpin to hang up. "Ironwood to _Valiant_ , put me through to all units."

"Yes, sir." There was a moment's pause. "You're through now."

"All units, this is General Ironwood," Ironwood declared. "By now I'm sure many of you are becoming aware of the situation developing: ahead of us is the largest concentration of grimm seen in recent history; but behind us is the Kingdom of Vale, millions of souls counting on us to keep them safe through this night and we will keep them safe.

"I'm not one for speeches, so I'll just say this: we can do this. You can do this. We have the weapons, we have the equipment, and we have each other. Stand fast, trust the men on either side of you, trust the ships watching over you and the aircraft flying overhead, trust one another. Pin your courage to the flag of Atlas and let's show these monsters the strength of the Atlesian military.

"Someone told me once that we weren't prepared for what was coming; but someone else – a young huntress whom I admire a great deal – said that we had the guts, and the loyalty to one another, to be ready for anything. I know who I believe, and I'm asking you, tonight, to prove us both right. Stand fast, hold hard, and make Atlas proud. Initiate deployment plan 3b and prepare for immediate enemy contact."

"Yes sir."

" _Valiant_ , I'm going to remain here until the evacuation of the coliseum is complete," Ironwood said. "But I want a Skygrasper here immediately to pick up Councillor Cadenza and secure her aboard ship until the battle is over."

"Yes sir. Uh, sir?"

"Yes?"

"We're picking up a substantial concentration of airborne grimm just passed over the city limits headed in your direction. Looks like you've got incoming, General."

 _Damn it._ "Can they be intercepted along the way?"

" _Vigilant_ and _Resolution_ are attempting to block their path, but their coming in too fast and it looks like the grimm are going to reach you first."

Ironwood swore under his breath. "The second squadron is to move into defensive positions around the coliseum until the evacuation is complete, the air groups of the _Gallant_ and _Courageous_ are to deploy additional knights then assist in the evacuation while the squadrons from _Vigilant_ and _Resolution_ engage the grimm reinforced by Wonderbolt squadron from the _Valiant_. All units will be redeployed once we've evacuated the civilians."

"Understood, sir."

"Ironwood out," Ironwood said. He didn't put his scroll away. He had one more call to make, to Glynda.

"James? What's going on?"

"We have grimm incoming," Ironwood said.

"Incoming meaning-"

"Right here, yes," Ironwood said. "I've ordered some of my squadrons to assist in the evacuation to speed things up. It will take too long relying on the skybuses."

"I see," Glynda said, sounding so calm that he might have told her it was going to rain later tonight. "I'll inform the students, and then be right down."

* * *

"Alert: incoming grimm attack. Threat level: twelve. Please seek shelter in a calm and orderly manner."

 _A grimm attack? Another grimm attack? And level twelve? Even the attack on Vale after Mountain Glenn fell was only level fourteen. This is…this is…_

 _This is it, isn't it? This is the moment it has all led up to._

"Ladies and gentlemen, please do not panic," Professor Goodwitch said, with admirable coolness in her tone. "Please make your way to the docking platforms and board the skybuses _calmly_."

Pyrrha watched for a moment as the people began to get out of their seats. The people that she had brought here, which made her feel tremendously guilty in her gut even as her head told her that it wasn't her fault, that she had made the best decisions she could, that she couldn't have predicted this.

Yet all the same, she had brought them here; and now she watched them go, filing out of the bleachers in a rush that was not yet a panic. That was good, things were bad enough without people getting stepped on in a stampede to escape. The skybuses would be there when they all made it to the docking platforms.

"Pyrrha," Penny murmured, her eyes fixed on the screens on which a yellow alarm was flashing. "What's going on?"

"I'm not quite sure, Penny," Pyrrha said softly. "But-"

"Guys!" Ruby sprinted across the arena surface in a burst of rosepetals which trailed along behind her, falling to the white surface like drops of blood upon the axes of Beacon. She skidded to a stop in front of them, her silver eyes wide. "Are you guys okay?"

"We're fine, Ruby," Pyrrha said. "For now at least."

"Do you know what's going on, Ruby?" Penny said.

"No," Ruby said. "I was watching your fight and I was cheering when it ended because you both did so well and then the next thing these alarms were going off and…and I don't know why I thought that you'd know anything about it but…but I wanted to get over to you. I…this isn't right."

"It never is," Pyrrha said softly.

"No, I mean this really isn't right," Ruby said. "We should have had at least a little time to celebrate after your amazing fight, to congratulate the both of you on what you did, to maybe have another of those that Rainbow's friend throws so well. But…they can't give us a moment to rest, can they? Are they ever going to stop if we don't stop them?"

"If they get what they want, maybe," Pyrrha replied.

"Yeah, I guess," Ruby said. "But we can't let that happen, so we'll just have to find another way to stop them, right?"

Pyrrha's mouth twitched. "Right, although it would help if we knew what we were supposed to be stopping."

"A grimm attack."

"Well, yes, but it would be good to get a little more detail. Penny, is anyone telling you anything?"

"Not yet," Penny said. "And I left my scroll in the- Ciel!" She waved as Ciel – and Jaune – jogged across the white surface towards them, their feet thumping upon the gear-and-spear of Atlas as they did so. Ciel had a pistol gripped in both hands.

"Are you guys okay?" Jaune asked.

"Why does everyone keep asking that?" Penny asked.

Jaune stopped. "I…that's a good point. I guess your fight finished, and then the grimm alarm…things kinda got jumbled together in my head. Anyway, let me recharge your auras."

"How much do you have left?" Pyrrha asked, with a slight note of worry.

"Enough," Jaune said. "In this situation I think we're going to need both of you at your best."

That made sense, and so Pyrrha held still as Jaune placed one hand upon her shoulder and the other hand on the shoulder of Penny as the golden light from his hands enveloped them both, so warm and comforting, like a bright sea or shower washing away her troubles; even the threat of the grimm, although it remained urgent, seemed less desperate when she was enveloped in Jaune's light.

"Do you know what's going on?" Penny asked.

"Not exactly," Ciel answered. "The last I heard was that Blake had spotted a White Fang infiltrator on the coliseum. There's clearly a connection to this attack, but I don't have any details."

"White Fang?" Ruby exclaimed. "Did they catch him?"

"Her," Ciel corrected. "And no. Sun was hurt-"

"What?"

"A medical team has been alerted," Ciel said. "General Ironwood had planned to close the coliseum until the intruder was found, but that is not possible now so they will certainly escape."

"I suppose we've got bigger problems to worry about now," Ruby said. "What are we going to do?"

"Obey orders," Ciel said. "What else can we do?"

At which point Ciel's scroll went off, with a broadcast from General Ironwood to all his Atlesian forces; the general gave a short but spirited address, invoking an incident which Ciel and Penny seemed to find familiar – probably because the young huntress in question was Rainbow Dash – before exhorting his men to fight well. He might have disclaimed any talent for speaking, but as far as Pyrrha was concerned it wasn't half bad, especially considering it was entirely impromptu.

What lingered the most in Pyrrha's mind, however, was his opener: that this was the largest grimm attack in recent history. She probably could have worked that out from the fact that it was a level twelve – and on one level she had – but at the same time it was different having an authority figure whom she respected and, to an extent, trusted confirm it.

"What's deployment plan 3b?" Jaune asked.

"The plan for how to position our forces in the event of an attack from the north only," Ciel explained. "It tells us – and all other units – where to go."

"So you know what you're doing right now?" Ruby said.

"Yes," Penny said. "Ciel, where are Rainbow and Twilight?"

"They went to the reactor core, Twilight had an idea she wanted to investigate."

"Jaune, can I borrow your scroll?" Pyrrha said. "I want to get in touch with Professor Ozpin."

"Sure," Jaune said, handing over his scroll.

Ruby's scroll went off before Pyrrha could do anything more. It was Yang, calling voice only. "Ruby, are you okay?"

"We're all fine here," Ruby said. "Have you heard the alarms?"

"Yes. Professor Ozpin's calling us all into the amphitheatre. I think he's going to give us the choice on whether to fight or not."

"We'll be down there as soon as we can," Ruby said.

"I suppose there's no point in calling the professor," Pyrrha said, handing Jaune his scroll back.

"We need to get back down to the surface as soon as we can," Ruby said.

"Although we should let the civilians evacuate first," Ciel said. "And Penny and I should-"

"Attention everyone," Professor Goodwitch. "A large number of grimm are moving directly towards the coliseum. Please remain calm and continue to board the aircraft that will take you to safety." The Professor paused, and even amongst those spectators that Pyrrha could see still leaving the arena proper she could feel the tension rising and the true panic beginning to set in. "No student will be forced to assist in resisting the grimm until the evacuation is complete, but any who do decide to do so would be most welcome."

The murmurs of panic were starting to rise in the exiting crowds as they quickened their pace, but in the arena itself there was a moment of silence broken only by the sound of Ciel cocking her pistol.

"Come on," Ruby said. "We have to help." She sped off in the direction that she had come, towards the tunnel leading out of the arena and towards the outer promenade fronting onto the docking platforms.

"Ruby, wait," Pyrrha called as she, Jaune, Penny and Ciel all followed her. Had Ruby forgotten that she didn't have her weapon? Crescent Rose and Crocea Mors – and Ciel's large rifle, which would have been more use to her than the little handgun in her hand, although at least she had something – were both safely stowed in Ruby and Jaune's lockers at Beacon of no use to anybody. Yet still Ruby ran, leaving the others to chase after her as best she could, her red cloak flapping behind her and the red petals falling the ground in her footsteps.

They emerged out of the tunnel and onto the lower level of the promenade, where the Atlesian knights were standing guard and the Atlesian and Mistralian soldiers were both trying to contain the heaving, jostling crowds that were trying to get onto the docking platforms where the skybuses were docking to pick them up. The platforms were long and narrow, jutting out into the empty air – possibly not the best design choice in a situation like this – and Pyrrha couldn't help but worry that someone would get pushed off and fall to their deaths if this increasingly unruly crowd was allowed onto the platform in such a state. No doubt that was why the soldiers were keeping the masses contained at the start of the platform and only allowing access to the platform itself gradually. Nevertheless, as one skybus – still garlanded in the festive bunting of the Vytal Festival - closed its ramp and took off into the darkening sky, it seemed as if they were having increasing difficulties.

"Calm down," one of the soldiers said, as another skybus took the place of the recently departed craft. "Everyone will get on board, you just have to-"

"Have to what?" someone shouted. "Wait to get eaten by a grimm?"

The soldier didn't answer. The griffon answered with a roar as it swooped down out of the sky.

 _There are griffons here? But they're so rare._ And yet they were, at least a score of them, and nevermores too, all of them diving down upon the coliseum, some of them passing in dark silhouette before the moon as they came down upon the arena and all those within it. Two nevermores dived upon the skybus that had just taken off, falling on the lumbering aircraft like two eagles swooping down upon a hapless field mouse as their claws and beaks started to tear through the soft shell of the flier. Pyrrha gasped in horror as she watched one of the two grimm stick its beak clean through the roof of the aircraft, but surely that was nothing compared to the horror being felt by those within as the grimm tore the skybus apart from the outside.

A green laser beam flew over Pyrrha's shoulder to lance through the air and hit one of the nevermores in its flank, making it look their way and shriek with pain, even as more laser bolts flew across the way to strike the grimm one after another.

"Please keep my field of fire clear," Penny said as she stood arms out, her swords forming a semicircle around her head as she fired one blade after another, beam after beam to strike first one nevermore and then the next until she had the attention of them both.

They abandoned the damaged skybus – Pyrrha hoped it was still fit to make it to the ground safely – and swooped across the sky directly towards the coliseum itself. People screamed and scattered, running for their lives as the nevermores headed straight for them, ignoring both the shots that the soldiers and androids were taking at them and the other skybus and that was now trying to take off before the two angry grimm smashed into it.

The nevermores landed, swallowing an Atlesian soldier whole as they tried to squeeze themselves through the arches that lined the promenade, folding up their wings and digging their claws into the metal.

Pyrrha switched Milo into rifle mode and pulled another magazine out of one of the pouches on her belt, slamming it into her weapon before she started shooting, her rifle banging repetitively as each shot struck home, though the nevermore didn't appear to so much as notice it.

"Hey!" Ruby yelled, running forward and reaching behind her for…the weapon that wasn't there, a fact that she appeared to have temporarily forgotten in all the excitement.

The nevermore looked down at her.

"Ruby!" Pyrrha yelled as she started to run forward, Milo turning from rifle to spear in her hands as she prayed she wasn't too late.

The nevermore lunged at Ruby, its white beak opening wide.

Arslan slammed into the nevermore's head from the side, delivering a solid kick that jarred the creature, interrupting its attack on Ruby as it let out a startled cry in surprise. Arslan buried her knife in the black just behind the bone mask that covered the nevermore's head, then swung upon her rope down from the grimm even as it reared its head towards the ceiling, reaching out for Pyrrha with her free hand. "Pyrrha!"

Akouo was still on Pyrrha's back, leaving her left hand free to reach out for Arslan as she swung past, letting her erstwhile rival take her weight and the strain of their momentum as Arslan swung, dragging Pyrrha with her, up the other side of the nevermore's black body, the rope winding around its neck as their momentum bore them up like a pendulum towards the head once again.

"Finish it," Arslan cried, throwing Pyrrha with one hand – she didn't exactly look it, but Pyrrha had often suspected that she was the stronger of the two of them – up towards the ceiling of the lower promenade. Pyrrha twisted in the air, planting her feet upon the grey metal ceiling for a moment before kicking it off it down upon the nevermore to drive Milo home into the nape of its neck. The grimm screamed in agony before it died, its body flopping to the deck before it began to disintegrate.

A blast from Penny's combined laser took off the head of the second nevermore with ease.

"Thanks, guys," Ruby said.

Pyrrha nodded. "You should-" but then stopped because Ruby was already summoning her locker, and behind her Jaune and Ciel were doing the same.

Three lockers shot up from the ground, and from Beacon, narrowly missing a skybus coming into land and passing through the midst of the swarm of grimm presently circling the arena, they buried themselves into the floor of the boulevard before their doors swung open to reveal Crescent Rose, Crocea Mors and Distant Thunder all eagerly awaiting the commands of their owners.

Ruby grabbed her weapon out of her locker before slamming the door shut and rounding on all those students, wearing the uniforms of Beacon, Atlas and Haven academies, who were standing around on the boulevard: some were weeping, some were clutching their friends for comfort while others did the comforting, some were edging in what looked like an attempt to be inconspicuous towards the lines that were re-forming for the aircraft.

All of them were eyeing the grimm flocking around the coliseum, circling around it currently but clearly about to attack again soon, with wariness to say the least.

"What are you doing?" Ruby demanded. "Are you just going to stand there? Isn't this why we all came to the huntsman academies, to fight against stuff like this?"

"We're just kids," someone said.

"We haven't even graduated yet."

"So what?" Ruby cried. "We're still huntsmen, right? We've still got aura and training and weapons, haven't we? We've still got more than anybody else, don't we?" She took a step forward. "Look around you."

Some of them – most of them – did look around, at the civilians who looked torn between waiting for the aircraft that were there only way down from the coliseum and fleeing back into the arena to get as far from the circling grimm as possible.

"There aren't enough soldiers or robots to protect all these people while they get on board the airships," Ruby said, and she might have added that even the soldiers didn't have the weapons and training – or the aura – of a trained or even half-trained huntsman. "These people need our protection, and there isn't anyone who can protect them right now but us."

Ciel slammed a clip into her rifle. "When Atlas Academy was founded, the first headmaster declared that he wished to fashion young men and women who would be acceptable at a dance and invaluable at a crisis. We have all enjoyed the dance, now is the time to show that we can face the crisis."

"I know it's scary," Ruby said. "But we can only do this if we work together, because if we don't…then we'll all pay the price."

"But…" one student murmured. "But we could…"

"Yes," Pyrrha said softly. "That is a possibility for all of us. And nobody can force any of you to fight. But ask yourselves this: if you turn away now then you'll probably survive the night, but what will you think of yourself in the morning?"

Nobody replied, but when the grimm with shrieks and roars banked across the night sky towards the coliseum there arose in answer from the ground a host of lockers rising up to meet them, trailing blue smoke behind them so that they almost looked like comets in reverse, rising up from Beacon to bring the means to fend off the grimm even as the grimm descended upon them.

* * *

Sunset was reading – despite the initial impression she had gotten this prison was not completely uncivilised, and she had been allowed to get a book out the library; this particular book was a book of essays on virtue, because she'd felt as though she could do with the extra steel in her soul – when she heard the alarms. Even here she heard the alarms. They penetrated through the walls of the prison and echoed off the corridors, coming in through the exercise yard and running through the hallways and getting into the cells like hers.

They got everywhere. No one could escape them. Not even Sunset Shimmer, reading in her cell as she waited for her sentencing.

The book fell from her fingers to hit the dusty floor as she got to her feet like an old warhorse straining at the sound of distant trumpets. The alarm. The grimm were coming again.

 _And here am I._

Nothing to do with her now. Not her place to think about, not her business to worry about. She had been expelled from Beacon, she was halfway to being a condemned girl, she was a captive prisoner already. It was none of her business that the grimm were coming. None of her business that the battle was raging once again. None of her business that Pyrrha and Jaune and Ruby and Blake were out there maybe fighting for their lives and oh, Celestia, what was she doing here?

 _I'm doing the right thing._

 _Why does doing the right thing have to be so difficult? Why does it have to feel as though I'm abandoning all my friends?_

Just the thought of them fighting without her…of course she'd always known that that would be the result and that had been one of the arguments she had used to justify her earlier decision to keep silent about the whole thing but this…to hear the alarms, to know that the battle was raging, this…this was harder than she had expected.

Sunset paced up and down in her cell, her hands clenched into fists. She wanted to teleport out of here and find her team. She wanted to tear this stupid collar off and march out of this prison and join the battle. She wanted to find the others and stand alongside them, protect them, keep them safe from danger, help them win this, help them come through it. She wanted to get out of here, she wanted to fight, she wanted to be a huntress.

 _But I'm not a huntress, am I?_ _I'm a criminal._

Sunset's face twisted into a snarl as she turned and drove her fist into the wall of her cell. Waiting didn't come easily to someone like her. Not at all, not to Sunset Shimmer; she had always been a mare of action, one who reacted to things by doing things, not by thinking too hard or ruminating on them. Which meant that it was very hard to stand here in this cell, pacing up and down, knowing that she could leave any time she wanted; it was hard to stay here in this cell knowing that her friends were out there fighting. It was hard not to join them as she so dearly wanted.

But what would that accomplish? What good would that do? She was a traitor, a criminal. Did she honestly think that they'd be happy to see her? Did she honestly think that Ruby would be happy to see her broken out of prison?

 _What are you doing here? I never want to see you again!_

 _You are no longer worthy to stand beside us, Sunset; I'm sorry, but it's the truth._

 _It might be easier all around if you just left._

They wouldn't want her any more, and it was hard to really argue that they needed her, between Pyrrha and Ruby and with Jaune's semblance to support them. They would get by just fine without her. She hoped.

She really, really hoped.

Sunset closed her eyes. _Stay safe. Please stay safe._

The sound of shouting in the cells beyond her own alerted her to the approach of one of the guards; the other prisoners were calling out to him, trying to him to tell them what was going on. He wasn't answering any of them, but that didn't stop Sunset from throwing herself against the barred door of her cell and stretching her arms out through the bars towards him. "Guard! Guard, please, do you know what's going on?"

The guard turned towards her, a sneer on his face, and as he raised his baton Sunset hastily jerked back, pulling her hands back on her own side of the bars.

"Please," she said. "Please, can you just tell me something?"

The guard stared at her for a moment. He was a heavyset man with a lumpen, brutish face…but as he stared at her his expression softened. "You're the huntress, right?"

Sunset nodded. "I'm worried about my friends."

"I'm sorry," he said. "I don't know what to tell you."

"You could tell me what's going on," Sunset said.

"You think I know?" the guard replied. "The alarms are sounding. I guess that means the grimm are coming. But apart from that…all I know is that we got to keep the cell doors locked and you people under control." He was silent for a moment. "I get it, my nephew's a huntsman at Beacon, it's worrying the crap out of me."

Sunset stared at him. "What's his name?"

"Greg…Gregory Douglas."

 _The leader of Team GRAY, who we beat in the prelims. Huh. Small world._ "I hope he's okay."

"Thanks," the guard said. "I hope your friends are okay too. Now stay in your cell and don't make this hard, okay?"

Sunset held up her hands. "I wouldn't dream of it."

She would dream of it, of course; she would dream of it while she was awake and if she fell asleep from exhaustion tonight she would dream of it while she was sleeping too, but she wouldn't actually do it. She wouldn't go to the friends who would only reject her if she did, she would sit here and suffer while she trusted them to survive without her. Because that was what she was here for: to suffer for her sins. She was here to wear the crown of thorns that she had earned while searching for the crown of gold with not a care for who she trampled on to get it.

Because only by suffering could she prove to Ruby and the others that she was truly penitent.

And only if she proved that would they ever call her friend again.

And so she lingered here, wallowing in ignorance, suffering by wondering where they were, what they were doing, what fates were befalling them out there.

And all the while unable to do a thing about it.

* * *

Fighting raged along the promenades of the Coliseum and in the skies beyond, where Atlesian Skygraspers chased nevermores and griffons around the floating structure and were pursued by them in turn, their cannons lighting up the night sky with their tracer rounds as they both tried to keep the creatures of grimm in sights and to evade their claws and cruel beaks at the same time. Cruisers were moving in around the coliseum, adding the power of their guns to the defence, red beams erupting from underneath their hulls to skewer the largest nevermores and the alpha griffons like needles into pincushions, point defence cannons lighting up the darkness as they sprayed fire in all directions at any grimm who got too close, and if they could not use their missiles for fear of hitting the coliseum itself they were certainly doing everything else they could to unleash hell upon the grimm.

But the grimm swarmed around the arena nonetheless, for it was on the arena – and on the ships trying to escape and running the gauntlet of the grimm as they did so – that that which drew them was located: all the panicking civilians who had no aura or weapons to protect them and who, once on board and aircraft, had only a thin wall and a long drop between them and being devoured by demons. Skybuses were torn apart as they took off, set upon by two or a half-dozen grimm who ripped through the flimsy skin of the pleasure craft and either ate those within or watched them plummet screaming to the ground. Even the Atlesian Skygraspers, landing to pick up passengers to expedite the evacuation, found themselves preyed upon. A lone medical shuttle, pounced upon by a giant nevermore, had barely escape with its life after an Atlesian ship came to its rescue; the air squadrons did what they could, they put themselves between the civilians and danger, more than one pilot giving his life to try and buy the cumbersome skybuses a little more time or cover for a fellow flier who was ferrying evacuees rather than fighting, but it was not enough. It was not quite enough.

And on the promenades themselves the fighting continued as the grimm attempted to force their way through the arches and onto the coliseum where more civilians still waited to be taken off. And the security, the androids and the students all resisted them as the arena echoed to the sounds of fighting as it had never done during any of the festival matches as gunfire mingled with the howling of the grimm.

Shining Armour had his sword out in his right hand, firing rose laser beams – Twily had built his sword, and then used it as the basis for Penny's Floating Array – at the griffon stalking towards him.

And towards Cadance behind him.

The laser beams from the tip of his sword irritated the griffon, but they weren't visibly wounding it or slowing it down except in as much as it kept stopping to roar at them some more. The other member's of Cadance's detail were firing at it too, and so were Kali Belladonna's faunus bodyguards, but none of them seemed to be really hurting the creature much.

It opened its eerie mouth, partly bird-like but not enough to not be disconcerting, and roared at them as it leapt.

And slammed into a glowing blue shield in the shape of a glimmering diamond.

"Not one step closer, you unkempt brute!" Rarity snarled as she held the shield in place with her semblance.

"Rarity, keep doing what your doing," Shining Armour said, as he activated the energy shield on his right arm – it glowed rose, like his laser beam, because Twilight like to follow through on a colour scheme – and began to run.

The griffon was still clawing at Rarity's shield – it was too big to get by on either side, and even if it wasn't he thought that Rarity could vary the size of her barriers – while Shining Armour dashed around it, firing a laser beam into the griffon's shoulder to get its attention.

It looked at him, bellowing in rage, and Shining Armour charged, sliding around the floor to slice at the griffon's foot with his sword, the blade's edge slicing through the avian claw before he skidded to a halt.

The griffon shrieked in pain as it brought down its other claw upon him. Shining Armour blocked with his shield, feeling the claw skittering across the energy barrier, before pointing his sword straight up and firing into the griffon's throat, or where it's throat would have been had it possessed one.

The griffon reared, howling, and its head collided with the ceiling, leaving a dent.

Shining Armour leapt to his feet and leapt up, burying his sword up to the hilt in the griffon's throat before, in a single fluid motion, slicing through it.

He and the headless creature dropped to the floor simultaneously.

"Thanks, Rarity," Shining Armour said.

"No trouble at all, darling," Rarity said. "Glad I could help."

"I always feel sorry for them," Fluttershy murmured as the griffon began to turn to smoke before their eyes.

"They're not real animals," Shining Armour said. "They're…something else."

"Maybe," Fluttershy said, as softly as before. "But I still feel sorry for them."

"Councillor!" General Ironwood's voice cut across the din that was engulfing the arena as he ran – he ran, Shining Armour didn't ever think he'd see the general moving at any pace less dignified than a brisk walk – towards them, a heavy calibre pistol in his hand. "You need to get on board that ship now," he said, gesturing to a skygrasper that was coming in to land at the nearest docking platform. "It will take you to my flagship until the battle is concluded."

Cadance looked shaken – she was hiding it very well, but Shining Armour had known her long enough to know when she was rattled and she was rattled now, who wouldn't be? But she was controlling it, or trying to. She shook her head. "All of these people-"

"I'll make sure that they all get off safely, that's my job," General Ironwood said. "With all respect, Councillor, it isn't yours. Get on board. If we lose you then tonight is a defeat no matter what else happens."

"Cadance," Shining Armour said, as he moved backwards her side. "We have to go."

Cadance looked at the ship, and out at the sky where more grimm were flying straight towards them, then out at the boulevard where the evacuation was continuing in the teeth of those same grimm. She bit her lip, and he could see in those sparkling amethyst eyes he'd fallen in love with that she didn't like it one bit, but she nodded nonetheless. "Okay. Very well. Let's get on board."

"But what about Twilight?" Fluttershy asked. "And the others? Has anyone seen them?"

"Perhaps they're still down in the reactor core?" Rarity suggested.

A look passed between Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. Shining Armour could feel what they were going to say even before Rarity turned to Cadance and said, "Councillor, I know that it's a great deal to ask, but would you mind taking the little ones with you and…keeping them safe aboard your warship?"

Cadance smiled. "Of course. Come along, girls."

"But what about you?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"We're just going to stay and make sure that Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Applejack are alright," Rarity explained. "Now, the three of you get on board with Cadance. Be good, don't cause any trouble, and…and don't worry too much. Everything is going to be-"

Another griffon landed between them and their airship, roaring as it dug its claws into the deck. A black shadow leapt past Shining Armour, resolving itself into that girl that Rainbow Dash had been talking to on her scroll – Blake, was that her name – who shot at the griffon with her pistol even as she bounded towards it, her wild mane of tangled black hair flying behind her. Her shots caught the attention of the griffon as she rushed it, slashing across its bone mask with a scabbard that looked like a meat cleaver. It scratched at the white bone, but only slightly, serving more to annoy the grimm than to wound it.

Blake stood, her pistol changing into a sword in her dominant hand, staring up at the grimm as it lunged down to swallow her whole.

"Blake!" Kali screamed.

The griffon's beak closed around a statue made of ice that swelled and expanded to engulf the grimm's entire head as the real Blake leapt above the monster's head and began, spinning in the air, to fall back down towards it.

Spinning downwards, with her cleaver in one hand and her sword in the other, she sliced through the griffon's head before landing on her feet.

"Sorry I'm late," she said, as the griffon's body started to turn to ash before their eyes. "There was a little trouble in my way."

"Blake!" Kali cried, as she rushed forward to embrace her daughter. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Mom," Blake said. "I was more worried about you. Are you getting on that ship?"

"Yes, and so are you."

Blake shook her head. "I should stay and help the others."

"We could use your help," Shining Armour said. It was even true, but even if it hadn't been…it was bad enough that Twily was caught up in the middle of this and he couldn't help her or whisk her away to someplace safe like he wanted to, it was bad enough every time he had to hear Cadance decide to something brave instead of something safe, but he could only imagine what he'd feel if it was his kid in the middle of all this.

Blake looked at him. "Aren't you going to one of your warships?"

"Even a warship isn't always safe in times like these," Shining Armour said. He glanced at General Ironwood. "No offence, sir."

"None taken," General Ironwood muttered. "Belladonna, go with them, protect...the ambassador. The last thing we need is an international incident."

"Very well, sir," Blake said, and the entire party – Cadance, Shining Armour, Blake, Kali, Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, Scootaloo, the remaining four members of Cadance's personal security and Kali's two bodyguards – scrambled on board the airship. Shining Armour turned as he stood on the boarding ramp, watching as Rarity, Pinkie and Fluttershy all headed the other way, back into the coliseum to look for Twilight and the others. He silently wished them luck.

It was a bit of a tight squeeze, even with three of the people on board being kids, but they all made it on and the ramp closed behind them, enclosing them in the craft as it lifted off the docking platform and took off into the night sky.

" _Valiant_ , this is Gold Three," the pilot said from his seat in the cockpit. "Package is secured and we are inbound to your position."

"Copy that, Gold Three, we're tracking you now and moving in to get you."

The Skygrasper sailed across the dark, the light of the shattered moon falling through the cockpit windows for a moment before a grey cloud passed over it even as the aircraft passed over the city of Vale.

"Gold Three, be advised you have two hostiles incoming, take evasive action."

"Understood," the pilot said, panic entering his voice as he banked the aircraft hard to the right, throwing everyone into that side of the ship – Cadance tried to keep hold of the kids even as Shining Armour tried to keep hold of her, but they were both only partially successful – as he tried to evade the two grimm. Shining Armour knew that panic wouldn't help, and that it might even attract more of those monsters, but he couldn't completely stop his mind from imagining what it might be out there hunting them: griffons, manticores, nevermores? What was out there in the dark, winging its way towards them?

He was sure he wasn't the only one wondering.

The pilot turned again, to the right this time. "This is Gold Three to all units, I have Councillor Cadenza on board and nevermores on my tail, requesting immediate assistance, copy?"

"Gold Three, this is Wonderbolt Leader, Soarin' and I are inbound to you, just hold them off a little longer and we'll be there."

"I'll try to-" the pilot's words were cut off, turned into a scream of primal terror as a nevermore appeared directly above the cockpit, its talons smashing through the glass as the aircraft jerked hard, throwing the passengers across the compartment again as the Skygrasper was jinked from one side to the other. The tip of a white beak poked through the ceiling. Alarms blared in the cockpit. The scream of fear from the pilot became a cry of agonising pain in brutal counterpoint to the shrieking of the nevermore. The kids were wailing, Blake had her pistol out and was shooting at the Nevermore to little avail.

The sound of cannon fire split the air outside the shattered cockpit; the nevermore shrieked in pain as the bullets slammed into it, throwing it off their aircraft as it tumbled, lifeless and disintegrating, towards the ground.

"Gold Three, this is Spitfire, do you read me?"

Blake bounded into the cockpit, taking the co-pilot's seat next to the late Gold Three and pulling the spare helmet onto her head. "Spitfire, this is Blake Belladonna; Gold Three's dead." She paused for a moment, seeming to study the controls even as she wrestled with the stick to try and stop the way the aircraft was wobbling in the air. "And the right engine is out; I'm going to have to land before we crash."

"Acknowledged, we'll mark where you set down and then pick you up."

"No," Cadance said. "We've already lost one pilot trying to get me to safety, how many others? Once we've landed, we'll find a civilian shelter and wait there until the all-clear sounds. Focus on the evacuation and the battle."

Blake was silent for a moment. "Did you guys get that?"

There was a pause on the other end of the line. "Acknowledged. Good luck out there."

"Cadance," Shining Armour said. "Are you sure about this?"

"There aren't any grimm in the city," Cadance said. "So long as General Ironwood can hold the lines then we'll be fine."

* * *

Ilia watched from out the window of the skybus she had just boarded as the damaged Skygrasper containing Kali – and Blake – began to descend. She marked where it was going, and planned to make her own way there as soon as her skybus landed.

Sienna would need to know where they were.

* * *

"Twilight," Rainbow growled, as she watched Twilight typing away on one of the keyboards sticking out of the rat's nest of computers controlling the reactor.

"Hang on, I kind of need to concentrate," Twilight said without looking away from the monitors, which were displaying some kind of code that Rainbow didn't even want to think about trying to understand.

"Sugarcube, maybe this ain't the best time," Applejack said.

"I can do this, Applejack," Twilight said. "It's a maths problem, and I can solve maths problems."

"Twilight!" Rainbow snapped, causing Twilight to look at her, eyes wide. "How long is this reactor going to take to blow up?"

"I-I don't really know for sure-"

"Is it going to explode before the coliseum gets evacuated?"

Twilight hesitated. "No. No, I think it will take longer than that."

"Then let's get out of here," Rainbow said, taking Twilight by the arm and starting to pull her away.

"Rainbow, wait!" Twilight cried, pulling away from Rainbow's grasp. "If we leave then we'll leave the coliseum."

"But we won't lose anyone on it, so as much as it sucks it's not a big deal right now."

"If the Amity Coliseum explodes then it will spread despair all around the world," Twilight insisted. "Not to mention what it will do to the morale of everyone fighting on the ground or what kind of damage the falling debris will inflict on everybody underneath. It will make the grimm attacks even worse and maybe bring them to Atlas or Mistral or somewhere else. I can stop this, Rainbow. I can regain control and stabilise the reactor. Please, you have to trust me."

Her eyes enlarged, and her lip crinkled. It was ridiculous in how adorable it was and it was completely irresistible even as Rainbow recognised exactly what she was doing.

"Okay, okay, stop looking at me with that face," Rainbow said. "You really can do this, right?"

"Yes. Most likely."

"Anything that we can do to help you, Twilight?" Applejack asked.

"Well," Twilight said, as she returned her attention to the computer screens. "If you can push some of those coolant rods back into the reactor then that will buy me a little more time."

"No problem, sugarcube," Applejack said, as she cracked her knuckles and strode along the walkway that ran all along the sphere that marked the top of the reactor. She placed both her hands on top of one of the protruding coolant rods, and pushed.

It moved about an inch, if that.

Applejack grunted. "Woah nellie, this thing is heavier than I thought."

Rainbow grinned. "Or you're just rusty. Here, let a huntress whose been keeping herself in shape show you how it's done." She strutted confidently across to the nearest coolant rod, opposite the one that Applejack had chosen. She placed both hands on the cold metal of the rod, and pushed with all her might.

It didn't move at all.

"What are these things made of?" Rainbow exclaimed.

"Rust, maybe," Applejack said.

"Shut up," Rainbow said good naturedly, as she ran around the walkway until she was standing beside Applejack. She braced her back against the coolant rod and used it to run up the wall, her legs and body bent in the intervening space between the two. "Okay," she said. "On three. One, two, push!"

They pushed together, Applejack with her strong arms and Rainbow with her strong legs, both of them pushing on the single rod with all their might.

The stupid thing barely moved at all, it was like trying to push Atlas.

"Twilight," Applejack grunted. "I'm not so sure that this is gonna work out."

"Sorry, Twi," Rainbow said. "But I'm not sure we'll be able to buy you any more time."

"I'm sorry, girls," Twilight said. "I shouldn't have…I thought…it's okay. I can still-"

"Twilight?" Pinkie's voice echoed off the corridor outside before the girl herself walked in, followed by Rarity and Fluttershy shortly after. "There you are! Found you!"

"Girls?" Twilight gasped, as her mouth dropped open in amazement. "What are you doing down here?"

"What are we doing here? What are _you_ doing here?" Rarity asked. "Darling, don't you know that there's a dreadful battle raging outside? Everyone's evacuating."

"So why aren't you evacuating?" Twilight demanded.

"Because nobody knew where the three of you were, and we were worried about you," Fluttershy said. "What are you all doing down here."

"Trying to stop the arena from blowing up," Rainbow said casually.

"Oh, well in that case WHAT?" Rarity said, her voice rising to a yell at the end.

"The White Fang have sabotaged the reactor, it's going to overheat and…well…blow up," Twilight said. "I think that I can break the control lock they used and stabilise it, but you girls need to get out of here, right now. All of you." She added with a pointed looked at Rainbow and Applejack.

Rarity pursed her lips together for a moment. "Do you really think that you can…do what you just said? And that it will be worth it?"

"Yes," Twilight said, with only the slightest hesitation in her voice.

"Then how can we help?"

"I- huh?"

"You're always doing everything you can to protect us," Fluttershy said. "There must be something that we can do to help you."

"But…but if you stay down here then…what if it doesn't work?" Twilight whispered.

"Of course it'll work, silly," Pinkie said. "There's nothing we can't do so long as we work together, the six of us."

"The six of us…working together," Twilight murmured. "Pinkie, that's it!"

"Of course it is," Pinkie declared confidently. "What is it?"

"We don't need to worry about breaking the control lock because we can just cause malfunctions that will render it irrelevant!" Twilight cried. "It won't matter what signals the computer is sending if they can't be acted on! All we need to do is interrupt the flow of dust into the reactor, open the vents to allow the escape of the exhaust, and the locking mechanisms that are holding the coolant rods in place so that they can't be re-inserted. Now, Fluttershy, I've heard that the bowels of the coliseum have a rodent problem, is that true?"

"Oh, yes," Fluttershy said, with too much glee for what she was answering. "I can hear them now. They're rather upset by all the lights and noise going on."

"Well, if you could please ask them to chew threw the wires controlling the locking mechanism on the coolant rods, then the system will switch to manual and Applejack can re-insert the coolant rods into the reactor," Twilight said. "Rarity, if you use one of your barriers to block the flow of dust into the dispenser array, causing a rupture, then no more dust will be inserted into the reactor. And Pinkie, if you go into the ventilation shaft you should be able to use your exploding sprinkles to crack the vent casings then the excess gas will be able to escape."

"No offence, Twilight, but that sounds kind of dangerous," Rainbow said, as she and Applejack joined the others standing around Twilight.

"That's why you'll go with her," Twilight said. "You're the only person fast enough to get Pinkie out of the shaft again before the gases catch up to you." She glanced down at her feet. "That is, if you still want to do this. I can't force you, and maybe I shouldn't."

The five of them exchanged a look. Rarity held out her hand, and one by the one the other girls placed their hands on top of hers, until only Twilight remained, and they were all looking at her.

Twilight smiled. "You're the best friends anyone ever had," she said, as he placed her own hand on top of the circle. "Now, let's save the coliseum of friendship!"

"Yeah!"

Twilight guided each of them to their assigned locations across the bowels of the stadium – all except for Applejack, who was staying put, and Twilight herself who was tracking all of the others using her scroll. She directed Rarity upwards towards the dust injection line, she directed Fluttershy to the right place to cut the electronics on the coolant systems, and directed Pinkie and Rainbow Dash down and down, into the lowest depths of the vast coliseum, where the only lights were dim red bulbs that barely brightened the corridors and tunnels down which they walked.

"And to think," Rainbow said, as she and Pinkie walked down a maintenance corridor leading to the ventilation shaft. "When the White Fang stuck that black box on the computer they probably thought it was fool proof or something."

"I guess the White Fang didn't quite realise how strong friendships can be when we trust each other and work together," Twilight said. "You've all taught me so much. Rarity, take a right here and you should be there."

"Oh, yes, I see darling. Well, here I go."

Pinkie skipped along the maintenance corridor, humming a tune that echoed off the dark, grey walls even as it seemed to brighten those same walls and banish that same gloom. It was a tune that sounded kind of familiar to Rainbow, even though she couldn't quite work out where.

"Where have I heard that before," Rainbow muttered.

"You don't remember?" Pinkie asked.

"So I have heard it before?"

"The escape room, remember?" Pinkie said. "We missed out on the record because we-"

"Stopped to sing that song, yeah, I remember now, the guy gave us attitude about it," Rainbow said. She hummed a couple of bars herself. "How did that go?"

"Fluttershy, you should be there," Twilight said.

"Right, I think I see it. Please get to work, little friends."

Rainbow and Pinkie came to a door, sealed with a wheel lock that, judging by how stiff it was when Rainbow squeezed by Pinkie and tried to get it open, hadn't been used in a while. Fortunately it wasn't quite as stiff as those coolant rods that Applejack would have to try and push down into the reactor again – good luck with that, Applejack – so Rainbow as eventually able to get it open, and push it open to reveal a shaft so big you could have marched three Paladins down it side by side with no trouble at all.

"Rainbow, Pinkie, you're in the shaft," Twilight said. "Now just go west and you'll find the vent that's been locked up."

"Twilight, why is it so big?" Pinkie asked, looking all around at a ceiling too high – and too dark – to see.

"When the coliseum is being fully powered, there are a lot of exhaust fumes," Twilight said.

"That's why I'm here, right?" Rainbow said.

"Right," Twilight said. "You can get Pinkie out."

Rainbow nodded to Pinkie. "Sure I can. Like you said, we trust each other and work together." She hummed a couple of the bars of that song. How had the words gone. "Friendship used to…something something…" she and Pinkie began to walk east, like Twilight had said, but the fact that she couldn't remember the words kept bugging her, or perhaps Rainbow allowed the fact that she couldn't remember the words to bug her so that she wouldn't have to think about anything more important. "How did that go?"

"Friendship used to make me so queasy queasy," Twilight said. "But you made it all so easy easy. Now I don't have to say what I'm thinking, you already know without-"

Rarity screamed.

"Rarity!" Twilight yelled. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"Ugh, the pipe just burst," Rarity groaned.

"But…that was what we wanted," Twilight said.

"You didn't say that it was going to spray dust all over me," Rarity griped. "Oh! My hair!"

"Look at it like this, Rarity," Rainbow said. "When you're having it re-done you'll be able to tell your stylist how you ruined your hair saving the world."

"Saving the world? My, that doesn't sound like a phrase that will get the whole town talking. Is that really what we're doing? I thought we were only saving the coliseum."

"Well, if the coliseum is destroyed the whole world will fall into despondency so…kind of," Twilight said.

"Oh, well in that case one should be ready to make almost any sacrifice," Rarity said. "Except my nails, of course, one must have some standards."

"Um, Twilight? I think we're done here," Fluttershy said.

"I think so too, these things are going in easier than a four inch nail into a block of softwood now," Applejack said.

"Excellent," Twilight said. "The reactor is starting to cool down already. Pinkie, it's all up to you now."

"You got it!" Pinkie chirruped, as they finally reached what Rainbow could only take to be the vent, an absolutely massive set of interlocking metal slabs laid over one another blocking the shaft. "We're here!"

"So," Rainbow said. "Just so we're clear, Twi: once Pinkie blows the vent I run, right?"

"Yes," Twilight said. "You can do this."

"I know I can do it, I just wanted to be clear what it was I was doing," Rainbow said. "Are you ready Pinkie?"

"Yep," Pinkie said, taking a box of sprinkles out of her hair – that would have been surprising if anyone else had done it, but not Pinkie - and flinging them all over the vent. "Ready?"

Rainbow grabbed Pinkie around the waist. "Ready."

There was a bang, and Rainbow felt a touch of hot breath – or what felt like hot breath – behind her before she started to run. She ran down the shaft, leaving a rainbow trail behind her, running as fast as she had ever run while Pinkie whooped with glee in her arms and she felt something, the gas, roaring up behind her, burning the back of her neck, trying to catch up as if it had a chance of beating Rainbow Dash in a race.

Rainbow grinned as she ran, because as dangerous as this was all the nasty stuff behind her was just one more guy who couldn't catch up.

She reached the door that they had come through, flinging Pinkie through it before leaping through the doorway herself and slamming the door behind her.

The gas growled and roared as it flowed on down the shaft and out into the night.

"Woohoo!" Pinkie cried. "We should do that again."

Rainbow sighed.

"You did it!" Twilight yelled. "The exhaust gases are venting normally. The reactor is stabilising. Of course we have just wrecked several critical systems, but everything will be fine until someone can repair it once the crisis is over. The point is…the point is that we did it. This place won't be exploding any time soon."

"Yay us!" Pinkie cried. "Told you we could do it."

"You girls are the apple of my eye," Applejack sang.

Rainbow grinned as she leaned against the door. "The race that doesn't end in a tie."

"You are the funnel cake at my fair."

"A warm hug from a fuzzy bear," Fluttershy sang.

"Best friends until the end of-"

The coliseum reverberated with the sound of some kind of impact from outside.

"Maybe we'd better save the song until after everything has calmed down?" Twilight suggested.

"Yeah," Rainbow said. "That's probably a good idea."

* * *

Pyrrha did not know how the Battle of Vale was going beneath them, but as she and Jaune worked together to finish off a griffon – Jaune had frozen it in place, enabling Pyrrha to deliver the coup de grace – she could say with some certainty that they had won the battle for the Amity Coliseum.

Though griffons and nevermores had tried to enter the coliseum and devour all who were waiting on the docking platforms, they had managed to hold them off; it had felt like they had only just about managed it at times, but they had done it, and together with the Atlesian airships and cruisers beyond the skies around the coliseum were now completely clear of grimm, and the last skybus – with her mother on board, because it didn't matter that she was a middle-aged woman with a bad leg her pride would not allow her to take a place from someone else in the midst of this crisis – was now sailing almost serenely through the night sky. Pyrrha watched it go, and wondered if her mother was watching her in turn. Perhaps, or perhaps she would say that she had every confidence in Pyrrha without needing to have her eye upon her.

 _I have given up the chance to make you proud in the arena, Mother; but I hope that I can make you proud tonight._

Pyrrha frowned slightly as, before her eyes, the skybus changed course dramatically, turning away from Beacon and heading out over the city of Vale.

"Pyrrha?" Jaune asked. "Is something wrong?"

"I don't know," Pyrrha said. "But the ship is changing course."

"It's not the only one, look," Ruby said, pointing to where all the evacuation ships still in the air were turning away, and all in the same direction as that skybus containing her mother.

"Unfortunately there's been a change of plans," General Ironwood said, as he strode down the promenade acquiring more and more students as he went, until his train was swollen with them almost looking like a real army (particularly the ones wearing their school uniforms, ironically enough). Pyrrha recognised the entirety of Team RSPT, and thought that she saw Twilight and Rainbow Dash's friends loitering near the back looking a little sheepish to be there; she spotted the members – the surviving members, she corrected herself – of Team PSTL too, and many others whom she did not recognise. "I had thought to use Beacon not only as a place to organise our reserves, but somewhere the civilians could evacuate too as well. However, it seems that somehow, a force of grimm has scaled the cliffs and begun to attack Beacon itself; all birds in the air are being re-routed to another evac sight, and everyone currently at Beacon will need to be evacuated too."

"But what about the students?" Ruby asked, voicing what Pyrrha and Jaune were surely thinking too.

"The students at Beacon have the same choice that you have now," General Ironwood said. "Your backs aren't up against the wall any more. This isn't a situation with no way out. If you climb up to the upper level and board the transports there then they'll take you to be a safe zone, and not a word will be said by me or anyone else. Or you can take the transports on this level, and join the fighting down below at Beacon, and then when that's over we'll send you out to join the fighting elsewhere, because make no mistake this is your last chance. If you step over the line now there's no turning back later."

"We stepped over the line a long time ago," Ruby murmured, and Pyrrha wasn't inclined to disagree with her. There was no discussion amongst the team because there was no choice and no doubt as to where they would be going next.

They were taking the fight to solid ground.


	179. The Battle of Beacon

The Battle of Beacon

The students filled both levels of the amphitheatre, crowding both the lower level where they pressed all the way up to the stage, and upper level where they so filled the gallery that Yang, looking up, wondered if they were about to start pushing one another over the edge.

She understood why they were all here, but on the other hand…didn't they all understand why they were all here? They'd all heard the sirens. Professor Ozpin was going to draw a line in the sand and ask for anyone with the guts to fight to help out in defending the kingdom; couldn't he have done that over the speakers?

Was there a need for him to get them all together like this?

Perhaps it would make marshalling those willing to fight afterwards easier.

Yang was not the smallest student around – poor Nora would have been completely lost if she hadn't been glued to Ren's arm, both her arms wrapped tightly around his limb like a kid clinging to her mom at the fair – but she wasn't the tallest either, which meant that it was hard for her to see who was here over the heads of the other students. Well, she kind of knew who was here, everybody was here except for those – like Ruby and her team, or Blake – who weren't, but she couldn't see them so it was hard to be sure. She could just about see Cardin, but she couldn't see Weiss or…wait, was that Flash's crest sticking up above the heads of some of the others or was that just a guy with a blue mohawk?

"Thank you all for coming, I'm sure you all know why you're here so I'll keep this brief," Professor Ozpin said, as he strode – no, he didn't stride, he walked, and that was surprising to Yang because it made the headmaster seem so much weaker than normal; his gait was slower and his steps less certain. He was flanked as he made his way up onto the stage by Professors Port and Oobleck, but their presence by his side conveyed no strength that was not immediately lost by the bend of his back, the way he seemed to be leaning on his cane so much more than usual. It was as if he had aged twenty years in a day it…it reminded Yang uncomfortably of how Dad had been after Mom passed away. He was better now, so much better that you'd hardly know it, but after Mom died he too had become like an old man, shuffling around the house with stooped shoulders, barely able to lift his feet up off the ground, unable to straighten out his back at all it had seemed. Professor Ozpin seemed just the same now.

 _Damn. That Amber chick really did a number on him didn't she?_

 _Or was it Sunset's betrayal that finally pushed him over the edge?_ She hadn't considered up until that moment that the Professor might not have taken such a sanguine attitude to what Sunset had done as she herself had. She knew that not everybody would see it the way that she did – when Ren had found out what Sunset he had actually…well, it was the first and maybe the only time that Ren had actually managed to scare Yang just a little bit; he'd looked as if he could murder somebody with his bare hands and that somebody would have been Sunset if he'd been able to get said hands upon her, and when Yang had started to mention that she wasn't wholly without sympathy for Sunset Nora had taken the unprecedented step of shutting her up and taking Ren away somewhere to calm down. Nora had then come back and said that Ren would be okay provided that they did not talk about it, ever. Yang had always known that there was something in the past that those two shared that went beyond funny stories about life on the road (there was presumably a reason they'd been living on the road to begin with) but she'd never have guessed that Ren's still waters ran so deep – but she hadn't then considered that Professor Ozpin, who had kind of become a mentor to Sunset and Pyrrha if what Ruby said was true, might have also felt betrayed by Sunset's…betrayal.

Whether it was the actions of Amber or Sunset that had heard him more she couldn't have said, but they must have been a pair of real gut-punches for him to end up looking like that.

"As you cannot fail to be aware, this kingdom is its experiencing its second grimm attack in as many nights," Professor Ozpin said, in a voice as weary as his body. "But, where last night was merely a probing attack or…this attack tonight is the main offensive. A level twelve incursion."

Murmurs of astonishment and not a little fright ran through the crowd, and Yang could understand why. Level twelve? When had there last been anything like that."

"I will not deceive you, students," Professor Ozpin said. "The last time the Kingdom of Vale faced anything of this magnitude was shortly after Mountain Glenn fell."

 _When you led out the huntsmen and huntresses and stopped the grimm at Ozpin's Stand,_ Yang thought. It was in that battle, by their own account, that her parents, Uncle Qrow and Raven had first distinguished themselves in battle after somehow finding their way to the front lines. But all the stories agreed that it was not Team STRQ but Professor Ozpin himself who had been the hero of that day, almost single-handedly responsible for rallying the defenders to hold the line and hurl back the grimm. Looking at the old man up on the stage it was impossible to see him repeating the trick.

"And that is why," Professor Ozpin continued. "The armies of both Atlas and Mistral are requesting that any of their students who wish to take up arms should join them on their lines and lend their strength to the defences of Vale, fighting alongside the soldiers there. As for those of you who are students of either Beacon or Shade, it has been left to my discretion to deploy you were I see the need for your strength.

"As you may know, during an existential threat to the survival of the Kingdom it is the right of the authorities to demand the services of all huntsmen on pain of death. However…you are not yet huntsmen, but only students, children, and no kingdom can make demands on you that you do not willingly take upon your shoulders."

 _In other words if Sunset couldn't stand to lose her team she shouldn't have gone out there in the first place,_ Yang thought. _And neither should any of the rest of us._ She glanced at Ren and Nora, standing beside her. Despite Ren's reaction to what Sunset had done, she had a hard time believing that either of them would leave the other to die for the sake of complete strangers. But maybe they would. Maybe they were matched in selflessness as in so much else? Or maybe they'd just lie down to die together and avoid the situation in a way that would attach no blame to them.

 _Could I let Ruby die if that's what it took?_ The honest answer was probably not, which was why Yang hoped that she never had to find out.

However, that 'never' did not include sitting out this fight. She might not be entirely sure of where her loyalties would lie in an extreme but until then she had two good hands and gauntlets to wear behind both of them, and if that wasn't good enough for the Kingdom of Vale then…well, it had better be good enough for the Kingdom of Vale, at least for the time being.

"Which means that you have a choice," Professor Ozpin said. "You can stay here, and the most you may be asked to do is safeguard the evacuees being brought here from the coliseum and those areas closest to the front lines of the fighting, or you can assemble by the docking pads and Professors Port and-"

Ozpin stopped, his head turning with a speed that was surprising from a man who seemed now so slow as he looked to the east, towards the fairgrounds that lay around the edges of the school boundaries. "They're here," he murmured, so softly that Yang couldn't believe that she'd heard what she thought she'd just heard. "They're here," he repeated more loudly, as murmurs of consternation ran across the crowd. "Bartholomew, you must hold them before they reach the docking pads; Peter, you must lead our counterattack to retake the fairgrounds. Students, if you do not wish to participate in this battle then please make you way to the docking bays, but please wait until all the civilians have been evacuated before taking up places on the airships that could go to those who do not have aura to protect them. However, if you wish to fight, then arm yourselves as quickly as possible and assemble in the courtyard outside where Professors Port and Oobleck will issue you with your orders."

The students departed quickly, heading either for the locker rooms or for the docking pads. It was only once Yang, Ren and Nora were grabbing their weapons out of the lockers that they began to hear gunfire outside on the grounds beyond.

Yang had heard that some experienced huntsmen had auras so acute that they could sense the approach of the grimm even from great distances, but she had never actually witnessed it until now, not even from Dad or Uncle Qrow.

 _Maybe the old man's still got it in there after all, at least a little._

* * *

"Stay safe out there, you three," Rainbow said into her scroll, as both Twilight and Applejack – who had apparently been Rainbow's partner in her first year at Atlas; Pyrrha hadn't known either that Ciel and Rainbow were second years or that they had had other team-mates before being assigned to Team RSPT, although both seemed obvious in hindsight; she wondered idly who Ciel's old partner had been, even as she doubted that Ciel would ever tell – looked down over her shoulders at the screen, even as Pinkie, Rarity and Fluttershy squeezed into the frame to look up at them from it. "I know there aren't any grimm in the city – and there aren't gonna be any grimm in the city because we're going to stop them long before that – but…just stay safe anyway."

"It would not be too surprising if there was a spike in criminality caused by the grimm alarm and the large numbers of people seeking shelter," Ciel said from the chair on the extreme right of the middle row currently being occupied by SAPR – minus Sunset of course – RSPT and Applejack. "You should be cautious."

"Yeah…thanks for that, Ciel," Rainbow muttered. "Just take care, okay. And take care of the girls, when you find them."

"Of course, darling," Rarity said. "I for one will be much happier once I have Sweetie Belle right in front of me."

"Shining Armour will make sure that they're safe until you catch up to them," Twilight said. "And Blake's there too."

"Yes, and no one doubts your brother's valour, Twilight dear," Rarity said. "Just as I'm sure that Miss Belladonna is both a lovely person and an exceptional huntress, but Sweetie Belle is my sister and I was the one who thought it would be a good idea for her to come on this trip, and so it does make me rather responsible for what happens to her. I know that I can't protect her as well as some others can, but I'd rather keep her close nonetheless."

"Of course," Twilight said. "I just meant that there's no need to worry. They'll all be fine until you get there."

Rarity smiled. "I hope so, darling, thank you."

"And of course, we'll take good care of Apple Bloom and Scootaloo too," Fluttershy added.

"What kind of a place do you think the shelter is going to be?" Pinkie asked. "Do you think they'll have a kitchen?"

"Pinkie, why does it need a kitchen?" Applejack asked.

"So I can start getting stuff ready for the victory party, of course!"

"Pinkie," Rainbow said softly. "I don't…we…"

"Don't say it!" Pinkie cried. "Don't you say that, Rainbow Dash! You'd better come back, do you hear me? You and Twilight and Applejack and all your new friends too, you all have to come back."

"We'll all do our darnedest, Pinkie," Applejack said. "But if this night goes how it might…I'm not sure that anybody's gonna be in the mood for a party either way."

Pinkie stared up out of the screen, her baby-blue eyes big and round. "I guess not," she admitted. "But I can dream, can't I? Of a night where everything goes just fine and it all ends happily and nobody got hurt?"

Rainbow smiled. "Sure you can, Pinkie, that would be the best world ever. Listen…we've gotta go and so do you. We'll see you on the other side, okay?"

"Good luck out there, darlings," Rarity said. She blinked rapidly. "Rainbow, Applejack…be dears and take good care of Twilight, won't you?"

"Hey!"

"One doesn't like to cause offence, Twilight, but you know how it is."

"Yeah," Twilight said, with a slight smile. "Yeah, I know. Good luck to you too."

"Good luck to all of us, and everyone out there," Fluttershy said.

Rainbow folded up her scroll, and put it away.

"Did you have to stop?" Penny asked. "We're not landing right away."

"I know," Rainbow said. "But…at times like this you kind of run out of ways to say 'don't die' and that…it gets a little weird. We'd said enough, right?"

"I guess so," Twilight said. She frowned. "Is it weird that I'm more worried about them then I am about us?"

Applejack chuckled. "Congratulations, Twilight, you're becoming an honest to goodness huntress."

"I am?"

"You always worry about the folks behind you more than you worry about yourself," Applejack said. "Ain't that right, everybody?"

Pyrrha nodded. "I am very concerned for my mother, as strange as it seems."

"I'm worried about Yang," Ruby offered.

"I know that it don't make a lick of sense to think on it," Applejack said. "But that's how it is. How it goes with me anyway."

"Listen, Applejack," Rainbow said. "I…you didn't have to come with us. You could have gone up a level and gotten on one of the other skybuses with Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie."

"And left you and Twilight to head down into all that fighting without me?" Applejack said. "I let you get away with that in Mountain Glenn, I ain't letting you do it this time. I got my gun back and I ain't been held a prisoner for a week before."

"Yeah, but…Apple Bloom," Rainbow said.

"Rarity and the others will take care of her," Applejack said.

"I'm just saying, you didn't have to come with us," Rainbow said. "Family first and all."

"There's family first," Applejack said. "And then there's being a selfish jackass when the world's on fire. Besides, if we're going to talk family first why don't you leave Twilight to go down into the fighting while you take care of Scootaloo?"

"Yeah, okay, I get it," Rainbow said.

"Unless you're saying that you don't want to fight alongside me no more," Applejack said. "Now that you've got all your fancy new friends with their tournament trophies and whatnot."

"I am a little worried that you've slowed down since you've been on the bench," Rainbow said, prompting a snort from Applejack. "This is going to be great," she said. "It'll be just like old times…except nobody's going to lose a leg this time."

A silence settled upon their row, in fact now that Pyrrha had a moment to notice it was rather quiet in the airship in general. Professor Goodwitch stood at the front, her scroll raised to her ear as she listened to someone, presumably somebody on the ground. In the Skybus itself were students from all four academies, or at least so she assumed it was hard to spot the Shade students, all sitting in silence or quiet as they waited for their ship to land on the docks and offload them into the battle for Beacon. General Ironwood was on one of the other airships, but other than that the remaining aircraft had no professors to shepherd the students going down to face the fury of the grimm.

"So…" Jaune said. "Do we know what we're facing down there?"

"The grimm," Ciel said.

Jaune cringed. "Yeah, I know but do we know anything more specific?"

"If there is information it will be divulged to us," Ciel said.

Jaune didn't look terribly reassured by all this. "Do we get Atlesian air support?"

"The thing about air support," Rainbow said. She paused, and then started again. "Air support is really cool and all, but it comes with…well…you gotta be willing to like craters. If you want to keep your school you're going to have to accept that the cruisers are steering clear."

"Perhaps some Skygraspers can help us out, though," Penny said. "Although even they will have to shoot up the fairgrounds…but I can think of a few of our weapons that cause as much damage to property as the rotary cannons, and maybe more."

Rainbow grinned. "You make a good point, Penny; maybe we will get some help after all."

"It depends on how much need there is for air support in other parts of the battle," Ciel said.

"So, to recap," Jaune said. "We're going in blind, we don't know what we're up against and we don't know how much help we can count on. That…kind of sucks, to be honest."

"We know enough," Ruby said. "We know that some of our friends are already down there, fighting; we know that there are people down there who need our protection; we know that it's our job to save them. After all, it's not the first time we've gone in despite not knowing a lot, right? Think of…think of Mountain Glenn."

Pyrrha frowned. She got the impression that they had all been doing their best not to think about Mountain Glenn ever since they had learned the truth about what had happened at the end of that mission.

Jaune sighed. "Listen, guys, if nobody else is going to say it then I will: I wish Sunset were here. We might none of us completely approve of what she did, and I know that some of us here disapprove a lot, but at times like these…she always seemed like she knew what to do even if she didn't, and when the fighting started she always gave it everything she had and helped keep us all safe. And so I wish she was here right now."

Everyone else was quiet for a moment, until the silence was broken by Ruby of all people. "Yeah, me too, Jaune. In spite of everything that she did it feels weird to be going into this battle, what might be the battle, without our team leader." She squeaked. "Pyrrha! I didn't mean-"

"It's quite alright, Ruby," Pyrrha said gently. "I know that I'm not the real leader of Team Sapphire, and I know that I'm not very good at this. I'm sorry, both of you. I know this is difficult, and I know that if Sunset were here she probably would have said something rather inspiring by this point to whisk away all of our doubts and uncertainties…I'm afraid that I just don't have her skill in that regard."

"Don't be scared, just believe in me on account of how awesome I am," Rainbow said. "And believe in yourselves because you're awesome, too. And we're twice as awesome when we work together as a team."

Pyrrha raised a hand to her mouth as she laughed. "That may be the gist of it, but Sunset dresses it up very well you must admit."

"Even if she didn't know exactly what was going on she'd have come up with a plan that would have kind of work anyway," Jaune said.

"And she'd always have your back," Ruby whispered. "No matter what."

"Indeed," Pyrrha said. "No matter what." _That was the problem, wasn't it?_

"I'm sorry that she's not here," Penny said. "This…this is what I was afraid of, when Sunset made her decision. Will you…will you be okay?"

Pyrrha looked at her, green eyes meeting green eyes. "I…as much as I believe we choose our destinies, there are times when we find ourselves in the hands of fate. I think that tonight is one of those times."

"But we can still push our fate along in the way we want it to go, and we will," Jaune said. "We might not be as great a team without Sunset, but…we've still got two of the best huntresses in Beacon, make that the two best."

Pyrrha smiled at him. "And you."

"Me?"

"Once we find out what we're up against you'll come up with a plan," Ruby said. "And we'll watch each other's backs until it's all over. I wish that Sunset were here…but we can make this work. We've got too."

"Thank you, Barty; we'll be there soon." Professor Goodwitch put her scroll away. "Alright, listen up everyone," she said. "Here is what we know: the grimm have scaled the cliffs that are…intended to protect Beacon against attack from the east. The grimm in question are ursai and beringels-"

"Beringels," Twilight exclaimed. "But beringels are never seen this far west!"

"Not usually, no, Miss Sparkle," Professor Goodwitch said. "However, this appears to be a time for unusual occurrences. The grimm have also been joined by griffons descending from above, although thankfully none of them seem interested in interdicting our approach. The initial approach of the creatures was concentrated on the fairgrounds, and that was where the majority of the security forces and those students present at the school willing to fight were deployed. However, more grimm have now outflanked the fighting in the fairgrounds and have entered the school proper. I've heard from Doctor Oobleck that they have overrun the dining hall, the dormitories and the examination schools, threatening the courtyard and the tower. I'm sure that I don't need to tell you that we cannot afford to lose Beacon Tower."

 _Indeed not,_ Pyrrha thought, although perhaps not for the same reason as anybody else. Losing the CCT was, of course, unthinkable; it would cripple the whole of Remnant if the network were to be brought down. But there was more to it than that: she couldn't help but think of what else the grimm might find it they got into the tower: Cinder, frozen in the vault beneath it. Would they free her or devour her? Neither option was particularly desirable.

Thinking of Cinder made her think of Amber. Where was she in all this? Might she be waiting for the grimm to overrun Beacon? She thought of the statue in the courtyard, the statue that concealed the entrance to the Vault of the Fall Maiden, the vault that was her charge to defend if it should come to it.

 _Beacon will not fall. Not while we defend it._ Pyrrha did not believe that Amber would show herself in the midst of battle. She was too much of a coward for that, she would wait for Salem's monsters to clear the school and that Pyrrha would not allow. That her friends would not allow.

Professor Goodwitch continued. "Therefore, once we land you will all follow me in clearing the grimm out of the courtyard and away from the landing pads; once that is completed we will clear the grimm out of the school buildings before reinforcing the other students in the fairgrounds to drive the grimm out of the area completely. Does anyone have any questions?"

Rainbow raised her hand. "Who chooses which building we get to clear."

"I trust that you know your own teams best to judge which area will suit you best," Professor Goodwitch said.

"Thanks, Professor," Rainbow said. She turned to her team. "Dining hall."

"You made that decision very quickly," Penny observed.

"As much as I like a shotgun we're not exactly the most close-range team," Rainbow said. "The cafeteria gives us more space to work."

The same could be said of Ruby as well, but they couldn't all choose the dining hall, could they? Pyrrha glanced at Jaune and Ruby. "What do you think?"

"I think…" Jaune was quiet for a moment. "I think we should take the dorms. The long corridors are good for Ruby, and you can handle the tight quarters."

Pyrrha considered that for a moment. "Yes, that makes sense. Alright then." She turned to Team RSPT, and Applejack. "Good luck out there." She smiled. "Best of luck Penny."

"Once we've cleared our buildings, let's meet up at the fairgrounds!" Penny said. Her face fell. "I wish that we could meet up for something more fun than killing grimm."

Ruby grinned. "We all do, Penny; but let's make kicking grimm ass as fun as we can, okay."

Rainbow chuckled. "Now that is an idea."

Applejack touched the brim of her hat. "Y'all take care of yourself too, now."

"We'll do our best," Jaune said.

"Get ready, students," Professor Goodwitch said, as Beacon Tower rose up in the window behind her. "We're about to land." She was silent for a moment. "Not all of you are students of Beacon Academy; some of you I have had the pleasure of teaching all year, others of you I know less well than I should like. This is not the end of year that I wished for any of you and yet, in this moment…for whatever it may be worth I am incredibly proud of all of you."

"We'll make you proud…prouder," Ruby said as she got to her feet. "Count on us."

"Professor," Pyrrha said, as she followed Ruby in getting up. "Has there been any word from Professor Ozpin?"

Professor Goodwitch's eyes narrowed a little behind her spectacles. "No, Miss Nikos, I'm afraid not," she said. "There has been no word of him suffering any injury. No word…of any kind."

"I…I see, Professor," Pyrrha said, although she didn't really see at all. Where was Professor Ozpin, then? With Beacon under attack shouldn't he be leading the defence?

 _Perhaps he is guarding the vault, either vault. Whatever he's doing, I'm sure it's important._

They made their way to the door at the back of the airship. Professor Goodwitch stood in front, with SAPR and RSPT behind and the other teams stacking up behind them, weapons at the ready. Pyrrha held Milo lightly in one hand and wore Akuou upon the other. Ruby's fingers ran lightly up and down the carbine configuration of Crescent Rose. Applejack worked the lever on her rifle to chamber a round. Only those with either exceptionally large weapons like Ciel or ones that, like Penny, were hard to deploy casually held them back.

Glancing over her shoulder, looking between and in many cases just a little over the heads waiting behind her, Pyrrha could see – the skybus having turned to put its back to Beacon – the city of Vale spread out before her, the night sky lit up with the fire of the Atlesian and Mistralian warships as they battled the airborne grimm above the city limits.

 _We must finish this fight quickly, there is another battle waiting for us out there._

 _This will be a very long night. And it wasn't as if last night was particularly short._

"Pyrrha," Jaune asked. "Are you okay?"

Pyrrha's lips twitched. "I was just contemplating sleeping for a week when all this is over."

"We have been running around a lot lately," Ruby said.

"A week?" Rainbow said. "More like ten days."

"She'll do it, too," Applejack muttered. "Like that time you said you were too busy to help me fix the roof on the barn and what were you busy doing?"

"Napping on the roof of the barn," Rainbow said.

Pyrrha couldn't help but chuckle at that, and she wasn't the only one either. The laughter quieted at once as the inner door rose up, leaving only the outer door between them and the battle raging beyond.

Professor Goodwitch flicked her riding crop impatiently. "Get ready, everyone," she said. "Here we go."

The outer door rose. The path leading away from the docking pads lay spread out before them, and beyond that the courtyard of the school ringed by its columns and archways, the place of peace and serenity where they had spent many happy hours, the trees and lawns where they had walked and read out in the sunlight, the place where they had ate and drank when the weather was fine.

And now it was a place of war and battle and chaos. Civilians ran from the direction of the fairgrounds in a screaming throng, pushing past one another in their rush to get to the skybuses that had just touched down on the docking pads; from that same direction the sounds of fighting echoed, and perhaps it was her imagination but Pyrrha could swear that she could hear the distinctive sounds of Yang's Ember Celica rising above all other sounds to disturb the air.

No grimm pursued those fleeing form the fairgrounds, clearly they were being held in place by the joint security forces and the students, but nevertheless those trying to get out of Beacon – and how many of them had just been dropped off at Beacon on the understanding that it was a safe place? – were still running a gauntlet of the monsters that were swarming the courtyard. Ursai and griffons advanced out of the burning dining hall, they surrounded the high tower that rose above all other buildings, they prowled around the statue that was there sometimes when Pyrrha looked at it and at other times was gone revealing the entrance to the Vault beneath. When she could see the statue, in those moments when she could see the noble huntsmen with his sword rising up above the mass of monsters, his blade raised in what now seemed like an incredibly ironic gesture of triumph over the darkness, Pyrrha was filled with a deep sadness that verged upon futility. She felt, as she had felt when standing amidst the ruins in the Emerald Forest, that all their triumphs were doomed to prove ephemeral in the end, worn away by time and darkness, until it was the fate of all their monuments to be surrounded by the grimm as they took everything they wished and more.

But they were being resisted, as they tried to advance towards the docking pads: it looked as though Doctor Oobleck was leading a small group of students in holding the line against the grimm, and Weiss Schnee was distinctive amongst them in her white bolero that seemed to glow like starlight in the darkness of this fight. Once Pyrrha had spotted Weiss it became easy to mark Flash Sentry too, in his gleaming armour; she could not see Cardin or Russell, but she supposed they were there somewhere but that their outfits made them harder to spot.

But they were being resisted. Weiss and the others were down there fighting the grimm and they would not fight alone. Perhaps Beacon would fall, and Vale and Mistral too and all the glories of men would be swept away and forgotten…but not until Pyrrha Nikos and Team SAPR had expended the last of their strength to make sure that did not come to pass.

"Remember," Professor Goodwitch said. "No firing until you're past the evacuees."

"You got it, professor," Ruby said.

"Understood, ma'am," Ciel murmured.

Professor Goodwitch pointed with her riding crop in the direction of the grimm threatening to overrun the courtyard. "Go!"

They charged down out of the skybus, joining the students from the other buses that had landed on the docking pads on either side. General Ironwood led the students from his bus towards the fairgrounds, but the students from the other two buses charged with Professor Goodwitch straight down the path and into the courtyard, pushing through the civilians – Pyrrha murmured her apologies as she went, at the same time trying not to get too separated from Jaune and Ruby – before they ran (or flew in Rainbow's case, having unfurled her wings and soared over the heads of comrades and evacuees alike) straight into the midst of the grimm threatening to overrun the whole of Beacon.

Pyrrha saw Professor Goodwitch use some of the rubble from one of the collapsed arches that lined the courtyard to brain a griffon, before using her riding crop to hurl an ursa flying backwards through the air, where it roared and thrashed before Ruby blew its head off. She saw Weiss knock an ursa back using a white glyph; Pyrrha pounced on its as it lay on its back and cut off its head in a single smooth stroke. Jaune similarly decapitated one ursa before turning to fend off another with his shield; Pyrrha was about to go to his aid when Cardin slammed into the grimm from its side and proceeded to bludgeon it to death with several blows from his mace, continuing to pound the ground until the last vestiges of the grimm had turned to smoke and blown away. Rainbow Dash duelled with a griffon in the air above the school, the two of them circling around the statue that Pyrrha could only intermittently see, Rainbow's guns crackling as the griffon bellowed in harsh counterpoint until Rainbow led the griffon down into a dive too steep for it, a dive which ended with the griffon ploughing head-first into the ground as Rainbow pulled clear, then proceeded to turn back and finish the griffon off while it lay stunned.

Penny's laser eviscerated an alpha griffon as it swooped down on them from above; her blades – her metal ones, she was obviously conserving her semblance – scythed out to the left and right to cut the wings off two of the alpha's followers and send them plummeting to the ground where other huntsmen, Sun's team-mates Neptune and Sage, finished them off. Ciel blew ursai in half with shots from her booming rifle as she stood unobtrusively under the shade of one of the maple trees, surrounded by falling leaves as she calmly and methodically worked her monstrous weapon. Ruby jumped on top of the huntsman statue and leapt down from it to slice two ursai in half with a single swing of Crescent Rose. Twilight yelled like a maniac as she swung the energy blade emerging from her wrist with wild abandon and no technique at all, seeming half out of her mind with fright as an ursa bore down upon her, yet for all that her strokes were completely unfocussed by the time she was done the ursa toppled over onto its back, quite dead; Pyrrha saw Rainbow grinning with a kind of proud delight as she watched her friend and team-mates triumph; Twilight herself had her face concealed, but seemed more astonished at herself than either proud or triumphant.

Weiss conjured a series of glyphs from which she fired white laser beams which, although probably weaker than Penny's fire, were still enough to thin out the ranks of the grimm. Cardin swung his mace one handed to crack the skull of an ursa major, and when it reared onto its hind legs Flash shocked it with his shield, stabbed it, then shot it before Cardin delivered the coup de grace. Jaune blocked an ursa's paw with his shield before driving his sword up to the hilt into its chest. Ruby sliced the head off one ursa before turning to use her rifle to bring down a griffon. Pyrrha herself pirouetted gracefully on her toe, slashing at ursai with her spear, thrusting it into another, shooting a third. She spotted Jaune having difficulty with a griffon which had forced him to his knees though brute strength and went to his aid, leaping onto its back and stabbing it in the nape of the neck with Milo in sword mode.

And slowly they drove back the grimm, and cleared them from the courtyard and around the tower.

As the other students – including RSPT - ran towards the various different buildings, Weiss – reloading the dust chambers of her rapier – approached Pyrrha. "Thank you for arriving when you did."

Pyrrha nodded. "I'm just sorry that we couldn't get here sooner."

"Don't flatter yourselves," Cardin muttered. "We were holding our own."

"Just about," Flash said. "We need all the help we can get out here."

"Hey, where's Russell?" Ruby asked, and indeed Pyrrha noticed that even now, with the courtyard nearly empty, she couldn't see the fourth member of WSTW anywhere. "Is he-"

"No," Cardin said shortly. "Little runt took off on one of the airships."

"He ran?" Jaune asked, his voice rising a little in pitch thanks to disbelief.

"Him and the whole of Team Bluebell, too," Cardin growled. "Cowards."

 _Team Bluebell left? They were supposed to protect Amber._ It was an absurd thing to think, but it was the thought that came into Pyrrha's head regardless. They had learned the truth – a part of the truth, at least – and they had agreed to stand against the darkness, even as SAPR had; true, it might be said that Amber's betrayal had freed them of all obligations but all the same…to run, knowing what was at stake? She found it hard to contemplate. How could anyone who knew how high the stakes were in this war turn their back on it?

She could not fathom their thoughts, nor did she have time or inclination of her own to do so.

"I'm sorry," she murmured. "About Russell."

"Don't say you're sorry like he's dead," Cardin said. "He might be dead to me but he's not dead."

"Cardin," Weiss sighed. "She was just trying to be nice. Although frankly there's nothing to be said in this situation…except that I have failed as a leader."

"Weiss-"

"Thank you, Flash, but I don't require sympathy for my mistakes," Weiss said quickly, and with brittleness in her voice.

Cardin snorted. "It could be worse, one of your team could have betrayed the whole of Vale and gotten themselves arrested."

Ruby looked away in embarrassment. Jaune glared at Cardin. Pyrrha raised one eyebrow.

"Cardin," Weiss muttered. "Some things should not be said in public. Even if they are true."

"I was just saying."

"Is Sunset doing okay?" Flash asked. "What…what's going to happen to her?"

"I don't know yet," Pyrrha admitted. "Nobody knows yet, I think."

"No one does," Cardin said. "Not even gramps. He was as surprised as anyone when she pleaded guilty to all that stuff. Nobody pleads guilty to charges like that, everyone fights, especially the guilty guys."

"Because she wanted to do the right thing," Ruby said. "To make up for doing the wrong one."

Pyrrha nodded. "I think that's probably the simplest way of putting it."

"Did your grandfather have to call her the worst criminal in Remnant?" Jaune asked.

"He wasn't completely wrong," Cardin said defensively. "But…I asked him that, and he admitted he got a little carried away there, playing for the gallery. I'm sorry. He's not a bad guy, just an old one. Listen, for what it's worth…I hope that the pony doesn't get the needle. She deserves to rot in a cell, but not to die."

Pyrrha blinked in surprise. "Thank you, Cardin; that's…very generous of you."

Cardin shrugged.

"Do you expect she'll get mercy?" Flash asked.

"I expect her fate will be the same as ours if we don't stabilise this situation," Weiss declared magisterially. "Whatever the troubles of your team we have a battle to fight and a city to save."

"Yes, of course," Pyrrha said. "I'm sorry. We're heading to the dormitories now."

Weiss nodded. "Then we'll take the examination schools. Good luck."

"And to you," Pyrrha said.

* * *

Weiss led her team through the examination schools, the main building of Beacon housing all the lecture theatres in which all of the academic of semi-academic subjects (all the subjects, in fact, except sparring) where held.

How soon it would be until lectures and classes were held here again, she didn't know; the place was a bit of a mess, though it hadn't been that long before the grimm got in. They seemed to delight in causing wanton destruction and chaos. They had torn through Doctor Oobleck's classroom, and broken down the door into the archives which they had then proceeded to tear through like a mob of hooligans. It might take days, weeks even, to repair all of this damage and get Beacon back into a fit state to function.

Of course, that wasn't the worst of what the grimm had done, by far. So far Team WSTW – Team WSW, she supposed sourly, thanks to her failure to inspire Russell to stand with them against the grimm – had encountered a few lone ursai which they had despatched without a great deal of difficulty: one in the staff room, one in Doctor Oobleck's classroom, a third roaming the corridors. But they had also come across grislier evidence of the failed attempt to defend the examination schools in the first place: the body of Nebula Violette, one of their opponents in the first round of the Vytal Festival – and didn't that seem like such a terribly long way away now, even though it had only been yesterday – her neck snapped and her body looking as though something had beaten on it with fists like hammers. Smears of blood lay on the walls and the floor, alongside pockmarks caused by small calibre weapons and the holes in the walls caused by larger ones. Doors had been smashed in, walls had been broken through, and it wasn't all wanton vandalism by the victorious grimm. Some of it had been caused by trying to deny victory to the grimm in the first place.

 _No wonder Russell chose to run._

 _Don't say that. It's a way of letting yourself off the hook. His failure of courage was your failure of leadership._

As Weiss led her team through the dark corridors, clearing the rooms as they went, with the lights flickering on and off above their heads, casting the room into shadow, her failure with Russell rankled with her, and half a thought was always turned in that direction. She was the leader of this team, yet when the time had come for her to show genuine leadership, to rally her troops to fight in this dark hour, she had failed to measure up. Yes, Cardin and Flash had both stayed to fight with her, but that was because Flash was brave and Cardin was stubborn, there was little credit to her in harnessing their existing qualities. If she had been a true leader, the leader that she had wished to be when she came here, a leader like Winter, then surely she could have made a lion even out of her more timorous team-mate?

Wasn't that what a leader was supposed to do?

 _Perhaps I'm just not cut out to lead. Perhaps I never was._

Since coming to Beacon, she was forced to conclude, she had improved as a combatant but when it came to leading her team she had…not done brilliantly. She had not moulded her team into a cohesive fighting force equal to the best teams at Beacon or elsewhere; Team WSTW lacked the cohesion that a team like SAPR possessed, even Yang managed to do better with Team YRBN despite both having her team switched up halfway through the year and the fact that Blake had spent more of second semester with SAPR and RSPT than she had with her nominal team. Looking back, and looking enviously around her, Weiss was forced to conclude the only first year team leader to have done worse than her was Blake herself, and she had all manner of excuses.

 _I was too focussed on my own improvement. I forgot that the improvement of the team is my improvement._ She had thought that leadership was striding ahead, forgetting to do anything to ensure that others followed. And as a result she had left Russell behind.

 _Of course this is the worst time to come to this realisation. What am I supposed to do about it now?_

They came across another body: Octavia Ember, also of Team NDGO; her face was set in a rictus of terror that made it hard to look upon her. It was so…so awful. Even after Flash bent down and gently closed her wide and frightened eyes the rest of her face continued to stare upwards at the three remaining members of WSTW. Whatever had killed her – by a vicious beating, the same as her team leader – had put the fear into her first.

A sound of heavy breathing alerted them to the fact that they were not alone. There was something nearby. Something in Professor Port's classroom, Weiss could see flickering in the light shining out the doorway.

She crept quietly forward, listening to that breathing, those heavy footsteps. Had this creature been the one to kill Octavia? Maybe Nebula as well?

Regardless, they couldn't turn away.

She held Myrtenaster ready as she hugged the wall, creeping towards the open doorway. Cardin was behind her, mace ready; Flash brought up the rear.

The grimm on the other side of the wall continued to breath, snuffle and growl. Was it pacing up and down? Weiss had nearly reached the door.

The grimm fell silent.

Weiss froze.

An enormous black hand burst through the wall to grab Cardin by the shoulder and haul him bodily through the wall and into Professor Port's classroom.

"Cardin!" Weiss shouted as she leapt through the hole that he had made when he was hauled through the wall.

It was a beringel, its armour plates scratched and scarred with many battles, half its bony face-mask missing and both eyes glowing with a furious intensity that was almost demonic. It's body was thick, corded and muscular, spotted with red pockmarks as though a fire burned within its flesh. It threw Cardin across the room so that he hit the opposite wall with a thud hard enough to crack the plaster. As he slid slowly down towards the floor the beringel bounded over the rows of desks and chairs – shattering and squashing some as it went – and grabbed him by the foot, throwing him back and forth like a child with a rubber hammer, slamming him head first into the floor first to the right and then to the left, smashing him through the desks as it did so.

Weiss conjured a stair of glyphs for her to use as she leapt gracefully from one to the other, carrying her up above the desks and chairs that remained in the classroom as she ran above and behind the beringel, poised to descend upon the grimm from behind, Myrtenaster at the ready.

The beringel turned and growled as it threw Cardin at her, his body flying through the air too fast for Weiss to conjure a new glyph to stop him from slamming right into her knocking, her off her glyph and sending her flying backwards and down, hitting the ground with a crack and a feeling of her aura draining away to an alarming degree. The beringel let out a snuffling, laughing sound that Weiss – her pride strung as much as her aura – could only interpret as triumphant and mocking in equal measure.

Flash's gunblade cracked as he fired at the grimm, putting himself between Weiss, Cardin and the beringel, holding his shield before him as he fired over it.

The beringel leapt down from its perch high above in the classroom, landing just in front of Flash and using the momentum of its leap to power a devastating punch.

Flash took the blow upon his shield, unflinching and unmoving, his semblance allowing him to absorb the blow.

For a moment, the beringel appeared confused. It punched Flash's shield with its other hand, then back with the right again. Lightning erupted out of Rho Aias, yellow sparks ripping up and down the beringel's monstrous form, making the monster squirm and flinch and snort in pain.

And then the lightning died, and the beringel's snorting turned to laughter.

"What the-" Flash began, his words cut off as the beringel grabbed his shield with both hands, pulling it by the lips and pulling Flash by the arm straps along with it as the monster whirled around in place, spinning the shield like a discus and spinning Flash along with it before it hurled him through the back wall of the classroom – shattering the bust of Professor Port along the way – and all the way into the room beyond where he smashed through a row of desks and lay, unmoving, on the ground.

Weiss pushed Cardin off of her – he was still too dazed to move himself, it seemed – and got to her feet.

The beringel stared at her as she assumed a guard.

Weiss stared right back. Her blue eyes, cold as ice, narrowed.

The beringel charged. Weiss flourished Myrtenaster in the air before her, conjuring a light blue shield that rippled when the beringel struck it with its massive fist. Weiss stepped forward, and as she raised the tip of her sword the energy of her barrier was redirected outwards, pushing the beringel onto the backfoot and off balance as Weiss attacked, driving Myrtenaster forward in a lunge that skewered the great beast in its black hide, then a slashing stroke across its flank, then she leapt up for another slash, this time at its face and she would have struck its unarmoured and unprotected eye if the creatured hadn't flinched away at just the wrong moment. Weiss' leap carried her behind the beringel with all the grace of a ballerina, landing with her arms spread out as if waiting for the applause of a crowd seated amongst the shattered desk. That the applause did not come did not prevent her turning faster than the grimm and driving her sword into the small of its back.

The beringel barely seemed to feel it as it rounded on her, one hand as large as her head and torso reaching for her. Weiss ducked under the swipe, her back arching with a litheness that many would have envied as she leapt away. The beringel pursued, but Weiss jumped up to the ceiling off the classroom and used a glyph to launch herself off it again down upon the grimm in a flurry of furious blows that scratched at white bone and black oily flesh alike. The beringel couldn't catch her, and though she might be doing as little to it as a mosquito bite did to an elephant the elephant was growing irritated that it could not stomp the mosquito flat. The beringel slammed its fist into the ground, missing Weiss but shattering the tiles where she had been a moment before.

Weiss leapt back, her Myrtenaster held straight up before her. She conjured a time dilation glyph beneath her feet and an array of common platform glyphs all around the beringel, hedging it in, imprisoning it in a web of ancestral Schnee power as it looked around, confused by the ever increasing multitude of glyphs proliferating around it.

Then Weiss struck. Moving faster than humanly possible, even with aura, she flitted from glyph to glyph and with every flit she struck home against the beringel, keeping it guessing, keeping it turning, and whenever it turned she struck from a different direction, rear or flanks as it presented them to her. Pinpricks but they had to be wearing it down, they had to be getting to it, as her glyphs faded away one by one Weiss had to believe, as she was down to her last glyph and flew through the air straight for the beringel's throat she could not but tell herself that she was taking it down bit by bit.

The beringel's hand reached out and grabbed her, stopping her in mid-flight as the meaty-fist closed around her head. She could feel the oily, sticky, tar-like flesh in her face, smell its foul stench – it reeked of blood, and she feared that it was the blood of the brave huntresses who had come before her – up her nostrils. She felt the pain jolting through her aura as she was slammed into the ground so hard that she left a crater, then thrown so hard that she hit the ground and bounced up the steps, through all the rows of desks that lay between, to the highest level at the back of the classroom.

The beringel roared, and beat its chest triumphantly as it bellowed in victory.

Cardin staggered to his feet and swung his mace two-handed at the grimm's back. The beringel caught his blow in one hand, watching as Cardin struggled futilely to pull his weapon back out of the monster's grasp.

The beringel smiled a cruel and ugly smile as, with its free hand, it grabbed Cardin by the shoulder and squeezed. Cardin struggled, he grunted, he cried out in pain as his aura broke with a ripple across his body and he howled as his paudron crumpled like paper under the strength of the beringel's grip, and with it surely his shoulder too.

Flash charged out of the room into which he had been tossed, his shield discarded and his helmet gone, his sword held in both hands as he ran, yelling, and thrust the blade into the beringel's chest between the armour plates. He fired.

The beringel stared at him. Flash stared back in increasing disbelief, a trace of fear in his blue eyes.

The beringel tossed Cardin aside like an afterthought before swatting Flash with a casual backhand that nonetheless sent him flying. The grimm grabbed him by the foot as he tried to crawl away, tossing him over his shoulder and then back again, smashing more of the floor tiles as it did so before straddling his helpless form on the floor and pounding on him with its immense fists, raising them up and then bringing them down in a pair like twin hammers, pounding on Flash as he tried to shield himself with his arms.

Weiss ran towards him, towards them both. She didn't know what she was going to do when nothing that she had done so far had seemed to work, all she could think was that this must have been how Octavia and Nebula died, beaten to death by this monstrosity, and she couldn't stand by and watch as that happened to Flash.

His aura broke. Flash screamed in pain as the beringel stamped on his left leg with a sickening crunch.

The beringel's fists rose again.

"No!" Weiss yelled, and as she yelled a glyph appeared to her right, a glyph of a sort that she had not sought to conjure, had never conjured before although she had see Winter do it. And out of this glyph emerged a ghostly shining sword, impaling the beringel through the back out the front.

The beringel seemed – finally – to be pained by this, but surprised to; it stared at the sword as if it were astonished.

It wasn't the only one. Weiss stared in awe as the knight, her knight, emerged slowly out of the glyph, it's tall, armoured, powerful form unfolding itself into the world, its sword gripped in one hand. It rose to its full height, dwarfing even the beringel, and looked down at Weiss expectantly.

Weiss' lip trembled as she looked up at her saviour, the answer to her prayer. Then she glared furiously at the beringel as she swung her sword above her head, and as she swung the knight mirrored her action and sliced the beringel cleanly in half.

Even before it had turned to smoke Weiss had rushed to Flash's side, Myrtenaster clattering on the ground as she knelt down beside him. He was in a bad way, his face was pale and his leg…oh, gods, his leg looked barely attached to his body, utterly pulverised, a bleeding back of water flopping by the barest attachment of skin to the rest of his body.

"Flash," Weiss cried. "Flash, can you hear me? You…you have to stay awake, okay? You have to stay with me…oh god. Twenty glyphs and not one of them for healing how ridiculous is that."

Flash groaned, and his eyes fluttered, and he looked as though he might pass out.

"No!" Weiss yelled. "No, Flash, you have to stay awake. Stay with me. I…you have to stay with me, okay. Cardin, can you move?"

Cardin groaned, but he managed to get to his feet even as he was clutching his shoulder. "Yeah."

"Good," Weiss said. She glanced up at her knight. "Carry him," she said. "Gently. Hang on, Flash, I'm going to get you to help. Just hold on."

* * *

Everything was destroyed. That was what Pyrrha noticed as they fought their way through the dorm rooms, the way that the grimm seemed to have gone out of their way to destroy and vandalise everything about the place, from the ursa they caught in the kitchen eating all of Nora's syrup and honey to the one that they found in their dorm room, tearing up the place. It wasn't what Pyrrha had expected, she knew that the grimm could attack human works as well as humans themselves, but what she had seen at Mountain Glenn – where the structures of the city had been left intact once the city's inhabitants had been slain or driven out – had suggested that they were not driven by a destructive intent in that way once the primary targets of their intent were absent. But here, in the dorms, it was as though they wished to not only take Beacon or attack those who were at Beacon but to snuff out all that Beacon had represented to so many people, Pyrrha included: family, community, happiness, belonging. The ursa they found and slew in their room had torn Sunset's stuffed alicorn to shreds, the severed head staring forlornly up at the sky as the grimm moved on to chewing on one of the two relics that they had brought back out of the Emerald Forest during initiation; Sunset had said that they should keep them as trophies of their first successful mission, but the ursa had almost finished biting one of them into ruin before they killed it.

And in the course of killing it they smashed it through the wall, shattering the letters of Teams SAPR and STRQ that had been carved into the plaster by themselves and by Ruby's parents many years before.

It was as if the intent of the grimm was to taint and tarnish all that had made Beacon so wonderful to Pyrrha and to those like her who had come to this shining light looking for a new start, a new home, a second family. It was as if they wanted to take all joy out of the world.

Even if Team SAPR as it had been was no more, couldn't they have kept the marks they had made in memory of when it had been something wonderful?

The beds were torn to pieces, belongings rifled through, eaten, chewed on, strewn all over the floor; the team photo – the one that included Blake from the time when she had been the honorary fifth member of their team – had been ripped out of its frame and ripped apart. You couldn't see Sunset's face any more. It felt so petty in its cruelty, and yet it filled her with a deep sadness.

The only thing that the grimm had not destroyed was the Merlot android gun that Ruby had brought back. She handed it to Jaune, "You should take this, I've taken the safety off so all you have to do is pull the trigger."

Jaune hefted the unfamiliar weapon. "You really think I should take it?"

Ruby shrugged. "It's a big gun with a grenade launcher built in. I mean it can't hurt, right?"

Jaune kept the weapon, but didn't use it as they fought their way through the dorm rooms, slaying any grimm they came across along the way, until they had cleared the entire building and headed out onto the grounds, joining the other teams – but not Team WSTW, whom Pyrrha couldn't see, heading out to join the fighting in the fairgrounds. YRBN – minus Blake of course – were in the thick of it, and the defenders were holding their own, but it seemed that those grimm who had outflanked the defenders to enter the school had been fewer in number than the main force, which continued to press the defence amidst the shattered remnants of fairground stalls long since smashed to ruins by the fighting. More ursai seemed to continuously crawl up the cliffs, more griffons swooped down upon them from above, and even when they all joined together it seemed that they were making no headway against the grimm, holding them off but not pushing them back.

And then Professor Ozpin arrived on the field.

* * *

Ozpin stood on the stage in the amphitheatre, back bent, head bowed, hands resting upon his cane as it took his weight. He was alone, and surprised to be alone.

It was not the dearth of human company that surprised him, for they were all either gone, or fighting out there somewhere on the grounds. No, it was the fact that the grimm were also leaving him alone. He would have thought that his despair would have drawn a horde of them by now.

His students and his staff, Glynda, Miss Nikos, Mister Arc and Miss Rose; Summer's girls and all the rest, they were out there somewhere, fighting in the fairgrounds or the courtyard. But he was here, frozen to this spot as though his legs had been encased in ice dust. Unable to move, unable to fight, unable to do anything but sit here, sunk in his despair.

"Why do they fight?" Raven asked, from where she leaned casually against the wall below the stage. "You can fight as hard as you want but it will only get you killed in the end. The brave perish, and the smart run; so give up on all the idiots out there fighting. The smart ones have gotten out already."

She wasn't really here, of course; he knew that. Raven was…well, he didn't know exactly where she was but she was not here. She had done what she had called the smart thing, and left all this behind long ago. That was why he was seeing her here, one of his great disappointments, his failures…come to chide him now as the greatest failure descended upon him.

"Yes," Ozpin whispered. "You were wise to leave me, as others are wise to have left me now. You were wise, and so you escaped Summer's fate." Even when he brought whole teams into his confidence, there were usually some he valued more than others, some he found it easier to connect with than others, some whom fate had it he spent more time with and thus formed something of a closer bond with than the rest. For Team SAPR it was – or it had been, at least – Sunset and Pyrrha; for Team STRQ it had been Summer and Raven.

Summer and Raven. The wise one had fled…and Summer had perished.

"So that's it?" Summer asked, appearing on the other side of the room from Raven. Her face was hidden behind the hood of her white cloak, but she threw back said hood after a moment to let him see her face, frozen in perpetual youth, her silver eyes still gleaming brightly with hope. She would not grow old, as those who were left grew old; she would never see her daughters grow old either. He looked at her, and where he had once felt joy now he felt such a crushing sense of failure.

And yet…the sight of her still stirred something else within him. Something…hopeful? The memory of the hope that Summer had always carried in her heart, even to the end? He could not exactly put a name to it, but Summer was not speaking these words, of course, only his own imagination wearing Summer's face, bearing his form, speaking to himself. "Was that all it is? I died because I was a fool, because I wasn't as wise as Raven, because I didn't get out while I had the chance."

"Is that not the sum of it?" Raven asked. "I left and I live. You stayed and you died. What else is there to say?"

"I died for something," Summer retorted. "What are you living for right now?"

Raven was silent. "At least I am alive," she muttered, and even Ozpin recognised the weakness of the response.

"Professor, please," Summer said, turning her attention away from Raven and back towards Ozpin himself. "This isn't the time to give up hope."

Raven snorted. "Grimm are overrunning Beacon, Vale is under assault, the Fall Maiden has betrayed you and joined Salem, where is this light of hope?"

"All around us," Summer said firmly. "Ruby and Yang are out there fighting, everyone is out there fighting. Glynda, James, the soldiers, so many students are out there fighting for what they believe to be right, honouring the ideals of what it means to be a huntsmen, the ideals that _you_ taught them, Professor. Is that not cause for hope? If you cannot draw strength from the courage of the new generation as they prove themselves as valiant as you have any right to expect then what can you draw it from?"

"I have never doubted the courage of the new generation," Ozpin murmured. "But to what end? You were brave." He looked into her eyes, but could only do so for a moment before the shame of it made him look away. "And your courage cost you everything."

"Everything?" Summer asked.

"If you had not come to Beacon-"

"Then I would have had nothing, however long I lived," Summer said. "What Beacon gave me, Professor, what _you_ gave me: laughter, adventure, fun; good friends, a man to love, two wonderful girls…my life was cut short, but it was so wonderful while it lasted and all because of Beacon."

"Beacon," Raven said. "Not you. Summer would have had all those things had you left Team Stark alone to enjoy our four years in peace. And who knows, if you'd managed to do that then I might not have returned to the Branwen tribe. I didn't want to. I only did it because you left me with nowhere else to go."

"You ruin lives," Amber said, appearing straight ahead of him, between Raven and Summer, looking right at him, her face bearing the scars that Cinder had inflicted on her. "You dragged me away from the one place I was happy and made me a soldier in your war, even though that was the last thing that I wanted. Because you can't help yourself, can you? You see these talented children, and even though they are just children you can't help but pull them into your fight, no matter the cost."

"And what might the cost be if you did not act?" Pyrrha demanded. She stood upright and proud, half-turned so that she was facing both Amber and Ozpin himself. Her back was straight, and the light in the amphitheatre glimmered off the circlet she wore upon her brow. She did not look as though she had just come from the battlefield, and of course she had not, the real Pyrrha Nikos was still out there fighting, but when he looked at her he felt as though he was looking at someone come from the field to bring him thence, or shame him with the fact that he was not there. "Did we not willingly agree to serve you, Professor, knowing the risks but knowing too the cause in which you asked us to serve?"

"You put my life in danger," Amber said.

"For the sake of all life in Remnant," Pyrrha said.

"I was hunted down because of what you did to me," Amber said. "You bring misfortune upon everyone around you. You think that Qrow's semblance is to bring bad luck but the worst luck befalls those who associate with you! So much lost, so many innocent lives at risk, and all because of the perils that you have brought upon them! I think that you are the true stormcrow, and you know it too."

"And I think that you need to shut up," Sunset said. She had her hands shoved into her jacket pockets, and she walked towards the stage. "Seriously, you're giving me a headache." She kept on walking until she was at the very foot of the stage, looking up at Ozpin with those vivid green eyes of hers. "I asked you to look after my team-mates since I wasn't around to do it right now, or ever more."

Ozpin nodded. "I know you did."

"This wasn't exactly what I had in mind," Sunset said.

"What matter if he sits in here and mopes or goes out to fight," Raven said. "Death and defeat-"

Sunset took one hand out of her pocket and waved it dismissively, and in an instant Raven and Amber alike both disappeared like puffs of smoke blown away by a stiff wind. Sunset looked at her hand. "I kind of wish I could do that all the time."

"Professor," Pyrrha said. "Please. We need your help outside."

"I cannot help you, Pyrrha," Ozpin said. "Amber may be gone, but she was not wrong. I only bring pain and misfortune to all those I touch."

"Amber's a coward and a traitor," Sunset said. "Why would you listen to her when you could listen to us instead?"

"Listen to you? And what would you say to me?" Ozpin said. "I was willing to sacrifice Pyrrha's life to gain a Fall Maiden, because of her involvement in my machinations Sunset is facing the death penalty. Why would you have anything but scorn for me?"

"Because you're not always such a bad judge of character as you think," Summer said, a mischievous smile playing across her face. "You choose your students well at least as often as you choose them badly. For every Raven there is a Summer, and for every Amber there are Pyrrha and Sunset."

"You did not force me to give up my life," Pyrrha said. "You asked me to take a step, a grave step, one requiring courage…and if it was a hard step to refuse…that only proves how necessary it seemed for somebody to take it. But now it is time for you to take a step, Professor. Step out of this room, step out of the shadow of your mistakes and step onto the battlefield once more. I, Ruby, Jaune, we're all fighting; for honour's sake I beg you to fight beside us, as you fought beside Summer the last time Vale was in jeopardy."

"We all know that story," Sunset said. "How you were the one who rallied the defenders, how you held off the grimm almost single-handed, how you were the hero of Vale that day. Well Vale needs a hero again tonight, and so does Beacon; are you really going to let everyone say that when the next great crisis broke you were too sunk in old age and indolence to answer the call? Is that how the story of Ozpin ends? Or does it end with the old hero recovering his former glory one last time?"

Ozpin shook his head. "This is not a story, Sunset."

Sunset leapt up onto the stage beside him. "Of course it is, Professor. The story of a girl who never learned how to love, so that when she found love she loved not wisely at first but too well, storing up a price to be paid when she learned better. The story of a hero without either cause to fight for or comrades to fight who found both. The story of a home you made and opened up to all the lost girls of Remnant where they could find something to fill the emptiness within their hearts. The story of everyone whose life you've touched for the better. Like I told you: you didn't teach me much, but you made it possible for me to learn all the things that really mattered, and for that I will always be grateful."

"You have taught us so much, Professor," Pyrrha said. "You've opened our eyes to so many things. Now teach us what it was like to see you in your prime."

"Make this your story again, for just a little while," Sunset said.

Ozpin blinked, and he looked past Sunset and Pyrrha towards someone whom he did not recognise: a boy, with olive skin and a wild tangle of black hair dressed like a common farmhand. The boy said nothing, but watched him in silence, his expression inscrutable.

Ozpin smiled. "Thank you, Summer. Thank you Sunset, and you Pyrrha. You…my students have always taught me as much as I have taught and the two of you are no exception. I am…very glad that I chose to place my trust in you." He straightened his back. "Very well. One last time."

* * *

It was a revelation.

Pyrrha had known of Professor Ozpin's great deeds done in the past – his reputation was just one of the things that made Beacon stand out above all other academies – but she had resigned herself to the fact that she would never see them or their like with her own eyes, would never see such prowess herself. She had resigned herself to that, and come to respect the headmaster instead for his wisdom, for his role as the lynchpin of the defence of Remnant against the hidden powers of darkness, for the great burden that he bore without complaint.

But now, as he strode out onto the battlefield to join them, she saw that other Ozpin that she had thought to never see and it was glorious.

The press of fighters holding back the grimm parted for him like the sea parting before some ancient god of Mistralian myth. The grimm shrank back in fear as if they could sense death in his aura. There seemed to be a kind of green glow about him, and just looking at it made Pyrrha's weariness fall away, giving her strength and courage both alike in equal measure.

He strode forward, seeming perfectly calm, and squared off against the largest ursa that Pyrrha had ever seen or read about in any book.

And Ozpin killed it with a single blow so swift that Pyrrha's eyes couldn't follow it.

He tore into the grimm, and with a great shout of exultation the students and the soldiers and the professors all followed him, their hearts renewed as they followed the old man who seemed to have shaken off all age and weariness and become the god of war who had won such renown in the days of his youth. It was all Pyrrha could do to remember to fight herself and not keep her eyes focussed upon Ozpin as he slew his thousands and ten thousands, slicing through the grimm as though they were chaff though he was armed only with his walking cane. It was all she could do not to let herself be captivated by the sight, for she knew that she would not see a sight such as this again in her lifetime. But she did tear her eyes await and fight, for with Ozpin leading them how could she not fight?

And with Professor Ozpin to lead them what had seemed to be an unending and insurmountable force of grimm disintegrated at their slightest touch, and soon there was not a single grimm left alive anywhere on the grounds or in the skies above the school.

Yang emptied out her gauntlets, letting the spent cartridges drop to the ground at her feet. "Nice of you to show up, Professor."

"That was incredible!" Ruby cried.

Professor Ozpin did not acknowledge either of them, or any of the other congratulations pressed upon him by either the students or the faculty. He kept his back to everyone, and walked across the ruins of the fairgrounds in the direction of Beacon cliffs, looking out across the Emerald Forest in the night.

Pyrrha followed, as close as she dared, "Professor-" she began.

"The battle for Beacon appears to be over, for now," Professor Ozpin said. "But the battle of Vale is just beginning and your presence, P- Miss Nikos, has already been requested by Commander Yeoh." He glanced at her over his shoulder. "I would ask you to say, but I know that you would politely decline."

Pyrrha nodded. "I understand, Professor, but I cannot turn my back on my people. And beside, with the attack defeated, the vault is safe…isn't it?"

Professor Ozpin hesitated for a moment. "It appears so, for now. In any case, you must do what your own sense of duty demands. I could not ask you to transgress against that which makes you so very…against that which makes you you."

"Thank you, Professor," Pyrrha said, with the sense that she had just been given a great compliment even if it had not exactly been expressed in words. She looked away, at Beacon and all the damage it had sustained. "How long will it take to undo all of this?"

"Walls can be rebuilt, even whole buildings," Professor Ozpin replied. "So long as the spirit that made them what they are endures. So long as the community that makes Beacon extraordinary endures the light will always shine again."

"I hope so," Pyrrha murmured. "Professor…will you join us on the outskirts of the city."

"I cannot," Professor Ozpin replied. "You must go out and fight, that is your duty. I must remain and guard the Vault of the Fall Maiden, that is mine."

"I…I understand," Pyrrha said, hiding her disappointment. "Then goodbye, for now, Professor. Until the battle is over."

"Until we meet again, Miss Nikos," Professor Ozpin said, with a melancholy in his voice that Pyrrha could not understand, nor had time to try and comprehend as she made her way back to rejoin the others.

"I take it you're going to fight with the Mistralians?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Yes," Pyrrha said. "And you for Atlas?"

"Obviously," Rainbow said. She thrust out her hand. "Looks like it's goodbye for a little bit. See you on the other side."

Pyrrha took her hand. "Without a doubt. We will all see one another, when this is done."

"Without a doubt," Penny agreed.

Yang grinned. "You three mind some company on the Mistralian lines? It's either them or Atlas and, well, the Atlesian line doesn't have you guys fighting on it."

"The more the merrier," Ruby said.

"Great," Yang said. "I'll get my bike."

"I'm sure an airship will come pick us up," Pyrrha said.

"Yeah, but we might have to move quickly or something; Bumblebee might come in handy, and you know what they say about rather have something and not need it," Yang said.

"Pyrrha," Weiss said, as she made her way to join their group. She looked hesitant, and sounded it too. She looked almost ashamed, although Pyrrha didn't know what she had to be ashamed of. There was no sign of either Flash or Carden. Weiss looked down at her balled up hands. "I…I'd like to join you and your team, if I may. Your team is a man down, and my team…is just me. It makes sense to combine our forces."

"Your team…Weiss, what happened?" Ruby asked. "What happened to Cardin and Flash? Are they-"

"Wounded," Weiss said, which was better than it could have been but bad enough. "A beringel, it…" she looked as though she might start crying. "Flash…his leg…"

"It's okay," Ruby began.

"No, it's not okay!" Weiss snapped. "Flash is going to lose his leg because of me! Russell wouldn't even fight because of me! If I hadn't been such a terrible team leader then maybe some of my team-mates would still be standing and in this battle!"

Ruby took a step back, her eyes wide. Weiss looked away.

"I'm sorry," she said softly. "It's not your fault, but mine. But I…please. I've been a terrible leader but I'm a better than fair huntress and you could use a fourth person on your team. Please, I need to see this through for the sake of my team-mates."

Pyrrha glanced at Jaune and Ruby, who both nodded their assent. "Of course," she said. "We would be honoured to fight alongside you."

Weiss let out a long breath. "Thank you. I won't let you down as…I won't let you down."

And so the pride of Atlas and the best of Beacon went their separate ways, each to their own battlefield.

Much more hard fighting would await them all before the night was out.


	180. Trump Card

Trump Card

The city of Vale stank with fear. Even Amber could sense it, while Sonata – who was stood on the rooftop beside her, softly crooning something beneath her breath that seemed to be making tendrils of green energy flow out of the gem around her neck; Amber flinched from those tendrils in fear, understanding not exactly what they were but only that she wanted to stay well away from them – seemed to be drinking it in with gleeful delight.

The screens that had been erected all over the city to show the Vytal Festival were still working, but now showed news reports of the battle going on at the outskirts of the city; or at least hey tried to. As Amber watched, a VNN bullhead that had been flying close to the Mistralian lines to catch a glimpse of the action there was destroyed as a nevermore swooped down upon it; the camera caught the grimm descending, and the feed was not quite cut in time to miss the beginning of the field correspondent screaming in terror as the creature began to devour him.

They cut to a woman in a safe room, or at least a safer room because there was no safe place in Vale right now, and in any case the woman in that safer room looked as frightened as Amber had felt every passing moment since Sunset had woken her up. Amber couldn't hear what she was saying, but whatever it was – was she admitting to how afraid she was, or trying to conjure with a hope that was extinguished in her own heart – but it didn't seem to be reassuring those gathered around the screens hoping for news.

There were no grimm in the city, but Amber could see that the mere fact of them being at the gates had set panic to work throughout all of Vale. On this day humanity had received a grim reminder that they lived in fear of the grimm, and there seemed precious little confidence in the ability of the armies of Atlas or Mistral to hold the line, in the prowess of the huntsmen to defend the city.

Where they fighting, out there? Amber's eyes turned away from the streets and the frightened people seeking shelter down below, scurrying back and forth between the high buildings; she looked out to the northern edge of the city, to where the sky was filled with fire, just like her dreams: flashes in the sky, and flashes on the ground where men fought monsters. The warships were firing in directions, things were exploding in the night like deadly fireworks, some of the ships were exploding or crashing to the ground in enormous bursts of fire. So much fire lighting up the darkness, and still the darkness kept on coming.

She couldn't tell who was winning…she wasn't even sure who she wanted to win, but…but she hadn't wanted this. This hadn't been what she intended.

Amber clutched her hands together and bent inwards, bending her shoulders in on herself. She hadn't wanted this. She'd wanted to be free, not…not this.

She wondered if they were fighting right now: Pyrrha, Jaune, Ruby…not Sunset. Sunset had…Amber didn't really understand what it was that Sunset had done, except that they were going to execute her for it. That was why she'd run, that was why she'd had no choice but to join Salem: Ozpin couldn't keep anybody safe, and nobody else even wanted to try. They made you a part of this war whether you wanted to be or not, they made you fight, and then when you were of no more use to them they killed you. It was what they'd done to her mother, what they would have done to her if she'd given them the chance…and now they were doing it to Sunset too. It was almost enough to make her think that Vale deserved to fall for treating those it forced to be its defenders in such a way.

Almost, but not quite. Ozpin deserved this, but not the others; not the ones who had no idea what was going on. Not the ones who were just his pawns, not Ruby or Pyrrha or Jaune. Where they fighting? Probably, they were brave enough and foolish enough to fight in spite of the fact that Ozpin didn't deserve their loyalty and would only betray them in the end; they would fight even though there was nothing to fight for. They would fight and they…they might die. They might die just as they might have died for her quite willingly. And that made Amber feel…guilty.

 _There was no way to save them. They wouldn't have given up the fight even if I'd asked them too._

But still, she felt guilty.

"I never wanted this," she whispered.

"Huh?" Sonata asked, turning towards her. The others were looking at her too, Tempest Shadow and Lightning Dust; they felt almost as much like gaolers as Team SAPR had, gaolers set by Salem instead of Ozpin; the only difference was that they were going to let her go once she'd done what they wanted.

"Did you say something, Amber?" Sonata said, in a high-pitched and chirrupy voice.

Amber shivered. "I never wanted this. I wanted to be free, not…not all of this."

"Me too!" Sonata said, walking across the edge of the rooftop – she was balanced right on the edge, so that she would have fallen with the slightest misstep, and yet she moved so fluidly and with such grace that it was impossible to imagine that she might actually fall – towards Amber, putting one arm around her neck and pulling her into a hug. "That's all I want, freedom for me and my sisters. Do you think that I enjoy having to do all of this? I just want to fight with Aria and leave all the other stuff to Adagio but they're not here so I have to do everything." She pulled a face. "I know it's rough, but look on the bright side: soon we're both going to get everything that we want."

"Everything that we want," Amber repeated softly, because she wouldn't get everything that she wanted. She would be free, but she would be alone; she wanted Dove, she wanted her friends, she-

Tempest turned around with a hiss, her metal staff extending in her hand as she stepped into a combative stance. "Someone's coming."

Lightning flickered in the hand of Lightning Dust, as Amber heard footsteps coming up the fire escape on the other side of the building.

"Amber?" Dove asked, as he climbed up onto the roof.

"Dove!" Amber cried, as she freed herself from Sonata's embrace and ran across the roof towards him. He ran towards her, and for a moment it was possible to forget the grimm, forget the battle, forget what she had done and what bargain she had made, forget everything except that he was here. And as the reached each other, and Dove folded his arms around her, Amber felt safe for the first time since her secret had come out aboard the Atlesian warship; truly safe and truly protected in the arms of a man who truly cared about her.

"You found me," she whispered.

"Did you ever doubt I would?" Dove replied, as he kissed her. She swooned in his arms, melting into his embrace as his kiss took her breath away. Even when the kiss stopped she hung in his grasp, gasping for breath, her bosom heaving and her heart hammering furiously within her chest.

"I will always find you," Dove said, his eyes smouldering with love for her.

"I know."

"You're my destiny."

"And you're mine," Amber said. The sounds of more footsteps coming up the fire escape alerted her to the arrival of the other members of Team BLBL. "My friends."

"Hey, Amber," Lyra said, giving her a little wave. "It's good to see you again. We were so worried about you after everything that's happened, everything that they said-"

"All lies," Amber said quickly, because she could imagine the kind of things that they were saying about her; the same kind of things that they were saying about Sunset; they were two of a kind, she and Sunset, both used and thrown away the moment they were no longer useful. She wondered for a moment if Sunset might agree to come with her, and help protect her and keep her safe…but she couldn't be sure that she would, and she doubted that Sonata and Tempest would agree to let her ask. "It's not true, what they said about me."

"Of course not," Bon Bon said. "How could we believe a man who would use you the way that Ozpin has sought to use you."

"How did you all get away?" Amber asked.

"We just left," Dove said. "When the attack on Beacon started we got on a ship and it took us away."

"You weren't followed?" Tempest demanded.

Dove looked at her. "No."

"Are you sure?" Tempest asked sceptically.

"I don't think we were," Sky volunteered.

"You don't think so," Tempest repeated, rolling her eyes.

"I'll go and make sure," Lightning said, stalking across the roof and pushing Sky out of the way before descending rapidly down the fire escape.

Dove looked back at Amber, and brushed some of her hair out of her face before bending down to rest his forehead upon hers. "I've missed you. I've missed you every moment since you went away."

"I know," Amber said. She closed her eyes. "But we won't ever have to be apart again, not now, not ever."

"What happens now?" Dove asked. "Where do we go?"

"We wait," Tempest said.

"Really?" Sonata cried. "More waiting? Come on, when does stuff actually start to happen?"

"Not yet," Tempest said patiently.

"But hasn't everybody left Beacon already?" Sonata said. "Wasn't that the point? Everyone who didn't want to fight ran away when the grimm attacked, right? And then once they beat the grimm everybody who did want to fight went off to fight somewhere else, didn't we seem them flying away?"

Tempest nodded. "But we have to make sure that they can't just come back to stop us once we get there. Before we move, we have to wait for the battle to develop a little more. We have to wait for everybody to get sucked in, and when they've spent their strength on the front lines…that's when we make our move."

* * *

"I have to go," Sky said.

"Why?" River asked anxiously.

"Why?" Sky repeated incredulously. She gestured to the TV, that was now showing images of battle on the outskirts of Vale, or else was being forced to cut away from them as a monster pounced on the camera crew. "That's why. Panic…it brings those things, right?"

Dad nodded slowly. "Yeah. Negative emotion draws them in."

"I thought so," Sky said softly. After her brush with that one that had almost killed her she had decided to find out a little more about them; a little more about what Jaune was up against. Thinking about Jaune in the middle of all this was hard – this was exactly why she had wanted him to come home – but she couldn't avoid it. "I…we don't want them showing up here too, so I'm going to knock on some doors and make sure that everyone keeps calm and understands that there's no need to panic."

"I'll go with you," Rouge said, although Sky was almost certain that she was really going out to make sure that, if any of those monsters did show up, she'd deal with them with the magic powers that she apparently had and was still keeping secret from the rest of the family.

Nevertheless for the sake of that secret Sky went along with the lie. "I'd be glad of the company."

She would also be glad to tear herself away from the TV; watching that footage wasn't doing her own sense of panic and uncertainty any favours at all, and yet without something important to do instead it was hard to stop watching. She didn't blame the others for being transfixed as they were. It was only her having a job that was stopping her from going the same way.

Kendal's scroll rang. "Saphron?"

"Guys, are you watching this?" Saphron said, her voice emerging from out of the scroll.

"Yes," Kendal said. "We're all watching, right now anyway."

"It's…it's terrible, isn't it?" Saphron murmured. "Is…Dad, what's going to happen?"

"I don't know, sweetie," Dad said. "But everyone looks as though they're fighting pretty hard."

"Do you think Jaune's fighting?" Saphron asked anxiously.

Dad nodded. "The man that he's become…I don't think there's any doubt."

"And Pyrrha, too," Terra murmured from the other end of the line.

"Will they be okay?" River asked. "Will everything be okay?"

"Saphron, how are things in Argus?" Dad asked.

"We've put Adrian to bed," Terra replied. "He's too young to really understand but anyway…he doesn't need to see this."

"The Atlesian military base has gone on alert," Saphron said. "Out the window we can see the airships taking off, and there are soldiers manning the wall."

"They're taking precautions unless you draw the grimm," Dad said. "That's good. Listen, Saphron, Terra, try not to panic. You won't help Jaune or anybody else and you might make things worse for yourselves."

"How are we supposed to not panic, Dad?" Saphron said. "Vale's under attack and Jaune's in the middle of it all."

"I didn't say it was easy," Dad said. "But you have to try anyway."

"My baby," Mom whimpered. "Are you sure we shouldn't try to call him?"

"He's in the middle of a battle, he doesn't need the distraction," Dad said. "When the battle is over, as soon as the battle is over, then we'll call him. Until then…we've just got to believe in him."

* * *

An Atlesian soldier shrieked in pain as a creep emerged from beneath him to grab hold of his leg, biting into it below the knee as it tried to drag him away. Rainbow Dash kicked it in the head, making it let go of the guy, before she shot it with one of her machine pistols.

"Medic," Ciel yelled above the din of the battle. Another creep burst out of the ground not far away, she pulled out her pistol – she was stronger than she looked, but even she looked a little strained holding Distant Thunder up with just one arm – and blew its head off with two clean shots without even having to look. "We need a medic over here."

Penny stood still in the middle of the trench, her eyes closed.

"Penny!" Rainbow yelled. "What are you-"

Penny's eyes snapped open and she turned around, facing the alpha creep that emerged out of the earth right in front of her and just in time to take three laser blasts to the face.

"I was listening to the vibrations," Penny explained. "Twilight told me that, although no human had ears that sharp, I should be able to sense the approach of the creeps through the earth."

"Uh, right," Rainbow muttered. "Just try not to look as though you're falling asleep next time, okay? People might get the wrong idea."

"Like you?"

Rainbow grinned sheepishly. "Sorry. It just…" A beowolf leapt over the barbed wire, but Rainbow emptied her pistols into it, killing it as it flew through the air so that its ashes were carried forward by the momentum of its leap. "Ah, forget it."

"We need a medic!" Ciel snapped. "We've got a wounded man here! It's about time!" she yelled as a couple of men in the bleached white uniforms – they wore no armour, which took a lot of guts in Rainbow's opinion – carrying a stretcher ran up through the trench. They loaded the soldier injured by the creep up onto their stretcher and then carried him away to one of the triage stations, where the ones who could be treated in the field – like that poor guy – would be and the ones who were more seriously hurt would be airlifted to one of the hospitals in Vale that had already been prepped to receive Altesian casualties.

Nobody was getting airlifted to any of the cruisers during this battle, not with every warship bar the flagship needed on the line. How badly would it suck to get taken to sickbay aboard a cruiser and then die when the ship was lost?

Rainbow was reminded of just how poor the taste of that thought was when the _Glorious_ exploded in the air above, lighting up the whole night in a brief flare that burned as brightly as the sun. The fire from the warship burned away the dark and burned away the grimm too, all the nevermores who had flocked around it, who had perched on the deck, who had torn at the armour plating with their beaks and claws, and all the griffons who had burst through the windows to get onto the bridge or else rent the plate apart from breach the hull and rampage through the ship itself. They were all gone with the _Glorious_ , turned to ashes by the fire of her destruction, but it wasn't much of a trade-off. The grimm seemed to come from out of nowhere, but it took more than a year to build a ship and as for all the troops on board…

"If we prevail then their sacrifice will be worth it," Ciel said. "For the salvation of Vale any price will be worth paying."

Rainbow nodded sullenly. "For the salvation of Vale, huh?"

"Indeed," Ciel said. "So we had best make sure that we save it, no?"

Rainbow nodded again, more firmly this time. "Count on it." She reloaded her pistols, and looked over the top of the trench to see the next wave of grimm bearing down on them.

The Atlesian line spat fire. The crumbling and half-completed walls, the trenches, the bunkers, all the defences that marked Vale's Green Line were packed with Atlesian troops and androids, standing shoulder to shoulder with rifles ready, bullets erupting from their barrels of their guns as the order to fire at will stood across the line until further notice. Paladins stood in the wider parts of the trench or just behind them, giants amongst the men who stood at their feet, guns blazing and missiles flying from the shoulder-launchers. And it wasn't only paladins spread out across the line either, there were Specialists like Winter Schnee, although when they weren't wearing the whites but their own outfits it was hard to tell sometimes who were the actual specialists and who were the student huntsmen like Team RSPT. Did it really matter at a time like this? They were just as good at killing grimm, as their unique weapons spat death at the tide of monsters on the other side of the line, adding their fire to the rifles and the cannons and the guns of the defences that Vale had built without bothering to man them properly (and what was the point of that?).

Skygraspers swooped down from the sky, tracer rounds leaping from the barrels of their rotary cannons as they strafed the grimm horde, missiles flying from beneath their wings to explode on the ground. Cruisers sailed over the battle line to drop mortar bombs on the grimm as they charged, while lasers and missiles and point defence cannons fired in all directions to keep – try to keep, as the _Glorious_ had found out – the flying grimm at bay. More Skygraspers chased nevemores and griffons, or were chased by them. Rainbow saw a Wonderbolt with three nevermores on their tail, before two more members of the squadron swooped in from behind to nail all three of them before going on to hit a group of ursai with missile fire.

The grimm kept coming, but they never came very far. Hardly any of them survived the fire from the line or the air, and the ones who did got shot as they tried to get over the wall or the barbed wire, or just when they got in the trench and found a huntsman waiting for them as well as just regular soldiers.

The grimm kept coming, but Atlas was holding its own. Atlas was holding its own very well. Even the creeps who kept on popping up from underneath the ground, although they were annoying – and worse than annoying, they were probably the most dangerous thing the grimm were doing right now – weren't about to break the line all by themselves.

Rainbow thought about what Ruby's drunk uncle had said, about the grimm not being scared of Atlas' ships and Atlas' weapons.

 _Well maybe they should have been, just like I told you._

"Rainbow Dash," Penny said. "Something's coming, and it feels too big to be a creep."

"Penny, do you-" Rainbow stopped as she felt the vibrations herself a moment later, a rumbling beneath the earth that soon had the ground beneath their feet shaking. "Definitely bigger than a creep," Rainbow said, holstering her machine pistols and pulling her shotgun over her shoulder. She unfurled her wings and rose a couple of feet above the ground, looking down, waiting.

The earth bulged beneath the trench, making the soldiers cry out in alarm as a paladin, its footing gone, toppled over onto its side.

"Twilight," Ciel said. "Move towards me, now."

Twilight, directly beneath the bulge in the earth, started to move but before she could take more than a couple of steps she was thrown forwards by the eruption from beneath the ground of a giant deathstalker, ripping itself free of the earth, gouging a hole in the trench as though a mine had gone off, its pincers snapping and its golden stinger gleaming on the end of its tail. The tail whooshed through the air as it thrust forward to impale an Atlesian soldier with its stinger, before it grabbed another with one of its claws and squeezed him in half.

Then it grabbed Twilight, its other claw scything out to grip her by the foot; her aura and her armour both held up, but Rainbow felt her heart freeze up in her chest as she watched the giant grimm pick Twilight up and lift her off the ground.

"Twilight!" Rainbow yelled, firing her shotgun; she might as well have been spitting at it for all the good she did.

Ciel fired, but Distant Thunder's round just ricocheted off the armour plating of the deathstalker, barely making a dent. Penny stepped forward, waving her arms in a wide arc as her blades swept out to slice off the deathstalker's stinger. As the stinger dropped so Penny leapt, rolling in the air before descending in a flying kick that drove the stinger through the armour and into the flesh of the grimm itself. As the deathstalker writhed in pain – dropping Twilight in the process, Ciel took her by the hand and pulled her away from it – Penny stood upon its carapace, her blades whirring before her as her laser charged.

A single blast eviscerated the grimm and scoured the earth beneath it.

"Twilight, are you okay?" Rainbow demanded as she landed on the ground again.

"I am," Twilight said. "Thanks, Penny."

"No problem," Penny said cheerily. "What are-" she was interrupted by the emergence of a whole horde of creeps, erupting out of the whole the deathskalker had made, snarling and roaring as they burst out of the darkness to assail the Atlesian forces.

Every man in that section of the trench turned to shoot at them, but before they died a few of them managed to get past the members of RSPT or any other huntsman and claim a few more Atlesian lives before they died, and by the sounds of it there's wasn't the only part of the line getting a visit from a deathstalker backed by a whole mob of creeps coming after.

But they had held, and they would keep holding; deathstalkers coming out of the ground was rough but it was still nothing they couldn't handle.

"Do you think this is happing where Sapphire is, too?" Penny asked.

Rainbow hesitated for a moment. "Honestly, Penny, they're probably having a harder time of it than we are," she said. "Those Mistralian soldiers aren't so good and neither are those Mistralian ships. But I'm sure that they'll be fine. They're good, you know how good they are. They'll make it work, so long as we make it work too."

Someone must have heard her saying that, because just as she spoke Twilight gasped, and pointed to the sky over Rainbow Dash's head, pointing to the east where the Mistralians held the line.

Rainbow turned to look, and her eyes widened behind her goggles as she beheld one of the Mistralians' big battleships on fire and descending bow first towards the ground.

* * *

Pyrrha didn't know the name of the ship. It wasn't the _Pride of Mistral_ , Commander Yeoh's flagship which, although much closer to the front line than Pyrrha suspected was the case with General Ironwood's flagship, was nevertheless not quite on the front lines. This was another of the three great battleships that Mistral had brought, at such slow speed and at such great expense, all the way from far off Mistral as part of a puppet show of upholding the honour of that puppet show.

But now the puppet show had turned into something all too real, and this great ship, the ship whose name she didn't know – and that oversight of ignorance on her part seemed like something greatly to regret now – was paying the price, as so many sons and daughters of Mistral had or would before this night or this battle was over.

Pyrrha had led her team up and down the Mistralian line, down the trench the marked the Green Line, past the half-complete fragments of wall, past the bunkers packed with Mistralian soldiers, past the turrets spitting fire, she had been to where the Mistralian section of the line ended and the Atlesian sector began and then she had come back again and she was forced to conclude that Mistral was holding on by its fingernails.

They were doing their best, everyone was doing their best, the tanks were firing over the heads of the infantry line, every weapon in the defences was being put to work, every rifle in the expeditionary force was on the line now that the security details for the arena and the fairgrounds had been flown in as reinforcements. Every student of Haven, and a good many of the Mistralian students from Beacon and Shade, and even their team-mates too, had joined the fighting; but still it felt as though they were barely holding their own, and so far it seemed as if only beowolves and ursai had been sent against them. But they were sent in such numbers, and the Mistralians lacked the sheer amount of firepower that the Atlesians could bring to bear – on the flank, where Winter Schnee was commanding the Atlesian forces, the Atlesians were angling their fire to partially cover the Mistralians closest to them, and thus the fighting was easiest there – and they were not stopping the grimm from reaching the trench line as often as they needed to. Pyrrha had ventured out into the ground beyond the line to hold them off, and so had other huntsmen, but they were not numerous enough and when the grimm did reach the line they were needed there for conscripts with sword bayonets or actual swords for the officers and NCOs that barely knew how to use them were not enough to stand against the ferocity even of an immature grimm.

When you spent all your time in a combat academy, learning to fight the grimm with aura and the finest customised and personalised weapons that money could buy at your disposal, surrounded by supremely talented and motivated people who, like you, were well equipped and trained to be finely honed weapons against the grimm then it was easy to stop taking beowolves or creeps particularly seriously. But when you looked into the eyes of a terrified young man about your own age whom you had just saved from a mauling at best you were reminded that for most people even beowolves were nightmares given physical form, and you were ashamed that you had ever forgotten.

They were holding the line, just about; three times so far the grimm had swarmed the defences in such numbers as to sweep the Mistralians away and three times Crescent Rose had gleamed as Ruby led the way in a series of desperate charges to drive the grimm back and restore the integrity of the defence. They, and the other young huntsmen and huntresses, were doing everything they could to make up for the deficiencies in the soldiers, boys and girls their age or barely older who shouldn't even have been there, and they were paying the price for it – Arslan's team-mate Reese, who had suspected Pyrrha of complicity with the Atlesians, was dead and she was not alone - but there were not enough of them to bear the whole burden by themselves.

The fact that this was a battle fought at night was making things even worse. It was bad enough that only faunus could see particularly well in the darkness, so that even Pyrrha and her team-mates were sometimes unsure as to what was a shadow and what was a grimm until it roared and jumped out at them – it was a great pity that Weiss didn't have a glyph for illumination, something she herself seemed to regret – but for the ordinary soldiers it was even worse, their fear seeming to be magnified by the darkness and with it the hazards they presented even to their own allies: another of Arslan's team-mates, Nadir, had been brought down by the fire of his own allies, shot by soldiers who had mistaken him for a grimm, wounded and carried off the field after they broke his aura with their panicked fire and didn't realise their mistake until he was bleeding in front of them. They were using flares and the like to try and light up the night, but it was insufficient, and it didn't stop her worrying that she was going to turn around and see that someone had shot Jaune or Ruby because they couldn't tell friend from foe in darkness.

And in the air it might be even worse…it was hard not to look up and feel that the Mistralian airships were simply outclassed by the grimm opposing them. It was the same with their ships, they had lost two cruisers already. And now one of their battleships was going down.

It seemed that the gallant captain was trying to move it out, past the Mistralian line, into the wilds beyond, but the vessel was moving so slowly that, for all that it was descending with equal ponderous sloth, as though it was taking a long time to decide whether or not it truly wished to fall, it was an open question whether he could clear the line or no. Fire billowed from every opening – both intentional opening and those the grimm had made – as the great ship burned from stem to stern. The guns in their immense turrets and barbettes that covered the hull on top and below had ceased to fire, and as the ship descended Pyrrha could see men leaping from the burning wreck and hoping that they were close enough to the ground to survive the fall – and the grimm who, heedless of their own lives, continued to swarm around the burning warship as it fell.

It struck the ground slowly, ponderously, the prow crumpling as it met the earth; the stern and the burning engine seemed to rise even as the ship as a whole fell, the back end elevating as the ship itself settled into an upright position.

Only then did it explode, and Pyrrha felt from a considerably distance the heat wash over her, and could only imagine how bad it must have been to be much closer. Flaming debris flew in all directions, two cataphracts were destroyed by being struck by enormous fragments that ripped them in two, men in the trench nearest the wreck cried out as the fire passed over them and the trench itself – bunkers and defences and all – was shattered by the explosion and the wreckage that tore through the line, leaving a burning wasteland marked with rubble where the line had been.

And out of the burning ruins came the grimm.

"Come on," Pyrrha cried, as she started to run towards the burning flames from which the monsters came a-creeping. She knew her team would follow, she didn't have to look back to confirm that they were right behind her, with her always through the midst of all trials.

Or racing ahead of her, in Ruby's case, as she burst into the lead in a shower of red rose petals.

"Ruby!" Weiss cried irately, as she used glyphs to speed herself along, letting herself slide across the ground like a figure skater across the ice. "Is she always this reckless?"

Pyrrha didn't reply, although Weiss seemed to take that as confirmation because she rolled her eyes and speed up even faster, zooming along her glyphs to catch up with Ruby.

"I'll be fine," Jaune said. "Go on, I'll catch up."

Pyrrha glanced back over her shoulder to nod gracefully to him, before she too quickened her pace. She didn't have glyphs or a speed semblance, but she did have long legs and she was no slouch when it came to running, which meant that she could almost catch up with the other two, although Ruby was still in the lead by some way.

And because she was in the lead she reached the wreckage first and became the first to confront the grimm amongst the flames, slicing two beowolves in half almost immediately before rolling to a halt and bringing Crescent Rose up to blow the head off a third. Weiss leapt from glyph to glyph to dive on top of an ursa and drive her blade into its head before discharging a burst of lightning from her rapier. Pyrrha threw her shield at an alpha beowolf as she ran, stunning it long enough for her to close the distance as she spun on her toe, bringing her spear around in a wide slashing arc before shooting it in the chest, staggering it backwards before she leapt up into the air, rolling as she delivered a series of slashes culminating in three more rounds – to the head this time – to put it down before she landed gracefully on the ground.

The grimm were silhouetted against the fires, their white bone and red markings indistinguishable as the bright light rendered them more black than usual. Pyrrha could feel the heat of the fires upon her skin through her aura. She was starting to sweat inside her gloves and was grateful that it wouldn't cause her weapons to slip in her hands. She could hear the cries of wounded men amongst the fires, either survivors of the ship – they must be incredibly fortunate – or those who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time when the ship crashed. Either way, they were – they had to be – their first priority.

"We drive back the grimm and gain space for the survivors to get out," she said.

"Understood," Ruby said.

Pyrrha nodded. She glanced at Jaune, who had caught up with them. "Go!" she said.

They charged into the midst of the burning wreckage. Pyrrha spotted a boarbatusk running straight towards her, but she reached out with her semblance and wrenched a shard of debris out of the earth and cut across the grimm's path, slicing the monster in two before she buried the metal in an ursa's chest. Weiss hung back to provide support for Ruby, laying down a series of glowing white glyphs for her to bounce off of as she rocketed around an ursa major until it she had brought it down with a sequence of slashing strokes. Jaune put the gun that Ruby had given him to good use as he unleashed a volley of fire upon a group of beowolves that had been about to pounce upon a couple of wounded soldiers. Pyrrha, by contrast, found an injured nevermore that had survived the blast and whose broken wing did not prevent it from crawling along the ground to get her. She waited for it to lunge forward before diving under its beak and driving Milo straight upwards into its throat.

Ruby reached one of the ruined turrets of the battleship, the metal a twisted lump but still rising higher than the flames like one of the turrets that defended the Green Line itself; she ran up it, rose petals like blood falling away behind her, and perched atop the bent and battered gun platform she rested Crescent Rose by the point upon the surface and began to open fire on all the grimm bearing down on them from without the fiery maelstrom in which they fought. Creeps leapt up out of the ground, but Weiss used her glyphs to keep in the air above them, only descending to strike with her rapier, and each strike was the death kneel for one of the subterranean grimm.

A deathstalker advanced through the flames, walking straight through the fire and taking no hurt from it. Pyrrha slung her shield onto her back and reached out with her semblance, her arm glowing black as she lifted up pieces of metal from all across the battlefield, pulling them out of the ground where the explosion had buried them before she hurled them all like spears against the deathstalker, seeking out the weaknesses in its armour plate with the shattered and sharpened armour plate of the Mistralian battleship, using stair rails and metal pins and bits of deck like knives and blades as she rammed them all into the gaps and joins where the monstrous grimm's armour was weakest, hurling metal at it to pierce its carapace until the creature dropped dead to the ground.

More grimm charged through the flames, perhaps sensing that this was the place to break the line of Mistral or else drawn by the pain and terror of the survivors. Team SAPR, and Weiss, fought to hold them back, with sword and spear and glyphs and rifle and every weapon at their disposal. As the grimm snapped at their auras other huntsmen came to their aid: Arslan and Bolin, the last remaining member of her team, Arslan was wielding both the guns of her fallen or incapacitated team-mates; Team CFVY of Beacon; Team JAMM of Haven, Team RSPT's first round opponents. Pyrrha would not deny that she was shocked at first when a horde of ghostly skeletons rose out of the ground to attack the grimm, swamping an ursa major beneath their tide, before she remembered that that was the semblance of Medea which had so discomfited their Atlesian friends. Commander Yeoh swooped in, running through the air – which must have been her semblance – to decapitate an alpha with a single stroke of the ancient blade Green Destiny. A group of soldiers swiftly arrived also, a company who soon began searching the wreckage for any survivors.

"We cannot hold them," Commander Yeoh declared, in a tone that suggested the words were being wrung from her under great duress.

Pyrrha breathed in a lungful of the hot, smoky air. "We have held them."

"Wherever you fight, we hold," Yeoh acknowledged. "Sometimes we do more than hold, the same could be said of some of the other heroes of this day. But wherever you are not, wherever we have no huntsmen, there we struggle, and we do not have enough huntsmen to bolster the whole line."

"If you request that the Atlesians-"

"No," Commander Yeoh said firmly. "We will fall back to the Red Line, where the defences are stronger and the line more compact. We will fall back and we will hold them there, without any assistance. It will be difficult, I will need you not only to hold the rearguard, but also to inspire the soldiers so that this is a retreat, not a rout."

"Of course, commander," Pyrrha said, wondering privately if it might not have been better to have stood upon the more compact, better fortified Red Line from the very beginning.

Commander Yeoh sheathed her sword – for the moment – and got out her scroll. "General Ironwood, I regret to inform you that my forces can no longer hold this line."

"I see," General Ironwood replied in a neutral tone. "How long can you give me before you start to withdraw?"

"Ten minutes."

"I only need five."

"Your arrogance would be frustrating, General, had I the energy to spare," Commander Yeoh muttered. "Five minutes then."

"I'll inform Specialist Schnee to keep a tight grip on your forces as we fall back," General Ironwood said. "Arm in arm, if we lose contact-"

"The grimm will enter the gap and wedge us apart, outflanking us both and defeating us in detail," Commander Yeoh said. "I am aware. Yeoh out." She ended one communication, and immediately began another. "This is Commander Yeoh to the _Pride of Mistral_ and the _Dingyuan_ ; ground forces are preparing to withdraw, use incendiary ammunition to ignite the ground in front of us and bar the way to the grimm."

"Yes, commander."

"Yeoh out," she said, folding up her scroll. "That will hold them for a little while."

"For a little while," Pyrrha agreed. "Not for long."

"No," Yeoh agreed. "Then it will be up to you once again."

"Yes, Commander," Pyrrha murmured. She bit her lip for a moment. "I wish that you would put aside your pride."

"My pride is Mistral's pride, Miss Nikos," Commander Yeoh replied. "Without it, our efforts here would be pointless."

Pyrrha did not, and could not, agree with that – there was nothing pointless about fighting to protect Vale and all the innocents who dwelled within it, pride or no pride, but before she could say another word she was interrupted by a great booming thud that split the sky, accompanied by a tremor that shook the earth so violently that she and Commander Yeoh both stumbled where they stood and Ruby lost her footing atop the wrecked turret and fell, fortunately into Weiss' arms.

"Wow, thanks Weiss."

"Just stand up already. What was that?"

"I don't know," Jaune said. "Do you think it was some kind of grimm?"

"How big a grimm would it have to be to cause a tremor like that?" Ruby asked.

* * *

With the battle at Beacon concluded, General Ironwood had returned to the _Valiant_ and now stood on the bridge, studying his maps of the unfolding battle.

"Patch me through to all units," he said.

"Aye, sir, patching you through."

"Attention all units," Ironwood said. "You have all fought well, but due to circumstances beyond our control it is now necessary to abandon the Green Line. Therefore, in five minutes time Withdrawal Plan 1 will go into effect: all ground units will fall back overland to the Red Line and establish your assigned positions there. Air units will provide cover for the retreat of the ground forces. I don't expect this to be easy, but I do expect that the courage and discipline that have served Atlas so well so far will continue to do so now. Prepare yourselves and be ready to move precisely on the mark. Schnee."

"Yes sir."

"It is imperative that we don't lose contact with the Mistralians as they fall back," Ironwood said. "Keep a tight grip on them. Arm in arm."

"Understood sir, arm in arm," Schnee said.

"Ironwood out," Ironwood said. "Put me through to Professor Ozpin."

"Aye aye, sir."  
"James," Ozpin said. "How goes it?"

"The Mistralians can't hold the Green Line, we're falling back to the Red."

"I'll inform the Council," Ozpin said.

"Are they doing anything?" Ironwood said. "Apart from worrying?"

"Police riot and tactical units are being deployed to the Red Line," Ozpin said. "There are some efforts being made to mobilise the National Guard, but it's doubtful that they will be ready in time."

"It has been left a little late."

"I would have disagreed with you, and did," Ozpin said. "I didn't want more soldiers on our streets. I thought…I thought that they were a greater threat to peace than the grimm beyond the borders."

"If a few things had gone differently you might have been right about that," Ironwood said, less because he believed it and more because they needed the old man at his best, not beating himself up about everything that had gone wrong recently.

"Whatever befalls I think we are coming to the end of the Vale that relied upon the Atlesian alliance exclusively for its protection," Ozpin said.

"That might not be a terrible thing," Ironwood said. "Atlas is willing to bear the burden but even we struggle to be everywhere."

"You know my views on armies, James, I think that-" Ozpin fell silent as warning alarms flashed on various screens across the CIC of the _Valiant_.

"What was that?" Ironwood demanded.

"Unknown, sir, we're picking up large scale seismic activity."

"Origin?"

"The mountain," Ozpin whispered. "It has awoken."

* * *

Gilda lowered the binoculars that the High Leader had temporarily loaned her. "They don't appear to be making much headway."

"You're focussing too much on the Atlesian line," Sienna Khan said, as she took the binoculars back. "The Mistralians are in real trouble."

"But if they get in too much trouble won't the Atlesians just take over," Gilda said. "Or is that the plan? To overstretch them?"

"No," Sienna said. "Not overstretch. To smash them."

"There's not a lot of sign of that," Gilda said. She hadn't been able to make out Rainbow Dash down amongst the lines, she couldn't see that much detail even with binoculars, but she had no doubt that her old friend was down there somewhere, fighting. She hoped that she was doing okay. She didn't want Dash to die.

"No, but the heaviest grimm forces have not yet been committed," Sienna said. "Only their…light troops, their most numerous and expendable forces have been sent in to assess the enemy strength. And even they are almost too much for Mistral. As for Atlas…I think our friends will be playing their trump card soon."

"Trump card?" Gilda said. She was nearly knocked off her feet as the ground shook beneath her. "What in the gods' name was that?"

"The trump card," Sienna observed.

* * *

The earth shook as cracks spread all along the mountain that sat to the south-east of Vale, looming over the derelict ruins of Mountain Glenn beneath. The cracks spread, as the earth shook, the stones crumbled and fell, until finally the entire peak of the mountain exploded outwards, showering dust and debris in all directions.

And out of the ruin the dragon rose, high up into the sky until its black frame was blocking out the moon as it spread its wings, casting its dark shadow across the whole of Vale.

It turned its baleful gaze on that embattled kingdom, and as it began to fly towards the scene of so much conflict, fear and panic, it opened its mouth, and it roared.


	181. Things Are Always Darkest Right Before A

Things Are Always Darkest Right Before a Hero Enters

Spitfire had been commander of the Wonderbolt squadron for five years, and she'd been flying planes for Atlas for twelve, and in all those years she'd seen a lot of things. But she had never seen anything quite like the truly enormous grimm – seriously, it was the size of a cruiser! – that was flying in over the wilds towards the city.

And towards the Atlesian forces.

As Spitfire's Skygrasper flew towards the immense grimm, the comms lit up with so much chatter that it was hard to keep track of what was being said and absolutely impossible to work out who was saying it or where – air, ground or warship – they were talking from.

"Oh my god."

"Look at the size of that thing!"

"What is that?"

"-never seen anything like it-"

"Is that a grimm? That's a grimm, right?"

"-don't know but it's stirring up the others real good."

"What do we do?"

"-the size of a gods d-"

"What are we supposed to-"

"How do we-"

"What should we-"

"-repeat, General Ironwood-"

"Cut the chatter!" General Ironwood's voice rose above the din, silencing all other voices. "You have your orders: infantry and ground support units will fall back by sections providing suppressing fire as you withdraw; cruisers will maintain defensive positions and lay down a bombardment to cover the retreat. Air units, you have your assignments. Spitfire."

"Yes sir," Spitfire said.

"Wonderbolt squadron is being re-tasked."

"I can't imagine why, sir."

"That grimm is being designated 'dragon'," Ironwood said. "Take it out."

"Aye aye, sir," Spitfire said. She reached up to the controls above her and switched to the squadron only channel. "Okay Wonderbolts, listen up: I know that this thing is big and I know that it's weird but we have seen plenty of weird and we've seen plenty of big and we are going to see this thing turn to dust before the night is out. I hope you've all got some missiles left because we are going hunting. All pilots form up on me. Acknowledge and give me a missile check."

"Copy that Spitfire, Soarin' is in the slot. Three missiles ready."

"Understood leader, Misty Fly falling into position. Four missiles ready."

"High Winds moving into position. Six missiles ready."

"Fleetfoot falling in. Eight missiles ready."

"Rapidfire assuming formation. Two missiles ready."

"Blaze in position. Five missiles ready."

"Surprise moving into place. Three missiles ready."

"Silver Zoom assuming position. I got one missile left, captain."

"Fire Streak ready with six missiles."

"Lightning Streak ready with five missiles."

"Sun Chaser in position, locked and loaded with seven missiles remaining."

Spitfire grinned as a quick glance out of her cockpit told her that the whole squadron was indeed in position, spread out to the left and to the right of her lead Skygrasper, in an arrowhead formation with herself at the tip. Sure, this grimm was big, maybe the biggest grimm that they'd ever come across, but as the dragon flew towards them, its red leather wings flapping ponderously in the air, and as the Wonderbolts flew towards it at a moderate speed, Spitfire felt her initial shock wearing off more and more with every passing moment. Sure it was big, but they were the best air combat squadron in the Atlesian forces and they'd taken out plenty of big grimm in the past.

They were the Wonderbolts, and this was just another day in the office.

"Fleetfoot," she said. "You haven't fired any missiles yet tonight?"

"Don't need to, leader, my guns work just fine."

"Apparently Silver Zoom's don't," Spitfire said. "What have you been shooting at, Silver?"

"When I see a nevermore or a griffon about to come down on top of a Skybus that's moving slower than molasses I'd rather get a guaranteed kill than take the risk it'll survive the gunfire long enough to tear through the soft skin on those things," Silver Zoom said defensively.

"Point taken," Spitfire said. "Never mind. We should have enough fire power between us to take care of this. We do it quickly, we get in, we get out and we don't wait around for any of its friends to decide to join the party, understood?"

"Yes sir!" the other Wonderbolts chorused over the comm.

The dragon was definitely aware of them by this point. It opened its mouth – as wide as it could anyway, parts of it looked like they were stuck together, but that still left a maw big enough to swallow a Skygrasper whole – and roared as it changed direction a little bit, angling towards the squadron of Skygraspers and heading straight for them.

"It looks like it wants to play, captain," Soarin' said.

"Then let's show him that we play hardball," Spitfire said. "All Wonderbolts, accelerate to combat speed, break by pairs and surround this thing."

"Roger that, captain," Misty Fly replied, as ten Wonderbolts broke from the arrowhead formation in their pairs, darting up or down, left or right, swerving and gliding through the night sky as they moved in curved patterns bringing them around the dragon and back towards it from all angles. Only Spitfire and her wingman, Silver Zoom, remained on course, going head to head against the grimm.

The red targeting box on Spitfire's HUD went green, indicating a missile lock right on the dragon's immense white skull of a head. She briefly switched to the command frequency. "General, we have Heavens Fire missiles locked on, moving to engage."

"Acknowledged Wonderbolt Leader, good hunting."

"Roger that, sir," Spitfire said, as she switched back to the squadron only channel. "All Wonderbolts move to engage. Fire at will, repeat fire at will."

"Copy, captain; this is Soarin': missiles away."

"Misty Fly, missiles away."

"Spitfire," Spitfire said, squeezing the trigger on her stick. "Missiles away."

Missiles streaked away from under the wings of the Skygraspers, either singly – in the case of the more cautious Wonderbolts, or simply those who didn't have many missiles left – or in pairs or even three of them from Fleetfoot who had missiles to spare. A missile from Silver Zoom, his last missile, streaked past Spitfire's flank. They headed away from all the Wonderbolts, leaving white trails in the air as they converged upon the dragon from all directions, from above and below and from both sides and even some headed right for its face. It roared, but it didn't try to dodge as the missiles struck home, exploding along its black sides, exploding in its white face, exploding everywhere they hit as the explosions blossomed all along the immense body, the flashes of fire temporarily obscuring the dragon from visual.

"Direct hit!"

"We got it!"

"That's what I'm talking about."

Spitfire glanced down at her instruments, which showed the dragon very much present on the scope and…speeding up?

"Silver, incoming, break left!" Spitfire snapped, hauling on the stick as she broke to the right, her Skygrasper turning away as the dragon emerged from out of the fire, looking untouched by all the missile impacts, moving much faster than it had been just a moment ago, its wings beating quicker as it surged through the air right towards the two Wonderbolts right in front of it. Spitfire pulled on the stick, turning her plane, letting it carry her to the right and out of the dragon's path as she dived beneath its flapping wing.

Silver Zoom wasn't so lucky. He was still trying to turn his bird out of the way when the dragon slammed right into him. His Skygrasper exploded in a fireball, and he didn't even have time to scream.

And the dragon just kept right on going, ignoring the other Wonderbolts as it flew on towards Vale, screaming and roaring as it went.

"Ever single missile hit the target," Soarin' said. "But it looks as though we didn't even scratch it."

"Grimm never look as badly hurt as they are," Spitfire snapped. "We hurt it and now we're going to kill it. All Wonderbolts pursue and keep firing."

"Copy that, captain," Misty Fly said, as the Wonderbolts raced in pursuit, rotary cannons blazing from under the noses of their aircraft as they followed where the dragon led, their Skygraspers beginning to close the distance on the giant grimm as it passed over the green woods and closed in of the Green Line protecting the city. As they flew Spitfire tore her eyes away from the monster that had snuffed out her wingman as though it was nothing at all to glance down at the ground, where she confirmed that the grimm were definitely excited to see the dragon in the air above them; they were going nuts, howling at it and pounding their chests as though it was their god or something, and the other fliers were getting more excited as well; right now they were only circling around but that wasn't going to last for long.

 _We need to end this, and quickly._

The dragon passed over the heads of the defending forces in the Green Line, passing between the _Resolution_ and the _Vigilant_ before either of them had a chance to get a proper lock on it, and passed over the mostly unmanned Red Line that was the last line of defence before you got into Vale itself. The dragon roared as it flew over the Red Line, paying not attention at all to the tracer rounds rattling out of the Wonderbolts' cannons, not paying much more notice to the missiles that streaked from under the wings of their Skygraspers to hit it on the tail or the back legs. It flew over Vale, turning in a lazy circle, and as it turned it looked to Spitfire as though there were black globs of some kind of goo dripping down form its torso to the streets below.

"Is it…leaking?" High Winds asked. "That's disgusting."

"Head down towards the deck and check it out, the rest of us will stay on the dragon," Spitfire said.

"Aye aye, captain, heading down now," High Winds said, as she broke off her attack on the dragon and angled the nose of her Skygrasper downwards towards the city streets. "Oh my god."

"What is it, High Winds?"

"Command, are you seeing this?" High Winds said, as the image on Spitfire's monitor became the image that High Winds was seeing through her camera. It showed the pools of goo that the dragon was dripping onto the pavement turning into grimm, bewolves and creeps and boarbatusks forming out of the ichorous black substance, or crawling out of it, or maybe a bit of both it was hard to make out, but either way there were now grimm on the streets of Vale. "We have grimm in the city, repeat there are creatures of grimm in the city."

"Understood," General Ironwood said. "I'll alert the Vale authorities and Professor Ozpin. Spitfire, you need to take that dragon out now before it spawns even more grimm."

"Yes sir," Spitfire said, although with less confidence than she had said it the first time he had given her the order, but what could they do but keep trying? To be sure, the bullets which they were currently pumping into the dragon as their tracer rounds lit up the sky over Vale were doing nothing visible, but they had to be doing something to it, right? They had to be chipping away. "High Winds, start strafing those grimm down there, we need to keep them contained before they spread all over the city. Wonderbolts, we're going to use every missile we've got this time."

"Roger that, captain," High Winds said, and immediately opened fire on the grimm emerging out of the black pools, spawned by the dragon's…sweat? She started firing at them, anyway, her rotary cannons spitting fire that sliced through an emerging beowolf and struck down a boarbatusk before it had gone much more than a few steps.

And the dragon shrieked, as though it hadn't felt the bullets slamming into its neck but it had felt them hitting the grimm that it had birthed. It shrieked and it dived with an astonishing agility, pulling a turn that would have sheared a comparably sized cruiser in half and diving like a sparrowhawk down upon Vale, down into the streets, down through the midst of the skyscrapers and the high rises, down upon High Winds' Skygrasper.

"High Winds, coming right at you!" Spitfire shouted. "Accelerate and hit the deck, try to get too low for him to follow."

It was too late. The dragon was on her before High Winds could react, diving down between the towers to swoop down on her as she tried to speed up, grabbing the slender tail of the Skygrasper in its claws and dragging it along – the tail rising and the fuselage falling as the aircraft threatened to go tail over tip – as it flew down the wide thoroughfare.

Spitfire could hear the alarms blaring in High Winds' cockpit over the comms channel. "Unable to regain control. Engines at maximum, no effect."

The dragon flew down the street, so low that each thrumming flap of its wings produced a shockwave that tossed cars aside and shattered the windows in the fancy storefronts. It opened its enormous mouth and roared as, rising upwards slightly, it tossed High Winds' Skygrasper away like a toy.

The tail was sheared off the aircraft, snapping off and remaining clutched in the dragon's claws before it was dropped idly in the middle of the road in the midst of more new-spawning grimm. The rest of the Skygrasper pinwheeled through the air, going round and round in the air before hitting a tall, glass-fronted skyscraper. The windows shattered as the aircraft disappeared into the tower, emerging out the other side a few moments later, missing the right wing and with the fuselage looking considerably more battered than it had been a moment before, bursting out of the windows – breaking those too – before landing upside down outside an artisanal café with a hand-painted sign.

"High Winds," Spitfire said as she circled around the sight of the crash. "High Winds, what is your situation, respond."

High Winds groaned. "I think my aura just broke but I'm alive, captain."

"Can you get out?"

"I think so, sir."

"Good," Spitfire said, with an unrestrained sigh of relief. "Listen, I can't spare anybody to recover you right now, they'd be sitting ducks with that thing on the loose. So get to high ground, keep your eyes open for grimm, and wait for this to be over and we'll pick you up."

"Understood, captain," High Winds said. "Go get it."

Some of the Wonderbolts were doing their best to 'go get it' already'; as the dragon continued to soar along the boulevard, seemingly completely unconcerned with the Atlesian aircraft on its tail, Rapidfire and Fleetfoot had descended to its level, trailing it down the street, firing as they kept up the pursuit. Misty Fly and Blaze were keeping pace with the dragon from above, guns blazing, but it was Rapidfire and Fleetfoot that concerned Spitfire more right now. They were both gaining on the grimm, which had slowed down to take a lazy approach – or maybe just to spread more grimm around – and they were getting awfully close.

"Rapidfire, fall back," Spitfire said. "You're too close to that thing."

"That's the idea, captain," Rapidfire said. "If I get much closer I'll be able to put a missile right up it's-"

The dragon lashed out suddenly with its tail, cutting Rapidfire off in mid-sentence as it hit his aircraft so hard that it exploded, the pilot's confident words fading into an explosive bang and the crackle of dead air. Before Spitfire could even process the fact that she had just another pilot the dragon rose up, putting on a burst of speed as it rose like lightning going in reverse, its gigantic maw opening as it embraced Blaze's Skygrasper, closing around the aircraft so completely that barely any traces of the explosion that claimed the craft escaped from between the monster's teeth.

"Misty, get out of there!" Soarin' yelled as Misty Fly sped away, the dragon in hot pursuit. And it was gaining on her. The Wonderbolts – the remaining Wonderbolts, with three down and High Winds out of commission – fired, loosing their remaining missiles, all of their remaining missiles in most cases, at the dragon, but even though the warheads struck home the dragon took absolutely no notice of them whatsoever. Its attention was entirely fixed on Misty Fly.

"It's still on me, what do I do, captain?"

"Misty, calm down," Spitfire said. "You're going to pull a Crazy Ivan and make a run for-"

The dragon opened its mouth and roared, but as it roared a beam of golden energy shot from out of its mouth, lancing through the night to skewer Misty's Skygrasper, obliterating it in a beam of light that left nothing behind.

Spitfire swallowed. This wasn't happening. She hadn't just lost four pilots in the space of minutes.

Four pilots dead, five planes down, and they hadn't even hurt this thing.

The dragon turned towards her.

Spitfire realised that what she was feeling was nothing less than terror. "Wonderbolts, scatter!" she yelled. "General, our best shot isn't even scratching this thing and we're getting ripped to pieces out here."

"Understood, Spitfire," General Ironwood said. "Get your people out."

Spitfire turned away, the dragon closing the distance with her. Would it go for its fangs, or that beam attack that had taken out Misty?

The dragon opened its mouth. A pair of crimson laser beams slammed into its flank, and it might not have felt the Wonderbolts' missiles but it felt those lasers, because it howled in pain and turned away from Spitfire, its immense wings flapping as it turned instead to face the source of its newfound pain.

The cruiser _Thunder Child_ glided silently through the night, prow pointed towards the dragon like the tip of a spear.

* * *

The grimm on the ground had been excited by the presence of the dragon in the skies above them. Excited enough to make an awful lot of noise, anyway, although not excited enough to actually do anything right now. They were massed just outside the killzone, catching the occasional shot from a Paladin's main guns but otherwise out of range of the Atlesian defence line, and what weapons the Atlesians did have capable to carrying that far they were – mostly – holding fire with because they didn't want to poke the bear until they'd killed the…well, whatever it was you killed before you started poking bears (although whatever it was Fluttershy would probably disapprove of it, and of poking bears too). It was the dragon, anyway, they didn't want to poke the ursa (or the beowolf, or the deathstalker, or the goliath) until they'd killed the dragon.

And besides, Atlas' air assets were a little busy right now dealing with the riot of griffons and nevermores that seemed energised by the dragon's presence in the skies above them.

And so, while the Skygraspers and the flying monsters duked it out, their land based cousins gathered out of range, safe and sound and free to wave their paws in the air and howl at the moon like the spectators in the arena had done for Penny's match with Pyrrha; although Rainbow hoped that it wasn't the same instinct driving them both on the way it seemed to be. She didn't want to think that humans and grimm were that similar.

Although the alternative – that by cheering their big buddy on the grimm might actually be making it stronger or something – might be even worse.

But the fact that the grimm were only cheering, and not actually making a move right now, meant that Rainbow could stand in the trench and look up as the _Thunder Child_ , _Endeavour_ and the _Hope_ closed in on the dragon from three sides, the three remaining ships of the First Battle Squadron each approaching from a different angle, firing their scarlet lasers in turns to hammer the dragon from all sides, their prows moving like knives as they advanced as though they meant, all else failing, to skewer the grimm upon the point of one of their ships if they couldn't kill it any other way.

Not that it would come to that. This thing may have taken the Wonderbolts – and Rainbow's hands were still trembling a little from seeing that, the way that it had just blown through Atlas' top pilots like that, taking out a third of the squadron as though it was nothing at all; it worried her more than her own loss to Tempest Shadow had, because at least then she could tell herself that she and her team were still learning – but there was no way that it could stand up to three Atlesian cruisers.

Could it?

Rainbow pushed that disloyal thought to one side. No. There was no way. The cruisers were the pride and heart of the Atlesian fleet, and with said fleet Atlas ruled the skies.

They were going to get it done.

"Are they going to be okay?" Penny asked anxiously.

"Of course," Ciel said quickly. "Those ships make up the First Squadron of the fleet, there is no way that one single grimm, however powerful, will triumph over our combination of discipline and technological prowess."

She spoke confidently, and yet Rainbow could swear that when she had finished speaking she started praying underneath her breath. It was barely perceptible, but Rainbow knew what to look for.

"I think the lasers are hurting it," Twilight said optimistically. "I mean…that is a cry of pain, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Rainbow said uncertainly, as the dragon shrieked again. "I think so. But I'm not sure even Fluttershy would understand a thing like that."

Penny blinked as she stared up into the night sky. "Why isn't it moving?"

"Huh?"

"It's just hovering there," Penny said. "But you should move when you're coming under attack."

Penny had a point, the dragon wasn't moving much. It was flapping its wings just to stay in place, barely even trying to dodge the laser fire even though it seemed to hurt when it got hit.

"It's boxed in," Rainbow said. "The ships have it covered from all sides."

"What about going up or down?" Penny asked.

Rainbow frowned. "They could angle their guns enough to keep it in sight while they change the bow angle," she said, although even if the grimm was smart enough to know that – and it might be, it hadn't started out that size; or had it? Rainbow wasn't sure, they'd never covered this guy in grimm studies; or perhaps they had and she'd been on a mission during that lesson – it didn't explain why it wasn't trying to get away.

Was it just waiting so it could drop more grimm on the street below? Was that its sole ambition before it got killed?

The dragon took another laser blast straight to the chest, and it raised its long neck, thrusting its head up into the air and it let out such a shriek of pain that Rainbow flinched away from that awful sound, and she wasn't the only one. Everyone who heard it seemed to be affected by it, even Ciel seemed to feel it like a sawing in her brain, and Twilight put her hands to her ears to try and block the sound out.

The grimm seemed to lap it up though, because to hear the screech made them roar and growl and snarl and hoot louder than ever, waving paws and claws and stingers as if they the dragon were winning and not about to die. The goliaths trumpeted defiance at the Atlesian lines.

And a host of aerial grimm swooped down upon the _Hope_ from behind it, nevermores diving down to swirl around it, flying all around the warship even as its point defence cannons cut the black mass to ribbons they still flew, some of them attacking the engines, some of them landing on the deck, most of them just flying in close and around the cruiser like they were trying to mob it. Had the dragon…had it summoned them? Is that what it was screaming about? Could it call other grimm?

Was it like…was it some kind of king among their kind and they all jumped when it said 'back me up'?

"What are they doing?" Twilight asked.

"They're masking the guns of _Hope_!" Ciel snapped.

Now that she had pointed it out, Rainbow saw what she meant: the _Hope_ could fire her lasers, but there was always a nevermore in place to take the hit, and though the cannon at close range turned any one of bird-like grimm to ash immediately that didn't matter; what mattered was the dragon wasn't hit by laser fire or by the missiles that _Hope_ was firing to try and clear the nevermores away, even though at that range the ship had to be taking a beating from its own explosions. That didn't matter either.

What mattered was that there was a gap in the net. A gap through which the dragon soared with a roar which might have been gratitude or maybe some new orders for the grimm as it dove first towards the embattled _Hope_ and the flock of grimm that swarmed around it, then away from and around the engaged cruiser, using it as cover against the fire of the _Thunder Child_ (which couldn't shoot for fear that any misses with its laser cannons would hit _Hope_ ) and _Endeavour_ (which found _Hope_ suddenly between it and the target as the dragon turned, angling its wings towards the ground, passing behind the cruiser) before, having passed behind and around the _Hope_ and used it as a shield, the dragon turned again to round upon _Endeavour_.

As soon as the dragon was clear of _Hope_ the _Endeavour_ fired again, it's laser cannons sending red streaks through the night sky. Missiles flew from the ports upon the cruiser's flanks, streaking out with white trails as they banked towards the grimm; tens, dozens, scores of missiles all flying for the dragon even as it passed out of the arc of fire of _Endeavour_ 's lasers, moving faster than the cruiser could turn to match it. The missiles struck home, explosions blossoming in the darkness, temporarily blocking the dragon from the view of Rainbow Dash and the others on the ground. Some of the soldiers watching from the trench let up a cheer as the host of missiles exploded, and Rainbow Dash herself dared to hope that the explosions would clear to reveal nothing there at all.

The dragon soared out of the explosive cloud with a roar that could only seem defiant, and as it roared it unleashed its attack – fire? Did it have a laser of its own? – upon the _Endeavour_ , the golden beam striking the cruiser amidships, rocking it as the beam began to burn through the black armour plating that protected the hull.

The dragon flew closer, and with the _Hope_ still mobbed by nevermores in spite of the fact that Skygrasper squadrons and the _Resolution_ were now on their way to try and assist and with the _Endeavour_ itself now blocking the fire of _Thunder Child_ there was nothing to stop it giving _Endeavour_ its full and undivided attention as its beam began to cut through the cruiser's armour like a blade.

The dragon struck the warship, slamming into it head first, and the weakened hull snapped under the impact as the ship was split in two, both halves falling to the ground.

"By the lady," Ciel murmured, while Twilight gasped in shock as her hands flew to her face. Penny's eyes widened, and Rainbow felt her teeth clench as she watched the ship fall.

The airfleet was the heart of the Atlesian military, and this creature was ripping that heart out right before their eyes. Atlas ruled the skies with its fleet but the skies over Vale belonged to the dragon now. These ships were the might of Atlas rendered in physical form and this one grimm had torn through one in a matter of moments.

 _What in gods' name is this thing?_

And then the dragon turned on _Thunder Child_. It didn't use its beam attack – maybe it was too close for that – it just hurled itself upon the ship, not letting lasers or missiles or the point defence cannons deflect it from its aim. It rose up, above the lasers' firing arc, and then descended upon the cruiser's top deck, claws digging through the armour as it latched on. The two were of a size, the monster and the work of man, and Rainbow could see the _Thunder Child_ 's engines straining against the power that the grimm was bringing to bear, the two titans pushing against one another. Then the dragon snapped down, closing its maw around the _Thunder Child_ 's bridge. Twilight let out a squeak of alarm as the dragon's mouth closed around the ship's controlling centre, not even flinching at the explosion from within. The two turned lazily in the air, turning in circles since neither could push the other back. Then Rainbow realised that the dragon was deliberately turning the cruiser in circles, and that it was speeding.

"Incoming!" Rainbow yelled as the dragon threw the warship, hurling it down out of the skies and upon the Atlesian lines below.

Rainbow grabbed Twilight and shoved her down into the dirt, with Rainbow on top of her, hands pressing into the rough soil. Penny fell backwards as though she'd suddenly been turned off, while Ciel dropped into a crouch keeping her rifle from getting pressed into the muck that might have fouled the barrel. All around them soldiers and students and huntsmen were hitting the dirt – Rainbow saw Flynt's hat fly off his head as he threw himself to the ground, only for Neon to crush the fedora beneath her body as she too fell to earth just moments later – as the _Thunder Child_ tumbled through the air, propelled by the dragon's power beyond the ability of the engines to compensate for, growing larger and larger like a meteor falling from the sky straight towards the Atlesian troops it was supposed to protect.

It flew over the heads of Rainbow Dash and Team RSPT, bouncing once then twice off earth, shedding bits of armour plate and the tips of its exhaust ports as it went, smashing through a defence turret so that there was only a stump of metal and concrete left, crushing concrete bunkers under its weight, turning Paladins to ruin, before on the third bounce in exploded in an immense ball of fire.

When the smoke cleared a whole section of the defence line had been obliterated, the trench and all its obstacles vaporised, turrets and bunkers alike nowhere to be seen, and any soldier or paladin who had not got out of there in time…gone.

And out of the smoke the dragon descended upon them, a shadow passing over the heads of the defenders before it turned its head straight down and fell like a thunderbolt from out of a stormy sky. Fire rose to meet it, but if it hadn't minded the missiles and it had been able to withstand multiple hits from the main battery guns of three cruisers that it wasn't likely to mind rifle fire or even the cannons on the paladins as it dropped, wings swept back, upon the stunned Atlesian soldiers. Paladins were crushed beneath its claws, men were swallowed by the squad-load or more as they disappeared inside its enormous mouth, bullets and grenades troubled it not at all as beowolves, creeps and boarbatusks emerged from the black ooze it was sweating off to charge out from underneath the dragon to give it some back-up that it didn't seem to need as it unleashed its breath attack, sweeping the trench before it with that deadly golden light. Rainbow lost sight of Flynt and Neon as the golden light blinded her to everything even through her goggles. Then the dragon roared.

The roar was terrible. It wasn't just that it was deafening, it was more that that, it was…there was something in this roar. There was something wrong about it, something that made this different from just hearing a beowolf or an ursa make some noise, this was…this was turning Rainbow's bones to water, this was making Twilight cry out in fear, this was making Ciel tremble as her eyes widened and she looked as though she might faint at any moment. This was making soldiers of Atlas drop their weapons and clutch at the sides of their helmets to try and block out the sound even with the enemy in the trench with them. This roar was something else, and something wrong.

The dragon took off, leaving behind it a defence that was shattered, broken in body and in spirit, with grimm in the trench and the great horde of grimm beyond now beginning to charge towards them to take advantage of the breach their king had made.

 _This isn't happening. This can't be happening. We're getting ripped to pieces and there's nothing we can do about it._

 _There's nothing we can do._

 _Nothing._

"Fall back!" General Ironwood's voice cut through the confusion left in Rainbow's mind, snapping through the earpiece she was wearing into her mind. "All units fall back, now!"

The general's voice was like a trumpet rallying them to arms. It cleared away the confusion and the fear from Rainbow's mind long enough for her to remember where she was, to see Twilight cowering underneath her. Twilight. She had to protect Twilight. She had promised Pinkie that she would keep Twi safe.

Rainbow pushed herself up and onto her feet. "Applejack!" she yelled. They had gotten separated during the earlier fighting, she couldn't see her. "Applejack, where are you?" Please say that she wasn't…she couldn't be…how was she supposed to explain to-

"Here I am," Applejack said, running down the trench towards them, her face stained with dirt and soot but otherwise looking unharmed.

Rainbow gasped. "Thank…I thought…"

Applejack shook her head. "It was close, but I got clear just in time."

Rainbow nodded, as the grimm roared as they closed the distance to the shattered Atlesian line, a line that was already being abandoned as men scrambled out of the trench, ad-hoc fire teams forming to provide cover while other units fell back, before those turned to provide covering fire in turn for the previous rearguard to retreat. Paladins stomped as quickly as they could in the direction of the Red Line, while those Skygraspers that could be spared from the aerial battle landed to pick up the wounded men and the field medics.

"Ciel," Rainbow said, as she pulled her pistols out of her holsters. "Get Twilight back. Penny, fall back forty yards, turn and give me and Applejack some covering fire. We'll wait here until you do."

Penny nodded. She looked as shocked as anyone organic by the sudden turn the battle had taken. "Is everything-"

"I don't know, Penny," Rainbow admitted. "But we've got to do what we can."

Ciel had already left, taking Twilight by the arm – Twi had the sense not to protest this time – and scrambling out of the trench and towards the rear line; now Penny silently, but with uncertainty in her green eyes, leapt out of the defences and began to run backwards.

Applejack levered a round into the chamber of her rifle. "It's been a while since the two of us have done this. Almost brings back memories."

"These are good memories for you?" Rainbow asked.

"No," Applejack said. "But I never said nothing about good memories."

The dragon roared again, and Rainbow's heart quailed – not that she would ever admit it – for fear that it was about to come back. But it wasn't. Not for them at least.

It was the Mistralian's turn to take their medicine.

* * *

The dragon destroyed the _Dingyuan_. The slow, lumbering war galley was trying to follow its orders from Commander Yeoh, using its ventrally mounted gun turrets to rain down incendiary fire on the grasslands ahead of the Mistralian line, setting fire to the terrain and putting a barrier between the soon-to-retreat Mistralians and the grimm massed beyond. And the dragon must have been aware of what they were doing. It sounded impossible, but it was the only possibility in Pyrrha's mind as she watched the dragon soar swiftly and with deadly grace across the night sky to interrupt the battleship in its task, blowing aside a cruiser that tried to stand in its way – literally blowing it apart with its energy weapon before with tooth and claw and the talons on the ends of its blood red wings it fell upon the battleship though all the guns upon the _Dingyuan_ 's flank blazed away to ward it off. The great guns in their mighty turrets boomed, the lesser cannons in their broadside mountings and barbettes thundered forth, the entire side of the great ship was consumed with fire, so much fire that the very recoil of it seemed to be pushing the battleship off course, so much fire that Pyrrha could hear nothing else though Commander Yeoh was standing right beside her shouting something that was less than a muffle to her; Jaune was saying something as he looked up at the sky, and it looked like Ruby was cheering the warship on in defiance of the expectations set by the defeat of the Atlesian air forces, but she couldn't hear the words that were passing through any of their lips. All she could hear was the thunder of the guns as the _Dingyuan_ blazed with fire, sending shells arcing into the darkness, shells that burned like shooting stars as they cut their trails across the sky. Most of them missed, flying over or under or to either side of the dragon as it plunged towards the boxy vessel, arcing through the darkness to land on either side of the Mistralian line, or in some cases in the trench that the soldiers were even now scrambling to vacate as the explosions of their own shells encouraged them. A few struck home. A few struck the dragon on the breast or even on its armoured skull, but they were few and far between. A few struck the nevermores and the griffons that, summoned it seemed by the dragon's roar, were following in its wake, but they did not deter the grimm who led them on as it reached the great ship and began to tear it apart.

The firing of the great guns stopped, and with that sound ended Pyrrha could hear the cries of dismay from all around her rising in sharp contrast to the eager cries of the grimm from up above as the dragon pulled the ship apart, literally tearing chunks of plate and deck apart with teeth and claw and throwing them down to the ground below, leaving holes for griffons to plunge into while nevermores pecked at the gun turrets.

Then the dragon began to breathe into one breach he had made, its golden attack emerging out of the other side of the warship making a new and larger hole on the other side.

It was at that point that the explosions began to go off inside the stricken vessel, and it was at that point that the dragon, seeming satisfied that the work left to do could be left to other and to lesser claws, turned its attention to the Mistralian forces on the ground.

It was still hanging on to the _Dingyuan_ , gripping the now-burning ship by talons that dug into the armour like it was made of wood, as it looked down to earth and fixed its burning gazed on Pyrrha.

That was how it felt, anyway. Though the distance was great, and though the burning wreckage of the other Mistralian battleship was still sending up great columns of smoke into the air to obscure the sky, though the dragon might have been looking at Commander Yeoh or else at Ruby with her silver eyes, though there was no reason it should affix its gaze on her nevertheless Pyrrha felt as though the monster was looking straight at her.

And she was terrified.

It was even worse than when she had witness the full power at the command of Cinder Fall, worse then when she had realised that Cinder was only half a maiden with the potential to grow even more powerful.

Pyrrha thought herself brave, braver than some, as brave as most, but this…as the dragon stared at her its very gaze was enough to chill her heart.

And then the dragon descended, shrieking as it fell like judgement from the heavens, a punishment for the hubris of men, and as it shrieked so too did the men of Mistral cry out in terror. Dread was upon those wings, and as its shadow passed over the world it stilled all courage in men's hearts, and they fled, crying terror.

Pyrrha fled. She fled as the dragon came down towards her, mouth opened, emitting that sound, that awful sound that robbed her of all desire but to survive, to find some way to escape it somehow. She ran, but with that sound ringing in her ears even running was too much for her and she fell to her knees, crying out and clutching at her ears as the dragon swept across the field and swept away the defence. It picked up cataphracts in its claws and crushed them in its grip or else threw them aside, it swallowed men whole by the dozen or the score or else it picked them up too and briefly rose up high enough to drop them back to earth from a great height, it swept its fiery breath across the land turning it all to flames and ashes and then it descended to the ground again, still shrieking, and none but fled in terror of its coming.

All except one.

Ruby alone did not cower. Ruby alone did not run before this lord of grimm. As the heart of Pyrrha Nikos gave way and quelled in fright she looked up and saw Ruby Rose of all men on the field yet standing as tall as her height allowed, the blade of her scythe glinting in the light of the many fires that blazed across the field, and in that same fire light her red cloak seemed as bright as the first blush of dawn.

She faced the dragon without flinching without a trace of fear upon her face or in her gleaming silver eyes, although that face now seemed so pale and so youthful, while her eyes seemed to carry behind them a weight that Pyrrha had not seen there before, or else she had simply been too wrapped up in herself to notice until now.

She faced the dragon without flinching, but as Pyrrha looked from the dragon's immense head, bony and hard and with a mouth full of crushing fangs each as tall as Ruby, to Ruby's own face staring at the grimm before her, Pyrrha realised that this was not a face full of confidence in her impending victory.

At best, it was the face of someone who knew they could not win, and probably would not return...but who also knew, or thought they knew, that they were the only one who could try.

The dragon stared at Ruby as though it was astonished by her courage, and yet at the same time it looked at her as one might an insect, or a mouse. As it rested its wings upon the ground and bents its neck so that its head was down at Ruby's level Pyrrha could not but read a smirk upon that many-toothed mouth.

The grimm snorted into Ruby's face. She did not flinch though it's breath ruffled her hair and made her cape billow out behind her.

She looked resigned to what was to come. Had she always carried that within her, and Pyrrha had not seen? Had she given hope to her friends but kept none for herself? Or was it the arguments that had followed Sunset's revelation that had brought this to the fore? Was she determined to show them all what a true huntress should be, no matter the cost?

Like a spark that catches to become a flame Pyrrha felt her courage stir once more within her; she should not die, so young, so brave, so desperate; at the least she should not die alone, unaided.

Pyrrha surged to her feet, running across the burning land as the fire light glimmered off her armour, and as she ran the dragon struck.

The dragon lunged at her, mouth open, jaws agape wide enough to swallow Ruby whole if Ruby had been there. But Ruby was not there, the jaws of the dragon closed upon empty air as Ruby leapt - she had moved at the same time as the beast itself - up into the air, turning almost lazily as she seemed to hang, suspended, Crescent Rose gripped behind her back, before dropping in a whirl of rose petals down upon the dragon's snout. Crescent Rose skittered off the bleached bone as the dragon snapped at Ruby, who leapt clear to land some dozen feet away, turning her scythe to point the barrel at her foe as she fired once, twice, three times upon the dragon before she charged again, dodging around the dragon's somewhat clumsy lunge to take the side of its neck with the point of Crescent Rose.

She scratched it. Ruby did what Atlesian planes and Atlesian ships and all the great guns of a Mistralian war galley had failed to do and put a scratch down the side of the dragon's neck. It was only a scratch, but it made the behemoth howl as it tried to turn its head towards her. One of its feet, the size of a cataphract, was lifted off the ground before it slammed down again hard enough to make the earth tremble. Pyrrha was thrown off balance, nearly falling to her knees in her run towards the combat, and Ruby was thrown too although she converted her fall into a roll before unleashing another pair of shots upon the dragon that troubled it far, far less than her scythe blade had.

The dragon was still dripping that black ooze, and from a pool of it a beowolf emerged to spring at Ruby. She sliced it in half almost casually as she leapt at the dragon, catching it as it started to rise into the air and slicing at its leg.

More grimm were spawning from the excretions of the dragon, and more were coming that it had spawned in other parts of the field upon its deadly rampage. Pyrrha threw her spear to despatch one that was running towards Ruby from behind, and used her shield to stun a second until she could recover Milo and finish it off.

The dragon hovered only a little off the ground, not higher than Ruby could leap while also not higher than the dragon could reach its neck down to the ground to snap at her. The grimm that the dragon spawned were keeping Ruby occupied for now and Pyrrha was absurdly reminded of the time that Ruby had tried to teach her how to play video games. Ruby was dealing with the grimm - fortunately they were all young and immature - but while she was preoccupied she was not dealing with the dragon, which hovered above, watching hungrily.

Pyrrha switched Milo to rifle mode and snapped off a shot to kill a creep sneaking up behind Ruby. She didn't notice, but that was of no matter. Pyrrha intercepted another beowolf Ruby-bound, and then she saw Jaune emerge out of the smoke to carve his way to Ruby's side.

For a moment Pyrrha's heart stopped as she feared that he was about to do something very foolish like challenge the dragon, but he called out, "Don't worry about these, Ruby, focus on the big one. Here." He raised his shield as a platform for her to leap off of, launching herself up to slash across the belly of the dragon before falling on her feet once more to cut a swathe through the gathering grimm.

The dragon dropped heavily to the ground, with another earth-shaking thud That knocked down Jaune and Ruby both, but it was upon Ruby's chest that the dragon planted a claw, holding her down and pinned in place.

The dragon seemed to wear a savage smile as it opened it's mouth, which began to fill with a golden glow.

"Ruby!" Pyrrha cried.

The golden, fiery beam ripped from the dragon's throat, only to stop ad it ran into a white glyph which hovered barrier-like between Ruby and destruction.

Weiss Schnee gleamed effulgent in the darkness, rapier pointed at the dragon and hand outstretched as she conjured the glyph.

Pyrrha spotted an abandoned cataphract lying on its side not far away from her. As quickly as her semblance allowed she picked it up and threw it at the dragon. The war machine shattered upon the side of the dragon's head, but it got the monster's attention. It turned its gaze on Pyrrha once again, but she was able to withstand it now, the example of Ruby's dauntless courage giving her courage - courage for Ruby, courage for Jaune - and if she could not say she faced the monster without flinching she could at least say she faced it.

Of course she had no idea what she was going to do now that she had its attention.

A broad green beam sliced through the night to strike the dragon on its haunch. The grimm roared, and must have decided that it was too vulnerable upon the ground because it took off, rising into the sky and showing no sign that it intended to return, or at least not swiftly.

Pyrrha followed where the beam had come from: Penny, of course; she waved from the other side of the battlefield. Pyrrha barely had time to raise her spear in grateful acknowledgement before she joined Ruby, Jaune and Weiss in finishing off the remaining young grimm that the great old grimm had spawned.

"Tell me something," Weiss said, as she stepped across the field, impaling the last beowolf upon the tip of her rapier as she did so. "Did you actually think that you could kill that monster? You clearly didn't have a plan."

"I didn't know," Ruby admitted. "But if I hadn't done something then who knows what else it would have done. Someone had to do something."

Weiss shook her head in theatrical despair. "Are you always this reckless?"

Ruby shrugged. "I haven't died yet."

"There's a first time for everything," Weiss observed in an arch tone.

Pyrrha said nothing, even as she felt that -as the acting team leader - she probably ought to say something. But it was difficult because, well, it was Ruby; she'd always been careless of her own safety in the face of danger, even if it had usually been less obvious than it had been here, and they had always turned a blind eye to it, in fact they might even have encouraged it because it was, frankly, part of what made Ruby such a good huntress. But it made it hard to address now, as if they hadn't known all along what kind of a person Ruby was. In that way Weiss was probably the only one who could say anything, being a stranger and outsider to the team.

It was clear from his uncomfortable expression that Jaune felt the same way.

"None of us," Weiss continued. "Should even think about engaging something like that without a plan."

"Try not to die," Ruby suggested.

"A real plan."

Ruby frowned. "I was hoping that my eyes might work, like they did during the Breach."

Pyrrha again said nothing despite the sense of unease she felt. She wasn't sure whether that unease was directed at Ruby or herself, because with all other options exhausted Ruby's silver eyes - reputed in legend to have slain a dragon - might be their last shot, but on the other hand the toll that they took on her...she wished that she knew what to think. She wasn't cut out for this. What would Sunset have done? Said something, probably, but then Sunset always felt able - always seemed to feel able anyway - to say what she thought and it didn't matter whether you liked it or not. It mattered to Pyrrha; probably it mattered too much to her but there it was. And besides, how could she say anything when she didn't even know what she thought?

"Ruby!" Yang yelled as she ran across the battlefield towards them, with Ren and Nora trailing after her. "What were you thinking?" Yang demanded.

Pyrrha left them to it, secure in the knowledge that Yang would be able to do this much better than Pyrrha could dream of, and turned her attention to the rest of the battlefield, where Mistralian soldiers scattered in flight and who had cowered before the dragon's cry re-emerged and began to tentatively regroup.

They called out for Commander Yeoh. Pyrrha froze. They didn't know where she was? Pyrrha tried to think when she had last seen the officer: when the dragon swept down and Pyrrha's courage failed her. Gods, had she-

"Champion!" a soldier called to her, waving his arm to attract her attention, and such was the urgency in his voice that Pyrrha did not bother to protest that she was no longer the champion, but went to him to see what the matter was. Her team followed her, and Team YRN, and Weiss, and others drifted there as well: Arslan and Bolin, Neptune and his team-mates and a throng of soldiers all gathered around the spot where Commander Yeoh lay.

She was not dead, yet, but she was gravely wounded. The dragon's breath had caught her and the lower half of her body was fearfully burned. The rise and fall of her chest was shallow.

"Jaune," Pyrrha said, and at once Jaune knelt down beside her; but when he tried to place his hands upon her injuries she pushed them away.

"Save...save your strength, young man," Commander Yeah said. "Save it for she who has more need of it. Miss Nikos?"

"Yes," Pyrrha said, kneeling down beside her. "Commander, Jaune can restore your aura, he can-"

"Your need is greater than mine, or will be soon," Commander Yeoh murmured. She awkwardly grasped the sword Green Destiny with one hand, and held it up to Pyrrha. "Take the sword. Take it, pride of Mistral. Take it...and become who you were meant to be."

Pyrrha took the blade from the commander's unresisting hands. It felt heavier than she had expected in her grasp.

Commander Yeoh smiled. "Now I am content. Save the army. Lead them home to Mistral. Protect our people."

"I..." Pyrrha hesitated. "Take heart, Commander, your army will see home again, I swear it. They will return, and the city shall not fall."

But Commander Yeoh was dead before Pyrrha was finished speaking.

Pyrrha looked up, at the soldiers and the huntsmen staring in abject disbelief down at the fallen commander.

She stood up. "Will...will someone take the body?" She asked. "We must take her back to Mistral to be interred alongside her ancestors."

Bolin stepped forward. "I will bear her," he said, as with great gentleness he knelt and scooped her up in his arms.

"Thank you," Pyrrha whispered. She looked around. "Who is in command now?"

No one answered, but after a moment or two Pyrrha realised with a sickly feeling in her stomach that everybody was staring at her.

"She gave you the sword," someone said from out of the crowd.

It took Pyrrha a moment to register what he was saying, because it was so hard to believe it. Her? They wanted - expected - her to lead them? Her? Yes, she taken the sword out of Commander Yeoh's hands, but...was that what she had wanted? When she had told Pyrrha to take the sword had she been saying 'take command'?

That was...that was ridiculous. Why would she do such a thing? Why did taking up a sword confer such responsibility? Yes, it was the sword of emperors, the sword of her ancestors, but this was the modern world, not the Age of Heroes. Surely there were officers, a chain of command...

Pyrrha's gaze swept over the assembled soldier. Yes, there were officers, she could mark them by the insignia on their shoulders: they were barely older than she was and probably less experienced at fighting grimm.

Two horrible thoughts crept over Pyrrha: the first was that, as much as she loved her home, it had been a profoundly stupid thing to raise this army of boys and girls and send them off to Vale like this; the second was that she might actually be the best person for the job, and that was terrifying.

Of course, the fact that she was the Invincible Girl, the Princess Without a Crown, probably had a lot to do with the way that they were all looking to her as though she had all the answers.

Sometimes she really hated being a celebrity.

The soldiers waited, expectant, upon her word. They were frightened; she could see the fear in their young eyes, mirroring the fear that she had felt when the dragon turned its gaze upon her. They were ready to run. It was almost as if the only thing holding them here was the belief that she would save them somehow.

She looked at her friends, the other students, to see what they made of this...this nonsense: Jaune looked supportive, which was sweet of him even if it was misguided; Yang was wearing a look on her face that said she was totally going to tease Pyrrha mercilessly about this later, which was optimistic in as much as it assumed there would be a later; Arslan looked torn between a similar expression and a kind of 'of course this would happen to you, wouldn't it' exasperation; if Weiss rolled her eyes any harder they were going to drop out of her head; Ren was as inscrutable as ever; Ruby and Nora actually looked honestly pleased for her. It suggested they had more confidence in her than she did.

Because Pyrrha did not feel pleased for herself. At all. She wanted nothing more than for somebody - Professor Ozpin, General Ironwood, Sunset, her mother - to take this away from her and tell her what to do next.

None of them were here right now.

"What are your orders, Champion?"

Pyrrha was not terribly well disposed towards the person – whoever they were - who asked her that, but she was distracted by the sound of trumpeting carried through the air. She turned to see a line of goliaths advancing on their lines, shaking the earth with their tread and trumpeting their approach, while a horde of smaller grimm pressed at their tails.

"Back!" Pyrrha cried, because there was no way that they could hold them off, not here, not now. "We go back at once. Pass the word. Stay together." She tried to think of anything else immediately urgent. Nothing was forthcoming. "Back." She repeated.

They began to retreat. Actually that made it sound a lot more professional than it was. They started to run was a more accurate phrasing, the men often managing to outpace the remaining cataphracts as they fell back for the safety of the more comprehensive defences of the Red Line. Though Pyrrha could have outpaced tanks and troops alike she did not, rather she hung back at the rear and her team and Yang's team hung their with her, watching the grimm move faster than the Mistralians.

Nevertheless they were still sufficiently far out that Pyrrha was able to get out her scroll and contact Twilight Sparkle, selected on the grounds that she was the least likely to be in the thick of the fighting in the Atlesian section of the battlefield.

"Pyrrha?"

"Twilight, hello," Pyrrha said. "I'm terribly sorry to bother you but could you put me through to General Ironwood please? It's very important."

"Uh, sure, hang on," Twilight said.

General Ironwood's voice came over the line. "Miss Nikos, I'm a little busy right now."

"I know, sir," Pyrrha said. "Commander Yeoh is dead."

General Ironwood was silent for a moment. "I'm sorry to hear that. Who's in command now?"

"I...I'm afraid it's me, sir," Pyrrha said.

She was sure he would have laughed in less dire circumstances; as things stood she appreciated the professionalism with which he said, "I see."

"Any assistance you can give us will be gratefully received, sir," Pyrrha said, because Mistral's pride meant less to her than seeing Mistral's sons and daughters live out the night.

"I would have been glad to hear that a little while ago," General Ironwood said. "As it stands we're a little thinly stretched ourselves right now, and with that dragon on the loose I can't say I'm in command of the skies. But I'll give you everything I can."

"Thank you, so much," Pyrrha said. "I'm…General, what should I do?"

"Are you asking for advice?"

"I'm asking you to tell me what to do, sir," Pyrrha said.

"What are you doing now?"

"Retreating."

"Keep doing that until you reach the Red Line, but keep your men together and don't let the retreat become a rout. Once we reach the Red Line I'll send you an officer to act as an advisor and help you set the defence."

"Very well, thank you again, sir."

"Good luck, Miss Nikos. No offence, but I think you'll need it."

Anything that General Ironwood could spare turned out, l at least at first, to mean Team RSPT, plus their friend Applejack, who jogged across the battlefield from the Atlesian sector to reinforce them.

"Sorry that Atlas couldn't spare any real soldiers," Applejack said.

"But, on the other hand, it looks like Mistral couldn't find any real commanders either, so it all evens out," Rainbow added with a grin. "Congrats on the promotion."

Pyrrha managed a smile, "I'm very grateful," she said with perfect sincerity: General Ironwood had been under no obligation to send any assistance at all, much less to send Penny and the rest of their talented friends. When she saw him again her gratitude would be profuse.

In the meantime there was a battle to be fought, and fight it they did. Pyrrha and her friends formed the rearguard, with Pyrrha - with Jaune's advice - sending the huntsmen ranging up and down the line to try and keep the pursuing grimm at bay while the rest of the forces fell back. In their disordered and bloodied state, with morale hanging in the balance and absent any fortifications the Mistralian troops were simply no match for the grimm, and even their tanks could not stand up to a rampaging goliath, as they found out when one managed to slip past Pyrrha and charge an Archer-variant cataphract. The cataphract fired its main gun, but missed, while its machine-gun rounds bounced harmlessly off the goliath's skull before the large grimm rammed it so hard the armoured vehicle was sent flying. Pyrrha grabbed it with her semblance and set it down safely on the ground before she leapt upon the goliaths back and drove Milo into the back of its skull, but the crew abandoned their vehicle after that and Pyrrha couldn't think it was any loss.

They retreated, sometimes turning at bay to fend off any grimm who got too close, sometimes failing to keep them off the untrained troops who were forced to turn as well and fight with them. But whenever they fought Milo and Akuou were always in the forefront of the fighting and always the last to turn back in the retreat. And so, with the help of her friends and comrades, Pyrrha was able to protect the Mistralian expeditionary force to the Red Line.

As they approached Pyrrha became increasingly aware that the Mistralian forces were clustering; where they had begun spread out across a great swathe of Vale's frontier now they were bunching up more than could be explained by the contraction of the perimeter. They were all moving to one single point, the point at which she was approaching the defences with her team-mates.

She didn't understand why until she arrived, and then she understood perfectly.

The Red Line was Vale's inner defence perimeter, the last line of defence beyond which all of Vale would like exposed to the creatures of the grimm. Whereas during the retreat they had skirmished around abandoned farms and old manor houses, now the high towers and city blocks of Vale lay before them. The Red Line was no trench nor set of bunkers connected to half-built wall sections; it was a wall encircling Vale to keep its enemies at bay, and this wall stood strong and durable and well-maintained, a sheer black structure rising up out of the ground, with watchtowers and sturdy gun turrets and artillery emplacements built into the ramparts, and more guns and cannons set into the lower sections of the wall, and firing slits marking the different levels of the barricade. Mine fields had been laid before the wall; breaking only to allow passage through the many-layered gates that offered the only safe passage through the wall, although they were not that safe for enemies considering how many guns covered each gate from what looked almost like a fortress built around it.

It was before one of those gates that the Mistralians, thousands of men and their surviving tanks, had gathered when Pyrrha arrived. She was confused at first by why they were waiting, and then she saw: the gates were shut.

"Excuse me please, thank you," Pyrrha murmured as she moved through the press to reach the front of the mass of troops. She found Arslan there already there, waving her arms and shouting up at the wall. The defenders of the wall - few in number but definitely present, they looked from what Pyrrha could see to be heavily armed units of the Vale police - took no notice.

Arslan scowled. "It's the same at every gate," she growled. "They won't let us through."

"Have they said why not?" Pyrrha asked.

"They haven't said anything," Arslan growled.

Pyrrha frowned. She turned around, to where her own team stood along with YRN and RSPT. "Rainbow Dash, if we made it to the Atlesian sector-"

Rainbow shook her head. "I just heard from the General: all the gates are closed. He's trying to get a hold of the authorities now."

"Professor Ozpin-"

"Doesn't know anything about it."

"Airships?" Pyrrha suggested.

"You don't have the airships, neither do we if we also want to keep the grimm away while we load up, and we don't have the time for an airlift anyway. The grimm are too close."

Pyrrha could have laughed as she understood. She understood and the bitter irony of it struck her. "Of course," she said. "The grimm are too close. They daren't open the gates in case the grimm get through before they can be shut again."

"That's-" Penny began.

"Sunset's choice," Pyrrha said. "Whether to risk the whole of Vale for our sakes or not. Sunset made one choice, the authorities...have chosen...otherwise." She might have said that they had chosen rightly, as indeed they had, but she did not think it would please the soldiers to hear it.

Comprehension dawned on every face, and acceptance upon most. The grimm were close, uncomfortably close and bearing down on them. It was unlikely - very unlikely - that all the troops of Atlas and Mistral would get through before the creatures of grimm were among them like wolves in the fold.

What right did any of them have to demand that Vale put itself at risk for their sake, endanger hundreds of thousand, even millions of lives for a few thousand? Sunset had endangered all those lives to save eight, but even she had admitted that it had been a monstrous thing to do. What right did Pyrrha or anyone else here have to demand that Vale expose itself for them?

None at all.

Sunset had made her choice, but now it would all be for naught because Pyrrha could not make that same choice now, not even for the Mistralian army and her promise to Commander Yeoh.

At least she would not live to be called an oathbreaker.

"So, what happens now?" Ruby asked.

Pyrrha knelt down in front of Ruby, putting them at a height, more or less; Pyrrha has actually lowered herself just a little below Ruby but that was no matter at all. With one arm she embraced her, her fingers running through Ruby's hair as she pressed her youngest friend's face against her shoulder.

"Uh, Pyrrha," Ruby said. "What are you doing?"

Pyrrha released her, and smiled. "When we meet again," she said. "It will be in green fields, beside the waters of the river, where we may rest under the shade of the trees." She hesitated, still smiling, for just a moment. "But not for some time yet," she added, before she grabbed Ruby, picked her up and hurled her bodily up and over the wall. Ruby's squeak of alarm like a scalded cat carried through the darkness as she disappeared on the other side of the rampart.

Pyrrha gave Yang an apologetic look, half-expecting to see anger in the other girl's eyes. "Fifteen...is too young," she said, by way of explanation.

Yang smirked. "Hey, if you hadn't done it, I would have."

Pyrrha was grateful for her understanding, although she thought that perhaps not everyone would see it the same way. She climbed up onto one of the tanks, and watched the grimm bear down upon them. There was not much time, but perhaps time enough.

She turned from the monsters to the soldiers, the frightened young men and women and the huntsmen who perhaps could have abandoned them to their fate but were too virtuous and honourable to do so. They remained, and remained all trapped together, caught between the rock and the hard place, and all looking at her.

"I," Pyrrha began, then stopped. She swallowed, for her throat was dry. "I can't say anything that will make this better," she admitted. "I don't have a lot of talent for words. All I can say is that I came to Beacon because I wanted to fight for humanity and so I will fight for you until my last breath. And I ask...I ask all of you to stand with me until...stay with me and we will make Mistral proud, if nothing else." She raised her hand, brandishing Green Destiny in the air. "For Mistral!"

"For Mistral!" the shout that came in reply was ragged and not enthusiastic from all corners but at least she got a shout in answer.

"Form...form a line," Pyrrha said, hoping that was the right order. "Start shooting...fire at will."

She leapt off the cataphract, landing nimbly in front of Jaune. "I...I wish that I had time to say everything that I feel," she said.

"You don't have to," Jaune said. "I already know, and so do you."

And then the shooting broke out, and there was no time to say any more.

* * *

Applejack was firing, working the lever on her gun after every sharp report. Lasers flew from the tips of Penny's swords. The sound of Ciel's rifle was deafening with every shot.

But Rainbow Dash wasn't fighting, yet. Rainbow was unbuckling her wings as she said to Twilight, "Here, Twi, put these on."

Twilight looked as though she didn't understand. "Why?"

Rainbow sighed. For a genius Twilight could be a little slow on the uptake sometimes. "So you can fly over the wall," she said, restraining herself from adding 'obviously'.

Now she got it, and from the look on her face she didn't like it much. Her eyes flashed behind her cute glasses. "What, no! I'm not just going to-"

"Yeah, you are," Rainbow said. "Atlas is still going to need you when this is over, maybe more than ever. Eggheads like you are worth too much to go down with the ship."

"No!" Twilight repeated. "I made this armour so that I could fight alongside you, so that I could-"

"Twilight, I promised Pinkie that I would keep you safe-" Rainbow snapped.

"I didn't ask you to do that and I didn't ask Pinkie either!" Twilight shouted. There were tears welling up behind her glasses. "Do you have any idea what it's like to be the one who gets coddled all the time? To be the one who needs protecting from everything? Nobody asked me to promise to keep you safe because everyone trusts you! Everyone believes that you can handle yourself. Do you have any idea what it's like to always be the one who needs to be looked after by everyone else?"

"No," Rainbow admitted, because any other answer - any lie - would have made things worse. "Nobody ever cared enough to try."

Twilight ignored that. "All I wanted was to be able to fight alongside you. To be able to...I know it's stupid but-"

"Twi, stop," Rainbow said. She stepped forward and leaned in, touching Twilight's forehead with her own. "You didn't need to put on a suit of armour to save my life. You already did that. Before I met you I was...I was nothing. I was going to be nothing. Everything that I am, all the friends I've made, that's all down to you. You gave me wings, Twilight, and I'm not talking about the jetpack. I don't regret a single minute of it and neither should you." Rainbow grinned. "Now put these on or I'll have Applejack toss you over the wall like Pyrrha did to Ruby."

"I'll do it, too," Applejack yelled, as she reloaded.

Twilight sniffed. "Okay," she conceded. She took the wings that Rainbow pulled off her shoulders, and began to buckle them across her chest. "But I don't know how to use these."

"You built them!"

"But you're the only one who could ever use it properly, that's why it's a failed prototype and not in mass production," Twilight said.

Rainbow snorted. "Just squeeze your hand for ignition and lift off."

Twilight nodded. "And then."

Rainbow grinned. "Hope you've got enough aura for the fall."

Twilight glared, but briefly. "I-"

"No goodbyes," Rainbow said. "Just go."

Twilight nodded. She wiped at her eyes with one hand, then straightened up as Rainbow took a step back.

She flew. She didn't fly very well but she flew, up and over the wall and out of danger.

"Goodbye," Rainbow murmured. She pumped her shotgun, and joined her team-mates on the firing line.

* * *

Ruby landed on the road that ran behind the wall with a bump that knocked a little bit more of her aura. She wasn't wholly sure how much she had left and she was kind of afraid to check in case it turned out that she had even less than she thought, but anyway she probably had more left than Pyrrha! Or...okay, Jaune probably had more than she did because he had so much more than she did but more than Pyrrha certainly, and maybe more than Yang too. She could still fight, if they could.

And there was no sign of any of the others coming over the wall.

Nor did Ruby expect they would. They couldn't throw guys without aura over, after all, and they wouldn't leave them to their fate.

No, they would just leave Ruby to live on without her sister or her team as though that was something that she ought to thank them for. They would just leave her like...like Mom had left her. A surge of bitterness and anger mixed with disappointment rippled through Ruby's spirit. Didn't they realise that she'd rather face whatever came next beside them? Wasn't that what being a team was all about? Wasn't that what being a family was all about?

Tears began to well in Ruby's eyes as she heard the gunshots start to break out on the other side of the wall. Yang...Pyrrha...Jaune...Penny. They were all going to...

She was temporarily distracted by the sound of a panicked cry from up above, a cry that she recognised as coming from Twilight. Ruby looked up in time to see Twilight, wearing what looked very much like Rainbow Dash's wings, plummeted out of the sky to hit the ground right in front of her, barely kissing Ruby herself.

She lay face down upon the concrete, groaning to herself.

"Twilight?" Ruby asked.

Twilight groaned. "Hey, Ruby," she said morosely.

"What are you doing here?" Ruby asked, and immediately regretted it both for the way that Twilight's face crumpled at the question and the way that a moment's thought supplied the answer.

"They sent me away," Twilight said. "They always send me away. I tried to get stronger so that they wouldn't have to do that any more, but...it didn't work. Rainbow sent me away anyway."

"Like Pyrrha sent me away," Ruby said bitterly.

Twilight picked herself up off the ground. "I guess it isn't always just about strength. So, what do we do now?"

"We-" Ruby stopped, distracted by the sound of raised voices coming from not far away. They had both landed not too far from the gate that was barred against their friends and the Mistral host, the gate beyond which their comrades were audibly fighting, and it was towards the gate that the two of them were drawn by the sound of shouting, to find Professor Goodwitch locked in argument with a police officer wearing a peaked cap with braid upon both hat and uniform.

"Listen to that!" Professor Goodwitch cried, gesturing with her riding crop. "They'll die unless we do something."

"And more people may die if the grimm get through this gate."

"They came here to protect our city," Professor Goodwitch said. "Is this how we repay them? Is this Vale's gratitude?"

"This is Vale's security," the police officer said. "I'm sorry, but my orders come straight from the council: all gates are to remain sealed until further notice."

"No matter the cost?"

"Whatever the cost, it will be worth it."

"How can you say that?" Twilight cried, drawing the attention of both Professor Goodwitch and the cop. "How can you condemn all of those people? How can you condemn-"

"Because he's right," Ruby said softly. "There are so many people living in Vale...we can't risk their lives, not for the people out there."

Twilight's eyes flashed with betrayal. "Ruby, you can't be serious!" She demanded. "That's your sister out there, your friends-"

"I know!" Ruby shrieked. "But that doesn't mean that we can just...as huntresses we have to put humanity first. Yang understands that and so does my team. And so does yours."

Twilight shook her head. Tears streamed down her face. "No," she said, and an energy blade emerged from one of her gauntlets. It trembled as she turned towards the police officer. "Now you...you are going to open this gate or I am going to cut it open, do you hear me?"

Ruby unfurled Crescent Rose with a series of audible clicks and hisses. "No, you won't."

"Ruby?" Twilight murmured, looking back at her in disbelief.

There were tears in Ruby's eyes too. "Pyrrha or Penny could break through that gate if they wanted to," she said. "But they're not, because they understand. They understand what...what really matters. We have to...I won't let you...I can't let you make the same choice Sunset did. So I...I'll stop you, if I have to."

Twilight stared at her for a moment, before she sank to her knees on the ground. "You're either the best of us or the most cold hearted," Twilight said. "I'm not sure which it is right now."

"Neither am I," Ruby admitted. "Now, I'm going to-"

"No," Professor Goodwitch said. "You're not." She flicked her crop towards Ruby, pulling her towards the teacher until the professor could grab hold of Ruby's hood. "If Twilight has to honour their wish not to be rescued, then you have to honour their wish that you should not join them in this battle."

"But..." Ruby murmured, because that hadn't been the plan at all. She'd intended to rush back over the wall and join the battle, not to live on. Was this her punishment? For saving her friends Sunset faced death, for not saving them Ruby faced life alone burdened by what she had done. Sunset had it easier of the two of them.

"Please, Professor," Ruby said. "Please let me go."

"I'm sorry, Ruby," Professor Goodwitch said. "I know this won't be easy."

Someone screamed in agony on the other side of the wall. Ruby didn't recognise the voice but still...

It was Ruby's turn to sink to the ground in tears. "Yang...Pyrrha...Jaune...Penny...I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I only did what I thought...what I thought..."

She almost didn't hear the sound of a motorcycle approaching, and pulling up nearby.

"Don't worry, Ruby," said a voice both familiar and wholly unexpected. "None of our friends are going to die tonight."

* * *

Yang burned.

Her aura was...well, she'd taken a few hits, let's put it like that. Enough hits that she was burning like a roaring inferno, flames leaping off of her as she punched harder, moved faster, got stronger than she had ever felt before.

She was all alone. She'd gotten separated from Ren and Nora and all the rest. The battle had driven them apart, a press of grimm had gotten in the way and, while Yang had sought to reach them at first, now she couldn't even hear Nora's battle cries. They might be dead for all she knew. They might all be dead. Only Ruby was certain to still be alive, Ruby was the only one she could be sure of. Ruby and herself.

The land was burning too, fires consuming the grass all around her. She might even have set some of those fires herself as she fought. Whatever. The grass burned just as Yang burned, and the fires illuminated the grimm as they came for her.

And Yang fought them, and as she fought them she laughed, because a fey mood was on her, driven from how hyped up she was by her own semblance, affecting her more and more every time the mass of grimm that gathered around her got lucky.

She laughed as she punched an ursa's head clean off, yelling, "Come on, you want some of this? Anyone else?"

If this was her last fight, as it looked as though it might well be, then she was going to make sure that she haunted their nightmares for many years to come: the burning huntress that just would not stop.

An ancient alpha beowolf, tall and broad and battle scarred across its armour advanced upon her.

Yang squared off against it, raising both her fists. "Come on. You think I'm tired? I could do this all day."

The alpha looked down at her. It bared its teeth in a snarl. It roared, and two lesser beowolves of its pack leapt at her, one from each side.

Yang grinned like a fiend as she turned on the beowolf coming from her left, destroying its head with a single punch. That left her open to the one coming from the right, which got on her back and began to claw at her, scrabbling for purchase with claws and fangs before Yang grabbed it by the neck, threw it over her shoulder, and killed it with another single punch.

A swipe of the alpha's massive paw both hurled her backwards and destroyed what little had been left of her aura. The fire died, and with the flames went Yang's exuberance as she hit the ground like a bucket of ice cold water which both discomfited and cleared the head. She breathed in smoke and coughed in between groans of pain from all over her body and it made its grievances felt.

The beowolf seemed to smile, and let out a low guttural chuckle, as it advanced across the burning field towards her, the shadows cast by the flames flickering upon its bony skull.

The beowolf stopped, grunting in surprise. It looked down, and Yang followed it's gaze to see a red sword sticking out of the grimm's chest. The alpha continued to stare as it turned to ash, revealing Raven standing behind it, and behind her a swirling, black vortex of energy pulsing with a red outline.

Yang stared, eyes widening. "You?"

"You sound so surprised to see me," Raven said, her voice amused.

"Well...that's because I kinda am," Yang admitted.

"What kind of mother would I be if I didn't save my own daughter?" Raven asked, as she strode forward.

"Do you really want me to answer that?"

Raven seemed more amused than affronted. "I know that I've had my faults as a parent, but I can do better. Who knows, in time you might end up looking at my choices with more understanding."

"What are you talking about?"

Raven was standing over Yang now. "Like I said, I'm here to save you."

Yang saw the boot coming, and then everything went black.

* * *

Raven knelt down beside her now unconscious daughter. "Don't worry, Yang," she said. "You're free of Ozpin now, and all the rest of them." She lifted the unmoving Yang up and hoisted her over her shoulder. Raven rose, and turned back towards her portal.

Vernal appeared in said portal, weapons drawn and pointed at Raven.

Or at the beowolf behind Raven which she shot dead with a trio of well placed bullets.

"Thank you, Vernal," Raven said.

Her good right arm nodded. "So, that's her?"

"Yes," Raven said. "This is my daughter."

"She doesn't look like much."

"This life has made her a little soft," Raven admitted. "But she'll be a great asset to our tribe."

"If she's willing to be," Vernal said.

"She'll come around," Raven replied. "It might take a while, but she'll become one of us."

"And if she doesn't?" Vernal pressed.

Raven paused a moment. "Then I'll deal with it," she said.

Vernal made way as Raven stepped into the portal, which closed behind her, leaving no trace whatsoever of Yang Xiao-Long.

* * *

A soldier cried out in pain as a beowolf raked him across the face with its claws. The young man was spun around, his face a red ruin, before falling, dead to the ground.

Pyrrha cursed herself internally as she slew the beowolf too late to make a difference to the young soldier, another son of Mistral who would never to the city upon the slopes.

She fought with Milo in one hand and Green Destiny in the other - dual-wielding was not one of her specialties, but it was an art she had trained in, albeit briefly, because it was such a showy, crowd-pleasing style that her mother had thought it would add to her reputation; Pyrrha had eventually put her foot down for something more practical - forsaking Akuou in favour of showing the symbol of the authority that Commander Yeoh had tricked her into accepting.

They needed to see it, just as they needed to see her fighting.

She was trying. She really was. Everyone was fighting so desperately, all the students of Haven, all the sons and daughters of Mistral who had set their sights on Beacon or Atlas, they were all fighting desperately to protect the Mistralian forces: SAPR, SSSN, CFVY, JAMM, Arslan and Bolin, Ren and Nora, their friends of RSPT, they were all trying so hard. Jaune was using his greatsword to cleave about him, Neptune delivering shocks with his trident, Coco smacking grimm around with her handbag, Medea conjuring her skeletons, they were all fighting with everything they had.

And it was not enough. There were not enough huntsmen, and when the grimm met the conscript soldiers it was nearly massacre. They were doing everything they could and it was not enough.

The army of Mistral, the great expedition sent so far from home to restore the pride of a kingdom and show that they were yet a force to be reckoned with upon the world stage, was dying before Pyrrha's eyes and before the walks of Vale while the defenders of those same walls watched, the masks that his their faces making them seem emotionless, devoid of compassion for the Mistralians dying before their eyes, crying out for mercy as they fell.

Pyrrha saved one man from a rampaging boarbatusk, cutting off its head, but immediately she saw another man fall to an ursa. Not enough. Never enough.

And all the while the gates were shut, and deaf to honour and compassion both alike.

A heavy thump alerted Pyrrha to the approach of a larger than usual grimm, and out of the flames that consumed the grassland it strode: a cyclops, a giant with a single eye set in the middle of its misshapen head, it's body humanoid and yet grotesque at the same time, ripped and corded with muscle. Jaune, closer to the creature than she was, slashed at its immense hand as it reached for him to no avail as it picked him up, and as he struggled and squirmed in its monstrous grip it lifted him up until he was no more than a few feet from its face and roared at him, spraying spittle everywhere as it bared its fangs.

No! No, they would not have Jaune, not before Pyrrha had fallen, she would not watch him die nor pass a moment longer in the world without him in it. She charged, urgency lending winged speed to her feet as made a leap, a flying leap that carried her through the air to drive both her blades into the cyclops' eye. The grimm roared in pain, and Pyrrha roared in anger as she stabbed the foul, impudent creature again and again until it was dead and she and Jaune both plummeted to the ground as the beast turned to ashes.

Pyrrha knelt on the ground, feeling exhausted. Perhaps her aura had broken and she hadn't noticed, but she felt as though she could hardly move.

And an alpha beowolf was coming towards her, claws drawn back. Jaune was shouting something, but he seemed to be struggling to move himself. Everything was happening so slowly. The beowolf was almost upon her.

The field was illuminated by a bright blinding flash of green light. The beowolf cried out in alarm as lines of green energy shot out from that central point of light, spreading all across the battlefield, striking down grimm wherever they touched them and they touched all the grimm, seeking them out and turning them to ashes where they stood.

Across the battlefield the green lightning rippled, tearing through the fires, slipping around huntsmen and soldiers, snuffing out grimm and slaying them with ease, leaving every man alive and every grimm eliminated, and at the same time a shield descended between the Mistralians and the rest of the grimm horde, preventing them from simply surging forward to replace those that had fallen as they had before.

"Sorry I'm late."

Pyrrha gasped. Standing in front of her when the light faded, having emerged between Pyrrha and the beowolf that had sought to bring her down, was a familiar figure in a black leather jacket, the collar around her neck almost completely obscured by her long hair of scarlet and gold which seemed to burn like fire.

"Sunset?"

"That's right," Sunset said, as she turned to look at Pyrrha, a cocky smirk upon her face. "I'm back. Did you miss me?"


	182. My Huntress Way

My Huntress Way

As the Atlesian fleet crumpled in the skies above Vale, as the dragon showed that it was the true king of the air and all of Atlas' mechanical toys were merely inferior substitutes of no use against the real thing, seven bullheads raced towards Vale in a delta formation.

Gilda was piloting the second airship, with the High Leader herself – he hadn't known that she had trained as a pilot, but of course he should have since she hadn't always been a commander; there had been a time when she had fought alongside the men simply because there were so few men to fight alongside – piloting the lead craft. It was risky, what they were doing. It was incredibly risky, all it would take would be a couple of stray missiles, or for those hordes of nevermores out there to become more interested in the White Fang than in the Atlesians and this would end with them all dying, unmarked and mourned for by no one.

But it was also their best chance to get this done. The Atlesian ships were pulling out of their perimeter positions, falling back with their ground forces or trying to contain the dragon, which meant that there was a straight shot into Vale wide open for them if they had the nerve to take it.

The White Fang had nothing if not nerve.

Five of the seven bullheads were empty, aside from the pilot and co-pilot. Once they reached Blackwall Prison and freed their comrades, those empty bullheads would become filled with faunus liberated from bondage, and if the luck they were currently enjoying held then there would still be a gap in the Atlesian line that they could squeeze through to get out of Vale again.

Two of the bullheads – those piloted by Gilda and the High Leader – carried the elite troops that would actually storm Blackwall and then, reinforced by a few particular prisoners like Walter, who had been Adam's strong right arm, they would link up with the infiltration specialist the High Leader had brought from Menagerie and take Kali Belladonna prisoner for her crimes.

Her crimes on which Gilda was still a little bit nebulous and uncertain of, to be perfectly honest. Sure, she was talking to the Atlesians, but Gilda had done that herself on occasion when she had to get things done. It didn't make Gilda a traitor to the cause and she wasn't sure that it made Kali Belladonna a race traitor either.

What Kali Belladonna was was the woman who paid for two passages to Menagerie, every month, to be given away in a lottery to deserving faunus who couldn't afford the passage to paradise. Gilda's parents had won the lottery about three years ago, packed their bags and never looked back. They lived next door to Rainbow Dash's folks, and the letters that Gilda got from her mom and dad were full of details about how great their life was, and how they sat on the beach drinking mango juice out of coconuts with their old friends (Gilda hadn't had the nerve to tell her parents that she was in the White Fang, instead giving them the impression that she was working construction in Vale; as a consequence, the letters she got from home were full of news about her old friend Rainbow Dash whose parents were so proud of her at Atlas and why didn't Gilda try to get in touch now that Rainbow was in town for the Vytal Festival? It would have been embarrassing except…assuming that Dash got letters from her parents as well it was kind of sweet of her not to rat Gilda out about what she was really doing in Vale). It seemed like the Belladonnas did a pretty good job of making Menagerie a nice place for the faunus to live, and that ought to count for something, right? More than talking to an Atlesian councillor, maybe? Did they even know what they'd been talking about?

Getting people out of prison that was fine, but the other part…Gilda wished that they could go back to attacking people she could be sure deserved it like SDC executives. She would have had no problems with going after the councillor that Kali Belladonna was talking to, but the lady herself…it didn't sit right with her. It made her feathers itch.

"Gilda?" Strongheart asked from the co-pilots seat. "Are you okay?"

 _I don't know if I've been okay for a while, kid,_ Gilda thought. "Yeah," she said, as she followed Sienna Khan's lead. "I'm fine."

"Are you sure? You looked like you might be spacing out a bit there."

"I hope not, Sister Strongheart," Yuma said, as he stepped into the cockpit. "With all of our lives and the success of this endeavour riding on the outcome I am sure that Sister Gilda is giving our course her undivided attention."

Gilda shuddered. Something about this guy just creeped her out. "First, of course I am; second, I'm not your sister; third, get back in the back with everyone else and stay there until we land, you're distracting the pilot."

She didn't look around but she could _hear_ the smirk on the bat-winged killer's face as he said, "As you wish," and retreated back into the main compartment.

"You don't like him, do you?" Strongheart said.

"What gave it away?" Gilda replied. "He's a creep. Sister Gilda. He makes my skin crawl." She'd be glad when this mission was over so that she could put some distance between the two of them.

She'd be glad when this was over so she could put it all behind her and look forward to the cause of the White Fang becoming a righteous one again. Back when they used to…murder people and…steal stuff and…

But only bad people.

 _Only people that you were told were bad. Like you've been told that Kali Belladonna is a bad person._

 _I…well…but I didn't…they were oppressing us! Our enemies are keeping us down!_

 _How is your best friend since you were kids keeping you down?_

 _She's joined the Atlesian military! And she…she rescued…she…_ Gilda tried and failed to think of a time when she had seen or heard of Rainbow Dash oppressing a fellow faunus on the orders of Atlas; only when she broadened the definition of 'oppressing the faunus' to 'stopping the White Fang doing whatever it wanted to' could she get close to an example.

 _Have I been the bad guy this entire time?_

 _No. No way. I can't have wasted my whole life like that. That would be pathetic._

But she wished that she could feel about this Kali Belladonna business.

Still, she kept a firm hand on the stick her Bullhead, and followed the High Leader in as they passed over the shattered Atlesian lines. They kept well clear of the dragon as it smashed through the Atlesian cruisers one after another, destroying them or else using them as improvised bombs to breach the defences for the grimm on the ground below.

"It's…it's almost sad, don't you think?" Strongheart murmured.

"Don't let some of those in the back hear you say that," Gilda muttered. She looked out the window at the devastation in the skies and on the ground below. All those men fighting and dying to hold back the grimm. Dash was down there right now, she was certain of it. Dash and her human friends…but even that thought was a lot less venomous than it had used to be before she'd met a couple of those friends. Fluttershy wasn't fighting, obviously…she was just in the city somewhere, one of those millions that Dashie was fighting to protect.

 _Meanwhile, I…_ "Yeah, it's kinda sad," Gilda said. "Even if they are Atlas…we shouldn't be on the side of monsters against people, not while there are still faunus down in those cities."

Strongheart looked as though she'd been thinking the same thing. "But we need them, right?" she said, sounding as though she wanted to be convinced. "Without this distraction we couldn't mount this rescue."

"I know," Gilda said. _But does that mean it's worth it?_

Her misgivings continued to dog her as the White Fang aircraft headed for Blackwall prison.

* * *

 _They are the darkness, and we are the light._

Those words of Pyrrha's, spoken to Jaune as she had explained to him that the grimm, unlike every other living thing, did not have aura, echoed in Sunset's mind in the voice of her friend.

The voice of she whom Sunset still thought of as a friend, and hoped that Pyrrha felt the same way.

 _They are the darkness, and we are the light._

Very nice. But what did it mean? Sunset thought about it, because giving herself an intellectual problem to chew over was better for her state of mind than spending every single passing moment that ticked along with such painful sloth worrying about her friends, about how they were faring in the battle raging outside, worrying about Beacon and the grimm and the alarms and all the rest.

And who knew, if she could come up with something useful then maybe she could be…of use, to her friends even from in here.

 _They are the darkness, and we are the light._

Obviously the grimm were darkness; they were literally coloured black, they were created by the god of darkness, they served a demonic entity, they existed only to-

 _They're not really alive, are they?_

It was so blindingly obvious that Sunset wondered how it had taken her this long to realise it. It might be because all of their training as huntsmen treated the grimm as de facto living beings, beings who had to be killed in a variety of artistic and/or brutal methods in order to end the threat they posed to humanity. Well, that last part might be true but that didn't actually mean that the grimm were alive. All living things (all animals, at least; probably not plants or trees) had aura, or at least the latent capacity for aura, and yet the grimm had none. Why? Because they weren't living creatures, they were…they were more like windigos than animals, embodiments of the concept of destruction.

Which meant…what? What did it mean? Sunset paced up and down in her cell, listening to the sirens continuing to blare outside, listening as well to the racket that was coming from other cells as the prisoners took the opportunity to make some noise, demand to be let out, and generally remind the guards – not that Sunset had seen a human guard for a while, it was mostly androids pacing up and down the corridors, the clanking sounds of their footsteps preceding them – that they existed.

It was very distracting. Sunset had embarked upon this path in her mind because she had wanted a distraction from all the noise and all that it portended, but the sirens kept intruding into her thoughts nonetheless, and bringing with all kinds of unwelcome imaginings: her friends confronting the grimm, her friends falling to the claws of those selfsame grimm while she-

 _No!_ She couldn't go to them, no matter how much she might want to. She didn't deserve to be in their presence. She didn't deserve to be in Ruby's presence, and Ruby wouldn't want her there anyway. She was no longer a huntress, the battlefield was no longer her place.

Focus. Focus. Do some good from inside these walls.

The sirens were drowned out by the sounds of explosions from far away. What was going on out there? Where were the grimm, how strong in number were they? Was Beacon under attack?

Focus. Focus. What did it mean to say that the grimm were not alive? What practical benefit could she gain from that realisation?

 _Do we have to kill them as though they were alive? Is there a more efficient way to deal with them?_

 _Probably not for most people, how else would they be dealt with? They must be fought or they will devour and destroy all before them, and huntsmen and huntresses are already trained to despatch the grimm as quickly as possible._

 _But is there a more efficient way for me to deal with them? Could I…could I convert them into…without aura they are vulnerable to transfiguration, but transfiguration is actually more magically draining than mere energy projection because it involves a variety of effects, making it one of the more taxing aspects of magic. Transfiguring the grimm is possible but would not efficient._

 _If the grimm are like windigos then could they be defeated by emotions? In Equestria, perhaps, but I've seen no sign of such magic here._

 _If the grimm are not alive then…oh, my Celestia, that's it!_

 _That's it! If the grimm are not alive then they are fundamentally different from all else on the battlefield and there is no reason why an area of effect spell could not be devised that would target all of them within said area while leaving all living things completely unaffected!_

 _How is that going to help Pyrrha or Ruby or anyone else who doesn't have magic?_

…

 _Look, it's this or go mad with worry, what's it going to be?_

So Sunset worked the problem. She worked the spell. It kept her mind off other things. It kept her mind off the thought of Pyrrha screaming for help as she was dragged into the maw of a King Taijitsu; it kept her mind off the thought of Ruby getting her legs bitten off by some kind of _get out of my head!_

She worked the problem. She worked the spell. It had always worked in the past. Work brought solace from the problems of the world. She could lose herself in magic, in how it worked, in how it filled the world around her, how it could be bent to serve her will and desires, and while she was thinking about all of that she could block out the sounds of the laughter of the other children as they played outside that was drifting up to her window; she could block out just how lonely that sound made her feel.

She could even block out the sensation that she was slipping further and further away from Princess Celestia, although perhaps if she had paid more attention to that feeling instead of shutting it out then maybe she wouldn't have actually lost Princess Celestia, at least for a while.

But she needed to block it all out now, because if she didn't…if she didn't then she would go insane from worry, or else she would break her vow and with it any trust that her friends might still have in her. She had vowed to Pyrrha that she would take any punishment short of giving up her own life – and that in part because Pyrrha had already promised Cinder that she would rescue Sunset from that fate – if she broke her word so easily, even in a good cause, then how could they trust her? How could they believe that she was genuinely contrite?

And so Sunset worked the spell, drawing mental images on the walls of her spell as he worked out just how this hypothetical weapon would work. She had enough experience of the grimm that she thought that she could isolate their essence, the feel of them compared to other living creatures; it was something actually useful that they had covered in Professor Port's class: being in the presence of the creatures of grimm brought with it a certain sensation that was quite unique, you felt around the grimm as you did not feel around anything else.

 _Take that sensation, that essence, and apply Starswirl's Spell of Seeking for the tracker element._

The fact that it was a tracker – Sunset had considered other possibilities, but one were so elegant when it came to targeting grimm and nothing else – meant that this would not be a true area of effect attack; it would not be a blanket deluge of magic over an area; how could it be, realistically, if she wished to only bring down her wrath upon a particular set of beings.

 _Which means my best choice would actually be something like Meadowbrook's Multiplier…if I combine that with the spell of seeking then the number of individual…bolts or threads of magic will exponentially increase for the number of grimm within the area._

However, Meadowbrook's Multiplier was vulnerable to the law of conservation of energy, as the spell multiplied so it became weaker, that was why it was more of a party piece than a serious bit of magic, the resultant spells were rarely strong enough to accomplish much; how could Sunset prevent her spell from falling prey to that and becoming useless against the large numbers of grimm it was designed to combat?

By adding more power was the obvious answer, but that ran into the other issue of how to actually make it feasible to cast this spell without keeling over from exhaustion (at best) afterwards?

 _Back to the beginning. What are the grimm? They aren't alive, and it isn't just aura that they're lacking. They're also lacking any kind of…well, they're insides are just kind of a red blob, if that, and when they die they dissolve. Which suggests that they are an unstable compound held in their form by some kind of…but then in that case how can they lose limbs and still keep fighting?_

 _The grimm are death, but in some respects they emulate life: they die from wounds that would kill a living thing but survive those that a living thing might live through; they can survive losing a leg but not having their head cut off. That's why they have to be fought in a way that is also applicable to living things._

 _But is there a way that I could disrupt their form, and cause them to dissolve prematurely? Would that be easier than brute-forcing them to death?_

 _Theoretically perhaps, but how would I do it?_

…

 _That's about what I thought._

She would have to resign herself to the fact that this would be a spell that she could probably use only once at most, due to the amount of magical energy that it would require; honestly, before her powers started to grow in the wake of Amber's awakening she wouldn't have been able to cast it even once, but Sunset's powers _had_ started to grow; she felt so much stronger now than she had since leaving Equestria; she might even be stronger now than she had in Equestria. Certainly her stamina felt much improved, and her limit felt raised up too in terms of what she could accomplish with a single spell like this one. Once it would have felt absolutely out of reach but now it felt within her grasp, if only once in a while.

 _And when am I ever going to get the chance to use it?_

That was the point, wasn't it? All of this was just…displacement. Her friends were out there fighting for their lives and she was creating spells that she would never cast because…because Ruby would approve? Because it was the right thing to do? Because the law demanded it?

 _I have done wrong. But does that make it right that I should sit here in the dark while all those dear to me venture on the hazards of war?_

 _Is my punishment to be that I shall live on without them?_

And then she heard the roar.

Sunset had never heard a sound like that before. She was no stranger to fighting grimm now but she was a stranger to that sound, that awful sound, that infernal sound that seemed to belong in the depths of Tartarus, not in the living world. If she had heard that sound before then she might never have become a huntress – or even played at being one while ignoring everything a huntress was supposed to be and do – because that sound now robbed her courage away. It reached her even in the depths of Blackwall prison, it reached her in her cell through walls and bars and many cells between her and the source it reached her nonetheless; it jarred through her body and her bones as it was jarring through the whole building. Every cell was alive with noise as people screamed and shouted in the agony caused by that awful sound, and even Sunset cried out in alarm as she crouched on the floor, covering her ears in a futile attempt to block out that awful shrieking roar.

She closed her eyes and thought of Celestia, sunlight and a brilliant white glow, shimmering samite, the gleam of gold upon a diademed crown; soft wings and mother's love; wisdom and compassion in equal measure; the light that always returned to drive away the darkness. The sunlight in her soul that helped her master the great fear and anguish that the roar of that fell beast – for surely it was some creature of the girmm that had struck such terror into her – had sought inculcate within herself. She got to her feet. She could not sit idle in this cell, nor leave her friends to face such monsters as this, not without knowing what it was that they were facing.

 _And if it turns out to be nothing I can be back in my cell before anyone knows that I was gone._

 _Not that I think that nothing could make a sound like that._

Still wearing her collar that blocked her aura, Sunset teleported onto the roof of Cell Block B, where she was housed. She actually overdid it just a little bit, reappearing a few feet off the surface of the roof onto which she then fell, landing on her back. She had gotten too used to aura, she decided as said back and backside both began to smart from the landing, pain throbbing in her muscles like the washing in and out of the tide.

She picked herself up. There were no less than eight watchtowers set at intervals along the perimeter wall, and each watchtower was manned by a pair of androids who didn't – in theory – need a searchlight to spot anybody trying to escape or just being where they shouldn't be; but from what Sunset could see it looked as though those androids had been directed to look outwards, not in.

That was a bad sign it itself, as it suggested that whoever controlled the androids thought that something might be coming towards the prison from without; had the walls fallen? Surely not, but if they had…

Sunset saw it then. The darkness and the clouds had shrouded it, but when it passed in front of the moon Sunset could see its silhouette: the largest grimm that she had ever seen, a dragon as large as any in Equestria – okay, perhaps not, but only because dragons in Equestria could reach some truly ludicrous sizes if they lived for long enough; this was definitely on a level with the average fully grown specimen of that barbaric breed – and probably far more deadly.

Sunset mentally amended that to definitely, as she watched this beast larger than any she had dreamed of facing in her nightmares tear through the Atlesian defences. On the ground she could tell that the city had not fallen – the shellfire and the explosions on the outer defence line told her that both Atlas and Mistral were still battling to hold the outer defences – but in the skies the dragon was tearing Atlesian dropships and cruisers alike to shreds in its deadly rampage. When it flew over the city she could just about make droplets of something black, like a rain of tar or something, falling from the dragon's belly down onto Vale, but Sunset didn't know what it was and she didn't have a lot of time to give it much thought as she watched the dragon swoop down upon the Atlesian lines, belching out fire as it did so.

 _Team RSPT._ They would be down there somewhere, fighting alongside the Atlesian troops, and although APR would not be there – they would be on the Mistralian lines without a doubt – it could not be long until they, too, faced the fury of that monstrous grimm.

Sunset had resolved to stay in her cell, to be meek and quiet and penitent, but at that sight creature, at the memory of what the sound of its roar had done to her…she could not stay. She could not let her friends fight such a thing without her help. She could not sit idly by and see Vale threatened by that thing while she did nothing.

She would go and fight, and if Ruby wanted to put a bullet in the back of her head afterwards for escaping from prison she could do it once the fighting was won; they could hate her but they would have her help in this fight.

The entire Kingdom of Vale could hate her but it would have her help in this fight too. She would save all the Miss Quills and the Strawberry Swirls in Vale, and then submit herself once more unto their judgement.

 _Which means that I won't be needing this any more. Or rather, I'll be actively needing not to have it,_ she thought, as she put a hand on her collar and sent a jolt of energy through it powerful enough to short it out. She breathed in deeply as she felt her aura returning, banishing the pain of her back and renewing her strength five or ten-fold. It was something she had gotten used to, so much so that she had felt terribly weak without it even though she had merely been returned to her normal baseline.

With it she was able to rip the collar off her neck in a single strong tug, letting the shattered fragments fall to the ground at her feet.

She was about to teleport away again, a vague plan forming in her mind to try and sneak back into Beacon to get her gear, before…she hadn't thought that far ahead yet, but in any case it was all rendered slightly immaterial as she spotted the formation of Bullheads bearing down upon the prison.

Seven of them, all flying in from…where were they coming from? It didn't seem as though they were coming from the Atlesian line, or at least not from the Atlesian ships…and why were they heading for the prison in the middle of a battle in any case?

And then, as the Bullheads roared in, they opened fire. Machine guns in the noses of the aircraft blazed away, tracer rounds lighting up the night as they ripped through the watchtowers and blew away the androids occupying them. There were more androids in the courtyard below, the old AK-190s that Atlas was fazing out of the front-lines but which you still saw all over the place doing security work – these were slightly different to the ones that Sunset had seen before; they'd been customised with what looked like a range of non-lethal weapon options; the SDC probably manufactured variants for roles just like this – but the Bullheads swept fire down on them as well and as they swept the courtyard the side doors of two of the bullheads opened up and armed, masked figures began to leap down from the aircraft to join the fight.

 _Grimm masks. White Fang._

 _Here to rescue all the White Fang prisoners being held here, and kidnap anyone who gets in their way._

Alarms were blaring in the prison now, a higher pitched whine than the ones ringing in the streets of Vale but no less urgent. By now all the guards on duty would probably be rushing to the armoury to gear up, all the androids would be heading out, and maybe cops had already been summoned too. Soon this place would be swarming. Soon it would be a battlefield.

Which meant that if she was going to run away and join the fighting at the city limits she had better do it now if she wanted to do it unnoticed.

She could. She could teleport away and, in this confusion, her absence would not be noticed for some time. She could teleport away, get her weapons, find some way to make it to the fighting and ask her friends to take it on trust that she would face the consequences of her actions later.

Or she could stay here, because just look at the way in which the White Fang was so swiftly eliminating all those androids in the courtyard the defenders of the prison were going to need all the help they could get. They weren't huntsmen, they weren't even soldiers, they were just prison guards and yet the White Fang were coming for them with – judging by the agility that one of their number, a tiger faunus with a chain that she was using to grapple with the droids and send them flying – some of their best fighters, huntsman level at the very least.

And the closest thing this prison had to a huntsman was…Sunset Shimmer.

So she could either go to her friends, or she could do what Ruby or Pyrrha would have done without hesitation and act like a real huntress for once and defend this prison.

Which meant…there really wasn't much choice at all.

Sunset had teleported up onto the roof, but now she kicked down the door leading down from the roof and ran down the stairs, pounding across the metal walkways leading through the cell block corridors as she headed down towards the yard. Prisoners trapped and collared in their cells called out to her, yelled about why there was a prisoner out of her cell, shouted for her to let them out, but Sunset ignored them all as she kept on running.

Sunset abruptly realised that her hands were bare. She had spent so long wearing gloves, and then of course her aura and semblance had been suppressed, but if she made skin contact with anybody now then she'd be getting their entire life story.

 _Probably teach me that I should have learned how control it at some point instead of just waltzing around in bridal gloves all the time. But it's a bit late for that now._

Sunset tore off the sleeves of her beige prison jumpsuit, and wrapped the strips around her hands like a boxer. A simple transfiguration spell turned them into a pair of rough but serviceable gloves, so that she could use her hands – or her first, and considering that she was unarmed as yet it might well come to that – without fear of her semblance turning on at the most inconvenient moment possible.

Sunset resumed her run, heading towards the common area of this cell block; she came across neither guards nor androids on her run, but she could hear the thumping of feet organic and metallic up ahead, and she guessed that they were preceding her down there. Sunset quickened her pace.

There was the thunderous bang of an explosion from up ahead, from the common room just as she had predicted, and after the explosion came the sounds of gunfire and the screams of men wounded or worse.

 _Too late already, too late._ Sunset forced herself to move even faster, teleporting ahead in short bursts as far down the corridor as she could see to save even a little time, willing herself on, to get there before the outmatched defenders of the prison were all slaughtered.

The gunfire stopped. All noise loud enough for Sunset to hear it as she pounded down the corridor, any sounds loud enough to drown out the rattle of her prison boots against the metallic walkways, ceased completely. Sunset kept running, but the silence of the guns could only mean one thing.

She was too late. She arrived above the common area – two floors above, there were suicide prevention nets strung across the balconies in case any prisoners decided to jump in the rare instances when they were let out of their cells – looking down on the recreation area and gathering space for this cell block. Long tables, reminiscent of the dining hall save that there was no kitchen anywhere here, lined the long room, while a very old and incredibly threadbare ping pong table sat in the north-west corridor, alongside a television that looked to be broken and a radio that had seen better days but was still working well enough to be quietly emitting a public service broadcast advising everyone to seek shelter and await further instructions from the government.

The White Fang had blown a hole in the wall, and proceeded to eliminate all opposition to them with a ruthless efficiency; not that there had been a huge amount of opposition, judging by the relatively few casualties of the defenders. Sunset doubted that there had been time to muster much of a response given the speed of the White Fang assault. Most of the guards were still either trying to get to whatever kind of rally points they had or else arming themselves against an incursion that was already in progress. Only one or two of the slain men down below were wearing armour, and some of them didn't look to have been armed with much more than a pistol. There hadn't even been many androids down there with them, judging by the paucity of shattered parts.

Sunset teleported down into the common – the suicide nets presented no problem to her – and looked around, trying to get a sense of where the White Fang had gone. It was a task made harder because she had no idea of the layout of the prison.

Someone groaned. Sunset turned, her eyes widening. One of the guards was still alive, they were making soft moaning sounds and squirming on the floor just a little. Sunset knelt down by their side, and after a moment she recognised the square, slightly lumpen face of the guard who had a nephew attending Beacon, the one who had sympathised with her frustration about being stuck here while their friends and loved ones fought for their lives and for Vale. Now they were on the ground, blood soaking their brown uniform shirt, sweat coating their face, pained sounds escaping their lips.

"Easy there," Sunset murmured. "It's going to be o…" she trailed off, looking at the wound. He'd been shot in the left side. Memories of Professor Peach's first aid class came to mind: if you were shot and your aura broke then you'd best hope the bullet came out the other side because if it lodged somewhere you were in real trouble.

The bullet was lodged somewhere, which was slowing the bleeding a little bit but probably wasn't doing much for whatever it had gotten stuck in.

 _All that time in the library and I never picked up a book on healing magic._ "Uh, okay," Sunset said. She tapped him lightly on the side of the face. "Listen, wake up and stay with me. Look into my eyes. I need you to tell me where the doctor is…the medical wing, whatever it's called. I need you to tell me where I take you to get help."

The guard – the nameplate on his lapel said his name was Douglas, which Sunset should have guessed considering that was also the name of his nephew – blinked fuzzily at her. "Y…you?"

"Me," Sunset agreed. "I'm a sight for sore eyes, I know, but contain your amazement for a second and focus: where is the hospital wing?"

Mister Douglas frowned. "Why? You're-"

"A huntress," Sunset said. "I'm a huntress, and saving lives is…it's what a huntress does." She tore off another strip from her sleeve, ripping through the beige fabric as almost her whole sleeve came away in her hand. She hoped that he was too in pain to ask too many questions about how she managed to transfigure it into a large plaster before his very eyes; bandages didn't fix bullet holes but, Sunset thought as she applied the pressure pad to his raw and ugly gunshot wound, this would slow the bleeding until she could get him to a doctor.

Mister Douglas shook his head, if only slightly. "You…you need to go…after them."

"And who's going to look after you if I do that?" Sunset said. "You could bleed out by the time any more help gets here. Now come on: doctor?"

Douglas groaned. "Medical ward is…through A block, at the back, ground floor, next to the Admin Building."

"Thanks," Sunset said. "A Block…that's the serial killers, right?"

Douglas nodded.

"That'll be fun," Sunset muttered, as she moved Douglas' hand to cover the bandage that was even now being suffused with his blood. "Keep pressure on that, it's supposed to help. I think." She cast a minor anti-gravity spell on him to make him a little easier to life – aura also helped a lot with that – as she slung the big guy's other arm over her shoulder and stood up, dragging him up along with her although his feet dragged on the floor.

She telekinetically grabbed hold of a shotgun lying on the ground – it's previous owner was not, unfortunately, going to need it anymore – and held it in her one free hand. She wasn't a good one-handed aim, but that didn't matter so much with a shotgun, or at least she hoped it didn't.

"Okay, Mister Douglas," Sunset said. "Let's go."

She didn't think about going after the White Fang. If she had arrived while the battle was still raging then she would have joined in said battle, but she had arrived too late for that. But she had arrived in time to save this one life, and right now that was all that mattered.

She started walking, as quickly as she could while carrying – or dragging – a heavyset man who was a lot bigger and heavier than she was; but with magic helping and aura taking a lot of the strain she made good time considering that it would have been impossible without it, as they moved out of the common area and into the long corridor connecting cell blocks B and A.

Douglas groaned. "You should leave me. You're wasting your time."

Sunset shook her head. "You're not dead yet. And you're not going to die tonight if I have anything to say about it."

"You think that you'll get credit from the judge for saving my life?"

Sunset let out a laugh. "I love how you can't even give credence to the idea that I might be trying to become a better person."

"A better person who's out of her cell without permission. How did you do that anyway?"

"I'm full of surprises."

Douglas grunted. "I've worked prison security for…twenty years." He groaned. "I ain't never met any Jaune Valjean yet."

"You're well read for a prison guard."

"Not really. Who doesn't love musical theatre, right?"

Sunset chuckled. "Nobody, I guess." She paused. "But listen, I may not be some inspiring story about reformation and self-improvement but I'm trying my best. I'm not doing this because I want extra credit come sentencing, or so that you can get up and tell everyone how I deserve to live; I'm doing this because…because I'm trying to live up to the ideals of Beacon Academy. To the ideals of…a good friend who's very disappointed in me right now. Belated, I know, but better late than never, right?"

Douglas huffed. "If you want to do the right thing then you should…you should leave me and go after those guys. Before they do…"

"I don't know exactly what they're going to do," Sunset said. "But I do know that if I leave you here you're as like to die as you are to be found by anybody else."

"So?" Douglas asked. "I'm just one guy, there could be-"

"Because I don't believe in necessary sacrifices," Sunset said sharply. They were approaching the end of the corridor now, approaching A Block; Sunset would be lying if she said it didn't fill her with a little trepidation, but talking to Mister Douglas helped with that. "You…you know what I did, right?"

"Everyone knows."

"I don't regret saving my friends lives," Sunset said. "I don't regret the fact that nobody died down in that tunnel. What I regret is that I put other people's lives at risk to save the lives of my friends. But as someone very wise once said to me: not even for the world. I thought that they were talking about someone very precious to them, someone they loved, but Celestia…there's always a lesson with her; it always goes deeper than you think at first. I asked her if she'd sacrifice Twilight to save the world, and she said no…but I think what she was actually telling me was that she wouldn't sacrifice anybody to save the world, ever. She'd find another way. Because there is always another way. And so I'm not going to leave you to die, just for some nebulous idea of the greater good. I am going to get you to safety and treatment, and then we can worry about all the other stuff the White Fang might be doing."

The lights went off, plunging the corridor into complete darkness. After a moment the red auxiliary lights kicked in, shading the whole corridor in a red like blood.

"Well that's not good," Sunset said.

"They must…must have gotten to the control room," Douglas said. "They can…they can turn off the lights, or they can-"

Alarms blared from both in front and behind them, as the sound of hundreds of cell doors rattling open assailed their ears.

"Or they can open the cages," Sunset muttered. _And they turned off the lights because their guys can see in the dark._ "Come on, we've got to move faster." She quickened her pace as best she could, closing in on the door. It was a heavy thing, painted red, with a notice saying CAUTION – EXTREMELY DANGEROUS PRISONERS BEYOND THIS POINT. As opposed all the other prisoner who were just dangerous.

"Brothers and sisters of the White Fang!" a voice, female and mature, echoed out of the speakers mounted to the walls. "This is Sienna Khan speaking. I have come to free you from the cages of your oppressors. Come quickly! Make your way to the prison yard, we have transport waiting. And if any of you who are not our brethren seek to steal our aircraft, be assured that we will defend them with deadly force. I don't care where you go or what you do, but our transports are for the White Fang alone and for the White Fang they shall remain."

"In the control centre," Sunset said. "Can they turn off the collars too?"

"And the androids."

"Better and better," Sunset murmured.

"You should have-"

"Don't say it."

"But I'm-"

"No, you're not."

Douglas sighed. "How many people are going to die because you wanted to save my life?"

"How many people die every night in this city, do you expect me to save all of them?" Sunset asked. "Nobody can do that. But I can save the life right in front of me." That…this might not be exactly what Ruby would do, it might not be exactly how she would play this situation, but that didn't make it wrong, right? As a way of behaving this wasn't unworthy of a huntress, was it? There was a life in danger right in front of her, and Sunset didn't see that she had the right to turn away just because there might be more important things happening somewhere else.

 _Not even for the world._

"Now hang on," Sunset said. "This might get a little rough."

She kicked open the door into Cell Block A, and stepped through it into another corridor, this one with a single cell – did the really sick freaks get larger cells? How unfair was that? - to her left. A cell from which an overweight, pasty, balding man was emerging, chuckling to himself as he did so.

He looked at Sunset, and he bared his teeth at her as though she were a meal.

Sunset raised her shotgun and shot him. The shotgun barked, the first shot staggering him backwards. Telekinesis pumped the gun before she fired again, breaking his aura. Sunset tossed the shotgun into the air before hitting the other guy square in the chest with a bolt of magic from her hand. It didn't kill him, but it did knock him out cold on his back – after it had sent him flying down the corridor.

Sunset summoned the shotgun back into her hand. She glanced at Douglas. His eyes were closed.

"No, no, stay awake!" Sunset snapped at him as she started to run awkwardly down the dimly lit corridor. "Talk to me."

Douglas' eyes fluttered open. "So…why did you do it?"

"Huh?"

"I said I knew why you were here," Douglas said. "You betrayed Vale. You helped the White Fang breach the defences. But…I guess…why? Why would a traitor who tried to bring down the whole city care about saving my life?"

"I didn't want to bring down the whole city," Sunset said. "I just…I didn't much care at the time whether the city fell or not. I just wanted to save my friends on the train."

Douglas was silent for a moment. "That's it?"

"What did you expect?"

"I don't know? I thought…I don't know what I thought. Is that really it?"

"I'm not a supervillain," Sunset said. "Although, there was a time when…never mind. The point is…with the grimm behind us, and the last station behind us, I couldn't see any other way out other than to let that train smash through the defences. I…I should have looked harder. There's always another way."

Douglas was quiet for a moment. "You know there's all kinds of escape hatches in those tunnels, right? For emergencies?"

Sunset glanced at him. "Really?"

"Yeah," he said. "What, do you think if there was a fire in the tunnel everyone has to try and run to the nearest station?"

Sunset thought about it for a moment, feeling more and more like an idiot the more she did so. She sighed. "What did I tell you? Always another way if you look for it."

They kept moving, Douglas occasionally giving her directions when she was about to make a wrong turn. Most of the psychos had already left their cells by the time that Sunset and her charge got there, but those that lingered she was, thankfully, able to deal with. The cells were larger here, and a beneficial side-effect of that was that there were fewer prisoners in this block; she supposed the authorities didn't want to pack in the worst of the worst too tightly. Although they didn't seem that bad from her perspective.

And then the two of them rounded another corridor to find another guard, a young dog faunus woman with terrier ears poking out of her brown – at least Sunset thought it was brown; in the red light it was hard to be sure – hair, struggling as a prisoner had her by the neck. He was lifting her off the ground, and her feet kicking at the air as she thrashed and writhed in futile effort to contest his strength.

Sunset raised her shotgun. It shook in her hand ever so slightly as she pointed it at him. "Let her go!"

The prisoner turned, putting the struggling guard between Sunset and himself. He was a tall man, broad-shouldered without appearing too muscular, with salt and pepper hair and square glasses over his eyes. He had, again as best Sunset could tell in the lack of light, a very ordinary looking face, the kind of unremarkable man you wouldn't notice on the street.

His eyes flashed, and he smiled at Sunset. "Well, hello beautiful."

Sunset scowled. "Let her go."

The smile didn't leave the prisoner's face. "I don't know how accurate you are with that shotgun in two hands, but I doubt that you could hit me without hitting her with that thing even if your hand wasn't shaking."

He was unfortunately right about that. "Why are you doing this?" Sunset asked. "Why don't you get out while you still can?"

"They took away my collection," he said.

"Your what?"

"Taxidermist," Douglas murmured. "That's the Taxidermist, shoot him."

"He's right, that's what they called me when they found out: the Taxidermist. I had a store, in Vale; I stuffed animals; I made those grimm trophies that you see on the walls of blowhards." His voice was soft, quiet, as unremarkable as his face except for the very fact of it being so calm and composed, even as he was strangling a woman – he seemed to have released her a little, she had stopped kicking at least, but he still had his hands around her throat – made it quite remarkable. "But my real collection was downstairs in the basement."

"Faunus," Sunset said, who found that she could suddenly guess where this was going. "You killed and stuffed faunus, didn't you?"

"Twenty of them before anyone noticed," the Taxidermist said. "Twenty five before I got caught. Then they took my collection away from me. So I guess I'll have to start over."

"Sure," Sunset said. "But not with her. Take me instead."

"What?" Douglas hissed. "What happened to no sacrifices?"

"No necessary sacrifices," Sunset said, and what would shooting a guard so that she could also hit the prisoner be but a 'necessary sacrifice'; that wasn't who she wanted to be. That wasn't the kind of thing that the huntress Sunset Shimmer wanted to become would do. "Come on, you said it yourself: I'm beautiful."

"You have very lovely hair," the Taxidermist said. He tilted his head to one side. "Drop your gun and your aura, and come slowly towards me."

"And you'll let her go?"

"Once you're close enough, and I'm sure that this isn't a trick."

"It's no trick," Sunset said. "Just the right thing." She lowered Douglas to the ground, propping him up against the wall, and kicked her shotgun away. She felt herself grow noticeably weaker as she lowered her aura. "Officer…I'm sorry, it's too dark for me to read your name. It's going to be okay, I promise." She raised her hands as she began to walk wards the Taxidermist.

"I might make that your pose," he said as Sunset advanced down the corridor towards him. "With that solemn look on your face. Or maybe…no, you have a face made for smiles."

Sunset wasn't smiling as she got close enough to smell his sweat. Close enough to see the panic in the eyes of the guard he was holding by the neck. "Come on. Let her go. I'm right here."

He stared down at her, his eyes hidden a little behind glasses that hadn't been cleaned in a little while. He said nothing. Then he threw the guard aside – she hit the wall of the corridor with a grunt of pain – and grabbed Sunset by the neck.

As he lifted her up off the floor, Sunset found that she could feel her aura any more.

He grinned. "My semblance suppresses the aura in those I touch," he said, as his grip on Sunset's throat tightened. "How else do you think I was able to subdue twenty five victims?"

Sunset gasped for breath. She could feel her lungs tightening for want of air, and her aura was gone as completely as if it had been ripped from her body.

Good thing semblance wasn't all she had.

She caught a glimpse of the surprise in the Taxidermist's eyes as her hands started to glow right before she hit him with twin beams of magic that knocked him off his feet and, more importantly, knocked his hands off her. Her aura returned in a rush as she hit the floor feet first, and she briefly glowed brightly enough to illuminate the corridor in which she stood.

The Taxidermist's glasses had been knocked off by the impact, she could see that his eyes were black like those of a beetle, and wide as he stared at her. "What are you?"

Sunset lifted him up into the air with telekinesis out of one hand. "I'm a huntress in training," she said, before she hammered him with a bolt of magic straight into the chest.

She killed him. She kept hitting him with magic until his aura broke and she blasted a hole through his chest. She killed him because she was filled with a righteous anger at what he'd done, and because in the brief moment before she had thrown him away, in that moment when he had cut her aura off, she had been scared that he was going to do the same thing to her. It was just like Adam, and it wasn't right, but it was who she still was, it seemed: someone who would lash out at the people who frightened her.

But, although she thought that she maybe should have felt guilt for it, she couldn't actually bring herself to feel any guilt for what she'd done. The man had been a monster, and the world was better off without him. Wasn't it?

"Like I said," Sunset said, as she dropped the Taxidermist's body to the floor. "No necessary sacrifices." She went to the side of the guard. "Are you okay? Can you walk?"

The guard – her name pin said her name was Garcia – looked at Sunset warily.

"I'm one of the good guys," Sunset assured.

"She's okay, Garcia," Douglas murmured. "She's…okay."

"Can you walk?" Sunset repeated.

"I can do better than that, I can carry him," Garcia said. "That way you can point your gun with two hands. You're going for the medical wing, right?"

"Yeah, he's been shot," Sunset said.

"I'll be right behind you," Garcia said, as she went over to Douglas and helped him up. "Where did you learn to do that…thing?"

Sunset pulled the shotgun back into her hands. "Oh, you know. At school."

She led the way, keeping her pace to a speed that Garcia could follow burdened with Douglas; she led the way through an A block that had already been mostly abandoned by its inmates. She could hear – they could all hear – the sounds of struggle going on elsewhere in the prison, but that was something to worry about later; she _would_ deal with it later, before she left, but in the meantime she had a life to say and someone else to protect, and so she led through the abandoned block and was glad that they had abandoned it rather than stick around to menace her charges; they passed some of the powered down androids, and Sunset thought that if the prisoners were smart they would have smashed up these symbols of hated authority while they were powerless. But they had not done so, perhaps because they were more eager to escape, perhaps because they had other things on her mind. Either way the androids remained, dormant, heads bowed and arms folded. And all to the good, because once she had gotten Douglas to the medical wing then all she would need to do would be to get to the control centre and turn the androids back on the prison would be halfway back to being under control of the authorities.

But first, the medical wing.

The medical wing was through A Block, but it was not actually attached to A Block; they had to step outside, into the cool air of the fall night. Sunset heard the roaring of engines as she stepped through the door that should have been locked if it, like the cell doors, hadn't been disabled by the White Fang; she looked up, and saw the first bullhead taking off from the other side of the building. She turned away as the others started to rise up after it. Perhaps Ruby or the others would have gone after the White Fang and left the guard to die, but…if you accepted that all lives had equal value then…then all life had value, and you couldn't turn away from a dying man just because more people might die if you stopped to tend to his injuries. If you didn't have the right to sacrifice people for the sake of other people whom you liked better then what did you have to sacrifice them for any reason? He was a living man, and being so he was worth saving, no matter the cost.

She saw another guard who had not been so fortunate. He was lying dead in the doorway of the building that housed the medical wing and the administrative complex, the governor's office and the floors where the administrative staff worked to keep the prison running. The fact that the guard on the door had been killed – and the door forced open, by the look of it – wasn't a great sign.

Sunset motioned for Garcia to stay back a little as she gingerly walked inside. She could hear voices, raised and angry voices, coming from the corridor marked with a sign pointing towards the medical ward. She followed that sign, down a corridor that didn't even have red emergency lights, that was plunged into complete darkness; she found her way to a door that was ajar, with white regular light – this building must be on a separate circuit and the White Fang hadn't bothered with it – spilling out beyond. Sunset crept to the doorway, and peered in.

At least a score of people had been lined up against the wall; some of them wore medical scrubs, others wore suits, and a couple of them were wearing the uniforms of the guards. An old woman looked as though she might faint, while a slender young woman was sobbing into her hands. A middle-aged man, besuited and with a well-trimmed beard covering the bottom half of his face was saying something too quiet for Sunset to make out. One of his captors hit him in the stomach with the stock of a shotgun, causing him to double over in pain.

Yes, the captors. Sunset couldn't see well enough to get a good tally on how many there were. Five? Six? More? The ones she could see all had the unfortunate facial hair choices of the goons that she had seen at Junior's club, though it didn't seem so laughable now that they were holding men and women at gunpoint, or fingering kitchen knives as though they meant to use them.

One man, who might be their leader or might not, was saying something, gesturing angrily as he paced up and down, holding a rifle in one hand. He suddenly pointed it at the sobbing young woman, thrusting it into her face as he raised the weapon to his shoulder.

Sunset burst in through the door, grabbing hold of every weapon she could see with her telekinesis and yanking them towards her, pulling them out of the hands of the bearded and moustachioed heavies and holding them all around her head like Penny's swords, pointed at her enemies.

She used her same telekinesis to pull the triggers, because there wasn't much else that she could do at this point, with no way of holding them captive. She tried to hit them in the kneecaps, or the shoulder, something that would put them down without killing them; but sad to say she didn't succeed universally in that regard, only four of the six – it had been six, as she had guessed it might be – were still alive when she stopped shooting.

"I'm sorry that you had to see that," Sunset murmured as she let the weapons drop to the floor. "Doctor, I'm sorry to give you so many new patients but if you could look at Mister Douglas first he's in a bad way – Ms Garcia, could you bring him in now please?"

Garcia brought in Douglass, the latter now looking very pale and very sweaty, and Sunset helped him up onto one of the beds nearby. She looked at the white-haired doctor, staring at her in shock. "Doctor," she said, gesturing at the injured guard.

That seemed to rouse the man, and he sprang into action, ordering his nurses as he rushed to Mister Douglas' side. Sunset stepped back to let them work. She focussed her attention on the man with the beard who had been gut-punched not too long ago.

"Are you the warden, I presume?" she asked.

The warden stared at her. "I am. Are we your hostages now?"

"No," Sunset said, although she didn't sound too shocked because she could see why he might think that. "I'm going to leave you here while I head for the control room – does anyone have a map of the prison so I can find it? – and then, once I've reactivated all the security systems, then I would like your permission to temporarily leave the prison to join the defence of the city. I swear, on my honour, that I will return here as soon as the fighting is done."

"You…you want parole?"

"In the old sense of the word, yes," Sunset replied. "After the prison is secure."

He stared at her. Everyone stared at her. "Why in the name of all the gods are you asking me for a thing like that?" he said. "You could just walk on out of here and nobody in this room could stop you?"

"I know," Sunset said, failing to add that they couldn't have stopped her leaving even before tonight. "But that's why I need your permission to do it. This isn't an escape, and if you tell me to get back in my cell and sit this out then I'll do it, but…but my friends are fighting out there. So many brave people are fighting out there to defend this city and I think that I can help. Just like I helped your guards. Just like I can help you get this prison back under control. Let me do my part in the battle that's upon us and then, upon my honour as…as one too proud for her own good I swear I will return to take whatever punishment Vale chooses to bestow upon me. Because there will be a Vale to bestow it."

The warden looked into her eyes, and Sunset had the distinct impression that she was being weighed and measured. That didn't bother her. She was confident in her good intentions and in the rightness of her cause. "What makes you think you'll even make it to the control centre? It's chaos out there, all the cells are open, everyone's loose, it's a mad house in B and C blocks. Nobody here-"

"I don't need your help," Sunset said. "I can make it."

"Well, if you can…if you ask me I'd almost think you had the right to walk away, but if you want to come back after."

"I will," Sunset said. "I have to." _What kind of life would I have if I didn't? A fugitive, wanted in every kingdom?_

"Okay then," the Warden said. "It's…unorthodox, but once you turned the security back on…come back here and I'll write you out a parole, just like in the old days. Take this scroll," he handed her his own. "It has all the prison schematics on it."

"Thank you, sir," Sunset said, studying the plans, working out the route that she needed to take. "For everything."

"And take Officer Douglas's badge," the warden said. "When the androids come back online they'll recognise it, there's a chip in it which tags you as friendly."

"Thanks for this too," Sunset said. She took the badge – it was slightly bloodstained – and turned away. "You might want to think about barricading this door until I'm done."

"What makes you really think that you can do all this by yourself?" the warden asked her.

Sunset pumped her shotgun. "Because I'm finally starting to act like a huntress, and defying impossible odds is what a huntress does."

She left the room and the building. The map on the scroll that she'd been given put the Control Room on the upper level of C Block; she thought that she might get there faster if she went around A and B rather than through them, and so she skirted around the west wing of the prison to approach from the north rather than the south.

Unfortunately, she found that although the White Fang had all departed – or at least their airships had, she couldn't say for sure that they'd waited for all their escapees to get on first - the rest of the prisoners they had released from their cells before leaving had spilled out into the yard, or at least some of them had. A great number in fact.

The warden had been right, it was a madhouse: there was a fight going on right before her eyes; maybe it was gangs from outside settling the scores that had been allowed to fester during incarceration.

Sunset noticed a few prisoners who were not fighting, though; instead they were running towards the open gate leading out of the prison and into Vale.

 _I'd rather that you didn't do that,_ Sunset said, and grabbed both doors of the great gate with her telekinesis, pushing at it with all the magic at her command. It was a heavy thing of solid steel, intended to be opened and closed with motors, but Sunset wasn't about to be beaten by anything so banal as the weight of the object she was trying to push. She might have prioritised saving a life over stopping the breakout but that didn't mean that she was just going to let these people walk out of the prison while she was standing right there.

The great creaked and groaned as it closed; if the prisoners had made a run for it then they might have slipped through the crack as Sunset closed the gate slowly, so painfully slowly, but they seemed frozen in shock, stunned by the gate closing without direction or cause, caught in indecision over what to do now that it was closing.

And the gate slammed shut with a solid thud that echoed across the yard.

Some of the prisoners stopped trying to bludgeon one another to death with the weight-lifting equipment and looked for the source of the gate's sudden closure. Their eyes settled on Sunset. Some of the prisoners were human, and some were faunus, but as they looked at her all of their eyes had the same predatory, animalistic glint to them as though the moon was turning them all to monsters like werewolves.

 _More likely they were always monsters._

 _And they'll sense my fear as surely as any creature of grimm._ For that reason Sunset put on a brave face and a cocky smirk as she said, "I don't suppose you'd all go back to your cells and wait quietly for the power to come back on?"

A heavyset man with a spider's web tattooed across his bald head started to run towards her, wielding a set of heavily weighted barbells like a club.

Sunset shot him. It blasted him backwards and broke his aura but it didn't kill him, although the way those barbells landed on his hand might have broken a few bones judging by the pained noise he made. Sunset didn't look concerned. She couldn't afford to look concerned. These people were just like the grimm, they would sense her fear and if she didn't want any trouble out of them then the only way to do that was to act so much like Queen of the Jungle that they started to believe it.

So she cast a reverse gravity spell on herself sufficiently to carry her off the ground and into the air, not too high just a dozen feet or so, as she started to form spears of energy in the air around her.

She let them watch for just a moment, gaping and gawping as the spears of green magic formed in a semi-circle above her head. Then she let them fly.

She didn't hit anyone, that wasn't the point although they were so densely packed in some places that she did send a few people flying across the yard. The point was to show them all what she could do, and cratering said yard and scattering the benches and the weightlifting equipment certainly did that, judging by the way that they were all cowering in fear of her.

"Let me rephrase that," Sunset said, using a simple spell of amplify her voice a little so that it carried further, even as she conjured more spears in the air above her head. "Get back to your cells this instant and stay there until the power comes back on! Move!"

They ran. Cowards. They preyed on the weak and the helpless and the moment someone stronger than them stood up to them they crumbled. Their cruelty hid no courage beneath it. Cinder had her faults and vices, to be sure, but at least she was prepared to stand up and defy the many powers arrayed against her. All these scum were prepared to do was play the cat: devour the mice and run from the dog. She wasn't sure if any of them would actually go back to their cells, but they ran into the cell blocks and cleared the yard, which was a start.

Sunset lowered herself back to the ground, her spears dispersing into nothing as she reclaimed the energy involved in creating them. Where was all of this magic coming from? Why did she feel so much stronger recently than had been the case before? Had Amber's awakening released more magic into the world? No, that couldn't be it, Sunset had been here for years – before Amber's injury at the hands of Cinder – and she'd never felt this strong before.

Maybe when all this was over they'd let her have her journal back and she could ask Princess Celestia or Twilight about it.

Right now, of course, she had more important things to think about. Sunset crossed the now-empty and abandoned yard, approaching the doors into Cell Block C. She made her stance into a strut, mindful of the need to make the same formidable impression upon the prisoners within as she had made on those in the yard, and she pumped her shotgun as she kicked in the door.

Sunset strutted into the common area as though she was the ruler of all of Vale; her tail swished behind her as she strode into open space, dimly lit and cast in shadows red as blood. She saw a prisoner beat a guard onto the floor and straddle him, fist raise. Sunset threw him off with a flick of telekinesis, flinging him into the wall.

"Get out of here, go!" Sunset snapped at the guard. "Get to the medical wing!" He didn't say anything, but he ran past her, heading for the door.

Sunset strode through the room as chaos reigned all around her. Prisoners were fighting, they were tearing their cells apart and throwing bedding and belongings out into the corridors, they were trying to start fires. Sunset shot someone who was about to leap on her from atop a table, knocking him off it and to the ground on the other side. A bolt of magic was sufficient to knock back a tattooed, muscular woman who charged towards her wielding a length of chain. Sunset caught sight of Mercury Black, legless and out of his wheelchair and on the ground, his arms thrashing and beating the floor while Emerald, her red eyes gleaming, tried to strangle him with a bedsheet. Sunset hit them both with magical pulses that sent them flying into different corners of the room. When Emerald tried to get up Sunset hit her with a second one.

Sunset didn't pause, didn't break step. She just kept walking – strutting – forward, shotgun in hand, using buckshot or magic to clear a path through the out of control prisoners, stopping anyone from actually killing anyone else – especially any of the guards who had been unlucky enough to be caught when the cells opened – but not physically stopping because the moment she stopped she would be overwhelmed. She cleared a path for herself and she walked that path, step by step, breaking auras and breaking heads of anyone who got in her way as she swept like a hurricane through the Block C common area and through the corridors and up the stairs that led to the control room.

The control room itself was on the top floor, somewhat isolated from the rest of the prison but clearly not enough. It had an armoured door, but that had been forced open to the extent that it would need to be replaced, the metal all twisted and broken by whatever the White Fang had done to it. There were a couple of dead guards inside.

 _I saved the life that was in front of me. I can't save everyone. Nobody can._

 _Although…maybe I should have tried._

 _And what would have happened to the guy bleeding to the death on the floor?_

 _No necessary sacrifices. No putting people in harm's way. No putting lives in the scales._

 _Not even for the world._

She knelt, and closed the eyes of the dead men. _The White Fang did this. Not me._

 _I'm sorry that I couldn't save you._

She approached the control panel. The wall of the room was filled with screens showing camera fades – they were still up, at least – showing the chaos engulfing the prison. Another screen, slightly larger, rose up out of the control panel with a list of menu options.

If the White Fang had done anything to actually mess with the computer and lock it down then Sunset would have been in real trouble, but it seemed that they hadn't actually cared enough to bother with that; their aim was simply to cause enough chaos to allow them to free their people without trouble, and having done that they didn't care how easy it was to get the prison back online.

Which meant that it was quite easy, now that Sunset had gotten here.

"Main power: on," Sunset said, and she could see on the camera feeds the lights turning back on, blinding some of the inmates whose eyes had become accustomed to the gloom. "Androids: on." She watched on the cameras as the AK-190s stirred to life once again, turning their guns on the surprised prisoners as they fired what Sunset thought were probably nonlethal or tranquiliser rounds, the robots' face-plates flashing red as they began to stalk the corridors, hunting down any inmate they saw.

"Gas? Let's try that," Sunset said, as she flicked a switch that released some kind of knock-out gas into the cell blocks via the ventilation system. "And in case any of you didn't take them off: collars on." She saw a few prisoners, those without the wisdom to remove the restraints when they had the chance, suddenly go limp as they were suddenly disconnected from their auras.

Sunset stood back and watched as the gas and the androids did their work, prisoners being knocked out either by the gas or by the rounds – tranquilisers or rubber bullets or both – being fired by the androids. She watched as guards in gas masks – where were the police? It hadn't occurred to Sunset before but didn't they know that there had almost been a mass prison breakout? – put collars on those who broken or removed them before hauling their unconscious bodies into their cells, while the androids watched, silent in their vigilance.

She was still watching the restoration of order when the warden found her, up in the control room; he was accompanied by three guards, all armed, who watched her as though they couldn't quite believe that she was on their side, and were wary in case this all turned out to be an elaborate trick on her part.

"You did it," the warden said, as he pulled off the gas mask that had allowed him to get this far. "Although I'm still not quite sure why."

"Because, as a wise old man once told me, we always have the choice to be better than we were," Sunset said. "And because it's what some people I admire very much would have done."

The warden still looked a little confused by her motivations. "All I knew about you when you came in was that you were a traitor to this kingdom, but…you've saved my life and a lot of other lives tonight."

"I'd like to save more," Sunset reminded him. "If you'll allow it."

"Right, that," the warden said. He fished a piece of paper out of his pocket. It was yellow, and it had been torn out of a notepad by the look of it, but Sunset could read the words as she plucked the scrap of paper out of his hand.

I, John Russet, Warden of Blackwall Prison, do by this letter grant the prisoner, Sunset Shimmer, leave to absent herself from my custody for the duration of the fighting around Vale.

"I have a wife," he said. "And a thirteen year old boy. If you can help them-"

"I'll do my best, like so many others are already," Sunset said. She snatched a pen up from the control panel and scribbled a few words below the warden's note.

I, Sunset Shimmer, hereby give my word that as soon as the fighting is concluded I will present myself to Warden John Russet at Blackwall Prison and return to custody.

And then she signed her name.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to wear this," the warden said, taking a collar from one of his men. "It's not activated, so you'll still have your aura, but it will look a little more official."

"Plus you can turn it on when the battle is done if I'm still wearing it," Sunset said. "You don't trust me, Warden? Don't answer that, I'm not sure that I'd trust me either." She pocked the piece of paper, and put the collar on. "Thank you, for giving me this opportunity."

"Thank you for giving me my prison back."

"All part of the Sunset service," Sunset said, and then she left.

She teleported just outside the prison, wearing her collar and with her parole in her pocket, and began to run towards Beacon Academy. It wasn't where the fighting was, but it was the place where her weapons and equipment were stored and it was a place where she could find out where the others were without having to search the whole of the lines for them.

The dragon passed overhead as she ran through the dark and abandoned streets, and though it did not notice her it did drop some kind of black ooze from the bottom of its belly, black ooze which landed in front of her before, in front of Sunset's own astonished eyes, the ooze began to resolve itself into a beowolf.

Sunset took a step back as the beowolf…it looked as though it was both crawling its way out of the dark pool but also as though the dark pool was becoming the beowolf. It was like nothing that she had ever seen before, it was-

 _That's it! They're just magic, so all is needed is a counterspell!_

As the beowolf looked at her, Sunset raised one hand and cast the Fail Safe spell. It was mid-tier, as counterspells went, not one of the simplest nor one of the most complex, able to deal with a wide variety of spells – and that breadth was the thing that made it the most complex to learn; Sunset had been considering it as a way of dealing with the powers of a Maiden, but now she flung it out towards the beowolf, hoping that since it was Destruction magic incarnate the counterspell would shut it down.

Judging by the beowolf popped, turning at once to ashes that scattered on the wide, it seemed to have worked.

"Yes," Sunset murmured, allowing herself to feel a sense of satisfaction in having been right as she continued to run towards the school. Now, if she could combine it with the other spells…it probably wouldn't work on the larger grimm…or rather since the larger the grimm then the more powerful the 'spell' animating the whole thing it would require more energy to deal with a larger grimm and even in her strengthened state that was power that she simply didn't have. That dragon in the sky above, for example; the amount of magic driving it on had to be immense, and there was no way that she could counter all that. And as far as individual grimm went it was no more efficient a way of getting rid of them than shooting them, but if she could combine the spell with others then it would provide a handy area of effect attack if they were every getting swamped.

Which might be happening even now. Sunset quickened her pace, arriving sweat-stained at an empty Beacon, a school scarred by recent battle but thoroughly deserted now. There was no one to be seen, and only the fact that there were no grimm to be seen either prevented her from fearing the worst. Nevertheless, she found herself walking more slowly and more softly as she began to head towards the locker room.

"I took the liberty of bringing your locker out here, Miss Shimmer, once I saw you coming."

Sunset jumped at the sound of Professor Ozpin's voice. She saw him now, walking towards her from the tower, his cane tapping on the stone of the courtyard. "Professor," she gasped. Her eyes narrowed. "How did you know I was coming?"

Professor Ozpin held up a scroll in his other hand. "Vale is a city with many eyes."

"I see," Sunset said. "I didn't escape," she added quickly, in case he got the wrong idea.

"I wouldn't blame you if you did."

"But I didn't," Sunset insisted. "Where's everyone else?"

"Teams Sapphire and Rosepetal are fighting their way back towards the Red Line, they should end up before Gate 7," Professor Ozpin said. "I take it that is where you intend to go?"

A locker door swung open near the statue of the huntsman and huntress, revealing her weapons and her equipment. Sunset walked quickly towards it, pulled out her cuirass and began to buckle it on over her jumpsuit. "With a horde of grimm descending on Vale and the battle in full flow?" she said. "There's nowhere I'd rather be."

"Of course," Professor Ozpin agreed, some amusement in his voice. "I could use your help here…but I know better than to try and persuade you to abandon your comrades."

"Looking around, Professor, it's hard not to think that they need me more," Sunset said, as she pulled on her jacket.

"Yes," Professor Ozpin murmured. "It certainly seems that way. Miss Shimmer…"

"Yes, Professor?" Sunset said, as she pulled her rifle and sword out of the locker.

Professor Ozpin looked at her for a moment, and it seemed that he wished to say something to her…but he didn't. He simply turned away. "Good luck, Miss Shimmer."

Sunset frowned, wondering what it was he might have wanted to say else. But if he didn't want to say it then this wasn't the time or the place to pry. "Thank you, Professor. I'll do my best. I…it's a little late I know, but I'm finally going to act like a true huntress."

Professor Ozpin did not reply, whatever he thought of that, and so Sunset ran to the garages to get her hybrid motorbike out, because she didn't want to run back through Vale with the battle in full swing.

Instead she roared through the streets on the bike that she had built out of spare and unwanted parts, the engine roaring as she race down the deserted roads of Vale. She saw a few more grimm loose in the city, doubtless loosed there by the dragon, as well as evidence of efforts by the police to contain them which probably explained why they hadn't done anything about the prison. Sunset dealt with any grimm to cross her path, using her sword from atop her motorcycle like a knight on two wheels rather than depleting her store of magic any more than she already had by using counterspell on them. She was stronger now (for some reason) but she wasn't a bottomless well.

She struck down beowolves and creeps and even a boarbatusk from atop her bike as she drove towards the wall, and towards Gate 7.

As she drove up she could hear the sounds of fighting coming from the other side, even as Valish police in riot and tactical gear stood impassively upon the walls, looking down at the battle that Sunset could hear but not see.

The gates were shut.

 _They've locked them out rather than let the grimm in._ That was the only explanation that made sense, just as the only explanation for why Ruby was kneeling on the ground, sobbing while Professor Goodwitch held her by the scruff of the neck was that Pyrrha and Jaune (and maybe Yang too) had sent her away…somehow, knowing that the gate was closed and not watching her to be caught up in their last stand.

"Yang...Pyrrha...Jaune...Penny...I'm sorry," Ruby sobbed, as tears flowed from her silver eyes. "I'm so sorry. I only did what I thought...what I thought..."

Sunset slowed her bike to a stop, and got off. "Don't worry, Ruby," she said. "None of our friends are going to die tonight."

Ruby gasped as she stared up at her. "Sunset! You…how…"

"I'm on parole," Sunset explained. "I have a piece of paper to prove it but…better wait until later, right?" she glanced at Professor Goodwitch. "The gates are closed?"

"And they won't be opened," Professor Goodwitch muttered in clear disapproval.

"Sunset," Ruby whispered. "What are you…what are you going to do?"

Sunset smiled gently, and reassuringly too she hoped. "Not what you're thinking," she promised. "I've changed, Ruby. I'm…better than that now. I'll save our friends but I won't spend the city to do it."

"Really?" Twilight asked. Sunset hadn't noticed her at first, she was so quiet compared to Ruby. "You think you can save them."

"Or I'll share in their fate," Sunset said, as she bounded up the steps to the top of the wall, where a few of the cops gave her jumpsuit a second glance but none actually made a move to do anything about it.

The land beyond the wall was burning, and amidst the fires the huntsmen battled, trying to protect the Mistralian soldiers who should never come here in the first place.

 _Okay. Meadowbrook's Multiplier combined with Starswirl's Spell of Seeking combined with a basic Fail Safe spell and you get-_

Pyrrha went down beyond the wall, after slaying the giant that had had Jaune in its grip she seemed stunned, too stunned to move as an alpha beowolf charged towards her.

 _No more time._

Sunset teleported, appearing in a flash of green light as she cast the hybrid spell that she really, really hoped worked as she had intended it too, with her other hand she cast a shield around the shrinking Mistralian position to keep away any more grimm than the ones that she was about – she hoped – to deal with. The flash of light from her casting was brighter than she had anticipated, blinding even her. She felt drained, as though a hole had suddenly been cut in the bucket of her magic and it had all just poured out of her in a single deluge.

But it was totally worth it though, because the price of expending what felt like between two thirds and three quarters of her store of magic all at once was the complete destruction of the grimm all around them. Starswirl's Seeking sent green lightning, duplicated by Meadowbrook's multiplier, roving out in all directions, seeking the essence that Sunset from her experience associated with the grimm and whenever it found it the Fail Safe did its work, countering the magic that sustained the monsters and obliterating them in an instant. She was lucky that there was nothing larger than an ursa to take care of, as any goliaths probably would have taken all of the rest of her magic with them.

Sunset did her best not to sag with exhaustion.

"Sorry I'm late," she said to Pyrrha, because…because where did she even start.

"Sunset?"

 _Okay. This is it. Brave face. Don't be nervous. Smile._ Sunset hoped that her grin didn't seem too unnatural as she turned to look at Pyrrha. "That's right. I'm back. Did you miss me?"


	183. Dragonslayer

Dragonslayer

The smile slid off Sunset's face like water slipping off a plate when it comes out of the sink. She watched as Pyrrha got to her feet; she was conscious of Jaune staring at her, and others as well as everyone on the battlefield – all the huntsmen at least, the ones who knew who she was – seemed to be moving closer to her, clustering around her.

Pyrrha said nothing, and now that the moment of peril had past Sunset found that there was an icy hand gripping her stomach as all of her fears and misgivings came flooding back to her. What if Pyrrha was about to rebuke her or reject her?

"I'm supposed to be here," Sunset said quickly. She reached into her pocket for the parole she'd gotten from the Warden. "I have a note…I know that sounds really childish in the context but I really have a note from the prison warden allowing me to come out here and fight as I promise to go back to jail when the fighting is over. And I-"

"Sunset," Pyrrha said softly, but however soft her voice was it yet had the power to still Sunset's babbling.

"Yes," Sunset said, flinching away and turning her eyes downward.

As a result, she wasn't looking right at Pyrrha, and so it was the other girl's strong arms around her shoulders that she felt first, and only looked around as Pyrrha drew her in and held her close and tight and warm.

"I've missed you," Pyrrha murmured.

Sunset stood still, frozen with surprise for a moment before she allowed herself to believe that it was real and, knowing it was real, sagged into Pyrrha's embrace. "I mean…it has only be a day."

Pyrrha let out a very weary laugh. "It feels like a very long day."

"I'll bet," Sunset said. "So…did you win the fight?"

Pyrrha was silent for a moment, and then she started to laugh. "Sunset, are you serious?"

"I don't get TV in my cell, you know."

"The grimm are literally at the gates of Vale," Pyrrha said, taking a step back so that she could look Sunset in the eye. "Our army is trapped beyond said gates with said grimm, the gates being barred to us, you have been released from prison to participate in a desperate defence and control of the skies has been lost to us and your first question is to ask if I won my fight against Penny?"

Sunset shrugged.

"Yes," Pyrrha said. "Yes, I won. Just."

"Never a doubt," Sunset said. "Congratulations."

Pyrrha looked at her.

"I didn't get to celebrate with you at the time," Sunset said.

"Nobody got to celebrate at the time," Pyrrha said softly.

Sunset considered that. She hadn't realised…had the attack started right after? "Oh, right." She glanced over Pyrrha's shoulder. "Hey, Jaune."

Jaune smiled. "It's good to have you back. I'm surprised, but glad."

"I was a little surprised myself," Sunset said. "But after I saved the prison the warden owed me a favour."

"Saved the prison?" Jaune said.

"I haven't just been sitting around while you've been doing all the work."

"Just mostly sitting around, huh?" Rainbow asked, as she walked towards them with Ciel and Penny in tow.

Sunset smiled nervously. "You could say that. Hey."

"Hey?" Rainbow repeated. "What's that 'hey' for? What are you so nervous about?"

"Well, you know…" Sunset said. "Isn't it obvious?"

"It should be," Ren said, from where he stood a little way off, glowering at Sunset with his arms folded across his chest.

Sunset didn't really know how to respond to that. She guessed that Ren was angry at her for what she'd done, although she didn't think that he would be more angry at her than anyone else. "For whatever it might be worth," she said. "I'm sorry, about what happened. I shouldn't have…it wasn't right, what I did."

"No," Ren said, half turning away from her. "It wasn't."

Nora looked apologetic, but said nothing.

"I'm just glad that Team Sapphire is back to full strength again," Penny said good-naturedly.

"Speaking for myself I would like to see this piece of paper that I believe you mentioned."

"Ciel, come on, you don't need to be like that about it," Rainbow said. "Don't we need everybody on the dance floor tonight?"

"You're asking us to take a great deal on trust," Ciel said softly.

"And you're not showing any trust, come on," Rainbow said.

"Rainbow, it's okay," Sunset said.

"No, it's not," Rainbow said. "The only way that we win this, the only way that we survive is if we trust each other." She raised her voice so that it carried across the field. "We can't afford to be giving one another stink eye because of where we're from or who we are or what we've done. You're here to fight with us, right?"

Sunset nodded. "Of course I am."

"Just like you've fought with us before," Rainbow said. "Just like you've been fighting since we've known you. That ought to be enough. That is enough. It's enough for me, and it's enough for everyone because the only that matters tonight is that we are huntsmen. Right? Everyone? We are huntsmen, and we're going to stick together and we're going to win this. Am I right? Say it with me everybody: we are huntsmen."

"We are huntsmen," said Penny and Applejack, loyally.

"Come on!" Rainbow said, raising her fist in the air. "We are huntsmen."

"We are huntsmen." This time the word was taken up by Sunset, Jaune and Pyrrha, and by Ciel too even if she sounded a little reluctant.

"Louder! WE ARE HUNTSMEN!" Rainbow roared.

"WE ARE HUNTSMEN!" the cry was ripped from the throat of every young huntsmen and huntress present, even surly Ren who still had his arms folded, although he lowered them as they shouted out the words until their throats began to hurt, shouting defiance at the grimm.

The grimm who had already begun to fall back, retreating away from Sunset's shield, probably not in fear of the shouts of the huntsmen but driven by some other need or thought or plan that Sunset could not guess at. Nevertheless, for whatever reason they did it the grimm began to retreat, and as they began to retreat the gate into Vale opened up behind them.

Pyrrha gasped, as she looked from the retreating grimm to the open gate. "Everyone inside!" she shouted. "Help the wounded in first, then the other men, then the Cataphracts; the huntsmen will be the last through the gate, and the rearguard in case the grimm return."

"You're…giving orders?" Sunset said.

Pyrrha nodded wearily. "I'm…I seem to have found myself in command of the Mistralian forces."

Sunset just stared at her for a moment, waiting for the punchline of the joke, or else waiting for the moment when Pyrrha's face would crack and she would admit that she was, in fact, joking.

There was no such sign.

"Celestia, you're serious, aren't you?"

Pyrrha nodded again. "Must as I wish I wasn't," she added, as she drew a sword from across her back; not her sword, but a different one, a sword with a green blade with intricate patters woven across it. "It was given to me…not entirely with my consent."

"I've missed a lot, haven't I?" Sunset said.

"Mostly it's just been a lot of fighting and trying to stay alive."

"With a few slightly important details," Weiss said quietly.

"Weiss," Sunset said. "I…I didn't see you."

Weiss' eyebrow rose. "Nobody has ever called my outfit inconspicuous before, thank you. I tagged along with your team, since they were undermanned. Obviously not the case right now, but I think I'll stick around anyway. I think I can do as much good here as I could anywhere else."

"What does your own team think of that?" Sunset said, though she recognised at once from the look on Weiss' face, the way it fell, that that that had been the wrong thing to say. "Weiss…did something happen?" _Flash. No, Flash, can't be dead. Please let Flash not be dead._ She hadn't even thought about him being caught up in the maelstrom of the battle, her thoughts had been for her own team and to a lesser extent for RSPT but now, confronting Weiss with that look on her face, Weiss all alone, Weiss with the rest of Team WSTW nowhere in sight she found that… _No, it can't be._

"Flash and Cardin…they were both wounded," Weiss said.

That was both horrible to hear and yet at the same time it also brought sweet relief to Sunset. "Badly?"

Weiss nodded. "Flash…he'll probably end up losing a leg."

Sunset's breath caught in her throat. Losing a leg? Sure, they could do marvels with prosthetics in Atlas these days but losing a leg? _And he danced so well._ "I'm sorry."

"I know," Weiss said. "But I should be the one who's sorry. I've been a terrible leader."

"None of us who were chosen to lead have really covered ourselves in glory tonight," Pyrrha said softly.

"Speak for yourselves," Rainbow said. "I have been a totally awesome leader."

Weiss, Pyrrha and Sunset all stared at her for a moment. Sunset shook her head. "You don't ever change, do you?"

"Why mess with what's already awesome?"

"Guys!" Ruby cried excitedly, as she – followed by Twilight, who kept on glancing at Ruby's advancing back – pushed her way through the crowd of Mistralian soldiers going the other way to run towards the huntress. "Guys, you're okay. And Sunset…" she skidded to a halt. "How are you here?"

"The Warden let me out," Sunset said. Behind Ruby she could see Twilight wrap Rainbow Dash in a strangling hug. "I have to go back once I've helped save Vale."

Ruby blinked. "Is that allowed?"

"Do you want to see my note?"

Ruby shook her head. "I…Sunset, I…I know that it might seem like I…I'm sorry that-"

"You haven't got anything to be sorry about, Ruby," Sunset said. "I'm the one who should be sorry, and I am. I betrayed your trust, I betrayed our friendship, I betrayed everything that a huntress of Beacon is supposed to stand for and I'm sorry for all of it. Tonight might be my last night on the battlefield but I'm going to do better while I'm here. I'm going to be a real huntress in my last fight."

Ruby smiled. "That…that's great to hear. Really. I just…I want you to know that I never wanted-"

"I know," Sunset said. "Don't worry about it."

"Okay," Ruby said softly. She looked around. "Wait…where's Yang?"

Sunset abruptly noticed that she hadn't noticed Yang up until now. She hadn't said anything when Sunset came back, she hadn't said anything when Rainbow tried to pump them all up, and she was nowhere to be seen now.

"Yang?" Ruby called. "Yang, where are you? Ren, Nora, where is she?"

"I don't know," Nora admitted.

"We got separated during the fighting," Ren said.

"YANG?" Nora bellowed. "Hey, Yang, get over here."

There was no answer. There was no sign of her, there was no response of any kind, and no one piped up to say that they had seen her and they knew where she was now.

That left one terrible option, pressing down upon them all like a great weight from the heavens intended to crush the spirit.

"Yang?" Ruby said, softly, in a voice that was almost childlike with desperation. "Come on, Yang…this isn't funny. Yang? Yang, where are you?"

"Please, no," Pyrrha murmured, covering her mouth with her hands.

"Ruby," Jaune said softly, walking to Ruby's side and putting one hand upon her shoulder.

"Where is she?" Ruby demanded, looking up at Jaune. "Jaune, where's Yang?"

Jaune looked helplessly down at her. "Ruby, I-"

"She has to be somewhere," Ruby said. "Because there's no way that she'd just…she can't be…she wouldn't just leave me."

Jaune hugged Ruby, letting her press her face against his chestplate as he put his arms around her. "I'm sorry, Ruby. I'm so, so sorry."

"Is this my fault?" Ruby asked.

"No!" Jaune said. "No, Ruby, of course not, this isn't anybody's fault. Why would you even say something like that?"

"I stopped Twilight!" Ruby wailed. "I…Twilight was going to open the gate, or make them open the gate. But I stopped her. I wouldn't let her because…because it was the right thing to do. It was what a huntress would do. Is that why…is that why Yang's dead? If I'd let Twilight open the gate…or am I being punished for putting the things I believed in ahead of my sister?"

"Don't think like that, Ruby," Sunset said. "You can't let yourself think like that. What happened to Yang…I'm so sorry, we're all so sorry, but you can't blame yourself and you can't blame it on the fact that you did what you thought was right just like you always do. You are such an inspiration to all of us, such a shining light for the rest of us to follow and Yang knew that just as much as I do, just as much as we all. Your sister was as inspired by you as anyone else here. And she…I don't think that she'd want you to lose that."

Ruby nodded, but Sunset didn't think that she had succeeded in convincing her. She didn't say anything else, but a light had gone out of those silver eyes, and whether it would return again…something that Sunset would have needed to be able to see into the future to be able to tell.

Ruby pulled away from Jaune, and her voice shook a little as she said, "So what do we do now?"

Pyrrha's scroll began to buzz.

* * *

"General! The dragon is…it's moving directly towards the CCT!"

Ironwood cursed under his breath. Without the CCT then communications across all of Remnant would go down…but there was nothing that he could do to stop it. He'd already thrown everything he had at that monster, and sacrificing his remaining ships and squadrons wasn't going to save the tower.

Which meant the tower would fall, and communications would go down. And there was nothing that he could do about it.

"Transmit all logs to HQ immediately," he ordered. "Inform the council and all units: communications are about to go down, Blackout Protocols are in full and immediate effect. Do it now."

"Yes sir."

Ironwood got out his scroll, his fingers frantic as he called Oz. "Ozpin, that dragon is headed right for Beacon Tower. You need to get out of there now."

"I'm already out, James," Ozpin said. "And I see it coming now."

"You need to get clear," Ironwood insisted. "When that tower comes down there's going to be a lot of debris coming down, not to mention it spawns grimm."

"I'm well aware, James," Ozpin said in a tone of mild reproach. "Nevertheless, this is my school, and if I cannot defend it then I can at least not abandon it at the slightest provocation."

"Oz-"

"Don't worry about me, James," Ozpin said. "You know better than most how hard I am to kill."

Ironwood grunted. _It's not just any Ozpin we need right now._ "Take care of yourself, Oz."

"And you, James."

Ironwood hung up. "Report."

"Log transmissions almost complete, sir. We've had acknowledgements of Blackout Protocols from the Council, Home Fleet command, Argus, Cold Harbour…we're still waiting on responses from outlying bases in Vacuo and Mistral."

 _No time,_ Ironwood thought, watching the large red icon representing the dragon on his map make contact with the Vale CCT. For a moment all the screens in the CIC went dark, and although some of them returned after less than a moment – including the map of the battlefield, displaying his units as they retreated through the now open gates behind the Red Line – others, the international displays, did not.

A second earlier he had been connected to the most powerful and widespread military in the world, able to issue orders to units, ships and bases scattered across all four corners of Remnant; from the bridge of this ship he had been able to direct all of the vast apparatus of war under his command, to send orders in an instant back to Atlas and the Home Fleet that defended it, to the garrison based at Argus, to units scattered across the vast breadth of Anima or dug in amidst the desert sands of Vacuo.

Now he was blind to all of it. Atlas could be wiped out, the fleet reduced to falling pieces of wreckage, and he wouldn't know. Atlas Academy could vanish and he would be completely ignorant of it. His forces could be attacked in detail and wiped out and he would not find out. He was blind. The whole world was blind. The lights were going out all over Remnant.

His sphere, of knowledge and of influence, had been reduced to this single force in Vale, within the reach of local communications. Everything else was fog to him.

 _That was why you initiated the protocols._ Blackout Protocols were a contingency designed to mitigate against a situation just like this, by devolving authority onto local commanders (granting them the freedom to make all necessary decisions without either the need for higher sanction or the fear of later censure from that same authority) within the bounds of standing orders that prioritised self-preservation followed by the re-establishment of contact with other nearby units and eventually with Atlas itself. Even now, assuming that the message had reached them in time, all his units would be hunkering down, ensuring the defensibility of their positions, and then beginning to reach out to their closest neighbours.

Hopefully. They'd never actually done this before. They'd never had to.

They had hoped - perhaps in their arrogance they had expected – that they would never need to.

* * *

"Wait, what?" Saphron demanded, as the television that had been broadcasting non-stop news about the battle unfolding in Vale suddenly turned to static.

She and Terra had put Adrian to bed a little while ago – he didn't need to watch this; even if he understood what was going on that didn't mean that it was good for him to see it – but afterwards they had come back down into the living room and had been glued to the TV ever since, hoping to get a better understanding of what was going on and, in Saphron's case, hoping to find out if Jaune was still okay.

And now there was nothing but crackling static.

"What's going on?" Saphron asked.

"I don't know," Terra said.

Saphron got out her scroll and tried to call her dad, her mom, her sisters…nothing. No signal available. "I can't get through to anybody."

The static disappeared, replaced by a white card stating 'Government Information Notice'.

"This is a public safety broadcast," a calm, cool, pre-recorded voice declared. "Inter-continental communications are currently unavailable. This problem is being looked at and will be resolved as soon as possible. Please do not be alarmed."

Saphron and Terra looked at one another. "Don't be alarmed?" Saphron said. "Is that supposed to help?"

"I don't know," Terra repeated. "I just…I don't know what's going on any more."

* * *

Kendal came downstairs just as Sky stomped into the living room. The Arcs' new television was still projecting nothing but static.

"It's the same everywhere," Sky said. "Nobody can see a thing and nobody can get a signal on their scrolls."

"The CCT must be down," Dad said.

"Oh, god," Mom murmured, covering her mouth with her hands. "What are we going to do?"

"We're better placed than most," Sky said. "We grow most of our own food around here."

"We also sell a lot of it," River said. "What are we going to do for money if we can't export?"

"The trains will still run," Sky said. "But I understand what you mean. That's why the Mayor's called an immediate town meeting in the hall. I'm just going to grab my bullhorn and then I'm going to go out and let everybody know. You guys should head over there."

"Good luck with that," Kendal said. "I'm heading out."

"Heading out?" Mom repeated. "Where are you going and…and what are you doing with that gun?"

Kendal patted her trusty pistol, her last resort in the wild. "If the CCT is down then the only way we're actually going to find out what's going on in Vale is if somebody goes to Vale, right? And who better for that than me?"

"Just because you're the best person for the job doesn't mean that you should actually do it," Sky said. "Do you think that all those monsters have disappeared just because you can't see them any more?"

"You thought that they didn't exist because you couldn't see them," Kendal pointed out.

Sky opened her mouth. Then shut it again. Her face turned. "Yeah, well…I was an idiot then but you're being an idiot now."

"I'm not proposing to fight my way through a horde of grimm," Kendal said. "I hope the battle will be over by the time I get there, and if it isn't…if I can't find a safe way into Vale then I'll come back and tell you all that. But if I can…if I can find Jaune, find out if he's okay, isn't it worth trying? What else are we going to do, sit around here and fret?"

Mom bit her lip. "Are you sure that you can do this? Are you sure that you want to do this?"

Kendal took a deep breath. "Yes," she said. "I…yeah, I am."

"Then wait here a minute, I'll be right back," Mom said, getting up and heading upstairs.

Kendal frowned, but when she looked at Dad or Sky or River they were all just as clueless as to what she might be doing up there – or why Kendal needed to wait for it – as she was.

After a little more than a minute – but who was counting – Mom came down, holding a ring on a chain in her hand. It was a plain ring, old, almost antique looking, a band of gold with a modest sapphire on top.

"If…when you see Jaune," Mom said. "Give this to him, will you dear? It belonged to your grandmother, and I always meant to give it to him one day, and if the towers are down and everything else going on then…this might be our last chance to get in touch with him for a while."

"You always meant to give it to Jaune?" River said. "What about us?"

"Well, if you ever find a nice boy then he'll just have to buy his own ring, won't he?" Mom said.

"Saphron?" Kendal said.

Mom blushed just a little. "I suppose I'm just a little old-fashioned, I'm afraid. You will take it, won't you?"

"Sure," Kendal said, plucking the ring out of her mother's hand and stuffing it, chain and all, into her back pocket. "Although…I don't know if Jaune's ready for that yet."

"He doesn't need to be ready," Mom said. "Like I said, I don't know when we'll see him again…this way, when he is ready…he'll be ready, if you know what I mean."

* * *

The dragon struck the tower hard enough to completely demolish the upper storeys, sending the spire and the gears of the clock and all the detritus of the tower's highest levels crashing down into the courtyard of the school below, where they crushed some of the grimm that the dragon itself had spawned on its flight across the school, beowolves and boarbatusks reduced to paste as heavy blocks of broken stone fell down upon them.

The dragon perched atop the ruined tower as though it were its nest, roaring defiance at the sky, daring any foe to be brave enough to challenge it. Black ichor dropped from its belly, spawning juvenile ursai who began to pick their way down the tower's outer wall, finding cracks and crevices in the stone with which to grip their claws.

The dragon remained on top of the shattered tower for a moment, roaring, waiting. Then it spread its wings and rose up into the skies once again, heading out across Vale, heading for the outer defences.

* * *

Jaune stared as the emerald lights winked out on the other side of Vale. The tower was…gone? That was…was that even possible?

Obviously it was, because it had just happened, but it didn't seem as though it ought to be. That was Beacon Tower they were talking about, one quarter of the world's communications network located in one of humanity's four fortresses. The emerald lights had always been there, benevolent eyes watching over them, visible even from far away. Returning from their missions into the Forever Fall it was easy to tell that they were getting close to home because you could see those bright green lights glimmering in the distance, getting closer and closer, welcoming you back. Beacon tower was like a lighthouse, guiding you back no matter how terrible the storm around you.

And now that lighthouse had been snuffed out.

The tower was gone, the CCT was gone…Professor Ozpin, was he okay?

Everyone was looking at the tower, whether they were from Beacon or not they were all staring at where the lights had shone just a moment ago and now suddenly gone.

Even the students who weren't from Beacon looked aghast, because they knew what this meant.

The only person who wasn't transfixed by it was Ruby…because she already had something far worse to be upset about, and nobody could blame her for that. She'd just had enough sorrow to last a lifetime.

Pyrrha answered her insistently buzzing scroll, pulling it out while not taking her horrified eyes off the tower. "Yes?"

"Miss Nikos," General Ironwood said. "I take it you've just seen the tower go down."

"Yes," Pyrrha murmured. "We can see it from here."

"What you can't see is that that grimm is on its way back and its coming right towards you."

"Here?" Pyrrha said. "But…the rest of the grimm are retreating."

"Indeed, right after an unexplained energy surge was reported from your position, is there something that you want to tell me?"

"That was me, general," Sunset said apologetically.

"Miss Shimmer? I'm surprised to see you out on the field."

"I have a note," Sunset said.

"Is that so," General Ironwood said. "My best guess is that the dragon is going to smash a breach in the Red Line just like it did the Green and then the rest of the grimm are going to resume their attack."

"But if they do that then the whole of Vale will be open to them," Jaune said. "We can't let that happen!"

"Ideally we wouldn't, Mister Arc, but what do you suggest?" General Ironwood said. "We haven't had much luck in hurting it so far."

"I…" Jaune hesitated. But they couldn't just do nothing, not with the whole of Vale at stake like this. "Sunset, can you do that…whatever it is that you just did?"

Sunset shook her head. "Doing it that one time took a lot out of me, and even if I was at full strength it would be touch and go with a grimm that size."

Jaune gritted his teeth. "So what do we do?"

"You're asking me?"

"You've always got a plan," Jaune said.

"I just got here, what's your plan?"

"Me?" Jaune asked.

"Come on, you can almost beat me at chess you can certainly outthink some oversized flying monster," Sunset said. "You can do this, Jaune: call it."

 _No way._ There was no way that Sunset was looking at him, there was no way that he was the one who was being asked to come up with a plan that would save all of Vale from a monster that the strongest weapons in the Atlesian military had failed to scratch.

Except she was. She was looking right at him and she even looked sincere. Everybody was looking at him. Pyrrha was looking at him with nothing but support and belief in her eyes, Ruby looked as supportive as she could be in her position. Even the Atlesians were looking at him – Penny was smiling at him and nodding in encouragement. Didn't these people have any ideas of their own? Why were they all looking at him? They were all so much stronger than he was-

 _Then you'd better start pulling your weight in other ways._

Jaune blinked. He had no idea where that thought had come from but…it made a kind of sense. He could train for the next ten years and he was never going to be as good as Pyrrha or Ruby; he was getting better – he'd gotten a _lot_ better – but that didn't mean that he was going to suddenly catch up to or surpass them. He'd spent so long so worried about pulling his weight that he'd never really stopped to think that he could do other things, things that maybe only he could do.

They were all counting on him, his wonderful friends who had never turned their backs on him even when some others might have done.

How could he let them down when they needed him the most?

Think…think…think quickly because they didn't have much time. How to bring it…bring it down.

"General Ironwood, sir," Jaune said. "I think I might have an idea, but I'm going to need…a lot of help. Can you patch me through to the other huntsman teams?"

"Doing it now, Mister Arc."

"Thank you, sir," Jaune said. "Okay, everyone, listen up. That…I'm Jaune Arc of Team Sapphire. You don't all know me but…but that dragon is coming back and it does it's going to smash a hole in the wall and then there'll be stopping the grimm from overrunning all of Vale. I don't want that to happen, and I think we can stop it if we work together. I know it's a lot to ask, but I really think that we can do this if we try. So who's with me?"

There was a moment of silence on the other end of Pyrrha's scroll, and for a moment Jaune feared that he had been so uninspiring that he had actively driven people away – yeah, it wasn't much of a speech but it wasn't that bad! – until he heard a voice coming from the other end of the line.

"The Great and Powerful Trixie is with you, Jaune Arc! Along with her glamorous assistants Starlight and Sunburst!"

"Lycus Silvermane here, Team Pastel is in."

"Team Jasmine is in, whatever you need."

"Team Coffee, count us in."

"Let's see what you've got, Jaune Arc," Weiss murmured.

"You know that we're in, right?" Rainbow said.

"Count us in, too," Nora said enthusiastically.

"And don't leave me out either," Arslan said.

"Or Team Sun," Neptune said.

"We're all right behind you, Jaune," Pyrrha said.

Jaune nodded. "Thanks, guys. Okay, so here's what we do."

* * *

Jaune stood on top of a water tower, perched upon the flat metal ceiling of the structure, high enough up that he could see almost across the whole of Vale. He could see the wall, where the Atlesian troops were now taking up positions and behind which the Mistralian soldiers still huddled protectively. He could see the stump of Beacon tower far off on the other side of the city. He could see the remaining Atlesian cruisers, illuminated by all their lights shining in the darkness. He could see all the houses and the towers and the offices and the factories.

He could see the dragon making its way slowly towards them, taking its time as it loosed lots of grimm on the streets below as it flew.

He couldn't see all of his friends, although he knew – or hoped – that they were all somewhere down there.

He himself was all alone up here, all alone except for Starlight Glimmer of Team TTGR, who had just her hand upon his shoulder.

"Is that it?" Jaune asked. "I didn't…feel anything."

"You won't," Starlight said. "That would give me an advantage, if we were fighting. You wouldn't know that I'd just copied your semblance until I started using it against you."

"I'm not sure it would do you that much good," Jaune said.

"Don't sell yourself short," Starlight said. "This is a pretty useful semblance you've got here."

"So…how does it work? How long-"

"About an hour, as long as I don't copy anyone else's semblance in the meantime," Starlight said. She adjusted her hat on top of her head. "Plus, for whatever reason, I copy your semblance at full strength, so right now I'm actually stronger than you are."

"Right," Jaune said. He'd understood that already. That was why it was Starlight Glimmer going down there to help Ruby and Rainbow Dash with Penny instead of him.

The fact that it made sense didn't make him feel much better about it.

"Anyway," Starlight said. "I should get going."

"Right," Jaune repeated, with a nod of his head.

He looked away, hearing her descend down the side of the water tower without actually seeing her do it. His eyes searched the night for his friends. He could see Ciel in her position, and he could see Pyrrha with Neptune (a lesser man might have hesitated to leave his girlfriend alone with a guy like that but Jaune…okay, so it wasn't so much him being a better man so much as Pyrrha inspiring that much trust), but of the others…he couldn't see them.

"Hey, everybody," Jaune said. "Are you in position?"

"Ciel Soleil here, in position and ready to begin on your word."

"Penny here, we're ready to go."

"Starlight here, I'm not quite there yet but I will be."

"I'm ready, Jaune," Pyrrha said.

"Arslan ready."

"Applejack here, waiting for this hoedown to start."

"The Great and Powerful Trixie is ready!"

"Weiss ready."

"Sage ready."

"Yatsuhashi ready."

"Medea ready."

"Sunset here, I'm in position."

Jaune sighed. "That's everyone, I think. We're ready to go."

"Jaune?" Pyrrha asked. "Are you alright?"

"He's upset that you don't have a part to play, aren't you?" Sunset said. "Well, don't be. You wrote the script, this is your show. So sit back and enjoy it."

 _Enjoy the fact that you're all risking your lives and I'm not?_ "Sure," Jaune said. "Okay. Let's go. Ciel, you're up."

* * *

Ciel stood on the roof of a low rise towards the outskirts of Vale, a few streets away from the wall itself, overlooking an open square almost large enough for the dragon to land without causing too much damage to the building around it. There would still be some damage, but as little as they could possibly cause.

"Ciel, you're up," Jaune said through the earpiece she was wearing.

"Affirmative," Ciel said, raising her rifle. Her part was the opening of this engagement. Not even Penny could be as accurate as Ciel when she was using her semblance.

Her eyes glowed a brighter blue as she activated her precognition and sighted on the dragons.

Or perhaps that ought to be the dragons. She could see two of them: the dragon that was, and the dragon would be, flying ahead of the actual and present grimm like an afterimage that went before.

It was the latter that she wanted to aim at.

 _Wind direction: accounted for._

 _Wind speed: accounted for._

 _Distance to the target: accounted for._

 _Lady of the North let me aim true._

This plan of Jaune's was fraught with risks, yet Ciel found that she could not conceive of a more viable alternative. It was this or Vale would fall.

And the whole plan rested on her. If she couldn't get the attention of this monster…it worried Ciel somewhat that this was the weakest part of Jaune's whole scheme: why should the grimm pay attention to her when she couldn't harm it? Why should the elephant concern itself with the mouse?

Yet this mouse had to get the attention of the elephant.

 _Comms out, navigation out, one engine on fire and a storm raging outside._

 _Now would be an excellent time for a miracle._

Ciel raised Distant Thunder to her shoulder and sighted on the dragon's future image, where it would be in future.

She took aim, breathed in, and squeezed the trigger.

Distant Thunder roared. Ciel worked the chamber, the spent cartridge hitting the ground at her feet with a thud. She was already reloaded by the time her first shot hit the dragon just behind its snout.

Ciel fired again, and once again she hit the dragon's bony face, just so that it knew where the fire was coming from.

The dragon roared. Ciel's rounds might be mere irritants to it but it was clear that they were…irritating. Ciel fired again, letting her muzzle flash expose her position as the dragon, still growling, banked across the sky and began to fly straight towards her with increasing speed.

Ciel worked the chamber, one round fell with a clank and another took its place. She took aim, but did not fire. This wasn't technically part of the plan, but if she could pull it off it would be worth it.

 _Lady, let my aim be true. For Atlas and for Vale._

"Ciel?" Jaune said. "What are you doing?"

"Taking one last shot," Ciel replied.

"Ciel?" Jaune asked, as the dragon closed in on her. "Don't you think you should get out of there?"

"Not yet," Ciel said.

The dragon opened its mouth. Ciel could see all the way down its maw. She could also see one of the beast's great eyes growing larger in her scope.

The dragon roared.

Distant Thunder roared right back as Ciel fired, her shot flying through the night air to strike the dragon in its right eye, which exploded in a burst of red leaving an ugly smear upon the creature's bony head.

The dragon let out a shriek that was part pain and part fury as it descended upon Ciel's perch.

"Great job, Ciel!" Jaune yelled into her ear. "Trixie, are you ready?"

"The Great and Powerful Trixie has you covered!"

The dragon swooped down upon Ciel. Except that by this point it was not Ciel, but an illusion created by Trixie's semblance, a moving copy of Ciel that appeared to be trying to reload her rifle even as the real Ciel, shrouded from the sight of the world, ran to the edge of the roof and leapt across the narrow gap to the next building, then kept running across the roof, leaping across another gap to the building across from that.

Meanwhile the dragon's jaws closed upon empty air as Trixie's illusion dissipated, and the dragon ploughed into the building itself, smashing through the stone and bricks as it landed heavily in the square, its wings slamming into the buildings on either side as they beat up and down.

* * *

Jaune watched from his lofty elevation as the dragon's head burst out of the pile of rubble that had temporarily covered it, shrieking and bellowing in anger as it reared up onto its legs.

Then it caught sight of Ciel again.

It wasn't really Ciel, this was just another of Trixie's illusions, a phantasm of Ciel appearing to try and run away from the dragon, but it was enough to get the enraged grimm to lunge at her, its long neck diving down the street to snap after the illusory Ciel, which dissipated into smoke just as another Ciel – this one Lycus Silvermane of Team PSTL, using his semblance to assume Ciel's appearance – charged the other way, towards the dragon, dodging its enormous mouth and vicious fangs by the skin of his teeth to strike the dragon's muzzle with his fists.

Lycus – still wearing Ciel's appearance – retreated back a step as the dragon drew in its neck a fraction in preparation for another lunge to try to swallow him whole.

"Thorn," Jaune said. "Go!"

"Understood," Thorn Hubert, also of Team PSTL, murmured. There was a flash of light from the other side of the square, behind the dragon, as Jaune watched a single arrow, glowing a cold blue, arc across the night sky before, at the very pinnacle of its arc, explode with a soft blue cloud, turning a single arrow into a score of smaller missiles, each a glowing blue-white, which descended like the rain upon the dragon, striking its tail, its feet, and even its wings. And where they struck, each gently falling shard of ice dust expanded into a block of ice encasing some part of the dragon and either weighing it down or freezing it to the cracked cobblestones of the square beneath.

The dragon howled, and as its mouth opened Jaune could see the golden light of its beam attack preparing to fire.

"Pyrrha, Neptune, do it now!"

* * *

"You know, Jaune's actually pretty cool," Neptune observed, as the first phase of Jaune's plan brought down the dragon and trapped it on the ground where it was vulnerable.

"I know," Pyrrha said, as she watched the dragon thrash and struggle, and waited for the word that that it was their turn. _I only wish that he could see how cool he is for himself._

She and Neptune were holed up on the top floor (which was the only fourth floor, in this building) of a Life Assurance office on the left hand side of the street into which the dragon had heedlessly plunged its neck and head. They were crouched down, concealed in the darkness that enveloped the abandoned office, waiting for the word from Jaune to reveal themselves.

"All the same," Neptune said. "If you ever start to get bored you know-"

"Neptune," Pyrrha said. "You seem like a decent person, and I would like there to be the possibility of friendship between us, so please don't finish that sentence."

"Sure," Neptune murmured. "This school. All the cute girls are either taken or not interested."

"Pyrrha, Neptune, do it now!" Jaune said.

"Right," Pyrrha said, leading the way and trusting Neptune to follow. She held Akuou before her as she leapt forward, shattering the glass of the window as he hurled herself through it and out of it to land atop the dragon's neck, straddling it like a bull as she drove Milo straight down into the dragon's oily black flesh. Neptune landed behind her, grabbing hold of one of the dragon's bone spurs to steady himself before he drove his spear into the dragon's neck as well and discharged an electrical jolt through it into the grimm.

The dragon screamed as it reared its neck upwards, trying to buck them off as they used their weapons like anchors to hold them in place.

* * *

Jaune forced himself – tried to force himself – not to worry too much as he watched the dragon shaking its neck and up and down trying to throw Pyrrha off, tried not to let his concern for Pyrrha overwhelm him as she clung on to the dragon's neck. This was part of the plan, part of _his_ plan, one more thing to keep the dragon distracted, keep it occupied.

He watched as the dragon discharged that icky black goo down on the stones of the square beneath it, goo which started to spawn into lesser grimm to back it up while it was trapped and helpless. The dragon shrieked, and for all Jaune knew that might be a signal for more grimm to come and help it out.

"Support teams, move in!"

The huntsmen emerged from the left and right, led by Coco Adel on the left-hand side and by Jason Ash of Team JAMM on the right, they charged out of hiding to do battle with the lesser grimm who spawned from the dragon's sweat. Sunset was there, Jaune could spot her flaming sword even if he couldn't exactly see her in the darkness and the press, and so were Ren and Nora and RSPT's friend Applejack, and Medea's skeletal minions of her semblance joined them too as every grimm that spawned was met with sword and spear and gun.

"Yatsuhashi, Sage, Weiss, you need to go now."

The dragon was starting to pull itself free from the ice now, the icy blocks in which it was imprisoned starting to crack under the sheer force that the monstrous grimm was able to bring to bear as it struggled to free itself. But if they let it take flight now then they would never get it, and so Yatsuhashi and Sage, two of their strongest fighters with those enormous swords, plus Weiss who could not summon an armoured knight with a sword that was even bigger than either of those wielded by the other two, were too ignore all the other grimm that their comrades were fighting and focus wholly and exclusively upon severing the dragon's wings.

The three of them – the two huntsmen and the summons, if Jaune remembered what Weiss had called it correctly – waded into the battle going on around the dragon but did not join it; the other huntsmen kept the grimm off them and they, trusting their team-mates and comrades, ignored the grimm around them as they hacked at the dragon's wings with their greatswords, slicing through the thick black spurs and through the scarlet leather of the wings.

The dragon howled in pain even as, freed from its trapped wings, it rose up, rearing its whole body upwards as it sought to free its still frozen legs and tail.

Pyrrha and Neptune, knowing what was coming next, leapt clear.

"Ruby, Rainbow, Penny," Jaune said. "Now!"

* * *

"You got it Jaune," Rainbow said. "Are you ready to do this, Ruby?"

Ruby nodded, subdued, not that Rainbow could really blame her. "Let's do this."

"Penny?"

"Ready!" Penny declared with an almost unholy glee as Rainbow and Ruby carried her, holding her between them like a missile they were bringing to be loaded on the underside of a wing.

Starlight Glimmer stood between them, her hands held out, hovering just over the pair of them as said hands glowed with the white-gold light of Jaune's semblance, a light which in turn started to cover the pair of them as she used the power that she'd taken – okay, she hadn't actually taken it, but to be honest Rainbow had always found Starlight's power to be kind of creepy even though she only used it with good intentions – to boost their auras. Jaune, who had been using his semblance quite a bit over the course of the battle, wouldn't have been able to give them much, but Starlight still had a lot of aura in the tank and so had a lot more to give. Rainbow could sense her own aura getting stronger and stronger as the light flowed over her like a warm shower. She'd be even faster than normal now.

"On three," Rainbow said. "One, two, go!"

They took off, Ruby and Rainbow running as fast as they could, rose petals mingling with the rainbow trail as they surged down the street with Penny beaming like a fiend in between them even as the force of their combined speed buffeted at her.

They rounded the corner – Rainbow running off the wall as they made the turn without slowing down one little bit – and came face to face with the dragon, the wingless roaring dragon that was up on its legs and presenting a nice big juicy target to them.

"Out of the way!" Rainbow yelled as they charged down the street. "Penny, do it!"

Penny was still beaming as her Floating Array unfolded out of her back and assembled in front of her and her two carriers, spinning rapidly around and around so that they formed a kind of drill of swords.

A drill of swords that fired a laser bream upwards to strike the dragon where its heart would have been if it had one. The dragon shrieked. Ruby and Rainbow kept on running, faster and faster and Penny's laser kept on firing, the swords of Floating Array spinning round and round as Rainbow and Penny leapt upwards.

All three of them were roaring at the top of their lungs – or whatever Penny had – as they flew straight for the dragon's chest, where Penny's whirling blades struck at the site marked by her beam and proceeded to drill right through the dragon and out the other side.

The three of them landed on their feet, having made a giant hole right through the dragon.

Rainbow's only regret was that she didn't have her sunglasses with her as the dragon, with a last croak, turned to dust behind them.

* * *

They were already celebrating by the time that Jaune got down from the water tower. They were all down in the square where the battle had taken place. Yatsuhashi of Team CFVY had hoisted Penny upon his broad shoulders while Arslan was leading some of the huntsmen in a chant of 'Dragonslayer! Dragonslayer!'

Penny looked thrilled at the attention. She had a smile on her face as wide as Jaune had ever seen, she looked as though she was consumed by the ecstasy of the moment the heady joy that came from accomplishing something immense and the even headier sensation of being feted by it.

Jaune stood at the edge of the crowd, smiling softly, tempted to join in the chant except that he didn't want to draw attention to himself. This moment belonged to those who had fought, all he had done was tell them what to do.

But Penny saw him, and her smile grew even wider – was that even possible – as she waved to him. "Jaune! It worked! It really worked!"

"Yeah," Jaune said. "I guess it did, didn't it?"

"It worked wonderfully," Pyrrha said warmly as she pushed her way gently through the crowd towards him. She kissed him on the cheek. "You did so well, Jaune, I…I hope you don't take it the wrong way when I say I'm so proud of you."

"But I didn't do anything?"

"You did everything," Sunset said. "None of this would have worked if you hadn't dreamed it all up."

"Penny's the dragonslayer," Rainbow said. "But you were the general of this little fight. Penny and Jaune!"

"Penny and Jaune!" everyone cried, and Jaune was afraid that some big guy might pick him up on their shoulders too, if Rainbow's scroll hadn't chosen that exact moment to go off, followed less than a moment later by that of Pyrrha.

Rainbow pulled out her scroll and snapped it open. "Blake?" she asked Pyrrha.

Pyrrha's face had suddenly turned very grave, and a little pale. She shook her head. "Ozpin."


	184. Belladonna

Belladonna

Waiting did not come easily to Blake Belladonna. She was, if she said so herself, a person of action, not of patience. It was ironic, considering that she had trained in what might be called the ninja arts, but sitting in the shadows was not for her at all. Leaping out of the shadows to attack someone by surprise was more her style. She only needed to see a situation in order to jump headfirst into it, be that a righteous cause or a desperate battle. It was a quality that, she was aware, had gotten her into no small amount of trouble in the past, but nevertheless it was a part of her, and you could be aware that something was a flaw in your nature without being able to so easily excise it from your soul.

Which was why waiting in this shelter was almost torture for her.

And the fact that she was also aware that this was a very whiny and self-pitying attitude to have – oh, woe was her, snug and safe in an underground shelter while her friends fought for their lives against the grimm – didn't make it any easier to sit around in an underground shelter while her friends fought for their lives against the grimm.

She had volunteered to help protect her mother and Councillor Cadenza because it was her mother, and she wanted to know that she was safe, but she hadn't realised – hadn't thought far enough ahead to realise – that this was going to stick her so far from the battle with no news from said battle. Right now the only other person she could be sure was safe was Sunset, who was like her trapped with no way of getting out and influencing the fighting. Was the waiting as much torture for Sunset as it was for Blake? How could it not be, Sunset being who she was? She and Blake were alike in preferring action to patience, in being the sorts who would rather get stuck in than wait for news. It must be painful for Sunset, because it was painful for Blake to sit here and wonder how their friends were faring out on the front lines. To think that Ruby could be dead right now, or Pyrrha, or Jaune; to think that Team Rosepetal could have been wiped out at this point, and she wouldn't know until much later, wouldn't be able to do a thing about it.

It was awful. Blake had no idea what she was supposed to do right now. Staying with her mother to protect her…well, no doubt it pleased her mother to have her so close by and out of danger, but it wasn't as if she actually needed Blake's protection right now. The shelter into which they had stumbled – they included Fluttershy, along with Rainbow and Twilight's other friends Rarity and Pinkie Pie, who had caught up with them on the way – was empty apart from their party, but it was, so far as Blake could tell, sturdy and well built, secure from the outside, and even if it wasn't perfect there were no grimm within the walls anyway (that Blake knew of) so to an extent having taken shelter was a formality anyway. And even if it hadn't been the Atlesian guard captain Shining Armour was here, along with the Councillor's Atlesian security and her mother's bodyguards. It might be that Blake was more skilled than any of them except Shining Armour, but that didn't actually make her needed here.

Of course it was a little late to leave now, and hard to explain all of this to her mother. And although her mother seemed to be preoccupied in a political discussion with Councillor Cadenza at the moment that didn't mean that Blake fancied her chances of slipping out to join the battle. Her mother's eyes would spot her the moment she started to leave.

So all she could do was wait, and pace up and down, and listen.

"I want to help," Cadance said. "And Atlas wants to help, but I don't know how you can promise that there will be no trouble when by your own admission the White Fang commands the largest military force in Menagerie."

"But Sienna Khan won't dare use it in Menagerie, not without provocation a lot more serious than outside investment or expertise – faunus expertise – coming in from outside the kingdoms."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Because support for the White Fang is wide in Menagerie, but it isn't deep," Kali explained. "People like the idea of a group that is fighting for the rights of the faunus back in the old countries, so long as they don't have to think too hard about what that fighting entails. If Sienna started setting off bombs in Menagerie itself then support for her and her movement would ebb away quickly."

Blake allowed her attention to drift away from the discussion that her mother was having with Cadance. She wasn't altogether sure that her mother was right, but then who was she to question when she hadn't been back to Menagerie in years? Her mother had been there only this year.

She walked away, pacing across the grey, dull, concrete shelter; she tried, but mostly failed, to keep her thoughts from flying away to the battlefield where her friends were risking their lives to protect Vale. Where she ought to be.

She tried not to think too much about that, as painful as it was, as hard as it made the inescapable waiting. Her stride carried her across the shelter to where Rarity was sitting by herself, humming softly under her breath as she sewed some sort of blanket or something. Fluttershy was reading a book on birds, while Pinkie was playing some kind of card game with the children that Blake, not having what you might call a normal childhood, didn't recognise.

How could they all be so calm at a time like this? How could they sew or read or play games with everything going on outside, with their friends facing danger and the possibility of death?

"The answer, darling, is a great deal of practice," Rarity murmured, without looking up from her sewing.

Blake blinked. "Am I that transparent?"

"Your stride is speaking volumes," Rarity said. She looked up at her. "Why don't you sit down? You won't help anyone by wearing holes in those fabulous boots you're wearing."

Blake took a seat next to Rarity, the two sitting side by side in silence that was neither particularly companionable nor particularly awkward. "What are you making?" Blake asked.

"A poncho," Rarity said, holding up a glittery blue cape thing for Blake's inspection. " _Magnifique_ , no?"

"Um, I suppose," Blake said.

Rarity looked at her over the half-moon spectacles that Blake guessed she wore for detail work. "You could make an effort, darling."

"Sorry," Blake said. "I've never had a great eye for fashion."

"And yet you have a great deal of fashion sense, that outfit really is fetching."

"Thanks," Blake said awkwardly. She bit her lip. "Does it…does it ever get any easier?"

"Waiting to find out whether my friends are going to come home hale and hearty or in body bags, if they come back at all?" Rarity said, lowering her voice for the benefit of the children. She sighed. "No, dear, it never gets any easier. In fact I think it might have gotten harder recently."

"How so?"

"It was…well, it was never easy," Rarity said. "But when it was Applejack and Rainbow, well…you've met them both. They...I know that Applejack would much rather be on a farm somewhere but they both…they suit the life of a huntress, if you follow me. We worried about them, I worried about them, but I could always tell myself that they could take care of themselves and I could believe it, if you follow."

Blake nodded.

"But then Twilight…" Rarity sighed. "I don't mean to insult her, but…the thought of that shy, awkward, adorable girl going off to war…"

"I get it," Blake said. "She doesn't seem suited for it. I…I'm not sure that she is. If it weren't for Rainbow Dash…I'm not sure how committed she'd be to the idea of proving herself in battle."

"I think she suspects we all coddle her a little and she doesn't much care for it," Rarity admitted.

"Do you?"

"Oh, yes," Rarity said brazenly.

Blake raised an eyebrow at how openly she confessed that. "Why? If you don't mind me asking…why are you all friends? You…you don't seem to have-"

"Very much in common?" Fluttershy asked, gently closing her book. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, it's just that I couldn't help but overhear you."

"It's fine, Fluttershy," Blake said. "And yes, that's what I was going to say. You don't seem to have much in common."

Rarity gave a faint smile. "We may seem as different, as the night is from day."

"But you look a little deeper," Pinkie sang out from where she sat. "And you will see that I'm just like you and you're just like me, yeah!"

Rarity chuckled. "Yes, indeed, Pinkie dear. I admit that it may seem as though we are a rather disparate group, but…well…I don't know exactly how to explain it. A meeting of souls, one might say. A string of fate binding us all together." She shook her head. "Of course I will admit that we would never have met if we hadn't all happened to be attending Canterlot Combat School at the time."

"Yeah," Blake said. "About that…I know that Rainbow said they do supplemental courses, but still…some of you don't really seem the type to be huntresses."

"I certainly considered it, at one time," Rarity said.

Blake's eyebrows rose. "Really?"

Rarity tilted her chin upwards. "Miss Belladonna, in these perilous times a lady should be able to fence as well as she dances, and I dance very well if I do say so myself. I wasn't absolutely certain that was what I wanted to do with my life, the call of the world of beauty was very strong, but…I'm not sure if this will make sense to someone like you, but there are times when the world seems very safe and secure…and then there are times when it seems such a terrible place that Atlas has need of every sword that will lay itself at the feet of the council. And in those times I think: why not mine?

"And so I decided to take a year's course in aura training at Canterlot to see if it was for me. And that was when I met the girls. Rainbow Dash was the star of the combat track, of course, even in her first year; dear Applejack was a prefect tasked with herding cats."

"I was taking a supplemental course as well," Fluttershy said. "I think it will help with my application for a research grant."

"Research?" Blake said. "I had no idea you were a scientist."

"Oh, I'm not, that's Twilight's department," Fluttershy said quickly. "I'm talking about ornithological research. Do you know that in the entire of human history there's been no comprehensive study of bird life on Remnant? Well, no comprehensive studies on any animal life whatsoever really, but I've always gotten along with birds the best, they're just cuties."

"I imagine that the grimm make it difficult – dangerous – to head out into the wild in search of…less ferocious wildlife," Blake observed.

Fluttershy nodded. "That's right. And so many people just aren't that interested, I'm sad to say. That's why I'm hoping to get a grant from the Atlesian research committee to be the first person to travel to all four kingdoms documenting their avian wildlife. That's why I wanted to learn a little more about my aura, so I could prove to the committee that I'm able to survive in the wild. Rainbow Dash and Applejack both promised to escort me, but with everything that's going on I don't think they're going to have time."

"No," Blake murmured. "I think, unfortunately, you're probably right about that."

"Twilight was there for much the same reason," Rarity said. "Atlas likes its scientists to have a degree of a handle on their aura so it can put them into the field."

Blake nodded. "What about you, Pinkie? What brought you to a combat school?"

Pinkie shrugged. "Just a feeling."

"A feeling?"

"I knew that I was never meant to be a huntress," Pinkie said. "Not like Maud. Maud's my big sister, and to be honest she'd rather study rocks than fight monsters, but she's also really committed and selfless and the coolest big sister that any little sister ever had and so she trained hard and went and kicked butt alongside Rainbow Dash and Applejack on their first team before Rainbow got a whole new team with Twilight-"

"Breathe, Pinkie," Rarity admonished gently.

Pinkie took a deep breath. "Anyway I knew that I was never going to be like her. But I had a feeling. Just…a feeling, you know? Like you get in your toes, or in your hair. A feeling that told me 'Pinkie, this is where you're meant to be'."

Rarity shook her head. "I'm still not sure how you persuaded Principal Celestia to let you in a year early."

Blake's eyes widened. "You got in a year early?"

Pinkie shrugged. "Apparently I've got lots of potential. But killing isn't for me. I think my Pinkie sense was just telling me where to go to meet my very best friends!"

"So there we all were," Rarity said. "Twilight and Rainbow Dash already knew one another, but I can't exactly what remember what it was that drew the rest of us together. It was…a kind of magic."

"Magic," Fluttershy agreed. "And Twilight Sparkle."

"Yes," Rarity said. "And Twilight Sparkle." The smile wavered on her face. "It wasn't until they went to Atlas that we who were left behind realised what it meant to be close friends with huntresses."

"What made you decide not to follow?"

"Hmm?"

"You said you'd considered being a huntress yourself," Blake said. "You graduated from a combat school. What made you decide not to go to Atlas yourself?"

"Oh, that," Rarity said. She laughed lightly. "Actually it was Applejack who made that decision for me." Rarity's voice slipped into a very bad impression of Applejack's distinctive accent. "Now listen up, Rarity, you ain't go no call to be risking your neck out on the battlefield, you hear me. We both know you ain't the type for it, and we both know that you don't want to be the type for it neither." Rarity's natural – her usual, anyway; there was a confected air about Rarity's usual voice that made Blake wonder if it was at least partly put on for whatever reason – accent returned. "The irony, of course, being that Applejack doesn't really want to be the type for it herself."

"But she does it anyway," Blake said. "Why?"

"Duty," Rarity said. "Courage. A feeling that since somebody has to it might as well be her. Honestly, you'd have to ask her yourself, darling."

Blake nodded, and might have said something else if Shining Armour hadn't suddenly said, "Do you guys hear that?"

Blake listened. Her feline ears twitched on top of her head. She did hear that. It was a Bullhead, judging by the whine of the engine, and it was coming down nearby. "Could it be Atlesian forces?"

"I don't see why they wouldn't have called ahead," Shining Armour said. He walked to a small wooden desk in the corner of the shelter, near the slanted metal doors shutting them off from the surface, where a set of nine miniature monitors were stacked three across and three up. He bent down in front of them. "I can't see anything. The coverage isn't good enough. I can't see the aircraft coming down."

"This is Sienna Khan of the White Fang!" Sienna Khan's voice boomed into the shelter from without, so loud that Blake thought she must be shouting into a bullhorn from some safe distance outside. "Atlesian forces, I have no interest in you. Surrender Kali and Blake Belladonna to me within the next five minutes and the rest of you will be left unmolested. If you force me to storm in there and get her then I will not be responsible for any other casualties incurred in the process."

Blake got to her feet as Shining Armour cursed under his breath. "How did they find us?" he asked.

"Ilia," Blake said. "She must have…tracked us somehow."

"You don't think that she followed the three of us, do you?" Fluttershy asked.

"It doesn't matter how they found us," Cadance said. "What matters is our current situation. I'll contact General Ironwood."

"I am, of course, jamming all communications in this area," Sienna said. "Despite what your Atlesian arrogance might lead to you believe I'm not just some yahoo with a gun."

Cadance pulled out her scroll regardless. "No signal."

"How is she doing that?" Shining Armour asked.

"My guess is with an Atlesian J-7 man-portable field jammer," Blake said. "Either stolen from one of your bases, or…well, ever since you started bringing in the J-8 a lot of J-7s have been finding their way onto the black market. It happens every time the military phases in new gear: some of the old stuff always gets lost on its way to be condemned."

Shining Armour looked at her. "If you do join the military then you should ask to be assigned to the Inspector-General's office, it sounds like you know all the tricks already," he said. "Our own equipment used against us."

"You sound as though she'll be in a position to join your military," Kali said cautiously.

"We're not handing you over to them," Cadance said.

Kali looked surprised. "You're not even going to consider it."

"Atlas doesn't bow to the demands of terrorists."

"Not even with the children in harm's way?" Kali asked.

"Am I supposed to trust the word of Sienna Khan that they wouldn't be harmed even if I threw you and Blake out?" Cadance replied. "I'm a member of the Atlesian council, is there anything the White Fang would like more than to take my head?"

"They might not like the reprisals that followed," Blake murmured.

"I admit that I don't know these people so well as you," Rarity said. "But I'm inclined to say that if they were so worried about reprisals they wouldn't be here in the first place."

"Kali, my old friend," Sienna shouted. "I give you my word that you will not be harmed. Is that not enough?"

"Do you trust her?" Cadance asked.

"She won't kill us," Kali said.

"She'll just use us to get leverage against Dad, won't she?" Blake said.

"That's what I fear, yes," Kali said.

Blake frowned, and looked at the three young girls. Could they really afford to wait here and risk harm coming to them?

"I don't suppose there's another way out?" Rarity suggested.

"If there is it will be covered," Blake said. "Sienna's right, she's not just some bandit, she knows what she's doing. This whole shelter will be surrounded, and tightly." She sighed. "Perhaps-"

"No," Cadance said. "I'm not going to throw you to wolves on the off chance that the White Fang will keep their word."

"But-"

"The White Fang have already tried to kidnap me once, not to mention putting the lives of everyone I care about in danger," Cadance said. "I won't surrender to them now. Shining Armour," she walked over to her husband, and took his hands in her own. "Are you ready?"

"Yes," Shining Armour said at once.

Blake's eyes narrowed as blue crackled between the hands of Cadance and Shining Armour. As he bowed his head, and rested it upon her forehead, a soft blue light enveloped them both. As Blake watched, she felt something like a soft breeze passing over her, and then a pink light rose from around Shining Armour, expanding outwards across the shelter and beyond it, passing harmlessly over Blake and all the other inhabitants of the shelter, covering not only the room that they were in but passing beyond the doors and into the galley and toilet to the left and right of them and a little way into the deeper recesses behind them too.

Shining Armour and Cadance stood like a statue of two lovers, eyes closed, hand in hand, foreheads pressed gently against one another. Neither moved, nor said a word.

"Um," Blake murmured. "Are they-"

"Shining Armour's semblance…" Rarity began. "It pushes his aura outwards from his body, forming a barrier around not only himself but other people and things whom he wishes to protect."

"But it immobilises him to do it," Blake finished.

"Indeed," Rarity murmured. "Cadance is lending him her strength, but in the process she has become caught in the effects."

"So her semblance is like Jaune?" Blake said.

"Not exactly," Rarity said. "It doesn't work on just anybody. It requires a more…intimate connection. Love," she added, when she saw on the look on Blake's face. "Although I can see how you might have gotten the wrong idea, I do apologise."

"What matters is that we're safe now," Fluttershy said.

"Are we?" Blake asked. "I'm not so sure."

"What do you mean?" Fluttershy asked.

There was a booming sound coming from outside.

"That's what I mean," Blake said. "They're trying to break through, and they'll do it too."

"What makes you so sure about that," Pinkie said. "Shining Armour and Cadance together are pretty strong, you know."

"I'm sure," Blake said softly. "But it's still just aura, and aura can be broken."

"In time," Rarity said. "Surely the White Fang will give up before then. Once the battle is over someone will come for us, won't they?"

"Eventually," Blake said. "If the battle ends that fast." She glanced at her mother. "But I wouldn't count on Sienna Khan giving up easily."

Indeed she did not. Being under the protection of Shining Armour's shield turned out to be a lot like being in the shelter while the battle raged without: a great deal of waiting, within a space that was theoretically more confined that it had been before because, it turned out, once Shining Armour's shield had passed over you you couldn't get out of it from the inside. So Blake, who had considered chancing the escape hatch – which looked rather like a manhole cover and might have gone unnoticed by the White Fang when it came to sealing off all the exits – in the sleeping quarters to slip out and try and destroy their jamming equipment was balked because she couldn't even get into the sleeping quarters because they weren't covered by the shield.

And so there was nothing that she could do but wait, nothing that they could all do but wait, as the shield held them captive even as it kept them safe and all the while the thunder of the White Fang's wrath rebounded from outside.

Blake wondered what it was they were hitting the shield with. Guns? Explosives? Where they using the cannons in the noses of the Bullheads they had used to fly here? Where they simply attacking it with their melee weapons? Where they throwing everything they had at it in a bid to get through it faster? That was the most likely explanation. She wondered how much more Shining Armour could take. He seemed to tremble a little with each impact, and Cadance too. The blue light that she had spread over him seemed to be holding strong but how much aura did they really have between them at this point.

Everyone was looking nervous. The other Atlesian guards, her mother's guards, the friends of Rainbow and Twilight, they all looked a little more strained than they had done when the attack began.

And the children, too. That was what made Blake feel the worst.

She realised that it was rather patronising to think of them as the children like that; they were all older than ten, and probably closer to thirteen than ten; not much younger than Ruby, barely younger than Strongheart. But, not having seen or been through what Strongheart or even Ruby had they seemed much younger. There was an innocence about them that made them seem more like children than others their age or not much older.

"I'm sorry that you've all been caught up in this," Blake murmured.

"It's okay," Scootaloo said.

"No, it isn't," Blake said. "You shouldn't be in danger from the enemies of my family."

"But aren't they Atlas' enemies, too?" Apple Bloom asked. "Aren't they the people that Applejack and Rainbow Dash spend so much time fighting?"

"That's…true," Blake admitted. "But still…you still shouldn't be in harms way, and I'm sorry for that."

"You're the one who's fought with Rainbow Dash, aren't you?" Scootaloo said.

"Lots of people have fought alongside Rainbow Dash," Blake said. "I'm fortunate to be one of them."

"And you're the one who helped rescue Applejack from down in that underground city, right?" Apple Bloom said.

"Again, I was one of many people who were there," Blake said.

"Anyone who did that is alright with us, right?" Apple Bloom said.

"Right," Sweetie Belle said. "So don't worry about it."

Blake blinked. "Aren't you three worried? At all?"

"A little," Sweetie Belle said. "But…"

"But we know that our awesome sisters will show up to save us, just in time," Scootaloo said. "No way that Rainbow Dash will let us down."

"Or Applejack either."

Blake smiled slightly. _If only that were an iron law._ Still, it brought her back to her plan to destroy the jammer. If they could only do that then they could get word out and once they could get word out then surely help would race to their position.

The only problem was…well, there were multiple problems, starting with the fact that she didn't know how many fighters Sienna had with her, or who she had with her…but apart from that the first problem that she would have to surmount was that she couldn't get out from behind this shield.

Blake turned away from the three children and paced to the wall. _Sienna herself. Ilia I know is one. Gilda, probably. Strongheart, perhaps. If Sienna Khan came here from Menagerie then she probably brought more than just Ilia with her. Peter? Holly? Woundwort?_ Blake shuddered at the thought of facing Woundwort, the person who had thought _Adam_ was too soft on humans, but he was so strong Sienna would have been a fool to leave him behind.

 _She'll have brought her best if she's smart, and Sienna's no fool. But perhaps, if she doesn't expect me…_

"Blake?" Kali asked. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking that we can't just sit here and wait," Blake said. She pulled out her scroll, and tapped out a text to Rainbow Dash. White Fang attack. Holed up with whole party including children. Send help. She added the coordinates of their current position and pressed send. Of course, with the signal being jammed the processing wheel just kept on spinning and spinning as the scroll tried, and failed to find a signal to connect to.

"You know that won't work," Kali observed.

"Right now," Blake replied. She held out the scroll to Rarity. "Rarity, will you hold onto that for me for a little bit?"

"What? Oh, of course darling," Rarity said, sounding somewhat puzzled as she took the scroll from Blake's unresisting hand.

Blake walked towards Shining Armour and Cadance, who had not moved one inch since Shining Armour had raised his shield around them.

"Can they hear me?" Blake asked.

Shining Armour's eyes opened, and he blinked. Perhaps that was the greatest extent of movement allowed to them.

"Once for yes?" Blake suggested.

Shining Armour blinked.

"You need to drop the shield while you still have some aura left for the fight afterwards," Blake said.

The eyes of both Shining Armour and Cadance snapped open and both widened in an 'are you crazy?' sort of fashion.

"I know how it sounds," Blake said. "But how long has this attack been going on? It's clear that Sienna isn't going to give up and frankly I'm not sure that our allies are going to win quickly enough that they'll be able to check us without a nudge that we can't give them right now. How much aura do you have left? And what are you going to do when it runs out?"

She could see the concern in Shining Armour's eyes, so she pressed her advantage. "If you lower the shield now then you'll still have some aura left to fight them with, and while they break down the door I'll sneak out one of the other exits and take out the jammer so that our message for help gets out."

He didn't speak, neither of them did, but she could read the question in their eyes well enough. _Do you really think you can do it?_

"I'm the second best stealth expert the White Fang ever had and one of the best warriors," Blake said. "I can do it. And I don't see that there are many better options."

The two of them looked into one another's eyes. For a moment they were once more completely still, and Blake had the uncanny sense that they were almost sharing one another's thoughts.

Then they both blinked once.

Blake nodded. "You won't regret this," she said. "I swear." _Rainbow Dash once saved my life, now it's my turn to save everything that matters to her._ She turned to the others. "Once the shield goes down you should move further down into the shelter, try and lose them."

"We'll stay here," one of the Atlesians said. "Hold them off as long as we can."

"So will we," said one of her mother's guards.

Blake frowned. "These will be the best the White Fang has coming through that door," she said.

"Still," the Atlesian said. "As long as we can."

"I, on the other hand, think that that is splendid advice," Rarity said. "Sweetie Belle, girls, come along. Get ready. I'm not sure how much time we'll have."

The party – Kali, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie and the children – gathered at the edge of the shield, waiting.

"Blake," Kali murmured. "Do you have to-"

"Yes, mom," Blake said. "It's dangerous, but I'm the only one who can do it."

"You always think that."

"I know," Blake admitted. "But this time it's true, I promise."

Kali nodded. "Stay safe, my baby girl."

"I will, Mom," Blake said, even as they both knew that was not a promise she could guaranteed to keep.

Blake turned her attention, once again, to Shining Armour and Cadance. "Do it," she said.

Shining Armour and Cadance stepped away from one another, as the pink protective dome that had held them captive even as it kept them safe dissipated and dissolved into nothingness, leaving only the empty air and the grimm proof doors to protect them.

"Go!" Shining Armour said. "Cadance, go with them."

"I-"

"Go," Shining Armour repeated. He looked at Blake. "We'll buy as much time as we can."

"And I'll go as fast as I can," Blake said. There was no time to say anything else, not even a goodbye to her mother, whom she last saw hurrying away with the others into the deeper recesses of the shelter, closing the bulkhead-like doors behind them as they went – the shelter was designed to be sealed off and segmented, in case any part of it was breached by the grimm, for the same reason that there were escape hatches all over the place to enable escape to the surface from almost any part of the bunker – while Blake herself went another way, sprinting to her left into one of the sleeping quarters, a room filled up with bunk beds covered with dust, the unused sheets being devoured by bed bugs while ants and cockroaches crawled on the floor. It had looked pretty disgusting the first time that they took a look inside – Rarity had come very close to shrieking in dismay – but Blake barely noticed as she leapt across the dusty concrete floor and reached the ladder at the far end of the long room, the ladder leading up to a hatch that was all that separated her from the surface.

She scrambled up the ladder even as she heard, muffled only slightly by the distance behind her, the doors being broken open and the sounds of fighting erupting between the White Fang and the guards, Atlesian and Menagerie alike.

The escape hatches, like the one that Blake scampered up the ladder towards until she was just beneath it, were designed to open outward only and to be opened from the inside only: they were escape routes, not vulnerabilities against the grimm (that was the intention, although without releasing a grimm into the city to try and get into the shelter it was impossible know for sure that they couldn't); it was for that the reason that the White Fang hadn't been able to enter the shelter through one of the more distant exits which were not covered by the shield. However, that didn't mean that they were guarding this hatch.

Fortunately there was a monitor built into the tunnel, so that anyone wishing to escape could see that there wasn't a beowolf waiting to devour them as soon as they popped the hatch and stuck their head out, and even more fortunately it was still working after however many years of neglect. So Blake looked at the small black and white picture in the monitor, watching as the camera rotated three hundred and sixty degrees, showing no White Fang sentry nearby. It wasn't too surprising – unlike the main entrances at the front and rear, these escape hatches were inconspicuous, and without plans of the bunker it would be hard to find them all – but it was fortunate, and for the first time since Sienna and the White Fang arrived Blake felt as though things were falling out in her favour.

The hatch had instructions stuck to it, surrounded by a red and yellow border; the handle to pull to open said hatch also had warning stripes on it with the message DO NOT PULL EXCEPT IN EMERGENCY.

 _I'd say this qualifies,_ Blake thought, as she gripped the handle tightly and, with a firm tug, popped the hatch.

The cold night air, chilly and yet refreshing at the same time in contrast to the increasingly stale air within the shelter (there was an air filtration system, but that hadn't stopped it from feeling increasingly fresh, at least as far as Blake was concerned) hit her like a slap to the face as she pushed the hatch up as far as it would go and stuck her head out.

It was dark, the moon providing little light, but her feline vision confirmed what the camera had already told her: the White Fang hadn't found this escape hatch, and in not finding it had neglected to guard it.

The shelter in which they had taken refuge lay beneath a high-rise tower block, and Blake had emerged in the alleyway between said tower and the hotel next door, a slightly smaller structure but more sturdily built out of stone rather than glass, and the two buildings together meant that she had very little view of what was going on outside the alleyway. She climbed out of the hatch, drawing Gambol Shroud from across her back and holding it in pistol configuration, gripping the butt tightly with both hands as she crept sideways, her back pressed against the one-way glass of the high rise, and glanced out of the alleyway.

She could see an empty Bullhead grounded outside the shelter, and not far away she could see the jammer, an old Atlesian J-7 just as she had predicted: a three-sided vertical column of black plastic, sitting on a black tripod altogether just a little shorter than Ruby, glowing with blue lines running up the sides of the column that showed it was currently activated.

Once she destroyed it then her message would get through to Rainbow Dash and the cavalry would arrive. And the sooner the better.

The jammer was scarcely guarded; Sienna – who was outside herself, having evidently decided to let her followers bear the risks of this particular battle; Blake, who could just about remember when the High Leader actually led her men into the face of danger, felt a surge of contempt to see her now using others as her weapons – had evidently committed the bulk of her forces into the bunker. Aside from the High Leader there was only Strongheart and some woman that Blake didn't know, young-looking but with grey hair and grey hands to match as though she had dipped them into wet cement not long ago. None of them gave any sign that they could see her.

Blake – careful not to expose herself – took aim at the jammer.

She felt the sting of the whip across her back a split second before she felt the shock travel up and down her entire body, sending her stumbling in convulsions out of the alleyway and into the sight of Sienna and her cohorts even as she felt her aura being torn away by the electricity rippling up and down her body. She turned, stumbling backwards, to see Ilia changing colour from the black that had concealed her in the shadows of the alley, her face set grim with anger as she pursued Blake with a leaping kick that drove her foot into Blake's gut and doubled her over.

Ilia snarled as she raised her whip to lash at Blake again, but this time Blake left a clone in her place to take the blow as she leapt away, firing her grapple up at the hotel to her right. The hook struck home, digging into the brown stone halfway up the structure as the line began to reel in, carrying Blake upwards and out of the range of Ilia's Lightning Lash as she planted her feet on the stone and looked down. There was the crack of a rifle, and Blake leapt away just in time as a bullet from Strongheart's rifle hit the wall where Blake had been causing a shower of masonry to explode from it. Blake grabbed for the edge of a nearby window to keep from plummeting – her aura could absorb the drop, but best not to risk it while fighting a battle – as she saw Strongheart work the lever on her rifle and raise it to her shoulder once again, while Sienna, her Cerberus Whip glinting in the moonlight upon her wrist, padded across the open courtyard before the two buildings, sidling closer to Blake's position. The grey haired girl had not yet moved at all – she didn't appear to have a weapon either – but that might not last.

Blake dropped as Strongheart fired again, the bullet shattering the window and sending shards of glass falling down, some to clip Blake's aura as they descended around her like a hail of knives. She fired her grapple again, hitting the wall above her, but instead of winching herself up Blake teased the line out slowly, turning her fall into a controlled descent which she sped up gradually as she kicked off the wall, swinging on the line to plant both her feet into Ilia's chest in a kick hard enough to send her old friend flying backwards and onto her back. Blake dashed forwards, towards the White Fang Bullhead, taking aim at the jammer with Gambol Shroud, but before she could fire Sienna lashed out at her with Cerberus Whip, the chain uncoiling from around her wrist to spring through the night air like something alive, the red lightning dust in the first point glowing malignantly as it flew towards her. Blake backflipped away, leaving an earth clone in her place to take the blow as the blade rebounded from the rock. A second earth clone took another shot from Strongheart – blowing the stone Blake's head off – as the buffalo girl took up a defensive position between Blake and the jammer.

Ilia was on her feet by now, and she and Sienna were closing in on Blake from both sides; Sienna's tiger eyes gleaming with anticipation. Blake waited, almost unmoving, as Cerberus Whip leapt at her like a hunting creature, coiling around Blake's waist and pulling her off balance while Ilia lashed at her with her own electrified weapon.

The fire clone exploded, with just enough smoke to disorient the two of them momentarily as Blake charged for Strongheart, using shadow clones to push herself forward even faster as she ran in a blur of shadows, firing Gambol Shroud as she ran, snapping off shots which Strongheart was forced to stand and take or risk the precious jammer getting hit instead. She tried to block them with her rifle – she blocked one or two that way – but she was also staggered backwards by the impacts of Blake's rounds before Blake switched her weapon from pistol mode to sword, drawing her cleaver-scabbard with her free hand as she closed the range with the girl she had once watched cry herself to sleep.

Strongheart scowled, and screamed a battle cry as she, too, switch her weapon to one hand and drew the tomahawk from her belt as she surged forward, her semblance driving her on in an impressive burst of forward motion which carried her right into Blake's ice clone, which enveloped her in an expanding cloud of ice from which only bits and pieces of her body emerged as she grunted and howled and struggled to free herself.

Blake jumped up into the air, kicking off the ground with all the force that she could muster, Gambol Shroud changing back from sword to pistol as she reloaded in mid-air to a clip of fire dust rounds.

She fired, snapping off one shot, three, five before Cerberus Whip coiled around her ankle and pulled her back down to the ground with a heavy thump.

But by then it was too late as Blake's shots struck home, igniting the jammer.

Blake felt something wrap around her body, a sticky substance, not inflexible but binding…a spider's web, shot from the grey hands of the fourth girl, the one who had hitherto taken no part in the battle. The web wrapped around her while she lay on the ground, enveloping her like a straightjacket as Ilia kicked Gambol Shroud way from her.

It didn't matter. The jammer was on fire, and as Blake watched from where she lay on the ground it sparked, then shorted, then gave up the ghost altogether as the flames consumed it.

She glared up at Sienna. "Whatever you do to me next it doesn't matter, I've won."

Ilia's face twisted into a snarl even as her hand curled into a fist. Sienna raised one hand to still her.

"Blake," she said. "Blake, Blake, Blake. I am so very disappointed in you."

"I could say the same about you," Blake said. "Working with the enemies of all human and faunus kind, putting a city that's home to tens of thousands of faunus in danger? And for what? To take me and my mother prisoner? Is that the only reason for any of this?"

"This battle was going to happen anyway," Sienna said. "I'm simply taking advantage of the confusion."

"You have no idea what you've done," Blake said. "You have no idea what's at stake here. This is so much bigger than faunus and humans-"

"Says the girl who sold out her kind for an Atlesian uniform," Ilia snapped.

"If we don't stand together we'll die alone," Blake said. "Do you have any idea what kind of monster you've made a bargain with?"

"Don't talk to me about monsters, Blake!" Ilia shouted. "The only monsters I know are the humans who laughed when they heard that my parents had died in the mines!"

Blake twisted in the spider's web so that she could get a better look at Ilia. The chameleon girl was red with anger, her skin burning like the setting sun. "Ilia, I know how you feel-"

"No, you don't!" Ilia yelled. "If you didn't then you wouldn't…I told you that story because I thought you'd understand, but if you really understood, if you cared at all then you wouldn't have sided with the people who killed my parents and then made fun of them."

"There's so much more to Atlas than those stupid girls you thought were your friends," Blake said. "There's so much good, and so many good people-"

"Shut up!" Ilia shrieked. "How could you…how could you? You were supposed to be the best of us, the one we all looked up to and admired, the paragon of our cause. You were the one that I…that I…" She let out a sob, and turned away from Blake. Strongheart reached up to put a sympathetic hand upon her shoulder.

"She is right," Sienna said. "You were the greatest warrior I ever trained, everyone who knew you or fought alongside you remembers you so fondly. And I…you were like a daughter to me, and it was my plan that in time you would succeed me as High Leader of the White Fang. And now…this? Atlas? Siding with humans against your own kind, betraying Adam to his death? It pains me to see how far you have fallen."

"I'd say that I've risen higher than I could have dreamt of," Blake said. "What are you going to do to me? And my mother?"

"You and your mother will both be my guests for a while," Sienna said. "So that your father can understand why it is not wise of him to make overtures to Atlas as though I am some insignificant nobody, and the White Fang a feeble rump of little account to be ignored whenever we are inconvenient, and not a power that he must respect. You will always tell me just what you and the councillor were talking about. Once I have impressed upon your parents the way of the world your mother will be free to go."

"But not me," Blake said.

"You will remain as my guest," Sienna said. "I miss our stimulating conversations. I miss you. We all miss you, Blake. Everyone will be so glad to see you returned to the bosom of your family."

"You are not my mother and the White Fang isn't my family," Blake said.

 _My family is on its way right now._

 _I hope._

* * *

The engine growled on Sunset's bike as she sped down the streets of Vale, holding onto the handlebars with one hand even while she held her sword in the other. She used said sword – not on fire right now to save the dust, but still a sword – to bisect a passing creep in the middle of the street.

With the roads as deserted as they were and everyone huddling from the terror of the grimm, said grimm were about the only things that Sunset had to worry about on the roads tonight. She glanced upwards, where she could just about make out the contrails of Rainbow and Penny's jetpacks – apparently Penny had a jetpack now, something that Twilight had been working on that the robot girl could wear in special situations; the fact that she would have to take it off again to use her Floating Array wasn't ideal but in situations like this when speed was of the essence it was a lot better than nothing – as they flew through the night sky towards the coordinates sent to them by Blake.

Ruby's hands were wrapped around Sunset's waist as she clung on, sat behind her on the bike (even though Flash had his own car, Sunset had built the bike with the idea that maybe they could go riding on it together, with his arms around her waist, and so there was enough space for someone to ride behind) as they raced through the streets. A shot from some distance behind indicated that Applejack, following on horseback, had encountered a grimm of some description of her own en route.

Twilight and Ciel would be the last to catch up, simply because they were waiting for an airship to be re-routed to them so that they could evacuate Councillor Cadenza and her party on it once they arrived.

Everyone was responding to Blake's message. Everyone except Pyrrha and Jaune, who were responding to Ozpin's.

Sunset would be the first admit that their response to these two emergencies was completely unbalanced, but Pyrrha had insisted that there was nothing that any of them could do if they went to Beacon, that only she could get into this place, the Vault of the Fall Maiden that was likely the source of all the trouble, and it had been impossible to get her to take any additional hands to support.

" _Ruby should go with you as well, I'll bet she can keep up with a horse using her semblance. Hay, I'll bet she's faster than a horse."_

" _Probably," Ruby said, without much enthusiasm. "I mean…it's like I've ever raced one or anything."_

" _And what would you do when you got there, Ruby?" Pyrrha said. "What would any of you do? I'm the only one who can enter the Vault."_

" _You don't know that you'll need to enter the Vault," Sunset said. "And even if you do then…if you…you don't know what you'll be facing down there alone."_

 _Pyrrha didn't answer that. And from the way she looked away it seemed pretty clear to Sunset that she knew the truth as well as Sunset herself. "We're wasting time," she said. "Blake needs you, you need to go."_

" _Do you really think that this is something you can do alone?"_

" _I took this burden on myself," Pyrrha said. "If this is my fate then…then it is also my choice." She smiled, though it was a smile touched by melancholy. "Don't worry. I have no intention of dying tonight, when I have so much still to live for."_

That didn't make Sunset feel much easier, as she drove her bike down the empty city streets. Pyrrha might not intend to die, but who knew what was waiting for her at Beacon. Amber was there, Ozpin's message had said, but he hadn't said who Amber had with her and yet Sunset couldn't believe she was alone. Maiden or not Sunset doubted that Amber was any match for Pyrrha on her own, and yet the people who might be with her…

 _I know that there's some magic spell on the Vault, but still…I think she only took Jaune with her because he knows how to ride a horse and she doesn't._

 _That and he wouldn't let her leave him behind even if she wanted to._

Finding the horses…or rather, the fact that the horses, having broken out of their enclosure and fled from the fairgrounds in terror of the grimm when the school had come under attack, wandering over the course of the night through city until they were close by when the huntsmen had need of them, had been a fortuitous stroke of luck, almost enough to make you believe that the gods had not completely absented themselves from Remnant and were giving things a little nudge to help out the good guys once in a while. Without them then Pyrrha and Jaune would have been hard pressed to get all the way back to Beacon in any reasonable length of time, and Applejack would have had no way of keeping up – or trying to – either.

 _Although…without the horses I would have had to take Pyrrha up to Beacon on my motorcycle, which…well, it would have made me feel a lot better even if it didn't do much for Jaune right now._

 _So I guess it all evens out._

She was more worried for Pyrrha than she was for Blake, and Sunset didn't mind admitting that. Blake only had the White Fang to worry about, and not that the White Fang weren't plenty to worry about but they weren't as bad as what Pyrrha might be up against; and Blake had Atlesian and Menagerie soldiers with her, while Pyrrha only had Jaune and even he couldn't follow her to where the battle might be fought.

 _And there's nothing that I can do except hope that she'll be okay._

"Is Pyrrha going to be alright?" Ruby asked, her voice a little muffled by the crash helmet – Sunset's crash helmet – that Sunset had insisted that she wear.

Sunset glanced briefly over her shoulder before returning her eyes to the road in front of them. "Sure," she said, with more confidence than she felt. "This is Pyrrha, remember? She'll be fine."

"Right," Ruby said. "That's…that's good to hear."

Everything Ruby said sounded flat, stifled, unanimated compared to normal; Sunset didn't have to be a psychologist to understand why that was: she had pushed her feelings into a box so that she didn't have to deal with them right now, because if she'd done anything else then the loss of her sister would have overwhelmed her. That wasn't…well, it wasn't great, but on the other hand it couldn't be argued that they still needed Ruby in the fight. So long as she let it out afterwards, then…

 _Then I'll be back in prison and a lot of good I'll be to her then. I just hope Jaune and Pyrrha will be able to help pick up the pieces._

"Guys, we're almost there," Rainbow said, her voice crackling into Sunset's earpiece. "Two minutes out."

"Okay," Twilight said. "From the plans of that shelter there are two main entrances, one to the north and one to the south."

"Thanks, Twi," Rainbow said. "I'll take the south entrance, Penny you take the north."

"Affirmative!"

"We're approaching towards the north entrance," Sunset said. "So we'll back you up when we get there."

"I'll see you there," Penny said.

"Yeah," Ruby murmured. "We'll see you there."

"Ruby," Penny said, in the tone of someone who very much wanted to say something helpful but had no idea what to say.

"It's okay, Penny," Ruby said. "We've all got a job to do right now."

Penny was quiet for a moment. "Yes," she said. "I…I understand."

* * *

Pinkie Pie hopped, skipped and jumped down the corridor, spreading her arms out on either side of her as her voice echoed off the grey concrete walls.

"Cause all I really need's a smile, smile, smile…from these happy friends of mine!" She hopped forward, balancing on one leg as the word smile echoed up and down the corridor, in front of her and behind.

Someone was sure to hear it. That was kind of the idea.

Pinkie wasn't smart like Twilight, who was a real genius with all kinds of neat ideas to make everything better, but that didn't mean that Pinkie didn't have any ideas to speak of. Why, she'd had an idea just now when they were all heading down these really boring grey corridors that were kind of making her feel down and miserable so that she needed to sing just to brighten them up a little. Anyway, Pinkie's idea was that since all of these bad guys were after Blake's mom – and probably wouldn't be too sorry to hurt Cadance either – then maybe it would be a good idea if somebody was to go off on their own and make a lot of noise to attract all the bad guys to them instead? Wasn't that smart?

Pinkie certainly thought so, but she also thought it was the kind of thing that everybody would try to talk her out of if she told them about it. That was why she hadn't told them, she'd just disappeared on them while they were trying to hide. She hoped that they weren't too worried or that they didn't do anything silly like try to look for her or something like that.

Just like she hoped that Shining Armour and everybody else fighting was okay. Not just because Twilight would be really upset if anything happened to her BBBFF – and Twilight being sad was one of the worst things that Pinkie could imagine – but also because Shining Armour was a pretty cool guy and Pinkie liked him; and he was about to become a Dad – it was a miracle that Pinkie had managed to hold that fact in, the suspense of waiting for everybody to find out was killing her – and it would be so, so sad if he were to…to not be around to meet his kid, and if they weren't able to meet their Daddy. That would be even worse than Twilight being sad.

Pinkie hoped that everybody was okay. Why did everyone have to keep fighting like this? She knew that there were monsters out there in the world but why did other people have to turn themselves into monsters too? Didn't they have enough problems without trying to hurt one another? Why did so many people want so badly to make other people hurt, when it was so more fulfilling to try and make them smile instead?

She didn't get it, not one bit. Fighting to protect others, like Rainbow Dash and Applejack, (and Twilight now, apparently) was one thing. It was really cool what they did, and it was really brave of them to do it, and Pinkie could think that they were awesome even while she didn't want to do that herself. But this? Fighting other people because you didn't like them? Who wanted to do that?

Such dark and gloomy thoughts were only making the dreary corridor seem even darker and gloomier than it had seemed before, and so Pinkie kept singing as she hopped and skipped down it.

"I'd like to see you grin (awesome!); I'd love to see you beam-"

Her song was interrupted by the sound of heavy thud coming from behind her.

Pinkie turned around as she heard more thuds, softer now but not actually soft, like heavy footsteps, accompanied sometimes by what sounded like somebody smashing something into the wall, came down the corridor towards her.

She saw his shadow first, and it was a pretty big shadow; a pretty big shadow for a pretty big guy, bigger than Twilight's friend Mister Ironwood. As he emerged Pinkie could see that he was wearing one of those suits that they made people wear in prison – Pinkie didn't like the colour much – and he was carrying a really big axe in one hand. He looked down at her with a sneer on his face.

"Here's a tip, kid," he said. "If you want to cause a distraction, maybe don't make it so obvious."

"But you still feel for it," Pinkie said brightly. "So I must have done something right, right?"

"Maybe I just wanted to shut you up," he said.

"There's no need to be like that, is there?" Pinkie said. "I don't want to fight you. Why, I bet if we sat down and talked about it we could find that we've got lots of things in common. Ooh, do you like board games?"

The big guy stared at her. "You know, the High Leader doesn't want unnecessary casualties…but the High Leader isn't here to see this, is she?"

Pinkie took a step back. "Like I said, I don't want to fight you."

The big guy chuckled. "Unfortunately for you, I've been stuck in a cell for the six months and I've got a lot of pent-up energy. So after I'm finished with you I'm going to go after the rest of your friends. Ilia says that you've got children with you-"

"Stop right there," Pinkie said. "You can want to do all kinds of mean things to me if you want to – I mean I'd rather that you didn't, but okay – but there's no way that I'm going to just stand here and let you threaten those kids!" Threatening children was, like, the worst. Didn't he realise that children were the gods' gift to the world? (Sure, that was supposed to be dust, but think about it: what brought more joy, dust or children?)

"Really? And what are you going to do to stop me?"

"Well, I could always use this," Pinkie said as she pulled a bazooka out of her hair. It was blue, and decorated with golden stars. Rainbow was always getting at her to give it a cool name, but Pinkie didn't like using it enough to give it a name. It was only for emergencies, after all.

The big guy's eyes widened. "What the-"

Pinkie fired the bazooka. The rocket hit the big guy square in the chest. He howled as it carried him backwards down the corridor and out of sight. There was an explosion, but Pinkie didn't see what it did. She doubted that he'd be bothering anybody, at least not for a while.

"I said that I didn't want to fight, I didn't say that I couldn't," Pinkie said.

She should probably get back to her friends now. It didn't seem like anybody else was coming. She guessed her brilliant idea hadn't been so brilliant after all.

Still, she thought as she started back the way that she'd come, at least it was one less bad guy for the others to worry about.

* * *

Gilda was, temporarily, alone. She had been with Yuma, but this place was kind of a rats maze in places and so, having split up into pairs to search, they'd split up even further to look for their quarry.

That was all to the good as far as Gilda was concerned, that guy gave her the creeps and she hated the way that he called her 'sister Gilda'; she was not his sister.

She would have rather had Strongheart with her, but the High Leader wanted her to guard the jammer, and who were they to question the High Leader.

Except that Gilda had been doing that a lot lately, hadn't she?

 _I just…I don't…what am I even doing here?_

And so Gilda was alone with her doubts when she came across Kali Belladonna – even though they'd never met Gilda recognised her from pictures; she and her husband were celebrities amongst faunus even if humans had never heard their names – alongside Councillor Cadenza of Atlas, Rainbow's friend Fluttershy, some posh Atlesian girl who might be another friend of Rainbow Dash and…and three children.

Why did there have to be children there? One of them was even a faunus kid, with a prosthetic leg visible between her shorts and her boots and a haircut that, especially combined with her pony ears, reminded Gilda of Dash when she was younger.

Actually it reminded Gilda of Dash now; she'd had the same haircut since she was eight years old. Why change what works, right?

But why did there have to be children?

The Atlesian girl, the one with royal purple hair rolled and curled, the one with golden bands around her wrists and gem-studded shoes, stood in front of her as if she could defend all the others. She didn't have a weapon but she stood her ground in the face of Gilda and her swords.

She threw up both her hands, conjuring a shield in the shape of a dazzling blue diamond. "Stay back, you…you brute!"

"Gilda?" Fluttershy murmured. "Gilda…is that you?"

Gilda's swords were raised to strike, but she found herself lowering them just a little even as she advanced a step closer to the group. "Yeah, it's me. Hey, Fluttershy. I…I'm sorry that we have to meet again like this." She hesitated. "I, um, thanks for giving me Rainbow's number…before. It was really useful."

"She told me," Fluttershy said. "She was happy to help."

"Yeah," Gilda muttered. "She was, wasn't she?"

"Fluttershy, darling, are you really having this conversation," the other girl asked.

"Don't worry, Rarity," Fluttershy said. "Gilda's not a bad person, are you?"

"No," Gilda said immediately. "I'd like to think I wasn't."

"Gilda," Kali said. "Gilda Swiftwind?"

Gilda blinked. "You know me, Chieftainess?"

"I know your parents," Kali said. "They live down by the beach."

Gilda nodded. "They won the lottery you hold."

"I check in on them sometimes," Kali said. "I like to make sure that all our new arrivals are settling in okay. They're luck to have old friends from Atlas living nearby. They talk about you a lot. They're so proud of you."

The points of Gilda's swords tapped against the floor as her hands dropped to her side. "Yeah, they're very proud," she muttered. "They're proud because they think I'm an electrician like my grandpa." _We were so worried with all the trouble you got into when you were younger; we're both so glad that you've found your path._

"Why haven't you told them the truth?" Kali said. "There are lots of families on Menagerie with a son or daughter or brother in the White Fang, just as there are those with a child in the Atlesian forces; some hold it a badge of honour to have family in the struggle, but even for most who don't…it's not a shameful thing. Unless…you're the one who feels ashamed?"

Gilda scowled. "And what if I do?"

Kali's expression was soft and understanding. "Then maybe it's time that you did something that you don't need to feel ashamed of. Something you could tell your parents about, and feel proud of it."

"That…that would be…"

"Congratulations, Sister Gilda," Yuma said, as he approached her from behind. "It appears that you have found our quarry. Chieftainness, I must ask you to come with us."

"That's not going to happen," Councillor Cadenza declared.

"Excellent," Yuma purred. "I was hoping you'd say that. Sister Gilda, help me dispose of these Atlesian scum."

Gilda looked at the faunus girl with Rainbow Dash's haircut. "They've got children here."

"Atlesian children."

Gilda looked into Fluttershy's eyes. _Gilda's not a bad person._

 _But I will be if I don't do something now._

"No," she said.

"No," Yuma repeated. "Is something wrong, Sister-"

"I," Gilda growled. "Am not your sister!" She turned on him, blades flashing even under the low light of this grey corridor, slashing across his chest before she leapt up into the air, wings unfurling, body twisting to deliver a kick to his face to stagger him backwards.

Gilda landed. Her wings were spread from wall to wall as she raised her swords, took her stance, and stepped forward.

 _Swallow Strike._

Her blades were lightning, streaking through the air leaving silver lines behind them, moving fast enough to hit a swallow in mid-flight, three strikes faster than many swordsmen could deliver one to slash through Yuma's aura and send that stupid bat with his stupid voice retreating, holding up his hands to shield himself.

He looked at her, his mouth opening to speak.

There was a bang, and he fell to the ground.

Rainbow Dash stood behind him, one gun raised.

Pointed at Gilda now.

"Gilda," Rainbow said.

Gilda licked her lips. "Dash."

Dash looked down. "So what was that?"

"That…that was me switching sides, I guess," Gilda said. Although it had happened kind of by accident now that she had actually done it – and she had gone and done it now, there wasn't much chance of a way back – it felt…pretty good, actually. Better than the alternative would have, that was for sure. She turned her back on Rainbow Dash, trusting that her old friend wasn't the type to shoot her in the back, and knelt down on the ground. "Chieftainess, my swords are yours."

Kali chuckled. "Oh, get up, Gilda, there's no need for that kind of thing. I'm just glad that you decided to do…the right thing."

"Still, if you don't mind me saying," Gilda said. "I hope you've got a spot on the boat back to Menagerie."

"We need to get out of here," Rainbow said. "Twilight and Ciel are bringing a Skygrasper to evacuate you all, we should get out of here and meet them…where's Pinkie?"

"I'm afraid we're not entirely sure, darling," Rarity said.

"Okay, I'll go back and look for her once we've got the rest of you to safety," Rainbow said.

"What about Shining Armour and the others?" Councillor Cadenza said. "He held off the White Fang while he ran."

"And Blake destroyed the jammer that was stopping word getting out," Kali added.

"On the other side of the shelter?" Rainbow asked. "Don't worry; Penny's taking care of it."

* * *

Shining Armour fell to his knees. Blood dripped down his forehead, filling one eye so that he had to close it because he was seeing nothing but red in any case. His aura was gone, and he felt such an immense weariness that it was a wonder that he could keep either of his eyes open right now. His arms were heavy, his hands were shaking, his legs were weak. He was bleeding in places, from wounds to his chest and arms, claw rounds where he had been slashed or stabbed as his aura broke.

His breathing was slow, but shallow. He could hear it. He could feel his heart beating quickly, for however it kept on beating.

As he looked up into the face of his opponent Shining Armour wasn't sure how much longer that would last.

His men were all dead, and the Menagerie guards too. They had fought hard to hold the line, and holding the line they had all fallen. All except him. He had been the last one standing, the last one to keep up the fight as his aura collapsed. Now he was on his knees, and all the White Fang – the ones who weren't lying on the ground alongside his men, the ones his comrades hadn't taken with them, the ones he hadn't cut down with the last of his strength, they had all followed Cadance and the others into the tunnels.

Cadance. He hoped that she'd be okay. He hoped that help came. He hoped that she got out of this in one piece. He hoped that he had brought her enough time.

There were worse ways to die than protecting the woman you loved.

And so, in spite of the blood dripping down his head, and filling his mouth, Shining Armour felt strangely at peace.

 _Twily…take care of Cadance for me._

He looked into the eyes of his enemy. He had been beaten down by easily the biggest guy he'd ever seen: a rabbit faunus with one lapine ear almost gone, only the stump remaining; one eye gone as well, a milky-white blind ruin. His face was scarred, and so was what Shining Armour could see of his neck, probably the rest of his body too. He wasn't bothering to wear a mask, almost as if he wanted Shining Armour to see his face.

As if he wanted his face to be the last thing Shining Armour saw.

The grin on his face was almost sadistic as he raised his fist – he was wearing clawed gauntlets, which had dealt the wounds that were already paining Shining Armour – for one final strike.

Shining Armour didn't flinch. He wouldn't give this guy the satisfaction.

There was a whooshing sound, like a rocket of some kind, before a winged jetpack slammed into his opponent from the side, lifting him up and carrying him at great speed across the room before slamming him through the wall – and all the pipes and wires built into the wall – and into the sleeping quarters on the other side. Bunk beds tumbled and toppled into a heap.

Penny skidded to a halt inside the shelter, giving an approximation of a salute. "Reporting for duty, captain." Her swords erupted from her back, firing a spray of green laser beams out into the courtyard beyond. She looked that way briefly, before looking back at him and holding out her hand. "We should probably go. Rainbow Dash has already found Councillor Cadenza and the others and thinks we should try and meet up." The smile faded from her face a little as she looked around the room. "Although it looks as though I got here a little late."

Shining Armour took her hand. "I'm sure you got here as fast as you could. You say Cadance is safe?"

"I…" Penny paused, cocking her head as though she was listening in. "I think Rainbow Dash could use some back-up."

"Then lead the way," Shining Armour said at once.

The rabbit faunus with the scarred face groaned as he started to pick himself up. He'd gotten about halfway before a casual shot from Penny, who didn't even need to look at him, knocked him back down again.

A shot whizzed into the bunker, blowing away a chunk of wall.

"We should get out of here now," Penny said. "I think this will be much faster," she added, as she swept Shining Armour up in a bridal carry. Her swords fired their lasers out behind her like skates, powering her down into the corridor after the others.

* * *

Rainbow ducked around a corridor and fired a burst from her machine pistol, before ducking back into cover as a flurry of bullets slammed into the wall.

On the other side of the corridor Gilda ducked around the other side to fire Rainbow's shotgun – which she had borrowed since she didn't have a gun of her own for reasons that Rainbow wouldn't even pretend to understand – a couple of times at the White Fang on the other side of the T junction at which they were stalled.

The right hand corridor led to the exit, but that hardly mattered when there were White Fang on both sides and they couldn't go any further without getting caught in a crossfire.

To make matters worse there were more bad guys behind them too, at the moment their fire was slamming into one of Rarity's diamond shields, large enough to block off the entire corridor, while Rarity – using Rainbow's other machine pistol – and Pinkie (who had caught up to them shortly before the rest of the White Fang did, after having gone off to something kinda stupid but pretty brave all the same) fired back at them. Cadance, Kali Belladonna, Fluttershy and the kids huddled in the middle of all this, while the corridor filled with smoke from all the shooting and the lights – that weren't that great to start with – flickered on and off.

Rainbow's goggles meant that she didn't have such a problem with the dark as she might have had, but a lot of the faunus in the White Fang didn't have a problem with the dark either and they didn't have to worry about not sticking their head out for too long unless it got blown off, so the gathering darkness was kind of the least of her worries right now.

She ducked around to spray some more fire at her enemies, although it didn't seem to be lessening the amount of fire coming back at her.

Gilda fired another shot. "Reminds you of old times, right Dash?"

Rainbow boggled at her. "You think?"

"Yeah. You and me, against the world, getting into fights, it's just like old times," Gilda said.

"That doesn't make it good."

"You used to enjoy stuff like this," Gilda said.

"I still do," Rainbow said. "Just not when the lives of people I care about are on the line." She fired again, and this time she knew from the cry of pain that she'd hit somebody. Unfortunately someone hit her too, and she felt her aura drop as she scrambled back into cover.

Gilda had a big smile on her face regardless of their situation. "Maybe I'm just so glad to be fighting alongside you again, huh?"

"Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you're one of us now, G," Rainbow said, as she snapped off a few more hasty shots down the corridor. "I'm just…it's not a great time."

"I hate to say it, darlings," Rarity said. "But I'm afraid that my shield might be starting to crack."

Rainbow glanced back. There were cracks appearing in Rarity's diamond shield, fault lines appearing as the bullets slammed into it.

"Penny," Rainbow shouted into her comms piece. "Where are you?"

A burst of green flashes coming from beyond Rarity's shield, accompanied by the occasional white of a spectral blade and shouts of confusion and alarm from the White Fang, provided all the answer that Rainbow needed even before Penny called out, "Here I am, Rainbow Dash! Although I think there may be more hostiles behind me."

"Don't worry, we'll be out of here before they show up," Rainbow said. "Come up to the front and we'll-"

Her words were cut off by the unmistakable sound of Distant Thunder – a louder bang than any weapon currently on the battlefield – booming out within the confines of the corridor, the sound echoing through the bunker jarring Rainbow's ears even as the rattling of smaller calibre weapons, like snare drums compared to the bass drum of Ciel's ludicrous rifle, started up soon after, coming exclusively from the side of the junction which led to escape, the rattling sounds only being drowned out by two more shots from Distant Thunder before all gunfire down the corridor fell silent.

"Councillor Cadenza," General Ironwood called. "Are you alright?"

"General Ironwood?" Cadance said.

"I'm here to get you to safety," General Ironwood said. "Quickly, I have transports waiting outside."

"Hey, Dash," Gilda murmured. "I, uh,"

"You're one of my bodyguards," Kali said softly. "And no one here will contradict that, right councillor?"

Cadance shook her head. "No, nobody will call you a liar."

"Good thing you're not wearing a mask," Rainbow said, grinning at her old friend as she rounded the corridor to see General Ironwood and Ciel, accompanied by what looked like two squads of infantry filling up the corridor. "Glad to see you, sir."

"Likewise," General Ironwood said. "Is everyone accounted for?"

"I'm afraid that most of my guys didn't make it, sir," Shining Armour said, as Penny carried him out.

"And the captain needs medical attention," Cadance said. "There's also the fact that Sienna Khan is on the scene."

"Tempting," General Ironwood said. "But my priority remains getting you to safety. Everybody move, back to the airships."

"But what about Blake?" Kali asked.

* * *

Blake had seen Penny fly into the bunker, and guessed that Rainbow Dash had used the other entrance. She didn't begrudge Penny the fact that she'd left her here, bound captive; it was more important that they rescue her mother, and of course there was the Atlesian councillor to think about too.

She was fairly confident that they would get around to her, and even if they didn't…watching Sienna's plans fall apart brought a degree of satisfaction all on its own.

"It looks as though things aren't working out as you might have hoped," she said.

"Quiet," Ilia snapped.

Sienna looked down at her. "You are, unfortunately, correct. Thanks to your intervention this mission is on the verge of falling apart." She looked up at the sky; Blake couldn't twist her body around to see what her old mentor saw. "Get Blake into the Bullhead, we're leaving."

"Now?" Strongheart said. "But what everybody still inside the shelter?"

"They will have to lie low until the opportunity presents itself to get out of the city," Sienna said. "It's unfortunate, and I admit to my mistake in not calling off the attack as soon as we lost the jammer, but there is no help for it now."

"So that's it?" Blake said. "You're just going to abandon your own warriors?"

"Any Atlesian soldier would do the same," Sienna said sharply.

"No," Blake said. "They wouldn't."

By the chagrined look on her face Sienna knew that too. "Your penchant for talking back was adorably precocious when you were a child, Blake, but at your age it risks becoming insufferable. Load her onboard; at least we will have something to show for this debacle."

Blake's ears twitched at the sound of a motorcycle engine approaching, an engine that sounded as though it had been put together from spare parts someone had stolen from a junkyard.

 _Could it be…but how?_

 _How could she be here?_

Sunset's ugly chimera of a bike erupted into the plaza like a bat out of hell; she seemed to have somewhere found a ramp to launch off – Blake wouldn't entirely have put it past Sunset to have created one using her telekinesis just so that she would look cool making her entrance; she would have rolled her eyes if she hadn't been grateful for the rescue – and her flaming hair flew out behind Sunset as she flew, the effect beings lightly ruined not only by the fact that Ruby was clinging on behind her but also by the fact that Sunset herself looked absolutely terrified.

Blake stared at the flying motorcycle with the same shock that seemed to have gripped all of her captors as they watched the bike soar across the square and begin to descend…right towards them.

 _Sunset, are you trying to rescue me or kill me?_

Blake closed her eyes, turned her head away, and hoped that she had enough aura left for this.

There was a thump, but Blake didn't feel it; rather she felt herself being lifted up off the ground and borne along.

"Have a little faith, Blake!" Sunset yelled.

Blake opened her eyes as Sunset, holding onto Blake with one hand by the webbing, turned the back ninety degrees, sending it skidding to a halt inches before it would have crashed into the high rise sitting atop the shelter.

Blake saw Trifa lying prone on the ground not far away; she must have been the one who got hit by the bike.

Strongheart raised her rifle to her shoulder, but Ruby sprang off the now stationary bike in a blur of rosepetals, Crescent Rose unfolding as she ran. Strongheart charged too, her semblance driving her forwards…right up until she ran headlong into Ruby and got knocked flat on her back for her troubles. Sienna lashed at Ruby with her Cerberus Whip, but Ruby leapt nimbly out of the way, turning Crescent Rose upon the High Leader of the White Fang with a shot that made Sienna dodge in turn.

The clip-clop of hooves announced the arrival of Applejack, looking very appropriate upon the back of a horse, firing her lever rifle and twirling it in her hands to chamber a new round.

"Ilia, start the Bullhead," Sienna ordered, flinging her hand out towards the airship as though Ilia would have forgotten what it was.

Ilia obediently ran towards the airship, pursued by fire from Ruby and Sunset, who had slung her rifle from across her back.

"Um, Sunset?" Blake said. "A little help."

"Oh, right," Sunset said, before she untangled Blake from Trifa's webbing.

"Thanks," Blake said. "How are you-"

"I have a note," Sunset said. "I can show you if you like."

"No, thanks," Blake said. "I'm just glad you're here."

"Me too," Sunset said, snapping off a shot at Ilia that ricocheted off the side of the Bullhead. Ilia leapt into the airship, and a moment later the engine of the craft began to whine.

Sienna might have been the kind of leader who would abandon most of her men, but in this moment it seemed that she didn't lack personal courage. Though she was now the target of fire from everyone on the field, she nevertheless dived forwards, getting hit at least once by someone – Blake couldn't tell who it was – to reach the unconscious Trifa and sling her over Sienna's shoulder, before grabbing Strongheart too and helping her up, guiding her back towards the Bullhead.

Ruby rushed towards them, her scythe swept back for a sweeping stroke to knock them all to the ground, but Sienna pushed Strongheart away and flung out Cerberus Whip, lashing it around Ruby's waist before unleashing the lightning dust held in the tip. Ruby screamed as the yellow lightning rippled up and down her small body, and though it didn't break her aura it did knock her to the floor, at least for a moment.

Ilia guided the White Fang Bullhead a foot or two off the ground, turning it, spraying fire from the cannons in the nose that made Sunset and Blake dive for cover before she turned her fire on Ruby, hitting her just as she was regaining her feet.

"Ruby!" Blake cried, as Sunset's face transfigured into a snarl as she started to fire at cockpit. The glass in the windows shattered, but Ilia seemed unaffected as she glided the aircraft forward, close enough for Sienna to leap inside with Strongheart and Trifa, at which point the central hatches began to close as the Bullhead began to rise.

Bullets from Applejack's rifle continued to bounce off the hull as the Bullhead began to fly away over the Vale skyline.

Blake rushed to Ruby's side, with Sunset not far behind. "Ruby, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Ruby said, in between groaning that gave the lie to it. "Did they get away?"

"Hopefully the Atlesians can get them in the air," Sunset said. "Although with everything else they have to deal with…"

"What about my Mom?" Blake asked. "I saw Penny go in earlier-"

"Everyone's fine," Sunset said. "General Ironwood's got them."

Blake sighed and sagged with relief. "Thank goodness. Thank you for coming to help."

"No problem," Ruby said. "We weren't going to let anyone else die if we could help it."

Ruby's words trickled down Blake's back like ice. "Anyone…else? Ruby, who…" There was no sign of Jaune or Pyrrha, were they-

"Yang," Ruby said, with less emotion than if she had announced the death of a pet.

Blake's eyes widened. Yang? Yang was dead? But…but it was Yang! Yang, who always seemed so tough, so strong, so…Yang couldn't be dead. Could she?

"Ruby…" she murmured.

"I know," Ruby said. "You don't have to say it."

 _This is bad,_ Blake thought, and it wasn't Yang's death that she was thinking of but Ruby's reaction – or rather lack thereof – to it. She'd seen this before. It didn't end well.

"Ruby," she said again, kneeling down in front of the younger, smaller girl. "I…I know that we're not the best of friends, and you don't know me very well…but whenever you're ready…I want you to know that I'm right here." It was something that she'd done for a lot of the youngest fighters in the Vale chapter, just been there while they let it out. Sometimes that was all that you could do.

Ruby didn't acknowledge her. She didn't act as though Blake had even said anything. "Sunset, we should go," she said. "Pyrrha and Jaune might need our help."

"Pyrrha and Jaune? Where are they?" Blake asked.

"Beacon," Sunset said. "You weren't the only one who called for help."

"And you left them?" Blake asked. "To help me?"

Sunset nodded, even though she didn't look entirely happy about it.

Blake didn't know whether to feel grateful or…something else. Ashamed? That would depend, she supposed, on what happened to Jaune and Pyrrha without their team mates.

"Ruby's right," she said. "You should go. And I'm coming with you."


	185. The Vault of the Fall Maiden

The Vault of the Fall Maiden

Ozpin stared up at the stump of the tower that the grimm had left, even as he stood amidst the debris that had fallen from the impact. The stones lay all around him, crushing dents and holes in the courtyard just as the explosion lockers had done not that long before, when the battle had raged here.

He was glad that none of the students had been here when the tower fell; he wouldn't have wanted them to get caught in the fall, or in the rampage that the dragon might have embarked had there been more pickings here.

He was all alone now, the last to leave Beacon; he had sent Qrow to Mistral, he had sent Glynda to the front line with any student who would follow her, he had sent any student who would not fight to safety in the city. However safe the city might be with grimm loose within the walls.

He had sent Sunset Shimmer to join her friends at the defences, rather than keeping her with him. That was…possibly not the wisest decision – although he could not say not what would have happened if he had tried to keep her here – but it was the only decision that he could have made in the moment; she would not have stayed even had he begged her to. And he would not beg her to stay. This was his school, his charge, his to stand last sentinel over.

Until she came.

How could she not come? How could Amber not come now, with all the defences drawn away from Beacon, to take the Crown from the Vault of the Fall Maiden? That was the bargain that she had made with Salem, if Cinder Fall could be believed: the crown for her freedom. And this was her best chance of claiming the crown with the least resistance to it.

If Cinder Fall was to be believed. If she was not to be believed then why had Amber fled, why had Miss Shadow come to rescue her from Ironwood's ship? And yet…yet Ozpin found that his hopes hung upon the thread that Miss Fall was lying to him, and to all of them, and that maybe against all hope Amber would not come.

If she did…he did not know what he would do.

 _The moment has been prepared for. And yet…how can I condemn another to act as my vessel because I was too weak to do what must be done?_

He did not want to fight Amber and yet equally he found that he…he did not want to die. He did not want to abandon his young students to fight this battle alone, bereft of any guidance he might have given them, he did not want them to have to make their way without him, even for a while; not because he was so arrogant as to consider himself indispensable to them – they were so brave, and so virtuous, that he considered that they would probably find their way decently well without him, and he had prepared letters to that effect to each of them, assuming that they could be found amidst the ruins of the tower – but because it felt like cowardice or even desertion to absent himself from this battle, even for a span of months, simply to spare himself a little heartache. And that was even without the question of forcing the presence of his soul upon another.

He did not want to leave Pyrrha the burden of facing Amber alone…and yet he did not want to face Amber himself either.

He wished…he smiled with a kind of wry amusement, he wished that he could have spoken to Princess Celestia about this, to discover how she had managed to face down her former students who had turned from the path of righteousness. How she had managed to steel her heart to oppose those whom she had loved as her own children.

 _But then…I have no doubt that these would be very painful memories for her. It would be very ungallant of me to cause a gentle lady heartache._

And in any case, he could not speak to her now. There was no time, and he could not even be sure that Sunset's marvellous book had survived the grimm attack.

He would have to decide for himself what to do if Amber came. Would he fight, or…

Strange, to think that his life as Professor Ozpin might soon be over. He felt…dissatisfied, moreso than he had felt at the impending end of some of his prior incarnations. In earlier times, in lives past, he had gone to his reincarnation with a sense of completeness, a sense of ending; a sense that he had lived a good life well, accomplished something that he could leave behind him, die content. As the King, he had departed knowing that he had left behind a system that would stabilised a fractured and disordered world, leaving the four kingdoms in the care of men and women he had hand-picked and chosen for their wisdom and integrity. So it had been with the best of his lives: they had ended upon a good note, with a legacy that would endure during his absence and until his next incarnation found his feet.

But now? What did Professor Ozpin leave behind? He felt incomplete, as though in his death he left nothing but so much work undone, so much left to do, nothing meaningful accomplished.

 _I leave nothing behind…except four brave young huntsmen to continue this battle._

 _I should have done far more to prepare them for this moment._

An alert on his scroll made him look at it; he had been notified by one of the cameras scattered throughout Vale which he had access to; some of them had been taken out by the grimm loosed on the city by the dragon, but some of them were still functional and one of those, one located quite close to the school, showed Amber making her way to Beacon.

Ozpin closed his eyes. So. That was that. Miss Fall had been right about everything, and Amber had betrayed them without a doubt. Betrayed him. And now she was on her way to claim the Relic of Choice.

She might not find it as easy as she thought…or she might find that the last defence of the Relic of Choice posed no difficulty at all for her; she was not…despite all of Ozpin's failings with her she still had at least a trace of all the qualities that had convinced him that she would make an excellent Fall Maiden, and those qualities might help her to win through the final trial.

If she was not stopped first.

And if he did not stop her then…then it would fall to Pyrrha to do so. It was a hard thing to ask even of so promising a young woman as herself; perhaps it was an impossible thing…and yet he had no one else to whom he could turn now. She was his guardian of the vault; she was the only one who could defend it from Amber and all her allies.

All her allies. Of course she had not come alone. Miss Fall's last henchman remaining at large, Lightning Dust, was by her side, and so was Tempest Shadow and so, more surprisingly, were Team BLBL. Amber had been close to them briefly but he had not thought them traitors. Was he so poor at judging people?

 _I refused to listen to James when he pressed the virtues of his favourites upon me, but for all his faults he never considered Miss Shadow as his agent or a Maiden candidate though she is, by all accounts, much stronger than Miss Dash could ever hope for. I preferred to trust in my own judgement over his but he has never made such a mistake as I made with Amber._

 _And yet my own judgement also led me to Team SAPR, so that must count for something?_

 _I already knew that I can make mistakes, but I hope that I have demonstrated that I can still make the right judgement, from time to time at least._

His aged hands shook a little as he tapped out a message to Pyrrha. It was a tough position that he was putting her in, and yet what other choice did he have?

Miss Nikos,

You must come at once. Amber has returned to Beacon and will surely try and seize the Relic of Choice. I will try and stop her but I may not be able to do so. As only you can enter the Vault without her leave, you must do so and stop her from taking the relic.

I am sorry that it must be this way, but you are my last and only hope.

Please hurry.

Professor Ozpin

He sent the message and then threw his scroll aside. He would have no more need of it now. He gripped his cane tightly in both hands and picked his way through the rubble surrounding the fallen tower, before he began to make his way with greater confidence towards the edge of the campus at the direction from which Amber and her allies were approaching.

He was waiting for them when they came, Amber surrounded by her allies like bodyguards…or like subjects surrounding a queen.

They entered Beacon to find Ozpin waiting for them, leaning upon his cane with both hands. His head was bowed, but he was aware of them regardless. He did not look up until they had already spread out, Lightning Dust and Tempest Shadow upon the flanks, with Team BLBL in the centre, all with their weapons drawn, all in some semblance of a fighting stance. They were wary of him. It gave him a degree of pleasure to know that he could still inspire wariness.

Amber was the only one who did not look prepared to fight. "Uncle Ozpin," she murmured, her voice trembling. "What are you still doing here?"

"Waiting for you," Ozpin said softly, his voice barely carrying above the breeze. "I must confess that I am…disappointed in you, Amber."

"I'm only doing what I must," Amber said. "If I don't do this then they'll kill me."

"I would have protected you, if you had let me," Ozpin said.

"You can't protect anyone!" Amber cried. "Look around, Uncle Ozpin! You can't protect Beacon, you can't protect Vale, you can't protect anything! You threw Sunset away into jail the moment it became a bother for you, where was your protection for her when she needed it."

"Sunset made her choice, and a gallant one," Ozpin said softly. "It was not for me to deny her that choice."

"All you do is take people's choices away!" Amber shrieked. "You took all my choices away. I didn't choose to be a part of all this. When I begged you to take me away from home and show me the beautiful city I dreamed of this wasn't what I wanted. I wanted to sing in front of hundreds of people, I wanted…I didn't want this. I didn't want any part of this but I had no choice because you saw to that. This was the only choice that I had left, the only way that I could escape from all of this, everything that you forced upon me."

Ozpin closed his eyes for a moment. "I…I am sorry that you feel that way. I am so sorry for everything I put you through. I genuinely believed that you would be the best Fall Maiden that Remnant could have at this time…that it was not so is more my fault than yours. All of your faults have been my faults as your teacher and for that…you have all of my regrets but please, Amber, do not let your justified wrath towards me condemn the whole of Remnant. If Salem takes the crown then so many innocents will suffer because of it. Because of you. I know that you don't want that. I know that you're not a cruel girl."

"No," Amber said, shaking her head furiously from side to side. "I…I don't want anyone to get hurt. I asked…I asked them to spare Team Sapphire. They were kind to me and…and it isn't their fault that you decided to put them all in danger."

"No," Ozpin said. "No, that is not their fault at all. And what was the response to your generous request?"

"That your four fools wouldn't walk away even if they were offered the chance to do so," Tempest said. "You've gotten too far into their heads for that."

It was Ozpin's turn to shake his head. "If you believe that, Miss Shadow, then I fear that you reveal only your own ignorance. It is the virtue of those young people, and not any machinations or manipulations of mine, that holds them to this colour. You are correct only in that they would not abandon the struggle even if they had the chance. That fact owes little to me and yet…I am very proud of them for it. Just as I am disappointed in the four of you: Mister Bronzewing, Mister Lark; Miss Heartstrings and Miss Bonaventure; do you have any idea of what side you have chosen? Of what is at stake here?"

"What we know is that you tortured an innocent girl in body, mind and soul," Mister Bronzewing said. "We don't need any lectures on right and wrong from you, Professor."

"We won't let you hurt Amber any more," Miss Heartstrings declared.

"They love me," Amber said. "The way that I thought you loved me. The way that my mother loved me before you got her killed. They…they're going to keep me safe, and I'm going to keep them safe after."

"An admirable exchange," Ozpin murmured. "You may be the only safe ones left in the world once Salem possesses the Relic."

"Enough," Tempest snapped. "I don't know what you're stalling for, old man, but it ends now. Like you said, we're taking the Relic, so either get out of our way-"

"I'm afraid I can't do that," Ozpin said.

Tempest smirked. "So we're doing this the hard way, huh? I was hoping you'd say that."

She sprang at him. Ozpin leapt for her in turn. He lunged with his cane, she parried with her metal staff. She really was astonishingly fast, Ozpin thought as she blocked all of his swift lunges; it was almost incredible that James hadn't thought to recruit her.

 _If you though she was that unreliable, James, one might ask why you let her attend your school._

He pressed his attack against her. He had to keep up his momentum or she would strike against him in turn. He kept her on the defensive, although judging by the way her smile seemed fused in place throughout his barrage of assaults she wasn't finding it any great hardship to withstand him.

A roar from behind alerted Ozpin to an incoming attack from Lightning Dust who had leapt up, poised above him, face twisted into an angry snarl, her whole body wreathed in lightning as she cocked back a fist to strike at him.

Ozpin shimmered out of the way, moving swifter than the eye could follow as Lightning Dust's attack carried her past the point where Ozpin would have been, stumbling forward and almost into Tempest Shadow. Miss Shadow herself swerved to avoid her ally but in the process she left her guard open. Ozpin exploited the opening, hammering his cane into her point first, clanging against her black armour as his weapon struck as swiftly as the lightning, one strike following another without respite as he drove her back.

There was the bang of a gun as Mister Bronzewing fired his gunblade at his old headmaster. Ozpin whipped round, deflecting the blow with a simple swing of his cane, but in the process Miss Shadow leapt away with a backflip. Lightning erupted from Miss Dust's hands, but Ozpin simply shimmered out of the way of it, leaving echoes of himself behind as he moved faster than the eye could see, only his reflections being struck by the lightning the snapped and snarled harmlessly through the air as it hunted for him in vain.

He rushed at Miss Dust, but Miss Shadow got in his way, throwing herself between her comrade and her enemy, still with that smile fused to her face in spite of everything, still parrying his blows, still almost matching him for speed.

 _Just what did Watts do to her?_

Miss Dust placed her hands upon the ground, the complicated and convoluted contraption that was poisoning her with pure liquid dust bubbling and gurgling away; a moment later the ground beneath Ozpin's feet and all around him as far as the tower ruins erupted as particles of what looked like black sand burst out of the earth in great swarms, humming with electricity so that they seemed like bees or wasps, moving like animals with thought and direction, all of them converging upon him.

Ozpin slammed the tip of his cane into what little ground remained beneath his feet, conjuring a spherical shield of verdant green around him, a shield against which the iron particles beat harmlessly.

Tempest's smirk widened as she leapt up into the air, producing from one of the pouches at her belt a black canister with a sickly green light glowing within it.

With a flourish, she kicked the canister towards him. It flew through the midst of the black iron particles and struck Ozpin's shield. It didn't burst; instead it strained against the barrier, pushing against it, sparking off it.

Ozpin's eyebrows rose as his shield began to crack.

The canister burst through the barrier, striking the ground at Ozpin's feet before he could move; a green misty haze surrounded him, and Ozpin felt his legs and feet grow heavy, fixed, immobile as jagged stone as black as obsidian encased them, crawling up his body as far as his knees, past his knees, almost as high as his thighs.

He had never seen earth dust behave quite like this; he would have been impressed if he had not been a victim of it.

Miss Shadow landed on her feet. "An alchemical blending of ice and earth dust, combining the best properties of both," she explained. "Clever, no?"

Ozpin might have replied if Miss Dust hadn't chosen that moment to slam both hands into his back while he was immobile and discharge what felt like all the lightning at her command into him. His cane dropped from his hands. Within the confines of the stone that held him captive his body contorted backwards, his back arching; Ozpin cried out in pain as his aura was torn to shreds.

"Stop it!" Amber cried. "Stop it, stop hurting him, please," she sobbed. Tears fell down her face, running down her scars like rivulets. She started forward, moving past Mister Bronzewing and ignoring the hand he placed gently on her arm to hold her back. She walked towards Ozpin, tears still falling as she got closer and closer, until she was close enough that she could have reached out and touched him, had she wished to do so.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I didn't…this isn't what I wanted, but it's the only way." She raised her hands, and stroked his face. "I'm sorry," she repeated.

"Amber," Ozpin said, with equal gentleness. "You still have a choice."

"No," Amber whispered, as she placed her hands upon the side of his head. "I don't."

He felt the fire come then, the fire of the Maidens springing from her hands, burning through what remained of his aura.

 _The moment has been prepared for._

 _Pyrrha…I am sorry to leave all this to you._

* * *

Ozpin turned to ash before their eyes, all of him save for his pince-nez, fell to the ground beside his cane, the lenses shattering upon the ground.

Lightning Dust gasped for breath as she released the iron particles, letting the black sand fall to the ground all around them in lumps and clumps.

Amber fell to, falling to her knees as the stone-ice that had held Ozpin captive crumbled into dust, sobbing as she bowed her head, rocking back and forth.

Dove was the first to reach her, putting his arms around her while the other members of Team BLBL gathered round, each laying a supportive hand on Amber's neck and shoulders.

"It's okay," he whispered into her ear. "He can't hurt you any more."

"I…I loved him once," Amber said.

"I know," Dove said. "But he betrayed you. Remember that. He did this. You only did what you had to do to survive, didn't you?"

"Yes," Amber said. "I…I wouldn't do this if I didn't have to. You know that, don't you? You believe that?"

"Of course," Dove said. "Of course I believe that, we all believe that, because we believe you. Because we care about you, all of us."

"He treated you with inhuman cruelty," Bon Bon said. "And he paid the price for that. You shouldn't have had to do that to him but…he shouldn't have done what he did to you, either."

"It's a tragedy," Lyra said. "But one you'll live through. With Dove, and all of our help. We'll help you through it."

"Later," Tempest said. "For now, you need to keep your eye on the prize. Freedom is within your grasp, you just need to reach out and take it. Are you ready?"

Amber hesitated, then nodded. "Yes. I'm ready."

"Good," Tempest said. "Then lead the way."

* * *

 _If only the circumstances were different enough to allow me to really enjoy this,_ Pyrrha thought.

She was sitting behind Jaune as they rode together on a white horse, its hooves beating against the concrete as it bore them both swiftly through the streets of Vale. She had one arm around his waist. They were riding a white horse together, while she had her arms around him as he carried her away. It sounded…incredibly romantic, if she was being honest. And yet she could hardly enjoy it because of the reason they were together on this horse: because Amber had returned to Beacon and Ozpin had summoned her back urgently to defend the Vault.

What might they find when they arrived there? Might they arrive too late, to find Ozpin dead and the Relic taken? Or just too late to save the professor and then what? What would Pyrrha do then? Descend into the Vault all alone, confront Amber and all those she would doubtless have with her: Tempest Shadow, Lightning Dust, maybe the being that Sunset had called a Siren too.

Confront them alone, fight them alone…Pyrrha closed her eyes.

 _I should have taken the power of the Fall Maiden when it was offered to me. I should have embraced my destiny when I had the chance. If I had not hesitated, if I hadn't let my fears get the better of me then none of this would be happening._

 _Or would it?_ It was easy to blame herself for this – Pyrrha was one of those people who found it easy to blame herself for all sorts of things – but no one could say what would have happened if Pyrrha had gotten into that infernal machine. Perhaps Amber would have taken over Pyrrha's body, with all the flaws and troubles that had driven her to betray their cause in the first place.

 _Or perhaps our souls would have merged into one, and my virtues would have balanced out her flaws._ That sounded very arrogant, when thought so baldly thus, but Pyrrha didn't mean it like that; didn't mean it entirely like that anyway. She meant…she supposed she was wondering if a merge of their two souls would have healed Amber's wounds, or whether the joining would have produced a being who was without such wounds. A whole person better than either of them.

Or maybe that was equally implausible, but…if she couldn't say the outcome would have been better then she couldn't say it would have been worse, either.

Whatever the outcome of her choosing to take up the burden that had been laid upon her it was hard to imagine things could have gone much worse than this.

 _I should have made the choice myself, instead of letting Sunset choose for me._

"Pyrrha?" Jaune said, turning his head a little as he let the horse find its way back to Beacon. "Are you okay?"

 _No. I'm frightened._ "I'm just thinking," Pyrrha murmured.

"This isn't your fault," Jaune said.

Pyrrha smiled a little, although he couldn't see it. "How did you know that was what I was thinking?"

"This isn't your fault," Jaune repeated. "And it isn't Sunset's fault, or the fault of anyone who helped to bring Amber back. It was the right thing to do, if only…if only because we would have lost you, otherwise."

Pyrrha looked at the back of his head. "You…you always know the sweetest thing to say, don't you?"

"I try my best," Jaune said lightly. "I have to make myself worth keeping around somehow, right?"

"Don't talk like that, Jaune," Pyrrha said softly. "You know I don't like it when I do yourself down."

"Right. I'm sorry. I was just…trying to lighten the mood a little, you know?"

"Yes," Pyrrha said. "I know. What…what do you think we'll find up there?"

"Professor Ozpin, holding them off," Jaune said confidently. "I mean, you saw him earlier, right? I never realised he was such a great fighter."

"I don't think a lot of people realised that," Pyrrha murmured. Yet all the same, she wished that she could share Jaune's confidence that they would arrive at Beacon in plenty of time and all will be well.

"Although…" Jaune began.

"Yes?" Pyrrha asked.

"I kinda wish…I wish the others were here."

"Blake needs them," Pyrrha reminded him.

"And you don't?"

"If Professor Ozpin is okay then he will be assistance enough," Pyrrha said. "And if not…I've already explained that I'm the only one who can do this."

"I know, and I get it," Jaune said. "I just don't like it very much, that's all."

Pyrrha was silent for a moment, as their dashing white horse continued to bear them along, bear them to Beacon, bear them to…destiny, perhaps. Whatever that was, whatever that meant for Pyrrha Nikos.

She understood what Jaune meant. She wished that Sunset and Ruby were here too. She wished that they could all descend into the Vault of the Fall Maiden together. She wished that her team could stand with her in this battle. But it was not to be, and since the only thing they could accomplish at Beacon was to stand around outside the Vault and wait then it made sense to send Sunset and Ruby to help Blake along with the Rosepetals.

It would have made as much sense to have sent Jaune with them as well; there were only two reasons she had not, and neither of them had to do with his ability to ride a horse and get her to Beacon faster. If that was the only consideration in play she would have rather run back to the school. Equally even if Jaune were no rider at all she would have let him come with her because she had made a promise to him, that day when they had all learned the truth from Professor Ozpin: a promise to never leave him behind; a promise she would not break because, as she had told Kendal, the day that she failed to have faith in Jaune would be the day she lost his heart. He loved her – she thought very likely – for her beauty and – she hoped – for her virtues but she was not ignorant of the fact that he loved her also because she had been the first person in the world to believe in him. Even now nobody else believed in him quite the way that she did. If she compromised on that it would shatter him, and shatter their relationship too.

She didn't want that. She didn't want to win this battle and emerge from the Vault only to live without him.

And yet…

And yet…Pyrrha had told Sunset that she did not intend to die, at their parting; and she would fight with every ounce of strength at her command to win this fight, but if she could not…there was her dream to consider, after all. Sunset hadn't been around to hear that, and everyone else had either forgotten or simply brought it up, but with Amber's return then…this was what she had dreamed of, when she would enter an ancient sacred space and lay all of her triumphs upon the altar in sacrifice to the Fall Maiden. When all of her victories would pass out of her hands and to another. When the Invincible Girl would be defeated. If her dream was more than a result of a piece of cheese going down the wrong way – and there was a tradition of dreaming amonst the great heroes of Mistral, some of them her ancestors – then she had to face the possibility that all of her strength and skill and will to win might not be enough. That this might be her last battle. And if that was the case then Jaune would be waiting outside the Vault only to face Amber and all of her confederates. And if that happened…

"Jaune," Pyrrha murmured.

"Yeah?"

Pyrrha hesitated. _I think that once we've arrived at Beacon then you should go. I think that you should leave in case I die._

The words stuck in her throat. She could already see, as though she had been blessed with the gift of waking foresight, how this would go: how he would argue with her, refuse to do as she asked, and what would she do then?

She could not force him to leave. Not even for his own good. She had made a promise never to send him away, and she knew that he would never voluntarily do so.

It was a great risk, but…she could not ask it. Not when she knew that he would only refuse, and knowing that…she had made a promise. She had given him her word. There was nothing she could do.

Except win.

"Nothing," Pyrrha said, as she turned her head and laid it on Jaune's back. She closed her eyes as she felt his soft hair stroking her cheek. "I…I know that this is wildly inappropriate to our circumstances, but…can I stay like this, for a little while at least? Until we're almost there." She placed her other hand around his waist, and after a moment she felt his hand there too, on top of hers, squeezing it gently.

"Sure you can," Jaune said, so softly and so tenderly. "Stay that way for as long as you want."

* * *

Amber and her companions stood in the Vault of the Fall Maiden, with the statues of the dead old men – Tempest didn't care who they were – looking down upon them with grave, almost disapproving expressions.

Well might they disapprove, considering what Tempest and the others were here to do.

It felt…strange, to be here. What Amber had done to let them see this place had felt odd, unnatural almost. It was weird in every respect. Amber had been right, they really had needed her. Without her help they would never have gotten anywhere near this place and Sonata and her sisters would have been doomed to remain prisoners of Salem.

She deserved their gratitude. It was almost a pity that they were going to betray her eventually.

But that was the way of these things; it wasn't as though she had any loyalty to them. This was a girl who had sold out her father figure and her protectors for nothing more than an easy life; she would betray Sonata and Tempest just as easily the moment it became convenient for her; or rather the moment she judged that it was more dangerous for her to stay on their side than to switch back to her old allies and hope that they would take her back.

And she scared Sonata; or at least the powers that she wielded did. That was reason to turn on her. But not yet.

First she was going to open the Vault and retrieve the Crown of Choice for them.

Well, technically they were already in the Vault, but they hadn't gotten to the door that only a Maiden could open yet. That door still lay before them, a portal of green glass, glowing slightly as the group stood before it.

"Go ahead," Tempest said. "Open it."

Amber looked nervous, but then Amber always looked nervous. She was a nervous person. Or having half her soul ripped away by Cinder had made her one, at least. She was a nervous person now, how was that for putting it? She was a nervous person and she looked nervous as she stepped away from her boyfriend – what did she in him in particular? Was it just the fact that he was loyal to her? – and walked slowly towards the door. The sounds of her boots upon the stone echoed in the cavern, except when it was muffled by her stepping on a patch of moss.

One eye glowed with the flaming golden anima of the Fall Maiden as she stretched out her hand and placed it upon the verdant door.

Golden patterns like lines of maple leaves began to appear upon the door, tracing up it from the floor to the ceiling. And then the door to the inner sanctum simply disappeared, fading into fragments that vanished from view.

Tempest guessed they would reconstitute themselves later, but she didn't particularly care. They would be long gone by then.

On the other side of the door there was a room, surprisingly enough; a well appointed room in an antique style, with red drapes hanging from the walls side by side with tapestries of ancient kings, and marble columns lining the walls.

In the centre of the room, raised upon three pillars of amber, sat three large caskets: one of gold, glittering in the light that seemed to have no source and yet be everywhere in the chamber; one of cold iron, dull and dark and with edges sharp enough that you could probably brain somebody with it; and one of wood, plain and unvarnished wood, devoid of decoration.

Of the Relic of Choice there was no sign.

"Where is it?" Tempest asked, as she stepped inside. "Where is the Crown?"

"It…I think it's in one of those caskets," Amber murmured.

The rest of the group followed Tempest inside, crowding through the entrance and then spreading out a little around the caskets.

"Okay," Lightning said. "But which one?"

"I…I don't know," Amber said.

"You're supposed to be the Fall Maiden!"

"I am the Fall Maiden," Amber cried. "But…Ozpin never showed this to me and he never told me what to do once I passed through the door."

"Are there any instructions?" asked Sky.

Tempest rolled her eyes. "This isn't a video game, it doesn't come with a manual."

"No, but there is this written on the wall near the door," Lyra said, having turned away from the rest of the group; she now stood with her back to them, reading a piece of verse written upon the wall of the vault.

"If you would gain the power to choose,

Then first with final choice must claim your prize,

In one casket lies the crown you seek,

In others, the final glory,

Which all men obtain, seek they or no.

Only the maid may choose, and if she chooses poorly,

So shall she pass, and so the caskets pass,

Until another maid shall come,

To choose upon the hazards.

Who seeks my crown must give or hazard all they hath,

Choose wisely."

Silence greeted this. "What does it mean?" Dove asked.

Lyra's face was grave. "I think it means that if Amber chooses the wrong box she'll die."

Amber whimpered.

"Why does this have to be so complicated?" Lightning groaned.

"There's…a degree of appropriateness to it, I suppose," Lyra said. "You have to choose to get the power of Choice, like it says on the wall."

"It's too risky," Dove said. "You can't choose-"

"You have to," Tempest insisted. "Sonata is screwed if we don't get this crown and so are you. We just…we have to think carefully about this, that's all. Does anybody have any ideas to start with?"

No one replied.

"Ugh," Tempest groaned. "This might take a while."

* * *

Pyrrha and Jaune arrived at Beacon to find that a part of the courtyard had been torn up, more comprehensively and more recently than the initial battle that they had fought immediately after leaving the Amity Colisseum. This was more than just lockers embedded amidst the stone; this was something else, as though the ground had been torn apart by something bursting out of it; iron sand, judging by the quantity of it littering the ground.

As she and Jaune dismounted from the horse, Pyrrha saw that amidst the debris and the iron sand Professor Ozpin's cane was lying abandoned amidst the detritus. As she rushed over, kneeling amidst the shattered stones, she saw his glasses lying beside them.

"Pyrrha?" Jaune asked, as he followed behind her, standing over her and looking down. "What does it mean?"

Pyrrha stood up. "It means that…that we were too late for Professor Ozpin."

"Too…you mean that…Professor Ozpin?" Jaune asked, his voice trembling with fear. "But he…that means…"

"I know," Pyrrha said.

Jaune hesitated. "Are we…do they already have the relic?"

"I don't know," Pyrrha admitted. "The only way to find out is…" she trailed off, because as much as she wanted to rush to the vault at once, if she did that…if Amber and her allies had already defeated Ozpin then what choice did she have?

There was another choice that she could make, a choice that she did not want to make and yet…this was no time for her pride; with the Relic of Choice at stake she could not afford to hesitate or shrink from doing what was necessary. Professor Ozpin had entrusted her with this grave responsibility; she couldn't put her feelings ahead of the mission.

She began to run, not towards the Vault of the Fall Maiden but towards the tower.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune called. "Pyrrha, wait, where are you going?"

She didn't answer him. She trusted that he would follow her and he did, shouting questions at her all the while, asking what she was doing as she leapt over the rubble and debris from the tower's destruction. One of the pair of doors had been smashed open, by a beowolf that she slew swiftly before making her way through the darkened interior of the tower. At least there were no bodies, everyone having been either evacuated or redeployed to a sector with greater priority, but there was no life either. All the lights had gone out in the tower, as they had gone out all across Remnant.

"Pyrrha," Jaune said, as made it into the tower. "Where are you going?"

Pyrrha held out her hands, using her semblance open all of the elevator doors, hoping that there was one that was – yes! There was one on the ground floor. She took a step towards it.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune squawked, grabbing her by the arm. "Stop for just one moment and talk to me!"

"I don't know if I can do this by myself," Pyrrha said, looking into his eyes. "I know that there are times when I try and do things by myself but this is too big for that, it's too important."

"So you…" Jaune's eyes widened with comprehension. "No."

"She's the only one who can help me right now," Pyrrha said. "I don't like this any more than you do but…I don't have a choice. Or rather…I do, but I think this is the best choice that I can make right now."

Jaune was silent for a moment. "Do you…do you think you can trust her?"

"I don't trust her," Pyrrha said. "Whether I can or not is something else, and I don't have the answer to that."

"But you're going to let her out anyway?"

"Yes," Pyrrha said. "Because Professor Ozpin gave his life for this, and I owe it to him not to throw away his sacrifice by fighting a battle I can't possibly win."

Jaune stared at her. "Okay then. Let's do it."

"That's it?"

"You might not trust Cinder," Jaune said. "But I trust you. So if you want to do this then I'm right behind you."

She kissed him. She couldn't not, however bad the timing was, because who knew if she was going to get another chance to taste those lips of his again. "What we have," Pyrrha said. "Has meant more to me than all of my victories. Whatever happens tonight I want you to know that."

Jaune smiled. "I…I kind of wish that I had some big accomplishment of my own so that I could say something back right now. But I don't have to because nothing is going to happen tonight. You're going to be fine and we're going to have…you're going to be fine, you have to be fine. And when tonight is over I'll give you a thousand more kisses just like that."

Pyrrha chuckled. "That's something worth winning for," she said. "Come on, we…we need to move."

They stepped into the elevator. The power was out, but Pyrrha was able to use her semblance to drag the lift down to the vault beneath the tower and open the doors on the other side once they got there. The whole vault was dark, no lights apart from the blue light of Cinder's cryo-pod at the very far end of the immense room. As they ran across the vault Pyrrha felt glad that Cinder's pod was on a separate battery to the tower's main power supply.

She was still asleep. All hell was breaking loose across Vale and yet she who had done as much as anybody else to bring about this chaos and destruction was sleeping through it. It was enough to make Pyrrha's hackles rise with distaste; this situation filled her with distaste. And yet…this…at the same time it felt like the right thing to do.

She wasn't much of a computer expert by any means – she could just about use her scroll to make calls – but Pyrrha was able to just about work out which button to press on the touch screen to wake Cinder up. She pressed it, and she and Jaune stepped back as the case on the cryo-chamber began to open.

Jaune put one hand on the hilt of his sword. Pyrrha noticed, but didn't comment on it.

Steam erupted from the cracks in the cryogenic pod as the lid of metal and glass rose, exposing Cinder, shackled and with tubes connected to her veins to tranquilise her, slumbering within.

She looked anything but serene. In fact, it looked more as though she was scared, as though she were having a terrifying nightmare.

Her fiery eyes snapped open.

"What…what is this?" she shook her head, and focussed upon Pyrrha. "What do you want? I was having such a nice dream before I was so rudely interrupted."

"I need your help," Pyrrha said.

Cinder stared at her. "What?"

"There isn't time for me to explain everything, but suffice to say that Vale is under attack, Beacon is abandoned and Amber is attempting to retrieve the Relic of Choice, if she hasn't done so already," Pyrrha said. "I need you to help me stop her."

Cinder breathed in and out. "So," she said. "The hour has come." She laughed. "You've hated me as I have hated you. You've coveted my death as I have devoured yours. Yet now, at the hour of the wolf with the world on fire, you come to me for help."

"You're not my first choice," Pyrrha growled. "But you're the only one I can turn to."

Cinder's eyes narrowed. "Why? Where's Sunset?"

"Fighting in the city."

"Why isn't she here with you?"

"Only I have been granted access to enter the Vault of the Fall Maiden," Pyrrha said.

"But I don't need to be granted access because I am the Fall Maiden," Cinder concluded.

"Half of one," Jaune said.

"I am the Fall Maiden," Cinder insisted. "As Amber is going to find out when I rip her heart out of her chest."

Pyrrha frowned. "Then…you'll help me."

Cinder grinned. "When the Princess of Mistral asks for my help, and offers me a chance to take what is mine in the process, how can I refuse?" Her hands began to burn with fire, a fire that melted through the shackles suppressing her aura. Cinder began to glow visibly as the broken shackles clattered to the floor and she leapt down from the pod. "Shall we go?"

"Yes," Pyrrha said. "I don't know if we're still in time." She turned to head back to the elevator.

"You're braver than I thought," Cinder said. "To turn your back on me."

Pyrrha halted. She did not turn around. "Is that something that I need to worry about?"

Cinder said nothing, and after a moment it became clear to Pyrrha that she wasn't going to. She began to walk briskly back to the lift.

"If you hurt her-" Jaune began.

"Yes, yes, I'm sure you'll dedicate the rest of your life to hunting me down and exacting your vengeance," Cinder said. "It's very cute that you think you'd actually stand a chance against me."

"Cinder!" Pyrrha snapped. _How does Sunset stand her?_

 _And how does she seem to manage her so easily?_

"I'm not a dog, Invincible Girl," Cinder said. "You don't get to bark my name and I'll come running." She did follow, but at a slower pace. "And besides, surely you don't want me to be nice? That would be very boring."

They got into the elevator – Jaune continued to glare at Cinder, while she smirked at him, clearly enjoying his discomfort – and Pyrrha brought it back up to the ground floor of the tower.

"Why is it so dark?" Cinder asked. "Why are all the lights out?"

Nobody answered her, Pyrrha simply led the way out of the tower, to where she could see for herself the wreckage that surrounded the stump of what had been Beacon Tower and the CCT.

Cinder understood at once, but Pyrrha underestimated how shocked she would be at the sight. As she emerged into the midst of the debris, as she looked up and saw that the top of the tower was missing, Pyrrha could see the comprehension dawning in Cinder's fiery eyes. Cinder looked up at the tower stump, her mouth moving but no audible sounds emerging.

"So," she whispered. "The tower is down. Communications all across the world are down."

"Yes," Pyrrha said. "A problem for the morning."

Cinder laughed bitterly. "For you, perhaps. You have no idea. I wanted…I was…but it doesn't matter now. None of it matters now." She sank to her knees, looking up at the Amity Coliseum which still floated in the air over Vale; she gazed at it longingly, with such impossible yearning that the airborne arena might have been a star, and she a moth which could not fly so high no matter how much it wished to reach the celestial light.

"All my plans and dreams…all turned to cinders," she said, snorting at her own appalling pun. She knelt there, amidst the ruins, for a moment or too, head bowed, hair falling down across her face. Then she got up, slowly but with the impression of great power. She held out her arms, and after a moment her glass bow flew into her hands; Pyrrha remember that Sunset had put it in her locker, and her locker must be out here somewhere, in the courtyard. Cinder closed her fist around the glass, and smiled. "At least I can still take my revenge on the girl who…do you think Sunset will think well of me for this?"

Pyrrha blinked, honestly not knowing what to say. "It's…possible. Even likely."

Cinder nodded. "Then I suppose she hasn't ruined absolutely everything," she said. "Lead the way."

* * *

The group stared at the three caskets. The three infernal boxes that were standing between them and their objective, between Sonata and freedom, between Tempest and all that she desired.

It was absolutely infuriating.

She was grinding her teeth as she tried to work out which box was the correct one to open.

Gold. Iron. Wood. And if she chose the wrong casket then Amber would die? How were you supposed to make a decision like that? There weren't even clues.

And they had been down here for far too long already. At this rate the school would be re-occupied and they'd still be down here trying to figure out this puzzle. Ozpin hadn't even needed to try and stall for time, his defences had delayed them far more than the man himself had managed.

"Do we actually know that Amber will die if she opens the wrong box?" Lightning said. "That might just be whoever wrote the instructions trying to freak us out."

"We can't take the risk," Dove said, wrapping one arm around Amber protectively.

"I agree," Tempest murmured. "We have to assume that the warning is genuine because if we act as if it isn't we may lose our only shot at this."

"I can see that," Lightning said. "Okay then, you should open the iron casket."

Tempest glanced at her out of the side of her eyes. "Care to explain your workings before we, what does it say, hazard all we have?"

"Duh," Lightning said. "This is a relic of power, we're talking about. The power of choice, whatever that is. Iron is power, that's all it is. When you strip away the fancy frou-frou stuff that people with power surround themselves with iron is what you get. Well, that and money, but anyway, the point is that gold is just the covering, it's what they stick over the iron to make it look more impressive and fool you into thinking that this world is anything but the strong sitting on the weak. Wood is all that the weak are left with because the strong have taken everything better so you've just got sticks to try and build a house with. But iron is how the strong keep what they've got. Iron is…iron is what the crown rests on."

Tempest folded her arms. "I didn't take you for a philosopher."

"I'm not," Lightning Dust muttered. "I can just see the way the world works. Open the iron casket."

"Wait," Tempest said. "Are there any counterarguments. Remember, we only have one shot, we have to get this right."

"We have to get this right because Amber's life is on the line if we don't," Dove said.

Bon Bon shook her head. "You're wrong."

"About what?"

"No king would ever place his crown in a chest of iron for precisely the reasons you say," she said. "The crown isn't gold because it's shiny, or because it's meant to distract you from anything. The crown is gold because it's heavy, the heavy metal on the king's head symbolising the heavy but precious weight of justice and judgement. Iron isn't precious, or heavy. Only hard and dangerous."

"And powerful," Lightning insisted.

"Power without justice or majesty is an affront to everything the crown stands for."

"A crown doesn't stand for anything," Lightning snapped. "No more than a general's uniform. Who has ever had power and wielded it with justice? Does Ironwood care about justice, law or judgement? Of course not, because he has an iron fleet and so he can do what he likes without fear of consequence. The Atlesian military, the White Fang, bandits, they all rule by iron; the only difference is that some of them pretend otherwise. But there's no point in pretending, nobody's really fooled by it. Iron is the only thing that matters."

Lyra lifted her hand an inch off her head to scratch her white and green hair. "I think it's the golden casket. Not because of what Bon Bon said, but because…this is Beacon. This is one of the Huntsman Academies. We all came here to write our stories, to achieve great glory as huntsmen and huntresses while protecting the world from evil like…like Professor Ozpin and all the horrible things he did to Amber. Gold is glory, gold is greatness, gold is the thing that we all came here to strive for. Gold is everything that we desire, everything we yearn for. Gold is our songs being sung from Vacuo to Mistral. Gold is…gold is the right choice."

"Hmm…" Tempest mused. "So on the one hand we have power and on the other hand we have glory. Either one of those could hold the crown but I feel as though we're getting somewhere if we look at it like this. This isn't a random choice, after all, these boxes mean something. If we can understand the meanings behind them then we can solve the riddle. Gold or iron. Power or glory."

"Power," Lightning Dust said. "Every time."

"That might be your choice but it doesn't follow that it's the right choice," Tempest said. "This test was set by…someone else. Someone a long time ago. Someone who didn't think like we do. If we knew who they were then we could get inside their heads."

Amber rested her head upon Dove's chest, and hugged him a little tighter. He put his arms around her in turn.

"You don't have to choose until you're ready," Dove said.

"Although a little haste would be appreciated," Tempest muttered. "We do want to get out of here at some point."

Amber made a sound that might have been a whimper. "I don't want to risk my life for power or for glory. I never did. I only want…I only want…" Her eyes widened. "That's it!"

"You've figured it out?" Tempest said.

"I think so," Amber said. "It's the wooden casket."

"What?" Lightning yelled. "Are you serious? Come on!"

"It doesn't sound very plausible," Tempest muttered. "Who would place a crown inside a wooden box?"

"Someone who understood that it isn't power or glory that we ought to choose," Amber said. "Wood is plain and simple yes, and it isn't powerful and it isn't glorious and it doesn't mean anything but…but that's the point, don't you see. The things that we ought to choose, above power and glory and all the rest, are simple…" she gazed lovingly into Dove's eyes. "Things like love, and friendship, and a little cottage in the woods with a garden and a stream flowing nearby, songs and good cheer and…and hot cocoa by the fire."

Tempest frowned. "You're going to risk your life based on greeting card nonsense?"

Amber nodded. "Yes, I am, because…because I know I'm right." Nevertheless, her hands trembled as she reached for the wooden casket in the centre of the trio, and gently lifted up the plain unvarnished lid.

There was a bright light of brilliant white, temporarily blinding all present, and then the light faded just a little as a rich five pointed crown, gold and adorned with turquoises, rose out of the casket.

"Yes!" Tempest cried triumphantly, raising her fists in the air because they had done it! They had the relic! Sonata's freedom was close enough to taste now!

"No!" Pyrrha yelled from the other end of the vault.

* * *

Pyrrha rushed down the winding steps, with Cinder a step behind her. They had left Jaune in the empty courtyard, facing the statue beyond which he could not pass. She hoped that he didn't worry too much. With Cinder with her…she was almost more worried about Cinder than she was about Amber and her confederates.

They rushed down the stairs, arriving in the Vault of the Fall Maiden in time to see the crown, the Relic of Choice, rising into the air in front of Amber, accompanied as she was by Tempest Shadow, Lightning Dust and…Team BLBL? Were they really so enamoured of her that they would betray everything that huntsmen and huntresses were supposed to represent for Amber's sake?

"No!" the word was torn out of her throat as she saw the crown, the relic that she had been tasked to guard by Ozpin, the relic that Salem's forces could not obtain.

 _We were nearly too late. I was nearly too late._

Of course, her piercing cry attracted the attention of all their enemies, who turned to face them with weapons drawn, Team BLBL spilling out of the inner sanctum and into the wider vault, with Dove, Sky and Bon Bon forming a line while Lyra hung back a little. Strangely, she did not draw her sword but rather got out her harp as her fingers hovered above the strings.

Team BLBL looked concerned, Tempest and Lightning Dust less so; Amber, on the other hand, looked absolutely horrified.

"You," she gasped, as her eyes widened and her bosom heaved with fear.

Cinder's smirk was something truly wicked to behold, like the smile of a cat before it pounces on the mouse. "That's right. You've got something that belongs to me and I'm here to take what's mine."

"That's not going to happen," Dove snarled.

Cinder chuckled. "This isn't going to be like the dance," she said. "Sunset isn't here to save you this time, and Pyrrha's on my team now. So why don't you just freeze up like you did that night, and by the time you stop choking on your own fear all of this will be over."

Dove charged with an angry yell, and a moment later Sky and Bon Bon followed him, running down the vault towards Pyrrha and Cinder. Pyrrha had just enough time to note Tempest plucking the crown out of the air and stuffing it into a satchel that Amber was wearing at her hip before she, too, began to run, running to meet her opponents in the centre of the vault, under the gaze of Ozpin's predecessors.

She had failed Professor Ozpin, she would not fail the eyes of all those who had gone before him.

Pyrrha lost sight of Cinder, who fell behind her; her attention was wholly focussed on the three members of Team BLBL who were running towards her, weapons drawn. She was not overly concerned; three against one was tricky, but she knew these three, their strengths and weaknesses from sparring against them often enough. And she didn't have to worry about holding back with her semblance any more. Within the limitations of her aura level, she could go all out.

A trio of glass arrows soared over Pyrrha's head and shoulder to strike Bon Bon and the ground directly at her feet, exploding on her shining armour and staggering her backwards with a cry of pain. Pyrrha leapt forwards, kicking off her back foot as she thrust her Milo – in spear form – forward at Sky's chest. He parried clumsily, backing away from her thrust. Dove slashed at her with his sword but Pyrrha took the blow upon her shield, turning it aside and leaving Dove open for a slashing stroke of her own with Milo that jarred him across the side of the head. Bon Bon, recovered from Cinder's arrows, whirled her Morningstar around her head before launching the spiked ball straight at Pyrrha, who used her semblance to turn it aside and send the weapon flying into Sky's face instead, knocking him to the ground.

Sky yelped in pain, Bon Bon grunted in irritation, but before she could retract the chain Cinder was on her, her glass bow having turned to twin curved scimitars with which she slashed at Bon Bon, and though the glass blades skittered off her armour that didn't mean that they weren't damaging her opponent's aura too.

Dove launched himself at Pyrrha a second time. He was without a doubt the strongest of Team BLBL, and in terms of raw strength he was stronger than either Ren or Jaune, although Ren had more finesse and Jaune now had a lot more versatility and (Pyrrha flattered herself a little to think so, since it was in no small part due to her tuition) technical skill. Dove's one handed slashing strokes were telegraphed, obvious, but they were delivered with speed and with a strength behind his arm that many opponents would have struggled against.

Pyrrha Nikos was not many opponents. She switched Milo into sword form as he rushed her, parrying his strokes, and though she felt the jarring sensation down her arm from his strength her aura was not seriously impaired by it. She let him spend the initial energy of his charge, taking his blows and blocking them whether they came from above or below; then, while she had his sword in parry, she lashed out with Akuou to strike him in the face. He leapt backwards before she could follow up with a strike from Milo. She would have switched to rifle and shot him except that Sky chose that moment to try and sweep her legs out from under her with his halberd while he was still on the ground. Pyrrha leapt over the sweeping stroke and descended on top of Sky, using her shield as a weapon once again to hammer his head into the surface beneath them.

Pyrrha stepped over him, and would have advanced on Amber – and Tempest and Lightning who still guarded her – but a shot from Dove's gunblade that she barely managed to block with her shield reminded her of the folly of leaving enemies behind her, even in a situation like this one.

 _There is no way out except through me. Amber isn't going to escape while my back is turned._

 _But she – or more likely one of the others – might attack me while my back is turned._

Pyrrha turned warily, keeping one eye on Tempest and Lightning. Fortunately they seemed content to let Team BLBL make the running at first. Perhaps they hoped that they would drain Cinder and Pyrrha's aura before they could finish them off when they were weakened. If that was their strategy then Pyrrha for one hoped to disappoint them.

Lyra began to pluck the strings on her harp. She began slowly, but with every moment that passed her fingers picked up speed and so did the music that she was playing, moving swiftly from what seemed like the beginning of a soft air to a fast paced reel. Pyrrha thought that she recognised the tune, like a memory from long ago: it was a Mantle folk ballad, she thought, the song of a hero of the northland; she had heard it played in Argus once, during a festival. She did not recall the name or details.

Nor did she have time to. As Lyra played, her swift and nimble fingers driving the music on, a brilliant white light began to glow around Dove like aura…no, it was his aura, his aura being stimulated by Lyra's music.

 _It looks as if I'm not the only one who's been concealing my semblance._ Pyrrha had seen Lyra only as a mediocre swordswoman, never considering that the harp she carried everywhere might be for more than just amusement.

Dove looked not confident but certain; it wasn't that he thought he would win it was that, in his own mind, he could not afford to lose.

Cinder screamed, distracting Pyrrha as her eyes darted towards her reluctant ally, on her knees at the base of one of the statues of Ozpin's predecessors that lined the walls of the vault. Bon Bon was glowing too – her aura was a beige colour glowing so brightly that it obscured her armour – and at first Pyrrha was at a loss as to what she was doing to Cinder that was making the latter shriek in such agony. Bon Bon was holding up one hand, and from that hand a light was glowing and it was almost as if that light was the source of Cinder's pain, as if she were no man but some creature of darkness out of folklore or fairytale that could not bear the holy light upon her.

Cinder screamed, and while Pyrrha was distracted by her scream Dove attacked, wielding his sword in two hands now as he closed the distance with her so fast that she was almost caught off guard and had to retreat, parrying more hastily and with a little less finesse than was normal for her. He was no more skilled than he had been before Lyra started to play, but he was faster and stronger, and as she stood her guard Pyrrha was hard pressed to keep turning his weapon away from her. Once Sky – wreathed in a bright blue glow – joined the struggle it became even harder; he too was not improved in skill but so greatly in speed and strength that his clumsiness with his halberd mattered very little as the two huntsmen circled around her, forcing her to try and match their movements as they tried always to have one in front of her and one behind while Pyrrha, in turn, tried to keep them on her flanks where she could use Milo to parry the one and Akuou to take the blows of the other and see them both and use her semblance upon them both to turn their blows aside. Fighting two was difficult when they were two this fast, and Cinder was still screaming.

Pyrrha missed a step in the dance and Sky struck her, his halberd hitting her from behind across her knees, which buckled under his strong blow, pitching Pyrrha forwards onto her greaves as she felt her aura sliced away. Dove followed up with a blow to her head, his blade slicing across her temple in a stroke that would have cut the top of her head off it weren't for aura; as it was it clanged against her circlet and knocked Pyrrha sideways with a cry of pain as she landed on her shoulder.

Pyrrha lashed out with her semblance, throwing out her polarity in a wave which burned precious aura – not that she had a lot of choice, she was going to lose it to less good effect if she continued to let the two of them assail her thus - but which did manage to throw Dove and Sky across the chamber in opposite directions, Sky cratering the wall and Dove shattering one of the statues of the wise old men who watched over the vault.

She didn't have much time. Bon Bon had also been knocked sideways by Pyrrha's polarity wave, though to a lesser extent because of the greater distance. Cinder didn't look in much position to take advantage of that – her left eye was bleeding – but Pyrrha seized her with her polarity, teaching her the downside of wearing so much metal armour as she picked up the other huntress and threw her down the vault; she slammed into Lyra as she flew and the songstress' ballad was abruptly cut short as she was borne backwards by Bon Bon and slammed into the back wall, caught between her partner and the stone as the two of them collapsed in a heap by the side of Amber, who let out a little whimper as they did so.

The glow faded from around Sky and Dove now that the song was ended, and as Sky fell to the ground Pyrrha leapt at him, kicking off from her prone position to catch him before he hit the ground, putting one around his throat to spin him around before driving him head first into the floor of the vault. He did not get up.

Pyrrha switched Milo into rifle mode as she snapped off two shots at Dove as he clambered slowly to his feet, following up by throwing Akuou at him to knock him onto his back in turn. He didn't rise again either.

Pyrrha switched Milo into spear mode as she stalked into the centre, width-wise, of the vault. After a moment, and grunting with effort, Cinder rose to her feet.

"Are you alright?" Pyrrha murmured.

"I'll be fine," Cinder muttered dismissively, sounding insulted that Pyrrha had asked as she wiped the blood from beneath her eye with one scarlet sleeve.

Tempest Shadow and Lightning Dust stepped forward; the latter was wreathed with yellow lightning rippling up and down her body.

"Do you have a preference?" Cinder whispered out of one corner of her mouth.

"Tempest," Pyrrha whispered back. Armoured as she was she would be vulnerable to Pyrrha's semblance; Lightning Dust's gear looked to be a little less metallic.

"Fine," Cinder said, and she combined her swords into a bow and took aim at Lightning Dust.

Their two opponents began to charge, and it became clear by the way that they switched places so that Tempest was rushing towards Cinder and Lightning towards Pyrrha that their thoughts on the best match-up accorded in reverse with that of their opponents.

Nevertheless, Tempest Shadow was still wearing her armour.

Pyrrha grabbed her with her semblance – she had to be bold now; facing two opponents with their auras intact boldness was perhaps the best option available to her – and threw her into Lightning Dust whose lightning, wreathing her entire body, swiftly enveloped Tempest too, pulsating up and down her black armour and make the pony faunus jerk and twitch and burble with shock even as Lightning Dust was hurt by the impact of Tempest into her which bore her into the wall on the other side.

They recovered more swiftly than any member of Team BLBL, it had to be said. Lightning ceased her lightning discharge long enough for Tempest to roll away, with the flick of some kind of button on her collar all of Tempest black metal armour fell away from her body with much clattering and clanging as it hit the floor in a heap around her, leaving her clad only in skin tight bodysuit of some kind of plastic or polymer, flexible aside from a solid plate over her chest. She even through her weapon – a metal pole that would have been equally vulnerable to Pyrrha's polarity – aside before she resumed her charge, leaving Lightning Dust, wreathed in lightning once again, to follow on behind her.

Pyrrha fired the remaining three shots in her magazine at Tempest; Cinder loosed arrow after glass arrow. They all exploded harmlessly against Tempest's shield of crimson, which she held before her with her hands outstretched as she rushed towards them.

 _This is just what she did to Team RSPT during her attack on the_ Valiant _._ Pyrrha realised, recognising Rainbow Dash's description of the battle in which Tempest had overwhelmed Penny and her entire team. "Get back," she snapped to Cinder, even as Pyrrha jumped backwards herself. "She's going to exploder her shield!"

Tempest exploded her shield. Cinder was caught in the burst of energy that swept forwards down the vault and, like a leaf caught in a sudden burst of wind, was blasted backwards towards the stairs, tumbling head over her heels before she managed to steady herself with some of the magic of the Fall Maiden, coming to a stop floating in the air about a foot above the ground, waiting as Tempest ran towards her, weaponless but with fists cocked. Pyrrha was less effected by the blast but was still caught it in, caught in mid leap, but she was already so high that the blast directed her towards the vault ceiling. Pyrrha tucked her legs in and rolled in mid-air, rising in the direction she wanted to go in, so that her high-heeled boots touched the roof of the underground chamber.

She kicked off, Milo in sword mode swept back, Akuou held before her, plunging downwards like a javelin or a thunderbolt from the heavens to join Cinder – who was flying towards her enemy even as Tempest came to her – in the battle.

There was a flash of yellow as Lightning Dust emerged between her and Tempest, lightning rippling across her whole body, hands outstretched.

She collided with Pyrrha in mid-air, knocking her off course as the two of them tumbled over one another as they fell. Pyrrha landed on the bottom but the pain of the impact – and the impact's impact on her aura – was as nothing when compared to the lightning which sprang from every inch of Lightning's body to rippled up and down Pyrrha's own, tearing at her aura like a pack of hunting hounds who, directed by the calls of the huntsman and the sounding of the trumpets, surrounds the noble lion and sink their fangs into the greater beast till they have brought him down. Pyrrha cried out in pain as she felt her aura draining away under the onslaught. Lightning Dust's face was an angry snarl as she placed her hands around Pyrrha's neck, squeezing her gorget as lightning leapt off her arms to strike at Pyrrha's face.

They were too close together for Pyrrha to effectively wield her weapons, so she took a leaf out of Penny's book and headbutted her opponent in a very uncivilised but undeniably effective manner before temporarily discarding Milo and Akuou and punching Lightning Dust in the face with both hands, enough to get her to loosen her grip on Pyrrha enough that Pyrrha could throw her off and back down the vault towards Amber.

Pyrrha got to her feet, but didn't recover her weapons. There was no point at this point; if she engaged Lightning Dust in close combat then she would simply be vulnerable to more shocks every time she struck home. That was what Lightning Dust was counting on.

Nevertheless Pyrrha was forced to grab her shield, using her semblance to pull it towards her arm, as Lightning unleashed a stream of lightning form her hands, snapping and snarling as it travelled through the air towards her. Pyrrha took the blast upon her shield, even as she seized Milo with her polarity rather than her arm and threw it straight at Lightning Dust, hitting her in the shoulder and staggering her sideways.

Then she grabbed every single weapon that she could find with her semblance: not only Milo but Dove's sword, Bon Bon's morningstar, Sky's halberd, even Tempest's pole and all of the various pieces of her armour too. She lifted them all up into the air, all of them grasped by the black outline of her semblance, and then she threw them all from various directions straight at Lightning Dust.

She caught her opponent by surprise at first, as spear and sword and everything else slammed into her. Milo hit her from behind and knocked her forwards. Sky's halberd cut her legs out from under her before Dove's sword bashed her up into the air; Bon Bon's flail fell down upon her stomach to thrust her back down into the ground again. All the pieces of Tempest's armour – cuirass, cuisses, paudrons, greaves, vambraces, all of it – surrounded her before closing in on her like a swarm of angry wasps, slamming into her from all sides, crushing her beneath and between them all.

Lightning sparked at the centre of the mass of armour, yellow lightning holding the metal in place, lightning fighting back against her polarity, the yellow warring against the black.

 _Of course. She can use her lightning to achieve a degree of magnetic control._ Rainbow Dash had told her that too.

Pyrrha scowled, and pushed harder with her semblance. Lightning closed her eyes, furrowing her brow with concentration as that device that was poisoning her in exchange for power bubbled and burbled as it pumped more dust into her bloodstream.

Pyrrha pushed. Lightning pushed back, growling and grimacing all the while. Lightning Dust roared in anger as her lightning overpowered Pyrrha's polarity and threw Tempest's armour pieces out in all directions; none of them travelled far enough to hit Pyrrha, who leapt out of the way of them, but some of them struck both Tempest and Cinder where they were engaged in their struggle, as Tempest countered Cinder's magic with her shields and continually shattered Cinder's glass weapons with her fists only for them to reform in Cinder's hands at her command.

"Switch with me," Cinder said, as she used the power of the Maiden to soar backwards away from Tempest Shadow, flying a foot above the ground, with blowing her hands before she turned as nimbly as an eel in the water to fly towards Lightning Dust.

Milo and Akuou flew into Pyrrha's hands as she intercepted Tempest in her attempted pursuit of Cinder. Pyrrha took Tempest's blow of jarring strength upon her shield before thrusting with Milo in spear mode. Tempest caught the blow, her hand closing around the tip of the spear before she yanked it – and Pyrrha too – forwards, pulling her off balance preparatory to grabbing her arm too and throwing her across the vault.

Pyrrha rolled to a halt – she almost didn't dare see how much aura she had left – and threw Akuou at Tempest as she ran to aid Lightning Dust, who was suffering under a barrage of fire from Cinder's hands. The shield cut Tempest's legs out from under her, knocking her down in turn long enough for Pyrrha to regain her feet and close the distance between them once again. She was more cautious this time, leading with her shield not only to take Tempest's blows but to try and open up her guard as well, making short sharp jabs with Milo aimed for Tempest's feet and knees. Tempest looked worried, and angry too, and she launched a ferocious assault aimed at breaking Pyrrha's guard, beating her fists on Pyrrha's shield, driving her backwards as the impact of each hit jarred her whole arm down to the shoulder.

Tempest grabbed her shield – taking a slash across the chest from Milo (in sword form) as she did so, pulling Pyrrha's shield away and driving her fist into Pyrrha's gut, making her double over as she was pushed aside.

It was too late. Lightning Dust cried out as her aura broke and Cinder drove a glass sword into her side. Lightning Dust, blood dripping from her mouth – whether that was the wound or the poisoning effect of the dust she was injecting into herself was not entirely clear – staggered sideways, leaving a bloody trail on the ground as she half-collapsed against one of the statues of the wise old men who had gone before in protecting the maidens and the relics from the designs of evil.

Cinder's eye burned with the anima of magic as she raised her other sword to finish her defeated opponent off.

Tempest left Pyrrha behind and went to the aid of the injured Lightning Dust, a move which Pyrrha could only attribute to the fact that Tempest would rather it were Pyrrha, and not Cinder, who had a clear route to Amber. Because that was the result: while Lightning Dust, given a brief reprieve, crouched against a statue and bled, and while Tempest and Cinder resumed their struggle (Tempest now seemed to feel freer to use weapons again, for she had snatched up both Dove's sword and Sky's halberd on the way and was now wielding them one in each hand as she twirled to make wide, slashing strikes aimed at Cinder), there was no one left standing between Pyrrha and Amber.

A fact of which the frightened looking Amber seemed very aware.

Pyrrha took a deep breath. There was no doubt what she had to do. Cinder seemed to be holding her own at least, and the relic was right in front of her.

She began to charge straight down the vault towards Amber.

Amber whimpered in fear.

Bon Bon and Lyra seemed to stir to wakefulness at the sound, or perhaps it was a mere coincidence, or perhaps they were so attuned to Amber that her being in danger was enough to wake them both, either way they untangled themselves and staggered to their feet. Lyra drew her sword and planted herself squarely in the path of Pyrrha's onslaught. Bon Bon, unable to find her morningstar after Pyrrha had borrowed it, charged at Pyrrha with only her armoured fists, building up quite a turn of speed as she seemed to be planning to bulldoze into Pyrrha and use her weight in armour to overpower and bear down the other girl.

Pyrrha sidestepped her charge and used her semblance on the other girl in all the armour she could not remove so easily as Tempest Shadow, hurling her down the vault towards the stairs, not a straight throw but rather a bouncing progress that slammed her into the ground again and again before she reached the stairs down which Pyrrha and Cinder had descended to reach the fight. She didn't get up.

Pyrrha's sense of her own limits told her that that was the last time she could afford to use her semblance – certainly like that – in this battle; hopefully it was the last time that she would need to.

Pyrrha resumed her attack, rolling over Lyra with contemptuous ease, beating her to the ground with a series of swift strokes that overwhelmed her defences, swept her sword out of her hands, and left her motionless upon the ground.

There was no one left to protect Amber but Amber herself.

 _You know what they say about cornered animals._

Amber seemed to realise that she was alone. Pyrrha could see the realisation dawning upon Amber's face as Pyrrha charged towards her: she had no resources left but her own.

And as Pyrrha saw that realisation fall across the Fall Maiden so she also saw the anima of magic burn in Amber's left eye.

Amber rose, as Cinder had risen, floating a foot off the ground which was about as high up as the underground vault would allow while still giving a little room to manoeuvre in extremity. Amber rose, and her hand rose too, her palm pointing at Pyrrha as shards of ice erupted from her hand, shards as sharp as knives in a barrage like missiles from an Atlesian cruiser shooting towards her. Pyrrha dived out of the way, rolling across the floor and coming up in a crouch. She threw Milo – in spear form, obviously – as Amber turned to follow her movements, the flurry of ice shards moving too. Pyrrha raised her shield, feeling the ice hammer into Akuou, pounding on it like a gong, making the shield reverberate and the sounds echo in the vault. Amber flinched out of the way and let Pyrrha's spear fly past her and into the inner sanctum, disappearing through the open doorway.

Pyrrha felt the ice continue to strike upon her shield, pushing her backwards as her boots scraped along the stone surface; one shard of ice nicked her face, weakening her aura yet further.

Pyrrha's free hand was surrounded by the black outline of polarity; she had run out of times she could use it for anything particularly flashy or overpowered, but she had enough aura left for something like this.

Milo flew back into her hand by way of Amber, striking her in the small of the back and knocking her forwards and back to the ground. She staggered on the stone, her barrage of ice died, and when it died Pyrrha surged to her feet and charged at her, Milo flying into her hand where Pyrrha changed it fluidly from spear to sword as she closed the distance between her and her foe and quarry.

She struck first with Akuou, striking Amber hard across the face and making her stagger back and sideways. She slashed then with Milo once, twice, three times across Amber's chest, pushing her back as she cut through her aura. She could see the crown in Amber's satchel, gold and turquoise glimmering in the low light of the candles on the walls, and the sight of the prize and object of their struggle so close at hand drove Pyrrha on and seemed to rejuvenate her strength and even her aura as she fought.

Professor Ozpin had placed his faith in her and she could not fail him, not now.

She slashed. Amber caught Milo in its downward swing and, with her free hand, struck Pyrrha with a gust of air that blew her upwards, lifting her so that Amber could throw her over her shoulder and across the vault. That was the plan at least, as she was swung over Amber's head by the sword Pyrrha grabbed Amber's arm in turn so that her foe was pulled off balance by her own toss and the two of them were half-thrown, half-fell across the chamber together. They grappled, Amber squirming in Pyrrha's grip as she tried to put the Fall Maiden in a lock. Amber threw herself backwards, using air to propel herself in an attempt to crush Pyrrha against the vault wall. Pyrrha jumped before she struck, bracing her legs against the wall and kicking off it as she threw Amber over her shoulder in turn to land face down upon the ground. The Relic of Choice tumbled out of Amber's satchel as was tossed so ungainly, the golden crown bouncing away; the sight of it drew Pyrrha's eye, but she forced herself to ignore it for now; it would profit her nothing to go after the crown and leave herself exposed to Amber, just as it would profit Amber nothing to go for the crown when Pyrrha was right there.

Amber tried to go for the crown, her body twisting in that direction even before she had gotten to her feet as though she meant to crawl towards it. Pyrrha didn't give her the opportunity, she was on Amber before she could rise, literally on top of her, pinning her to the ground and putting Milo to her throat to chip away at her aura by its presence.

"Get off me!" Amber shrieked, struggling beneath Pyrrha. "Get off me, get off me, get off me, GET OFF ME!" Fire exploded from Amber's whole body, a rippling wall of flame that burned Pyrrha's aura away as it tossed her upwards, slamming her into the ceiling before it let her fall to the floor again. Pyrrha landed on her feet, somewhat unsteadily, and summoned her weapons back to her as Amber scrambled for the relic, running hunched down towards it, fingers outstretched.

Pyrrha threw Akuou at her, hitting her in the side and knocking her off balance as she charged towards Amber with Milo, now a spear once more, held in both hands.

"No!"

Pyrrha turned at the shout from behind her. It was Dove, armed with Lyra's sword in the absence of his own, running towards her, hands drawn back for a slashing stroke. Pyrrha parried his blow with Milo, twirling her spear in her arms before thrusting it forward into his belly.

It broke his aura, pierced his armour and penetrated into his flesh.

Pyrrha's eyes widened a little as she saw the blood from the wound, blood staining Milo, blood on the ground, blood…Dove's blood.

Dove's eyes were completely open now. He had very blue eyes, Pyrrha noticed; they were just like Jaune's eyes. It was a stupid thing to think but…but in that moment it was all she could think of.

"Am…ber…" Dove murmured, blood dripping from his mouth as, almost reflexively, Pyrrha pulled her spear out of his wound. "Run." The light had left his eyes almost before his lifeless body struck the ground.

He had been a traitor, he had betrayed everything that Beacon and the huntsmen of the world were supposed to stand for, but Pyrrha had not wished to kill him; and in that moment she could only hope that he found whatever peace he hoped for in the embrace of death.

 _I've just killed someone._

 _I-_

The shriek of pain that rose from Amber's throat was something terrible to hear; it was like the screaming of the dragon that had ruled the skies over Vale, it was like the screaming of a bird which returns to the nest from a hunting expedition to find that all the chicks have perished in her absence; it was like the shriek of the widow who buries her husband and returns later to find that his grave has been desecrated and despoiled. It was a shriek of horror, it was a shriek of sorrow, it was a shriek of rage and that rage was wholly directed at Pyrrha.

Pyrrha turned, and she caught a glimpse of that rage in Amber's face – enflaming her scars – and the murderous desire in her amber eyes before she was caught in the grip of a hurricane that lifted her up and threw her backwards while the shards of ice struck at her, stabbed at her, tore at her aura before she was slammed into one of the statues of the wise old men hard enough to shatter it beneath the impact. Pyrrha landed on all fours on the ground and scrambled out of the way before the statue fell upon her. It hit the ground beside her, breaking into fragments.

Amber's face was a mask of hatred as she rose up into the air, rising towards the ceiling, and as she rose the storm clouds gathered overhead, dark and angry, darker even than this vault. She did not even look at the fallen crown, although it seemed that Tempest and Cinder might be looking at her because Pyrrha could no longer hear them fighting.

She didn't look. She didn't take her eyes off Amber. She didn't dare. She felt almost as if the moment she looked away would be the moment that she…died.

 _Why did I think that I could fight this power?_

 _Was I just an arrogant fool in the end?_

Lightning roared down from the clouds over Amber's hands, slamming into the floor of the vault all around Pyrrha as the thunder rolled and roared in the wake of the blinding strikes that landed all around. Pyrrha screamed as her aura was torn apart, the red light rippling over her body as the shield of her soul, battered and much abused this night, finally gave in to all the punishment that it had received in spite of all that Jaune had done to recharge and to strengthen it. Her aura broke and Pyrrha screamed in pain as the lightning rippled up and down her body, striking her vambrace and her greaves, tearing at her pale and unprotected flesh, scarring her shoulders, making her jerk like a badly-controlled puppet as the shocks ripped through her and rippled up and down her.

The lightning died. Pyrrha swayed unsteadily on her feet, her brain clouded, only for her mind to clear as she was hurled back against the cavern wall by another gust of wind from Amber's hand. Pyrrha cried out as her back struck the stone with a painful crunch. She could still feel her legs, but she could also feel her back crying out for relief, and as she slid down to the floor she felt too weak to do anything with her legs even though she could feel them, and her arms either.

More shards of ice, narrower this time, but still as sharp as blades or arrowheads, rained down upon her, and this time there was no aura to stop them as they fell upon her legs, most of them rattling against her greaves but one of them piercing her boot beneath the bronze strip to jam into her ankle.

Pyrrha moaned in pain. So much pain. How could anyone survive without aura?

Not that she was likely to survive without it for much longer.

Tears were in Pyrrha's eyes, not only tears of pain – although that was a part of it – but tears of remorse also. Vain had been Professor Ozpin's trust in her. He had put his faith in her and she had failed, proven herself unworthy. For all her lofty ambitions and her dream of destiny she was nothing but a tournament champion after all, a paper tiger, a creation of the crowds and the media which meant nothing in the fiery crucible of the real world.

 _Invincible Girl_ , her insecurities mocked her within her head. _Champion of Mistral. Look at you now. You have failed._

Amber descended to the floor. There were tears in her eyes, and when she looked down at Dove's lifeless corpse she let out a sob. She knelt down before him, murmuring something that Pyrrha could not really catch, but which might have been 'I'm sorry' or something like it. She picked up Lyra's sword, the sword that Dove had tried to wield, and once more glared at Pyrrha with that murderous intensity.

There was no doubt what she intended to do as Amber rose to her feet and began to walk towards Pyrrha.

 _For it is in passing that we achieve immortality._

But she didn't want immortality, not now if that was ever what she had truly wanted. She didn't want to die. She wanted to live on, to live with Jaune, to have a life with him; she wanted to be there for Ruby as she worked through her grief; she wanted to find some way to free Sunset from captivity that didn't make a fugitive of her; she wanted to go home, she wanted to walk down the streets of Mistral with her friends by her side, she wanted to grow old and sit her grandchildren upon her lap and tell them stories. She wanted to live her whole life to the fullest.

She did not want to die.

But now death was coming for her and there was nothing that Pyrrha Nikos could do except wait, injured and helpless and in pain, for death to come.

Amber stood over her, and the sword trembled in her hands as she raised it up to strike off Pyrrha's head.

Cinder slammed into Amber from the side, bearing her back towards the inner sanctum of the vault.

Cinder's hands were burning as she slammed Amber into the wall, thrusting one palm into Amber's scarred face. Amber shrieked as she blocked Cinder's palm with her own, punching her in the face before spinning in mid-air to kick Cinder in the side. Cinder recoiled, hovering just above the ground a few feet away.

Cinder's smirk was predatory; the rage that had animated Amber's expression when she looked at Pyrrha turned to fear.

Cinder and Amber raised their hands. Fire leapt from Cinder's palm, while shards of ice flew through the air towards Cinder at Amber's command. Fire and ice met in the centre of the vault, producing a great swell of steam that temporarily blinded Pyrrha's view of the two combatants. She could hear Amber shouting, Cinder grunting with effort, she could see sparks of flame in the midst of the fog engulfing the vault, but she couldn't see who was prevailing over who in this contest of gods nor could she do anything to assist Cinder in her battle.

 _Even if I had my aura and was uninjured is there anything that I could really do?_

She glanced towards Tempest Shadow, the only other person still conscious in the vault; she too was staring into the fog, and perhaps it was Pyrrha's imagination but she seemed to be feeling the same sense of awed inadequacy that was engulfing Pyrrha.

Tempest noted Pyrrha's gaze, and in Tempest's eyes Pyrrha could see the realisation that although she couldn't influence the battle between the two halves of the Fall Maiden she could dispatch Pyrrha Nikos easily enough.

Tempest took a step towards her.

The fog cleared, blasted away by an enormous gust of wind from Amber that cleared away all the mist as well as sending Cinder flying backwards. Cinder struggled against the hurricane, using her own magic to fly into the oncoming storm. She threw fire into the wind, but the air that Amber was hurling her way simply blew the fire off course, sending it veering to the left or the right but never towards its target. But Cinder did not move, though the wind howled about her – thought threatened to blow Pyrrha away and only the remains of the fallen statue to brace herself against prevented it – she did not move. Though she was like a bird beating its wings with all its might just to stay still she did stay still, and though Amber's wind howled it could not move her.

"Tempest!" Amber shouted. "Help me!"

Tempest hesitated for just a moment. Her eyes fell to the crown upon the floor, being pushed back by the lowest gusts of Amber's storm. She scooped it up, and began to run towards the stairs.

"No!" Pyrrha cried, and she tried to get up and follow the other huntress forgetting for a moment the wounds Amber had dealt her. Her leg soon reminded her as it buckled beneath her weight and she fell to her knees on the ground with a cry of excruciating pain. "Cinder! The Relic!"

Cinder took no notice of her, perhaps she could not even if she'd wanted to. She hung in the air, straining against Amber's wind as the latter sought to blow her away, for a little while it seemed as though she was doing nothing but holding her position in the face of the gale.

Her smile widened, and her eyes glanced upwards.

Pyrrha – and Amber – both noticed at the same time the clouds that had been gathering above Amber's head.

Lightning lashed down from the ceiling to strike Amber, who screamed as she lost her balance in the air and fell to the ground. Cinder flew towards her straight and true as any arrow, her hands on fire. Amber shot fire from her own palms but Cinder ploughed through the flames as though they did not trouble her, her eyes seeming to burn with eagerness as well as magic as she came to grips with her other half. Amber punched her in the face, Cinder rolled with it and landed on the ground herself as the two engaged in a more physical battle.

 _The kind of battle in which I could have taken part if I had not been injured,_ Pyrrha thought, as she watched Amber – displaying a competence that she had never demonstrated up until this point, and rather proving Cinder's point about how she was like a cornered animal that got more ferocious the more desperate it became – strike Cinder in the side with her knee before kicking her in the face to knock her backwards. Cinder charged again, her glass blades forming in her hands as she slashed at Amber with them. Amber's hands glowed with fire as she blocked the swords barehanded, shattering both of them to fragments before kicking Cinder in the gut hard enough to toss her three feet back and this time she even moved to pursue her foe.

Cinder raised her hands and all the fragments of her shattered swords shot up from where they lay upon the ground to slam into Amber's back, staggering her with a gasp of pain. Cinder grabbed her by the neck and slammed her into the ground hard enough to crater the floor of the vault.

Amber raised her hands, fire bursting from them, lifting Cinder up and hurling her into the ceiling in her turn, causing the stone to chip and fragments of it to fall on Amber's head. Cinder retreated, flying briefly before landing once again, some distance between her and Amber as Cinder's shards of glass reformed in her hands into her bow.

Amber rose above the ground, wind blowing around her.

Cinder shot. She loosed arrow after arrow but Amber simply waved her hands and winds blew the arrows off course, to the left or the right, they never went where Cinder wished them to go.

So why was Cinder still smirking?

"What are you smiling at?" Amber demanded.

Cinder cocked her head to one side. "You don't remember this trick, do you?"

Pyrrha's eyes widened. All the arrows that Cinder had loosed were buried by the tips in the walls of the vault on either side of the Amber, and now they all began to glow, pulsing with a fiery yellow energy that rippled as though they were turning the stone itself to fire. Amber looked around, her face beginning to show the panic that she must be feeling. The arrows exploded, consuming that part of the chamber with fire, a fire in which Amber was caught in the middle.

Amber screamed as her aura broke.

Cinder didn't hesitate. A glass sword formed in her hand as she flew through the air, catching Amber as she fell, ramming into her just as she rammed the glass sword into her heart.

"I should have just done this last time," Cinder murmured, as she twisted the blade. "I won't make that mistake again. Except…well, it hasn't all worked out terribly. So perhaps…I really ought to thank you."

Amber stared at her, gasping, choking, bleeding, dying. Her hands twitched. She tried look away-

"No," Cinder said, grabbing her by the hair and holding her head in place, leaning down so that there foreheads were touching. "Look at me. Look at me, think of me…and die." She stabbed Amber again, and Amber jerked in her embrace, her whole body shuddering. Then she went still, and moved no more.

Cinder dumped Amber's body even as a golden light arose from the lifeless form of the Fall Maiden to pass through and into Cinder Fall. That golden light surrounded her like a second aura, and both of Cinder's eyes burned with the fiery light, brighter now and more intense than it had been before. Cinder rose higher above the floor, and she smiled with delight, a smile that had a kind of childish enthusiasm to it that Pyrrha had never thought to find on Cinder's face. Fire whirled around her, and Cinder stared at it as though she had never seen the light before. She made it dance around her, her eyes following the patterns that it wielded, and it almost seemed to Pyrrha as though she were enjoying her magic, taking joy from the having it and from what she could do with it besides end the lives of all those she called enemies. She formed the streams of flame into dragons with broad-spanning wings and long snouts, dragons that were like floating serpents with moustaches trailing from their nostrils, dragons that moved swiftly and dragons that moved slowly, dragons that swooped and dove and circled around her as they performed tricks in the air for her amusement. She spun the fire in hoops around her arms, she seemed to try and see how fast she could make it go, she conjured fire in one hand and ice in the other, she threw out gusts of wind and hurled the fire through them for greater speed and power. It was as though she was in a hurry to find out all the things that her magic could do, though Pyrrha did not know why. She had all the time in the world to explore all its possibilities, did she not?

Cinder lowered herself to the ground, her glass heels clicking on the stone. She looked at Pyrrha, who could not quite restrain a shudder of unease. They had been allies against Amber, but now Amber was dead and Cinder's power was even more monstrous than it had been before. What would Cinder Fall do now?

Cinder walked towards her. "How do you feel?"

"I've felt better," Pyrrha admitted. "Tempest got away."

"You're welcome," Cinder said. "If I'd turned my back on Amber to go after Tempest and the crown she'd either have killed you or the both of us."

"That's not why you did it," Pyrrha said.

"Is it not? Who are you to say why I do the things I do," Cinder said. She smirked. "Besides, you're not in much of a position to take that high judgemental tone with me right now, are you?"

Pyrrha swallowed. She didn't want to die, but just as with Amber she was helpless to prevent her own death. Her life was in Cinder's hands. "Are you going to kill me?"

"I could," Cinder said. "Here we are, alone in the dark, with no witnesses to see or hear. I could kill you, and tell darling Jaune out there that you fell by Amber's hand, or Tempest's, or…anyone really. Perhaps not the members of that Team…whatever, I'd want my story to be believable. But I could kill you, and none would know that I had done the deed."

 _But will you?_ Pyrrha thought, as her chest rose and fell. She didn't want to die. Not here, not in this place, not by Cinder's hand. She wanted…she wanted life, and all its wonders.

Cinder's bow formed in her hand. "It was very honourable of you to come down here like this, and to face such powers beyond your ability to match. As expected of the noble House of Nikos." She aimed her bow at Pyrrha's chest, and drew it back. She held the arrow knocked for a moment, her face inscrutable.

Then the bow collapsed into shards of glass. "But I can be as honourable as you, though I have no house or ancient name," Cinder declared. "I have no need of your life." She hesitated. "I hated you, from the moment I saw you. I hated you because…because you didn't appreciate all the gifts that you'd been given…the gifts that I desired so badly. But now I see that…you appreciate the real gifts that you possess very well, don't you?"

Pyrrha stared up at her. "I…I try to, yes."

Cinder knelt down in front of her. "Don't worry," she said, as she pulled Pyrrha's arm over her shoulder. "I've got you. I'll get you back to-"

"Jaune!" Pyrhha exclaimed, fear sharpened by the sense of shame that she had not thought of him until now, even though Tempest had retreated out of the vault and to the courtyard, where Jaune was, and with the best will in the world he was no match for her. What if she had…what if it was already too late? "Leave me, you have to-"

"He's fine, don't worry," Cinder said. She smirked. "I'm coming to the conclusion that he's too stupid to die."

Pyrrha didn't laugh. "How can you be so sure?"

"Because I can feel him worrying about you all the way down here."

* * *

Cinder said nothing else to Pyrrha as she carried her up the stairs and out of the vault. She was too lost in her own thoughts to speak.

She had triumphed. Amber was dead at her hands, and all the power of the Fall Maiden had fallen into her lap like a ripe plum. That which she had desired for so long, that which she had worked towards, it was hers. She was the Fall Maiden, the one and only Fall Maiden; she had triumphed. Victory belonged to her.

So then why did she feel so empty?

And she wasn't just talking about the grimm essence within her, the part of her that she had willingly consented to be turned into a monster, the part of her soul that she had bargained away to the powers of darkness in the misguided belief that she was gaining a mother rather than a master; that she could have explained. She was used to the pain of it, she was – to an extent – inured to it. If the only fly in the unguent of her victory had been the fact that she was not – Fall Maiden or no – completely rid of the cold that gnawed at her, the desire in the back of her mind to tear out Pyrrha's throat with her teeth, the way that she could fell the agony of Pyrrha's injuries as though they were her own, the way that Jaune's anxiety over the fate of Pyrrha was on the verge of giving her a headache that no amount of pills would be able to alleviate, if that had been all there was then she could have coped with it. If she had been feeling nothing but the usual hollow sensation that had accompanied her decision to descend a step from the level of the human to that of the beast then that she could have endured; it would have been countered by the sweet savour of what she had accomplished.

But it was the accomplishment itself that felt hollow. She had become the Fall Maiden but she could take no joy in it. She could find some joy in the exercise of the magic, in the way in which she could bend it to her will…but she had expected, hoped, that the mere having of the magic would give her some pleasure, some sweet satisfaction, would make her feel something, anything except this cold and hollow emptiness, this insatiable hunger that still consumed her.

This was power, this was power such as no one in Remnant possessed save only for the three other maidens; this was power such as Pyrrha Nikos could only dream of, power to put all the world in fear of her, power to bend Remnant to her will; this was one quarter of the world's magic. Shouldn't the fact that it was hers please her? Wasn't this what she had always wanted?

 _Always, perhaps, but no more._

Everything that she had done had been about this; she had lied, plotted, schemed, betrayed, murdered all to achieve this power, all to become Fall Maiden. And now that she was powerful…it meant nothing to her.

 _I wanted to be strong. I wanted to be powerful. I wanted to be feared._

 _But now…what do I want now?_

They emerged from out of the illusory statue that guarded the vault and – truer to Cinder's instincts than Pyrrha's fears – they found Jaune waiting for them in the courtyard beyond. He wasn't facing them, he was facing away, but not moving; he looked torn by indecision, unsure of what to do or where to go.

"Over here," Cinder said sharply.

Jaune turned towards them, and his eyes widened with shock and horror as he saw Pyrrha, one arm thrown over Cinder's shoulder, hanging rather limply as Cinder dragged her along. "Pyrrha!"

Cinder laid her down upon the stone without a word, and stepped back. Jaune didn't pay any notice of her. He was wholly preoccupied with Pyrrha. Cinder envied her. Not for her fame or her reputation or any of the things for which she had previously been envious of the Champion of Mistral but…for the way he looked at her, she was envious of that.

Nobody looked at her that way, although…

 _Too late for that now._

Pyrrha groaned in pain. "Jaune…you're…I was worried…Tempest."

"She…she got past me," Jaune said. "She came out of the statue like there was a deathstalker on her tail. I tried to stop her but…she's stronger and faster than I am. I didn't really stand a chance. She took off. I wasn't sure whether to go after her, I didn't want it meant that she'd come out but no one else had, I didn't know what you'd want me to do and I didn't want to leave you behind and I didn't know what had happened to you down there and I…I'm so glad that I stayed."

"You should go," Pyrrha said. "You and Cinder…leave me and-"

"No way," Jaune said fiercely. "I'm not leaving you like this. Just wait, okay? I'm going to make this better." He held his hands over her, and the golden light of his semblance illuminated those hands before they covered Pyrrha in a glowing cocoon of their shared aura.

Cinder took no more notice of Pyrrha's request than Jaune had. She wasn't going to pursue Tempest Shadow. She cared not for the Relic of Choice one way or the other. That would be Sunset's problem soon enough. Her problem…her problems would be over soon.

Cinder walked away, looking up at the Amity Coliseum where it floated in the air above the city. So far away. So far beyond her reach. Well, perhaps not. She could fly up there using the Maiden's magic, or try to; but to what end? With the CCT down who would see her even if she did gain the arena?

No, that plan was a non-starter now, and had been so even before Pyrrha became too badly hurt to give her the great fight that she had envisaged. There would be no villain and no hero.

There would only be a sacrifice.

The Amity Coliseum was out of her reach and so was all the nonsense that she had spun out of air and vanity in the wake of Salem's betrayal. She wasn't going to become renowned the world over as the mastermind of this night's madness. Children were not going to tremble in fear of her. She was not going to live in infamy so long as the race of men endured. She was Cinder Fall, and she was nothing.

And that…she found that did not trouble her as much as it might have done, here at the end.

It didn't matter any more.

Cinder had taken Pyrrha's scroll from one of her pouches, and while Jaune was distracted with healing Pyrrha and Pyrrha was distracted with her urgent need to be healed Cinder opened that scroll and ran through the numbers. She looked for Sunset's, and almost called before she realised that, of course, Sunset wouldn't have her scroll with her. She'd only just gotten out of prison after all.

"Is Ruby with Sunset?" she asked.

"Huh?" Jaune looked up, and he almost looked as though he'd forgotten that Cinder was there until she reminded him.

"Is Ruby with Sunset?" Cinder repeated impatiently.

"Uh, yeah," Jaune said. "That was the plan, unless they got separated."

Cinder rolled her eyes. "You're very helpful," she said. She turned away again, her attention fixed upon her scroll.

"Cinder."

Cinder glanced over her shoulder.

"Thank you," Jaune said. "For having her back; and bringing her back."

Cinder stared at him. What did he want her to say? What was she supposed to say to a thing like that? In the end she said nothing, and looked down at her scroll as she sought out Ruby's name in the address book and called the number.

She had to wait a few moments to get a response, before Ruby Rose's face – something was different about her; Cinder couldn't quite put her finger on it but something had definitely happened to Ruby that had or would leave its mark upon her; she could see it in her eyes; something there that wasn't there before – appeared in the screen of the scroll. "Pyrrha!" Ruby cried. "Did you- Cinder?"

"Hello again," Cinder said. "Is Sunset there?"

"What are you doing with that scroll?" Ruby demanded. "What did you do to Pyrrha?"

Any number of tasteless jokes sprang to mind, driven by the hunch that Ruby would believe almost any horrible thing that Cinder claimed to have done, but Cinder didn't really want to waste time in exchange for the meagre amount of humour that she might get out of claiming that Pyrrha had died by her hand, and so she stepped aside for a moment to show the little girl Pyrrha on the ground having her aura stimulated by Jaune. "As you can see," she said in a long-suffering tone. "Pyrrha is alive, Jaune is tending to her injuries now. So why-"

"I'm right here," Sunset said, as she plucked the scroll out of Ruby's hands. Cinder was treated to a shot of Vale's cityscape at night before the camera came to rest on Sunset's face. She had a prison collar around her neck, though it didn't seem to be activated. "I'm surprised to see you up and about."

Cinder smirked. "You think you're the only one who can get let out of prison to take care of an emergency?"

"I did, clearly I was wrong," Sunset said. "What happened?"

"Amber's dead," Cinder said bluntly.

Sunset stared at her, silently. "Congratulations…I suppose."

"Thank you," Cinder murmured.

"And Pyrrha?"

"Wounded in the fighting. As I told Ruby, Jaune's taking care of it."

"And you?"

"I saw to it that she didn't get any worse than wounded," Cinder said.

Sunset breathed in and out. "Thank you," she said. "If we'd lost her…it means a lot to both of us." She turned the scroll to show Ruby's face; Ruby's surprised face, as though she hadn't believed that Cinder had it in her.

"Thank you," Ruby whispered. "Sunset's right…we've lost enough today, I couldn't…we couldn't have lost Pyrrha too."

Cinder waited until the camera was back on Sunset before she replied. "There's an old Mistralian saying: the praise of the praiseworthy is above all rewards. I thought it was complete nonsense…until now." She smiled, if only for a moment. "Professor Ozpin's dead. He died before I was awoken."

Sunset seemed to deflate a little. She closed her eyes, and her whole face scrunched up as though she was about to cry. She didn't, but only because she was making the effort not to. Cinder recognised the look; forcing herself not to cry was something she'd had a lot of practice doing.

"That's not all," she said. "Amber opened the Vault before she died. Tempest Shadow has the relic somewhere in the city."

Sunset cursed. "We'll have to…can you stand guard over Jaune and Pyrrha? Ruby, Blake and I will try and find her."

"I have a gift that will help you if you do," Cinder said.

Sunset frowned. "A gift?"

"It's all over, Sunset," Cinder said. "There's nothing left, and no roads open to me. But nevertheless, I want to say thank you, for everything." She smiled. "You'll be in my thoughts."

"Cinder," Sunset said warily. "What are you-"

"Goodbye, Sunset Shimmer," Cinder said, as a glass sword formed in her hand. The instant it had she dropped her aura.

"Cinder, wait! Don't-"

Cinder threw the scroll away, and gripped the hilt of the sword in both hands. Her hands trembled.

 _For it is in passing that we achieve immortality._

 _Let this be my gift to you._

She closed her eyes and filled her mind with the image of Sunset's face as she prepared to drive the blade-

"No!"

Cinder's eyes snapped open in time to see her sword blasted out of her hand by a bolt of green light, the glass shattering back into its component shards as they flew across the ravaged Beacon courtyard.

She looked up to see Sunset falling through the air towards her, one arm pointed towards her sword – or where her sword had been – the other spread out wide.

Sunset hit her, or landed on her, and the two of them went down in a heap on the ground. Without aura even a simple fall hurt Cinder's back and arm. They would probably bruise.

Sunset's eyes were wide, her body was trembling; she looked as though she were terrified of something.

 _Terrified of…losing me?_

"You can't do that," Sunset said. "I won't let you."

Cinder stared at her. "Why not?" she demanded. "I'm offering you power such as you couldn't dream of otherwise."

"I don't want power," Sunset said. "I don't want power or glory or any of it! I want to save lives! I want to save you."

Cinder smiled. "That's very kind of you, Sunset; but we both know there's nothing left for me."

"You don't know that."

"Then what am I supposed to do now?" Cinder said.

"I…I don't know," Sunset said. "But we'll find out together, you and I, I promise."

"I'm a monster," Cinder said. "I sold my body and my soul to darkness. I have no place in the world of light."

"A monster wouldn't have saved Pyrrha," Sunset insisted. "I know that there's still good in you, and underneath all the despair you're feeling right now I know that you know it too."

"And what if there is?" Cinder said. "What does it matter if there's good, when there's so much bad too? This is my choice, Sunset, and as I am the Fall Maiden I can make whatever choices I desire."

"Not this one," Sunset declared. "Not while I'm here. You want to make a choice? Choose to be better. Choose to embrace the good and cast aside the bad. Choose to throw away the worst part of yourself and live the purer with the other half. Someone once told me that the real magic of choice is that we always choose to be better than we were the day before, and you have that choice as much as anyone."

"We both know that it's more than just sin in my soul," Cinder said.

"I know," Sunset conceded. "But I drove the darkness out of Amber in order to bring her back."

"And that worked out well."

Sunset cringed. "I couldn't see the darkness that she carried within her, but the rest? The grimm? I removed that, using my semblance. I can do the same to you, if you'll let me. I can help you, if you'll let me."

Cinder said nothing, staring into Sunset's eyes. She weighed up her choices. Did she really want to die like this, with only Sunset to remember her fondly?

 _I used to wonder what friendship could be, until you shared its magic with me._

 _And now…now I have become greedy for more._

"Do you really think it's possible?" she said. "Do you really think that you can cast it out, and leave me with only my own darkness to oppose?"

Sunset nodded. "I do."

Cinder took a deep breath. "Then do it." She smiled. "Rescue me, my hero."

Sunset grinned. "I'll do my best," she said. She pulled off her glove. "Are you ready?"

"As I'll ever be," Cinder said, and closed her eyes.

She felt Sunset's hand upon her brow, and then she felt as if she were being pulled backwards, back into a dark void, deep and endless and inescapable, pulling her in.

The darkness consumed all things, and all she felt was cold.


	186. Daydream

Daydream

 _Fear._

 _That was what Sunset felt when she stepped into Cinder's mind for the second time, and that surprised her. When she had been here last Cinder had been full of rage, full of hatred, full of wrath directed against all the things and all the people that she perceived to have wronged her: Atlas, Mistral, Pyrrha, the world in general. But now the overriding emotion that Sunset felt was a debilitating a fear, a fear against which she armoured herself using the courage of her own experiences. So much fear. Fear and sadness too, a deep sadness, a despairing melancholy that admitted of little hope._

 _The skies were dark, and not only because it was night; the brooding clouds had gathered overhead. Amber's clouds had thundered forth to signify her maelstrom of anger at what had been done to her, but Cinder's clouds of fearful melancholy were just dark and gloomy overhead._

 _Sunset stood in the Amity Coliseum, she was in the stands looking down; that surprised her, because she didn't think that Cinder had ever been here._

 _Certainly she didn't think that Sunset had ever been in the arena itself, and…facing Pyrrha?_

 _That was what Sunset was looking at right now: Cinder, her glass swords at her sides, standing in the central hexagon of the arena, while Pyrrha walked out of the tunnel towards her. Pyrrha moved slowly, her every step heavy with the weight of inexorable destiny, and her expression was as hopeless as the atmosphere of Cinder's mind. And yet still he walked into the arena nonetheless._

" _So," Cinder said. "The fool has come."_

 _Sunset frowned. "This never happened."_

" _No," Cinder said, not the Cinder down in the arena facing Pyrrha, but Cinder who suddenly appeared next to Sunset in the bleachers. She seemed to suddenly appear at least, it might be that Sunset hadn't noticed her being there until she spoke. "This isn't a memory. It's a dream. A dream I didn't want you to see."_

 _Sunset didn't reply. She watched as Pyrrha reached the centre of the arena, raising her shield and her spear, squaring off against Cinder._

" _This was…what do you mean, a dream?"_

" _This was my plan, after Salem betrayed me," Cinder said softly. "I was going to make my way up into the arena, use the cameras to broadcast myself to the entire world, take credit for everything. Of course, with the CCT down that became impossible." She closed her eyes, and looked away as, down below, Cinder and Pyrrha began to fight. "I was going to kill her in the sight of the world, become…infamous for cutting down the shining hope of the world…and enrage you enough that you would kill me in turn. I was going to ensure that you would become a hero, as well as the Fall Maiden. Stupid. Foolish. The last mad hope of a girl who didn't see any way forward, or any place to go."_

" _But you didn't do it," Sunset said._

" _What would have been the point, with no one to see it done?" Cinder replied._

" _Is that the only reason you didn't go through with it?" Sunset said. "I don't believe that."_

 _Cinder hesitated. "I…I didn't want you to hate me. Even though the whole point was to make you so full of hate that you would cut me down without hesitation because I would have driven you past the point of mercy I…I didn't actually want that to happen. I didn't want to die with you thinking that I was nothing but a monster in the end, that everything we'd been through had meant nothing to me. I didn't want you to think that you'd caused Pyrrha's death because you were too weak to do what had to be done regarding me. And you would have thought that, wouldn't you? And you would have hated me for it?"_

" _Yes," Sunset said softly. As much as she would have hated Cinder for killing Pyrrha, and as much as Jaune would have blamed Sunset as much as Cinder for allowing it to happen, neither emotion would be anything like the blame that she would have attached to herself for having let things come to pass._

" _And that…that's why I didn't want you to see this," Cinder said, as down in the arena Cinder began to beat Pyrrha into submission. "I didn't want you to see that this was my intent."_

" _An intent you didn't go through with."_

" _But I thought about it."_

" _But you didn't do it," Sunset repeated. "What you actually did was save Pyrrha down in the vault. That's who you really are now, not this. Now, where-"_

 _A roar split the air, although the Pyrrha and Cinder battling down in the otherwise empty coliseum didn't hear it. Sunset and the real Cinder – for a value of real which admitted that this was all happening in Cinder's head – heard it loud enough and clear enough, and they both looked up as the clouds of melancholy were briefly parted by a nevermore swooping down out of the dark sky to descend upon the arena._

 _Sol Invictus was in Sunset's hands immediately, summoned by instinct and desire, just as Cinder's bow appeared in her own grasp as the two took aim at the grimm which descended upon them both._

 _The nevermore swooped down, and as it swooped the sky grew darker than they had been, the moonlight fading to nothing at all. Sunset's finger began to squeeze the trigger, but before she could the nevermore had struck the shield protecting the Amity Coliseum, and as its claws struck the barrier the entire floating arena simply fell away. It crumbled as though it had only ever been made of paper or playing cards, it fell apart as the Pyrrha and Cinder who had been fighting down below simply vanished, and as the arena broke apart beneath their feet both Sunset and Cinder fell into the darkness._

" _Cinder!" Sunset yelled, reaching out for her with one hand. "Take my hand!"_

 _Cinder reached for Sunset in turn, but as the arena fell apart around them, as bits of stand and sections of the floor and various challenging combat environments all plummeted through the dark depths the two of them began to be pushed away from one another. A section of fiery field fell in between the two of them, and a section of the stands nearly hit Sunset before it fell past her, and something was pulling the two of them apart, wrenching Cinder further and further away from Sunset's grasp as they fell into the bottomless darkness._

" _Cinder!" Sunset cried again, futilely, as Cinder was drawn further and further away until she had lost sight of her completely._

 _Sunset hit the floor roughly, and groaned a little as she lay there._

" _Cinder?" she asked, as she got up and took in her surroundings. This was not a dream, but a memory: it was the party in Mistral where she and Cinder had met. She remembered the ancient palace in which it had been held, with the fountain courtyard in the centre of it all. She remembered the colourfully dressed Mistralian elites, and grey Professor Lionheart – no wonder he had looked so worried, considering that he'd been betraying everyone by that point – and stern old Lady Nikos. She could see Jaune and Pyrrha standing by the fountain; was that the moment when he started to fall for her?_

 _And she could see the memory of herself, and the memory of Cinder too. It was kind of funny, if you'd told either of them where they would end up she doubted that either she or Cinder would have believed it._

And yet here we are.

 _Now she just needed to find the real Cinder. Surely she had to be around here somewhere?_

" _Cinder?" Sunset called. "Cinder, where are you?"_

" _She isn't here."_

 _Sunset turned at the sound of voice behind her, and jumped back with a strangled cry because it was Amber standing there, her face unmarred by any of the scars that Cinder had dealt to her body, wearing the clothes that Professor Goodwitch had gotten out of storage, the clothes that she must have been wearing when the attack happened._

 _Sunset's sword appeared in her hands; she held it before her in a low guard, the flames igniting on the black blade at her command._

 _Amber flinched away from it. "Please, don't! I don't want to fight. I don't want to hurt you…it's Sunset, isn't it? Sunset Shimmer."_

" _You know it is," Sunset growled. "You know me."_

" _No, I don't," Amber insisted. "Well…I suppose I do, a little. But only through Cinder's memories. I've seen you in them. Some of them she thinks about often, even though they're very recent. But why would you…have you met the real me?"_

 _Sunset frowned. "Wait…when Cinder attacked you…when she stole your magic, when she ripped your aura apart…did some of you end up in here with her."_

" _I suppose I must have done," Amber said. "I've been here ever since. I…I try to stay out of the way, not to draw attention to myself. This isn't a very nice place, it's full of monsters. But, when Cinder thinks about something…there are times when I can't help seeing it too."_

 _Sunset's eyes narrowed. "So…what's the last thing that you remember as yourself?"_

 _Amber looked down at her booted feet. She clutched her two hands together in front of her. "I was attacked. I remember…it hurt so much and Cinder…I begged her not to, but she…it hurt so much."_

 _That made sense. This was, in a way, the other Amber, the Amber who had existed before Cinder's attack had damaged her soul and brought forth all the consequences that Twilight had warned off but that Sunset had brushed aside in her arrogance and her desire to spare Pyrrha having to go through with the transfer._

 _This was the Amber that Professor Ozpin had loved as a daughter; this was, hopefully, a better Amber than the one Sunset had known and who had betrayed them all._

" _But you knew me!" Amber cried, her eyes gleaming with excitement. "Which means that I didn't die, doesn't it? It must do, because I never met you before, so that means…am I alright? Did someone rescue me? How am I?"_

" _You were rescued," Sunset said. Her mouth felt dry, even in this mental place. "But…you…"_

 _Amber stepped backwards. "I'm dead, aren't I?"_

 _Sunset hesitated, but in the end she nodded once. "I'm afraid so."_

 _Amber didn't ask how she had met her end. She simply closed her eyes, and screwed up her face and looked as though she was about to start crying. Looked like, but did not. When she opened her eyes again there were no tears, although there was regret._

 _She smiled sadly as she looked around the Mistralian palace. "This is a beautiful place, isn't it?"_

" _Yes," Sunset said softly, not knowing what else to say._

" _When I was a girl I used to dream of coming to places like this," Amber said. "And singing for all the people. I only wanted to make people happy. I know that I wasn't the nicest girl in the world, but I only ever wanted to make other people happy, and they seemed to be happy when they cared about me, so it wasn't wrong what I was doing, was it?"_

 _Sunset frowned. "I don't understand."_

" _My semblance," Amber said. "I can…I could…I could make people see me in a certain way. I could become what they needed me to be, in their hearts. Uncle Ozpin seemed so sad and lonely, but when I used my semblance on him-"_

" _You became the daughter that he never had," Sunset murmured. That would explain why Dove seemed to fall so hard for her so fast, her semblance had made her the perfect damsel girlfriend for him to protect and love in equal measure. That explained the whole of Team BLBL, actually. And the way Amber phrased it explained why it hadn't worked on Jaune, who already had a lady to his knight in Pyrrha, as much as Amber might have wanted it to._

 _As much as Amber might protest that she had only done it for the benefit of others, Sunset couldn't help but find the idea pretty reprehensible…and yet equally she found that she couldn't really blame the Amber standing before her for it. Amber was dead, the girl in front of her was just a memory, and a memory from a time before she had committed any truly wicked deeds either with her semblance or without it._

 _And besides, she needed Amber's help._

" _I had my faults," Amber admitted. "But that doesn't mean that I deserved all of this, does it?"_

" _No," Sunset said. "It wasn't your fault. You were…you were caught up in things too big for you, given responsibilities too great for you to handle alone."_

" _I know," Amber said. "I knew that I couldn't do it. After my first battle I knew that…that wasn't for me. That was why I was running away, when- Uncle Ozpin! How is he? Is he alright?"_

 _Sunset shook her head sadly. "He…I'm afraid that he didn't make it either."_

" _Oh no," Amber gasped, covering her mouth with both hands. "If I hadn't run away then maybe this wouldn't…I'm so sorry."_

" _Amber," Sunset said. "Do you know where Cinder is?"_

 _Amber was silent for a moment. "I don't really understand you, Sunset Shimmer," she said. "Cinder has memories of you, and they're pleasant memories…but she thinks of you as someone kind, and as an enemy too. You knew me, and you know Uncle Ozpin as well. Who are you? Who's side are you on? Why are you here, and how?"_

" _I'm a huntress," Sunset said. "Or I was training to be one. I'm not quite sure what I am now, or what I'll be when this night is over. I knew Professor Ozpin; he was a teacher and something of a mentor to me. Like you I didn't always trust him, but…in time I came to respect him a great deal, and…I hope he understood that because I'm not sure that I actually told him. I…I'm sorry that he's gone, and not just because we could have used his help, his wisdom, his guidance. Cinder and I…we were on opposite sides of this war between dark and light, but in spite of that I still thought of her as a friend and now…now we're not on opposite sides any more and so I'm here, using my semblance, to save her from the consequences of her actions, if I can."_

" _Because you care about her?" Amber said._

" _Yes," Sunset said. "Because I care about her."_

 _Amber was silent for a moment. "I hated her when I first…woke up, or came here or however you say it. But now…after so long…I feel sorry for her. She…she doesn't have a lot of happy memories. A lot of people have been very cruel to her."_

" _I know," Sunset said. "I've been here before, but now…I need to find Cinder. Do you know where she is?"_

" _Was I happy, when you knew me?" Amber asked. "Before I died, did I live? Did I fall in love?"_

" _Yes," Sunset said, and it wasn't entirely a lie. You could even call it true depending on how you looked at it. "You fell in love with a dashing, handsome boy with bright blue eyes and messy hair."_

" _Just like I dreamed," Amber sighed happily. Her smile remained, and she seemed to spend a moment dwelling in the imagining of the brief but pleasant life she believed herself to have had in the interval between Cinder's attack and her unseen death. She looked at Sunset. "Cinder is…infected with something. It's holding her prisoner somewhere in her memories."_

" _Do you know where?"_

" _I have an idea," Amber said._

 _The air was rent with the howling of beowolves outside the palace. None of the memories enjoying the party noticed them, but they gathered in number and volume outside even as the palace itself began to tremble as if in the grip of an earthquake that would split the mountain and plunge all Mistral into the abyss._

" _They're coming," Amber murmured. "Come with me." She grabbed Sunset's hand, and Sunset felt herself being pulled towards the open doors that led out of the trembling palace._

 _The howling of the beowolves did not abate, not even as the scene ebbed and flowed around them; Jaune and Pyrrha dissolved into nothingness, as did the Sunset and the Cinder of memory, and Lady Nikos and Professor Lionheart too and all the great and good of Mistral. The palace dissolved, and with it the ancient fountain, replaced by a wide thoroughfare somewhere in the upper levels of the city. It was night, and though the moon was obscured by the clouds of Cinder's despair the effects of its silver light could still be seen upon the street below._

 _But as a source of illumination the moonlight was being outdone on this particular night by the flames rising from a great house sitting beside the road as it burned._

 _Cinder stood in the street, watching as the mansion was consumed by flames, the flames which danced in her golden eyes even as they danced up the building itself. A smile played upon her lips as she drank in the sight of the flames, the screams coming from inside the house, the girl banging at the window – locked, Sunset assumed – as she tried to get out. Cinder smiled with delight as she watched it all…and yet at the same time tears fell from her face._

 _Sunset had seen this before: the night that Cinder had escaped from her stepmother's house, trapped her stepmother and her stepsister Philonoe inside and burned down said house, killing them both._

" _She thinks of this sometimes," Amber said, as the two of them watched the house burn. "I think it's a horrible thing, but she keeps coming back to it…she thinks of it when she feels unsure, or that's what it seems to me. It's as if it reminds her of something."_

" _It reminds her that she isn't helpless," Sunset said. "It reminds her that she can be the master of her own fate." She looked around. "She's not here."_

" _I know," Amber said. "But this…it's like a road. It leads to other memories. And back. It's like the centre, going forward and back. You can get almost anywhere from here." She smiled thinly at Sunset. "I know it seems strange, but I know how this works. Come on, follow me."_

 _And Sunset did follow, away from the burning house and the dying family and the gleeful look on Cinder's face as she committed her first two murders; Sunset followed the memory of Amber as she led her down the road which changed once again, the burning house disappearing along with the road and the whole of the outside._

 _This was a memory that Sunset hadn't seen before, either from the perspective of Cinder or of herself. It looked like some kind of inn, one of those old-fashioned ones where you came in and then had to descend down a flight of steps because the common was lower than the street level, like a cellar with windows high near the ceiling that nevertheless were only at the level of the ankles of those passing without; there were places like that in Canterlot, though Sunset had never spent a lot of time in them. This place in Cinder's memory was such an inn, or perhaps a building that had been an inn but had been since appropriated to serve some private function, for it didn't seem like the kind of place that was visited by the general public. Although there was a man behind the bar, and a couple of very nervous looking waitresses serving drinks, all of the tables that Sunset might have expected to be scattered here and there about the common space were all lined up in a long row in the centre of the room, and at that long table set as scurvy a bunch of cutthroats as Sunset had seen outside of, well, outside of Blackwall prison, to be perfectly honest. They were rough-looking men and women, muscular, frequently tattooed and just as often scarred, almost of them carrying pistols or knives or short throwing axes. Sunset made an educated guess that these were some of the denizens of Mistral's famous underworld, and that even if they didn't actually own this inn it was so well known as theirs that they could do what they like with it and no honest citizen dared darken its door._

 _Cinder stood at the foot of the stairs leading down into the common, two swords and a bow secured at her waist. She looked at the man at the head of the table, a bear of a man – a bear faunus, judging by his claws – who sat like a king or a great lord, swathed in a silver wolf pelt, with golden bands around his arms, drinking out of a golden goblet._

" _So," he said. "What would make a pretty thing like you want to join my crew? You look like you might be more at home in a-"_

" _No, I wouldn't," Cinder said, cutting him off before he could finish. "I'm here because I think I could be useful to you."_

 _A few of the crooks and scoundrels chuckled darkly at that, while the bartender looked at her with pity in his eyes._

 _Cinder didn't say what she was hoping to get out of this gang, but Sunset could guess: she had been looking for a place to belong._

 _The bear faunus looked at her, weighing her up. "Well, we'll see about that. Take your seat," he said, gesturing expansively down the table at which all seats were already occupied. "No aura now, and no tricks."_

 _Cinder smirked as she walked towards the table. They were seated in order, Sunset realised: at the far end of the table, furthest from the leader, sat the weakest members of the gang, pathetic creatures just clinging on to their place in the organisation; they looked at Cinder with fear in their cringing features, but Cinder – having too much pride to be content with a place at the farthest periphery – ignored them; instead she walked up the table, where the men and women got stronger and meaner looking the closer they got to the big man himself, and looked more and more incredulous at how close to the leader she was getting._

 _Cinder stopped about five places down from the bear faunus, looking down at a muscular man with the build of a prizefighter._

" _You're in my seat," Cinder said._

 _The man looked at her disdainfully, even as his comrades around him began to cheer him on, or else mock Cinder for her foolishness. He didn't reach for the knife at his belt, instead he grabbed the nearest bottle of dark red wine and smashed it on the table, spilling the liquid across the varnished wood as he started to stand up, holding the jagged stump in one hand._

 _Cinder smirked, and made a little gesture with her hand. The shards of broken glass from the smashed bottle flew up from the table and buried themselves in the neck of her opponent. He stared at her in astonishment before, as she took a step back, he fell down dead at her feet._

 _The whole room was silent._

 _The bear faunus looked at her. "I thought I said no tricks."_

" _And I thought that was a test to see if I was smart as well as strong," Cinder said. "You didn't honestly expect me to fight fair, did you?"_

 _The bear stared at her in silence for a moment. Then he smiled. "Take your seat, and welcome."_

 _Amber didn't move, nor had she said anything while that memory played out, although it was obvious from the glances Sunset had stolen of her face that she didn't like it. Now, as the scene changed, she said softly, "These two memories always go together. She never thinks of one without thinking of the other."_

 _The common disappeared, although judging by the slightly dingy antique aesthetic it appeared that they were still in the inn, just in a different room within it. A bedroom, and probably the bedroom of the gang's leader considering the size of the bed and the many glittering golden decorations that cluttered up the room. Cinder was looking at one of them, running her fingers over a golden statue of an elephant that sat in the corner._

" _Do you like that?" the bear faunus asked as he came in, shutting the door. "I like to keep a few choice pieces from our jobs and raids, things that catch my eye."_

" _A perk of being the boss," Cinder said. "I doubt anyone else would dare to hold back from the crew in such a way."_

" _No, they wouldn't," he said. "But I am the crew." He grinned, and took a swig out of the bottle of wine he held in one hand. "You know why you're here?"_

" _I think I can guess why you asked me to come to your bedroom, alone," Cinder said dryly, although it had only just dawned on Sunset and only really because she suddenly noticed that Cinder had opened the top of her dress, exposing much more of her cleavage than usual. "Tell me," Cinder continued. "Should I take it as a compliment, or is this a tithe that all the women in your organisation have to pay?"_

 _The bear faunus chuckled darkly into his beard. "This place can be good to you," he said. "I can be good to you. But you're not wrong in thinking that there's rent to be paid."_

" _I do everything that you ask of me," Cinder said._

" _And now I'm asking this," he said. "You're good. Very good. You could climb higher up the tables than you now…until someone better comes along and you'll end up on the floor just like everyone you stepped over to get your high seat." He advanced upon her, taking another swig of wine. "But if you're good to me, then I can be good to you. I can make sure that nobody ever challenges you."_

 _Cinder smiled as she walked towards him, her hips swaying provocatively. "Tempting," she murmured. "I do want to be powerful, and to be unassailably so…that sounds perfect." Sunset saw the knife drop out of her sleeve and into her hand before the big man did; he didn't notice until Cinder had rammed it into his neck. "But in your particular case I'm afraid I'll have to decline."_

 _He stared at her in astonishment, his eyes wide with disbelief as blood spilled out of his mouth and neck. He tried to speak, but no sounds emerged as he sank to the floor._

" _I'd say its nothing personal, but I'd be lying: the fact that you have a face like a worn boot was certainly a consideration," Cinder said. "But even if you were the most handsome man alive…I have grander ambitions than to be the mistress of some low life. But thank you for teaching me one important lesson: if I want a place to belong in this world I'll have to carve it out with my own two hands."_

 _She kicked him in the face, knocking him onto his back and stepping over him as he bled to death. A pair of glass swords formed in her hands as she stepped out of the bedroom. Sunset made to follow, but was stopped by Amber's restraining hand upon her arm._

" _I don't like to see what comes next," Amber said. "And it's over quickly anyway."_

 _Outside the sounds of shouting and screaming rose._

" _She killed them all?" Sunset asked._

 _Amber nodded. "I think…from what I've seen…the first person to ever show her honest kindness, since her parents died anyway, was you. The first person to offer her anything without strings attached."_

" _The Forever Fall," Sunset murmured._

 _Amber nodded. "She thinks about it a lot. It seems to calm her, or maybe cheer her, it's hard to tell sometimes. It must have happened recently, because I didn't see it at first, but now…you were the first person to offer her a place without wanting anything in return."_

" _That's not entirely true," Sunset said. "I wanted her to stop trying to kill me and my friends."_

 _Amber chuckled. "As things go, I don't think that's very much to ask for," she said. "Come on, I think we're almost there."_

 _The inn began to shake, and outside the beowolves began to howl._

" _We need to go," Amber said._

" _How much further?" Sunset asked._

" _Not far, we're almost there," Amber replied. "It's this way."_

 _She led the way, and once again Sunset followed._

 _The howling of the beowolves was replaced by the howling of the wind upon the desolate moor as Cinder half walked, half crawled on her hands and knees up the side of the mountain towards the cave that lay further up the summit. The Mother's Cave; this was the night when she met Salem and became a part of the great war between light and darkness, life and death. For her to be imprisoned – whatever that meant – within this memory was…not entirely inappropriate, Sunset had to admit._

 _Cinder was a ragged sight within this memory; she still had her bow and her pair of swords, but her clothing was in rags, falling off her thin, malnourished body that was little better than skin hanging off bone in places. Yet still she walked on, crawling when she could not walk, inching her way up the side of the mountain towards the cave._

 _The cave from which an eerie sound was echoing down into the night. Cinder had described a voice, but what Sunset heard was more like music: eerie, echoing, distorted music. Music…or was it singing? She thought that she could hear a violin being played in that way that…it wasn't being played well, but it wasn't as easy as to say that it was being played either, there was a kind of discordant harmony in the scratchy, screechy sounds, and the singing…there was something attractive in the sound, even if it wasn't what Sunset would call beautiful according to her own taste._

 _And when she strained her ears Sunset found that she could hear a voice, a whispering voice of encouragement and promise. It was the inner voice that had driven Sunset to leave Canterlot and come to Remnant seeking, only this time the temptation was externalised as a boost in case Cinder's inner resolve might be flagging. It was a voice that promised much, but was silent about the consequences that would ensue._

 _But those promises were enough draw Cinder upwards, onwards, and into the spider's web, and so Sunset and Amber followed._

 _Sunset stopped. "What are you hoping to get out of all this? I'm not sure if you're the type to help Cinder for nothing."_

 _Amber hesitated for a moment. "You say…you said that you want to save Cinder. I don't know if you can save me too, but maybe you could try? I don't want to be here forever?"_

 _Sunset was silent a moment. "I don't know if there is any saving you now, Amber," she said. "But…perhaps there is freedom, although I'm not entirely sure what that would mean for you."_

" _It has to be better than this," Amber said._

" _It might be nothing at all," Sunset pointed out. "Actual nothing."_

" _Even that would be better than this," Amber replied._

 _Sunset couldn't really argue with that. "I'll try my best," she said, before resuming following Cinder up the mountainside._

 _The cave was even darker than the night without, so dark that Sunset couldn't see a single thing within it, just the darkness. She stood at the mouth of the cave, feeling a chill wind issuing forth from it. She glanced at Amber, who shrank from the darkness. "You can wait here, if you want."_

 _Amber hesitated. "Thank you," she whispered._

 _Sunset nodded, and stepped into the cave. She couldn't see anything, but she kept on walking. Amber thought that Cinder would be here, and Sunset could see why. And once she found her, then they could confront her darkness together._

" _Why have you come?" issued the voice from the darkness. Salem's voice, Sunset recognised; it sounded as she had under Mountain Glenn._

 _Sunset said nothing. She couldn't see the Cinder of memory, so she didn't know what she had said in response._

" _I asked you a question, Sunset Shimmer," Salem said. "Why have you come?"_

 _Sunset felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. Clearly this wasn't just a memory any more._

 _The cave was illuminated by a sickly green light, a light which revealed Salem standing before her. Her face was just as it had been within the Seer under Mountain Glenn: dead and ghostly and ghastly, pale and covered in prominent red veins; the rest of her was just the same, if covered in a dark robe with a red cape. Sunset gasped, and stepped back in a fright and fear that she could admit within the sanctity of her own mind and soul. For a moment she forgot that this could not really be Salem, the enemy of the world against which they all strived; this was only the representation of the darkness in Cinder…but even so, for it to take this form said something about the strength and source of what she was up against._

 _In her hand she held a chain, a chain of oily black liquid that was dripping on the ground even as it appeared to be firm and strong at the same time; and in that chain was bound Cinder, wrapped in it, her mouth gagged so that only muffled sounds emerged._

" _Let her go," Sunset demanded, as she watched Cinder struggle futilely against her bonds._

" _Let her go," Salem repeated incredulously. "Have you forgotten that Cinder is far from being some innocent victim in all of this? She forged these chains herself, if you recall."_

" _And now she wants rid of them," Sunset growled. "So let her go."_

" _If only you had come to me instead of Ozpin," Salem said. "What a team you two would have made."_

" _Fortunately for me that didn't happen," Sunset said, dreading to think what Salem would of made of her as she had been: so full of bitterness and entitlement. "Now release Cinder."_

" _Why would I do that?" Salem asked. "She has betrayed me, and the punishment for betrayal is not release."_

" _I won't ask again," Sunset said._

" _Then you must do something besides ask," Salem said._

 _Sol Invictus appeared in Sunset's hands, summoned by her thought, and Sunset shot Salem in the head. Her aim was true, and the bullet lodged itself in the middle of Salem's forehead, which was blown backwards with a crack that looked as though it had broken her neck._

 _Her body did not fall. It stood there, motionless, still gripping Cinder's chain, until with another snap her head resumed its usual position. Salem smiled as the bullet fell from her forehead and the wound closed up as though it had never been there._

" _You can do better than that," she said._

 _Cinder cried out something, but the gag meant that Sunset could not understand her words._

 _Sunset took a deep breath, gathered her courage and resolve, and then attacked._

 _This was all in the mind. There were no limits to the power at her command. Her magic was practically limitless, even her aura could be stronger if she wished it so. Her gun need never run out of bullets no matter how often she fired it, her sword would never stop burning, nor her jacket either, the dust in her gauntlets would never run out. This was a battle in the mind and her strength was as her mind could conceive it._

 _But this was Cinder's mind, not hers, and this darkness was in Cinder's soul, and it soon became clear to Sunset that Cinder had spent so long with Salem, spent so long with this darkness that Salem had implanted within her to turn her into a monster that could be bent to Salem's will in Salem's service that she had conceived of it as this unstoppable force against which no foe could hope to stand. This darkness was her curse, it was the ruin of her, it had turned her into a monster, but it was also the power upon which Cinder had pinned all her hopes and dear ambitions. That was why it took Salem's form, not that of a grimm hunting her: this represented Salem standing behind her with all her power at Cinder's disposal, her patron and her backer, the unstoppable force with whose help Cinder would be unstoppable in her turn._

 _And that was why Sunset could not beat her._

 _She tried. She tried everything. She shot her, she slashed at her with her flaming sword, she expended ever jot of fire dust in her phoenix cape to burn her and then conjured even more fire dust out of air and hope and imagination to burn her all over again, she shocked her with discharge of lightning dust, she threw vast amounts of magic at her in great beams of power that would have had the mightiest grimm reeling in pain. None of it worked. At times Sunset watched as her spells blew holes through Salem's body, only to watch as those holes reformed exactly as they had been before; when Sunset flung magic at Salem's chains to shatter them those chains did nothing; when she attempted to dispel them as she had dispelled the grimm before the city walls that didn't work either because Cinder had no hope that that would work. Sunset wasn't fighting Salem, but she was fighting Cinder's conception of Salem the indomitable and against such a power she could not prevail._

 _She tried everything. She summoned the memories of her friends to fight alongside her: Pyrrha, Ruby, Jaune and Blake called by her to fight alongside her, and not as they were but rather – just as this was Cinder's imagining of Salem that she was fighting – Sunset's imagining of them as the mighty heroes that she was honoured and humbled to fight alongside. It was not enough. Salem was not only immortal, not only did all the wounds that were dealt to her simply disappear in moments as if they had never been, but she had magic at her command: magic to destroy which she flung in balls of fire at Sunset and her mental allies, magic to create which she used to conjure grimm to harry them with and add to their troubles. And all the while Cinder stared in horror as Sunset battled to no avail for her, fighting a battle she could not win but refused to lose. Yet she was losing. Even with the help of her friends, the mightiest warriors that she knew, she was losing. She burned Jaune alive; she grabbed Pyrrha by the neck and slammed her into the ground so hard that it shattered her aura, and then she snapped her neck; Ruby used her silver eyes and it did nothing to her at all, only seeming to irritate her before she picked Ruby up with her telekinesis and crushed the girl while Sunset watched in helpless horror._

 _Sunset flung herself at Salem again, slashing at her with her flaming sword until Salem swatted her aside with bored disinterest. Sunset summoned Team RSPT to her aid, the Atlesian fighters dropping out of the sky, but they fared no better than her own team-mates and Blake had done: Penny she ripped apart and scattered her fragments across the floor; Ciel she turned to ash, and seemed to watch for a moment to see if she would rise again; Rainbow she bound in hands of shadow and made her watch, struggling in the same futility with which Cinder struggled against her bonds, as she beat Twilight Sparkle to death while she begged for help and mercy. Then she strangled Dash. Sunset even imagined an Atlesian cruiser overhead, dumping its payload on her but she had shrugged that off as she shrugged off everything else. Sunset threw everything that she could imagine at her, and Cinder could imagine it surviving all of it._

There must be something else, something that I can…Princess Celestia! _Yes, she could do that, she could imagine her old teacher at her side…at her side to die like everyone else. No, no she could not do that. It had been hard enough to watch the death of her friends, to watch them perish in such agony, she could not bear to see that happen to her princess, no. No, she would…she would find another way. Another way that she could not see._

 _Salem flung a trio of fireballs at her. Sunset dispelled two of them with counterspells, but the third struck her in the chest and hurled her backwards. Sunset lay on the ground, gasping for breath. She was reaching the limit of her imagination of how much she could take._

" _Is Cinder really worth your life?" Salem asked. "Is she worth this continued futile struggle? Accept defeat, and I might even let you leave this place."_

" _No," Sunset said, as she struggled to her feet._

" _Why not? Why continue to prolong the inevitable?"_

" _Because Professor Ozpin once told me that the most powerful kind of magic in Remnant was the magic of choice," Sunset said. "Just like he chose to keep fighting to the very end, just like all my friends have chosen to fight no matter the odds. And so I choose to keep fighting too, I choose to never give up on Cinder. I don't care how strong you are, I don't care how invincible Cinder believes you are, I don't even care how little Cinder thinks of herself that she believes she can't be saved; I will save her, no matter what. Because Cinder Fall is my friend, and in my world the most powerful kind of magic…is the magic of friendship!"_

 _A brilliant white light erupted within Sunset, growing to consume her, washing over her as cool as a breeze and as warm as a tropical ocean as it covered and transformed her. Her clothes were turned into a dress of pink and white, with white fingerless gloves covering her hands. Her boots were golden, and emblazoned with her cutie mark, which she also wore just beneath her shoulders strapped around her arms, and on the white feathery choker around her throat. Her hair blew up above her head, and from Sunset's forehead erupted a horn of brilliant white as long as a lance, and from her back…from her back burst a pair of golden wings that burned like fire._

 _Sunset flew up into the air, hovering above the ground, staring impassively down. Cinder looked astonished, and even Salem looked a little concerned._

 _Sunset smiled. "Trust me, Cinder, you've never seen anything like this before." Her hands began to glow with golden light, a light which became a beam erupting from her palms to strike at Salem, consuming everything, the entire world, with light as Salem screamed in horror and Cinder's voice cried out._

* * *

 _The world was gone. There was nothing left of the cave or the mountain or the battlefield. There was only white, a void in which Sunset floated._

" _What…what is this place?" Amber asked. She was floating too, sustained by the stumps of wings growing out of her back. It looked as though they had once been as golden as the maple leaves, but someone had ripped at least half the feathers out of her wings, breaking them, leaving only stumps behind, barely sufficient to keep her aloft. She stared at Sunset with wide-eyed amazement. "What are you?"_

" _Someone who's sorry," Sunset said. "Sorry that…that I couldn't save you, the real you, the…the you out there. I didn't get the chance to apologise to her for what I did, and I'm sorry that I can't save you now. All I can do…is set you free."_

" _Freedom is all I want now," Amber said. She held out her hands. "I wish I could have known you longer."_

 _Sunset smiled. "And I wish I could have known you before," she said, and took Amber's hands._

 _Amber went very still, as though she had been frozen. She was still smiling as she began to dissolve, her from crumbling. She was still smiling as she was turned to dust, blown away by the wind blowing gently through this place._

" _Goodbye," Sunset whispered. She still wasn't strong enough to save everyone; maybe she never would be. But she could at least save Cinder._

 _She could see Cinder now, on the other side of this white void, for whatever meaning it had to talk of sides and spaces here. Like Sunset, and like Amber, she had wings: they were the same maple-golden colour that Amber's wings had been, only hers were full and radiant and beautiful; like Sunset, her wings were touched with fire._

 _They were hunched inwards, just as Cinder herself was, her whole body tucked in on itself as she sobbed. She had a second pair of wings, Sunset noticed; they were not immediately obvious in this place of light, hard to discern, but they were there: dark wings, like shadows hovering above her._

" _I'm sorry," she said. "I'm so sorry for everything."_

 _Sunset floated gently towards her. "Take my hand, Cinder. Let me show you there's a better way."_

" _Even…even after everything I've done?" Cinder asked. "All the people that I've hurt."_

" _Even then," Sunset said. "Provided that you're willing to try."_

 _Cinder hesitated. "I don't deserve this power," she said. "Everything evil thing I did I did to obtain this power of the Fall Maiden. How can I ask forgiveness for my crimes when I retain the power for which I committed them?" Cinder looked around her. "Sunset, do you believe that in this place anything is possible."_

" _I believe that with the magic of friendship anything is possible, yes."_

 _Cinder smiled, despite the tears in her eyes. "I'm glad, because that was what I needed to hear."_

 _She placed her hand in Sunset's open palm, and as Sunset's fingers closed around her a golden light leapt from Sunset's hand to travel up Cinder's body. Cinder threw back her head as her shadow wings dissolved into nothing, and though a spasm of pain seemed to wrack Cinder she said nothing._

 _And then a golden light emerged from Cinder's breast, flowing out of her and flowing…flowing into Sunset as the light consumed them both._

* * *

" _I've missed you, Sunset Shimmer."_

 _Sunset blinked as the light faded. Cinder was gone, or at least Sunset couldn't see her any more. She was standing in the middle of a field of stars, floating with no visible floor or other support, with twinkling lights all around her._

 _Princess Celestia stood before her, every bit as radiant as Sunset remembered. No, that wasn't right, she was even more so than Sunset remembered, she shone like the sun itself in this celestial place._

" _Princess Celestia!" Sunset cried as she ran towards her. It was only when she had reached the princess' side and buried her muzzle in the princess' coat, while Celestia embraced her with hoof and wing and craned her neck down to nuzzle Sunset's cheek, that Sunset realised abruptly that she had a muzzle. And four legs. And a horn. She was a pony again. She was a…_

 _Sunset noticed last of all that she had a pair of amber wings emerging from her flanks._

 _She was a unicorn no longer._

" _Princess," Sunset gasped. "What's going on? What…what did I do?"_

" _You fulfilled your destiny, just as I always hoped you would," Celestia said. "I'm so proud of you, Sunset."_

 _Sunset stepped backwards away from her. "But…how? I…I've made so many mistakes."_

" _And learned from all of them, in time," Celestia said. "Sunset, every pony who has ever ascended has made mistakes. What matters is what they did afterwards."_

 _Sunset glanced back at her wings. "But I stopped looking for this. I stopped caring."_

" _And when you let ambition go from your heart you opened it up to the magic of friendship, which enabled you to triumph over all your obstacles," Celestia said. "You embarked upon an unknown magical path to protect your friends, and brought back a soul from the brink of death; you saved Cinder by banishing the darkness from her spirit; you understand now that a hero does not get to decide who lives or who lives, but must always seek to save the lives that lie in front of them. Do you doubt your worthiness for this?"_

 _Sunset nodded. "I don't really feel as though I've done anything."_

 _Celestia smiled. "Your journey is not yet complete. You still have many miles of road before you, and much to see and more to do. But wherever you go, and in all that you do, never lose sight of how far you've already come._

" _And never forget how much I love you."_

* * *

Cinder and Sunset descended to the ground surrounded by a circle of light. Pyrrha, Jaune looked on in awe as they saw the two of them, who had disappeared in a flash of light not long before, returned unharmed and yet with the unmistakable sense that they had both been changed by their experiences, whatever those experiences might be. Cinder was sobbing in Sunset's arms, while Sunset held her close and rested the crying Cinder's head upon her chest.

And around Sunset's eyes there burned the anima of the Fall Maiden.

* * *

 _Author's Note: Woohoo!_

 _Over one million words and fifteen months after I started and the first half (I use the word half rather loosely, I have no idea how long the next bit will turn out to be, just that this is the end of a distinct section of the story) of this fic is done!_

 _When I started this, driven by little more than a desire to write a fic where Pyrrha didn't die, I had no idea that this was going to turn into both the longest thing that I had ever written but also, in my opinion, the best thing that I've written to date._

 _Thank you all for sticking with me this far. I know that I haven't always pleased all of you, but I'd like to think that I've pleased most of you most of the time._

 _I don't intend to stop writing this story, however I do intend to slow down a little at this point. I've been writing this near-exclusively for the last year, and I don't want to keep up with that, so expect the writing speed to slow down from 1-2 chapters a week to something more like 1 chapter every 2 weeks to allow me to spend some time on other things besides this._

 _Thank you, once again._


	187. Summary of Part One

_Author's Note: This is something that I probably should have done at intervals throughout this story, summarised the arcs once they were finished to make it easy for the readers to refresh themselves on details they couldn't quite recall over a million. I didn't do that, but now is the right time to summarise everything that has gone over the million words of this story so far._

Summary of Part One

Sunset Shimmer, ambitious, self-centred and bitter-hearted after her experiences in Atlas, arrives at Beacon Academy determined to make a name for herself. She is angry and disappointed to find out that her ex-boyfriend, Flash Sentry, has also enrolled at Beacon, but contrary to her worst fears they do not end up on the same team together. Instead Sunset lucks out in getting teamed up with the young prodigy Ruby Rose and the famous prodigy Pyrrha Nikos; also on the team is Jaune Arc. Together they are designated Team SAPR, pronounced Sapphire.

Other teams include:

Team YRDN (Iron): Yang Xiao Long, Lie Ren, Dove Bronzewing, Nora Valkryie

Team WSTW (Wisteria): Weiss Schnee, Flash Sentry, Russell Thrush, Cardin Winchester

Team BLBL (Bluebell): Blake Belladonna, Lyra Heartstrings, Bonnie 'Bon Bon' Bonaventure, Sky Lark

As Team SAPR settles down to their first night in dorms they discover that they are occupying the room that used to belong to Team STRQ, the team of which Ruby's father, uncle, and late (and revered) mother were members alongside a certain Raven Branwen. Team SAPR carve their initials on the wall above the STRQ markings and vow to be just as great as their illustrious predecessors.

That might be easier said than done, however, as Sunset's jealousy of Pyrrha's fame threaten the equilibrium of the team. Things only get worse when Sunset gets into contact with Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship, and is aghast to learn that Princess Celestia not only got a new student in Sunset's absence but that said student did what Sunset could not and achieved ascension. Sunset takes out her frustration on Pyrrha, leading to tensions within the team that are only resolved by a duel between the two of them. Although Sunset is ultimately no match for Pyrrha's skill, she puts up a good fight with her magic and the two come to respect one another for the amount of effort they have each put in to being the best at their respective skillsets.

Someone who is not the best, nor does he appear to be putting in the effort required to become so, is Jaune, the weak link on Team SAPR. Furthermore, his continued romantic pursuit of Weiss leaves him vulnerable to the bullying of Cardin Winchester. Although Sunset, motivated by a blind terror that Weiss and Flash are about to hook up at any moment, is inclined to dislike Weiss (the feeling is mutual) she nevertheless makes a bargain with her: Jaune will stay out of Weiss' hair and Cardin will stay away from Jaune and SAPR and WSTW won't have to worry about one another any more.

This agreement doesn't last for every long as Cardin discovers that Jaune faked his transcripts and has no right to be at Beacon; he blackmails him into being his personal slave. Sunset discovers the truth and is sufficiently moved to help Jaune out, breaking into the school records and stealing his transcripts; since absence of evidence is not evidence of absence they cannot now be used against him; while she's there she also comes across a journal written by Summer Rose, and takes it to give to Ruby.

Team SAPR goes shopping and run into Weiss, alone, in a dust shop. Shortly after they run into Roman Torchwick and the White Fang there to rob the place; a fight ensues in which several of the White Fang are captured but Roman and his silent companion Neo escape. Blake is angered to discover that the White Fang are working with a human criminal.

Cardin tries and fails to have Jaune thrown out of Beacon. Weiss gets a call from her sister Winter, who informs her that she has a faunus operative working in Vale. Twilight presses Sunset to admit that she cares about her team-mates, and even still cares about Flash. Sunset refuses, but on a field trip into the Forever Fall she is confronted by an angry Cardin and, using him as her mirror, realises that she has been kind of an awful person lately. She resolves to do better, and asks Twilight if she can speak to Princess Celestia. Ruby gives Sunset her first hug in too long while thanking her for her mother's diary.

While out and about in Vale Ruby and Pyrrha come across a strange girl by the name of Penny Polendina, who quickly flees pursued by a faunus named Rainbow Dash. After a brief fight it turns out that Rainbow Dash is an Atlas student and the leader of Team RSPT (Rosepetal) which also included Penny. Rainbow is trying to keep an eye on her. The three track her down together, swiftly joined by Sunset – who knows Rainbow Dash from Canterlot Combat School and is worried what she might tell Ruby and Pyrrha – and Jaune. They catch up with Penny and spend a fun afternoon at an arcade. Rainbow's team-mate Ciel Soleil, waiting for them back in their motel room with fourth team member Twilight Sparkle, is less than enthused to learn this but Rainbow insists that Penny should be able to have some fun and be a normal girl.

Team SAPR plus Weiss are being flow to the trial of the White Fang members captured in the aborted dust robbery when their bullhead is shot down and they are captured by the White Fang. Blake asks her friend Tukson to put his life on the line to find out where they're being held, and she goes to that location to mount a rescue. Team RSPT have also worked out where Penny's new friends are being held and stage their own rescue operation which kicks in at about the same time that most of Team SAPR have escaped from captivity anyway. Yang leads the other first years to back them up and a confusing fight breaks out. Adam uses his semblance, Moonslice, and nearly kills Ruby but Jaune discovers his semblance just in time to save her life.

Sunset and Yang pursue a fleeing Adam down into the tunnels. Adam beats Sunset to a pulp and only Pyrrha's intervention saves her and drives him off; Yang loses Adam but is met by Raven Branwen, her natural mother, who warns her against Ozpin and his machinations. Blake finds Yang and takes her back up to the surface. Sunset confronts Blake, who is both a faunus and a former member of the White Fang, but promises to keep her secrets.

Princess Celestia finally gets in touch with Sunset, having been unable to do so because of the Season Four opener, and the prodigal daughter is reconciled with her surrogate mother.

Ruby and Yang go home for spring break, where their father learns that they have their mother's diary and know about her silver-eyed magic. Raven visits Tai and laments Summer's death, as well as Ozpin's role in it.

Sunset and Jaune, meanwhile, are invited to spend the vacation in Mistral with Pyrrha, the last living descendant of the last Emperor of Mistral before the monarchy was ended after the Great War. Pyrrha's mother, the formidable Lady Nikos, is less than impressed by Jaune, but Sunset's courtly manners and magical powers are able to win a guarded form of approval.

The group attends a fancy party, at which is present Professor Lionheart, the headmaster of Haven Academy, and his prized student Cinder Fall. Cinder and Sunset get on well, while Jaune notices how lonely Pyrrha is even here, in the midst of her own city and the society of her own class. He starts to have feelings for her.

Lionheart asks for Pyrrha's help: there is a grimm ravaging the farms beyond the city, and the city is entirely empty of huntsmen. Pyrrha, Jaune and Sunset head out, accompanied by Cinder and Pyrrha's mother, and encounter a Karkadann, which they kill. Lady Nikos is sufficiently impressed that she drops all opposition to Pyrrha returning to Beacon for the summer term.

General James Ironwood and the Atlesian fleet arrive in the skies over Vale, and he briefs Team RSPT on the need to shut down the White Fang interdictions of Atlesian arms shipments heading south to Vale through the Forever Fall. Blake finds out that her friend Tukson has been murdered, and asks Sunset for help in stopping Torchwick and his plans. Sunset and Blake make an abortive attempt to capture Torchwick, but he escapes again.

Cinder, angered by Blake's interference, outs her to the cops as a former member of the White Fang. Sunset enlists the help of Rainbow Dash, who gets General Ironwood to offer Blake an immunity agreement if she comes to help the Atlesians with their White Fang problem. With Blake's help they decide to smuggle themselves aboard a train carrying weapons and ambush the White Fang when they try to rob it. Ozpin gives SAPR a mission to protect railway workers travelling up the rail line to repair damage. It is a complete coincidence that this will give them the opportunity to work with Blake and RSPT on the way back.

Sunset learns that Pyrrha has feelings for Jaune, but Pyrrha refuses to actually act on them.

After a brief grimm encounter the team arrives at Cold Harbour and joins up with RSPT and Blake. Their train is attacked on the way back and Rainbow Dash and Blake both encounter faces from their pasts: Rainbow's childhood friend Gilda and Strongheart, whom Blake mentored in the White Fang. Though the fight is difficult at times they manage to drive off the thieves, capturing Torchwick and Neo in the process. Jaune kills someone in the course of the battle and struggles with how he feels about it. Blake does her best to comfort him, while Ozpin partially soothes his conscience and partially guilt trips him into deciding to stay at Beacon and keep on fighting alongside his friends.

Sunset wishes to rest on her laurels in the wake of their triumph, but Blake is resistant to the idea. Jaune asks Pyrrha if he can be her backup for the upcoming school dance; Pyrrha declines, she doesn't want him to be her backup…but she would love to be his date.

At the dance Sunset and Flash mend fences, and share the last dance that they never got to share, ending things between them in an amicable fashion.

Twilight is working in the CCT tower on the night of the dance, trying to find out who set up Blake. She discovers that Cinder was responsible…right as Cinder attacks the tower. Twilight is able to call Rainbow for help, and Rainbow arrives just in time to save Twilight from Cinder's clutches. Rainbow holds her own against Cinder at first, but Cinder fights dirty and has Rainbow on the ropes by the time Penny, Ciel, Ruby and Sunset arrive and force her to withdraw. Sunset pursues her, and fights Cinder. Sunset's desire to know how Cinder could betray them like that activates her semblance and she sees Cinder's life of abuse, loss and heartbreak. Cinder escapes.

Rainbow's friends Fluttershy and Applejack, working at an Atlesian blacksite in south-east Vale trying to use Fluttershy's semblance to communicate with the grimm, are captured by the White Fang.

Sunset struggles with the after effects of her semblance, which has left her infested with Cinder's anger and hatred, particularly towards Pyrrha. Blake helps her a little bit, and then Ruby helps her a lot by countering Cinder's anger with the light of her own pure soul.

Ironwood presses Ozpin to do something, and more specifically to trust that the kids are alright and can be trusted with some of the secrets of their shadow war. Ozpin reluctantly agrees and Sunset, Pyrrha, Rainbow and Twilight are given a peak behind the curtain which they then share with Penny, Ciel, Blake, Ruby and Jaune. Everyone struggles with the fact that they are up against Salem, an immortal demon who can never be defeated.

Sunset gets a call from Cinder inviting her to the ruined city of Mountain Glenn; Torchwick agrees to talk to Ruby and volunteers to lead the group to the White Fang base in Mountain Glenn though he claims not to know what they're doing there. The two teams, plus Blake, Torchwick, Neo and Professor Goodwitch, set out for Mountain Glenn, where the ruins inspire maudlin thoughts on the part of Ruby.

Gilda finds it hard to think about the sweet and gentle Fluttershy as the enemy, and begins to question how far the White Fang is willing to go to achieve its goals.

They get underground, fighting their way through Cinder's minions and encountering a new kind of beowolf like nothing they've ever seen before. Sunset and Blake fight and kill Adam. The White Fang start a train, planning to run it through the defences of Vale and open up a breach for the grimm. The gang gets on the train but Sunset, believing that if she stops it then all of her friends will die down in the tunnel, sabotages the controls and fast talks her team-mates into not doing anything to interfere with the train in other ways as it barrels down the line.

Ironwood and Ozpin, warned by Twilight – who was sent away by Rainbow Dash along with Applejack, Fluttershy and Professor Goodwitch – organise the defence of Vale.

The Breach happens. Everyone fights to hold the line. Ruby's silver eyes activated to save Penny. Everyone just gets away in time before an Atlesian bombing run temporarily halts the grimm. Public gratitude towards the Atlesian forces begins to give way to a morass of conspiracy theories as talk of a false flag abounds.

Blake was wounded in the fighting, and goes to Atlas to get treatment for her body and her mind. She joins Weiss, Sun, Flash and Rainbow Dash in investigating disappearances amongst the faunus who live in the Low Town underneath Atlas, tracing them to a warehouse on the coast where faunus are being genetically sequenced, with those with the best DNA are being shipped off to somewhere else by someone connected to the defunct Merlot Industries.

Blake visits Equestria, where she is counselled by princesses Celestia, Luna and Twilight, getting hope from them. Rainbow talks to Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna, who admit that they work for Ozpin although they stop short of telling her that Luna is the Winter Maiden.

Penny is rebuilt by Twilight, Moondancer and her ailing father.

Ruby and Yang are back home once again and get another visit from Raven, who unfolds the tale of Team STRQ, as well as her own circumstances. She urges Yang to abandon Ozpin's doomed struggle and join her in Anima, but Yang refuses.

Sunset begins to understand Professor Ozpin a little better, and the distrust that she had harboured towards him begins to melt.

Pyrrha accompanies Jaune back to his isolated home in rural Vale. His family are, for the most part, hostile towards both her and Jaune's chosen path, particularly his sister Sky, although another sister, Kendal, is much more supportive. Jaune impresses his family with how much he has grown up: no longer the boy who ran away from home, he is able to stand up to their collective efforts to browbeat him, and even his hitherto disapproving father concedes that he has grown up while he's been away. The village is attacked by another strange grimm, but protected by Jaune's sister Rouge who wields the magic of the geodes passed down through the Arc family.

Sunset, working with Cardin, Ren and Nora because they're the only students left at Beacon, encounters a strange grimm of her own.

Team SAPR comes together to help Jaune reforge his sword, which was broken in the fighting under Mountain Glenn. He gets upgrades.

Shortly thereafter the team is sent on a mission into the Emerald Forest. This starts them on a trail that leads back to Mountain Glenn, where they temporarily ally with Cinder to discover who is capturing grimm and for what purpose. Cinder reveals that she is the Fall Maiden, a fact which greatly concerns Pyrrha. They just about manage to escape from Mountain Glenn alive, and in the Forever Fall Sunset offers Cinder the first scrap of honest kindness that she's had in years; Cinder is touched, but too proud and too committed to her path to take the offer.

The group make their way to an isolate dock, and board a ship for the island of Doctor Merlot, who is creating new, stronger, more powerful grimm that serve him rather than Salem. Together SAPR and Cinder shut his operation down, and Cinder chooses to spare Team SAPR when she has the chance to let them die in the fire when Merlot's facility explodes.

The siren Sonata Dusk arrives in Vale and starts subverting the loyalties of Tempest Shadow, Mercury Black and Lightning Dust. Only Emerald remains loyal to Cinder.

Ruby's uncle Qrow arrives at Beacon and gets into a fight with Team RSPT. Ozpin tells Sunset, Pyrrha, Rainbow and Twilight about the Maidens, and shows them the horrifying machine that they wish to use to make Pyrrha the Fall Maiden. Everyone is shocked, but Pyrrha – knowing that if she refuses the cup will pass to Rainbow Dash, and if she too refuses then it will go to Ruby who will never refuse – agrees. She and Sunset have a blazing row about this, followed by Sunset going back to her room to talk to Celestia. Celestia encourages her to find another way, and Sunset comes up with a plan to save Amber, the current Fall Maiden currently languishing in a coma after Cinder's attack. She has Ozpin and Celesita communicate via the magical journal, and the princess gives the ancient hero hope for the future. Ozpin puts his trust in Sunset, and this seems to be vindicated as, with the help of others, she is able to get into Amber's head using her semblance and wake her up.

However, the damage to Amber's soul is greater than Sunset expected, and the Amber that wakes up is a selfish, cowardly, fearful girl who doesn't trust Ozpin or anyone associated with him.

A Mistralian fleet arrives over Vale; Mistral is using the swirl of rumours surrounding Atlesian involvement in the Breach as an excuse for a cynical power play to make themselves look big on the world stage. Pyrrha is rather disappointed in her country.

Kali Belladonna arrives at Beacon, and is surprised to learn that Blake is considering joining the Atlesian military, having come to appreciate them during her work with RSPT.

Amber quits the protection of Team SAPR in favour of that of Team BLBL, now sans Blake but led by Dove Bronzewing. Using her semblance she gains the loyalty of all four of them, then proceeds to sell out Ozpin to Tempest Shadow, promising her the Relic of Choice in return for the safety of herself and Team BLBL.

Rainbow and Twilight's friends arrive in town for the Vytal Festival, as does Pyrrha's mother and the Atlesian councillor Cadance.

The Vytal Festival kicks off with victories for Teams SAPR, RSPT, YRBN (now sans Dove but plus Blake) and WSTW. Amber breaks a curfew to attend a dance in Vale, a move which prompts SAPR and RSPT to mount a protection operation for her. And a good thing too because Cinder, having just murdered her stepsister Phoebe, tries to kill Amber too before being driven off by SAPR, RSPT and Tempest Shadow. This reveals to Cinder the truth about the deal that Amber made, a deal she is incensed to learn that Salem agreed to. Cinder quits Salem's service, and tries to warn Sunset about Amber's treachery. Unfortunately, between Pyrrha's reluctance to believe Cinder and a sudden grimm attack not enough is done and Tempest is able to extract Amber from the Atlesian flagship.

SAPR, with the help of Yang and Blake, go hunting for Cinder in Vale; they catch up to her, capturing Mercury in the process, and Cinder surrenders peacefully. She tells Sunset all about how she came into the service of Salem, and reveals her plans to use Penny's nature as a robot and the Atlesian experiments on grimm to arouse public opinion.

Sunset decides that the time is right to confess her own crimes under Mountain Glenn and tells her friends everything. Ruby is shocked, while everyone is a little more ambivalent about the whole thing. Sunset pleads guilty to all the charges brought by the court and is remanded in custody pending a sentencing hearing.

Pyrrha promises Cinder that she will not allow Sunset to be put to death. Sunset promises Pyrrha that she won't allow herself to be put to death. Ruby talks to Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Since the world now knows that Penny is a robot, and the Mistralian Commander Yeoh has had her barred from the Vytal Festival, Pyrrha arranges to borrow the Amity Coliseum for a little bit to stage a trio of exhibition matches pitting Penny against Sun, Arslan and finally Pyrrha herself. Pyrrha wins the final match, but Penny unlocks her semblance and goes the distance with Pyrrha in a way nobody has ever done before. Blake recognises someone in the Coliseum as her old friend Ilia Amitola, and realises that the White Fang have sabotaged the arena.

The grimm attack again. Twilight saves the arena with the help of her friends. Everyone fights both in the arena, and then down in Beacon where Flash loses a leg in the fighting. Ozpin is roused by hallucinations of Pyrrha and Sunset to join the fighting and drive the grimm out of the school.

Pyrrha and the others head into the city, where a giant dragon grimm breaks free of the mountain and lays waste to the defences, destroying Atlesian and Mistralian ships and breaking the line. Commander Yeoh dies and passes the sword of command to Pyrrha. The armies fall back to the walls of Vale but find the gates shut against them lest the grimm enter that way. Pyrrha throws Ruby over the wall, and Rainbow also tells Twilight to leave her behind. Ruby prevents Twilight from opening the gate, proving herself stalwart and true to her beliefs even in the utmost exigency. Yang is kidnapped by Raven and presumed dead. The lives of the huntsmen are saved by the reappearance of Sunset.

The prison at which Sunset was being held was attacked by the White Fang, and Sunset intervened to protect the staff and restore order, giving her parole to return to jail once the battle in the city was resolved.

Everyone joins forces to kill the dragon, with Penny striking the final blow.

Blake and Ozpin both call for help: the latter is under siege by the White Fang, the latter has just spotted Amber coming to get the Relic from the abandoned school.

Sunset, Ruby and Team RSPT go to the aid of Blake. Gilda switches sides. Sienna Khan, High Leader of the White Fang, is forced to retreat.

Amber kills Ozpin. Pyrrha frees Cinder from her confinement as the only one who can help her win this battle. Together they confront Amber, Tempest, Lightning Dust and Team BLBL down in the vault of the Fall Maiden. Pyrrha fights hard, but having fought her way to Amber she is left to weak to actually face Amber, and only Cinder's intervention saves her life. Tempest escapes with the Relic of Choice.

Cinder helps the wounded Pyrrha back up to the surface, then prepares to kill herself and pass her powers on to Sunset. Sunset isn't having any of that and uses her semblance on Cinder again to free her from the grimm contagion with which she was affected. Sunset ascends, as Cinder passes on to her the powers of the Fall Maiden.


	188. Prologue II: Scattered Points of Light

Prologue II: Scattered Points of Light

The sky was red without the halls of Salem, and that same reddish light overwhelmed the candles burning in the hall to cast the room in crimson shades.

Salem sat at the head of the long table, a table fashioned out of wood but layered with amethyst, so that it had a purple surface on which to lay her hands. Her throne, grown out of living crystal, sat at the head of the table, while six chairs rough hewn and bound out of crude wood by obedient beringels lined the table.

At present, only four of those chairs were filled. That would have to be rectified.

"Spring, Summer, Winter," Salem murmured. "We must fill these seats. With Cinder's betrayal we are without a Maiden candidate. Arthur, do you have any contacts remaining in Atlas who might be worthy of a place at this table? Any who would be worthy to become our Maidens of the seasons yet to come?"

Doctor Arthur Watts tugged at his moustache. "I might, ma'am. I can reach out to my contacts, if you wish."

"I do," Salem said.

"I might have recommended Tempest if things had proceeded differently," Watts said. "Such a shame."

"I understand your disquiet," Salem said. "But our actions in Vale may yet prove to have been worth it."

"May?" Hazel Rainart rumbled, opening his eyes at last.

"That all depends," Salem said. "We shall see very shortly."

The great doors at the far end of the hall swung open, and Sonata Dusk strutted in, followed closely behind by Tempest Shadow.

"Hey Salem!" Sonata cried cheerily.

"Sonata," Salem said evenly. "How nice of you to join us. As you can see, your sisters have not been harmed." She gestured idly to her side, where Adagio Dazzle and Aria Blaze writhed in the grip of the shadow hands, which held them bound and gagged, unable to speak or really move.

Sonata's eyes brightened. "Hey there girls! Check out this great new style of mine, it turns out that fashion has come such a long way since we first got imprisoned and once we get to Vale we can go shopping and paint our nails and oh I have to get you to try these great things call tacos and fruit punch, seriously, the food there is so-"

"Ahem," Salem said. "You have the Relic of Choice, I take it?"

She didn't need to ask, and only did so for politeness sake. Her grimm could feel the relic's presence, it was drawing them to it. It was drawing her too, it was only with effort that she was restraining herself.

Sonata held out one hand, and Tempest produced the crown from her satchel and handed it to the Siren. She held it, clutching it to her.

"My sisters?" she said, her voice mild and small seeming.

Salem waved one hand, and the shadow hands binding Aria Blaze fell away. She gasped for breath. "The crown," she said softly.

Sonata walked towards the table. "Aria?" she said. "Are you okay?"

Aria glared at Sonata. "Took you long enough to get around to rescuing us."

"What kind of a thing is that to say when I'm getting you out to here?"

"It's the perfect thing to say when you've been so slow about it."

Sonata scowled. "I ought to just leave you here, you know that? You are the absolute worst!"

"I think that you're the-"

"Mmmh mmmmphmm!" Adagio mumbled loudly through her shadowy gag.

Sonata laughed nervously. "Right, sorry about that." She reached the table. "Their gems?"

"Beringels are placing them aboard your ship even as we speak," Salem said. "Now, if you wouldn't mind." She gestured to the table before her.

Slowly, Sonata placed the Crown of Choice upon the amethyst table and slid it down the table top the rest just in front of Salem's hands.

She stared at it, enraptured. So, this was it. After so long desiring it the Relic of Choice was finally in her possession.

It was the genuine article, she was in no doubt about that. She would have smelt a forgery a mile away and so would her grimm. This was it, this was one of the four relics given to Ozpin by the gods.

 _One down, three to go._

But first there was the matter of payment. She was a woman of her word, after all. Salem waved her hand, and Adagio's bonds fell away.

"As promised, you are all three of you free to leave," Salem said. "And the Kingdom of Vale will be yours to do with as you wish. Although…it is a pity that we must end our association in this way. A relationship as profitable as this might bear repeating, don't you think?"

"Not really," Adagio said. "We just want to be left alone to rule over our kingdom. You'll do that, won't you?"

"Of course," Salem said. "What is Vale to me now that I have the relic? Although…"

"Although?" Adagio repeated, her eyes narrowing.

"There is the matter of the Fall Maiden," Salem said. "Against whom your record has been…less than stellar. I would be happy to take care of that for you."

"I think we'll manage," Adagio said. "Come on you two, let's get out of here. We have a kingdom to claim."

She pushed past Aria and Sonata to lead the way out of the hall, leaving the other two to trail along behind her. Salem wondered idly how long it would be before Sonata, having tasted freedom and control, began to resent her sister's effortless assumption that the former status quo of their relationship would resume.

The door slammed shut behind Tempest Shadow, the last of them to depart.

"Was that wise, ma'am?" Arthur asked.

Salem reached out and picked up the crown, holding it lightly in her fingertips. "The Relic of Choice, Arthur. Ozpin dead, Beacon Tower destroyed and the relic in my hands. And all it cost me was Cinder Fall and a kingdom I did not even own. For this, I would have given ten times more."

Gently, she placed the crown upon her head.

She closed her eyes as a myriad of possibilities were spread out before her, the ramifications of every possible choice flashing before her eyes as she was guided by the magic of the crown down the best possible route, the best possible choices that she could make to reach her goal: the destruction of Haven and the acquisition of the Relic of Knowledge.

Salem's eyes opened. "I know what we must do," she declared. "Hazel, find the Spring Maiden but do not approach her, once you have found her then you will await further instructions from me." The Relic of Choice was limited in its abilities by the scope of Salem's own knowledge. Once she knew who the Spring Maiden was and where she was then she would be better placed to decide what to do about obtaining either the services of said Maiden or taking the powers for someone who would do her bidding. That was why she had given the assignment to Hazel, Tyrian could not be relied upon for the patience required.

"Doctor Watts, finding new recruits to fill our diminished ranks is important, but do it quickly," she said. "Once that is done I need you to go to Mistral and meet with our new ally there. She is sheltering Leo for us at present but I have doubts about her commitment to our cause. Make sure that you impress upon her that this is not a commitment she can back out of on a whim."

"Of course, ma'am," Watts said. "I'll leave right away."

"Tyrian, you will take the Four Kings to Vale," Salem said. "Hunt down Ozpin's young protégés…and eliminate them all." They were all too dangerous to be allowed to live: the Equestrian who had gotten under Cinder's skin with such efficiency, the silver-eyed girl, the heiress to the throne of men, even the Arc boy was dangerous, if only when joined together with the others. If they were to make contact with Ozpin…her best choice was to kill them all before that could happen, and her best choice to achieve that was the one that she had made.

"Majesty, I can handle that-" Tyrian said.

"Perhaps," Salem said, cutting him off. "But you will do as I command." She smiled. "However, rest assured you may be as bloody as you wish."

Tyrian laughed at that, and Salem let him laugh, his cackling filling the hall.

 _If you really cared about these children, Ozpin, you would not involve them in our affairs._

 _Haven't you learned by now that all your plots and schemes only end up dooming those you love?_

* * *

Sunset crouched atop the ridge, taking cover behind a tree trunk as she looked down at the bandit camp spread out beneath her. It was not a huge encampment, only about twenty, thirty men if she was judging it right, but that was enough to be terrorising the villages around Alexandria, looting and despoiling those that didn't have an adequate military presence to secure them.

The fact that these particular brigands only ever attacked villages that hadn't been secured against attack might well be more than just a coincidence, and Sunset intended to find out one way or another soon enough.

Because she was going to put a stop to this right now.

 _If only I didn't have to do it with people who were just as bad as these bandits, if not worse._

Sunset shook her head. There was no help for that. There was no help for any of this. Team SAPR was gone, and wishing for it wasn't going to bring it back. She had what she had, and railing inwardly against the fact that what she had was a cohort of scum wasn't going to get her any more trustworthy team-mates any time soon. She should suck it up, get on with the job, and be thankful that she had Cinder to watch her back.

Cinder crept up towards her, her glass bow wrapped up in a dull brown oilskin to stop any of the light from glimmering off it as it filtered in through the trees. The snow crunched beneath her feet, but too softly to alert the bandits down below.

"Everyone's getting into position," Cinder said softly. "They'll move at your signal."

"We hope," Sunset murmured.

Cinder glanced at her. "It's not as bad as you think it is."

It was Sunset's turn to glance at Cinder. "It isn't."

"I know that you're not used to this, but I've worked with scum like this, remember? You just have to know how to lead those beneath you. Once you master commanding them you can get results out of these kinds of people."

"Remind me," Sunset said. "Didn't your crew of scum end up betraying you?"

"I didn't say that they were trustworthy I said that they could get results," Cinder said.

"Good," Sunset said. "Because you're the only one I trust around here."

Cinder chuckled. "Of course. That's because you're smart." She fell silent, and joined Sunset in studying the bandit camp. "No sentries, not even a ditch."

"They're paid up with all the right people," Sunset said. "They think that protects them."

"You're sure of that? It's only a theory."

"A plausible theory," Sunset said. "I'd be surprised if it wasn't true, look at them." The bandits were incredibly lacking in alertness. They were taking their ease around a giant fire burning in the centre of their camp, smoking and drinking, lounging around outside their tents of hide and pelt. "This won't be hard."

"It would be even easier if you still had the Maiden powers I gave you," Cinder said.

Sunset rolled her eyes. "Are you still upset about that?"

"I gave you my magic," Cinder said. "And you gave it away to somebody else."

"You sound like a heartbreak song," Sunset said. "I gave them to someone who needed them…someone who I thought would make the best use of them."

"If being good means intentionally hamstringing yourself then can I stay morally grey?" Cinder asked.

"You're the one who gave up the Maiden's magic in the first place," Sunset pointed out.

"To make you stronger," Cinder said. "Not to have you play pass the parcel with them amongst your other friends."

"What's done is done," Sunset said. "They're gone…like everything else." She huffed, the breath in front of her face congealed into steam. "Let's get this done and find the proof that Cardin needs."

"Do we go in hard?" Cinder asked. "Or are you going to be noble and give them a chance to surrender first?"

"You'd be dead by now if I didn't believe in second chances," Sunset said, bristling at the way that Cinder said that as though it made Sunset weak to even consider it.

"True," Cinder conceded. "I notice that you didn't believe in second chances for Mercury or Lightning Dust. They would have been useful for a force like ours."

"I have to sleep in close proximity to some pretty wretched people," Sunset said. "I'd rather not sleep close to the ones who have personal reason to hate me already." She cast a quick spell to amplify her voice, so that it boomed down from the ridge upon the bandit camp. "This is the Valish military! You are surrounded! Throw down your weapons and get down on your knees with your hands on your heads!"

One of the bandits shouted something indistinct, as he pointed up towards Sunset and Cinder's position on the ridge. He leapt to his feet, one hand reaching for the gun in his holster.

Sol Invictus cracked as Sunset shot him before he could even draw. There was a tiny red spray as the bandit flew backwards into the snow.

"I guess we get to do this the fun way," Cinder said, unwrapping her bow and fitting a glass arrow to the string. Sunset had fired a second shot before Cinder had loosed her first arrow, which buried itself in the shoulder of a female bandit who had been aiming a large hunting rifle up at them.

By now the bandits were up on their feet, smoke issuing for the barrels of their pistols and rifles as they shot upwards at Sunset and Cinder. Sunset fired again, and another bandit was hurled backwards off his feet.

 _Come on, where are you?_ Sunset shot another bandit, and Cinder's arrows claimed another. But there was no sign of any of the rest of Sunset's team.

 _It isn't the fact that I need them for this,_ Sunset thought, as she fired her fifth round. _So much as I worry about what they're doing when they're not here._

"Cover me," Sunset said, as she fired her sixth and final round, leaving the revolving chamber of her rifle empty. Of course, that didn't mean that she was out of tricks, not by a mile. She stood up, inviting the fire of the bandits – and she heard a couple of bullets slam into the tree she was using for cover – and slung Sol Invictus over her shoulder.

She teleported, appearing right in the middle of the pack of bandits. "Hey, fellas."

They were turning towards her, their faces masks of astonishment, when she flung out her hands and blasted bolts of magic out from her fingertips, flinging eight of the remaining bandits backwards instantly.

The remainder swiftly dropped their weapons and raised their hands.

"That's better," Sunset said, levitating their weapons away so that they couldn't make a grab for them again if they changed their minds. _Now if only my brigands were as well behaved._

"You did it again, boss; always a pleasure to watch you work."

Sunset glanced upwards to see that Cinder was keeping her bow training upon the wounded and surrendered bandits, which meant that she could turn around to see Sami emerging from out of the trees to the west. Emerald followed a little behind her.

"Took you long enough," Sunset snapped.

"You looked like you were doing fine on your own," Jack said, as he strolled into camp from the other side, his shotgun axe resting lightly on his shoulder. "Why get in the way of art, right?"

 _I wonder if the fact that this is my team now is ever going to stop irritating me, or if I'll one day forget that I used to have reliable team-mates._

 _I hope not._

"I don't care if it worked out okay," Sunset said. "Where were you? All three of you?"

"We got a little lost in the woods," Sami said.

"It's hard to move through all this snow," Jack said.

"Perhaps you'd prefer to be walking around the prison yard again," Sunset said. "Because this isn't your vacation, if you don't start to pull your weight I'll have you thrown back into the hole you crawled out of."

"Don't do that," Sami said.

"Do what?"

"Talk like you're better than us," Sami said. "Like you're some high and mighty huntress. You're not. You're a criminal, same as we are."

Sunset stomped through the snow towards her. Sami was a reindeer faunus, with antlers growing out of her forehead; her face was covered in tattoos, and so were the other visible parts of her skin. Sunset didn't know, and didn't care to know, what they all meant. What she knew was that Sami was a murderer and Sunset didn't trust her an inch.

"I am not the same as you," Sunset growled. She reached into her pocket with one hand. "And I'm not the same as you because unlike you, I can do this." With the hand in her pocket she grabbed the switch and activated Sami's collar. Sami grunted as her aura was abruptly cut off, leaving her swaying unsteadily on her feet. Sunset glared at Emerald, standing submissively behind Sami, but the other girl didn't meet her eyes.

"Watch them," she said, gesturing with one hand towards the bandits who were now kneeling on the ground with their hands over their heads.

"Right," Emerald said, drawing her pistols and pointing them at the prisoners.

Sunset turned away, only to see Jack bending over the body of a dead bandit, stripping the rings off her fingers.

Sunset scowled. "What are you doing?"

Jack looked up at her, and shrugged. "He's not going to need them any more."

Sunset took a deep breath. "You realise that he probably stole those himself, right?"

"So?"

"So they should go to the kin of the victims he took them from," Sunset said. "Leave them."

"Who's going to care one way or the other what-"

"I do," Sunset barked. "I said leave them!"

Jack was a young man, with down on his cheeks from his failed efforts to grow a beard. Armed with his shotgun axe he had robbed the houses of the rich, entering in the middle of the night and terrifying the inhabitants into giving up their valuables to him. But you didn't carry a weapon like that unless you were willing to use it, and eventually he'd stopped leaving the victims of his robberies alive. He stood up, anger flashing in his dark eyes, but he could see that Sunset still had her hand in her pocket and knew that she could switch her collar on just as easily as she had Sami's. So he backed off, raising his hand apologetically. "Okay," he said. "But we're leaving golden harps and geese where they lie, you realise that don't you?"

"We're not here to make ourselves rich," Sunset growled. She became acutely conscious that those she was supposedly leading were no better than those she was leading them against. She was always aware of that fact, it was always in the back of her mind whenever they fought anyone who wasn't the grimm she couldn't help but ask what made her new comrades any better than the so-called bad guys, but there were moments like these when it just hit her like a wave of nausea and she had to… "I'm going to look for the evidence," she declared, and stalked into the nearest ox-hide tent. It was dark in there, lit only by a couple of candles, but Sunset was only half there to look around.

She was there so that, when the tent flap closed behind her, nobody could see her run her hands through her hair and let out a sound that was almost like a sob.

Was this her life now? Was this her team? The murderous thief, the straight up murderer, and Emerald? And only Cinder whom she could trust, only Cinder to console her. Sunset's chest rose and fell. She missed Ruby with that eager gleam in her eyes, she missed Pyrrha's quiet grace, she missed the way that Jaune would do absolutely anything to help out.

 _And instead of them I have…these._

 _I know I had to be punished but this is a bit much don't you think?_

 _Is this my life now?_

 _Unfortunately yes._

 _So I'd best get on with it, hadn't I?_

Sunset started to look for the evidence that Cardin required.

* * *

Captain Cardin Winchester of the Valish Corps of Specialists strode down the hallway with a determined stride.

He wasn't wearing his armour, since he wasn't in the field; instead he was wearing the navy blue uniform of the Corps, complete with his epaulettes of rank upon his shoulders. That rank, coupled with his broad build and determined stride, made those walking the corridor in the headquarters of the garrison of Alexandria get out of the way for him, scrambling to one side or the other as he walked past.

Some people pointed to him, and he heard snatches of what they whispered.

"Cardin Winchester who-"

"-helped save Vale-"

"-I heard he killed twenty beowolves-"

"-fought the dragon single-handed-"

Cardin scowled. He hadn't asked the Committee of Public Safety to make him into a hero, and he certainly hadn't asked to have all of this crap attributed to him that he hadn't done or had been nowhere near at the time. Anyone who had actually fought at the Battle of Vale knew that nobody had fought the dragon single handed even if Penny Polendina had been the one to strike the killing blow. And he hadn't killed any beowolves because there hadn't been any at Beacon where he'd been fighting. He'd killed some ursai, but then he got injured by a big monkey and that was his fight over. He hated this. He hated that he could see a poster stuck on the wall with his grinning face on it like he was some kind of icon. He hated being put on a pedestal that he didn't deserve to be on. If he was going to admired and revered then he wanted it to be for stuff that he had actually done.

His free hand – his left, since he had the warrant tucked under his right arm – went to the Valish flag pin he wore on his lapel. He was doing this for Vale, his home. His home which didn't have a lot of heroes at the moment, since embarrassingly so many of the real heroes of the battle of Vale had been either from Atlas or Mistral. And what with Yang being dead (not that being dead had stopped the Committee from exploiting the hell out of Yang Xiao-Long, but as a symbol of remembrance, not to drive up recruitment) and Jaune and Ruby both gone, well, Cardin was just about it.

And he had been told that he looked like a hero. Somehow that only made the fact that he knew he wasn't one sting all the more.

But at least he was doing some good. That was the knowledge that got him through the day: he and Sunset were doing good, and day by day they were making Vale a safer place.

He reached the door to the office of Colonel Rice, commandant of the garrison of Alexandria and the officer tasked with the defence not only of the port town but also of the surrounding villages beyond the walls. Cardin didn't bother to knock, but simply slammed the door open so hard it hit the wall and strode into the office.

Colonel Rice was a former cop given military rank when the Committee of Public Safety had drafted the police into the new Army of Vale; he was middle-aged, heavyset, and going bald. He jumped in surprise at Cardin's entrance, spilling coffee all over his desk.

"What the-"

"Colonel Rice, I have a warrant here for your arrest," Cardin said. "Stand up."

"Arrest?" Rice spluttered. "On what charge-"

"Collusion with criminals, extortion, treason," Cardin said. "I know that you've been in contact with those bandits plaguing the hinterland, I know that you've been charging the outlying villages for protection from them and withdrawing security from those that couldn't or wouldn't pay and I know that you've been coordinating attacks with the bandits, letting them know which targets in exchange for a cut. And I can prove all of it. Now get up!"

Day by day, with every grimm pack slaughtered, every bandit tribe taken care of, every crooked official brought down, he and Sunset were making Vale a better, and a safer place.

And that was worth having to lie to everyone as to who the real hero was.

* * *

The blinds were drawn, and the sunlight was coming in through the window in a bright pillar that fell directly on her face, but Pyrrha was still sleeping.

Jaune lay on the other side of the bed, his head resting upon the plump pillow, and watched her.

 _Gods, she's beautiful._ With the way that the light was falling through the window to shine directly upon her she looked more angel than human. And it wasn't just the light, either. Ever since Sunset had passed the magic onto her there seemed to be…maybe it was just Jaune's imagination, nobody who wasn't in the know seemed to notice – or at least they hadn't said anything about it – but it seemed there was an extra glow to her now, brighter than mere activated aura could explain. She shone, as if the sunlight through the window wasn't the only source of illumination in this room.

He could watch her like this for hours, except that she was even more beautiful when she was awake, active, vibrant.

Jaune turned in bed, looking at his pants slung across one of the chairs in Pyrrha's spacious bedroom. The ring that Kendal had given him was in his pocket, and burning more and more of a hole in it every day.

 _Come on, Jaune. You can do this. Just take out the ring and ask her. It's not as if she's going to say no._

Jaune turned back to look at Pyrrha, still sleeping in spite of the light falling on her peaceful face. She wouldn't say no, he felt pretty sure of that. He felt pretty sure that she wouldn't have allowed him into her bed if she wasn't certain about them. She was probably just waiting for him to ask.

But that didn't mean that he didn't have to do this properly, this was Pyrrha after all. She deserved something…special.

Pyrrha's eyes fluttered open. She smiled. "Hey, you."

"Hey," Jaune said, he leaned forward to kiss her. "Sleep well?"

"Yes, thank you," Pyrrha said softly. She looked up towards the window. "What time is it?"

"I'm not sure," Jaune admitted. "Does it matter? We could just stay here-"

Pyrrha's scroll began to blare out like a klaxon on the nightstand beside her side of the bed.

"Or you could answer that," Jaune said disappointedly.

Pyrrha sat up, and quickly reached for her scroll. "That's the alert ringtone, something's going on."

"Another attack?" Jaune asked, getting out of bed and reaching for his trousers.

"Apparently so," Pyrrha said. She opened up the scroll. "Uiharu, what's happening?"

The high-pitched voice of Kazari Uiharu issued out of the scroll. "A request just came in from Messene; grimm moving in their direction."

"Jaune, who has the vanguard today?"

"Sun," Jaune said. He had written out the schedule, and had even managed to memorise most of it.

"Is he getting in the air?" Pyrrha asked Uiharu.

"Yes, they're taking off now."

"Good," Pyrrha said. "Contact everyone else and tell them to meet me on the landing pad. I'll get Ren and Nora."

"And I'll come down to you," Jaune said, as he pulled on his pants. "I'll be right there."

"Right," Uiharu said.

Pyrrha snapped her scroll shut and got to her feet. "I would have liked a shower but it can't be helped."

Jaune pulled his hoodie on over his head. "Is it me, or are they getting more frequent?"

"It's not just you," Pyrrha said. "The kingdom is on edge, there's so much uncertainty, no wonder the grimm are being drawn in." She sighed. "What can we do except beat them back when they come?"

Jaune didn't answer that. "Good luck out there. Come back safely."

Pyrrha smiled at him. "With you watching over me, I know I will."

* * *

Ruby trudged through the snow towards the edge of the cliff. The white stone was there, the way it had been for years, but now there was another stone sitting beside it.

A yellow stone, gleaming slightly under the light of the winter sun.

Yang Xiao Long

I'm More Than Meets the Eye

"Hey, sis," Ruby murmured. "Hey Mom. I know that it hasn't been that long, I don't mean to bother you guys, but…sometimes I just need someone to talk to, you know? I hope that's okay.

"Dad…Dad's not doing so great. He doesn't…I don't…what am I supposed to do, Yang? What did you do…when Mom left? How am I supposed to make this better?" Ruby sank to her knees in the snow, feeling a wet sensation on her stockings as the snow began to melt through them. "Is there anything that I can do to make this better?" she asked plaintively, clasping her hands together.

Her small body trembled. "I know…I know that we're supposed to keep moving forward and never give up but…but how am I supposed to do that when you're not around any more. I'm sorry, Yang. I'm so sorry. I…I spent so much time with my team and my new friends and I left you behind and now you're…now you're…now I've lost you and all I can think about is that we barely spent any time together last year and I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry, Yang."

Her hands fell to her combat skirt, clutching the black fabric tightly. "I got another letter today. From the Council, or whatever. They call it the Committee now or something like that. Anyway, they wrote to me. It's pretty much the same as last time: they want to make me a huntress, like a real huntress, graduated. They want me to join the Specialists, like in Atlas. This time they weren't quite so nice about it. They didn't say please. They said that I should come to Vale and report in for my assignment. I threw it in the fireplace just like the last one. I can't go back there right now, Dad needs me. You…I'd say that you should see him except that I don't think you really want to. He's…he can't take care of himself on his own, and if I went away I don't…who am I kidding? I don't want to go back.

"And I'm not sure if I ever will."

* * *

Junior-grade Specialist Blake Belladonna put on her beret. It wasn't a great fit what with her ears – they were designed for humans to wear, without too much consideration for faunus – and said ears caused it to bulge up a little on top, but it didn't look too bad.

It wasn't as though anyone would be looking at her anyway.

"Your tie is a little crooked," Ciel said, reaching out and straightening it up. "There, that's an improvement." Behind her, Blake could see that Twilight was tying Rainbow's tie for her.

"Thanks," Blake said.

Ciel nodded, and stepped back. "Welcome to the Atlesian forces, Specialist Belladonna," she said. "I wish it were under better circumstances."

"I think that everybody wishes that right now," Blake murmured.

"It feels," Penny said. "Is this…this is going to be the last time that we're all together, isn't it?"

A silence descended upon the four huntresses and Twilight. Blake glanced at Rainbow Dash, waiting for her to say something, but she didn't. It was an open question whether or not she'd even heard what Penny said. She didn't seem at all herself today, her head was bowed and there were bags under her eyes like she hadn't been sleeping well. Her face was a little paler than normal.

Twilight seemed to have been waiting for Rainbow to speak as well, because she said, "I'm sure that's not true, Penny. I'm sure that we can find time to all hang out if we want to."

"But it won't be the same," Penny said. "Because it won't be Team Rosepetal any more."

There was no denying that. After today the team that the four Atlesians had been serving under when Blake met them would be gone. Rainbow and Ciel, like Blake and like all of the student huntsmen and huntresses who had fought at the Battle of Vale, had been given accelerated graduation to the rank of junior grade specialists, and – also like Blake – Rainbow Dash was still awaiting an assignment from headquarters, but whatever it was it was likely to take her away from Atlas and her friends. Twilight's skills were too valuable to waste anywhere but the metaphorical lab, she was going back to R&D to work on helping the huntsmen from the rear; there was so much to be done in the wake of the battle, not least getting communications back online, that there was as much need for scientists and technicians as soldiers in Atlas right now. Penny Dragonslayer was the hero of the hour, in Atlas at least, and it seemed that Atlas meant to milk her newfound fame for all it was worth as they despatched her on a tour of Mantle and the outlying settlements to raise morale, calm the fears of the populace, and sell the war bonds that would pay for the vast programme of military expansion that seemed to be on every lip nowadays. The world was changing, becoming more dangerous; or perhaps it was fairer to say that it seemed to be more dangerous than it had appeared before; the CCT was down, there was no news from Vale or Mistral but the last Blake had seen of the former had been a kingdom that was beginning to turn in on itself and even before the battle Mistral had seemed to be spoiling for a fight. The certainties that had underpinned the world, the international system founded on peace and cooperation represented by the Vytal Festival, were falling away, and Atlas was arming itself against the challenges posed by a more hostile world.

In that new world they all had a part of play, whether that was a part yet to be assigned – as it was for Rainbow and Blake – a part that sent them to the backroom while her friends fought as in Twilight's case, or a part that was more symbolic than actual, like for Penny. Or in Ciel's case continuing to act as Penny's minder as she embarked on her propaganda tour, which Blake couldn't imagine that the other girl was too happy about for all that she kept her feelings very well hidden.

But it was the end of Team RSPT, even if none of them yet knew what it was the beginning of yet.

"You're right," Twilight said softly. "It won't be Team Rosepetal. But I've never been on the same team as Applejack, or Pinkie or any of my other friends from Canterlot, but it doesn't mean that we aren't friends. It doesn't mean that they're not as dear to my heart as they were when we are combat school together. Change isn't always easy, Penny, but sometimes it's inevitable…but it doesn't mean that you have to lose everything you love when the change comes. Sometimes maintaining friendships takes more work than others, but that's no reason not to work at it." She smiled. "This past years has been…well, sometimes it was terrifying and other times it was just mind blowing and I'm not going to lie, I have no idea how you make it look so easy to not be scared by it all but…but it's been kind of wonderful, too." She reached out, and slipped one hand into that of Rainbow Dash. "So whatever happens, and wherever we go next, let's stay friends, and make sure that we don't lose touch with one another."

Penny smiled, and took Rainbow Dash's other hand. Rainbow didn't appear to notice much, what was with her today. Penny held out her other hand to Ciel, who took it.

Blake was surprised when Twilight and Ciel both offered her their free hand.

"But…I'm not your team-mate, and I never was," Blake said.

"Perhaps not," Ciel said. "But you have fought beside us and that is not nothing." She paused for a moment. "Though our roads diverge for now we will continue to be bound together by a common purpose as defenders of Atlas."

Blake couldn't help but let out a little snort as she took their hands. "Blake Belladonna, defender of Atlas."

Ciel checked her watch. "We should go."

They left the locker room and started down the wide, clean but somewhat clinical corridor leading down towards the Atlas Academy courtyard. As they walked Blake caught Twilight's eye and slowed her pace, which the other girl matched allowing Rainbow, Penny and Ciel to swiftly outpace them.

"Do you know what's going on with Rainbow?" Blake asked.

Twilight frowned. She pushed her glasses back up her nose. "No," she admitted. "I'm concerned but…she won't talk to me. Or anyone else."

"Would you like me to try?" Blake said.

"That's very kind of you," Twilight said. "And maybe it will come to that if this keeps up but…hopefully if we just give her some space she'll come around."

They had to walk quickly to catch up with the others, doing so just as Applejack joined them. It was kind of strange seeing everyone in their Atlas uniforms like this; she had never seen Penny wearing the white and grey before, nor any of them for that matter. Some of them it suited more than others: Twilight looked decent enough in it, and Ciel looked half as though she had been born to wear it; but it was strange seeing Applejack without her hat, and Rainbow just looked uncomfortable in it.

Of course that could just be that she looked uncomfortable in general.

They made their way out of the academy buildings and into the courtyard, a greenhouse space with a glass roof to keep out any snow that might fall upon the floating city, a space within which grass could grow despite the cold. They joined all the teams from the academy in filing out of the school and assembling in lines by squad upon the grass. Though every squad was aligned, forming neat columns running down the lawn, there were numerous gaps in the formation. That was intentional: the gaps represented all those team members who could not stand alongside their team-mates today; Blake could see Team PSTL with an empty space on the right of their line where their team leader ought to have stood, she spotted another team where only a single huntsman stood surrounded by a trio of empty spaces, and there were even broad gaps in the formation where a whole team ought to have stood had not they all made the ultimate sacrifice for Atlas and humanity.

 _These are my jewels_ , Blake thought, remembering the memorial she had seen in the city; how many new pictures adorned the column now, how many photos of young huntsmen and huntresses taken before their time? How many jewels of Atlas had ceased to gleam in just one night in Vale?

Team RSPT formed upon the extreme left of the courtyard, placed there because they had two ancillaries, in the form of Blake and Applejack, who had no other team to stand beside but nevertheless ought to be here for this. They formed up in order, with Rainbow Dash upon the right of the line stretching through Ciel and Penny down to Twilight, with Blake and Applejack awkwardly tacked on at the end, disrupting the neatness of the leftmost column.

The students – some of them were no longer students now, but in this place it still felt as though they were all learning – were arrayed facing northwards, where a platform had been erected out of white wood. Before the podium were placed wreaths in memorial of the fallen, and before the wreaths themselves the photographs of all the students who ought to be standing here but were not.

General Ironwood made his way to the top of the podium. His hands were clasped behind his back, and he looked as solid as Blake had ever seen him: a solid presence forged of steel, representative of all that was best about Atlas. But when he reached the front of the assembled ranks and spoke she could hear his voice shaking, and Blake knew that the impression he was trying to give was just that: an impression, not the truth.

"Every year," General Ironwood began. "It is my pleasure to preside over the graduation of the latest class of huntsmen and huntresses to pass through these halls. This year is different. This year…it is my solemn duty to preside over the remembrance of those who didn't make it that far.

"When I was a student here my class was asked to define what makes a huntsman. I don't remember what I said, but I remember the answer that our teacher gave us: when the rest of the world is running away from monsters, a huntsman is somebody who runs towards them. That seemed like a pretty good answer to me.

"When the grimm attacked Vale, when the Coliseum came under assault, when Beacon Academy was threatened, these brave young men and women chose to run towards danger. Towards the monsters. They didn't hesitate because they believed, they knew, that they could make a difference. Their courage, and sacrifice, embody the finest traditions of the Atlesian forces.

"There isn't anything that I can say to ennoble these young men and women more than they have already ennobled themselves by their actions. There is nothing that any of us can do except vow to continue the struggle that they started. None of you who fought in the battle at Vale are students any longer; you've already proven that you have the courage, skill and dedication that are the marks of true huntsmen; so when you leave this place and take up your postings whatever or wherever those may be, I hope that you live up to the high example that has already been set for you."

General Ironwood came to attention and saluted. "Ten-hut!"

There was a thump as the entire assembly came to attention as one man, saluting the fallen as the strains of a bugle began to play.

Out of the corner of her eye Blake could see that Rainbow Dash had tears in her eyes.

* * *

Rainbow Dash stood in General Ironwood's spacious but austere office, standing at attention and looking just over the general's shoulder.

She wasn't sure that she could look him in the eye right now. Not after what she'd done. Not after what he was about to find out that she'd done.

 _All those guys died because of me. If I'd told him then, if I hadn't listened to Sunset, if I hadn't decided that everything had worked out just fine in the end then…then maybe none of this would have happened. Maybe Flynt and Neon and all the rest would still be alive._

"At ease," General Ironwood said, and he sat down as Rainbow spread her legs out a little and clasped her hands together behind her back.

The general picked up a piece of paper sitting on his metal desk. "Dash, what is this?"

"It's my resignation, sir," Rainbow said.

"I can see that," General Ironwood said. "What I want to know is why? Why you thought that it was a good idea to resign at a time like this. Don't you realise that the world is in crisis right now?"

"I know sir, that's why I'm quitting."

General Ironwood stared at her. "Explain further, because I'm still not seeing it. This kingdom needs every soldier it can get right now, especially good soldiers like you."

Rainbow closed her eyes for a moment. "Sir, I…I knew. I knew about what Sunset had done during the Breach. I saw her smash up the controls and I didn't say anything about it. And because of that…all the rest of this crap happened and all of those guys…that's why I'm resigning."

General Ironwood stared at her in astonishment. Rainbow didn't want to look at him, but she found that she couldn't look away. She had to look and see the trust he had in her shattering in his eyes.

She hadn't meant to betray him, but that was exactly what she'd done. General Ironwood, who had given her a chance when a lot of people wouldn't have, who had gone out to bat for her, who had sponsored her through Atlas, who had trusted her…and she had betrayed him. And she hadn't even thought about it.

"You knew?" General Ironwood repeated. "You knew, for all these months?"

"Yes sir," Rainbow said.

"And you didn't think to say a thing about it?" General Ironwood yelled, bringing his fist down on the desk so hard that it left a dent. "Not a thing? Not a damn thing?"

"I thought that-"

"That wasn't your call to make!" General Ironwood snarled. He rose to his feet. "You don't get to decide when you turn away." He turned away himself, turning his back on Dash as he walked to the windows looking out over Atlas. "Do you understand why I'm angry?"

"Yes sir."

"It's not because you let this happen, every young soldier chokes in the field at least once," General Ironwood said. "It's that you didn't tell me about it afterwards."

"Yes sir."

"Why?"

"Because she saved Ciel, sir, and Penny," Rainbow Dash said. "Or at least…she talked me into thinking that she had."

"You confronted her about it."

"Yes sir."

"And she convinced you not to say anything about it."

"Yes sir," Rainbow said. "I know that…I know that it shouldn't have made any difference, I know that we have to be willing to sacrifice ourselves for the glory of Atlas-"

"The glory of Atlas doesn't have a thing to do with it," General Ironwood said sharply. "This is about lives, Dash, human lives; thousands of them, tens of thousands, maybe millions, all put at risk because of what happened out there."

"Yes sir."

"Don't say that if you don't understand!" General Ironwood snapped. He took a deep breath. "We're guardians, Dash; we stand on a wall-"

"And we say nothing's going to hurt you tonight," Rainbow said.

General Ironwood was silent for a moment. "I thought you understood what that meant. I thought you understood that we don't take chances with people's lives. You should have told me what she'd done on the train the moment the battle was over. If you had…it's possible that everything would have been different."

"Yes sir."

"I thought that I could trust you, Rainbow Dash," General Ironwood said. "I thought that you were someone I could rely on."

Rainbow Dash shuddered at that, and at the unspoken but nonetheless obvious implication of it. And there was nothing that she could say because…because the General was right; if she wouldn't come to him with something this big then…then how could she expect him to trust her again.

"Resignation not accepted," General Ironwood said.

Rainbow blinked. "I…sir?"

"Weren't you listening?" General Ironwood said. "You don't get to decide when you turn away. You're involved in all of this, up to your neck; and if you don't have my complete trust any more that is going to stop me making use of you. You're not getting off that easy."

"No sir," Rainbow said softly.

"In the meantime you can brief Apple on the situation. I need a huntress I can rely on to get things done."

Rainbow flinched as if she'd been struck. "Yes sir. I'll tell her everything."

General Ironwood nodded. "You're dismissed, specialist."

Rainbow came to attention, and saluted. General Ironwood's returned salute was brusque. Rainbow turned on her toe and marched out of the door.

She had just lost one of the most important things that she had ever had.

Had she ever deserved to have it at all?

* * *

 _I didn't think I'd be back here again so soon._

Weiss leaned on the balcony outside her bedroom and sighed. Atlas. The greatest kingdom in the world. A shining city aglow with possibilities.

A gilded cage.

A flicker of movement in the garden below caught her eye. Someone was down there, someone who was trying not to be seen. Weiss straightened up, taking a step backwards. Myrtenaster was sitting on the bed. She was considering making a dash for it when the figure in the garden emerged into the light falling out of the room and into the garden below.

Weiss' eyebrows rose. "Wherefore art thou, Blake?"

"Hey," Blake said, looking a little embarrassed. "I, uh, wasn't sure how welcome I'd be at the front door."

"I wish it wasn't so, but you were probably right to be worried about that," Weiss said. "Hang on, I'll come down and-"

Blake toss her hook upwards, catching it on the balcony rail.

"Or you could just do that," Weiss said, as Blake pulled herself up onto the balcony.

"Nice night, isn't it?" Blake said, as she settled on the balcony, her legs dangling down outside.

"Nice uniform," Weiss said, noting Blake's attire as an Atlesian specialist.

"Thanks," Blake said. "It feels kind of weird…but it feels kind of right, too. I…I can't deny that it's nice to be part of something bigger than myself. To have people I can rely other than myself, backup I can call upon. A place to belong."

Weiss smiled, softly and a little sadly. "Yeah. That…that's a great feeling, isn't it?"

Blake glanced at her. "Are you not tempted to put one of these on yourself?" she asked.

Weiss snorted. "My father would never allow that. He's already lost one daughter to the military. She…Winter was going to quit, but…with things being the way they are…Atlas needs her."

"Atlas needs everyone it can get," Blake said. "You're far too talented to be shut up in these walls for the rest of your life."

"Am I?" Weiss asked.

"Maybe you weren't the best team leader," Blake said. "But then I wasn't great myself. Doesn't mean that we're not good huntresses."

"I was a huntress," Weiss said. "What I am now…I don't know."

"You're not the first person to wonder that," Blake said. She didn't look at Blake, rather her eyes were directed up at the stars and the broken moon hanging in the sky. "After Mountain Glenn…I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing or who I was supposed to be."

"And now you know," Weiss said. "You're an Atlesian specialist."

"I am," Blake said. "But that…that's not my end state. At least it doesn't feel like it. It's…it's a way of finding out who I am at the end of the line."

Weiss frowned. "And how will you know when you've found the answer?"

"I don't know," Blake said. "Maybe I never will. Maybe the journey is the only thing that matters, so long as I keep moving and changing…do you know how Flash is doing?"

Weiss bowed her head. "No. I…I haven't been to see him."

"Don't you think he'd like to see you?"

"Why would he, I'm the reason he lost a leg," Weiss said.

Blake looked as though she wanted to say something, but didn't. "It's your choice," she said softly. "But…are you a prisoner here or can you leave the house."

Weiss chuckled softly. "Father isn't that bad…yet. I can go out, as long as he approves of the places I'm going."

"In that case, Twilight asked if you wanted to come to lunch tomorrow."

"With her?"

"With both of us," Blake said. "I think her friend Rarity is going to be there too."

"What's she like?"

Blake considered that for a moment. "I think you might find her a little much at first. Unfortunately she'll probably fawn on you a little bit."

"Oh," Weiss said. She wasn't really looking forward to this.

"But if you can get past that…I think you'll find she's a good person. For what it's worth I don't think there are any of Twilight's friends who aren't good people. You could do a lot worse."

Weiss considered for half a moment. "Okay. Tell Twilight I'll be there…wherever it is." After all, what was she going to do if she refused? Mope around the house? Sit and stare forlornly out of the window. If she was going to be back home in Atlas she might as well try and enjoy herself, at least a little. "You know she could have just called."

"She doesn't have your number," Blake said. "Neither do I, for that matter."

"Oh," Weiss said. "I…sorry, I'll have to rectify that. That way you won't have to creep into my grounds in order to run Twilight's errands."

"That's not the only reason I came," Blake said. "Your security is terrible, by the way."

"This is the heart of Atlas, we're not expecting any trouble."

"It still worries me a little," Blake said.

"I'm glad," Weiss said.

"That I'm worried?"

"No, that our security is terrible," Weiss said. "Otherwise it might have kept you out. So what's the other reason?"

"Huh? Oh, I…I just wanted to see that you were okay."

Weiss smiled. "I'm much better now, thank you." She looked up at the stars. "You're right; it is a pretty nice night."

* * *

Oscar Pine awoke, gasping for breath. What was that…that dream? He had dreamed of things that he'd never seen before, kinds of grimm larger and more monstrous than any he'd ever imagined in his worst nightmares, desperate battles, screaming…but it had all felt so real. It had felt as though he was really there, trapped in someone else's body, unable to escape as the battle raged on around him.

He had dreamed of two girls with hair that burned like fire, and though dreaming of girls wasn't entirely a novel experience for Oscar his imagination had never conjured any like these two before, or the third in a crimson cloak wield a scythe that was bigger than she was. The way that the faunus girl smiled, cocky and insecure at the same time, the way the moonlight caught their skin it was all so real.

And besides, if he had just been fantasising about a trio of girls ranging from cute to hot he wouldn't have imagined a tall older guy with them.

If it had just been that it would have been a pleasant enough dream, but those three girls – and the guy – that he dreamt of were surrounded by death and darkness, and so was the body that Oscar had dreamed himself trapped in. Captivity, that was what he remembered most, that was what made him wake up gasping and caked in sweat. He was trapped, unable to escape, while pain and death closed in around him.

"Oscar?" his mother's voice issued up from the kitchen. "Are you up yet? Breakfast is ready."

"I'm coming, Mom," Oscar said, as he got out of bed and prepared to face the new day.

It was a strange dream, but no more than that. It was just a dream, and being a dream was nothing for him to worry about.

Then why couldn't he just forget about it?


	189. Revelatory Request

Revelatory Request

The snows were beginning to melt in Vale, leaving the streets covered in a wet slush through which Sunset squelched as she made her way towards the café where Professor Goodwitch had asked to meet.

Her outfit had changed a little bit since the professor had seen her last, although the broad strokes of it were still pretty recognisable: her jacket had gotten a little shorter on the body, barely going down past her armpits to the extent that it was barely a jacket at all, and certainly it had no pockets to stick her hands in as she walked, although it did have orange stripes around the arms just above the elbows; her blouse was a turquoise that matched her eyes, with a pale yellow underskirt emerging from beneath it; only her blue jeans remained the same, while her boots were shorter and tighter, and had the same orange stripe as could be found on her jacket. She had left all her armour behind with Cinder, along with her weapons, although her bridal gloves yet embraced her hands and headed upwards before they disappeared beneath the sleeves of her jacket.

She banged her hands together against the cold as she walked, her breath misting up in front of her face. Nobody paid her any notice as she walked down the street, squelching through the slush as she went; Sunset Shimmer was old news now, and nobody paid that much attention to the Most Wanted list anyway.

All the same, there was a reason why she had to meet Professor Goodwitch at this café instead of going up to Beacon to see her.

Sunset's eyes turned upwards, her gaze travelling that way towards the school. The stump of the tower was visible still; four months after it had fallen and there was no noticeable progress on rebuilding it. Whether it was incompetence or a lack of interest Sunset couldn't say; she made a mental note to ask Cardin about it…and then she remembered that she could just ask Professor Goodwitch what was being done when she saw her in a few minutes time.

An unsteady mountain of pots and pans and kitchen utensils, piled high outside the bingo hall – requisitioned by the newly minted Valish Voluntary Service – suggested that it wasn't apathy that was behind the lack of progress on repairing the tower, so much as resources moving in other directions. Sunset might not have agreed with everything that the Committee of Public Safety was doing to secure Vale, but it couldn't be denied that it was setting too with a restless energy to which the people of Vale were responding; take all those pots and pans and utensils for example, they had all been voluntarily donated by the people of Vale, and mountains like it were growing all over the city. The call had gone out for all kinds of household metal to be melted down and made into warships for Vale's new air fleet, and the people of Vale had, it must be said, risen to the occasion; pots, pans, oven trays, the iron railings from parks and gardens, antique old door knocks, all had been donated to the cause of keeping the kingdom safe from future grimm attacks. Voluntary organisations had flourished like flowers springing up after a rain has finally wet the ground after a long drought: the Voluntary Service which did things like collect all the pots and pans and deliver public information leaflets and organise evacuation drills; the Home Guard for those too old or otherwise unable to join the new Army of Vale; the Auxiliary Nursing Corps; the Anti-Air Defence Corps who crewed the AA batteries springing up in all the parks and public spaces of the city; the Kingdom of Vale was coming together in ways that it never had during the long years of peace that had preceded the battle of Vale.

It was just sad that it had taken such a battle and the shattering of that long peace to bring about such a situation; just as it was sad that all of this pent up civic energy and communal spirit was being directed outwards in a fashion which seemed so uncontrolled. It seemed to Sunset a little as though nobody really knew how to keep Vale safe, so they were trying every single idea that they could think of and then some, and that some of these volunteer organisations were more about making otherwise helpless citizens feel involved and as though they were making a difference than they were about making real improvements to the state of affairs. Could you really make air cruisers out of kitchen utensils?

Sunset walked past a platoon of the Home Guard marching the other way. They were old men for the most part, although she saw one boy who looked old enough to be a Beacon student wearing a maroon scarf around his neck; they were armed with carving knives tied around broom handles to create makeshift spears; they had no uniforms, and instead were dressed as if they'd just come from work: a straw hat and striped apron, the three-piece suit of a bank manager. Sunset was a little surprised to find that some of them had their auras activated, and guessed that they might be retired huntsmen, but that didn't change the fact that they were old men with carving knives strapped to broom handles, where they going to stop the grimm?

She supposed that people wanted to feel useful, and that there was no harm in them being allowed to feel useful, but wasn't there something actually useful that the government could be doing to protect the kingdom, like mend fences with Mistral and Atlas and get the foreign students who had actually protected the kingdom last time to come back?

Enthusiasm and a sense of public unity was all very well but Sunset couldn't help but think that without huntsmen it could all turn out to be tragically in vain.

 _Which is why I do what I do, I suppose. Take out the problems far away so that granddad going down the road can feel like he'd be ready when the time comes without having to actually find out._

The streets were lined with posters, a contradictory series of pulls appealing for men for just about everything: the army, the navy (as far as Sunset knew they hadn't built any warships yet, but they'd been sticking guns on skyliners for the last three months), Beacon Academy, Combat School, every volunteer association that had sprung up after the battle; they all appealed for men and women to join their ranks, each claiming that theirs was the path down which you could best make a difference; each claimed that they needed you more than anybody else. Cardin's face beamed down at her from several posters, as did those of Coco Adel and Velvet Scarlettina to be fair (and other faces that Sunset didn't recognise) but it was Cardin's face with which she was most familiar and so it was his face which both amused and slightly irritated her, although not as much as she knew it irritated him.

Unlock Your Potential! Proclaimed one recruiting poster featuring the Winchester scion, and Sunset had to admit that joining the military had done more for Cardin Winchester than Beacon Academy ever had.

She reached the café where she was meeting Professor Goodwitch, a middle-market establishment with a modern look to it: big windows that enabled you to look out onto the street and also let anyone out on the street look in at you; a white tiled floor, metallic furniture which Sunset was almost surprised to see hadn't been donated to build warships yet (in fairness it was harder for businesses to volunteer this stuff than ordinary households, and this was a chain establishment). It wasn't particularly crowded, in fact when Sunset walked in she could only see four other people there: a cute couple on a date, and a guy with glasses tapping away on his scroll while he sipped from a large latte.

The fourth customer was Professor Goodwitch herself, and Sunset caught her eye as she made her way down the café to where she sat, about in the middle of the place.

"Professor," Sunset said as she pulled out the chair and sat down.

Professor Goodwitch smiled softly. "You're not my student any more, Miss Shimmer."

"No," Sunset agreed. "But calling you anything would seem…strange."

Professor Goodwitch didn't press the point. "Thank you for agreeing to meet with me."

"How could I not?" Sunset asked. "I was surprised you were able to reach me."

"You have become a hard person to get into contact with."

"Well, I am-" Sunset stopped as the waitress arrived, and took Sunset's order of a hot chocolate and a caramel shortcake. Professor Goodwitch, having nearly finished her latte, ordered another.

"At the risk of sounding rude I hope you're paying for this, Professor," Sunset said. "I'm not exactly drawing a salary at the moment, and the money that Lady Nikos was sending me has dried up."

"Don't worry, I'm picking up the tab," Professor Goodwitch assured her.

"Thanks," Sunset said. Her gaze briefly followed the waitress, who was now behind the counter making the drinks. "Is she the only person working here?"

Professor Goodwitch nodded. "I used to know four people who worked here, but one of them has joined the army, one the navy, and the last has applied to Beacon. Everyone wants to do their part these days."

"So it seems," Sunset said. "You come here often?"

"Every now and then," Professor Goodwitch said. "It was sufficiently far from Beacon that I could be reasonably sure of not being disturbed, whether I needed time to grade papers without being interrupted or just wanted to get away for a little bit."

"Which is what makes it a good place for us to meet too," Sunset said. "It wouldn't do for me to be seen coming up to Beacon. Although I'm not exactly attracting a lot notice for a supposed fugitive."

Professor Goodwitch chuckled. "The kingdom has a lot on its mind right now."

The two fell silent as their orders arrived, and they only resumed their conversation when the waitress went away again.

"So how did you reach me?" Sunset said.

"I've been trying ever since I found out that you got out of prison," Professor Goodwitch said. "Eventually I twisted Mister Winchester's arm until he gave me your new number."

"I'm sorry you've been frustrated," Sunset said. "But my mission is supposed to be confidential; just like the work I used to do for Professor Ozpin." She paused for a moment, thinking about the headmaster, before she attempted to brush such thoughts aside. "So how is it, being Headmistress of Beacon."

"I'm only the Acting Headmistress," Professor Goodwitch said. "At the moment Professor Ozpin is officially missing, and a permanent replacement won't be appointed until he has been confirmed dead."

"That's a little ridiculous."

"I don't think they want me on the council," Professor Goodwitch said. "As only acting headmistress they don't have to give me that seat."

"Is there a reason they don't want you on the council?" Sunset asked.

Professor Goodwitch sighed sadly, and looked out of the large window to her right. "There are times when I wonder what's happening to this country," she murmured. "You'll have seen that no work has begun on repairing the tower."

Sunset nodded.

Professor Goodwitch continued. "I think that there are certain elements who don't want the CCT network restored, they're happier keeping Vale isolated from the other kingdoms."

"Seriously?" Sunset said. "Vale survived because we stood together."

"And now the goal is to make sure that Vale can stand alone," Professor Goodwitch said. "I agree with you, Miss Shimmer, but let's not pretend that that isn't where Vale is heading: splendid isolation."

"Things will calm down," Sunset said. "The grimm attack will become more distant, people won't care so much, all of this enthusiasm will die away and people will remember that we're stronger together than we are apart."

"I hope so," Professor Goodwitch murmured. "But in the meantime people don't want me saying that in the council chamber." She shook her head sadly. "Ozpin wouldn't have wanted this."

"I'm not super happy about all of it," Sunset said. "But Cardin says that Vale has to do more to defend itself than it did in the past…and I can't say he doesn't have a point."

"Perhaps," Professor Goodwitch conceded. "Perhaps I am simply too wedded to the way things were to see that they have to change. And I suppose if James can have all of his troops and toys then there's no reason we shouldn't have some too. But that's not what really concerns me."

"That's not what concerns either of," Sunset said. She sipped her hot chocolate. "Professor, you didn't really ask me to meet with you so that we could talk politics, did you?"

"No, Miss Shimmer, I'm afraid not," Professor Goodwitch said. "I asked you to meet me because I have a job for you."

Sunset's eyebrows rose. "A job as in…Professor Ozpin's work?"

Professor Goodwitch nodded. "I need you to go to Anima for me."

Sunset snorted. "Come on, Professor, if you've talked to Cardin then you know that I can't do that."

"I know that this is far more important than your indenture to Vale," Professor Goodwitch said. "I know that you know how high the stakes really are here. And I know that you're the only I can ask to do this. James has his responsibilities in Atlas just as I have responsibilities here, and with the CCT down I can't make contact with Qrow or Miss Nikos; you're the last one, the last member of our organisation that I can reach. You're the only one who can do this."

"And yet I can't do it," Sunset said. "How am I supposed to tell Cardin that I need him to let me wander off to Anima for…for what? What's so important that you need me to do this?" She began to sip her hot chocolate.

"Professor Ozpin is alive," Professor Goodwitch said.

Sunset choked on her hot chocolate, and put the cup down heavily as she coughed and snorted and tried to get it all out of her windpipe and nostrils. She was still left with a very uncomfortable sensation up her nose as she looked up at Professor Goodwitch. "What? What the…what do you mean he's alive? Pyrrha found his cane and his glasses and he's been missing for the past four months. What's he been doing? And in Anima? We…I mourned him and all the while he's been, what? Sitting on a beach somewhere drinking out of a coconut shell."

"That's Menagerie you're thinking of, not Anima," Professor Goodwitch said dryly.

"Not funny, Professor," Sunset growled. "I'm serious, I…I thought he was dead and I…" She had wept, for all the time wasted on her groundless, paranoid suspicion of the man, the man who had turned out to mean more to her than she had ever realised when he was actually around for her to tell him so. She had wept until her eyes were red and raw and now to find out that he had ditched them to run away to Anima? "How could he treat us like that? Pyrrha was even more upset than I was and you're going to tell me that…" she shook her head. "I don't believe it."

"It's true," Professor Goodwitch said.

"Professor Ozpin wouldn't just abandon the fight and run off," Sunset said. "He wouldn't abandon us, that isn't who he was."

"No," Professor Goodwitch said. "It isn't. But he wasn't given a choice in the matter. Allow me to explain: the body of the man you knew as Professor Ozpin is dead, I have no doubt of that; it was destroyed, probably by Amber, thus accounting for the paucity of remains that Miss Nikos was able to discover.

"But though the body dies the soul remains, and the soul of Professor Ozpin is…unique."

"Unique…how?" Sunset asked.

"Cursed by the gods in ancient times," Professor Goodwitch said softly. "Cursed never to find rest until he can vanquish Salem."

"But the Professor himself told us that Salem is un-vanquishable."

"It is a curse," Professor Goodwitch pointed out.

Sunset leaned back in her chair. "So…Professor Ozpin is immortal but his body isn't, is that what you're trying to tell me."

"That is exactly it, Miss Shimmer," Professor Goodwitch replied. "When one body dies, his spirit is reincarnated, in a sense, into a new host."

Sunset frowned. That seemed like a far less efficient means of immortality than simply not dying like Princess Celestia, but then a lot of things about Remnant were inefficient compared to their Equestrian counterparts – Maidens versus princess for example. "So…it was always him, wasn't it? The old man in the stories, the founder of the secret circle, it was just him all the time wasn't it, wearing different faces as he went along."

"Precisely," Professor Goodwitch said. "This is the worst time for this to have happened, we need him and his leadership now more than ever. Without him the organisation is in chaos, I have no idea what James is doing or where Qrow even is."

"That's as much to do with the towers being down, Professor," Sunset murmured.

"That is true, but it doesn't change the fact that we need Ozpin to take charge once more," Professor Goodwitch said. "I don't know where he is, or what he looks like; nothing about his reincarnation can be predicted except that it cycles through the kingdoms; last time was Vale, so Mistral will be next and that is good because Mistral – with Miss Nikos and Mister Arc and maybe even Qrow – offers the best chance to take stock and rebuild."

"So you want me to go to Anima, find the new Ozpin without any idea where to start or how to find him, and bring him to Mistral?" Sunset said. "Why didn't you just tell Pyrrha and Jaune about all this before they left?"

"I would have if I could have reached them," Professor Goodwitch said. "The Mistralians wouldn't let me anywhere near Miss Nikos; Valish authority figures no longer had their trust, and I can't entirely blame them."

Nor could Sunset, but it made things very awkward. Pyrrha and Jaune would have been ideally placed to take care of this, or at least as ideally as anyone considering the difficulty of the task. "I can't do it, Professor."

"You're the only who can."

"It's not as simple as you seem to think," Sunset replied. "Team Sapphire is gone, in my new team there is one person who I trust not to slit my throat while I'm sleeping. How am I supposed to go looking for Professor Ozpin with a band of cutthroats and desperadoes trailing at my heels?"

"Leave them behind," Professor Goodwitch said.

"I would, believe me, but…" Sunset hesitated. "I gave my word, Professor. I gave my word to Cardin that I would fight for Vale. I know that this is important but if my word doesn't mean anything then do I really deserve to serve Professor Ozpin?"

"He must be found," Professor Goodwitch said. "The new host will be a young man, maybe even a boy, that's how it works. Someone who knows nothing of any of this, probably not trained in combat, all alone and thrown into a struggle beyond anything he could imagine. He must be found and protected. The servants of the enemy will be seeking him also, we have to get to him first. You have to get to him first."

Sunset frowned. It wasn't that she didn't want to go, and she certainly didn't want to turn her back on Professor Ozpin now that he needed here more than ever; she'd left to him die once at the hands of Amber, how could she leave him again for the servants of Salem to come upon him in some dark place where there was no help? Pyrrha and Jaune were close at hand but neither had any idea of this; she was the only one Professor Goodwitch had been able, at last, to tell.

She was being offered a chance to make things right, to do better by the professor than she had done, to serve him better than she had done.

But at the same time… "I have responsibilities here, Professor. Vale needs me and I can't just keep running away every time it's inconvenient for me to stick around."

"Not even when you know that what is at stake matters so much more?"

"I think Professor Ozpin would be the first to say that the survival of an entire kingdom is worth more than his life," Sunset murmured.

"This Kingdom doesn't understand that the greatest danger to it has passed," Professor Goodwitch said. "Now that Salem has the Relic of Choice the Kingdom of Vale is of no more interest to her. I don't know what her new design will be but we have no hope of countering it without Ozpin, especially now that she has one of the relics in her possession."

"You put me in a tight spot, Professor."

"I think we're all in a tight spot at the moment, Miss Shimmer."

Sunset couldn't argue with that. "Cardin might more amenable if you would let me-"

"That isn't your decision to make, Miss Shimmer, or mine," Professor Goodwitch said. "Professor Ozpin always decided who would know the truth that lurks in the shadows; others might make their recommendations, but the final decision rests with him."

"And do you think General Ironwood is adhering to that rule in Atlas?"

"What James does in Atlas has no bearing on what we do here in Vale," Professor Goodwitch replied primly. "And besides, I have no reason to believe that Mister Winchester is deserving of this knowledge or could be trusted with it; I cannot reveal such information as we are privileged and burdened to possess to anyone simply to make our lives easier."

Sunset frowned. There wasn't much to argue with that, either. "What about Ruby? Have you spoken to her?"

Professor Goodwitch shook her head sadly. "I don't think anyone's spoken to Miss Rose since she went home."

"What if I spoke to her," Sunset said. It should be easier to persuade Cardin to let her go to Patch than to let her go to Anima. "Told her what you've told me. Then…maybe she would go." That would be the ideal, for Ruby to find, guard and protect Ozpin while Sunset continued her unpleasant work here in Vale.

"Do you really believe she will?" Professor Goodwitch asked.

Honestly the answer was no, but this also the only easy answer left to Sunset because if (when?) Ruby refused then she would be in the position of having to make some hard choices. So she had to give it a try.

And besides, it had been too long since she had seen Ruby. Since anyone had seen Ruby. She wanted to see how she was doing.

"I don't know," Sunset said.

"And what will you do if she can't go?" Professor Goodwitch said. "Or won't?"

"I…" Sunset fell silent for a moment. "I really don't know."

* * *

 _Three Months Earlier…_

Sunset sat down in the room. It was an unfamiliar part of the prison to her, though it looked like an interview room of some description: moderately sized, sparse, but with a table in the middle of it and a chair on either side. She wasn't sure why a prison needed an interview room, but perhaps it was in case more evidence surfaced after the verdict.

She glanced at Douglas, the guard whose life she'd saved during the prison riot. "So what am I doing here?"

He shrugged.

"Come on, I saved your life," Sunset said. "The least you could do is answer one question."

"If I had an answer, I'd give it to you," he said. "I was just told to bring you in here. Someone wants to talk to you. That's all I know." He paused. "Actually, I know one other thing. I was told to wait outside, someone wants this private."

"Someone who isn't scared either," Sunset murmured. "Or they just know I won't make any trouble." She smiled in an attempt at seeming jocular. "Perhaps they've decided my sentence and have come to tell me that I'm getting out of here, huh?"

 _Or they've decided to put me to death and have come to tell me how long I have left to live._

She couldn't discount the possibility, even after the battle. For the last month she had heard nothing about her sentencing hearing, let alone her sentence. She hadn't been asked to provide a list of witnesses who would speak up in mitigation for her, and even if she had been asked most of them had gone by now: Pyrrha and Jaune had sailed for Mistral last week with the remnants of the Mistralian Expeditionary Force, Pyrrha's mother, the Haven students and most of the Mistral-born Beacon students too; Ruby had gone home to tend to her father; Team RSPT had pulled out two weeks ago with the Atlesian forces, taking Blake with them. Professor Ozpin was dead. She was all alone.

She was alone and Vale was in chaos. The news that Sunset had been hearing, mostly passed to her by Mister Douglas, who seemed to feel – not without justification – that he owed her for saving his life, wasn't great. The fact that the Mistralian and Atlesian students had all left Beacon was a very bad sign of the way things were going. Vale was in bad odour with both of those nations and it seemed determined to make it worse with its turn towards inward looking isolation. How long before they turned on the faunus?

Apparently the Council had declared a state of emergency, suspending normal processes and elevating a select few of its number to form a Committee of Public Safety with powers greater than those allowed to the Council in normal circumstances. Sunset hadn't been blind to the possibility that one of those new powers might allow them to simply put her to death without any due process; that was one of the reasons why she'd given the Maiden powers to Pyrrha: because if she was going to die then she wanted to be able to choose her successor now rather than take the risk of who might end up being the last person in her thoughts when they put her to death.

The other reason was that, even if she was not put to death, then the powers of the Fall Maiden wouldn't be much good to her in a cell; better that they should be out in the wild, as it were, where Pyrrha would make good use of them.

 _Whatever happens next, I've done the best I could to make sure that I'm not missed too much._

Mister Douglas tried to smile at her. "I'm sure it's not bad news, whatever it is."

Sunset nodded stiffly. "Maybe not," she said, without much conviction.

 _I really wish I could believe you._

"I…" he hesitated. "I'll be rooting for you, kid, and I'm not the only one here, either. Good luck."

Sunset, her eyes fixed on the other door, the door through which her visitor would shortly – hopefully, although she wasn't impatient for it to be over with she didn't want to wait in dread ignorance for a long time either – emerge, didn't see him go. She just heard the door behind her clank shut with a heavy metallic thud.

And then the room was empty save for her.

Empty like her life. Ruby gone, Pyrrha gone, Jaune gone; Blake gone, RSPT gone; Professor Ozpin dead.

Professor Ozpin dead. Dead without them ever getting a chance to move on past all the ways that she had let him down over Amber. Dead without him getting a chance to see her become the Fall Maiden, if only for a little while. Dead without her getting a chance to tell him how much she cared about him, valued his wisdom, his trust. Before she could thank him for giving her a shot, for seeing something in her that nobody had seen since Princess Celestia. Dead before she really got a chance to learn from him, as she would have liked.

 _I'm not sure whether I would have been a good Fall Maiden, Professor, but I would have done my best._

 _In the end, I hope that you agree that the choice I made was the right one._

 _She was always your first choice, after all._

But he was gone now, and she was all alone. That was good, it meant there wouldn't be a scene and nobody would get hurt or ruin their reputations trying to help her.

It also meant that she was alone. All alone except for Cinder, who was in here with Sunset; that was some consolation, even if she wasn't much help to Sunset's hopes.

The door at the other end of the room opened. It took Sunset a moment to recognise the man who walked through the door as Cardin Winchester, mostly because she wasn't used to seeing him out of either his armour or a Beacon uniform. He was wearing a different sort of uniform now: navy blue with silver piping on the collar and cuffs, slightly baggy trousers and polished black boots that thumped on the floor as he marched inside.

Sunset's eyebrows rose. "Cardin?"

"Sunset," he said, in an even tone that could have meant anything at all.

"That's a new uniform," Sunset observed.

"Uh-huh," Cardin said as he sat down. "It's Captain Winchester now, Captain Cardin Winchester of the Valish Corps of Specialists."

"The Corps of Specialists?"

"We're new," Cardin said.

Sunset rested her elbows on the table in front of her. "You realise that just because you take names from the Atlesian military it doesn't actually make you the Atlesian military."

"We don't want to be the Atlesian military," Cardin said. "We want to be the Valish military, and keep Vale safe from the grimm and all our other enemies."

"What other enemies?"

"The White Fang," Cardin suggested. "And anyone…anyone else, who we'll find out if they try and make trouble for us."

"Right," Sunset murmured. "So you're…what's the name…um-"

"The self-strengthening movement?" Cardin suggested. "Yeah, I guess you could say that. I'd just call myself a patriot but if you want to stick me in a box I suppose that's as good a box as any for me to go in. It's a box that we should all want to go in."

"You think?"

"Yes," Cardin said firmly. He placed his own hands on the table. "I know that you were one of Professor Ozpin's prized students, and I know that you probably feel a kind of loyalty to the old man and his way of thinking, but come on: the Breach, the two grimm attacks during the Vytal Festival, the battle of Vale, what more do you want? Vale needs to start taking its defence seriously if its going to survive, we can't just rely on Atlas any more, especially after what happened during the battle."

"After the way that Council alienated Atlas and Mistral with its behaviour, you mean?" Sunset said.

"Exactly," Cardin said, surprising Sunset with his agreement; she had expected him to try and defend the decisions of the Valish authorities. "That was stupid, but we are where we are and where we are is that the Atlesian fleet sailed home two weeks ago."

"I know."

"And you also know that the Mistralians are gone too."

"Yes, I know that too," Sunset said. "Pyrrha came to say goodbye. Self-strengthening sounds all well and good but how exactly is Vale strengthened by driving out all the foreign students, some of the best students in Beacon?"

"Of course not," Cardin snapped. "I know that I missed most of the battle but I know what happened. I know that Vale wouldn't still be standing without Polendina and the Atlesians and all the other students from all the other academies. I know how much better Nikos and Schnee and all the others who are leaving are than me and the rest of us who are left behind. I know that half of the ideas being thrown around for how we can protect ourselves are dumb ones. But you know what? It doesn't matter, because I'm not making those decisions and I can't do anything about them; I don't have to like everything that the Council or the Committee or whatever does, I just have to live here. Because I do live here, Vale is my home and I'm going to fight for it no matter how many stupid things it does. I'm going to fight for it…and I'd like you to fight for it too."

"You want me to fight?" Sunset said. She hesitated. "You just got done saying that you don't make the decisions."

"I don't," Cardin said. "But my family has a little pull. Not enough to stop all of the stupid, but enough that I could push one idea and see it float to the top, and that one idea was you."

"Me?"

Cardin leaned forward. "What are you doing in here, Sunset?"

"The judge is your grandfather, why don't you ask him what I did."

"I know what you did," Cardin said. "And ordinarily I'd be fine with throwing away the key, but Vale needs you right now; more than ever maybe, with so many of the best students having left. But that's not what I asked: I asked why you were here."

Sunset frowned. "I don't follow the difference."

"I read the reports from the guards about what happened during the battle, the way you saved the prison was pretty impressive," Cardin said.

"Thank you," Sunset said softly.

"What was most impressive was the fact that you got out of your cell with your collar off before the White Fang disabled the security systems," Cardin said.

Sunset licked her lips. "You picked up on that, huh? You're not as dumb as you look."

Cardin refused to be deflected. "That collar isn't doing jack to you, is it?"

"It's doing something," Sunset said.

"But not enough."

"You don't need to be scared of me," Sunset said. "My intentions are honourable."

"I know," Cardin said. "I got that from the fact that you could have walked out of here any time you wanted, but you haven't. That's the reason I'm here, that's the reason I pushed my folks to use up our influence to get this."

"And what is 'this'?" Sunset asked.

"I want you to fight for Vale," Cardin said. "Officially, you'll have broken out of prison and remain a fugitive…I wanted to get you a pardon, but nobody wants to take the heat for letting you out of jail right now."

"So officially I'm the most wanted person in Vale," Sunset said. "What about unofficially?"

"Unofficially you'll be leading a squad of…talented convicts on missions to protect Vale from threats to its security," Cardin said. "All your missions will come from me, all your reports will go through me, and together we can make Vale a safer place."

"Convicts?" Sunset said flatly. "You want me to lead convicts? Cutthroats and desperadoes?"

"What do you think you are?" Cardin asked.

"I…okay, fair enough, but like you just said yourself, I'm different; how many people in this prison do you think would still be here if they could leave?"

"Why do you think I want you to lead, you're the only person I can think of who wouldn't bail at the first opportunity."

"So I'm keeping an eye on them?"

"Just like I'm keeping an eye on you," Cardin said. "Theoretically, at least."

Sunset was silent for a moment. It wasn't an idea that filled her with enthusiasm to say the least, and to from Team SAPR to Team Murderers wasn't filling her with warm and fuzzy feelings, but on the other hand…what else was she going to do? Go back to her cell and rot away? Wasn't doing something, doing some good no less, worth a little discomfort? "You really used up your credibility for this? You don't even like me."

"Like you said yourself once, hearts can change," Cardin said. "And so can we. Vale doesn't have time for me to hold onto stupid schoolboy grudges any more. Vale needs every weapon that it can lay its hands on…and that's what worries me."

"Is it bad out there?" Sunset said. "I've heard…some things that didn't sound great?"

"People are scared," Cardin said. "People are desperate. We've got no time at all to build what it took Atlas years to get right. They've already graduated all the students who fought at the battle, they're talking about graduating the ones who didn't fight as well so that we can get more bodies in the field. Some people are even talking about graduating the third and fourth year students from the Combat Schools."

"The Combat Schools?" Sunset said. "They're just kids."

"So was Ruby, so the thinking goes."

"Okay, but Ruby's a prodigy," Sunset said. "You can't generalise by the exception, everybody knows that. You put those kids out in the field you're going to get ten kids dead for every Ruby Rose you find."

"I know that," Cardin said. "I know that we need to give them time to grow into passable huntsmen. I know that we shouldn't have sent away all the great huntsmen that we already had just because they weren't born here. I know that even while we were building our own military we should have crawled on our hands and knees to get Atlas to stay instead of saying 'good riddance' as they flew home. I know that for everybody good idea someone is having about we keep Vale safe someone else is having a bad one. That's why I needed to come up with a good idea, something to balance out a bad one that someone else is having. That's why Vale needs you; you're one of the best huntresses in the school and I think that if we act now then…maybe when you're done things won't look quite so scary and people will stop talking about sending kids out to fight."

He had a point there, and a point that was pretty inarguable when Sunset thought about it. He was right that Professor Ozpin probably wouldn't have wanted all of this, but if Atlas then why not Vale? Why shouldn't they protect themselves?

And Cardin said that they were scared, and fear that would bring more grimm was what Professor Ozpin had most wanted to avoid. If she could help lessen that fear, if by working in the shadows she could make the sun seem brighter, then didn't she have an obligation to do it?

She was a huntress. She might never graduate but that didn't change the fact that she was, finally, a huntress in her heart. She wouldn't make sacrifices, and included standing by while Vale sacrificed the seed-corn of the nation because they were panicking like headless chickens. She wouldn't turn her back on those in need, which sounded like everybody right now.

She wouldn't sit in a cell when she was being offered the chance to get out of it and do some good.

"I want Cinder," she said. "You want me because you trust me, I want Cinder because I trust her. She's the only person I can think of who I can trust."

"Fine, I'm sure I can arrange that," Cardin said. "So you'll do it?"

"Yeah," Sunset said. "I'll fight for Vale, and for you."

 _Although if I'd known that I was going to get out of here I might not have given the Maiden's magic away._

* * *

 _Now…_

There was an anti-air battery in the park, a four barrelled autocannon with boxy magazines and a complicated sighting mechanism half-dug into the lightly frosted ground; it was surrounded by a shallow layer of sandbags, and a couple of men wrapped up against the cold kept the children away.

Because there were still plenty of children here, in spite of the presence of the instrument of war in the middle of the public space; the snow had not quite melted here as it had on the streets Sunset had walked down to reach the café, and there was just enough left for a few shrieking children to be making snowballs to hurl at one another while their mothers watched with mingled happiness and anxiety. Other children kicked a football around, driving gorges through the snow as they forced the ball through the receding drifts; still more were playing a game that seemed to mostly involve chasing one another around while screaming very loudly. Despite the presence on the gun in the midst of it all the park all around the battery teemed with life and enjoyment: Sunset could see a man and a woman walking together, and the man was obviously very much in love with her else he wouldn't have put up with the fact that the woman was paying far more attention to the overweight pug in her arms than she was to him; another woman was being pulled along by her greyhound as it raced through the snow deaf to her pleas to slow down just a little, please? If it wasn't for the gun then you might never know that anything was amiss in Vale.

Maybe that was the point? Maybe that was the point of all of it, the pots and pans, the old men with their knives and broom handles, the army of volunteers, the army itself even; maybe it wasn't going to stop the grimm but so long as it stopped people from panicking, so long as it made them feel same, then maybe the grimm wouldn't come again anyway.

At the edge of the park somebody had parked a van selling coffee and crepes; Sunset knew that she shouldn't eat after having had a cake with Professor Goodwitch, but it was cold out here and so she brought herself a coffee and clutched the cardboard cup tightly in both hands as she walked through the snow towards a park bench. It was lightly dusted with snow, but she used her tail like a brush to clear it away before she sat down to wait for Cardin.

The screaming of all the children, wrapped up in their winter coats and bobble hats (it was getting into early spring by now, but nobody had told the weather that) filled the air. She noticed one child standing a little on his own, away from the rest. It looked as though he was trying to get a kite up, but the wind wasn't quite strong enough to lift it. It had left him looking absurdly dispirited.

Sunset wasn't quite so old that she couldn't remember the way that objectively small things couldn't feel enormous when you were a kid, and she needed to get more practice in with her pegasus powers. They came less naturally to her than unicorn magic, but now that she had, it seemed, ascended when she wasn't looking they were as much a part of her as her earth-pony-born increases in strength and stamina, so she might as well use them.

It took a little more concentration than calling on what she still thought of simply as magic, but fortunately she wasn't trying to do very much: just create a gently breeze to blow across the park and lift that kite up into the air and set it fluttering there.

She still had to concentrate, especially since she didn't just have a pair of wings she could beat to start this off. She had to imagine the wings, feel them as though they were there, draw them in her mind and make them real; she had to conjure the breeze within herself, not too strong and not too weak either, conjure it in tranquillity and send it forth into the world.

Sunset smiled as the little kid squealed for joy as his kite began to dance amongst the air currents.

She thought that the princesses would approve of such a little use of her new powers.

Which reminded her that she should tell Princess Celestia the news about Professor Ozpin; when Sunset had finally gotten her journal back and informed the princess of the professor's death her old teacher had taken it surprisingly hard. Apparently it had only taken a single conversation for them to grow close, or feel as though they had. She would probably be glad to learn then, that he was alive in some form; although what she would think of the method of his immortality…Sunset wasn't sure what she thought of it. She wasn't sure that she quite understood it.

She almost hoped that she didn't understand it, because it meant it could still be better than it sounded.

 _Else it isn't just a curse for Professor Ozpin but for the kid as well._

Cardin, swathed in a dull and nondescript overcoat which hid his uniform – judging by his boots he wasn't wearing his armour; Sunset found that she was getting more and more used to the uniform – sat down beside her. He was holding a coffee in one hand and a disposable polythene plate with a chocolate-hazelnut and banana crepe on it in the other.

"Oh my goodness, is that the Cardin Winchester?" Sunset declared in mock surprise. "I think I might faint."

"Shut up," Cardin muttered, sipping his steaming coffee. "It's weird, isn't it?"

"What?"

"This," Cardin said. "Everyone just doing their thing as though that gun wasn't even there."

"You and me, Cardin," Sunset said. "We're making all of Vale feel safe."

Cardin snorted. "Yeah, right."

"We're making a difference, aren't we?" Sunset said. "Or else what's the point."

Cardin glanced at her. He nodded. "Yeah, we're making a difference."

"Thank Celestia for that, or this would be depressing," Sunset said, as she plucked one of the slices of banana off Cardin's crepe and popped it in her mouth.

"Hey!"

"Serves you right for having your breakfast in front of me," Sunset said. She paused. "How long are the banana supplies going to hold up if we don't resume trade with Menagerie soon?"

Cardin blinked. "You know…I hadn't thought of that."

"Has anybody thought of that?"

"They've probably thought that keeping White Fang infiltrators out is more important than whether we have bananas."

"Say that when all of the exotic fruit is gone and there are riots in the streets," Sunset said. "So how as Alexandria?"

"I arrested the commandant, thanks to you and the proof you provided."

"Glad I could help, but not what I asked," Sunset said. "How was Alexandria? You must have had a little time to see the sights."

"Why do you care?"

"Because I didn't so I'd like to hear it from you," Sunset said. "They say the library there is one of the biggest in all of Remnant; maybe the biggest."

"Did you read that in a guidebook?"

"…yes," Sunset said.

"I didn't go to any libraries," Cardin said. He shifted slightly uncomfortably in his seat. "They gave me a tour of Pharos," he said; he ate some of his crepe before Sunset could steal any more of it.

"The Combat School?"

Cardin, his mouth full, nodded.

"What's that like?"

"Full of eager kids," Cardin said. "I think you would have liked the tower. If they can't rebuild Beacon tower then I think Pharos would work as our connection to the CCT network."

"Does anyone want to rebuild the CCT network?"

Cardin didn't answer. "Those kids…the way that they looked at me. The headmaster introduced me as a hero and…we were never wide-eyed, right? We never thought that we were just going to show up and all the grimm were going to fall down dead and we'd right our names in the history pages."

"No, that's definitely what we thought," Sunset said. "I'm not sure if it isn't something that you have grow out of on your own; people can tell you its wrong but you need to go through some things to actually believe them." She fell silent for a moment. "You didn't answer my question about the CCT."

"I don't have an answer for you," Cardin said. "I don't think there's an opinion one way or the other; just people fighting about it." He ate some more crepe. "I also got to go down to the docks and see the new ships they're building, the _Beacon_ , the _Signal_ , and the _Pharos._ There's not much to them but the start of skeletons, but they're working on it and that…that was good to see."

Sunset nodded. "So…things are going pretty well in Vale then?"

Cardin shrugged. "Everyone is pitching in, that's good."

"But?"

Cardin snorted. "I don't know why I tell you all of this stuff."

"Because who else are you going to tell? Come on, a little gossip from around the family table is the least you owe me."

"I let you out of prison and got you off a death sentence, I don't owe you squat!"

"I suppose not, if you want to be technical about it," Sunset muttered. "But is it so strange that I want to know that it isn't just you and me and Cinder keeping Vale safe?"

"Vale is safe," Cardin said. "It's safer than it was." He paused. "It's also going broke."

Sunset's eyebrows rose. "Seriously?"

"Raising an army, building a fleet, finishing the outer defences, installing anti-air defences, apparently all of this stuff costs money," Cardin said.

"Is that why the Home Guard don't have guns?"

"No, that's because we don't have enough guns to give them," Cardin said. "They're finding stocks of old rifles from the Great War, bolt action stuff, but they're all being used for the army; we ran out of modern rifles more than a month ago."

"Are you…how?"

Cardin finished his coffee. "Did you know that Vale has a thriving weapons industry?"

"It doesn't surprise me."

"There's a whole district called the Gunsmith's Quarter," Cardin went on.

"I didn't know that."

"Neither did I, although I probably should have cause the guy who made my Executioner works out of there," Cardin said. "But that's the problem: it's all custom work for huntsmen or private use. There isn't a single place in the whole of Vale that can gear up for the mass production of weapons that we need. Atlas has that capacity, even Mistral has some of it, but not us."

"The police? The National Guard?"

"Imported."

Sunset thought about it for a moment. "What about Merlot's Island?"

"Who?"

"Right, you weren't there," Sunset said. She wondered how to begin. "Okay, long story very short: summer break, we went on a mission and ended up following a chain of clues that led to a secret island base run by a mad scientist and I know this sounds like a James Blond movie but I swear this happened, anyway, he had an island base and a big part of the base was this factory where he was making advanced androids, better than anything the SDC or the Atlesian military is producing right now, and he was arming those robots with some pretty powerful guns. I don't know how many his facility was designed to produce but…it has to be better than nothing, right?"

Cardin looked at her. "And this facility is still there? It works?"

"It wasn't destroyed."

"And you're only bringing it up now?"

"I didn't know you had this problem until now," Sunset said. "Besides, you've got access to the mission reports, right? You could have found this out yourself."

"Why would I?" Cardin replied. "Do you know where this island is?"

"The coordinates will be-"

"In your report, got it," Cardin said. "I'll have it checked out." He nodded briskly. "Thanks, if this pans out it could be the life saver we need."

"Glad I could help," Sunset said. "Just remember that I did help when I ask you for a favour."

Cardin shook his head. "Go on."

"I need to go to Patch," Sunset said. "I need to talk to Ruby."

Cardin's jaw tightened. "Is this something to do with the talk you had with Professor Goodwitch?"

"You still call her that too, huh?"

"It wouldn't feel right not too," Cardin said.

Sunset hesitated. She watched the breath steam up in front of her face. "She asked me to do something for her; I can't do it so I need to ask Ruby to do it instead."

"What kind of a favour?"

"She…she wanted me to go to Anima."

Cardin spluttered. "You're right, you really can't do that. I couldn't let you do that even if you wanted to; or even if I wanted to. What's in Anima for you?"

"I can't tell you," Sunset said.

"But you still expect me to let you go to Patch and talk to Ruby?"

"Don't be a jerk, it's not as though I'm asking you to let me go to Mistral," Sunset said. "I'm talking about two days, one there and one back. Two days, I'm sure you and Vale can survive without me for that long."

"And what about your team?"

Sunset shifted uncomfortably. "Cinder can hold them together for that long," she said. _I hope._

Cardin hesitated for a moment. "Talking to Ruby…it might not be such a bad idea. Ruby going to Mistral might not be such a bad idea."

Sunset frowned. "Why?"

"The Committee wants her," Cardin said. "They want her badly; she was the best Vale-born huntress at Beacon and she…she'd be a greater symbol of hope than me or Coco or anybody else they stick up on posters. She's not answering their letters. My father said that if she doesn't answer they're going to ask me to talk to her…if she won't come then it might be best if she left the country before-"

"Before what?" Sunset demanded. "Before someone tries to drag her back here by force?"

"It won't be that…it won't be like that," Cardin said. "But there's pressure that can be put on her and her father: stop the old man's stipend, threaten to repossess their house, that kind of thing. It isn't something that I want to see happen."

Sunset growled wordlessly. Ruby had lost her sister, for crying out loud, couldn't they have pity on her? Couldn't they have some empathy for what she'd been through? Where they that desperate? Yes, obviously, as so much so aptly demonstrated. "If that's the bad idea then what's the good one to balance it out?"

"They're forming a second squad, since the first one worked out so well," Cardin said.

It took Sunset a moment to work out what he meant. "A second squad of prisoners?"

"They're capable, and nobody will miss them," Cardin said.

"Maybe, but can they be trusted?" Sunset said. "How many other people like me do you have lying around to lead these teams?"

"Team Bluebell," Cardin said.

"Team Bluebell?" Sunset repeated. "They…" she stopped, because the fact that Lyra, Bon Bon and Sky had betrayed Beacon and Professor was not entirely their fault. In light of what she had learned about Amber's semblance it seemed likely that she had used it to gain their affection and their loyalty. That didn't make it incredibly easy for Sunset to forgive them, however; Amber's influence or not their actions had still contributed to Professor Ozpin's death (and the fact that he wasn't quite dead didn't make it easy to forgive them either); not to mention the fact that, even if Sunset could see that they might be somewhat trustworthy, they just weren't that good. "Is it really worth it? For Team Bluebell?"

"They want to make amends for what they did," Cardin said. "And they have more training than a lot of the people who we're asking to help keep Vale safe."

"That's true, I guess," Sunset said. "Anybody else?"

"Your old pal Roman Torchwick."

"I didn't even know he'd be arrested."

"It was kept hushed up."

"To make it easier to recruit him for this?"

Cardin nodded. "I'm keeping that girl of his under supervision in case he gets any ideas."

Sunset shook his head. "Even so, you've got a tiger by the tail with him."

"Team Bluebell will be able to handle him."

"You've got more faith in them than I do."

"He's just one guy," Cardin said.

"And they're…them," Sunset said. "Do you really think that squad is going to do any good?"

"I think we need the bodies and you could use the backup," Cardin said. "Now that the force has grown I can assign you more dangerous missions."

"Oh, great," Sunset said. "So do I get to go to Patch before you throw me back into the fire?"

Cardin pulled out his scroll, and opened up what looked like a variant on the mission board. He used his forefinger to scroll through the list of available missions. "Hmm, maybe there is something that you can do on Patch."

"Trouble?" Sunset said, leaning closer to him.

"Looks that way," Cardin said. "A village called Threadneedle has been reporting grimm attacks on the outlying farms; they don't have a garrison, they're requesting a search and destroy."

"Will anyone find it odd that someone like you is taking a job like that?"

"I go where you're needed," Cardin said. "It's all Vale and it all needs defending. Head out there, clean up, save the village. Once the mission is complete then…I'll lose you for a couple of days and you can go and see Ruby, talk about whatever secret stuff you two have going on."

Sunset let out a sigh of relief that she hadn't realised she'd been holding in. "Thank you," she said softly. "You're a good man, Cardin Winchester."

"No I'm not," Cardin said. "We're neither of us good people, Sunset; we just do the best we can anyway."


	190. Threadneedle

Threadneedle

The Sheriff of Threadneedle was an old man, with silver hair that was receding backwards across his pate and a luxuriant moustache that drooped down on either side of his mouth like the tails of some kind of rodent. His face was lined with years, and as he made his way through the rural operations centre Cardin guessed that he had held this job for many years, long before all the recent changes that had overtaken Vale.

He coughed into one hand to announce himself as he approached. "Captain Cardin Winchester, sir, Corps of Specialists." He was wearing his uniform coat over his armour, little changed from when he had been a student except that there was now more of it, covering the areas that he had previously left unprotected: a plackart to cover his belly and more comprehensive cuisses to protect his legs. In a display of patriotism he had replaced the red sash he had worn previously around his waist with one that was green for Vale; he didn't think it looked as good but it was important to show the right attitude in times like these.

He held out his hand to the Sheriff as he approached.

The Sheriff took a moment to put his broad-brimmed hat on his head before he got up from his desk – an untidy desk, covered with paperwork of various sorts – and held out his hand to shake Cardin's. His grip was not the strongest, but not unsteady either. "Sheriff Butternut, darn glad to meet you, captain. Huh, Spring and Summer, it only seems yesterday when I'd have laughed you clean out of town if you told me that Vale would have its own army and a corps of specialist and all of this Atlas stuff. Yet here we are."

"A lot's happened in a short space of time," Cardin said.

"You can say that again," Sheriff Butternut agreed. He shook his head. "Sometimes it feels like the whole world's gone nuts; other times it feels like it's just falling apart. Anyway, what can I do for you, Captain Winchester?"

He didn't seem to recognise Cardin's name, which was – as far as Cardin was concerned – all to the good; he was starting to realise why people like Weiss and Pyrrha liked to go anonymous, or at least unremarked upon by people who knew them; that went double in his case since so many of his supposed achievements were, not to put too fine a point on it, made up. It would be refreshing to be judged on his merits in a place like this, a place which – judging by his walk through town after having dropped off Sunset's team outside – didn't get a lot of visitors.

"Actually, Sheriff, it's how I can help you," Cardin said. "I hear you've been having problems with the grimm."

"Oh, that we have, Spring, Summer and Fall that we have," Sheriff Butternut said. He began to walk away from his desk, leading Cardin back across the largely deserted operations centre – there was a middle-aged man in a cheap suit doing some filing on the other side of the office, but no one else present that Cardin could see – to a board with a map of the local area pinned to it. It was small scale, showing the village in sufficient detail that each house was individually rendered and the bars, the doctor's office, the diner and the church Cardin had passed on the way down main street were all clearly marked out, but it also extended sufficiently around the town to show a ring of farms surrounding it, several of which had been marked by red Xs.

"It's like they're working their way around the north end of town," Sheriff Butternut said, drawing Cardin's attention to the fact that the red Xs started to the east and worked their way in upwards and to the west. "First they hit the Farley place, then the Brandy farm, then the Colton's, then the Li family up here."

"Any survivors?" Cardin asked.

Sheriff Butternut's face tightened with pain. "Little Molly Farley ran all the way into town shrieking about monsters; that was the first we knew about all this, but by the time we got there…Mister Winchester, I've been doing this job for more years than I'd care to tell, and in that time I've seen a few things. Ten winters ago we had famished wolves come down out of the high country and that was bad, but I ain't seen nothing like what I saw when we got to the Farley place. It's a miracle that Li'l Molly was able to get away."

"You don't have a lot of trouble with grimm out here, Sheriff?" Cardin asked.

"No," he admitted. "I know they're out there, and I know that you don't go hiking through the woods unless you want to meet one of them, but we don't get much trouble from them around here. I guess we've just been lucky until now."

Cardin nodded. Such situations were not impossible, especially in places like Patch which had a reputation for a pleasant, if slow, pace of living. In a nice town, where emotions didn't run high and there wasn't much to be afraid of, it was possible to avoid drawing grimm in with negativity, in which case the only thing to worry about was that some of them would just stumble across you. Sometimes that happened and sometimes it didn't. Some places just got lucky, although Cardin couldn't help but wonder if a huntsman had been protecting them up until this point, one who was either dead now or who had gone back to Vale due to the emergency there. It wasn't likely that he would find out. "Any other survivors," he asked. "Besides the little girl?"

Sheriff Butternut nodded. "We found Jen Brandy hiding in the cellar; she said her pa had told her to get down there and locked the door when they heard the creatures coming. Maple Colton got away too, we found her in the woods about a mile away from the property, scared to death. Cheng Li was the same: he ran away hid in the trees, they didn't find him."

 _It's amazing that they didn't, what with the amount of fear he must have been giving off,_ Cardin thought. "One survivor from every farm."

"Right," Sheriff Butternut said. "It might only be the one, but it's something worth thanking Summer for in my book."

"You a religious man, Sheriff?" Cardin asked. Religion was starting to make a comeback in Vale as people started to look for something to explain what had happened – or a way to stop it from happening again – but he would have thought the sheriff was too old to get swept up in that kind of thing, still less to have started talking like he'd been a religious man all his life. Unless he had been.

The sheriff nodded. "This is a farming town, Mister Winchester; we pray to Spring for lambs, Summer for sunshine and Fall for a good harvest; it might be old-fashioned but it's worked out pretty well for us so far."

"What do you pray to winter for?" Cardin asked.

"To go away fast and not come back for a while," Sheriff Butternut said. "Nobody prays to winter, we curse and bear it."

"I see," Cardin muttered. "So, all the survivors are in town now? How are they doing?"

"Shocked," Sheriff Butternut said. "Molly Farley hasn't said a word since we told her that Ma and Pa were gone, and Jen Brandy wakes up the whole street with her nightmares.

"After the Brandy Farm got hit I advised everybody to come on into town where it was safer; after the Li place I sent out the new soldiers I had to recruit on the council's orders to flat out order everybody into town on account of the danger."

"Is that where everybody is right now?" Cardin asked.

"It's where they should be," Sheriff Butternut said. "I haven't heard back from the group I sent out to the Huang place." He pointed to the next farm along from the destroyed Li property. "I thought it might be dangerous so I sent six boys down there, more than I sent anywhere else; I still haven't heard back from them."

"In how long?" Cardin asked.

"All day, they left in the morning."

"Okay," Cardin said. "I already have a team out there, I'll tell them to keep an eye out for any sign of your people."

"You really think that you can take care of this for us?" Sheriff Butternut asked. "This town…we've got a palisade and we keep the ditch dug to a decent depth, but if those monsters show up-"

"I understand," Cardin said. "But my team…they're some of the best around. They'll keep this place safe, I guarantee it."

* * *

"Who would seriously want to live in a place like this?" Sami said, as the team trudged through what had been an orchard; it was an orchard, although it was hard to tell from a casual glance since the leaves had not yet returned to the trees and there was still a dusting of snow upon the ground that stubbornly refused to yield to the advancing spring. Nevertheless, there had been a picture of a plum on the sign declaring that this was the Li estate and – combined with the fact that there were a lot of trees and no sign of any fields ready for the plough – Sunset felt it was reasonably likely that this was a plum orchard, and that the farm had produced fruit rather than crops.

"It looks bad because the trees are dead," Jack told her. "When the trees are in flower and the plums are growing-"

"Then we could eat them, seeing as nobody else will and I'm getting a little hungry," Sami said. "But I still wouldn't want to live in a place like this."

They were moving in single file, with Sunset in the lead and Cinder bringing up the rear, having left the ruins of the Li house behind them as they followed what Sunset though might be tracks through the orchard to the west. She was no great woodsman, nor would she ever claim to be, but the snow – shallow though it was in places – looked to have been here for a while without being disturbed and so she thought that all the depressions in said snow were probably worth checking out. What was most interesting was that, amidst all the paw prints that suggested beowolves or ursai or both, there was something here that looked like hoof prints.

Very big hoof prints. Could it be another karkadann, like she and Cinder had faced in Mistral (although whether Cinder had faced something that Sunset was reasonably sure – she hadn't actually asked – that she had arranged was an open question)? Perhaps, and this time it had help.

"I had a farm, once," Jack said. "Or at least, my mother did. We had a cow."

"Are you sure that wasn't your mother?" Sami asked.

"Hey, watch your mouth!" Jack snapped. "That's my mama you're talking about. How would you like it if I started trash-talking your mom, huh?"

"My mom was a thief and a thug and the day she died was the best day of my life," Sami said. "You can say whatever you like about her, I guarantee it won't be as bad as she was."

Jack stopped, turning in the snow to look at her. "You're one messed up chick, you know that?"

Sami grinned. "All part of my charm." She jumped a couple of feet through the snow. "Okay, farm boy, if having a farm and a cow was so good then why did you decide to start robbing people with that?"

Jack turned away and resumed following Sunset. "On account of some rich dirtbag stole our land out from under us, left us homeless so that he could make his fields a little bit bigger. That was my mama's land, my land, and he just took it away from us with lawyers and big words and bits of paper. Well, I never knew any big words, and I didn't have any bits of paper and I couldn't afford no lawyers…but I had a gun, and so I thought that maybe I could make the rich pay for what they did with it." He fell silent for a moment. "If we still had our land, I probably would have never done wrong. I would have stayed at home, been a good boy, caused no trouble to nobody."

"Yeah? And you would have been boring," Sami said.

"I would have been free," Jack replied.

"Free and boring."

"Better to be boring than in a cage," Emerald said. "And even though it's probably a lot of work, I'd say better to live in a place like this than to be living without a roof over your head, never knowing where your next meal is coming from. Right, Cinder?"

Cinder was silent for a moment. "It's a life," she said. "But not for everyone."

"Better than this one," Jack said.

"So is that what you're going to do, when we're done here?" Sunset asked, tearing her eyes away from the grimm tracks to look over her shoulder at him. She hadn't asked them that before, and she kind of wished that she had now because this was a better side to Jack than any that she'd experienced yet. It was a pity that he couldn't be like this more often. "You're going to get a patch of land to call your own?"

"How?" Jack asked sourly. "The government took all my money away from me."

"The money that you stole from other people, sure," Sunset said.

"Everyone steals from someone else," Jack said. "Only when the rich do it they call it fancy things that make it alright. And it's not like you'll let me make any money while we're here."

"I'm not going to let you rob corpses if that's what you mean," Sunset muttered. She turned away, shaking her head. The terms of their agreements stated that, if they survived, they would be released 'at such a time as the Council judges that the safety of the kingdom shall be secured and the crimes of the prisoner expunged through their good service' which was open ended, sure, but better than the life imprisonment that was the best that any of them could have looked forward to otherwise. But, while Sunset wasn't sure what she would do if she ever got released – go to Mistral, maybe – she was more worried that if Jack or Sami ever got out they would just go right back to the things that they'd gotten locked up for in the first place.

However, against that risk was set the fact that Cardin wasn't a complete idiot. He wasn't about to let them go only to wreak more havoc upon the Kingdom of Vale; if he didn't trust them to behave themselves he'd never set them free.

"Sure, I'd like some land," Jack said. "A house, some woods with a stream flowing through them; maybe a vineyard; I could grow everything I needed and wouldn't need to bother nobody."

"Until your crops failed, and your animals died, and it would seem very tempting to just take what you needed from someone weaker than you," Sami said.

"Is that your plan, if you ever get free?" Cinder asked. "To resume your previous career where you left off?"

Sami said nothing, although her face said a great deal. "So what about you, boss?" she said, calling out to Sunset. "What are you going to do when your service ends?"

"They'll always be another fight," Sunset said. "Whether they're making me fight it or just asking."

"You're such a teacher's pet," Sami said. "No wonder they put you in charge."

Before Sunset could reply she was interrupted by a call on her scroll.

"And I guess that's the teacher now," Sami said.

Sunset ignored her, holding up one hand to halt the others while she pulled out her scroll and opened it up. It was indeed Cardin, because who else would be calling her?

"Sunset," he said. "Where are you?"

"Passing out of the Li land," Sunset said. "The place was a wreck but we might have found some tracks."

"Okay," Cardin said. "Keep an eye out for any survivors. One person has survived every grimm attack around here so far."

"That's a coincidence," Sunset said.

"I'm not so sure it is," Cardin replied. "The first survivor was a little girl, there's no way that she could have outrun a creature of grimm, and as for the others…how do terrified people with no training manage to hide in cellars or in nearby forests in the dark and not be found?"

Sunset frowned. "What are you suggesting? That the grimm are leaving one survivor at every location on purpose? Grimm aren't that smart?"

"Aren't they?" Cardin replied. "I looked into those Merlot files you suggested, and in Jaune's home town the grimm-"

"Injured his sister but left her alive to draw other rescuers whom it could ambush, I know, they told me," Sunset said. "But that was one of Merlot's experiments, it was different than other grimm."

"You said yourself that the facility was still there," Cardin said. "Could someone have beaten us to it and restarted the experiments?"

"I hope not, it was bad enough the first time," Sunset muttered. _Then I had Ruby, Pyrrha and Jaune as well as Cinder; how am I supposed to repeat the trick with these guys?_

"I'm just speculating, I know," Cardin said. "But I think there's something going on here, I just can't work out what it is yet." He frowned. "Is there any chance that it isn't grimm?"

"How do you mean?"

"Well…doesn't this kind of stuff sound more like bandits to you?" Cardin asked. "And I know that the little girl who ran into town was babbling about monsters but in the dark, fire and smoke and gunshots…people could seem like monsters to a kid."

"I know what you mean, but the tracks we've found at the Li place seem to disagree," Sunset said.

"Right," Cardin said, sounding a little disappointed. "Keep doing what you're doing. I'll see if I can talk to any of the survivors, and if that doesn't pan out I might come out and join you. Just be aware, the sheriff sent out a party of six soldiers to the Cheng farm to tell the family to evacuate into town; they haven't reported in, so keep your eyes open for them."

"I will," Sunset said. "I'll keep you posted if we find anything."

"Right," Cardin said. "Good luck out there."

Sunset folded up her scroll. "Cinder, come up here a minute," she crouched down, and waited for Cinder to make her way up from the rear of the column.

"Yes?" Cinder asked, as she crouched down beside Sunset. She had exchanged her old red dress for something sleeveless, with a high neckline and a long black gloves – trimmed with gold – covering her arms. It was, of course, still red, and still gold-trimmed beside, but this new gown was so long that Sunset couldn't help but wonder if she hadn't been better off before the change.

"Do you know of any grimm smart enough to leave survivors, and why?" Sunset asked.

Cinder smirked. "I love how you think of me as some kind of repository of grimm lore."

"Well, you did work with them."

"I served Salem, I didn't memorise a grimm bestiary," Cinder said. "I made use of the grimm as servants, and instruments in my plan, but I never bothered to get to know them beyond the common types. I certainly don't know all the rare variants." She paused. "Although I will say that I have never heard of any grimm that wouldn't kill when it had the chance, unless it was being restrained by some…external force."

Sunset frowned. "You mean-"

"Yes," Cinder said. "Someone like me."

Sunset cursed under her breath. "But…there aren't any human tracks."

"If I'm wrong then that's a good thing," Cinder said. "You couldn't take someone like me with this team." She snorted. "Not since you-"

"Don't," Sunset said. "Please, just don't. Not right now, anyway."

Cinder's lips twitched upwards. "Okay, I'll save that for later. So what's the plan, fearless leader?"

"I never claimed to be fearless," Sunset said, getting to her feet. "I just don't have a lot left to loose. We keep following the trail, and whatever is waiting for us…we'll deal with it."

"No matter what it is?" Cinder asked.

"No matter what it is we're better equipped to deal with it then the folks living around here, I'm sure," Sunset said.

"That wouldn't be difficult," Cinder said.

"No," Sunset agreed. "But that just makes it all the more true."

So they continued to follow the trail left by the grimm through the snow, as they crossed out of the Li land and onto the land – marked by a boundary hedgerow that was leafless and resembled frosted-over brambles in its dormant state, and which something had bulled its way through, leaving an enormous gap through which the warriors could easily follow – owned by the Cheng family, which judging by the fact that it was yet more trees in neatly planted rows Sunset took to be another farm of fruit orchards of some kind. They followed the trail left by the grimm, Sunset had given up on trying to gauge just how many of them there were since it was possible that they could be hiding their numbers by moving in a column, stepping into one another's footsteps (she wasn't sure if grimm were smart enough for that, but if they were smart enough to leave survivors as part of a nefarious scheme then surely they were also smart enough to mask their strength). They followed the trail until they came to the Cheng farm.

What was left of it, anyway. A truck was parked outside the farmhouse, with the back opened up and half-full with bags and cases, suggesting that the Chengs had been about to flee when the grimm had descended upon them; the prints descended upon the ruins that remained of the spacious farmhouse in a horde, the tight group in which they had moved collapsing into a mob that had moved out, breaking up to surround the house and its occupants and attack from all sides.

Bodies littered the ground, their blood staining the snow; the small bodies of the Cheng children, the larger bodies of the adult Chengs and a couple of young men and a young woman in casual clothes whom Sunset thought might have been farmhands or other labourers, and the bodies of the local patrol in their blue valish uniforms. Sunset stood, frozen in place, her breath gently misting up as she stared at the dead bodies; one of the farmhands had an axe in his hand and it looked as though he'd been trying to protect one of the children, unfortunately for all Professor Port's stories it wasn't that easy for an ordinary guy with nothing but courage going for him to stand against the nightmares; the sergeant had collapsed against the side of the truck, his expression more startled than afraid; the little boy looked as though he had been trying to run away.

"Search for survivors," Sunset said.

"What survivors?" Sami asked.

"At every farm one survivor has been left behind," Sunset snapped. "Find them! Spread out!"

Jack, Sami and Emerald hastened to obey her, while Cinder lingered, staying close by Sunset's side. "You can't blame yourself for this."

"I'm a huntress, I'm supposed to stop stuff like this from happening," Sunset said. It didn't matter that she wasn't and would never be a real huntress, but she had committed herself to living and fighting as though she was so to arrive too late, to arrive only to find this…if only…she should have been faster.

"You weren't here."

"Maybe I should have been."

"You can't be everywhere."

"I did this," Sunset snapped, gesturing at the death and devastation, the dead bodies surrounding the ruined farmhouse. "We did this, you and me, together! Everything that has happened to this kingdom has been because of the choices that you and I made, the selfish choices to put ourselves and one another and our own desires above everyone else. We did this. Doesn't that…please tell me that you feel some remorse about it." Sunset stared into Cinder's eyes, searching for sorrow, imploring her to demonstrate some of the grief that she, Sunset, considered appropriate as they came across yet another consequence of their shared actions.

Cinder closed her eyes. "The survivor, the lone survivor at every farm…who was it?"

Sunset frowned. "A child," she said. "Or a young person at least, by the sounds of it."

Cinder sighed. "Then it is them that I pity most. And if there is a child left alive here then it is them that I will feel the most sorry for."

Sunset blinked. "For the living, not the dead?"

"You don't know what it is to live without those you love," Cinder declared harshly. "To have the arms that hold you suddenly ripped away to leave you cold and all alone. I know what that's like, I know what awaits those children. I pity them because I know what lies in store for them, I know what they will become; better that they should be together in…whatever awaits us, if anything does. That is why I pity the living, not the dead."

Sunset frowned. "I…what happened to you was…while there is life then there is the chance at love, I just…we did this, Cinder, you and I. We changed the world together and…we broke it."

"I always meant to, and worse than it did," Cinder murmured.

"Did you intend all of this?"

"I…I can't remember if I didn't consider it or I just didn't care," Cinder said. "Probably a combination of the two."

"And now?"

"Now? Now…now I wonder why I thought the empty baubles that I coveted so much were worth it all. Why I thought they would fill up this…emptiness inside."

"Cinder! Sunset!" Emerald called. "Over here!"

They both ran towards the sound of her voice, and swiftly saw why: she had found the sole survivor, not a child this time but a soldier, albeit a young soldier. He was up a tree, cowering in the branches, his face pale with a mixture of fright and cold, his weapon discarded on the ground amongst the tree roots. His eyes were vacant, and his lips were moving although Sunset couldn't hear any sound.

"Hey there," Sunset called up to him as the five of them gathered around his tree. "It's okay. You can come down now, we're friends."

He didn't respond. He didn't look as though he had even heard her, let alone comprehended her words.

Sunset cupped her hands around her mouth and used a little touch of magic to amplify her voice. "Hello up there! The grimm are gone, you can come down now."

There was still not intelligible response from the soldier up the tree. Sunset frowned. "Jack, get him down."

Jack huffed, as though being asked to do something was an imposition for him, and slung his shotgun-axe over his shoulder as he rubbed his hands together. He pressed them together, palm against palm, as the gap between them began to glow with a faint green light. The earth cracked, the soil and frost bulging upwards for a moment before falling away as a thick vine, like a cable, rose up out of the ground and wound its way slowly up the tree like some kind of giant blind snake. The green stalk rose, seeming to probe the air as it rose, until it reached the insensible soldier up the tree, at which point it wound its way around his waist, plucked him out of the tree, and then bore him slowly to the ground.

Sunset caught him as Jack's vine released him. She checked his collar, a lot of Valish soldiers had sewn their names onto their collars like they were back at school in case they didn't make it. "Richard Burroughs," she read out the name tag, which was exactly the kind of tag that mothers used to sew onto the possessions of their little colts and fillies at magic school, the exact kind. "Richard," she said. "It's okay now. You're okay. My name is Sunset Shimmer, and I'm here to help you. Is there anything that you can tell me about what happened here?"

"A bunch of grimm showed up and ate everyone," Sami said.

Sunset glared at her.

"Ruby," Richard Burroughs murmured. "Rose."

Sunset's eyes widened. "What? What did you say?"

"Ruby…Rose," Richard repeated.

"How?" Sunset demanded. "Where did you learn that name, what do you mean? What does Ruby have to do with any of this?"

"Ruby…Rose."

"You're not going to get anything out of him," Cinder said. "It's strange, but he isn't going to explain it."

"I suppose not," Sunset murmured. "Okay. Let's get him back to town, get him the help he needs. Then, maybe, hopefully, we can start to figure this out."

* * *

Sunset: As you might be able to tell, Princess Celestia, there's a lot going on right now. My head is spinning from what I've learned about Professor Ozpin. Although I'd hate for you to think that I wasn't grateful to find out that he was alive, because I am. When I thought that he was dead

Sunset paused, the pen hovering over the page of the journal. Writing to Celestia was both a balm to her spirit and a way for her to put her thoughts in order for her own benefit, but when it came to this, to how she felt about Professor Ozpin's death and resurrection…it was still difficult for her to clear it up enough in her own head to set it down on paper.

Sunset: I'm glad that he's still here, in some form.

Celestia: I am glad to hear that you think so. I know you valued him more than you fear he knew, although for my part I think your fears may turn out to be groundless. Speaking as your teacher, I flattered myself that I always knew how you felt even when you struggled to express it.

Sunset: When I was being an obnoxious, ungrateful brat, you mean? Please don't answer that.

Celestia: For myself I pity him, and his new host besides if I understand what you have told me rightly.

Sunset: I'm not sure that I understand it right myself. 

Celestia: The gods are cruel; immortality locked in struggle with a monster who cannot be defeated should have been curse enough – and would have been, for such a man as Professor Ozpin – without inflicting a second curse upon a succession of innocents in all of this.

Sunset frowned. Sunset: Is that how you see your life, Princess Celestia? As a curse?

Celestia: A curse? Oh, little sunbeam, my life is not a curse. My life has been a hundred hundred blessings following hard on one another's heels, and my only selfish regret has been that each blessing has been far, far too briefly ephemeral for my liking. But for Professor Ozpin

Princess Celestia stopped writing for a moment. Sunset waited, looking down at the book, willing her teacher to continue.

Celestia: I have a confession to make, Sunset. I knew that Professor Ozpin was immortal long before you did.

Sunset's eyebrows rose. Sunset: You did? You only wrote to him once.

Celestia: And that turned out to be sufficient. He had in him that which I recognised from long acquaintance in myself. She did not elaborate on what that might be, and Sunset was not sure if it was her place to enquire.

Sunset: You didn't say anything about this to me.

Celestia: It was not my place to reveal Professor Ozpin's truth without his permission. I trusted that he had his reasons for keeping it from you. And then, when you told me that he had perished I believed you; not knowing the nature of his terrible curse I thought that, his body being destroyed, he had in fact died as I would die if my physical form were to be consumed thus by magic.

Sunset shivered. Sunset: Please don't say things like that, Princess. I don't even want to imagine it. She sucked on the end of her pen for a moment. Sunset: Do you think that it was the nature of his reincarnation that cause him to keep it a secret?

Celestia: Perhaps, although I think that perhaps Professor Ozpin would have kept a more conventional immortality a secret also.

Sunset: But why? I can see why he would keep it from the world – although I have to admit that if he does want to keep it a secret then the kind of immortality that he has is a little more useful than yours. Can you imagine what you'd have to do pretend to be other people if you were living out a natural life?

Celestia: I suppose I would have to continuously use magic to disguise my appearance, wearing a new form in public every day, seeming to age it before the eyes of my little ponies until I 'died' and was 'reborn' as another pony with another name. I can see it easily becoming rather tiresome.

Sunset: I don't see why he'd want to put the effort in. I mean, clearly he can't help the curse that was laid upon him but why be so secretive about it. If he is and has always been the Old Man, going back through all the legends, if he has always led the circle that has been opposed to Salem, then he must have been pulling strings for thousands of years or more to help mankind fight against the creatures of grimm. Why would he seek to rule from the shadows where you rule in the light? I didn't trust Professor Ozpin at first because, okay there were a lot of reasons why I didn't trust him but one of them was that, compared to you and your wisdom acquired over the centuries, trusting a mere mortal man to order and direct our lives seemed so difficult; he couldn't possibly have the experience necessary, the good judgement. If I had known then what I know now I might have thought better of him sooner. And I know that you'll probably say that that was my problem, not his, and you'd be right but my main point is why all the secrecy? He could have been you, to all intents and purposes, an immortal ruler albeit a reincarnating one, ruling with the four Maidens ranged around him, all things done in the sight of men whom he could array to the best advantage of his endeavours. Instead he skulked in Beacon Tower, hiding the Maidens, keeping his wisdom hidden under a bushel, admitting only his closest confidantes to the secret. Why?

Celestia: The answer seems perfectly clear to me: he did not want to rule.

Sunset: Okay, but why not?

Celestia: That I cannot answer so easily. I fear only Ozpin himself can give you that information.

 _If I ever see him,_ Sunset thought. Sunset: And that still doesn't explain why he wouldn't tell us when he told us all of his other secrets, when we entered into his service. Did he fear so greatly how we would react to the truth about his immortality?

Celestia: I think that Ozpin fears to grow too close to any of those who serve him. If you thought him aloof, or cold, then it was not because it was in his nature to be so but because he wished that it were. When I said that immortality was curse enough for Ozpin it is because he makes it so himself by fearing to care too much for those around him, knowing that he must outlive them all. I fear he has forgotten that, while it may seem a curse to outlive all our comrades, students and our friends, to know and love them in the brief-seeming moment allowed is the great blessing that makes our long lives bearable. As I told him: we are never truly alone, and though sometimes care can lead us to mistakes, without it we would make far more grievous errors.

Sunset: I'm not sure how the errors that I made from care could have been made worse if I hadn't cared.

Celestia: I hope that you don't mean that.

Sunset shook her head. Sunset: I do and I don't. I don't regret caring about my friends, but I sometimes wonder if all the things I did to help them didn't just end up making things worse.

Celestia: No one can know what would have been, not even the wisest of us. That being so, one must accept what one has done and move forward from it. So how will you move forward, Sunset Shimmer; what will you do now that you know the truth?

Sunset: Nothing, if Ruby will go to Anima in my stead. If she will not then

It was Sunset's turn to pause once more, struggling to know what were best to say next, what she ought to say next, what she could possibly say next.

Sunset: Professor Goodwitch has laid it on me to go to Anima and find Professor Ozpin, and my heart desires to do it, but I have made promises and pledges to Vale and to Cardin, how can I turn my back on that?

Celestia: I must confess, I would very much like to speak with Ozpin again; he has a courteous manner and a gentle heart, for all he tries to harden it and hide it away behind a layer of ice.

Sunset could not help the slight smile that made her lips twitch upwards. Sunset: Sometimes, Princess, I think you are my better nature; other times I think you might be my worst instincts made manifest.

Celestia: You will not go then?

Sunset: How can I, when so much of the damage suffered by Vale has been my doing, mine and Cinder's together. What we saw, today at the farm, was just a taste of the evil that we unleashed through our combined selfishness. I am responsible for my actions and, as her keeper, I am responsible for Cinder's too. Together we broke Vale, without us the days of peace would be rolling on and on without an end in sight; how can I simply turn my back on it when it is lying on the ground in pieces?

Celestia: And what will you do if Ruby will not go?

Sunset: I honestly have no idea whatsoever. I only know that I can't just leave as though none of this is my fault. You can understand that, right?

Celestia: I do. And I understand why you feel such a sense of obligation, but if what Professor Goodwitch says is true and Ozpin is in need then who will go to him if not you?

Sunset: There must be some other way. Perhaps I could pay a courier to go to Mistral with a message for Pyrrha explaining all of this to her, if I could be sure that it would get there in time. Or maybe there is someone else who can go, an associate of Ozpin's that Professor Goodwitch hasn't thought of yet. Maybe. There must be something else. Some other way. There's always another way, right? I hope so, anyway. I should go, thank you for putting up with all of my ramblings, princess.

Celestia: It is always a pleasure to hear from you, Sunset; I wish you good fortune, whatever path you choose to take.

Sunset: Thank you, Princess Celestia. That means a lot to me.

Sunset closed the journal, and put it away in her satchel. Since she was now a person of no fixed abode she had to carry it everywhere with her; on the one hand it meant that she didn't have to wait until she got back to Beacon to talk to Princess Celestia (or Princess Twilight) but on the other hoof it also meant that there was a constant risk that she could lose the precious journal in battle.

She'd just have to be careful, she supposed.

"Hey, you!"

Sunset looked up. She was sitting outside the Threadneedle Doctor's office, since this one-mule town was too poor to maintain any kind of hospital, waiting to see if the young soldier they had rescued – Richard Burroughs – would come round to the extent that he could explain to her how he knew the name of Ruby Rose, and why he had been babbling it like he had as though it was all he knew.

The person who had just yelled her name had just come out of said doctor's office, and was standing on the wooden porch looking down at Sunset as she sat on the steps. Sunset stared at him. She didn't recognise him, though he certainly seemed to know her; he was an older man, middle aged at least, with round spectacles, a balding pate and a walrus moustache covering his upper lip. He was wearing fingerless gloves and a chequered scarf that made him rather like an ageing librarian, and the finger he was pointing at her was every so slightly crooked.

Sunset got to her feet. "Is there something I can help you with, sir?"

"Don't you give me that you, you…I know who you are!"

 _I walk around the streets of Vale and nobody recognises me but I come out to the sticks and someone remembers who I am._ "I'm sorry," she said, feeling a little sorry for herself at the sinking feeling in her stomach. "Have we met?"

"No we most certainly have not!" the man barked at her. He walked towards her, shuffling across the wooden porch. "But I know who you are just the same. You're…you're Sunset Shimmer, aren't you? You're the one who caused the Breach you…you…you…"

His face was red and his breath was coming quickly and shallowly. He looked as though he might have a heart attack if this kept up. "Why don't you sit down?" Sunset suggested, reaching out to help him.

"Don't you touch me, you traitor!" he snapped at her. But he sat down on the porch step nevertheless. He took a moment to catch his breath. "I…I never heard about any prison breakout. What are you doing here, eh? What are you doing amongst decent folk? Why aren't you in jail where you belong?"

"Belong?" Sunset murmured. "Horses belong free, but you stick them in stables and put tack and harness on them because they can be useful to you." She sat down next to the man. "I belong in jail, but Vale has put a harness on me and sent me here because I can be useful to it." She probably – almost certainly – wasn't supposed to be so bald about it to random strangers, but he could cause as much trouble just from having recognised her as he could from knowing why he was able to recognise her, so what more harm could it do?

The man stared at her for a moment. "That…" he seemed to deflate visibly, his back bending and his whole body sagging forwards. "That makes sense. The Kingdom can't spare anyone these days."

"It makes so much sense that you're the first person to actually care that you've seen me," Sunset said, unable to resist pointing it out.

"That makes sense too," the man admitted. "There's so much going on that I suppose most have forgotten what a black-hearted reprobate you are."

Sunset folded her arms and leaned ever so slightly away from him. "For someone who thinks so ill of me you're showing a remarkable lack of fear at being in the presence of the infamous Sunset Shimmer."

The man looked as though it had only just occurred to him that perhaps he should be afraid of her. He hesitated for a moment. "Was it you?" he asked. "Was it you who brought my son back?"

Sunset glanced at the wooden-fronted building behind them. "Richard Burroughs? He's your son?"

The man nodded. "Caleb Burroughs. Was it you?"

"It was my team," Sunset said quietly.

"Your team," he repeated. "Are they all scum like you?"

"Believe it or not I'm actually the good one," Sunset said.

"I don't know whether to scoff or shudder," Caleb said. "Why'd you do it, Miss Shimmer? Why did you sell us out?"

"I…I was trying to save my friends," Sunset said. "I thought they'd die if anyone stopped the train. Somebody," she raised her voice just a little for the benefit of Cinder, whom she knew to be nearby even if she couldn't see her. "Convinced me that was the case. I didn't feel I had any other choice: sabotage the train or everyone would die."

"Everyone?" Caleb said incredulously. "What about us? What about me and mine? Aren't we a part of everyone? Don't our lives count?"

Sunset was silent for a moment. "I…I wasn't…I wasn't a very good person at the time."

"That's an understatement if ever I heard one."

"I'm not asking for forgiveness," Sunset said.

"That's good, because you'll not get any from me," Caleb said. "Saving my boy, well, it might balance the scales but it doesn't put you in credit."

"You were there, weren't you?" Sunset said.

"What makes you say that?"

"Most people have moved on," Sunset said. "In order to still be so worked up about it you'd have to have some stake in what happened there." She frowned. "But…nobody got hurt-"

"No, nobody got hurt, thank goodness," Caleb said. "But between the grimm on one side and the bombs on the other I lost everything. I had a shop on that plaza square: Burroughs Bookbinders. I lived over the top of it, with my son and my wife and my daughter. Been there ever since they closed off the subway line when Mountain Glenn…well, you know. It's all rubble and ashes now, and the insurance company wouldn't pay out because they said I wasn't covered against the grimm or the Atlesian military."

"Maybe you could claim I was responsible and frame it as criminal damage," Sunset suggested.

"I tried that when I heard the news about your arrest," Caleb said. "The woman on the scroll laughed, said 'nice try' and then hung up on me."

Sunset rested her hands on her knees. "I…I never thought about that." _One of many things that I didn't think about._

"I'm not the only one, neither," Caleb said. "Mrs Henderson, that new faunus couple just opened the bakery, Jeff who owned the bazaar; all wiped out, the lot of them. I had to move out here and beg my cousin to let us crash with him until we could get back on our feet, and I still don't feel anywhere near it. I took a job as a filing clerk in the sheriff's office, all I could get, but for the amount it pays…I haven't even been paid for the last two months. I know that's not your fault, but it wouldn't have happened if you'd just done your job either. Why, I don't know, it feels as though if you'd just done your job-"

"The world wouldn't have come apart at the seams," Sunset muttered miserably.

Caleb Burroughs was silent for a moment. "This isn't the kingdom that I grew up in," he said. "Taking my boy away to make a soldier of him like this is Atlas."

"Is there…I don't suppose there's anything that I can do?" Sunset said. "To start to make it right?"

"No, frankly, no there isn't," Caleb said shortly and sharply. "Or…well…you must know someone high up, mustn't you? Someone who got you out of prison?"

"I…suppose," Sunset said. _Cardin does, at least._

"Maybe you could ask about when we're going to start getting paid again," Caleb asked.

Sunset nodded. "I'll mention it. And your insurance, too, that shouldn't be allowed."

"It is what it is," Caleb said, getting to his feet. He began to walk away, stopping as his feet touched the road. "Thank you, for my boy. Have a nice night, Miss Shimmer."

"You too," Sunset said. "Hey, Mister Burroughs?"

"Yes?"

"Did your son know the name Ruby Rose?"

Mister Burroughs thought about it for a moment. "She was one of your team-mates, wasn't she?"

"That's right," Sunset said.

"Richard followed the huntsmen," Mister Burroughs said. "I can't speak to which of you he knew or didn't. Why?"

"Nothing," Sunset said. That could explain that, she supposed. If he knew Ruby by reputation then…your mind went to some strange places when it was given enough of a scare. "Goodnight, sir."

She continued to watch after him as she felt, rather than saw, Cinder approach from out of the shadows.

"You take too much blame on yourself," Cinder declared.

"Are you saying that I should blame you more?" Sunset asked.

"Would that make you feel better?" Cinder said, sitting down beside Sunset.

"Not really," Sunset murmured. "I'd just blame myself for not doing to stop you."

"Do you regret it?" Cinder asked.

Sunset turned her head to look at her. "Do I regret what?"

"Not stopping me," Cinder said. "When you had the chance?"

Sunset blinked. "Did I ever have a chance?"

"Gods no, I would have kicked your ass in thirty seconds the moment I got serious," Cinder said, a smile playing across her face. "And I wouldn't have even needed the powers of a Maiden to do it."

Sunset shook her head. "I…I should say something back right now, but the truth is…the truth is that I believe you. That's...Pyrrha wasn't the only one who was a little intimidated by you."

"I know," Cinder said. "Did you think that you were hiding that?"

"I…I might have hoped that I was," Sunset said.

"You're not as good a liar as you think you are," Cinder said. "You can fool an honest man, but you can't fool me."

"Oh, yes, you have always seen right through me," Sunset said in a voice loaded with sarcasm.

"I have…in the end," Cinder insisted. She was quiet for a moment. "What's happening to Vale isn't your fault. You can't take the sins of the world on your shoulders."

"Then who will?"

"Nobody," Cinder said. "But so what? Just because other people are too selfish or afraid to admit their own failings doesn't mean that you have to bear them in their place? If you take that kind of attitude then you'll invite men like that one just their to lay all their burdens at your feet and demand that you take responsibility for them."

"He lost his whole livelihood because of your plan and my decision," Sunset said. "How is that not our responsibility?"

Cinder hesitated. She sighed. "Alright, in _that_ specific case…although that still doesn't excuse the way he spoke to you. But what about everyone else who made a mistake or a decision that has led the world to this point? What about Ozpin? Why did he allow such a spirit of complacency to grow up in the kingdom that there was no emotional resilience in the face of danger? Why did he allow the power of Atlas to grow so great at the expense of all the other kingdoms?"

"That wasn't his doing," Sunset said.

"Wasn't it?" Cinder asked. She rested her chin on her hand. "She hates him, you know."

"Salem?"

"Mm," Cinder murmured. "I didn't understand it. It was a complete mystery to me: why should a god waste so much hatred on a mere mortal? It was like my hatred of Pyrrha but completely irrational to me, considering the vast disparity between the two of them. But now…now I begin to understand. He has been her opponent all this time, the grey spider sitting at the centre of the world-"

"Don't talk about him like that," Sunset said, with a little more sharpness than she intended. She softened her tone. "Please," she said. "Don't talk about him like that."

Cinder didn't seem to take offence. She barely seemed to notice. "You know what I mean," she said. "For how many centuries has he directed affairs, opposing Salem's will, moving his knights and pawns, guarding the four white queens. You and I we may have broken the world, but only because Ozpin had allowed it to become so fragile that one little shove was all it took."

"That doesn't actually help, considering we're still the ones who gave it the shove," Sunset said.

"True," Cinder said. "But I won't blame myself for more than I deserve to take the blame for, and I don't like to see you doing differently."

The door from the doctor's opened before Sunset could reply, and Cardin emerged onto the porch. "I heard shouting," he said.

"Someone was giving me a piece of their mind, don't worry about it," Sunset said.

"They recognised you?"

"They also recognised why I was here," Sunset said. "I told you not to worry."

"I sometimes feel as though it's my job to worry," Cardin said.

"It's a good thing you're not out in the field where you'd bring the grimm," Cinder said.

Cardin ignored her. Sunset ignored her too. "How's the guy?"

"No improvement," Cardin said. "I tried to speak to the other survivors and got nowhere with any of them. They're all terrified."

"I can under-" Sunset stopped. Her eyes widened. "Terrified," she repeated, as a chill of fear began to come over her in turn because she had the plan now, or feared she did.

"Sunset?" Cinder asked.

"Clever, clever monsters," Sunset whispered.

"What?" Cardin demanded.

"Terrified!" Sunset yelled, getting to her feet. "All the survivors are terrified out of their minds and they're all here and that's probably making everybody else scared too."

Cardin's face paled. "You…you think they're that smart? There's no way that they're that smart."

"Except it looks like they are," Sunset said. "Sami! Jack! Get over here!"

"Emerald," Cinder called. "Where are you?"

The three of them emerged after a few moments, slinking out of the shadows as if they darkness had birthed them all. "What's going on?" Emerald asked.

"We're about to get hit it seems," Cinder said. A smile fleeted across her lips. "We get to find out what that's like from the other side for a change."

"This isn't funny," Cardin muttered. "Get to the stockade, I'll join you there in just a moment. Sheriff! Sheriff Butternut!"

The old sheriff, approaching down the street, stopped as Cardin jogged towards him. "Something wrong, Captain?"

"What's the sturdiest building in town, sheriff?"

"Uh, most likely the old church," the sheriff said, and a quick glance told Sunset that he was probably right. It was an old fashioned building, built when such things were built to last, with thick stone walls and stout wooden doors.

"Get everybody inside there, bar the doors and windows, nobody comes out until I give you the all clear."

"What's going on? Is it-"

"I don't know yet," Cardin admitted. "But better safe than sorry."

"Okay."

Sunset led her team to the wooden palisade that marked the edge of Threadneedle, she was the first to climb the ladder that led onto the platform that sat atop the wall of wooden poles, from where she could look out across the deserted farmland beyond. Torches burned along the wall, giving a little illumination on the parapet but making it harder to see out into the darkness beyond that point. She could just about make out a ditch beyond the palisade, filled with sharpened stakes only a few of which had fallen down.

In the town itself the church bells began to toll, calling the people to seek sanctuary within.

Cardin joined the team on the parapet. "Do you see anything?"

"No," Sunset admitted, squinting out and trying to see past the glare of the torches. "Sami? What do you see?"

"Oh, sure, because all faunus can see in the dark."

"Do you see anything or not?" Sunset demanded.

Sami narrowed her eyes. "I can see…" she reached for her belt and pulled out her jagged knife with its antler handle. "Yep, looks like you were right boss."

The breeze blew across the deserted fields, brushing through Sunset's burning hair. For a moment more the sound of the church bells tolling deeply behind them was the only sound to disturb the stillness of the night.

And then the howling began.

It was beowolves then, not ursai. Ursai might roar but they did not howl in so distinctively lupine a fashion, and they never seemed to delight in making the heavens shake with the sound of their howling as the beowolves did. It did not quite have so great an effect; it sounded a much smaller pack than Sunset had faced in Vale, but it sounded enough to tear the town apart if they were not stopped.

 _Good thing we're here then, isn't it?_

Cardin carried a pistol now in addition to his mace, a pistol that was bigger than his meaty hand and looked so heavy that he couldn't have lifted it without aura. He pointed it at a forty-five degree angle to his head, and pulled the trigger; there was a bang, and a fire-dust flare round shot from the barrel to rise slowly into the air, crackling like a firework as it began to descend towards the ground.

In the red haze of light that it spread out like a little sun Sunset could see the beowolves: more than a score of them, less than two score; call it thirty over all; and in the midst of them a pegasus.

Sunset wished that she didn't have to call it so; it seemed an insult to the people of her home to misuse their name upon this twisted creature of nightmare in the same way that it would have done to call a karkadann a unicorn. But pegasus was the name given to it in the bestiaries, so what else was she supposed to call it for all that it was nothing like the pegasi she knew. It was, however, a horse like grimm with great black wings spread out on either side of it, and equine hooves that would have explained the tracks in the midst of the beowolf pack. It's face was bone, and jagged teeth dropped and rose from its jaws, but there was little other bone visible on its black and oily form; it was about as tall as the walls of Threadneedle – although they only stood twelve feet high at most, so this grimm was still young, or Sunset though it likely so.

But it would have been enough, had there been no huntsmen here.

 _Young as it is, did it come up with this plan?_

There was no time to ponder upon that, for the grimm were charging now and by the light of Cardin's flare Sunset could see that they were not alone; more beowolves were joining them, and ursai from out of the woods drawn by the fear of the survivors of the farm attacks, and even a nevermore – no, two! – swooping across the moon before diving down into the night sky, banking gracefully as they closed with the ground until they were flying just above the heads of the advancing, growing horde of grimm.

The odds would have been pretty, well, grim if they had not been there. Now that they were there they could probably take on a force this size, but if they waited to receive them on the wall there was a good chance – considering that there were only six of them – that some grimm would breach the defences, enter the town, and do who knew what mischief before they could be hunted down.

Fortunately, Sunset had an alternative.

She didn't reach for her gun. Instead, she held out her hands towards the grimm and concentrated. It was a pity that she needed to concentrate, but while unicorn magic was second nature to her the pegasus powers she had only recently acquired took some work to get to grips with still. Especially when she was aiming for effects as spectacular as this.

The grimm pegasus was charging now, shrieking as it came, but Sunset wasn't too worried. She was about to show this pretender what real pegasus magic was all about.

 _Real pegasus magic? Listen to me, when I was in Equestria I despised pegasi._

 _But then, when I was in Equestria I despised pretty much everypony._

"Uh, boss?" Sami said. "What are you doing?"

"Something magnificent," Cinder said. "Or making herself look slightly stupid, but I hope it's the first one."

Sunset glanced at her, and grinned just a little.

 _Step one: pegasus power. Weather be at my command._

It took concentration. She was used to the feeling of magic at her fingertips – or horn tip – she was used to feeling connected to the flow of arcane energies; she wasn't used to feeling connected to the wind and the rain as well, she wasn't yet used to getting goosebumps before the storm rolled in, she wasn't used to feeling the wind change before it happened, she wasn't used to knowing that there would be no more snowfall before the seasons turned. She especially wasn't used to being able to do something about all of those things if she really wanted to. But she was connected, and she could do something about those things, and right now she really, really wanted to. She hadn't asked for these powers but she had, it seemed, sweated and toiled to attain them and so right now, when she needed them, she was going to get her sweat and toil's worth out of them.

The winds began to rise. Sunset – whose control over these powers was as less than perfect as her ability to get them working in the first place – was aiming to start the winds in front of her, and mostly they were just not all of them. She felt them on her back, blowing through her hair and making the torches on the wooden wall flicker, but far more she saw them blowing in the faces of the grimm, gusting at them, beating at them in an inexorable wave that halted their advance dead in its tracks. Beowolves standing on their hind legs were knocked over and skidded backwards in the dirt while the others got down on all fours to dig their claws into the ground. The pegasus folded up its wings and shrieked into Sunset's gale, its cry competing with the howling of the wind. The nevermores were held in place, beating their dark wings just to stay in one place.

And Sunset wasn't done yet. She put more power into it, summoning not only wind but storm and tempest, conjuring black clouds in the skies above, dragging the condensation into place, compacting it, forming the clouds and crushing them together until they were sodden and unstable, then unleashing them all. Rain joined the wind to blow into the faces of the grimm, but not just rain; thunder rolled as lightning slashed down from out of the dark clouds to hammer the grimm like the fire of an Atlesian cruiser, lancing from the heavens to the earth in patterns like twisted swords and tridents and wicked spears, lightning up the darkness for a moment and then plunging all back into darkness once again.

The torches had blown out, but Sunset still didn't cast a nightvision spell upon her eyes partly because she wasn't ready to try and intermingle pegasus and unicorn magic at the same time quite yet but also because the lightning strikes would have blinded her night eyes instead of lightning up the night for her to see that she had brought down the shrieking nevermores – one was ash already and the other was on the ground with what looked like an injured wing – and struck down beowolves and the pegasus was shrieking in what looked like panic as the lightning struck all around it and the grimm that it had mustered withered in the onslaught of the storm.

Sunset's companions on the wall could see that a pair of wings had appeared on Sunset's back: a pair of wings of golden light, glowing like a setting sun behind her.

 _Step two: unicorn magic._

Sunset left the clouds to spend themselves and the winds to crack their cheeks until there was nothing left – they began to die down as soon as Sunset took her attention away from them, but it would take a while for them to be fully gone; Sunset's hand shook ever so slightly, and her knees trembled, but she ignored them both as she switched from the unfamiliar hilt of the sword that was her pegasus powers to the familiar blade that was her unicorn magic as she grabbed with telekinesis all of the wooden stakes in the ditch facing the oncoming – a little less oncoming now – grimm. Sunset grunted a little at the effort as she wrenched the stakes out of the ground, lifting them up into the air, levelling them like the hedge of spears that the phalanx presents to the enemy, then launching them straight ahead like a rain of arrows darkening the skies towards an oncoming enemy. Now she cast a nightvision spell, to let herself see the effects as the wooden stakes shot forwards, impaling beowolves and ursai, ramming into the pegasus' knee, slaying small grimm and injuring the large ones.

A barrage of magical missiles leapt from Sunset's fingertips, raining down like artillery fire, the green explosions lighting up the darkness as the grimm howled in pain, dying or losing limbs as they scrambled to avoid Sunset's fire which swept across the field.

 _Step three: Earth pony stamina or else I'd probably have passed out by now._

She collapsed anyway, her knees buckling beneath her and forcing her to grab the wooden wall for support. Cinder grabbed her, taking her by the arm with one hand, her other hand hovering nearby at the ready.

"It's alright," she said. "I've got you."

"And we've got this," Cardin said. "I don't know…I just don't know, but nice work. Now come on, let's finish them off!"

He didn't wait for the others to follow him before he leapt over the wall. His first leap carried him easily down to the ground, while his second carried him just as easily over the now empty ditch as he charged the remaining grimm. Not waiting for the others was a mistake – had he forgotten that this wasn't Team WSTW? He needed to spend the amount of time with them that Sunset had been forced to endure – but with Cinder glaring at them Emerald was the first to follow, then Jack and Sami after. Cinder waited with Sunset on the wall.

"If you want to grab some glory," Sunset murmured. "Don't feel obliged to hold back upon my account."

Cinder snorted. "Glory," she said. "I think we've both had our fill of glory…and of the consequences from our seeking it, have we not?"

"Yeah," Sunset said. "It got a little more trouble than it was worth, in the end."

Cardin, Jack and Sami made short work of the remaining beowolves; Cardin set about him with his mace, bludgeoning the remaining grimm to death with mighty blows that crushed their skulls beneath the impact; Jack didn't bother using his semblance, only his shotgun and his axe which took less effort on his part; Sami's semblance was the uncanny – and frankly somewhat unnerving – ability to know exactly where to strike for a killing blow, and so with astonishing agility she leapt over lunging beowolves with a grace denied to the greatest of gymnasts, plunging her knife into the napes of their necks and slashing out their throats. Between Cardin's powerful blows, Jack's weapon, Emerald's skill with her chained blades and Sami's semblance they soon wiped out those beowolves who had survived Sunset's power. The wounded nevermore perished under a combined attacked from Sami and Emerald as the latter used her chains to drag it down so that Sami could strike. Cardin charged a large ursa, covered in bone and spikes to mark its years, and knocked it off its feet before hitting it in the face until its bony mask collapsed and it began to turn to ash.

Only the pegasus remained, and though wounded and bereft of all its followers it continued to attack, dashing forward with a furious shriek as its beowolves died around it, kicking Jack to the ground and trampling over him – it didn't look as though it had broken his aura, but he would definitely be sore afterward – as it rushed towards the fall, its wings spread out on either side, its red eyes burning with wrath.

It leapt, its wings carrying it as it flew towards the wall, the wooden wall which it was almost certain to break through if it struck.

Sunset raised her hand, and focussed her magic.

 _Fail Safe._

Her hand glowed green, and the pegasus exploded as the magic that was sustaining it in such a monstrous form was disrupted by Sunset's counterspell, releasing its essence of darkness in all directions as the vapour of the creature was cast to the four winds.

Sunset sagged in Cinder's arms as, her magic spent, she began to slip into unconsciousness.

* * *

When she came too she was strapped into the co-pilot's seat of a Bullhead.

Cardin was in the pilot's seat, and he glanced at her as she stirred to wakefulness. "Perfect timing, we're almost there."

Sunset blinked, and rubbed her eyes. It was day, the sunlight coming in through the front window. She twisted around in the seat so that she could look behind her and see that the main compartment was empty; they were the only two people in the airship. "Where's everybody else."

"Cinder's herding the cats until you get back," Cardin said.

"I see," Sunset murmured. "And where are we?"

"On your way to see Ruby," Cardin said. "I decided to drop you just a little way away, so you'll have to walk about ten, fifteen minutes. I don't know how they'd feel about a Bullhead landing on their front lawn."

"That's smart and considerate," Sunset said. "Two things I never thought I'd…you know what, I don't have the energy to insult you right now, especially when you're doing me a solid favour. You didn't have to fly me all the way out here."

"No," Cardin agreed. "But if I didn't then I'd have to let you stay away longer while you walked all the way across the island. If I fly you over, and pick you up, I can get you back sooner."

"Thanks," Sunset said. "For letting me go at all." She frowned. "You know, I didn't ask this on the flight over, but when did you learn how to fly a Bullhead?"

"My parents gave me flying lessons for my sixteenth birthday," Cardin said.

"Of course they did," Sunset muttered. "How long do I have?"

"Two days," Cardin said. "I'll come back here with the team to pick you up, then we'll head back to Vale." He paused. "I won't even pretend to know what it is that you need from her, but whatever it is I hope that you get it."

"I appreciate that," Sunset said. "I just…"

"What?"

 _I just wish that I knew whether I wanted to get it or not. I wish that I knew whether I want Ruby to agree to head off on her own all the way to Anima without a team to back her up, looking for someone she has no idea how to find, braving all the perils of this war again but this time doing so alone._

 _She could go to Mistral and try and get help from Jaune and Pyrrha but even that will be a perilous road alone._

 _I'm not entirely sure whether I want her to embark upon it._

 _But I know that someone must._

"Nothing," Sunset said softly. "How much further?"

* * *

Farmer Maggot was alerted to something strange first of all by the barking of his three dogs; Grip, Fang and Wolf were big Mistralian wolfhounds, the shaggy-haired beasts that some huntsmen used to help them hunt down and fight grimm; Maggot kept them because, living out a little closer to the middle of nowhere than most, he might have need of that kind of strength to protect himself and his family, and he might have need of the kind of awareness too that led to all three dogs, who had been dozing in front of the fire just a moment earlier, to rise to their feet and start barking fit to wake the baby and set her wailing as well.

They were well trained dogs, and he knew that they wouldn't bark at nothing; when he bought them as mere pups the fellow who sold them to him told him that they'd had their auras unlocked, so that they could sense wickedness as well as tear a beowolf's throat out with their teeth. So Maggot didn't scold the animals, or tell them to quiet down. Rather he motioned for his wife to take the little one upstairs while he reached for the .73 rifle that hung on the wall near his armchair.

It was then that he heard a sound like a discordant trumpet howling in the air outside loud enough to make the windows shake in their fittings.

Farmer Maggot felt the hairs on the back of his neck begin to stand on end. He had never heard of any grimm that made a sound like that.

He couldn't see anything out the windows, and it wasn't just the darkness of the night. It was as if there was a smoke beyond, as though his fields were burning except that he couldn't smell any fire. He could only see a smoke that was making it impossible to see anything else.

"Here boys, here, to me," he murmured, as he loaded his gun and walked cautiously to the door, chaining it before he opened it just a crack, holding his gun out before him.

He still couldn't see anything beside the smoke, but he also could still not smell anything burning out there.

But then, where was the smoke coming from.

A light illuminated that thick, dark smoke, a light like a red flame, streaking backwards as though it was on the move. The smoke cleared a little, and Maggot thought that he could make out a horse, a giant horse wreathed in darkness.

He couldn't see a rider.

"Rrrrruby…." Hissed a voice from out of the smoke. "Rrrrrrose."

"Ruby Rose?" Maggot repeated. "You mean…you mean Tai's little girl?" He knew the family just a little; when the girls were young their mother had brought them strawberry picking in his south field, paid a very good price for all that they picked too. That was a long time ago, of course, nasty business, but Taiyang himself sometimes came by to pick up a sack of carrots or some fresh mushrooms.

He hadn't been by for a while, but it had been little Ruby herself who had been last, poor lass. More nasty business, if he heard right.

"Rrrrruby Rrrrrose," the hissing voice repeated, and as it spoke the burning light in the darkness burned brighter than before, and his dogs let out a trio of yelps as though they had been burned and leapt backwards, retreating in the face of who or whatever was at the door.

The gun dropped from Farmer Maggot's hands as his arms became too weak to hold onto it. "That way," he said, pointing out through the crack of the door. "You want that way."

There was a moment of stillness, and of near quiet; then, with a sound of hooves thumping upon the ground, the light began to move away and the smoke began to clear, leaving only the dark of the night to contend with.

Farmer Maggot sagged against the doorframe as a sigh of relief escaped his lips.

Only after a moment did he become aware that there were lights in the darkness, more red lights creeping closer and closer.

They were the eyes of beowolves.


	191. A Wounded Heart

A Wounded Heart

 _Three Months Earlier…_

The remains of the Mistralian fleet hung in the air, clustered around their sole remaining battleship in a way that made Ruby unsure if they were trying to protect it or shelter under its protection. On the ground, long lines of Mistralian soldiers were queuing up to get aboard the airships that would carry them up to those same ships for the trip home to Mistral. They looked tired, they shuffled along as the lines moved slowly forwards toward the landing zones, there was no order to the way in which they carried their weapons…but at the same time Ruby thought that they looked glad to be going home.

She wished that she could feel the same way, but the thought of what was waiting for her back home – the empty room, the palpable absence of Yang from her life that would surely grow only more acute back in that house that Yang had filled with life ever since Mom went away; Dad, and however he might be dealing with this – robbed her of any joy or even enthusiasm that she might have felt.

At the thought of home she could feel only sadness, a sadness that had stopped being acute but had never ceased to be with her.

One of the Mistralian soldiers started to sing. Ruby didn't recognise the song, but it was maudlin and a little melancholy, a song about home and love and family. Soon it spread all down the line of soldiers, jumping from queue to queue like a fire consuming everything, banishing weariness from the brows of the young soldiers as they all took up the song, singing of home as they waited to board the airships that would take them there.

It stung at Ruby's ears.

"I can ask them to stop, if you like," Pyrrha said softly, or at least it sounded soft even as she was speaking loudly enough to be heard over the chorus.

Ruby shook her head. "It's fine," she said, and she suspected that she didn't entirely convince Pyrrha; she certainly didn't entirely convince herself. "Whatever makes them feel better."

Pyrrha frowned, and looked away from Ruby towards the slowly boarding soldiers of Mistral, preparing to sail back towards the homes that they should never have left. "I feel as though I shouldn't be leaving," she said, looking back – and downwards, just a little – at Ruby once again.

Ruby tried to smile, although she couldn't judge the success of it. "I know that it must seem as though Vale needs you right now," she said. "But I'm sure that Mistral needs you just as much, maybe more; and it kind of seems like it wants you a lot more than Vale does right now."

"I'm not talking about Mistral, or Vale," Pyrrha said. She reached out and placed a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "I'm talking about you. I shouldn't be leaving you here, all…all alone."

Ruby reached up and placed a hand on Pyrrha's wrist. "That's…that's really nice of you, but…I'm not alone. I've got my Dad, still, and he needs me back home. Just like Mistral needs you back home now, too."

"But you-"

"I'll be fine," Ruby lied, and hoped that it sounded more convincing on her tongue than out of her head. "Do you remember the day we first met Penny and Rainbow Dash?"

Pyrrha nodded. "I'm not sure I'll ever forget how we met Penny," she said.

"But do you remember before that?" Ruby said. "We talked about magic, and fame and making friends…and you told me that Mistral would always have a claim upon your heart."

"I did," Pyrrha said. "And it does; but that claim doesn't mean that I need to…that I should abandon my friend when she-" Ice began to form in the palm of her hand.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune cried, drawing Pyrrha's attention to the fact.

Pyrrha gasped, looking down at her open palm before clenching it tightly into a fist. "I'm sorry," she murmured. "I…I didn't realise it would be so hard to control these powers. I mastered my semblance so easily, but…"

"You have to go," Ruby insisted. "I…thank you, so much, it really means a lot to me but…but you have to go. Sunset gave you those powers so that you could keep up the fight, because you're the only one of us who can fight right now." _Or the only one who wants to._

"Pyrrha does have to go," Jaune said. He looked as though he were about to wince. "You're right, Ruby, Pyrrha's people need her in Mistral, and with things going the way they are here…but Mistral doesn't need me; maybe I-"

"No!" Ruby insisted. "No, I'm not going to tear the two of you apart! I know that you want to help but what are the two of you going to do, sit around at my place? How is that going to help anyone?" She closed her eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I just…I don't know…"

"It's alright," Pyrrha said gently. "We won't push it any more."

Ruby still had her eyes closed, so the first she knew of it was the soft brush of Pyrrha's lips upon her cheek. She opened her eyes to see that Pyrrha had knelt down, so that they were more at a height than they had been.

"I don't know what fate has in store for us," Pyrrha admitted. "I don't know if we will meet again…but I very much hope we will."

Ruby nodded. "I'd like that," she said quietly. "When you get home, find my Uncle Qrow; he can help you, he's really good at what he does."

Pyrrha nodded. "We shall seek him out, if he can be found."

Ruby looked from Jaune to Pyrrha. "Take care of one another. Promise me that you'll do that."

Jaune knelt down too. "Of course. I promise."

"And so do I," Pyrrha said.

Ruby nodded. "Good." _Because you have to take care of the people that you love, or one day they won't be there any more._ "I…I…good."

Pyrrha and Jaune both wrapped their arms around her. "If anything changes," Pyrrha said. "Come find us in Mistral. So long as I live you will always find a welcome there. No matter what, we'll always be Team Sapphire."

"Always," Ruby murmured. _And yet no more._ She backed away, pulling free from their embrace, from the warmth and the love that she did not deserve, that seemed to almost mock her with the reminder of what she had lost. "You should probably go," she said. "I should go."

"Ruby-" Jaune began.

"I love you guys," Ruby squeaked as she sped away, fleeing from the pair of them in a burst of rose petals.

As the petals fell to the ground, someone who observed them closely might have noted that they were wet with tears.

* * *

 _Now…_

"Dad," Ruby murmured, as she watched her father push his plate a little way across the kitchen table. "You've barely eaten anything. Was it bad?"

"No," Taiyang said. "No, it's not that, Ruby. I'm just…I'm not hungry today, that's all."

"You're never hungry," Ruby pointed out. "Since I got home I've barely seen you eat anything." In that sense she supposed that it was a good thing that he barely did anything; it was preventing him from wasting away too fast.

Not that she would say that his lack of activity was a good thing.

Taiyang didn't look at her. He looked down at the table, and brushed his fingers across the wooden surface. "I'm sorry, Ruby," he said. "I know that you're trying your best, I just…"

"I know," Ruby said. "I miss her too. I just…I hate seeing you this way."

Taiyang didn't reply to that. He kept on staring at the table, resolutely refusing to look at Ruby.

Ruby glanced out of the window, to where the snow lay crisp but shallow under the gaze of the sun. "The snow's almost gone," she said. "Soon it'll feel like spring."

"Maybe," Taiyang said.

Ruby knew exactly what he meant, because she felt the same way: as though spring would never come again; winter had lingered here too long already, the snow was more stubborn than it was meant to be, the air was colder than it ought to have been, the sun was not as warm as it should have gotten by this time of year. It should have felt like spring weeks ago, or at least started to. It still felt too much like winter for her liking, too much like an icy embrace around her.

 _No, that's got nothing to do with the seasons. That's just my heart._

 _It might never feel like spring there again, either._

"When…" she began. "When do you think that we should clear out the dead flowers from the garden ready for the new planting? Do you think it's too early to get started on that? It…it'll be nice to see the garden flowering again, don't you think?"

Taiyang sat silently for a moment. "I'm not in the mood for gardening today," he said. "I'm sorry." He rose heavily to his feet. "I'll be in the living room if you need me."

 _I do need you,_ Ruby thought. _My sister's dead and my friends are all gone and I'm all alone and I need you, Dad. I feel like I'm suffocating and I need you._

 _I need you to tell me that it's all going to get better even if that's a lie. I need you to tell me how to get these stupid letters to stop coming. I need you to tell me how I live with feeling this way. I need you to tell me what I'm supposed to do now._

 _I need you to tell me that you don't blame me for what happened to Yang. I need you to tell me that this isn't my fault._

 _Even if that's a lie._

"Sure," Ruby said softly, as she watched her father go. His footsteps echoed heavily on the wooden floorboards. She pulled his plate towards her, and lifted it up off the table.

Zwei, who had been living well out of Taiyang's abstinence – Ruby probably ought to have stopped bothering to make him full meals, it would certainly have saved money, but she couldn't bring herself to stop hoping that today would be the day when he started eating again – picked himself up off the floor and trotted, a little more slowly than might have been the case some time earlier, towards her. He wagged his tail as his tongue hung out of his mouth.

"I probably shouldn't give this to you," Ruby said. "You're getting fat."

Zwei whined, and looked imploringly at her.

Ruby sighed. "Okay. I suppose it's better than it going to waste." She picked up a sausage from Taiyang's plate and bent down to offer it to Zwei, who seemed to beam happily as he ate it.

It was good to see that somebody still remembered how to smile around here. As she scratched the top of Zwei's head Ruby found herself wondering if the dog actually knew that Yang was dead. He knew that she was not around at the moment; when they first got back home he'd spent a couple of days running around the house and the land outside looking for her before coming to the realisation that she was not here. Then he'd sat at the door for a couple of days after that as though he was waiting for her to come home. He'd given up on that too in fairly short order, he knew that she was gone and he seemed to have accepted that she wouldn't be coming back for a while, but did he understand? Ruby had told him, her eyes filling with tears as she spoke the words, but did he understand her. He had aura, he had a soul, but did he have a brain? Could he understand what it meant for Yang to be dead, or did he think that she was back at Beacon or somewhere like that, and in a few months or a year's time she'd come home to take him for walks once more?

Did Zwei understand what it meant for someone to be dead? This was the first time that any member of his family had died, since they had got him when Mom was already gone; did he get it? Did he understand that Yang was never coming back, that she was gone for good, that he would…that he would never see her again?

Ruby tried but did not entirely succeed in stifling a sob.

Grief filled the house up of the absent Yang, making a home made for four seem crowded with just two. Yang's spectre hung heavily in every room, in every place where she had been – which was everywhere. It made it hard, but at the same time it made it hard to forget, for which Ruby was glad. She didn't want to forget, even though it was hard.

She fed Zwei the rest of Taiyang's unwanted dinner, and carried the dishes over to the sink. She piled them up on the side and started to run the water.

A single gunshot echoed out from the woods beyond the house, a sharp report that scattered the birds out of the trees, sending them flying up in all directions cawing loudly.

Ruby's head snapped up as she looked out of the window, trying to find the source of that shot. She couldn't see anything, but the trees were too thick to see much in the midst of the woods. It had been a gunshot without question, a snap of a shot that sounded almost like…no, it couldn't be, no way.

What was someone doing firing so close to her house?

Ruby looked down at Zwei. "Stay with Dad," she said. She wasn't sure how able he would be to defend himself if anything bad happened. When she ran out of the kitchen and into the living room she found him on his feet, looking on edge.

"That…that was probably just…I don't know what that was."

"I don't know either," Ruby said. "Just stay here, okay? I'll take care of it."

"Ruby-"

"I said I'll take care of it," Ruby repeated, not giving him another chance to protest as she ran towards the door. Crescent Rose was leaning against the wall and Ruby picked up the weapon in a single fluid motion. She didn't use it as much as she had recently, but she took it with her whenever she visited Mom and Yang and it was unfamiliar to her as her fingers closed around the crimson weapon.

She felt…better, with this in hand. Everything felt a little bit better. It didn't change anything, but it did make her feel a little more in control.

Ruby opened the door and stepped outside. Crescent Rose was in carbine configuration, and she kept it that way because it was easier to move, for now.

Somebody was coming. She could hear their footsteps crunching through the shallow snow.

Ruby pointed Crescent Rose in their direction and unfolded her weapon in a series of mechanical clanks and hydraulic hisses. "Who's there?" she demanded. "What do you want?"

Sunset emerged out of the trees, her hands raised above her head. She smiled sheepishly. "Hey there, partner."

Ruby lowered Crescent Rose. "Sunset?"

"Sorry if I startled you," Sunset said, tentatively lowering her hands. "There was a beowolf who didn't leave me much choice."

Ruby stared at her for a moment, her partner, her leader, her friend. She crossed the distance between them in a blur of rosepetals, slamming into Sunset with such force that the other girl was knocked onto her back upon the snow bestrewn ground as Ruby, her arms wrapped tightly around Sunset's chest, sobbed upon her breast.

She was still sobbing as she felt Sunset's arms enfold her, one upon her back and other on her hair.

"I missed you too," Sunset murmured.

Ruby didn't know exactly how long they stayed that way, but it must have been for a little while because by the time they got up Sunset's jacket was absolutely soaked. "Sorry about that," Ruby said.

"It's okay," Sunset said; she started to take said jacket off before seeming to remember that she had a sword strapped to her back which would make it a little difficult. "It'll dry out."

Ruby nodded. "So…what are you doing here? How are you here?"

"I was allowed," Sunset said.

"Do you have another note?"

Sunset's expression was half-cringe, half smile. "No, although if you call Cardin he can tell you that I'm supposed to be here."

"Cardin?" Ruby shook her head. "What are you doing here, Sunset? I mean, I'm glad to see you, but…"

"But it's a shock, I know," Sunset said. "I came here…I wish that I could say that it was just to see you…I would have come sooner if it hadn't been…I need to talk to you, about something important."

"Oh," Ruby said. She didn't know what else she was supposed to say to that. Something important? Her? Why? What did Sunset need to come all the way out here to say and why say it to her?

 _Did the council send her? Is this what they do when you don't answer their letters?_

Whether that was the reason or not it didn't change the fact that this was still Sunset, and that Ruby was still glad to see her. She felt like a visitor from another time, an echo of a better world, like a chink of sunlight breaking through the clouds and reminding Ruby of a time when she had dwelt in sunshine.

 _And if I have to tell her no – when I tell her no – she'll understand. No matter who she's working for she's still Sunset, after all._

"Do you want to come inside?" Ruby asked, gesturing towards the house.

"Is that okay?" Sunset said, trying but kind of failing to disguise her eagerness. "I don't want to intrude."

"It's no trouble," Ruby said quickly. "It'll be good to have some company. We…we don't get many visitors. It can be a little lonely out here."

Sunset was silent for a moment. "Sure," she said. "Lead the way."

They walked briskly back towards the house, crunching the thin layer of snow under their feet as they walked.

"Spring's late," Sunset observed from just a little behind Ruby. "Vale's winter of discontent rolls on and on."

"It'll come," Ruby said. She looked back at Sunset. "Won't it? The snow has to melt, the cold has to come away some time. Because if it doesn't…if it doesn't come then what will we do?"

Sunset stopped, if only for a moment. "You're right," she said. "I'm sure the sun will shine upon…upon everyone again soon."

The sun was already up, and making the snow beneath their boots gleam brightly, but Ruby knew what she meant. She turned away, and led the rest of the short distance to the house, opening the door and stepping inside, wiping her feet on the welcome mat.

"Ruby?" Taiyang said, stepping forward. "What-" He stopped as Sunset followed Ruby inside.

"Hello, sir," Sunset said. She rested Sol Invictus down beside the door next to Crescent Rose, and a moment later she pulled her sword-belt over her shoulder and left her blade there too. She held out one hand to Taiyang as she advanced towards him. "We've met once before, but I'm-"

"I know who you are," Taiyang said, his voice a little colder than before. He folded his arms. Sunset was left standing there, holding out her hand to the empty air.

"Dad-" Ruby began.

"It's okay," Sunset said quickly.

"No, it's not," Ruby said. "You're my friend-"

"And I'm a lot of other things besides," Sunset said, not taking her eyes off Taiyang for a moment. "And your father doesn't have to like all of them." She was silent for a moment, and that silence engulfed the entire room, broken only by the light pattering of melting snow from Sunset's jacket as it dripped onto the floor. Sunset smiled abashedly. "Is there anyone I can hang this up to dry?" she asked as she pulled the sodden garment off.

"Sure," Ruby said. "By the fireplace. Right here." She gestured to the other side of the living room, where a fire was already burning in the grate. She took Sunset's jacket from her unresisting hand and carried it across the room, leaving Taiyang and Sunset to stare into one another's eyes while she hung it from the mantelpiece.

"I don't know whether to tell you to get out of my house," Taiyang said. "Or thank you for saving my little girl."

Sunset bowed her head. "I…I don't deserve your thanks, but I'm afraid that I have to ask you not to ask me to leave just yet," she said. Sunset took a deep breath. "I'm sorry for your loss, sir."

Taiyang stared at her for a moment, before something seemed to snap in him and he slumped back down onto the sofa. "If Ruby wants you to stay then you can stay," he muttered.

"Thanks, Dad," Ruby murmured. "Why don't we go into the kitchen? We can talk there."

"Sure," Sunset said softly, and once again she allowed Ruby to lead the way as they left Taiyang and Zwei out in the living room while they headed into the kitchen. Ruby pulled the door too and motioned for Sunset to sit down.

"I'm sorry about that," Ruby said, as she took the seat opposite Sunset, facing the sink and the kitchen window. "He's…he's having a bad time of it."

Sunset rested her hands on the table. "And you?"

"I'm okay," Ruby said.

"Ruby," Sunset murmured, sliding her hands across the wooden table to embrace those of Ruby on the other side. "Come on. It's me."

Ruby hesitated, quiet for a moment. "I miss her," she admitted.

"There's no shame in that," Sunset said.

"Shame," Ruby murmured. "I…maybe I should be ashamed. Maybe…maybe Dad should hate me, even though he doesn't."

"Why?" Sunset asked. "Ruby, what are you-"

"It's my fault!" Ruby cried, her eyes welling up with tears. "I was the one who…Twilight was going to open the gates and let everyone through, but I was the one…I didn't want the grimm getting into Vale so I…I…and so, because of what I did…because of me, Yang's…"

"No, Ruby," Sunset said firmly, even fiercely. "No. Don't…you can't let yourself think like that."

"Not even if it's true?"

"It's not true," Sunset said, her voice rising. "Ruby, you…you don't need to be ashamed of what you did. You did the right thing-"

"Really?" Ruby said. She shook her head. "It's not what you did."

Sunset was silent a moment. "No," she admitted. "No, it's not what I did. But that doesn't give me the right to criticise you for what you did. The fact that I can't…it doesn't make you wrong."

"No, the fact that Yang's not here makes me do that," Ruby said.

"You're not being fair on yourself-"

"Fair?" Ruby cried. "Yang's gone, Sunset; Yang's gone and she's never coming back and there's nothing fair about any of this!" Her whole body trembled, she practically doubled up on her chair. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Don't apologise," Sunset said. "You don't have to apologise to me."

Ruby closed her eyes, screwing them tightly shut. "Yang…she wanted to see the world. She was going to go to Mistral, and then Atlas, and all the little places in between. She was going to drive across Sanus until she reached the Eastern Sea and find out if all the stories about what's on the other side of the mountains were true. She was going…there was so much that she wanted to see, and so much that she wanted to do, and now…now she'll never get to do any of it. If I'd just…maybe if I'd let Twilight-"

"I think we both know that if you'd let the grimm into Vale to save Yang you would both have hated yourselves before too long," Sunset said. "I…I met a man yesterday. He lost his business when the Atlesians bombed the breach. He wasn't a fan of me, as you can imagine. If you'd opened the gate and…I'm not sure either you or Yang could have born the consequences of that.

"I'm not…I wish that I could take your pain away. I really wish that there was something that I could say, some magic spell that I could cast to make it all better…but there isn't. And we both know that there isn't. All I can say is that I'm sorry, Ruby, I'm so sorry, and…" she pulled out her scroll, opening it up and tapping on the buttons. "I got this new scroll, with a different number," she said. "A number that I've just sent to you. If you ever need to talk about anything at all then you can reach me. For now, at least."

Ruby nodded. "Thanks, Sunset. That…that means a lot. I don't get a lot of visitors out here, it's just me and Dad and Zwei; and Dad…Dad doesn't talk much any more. With Jaune and Pyrrha…it might be good to have someone I can talk to."

"Any time," Sunset said. "Even if I'm fighting a giant ursa."

Ruby's lips twitched upwards briefly. "But…what do you mean by 'for now'?"

Sunset pulled her hands away from Ruby. "I…that's why I came here. As much as I'd like to say that I came here just to see how you were doing I…I actually came here on business."

"Hang on," Ruby said, as she got to her feet. "Do you want some hot chocolate before we talk about that?"

Sunset hesitated. "Sure," she said. "Do you need any help?"

"No," Ruby said. "I got it." She walked across the kitchen and opened one of the cupboards near the sink. On the bottom shelf sat four mugs: a black mug with Summer written in white upon it, a blue mug with Taiyang painted on it in yellow, another black mug with Ruby painted on it in a childish scrawl and a white mug with Yang daubed on it in the same shade of yellow that dad had written his name upon his own cup.

"And of course you have named mugs," Sunset muttered. "Because this wasn't enough of a bucolic idyll."

"It was," Ruby said, guessing that the words she didn't understand were a compliment and hoping she was right. "It used to be, when…and besides, you really ought to see it in the springtime, or even better the summer. When the flowers bloom, and you can hear the cicadas. Winter…winter can be beautiful, but it's so…so cold, you know? And I'm not just talking about the temperature."

"I know what you mean," Sunset said. "But even so…this looks like a nice place."

"Like I said," Ruby murmured. "It used to be."

She couldn't quite reach the other mugs on the shelf above, but as she reached one of them became enveloped by a soft green light which levitated it up off the shelf and set it down upon the counter.

"Turns out I can help a little," Sunset said, although she didn't interfere again as Ruby made the hot chocolate.

"It's not as nice as…" Ruby began, as she set down Sunset's steaming cup – marshmallows floated on the surface - in front of her. "It's the best I can do," she said.

Sunset picked up the mug and took a sip. "It's perfect," she lied, and Ruby was too grateful to call her out on it.

"How have you been?" Ruby asked. "Where have you been? How did you get out?"

"I was released," Sunset said. "Not pardoned, but released."

"Because they need you," Ruby said softly. "I guess that means its worse than the news is saying."

"The news is more about ice cream for the people than it is about facts these days," Sunset said. "But…things are desperate, but they're not bad, if that makes any sense."

Ruby shook her head. "Not really."

"People are worried, but I'm not sure how much they all have to worry about," Sunset explained. "The grimm that were massing around the city have all dispersed, and although the outlying settlements are bothered by them – or by bandits – there hasn't been an attack on Vale since the dust settled on the battlefield. That just hasn't stopped people from acting as though they're might be another attack any day now…and to be fair, I suppose there could be. It isn't like the grimm need to give much warning."

"And so they let you out to fight them," Ruby said.

"Better me than someone who's only just had their aura unlocked," Sunset said. "Better me than some kid fresh out of combat school, or not even that."

"Huh?"

"It was an idea," Sunset said. "I think it's been kicked to the curb for the time being."

"That's good," Ruby said, glad that she didn't have to ask any more questions that might make the idea truly as bad as it sounded. "And so…you work with Cardin now?"

"Sort of," Sunset said. "Not really. More like I work for Cardin now. He's the man of the hour, I don't know if you knew that."

"I've seen his face on TV a couple of times," Ruby said. "I didn't really get it."

"I'm not sure that he gets it himself," Sunset replied. "But people need heroes at a time like this, and Vale doesn't have much choice. Actually, that's being too hard on Cardin, he's trying his best and he never puts on airs. He knows exactly what's going on and what he is. I suppose what I'm trying to say is that he fought in the battle and he's still here-"

"Unlike me," Ruby said.

Sunset frowned. "I didn't mean it like that."

"It's okay, Sunset," Ruby said. "I've been getting letters. From the Council. Except that it's not called the Council any more, is it?"

"There is still a Council," Sunset said. "It's just that they've elevated five of them to a higher level so they can make decisions more easily. At least I think that's the idea."

"Whatever," Ruby said. "I've been getting letters. They want me to come back to Vale. It's about that, isn't it?"

"It's about all hands on deck," Sunset said. "But, yes, it's about the fact that Vale doesn't have many heroes right now. They'd like to stick you in front of the cameras as much as they'd like to send you out to fight the grimm."

Ruby nodded. "So is that why you came here? To ask me to come back with you?"

"It's what I think Cardin's hoping I'll do," Sunset said.

Ruby looked away. "I can't, Sunset; I…I can't go back. Dad needs me here, I can't just leave him."

"And if you could," Sunset said. "Would you even want to go back?"

Ruby was silent for a little while. "What I did…what if I don't want to make a choice like that again."

"Being a huntress doesn't mean you'll have to," Sunset murmured.

"Doesn't it?" Ruby asked. "What if I went back and I ended up in a situation like that again. I don't want that. After what happened I…I don't know if I could."

Sunset nodded. "I get it. I'm sorry to hear that but I get it."

Ruby stared at her. "So, if you didn't come here to ask me to fight for Vale then why? It wasn't just to see me, was it?"

"It probably should have been," Sunset admitted. "But you're right. I came here…I came here to ask you to go Anima, since I can't."

"Anima?" Ruby said. "Why do you want me to go Anima? Is it Jaune and Pyrrha, are they in some kind of trouble, do they need help?"

"No," Sunset said. "At least I don't think so. Or I hope not. I haven't heard anything from Jaune and Pyrrha."

"No news is good news, or at least I hope it is," Ruby murmured. "Do you think they're okay? Do you think they made it to Mistral?"

"I'm sure they did," Sunset said. She turned in her seat and looked out of the window. "I'm sure they're doing just fine their. They've got one another, after all."

"Just like Penny and Blake have all their friends in Atlas," Ruby said. "It's good that everybody has someone." _Except me._ "So if it isn't Jaune or Pyrrha, then what's in Anima? Why do you want me to go there?"

"Professor Ozpin, apparently," Sunset said, making Ruby choke on her hot chocolate. "My reaction exactly."

"Professor Ozpin's dead," Ruby said. "Sure, they never found a body but…but they never found Yang either, but neither of them would stay away for so long without…they'd come back if they could."

"I'm sure she would," Sunset agreed. "But with Professor Ozpin…as Professor Goodwitch explained it to me before I came to see you, Professor Ozpin has been reincarnated, in a manner of speaking. He can't ever die, even when his bodies do. Professor Ozpin is dead but his soul lives on in another."

"In Anima?"

"She seems to think so," Sunset said. "Since she couldn't tell Jaune or Pyrrha before they left it's up to…someone has to go and find him and help him bring some order to the chaos."

"And that's what you want me to do?" Ruby said.

"I don't know," Sunset said. "I don't know if I want you to do it. I don't really want to ask you to set out for Mistral all by yourself, chasing such a slender thread as that. But if what Professor Goodwitch says is true then his…new host might not be able to cope on his own."

"And so we can't just leave him, or them, out there," Ruby murmured. She clenched her hands into fists. "Why him?" she asked.

"Huh?"

"Why does Professor Ozpin get to come back?" Ruby said. "I know that he's a good man, and wise, but why does he get to cheat death when…why is he the one who gets to return?"

"Professor Goodwitch described it as a curse."

"Is that what you think?" Ruby said. "That living on is a curse?"

Sunset shifted uncomfortably in her chair. "No," she said. "Nor does the other immortal I know."

"Princess Celestia?"

"Though she can see how it might feel that way," Sunset murmured. "It's not his fault."

"I know," Ruby said. "I just…it feels so…that he can come back while Yang has to stay…gone."

Sunset frowned. "I shouldn't have come."

"No," Ruby said firmly. "I…I'm glad you did. I wanted to see you. I wanted to know that you were okay. I just…I know why you came here, and I know that…I just don't know if I can."

"That's understandable."

"What will you do," Ruby asked. "If I say no?"

Sunset exhaled loudly. "At this point I have no idea. Are you not saying no?"

"Not yet," Ruby said. "How long do I have to think about it?"

"Cardin's not coming to pick me up until tomorrow."

"So you're staying the night?"

"Well, I won't impose," Sunset said. "I can camp outside-"

"You're not going to camp in the woods outside our house," Ruby declared. "I'll get the guest room ready." She got up, and opened the kitchen door before stepping through it into the living room.

"I still don't know whether to thank your friend or throw her out of the house," Taiyang said from where she stood beside the now open doorway.

Ruby looked at him. "Dad? Where you listening to everything we said in there?"

Zwei barked, sounding a little too happy about it.

"I was worried about what she was doing here," Taiyang said. "I thought she'd been sent by the Council to take you back some how. Instead I find that she's been sent by Glynda to take you back instead." His tone made it hard to work out whether that was an important difference for him or not.

"Did…did you know?" Ruby asked. "About Professor Ozpin?"

Taiyang nodded. "I knew."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"I didn't see the point, it wasn't Oz's death that was upsetting you," Taiyang said. "And besides, I thought Glynda would have it covered. I didn't realise that she'd cover it by involving you."

"Technically, she didn't," Sunset said. "She asked me to go. I asked Ruby because I'm in…straitened circumstances at the moment."

"That's why I don't know whether to thank you or throw you out," Taiyang said, looking around the door at Sunset over the top of Ruby's head.

"I haven't decided yet if I'm going to do it," Ruby said.

"I know you haven't, Ruby," Taiyang said softly. "But I think you should."

"Huh?" Ruby said, the only sound that she was able to get out in the surprise the overtook and overwhelmed her to hear her dad say that. He wanted her to go? He wanted her to leave? He wanted to be left all alone? "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that you deserve better than to spend the rest of your life waiting on your father," Taiyang said. He put one arm upon her back, and gently steered Ruby into the living room towards the couch. "I know that I've been…I know that I haven't really around lately." He said, as the two of them sat down. "And I know that you've had to step up, the way that…the way that Yang stepped up after your mother passed away. But that isn't something that you should have to do just because I'm too upset to take care of myself."

"But I do," Ruby said. "I can't just leave you all on your own."

"I'll manage," Taiyang said. "If I have to make the effort to take care of myself then maybe I'll actually do it. I'll be okay, Ruby; I'm a grown man, I shouldn't be relying on my sixteen year old daughter to do everything for me. And I'm sorry that I've put all that upon you just because I couldn't get myself together."

"Just a little while ago you wouldn't even eat what I put in front of you," Ruby said. "So what changed?"

"What changed is that you had somewhere to go," Taiyang said. "When you came back…I was just so glad to have one of my girls home safe, even if Yang wasn't ever coming home. But now…I loved your mother and I loved Yang and the fact that I lost both of them now to duty and the life of a huntress, it…but I don't think either of them would have wanted you to spend the rest of your life cooped up inside this house withering away with grief and nothing but a sad old man to keep you company.

"When your mother died I…I shut everyone out: Oz, Glynda, Qrow, even my own children. I…I don't want to see you do the same. Find your friends, find Oz; live."

"And leave you here all alone?"

"You could go together, if you wanted," Sunset said from where she stood in the kitchen doorway. "I don't see any reason why you couldn't."

"No," Taiyang said. "If you decide to do this, Ruby, then I'll go to Vale. It sounds as though they could use huntsmen. But you're the one that Ozpin chose, the one that he trusted. I should trust you too, and I do."

"Ozpin chose you too," Ruby pointed out.

"Once," Taiyang acknowledged. "But not for some time."

Ruby was silent for a moment. "Are you sure about this?"

"No," Taiyang said. He glanced at Sunset. "I'm about as certain as Miss Shimmer over there."

"And for the same reason, I'd guess," Sunset said.

"I worry about you," Taiyang said. "I'm your father, so I'll always worry about you. But if this has to be done, and I guess it does, then I can't think of anybody better to do it than you."

"But what if…" Ruby trailed off momentarily. "What if taking care of you isn't the only reason why I want to stay?"

"Ruby," Taiyang said. "I'm not telling you that you have to go. I'm just saying that you can go, and you don't need to worry about me when you do."

Ruby looked away. She didn't look at Sunset either. She looked at her own hands where they rested on her knees.

She should probably go. Professor Ozpin needed her, it seems. The world might need her, even. And it would be good to get out of this house and all the memories that had turned so sour. She wanted to get away from this place, she wanted to see her friends again. She should go because…because it was the right thing to do.

But against that…against that were the thoughts of all the things that she might have to do if she went, things that she wasn't sure she had it in her to do any more.

Yang would have told her to go, but Yang wasn't here any more and that was because of Ruby no matter what Sunset said. It was because of Ruby and because she'd been so sure that she was right. And even if she had been right it didn't change the fact that Yang had died because of it.

Ruby didn't want to make those kinds of choices any more.

But how could she just walk away from all of this, when she knew what was at stake?

 _What should I do?_

 _What is that I'm supposed to do?_

 _What do I actually want to do?_

Ruby only wished she knew.


	192. Grimm Magic

Grimm Magic

The night had fallen, the moon was up, and her father had eaten his dinner tonight.

Whether he was actually feeling substantially better than he had done earlier today or whether he was just putting on an act to make Ruby think that he was feeling better…it mattered, but at the same time she didn't want to think about it too hard. She didn't want to be suspicious because Ruby herself _was_ feeling better than she had done earlier today.

She stood on the deck, her hands resting on the wooden railing that surrounded it, having just stepped out of the patio doors that led out onto the wooden boards outside. She couldn't see much in the darkness, but she could feel the cool night air brushing against her cheeks and that was nice in itself.

Zwei barked as he rubbed himself against her leg. Ruby chuckled as she bent down and scratched him between the ears.

"I know, Zwei," she said. "Thinks are looking a little better, aren't they? And so is Dad; at least I hope he is."

Zwei barked.

"Yeah, you'll keep an eye on him, won't you?" Ruby said. She tilted her head to one side. "I think…I think that I've almost got it."

"Am I intruding?" Sunset asked, as she appeared in the patio doorway, hands resting on the frame, leaning out slightly onto the deck.

Ruby smiled as she rose to her full height, what there was of it. "No, it's fine. Come on out."

Sunset stepped outside, the deck board creeking as he put her boot on it. "So…is this what people have when they don't have a balcony?"

Ruby shrugged. "I guess. It's a nice place, though, even if it is on the ground."

"I suppose it's nicer in the day when you actually see two feet in front of your face," Sunset said, coming to stand by Ruby at the rail.

"I thought you could use magic to help you see."

"I could," Sunset said. "But it makes my eyes look weird and it might make us talking a little awkward."

That actually made Ruby curious to see what Sunset's eyes would look like, but she let it go. "It is better when you can see," she conceded. "But the breeze is cool."

"In more ways than one, it seems," Sunset said.

"Uh, yeah, sure," Ruby said. She looked out into the dark that blanketed the land all around them; the moonlight was faint, and the only real illumination was the light spilling out of the house, casting their shadows on the ground beyond. "Thank you," she said.

"For what?" Sunset asked.

"For coming," Ruby said. "Everything…everything feels a little better now because of you." She reached out, and placed a hand on top of Sunset's where it rested on the wooden rail. "It's good to see you again, Sunset."

Sunset glanced at her, and Ruby almost that she looked surprised to hear that before she smiled in turn. "It's good to see you too, Ruby; it's good to be here because…because this is what we're fighting for, really, and it's good to be reminded of that. But to see you…I'm glad Professor Goodwitch gave me the excuse to come down here. I'm sorry that I can't stay longer…and I'm sorry that we won't have this chance again for a while, one way or the other."

Ruby frowned. "Where are you going next?"

Sunset shrugged. "Wherever Cardin tells me to go. That's my life now: go where he tells me to go, fight who he tells me to fight, then go back to Vale to submit my report and get my new orders. Rinse and repeat."

"Sounds more like being a soldier than a huntress," Ruby said.

Sunset chuckled. "We are soldiers, Ruby. Vale is becoming the new Atlas. Trying to, at least. The new Atlas as interpreted by people who don't really get Atlas."

"You don't like it?" Ruby asked. She certainly wasn't making it sound great.

"I think…" Sunset trailed off for a moment. "You remember our missions with Rosepetal, right?"

"It's only been a few months, Sunset, my memory isn't that bad," Ruby said.

"I didn't mean anything by it," Sunset said. "My point is…they weren't much different from us. What makes Atlas great is the same as what makes any kingdom great: good people. People like Rainbow Dash."

"And Penny," Ruby added.

"Yeah, and Blake," Sunset said. "You don't need to invent half a dozen different institutions and throw all your ideas at the wall…you just need to find the good people, and get them in the right place."

"Where they can make the right decisions," Ruby murmured.

Sunset winced. "Well…you'd hope."

Ruby watched as her breath misted up slightly in front of her. "If I had to choose," she said. "I'd make the same choice again."

"Yeah," Sunset said. "I kinda figured that one out for myself."

"Do you think that's wrong of me?"

"Do you really want to hear what I think about a choice like that?"

Ruby snorted. "Yeah, strange as it sounds I do."

Sunset looked away. "I have to admit that I don't ever think that I could ever do that. Make that sacrifice. Even now, I still don't like the idea of making sacrifices. I'd prefer to…to act as though I can always find a middle way, that avoids having to make any of the hard choices. I suppose that makes you clearer sighted than me. Your choice…your choice is yours, and it shows that…it shows you haven't lost who you are."

"Yeah," Ruby whispered. "That's what I'm…that's what I'm afraid of."

"Afraid?"

"Maybe that wasn't the right word," Ruby admitted. "The point is…when you didn't like the results of the choice you made you could tell yourself that you'd made the wrong choice, that you'd learn from your mistakes and do better next time; and you did. But I…I can't say that because, even though I hate the choice that I made, I still know it was the right choice, and the choice I'd make again. So all I can do is stay here, so that I don't ever have to make a choice like that again."

"Even in our line of work choices like that aren't common," Sunset said.

"Two in one year," Ruby pointed out.

"Point taken," Sunset said. "So…is this your way of telling me that you're out."

"No," Ruby said. "It's your way of telling you that I might want to be." The night seemed to be growing darker outside. She could barely see the shadows she and Sunset were casting on the ground. Ruby focussed on what she was saying. "But the world hasn't stopped while I've been here, has it? Vale is changing, you're fighting alongside…alongside Cinder." She couldn't quite believe that Cinder, of all people, was the one that Sunset trusted, but it just went to show that everybody was doing something about the state of the world except her. "Pyrrha and Jaune are in Mistral by now, I hope, and if they made it safely I'm sure that they're not sitting around either. Blake and Penny are in Atlas, and I'm sure they're working hard too along with Rainbow and Twilight and everybody else. Everyone is trying to put the world back together except me and I think…I think that if Yang were here she'd ask me what was up with that.

"If this…if this is the thing that I can do," Ruby said. "Then I'll do it."

Sunset looked down at her. "I…I don't know whether to wish you luck or urge you not to go along with. It's going to be a long road to travel by yourself."

Zwei barked.

"Dogs don't count," Sunset said. "Are you really going to take the dog?"

"Probably not," Ruby said. "I don't want to leave dad all alone."

Zwei whined.

"I can do this," Ruby assured Sunset. "I'll find a way, trust me."

"I do," Sunset said. "You've got the heart of a hero, Ruby Rose; I shouldn't ever have doubted that you'd choose this."

"No, you should," Ruby said. "I almost chose the other."

"But you didn't," Sunset said. "The choices we think about…they don't really matter compared to the choices that we make." She paused. "Hey, Ruby, is it me or is getting even darker."

Ruby nodded. "It is…kind of weird," she murmured squinting out at the darkness and the gathering gloom that only seemed to growing more intense all around her. "It's almost like-"

"Smoke," Sunset said, her eyes reflecting light off them as though they were suddenly made of glass, or like she was a cat or something; that must have been what she meant when she said that using magic did weird things to her eyes. "There's smoke coming from…Ruby, I think we'd better-"

Something emerged out of the gathering darkness, a blur of movement that hit Sunset hard enough to send her flying backwards into the house, smashing through the glass of the patio door – both of them, stacked one in front of the other since the door was open – before crashing into the living room wall.

The kick that sent Zwei flying off into the darkness seemed almost idle by comparison.

"Ruby!" Taiyang called from upstairs. "What's going on?"

Ruby was speechless as the blur of motion resolved itself into a man, tall and rangy with his hair worn in a long braid reaching down towards his back. He was dressed in a brown leather jacket that was open, exposing a chest criss-crossed with scars. His eyes were golden, and seemed to gleam with a strange unnatural light, especially when combined with the crooked smile that played across his features.

"My, my," he said. "I came to pluck a rose and found a sunset too, such good-"

He was interrupted by Sunset telekinetically throwing the couch at him; he grabbed it, turning on his toes before converting it into a throw at Ruby that knocked her through the deck railing; she skidded on the grass as she slowed to a stop.

The intruder started towards her, but recoiled as a beam of green energy erupted out of the living room in front of him, singeing the wall as it passed by into the darkness. Sunset teleported in a flash of green light, appearing between the intruder and Ruby. She had her sword in one hand and Crescent Rose in the other, and she had teleported with her back to the intruder so that she could throw Ruby's weapon to her. "Ruby, here, take this." She tossed the scythe and started to turn, shifting into stance, her now-free hand reaching for the hilt of her blade.

The intruder was much faster.

"Well, if you want to be the first to die," he said, as he slashed at Sunset's back and side as she was turning, slashing at her with the claw-like blades attached to his wrist that sliced through her aura as Sunset staggered backwards. He was so fast that even Pyrrha would have had a hard time keeping up with him and Sunset had no chance at all, by the time she tried to block his strokes he had already made his attack and was moving onto the next. He flipped, balancing nimbly upon one hand as with his legs he kicked Sunset's sword out of her hand and then kicked upwards, striking Sunset on the chin hard enough to propel her upwards.

"Sunset!" Ruby cried.

The intruder leapt, his own leap carrying him higher than Sunset and faster too, carrying him to the lip of the roof of the Xiao Long-Rose house, which lip he kicked off to meet Sunset as she rose, his claws slicing out again as he bore her down face first into the deck which shattered into splinters of wood beneath the impact. The intruder giggled as the splinters settled.

But now this guy had his back to Ruby, and Crescent Rose was in her hand and there was no one between the two of them.

Ruby scowled as she took aim and fired.

A scorpion tail emerged from underneath the intruder's jacket to block the shot, and the next, and the one after that. And all the while he kept on giggling.

Snarling, Ruby got to her feet and charged; the blade of Crescent Rose glinted in the moonlight as she brought it down upon the intruder's back.

He twisted out of the way, leaving Ruby – eyes widening – to try and turn her stroke aside as the point of her scythe descended on Sunset.

The intruder kicked her in the gut while she was distracted. Ruby let out an 'oof' as she was lifted off her feet and into the air. With another kick the intruder wrenched Crescent Rose out of her grip while his scorpion tail lashed out to wrap around her neck, constricting like a snake around her throat as the intruder, his eyes flashing purple, made to strike at her with his claw blades.

"RUBY!"

The intruder had been fast enough to dodge Ruby's stroke, but he wasn't fast enough to avoid Taiyang's fist as Ruby's father charged out of the living room. His first punch decked the intruder on the jaw, making him drop Ruby to the ground with a thud as he staggered backwards. Ruby caught a glimpse of her father's face, wearing an expression of sheer unbridled fury that she had never seen, nor ever thought to see, upon his face.

It was sometimes easy to forget that Dad had once been a great huntsman alongside Mom and Uncle Qrow, when you were used to him just pottering around the house, tending to the garden, teaching a few classes at Signal. But just looking into his eyes in the brief moment, seeing those blue eyes boiling with a murderous rage, Ruby knew that she wouldn't forget it in a hurry.

His second punch hit the intruder squarely on the nose, snapping his head back before the third punch hit him in the gut.

The intruder retreated a few paces, cackling wildly. "So, a true hunts-"

Taiyang hit him again.

Ruby watched them fight in the lights streaming out of the house with a wide-eyed awe. The speed of the intruder that had so confounded both Sunset and herself seemed to make no difference at all to her father, who matched him blow for blow, blocking his claws and staying well away from his legs. Dad had taught Yang how to fight, a style of straight-forward boxing amplified in Yang's case by her Ember Celica; but even though Dad had no shotgun-gauntlets what he did have was a mastery of the style that Yang had only begun to learn before cruel fate had taken her away.

Sunset getting to her knees, summoned both her sword and Sol Invictus to her with her magic, but when she put the rifle to her shoulder she could only scowl and mutter, "He's blocking my shots."

Ruby groped for Crescent Rose in the darkness. "Sunset, can you-"

"Sure," Sunset said, and Ruby spotted Crescent Rose by the green glow that enveloped it before it flew into her hands. She turned the barrel to the ground and used the recoil to lift herself up and onto the roof of her house, hoping that the added height would give her an advantage in finding a clear shot. It didn't; Taiyang and the intruder's fight was too fluid, it moved around too readily for her to ever be able to fire and be sure of hitting her enemy and not her father.

All she could do was watch, but as she watched it became clear that her dad really didn't need her help. The intruder, whoever he was, was only occasionally able to land a hit on him while Dad's fists, striking out right and left, were continuously hitting home, hammering his opponent to the face, the shoulders, the chest. Soon the intruder's aura broken, a purple light that flickered over his entire body before another punch from Taiyang broke his nose and knocked him flat on the ground.

It was when he straddled the intruder and started raining blows down on him that Ruby realised that she was about to watch her father beat a man to death with his bare hands.

Considering that that man in question had been pretty clear about his intent to murder Sunset – not to mention Ruby herself – that didn't bother her as much as it maybe should have.

Taiyang bellowed as he raised his fist for another blow, before a burst of purple light – or energy, she guessed – flew out of the shadows and struck him in the chest, hurling him off the intruder and away as the dark smoke, gathering around the house, crept closer still, smothering the intruder in its embrace, hiding him from Ruby's view.

Hiding him from Sunset's view as well, judging by the way that she fired into the smoke with no indication that she was hitting anything.

"Don't waste your fire," Taiyang snapped. "Wait."

Sunset growled wordless. "Understood, sir."

Taiyang picked himself up and began to retreat slowly towards the house. "What is this?" he muttered. "I've never seen anything like it."

Ruby breathed out. Her breath misted up in front of her, and far more so than it had done before. She breathed in, and breathed out again to make sure she wasn't imagining it. No, it was definitely misting up more than it had done. She shivered. It was getting colder out here, as the smoke grew thicker around them; but it wasn't just the cold that was making her shiver. As she looked out into that smoke, into that cloud that her eyes couldn't penetrate, she felt…she felt a shiver in her soul.

"Dad," she said.

"I feel it too," Taiyang said.

"And me," Sunset said. "Do grimm make emotions now?"

"We have to stay sharp," Taiyang said. "Be ready for anything."

Ruby put her eye to the scope of Crescent Rose, and tried to penetrate the darkness.

"Took you long enough!" the intruder, concealed somewhere in the smoke and shadow, complained audibly.

In answer there came a soft, sibilant sniggering sound, a hissing laugh that seemed to carry with it some contempt.

From out of the smoke emerged a grimm; for a moment Ruby thought that it was a karkadann, the creature that Sunset, Jaune and Pyrrha had fought in Mistral during the spring break when she hadn't been able to go with them. But this grimm, that came out of the smoke almost as if it was being formed by the smoke itself, did not – as she realised after a moment of observing it – look that much like a karkadann other than that they both kind of looked like a horse; this creature only had a single hoof at the end of each leg, for a start, and it's horn – although curved like a sword – was not so long as the horn of a karkadann; and it was black rather than being bone white. Horn aside, this grimm looked very much like a horse; strangely, despite the fact that it was huge, it had very little bone armour or spikes sticking out of it, but was mostly black like a juvenile grimm; the only bone was the mask on its face, and the fangs jutting out of both jaws.

But that was not the strangest thing about this apparition; no, the strangest thing was that from its eyes burned crimson anima, like Amber and Cinder had possessed.

 _Does this mean that…is this a grimm with magic? How is that even possible?_

The grimm tossed its head. "Rrrrruby…Rrrrrose," it hissed.

"No," Sunset whispered. "No, that…is that what he saw?"

"Sssssssunsssset…Ssssshimmerrrr."

"How does it know our names?" Ruby asked.

"How is it talking?" Taiyang said.

"Good questions," Sunset growled. "Which we can think about once its dead." She raised Sol Invictus to her shoulder and snapped off one shot, two, three.

They might have hit the grimm, or they might not; it was hard to tell. What was clear is that they did the grimm no harm at all, Sunset might as well have been spitting at it for all the actual good that it did her. The grimm hissed wordlessly, and its horn began to glow with a purple light of the kind that had erupted out of the smoke – that same smoke, Ruby noticed now, that was pooling around the hooves of this strange grimm – before it fired from its horn a beam of light aimed straight at Sunset.

Sunset dropped her gun and held both hands before her, conjuring a shield of green light against which the purple beam lapped harmlessly like the waves upon the shore.

Harmless save for the effort that it seemed to be taking Sunset to maintain the shield. Her back was bent like an old tree before the storm, her legs were crouched as though she was bracing against something, and when Ruby looked more closely she could see to her astonishment that Sunset was actually being pushed slowly backwards along the ground towards the house.

"Ruby!" Sunset said. "I've got an idea but you're going to have to keep him busy for a little bit, okay?"

Ruby nodded. "You got it!" she declared, as she leapt down off the roof of the house, spinning in the air before landing on her feet facing this unknown grimm. She spun Crescent Rose in her hands before pointing it at the giant equine monster and snapping off a trio of shots in its direction.

They had as little effect as Sunset's rounds had had, but they got the grimm's attention. It turned its burning, possibly magical – that possibly was becoming more and more a 'certainly' in Ruby's mind, because what else could that purple energy be? – eyes in Ruby's direction.

 _This isn't like the dragon. I'm not doing this because I don't have a plan. I'm doing this because Sunset does._

Ruby leapt at the grimm, Crescent Rose cutting through the air as the wind began to change direction, ruffling through her hair and tugging at her crimson cape. The grimm reared up, hissing, so that the blow which had been intended to cut through its leg only succeeded in scratching it, to no visible effect but a hiss of anger from the creature. Ruby landed, and saw the hoof on the leg that she had scratched descending on her like a hammer from above; she rolled away but the hoof struck the ground with a sound like the ringing of a great bell and the earth trembled. Ruby snapped off another shot, but with the ground shaking she might have missed.

The grimm snapped at her in turn, bringing its head down and closing its jaws around the empty air as Ruby leapt away, slashing at the grimm's face with Crescent Rose; the blade scraped across the bone a moment before Taiyang assailed the grimm in turn, driving his fist into his face just below one of those burning eyes. The fire in those eyes seemed to leap still higher as its horn began to glow once more. A beam of purple leapt from the horn, burning a trench in the earth as it scoured the ground in search of its enemies. Ruby leapt away, but her father was not so fast and was struck a second time by the grimm's magic and blasted backwards with a cry of pain.

"Dad!" Ruby yelled, firing every last shot she had in her magazine right into the grimm's face before she leapt at it again, Crescent Rose swinging.

The grimm almost seemed to laugh as she swung her blade straight for that curved horn that jutted out of his head.

The scythe-blade struck.

There was a flash of purple light.

Ruby felt burning pain ripple up her entire body as her aura was ripped away, she flew through the air as she was blasted backwards to land in a heap, the rising wind washing over her.

Thunder rolled in the sky above as the grimm hissed. "Ssssslavessss."

Beowolves howled as they emerged from the smoke at a run, their red eyes gleaming in the darkness even before their oily bodies and their bony faces became visible. They advanced quickly upon the huntsmen, but the howl of the beowolves was met by an answering bark as Zwei, too, emerged from out of the smoke to assail the beowolves from behind. He leapt onto the back of the nearest beowolf and began to bite its neck out.

Ruby didn't know exactly how much aura she had left but she had enough aura left to fight. She swept around the battlefield in a wide arc, trailing rose petals in her wake upon the dusting of snow that still lay upon the ground as she cut down beowolves before slashing at the hind legs of the grimm. She dodged its first attempt to kick her, but when it stamped its hoof upon the ground she stumbled and allowed it to kick her away. Instantly a beowolf was on top of her, but Zwei was only a step behind and leapt upon the beowolf, bearing it backwards and away from Ruby.

"Ruby," Sunset shouted. "Sir, get back."

The winds had risen quickly, they were almost a gale now and as for the storm clouds rising over head where had they come from? Ruby looked at Sunset, and when she saw her partner standing there, arms raised on either side, the wind blowing past her, making her tail and hair stream, as she saw the shimmering golden wings emerging on either side of her back as though she had become a butterfly during the course of the battle, then Ruby understood.

It was harder than she had expected to do as Sunset had bidden, because the wind pushed against her and buffeted her, and even with her super speed she could feel the tempest blowing her back in the opposite direction, but with effort she and her father both made it behind Sunset and her glowing golden wings.

Sunset's brow was set with concentration as the wind blew in the face of the horse grimm, trying to blow away the black smoke that seemed to spread from it; and as the storm clouds gathered overhead a torrent of lightning descended from those black clouds, some of it striking the beowolves as they were blown away but most of it falling upon the horse grimm, hammering and spearing it even as the grimm was hit by logs torn from the roof of Ruby's house by the strength of the winds that Sunset had called up.

The grimm shrieked, it seemed that where Ruby's blows had done nothing Sunset's magic was actually causing it harm. It shrieked in pain, and as it shrieked it fired a beam of purple energy straight towards Sunset.

Sunset responded by throwing out her hands and firing a beam of her own magic, a broad beam as wide as a tree trunk, right back towards the grimm.

The two beams met, and Sunset grunted with effort as she leaned forward, looking as though she were trying to push a rock forwards along the ground.

The grimm hissed with effort, and bowed his head as though it, too, were pushing.

The two beams pushed against one another, the white light where the two beams met moved a little in the direction of Sunset, and then a little in the direction of the grimm.

And then it began to move, inexorably, in the direction of Sunset. Inch by inch the green light was overwhelmed by the purple, and process of the overwhelming seemed to only grow more swift the closer it got to Sunset herself.

Sunset's eyes widened as her beam of magic was overwhelmed and the grimm's own magic struck her square in the chest, bearing her backwards, lifting her up into the air.

"NO!" Ruby screamed, as she saw Sunset's aura start to flicker and die the way that Yang's had flickered when in the ursa's mouth.

She'd already lost her sister, she couldn't lose Sunset too.

Ruby screamed, and as she screamed her eyes exploded with a brilliant silver light that consumed the entire world, drowning out all other sights and sounds until there was nothing left but silver light and white noise.


	193. Red Pill

Red Pill

Sunset closed her eyes as she fell to the ground, the magic of the grimm withering in the silver light before it could break her aura and, the magic throwing her backwards broken, she ceased to move back but simply dropped like a rock onto the ground.

She closed her eyes against the blinding light that came from Ruby's, but nevertheless the light burned through her eyelids, consuming all that she could see no matter which way she turned her head. It was like looking into the sun, only she couldn't turn away. It was everywhere, and everything.

And then it was gone.

"Ruby!"

Sunset opened her eyes, once she thought that she could do so without losing the ability to see. The clouds of her own pegasus magic were starting to disperse, but slowly; they were drifting apart under the night breeze; as Sunset leapt to her feet she could see that the same breeze, equally slowly, was dispersing the smoke that had and still surrounded the Xiao Long-Rose cabin.

Ruby was on her knees, head bowed forwards, chin resting on her chest. She looked as though she was sleeping, and it was more pleasant to think that she was sleeping than that she had put herself in a coma again through use of her eyes.

More pleasant to think that she was sleeping than that she had put herself in a coma to save Sunset.

 _I need to get better at using my new powers._

Ruby's father was already by her side – it had been his shout that Sunset had heard as he ran to her – kneeling beside her, one arm wrapped around her shoulders.

"Ruby," he shouted. "Ruby, can you hear me?" He cursed as he got no response from her, confirming (to Sunset as well as to himself) that she was out of it for the foreseeable future, again.

Sunset left him to take care of Ruby. Not that she wasn't worried about her – she didn't know whether to thank Ruby or tell her not to be so stupid – but there was no point in everybody crowding around her; plus Sunset wasn't sure how close Taiyang would want her to get to Ruby right now. She would neither be surprised nor would she blame Taiyang if he blamed her for this. After all they'd been living quite quietly together until Sunset Shimmer showed up to bring trouble back into their lives.

So she left Ruby to her father – and her dog who trotted up to the pair of them, tongue hanging out of his mouth – while Sunset turned her attention to the effects of Ruby's eyes.

The smoke was dispersing, but there was no sign of that guy with the scorpion tail; she guessed that his beating at the hands of Taiyang had left him reluctant to take his shot again, even though he wasn't likely to get a better chance than this. Hopefully he'd already withdrawn…somewhere else. Back to where he'd came from. Back to Salem, most likely.

Or he was licking his wounds before he tried again. Let him do that, so long as he wasn't actively attacking them at a point where they were pretty vulnerable himself, with Ruby out of it, Taiyang distracted, and Sunset having already shown that she was no match for him.

Not right now, not in close at any rate.

 _I need to get better, I need to get more versatile. If I'm going to make use of pegasus magic then I need to learn to fight like a pegasus._

 _I can't rely on Ruby just using her silver eyes until they get her killed._

Their effectiveness in this particular instance, however, could not be denied: where before there had been a small horde of grimm bent upon their destruction now there was a garden of stone to decorate the grass around the house that Ruby shared with her father, beowolves turned to snarling gargoyles to glare with sightless eyes towards the wooden building.

And in their midst, towering over all the others like the statuary centrepiece of some grand work of art, stood the grimm who had led them. The grimm who had spoken their names. The grimm who had wielded magic.

What was this thing?

It looked like a unicorn, or rather it looked like some of the more monstrous unicorn-derived creatures who menaced Equestria either in fact or folklore, like the Pony of Shadows or something like that.

It wasn't impossible that a grimm could take such a shape, she'd just come from a fight with a grimm pegasus after all, but how could it speak? How could it speak and how could it use magic? That was what it was, it had to be; it wasn't Equestrian magic, which meant that it must be Remnant magic, it felt the same as the magic that sustained the grimm itself, only most of them couldn't actively channel it like that. The magic sustained them but they could not use magic; how was it that this grimm could? What was it?

And was it still alive under that layer of stone?

A crack appeared in the stone shell; it was very small, but it made a noise loud enough to split the quiet night. With her night vision still engaged Sunset could see it, a hairline fracture that began to spread before her eyes.

A chip of stone fell from the grimm to land upon the ground, and underneath she could see the black skin of the grimm itself.

Definitely alive under there, with the only question being how long it would take to get out.

And what could be done about it in the meantime?

 _Do I have enough magic for a dispel?_ She definitely didn't have enough for the kind of mass dispel that she'd used at the battle of Vale, but Sunset wasn't concerned with the beowolves right now; she was fairly certain that if they were still alive under there they nevertheless weren't getting out any time soon.

It was the grimm that was getting out right before her very eyes that concerned her.

Sunset cast the counterspell.

Nothing happened. The grimm was quite visible still there, and the cracks were spreading slowly up the stone.

 _What that-?_ How could it be so unaffected by it? Why was it still here? Why hadn't the counterspell disrupted the magic holding the creature together?

Because, as Sunset discovered when she stretched out her senses towards it, this creature wasn't made of magic, as other grimm were.

Which meant that it was…that it was truly alive.

Was this thing even a real grimm? Was it something else pretending to be one, aping the look of the creatures of grim even as it was something different altogether?

 _That would explain how it talks and how it has-_

Another crack fell off the stone.

 _Yeah, think about what it is later; think about what you can about it now._

Sunset dismissed the idea of attacking it; she had a sinking feeling that would only hasten its emergence from the stone cocoon into which Ruby had condemned it; she didn't want to do anything to get it out faster. And she couldn't just wipe it away by disrupting its magic because there was something more than magic in there. Which meant that she could…she could…

 _Yes! That's it!_

Sunset knelt down, put one hand on the ground, and cast Displace.

It was not a spell that she would have put much stock into in ordinary circumstances; she'd always regarded it as more of a practical joke than serious magic: why put a bucket of water above a door when you could cast a spell that would displace the water out of the bucket and into the air above the victim's head whenever you wanted it to? It was a little like teleportation for inanimate objects and, like actual teleportation, you couldn't use it to phase things into one another; which was why Sunset used the spell to disperse a yawning pit's worth of earth under the feet of the grimm, if grimm it was, into the air above it's head.

This had the beneficial side effect of opening up a yawning pit under the feet of the grimm, into which it dropped with a heavy thud a moment before a pit's worth of earth appeared over its head to shower down upon it, burying it beneath the ground. Only a modest rise in the disturbed earth showed where it was.

 _Have fun getting out of that, I just hope you can't do it too fast._

Not that she wanted to stick around and time it. Sunset ignored the weakening in her legs, the overall desire for rest that was stealing over her body, and summoned her gun and sword into her hands. "Sir, we have to go," she said, taking a step towards Taiyang and Ruby.

Taiyang looked up at Sunset, who was glad to see that there wasn't any visible anger towards her in his eyes. "That thing," he said. "It knew her. It knew both of you."

"I know," Sunset said. "That's why I don't want to be around here when it gets out of that hole. We should get Ruby to-"

"Beacon," Taiyang said. "Ruby needs to rest, but not in a hospital. If she's being hunted then Beacon is the only place safe enough to stop."

"Okay," Sunset said; she wasn't as sure as he was about Beacon's overall safety – it had just been attacked by grimm a few months ago, after all – but it had the advantage of being a long way away from Patch. "We'll get clear of here and then I'll call-"

She was interrupted – again – by the whine of a bullhead's engines as the airship cleared the trees, breaking through the clouds that Sunset had conjured, its lights illuminating the darkness as it descended straight downwards, engines blowing at the grass as the ship dropped.

It came to a stop about a foot above the ground, hovering not far from the house and not far from them either.

The right-side hatch began to drop. Cinder had leapt out before it had even finished doing so, running across the grass. "Sunset! You-" she noticed the stone beowolves as she stopped running. "Oh."

"Cinder?" Sunset said. The hatch on the Bullhead had dropped completely now, and Sunset could see that Sami, Jack and Emerald were all inside. "What are you doing here?"

"We came to warn you that Ruby was in danger," Cinder said. "We appear to be a little late."

"I'm glad to see you all the same, really glad," Sunset said, clapping her on the shoulder. "Is Cardin flying the Bullhead?"

"Yes," Cinder said. Her voice dropped a little. "He saw the silver light. We all saw it. He'll want an explanation."

"I'll…I'll think of something," Sunset said, strongly considering the truth. "But first we need to go. Sir, if you-" she glanced back, but Taiyang was already way ahead of her. He picked up Ruby in his arms – she looked so small – and carried her at a run towards the Bullhead, Zwei running at his heels.

Sunset and Cinder followed behind him.

"You couldn't defeat a few beowolves without relying on Ruby and her special eyes?" Cinder asked. When Sunset didn't respond the mocking smile faded from her face. "It found you, didn't it? Where is it now?"

"Buried, for the moment," Sunset replied tersely. They reached the Bullhead together, leaping inside. Sunset gave a glance to see that Taiyang – still holding Ruby- had settled at the back of the airship, before she dived into the cockpit and took the free seat next to Cardin.

"Get us in the air," she said.

"Sunset, what are all those stone grimm out there?" Cardin asked, gesturing out the window. He glanced behind him. "And what happened to Ruby, is she going to be okay?"

"Ruby will be fine once we get to Beacon," Sunset said. "You need to get us in the air."

"Beacon? What are you talking about?"

"Get us in the air, Cardin."

"We came to warn you," Cardin said. "The kid you rescued from that patrol started talking. He told us a grimm had-"

"A grimm had spoken to him, and knew Ruby's name," Sunset said. "Yes, I know, but I am still very grateful that you came because we could really use an airlift right now."

"There was a light," Cardin said. "A silver light, on approach-"

"Cardin!" Sunset snapped, because she had just seen the earth mound marking the spot at which she had buried the grimm move a little. "Cardin, later on I will tell you everything you want to know and a few things that I almost guarantee you won't, but right now a grimm that talks and is so strong that the three of us together couldn't kill it is about to crawl out of that hole so can we please get up in the air and get to Beacon?"

A beam of purple energy erupted out of the earth, scattering dirt upwards as the beam of light split the clouds and chased away the darkness.

"What the-"

"Now!" Sunset yelled, and this time Cardin obeyed her, hauling on the stick to pull the Bullhead upwards, away from the ground and into the sky.

Sunset leaned back into her chair as the airship flew away, leaving Ruby's house and the buried creature behind.

It was only at this point that she realised that she'd been sweating.

"What was that?" Cardin demanded. "Since when do grimm speak? Sunset, what's going on?"

Sunset took a deep breath. "Later, okay?"

"No, not okay," Cardin snapped. "If you know something then you have to tell me!"

"Not now," Sunset insisted, glancing back at the other occupants of the Bullhead.

Cardin scowled. "Fine. You want to head to Beacon?"

"Yes," Sunset said.

"What's there?"

"Help for Ruby," Sunset said. "But also knowledge, I hope."

"Knowledge?"

"About what that thing was," Sunset said. "Excuse me." She didn't actually give Cardin a chance to object, she just got up and left him in the cockpit – for the moment at least – as she entered the main compartment of the airship.

Ruby and Taiyang were in the back, but Cinder was near the front, leaning against the now-closed door.

"If you're about to ask me about a grimm that can speak," Cinder murmured. "I really don't know anything."

"Nothing," Sunset repeated. "Nothing at all."

Cinder smiled sadly. "I wasn't Salem's trusted lieutenant, Sunset, I just thought I was. There's a lot about her and her works that I don't know. Including a grimm that can speak, apparently."

"It can do more than speak," Sunset said.

Cinder's eyes narrowed for a moment. "Is it-"

"Still alive? Yes."

"Not even Ruby could kill it?" Cinder said softly.

"Not even…not even Ruby, no," Sunset whispered. "It could…it could do-"

"I saw the light, I know what it means," Cinder said. "I don't know anything about that either." She fell silent. "I'm not even going to bring it up this time."

"You just did," Sunset said. "I don't need more powers, I need to use the ones I have better."

Cinder didn't argue with that. "Do you think you have time?"

"I don't have a choice."

"Death might be your other choice," Cinder said. "If Salem is hunting you, which it seems she is. She isn't going to give you time to train."

"Nobody's dying," Sunset said. "Especially not Ruby."

"Then what are you going to do?"

"I…I don't know yet," Sunset said. "Let's just hope that once we get to Beacon what this thing is." She paused for a moment. "How about a scorpion faunus, do you know anything about that?"

"Tyrian," Cinder growled. "Him I know."

"Although by the sounds of it you wish you didn't."

"He's insane," Cinder said. "And insufferable because of it. And dangerous, too."

"More dangerous than you."

Cinder's eyes narrowed. "Don't be ridiculous," she said sharply. "But dangerous enough. He was there too."

"He was," Sunset confirmed. "Ruby's father was about to do a number on him when the grimm showed up."

"Pity they couldn't have waited long enough for Mister Rose to finish him off. He's the kind of person who would be better off dead."

"Xiao Long."

"Pardon?"

"His name is Xiao Long, not Rose."

"Oh," Cinder said. "Either way, it's a pity."

"It is," Sunset agreed. "Especially since the grimm is already enough to worry about."

By the time the airship arrived at Beacon it was past midnight, but it was still dark as the aircraft roared over Vale and headed towards the illuminating docking pads that jutted out over the cliff.

Professor Goodwitch was already waiting for them. Sunset had called her as she flew, letting the older woman know what had happened in as few words and as little detail as possible – she might trust Cardin with the truth but she didn't trust Sami or Jack with the same – and now she stood on the edge of the landing pad, her cape fluttering in the wind that only got stronger as Cardin set her down upon the pad.

The bay door let out a hydraulic screech as it descended to let them out.

"Tai," Professor Goodwitch said, with a rare fondness in her voice. "It's been too long. I only wish that we could meet again under better circumstances."

Taiyang leapt down out of the Bullhead. He was still cradling Ruby in his arms. "Likewise, Glynda."

Professor Goodwitch glanced down at Ruby. "How is she?"

"Completely out of it," Taiyang said. "Where can we take her?"

"The infirmary," Professor Goodwitch said. She glanced at Sunset, and then at Cardin as he climbed out of the cockpit. "I didn't expect to see you again so soon, Mister Winchester. Or should that be Captain?"

"Mister Winchester is fine, Professor," Cardin muttered.

"Professor, is there somewhere my team can go?" she gestured to the group behind her.

Professor Goodwitch's eyes narrowed in distaste. "The dining hall," she said after a moment. "The vending machines still work no matter how late it is. Do you still remember the way, Miss Fall? Or were you not here long enough for it to settle in your memory?"

Cinder stared back at the Professor without a trace of shame. "I know the way, Professor, thank you for your consideration."

"Take them there, keep an eye on them," Sunset said softly.

"Understood," Cinder replied.

"Follow me, Tai," Professor Goodwitch said. "And you, Miss Shimmer." She turned on her heel, and her boots clicked upon the stone as she led the way. Tai followed, as did Sunset and Cardin too.

Professor Goodwitch looked over her shoulder at him. "Mister Winchester-"

"If you try and stop me, Professor," Cardin said. "Then I'm afraid that you will have to call me Captain."

Professor Goodwitch was still for a moment, before she gave a nod that was peremptory, almost curt, and resumed her walk.

The school was dark, with barely any lights on. By the light of the moon Sunset could make out the ruined stump of what had been Beacon Tower; the rubble had been cleared away from the courtyard but the tower itself remained incomplete, stopping at jagged edges and wall fragments where the dragon had smashed it. That was the most obvious but not the only sign of the battle, however: while some of the buildings had been repaired, at least one of the dorm rooms still looked like a burned and ruined husk, the walls stained by burn marks where there were walls at all.

"This place has been through a lot," Taiyang murmured.

"We're making repairs as quickly as we can," Professor Goodwitch said. "But there is still work to do. There is always more work to do."

"It's quiet," Sunset said.

"It still hasn't been decided exactly when the school will re-open," Professor Goodwitch said. "There are many matters that remain to be settled. It's unclear if we will be able to open this year at all. The Council has not yet made up its mind yet."

"The Council has a lot to decide," Cardin said.

"Yes, but I would hope that the training of our future huntsmen and huntresses would be considered a priority," Professor Goodwitch replied, without looking over her shoulder.

"So, it's just the professors here right now?" Sunset asked.

"Indeed, Miss Shimmer."

That explained why there were so few lights on anywhere. Sunset supposed that that was good for them, but at the same time it also made this whole place feel so eerily empty that she'd have rather have taken their chances with a whole school full of students.

This courtyard where now they walked, this campus where they were, this school had been a place of life and light. She could see it now, without even having to close her eyes: she could see the sunlight falling on the courtyard and the buildings, driving the shadows away from the tall, grey tower; she could see the ghosts of Pyrrha and Jaune, Weiss and Flash, Blake, Yang. She could see them all as clear as day, hear them all, hear and see and feel this school as it was supposed to be, not only a place of learning but a place of joy and friendship too; in this bastion of the struggle against evil had been found all the things for which it was worth opposing evil. All gone now. Those who had filled it with warmth and light were scattered, and all that remained was cold and empty stone and a handful of professors devoid of either students or purpose, left to rattle around inside this shell until their fate was decided.

Professor Goodwitch brought them to the infirmary, a room as empty as all the rest but which had a bed in which Taiyang gently laid his daughter, as the sterile lights flickered on above their heads.

"Let me know if you need anything, Tai," Professor Goodwitch said.

Taiyang nodded absently as he sat down beside his bed, his eyes wholly fixed on Ruby. Zwei hopped up into Taiyang's lap and sat there, similarly staring intently at the sleeping girl.

Professor Goodwitch turned briskly to face Sunset and Cardin where they lingered in the doorway. "Would you care to explain to me just what happened, Miss Shimmer?"

"I'd like to get to that part too," Cardin said.

Sunset took a deep breath. She blinked not only once but twice. She had given this a lot of thought on the flight over and she had come to the conclusion that there was only one choice in this situation that was both practical and right. "Professor, there are some things that I need to explain to Cardin, after that we'll be back to tell you what went down tonight."

Professor Goodwitch's eyes narrowed behind her half-moon spectacles. "I sincerely hope that you don't intend what I fear you intend, Miss Shimmer."

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, Professor."

Professor Goodwitch sucked in a sharp intake of breath. "Mister Winchester, would you mind waiting here? Miss Shimmer and I have something to discuss."

Cardin clenched his jaw. "Professor, I know that I probably still look like a kid to you but I am an officer of Vale, and-"

"And what Miss Shimmer and I need to discuss goes beyond Vale, or any other kingdom for that matter," Professor Goodwitch declared sharply. "Wait here. Miss Shimmer, with me."

Cardin – almost involuntarily, or automatically, judging by the look on his face – stepped aside as Professor Goodwitch swept magisterially past him, stalking off into the corridor beyond the infirmary with her heels clicking upon the floor tiles. Sunset followed after her, increasing her pace until she was matching the headmistress, who did not look at her, not even a glance, as they walked into Professor Greene's office just down the hall.

Professor Greene wasn't in at the moment, so Sunset and Professor Goodwitch had the room – where various model traps and snares sat on the shelves in front of books on outdoor living – to themselves as Professor Goodwitch slammed the door with a flick of her riding crop.

"Would you mind explaining to me what you think you're doing, Miss Shimmer."

Sunset clasped her hands behind her back. "I think that Cardin deserves to know the truth, Professor."

"On what grounds, Miss Shimmer."

"On the grounds that it will be very hard to persuade him to help me without telling him everything," Sunset said. "On the grounds that I might not even deserve his help if I don't tell him everything."

Professor Goodwitch exhaled loudly. "I understand your feelings, Miss Shimmer, but that isn't how this works. Don't you think that Professor Ozpin would have had a much easier time of things if he'd simply been honest with more people? If he had told the world the truth? But there are some things that are better kept secret, that must be kept secret. If the world knew about the Maidens then they would be hunted down for their powers, even more so if they knew about the Relics as well."

"I'm not proposing to tell the whole world, just Cardin Winchester," Sunset said. "There's a reason I left the rest of my team back in the cafeteria and you're right, I wouldn't trust those scumbags with all of this but…he's a good guy. He's come a long way since Beacon. I think I can trust him with this."

"That isn't your decision to make, Miss Shimmer."

"Then whose decision is it, Professor?" Sunset demanded. "Professor Ozpin? Professor Ozpin isn't here, isn't that the whole point? Now the Professor left us to do a job, that's fine; but he doesn't get to tie my hands behind my back while I do it and…and neither do you, with the greatest of respect.

"Professor Ozpin isn't here. He's not here to decide who does and doesn't deserve to get brought into the magic circle. He's not here to give me instructions or even to tell me what the right thing to do is. He's not here, I am and I think that Cardin can be trusted with this. And I don't think I have much choice."

Professor Goodwitch was silent for a moment. "Is there nothing that I can say that will dissuade you?"

"I don't think so," Sunset said softly.

"You've been wrong before in your choice of who to trust."

Sunset clenched one hand into a fist as she winced at that. "I was wrong about Amber," she admitted. "But I was right about Cinder, in the end."

Professor Goodwitch shrugged. "But was Professor Ozpin right about you?" she said softly.

Sunset bowed her head. _So, that's how you feel. You did a good job hiding it up until now, but in some way I prefer to know._ "Maybe not," she said. "But he did it anyway."

"Just like you intend to trust Mister Winchester anyway."

"If you like, Professor," Sunset said. "Even if Professor Ozpin isn't dead it doesn't change the fact that he's not here. We can't act as though if we wait five minutes he'll get back from the dentists."

"No, I suppose we cannot," Professor Goodwitch said. "Go, Miss Shimmer; tell Mister Winchester everything you feel he can be trusted with, and then I expect you to tell me everything that happened to you tonight."

"I'll be glad to, Professor," Sunset said. She showed herself out, and briskly made her way back up the corridor to the infirmary, where she found Cardin waiting impatiently just inside the door.

"Are you done?" he demanded as Sunset came back. "Do I get to find out what happened now? Do I get to understand?"

"Oh, you'll understand alright," Sunset said. "Come with me and you'll understand more than you ever thought you could."

She took him outside, to that empty courtyard where only memories dwelled, to where they could see the ruin of the tower where Professor Ozpin had revealed the truth to Sunset, Pyrrha, Rainbow and Twilight; it seemed so very, very long ago. It had only been…a few months, but it felt like a lifetime. That had been the moment when everything had changed, the moment when all expectations of what her life would be about had shifted, what all of their lives would be about; the moment when they had become a part of something bigger than themselves, enmeshed in it, inextricably.

 _Put like that what am I about to do to Cardin, huh?_

Sunset began to wonder if the reason Professor Ozpin had kept so many secrets was that he didn't want to burden people with them unnecessarily. Did she want to burden Cardin just to make her life easier?

"Do you want to do this?"

Cardin frowned down at her. "Do I want to do what?"

"Know the truth."

"Of course I want to know, there's something going on and I'm not just going to ignore it," Cardin said sharply.

"Are you sure?" Sunset repeated. "Once I start to talk there's no turning back, but you don't have to listen. You've got a choice."

Cardin stared at her like she was nuts or something. "Sunset, I know that you and Ruby and Professor Goodwitch apparently are involved in something secret. I know that there's apparently a grimm that talks and I know that you know something about that silver light and whatever turned those beowolves to stone. I'm not going to pretend that I don't know all of that so why don't you stop beating around the bush and tell me."

"Okay," Sunset said. She sighed. "But don't say that I didn't warn you."

She told him everything. She told him about the Relics, she told him about the Maidens, she told him about Salem, she told him about magic, she told him about Professor Ozpin; about the only things that she didn't tell him where about her own unique situation, her truth that didn't belong to him; and about Ruby's silver eyes, which was her truth to share.

She told him almost everything and then when she was done he just stood there staring at her like he didn't know where to start.

"And you just…wow."

"I know it's a lot to take in-"

"This isn't about it being a lot to take in!" Cardin snapped. "This is about the fact that none of you, not even Professor Ozpin, had the right to keep all of this stuff a secret! From everyone! How could you find this out all the way in back in second semester and you're only now telling anyone?"

"To be fair, we weren't exactly friends when I found out the truth," Sunset said.

"I said anyone, not me," Cardin said. "How could you keep this to yourself?"

"Because I liked the feeling of having secret knowledge that only a select few were privy too," Sunset said flatly. "Also, because Professor Ozpin said it was a secret."

"What gave him the right to make that kind of decision?" Cardin asked.

"The gods, apparently."

"That doesn't make it right," Cardin said. "The grimm have a mistress? If people knew about that, if people knew that the grimm were more than just a mindless horde-"

"If people knew that there was an immortal and sinister intellect at the heart of all evil, drawing her plans against us, they'd be out of their minds with panic and bring even more grimm down upon their own heads," Sunset said. "And for what purpose? We can't kill her, all we can do is fight the grimm, like we already do."

"There's a difference between fighting random dumb monsters and fighting an army."

"The grimm are random dumb monsters most of the time," Sunset said. "I don't know what Salem does to them exactly but I don't think that she moves them all around like they're units in a game. At least not most of the time. What Professor Ozpin does-"

"Puts people in danger," Cardin said. "This place was supposed to arm us with the skills and the knowledge that we needed to fight the grimm but the man running it held everything back."

"Professor Ozpin always made the best decisions he could-"

"And the tower got destroyed, Vale got invaded and a whole lot of people died so he was really doing a swell job wasn't he?" Cardin demanded.

Sunset slapped him, hard enough to knock him sideways in spite of his aura. He stumbled over his own feet, falling onto the ground at her feet while Sunset glowered at him. "Don't," she snarled. "Don't talk like that."

Cardin stared up at her in disbelief. "What the-"

"Stop it!" Sunset yelled. "Just stop…stop…"

"Stop what?" Cardin asked as he got to his feet.

"Stop reminding me of myself, it's what I always hated about you!" Sunset shrieked at him, turning away and pacing a few paces off with her back to him. She hugged her arms. "That's what I always…ever since I first saw it in Forever Fall. Do you remember that?"

"I remember you talked a lot and didn't make much sense."

"I was trying to make sense of it myself," Sunset growled. "It was when I saw you…you were arrogant and entitled and bad tempered-"

"Thanks a lot."

"And you were just like me and I couldn't stand it!" Sunset said. "You just looking at you and feeling like I was looking into a mirror I just…it made me feel dirty. It made me feel like I needed a shower. It made me want to be a better person. So…thanks, I guess."

Cardin rubbed his face. "You've got a funny way of showing your appreciation."

"But you're doing it again," Sunset said, wheeling to face him. "Professor Ozpin…I spent so long thinking that exact stuff, the same nonsense that you're coming out with now: Professor Ozpin doesn't have the right to keep secrets from us, why isn't he telling us everything; Professor Ozpin's dangerous, he's putting people at risk; Professor Ozpin is the reason people die. I even wondered if there was something sinister going on." She glanced into his eyes. "Don't," she said. "Please don't."

"It would explain-" Cardin began.

"The truth explains everything perfectly," Sunset replied. "The truth that Professor Ozpin was – or is, whatever – a good man, trying his best in an insanely difficult situation. Trying to do something that neither I nor you nor anyone else have the right to judge him for. So please don't try because…because I hate being reminded of myself and the mistakes that I've made even when…" she sighed. "I wasted so much time in baseless distrust and suspicion. Maybe if I had been more open and ready to think clearly then…I don't know. But don't make the same mistake."

Cardin was silent for a moment. "Listen, I'm sorry about…you liked the guy and now…except he isn't dead, is he?"

"Apparently not," Sunset said. "Not in some sense, at least."

"I get what you're trying to say, but all the same," Cardin said. "But all the same-"

"Professor Goodwitch didn't think you could be trusted to know this, I'd prefer that you didn't prove her right," Sunset said.

"Ozpin didn't have the right to keep this to himself," Cardin repeated stubbornly.

"Who else had the right to know?" Sunset replied. "Who else has the right now? The Committee of Public Safety? I thought the same way once but after what's happened to Vale…if people knew about the Maidens and the Relics then they would become pawns in power games between the Kingdoms."

"You don't know that," Cardin said.

"No, but it's something that I've worried about more since my friend became a Maiden," Sunset said.

"Vale needs a hero."

"Doesn't it have you?"

Cardin snorted. "Something like a Maiden could give this Kingdom hope."

"And are you willing to kill Pyrrha to return that hope to Vale?"

"Of course not!"

"Can you guarantee that everyone would be so forbearing?"

Cardin didn't reply. Sunset thought that was probably because he couldn't. He slammed his fist into his open palm. "I hate this," he growled.

"I'm sorry," Sunset said. She didn't add that she had tried to warn him. "But you understand now, right?"

"Sort of," Cardin said. "If you believe in secrecy then why are you telling me?"

"Because you're sort of involved at this point," Sunset said. "On the periphery, but…this would have been very hard if you don't know."

Cardin shook his head. "I hate this."

"I got that."

"And I meant what I said," Cardin said. "Vale does a hero right now. Everyone is asking where the next Ozpin is going to come from. We could really use the powers of the Fall Maiden right now."

"Everyone could use a Maiden right now," Sunset said. "The real question is what are you going to do about it?"

"I…I don't know," Cardin said. "You go back and talk to Goodwitch. I think you can explain everything. I…need to think about all the stuff that you've already explained."

Sunset nodded. "That sounds fair."

Cardin nodded absently. "This is going to sound like such a huge double standard but…you're not going to tell the team about this, are you?"

"No," Sunset said firmly, in a voice that was almost a squawk. "Of course not, I wouldn't trust them with this. Cinder knows some of it, I'm pretty sure she doesn't know everything but I haven't confirmed with her. Either way, I don't think she'll…"

Cardin's eyes narrowed. "What?"

"Emerald," Sunset said, as she remembered the other person who knew some of the truth of what they were about and who, unlike Cinder, had no reason to keep silent.

* * *

Sami leaned forwards. "Magic?" she said. "Magic is real?"

"Yep," Emerald said. "And I'm pretty sure that's what we just saw before we took off. The purple light that just ripped out of the ground?"

Sami's eyes were wide as dishes. "That was…magic?"

"I can't believe that that is what you're focussing on," Jack said.

Sami glowered at him. "I'm sorry, what part of the revelation that magic is real shouldn't I be reacting too?"

"How about you react to the fact that the grimm have a boss who wants to kill us all?" Jack said.

"How about you don't react at all to things that are none of your concern," Cinder said as she stalked up to the table where the other three sat, sharing secrets that it would have been better if they had remained secret. She didn't look at Emerald, not yet; she would deal with her in just a little while. For now she wanted to make sure that neither Jack nor Sami got any ideas as a result of this.

Jack got to his feet, his face flushed with anger. "You knew about this? You and Sunset both knew and you kept this from us?"

"Sit down," Cinder said, her voice deceptively soft.

"Maybe I would have stayed in my cell if-"

"Sit down," Cinder said, her voice becoming as sharp as glass.

Jack swallowed, flinching away from Cinder's smouldering gaze.

"Thank you," Cinder said. She glanced at Sami, but the reindeer faunus didn't seem to be taking much notice. She appeared to be lost in her own thoughts.

"Sami," Cinder said. "What are your thoughts on all this?"

Sami blinked. "I…wish that I'd known sooner," she said.

"Why?" Cinder asked.

Sami shrugged. "Just…because…like Jack said, I…might have made different choices."

"You would both have rather mouldered away in your cells?" Cinder asked. "Lost out on any chance of getting your freedom? Getting that farm you dream of?"

"How am I going to get a farm or freedom fighting a fight that can never be won?" Jack said.

"Let me stop you right there," Cinder said. "Nobody is asking you to fight Salem. Nobody is asking you to save the world. You were recruited to fight for Vale and that's all that you are going to be asked to do. Magic and Salem and all the rest is nothing for people like you to be concerned about. So calm down, settle down, and keep what you've just found out to yourselves or you'll answer to me." She leaned forward, getting into Jack's face. She had her aura up and he didn't, and they both knew it. "Do I make myself clear?"

Jack swallowed. "Yes. I'll just-"

"Follow orders? That's probably for the best," Cinder said. It wasn't how Sunset would have handled this but she thought that it had worked out pretty well. Now there was just one other loose end to tie up. "Emerald? A word."

She resisted the urge to grab Emerald by the scruff of the neck and drag her away, instead her old subordinate, trembling, got up and followed her across the otherwise deserted dining hall, past empty chairs and empty tables, until Cinder rounded on her, "Would you care to explain yourself?"

Emerald didn't meet Cinder's eyes. "What we saw back there…that was magic, wasn't it?"

"Possibly," Cinder allowed, although she was as baffled as Sunset when it came to how a grimm could possess magic.

"If that's what we're involved in now, again," Emerald said. "Don't you think that they should know?"

"No," Cinder said flatly. "Those two may be fit to fight, or to bear burdens, but to not to be trusted with our secrets."

"Our secrets?" Emerald said. "Or Sunset's secrets?"

Cinder tilted her head minutely to one side. "Is that what this is really about?"

"She's using you," Emerald said. "She's using all of us, but especially you. She stole your power-"

"I gave it willingly," Cinder said. "I hope you didn't tell them about that?"

"No," Emerald said quickly. "I told them about the Maidens, but I wouldn't…I wouldn't never give your secrets away, Cinder."

Cinder grunted. That was good. They would think her weak if they knew what she had done. Sunset too, probably. "But you didn't consider the truths I showed you to be my secrets?"

"I…that isn't the same thing," Emerald said.

"Isn't it?" Cinder said. "I opened your eyes so that you could assist me, not so that you could shout the truth from the rooftops to let it fall like rain upon unworthy ears."

"I am helping you," Emerald said. "You deserve better than to be Sunset Shimmer's running dog. With their help maybe we can overpower Sunset and Cardin and-"

"And what?" Cinder demanded. "Cut Ruby's throat while she's sleeping? Hunt down Pyrrha for the power of the Fall Maiden?"

"If you wish," Emerald murmured. "Whatever you wish."

"Except that my wish is to stay here," Cinder said. "To do this."

Emerald shook her head. "You're better than this," she said. "You're more than this."

"No," Cinder said. "I am more than empty dreams and airy ambitions."

"You can't honestly mean to tell me that this fulfils you," Emerald said.

"No," Cinder said again. "But this is Sunset's place, which means it is my place too."

"Sunset again," Emerald growled. "Why does she have such a hold on you? What does she have that I don't? I would do anything for you, go anywhere for you, I would…I would stand by you while you cut Ruby's throat as she was sleeping, or killed Pyrrha for her powers or burned down Vale and Mistral both, do you think that Sunset would?"

"I know she wouldn't," Cinder said. "And that…as much as anything else that is the reason why."

* * *

"I was too late," Cinder said. "It was as you feared. I'm sorry."

"Don't be, what's done is done," Sunset said. It wasn't that it wasn't disappointing – because it was – but there was no point in blaming Cinder for it. It was her fault for not remembering Emerald sooner, although even if she had remembered it was doubtful if she could have kept her from blabbing out the truth indefinitely.

It was done, and she would just have to deal with it now. "What's the mood like?"

"Jack is scared," Cinder said. "Sami…I'm not so sure."

"What's she said?"

"Very little, that's the point," Cinder said. "Whatever she thinks about this she's keeping it to herself for now."

"I see," Sunset murmured.

"How did Cardin take it?"

"He's taking some time to think it over."

"That bad?"

"He's not feeling very well disposed towards Ozpin right now."

"I know that you liked him, but he did have a talent for upsetting people," Cinder replied. "So what now?"

"I see if Professor Goodwitch knows what that thing at the house was," Sunset said.

"And then?"

"I don't know yet," Sunset said. "One thing at a time."

"Good luck in there," Cinder said, before ending the call.

Sunset folded up her scroll, putting it away as she cursed inwardly. So they all knew. They all knew some of the truth anyway; Cinder hadn't told Emerald everything and so Emerald hadn't been able to reveal everything; but she knew enough to reveal enough.

But there was nothing to be done about it now, it wasn't as though she could just erase their memories.

Sunset pushed open the door into Professor Greene's office, to find Professor Goodwitch sat on the desk waiting for her.

"How did it go with Mister Winchester?"

"He's…taking it in," Sunset said. "He's not the one I'm worried about."

"What do you mean?"

"Professor Ozpin wasn't the only person who could tell this story," Sunset said.

Professor Goodwitch's eyes narrowed. "Miss Fall."

"Her accomplice, Emerald Sustrai," Sunset said. "I don't mind telling you, Professor, that my former thief and murderer were not people I wanted to bring into this business."

"What do you intend to do about it?"

"What can I do but my job: make sure they don't get out of hand? So long as they're with us they can't do anything with their knowledge and they're not in much position to spread it around."

"All the same this is far from ideal."

"The fact that I had to come here under these circumstances is far from ideal, Professor."

"Yes," Professor Goodwitch murmured. "You were going to explain what brought you here, weren't you? Mister Winchester won't be joining us for this?"

"I've given him enough to ponder for now, apparently," Sunset said.

Professor Goodwitch almost smiled at that. "Very well, Miss Shimmer; what has occurred tonight to bring you back here?"

"I went to talk to Ruby, as I told you I would," Sunset said. "I asked her to go to Mistral to find Professor Ozpin and, after thinking it over, she agreed to do it."

"I'm glad to hear it," Professor Goodwitch said. "I would be more glad if Miss Rose was currently in a position to go."

"We were attacked," Sunset said. "First by a man, a scorpion faunus; Cinder said his name was Tyrian."

"Not a name I'm familiar with," Professor Goodwitch said. "But the servants of the enemy are, for the most part, unknown to us. We endeavour to keep the names of our own allies hidden from Salem also. Although that hasn't worked in your case."

"Unfortunately," Sunset agreed. "Tyrian closed the distance too quickly for either for either me or Ruby, but Mister Xiao Long was a match for him. He was about to finish him for good when the grimm arrived."

"It must have been some grimm to get the better of Taiyang Xiao Long," Professor Goodwitch said. "Not to mention you and Miss Rose."

"It was some grimm," Sunset agreed. "It recognised us."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because it told us so."

Professor Goodwitch pushed her glasses back up her nose. "It spoke? The grimm spoke to you?"

Sunset nodded. "It wasn't loquacious but it spoke. And it knew our names. That's what it said: Ruby Rose, and Sunset Shimmer. And it could wield…I would bet my arm it was using magic."

"That's impossible," Professor Goodwitch said. "The only magic remaining in the world resides with Salem, Professor Ozpin and the four maidens."

"I know what I saw," Sunset said. "I know what I felt. Could Salem have given a part of her magic to a grimm the way that Ozpin gave his to the Maidens?"

"I don't believe so," Professor Goodwitch said. "The grimm are not human, after all; they are constructs of magic, and as such they shouldn't have the ability to wield magic."

"Nevertheless," Sunset said. She ran one hand through her fiery hair. "I was hoping that you would have an answer for me. Do you think Professor Port might know?"

"If he did I'm sure I would have heard him mention it," Professor Goodwitch said softly.

Sunset nodded. "The library?"

"You _might_ find the answers there, in some old and mouldering text, if you had the time to look," Professor Goodwitch said. "I'm not sure that you do. If this creature still lives then they will come after you again."

Sunset smirked. "Is this your way of telling me to go to Anima, Professor?"

"In Mistral is the Relic of Knowledge, which can tell you everything you wish to know about this creature and how to destroy it," Professor Goodwitch said. "That is if Professor Ozpin, in his wisdom, does not already have the answers that you are looking for. And ask yourself this, Miss Shimmer? Do you really think that this city can survive another grimm attack at the moment?"

Sunset's eyebrows rose. "Do you really think it would attack the city just to get to us?"

"I can't say that it wouldn't," Professor Goodwitch said. "And if it does, even it is seen, the panic that it could cause might bring even more grimm."

"So you're saying that I should leave to draw it away?" Sunset said. "What about Ruby?"

"With luck it will assume that Miss Rose is with you, and follow," Professor Goodwitch said.

"And if it doesn't? I can't run away and leave Ruby to face this thing by herself?"

Professor Goodwitch smiled.

"What did I say that was so amusing, Professor?"

"What will you do if Miss Rose wakes up and remains determined to set out for Anima?" Professor Goodwitch asked.

"I…" Sunset faltered, because there was only one answer and Professor Goodwitch knew it. She couldn't let Ruby go to Anima by herself, not after this, not after the hypothetical perils of the journey had become both real and so much more perilous than Sunset had thought. "I need to speak to Cardin again."

* * *

 _So, it's real._

 _Magic is real._

 _And it always was._

 _Just like I was always told._

Sami sat in the moonlight and thought about her mother.

Emerald and Jack were both asleep. Cinder wasn't, because she didn't trust any of them. So she was watching Sami from the other side of this cafeteria, watching her in case she did anything wrong, stepped out of line.

As well she might watch, but she couldn't watch the inside of Sami's head.

Magic was real. That was something that Sami should have known, considering that she'd been told it often enough.

" _We are the old blood, my child," Mother said. "The blood of the First Men flows in our veins."_

 _Sami frowned. "If ours is the blood of men, then why are we faunus?"_

" _Some of our ancestors were faunus," Mother said. "But some were men. The old blood, the blood of power, the blood of magic."_

" _Magic isn't real, Mom."_

" _Stifle your tongue! This is knowledge passed down through generations of our people; though the world has forgotten we remember."_

Sami's mother had been a wise woman of her tribe of semi-nomads living in the wooded foothills of the mountains on the edge of Vale's territory. They had lived on the outskirts of the kingdom, dodging the grimm and the kingdom authorities equally; they had foraged for food and hunted for the skins of animals to wear or sell or barter: deer, rabbit, beaver, bear, lynxes and the great mountain lions that roamed the peaks. Sami had always believed that the reason the grimm existed was to protect those creatures; they were stopping men from expanding too far and taking all the land for themselves and leaving none for the beasts and the birds. They were nature's protectors, and that was why those who lived off nature had to be wary of them.

Sami's mother had called that a lot of nonsense, and it seemed that she had been right because the grimm weren't an earthborn force at all, they were just monsters that somebody had created to attack their enemies.

And because her mother had been right about magic too. That was something else her people had done, as well as hunt and fish and forage: they had told stories, about magic and the old blood and the first men and the great cataclysm. Sami hadn't believed any of it. She hadn't believed in magic, or the idea that her ancestors had been great once. After all, it wasn't as if anyone she knew had any magic to show for their old blood, for the legacy of the First Men.

So Sami had left it all behind and gone to Vale to seek her fortune, where she had found out that the only thing that she knew how to do well enough to carve out a space for herself in the city was hunt and take lives, which was exactly what she'd done.

And now she found out that it was all true. That magic was real.

And if magic was real then that made it her birthright.

She didn't know how she was going to attain it, but she knew that she would.

No matter who she had to kill first.

* * *

Sunset emerged out into the courtyard; the night breeze was chill upon her face as she wandered through the deserted, empty space in search of Cardin.

She found him on the docking pad, standing beside his Bullhead, looking out over Vale as it lay swathed in darkness, bathed in moonlight, illuminated by a hundred thousand lights below them like a mirror reflecting back the starlight at the sky.

His arms were folded across his broad chest. He was staring intently down at the city below, saying nothing to anybody.

He continued to say nothing as Sunset came to stand beside him, waiting, looking at the city.

The city that she had betrayed. The city that she had sworn to serve. The city that she…that she wanted to leave behind no matter how wrong it was of her to do so.

 _Would it be any less wrong of me to abandon Ruby in the face of this?_

"What did Professor Goodwitch say?" Cardin asked, breaking the silence.

"She doesn't know what it was that we fought."

"What was it that you fought?"

Sunset glared at him, but she understood what he really meant. "A talking grimm," she said. "A grimm that used magic."

"And that's not normal?"

Sunset glared at him again.

"Hey, I just found out magic is real, how do I know what's normal and what isn't?"

"No," Sunset said. "A grimm using magic is definitely not normal. I had to bury it because there didn't seem any way that we could kill it."

"And Professor Goodwitch wasn't any help?"

"Professor Goodwitch wants me to go to Anima," Sunset said.

"For Ozpin."

"And for answers," Sunset said. She didn't mention that getting those answers would first require getting the Spring Maiden, which would require going up against Raven Branwen and her bandit tribe. "It knew our names, Cardin; not just Ruby's name but mine too. It recognised us, it was hunting us. So was the man, the faunus, who accompanied it."

"You're saying that…Salem?"

"Yeah," Sunset said. "She's after us."

Cardin scowled. "Why? Because you worked for Ozpin?"

"Probably," Sunset said, if only because – having not told him about Equestrian magic or silver eyes – she could hardly cite any other reasons to him.

Cardin closed his eyes. "I don't like this," he said. "I don't like this one bit. But then…there's a lot I've had to put up with lately that I don't like.

"I don't like the fact that everyone treats me like I'm some hero when all I did was get my shoulder dislocated during the Battle of Vale. I don't like the fact that all the real heroes got kicked out or felt like they had to leave. I don't like the fact that my team just disappeared, I mean just because we weren't a brotherhood like Team Sapphire doesn't mean that I didn't care about them! So this…even though I don't like this…I suppose that it has to join the line of stuff that I don't like, but that I have to live with.

"Because you're right. I don't like it but you're right. If people knew the truth then they'd be afraid, even more than they are. Things are just starting to calm down in Vale and if this came out then…between the people who would want their Maiden back and the people who would be scared of all of this…it might bring the grimm back. I don't think that Ozpin had the right to just keep all of this to himself but right now…I think it might be our best option."

Sunset sighed. "You have no idea how relieving it is to hear you say that," she said. "I was worried that…I was worried that you'd be one of those who would want to claim the magic for Vale."

"I'd rather that we had some," Cardin grumbled. "But only because it sounds like we could use it to keep the kingdom safe, not so that we could use it against other kingdoms."

"How long until one became the other?"

"That's the point, isn't it," Cardin muttered. He let his hands fall down to his sides as he continued to stare out across Vale. "So they're hunting you."

"It looks that way."

"And they won't stop?"

"I can't know what they'll do, but I doubt they'll give up so easily," Sunset said. She didn't mention, because she trusted him to realise, that Vale couldn't afford another grimm attack.

Cardin said nothing, not for a few moments that ticked by while he continued to look down at the city. "Lionheart," he said after a while.

"Lionheart?" Sunset repeated.

"Isn't that how Cinder and her allies got into Beacon in the first place? Because Lionheart from Haven helped them out. And he's still there, isn't he?"

"I…I'm not sure," Sunset said. "Nobody's sure, with communications down."

"Let's assume he is," Cardin said. "Or at least that he hasn't gone very far. This team will travel to Mistral, acquire Leonardo Lionheart and render him back to Vale to stand trial for his crimes."

"And then after he gets found guilty he can join our squad," Sunset muttered.

"I'm serious," Cardin said. "You want to go to Mistral? This is how, this is the mission. This is the way that I can sell letting us leave."

"Can you?" Sunset asked. "It seems like a stretch, to take an elite squad out of the kingdom on a journey of who knows how long it will take just to get a minor player in all of this."

"He's only a minor player if you know the truth," Cardin said. "Take away the demon goddess and who's to say that Lionheart didn't set up everything with Cinder and the White Fang? Who's to say that he didn't pull the strings, and use Cinder as his field agent to coordinate everything."

"Why would he?"

"We'll ask him that when we pull the bag off his head," Cardin said. "We don't need the answers, I just need to make the questions seem as though they're worth asking. I can get us the go for this, trust me."

"Us?" Sunset repeated. "Cardin, are you-"

"I can't let you go without me," Cardin said. "Not all the way to Anima, it's too far and the mission is too important."

"But…but this has nothing to do with you," Sunset said.

"What did it have to do with you, before Ozpin told you the truth?" Cardin asked.

Sunset snorted, because of course he was absolutely right. No less than Professor Ozpin had told her once that choice was the most powerful of the four kinds of magic in Remnant, and if that was true then who was she to stop Cardin from making his own choice, here and now. "Okay then," she said. She held out one hand. "Welcome to the shadow war, Captain Winchester."

Cardin took her hand with a firm grip. He opened his mouth, but he was cut off from saying anything by the buzzing of Sunset's scroll.

"Hold that thought," Sunset said, as she pulled out her scroll and opened it up.

"Sunset? Are you okay?"

"Ruby?" Sunset said, looking down at the face of her former team-mate on the screen of her scroll. It looked as though she was sitting up in bed. "You're awake. I mean, obviously you're awake but…that was fast."

"I know," Ruby said. "Maybe it's a sign that the more I use my eyes the easier it'll get."

"More likely it's related to the intensity of the burst," Sunset said. "You saved my life out there. Don't do it again."

"Sunset," Ruby said. "I'm fine."

"What's this about eyes?" Cardin asked.

"Ask Ruby and she can tell you if she wants to," Sunset said over her shoulder.

"Who are you talking to?" Ruby asked.

"Cardin, he's here with me," Sunset said. "Hold on, we'll come to you." She began to walk in the direction of the infirmary. Cardin followed.

"Is Cardin coming?"

"Don't worry, I just told him everything…almost everything."

"Almost?"

"I told you you'd have to ask Ruby," Sunset said. "We were just discussing our next move," she added to Ruby. "And how we could get to Anima."

"So you're going to come with me now?" Ruby said.

"You still want to go?" Sunset replied.

"Yeah, I still want to go," Ruby said. "I knew it would be dangerous before I said I was going to go in the first place. The only difference-"

"The only difference is that I'm coming too," Taiyang said, taking the scroll out of Ruby's hands and holding it up to his own face. "No offence, Miss Shimmer but you would have both died there without me. I'm not taking that risk with Ruby. If you have to go to Anima – and I think that's probably wise in the circumstances – then I'm coming too."

Zwei barked happily.

"I'm not going to lie, sir, we could use more trustworthy people on this trip," Sunset said. She grinned. "How do you feel about a road trip with your dad, Ruby?"

"I'd say that…I'd say that it was really cool…if only Yang was here to come with us."

The smile faded from Sunset's face. "Yeah, I…I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Ruby said. "So when do we leave?"

"As soon as we can," Cardin said, looming over Sunset's shoulder. "But I'm not sure when that is, we still have to arrange how we're going to get out."

"Can't we just fly?" Ruby said.

Cardin shook his head. "Skyliners aren't running internationally at the moment, and even if they were Sunset and her team can't just walk onto a commercial airship and I can't be publicly seen to be leaving the kingdom. We're supposed to be engaging in a stealth mission so we need to leave stealthily."

"So what you're saying," Sunset said, with a heavy feeling settling in her stomach. "Is that we need somebody with shady connections and experience in evading scrutiny to help us get an illicit passage out of Vale and to Anima?"

"Sunset," Ruby said. "It almost sounds as though you're talking about-"

"That's exactly who I'm talking about," Sunset said. "He got picked up recently, and it seems like we need his help again."

"Who are you talking about?" Taiyang asked.

"Roman Torchwick," Ruby said.

"Roman Torchwick," Sunset repeated, because if anyone could help them cross the country in secret it would have to be him, wouldn't it?

Roman Torchwick, their best hope.


	194. The Man in the Hat Comes Back

The Man in the Hat Comes Back

"So, you need my help, huh?" Roman Torchwick asked, and it was clear from the tone of his voice and the – incredibly smug – look on his face that he wasn't even pretending not to be enjoying this.

"Unfortunately," Sunset growled. They were still at Beacon, since it was probably both the most secure and the most secret – in the sense that there was hardly anybody there and those who were there were loyal to Professor Goodwitch and the turns-out-not-so-late Professor Ozpin's memory – place that they could go until they got their route out of Vale sorted out. Presently they – and by they Sunset meant everybody, their whole extended, one might say bloated, party; she understood that they had to make this look real for Cardin's superiors, but she didn't quite get why that meant they had to take the Bluebells with them, for example. There were far too many people coming on this 'secret' mission for Sunset's liking, and the fact that Cardin couldn't, or said he couldn't, justify leaving them behind while taking Torchwick didn't make Sunset any happier about it – were in the auditorium; Torchwick had, of course, taken the opportunity to get up onto the stage like he was some kind of movie star about to get an award.

Thinking about it like that was easier – and better for her temper – than thinking about him standing up there like he was Professor Ozpin or something.

"Can you help us or not?" Cardin demanded from his seat directly in front of the stage.

"Of course he _can_ help," Cinder murmured. She got up from where she had been sitting next to Sunset, just to the right of the auditorium stage, and walked towards it. "The question is whether he will, isn't that right, Roman?"

Torchwick smirked. "You see? She gets it. You're lucky to have her to make this conversation go quicker. Can I do it? Sure, of course I can do it, who do you think you're talking to. Will I do it? Well, that depends on what you're offering, doesn't it?"

"The Kingdom of Vale has already made a deal with you, Torchwick," Cardin said.

Torchwick raised his – manacled – hands, one finger in the air. "Technically the Kingdom of Vale made a deal with me to fight in Vale, they didn't say nothing about a long trek to Anima."

"Hey, he's got a point," Jack said from the back. "Hey, boss, can we stand on our contract and refuse to do this?"

"No," Sunset shouted over her shoulder.

Cinder chuckled. "What's that expression, Jack? Join the army and the see the world?"

"But I don't want to see the world," Jack said.

"Too bad," Cardin snapped. "And as for you," he added, returning his attention to Torchwick. "Your deal didn't say anything about you only being sent to fight in Vale, only that you fight for Vale until Vale says you're done."

"Is that right? Teach me to read the fine print, I guess," Torchwick said. "Except no it doesn't, because you need my help so how about we skip to the part where you kids admit I've got you over a barrel and we talk business like reasonable adults." He glanced at Taiyang, sitting off to one side with Ruby (and Zwei). "Hey, Pops, you get it, right? Why don't you explain to the orphans here how the world works?"

"What do you want, Torchwick?" Ruby demanded.

"And little Red speaks," Torchwick declared. His expression softened, if only for a moment. "Hey, Kid, I heard about your sister biting it in that battle. That's rough, I'm sorry."

Taiyang got to his feet. "Don't talk about my daughter. Don't talk _to_ my daughter for that matter."

Roman Torchwick probably would have looked a little intimidated if he'd seen what Taiyang had almost done Tyrian, or that was what Sunset thought at least. But he hadn't, so he wasn't; he just looked at Taiyang with a dispassionate eye. He was about to say something, and knowing him it wouldn't be something friendly, but Ruby spoke before he could. Her voice emerged soft and tired and sad. "It's okay, Dad. This guy isn't someone you need to protect me from."

"You see?" Torchwick said. "Red and me, we go way back. That's why she knows I mean it, don't you Red?"

Ruby didn't answer. She just sighed. "What do you want?" she repeated.

"What do I want?" Torchwick asked as though the question were rhetorical. "I want out," he said. "I'll help you get to Anima but once we get there we're done, me and Neo. Which is the second thing I want, she's coming with us."

"No way," Cardin said. "Your partner is staying right here, and she'll be waiting for you when you get back from our mission."

Torchwick snorted. "Is that right? Then good luck finding another way to Mistral."

Cinder climbed up onto the auditorium stage beside him. "Why don't you tell us what you really want, Roman?"

Torchwick blinked. "I thought I just did."

"You don't want to be set free in Anima," Cinder said.

"Don't I? And what makes you think you know what I want?" Torchwick asked. "Do you even know what you want?"

Cinder didn't suffer that with a reply. "You were free once before. After Mountain Glenn you could have gone anywhere you wanted. But instead you came right back to Vale, right back to playing gangster, right back to playing the same old games with the cops and waiting for them to catch up with you. Waiting to end up in the cell that Cardin dragged you out of. We both know that you can't keep away from this city or this life, so why pretend that you'd make a new life in Anima when you couldn't make one in Sanus?"

Torchwick held her gaze, for a few moments at least, but as she bore down upon him, pressing close against him, he was forced to look away from her smouldering gaze. He took a step back and away from her, as skittish around her as he had been – Sunset guessed – when she still possessed the powers of the Fall Maiden.

"Maybe you're right," Torchwick admitted. "Maybe the bright lights of the big city will call me home again. Maybe I can't stay away. But you know what I know for sure? You need me right now." He grinned. "And the reason I know that is that I know how much it must be killing you to ask for my help _again_ , all three of you." He pointed at Sunset, Cinder and then last of all at Ruby. "I know what you think of me, I know that if you had other options you'd have used them by now. Which means that you need me, which means that you don't get to judge my choices; this isn't a negotiation, this is me naming my price: Neo comes with us, and when we get to Anima you let us both go. Take it or leave it."

"You weren't this bold last time we asked for your help," Sunset grumbled.

"You might have noticed a distinct lack of Atlesian soldiers and airships this time around," Torchwick said.

 _He's not wrong. Also a distinct lack of CCT. And a distinct lack of Professor Ozpin. And a distinct lack of Pyrrha and…and a distinct lack of everything else that we had going for us the last time we trusted you to lead us into the serpent's den._

Sunset glanced at Cinder. _At least you're on my side this time around._

She leaned forwards, resting her elbows on her knees. "Freedom for you and Neo once we cross the ocean. That's it?"

"That's it," Torchwick said. "I'm not unreasonable, after all."

"Done," Sunset said.

"What?" Cardin said.

Sunset leaned across the bench to whisper into his ear. "He's got a point: we don't have many other choices but to pay him off."

"We can't just let him walk free," Cardin hissed.

"It's not like we're letting him go in the city," Sunset said. "He'll be Mistral's problem."

Cardin drew back a couple of inches to look at her.

"Okay, that sounded more heartless than it should have," Sunset said. "I meant…he'll be one more petty criminal in a country that is crawling with them already if its reputation is accurate." Admittedly she hadn't seen any evidence of Mistral's infamous underworld when she was there last, but then she wouldn't have expected the darkness of the city's seedy underbelly to have spread so far that it could touch the rarefied heights on which the ancient and noble House of Nikos dwelt; it didn't mean that said reputation was completely undeserved. Most likely he would either fall in with some local gang – one more thug amongst many – or they would eat him alive for trying to muscle in on their territory. Either way, it wasn't as though she was unleashing any great evil on the world; certainly she wasn't placing it at the kind of risk that world might by in if they failed to find Professor Ozpin, failed to understand how to defeat these new and more powerful grimm, failed to take the road to Anima that Torchwick alone could show them.

 _What happened to no sacrifices?_

 _I'm not sacrificing anyone._

 _Except for his victims._

 _I don't know he's going to have any victims._

 _You know what he is._

Did she? Sunset looked at him. He didn't look like a monster. Whether that was a simple case of deceptive appearances or not…

"If it makes you feel any better," Sunset said as softly as she could because she did not want to be overheard by Torchwick right now. "We don't need to behave honourably towards him. Give him your word, it means nothing given to a man like him."

Promise him freedom, promise him Neo, promise him a fragment of the moon if it would get him to do what they wanted and then, when they got to Anima they could snap their fingers at their bargain and…well, it would be hard to control him after that but it would be an alternative to simply letting him wander free to do mischief.

 _Princess Celestia wouldn't approve but…who knows? It's a long way to Anima, maybe we'll make a friend of him by the time we get there and none of this will come up._

 _Although that doesn't – and shouldn't – make me feel better about planning to betray him. I never planned to betray Cinder._

 _I could see the good in Cinder more clearly than I can see it in this guy._

 _But that doesn't mean that I shouldn't try and bring it out._

Sunset glanced at Torchwick. She had an idea from the look in his eye that he had, if not overheard them, then at least gathered a pretty good idea of what they were talking about. No matter, even if he was smart enough to work out or consider the possibility that Sunset and Cardin planned to betray them he couldn't do anything about it. He was in the same boat that they were: he was going to get a better offer than this.

To confirm that Sunset's glance flickered form Torchwick to Cinder, who nodded to show that she concurred with Sunset's assessment of this.

Sunset rose to her feet. "Done," she repeated. "We accept your terms."

Torchwick chuckled. "I knew that you were the one really in charge," he said.

"If you wanted to be allowed to run your mouth you should have asked for that before we made a deal," Sunset said. "Now, how are we getting to Anima?"

"First I have to pay a visit to an old pal of mine," Torchwick said. "Actually he's more of an acquaintance. Actually he said he'd kill me if he ever saw me again but don't worry, I'm sure that me and Cinder here will get everything straightened out and make the arrangements just fine."

"You…and Cinder?" Sunset repeated.

"You're not going to trust me to go by myself, are you?" Torchwick said. "And Cinder fits in the kind of places we're going a lot better than any of the rest of you."

"Me and you?" Cinder said.

"Sure," Torchwick said. "It'll be just like old times."

Cinder rolled her eyes. "If we must."

"I love how you're not even pretending to check with our glorious leader first," Torchwick said.

"What did I say about running your mouth?" Sunset said.

"Nothing that I paid any attention to," Torchwick said.

"Don't get any ideas," Sunset said. "Cinder, a word?" She turned away from Torchwick as Cinder leapt down off the stage and came to stand beside her. "Are you going to be okay?"

Cinder looked somewhere between amused and affronted. "You think that I can't handle Roman Torchwick?"

"You don't know where he's leading you," Sunset said. "It could be a trap."

"If it is he'll regret it," Cinder said. "I may not be the Fall Maiden any more but I am still Cinder Fall." She was silent for a moment. "I'll always be Cinder Fall, after what I've done."

"You changed your name before," Sunset said. "There's no reason you couldn't do it again."

"Children can start afresh, you know as well as I do that's not so easy for us," Cinder said. "The caterpillar only gets to become a butterfly once, afterwards it has to live with the dirt it accrues on its wings." She smiled. "Besides, the name Cinder Fall can still be useful; it commands a certain…respect. Don't worry about me; I could handle a dozen Roman Torchwicks with one eye closed." She turned to face Roman himself once again. "So," she said. "Lead the way."

* * *

Ruby glanced up as the door opened and Cardin walked back in, with Neo walking in front of him with a step so light that it was almost a skip. She was wearing a smile on her face, and she kept it there as she hopped up onto the edge of the stage and sat there with her legs dangling from it, kicking up and down as she waited for Torchwick to return.

Ruby wished she'd stop. She didn't say or do anything to make her stop but she wished that the other girl would stop all the same. It wasn't her fault but at the same time it didn't seem right for her to be so happy in this place.

This place where Ruby had been happy once, but now…now she just wanted to get out of here; out of this room, out of this building, out of Beacon. It had too many memories for her now and they were memories…they were memories that she didn't want to forget but that didn't mean that they wanted to be reminded of them either.

Just looking up at that stage she could, if she looked long enough, see Yang up there instead of Neo, sparring with Weiss or Pyrrha while Professor Goodwitch watched them with a keen eye that nothing could slip past. In her mind's eye she could see them all sat on the bleachers, watching one spectacular fight after another, watching Jaune grow before their eyes. They had been such good days, such happy days and yet now when Ruby thought of she was filled only with a kind of empty sadness that wouldn't go away like a stubborn morning mist over the land.

 _I didn't appreciate my sister when I had her. I let us grow apart and now she's gone._

 _Now it's all gone._

Ruby glanced at her father, who was sat beside her as silently as she herself; he looked thoughtful, and a little pained. Was that how she looked? Was Dad seeing his ghosts, of Mom and Raven, the same way she was?

 _I wish that we could help each other. But how can we help each other when we can't help ourselves?_

Ruby was recalled to herself by the sound of footsteps approaching her. Sunset. Her only friend in the room had a tendency to stomp, especially when she wasn't in the best mood. Pyrrha you could rarely hear coming in spite of her armour, Jaune had been getting more light on his feet but then had decided to go the heavily armoured tank route instead and Sunset…if you heard Sunset coming it told you that things were less than perfect.

Not that Ruby needed to listen to Sunset's feet to tell her that.

Sunset loomed over Ruby, momentarily blocking out the light that had been shining on her face. "Mind if I join you?"

"No," Ruby said, looking away from her.

Zwei hopped up into Ruby's lap, clearing the space on the bench beside Ruby – and on the other side of Taiyang – for Sunset to sit down upon it. She spread out her legs and clasped her hands together between her knees. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm fine," Ruby said softly.

Sunset was quiet for a moment. "You don't have to pretend with me. I know this can't be easy for you."

"What makes you think that?"

"Because it isn't easy for me," Sunset said. "And I haven't…suffered, like you."

Ruby closed her eyes. "I see her," she admitted. "On the stage and…and on the way here."

"I thought you might," Sunset murmured.

"Places like these bring back memories," Taiyang said, his voice hoarse. "But sometimes…sometimes the last thing you want to do is remember."

"Listen," Sunset said. "I know that this situation is…far from ideal. I know that this isn't the company that you would like to keep; believe me it isn't the company that I would like you to keep. And I know that I can't do or say anything to make this better although I wish I could, but…you can tell me anything you want or nothing at all, but whatever you say…I'm listening. You don't have to carry this all by yourself.

Ruby opened her eyes. "I'm glad your back," she said softly. "Do you trust them?"

"Who?"

"Everyone," Ruby said. "Torchwick, Cinder, Cardin, Emerald, Team Bluebell…those guys."

"I trust Cinder," Sunset said confidently. "And I trust Cardin too, though I'd rather have Cinder beside me in a fight."

"You trust Cinder more than Cardin?" Ruby asked.

"She's changed," Sunset said. "She's not the same girl who attacked the CCT. She's become…"

"What you always thought she would?" Ruby suggested.

"More hoped than thought," Sunset said. "But yes. I suppose it isn't easy for you to trust her…and I'm not sure that I have the right to ask you to trust me any more, but if you watch her you'll see that she won't let us down. We're lucky to have her on our side."

"Because she's the only one you trust," Ruby said. "Apart from Cardin."

"And Cardin is a special case," Sunset said. "Yes, Cinder is the only one I can rely on. Well, I trust Torchwick not to betray us at this point because I don't think it's in his interests yet; but do I trust him not to betray us at any point in the future? No."

"And the rest?" Ruby asked.

"Jack is just Torchwick without the wit, Sami is a brute, Emerald is..Emerald," Sunset said. "And is there any way for me to explain why I don't trust the Bluebells without seeming like a screaming hypocrite?"

"Probably not," Ruby said. "But I get it. Do we have to take them all with us?"

"Unfortunately, according to Cardin," Sunset said. "Don't worry, I don't plan to let them near Ozpin."

"They're there to help you get Professor Lionheart, right?" Ruby said.

Sunset nodded. "That's right."

"And once you get him, and the time to take him back to Vale comes, what are you going to do?" Ruby asked. Are you going to stay with us, or are you going to drop me and Professor Ozpin off with Pyrrha and Jaune and then go back to Vale with Cinder and all these people you don't trust?

Sunset blinked in surprised. "I…I hadn't really thought about it," she admitted. "And, to be honest Ruby, I'm not certain that I want to."

* * *

"I've got to say, I was surprised that they let you come out with me on your own like this," Torchwick said as the two of them made their way down the street towards the location at which, according to Torchwick himself, they would meet with his contact who could get them out of the city.

They were in a seedy part of town – which Cinder wasn't surprised by – but also a largely deserted one. They were down by the river wharfs, which might have been a hub of commerce for Vale back in the day or which might have been a triumph of hope – the hope that the kingdom would expand up-river and develop a thriving riverside hinterland of towns and villages trading with the city – over the reality of the grimm. Mostly what lay upriver was the Forever Fall forest, and the railroads had almost killed off what river traffic there had been before the iron rails were laid. As a result the street down which they walked was empty, and the buildings between which they passed looked like they were falling apart. Cinder was a little surprised the wharfs were still there at all; someone must be using them, but who?

 _People like Torchwick's associate, I suppose._

Cinder snorted. "Surprised? Why?"

"I'm surprised they trust you enough to let you out unsupervised," Torchwick explained. "I'm surprised they're right to trust you out of their sight."

"You're surprised that I can work with Sunset?" Cinder said.

"Last time I saw you you wanted them all dead," Torchwick said.

"The last time you saw me was a very long time ago," Cinder replied. "A lot has changed since then, and so have I."

Torchwick smirked. "You've gone soft, you mean."

"No," Cinder said flatly. "That's not what I mean."

The smug look didn't leave Torchwick's face. "It might be what you meant but that doesn't mean that it's what happened. The Cinder I knew would never have been content to be anyone's errand girl."

"You don't know me," Cinder said. "You never did. And I am nobody's errand girl."

"I knew you well enough to know that that would set you off," Torchwick said, to which Cinder could only roll her eyes. "So what changed? How did the monster who wanted to burn the whole world down and rule the ashes end up taking orders from the likes little Red and her do-gooder friends."

Cinder chuckled. "You're probably the last person in the world who would describe Sunset as a do-gooder," she said. "Evidently you haven't been keeping up with the news."

"No, I heard," Torchwick said. "Kid made the right call and got crucified for it. I could have told her that trying to be the hero is pointless; sooner or later you slip up and then nobody remembers all the good stuff you did beforehand."

"Because you would know so much about trying to be a hero."

"I know that we've only got one life," Torchwick said. "And we ought to make the most of it instead of wasting it on other people who'll never be grateful for it."

"Oh, please," Cinder said. "Roman, we're all alone here so there's no need to pretend. You're not some lone wolf who only cares about himself; you care about somebody, you always have, or else you would have left Neo behind in jail instead of making her the price of your cooperation. You understand as well as I do that there are things more important than power or success, things that are worth sacrificing for; so why pretend?"

Torchwick was quiet for a moment. "Because the less people think I care about her, the less likely they are to try and hurt her to get to me."

Cinder shook her head. "An observant person only needs to see the two of you together for a little while to see it. I noticed it immediately. That was always my plan if you tried to betray me: to use Neo to remind you where your loyalties lay."

"I thought as much," Torchwick muttered. "That's why I kept her close."

"As for the rest of your enemies," Cinder said. "She can take care of herself."

"Why do you think I taught her how to fight?" Torchwick asked. He frowned, for a moment. "This journey, to Mistral; how dangerous is it?"

"All journeys are dangerous nowadays, the world being what it is," Cinder said.

"That's a terrible answer."

"If we do this right, and we leave in secret," Cinder said. "Then we shouldn't have to deal with more than ordinary trouble."

"Huh," Torchwick muttered. "So how did they do it? Melt your frozen heart?"

Cinder stared at him.

"Okay, okay, I was just trying to make conversation, sheesh," Torchwick muttered to himself. He patted down his pockets. "I could really use a cigar right now," he said absently. "I wonder if the authorities realise that they're about to turn this whole city into a smugglers' paradise."

"It wasn't one already?" Cinder asked.

Torchwick laughed. "Sure, the cops were dumb and even when they weren't they could hardly be bothered to do their jobs, but at the same time it was so easy to get almost anything you wanted legit that there wasn't a whole lot of call for it outside of the hard stuff, you know: guns, drugs, that kind of thing. But now? With borders coming down, with flights stopping, with communications between the kingdoms out, a lot of the little luxuries that people took for granted are going to become a lot harder to come by: Mistralian wine, Vacuan cigars, fruit from Menagerie, luxury food, the black market is gonna boom."

"Is that why you came back to Vale?" Cinder asked. "So you could cash in on a new opportunity."

Torchwick laughed again, but this time it had a self-deprecating edge to it. "Have you ever met anyone more ferocious than a Vacuan mobster defending his territory?"

"Me," Cinder said.

"Yeah, right," Torchwick said. "The point is that sure, I was going to get into the smuggling business, but from the Vacuo end. I had the contacts here to distribute the stuff, I just needed to make a connection to get the stuff from Vacuo. I found a guy to grow me some plants-"

"You mean weed," Cinder said. "You were going to smuggle weed into Vale from Vacuo."

"All the cool kids are smoking it, after all," Torchwick said. "Only it turned out that there was somebody already shipping their own product into Vacuo, and the next day they sent me my botanist's fingers in the mail."

"So you came back to Vale because you got run out of Vacuo by the existing syndicates?" Cinder said. "It seems I underestimated you, Roman; I thought for sure it was your own weakness that drew you back here."

"I like this city, but I don't like it that much," Torchwick said.

"I'm a little curious as to what makes you think that Mistral will be any more welcoming."

"Anima's bigger," Torchwick said. "There must be somewhere that some local gang hasn't already taken over."

Cinder kept her thoughts – that if Roman did find some unoccupied piece of territory it was likely because there was something very wrong with it – to herself as Torchwick continued to lead her, now in silence, down the alleyways until they came to what looked, from the outside, to be a derelict store of some kind. Metal shutters were down over the windows, and a wire mesh door had been placed on top of the ordinary door beneath. Graffiti covered the walls and the metal shutters. Garbage bags were piling up outside.

"This is where we find your contact?" Cinder asked sceptically.

"It's more sophisticated than it looks," Torchwick said.

"That wouldn't be difficult," Cinder replied.

Torchwick didn't answer that, but simply strode up to the mesh door and banged on it. "Hey, is anyone home?"

After a moment in which Cinder wondered if Torchwick hadn't been completely mistaken about all of this, the door opened to reveal a dog faunus with bull-terrier ears growing out of his dark hair, wearing a dark t-shirt and carrying a sub-machinegun lightly in one hand. "Roman Torchwick," he said in a kind of awed – at Torchwick's audacity, Cinder assumed – surprise.

"Bullseye!" Torchwick said jovially. "Long time no see. Listen, I'd love to chat, but I need to the boss, okay?"

Bullseye – almost certainly not his real name, but then his real name didn't really matter – raised his eyebrows. "You want to see the boss?"

"The little guy, yes," Torchwick said. "I've got a proposition for him."

Bullseye smirked. "Okay, you can see the boss. If only so I can see him pull your head off your shoulders. Come on in." He opened the mesh door, and then stepped back to admit them into the dark and shadowy interior.

"Pull your head off?" Cinder asked.

"It's all a big misunderstanding," Torchwick assured her.

Cinder was not so sure, but she followed him inside regardless. It was as dark as it looked from outside the door, and as dingy and rather disgusting. Dust was everywhere, and she thought she saw a cockroach skittering across the floor and was glad that it wasn't a rat.

 _And these are the people that we have to rely on. Perfect._

In addition to the mess there was also a great scarcity of furniture, with very little in the way of places to sit. The only chairs were being occupied by various young and cocky-looking thugs lounging around on threadbare and faded sofas with guns shoved into their waistlines. The only mature man was also the largest in the room by some considerable distance, a giant of a man with a bald head and a square cut beard, wearing a leather waistcoat over a faded t-shirt.

"Tiny!" Torchwick called enthusiastically, spreading his arms out wide as he approached, as though he were expecting.

"Roman Torchwick?" the big guy – Tiny – said, sounding even more surprised than his henchman had been. He scowled as he surged to his feet. "You've got a lot of nerve showing your face around here after what you did."

"Are you still mad about that?" Torchwick asked. "For the last time, I didn't know she was your mother, and even if I had known she was the one who threw me onto the-"

"Shut up!" Tiny snarled. "Shut up! I'm going to kill you you son of a-"

"As amusing as it would be to watch Roman get what's coming to him," Cinder drawled, taking a step forward. "I'm afraid that I don't have time for it. I'm here to talk business."

Tiny stopped, and stared at her. "And who is this?"

"My name is Cinder Fall," Cinder said. "And I have a proposition for you."

"Does it involve me popping this guy's head like a grape?"

"Unfortunately not," Cinder said. "But it does involve me paying you a lot of money."

Tiny grunted. "I'm listening."

"I'm interested in passage to Anima for myself and my…associates," Cinder said. "I understand that's something you can help with."

Tiny glanced at Torchwick. "You skipping town again, is that it?"

"Don't talk to him, talk to me," Cinder said. "I'm the one calling the shots."

"Is that right?" Tiny said softly. "You know that passage to Anima ain't so easy to come by these days."

"That's why we came to you," Cinder said. "Were we wrong?"

Tiny sat down again. "I usually smuggle goods in and out, but people…recently, you're not the first folks looking to get out. How many people?"

"Thirteen," Cinder said. "And a dog, but only a very small."

"A group that size is going to need some protection."

"We can protect ourselves," Cinder said. _And if we can't then no help you could give would have kept us safe._

Tiny nodded. "In that case…fifteen thousand lien a head, all upfront. Because I'm a nice guy I'll throw in the dog for free."

Cinder smiled. "One third up front, the rest when you get us to Anima. And don't think of me as the kind of idiot who will hand over all her money to a man like you just because you ask for it."

Tiny smiled. "I think of you as the kind of person who was desperate enough to get out that you came to me. Which means that we do things my way."

"It also means that you don't get any money at all when I walk out of that door," Cinder said. "What's the matter? Don't you trust me to pay you the rest?"

"Trust is hard to come by around here."

"Why do you think I won't pay you everything up front?"

Tiny snorted. "Half now, half when you get to Anima."

Cinder was silent for a moment. "Agreed," she said. "So when does our ship leave?"

"Ship?" Tiny laughed. "You want a ship you find it yourself. You'll take a barge upriver into the Forever Fall, there's an abandoned compound there I use as a truck stop; one of my guys will drive you across the mountains and you'll get on the boat on the west coast."

"You want us to cross the entire continent?" Cinder repeated. "And pass through the forsaken lands east of the mountains."

"There's no law out there," Torchwick said. "Nobody watching what comes or goes. The perfect smuggling route."

"And you won't be worried about the grimm," Tiny said. "Seeing as how you can take of yourselves and all. So do we still have a deal?"

Cinder's eyes narrowed. The overland route would take longer than travelling by sea…but it wasn't as though they had much choice if they wanted to be quiet about this. And they did have to be quiet, not so much for Cardin's reputation – about which Cinder cared less than nothing – but because it wasn't as though she or Sunset could get on public transport without risk. Even if there was any public transport still going to Mistral.

"Yes," Cinder said, after a moment, because what other choice did she really have. "We still have a deal."


	195. River

Rivers

Time passed slowly on the barge that carried them out of Vale and up the river to the north-east, headed for the mountains the formed the spine of eastern Sanus and the limits of the Kingdom of Vale. Beyond lay the untamed eastern wilds, the land over which the Great War had begun but which had lain abandoned since that war, given over to the monsters. Beyond the mountains lay a hundred Mountain Glenns or more, and though they were older and smaller than the dead city Ruby found that it was no less tragic to imagine them all: the towns and villages gone, the light snuffed out, the life extinguished.

Perhaps it was not completely deserted, not completely given over to the grimm and to nature; perhaps there were still some people living there, natural outsiders who were willing to risk the grimm in order to live completely beyond the bounds of Valish law, to freer even than people on Patch or the more outlying settlements within the kingdom's boundaries. Ruby hoped so anyway; she didn't like to think of such a vast expanse of land just being left, dead and forgotten; she didn't like the idea that mankind had just turned away from it all.

Perhaps, if there were people dwelling east of the mountains as she hoped, they might come across. That was where they were headed, after all; it was to the east that their road led; eastward, ever eastward, up the river and over the mountains then across the wilds to the farther shore. And then…then to Anima and Mistral.

She ought to have been happy about that. At least Ruby felt as though she ought to have been happy about that. They were going to see Jaune and Pyrrha; they were going to put their team back together, Team SAPR once more…for a little while, at least, before Sunset had to go away again. It should have made her happy, and it did, but only…only a little. If joy was like a fire then what Ruby felt at the prospect of reuniting their team was more like the glowing embers left behind.

The fire had been snuffed out some time ago.

Time passed slowly as the fat barge beat its way upriver, sailing against the current passing them by as it flowed westwards to the sea, leaving Vale behind and passing into the Forever Fall forest, where the ever-crimson trees pressed close against either bank, their roots bursting free of the soil to dangle their toes in the muddy water while the leafy branches hung out overhead like sundered lovers reaching, yearningly, to touch one another's fingertips. They were pressed so thickly together that when she was on watch Ruby found that she could barely see into the forest on either side for the sheer number of trees so densely packed together, branches intertwining as the grass turned red beneath them.

The weather didn't help with visibility or Ruby's mood, or the mood of anyone on the barge for that matter. Whiffs of dark cloud had followed them upriver from Vale, although it was sometimes hard to see them because the sky was so grey and overcast above their heads that it wasn't always possible to make out anything else. It either rained lightly or it poured down heavily, but there was never a time when it wasn't raining, when you couldn't hear something either pattering or hammering down upon the roof of the little cabin at the back of the barge or upon the blue tarpaulin that they raised above the main part of the barge as a little protection against the rain. It was the difference between Ruby needing to put her hood up when she was on watch or whether she could bear the raindrops falling on her head. The tarpaulin turned out to be not much help; it leaked in places, and in others it simply allowed water to pool up within it, sagging further and further downwards in the middle as the puddle grew until it burst, getting water everywhere.

The cabin, although most people retreated there as often as they could as a shelter against the rain, wasn't much better. Yes, it had a roof, but everyone kept dripping water inside until the floor was completely soaked and there was nowhere dry to sit down.

Some people fared better than others; Sunset seemed able to tolerate the fact that her hair was ruined and she looked like a wet dog – no offence Zwei – while Cinder was a good deal more fastidious.

Ruby didn't know whether it was the rain, which sometimes fell so hard that you couldn't even hear the softly purring engine of the barge, that made people quiet or whether it was the company, but nobody talked to one another on this trip and it was one more thing that didn't help her mood. Okay, that wasn't entirely true, it wasn't completely silent: Sunset talked to her, and always wanted to know how she was doing, not to mention that she and Cardin both barked orders to everyone else, but there was no chatter, not like there would have been if this had been a mission with SAPR and RSPT, or if…if Yang had been there.

It was just one more thing that made this feel…empty, uncomfortable, not right. Ruby was doing the right thing but she took no joy in it. No joy at all.

In the absence of any talk it was easier to think about her new travelling companions by what they did rather than by what they said: the terrier faunus whom Torchwick called Bullseye whistled as he stood at the tiller, guiding the barge upriver; Neo would sometimes sit on the edge of the barge in spite of the rain, dangling her legs out over the water below; Bon Bon kept her helmet on and let the weather rattle off it, while Lyra kept her hat inside the cabin, preferring that her hair get drenched than her headgear ruined; Torchwick never went outside except to go on watch, and muttered under his breath about the state of his suit; Cinder seemed to be avoiding Ruby out of…Ruby wasn't quite sure why, but she didn't really mind not having to have much to do with Cinder Fall and so left it alone); Sami kept stealing glances at Ruby when she thought the other girl didn't notice.

Someone (besides Sunset or her father) did speak to her, on the third night out of Vale; the rain had let up for the most part – not completely, that would have been too much like good fortune, but it was only drizzling on top of Ruby's head, and she had her hood down because it wasn't so bad as to do otherwise – and Ruby was standing on watch near the flattened, blunted prow of the barge. Bon Bon was on watch as well, looking to the other bank to Ruby. It was evening, or at least Ruby thought it was; with the sky the way it was difficult to tell for sure.

She heard the squelching footsteps on the deck before she heard Lyra's voice behind her. "Are either of you two hungry? I thought you might be."

Ruby turned around, although she tried to keep half an eye on the river bank all the same. Lyra was holding a pair of plates in her hands; the galley was well stocked with canned food…but unfortunately none of them had labels, making every meal a game of chance as to what you were going to end up with.

"I'm hungry," Bon Bon acknowledged, taking off her helmet. "But dare I ask what the choices are?"

"We have spaghetti," Lyra said, holding up one plate. "Or…beefy chunks in gravy."

Bon Bon blinked. "As in…dog food?"

Zwei barked eagerly.

"Beef and gravy is beef and gravy, right?" Lyra said, not sounding entirely convinced. "Anyway, what do you want?"

"The beef," Ruby and Bon Bon both said at once.

Bon Bon looked at Ruby. "…I was just being polite."

"Are you kidding, canned spaghetti is, like, the worst thing that comes out of a can," Ruby said. "Like you said, beef is beef."

Lyra's eyebrows rose. "Are you sure?"

Ruby nodded.

"Okay then," Lyra murmured, handing over the plate of beef chunks.

"Thank you," Ruby said, as she hopped up onto the side of the barge. "Come on, Zwei." Although there was a fork, Ruby picked up one chunk and popped it into Zwei's mouth as he leapt up beside her, before using the fork to shovel a mouthful into her own mouth in turn.

Bon Bon took the plate of spaghetti, and began to eat it slowly, turning the worm-like pasta around and around her fork as it scraped upon the bottom of the plate.

Silence descended between them, for a moment at least.

"Ruby," Lyra said, as the raindrops fell upon her head; upon all of her and all of the other two, actually. "I owe you an apology. We both do. We…all do."

Ruby inhaled through her nostrils. "I'm not the only one," she said quietly.

"We know," Lyra said. "But Sunset scares me too much to say this to her face."

Ruby couldn't help but snort at that. "She might be pleased to hear that, but you wouldn't say it if you knew her better."

"Assuming that we want to," Bon Bon said. "That's the other thing, the thing that Lyra is too polite to mention." She ate a small mouthful of spaghetti. "It's hard to apologise to someone whose done things worse than you have."

"Bon Bon," Lyra clucked disapprovingly.

Ruby frowned. "You think so?"

"She let a whole horde of grimm into Vale," Bon Bon said.

"And you helped…" Ruby fell silent for a moment. The barge wasn't huge, and not everybody knew everything. "You helped you-know-who get one of the four you-know-whats."

"I know," Bon Bon said harshly. "And we're sorry for that."

"Are you?"

"Yes," Lyra said quickly. "Even if she's terrible at showing it." She glared at Bon Bon momentarily. "We could blame it on Amber's semblance but that would be…not right. And besides, it wasn't as though letting Amber into our lives was the first mistake we made."

Ruby tilted her head slightly to one side. "It wasn't?"

"No," Lyra said. "That was throwing Blake out of our lives."

"She was-" Bon Bon began.

"Bon Bon, stop," Lyra said. "Just…stop, okay? Please?" She sighed, her body sagging forward a little bit. "It doesn't matter what Blake was in the past, she proved herself valiant and stalwart through all the battles; at a time when she went to Atlas with General Ironwood and we went to prison don't you think it's about time to admit that we were wrong about her?"

Bon Bon was silent for a moment. She stared down at her plate as though the wisdom of ages could be found in pasta out of a tin. "At least we got Dove out of it," she said.

Lyra was silent for a moment. "Yeah," she said. "I suppose we did."

Ruby allowed the silence to drag on for a moment or two while she chewed on some beef chunks, the food unfortunately doing little to fill the cold empty feeling in her stomach. "You miss him?"

Bon Bon nodded. "He wasn't the smartest guy, he wasn't the bravest guy, but…he was our guy and he tried his best."

"Not everyone can be you, or Pyrrha Nikos," Lyra said. "Not everyone can be the greatest huntsman. Some huntsmen are just people trying their best, and that…we thought…maybe we liked to think that…that was us. We weren't the cool team like Iron, we weren't the rising stars like Sapphire…but we had one another and that…I tried to tell myself that was enough. And then…"

"It feels wrong to go on without him sometimes," Bon Bon said, in a voice that was half a growl. "To have…Torchwick on our team instead of Dove, to replace him with that…that…sometimes I want to wring his neck. The fourth member of our team is Dove Bronzewing, not him."

"Losing somebody's never easy," Ruby whispered.

Lyra winced. "This must all seem pretty petty to you, mustn't it?"

"No," Ruby said. "We don't always get to choose who we care about, and how much we care about them doesn't always have to make sense."

Lyra nodded. "That was what I thought, when I was able to think about Amber. That was how I explained it, before I found out that she was just using her semblance on us all along. Mind you…when I think about it now…I think that our hearts still chose, in the end."

"She means the answer to the question why us and not you guys," Bon Bon said. "Why was Amber able to affect us and not you. And we think that it was because…because we wanted it."

"You wanted to betray Professor Ozpin?" Sunset said, stepping out of from behind a pile of crates that had hitherto concealed her. She had a metal flask in her hand, the plastic cap removed and filled with gently steaming liquid.

Bon Bon frowned. "You're one to take that tone about betrayals."

"I told you to stop," Lyra hissed at her.

Sunset inhaled through gritted teeth. "There are people who have the right to look down on me for what I've done," she said. "And one of them is sitting over there. But I won't take self-righteousness from someone who helped kill Professor Ozpin."

"And you shouldn't have to," Lyra said quickly. "She's sorry."

"Is that right?" Sunset said, her eyes fixed on Bon Bon.

Bon Bon couldn't hold Sunset's gaze. She looked down, back at her diminishing meal. "Yes," she said, in a slightly sullen tone. "I'm sorry for everything we did. At least nobody died because of your betrayal, and you got to save all of your friends too, gah! You even do the wrong thing better than us!"

"It's not your fault," Ruby said. "Amber-"

"Could get in because we let her in," Lyra said. "When I said…when I said that we had each other so that was enough…that was wishful thinking on my part. Maybe it should have been enough…but it wasn't."

"In her end of year address when we left Canterlot Combat School Principal Celestia told us to go out and make a difference in the world," Bon Bon said.

"Oh, you made a difference alright," Sunset muttered.

"Sunset," Ruby said reproachfully,

"She probably says that every year to the graduating classes," Lyra said. "But that doesn't mean that it isn't true, or that it doesn't mean anything. It doesn't mean that her words aren't worth taking to heart. It doesn't mean that we didn't take them to heart. Only…when we got to Beacon it didn't seem like we were going much chance to live those words. We watched your team – and Blake – stride on ahead, going on missions, coming to the attention of Professor Ozpin and General Ironwood, defending Vale, and we…"

"When Amber came into our lives we thought…we thought that if we couldn't make a difference to the big picture we could, maybe, at least make a difference to this one girl's life," Bon Bon said. "To make a difference was all we ever wanted."

"And maybe we can," Lyra said. "All four of us."

"Four?" Ruby asked, wondering if they were thinking about the absent Dove or the detested Torchwick.

Bon Bon nodded her head towards Sunset. "We all helped break this kingdom," she said. "But maybe we can put it back together again, if you tell us what's really going on."

Sunset snorted. "What makes you think that you haven't been told what's really going on?"

"Because Ruby's here, for one thing," Bon Bon said.

Sunset stared at the other girl flatly. "You know everything that you need to know, for now," she said. Her ears bent downwards into her hair. "I know that you must like the idea of me judging you about as much as I like the idea of you judging me, and I know that I probably shouldn't blame you for Amber's semblance, it's just…Professor Ozpin meant a lot to me."

"That's understandable," Lyra said. "And we would never claim to be blameless for what we did, semblance or no semblance. We still did things and we have to live with them."

"I know, believe me I know," Sunset said.

"Do you think it's possible," Lyra said. "To really make amends?"

"I don't know," Sunset said. "I hope so, but I don't know. The only thing I know we can do is do better next time." She took a step forward. "You can both go inside, I'll relieve you here."

"My watch isn't over yet," Bon Bon said.

"It is now," Sunset said. "Go."

Bon Bon hesitated for a moment, before she nodded her head and – with Lyra – walked through the slightly water-laden barge towards the little cabin at the back.

The tip of Sunset's tail was getting a little wet as it trailed in the water, as Sunset walked towards Ruby. She held out the flask with its plastic cap. "I brought you some…I hesitate to call it tea, but it's hot…and brown, so it ought to be good for something."

"Thank you," Ruby said quietly, as she took the flask from Sunset's outstretched hand. "I think they really do want to make things right."

"I'm not surprised, that's what we all want," Sunset said. She leaned on the side of the barge, looking out towards the riverbank.

"Sunset," Ruby said. "What are we going to do when…when we have to tell all these people the truth?"

"By that point I hope none of them will be in a position to do anything with the truth," Sunset said.

Ruby nodded. "Sunset?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you still have that journal?" Ruby asked. "The…" her voice lowered. "The magic one?"

Sunset looked at her. "It's in my bag," she said, one hand going to the satchel slung across her shoulder. "I keep it with me because…I don't trust leaving all of my stuff where people like Torchwick or Jack could get at it. I swear, if I had any money Jack would be charging me to guard my stuff."

Ruby frowned. "Guard it from what?"

"From his own base instincts," Sunset said. "It's only the fact that we're all as broke as one another that stops him, I'm sure. There are some things that I prefer to keep close at hand. Why?"

"Can I borrow it?" Ruby asked. "I'd like to talk to Twilight."

A spark of understanding flashed in Sunset's eyes. "Of course," she said, opening up the satchel and fishing out the thick, heavy journal with the blazing sun embossed upon it. "Do you need a pen?" Sunset asked as she handed Ruby the book.

Ruby took a sip of the hot brown liquid. "Yes, please."

"Here."

"Thank you."

"Take as long as you need," Sunset said. "I'll keep watch."

"Thanks," Ruby said, settling the book upon her knees – Zwei tried to sniff it, but she shooed him gently away – and opening it up.

Her hand trembled a little as she started to write.

Ruby: Twilight? Are you there? It's me, Ruby.

A moment passed, and then another. Words in reply began to appear below Ruby's own hand.

Twilight: Ruby, hi. It's been a long time.

Ruby: Yeah, it has. Has a lot happened for you since then?

Twilight: You could say that. I became an aunt recently!

Ruby: Really?

Twilight: Yes, my brother and sister-in-law had their little filly.

Ruby: What's her name? Is she cute?

Twilight: Her name is Flurry Heart and she's most adorable little thing that you ever saw in your life. If you could see her, I mean. True, she did almost cause the destruction of the Crystal Empire – that's the city her mother rules – but it wasn't really her fault and you just can't stay mad at a little sweetheart like her.

Ruby: How does a baby almost destroy an entire city?

Twilight: Magic in young fillies and colts can be wild and uncontrollable, it only settles down once they get a little older; unfortunately Flurry's magic destroyed a very important magical artefact which kept away the cold weather – if you think of the Crystal Empire as being a little like the city called Atlas in your world, only instead of technology it uses a magical artefact called the Crystal Heart to make the tundra survivable – but with the help of my new student and an old friend of hers from magic school we were able to restore the heart and get Flurry's magic under control so that none of this can happen again.

Ruby smiled. Ruby: I'm glad. It's good to hear that there's still a place where things work out happily for everyone.

There was a pause on the other end of the book. Twilight: I'm sorry, this must seem so insensitive, me prattling on about my neice and how happy I am.

Ruby: No! Not at all. I'm really happy for you. I suppose Sunset told you then, about Yang?

Twilight: She mentioned it. I'm sorry for your loss. How are you doing?

Ruby: I'm okay.

Twilight: You know that you don't have to say that if it isn't true.

Ruby closed her eyes for a moment. Ruby: I'm sure that you'll be a really cool aunt. She wrote. _The kind of aunt that I won't ever get to be, now._ She found that it was surprisingly easy to imagine Yang with kids; she had such a big heart, with so much love to go around, and she'd practically raised Ruby after Mom passed away. She would have been a really cool mom, a supermom just like Mom, baking cookies and slaying monsters. Who the father was wasn't really important, although when Ruby imagined Yang as a mom for some reason the father ended up looking a lot like Sun, which was weird and made absolutely no sense whatsoever. But that wasn't the point, the point was that Ruby would have liked the chance to be a cool aunt, to teach her niece or nephew to be a complete badass the way that Uncle Qrow had taught her; she could imagine them really looking forward to her visits in between secret missions for Professor Ozpin that would imbue her with an air of dangerous mystery that would just make her seem even cooler.

" _Aunt Ruby! Did you miss me? Did you miss me?"_

"… _nope."_

But that would never happen now. Yang would never have children, just like so much else that she would never get to do.

Twilight: I don't know how many people would honestly describe me as cool, but I'm going to try and be the very best aunt that I can be. I'm sorry, we're talking about me again.

Ruby: It's fine, I didn't really want to talk about myself anyway. I wanted to ask you something about your world.

Twilight: Ask away.

Ruby: The other Ruby Rose, the one in your home, do you know if she has a sister? Is there another Yang there who's okay? Who's still around? Could you ask her for me? I know it's stupid, but it would make me feel, that is I'd like to know that she's alright.

Twilight: I will ask her for you, but I have a feeling that I might know the answer already.

Ruby: Really? How?

Twilight: There's a series of books that I and my friend Rainbow Dash both quite like called Daring Do

Ruby: You have Daring Do in Equestria?

Twilight: You have Daring Do in Remnant?

Ruby: Yeah. Yang wasn't a big reader but she was a fan of those books.

Twilight: I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised seeing as how they're based on reality.

Ruby: They are?

Twilight: In Equestria, at least. All the adventures of Daring Do really happened to the author A K Yearling. I would guess there's at least a good chance the same is true in your world.

Ruby: But Daring Do is always fighting weird monsters. I mean I'm not talking about the grimm – although she does have to fight them sometimes, or avoid them, when they get in her way – even though she graduated from Atlas Academy at the top of her class Daring Do isn't a huntress first, and she always ends up opposing made-up creatures that don't exist.

Twilight: What if they do and you just haven't seen one yet? After all it wasn't too long ago that you didn't know that magic was real, but magic was always real even before you knew about it.

Ruby: I guess you've got a good point there. But what does that have to do with Yang?

Twilight: Because the latest book in the series, Daring Do and the Eternal Flame, features an older Daring Do who is starting to grow weary of travels and treasure hunts; that is until she crosses paths with a young adventurer named Yang Xiao-Long who reignites her zeal for adventure and reminds her of why she got into that life in the first place as together they foil another scheme of Ahuizotl.

Ruby smiled. Ruby: Yeah, that sounds a lot like Yang. I'm glad that she got to live her dream somewhere, some place.

Twilight: Do you still want me to talk to the other Ruby?

Ruby: Yes, please. But thank you anyway, Twilight. I needed to know that. Thank you.

* * *

It was about mid-morning on the next day when they arrived at the first stop on their journey. It was still raining – between the highs and the lows the rain today was about middling, although it still plastered Sunset's hair to the sides of her face – but nevertheless everyone had, for once, come out on deck as Bullseye guided the barge into a shallow bay alongside a wooden jetty. The jetty itself, once it reached the bank, turned into a wooden path laid out over the muddy ground, which ran past a little wooden hut and into the woods. It was a little hard to see due to the rain and the clouds, but in the gloom Sunset could see an old stone tower rising above the trees.

"Is this the place?" she asked.

Bullseye nodded. "That old tower's been abandoned since who knows when. We built a shed for the trucks and cut a road out of the forest. This place gets left alone except for the railroad, which is nowhere near here." He raised his voice. "Hey, Charlie, you want to give me a hand out here?"

There was no response. Everyone on the barge was waiting but there was no sign of this Charlie person, or any sound that might have come from him.

Bullseye frowned. "Charlie, get out here and help me out!"

Still no answer. There were no human voices, nor – now Sunset thought about it – any birds in the trees. There was nothing but the rain, and the gentle humming of the barge's engine.

"What's wrong?" Sunset asked.

"There ought to be someone in that hut to help out when a barge comes down," Bullseye said, as he leapt out of the barge and onto the jetty. "Big guy, give me a hand with these," he added, as he grabbed one of the heavy mooring cables and threw it to Cardin, who started tying the barge off against the pier.

Sunset also left the barge, scrambling over the side and onto the wet wooden planks. She heard someone starting to follow her, and looked back to see that it was Ruby.

"Wait here," Sunset said, holding up one hand to stay her before returning her attention to the wooden planks which lay like a road over the water and onto the bank. Sunset raised Sol Invictus to her shoulder, but kept the muzzle pointing low to the ground as she walked past Bullseye and towards the hut. Her footsteps thudded upon the planks, as well as squeaking thanks to the water.

 _I suppose it's possible he's got his headphones on. Very loudly._

 _Yeah, that's what it is._

 _Since when are we ever that lucky?_

There was a camera mounted on the wall of the hut, which Sunset guessed went to that tower where the smugglers' main base was. She waved at it, in case they really didn't know she was here.

The hut had a metal latch, rusting a little but not too resistant to Sunset's touch as she grabbed it – she was glad of her gloves, it was probably pretty cold to the touch – and flung the door open, stepping inside what turned out to be an empty little shed. Empty of people at least; there was plenty of stuff – a scroll, open but dark, possibly because the battery had run out; a fishing magazine; a pistol with some bullets lying on the desk beside it; an empty lunchbox – to indicate that someone had been here at some point.

But no one actually there now.

Sunset left the door open as she trotted back down the jetty towards the barge. "It's empty," she said.

"Maybe they went back to the tower because of the weather?" Bullseye suggested.

Sunset wondered if he really believed that. She looked at her travelling companions and tried to guess from their faces how many of them believed that.

 _I'd like to believe that, but…_

"Do we have a Plan B?" Torchwick asked.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Sunset said. "I'll go check out the tower. If everything's fine I'll come back and let you know."

"Alone?" Bon Bon said. "We'll come with you."

Sunset pursed her lips at that. She didn't really want the company of Bon Bon, or either of her team-mates…but she thought about what she and Lyra had said last night, about wanting to do better, to make a difference. She wasn't the only one with something to make up for, after all.

"Okay," she said. "The four of us will go."

"I-" Ruby began.

"No, Ruby, you stay here," Sunset said. "We can't all go, after all. The point is that most of us stay here in case…just in case." _And, although I'd never say this to your face, if it comes a fight I'm not sure that you'd retreat instead of sticking it out no matter what._ "We'll go, everyone else wait here."

"You'll get no argument from me," Jack said.

 _I know,_ Sunset thought, as Bon Bon, Lyra and Sky climbed out of the barge and onto the jetty. Sunset knelt down, motioning with one hand for Cinder to come closer.

Cinder, her expression slightly puzzled, leaned in, "Do you want to explain to me why you're taking some of the weakest members of the group?"

"They volunteered."

"Does my skill count for nothing if I don't stick my hand up in time now?"

"I need you here," Sunset whispered. "If you hear anything wrong then I need you to slip the cables and get under way, okay."

Cinder's eyes widened. "You want me to leave you behind?"

"I'll try and come back," Sunset said. "I just don't want you to wait for me until it's too late."

"You want me to sacrifice you," Cinder said flatly.

"I want you to make sure that Ruby gets to Mistral," Sunset said. "I'm trusting you with my mission and my friend."

"Ruby's never going to leave you behind."

"That's why I'm telling you to do it, you're the only one strong enough," Sunset said.

"What makes you think I'll do it?" Cinder demanded. "Would you leave me?"

"No," Sunset said.

"Then why do you think I'll abandon you?"

"Because I'm asking you too," Sunset said. "Don't sacrifice Ruby in a futile attempt to wait for me, okay? Just…don't." She stood up. "I'll back as quick as I can," she said more loudly. "With some good news," she added, in a balance of hope and expectation. "Come on," she added to the members of Team BLBL, who – a little to Sunset's surprise – accepted her authority and fell in behind her as she led them down the plank road which wound between the crimson trees towards the tower.

As they got closer Sunset was able to see said tower better, as the obstacles of cloud and rain disappeared or lessened. It was, she began to see, more than just a completely isolated watchtower stuck in the middle of the wood (or predating the Forever Fall, depending on how old it was); rather it was the centre of what had been, at one time, a small fortress, with a circular outer wall ringing the perimeter and the ruins of various buildings – storehouse and stables and the likes, probably – still visible. Only the tower remained in any state of repair; the wall had as many holes in it as it had standing sections, and the other buildings were little more than stumps of stone tracing the outline foundations of what had been. Even the tower itself was starting to feel the effects of age, although someone, the smugglers presumably, had patched the holes in the walls with wood and corrugated iron and covered the roof with a tarpaulin like the one that had manifestly failed to keep them dry on the barge. There were no windows that Sunset could see but there were arrow slits through which the wind was whistling. There was no door at ground level, but rather a recently installed metal staircase led up to a door on higher up the tower, closer to the roof.

Just as they had patched the tower, the smugglers had strung wire mesh between the gaps in the wall and made a crude new gate out of scraps; but the gate was open, and prevented no obstacle to them getting in. Trees grew in what had been the fortress courtyard, and red grass and ferns overwhelmed what stones remained.

There was no sign of anyone within, and no sound coming from within the tower.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Sky muttered.

"Lyra, scout the area around," Sunset said. "Sky, check the door. Bon Bon, you and I will search the courtyard."

"Okay," Lyra said, her cloak rustling as she darted to the right, circling the outside of the wall, her sword drawn and held lightly in one hand.

The other three walked through the open gate. As Sky walked straight forwards towards the metal stairs, his halberd held warily in front of him, Bon Bon and Sunset split up, Sunset going to the right and Bon Bon the left.

Sunset found the garage first, built out of corrugated iron and wooden beams. It was behind the tower, and had been hidden out of sight until she made her way around the empty courtyard. Everything within the garage was consumed in shadow, hidden from her sight.

She could hear Sky's footsteps rattling on the metal steps as Sunset walked inside the shadowy garage. Once she was inside she could make out a truck that might, at a pinch, be big enough to fit them all in.

If there was nobody here, for whatever reason that might be, there was no reason why they couldn't take the truck regardless. They'd paid enough, after all. So long as it still worked.

Sunset approached the vehicle. She climbed up onto the sideboard and opened the door.

She started to clamber in when she felt something wet and sticky underneath her hand as she placed it on the seat. Wet and stick…and red.

Sunset wasted a moment staring at the blood on her fingertips before she leapt down out of the truck and ran out of the garage, dashing around the tower. She looked up to see that Sky had almost reached the door into the tower. Sunset whistled frantically for his attention. He stopped, and looked down at her. Bon Bon emerged into view as well, coming back the way that she'd come.

Sunset gestured furiously for Sky to get down, not speaking on the – admittedly slim – hope that they had not yet drawn the attention of anything that might still be here. If they could get back to the barge and set off again without-

The blast of purple energy – magic – tore the door to shreds and struck Sky squarely in the chest, knocking him off the ledge and hurling him backwards, propelled by the blast which bore him backwards and tore through his aura as he screamed. He flew beyond the wall of the ancient fortress and into the trees of the Forever Fall as his aura rippled over his body and his attacker emerged from out of the darkness.

It walked on two legs and upon a pair of cloven hooves, although it also moved with such a hunch that it could easily have gotten down on all fours like a beringel if it wished, save that in one hand in held a long staff with a glowing blue crystal that might have been – but Sunset thought it was not – ice dust in one hand. Its face was long, and slightly simian, not in the heavy fashion of the brutish beringels, but more like a baboon or something like that. Four horns crowned its head, and its arms and legs were completely covered with armour plates.

Its red eyes were fixed on Sunset.

"Sssssunset….Ssssshimmer."

Sunset stared at it for a moment, this creature that in power if not in form she guessed to be cut from the same cloth as the one that had attacked her and Ruby at the house in Patch; and then once that moment was passed she ran.

She ran and she did not look back, although she heard a blast from behind her and heard besides – and more importantly – the clattering on the metal steps as the creature descended.

Sunset ran, and Bon Bon was running too but running in the wrong direction, running towards the creature, her voice echoing from out of her helmet as she charged, swinging her Morningstar.

Sunset intercepted her, and as she grabbed hold of Bon Bon she felt the other huntress pushing against her with all her strength in the moment before Sunset teleported away.

They reappeared in a burst of green light not far from the hut that sat upon the riverbank.

"Cast off!" Sunset yelled to the astonished people still on the barge. "Get underway, quickly!" To Bon Bon she added. "Get on the barge."

"Sky-"

"I will go back for Sky and for Lyra," Sunset said. "But in the meantime I need you to get on the barge right now."

"I could have-"

"No, you couldn't," Sunset said. "I can explain it to you or I can go back for your friends but I cannot do both so shut up and get on the barge!"

She let go of the other girl, trusting that she would do as Sunset said, and teleported back to just outside the crumbling walls of the fortress.

She reappeared with a crack, which meant that she instantly had to move in case the creature found her by the sound. She crouched behind a tree, sneaking a peak out. The creature was still there, she could see it through the gaps in the fence. It looked annoyed, as far as you could tell with a face like that anyway.

It began to walk towards the open gate. Sunset bit back a curse. All it would have to do is follow the wooden trail and it would reach the barge, maybe before she found Lyra and Sky. Maybe she could bury it like she had the other, buy enough time for-

"Bon Bon? Sky?" Lyra shouted as she came running out of the woods towards the fortress. "I heard screa-" her voice trailed off as she beheld the creature. She raised her sword. "What in the name of-"

The grimm seemed to almost smirk as it raised its staff.

Sunset teleported. She reached Lyra as the beam of purple, streaking from the staff, soared through the air towards her. She grabbed Lyra just before the beam reached her. She teleported away and the beam passed harmlessly through the space where she had been.

Sunset reappeared where she had deposited Bon Bon, who fortunately was-

"Lyra!" Bon Bon called, from on the barge.

"Go, get aboard," Sunset said, a little less pleased to see that they had not cast off yet. Cardin had slipped the cables but he and Taiyang were holding onto them, their muscular arms straining against the effort of bodily holding the craft in place. At least the engine was still running.

"Sky?"

"I'm going back for him," Sunset said.

"What was-"

"I don't have time," Sunset said quickly. She took a deep breath. She thought she still had enough for two teleports. Which was lucky, as two more was exactly what she needed.

She teleported away, and once more reappeared not far from the fortress.

No sooner had she materialised then she was hit in the chest by a bolt of purple magic.

Sunset winced as she was flung backwards and into a tree, shaking loose a crowd of red leaves to fall upon her like a crimson rain. The blast had not been strung enough to break her aura – she hadn't been hit for so long as Sky – but she could feel that she was in the yellow even without having to check.

The grimm roared as it charged towards her, staff raised above its four-pronged head to club her into submission and then to death. Sunset grabbed a boulder of a promising size that she could see not far away and hurled it with a mix of telekinesis and wind, slamming the rock into the side of the creature and knocking it sideways while Sunset scrambled to her feet and began to run.

Sky had been blown directly south, back towards the river, so if she kept on heading in this direction from the tower then-

She had to swerve to avoid a blast of magic from the staff – was it really a staff, or was it a part of the grimm that looked like a staff? Sunset had no time to consider the matter – that this ape-like grimm was carrying as it caused an explosion beside her, blowing apart the grass and showering damp mud into the air.

Sunset turned, skidding a little on the slipper ground, and slammed one hand down onto the soil. As the grimm charged after her a hole opened up in the ground beneath its feet as the soil in the earth appeared above him; but unlike the last this monster was too nimble to be caught out by that trick, he leapt deftly aside the hole to reach the ground beside it as the mud and muck that Sunset had displaced dropped harmlessly into the pit from whence it had been drawn.

Gritting her teeth Sunset cast another spell, this time raising up a wall of earth in front of her as the ground changed shape to throw up that stout barrier between her and her pursuer.

She started to run again, having little hope that the barrier would hold for long.

A blast behind her told her that if it hadn't already breached the wall then it would soon.

Sunset channelled magic through her feet, something that she wasn't so practiced at but which did have the advantage of not requiring her to stop and stand still to do it. With every step she took she through up more barriers between her and her pursuer, pillars of earth – dry earth would have been better, but she didn't have time for that – to obstruct the way between her and her pursuer. Conscious of the fact that she needed to keep enough unicorn magic on hand for one last teleport back to the barge with Sky, Sunset began to use pegasus magic, blasting a wind behind her, a hurricane strong enough to rip the ever-crimson trees up by their roots and hurl them backwards into the face of this second of the too-strong grimm who had crossed their path.

 _And how did it find us in the first place?_ Sunset thought as she squelched through the mud, hearing the roars of her pursuer and the pounding of its hooves.

And then she found Sky. He lay on the ground, among the roots of a cracked tree, still and unmoving, his body bent at an unnatural angle like a snapped twig holding together by a little strip of bark. The blast of magic that had hurled him here had not only broken his aura but burned a hole in his cuirass and left black burned flesh beneath.

He was dead, Sunset saw as she skidded to a halt beside him, his eyes were open but lightless, his face was frozen in a rictus of pain and fear, he was not breathing.

He was gone.

Sunset screwed her eyes shut. If she had never, if she had only…there was no time for that now. All she could do for Sky now was spare his body further desecration.

She grabbed hold of him, and as the grimm bore down upon them both she teleported away.

No sooner had she reappeared upon the wooden steps than Sunset began to run, awkwardly holding Sky's limp and lifeless form in her arms. She slipped on the wet wooden boards and tumbled to the ground. Strong arms helped her up. Cinder's arms.

"Here," Cinder said. "I've got you. Both of you."

"I told you to go," Sunset said as she regained her feet.

"And I decided I was strong enough to ignore your bad decisions," Cinder replied, taking Sky from out of Sunset's arms and cradling him in hers.

Together they ran back to the barge, where Cardin and Taiyang were still holding the cables taut against the desire of the fat craft to drift back into the river.

"Let go!" Sunset yelled as she and Cinder leapt aboard, and no sooner had the words left her lips than the two strong men released the cables and the barge began to slip sideways out of the little bay and bay and back towards the channel.

"Sky," Lyra moaned. "Is he-"

"I'm sorry," Sunset said. "Get us out of here."

"What happened-" Bullseye began.

"They're all dead, go!" Sunset snapped.

As the barge regained the channel Sunset's attention was drawn by a cry from Ruby, who raised Crescent Rose to point in the direction from which Sunset had just come.

Sunset turned to see the grimm that had been waiting for them – the grimm that had killed Sky – pounding down the wooden boards towards them, its staff aglow.

Sunset raised her hands, and a shield of green spread out across the entire flank of the barge against any attack that it might make against them.

But the grimm did not attack. It simply stared at them, its red eyes like burning embers, as the barge carried them upriver and away.


	196. Strategy Sessions

Strategy Sessions

They had laid Sky to rest in one of the small boats that hung over the sides of the barge; then lowered the boat down into the water and let the river take it and him. With good fortune he would be borne backwards on the current all the way to the ocean and then…then fate and the tides would have their way.

Given that it would have been unwise to stop and give that thing the chance to catch up to them, it was the best that they could do for him.

 _Once he was dead, anyway._

Sunset stood near the flattened, snub-nosed prow of the barge; the darkness was all around her, and still the grey clouds loomed overhead, blocking out both moon and stars as the rain descended upon her head, pattering upon the roof of the cabin, falling on everything.

Sunset barely felt the rain. Her mind was back at the tower, replaying over and over again in her mind everything that had happened. Everything that she'd done wrong.

 _My mistake was letting them come with me just because they volunteered to; I could have gotten out by myself…assuming that I didn't get caught with that first shot._

 _My mistake was in not heading back to the barge when we reached the tower and found that the whole place was too quiet._

 _My mistake was in not sailing on when we reached the pier and there was nobody there to greet us like there should have been._

"Mind if I join you?"

Sunset looked around, a little startled by the sound. The voice was that of Taiyang, Ruby's father; he loomed over her just a little bit in the darkness and the overcast sky, the rain dripping off his pronounced muscles.

"I…if you wish, sir," Sunset said. She turned away, and leaned upon the side of the barge. "Though I can't think why you'd want to."

"You look as though you could use the company," Taiyang said as he joined her at the prow. He, too, seemed to be ignoring the rain that descended from on high upon him. He was silent for a moment, as he clasped his hands together in front of him. "Did you know him?"

"Sky?"

Taiyang nodded. "The boy who died."

Sunset shook her head. "No. I didn't know him at all. We'd never even spoken."

"But he was under your command and so losing him bothers you anyway."

"Shouldn't it?" Sunset replied, turning her head to look at the older huntsman. "Isn't that how a leader is supposed to feel?"

"Yes," Taiyang said bluntly. "You were responsible for his life, and if you didn't feel that responsibility you'd be a terrible leader."

"I'm not a great leader anyway," Sunset muttered.

"You've lost someone," Taiyang said. "But you'll lose more than that if you give into despair and let the enemy take up space in your head." He paused. "You never got around to Port's Military Strategy class, did you?"

Sunset blinked. "Professor Port teaches Military Strategy?"

"If you'd stuck around in school until second year you would have found out there's a reason he's a teacher at Beacon," Taiyang declared. "One of the first lessons that we ever learned in that class was that battles are fought on the field but won in the mind. If you start thinking of yourself as a screw-up then guess what? You'll keep screwing up, and more people will die."

"Whereas what?" Sunset asked. "If battles are won in the mind then can I keep them all alive by positive thinking?"

Taiyang wasn't amused. "There are times when you can't save everyone. And there are times when you could have saved someone you didn't save. The trick is to recognise the difference between one and the other, and learn from the one time without letting the other time beat you down and break you."

"Is that what you did when you were a huntsman?"

"I was never a leader," Taiyang said. "Summer, Ruby's mother, she was the leader. And when things didn't go just right she would spend hours afterwards running over every decision in her mind, trying to figure out exactly where she went wrong so that she could get it right the next time."

"Sounds diligent."

"At times it verged on obsessive," Taiyang said. "There comes a point when you're not really learning anything new about what happened or what you did, you're just beating yourself up for the sake of it; because it feels like you ought to beat yourself up."

Sunset was silent a moment. "If you'll forgive me, sir, it's a little hard to imagine the great Summer Rose as having much that she needed to beat herself up for."

Now it was Taiyang's turn to not speak for a little while. "We all make mistakes," he said, in a tone that made it clear that he had neither the desire nor the intention to travel any further down that road. At least not with Sunset Shimmer as his travelling companion.

Sunset didn't press upon the point. She accepted his will in this. If he was going to talk to anyone about his late wife and these hypothetical mistakes she may or may not have made then it should be their daughter, not some stranger that he barely knew however gamely he was trying to help her right now.

"I shouldn't have let them go with me," Sunset said. "I felt…after talking to Lyra and Bon Bon last night I felt as though they deserved a chance, but…it's a little funny when I think of how I was when I came to Beacon, but it seems I've gotten too used to working with a team. I've forgotten that there are times when I might work better on my own."

"Because of your magic," Taiyang said.

Sunset felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. "I don't know-"

"I know that you're of an age where you think that everybody over the age of twenty is a senile old fool, but that doesn't actually make it so," Taiyang said. "I've seen enough magic to know it when I see it."

Sunset exhaled slowly, and very deliberately. "I…" she chose her words with care. "I would like to apologise if you thought I was treating you like an idiot," she said. "But I would also like to ask that you not shout it around, sir."

"I'm used to keeping secrets too," Taiyang said, and Sunset noticed that his voice had dropped in volume. "So what happened? You're not a Maiden, I've seen what they can do; did Oz give you this? It's a step up from the gifts he gave to Qrow and Raven."

Sunset shook her head. "No, this…this is all mine, I was born with it," she said. "Much good it did me today."

"Born with it," Taiyang repeated. "I didn't know that was possible."

Sunset tapped her fingers upon the wood in front of her. Through her gloves she could feel the roughness of it. "There are things about me that Ruby knows," she said. "But which, with all due respect, I don't know you well enough to share."

Taiyang nodded. "I can understand that. If Ruby still trusts you after knowing the truth then that's good enough for me."

"Thank you, sir," Sunset said softly. "What I will say is that I was born with abilities that have a wide variety of uses, some of which you've already seen, some of which aren't actually that dissimilar from the powers of Maidens."

"The storm you created back at the house," Taiyang said. "Yeah, that was familiar. If I hadn't seen you shooting laser beams out of your hands at the same time I might have thought you were a Maiden."

 _I was, but only for a little while._ "That would have been too much power in the hands of one person," Sunset said. "Or at least that's what I thought until very recently."

Taiyang nodded. "Never be afraid to admit when you were just outmatched," he said. "Summer never liked to run, but Raven used to say that there was no shame in getting out when to stand meant to die. Even if she ran too far in the end she was right in principle." He shook his head. "And I thought that I'd seen the worst of the monsters in the world. I take it you don't know what they are?"

"I know that they're not ordinary grimm," Sunset said. "I know that they're tougher than ordinary grimm, that they don't die or even get hurt so easily and I know that they have magic powers, which shouldn't even be possible. But no, I don't know what they are, where they come from or how many of them there are."

"You think there are more than two of them?"

"I don't think we can arbitrarily say that there are only two of them," Sunset said. She scratched the back of her head. "Sir…I wouldn't ask this ordinarily, but in the circumstances…is there anything you know that could help Ruby train her silver eyes?"

"Yes!"

Sunset paused, then turned around, placing one hand upon her hip. "And how long have you been listening, Ruby Rose?"

Ruby slunk out from behind the pile of boxes. "Long enough," she admitted. "Not as long as it took you to realise that my silver eyes aren't something to be ignored."

Sunset sighed as she ran one hand through her hair. "This isn't something that I take lightly," she said, speaking to both Ruby and Taiyang at once. "But…Ruby's eyes are a light to burn away the darkness, and it might be our best chance, or perhaps the only one."

"Ruby's eyes didn't stop the thing at our house," Taiyang reminded them.

"No, but it did slow it down which is more than either of us could say," Sunset replied. "And maybe with some actual training…I don't know if it will work, but people are dying and I don't know if we can afford to turn our back on what an asset Ruby has."

"Maybe if you hadn't ignored it up until now-" Ruby began.

"Nobody likes the person who says 'I told you so', Ruby," Sunset said. "It's a very unattractive trait."

Ruby looked down at the soggy floor of the barge. "Sorry," she said. "I just meant…since I'm fighting anyway, since I've always been fighting, then I might as well use every weapon that I've got to fight. I never understood why none of you got that, why you all wanted me to pretend that I didn't have this power."

"Because we didn't think you needed it," Sunset said. "And because we were worried about the toll that it would take on you. I still am, that's why I don't like to bring the subject up."

"I don't like that you brought it up either," Taiyang said, in a voice that was almost but not quite a growl. "But I can see why you did."

"Dad, I can do this," Ruby said. "I want to do this."

Taiyang looked at her. "That was never the issue."

"What if Sunset's right?" Ruby said. "What if my eyes are the only weapon we have against these things?"

Taiyang clenched his jaw visibly. "I suppose…I suppose that the effects…the effects might lessen if you get better."

"Then there's something you know?" Ruby asked.

"I'm not an expert," Taiyang said. "But I spent enough time with your mother that I might have picked up a few things."

Ruby did not look elated, as Sunset had thought that she might have done; rather she looked quietly glad, with resolve rather than excitement flickering in her silver eyes. "So when do we start?"

"Not right now," Sunset said. "Practice, of course, but I'd rather you did it somewhere more private than here. Some people on this barge know far too much already."

Ruby looked around. "There isn't a lot of room for privacy here."

"There will be," Sunset said. "Soon."

"Does that mean you've figured out our next move?" Taiyang said.

Sunset shook her head. "No, it doesn't, I just know that we need to make one. We can't keep going up river indefinitely." She tapped her fingers upon the wood. "I was hoping that you might have some idea as to our next step, sir, seeing as how you're the most experienced huntsman amongst us by some distance."

"Experienced, sure, but I'm not a traveller," Taiyang said. "I can't guide us over the mountains and across the eastern half of the continent to reach the coast any more than I could find us a boat when we got there."

"Somehow I doubt our smuggler friend is going to guide us now," Sunset said. "He's sticking with us out of fear, but the moment we leave the barge he'll be gone and headed back home. I was hoping that-"

"I understand," Taiyang said. "And if Qrow were here I'm sure that he'd know a way, but I'm not so well travelled; my career has been shorter than his, and I spent most of it in Vale."

"I know that huntsmen crossing the mountains often use Stallion Pass, and that we might find supplies hidden there in the old fortress," Sunset said. "But I wouldn't know where to go from there."

"How do you know there'd be supplies in the pass?" Ruby asked.

"Because Professor Port told a story about it," Sunset said. "He said that huntsmen take what they need from the cache and leave what they can for the next group to come that way. His group took medicine for an injured comrade and left food."

"You paid attention to one of Professor Port's stories?"

"I'm afraid that getting to Stallion Pass would be pointless if we had no idea where to go from that point," Taiyang said. "There's a lot of ground to cover once we clear the mountains."

"I know," Sunset said. "I have an idea but…I am loathe to go through with it."

"Let's hear it, since it seems to be the only idea," Taiyang said.

"Jaune's sister is – or was, I don't know what their status is at the moment – a member of the Survey Corps," Sunset said. "She might know how we can cross the country, and find a port of some kind on the other side. But it means backtracking to Jaune's home village, and besides that…I'm not sure that I want to get Jaune's family involved in this. I'd like to be able to look him in the eye when we reach Mistral."

"We have to get to Mistral before you can look him in the eye," Taiyang pointed out.

"We all want to get to Mistral, but that doesn't mean that we can ask Jaune's sister to put her life on the line for us," Ruby said. "Just because she's his family doesn't mean that she chose to be a part of this."

"I know, that's why I don't really want to ask her if I have a choice," Sunset said. She frowned. "It doesn't matter while we're still on this barge, so we have time to think about it for a little while longer. Who knows? Maybe a better idea will present itself before we need to put our…not so good idea into action."

The weather cleared up the next day – and about time too, in Sunset's opinion – as they reached a point at which the river was divided in two by a large island in the centre of the channel, which beyond the island opened up on a broad bay.

Upon the island had been raised a great statue, or at least Sunset thought that it must have been great once, when it marked the border of some ancient realm or stood as the monument to some great victory; now nothing remained but two vast and trunkless legs of stone, sitting upon a grey plinth surrounded by water, while it seemed that the rest of the statue had been snapped off, with a clean shearing break travelling from just below the left knee downwards towards the right ankle. Sunset looked around, and upon the left side of the river – the side of the river on which they had disembarked so ill-fatedly before – she beheld the head that had once adorned the fallen and, for the most part, vanished statue: the face of a king, a crown of stone atop his head, his expression stern, the blank stone eyes seeming to stare at Sunset as she sailed down the river.

Nothing beside remained, and the water beat on towards the sea and the barge travelled onwards in the opposite direction; who he had been, to whom this statue had been raised, and why and when, whether he had raised it to his own glory or been honoured by his obedient sons and heirs, whether he had deserved the honour or been flattered by it beyond his deserts…of all of that Sunset was wholly ignorant. Of all of that the world was as ignorant as they were of the existence of all that was left of his monument to a glory that was vanished more permanently than the statue itself. How it had fallen Sunset likewise could not say: perhaps the grimm, driven by a hatred not only of men but of the works of men, had torn it down somehow; perhaps some strong semblance had been used to slice through the stone. Perhaps time had simply worked in an unusually precise way.

 _Dust to dust._

Cinder came to stand at the bow beside her. "What are you thinking?"

Sunset sighed. "I was thinking that I wanted a statue once."

Cinder looked at her out of the side of her smouldering eyes, as though she wasn't quite sure if Sunset was joking or not. "Me too," she said softly.

Sunset's eyebrows rose. "Really?"

"You have such a hard time believing?"

"You always struck me as being more focussed on the realities of power than the gaudy trappings that so enthralled me."

"You don't think that there's something gaudy about the ability to create storms while hovering six feet up above the ground, one's eyeballs burning dramatically?" Cinder asked.

Sunset snorted. "You have a point there."

"That hadn't occurred to you until now?" Cinder asked. "I thought that might have been a reason you gave my magic away: it had become too gaudy for you."

"Don't start," Sunset said. She shook her head. "For me, it was only ever half about the power itself. I'd seen Princess Celestia wield power without recognition – not that everypony didn't know she was in charge, she was no Professor Ozpin; rather what I mean is that although she reigned without doubt she rarely ever seemed to rule while I was her student; she preferred to nudge ponies into doing what she wanted rather than giving them their orders." Sunset paused. "I could never have done that. I wouldn't have had the patience. I didn't just want to have power I wanted to be acknowledged for it, to have statues raised in my honour and songs sung of my name."

"And you think I didn't?" Cinder asked.

"I'm not sure," Sunset said. "Like I said, I always thought you were more focussed on the simple fact of being powerful."

"I want to be powerful," Cinder murmured. "I want to be strong. I want to be feared. To be feared, Sunset; you can't be feared unless people know full well how strong you are. I wanted a statue too; I just didn't need it to be built by the grateful beneficiaries of my magnificence; a monument raised by fearful slaves to placate me would have done just as well."

Sunset turned to look at her. "I would very much like to think that you're joking; unfortunately I don't think you entirely are."

"We've both been things that we are not now, and not proud of either," Cinder said.

"We were both fools," Sunset said. "It will all turn to dust in the end."

"So will our bodies," Cinder replied. "It almost makes you wonder what the point of it all is."

"The moment is the point," Sunset said. "I think that's it, anyway. The now and what we have in it."

Cinder was silent for a moment. "I have to say," she said. "This particular moment is leaving something to be desired."

Sunset covered her mouth with one hand to try and stifle a chuckle. "You…you're not alone in thinking that." She sighed. "No, you are definitely not alone."

"You're not blaming yourself too badly, are you?"

"No," Sunset said. "I'm just blaming myself."

Cinder was silent for a moment, before she said. "Do you have a new plan?"

As the barge passed the island and entered the bay, Sunset straightened up and raised her voice. "Take us in here, on the right bank. We'll disembark there."

A corvid cawed in the woods that grew on either side of the river as the barge glided in towards the bank, striking the earth with a gentle thump. The entire group, minus Bullseye whom Sunset suspected would be heading back to Vale as fast as he could, disembarked, offloading all the supplies that they could save only for a little food for their pilot who had, after all, done all that he had been required to do.

Sure enough, as soon as the company was off his barge and on the wooded riverbank Bullseye reversed the engine, and Sunset watched as the barge retreated backwards away from the bank and began to turn in that wide bay, pointing its fat bow in the direction in which the water flowed, towards Vale and home.

Sunset wouldn't have been surprised at all if there were some who would have rather gone with him than stayed where they were.

"You know, before we go any further," Torchwick said. "I think that some of us are owed a little bit of an explanation."

 _And there are some I probably should have sent back with him,_ Sunset thought.

Cardin folded his arms. "And what makes you think that you're owed anything, Torchwick?"

"Well, maybe owed was the wrong word," Torchwick said. "Maybe what I should have said was 'if you expect me to take one more step you're going to have pay me with some straight answers first'."

"You never asked for answers when you were working for me," Cinder reminded him. "You never asked me any questions at all."

"Oh, I'm pretty sure I asked the questions," Torchwick replied. "You just never gave me any answers is all."

"And you went right on robbing and murdering just the same," Cinder said. "You certainly never stamped your foot like a two-year old until I unfolded my aims to you."

"It didn't bother me so much then because I thought I had you figured out," Torchwick said. "I thought you were someone like me, someone who wanted to tear down the system and build something better in its place."

"Don't paint yourself as some kind of revolutionary," Cinder said. "Whatever you thought my objectives were you certainly didn't share them."

"No, I just shared an interest in acquiring money and power, which I'm not getting here," Torchwick said. "And now I think we all share an interest in staying alive. And frankly, after the fine mess you've gotten us into I'm starting to learn the importance of asking all the questions. Like what the hell was that thing back at the tower? And what are we really doing out here?"

"You know what we're doing out here," Cardin said.

"Oh, please," Torchwick said. "If this was just about snatching some guy then you wouldn't have brought little red and her pops and we wouldn't be being followed by whatever that was back there. So why don't you tell us what's really going on?"

"I don't know," Sunset said, her voice laced with sarcasm. "I really can't imagine why I wouldn't share everything with someone like you. You know all that you need to know: we're going to Mistral, and you're going to get your freedom when we get there."

"I think we need to know what that thing was," Torchwick said.

"I agree," Bon Bon said, albeit with a hint of reluctance in her voice. "Sky died because we didn't know what we were walking into."

"We still don't," Sunset said. "I'll admit that there is something about our mission that you don't know, but when it comes to that creature I don't know any more than you."

"Once you've admitted to keeping secrets why should we believe that isn't one of them?" Jack said.

"I don't know," Sunset said candidly. "It doesn't really matter whether you believe me or not because in case you haven't noticed the boat just left, just like you left it a little late to have this conversation because there isn't any way back to Vale any more unless any of you fancy a walk through the woods. So you can stay here and grumble or you can accept that you know what you know and do the job."

Torchwick raised his hand.

Sunset growled. "What?"

"The plan was that we were going to get a ride across country to the coast," Torchwick said. "That's not happening, so what's the plan now?"

Sunset's jaw clenched.

"You don't have a plan, do you?" Torchwick said.

"It's a work in progress," Sunset admitted.

"I've got an idea," Sami said, a smile playing across her features as she said it. "We need to get across the mountains across the eastern territory, yeah?"

"Yeah," Sunset said, slowly and not without suspicion. "That's right. And find a boat to Anima at the other end."

Sami reached up and scratched around one of her caribou antlers. "I can't say for definite that I can find us a boat, but I think I can get us to somewhere you could find a boat with a bit of luck."

"How?" Ruby asked.

"My people are nomads," Sami explained. "We roam around, sometimes outside the kingdoms. I left the tribe but I still remember the routes we used."

Sunset glanced at Cardin, then at Ruby; neither of them voiced any objections or showed it on their faces. "Go on," she said.

"We can cross the mountains via the Pass of the Raven, then go through the Goat's Cleft," Sami said. "Once we're out the other side I think I can remember an eastern trail."

"And what about your people?" Sunset said. "Will we find them, too?"

Sami shook her head. "It's the wrong time of year to cross the mountains; if that happens it happens in summer when the weather is at its best; they'll only just be coming out of wintering wherever they spent that, and deciding where to go next."

"And a boat?" Sunset said. "How do we get to Anima?"

"There are a couple of port towns we used to trade with," Sami said. "I can find them."

Sunset nodded. She didn't say anything for a moment as she considered Sami's suggestion. On the one hand it was Sami, not the most trustworthy person that Sunset knew, but on the other hand…Torchwick was right, they didn't have another plan. Taiyang was not widely travelled enough to be their guide, Sunset really didn't want to involve Jaune's sister if she had another choice even if you left aside the travelling to go to Jaune's home and even if you assumed that she would help if she was asked; eastern Sanus was so strange to the rest of them that it might as well have 'here be monsters' written on the map. Was there a better choice available? Not really, not that Sunset could see; the biggest risk that they would encounter Sami's people on the way, but if that was the case then Sunset was more confident in the ability of the wider group to fend them off than she was in facing some of the other potential dangers that hemmed them in.

She glanced again at Cardin, who gave a slight nod of the head in agreement. Ruby did the same, and Cinder too; all those whom she actually trusted were – however begrudgingly – in favour of this.

"Okay," Sunset said. "The Pass of the Raven it is."

And so they had a new direction – Sami helped Cardin to plot the course on his map – and through the rest of that day they travelled towards the mountains and the pass that Sami knew. As the darkness fell they came to a hill upon which stood the ruins of some ancient seat, where graven statues of old men, worn and weathered by the decay of years, stood garlanded by crowns of daisies on their brow and robed by moss that grew upon the stone; where the stumps of crumbling columns reached towards the sky and fragments of wall and seemed to grow amongst the trees; where stone stones had once been raised to ease the passage up the hill but now the weeds had split and cracked said stones. The walls offered a little shelter from the wind, and there were enough remains of a second floor rising above the first that there would even be shelter from the rain if it returned, and so as the night was falling they made camp there, and lit a fire in the centre of the ruin as darkness surrounded them.

Cinder took watch, standing atop the second floor and looking out across the forest, as still at times as one of the fading statues that surrounded them, at other times stalking from one position to the other with the grace of a panther, the moonlight glinting off the glass bow that she held lightly in one hand.

As the fire died, and the rest of the company slept, Sunset sat with her back to a fallen column and took out her journal.

Sunset: Twilight, are you there? I really need your help with something.

Twilight: Is Ruby okay?

Sunset: As good as she can be in the circumstances. Her father is going to help her unlock her silver eyes.

Twilight: I thought that you didn't like the idea of her doing that.

Sunset: I don't, but in the circumstances I can't really oppose it any more. Someone's dead.

Twilight: I'm so sorry. Who?

Sunset: Nobody whose name you'd recognise. Not a friend, nor even close. But he was under my command and that makes me responsible for what happened to him just as it makes me responsible for what happens to everyone else here.

Twilight: What did happen?

Sunset: Something got him, but I don't know what it was. Not a grimm, not like any grimm I've come across before; even Ruby's father, a more experienced huntsman, has never seen anything like or like the other special creature that attacked us at Ruby's house. It wasn't made of magic like the rest of them are, but it had magic. It could do magic, Twilight, and strong magic too. No grimm should be able to do that.

Twilight: And you think that Ruby's silver eyes will provide a defence against it?

Sunset: They slowed the thing at Ruby's house; maybe they can do more with training. I don't know, but I can't afford to stand in the way of Ruby moving forward any longer.

Twilight: You just wish there was something you could do as well, right?

Sunset: Right. My best shot only seemed to irritate it; that's the one at Ruby's house, I didn't stick around to fight the thing that killed Sky; I focussed on getting the other two out of here.

Twilight: That sounds like a reasonable decision in the circumstances.

Sunset: But, even if unicorn and pegasus magic can't hurt these new things – whatever or whoever they are – enough to stop them, I have an idea for something that might. But you can't tell Celestia that I asked about this. I mean it, Twilight, this has to stay between the two of us.

Twilight: The fact that you felt you had to say that is a little worrying.

Sunset took a deep breath. _A silver light can burn away the darkness, but perhaps a deeper dark can swallow it up also._ Sunset: Can you teach me dark magic?

Twilight: Dark magic? That's your plan? If Celestia knew about this

Sunset: That's why you can't say anything to her.

Twilight: You know that I should. I can't believe that you don't know all the reasons why dark magic is forbidden.

Sunset: I know that the thing I fought at Ruby's house was able to overpower my magic with his own. Straight up, beam to beam, and it was stronger than I am. I would have died if it weren't for Ruby and her silver eyes. The strength of dark magic

Twilight: Comes from hate and fear, you must know that. Aren't those the very things that attract grimm?

Sunset: Are you saying that you won't help me because you're worried that I'll get eaten by a beowolf mid-lesson.

Twilight: I don't want you to do this because dark magic is corruptive. The you use it the more it will make use of you in turn.

Sunset: People are dying, Twilight; you say that dark magic is powered by hate and fear but I'm scared already. What if it's Ruby next, or Cinder?

Twilight: What you're talking about might help you to defeat your enemies, but at what cost to yourself?

Sunset: If it keeps Ruby and Cinder safe it will be worth it.

Twilight: Even if you lose the very feelings that make you want to protect them now? You don't know what it does to you, Sunset; you might think you do, but you don't. I won't help you destroy yourself.

Sunset: Even if there's no other way?

Twilight: You already have a better way in Ruby.

Sunset: I don't want to put all the pressure on her; it isn't fair.

Twilight: I'm sure she'd rather that than what you're proposing.

Sunset: I can't be helpless and reliant on Ruby. I can't lose a friend to these new monsters.

Twilight: You'll lose all your friends if this goes wrong.

Sunset: I understand that you're concerned

Twilight: I don't understand why you're being so unconcerned.

Sunset: Because there is nothing that any dark power could do to me that I haven't already done to myself. I found my way out of the hole once, I've learned my lessons already; if I have to I'll just climb out again.

Twilight: I can't talk you out of this, can I?

Sunset: No. And if you'd seen what I was up against you wouldn't try.

There was a moment in which no more writing appeared in the journal. Twilight: I suppose you want to start right away?

* * *

The wisp of black cloud that Ruby had perceived intermittently from above, that had seemed to trail their barge as it sailed down the river, descended towards the north bank of the river, and as it headed towards the ground it resolved itself into the form to which Selene had been condemned for these many ages past: that of a winged unicorn as black as the night, tall and lithe limbed, with white bone forming a helmet upon her face and armouring her chest.

Selene glided down into the forest clearing, where Sombra and Corypheus were already waiting for them, along with Salem's giggling little creature.

She landed, tucking her wings in along her flanks.

"Well met by moonlight, Nightmare Moon," Corypheus said, the blue glow from the tip of his staff illuminating his face.

Selene's snout twitched. She had been called Nightmare Moon once, it had been given to her by her fearful subjects when she, as High Priestess of the Moon, had begun to sacrifice them upon her altar in worship of the lunar orb and the glory of the night. And for that they, small minded fools that they were, had resented her and paid all worship to the garish sun. She had never liked the name. "Indeed, Storm King," she said, ascribing to him in turn the epithet given to him by those who trembled in fear of his conquering armies and the ferocity with which he laid waste to all those who stood against him.

The Storm King simply chuckled. "You think to insult me? I like the name and always did. I am the storm, the lord of storms and tempests who will sweep all things before my wrath."

"Not quite all things," Sombra said. "You never had the courage to challenge me in my domain."

"I would have," the Storm King replied. "Had Salem given us the time to see, once and for all, who was the stronger king and lord of war."

"If you had truly wished to see who was the stronger of you you would not have made common cause to follow Salem," Selene declared. "Where is Tirek?"

"He will not come," Sombra said. "You know how he disdains company, and desires to walk a lonely road."

"Indeed," Selene said. "Very well, I shall speak of my news to the two of you alone."

"The two of them?" Tyrian demanded.

All three of them looked, or perhaps it more accurately might be said that they glared at him. "Indeed," Selene said. "The two of them. Hie you from this place, O capering goblin, thou jester of Salem; get you gone, you who are worthless, counting for nothing in battle or debate, and leave we princes of the world to speak as princes do."

"I am the servant of the goddess-"

"And we are not slaves of Salem the Deceiver that we must bend our necks to the will of any mere servant in her service," Sombra snarled. "We are the kings of storm and shadow, moon and blood. Go, servant, and when your service is required you shall be sent for once again."

He went. He went unwillingly, his outrage plain upon his bruised and beaten face, but he went, slinking off into the darkness where he could not pry and spy upon their conference.

"So much for him," the Storm King said. "Now we may speak at leisure. What's the news?"

"They have left the river," Selene said. "And entered the woods. I cannot follow them from the air, the trees are so thick that I cannot the prey below."

"We will find them again," Sombra said. "They mean to cross the mountains, let us seek them there."

"So sure of their intentions?" the Storm King said.

"Why else would they come this way," Sombra said. "When all the wealth of this land is in the west."

"Then why head east at all?" Selene asked.

"Perhaps to rejoin their comrades across the sea," Sombra suggested. "The other two whom Salem would see dead."

"Perhaps," the Storm King allowed. "And perhaps when they are joined together we may see what disturbs the Deceiver so that she would let us loose. At present, I do not see the root of her concern."

"One of them has the Eyes of Heaven," Sombra growled. "They are weak, for now, but should they grow stronger then we must needs beware her wrath upon us. And the other has magic that I thought had gone out of the world."

"Yet neither strong enough to vanquish you, nor any one of us," the Storm King said.

"The same could not be said of Salem's other servants," Sombra said. "Hence why she has need of us."

"But should we do her bidding?" Selene asked. "Or should we look to other purposes, more pleasing to our wills and natures. Think on it, cousins: four kingdoms now remain in this Remnant of the world, and here we are four kings in all once Tirek is counted in our company. Why should we, the last princes in a world which has none, not take these kingdoms for our own and let lying Salem curse our names for all that she has power over us."

Sombra snorted. "You think you are the first to notice that there is a kingdom for each of us? You think you are the first to have this thought? My mind is fixed on sovereignty. I will go north, to the land that the men of this age call Atlas; for I have heard that it is a kingdom of great strength, where the hard lands of the north hath bred strong men; I shall take that hard land for myself, and take those hardy men also and with their strength shall ring my throne with iron as I did of old."

"For myself I shall go east," Selene said. "To the city called Mistral, where it is said all beauty flowers, and there I shall enjoy all the good things of this world: wine to drink, gold and fine fabrics to adorn myself, and sweet music shall be my constant accompaniment."

"While I to the western desert shall betake myself," said the Storm King. "And while you, Sombra, think that it is in the north that you shall find your iron men I know that it is amongst the desert rats that I will raise a new storm of furious intensity."

"Which leaves this present Vale for Tirek," Sombra said.

"He will not care where he goes, as long as he sits a throne," Selene said. "If he can overcome the creatures to whom Salem has promised it already."

"Whether he can or not is no concern of ours," the Storm King said.

"Are Salem's foes any concern of ours?" Selene asked, returning to the subject at hand.

"Yes," Sombra said. "For if the girl with the eyes masters her strength then we shall all of us be in danger; as for the rest, I understand that one of them is heir to the throne of the kingdom you would take. And all of them are champions amongst our enemies."

"Salem's enemies," Selene said.

"Which will oppose us also, in these monstrous forms to which we are condemned," Sombra said. "Therefore, though it serve the will of Salem the Deceiver, let us strike them down and dishearten all our foes."

"And then we'll take these kingdoms for our own," Selene said.


	197. The Pass of the Raven

The Pass of the Raven

Twilight: I'm still not entirely sure that this is a good idea, but if you're determined to do it

Sunset: Which I am.

Twilight: I was afraid you'd say that.

Sunset's eyes narrowed, even as a slightly amused smile began to play upon her face. Sunset: Twilight, are you stalling?

Twilight: Maybe a little.

Sunset: Twilight, I know that this has risks but I need this, for the sake of my own peace of mind as much as for the sake of my friends.

Twilight: I believe you. Or at least I believe that you're sincere, otherwise I wouldn't be helping you at all with this. But, because you're sincere – and because I'm too nice for my own good – I took Starlight with me out to the Castle of the Two Sisters to have a look in the old library there for anything that might be useful.

Sunset: Can't you just teach me what you know?

Twilight: I could, but I'm not sure how much the ability to make rocks grow out of the ground would help you, even if they are black and spiky rocks. However, after doing some research with Starlight's help

Sunset: That's your student, right?

Twilight: That's right, Starlight Glimmer. She's really coming along well, and she was a big help to me in this. Anyway, I think that I've found something that will be of use to you, without crossing any lines that I'm not going to help you cross no matter how much you beg.

Sunset: Don't write that like I've tried; there are lines I wouldn't cross either. I want to protect my friends not take over the world.

Twilight: My fear is that by trying to do one you'd end up wanting to do the other. That's why my idea should only be used in small doses, for a limited time only. Each one will take a strain upon you, and if you use them continuously then that strain could prove too great to bear.

Sunset: When you say that there will be a strain, you mean upon my mind?

Twilight: And upon your soul. However, if you use this magic sparingly then you should be able to handle it. Just try not to use all three at once, or even sparing use might be too much.

Sunset: Three what at once? What kind of spells are we talking about?

Twilight: Do you know the legend of the Dark Regalia?

Sunset: Of course: when Celestia and Luna ascended to the rule of the three tribes Princess Peridot, the last descendant of the unicorn royal line, gathered together a band of malcontents from all three tribes and used a mixture of natural and black magic to forge three powerful artefacts, each tied to the abilities and magics of one of the three pony tribes, to act as amplifiers to their powers.

Twilight: Exactly; for unicorns, the Alicorn Amulet; for pegasi, the Tempest Crown; for earth ponies, the Obsidian Hoofguards. Of course, if the legends are correct then they are more than just amplifiers; it was said that if, for example, an earth pony where to put on the Alicorn Amulet then they would sprout a horn and gain the powers of unicorn. I didn't really want to see if it worked when I had the amulet in my possession.

Sunset: No, you just decided to leave it in the care of a zebra mystic living alone in the woods. Twilight had already described that particular adventure to Sunset, and her course seemed no wiser to Sunset now than it had then. In fact it seemed far less now, after the things that she had learned and experienced since that first telling.

Twilight: There is no one I would trust more with it than Zecora.

Sunset: Evidently not, since you did trust her with it, but her trustworthiness is not the issue. She paused, tapping the tip of her pen upon the page. Sunset: Professor Ozpin is the first to admit the mistakes that he has made, but when he came into possession of four artefacts of terrible power he had the wisdom to lock them away in the bowels of the four great strongholds of the world. Why didn't you entrust the amulet to Princess Celestia in Canterlot?

Twilight: Because the enemies that trouble us are drawn to Canterlot like bees to honey, but no one would ever think to search the Everfree Forest for a power like the Alicorn Amulet.

Sunset: Huh. That's actually a very good point.

Twilight: I have my moments.

Sunset: Sorry, I didn't mean to suggest otherwise. I suppose that being in Remnant so long has affected my thinking in all kinds of ways.

Twilight: Like thinking of strength as the solution to your difficulties.

Sunset: Oh, no, you are not going to get me to reconsider so easily. I understand that there is more to life and to success than power as you well know, and if Jaune and Pyrrha were here – not to mention Blake and our friends of RSPT – then perhaps I would not tremble so much in fear of this new opposition. Not least because if RSPT were here then we could just call in a strike package or whatever the military term is and have one of their ships drop a ton of bombs on one of these things.

Twilight: You were saying how well you understand that there's more to success than power?

Sunset: But they're not here, and if we want to get to them then I have to be able to stand up for us. Now what did you find in the Castle of the Two Sisters, and what does it have to do with the Dark Regalia? The Tempest Crown and the Obsidian Hoofguards are lost and even if they weren't you couldn't get them to me here in Remnant.

Twilight: No, but in my research I found what might be the only record left in Equestria about how they were originally made, and with a little alteration I think that I can talk you through it.

Sunset's eyebrows rose. Sunset: You're going to talk me through making my own Dark Regalia?

Twilight: Well, when you put it like that it sounds terrible.

Sunset: I'm not complaining, I'm just surprised, all things considered.

Twilight: A lot of dark spells are very specific, and dark magic has a very afterlife upon the caster. But Trixie wore the Alicorn Amulet for several days without taking it off, and yet when she did take it off she was fine; which means that if we go this root you should be able to wear whatever it is you decide to imbue the power with without, you know, going crazy and evil. However, although I tried I wasn't able to find a way to make this spell work without the side-effects, so you will still feel them whenever you wear any one of the three and more if you put them all on at once.

Sunset: Well, I'd be lying if I told you that this was what I had in mind, but this is not a bad plan. Although since I don't have the energy of the thirty unicorns who, according to legend, laboured to craft the Dark Regalia in the fires of Ancalagon the Black, I take it that this is going to take some time.

Twilight: By my estimates, at least two weeks for you to infuse your chosen objects with the necessary levels of magic.

Sunset: At least it's not as if I have anything better to do.

Twilight: So, what are you going to use?

Sunset chose rings, in the end. She didn't want anything too conspicuous, anything that screamed 'the source of all my powers' to anyone who might be watching closely, something that she could put on and take off again without arousing too much notice or suspicion, and rings were rather perfect for that. Lots of people wore rings. Ruby's uncle had been wearing three of the things on one hand the last time they'd seen him for no immediately obvious reason at all and yet nobody had found this at all odd or worth remarking upon. Now, it was true that Sunset didn't wear rings as a matter of course, but if she were to slip one or two onto her fingers before the battle then most people would probably hardly notice, and those that did notice would probably not care.

Of course, there was the slight issue that she didn't actually have any rings with her at the moment, but that was more easily fixed than turning them into objects that would grant her a great boost to her power at the cost of her sanity: a simple trio of transfiguration spells was sufficient to transform a stick, an acorn and a crab apple that she found in the forest into three rings of gold, silver and iron that each fit snugly to her fingers. She didn't mean to imply anything by the descending order of metals, she just needed some way of easily telling the tree apart so that she didn't accidentally put on the ring for pegasus powers when what she really was the ability to flick someone's head clean off their shoulders with one finger.

There were no more encounters with either of the two dread servants of Salem which they had already encountered, nor with any others like them but distinct from them, as the company made its way afoot towards the mountains which rose so high and so sharp, jagged like a saw slicing through the world, a constant dominating presence as the group made their way towards them. The shadows of the mountains grew ever longer, and the peaks themselves seemed to grow ever higher, with every step the group took in their direction. Sunset could see why, faced with those grim, forbidding peaks, faced with the challenges of scaling those vast mountains, both the Mistralians during the Great War and the Valish in their later efforts to expand again had scorned the notion of crossing the high passes and instead had chosen to focus their resources and attentions on the gap that lay to the south east, and the flat, green lands there that offered freedom to move and build. But that road, aside from being very long, would have taken them far too close to Mountain Glenn and the grimm multitudes that still infested it, and Sunset had no wish to tread those dead and empty roads again. She had a feeling that Ruby had no wish to do so either. So they would take the mountain path, though it had be a harder road to travel, and hope that the hard road would also, in the end, transpire to be the safer one.

The weather had cleared up, the storm that had dogged them up the river abating now and the skies – when they could be seen through the tall eaves of the ever crimson trees – clear and disturbed only by a few wispy clouds that seemed too small to bear the weight of any rain. But though no raindrops fell upon their heads often times the east wind would rise out of the mountains and blow icily in their faces, chilling them through their aura which, though it protected them from some of the worst effects of the cold, did not stop them from feeling it in the same way that it would let you feel a punch to the gut even if it stopped you getting your ribs broken or your organs messed up by the same.

The journey was long and dreary, and of the travel to the mountains there was little worth saying. They travelled by day and rested by night, since grimm could see in the dark as well as any faunus and better than any man there was little to be gained from appealing to the secrecy of the night. Sometimes they came upon a ragged path, a dirt track or the remnants of something a little more substantial upon which to walk; for a few days they journeyed down what appeared to be the remains of an ancient road, and though it well deserved to be called remains it was nevertheless a flatter and an easier than any days of travelling they had before or since. Other times there was neither road nor path, simply the trudging over uneven forested countryside, following Sami's lead, as she guided them closer, ever closer, to the mountains.

"I would have thought," Sunset said. "That if your people use this path a lot there would have been an actual path leading up to it."

"My people don't start from an almost random spot on the river bank," Sami replied. "There'll be more path the closer we get."

That was true, and Sunset would not deny it; as the mountains loomed closer and closer, and as they rose higher and higher into the sky at the same time, so too did the times when they were forced to traipse across the countryside stumbling over tree roots and falling into molehills as they went. They found more paths, even if they were little more than places where a few trees had been felled and the land flattened a bit. Sometimes they were a little more than that, but even when it was not so it was better than nothing. And it became increasingly clear that somebody was using these paths that Sami had brought them to: although they were not recent Sunset could nevertheless see the marks left by wagons, carts or maybe sleds dragged along the ground; presumably these belonged to Sami's migratory people.

Two weeks of travel, walking by day and travelling by night, brought them closer and closer to the mountains, and more to the point brought them to a particular mountain, rising higher than those in its closest vicinity, with two peaks slightly spread apart which looked, in the right light, like the beak of a bird slightly opened to a devour a worm; and it was for that reason that it was called the Ravensmount; that, and when the last rays of the setting sun struck the mountain they seemed to turn the stone red.

Two weeks, and a few days longer, brought them to the foothills of that mountain, within which lay the Pass of the Raven over which Sami would lead them, and every night of those two weeks when the company stopped to rest Sunset would work with Twilight to create her rings of power. She infused them with her magic, using spells to draw upon not only her unicorn powers but her new earth pony and pegasus magic as well, and in addition she infused all three with the darkness necessary to make them more than just a store for her power, but a means to actually make her stronger than she was before.

It was a strange experience, and to be honest Sunset would also have to say that it was an unsettling one, drawing upon her anger and her fear and weaponising it in the form of magic. She had to focus upon the worst moments of her life, or at the moments in her life when she had been at her worst and which now filled her with anger and fear just as much as moments when she had had reason to be scared or angry. She thought about the tunnel under Mountain Glenn when she had let her fears overwhelm her reason, been ruled by selfish fearfulness to the detriment of the whole world and of her own position; she thought about facing Adam in the sewers; she thought about Celestia and the way in which Celestia had parted company from her; she thought about her first journey into Cinder's soul and the way in which the after-effects of unlocking her semblance had lingered in Sunset's own spirit; she thought about all those times and more of them and she ripped the fear and anger that she felt, the fear and anger that she directed at herself and at her memories, and she turned it into pure magic energy.

It was wayward, it was hard to control. It wanted to break free, it wanted to destroy, and just trying to keep a handle on it meant that Sunset felt the urge to destroy too. The anger and the fear that she was forced to draw upon bubbled close to the surface, and as she drew on the power of those memories she felt again as she had felt at those dark times: the fury at and hatred of Celestia, the terror that had led her to condemn the world, the fear of Adam and the desire to see him dead to assuage that fear, the echoes of Cinder's anger that had reverberated inside of her, they had all returned, and they lingered there even after Sunset had wrestled with the powers and forced them into one of the three rings and cast the spells to bond them with the natural magic that she had placed within.

Each night made them a little stronger, and each night brought them closer to completion; but each night also left her weary, drained of magic and with a morass of negative emotions bubbling away beneath her skin, dragged to the surface and refusing to sink down into the depths again.

Sunset counted herself fortunate that she wasn't the only one practicing magic down here. When she was done, when she felt herself weary and angry and afraid and, to be perfectly honest, worried that if she did this too often she would lose the ability to shove her negative back down again, then she would glimpse through the trees a little burst of silver light, only lasting for a second or two, never sustained but it was enough. She would see the light from Ruby's eyes as she, too, sought to become stronger in the powers that had been gifted to her, and the light from her eyes – the light from her soul – would bring a smile to Sunset's face and everything became a little lighter.

That was one of Ruby's gifts, greater even than her skill at arms: even after all the losses she had suffered, she could still light up the darkness.

That was one of the things that Sunset was counting on.

And so, on that last night when they made camp at the foothills of the mountains, Sunset wandered across the eaves of the wood; the campfire flickered to her left, and Lyra's harp sounded a soft refrain that was almost mournful. Sunset stopped, reminded of that day, the first day in the Forever Fall that was so very long ago and seemed to have been even longer. Lyra had played the harp then, too, but then her song had been soft and gentle and had joined with the atmosphere of the forest to bring Sunset a feeling of peace. Now her song was sad, and Sunset…well, the times had gotten sadder since then.

 _After all, we were together then._

 _And not just our team, either; Ruby had Yang then._

 _Perhaps a sad song is fit for the way the world has turned from that day to this; from the first day to the last._

She kept walking, and came to the edge of the wood where Ruby and her father were sat upon fallen logs across from one another. They both looked up at Sunset's approach, for she was not stealthy and was making no effort to be so.

"Can I have a word, Ruby," Sunset said, her voice soft in the still and quiet – apart from the sound of Lyra's harp, which might have driven all other sounds away – night.

She did not need to say that she wanted a word with Ruby alone, Taiyang was wise enough to take the hint and kind enough not to object to it. He simply got to his feet, wiping his hands off one another. "I'll leave you to it," he said. "I should turn in anyway. Goodnight, Ruby."

"Goodnight, Dad," Ruby said, a smile rising across her lips and then falling as soon as he turned away. She looked at Sunset, her eyes gleaming expectantly.

Sunset sat down on the same log as Ruby, to her right. She rested her elbows on her knees. "How's it going?"

"The training?"

"Yeah," Sunset said. "How are the magic lessons coming along?"

"Turns out I'm not that great at this," Ruby said, clearly unhappy about the fact. "I can't keep it up for more than a second or two, not on purpose."

"Any idea what the problem is?" Sunset asked.

"I don't know," Ruby moaned. "Dad's trying his best, but it's not like he was ever in Mom's head when she was using her silver eyes. And it's hard…getting my head in the right place, you know?"

"Negative emotions?"

"That's just the thing," Ruby said. "Dad says that that isn't how Mom did it. He says that Mom used to focus on love, and what she was protecting."

That made a degree of sense to Sunset; if dark magic was driven by fear and hatred then it made sense that light magic – and this was literally light magic that they were talking about here – was fuelled by the opposite. The only thing that didn't make sense was the discrepancy itself. "Why would your mother lie in her own diary?"

"I don't know," Ruby said. "Could…could it have been altered, somehow?"

Sunset considered that for a moment. "Do you have it with you?"

Ruby nodded, producing the little black book out of one of her pouches. "Here. Do you want to see it?"

"Can you open it up to the passage where it talks about silver eyes and negative emotion," Sunset said.

"Sure," Ruby said, and she flicked quickly through the pages until she found the one that she was looking for. "Here you go."

Sunset took the journal from out of Ruby's unprotesting hand. The slanted handwriting of Summer Rose lay before her.

Anyway, the powers of the silver eyes come from, wouldn't you know it, our silver eyes. When we feel especially intense negative emotion - horror, fear, sorrow, anger - our eyes manifest in power unlike any other. Professor Ozpin called it magic, even though he told me not to call it that in front of anybody else.

 _Well, that seems pretty definitive. But…_

Sunset placed the tips of her fingers upon the page, feeling the indentations were Summer had pressed hard upon the paper as she wrote; and then she stopped feeling with her finger tips and started feeling with her more magical senses instead.

And Ruby had got it in one: there was some magic imbued in this paper. Someone had cast a spell – a subtle spell, one that Sunset would never had noticed if Ruby hadn't inspired her to actively look for it - to alter the words.

 _But words remember,_ Sunset thought, as she cast a counterspell. A little magic – and a little magic was just about all that she could spare at this precise moment – flowed out of her and onto the page and as it flowed so too the words of Summer Rose flowed and shifted and changed before their very eyes.

Anyway, the powers of the silver eyes come from, wouldn't you know it, our silver eyes. When we feel especially intense love, of any kind, and the desire to protect that which we love from the dark powers all around us, our eyes manifest in a power unlike any other.

"Looks like your dad was right after all," Sunset said, as she handed the book back to Ruby.

Ruby's eyes widened. "But…why…who change it in the first place? And why?"

"I…I really couldn't say," Sunset said. "Magic doesn't leave a signature." She was being ever so slightly disingenuous with Ruby; she had a sneaking suspicion that it must have been Professor Ozpin, if only because he had the means and the opportunity to do so, but she didn't want to slander him without actual proof, and the fact that she couldn't think of why he would want to do such a thing – the obvious motive was to make it harder for Ruby to learn how to use her silver eyes, or if one assumed that the spell had been cast some long time ago then to stop anybody from learning how to use them; but why would Ozpin want to do such a thing when Ruby's eyes had been part of what had drawn him to Ruby in the first place? - acted as another restraint upon her tongue.

 _But if not him, then who? Who else could have done it?_

 _Why would he want to do it?_

 _Why would anybody want to?_

"I wouldn't worry about the answer to that question too much," Sunset continued. "It's not something that you can answer, so don't wear yourself out with fretting about it."

"Okay," Ruby said, slightly reluctantly. "It still doesn't help me use my powers, though."

"Because you can't get your head in the right place," Sunset said. "Care to explain?"

Ruby looked reluctant to do so, but nevertheless she said, "I can't…I can't hold it."

"Hold?"

"The right thoughts," Ruby said. "Every time we try I fix on something that I think ought to fill me with…with love, you know: Yang, when the four of us where together. I think about that and it feels like it's starting to work…and then something comes along and ruins it. Just like life: Yang died, Jaune and Pyrrha left, you…you…"

"Betrayed you," Sunset whispered. "You can say it, Ruby, you don't have to worry about offending me."

"Everything fades," Ruby said. "Nothing lasts. And I can't keep it in my mind as though it does."

"That's…I wish I knew what I could say right now to help but…I'm afraid that I've got nothing," Sunset said. "Because you're right: the days you think are perfect never last forever and it really, really sucks. And I don't know what the answer is, I wish that I did, but…the truth is that I actually came over here to ask you for help, not the other way around."

"Help?" Ruby asked. "Help with what?"

Sunset didn't reply. She looked up at the moon hanging above them, and the craggy peaks of the Ravensmount looming overhead. "What do you think of our road?"

"I don't know," Ruby said. "Do you trust Sami?"

"Not really," Sunset said. "But she's our best shot right now. It's not her but the weather that worries me."

"Why?"

"It's very early in the year," Sunset said. "You heard Sami, her people don't usually cross the mountains until later. We've only just seen the end of the snows down here, they could linger on the heights. But we don't have any choice in the matter. It's not like we can camp out and wait for summer. We'll just have to take the risk, and trust to our strength."

"Sunset?"

"Yeah?"

"The fact that you don't want to tell me what you need my help with is kinda worrying," Ruby said plaintively.

Sunset grinned, probably not long enough to be genuinely reassuring. "I, um, I've been working with Twilight, while you've been practicing your silver eyes, on a way that I can strengthen my own magic. A way that I can become strong enough so that you don't have to worry about whether you can use your silver eyes or not."

"That sounds great," Ruby said. "Except that it doesn't."

"No," Sunset said. "What we've come up with…is not without consequences. So if I start to go a little crazy-"

"A little _crazy_?"

"It's not ideal, I know-"

"You wouldn't let me practice my silver eyes because it would make me a little tired!" Ruby snapped. "And now I'm supposed to let you go crazy."

"No, you're not," Sunset said. "That's what I'm trying to get to…this might sound like a lot to ask but, if I do overdo it then I need you to use my semblance on you."

Ruby blinked. "You want me to use _your_ semblance on _me_?"

"Yes, like you did the night after the dance," Sunset said. "Remember? I was so full of rage leftover from what I'd seen in Cinder's soul, but when I touched your hand and saw what was in your soul instead…it purified me. It drove out all the bad stuff or at least it made it so that it wasn't…I could function again, is what I'm trying to say. And I might need you to do that again, to pull me back the way you did before."

Ruby stared up at Sunset, the two of them looking at one another in silence. "What if I can't?" Ruby asked. "What if I'm not the same person any more? What if I'm not-"

"Not what?" Sunset asked. "Not good? Not kind? Not brave? You've suffered, Ruby, I don't deny that; you've suffered more than any of us, but in spite of that here you are, still doing your part and I think…I believe that that shows that in spite of everything your heart remains the same. Like I believe in you."

Ruby looked away. All of a sudden her body slumped sideways, leaning against Sunset. "I don't know if I believe in me that way," she said. "So do you think I could believe in the you that believes in me instead?"

Sunset chuckled as she put an arm around Ruby's shoulders. "Yeah. I don't see why not."

"So…" Ruby began. "I'd like to help, but…can't you just not do whatever it is you're going to do that's going to make you lose it."

"Not if I want to win against those things," Sunset said. "You saw the way that first one overpowered my magic, straight up. I can't just ignore the fact that they're so much stronger than I am."

"And there's no better way?"

"Not that we have time for, no," Sunset said.

Ruby was silent for a moment. "I don't want to lose you, Sunset. You and Dad are all I have left. And Zwei."

"Mustn't forget Zwei."

"I'm serious," Ruby said. "I don't want to lose you, Sunset."

"You won't."

"You might, if-"

"You won't," Sunset repeated. She squeezed Ruby reassuringly. "You're the best person I know. If anyone can pull this off it's you. And that goes for silver eyes too, you'll get there, I'm sure of it."

Ruby was silent again. "Okay," she said. "I'll do it."

Sunset let out a sigh of relief she hadn't even realised she was holding in. "Thank you," she said. "Thank you, Ruby, that means a lot. I…I couldn't do this without you. I don't think I could do any of this without you."

* * *

Sunset stood at the foot of the mountain, all alone.

The wind howled around her, the cold biting her through her aura as it blew through her hair, scattering it in every direction. The knifelike and forbidding peak, with its narrow cleft to offer passage, loomed large and dark over her head, casting a shadow as it blocked out the light of the moon which hung in shattered fragments behind it.

"Ruby?" Sunset called, turning this way and that looking for any sign of her companions, any sign of their camp, any sign of where they had gone or how, for that matter, Sunset had ended up here. "Cinder? Cardin?"

"They're not here," said a voice, a voice which came from what was now behind Sunset, for just as she had turned to put her back to the mountain so the speaker was closer to the peak than she was. "But don't be alarmed," she added, as Sunset rounded on her. She was swathed in a green cloak, with the hood up so that her face could not be seen. "This is just a dream, and when you wake up you'll find them right where you left them."

 _That cloak…and that voice…_ "Amber?" Sunset murmured.

Amber threw back her cloak, revealing her face scarred by Cinder's attack. "Hello, Sunset Shimmer. It's good to see you again."

Sunset wished that she could say that she felt the same way. As it was she drew back just a little. "No offence, Amber, but…which one are you?"

Amber smiled. "Both. I'm whole again, at last, and I don't…I don't have to be afraid any more."

Sunset frowned. "I'm sorry, for...I'm sorry about what I did to you."

"My fate is not your fault."

"Isn't it?" Sunset said. "I brought you back."

"And if you haven't I would have died anyway," Amber said. "What climbed out of Uncle Ozpin's machine wouldn't have been me, any more than it would have been Pyrrha."

"You would have been remembered more fondly," Sunset said. "As a victim, not a traitor."

Amber was silent in response to that. She looked away from Sunset for a moment. "I really did care about them, you know: Uncle Ozpin, my friends of Bluebell…Dove."

"Are you with him now?" Sunset asked. "Is there a place where you can be together?"

Amber nodded, a soft smile returning to her face. "It's wonderful. It's…it's everything I ever dreamed of. We have a cottage, and a stream running by and some woods not far away. We'll never grow old…we'll never have a family," she added, with some sadness making its way into her voice. "But we have each other, and Sky visits too sometimes."

Sunset flinched to hear that. "I'm sorry that he's able to."

"I'm sorry," Amber said. "I didn't come here to make you feel guilty."

"Why did you come?" Sunset asked. "How did you come here, for that matter?"

"I'm here because you were a Fall Maiden," Amber said. "If only for a little while. You held the mantle that has been passed down from maiden to maiden ever since the first of us. That…that creates a bond between us, between our souls. We're all connected, down through the ages. And so I can come here, and help you."

"Help me?" Sunset repeated. "How?"

"I'm going to show you the way," Amber said. "Follow me. Are you ready?"

"Can't you just tell me where to go?" Sunset asked.

Amber giggled. "I'm afraid it doesn't work like that."

"No, I'm not surprised," Sunset muttered. "Okay, I'm ready."

"Alright then," Amber said, as she turned away. "Follow me!" she cried, sounding suddenly giddy as she leapt upwards, a single kick upwards off the ground carrying her up into the air.

Sunset leapt too, and as she leapt after Amber she found that she was flying, soaring through the air without even needing to call upon her pegasus powers – if she ever could have done so – in this place she had no need of them, nor any other magic; a simple jump carried her all the way to the top of the mountain, where the air was frigid, so much colder than it had been down at the base of the mountain. The wind roared so much more violently here, blowing Sunset's hair into her face. She brushed it out of the way, and kept her eyes fixed on Amber's back as the previous Fall Maiden stood in what looked like the highest part of the Pass of the Raven, the moonlight falling silver down upon her. She stood there a moment, looking up at the shattered moon.

"Amber?" Sunset said. "Is something wrong?"

Amber, it seemed, was allowed to look back because she did just that. "No, nothing," she said quickly. "I just…oh, come and look."

Sunset scrambled the last few steps up the mountain pass after her, as she began to descend the other side of the mountain. Sunset was forced to stop herself as she reached the highest point, because all of eastern Sanus lay spread out before her and if Amber had stopped because she was struck dumb by the view then, as her eyes beheld even in a dream the vast expanse of the world beyond Sunset had to admit that it was a view worth being temporarily halted for. The rivers glimmered under the moonlight, the forests rose tall and ancient, the ground rolled upwards and downwards, undulating gently towards the sea while, if she looked closely, Sunset could see the smoke rising from the chimneys of half a hundred scattered townships and villages that lay between the mountains and the coast.

 _So people have survived here. Ruby will be pleased._

"Sunset," Amber called, and Sunset followed where she led. It had only a single bound to clear the mountain, and it took only a few steps to descend as Amber and Sunset walked like giants, their every step traversing great distances as they came down the mountain and entered the valley called the Goat's Cleft on the other side as easily as if they were descending the most meagre of gentle rises along the way.

They were giants, Sunset realised. Although when she had Amber had first talked the mountain had loomed over them to make them seem as small as ants now when she looked back Sunset could see that she and Amber were both as tall as the mountains now, or maybe a little taller, for she could just see over the top of the peaks. Although, now that she had noticed that, she also noticed herself shrinking noticeably; she was not her natural height, far from it, but the mountain grew larger behind her as she left it behind and passed through the valley.

The valley where the wind died down and the air warmed noticeably around her, and though it never became warm it was at least a relief from the bitter cold that had prevailed upon the mountain slope.

The valley where a host of growls and snarls arose all around them, the valley where the shadows loomed dark and dangerous, the valley where – when Sunset looked away from Amber for a moment – she saw the monsters lurking the darkness; not grimm, but other creatures: hydras and manticores such as one might see in Equestria; chtonic boars and bulls and lions; giant suits of armour with pale glows of magic animating them; pale, wraithlike figures and bleached skeletons with swords and shields; creatures she could see moving beneath the ground but which did not show their forms; and a man with the legs of a goat and a pair of proud, curving horns – also goat-like, or at least like pictures of some mountain goats that Sunset had seen in books - growing out of his head who sat upon a throne of bones and laughed as he gorged himself upon a feast.

"What is this?" Sunset murmured as she watched the creatures roar and snarl and growl and dance about their enthroned lord as if their monstrous revelry might please him. "What am I looking at?"

Amber stopped, and despite everything she shivered. "I don't know," she admitted. "But I'm afraid…be careful."

"Of course," Sunset murmured, looking for ways to avoid going through the centre of the valley if it was home to this menagerie. Perhaps they could get onto one of the outer spurs and climb along it that way?

"We have to go," Amber said. "We don't have much time."

Sunset followed, partly reluctant to go before she understood what she was seeing and partly glad to leave this sight behind. Amber led the way and Sunset followed, and their steps were so broad that they covered leagues with every single stride. Forest and field and farm passed beneath their feet, vast rivers presented no obstacle to either of them, and as they walked Sunset memorised the route that she had been shown: how they passed over – or through – this forest here, and crossed the river at such a place where there was an island in the centre of the channel; how they gave a wide berth to that settlement with the stockade, but rather passed through those ancient ruins that crowned the high but lonely hill; how they followed that road so far. Their steps devoured the land, covering the whole of this part of Sanus in mere moments, and as they walked the temperature changed by the moment, becoming cold in this place and warm in that; for a second Sunset would feel a breeze kissing her cheek, the next she felt the pitter-patter of rain upon her head and then that was gone just as swiftly as the breeze had been and if anything she felt uncomfortably hot.

There were people moving around at their feet as they walked: people in the towns and villages that they strode over, wagon caravans upon the makeshift roads, woodsman treading the forest paths alone; and the grimm, always the grimm, roaming everywhere in wild bands, making the night shake with their howling. But though they saw plenty of grimm they saw no more monsters like those than Sunset had seen in the Goat's Cleft, just as there had been no creatures of grimm to be seen there.

Amber brought her to the coast, to a natural bottleneck formed by a lagoon on one side and range of steep and rocky hills upon the other. Within the bottleneck stood a bustling port that seemed like it belonged more in Vale than in the eastern wilds: a town with walls of iron, albeit thin, and a road dug into the soil leading to its gates, and what looked like some kind of ballista turrets placed outside on guard. Smoke belched out of a crude factory, and a small fleet of modest boats anchored in the bay.

"What is this place?"

"Here is where you'll find a ship to take you across the sea," Amber said. "But right now, we can jump it."

Sunset didn't argue. She knew better than that by now, but simply leapt as Amber leapt and let the momentum of this dream-realm take her in its embrace and send her flying through the air across the ocean, the great waves and all the creatures dwelling in the deep passing away beneath her before she and her companion set their feet once more upon the dry land of Anima.

Sunset could see Mistral far off, the shining city on the mountain gleaming in the darkness.

"No," Amber said quickly. "Not there, not yet. There's somewhere else you have to go first."

Sunset's eyes widened. "You know where Ozpin is, don't you?"

Amber nodded. "I know where you'll find him."

Sunset folded her arms. "You could have started with that."

"Wasn't it obvious?"

"When you said you were going to show me the way I thought you were being a bit more…general."

Amber laughed. "Sorry," she said. "I meant to be specific."

"How?" Sunset asked. "Are you connected to him, too?"

"When I was…alive," Amber murmured. "I…sometimes I saw things. I had dreams of my own. They weren't always clear, but…I know that I'm right this time. You have to go where I show you to find Uncle Ozpin, and you have to find him."

"Are you being specific again?" Sunset asked, a trifle anxiously; she already knew that she had to find Professor Ozpin – that was the task that Professor Goodwitch had laid upon her – but was there some extra-special reason she had to do it, such as he was going to die again if she didn't?

"Follow me," Amber said, and Sunset was left no choice but to do as she bade, and continue trying to commit the landscape of Anima to memory as they passed over the forests and the mountains, treading over the ruins of villages destroyed by bandits or by grimm, until they arrived at a rustic, undefended village which by the looks of it had an airship but not any way to keep dangers at bay.

Amber stood in the middle of the village, her head bowed. "This…this is the place. I think…I think it's name is Shion." She looked at Sunset. "You have to get here and you have to find him. He's in danger, or he will be by the time you arrive. You have to protect him."

"I will, but can be a little more specific?" Sunset asked. "Is Salem going to find him too?"

"I don't think so," Amber said. "It's hard to explain, I just…everyone is going to betray him. When the truth comes out even those whom he called friend will turn on him…just like I did."

"What?" Sunset said. "That's not possible. Pyrrha, Ruby, they'd never turn on Professor Ozpin, no matter what truth…what could we possibly learn that he hasn't told us already?"

"I don't know," Amber said. "I don't know everything, I only know what I see and what I see is…you have to protect him. Don't make the same mistakes that I did. Don't break Ozpin's heart like I did. Promise me, Sunset, promise me that when the swords are drawn yours will be in his defence."

"I can't imagine anyone drawing a sword against-"

"Promise me, Sunset," Amber insisted. "Please."

Sunset nodded, her back straightening. "I am at his service," she declared. "And so I shall remain until my lord release me, or death take me. I will keep him safe from any and all dangers, you have my word."

"Upon the honour of a Fall Maiden?"

"Or a huntress," Sunset said. "Or a scholar or an Equestrian gentlemare or anything else you like. My word, whatever I am and however much honour I have left."

Amber stared into Sunset's eyes for a moment. "There are times when I look at you and I almost feel as though…" she trailed off. "Thank you, Sunset Shimmer. I'm sorry that we didn't get the chance to become friends. I think…I think I would have been very lucky if I had."

"Thank you, for this," Sunset said. "I promise, your faith in me won't be in vain. This time, I swear, I won't let Professor Ozpin down."

* * *

Sunset had been born in the shadow of the high mountains, but it was not in Equestria that she had learnt what little she knew of travelling in high, cold places; that she had learnt at the other Canterlot, or at least that was what Vice Principal Luna had tried to teach her there. She hoped that she could still remember the lessons.

"Everyone gather as much wood as you can carry," Sunset said, as they prepared to set off. "Hopefully we won't need it, but-"

"But sometimes life gives you a simple choice," Sami said. "Fire or death."

Sunset said, "Like I said, let's hope it doesn't come to that."

They gathered wood, and piled it atop the packs that they already bore loaded with their food and all other essentials. Cardin looked as much a beast of burden as a man as his back bent ever so slightly under the weight of the enormous pile of wood that he had gathered. Taiyang was almost as encumbered. Only Neo, whose aura was not activated - a situation Sunset had no plans to alter - bore nothing at all, but simply watched Torchwick with a kind of childish amusement as he struggled to master all the burdens that had been laid upon him.

Thus prepared they began to move, surmounting the grey foothills of the great mountain chain as they advanced upon the mountain itself that loomed above. The air was cold, but briskly, not debilitatingly so. No one struggled as they emerged from the woods and felt the sun full upon their faces, in light if not in heat, before they passed after all too brief a sunlit spell into the shadow of the mountain.

Soon, after not much more than an hour's walk, they came to the base of the Ravensmount itself and there, at the beginning of their ascent, they found an ancient altar, a grey block of stone marked with crimson stains and carved all about with ancient runes. A goat's skull had been set upon the altar, staring at them out of its eyesockets, and amidst the carvings Sunset thought that she could see the horned being that she had seen in her dream.

She knelt before the altar, staring at this creature with the legs and the horns of a goat. "What is this?" she murmured.

"An altar," Sami said. "There's another one on the other side, for those who enter by the Goat's Cleft."

"An altar?" Emerald repeated, her voice wary. "An altar to what?"

Sami shrugged. "The old gods?" she said. "I don't know. I didn't believe it, I just knew that every journey we would sacrifice someone to appear the powers of the mountain and the valley, and assure a safe passage."

"Sacrifice like kill people?" Emerald said.

"Yep," Sami said. "Of course, I never believed in all of that, but you're the one who told me that magic is real, so maybe there's something to it after all." She leered at Emerald. "Maybe we should draw lots."

"Don't be ridiculous," Sunset said. "We're not going to do that. I can barely believe your people did something so barbaric."

Sam's face fell. "When I saw my father lead my sister to the altar I didn't want to believe it either. And as far as I was concerned barbaric was the kindest word for it."

Sunset frowned. "I'm sorry."

"Not half as sorry as she was," Sami said. She snorted. "Not half as sorry as my father was when I slit his throat for what he'd done either, I bet."

Sunset shivered, and not from the cold. The more she learned about Sami the easier it became for her to understand how she had turned out the way she had. Human sacrifice? That was the kind of savagery that ponies had left behind in the very earliest days of prehistory: the times when the Father of Monsters had required a tribute in blood had passed with the tyrant himself, and all philosophers and historians condemned the practice. And amongst men and faunus Sunset could not recall a single instance of the practice in any part of the world save in the worst periods of rule by the bloody-handed Maidens, who had sought to be worshipped as gods and delighted in blood sacrifice. Hardly respectable company for Sami's old gods.

And yet she had seen that creature on the altar in her dream, and if it was no more than a representation of the altar then what of the monsters who had rebelled around him?

She would get no answers here, and the questions did not change her plans: to climb the mountain, but avoid passing through the valley on the other side if at all possible.

And so they began the climb.

For a while everything was fine. They made good progress up the mountainside, following a path up the rock which was wide enough and easy-seeming enough that Sunset could believe it was used by a large group of people including the very young and the very old, a whole tribe with wagons and sleds and babes in arms and all their worldly goods. To be sure, there were one or two steep inclines where Sunset could imagine that Sami's sacrificing tribe would have to manhandle their carts up or gently down to prevent them being left behind, but even those places presented little obstacle to the company, unencumbered by such things as they were. Only Neo struggled at times, and when she did it seemed child's play for Torchwick to assist her. Though there were times when they walked with a sheer incline to their right - as opposed to being hemmed in by rocks on either side as was otherwise the case - the path was so broad that there was little feeling of danger. The rock was dry, and their feet were able to get good purchase on it; what few patches of snow lay further up were exceedingly shallow, and crunched beneath their boots.

As they climbed higher, however, so too the clouds began to get her overhead, heralded by a dark wisp of cloud that was the first to appear and seemed to hover about the jagged peak as other clouds gathered around it.

Cardin made his way up towards her. "Do you think we ought to stop?" he asked, nodding his head in the direction of the clouds.

"If we stop we'll be exposed," Sunset said, for they now stood on an exposed ledge with nothing but a sheer drop onto a scree slope to the right of them. "We either push on, or turn back for shelter."

"What shelter?" Sami asked. "Those rock faces won't protect us from snow falling straight down. We should keep going, and hope the snow doesn't start until after we've crested the peak. At this pace it won't take us more than another hour."

Sunset looked at Cardin. They both nodded; Sami might be many things but she was the only one who had climbed this mountain before, and neither of them felt confident ignoring her advice.

"We press on, then," Sunset said. "Everyone, keep going."

They pressed on, climbing higher and higher, but as they climbed and as they came to a narrower part of the path - a part where Sunset thought it must have been a sore struggle to get the goods and the infirm of the tribe up or down, a part where it became precarious for more than two to dare to walk abreast - it began to snow.

It fell quickly, descending from the clouds that had gathered in such mass above their heads in a furious flurry, flakes falling in clouds that swirled on the rising winds that blew into the faces of the company and bit like icy knives, pinching them through their aura.

At first Sunset hope it would not stick, but it stuck and soon began to gather on the rock. Then she hope that it would not last long, that the rapid falling of the snow would cause the clouds to wring themselves dry and clear the skies once more, but it did not abate. First the snow rose up over the tips of their boots, and then the snow was over their ankles and their pace was slowed to a crawl as they struggled through the rising snowdrift, feet rising and falling as they were plunged again and again into the rising banks of soft, wet, shiver-inducing snow.

"Zwei?" Ruby called, her head turning to look frantically in front and behind, searching the rising snow. "Zwei? Has anyone seen Zwei?"

"We're stuck in a blizzard and you're worried about a dog?" Emerald snapped.

"He's not just a dog, he's family," Ruby yelled, her words almost lost as the wind snatched them away. "Zwei, where are you?"

Something moved under the snow, perceptible only by the movement that it caused in the snow bank above it. Zwei popped his head our, whimpering as he tried to shake the snow put of his coat.

"I know, boy, I know," Ruby said, as she reached out with her pale fingers and swept him up in her arms. She hugged him tight. "We're going to get through this, just a little further."

Unfortunately, even a little further seemed like a great distance away, the snow showed no sign of abating, in fact if anything it seemed to be constantly falling faster and faster, rising higher and higher at an ever-increasing rate. It was falling so heavily that Sunset could barely see ahead of her, let alone the peak, and she was conscious that with the path narrowing it was not safe to blunder forward, hoping for the best.

The same applied to turning back, where all the same difficulties applied to moving forward.

"Hey, kid!" Torchwick yelled. "Neo needs her aura on before she freezes to death!" Neo was on his back, her arms dangling limply over his shoulders, her lips blue.

"Okay," Cardin said, and Sunset could just make out the light on Neo's collar going out before Torchwick was holding her in front of him, whispering something to her as he massaged life back into her limbs.

Sunset summoned her pegasus powers, her phantasmal wings of burning gold rising behind her as she reached out for the magic of wind and rain, storm and lightning, cloud and sky. She felt the winds rising around her in counterpoint to the biting gales assaulting her and her companions as she stretched forth her powers into the teeth of the storm and commanded it to cease.

She bade the winds be still. She ordered the clouds to disperse. She willed the skies be clear and the snow to cease. She issued forth her power to halt the storm and scatter it to the corners of Remnant.

Wind and snow and clouds all alike refused to bend the knee before her mastery of the weather. The snow yet fell no matter how Sunset strained at them; the winds yet blew and cracked their cheeks. Sunset stretched forth her power against the storm and the storm pushed back with a yet greater power against her.

"Whatever you're doing," Jack said. "It isn't working."

It was then that Sunset heard the voices: fell voices in the air, carried on the wind and blown all around them. Two voices, both gnarled and twisted like ancient trees knotted with age, one laughing at Sunset's feeble efforts to dispel the storm, the other snarling in anger at her impertinence for even attempting it. The voices filled Sunset's ears, and as she strained in vain against the blizzard the snowstorm seemed to grow even stronger, the snow falling faster and the wind howling louder.

The clouds darkened, casting the world into a night-like shade, and a bolt of lightning descended out of the dark clouds.

Sunset threw up one hand, conjuring a shield against which the lightning bolt slammed and dispersed harmlessly. Sunset maintained the shield in place, a green dome covering the whole of the company, as a second bolt of lightning struck the mountainside above them and sent a small avalanche of snow and stone down upon them that would have buried them all if Sunset's shield had not been there to take the blow without flinching. Rock and ice alike thumped and thunder upon the shield before slouching off of it and falling down into the abyss beside their mountain path.

"What in God's name is going on here?" Jack shouted, had to shout to be heard over the howling wind.

"Was it true?" Sami demanded. "Was it true all along? Are the old gods punishing us?"

"No," Sunset said. "This is our enemy's work."

"That's bad enough, isn't it?" Emerald asked.

Sunset didn't answer. Her eyes swept up and down her companions. Aura would protect you from the most lethal consequences of the cold, but it wouldn't numb you to it any more than it numbed you to pain, and too much cold would drain your aura the same as too many blows, though it might take a little longer to get there.

But if aura was a reflection of the soul then it probably didn't fare so well in any case in such dispiriting circumstances, and all of her companions looked dispirited by the weather's turn and by the fact that it was more than mere ill-weather. Even Ruby looked as though her spirit was sagging. And she looked pale, too, even paler than usual; water must be seeping through her ripped up stockings and turning her legs to ice.

Sunset knew that they couldn't stay here. She couldn't stay here, letting their opponents pound upon her shield until it broke. The snow was falling off the shield for now but in the end it would simply gather around the shield until it broke at which point the snowfall would descend upon them. Sunset couldn't just wait for that to happen.

Not when there was something else that she could do.

"Stay here," Sunset said stupidly, as if there was anywhere else that they could go. "I mean...you're going to have to bear this for just a little longer. Keep close to the rock face, I won't be long."

"Where are you going?" Cinder asked. "What are you going to do?"

Sunset cast the glimmer wings spell upon herself, conjuring a pair of shimmering gossamer butterfly wings, gorgeous and gaudy in equal measure, appeared upon her back to carry her out of the snow. She fished the silver ring out of her pocket, the ring that would by arts black and perilous amplify the pegasus parts of her magic. "You probably don't want to know," Sunset said, as she slipped the ring onto her finger.

She felt the power - power in potential, at least - explode within her, along with an ungodly amount of anger. She had been angry already, but her temper had been muffled by the cold; now it burned like an inferno. They dared do this to her? They dared to threaten her friends? They dared to laugh through the tempest into her face?

They dared to meddle with her?

Then she would have to show them the folly of their arrogance.

"Hold on," she growled at her companions. "I won't be long."

She dropped the shield - an unfortunate necessity - as her shimmering wings, now tipped with a red that had not been there before she put on the ring, carried her beyond its reach and over the edge of the cliff into the storm.

More lightning hammered down in brilliant bolts, lighting up the darkness as the wind howled around it, and Sunset felt a fear amplified by a furious sense of possession: these were her friends, her companions, her party belonging to her and they were not for other creatures to play with! A part of her was alarmed to catch herself thinking that way, a mode of thought that she thought she'd left behind in first semester, but that same part had more important things to worry about than stray hubris right now: like getting that storm away from her friends.

She put forth her powers, stronger now, oh, so much stronger now, straining against storm and tempest and all the fury of the fell powers that directed it, and Sunset's strength began to win out. The howling winds changed direction, the clouds began to break, a patch of light broke through the darkness, the snow eased up around her.

"Yes," Sunset hissed. "Yes! Break, storm, and bow before me!"

She could feel the anger in the sputtering blizzard, a feeling of outraged pride and wrath at her impertinence. Sunset recognised those feelings well, because she was feeling the exact same things herself. The snow ceased, and the winds changed direction as the clouds tightened up away from the mountain. The world was dark around Sunset once again but at least her friends would hopefully catch sight of the sun as the powers behind the storm redirected their energies and attentions towards Sunset herself. Lightning descended from the black clouds, but Sunset simply laughed as she raced through it, dodging the falling bolts as she turned and swooped and dived. She was as swift and as nimble as any pegasus, even the celebrated Wonderbolts themselves, and no lightning could catch her even with the winds howling into her wings to try and stay her.

Sunset frowned as she turned her powers to the task of breaking this storm once and for all. It seemed weaker now, much weaker, as though the energies of one of its architects-

A bolt of purple magic erupted out of the darkness like a lance. Sunset flipped in the air, letting the bolt pass harmlessly beneath her as she rolled away. The lance of magic was followed by a creature, another of those grimm-like things that were not grimm. This one...this one had the most uncanny resemblance to depictions of Nightmare Moon from out of the storybooks: the same unusual, overly rounded shape of the head, the slender limbs, the jagged wings; she even bad bone plates where Nightmare Moon was drawn to be wearing her armour.

 _I know this world is full of doppelgangers, but isn't this getting a little ridiculous?_

Nightmare Moon - as Sunset could not help but mentally refer to her - charged towards her, wings outstretched on either side, carried forwards by the fury of the storm.

"Sunset Shimmer!" she hissed as she swept forwards.

Sunset grinned, glad of the infamy amongst her foes as she watched Nightmare Moon's charge. She used a touch of telekinesis to steady hand and ring alike as she reached for the golden ring tied to unicorn magic and placed it on her finger.

Yes, Twilight had warned against using more than one at once but Twilight wasn't here right now, and she'd already learned that her own magic wasn't string enough in the face of these creatures. And besides, as the ring of gold slipped onto her finger it felt so glorious, so glorious that surely Twilight had only advised against wearing it because she wanted to keep Sunset down and keep her from reaching her true potential. But that was for later, for now nothing mattered but victory over this anger little pest swooping towards her.

Sunset let her come, and then as Nightmare Moon rushed forward on the wind Sunset soared upwards, out of her onrushing path, getting above the creature as she passed beneath.

And as her enemy passed beneath her Sunset struck, hammering her with a beam of magic red as blood that leapt from both hands, landing down to strike Nightmare Moon in the small of the back. She shrieked in pain as she was beaten downwards by the blast, her wings flailing as she was blasted down. Sunset followed, dropping like a thunderbolt even as she effortlessly dodged all the real thunderbolts that sought to strike her down. In fact, she was able to wrench control of the storm away from they who had conjured it and redirect those same bolts of lightning to fall with thunderous crashes upon Nightmare Moon herself.

Nightmare Moon continued to shriek and roar in mingled pain and anger as she struggled to right herself in the midst of winds that were no longer just her servants now but also her opponents. Another beam of magic shot from the tip of her horn, and Sunset met it with a crimson beam of her own power.

Once more the two beams met, just as Sunset and the other dread servant of the enemy had matched power with power once before. But this time, as Sunset's crimson beam pressed downwards against the purple beam of Nightmare Moon, it was Sunset's beam that proved the stronger. Sunset's anger burned hotter than the fury of her for as her beam pushed back the magic of her enemy. Sunset laughed, and fancied that she saw Nightmare Moon's eyes widen a little with fear before the red ray struck her.

A bolt of lightning, loosed when all her concentration had been bent upon the enemy beneath her, struck her in the small of the back, tearing into her aura and, just as importantly, distracting her long enough for Nightmare Moon to take flight, casting another blast of magic at Sunset, who conjured up a shield on which he blast dispersed harmlessly, even though in the air she was forced backwards by it nonetheless.

Sunset thus briefly disoriented, Nightmare Moon flew upwards, disappearing into the midst of the storm's darkness. Sunset hovered in place, watching as the lightning strikes lit up the black sky that the overbearing clouds had made, and with her pegasus powers kept them from striking her again. Her unicorn powers she held ready, two score of lances of magic red as blood hedging her like an obedient guard in preparation for the reappearance of her foes. She heard their voices yet upon the wind, not laughing now but filled with consternation. Sunset smiled, a smile that had something of a snarl within it for she knew, even if her foe did not, that she had become the hunter now - the huntress, even. And then let Nightmare Moon beware, for she had dared to meddle with Sunset Shimmer and the company that dared to shelter beneath her protection, and for that she would answer grievously.

Sunset would suffer no harm to come to her and hers.

A blast of magic presaged the arrival of Nightmare Moon from out of the dark. Sunset rolled in mid-air out of the path of the bolt, sending a half-dozen lances shooting towards the grimm-like thing as soon as her eyes beheld her. The lances struck, and the illusion of Nightmare Moon shattered as the real Nightmare, or at least Sunset's real opponent in this battle to be specific, charged out of the storm wreathed in a shield of green against which all the rest of Sunset's lances and the lightning of the storm turned against her beat like pebbles on a wall as she rushed on, fangs bared, bent on Sunset. She struck Sunset using her shield like a battering ram, bearing her enemy back and then bursting her own shield as Sunset herself was wont to do, tossing her into the storm depths as lighting landed down all about her. Sunset recovered, her shimmering wings beating furiously to right her, and it was her turn to conjure up a shield of her own as she rushed backwards to meet Nightmare Moon once again.

She put on her last ring, the iron ring of earth pony strength and stamina. By Celestia! The power which she felt, the tightening of her muscles, the way she felt as though she would burst out of her clothes, as though she could topple this whole mountain of the Ravensmount; as though she could tear Nightmare Moon to pieces with her bare hands, and she wished to do it too.

She charged, her wings beating furiously. The shield that surrounded her was proof against Nightmare Moon's magic as she swept through a broad beam unscathed. Nightmare Moon conjured up a shield of her own, and for a moment the two barriers ground against each other like two diamond blades each endeavouring in vain to cut the other. Sunset dropped her shield and cast a dispel, disrupting the barrier of her enemy in turn as she clubbed Nightmare Moon about the face with the butt of Sol Invictus.

Sunset roared as Nightmare Moon, her head near snapped clean around, whinnied in pain. She reversed her weapon and thrust it so hard into her chest that the bony armour that protected it cracked. Sunset extended the bayonet, driving the blade forward and into this demons heart...save that the enemy turned to smoke before the blow could land and fled away into the east.

Sunset howled with outrage. "Coward!" she cried. As well might her enemy run, as well might all the servants of the enemy flee before her death, but what impertinence to deny the complete triumph that was her due! Why she would follow where that dark cloudy wisp went, even to the ends of Remnant and see it dead before her.

But that would mean abandoning Ruby and the others.

So what? Let them stay behind if they could not keep up; she had a hunt to finish.

She wasn't here to win fights, but to end the storm and safeguard her companions.

Companions? What need had she of any company? She was the most gloriously powerful being seen in this land; she was greater than any maiden, greater than Ozpin, greater than any of them. These fools of Vale had dared to abuse her, to imprison her, to treat her like a slave to serve them in the humblest and most hazardous of offices until her dying day. They had collared her like a beast, and put her in a cage for their amusement, thinking that she lacked the power to do ought but bow her head and say 'why, thank you, sir'. Well, she had power now, and no reason to be humble nor to scrape and serve. She would return to Vale and punish all those ingrates who had transgressed against her, starting with Ruby-

Ruby.

Ruby, her fingers pale with cold as she clutched her dog close to her.

Ruby, who alone had-

-betrayed her-

-had the courage to condemn what deserved to be condemned in-

-saved her life-

-Sunset's conduct.

Sunset warred against her anger for control. She was no nightmare, she was no dark alicorn, she was the leader of Team Sapphire and her friend was waiting for her.

Sunset fought for control, and as she fought she cleared away the last vestiges of the storm and brought the clear skies back upon the mountain. She wrenched the rings of silver and iron off her fingers and stuffed them back into her pockets. She felt a little calmer after she had done that, and it was easier to think clearly, albeit she was still somewhat distracted by the feeling of debilitating weakness that had replaced the sensation of unstoppable strength. As her hands trembled and her arms hung limp by her sides, Sunset hoped that the surge of anger she had experienced towards Vale - and towards Ruby - was entirely a product of dark magic, and not something that she would find ordinarily in herself if she looked hard enough.

But where had the dark magic's anger come from, if not from herself?

Sunset teleported back to the mountainside what she had left the others, and as she teleported she took off the golden ring and as she took off the ring the last of her strength left her and she collapsed to her knees in the snow.

"Sunset," Cinder said. "Are you alright?"

Sunset gasped for breath, "I'm done," she confessed. "Fortunately, so are they."

"So we could move, if we weren't still snowed in," Jack said.

"Now that it's stopped snowing it will clear up," Lyra said. "Maybe."

"We're not standing here and waiting for that in this weather," Cardin said. "Hey, Pops, come up front here with me and let's see if we can't force a path."

Taiyang's eyebrows rose. "With our bodies?"

"Sunset just stopped a whole storm," Cardin said. "How hard can this be?"

As first Cardin and then Taiyang squeezed past Sunset to take the lead, Sunsrt glanced down the company at those that were left. "Where's Emerald?"

Cinder's face was stricken with pain. "Another lightning strike dislodged more rock before you put a stop to it. Emerald...I couldn't get to her in time."

"Celestia," Sunset murmured. She could not imagine what that must have been like. In truth she could not imagine a worse death than falling, having so long to contemplate the inevitable before it happened. "Cinder, I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault," Cinder said, her voice harsh with bitterness. "It's mine."

"You can't blame-"

"I got her into this," Cinder snapped. "She never wanted to be a part of any of this, she was no huntress; she didn't want to be a hero or a villain. She didn't want to change the world, she didn't want to make her mark upon the pages of history. She was just a little sneak-thief like you can find on the streets of any city, albeit an exceptionally talented one." She sighed. "And it was that talent that led me to seek her out. I promised...I promised her food, that was all. That was all it took to make her a pawn in this war of Ozpin and Salem: to guarantee that she would never go hungry again." Cinder closer her eyes for a moment. "So who should I blame for her death, if not myself?"

"The mind that directed the lightning strike," Sunset said.

Cinder shook her head. "I can't absolve myself that easily, any more than you can so simply forgive yourself. We both know that guilt is never that simple. I got her involved, Sunset; if it weren't for me she'd still be running the streets of Alexandria. Her presence was my doing, and that means her fate is too." She was silent for a moment. "Of all the deaths that I have caused I think that hers is the one I will regret the most. Because with the others I could tell myself that if I had not done the deed some other servant of Salem would have been sent to wield the knife in my place but none other but I would have recruited Emerald. But also because...she trusted me. Right to the end, she thought that I would protect her."

"Cinder-"

"Don't try to talk me out of this, Sunset," Cinder said. "Don't try to tell me that I'm wrong. Just...leave me to my grief."

Sunset had no choice but to agree; she didn't like it, it stuck in her craw, but she had no choice in the face of Cinder's intransigence.

Right now, at least.

Meanwhile, Cardin and Taiyang were busy putting bodies to work since heads were at a loss. Taiyang was the tallest of the company, while Cardin was broader in the shoulders, and together they set about brute-forcing their way thoughts snow that, before Sunset had stopped it snowing, had risen to be waist high in places or higher still thanks to falls from higher places. At times Cardin had to burrow with his arms, shovelling snow aside to try and clear a path for the others to follow, while at other times the snow banks rose so high that it seemed the strong men must be buried for certain until, with a shout and a heave, they broke through onto the other side. And step by step they forced a pathway through the snow and blazed a traol for the rest to follow.

It was not an easy path; it would have needed a dozen or more men with spades to achieve even some semblance of that, instead there was a way forward which was passable but difficult. Cinder had to take Sunset by the arm and support her along, while Ruby kept shivering and stumbling until eventually Bon Bon swept her up in her armoured arms and bore her along like a babe in swaddling clothes, while Lyra took off her multi-coloured cloak and draped it over Ruby's shivering form.

Nevertheless, though the way was hard at least there was a way, and they followed in the rough, uneven, sometimes still as high as ankle deep path that Cardin and Taiyang had laid out for them until at last, with the last days of the sun they escaped the snow and, reaching the very top of the pass, gazed down upon eastern Sanus spread out like a painting before them.

They could not help but stop and stars, relief at their escape mingling with exhilaration at the sight of the whole world, or so it seemed, laid out in front of them for their awe, every river and field and forest yet visible on the dying light, every hamlet and village and all of it rendered beautiful by the soft orange glow that engulfed it as the light faded.

Sunset would have been awed too, had she not seen all this last night.

And had she not also caught a glimpse of what might be waiting for them below in the Goat's Cleft.

* * *

"You were defeated," Sombra said, his words laced with contempt. "By Sunset Shimmer?"

Selene winced. Her chest plate was already beginning to knit itself back together but it was a painful process. "I am not the only one," she said, with a glance towards the Storm King, who had been sharing the creation of the blizzard with her, and doing the greater share once she had begun to fight. And yet his storm had been utterly swept away by Sunset Shimmer and her power.

"I was not forced to flee," the Storm King said.

"No, you were merely rendered impotent," Selene snapped.

"Have you both grown so weak?" Sombre demanded. "Sunset Shimmer was a gnat to me."

"Then she has grown stronger by far since," Selene said. "For to me she was as Ozma reborn."

Sombra hissed in disgust. "Speak not that wretch's name in my presence." He paused. "Though you are the weakest of our company it is disturbing that you were bested so easily."

"If you wish to try, O warrior king, perhaps you will have better fortune," Selene said. Even if she was the weakest of the four, the only one amongst them who had been a great warrior prior to receiving this curse, but that didn't mean that she appreciated having the fact rammed down her throat.

"If Sunset Shimmer has grown stronger then we had best engage them together," Sombra said. "Even if Tirek will not join with us then we three should have sufficient strength to overcome our foes; for are we not the last heroes of the elder days, however twisted and malformed we are?"

"But how are we to come at them?" Selene asked. "I dare not shadow them now that they have seen my incorporeal form."

"Even to find them on the mountainside was a stroke of rare good fortune," the Storm King said.

Sombra was silent in consideration. "They have crossed the mountains, into a land where, so we are told, there is nought worthy of notice. Why? To cross the sea, and regain their comrades in the land of Mistral, perhaps. Let us cross the mountains by another way, come to the coast before them and hope to find them there."

"How will we know where they plan to cross?" Selene asked.

"Perhaps such crossing-places will be few, and far between," Sombra suggested. "And if not, then we must hope for another stroke of rare good fortune."

* * *

 _Author's Note: The Dark Regalia come from the Albinocorn's fanfic_ Sunset of Time _, one of the first fanfics I read in the MLP community._


	198. The Father of Monsters

The Father of Monsters

 _"So," Yang said. "You came all this way to tell me that it was cold and windy on top of a mountain?"_

 _Put like that, Ruby felt very small and rather foolish. So much so that she didn't feel able to protest that she had come all the way back to tell Yang other stuff as well. "I needed to see you," she said._

 _Yang sprawled out on the couch in the living room. Her luxurious locks were tied back in a ponytail, which suited her even while it looked really unusual at the same time. "You wanted to see me. There's a difference."_

 _"How do you know?"_

 _"Because you don't need me, Rubes," Yang replied. "You never did."_

 _"That's not true," Ruby insisted. "I do need you, and…and even if it is true, then so what? Isn't wanting you enough? Isn't wanting things to be the way they were enough?"_

 _Yang's smile was sad as a wind blew through the open window of the living room. "That's not the way it works, Ruby," she said. "And it never was."_

Ruby woke up with tears in her eyes.

It was still night; the middle of the night, judging by the way that the moon was still hanging so high in the sky and everyone around Ruby was fast asleep. The only person that Ruby could see awake was Cinder, on watch, standing with her back to Ruby and the camp, as still as if she had been turned to stone, the moonlight glimmering upon the glass of her bow.

Everyone else was sleeping. They had come down off the mountain today – or yesterday, depending on what day it was – and made camp on the edge of the valley called the Goat's Cleft, which would lead them out of the mountains and into the east. Sunset hadn't looked too happy about it, but she hadn't said why; or rather she'd say that she would tell them all tomorrow, once they were rested.

Once everyone else was rested. Ruby didn't feel like going back to sleep now, or even trying to. If she closed her eyes she just knew that it would be Yang's face she saw, even more than she could see it already in her mind's eye.

She wiped the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand, but more replaced them almost at once. They flowed down her cheeks and no matter how often Ruby wiped at eyes or cheeks there were always more of them; they just wouldn't stop coming. Just like the memory of Yang in her dream, her hair bound back into the biggest ponytail that Ruby had ever seen, wouldn't leave her own even if she wanted it to.

Never mind that she didn't really want it to no matter much it hurt. If it was the closest she could come to seeing her sister again then she didn't want to let it go.

A sob escaped Ruby's lips, and she couldn't sit still any longer. At this rate she was going to wake up the whole camp, and she didn't want to deal with that right now. She didn't want to deal with Sunset or her dad or their attempts to help her. They meant well, she knew that and she appreciated it; but Dad had his own problems to deal with and it was selfish to make him deal with Ruby instead of himself; and Sunset…Sunset didn't really get it. How could she? She'd never lost anyone like that, so how could she know?

She was lucky.

And so Ruby fled, running out of the camp before her sobbing or her crying could awaken anyone else, leaving a trail of rosepetals like blood dripping from a wound that would not heal as she ran away from the valley and back towards the mountain that loomed above them.

She came to a halt in the shade of a solitary cypress tree, less by choice than because what with it being dark and with her eyes flooded with unceasing tears she couldn't see where she was going as well as she'd like and she tripped over one of the tree's exposed roots and went flying flat on her face on the ground.

She lay there for a while, her head resting on her arms, her body wracked by sobs.

 _I know that that's not how it works, but that doesn't mean I don't still want you._

 _I miss you so much._

"None of us should wander alone," Cinder said. "Not in this country. You least of all."

Ruby looked up, to see Cinder Fall standing over her, one hand outstretched to help her up.

Ruby didn't take it. She could get up without Cinder's help, and she…she still wasn't sure how much she trusted Cinder. Sunset trusted her, true, but Sunset…Sunset was weird where Cinder was concerned, and always had been. Sunset could forget that Cinder was responsible for everything that had gone wrong, but Ruby couldn't; not so easily.

So she got up by herself, and said, "I can take care of myself." She reached for Crescent Rose on her back…except that she'd taken it off to sleep and it was actually back at camp. She clasped her hands behind her back and hoped that she didn't look too stupid.

"I never said you couldn't," Cinder said, her expression giving no sign that she noticed Ruby's actions. "I meant that…your disappearance in particular would grieve more…than some others."

"It's not like I'm running away," Ruby replied. "I just…shouldn't you be standing guard?"

"I woke Sunset and asked her to relieve me."

"Did you tell her why?"

"If I had she would have come out here to you herself," Cinder said. "I didn't think that was what you'd want."

"I wanted to be alone," Ruby said pointedly.

"I'm sure you did," Cinder said. "But as I said, that isn't a good idea for anyone."

Silence descended between the two of them, like one of those death-trap walls with spikes sticking out that you saw in cheesy movies; only there was no last minute escape from this death trap, instead Ruby felt impaled upon the spikes, unable to get away from Cinder even though she kind of – and more than kind of – wanted to. And the wall from which the spikes were jutting rose between them high and stout and impenetrable, preventing any words that the other might have said from reaching the other, so what was the point? There wasn't one, to Ruby's mind; she doubted that she would ever understand Cinder and she didn't think it was possible for Cinder to ever understand her and why would they want to understand each other anyway? What would they get out of it? What would she gain from understanding the person who had brought about all the things that had led to Yang's death and the break-up of her team? Who had helped to break the world the way she had? And how could someone who had done all those things understand somebody like Ruby? She sometimes thought that, as much as she tried and as much as she cared, even Sunset didn't really get her, so what chance did Cinder have?

But all the same, despite the pointlessness of attempting to communicate, Ruby couldn't leave; it was as though her feet had been stuck to the ground with ice dust.

She was trying very hard not to show it, but Cinder seemed to feel the same awkwardness that Ruby felt, the same sense of being trapped with nothing to say. "That…that's a new outfit, isn't it?" she said. "You weren't wearing that at Beacon?"

"I thought it was time for a change," Ruby said quietly.

"And you wanted to look more adult," Cinder said. "For your father? So that he'd see you as a grown woman, and not a child that he needed to take care of? The woman of the house, not the little sister. Or were you trying to look a little more like her?"

"What?" Ruby said. "I don't look anything like Yang."

"There are one or two similarities."

"So?" Ruby demanded. "Did you need a reason to change?"

"That old thing was getting a little worn out," Cinder replied. "Not to mention…filled with some unpleasant memories. I'm guessing that's another reason you wanted to change into something new."

"Stop it," Ruby snapped. "Just…just stop, okay? You don't know anything about me so…so what are you even doing here? What are you doing here? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" She sobbed, her stomach hurting so much that it almost made her want to double over on herself. Unbidden, the tears returned to her eyes as fiercely as they had flowed just a few moments before. "You…you…you ruined everything," Ruby said. "You turned Sunset into a monster, you brought the grimm and the chaos and the discord. You drove Amber insane, so that she didn't know who she could trust and ended up running to Salem for help. Everything that happened at the end of the year happened because you started it; everyone who died was killed because of you! Yang died because of you and why…why is…what are you still doing here when Yang is gone?"

"Do you think that I haven't asked myself that?" Cinder said. "Do you think that I don't ask myself that every single day?"

Ruby looked up. Cinder stood with her profile to the other girl, looking up at the broken moon in the sky above them.

"Do you honestly think," Cinder said. "That that question, and others like it, are not constantly uppermost in my mind: why am I repaid for my machinations with a second chance? Why do I deserve life, still less Sunset's affections? What am I, now that I am no longer the Fall Maiden, no longer Salem's right hand-"

"You were never the Fall Maiden," Ruby growled. "You were only ever a thief."

Cinder was silent for a moment. "Perhaps you're right," she admitted. "Hard as it is for my ego to admit it. I'm not sure whether that makes it worse or better. Probably neither. It neither helps nor hinders the question: what am I now; what do I want now?"

"I don't know," Ruby said.

"Of course you can't answer that question for me," Cinder said. "Can you answer it for yourself?"

"I know who I am," replied the blood-crowned girl. "I'm Ruby Rose."

Cinder nodded casually. "And what does Ruby Rose want?"

"I want the same thing I've always wanted," Ruby said. "I want to do the best I can."

"How vaguely laudable of you."

"What do you want me to say?" Ruby demanded. "Why do you even care?"

"Because you're right," Cinder said. "It is unfair that I'm here when others are not; others whose deaths I connived at, others who died as a result of my machinations. Others who died as a consequence of all I set in motion. I'm not sure yet what I want but I think that I have no choice but to do…the best I can in consequence of doing the worst for so long."

Ruby snorted. "You think that if you talk to me it will make everything better?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Cinder said, sounding incredulous that Ruby could actually believe that she was so naive or clueless. "But I think that, if I didn't talk to you, I might not be able to claim to be better. Not when I might be the only person here who understands what you're going through; except for your father, but you don't want to burden him unnecessarily, do you?"

"I don't need your help."

"You need help," Cinder replied. "Help that you can't get from Sunset. I can see how much it pains her to be unable to help you with this."

"So that's why you're doing this? You're helping me so that you can help Sunset?"

Cinder smirked. "Would you rather think that? Would it make it easier for you to accept my aid if you could tell yourself that I had an ulterior motive?"

Ruby was silent for a moment. "It would be easier to understand than trying to think of you as someone who cares."

Cinder chuckled. "I am not your enemy, Ruby Rose."

"Maybe not any more," Ruby replied. "But you aren't my friend."

"No," Cinder agreed. "But that doesn't mean that I don't understand you. They never found my mother's body either. We buried an empty coffin in the cemetery."

Ruby stiffened, her back straightening involuntarily. Her eyes began to dry up, and so did her throat. "Don't," she said.

"I'm not trying to…" Cinder paused for a moment. "We're not so different, you and I. I am perhaps a living father and a loving sister away from becoming a great hero, a shining light to inspire the world; and you might be the absence of those things away from being a monster fit for nightmares. Or perhaps the real difference is that I turned my back on everything my mother had fought and died for you…but you embraced it with both hands."

"I want to help people," Ruby said. "You only wanted to help yourself."

"I needed the help," Cinder said. "The point is…the point is I know what it's like to have the heart of your world ripped away from you; twice. It makes a hole, a void. An emptiness that has to be filled up with something. Nature abhors a vacuum after all."

"I don't feel as though I'm full of anything," Ruby said. "It still feels pretty empty to me."

Cinder nodded. "I didn't say that it would happen at once. But it will happen. It happened to me. My empty voids filled up with anger, and hatred; after my father died…the only two people that I loved were gone, the anger and the hate was almost all that was left."

"The only two?" Ruby asked. "You never had any friends?"

"A few, in Argus," Cinder said. "But we left them all behind when my father moved us back to Mistral. They all moved on without me, in ways that I could not."

Ruby nodded. She closed her eyes. "There are times…I want to get to Mistral, and see Jaune and Pyrrha again but there are times…there are times when I think of them there, together, and I think about how happy they are and I get so…so angry," Ruby said. "Like why do they get to be happy when everything else feels like it's falling apart?" She frowned. "And then I feel like a terrible person."

"No, just a human like the rest of us," Cinder said. "And here I thought you were some kind of alabaster statue brought to life." She paused. "Although when I allowed myself to become full of anger and hate at least it was directed towards people who deserved my hatred."

Ruby's eyebrows rose.

Cinder shifted uncomfortably. "Alright, perhaps not all of them," she admitted. "But my stepmother and stepsisters deserved all the malice that I bore them and more."

Ruby continued to stare at her.

"I will not say that I regret their deaths, or even that I was the one who murdered them," Cinder growled. "Much I will admit that I did wrong, but their deaths are nowhere near my conscience."

"And you wonder why I don't trust you."

"I know why you don't trust me: because you hold those around you to impossible standards of nobility you hold for yourself," Cinder said. "Standards that not even you can meet."

"I can," Ruby said.

Now it was Cinder's turn to raise an eyebrow. She looked very much…she looked sorry for Ruby, far sorrier than she had seemed just a moment ago in the discussion of grief and loss. It was as if she was now doubting what she had said just a moment ago, about Ruby being human after all. "Be careful of what comes in," she said eventually. "It will determine who you become, and what you want. I let the hate, the anger and the fear come in and so I became a monster, I wanted death and vengeance and the power to ensure that I could never be hurt again. Is that the path you want to walk?"

"Of course not!"

"Then let something else in instead," Cinder said. "You still-"

She was cut off as the ground began to crumble beneath their feet, splitting and cracking and bucking underneath as though there was a tremor that only the two of them could feel ripping through the earth.

"What's happening?" Ruby asked.

"I don't know," Cinder said. "Get back to camp, ru-"

Too late. The ground opened upon underneath, revealing a gaping black maw beneath the earth into which the two of them were falling, falling, falling down into the darkness.

…

They hit the ground with a solid crunch that Ruby felt through her aura, which she could tell without having to look at her scroll must have taken a pretty nasty hit. She opened her eyes, to find that it was not nearly as dark at the bottom of this pit – or whatever – as she would have expected it to be. It had been dark during the fall, so dark that she couldn't see Cinder at all and didn't expect that Cinder could see her, so dark that – since Cinder did not yell as she fell, keeping silent for some reason; perhaps she was too proud to cry out as she was falling down what felt like a bottomless pit; perhaps she was afraid that Ruby would think she was weak if she did anything as human as shout – she didn't even know if Cinder was still there or if she had hit a ledge or the hole that turned into a pair of tunnels and Cinder had fallen down a different one or…or anything.

But it wasn't so dark down here. While it had been dark further up, down here at the bottom of wherever it was they found themselves, down here there was a light; a dark purple light, faint at times and pulsing on and off, but enough light to see Cinder lying on the ground with her feet closest to Ruby.

"Cinder?" Ruby groaned. "Are you-"

"Yes," Cinder growled, cutting Ruby off as she climbed to her feet. Once more she offered a hand to Ruby, and once more Ruby refused it and scrambled upright by herself. Once more Cinder didn't comment on the snub. "Do you have your scroll with you?"

Ruby nodded, as she pulled it out of the pouch at her belt; she didn't sleep with Crescent Rose fastened to her back, but she did keep her belt on and everything within the pouches, trusting that things like her scroll were tough enough to survive her rolling onto them; while on the other hand the lumps that she felt from said pouches weren't that much different from the lumps of stones and roots and uneven ground, and certainly no worse. She pulled open her scroll, and first checked the aura management app to see that it was about what she'd expected: she was in the yellow already.

From the back of Cinder's scroll Ruby could see that she was in the same position.

Ruby scrolled to the call app, her finger racing across the transparent surface of the scroll. "No signal," she said. "You?"

Cinder's answer was to snap her scroll shut and put it away in disgust. She studied their surroundings, prompting Ruby to do likewise.

It didn't look like a natural hole in the ground, a really deep sinkhole or anything like that. First there were the pulsing purple lights, or course, but also the fact that those sickly lights were coming from thin, spike rocks or crystals or something jutting up out of the soil or emerging from out of the walls. And they weren't the only things coming out of the walls: when Ruby looked more closely she could see, not too far away and illuminated by the purple glow, what looked like a metal face, like an old-fashioned helmet with a face-mask but the man who wore that helm must have been a true giant, the size of an ursa at least. Who would have worn such a thing, and were they still buried inside their armour?

Nor was that all. The more Ruby's eyes became accustomed to the low light, the more than she could see that the giant's helm was not the only piece of armour – at least she kind of hoped that it was armour – scattered around them: helms, solid and boxy cuirasses, giant vambraces, greaves and armoured boots combined littered the ground, illuminated by the purple light from the crystalline spikes.

The masks of the helmets had faces on them, forged into the design when they were made, although Ruby didn't know why any armourer would craft a mask with an expression of pain or horror, nor why any warrior would want to have such a mask made, let alone want to wear it into battle. And yet they were all like that, these masks frozen at the forging into contortions of agony, as if their maker had wanted them to depict their masters' last moments instead of their best.

"Where are we?" Ruby asked. "Is it…is it a tomb?"

"What kind of tomb leaves those entombed within scattered about so idly, ripped to shreds," Cinder replied. "This is a mass grave after a battle. It may not even have been on purpose, time itself might have buried these men."

"Men?" Ruby said. "What kind of men could wear armour like this? These cuirasses…you've have to be…twelve feet? Sixteen? Maybe twenty feet tall to wear some of these, maybe taller. What kind of men could wear armour like that?"

"I don't know," Cinder admitted. "Nor do I really care. I'd rather not be here long enough to find the answers."

Ruby frowned. "I wonder where their weapons are?"

"Hmm?"

"There's lots of armour," Ruby said. "But no weapons. Do you really believe that they could make armour like this but they fought with their bare hands?"

"Maybe the armies took the weapons with them," Cinder said. "Left the armour to the fallen as a sign of respect. It really doesn't matter. Unless you want to stay down here."

Ruby shook her head. She looked up. The moonlight was a spotlight high up above them. Very high. "I can't make that jump."

"I wouldn't like to try climbing, with our aura levels as they are," Cinder said. "We wouldn't have many falls in us. But they must have heard the earth breaking, it won't be long until Sunset comes to get us. I'm sure it will be simple for her to teleport us out."

A noise startled both of them. It was coming from one of the tunnels leading away from the cavernous chamber into which they had plunged – the presence of those tunnels was one of the other reasons Ruby didn't believe they were in a natural hole – somewhere in the darkness beyond the reach of the purple glow from the shards of rock.

There it was again, a kind of slithering sound from somewhere in the dark.

They weren't alone down here.

 _I really, really wish that I had Crescent Rose with me right now._

 _I kinda wish that one of these…bodies had a weapon that I could use._

Cinder's bow appeared in her hand, and she turned to face the apparent source of the noise, drawing back the string as a glass arrow appeared, nocked and ready.

"Stay behind me," Cinder hissed.

Ruby looked for a weapon, searching by the light of the- of course! She technically stayed behind Cinder, or at least in the region behind her, as she rushed to the wall of the…whatever this was, and seized one of the purple rocks in both hands.

It burned at her. It was as though there was something alive within these crystals, something that, while it might not have liked her touch, was excited by it nevertheless. She could feel something squirming within the rock as she pulled at it, she could feel it warm to the touch of her hands and she guessed that if she didn't have her aura she would be in real pain right now. And yet she didn't feel her aura draining because of it, or else she would have let go. It – she didn't know of any better way to think of it, even though it couldn't be alive; it was just a rock, how could it have anything living inside it? – might not like her, but it didn't seem to want to hurt her either.

And yet she felt something almost like pain when she snapped off the glowing shard to use as a club. The glow faded almost completely, leaving only a pale, dying glimmer of light within her makeshift weapon. The stump that was all that visibly remained seemed to glow brighter in consequence, pulsing angrily at what Ruby had done.

It was weird, but she couldn't give it too much thought right now. She had more important things to worry about.

Cinder scowled. "Wherever you are, come out. I tire of waiting."

It emerged from the darkness, half bull and half snake, with serpent's fangs descending from the mouth of a bull, the hooves of a bull held before it and a snake's tail wriggling as it crawled along the ground. It was like nothing that Ruby had ever seen before, but she could have handled that if it were just another weird grimm.

But it was no grimm, it wasn't black and it had no bleached white bony plates anywhere to be seen. This thing was green, with an amber belly and horns in two shades of grey, and its eyes were yellow, not red.

This was no grimm, whatever it was, but as it advanced upon Cinder, hissing like a cobra, it was definitely hostile.

Cinder's smouldering eyes widened but she didn't hesitate to let fly with her first arrow, striking the bull-snake square in the chest. The glass arrow shattered upon its aura – it had aura too? – but it did seem to make the creature hesitate as Cinder retreated, another pair of arrows appearing on her bowstring.

The creature didn't hesitate either. It lunged at her, taking the hits of her two arrows upon its head without flinching from the damage to its aura as it ploughed into Cinder, smashing through her glass bow and slamming into her midriff, bearing her backwards with a winded exclamation of pain before it lifted her up and slammed her down into the ground. It reared up on its snake-like body, hissing and spitting as it prepared to trample her beneath its hooves.

Ruby charged, yelling as she smashed the creature across the face with her improvised club. It wasn't Crescent Rose by any means, but it gave her enough leverage to hit the thing so hard that its head was twisted around with a grunt of pain. She raised the club to hit it again, but the creature was prepared for her this time and parried her downwards stroke with its horns, grappling with her crystal weapon as it tried to wrest it out of her hands. Ruby struggled against the monster's strength as they each pulled upon the purple rock, the monster's body wriggling on top of Cinder's prone form as it strove with Ruby.

Cinder stretched out her hands and the shards of glass returned to her, forming not a bow but a pair of curved scimitar-like blades with which she stabbed upwards into the bull-snake's belly.

It's aura broke with a dark green ripple as the blades struck home, the glass burying itself inside the creature's belly. The bull-snake roared in pain, doubling over and writhing in place.

Ruby wrenched her club back from out of the monster's horns, reversed it in her grasp, and drove the pointed end into its chest.

The monster howled in pain, and this time it succeeded in wrenching the club away from Ruby, but only in its death throes as Ruby lost her grip upon the crystal shard now thick with blood as the snake-bull hybrid crawled unsteadily away from Cinder and Ruby, leaving a trail of blood behind before it collapsed a few feet away, groaning softly in pain.

After a few moments even the groans had stopped.

Ruby offered Cinder a hand up. Cinder got to her feet without taking it.

"What was that thing?" Ruby asked.

"You think I know?" Cinder replied.

"You did…used to be evil."

"Salem is the mistress of grimm," Cinder said. "Not mistress of bizarre chimeras. Wherever that thing came from it wasn't from her."

"At least it's dead now," Ruby said. "Unless there are-"

The monster roared.

Cinder whirled around to look at it. Ruby stared too as the snake-bull – a purple glow rising from it – got up onto its snakey tail once more.

A purple light suffused the monsters as the crystal shard that Ruby had driven into its chest melted into its chest, like cheese under the grill melting into a crumpet, turning to liquid before their eyes even though it was cold down here. The creature glowed with the light that had once been in the rock or…no, it couldn't be a rock since it was, y'know, melting, but whatever it was the light was filling up the monster, as its eyes turned purple and random metal parts began to sprout from its body: a ridge of glowing purple spikes running down its back and jutting out of its bull legs.

They could see the purple glow coming out of its mouth as it hissed at them.

Cinder roared in anger, her scimitars glinting purple as they caught the glow from the crystal shards as she leapt at the monster before it could leapt at her, slicing diagonally downwards with both swords in a stroke that cut deep into the creature's flesh, drawing blood and a causing more of that purple glow to issue from the wound. The creature snarled, but Cinder snarled right back at it as she drove one of her blades up through the bottom of its jaw and into the top of its head. The monster hung there, a grotesque puppet, trying to move its mouth as Cinder sliced and sliced with her free blade, cutting off both hooves and hacking at the monster's neck until its headless trunk dropped to the ground at her feet, leaving only the head stuck on her sword.

Ruby stared. "It…it didn't have any aura."

Cinder tossed the head aside. "It wasn't really alive. Not after we killed it the first time."

Ruby blinked. "You told me that nothing could bring back the dead."

"You call that coming back?" Cinder asked harshly.

"No," Ruby whispered. "No, I don't."

"And besides," Cinder said, her tone softening a little. "I'd never seen anything like this when I told you that."

There was another sound, a scuffling sound this time but unmistakably the noise of something else approaching, another possible enemy bearing down upon them.

"We can't stay here," Cinder said. "We need to move."

"But Sunset-"

"Will have to find us," Cinder snapped. "You're unarmed, and neither of us is at full aura after that fall." She breathed out firmly, as she combined her blades into a bow once more. "So long as you're alive you can win," she said. "But once you're dead you've lost for good."

Ruby nodded, albeit reluctantly. "So we run?"

"Yes," Cinder said. "We run."

And run they did, as more monsters emerged out of the dark.

* * *

Cinder turned and fired off a glass arrow at the creature – some kind of wild boar, albeit a very large-looking one – that pursued them. The arrow landed at the boar's feet, before blowing up in its face. Cinder took a degree of satisfaction from the animal's howl of pain as she turned and followed Ruby down the underground tunnel.

She didn't know where they were going, and Ruby didn't know either. At present their only objective was to stay alive; they could worry about where they were or how to find their way back later, after they had shaken off this pursuit.

Cinder growled wordlessly. She would not die down here, in this place, to these things. She might have relinquished destiny and grand ambition, she might have repented of her dreams of sovereignty and power, but that didn't mean that she was going to lie down and die in an underground warren in a valley on the edge of the eastern wilds with a name like the Goat's Cleft, run down and devoured like a helpless doe brought to bay by the hounds of the hunt by a collection of creatures sprung out of storybook and nightmare of which she had never heard before and of which the wider world knew naught. She didn't know what she was now, she didn't know where she was going, she wasn't even completely sure what she wanted, but she knew that this was not her fate.

Though she was not made to be great and terrible in equal measure, surely she had not passed through so much fire and death to meet an end so ignominious? Ruby had asked her why she was still here, when better souls than her were dead and gone; surely she had not been kept alive so far only to die in this place, at the hands of this rabble?

This rabble who _would_ kill her if they had the chance, and Ruby too. Ruby. Ruby who had no weapon; Ruby who had Sunset's love. She had to keep Ruby alive. She could never return to the camp if she did not. Ruby could go back without Cinder, but Cinder could not return without Ruby; that was the plain, unvarnished truth of it, and like or dislike came not near the fact of the matter. She saved Ruby, or she did not save herself.

So she would protect Ruby Rose. Because she was, for the moment, still Cinder Fall and no monsters of the dark and underground were going to get the best of her.

She leapt, kicking off the walls to carry her up towards the high ceiling of the earthen tunnel to kick at a little furry creature, that looked like the evil cousin of some foolish little girl's stuffed toy – in fact Cinder could swear that she had once had a stuffed toy that looked like this little monster's kindly relative, back when she had been a foolish little girl with a family that loved her – in the face as it tried to leap up onto Ruby's back. It flew into the darkness with a yelp of pain.

These things had aura, but it seemed to be very weak and easily broken by attacks that a man would have shrugged off. For that Cinder was thankful.

But there were so many of them. They crawled or ran or shambled out of the darkness, or else they burst out of the earth with fangs bared and jaws agape. Wyrms and serpentine creatures; chimeras of all descriptions – one of them an actual chimera that had tried to get between Cinder and Ruby until Cinder cut off its snake-tail – great eels that burst out of the ground to try and swallow them whole; bulls and boars and lions of a monstrous size with inky blackness in their eyes; little beasts with jaws far too big for their small statures; giant suits of armour driven by a dark red glow within them; and the dead, the shambling dead who walked amidst the monsters. Some of them were mere skeletons, all flesh having sloughed from off their bodies long ago; some of them had only just begun to decay, most bore the mark upon them of a violent death, a skull stoved in, a chest cut open, a throat slit; all of them had eyes and mouths and any other visible orifice or opening that burned with a mixture of that pulsing purple light that had illuminated the serpent-bull upon its twisted resurrection and a golden light that intertwined and danced around it; the skeletons were filled with these lights, it was all that could be seen beneath their bones, but even the less decayed dead were suffused with it, whatever it was.

 _Whatever it is? It is magic, clearly, although not magic of a sort that I have ever seen._ Cinder had never witnessed Salem wielding power such as this; no magic could bring back the dead, Salem had told her after Cinder had got down upon one knee and, in return for her faithful service, begged the Dark Mother for the return of her own mother from beyond the grave; Salem had informed her with regret in her voice that it was quite impossible.

 _It is far from impossible that she lied to me. She was not above doing so._

 _Yet I meant what I said to Ruby: you can hardly call this returning to life._ It was not at all clear that these corpses could even think for themselves, although if it was not aura they had something that allowed them to withstand Cinder's arrows and the blows of her swords, and to stand up to more such punishment than some of their more obviously monstrous brethren.

But monstrous or dead or something of both – for there were some of the creatures that seemed to have been brought back to life – they were all dangerous, especially to a huntress without a weapon and half her aura gone and another who shared one of those difficulties.

 _I will not die tonight. Not like this._ Cinder thought, as she shot a trio of arrows into a snake with the head of a chicken – a creature that did not look as comical as it sounded when it was trying to bite you.

 _I may fall, but not like this._

She turned her bow into a pair of swords with which to slice a shambling skeleton into pieces in a flurry of blows with rendered it a pile of bones from which all glow of magic surely faded. She looked behind her, to see that Ruby was some ten feet ahead, still running. Cinder made to follow her.

Something coiled around her leg, yanking Cinder off her feet before she could react, pulling her onto her side, dragging her into the dark of a side tunnel.

 _Ruby!_ Cinder thought as she scrambled to her feet, feeling the taut tug that had dragged her down and backwards easing off. She had to get to Ruby. She had to protect her. She would never be welcomed back into the company without the silver-eyed girl they loved so well. Sunset might believe that Cinder had done the best she could but there is no way Ruby's father would believe it. She had to-

"Don't worry, they're not going to kill her; not yet, at least. She's needed alive, for the moment."

Cinder's eyes widened. _That voice. It can't be._ "No," Cinder murmured. "No, this isn't possible."

"Believe it, Cinder," Phoebe declared. "I'm back."

Cinder rolled over onto her back. It couldn't be – but it was. There was no way but there she stood: Phoebe Kommenos, her stepsister, arrayed in all her gilded armour, with her spear gripped tightly in one hand and her tall tower shield upon her other arm; her eyes glowed purple and gold, but in spite of that she was yet managing to stare down at Cinder with just as much contempt as she had been want to show whenever she looked down on Cinder grubbing in the fireplace or doing some menial chore around the house.

"No," Cinder murmured.

Phoebe laughed, that high-pitched laugh that Cinder had always feared and hated in equal measure. "What's the matter, Cinder? Are you scared?"

"I was never afraid of you while you were alive," Cinder lied as she surged to her feet, reacting angrily in the hope that anger would come and give her courage. "I'm not afraid of you dead."

"Then why are your hands shaking?"

"This isn't real!" Cinder snarled. "I killed you. I killed you!"

"This seems to be a place for the dead returning, doesn't it?"

Cinder bared her teeth as she flowed into a sword stance, one blade held low and the other up high. "Then I'll just have to kill you again, won't I?"

"If you can. It's not as though you have your magic any more," Phoebe said. "You're just little Cinder Fall, my scared little stepsister who used to beg me to stop."

"Shut up!" Cinder yelled. "I don't need to be the Fall Maiden to be…" She trailed off, her eyes narrowing. "Wait, how did you know about that?"

"About what?" Phoebe asked.

"About my magic," Cinder said. "You didn't know, there's no way you could have known, did death suddenly grant you omniscience?"

Phoebe hesitated, and then disappeared before Cinder's eyes, revealing not the stepsister that Cinder had murdered…but rather the servant she had led to her death.

Emerald stood before her.

And yet she was not as she had been. Her head was not quite at the right angle relative to her neck, and more the point it was caved in just above the right temple, her neon-green hair matted and red with stiff, dry blood; metal was beginning to protrude from out of her body, little shards and scraps and spikes emerging from out of her twisted neck, from out of her legs, down her arms they formed vicious-looking spines like the claws of a mantis, it looked like metal wings were starting to sprout from out of her shoulders; and her eyes, once red-brown, now glowed with that mixture of purple and gold that Cinder had seen so often in this underground warren.

"You got me," Emerald said. "Just like I got a little carried away there."

Cinder stared at her. "Emerald? No. This is another illusion, another trick."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Because you fell," Cinder said. "I watched you fall."

Emerald popped her head back into place with an audible crick. "I did fall," she said. "You let me fall. You let me die." She raised both of her revolvers to take aim at Cinder.

Cinder took a step back. "Emerald? What are you doing?"

"You let me die," Emerald said, her voice as cold as the wind gusting through the city streets in which she'd made her home. "You took me away and you led me to my death."

Cinder closed her eyes for a moment. "Yes," she said. "Yes, I did."

"I had a life on the streets," Emerald snarled. "I wasn't rich but I was surviving!"

"I know."

"Huntsmen, magic, Maidens, relics, the grimm?" Emerald demanded. "I would never have gone near any of that if it wasn't for you! I would never have been anywhere near this place if it weren't for you!"

"I know."

"I gave up everything for you. I followed everywhere you led, even when you rebelled against Salem I followed you. I even followed you into captivity and a cage."

"I know."

"I loved you," Emerald said. "You were so strong, and so passionate; you seemed like such a mighty figure, like a god from some old story. I loved you, even though I could tell that Sunset Shimmer was…you only saw me as a pawn."

"I know."

"Stop saying that!" Emerald shrieked. "Stop saying that you know as if you understand."

"What am I supposed to say?" Cinder demanded. "Everything that you say is true. Should I deny it so that you can become even more inflamed at me? I took advantage of you, I led you into battle that was none of your concern, I involved you in a world too large for you, I knew how you felt and I either ignored it…or worse, I took advantage of your devotion to me, a devotion I had no intention of returning. I led you to your death." A ragged breath escaped her. "But Emerald, tell me…who has done this to you?"

"I did," the voice that emerged from out of the darkness was old, ancient even, a low rasp rich with years, as deep as the waters in which the leviathans swam. "With my magic, and a little touch of the Blood of Unicron, I have restored this lost child, just as I have restored all the sacrifices offered up to me by those who have passed through this valley and over the mountain beyond. She was not laid upon the altar, but she was offered up as sacrifice nonetheless."

"Who are you?" Cinder asked, her eyes attempting to penetrate the darkness to no avail.

"Does the name Grogar mean anything to you?" Grogar – Cinder presumed – asked.

"Not until now," Cinder said.

"It will to the one called Sunset Shimmer, I hope," Grogar said from out of the darkness. "Yes, I know the names of your companions. It was fascinating to observe the battle on the mountain. I recognise the magic of my home when I see it brought to bear, and Emerald was willing to answer all of my questions."

"Emerald?"

"I serve a new master now," Emerald said. "One who will not repay my service with neglect."

"Emerald tells me that the girl Ruby is well loved," Grogar declared. "That is good. Love is so easily manipulated, and for that reason she will be allowed to survive, for now. You, on the other hand, I have no need of. Emerald, child; dispose of her, and take your revenge."

"Yes, my lord."

"Is that what you want?" Cinder said. "Or is that what he's telling you to do?"

"Don't you think I deserve to kill you?"

"I want to know if you can say no."

"It…it doesn't matter," Emerald said. "I wouldn't even if I could. I see clearly now."

"And so do I," Cinder growled. "You're right: you do deserve to kill me. However, as much as I deserve death," She chuckled. "I refuse to welcome it!" She charged, her glass swords held before her, weaving patterns through the air as Emerald fired, her revolvers blazing as green as her hair as round after round left the pistol barrels. Cinder blocked the shots with her swords, furiously beating away the bullets, as she closed the distance between them.

She slashed at Emerald with one glass scimitar. Emerald blocked with both her pistols, the hook-like blades appearing beneath the barrels to try and trap her sword beneath them. Cinder lashed out with her leg, bringing up her knee to collide with Emerald's thigh and then, as she staggered with a wince of pain, bringing her other sword to cut across her exposed midriff. Emerald tried to sweep Cinder's legs out from beneath her, but Cinder leapt above the kick to deliver a kick of her own with both feet to Emerald's gut, staggering her backwards.

Cinder pursued her, thrusting one sword forward. Emerald parried with the blade beneath her pistol barrel, while with the other gun she slashed at Cinder's face at eye-level. Cinder leaned back away from the blade, only for Emerald – with a speed greater than she had enjoyed when she was alive – reverse her stroke to slash Cinder across the face with the spines jutting out of her wrist and arm. Cinder felt her aura cut away as she was forced backwards, a moment before she felt the bullet hit her in the gut and double her over with the force of the impact.

She didn't know exactly how much aura she had left but if it was more than a sliver Cinder would be very surprised. She leapt away, putting a little distance between herself and Emerald. Her glass blades fell away from her, crumbling into shards that tinkled on the ground as they descended to the earth. Emerald raised her revolvers.

"I used to think that you were destined to prevail," Emerald said. "I looked at you and I thought that you were indomitable, that you would never give up. But now? You could have been the Fall Maiden. You _were_ the Fall Maiden. You could have been the Red Queen of Vale. But now? Without your magic, what are you?"

"I'm what I've always been since the moment you met me. I'm Cinder Fall." Cinder raised one hand, and all the shards of glass from her shattered Midnight flew towards Emerald in a torrent, a storm of razor-sharp shards that flew around her like a swarm of deadly flies, ripping at her aura.

Cinder charged once more, punching Emerald in the face, kicking her in the gut as she wrenched her bladed pistols aside, throwing her by the arms across the tunnel and into the dirt wall before assailing her with shards of glass once more; Cinder pursued her, threw her down and stood over her as Midnight reformed into a bow in her hands.

She drew back the string.

BANG!

Cinder staggered backwards as her aura broke. Emerald's eyes seemed to grow a little brighter as she rose to her feet, a scowl darkening her features.

She lashed Cinder across the face with one of her pistols, knocking Cinder to the ground and drawing blood from her cheek. It hurt. It hurt more than Cinder would have expected. It had been a long time since her aura shattered. So long that she couldn't actually remember the last time.

Emerald took aim at her down the barrel.

 _Not here. Not like this._

"Wait," Grogar's voice echoed out of the dark.

Emerald's face twitched. "My lord?"

"You didn't tell me she was so spirited," Grogar said. "Or so capable. Bring her to me, that she may be forged anew." He chuckled darkly in Cinder's ear. "You belong to me now."

* * *

The company floated down the hole, surrounded by a green bubble of Sunset's magic.

Teleportation would have been slightly easier from Sunset's personal perspective, but it had the difficulty first that Sunset couldn't see the bottom of the hole that had swallowed up Ruby and Cinder, so judging where to actually teleport too would have been a little difficult, and secondly that – since it was likely, judging by the fact that they couldn't see the bottom of the hole, that it was deeper than their limited supply of rope – there would have been no way that anyone else could get down after her.

She didn't even have to look at Taiyang to know that there was no way that was going to fly with him.

It wouldn't have flown with her either if the positions had been reversed.

So she had used a combination of a shield, telekinesis, anti-gravity and pegasus control of wind to pick the entire party up in shield bubble, drift said bubble over the hole and then gently descend them downwards until they reached the ground.

It was not the easiest thing that she had ever done with magic, and if she wanted to get all of them – plus Cinder and Ruby – out of the hole again afterwards, she would need to be considered and sparing with how she used magic between now and then.

But for now, they were down here, and finding their friends was more important than worrying about the exit at the end of the line.

The shield bubbled popped as it touched the ground, and the company dropped the last foot to plant their feet upon the dirt at the bottom of this tunnel.

The dirt or the metal armour of all the dead who littered the bottom, and whose corpses were illuminated by the light coming from those purple stalactites sprouting from the earthen walls.

If it was armour. Sunset didn't know who would fashion their armour to make it look as though they were dying an agonising death.

It might just as likely be that they were the remains of people who had died an agonising death. True, Sunset didn't know of any people who were between ten and twenty feet tall and made of metal, but that didn't mean they didn't exist. The world was full of wonders, after all, and who was she to say that she had seen them all?

She just hoped that, whatever these things were, they were all dead and there weren't more of them alive and roaming around.

 _Since when do we ever get that lucky?_

Taiyang cupped his hands around his mouth. "Ruby? Ruby, can you hear me?"

There was no answer but the echoing of Taiyang's voice, bouncing off the walls and issuing forth into the dark.

Cardin rested his mace upon his shoulder. "Why would they wander off? Why not stay here, and wait to be found?"

"I don't know for sure, but maybe that thing over there had something to do with it?" Torchwick said, pointing with his cane towards the dead ophiotaurus lying half-hidden in the darkness. Sunset hadn't spotted it until now.

She walked quickly towards it, leaping over the armour or the body, whichever you wanted to call it, to reach the fallen creature. She knelt down beside it: it had been stabbed multiple times then sliced into pieces. Even if you allowed for the fact that it might have had aura in Remnant, it was still surprising that it had taken so much killing.

 _More to the point, what is an ophiotaurus doing in Remnant?_

"What is it?" Taiyang asked.

"Something that isn't where it ought to be," Sunset murmured. She shivered, and not from the cold. She had dreamed of this, when she had walked with Amber to the coast: all Equestria's monsters, here in Remnant, gathered around a creature that was half-man, half-goat. And now it seemed to be coming true.

 _Stay safe, both of you._

Bon Bon prodded one of the fallen metal bodies with the toe of her armoured boot. It clanked, if only softly. "And what do you suppose these things are?"

"I don't know, but I think Twilight would love to see it," Lyra said.

"Maybe, but I doubt that she'd actually like to be here," said Bon Bon.

"None of them would want her to be here," Lyra said. "I don't really want to be here myself."

"So…nobody knows what they are?" Jack asked, looking at the metallic creatures all around them. "Or, you know, whether there are any more of them."

"The old gods," Sami muttered.

"Will you stop with that stuff?" Jack demanded. "It's not helping."

"I know that!" Sami snapped. "But I was always told that there was something in this valley and now look at all this! Maybe there really were gods in this valley after all, just like they always said."

"Gods?" the voice issued from out of the darkness, seeming to come from all around them; a hoarse and aged voice, deep and rasping in equal measure, not echoing precisely but seeming to hang in the air after it had spoken. "No, child, those are not gods. Those are the remains of fools who strove against a god. In the emptiness above the sky they fought, and through fire and darkness they fell to the world that once was like…shooting stars. A great battle it was, fought long ago, in which the sky burned and the darkness turned to light. Long, long ago, before ever a true god came to this valley."

"Let me guess, you?" Sunset growled.

"Who are you?" Taiyang demanded, shouting at the empty air. "What have you done with Ruby?"

In response came not the deep, hoarse voice, but rather a low, growling, gurgling sound, accompanied by footsteps coming towards them.

"That…that doesn't sound like Ruby," Lyra said.

Nor was it Ruby that stepped out of the shadow. It _was_ a young girl, but younger than Ruby, maybe thirteen, although she was tall for her age. She was also a reindeer faunus, with the fading marks of tattoos inked onto her skin…and the far more obvious mark of a slit throat, sliced open from side to side. Sunset could still see where the blood had dried on the wound. There were metal…things growing out of her body, extraneous parts sprouting from out of her skin: a line of spikes emerging from her back like the spines of a fish's fin.

Her eyes were vacant, but at the same time burned with a mingled light of dark purple and burning gold.

"It can't be," Sami said as she pushed past Cardin to stand in front of this other girl. "Sunna?"

Sunna stared at Sami, and a low growl rose from her throat.

"How?" Sami said, her voice softer than Sunset had ever heard it before. "How is this possible? I saw…what's going on?"

Sunna was still, and even for a moment silent. Then she let out a high-pitched keening shriek and launched herself at Sami, the dead girl bearing the living one to the ground and pressing her hands down upon Sami's head.

"Sunna…what are you doing?" Sami gasped, as Sunna appeared to be trying to squeeze her head like a grape. "It's me…it's your sister."

Taiyang was the first to react, grabbing Sunna and bodily wrenching her off of Sami. Sunna glared at him, and backhanded him hard enough to send him flying across the earthen chamber and into the dirt wall.

As Sunna dropped to the floor, landing on her feet like a cat, Torchwick shot her in the chest with his Melodic Cudgel. The blast knocked her backwards and onto her back, sending her skidding across the ground, but in a moment she simply backflipped back onto her feet and began to charge once again at a frozen and astonished Sami.

Sunset stepped between them, her black blade flying.

With her first stroke she cut off Sunna's right arm.

With her second she drove it into the girl's belly.

Sunna growled as she began to drag herself up the blade towards Sunset.

"By the gods," Bon Bon whispered.

"Sunna," Sami moaned. "What are you doing?"

 _More to the point, when are you going to stop doing it?_

She shoved the revenant off her sword, and with her third stroke Sunset took off her head and at that she dropped, motionless, to the ground.

Sunset's hands trembled as she stared down at the fallen trunk in front of her.

"No!" Sami yelled. "That was-"

"Not your sister," Sunset said. "Not any more." She glanced back at her. "I'm sorry."

Sami didn't reply, but in her eyes there was more resentment to be seen than understanding.

"At least now we know why Ruby and Cinder didn't stick around," Cardin said.

"Yeah, because of the monsters and the zombies," Torchwick said. He shook his head. "You know, I really miss the days when I used to knock over betting shops."

Taiyang picked himself up off the ground. "How do we find Ruby down here?"

Sunset considered it for a moment. She slung her sword back over her shoulder. "Torchwick, use your cane to draw a line in the ground as we go. We'll follow it back when we find the others."

The voice from out of the darkness laughed, a deep and throaty laugh, rich with contempt. "You disappoint me, Sunset Shimmer, if you think that so simple a childish trick will avail you. If it was so easy to escape this place why would I remain here, entombed in darkness, awaiting the coming of one such as you?"

"What is he talking about?" Cardin asked.

"He's talking bull, he's playing headgames to frighten us," Sami spat.

"I'm not so sure," Sunset said, as she reached out her sense of the world magical, extending her powers out all around her as she searched for any trace of magic in the vicinity. There it was, right in front of her! Right in front of her and extending out, like a dome, engulfing the underground. They stood upon the very edge of it, a magical barrier, a prison made to hold that which dwelt within.

"Meadowbrook's Maze of Mirrors," Sunset murmured.

"Meadow-who's what?" Cardin said.

"It's a magic spell," Sunset explained. "We're standing on the edge of it now; if we go into the tunnels we will be ensnared within it just as the being talking to us now is ensnared...just as Ruby and Cinder are ensnared."

"Ensnared," Taiyang gasped. "You mean-"

"They can't find their way out, and if we go in there neither will we," Sunset said solemnly. "Unless…" _Why am I always faced with this same choice over and over and over again? Can I get no peace? Is there no respite? Must I repeat this moment of my life ad infinitum until I'm old and grey and always with my friends lives upon the line?_

 _There's no way the gods have abandoned Remnant; they're still around and they hate me personally._

 _Which wouldn't be so bad if they weren't always using those I care for the most as the instruments of my torment._

"Unless?" Taiyang demanded.

"Unless someone like Sunset Shimmer, an Equestrian mage, should break the spell," the voice from out of the shadows declared. "Only then will you be able to rescue your young friend, who has already passed so deeply into the net."

Taiyang growled. "You son of a-"

"Do not misdirect your anger," cautioned the ancient voice. "It was not I who cast this spell. Rather, the spell was cast aeons ago to keep me here, that it ensnares those who wander too deeply into my domain is a side-effect but, to be sure, a welcome one.

"Long have I waited in this valley, lurking beneath the ground, tending to my forge, breeding my creatures, sending the meanest of my servants out to collect the tribute left to me; waiting, hoping, longing for the day when one would come with the power to set me free.

"And now, at last, fate has provided. Now you are come to me, Sunset Shimmer, mage of Equestria, and now your friend has wandered into my domain: the domain of Grogar."

"Something you arranged, I'm sure," Sunset growled, because if she focussed on the fact that she was upset then she didn't have to think too hard about the fact that this was Grogar, the Father of Monsters who had terrorised Equestria ere Celestia and Luna were known in those lands. No wonder nothing had been seen or heard of him since his defeat at the hands of Gusty the Great: she'd send him here just like Equestria seemed to have everyone else they wanted rid of.

 _Ozpin has every right to be upset with us, doesn't he?_

"She yet lives," the voice said. "Though for how much longer I really cannot say. Break the spell, Sunset Shimmer; rescue your friend, and release me from my confinement."

Sunset grimaced. She ground her teeth. She wanted to yell and scream and shout. _Again!? Again and again and again? Why this every single time?_

"Sunset," Taiyang said. "Can you do it?"

"Yes," Sunset said.

"That doesn't mean that she should," Cardin said.

Taiyang rounded on him. "What are you saying? Ruby's down here somewhere!"

"And this thing, whatever it is, was sealed away for a reason," Cardin said. "Maybe we should take a minute to-"

"Ruby might not have time for us to stand around thinking it over!" Taiyang yelled.

"That doesn't mean that we should just take the risk blindly-"

"Cardin," Sunset snapped. "Ruby and Cinder are both down here and if I...if I...if I…" No. No, she couldn't just break the spell from where she was right here, she couldn't just let Grogar out to wander free and wreak the same evil on Remnant that he had wrought upon Equestria.

But she didn't have to.

 _I may not be Gusty the Great, but then it's not as if I have to be. She already did the hardest part, right? If the stories are in any way accurate then she already stripped him of most of his power. And I should be able to deal with what's left._

 _My huntress way: no sacrifices, save the life in front of me. Save Ruby and Cinder._

 _And defeat Grogar into the bargain._

 _I remember when the idea would have thrilled me._ To do what only a legend of pre-history had done before would have seemed to her so grand, not too long ago. Now...now she couldn't muster much enthusiasm for the prospect, but in a strange way she regretted the fact, as though she was burnt out by eighteen.

 _Save my friends first, then worry about my lack of enthusiasm._

"Everyone, stay here," she said. "I'm going in, I'm going to get Ruby and Cinder, we're going to defeat Grogar and then once that is done, once it is safe, I'm going to bring them back here and we can go."

Cardin frowned. "Can you do it? Are you sure?"

"Yes," Sunset lied. It wasn't a huge lie, she was about ninety percent sure. Eighty percent as a floor. But she wasn't going to tell him or anyone else that in case it made him reluctant to let her get on with it.

"And if you don't come back?" Bon Bon said. "If you can't back up all your tough talk then what about us? How are we supposed to get out without you?"

Sunset exhaled through her nostrils like a bull in the field. "I'm not leaving Ruby to die, or Cinder either."

"It's two lives-"

"You sided with Amber," Sunset snarled, her voice cold with fury. "You stood by while Professor Ozpin was murdered, you would have killed Pyrrha if you could, I'll take no lectures from you on morality!" She turned her attention away from Bon Bon, addressing all of them. "I'm doing this," she declared, her voice brooking no further argument. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Are you sure?" Taiyang demanded. "Are you sure that you can win?"

"Sir," Sunset said solemnly. "I know that I'm not Ruby's sister; I know that I'm not her best friend, or even a particularly good friend; I know that I was a terrible partner and I might not even have been a particularly good team leader but I promise you this: I will always watch out for Ruby, no matter what."

Taiyang looked into her eyes. "I believe you," he said. "But I'm still coming with you."

Sunset didn't try to dissuade. "Glad to have you, sir."

"Straight ahead?" Taiyang asked.

Sunset turned to face that way. "Straight ahead," she agreed.

And together, they plunged into the magical embrace of the Maze of Mirrors.

* * *

Ruby threw a punch at the armoured giant in front of her.

It didn't do very much. The giant – dressed like a knight out of some old storybook, with a red glow coming from within the suit of armour – didn't even seem to feel it.

Ruby backed away a step. She had always thought it was kind of ridiculous when Yang had tried to insist that she learn how to fight without Crescent Rose.

It didn't seem quite so ridiculous at this point.

She had lost Cinder some time ago, and in the dark and with all of these tunnels looking pretty much the same, she had gotten lost, turned around, and finally cornered and hemmed in by all of the things that were down here.

And at this point she was pretty sure that she had hardly any aura left at all.

She backed another step. The creatures of the underground closed in around her, hissing and snarling and leering as they bared their fangs.

There was no way out.

 _Yang, wherever you are, are you with Mom?_

 _I guess I'll find out soon, huh._

The armoured giant picked her up in one ironclad fist, slamming her into the wall as the monsters cheered and hissed triumphantly. Ruby groaned in pain as she felt her aura break, the crimson ripples running up and down her body.

The giant slammed her into the earthen wall again, making Ruby cry out in pain as her vision began to blur.

"Yang," she whispered, as the giant slammed her into the ground this time, and Ruby did not cry out in spite of the pain because she began to slip into unconsciousness. Her vision darkened, her eyes began to close as the creatures closed in.

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" the angry cry came from a distinctive voice, followed by a distinctive shot that made the armoured giant recoil with a bellow of pain.

"Yang?"

The last thing Ruby saw before the darkness claimed her was a figure wearing a bleached shell mask like some kind of grimm step between her and anger.

Her hair was burning gold.

* * *

Yang burned with fury as she set upon them. She didn't know what they were, she didn't know where they had come from, she didn't know anything about them and she didn't care; all she cared about was that they were a danger to Ruby, and that made them her enemies.

And so, her whole body ablaze with righteous wrath, she dove into their midst. It didn't matter how big their teeth were, it didn't matter what kind of weird powers they had, it didn't even matter that some of them looked like walking corpses because right now she was more than just a person, more than just a huntress, more than Yang Xiao-Long; right now she was a force of nature itself, fury incarnate, and she tore amongst these monsters like a wolf amongst the flock. And there was no shepherd nor sheepdog to stand in her way.

Ember Celica barked again and again and again as Yang drove her fists into her enemies, her arms working like pistons or piledrivers, forward and back, forward and back, bringing fire and vengeance with every blow she struck. She blew a hole in the giant's chest and a larger one out its back to lay it low, she ground skeletal bones into powder fit for Mistralian medicine, she made the monsters flee in terror of her coming and killed all those who did not run fast enough.

But run they did, for all those monsters had met in Yang Xiao-Long a greater monster than themselves by far.

In the dark she had become the nightmares' nightmare, and they ran from her, fighting with one another to escape, crushing one another in the narrow confines of the earthen tunnels, the larger creatures trampling the little ones under foot.

Until at last she stood alone, surrounded by the bodies of all the monsters she had slain.

Alone with her mother…and Ruby.

Slowly, tentatively, Yang took off her mask. Ruby was unconscious, and so couldn't see her face; she might not have taken the mask off if it had been any other way.

Mind you, the mask didn't cover her luxurious mane of hair, so it might not have made any difference either way.

She held the bone mask tucked underneath one arm, and put it down beside her as she knelt at Ruby's side, looking down at her sleeping little sister.

Gently, Yang reached out and brushed some of the hair out of Ruby's forehead.

"Do you think she'll be okay?"

Raven stood a few feet away, having watched Yang fight but not participated in the fighting – save to drive her sword into the head of a furry little creature who had turned its attention towards her. She watched Yang with her arms folded, her own mask hanging from her belt. "I think so; it doesn't look as though there was any permanent damage."

Yang closed her eyes. "Thank you, for watching out for them." At her request, Raven had kept an eye on Dad, and in keeping an eye on Dad had kept an eye on Ruby too. Yang didn't know much about what was going on with the two of them – she didn't know where they were, or why they were here – but when she had agreed to stop trying to escape, she had extracted a promise from the woman who had birthed her: that she would watch over Dad and Ruby and, if it ever looked as though one of them was in mortal danger, then she would bring Yang to their aid.

Raven had agreed, with one modification: she could only save each of them once. Yang hoped it would be enough.

Raven nodded. "I don't think I could look Summer in the eye if I did any less." She paused. "You could bring her with you, if you wish."

Yang looked up at her. "You mean…take her back?"

Raven shrugged. "She's not in any position to object at the moment." She gestured towards the portal, the tear in the fabric of space rippling crimson nearby. "Pick her up and carry her away. To safety."

"Is that what you want?"

"She's your sister," Raven said. "The choice is yours."

"Ruby?" a voice, Sunset's voice, echoed down the corridor. "RUBY?"

"We need to go," Raven said. "Is she coming?"

Yang shook her head, in spite of the temptation to do exactly as Raven had said: pick Ruby up in her arms and carry her away with her, some place where Yang could keep her safe from harm. "No," she said. "No, I couldn't do that to Dad. Or Ruby."

"You speak as though saving her life would be a cruelty to her."

 _It was for me,_ Yang thought. "She'd wither inside a cage," she whispered. She bent down, and kissed her little sister gently on the forehead. "I love you."

"It's time," Raven said.

Yang nodded as she got to her feet, picking up her helmet and putting it on in a swift, fluid motion. She knew how important it was to get out before they were found. As much as it hurt, not to be able to talk to Ruby, not to be able to see Dad again, if he found her like this…she couldn't see a way that this didn't end with one of her parents killing the other, and – no offence, Dad – her money was on Raven.

She took one last look at Ruby, feeling a little reassured to know that she wouldn't be leaving her alone for long.

 _I don't know what road you're on, Ruby; but I wish you luck, wherever it takes you._

She followed Raven into the portal, which closed behind them as though it had never been at all.

* * *

Sunset ran forward, almost stumbling over the body of a cockatrice that lay in her path. In fact, the ground ahead of her was strewn with monsters, with Ruby lying in the midst of all of them.

Sunset's heart rose into her throat, her stomach chilled, but as she got closer, leaping over the bodies of those that Ruby had despatched – she'd really done a number on them, hadn't she? – she saw that Ruby was not, as she had feared, dead; but only sleeping, or unconscious.

She must have slain all her enemies before passing out from the effort.

 _Atta girl._

"Ruby!" Taiyang cried, rushing up after Sunset. "Is she okay?"

Sunset cradled Ruby in her arms for a moment, lifting her up and holding her close, resting her head against Sunset's breast. "She's out of it," she said. "But I think she's okay. But no sign of Cinder. Cinder?"

"Thank God," Taiyang said, as he came to a halt in front of his daughter. He held out his arms, and Sunset passed Ruby to him, watching for a moment as he embraced her. "Ruby? Ruby, can you hear me?"

"…Yang," Ruby murmured.

Sunset frowned. "Sorry, Ruby," she whispered, reaching out of brush a few rogue strands of Ruby's fringe out of her forehead. "You're stuck with me instead."

Taiyang continued to cradle his sole surviving daughter - his last remaining family, unless he had living parents stashed away somewhere that Ruby never talked about - in his arms, but as he held he looked about the chamber and all the slain monsters lying around the unconscious huntress. "These...there are gunshot wounds, there's no way that Ruby could have done this; and I haven't seen Cinder carrying a gun."

Now that he mentioned it...leaving aside the fact that Ruby had never previously shown a propensity for ripping her enemies apart with her bare hands, some of these creatures did have what - on being forced to look at them - Sunset could not deny were gunshot wounds. They weren't even particularly subtle gunshot wounds, some of them had gaping holes in their chests; it was only her focus on Ruby that had allowed Sunset to miss it the first time.

 _Another huntsman, one who got trapped down here some time before we arrived and has been fighting the inhabitants of the underworld down here ever since?_

 _If that's the case then why save Ruby and then vanish before we arrived?_

It was a mystery, but one that could wait for a more leisurely moment to give it the consideration it deserved. For now, they had to find Cinder, defeat Grogar, and get out of here.

"Can you carry your daughter?" Sunset asked.

"Of course," Taiyang said, picking her up in his arms as though she weighed nothing at all. "Where do we go now?"

Sunset took a deep breath, and as she turned away from him she closed her eyes and thought about Cinder; she conjured her likeness to the forefront of her mind, she thought about the way she smelled, the way they made her feel being near them, and as she thought of all that she cast Starswirl's Spell of Seeking. When she opened her eyes a green light leapt from her hand to point down the left-hand tunnel.

"This way," she said, and led the way, trusting Taiyang to follow behind her.

 _Hold on, Cinder; just hold on._

* * *

Grogar was a faunus, or at least he looked a little like one; he was one of the more bestial-looking faunuses that Cinder had ever encountered: he had the body of a man but the legs of a goat, grey-furred and ending in a pair of cloven hooves; from his grey, curly hair emerged a pair of proud horns, long and curved like the tallest of mountain goats. His eyes were red, and glowered down at her from out of an aged face, lined and wrinkled and ancient. He sat atop a throne of bones and he watched as Emerald dragged Cinder, weakened without her aura – which had yet to return – through the darkness towards him.

The cavern into which she was brought was no mere earth, as so much of the labyrinth was, but stone, as if they had passed from beneath the valley to beneath the mountain that overlooked it. Perhaps they had, Cinder had lost all sense of direction down here.

"Cinder Fall, my lord." Emerald threw her down at Grogar's feet. Cinder grunted and winced, but she managed to get to her feet; she was still Cinder Fall, after all, and she had no intention of dying on her knees. She had yet more pride than that, she hoped.

"So," Grogar croaked as he stared at her. "You are Cinder Fall."

"Tell me something, my lord," Cinder said. "Have you enslaved Emerald's will, or did she always hate me and simply fear to show it until now?"

"Emerald is my faithful servant," Grogar said.

 _So it is control then._ "I see, my lord," Cinder said. "Then I will see you pay for it."

Emerald struck her on the back of the head, hard enough to force Cinder to her knees with a grunt of pain.

"As if you have any right to talk," Emerald spat. "After what you did to me."

 _Control, but maybe with more than a little of her subconscious as well._

"Emerald tells me that you were great, once," Grogar said. "Before you were weakened by…" he spat the word as though it were evil. "Friendship."

"That depends on how you define great," Cinder said. "If I was great, then I was terrible at the same time."

"And now you are nothing."

Cinder forced herself back onto her feet and upright. "I have never been nothing in my life," she said. "Many have tried and all have failed, and you will be no different."

Grogar laughed. "I? Make you nothing? No, Cinder Fall, you misunderstand my purposes. I will make you great once more, with the help of my Forge of Abominations."

From the darkness at the back of the cavern a light began to shine, a purple light like the stalactites that had grown out of the earth amidst the fallen giants. But it was no rock or crystal shard giving off this light, rather it was an object that looked like a hollow anvil, or since it was hollow something that was merely designed to look like an anvil but which was in fact a container for the purple liquid – or was it energy? It was hard to be sure – which swirled inside of it, moving back and forth and, as it did so, revealing that it was actually mingled with the same golden light which were mingled in Emerald's eyes.

"I found the forge amidst the ruins of a great battle," Grogar explained. "Dormant, but pulsing with energy; and, with the help of a little of my own dark magic, brought to life."

As Cinder watched, the anvil changed, transforming before her eyes as parts shifted and moved from where they were, the anvil resolving into a spidery form, which skittered across the stone floor on eight spindly metallic legs towards the throne of bones…and her.

"What news, Lord Grogar," the spider said, in a voice that was surprisingly deep for such a small creature. "Was your plan successful?"

"Not yet, but it will be," Grogar said. "She has entered the maze to find her friends, if she wishes to leave it she will have no choice but to break the spell. And when she does we will at last be free to leave this place, and make kingdoms tremble as I did of old."

Cinder could barely keep the smirk of her face. _Don't underestimate Sunset, my lord._

"And her? Will she be my vessel, to bear my anti-spark?"

"No," Grogar said. "She is not worthy of that. But she is fit to be re-forged, and she will go forth with us, and serve us now that the time of revenge is at hand."

Now Cinder did allow the smirk to appear and even to run riot across her face. "I think you'll both find the world outside this valley isn't as helpless as you might think."

"I am aware of what the outside world is," Grogar said, and Cinder guessed that Emerald was not the first he had brought back with sufficient faculties to tell him news of the wide world and its doings. "But, once the Forge finds a suitable vessel to bear its spark-"

"Then we shall become a titan mightier than anything that walks upon this Remnant of a fallen world," the Forge declared. "Nothing shall stand in our way."

"That," Sunset said. "Is not going to happen."

Sunset strode into the cavern, a pair of crimson wings as red as blood blossoming on either side of her, her eyes burning like scarlet fire. A golden ring glimmered upon her finger; Cinder could not recall seeing it before.

Emerald turned towards her, reaching for her guns. Sunset raised one hand and a beam of crimson energy struck Emerald squarely in the chest, blasting her backwards into the wall of the cavern with such a forceful impact that the stone of the roof and wall alike were completely dislodged, burying Emerald beneath a pile of rock.

Sunset gestured towards Cinder, who was yanked off her feet and pulled by an invisible hand into Sunset's arms. "Are you alright? Did they hurt you?"

"No," Cinder said. "My aura broke, but that's all."

"Thank Celestia," Sunset said. She closed her eyes for a moment, and when they opened again there was wrath burning in them. "Lord Grogar," she declared. "I had not looked to find you here. Truly, we of Equestria have used this world poorly in treating it thus as a dumping ground for all our evils."

Grogar chuckled. "Perhaps. And yet you would show scant more regard for this place by breaking the spell that prevents me from falling upon it with all my wrath."

Sunset grinned. "I have done no such thing, my lord; do you really believe that I intend to let you leave this place?"

"How can you not?" Grogar replied. "Unless you intend to remain here yourself, and your friends with you, to keep me company in my long imprisonment."

"My friends and I will all be leaving this place," Sunset declared, as Cinder - glancing behind her - noticed Ruby's father lurking near the entrance to the stony cavern, shielding a very still - probably unconscious, given that if she were dead Sunset would be displaying a lot less emotional mastery than she was now - Ruby with his body. Sunset continued, "But you, Lord Grogar, will not be leaving...alive."

Grogar rose ponderously from his throne. "What makes you think that you can threaten me, girl? I am Grogar, first Emperor of Equestria and Father of Monsters!"

"And yet where are your monsters now?" Sunset asked. "Dead, or fled in terror. Is this the army with which you would conquer Remnant?" she laughed, and to Cinder it seemed an unusually cruel laugh. "You wouldn't last a minute outside of this valley."

"Such power," the Forge said, its tone awed and enraptured in equal measure. "This…this is a vessel worthy of my greatness. This is one fit to receive the anti-spark! Let the Blood of Unicron flow through her veins and let-"

Sunset hit it with a magical blast, which made it jump through the air before landing upside down, its legs flailing uselessly in the air. It righted itself by changing its form, so that its legs were once more where they were needed to get it moving.

"You talk too much," Sunset said.

Grogar growled with anger, and twin streams of golden lightning erupted from his horns towards Sunset.

"Stay behind me," Sunset said, practically flinging Cinder behind her as she drew her sword, catching the lightning upon her black blade. It rippled and danced in front of her face but, as Cinder watched, she saw none of it actually touch Sunset's face much though the snarling, hissing, spitting lightning reached for her.

"Your powers have grown weak, my lord," Sunset said. "It is true then, that when Gusty the Great defeated you she stripped you of most of your power."

Grogar hissed. "Insolent pup! I am the Father of Monsters!"

"And I am a huntress," Sunset said. "Who will protect both her friends and the world." She kept one hand upon the hilt of her sword, but with the other she fired a beam of magic at Grogar that drove him backwards, through his throne which shattered as he struck it, and pinned him against the crumbling wall, burning him as he cried out in pain and anguish.

Cinder could not see Sunset's expression, but as she watched her friend she found that she could imagine the look that she was wearing: she had only to think of the expression that she herself had worn when she had burned down the house of her stepmother and listened to the cries of those trapped within.

The ceiling of the cavern began to rumble. Dust began to trickle down as the stones cracked and crumbled up above.

The Forge skittered backwards and forwards, left and right. "What…what are you doing?"

"Ensuring that you will not leave this place," Sunset, as the ceiling crumbled and an avalanche of stone descended, burying the Forge and the screaming Grogar beneath it.

The stone continued to descend, and earth too, dust filling in the gaps left by the great chunks of stone, until directly before Sunset there was nothing but a wall of rock and dirt and debris.

Taiyang got up, still holding Ruby; she was definitely sleeping, Cinder concluded, and felt a twinge of envy for all that she knew that Ruby had probably gone through a rough time of it and had her rest enforced upon her by some foe.

 _I couldn't protect her, in the end._

 _Emerald was telling the truth: without the power of the Fall Maiden I am not good for much._

 _And yet…_ She glanced at Sunset. The fact that, in spite of the fact that the loss of her magic had in a single bound caused her to descend from the level of a demi-god to that of a somewhat average huntress, Sunset nevertheless valued her company, her wit, her counsel and what martial skill remained to her would have given Cinder comfort. But now looking at Sunset caused her only a different sort of disquiet.

"Is it done?" Taiyang asked.

"Yes," Sunset said, in a voice that was deeper than normal and touched with lordliness, reminding Cinder a little of Salem and the air of natural authority with which she spoke and bore herself, as one born and bred and destined to command and to have commands executed by those beneath her. It was a manner that Cinder had tried to emulate, but to hear that same tone coming out of Sunset's voice sent a shiver down her spine. "Yes, it is done." She clapped her hands together as a red glow surrounded them. "It is done and the spell is broken. We are free and I shall...no. That…" Sunset trailed off. She stared down at the ring upon her finger. "And that…" Her hand trembled, both hands in fact, and although she reached out for the ring she did so with a degree of reluctance, as though she were not really willing to take it off. "That is…" She snatched the ring from off her finger and stuffed it into the pocket of her jack. "That's enough," she said, her body sagging with a sudden weariness. She looked at Cinder. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"I can already feel my aura starting to regenerate," Cinder said. "What about you?"

"Me?" Sunset said. "He didn't do anything to me."

"That's not what I meant," Cinder said softly, advancing a step towards her as she spoke. Sunset's eyes, she saw, had returned to their natural green. That reassured her, but at the same time it reinforced her sense of wrongness from a moment ago. "Since when was your magic red? Or your eyes, for that matter?"

"Not here," Sunset said softly, glancing towards Taiyang. "Not now."

Cinder's eyes narrowed. _Something you want to keep to yourself? Why, unless it's because you know that you're doing something that others would look upon unfavourably?_

 _And why would they do that unless it was an ill thing?_

"Then when?" she asked.

"Later," Sunset assured her.

"When?" Cinder pressed.

"Not here," Sunset replied. "Not...now. You're safe, Ruby's safe, an evil was defeated and no more will stalk this valley. Isn't that enough for now?"

Cinder took a deep breath. "As you say," she said. "Enough for now." Perhaps it was weak of her, to yield the ground so; perhaps she should have pressed harder; but it was only by the sufferance of Sunset Shimmer that she had any place in this company and without Sunset...without Sunset she would be truly nothing.

So she could not press too hard. She dared not. But as Sunset walked towards Taiyang and Ruby, Cinder hung back, watching her.

 _What was that, Sunset? What are you doing to yourself?_

Sunset would do anything - almost anything at all - to help those she cared about; it was perhaps her most endearing and inspiring quality; unfortunately it was also her most worrying quality, as she would not necessarily stop to ask herself if what she was doing was wise.

But that was a concern for another day; for today, as Sunset had said, they could be satisfied with the way things had turned.

 _May it always be so._

* * *

"Sunset, can we talk?"

Sunset turned away from watching the sun rise above the horizon. They had only just returned from underground and, in view of the fact that they had spent a good portion of the night tearing through tunnels when they should be resting, they had decided to rest today and push through the Goat's Cleft tomorrow. After all, it wasn't as though there was anything to trouble them in the valley with Grogar entombed.

And now Ruby - who unlike the rest of them had already slept awhile, after a fashion, wanted to talk to her.

"Hey, Ruby," Sunset said, a smile upon her face. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm okay," Ruby said. "In fact…I feel a lot better. That's kind of what I wanted to talk to you about. Can we sit?"

"Sure," Sunset said, squatting down in the grass while Ruby sat down in front of her.

"I can't…I can't talk to Dad about this," Ruby said. "But…Sunset, I didn't kill all of those monsters down there in the tunnel. They knocked me out."

Sunset nodded. "Your Dad thought as much when he pointed out the gunshot wounds. So who did kill them all? We didn't see anyone else down there, and no one sought us out. Did you get a look at your rescuer?"

"That's the thing," Ruby said. She leaned forward. "I think it was Yang. In fact I'm sure it was her. Yang saved me."

Sunset blinked. "Ruby…Yang-"

"I know that's what we all thought but what if she wasn't," Ruby said. "After all, it's not like we ever found a body. And I saw somebody with hair just like Yang's, burning just like Yang's-"

"Did she say anything to you?"

"I, uh," Ruby scratched the back of her head. "I kind of fell unconscious before she got the chance."

Sunset sighed sympathetically. "Ruby-"

"I know," Ruby said. "But I…I just know it was her, Sunset. I know, I feel it, I…I'm sure."

"Are you?" Sunset said. "Are you really sure, or do you just want it to be true?"

Ruby squirmed. "I…maybe the second one," she admitted. "But is that so bad? Cinder…Cinder said that I would have to fill up the hole she left with…with something else. And if I choose to fill that hole up with hope that she's going to come back then is that such a bad thing?"

"Maybe," Sunset said. "I know that it doesn't sound like it, but what if your hope is dashed then it will just end up hurting you more. I…I suppose it's not impossible, but…I don't see why Yang would let you think she was dead if she wasn't."

"I don't know that either," Ruby said. "But I'm sure that she has a good reason. It is possible, isn't it?"

"Like I said," Sunset replied. "It's not impossible. Perhaps the grimm carried her away to kill her later but she got away from them before they could, perhaps she got swallowed whole but survived and later blasted her way out of the belly of the beast. Perhaps…it's not impossible. I don't know how likely any of it is but it could happen. I'm not sure how she'd get here to save you from monsters, though."

"I don't know about that part either," Ruby said. "But…she's out there, Sunset, I know it."

"You hope it," Sunset corrected.

"Yeah, I hope it," Ruby said. "But isn't hope enough?"

Sunset chuckled. "Hope is a good eighty percent of what we've got on our side right now, so it'd better be."

Ruby smiled. "We've made it this far, right? And we're going to make it the rest of the way too. I hope."

Sunset nodded. "I hope so too."

And so, with hope, they faced a new day and a new phase of their journey.

* * *

In the darkness of Grogar's cavern, the stones lay heavy, still and silent.

Until, unseen by any mortal eyes, they began to stir. A rustling sound could have been heard had there been any ears to hear it. The stones could have been seen to shift had there been any eyes to see it. And had anyone been left in what remained of the cavernous chamber to observe they would have seen the stones move so much that the Forge, still in its arachnid form - but with the addition of an armoured carapace to protect the Blood of Unicron that flowed within - emerged out of the rubble and into the air.

"Such a pity," the Forge observed. "She would have made a truly excellent vessel. Her power combined with my anti-spark...such a pity."

Emerald was the next to emerge, widening the hole that the Forge had made until it was large enough for her to scramble through, even with all of her extraneous metal parts making it that much harder. Still, she managed to crawl out of the rock and rubble, and then turned to haul out the battered, burned and bruised body of Grogar.

"My lord," she said. "You're wounded."

"Although my strength is impaired, my will remains indomitable," Grogar said, though the groaning in his words proved that his strength was impaired, beyond doubt. "I, too, regret the loss of Sunset Shimmer as a vessel, just as I regret that she is our enemy...and yet, in the end, she has served her first and most important purpose: she has released us from the confines of this place." Grogar reached up, and stroked Emerald's face. "Emerald...you must serve as our strength, until a suitable vessel to be sparked is found. You must protect me, and bear the Forge upon the road. It may be that we will find another on the way to be reforged, but you...you are the one upon whom we must rely."

"Thank you, my lord," Emerald said, bowing her head. "I won't let you down."

"No," Grogar said "I have no doubt of that."

"Where shall we go, my lord?"

"Eastwards," Forge said. "We must go east, across the sea."

"Across the sea?" Emerald repeated. "Why?"

The Forge was silent for a moment. "I sense that is where we must be. I believe that you mortals might call it...premonition."

* * *

 _Author's Note: Parts of this chapter may feel a little out of left field, but they're setting up for something quite cool to be announced in the not too distant future._

 _This chapter marks a breaking point, as the next chapter will see the focus shift to Atlas for a little while to see how the various ensemble darkhorses (and Weiss) are faring there._


	199. Historic Moment

Historic Moment

Even after several months in Atlas, Blake still didn't entirely understand why Atlas – or at least the parts of it that she was becoming most familiar with – seemed to like its spaces large but largely bare. Weiss had suggested that the very fact of being able to waste so much space was, in itself, a sign of luxury. That was an alien way of thinking to Blake, having grown up between cramped White Fang encampments – and that had been true even when her parents had been running the movement – and the almost-as-overcrowded confines of Kuo Kuana, but she supposed that Weiss would know.

It still felt strange to her to have so much room you were not doing anything with. It felt a little like denying yourself luxury – the luxury of all the things you might put in or do with that space – in order to flaunt your luxury.

Still, in this particular case it was probably a good thing that the room was large and bare and mostly empty: it left a lot of room for visitors and the press.

Blake, flanked by Twilight and Weiss, stood in one corner of the large grey room, on the side of said room that faced the door. On the other side the entire wall was in fact a series of windows from floor to ceiling that looked out across the vistas of Atlas, from the streets below to the airships floating by above.

A table sat more or less in the middle of the spacious chamber, with Blake's mother standing on one side of it while General Ironwood and Councillors Cadenza and Brown stood on the other. The document, the historic treaty that they were gathered in this room to sign with the press and dignitaries and special guests in attendance, sat in the centre of the table, equidistant between the two of them.

It wasn't a perfect sight – the fact that Councillors Sleet and Camilla had both opted to sign the treaty alone in a dark room in an attempt to escape being publicly associated with it was a little troubling, while Councillor Bradley had signed from his hospital bed, having been too ill to attend today's ceremony – but in spite of the fact that not everyone in Atlas was in favour of this moment as Blake stood in the crowd and watched she felt a surge of hope like she hadn't felt since…honestly, since Sienna Khan had replaced her father as leader of the White Fang and it had felt – and Blake had been far from the only person to think this – that they might finally be on the verge of getting something done.

Hopefully the promise of _this_ moment didn't turn out to be as illusory as that had turned out to be.

Kali reached down and picked up the pen that lay on the table. She looked at it for a moment, and then looked at the crowd watching. Her eyes found Blake, and a slight smile crossed her features. The flashes of the camera apps illuminated her face as Kali took a step forward, away from the table.

"Nearly eighty years ago," she said. "The first faunus came to Menagerie hoping to build a new community, free from slavery, prejudice and oppression; a community where they could live with dignity and equality, and not be thought less than any other man. It has been a long road since then, and not without a few bumps along the way, but I consider this historic moment to be a continuation of the hopes and dreams of those first settlers, as Menagerie takes its place amongst the family of nations. On this day we stand with dignity and equality amongst our older siblings and as four kingdoms become five we vow to play our part in fostering peace, unity and security throughout the world." She stepped back, and bent over the table to place her signature upon the treaty. "We now take our place in the sun."

Blake began to applaud a split second before the rest of the crowd began – some politely, some with more enthusiasm – to do so. It had been a while since she had heard her mother speak politically like that, and she found that she appreciated it better than she had when she'd been a child. She appreciated the substance of what her mother had just done better than she'd understood things when she'd been a child, too. The treaty to which Kali Belladonna had just, on behalf of Menagerie, put her signature – her father had signed it too, back on Menagerie, although in his case this was not because he didn't want to be seen signing it but because he couldn't leave Menagerie to come to Atlas any more than the entire Atlas council could go to him – was the result of months of negotiations. Kali and Councillor Cadenza had travelled back and forth between Menagerie and Atlas – with the CCT down there was no other way to communicate but face to face – hammering out the details with Dad and with the Atlas Council before they had something that they were both willing to present to the world.

As a result of this treaty, once the signatures of all the Atlesian councillors were placed alongside those of the Belladonnas, Atlas became the first kingdom to recognise Menagerie as a sovereign kingdom in its own right, pledged to exert diplomatic pressure on the other kingdoms to follow suit, and to champion the admission of Menagerie to international bodies like the Vytal Commission, which would give Menagerie the right – or impose on them the duty, depending on how you looked at it – of hosting the Vytal Festival every ten years.

Councillor Cadenza – a baby bump clearly visible, straining slightly at her fuschia pink jacket - was speaking now, having just set her own signature upon the document. "Chieftainess Belladonna reminds us all that it was after the Great War that the first faunus settlers, freed from bondage, set sail upon a perilous journey to find a land that they could call their own, to live in freedom and enjoy their own laws. It was also in the wake of the Great War that Atlas bestowed upon the world the gift of the Cross Continental Transmit network, and the four splendid towers that anchored it, as a sign that we had renounced our former ways and wished to embrace our fellow kingdoms as friends and equals. And it is fitting that, as Chieftainess Belladonna completes the work of those first faunus, we in Atlas bestow upon our new friend and ally that same gift: a connection to the CCT. And, following the sterling work by our technical experts in re-establishing communications to Mantle and all our settlements on Solitas, I am confident that the CCT network will soon be functioning once more."

She did not say 'functioning everywhere except Vale', because that would have brought down the mood of the occasion, but it did not make it any less true. Blake was optimistic of this development and of all that might result from it but she wasn't so naïve as to be blind to the fact that Atlas's enthusiasm for building a CCT tower on Menagerie owed something to the fact that there was no enthusiasm in Vale for getting their tower repaired. Blake didn't know whether Atlas had made overtures to Vale and been rebuffed, or concluded from Valish silence that they didn't want Atlas' help – she enjoyed General Ironwood's trust in certain respects but that didn't mean he told her everything – but either way the result was the same: Atlas was looking to Menagerie now, instead of Vale. They were even funding the construction of the tower themselves – not even loaning Menagerie the money that it didn't have, just bearing the costs outright – in their eagerness to get to work.

In a similar vein, Atlas had also agreed to invest in the establishment of a Huntsman Academy on Menagerie, though it would probably be quite a modest one at first but the mere fact that Menagerie would have an academy of its own was something that Blake would have considered a pipe dream not too long ago.

A tower, an academy…Menagerie would soon have all the accoutrements of a 'real' kingdom, as it stood at last acknowledged as that which it had always been.

The treaty that her parents had negotiated was not perfect; the joint commitment to ending discrimination based on race existed only in the political declaration, which had no legal force – but on the other hand the Atlesians hadn't gotten the condemnation of the White Fang that they wanted either, only a rather watery condemnation of all forms of political violence – but it was a monumental achievement nonetheless, and just the beginning. Once the Menagerie tower was completed then further talks would begin, at a greatly expedited pace, with a focus on trade and the investment that Menagerie so badly needed. It was more than had been achieved by all of Sienna Khan's violence or, Blake had to admit, all of her parents' prior activism until five years ago.

It was a pity that it took fighting and bloodshed on a scale unseen since the end of the Faunus Revolution to bring about such a radical shift in the state of the world, but for better or worse the battle had been fought and the dead had perished and wishing that it had not been so would not give Flash Sentry back his leg, would not summon the jewels of Atlas out of their graves, would not restore Beacon Tower or bring Professor Ozpin back to life; the world had changed, and the faunus had an opportunity to improve their lot in consequence of that change. They had an obligation to their posterity to take it.

General Ironwood was the next to sign the treaty – he did not make a speech – followed by Councillors Brown and Wistia, each of them setting their names down on the front page before joining her mother for a posed photo-op behind the table, the historic treaty sitting in front of them. They stood there for perhaps a minute or two, wearing polite smiles which, in the case of General Ironwood especially, became somewhat strained as the seconds ticked by and the lights flashed from the scrolls into their faces.

Then it was time for questions from the press.

"What happens now?"

General Ironwood cleared his throat. "Chieftainess Belladonna will now return to Menagerie aboard the Atlesian cruiser _Fearless_ , accompanied by a company of unarmed CBs who will begin immediate construction of the Menagerie CCT tower."

"Unarmed? You mean they'll have no weapons with them?"

"That is what unarmed means, correct," General Ironwood said, an edge of impatience in his voice.

"Under the terms of this agreement," Councillor Cadenza said. "There will be no Altesian military presence on Menagerie. This is not an imperialist venture on our part, nor a way of establishing a fortress on foreign soil. Atlas has never deployed its armed forces within other kingdoms without their leave and express permission, and it is not about to begin now."

"But aren't the CBs military personnel?"

"That might be true, in a technical sense," Kali said. "But they will be coming to Menagerie not as soldiers but as technicians and engineers." She smiled. "The reputation of the Atlesian navy's construction specialists spreads far and wide, and I can't think of anyone better suited to help us join the Cross Continental network."

 _Nicely done, Mom,_ Blake thought. She had noticed since coming to Atlas that the Atlesians were a people whose pride sometimes crossed the line into vanity, and were far from impervious to sops to that same vanity.

"If this is an unarmed expedition why is it travelling aboard a warship?"

"Because it's a long way to Menagerie and we don't want everyone to get eaten by Nevermores before they arrive," General Ironwood said, and the hint of impatience had become clear and obvious to everyone.

"What about the White Fang? Won't the construction be in danger from attack?"

"We recognise the concerns of our Atlesian partners in that regard," Kali declared. "Which is why Menagerie has undertaken to provide security for the construction site and everyone involved in it by our own law-enforcement."

 _It's lucky that none of these people have ever been to Menagerie or you might not get away with that,_ Blake thought. Her parents didn't keep a huge number of guards, certainly they were far fewer in number than the forces available to the White Fang. If Sienna decided to destroy the nascent tower it was hard to imagine that she could be stopped. Which meant that her parents – and the Atlesians, presumably – had to have good reason for thinking that the White Fang wouldn't do just that. Perhaps she could find out what those reasons were before her mother left.

"When is the tower going to become operational?"

"That's impossible to say with certainty at this point, but we're confident that essential functions will be up and running within a year," Councillor Cadenza said.

"What about those who say that this is a waste of money that could be better spent on our own citizens?"

"I think that a great many of our own citizens are as eager to see the CCT network restored as I am, and I'm confident that the entire kingdom will see the benefits once it is operational again," Councillor Cadenza replied.

"And do you have any comment on the criticisms that Jacques Schnee has levelled at this treaty?"

"I haven't seen any specific criticism by Mister Schnee," Councillor Cadenza said. "If there are no further questions-"

"Chieftainess Belladonna, isn't it true that your daughter is a Specialist in the Atlesian military?"

"That is correct," Kali said, drawing her shoulders back just a little. "In fact she's in this room today." She gestured towards Blake, who blinked from the flashing lights of a dozen pictures of her suddenly being taken.

 _Thanks, Mom._

"And how does your daughter serving in a foreign military make you feel?"

Kali looked into Blake's eyes. She didn't glance at any of the scrolls functioning as cameras, nor at the reporter who had asked the question. She only looked at Blake. "My daughter," she said. "Blake has chosen a career which is filled with unimaginable peril, and as her mother that terrifies me. But she has also chosen a career in which she is able to help those who are most in need of aid; a path in which she brings hope to the hopeless, succour to the vulnerable, and light into darkness; and as her mother I couldn't be more proud of her for that."

Blake's ears drooped to her head as she felt her cheeks heat up in embarrassment.

That was the end of the questions, and after a few more pictures were taken of Kali shaking hands with each of the Atlesian councillors, the event broke up and all of the reporters and photographers were ushered out of the room by Atlesian androids, as the Atlesian councillors departed. Blake came to attention and saluted General Ironwood as he walked by.

"Belladonna," General Ironwood said, returning her salute and giving her a nod of acknowledgement.

Blake returned to a more casual stance as soon as he had left the room, which meant that she was not standing at attention when her mother approached her.

"I'm sorry if I embarrassed you back there," Kali said. "It wasn't my intent."

Blake's eyebrows rose. "You told the entire Kingdom of Atlas that you couldn't be more proud of me and you didn't want to embarrass me?"

"I told the truth," Kali said, as she reached out and took Blake's hands in her own. "I know that I can't claim any credit for it, after the way that your father and I abandoned you, but I'm so proud of the woman you've become. In fact, the fact that you did it on your own without our help just makes me prouder."

"I didn't do it all by myself," Blake said. "I had the help of some good friends on the way."

"And I'm very glad of that, too," Kali said. She looked at Twilight, and her tone was warm as she said, "Twilight Sparkle, it's good to see you again."

"Likewise, Chieftainess," Twilight said. "Congratulations on everything that you've accomplished."

"Thank you, Twilight," Kali said, before turning her attention to Weiss. "Forgive me, I don't believe we've been introduced."

Blake cleared her throat. "Mom, this is-"

Weiss offered a pitch-perfect curtsy. "Weiss Schnee, milady. It's an honour to meet you."

"Weiss...Schnee?" Kali repeated, unable to keep the dubiousness out of her voice even if she had been trying.

Weiss was able to pick up on that as well as Blake, clearly. "I'm not my father, Chieftainess," she said. "I was not born guilty of his crimes, nor do I share his attitudes."

Kali was silent for a moment, looking searchingly into Weiss' eyes, although what she was searching for Blake couldn't tell. "Of course," she said. "Forgive me, but...I don't know what's more strange, a Schnee standing beside my daughter or telling...well, a faunus that they're honoured to meet her."

"My father's attitude," Weiss said. "Not mine. Although...it would be naive of me to pretend that I don't understand why you feel that way. Nevertheless it _is_ an honour to meet you. Blake...has been a very good friend to me these past few months."

"We've been good friends to one another," Blake said.

"A Belladonna and a Schnee? The world might just be changing after all," Kali said, the wariness in her tone giving way to a degree of amusement. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Weiss Schnee; but, if you'll excuse me…"

"Of course," Weiss said. "We'll leave you to it. Blake."

"Goodbye, Weiss. Twilight."

"Goodbye Blake," Twilight said, as the two of them took their leave and left Blake alone with her mother.

"Weiss Schnee?"

"She's not what I thought she'd be," Blake said. "In the same way that Atlas isn't what I thought it would be. Nothing...nothing has turned out to be how I imagined them when I was in the White Fang. Back then I thought that so many people and things were as black as night, as wretched as the grimm...but that was our own darkness I was painting others in, and all the while...it took me so long to see the light."

"There's no shame in making mistakes, so long as you can learn from them in future," Kali said. "I'm just glad that you're making friends here. Speaking of which, how's Rainbow Dash? I haven't seen her since I got here."

"I haven't seen much of her myself," Blake said softly. Although they were room-mates together in Atlas Academy, Rainbow had been pretty much a stranger to her for a couple of weeks now, ever since…Blake actually didn't know what had happened because Rainbow was never around for long enough to tell her, but something had happened fairly recently – not long after graduation, although Rainbow had been acting a little strangely even before that. There'd been that incident at the party, and then she'd gone to see General Ironwood and come back…changed. "I'm a little worried about her."

Kali frowned. "Worried? How? And why?"

"I'm not quite sure," Blake admitted. "But she's not the same as she used to be. She yelled at one of her friends, and I know that I haven't known her that long but even those who have agreed that it wasn't like her to do that. She gets up and leaves the room before I do, and doesn't come back until after I've gone to bed. And that might actually make me the person who sees the most of her. She's been ghosting her friends, they never see her anymore. Some of them are quite upset about it. I'd like to help but I don't know what I should do…or if I should do anything."

"I understand," Kali said. "I…I can't tell you what to do about this. I've only spoken to her once, and anyway I'm hardly in any position to start giving you advice now. Whatever you decide to do, I'm sure you'll make the right choice. But, if you do see Rainbow Dash, will you please give her this?" She handed Blake a letter, in a slightly crumpled envelope with RAINBOW DASH scrawled across it in untidy block capitals. "It's from Gilda, I said that I'd try and deliver it."

Blake nodded. "I'll do what I can. What's it like, having a former member of the White Fang as one of Dad's guards?"

"She's not the only one," Kali said.

Blake was surprised at that, but after a moment decided that she probably should have expected it. "Does it ever worry you?"

Kali shook her head. "Whatever they were, they're loyal to your father now. He trusts them, and so do I. Not that it's something that we frequently discuss, you understand. In fact it's an unofficial rule amongst the guards not to talk about their pasts too much. It's easier for everyone that way."

"I see," Blake said. "It's sort of like that here as well. For me, anyway. Everyone Is very considerate."

"Everyone?"

"Everyone who matters," Blake clarified. "Everyone whose opinion I care about."

"I'm glad to hear it," Kali said. "Will you come and see me off?"

"Of course," Blake said, and together the two of them left the room and headed for the elevator down to the ground floor and the exit from the Council Hall. They had the elevator all to themselves. Neon blue lights flashed at intervals around the circular elevator car as it descended.

"You gave a good speech," Blake said. "I haven't heard you speak like that…for a while. I think I appreciate it more than I did then."

Kali chuckled. "That's just because you can understand all the words I use."

"No, it isn't that," Blake said. "It's that…I appreciate what you and Dad were trying to do back then more than I did at the time. I appreciate that…slow progress is still progress. I didn't get that before."

"You were a child then," Kali said. "Other faunus much older than you made the same mistake. Besides, it wasn't as if we made a lot of progress."

"You have now," Blake said. "What you've done is…incredible, and so quickly. It's…it's a great start, like I would never have imagined. Are you proud of yourself?"

Kali hesitated for a moment. "Yes," she said. "If it doesn't make me seem too conceited."

Blake shook her head. "You should be proud of yourself, and so should Dad. I…I couldn't be prouder of both of you."

Kali laughed as the elevator completed its descent, and opened up to reveal the lobby waiting for them beyond.

"Every time I come here I'm surprised that you're here for me to see you," Kali said, as the two of them walked out, heading across the crowded lobby, weaving between the stately and slow-moving androids and the harassed aides running back and forth as the pair walked towards the exit. "Doesn't General Ironwood know what to do with you?"

"I don't think General Ironwood is quite sure what to do," Blake admitted. "Once we get the CCT back online we can find out what's really going on in Mistral and Vacuo. Right now there are more rumours going around than facts."

"Are you finding wearing that uniform a little more boring than you expected?"

"This isn't actually a uniform," Blake said, one hand going reflexively to her tie. "Or at least, we're given a lot of discretion over what the uniform can be."

Although she had to admit that her outfit was heavily based on the Atlas academy students uniform, albeit with the colours changed a bit because grey wasn't really her colour while black definitely was; hence she was wearing a white shirt with a black tie, a black waistcoat and matching black trousers; she probably would have looked like she was on her way to the office if it weren't for the long white tailcoat and descended behind her almost down to her boots.

"It looks good on you," Kali said. "I like it."

Blake smiled out of one corner of her mouth. "Thanks, Mom."

The glass doors opened for them automatically and they walked down the steps towards the road, where an official car in Atlas white was waiting for them under the stewardship of an android valet, whose body – slightly more boxy than the military androids – was painted red. The robot scanned Kali's face, and nodded as it opened the door for her.

Blake climbed into the luxurious interior of the vehicle, and the door was closed behind them before the car began to move, it's hover-engine purring softly as it conveyed them through the city.

"You didn't answer my question," Kali said, leaning back in her seat and stapling her fingers. "Are you bored?"

"General Ironwood hasn't given me a job yet, but I'm keeping myself busy," Blake said. "There's always something on the job board, and if it seems like I'm always here that's because...well, the General lets me know when you're next expected in Atlas, and I make sure that I'm back for that."

"I'm glad," Kali said. "I sometimes think that even if these talks were getting nowhere it would be worth it to have an excuse to come up and see you. What kind of missions are you taking on?"

"I try and stay around Atlas when I can," Blake said "And if there's a mission in Low Town then I'll take it. They need more help than hunting down any grimm who wanders into the slums, but that's the best way that I can help them personally, so that's what I do."

Kali nodded. "Hopefully, as relations between Menagerie and Atlas improve so will the lot of those poor people, beneath Atlas and in Mantle. If we hope to start our own mining operations then we'll need people with mining experience. Do you think that they'd consider moving to Menagerie?"

"I'm sure a lot of them would, if they thought there was a livelihood waiting for them at the end," Blake replied. Mining work would always be difficult and dangerous, but it didn't have to be so dangerous or so poorly rewarded as it was in the SDCs mines.

"Are you sticking with missions that put you around faunus, because...are you having any trouble?"

"I'm sticking with missions that are local because I don't want to be too far away for too long so I can't make it back, and I often go to Low Town because somebody needs to care about those people. It's not about me, Mom; like I said, nobody that I care about has given me any problems because of what I am." Blake said, "Plus...I like being able to do a job and then come...home, for want of a better word, at the end of it. For a little while, anyway. I'm sure that the general will give me an official assignment soon, and when he does it's likely to be long term and…hectic," she settled on a word that hopefully didn't seem too alarming. "In the meantime - between the jobs off the board, I mean - I can get to know the city, spend some time with Twilight and Weiss…I came to this city to fight for what was right but I'm under no illusions. The fighting is going to come, so I'm taking advantage of the fact that it's not here yet."

"I'm glad to see you're taking a sensible attitude to these things," Kali said.

"I don't love the fight for its own sake, Mom," Blake said. "I never did. Only for what we're fighting for."

Kali nodded silently. "And how are you finding the city in the clouds?"

"It's not perfect, but where is?" Blake said. "I can see why Ilia was so enamoured with it." She frowned. "Are you sure this is going to be safe?"

Kali chuckled. "I feel perfectly safe with you here."

"Mom," Blake said earnestly. "You know what I meant. You know that Dad doesn't have enough guards to protect the construction of the tower if the White Fang decides to disrupt it."

"Your father doesn't have enough guards to protect us if the White Fang decided to move against us," Kali admitted candidly. "But they won't, and they won't disrupt the tower either."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because Sienna came to see us and told us so."

Blake boggled. "Sienna Khan…came to see you? After what happened in Vale?"

"You can't deny that she's audacious."

"That's a polite way of putting it," Blake muttered. "When was this?"

"Cadance's first visit," Kali said. "She – Sienna – was concerned about the presence of an Atlesian man of war in the harbour."

"I can't imagine she was thrilled to see an Atlesian councillor in your house either," Blake said.

"Fortunately she didn't call until after Cadance had retired to her ship," Kali said.

"Fortunately," Blake repeated. "Or she had Ilia watching the house to tell her when the councillor had gone and it was safe for her to come by."

"Also a possibility," Kali conceded. "Anyway, although she wasn't thrilled about any of this-"

"That sounds like an understatement," Blake said.

"In the end she accepted that this tower will be a good thing for all of Menagerie," Kali said. "She won't stand in its way."

Blake supposed that she could see the logic in that: it would be a hard sell to explain to the faunus in Menagerie how they were being helped by the White Fang sabotaging efforts to integrate them more closely with the rest of the world and make Menagerie more prosperous. All the same, her misgivings were not so easily dismissed. "Will the rest of the White Fang see it the same way?"

"I don't know," Kali said. "We'll just have to hope that Sienna can keep them in live even if they disagree with her."

 _And that she's more successful at containing dissent at her leadership than Dad was when she was the one stirring the pot,_ Blake thought. But there was nothing that she or her parents or anyone else could do about that; nothing except, ironically, trust in Sienna Khan to keep her grip upon the White Fang.

The car conveyed them to one of the numerous docking pads around the edge of the floating city, where the cruiser _Fearless_ was waiting, sat on the circular bay while androids and personnel loaded large, heavy-looking crates and boxes into the cargo bay.

The car door opened, exposing the two of them to the brisk air of Atlas and to the shouts of the NCOs directing the loading that filled said air as the ship made its final preparations. An officer – a major, judging by the rank insignia on his shoulders that Blake was getting better at recognising, which made him the officer commanding of a ship this size – was waiting for her.

"Chieftainess," he said. "We're almost ready to depart."

"Thank you, Major," Kali said. She turned to Blake, and embraced her. "Be careful."

Blake returned the hug. "You too, Mom."

Kali chuckled. "You're the huntress, so why do you sound as worried about me as I am about you."

"I know who's got my back," Blake said. "Who's got you and Dad's?"

Kali smiled softly. "We've got one another's." She took a step back. "Stay safe, my baby girl. I love you."

"I love you too, Mom," Blake said. She glanced at the waiting major. "Take good care of her."

"Don't worry, Specialist; the _Fearless_ always comes through and she always looks after us. Like our motto: the name says it all."

Blake nodded. "Call me," she said. "When the tower's built."

"We will," Kali promised.

Blake watched as she walked away, side by side with the ship's commanding officer, heading towards the great black form of the Atlesian man of war as it sat squat upon the docking pad like some kind of slumbering beast with its tongue hanging out and its jaw open enough to swallow the little insect-like forms that scurried around it. As Blake watched, it swallowed her mother too, as the major commanding escorted her up a personnel ramp away from the hustle and bustle around the cargo hold. Kali turned on the verge of entering the ship, and waved to Blake. Blake waved back, and then Kali entered the ship and was out of her sight.

Blake, noticing in an offhand manner that the official car that she and her mother had taken to get here had driven off at some point during their conversation, retreated a short distance into a glass-walled observation booth where anyone who wished could observe the departure of ships from the docking bay without being at risk of blowback from the mighty engines of the great vessels. And there she waited; she waited and she watched as all the final preparations were complete and all the last personnel scurried aboard as the androids attached to the docking bay itself marched or rolled away lest they be damaged by the takeoff, while Blake kept her eyes fixed upon the cruiser.

The great beast stirred to life. The engines of the _Fearless_ roared as the ship began to rise, slowly at first but with increasing speed with every moment that passed, off the docking pad. It turned, and Blake had to shield her eyes from the bright light of the engines' drive plumes so that she could see the warship begin its long journey, flying away from Atlas on a course for the far side of the world.

It only became easier to look as the ship became smaller and smaller, but Blake stayed where she was nevertheless, watching as the cruiser became little more than a dark speck upon the blue sky. Still she waited, and still she watched, until she could no longer see it at all.

"Good luck, Mom," Blake whispered, as at last she turned away and began to walk slowly back towards the towering spire of Atlas Academy.


	200. The House of Schnee

The House of Schnee

 _Four months earlier…_

Winter stood erect, back straight, one hand upon the hilt of her rapier, the other arm tucked behind her back, displaying perfect military posture.

Yet all the same she could not disguise her unease and discomfiture from Weiss as the two stood on the docking bay outside of Winter's airship.

"You don't have to tell me that you're fine with this if you're not," Winter said softly.

"I'm fine," Weiss murmured.

"If you are angry with me then I'll understand," Winter said. "I won't hold it against you."

"I'm not angry, I'm fine."

"Weiss, I'm not doing this because…you can tell me how you really feel."

"I said I'm fine!" Weiss snapped.

"Stop lying to me!" Winter yelled right back at her, taking a step towards her younger sister, her arm coming out from behind her back as she looked as though she was about to grab Weiss and shake her until the truth came out. "Who are you pretending for? I've already told you that you can tell me how you really feel about this so who are you lying for?"

"Have you considered that I might be lying for myself?" Weiss asked sharply. She turned away from Winter, and looked up to where the ruined stump of the tower was just about visible on the hills overlooking Vale; where the great tower that had once risen so high and so majestically into the clouds was now mostly rubble scattered on the ground with only a nub remaining.

"Weiss-" Winter began.

"What good would it do to say that I don't want to go back?" Weiss asked. "What good would it do to say that I don't want to go…to that house, to mother and father? What good would it do to tell you how much I hate this? None at all. It wouldn't change anything. So why should I say it?"

She felt her sister's hand upon her shoulder. "Weiss, I'm so sorry."

"Don't be," Weiss said. "It isn't your fault."

"I'm the one who's about to renege on my agreement with father, even knowing what that means to you."

"Like you said, or were about to say," Weiss said. "It's not as though you're doing this to spite me. You can't abandon your post."

"I-"

"Don't," Weiss said. "Don't say it." She closed her eyes, and sighed long and hard and deep. "Flash and Cardin are both in the hospital," she said. "Flash is going to need a prosthetic leg to walk again. Professor Ozpin's dead, the CCT is down, Beacon…Beacon's gone, at least for now. The world is not what it was a few weeks ago, still less when the year began, or when you made your bargain with father. I'd have to be the most selfish girl in the whole of Remnant to demand that you keep your word for my sake, when General Ironwood and Atlas need you." She snorted. "I'm sure that there are some people who think I'm precisely that selfish, but I have absolutely no intention of living down to their expectations of me."

Winter spun her around forcefully, turning Weiss in place until she was facing her elder sister, who got down on one knee and embraced Weiss with both arms, squeezing her tight. "Thank you," she said. "For understanding. I would have understood if you didn't, but I'm glad you do."

"I _am_ a huntress in training," Weiss reminded her. "The greater good of the world comes before our personal desires." She hesitated. "Or at least I was a huntress in training. I doubt that I'll be allowed to continue my studies in Atlas."

"I'm afraid not," Winter said. "Once you go home…Weiss, will you promise me something?"

"That depends," Weiss said. "What is it?"

Winter stood up. "Don't let father shut you away in that house," she said. "Don't forget that you're not alone. Don't let father make you forget. He won't keep you a prisoner, but he might like you to think that you are. To convince yourself of it. Don't."

Weiss smiled, only a little but nevertheless the corner of her lip turned up. "That's it? I thought you might ask me to do something arduous, not something that I was planning on doing anyway."

"I'm glad to hear it," Winter said. "I only wished to be sure."

"Believe me," Weiss said. "I have absolutely no intention of simply wasting away in that house."

 _Even if Atlesian socialite is the only role left to me, it's still better than becoming a ghost in the halls of that enormous mansion._

 _A ghost like mother._

 _Anything would be better than that._

* * *

 _Present..._

Weiss wiped her hands with a paper napkin. "That was really nice," she declared. "Where did you find this place, Twilight?" she asked, in reference to the delightfully old-fashioned bijou tea shop where they had gone for lunch after the ceremony finished. Twilight's friend Rarity had joined them on the way, and now they sat at a table just outside the café, finishing off their drinks as the traffic of the street – foot and road – passed swiftly by them.

"It's convenient for where I work," Twilight said. "Where I usually work, anyway."

"Where you belong, darling," Rarity said, holding up her tea-cup in a slightly affected way, with her pinky finger sticking out.

"Where I belong?" Twilight repeated. "Where I do good work, sure, I'll accept that? But belong…I'm not so sure any more."

"Twilight Sparkle," Rarity said, with mock sternness in her voice. "You can't honestly mean to tell me that you miss being out in the…the _field_!"

"I got to stand alongside Rainbow Dash, and Applejack when she was there," Twilight said. "When I put on my armour I got to feel as though I wasn't helpless and in need of protection. Don't tell me that you don't feel the same way, or why have you enrolled in remedial classes."

"That," Rarity declared. "Is completely different."

"Is it?" Twilight asked sceptically. "You mean you're not thinking of applying to Atlas next year under the new delayed entry program?"

"Oh of course I am, Twilight, why else would I be taking refresher classes in aura and combat technique?" Rarity said. "But the fact remains that the circumstances are quite different."

"How?"

"Oh, darling, must you make me demean myself by spelling it out?" Rarity asked. "Because I don't have a big brain the size of yours, now are you happy?" She sipped from her teacup. "It's not that I want to become a huntress now any more than I did when we graduated from Canterlot; don't mistake me, this isn't some kind of delayed realisation on my part of what I want to do with my life. This isn't destiny calling to tell me that it made an error the first time. It's just that…what with that dreadful battle and Atlas being so short of huntsmen it seems…can I really justify standing on the sidelines while the world is in peril? I can't protect Sweetie Belle by making dresses, as much as I wish that I could. Since I have a sword to offer Atlas it feels as though I ought to offer it. But you, Twilight Sparkle, you have a mind as fine as any and better than most, and I for one am in full agreement with those who think that you serve Atlas best by making use of it, not by stomping around in some tin can."

"Evidently a lot of important people agree with you," Twilight said, with a slight hint of a huff in her voice. "But I…I wish that…I wish that you'd reconsider that delayed entry to Atlas. You know that you aren't made for this like Rainbow Dash, or even like Applejack."

"I know that Applejack doesn't want to be a huntress any more than I do, but does it because she feels she ought to."

"Yes, but you're not like Applejack," Twilight said softly. "It's bad enough worrying about her and Rainbow Dash – and now Blake, too – without worrying about you out in the field while I'm sitting in the lab."

The two of them stared at one another for a moment, before they both broke out into laughter.

Weiss blinked. "Is something funny?" she asked, trying and failing to get it on her own.

"Not really," Twilight admitted. "It's just the irony that…I've spent so long thinking that Rarity and the others try to smother me, but given the chance I just want to smother Rarity the exact same way."

Rarity smiled. "That I'm just like you and you're just like me, darling. Truer words were never spoken."

"At least you're both getting the chance to do something for Atlas," Weiss said, failing rather miserably at keeping the sense of resentment towards the pair of them for their good fortune out of her voice. "You're both very lucky in that respect."

Their faces fell. Twilight especially looked ashamed of herself. "Weiss," she said softly, reaching out across the wooden table for Weiss' hand. "I'm so sorry, we shouldn't have brought the subject up-"

"No, I'm sorry," Weiss said, shaking her head vigorously. "My feeling…I had no right to take it out on you, especially when you've been so nice to me, inviting me out, and making me this dress-"

"Since you don't need to wear anything especially well suited to wandering the outdoors," Rarity said. "You might as well look fabulous, darling. It isn't as though you don't have the looks for it."

She had dressed Weiss in a silver-white cocktail dress that reached down to the floor but had a split skirt for ease of movement; a blue sash was tied around her waist and a silver-white shrug with long sleeves that fastened at the neck with a trio of sapphires dangling from the collar, matching her earrings.

"As I said, I appreciate you running this out for me," Weiss said. "And if you are looking to improve your sword skills for Atlas…it's an épée you fight with, isn't it?"

Rarity nodded. "I can shoot passably well with a bow but the épée was my main weapon at Canterlot. I've tried to keep in practice, but you know how it is."

Weiss did, in fact, know how it was; although in her case it was not her fencing skills that she had allowed to atrophy but her singing voice. She hadn't sung in public for a year, after all, and she had no idea if she would be able to sing again if she tried. It was just how it went with these things: you chose something that was important to you and then you let other things fall by the wayside in the pursuit of that goal…until life intervened and suddenly you found that those skills you'd thought you wouldn't use might actually come in handy after all. "You know, I'm a fair hand with a sword," she said, with the modesty appropriate to a true Schnee. "If you need a sparring partner I'd be happy to show you a few moves."

Rarity's eyebrows rose. "You would…that's extraordinarily generous of you, Miss Sch- I mean, Weiss. I couldn't, I mean I wouldn't want to impose upon-"

"It's not imposition, really," Weiss said. _Anything to get out of the house._ "I'd be happy to, if you'd like."

"Then I would be honoured to accept," Rarity declared.

"Then it's settled," Weiss said. She might not be able to fight for humanity as a huntress but she could at least make sure that Rarity was a little better prepared to do so in her stead than she might have been otherwise. "Are any of your other friends considering delayed applications to Atlas, too?"

"I hope not," Twilight said. "I really can't see Fluttershy or Pinkie Pie as huntresses."

"That I'm just like you," Rarity whispered, a smile playing across her features.

"Okay," Twilight said. "I know, I know; but honestly, can you see it?"

"No," Rarity admitted. "And as far as I'm aware neither Fluttershy or Pinkie is planning to take that step. Although Maud has; in fact she's already back in service."

"She is?" Twilight asked. "I didn't know that; how do you know?"

"Applejack told me," Rarity answered. "Apparently they ran into each other in Atlas; she's filling in the missing space on Trixie's team."

"Who's Maud?" inquired Weiss..

"Our friend Pinkie's older sister," Twilight explained. "She was on a team with Rainbow Dash and Applejack in their first year at Atlas, but she dropped out. She was going to apply to study geology at Everton."

"Apparently she also thinks that Atlas needs huntresses right now more than it needs geologists," Rarity said.

"So many students being graduated early," Weiss said. "And people who passed combat school but didn't apply for or pass the exams for Atlas being encouraged to re-apply, or apply later than normal. Twilight, is all of this a bad sign?"

"You're asking me?" asked Twilight, raising an eyebrow.

"You're the one on the inside," Weiss said. "You work for the military, and everyone knows that General Ironwood thinks a lot of you."

"That doesn't mean I'm privy to all of his secrets," Twilight replied, sounding a little more embarrassed than the situation warranted. "But…it isn't a good sign, obviously, but I don't think it's a terrible sign either. We won the Battle of Vale, but we lost a lot of good people in the process, and the general says that our enemies will be watching to see if we look weakened by it, which is why we have to make ourselves look strong; which is why we need to get more huntsmen out in the field, amongst other things. But it's not like we're cutting corners. Everyone like Rarity who applies late has to have graduated from a combat school, and they'll get put through the same academy programme as any aspiring huntsman or huntress would. And as for the huntsmen who fought at Vale, don't you think they've earned their accelerated graduation?" Twilight asked, but winced once she realised what she'd just said. "I'm sorry, Weiss, I'm so sorry that I-"

"It's fine," Weiss insisted. "My father wouldn't allow me to take the oath even if General Ironwood wanted to let me take it. And considering that all I did during the battle was get my team-mates wounded I'm not sure that I deserve it as much as some others who fought in that battle."

"You still fought," Twilight said. "It doesn't matter if you made mistakes, or if you didn't do anything to make you famous across the kingdom; you were there and you fought and that should be all that matters."

Weiss smiled sadly. "That's very kind of you to say, but my father doesn't see it the same way that you do." Her eyes were drawn upwards to the blue sky up above; a sky that was disturbed by the stately passage of a pair of Atlesian cruisers flying overhead, escorted by a quartet of Skyrays flying on either side of the great ships like minnows swimming alongside a school of whales. "Are there more of those ships in the sky than there used to be?" she asked. "Or did I just not notice them before?"

"There are a few more," Twilight said. "When the CCT went down a lot of our ships scattered abroad decided to make their way back home; and now, until the CCT comes back up I think a lot of people don't want to send them out again; at least not any further than Solitas."

"So…this is it?" Weiss said. "The whole fleet is here and we've abandoned the rest of Remnant?"

"I don't know," Twilight admitted. "Detailed deployments…what we know about our deployment with comms down…that's a little above my paygrade. I'm not sure that all the units out in Anima and Vacuo had a ship to get home in, and maybe they didn't all come back. But I can see why General Ironwood is reluctant to send any forces out so far that he can't talk to them."

"I suppose that for the sake of Canterlot and others like it we should be grateful that you were able to restore communications across Atlas," Rarity said.

"I was just one of a large team working on that," Twilight said, her face flushing with embarrassment. "It was Science & Research's top priority once the fleet came home. And I'm sure the CCT will be back up soon, thanks to the agreement with Blake's parents on Menagerie."

"Yes, how was the ceremony?" Rarity asked.

"It was…nice," Weiss stated evenly, possibly forcibly. "Everyone had an appropriate sense of the occasion."

"I do so hope it will all work out," Rarity said. "I've heard that Menagerie fashions are just fascinating; as I understand it they started with the Mistralian fashion of the time but have diverged since in a way that makes a marvellous study of evolution in style; unfortunately it's so hard to see for oneself…until now, at least."

"I just hope that enthusiasm for the alliance with Atlas continues to hold until the tower is complete," Twilight said.

"It's not Menagerie that I'd worry about," Weiss said. "Who wouldn't want their home to be connected to the CCT, not to mention all the advantages that partnering with Atlas will give them? It's Atlas, not Menagerie, that concerns me. My father can't be the only one who isn't happy about this."

"But the council voted to sign the treaty," Rarity said.

"What the council decides can always be undone later," Weiss countered.

"But why?" Rarity asked. "What is there to object to in re-establishing the CCT network? Anyone would think these people enjoyed being cut off from the rest of the world."

"Perhaps some of them do," Weiss murmured. "For the rest…" She paused for a moment, arranging her thoughts in order. "It feels as though the world changed when Beacon tower fell. Except nobody knows what it changed into yet, not even the world itself; everything is in flux, and who can say when it will settle into a solid state again like it did after the Faunus Rights Revolution? Until it settles there are all sorts of people who think they can affect how the world settles, maybe even remake the broken world in their own image. And they are hostile to any rival vision that threatens their own."

"Is that what your father wants?" Twilight asked. "To remake the world in his own image?"

Weiss shook her head. "My father has always been too pragmatically focussed on his bottom line to waste resources pursuing grand ambitions. But…I don't know, I have a lot of time to think at home. Maybe I have too much time."

"I don't think so," Twilight said. "It sounds frighteningly plausible, a lot like the way the end of the Great War heralded the collapse of the pre-war order, but a new order didn't establish itself fully until the end of the Faunus Rights Revolution. Until then, like now, everything was – as you say – in flux; ideas battled against one another as much as armies did. Perhaps that's what's happening here."

"If I had to ascribe any one idea to my father," Weiss said. "I think that he would like to see the Vale tower rebuilt and with it the old order restored, everything as it was. That world was very good to him, after all; and to my family, I must admit. This uncertainty that we live in now…it's not so good."

"Uncertainty isn't good for anybody," Rarity said. "But the burnt toast cannot be put back in the cup once you've poured it down the drain."

Weiss blinked. "How do you pour burnt toast?"

"My little sister is a cook unique in her…whatever the opposite of talent is," Rarity explained. "And I say that with all due love and affection, you understand."

"What about you, Weiss?" Twilight asked. "What kind of world would you like to see?"

"I?" Weiss repeated, having to think about a question she hadn't really considered until this point. "I…as I said, the old world was good to my family, and I had my life planned out in it: graduate from Beacon, become a huntress, restore the honour of the Schnee name in a field wholly unconnected with my father and his…conduct. But now…Rarity, you're quite right, we can't go back to the way things were no matter how much we all might want to. That being said, if you were to ask me what I'd like to see the world become? I don't know. I've had a lot of time to think but I haven't thought about that. I suppose I think we're on the right track now: reaching out to Menagerie. We can't hide away from the world, or huddle behind our ships and armies. We shouldn't let the fact that the world is changing change our sense of obligation towards the kingdoms."

"I don't think it will," Twilight said. "I mean, I hope it won't. Cadance and General Ironwood won't let that happen."

 _So long as they're around,_ Weiss thought, but did not say because it would have been a very gloomy thing to say. "I just hope," she began to summize. "That when the tower rises, all of these ships that we can see overhead depart again, for places that need them more." She smiled. "Replaced with all the new ones that are being built, isn't that right, Twilight?"

Twilight laughed nervously. "You know that I can't talk about stuff like that. It's all strictly classified."

"Everyone knows that they're building new warships at Park Place," Weiss said.

"Everyone hasn't had it confirmed officially," Twilight corrected. "And so I can neither confirm…nor deny. All I will say is don't worry, the Kingdom is in safe hands."

"I'm sure it is," Weiss said. "The world may be changing but I really hope that Atlas doesn't change too much. For all its faults…there's a lot to like about this city."

"It is a gem," Rarity said. "The soaring jewel of Remnant. And that's why we have to take good care of it."

"And we will," Twilight said. "All of us."

"Not quite all," Weiss said. _As much as I might wish otherwise._ She pushed back her chair and got to her feet. "I should be going. Thank you so much for lunch, Twilight; you'll have to let me pay one of these days."

"It's fine," Twilight said. "My treat."

"That's my point, it's _always_ your treat," Weiss insisted. "You do realise my father hasn't cut me off, don't you?"

The slightly shamefaced look on Twilight's face confirmed Weiss's suspicion that that had not been obvious to Twilight. "You can get the bill next time, if it bothers you that much," the bespectacled girl relented.

Weiss nodded her head. "That's very…not generous, exactly, but you know what I mean, don't you?"

"I think so," Twilight said. "See you around, Weiss; have a good day."

"I'll try," Weiss said softly, before she said farewell to Twilight and Rarity and left them behind, pulling out her scroll as she walked away and using it to summon a cab, which arrived swiftly enough at the street corner to take her home.

The ride passed in silence, but it also passed as quickly as could be expected as the streets of Atlas gave way to the vast estates of the super-rich, who flaunted their vast wealth by acquiring great tracts of land upon the limited and slightly cramped floating rock on which their city rested and then not building upon that land. In fact much of the palatial grounds of the Schnee manor, and others like them – none so grand, of course, as there was no family so wealthy – had nothing on it at all but well-trimmed lawn, maintained by a small army of gardener androids programmed to mow and water and to pull up weeds wherever they might be found. None of those gardeners were out now – they only came out at night, so as not to disturb the pristine views – and so as Weiss' taxi took her into this mansion district the overall effect was of a vast well-tended barrenness, that might belong to someone but was inhabited by no one, as though some disease had stolen all life away and left the buildings and the gardens and the self-aggrandising monuments intact and unblemished.

The cab pulled into the extravagant driveway of the Schnee Manor, driving past three obelisks topped with the family' snowflake symbol – speaking of self-aggrandising monuments – before coming to a stop behind a pair of other hovercars. One was white, and looked to be an official car, either from the military or from the Council; possibly father had a visitor, to discuss his opposition to the new Menagerie treaty. The other was a private vehicle, painted black, which Weiss didn't recognise.

She supposed that she would find out who it belonged too soon enough as she got out, paid the driver of her cab – with a generous tip, of course – and walked briskly towards the front door where it nestled under the columned portico.

The door opened before she had quite reached it, opened by the welcome sight of the ever-efficient Klein Sieben. "Welcome home, Miss Schnee." He said, as he bowed to her.

Weiss smiled. "Good afternoon, Klein. How is it that you always know exactly where to be?"

"Oh, it's very simple, Miss Schnee: I'm a butler," Klein replied, his eyes as brown as coffee twinkling a little as he stepped aside to admit Weiss into the family home. "Did you have a good morning, Miss?"

"Yes," Weiss said, as she walked through the door. "I did. It was…it was nice."

"You were out with Miss Sparkle, I believe?"

"Yes, and one or two of her friends."

"Begging your pardon, Miss Schnee, but there are some who might say that Miss Sparkle's friends are not entirely suitable company for a lady in your position."

Weiss stopped, and turned to face the old family retainer. "Frankly, Klein, the fact that some people say that – and I think I can guess who – positively seems like a recommendation."

Klein stared at her for a moment. His eyes shifted to a red like glowing embers. "I couldn't have put it better myself, Miss; I'd avoid anybody who said such things – except one of them pays my wages."

"Klein!" Weiss said, in mock-scandalised tones. She sighed. "Did my father tell you to tell me this?"

Klein's eyes returned to their previous brown colour. "Your father might tell you himself, Miss; consider this more of a warning." His eyes changed colour again, this time to a cool blue like the waters of the ocean around Solitas. "I'm just glad that you're happy, Miss. When I came home, not that I wasn't glad to see you, but I was worried that you'd forget how to smile here."

"Not yet, thank goodness," Weiss said. "I know that – Twilight aside – none of them are of my class. And I know that a couple of them are faunus, not that that ought to matter…but they're also lovely people, and I think I'm lucky to have them in my life."

"Then that's all that matters, Miss, and let the world say what it will."

Weiss smiled. "Quite, Klein."

Klein's smile remained in place, but his eyes returned to their prior brown colour. "Mister Schnee asked me to send you to his study as soon as you returned, Miss."

"He's not preoccupied?" Weiss asked. "I saw the two cars outside."

"Mister Schnee and Young Master Schnee both have guests," Klein informed her. "Nevertheless, your father was quite explicit: you're to go and see him immediately upon your return."

Weiss' eyebrows rose. "Whitley? Whitley has guests? Who?" She hesitated. "Never mind. Thank you, Klein."

"A pleasure, Miss Schnee."

Weiss began to walk through the oversized hallways in the direction of her father's study. The Schnee Manor was truly vast, built large enough that if a race of giants had suddenly descended upon Atlas and taken it for themselves they could have lived in large parts of the house without much trouble; in fact, when Weiss was very young, her grandfather had told stories about how he had taken the house from ferocious giants, not by fighting them but by tricking them into giving him their gorgeous home so that he could live there with his family.

Weiss had been so much younger then, but she remembered this house being much livelier when grandfather had been alive; there had been a much larger staff, old servants who had been with him for years, retainers who went all the way back to the first expedition of the nascent SDC, parlourmaids and footmen, old Laberna who had taken care of two generations of Schnee children. All of them gone now. It was just the family and faithful, efficient Klein, four of them – with Winter away – rattling around in a house that could hold a small army.

It had been a long time since she had particularly liked this house, and being away and then being forced by circumstance to return had only heightened her dislike of it. Everything was far too big, from the oversized suits of armour guarding the staircase to the giant sculpture of the King Taijitsu in the interior courtyard to the series of vast and mostly empty rooms that sprung off the long corridors.

It was down one of those long corridors that Weiss was walking when she heard the sounds of laughter coming from one of the rooms nearby.

Or giggling, to be more precise. Feminine giggling.

"Oh, Whitley! You shouldn't have!"

"But I did," came a voice that Weiss recognised as belonging to her brother, Whitley. "And they look beautiful on you. Dug from amongst the dust deposits in the Schnee mines."

"They are gorgeous," said another girl, a different voice to the first. "They really suit you."

"Of course they do," said the first girl. "All of Whitley's gifts are perfect." She sighed. "But now we really have to be going."

"Must you?" Whitely said. "So soon?"

"I'm sorry," said the first girl. "Daddy's expecting me back home."

"And I suppose we wouldn't want to make daddy worry, now would we?" Whitley said, as he ushered out two girls into the hallway where Weiss – having stopped almost without consciously deciding to do so – was waiting for him.

Weiss didn't know either of the two girls with Whitley, although they both looked to be about Whitley's age. One of them had silver hair, worn in a single braid draped over her shoulder, and large curved glasses over her lavender eyes; she was dressed in a white shirt with a pink ribbon tie, a grey pleated skirt, and wore a necklace of jade beads around her neck. The other girl, the one standing closer to Whitley, had hair that was purple streaked with white, with a tiara-shaped hairclip similar to the one that Weiss wore set slightly askew in it; her eyes were pale blue, and around her neck she wore a diamond necklace that was almost certainly the gift from Whitley that had so delighted her and her companion; she wore a pink dress, with a white sash around her waist and a purple jacket worn over the top.

"Ah, Weiss," Whitley greeted her in a genial tone. "I didn't realise you were back. Allow me to introduce Diamond Tiara Rich and Silver Spoon. Girls, this is my elder sister, Weiss."

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon both curtsied. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Schnee."

"The pleasure is all mine," Weiss said. "Forgive me, I didn't mean to interrupt."

"Not at all," Diamond Tiara said. "We were just leaving. Goodbye, Whitley."

"Every hour we're apart will be an eternity," Whitley said, as he tenderly kissed her on the cheek.

Weiss kept her face straight and her expression neutral as the two girls walked past her down the hall, heading for the door the opposite way that she had come. Only when they had gone did she allow herself to say, "Someone became quite the charmer while I was away."

Whitley pouted with embarrassment. "Laugh all you want, sister, they're much more suitable companions than the type of company you keep nowadays!"

"That is…" Weiss stopped. What was the point? "I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean…I'm sorry if I upset you."

"You go away to Beacon," Whitley said. "And even when you're back you spend every moment you can out of the house, and yet you begrudge me one or two visitors?"

"I don't begrudge you anything," Weiss said. "I was just taken by surprise. I don't remember you being so…tender."

"You've been away for a year," Whitley reminded her. "And I didn't stop growing in that time."

"No, I suppose you didn't," Weiss said. She hesitated. "You didn't seem to have given Silver Spoon an expensive gift."

"She's Diamond Tiara's friend, I think they were at school together," Whitley said, his tone becoming slightly dismissive. "She's here…I suppose you might call her a chaperone."

"How…old fashioned," Weiss said.

"Perhaps," Whitley said. "But it's not without its advantages. I get to have two girls fawning all over me instead of one."

Weiss' eyebrows rose.

Whitley sighed. "Honestly, sister, that was a joke. When did you become so po-faced and humourless? Aren't aspiring huntresses allowed to laugh?"

 _Sometimes, but only at things that are actually funny,_ Weiss thought, but she was too grateful to Whitley for not snidely referring to her as a _former_ aspiring huntress to actually say so. "Those diamonds," she said. "Do you always give Diamond Tiara things like that?"

"Fairly often," Whitley admitted. "They looked good on her, didn't they?"

"I suppose," Weiss said. "But doesn't it…don't you ever wonder if-"

"If she's only here because of the Schnee name and the Schnee wealth?" Whitley filled in. He laughed. "I don't wonder it, big sister, I know it."

Weiss blinked. "She…she told you?"

"Of course not," Whitley said. "That would be very gauche of her. But I wouldn't be at all surprised."

"And it doesn't worry you at all?"

"It might, if I were in danger of becoming not a Schnee," Whitley answered airily. "But I'm not, so it doesn't." He laughed again. "Honestly, Weiss, do you believe that only feelings that are blind to family and circumstances ought to count? Do you think that such a thing is possible? Do you know how childishly naïve that makes you sound? We are what we are, and nobody can be unaware of that. Do you really think those riffraff you waste your time with aren't out for everything they can get? In the whole of Atlas you won't find a single person who isn't looking to their own advantage first and foremost."

 _If you really think that it's because you're not looking in the right places,_ Weiss thought. She felt fairly confident in saying that Twilight and her friends did not associate with Weiss because they wanted gifts or money; in fact Weiss's wealth – when they weren't assuming that her father had cut her off – seemed to rather embarrass them, as if they were afraid that Weiss would make the same assumption that Whitley had leapt to: Rarity, for instance, had been at great pains to make sure Weiss understood that she wasn't charging for this dress, seemingly out of fear that Weiss might think that she was overcharging. They were so keen not to appear to be freeloading off Weiss that it was honestly beginning to make Weiss feel like a bit of a freeloader herself; if this kept up she might have to put her foot down and make it clear to them that there was a difference between paying her own way and being taken advantage of.

Although she hoped it wouldn't come that. Twilight's friends could be an eccentric bunch – to put it politely – but they were also very lovely people, and they'd been very welcoming to Weiss; she didn't want to put that at risk with an argument about money if she didn't absolutely have to.

And as for Whitley's more general point…the idea that Blake, princess of Menagerie turned humble servant of Atlas, was out for herself was so laughable as to destroy said point in one fell swoop. And when Weiss thought of Twilight in the lab, earnest Applejack, dour and gloomy Rainbow Dash whom she had seen the least of all Twilight's friends, or even faithful Klein puttering away to keep the house in order, she was of the opinion that, far from being the kingdom of grifters and chancers that Whitley's words would imply, Atlas was full of people giving the best of themselves with no or very little thought for themselves; they were just the sort of people that Whitley lacked the experience – or the care – to look down and notice.

"Anyway," Weiss said, because there was no point in saying any of that to Whitley. He probably wouldn't understand, and anyway she didn't want to get into an argument with her brother. To tell the truth she was glad to hear some laughter in the house for once, and if he had found some enjoyment, and someone whose company to take enjoyment in, she could hardly begrudge him that even if it wasn't the sort of company that could have satisfied her.

She felt a little sorry for him that it did satisfy him, but at the same time she was self-aware enough to wonder if she was just being patronising with an attitude like that. "I should go. Father wants to see me."

Whitley's expression settled into a slightly self-satisfied smirk. "Good luck, sister."

"Thank you," Weiss said, as she walked around Whitley and continued through the empty, cavernous hallways, all painted in a cold blue that seemed to amplify their size and emptiness alike, all seeming so cold as if the walls and floor were made of ice instead of stone.

She reached her father's study soon enough, and as she approached Weiss could hear raised voices from the other side of the sturdy wooden door.

"I am talking about the good of Atlas!" Jacques Schnee said. "Our entire kingdom!"

"You're talking about the good of your company," came the other voice, which sounded…was that General Ironwood?

"What's good for the SDC _is_ good for Atlas," Jacques declared. "You may have forgotten that the prosperity of this kingdom is built upon the prosperity of the Schnee Dust Company but I have not, and neither will the people."

Weiss opened the door a fraction. It was General Ironwood, sitting on the other side of a low table from her father. The general said, "The people? What are you saying, Jacques?"

"I'm saying that I have no intention of staying silent in the face of this folly," Jacques said. "The destruction of the CCT wiped out millions of lien's worth in assets or rendered them inaccessible-"

"Then I'd think that you would want-"

"Not to mention the withdrawal of your military forces from overseas locations that has probably meant the loss of countless SDC facilities to bandits or grimm," Jacques continued. "And now you want to compound all of that by subsidising a competitor?"

"You're exaggerating," General Ironwood said.

"I understand that we're paying these faunus to set up a rival dust mining operation."

"When that happens they'll be buying Atlesian mining equipment and hiring Atlesian expertise-"

"And paying for it all with Atlesian money!"

Weiss stepped inside the office.

"Jacques," General Ironwood said. "I would think that you would want to see the CCT network restored as quickly as possible. Or do you enjoy sending out couriers to your facilities?"

"There is already a perfectly good tower in Vale if only you would repair it," Jacques said. "And if the Valish don't want you there then force the issue. And while you're at it you can take back my facilities at Cold Harbour which have been unlawfully seized by the new government."

"The Atlesian military does not exist to be a militia for the SDC," General Ironwood said, with a certain chill in his voice.

"Although you've been happy enough to treat the SDC as the research and development arm of the Atlesian military in days gone by," Jacques reminded him.

The door swung shut behind Weiss with an audible thud and a click of the latch which drew the attention of both men.

Her father's stare was hard and cold. Weiss clasped her hands behind her back, which she tried to straighten.

"Miss Schnee," General Ironwood said, as he rose to his feet. He bowed, placing one hand upon his heart. "My apologies, I should have been gone by now."

"There's no need to apologise, sir," Weiss said. "I didn't mean to interrupt."

"Nevertheless, it is time I was going," General Ironwood said. He glanced at Jacques. "I think we've said all that there is to say."

"For now," Jacques said softly.

General Ironwood stared at him for a moment. Then he simply said, "Goodbye, Jacques," before making for the door. Weiss stepped aside for him. The general paused when he reached the door. "Miss Schnee, know that if you ever-"

"Goodbye, James," Jacques said pointedly.

General Ironwood gave Weiss a glance that was sympathetic, but ultimately powerless as he opened the door and stepped out through it.

Once more the door swung shut, leaving Weiss alone with her father.

She shivered a little. Her father kept the study colder than the rest of the house for reasons best known to himself, but that wasn't the only reason for Weiss' tremor.

"Did you forget your manners while you were away?" he asked, turning away and walking back to his desk.

"I'm sorry, father," Weiss said softly.

Jacques didn't acknowledge that he'd heard her. "Building a whole new tower instead of repairing the old one, funding competition to the SDC, treating with an island of exiles and runaways as if they were our equals, and the hero of the hour is a robot!" he shook his head as he sat down. "The world has gone completely insane. And to think that Ironwood is feted as the victor of the battle of Vale, as though any victory could outweigh the loss of the CCT."

"I'm sure he feels the weight of that," Weiss said. "That's why he wants to restore it as quickly as possible."

Jacques sighed, as though Weiss' opinions wearied him. "I hope you can at least appreciate the absurdity of us giving potentially vast sums of lien to Menagerie at the same time as the so-called Dragonslayer is being sent out on a publicity tour to raise money for the military. But, I suppose that it does provide an opportunity to show that the SDC has the best interests of this kingdom at heart…unlike some on the council."

"I…don't understand," Weiss admitted.

"Miss Polendina is appearing at the Nicholas Schnee Concert Hall in the coming weeks, to open this tour of hers here in Atlas. In addition to a generous donation from this company, I have offered to host a fundraiser immediately following the event…and to have you sing in the concert hall before Miss Polendina's appearance."

Weiss frowned. "You want me to sing?"

"It will be your first public performance since you went to Beacon," Jacques said. "A delight for your fans, something that will make a lot of people very happy and surely drive up donations."

"I…I suppose it will," Weiss murmured. She was reminded for a moment of Rarity, trading the needle for the sword because the latter was of more use to Atlas at that moment. Weiss would have preferred the sword, but since that was denied to her why not take up the voice instead? Atlas needed help. It needed good huntresses, but since Weiss could not be a huntress then didn't she have an obligation to help however she could? Father was right, she hadn't made a public appearance in some time, that might generate excitement, and donations. And it was for a good cause: Atlas didn't need just good people, it needed guns and ships and prosthetic limbs for those like Flash who had made great sacrifices for the world and for humanity already. What right did she have to refuse simply because she wasn't a great fan of her stage persona as Weiss Schnee, the snow angel, the princess, the perfect, untouchable songstress? What right did she have to say that such feelings mattered more to her than the good of Atlas and the world? What right did she have to put herself above the cause? "I'd better start practicing," she said.

It was hard to tell on account of his moustache, but Weiss thought she saw her father smile. "That's my girl."

* * *

"So," Blake said from out of the scroll. "I understand that Weiss Schnee is making her return to the stage."

Weiss snorted, and rolled her eyes. "Ugh, please don't."

Blake frowned. "You're not happy about this?"

"Why should I be happy about this?"

Blake's expression was blank. "Because…I don't really know, but I don't see why you shouldn't be happy about it either."

Weiss sighed, reflecting that it wasn't really Blake's fault. She hadn't known Weiss for all that long, after all, so how could she know. Nobody knew, not really; all of her new friends had only known her since she had come to Beacon, none of them had known her in the days when she was actually singing.

Plus, she wasn't exactly open about her dislike of her time on stage. Mostly because Twilight was a fan of her music and she didn't want to seem too churlish by disdaining it in front of the other girl. She remembered enough about professionalism to recall that you always put it away in front of the fans, especially when said fans were so friendly and obliging as Twilight.

And so Weiss began with, "Don't tell Twilight I said this."

"Okay," Blake said slowly.

"It was my father's idea that I should sing in public," Weiss said. "I sang for my grandfather before he died, he said it…it made him feel better. I sang for my mother, too, but that was it really; I was very young at the time." She remembered how she would spend hours, sometimes even days, practicing a new song with Laberna before proudly showing off what she'd learned to grandfather, or mother. "And then my father…first he was just showing me off to his guests at parties…and then he was showing me off to the whole kingdom." She'd actually enjoyed it at first, being the centre of attention in the ballroom, the applause, the way everyone told her she had the most lovely voice, she sounded like an angel. And then the stages kept getting bigger and bigger, the people kept getting further and further away…the applause had rung more and more hollow in her ears. "Only it wasn't me he was showing off, it was the idea of the perfect Schnee daughter: an ice sculpture with an angel's voice. Serene and untouchable."

"You're a lot of things," Blake said. "But serene isn't really one of them."

Weiss snorted. "That's exactly my point. It wasn't me that they wanted to see, it wasn't me that they were celebrating. It was someone my father had made up, who just happened to have stolen my voice. The rest…the rest was the daughter he wished he had."

"I…" Blake trailed off. "I had no idea."

"That's why I stopped singing when I went to Beacon," Weiss said. "I didn't have to. One producer tried to pitch the idea of an album called _Anthems of a Huntress_."

"That sounds…tacky."

"He showed me some of his proposed lyrics, it _was_ very tacky," Weiss agreed.

"I thought you wrote your own lyrics?"

"I wrote the songs that nobody listens to, like 'Mirror, Mirror' or the 'Path to Isolation,'" Weiss said. They spoke to her own soul, or had done at least, but they didn't really speak to a commercial audience in the same way. "My popular songs – even the ones that aren't covers – are written by other people. Although the idea that I write all my own songs is another part of the image created for me. The point is…the point is that I wanted to leave all of that behind. I didn't want to sing about a romanticised version of the life of a huntress as though I were at Beacon as their pet singer, not as a student; I didn't want to record from my dorm room. I wanted to be a huntress, I wanted to find my own way as a huntress. And now…now not only am I not a huntress but I'm right back exactly where I didn't want to be."

"Do you have to do it?" Blake asked. "Your father can't make you."

"He can't physically drag me up on stage if that's what you mean," Weiss said. "But…this isn't about him any more than it is about me. This is about Atlas. This is about our kingdom having the resources it needs to defend itself. This is about people like you; if I can't stand beside you in the field then at least I can help you this way."

Blake frowned. "You shouldn't have to do something you don't want to because you feel a sense of obligation. You don't owe yourself to anyone."

"Maybe not," Weiss said. "But I'm not so self-absorbed that I don't realise how petty it would be to put my dislike of singing over the cause that I'm going to be singing for. Besides, I might as well do something productive. I can't just sit around the house or go to lunch with Twilight for the rest of my life."

"You think you're going to be here for the rest of your life?" Blake said.

"It's what my father would like," Weiss said.

Blake smiled.

"What?" Weiss asked.

"You're so strong," Blake said. "There's no way that cage is going to hold you forever."

Weiss didn't know what to say to that; it was a compliment, without a doubt, but at the same time it was the kind of compliment that was very difficult to respond to. Thank you would seem insufficient, but anything else?

Fortunately Blake rescued her from needing to say anything by continuing to speak herself. "To tell you the truth," she admitted. "I don't really understand why you let it hold you now."

"Because...where would I go instead?" Weiss asked.

"Atlas," Blake suggested, unknowingly repeating the offer that General Ironwood had not been able to finish articulating. "The kingdom needs huntresses."

"My father would never allow that."

"He doesn't own you," Blake growled softly. "Nobody owns you."

"Actually...unfortunately...in a sense he does," Weiss said. "I went to Beacon because he allowed it."

"You're not his property."

"No, I'm his daughter," Weiss said. "And as I am his...he may dispose of me."

Blake's eyes widened, even as her ears lowered with anger. "Are you...seriously? In _Mistral_ they'd think that was ridiculously old-fashioned. Do you honestly mean to tell me that your father can just treat you like his property?"

"Who would gainsay him?" Weiss asked. "Who would stand against his wealth and power and influence for my sake."

"You know who," Blake whispered.

"Yes," Weiss said. "And that's why I won't ask you to do it. This isn't fighting beowolves, this is the kind of fight my father always wins." She sighed. "But...perhaps it's for the best in any case. My father isn't going to be around forever, and when I'm head of the company then I can start doing the right thing, the way grandfather used to. On the other hand, if I run away from that, then the company will pass to my brother Whitley, and Whitley...won't care, as long as the money keeps coming in." Put like that it sounded very noble, but Weiss knew that it wouldn't have restrained her for one moment if she had had the opportunity to get out. If she'd had somewhere else to go, somewhere she could escape her father's reach and the peril of Atlesian law then she would have gone there in a heartbeat.

But there was no such place. Everyone she knew was in Atlas, with the arguable exception of Cardin Winchester, and even if he was willing to shelter her - which was by no means certain - Vale didn't sound like the best place to be from the garbled rumours that were coming north to Atlas.

Everyone _else_ she knew was in Atlas, and she could not - would not - expose them to her father's power like that.

She changed the subject. "Would you like to come to the concert, and the reception afterwards? As my guest?"

"To see you sing even though you don't want to?"

"To be my guest," Weiss repeated. "Someone at my side at the after party?"

"That bad?"

"You have no idea."

"You're not selling this very well."

"Be under no illusions, I'm not asking you because I expect you to enjoy yourself," Weiss said. "I'm asking because…because I don't want to be alone there."

"There are probably other people you could ask who will appreciate it more," Blake said.

"I'm sure they'll get their own tickets," Weiss said. "I know it's a little selfish to ask, but…please?"

Blake was silent for a moment. "You won't get in trouble for inviting a faunus?"

"I'll be fine," Weiss insisted. "Is that a yes?"

Blake's lips twitched upwards. "Yes, if you want it so bad."

"Thank you," Weiss said. "You…I'll make it up to you, I promise."

"You won't need to do that."

"Say that after the party."

"You still won't need to make it up to me," Blake said. "What are friends for?"

"Not talking about themselves incessantly," Weiss said. "How was your mom?"

"Very confident," Blake said. "Or at least she seemed that way."

"Seemed?"

Blake shrugged. "She has to be a little nervous. So much is riding on this, but…there are times when I still can't believe this is real. Recognition, a CCT, investment. I'm only sorry that it took all of this trouble to get it."

"I know what you mean," Weiss said. "But at the same time…I just can't see it ever happening any other way." People like her father were too comfortable with the way things were; they would never have changed without the massive system shock caused by the Battle of Vale.

 _Father still doesn't want to change._ "Do you wish you'd gone with her?" Weiss said. "Your mother, I mean; to see your home changing in front of your eyes."

Blake's hesitation betrayed that, yes, a part of her did wish that, but what she said was, "No. Atlas is my home now. I've given my word to General Ironwood. I'm committed."

"What's that like?" Weiss asked. "Being a part of something bigger than yourself?"

Blake looked thoughtful. "I never feel like what I'm doing doesn't matter," Blake said. "Even when what I'm doing is insignificant and small; because I'm part of a great engine, and the engine is doing great things…but only if I'm at my best, and doing my best no matter small the thing I'm doing my best at is."

"It must be nice, to wake up each morning with a sense of purpose and direction," said Weiss, who woke up each morning with a vague sense of dread at the prospect of having to find something to do to fill twelve to sixteen hours – she'd tried going to bed early, earlier in fact that some of her bedtimes when she'd been an actual child, but she didn't actually sleep so that only left her lying in bed feeling empty and directionless as opposed to sitting around the house feeling the same way; it wasn't a great improvement. Twilight and the others – Blake included – did their best, but they couldn't spend all their time with her, even on the scroll; eventually she always had to come back to his house, eventually the call always had to end. Eventually she was always left with nothing.

"I…I wish that there was something that I could say to make it all better," Blake said. "But there isn't. All I can say is…hang in there, as inadequate as that sounds; we're all here for you, Weiss, whatever and even whenever. And like I said, you're strong. Stronger than you think, maybe. You'll get through this, I know you will."

Weiss chuckled. "You might not know the words to make everything better," she said. "But you know the words to make me feel better…right until I realise I've made everything about me again."

"It's fine," Blake said.

"It really isn't."

"Yes, it is," Blake said. "Am I supposed to talk about how wonderful my life is while yours…isn't?"

"Good point, I really don't want to hear that," Weiss admitted. She sniggered, and after a moment Blake almost laughed too. "I'll let you go."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," Weiss said. "I…I have a song to write for my big return. You…you could say you've inspired me."

 _After all, Weiss Schnee's return to the stage deserves a Weiss Schnee original._

"Okay," Blake said, a trifle reluctantly. "Goodnight, Weiss. Don't give up."

"Never," Weiss said. "Goodnight." She hung up.

She put her scroll away, and flopped down on the bed with a sheaf of scrap paper as she began to scribble away.

I am not your pet, not another thing you own…


	201. Twilight's Request

Twilight's Request

Blake was a little surprised by the size of Twilight's house.

Which wasn't to say that it was actually a small house, or that there was anything wrong with it. It was a very nice looking house: the doors were coloured glass making a sixteen-pointed star in various shades of lavender, pink and purple upon a dark blue background; above the door was more glass decoration, and this time the same colours seemed form a rising sun cresting the horizon; those were the elements that drew Blake's eye the most but they were only one small part of a very nice house, built of a soft purple stone that almost resembled porphyr, with the roofs tiled in a dark pink.

A nice house, and not a small one either: two storeys high, and stretching back out of Blake's sight from where she stood before it on the street. A nice house of a reasonable size and in a nice neighbourhood too, the kind where there was space in front of the house for grass to grow, and even a pine tree planted out in front beside the driveway; the kind where there was space on either side of the house separating the Sparkle family from their neighbours.

It was a nice house, in a nice part of the city, and yet as she stood before it Blake could not help but feel a little surprise.

She supposed that that surprise was mostly rooted in her having prior experience of the Schnee Manor, beside which the Sparkle house could not help but feel, not to put too fine a point on it, tiny.

It was not that Blake had any objection to small houses, or to those who lived in them; it was not disappointment that she was feeling, more a sense of puzzlement. Twilight's sister-in-law sat on the Council of Atlas; her brother was an officer in an elite unit – elite in a social sense, if not a combat one – and she was a family friend of General Ironwood, and sufficiently close to him to feel comfortable leveraging that connection to the benefit of Rainbow Dash.

So then why was there house, not to put too fine a point on it, not nearly as grand as Blake had imagined?

 _Because you forgot the fact that there's a difference between being wealthy and being well-connected; just because the Sparkles are the latter doesn't mean they have to be super-rich. Not every family is the Schnee family. In fact, only one family is the Schnees. Most don't have the income of a dust empire to sustain their extravagance._

 _You forgot this isn't Menagerie either. The faunus built a palace for their chieftain to do him honour; in Atlas honour comes in other forms, and is given out both more and less readily. If there were more families of note in Menagerie they would not all dwell in palaces either._

And besides, Blake realised with a pang of guilt that she had unkindly traduced General Ironwood in her assumptions about the kind of company he kept. Had he not already demonstrated, first by his patronage of Rainbow Dash and then by the way that he had forgiven Blake and taken her under his wing in turn, that he was not a man who could be blinded by riches? He would judge the man beneath the money, and Blake reckoned that the general was a good judge of men, if it didn't flatter her too much – as one he had judged worthy of his trust – to think so.

For whatever it was worth, Blake thought that he had judged rightly in whom he reposed his trust; which was to say that she trusted them too, Twilight and her friends. Mostly that was because they seemed trustworthy, although it wasn't entirely that; there was something about receiving General Ironwood's trust that made you want to live up to his expectations of you, however high they might be. There was something about him that made letting him down seem like a terrible thing to inflict upon both him and yourself. Blake wondered if Sunset and Pyrrha had felt that way towards Professor Ozpin, and that was why his loss had hit them both so hard; so hard in fact that she hadn't felt comfortable asking either of them about it before she left for Atlas.

More to the point, she wondered if that was the root of Rainbow Dash's odd behaviour recently; it wasn't a secret that she had fallen out of General Ironwood's favour, even if Blake didn't know exactly how or why it had happened. Rainbow was never around to talk about it – it might be more accurate to say that she was never around so that she never had to talk about it – and Blake still wasn't sure that it was right for her to ask in any case. It seemed – possibly – like something that ought to be better left to her older friends.

All of which was, of course, completely irrelevant to where she was right now: standing outside Twilight Sparkle's house, musing on increasingly tangential topics when she ought to have knocked on the door by now. Twilight would either be wondering where she was or – if she knew – wondering why Blake was just standing outside spacing out like that.

So Blake put Rainbow Dash, and General Ironwood, and the prosperity of the Sparkle family all to the back of her mind as she walked up the driveway and climbed the single step up onto the porch.

There was no door knocker, but this being Atlas there was an intercom system beside the door with a camera set at face height. Blake pressed the cold grey button beneath it.

There was a moment's pause, before the screen burst into life, and Blake could see the image of an older woman with bags beneath her pale blue eyes, her purple hair streaked with white, wearing a necklace of large pearls tightly around her neck.

"Yes?" she asked. "Who is it?"

"Specialist, Junior-Grade Blake Belladonna, ma'am," Blake said.

"Oh, so you're Blake," the woman – Twilight's mother, presumably - said. "Yes, Twilight's mentioned you. Are you here on business?"

"No," Blake said. "At least, I don't think so. Twilight asked me to come over."

"Of course," said Mrs Sparkle. "I'll let her know you're here."

"Thank you, ma'am," Blake said, before the image on the screen disappeared.

She practiced her posture while she waited, clasping her hands behind her back and standing up straight. It was…not important, exactly, except in as much as the more she looked the part the more seriously people would take her. And she wanted to be taken seriously, not just by General Ironwood but by everyone. She wasn't here in Atlas for a lark, or to while away a season before going home. She was here for the long haul, and she meant to make a success of her chosen path. And that included looking like she belonged here. This wasn't the White Fang, Atlesian specialists didn't skulk in the shadows; they stood straight-backed and proud, and faced their enemies without flinching.

The door was opened by, somewhat to Blake's surprise, Twilight, wearing a labcoat over a blue turtleneck and high, light blue boots with a pattern of white stars upon them. Her tights had what looked like a circuit board pattern on them.

None of which was quite as surprising as the fact that she had opened the door herself.

"Twilight?" asked Blake dumbly, as though there could be any doubt as to who it was.

"Hey, Blake," Twilight said cheerily. "Thanks for coming over."

"Uh, sure," Blake murmured.

Twilight frowned. "Is something wrong?"

"Not really," Blake said. "I just…you answered the door."

"Who-" began Twilight, before cutting herself off with a knowing smile. "You know it's incredibly rare to actually have a butler, right? They're basically a relic of a bygone age at this point – not that being a relic of a bygone age is necessarily a bad thing, I mean Pyrrha seems really nice – but most people are pretty capable of answering their own front door for visitors; and getting drinks when they want them." She paused. "Most families aren't the Schnees."

"Yeah, sorry about that," Blake said. "Although I would have thought that you'd maybe have robot butlers."

"It's probably possible," Twilight admitted. "But the amount of programming that would need to go into a sophisticated android like that…it's just not worth it when you can just get up out of your chair and answer the door. Most people don't mind a little bit of exercise." She paused. "Although it would be fascinating to try and build one, just as a theoretical. It would need to be a step up, much closer to Penny than to an AK-200, able to recognise individuals and household objects, possibly even read emotional indicators…" Twilight laughed nervously. "Sorry."

"Don't apologise," Blake said, smiling. "It's fine."

"Maybe, but it's not why I asked you here," Twilight said. She hesitated. "You never noticed me answer the door any of the other times you've come here."

Blake blinked. "This is the first time I've been to your house."

"Really?" Twilight responded. "I've never invited you here before? Wow, I'm really sorry about that. You should come over for dinner sometime."

"You don't have to invite me for dinner," Blake said. "Or feel sorry because you haven't invited me to your house before. Although if you invited me in off the porch step-"

"Oh, right!" Twilight exclaimed. "Of course, come right in."

"Thanks," Blake said, stepping inside as Twilight made way for her, entering a house that was tastefully decorated in various cool shades of blue and purple.

Twilight shut the door behind her. "You don't have to come over for dinner if you don't want to," she said. "But if you did then my parents never mind me having guests over."

"Sure," Blake said. "That sounds nice. But I'm sure you didn't ask me over so that you could belatedly realise that this was the first time you asked me over."

Twilight chuckled. "No, I didn't. Can we talk in the lab?"

"You have a lab?"

Twilight nodded. "Shining Armour got a training room – although it doesn't get a lot of use since he moved out – and I got a lab. Come on, it's this way."

Blake followed Twilight through the house. Bookshelves predominated, intermingled with a variety of family photographs in gilt, slightly old-fashioned picture frames: Twilight and Shining Armour as children with their parents; Twilight looking delighted as she held a smaller Spike in her arms; Twilight and Shining Armour closer to their present ages with the same; Shining Armour in dress uniform; Twilight in a scholar's gown beaming as she held up a paper diploma of some sort; Shining Armour and Cadance, on their wedding day judging by their dress; a photograph of a larger wedding party, including all of Twilight's friends and General Ironwood.

"Why does Rainbow Dash have her guns out in that picture?" Blake asked.

Twilight made a sound that was partway between a chuckle and a tsk of distaste. "Did Rainbow never tell you that story? About how Shining Armour and Cadance's wedding was attacked by the Wh- you know, maybe it isn't such a good story, after all."

"Twilight," Blake said. "I'm not part of the White Fang any more, and I know full well what they became under Sienna's leadership, I don't need you to walk on eggshells as though I'm going to get offended by the suggestion that they-" Something clicked in Blake's mind. "Wait a second, that was you guys?"

Twilight stopped, framed in the light of a window that – like all of the windows in the Sparkle house seemed to be – was made of decorated glass. "What was who guys?"

"You were there," Blake said. "At the Council abduction fiasco, when the commander of the Atlas chapter attempted to abduct and replace an Atlesian councillor during…her wedding?" Blake had heard it was a state function, but then the only reports that had reached the other chapters had been garbled ones, borne second or third hand passed from those who been at ground zero to messengers who, in turn, had often passed the tale onto other messengers, becoming less and less precise with every passage.

"You know about that?" Twilight replied. "General Ironwood hushed the whole thing up; he said it would embolden our enemies if they knew how close they'd come to success."

"He was half right," Blake admitted. Chrysalis' gamble had split opinions in the White Fang down the middle: to some she was a cautionary tale of overreach and the cost of too much ambition; to others she was a hero and an example to be emulated of one who dared to strike a meaningful and resounding blow against their foes, someone not content to settle for pinprick blows that their enemies barely seemed to feel. Blake had been in the former camp, Adam very much in the latter. "And that reaction would have been even stronger if they'd know that we almost got the general, too."

"Oh, General Ironwood wasn't there when the trap was sprung," Twilight explained. "But as we tried to rescue Cadance and Shining Armour I was able to make contact with them, and he…well, we managed to rescue Cadance and my brother but we would have been in a lot of trouble if the general hadn't arrived when he did."

"This all sounds like a fascinating story," Blake said.

"It is – if you like your stories about what ought to be joyous family moments disturbed by sinister villains and their schemes," Twilight growled softly. "But anyway, Rainbow Dash tells it a lot better than I do…" she trailed off. "That's, uh, that's kind of what I…come on, let's go into my lab."

"Sure," Blake agreed with a nod of her head.

The lab turned out to be behind the house, in a large outbuilding in the back garden reached by heading out the back door and crossed the stepping stone-like path that bridged the gap between the two. Twilight placed her thumb on top of a scanner, then bent down and pushed her glasses up out of the way so that she could get a retinal scan as well.

"Tight security," Blake observed.

Twilight laughed nervously. "I, uh, I sometimes take some of my work home with me to carry on after hours. Please don't mention that to too many people."

Blake's lip twitched upwards. "Your secret is safe with me."

"Not to mention all the stuff that I work on unofficially," Twilight continued, as the door clicked open.

"Like your armour?"

"Exactly," Twilight said. "I built that here – and we used the training room again when Shining Armour showed me a few moves – and even though it wasn't a sanctioned project it isn't the kind of thing you'd want just anyone to be able to get their hands on."

Blake was inclined to agree, although of course if anyone had wanted to get their hands on any of Twilight's experiments that badly they would have found ways to circumvent her security. There wasn't much point in mentioning that, however; no security system was infallible, no matter how well designed or what it was supposed to be guarding.

Twilight opened the door and walked into the lab, and would have disappeared into the darkness within. As it was, Blake's feline eyes were able to keep Twilight in view as she followed the other girl inside the large, cluttered space filled with all manner of advanced-looking machines - most notably the egg-shaped pod that dominated the centre of the lab – illuminating the laboratory with a cornucopia of flashing lights in blue, green, red and purple, connected by heavy, almost industrial power cords with plugs and connections larger than Twilight's hands. Workbenches were laden with a baffling – to Blake at least – array of parts and tools. A picture of Twilight and her friends formed the desktop of her computer, half hidden behind the icons of all the files and folders.

Spike bounded up to his owner; his green hair appeared to have grown by at least a foot since Blake had seen him last, it now formed a massive spike rising above his head; he was also dressed in a little miniature labcoat, with black gloves over his forepaws and goggles over his eyes. Blake was not at all a dog person, but…okay, that was pretty adorable.

As was the way that he jumped up into Twilight's arms and started nuzzling her face. "Okay, Spike, I was only gone a minute."

Spike barked.

"But I missed you too, of course I did."

Blake considered that the most adorable thing of all about Spike right now was the way that he was paying absolutely no attention to Blake herself whatsoever. That was just the way she liked it when it came to dogs.

She wandered over to the nearest workbench, where a photograph of a boy sat beside an open book. He was a young man about their age, a rugged outdoor type judging by the way he was dressed and the fact that he had an axe resting on his shoulder.

Blake picked it up. "Who's this?"

"Who? Oh, him?" Twilight stammered, blushing furiously. "He's, uh, he's just a, uh, a guy I know. From the, uh, the mandatory training camp we attended before graduating from Canterlot."

Blake decided to spare Twilight's blushes, and refrained from asking any more questions about him as she put down the picture. "So, what are you working on?"

"Officially?" asked Twilight quickly.

"Here," Blake clarified. "I'm not asking you to reveal anything classified."

"Oh, this and that," Twilight answered.

Blake ducked as a drone flew out of the darkness and buzzed over her head, rotors whirring.

"Like that," Twilight said. "Sorry, Aloysius likes to get visitors."

Blake stood up, getting a better look at the drone now that it had stopped moving and was hovering in the air above her. It looked almost like a very, very miniaturised bullhead, with a squat, slightly rounded central body sustained in flight by a pair of engines that could turn either vertical or horizontal depending on how they wanted to move the drone. Blue lights flashed over the central body. "Is it armed?"

"Aloysius isn't," Twilight said. "But I've got some that are: miniaturised rotary machine-guns– only small calibre ammo, but at a very high rate of fire – micro-grenades, a lightning dust-powered shock discharge at close range…do you want one?"

"Tempting," Blake said. "But I'll pass. It doesn't really suit my combat style."

"I also have some that are designed for remote hacking," Twilight said. "And of course their capabilities for reconnaissance from a safe distance are probably the biggest benefit of all."

"I can imagine," acknowledged Blake. "But I'm not really a 'hang back and direct a drone' kind of a huntress."

Twilight seemed to deflate a little at that. "That's the problem: none of the huntresses I know are 'hang back and direct a drone' kinds of huntresses."

"Maybe they could be used by the regular military?" Blake suggested. "Or by the Military Huntsmen," she added, referring to those Combat School graduates who for whatever reason didn't quite make the grade when it came to entrance into Atlas Academy, but whose training in the huntsman skills still made them valuable assets to Atlas; they formed an elite company attached to each regular infantry battalion, like the flank companies of centuries past - the centuries past that formed the setting for some of Blake's favourite bodice rippers, to be precise, with titles like _The Grenadier's Bride_ or _The Valish Sharpshooter's Lover_.

"You might be right," Twilight said. "I was just hoping…I go to work for the good of Atlas; I work in here to help my friends…and Spike," she added, as a feminine-looking robot dog emerged from behind the large pod in the centre of the laboratory. It's nose was flashing red as it walked slowly and carefully across the floor towards Spike, who bounded playfully up to the canine android with what, as far as Blake could tell, was a happy expression.

Blake looked at the two dogs, one real and the other artificial; then she looked back at Twilight. Her eyebrows rose.

"He was a little lonely," Twilight squawked defensively. She coughed into her hand. "Anyway, I've also been working on some things that my friends might actually use, like this bracelet." She picked up a chunky black cuff from off the workbench behind her. "The idea is to channel Rarity's semblance through it, so that using her barriers doesn't immobilise her or require the use of one hand. I thought she could use it to create a sort of shield or buckler for herself."

"Smart, if it works," Blake said. "Although I can't really see Rarity wearing something like that."

"Oh, I'm going to paint in gold once it works," Twilight assured her. "And I've designed it in such a way that decoration won't impair the effects."

Blake nodded. Her eyes travelled up past the bracelet in Twilight's hand to the blueprints of a wingsuit. "And that? Upgrades to Dash's wings?"

"I have one or two ideas," Twilight admitted. "Though I'd need to pry the wings away from Rainbow Dash first. Which would mean I'd need to get her to speak to me again." She bit her lip, and set the bracelet back down on the bench before she folded her arms across her chest. "That's, uh, that is…ooh, if you want to see what I've been working on you should also take a look at this." She gestured to her right; Blake could recognise an attempt at distraction so glaringly obvious, but she felt no compulsion to push Twilight on whatever it was, and so she allowed her gaze to be drawn to her left, away from the blueprint for possible upgrades to Rainbow Dash's wings to a large map of Solitas pinned up beside it; what made Blake pay attention to it was that the map was covered in pins jabbed into the paper in particular locations, and beneath almost every pin – obscuring whole sections of the map – were cuttings or printouts of news articles of various kinds, while post-it notes littered the edges of the map or cluttered the oceans around the continent. Lines of red string streaked from place to place, clearly forming some kind of pattern albeit not one that Blake could readily determine.

She walked slowly across the laboratory towards it. "What is this?"

"My magical research," declared Twilight. "I've moved from tracking Maiden sightings to tracking paranormal phenomena more generally."

Blake blinked. "Maiden sightings?"

"That's clearly what I saw when I was a child," Twilight said as though it were obvious. "A Maiden – the Winter Maiden, presumably – rescued my family from that grimm attack. That's my working hypothesis, anyway, given what I know now about magic…although I am keeping an open mind because who is to say that the Maidens represent the only magically empowered individuals in the whole of Remnant?"

"Professor Ozpin," Blake suggested. "And General Ironwood."

"Both of whom have access to a great deal of information, but they're not omniscient," Twilight countered. "The fact is that I don't believe that the four maidens represent the only magic in the world, there's simply too much evidence that can't be explained by the existence of the seasonal maidens. For example: ten years ago a trainee huntsman lost on a night exercise in the Everfree Forest reported that an ethereal woman appeared in front of him without warning; according to his report she asked if he was a soldier of Mantle and, when he replied that he was a soldier of Atlas, she gave him directions back to his camp and then vanished again as suddenly as she had appeared."

"Are you sure he wasn't seeing things in the dark?"

"No, I can't be sure, but he found his way back to camp following her directions," Twilight said. "And it's not the only reported instance of a ghostly woman – and it is always a woman, with several commonalities in the description allowing for the vagaries of different people interpreting something they only saw for a short while – appearing to soldiers who are lost or otherwise in need. Sixteen years ago a squad of Military Huntsman holed up in a cave with a large pride of sabyrs outside reported that this phantom healed one of their wounded comrades, stabilising his condition so that he was still alive when they were rescued."

"Sounds more like they were lucky," Blake suggested.

"I think there's more to it than that," Twilight said. "We know that magic is real-"

"Magic, yes, but not ghosts," Blake replied. "Nothing that we've learned about what's really going on in the world suggests anything like that, and just because there is more going on in the world than we first thought doesn't mean that every fairy story has a basis in truth."

"I know that," Twilight said. "But wouldn't it be fascinating if they were?"

"Personally, I prefer to look at fairy tales through literary analysis than wonder what historical evidence we can glean from them," Blake said. "In not being true they become real, if that makes sense. These stories were invented to tell us something, and they've survived because they continue to have the ability to tell us something worth paying attention to; they have applicability to our lives. But if it turns out that all the stories – just like the story of the seasons – is just a record of something that happened to someone once…how is that supposed to teach us anything?" Blake paused for a moment. "But anyway, I think you were about to tell me why you asked me here?"

Twilight hesitated. "I was?"

"Yes," Blake said. "Although I'm not sure that you wanted to. Twilight, is everything okay? Is something wrong?"

"No and yes," Twilight said. "I mean everything is not okay and something is wrong." She took a deep breath. "I asked you here…I need you to do me…Blake, can you do us a favour and talk to Rainbow Dash?"

Blake frowned. "Rainbow Dash?"

"Something's up with her," Twilight said. "Ever since we got back from Vale she's been morose, broody, she's more short-tempered than usual – you saw what happened at the party. She's distant…I haven't seen her in a while, nobody has. Pinkie…it's really starting to get to her. Has she said anything to you?"

"I haven't seen any more of Rainbow Dash than you have," Blake said.

"But you're roommates," Twilight protested.

"Which is why she leaves early and comes back late," Blake said. "She doesn't want to talk to me."

"She doesn't want to talk to anybody, it seems like," said Twilight. "But that doesn't mean that she shouldn't talk to anyone. There's something wrong and I, and we…look, I know that this is very selfish but could you go and talk to her? Find out what's wrong, see if there's anything that any of us can do to help?"

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Blake asked. "Are you sure that this isn't something that Dash needs to work out for herself?"

"No," Twilight said. "I don't know because I don't know what the problem is, but I do know…that is I don't think that you should leave a friend to face their problems all alone."

"Then why don't you talk to her?" Blake asked.

"Because…because you're a huntress," Twilight admitted. "As much as we all love Rainbow Dash, there will always be a part of her life that we don't really understand as much as I tried to; and I think that it's the huntress part of her life that is the source of the trouble, considering the circumstances. I suppose you might call me a coward, call us all cowards even, but I really do think – at least I hope – that you'll be able to understand her, get through to her, because in some ways you _do_ understand her, at least that part of her, better than we can."

"Applejack's a huntress too," Blake pointed out.

"I know," Twilight acknowledged. "But Applejack…Applejack's worried that this is her fault, that Rainbow Dash blames her for taking her place in General Ironwood's confidence. She's afraid that if she tries to interfere she'll only make things worse." She sighed. "If you don't want to do it-"

"I didn't say that," Blake replied. "Although I can see how it might have seemed that way. I'm just surprised that you would ask me, when I've known her for so much less time than any of you…but now that you explain it I can understand why. And I can understand…I'm worried about her too. I just wasn't sure that it was my place to interfere until now."

"And now?" Twilight asked.

"Now…" Blake hesitated for a moment. It seemed as though she had always felt like it wasn't her place to interfere when it came to watching her friends spiral out of control, losing their better selves to the darkness within. Adam, Ilia, even Sienna Khan; she had watched all of them succumb to bitterness and anger, the noble intentions with which they had set out curdling into a desire for revenge against anything and everyone connected with their oppression and their pain. She watched it happen time and again and every time she had told herself that it wasn't her place to interfere, that they wouldn't appreciate it, that they needed to work these things out for themselves.

No more. Not here. Not Rainbow Dash.

"I'll talk to her," Blake promised. "And I'll try and persuade her to talk to the rest of you as well." If necessary she would persuade her by dragging her into Sugarcube Corner tied to a post.

She wasn't going to lose Rainbow Dash. She wasn't going to lose another friend to the poison of anger. She wasn't going to stand by and watch another hero fall from grace.

 _Rainbow Dash didn't turn her back on me when I was lost. How can I do any less for her?_

"Yes!" Twilight cried. "Thank you, Blake. I know that I don't have any right-"

"You've got every right," Blake said. "You're my friend, and so is Dash…and I've left her alone for too long. I…I don't know what kind of darkness she's in, but I won't stop until I've helped her. It's the least I owe her."

 _And all the others whom I failed to save._


	202. Rainbow Lollipops

Rainbow Lollipops

One Month earlier…

Rainbow Dash knelt on the floor of General Ironwood's office. Blake knelt upon her left, and Penny upon her right.

Ciel wasn't with them; it was a great honour to swear their oaths as huntresses before General Ironwood himself, but it was an honour that Ciel had declined; honour was less important to her than her faith, and so she was taking her oath tonight at some church in Atlas.

The other two huntresses of Team RSPT, plus Blake, had accepted the general's generous invitation. No matter how unworthy they were to receive it.

That last thought was more for Rainbow Dash than for either of the two companions who knelt beside her. No one could doubt the worth of Penny Dragonslayer, hero of Atlas and saviour of Vale – at least as far as Atlas saw it, and they were back in Atlas, so who else's opinion mattered? – to not only bear the name of huntress but also to be given that title by none other than the illustrious General Ironwood himself. As for Blake, while her deeds were less grand and glorious, she had played her part as well as anyone and better than many. She had been at the Breach, she had been present at the capture of Roman Torchwick, she had protected Cadance from the White Fang.

And she had committed herself to Atlas, heart, body and soul; at the moment, that felt like more than Rainbow Dash could say for herself.

No, the question of worth or the lack of it did not surround Penny or Blake. They only belonged to Rainbow Dash, who had known the truth for so long and done nothing. Who had by her silence betrayed the man who had believed in her more than any other, and done more for her than any other.

It was a good thing that she was knelt upon the floor with her head bowed. She didn't think that she could stand to look at him right now without cringing away in shame.

"Are you prepared?" General Ironwood asked.

"Yes, sir," Blake whispered.

"Ready, general," Penny declared.

 _No, I'm not ready at all._ "Yes, sir," Rainbow lied.

There was a moment's pause before the general spoke again. "By Winter," he said. "I charge you to endure all hardships, on behalf of all those who cannot endure."

"By Winter, I swear that I shall be a shield for Atlas and for all mankind," the three young huntresses declared as one. "I shall bear all blows, and withstand the biting of the wind and the fierce fangs of the enemies of Atlas; I shall stand between my kingdom and misfortune, and no foe shall pass me while I live."

"By Spring," General Ironwood said. "I charge you to master your fears and go forth to battle against all darkness."

"By Spring, I swear I shall make courage my sword, and with it I shall strike down all those who dare to raise their arms against the power of Atlas."

"By Summer," said General Ironwood. "I charge you to bring hope to those who have none, and to be a light in dark places for all those whom you fight for."

"By Summer, I swear that I shall be a light in dark places, when all other lights go out," the young huntresses vowed. "And with that light I shall burn away the shadows that gather all around us until none remain."

General Ironwood took pause again, for a moment or two. "By Fall," he said. "I charge you to be upright, just and honourable, to be the benchmarks of virtue and the exemplars of all our values."

"By Fall," Blake said, and Penny too. "I swear that I shall uphold all the values of Atlas until my dying breath; that I shall be generous to my friends, fierce to my enemies, and just and honourable to all the world; that I shall be loyal, faithful, true and honest to my superior officers; that I shall be kind to those who shelter under my protection; that as I have sworn to be a light, I shall be a light worth emulating." Blake sighed when she was done, as though a great weight had been lifted off her shoulders, as though she had been washed clean of all her past sins and now stood reborn in grace and virtue.

Only Rainbow did not speak; she alone of the three of them was silent. She could not say it. She could not complete the oath. The words stuck in her craw, as if they were aware of her guilty little secret and sought to prevent her from giving false oath. For how could she swear an oath when she had already broken it? Faithful, true and honest? She had already proved that she was none of those things when she had betrayed General Ironwood for Sunset's sake. A good man, a second father to her and she had lied to him for months for Sunset Shimmer! She had lied, she had been disloyal, and she had betrayed everything that a huntress – still less a huntress of Atlas – ought to stand for.

Everything that Applejack, Maud, Spearhead, her friends who had helped her reach this point stood for.

She had betrayed the trust not only of General Ironwood but…of everyone who had ever trusted her.

"Rainbow Dash?" General Ironwood said. "Is something wrong?"

 _I don't deserve to take this oath. I don't deserve to wear this uniform._ Rainbow squirmed on the ground where she knelt. She found her voice, stammering and stumbling. "By Fall," she said, slowly and softly and so uncertainly she was like a newborn filly stumbling as she tried to walk. "I swear that I shall…shall uphold all the values…the values of Atlas until my dying breath; that I shall be generous to my friends, fierce to my enemies, and just…just and honourable to all the world; that I shall be….loyal…faithful…true…and…honest to my superior officers; that I shall be kind to those who shelter under my protection; that as I have sworn to be a light, I shall be…I shall be…I shall be a light worth emulating." _Some chance of that now._

While Blake seemed to have felt blessed and renewed by having completed the oath, Rainbow only felt as though the weight upon her shoulders had increased until she was in danger of being crushed by it.

"Do swear, faithfully and honourably, to bear true allegiance to the Kingdom of Atlas, its councillors and the officers appointed under them, that you will, as in duty bound, honestly and faithfully defend the Kingdom of Atlas and all its citizens in person, honour and dignity against all enemies, and will obey all orders of the generals and officers set over you?"

"I, Blake Belladonna-"

"I, Rainbow Dash-"

"I, Penny Polendina-"

"Do solemnly make that oath," they declared.

"You knelt as children," General Ironwood said. "Now, as a huntsman and an officer of the Kingdom of Atlas, I bid you rise as huntresses, and as Specialists Junior-Grade in the Atlesian military. Congratulations."

It ought to have been one of the happiest moments of Rainbow Dash's life, but as she got to her feet, a huntress and a specialist, all she could feel in her mouth was bitterness.

And it was all directed at herself.

* * *

"And they hop?" Fluttershy said. "Like bunny rabbits?"

"Yeah," Blake said, albeit with a touch of uncertainty in her voice. "Like very big, territorial, occasionally dangerous bunny rabbits. And they have these pouches where…"

Rainbow Dash tuned out the rest of what Blake was saying. She was sitting on the couch, holding forth to an enraptured Fluttershy and Rarity about Menagerie, the homeland of the faunus, alternating between descriptions of all the weird wildlife they had way down under, and the different kind of fancy fashions that the faunus wore. Maybe holding forth was a little bit strong; everything was pretty hesitant, couched in 'it's a little like' or 'from what I remember' because Blake wasn't a fashion expert and it had been a while since she'd last set foot on Menagerie, never mind seen any of the crazy critters she was trying to tell Fluttershy about. But Rarity and Fluttershy both seemed to be getting a lot out of it, and Rainbow was sure that someone would come to Blake's rescue if she looked like she needed the assist.

But she wouldn't get it from Rainbow Dash; she wasn't feeling in the mood for that right now.

She wasn't feeling in the mood for much of anything, least of all a graduation party, but here she was in the living room – which also included the kitchen – of the apartment that Pinkie shared with her sister Maud when the latter was in town, with music echoing off the walls.

It was a pretty big apartment, so big that the only explanation for how a student and an assistant in a mom and pop store could afford it was that their parents were helping them out, but it wasn't big enough for Rainbow Dash right now.

She really didn't want to be here. She didn't want to be listening to this music, she didn't want to be eating this cake, she didn't want to be celebrating this thing that she had no right to have, let alone celebrate. How was she supposed to celebrate becoming a huntress when she had no right to even be a huntress? How was she supposed to celebrate with her friends when so many better people weren't around to celebrate with their friends? When their pictures were pinned up on the These Are My Jewels memorial because of what she'd done, or not done?

Because this was partly Maud's apartment, the party included Maud's friend Starlight and her two non-traitor team-mates, because it would have been rude to have invited Starlight but not them. Twilight was in the middle of an animated conversation with Sunburst, while Starlight hovered in a vaguely jealous way nearby, occasionally saying something to Maud who seemed okay with being otherwise ignored. Trixie was entertaining the kid sisters with a self-aggrandising story about her great and powerful exploits, interleaved with the magic tricks that she was genuinely pretty good at. Ciel had politely declined the invitation – something Rainbow wished she'd had the guts to do – because she was going out to dinner with her folks. Penny was dancing, while Applejack had been talking to Pinkie…only Applejack was on her own right now which meant that Pinkie was-

"Hey, Rainbow Dash!" Pinkie declared as she suddenly appeared at Rainbow's side. "Are you enjoying the party?"

"Uh, yeah," Rainbow lied. She forced some laughter out of her mouth. "It's as great as always."

Pinkie blinked. "You don't look like you're having fun. You're standing here against this wall all by yourself."

Rainbow turned ever so slightly away from Pinkie, hoping that she would take the hint. "I just wanted to be alone for a little while."

"But why?" Pinkie pressed. "Do you not like the music?"

"The music's fine, I just-"

"Then is it the cake? Because if you don't like the cake then I can make you something-"

"There's nothing wrong with the cake, Pinkie, I just…I should go," Rainbow said, as she started to make her way to the door.

"Go?" Pinkie repeated. She grabbed at Rainbow's arm to stop her from leaving. "But you can't go now; we're only just getting started."

Rainbow half-turned back to Pinkie, glaring at Pinkie's hand upon her arm. "Pinkie, let go of my arm."

"Not until you tell me what's gotten into you."

"Pinkie," Rainbow growled. "You need to let go now."

Pinkie pouted. "Rainbow Dash, I planned this party to celebrate your-"

"Well I didn't ask for any stupid party and I didn't want one either!" Rainbow snapped, throwing her plate with its mostly uneaten slice of cake across the room. It hit one of the baby blue walls; the plate shattered with a tinkling sound as the wall was stained by the cake which fell with a plop to the floor.

Everyone was staring at them now as Pinkie recoiled, releasing Rainbow from her grip. "S-stupid?" Pinkie murmured, her voice suddenly very childlike.

"People died, Pinkie," Rainbow declared. "People died, good people. And I can't stand here and eat cake and pretend that everything's fine and those people didn't die because…because I got lucky enough not to be one of them. I can't do it."

Tears began to well in Pinkie's innocent blue eyes. "I only wanted to make you happy," she whispered.

Rainbow cringed as guilt stabbed her through the heart as sharp as any dagger. Everyone was staring at her, wide-eyed and open mouthed; some of them were looking at her accusingly, and it wasn't as though she didn't deserve it.

"I should go," she repeated, and left the apartment before anyone else could try to stop her, slamming the door behind her as she walked quickly – only a little shy of running – down the corridor and started down the stairs to the base and exit from the apartment block.

"Now what in the hay was that?"

Rainbow turned on the stairs, to see Applejack at the top, glowering down at her.

Rainbow scowled. "Tell Pinkie I'm sorry for what I said, but-"

"First, if you're sorry you can come back and tell her yourself," Applejack said. "Second, you know if anybody else talked to Pinkie like that, you'd be the first one to call them out on it, so just what in tarnation is eatin' you?"

"I can't tell you that," Rainbow said. "But...I will go back up and apologise to Pinkie," she conceded, as she began to trudge back up the stairs.

 _I guess it's the least that I can do, since I don't have the courage to say goodbye._

* * *

Present Day…

The Mantle School Run had a reputation amongst huntsmen and huntresses as being the milkiest of all milk runs. Deep in the second heart of Atlas, holding a big red STOP sign while all the kids crossed the road was no great test of even an inexperienced huntsman's abilities, and the chance of anything worse than an impatient driver was practically nil. This was Mantle, and as Rainbow Dash waited at the first crossing for the children to arrive she did so while under the shadow of the _Defiant_ , flagship of the Mantle Squadron, the rest of which she could just about make out through the smog and the haze thrown up by Mantle's industry to choke the sky; and in between the rising towers and the smoke-belching chimneys Rainbow could catch glimpses of Mantle's final and highest wall in all its might.

Mantle didn't have a large hinterland like Vale, and so unlike, Vale it didn't have a defensive line way out beyond the boundaries of the city proper at which the grimm could be stopped – or tried to be stopped, at least - what it did have was a triple layer of walls, each wall higher and better supplied with turrets and gun emplacements and the like than the one in front of it and the space between each walls as perfect a killing ground as Atlesian science and technology could devise. Nothing was getting past the Colton Walls in one piece, and certainly nothing was doing so to trouble the little kids on their way to school.

No, this was a milk run, and the fact that Rainbow Dash was standing here with her STOP sign tooled up to go to war, with her wings strapped across her back and chest, her auto-pistols in their holsters and a shotgun slung behind her was not indicative of the fact that she expected to use any of these weapons. In fact, she could understand why a lot of huntsmen on this assignment left their weapons at home for this one, but she was a huntress - and an Atlesian Specialist, however unworthy of the title - and she meant to be ready for anything that might come her way, however unlikely.

Plus, it made her look kind of ridiculous, and looking ridiculous was half the point of this exercise: since she couldn't find a mission on the job board that might kill her, she had started looking for ones that would murder her pride and put it through a mincing machine instead.

You see, the Mantle School Run had a reputation as a milk run, but amongst huntsmen and huntresses – particularly young huntsmen and huntresses – that wasn't the only reputation that this particular assignment had: this was the assignment where you would get to meet the Mantle Moms.

Although who exactly the Mantle Moms were – beside the fact that they were moms who lived in Mantle, obviously – was a little harder to get a handle on. Rufus had seemed to have a grand old time taking this mission on; he said the ladies gave him lasagnes and now he had a freezer full of them. On the other hand, Sunburst had come back from a few days on the School Run looking more traumatised than he had been after the Battle of Vale – seriously, dude looked like he'd seen some stuff – and Starlight had been angrily insistent that he was _never_ doing that again.

Rainbow doubted that she was that upset over lasagne. No, these ladies seemed to appreciate having a huntsman around if you- oh, gods that sounded gross just in her head. Poor Sunburst, he really wasn't the kind of guy for that; Rainbow didn't doubt that there were some huntsmen who would take this mission on and come away with a scroll full of numbers – someone like Flynt, rest his soul – but mild-mannered, slightly put-upon Sunburst wasn't one of them.

Rainbow wasn't one of them either, even leaving gender aside. She didn't know how the Mantle Moms would react to having a huntress around, but whatever they did to her would probably be no less than she deserved.

She deserved a lot after all.

"Rainbow Dash!"

Rainbow turned, to see Blake walking quickly towards her down the sidewalk. Rainbow scowled, but unfortunately, Blake had been really sneaky about this; Rainbow couldn't leave her post until the children arrived and the mission actually started, so until that happened, Rainbow was stuck here…with Blake.

It was irritatingly clever.

Although why she wanted to corner Rainbow Dash was a lot less clear than how she had done it.

"How did you know I'd be here?" Rainbow demanded as Blake approached.

"I pulled your mission logs," Blake said simply.

"Of course you did," Rainbow muttered. "Why, though? What are you doing here? This isn't a mission that requires two huntresses."

"I'm not here to help you walk the children to school," Blake said with a touch of impatience in her voice. "I'm here to talk to you."

"Why?" Rainbow demanded in a surly tone.

"Because that!" Blake said loudly. "Because we're supposed to be roommates and the most I ever see of you is a shadow in the dark when you come back at night, because you've been acting out ever since we got back from Vale, because your friends asked me to come and speak to you because you've been ignoring them ever since graduation. Because you were there when we promised Twilight that we'd all stay friends, but ever since, you've been ignoring everyone who cares about you. Because they're scared for you, and they're worried about you, and so, they asked me to talk to you about what's up. And don't tell me that nothing at all is up. because I know better. I don't need to know you as well as Twilight to know that something's wrong."

Rainbow snorted. "Sometimes, Twilight could stand to mind her own business."

"That doesn't sound like you either," Blake insisted. "Rainbow Dash, what is going on?"

Rainbow scowled. She looked away from Blake. "It doesn't matter," she said. "You should go; this kind of mission is beneath you."

"Beneath me?" Blake repeated. "What about protecting children, about reassuring people that they're safe from the grimm, could possibly be beneath me?"

"People don't need a huntress to reassure them that they're safe," Rainbow said. "They can just look up at that cruiser. Any bum could hold this sign."

"Then why do they pay a huntsman to do it?"

"Because they're stupid, how should I know what people in Mantle are thinking?" Rainbow yelled.

Blake folded her arms. "We both swore to bring hope, and light into dark places."

"I remember the oath we swore," Rainbow muttered.

"This?" Blake said. "This is exactly the kind of thing that huntresses should be doing, and if you don't see that, then maybe I should stick around."

Rainbow smirked. "You want to hold my sign?"

"I want to know why, if you think so little of this mission, you took it," Blake said coldly.

"Forget Twilight," Rainbow said. "Maybe you're the one who needs to mind your own business."

Blake's ears flattened angrily against the top of her head. "Why? Because I care about you?"

"Because I don't need you, or anybody else, to tell me what an Atlesian huntress is supposed to be," Rainbow snapped. "And I certainly don't need you to tell me all the ways that I'm not measuring up!" She was not quite so lost as to say this out loud, but a part of her couldn't help bitterly wondering how it was that Blake Belladonna, of all people – Menagerie-born, White Fang terrorist – was now in a position to look down on her for not upholding the ideals of Atlas that she now embodied so effortlessly.

 _Because I betrayed those ideals, that's how._

Blake's expression softened. "'Not measuring'…you have to start making more sense than this; you have to talk to me."

"Maybe I don't want to talk to you or to anybody else."

"Too bad," Blake said sharply. "You know…I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you."

Rainbow glanced at her out of the side of her eyes, waiting for her to explain what she meant by that.

"When I was…with the White Fang," Blake murmured, and even now her voice wasn't free of guilt whenever she brought that up. "I used to think that the soldiers of Atlas were…I'll be honest, I thought that even the ones who weren't actual robots were kind of…robotic. Automatons, heartless, even a little soulless, obeying the orders of your corporate paymasters without question."

Rainbow scowled. "You know, in spite of what Sienna Khan might have told you, we are not an outsourcing of SDC Corporate Security. We are…" she thought about how Cadance had phrased it once, praising her for the path that she was embarking on when she got into Atlas. The praise stung her soul now, but the words were ringing nevertheless. "We are the embodiment of the kingdom at war."

"I know," Blake said. "Well, maybe not that part specifically, but I know that you're not SDC. You're so much more than that and so much better than I could have imagined. You showed me what it meant to be an Atlesian huntress, to be a part of something great and powerful, an engine of good and change without sacrificing myself."

"Ciel-"

"Isn't the one who inspired me to be here," Blake said. "You are."

Rainbow snorted disdainfully. "Why? Because I'm a faunus?"

"Yes," Blake replied unabashedly. "I thought that being a faunus in the service of Atlas would mean constant compromises with who I was, but you…you proved me so wrong about that. And…and after the Breach, when I was wounded in more ways than just my hand…you made me get the help that I needed. I'm standing here because you didn't give up on me, either when I was in interrogation or when I was in hospital…and so I'm not going to give up on you, and I'm not going anywhere until you talk to me."

"Gee, thanks," Rainbow replied with evident sarcasm. "So why you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean if Twilight's so worried about me why doesn't she come down here herself?" Rainbow demanded.

"Do you think I'm lying about that?" asked Blake, her voice prickling at the suggestion.

"I think that if it turned out you were the only friend I had left, I wouldn't be too surprised," Rainbow said. _And I wouldn't even feel hard done by either._

Blake folded her arms. "If you really think that one blowout and some ghosting is enough to make your friends turn their backs on you then you don't know them as well as I thought."

"Okay, so back around to it then: why you?"

"They think that whatever's bugging you is a huntress thing," Blake explained. "And I think they're right, now. Twilight thought – wrongly – that you might talk to me because I get it."

"And Applejack wouldn't get it?"

"Applejack," Blake said, her words becoming as pointed as the tip of Gambol Shroud. "Thinks that you're mad at her."

Rainbow blinked. "Applejack…thinks I'm mad at _her_?"

"Because she's the one in General Ironwood's confidence," Blake said. "Instead of you."

"Or you," Rainbow replied, unable to keep all of the bitterness out of her voice. "You never considered that I might be mad at you, too."

Blake's eyes narrowed. "Should I have worried?"

"No," Rainbow spat. "And neither should Applejack; I'm not mad at _her_. General Ironwood needs somebody he can trust at his side."

Blake was silent for a moment. "What did you do, that you're so mad at yourself?"

Rainbow exhaled through gritted teeth. "I…I knew. About Sunset. About the Breach. About…about everything."

Blake was quiet for a moment. "When?" she asked, the single word soft as it was solitary.

"I saw her do it," Rainbow answered. "Use her powers on the controls. I was standing in the doorway to the cab. I should have stopped her, but I didn't; I should have told General Ironwood the moment the battle was over, but I didn't do that either. I let Sunset talk me into keeping quiet about it. I let her turn my head right around until I…I didn't do anything at all, and I didn't even let it bother me."

"But you told him now," Blake murmured.

Rainbow nodded. "I…after the memorial service, I…I couldn't hold it in any longer. The general, he…he wasn't mad that I choked on the train, although maybe he ought to be. But he was very mad that I kept it to myself, and he's got every right to be. That's why I'm not upset at Applejack; I deserved to lose General Ironwood's trust after what I did…didn't do."

"He trusts me," Blake said, in a deliberately humble, slightly plaintive tone.

Rainbow frowned at her. She was confused by the relevance of that, especially since Blake sounded as though she was trying not to brag. It took her a moment to grasp what Blake was actually saying. Her eyes widened. "You knew too?"

Blake nodded silently.

"How?" Rainbow demanded.

"I worked it out, when the accusations against Penny started," Blake said. "I knew that it wasn't Penny, because she was down at the other end of the train with the rest of us…but Sunset's energy beams are quite similar to Penny's lasers."

Rainbow put her hands on her hips. "So what did you do about it?"

"Nothing," Blake admitted, bowing her head as she did so. "I let Sunset-"

"Talk you into keeping her dirty little secret," Rainbow finished for her. "No harm was done, it all worked out in the end, nobody really believes that Penny was responsible for this. Sound about right?"

Blake nodded silently.

"Yeah, she's got a real silver tongue, doesn't she?" Rainbow spat. "Does General Ironwood know?"

"I told him before the fleet left Vale," Blake said. "I wanted him to know what he was getting…so he could decide if he didn't actually want it. He…forgave me."

"Probably because you weren't Atlas then," Rainbow said. "He didn't expect you to be…He holds his soldiers to a higher standard. He won't go so easy on you again."

Blake didn't dispute that directly, but she did say, "I'm sure that he'd forgive you, too, if-"

"I don't want him to forgive me; I want him to start trusting me again," Rainbow declared sharply. "Not much chance of that."

Blake said nothing either to agree or disagree with that. Instead, she said, "I still don't see what this has to do with your friends?"

"How was I supposed to enjoy a party knowing that good guys like Flynt and Neon were dead because of me?" Rainbow demanded.

"That wasn't Pinkie's fault," Blake pointed out.

"I know that!" Rainbow snapped. "I just…I don't deserve my friends, not after what I did."

"Your friends are the most understanding, forgiving people I have ever met," Blake began.

"That doesn't mean that I deserve…that I ought to be forgiven," Rainbow growled.

"Twilight-"

"I know what Twilight said when it all came out," Rainbow said. "I…I'd like to think that that was because she hadn't really thought it through."

"But you have?"

"I've given it a lot of thought, yeah," Rainbow growled. She sighed. "I love my friends. I'd do nearly anything for them, I'd die for them, those five…those girls are the best part of me. But…do you suppose that somewhere in Vale there's a Mom and Pop bakery, and a girl who works part time in the kitchen who the Mom and Pop love like she was their own daughter?"

Blake frowned. "I suppose…it doesn't seem too unique a scenario."

"How about a girl who dreams about being a trend-setting fashionista, the kind where everyone knows her name all the other world; the kind of girl who acts all high class even though her family…really aren't?"

"You mean, like Rarity?"

"Sunset chose the only friends she had in the world over the world," Rainbow said. "That's…that's a nasty move, but I can see why she did it. Huntresses are the only friends, the only family, that she knew, and she chose to protect her family. That's…that's who she is. But I have friends who aren't huntresses, and I chose to put my team over people just like my friends living in Vale."

"You didn't make that choice," Blake said. "Sunset did."

"I let it happen," Rainbow said. "And then I covered it up. How am I supposed to wear this uniform after what I did?" Her expression tightened, and she looked up at the skies and the cruisers floating above the haze. "For half my life," she declared, "all I ever wanted was to be an Atlesian specialist. Ever since Twi's brother gave me the idea. I was just kind of bumming around their house, I didn't know what to do, how I could repay what Twilight's folks had done for me. It was Shining Armour who suggested I could apply for Combat School; he told me that if I worked hard, then I could go from Canterlot to Atlas to wearing this uniform. He said it would be a way for me to make something of myself." Rainbow grinned. "Twilight…Twilight wasn't too happy when she found out about it, but I…I wanted to prove that I was worth the effort they'd taken with me. I wanted to prove to all of them: Twilight, General Ironwood, my friends; I wanted to prove that it was worth it, all of the trust and all of the help. I wanted to make them proud of me. And now…now that I've finally got this uniform I don't deserve to wear it."

"Then why are you wearing it?" Blake asked.

"Because the general won't let me quit," Rainbow said flatly. "I don't know why."

"Because he hasn't given up on you," Blake said. "Just like I won't give up on you. Just like your friends won't give up on you, even if there are times when you wish they would."

"You don't understand-"

"Sure, because I've never done anything in my life that I regret," Blake said, in a pan so dead it was practically exsanguinated.

Rainbow's jaw tightened. "So how do you do it? How do I take this back? How do I make this go away?"

"You can't," Blake admitted. "We can't change our pasts. We have to live with the bad – all of the bad."

Rainbow's shoulders slumped. "Then what am I supposed to do?"

"Better," Blake said. "You're supposed to do better from now on. Like I'm trying to do better, here in Atlas."

"You are doing better," Rainbow said. "You're doing so much better it's kind of annoying how good you are. Especially when I'm…not. Since you've got all the answers, I don't suppose you know how I can get General Ironwood to start trusting me again?"

Blake shrugged. "Sorry, I don't know about that. It means a lot to you, doesn't it?"

"I'd say that it means everything to me except, if that was true I wouldn't have betrayed it in the first place, would I?" Rainbow asked. "I feel like…I didn't quite appreciate it until I didn't have it any more."

"I think you're being too hard on yourself," Blake said. "But I know what you mean. We don't always appreciate our parents…until after we've rejected them."

Rainbow let that pass without comment. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do, Blake."

"You can't stew on it," Blake told her.

"Then what am I supposed to do?" Rainbow demanded. "The general won't punish me even though I deserve it. If he gave me the rogues' march and tossed me out on the street, then at least I could tell myself that I'd gotten what I deserved, but he won't punish me, and he won't…I can't see any way that I can get his trust back and without that…what am I supposed to do _but_ stew on it?"

"And taking missions that you don't like and don't respect the need for is supposed to help how?"

"If General Ironwood won't punish me, then I'll just have to punish myself," Rainbow declared.

Blake stared at her evenly. "To be perfectly honest, the fact that you think this is a punishment shows…you kind of need to do this mission anyway. But don't pretend that this is going to help because it won't."

"So what will help?"

"Talking to your friends!" Blake cried. "You don't have to tell them what you did, but you do have to let them back into your life, or else…it won't end well, trust me. I've seen too many good people ruined by anger to let you end up the same way."

Rainbow Dash was silent for a moment. She did want to talk to the girls again, even if she was afraid that they would reject her after what she'd done – to Pinkie, not on the train; she wasn't sure she had the guts to tell them about that. But that would still leave her right where she was, on the outside of General Ironwood's circle looking in, and no way to find the door. "I don't see a way out of this."

"We'll find it together," Blake promised. "Every step of the way."

Rainbow nodded slowly. "When this mission is over," she said. "Do you want to come with me and visit my old team-mate? His name's Spearhead, he used to be on Team Jasper with me and Applejack and Maud."

"Used to be?" Blake repeated. "Your old team got broken up, didn't it?"

"Spearhead and Maud decided that it wasn't for them," Rainbow said. "Maud changed her mind later on, but Spearhead didn't. Considering the guy lost his arm, I can't really blame him. The point is…I haven't gone to see him since…yeah. I probably should have, but I didn't. I…I kind of left him behind. Thanks, for not doing the same to me."

"Don't mention it," Blake said quietly. "So, where is he now?"

"Here, in Mantle," Rainbow said. "He became an artist, I think."

Blake's eyebrows rose. "What kind of art?"

"We'll find out," Rainbow said. "If you're in."

"Sure," Blake said. "I can appreciate art as much as the next person."

"More, cause the next person is me," Rainbow said wryly. She leaned against the wall as she checked the time on her scroll. "The kids should be here soon."

"I'll wait."

"Because you don't trust me?" Rainbow asked.

"Because there's nothing that says this mission can't be completed by two huntresses," Blake replied with a slight smile.

"No, I guess not," Rainbow said. "We can take turns holding the stop sign. So, is this your first time in Mantle? I think it is, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is," Blake said. "It's, uh…" she trailed off a little as she looked around the dingy streets, the smog-choked skies up above, the chimneys rising above them. "It's, uh-"

"A dump?" Rainbow suggested. Mantle might be the second heart of the Kingdom of Atlas, but it was the heart that was all yellow and blackened in places from smoking too much and you only had to take a look around to realise that.

"That's not what I was going to say," Blake said defensively.

"I don't care, you can say it to me," Rainbow said.

"My…I had a friend named Ilia," Blake said. "She was born in Mantle, but her parents were able to get her a place in a prestigious Atlas prep school. When I first came to Atlas, after I was wounded, I understood the way that she talked about it: the wonder in her voice. Now that I've come to Mantle-"

"You understand why her parents wanted to get her away from it," Rainbow finished.

Blake frowned a little. "I understand the distaste in her voice when she talked about the city she was born in. It's…not the nicest place in the Kingdom. Why is Mantle so different to Atlas, or even Canterlot?"

"I don't know," Rainbow admitted. "You could listen to what Robyn Hill has to say about it, but I wouldn't if I were you."

"Robyn Hill?"

"She's a crook with pretensions," Rainbow said. "Claims to be standing up for Mantle against Atlas, always attacking General Ironwood and the Council, claiming that they've got it in for this whole city. If you want to know what's really up with Mantle, you should talk to Rarity."

"Rarity?" Blake repeated. " _Rarity_ is from Mantle?"

Rainbow nodded. "Of course 'I am an Atlas girl at heart, darling' but she was born here. Just like your friend, she got out."

"What happens to the people who can't get out?" Blake asked.

"I…I don't know," Rainbow said.

Anything else that the two huntresses might have said to one another was prevented as the sounds of high-pitched chatter and a multitude of footsteps heralded the approach of Rainbow's charges even before the children – and their infamous mothers – came into view. But come into view they swiftly did, rounding the corner en masse and walking up the street towards the crossing.

It was the children themselves who led the way, a multi-coloured assembly of mop tops all wrapped up in coats and scarves against the chill Mantle air – yes, there was a city wide heating system that made the place inhabitable, but that didn't mean that you wanted to be walking around in a T-shirt when the wind whipped through the streets – heading towards Rainbow and Blake in a gaggle, with the more confident kids striding out in front and the meeker ones hanging back a little closer to their parents.

Said parents came next; they were all women – a place like Mantle, built upon back-breaking mines and heavy industry, tended towards tradition that way even if it seemed a little old-fashioned if you looked at it from a more Atlesian point of view – and like their children, they were wrapped up warm, although their coats eschewed the brighter blues or verdant greens of their children in favour of a palate limited to shades of pink and purple. Some of them clutched disposable coffee cups in one hand, and some of them even had food – Rainbow couldn't make out exactly what food, maybe a bacon sandwich or it could be just a croissant – in the other.

None of them, as far as she could see, had brought her a lasagne. Or a casserole, for that matter.

Rainbow wasn't put off by that – none of these people owed her dinner, after all, and she tended to grab a burger on the way back to Atlas Academy for dinner most nights anyway – but what did bother her a little was the way that the conversation amongst the mothers gradually faded as they saw just who was waiting to take their children to school. Some of their conversation dropped to hushed whispers. One of them even pointed.

She might have liked to believe that they were just disappointed that neither Rainbow or Blake was a cute, young alternative to their disappointing husbands, but unfortunately, she knew better.

 _This is what I signed up for._

"Are you going to be okay with this?" Blake asked softly into her ear.

"Hey! I am great with kids," Rainbow replied. "I have my own fan club, you know." She paused. "I mean, I'm not saying that I deserve one any more, but I've got one. Because I'm good with kids, and they look up to me." _And there is nothing at all weird about the fact that I have hung outside the window and listened to the meetings…once or twice._

One of the children, a little boy with pale flaxen hair, broke away from the pack and ran up towards Rainbow and Blake. Rainbow moved to block his way off the pavement and onto the crossing, with Blake following just a step behind her. "Wait for the others, kid."

The boy looked up at Rainbow and Blake with wide eyes and said, in that loud voice that children use when saying things that few grown ups would dare to utter aloud, said, "What kind of animals are you?"

 _This is what I signed up for,_ Rainbow reminded herself. She reminded herself that he was only a kid and tried to keep her voice even in consequence. "We're not animals; we're faunus. That means we're people, but we come with cool extras."

Blake gave Rainbow a touch of side-eye at that, to which Rainbow shrugged. _What was I supposed to say?_

"My mommy says you should be in a zoo," the boy went on in that same overly loud voice.

Rainbow's mouth hung open for a moment as she glanced at Blake, who returned a look of equal helplessness; yes, it was a terrible thing to say, but were they really going to chew out a five year old?

Fortunately they were spared the need to say anything by an embarrassed squawk from within the crowd of mothers who – along with their children – had nearly caught up with the front runner. "I said no such thing! Timmy! What are you thinking making up stories about me like that?"

"But-"

"No buts! Your father will be hearing about this, young man."

Another of the Mantle women, dark skinned like Ciel and wearing a maroon coat, stepped out of the pack and tiptoed around the crowd of children waiting like penguins in front of the crossing. The woman walked in a way that put Rainbow a little in mind of Rarity, the same sort of strutting step of someone who had style and wanted you to know it too. Her smile, on the other hand, was nothing like Rarity's; it didn't reach her eyes. "Rachel Eick, head of the local PTA," she announced. "I must say, we don't usually get two huntresses here to escort our little ones. Usually one strapping young man is enough." She laughed. "I hope that this isn't a question of quantity over quality."

 _This is_ not _what I signed up for. Thanks, Blake._ "No," Rainbow said. "Ma'am, either one of us would be more than capable of escorting your kids-"

"Then why are you both here?" Ms Eick asked.

Before either of them could answer, a little girl in a light blue coat piped up, "Are you Blake Belladonna?"

"Uh, yes," Blake said. "Yes, I am."

The girl gasped, and started bouncing up and down excitedly on the balls of her feet. "I knew it, I knew it was you!"

Blake's eyebrows rose. "You know who I am?"

"Now that I know what to look for…" Ms Eick murmured. "Yes, it is you, isn't it? You're quite famous, Miss Belladonna: the Princess of Menagerie serving in the Atlesian military. Didn't you know?"

"N-no, I didn't," Blake said softly.

"Are you really a princess?" asked the little girl.

"Um…it's not quite as simple as that-" Blake began.

"If you're a princess then what are you doing here?" one of the other children asked.

"I think that some of _us_ would like an answer to that as well," said one of the mothers, a blonde woman in a red coat.

Blake straightened visibly. "I'm here to fight for the Kingdom of Atlas, as part of the greatest shield of mankind in all of Remnant."

"Oh, very good, did you memorise that from a pamphlet?" the woman demanded. "What I want to know is why we're spending millions of lien to help your people when we still have potholes on our road and I can't get a weekly garbage collection outside my house."

"Speak for yourself," another one of the mothers said. "My sister-in-law moved to Argus last year, and until the CCT gets back online I don't even know if Argus still exists. My husband's worried sick. I can't wait until the network is restored and everything is going to get back to normal."

Arguments began to spread amongst the women of Mantle, mostly disputing the relative importance of restoring the CCT versus the more prosaic concerns of things in Mantle that could have used a little money to touch them up.

"As you can see," Ms Eick said, with a slight roll of her eyes, "not everyone is a fan of the moves that the council has been making."

"Not everyone," the woman in the red coat said, "is a fan of having money spent on animals ahead of our own kingdom. I don't pay my taxes to have it spent on the likes of you and yours."

Rainbow had to give Blake credit: she was mad, Rainbow could see it in her eyes…but only in her eyes. She didn't shout, she didn't argue back, she didn't even clench her fists. She just folded her arms behind her back and said, in the calmest voice that you ever heard. "I'm sorry you feel that way, ma'am."

 _This kingdom has really made something out of you, hasn't it?_

 _I suppose that even if I turned out to be a great big disappointment to everybody, I at least gave Atlas someone it could really be proud of, and that's…not bad, I guess._

"Anyway," Rainbow said loudly, before anyone else could stick their oar in. "It's time to go, so say goodbye to your mommys, kids." She stepped out into the road, holding her red STOP sign so that oncoming traffic – of which there was none right now, but you never knew when a car was going to come racing along – could see it and began to wave the children across the road. "Come on, single file, across the zebra, that's it, hey! No running! Just walk across-"

Rainbow's ears twitched at a sound coming from a street or two away. A sound like…like something growling.

A glance at Blake told her that the other huntress had heard it too. They both turned away from the children and their parents, in the direction from which they thought they had heard the growling sound.

There it was again, something growling, and it seemed like it was a little louder this time.

 _It's probably just a stray dog or something. This is Mantle, there's no way that it could be-_

"Is something wrong?" Ms Eick asked.

"Hey, kids," Rainbow said. "Why don't you go back to your moms for a little bit, okay?"

"What's going on?" asked the little girl who had recognised Blake.

Neither of them bothered to answer her. They had other things on their mind. Blake sidestepped a little closer to Rainbow Dash. "I'll go check it out," she whispered out of the corner of her mouth.

"No, I'll go check it out," Rainbow said. "You stay here and call for back-up if I need it."

"You're supposed to be watching these children."

"You can watch them," Rainbow said. "Okay, kids!" she said loudly. "I'm just going to check out a weird sound down the street, but Princess Blake is going to wait right here with you until I get back! Isn't that great?"

Blake's ears flattened. "You can be a real jerk sometimes," she muttered.

Rainbow didn't bother to reply to that, but set off in the direction of the sound.

And then it came again, and this time, Rainbow Dash was absolutely certain that it wasn't a stray dog making that noise.

Because it wasn't just one creature growling now; it was a lot of them, and they were coming this way.

"What is that sound?" Ms Eick demanded, because the civilians could hear it now too.

"Everybody stay calm," Blake urged.

"We'll stay calm when you tell us what that sound is."

"Is that-"

"It couldn't be-"

"How did-"

They were cut off by the roaring of the pride of sabyrs that rounded the corner and began to charge straight towards the crowd of mothers and their children.

"Blake, call for back-up!" Rainbow yelled, not waiting for Blake's acknowledgement as she charged to meet the grimm, trailing a rainbow behind her as she ran, her trainers almost sliding along the tarmac of the road as she rushed towards the sabyrs faster than the sabyrs could come for her. She still had the STOP sign in her hands, and she used it to brain the first sabyr across the face hard enough to knock it sideways before Rainbow reversed the sign and jammed the long wooden pole into its throat.

Even before the grimm began to disintegrate, Rainbow was already moving, rushing to intercept the second sabyr that was trying to run past her towards the civilians. It saw her coming, but Rainbow was moving faster than the grimm could turn, and she kicked it in mid-flank to knock it on its side as she drew her auto-pistols – who said you didn't need your weapons on the school run? – and fired one pistol on full automatic into the sabyr's head until it died.

She didn't even need to look as, with her second pistol, she filled the third sabyr – the one that was about to leap on top of her – full of holes until it, too, turned to ash and scattered on the wind.

The next one to catch her attention was a little larger. It only had one sabre-tooth; the other was just a cracked stump as though it had lost it in a fight. The sabyr pawed the ground once before it began to lope towards her.

Rainbow didn't bother to paw the ground before she started running. She fired all the remaining rounds left in her pistols but ran out of ammo before it seemed to affect the grimm much at all, and so, she discarded both her guns and clenched her hands into fists.

The sabyr leapt, roaring.

Rainbow leapt, snarling.

The sabyr stretched out its clawed paws to reach for her.

Rainbow swung with her right hook, punching the grimm right in the chest as she let it have it with an aura boom that ripped right through the black and oily monstrosity, scattering its remains upon the wind.

The high-pitched crack of Gambol Shroud drew Rainbow's attention as she landed lightly on her feet. Blake was standing between the civilians and the sabyrs, snapping off shots with her pistol in one hand while in the other hand she held her scroll.

"-repeat, this is Specialist Belladonna requesting immediate reinforcements at the junction of Thirty-fifth and Eighteenth. We have grimm in the city and children in danger!"

"Belladonna, this is Mantle HQ: did you say grimm in the city?"

"Yes!" Blake shouted into her scroll while continuing to fire her pistol.

"Roger that, your request has been forwarded all to units, priority urgent."

"This is Team Tsunami, we are en route, thirty seconds out."

Blake wasn't able to reply as a sabyr got close enough to leap for her... and leapt straight into a solid stone clone of Blake, as the real Blake descended upon the creature from above, Gambol Shroud shifted into sword mode in one hand and her cleaver-scabbard in the other as she dropped spinning, a whirl of blades that sliced clean through the sabyr's back all the way to its belly. Blake landed with perfect poise and precision and flung out her grapple towards a sabyr that was trying to work its way past it, digging into the monster's hind leg and making it yelp in pain as Blake hauled on her black ribbon to pull the beast towards her and into range of her deadly blade.

Rainbow ran back towards the civilians, intercepting the closest sabyr with a kick to the jaw that sent it flying into the air before she finished it off with a blast from her shotgun as she pulled it off her back and blew the grimm's head clean off. The next one was a little tougher and took three shots to finally put down.

The roaring of the remaining sabyrs was drowned out by the roaring of a Skyray as it soared down the street, high speed, low altitude, coming straight towards them. It began to climb upwards just a little as it approached the civilians, but as it passed over the anxious crowd huddled together by the roadside, a solitary figure leapt from out of the airship to land on her knees on the ground in front of the non-combatants.

It was Maud Pie, in her familiar grey dress, wearing her familiarly disinterested expression and speaking in her familiarly disinterested - some might even say bored - voice as she said, "Stay where you are, children."

She placed her hands palms down onto the road, and at her command, the road buckled and bent, the tarmac splitting as the earth erupted upwards in a wall between Maud and the onrushing sabyrs, a wall of stone curving around in a semi-circle shielding mothers and children alike from the savagery of the grimm.

It left Rainbow and Blake on the wrong side of the wall, but they were huntresses; it was all part of the job.

The Skyray had elevated in its approach so that it could back around; it had banked back over the combat and now a second huntress leapt down from out of the transport to land nimbly on top of the wall that Maud had raised.

"Never fear, the Great and Powerful Trixie is here!" Trixie declared, her moon-and-stars cape billowing out behind her as she struck a grandiose pose. She waved her wand around in a circle. "Watch as she makes these monsters disappear!" She pointed the wand directly at a sabyr, and as the roaring grimm leapt at her a jet of flame issued from the end of the wand to consume the monster in the flames.

Sunburst was the next to land, his own cape – considerably less sparkly than Trixie's – barely managing a flutter as he hit the ground unsteadily. His staff was in his hands, and atop the staff gleamed a light blue ice dust crystal. As a sabyr charged at him, he thrust the staff outwards with a kind of grunt, and a rippling stream of ice erupted from his staff to coat the road in front of him, spikes of ice jutting upwards in waves until they had not only engulfed the sabyr's paws, but impaled it through the chest as well.

Rainbow didn't see Starlight Glimmer leap from out of the Skyray; rather she must have jumped down to land behind Maud's earthen barrier because it was over the wall that Rainbow saw her jump in a flying leap that carried her over the wall and across the face of the sun. Green laser beams flew from her carbine, Equaliser, to slice through the grimm and reduce them to swiftly scattering ashes.

She landed on one toe with a dancer's grace, spinning in place, thrusting out her free right arm and she must have copied Maud's geokinetic semblance because as she spun Starlight mentally wrenched a chunk of earth and rock out of the ground, splitting the roadway as she did so, and threw it at one of the larger sabyr's to strike it dead.

Equaliser transformed from a carbine into a lance with a glowing green tip which Starlight thrust into the belly of the last remaining sabyr as it made a final, futile, desperate charge to reach the civilians sheltering behind Maud's wall.

"And the day is saved," Trixie proclaimed. "Thanks to the Great and Powerful Trixie and the unstoppable force of Team Tsunami!"

"We could have taken them," Rainbow said defensively as she recovered her pistols.

"Calling for backup was the right move," Blake replied, as she sheathed Gambol Shroud across her back. "If someone had been hurt-"

"I know, I know, if you paid for a sledgehammer you might as well use it," Rainbow said. "I just don't like Trixie acting like she saved my life or anything."

Trixie winked as she leapt down from off the wall. "Any time, Rainbow Dash."

Blake shook her head. "Thank you for showing up so swiftly," she said, as the sky began to fill with other airships, a mixture of Skyrays and Skygraspers bringing further reinforcements to answer Blake's distress call. Yes, they were a little late, but Rainbow didn't really blame them: when you got a report of grimm in the city, you were liable to overreact. Blake gestured at those airships with one hand. "How did you get here so much faster than anyone else?"

"We'd just completed a mission," Sunburst explained. "Our Skyray was taking us home when we got your message."

"Lucky break, huh?" Starlight said brightly. "But what are you two doing down here in Mantle?"

"Sunburst!" Ms Eick gasped, as she peeked around the earth wall and caught sight of the young huntsman. "You came to save us!"

"Oh great," Rainbow muttered.

"Oh gods," whined Sunburst.

"Oh brother," Trixie moaned, slapping a hand to her face.

As the mothers of Mantle converged around their gallant saviour Sunburst, the sound of Starlight Glimmer cracking her knuckles rose above the hubbub of their chatter.

* * *

After avoiding a PR nightmare – and having handed off the school run to a squad of Military Huntsmen from the _Defiant_ , as more soldiers and androids fanned out to secure a perimeter – the six huntsmen ventured in search of the source of the grimm incursion, heading in what was Blake and Rainbow's best guess as to where they had first heard the growling of the sabyrs.

"I still don't understand how a pride of grimm was able to breach Mantle's defences," Sunburst said.

"It's not a breach," Rainbow replied.

"Well what would you call it when a bunch of sabyrs manage to get into the middle of the city?" demanded Trixie.

"It sounds like a breach to me," Maud observed flatly.

"It's not a breach," Rainbow insisted. "Breaches are…bigger."

"So it's a small breach," Starlight said.

"It's not a breach!" Rainbow yelled. "Breaches happen to other kingdoms, not to ours."

"It doesn't matter what we call it," Blake declared. "The fact is that grimm entered Mantle, and that means that instead of fighting about what to call it, we need to keep calm, do our jobs, and find out how they got inside the walls."

"How could they have broken in through?" Sunburst suggested.

"One pride of sabyrs couldn't break through the walls," Rainbow insisted. "You'd need an army of grimm to do that, and anyway, if the walls had been broken through, then we'd all be going deaf from the alarms going off."

"You have a point," Blake acknowledged. "But then how did they get in here?"

It didn't take them much longer to find out; searching the nearby streets took them to a blind alley, where the first sign of something wrong was a manhole cover that had been ripped free and buried in the wall next to a pipe.

After that it didn't take them long to notice the gaping hole ripped in the alley, a jagged wound in the tarmac leading down into the darkness below.

"Okay, this is starting to feel familiar," Rainbow admitted.

"The sewer," Blake murmured.

"Ugh, and this is Trixie's best cape," Trixie groused.

The six huntsmen gathered around the hole in the earth, looking down into the darkness.

"So," Sunburst said with a nervous laugh. "Who wants to go down into the dark hole to look for more grimm?"


	203. Mantle Sewers

Mantle Sewers

The sewers that ran under the streets of Mantle were wet, dirty, smelly, enclosed and dark, and only the last of those wasn't a problem.

At least, it wasn't a problem for Rainbow Dash, thanks to her goggles which had now descended from atop her head to cover her eyes. Their night-vision mode gave her a clear – if green-tinted – view of the world around her in spite of the lack of light down here, in much the same way that that famous faunus night vision meant Blake looked as comfortable down here as she had been in the street above. Rainbow couldn't say it wasn't a problem for Team TSSM, as they had revealed that it was spelt; Rainbow thought it was a bit of reach to get from there to Tsunami, but then, some teams were just hard to work with when it came to names. In fact, judging by the fact that Starlight, Maud, and Sunburst all had some kind of flashlight out – either in one hand or attached to their weapons – it probably was a problem for them... but then, it was just one of the problems of being down here, and the rest of the problems affected Rainbow and Blake equally with their four allies.

Problems like the fact that it smelled down here; it smelled of exactly what you would expect a sewer underneath a town that wasn't too clean to begin with to smell of, and that smell was getting everywhere. When she got back up to the surface, Rainbow was going to have to put everything in the laundry, including her shoes, but for now, the fact that the smell was getting up her nose and into her throat was the bigger issue. It was all she could do to keep from trying to cough it back up again. Blake was looking a little queasy as well, and Sunburst actually had started coughing more than once since they descended into this underworld.

The smell was the worst – assuming you could see down here anyway – but it didn't feel so great in the sewer either, as they splashed through liquid that Rainbow was not too keen to look down at. Forget laundering her trainers from the smell; they were probably ruined by whatever she was standing in, and the same went for whatever everyone else was wearing over their feet too. She supposed that they should all be glad that none of them were wearing the kind of heels that left your feet bare the way Rarity sometimes did. That…would not have been great down here.

The huntsmen squelched as they moved through the liquid down here, and Rainbow felt that there were times when she had stepped in something a little more solid than normal, something viscous that tried to close around her feet. She didn't think too hard about what that might be. She didn't really want to know.

"There's no sign of any more grimm," Trixie said. "So can we go now? Trixie doesn't really want to stay here any longer than she has to."

"We need to confirm how the grimm got into the city," Blake said. She pulled out her scroll, opened it up, and, well, scrolled through the various apps that she had on it until she found a mapping app that displayed a schematic of the Mantle sewer system for her. As Rainbow looked at it over Blake's shoulder, she felt it would be amazing if Blake could actually understand what she was seeing here, because Rainbow couldn't make ears or tail of it; the whole thing was just a labyrinth of tunnels criss-crossing underneath one another, getting deeper and deeper as they went. Whose idea had it been to build a sewer system this complicated? Was everyone supposed to come down here if the grimm got in like Mountain Glenn?

Rainbow sniffed the stench that passed for air down here. No, nobody would be living down here for any length of time.

Besides, it wasn't like Mantle was going to fall to the grimm. This wasn't Mountain Glenn, this wasn't even Appleoosa; Atlas had had time to dig in here, and they knew how to dig in properly in this part of the world. This sabyr incursion was not the precursor to anything big or scary or dangerous; it was a one-time thing, and soon, Rainbow and Blake were going to find out how it had been done and make sure it didn't happen again.

Provided they could understand the schematics.

"If I'm reading this properly," Blake said, "a lot of these pipes converge into just three much larger pipes which travel underneath the city's defensive perimeter before dumping the city's waste out in the wilds. That must be how the sabyrs got into Mantle."

"But those tunnels were walled off years ago, after the war when they started routing everything through the treatment plant," Sunburst pointed out. "They moved away from dumping waste on the tundra precisely because of the danger of grimm infiltration and the increasing population's water demands."

"If they didn't completely collapse the pipes, the grimm could still use them," Blake replied.

"Maybe; except, of those three pipes, one of them comes out halfway up a sheer cliff," Rainbow said, "and the other two have defences so that the grimm can't come through the tunnels. It's not like nobody ever thought of this stuff before."

"I'm sure that someone did," Blake replied, "but since the wall hasn't been breached, it's the simplest alternative solution." She lowered the hand that held her scroll but made no move to put the device away. "Since there are six of us, I think we should split up by pairs, each take a pipe and follow it through to its exit and see if there's any sign that that is how the grimm got in."

"Just a second!" Trixie cried. "Who put you in charge all of a sudden?"

"Mantle Command tasked us with running point investigating the grimm incursion, since we were at ground zero," Blake reminded her.

"Yes, but Mantle Command didn't give you command authority," Trixie squawked in loud objection. "The Great and Powerful Trixie is in command of this team, and she doesn't intend to give it up to some supernumerary!"

"Oh, come on, Trixie," Rainbow said. "It doesn't matter who's in charge-"

"It matters to Trixie!"

Blake didn't roll her eyes, because she had a lot of self-control like that. "Okay, Trixie, what are your orders?"

Trixie blinked. She looked away from Blake. She coughed into one hand. "Starlight, Trixie has decided that we shall split into pairs and investigate the three pipes that exit beyond the city perimeter. You go with Sunburst; Maud, you'll come with Trixie."

A grin played across Starlight's face. "Understood."

"And wipe that smirk off your face; this is a serious investigation!" Trixie declared. "You two can pair off together," she added, waving one airy hand in the direction of Blake and Rainbow. "And you can take the…" she stopped. "What are the three pipes?"

Blake let out a very small and restrained sigh. "I'll mark them and transmit it to your scrolls."

"Yes, you do that, excellent work," Trixie said. She made her own scroll appear in her hand with a theatrical flourish and waited as Blake marked the three pipes in question – tapping them to turn them red upon her screen – before sending them to Starlight and Trixie, who squinted at the schematics as though they were as incomprehensible to her as they were to Rainbow Dash. "Trixie sees," she murmured, stroking her chin authoritatively. Eventually, she tapped the three marked pipes again, turning one blue, one green and one purple. "Starlight, you take Sunburst and check out this pipe that leads out over this cliff; Maud, you and I will take the northern pipe leading to the river; and you two can take the other."

Rainbow didn't know whether to give Trixie credit or not; she had given the easiest assignment – assuming the sabyrs hadn't climbed a sheer cliff to get into Mantle – to Starlight and Sunburst, because at least she wasn't the kind of leader who saw leadership as a way to take the soft option for herself; on the other hand, Starlight was the best huntress on her team by a way, so it was kind of a waste to send her out on the least likely option.

But it wasn't as though Trixie and Maud couldn't handle themselves, and the same could be said for Rainbow and Blake, so there was nothing to complain about in what she'd decided, even if it wasn't a perfect decision.

"We should stay in touch and share what we find in our searches," Blake said. "Just a suggestion," she added, as Trixie bristled visibly.

"That," Trixie said. "Is not a bad suggestion," she conceded. "Okay, Team Tsunami, move out!"

Blake and Rainbow moved out too, picking their way through the sewage as the smell continued to assail their throats and their nostrils alike. Rainbow drew her pistols from their holsters, holding them down by her sides but ready to bring them up if need be. Blake held Gambol Shroud, also in pistol configuration, out in front of her, while in her other hand, she held her scroll with their location pinging on the map of the sewers.

"You're getting good at this," Rainbow observed as they half-walked, half-waded through the dark tunnel, following the direction in which the liquid flowed past their ankles, flowing towards the exits out of the city.

"Good at what?" Blake asked. "Being a huntress?"

"Yeah, because you were so bad at that before," Rainbow muttered. "No, being a leader. Not losing your cool with the civilians, putting up with Trixie, deciding what to do; it's kind of incredible when you think what a bad leader you were at Beacon."

Blake glanced at her out of the side of her eyes. "You don't know what kind of a leader I was."

"I know your own team couldn't wait to be rid of you," Rainbow said. "I was there for that, remember?"

Blake winced. "Yeah, right."

"I'm not trying to make you feel bad," Rainbow said. "I'm trying to say…you've come a long way. Atlas has been good for you."

"I…I wasn't comfortable leading Team Bluebell," Blake said. "You can't lead people you don't trust. In the White Fang…things weren't quite so bad, but at the same time…there was still a wall between me and the people beneath me. Adam saw to that."

"And now?" Rainbow asked. She hesitated. "Listen, I know that I…I know that we haven't seen each other much…or at all…but you know I've got your back, right?"

"I know you do," Blake said. "When you're around."

Rainbow cringed. "I…look, I'm sorry about that, I just…I was ashamed, and I was angry at myself, and…and every time I looked at you, it just made everything so much worse, because…because you're an ex-White Fang terrorist, okay? And I'm the Ace of Atlas Academy, one of General Ironwood's hand-picked guys, or I was, and…and seeing you become a better soldier of Atlas than me, a model huntress of this kingdom…it made me feel even more ashamed than I already did. So I didn't want to be around you because…because I was afraid that as well as feeling ashamed, I'd start to…feel angry."

Blake was silent for a moment. "And now?" she asked. "Now that you know what I knew, do you still feel that way?"

"Uh, kinda?" Rainbow admitted. "You told General Ironwood everything, and he forgave you. Now I wonder why I couldn't have done that."

"You thought you were doing the right thing."

"No, I was doing the easy thing by keeping my mouth shut and hoping all of this would go away and I wouldn't have to make any hard choices," Rainbow said sharply. "You can't be a leader with that attitude." She snorted. "It's probably for the best, anyway. I was never cut out for the whole leader thing. There's a reason Applejack was the leader in Team Jasper. I'm better at punching things than coming up with strategies."

"There must have been a reason General Ironwood chose you to lead Team Rosepetal."

"He wanted someone he could trust, not necessarily someone smart," Rainbow said. "Only it turns out that I wasn't that trustworthy so…back to punching stuff it is. I hope."

Blake was quiet for a moment, and for another moment after that, and for a while longer as they squelched and splashed through the stinking sewer with the sound of their squelching and their splashing the only sound to be heard between them.

"You don't have to pretend that you're not angry," Blake said. "I came down here to try and help you, not to make you feel like you had to push down everything you feel until it blows you up. If you don't like me-"

"This isn't about you," Rainbow said. "Well, it kind of is, but not like that. Yeah, you make me feel ashamed of myself, but I don't hate you for it. You might just be the best thing I ever do for Atlas, and that…that's something, anyway."

Blake smiled softly, and although it was hard to tell, Rainbow thought she might actually be blushing. "Atlas might just be the best thing that's ever happened to me, too. So thank you for that; whatever else happens, I'll always be grateful."

"You don't need to be grateful to me," Rainbow said, as they splashed through the sewers, the pipe they were traversing growing larger as several pipes converged into one single, larger tunnel; by the time they reached the exit pipe, it would be large enough for a dragon to crawl down. "You just...you just gotta take care of Atlas for me, and the general."

Blake's eyes narrowed. "You're out of favour, not dying. There's no need to sound this melodramatic."

Rainbow grunted. "It's easy for you to stand there and tell me that all I have to do is do better, but it isn't so easy to actually get back to where I want to be."

"I never said it would be easy," Blake replied, "but you can do it." She stopped, her right arm - the arm in which she held the pistol-configured Gambol Shroud - tensing up a little. "What is that?"

Rainbow raised one of her own pistols cautiously as she took a step closer to the thing that Blake had seen ahead of them in the tunnel. Then, when she recognised what it was, she lowered her weapon again. "That is, or was, a sewer gator," Rainbow declared. She said "was," because it was quite clearly dead; not just dead, but killed, although it had been twenty feet long or maybe a little more, that hadn't stopped something - and Rainbow thought she knew what - from slitting its belly open and spilling its guts out into the sewer. It lay half in, half out of the murky, filthy liquid that rushed so swiftly over their feet and lapped around their legs, beached on its back, its still, unmoving eyes open and staring. Its jaws hung open just a little, making it look surprised, dumbstruck by what had happened to it. It looked as though it couldn't believe that its life had changed so much for the worse and so quickly.

Rainbow knew the feeling.

"A sewer gator?" Blake repeated, as though the words were unfamiliar to her, as though Rainbow had suddenly started speaking in a foreign language.

"You never heard of a sewer alligator?" Rainbow asked. "You know, where a kid gets a little baby alligator for their birthday and isn't it cute until it gets bigger and it's not so cute anymore, so the parents flush it down the toilet; then it grows from eating rats and stray dogs until they get-"

"That big?" Blake suggested.

"Even bigger," Rainbow said with relish in her voice. "They say that some of these alligators grow so big that they could swallow a whole ursa major in one bite."

"Really?" Blake said, with undisguised scepticism.

"I don't know if any of them really grow that big," Rainbow admitted. "I just think scary stories like that are cool." Some people thought that was weird, as though just because the world was a scary place, it meant that you shouldn't want to be scared any more than you were already, but that was kind of the point. There was a difference between being scared by a cool ghost story and being scared because a lagarto had almost eaten Rarity, and sometimes, you needed the first kind of scare to calm you down after the second.

Blake seemed to get it, or at least she nodded as though she got it. "Clearly, there's some truth to it, anyway," Blake said. "Although, who buys their child a baby alligator as a pet?"

"Pinkie's got one," Rainbow said. "She won't flush Gummy away, though; I don't know what she'll do with him once he gets this big, but she'll figure it out. Pinkie always does."

"Hmm," Blake murmured. "Do you think it was the grimm who killed this one?"

"I can't think who else it could be," Rainbow said. "I mean, if it had been eating sanitation workers, then maybe a huntsman would have been hired to take care of it, but I haven't seen a mission like that on the board lately."

"Me neither," Blake said softly. "Which suggests we're on the right track." With her thumb, she dexterously switched apps in her scroll from the schematics of the sewers to call Trixie and Starlight. "Guys, we've found a dead sewer alligator down here; we think it was killed by the sabyrs."

"Do you want us to come to you?" Starlight asked.

"No, it's not definitive proof that we're onto the right tunnel," Blake said. "We should all keep searching. I just wanted to keep you informed."

"Understood," Starlight said. "Good luck."

"Nobody get cocky," Trixie said. "We all have to be careful down here."

"We are, Trix," Starlight replied, before hanging up the call. Trixie did likewise.

Blake flicked back to the tunnel map with her thumb. "So we keep going?"

Rainbow nodded. "We keep going."

And that was what they did: keep going, following Blake's tunnel map towards the point where the oldest sewers in Mantle converged upon one of three great pipes to dump the city's waste out into the wilds beyond the walls. And as they walked, through the smell and through the sewage, they found no sign of any more grimm lurking under Mantle, for which Rainbow was very grateful.

"So," she said, as they waded through the labyrinth. "How was the thing with your mom?"

"The treaty signing?" Blake asked, slightly surprised.

"Yeah, that," Rainbow said. She glanced at Blake, to find Blake glancing at her in turn. "Don't look at me like that. Just because I'm not as smart as Twilight or Rarity doesn't mean that I don't know what's going on."

"Sorry," Blake said. "I just...I wasn't sure if you were paying attention. Or interested. But I suppose I did underestimate you."

"Your mom got away okay?"

"Yes," Blake said. "To tell you the truth, it wasn't until she was gone that I realised just how worried I was that something terrible was going to happen to her while she was here, or on the flight out."

"But it didn't, right?"

"No," Blake replied. "No, my mom is fine, the treaty was signed, and everything is on track. So what do you think about it?"

"I think it's a terrible idea," Rainbow said.

"What?"

"Putting a CCT on Menagerie, connecting it to the network?" Rainbow said. "Do you have any idea how much harder my life is going to get once my parents can just call me from their home on Menagerie whenever they feel like it?"

Blake's shoulders shook a little as she laughed. "I'm glad your sense of humour is coming back."

"You think I'm kidding, but my parents are the most embarrassing people in the whole of Remnant," Rainbow declared. "I swear, if I told them they were calling in the middle of a life or death battle, they would still want me to give them a blow by blow account of everything that happened so far." She sighed. "I don't know how I'm going to explain to them just how much I screwed up."

"Speaking of which," Blake said, "I almost forgot: my mom gave me a letter for you from Gilda."

"From Gilda?" Rainbow repeated.

Blake nodded. "She's one of my father's guards now."

"Huh," Rainbow murmured. "Better than what she was doing before, I guess. Okay, thanks; give it to me once we get out of here."

"Right," Blake replied. "So what do you really think? Seriously, about the treaty?"

"Seriously? I think it's awesome," Rainbow declared. "The CCT is going back up, a new huntsman academy, and maybe now folks will start to see that we're not the bad guys. We're the good guys, and we can help them a lot more than the White Fang can if they only give us a chance. Maybe more faunus will apply to Atlas; or even if they don't, now that we're building an academy on Menagerie... it'll be good to see some more faunus huntsmen, 'cause I don't know if you've noticed, but we're kind of rare."

"You're right," Blake said. "About the White Fang, especially; it's my hope that they'll lose their grip on the hearts of the faunus once people see that we can achieve change peacefully, through talking and holding out a hand of friendship, the way my parents always thought we could. Maybe Sienna Khan will even admit she was wrong, although I'm not counting on it."

"If Gilda can change, there's hope for any of them," Rainbow said.

"I hope you're right," Blake whispered softly. "I really hope that you're right, because the alternative... the alternative is that I'll have to kill or watch die people that I called friends, people that I looked up to, people that I cared about. I'd rather it didn't come to that. Once was enough."

Rainbow didn't really know what to say to that, because as much as it sounded like a real downer, Blake was absolutely right: either they'd realise they'd been wrong all this time and give up like Gilda, or else they'd carry on the fight and somebody would have to stop them; there wasn't much of a middle ground there, especially if Atlas was going to get more and more involved in Menagerie.

But she didn't think she wanted to be told that she was right, even if she was right and she knew she was right; and so Rainbow said nothing, and Blake said nothing further, so a silence descended upon the two huntresses, broken only by the splashing, sloshing sounds they made as they followed the onrushing current through the dark pipes of this dank sewer, until they reached their assigned egress tunnel out beyond the city.

The fact that the wall that was supposed to block this tunnel off and stop the grimm using it as an access point had been smashed down was a pretty reasonable indicator that they were on the right track.

"Guys," Blake said, calling Trixie and Starlight on her scroll, "we've found the tunnel wall broken. I think this might be the place."

"Understood," Trixie said. "The Great and Powerful Trixie has found her wall intact, so we'll rendezvous with you as soon as possible."

"Same here," Starlight said. "Don't have too much fun without us."

"No promises," Blake murmured, as she and Dash continued through the broken wall and down the enormous pipe.

The tunnel was vast, wide and tall enough to accomodate the waste of dozens, maybe hundreds of sewer tunnels all flowing into and through it; it was wide enough that you could have marched a platoon down it, wide enough to fly a Skyray through it; wide enough for the giant lagarto that Blake and Rainbow found waiting in the tunnel for them when they got there.

Lagartos resembled the sewer alligator that the two huntresses had found dead in the sewer earlier, just as a grimm; they were quick, mean and vicious, and the worst part was that they liked to hide in the water so you couldn't see them coming half the time. One of their breed had turned out to be living in the lake nearby to Camp Everfree, and if she hadn't discovered her semblance at precisely the right moment, Rarity would have been a goner. This particular specimen was big, the biggest of its kind Rainbow had ever seen, which might be why it hadn't gone any further into the city: it couldn't fit into the smaller tunnels further in. It was completely armoured on top of its body with white scales, as protected there as any deathstalker, with not a hint of black skin to be seen, and although the water in the sewer wasn't deep enough for it to submerge, it was deep enough that its underbelly was concealed, and only a little black along its lower flank and the inside of its legs was visible at all. Its eyes were red, and burned like hot coals.

It roared as it surged out of the sewage, its long jaws snapping shut on Blake, or rather - thankfully - only on the shadow clone that Blake had left in her place as she leapt away, Gambol Shroud snapping as she fired upon the grimm. Her shots ricocheted harmlessly off its armour.

Blake landed nimbly, with only a small splash, by Rainbow's side. "I have an idea," she said. "Can you buy me some time?"

"You mean distract it?"

"Yes."

"You got it," Rainbow said, and she raised both her pistols as she charged for the lagarto, guns blazing. "Hey, ugly! Over here!"

Most of her rounds, like the shots that Blake had fired before her, bounced harmlessly off the white armour coating the lagarto's upper half, but a few of them slammed into the unarmoured lower half where it rose out of the sewage. They didn't really hurt the giant monster, but they got its attention. The red eyes of the grimm burned balefully as it swung its enormous snout towards her. The lagarto displaced the water of the sewer tunnel, making waves as it shuffled to bring all its weight and bulk to bear on Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow grinned.

The lagarto lunged for her, its immense maw opening wide as it scuttled down the tunnel with astonishing speed for such a huge and fat-looking creature, splashing swiftly forwards, growling as it snapped at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow leapt out of the way of those strong, snapping jaws, and as the lagarto's mouth closed around the empty air, she shot at it some more, lest it notice Blake jumping down the creature's side to drive her scythe-like hook deep into its dark, unarmoured flesh. The lagarto tried to catch Rainbow with a swing of its head, to knock her down where it could crush her beneath its bulk, but Rainbow simply hopped up onto the grimm's bony-white head instead.

"Hey there," she said, as she let the monster have it right in one burning red eye.

The lagarto roared as it closed its eye against the bullets that slammed into its head, one white and armoured eyelid descending to protect whatever exactly it was that the grimm used to see with. It roared some more as it reared its head upwards, throwing Rainbow Dash off. She backflipped as she flew through the high-ceilinged and immense tunnel, and since it was hard to skid through all the crud down here in the sewer, she did another backflip as she landed, retreating further as the enraged lagarto charged straight at her, splashing and roaring and blind to all else but the tormenting gnat with multicoloured hair.

Certainly, it was blind to Blake, who was heading the other way to the grimm's onward rush. She leapt up, a great kick carrying her up and through the dark tunnel, her black ribbon trailing behind her. She flew through the stale air, teasing out the line behind her to the hook still buried in the lagarto's skin, and as she flew, she loaded Gambol Shroud with a magazine of ice dust and fired it into the tunnel wall upon her right just as she reached the apex of her leap and gently – turning over and over upon herself, white coat and long black hair seeming to mingle in the spinning circle – began to fall.

The ice rounds struck the wall, coating it with frozen crystals and causing long, clear shards to emerge out of the wall, jutting like the spears thrust out of a shieldwall towards Blake, and over one of those spear-like icicles, Blake's ribbon became caught, so that as Blake fell back towards the watery surface of the tunnel, her ribbon was like a rope harnessed to a pulley.

And Blake began to pull.

The lagarto came to a swift stop, its motion arrested by the force Blake was placing on it from the other side as she pulled with all her might upon the ribbon, trying to pull the lagarto upwards by the hook and expose its more vulnerable belly for their weapons. Blake pulled, and the lagarto stopped; as it slid back a step, it turned its head and saw what she had done. It tried to shake the hook loose, but Blake had driven it home too deep for that. It tried to round on her, but Rainbow Dash dived for one of its massive, trunk-like legs and wrapped one arm around it, wrestling with the mighty grimm to hold it in place as she kept – or regained – its attention with her other hand by emptying all of her remaining rounds into its underbelly.

Blake hauled upon her ribbon. Sweat began to stain her face. It was no good; she just didn't have the strength to lift the massive grimm all by herself.

"Rainbow!" she cried. "I need a boost."

"You got it," Rainbow said, letting go of the leg of the struggling lagarto and flinging herself underneath the massive grimm before it could react; she tried not to think about what all this waste was doing to her beautiful wings as she punched upwards and hit the grimm with an aura boom.

The bang from her expenditure of aura echoed down the tunnel as the grimm was launched upwards, the thrust from Rainbow's attack proving just what Blake needed to haul the creature up into the air like a fish caught on a line.

The lagarto rose, and as it rose, so it left its black and completely unarmoured underbelly exposed for the blade. Blake had pulled the monster into the air but leapt for it, swinging on her ribbon to glide gracefully around the thrashing monsters until she was descending upon its vulnerable gut, cleaver in one hand and Gambol Shroud switching from pistol to sword in the other.

Blake and Rainbow jumped at the lagarto simultaneously, yelling as they hit it with twin flying kicks that slammed the great grimm down onto its back with a splash of sewage, its legs waving helplessly in the air.

Blake buried both sword and cleaver in the belly of the grimm as she ran upwards, dragging her blades with her, slicing up the lagarto's belly all the way to its snout as though she were unzipping a coat.

The grimm let out a last pathetic groan, and like the dead gator the huntresses had found in the tunnel, the grimm looked surprised for a moment before, unlike its cousin, starting to turn to black ashes and fade away to nothingness.

"Nicely done," Rainbow said.

"I couldn't have done it without your help," Blake acknowledged graciously.

"Told you I had your back," Rainbow said. She let out a sigh. "So, I guess we know which tunnel the grimm used to get into Mantle, huh?"

Indeed, it didn't take them long after that to reach the end of the tunnel and find that not only had the heavy mesh over the tunnel entrance been smashed through – probably by the lagarto, with the sabyrs following behind – but the robot sentry guns that were supposed to keep the grimm from getting close to the mesh had been disabled, and most of them had been chewed up, too.

Blake frowned. "How could the defences fail so comprehensively?"

"I don't know," Rainbow muttered. "But we should probably be grateful that it wasn't a lot worse than one pride of sabyrs and one lagarto too big to get any further down the tunnel." Although it occurred to her that a grimm that big would also have been smart enough to know it couldn't move any further into Mantle; probably it was trying to hold the tunnel while it waited for more grimm to show up. Good thing the sabyrs weren't so smart and gave the game away too soon.

They called it in and held the position in case any more grimm emerged from the icy tundra or slithered out of the ice floe-laden river passing sluggishly down below – they didn't – until the two of them were relieved by a company of engineers, who set about repairing the defences while under guard by several specialists, a large force of knights, and Skyrays and even a cruiser hovering protectively overhead.

They had been relieved, and it looked as though everything was in hand now, but nevertheless, Rainbow and Blake did not immediately head to the surface but stuck around, watching as troops were disgorged from the descending airships, and the technicians began to repair or replace the sentry guns and proximity sensors.

And so they were still there when one particular Skyray set down upon the snow, and General Ironwood himself leapt down from the side-hatch, his boots crunching the snow beneath his feet.

He looked around, and as he looked he saw the two young huntresses, who snapped to attention as his gaze fell upon them.

Rainbow felt sweat beat upon her brow in a way that it had not done when she was fighting with the lagarto, or the sabyrs for that matter. The General hadn't spoken to her since…since she confessed. She had no idea what she was to him now, what he felt about her.

She didn't know whether he would ignore her or insult her.

She wasn't sure which would be worse.

"At ease," General Ironwood said as he strode up to them. "Belladonna."

"Sir," Blake said. "I wasn't expecting to see you here."

"Grimm entered one of our cities," General Ironwood said. "Where could I be more important than this? You're the one who discovered this breach in our defences?"

"We both discovered it together, sir," Blake declared.

General Ironwood didn't even look at her, but then he didn't really seem to be looking at Blake either. "This shouldn't have happened," he murmured, more to himself than to either of them. "So how did it?"

The two huntresses, realising that this was not a question that they were expected to answer, kept silent.

General Ironwood, his hands clasped behind his back, turned away from them. "You've done enough for today. Get cleaned up, go home; this situation is under control." He stopped. "And good work. Both of you."


	204. The Armour of Atlas

The Armour of Atlas

"…Military officials were swift to downplay the significance of the grimm incursion in Mantle."

There were bars over the screen projected on the wall in the middle of the street; probably it was to stop people throwing things and damaging the screen, but it did make General Ironwood look kind of like he was broadcasting from prison as he appeared on the TV.

"While it is true that a small force of grimm was able to enter the city, this was due to a localised and short-term failure of the defensive grid that was swiftly found and corrected. Moreover, thanks to the presence of Atlesian huntsmen on the ground, the grimm were defeated without any civilian casualties. My message to the people of Mantle, to the people of our entire kingdom, is a simple one: you are under our protection, and while that remains true, you have nothing to fear."

"However," the newsreader said, their voice echoing out across the street. "Some community leaders in Mantle saw things differently."

"Oh, come on," Rainbow groaned. "Don't tell me they're going to put-"

Robyn Hill appeared on the screen, and on every screen up and down the street, wearing that stupid hobo-chic outfit that had Rarity in fits every time she had to look at it. "Our leaders may wish to characterise this as a localised failure," she said. "They may wish to point out that nobody died – this time."

"Because they didn't," Rainbow growled.

"But that doesn't change the fact that thanks to the negligence of our so-called leaders, grimm were able to enter the midst of our city," Robyn Hill declared. "And the truth is that this is considered acceptable because it's our city, not theirs. Can you imagine this state of affairs being allowed to continue in Atlas? The truth is that General Ironwood sits in the clouds with the rest of the elite. And they prefer to direct their resources to solve the problems of far away people in a far away land than to look down at the difficulties that we face everyday here in Mantle. The truth is that until we have a voice in their councils, we will continue to be disposable in their eyes."

Rainbow rolled her eyes.

"Why do so many people think like this?" Blake asked, her voice soft and touched by a little melancholy. "Why do so many people think that it has to be either or between helping Menagerie and anything else? Why are so many people acting as though my parents have stolen the lien out of their wallets?"

"Because they want something to be mad about," Rainbow replied. "Robyn Hill especially wants something to be mad about, or else she'd have nothing to say, and they'd stop sticking a camera in her face every time something bad happens."

"Robyn Hill?" Blake repeated. "Isn't she the one you mentioned before?"

"Yeah, I think I might have brought her up."

"You said she was a crook."

"She is!" Rainbow declared. _And a traitor to boot._

"Then why is she being interviewed as a community leader?" Blake asked, confusion in her voice.

"Because nothing ever sticks to her," Rainbow growled like an angry dog resisting the urge to bite something. "They – let me tell you something about the Happy Huntresses, okay? Don't believe the hype, none of those clowns could cut it in the military so they hang around Mantle and claim they're protecting the city, but I didn't see them around when the grimm showed up, did you?"

"No," Blake acknowledged. "But it _was_ a surprise."

"They wouldn't have been there if they'd been given a week's notice," Rainbow replied contemptuously. "Everyone knows that they steal from military bases, everyone knows that they hijack convoys, just like everyone knows that they run from anything scarier than an AK-200; only problem is that nobody can prove it. And in the meantime, every chance she gets, Robyn Hill is on TV trying to make General Ironwood look bad. It makes me sick."

Blake wrapped one arm around herself, holding on to her elbow. "Why do you hate them so much?"

Rainbow ran one hand through the fringe of her multi-coloured hair. "You think I'm exaggerating."

"I think you sound pretty mad about this for someone you don't know and don't have much to do with," Blake said, her voice soft, curious without being accusatory. "I've never seen you get this worked up about the White Fang and yet these people...I suppose I'd just like to understand."

 _The White Fang never betrayed the uniform,_ Rainbow thought to herself, but didn't say because she wasn't sure how to explain it to Blake, or even if she wanted to explain it to Blake. Could she explain that Robyn Hill had been the top student at Atlas Academy when Rainbow was starting out in Combat School, how she had been the talk of the whole academy system? Rainbow sighed from between gritted teeth. "I bet…I bet you were always going to be something great, weren't you? Your parents were the leaders of the White Fang, and then…I bet Sienna Khan was teaching you how to lead so that you could be the big boss one day, wasn't she?"

Blake shuffled uncomfortably in place. "Yes, that's…unfortunately true."

"I'm not trying to pick a fight or upset you or anything, it's just how it is," Rainbow said. "Some people are just born special: people like you, people like Pyrrha, nobody's going to let you grow up to be some mediocre nobody that no one knows or remembers. You were born with big dreams riding on you."

"Uh, I suppose," Blake said, uncertainty in her voice. "What does this have to do with the Happy Huntresses?"

 _The point is that Robyn Hill is one of those people; she was like what Pyrrha is to Mistral, that's what Robyn Hill was to all of us studying to get into Atlas and train to become huntsmen and huntresses._ To Rainbow Dash especially. She didn't know a lot of huntsmen outside of her connection through Twilight; General Ironwood - and even Shining Armour to an extent - was too far away to be an example to strive towards, but Robyn Hill? Even if everybody said she was a surefire bet to succeed the general as commander in chief one day she wasn't there. She was still someone that a person like Rainbow Dash could reach for...until she walked away from it all, and spat on everything that Rainbow aspired to reach and on everyone who had admired her besides. Rainbow couldn't forgive that...but she was a little afraid that if she put it like that to Blake it would seem really petty, so she took a different tack with what she actually told her fellow huntress."I wasn't born with anyone's dreams," Rainbow said. "Me and Gilda, growing up in Low Town, we…I'm sure you can guess what we were like."

"I can guess what you're implying," Blake answered. "But I'm having a hard time picturing you as some kind of delinquent."

Rainbow grinned. "Yeah, well…that's the point, isn't it? I got the chance to be something more, to make something more of myself, because of Twilight and especially because of General Ironwood. He saw that I could be somebody and so he helped me along the way because he cares. Because he cares about this kingdom and everyone else in it more than anyone else I know, and I hate seeing people like Robyn Hill talk about him like he's some kind of heartless automaton when I guarantee that he cares a whole lot more than she does, and I hate the way that people like her look down on people like me because we wanted a little more than…this!" she waved her arms to encompass the dingy Mantle street on which they stood. She sighed. "Or perhaps I'm just mad at everyone else because I'm mad at myself. Take your pick. Either way, we should get going." She turned away from the television screen on the wall and continued on her way down the street, thrusting her hands into her pockets as she walked, leaving Blake to catch up with her.

"In other news," the voice of the newscaster followed them away from the television. "Councillor Bradley resigned today on the grounds of his continued ill-health, which he has said made it impossible for him to continue to perform his duties to the kingdom. The councillor, who has served on the Atlas Council for thirty-eight years, suffered a series of strokes beginning a month ago and has been in and out of hospital since. Though as yet unconfirmed, a special election to fill the vacant seat on the council seems likely. Councillor Cadenza paid tribute-"

"Great, more Robyn Hill," Rainbow muttered. "She'll run for that council seat and never be off the news."

"How do you know she'll run?" Blake asked.

"Because you just heard her," Rainbow said. "Talking about a voice for Mantle on the council. She's talking about her."

Blake nodded. "Will she win?"

"I hope not," Rainbow said. The very prospect was enough to make her shudder. Surely people were smarter than that.

"Hmm," Blake mused. "Maybe…have you ever considered that…while she's clearly wrong about General Ironwood, does that have to mean that she doesn't have a point?"

Rainbow stopped dead in her tracks. "Whose side are you on?"

"The side that can see that this city is awful?" Blake suggested. "Look at Atlas, and then look here, it's like night and day. No wonder Ilia's parents wanted to get her out of Mantle and into Atlas, no wonder Rarity left Mantle for Atlas; don't you think there's something a little unbalanced about the fact that one city should be so prosperous and the other should be so poor?"

"I…maybe?" Rainbow admitted. "But it's always been like this."

"People saying that are the reason things don't change," Blake pointed out. "I'm sorry, I just…I don't want my parents and Menagerie to be blamed for the state of Mantle."

"You know that has nothing to do with the reason Mantle is the way it is, right?"

"I know," Blake replied. "But does everyone else?"

Rainbow winced a little. "I guess I see what you mean. I don't see what's going to change it, though."

"Neither do I," Blake admitted. "Not yet, at least. How much longer till we reach your friends' place?"

"I think it's just up ahead," Rainbow said, and once more she led the way through the streets of Mantle.

Yeah, Rainbow had to admit that Blake had kind of a point about the state of this city, and if Robyn Hill had been more willing to phrase it the way Blake did instead of sounding like anyone who didn't like it here was the scum of Remnant or that General Ironwood ought to be down here collecting the garbage, then maybe Rainbow would have listened to her too, because…okay, it wasn't a particularly nice place, what with the graffiti and the smog and the stains on the pavement like someone had thrown up there, but just because you could look at something and see that it wasn't great didn't mean that you could change it, or even see how it needed to be changed.

She wasn't here to think about ways to save Mantle, she was here to answer for someone that she'd left behind.

Rainbow led Blake around a corner, to a narrow street occupied by businesses that were small in every sense; half of the fronts here were shuttered up, and covered in graffiti in lurid greens and reds, while the remaining places were narrow, as if they were being squeezed out by the city tightening around them: a record store, a hobby shop with painted miniature grimm in the window, an antique booksellers; and an art gallery-cum-studio, owned – or rented, maybe – by Rainbow's old team-mate, Spearhead.

Rainbow stopped, and glanced at Blake. "Thanks for coming with me."

"It's no trouble," Blake replied. "Although I'm a little surprised that you want me here."

"I might need someone to push me through the doorway," Rainbow said, not entirely jokingly. "I…I haven't actually seen this guy since he retired. I'm not sure how happy he'll be to see me."

"You've been busy," Blake pointed out.

"Yeah, too busy for a friend," Rainbow muttered. She snorted. "Come on, let's go."

Blake nodded, and the two of them crossed the deserted street to Spearhead Studio, the name painted in red letters on the slightly dirty board above the door. Rainbow pushed the door open – it creaked a little – and led the way inside.

It was about as small as it looked from the outside, which meant that there was just about room for the two of them to stand side by side, hemmed in by the bare brick walls and by the sculptures that jutted out on either side of them.

Rainbow's eyes were drawn to one of those sculptures, the nearest one to the door. She stared at it, turning her head this way and that as she tried to get a handle on what it was. It looked as though Spearhead had taken a lot of guns – mostly they were standard issue AR-30s, but Rainbow could also see a couple of gun arms stripped from AK-190s in there too – and melted them together in a kind of weird, twisty pattern that rose up off the plinth and then kind of went all over the place. Spent cartridges painted green stuck out of the rifle barrels at odd points, scattered all over the top levels of the sculpture.

"Is this art?" Rainbow murmured. "Or a mistake?"

"It's a tree," Blake replied, a slight smile upon her face.

Rainbow looked from Blake to the misshapen sculpture and back again. "Really?"

"Yeah," Blake said. "See, those robot arms form the trunk rising upwards, then the rifles are the branches spreading outwards, all those green cartridges are the leaves."

Rainbow looked at the sculpture again. Her eyes narrowed. "I…guess?"

"I like it," Blake said. "The way that these weapons of destruction have been used to create something beautiful."

"Always a pleasure to meet a fellow art lover!" the deep, jovial voice of Spearhead boomed out across the little gallery as he emerged from out of the back room. Spearhead was a bear of a man with a two-toned blue mane in waves of alternating paleness, mostly combed out of his forehead but with a few rogue strands falling down over his left eye. He was plainly dressed, in the kind of drab clothes that a lot of folks in Mantle favoured, except for the red and pale pink bandana tied around his neck. His right arm was a prosthetic, visible by the metallic hand emerging from out of his sleeve. "Especially when she's a friend of my old buddy Rainbow Dash!" He strode rapidly across the distance separating the two of them, holding out his metal hand curled into a fist. "Long time no see. Give me some skin!"

Rainbow smiled awkwardly. "Hey, Spearhead," she said, as she curled up her own hand and thrust it out for a fist-bump.

Spearhead's prosthetic hand slammed into Rainbow's hand like a truck. Rainbow gasped, her eyes watering just a little, but she didn't have time to say anything before Spearhead pulled her into a bear-hug.

"It is so good to see you, dude!" Spearhead cried, squeezing Dash a little tighter still before she let her go. "And – I'm sorry, where are my manners. Ash Spearhead, at your service."

"Blake Belladonna," Blake said. "It's a pleasure to meet an old friend of Rainbow Dash."

Spearhead's eyes widened. "Blake Belladonna? The Blake Belladonna? The Warrior Princess of Menagerie?"

"Please don't call me that," Blake murmured, looking away in embarrassment. "I didn't ask for anyone to give me that nickname."

"Right, right, I'm sorry," Spearhead said quickly. "Believe me, I know how much of a struggle it can be to escape the expectations placed on you by your appearance. You have no idea how hard it is for some people to accept that someone like me could be an artist."

"I suppose it wasn't so hard for anyone to accept that you were a huntsman in training," Blake suggested.

"No," Spearhead agreed. "But after I lost my arm it was a wake-up call that this life wasn't for me. Don't get me wrong, massive respect to Dashie here, and you and all those other dudes out there putting their lives on the line for us, but personally, I'd rather make art than war, you know?"

Blake nodded. "I've come to think of it like: if everyone was a huntsman, there wouldn't be anything worth protecting."

Spearhead nodded. "Exactly. Speaking of protecting, I hear that a couple of huntresses were right there when some grimm busted out into the city. Wouldn't happen to be you two, would it?"

"How could you possibly know that?" Rainbow demanded.

"'Cause I know you, dude, you always got to be in the thick of the action," Spearhead said, ruffling Rainbow's hair with one hand. "Thanks for keeping us safe, Rainbow Dash."

"You don't have to thank me," Rainbow said, retreating out of Spearhead's reach. "Not when I came here to apologise to you."

Spearhead's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Dash, come on; what could you possibly have to apologise to me for?"

"You know what, dude, come on, you don't have to pretend," Rainbow said. "You were my team-mate and I should have kept in touch after you dropped out but…I didn't, and that was a jerk move and I'm sorry for it."

Spearhead stared down at her for a moment. "So what happened?"

Rainbow blinked in surprise. "Huh?"

"I mean what changed?" Spearhead said. "Don't get me wrong, it's absolutely great to see you, but you didn't come around before and you're mentioning it specifically, so…what?"

Rainbow thrust her hands into the pockets of her jacket. She scuffed her foot back and forth across the floor. "I…I messed up. I messed up big time and that…it's kind of making me think of all the other ways that I messed up before, and the people that I messed up with. Like I said, I'm sorry."

"It's okay."

"I'm trying to- wait, what?"

Spearhead grinned. "What, did you think I was going to hold a grudge? I've missed you too much for that, dude; and besides, I don't want to be one of your problems, not when you got others going on too. And besides, I still owe you for saving my life, right?"

"You saved his life?" Blake asked.

"Dude! You never told her the story?" Spearhead demanded.

Blake folded her arms. "No, she never did."

"It's not that much of the story," Rainbow said. "We were on a mission, there were more grimm than we thought there'd be, Spearhead was wounded, I carried him back to the Skygrasper, the end."

"The end?" Spearhead said. "No way is that the end of the story. I got wounded, and then Dash carried me back to the Skygrasper, sure; but then she went back for Maud and Applejack and got both of them out too and made sure they weren't wounded. And she did all of that in spite of the fact that she'd been ordered to cut her losses and pull out. You're in good hands with this one, Blake; Rainbow Dash won't ever leave a team-mate behind."

Blake smiled. "Yeah," she agreed. "I've seen that for myself."

"Normally I don't mind being told how great I am, but that's not what I came here for so will you knock it off," Rainbow said. "I…this isn't how I thought this was going to go."

"But isn't it better?" Spearhead asked.

Rainbow hesitated. "Yeah, yeah it is," she admitted. "How have you been, Spearhead?"

"Like I said, I've found my true calling," Spearhead declared. "That's another reason why I can't stay mad at you: this place is a temple to Art, and art is supposed to provoke thought and understanding, not make you feel worse coming out than you did coming in." He looked at Blake. "So, you like the Tree of Peace, huh?"

Blake looked again at the weapon-made sculpture. "I really do," she said.

"Would you like to have it?" Spearhead asked. "On the house to a friend of Rainbow Dash."

"I couldn't just take something you've worked on without paying for it."

"Please," Spearhead said. "Art should be for everyone to appreciate, not just those who can afford it."

"Is that why you're stuck here instead of having a bigger space?" Rainbow asked.

"I have room to create, and room to hang," Spearhead said. "What more could I want?"

 _More of both?_ Rainbow thought.

"Would you like the tree?" Spearhead repeated. "You'd be honouring me if you took it with you. Think of it as a belated 'Welcome to Atlas' gift."

Blake looked the sculpture up and down, sizing it up. "There's room for this in our room, right?"

"Yeah, I think so," Rainbow said. "I mean, it isn't exactly standard, but I think we'll get away with it."

"Thank you," Blake said. "It really is a very nice piece."

"I consider it one of my journeyman works," Spearhead said. "This is my latest piece," he added, directing their attention towards a broad canvas painted almost entirely black, but spotted with little red dots as though he'd gotten a red paintbrush and flicked it over the canvas. "I call it: the Watch of the Huntsman."

"Nice," Rainbow said, thinking that she wished she'd noticed it sooner and asked for that instead of the tree made out of guns.

"It's a little…dark," Blake observed.

"That's the point," Rainbow said. "Its darkness filled with grimm staring out at us from the night. It's a perfect representation of what we're fighting against!"

"The beauty of art is the way that it speaks to different people in different ways," Spearhead said. "Unfortunately I can't let you walk out with my whole gallery."

Rainbow sniggered. "Don't worry, I'm not asking for another freebie."

"Thanks, dude. Art should be free, but I need something to live on, you know," Spearhead said. "Say, Blake, how would you like to be a part of my ongoing masterpiece?"

"Uh, ongoing masterpiece?" Blake repeated.

"Just give me a second," Spearhead said, as he pulled out his scroll. "I don't usually go in for virtual art, but in this particular case, I can't think of a better medium for it. Now, hold it right there."

Blake was currently slightly side on to him, facing the Watch of the Huntsman, her head turned to face Spearhead. "Is this okay?"

"It's perfect," Spearhead said, as he took the picture. "That's great."

"How come I'm not in your ongoing masterpiece?" Rainbow asked.

"You are," Spearhead replied. "Come through, both of you, and you can take a look at it." He turned away, and headed into the back room. "I'm not sure that I'll ever finish this, but it sure is something cool to work on."

Rainbow and Blake followed him into the back room, where various pieces were in various stages of completion: a beowolf head made out of various pieces of scrap metal, something that looked like a lot of footprints on a canvas, and in the centre of the room, being projected out of a holo-emitter on the floor, the image of General Ironwood, presented as a giant looming over Atlas floating in the foreground, with his ships on either side of him, flying diagonally upwards and away from him.

Except, as Rainbow got closer, she could see that it wasn't really a picture of the general at all. Or, rather, it had General Ironwood's face, it was his head, but his body wasn't really a picture of his body, although it was the right shape; rather, the body was made up hundreds, maybe thousands of little images, some of them bigger than others, some of them changing size and position as she watched. As she bent down and leaned forwards, Rainbow realised that she could see herself in the immense collage, and Applejack too, and Maud; their pictures scattered across the general's body; she spotted Twilight too, wearing a lab coat, and Rainbow remembered that when Twi had come down to do some work on their weapons as a favour, Spearhead had taken a picture of her; she could see Trixie, and Starlight and Sunburst, too. And there were others, lots of others, huntsmen and huntresses looking out at her from hundreds of tiny images that, if you stopped looking so closely and stepped back, all seemed to blend together to form the body of General Ironwood: the defenders of Atlas all coming together and combining into a single object, mightier than all of them.

"Every huntsman or huntress that I ever meet gets their picture on here," Spearhead said, as he pushed a few buttons on his scroll to add Blake's photo to the collage, the whole work moving and shifting a little to accommodate her. "I call it the Armour of Atlas, and you're all a part of it."

"Yes," Blake said. "Yes, I am." She smiled. "And I wouldn't have it any other way."

* * *

 _The Armour of Atlas._

Rainbow was reminded of Spearhead's work as she stood before the These Are My Jewels statue back in Atlas, looking at all photos that people had stuck on the memorial, beneath the lady and the statues of the soldier and the specialists and all the rest who surrounded her just like they guarded Atlas.

It was raining over Atlas, and the raindrops fell thick and fast, the rain flattening her hair down over her forehead, and trickling down Rainbow's face, but she didn't flinch from them. She let them fall upon her, and as they fell she looked up at the monument to the sacrifice of Atlas that loomed above her.

She looked at all the pictures stuck upon the plinth of tall dark stone. She could see Flynt Coal and Neon Katt, the latter standing out with her vibrant hair, grinning out of the same photograph together. They were just two amongst a sea of faces; it was safe to say that there were a lot more pictures on this monument after the Battle of Vale than there had been before, and it hadn't exactly been barren then.

But now there were so many it was getting to the point there wasn't room for any more.

It was a tradition that you didn't keep the pictures on the plinth; no matter how much you continued to feel the loss, no matter how evergreen your grief continued to grow, you put the picture up and then you let it be blown away by the wind, turned to mush by the rain, fall off and get trampled underfoot; you didn't keep refreshing the picture of the one you'd lost, you accepted that Atlas would move on even if you couldn't, and there would be more recent sacrifices that also deserved to be remembered.

But there had been so many sacrifices so quickly, in such a short space of time, that they had all ended up here at once. So many jewels of Atlas that had ceased to shine.

 _And it's my fault. It's all very well for Blake to tell me that I just have to move forward and do better, but how am I supposed to move forward when this is what I'm leaving behind me?_

"What troubles you, young soldier of Atlas?"

Rainbow looked around, startled by the sudden intrusion into her thoughts. A woman stood beside her, middle aged maybe although it was hard to tell because she had a kind of ageless quality about her; her skin was so smooth it was like a baby, but at the same time her eyes were so old it kind of reminded Rainbow of Beacon's Professor Ozpin. Her hair was dark, and tied up into a tight bun at the nape of her neck, and she was dressed in a dark blue suit, with a white shirt underneath. She held a black umbrella above her head, to protect herself from the rain that pattered down upon them both, while in her other arm she held a bouquet of blue flowers, the blue deepening the closer to the edge of the petal it got.

"Ma'am?" Rainbow asked.

The woman glanced at the statue, her eyes travelling down from the ancient lady atop the plinth, to the words, to the photographs beneath. "Sits one of your friends upon this place?"

Rainbow frowned. "No," she said. "Some of them were my classmates, a lot of them were my comrades, but…I couldn't honestly call them my friends."

"Then what troubles your heart so?"

Rainbow looked away from her. "I'd rather not say, ma'am."

"I see," she said. She knelt down, and placed the bouquet at the base of the statue. "These flowers," she said, "are the hardiest of all blooms in the world; able to endure the cold and the lack of sunlight as no other flowers are. Not only in greenhouses or arboretums do they grow, but they can be found blooming even in the midst of the frozen tundra where nothing else grows; and so they are called the Flower of the North."

"I see," Rainbow murmured. _So that's what Ciel means._

The woman took a step back. "You were not their friend, but you were not so distant from them that the feeling of responsibility for their deaths does not affect you."

Rainbow felt her spine turn to ice. Her eyes widened as she slowly turned her head to look at the woman standing beside her. "How do you-"

"I know much," the woman said. "But fear not, soldier of Atlas, I am not here to judge. I leave that to other powers."

Rainbow was silent for a moment. The rain trickled down her face like teardrops. "I killed them," she whispered.

"Is that so? Was it your hand that held the blade? Or fired the weapon?"

"It was my tongue that was tied," Rainbow answered. "If I had said something sooner then maybe…maybe things would have been different…somehow."

"How?"

"I don't know, somehow!" Rainbow snapped.

The woman's face was impassive. Her voice remained as smooth as silk, and as gentle as the flowing of a shallow stream. "Your silence was your error, and you rightly bear the shame of it, but to presume that the course of history lies upon your one fault? To claim for yourself the heavy mantle of so many deaths? That is rank presumption, to dismiss out of hand all choices made by others, all deeds performed by other hands, all words spoken by other tongues. Not even the prophets and the kings of old were so vain of their own import. The power of choice is not accorded merely to the chosen few, but to all men be they ever so low or ever so exalted. Many choices led to the battle in which these brave flowers ceased to bloom; some even more important than your own. Many choices marked the way that ended with the falling of these most honoured sons and daughters of the north, not least of which their choice to stand and fight in the face of terror rather than flee before its coming."

"What are you trying to say, ma'am?" Rainbow asked. "That it didn't matter what I said or didn't say?"

The woman was silent for a moment. "Do you know the origin of the words upon this statue: these are my jewels?"

"No, ma'am."

"They are the words of a queen who ruled this land in ancient times," the woman said. "Wealthy and powerful, one day an ambassador from a foreign land asked her why she wore no jewellery about her; in reply she called for her sons, embraced them both about the shoulders and spoke those words: these are my jewels. But when I read those words, I am also reminded of another tale, a much older one, almost a myth from the very early days of Mantle, of how one day a great chasm appeared in the centre of the city. At a loss, the elders of Mantle consulted a wise old man, who told them the chasm would not be closed unless they gave unto the earth the greatest treasure of these northern lands. Into the chasm the people threw gold, jewels, dust dug from the mines, all to no avail; until one day, a young girl claimed to have the answer: the greatest treasure of the north was not its dust or wealth, but its fighters of surpassing courage and so, armed for battle and dressed in all her armour, she threw herself down into the pit…and the chasm closed above her.

"The wealth of these lands is greater now than it was then, but the courage of its warriors remains the greatest treasure of the kingdom. Honour the valour of those who fell, honour them by showing that same courage as you continue the fight in which they made the ultimate sacrifice, but do not insult them by claiming even to yourself to be the architect of their fall. They deserve better than that, and you…you are better than that."

"Am I?" Rainbow asked. "How can you be so sure?"

"Because I see your heart, Rainbow Dash, soldier of Atlas," she said. "Just as I see that Atlas has not run out of need for you yet. On your feet, daughter of the north, your battles are not yet concluded, and you will need all your steadfastness and resolve for those which lie ahead."

Rainbow stared at her. "Who are you?" she asked.

The lady smiled at her. "One who watches," she said. "one who listens; and one who speaks, upon occasion."

Rainbow looked away, her gaze once more upon the photographs of the fallen, travelling upwards to the white lady sat atop the plinth. She came to attention, and saluted all her fallen comrades.

"I won't let you down again," she declared. She looked to the woman, to thank her, to ask again how she knew all that she had known but…she was gone. She was nowhere to be seen, not there, not walking away, not anywhere that Rainbow looked for her. She had vanished, completely, as though she had never been.

"What the…" Rainbow muttered. Had she imagined the whole thing? No, the flowers were still there. But then, where she did go so quickly? And how had she known Rainbow's secret?

What had just happened to her?

 _What just happened is that I made a promise. A promise to everyone who gave their lives. A promise to Atlas. A promise to myself._

 _General Ironwood picked me because I saved the lives of Applejack and Maud, because I chose to save their lives rather than fall back._

 _But there has to be a line, and I crossed it at Mountain Glenn and then I lied about it afterwards._

 _I won't let Atlas down again._

She turned and walked away, her footsteps squelching a little as she moved down the rainy street, leaving the dead to keep their watch behind her.

She was soaking wet by the time that she arrived at Sugarcube Corner, which led to her standing in the doorway after she walked in, dripping on the step for a bit because she didn't want to trail water any further inside.

Mrs Cake was standing behind the counter. She looked up and saw Rainbow standing there. "Oh, hello dear. It's been a long time."

"Well…yeah, I guess it has, Mrs C," Rainbow said. She hadn't felt like coming around her much after she'd…decided to stop seeing her friends. It was hard to avoid them in this place, and it felt like a space that she should cede to the rest of them.

 _I was a real idiot, wasn't I?_

"Well, never mind, it's good to see you again," Mrs Cake said genially. "Can I get you anything?"

"Just a coffee, thanks."

"Of course," Mrs Cake said. "And in the meantime, you know where everyone is."

Rainbow did, indeed, know where everyone was. Not just because they were sitting around the same table they always sat at, but because they'd all been staring at her since she walked through the door.

They were looking at her like she was an ursa; which was ironic because a part of Rainbow Dash would have rather faced five ursai with only her bare hands than done this right now.

But Blake was right, this was something that she had to do.

And so, while Mrs Cake made her coffee, Rainbow – now not dripping quite so much water on the floor – made her way over to them. Her steps were slow, as if she'd been walking in cement not sewage earlier in the day that it had all solidified around her shoes. She kept looking away, or down at the floor she was dripping water on.

She still had trouble meeting their eyes, Pinkie's especially.

They didn't have any problem staring at her, but that was part of the problem: they looked nervous of her, wary of her, and it…it made her ashamed of herself. She couldn't believe that she had actually gotten to the point where her own friends were worried about what she might say to them.

 _I've really messed everything up lately, haven't I? I'm such an idiot._

Rainbow stopped, looking down at all them. When she could bring herself to look at them at all. "Hey, girls," she said.

"Hey, Rainbow Dash," Twilight murmured.

Rainbow looked away, as she reached up and scratched the back of her head with one hand. "I came here to say…I came here to say I'm sorry. I'm really sorry, about everything, but especially about how I acted to you, Pinkie. I was a complete jerk and I was way out of line and there's no excuse for what I did. There's no excuse for anything that I did."

"Then why'd ya do it?" Applejack asked.

"Because I was angry at myself, and so I got angry at you," Rainbow admitted. "I know that I've been a complete…but I can't imagine my life without the five of you in it, or at least I don't want to, so, I guess what I'm asking is, can I join you?"

Twilight got up from off the arm of the sofa on which she'd been sitting. She smiled. "Welcome back, Rainbow Dash," she said, as she pulled Rainbow into a hug.

Rainbow stood there for a moment, feeling Twilight's arms around her, feeling how light Twi felt even when she was leaning with her whole weight on Rainbow Dash. Gently, she put her arms round Twilight Sparkle in turn. "I've missed you, Twi."

They were joined first by Fluttershy, arms reaching out to encompass both of them, and then Rarity. Applejack was the next to rise to her feet.

"You can be as stubborn as a mule sometimes, and about as smart as one too," she said. She grinned. "But we all knew that when we became your friends, and you ought to know by now that we care about you anyway. Welcome home, sugarcube."

"Thanks, Applejack," Rainbow said. She craned her neck a little to look at the last member of their group, the one who hadn't said or done anything yet. "Pinkie Pie?"

Pinkie wasn't looking at Rainbow, or any of them; she was turned away, her face hidden behind her mass of poofy hair. When she turned back again, her eyes were filled with tears. "Rainbow Dash…I…oh, come here!"

The others had just enough time to gasp as she flew through the air towards them, tackling them all and bringing them down in a heap on the floor. They lay there for a moment, a tangle of arms and legs; and then, as one, they started to laugh.

 _I'll never let you go again,_ Rainbow thought, as the sounds of their laughter filled Sugarcube Corner.

* * *

Blake wasn't entirely sure why General Ironwood had asked her to report to him in his home instead of at his office, but nevertheless, that lack of understanding had not prevented her from presenting herself at his door. She had been a little surprised to find out that he didn't live on campus at Atlas Academy, but she supposed that there was no actual need for him to do so, and in any case, he still lived very close by; the shadow of Atlas loomed high in the sky overhead as Blake arrived at the General's modest house.

The house itself looked almost as though someone had started building a tower block, and then got bored after the second floor and decided to stop there. The building was square, and built of hard grey stone, with the lines of a concrete superstructure jutting out of the walls in a brutalist style.

Blake folded up her umbrella as she stepped into the shelter of the porch, and flapped it once or twice to shake the water droplets off. She pushed the button on the intercom beside the door.

There was no picture on the screen, but the voice of General Ironwood issued forth. "Who is it?"

"Specialist Belladonna reporting as ordered, sir," Blake said.

"Of course. Come in, Belladonna," General Ironwood said. There was a buzzing sound, and the door swung open just a fraction.

Blake pushed it open the rest of the way as she walked inside, wiping her wet feet on the grey mat and sticking her umbrella in a gleaming metallic stand placed conveniently by the doorway. The walls were a soft grey, while the carpet underneath her feet was a pale blue. A three-tier shoe rack sat not far from the door, but only one tier was being occupied, by a pair of boots that Blake took to be the General's. The door to a minimalist living room was open, of which the most notable thing was a pair of empty sword-stands above the mantelpiece, surprising Blake because she hadn't thought General Ironwood was the type to collect ceremonial swords. The hallway stretched out in front of her, while a set of stairs just to her right led upwards.

"Come on up, Belladonna," General Ironwood called down to her from upstairs.

"Yes, sir," Blake replied, as she began to climb the stairs. She arrived on the landing, to see General Ironwood standing in the washroom, presenting his profile to her as he shaved. He didn't acknowledge her presence.

Blake looked around. There were three hooks for keys upon the wall, but only one of them actually held a set of keys. There were three bedroom doors, all of them shut. On the wall was hung a picture of the general himself, and a young girl with long dark hair standing beside him, holding his hand.

Blake couldn't help but stare at the picture, as the only human touch in an otherwise austere home it naturally drew the eye; the general was a grown man in it – even if he looked a little younger than he was now – which meant that girl couldn't be his sister, so-

"That's my daughter, Aska," General Ironwood said as he emerged from the washroom, wiping the last of the shaving foam from off his face. He was wearing a black shirt, but with no sign yet of his jacket or tie. "That was taken on her birthday when she was eight years old."

Blake straightened to attention. "I'm sorry, sir. I didn't mean to pry."

"Don't apologise. I can't invite you into my home and then complain that you have eyes."

"Yes, sir," Blake said. "I…I didn't know you had a daughter."

General Ironwood frowned for a moment. "Aska and I are…not as close as I would like."

The feeling of sympathy that Blake felt for her commander in that moment was swiftly followed by a far stronger feeling of guilt as she thought about her own father, far away in Menagerie. Despite all the travelling back and forth that her mother and Councillor Cadenza had been doing lately, she hadn't written her father a letter in spite of all the times that mom had asked her to. She hadn't been able to decide what she wanted to say. Did he tell visitors into his palace that they weren't as close as he would like?

 _I've been away for so long that any pictures of me will be the only proof he has a daughter._

 _When the tower goes up, I'll call him._

 _If I can think of what I ought to say to him by then._

"I'm sorry, sir," Blake repeated. "And about your wife, as well."

"What? Oh, no," General Ironwood replied. "There was…Aska is adopted. I never…quite found the time." He cleared his throat, and in so doing drew a line under that part of the conversation; at least that was how Blake took it anyway. "I'm sorry to bring you down here for this, instead of doing it at the office," he said. "I have a dinner engagement, and not much time."

"Business or pleasure, sir?" Blake asked, as Ironwood opened the door into one of the other rooms and disappeared inside.

"Definitely business," General Ironwood said from inside the room. "I have to lobby Councillor Sleet over this year's appropriations bill." He reappeared, wearing his jacket unbuttoned and doing up his tie. "I wanted to repeat that you did good work in Mantle today."

"I wasn't alone down there, sir," Blake said.

General Ironwood gave a grunt that might have been an acknowledgement of that fact. "This was your first time in Mantle, wasn't it?" he asked, as he began to fasten his jacket.

"Yes sir."

"Thoughts?"

"Uh, permission to speak freely, sir?"

"Granted."

"Why has one of Atlas' own cities been allowed to become so…degraded?" Blake asked, after searching for a word that didn't sound too condemnatory. But the truth was...a part of her almost wanted to condemn. She had seen the state of Low Town, but she had told herself that it was allowed to exist because it was home only to faunus; that didn't make it right but it meant that Blake could hope that, as the condition of the faunus in Atlas improved, so the existence of a place like Low Town would become intolerable. Mantle threatened that cosy belief, suggesting that there were some in Atlas who were perfectly content to abandon the poor whether they were human or faunus. If Mantle was allowed to exist, would Low Town ever change? "Atlas is supposed to be a shining beacon to the world, but Mantle at the moment seems like a stain on Atlas."

"I know what you mean," General Ironwood replied. "The situation is far from ideal, but as commander of the military, all I can do is defend Mantle, I can't solve all its problems."

"What about your seats on the council, sir?"

General Ironwood finished fastening his jacket. "I'm afraid that even the council can't solve all of Mantle's problems," he said. "Although that doesn't stop certain people from talking as though the council, or even me personally, could fix everything if we wished to do so."

"Robyn Hill," Blake murmured.

"You know of her?"

"Rainbow Dash has…given me the benefit of her views," Blake said, settling for what she hoped was a neutral way of phrasing it.

General Ironwood seemed amused. "You'll find that Robyn Hill and her followers aren't too popular with a lot of people in the military. Did Dash tell you that she used to be one of us?"

"I…" Blake hesitated. She recalled what Rainbow had said about the Happy Huntresses not being able to cut it in the military. "She might have hinted at it."

"Hill was one of my most gifted students, an exemplar to all aspiring huntsmen in Atlas and at the combat schools," Ironwood said. "But after graduation, she decided to devote her life to the service of Mantle instead of the good of Atlas and mankind. Someone who walks away from an organisation or a cause often isn't very well liked amongst those who stay behind. Especially amongst those who looked up to them."

"I know the feeling, sir," Blake reminded him, thinking of Strongheart and Ilia.

General Ironwood hesitated for a moment. "Of course," he said, "I can't say that I'm immune to those feelings myself. I am…very disappointed by the choices that Hill has made since leaving the military."

"Speaking for those who walk away, I'm sure that she's doing what she thinks is right," Blake said. "Even if it isn't obvious to those she left behind."

"I'm sure she does, but you'll forgive me if I have a hard time overlooking theft of my equipment," General Ironwood replied.

"Of course not, sir," Blake said quickly. "I just meant that-"

"That Mantle could use all the help it can get?" General Ironwood suggested. "That doesn't excuse breaking the law."

"I understand that, sir."

"Mantle does have a lot of problems," General Ironwood acknowledged. "Some of them could be solved if the SDC paid its workers more; some of them, I fear, are insoluble; the Mantle mines have been slowly running dry since Nicholas Schnee's day. Once the last mine is tapped out, then the city will die."

"Unless it can find some other way to support itself," Blake said.

"Easy to say, harder to find," General Ironwood replied.

"With all due respect, sir, did you really call me up here to talk about Mantle?"

"I called you here in part because I wanted to see how you'd reacted to Mantle," General Ironwood said.

"I see, sir," Blake said softly. "And, if I may ask?"

"As conscientious as I expected," General Ironwood declared. "I also called you here to warn you."

Blake frowned. "Warn me, sir?"

"The defences in Mantle shouldn't have failed that way," General Ironwood said. "A pride of sabrys and a lagarto shouldn't have been able to destroy those guns without being killed in the process. Preliminary evidence suggests they were sabotaged."

Blake's eyes widened. "Sabotaged? By who?"

"I'm not sure yet, but I have my suspicions," General Ironwood said. He got out his scroll, and ran his fingers over it until it was displaying a photograph of a middle-aged man, tall and slender, with sallow skin and a walrus moustache covering his upper lip. "This is Doctor Arthur Watts."

"Watts," Blake repeated. "As in-"

"The very same," General Ironwood said. "It's been clear ever since the aborted attack on the Vale CCT that Salem has an agent of extraordinary technical skill, and Watts is exactly the kind of man who would be willing to work for her."

"I understand, sir, but why would he come back to Mantle?"

"I don't know, but I'm not willing to wait to find out," General Ironwood said.

Blake nodded. "That's where I come in, sir."

"You're the best huntress I have whom I can also trust completely," General Ironwood said. "And whom I can move without raising questions. I want you to go back to Mantle, find Watts, and bring him in: dead or alive."

Blake stood to attention. "Yes, sir."

* * *

Abacus Cinch walked through the streets of Atlas, holding an umbrella over her head to keep the rain that had been falling all day off her head.

Her eyes narrowed behind her spectacles as she heard the following footsteps of someone behind her. She stopped, and so did they.

Cinch inhaled through her nostrils, and resumed walking. So did her shadow.

She stopped again, and reached into the pocket of her jacket for Final Marker; her hand closed around the seemingly innocuous pen as she turned to face her pursuer.

"Good evening, my dear Brigadier General; a lot of weather we seem to be having at the moment. Or should that be Principal now?"

Cinch's eyes widened. "Arthur?"

Doctor Arthur Watts placed one hand upon his chest as he bowed. "At your service."

"What in the name of all dust are you doing here?" Cinch demanded.

"I'm here for the pleasure of your company, my dear, of course."

Her eyes narrowed. "I'm in no mood for games, Arthur. What are you really doing here?"

Watts's smile peeked out from beneath his moustache, like a knife partly drawn from its sheath. "I'm afraid I need some information, my dear Abacus, information that I'm hoping you might be able to give me."

"Is that so?" Cinch asked. "And what makes you think that I won't simply kill you, or break your aura and drag you to the nearest cell?"

"Yes, that is what a good servant of Atlas would do, isn't it?" Watts observed, his voice casual and unafraid.

"I am a good servant of Atlas," Cinch declared.

Watts chuckled. "Oh, come now, my dear Abacus. We both know that your loyalty to Atlas has always come second to your loyalty to yourself. How much did it hurt to watch James get promoted over your head?"

"As much as it hurt you to watch Polendina's project get the green light instead of yours, I imagine," Cinch replied acerbically. "The difference is that, unlike you, I didn't desert my post and run away into the wilds."

"No, you've simply been brooding on it, haven't you?" Watts replied.

"What do you want, Arthur?"

"To help you," Watts said. "And, perhaps, even to help you help Atlas, as a good servant to this great kingdom."

"I thought you said you wanted information."

"Yes, but I'm not expecting you to give it away for nothing," Watts replied. "What kind of a gentleman do you take me for?"

Cinch stared at him for a moment. "A gentleman would have offered to walk me home instead of following me like a common brigand."

"Indeed, a tragic lapse from one who has spent too long in the shadows. Let me correct it now: shall we?"

Cinch watched him advance towards her, only to draw alongside her and began to walk with her as she too resumed her journey.

"This business with the grimm in Mantle," Cinch observed. "Your work, I presume?"

"I don't control the grimm, if that's what you think I've been doing since my departure. But I did disable the defences, yes," Watts said. "And I left my handiwork reasonably obvious at the scene of the crime, as it were. James isn't completely stupid, but he is predictable. I'm sure he has his agents scouring Mantle for me even as we speak."

"And while his eye is turned on Mantle, here you are in Atlas," Cinch concluded. "You have grown no less devious in exile, Arthur."

"Thank you, my dear," Watts said. They walked a little further, the edges of their umbrellas touching slightly as they walked. "Do I hear correctly," he said. "Atlas is getting into bed with the faunus on Menagerie?"

Cinch snorted. "You do hear right, unfortunately. A pet project of James and Councillor Cadenza. Another young pup elevated too high, too young."

"Yes, it's terrible, isn't it?" Watts murmured. "That we, with all our gifts, must learn to accept second place while the second rate rise high on the basis of their connections, their popularity, their so-called charm."

"And watch powerless as they steer the ship of state onto the rocks," Cinch finished.

"Perhaps not," Watts said. "Perhaps this is the moment when the second-rate overreach, and the hour when men and women of real ability ride to the rescue of our stumbling kingdom."

Cinch glanced at him. "What are you saying, Arthur?"

"I'm asking you if you want to spend the rest of your career commanding a combat school, teaching infants how to hold a weapon without hurting themselves," Watts said. "I remember when you had grander ambitions than that."

"Ambitions die of old age swifter than men."

"I don't think so, they simply grow dormant," Watts replied. "This treaty with Menagerie is not universally popular with the people."

Cinch snorted. "It isn't universally popular in the administration. Neighsay likes it no better than I do, and I think Silver Sentry is on the fence about it to say the least, but did you come all the way to Atlas to suggest that I go into politics, Arthur? You know I don't have what it takes to get elected to the council. I'm not what the uneducated masses look for in a leader."

"What the masses look for is a figurehead, they're blind to who really carries out the hard work of ruling," Watts replied. "I take it that you still keep in touch with the best of your students from Crystal Prep."

"There are those who remain grateful to me for my mentoring them in the first stage of their careers, but I know you're not such a fool as to suggest a coup."

"I suggest you might be wise to have your own trusted followers to guard against a coup, because you can be certain that James has men under him who are loyal to him first, and Atlas second." He fell silent for a moment as the two of them walked down the street. "I've always thought Jacques Schnee would make an excellent councillor."

"Jacques Schnee?" Cinch repeated in disbelief. She stared at Watts as though he had lost his mind. Then she thought about it a little more. Yes, Jacques Schnee was a vain peacock of a man, but upon reflection, such a man might just be the leader their cause required. "Jacques Schnee," she repeated, and with more approval in her voice. "Once again, Arthur, you excel yourself."

"A pleasure to be of service."

"I don't suppose you'd consider staying," Cinch said. "In a new Atlas, there might be an opportunity for your past crimes to be forgiven and forgotten."

Watts chuckled. "As much as I do feel homesick sometimes, I'm afraid I can't delay. I have places to go, people to see, you know how it is."

"Very well," Cinch said. "Now what can I do for you?"

"I'm looking for a certain prisoner; I need to know where she's being held and what kind of security is keeping her there."

"And then help getting them out, I suppose?"

"No," Watts said. "I think I shall be able to manage that just fine on my own."

"Your reliance on those rings of yours will be the death of you, or else it will be your incorrigible taste for the dramatic," Cinch observed.

"They are flaws baked in me, true," Watts said airily. "But that's why I also carry a gun. All I need, Abacus, is to know where they're holding now and how securely. I'll take care of the rest."

"That would be ideal," Cinch said. "What's her name, this prisoner you want so badly?"

"Chrysalis."


	205. Chrysalis

Chrysalis

Blake folded her arms as she looked over Twilight's shoulder. "I'm sorry to drag you out of the lab like this," she said softly.

"Sorry?" Twilight laughed, twisting around in her seat to look at Blake. "Are you kidding? It feels great to be back out in the field again."

Blake frowned ever so slightly. "You're in an office," she reminded Twilight. A black-walled, black-floored and windowless office deep in the interior of the Mantle Command Headquarters building, in point of fact.

Twilight shrugged. "Closer to the field than I was," she said, in a quieter tone but with hardly less enthusiasm. "And who knows? I brought my armour with me, just in case." She added, nudging the grey box at her feet. "I've been making upgrades," she said, with a bright smile upon her face.

The corner of Blake's lip twitched upwards. "We'll see what happens," she said.

She hoped that General Ironwood would approve of the way that she had chosen to go about this assignment that he'd given her. He hadn't told her that she was allowed to drag Twilight out of the lab to do all the technical things that Blake couldn't - not that Blake was completely unskilled when it came to computers and the like, but there was a difference between being able to hack through a doorway in an SDC facility and being able to sift through all the security cameras in Mantle for any sign of Doctor Watts - any more than he had said that she could call up Rainbow Dash and Applejack and ask them to back her up on this; and, while neither Rainbow nor Applejack was doing anything else at the moment, the same could not be said of Twilight. Of course, the General hadn't actually said that she couldn't do any of these things either, and he had given her broad power and authority to request any necessary assistance that she required in the completion of her mission, but using that to second Twilight to Mantle HQ was perhaps not what he had had in mind.

It was, ironically, in part the powers that he had given her that had motivated Blake to do this; the fact that she had a note in her proverbial pocket - it was on her scroll if you wanted to be technical - giving her, a Specialist Junior-Grade, the right to requisition equipment, request assistance, perhaps even compel it depending on how you read into things, was frighteningly awe-inspiring to her. As a sign of the trust that General Ironwood reposed in her, it could scarcely have been clearer, nor could it have been clearer as a sign of the importance he attached to finding Watts. She didn't want to let him down. She would never have wanted to let him down, but especially not now when her first task for him came burdened with weighty import and expectations just as heavy. She'd always known that General Ironwood was putting his faith in her, but now that she felt just how much faith...she couldn't let him down.

And in any case, it was not mere laziness on her part that had prompted her to take this course of action to complete her mission. Perhaps General Ironwood really had meant for her to wear out her boots searching every street in Mantle by herself with her own eyes, but she kind of doubted it; it would be a very inefficient way of finding someone, especially since she hardly knew Mantle at all; she had hoped - and she had been right - that Twilight would be able to offer a more efficient way of getting things done. Similarly, while General Ironwood had assigned this mission to her and, it could be argued, her alone, Blake had chosen to approach her friends for backup on the grounds that she had little idea of how dangerous Watts might be; he might have no martial skills whatsoever, or he might be nearly as dangerous as Cinder Fall; if Blake confronted him alone and...failed to stop him, then he would be free to run riot in Mantle until General Ironwood sent someone else, but with backup, there were more chances to stop him and complete the General's instructions.

And, having decided that she wasn't going to go it alone, Blake's options for who she could approach for help were somewhat limited. There were only a few people in whom she could confide the whole context of her assignment, had the necessary skills and were available to help her out. Every decision that she had made so far had been a sensible one. Blake nodded to herself at that as she tried to push her concerns out of her mind; it was ridiculous to think that General Ironwood would trust her with an important mission and then not trust her to complete that mission in the best way possible.

That was how the four of them had come to be in this room, which Blake had requisitioned in the Mantle Command headquarters building, while Blake, Rainbow and Applejack waited for Twilight to do her thing.

The room was reasonably sized but bare, the black and windowless walls - Blake wondered if she'd been given an interrogation room - enclosing only a single table at which Twilight sat and worked. Twilight had set up a projector on the table and connected her scroll to it, so that she was projecting a baffling collage of hundreds, maybe thousands of images into the air before their eyes, every image constantly moving, changing, shifting position; even the picture of Doctor Watts himself which loomed - and leered - larger than any other image in the very centre of Twilight's projection was moving, switching from a front view, to profile, to the back of his head and then back again every couple of seconds.

Rainbow Dash paced up and down; when Blake gave her a slight glance, she stopped, but only to say, "So...what are you doing, Twi?"

"I'm running recognition software," Twilight explained. "Searching for Doctor Watts on all the security cameras in Mantle. If he shows up on any of these cameras, then I'll know about it, and so will you."

"You can do that?" Rainbow asked. "From your scroll?"

"Not ordinarily," Twilight said. "Only because the scroll is wirelessly linked to the servers here in the HQ."

"You know," Applejack observed from where she leaned against the wall. "When you put it like that, Twilight, it sounds kinda creepy."

"Only if you don't trust the authorities to use their powers with discretion and a due regard for the common good," Twilight replied plaintively.

"I trust some of the authorities," Applejack allowed. "I ain't sure that I trust everybody who might want to be the authorities."

"Who watches the watchers?" Blake murmured, her voice barely rising above a whisper.

Twilight heard her regardless and chuckled. "At the moment? You guys."

Blake snorted in amusement. She blinked, her ears pricking up a little as she had a thought. "Twilight, are those historic feeds?"

"No," Twilight said. "This is the real time information. If you want me to spool through the historic surveillance, I can run a program to do that, but it will take some time before it starts producing any output."

"Please, start it," Blake said. "If we can't find where Watts is now, then perhaps by identifying where he was, we can pick up his trail or work out what his objective is."

"Okay. Give me a second," Twilight said, and the images projected before their eyes were temporarily joined - and overridden - by a programming screen as Twilight typed in the necessary commands to start the historic search in parallel to the realtime one.

"So, no sign of him yet?" Rainbow said.

"No," Twilight admitted. "Not yet." She fell silent for a moment. "Does this seem odd to anyone else?"

"How do you mean?" Blake asked.

"I mean...Doctor Watts's hacking signature, for want of a better word, was found on the disabled defences that helped the grimm to infiltrate the Mantle sewers," Twilight said. "But if you wanted to sneak into Mantle, would you really use a method the grimm were almost certain to follow, thus revealing your activities? And to be so obvious about it too; I've read the report on the examination of the defences, and he didn't even try to cover his tracks."

"Our enemies are really bad at leaving their fingerprints all over the place," Rainbow said. "Remember the attack on the Vale CCT?"

Twilight shuddered. "I'm not likely to forget it."

Rainbow winced, but continued anyway. "The point is that the one thing you couldn't call it was subtle. These are the people who thought it was a smart play to launch a full frontal assault to plant a virus as though we'd never heard of a...that thing you did."

"A system scan?"

"Yeah, that," Rainbow said, nodding her head vigorously. "The point is these guys are as subtle as a beowolf trying to eat your face."

"Cinder was pretty short-sighted and full of herself," Twilight allowed. "But do we think so little of our enemies that they aren't capable of learning from their mistakes?"

"No," Blake said, bringing all eyes onto her. "We don't. They may have drawn attention to themselves by attacking the CCT, but they also..."

Applejack peeled herself off the wall. "You okay, sugarcube?"

Blake frowned in thought. "What's in Mantle?" she asked. "I mean, if you were an agent of Salem and you wanted to strike a blow against Atlas, why come to Mantle and not Atlas itself?"

"The security's tighter in Atlas," Rainbow said.

"It ain't no joke down here; look at all these cameras," Applejack replied, gesturing at Twilight's projection.

"There's a lot of damage that you could do here," Twilight pointed out. "If you sabotaged the heating grid, you could potentially kill the entire city or force its evacuation to other locations." Her eyes widened behind her glasses. "You don't think he's trying to sabotage the heating grid, do you?"

Blake didn't answer directly. She said, "What else?"

"He could try and shut this building down," Rainbow suggested.

Blake shook her head. "That's local. Is there anything here that affects the entire kingdom? The early warning system, communications, anything like that?"

Twilight shook her head. "All central systems like that are controlled from Atlas."

"Then why come here?" Blake repeated.

"What are you thinkin', Blake?" asked Applejack.

"I'm thinking that for all the times our enemies have been incredibly unsubtle," Blake said. "They've also proven themselves adept in using the feint."

"You mean this doctor fella ain't here, he just wants us to think he is? And chase our tails lookin' for him?" Applejack spat.

"I can't prove it," Blake admitted. "But...Twilight, while keeping up the facial recognition scans, can you...can you search for anything odd?"

"Odd?" Twilight repeated.

"I'm sorry that I can't be more specific," Blake said. "But I think that our enemy wants us to be looking at Mantle, which means that there is something else going on that we should be looking at instead...I just don't know what it is."

Twilight bit her lip. "I can actually think of one odd thing without searching. I got a notification this morning...let me back up a second...I... _may_ have hacked the prison server in order to keep tabs on Chrysalis - don't look at me like that, Applejack; she tried to kidnap and replace my sister-in-law, she tried to brainwash my brother, I have a right to know what she's up to."

"She ain't up to nothing behind bars," Applejack said.

"That's just the thing," Twilight said. "I set my spyware up to notify me of any changes, and this is the first time I've been notified of anything: she's being taken from prison and transferred to Crystal City upon the orders of General Ironwood himself."

Rainbow frowned. "Why would General Ironwood send Chrysalis to Crystal City?"

"I don't know," Twilight said. "I...didn't have the courage to ask him because of how I shouldn't have this information, but...what if he didn't? What if Doctor Watts hacked the prison records too and ordered Chrysalis transferred so that he could rescue her. Salem has worked with the White Fang in the past."

"Can you check for a hack?"

"I can try," Twilight said.

"Do it; I'll contact General Ironwood," Blake said. She walked around the table, past Applejack, and close to the door out of the room. She pulled out her scroll and found General Ironwood amongst her contacts.

He answered promptly, his face appearing on her screen. "Belladonna," he said. "Any progress?"

"Possibly, sir," Blake said. "General, did you order the White Fang leader Chrysalis transferred from her holding facility to Crystal City?"

"Chrysalis?" General Ironwood repeated. "No. Why, and what does this have to do with Watts?"

"I think that Watts wanted us to be looking at Mantle to distract us from his objective," Blake explained. "Just like they used the grimm attacks on Vale to distract us from their objectives of extracting Amber and retrieving the Relic of Choice. And if you didn't order Chrysalis' transfer, then why is she being transferred?"

General Ironwood scowled. "I'll see if I can raise her transport and order it to turn around. In the meantime, you try and intercept the airship and, if this is Watts's goal, stop him."

"Yes, sir," Blake said. She pushed her scroll shut. "Twilight, have you found anything?"

"Not yet," Twilight murmured.

"Can you keep looking while we're in the air?"

"I think so," Twilight replied.

"Then grab your armour and let's move out," Blake declared. "Everyone, come on."

* * *

Chrysalis had no idea why she was being transferred, but after being stuck in solitary confinement ever since she'd been captured by that annoying little bookworm and her infuriating friends, she was willing to take whatever opportunity she could get to stretch her legs, even if it was only being walked – in shackles – out of her cell and being manhandled into a waiting Skygrasper where, guess what, more sitting down awaited her.

But even that wasn't so bad. After being kept in a near lightless box with no windows, it was good to see the sun again, it was good to be able to see out of the cockpit of the airship, even if all she could see was the blue sky. Just because she was a mantis faunus and could see in the dark didn't mean that she didn't appreciate a touch of sunlight every now and then, the feel of it upon her face. When the androids walked her out of the prison towards the landing pad, and the chill wind had kissed her face and blown through her lank green hair, it had been the happiest moment since her capture.

It had brought a tear to her eye, or that might have just been the cold making her green eyes water.

Chrysalis could not feel the wind now, encased within the airship as she was, with her hands and her legs manacled and four Atlesian knights watching her every move, but at least she could turn her head a little and look out the cockpit window. It wasn't as if there was much else to look at in this dull, grey airship.

When she had first been locked away by the Atlesian oppressors, she had made her own entertainment, but after the first few months, imagining creative and painful ways to murder Twilight Sparkle and take revenge on all the rest of those responsible for her undoing had begun to pall as ways of exercising the mind. After a certain point, you had to admit that you'd thought of all the really fun things you could do to her, or even to her corpse, for that matter. After a certain point, it all became rather dull.

After a certain point, the dawning realisation that you were never going to have the opportunity to do any of those gruesomely exhilarating things made imagining them feel not only pointless but vaguely counterproductive.

Not to say that her feelings of vengeful wrath had disappeared; given the chance, she would have gladly been revenged upon the whole pack of them, merely that she couldn't allow herself to dwell upon that thought too much lest it lead her into despair.

They gave her no news of the outside world in prison; so Chrysalis had been left – in lieu of contemplating revenge – to imagine what might be going on beyond the walls of her little cell. The Atlesians had bound her within a walnut shell, but Chrysalis counted herself a queen of infinite space as she envisaged the triumphs of the White Fang's cause, their inexorable rise from strength to strength, victory to victory. It was in Adam that she placed her hope. Sienna Khan was weak; she wasn't willing to do what had to be done to lead their people to victory, she was too fearful of the drastic action that might invite a response, not realising that they needed to risk the response in order to gain the rewards worth fighting for. Sienna had failed to support Chrysalis' plan properly, and in so doing doomed Chrysalis to ignominious failure from her lack of support; no, it was in the future that the White Fang must place its hope, that Chrysalis placed her hope. In young Adam Taurus and Blake Belladonna, the rising stars of their movement; it was those two, Chrysalis believed, who would lead the White Fang to greatness and the faunus to liberation. And so, as she wasted away in her solitary, lightless cell, Chrysalis whiled away the time consoling herself with fantasies of their triumphs and the downfall of Atlas.

Indeed, when her cell door opened, Chrysalis had for a moment believed that it might be Adam and Blake come to rescue her at the head of a mighty force of White Fang warriors…but that was just a dream, after all.

But at least she could see the sun again, for a little while. She might be on her way to who knew where, for who knew what purpose, she might be about to suffer yet more cruelties and indignities at the hands of the Atlesians, but at least she could see the sun again…for a little while.

Chrysalis was a woman of about thirty years old, with dark skin and green hair that had become long and slightly scraggly during her confinement, falling in stringy strands down her back and across her face. She had been born with an unusual number of animal characteristics even for a faunus – her gossamer wings, currently restrained from moving, and the fang-like incisors that gave her an especially bestial look when she snarled – that gave her a sense of being _especially_ faunus. A faunus amongst faunus. Almost like a queen.

Small wonder that she had risen to leadership of the Atlas chapter of the White Fang, when nature itself had singled her out for greatness from the cradle.

And if she had not succeeded in her ambitions, then at least she had attained infamy; they would not forget the Canterlot Wedding in Atlas for a long time.

As she sat in the back of the Skygrasper, Chrysalis' eyes narrowed. Something appeared to be wrong in the cockpit; although her android guards continued to stare at her, their mechanical faces impassive, up front, the pilots appeared to be concerned about something.

"-can't get anything from Crystal City, or Atlas, or anywhere. Comms are down."

"Could it be another failure?"

"When the CCT went down, they had time to transmit blackout protocol. Could someone be jamming us?"

"Who would want to jam our comms?"

The blue lights in the faceplates of the AK-200s flickered and turned red as the front two robots took aim at the pilots of the airship.

"What?" one of the two pilots cried, as he noticed the rifle aimed straight at him. "No-"

A fusillade of shots rang out. The cockpit window was stained with blood, blocking the view of the sky. That was unfortunate.

What was less unfortunate was the way that Skygrasper did not immediately begin to crash. Instead, it continued on its cause, straight and level, without disturbance.

One of the androids turned to face Chrysalis. She stared at it, her face impassive.

"So, you're Chrysalis, former leader of the White Fang in Atlas," issued a voice from out of the android; a male voice, older than Chrysalis herself, rich and slightly fruity. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

Chrysalis chuckled. "Of course it is. And you are?"

"I'm the person who's controlling this airship and these androids. I'm the person who got you out of your cell. I'm the person who can decide your fate."

"You are not the White Fang, then," Chrysalis said, stating a fact, not asking a question. A White Fang rescue would never have couched itself in such terms.

"Indeed not."

"Then I repeat my question: who are you?"

"My name is Doctor Arthur Watts, and I represent a very powerful interest who would like your assistance," Doctor Watts said. "An interest who could be a very useful benefactor to the White Fang, if you wish her to be."

"That is hardly in my gift to accept or deny," Chrysalis replied.

"It could be," Watts said. "Sad to say, but the White Fang is in something of a parlous state these days. Did they tell you that young Adam Taurus is dead?"

Chrysalis eyes widened. Adam, dead? Adam Taurus, the rising hope of the stern, unbending faunus, slain? Adam, their lord of war, their crimson sword, was dead? Even before Chrysalis's capture Adam's reputation had seemed unassailable; she had supposed that time had only burnished it yet further. "Dead?" she repeated. "How?"

"Murdered by the traitor Blake Belladonna," Watts said.

"Blake?" Chrysalis cried. "Murdered by Blake?" She hissed in the face of the Atlesian knight, baring her fangs at it. "You lie!" she shouted. "Blake Belladonna was as much a hero to our movement as Adam was, she would never-"

"Quit?" Watts asked. "Join the Atlesian military? I'm afraid that's precisely what happened. You think you know someone."

"Why should I believe the words of someone I cannot even see, someone who hides behind a hacked android?"

"You don't have to; I can prove it when we meet in person," Watts said.

"Indeed? And when will that be?"

"Once I've confirmed that you are who I'm looking for," Watts replied.

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. "And how will you determine that from so far away?"

There was a moment of silence. "What do you want, Chrysalis?"

"I want to see my people made strong and raised to rule over those who are less than they are." The faunus were advantaged over the humans in so many ways, so why should they bow and scrape and beg for scraps from the table of those weaklings?

"No, that's what a certain faction of the White Fang wants," Watts said. "What does Chrysalis, and Chrysalis alone, want? What is your heart's desire?"

A slow smile spread across Chrysalis face. "You ask me what I want? I want all of those who locked me away to suffer and die at my hands. I want Councillor Cadenza and Shining Armour to scream in pain as I watch them die slowly for what they did to me. I want Twilight Sparkle to beg for mercy at my feet…but then I want to kill her precious friends one by one before her eyes until her pleas have changed from mercy to the sweet release of death and then, only then, will I deign to snuff out her life and end her misery. I want to be revenged upon the whole pack of them! That, Doctor Watts, is my heart's desire." She snorted. "So, what do you think? Do I pass your little test?"

Doctor Watts said nothing, but the Skygrasper began to descend towards the ground.

A moment later, the cuffs fell off her wrists and ankles to clatter to the floor of the descending Skygrasper.

Chrysalis rose to her feet, a little stiff from her long confinement, but with her aura once more unrestrained, she found the feeling coming back to her joints very quickly. She eyed the red-faced androids contemptuously as she made her way to the airship's cockpit, where the dead bodies of the two pilots sat slumped in their seats. She could destroy all four robots, she was certain...but she preferred to let this play out and see where the road led. Who knew, she might just take this Doctor Watts up on his offer after all.

And so she waited, watching out of the blood-stained windshield as the airship descended out of the clouds and set down upon the snow-covered ground, next to another airship of a unique design unknown to Chrysalis' eyes until this moment: sleek and black, made up of a series of sharp, angular sections quite unlike the usual boxy airship used in Atlas or Mistral, still less the bulbous Bullheads employed in Vale. It was as slender as a cigar, with no visible passenger capacity in the fuselage; rather, the cockpit consisted of two seats, one behind the other.

The back door of Chrysalis' Skygrasper opened with a hiss. The androids marched out into the snow, limbs clanking as they went, and after a moment, Chrysalis followed them out, blinking a little as the full force of the sun struck her dark-accustomed eyes.

A man was waiting for her, as slender as the aircraft that he stood beside, tall and sallow and dressed in a waistcoat and jacket which, combined with his collar unbuttoned and his tie worn loosely around his neck, gave the impression that he had just come home from a dinner party and was beginning to get undressed.

"Doctor Watts, I presume," Chrysalis said as she stepped down out of the airship and into the snow.

"I hope that my humanity doesn't offend you unduly," Watts replied. "Unlike the White Fang, my employer doesn't discriminate."

"Indeed?" Chrysalis murmured. "Then why is she interested in assisting the White Fang?"

"Her motives are her own," Watts replied blandly.

Chrysalis' eyes narrowed. "You serve someone without knowing what they want? And you expect me to do the same?"

"Why should it matter what she wants?" Watts answered. "All that really matters is what you want...and what you're willing to do to get it." He took a scroll out of his pocket. "We spoke of the White Fang earlier."

"You spoke much that I did not believe."

"Perhaps you will believe your own eyes," Watts replied, handing her the scroll.

Chrysalis snatched the device out of his hand, and began to read what he had placed there. It was human news, and thus propaganda, but at the same time...as Chrysalis read, eyes widening, a catalogue of betrayals and disasters so comprehensive she found that she could not tell herself that they were all fabrications: the White Fang in Vale defeated and Adam Taurus killed as he attempted to strike a blow against humanity; Blake, heiress to the Belladonna legacy and link between the past and future of the White Fang, had joined the Atlesian forces and was being feted by them; Atlesian troops on Menagerie! Chrysalis hissed with disgust. "I knew the High Leader was weak but this? To stand by and allow the occupation of our home? And Blake...this is no deception, is it? This is no deep cover to infiltrate Atlas and bring down our enemies from within?"

"Unfortunately not," Watts said. "You must understand, we tried to aid Adam Taurus in his assault on Vale, but young Miss Belladonna proved to be a considerable thorn in our side there."

Chrysalis growled. "Alas for the White Fang, that all your daughters have proved faithless." _Why is it that conviction seems only to be found amongst our enemies?_

"The White Fang needs leadership," Watts said. "Leadership that you can provide. It also needs a powerful backer."

"And that you can provide?"

"Indeed. Of course, quid pro quo, you'd be expected to take certain duties on board," Watts added. "But I guarantee that your revenge will be waiting for you at the end of the road."

"You guarantee it?" Chrysalis asked silkily. "That is a bold promise."

"My mistress never loses sight of what drives her faithful servants," Watts declared. "And those who serve her well, she well rewards. If you want to have your vengeance, if you want to see the faunus raised up high, then you will have no better chance than to come with me."

"And will I meet your mistress if I do?"

"Of course," Watts said. "I guarantee it will be an experience you'll never forget."

Chrysalis smiled. "Is this your airship, doctor? It is certainly a novel design."

"Yes, she is a charming thing, isn't she?" Watts replied. "A prototype of my own design. No carrying capacity or weapons, but faster than any airship in the skies and completely undetectable to scanners. I intended it to be a reconnaissance aircraft, but sadly, Atlesian military culture is far too self-righteously heavy footed to appreciate it: we're the good guys, we don't sneak around."

Chyrsalis' smile widened. "So tell me, Doctor Watts, who is that you covet revenge on?"

Doctor Watts looked at her, and his own smile peaked out from under his moustache. "Oh, no one in particular; his name is General Ironwood, you may have heard of him."

Chrysalis chuckled. "You may be a human, Doctor, but I think that you and I are going to get along rather well."

* * *

Blake struggled to prevent her shoulders from slumping under the weight of the shame she felt as she stood before General Ironwood - in his office, this time, not at his home; her sense of failure sought to distort her at-ease posture, robbing it of its necessary straightness. She could keep her back straight, just about, but she couldn't prevent her ears from drooping down into her wild black hair. "We found the airship," she reported, her sense of incompetence making her voice soft and tremulous. "Along with four disabled knights and the dead bodies of the pilots. Twilight examined the airship-"

"And confirmed that it had been hacked, sir," Twilight said.

"But the tracks stopped after a few feet, there were some signs of another aircraft having been present; an aerial search yielded no further results," Blake admitted.

General Ironwood, sat behind his desk, nodded. "All early warning stations and coastal patrols were put on alert, and squadrons were dispatched from Atlas and Crystal City. None of them found anything; none detected an airship leaving our airspace." The General sighed. "Watts once designed an airship with stealth capabilities. Only two seats, he proposed it could be used to insert spies. I didn't see that the military had much use for it at the time - we were at peace with the other kingdoms, and spies and stealth aren't of much use against the grimm - but it would have been very useful to Watts in escaping undetected with Chrysalis."

Blake scowled. "I'm sorry, sir."

General Ironwood looked at her. "For what, Specialist?"

Blake blinked. "For this failure, sir. You ordered me to find Watts, and I failed you."

"We all failed, sir," Twilight said. "None of us-"

"This was my mission, I take full responsibility for the lack of success," Blake said quickly before Twilight - or either of the other two - could talk themselves into trouble.

"I ordered you to find Watts in Mantle," Ironwood said. "It was you who realised that he was never there at all."

"Not fast enough," Blake murmured.

"My error," General Ironwood said. "Not yours. I fell right into Watts' trap, just like he knew I would." The General got up, and turned his back upon the three huntresses and Twilight as he walked to the vast windows looking out over the breadth of Atlas, the glassy spires looming into the sky and the ever-vigilant cruisers hovering above them like guardian spirits. General Ironwood clasped his hands behind his back. "I'm a soldier," he said. "And an Atlesian soldier at that. I'm trained to see my enemy and take him out, to go to where my enemy is and confront him there, to put my body between humanity and harm. That's what I am...and that's what I've trained you to be. Shadows, deception..." he bowed his head. "Now more than ever, I feel the need of Oz's wisdom."

Blake looked down at her feet. It seemed wrong, vaguely indecent, to stare at General Ironwood when he looked so...so _vulnerable_ like this, like eavesdropping on grief-stricken relatives in a hospital; it seemed wrong that the General, the man who seemed so solid it was as though he had been forged rather than born, the embodiment of the strength and resolve of the Atlesian forces, should be conceding to a flaw like this. Blake would rather that he had blamed her for her ineptitude than taken the blame upon himself if this was the result.

Rainbow looked as though she was nerving up her courage. She took a deep breath before she spoke, "Sir, we kicked Chrysalis' ass once before, and we'll do it again, even if she does have Salem behind her."

General Ironwood did not reply, but he did raise his head before he turned around to face the four of them once more. "Since we don't know where Chrysalis or Watts are now, I've decided to increase security around the council. From now on, Clover Ebi and his team will coordinate security for the council with Shining Armour and Winter Schnee."

"Thank you, sir," Twilight said.

"And I'm assigning you a bodyguard as well," General Ironwood continued.

"I'm not sure that's necessary, sir," Twilight replied.

"I think it might be," Applejack said. "You remember what she said as they were dragging her away, right? All those promises of revenge she was hollerin' on about?"

"I'm not a councillor," Twilight said. "I'm not even-"

"You're the one she blames, Twi," Rainbow said. "That's enough."

"Not to mention, Chrysalis isn't the only enemy who can hold a grudge, I'm not taking any chances," General Ironwood said. "From now on Rufus Madison and Sugarcoat will alternate in shadowing you, Madison's waiting outside."

Applejack began, "Sir, I'd be glad to-"

"I'm sure that both-" General Ironwood began, before his eyes flickered to Blake. "I'm sure that any of the three of you would willingly take on this assignment, and I know that some of you would ever prefer it that way, but operatives who know the truth about what's going on are rare, and if this action of Watts proves anything, it's that Salem isn't resting on the laurels of her victory at Vale. I need you all ready for when the other shoe drops."

"Are you sure you still want to rely on us when that happens, sir?" Blake asked.

General Ironwood looked into her eyes. "You aren't damned by failure, Belladonna," he said. "Any more than you would have been sanctified by success beyond all future reproach." He didn't look at Rainbow, but that didn't stop Dash from looking profoundly uncomfortable. "You went beyond the task I assigned to you and saw what I had missed. Do I still want to rely upon you? Absolutely. That's all, dismissed."

* * *

Rarity ran up a line of diamonds.

Weiss watched as the other girl ran around the cavernous hall, the diamond-shaped barriers conjured by Rarity's semblance glowing in the darkness as the pale form of the reluctant would-be huntress climbed higher and higher, climbing very close to the vaulted ceiling of the gloomy, sepulchral chamber before she began her descent, skipping from diamond to diamond downwards towards the floor – and Weiss.

It was not exactly fencing training – although they had done some of that and would be getting back to that before the session was over – but it would help Rarity just as much, if not more, than the finer points of swordplay. It wasn't too surprising that Rarity thought of her semblance only as a shield or a barrier – that was how she'd first discovered it, from what she'd told Weiss – but being Schnee and an inheritor of the hereditary Schnee semblance gave one a broad perspective on the versatility of semblances. Just because most semblances were not as, quite frankly, broken as that of the Schnee family, just because most people didn't have effectively a dozen different semblances grouped together under the umbrella of the Schnee semblance, didn't mean that they couldn't find a greater variety of uses for them than, to be quite honest, most people did. So it was with Rarity: yes, use her diamonds as shields, take cover and shelter behind them, but had she ever tried creating more than one at once? It turned out she had, but only very small ones and purely for cosmetic purposes; still, it was a good start and led naturally on to making more full-sized, useful diamonds. Had she tried using dust to modify? No, she hadn't, and it turned out that it didn't work like that – these weren't her glyphs, after all.

But if they weren't as versatile as the things that Weiss could conjure up, that didn't mean that Rarity wasn't getting better at using them in a more creative manner, at conjuring them more quickly, making more of them, altering the angles at which she conjured them.

If or when she went to Atlas, all of this would stand her in as good or better stead than a little extra fencing practice with Weiss. Plus, she had to admit, it made her feel a lot more useful. A lot of people could have helped Rarity with her swordplay, but only a Schnee could have helped her understand her semblance in this way.

Rarity hopped delicately off her final diamond to land on her toes in front of Weiss. Her heels clicked upon the floor. She took a deep breath, her bosom heaving just a little; she was getting better, but it was still clear that using her semblance in this way was not second nature to her.

Nevertheless, she was getting better, and Weiss didn't intend to be the kind of teacher who focussed on the negative as though the positive didn't exist. "Your use of your diamonds is improving."

Rarity took another deep breath. "Soon I'll be at the Academy level?"

"To be perfectly honest, you could probably hold your own at this point against the average academy student," Weiss said, leaving it slightly ambiguous as to how good the average academy student was. She was thinking more of people like Russell, or even Cardin. Not every student at the huntsman academies was a Pyrrha Nikos or a Weiss Schnee or even a Rainbow Dash in skill, courage, or commitment. Rarity's swordplay and archery had gotten a little rusty in the two years since she'd been out of Combat School, but not _that_ rusty. She didn't need Weiss' help to reach Academy beginner level. Although that didn't mean that Weiss intended to stop seeing her, and not because it got her out of the house either; you could never improve too much, and you couldn't always afford to sit around at Academy beginner level as though the world was automatically going to give you four years to improve. Duty might call much sooner than that.

"If you don't mind me saying, darling, that sounds an awful lot like damning with faint praise," Rarity murmured.

Weiss winced. "Am I that transparent?"

Rarity did not reply immediately. Rather, she walked across the immense hall to where a couple of water bottles were sitting on the floor. She picked one up and drank from it. "I take it that the average student is not up to your standards?"

"My standards aren't the issue," Weiss replied. "The standards of the grimm are."

Rarity nodded, suddenly looking a little grim herself. "Of course. What's it like, to fight them?"

Weiss frowned ever so slightly. "You must have seen a grimm at combat school?"

"Oh, yes, I've seen grimm," Rarity murmured. "I nearly got swallowed whole by a lagarto once. But there was always Principal Celestia or Vice Principal Luna or one of the other teachers nearby. What's it like to face them without backup? With only your own strength to rely on?"

"I've never done that," Weiss said. "I always had my team with me. Or, Flash, at least. I was never alone."

Rarity nodded. "But what I meant was-"

"I know," Weiss said softly. "And it…I won't lie, it's not like Combat School. When you hear the beowolves coming for you…anyone who says they weren't scared the first time wasn't really there. But it does get easier. The more you see of them, the more you realise the average grimm has a very limited box of tricks, and once you figure those tricks out, you know how to beat them. Then there's the problem that you're always meeting new grimm and having to figure out their tricks while you try not to die…I'm not selling this very well, am I?"

Rarity chuckled. "Believe me, dear, the danger of this life has been made very clear to me more than once."

Weiss smiled. "Twilight?"

"And Applejack," Rarity said. "And Rainbow Dash for that matter, now that she's snapped out of her funk. Applejack dissuaded me from going to Atlas in the first place, and she's no happier to learn that I'm considering it again now."

"But you're still going to do it," Weiss guessed.

"Yes," Rarity replied. "Even though it's dangerous, or…perhaps because it's dangerous. Because the world is so dangerous that I can't stand by, as little as a girl like me has to offer to Atlas or the world."

"Don't say that," Weiss said. "Don't even let yourself think it. Certainly don't let anybody else tell you that. Don't let them tell you that you're not made for this, that you're too small or too pretty or that a nice girl from a good family like you has no business learning how to fight monsters."

"Are we still talking about me, darling?"

Weiss felt her face flush red with embarrassment. "Sorry," she said quickly. "I just…there's no such thing as a born huntress…well, except maybe Pyrrha I suppose. But if you put her aside and look at the kind of students who fill the academies, look at your friends, look at the people I went to Beacon with: farm girls, waifs and strays swept up from the streets of Atlas and Mistral, country boys with empty heads, wide-eyed dreamers, gentlemen, and princesses. None of them were born to be heroes - none of them were even born to be warriors - but they became both because they chose to stand up. And if you choose the same, then you have as much right to stand with them as anyone else, and don't let anybody tell you different…even if you think they have your best interests at heart." She stopped and felt that her embarrassment, far from being diminished, might have actually gotten a little worse now that she stopped and thought about what she'd just said. She coughed awkwardly into one hand. "Sorry," she said again. "I didn't mean to preach at you."

"Actually, I thought you were rather inspiring," Rarity said. "Have you considered going into politics?"

"No," Weiss said quickly, as though the idea were an awful one. _Then again, if I can't be a huntress, it would at least give me a way to effect change in the world. Maybe I should give it some thought._ "You're giving me too much credit for dressing up a cliché."

"There's nothing wrong with dressing up, darling," Rarity declared. "Sometimes dressing up well can be the most important thing in the world."

Weiss chuckled. "I'm not completely unaware of that," she said. She drew Myrtenaster from the blue sash tied around her waist. "Are you ready to resume?"

"Not quite yet, I beg you," Rarity said, holding up one hand. "Give my aura just a little more time to recover from that abuse of my semblance."

"Alright," Weiss said. Using your semblance consumed aura, but exactly how much aura it consumed depended to a degree on how adept you were at using your semblance. Weiss could abuse hers to a degree that would have been reckless in many other huntresses not because she had an inhuman store of aura but because she was very well trained and greatly practiced in the use of her glyphs. Summons, on the other hand, still took their toll on her; she had yet to summon more than one at a time, while Winter could conjure up whole packs of phantom beowolves when the need arose.

"May I ask, what is this place?" Rarity asked, gesturing to the vast hall to which Weiss had brought the other girl to train. It resembled an ancient abandoned cathedral, with long glass windows embossed with a symbol that was not quite the Schnee snowflake but which greatly resembled it. It was a place of little light and many shadows, where Weiss and Rarity stood out as pale ghosts amidst the gloom, specks of white amongst darkness. "I've never been here before."

"No, I don't suppose you would have," Weiss said. "But it has the space for us to train."

"Ample space," Rarity agreed. "But where is it?"

"This is a private facility owned by my family," Weiss said. "It's where I trained. It's where…it's where I met him." She gestured with Myrtenaster, and a blue-white glyph formed upon the floor beside her out of which arose, head first, her immense knight, all clad in his bulky armour, wielding that sword that was taller than Weiss – and taller than Rarity too. He stood, looming over the two girls for a moment before he knelt, descending courteously to one knee and bowing his head before them.

Rarity's eyes widened. "What is it?"

"This…this is a ghost," Weiss said. "Or you might call it that. It's one facet of the Schnee semblance: anything that we kill, we preserve an echo or a phantasm of it, and we can summon it to aid us in battle if we wish."

Rarity nodded her head minutely. "Then…you killed this?"

"I believe the name of it was Arma Gigas," Weiss said. "A grimm possessing a suit of armour."

"And you killed it here? In this building?"

"Yes," Weiss said softly. "That's when I came by this scar."

"But we're in the middle of Atlas!" Rarity cried. "How did a grimm get all the way in here?"

"My father brought it here, to test me," Weiss said. "To prove to him that I was ready to go to Beacon without disgracing myself, or him." That was why she had brought Rarity here; it seemed appropriate that here, in this place redolent with memories, where she had proved herself ready to her father that she would, in turn, in this same place, help Rarity to become ready.

Rarity pursed her lips together. "That does not seem particularly…fatherly."

"Perhaps not," Weiss said softly. "But of all the things that my father has done, that is something that I don't hold against him. Perhaps his motives were slightly self-interested, but I'm glad that I fought this battle, and not just because I eventually got this summon out of it. I did have to prove myself that night, in a way that I hadn't before. When I came to Beacon, I knew that I belonged because of what I went through in this building." She paused. "When I think you're ready, I'll have you fight the Arma Gigas too, my summons at least. Not because you have anything to prove to me, but because I think you should be able to prove it to yourself."

"Very well," Rarity murmured. "But I'm not there yet?"

"No," Weiss conceded. "Not yet. But with time, and practice, you will be. Speaking of which," she flourished Myrtenaster a little.

Rarity's own epeé, a less sophisticated version of a dust blade but basically similar in its operation, was thrust into her belt. She drew it forth and held it before her, pointed towards Weiss. "Yes," she said. "I'm ready now."

Weiss stepped backwards, raising her rapier up high, the blade at eye level; Rarity held her epeé – which went by the simple name of Grace - in a low guard, her free hand tucked behind her back.

They stared at one another for a moment. Then Rarity came for her, her blade a silver sheen slicing through the darkness. Weiss stepped forward, Myrtenaster cutting through the gloom to clash with Grace in a clatter of metal upon metal. Their swords clashed, thrust, parry, riposte; Weiss retreated then came on again; Rarity fell back then countered. The delicate fencing blades sparked off one another again and again as first one combatant then the other pressed their advantage for a moment, then found said advantage reversed. They circled one another, dancing delicately across the great hall, two clashing points of light in a place otherwise consumed by darkness.

The corner of Weiss's lip turned upwards in a slight smile. Something that sparring with Rarity had reminded her of was the extent to which her proper form had been allowed to decay over the course of a year at Beacon; classical fencing technique was not always the most effective technique when pitched against a horde of onrushing grimm, but Rarity had not yet found that out – or rather, she had not yet found that she could get the same or better results with a sloppier, quicker motion – and so, for all that she was a little out of practice, her footwork, her stance, her posture and positioning were in some respects better now than Weiss's own.

But on the battlefield, you didn't win by having the better form. Weiss started to change things up, altering her moves a little, descending from the level of the fencers' handbook to that of the fighter on the streets of Vale, first introducing little variations to the moves, then allowing herself to slip more and more into the rhythms that she had fallen into at Beacon. Non-traditional moves demanded more than a rote response, and Rarity was discomfited, falling back before Weiss's onslaught as she tried to counter moves that couldn't be parried by choosing one of the pre-learned stances, motions and blade positions. But she was fast enough that she was able to parry, even if only just about, and Weiss didn't land a hit on her; she probably could have if she'd gone all out, but the point of this was to teach Rarity, not make her feel incompetent or satisfy Weiss's ego.

So she held back and let Rarity's quick reflexes and keen eye preserve her, until the other girl started to get a feel for Weiss's altered movements. Weiss could see the confidence returning in Rarity's blue eyes as she returned to the attack, making up lost ground as it was her turn to drive Weiss back across the hall.

Sword clashed on sword, the rhythmic echo of the blades the only sound in the vast, cavernous space in which they duelled.

"Very good," Weiss said. _Now to take this to the next level._

Rarity, a slight smile playing across her face, lunged for her. Weiss sidestepped, grabbing Rarity's outstretched arm with her free hand and pirouetting on her toe to throw the other girl with a startled squawk across the room.

Rarity kept hold of her Grace even as she struck the floor with a thump and rolled across it. She rose up on one knee, blade pointed at Weiss as a blast of fire dust shot from the sword. Weiss held Myrtenaster before her as she conjured a black glyph before her to block the blast harmlessly.

The chambers of her rapier circled until she had selected the proper type of dust for her purposes, conjuring a single blue-white glyph from which a laser beam burst forth to pound with effect upon the glowing diamond that Rarity created with her free hand held before her.

Rarity climbed upwards, leaping from diamond to diamond, her skirt bouncing slightly up and down; Weiss followed, jumping from white glyph to white glyph as they appeared in the air by her will. Rarity formed a road of diamonds in the air pointing towards Weiss. Weiss conjured a glyph above, angled downwards at Rarity, and leapt off it as a springboard to descend upon her opponent from above. Their blades clashed. They leapt apart, diamonds and glyphs appearing beneath their feet to steady them. They danced in the air, hurling themselves at one another as one footing disappeared and then another formed to bear them once the pass was done. Their swords rattled together with blasts of dust. More than once, they leapt past one another, slicing with their swords to carve off pieces of one another's aura. They were the only lights in the darkness, they were shooting stars in the night sky, they were like two stones borne against one another by the current and then swept apart again as they gracefully clashed then split up, rising and falling, descending to the floor then climbing up again, until Rarity's aura entered the red and Weiss called a halt.

"That," Weiss declared, "was not bad at all."

"But not good enough," Rarity murmured.

"There's no such thing as good enough," Weiss replied, thrusting Myrtenaster into her sash. "There is only better than you were before."

"I know what you mean, of course," Rarity said. "But at the same time…in matters of life and death, there is such a thing as…well, there is certainly such a thing as _not_ good enough, wouldn't you say?"

"I suppose so," Weiss admitted, "but I would also say that you passed that mark some time ago."

"Darling, you are almost as generous with your praise as you are with your time," Rarity declared.

"I'm honest, as a good teacher should be," Weiss replied. "And as for my time, instead of letting you thank me for it, you should be letting me thank you for giving me something to spend my time upon. These sessions, they give me a purpose."

She and Rarity went for coffee after their sparring session, followed up by a little light window shopping in the Cloud District; Weiss got the impression that Rarity couldn't afford most of the things available in these high-end stores, not that she asked directly - that would have been rather vulgar - but that she liked looking at them purely as a way to see what was 'in' and what was not. Weiss, who could have afforded much more of what the two of them saw on offer, was at the same time not so interested in it, except that it was hard not to let Rarity's enthusiasm for the subject become a little infectious as the afternoon wore on.

She caught sight of Whitley briefly while she was out; he was accompanied by Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon and lastly, at a discrete distance, by a man whom Weiss did not recognise: elderly, dressed in a well-tailored suit, with wisps of white hair clinging to an otherwise bald head. Judging by all the boxes he was labouring under and the fact that he looked too old to be a lesser servant, Weiss took him to be the young lady's own butler. The two girls were laughing at whatever Whitley had just said, and none of them spotted Weiss or Rarity before they disappeared into one of the high end department stores.

Whatever Weiss might think about Whitley, about the way that he viewed his relationships – and everyone else's for that matter too – she was glad that he wasn't alone in the world. If only because it made her feel a little less guilty about the fact that she'd gone away to Beacon and basically forgotten about him for a year. She could tell herself it hadn't done him any harm.

Thinking about relationships, Beacon and the people she'd hurt made Weiss think of Flash Sentry. She found her thoughts turning towards her former partner with a frequency that verged on regularity. The last she'd heard of him, he was going into the hospital to have his leg removed. She could have found out which hospital, she could have gone to see him...and there was a part of her that wanted to do exactly that. A part of her that wanted to rush to his bedside, confirm that he was okay; a part of her that wanted to throw her arms around him and tearfully confess how sorry she was for what had happened, not just in the battle but before, for the way that she had...a part of her that wanted to tell him how she felt. But she did not. She had not. She could not. She could not bear to tell him how she felt only to be rejected by him, and she felt that rejection was the most likely thing to come from it; after all, he'd made no more effort to contact her than she had to contact him, so he probably didn't want to have anything to do with her now.

 _Perhaps if I'd been more open to the idea when he first asked…_

 _I wanted to focus on my studies, and besides...I didn't know what a great guy he was back then._

"Weiss?" Rarity asked. "Weiss, darling, are you alright? You look suddenly so troubled."

Weiss blinked, recalled to herself. "I...no, I'm fine," she said quickly. "I was just...thinking about someone, that's all. Wondering if I could have handled things differently."

Rarity smiled knowingly. "I'm sure you'll get another chance."

Weiss' eyebrow rose a little. "Really? And what exactly do you think I'm talking about?"

"Oh, I wouldn't presume to say," Rarity said airily. "But I'm sure he's a very lucky boy."

Weiss felt her face redden. "That is absolutely...ugh!"

But alas, it eventually reached a point where Weiss couldn't put off going home any longer, and it was time for her to return to the brooding emptiness of the Schnee Manor, where the spaces were nearly as vast as the cavernous hall in which she and Rarity had fought, and while they were not quite as dark, they were every bit as cold and empty.

When Weiss returned, there was a car outside the manor, this time a purple car with the letters CP picked out in gold lettering upon the door. Inside the house, there was no sign of Whitley - he clearly hadn't returned from his own shopping in advance of Weiss - and there was no immediate sign of Klein in evidence either, or her mother. There was no sign of anybody as Weiss made her way through the house, her footfalls echoing down the empty corridors, passing by the vast empty rooms, feeling almost chilled by the cold blue décor that dominated the house. The whole place appeared absolutely deserted until she passed by the door of her father's study, which at least had the sounds of voices issuing from it to indicate that someone was alive in here besides Weiss herself.

Nobody was shouting as her father had been shouting at General Ironwood when Weiss had interrupted them, but they were still speaking loudly enough that Weiss could hear them, and what she heard made her stop, and listen for more.

"You must understand, Mister Schnee," the voice belonged to a woman, older, middle-aged at least. "There is a great constituency within this kingdom that is deeply concerned by the current direction of our leadership, a constituency that is crying out for a change of course before it is too late."

 _Are you talking about the treaty with Menagerie?_ Weiss thought. _Are you really that opposed to treating the faunus like equals? What is it about this that upsets you?_

"The treaty with Menagerie is just the tip of the iceberg," the woman continued. "The latest in a long line of misguided policies aimed at weakening our kingdom and strengthening our competitors."

"I share your concerns, of course," Jacques replied, "but I fail to understand why, if there is such a great constituency as you say, then it doesn't do something to bring about this change of course before all the wealth of this kingdom and my company has flooded into the coffers of the faunus on Menagerie."

"Because we lack the most important thing for the success of any great endeavour," the woman said. "We lack a leader. Those whom I represent are loyal and dutiful servants of this kingdom, but though we have spent our lives in Atlas' service, we are not the sorts who can inspire the masses to follow where we lead. For that, we need a more extraordinary kind of man than we can muster."

"You mean you need me," Jacques said, without a trace of modesty.

"You are the titan of our industry," the woman declared. "And more to the point, you exemplify the spirit that has driven Atlas to its present heights, but which is now threatened by the policies of our present leaders. Let me ask you, Mister Schnee, did anybody help you on the way to your present success?"

"Of course not," Jacques replied, as though the very suggestion that a man who had inherited his fortune and the leadership of his company through marriage might not have worked for every lien he had was somehow insulting. "I started work on the ground floor of this company and climbed the corporate ladder through hard work and effort. It wasn't always easy, but I had determination and a solid work ethic."

"Two things all too often lacking from the present generation of Atlesians, who seem to expect to have everything handed to them on a plate," the woman said scornfully.

"Hmm," Jacques murmured. "It's ironic: we work hard so that our children may enjoy prosperity, only to watch as that prosperity leaves them incapable of maintaining the legacy that we bequeath to them. Nicholas Schnee understood that when he decided to leave his company to me, a self-made man capable of continuing what he had begun, instead of to his own daughter. I confess that when I look at my own children, I don't believe that any of them are capable of leading the SDC to continued success."

Weiss rolled her eyes.

"At my school," the woman said, "I have done my best to inculcate a sense of hard work and accomplishment as exemplified by our motto, _Semper Plus Ultra_ : always further beyond. But I fear it is the faunus of Menagerie, hardscrabble and barren land as it is, who will prove to truly embody that spirit of achievement and triumph over limitations while we in Atlas have grown soft in our prosperity and softened the other kingdoms through their reliance upon our military might. Why, look at this Warrior Princess that General Ironwood brought back with him from Vale: sprung from Menagerie, she is superior to any huntress in Atlas save for a handful of my most elite students. Mister Schnee, I fear we are paying to let a tiger in amongst the flock."

 _Blake?_ Weiss thought. _You're using Blake as an example of…Blake is that good because that she's good, not because there's something special about Menagerie. She wasn't even living there while she was training!_

There was silence within the room, or at least Weiss could not hear anything. Then her father spoke.

"For my own part, I have often wished that there was at least someone on the council who understood business," Jacques declared. "Who understood the extent to which the good of the Schnee Dust Company and the good of Atlas are intertwined. Even someone who simply understood that money doesn't grow on trees and that I have worked hard for all the wealth and success that I enjoy. But to go into politics?"

"Atlas cries out for leadership," the woman declared. "The hour has come, will the man be found?"

Jacques was silent for a moment. "You have given me a great deal to think about, Principal Cinch. I will give everything that you have said very careful consideration."

"That is all that I ask, Mister Schnee," the woman – Principal Cinch – replied. "The fate of Atlas rests in your hands. All of us who love our kingdom pin our hopes on you to make the right choice."

Weiss decided that now would be a good time to leave, lest she be caught eavesdropping by her father. But as she walked quickly away down the corridor towards her own room, she was filled with a sense of great disquiet. Who was that woman, and what did she want from her father?

And why did Weiss have the feeling that the answers would mean nothing good for Atlas or Menagerie?

* * *

Chrysalis was not entirely sure where she was.

She was more certain that she didn't like it here.

This was an unnatural place, where the sun had failed and the world was cast into a permanent purple haze, a grim miasma that sapped the spirit; this castle to which Watts had brought her, this chamber in which she stood, though both were larger than her prison cell, they seemed to her almost as oppressive. This banqueting chamber - or whatever it's purpose; it had at least a table erected, and chairs of stone and crude wood set around it - had windows at least, but when she stood at the window as she was standing now, Chrysalis could see nought but a blasted land, devoid of life, where not even a bush grew. There was nothing here nor all around to be seen but barren rock picked clean of life.

Barren rock - and the grimm, who crawled with slow, uncertain, shambling gait out of the pools of darkness that lay scattered all about this castle and slouched about under the moon, joining the throng who had already mustered here like an army waiting on their queen's command. Some of them had been here for some time, judging by the size they had reached and the spikes and the armour plates that now protected them; others seemed as though they had spawned scarcely longer ago than those that Chrysalis was seeing enter the world before her very eyes. Was this the source of the grimm? Was this the place from which all nightmares originated?

"Quite a striking view, isn't it?" Watts asked from where he sat at the table, hands resting upon the rough, uneven wood.

Chrysalis turned away from the unholy sight. "Are they dangerous?"

"To us? No. In general...they are grimm."

Chrysalis walked lightly towards the table. "What does anyone who can command the creatures of the dark need with me or the White Fang?"

The doors at the end of the chamber swung open with a creak. "I hope you can appreciate that there are places a grimm simply cannot go," said the figure in a gown of black trimmed with scarlet who glided into the chamber; a five-pointed crown was set upon her head, the candle flames gleaming upon the metal. "There are powers that a grimm cannot wield. There are strategies a grimm cannot comprehend. For such things, I have a need for other servants."

Chrysalis stared. The creature who had just entered the room looked like she could have been the personification of death itself; she looked like a corpse, a woman who had drowned in a lake and lain in the water for too long undiscovered before she sprang into unnatural life once more as the veins that stood out so prominently upon her pale and lifeless flesh stirred to life. Her eyes seemed, from a distance, to be as black as coals set in that wan visage, it was only when she advanced on Chrysalis that the latter could see that there were red eyes burning in the darkness, eyes red as blood.

Watts rose to his feet. "Ma'am, allow me to present-"

"Chrysalis," the dead figure said. "Former leader of the White Fang in Altas." She smiled. "My name is Salem. Tell me, Chrysalis, why have you come?"

Chrysalis' throat felt suddenly very dry. "I was...I am here for power."

"And what would you do with power, if I gave it to you?" Salem asked, her voice calm and soft.

"I would take my revenge," Chrysalis snarled. "And I would take justice for my people."

Salem's lips twitched upwards. "Vengeance, justice. Yes. It is important not to lose sight of what drives us." She stopped, staring into Chrysalis's eyes; Chrysalis felt at once the desperate, burning desire to look away but at the same time an absolute inability to do so as Salem held her captivated by her gaze. "Yes," she said softly. "Well done, Arthur. This one will do nicely. Serve me well, Chrysalis, and my power shall be as yours...as shall all the vengeance you desire. But first, I ask you to prove yourself to me."

"How?" Chrysalis asked.

"Go to Mistral with Arthur," Salem said. "I have agents and allies there of dubious loyalty; you will remind them both that the friendship of Salem is not lightly thrown aside, nor is the bond between mistress and servant one that can be broken upon a whim." She paused, and Chrysalis understood that that was a message aimed at her as much as whomever resided in Mistral. "I also have enemies within the city, enemies whom I am loath to see continue to gather power against me. Eliminate them, and you shall have the first taste of the power you require to return to Atlas and throw down all those who wronged you."

That sounded promising. "And what manner of power will you grant to me?"

"In Mistral there is power you may take for yourself," Salem said. "You are not too old to become a Maiden yet, once Spring is found."

"Maiden? Spring?" Chrysalis repeated. "What are these things you speak of?"

Salem smiled. "Tell me, Chrysalis: what is your favourite fairy tale?"


	206. Overwatch

Overwatch

One Month Earlier…

The Chapel of Our Lady of the North was not immune from the architectural styles of Atlas merely on account of its religious nature, or even the archaic nature of the faith it served. It was a building in Atlas, and it looked as though it belonged in Atlas; although it had a vaguely sepulchral shape, the fact that it was built of glass and steel marked it clearly as a modern and distinctively Atlesian interpretation of the design. In daylight, the walls could be seen through, with only the metal beams and support struts interrupting the continuous clear material that separated the interior from the outside world – although when a degree of separation from the world was called for, the glass could be darkened until it was opaque – while the pews that cascaded forwards in rows from the centre of the building were fashioned out of shining metal, bolted to the floor.

Ciel had no objections to this modernity. This was Atlas, after all; it would have been a bizarre sight to have seen an old-fashioned church of rough-hewn stone in the middle of the most advanced city in all of Remnant. And besides, the Lady of the North could be found wherever a true believer might be found; if it were not so, then it would be very hard indeed to find her anywhere within the Kingdom of Atlas these days.

It was night now, and through the high glass ceiling, she could have seen the moon and the stars illuminating the sky above if she had turned her eyes to heaven. She did not, but kept her eyes fixed upon the statue of the Lady herself that sat at the very forefront of the chapel. Alone in the whole building, this statue possessed a traditional look, although Ciel had no doubt that it was as modern as the building itself, but it had been fashioned out of alabaster stone, giving it a pale glow in the darkness that engulfed the largely unlit chapel, and in consequence, it seemed as though it could or might have graced somewhere much older than this place. The Lady was depicted hooded and swathed in a shawl, her face obscured from view. She held out one hand, palm facing towards the ground, as if she were offering a blessing or a benediction to a supplicant.

Candles burned low around the base of the statue, flickering occasionally, although there was no breeze here to make them so, unless they were so sensitive that the breath of those within the room could disturb the firelight thus. Only Ciel and old Father Browne were present here; Ciel's parents were waiting outside, and when she was finished here, then they would go to dinner to celebrate Ciel's graduation, the first of her family to ever pass through Atlas Academy, but that was for later. For now, it was not meet that they should be here for this. This was a sacred thing, between her and Atlas and the Lady of the North.

General Ironwood had accorded her a great honour by offering to swear her in as an Atlesian huntress personally, along with Rainbow Dash and Penny and Blake, a great honour that she had nevertheless had to decline. She had come here instead, her beret rolled up and clutched in one hand, to take her oath before the Lady of the North, as was permitted by the regulations on religious freedom. This was an extraordinary moment in her life, when she would give herself to Atlas and to mankind as their light in darkness, and it was fitting that she should do so in a sacred space.

Father Browne had been a soldier himself, once, before he had turned to faith; his round and kindly face was marked by slashing scars across it, and he moved a little stiffly at times, as though his joints creaked beneath his pristine robe of pale blue. Candlelight glinted off his small, round spectacles.

He smiled encouragingly at her. "Kneel before the Lady."

Ciel knelt, her head beneath the statue's outstretched hand which hovered above her. She looked up, and from this angle, she could better see the statue's face: ageless, soft yet strong-seeming in equal measure, sightless eyes staring down at her and seeming to perceive her nevertheless.

"The greatest treasure of the north," Father Browne said, "is its fighters of valour unsurpassed; do you swear before the Lady that you will be brave of heart in the face of all dangers?"

"I swear on my life that I will be brave," Ciel said, "though a thousand fates of death surround me." She spoke quickly and easily. She had never had any difficulty in being brave; she had never known herself to hesitate in the face of danger. She did not anticipate any difficulties in that regard arising now.

Especially not now, when so many comrades - amongst them sisters of the faith like Neon Katt - had gone before to show her the way.

Father Browne nodded. "The flowers of the north bloom in the harshest of winters, bearing the frost, the darkness, and the cold. Do you swear before the Lady that you will be strong and bear all the malice of the winters to come?"

"I swear upon my honour that I will be strong and hardy," Ciel said, "and all the frosts will neither harm nor move me." She spoke these words more slowly; it was as though her tongue had swollen somewhat and made it harder to form the words than it had been before, and as she spoke, she felt a weight settle upon her shoulders, pressing down upon her.

"The Lady of the North protected all these lands and all who dwelled within them, and her example teaches us to do likewise with what little power we possess," Father Browne declared. "Do you swear to protect the innocent, whatever the cost to yourself?"

"I swear upon my faith that I will protect the innocent," Ciel said. "I shall value each drop of innocent blood as more precious than a gallon of my own." She took a deep breath, for she was breathless. The weight upon her shoulders grew heavier still.

"The Lady is not only our protector but our guide," Father Browne said. "She inspires us, and she teaches us by her example. In a world in which darkness abounds, she is our light. Do you swear that you will live without sin and walk in the light, never straying into darkness?"

Ciel swallowed. She felt a lump in her throat. She felt almost as though she would not be able to get to her feet when the moment came, there was so much pressure on her. "I swear upon my soul," Ciel whispered. "And that I shall live without sin and walk in the light; the darkness shall have no claim on me."

A breeze seemed to blow through the chapel, causing the candles burning around the base of the statue to flicker so violently that Ciel feared they might be snuffed out.

"Your service is accepted," Father Browne said softly. "Rise, Ciel Soleil, rise a huntress of the north."

* * *

Present Day…

Beacon Academy might have been esteemed the most prestigious of the four academies before its ruin, and the new academy that would soon be founded on Menagerie would have a hard time living up the reputation of its illustrious predecessor, but nevertheless, it could not be doubted in Ciel's mind that many of the facilities available at Atlas were vastly superior to what had been on offer at the other school. Take, for example, the facilities for combat training. Atlas did not make do with a raised stage in the midst of an auditorium such as might be found in a minor Mistralian town serving as the arena for their games; in Atlas, the sparring chambers dispensed with a large audience space – leaving only a small observation deck looking down upon the room from above – in favour of a wider space for the two combatants itself; neon blue lines formed a perfect grid along the walls, floor and ceiling, channelling the hard light dust that was used to generate the walls and towers that dotted the chamber.

Walls like the one across the top of which Ciel was running now, back bent, body hunched over her weapon.

She didn't need her semblance to predict that Penny was about to fire at her with at least one of her lasers, and so Ciel chose to leap first before she was hurled with a great force – if she was going to fall anyway, then at least she wouldn't get hit in the chest by a laser beam first – landing feet first on the other side of the wall of black cubes. She felt her aura drop from the force of the impact, but she ignored it – and the aching in the soles of her feet – for a moment as she began to run. She was out of Penny's vision for a moment, but that didn't mean that she could afford to stand still.

Penny started blasting the wall apart, green lasers shredding the hard light constructs and reducing them to quickly disappearing shards. Ciel reached another pillar of cubes, kneeling behind it and bringing Distant Thunder to her shoulder, bending her head to look down the scope at the swiftly disappearing wall. Penny was focussing her fire upon the blocks at the base of said wall, destroying them to topple the entire wall. That was a reasonable approach, although it had to be noted that in the case of a real wall, there would have been a pile of rubble left behind for her to navigate. Still, it was a reasonable approach and more sensible than charging around the wall into who knew what ambush.

Of course, until the wall was finally brought down, there was the issue that she couldn't see what was around the other side. Like Ciel, setting up for the moment when the wall came down.

As it did at just that moment, exposing Penny to Ciel's view.

Ciel pulled the trigger. Distant Thunder roared. She didn't wait to see the impact of the shot before she worked the bolt handle, discharging the spent cartridge that thudded onto the ground beside her and chambering a new round. Ciel looked up to see that Penny had blocked the shot with one of her swords, which had been tossed away and buried in the wall of the combat chamber just beside the door.

 _Some things were easier when you had wired swords._ The worldwide revelations about Penny's robotic nature meant that some changes had been able to be made to her design: since they no longer had to pretend that Penny was human, they no longer had to worry about the extra space involved in making her swords wireless; she simply wore them in a bundle on her back for all to see. And it didn't matter if one of them was knocked aside, because it wasn't even attached to her in any way.

Penny grinned as the points of her remaining swords swung towards Ciel.

Ciel fired again, not aiming to hit so much as to distract Penny while she broke cover, darting for another-

A spectral white sword slammed point first into the ground in front of her, glowing with a phantasmal energy as Ciel swerved to avoid it.

 _Precognition on!_

The blue of Ciel's eyes burned brighter than before. If Penny was about to do what Ciel thought she was about to do, then her own semblance would be a necessary counter.

The future echoes of Penny's spectral blades were faint, but Ciel could see them nevertheless, white swords falling from the sky, swords striking the ground, swords that she could avoid because her own semblance let her see them coming.

 _But Penny knows what my semblance is, so why is she attacking me in a way that I can predict and avoid?_

The answer struck Ciel like a thunderbolt – a mental thunderbolt that helped Ciel to roll away from and avoid the turbo-charged laser beam that blasted through the combat area exactly where Ciel would have been standing if, as Penny had planned, she had been driven by the need to avoid Penny's blades right into the killzone.

Ciel rolled upright, Distant Thunder rising to her shoulder, to see all of Penny's physical swords pointed right at her.

Ciel fired with the loud roar of Distant Thunder.

Penny fired with the shrill whooping of her lasers.

Ciel just caught a glimpse of Penny being knocked off her feet before she was struck by the laser beams and hurled backwards, turning in the air, smashing through a hard-light pillar before hitting the floor. A klaxon sounded, and a quick glance at the board above her confirmed that it was Ciel's aura that had just passed into the red.

Mind you, she had managed to take Penny's aura into the yellow. Ciel was not dissatisfied with that accomplishment.

Ciel picked herself up off the floor. "Congratulations," she said, as she turned to Penny.

Penny leapt to her feet easily. "You too, Ciel! Well fought." She bowed, but did not even try to compose her expression as she did so.

"Hmm," Ciel murmured. "To clarify: you knew that my semblance meant I would avoid your first shot, yes?"

Penny nodded. "But even with your semblance, you can only concentrate on so many things at once. I used my semblance to give you a lot to think about."

Ciel nodded. "But how did you know where I would end up to set up your shot?"

"I guessed," Penny said cheerfully.

Ciel's eyes narrowed. "You _guessed_?"

"And rightly, too," Penny reminded her.

"Indeed," Ciel said, her tone even. "But nevertheless…what would you have done if your guess had been incorrect?"

"A lot worse than I did," Penny said, and the fact that this was probably the true answer didn't make it better to hear.

"You were lucky," Ciel informed her. "You cannot afford to rely on good fortune."

"But I won," insisted the coppertopped gynoid with due cheer.

"This time," Ciel corrected. "If I had hit you, and you had missed me, then you would have been in serious trouble."

"I suppose," Penny allowed, and then her expression shifted. "Ciel?"

"Yes?"

"Why do we train by ourselves?" Penny asked. "In a real battle, I'd have a team supporting me. So even if you'd hit me and I'd have missed, then my team would have covered for me."

"As would mine," Ciel replied, countering her point. "Not that it necessarily follows that you will always be fighting alongside support."

"It doesn't?"

"You are the Dragonslayer now, the hero of Atlas," Ciel reminded her. "There is a non-negligible chance that you may be tasked with completing high-risk missions single-handedly, on the basis of your reputation won at Vale."

Penny's brow furrowed a little. "But I had help at Vale."

"A fact which is not universally understood," Ciel said. "A single hero is easier for the public to comprehend than a joint effort." A very slight smile tugged at one corner of her lip. "You wanted glory; that may come with some negative consequences."

Penny pouted, a glum look coming across her face. "Hey, Ciel?"

"Yes?"

"How do you think they're all doing?"

Ciel folded her arms. "That depends very much on who 'they' are."

"Ruby, Pyrrha," Penny said. "Our friends."

Ciel was silent for a moment. "I have no information on that, Penny. With the CCT network down, it is impossible to ascertain their statuses."

"I know that," Penny said. "That's why I asked you what you thought."

Ciel considered that for a moment. A part of her considered baseless speculation to be pointless…but that would not be a helpful thing to say to Penny. "Reports out of Vale are troubling, and out of Mistral…incomprehensible," she confessed. They had only rumours coming out of both kingdoms, but at least the rumours coming of Vale all pointed in the same direction – a grim direction, but a consistent one nevertheless – whereas those from Mistral were hopelessly garbled. "But Ruby and Pyrrha are both highly skilled huntresses; I am as sure as can be in the circumstances that they are both still alive, although I would not like to speculate upon the comfort of their existences at present."

Penny nodded. "I…I think so too," she said. "Or at least I'd like to. It…it doesn't feel right that I should be here in Atlas about to start raising money while my friends are fighting out there in the world."

"I would have thought that being the centre of attention would appeal to you," Ciel remarked dryly.

"Not while other people are in trouble!" Penny cried.

Ciel felt that she probably ought to do something, so she awkwardly gave Penny a pat on the shoulder. "I understand that propaganda performances are not what any huntress dreams of," she conceded, "but that does not make them any less necessary. At present, it is the best way that you can help our friends."

"It is?" Penny asked, a look of confusion upon her face. "Are you just saying that?"

"Have I ever lied to you, Penny?" Ciel asked, a touch of reproach entering her voice.

"No."

"There are some within this Kingdom who would prefer that we look inwards at this time, or at least look no further than our own borders and the defence of the same," Ciel said. "There are some who would rather that the CCT network was not restored and our fleets never again depart out of sight of Atlas or Mantle. There are some who say we were defeated at Vale, and that our losses there demonstrate the folly of our policies and the hollowness of all our pride. Your upcoming tour is not just about raising money; it is about reminding people of the best of Atlas and what we stand for: how our forces stood against the dark at Vale and _triumphed_ , saving both the Kingdom and the day. To remind people that while our victory was not without sacrifice it was a victory nonetheless: a city saved, a horde of grimm defeated." It was true that Professor Ozpin had been killed and one of the four relics taken, but first of all that was only known to a handful, second the relic had not been defended by Atlesian forces and third Ciel was inclined to be sanguine about the loss of the relic in any event. Their enemy possessed a gift from the gods; but they had the favour of the divine upon their side also, and what was a trinket that had once known the touch of godhead when set against the Lady's grace allied to Atlas' might and majesty? "Our light has not gone out of the world, the spark remains that shall be rekindled into an inferno to burn away all darkness. When the construction of the Menagerie tower is completed and worldwide communications are restored, then we will step forth into the world once more, and you can rescue our friends and anyone else who is in need."

"Really?"

"Indeed," Ciel said. "If they are in need of rescuing."

Penny grinned. "I'd like that. To drop from the sky and give them a big surprise."

"In time," Ciel said. "If we do our part to stand firm against the doubters, and inspire anew those who may feel their faith wavering."

"There are really people who want us to turn our back on everyone else?"

"Small minds are ever present, Penny," Ciel declared, "and in times of crisis it is easier to lose hope, and those who lose hope give ear to those who shout. Your task is to sound louder, as loud as a trumpet, and in the sounding restore hope to those who have none."

"By summer, I swear I shall be a light in dark places, when all other lights go out," Penny said, her voice quiet as she quoted the oath that she had sworn."

"Precisely," Ciel acknowledged. She checked the time again. "I have to head back to our room now."

"Why?" Penny asked.

Ciel drew in a sharp intake of breath. "I…need to get ready."

"Ready for what?" Penny demanded. "What are we doing tonight?"

" _You_ are having a nice, quiet evening at home," Ciel informed her. "I need to get ready because I…" – she coughed into her fist – "I have a date tonight."

Penny gasped. She clasped her hands together underneath her chin, her face seeming to distort momentarily as she bounced across the chamber towards Ciel. "A date? Who is it? Do I know them? Where did you meet? How long has this been going on, and why didn't you tell me already?"

Her face was about an inch away from Ciel's at this point, eyes gleaming eagerly. Ciel pressed two fingers against Penny's forehead and firmly pushed her away, the other girl's feet scraping upon the floor as she slid backwards until she was an arm's length away. "Curb your enthusiasm," Ciel told her. "Yes, a date. A blind date, so I don't know who he is, and we have never met. An old friend of mine, Cloudchaser – we lived next door to each other on the base in Granite in Vacuo for two years when I was a child – set me up. She says that I will like him, and I trust her enough to meet him."

"It seems a little strange, dating a guy you've never met," Penny said.

"I am not marrying him," Ciel replied. "It's only one date. If we are not compatible, there need not be a second."

Ciel and Penny shared a room together in Atlas Academy – at least they would until they set off across the Kingdom together – and so it was to that room that they returned, together, for Ciel to get ready. Ciel chose a dress to wear, a cocktail dress of midnight blue, backless and strapless and fastening around a collar at her neck, long and elegant but not difficult to walk in, something that indicated what kind of a person she was and what kind of things that she liked to wear without being _too_ ridiculous for a first date – and laid it out on her bed before she got a hot shower.

She would not admit this to Penny, but she was, as she let the water fall down upon her, a little nervous. It might not ultimately matter, but at the same time, that didn't alter the fact that Ciel would rather get this right, if at all possible.

Not at the expense of being herself, of course, but at the same time, if being herself meant that she didn't get a second date, then what did that say about her? She would rather things worked out, if possible. She would like them to work out better than they had with Scarlet, at any rate.

She would also like to think that Cloudchaser still knew her well enough not to set her up with anyone that she would find completely detestable. To be proved wrong about that would also be disappointing.

When she came out of the shower, wrapped in a towel, she found Penny sorting through her wardrobe.

Ciel stared at her for a moment. "Penny," she said, her voice as sharp as any of Floating Array's blades, "what are you doing?"

"I don't think you've made the best choice," Penny said, as she held up a white gown with a high collar and a ruffled skirt and neckline both alike. "I think this looks better."

"No," Ciel said.

"No?" Penny asked.

"No," Ciel repeated.

"Why not?" Penny inquired.

"It's too much for a first date," Ciel informed her.

Penny's eyes narrowed. "You got a fur trimmed cape out," she pointed out to Ciel.

"Faux fur," Ciel corrected.

"My point stands regardless," Penny replied.

"Just because it is only a first date doesn't mean that I can't look nice," Ciel said, a slight touch of defensiveness entering her voice. "I have made my decision, put those- actually, I will put those back later."

She got dressed, politely but firmly rebuffing Penny's offer to help in that regard; the blue of her dress was interrupted by a silver sash around the waist, and filmy, nearly transparent peplum just beneath it; a pair of long white gloves concealed the bulk of her arms from view, even as the cut of the dress – narrowing in a lambda towards the clasp where it reached the collar around her neck – left her shoulders completely visible.

"You look nice."

"Thank you, Penny," Ciel said, as she checked that her pistol was loaded before she put it into her purse.

"Do you think you'll need that?" Penny asked.

"It never hurts to be prepared," Ciel replied, her tone even.

"Do you know where you're going?"

"Yes, I've chosen that," Ciel said softly. "We're going to dinner at The Celtic Phoenix." She'd chosen it because it was a place she was familiar with – she'd gone there a few times before, including recently to celebrate her graduation – because it wasn't too expensive or intimidating, and because, in the worst case scenario, even if she didn't like the boy, at least she knew that she would like the food.

She sat down at a little dressing table, propping up a mirror in front of it to do her make-up. Penny, as it turned out, had suggestions for that too, which Ciel had to decline just as she had declined Penny's help with choosing a dress.

"Thank you, Penny," Ciel said, as she applied some dark, smokey grey eyeshadow.

Penny blinked. "For what?"

"I have seven younger brothers, but I always wondered what it would have been like to have a little sister," Ciel said. "And now I know."

"You're welcome," Penny said cheerfully, and then her face changed as if she had realized something unpleasant. "Wait, did you just insult me?"

"From a certain point of view, I might have paid you a compliment," Ciel replied. She glanced at Penny. "I appreciate your desire to help me. I just don't trust your judgment in these matters." She finished rouging her lips, and about time too as there was a knock at the door.

"Is that him?" Penny asked.

Ciel checked her watch. It was eight o'clock. "It could be," she said.

Penny beamed. "Good luck."

Ciel took a breath and nodded silently in acknowledgement of Penny's good wishes. Her roommate bounced up and down on the balls of her feet as Ciel got up, smoothing out her skirt with both white-gloved hands as she did so, and made her way over to the door.

Said door slid open, revealing a tall, young faunus with black wings jutting out from the back of his all white – except for the black bow tie – suit. Blue silver hair styled into a mohawk stuck up atop his head like the crest of an antique-style helmet. He had a square jaw and strong, solid cheekbones; he stared down with amber eyes at Ciel, who considered that it was probably not the worst start that the first word out of his mouth was, "Whoa."

Ciel curtsied, before realising a moment later that that might have been a mistake. But it was a bit late by then, so there was nothing to do but plough on regardless. "Good evening," she greeted. "My name is-"

"Ciel Soleil," he finished. "Before I make a complete idiot of myself, you are Cloudchaser's friend, right?"

"That is correct," Ciel replied, with a degree of surprise in her voice. "And you are?"

He stood to attention, slamming. "Second Lieutenant Thunderlane, Thirty-Second Squadron!" His face, although it was as dark as Ciel's, nevertheless reddened visibly as he realised what he'd just done. "I mean I'm Thunderlane, it's an honour- I mean it's a pleasure to-" He tried to offer her his hand, but there was a bouquet of roses already in it. "Would you mind closing that door and giving me a chance to start over?"

Ciel looked at him, and a smile graced her lips. "I don't believe that's necessary."

"No?" Thunderlane asked, sounding disappointed.

"No," Ciel repeated. "I think you're doing okay so far."

"He is?" Penny asked sceptically, and unfortunately, loudly.

Ciel ignored her, although Thunderlane looked as if he was having a little trouble doing the same. Nevertheless, he offered her the six red roses.

"These are for you," he said.

"Thank you," Ciel said as she took the flowers. "Please give me a second."

"Of course."

Fortunately, there was already a vase in the room in which she could quickly place the flowers; she would take them out of the plastic later. Right now, she picked up her cape with its faux-fur lining and fastened it around her throat. "I'm ready to move out," she reported, and after a sudden blink, she corrected herself. "I mean I'm ready to go, if you are." She picked up her purse.

"Sure," Thunderlane said, sounding as if he still couldn't quite believe that she hadn't slammed the door on him already. "Oh, actually there is one thing." He stood to attention once again. "Miss Dragonslayer?"

Penny pointed to herself. "Me?"

"Thank you," Thunderlane said. "On behalf of the entire Thirty-Second. There's a lot of guys who might not have made it back home if you hadn't taken that thing out when you did."

Penny's mouth opened, but she seemed at a loss for words. "You're welcome," she murmured.

Thunderlane nodded, before returning his attention to Ciel. "Sorry, now I'm ready."

"Don't apologise," Ciel said softly. "There is absolutely no need."

He offered her his arm, which was a minor point in his favour as they cleared the dorm room – the door closed behind them automatically – and the two of them began to make their way down the corridor.

"I'm sorry about before," he said.

"As I said, an apology is unnecessary," Ciel said.

"No, the other stuff," Thunderlane said. "I was not prepared for the fact that Cloudchaser was going to set me up with Ciel Soleil, hero of Atlas."

Ciel's eyebrows rose. "Are you certain that you don't have me confused with someone else? I am not a hero of Atlas."

"You were at ground zero in the Breach," Thunderlane said. "You helped evacuate the Amity Arena and defend Beacon. You fought in the front line at the Battle of Vale. Sounds pretty heroic to me."

"A lot of people helped evacuate the Amity Arena," Ciel replied. "Even more defended Beacon, and even more than that fought in the Battle of Vale."

"Then they're all heroes," Thunderlane allowed. "But you're one of them."

"So are you, apparently," Ciel observed. "You were there, in the skies over Vale?"

"I…" Thunderlane looked uncomfortable. "I was just trying to stay alive."

 _Modest, I see._ "Everyone was just trying to stay alive," Ciel said. "But you don't need to be nervous."

"No?"

"Since we've established there are so many heroes of Atlas, then the idea that you might meet one has been rendered commonplace and unremarkable."

Thunderlane snorted. "I will try and keep that in mind, thanks. Although I still kind of wish Cloudchaser had given me a heads up first."

Ciel smiled. "Understandable."

"But she did tell me that you wanted to pick the place, so where are we going?"

"Have you ever eaten at the Celtic Phoenix?"

* * *

"I'm sorry, but that can't come in here."

Ciel had eaten at The Celtic Phoenix more than once in the past, and never once had she noticed that there were never any faunus patrons in the restaurant. It wasn't even as though she had noticed without giving it a second thought. She had just…failed to notice.

Right now, that felt like an unforgivable lapse.

"'That'?" Ciel repeated. "Second Lieutenant Thunderlane is an Atlesian officer-"

"And we have the right to refuse service to anyone, for any reason," the maitre'd said, as he stood behind a glass table not far from the door.

"It's fine," Thunderlane said.

"It is most certainly not fine," Ciel growled.

"Maybe not," Thunderlane acknowledged, "but it is what it is." He turned away, and the doors slid open for him as he walked out into the street.

"If you would like to convert the Soleil reservation into a table for one?" the maitre'd suggested.

Ciel glared at him. "I have sworn an oath to defend this kingdom and its people," she snapped. "You should be grateful that I did not swear to defend only those I thought deserving of protection."

She turned on her heel and stamped out into the cold air that slapped her suddenly as she emerged out of the restaurant. Her face felt so hot with shame that it was a wonder that she didn't start to steam off in the sudden burst of cold. However much he had avoided making a scene in the restaurant itself, Thunderlane must be absolutely furious with her for putting him through that. She was furious with herself for putting him through that, and putting herself through that as well. He was a pilot, an officer, someone who had fought in the same battles that she had, and she had set him up to be humiliated by a petty little man who had never put anything on the line to defend the realms of men.

Thunderlane was waiting for her outside, his hands thrust into his suit pockets and his wings flapping lazily behind him. He didn't look in the least bit upset with her.

That made her feel much worse.

"I had no idea that that would happen," Ciel apologized. "As much as I know that that is no excuse for the fact that it did. I am sorry."

"It's okay," Thunderlane repeated.

"No, it isn't," Ciel insisted. "You have just been insulted by a lesser man than you in every respect; how can that be called okay?"

Thunderlane was silent for a moment. He kept his hands in his pockets. "Maybe it's not okay," he conceded. "But that doesn't mean that I have to get mad about it."

"Doesn't it? Shouldn't you?" Ciel asked. She turned away from him and crossed the street – looking both ways as she did – to reach the other side, where a white stone fake marble balcony looked over a lower level of the city. The lights of Atlas illuminated the darkness, glimmering in every conceivable colour, obscuring all detail of what lay beneath those lights. Obscuring the flaws that marred the greatest kingdom in Remnant.

And it _was_ the greatest kingdom, Ciel believed that wholeheartedly; Atlas was a shining kingdom in the clouds…which meant that she didn't like to be reminded of the fact that for all its greatness, it did remain flawed, like any human work.

She felt Thunderlane coming to stand beside her.

"Why does this not bother you?" Ciel asked.

Thunderlane was quiet for a moment. Then he put his right foot on the balcony, and lifted up the leg of his trousers to reveal that his leg was actually a prosthetic, the metal gleaming under the moonlight.

Ciel looked at it for a moment. "You lost it at Vale?" she said, her voice soft and barely asking the question at all.

"Not just this one," Thunderlane muttered.

Ciel sucked in a sharp intake of breath. "Both of them?"

Thunderlane nodded.

Ciel didn't ask how. She sensed that was not something that he wished to talk about. "I'm sorry."

Thunderlane covered his prosthetic up with his trousers once more and lowered his foot to the ground. "I could be dead right now," he said. "So I suppose the reason that I'm not upset is that…the fact that I can't go into one restaurant doesn't really matter that much in the grand scheme of things. I think I've got a lot more to be thankful for than I have to complain about, if you stop to think about it: I'm alive, I can walk…and I'm out with a beautiful girl."

Ciel stared at him. Thunderlane grinned.

Ciel found herself smiling back at him. "Thank you," she said, "but I am sorry, nevertheless. It shouldn't be this way."

"And it won't always," Thunderlane said, "but for now…is it too much to hope that we can still salvage something out of his night, rather than destroy everything that's left of it with a tantrum?"

Ciel's smile remained upon her face. "No, I think the night is young enough that we might yet make something of it," she said. "So, where are we going now?"

Thunderlane's amber eyes widened. "You're asking me?"

"My choice did not work out so well," Ciel reminded him.

"Yeah, but…" Thunderlane hesitated. "When Cloudchaser told me you wanted to pick the place, I was happy enough to do it because…I don't really know any classy places."

Ciel's eyebrow rose slightly. "You have just been more generous than I had any right to expect, and you think that I'm going to turn my nose up at your choice?"

Thunderlane reached up and scratched the back of his neck. "It's not that, it's…I'd hate to take you somewhere…and you'd think that I thought that was all you were worth, you know?"

"In the circumstances, I will understand," Ciel said. "Besides, it isn't as though we could get a table at any 'classy' establishment without reservations in any case."

"I guess not," Thunderlane replied. He hesitated. He looked around. "Okay. I might know a place. It isn't even that far from here."

"What kind of place?" Ciel asked.

"Oh, that's a surprise," Thunderlane said. "You'll have to wait and see for yourself."

Ciel stared at him, before a soft chuckle escaped her lips. "Very well," she said. "Lead-" she was interrupted by the buzzing of her scroll from within her purse. "Excuse me a moment, this might be important."

"Go ahead," Thunderlane replied.

Ciel nodded and walked away from him a few feet as she opened up her purse and took out her scroll. It was Penny, calling on voice only.

Ciel opened up the device. "Penny, is something wrong?"

"A little bit," Penny replied. "Why haven't you gone into the restaurant?"

Ciel froze for a second. "Penny," she said, her voice slower and just a little colder. "Where are you?"

"I'm watching you from the roof of the Atlas Recursive Insurance corporate headquarters," Penny said cheerfully. "Don't worry, Ciel, I've got you covered. I'm just a little confused about what's going on. You went into the restaurant and then you came straight out again. Didn't you have a reservation?"

"The restaurant doesn't serve faunus, apparently," Ciel murmured, speaking very quietly so that Thunderlane couldn't hear any of this, "but that is not the point, Penny. Why are you following me?"

"Ruby told me that whenever Yang has a date, she follows them and provides overwatch," Penny answered. "Or at least, she used to before Yang died." Her voice, which had dipped a little into melancholy, recovered its prior bonhomie. "So here I am, doing my part like a good friend."

Ciel rolled her eyes. "Why am I not surprised that Ruby Rose is at the bottom of this?"

"Did I do something wrong?" Penny asked.

"Yes," Ciel declared firmly. "I know that you mean well, Penny, but the fact remains that this is not normal, and I do not need you to provide covering fire."

"But what if he tries anything inappropriate?"

 _Would you even be able to recognise inappropriate behaviour in this context?_ "What does Ruby do in that circumstance?" she asked, leaving aside the fact that the late Miss Xiao-Long had probably been perfectly capable of dealing with such situations without support.

"She said she loaded Crescent Rose with tranquiliser rounds."

Ciel nodded, for all that Penny couldn't see it – or perhaps she could. "Penny, you have lasers."

"That…is an excellent point well made," Penny admitted. "Do you…want me to go?"

"I would prefer it, yes," Ciel said. She glanced back at Thunderlane, waiting patiently for her to finish. "Besides, I don't believe I'm going to have any trouble with him." She paused for a moment. "Oh, Penny, one more thing."

"Yes?"

"The roof of the Atlas Re building was an excellent choice of position," Ciel praised her. "Well done." She snapped her scroll shut and put it back in her purse. "My apologies for that," she said, as she turned around and walked back towards Thunderlane.

"Work?" Thunderlane said. "Do you have to go?"

"You could call it work," Ciel admitted, "but no, I don't have to go anywhere."

Thunderlane grinned. "So, which of your friends is on overwatch waiting to shoot me if I don't treat you right?"

Ciel felt her cheeks redden a little. "How did you-"

"Her voice carries," Thunderlane said.

Ciel let out a little sigh. "It's Penny Dragonslayer."

Thunderlane's eyebrows rose. "Wow. I don't know whether to be flattered or alarmed."

"Personally, I feel somewhat embarrassed," Ciel muttered. "I did not ask her to do this."

"No, she did it anyway because she cares about you," Thunderlane replied. "That's…I think it's nice."

"Really?" Ciel murmured. "Does that mean that you have a comrade covering you in case I misbehave?"

"Oh, no," Thunderlane said. "I asked the duty officer to do me a favour and confine all _my_ friends to base for the night so that they couldn't follow me out here."

Ciel laughed, covering her mouth with one white-gloved hand as the sound escaped her lips. "Clearly, you are more prescient than I am," she said. "Or at least you know your friends better."

"They weren't very subtle about it," Thunderlane said. "Anyway, now that you know that you don't have to worry about that and I know exactly who I have to worry about, shall we go?" He offered her his arm.

Ciel slipped her hand into the crook of his arm, and the two of them set off down the street, passing in and out of the cold, pale patches of light cast by the streetlamps and the intermittent darkness that gathered between them.

"Can I ask you a question?" Ciel requested, as she placed both hands upon his arm. She could feel the muscles underneath.

"Go ahead."

"What made you want to become a pilot?"

Thunderlane looked down at her. "What made you want to become a huntress?"

"I asked first," Ciel pointed out.

"Yeah, I guess you did," Thunderlane admitted. Nevertheless he didn't answer for a moment. "Are you really asking me why I fly or why I'm in the military?"

Ciel pursed her lips together for a moment. "Both," she said.

Thunderlane chuckled. "The first part's easy," he said. "I fly because it's cool. I mean, what little kid doesn't want to be a pilot?"

"Guilty as charged," Ciel murmured. "My mother was a pilot. When I was a little girl, I wanted to be just like her."

"Was?" Thunderlane asked, his voice gentle. "Is she-"

"No, thank the Lady," Ciel replied. "She's still alive, just not on active duty any more."

"I'm glad," Thunderlane said. "And not just because that would have been very uncomfortable."

Ciel snorted. "You were saying?"

"When I'm in the air," Thunderlane began, moving his wings in concert with what he was saying. "Even when I'm flying with these, but even moreso when I'm in a plane going at speeds that I could never reach with just the wings that nature gave me…there's no limits, you know? Nothing to hold me down, nothing to stop me. I think that might be another reason why places like that restaurant don't bother me much; they can stop me from getting a table, but they can't take the sky from me. So long as I can fly…" he looked at Ciel. "So why didn't you?"

"Excuse me?"

"You just said that you wanted to be a pilot like your mother," Thunderlane said. "So why didn't you?"

Ciel hesitated, not replying for a moment. Indeed, she didn't reply for longer than a moment, saying nothing as the two of them walked down the street, passing between light and shadow. "It is…a little embarrassing."

"Airsick?" Thunderlane suggested jokingly.

"No!" Ciel said firmly. "I spent some time on flight simulators; I went up in a trainer, and I…I did not enjoy it. It turns out that I like having limits, and something to hold me down."

"Maybe..." Thunderlane murmured, trailing off.

"Maybe?"

"Nothing," he said. "Forget I said that."

Ciel's brow furrowed momentarily. "Of course, you could have become a civilian pilot."

"Yeah, I could," Thunderlane admitted. "But then, people wouldn't look up into the sky and feel hope whenever they saw me flying overhead."

"Is that what you want?" Ciel asked. "To be a symbol of hope?"

"Does that sound really pretentious?"

"No," Ciel said. "Not to me. I think it sounds…very admirable."

"I think that what you specialists do is really awesome," Thunderlane said. "I don't want you to think that I don't. Like I told your friend, all us pilots have cause to thank the Dragonslayer for taking that monster out before it swatted us all out of the skies. But the thing about it is…when you're doing your jobs, nobody knows that you're doing them half the time. But when people see me flying overhead, they know that Atlas has them covered, and when our soldiers see me coming, they know that somebody is looking out for them. We're the comfort blanket for this whole kingdom, and- that came out wrong, didn't it?"

Ciel chuckled softly. "The imagery is…not perfect," she admitted, "but I understand what you mean. May I make a confession that would harm my reputation if any one of my comrades were near enough to hear it?"

"Well now you've intrigued me so much that I might have to insist you say it," Thunderlane said.

"I know exactly what you mean," Ciel said. "Because I feel the same way. When I see our fleet in the skies above, it feels…when my mother tucked me into bed, she told me that the Lady of the North would send a guardian angel to watch over me while I slept. I told the same thing to my little brothers when I tucked them into bed. I…don't know if that's true, but when I see our fleet in the skies above, I know that I have a whole sky full of guardian angels watching me, whether I'm awake or sleeping."

"Well, we are pretty awesome," Thunderlane said faux-boastfully.

Ciel shook her head. "And here I thought you were modest."

"I'm personally modest," Thunderlane said. "I'm not modest at all about the group."

"Ah, an important distinction," Ciel replied.

"I think so," Thunderlane said. "So, why did you decide to become a huntress? I answered; it must be your turn by now."

Ciel exhaled, and for a moment there was only the sound of their footsteps on the street. "My family has always served this kingdom, whether it was called Atlas or Mantle before it. My great-grandfather fought in the Great War, my father is the chief of the deck on board the _Fearless_ , my mother was a pilot. It…it would have been a great shame if someone in my family hadn't followed in their footsteps. And besides, as strange as it might seem, I truly believe that this is a kingdom worth defending with our lives."

"As strange as it may seem?"

"A kingdom that won't let you eat wherever you choose," Ciel admitted.

"A kingdom that gave me two new legs after I lost the old ones," Thunderlane countered. "You don't have to be ashamed of loving this country in front of me. I love it too."

"It isn't perfect," Ciel said, "but I would like to think that in the military at least, whether in the specialists or the regular infantry or the fleet or the air corps…there is no human or faunus but only soldiers, all bound together in a common cause."

"Yeah," Thunderlane replied. "I think that's true. And as for the rest…the good way outweighs the bad. This is the Kingdom that raised me. This is the Kingdom that keeps my family safe. The least that I can do is repay the favour."

She believed him. Looking into his eyes it was impossible not to. "I feel the same way," she murmured. Her lips twitched. "Does it feel to you as though Cloudchaser knew what she was doing when she set us up?"

"Kind of, yeah," Thunderlane said. "Although…maybe hold off until you see where we're going."

The place they were going turned out to be a doughnut shop, Joe's, judging by the name above the door, where a few tables sat atop a chequered floor on the other side of a glass door.

Thunderlane looked embarrassed. He scratched the back of his head. "I told you that I didn't know any classy places," he said.

"And I believe I told you that I wasn't concerned," Ciel replied, as they crossed the street. Thunderlane opened the door, a bell tinkled above them as they walked in. There were a few other people already in there, sitting around the round wooden tables, and they looked up and stared at Ciel and Thunderlane as they entered. Ciel couldn't help but feel that they were staring rather more at her, in her cocktail dress and evening gloves and fur-lined cape, than at Thunderlane.

She paid them no mind. As the saying went, no one is ever embarrassed by being too well-dressed. She wasn't sure that it was applicable in all circumstances, but in the present circumstance, it made her feel much less self-conscious.

Behind the counter stood a heavyset middle-aged man dressed in white, with his brown hair almost but not quite obscured by his hat. "Hey, Thunderlane!"

"Hey, Joe," Thunderlane replied, raising one hand in greeting.

Joe looked from Thunderlane to Ciel, a frown crossing his face. "Gods, Thunderlane, what are you thinking, bringing a real classy lady into a joint like this?"

"You're the best we can do at short notice, Joe," Thunderlane said, without a trace of shame on his face.

"Oh, thanks, that makes me feel great," Joe replied. "What's your name, Miss?"

"Ciel Soleil, sir."

"Please, no need to call me sir, just…Ciel Soleil? I thought I recognised you from somewhere, the Vytal Festival! You were on the team with the Dragonslayer, right?"

"That is correct," Ciel replied.

"Well, I'll be," Joe muttered. "So how did you end up in a place like this?"

Ciel looked down at the floor. "The place that I had chosen…was not as suitable as I thought."

She thought that Joe understood what she was trying to say. "That's…a bad break," he said. "Well, sit down and see if there's anything here that you like."

They took a seat near the window. Ciel opened one of the menus, pleasantly surprised to find that while everything on the menu was a doughnut, not everything was a dessert. "What is a cheese doughnut?"

"It's what it sounds like: a doughnut filled with grilled cheese," Thunderlane said.

Ciel blinked. "Is it good?"

"You'd be better off with the doughnut rings," Thunderlane said. "They're like bagels…but doughnuts."

The corner of Ciel's lip twitched upwards. "I think my youngest brothers would like it here. I might bring them…only rarely of course. Perhaps as a treat."

"You've mentioned brothers before," Thunderlane said. "How many?"

"Seven," Ciel replied.

Thunderlane's eyes widened. "Seven younger brothers? Gods, your mom really is a warrior, isn't she?"

"There is a reason why she quit the military," Ciel replied. "Especially after I went to Combat School and there was nobody to help her with the younger children."

"Let me guess," Thunderlane said. "Before that happened, you were stuck raising the little ones while your parents were away."

"From time to time," Ciel allowed.

"Yeah, it was the same with me and Rumble," Thunderlane revealed. "Rumble's my little brother, my only little brother. My mom wasn't as heroic as yours."

"Heroic? I'll be sure to tell her you said that."

"You're going to tell your mother about me?"

"I…am strongly considering it," Ciel said. "You did, after all, take me to a doughnut shop for our first date."

Thunderlane let out a bark of laughter. "Yeah, I guess that warrants a mention, doesn't it?"

"Although of course the real question is…where are we going to go for our second date?"

Thunderlane stared at her for a moment. His mouth hung open a little. "There…there's going to be a second date?"

"Isn't there?" Ciel asked, hoping that she had done a good enough job of covering up her nervousness as she asked it.

Thunderlane smiled. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah, I think there will be."


End file.
